THE BLACK MOUNTAIN REX STOUT Thorndike Press � Chivers Press Thorndike, Maine USA Bath, England This Large Print edition is published by Thomdike Press, USA and by Chivers Press, England. Published in 1998 in the U.S. by arrangement with Rebecca Stout Bradbury. Published in 1998 in the U.K. by arrangement with Rebecca Stout Bradbury. U.S. Hardcover 0-7862-1569-0 (Thomdike Mystery Series Edition) U.K. Hardcover 0-7540-3511-5 (Chivers Large Print) U.K-Softcover 0-7540-3512-3 (Camden Large Print) Copyright � 1954, by Rex Stout All rights reserved. The text of this Large Print edition is unabridged. Other aspects of the book may vary from the original edition. Set in 16 pi. Plantin by Rick Gundberg. Printed in the United States on permanent paper. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Stout, Rex, 18861975. The black mountain / Rex Stout. p. cm. ISBN 0-7862-1569-0 (Ig. print : he : alk. paper) 1. Wolfe, Nero (Fictitious character) -- Fiction. 2. Private investigators -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction. I. Title. [PS3537.T733B53 1998] 813'.52--dc21 9828860 Warning In a way this is a phony. A lot of the talk I report was in languages I am not on speaking terms with, so even with the training I've had there is no use pretending that here it is, word for word. But this is what happened, since I had to know what was going on to earn my keep, Nero Wolfe put it in English for me every chance he got. For the times when it had to be on the fly, and pretty sketchy, I have filled it in as well as I could. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to tell it at all, but I hated to skip it. Archie Goodwill Chapter 1 That was the one and only time Nero Wolfe had ever seen the inside of the morgue. That Thursday evening in March I barely caught the phone call. With a ticket for a basketball game at the Garden in my pocket, I had dined in the kitchen, because I would have to leave the house at ten to eight, and Wolfe refuses to sit at table with one who has to pack it in and run.