The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

I also gave him the Evers thing verbatim, of course including Morrison. My only opinion on that was that I hadn't handled it right, that I should have told him we had secret information he didn't have and couldn't get, and we might be able to put on pressure that would save his contract, and if we did we would expect to be paid. Of course it would have been risky, but it might have opened him up. Wolfe shook his head and said it would have made us too vulnerable. I rose and circled around his desk to the stand that held the dictionary, opened it and found what I wanted, and returned to my chair.

"Capable of being wounded," I said. "Liable to attack or injury. That's what 'vulnerable' means. It would be quite a trick to get any more vulnerable than we are now. But to finish the day. It took me all afternoon to run down Ernst Muller, who is charged with conspiring to transport stolen property across state lines and is out on bail, and he was even worse than Evers. He had the idea of slugging me, and he wasn't alone, so I had to react, and I may have broken his arm. Then-"

"Were you hurt?"

"Only my feelings. Then, after eating the grease, I set out for Julia Fenster, who was or wasn't framed for espionage and was tried and acquitted, and that's how I spent the evening, all of it, trying to find her. I finally found her brother, but not her, and he's a fish. No man ever got less out of a day. It's a record. And those were the three we picked as the best prospects. I can't wait to see the program you've planned for tomorrow. I'll put it under my pillow."

"It's partly your stomach," he said. "If not the duck, then an omelet."

"No."

"Caviar. There's a fresh pound."

"You know damn well I love caviar. I wouldn't insult it."

He poured beer, waited until the foam was down to half an inch, drank, licked his lips, and regarded me. "Archie. Are you trying to pester me into returning that retainer?"

"No. I know I couldn't."