“Mr. Perry Mason,” Hershey said.
“Glad to meet you, Mr. Mason. Heard a lot about you. Followed a few of your cases in the newspapers.”
“And Miss Street, Mr. Mason’s secretary,” Hershey went on.
“Good evening, Miss Street. I’m very pleased to meet you. Sorry I’m a little bit banged up. I do animal experimenting, you know, and it’s not always conducive to good health.”
The bandaged face contorted into a twisted grin.
“One of those damn gorillas,” Addicks went on to explain, speaking slowly through the bandage, “caught me a little too close to his cage, grabbed my coat, and before I could slip out of it, jerked me around so he got hold of my arm, and pulled me toward the cage. I flung back and tried to kick loose. He caught my foot and made a grab; caused some pretty deep scratches and bruises on my face. I’ll be all right, but I’m not very presentable.”
He pulled out a chair and eased himself into it in the manner of a man who is sore and stiff.
“The gorilla,” Nathan Fallon explained, “was trying to grab Mr. Addicks’ throat. If he’d ever caught it in his powerful fingers he’d have torn the throat right out.”
“Now wait a minute,” Addicks said impatiently. “You’re always jumping at conclusions from insufficient data, Nathan. You’re a damned old woman that way. I don’t think the gorilla was making a grab for my throat. I’m not too satisfied but what he was just after my necktie.”
He turned to Mason and said, “Gorillas are like that. They’re eager to get hold of some article of wearing apparel, particularly something that’s loose. If you wear a necktie around ’em they’re very apt to reach through the cage and grab you by it — and, of course, if he’s developed vicious tendencies, he’s a very dangerous animal.”
“You deliberately encourage this type of danger?” Mason asked.
“I’m conducting scientific research,” Addicks said. “I want to know how deeply the homicidal instincts have been implanted in the minds of the higher primates.”
“It would seem,” Mason said, “that you were very close to finding out.”
“I jerked back instinctively,” Addicks said. “Hang it, I thought for a minute he was trying to grab my throat, but thinking back on it I can’t exclude the possibility that he was merely grabbing for my necktie. They do that, you know, and this one was particularly tricky. They’re big animals, but they’re quick as a flash, Mason, just as quick as a flash.”
“I saw it all,” Fallon said, “and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he was grabbing for your throat, Benny.”
“Well, he certainly gave me a rough time,” Addicks admitted. “I sort of surprised him by bringing up my foot and kicking, and bracing against the bars. Then Nathan yelled at him and picked up a club.”
Mason said, “It would seem that your experiments are destined to be inconclusive until they reach a point where a gorilla has very definitely killed someone.”
Addicks regarded him with cold, watchful eyes, then shrugged his shoulders. “I think you misunderstand what I’m trying to do, Mr. Mason, and frankly, I see no reason to explain. I’m more interested in learning something about the real explanation of hypnotism than anything else. Some people don’t approve. I don’t give a damn whether they do or don’t. They’re my gorillas. I buy ’em, and they’re mine.”
“I doubt it,” Mason said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You may be able to get physical possession of the gorillas,” Mason said, “but morally I don’t think a man can really own any living thing. The animal has a right to his own development through the phenomena of life.”
“You’re a lawyer. I have a legal title. You’ll have to admit that.”
“I was discussing moral ownership, moral responsibilities.”
“Give me physical possession of something that’s locked behind iron bars in a cage, and give me a bill of sale to it, and you can have all your moral responsibilities. I’ll take legal title as far as I’m concerned.”
“You wanted to see me about something?” Mason asked.
“I did, but I don’t now.”
“What changed your mind?”
“You did. You were offered three thousand dollars for those diaries. You turned the offer down. Okay, if that’s the way you want it, that’s the way we’ll play. The offer is withdrawn. The price has gone back to five dollars. Is that clear?”
“That’s clear,” Mason said. “The money is yours, the diaries are mine.”
“Let’s understand each other, Mason. You’re a smart lawyer. I’m a mean fighter. You give those diaries to the press and start stirring up things about Helen’s death, and I’ll break you.”
Mason got to his feet. “Talk big if you like to impress your employees,” he said. “It doesn’t tell me anything except that you’re scared. Come on, Della. Let’s go.” They left the room, followed by the three men.
In the hallway, Mason said to Della, “Can you give me a hand for a moment, Della?”
“What do you want now?” Addicks said.
“I want to see what’s in that stone urn.”
“What makes you think anything’s in it?” Addicks asked.
Mason smiled coldly. “The diaries. My diaries.”
“Nathan, you and Mort lift that urn down. Turn it up. Show Mason there’s nothing in it.”
They lifted down the big stone urn, deposited it gently on the floor.
Nathan Fallon turned a pocket flashlight down into the dark interior. Immediately it seemed as though the interior of the urn had been illuminated with a thousand scintillating reflections.
“Good heavens!” Fallon said. “That’s a big diamond in there, Benny.”
“Get it out,” Addicks said curtly.
Fallon reached down into the urn, but his arm wouldn’t quite get to the bottom. “I’ll have to take off my coat,” he said, “and I don’t know whether I can reach it even then.”
“We can turn the urn upside down,” Addicks said. “Get hold of it, you fellows. Turn it up. Let’s see what the devil’s in there.”
They grasped the upper edge and bottom of the urn, tilted it over to its side, then slowly lifted. The first thing that came rolling out was a huge diamond ring.
“My solitaire!” Addicks exclaimed.
A platinum watch came slithering down the smooth side of the urn.
Fallon grabbed it.
“Tilt it up a little more,” Mason said.
A whole collection of jewelry, coins, a wallet, a card case, a girl’s compact, rolled out to the floor.
“Well, I’ll be damned!” Addicks said.
Mason said dryly, “The diary indicated that the monkey, Pete, was rather mischievous at times and had developed a tendency to pick up objects, particularly objects which he thought Helen Cadmus prized, and conceal them in this Grecian urn.”
“So that explains it!” Addicks said.
Mason looked him squarely in the eye. “I believe there is a trial coming up day after tomorrow, the case of Josephine Kempton, who is suing you for defamation of character.”
“Oh, that!” Addicks said.
“Ah-hah!” Fallon exclaimed. “Now the thing becomes apparent. Now we see why the great Perry Mason interested himself in the dairies of Helen Cadmus. Now we begin to get the whole picture, Benny.”
Addicks looked at him for a moment, then said, “Shut up.”
He turned to Perry Mason. “You’re clever. I like clever men. What’s your position?”
“I haven’t any,” Mason said.
Nathan Fallon said, “Don’t you get it Benny?”
Addicks picked up the watch, turned it over and over in his hand. “No, I don’t get it, and I doubt like hell if you do.”