Bab Bab 10 · Chapter X Various Parties Converging on the Sea

. Chapter X Various Parties Converging on the Sea

A pink and blue June morning found me at Bradgate looking from the

Griffin Hotel over a smooth sea to the lightship on the Cock sands

which seemed the size of a bell-buoy. A couple of miles farther south

and much nearer the shore a small destroyer was anchored. Scaife,

MacGillivray’s man, who had been in the Navy, knew the boat, and told

me her name and her commander’s, so I sent off a wire to Sir Walter.

After breakfast Scaife got from a house-agent a key for the gates of

the staircases on the Ruff. I walked with him along the sands, and sat

down in a nook of the cliffs while he investigated the half-dozen of

them. I didn’t want to be seen, but the place at this hour was quite

deserted, and all the time I was on that beach I saw nothing but the

seagulls.

It took him more than an hour to do the job, and when I saw him coming

towards me, conning a bit of paper, I can tell you my heart was in my

mouth. Everything depended, you see, on my guess proving right.

He read aloud the number of steps in the different stairs.

“Thirty-four, thirty-five, thirty-nine, forty-two, forty-seven,” and

“twenty-one’ where the cliffs grew lower. I almost got up and shouted.

We hurried back to the town and sent a wire to MacGillivray. I wanted

half a dozen men, and I directed them to divide themselves among

different specified hotels. Then Scaife set out to prospect the house

at the head of the thirty-nine steps.

He came back with news that both puzzled and reassured me. The house

was called Trafalgar Lodge, and belonged to an old gentleman called

Appleton—a retired stockbroker, the house-agent said. Mr Appleton was

there a good deal in the summer time, and was in residence now—had been

for the better part of a week. Scaife could pick up very little

information about him, except that he was a decent old fellow, who paid

his bills regularly, and was always good for a fiver for a local

charity. Then Scaife seemed to have penetrated to the back door of the

house, pretending he was an agent for sewing-machines. Only three

servants were kept, a cook, a parlour-maid, and a housemaid, and they

were just the sort that you would find in a respectable middle-class

household. The cook was not the gossiping kind, and had pretty soon

shut the door in his face, but Scaife said he was positive she knew

nothing. Next door there was a new house building which would give good

cover for observation, and the villa on the other side was to let, and

its garden was rough and shrubby.

I borrowed Scaife’s telescope, and before lunch went for a walk along

the Ruff. I kept well behind the rows of villas, and found a good

observation point on the edge of the golf-course. There I had a view of

the line of turf along the cliff top, with seats placed at intervals,

and the little square plots, railed in and planted with bushes, whence

the staircases descended to the beach. I saw Trafalgar Lodge very

plainly, a red-brick villa with a veranda, a tennis lawn behind, and in

front the ordinary seaside flower-garden full of marguerites and

scraggy geraniums. There was a flagstaff from which an enormous Union

Jack hung limply in the still air.

Presently I observed someone leave the house and saunter along the

cliff. When I got my glasses on him I saw it was an old man, wearing

white flannel trousers, a blue serge jacket, and a straw hat. He

carried field-glasses and a newspaper, and sat down on one of the iron

seats and began to read. Sometimes he would lay down the paper and turn

his glasses on the sea. He looked for a long time at the destroyer. I

watched him for half an hour, till he got up and went back to the house

for his luncheon, when I returned to the hotel for mine.

I wasn’t feeling very confident. This decent common-place dwelling was

not what I had expected. The man might be the bald archaeologist of

that horrible moorland farm, or he might not. He was exactly the kind

of satisfied old bird you will find in every suburb and every holiday

place. If you wanted a type of the perfectly harmless person you would

probably pitch on that.

But after lunch, as I sat in the hotel porch, I perked up, for I saw

the thing I had hoped for and had dreaded to miss. A yacht came up from

the south and dropped anchor pretty well opposite the Ruff. She seemed

about a hundred and fifty tons, and I saw she belonged to the Squadron

from the white ensign. So Scaife and I went down to the harbour and

hired a boatman for an afternoon’s fishing.

I spent a warm and peaceful afternoon. We caught between us about

twenty pounds of cod and lythe, and out in that dancing blue sea I took

a cheerier view of things. Above the white cliffs of the Ruff I saw the

green and red of the villas, and especially the great flagstaff of

Trafalgar Lodge. About four o’clock, when we had fished enough, I made

the boatman row us round the yacht, which lay like a delicate white

bird, ready at a moment to flee. Scaife said she must be a fast boat

for her build, and that she was pretty heavily engined.

Her name was the _Ariadne_, as I discovered from the cap of one of the

men who was polishing brasswork. I spoke to him, and got an answer in

the soft dialect of Essex. Another hand that came along passed me the

time of day in an unmistakable English tongue. Our boatman had an

argument with one of them about the weather, and for a few minutes we

lay on our oars close to the starboard bow.

Then the men suddenly disregarded us and bent their heads to their work

as an officer came along the deck. He was a pleasant, clean-looking

young fellow, and he put a question to us about our fishing in very

good English. But there could be no doubt about him. His close-cropped

head and the cut of his collar and tie never came out of England.

That did something to reassure me, but as we rowed back to Bradgate my

obstinate doubts would not be dismissed. The thing that worried me was

the reflection that my enemies knew that I had got my knowledge from

Scudder, and it was Scudder who had given me the clue to this place. If

they knew that Scudder had this clue, would they not be certain to

change their plans? Too much depended on their success for them to take

any risks. The whole question was how much they understood about

Scudder’s knowledge. I had talked confidently last night about Germans

always sticking to a scheme, but if they had any suspicions that I was

on their track they would be fools not to cover it. I wondered if the

man last night had seen that I recognized him. Somehow I did not think

he had, and to that I had clung. But the whole business had never

seemed so difficult as that afternoon when by all calculations I should

have been rejoicing in assured success.

In the hotel I met the commander of the destroyer, to whom Scaife

introduced me, and with whom I had a few words. Then I thought I would

put in an hour or two watching Trafalgar Lodge.

I found a place farther up the hill, in the garden of an empty house.

From there I had a full view of the court, on which two figures were

having a game of tennis. One was the old man, whom I had already seen;

the other was a younger fellow, wearing some club colours in the scarf

round his middle. They played with tremendous zest, like two city gents

who wanted hard exercise to open their pores. You couldn’t conceive a

more innocent spectacle. They shouted and laughed and stopped for

drinks, when a maid brought out two tankards on a salver. I rubbed my

eyes and asked myself if I was not the most immortal fool on earth.

Mystery and darkness had hung about the men who hunted me over the

Scotch moor in aeroplane and motor-car, and notably about that infernal

antiquarian. It was easy enough to connect those folk with the knife

that pinned Scudder to the floor, and with fell designs on the world’s

peace. But here were two guileless citizens taking their innocuous

exercise, and soon about to go indoors to a humdrum dinner, where they

would talk of market prices and the last cricket scores and the gossip

of their native Surbiton. I had been making a net to catch vultures and

falcons, and lo and behold! two plump thrushes had blundered into it.

Presently a third figure arrived, a young man on a bicycle, with a bag

of golf-clubs slung on his back. He strolled round to the tennis lawn

and was welcomed riotously by the players. Evidently they were chaffing

him, and their chaff sounded horribly English. Then the plump man,

mopping his brow with a silk handkerchief, announced that he must have

a tub. I heard his very words—“I’ve got into a proper lather,” he said.

“This will bring down my weight and my handicap, Bob. I’ll take you on

tomorrow and give you a stroke a hole.” You couldn’t find anything much

more English than that.

They all went into the house, and left me feeling a precious idiot. I

had been barking up the wrong tree this time. These men might be

acting; but if they were, where was their audience? They didn’t know I

was sitting thirty yards off in a rhododendron. It was simply

impossible to believe that these three hearty fellows were anything but

what they seemed—three ordinary, game-playing, suburban Englishmen,

wearisome, if you like, but sordidly innocent.

And yet there were three of them; and one was old, and one was plump,

and one was lean and dark; and their house chimed in with Scudder’s

notes; and half a mile off was lying a steam yacht with at least one

German officer. I thought of Karolides lying dead and all Europe

trembling on the edge of earthquake, and the men I had left behind me

in London who were waiting anxiously for the events of the next hours.

There was no doubt that hell was afoot somewhere. The Black Stone had

won, and if it survived this June night would bank its winnings.

There seemed only one thing to do—go forward as if I had no doubts, and

if I was going to make a fool of myself to do it handsomely. Never in

my life have I faced a job with greater disinclination. I would rather

in my then mind have walked into a den of anarchists, each with his

Browning handy, or faced a charging lion with a popgun, than enter that

happy home of three cheerful Englishmen and tell them that their game

was up. How they would laugh at me!

But suddenly I remembered a thing I once heard in Rhodesia from old

Peter Pienaar. I have quoted Peter already in this narrative. He was

the best scout I ever knew, and before he had turned respectable he had

been pretty often on the windy side of the law, when he had been wanted

badly by the authorities. Peter once discussed with me the question of

disguises, and he had a theory which struck me at the time. He said,

barring absolute certainties like fingerprints, mere physical traits

were very little use for identification if the fugitive really knew his

business. He laughed at things like dyed hair and false beards and such

childish follies. The only thing that mattered was what Peter called

“atmosphere”.

If a man could get into perfectly different surroundings from those in

which he had been first observed, and—this is the important part—really

play up to these surroundings and behave as if he had never been out of

them, he would puzzle the cleverest detectives on earth. And he used to

tell a story of how he once borrowed a black coat and went to church

and shared the same hymn-book with the man that was looking for him. If

that man had seen him in decent company before he would have recognized

him; but he had only seen him snuffing the lights in a public-house

with a revolver.

The recollection of Peter’s talk gave me the first real comfort that I

had had that day. Peter had been a wise old bird, and these fellows I

was after were about the pick of the aviary. What if they were playing

Peter’s game? A fool tries to look different: a clever man looks the

same and is different.

Again, there was that other maxim of Peter’s which had helped me when I

had been a roadman. “If you are playing a part, you will never keep it

up unless you convince yourself that you are _it_.” That would explain

the game of tennis. Those chaps didn’t need to act, they just turned a

handle and passed into another life, which came as naturally to them as

the first. It sounds a platitude, but Peter used to say that it was the

big secret of all the famous criminals.

It was now getting on for eight o’clock, and I went back and saw Scaife

to give him his instructions. I arranged with him how to place his men,

and then I went for a walk, for I didn’t feel up to any dinner. I went

round the deserted golf-course, and then to a point on the cliffs

farther north beyond the line of the villas.

On the little trim newly-made roads I met people in flannels coming

back from tennis and the beach, and a coastguard from the wireless

station, and donkeys and pierrots padding homewards. Out at sea in the

blue dusk I saw lights appear on the _Ariadne_ and on the destroyer

away to the south, and beyond the Cock sands the bigger lights of

steamers making for the Thames. The whole scene was so peaceful and

ordinary that I got more dashed in spirits every second. It took all my

resolution to stroll towards Trafalgar Lodge about half-past nine.

On the way I got a piece of solid comfort from the sight of a greyhound

that was swinging along at a nursemaid’s heels. He reminded me of a dog

I used to have in Rhodesia, and of the time when I took him hunting

with me in the Pali hills. We were after rhebok, the dun kind, and I

recollected how we had followed one beast, and both he and I had clean

lost it. A greyhound works by sight, and my eyes are good enough, but

that buck simply leaked out of the landscape. Afterwards I found out

how it managed it. Against the grey rock of the kopjes it showed no

more than a crow against a thundercloud. It didn’t need to run away;

all it had to do was to stand still and melt into the background.

Suddenly as these memories chased across my brain I thought of my

present case and applied the moral. The Black Stone didn’t need to

bolt. They were quietly absorbed into the landscape. I was on the right

track, and I jammed that down in my mind and vowed never to forget it.

The last word was with Peter Pienaar.

Scaife’s men would be posted now, but there was no sign of a soul. The

house stood as open as a market-place for anybody to observe. A

three-foot railing separated it from the cliff road; the windows on the

ground-floor were all open, and shaded lights and the low sound of

voices revealed where the occupants were finishing dinner. Everything

was as public and above-board as a charity bazaar. Feeling the greatest

fool on earth, I opened the gate and rang the bell.

A man of my sort, who has travelled about the world in rough places,

gets on perfectly well with two classes, what you may call the upper

and the lower. He understands them and they understand him. I was at

home with herds and tramps and roadmen, and I was sufficiently at my

ease with people like Sir Walter and the men I had met the night

before. I can’t explain why, but it is a fact. But what fellows like me

don’t understand is the great comfortable, satisfied middle-class

world, the folk that live in villas and suburbs. He doesn’t know how

they look at things, he doesn’t understand their conventions, and he is

as shy of them as of a black mamba. When a trim parlour-maid opened the

door, I could hardly find my voice.

I asked for Mr Appleton, and was ushered in. My plan had been to walk

straight into the dining-room, and by a sudden appearance wake in the

men that start of recognition which would confirm my theory. But when I

found myself in that neat hall the place mastered me. There were the

golf-clubs and tennis-rackets, the straw hats and caps, the rows of

gloves, the sheaf of walking-sticks, which you will find in ten

thousand British homes. A stack of neatly folded coats and waterproofs

covered the top of an old oak chest; there was a grandfather clock

ticking; and some polished brass warming-pans on the walls, and a

barometer, and a print of Chiltern winning the St Leger. The place was

as orthodox as an Anglican church. When the maid asked me for my name I

gave it automatically, and was shown into the smoking-room, on the

right side of the hall.

That room was even worse. I hadn’t time to examine it, but I could see

some framed group photographs above the mantelpiece, and I could have

sworn they were English public school or college. I had only one

glance, for I managed to pull myself together and go after the maid.

But I was too late. She had already entered the dining-room and given

my name to her master, and I had missed the chance of seeing how the

three took it.

When I walked into the room the old man at the head of the table had

risen and turned round to meet me. He was in evening dress—a short coat

and black tie, as was the other, whom I called in my own mind the plump

one. The third, the dark fellow, wore a blue serge suit and a soft

white collar, and the colours of some club or school.

The old man’s manner was perfect. “Mr Hannay?” he said hesitatingly.

“Did you wish to see me? One moment, you fellows, and I’ll rejoin you.

We had better go to the smoking-room.”

Though I hadn’t an ounce of confidence in me, I forced myself to play

the game. I pulled up a chair and sat down on it.

“I think we have met before,” I said, “and I guess you know my

business.”

The light in the room was dim, but so far as I could see their faces,

they played the part of mystification very well.

“Maybe, maybe,” said the old man. “I haven’t a very good memory, but

I’m afraid you must tell me your errand, sir, for I really don’t know

it.”

“Well, then,” I said, and all the time I seemed to myself to be talking

pure foolishness—“I have come to tell you that the game’s up. I have a

warrant for the arrest of you three gentlemen.”

“Arrest,” said the old man, and he looked really shocked. “Arrest! Good

God, what for?”

“For the murder of Franklin Scudder in London on the 23rd day of last

month.”

“I never heard the name before,” said the old man in a dazed voice.

One of the others spoke up. “That was the Portland Place murder. I read

about it. Good heavens, you must be mad, sir! Where do you come from?”

“Scotland Yard,” I said.

After that for a minute there was utter silence. The old man was

staring at his plate and fumbling with a nut, the very model of

innocent bewilderment.

Then the plump one spoke up. He stammered a little, like a man picking

his words.

“Don’t get flustered, uncle,” he said. “It is all a ridiculous mistake;

but these things happen sometimes, and we can easily set it right. It

won’t be hard to prove our innocence. I can show that I was out of the

country on the 23rd of May, and Bob was in a nursing home. You were in

London, but you can explain what you were doing.”

“Right, Percy! Of course that’s easy enough. The 23rd! That was the day

after Agatha’s wedding. Let me see. What was I doing? I came up in the

morning from Woking, and lunched at the club with Charlie Symons.

Then—oh yes, I dined with the Fishmongers. I remember, for the punch

didn’t agree with me, and I was seedy next morning. Hang it all,

there’s the cigar-box I brought back from the dinner.” He pointed to an

object on the table, and laughed nervously.

“I think, sir,” said the young man, addressing me respectfully, “you

will see you are mistaken. We want to assist the law like all

Englishmen, and we don’t want Scotland Yard to be making fools of

themselves. That’s so, uncle?”

“Certainly, Bob.” The old fellow seemed to be recovering his voice.

“Certainly, we’ll do anything in our power to assist the authorities.

But—but this is a bit too much. I can’t get over it.”

“How Nellie will chuckle,” said the plump man. “She always said that

you would die of boredom because nothing ever happened to you. And now

you’ve got it thick and strong,” and he began to laugh very pleasantly.

“By Jove, yes. Just think of it! What a story to tell at the club.

Really, Mr Hannay, I suppose I should be angry, to show my innocence,

but it’s too funny! I almost forgive you the fright you gave me! You

looked so glum, I thought I might have been walking in my sleep and

killing people.”

It couldn’t be acting, it was too confoundedly genuine. My heart went

into my boots, and my first impulse was to apologize and clear out. But

I told myself I must see it through, even though I was to be the

laughing-stock of Britain. The light from the dinner-table candlesticks

was not very good, and to cover my confusion I got up, walked to the

door and switched on the electric light. The sudden glare made them

blink, and I stood scanning the three faces.

Well, I made nothing of it. One was old and bald, one was stout, one

was dark and thin. There was nothing in their appearance to prevent

them being the three who had hunted me in Scotland, but there was

nothing to identify them. I simply can’t explain why I who, as a

roadman, had looked into two pairs of eyes, and as Ned Ainslie into

another pair, why I, who have a good memory and reasonable powers of

observation, could find no satisfaction. They seemed exactly what they

professed to be, and I could not have sworn to one of them.

There in that pleasant dining-room, with etchings on the walls, and a

picture of an old lady in a bib above the mantelpiece, I could see

nothing to connect them with the moorland desperadoes. There was a

silver cigarette-box beside me, and I saw that it had been won by

Percival Appleton, Esq., of the St Bede’s Club, in a golf tournament. I

had to keep a firm hold of Peter Pienaar to prevent myself bolting out

of that house.

“Well,” said the old man politely, “are you reassured by your scrutiny,

sir?”

I couldn’t find a word.

“I hope you’ll find it consistent with your duty to drop this

ridiculous business. I make no complaint, but you’ll see how annoying

it must be to respectable people.”

I shook my head.

“O Lord,” said the young man. “This is a bit too thick!”

“Do you propose to march us off to the police station?” asked the plump

one. “That might be the best way out of it, but I suppose you won’t be

content with the local branch. I have the right to ask to see your

warrant, but I don’t wish to cast any aspersions upon you. You are only

doing your duty. But you’ll admit it’s horribly awkward. What do you

propose to do?”

There was nothing to do except to call in my men and have them

arrested, or to confess my blunder and clear out. I felt mesmerized by

the whole place, by the air of obvious innocence—not innocence merely,

but frank honest bewilderment and concern in the three faces.

“Oh, Peter Pienaar,” I groaned inwardly, and for a moment I was very

near damning myself for a fool and asking their pardon.

“Meantime I vote we have a game of bridge,” said the plump one. “It

will give Mr Hannay time to think over things, and you know we have

been wanting a fourth player. Do you play, sir?”

I accepted as if it had been an ordinary invitation at the club. The

whole business had mesmerized me. We went into the smoking-room where a

card-table was set out, and I was offered things to smoke and drink. I

took my place at the table in a kind of dream. The window was open and

the moon was flooding the cliffs and sea with a great tide of yellow

light. There was moonshine, too, in my head. The three had recovered

their composure, and were talking easily—just the kind of slangy talk

you will hear in any golf club-house. I must have cut a rum figure,

sitting there knitting my brows with my eyes wandering.

My partner was the young dark one. I play a fair hand at bridge, but I

must have been rank bad that night. They saw that they had got me

puzzled, and that put them more than ever at their ease. I kept looking

at their faces, but they conveyed nothing to me. It was not that they

looked different; they _were_ different. I clung desperately to the

words of Peter Pienaar.

Then something awoke me.

The old man laid down his hand to light a cigar. He didn’t pick it up

at once, but sat back for a moment in his chair, with his fingers

tapping on his knees.

It was the movement I remembered when I had stood before him in the

moorland farm, with the pistols of his servants behind me.

A little thing, lasting only a second, and the odds were a thousand to

one that I might have had my eyes on my cards at the time and missed

it. But I didn’t, and, in a flash, the air seemed to clear. Some shadow

lifted from my brain, and I was looking at the three men with full and

absolute recognition.

The clock on the mantelpiece struck ten o’clock.

The three faces seemed to change before my eyes and reveal their

secrets. The young one was the murderer. Now I saw cruelty and

ruthlessness, where before I had only seen good-humour. His knife, I

made certain, had skewered Scudder to the floor. His kind had put the

bullet in Karolides.

The plump man’s features seemed to dislimn, and form again, as I looked

at them. He hadn’t a face, only a hundred masks that he could assume

when he pleased. That chap must have been a superb actor. Perhaps he

had been Lord Alloa of the night before; perhaps not; it didn’t matter.

I wondered if he was the fellow who had first tracked Scudder, and left

his card on him. Scudder had said he lisped, and I could imagine how

the adoption of a lisp might add terror.

But the old man was the pick of the lot. He was sheer brain, icy, cool,

calculating, as ruthless as a steam hammer. Now that my eyes were

opened I wondered where I had seen the benevolence. His jaw was like

chilled steel, and his eyes had the inhuman luminosity of a bird’s. I

went on playing, and every second a greater hate welled up in my heart.

It almost choked me, and I couldn’t answer when my partner spoke. Only

a little longer could I endure their company.

“Whew! Bob! Look at the time,” said the old man. “You’d better think

about catching your train. Bob’s got to go to town tonight,” he added,

turning to me. The voice rang now as false as hell. I looked at the

clock, and it was nearly half-past ten.

“I am afraid he must put off his journey,” I said.

“Oh, damn,” said the young man. “I thought you had dropped that rot.

I’ve simply got to go. You can have my address, and I’ll give any

security you like.”

“No,” I said, “you must stay.”

At that I think they must have realized that the game was desperate.

Their only chance had been to convince me that I was playing the fool,

and that had failed. But the old man spoke again.

“I’ll go bail for my nephew. That ought to content you, Mr Hannay.” Was

it fancy, or did I detect some halt in the smoothness of that voice?

There must have been, for as I glanced at him, his eyelids fell in that

hawk-like hood which fear had stamped on my memory.

I blew my whistle.

In an instant the lights were out. A pair of strong arms gripped me

round the waist, covering the pockets in which a man might be expected

to carry a pistol.

“_Schnell, Franz,_’ cried a voice, “_das Boot, das Boot!_” As it spoke

I saw two of my fellows emerge on the moonlit lawn.

The young dark man leapt for the window, was through it, and over the

low fence before a hand could touch him. I grappled the old chap, and

the room seemed to fill with figures. I saw the plump one collared, but

my eyes were all for the out-of-doors, where Franz sped on over the

road towards the railed entrance to the beach stairs. One man followed

him, but he had no chance. The gate of the stairs locked behind the

fugitive, and I stood staring, with my hands on the old boy’s throat,

for such a time as a man might take to descend those steps to the sea.

Suddenly my prisoner broke from me and flung himself on the wall. There

was a click as if a lever had been pulled. Then came a low rumbling

far, far below the ground, and through the window I saw a cloud of

chalky dust pouring out of the shaft of the stairway.

Someone switched on the light.

The old man was looking at me with blazing eyes.

“He is safe,” he cried. “You cannot follow in time.... He is gone....

He has triumphed.... _Der Schwarze Stein ist in der Siegeskrone._”

There was more in those eyes than any common triumph. They had been

hooded like a bird of prey, and now they flamed with a hawk’s pride. A

white fanatic heat burned in them, and I realized for the first time

the terrible thing I had been up against. This man was more than a spy;

in his foul way he had been a patriot.

As the handcuffs clinked on his wrists I said my last word to him.

“I hope Franz will bear his triumph well. I ought to tell you that the

_Ariadne_ for the last hour has been in our hands.”

Seven weeks later, as all the world knows, we went to war. I joined the

New Army the first week, and owing to my Matabele experience got a

captain’s commission straight off. But I had done my best service, I

think, before I put on khaki.