Over My Dead Body

"I don't know." I removed my coat and spread it on his desk. "I thought it would be more fun to look at it with you. To the tips of my fingers it felt like a piece of canvas." I was widening the mouth of the pocket and peeping in. "Yep, it's canvas." I inserted fingers and thumb and eased it out. It was rolled tight. As I unrolled it, it became a heavy canvas gauntlet, with reinforced palm, and a little metal dingus slid off on to the desk.

"Let's don't touch that," I suggested, and bent over to inspect it. At its middle it was about a quarter of an inch thick. At one end it had three claws, or fingers, and at the other it tapered to a single point, sharp as an ice-pick. I straightened up with a nod.

"Uh-huh, I thought so."

"What the devil is it?"

"My God, look at it! It's the col de mart!"

"Confound you, Archie-"

"Okay, but let it alone." I told him about the disappearance of the curio from Miltan's cabinet and the history of it. He listened with his lip compressed.

When I was through he demanded, "And you think this was used-"

"I know damn well it was. The end of the йpйe that killed Ludlow was blunt, and Miltan said it couldn't possibly have been thrust through him that way. So this thing was removed afterwards. It looks as if it would slide right off. I doubt if I need to point out those stains on the glove where this was wrapped up in it."

"Thank you. I can see."

"And you can also see that it is a woman's glove. It looks big on account of the way it's made, but it's not big enough-"

"I can see that, too."

"And can you see that if I had stayed there and that contraption had been found in my pocket, or if I had tried to hide it-?"

I stopped because his lips were working and he had shut his eyes. It didn't take long, maybe thirty seconds, then he reached for the button and pushed it. When Fritz appeared he was in a cap and apron similar to those worn by the man in the court who hadn't seen my wife's cat.

"Turn out the light in the hall and do not answer the door," Wolfe told him.

"Yes, sir."

"If the phone rings, answer it in the kitchen. Archie is not here, and you don't know where he is or when he will return. I am engaged and cannot be disturbed. Draw the heavy curtains in the front and the dining-room, but first-is there a full loaf of the Italian round?"

"Yes, sir."

"Bring it, please, with a small knife and a roll of waxed paper."