The League of Frightened Men
Rex Stout
 An author, Paul Chapin, is on trial for alleged obscenity in his popular novel, and Archie is telling Wolfe the scurrilous details as found in the newspaper. Wolfe and Archie have an argument about obscenity law, and its upshot is that Wolfe tells Archie to have the book sent over in the morning. Wolfe reads the book, then tells Archie that Andrew Hibbard, a potential client, had visited while Archie was away on another case, and that Hibbard had asked Wolfe to arrange to protect him from a man whose name he would not disclose. However, Hibbard did include other particulars, # many years earlier, a "boyish prank" upon his friend (now nemesis) had had a lasting and tragic outcome # in Hibbard's opinion the man was a psychopath # following the deaths of two their mutual friends at gatherings (reunions), they had received lengthy typewritten unsigned masterfully word poems/threats each saying, among other things that "he had embarked on a ship of vengeance" # the man had had recent commercial success At the time, Wolfe sent Hibbard away with two recommendations # Get some life insurance # Find another agency specializing in personal protection Now, after reading the Chapin cited in the court case, Wolfe has found the curious phrase "embark on a ship of vengeance" twice in that novel, and from that and other considerations forms the surmise that Paul Chapin was the man Andrew Hibbard feared but would not name. Wolfe considers his surmise to have been validated by confirmation that Chapin had been crippled in a hazing accident at a Harvard dorm many years before, and also by knowledge that Chapin has a new successful play on Broadway. Hibbard has been missing for a week or two -- but Wolfe locates some the other members of the "League of Atonement" through Hibbard's niece -- and as already told by Hibbard in the first attempt to engage Wolfe, some of the League have begun dying, though from the actions of Paul Chapin, other menaces, or simply the ordinary course of life is not yet known. Therefore surviving members of the League enter into an agreement with Wolfe that he should provide the League removal of threats and apprehensions from the following sources * Paul Chapin * Person, possibly Chapin, who has sent typewritten poetic taunts/threats members of the League have recently received (and caused the League of Atonement set up after the hazing accident to be recently dubbed The League of Frightened Men) * Person or persons responsible for the recent deaths of two of their number (and possibly Hibbard as well, as noted earlier) The effectiveness of Wolfe's work is to be decided by a majority vote of the League members.