Without Hesitation

Excerpted from "The Casebook of James Thurber" in Thurber Country, ©1953:

The case of the Gloucester Sympathizer was similar to the Case of the Young Woman Named Sherlock Holmes, a problem I solved the easy way a couple of years ago.  George Spencer had told me that a guy he knew named Harry Huff was going to marry a girl named Sherlock Holmes.  I said this was nonsense, because there isn't any girl named Sherlock Holmes.  He said I didn't know anything about it.  I said it was dangerous to believe everything one heard, and to go around repeating it.  He snapped the leash back on his dog's collar, picked up its throwing stick, and went away.

I got out the phone book.  There were two Henry Huffs listed, and I called the first one.  "Nah," he said, "I'm living in sin with Dr. Watson.  I thought everybody knew that."  He was obviously the wrong Henry Huff, and I hung up on him.  The second one turned out to be the right one.  I asked him to spell out the name of his fiancée.  Without hesitation, he said he didn't want to, so I mentioned George Spencer and what he had said about Sherlock Holmes.  Huff was annoyed, but he finally told me the name of the girl he was going to marry, one Shirley Combs.