Part 29 (1/2)

I found Tommy and Joyce waiting for me on the platform. The former looked superbly disreputable in a very old and rather dirty grey flannel suit, while Joyce, who was wearing a white serge skirt with a kind of green knitted coat, seemed beautifully in keeping with the suns.h.i.+ne outside.

”Hullo!” exclaimed Tommy. ”We were just getting the jim-jams about you. Thought you'd eloped with Sonia or something.”

I shook my head. ”I never elope before midday,” I said. ”I haven't the necessary stamina.”

I offered Joyce the bunch, which she took with a smile, giving my hand a little squeeze by way of grat.i.tude. ”You dear!” she said. ”Fancy your remembering that.”

”Well, come along,” said Tommy. ”This is the train all right; I've got the tickets and some papers.”

He opened the door of a first-cla.s.s carriage just behind us, and we all three climbed in. ”We shall have it to ourselves,” he added.

”No one ever travels first on this line except the Port of London officials, and they don't get up till the afternoon.”

We settled ourselves down, Tommy on one side and Joyce and I on the other, and a minute later the train steamed slowly out of the station.

Joyce slipped her hand into mine, and we sat there looking out of the window over the sea of grey roofs and smoking chimney-stacks which make up the dreary landscape of East London.

”Have a paper?” asked Tommy, holding out the _Daily Mail_.

”No, thanks, Tommy,” I said. ”I'm quite happy as I am. You can tell us the news if there is any.”

He opened the sheet and ran his eye down the centre page. ”There's nothing much in it,” he said, ”bar this German business. No one seems to know what's going to happen about that. I wonder what the Kaiser thinks he's playing at. He can't be such a fool as to want to fight half Europe.”

”How is the Navy these days?” I asked. ”One doesn't worry about trifles like that in Dartmoor.”

”Oh, we're all right,” replied Tommy cheerfully. ”The Germans haven't got a torpedo to touch yours yet, and we're still a long way ahead of 'em in s.h.i.+ps. We could wipe them off the sea in a week if they came out to fight.”

”Well, that's comforting,” I said. ”I don't want them sailing up the Thames till I've finished. I've no use for a stray sh.e.l.l in my line of business.”

”I tell you what I'm going to do, Neil,” said Tommy. ”I was thinking it over in bed last night after you'd gone. If there is any possible sort of anchorage for a boat in this Cunnock Creek I shall leave the _Betty_ there. It's only a mile from your place, and then either Joyce or I can come down and see you without running the risk of being spotted by your charming pals. Besides, at a pinch it might be precious handy for you. If things got too hot on sh.o.r.e you could always slip away by water. It's not as if you were dependent on the tides. Now I've had this little engine put in her she'll paddle off any old time--provided you can get the blessed thing to start.”

”You're a brick, Tommy,” I said gratefully. ”There's nothing I'd like better. But as for you and Joyce coming down--”

”Of course we shall come down,” interrupted Joyce. ”I shall come just as soon as I can. Who do you think is going to look after you and do your cooking?”

”Good Lord, Joyce!” I said. ”I'm in much too tight a corner to worry about luxuries.”

”That's no reason why you should be uncomfortable,” said Joyce calmly.

”I shan't come near you in the day, while you're working. I shall stay on the _Betty_ and cook dinner for you in the evening, and then as soon as it's dark you can shut up the place and slip across to the creek. Oh, it will be great fun--won't it, Tommy?”

Tommy laughed. ”I think so,” he said; ”but I suppose there are people in the world who might hold a different opinion.” Then he turned to me. ”It's all right, Neil. We'll give you two or three clear days to see how the land lies and shove along with your work. Joyce has got to find out where George is getting that cheque from, and I mean to look up Latimer and sound him about his dinner at Parelli's. You'll be quite glad to see either of us by that time.”

”Glad!” I echoed. ”I shall be so delighted, I shall probably blow myself up. It's you two I'm thinking of. The more I see of this job the more certain I am there's something queer about it, and if there's going to be any trouble down there I don't want you and Joyce dragged into it.”

”We shan't want much dragging,” returned Tommy. ”As far as the firm's business goes we're all three in the same boat. We settled that last night.”

”So there's nothing more to be said,” added Joyce complacently.

I looked from one to the other. Then I laughed and shrugged my shoulders. ”No,” I said, ”I suppose there isn't.”

Through the interminable slums of Plaistow and East Ham we drew out in the squalid region of Barking Creek, and I looked down on the mud and the dirty brown water with a curious feeling of satisfaction. It was like meeting an old friend again after a long separation. The lower Thames, with its wharves, its warehouses, and its never-ceasing traffic, had always had a strange fascination for me; and in the old days, when I wanted to come to Town from Leigh or Port Victoria, I had frequently sailed my little six-tonner, the _Penguin_, right up as far as the Tower Bridge. I could remember now the utter amazement with which George had always regarded this proceeding.