Sperling was slumped in his chair, his elbow resting on its arm and his chin propped on his knuckles, with his gaze now on Gwenn and now on Wolfe. “Not now,” he said quietly. “Only — a question — how much of that was straight fact?”
“Every word.”
“What is X’s name?”
“That will have to wait. If we are forced into this, and you still want me to work for you, you will of course have to have it.”
“All right, go ahead.”
Wolfe went back to Gwenn. “One difficulty in an attempt to expose X, which is what this would amount to, will be the impossibility of knowing when we are rubbing against him. I am acquainted, more or less, with some three thousand people living or working in New York, and there aren’t more than ten of them of whom I could say with certainty that they are in no way involved in X’s activities. None may be; any may be. If that sounds extreme, Miss Sperling, remember that he has been devising and spreading his nets all your lifetime, and that his talents are great.
“So I can’t match him in ubiquity, no matter how many millions your father contributes to the enterprise, but I must match his inaccessibility, and I shall. I shall move to a base of operations which will be known only to Mr. Goodwin and perhaps two others; for it is not a fantasy of trepidation, but a painful fact, that when he perceives my objective, as he soon will, he will start all his machinery after me. He has told me on the telephone how much he admires me, and I was flattered, but now I’ll have to pay for it. He will know it is a mortal encounter, and he does not underrate me — I only wish he did.”
Wolfe lifted his shoulders and let them down again. “I’m not whimpering — or perhaps I am. I shall expect to win, but there’s no telling what the cost will be. It may take a year, or five years, or ten.” He gestured impatiently. “Not for finishing your Mr. Rony; that will be the merest detail. It won’t be long until you’ll have to talk with him through the grill in the visitors’ room, if you still want to see him. But X will never let it stop there, though he might want me to think he would. Once started, I’ll have to go on to the end. So the cost in time can’t be estimated.
“Neither can the cost in money. I certainly haven’t got enough, nothing like it, and I won’t be earning any, so your father will have to foot the bill, and he will have to commit himself in advance. If I stake my comfort, my freedom, and my life, he may properly be expected to stake his fortune. Whatever his resources may be—”
Wolfe interrupted himself. “Bah!” he said scornfully. “You deserve complete candor. As I said, Mr. Rony is a mere trifle; he’ll be disposed of in no time, once I am established where I can be undisturbed. But I hope I have given you a clear idea of what X is like. He will know I can’t go on without money and, when he finds he can’t get at me, will try to stop the source of supply. He will try many expedients before he resorts to violence, for he is a man of sense and knows that murder should always be the last on the list, and of course the murder of a man in your father’s position would be excessively dangerous; but if he thought it necessary he would risk it. I don’t—”