The League of Frightened Men

I thought at first I'd run up to Wolfe's room and get his okay on covering I Eleventh Street, but it was only eight. twenty and it always made me half-sick to see him in bed with that black silk cover drinking chocolate, not to mention that he would be sure to raise hell, so I got the Metropolitan Agency on the telephone and gave them the dope. I only ordered sixdollar men because it was nothing but a check anyway; I couldn't see why Chapin should be trying to pull anything foxy like rear exits. Then I sat for a minute and wondered who was keeping Bascom on the job, and I thought I'd phone him on the chance of his spilling it, but nobody answered. All this had made me a little late on my own schedule, so I grabbed my hat and coat and went to the garage for the roadster.

I had collected a few facts about the Dreyer business in my wanderings the day before. Eugene Dreyer, art dealer, had been found dead, on the morning of Thursday, September 20, in the office of his gallery on Madison Avenue near Fiftysixth Street. His body had been found by three cops, one a lieutenant, who had broken in the door on orders. He had been dead about twelve, hours, and the cause had been nitroglycerin poisoning.

After an investigation the police had pronounced it suicide, and the inquest had verified it. But on the Monday following, the second warnings arrived; everybody got one. We had several copies in Wolfe^s office, and they read like this: ^ Two.

Ye should have killed me.,?

Two;: ^ – '.^nr|

And with no ready cliff, rocks waiting below ••:"-'u.

To rub the soul out; no ready waves ^

To lick it off and clean it of old?.1 crimes, I let the snake and fox collaborate.fThey found the deadly oil, sweetburning, cunningly Devised in tablets easily dissolved, s And I, their Master, I, | I found the time, the safe way to his throat, And counted: two.

One, and two, and eighty long days between.

But wait in patience; I am unhurried but sure. \ Three and four and five and six and seven…

Ye should have killed me.

Wolfe said it was better than the first one, because it was shorter and there were two good lines in it. I took his word for it.