Fer-De-Lance

Wolfe was seated at his desk. Maria Maffei was in a chair in front of him and Anna in one against the wall. Anna was a sight, with one sleeve nearly off, a leg bare, her face dirty and her hair all over.

I stared. "Miss Maffei! Anna! Did they set the dogs on you?"

Wolfe wiggled a finger at me. "Archie. I’m sony to have to disturb you. Miss Maffei and Miss Fiore have been subjected to violence. They were driving into the country, to visit Miss Maffei’s sister, when they were set upon by brigands. Their car was stopped; they were treated with discourtesy, and robbed. Miss Maffei’s purse was taken, and her rings. Miss Fiore was despoiled of the money which she has shown to us and which she so hardly earned."

"No!" I said. "Anna! They didn’t take that money!"

Anna’s eyes were on me. I met them all right, but after a second I thought it would do to turn back to Wolfe.

Anna said, "He took it."

Wolfe nodded. "Miss Fiore got the impression that the man who took her money was the one who had sent it to her. I have advised her and Miss Maffei to go to the police at once, but they do not fancy that suggestion. Miss Maffei mistrusts the police on principle. Miss Fiore seems to have conceived the idea that we, more especially you, are more likely to be of help. Of course you are not at the moment properly dressed to go out in search of robbers, and the scene is thirty miles off, but Miss Fiore asked for you. Does anything occur to you?"

"Well," I said. "This is awful. It’s terrible. And me upstairs sound asleep. I wish you had got me to drive you to the country, Anna; if you had this wouldn’t have happened, I don’t care who it was that tried to get your money. I don’t believe it could have been the man who sent it to you; that man kills people; he would have killed you."

Anna’s eyes were going back and forth between Wolfe and me, but I no longer thought there might be suspicion in them; she was only stunned, overwhelmed by her unimaginable loss. She said, "He wanted to kill me. I bit him."

"Good for you. You see, Anna, what happens when you try to act decent with a bad man. If you had burned that money the other day when I wanted you to, and told us what you know about things, now you would have Mr. Wolfe’s money. Now you can’t burn the money because you haven’t got it, and the only way you could get it back would be if I could catch him. Remember, he’s the man who killed Carlo Maffei. And look what he did to you! Tore your dress and pulled off your stockings-did he hurt you?"