this where he hasn't got a chance." Cramer is also grateful to Wolfe for saving his job in The Silent Speaker, and at the end of that book, Cramer expresses his gratitude by bringing Wolfe " ... a misshapen object covered with green florist's paper" that turns out to be an orchid. In return, Wolfe holds the inspector in high regard, admiring his tenacity and preferring to deal with him than any other member of the police force. For example, speaking of Cramer, Wolfe says, "By luck I had made a hole in the wall and I've let him through, and if you knew him as I do you would realize that he can't be chased out again." Cramer is aware that Wolfe appreciates the Homicide Division's capabilities: "As conceited as you are, Wolfe, you told me once that I am better equipped to handle nine murder cases out of ten than you are." Cramer shares few, if any, of Wolfe's tastes; in the story "Black Orchids", for example, Wolfe exclaims that the black orchids are unique, matchless, and incomparable, Cramer replies, "They're pretty ... Kind of drab, though. Not much color. I like geraniums better." One taste that Cramer does share with Wolfe is that he appears to enjoy a good beer. Wolfe often offers him one, except when the visit is particularly contentious. Cramer almost always declines, claiming not to have the time. But on the occasion that he accepts, he appears to actually enjoy the less formal chat with Wolfe over a beer. Cramer is a cigar chewer. In early Nero Wolfe novels, Cramer lights and smokes them (in The League of Frightened Men he smokes a pipe), but in later novels, Archie notes that Cramer only chews on cigars and has never been known to light one. Cramer often ends his visits to Wolfe's office by angrily throwing his chewed cigar at the wastebasket, usually missing the target. Archie suspects that the cigars give Cramer a moment to calm down before he says something regrettable. Cramer is married and has one son, who fights in the Australian theater during World War II. Cramer's first name is given once only, as Fergus, in 1940's Where There's a Will (chapter 17). However, his initials are later given as "L.T.C." in 1946's The Silent Speaker, due to Stout's failure to recall that he had earlier given Cramer a first