The League of Frightened Men

"You mean what does he know? Search me. I told him about the reward Miss Hibbard, my client, is offering, and he looked like get thee behind me, Satan.

He's shy, he wants to be coaxed. My surmise is that he might not exactly know where Hibbard or his remains has been cached, but he thinks he might guess. He's got about seven months to go to pink snakes and crocodiles. I tried to get him to come in for a drink, but he fought that off too. He won't come in. He may not be workable at the present moment, but I was thinking of suggesting that you go out and look at him."

"Out?" Wolfe raised his head at me.

"Out and down the stoop?"

"Yeah, just on the e sidewalk, you wouldn't have to step off the curb. He's right there."

Wolfe shut his eyes. "I don't know,

Archie. I don't know why you persist in trying to badger me into frantic sorties.

Dismiss the notion entirely. It is not feasible. You say he actually gave you a nickel?"

"Yes, and where's it going to get you to act eccentric with a dipsomaniac taxidriver even if he did go to Harvard?

Honest to God, sir, sometimes you run it in the ground."

"That will do: Definitely. Go and see if Mrs. Chapin has been made presentable.^ I went. I found that Dr. Vollmer had finished with his patient in the bathroom and had her back in a chair in the office, with her neck bandaged so that she had to hold it stiff whether she wanted to or not.

He was giving her instructions how to conduct herself, and Fritz was taking away basins and rags and things. I waited till the doc was through, then took him to the kitchen. Wolfe opened his eyes at him.

Vollmer said: ' n

"Quite a novel method of attack, Mr.

Wolfe. Quite original, hacking at her from behind like that. He got into one of the posterior externals; I had to shave off some of her hair.^ "He?"

The doctor nodded. "She explained that her husband, to whom she has been married three years, did the carving. With a little caution, which I urged upon her, she should be all right in a few days. I took fourteen stitches. Her husband must be a remarkable and unconventional man.

She is remarkable too, in her way: the Spartan type. She didn't even clench her hands while I was sewing her; the fingers were positively relaxed."

"Indeed. You will want her name and address for your record.",

"I have it, thanks. She wrote it down | for me." i "Thank you, doctor."