Prisoner's Base

"I admit," Wolfe told her, "that if I had accepted a commission from you, or if Mr. Goodwin, acting as my agent, had taken money from you unconditionally, I would be bound to your interest and therefore unable to consider Mr. Helmar's offer. But there is no such bond. I am not committed to you in any way. There was no legal, professional, or ethical obstacle to prevent my disclosing you to him and demanding payment-but, confound it, there was my self-esteem. And is. I can't do it. Also there is Mr. Goodwin. I have rebuked him for installing you and told him to get rid of you, and if I now collect ransom for you he will be impossible to live with or work with."

Wolfe shook his head. "So it is by no means my good fortune that you chose my house as a haven. If you had gone anywhere else, Mr. Helmar would have come to hire me to find you, I would have taken the job, and I would surely have earned the fee. If my self-esteem will not let me profit by your presence here, through chance and Mr. Goodwin, neither will my self-interest permit me to suffer loss by it-so substantial a loss-and I have two suggestions to offer-alternative suggestions. The first is simple. When you were arranging with Mr. Goodwin to stay here you told him in effect that there was no limit to the amount you would pay. Your words, as he reported them to me, were, 'Whatever you say.' You were speaking to him as my agent, and therefore to me. I now say ten thousand dollars."

She goggled at him, her brows high. "You mean I pay you ten thousand dollars?"

"Yes. I submit this comment: I suspect that the money will come from you in any case, directly or indirectly. If, as the trustee of your property, Mr. Helmar has wide discretion, as he probably has, it is more than likely that the payment for finding and producing you would come from that property, so actually-"

"This is blackmail!"

"I doubt if you can properly-"

"It's blackmail! You're saying that if I don't pay you ten thousand dollars you'll tell Perry Helmar I'm here and get it from him!"