The League of Frightened Men

Wolfe said politely, ‹I didn't know Mr.

Chapin had fits. Feel her pulse."

I reached out and got her wrist and placed my fingers. While I was counting she began to talk:

"He doesn't have fits exactly. It's a look that comes into his eyes. I am always afraid of him, but when I see that look I |am terrified. He has never done anything .to me before. This morning when I saw him look like that I said something I shouldn't have said… look here."

She jerked her hand away from me to use it for getting into her handbag, a big leather one. Out of it she pulled something wrapped in newspaper. She unrolled the I newspaper and held up a kitchen knife m that had blood on it still wet and red. I "He had this and I didn't know it. He must have been getting ready for me when he was out in the kitchen."

I took the knife from her and laid it on the desk, on top of the newspaper, and said to Wolfe:

"Her pulse is on a little sprint, but it's okay."

Wolfe put his hands on the arms of the chair, braced himself, and got to his feet. • He said, "Please do not move, Mrs. | Chapin," and walked around behind her and took a look at her neck. He bent down with his eyes close to her; I hadn't seen him so active for a month or more.

Peering at the gashes, he said, "Please tilt your head forward, just a little, and • back again." She did so, and the blood came out again; in one spot it nearly ^_ spurted at him.

Wolfe straightened up. "Indeed. Get a doctor, Archie."

She started to turn around at him, and I stopped her. She protested, "I don't need a doctor. I got here, I can get home again.

I just wanted to show you, and ask you -"?

"Yes, madam. For the moment my judgment must prevail… if you please…"

I was at the phone, giving a number.

Someone answered, and I asked for Dr.

Vollmer. She said he wasn't there, he was just leaving, if it was urgent she might be able to catch him out in front. I started to ask her to do that, then it occurred to me that I might be quicker at it myself, and I hung up and took it on the trot. Fritz was in the hall dusting and I told him to stick around. As I hopped down the stoop I noticed a taxi there at the curb: our visitor's of course. A couple of hundred feet east Dr. Vollmer's blue coupe" was standing, and he was just getting in. I sprinted for •him and let out a yell. He heard me and i by the time I got there he was out on the sidewalk again. I told him about the casualty that had dropped in on us, and he got his bag out of the coupe" and came along.