The League of Frightened Men

Vollmer went. Wolfe got to his feet, pulled at his vest in one of his vain attempts to cover the strip of canary yellow shirt which encircled his magnificent middle, and preceded me to the office. I stopped to ask Fritz to clean off the inside of the furpiece as well as he could. • By the time I joined them Wolfe was back in his chair and she was sitting facing | him. He was saying to her: i "I am glad it was no worse, Mrs. | Chapin. The doctor has told you, you must be careful not to jerk the stitches loose for a few days. By the way, his fee – did you pay him?"

"Yes. Five dollars." ai "Good. Reasonable, I should say. Mr. j Goodwin tells me your cab is waiting. Tell the driver to go slowly; jolting is always J abominable, in your present condition even dangerous. We need not detain you longer."

She had her eyes fixed on him again.

Getting washed off and wrapped up hadn't made her any handsomer. She took a breath through her nose and let it out again so you could hear it.

She said, finally, "Don't you want me to tell you about it? I want to tell you what he did." \ Wolfe's head went left and right. "It isn't necessary, Mrs. Chapin. You should go home and rest. I undertake to notify the police of the affair; I can understand your reluctant delicacy; after all, one's own husband to whom one has been married three years… I'll attend to that for you."

"I don't want the police." That woman could certainly pin her eyes. "Do you think I want my husband arrested? With his standing and position… all the publicity… do you think I want that? •That's why I came to you… to tell you about it."

"But, Mrs. Chapin." Wolfe wiggled a finger at her. "You see, you came to the wrong place. Unfortunately for you, you came to the one man in New York, the one man in the world, who would at once understand what really happened at your home this morning. It was unavoidable, I suppose, since it was precisely that man, myself, whom you wished to delude. The devil of it is, from your standpoint, that I have a deep aversion to being deluded.

Let's just call it quits. You really do need rest and quiet, after your nervous tension and your loss of blood. Go on home."

Of course, as had happened a few times before, I had missed the boat; I was swimming along behind trying to keep up.

For a minute I thought she was going to get up and go. She started to. Then she was back again, looking at him. She said:

"I'm an educated woman, Mr. Wolfe.