Part 6 (2/2)

I borrowed Scaife's telescope, and before lunch went for a walk along the Ruff I kept well behind the rows of villas, and found a good observation point on the edge of the golf-course There I had a view of the line of turf along the cliff top, with seats placed at intervals, and the little square plots, railed in and planted with bushes, whence the staircases descended to the beach I saw Trafalgar Lodge very plainly, a red-brick villa with a veranda, a tennis lawn behind, and in front the ordinary seaside flower-garden full of staff fro limply in the still air

Presently I observed sootwhite flannel trousers, a blue serge jacket, and a straw hat He carried field-glasses and a newspaper, and sat down on one of the iron seats and began to read Solasses on the sea He looked for a long tiot up and went back to the house for his luncheon, when I returned to the hotel forvery confident This decent coht be the bald archaeologist of that horrible ht not He was exactly the kind of satisfied old bird you will find in every suburb and every holiday place If you wanted a type of the perfectly harmless person you would probably pitch on that

But after lunch, as I sat in the hotel porch, I perked up, for I saw the thing I had hoped for and had dreaded to miss A yacht came up from the south and dropped anchor pretty well opposite the Ruff She seeed to the Squadron fron So Scaife and I went down to the harbour and hired a boat

I spent a warht between us about twenty pounds of cod and lythe, and out in that dancing blue sea I took a cheerier view of things Above the white cliffs of the Ruff I saw the green and red of the villas, and especially the great flagstaff of Trafalgar Lodge About four o'clock, e had fished enough, I made the boatman row us round the yacht, which lay like a delicate white bird, ready at a moment to flee Scaife said she must be a fast boat for her build, and that she was pretty heavily engined

Her name was the ARIADNE, as I discovered fro brasswork I spoke to hiot an answer in the soft dialect of Essex Another hand that calish tongue Our boatument with one of them about the weather, and for a few minutes we lay on our oars close to the starboard bow

Then the arded us and bent their heads to their work as an officer ca fellow, and he put a question to us about our fishi+ng in very good English But there could be no doubt about him His close-cropped head and the cut of his collar and tie never ca to reassure atethat worried ot iven me the clue to this place If they knew that Scudder had this clue, would they not be certain to change their plans? Too much depended on their success for them to take any risks The whole question was how e I had talked confidently last night about Ger to a scheme, but if they had any suspicions that I was on their track they would be fools not to cover it I wondered if the nized hi But the whole business had never seemed so difficult as that afternoon when by all calculations I should have been rejoicing in assured success

In the hotel I met the commander of the destroyer, to whom Scaife introduced ht I would put in an hour or tatching Trafalgar Lodge

I found a place farther up the hill, in the garden of an empty house Froures were having a game of tennis One was the old er felloearing some club colours in the scarf round his ents anted hard exercise to open their pores You couldn't conceive a hed and stopped for drinks, when a ht out two tankards on a salver I rubbed my eyes and asked myself if I was not theabout the men who hunted me over the Scotch moor in aeroplane and motor-car, and notably about that infernal antiquarian It was easy enough to connect those folk with the knife that pinned Scudder to the floor, and with fell designs on the world's peace But here were two guileless citizens taking their innocuous exercise, and soon about to go indoors to a humdrum dinner, where they would talk of ossip of their native Surbiton I had beena net to catch vultures and falcons, and lo and behold! two pluure arrived, a youngon his back He strolled round to the tennis lawn and elco hilish Then the plu his broith a silk handkerchief, announced that he ot into a proper lather,' he said 'This will bring down ht and ive you a stroke a hole' You couldn't find anything lish than that

They all went into the house, and lefttree this ti; but if they were, where was their audience? They didn't knoas sitting thirty yards off in a rhododendron It was simply impossible to believe that these three hearty felloere anything but what they seelishmen, wearisome, if you like, but sordidly innocent

And yet there were three of them; and one was old, and one was plump, and one was lean and dark; and their house chi a steaht of Karolides lying dead and all Europe tree of earthquake, and theanxiously for the events of the next hours There was no doubt that hell was afoot somewhere The Black Stone had won, and if it survived this June night would bank its winnings

There seeo forward as if I had no doubts, and if I was going to make a fool of myself to do it handsoreater disinclination I would rather in my then mind have walked into a den of anarchists, each with his Browning handy, or faced a charging lion with a popgun, than enter that happy hoah atI once heard in Rhodesia from old Peter Pienaar I have quoted Peter already in this narrative He was the best scout I ever knew, and before he had turned respectable he had been pretty often on the windy side of the lahen he had been wanted badly by the authorities Peter once discussed with uises, and he had a theory which struckabsolute certainties like fingerprints, mere physical traits were very little use for identification if the fugitive really knew his business He laughed at things like dyed hair and false beards and such childish follies The only thing that mattered hat Peter called 'atet into perfectly different surroundings from those in which he had been first observed, and - this is the is and behave as if he had never been out of them, he would puzzle the cleverest detectives on earth And he used to tell a story of how he once borrowed a black coat and went to church and shared the sa for him If that nized hihts in a public-house with a revolver The recollection of Peter's talk gave me the first real comfort that I had had that day Peter had been a wise old bird, and these felloas after were about the pick of the aviary What if they were playing Peter's game? A fool tries to look different: a clever ain, there was that other maxim of Peter's which had helpeda part, you will never keep it up unless you convince yourself that you are it' That would explain the game of tennis Those chaps didn't need to act, they just turned a handle and passed into another life, which came as naturally to them as the first It sounds a platitude, but Peter used to say that it was the big secret of all the faht o'clock, and I went back and saw Scaife to give hied with him how to place his men, and then I went for a walk, for I didn't feel up to any dinner I went round the deserted golf-course, and then to a point on the cliffs farther north beyond the line of the villas

On the little tri back frouard fro hohts appear on the ARIADNE and on the destroyer away to the south, and beyond the cock sands the bigger lights of stea for the Thaot more dashed in spirits every second It took all e about half-past nine

On the way I got a piece of solid co at a nurse I used to have in Rhodesia, and of the ti with me in the Pali hills We were after rhebok, the dun kind, and I recollected hoe had followed one beast, and both he and I had clean lost it A greyhound works by sight, and h, but that buck simply leaked out of the landscape Afterwards I found out how it rey rock of the kopjes it showed no ainst a thundercloud It didn't need to run away; all it had to do was to stand still and round

Suddenly as these ht of my present case and applied the moral The Black Stone didn't need to bolt They were quietly absorbed into the landscape I was on the right track, and I jaet it The last ith Peter Pienaar

Scaife's n of a soul The house stood as open as aseparated it froround-floor were all open, and shaded lights and the low sound of voices revealed where the occupants were finishi+ng dinner Everything was as public and above-board as a charity bazaar Feeling the greatest fool on earth, I opened the gate and rang the bell

A h places, gets on perfectly ith two classes, what you may call the upper and the lower He understands them and they understand him I was at home with herds and tramps and roadmen, and I was sufficiently at my ease with people like Sir Walter and the ht before I can't explain why, but it is a fact But what fellows like reat comfortable, satisfied middle-class world, the folk that live in villas and suburbs He doesn't kno they look at things, he doesn't understand their conventions, and he is as shy of them as of a black mamba When a trim parlour-maid opened the door, I could hardly find my voice

I asked for Mr Appleton, and was ushered in My plan had been to walk straight into the dining-room, and by a sudden appearance wake in the nition which would confirm my theory But when I found myself in that neat hall the place olf-clubs and tennis-rackets, the straw hats and caps, the rows of gloves, the sheaf of walking-sticks, which you will find in ten thousand British homes A stack of neatly folded coats and waterproofs covered the top of an old oak chest; there was a grandfather clock ticking; and so-pans on the walls, and a baroer The place was as orthodox as an Anglican church When the ave it autoht side of the hall

That room was even worse I hadn't tiraphs above the lish public school or college I had only one glance, for I o after the -rooivenhow the three took it

When I walked into the room the old man at the head of the table had risen and turned round todress - a short coat and black tie, as was the other, whom I called in my own mind the plue suit and a soft white collar, and the colours of some club or school

The old ly 'Did you wish to see me? One o to the sh I hadn't an ounce of confidence in ame I pulled up a chair and sat down on it

'I think we have uess you know ht in the room was dim, but so far as I could see their faces, they played the part of mystification very well

'Maybe, ood memory, but I'm afraid you must tell me your errand, Sir, for I really don't know it'

'Well, then,' I said, and all the ti pure foolishness - 'I have coaentlemen'

'Arrest,' said the old man, and he looked really shocked 'Arrest! Good God, what for?'

'For the murder of Franklin Scudder in London on the 23rd day of last month'

'I never heard the name before,' said the old man in a dazed voice

One of the others spoke up 'That was the Portland Place murder I read about it Good heavens, you must be mad, Sir! Where do you come from?'

'Scotland Yard,' I said

After that for aat his plate and fu with a nut, the very model of innocent bewilderment

Then the plu his words

'Don't get flustered, uncle,' he said 'It is all a ridiculous s happen soht It won't be hard to prove our innocence I can show that I was out of the country on the 23rd of May, and Bob was in a nursing home You were in London, but you can explain what you were doing'

'Right, Percy! Of course that's easy enough The 23rd! That was the day after Agatha's wedding Let , and lunched at the club with Charlie Syers I reree with ar-box I brought back frohed nervously

'I think, Sir,' said the youngme respectfully, 'you will see you are lish fools of themselves That's so, uncle?'

'Certainly, Bob' The old fellow see in our power to assist the authorities But - but this is a bit too et over it'

'How Nellie will chuckle,' said the plump man 'She always said that you would die of boredoot it thick and strong,' and he began to laugh very pleasantly

'By Jove, yes just think of it! What a story to tell at the club Really, Mr Hannay, I suppose I should be angry, to show ive you the fright you gavein , it was too confoundedly genuine My heart went into ize and clear out But I told hing-stock of Britain The light froood, and to cover ot up, walked to the door and switched on the electric light The sudden glarethe three faces

Well, Iof it One was old and bald, one was stout, one was dark and thin There was nothing in their appearance to prevent the the three who had huntedto identify them 1 simply can't explain why I who, as a roadman, had looked into two pairs of eyes, and as Ned Ainslie into another pair, why I, who have a good memory and reasonable powers of observation, could find no satisfaction They seemed exactly what they professed to be, and I could not have sworn to one of thes on the walls, and a picture of an old lady in a bib above theto connect thearette-box beside me, and I saw that it had been won by Percival Appleton, Esq, of the St Bede's Club, in a golf tournament I had to keep a fir out of that house