Puzzles of the Black Widowers - By Isaac Asimov Page 0,79

matters, and each day was an annoyance. Obviously, I could not keep Stephen under wraps indefinitely, and once he began to complain loudly enough, we would have to come up with something definite or let him go.

But he did not complain. He continued to be a model citizen and once I had Artemis in tow, I arranged to have her see him when he did not know she was looking at him. She said, "It certainly looks like Stephen."

"Let's meet him, then. Just act naturally, but please keep your eyes open and let me know if, for any reason, you think it's not the man you met on the ship."

I brought her into the room and Stephen looked at her, smiled, and said without hesitation, "Hello, Artemis."

She said, a little hesitantly, "Hello, Stephen."

She was no actress. She looked at him anxiously, and Stephen would have had to be far less intelligent than he clearly was not to guess that, under instructions, she was trying to tell whether he might not be an imposter.

Finally, she said, "He certainly looks like Stephen, except Stephen had little tufts of hair on the back of the rear end of his fingers. I thought that was so virile. I don't see them now."

Stephen didn't seem to mind being discussed in the third person, or to be offended that the woman searched for difference. He merely smiled and held up his hands. "The hair is there."

She said, "It should be darker." She didn't sound definite about it, though.

Stephen said, "Remember the time when I tripped over my own two left feet while we were dancing and my hand slipped out of yours and you said it was because they were so smooth? That doesn't sound as though you were so terribly impressed over their hairiness, does it?"

Artemis's face lit up. She turned to me and said, "Yes, that did happen."

"And you remember I apologized for being a clumsy dancer, and you kept saying I was a good dancer, but I knew you were just being sweet, and trying to make me feel better. Remember, Artemis?"

She said happily, "Yes, I remember. Hello, Stephen. I'm glad it's you."

He said, "Thanks for recognizing me, Artemis. I'd have been in considerable trouble if you hadn't."

I interrupted a bit irritably, I suppose. "Wait, Miss Cataldo. Don't rush to conclusions."

He said, "Is that your last name, Artemis? They asked me, but I didn't know. You'd never told me."

I waved him quiet. I said, "Ask him some questions, Miss Cataldo; little things that he ought to get right."

Artemis flushed. "Did you ever kiss me, Stephen?"

Stephen looked a little embarrassed. "I did once - just once. In the taxi, Artemis. Remember?"

I didn't give the woman a chance to reply. I said sharply, "The details, Stephen. And no hesitation."

He shrugged. "We were in the taxi being driven to a place called Spittal Pond, a bird refuge that Artemis wanted to see. Artemis teased me because I said how pleasant it was to be going with a young woman who wanted to see bird refuges and not nightclubs and she said that by the next week, I would have forgotten her completely, and I wouldn't even remember her name. So I said gallantly, 'What? Forget Artemis, the chaste huntress?' I reached over her and wrote the name on the car window on the left. It was a humid day and there was a thin film of moisture on it."

"Where does the kiss come in?" I demanded.

"Well, I was seated on her right," said Stephen, "and I reached across her chest with my right arm to write her name. My left arm was on the back of the seat." He showed me how it was, stretching his left arm behind an imaginary companion, and then pushing his right hand across in front, so that his arms nearly enclosed that companion. "I had just finished writing her name when the taxi lurched, for some reason. My elbow nearly collided with the driver's head so I grabbed Artemis's shoulder to steady myself - pure reflex - and there I was embracing her." He was still demonstrating. "I found the position so irresistible that I kissed her. Only on the cheek, I am sorry to say."

I looked at the woman. "Well?"

Her eyes were shining. She said, "That's exactly how it happened, Mr. Koenig. This is Stephen, all right. There is just no question about it." She added dramatically, "I identify this man as the man on the ship and in