by Rex Stout
"I thought it might not be," Wolfe said, "since Zov returned only recently from a trip to America. That was what suggested it to me. I even thought it possible you might have another mission for him there. If so, he might need help, and what we did today, especially my son, may have demonstrated that we could be capable of supplying it." Stritar looked at Zov. Then he studied Wolfe. Then he transferred to me. I was aware, from tones and expressions and the atmosphere, that we were at a crisis, but I didn't know what kind, so all I could do was meet his eyes and look loyal and confident and absolutely intrepid. After he had analyzed me clear through to my spine he returned to Wolfe. 262 "Did you ever," he asked, "hear of a man named Nero Wolfe?" I claim a medal for handling not only my face but all my nerves and muscles. His pronunciation was fuzzy, but not too fuzzy for me to get it. I knew they were at a crisis, and suddenly that bozo snaps out the name Nero Wolfe. How I kept my hand from starting for my holster I don't know. Wolfe showed no sign of panic, but that was no help. He wouldn't panic if you paid him. "Of course," he said. "If you mean the well-known detective in New York. Everyone in America has heard of him." "Do you know him?" "I haven't met him, no. I know a man who has. He says I look like him, but I've seen a picture of him, and the only resemblance is that we're both big and fat." "Did you know a man named Marko Vukcic?" "No, but I heard his name today, as I told you, when Shuvalov was speaking to Zov. Was he any relation to Danilo Vukcic?" "His uncle. He owned a de luxe restaurant. This detective, Nero Wolfe, was his friend, and there is reason to believe that he intends to take Vukcic's place and send money and other help to the Spirit of the Black Mountain. In large amounts." 263 Wolfe grunted. "Then it did no good to kill Vukcic." "I don't agree. We couldn't know that a friend of his would take over so promptly and effectively. But he has. I got the news only today." "And now you propose to kill Nero Wolfe." Stritar snapped, "I didn't say so." "No, but you might as well. I haven't got a quick mind, but it didn't have to be quick for that. I suggested that you might have another mission for Zov in America, and you asked me if I had ever heard of this Nero Wolfe. That's just adding two and two, or rather one and one. So you propose to kill him." "What if I do?" "It may be necessary. I don't know." "You told Zov that you disapprove of torture but that violence is often unavoidable, as it was on his mission to New York." "That's true. I meant that. But I don't think a man should be killed merely on suspicion. Have you any evidence that this Nero Wolfe will really help your enemies as Vukcic did?" "I have." Stritar opened a drawer of his desk and took out a paper. "Day before 264 yesterday a man in Bari received a telegram from Nero Wolfe which read as follows: 'Inform proper persons across Adriatic I am handling Vukcic's affairs and assuming obligations. Two hundred thousand dollars available soon. Will send agent conference Bari next month.' " Stritar put the paper back and shut the drawer. "Is that evidence?"
"It sounds like it. Who is the man in Bari that got the telegram?" "That's not important. You want to know too much." "I don't think so. Comrade Stritar -- if I am to call you Comrade. If I am to trust you on vital matters, as I am prepared to do, you will trust me to some extent. My son and I will have to go through Bari on our way back, to get our papers and effects, and we might possibly encounter him. His name?" Stritar shrugged his bulging shoulders. "Paolo Telesio." Wolfe's eyes widened. "What!" Stritar stared. "What's the matter?" "Enough." Wolfe was grim. "Paolo Telesio has our papers and belongings. We left them in his care. A man in Philadelphia gave me his name, as one trustworthy and capable, who would arrange for getting us 265 across the Adriatic. And he serves the Spirit of the Black � No, wait! After all, you have that telegram." He shook his head. "No, it is just as well we're going back. Here it's impossible to tell who you're dealing with. My brain is not equipped for it." "Not many brains are," Stritar declared. "Don't make any assumptions about Telesio. I didn't say he sent me the telegram. You are not to tell him I have seen it. You understand that?" "Certainly. We're not a pair of fools, though yesterday you called us that. Do you still think so?" "I think it is possible I was wrong. I agree with you that you can do more good in America than you can here. It is in your favor that you are inclined to be skeptical, as for instance about Nero Wolfe. You asked for evidence that he intends to send major assistance to our subversive underground, and I furnished it. I regard it as conclusive. Do you?" Wolfe hesitated. "Conclusive is a strong word. But I � yes. I will say yes." "Then he must be dealt with. Will you help?" "That depends. If you mean will I or my son engage to kill him, no. Killing a man in America is not the same as killing a man 266 here. Circumstances ""S1" ^eloP that would lead us to und^c "'b"1}, won t commit myself, and ^lther w111 he-,, , , "I didn't ask you to. Iasked lfvou " ^'P, Peter Zov will need it. The Preparations and arrangements will hw6t0 be made for hlm' and provision for his ^ ^'-ward. You say Philadelphia is nif^ mlles from New York -- that's a hundred andfifty kllometers - and that is well, foi New York would be dangerous for him. T^1 s the klnd of ^P he'll need. Will you gi^"- , ,.�-,. Wolfe considered. "There s a difficulty. No matter how well itls "-ranged, it s conceivable that Zov willb'-^g1"- If he is' under pressure he mi^ b"^ us, ,�,, "You saw him undeC Pressure today. Will the American police use Sf^^ Pressure than that?" "No." Wolfe looked at "e- Jlex' lt is suggested that Comr^ zov sha11?0 to America, and we sha^P1'0^, for hls necessities and also help tumwlA thep^p^' rations to kill a man ^med Nero Wolfe. I am willing to undertake " rf you are. I looked serious. I vtf0"1'1 have given eight thousand cents to be.^e to reply that I had been wanting to ki11 a man "Bmed Nero Wolfe for years, but I ^asnt sure that Stntar and Zov understood f10 ^S^h. I had to 2t1 skip it. I said earnestly, "I am willing, Father, to help with anything you approve of." He looked at Stritar. "My son says he is willing. We want to leave here as soon as possible. Can you get us to Ban tonight?" "Yes. But Zov will have to go by another route." Stritar looked at his watch. "There is much to arrange." He raised his voice to call, "Jin!" The door opened, and one of the clerks came in. Stritar spoke to him. "Find Trumbic and Levstik and get them here. I'll be busy for an hour or more. No interruptions unless it's urgent." Zov had his Luger out, rubbing it with his palm. 268 Chapter 15 We got arrested for having no papers after all, and it damn near bollixed everything.
Not in Montenegro. Stritar took no chances on our changing our minds and deciding to go to Belgrade, where we would probably mention the eight thousand dollars and the promise of more to come. He fed us there in his office, on meat and cheese and bread and raisins that he had brought in, and a little after dark took us down to the street himself and put us in a 1953 Ford, a different color from Jube Bilic's. Our destination was Budva, a coast village which Wolfe said was five miles north of the spot where we had been landed by Guido Battista two nights before. During the hour and a half that it took to cover the thirty miles, the driver had no more than a dozen words for Wolfe, and none at all for me. As he delivered us at the edge of a slip and ex269 changed noises with a man waiting there, it started to rain. It rained all the way across the Adriatic, but the boat was a few centuries newer than Guide's, with a cabin where I could lie down. Wolfe tried it too, but the bench was so narrow he had to grip a bracket to keep from rolling off, and finally he gave up and stretched out on the floor. The boat, with a crew of two besides the skipper, was fast, noisy, was rated 500 v.p.m., which means vibrations per minute, and was a steeplechaser. It loved to jump waves. No wonder it beat Guide's time by nearly three hours. It was still raining, and dark as pitch, when it anchored in choppy water and we were herded into a dinghy some bigger than Guide's. The skipper rowed us into the wall of night until he hit bottom, dumped us on the beach, shoved the nose of the dinghy off, hopped in, and was gone. Wolfe called to him, "Confound it, where are we?" He called back, "Where you're supposed to be!" "The genial sonofabitch," I remarked. With the sweaters draped over our heads, and flashlights, we headed inland. A road going to Molfetta, a fishing village two miles away if we had been landed in the right 270 place, was supposed to be only two hundred yards
from the shore, and we found it, turned left, and trudged along in the rain. It was 3:28 A.M. when we hit the road. I was thinking that when we got to the stucco house in Bari I would have Wolfe translate the directions on the water heater in the bathroom. We made it to Molfetta, knocked at the door of a white house with trees in front, and Wolfe spoke through a crack to the man who unlocked it, and handed him a slip of paper. He was about as genial as the skipper had been, but he agreed to drive us to Bari, twenty-five kilometers down the coast, for five thousand lire. We weren't invited in out of the rain. We waited under a tree, a European species called a dripping tree, while he put on some clothes, and when he appeared on the driveway in a little Flat we climbed in the back and sat on wet fannies and were off. I took my mind off the wet by thinking. Wolfe had reported in full on the boat. There were some aspects that seemed to me a little sour, such as donating the eight grand to that character, but I had to admit he was justified in making his proposal as tempting to Stritar as he possibly could. The only bad flaw was that we didn't have Zov, 271 and no guarantee that we would get him again. He was to sneak into Italy at Gorizia, as he had before, I don't know how often, and meet us at Genoa. Wolfe explained that even if Stritar had been willing to send him with us through Bari, having him along would have made matters very difficult. I was going over it when suddenly the car stopped, the left front door opened, and a beam of light focused on the driver. A man in a raincoat was there. He asked the driver some questions and got answered, and then opened the rear door, aimed the light at us, and spoke. Wolfe replied. It developed into quite a chat, with the man insisting on something and Wolfe insisting back. Finally the man shut the door, circled around the hood to the right front door, got in beside the driver, spoke to him, and twisted in the seat to face us. His hand, resting on the back of the seat, had a gun in it. I asked Wolfe, "Am I supposed to do something?" "No. He wanted to see our papers." "Where are we going?" "Jail." "But my God, aren't we in Bari?" "Entering it, yes." "Then tell him to take us to that house and we'll show him the damn papers." 272 "No. At the risk of having it get across the Adriatic tomorrow that I am here? Impossible."
"What did you tell him?" "That I wish to see the American consul. Naturally he refuses to disturb him at this hour." I am thinking of starting a movement to push for a law requiring two consuls in every city, a day consul and a night consul, and you would join it if you had ever spent a night, or part of one, in the hoosegow at Bari. We were questioned -- or Wolfe was -- first by a handsome baritone in a slick uniform and then by a fat animal in a soiled seersucker. Our guns and knives didn't make them any more cordial. Then we were locked in a cell with two cots which were already occupied by fifty thousand others. Twenty thousand of the others were fleas, and another twenty thousand were bedbugs, but I never found out what the other ten thousand were. After a night in a haystack and one in a deep-freeze cave, it would have been reasonable to suppose that anything different would be an improvement, but it wasn't. I got a lot of walking done, back and forth the full length of the cell, a good ten feet, being careful not to step on Wolfe, who was sitting on the concrete floor. All I 273 will say about the breakfast is that we didn't eat it. The chocolate, what was left of it, was in the knapsacks, and they had been taken. Another section of that law will provide that day consuls will get to work at eight o'clock. It was after ten when the door of the cell opened and a man appeared and said something. Wolfe told me to come, and we were conducted down a corridor and some stairs and into a sunny room where two men sat talking. One of them spoke, and then the other, a lanky, tired-looking specimen with ears as big as saucers, said in American, "I'm Thomas Arnold, the American consul. I'm told you want to see me." "I have to see you" -- Wolfe glanced at the other man -- "in private." "This is Signor Angelo Bizzaro, the warden."
"Thank you. All the same, privacy is essential. We are not armed." "I'm told that you were." Arnold turned and spoke to the warden, and after a little exchange Bizzaro got up and left the room. "Now what is it?" Arnold demanded. "Are you American citizens?" "We are. The quickest way to dispose of this, Mr. Arnold, would be for you to tele274 phone the embassy in Rome and ask for Mr. Richard Courtney." "Not until you tell me who you are and why you were out on the road at night, armed, with no papers." "You'll have to know who we are, of course," Wolfe agreed. "And so will the police, but I hope through you to arrange that our presence here will not be published. I thought a talk with Mr. Courtney would help, but it's not essential. My name is Nero Wolfe. I am a licensed private detective with an office in New York. This is my assistant, Archie Goodwin." The consul was smiling. "I don't believe it." "Then telephone Mr. Courtney. Or, perhaps better, do you know a man in Bari, a broker and agent, named Paolo Telesio?" "Yes. I've met him." "If you'll phone him and let me speak to him, he'll bring our passports, properly stamped at Rome when we arrived there on Sunday, four days ago. Also he'll identify us." "I'll be damned. You are Nero Wolfe?" "I am." "Why the hell were you wandering around at night with guns and knives and no papers?"
