Gambit by Rex Stout Read Free Book Online

understanding.”
    Hausman nodded. “That’s always essential. But I mean - uh - suppose I hire you to do a job, how far can I depend on you?”
    “If I commit myself, to the extent of my abilities. But this is fatuous. Do you hope to determine my quality by asking banal and offensive questions'You must know that a man can have only one invulnerable loyalty, loyalty to his own concept of the obligations of manhood. All other loyalties are merely deputies of that one.”
    “Hunh,” Hausman said. “I’d like to play you a game of chess.”
    “Very well. I have no board or men. Pawn to Queen Four.”
    “Pawn to Queen Four.”
    “Pawn to Queen Bishop Four.”
    “Pawn to King Three.”
    “Knight to King Bishop Three.”
    “You mean Queen Bishop Three.”
    “No. King Bishop Three.”
    “But the Queen’s Knight is a better move! All the books say so.”
    “That’s why I didn’t make it. I knew you would expect it and know the best answer to it.”
    Hausman’s lips worked a little. “Then I can’t go on. Not without a board.” He picked up his cup, emptied it, and put it down. “You’re sharp, aren’t you?”
    “I prefer “adroit,” but yes.”
    “I have a job for you.” He showed his teeth. “Who has hired you to work on that - uh - murder at the Gambit Club'Kalmus?”
    “Ask him.”
    “I’m asking you.”
    “Mr. Hausman.” Wolfe was patient. “First you inquired about my furniture and my habits, then about my probity, and now about my private affairs. Can’t you contrive a question which deserves an answer?”
    “You won’t tell me who hired you?”
    “Of course not.”
    “But someone did?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then it must have been Kalmus. Or Anna - Mrs. Blount…” He took a moment to consider it. “No. Kalmus. He has had no experience with this kind of thing and no talent for it. I am Matthew Blount’s oldest friend. I knew him as a boy. I am his daughter’s godfather. So I am interested, deeply interested, in his - uh -
    welfare. And with Kalmus handling this there’s no hope for him, no hope at all.
    Kalmus has hired you, but you’re under his direction and control, and with him in charge there’s no hope. He has paid you a retainer. How much?”
    Wolfe’s shoulders went up an eighth of an inch and down again. He looked at me with his brows raised, saying without words, “See what you let in?”
    “Then you won’t,” Hausman said. “All right, that can wait. I want to hire you to do something that will get results. There will be no conflict of interest because this is in Matthew Blount’s interest too. I’ll pay you myself. I may get it back from Blount later, but that’s no concern of yours. How much do you already know about what happened that night at the Gambit Club?”
    “Enough, perhaps. If I lack needed information you can probably supply it.”
    “You know about the chocolate'That the police theory is that Blount poisoned that man by putting arsenic in the chocolate?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then all we have to do is to prove that somebody else put arsenic in the chocolate. That would free Blount?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then that’s the thing to do. I thought of this last week, but I knew how Kalmus would react if I went to him with it, and I didn’t want to do it myself because there are certain - uh - difficulties. Then today I saw that item in the paper about you. I asked you how far I can count on you because this has to be absolutely confidential. Would you do something that would free Blount without telling Kalmus, before or after?”
    If it were something I had engaged to do, yes.”
    “And without telling anyone else?”
    “If I had made the engagement with that condition, yes.”
    “It will be with that condition.” Hausman looked at me. “What’s your name?”
    “Archie Goodwin.”
    “Leave the room.”
    I put my coffee cup down. I seldom drink three cups, but the situation had got on my nerves hours ago, and that bozo wasn’t helping any. “Anything