Read The Case of the Baited Hook for Free Online Page A

don't want to. That ten thousand dollars looked as big as the national debt last night, Della, but it looks like trouble now. Go ahead and work out that ad. Tell Paul Drake to look up Tidings, and get Tidings on the telephone for me."
    A few moments later, she popped her head in the door to say, "There's a one – thirty dead – line on that ad, Chief. I've got it ready and will rush it down. Albert Tidings is coming on the line in just a moment. His secretary's on now."
    Mason picked up the telephone, and a man's rather high – pitched voice said, "Hello."
    "Mr. Tidings?" Mason asked.
    "No. This is his secretary. Just a moment, Mr. Mason. Mr. Tidings is coming right on… Here he is."
    A booming, resonant voice said, irritably, "Hello. Who the devil is this?"
    "Perry Mason, the lawyer," Mason said. "I'm calling in regard to an appointment a Mrs. Tump made with you. She said I'd call on you at eleven… Is this Albert Tidings?"
    There was a moment of silence, then the voice said cautiously, "Yes, this is Tidings. I know all about what you want, and…"
    "Mrs. Tump has just left my office," Mason interposed as the man at the other end of the line paused uncertainly. "She said she'd made an appointment for me to meet you at eleven o'clock this morning. That appointment was, of course, made without consulting my own convenience and…"
    "I understand perfectly, Mr. Mason," the booming voice interrupted. "I was going to call you myself… Hadn't got around to it yet. It's all damn poppycock. You don't want to waste your time on it, and I don't want to waste mine. She said eleven o'clock… I knew you wouldn't drop your business and come running around to peddle a lot of old woman's gossip, but I didn't say anything to Mrs. Tump. I just figured I wouldn't hear any more about it, but I told my secretary to call you up just to make sure."
    "It's quite possible," Mason said, "that I'll want to talk with your attorney-if you can tell me who he is."
    "I have several attorneys," Tidings said, evasively.
    "Can you tell me which lawyer will be handling this particular case?"
    "None of them," Tidings said. "It's all bosh. I tell you there's nothing to it, but one thing I will tell you. Mason. If that woman doesn't quit her whispering campaign of poison propaganda, I'm going after her. Byrl's a swell girl. We get along fine, but that old buzzard is poison and she's laying up trouble for herself. She's a chiseler and is just trying to make Byrl dissatisfied so as to feather her own nest. I'm going after her if she doesn't quit. You can tell her that straight from me."
    "Tell her straight from yourself," Mason said. "I only called up to cancel an appointment."
    Tidings laughed. "All right. All right. I didn't mean it that way. Mason, but I'm getting irritated… All right. Call up whenever you want to see me. Your secretary and mine can doubtless get together. Good – by."
    Mason dropped the telephone receiver into place, pushed back his chair, got to his feet, and started slowly pacing the office.

3
    PERRY MASON WAS LYING IN BED READING WHEN THE telephone rang. He had been about to turn off the light, and there was a frown on his face as he picked up the receiver.
    Della Street's voice greeted him. "Hello, Chief. How about the evening paper?"
    "What about it?"
    "Did you read it?"
    "I glanced through it. Why?"
    "I notice," she said, "that auditors have been called in to examine the books of the Elmer Hastings Memorial Hospital. Charges of mismanagement of funds have been made by a member of the Hastings family. A firm of certified public accountants were called on to make a preliminary audit of the books. The endowment funds are held in a trust administered by a board of three trustees. The members of that board of trustees are Albert Tidings, Robert Peltham, and a Parker C. Stell."
    For several thoughtful seconds Mason was silent, then he said, "I guess that's what Peltham meant when he said I'd learn about him in the papers."
    "Get