The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

With the credentials in my pocket, I left the house with my bodyguard at 9:40, walked to the drugstore at the corner, and stationed myself near the booth. With my understanding of women, I was prepared to wait up to twenty minutes, but at 9:46 it rang, just as a man who had entered was heading for the booth. As I lifted the receiver I decided that he was not a G-man come to take the call; he didn't look the part.

Mrs Bruner said she hoped it was really important because she would be late for her appointment.

"You couldn't possibly have any appointment half as important," I told her. "Forget appointments. You are to be at Mr Wolfe's office at a quarter to eleven, not one second later."

"This morning? I can't."

"You can and must. You have told me twice that you didn't like my tone, but that was nothing compared to the tone you'll hear unless you say you'll be there. Mr Wolfe might even return the hundred grand."

"But why? What is it?"

"I'm just the messenger boy. You'll find out when you come. It's not just important, it's vital."

Short silence. "A quarter to eleven?"

"Or earlier."

More silence. "Very well. I'll be there."

"Wonderful. You're the perfect client. If you weren't rich I'd marry you.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing." I hung up.

I didn't feel vital, with only six hours' sleep, but I felt important as I walked crosstown to the Continental Bank and Trust Company on Lexington Avenue with the winter wind at my back. Not many men have had such a bodyguard-the best operative between the two oceans plus two damned good ones. If you think we were overdoing it, what if I stumbled and cracked my skull, or what if I ran into a siren who dazzled me and she turned out to be a G-woman? Anyway, they were there in the house and a walk would do them good. At the bank I went downstairs first, to the safe-deposit box, and stashed the credentials. Upstairs, as I cashed a check for five grand to replenish the cash reserve in the safe, I was thinking that it had been just nine days, to the hour, since I had been there to deposit the retainer. I had thought then that there was one chance in a million. Now…

We had to step on it to get back to the old brownstone by a quarter to eleven, and we barely made it. We were in the hall, shedding coats, when I saw Mrs Bruner's Rolls pull up out in front. When she reached the stoop I had the door open. Fred and Orrie started off, but I called them back.