The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

"Mrs Bruner," I said, "how would you like to meet three men who, working for you, rode sixty miles in a truck, curled up inside wooden boxes with the lids screwed on? And who stood for twenty minutes last evening with guns pointed at two FBI men while Mr Wolfe told them things?"

"Why-I would like to."

"I thought so. Mr Saul Panzer. Mr Fred Durkin. Mr Orrie Cather. You will spend some time with Mr Panzer. If you don't mind, I'll put your coat in the front room. Richard Wragg, the top G-man in New York, is coming, and shouldn't see it."

Her eyes were wide but her mouth was closed. I decided to marry her in spite of her pile. As I took her coat Fred and Orrie headed for the stairs, to hang around outside the South Room and not let Jarvis and Kirby come down and interrupt the conversation.

At the kitchen end of the hall there is an alcove on the left, and around the corner in the alcove there is a hole in the wall at eye level. On the alcove side of the hole there is a sliding panel, and on the office side the hole is covered by a trick picture of a waterfall. If you stand in the alcove and open the panel you have a view of most of the office through the waterfall, and of course you can hear.

Taking Mrs Bruner to the alcove, followed by Saul, I slid the panel and showed her the hole. "As I said," I told her, "Wragg is coming and will be in the office with Mr Wolfe and me. Mr Panzer will bring the stool from the kitchen, and you'll sit here on it, and he'll stand here. It will last anywhere from ten minutes to two hours, I don't know. You won't understand everything you hear, but you'll understand enough. If you feel a cough or sneeze coming, go to the kitchen fast on your toes. Saul will motion to you if-"

The doorbell rang. I stuck my head around the alcove corner, and there he was on the stoop, five minutes ahead of time. I told Saul to get the stool, and as he headed for the kitchen I started down the hall. At the door I looked back, got a nod from him at the alcove corner, and opened the door.