The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

They stood and looked at him. Handsome's line of vision was between Fred's shoulder and mine, and Skinny's was to the right of Fred. They exchanged glances, looked at Wolfe again, and moved. As they approached the door Orrie backed into the hall, his gun on them. He likes to point a gun. Saul went through the front room to the hall and turned the light on. Fred and I followed the G-men. When they neared the front door Saul opened it, and Orrie and Fred and I joined him to watch them descend to the sidewalk. Almost certainly there had been a third one, but he was nowhere in sight. They turned left, toward Tenth Avenue, but we didn't go out to see them to their car. Before we closed the door we examined the lock and found it intact. As I slid the bolt in Fred said that they must have the finest key collection in the world.

When we filed back into the office Wolfe was standing in the center of the rug, inspecting an object in his hand-the pencil flash Handsome had dropped. He tossed it onto my desk and roared, "Talk! All of you! Talk!"

Everybody laughed.

"I'm offering a reward," I said, loud. "A framed photograph of J. Edgar Hoover to anyone who will prove that it is bugged and they have a tape of that to send him."

"By God," Fred said, "if only they had tried something."

"I want champagne," Saul said.

"Make mine bourbon," Orrie said. "I'm hungry."

It was twenty minutes to eight. We went to the kitchen, including Wolfe, everybody talking at once. Wolfe began getting things from the refrigerator-caviar, pate de foie gras, sturgeon, a whole smoked pheasant. Saul opened the freezer to get ice for champague. Orrie and I got bottles from the cupboard. Fred asked if he could use the phone to call his wife, and I said yes and give her my love, but Wolfe spoke.

"Tell her you will stay here tonight. You will all stay. In the morning Archie will take those things to the bank, and you'll go with him. They will probably do nothing, but they might try anything. Fred, tell nothing of this to your wife, or to anyone else. It isn't finished, it's only well started. If you men want something hot I can have Yorkshire Buck in twenty minutes if Archie will poach the eggs."

They all said no, which suited me fine. I hate to poach eggs.