That will take me three weeks if it is Miss Marcy or Miss Riff, four if it is Mrs. O'Shea. It is not a sordid familial flimflam. It's a perfectly legitimate inquiry. Isn't it?" "I suppose so," Wolfe conceded. "But it's fantastic." "Not at all. It's practical and damned sensible. My income for the rest of my life depends entirely on the goodwill of my 8 brother-in-law. If he marries, especially if he marries a woman considerably younger than he is, how long will his goodwill last--twelve thousand dollars' worth, year after year--if his wife hasn't got it too?" Wolfe grunted. "What precisely would be my engagement?" "To find out as soon as possible which one of them is hooking him." Lewent aimed a thumb at the little stack he had put on Wolfe's desk. "That thousand dollars is yours, succeed or fail, but it will have to cover everything because it's all I can afford. It might seem hardly worth your while, but actually, since you never leave this house on business, it will take little of your time and talent. The work will be done by Mr. Goodwin, and you have to pay his salary anyhow, and the expense will be negligible--taxi fares to and from my father's house on Sixty-ninth Street, now owned by Theodore Huck. I know something of Goodwin's record and prowess, and one trip, one day, might be all he would require--with consultation with you, of course. He can go up there with me now." I didn't throw him a kiss. I can take a compliment raw, with no chaser, as well as 9 the next one, but I hope I have learned how to behave, and I had a weekend date. Wolfe's scowl had deteriorated to a mild frown. "You say you received a warning. From whom?" "From Paul Thayer, Huck's nephew. Huck lets him live there in the house. He's as useless as I am�he composes music that no one will listen to. He hopes to inherit some of my father's money from Huck, and he got alarmed and wrote me." "What alarmed him?" "Some little things and one big thing. A man with cases came from Tiffany's and was with Huck in his study for nearly an hour.