Puzzles of the Black Widowers - By Isaac Asimov Page 0,66
find out he did, and we haven't been able to help him at all. - I'm sorry, Sandy."
"Hold on," said Gonzalo, teetering his chair back on two legs. "We're not through yet. I notice that Henry is poking his way through the reference shelf."
"Oh, really," said Trumbull. "We'll ask him just as soon as he gets back."
"Whom are we talking about?" said Mountjoy, frowning. "The waiter?"
"We're talking about Henry. The best of the Black Widowers."
Henry returned and resumed his usual place by the service table.
Gonzalo said, "Well, Henry, can you help us?"
"I have had a thought, Mr. Gonzalo, concerning four-leaf clovers."
"Tell us."
"Clovers almost always have three leaves. Occasionally, a clover grows from a seed that is slightly abnormal and it develops four leaves in consequence. Such a sudden change between parent and offspring is called a mutation," said Henry politely.
"So it is," said Halsted.
"Mutations take place now and then in all species. You can get a white blackbird, or a two-headed calf, or a baby with six fingers. I daresay the list is endless."
"Probably," murmured Avalon.
"For the most part, mutations are unfavorable and are viewed as deformities and monstrous distortions. The four-leaf clover is an example of a mutation, however, that not only does not strike people as a deformity but is valued and treasured by them - by almost all of them - as something very desirable, as a symbol and bringer of good luck. That makes it very unusual as a mutation and it is one mutation that can be easily drawn without repelling people and can be made to seem as nothing more than a natural way of calling down good fortune. It can therefore symbolize the idea of mutation unmistakably and yet escape detection by people without a certain degree of education. However, to those who know the hostage's strong rationality, they would - or should - dismiss the good luck and cling to the symbolization of a mutation."
"Where does all that get us, Henry?" asked Trumbull.
"To change the subject slightly, Mr. Mountjoy mentioned Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors. There are two characters in it named Antipholus. They are twin brothers, one from the city of Syracuse in Sicily and one from Ephesus in Asia Minor. Does the name Antipholus bring anything to your mind, Mr. Mountjoy?"
"Yes," said Mountjoy. "The insects the entomologist was working with. I still can't give you the exact name, though."
"Was it Drosophila?"
"Yes! By God, yes."
"It is more commonly known as the fruit fly and it is the classic insect used for the study of mutations. It seems to me, then, that the four-leaf clover may have been drawn to signify mutations and that that was meant to point rather precisely to the entomologist as the traitor. At least, it seems so to me."
"Heavens!" said Mountjoy. "It seems so to me, too. - I'll get in touch with - with some people in Washington first thing in the morning and suggest it. Drosophila. Drosophila. I'll have to remember the name."
"Fruit fly will be sufficient, sir," said Henry, "and if the suggestion is accepted, I would suggest you allow it to remain understood that it occurred to you quite independently. No need to admit you spoke of the matter to the Black Widowers."
Afterword
Sometimes, if I feel really lazy, I think of some one thing and see if I can't build a story around it. Thus, I was in a grassy place at Mohonk (see the previous Afterword) and I noted that it was rich in three-leaf clovers. As is my wont, I looked about to see if there was a four-leaf clover and after about two and a half seconds I decided there wasn't. (I have never found a four-leaf clover in my life, but I have had enough good luck even without it.)
So I thought: Let's write a story about a four-leaf clover, and I did.
This time, though, Eleanor Sullivan, the beautiful editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, turned it down. She thought the point of the story was sufficiently arcane to be unfair to the reader. I didn't agree (I never agree with a rejection) but the editor's word is law, and I present the story here as the second in this collection to make its first-time appearance.
The Envelope
Emmanuel Rubin arrived at the Black Widowers banquet in a foul mood. This was not much worse than his usual attitude, to be sure, but his eyes, magnified behind the thick lenses of his spectacles, flashed dangerously.