Sweet Danger (23 page)

‘I'm not, honestly I'm not,' she assured him earnestly. ‘I brought you round here to show you this because I may
have to ask you to take it down to Sweethearting on your own. You could, couldn't you?'

‘Naturally,' he said. ‘A good deal better than you could, I should think.'

‘That's what I thought,' said Amanda with unexpected humility.

Hal was about to enquire further, but he was interrupted. At that moment there sounded clearly and sharply from the other side of the mill the unmistakable crack of a revolver.

The two young people exchanged sharp, startled glances, and then the boy started off across the meadow to the footbridge, Amanda at his heels. As they reached the yard they heard another shot somewhere in the house, and Aunt Hatt screamed.

They hurried into the hall at the same moment as the good lady herself appeared at the head of the stairs. She was only partially clad, and a dressing jacket was clutched round her shoulders.

Mary and Guffy emerged from the kitchen a moment later, and Aunt Hatt screamed again.

‘Oh, it's you two, is it?' she said with relief as she peered down into the darkness of the hall. ‘Where's the burglar? Be careful, he's got a revolver.'

‘What burglar, darling?' Mary stepped forward. ‘What's happened?'

‘The burglar was in my bedroom. He stole my garnet necklace,' said Aunt Hatt with some asperity. ‘It wasn't of any value, but I had a sentimental regard for it. It belonged to my mother. I'd just set out my things on the bed for the party and I stepped into my clothes closet for my black skirt, when I heard a sound in the room behind me. I came out and there he was, a perfectly strange man in my room, rummaging among the things on my dresser. He snatched the garnet necklace out of my trinket case – it only came back yesterday after having a new clasp – the necklace, I mean, not the box.'

‘What happened to the man?'

‘He climbed out of the window on to that ledge above the coach-house roof.' Aunt Hatt was more outraged than frightened and her kindly grey eyes flashed angrily. ‘I shouted at him,' she said. ‘And he had the impudence to point a gun at me. I stepped back from the window, a little alarmed I suppose, and the next thing I heard was firing. Oh, listen! What was that?'

Her last words ended on a little squeak of alarm as a third shot shattered the drowsy silence of the mill. Before anyone could speak, there was another report, and another, and another, until it sounded as though there was a pitched battle in the yard.

Guffy was making for the scene of action, with Mary clinging to his arm to prevent him, when the patch of brilliant sunshine framed by the doorway was obscured by the startling apparition of a strange gunman backing into its shelter. He was firing at some assailant hitherto unseen, and appeared to be a stranger to them all, a little thickset man with a roll of red fat between his coat collar and his cap.

Guffy disengaged himself from Mary's restraining hold, and took a flying leap on to the intruder's back, pinioning his arms to his sides with the grip of a bear. The man swore viciously, and struggled to free himself, but Hal stepped forward and snatched the gun from his hand.

‘Here, let me go, can't yer?' said their captive, revealing an unexpectedly squeaky voice. ‘Don't hold me in the doorway. There's a female lunatic out there with a gun.'

‘Hold him!' shouted Amanda. ‘Hold him!'

‘That's the man.' Aunt Hatt advanced menacingly upon the now helpless captive. ‘That's the man who took my garnet necklace. Make him give it back.'

‘Look out!' bellowed the stranger, suddenly doubling up as footsteps sounded on the stones without. ‘Here she comes. She's a homicidal maniac, I tell yer.'

The whole struggling group fell back a pace or two as
once again the patch of sunlight vanished, to give place to an extraordinary individual who, revolver in hand, now appeared upon the threshold. It was a gaunt figure clad in a long dark skirt and skimpy blouse, and upon its head an old felt hat was unbecomingly tied with what appeared to be a bootlace. It stood for a moment in the doorway while they gasped at it, and then an unmistakable, slightly pedantic voice said clearly: ‘She walks in beauty like the night. I say, hang on to that fellow. Hysterical little soul, isn't he? He's blown a most unbecoming hole through my new blue bonnet.'

‘Campion!' said Guffy in a strangled voice. ‘Well, I'm damned.'

‘Not necessarily,' said the new-corner affably. ‘By the way, before we get chatty, let's tie this fellow up. Amanda, the clothes line.'

Amanda was the only one of the party who was not temporarily dazed by this unexpected development, and she trotted out into the kitchen obediently.

Ten minutes later the man who had stolen Aunt Hatt's garnet necklace in what at first sight appeared an unnecessarily dramatic fashion, was reposing safely under the dining-room table, neatly trussed.

The party then adjourned to the cool of the hall once more. Guffy was shaken with a mixture of amazement and delight, and an overwhelming sense of relief. No restoration monarchist could have been more delighted at the return of his prince and leader than this foolish, but stout-hearted Grand Vizier of Averna to see the Hereditary Paladin once again.

Mr Campion sat down on the stairs where he was in the shadow and out of sight of the doorway, while they gathered round him, curious and as yet a little incredulous.

‘Mr Campion, you're wearing my old clothes.'

Aunt Hatt peered at the skirt as she spoke.

‘My landlady gave them to me,' said Campion casually,
indicating Amanda. ‘When I presented myself at her mill some days ago I explained my desire to get about unnoticed in the dusk, and she very obligingly obtained these garments to effect my disguise.'

Guffy gaped at him. ‘Then you never boarded the
Marquisita?
' he said. ‘I knew there was something fishy about that letter.'

The pale young man, looking somehow less foolish without his spectacles, had the grace to appear penitent.

‘I admit my letter was a little misleading,' he said. ‘As a matter of fact that whole incident was rather amusing. The engaging Mr Parrot and I came to a little agreement.'

As he spoke he kept his eyes fixed upon Guffy's face as though he was anxious to explain and to apologize.

‘I had the toothache, you see,' he went on airily, ‘and we called in at my flat for a scarf and a coat. Unknown to poor old Parrott (two t's, he tells me – that's to make it clear that he's nothing to do with the other branch of the family) my friend McCaffy was waiting for me in the cupboard wearing my second-best blue suit. I had the best one on, you see. I don't know if you're following all this, but there really isn't time to go into it very fully. Poor old McCaffy's a delightful soul, on for absolutely anything and one of the very best. He's always hard up, poor fellow, and occasionally I'm able to put a job in his way. This was one of them. You see, unfortunately for him he resembles me extraordinarily, except in the lower part of the face. To make the likeness more harmful he's made a study of my more revolting mannerisms, and if he can only wrap up his mouth and his chin he can pass very easily for me. Well –' he spread out his hands – ‘during the business interview I had with Pop Savanake, or whatever his friends call him, I rang up McCaffy, who was sitting in the outer office of my insurance brokers by appointment in case my interview turned out as I thought it might. As soon as he got my clever message, which was ostensibly to my broker, he handed on
as much of it as was good for him to the fellow who does my business, and then doubled round to wait for me in the clothes cupboard. The rest was childish but so pretty. I went into the cupboard with a marble in my cheek and a hanky over it and McCaffy came out with a muffler round his face. He went off with Mr Parrott for a nice sea voyage, with nothing but his passage money home at the end of it, for on examining the sealed orders handed to me by the captain of industry, he discovered them to contain just that. I hung about until it got dark, motor-cycled down to Sweethearting and walked the rest of the way over the fields in the dawn without seeing a soul. Then I burgled the mill and left the rest to Amanda, for whose creditable performance she will be mentioned in my will. By the way, remind me, Amanda, when the fun is over: I must wire McCaffy his passage money to Rio.'

Guffy shook his head. ‘If you've been in the mill the entire time,' he said, ‘why on earth you chose to hide there, frightening the lives out of us and worrying us to death, I can't possibly imagine.'

Mr Campion's pale, foolish face became regretful. ‘I'm sorry about that,' he said. ‘But what else could I possibly do? I've had to keep you in the dark because it was absolutely necessary for you all to behave exactly as if I had deserted you. You see, in this instance it really is a case of “spies everywhere”. The place is swarming with them.'

Guffy was still dubious. His leisurely mind was recalling the incidents of the past few days.

‘Then you explain Amanda's behaviour,' he said. ‘The three hundred pounds – the releasing of Miss Huntingforest after the raid – the new car. I suppose you engineered all that?'

Mr Campion regarded his friend and the seriousness in his face was so unlike him that Guffy was silenced altogether.

‘The exciting relation of my astounding adventures while in hiding I shall reserve for the club banquet,' Campion continued. ‘As it is, my appearance at this particular juncture
is an accident. But for the unforeseen intrusion of our friend in the next room you would have remained in ignorance of my duplicity until this evening. So, my dear old birds, do carry on as usual. Everything depends on that.'

‘You say “everything”,' said Guffy gloomily. ‘Everything's over. Our failure is complete and utter.'

‘Failure?' exclaimed the Hereditary Paladin with spirit. ‘My poor dear imbecile friend, if we can screw our courage to the sticking point, as we say on the halls, we shall make good – succeed – win through – make the bell ring and get our money back. It's only the next few hours which are difficult, and they're so difficult and tetchy that I feel that Miss Huntingforest and Mary ought to be out of it, somehow. But as the whole success of the circus depends upon their complicity, I'm asking them to take the risk.'

‘I imagine one more risk or so won't make much difference to me,' said Aunt Hatt grimly.

Guffy looked uncomfortable. ‘Miss Huntingforest, I shall never forgive myself for the inconvenience and trouble we've brought upon you,' he said.

‘They started before you came,' said the lady with resignation.

‘Count us in on it,' said Mary firmly, and the older woman nodded.

Mr Campion leant forward, a comic figure in his remarkable garments.

‘The situation, so far,' he observed, ‘is definitely sound. If it weren't for the simple-livers on the heath and the evidence delivered so neatly by the gentleman in the dining-room that our opponents are not so daft as I had hoped, the affair would be almost plain sailing. As it is, I'm afraid there's a risk, a much greater one than I dreamed would ever be possible. These fellows are desperate. They're working for a man who's never yet been disappointed in anything he set his mind on.'

‘When you say the situation is sound,' said Guffy, ‘what
do you mean? I don't see that we're any further on than we were at the beginning.'

‘Not with the Charter well on its way to Whitehall? That's a tremendous step. Oh, I forgot . . . Dear, dear, I hope you're not going to be annoyed. You see, what happened was this. When I heard about Glencannon's letter from Amanda I asked her to drop into Norwich for the drum. It never dawned on me that you three heroes would undertake the same task or I'd have left it to you. However, when at last it came into the house I couldn't keep my hands off it. I watched Hal take it out of the car and then, seeing him looking out of his bedroom window, I guessed that he'd got it up there. I sneaked round the back of the mill, got in through the side door, and secreted myself on the upper landing, so that as soon as Hal went down to meet you fellows I was able to nip in and get the thing.'

‘But how did you know the Charter was inside?'

‘I didn't, and it wasn't,' said the Hereditary Paladin. ‘It was where I hoped it would be from the moment I read the verse on the oak. The Charter was written on parchment, you remember. Well, as a matter of fact, it formed the under-head of the drum itself. Rather a natty hiding place, don't you think? All the clerical work was on the inside, of course. It was genuine all right. Henry the Fourth's seal and everything. Lugg took it over the fields to the Sweethearting road early this morning, I hope, and from there Eager-Wright will take it to town.'

Guffy, who had been listening to these revelations with the delight of a child, now became depressed.

‘Of course,' he said, ‘you don't know. Rather an awkward thing's happened to Wright and Farquharson.'

‘Yes,' began Mary, but words failed her as she caught the gleam in Amanda's eyes.

Guffy looked scandalized. ‘Good heavens, Campion, was that you, too? I say, you know, it'll take a bit of explaining, won't it?'

‘It was the only way,' said the Hereditary Paladin shamelessly. ‘Consider: this village is swarming with potential trouble-mongers. They've made two attempts to discover if we've got hold of anything and if so to appropriate it. They're more or less convinced – or were until a few hours ago – that we have nothing. And yet they can't understand why we're still hanging about. They believe I'm safely on the way to South America, but at the same time they believe that you're on to something or you'd hardly remain here. Well, reflect. If Eager-Wright sets out post-haste for town in the ordinary way they'd naturally hold him up, search him and take whatever was going. The problem that faced your old friend Albert is obvious to you. Those two birds had to be got away out of the community without arousing any suspicion whatever, and the arrest notion seemed to be the only one that fitted into the case. Lugg fixed it up this morning by phone from Sweethearting. We have a lot of odd friends in town who have no difficulty in getting hold of a little thing like a uniform or two. I hope they did their stuff well?'