The League of Frightened Men

Something I don't often do, I went tongue-tied. I suppose it was because I • had under my arm the typewriter he had • written his poems on, though certainly he couldn't recognize it under the cover. But he could tell it was a typewriter. I stood and stared at him. He glanced up and informed me politely: ^I'm waiting for Mr. Wolfe." « He turned another page in the book, and I saw it was Devil Take the Hindmost,

A

the one Wolfe had marked things in. I said:

"Does he know you're here?"

"Oh yes. His man told him some time ago. I've been here," he glanced at his wrist, "half an hour."

There hadn't been any sign of his noticing what I was carrying. I went over and put it down on my desk and shoved it to the back edge. I went to Wolfe's desk and glanced through the envelopes of the morning mail, the corner of my eye telling me that Chapin was enjoying his book. I brushed off Wolfe's blotter and twisted his fountain pen around. Then I got sore, because I realized that I wasn't inclined to go and sit at my desk, and the reason was that it would put me with my back to Paul Chapin. So I went there and got into my chair and got some plant records from the drawer and began looking at them. It was a damn funny experience; I don't know what it was about that cripple that got under my skin so. Maybe he was magnetic. I actually had to clamp my jaw ^ keep from turning around to look at him, and while I was trying to laugh it off ^eas kept flashing through my mind such as whether he had a gun and if so was it the one with the hammer nose filed down.

I had a good deal stronger feeling of Paul Chapin, behind me, than I've had of lots of people under my eyes and sometimes under my hands too.

I flipped the pages of the record book,» and I didn't turn around until Wolfe came I in.

I had many times seen Wolfe enter the office when a visitor was there waiting for him, and I watched him to see if he would | vary his common habit for the sake of any effect on the cripple. He didn't. He stopped inside the door and said, "Good morning, Archie." Then he turned to Chapin and his trunk and head went forward an inch and a half from the • perpendicular, in a sort of mammoth | elegance. "Good morning, sir." He proceeded to his desk, fixed the orchids in the vase, sat down, and looked through the mail. He rang for Fritz, took out his pen and tried it on the scratch pad, and when Fritz came nodded for beer. He • looked at me:

"You saw Mr. Wright? Your errand fl was successful?"

"Yes, sir. In the bag."