Prisoner's Base

"From the standpoint of profit and loss. I'm a bookkeeper, and, the way I see it, there's nothing to life but bookkeeping. That's why Mr. Eads kept promoting me until he made me secretary and treasurer of the corporation-he knew how I looked at things. One rule is this: that if the risk of a transaction is very great it should not be considered at all, no matter what profit it offers if it is successful. That's one of the basic rules that should never be broken. You apply that rule to the idea of committing a murder, and what do you get? There's too much risk, so you don't do it. The idea is no good. It's all a matter of debit and credit, and with murder you start out with too big a debit. Every proposition on earth can be figured on a basis of profit and loss, and there's no other practical way to figure anything."

He sniffed. "When I say profit I mean earned profit, but not in the legal sense. I mean earned de facto, not de jure. Take the income I will get for the rest of my life from my ownership of stock in Softdown, Incorporated. That is called unearned income, but actually I have earned it by the years of devoted service I have rendered to the company. I have earned it because I deserve it. But as a contrast, take the profit-the income-that Sarah Jaffee has been getting from her ownership of stock since the death of her father."

He twisted around in his chair. "Mrs. Jaffee, I'd like to ask you, what have you ever done for the corporation? Tell me one single thing, small or large. Your average income in Softdown dividends for the past five years has been more than forty thousand dollars. Have you earned one cent of it?"

Sarah was staring at him. "My father did the earning," she said.

"But you, personally?"

"No, of course not. I've never earned anything."

Pitkin left her. "And take you, Mr. Hagh. What your claim amounts to in reality-you are demanding a share of the Softdown profits. Legally you may get something, I don't know, but you certainly haven't earned anything, and nobody related to you or connected with you has earned anything. Isn't that correct?"

Hagh's expression was tolerant. "It is perfectly correct, sir. I can feel no regret or embarrassment at being put in the class with the charming Mrs. Jaffee." He smiled irresistibly at Sarah, who was next to him.

Pitkin untwisted to his normal position, focusing on Wolfe from under his brows. He sniffed. "You see what I mean when I say that life is nothing but bookkeeping?"