“All right,” Mason said impatiently. “That leaves us right back where we started.”
“No, it doesn’t. There’s another way.”
“What is it?”
“You can put an ad in the Contractor’s Journal in the personal column. You will address it simply to P, and sign it with the single initial, M. You will ask in that ad if there is any objection to your accepting employment on behalf of the person calling on you.”
“That,” Mason said, “wouldn’t be fair to my other clients. Clients don’t care to have their names broadcast in the personal columns of a newspaper.”
“Don’t mention that person by name,” Peltham said. “Take the telephone directory, list the number of the page, the column, and the position of the name in that column. For instance, if it’s a person on page 1000 of the telephone directory, the fourth name down from the top in the third column, you will simply say, ‘If I accept employment for 1000-3-4, would I be in danger of handling a case against you?’ ”
“And you’ll answer it?”
“If I don’t answer it within forty-eight hours,” Peltham said, “you may consider yourself free to accept the employment.”
“And how,” Mason asked, “will I know about your affairs? I take it, you have somewhat diversified business interests. I may not know…”
Peltham interrupted. For the first time, there was in his voice evidence of mental tension. “You’ll know by tomorrow,” he said, “—that is, if you read the newspapers.”