And Berry Came Too (13 page)

“The very three that I wanted,” said Jonah’s voice. “Daphne’s too nervous, and it wouldn’t be good for Jill,” and with that, he took my arm and fell into step.

“I wish to God,” said Berry, “you wouldn’t do things like that. Coming up from behind without warning. I’m ready to scream if anyone blows his nose.”

My cousin ignored the protest.

“Keep on walking, please, and listen to me. I’ve been on to the Assistant Commissioner – at his private house. I wanted to ask about Wilson… He says he’s an excellent man –
but he happens to be in Paris. No doubt at all about that. They had a talk this morning over the telephone
.”

“Good God,” said Berry, weakly, and Perdita gripped my arm.

Jonah continued firmly.

“We have just received an impostor. Be sure of that. A wolf in sheepdog’s clothing – paving his way. He’s coming tonight all right,
but he and his men are the gang
.”

I put a hand to my head.

“But why – I don’t understand…”

“It is confusing,” said Jonah, “but I think I can give you a lead. Wasn’t it Thursday night that the Knave barked twice?”

“Of course,” I cried. “I’d forgotten. I got up and went downstairs.”

“That’s right,” said Jonah. “I heard you. We were both of us half asleep. The Knave must have heard the fellow at work on the grating below. But, what is much more to the point,
the fellow at work heard the Knave
. Next day he says to his pals, ‘The grating’s open all right, but the dog’s going to give us away.’ So ‘Wilson’ comes down – under orders to clear the coast. I must say he did it well. Not only the dog but
all of us
out of the way. And simply by telling a tale the truth of which we could confirm. It’s ‘the confidence trick’ once again, in a different guise.”

My cousin’s brilliant deduction left me dumb.

“I give you best,” said Berry. “How did you know?”

“I didn’t,” said Jonah, frankly. “But one thing he said made me think.
I’d rather you kept the key
– of the cellar door. To me, those words rang false. They didn’t seem to belong to Scotland Yard.” He broke off there, to look at the western sky. “It won’t be dark for two hours, and I’ve half a plan in my head. I wish we could cut dinner out, but I don’t want Jill or Daphne to get ideas. And this is where you come in. It’s up to you to get them out of the way – women and children upstairs by a quarter to ten.”

“I beg your pardon,” said Perdita.

“I didn’t say ‘maidens’,” said Jonah. “I hope you’ll come in on this. I was going to ask you if you’d take charge of the Knave. And now I must go. If I’m late for dinner, don’t wait. I’ll tell you all I’ve arranged at a quarter to ten. Meanwhile please do your best to find the answer to this?
What is ‘Wilson’ after?
I’d give a good deal to know.”

“Jewels and silver,” I said. “He told us himself.”

“And warned us,” said Jonah, swiftly. “Asked us to keep the key of the cellar door… I don’t think that answer’s right.”

“It’s a ruse,” said Berry, and wiped the sweat from his face. “They mean to come in all right, but not by the cellar at all.”

“I don’t think that’s right,” said my cousin. “If they don’t mean to use the grating, why did Wilson request that the dog should be put on the other side of the house?”

Perdita put in her oar.

“But if both those answers are bad, you get a third which is worse – that what they want’s in the cellar.”

“Which is absurd,” said Jonah. “I quite agree. Burglars like their liquor as much as anyone else, but they don’t go to lengths like these for a little Napoleon brandy and six or seven dozen of pink champagne. Never mind. Think it over. We ought to be able, between us, to do the sum.”

With that, he was gone.

We watched him reach the terrace and enter the house.

“I’m quite sorry for ‘Wilson’,” said Berry. “He’s going to get the shock of his life. When Jonah takes off his coat it’s time to go home.”

This was most true.

My cousin, Jonathan Mansel, is a man of action as swift and, if need be, as deadly as any machine gun that ever was brought into play.

A track runs into a wood which rises beside our meadows a short three hundred yards from the orchard gate. From my perch on the bough of an oak commanding the track I could, by day, have seen the roof of the stables against the blue of the sky. But it was no longer day. Night had fallen some twenty-five minutes ago.

My orders were clear. To signal ‘Wilson’s’ arrival: to signal the strength of his gang: to signal whether or no the cars were left unattended when ‘Wilson’ set out for the house. All this, of course, with my torch. If the cars were left to themselves, Perdita and the Knave would join me, to watch while I opened the bonnets and cut the high-tension leads. And then we were to join Berry, who was lying within the orchard, close to the well. As for Jonah…

And there I heard the pulse of an engine.

A car – two cars had slowed down, on the road at the mouth of the track.

After, perhaps, thirty seconds I heard them begin to back…

Then I saw the glow of a tail-light – and made my report.

Two men were already afoot. Not till both cars had stopped did the others alight. Six in all I counted, and sent my news.

Things of some sort were taken out of the cars, but the lights were out now and I could not see what they were. The engines, of course, had been stopped, and since no words were spoken, the dark figures moving in darkness were worse than sinister. I saw them cluster below me, just clear of the leading car.

And then one opened his mouth – and I nearly fell out of my tree…

It was not ‘Wilson’ who spoke, but another, whose voice I knew.

As in a dream, I heard him issue some orders and tell off some man, called Jennet, to stay with the cars. His tone was as bitter as ever, his manner of speaking as short, and when he had done and was gone, I was not at all surprised when Jennet described him in terms which I dare not set down.

It was the diviner, indeed.

Bad masters make bad servants, and though, of course, I dared not lay hands on the cars, I was able to beat a retreat without any fuss, for Jennet, instead of patrolling, as he had been ordered to do, took his seat on one of the steps and lighted a cigarette.

I entered the meadows and followed the paling along. After perhaps forty paces, the Knave loomed out of the shadows, to put his paws on my chest.

“No luck?” breathed Perdita Boyte.

“Not at the moment,” said I, and told her my news.

“Oh, my dear,” twittered Perdita, “what does it mean?”

“I’m damned if I know,” said I. “Can’t you work it out?”

“I can make it rather harder by telling you this. D’you remember I asked you a question this afternoon?
Why does this spot attract you?
We were sitting by the head of the well… You gave me – so pretty an answer that I forgot altogether to give you mine.” I found a small hand and held it close to my heart. “You see, Boy, it’s not only you. That spot attracts us all. Ever since he told you to dig there – after all I’m only a guest, but it’s never been out of my mind.”

“Well, why’s that?” said I, feebly.

The small hand caught hold of my coat.

“Call me a fool, if you like, but I think it’s because that man’s willed us…been willing us ever since Monday to think of that well. That he’s got one strange power we know. Well, I think he’s got another. And I think he’s been using that to keep our minds on that well.”

“But why should he do so, my beauty?”

The hand slipped away and up to the troubled temples which I could hardly see.

“I can’t imagine,” wailed Perdita. “And there you are. I told you I’d make it worse. But now that he’s back here – in charge…”

“Let’s go and put it to Berry. I must get in touch with Jonah about those cars.”

Jonah and Berry were sitting on a log in the orchard, conversing in even tones.

“Come and sit down,” said the former. “Our friends are deeply engaged. The cellar was their objective, as ‘Wilson’ said. They seem to be taking the floor up: and as flags are not like linoleum, we’ve plenty of time. Then again the work would go faster if they weren’t so painfully anxious to make no noise.”

“Did you recognize their leader?” said I.

“‘Wilson’ was the first of the string.”

“He’s not in command.”

“Who then?”

“Our friend, the dowser,” said I. “There’s no mistaking his voice.”

“Go on,” said Berry, incredulously.

“I am ready,” said Jonah, quietly, “to believe anything. Understanding’s another matter. I frankly admit I’m a long way out of my depth. But very soon now we shall know. They may as well get the stuff out – whatever it is.”

“Perdita says—”

“Stop,” hissed Berry. “Stop. I’ve got an idea. When he showed us rods, that wallah…
and one of them moved. In the library, Boy, that morning. He asked what was underneath, and you said the cellars were dry
.”

“Of course,” I heard myself saying. “Of course…of course.”

I remembered perfectly – now. But I had forgotten the matter, as though it had never been.

Jonah was speaking.

“Tell me exactly what happened.”

Berry told him, from first to last.

“All the same,” he concluded, “it only explains his presence – the dowser’s, I mean. We want to know what he’s after. And he’s not come here to uncover some secret spring.”

“What does Perdita think?” said Jonah.

Perdita tried in vain to steady her voice.

“It all f-fits in,” she stammered. “He made them forget that bit in the library. And he tried to make them forget by keeping their minds on the well – all our minds, in case they’d told us…”

“I’ve no doubt you’re right,” said Jonah. “This dowser’s no ordinary man.”

“What on earth d’you mean?” said Berry.

“This,” said Jonah. “Water is not all that a really good dowser can find. He can detect the presence of minerals – under the earth. Gold and silver, for instance…” I found myself trembling with excitement. “When you saw his rod move that morning, you thought there was water below: but the dowser knew better:
he knew there was precious metal down in the cellars beneath
…he came Thursday night, to make sure – to find the exact place and the depth…and tonight he’s come to take his findings away.”

An hour and a half crept by.

Perdita, Berry and I sat upon the log in the orchard, conversing by fits and starts but always with bated breath, while the Knave stood beside us like a statue, conscious of the presence of evil which for some strange reason he was not allowed to declare.

About his business, Jonah moved to and fro, visiting the servants he had posted, reporting progress to us or listening himself to the sounds which rose from the cellar’s depths.

Jennet had been ‘disposed of’ and was sitting, gagged and bound, in one of the cars. These had not been disabled – my cousin had changed his plan.

An hour and a half.

Time seemed to be standing still: excitement begot an impatience which sent us half out of our minds: desire rebelled against reason again and again.

“Lifting flagstones,” moaned Berry. “They don’t know how to work. I’d have moved a mountain by now. And I know I’d sell my soul to be doing the labour myself.”

Perdita put it in a nutshell.

“It’s like when you’ve been given a present – and somebody else unpacks it: and you have to watch them fumbling, undoing the string.”

“I know,” said Jonah, “I know. But when six desperate men play into your hands, it’s very much better to let them. The great idea is to avoid unpleasantness.”

“I hardly think,” said Berry, “that ‘the great idea’ will mature. I mean, I can’t help feeling that on their way back to Town, no one of the six will really be at his best.”

With his words came the flash of a torch.

“They’re off,” said Jonah. “Still as death, if you please, until I come back.”

I went down on one knee. With my arm about the Knave’s shoulders, I held his head to my chest. After, perhaps, two minutes I felt his ears twitch…

And then I heard the men passing – two men, breathing hard as they went, as men who are anxious to hasten, while carrying weight.

Another two minutes went by.

And then, well out in the meadows, a light leaped up.

I saw figures moving against it, and one was standing still with his hands in the air…

“Oh, I’m sorry for them,” said Perdita, and burst into tears.

I gave the Knave to Berry and picked her up in my arms.

“Rough justice,” I whispered. “Not fit for a maiden’s eyes. When Jonah comes back, I’m going to take you to bed.”

“Couldn’t you…give them…just something? I mean…poor men.”

For the first time for seven days my brain seemed to leap to life.

“If they’ve found what I think they have, I’ll give them five hundred pounds.”

“Oh, you darling,” breathed Perdita. A warm arm slid round my neck. “What – what do you think they’ve found?”

“Darlings to you.” I kissed her. “
The Abbey plate
.”

And that is very nearly the end of my tale.

A glance at the first-fruits showed that my conjecture was good: the plate had been buried, and lest it should be disinterred, the nuns had spread the report that it had been taken to France.

I took Perdita back to the house and wrote out a cheque. Then I returned to the orchard, where Berry was sitting in darkness, addressing the Knave.

“From your point of view, old fellow, it’s been an utter wash-out from first to last. No hue, no cry, no dust-up, no biters bit. And what have we got to show for it? A lot of rotten utensils which we shall never use. Look at that alms-dish, for instance. No self-respecting dog would drink out of that. What if it is solid gold? You’d very much rather it was enamelled steel…

“What’s happened?” I said.

“History,” said Berry, “has just repeated itself. Two more left the cellar, laden, and were relieved of their booty in the midst of yon dewy meads. There’s only the dowser left now. When the others fail to return, I suppose he’ll emerge.”

“Who’s in charge of the cars?”