Berry And Co. (20 page)

“How many are there?” he demanded.

“You poisonous idiot,” I hissed, “I tell you—”

“Naughty temper,” said Berry. “I admit I’m in the wrong, but there you are. You see, it all comes of not wearing rings. If I did, I should have remembered that a wire came from Jonah just before dinner – it’s in my dinner-jacket – saying he was coming up late tonight with Harry, and that if the latter couldn’t get in at the Club, he should bring him on here. He had the decency to add ‘Don’t sit up.’”

Daphne and I exchanged glances of withering contempt.

“And where,” said my sister, “is Harry going to sleep?”

Her husband settled himself contentedly.

“That,” he said drowsily, “is what’s worrying me.”

“Outrageous,” said Daphne. Then she turned to me. “It’s too late to do anything now. Will you go down and explain? Perhaps he can manage in the library. Unless Jonah likes to give up his bed.”

“I’ll do what I can,” I said, taking a cigarette from the box by her side.

“Oh, and do ask if it’s true about Evelyn.”

“Right oh. I’ll tell you as I come back.”

“I forbid you,” murmured her husband, “to re-enter this room.”

I kissed my sister, lobbed a novel on to my brother-in-law’s back, and withdrew before he had time to retaliate. Then I stepped barefoot downstairs, to perform my mission.

With the collapse of the excitement, Nobby’s suspicion shrank into curiosity, his muscles relaxed, and he stopped quivering. So infectious a thing is perturbation.

The door of the library was ajar, and the thin strip of light which issued was enough to guide me across the hall. The parquet was cold to the touch, and I began to regret that I had not returned for my slippers.

As I pushed the door open – “I say, Jonah,” I said, “ that fool Berry—”

It was with something of a shock that I found myself looking directly along the barrel of a .45 automatic pistol, which a stout gentleman, wearing a green mask, white kid gloves, and immaculate evening-dress, was pointing immediately at my nose.

“There now,” he purred. “I was going to say, ‘Hands up.’ Just like that. ‘Hands up.’ It’s so romantic. But I hadn’t expected the dog. Suppose you put your right hand up.”

I shook my head.

“I want that for my cigarette,” I said.

For a moment we stood looking at one another. Then my fat
vis-à-vis
began to shake with laughter.

“You know,” he gurgled, “this is most irregular. It’s enough to make Jack Sheppard turn in his grave. It is really. However… As an inveterate smoker, I feel for you. So we’ll have a compromise.” He nodded towards an armchair which stood by the window. “You go and sit down in that extremely comfortable armchair – sit well back – and we won’t say any more about the hands.”

As he spoke, he stepped forward. Nobby received him with a venomous growl, and to my amazement the fellow immediately caressed him.

“Dogs always take to me,” he added. “I’m sure I don’t know why, but it’s a great help.”

To my mortification, the Sealyham proved to be no exception to the rule. I could feel his tail going.

As in a dream, I crossed to the chair and sat down. As I moved, the pistol moved also.

“I hate pointing this thing at you,” said the late speaker. “It’s so suggestive. If you’d care to give me your word, you know… Between gentlemen…”

“I make no promises,” I snapped.

The other sighed.

“Perhaps you’re right,” he said. “Lean well back, please… That’s better.”

The consummate impudence of the rogue intensified the atmosphere of unreality, which was most distracting. Doggedly my bewildered brain was labouring in the midst of a litter of fiction, which had suddenly changed into truth. The impossible had come to pass. The cracksman of the novel had come to life, and I was reluctantly witnessing, in comparative comfort and at my own expense, an actual exhibition of felony enriched with all the spices which the cupboard of Sensation contains.

The monstrous audacity of the proceedings, and the business-like way in which they were conducted, were almost stupefying.

Most of the silver in the house, including a number of pieces, our possession of which I had completely forgotten, seemed to have been collected and laid in rough order upon rugs, which had been piled one upon the other to deaden noise. One man was taking it up, piece by piece, scrutinizing it with an eye-glass such as watchmakers use, and dictating descriptions and particulars to a second, who was seated at the broad writing-able, entering the details, in triplicate, in a large order book. By his side a third manipulated a pair of scales, weighing each piece with the greatest care and reporting the result to the second, who added the weight to the description. Occasionally the latter paused to draw at a cigarette, which lay smouldering in the ash-tray by his side. As each piece was weighed, the third handed it to a fourth assistant, who wrapped it in a bag of green baize and laid it gently in an open suit-case. Four other cases stood by his side, all bearing a number of labels and more or less the worse for wear.

All four men were masked and gloved, and working with a rapidity and method which were remarkable. With the exception of the packer, who wore a footman’s livery, they were attired in evening-dress.

“We find it easier,” said the master, as if interpreting my thoughts, “to do it all on the spot. Then it’s over and done with. I do hope you’re insured,” he added. “I always think it’s so much more satisfactory.”

“Up to the hilt,” said I cheerfully. “We had it all revalued only this year, because of the rise in silver.”

“Splendid!” – enthusiastically. “But I’m neglecting you.” With his left hand the rogue picked up an ash-tray and stepped to my side. Then he backed to the mantelpiece, whence he picked up and brought me a handful of cigarettes, laying them on the broad arm of my chair. “I’m afraid the box has gone,” he said regretfully. “May I mix you a drink?”

I shook my head.

“I’ve had my ration. If I’d known, I’d have saved some. You see, I don’t sit up so late, as a rule.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

As he did so, my own last words rang familiarly in my ears: “I don’t sit up so late”… “Don’t sit up.”…

Jonah! He and Harry were due to arrive any moment!

Hope leaped up within me, and my heart began to beat violently. I glanced at the silver, still lying upon the rugs. Slowly it was diminishing, and the services of a second suit-case would soon be necessary. I calculated that to complete the bestowal would take the best part of an hour, and began to speculate upon the course events would take when the travellers appeared. I began to pray fervently that Harry would be unable to get in at the Club…

“Now, then, you three,” said a reproving voice. “I’m surprised at you.”

Daphne!

The rogues were trained to a hair.

Before she was framed in the doorway, the cold steel of another weapon was pressing against my throat, and the master was bowing in her direction.

“Madam, I beg that you will neither move nor cry out.”

My sister stood like a statue. Only the rise and fall of her bosom showed that she was alive. Pale as death, her eyes riveted on the speaker, who was holding his right hand markedly behind him, her unbound hair streaming over her shoulders, she made a beautiful and arresting picture. A kimono of softest apricot, over which sprawled vivid embroideries, here in the guise of parti-coloured dragons, there in that of a wanton butterfly, swathed her from throat to foot. From the mouths of its gaping sleeves her shapely wrists and hands thrust out snow-white and still as sculpture.

For a moment all eyes were upon her, as she stood motionless… Then the man with the eye-glass screwed it back into his eye, and resumed his dictation…

The spell was broken.

The packer left his work and, lifting a great chair bodily with apparent ease, set it noiselessly by my side.

The master bowed again.

“I congratulate you, madam, upon your great heart. I beg that you will join that gentleman.”

With a high head, My Lady Disdain swept to the spot indicated and sank into the chair.

“Please lean right back… Thank you.”

The cold steel was withdrawn from my throat, and I breathed more freely.

Nobby wriggled to get to my sister, but I held him fast.

“So it was burglars,” said Daphne.

“Looks like it,” said I.

I glanced at the leader, who had taken his seat upon the club-kerb. His right hand appeared to be resting upon his knee.

“I think,” said my sister, “I’ll have a cigarette.”

I handed her one from the pile and lighted it from my own. As I did so—

“
Courage
,” I whispered. “
Jonah me tardera pas
.”

“I beg,” said the spokesman, “that you will not whisper together. It tends to create an atmosphere of mistrust.”

My sister inclined her head with a silvery laugh.

“You have a large staff,” she said.

“That is my way. I am not a believer in the lone hand. But there you are.
Quot homines, tot sententioe
,” and with that, he spread out his hands and shrugged his broad shoulders.

Daphne raised her delicate eyebrows and blew out a cloud of smoke.

“‘The fewer men,’” she quoted, “‘the greater share of –
plunder
.’”

The shoulders began to shake.

“
Touché
,” was the reply. “A pretty thrust, madam. But you must read further on. ‘And gentlemen in
Mayfair
now abed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here.’ Shall we say that – er – honours are easy?” And the old villain fairly rocked with merriment.

Daphne laughed airily.

“Good for you,” she said. “As a matter of fact, sitting here, several things look extremely easy.”

“So, on the whole, they are. Mind you, lookers-on see the easy side. And you, madam, are a very privileged spectator.”

“I have paid for my seat,” flashed my sister.

“Royally. Still, deadhead or not, a spectator you are, and, as such, you see the easy side. Now, one of the greatest dangers that can befall a thief is avarice.”

“I suppose you’re doing this out of charity,” I blurted.

“Listen. Many a promising career of – er – appropriation has come to an abrupt and sordid end, and all because success but whetted where it should have satisfied.” He addressed my sister. “Happily for you, you do not sleep in your pearls. Otherwise, since you are here, I might have fallen… Who knows? As it is, pearls, diamonds and the emerald bracelets that came from Prague – you see, madam, I know them all – will lie upstairs untouched. I came for silver, and I shall take nothing else. Some day, perhaps…”

The quiet sing-song of his voice faded, and only the murmur of the ceaseless dictation remained. Then that, too, faltered and died…

For a second master and men stood motionless. Then the former pointed to Daphne and me, and Numbers Three and Four whipped to our side.

Somebody, whistling softly, was descending the stairs…

Just as it became recognizable the air slid out of a whistle into a song, and my unwitting brother-in-law invested the last two lines with all the mockery of pathos of which his inferior baritone voice was capable.

“I’m forever b-b-blowing b-b-bub-b-bles,

B-blinkln’ b-bub-b-bles in the air.”

He entered upon the last word, started ever so slightly at his reception, and then stood extremely still.

“Bubbles be blowed,” he said. “B-b-burglars, what? Shall I moisten the lips? Or would you rather I wore a sickly smile? I should like it to be a good photograph. You know, you can’t touch me, Reggibald. I’m in balk.” His eyes wandered round the room. “Why, there’s Nobby. And what’s the game? Musical Chairs? I know a better one than that.” His eyes returned to the master. “Now, don’t you look and I’ll hide in the hassock! Then, when I say ‘Cuckoo,’ you put down the musket and wish. Then – excuse me.”

Calmly he twitched a Paisley shawl from the back of the sofa and crossed to his wife. Tenderly he wrapped it about her feet and knees. By the time he had finished a third chair was awaiting him, and Numbers Three and Four had returned to their work.

“Pray sit down,” drawled the master. “And lean well back… That’s right. You know, I’m awfully sorry you left your bed.”

“Don’t mention it,” said Berry. “I wouldn’t have missed this for anything. How’s Dartmoor looking?”

The fat rogue sighed.

“I have not had a holiday,” he said, “for nearly two years. And night work tells, you know. Of course I rest during the day, but it isn’t the same.”

“How wicked! And they call this a free country. I should see your MP about it. Or wasn’t he up when you called?”

The other shook his head.

“As a matter of fact,” he said, “ he was out of Town. George, give the gentleman a match.” The packer picked up a match-stand and set it by Berry’s side. “I’m so sorry about the chocolates. You see, I wasn’t expecting – Hullo!”

At the mention of the magical word Nobby had leapt from my unready grasp and trotted across to the fireplace. There, to my disgust and vexation, he fixed the master with an expectant stare, and then sat up upon his hindquarters and begged a sweatmeat.

His favourer began to heave with merriment.

“What an engaging scrap!” he wheezed, taking a chocolate from an occasional table upon which the contents of a dessert dish had apparently been emptied. “Here, my little apostate… Well caught!”

With an irrational rapidity the Sealyham disposed of the first comfit he had been given for more than six months. Then he resumed the attractive posture which he had found so profitable. Lazily his patron continued to respond…

Resentfully I watched the procedure, endeavouring to console myself with the reflection that in a few hours Nature would assuredly administer to the backslider a more terrible and appropriate correction than any that I could devise.

Would Jonah never come?

I stole a glance at the clock. Five and twenty minutes to two. And when he did come, what then? Were he and Harry to blunder into the slough waist high, as we had done? Impossible. There was probably a man outside – possibly a car, which would set them thinking. Then, even if the brutes got away, their game would be spoiled. It wouldn’t be such a humiliating walk-over. Oh, why had Daphne come down? Her presence put any attempt at action out of the question. And why…