“Take it easy,” I advised him. “He didn’t say who put it there, he just said where he found it.”
“What is it?” Mrs. Pitcairn inquired, her voice not quite as firm.
I’ll read it,” Wolfe told her. “As you see, it’s a sheet of paper. The writing is in ink, and I would judge the hand to be feminine. It is dated December sixth, yesterday — no, since it’s past midnight, the day before yesterday. It says:
“Dear Mr. Pitcairn: “I suppose now I will never call you Joe, as you wanted me to. I am quite willing to put my request in writing, and I only hope you will put your answer in writing too. As I told you, I think your gift to me should be twenty thousand dollars. You have been so very sweet, but I have been sweet too, and I really think I deserve that much. “Since I have decided to leave here and get married I don’t think you should expect me to wait more than a day or two for the gift. I’ll expect you in my room tonight at the usual time, and I hope you’ll agree how reasonable I am.”
Wolfe looked up. “It’s signed ‘Dini,’” he stated. “Of course it can be authenti—”
“I never saw it!” Vera Imbrie cried. “I never—”
But her lines got stolen. For my part, I didn’t even give her a glance. Their faces had all been something to see while Wolfe had read, as might have been expected, but by the time he had reached the third sentence it was plain that Donald was in for something special in the way of moods. First his face froze, then it came loose and his mouth opened, and then the blood rushed up and it was purple. He was a quick-change artist if I ever saw one, and, as I say, I had no glance to spare for Vera Imbrie when she cried out. Then Donald took over.
“So that’s why you wouldn’t let me marry her!” he screamed, and jumped at his father.
I had the gun, sure, but that was for us, not for them if and when their ranks broke. The women were helpless, and Neil Imbrie would have had to be bigger and faster than he was to stop that cyclone.
Donald toppled his father to his knees more by bodily impact than by his swinging fists, kicked him down the rest of the way, and bent over him screaming, “You thought I was no man! But I was with her! I loved her! For the first time — I loved her! And you wouldn’t let me and she was going away and now I know! By God, if I could kill her I can kill you too! I can! I can!”