He slid a sheet of the Gazette across his desk, and I got up and took it. It was a Sunday half-page, in color, from four months back. In the first frame Dazzle Dan was scooting along a country road on a motorcycle, passing a roadside sign that read:
PEACHES RIGHT FROM THE TREE!
AGGIE GHOOL AND HAGGIE KROOL
Frame two, D.D. had stopped his bike alongside a peach tree full of red and yellow fruit. Standing there were two females, presumably Aggie Ghool and Haggie Krool. One was old and bent, dressed in burlap as near as I could tell; the other was young and pink-cheeked, wearing a mink coat. If you say surely not a mink coat, I say I’m telling what I saw. D.D. was saying, in his balloon, “Gimme a dozen.”
Frame three, the young female was handing D.D. the peaches, and the old one was extending her hand for payment. Frame four, the old one was giving D.D. his change from a bill. Frame five, the old one was handing the young one a coin and saying, “Here’s your ten per cent, Haggie,” and the young one was saying, “Thank you very much, Aggie.” Frame six, D.D. was asking Aggie, “Why don’t you split it even?” and Aggie was telling him, “Because it’s my tree.” Frame seven, D.D. was off again on the bike, but I felt I had had enough and looked at Wolfe inquiringly.
“Am I supposed to comment?”
“If it would help, yes.”
“I pass. If it’s a feed from the National Industrialists’ League it’s the wrong angle. If you mean the mink coat, Pat Lowell’s may not be paid for.”
He grunted. “There have been two similar episodes, one each year, with the same characters.”
“Then it may be paid for.”