“That’s a goddam lie.”
“Very well. Then you ought to come in and tell Mr. Wolfe to his face that he’s a double-crosser, a crook, and a liar. You don’t often get such a chance. Unless you’re afraid. What are you afraid of?”
“Nothing,” he said, and wheeled and marched to the kitchen door, opened it, and went in. I was right behind.
Wolfe’s voice boomed from the other room. “Archie! Where the devil—”
We were with him. He had finished with the phone. He shot a glance at Gus and then at me.
“Where did you get him?”
I waved a hand. “Oh, out there. I’ve started deliveries.”
VI
It took a good ten minutes to convince Gus Treble that we were playing it straight, and though Wolfe used a lot of his very best words and tones, it wasn’t words that put it over, it was logic The major premise was that Wolfe wanted Andy in his plant rooms, quick. The minor was that Andy couldn’t be simultaneously in Wolfe’s plant rooms and in the coop at White Plains, or in the death house at Sing Sing. Gus didn’t have to have the conclusion written out for him, but even so it took ten minutes. The last two were consumed by my recital, verbatim, of the conversation with Joseph G. and Sybil just before leaving the greenhouse.
Gus was seated at the desk, turned to face Wolfe, and I was straddling a straight-backed chair.