The Kidnapping of Joan
Novar rang up Hudson with his mind in a perfect tumult of emotions. Recent events had convinced him, as well as Rahtz, that Shannon had, by some means or other, discovered that the Principal of Mozang College was in Lahore for other reasons besides the education of the young Indian. But Novar fancied himself secure, had not imagined for one moment that he also was suspected. The arrival of Shannon, Cousins and Miles with their injured prisoners – the men he had sent either to kill or seriously disable Shannon – had, therefore, come as a terrible shock to him. His mind was in a state of chaos, he was almost bereft of the power of thought; he was only aware of a blind fury, intermingled with a dreadful fear, as he waited for Hudson to come to the telephone in reply to his urgent call.
At last he heard the voice of the other.
‘Is that Novar?’ it asked.
‘Yes! Get into your car quickly, and drive to Rahtz’s bungalow! I’ll meet you there.’
‘What has happened?’
‘You’ll know all presently! Hurry!’
He rang off, and calling for his chauffeur had himself driven to Rahtz’s bungalow, without bestowing another glance at the three men on the veranda. He met Mrs Rahtz at the door of her house talking to a woman visitor, who was just going. It needed a gigantic effort to hide the agitation which was consuming him, but he succeeded tolerably well, and raised his hat with a pretence of his usual suave politeness.
‘I am afraid my husband is asleep, Mr Novar,’ said Mrs Rahtz.
‘I wouldn’t think of disturbing him at such an hour,’ said he, ‘but as I was passing I called in to ask how he is.’
As he spoke he looked meaningly at her.
‘Come in for a few minutes!’ she said. And saying ‘goodbye’ to her visitor, she ushered him into the drawing room.
As soon as they were inside he threw off the cloak of urbanity.
‘I must see Rahtz immediately,’ he said. ‘It is a matter of the gravest importance. Hudson will be here in a moment also.’
‘What has happened?’ she asked, her face paling.
‘Never mind that now!’ he replied. almost curtly. ‘Go and wake Rahtz, if he is really asleep!’
She went without another word, and Novar spent the time until her return in walking about the room, with hands behind his back and muttering to himself. Hudson arrived just as Mrs Rahtz was on her way back to the drawing room, and entered the house without ceremony.
‘Is Novar here?’ he asked eagerly.
‘Yes!’ she replied. ‘Mr Hudson, what is the matter?’
‘I haven’t the vaguest notion,’ he said. ‘Where is he?’
She led the way into the room.
‘My husband is waiting for you,’ she said to Novar.
He nodded curtly to Hudson.
‘Come with me!’ he said, and without taking any further notice of Mrs Rahtz walked off to the bedroom followed by the civil service man.
Rahtz was sitting in bed propped up by pillows. He looked years older, and his face was white and haggard; even his moustache seemed to be drooping and lifeless, but there was a gleam in his eyes which showed that his mind was still in its most active state.
‘Find chairs and sit down, both of you!’ he said in a thin voice, and when they were seated: ‘What’s the matter, Novar?’ he asked.
‘We’ve absolutely underrated Shannon and Cousins,’ burst out the other. ‘And Miles, too, is hand in glove with them. Something must be done immediately, or we are ruined!’
Hudson clutched the arms of his chair, and looked at the speaker with eyes of frightened inquiry. Rahtz frowned but made no comment.
‘Tonight,’ went on Novar, ‘I’ve had a visit from all three of them, and they brought back three of the four men I sent to Crescent Road in the hope of killing Shannon!’
A particularly ugly oath burst from between Rahtz’s bloodless lips.
‘Then they know—’ began Hudson hoarsely.
‘They know that I am a Russian emissary as well as Rahtz,’ interrupted Novar. ‘I am wondering what else they know!’
‘Do you think they also know of my connection with you?’ asked the terror-stricken Hudson.
‘Of course they do!’ said Rahtz brutally. ‘What fools we’ve been. I see it all now: they must have suspected us right from the beginning. Perhaps Miles stayed in Bombay to watch us, when we met you and Oppenheimer there, and they’ve watched us ever since. The devil take them – and us, for imagining that they were fools!’
‘If they know about me, what am I to do?’ moaned Hudson, and he was shaking in every limb.
‘Pull yourself together and don’t be such a coward!’ said Novar.
He himself was not in much better condition, Rahtz as usual being the most composed. The latter looked bitterly at the civil servant.
‘It’s worms like you that ruin everything!’ he said. ‘I wish we’d never met you.’
‘How have I ruined everything?’ asked the other, with a glimpse of spirit.
‘Oh, don’t let us quarrel again,’ said Novar. ‘The position is desperate, and we’ve got to face it. Attempts have been made to do away with Shannon, and Cousins, and even Miles – they have all failed! Now what is to be done?’
‘I wonder who Miles really is?’ said Rahtz. ‘It’s through him, I feel sure, that we were first suspected. Oh, idiots that we were to think him a harmless fool!’
He ground his teeth with rage.
‘I can’t understand why they have not put the police on our track!’ said Novar.
‘Because they want to find out what we’re doing,’ replied the sick man.
‘But that doesn’t explain why they have shown their hand now,’ muttered Hudson.
‘I think I can see why they have done that,’ said Rahtz. ‘The attempts that have been made on them lately, though unsuccessful, have worried them, and so they have come out into the open as a sort of warning to us to stop. But, by Heaven!’ he cried, ‘it won’t stop us! Now is the time to make some drastic move that will keep them quiet, or destroy the three of them entirely! What did they say to you tonight, Novar?’
The latter repeated the conversation, and Rahtz’s face was an unpleasant sight.
‘So he told you to talk it over with me, did he?’ he snapped. ‘And how the devil did he know I had cholera?’
Novar shrugged his shoulders hopelessly.
‘How does he know anything?’ he said.
The three men sat thinking for several minutes. Each showed his temperament by the expression on his face. Rahtz’s was brutal in the intensity of his hatred; Novar’s was twitching, half with fear, half with cruelty and cunning; Hudson’s was wholly terror-stricken, the face of an arrant poltroon. Yet he was the first to speak, and he even spoke with a semblance of spirit.
‘It seems to me,’ he said, ‘that we can’t carry on any longer as we have been doing. You two don’t stand to lose much. I, on the other hand, lose my post – everything. I daren’t return to the office again, and neither of you can risk going on with your work openly. For all we know the police may have been informed already!’
Novar nodded.
‘There’s a lot in what you say,’ he said. ‘It certainly would be safer to go into hiding until after the meeting is over, and then we can disappear and lay low in Peshawar or ’Pindi.’
‘Bah!’ said Rahtz. ‘That is all very well. But do you suggest doing this without striking another blow at Shannon?’
‘No, I don’t!’ cried Hudson, and his face was distorted with hatred. ‘I, for one, want to see him suffer hell, and that brute Miles, too!’
‘Why Miles?’ inquired Novar.
‘Don’t you know?’ went on the civil servant, still in the shrill voice of the coward forced to action. ‘He is engaged to Joan, and I want her. I’ll have her if I wreck the schemes of the whole world!’
He rose to his feet and there was madness in his eyes.
‘You’ll sit down and talk sense!’ co
mmanded Rahtz, and he looked meaningly at Novar, who stood up and, taking Hudson by the arm, helped him back into his chair almost gently.
‘No use getting excited, Hudson,’ he said. ‘We’ve got to discuss this matter calmly. I think we had better go into hiding, and at once,’ he went on. ‘Only four days remain until the meeting and it would be worse than rash to risk our liberty, when it is so essential that we should be free to receive our friends. Possibly the slightest hint of anything going wrong may seriously injure our cause, and we must not allow them to become alarmed!’
‘You are right!’ nodded Rahtz. ‘I propose, therefore, that the three of us disappear tonight. All our preparations are made, luckily. And’ – a hateful smile came into his face – ‘I have thought of the very means to make Shannon and Miles suffer to the utmost, and at the same time protect ourselves and give Hudson his heart’s desire.’
‘What is that?’ asked Novar quickly, and Hudson leant forward eagerly.
‘Kidnap the girl! We can then send a note to Shannon telling him that she will be perfectly safe while he and his friends remain inactive, but if he attempts to find us or her’ – he spread his hands out significantly. ‘That I think, will make both him and Miles suffer very acute agony and, at the same time, Hudson can have the girl and do what he likes with her!’
‘A splendid plan, my dear Rahtz,’ said Novar, rubbing his hands together softly, while Hudson sat back in his chair, a gloating, horrible look in his eyes.
‘How do you propose to do it?’ he asked.
‘I don’t propose to do it at all,’ replied Rahtz sharply. ‘As soon as you two have gone I shall get up and go to our little retreat, and I advise you two to follow my excellent example. Bring all papers of any importance with you and be careful to leave nothing incriminating behind. All of us, I believe,’ he looked from one to the other with a smile, ‘have put our money in safe places, so we will lose nothing but our furniture and unnecessary clothing.’
‘Are you well enough to travel, Rahtz?’ asked Novar.
‘Yes; I have been in the garden for a little time today. Besides,’ he smiled again, ‘it is not far to our haven of safety!’
‘But what about the girl?’ demanded Hudson querulously. ‘It is all very well to leave it to us, but—’
‘You will find Kamper in The Retreat. I should advise you to get there as soon as possible and put it in his hands. I know of no one more likely to tackle a matter of that sort successfully. Of course as soon as she has disappeared Shannon and his friends will come clamouring to our houses, but they will find empty shells!’
‘And your wife?’ asked Novar.
‘She will stay here for a day or so; nobody can harm her, as she knows very little, and that she won’t divulge. She will put it about that I have gone away for a change and make it right with the doctors. You, my dear Novar, are lucky that your wife. has already gone away for Christmas and it is known that you were to join her. Your servants must be told to say that you have gone a little earlier than you at first intended. I did not expect that we should have to use The Retreat quite so soon; however, I have no regrets!’
‘And what about me?’ cried Hudson. ‘I can’t put a report about that I have gone away for a change or a holiday!’
Rahtz looked at him with a sneer.
‘Your disappearance will merely be a nine days’ wonder,’ he said. ‘And, after all, you will have the girl.’
‘Yes,’ said Hudson in a voice that would have repelled any decent man. ‘I shall have the girl!’
‘And now, gentlemen,’ went on Rahtz, ‘you had better go and make your preparations at once. I am rather weary and I must rest before I move, besides which I have a lot to say to my wife.’
The other two rose.
‘Au revoir for the present!’ said Novar, in a much more complaisant tone than he had used when he first entered the room. ‘We will meet later!’
He left, followed by Hudson. They each went straight to their respective homes. Hudson collected together everything he considered of importance and bundled them into a large suitcase, which he carried out to his car and, without a word to the servants, drove away. Novar was more meticulous and made a careful examination of every room in the bungalow. Once or twice he sighed when he looked at favourite articles of furniture and reflected that he would have to leave them behind. He spent more than half an hour in his study going through the drawers in his desk. He destroyed a pile of papers in the fire which was burning in the grate, and placed others in a bag which he had procured from his dressing room. He then opened the safe and, taking out everything inside it, put the contents into the bag with the other papers. That done, he sat down and wrote a letter.
When he had finished writing he called for a servant.
‘You will take the boxes, which are packed, and this letter for memsahib by the first train for Delhi tomorrow. I am leaving now in the car and am staying with friends on the way, so I will not arrive at Delhi for some days. You understand?’
‘Yes, sahib!’
‘If, before you leave, some men call to ask for me, you must know nothing, and if possible, get away tomorrow without anyone knowing where you have gone, as I do not want memsahib troubled by inquiries for me.’
‘Very well, sahib!’
‘Here is money for all your expenses and pay the other servants before you go!’
‘What about the three sick men, sahib? What is to be done with them?’
‘Damn them!’ muttered Novar in Russian. ‘I had forgotten them.’ He thought for a few minutes. ‘Get a tonga and send them to the hospital!’ he said at last. ‘Pay the tonga driver well and tell him to say that you found them after a fight. They won’t give themselves away; that’s certain!’
A smile showed on the face of the servant. He knew a good deal and, if the truth were known, was almost as great a scoundrel as his master.
‘I will see to it, sahib,’ he said.
‘Good!’ said Novar. ‘Now be discreet! Lock up the house before you go away, and keep the keys till I arrive. Send the chauffeur to me!’
When the man had left the room, Novar walked to the bookcase and selected half a dozen volumes, which he put with his papers in the bag. Then securely locking the latter he carried it into his bedroom and changed his clothes. While he was thus engaged, the chauffeur knocked at the door.
‘Come in, Jai Singh!’ called Novar, and as the man entered: ‘we go to The Retreat,’ he said.
‘So soon, sahib?’ queried the tall, bearded Sikh.
‘Unfortunately, yes! Carry out those two suitcases and put them in the car!’ He pointed to two large leather cases, which he had kept packed in case of necessity.
‘And this bag, sahib?’
‘I will bring it myself!’
The Sikh left the room and a few minutes later Novar followed him. He used a few expletives expressive of his hatred of Shannon and regret at leaving his home as he entered the car, and presently was on his way to the house he called The Retreat.
On the other side of the city, on the road to Shadrah, stood a large oriental building of two stories in its own picturesque grounds surrounded by high walls. It was a flamboyant place of blue and yellow painted stone with verandas running completely round each storey. It belonged to a wealthy Parsee gentleman, who was reputed to live in Bombay, and who was seen very seldom, therefore, in Lahore. But he was understood to have a liking for the Punjab, and had purchased the house for this reason. A staff of servants was regularly kept employed, despite the master’s absence, and the house and rounds were well kept. The Parsee gentleman was Novar, and the servants were, almost without exception, men whom the superintendent of police would have been well-content to have had within his clutches, if he had only known who they were.
After a run of a quarter of an hour, the car drew up outside the iron gates of this imposing mansion, which Europeans regarded as an eyesore even in a city of clashing colour schemes like Lahore. The driver rang a bell whic
h communicated with a small lodge just within. As he did so a man got down from his perilous perch on the luggage-rack at the back of the car, and drew back into the darkness. He was a slightly built Indian of middle height, dressed with care in the usual garb of the Mahommedan, and wearing a red Turkish fez upon his head. He watched the gates being opened, and then locked again after the car had entered. For half an hour he waited, then strolled away.
In the meantime the car had continued on its way up the drive until it stopped by the front door. Novar immediately entered the house carrying his precious bag, followed by the chauffeur with the two suitcases. He went straight to a suite of rooms, which he had reserved for himself.
Half an hour later a stoutish, dark-visaged Parsee gentleman, wearing a long, dark-blue coat buttoned up to the neck, and the peculiar shaped headgear of the sect, emerged from the rooms and, walking along a passage, knocked at a door. He was bidden to enter, and found within two other gentlemen of the same race, who greeted him soberly.
‘My dear friends!’ he said in English, ‘the transformation is wonderful. If I did not know, I should never have recognised you.’
‘And you, Novar,’ said one, who was lying on a couch, and spoke in the voice of Rahtz, ‘look the ideal Parsee gentleman – I congratulate you!’
Rahtz had cut the ends of his moustache as well as darkened his face, and no disguise could be more perfect than his. Hudson, too – who was the third, of course – looked very unlike the civil servant. These men were thorough in most things they did, and in disguising themselves as Parsees they were strictly correct in every detail.
‘Now you have come,’ continued Rahtz, ‘I am going to bed. Kamper has already gone off on his kidnapping expedition, with three assistants, and Hudson is in a state of impatience and doubt. Take him away, my dear fellow, and give him a drink!’
‘Which car did Kamper take?’ questioned Novar.
‘Mine!’ was the reply.
‘I hope the number plates were not forgotten, in case of accident!’
‘Are they ever forgotten?’ said Rahtz impatiently. ‘We have such a supply of different numbers,’ he laughed, ‘that it would be a pity not to use them!’
Devil's Cocktail (Wallace of the Secret Service Series) Page 27