Nero Wolfe:Fer De Lance

First sentence of the introduction: "Series are seldom read in order."; first sentence of the Fer-de-Lance story: "There was no reason why I shouldn't have been sent for the beer that day, for the last ends of the Fairmount National bank case had been gathered in the week before and there was nothing for me to do but errands, and Wolfe never hesitated about running me down to Murray Street for a can of shoe-polish if he happened to need one."