“Did you accept the post?” I asked.
“I? No, sir!” he replied with emphasis. “Do I want a dirty workman holding a revolver over me all day? That is the sort of ‘control’ they intend to exercise.” (He did accept it, however, just a month later, when the offer was renewed with the promise of a tidy salary if he took it, and prison if he didn’t.)
On the following day I brought the money to Zorinsky, and he said he would have it transferred to the investigator at once.
“By the way,” I said, “I may be going to Finland for a few days. Do not be surprised if you do not hear from me for a week or so.”
“To Finland?” Zorinsky was very interested. “Then perhaps you will not return?”
“I am certain to return,” I said, “even if only on account of Melnikoff.”
“And of course you have other business here,” he said. “By the way, how are you going?”
“I don’t know yet; they say it is easy enough to walk over the frontier.”
“Not quite so easy,” he replied. “Why not just walk across the bridge?”
“What bridge?”