Rex Stout - The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

"They know they are to stay in their room and keep away from windows?"

"Yes. Except when they are-uh-rehearsing."

"They have the proper clothes for Thursday evening?"

"In that box." Saul pointed. "Our things are in it too, including guns. Of course they'll wear your hat and coat, and Archie's."

Wolfe made a face. "Very well. Fred and Orrie first."

"They're marked." He took the screwdriver from Wolfe, went to the box with a circle chalked on it, told me, "Orrie's has a triangle," and started on a screw. I found the triangle and started on it. He had Fred out before I got Orrie because one of the screws had a bad head. They too had been told not to speak unless spoken to, and from the expressions on their faces when they got upright I thought it was just as well. I raised my brows at Saul and tapped my chest, and he pointed to the box at the far end, and I went and started on it.

I realize that professional actors have had a lot of practice saying only what they are supposed to say and keeping their traps closed if that's what the script calls for, but even so I had to hand it to Ashley Jarvis and Dale Kirby. They had had a rough two hours or more-especially Jarvis, who carried fully as many pounds as Wolfe, and it wasn't quite as well distributed. We had to ease the box over on its side before he could come loose, and he stayed on the floor a good five minutes, refusing offers of help, working his arms and legs, but when he finally made it and was erect he turned to Wolfe and bowed, a damn good bow. Kirby hadn't bowed to me, but he hadn't said a word. While we waited for Jarvis to get up he stood to one side doing calisthenics, keeping time with the music on the radio.

I was agreeing with Saul, they'll do. Kirby was half an inch shorter than me, but his build was just right. Jarvis was exactly Wolfe's height. His shoulders weren't quite as broad and his middle was a little farther around, but with an overcoat on he would do fine. The faces were only so-so, but it would be dark and no G-man was going to get a close-up.

Wolfe returned the bow with a nod, said, "Come, gentlemen," and entered the office. Instead of going to his desk, he moved a yellow chair to the center of the rug, which was thick enough to prevent noise, and went for another one. I got a couple, and Saul and Fred and Orrie each got one, and we all sat, in two circles, with Wolfe and Jarvis and Kirby on the inside. But Wolfe said, "The money, Archie," and I got up and went to the safe for it-two wads with twenty-five twenties in each which were there waiting.

Wolfe's eyes went from Jarvis to Kirby and back. "Lunch is ready," he said, "but first a few points. That money is yours. Archie?"

I handed it to them, a wad to each. Jarvis merely glanced at it and stuck it in his side pocket. Kirby got a wallet from his breast pocket, put the bills in nice and neat, and replaced the wallet.

"Mr Hewitt explained," Wolfe said, "that you would each receive one thousand dollars, and now you have. But having seen you emerge from those boxes, I feel that you have already earned the thousand. Amply. Therefore, if you perform the rest of it satisfactorily, I shall feel that you have earned another thousand, and you will receive it. Friday or Saturday."

Jarvis opened his mouth, remembered just in time, and shut it. He pointed to Kirby, tapped his own chest, and looked a question.

Wolfe nodded. "Two thousand. One to each of you. A little closer, Mr Kirby. I must keep my voice down. You gentlemen will be here twenty-eight hours. During that period there must be no single sound which, if overheard, would disclose your presence in this house. Your room is two flights up. You will use the stairs, not the elevator. If you need something there will be a man in the hall outside. If you must communicate you will whisper. There are several dozen books in your room. If none of them is to your taste you may select one from these shelves. No radio or television; the house must not be a hubbub. You will need to observe closely the posture and manner of walking of Mr Goodwin and me, and there will be opportunities. Not our voices; that won't be necessary." He pursed his lips. "I think that covers it. If you have questions, ask them now, in an undertone near my ear. Have you?"

They shook their heads.

"Then we'll have lunch. The radio will be silent. We do not discuss business at the table. No one will speak but Mr Goodwin and me."

He rose.

12

I wouldn't want to go through that twenty-eight hours again.

Going through a forest where you know there are snipers and one might be up any tree takes only guts and sharp eyes. But if you don't know there are snipers but only that there could be, that's different. Why all the guts and the keen and careful eyes? We didn't know the house was bugged, only that it might be. If Jarvis or Kirby caught a finger in the bathroom door and yelled ouch or goddammit, it might wreck the act, but only might, and that was the hell of it. Every time I made a trip upstairs to check that Saul or Fred or Orrie was there in the hall, and that they hadn't got fed up and started talking, I felt foolish. Grown men don't look under the bed every night to see if there's a burglar, though there might be one.

The two meals were screwy, with Wolfe and me, mostly Wolfe, carrying on with table talk, while the other five just ate and listened. Try it sometime. I couldn't even ask one of them to pass the butter; I could just point. And when we were doing something, for instance taking the boxes up to the potting room and stacking them, even I couldn't talk, because whom would I be talking to?

I left the house only once, late Wednesday afternoon, to call Hewitt from a booth and tell him the shipment had arrived in good condition, and to the garage to give Tom Halloran the picture.

There were bright spots, two of them on Wednesday and four on Thursday, when Jarvis observed Wolfe. Jarvis would stand at the foot of the stairs and study Wolfe coming down, at the top and study him going down, and in the hall and study him on the level. By the second session Thursday I knew Jarvis was pulling Wolfe's leg, enjoying the look on his face, but I was enjoying it too. Of course Kirby observed me the same way, but that was no hardship; on a normal day I go up and down those stairs a dozen times or more. What Kirby couldn't observe was my driving. They would probably be tailed all the way to Hewitt's, and if his style at the wheel was too different from mine it could make a smart G-man suspicious. Thursday morning I took him to the office and turned on the radio and discussed it for half an hour.

Looking back at it, I don't think we missed a single bet. Around eleven o'clock Wednesday night I went up to my room, which fronts on Thirty-fifth Street, paid no more attention to the curtains than usual, changed to pajamas, sat on the bed, and turned out the light on the bed stand. In a couple of minutes Fred and Orrie entered and undressed in the dark, and I got out and they got in. Saul slept on the sofa in the front room, and we didn't turn the lights on in there at all. We rarely do.

I mention a funny thing. As I turned the office lights out Wednesday night and got between sheets on the couch, I was thinking not of the trap we were setting and whether it was going to work, but of the couch in Sarah Dacos's apartment. What if the cleaning woman decided to turn the cushion over and looked under the spring? If I had stayed another five minutes maybe I could have found a better spot.