in his hand. Perrit's hands were in his coat-pockets. My guns hadn't been taken from me, since I had tickets for them, but the one in my coat-pocket wasn't loaded, and my armpit holster might as well have been up in Yonkers, since my topcoat was buttoned.
'I want to ask you about tonight,' Perrit said. 'My car's around the corner on Eleventh Avenue. Go ahead. We'll come behind.'
'We can talk here,' I told him. 'I've often talked to people here.' This was certainly my chance to shoot him, a perfect set-up for self-defense, but I postponed it. 'What do you want to ask me?'
'Get going,' he said, in a tone a little different. It was a cockeyed situation.
If I refused to budge I didn't think they would drill me, because that would have been silly. If that was what they had in mind they wouldn't have started conversing. If I went up the stoop and put the key in the door I still didn't think they would drill me, but there were two objections to it. First, they might start operations short of drilling and one thing leads to another; and second, the door was bolted on the inside and I would have to rouse Fritz. Not to mention, third, that with Fritz roused and the door open they would probably decide to come in for a visit.
I decided to stand pat. 'I like it-' I started, and stopped, hearing the sound of a car coming. I turned my head to look, because the sound of a car coming got on my nerves after my recent experience with it, and also because it might be a police car if Rowcliff had decided not to wait till eleven o'clock for another try at Wolfe. But it was only a taxicab. They often came through there late at night, on their way to the nest, a company garage around the corner.
I turned back to them. 'I like it here. Even if I had ideas, which I haven't, my gun's empty, so relax. I emptied it-'
I didn't duck or dive, I just dropped, flat on the sidewalk, and started rolling. I was thinking I mustn't bang my head against the stone of the stoop.
This time I didn't see the man in the taxicab at all, even enough of a glimpse to see if he had something white over his face, I was moving too fast, rolling to get around the corner. I had, as I remember it, no sign of an impulse to reach for my gun. If I thought at all I suppose I was thinking that if a man in a taxicab wanted to make holes in Perrit and the face it was nothing to me. I had, and have, no notion what they were doing, but later examination showed that some of the noise I heard was made by them, using their own ammunition.
That noise stopped. The noise of the taxi moving from the scene tapered off. I stuck my head around the corner of the stoop, saw a form as flat as mine had been and much quieter, and scrambled to my feet. There were two forms, the other one around the other corner of the stoop, and it was twitching a little. I saw it still had a gun in its hand, so I stepped over and kicked it out and away. I knelt, first to one and then to the other, for a brief inspection, and finding it likely that no one would ever again consider it dangerous to turn his back on them, mounted the stoop to the front door and pushed the button for Fritz, my private rings. But the rings weren't needed. Before my finger left the button the door opened for the crack of two inches allowed by the chain of the bolt and a voice came through.
'Archie?'
'Me, Fritz. Open-'
'Do you need help?'
'I need help to get in. Open up.'
He slid the bolt and I pushed and entered. 'Did you kill somebody?' he inquired.
Wolfe's bellow sounded from the hall one flight up. 'Archie! What the devil is it now?'
His tone implied that I owed him apologies, past due, for interfering with his sleep.
'Corpses on the sidewalk in front, and it might have been me!' I called to him bitterly, and went to the office and dialed Rhinelander 4-1445, the 19th Precinct Station House.
Nero Wolfe 14 - Trouble in Triplicate
IX
So Rowcliff didn't have to wait until eleven o'clock for a go at Wolfe, after all. Very few
'I want to ask you about tonight,' Perrit said. 'My car's around the corner on Eleventh Avenue. Go ahead. We'll come behind.'
'We can talk here,' I told him. 'I've often talked to people here.' This was certainly my chance to shoot him, a perfect set-up for self-defense, but I postponed it. 'What do you want to ask me?'
'Get going,' he said, in a tone a little different. It was a cockeyed situation.
If I refused to budge I didn't think they would drill me, because that would have been silly. If that was what they had in mind they wouldn't have started conversing. If I went up the stoop and put the key in the door I still didn't think they would drill me, but there were two objections to it. First, they might start operations short of drilling and one thing leads to another; and second, the door was bolted on the inside and I would have to rouse Fritz. Not to mention, third, that with Fritz roused and the door open they would probably decide to come in for a visit.
I decided to stand pat. 'I like it-' I started, and stopped, hearing the sound of a car coming. I turned my head to look, because the sound of a car coming got on my nerves after my recent experience with it, and also because it might be a police car if Rowcliff had decided not to wait till eleven o'clock for another try at Wolfe. But it was only a taxicab. They often came through there late at night, on their way to the nest, a company garage around the corner.
I turned back to them. 'I like it here. Even if I had ideas, which I haven't, my gun's empty, so relax. I emptied it-'
I didn't duck or dive, I just dropped, flat on the sidewalk, and started rolling. I was thinking I mustn't bang my head against the stone of the stoop.
This time I didn't see the man in the taxicab at all, even enough of a glimpse to see if he had something white over his face, I was moving too fast, rolling to get around the corner. I had, as I remember it, no sign of an impulse to reach for my gun. If I thought at all I suppose I was thinking that if a man in a taxicab wanted to make holes in Perrit and the face it was nothing to me. I had, and have, no notion what they were doing, but later examination showed that some of the noise I heard was made by them, using their own ammunition.
That noise stopped. The noise of the taxi moving from the scene tapered off. I stuck my head around the corner of the stoop, saw a form as flat as mine had been and much quieter, and scrambled to my feet. There were two forms, the other one around the other corner of the stoop, and it was twitching a little. I saw it still had a gun in its hand, so I stepped over and kicked it out and away. I knelt, first to one and then to the other, for a brief inspection, and finding it likely that no one would ever again consider it dangerous to turn his back on them, mounted the stoop to the front door and pushed the button for Fritz, my private rings. But the rings weren't needed. Before my finger left the button the door opened for the crack of two inches allowed by the chain of the bolt and a voice came through.
'Archie?'
'Me, Fritz. Open-'
'Do you need help?'
'I need help to get in. Open up.'
He slid the bolt and I pushed and entered. 'Did you kill somebody?' he inquired.
Wolfe's bellow sounded from the hall one flight up. 'Archie! What the devil is it now?'
His tone implied that I owed him apologies, past due, for interfering with his sleep.
'Corpses on the sidewalk in front, and it might have been me!' I called to him bitterly, and went to the office and dialed Rhinelander 4-1445, the 19th Precinct Station House.
Nero Wolfe 14 - Trouble in Triplicate
IX
So Rowcliff didn't have to wait until eleven o'clock for a go at Wolfe, after all. Very few
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