‘You think all this is very foolish; yes?’ she asked.
‘By no means,’ he assured her. ‘It certainly strikes me as very wonderful. I have never heard of a more striking case of love at first sight. My wishes, Thalia, are that the affair will progress, and end for you in great happiness.’
‘Oh, thank you,’ she cried. ‘You are so good that it is difficult to express my gratitude to you. Do you remember I told you that an Austrian gentleman had come to live in a flat on the second floor of the house?’ He nodded. ‘Well, my friend Hugh, it is he, and we meet together on the terrace this morning. He will be waiting. Come with me please! I wish so much for you to meet him.’
He murmured something about being very delighted. They rose, and strolled back to the terrace. Hill, carefully dressed, and carrying in his hand a beautiful bouquet of flowers, which he had purchased from one of the saleswomen at the base of the Spanish stairs, was there.
‘Oh! For me?’ cried Thalia, as he swept off his hat, and presented her with the flowers. ‘This is delightful. Herr Kirche, I wish you to meet my very dear friend Captain Shannon. I think you will like each other very much.’
Not a sign of recognition passed between the two men as they shook hands, but both felt as though they were behaving like cads. Shannon remained talking to them for a few minutes; then took his leave.
‘Perhaps you will give me the pleasure of your company at lunch in the Hotel Splendide, Herr Kirche,’ he invited before he went; ‘that is, unless you and Signorina Ictinos are lunching together?’
‘Can you?’ asked Hill, devouring the girl with his eyes.
She shook her head regretfully.
‘It is impossible,’ she returned. ‘My employer will expect me. Perhaps I may be able to arrange another time, but not today.’
‘Then, signor,’ declared Hill to his colleague, clicking his heels together, and giving the typical little bow of the Austrian, ‘I will be delighted to accept your invitation.’
‘I will await you at one o’clock in the lounge,’ Shannon told him, and departed.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Shannon is Trailed—
Hill arrived promptly to time, swinging his stick jauntily, his whole air proclaiming the man who had much about which to be glad. Shannon, from the table he had chosen at one end of the lounge, watched his approach with a smile. He stood up to indicate where he was, as his position had been chosen with an eye to seclusion, and was surrounded by palms. The ex-doctor took some time to find him, but eventually his eyes fell on the mighty figure in the corner. He made his way across the crowded room, and sank into a chair by Shannon’s side.
‘For a man who is not particularly anxious to draw attention to himself,’ commented the latter drily, as he beckoned to a waiter, ‘you are not a success, my dear Tubby. You are bubbling over with bliss to such a degree that everyone is compelled to look at you.’
‘What did you expect me to do,’ grunted Hill; ‘slink in like a whipped dog?’
Shannon ordered cocktails.
‘Not exactly,’ he returned, as the waiter hurried away. ‘Still, perhaps a little less advertisement might have been more becoming. The way you swung that cane about sent shivers down my spine. I expected every moment to hear indignant and outraged cries from someone who had been hit. You missed the red-hot momma over there in the tulle creation by the merest fraction. She’s casting languishing glances this way, as though she is longing to cart you back to Philadelphia with her – I bet that’s where she came from. How do you do it?’
‘Do what?’
‘Draw all these females after you.’
‘Don’t be an idiot, Hugh. No girl ever bothers to look at me. If she does, it’s because she’s wondering whether I’m a schoolboy dressed up, or a walking advertisement for somebody’s complexion cream. It’s sickening. You’re the bloke who causes female hearts to work overtime. Wherever you hulk that out and outsized figure of yours, it’s always followed by eyes popping out of female heads in adoration. And you know it, you old fraud.’
‘God forbid!’ returned Shannon fervently. ‘I imagine, though, from your expression, that you and Thalia understand each other. Have you proposed to her?’
Hill’s eyes and mouth opened wide.
‘Pro-proposed to – to her!’ he stuttered. ‘What in the name of all that’s wonderful do you mean?’
‘Tut! tut!’ murmured Shannon mockingly. ‘Are you as inexperienced as all that? To propose to a girl is to gaze tenderly into her eyes, clasp her hand – if she’ll let you have it – and ask her if she’ll take the risk of marrying you.’
‘Don’t be an ass! I know what to propose means.’
‘Go on! You amaze me,’ murmured the other.
Hill laughed.
‘You can be delightfully idiotic at times,’ he commented. ‘What surprised me so much was the coolness of your question. Have I proposed to her! Dash it all, man. I’d give my soul to dare it, of course, but considering I’ve only known her for less than two days, you can hardly – well, I doubt if I’ll have enough courage to do it after a year, if I meet her every day, and she’s always as perfectly wonderful to me as she was this morning. Oh, Hugh, she’s a glorious girl, and how you blokes could ever have mistaken her for the she-devil you all agreed she was, beats me.’
The cocktails were placed before them. Shannon raised his.
‘That is over and done with. I agree with you, she’s wonderful, and if you don’t bowl in and propose as soon as possible, thus making yourself happy and her as well, all I can say is you’re a darn fool. Here’s to her.’
The toast was drunk solemnly. Then Hill put down his glass firmly.
‘Look here, old chap,’ he demanded, ‘what are you getting at? Why all this talk about proposals? It is true I’d give almost anything for the chance of hearing her say she’ll marry me, but there isn’t a chance. Besides, even if there was, it isn’t usual to propose on such short acquaintance. Why do you keep harping on about my proposing?’
‘Simply because I’m fool enough to have a certain amount of affection for you, and am keen to see you happy. I am also keen now on Thalia obtaining happiness – she can’t have had much, if any, in her life, and she deserves it.’
‘But, if I proposed to her, that wouldn’t give her happiness. Why, she would laugh at me.’
‘I’m darn sure she wouldn’t. If I’m not mistaken, she’d be very, very glad.’
‘You’re fooling.’
‘I’m not. I mean every word of it.’
‘But why should she be glad?’
‘Because, my son, she loves you.’
Hill’s previous surprise was nothing to that which overcame him now. He sat for some moments as though he had congealed, his blue eyes opened to their widest extent, his mouth gaping ludicrously. Once or twice it closed as though he were about to speak, only to expand to the same extent again. At length, with a great effort, he succeeded.
‘Don’t be a rotter, Hugh,’ he muttered huskily.
‘I’m not. I repeat again; she loves you.’
‘What – what makes you say that?’
‘The fact that she told me so. As she put it, she has no mother, brother, or sister to confide in, so she paid me the compliment of making me her confidant. I feel rather as though I am betraying a secret, but she did not tell me to keep it to myself, and I have a sentimental desire to help you all I can.’
Hill gripped his arm convulsively.
‘You – you are sure she meant it.’
‘Absolutely certain. Steady on with that hand. You are gripping one of my pet wounds.’
The ex-doctor muttered an apology; relaxed his hold. He looked like a man dazed. Suddenly he pulled himself together, and he laughed, joyously, happily.
‘Lord!’ he cried. ‘I’m hanged if I can believe it. Hugh, you old ruffian, I could hug you.’
‘Don’t you dare!’ returned Shannon in mock alarm. ‘Keep all your hugs for Thalia.’
‘Hug Thalia!’ repeated Hill, as though in horror.
‘Yes; why not? Dash it all! You speak as though you think she would break. Now perhaps you understand why I say, propose to her. The result ought to be satisfactory to you both. Now, having played the part of a fairy godfather, I suggest we go and eat.’
‘Wait a minute. What is yours? This calls for something special.’
‘It calls for nothing – at present. Take a cinch on yourself, and remove that grin from your face. You look so positively beatific that I shall burst into tears of joy presently.’
It was all Shannon could do to keep his jubilant guest in a reasonable state of mind during the service of luncheon. He succeeded at length by questioning him closely about his manner of reaching the hotel, to ascertain whether he had been followed.
‘I kept a sharp lookout when I left the two of you on the terrace of the Pincio,’ he whispered, ‘and feel sure nobody was watching you there, but it is possible you were picked up. You are in such a state of fatuous imbecility that you probably wouldn’t notice if a whole crowd of people, interested in your movements, was surrounding you.’
‘You must take me for a fool,’ grunted Hill. Reference to the reason for his being in Rome sobered him down. ‘I can assure you that I was very much on the watch. I have been in the service far too long to let my attention wander. You can put your uneasy old mind at rest – nobody picked me up and followed me from the Pincio or anywhere else.’
‘One thing worries me,’ confessed Shannon. ‘It’s about you and Thalia. If Plasiras and the rest notice your association with her, do you think it is likely to rouse their suspicions against either you or her or both of you?’
Hill shook his head confidently.
‘She and I have talked it over,’ he told his colleague. ‘Yesterday she wanted to insist that friendship was impossible between us, first because, being a lady’s companion, she was not her own mistress. When I told her that made no difference to me, she hinted that there were other circumstances which might make it impossible. But she arranged to meet me today. After extracting a promise of secrecy from me, she told me that she was employed by the Greek government to watch the people with whom she is associating. I gave the promise, feeling a bit of a rotter as you can guess – God! How I longed to tell her the truth! Anyhow we discussed the matter from every angle, and eventually agreed that the more openly we associated the less likelihood there was of suspicion against either of us being roused. She has already spoken to her employer of the “nice” young Austrian gentleman she met on the stairs.’ Hill grinned, ‘She proposes now to introduce me to Bikelas and his wife.’
Shannon grunted in a non-committal manner.
‘I suppose it will be safer to be quite open,’ he agreed. ‘It is quite evident, though, that Thalia Ictinos is not an ideal secret agent. She has a lot to learn. The idea of confiding in a man, she has only just met, such intelligence concerning herself strikes me as amusing. She must be very much in love, and consider herself a supreme judge of character, to do that. The sooner you marry her, old chap, and take her away from espionage altogether, the safer for her. Drink your coffee, and come upstairs with me. We have a lot to discuss.’
When they were in the confines of Shannon’s bedroom, Hill regarded his host rather dolefully.
‘I’m afraid I’ve nothing to report at all yet, Hugh,’ he observed. ‘I have an idea there was a conference or something on last night, but, bless you, they stuck a johnny outside the door like a sentinel. I got into conversation with him in good polite Austrian fashion, but he was most unresponsive. There was absolutely no means of listening. I stuck my ear to the wall, but of course heard nothing. I’m wondering if I—’
‘You can stop wondering, and listen to me instead,’ interrupted the other.
He plunged into an account of his expedition up the chimney, and repeated once again the conversation he had heard. Hill became profoundly interested and, of course, appalled; his only comments being exclamations of abhorrence. Shannon then went on to tell him that he had reported to Sir Leonard, and carefully repeated the instructions he had received. At the end, Hill whistled thoughtfully.
‘It’s rather annoying to me,’ he declared enviously, ‘that you were able to accomplish all that, while I was more or less sucking my thumb in exasperation. I heard them whispering together, when they must have been removing the body, but though I glued my ear to the front door I couldn’t make out what it was all about. I also heard the lift go down. The shaft stands a few feet in front of my flat. It seems to me Sir Leonard has set us a bit of a problem. Obviously he wants to make no move against the conspirators, until he is sure that Kyprianos cannot revenge himself by sowing this disease of his broadcast. How can we render his cultures innocuous without his knowing it, and alternatively, if we find a way, how can we manage in such a manner that he is unaware of the fact. Euclid, my dear Hugh, would say it is impossible.’
Shannon, who was sitting on the bed, a favourite spot when he had a visitor, leant forward.
‘If Kyprianos disappeared,’ he observed tensely, ‘none of the others would dare touch anything.’
‘No; perhaps not, but they might take alarm and disperse.’
‘There is a chance that they would not, but I have an alternative. What do you say to kidnapping him for an hour or so, and in that time rendering him incapable of doing anything? A temporary derangement of the mind for instance?’
Hill looked startled; then he slowly shook his head.
‘A man in that condition would possibly be obsessed with the thoughts which had been uppermost in his mind before his reason left him. It is quite likely that Kyprianos would be more dangerous than ever then.’
‘Well, what do you suggest?’
Hill eyed him thoughtfully.
‘You are suggesting that I use my knowledge and whatever skill I possess as a doctor to do something antagonistic to medical principles.’
‘Do you object?’
‘No; I don’t exactly object. As a member of the Secret Service I am all for it; nevertheless, medical ideals persist in me a little.’
‘If they do,’ declared Shannon bluntly, ‘you should be the more eager to use your skill to keep this infernal scoundrel from spreading the disease he has concocted among a host of innocent people. If a raid is made, before anybody could get at him, he could do unthinkable harm. He is probably prepared for an emergency. It is absolutely essential to render him harmless and, at the same time, keep the whole gang from getting the wind up and dispersing before they can be apprehended.’
‘You’re right of course. Let me think it over for an hour or two, and I’ll hit upon something. How do you propose to get hold of him?’
‘That shouldn’t be difficult. If it wasn’t for the fact that he shares his flat with Michalis and Radoloff, we could do a little burglary and hold him up. However, that’s out of the question. He’ll have to be watched, and the opportunity taken when it comes. You’ll have the task of keeping your eye on him. I’ll spend most of my time in the hotel so that I’ll be at hand, if you telephone through. There is bound to come a time when Radoloff and Michalis are out, leaving the way clear. Kyprianos, I should imagine, will spend most of his time in the laboratory he is fitting up.’
‘That will mean that the job will have to be done in the daytime.’
‘We can’t help that. We’ve done jobs in the daytime before. When do you think you will have come to a decision?’
‘I’ll ring you up about six. That do?’
‘Splendidly. We mustn’t rush the affair. It has got to be done properly when we do it.’
‘He deserves to be finished off altogether. It would be poetic justice, were he found to have died of heart failure.’
‘It certainly would, but my squeamish soul would revolt, I fear.’
Shannon was sprawling inelegantly in his armchair, smoking a pipe, and reading a book at six o’clock, when the telephone rang exactly on the stroke. He took up th
e receiver.
‘Herr Kirche speaking,’ announced Hill’s voice with a hint of laughter in it. ‘I have to thank you once more for the enjoyable lunch party, and more especially for the news you gave me. I have been presented to Monsieur and Madame Bikelas who know Vienna well. It was good to discuss the beautiful city together, and we all went into ecstasies. My friend, it was very touching. I have been received as a very nice friend for Thalia to know. We go to the opera together tonight. The others are not going out.’
Shannon chuckled softly. Hill had conveyed one item of information neatly.
‘I am glad things are progressing so well with you, Herr Kirche. Am I to congratulate you yet?’
‘My friend, you must think I am a monster devouring without thought. When a dish of such exquisite daintiness is before one, it is necessary to approach it with reverence and care. In spite of your words, I am very nervous, and fear it may elude me. I am here in the wonderful shop of Messieurs Lalére et Cie, purchasing a little present for the divine Thalia.’
Thus Hill conveyed the information that he was ringing up from Tempest’s office, which again proved his wisdom. Steps may have been taken to listen in to any telephone calls he put through from his flat, and it was essential that the conspirators should not become interested in Shannon.
‘You are a man of sense, Herr Kirche,’ approved the stalwart Secret Service agent. ‘There are no perfumes more delicately fragrant and, therefore, more fitting for Thalia than those of Lalére. Please convey my compliments to the manager, who has often supplied me with various requisites.’
‘I certainly will. It will please you to know that the little matter is all arranged, that we spoke of. I have prepared the gift for our friend with the long name. It will please him very much, I think, for it will enable him to have a rest from his labours. It only remains now to choose the time for the surprise.’
Microbes of Power (Wallace of the Secret Service Series) Page 22