The League of Frightened Men

Wolfe: Yes. What happened? Hibbard: Nothing. Nothing of ^ significance except to me. He came to i; and said something, that's all. It w^ula^ of no advantage to repeat it. My sham^ admission is that I am at lem completely frightened. I'm afraid t^ g^ bed and I'm afraid to get up. Fm afr to eat. I want whatever measure i security you can sell me. I am accu^tor^ to the arrangement of words, a^ ± necessity of talking intelligently to you ^ enforced a semblance of orde^- ^ urbanity in a section of my brai^ ^ around and beneath that order the^e iss veritable panic. After all my exploratki scientific and pseudo-scientific, of ^ extraordinary phenomenon, the hunss psyche, devil-possessed and h^av^ soaring, I am all reduced to this sim simple primitive concern: I am ferric afraid of being killed. The friend ^ suggested my coming here said thc^f ^ possess a remarkable combination ^ talents andi\ that you have only ^

[weakness. She did not call it cujJidih

I forget her phrasing. I am i^ot \\ millionaire, but I have ample private means besides my salary, and I am in no state of mind for haggling.

Wolfe: / always need money. That is of course my affair. I mil undertake to disembark this gentleman from his ship of vengeance, in advance of any injury to you, for the sum of ten thousand dollars.

Hibbard: Disembark him? You can't.

You don't know him. y

Wolfe: Nor does he know me. A meeting can be arranged.

Hibbard: I didn't mean – hah. It would take more than a meeting. It would take more, I think, than all your talents.

But that is beside the point. I have failed to make myself clear. I would not pay ten thousand dollars, or any other sum, for you to bring this man to – justice? Ha!

Call it justice. A word that reeks with maggots. Anyhow, I would not be a party to that, even in the face of death. I have not told you his name. I shall not.

Already perhaps I have disclosed too much. I wish your services as a safeguard for myself, not as an agency for his destruction. 1 Wolfe: If the one demands the other?

Hibbard: / hope not. I pray not… could I pray? No. Prayer has been washed ' from my strain of blood. Certainly I -would not expect you to give me a warrant | of security. But your experience and ingenuity – I am sure they would be worth whatever you might ask -, Wolfe: Nonsense. My ingenuity would be worth less than nothing, Mr. Hibbard.