He shuffled through them and announced,
“I thought it would be better to make diagrams.
Of course I could have furnished Archie with verbal descriptions, but along with my shorthand I’ve learned—”
Wolfe put in,
“Is Mr. Walsh there now?”
Johnny nodded.
“He came a few minutes before six.
I was watching from the back of a restaurant that fronts on Fifty-sixth Street, because I knew he’d have a shadow and I didn’t want to run a risk of being seen, a lot of those city detectives know me.
By the way, there’s only the one entrance to the boarding, on Fifty-fifth.” He handed the papers across to Wolfe. “I dug up nine other ways to get in.
Some of them you couldn’t use, but with two of them, a restaurant and a pet shop that’s open until nine, it’s a cinch.”
Instead of taking the papers, Wolfe nodded at me.
“Give them to Archie.
Is there anyone in there besides Mr. Walsh?”
“I don’t think so.
It’s mostly steel men on the job now, and they quit at five.
Of course it was dark when I left, and it isn’t lit up much.
There’s a wooden shed at one side with a couple of tables and a phone and so on, and a man was standing there talking to Walsh, a foreman, but he looked as if he was ready to leave.
The reason I was a little late, after I got out of there I went around to Fifty-fifth to see if there was a shadow on the job, and there was.
I spotted him easy.
He was standing there across the street, talking to a taxi driver.”
“All right.
Satisfactory.
Go over the diagrams with Archie.”
Johnny explained to me how good the diagrams were, and I had to agree with him.
They were swell.
Five of them I discarded, because four of them were shops that wouldn’t be open and the other was the Orient Club, which wouldn’t be easy to get into.
Of the remaining four, one was the pet shop, one a movie theater with a fire alley, and two restaurants.
After Johnny’s detailed description of the relative advantages and disadvantages, I picked one of the restaurants for the first stab.
It seemed like a lot of complicated organization work for getting ready to stop in and ask a guy a question, but considering what the question led to in Wolfe’s mental arrangements it seemed likely that it might be worth the trouble.
By the time we were through with Johnny’s battle maps it lacked only a few minutes till seven, and I followed my custom of chucking things in the drawers, plugging the phone for all the house connections, and taking my automatic and giving it a look and sticking it in my pocket.
I got up and pushed my chair in.
I asked Johnny,
“Can you hang around for a couple of hours’ overtime?”
“I can if I eat.”
“Okay.
You’ll find Saul in the kitchen.
There’s a caller expected at seven and he’ll tend to the door.
Stick around.
Mr. Wolfe may want you to exercise your shorthand.”
Johnny strode out.
I think he practiced striding.
I started to follow, but turned to ask Wolfe,
“Are you going to grab time by the forelock?
Will there be a party when I get back?”
“I couldn’t say.” Wolfe’s hand was resting on the desk; he was waiting for the door to close behind me, to ring for beer. “We’ll await the confirmation.”
“Shall I phone?”
“No.
Bring it.”
“Okay.”
I turned.