The Tiger In the Smoke (25 page)

He found this so amazing that his own predicament with all its danger was temporarily eclipsed. Elginbrodde had been so right. The more he heard about him the more evident that became. They
were
alike, both the same odd mixture, practical but imaginative, conventional but ready to take a chance. All the jealousy Geoffrey had ever felt of Martin flared up to its highest peak in a searing sweep, and died outright like an exhausted flame. He felt freed-of-it suddenly, as Meg became, mysteriously, entirely his own.

Meanwhile his immediate danger was becoming more acute. Havoc was growing practical.

‘Now,' he was saying, ‘keep steady. I've been working on this and so far I've done absolutely nothing I didn't mean to do if it came to it. I arranged with myself that I'd go about it just as we went about the raid, good planning, good organization, and unhesitating execution. Those are the things which don't fail. No softness, no funking, and no witnesses. The first thing to do is to get the envelope Elginbrodde left. That's vital. The raid was a top-secret job. None of us knew where we went, except Elginbrodde, and you could have crucified him before he'd have told you. We thought it was France, but it might have been anywhere along the whole west coast of Europe. We've got to have the exact location of the house, and the position of the stuff in the house. There'll be legal documents, too, papers giving the bearer permission to take the stuff away. Elginbrodde will have thought of that. He wanted his wife's new bloke to get it without any trouble. That was his whole idea. Once I hold those documents, the foreign police'll be on our side. They'll help us shift it, if necessary. We want the lot, don't we, not a handful each?'

Tiddy Doll sat motionless, his chin raised, the dark glasses hiding any expression in his eyes.

‘'Oo'd Major Elginbrodde give the letter to?' he said at last. ‘'Is wife?'

‘No. She'd open it. Any woman would. I didn't worry about that. I made certain he'd leave it with his lawyers.'

It was the first time the word had been mentioned and at once the atmosphere became tense. Doll wet his lips.

‘You went to their office last night to see, didn't yer?'

‘Yes.' The drawl had returned to the over-careful voice. ‘I always meant to do that. As soon as I'd seen a contact of mine and changed my clothes, I went down there.' Havoc paused and in the respite Tiddy Doll did a terrifying thing. He slid out a foot and kicked the bed on which Geoffrey lay. He did it very stealthily, but it was a definite movement guaranteed to call the occupant's attention to anything about to be said.

‘That's where you went on the bash, ain't it, Gaffer?' he prompted gently.

‘Yes. No interference allowed, that was the rule I made.'

There was silence at the conference table and after a long time Doll spoke uneasily. Now that the dream which had kept him going for so long was becoming a reality, it was losing its comfort and his resolution wavered.

‘What makes you so certain the stuff's going to be there after all this time, Gaffer?' he asked.

‘Because it's waiting for me.' The conviction in the tone was absolute and it impressed them. ‘I'm meant to find it. I knew that as soon as I heard of it, that night on the cliffs.' He laughed softly. ‘You won't understand this, but I'll tell you. Elginbrodde had to confide in me, and probably the blasted moon had to come out just at that moment to make him do it. We
had
to go on the trip together in the first place, and you can tell that's true by the queer way it happened. I was special, see. There were half a million other sergeants in the army who might have been chosen, but they had to find me for the job, and do you know how they did it?'

He drew them closer to him, pouring out the essence of his belief into their uneasy ears.

‘You've never heard of a Hollerith, have you? It was a thing they had in the army, based on an American business invention. I can't explain it to you but it was a great room-sized machine, like a glorified cash register, I've heard. They decided on the things they wanted in a chap – athletic, combat-trained, been in a few scrapes, reckless, able to climb and if necessary carry someone who couldn't, age twenty-six, not particular, not known to have a family or a woman, good with men, or anything else they thought of right down to the colour of his eyes. Then they pressed all the buttons and up came his card with his name and number on it. If there were two or three chaps there were two or three cards. Sound like magic to you, Corporal?'

It sounded like something else to the man from Tiddington. He licked his dry lips.

‘Go on, Gaffer.'

‘I was found by that machine,' said Havoc earnestly. ‘Mine was the only card that turned up, and do you know where I was? I was under guard waiting for court martial. It was looking as though I'd come really unstuck at last. But suddenly I was fetched out, all forgiven, rank restored, allowed to volunteer, trained, and paired with Elginbrodde. They wanted
me
. I was the one. It was a tricky time and they were in a jam and I appeared.'

He leaned back on his box and Geoffrey's bed shook a little as he touched it.

‘You'll say there's nothing in that,' he went on. ‘That's a straight invention by a scientist. But the rest isn't. While I was training with Elginbrodde I took the trouble to inquire about him, and do you know what I found? I found I knew the people he knew, and that he was a man I could always keep my eye on. He was the one and only officer in the whole army who I was in a position to watch all the time. I knew someone who was close to him, see? And they were as close to me as anyone has ever been. That's why, as soon as he spoke to me on the cliff, I knew that what he said was important to me and part of my life.'

He waited for their reaction and when they merely shuffled uncomfortably he laughed again.

‘I told you you'd never understand it. It's when you're alone hour after hour in a cell like a monk that you see these things. To you it sounds like a coincidence, but there aren't any coincidences, only opportunities. Keep your feet on the ground and you'll see that.'

‘Sounds like a religion to me,' said Bill and he giggled because he was thrilled and drawn by the emotion ruffling the smooth voice.

Havoc regarded him sombrely. ‘Religion nuts! This is the thing religion goes soft on. Call it the Science of Luck, that's my name for it. There's only two rules in it: watch all the time and never do the soft thing. I've stuck to that and it's given me power.'

‘That's right, Gaffer, you've got power all right.' Doll spoke hurriedly. He knew men were often a little queer when they came out after a long prison term, but he was frightened all the same. ‘You've been able to watch Elginbrodde's wife while you was inside?'

‘Of course I have. I've watched you all. You can hear more in stir than you can out if you give your mind to it. I got all the information I wanted in, and all the orders I had to give out. I knew she was going to marry again two months before the engagement was announced.'

‘Married again?' This was news to them all and Roly sat back, ludicrous horror on his sharp-featured face. ‘You're not tellin' us she's done it? The new feller ain't got the envelope?'

‘No. He doesn't know about it yet, but he will, and that's the hurry. When I got the news I couldn't make my break immediately. The Doc I was working on was showing interest, but he wasn't ripe, so I got the word out to Duds and he's been doing the stunt which we arranged if ever this should happen when I was inside. It was a beautiful idea and it was working like a dream. My contact expected the wedding would be called off, but now Duds has come unstuck. He did something soft or it wouldn't have happened. Duds was soft. He got us shopped last time because he wouldn't stick a man he'd been drinking with. We had to wait for another, and by that time the luck had changed. I don't know what he did this time. Perhaps the girl's new bloke got him.'

So it had come. Geoffrey waited for the next words with the stabbing pain of fear taking his breath away. One of the three must put two and two together now.

But when Doll spoke his mind was still on the envelope, that magic Open Sesame which would unlock the cave.

‘And it weren't at the lawyers,?' he said thoughtfully.

‘No. I'd made so sure of that.' Havoc sounded introspective, as if he were searching for some flaw which could account for his lack of success. Bright eyes like rats' eyes were watching him from the farther wall. The men had their coats on and sat hugging their wretched instruments, waiting for breakfast and the new day.

‘I shall get it though,' he said. ‘I tried one other place tonight. It was an address I had given me when I got out. My contact had it ready for me. I went to the new bloke's house, the one he's getting ready to take the girl to when he marries her. It was no good, though. They hadn't moved in properly. There weren't any papers in the place at all.' He laughed abruptly. ‘I nearly walked into trouble there. I saw a busy outside, but I took the risk and went on in. I thought I had plenty of time with the fog so thick, but they must have been waiting for his call for they came along in strength, and I had to jump for it. There was someone in the house, too. A woman. I smelled her face powder.'

Geoffrey's scalp was crawling and his lips moved helplessly against the gag.

‘She couldn't have seen me,' Havoc was saying. ‘She was out on the stairs when I was in one of the rooms. I didn't waste any time on her. It wasn't because I went soft. The police cars had turned up by the time I noticed her, and I had to slip off.'

‘It must have been 'er.' Roly spoke in a whisper, as if he were himself hiding in a surrounded house. ‘It must 'ave been the Major's widow 'erself. There ain't no servant girls now, Gaffer. All that's been done away with while you was inside.'

‘What?' The question sounded appalled. The unexpectedness of its passion startled them all.

‘It was 'er,' Roly repeated. ‘Must 'ave been. Now if you 'ad only woodened '
er
, we'd have 'ad all the time in the world,' he added weakly.

‘I didn't know.' Havoc's voice grew high. ‘I tell you I didn't know. I did like the smell of the powder, but I didn't know.'

‘That ain't sense, Gaffer, and you know it.' Tiddy Doll's intervention was instinctive. He alone recognized Havoc's superstition for what it was and he dragged the man back to solid ground. ‘What I want to ask is, why was the busy outside the new bloke's 'ouse at all? Did this private contact you keep talking about tip the p'lice orf? Or did one of their dicks spot you was after something of Elginbrodde's when you was at the lawyers'? If so p'raps they've stopped all the gaps in the hedge.'

The direct questions brought an answer which startled everybody.

‘Do you know you're not the first person to say that to me tonight, Corporal?'

Tiddy Doll nodded and the light played on his black glasses, emphasizing their secretiveness.

‘That's the reason your wide-boy friends won't give you no help, Gaffer,' he said earnestly. ‘That's why you ‘ad to come to us, who ain't much bottle. You went wild at the lawyers'. You didn't even wear gloves.'

‘Of course I wore gloves.'

‘You didn't, you know.' Tiddy was wagging his great head. ‘That was a habit you got out of in the war. It was such an ordinary habit that it went clean out of your mind. You knifed three people at the lawyers' tonight just because they'd seen and might recognize you, and yet you went and left your signature all over the shop. You ain't gone soft tonight, Gaffer, you've gone wild.'

There was silence as he finished speaking. Havoc's cold thrill of realization was so acute that they all felt it. His shock of self-discovery touched them like a draught. Tiddy Doll was merciless.

‘It was all in the paper. You couldn't 'ave read it, Gaffer, not like we did.' His tone was smug and mocking. He was trying to make the man angry, prodding him, cutting the ground round him like a fighter tormenting a bull.

They were all aware of it, but only the prisoner, helpless behind him, realized its purpose.

‘You'll 'ave to stick to your rule now, won't you, Gaffer?' Doll was breathing hard, his blank eyes turned towards the dark unhappy face. ‘No interference, that's what you said. As you've started, so you'll 'ave to go on.'

‘Tiddy!' Roly could bear the strain no longer. ‘You've gorn out of your mind, mate. Shut up, can't yer?'

‘But he's dead right.' The voice which was no longer smooth, broke into the quarrel. ‘He's right. I ought to have worn gloves, and I ought to have seen to the woman in Levett's new house, whoever she was. I – '

‘'Oose 'ouse?' Tiddy Doll forgot every other consideration as the name hit him in the face. ‘'Oose, did you say?'

‘Geoffrey Levett's.' Havoc's suspicion flared and he swung round, ready to see some deep and terrible significance in the slightest of coincidences. ‘Levett. He's the new bloke. He's the one the envelope is to go to. Why? Speak up, Corporal. Why? Have you ever heard that name before?'

—

MEANWHILE, JUST ABOVE
in the street market, the early fish queue, damp as its quarry, struggled out of the gutter and on to the pavement. It was a long ragged line and it idled in the path of the carters carrying sacks into the greengrocer's, apologized good-temperedly, and obstructed again.

This morning the fog was thicker than ever. Twenty-four hours of city vapours had given it body and bouquet, and its chill was spiteful.

The ‘few words' which were to develop so quickly into a full-size street row began inside a shop. The owner was a stout woman who had draped herself in quite a dozen knitted garments, each one visible at least in part, but she was still cold and irritable. She spoke her mind to two men who had just confronted her with a polite request.