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would purloin really valuable papers. As for their being called “the pumpkin papers,” the only reason they were called that was because Chambers put them in a pumpkin long enough to go down and get the local district attorney in Westminster, Maryland. They weren't in that pumpkin more than a half hour. If they had been in there any longer they would have rotten. In a growing pumpkin the acid would have spoiled them. That's how things often become famous!

Interestingly enough, it's in Westminster, Maryland, where he lived that we built our warehouse. I'd forgotten all about this until I went down to look at the new warehouse. I said to myself, “I've been here before.” I suddenly saw the main street and I said, “Say, this is where Whittaker Chambers lives!" I'd forgotten all about it.

Whit and Mrs. Chambers invited us down there for a night. Whit said, “Maybe you'd like to see the pumpkin and the house.” I said, “You're damned right I would.” I remember our trepidation before we went down there...what were we going to talk about? Well, I found myself sprawling on the back porch with Whittaker, who was a lazy gent. Esther did all of the work. She cooked meals and cleaned the house and took care of the two boys. We found ourselves grumbling together about the Columbia football team. That's the last thing in the world that I thought that Whittaker Chambers and I would talk about. Columbia was losing all of its games and we were both very annoyed about this and agreed that their coach was an incompetent. Suddenly I burst out laughing. I said, “If anybody could get