The Second Confesion

I was just as well pleased that he preferred to use his pen. It would have been an honour to type such a patriotic paragraph, but I wouldn't put anything beneath a Commie, and what if one of them happened to take a notion to pull the letter from a friend out of his pocket and compare the typing? Even with the naked eye it would have been easy to spot the 'no' slightly off line and the faint defect in the “w”. So I gladly let Stevens sit at my desk to write it. He did so, and signed it, and wrote his name on the picture. Then Harvey did likewise. Wolfe and I signed as witnesses, after Wolfe had read it over. Having the tube of paste at hand, as I have said, he proceeded to attach the photograph to the top of the sheet.

“May I see it a moment?” Stevens asked.

Wolfe handed it to him.

There's a point,” Stevens said. “We can't let you have this without some kind of guarantee that Reynolds will be locked up tonight. You said before midnight.” “That's right. He will be.” “You can have this as soon as he is.” I knew damn well they'd have a monkey wrench. If it had been something not tearable, a stone for instance, I would simply have liberated it, and Harvey could have joined in if he felt like it “Then he won't be,” Wolfe said, not upset “Why not?” “Because that's the key I'm going to lock him in with. Otherwise, would I have gone to all this trouble to get it? Nonsense. I'm about to invite some people to come here this evening, but not unless I have that document. Please don't crumple it' “Will Reynolds be here?” “Yes.” “Then we'll come and bring this with us.” Wolfe shook his head. “You don't seem to listen to me. That paper stays here, or you're out of it until you get a subpoena. Give it to me, and I'll be glad to have you and Mr Harvey come this evening. That's an excellent idea. You will be excluded from part of it, but you can be comfortable in the front room. Why don't you do that?” That was the way it was finally compromised. They were plenty stubborn but, as Wolfe had said, the screw was down hard. They didn't know what Reynolds might spill in the next article, and they wanted him nailed quick, and Wolfe stood pat that he wouldn't move without the document. So he got it. It was arranged that they would return around ten o'clock and would stay put in the front room until invited to join the party.

When they had gone Wolfe put the document in his middle drawer.