“But I want you to be happy too,” she said. “If you don’t think you could settle down…”
“I can try, can’t I ?” I said. “The thing to do is for you and me to get married. Then I’ll have to settle down.”
And that’s how we fixed it.
Four days later we were married. Hetty, Tim, Jed Davis, Clairbold (the boy wonder), and Hoskiss turned up at the wedding. It was quite an affair.
We decided to spend our honeymoon at Paradise Palms because the others didn’t want us to go elsewhere. They were pretty good to us, but at the end of the week I decided, if I was going to get a job, I’d better start looking for one. We packed our bags and arranged air passage to New York.
On our last night at Paradise Palms we threw a party that the staff of the hotel still talk about. Hoskiss brought with him six of his hard-drinking G-men. He announced at the beginning of dinner that Clairbold had entered the Federal Service. Clairbold finished up under the table. I guess he was getting beyond his Ohio School of Detection course by now.
After our guests had gone, we went up to our bedroom. It was around two o’clock in the morning. We were undressing in the bedroom when the telephone rang.
I told Clair—she wasn’t Miss Wonderly any more—I’d answer it.
I went into the sitting-room, took off the receiver.
The line crackled, hummed. A woman’s voice said, “Chester Cain?”