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Anderson to suspect that the honest
Jackson had stolen something. Unfortunately, due to the variety and extent of the objects within the dwelling, Anderson was unable to tell what was taken. He called in Bartram, who is an investigator, to discover what had been taken. When he failed, Anderson grew restless and morose, until he slowly wasted away.
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Bartram tells the group of two business partners, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Anderson, the former tirelessly honest and the latter relentlessly dishonest. Anderson shunted
Jackson out of their venture, and shortly afterward spotted him acting in a suspicious manner inside Anderson's cluttered house, leading
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The group tosses around theories as to what had been stolen, until
Bartram reveals his true reason for attending the meeting: their waiter, Henry, is none other than the honest businessman in question. He asks Henry what it was that he stole from Anderson, and Henry replies that he had only taken
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Each month, the Black
Widowers meet at a restaurant and converse over dinner with each other and their waiter. The host of the group brings the evening's guest. On this occasion, Geoffrey Avalon brings a Dr. Hanley Bartram to dinner. (All members of the club and all guests for the evening are
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The Black
Widowers stories concerned a dinner guest who had a problem or mystery to solve; after the members deliberated, Henry would offer the correct solution. This story, the first, deviates from that pattern in the nature of Henry's "contribution".
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Emmanuel Rubin: Free-lance author; talkative, self-centered, finicky (about food), and argumentative
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referred to as doctors, and those with doctorates are referred to as "doctor doctor.")
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Henry (honorary member): Waiter; polite, restrained, and unceasingly honest in nature
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Thomas
Trumbull: Code expert of an unknown level; loud and argumentative in nature
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Mr
Anderson: Businessman; greedy with an obsession with collections
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Mario
Gonzalo: Artist; as argumentative as Trumbull, if not as loud
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Geoffrey Avalon: Patent attorney; described as tall and patrician
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1971 mystery short story by
American writer Isaac Asimov
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in 1971, first published in the
January 1972 issue of
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