“Because we have some.”
“How many?”
“Oh, more than a thousand.”
“Where did you get them?”
“In the United States. That is a wonderful country to make money, and my son and I have made our full share, but it does not know how to arrange for a proper concentration of power, and therefore there is too much loose talk. That’s why we came here to find out. Who can best concentrate the power of the Yugoslavs — the Russians, or Tito, or the Spirit of the Black Mountain?”
Stritar cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “This is all very interesting, and extremely silly. It occurs to me that of the many millions lent to Yugoslavia by the World Bank — that is to say, by the United States — only one little million is being spent in Montenegro, for a dam and power plant just above Titograd, not three kilometers from here. If the World Bank wanted to know if the money is being spent for the agreed purpose, might it not send some such man as you to look?”
“It might,” Wolfe conceded. “But not me. I am not technically qualified, and neither is my son.”
“You can’t possibly expect me,” Stritar asserted, “to believe your fantastic story. I admit that I have no idea what you do expect. You must know that, having no papers, you are subject to arrest and a thorough examination, which you would find uncomfortable. You may be Russian agents. You may, as I said, be agents of the World Bank. You may be foreign spies from God knows where. You may be American friends of the Spirit of the Black Mountain. You may even have been sent from Room Nineteen in Belgrade, to test the loyalty and vigilance of Montenegrins. But I ask myself, if you are any of those, why in the name of God are you not provided with papers? It’s ridiculous.”
“Exactly.” Wolfe nodded approvingly. “It is a pleasure to meet with an intelligent man, Mr. Stritar. You can account for our having no papers only by assuming that my fantastic story is true, as indeed it is. As for arresting us, I don’t pretend that we would be delighted to spend a year or two in jail, but it would certainly answer some of the questions we have been asking. As for what we expect, why not allow us a reasonable amount of time, say a month, to get the information we came for? I would know better than to make such a suggestion in Belgrade, but this is Montenegro, where the Turks clawed at the crags for centuries to no purpose, and it seems unlikely that my son and I will topple them. To show that I am being completely frank with you, I said that we have more than a thousand American dollars, but I carry very little of it and my son only a fraction. We have cached most of it, a considerable amount, in the mountains, and it is significant that the spot we chose is not in Albania but in Montenegro. That would seem to imply that we lean to Tito instead of the Russians — did you say something, Mr. Zov?”
Peter Zov, who had made a noise that could have been only a grunt, shook his head. “No, but I could.”