However, with the utmost suavity Haviland declined anything less than seventy-five per cent. In vain Tasker argued. Seventy-five per cent, the others thought, was a liberal offer. It was not for them to dictate Joymount policy, but they sincerely trusted their new friends would see their way to come to terms.
In the end Tasker agreed. It was obvious that with the views of all concerned there was nothing else that he could do. When Tasker gave way, he gave way with a good grace. King looked disappointed and sulky, but Brand was delighted.
‘I’m sorry,’ Tasker said when the great decision had been made, ‘that I didn’t get these notes typed in duplicate. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. Let’s initial these sheets, then I’ll prepare two copies on decent paper, initial them both, and send them over to you with these notes. You can check them over with the original, initial them, and return one copy. Then we can get our lawyers to work on the final document.’
From Haviland’s manner, Brand thought he would have preferred making the copy then and there, but he apparently decided that, having stood out for so much, he would give way on non-essentials.
‘There’s just one point unsettled,’ Haviland added. ‘Rumours about this affair are bound to leak out. Our visits to one another are known and will be talked of. Now you know as well as I, that to make a mystery of anything is to ask for publicity. I suggest therefore that we say at once that we are considering a working agreement between the two firms with the object of reducing our costs. By that we’ll kill rumour and suspicion. Of course we mustn’t mention the royalty or anything that would suggest the process.’
This seemed an excellent idea to Brand, but before Tasker could reply, Haviland went on.
‘It happens that the first five clauses are contained on the first page of our draft agreement. Let so much be generally public. The sixth and seventh clauses on your second sheet to be secret. In fact I would go so far as to suggest that we have two agreements. One drawn up by our lawyers—your Sheet No. 1. The second, a secret agreement drawn up by ourselves. How does that appeal to you?’
With this all were fully agreed, and both sheets were initialled by Tasker and Haviland for their respective companies.
‘Now,’ Tasker continued, ‘that business for the evening is over, let us turn to something more agreeable. Let us drink to our future success. In the hope that we might come to terms I brought over a bottle or two of celebration vintage from my house. Open it, like a good fellow, Brand.’
Brand opened the champagne and they drank to their new association. For half an hour or more they chatted in the most amicable manner, and then Haviland said they must be going.
‘We’ll see you to your launch,’ said Tasker, determined to maintain to the bitter end the high level upon which the affair had been conducted. The six men accordingly made their way down from the office, through the works yard, and out on to the wharf.
The loading of the coaster was still in progress, and though it was nearly full moon, the wharf was brightly lighted by lamps. Decauville trucks full of cement were running from the yard, and the bags were being lifted by the vessel’s winches and swung aboard. It was a fine night, but cold. The tide was nearly full and a strong south-westerly breeze was blowing, which had put up a choppy sea. The tiny waves were jabbling among the piles beneath the wharf and the launch, moored to the steps, was fretting uneasily at her painter. Brand knew that out in Southampton Water, and particularly where the Solent opened out beyond Calshot, there would be quite a sea from the long fetch.
‘You’ll have it a bit dirty going home,’ he said to Samson, with whom he was walking.
‘Do no harm,’ Samson returned. ‘She’s as dry as a bone in a head sea. She’s mine, you know, so I couldn’t listen to anything against her. I engined her and I’m very proud of her.’
Brand said he ought to be, and with unctuous farewells the Chayle party set off.
The three Joymount men stood for a moment in silence, watching the launch as it passed under the stern of the coaster and headed out for Southampton Water. Brand was sure that they had done the right thing. Under the circumstances it was the nearest approach to security they could have achieved. All the same it was with a sigh that he saw the launch disappear.
‘Well,’ said Tasker shortly as they turned away, ‘that’s that.’
It seemed to sum up everything that was to be said on the subject. Neither of the others replied.
Though the situation admittedly left a good deal to be desired, Brand felt happier that night than he had since the first visit of Haviland and Mairs. The weight of anxiety which he had been carrying had largely lifted and the future seemed rosier. With luck, he thought, the worst of their troubles were over. He began to look forward to a period of moderate prosperity and freedom from the fears which for a time had pressed so heavily on his mind.
It happens, however, that such a state of complacency is not infrequently the prelude to disaster. Unhappily it was so on this occasion.
Next morning a dreadful blow fell. It seemed bad enough when Brand heard of it, and yet its full horror did not dawn on him at first. It was only when he thought over it and discussed it with the other two that he realised what it might involve.
He had gone to the works that morning at his usual time, and as usual had begun the day by going through his letters. It happened that one letter referred to a certain matter of special urgency, which at the time was engaging the attention of himself and Tasker. Desiring to consult Tasker upon it, Brand immediately left his office and made his way to Tasker’s. Tasker was also engaged with his mail, but he looked up as Brand entered.
‘It’s that Hudson case,’ said Brand, sitting in the visitors’ armchair. ‘Here’s a letter from Hudson himself.’
Tasker stretched out his hand for the paper, but he had not more than taken it when his telephone rang. He picked up the receiver.
‘Yes, yes,’ he said impatiently; ‘speaking.’ There was a pause and as Brand watched he saw the other’s expression change. Impatience rapidly became surprise, then incredulity, and finally horror.
‘My heavens!’ Tasker said in an awestruck voice. ‘That’s terrible news, Superintendent. I can scarcely believe it. Both dead, you say?’
Brand was again on his feet. ‘What is it, Tasker?’ he exclaimed urgently.
Tasker shook his head to demand silence, then as if he couldn’t keep the information to himself, he said in that same horror-stricken voice: ‘Haviland and Mairs are drowned!’
Brand stared helplessly at Tasker.
Haviland and Mairs! Drowned! Impossible! Brand pictured them as he had seen them on the previous evening: full of life and health and energy: planning for the future as if they had unlimited years before them. And now … Dead!
They must have capsized on the way home. And Samson had been so cocksure of his launch! Brand recalled his remark to him about the weather. And Samson had boasted of how dry the boat was in a sea! Well, it looked as if he had been wrong.
But Tasker was speaking again. ‘Yes,’ he went on into the instrument, ‘that’s correct. They were here, all three of them, till about half past ten. They left then to return to Chayle in their launch … Oh yes, everything was perfectly normal so far as I could see … Yes, we saw them start … Absolutely sober, and as I say, perfectly normal in every way.’ There was a longer pause and then: ‘Certainly, Superintendent, we shall all be here. If you send a man, he can see us at any time.’
Tasker slowly replaced the receiver and stared at Brand with horrified eyes. He did not speak, and Brand questioned him eagerly.
‘What is it, Tasker? Tell me. Did they capsize on their way back?’
Tasker shook his head. He seemed not only filled with horror, but also wholly mystified. For a moment more he remained silent, and then at last he spoke.
‘No,’ he said slowly, ‘they didn’t capsize. The launch was blown up!’
Brand stared in speechless amazement.
‘Just off Co
wes,’ went on Tasker, ‘on their way home. Samson was picked up uninjured. The others went down with the launch.’
Brand swore in a shaky voice. ‘Went down with the launch!’ He stood staring at Tasker, then went on. ‘You say blown up? Blown up? How under heaven could the launch have been blown up?’
‘That’s what the Superintendent wants to know. Apparently Samson can’t explain it.’
‘The petrol’s got spilled somehow,’ Brand went on. ‘She was a petrol launch. Samson engined her himself.’
Tasker nodded without speaking.
‘It was very choppy last night,’ went on Brand. ‘They would have caught it badly when they were past Calshot. Something has got adrift and broken the feed pipe.’
‘It looks like it. A ghastly business!’ Tasker shivered.
‘I must tell King,’ Brand said and hurried to the laboratory.
King was quite overwhelmed by the news. He seemed as much horrified as Tasker and a great deal more mystified.
‘You say the launch sank?’ he repeated. ‘But why should she sink? The petrol would burn it, but it wouldn’t sink it.’ He paused, then added: ‘But I suppose it would eventually. It would burn away the sides till the water came in.’
‘If a fire broke out they wouldn’t be able to steer, and she’d get broadside on and quickly fill—if she didn’t go over altogether.’
‘That’s so,’ King admitted. ‘Yes, it must have been that, I imagine. Does Tasker know?’
‘It was he told me. The police rang up to enquire. Come and see him.’
For some time the three men discussed possible causes, without however advancing any more likely theory than that put up by Brand. Then they spoke of the dead partners. But the special circumstances made it inevitable that they should soon turn to the effect the tragedy might have upon themselves.
‘I don’t see,’ said King, ‘that it’ll make any difference to us. The agreement we initialled last night will be carried out by and with Samson. If all three had perished things would have been different. But as it is I take it the agreement stands.’
Tasker shook his head. ‘It’s not so simple as that, I’m afraid. This will bring up the entire question of our negotiations. The police will want to know what those three were doing here, and we must settle what we’re going to say.’
The others saw the urgency of this. Brand, whose fears were at once aroused by the probability of a police investigation on unpleasantly intimate matters, was for telling the complete truth. But Tasker vetoed this at once.
‘We can’t under any circumstances admit to the royalty,’ he said decidedly. ‘How can you suggest such a thing, Brand? Just think what it would mean. We tell the police we have agreed to pay a royalty. They at once ask why? Then we have to tell of the process. They say to themselves, “Oh, so these people at Joymount have the Chayle process. They’re the people we’ve been looking for since the Clay affair took place.” They begin to investigate—and we’re done. Why, they have only to bring an expert through both works to see that the processes are identical. And remember, you two. After the verdict at that inquest the question of an accident to Clay couldn’t arise. So it works round to this, that if we give away about the royalty your necks are in danger.’
‘What about your own, Tasker?’ asked King. ‘What about accessory after the fact, which you made so much of to Haviland?’
‘As I’ve told you before, I know nothing of the fate of Clay. I’ve got your written statement that you discovered the process yourself, and I know of my own knowledge that you were experimenting on it for six weeks. If I were asked to explain why I agreed to pay the royalty I would say that I thought Chayle was entitled to it, as we had used their work. It was from their stuff that we got the new ingredients required. All we did was to discover a way of incorporating them.’
In spite of his dismay at all this, Brand could not withhold his admiration at Tasker’s adroitness.
‘But,’ went on Tasker before he could speak, ‘if the existence of the process became known, I’d probably lose my profits and certainly have a hell of a time of worry. I’m therefore as anxious as you to keep it dark. Now do you both agree that we must keep the royalty secret?’
There was nothing else for it, Brand saw only too well. And King speedily expressed the same opinion.
‘I suggest then,’ Tasker went on, ‘that we do what Haviland himself suggested: admit to the first sheet of our draft agreement, but not to the second. Our object in making the agreement was, as he said, to reduce our costs, and if we’re asked how the agreement could accomplish this, we might say that we hoped, besides speeding up deliveries and so on, that our stores could be ordered jointly, thus getting reductions for quantity. You get the idea?’
The others nodded.
‘Of course,’ Tasker went on, ‘the situation is complicated for us by the fact that we don’t know what Samson will say. But as it’s equally in his interest to keep the process a secret, he’ll probably say the same.’
‘What about ringing him up?’ Brand suggested.
‘Of course,’ King approved. ‘That’s the thing to do.’
Tasker was not enthusiastic. ‘I thought of that,’ he said doubtfully, ‘but I wasn’t sure of its wisdom. In any case he’s probably made his statement to the police by now.’
‘What if he has?’ King objected. ‘Wouldn’t it be better to know, if only that we may tell the same story.’
Tasker nodded. ‘Yes, there’s that in it,’ he admitted and picked up his telephone.
‘Oh,’ he went on into the instrument, ‘he’s just come in, has he? I wonder if he would be too busy to speak to me? Mr Tasker of the Joymount Works.’ There was a pause and then: ‘Oh, Samson, I’m glad to hear you’re able to be at business. We’ve just heard the news and I rang up at once. I just can’t say how horrified and distressed we all are. It seems perfectly incredible. Can you tell any particulars?’
Again there was a pause and again Tasker went on. ‘It sounds entirely beyond belief. You’ve no theory then? … Amazing! … Well, look here, Samson, I don’t want to introduce business at such a time, but I presume we may follow poor Haviland’s advice and make our five-clause agreement public? … Yes, I think so too. Well, you must be busy; I’ll not keep you. But do, Samson, accept our heartiest congratulations on your own escape, and our condolences for those two poor fellows.’
Tasker replaced the receiver. ‘He says the five-clause agreement was what he mentioned to the police, so that’s all right. But the whole affair seems quite beyond comprehension. He says it was a regular explosion and that he can’t account for it at all.’
King shrugged. ‘It doesn’t seem so extraordinary to me. If the petrol got adrift, as we’ve supposed, it would get spread all over the bottom of the boat by the rolling. Then if it got alight it would all go off together.’
‘Samson sounds very much upset. I don’t expect he’s been able to think very clearly as yet.’
‘No wonder!’ Brand exclaimed. ‘I don’t know how he can face the office.’
Brand himself was also a good deal upset. Apart from the horror of the tragedy it meant a police enquiry at Joymount—about Chayle—and the very idea of such a thing gave him cold shivers.
‘I can’t see why you should have hesitated to phone,’ King said to Tasker. ‘Why did you think it mightn’t be wise?’
Tasker moved uneasily. He looked very grave. ‘Well,’ he said at length, ‘it amazes me that neither of you chaps should see what was in my mind. Directly I understood there was some mystery about the affair, I thought of something. Has it not occurred to either of you that if the thing can’t be explained, the police may suspect’—instinctively he lowered his voice—‘foul play?’
Brand started. Such an idea hadn’t entered his mind. King, too, seemed taken aback.
‘Oh, get away, Tasker,’ King retorted. ‘You’re not serious? Who could have done such a thing?’
‘That’s just it,’ Tasker answe
red grimly. ‘We could.’
‘Nonsense! How could we?’
‘I don’t mean that we really could, of course. I mean, the police might think so.’
Brand was appalled. Such a suspicion would lead to the most searching investigation. If it did, they could scarcely hope to keep the royalty a secret. And if the royalty became known to the police, they had already agreed that he and King were as good as hanged! Oh, no, it was not possible! He couldn’t admit such a thing for a moment.
Neither, apparently, could King, who seemed equally moved. ‘But, look here, Tasker,’ he was saying; ‘you’re talking nonsense. Suppose it was foul play, which as I see it, there’s not the slightest reason to imagine. But suppose it was. We couldn’t be guilty. I presume you’ll admit that if it was malicious, someone must have put the explosives on board? Well, none of us were near the blessed launch. We can prove that easily enough.’
‘I know we can prove it,’ Tasker returned, ‘and I know it’ll establish our innocence. It’s not a charge of murder that I’m afraid of. It’s the mere possibility of a serious police investigation—here. I don’t see how that could be made without the whole business of the process coming out.’
King did not agree. Even supposing such a ridiculous idea were entertained, proof of its falsity would be available so immediately that further investigation would not be undertaken. He could not understand Tasker’s attitude. It was not like him to be an alarmist.
Mystery on Southampton Water Page 19