The girl had been woken early by the crunch of his feet on the gravel under her window an hour before. Looking out and seeing a strange man in the grounds she had rushed to tell her foster-mother who told her of the surprising events which had happened during the night.
Milly was dressed now in a light-blue summer frock that enhanced the blue of her eyes and set off to perfection her delicate colouring and golden hair. When Wells was introduced she was agog with excitement at meeting a real detective from Scotland Yard.
Mrs. Bird, who was cooking breakfast for the girl, suggested that the Inspector could do with another cup of tea before he left and that, while she was getting it ready, the pair of them should go out and pick some fresh raspberries in the garden.
Nothing loath, the Inspector left the house again with Milly and she took him along a path behind the Museum buildings to a big walled garden.
She seemed a shy young creature and he found himself unaccountably tongue-tied, although he had an inward desire to start a conversation which might prolong the pleasure of being with her alone in the great garden, now made more lovely by the hush of the early summer morning.
‘Your work must be awfully interesting,’ she said at last.
‘Rather,’ said Gerry Wells. ‘I’ve been lucky, too. I’m the youngest Inspector that’s ever been seconded to the Special Branch.’
‘You must be very clever then,’ she said shyly.
He found himself blushing as he met the candid gaze of her large admiring eyes. ‘Oh, no,’ he hastened to protest, ‘lucky that’s all. I did quite well at school though, managed to get a scholarship and, as a matter of fact, I owe a great deal to my dad. He was a mechanic in the R.A.F. in the Great War. Now, he’s a clever fellow if you like; so good at his job they kept him on afterwards in the technical department where the new planes are designed. He taught me all I know about engines and how to fly when I was quite a boy. That’s one of the things that’s led to my promotion because, you see, we haven’t got a great many pilots in the force, but nowadays we have to move with the times and flying comes in useful.’
‘It must be wonderful to fly,’ she murmured.
‘Take you up sometime,’ said Gerry, ‘that’s if you’d care to go.’
‘I’ve always thought I’d be frightened to fly but I wouldn’t be frightened with you. If you’d like to take me.’
A happy grin spread over his freckled boyish face. ‘That’s a date then, although I may not be able to take you up for a bit yet, not till this business is over.’
‘Is it a very dangerous business?’
‘Well, perhaps you might say so in a way, but I’ve seen a good few rough houses in the last ten years and I can look after myself fairly well. Three crooks set on me a few nights ago over in Trouville but I managed to get away.’ The Inspector felt a twinge of conscience as he failed to mention Gregory’s assistance; but he refrained from doing so from the very human desire to impress the girl.
Milly’s eyes grew larger and rounder than ever. ‘You must be very brave and very strong,’ she said.
He drew himself up instinctively among the raspberry canes and tensed the muscles of his fine shoulders. ‘All in the day’s work,’ he said casually, ‘and of course police training helps a lot. We’re taught ju-jutsu you know, and various wrestling holds, which gives us a bit of an advantage. I rather like a rough and tumble now and again. It keeps me fit. Are you—are you interested in cricket?’
‘I love it,’ said Milly, who had once in her life been taken to the Oval. ‘I think it’s a splendid game, don’t you?’
‘Yes. I’m pretty keen myself. As a matter of fact I play for the first eleven of the Flying Squad.’
‘Fancy your being in the Flying Squad; that must be awfully thrilling. You have to chase car bandits, don’t you?’
‘Yes. I’ve done quite a lot of that, but it’s not so interesting as this special job I’ve just been given. It’s a real big thing, this is, and if I pull it off it might mean promotion again.’
‘Oh, I do hope you do. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they made you a Commissioner?’
Gerry smiled. ‘That’s a bit too much to hope for yet I’m afraid, but you never know if I might not end up as an A.C., in another twenty years or so.’
If the truth be told they ate more of the raspberries than they picked, yet the little basket that Milly carried was full now and there was not room in it for another one. They would both have liked to linger longer but there did not seem to be any excuse to do so and for the moment neither could think of another line of conversation so, in an embarrassed silence, they returned to the big house.
Mrs. Bird met them with the news that Milly’s breakfast was ready and pressed the Inspector to join her for a second meal. He accepted for the pleasure of remaining a little longer, managed two cups of tea and a further ration of raspberries, then when there no longer seemed any reasonable excuse for delaying his departure another moment he reluctantly said good-bye, but Milly volunteered to walk with him as far as the gate of the Park and see him off.
In a silence that was almost painful they walked down the east drive side by side and leaving the park crossed the field to the Inspector’s plane. He unscrewed the pickets and stowed them in the cockpit then turned to say good-bye.
Milly held out a frail little hand and laid it in his big brown one. ‘Shall we—shall we be seeing you again soon?’ she asked
He smiled. ‘I hope so; just as soon as I can manage it. With crooks in this place it’s part of my job now to keep my eye on it.’
‘Well, knowing that, we shan’t be the least bit frightened,’ she said simply. ‘But do take care of yourself, won’t you?’
‘Rather,’ he grinned, ‘as you’ve been nice enough to ask me to.’
11
The Beautiful Hungarian
Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust stretched out his long legs and regarded Gregory with an approving stare. ‘And what’s the next move my boy—what’s the next move?’ he asked with sudden briskness.
‘Lunch,’ said Gregory. ‘I’m a complete fool to introduce you to the girl, of course, because it’s almost certain you’ll cut me out. But someone’s got to give us both lunch at the Carlton and I thought it might as well be you.’
‘Cut you out, eh! Well, if she’s all you say she is, dammit, I might have a shot at it, specially if you don’t do your stuff better than you did at Deauville, Are you certain she’s at the Carlton, though?’
‘Yes. I rang up to find out immediately I got home.’
‘D’you speak to her?’
‘Good Lord no. I just ascertained from the office that they had an angel called Szenty beneath their roof. She hasn’t the least idea that Wells got on to her in the first place through the fellow she sold the stockings to in Regent Street when she was staying there before. You see, she’d never heard of Wells’s existence until he presented himself as a business man at her office in Paris. She can’t know we’ve rumbled Quex Park either and that Mrs. Bird told us Lord Gavin engaged her while he was staying at the Carlton in February—which gave us a second line on it being their port of call in London.’
‘Then she’s not expecting you. She may be out.’
‘I doubt it. She couldn’t have got in till about three o’clock this morning so the chances are all against her being up and doing before mid-day. Anyhow, I thought the risk small enough to snatch a few hours’ sleep. Not that I needed them particularly but it’s my old campaigner’s habit of taking a nap while the going’s good. Quite sound really, as I may be up again all night tonight.’
Smart and fresh in a double-breasted light-grey summer suit Gregory certainly did not look as though he had spent a good portion of his night crawling over Calais downland and scrambling through the coppices of a Kentish park.
‘I don’t quite see, though,’ Sir Pellinore said after a moment, ‘where I come in about this luncheon business. What the deuce d’you want to drag me into it for?’
Gregory grinned. ‘For one thing, it might amuse you; but, for another, I can’t just go and hang around the Carlton on my own. Sabine’s a clever woman and she’d smell a rat at once; guess the police had run her to earth there, and that I was acting with them. That’s the one thing we’ve got to keep out of her lovely little head at all costs. My plan of campaign is to walk round the corner now and park myself in the lounge; tip a bell-hop to keep his eyes open for her then, when she turns up, I shall be just as surprised and delighted as though I had really run into her casually. I shall immediately inform her I am waiting there for you and that we’re lunching together. Then you come on the scene proving that I’m not a liar and my meeting with her a pure coincidence.’
Sir Pellinore grunted. ‘And what do I do if you please? Stand about in the street looking like a loony until you come and whistle for me?’
‘Certainly not. You’ll be in Justerini’s office, next door. You always get your drink there so they’ll be delighted to see you and refresh you with another ration of this excellent sherry. Immediately the bell-hop lets me know that Sabine’s come down in the lift he’ll slip out of the Pall Mall entrance and fish you out of Justerini’s. Then you will stroll in to find me doing my stuff with her in the lounge.’
‘Say she’s already got a luncheon appointment?’
‘In that case, you’ll have to content yourself with my company I’m afraid. We’ve got to chance that but unless it’s a very important appointment indeed you can put your money on my persuading her to break it.’
‘Conceited young devil,’ laughed Sir Pellinore. ‘All right, you win. But what’s the procedure saying we manage to get this wench as far as the luncheon table?’
‘You order the best lunch that you can think of, which should be pretty good, and later on you pay for it. Then you go off to your club, or the house here, for a nice afternoon nap, suitable to a man of your years, leaving me in sole possession of the lady.’
‘What happens then?’
‘Allah, who knows all things, will give me inspiration, but my main policy is to stick to her as long as I possibly can on one excuse or another. Tonight’s the seventh and in our now-famous telegram the numbers 43 and 47 follow that date, so presumably they’ll be operating again, but from different bases. If I can hang on to Sabine long enough maybe she’ll telephone while I’m with her or let slip some little bit of information which will give me a chance to follow her up when I can’t keep her with me any longer.’
Sir Pellinore stroked his fine white moustache and stood up. ‘What a lucky young dog you are. If I had my way the company wouldn’t pay you a cent for this investigation; you’re going to get far too much fun out of it.’
‘On the contrary they’ll have to pay extra as compensation for the damage I’m doing to my conscience.’ Gregory laughed cynically but there was no laughter in his heart. To conceal his troubled thoughts he pursued the jest. ‘Here I am having to force myself into following up some rotten game by taking advantage of the confidences of the girl I’m in love with.’
‘You! In love! Never been in love in your life.’
‘Well, I’m not too old to learn,’ countered Gregory modestly, ‘and I certainly don’t want to see Sabine sent to prison.’
‘Yes; awkward that—very awkward—but I won’t have you going romantic. It’s bad for the health, bad for business, and it doesn’t suit you.’
‘On the contrary, the very thought that I may be lunching with Sabine in about half an hour puts me right on the top of the world. Come along now or you won’t have time for that glass of sherry at Justerini’s.’
A few moments later the two men left the house and sauntered down Pall Mall together in the bright August sunshine. Gregory was a tallish man but his cultivated stoop made him seem almost short beside Sir Pellinore’s magnificent height and upright figure. At the Pall Mall entrance of the Carlton they parted; Gregory disappearing into the hotel and Sir Pellinore into the door of his wine merchants which was less than a dozen yards away.
It was a little after half past twelve and an inquiry at the hotel office assured Gregory that he had been justified in not hurrying; Sabine was still in her room. He secured a page boy and, tipping the lad lavishly, gave him his instructions, posting him near the florists and within sight of the lift. Next, he spoke to the porters, both at the Pall Mall and Haymarket entrances of the hotel, describing Sabine to them as an additional precaution in case she slipped by the page unrecognised, and told them that if she went out they were to fetch him at once from the lounge. Then he parked himself at a small table and ordered a double gin fizz which he felt to be a particularly suitable drink in such sultry weather.
Nearly three quarters of an hour went by and he was beginning to fear that Sabine might be lunching quietly in her suite when the page came hurrying along to inform him that she had just come down and was leaving her key. Without losing an instant Gregory strode from the lounge and into the street by the Pall Mall exit, raced round the corner into the Haymarket, and came sauntering gaily into the hotel’s other entrance, just as Sabine was about to sally forth.
‘Hello!’ he cried, throwing wide his arms to bar her passage. ‘What heavenly luck. Is it really you—or am I dreaming things?’
She smiled as he seized her hand and kissed it. ‘But yes, it is most surprising that we should meet so soon again.’
‘Not really,’ he assured her, ‘since you chance to be in London. It’s such a tiny world for people like ourselves who always move around the same old haunts. You were going out—but you mustn’t. I can’t possibly let you.’
Her face grew serious.
‘You have no reason to detain me, as you had in Deauville.’ Under her statement lay the suggestion of a suspicion.
‘Only the reason that was at the bottom of everything before—my frantic desire to be with you, unless, of course, you’ve blotted your copy book again and want me now to save you from the London police. Come in and have a cocktail.’
She shook her head. ‘That would be nice but, really, I must not. I have to lunch at Claridges and I am already late.’
‘Ring up and put them off—please do. It seems a thousand years since I’ve seen you but I’ve been dreaming of you ever since. Now I’ve found you again I absolutely refuse to let you go.’
‘But this is business,’ she protested.
He laughed. ‘What in the world can so lovely a person as yourself have to do with such a dreary thing as business; or do you mean that you have some job to do for that old devil I saw you with in Deauville?’
‘Mais non, when I say business I mean commerce. You see, I am a business woman. Representative, you say, of a house in Paris, but that you could not know.’
‘Really? How extraordinary!’ Gregory’s face expressed blank astonishment at this gratuitous information but he added blandly: ‘Somehow it seems so out of keeping that anyone like you should have to face the daily grind, but then everybody’s in business these days, aren’t they?’
She shrugged. ‘It has become necessary that most people should work since old families lost their money in the war years, and after, but I should be miserable if I had to lead always an idle life.’
‘Well, you’re going to take an hour or two off today anyhow,’ he declared. ‘Surely you can put off your appointment until tomorrow. Nobody could possibly want to do business on a lovely sunny day like this.’
He saw her hesitate and pressed home his advantage. ‘Come on now. I’m lunching here with a friend of mine, but you’ll find him charming—a delightful person—Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust. He’s one of the grandest old men in Europe. Put business out of your mind today and let us entertain you. I give you my word you won’t regret it.’
‘Sil vous voulez,’ she surrendered. ‘You are such a tempestuous person. It is difficult to refuse you, and that business lunch, it would have been boring anyway.’
‘Page,’ Gregory beckoned, ‘tell the operator to get me Claridges.’ Then he t
urned to Sabine. ‘What’s your friend’s name? I’ll make your excuses for you—a little taxi accident in Bond Street this morning—I think. Nothing serious but you’re a bit shaken and resting now until you’ve recovered from the shock. How’ll that do?’
She shook her head. ‘No. Your powers of invention are quite marvellous but I will speak myself.’ She turned and followed the boy away to the telephone booth.
Gregory smiled with self-congratulation as he watched her take the call. He had failed in a quick attempt to find out with whom she had meant to lunch, but he had achieved his main objective in making his presence there seem accidental and securing, at all events, an hour or two of her company for himself. When they walked into the lounge Sir Pellinore was already there; and rose to meet them.
‘I’m sure you won’t mind,’ Gregory said, ‘but I’ve brought a friend, whom I had no idea was in England until I ran into her here five minutes ago. I couldn’t possibly let the opportunity slip so I’ve asked her to join us. This is Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust, a very old friend of mine, Mademoiselle Sabine …’ he paused, remembering that he was not supposed to know her other name, and looked away with an excellent imitation of slight embarrassment.
‘Szenty,’ she added calmly.
Gregory repeated the name.
Sir Pellinore bent over her hand, ‘Mademoiselle Szenty’s presence could never need an apology. On the contrary I consider it a very great piece of good fortune that anyone so lovely should consent to grace the table of an old man like myself.’
As they passed up the steps to the restaurant he murmured her name again. ‘Surely you are Hungarian. There was a Grof Szenty whom I knew long ago. A delightful feller; a Captain in one of the crack regiments of the old kingdom, who used to bring his horses over, and came within an ace of winning the cup for jumping one year at Olympia.’
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