RARA-AVIS: Picking at the Falcon

Bill Hagen (billha@ionet.net)
Mon, 20 Apr 1998 00:08:33 -0500 (CDT) I was rereading _The Maltese Falcon_, getting ready to teach it, and ran
across a couple of puzzling statements in the conversation between Spade
and Cairo, after he disarmed and roughed Cairo up a bit (Chapt. 5). They
are talking about the ownership of the bird, Cairo claims his unnamed party
had it before it was stolen from him and therefore that his right to it is
"certainly more valid than Thursby's."

Then, curiously, Spade asks, "What about his daughter?" Thursby, of
course, is dead at this point, but I don't believe any daughter has been
mentioned. [Gutman has a daughter, but he hasn't been introduced into any
conversation yet.]

Then after asserting "he" is not the owner, Cairo asks "Is he here in San
Franciso now?"

I guess the "he" must be Gutman, a man Cairo fears, but how did Spade know
to ask the question about the daughter in the first place? Where does that
come from? We're supposed to accept it as a shot in the dark? Or did the
author "nod" here?

Is this a slip in one of our favorite classics?

Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>

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