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me and somebody else to go get this chess set for you, so all you —”

    Mr. Hemlow said, “Somebody else?”

    “You said it was too heavy for one man to lift.”

    “Oh, yes.” Mr. Hemlow did that nodding thing some more. “That’s what my father told me, that impressed me at the time. I hadn’t thought of the implications, but you’re right. Or, could you do it in multiple trips?”

    “When you’re burglaring,” Dortmunder told him, showing off a little expertise, “you don’t do more than one trip.”

    “Yes, of course, I do see that.” Turning to Eppick, he said, “How long will it take you to find a second person?”

    “Oh, I think John could come up with somebody,” Eppick said, and grinned at Dortmunder. “Your friend Andy, maybe.”

    “Well,” Dortmunder said, “he’d probably have to look in his appointment book, but I could check, yeah.” To Mr. Hemlow he said, “So it looks to me like there’s only two questions left.”

    “Yes?” Mr. Hemlow cocked that puffy head. “Which questions are those?”

    “Well, the first is, where is it.”

    “Yes, of course,” said Mr. Hemlow, a little impatiently. “And the second?”

    “Well, you might not think it to look at me,” Dortmunder told him, “but I got a family crest.”

    “Have you?”

    “Yeah. And it’s got a motto on it.”

    “I am anxious to hear this motto.”

    “Quid lucrum istic mihi est.”

    Mr. Hemlow squinted; the red–headed hawk in flight. “I’m afraid my Latin is insufficient for that.”

    “What’s in it for me,” Dortmunder translated.

Chapter 5
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    Mr. Hemlow roared with laughter, or at least tried to, with various noises emanating from his head area that might, with redubbing, have added up to a roar. Then he said, “Well, what would be in it for you might be millions, I suppose, if you were to manage to elude Johnny here. A rather more modest sum if you do your part like a good boy.”
    “Plus continued life in the free world,” Eppick added.

    So they were cheapskates, these two, it had all the earmarks. Dortmunder had seen it before, guys with big ideas who just needed a little bit of his help, his knowledge, his experience, but didn’t want to pay for it. Or didn’t want to pay enough.

    On the other hand, if he announced he wasn’t going along with these birds, that alley photo could very well come back to bite him on the hind parts. So, at least for now, he would follow Mr. Hemlow’s advice and do his part like a good boy. Therefore, he said, “Without knowing where this thing is, or how it’s guarded, or anything about it, I don’t know how much trouble I’m gonna have to get my hands on it, or what expenses I’m gonna run up, or if it’s maybe more than two people needed for the thing, or whatever. So right now, I’m with you, but I gotta tell you, Johnny Eppick here says I’m the specialist you want, and if I decide, being the specialist, that it can’t be done, or it can’t be done without too much danger to me, then I’m gonna have to tell you now, I’m gonna expect you to go along with how I see it.”

    Eppick frowned, clearly not liking the broadness of this escape clause, but Mr. Hemlow said, “That sounds fair to me. I think you will find the task worthy of your skills, but not to include a level of peril that might incline you to forgo what would certainly otherwise be a very profitable endeavor.”

    “That’s good, then,” Dortmunder said. “So where is it?”

    “I’m afraid I’m not the one who’s going to tell you that,” Mr. Hemlow said.

    Dortmunder didn’t like that at all. “You mean, there’s more of you in on this? I thought everybody else died or got old or didn’t care.”

    “Except,” Mr. Hemlow said, “my granddaughter.”

    “Now a granddaughter,” Dortmunder said.

    “It is true,” Mr. Hemlow said, “that the generation after mine took no interest in the stolen chess set, nor the ruined dreams of their