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Lily was squinting at him. “Then you... you really—”

“We really have brought it off. Yes. I tell you now because I would like to exchange favors with you. I need some trout. I know there are more and larger trout in the river, but there are some in the creek, and the size I prefer. If you and Miss Kadany and Mimi will take the day for it you can reasonably expect to be back by five o’clock with enough for my purpose. Can’t you?”

Lily was still squinting. “That depends on your purpose.”

“That’s my favor. Yours, for me, is to get the trout. Mine, for you, is to serve a real Nero Wolfe trout deal at your table. It can’t be true truite Montbarry because some of the ingredients are not at hand, but I’ll manage. If you will?”

Lily sent me a look that asked, “Is this part of a screwy charade that you don’t like?” I answered out loud, “Of course if I went along we’d be sure of getting enough, but I may be needed to run an errand. Anyway, three of you — you only have to get five or six ten-inchers apiece.”

I had had to change my conclusion again, the second time in less than an hour, since it was now obvious: I had the car key in my pocket because Wade Worthy was it and he had been tipped off. But what came next? Was Wolfe sending the females off to spare them the sight of one guest being forcibly detained by another guest? If so, why hadn’t he waited until they were gone to raise the curtain? Those questions, and others like them, were in my mind as Wolfe finished his fifth or sixth piece of French toast, and Wade decided he had had enough toast and bacon but kept his hand steady as he lifted his coffee cup, and Lily and Diana and Mimi agreed that they had better leave by ten o’clock and take a can of salmon eggs just in case. I said Wade and I would clean up but was ignored, and as they started operations we left— Wade to the right, to his room, and Wolfe across to the outside door. I followed him out to the terrace and across it. Apparently he was going to the car to make sure the key wasn’t there, but he went on by, nearly to the beginning of the lane, stopped, and said, “We’re out of earshot.”

“Yeah. We’re also out of step. I wait until Miss Rowan is even further out of earshot and then show him my credentials and take him? Is that it?”

“No. If it were, I would have told you beforehand. There is nothing for you to do, or me either, until Mr. Haight comes for him, with the St. Louis policeman. That will probably be around one o’clock. The St. Louis man will get to Timberburg about noon, and according to Mr. Jessup he will go to the sheriffs office. That’s the normal procedure. And Mr. Haight will bring him here.”

I was staring at him. “And meanwhile, I do not take Carl Yaeger alias Wade Worthy?”

“Yes. You do not. I presume he will not be here when they arrive. How and where he will have gone, I don’t know. Finding that the key to Miss Rowan’s car is not available, he will probably cross the creek and go to the ranch, hoping to take one of the cars there, but Mrs. Greve and Mr. Fox will have made sure that he can’t. Therefore he will have to walk — or run — presumably to Lame Horse. Stop staring at me. If I don’t tell you the details of the arrangement you’ll probably go dashing off in pursuit, so I had better tell you.”

He told me.

Chapter 14

They came at ten minutes past one.

Wolfe and I were seated in the two best chairs on the terrace, discussing the character and career of Woodrow Stepanian. With the women gone, and Wade gone, we were as alone as if we had been in the old brownstone on West 35th Street. We hadn’t seen Wade go, so he had probably crossed the creek for a try for a car at the ranch, as Wolfe had supposed. We had been very busy. I had put the clothes I had worn in jail out to air, draped on bushes, because there wouldn’t be time to have them washed or cleaned. I had done a thorough job on Wade’s room, not to get anything on or about him, but to collect and remove everything connected with the book he wasn’t going to write. It filled two cartons, which I took to Lily’s room. I took a look around her room, and mine, and the big room, to see if anything was missing, but that was just a professional gesture, since he had left on foot in a hurry and needed to travel light. I had phoned Mid-Continent Airlines in Helena to reserve two seats on the morning flight to Denver and a connecting flight to New York. Wolfe had done four things: packed most of his belongings, inspected every shelf and cupboard in the storeroom, but not the freezers, to get ingredients for a real Nero Wolfe trout deal, read a chapter in the book about Indians, and made a casserole of eggs boulangère for our early lunch. Before joining him on the terrace I had locked the windows and outside doors of the cabin.

It was Haight’s black Olds sedan that came down the lane and stopped right in the middle of the clearing. Three men climbed out — Haight, Ed Welch, and a six-foot square-jawed guy in a blue suit that looked as if it had been traveled in, which was to be expected if he had just arrived from St. Louis. All the attention Wolfe and I got was side glances. The stranger came and stood at the edge of the terrace, and Haight and Welch went and pushed the button at the cabin door. Getting no response, they knocked, twice, the second time good and loud. Haight pulled the screen door open and tried the knob of the solid one with no luck. He said something to Welch, and Welch went to the other door, to the hall, and tried that. He returned to Haight, and they both left the terrace at the right end and disappeared around the corner of Lily’s room. The stranger turned and approached Wolfe and me, and spoke. “I’m Sergeant Schwartz of the St. Louis police. I believe you’re Nero Wolfe.”

Wolfe nodded. “I am. And Mr. Archie Goodwin. You may as well sit.”

“Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure, Mr. Goodwin.” But he didn’t sit; he stood and looked around at the scenery, and in a couple of minutes the other two appeared, at the left, having circled the house. Haight came and confronted me and demanded, “Where’s Miss Rowan?”

I shook my head. “I’m out on bail. Standing mute.”

“You goddam punk, where’s Wade Worthy?”

I tapped my lips with a fingertip.

Wolfe said, “I’m articulate, Mr. Haight. But I like eyes at a level, so you’ll have to sit down if you want to talk.”

“Where’s Wade Worthy?”

“Sit down or leave. All of you. This will take a while. Carl Yaeger, alias Wade Worthy, is not on the premises.”

“Where is he?”

“Sit down or go.”

Sergeant Schwartz was moving. He went to a chair facing Wolfe, sat, and asked politely, “Where is Carl Yaeger, Mr. Wolfe?”

“I don’t know. I should mention that we were expecting you, Mr. Schwartz. I assume you have met Mr. Saul Panzer, whom I sent to St. Louis. Having spoken with him on the telephone late last evening, I knew you were coming.”

Schwartz nodded. “I knew you knew. You don’t know where Carl Yaeger is?”

“No.”

“When did you see him last?”

“About four—” Wolfe stopped because of the noise made by the chairs Haight and Welch were shoving. When they were in them he said, “About four hours ago. But it—”

“Is he in the cabin?” Haight demanded.

“No. I said—”

“Why are the doors locked with you sitting out here?”

“To keep you from entering. There is no one inside. The keys are in Mr. Goodwin’s pocket. We preferred not to let you invade Miss Rowan’s house in her absence. I have important information for you, Mr. Haight, about Wade Worthy, but I’ll supply it only in proper sequence without interruptions. If you won’t take it that way you won’t get it.”