XIX

enough to arrive while Miss O’Shaughnessy was there. In many ways it was a difficult conference, but finally, by midnight we had persuaded Miss O’Shaughnessy to come to terms, or so we thought. We then left the boat and set out for my hotel, where I was to pay Miss O’Shaughnessy and receive the bird. Well, sir, we mere men should have known better than to suppose ourselves capable of coping with her. En route, she and Captain Jacobi and the falcon slipped completely through our fingers.” He laughed merrily. “By Gad, sir, it was neatly done.”

Spade looked at the girl. Her eyes, large and dark with pleading, met his. He asked Gutman: “You touched off the boat before you left?”

“Not intentionally, no, sir,” the fat man replied, “though I dare say we⁠—or Wilmer at least⁠—were responsible for the fire. He had been out trying to find the falcon while the rest of us were talking in the cabin and no doubt was careless with matches.”

“That’s fine,” Spade said. “If any slip-up makes it necessary for us to try him for Jacobi’s murder we can also hang an arson-rap on him. All right. Now about the shooting.”

“Well, sir, we dashed around town all day trying to find them and we found them late this afternoon. We weren’t sure at first that we’d found them. All we were sure of was that we’d found Miss O’Shaughnessy’s apartment. But when we listened at the door we heard them moving around inside, so we were pretty confident we had them and rang the bell. When she asked us who we were and we told her⁠—through the door⁠—we heard a window going up.

“We knew what that meant, of course; so Wilmer hurried downstairs as fast as he could and around to the rear of the building to cover the fire-escape. And when he turned into the alley he ran right plumb smack into Captain Jacobi running away with the falcon under his arm. That was a difficult situation to handle, but Wilmer did every bit as well as he could.