The Rubber Band

Wolfe looked at Perry, but Perry's eyes were fixed on Clivers. Wolfe said, "So, for the identity, we have Mr. Lindquist's description, Mr. Walsh's phone call, and Lord Clivers' present recognition. Why, after forty years, Mr. Scovil and Mr. Walsh should have recognized Rubber Coleman is, I think, easily explicable. On account of the circumstances, their minds were at the moment filled with vivid memories of that old event, and alert with suspicion. They might have passed Mr. Perry a hundred times on the street without a second glance at him, but in the situations in which they saw him recollection jumped for them." He looked again at the Seaboard president, and again asked, "What about it now, Mr. Perry? Won't you give us that?"

Perry moved his eyes at him. He spoke smoothly. "I'm still not talking. I'm listening." He suddenly, spasmodically, jerked forward, and there was a stir around the circle. Cramer's bulk tensed in his chair. Skinner's hands dropped. Clivers stiffened. I got my hand to my desk, on the gun. I don't think Perry noticed any of it, for his gaze stayed on Wolfe, and he jerked back again and set his jaw. He said not quite so smoothly, "You go on."

Wolfe shook his head. "You're a stubborn man, Mr. Perry. However- as I started to say, the next step for me, yesterday afternoon, was to get in touch with Mr. Walsh, persuade him of my good faith, show him a photograph of Mr. Perry, and substantiate my conjecture. That became doubly important and urgent after Lord Clivers called here and I learned of the payment that had been made to Coleman in 1906.1 considered the idea of asking Lord Clivers for a description of Coleman, and even possibly showing him Perry's photograph, but rejected it I was at that moment by no means convinced of his devotion to scruple, and even had I been, I would not have cared to alarm him further by showing him the imminence of Coleman's discovery- and the lid blown off the pot First I needed Mr. Walsh, so I sent a man to Fifty-fifth Street to reconnoiter.