sweaters and jackets, and my socks from the bush. It’s only a little over a mile, isn’t it'Let’s go.
Nero Wolfe 24 - The Black Mountain
Chapter 8
To build Rijeka all they had to do was knock off chunks of rock, roll them down to the edge of the valley, stack them in rectangles, and top the rectangles with thatched roofs; and that was all they had done, about the time Columbus started across the Atlantic to find India. Mud from the April rains was a foot deep in the one street, but there was a raised sidewalk of flat stones on either side.
As we proceeded along it, single file, Wolfe in the lead, I got an impression that we were not welcome. I caught glimpses of human forms ahead, one or two on the sidewalk, a couple of children running along the top of a low stone wall, a woman in a yard with a broom, but they all disappeared before we reached them.
There weren’t even any faces at windows as we went by.
I asked Wolfe’s back, What have we got, fleas'
He stopped and turned. No. They have. The sap has been sucked out of their spines. Pfui. He went on.
A little beyond the center of the village he left the walk to turn right through a gap in a stone wall into a yard. The house was set back a little farther than most of them and was a little wider and higher. The door was arched at the top,
with fancy carvings up the sides. Wolfe raised a fist to knock, but before his knuckles touched, the door swung open and a man confronted us.
Wolfe asked him, Are you George Bilic'
I am. He was a low bass. And you'
My name is unimportant, but you may have it. I am Tone Stara, and this is my son Alex. You own an automobile, and we wish to be driven to Podgorica. We will pay a proper amount.
Bilic’s eyes narrowed. I know of no place called Podgorica.
You call it Titograd. I am not yet satisfied with the change, though I may be.
My son and I are preparing to commit our sympathy and our resources. Of you we require merely a service for pay. I am willing to call it Titograd as a special favor to you.
Where are you from and how did you get here'
That’s our affair. You need merely to know that we will pay two thousand dinars to be driven twenty-three kilometers - or six American dollars, if you prefer them.
Bilic’s narrow eyes in his round puffy face got narrower. I do not prefer American dollars and I don’t like such an ugly suggestion. How do you know I own an automobile'
That is known to everyone. Do you deny it'
No. But there’s something wrong with it. A thing on the engine is broken, and it won’t go.
My son Alex will make it go. He’s an expert.
Bilic shook his head. I couldn’t allow that. He might damage it permanently.
You’re quite right. Wolfe was sympathetic. We are strangers to you. But I also know that you have a telephone, and you have kept us standing too long outside your door. We will enter and go with you to the telephone, and you will make a call to Belgrade, for which we will pay. You will get the Ministry of the Interior. Room Nineteen, and you will ask if it is desirable for you to cooperate with a man who calls himself Tone Stara - describing me, of course.
And you will do this at once, for I am beginning to get a little impatient.
Wolfe’s bluff wasn’t as screwy as it sounds. From what Telesio had told him, he knew that Bilic would take no risk either of offending a stranger who might be connected with the secret police, or calling himself to the attention of headquarter Belgrade by phoning to ask a dumb question. The bluff not only worked; it produced an effect which seemed to me entirely out of proportion when Wolfe told me later what he had said. Bilic suddenly went as pale as if all his blood had squirted out under his toenails. Simultaneously he tried to smile, and the combination wasn’t attractive.
I beg your pardon, sir, he said in a different tone, backing up a step and bowing. I’m sure you’ll understand that it is necessary to be careful. Come in and sit down,
Nero Wolfe 24 - The Black Mountain
Chapter 8
To build Rijeka all they had to do was knock off chunks of rock, roll them down to the edge of the valley, stack them in rectangles, and top the rectangles with thatched roofs; and that was all they had done, about the time Columbus started across the Atlantic to find India. Mud from the April rains was a foot deep in the one street, but there was a raised sidewalk of flat stones on either side.
As we proceeded along it, single file, Wolfe in the lead, I got an impression that we were not welcome. I caught glimpses of human forms ahead, one or two on the sidewalk, a couple of children running along the top of a low stone wall, a woman in a yard with a broom, but they all disappeared before we reached them.
There weren’t even any faces at windows as we went by.
I asked Wolfe’s back, What have we got, fleas'
He stopped and turned. No. They have. The sap has been sucked out of their spines. Pfui. He went on.
A little beyond the center of the village he left the walk to turn right through a gap in a stone wall into a yard. The house was set back a little farther than most of them and was a little wider and higher. The door was arched at the top,
with fancy carvings up the sides. Wolfe raised a fist to knock, but before his knuckles touched, the door swung open and a man confronted us.
Wolfe asked him, Are you George Bilic'
I am. He was a low bass. And you'
My name is unimportant, but you may have it. I am Tone Stara, and this is my son Alex. You own an automobile, and we wish to be driven to Podgorica. We will pay a proper amount.
Bilic’s eyes narrowed. I know of no place called Podgorica.
You call it Titograd. I am not yet satisfied with the change, though I may be.
My son and I are preparing to commit our sympathy and our resources. Of you we require merely a service for pay. I am willing to call it Titograd as a special favor to you.
Where are you from and how did you get here'
That’s our affair. You need merely to know that we will pay two thousand dinars to be driven twenty-three kilometers - or six American dollars, if you prefer them.
Bilic’s narrow eyes in his round puffy face got narrower. I do not prefer American dollars and I don’t like such an ugly suggestion. How do you know I own an automobile'
That is known to everyone. Do you deny it'
No. But there’s something wrong with it. A thing on the engine is broken, and it won’t go.
My son Alex will make it go. He’s an expert.
Bilic shook his head. I couldn’t allow that. He might damage it permanently.
You’re quite right. Wolfe was sympathetic. We are strangers to you. But I also know that you have a telephone, and you have kept us standing too long outside your door. We will enter and go with you to the telephone, and you will make a call to Belgrade, for which we will pay. You will get the Ministry of the Interior. Room Nineteen, and you will ask if it is desirable for you to cooperate with a man who calls himself Tone Stara - describing me, of course.
And you will do this at once, for I am beginning to get a little impatient.
Wolfe’s bluff wasn’t as screwy as it sounds. From what Telesio had told him, he knew that Bilic would take no risk either of offending a stranger who might be connected with the secret police, or calling himself to the attention of headquarter Belgrade by phoning to ask a dumb question. The bluff not only worked; it produced an effect which seemed to me entirely out of proportion when Wolfe told me later what he had said. Bilic suddenly went as pale as if all his blood had squirted out under his toenails. Simultaneously he tried to smile, and the combination wasn’t attractive.
I beg your pardon, sir, he said in a different tone, backing up a step and bowing. I’m sure you’ll understand that it is necessary to be careful. Come in and sit down,
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