The Ka of Gifford Hillary (29 page)

Johnny paused for a moment. ‘So you see the set up. Poor old Giff loved her to distraction, and it’s clear from what she said to Chawton that Giff preferred to put up with the torture of knowing that she was taking lovers on the side when she felt an urge that way rather than cut her out of his life altogether. Now do you get what I am driving at?’

Sue nodded. ‘Yes; it could hardly be clearer. If your uncle has been playing the complaisant husband for years it’s unthinkable that on learning that she was having an affair with the Welsh Professor he would have gone beserk and beaten the poor little devil to death.’

‘You’ve said it, sweetie. But if Giff didn’t kill the Prof, who did? And with Giff’s alleged motive for committing suicide burst wide open, who killed him? It looks to me as if
there must have been a third man, presumably another of Ankaret’s lovers, who killed them both. God alone knows what really happened, but of one thing I’m certain: Ankaret holds the key to the mystery, and I believe I’ve got hold of the means to make her talk.’

He told Sue then how he had twice come upon Ankaret rummaging in my desk, and now had its contents locked safely away in a suit-case in his room.

Naturally she was tremendously intrigued, and they were still absorbed in their speculations about the tragedy at Long-shot when we drew up at Buckler’s Hard.

The double row of ancient cottages with a broad green between sloping down to a bend in the Beaulieu River makes it one of the beauty spots of South Hampshire. In the old days many fine ships were built there, some by my own forebears, and several that fought under Nelson at Trafalgar. The only big building in the hamlet, at the far end on the left-hand side, is now an hotel, and it is called The Master Builder’s, because it was once the residence of the dockyard superintendent. The little restaurant there is one of the best for many miles around, as not only is its charm preserved by old prints and ship’s furnishings, but it provides excellent cooking and a good cellar. I had enjoyed many a pleasant evening there, but now being debarred from gastronomic delights I did not accompany Johnny and Sue inside.

Instead I drifted down to the river and surveyed with an expert’s eye the lines of the numerous fine yachts which were moored there. Then as twilight fell I returned up the slope and kept watch on the door of the inn so that I should not miss the lovers when they came out.

In due course they emerged and, turning into the garden, walked over to a bench at its far end where they sat down. It was dark now, but I could see their faces well enough to guess that the latter part of their dinner must have been somewhat marred by thoughts of the explanation they were about to have.

It was Sue who opened the matter by saying: ‘Well, come on; let’s get it over.’

‘All right,’ Johnny agreed. ‘I think the best thing would be for you to state the case you have against me.’

Sue did so, and I thought very lucidly. ‘It’s this. According
to Daddy, when you had your board meeting your uncle disclosed a lot of Top Secret information which could have come only from you. That is a Service matter so it effects me only as throwing grave doubt on your integrity. The thing that really shocked me so badly was the object with which you gave away these matters. It was to aid your uncle in a plot to bring about the disbandment of the Royal Navy, and afterwards you admitted to me yourself that you would like to see that happen.’

‘O.K. Let’s take first things first. I have already given you my word that I did not brief Giff on his proposal. It came to me as a bomb-shell, just as much as it did to the others. I was under the impression that when last we met you had accepted my assurance about that.’

‘I did; at least to the extent that you did not actually write out his proposal for him or know that he was going to make it. But he must have got his information from you. During the past year you have seen a lot of him, and must have talked to him pretty freely about what an atomic war would be like. Naturally men in your position don’t discuss such matters with every Tom, Dick and Harry, but they do among their own kind whom they regard as safe. I know that, because I’ve often heard some of our Naval friends speak of things to Daddy that they would not dream of mentioning outside a house like ours.’

‘To some extent you are right about that,’ Johnny admitted. ‘But talking in general terms, in the sort of circumstances you have in mind, is very different from disclosing Top Secret information. Giff never tried to pump me; such a thought would never have entered his head. And I swear by my love for you, Sue, that he never had from me the stuff he spouted at that meeting.’

‘Where else could he have got it, then, seeing that these secrets are known only to a very limited number of people?’

‘I haven’t an idea; but it must have been from someone pretty high up, because he knew about trends of policy that have not yet even come my way.’

‘Very well; I’ll take your word that you didn’t brief him even unconsciously; so that disposes of that. But you backed his proposal, and made it clear to me that you are a hundred per cent in favour of this frightful idea of scrapping the Navy.’

Johnny sighed. ‘I did, my dear; and much as I love you I can’t go back on that. I wouldn’t be honest if I even led you to believe that I am prepared to compromise about it. You see, the nation is up against it in the matter of money and the Services in the matter of men. The balance of Trade having gone against us big economies must be effected, and it is just a question of deciding which forms of sacrifice will be least prejudicial to our safety.

‘The number of men in the Navy today is fifty per cent greater than it was in 1936; it is the only one of the three Services which will not accept a material reduction in manpower over the next few years and the only one which is increasing rather than reducing its demands for money. The increase in man-power has no relation to the number of ships it could send to sea. On the contrary, they would look a miserable sight compared to the Fleet of the 1930’s, and, of course, the fact that two-thirds of the chaps now dressed as sailors are not sailors at all. They are either airmen or technicians, and would be of far more value if they were redeployed into only slightly different jobs with the Air Force proper.

‘If that could be done there would be no more building of these fantastically costly aircraft carriers, and all the smaller craft which are needed to protect them. Those in commission could be paid off and the saving would be immense.

‘Then there is the question of the strictly nautical—cruisers, destroyers, and so on. I’ll admit that they have a certain use in a cold war, for showing the flag in foreign ports; but if we spent the cost of their upkeep in radio programmes for the Arab and Asiatic nations, aimed at countering Soviet propaganda, we would get infinitely better value for our money.’

‘So you would have us hand the seas over to the Russians without firing a shot?’ Sue challenged him.

‘No,’ he replied promptly. ‘But if the thing lasted long enough for there to be any sea war at all our shots should come from aircraft and guided missile sites. Even in the last war the big ships hardly dared to show their bows out from harbour from fear of being bombed or torpedoed from the air, and, if the Russians were fools enough to send their
Fleet into the North Sea, sending it to the bottom would be a piece of cake.

‘I hate to disillusion you, Sue, but nine-tenths of the ships that the Navy has in commission are already as much out of date as Roman galleys would have been in Nelson’s time. As for the new types they are building, to my mind it is simply chucking money down the drain; because the only way we can now hope to cut our cloth according to our needs is to scrap all the most expensive weapons and methods of waging war which are unlikely to be brought into use during a brief, violent conflict dominated by the use of thermonuclear missiles. And, of course, the proposed reduction in personnel makes it more imperative than ever that every possible man should be allocated to the units which will have to do the fighting.’

‘Our sailors have always done their share, and more, of that.’ Sue protested, ‘so why pick on the Navy?’

‘Because it is now our least valuable arm,’ Johnny replied patiently. ‘Its ships cost enormous sums to build and maintain, and it ties up a higher percentage of technicians than either of the other Services. Thermo-nuclear development must be maintained and increased if possible. The Army cannot be cut much further owing to our commitments on the Continent and overseas. The brunt of any future war must be borne by the R.A.F. So what have we left? Only the Navy, and it is a luxury we can no longer afford.’

‘I don’t agree. Daddy says the Fleet Carriers now form our first line of battle; and that as there can be no guarantee about it being a short war it is absolutely vital that we should keep on building more and better small ships for convoy protection.’

‘I know all that, darling; I’ve heard it argued a thousand times, but what it comes down to is a question of priorities; and can you honestly say that your father is in a position to judge such matters?’

‘Of course he is; he would never have reached such high rank otherwise, and with all his years of service he must know far more about these problems than you do.’

‘Now listen, Sue. Everyone knows that your father was a fine sailor, and I have a great admiration for him as a man; but he has been out of the Service for several years. In these
days new developments occur with terrifying swiftness. The atom has entirely changed all our conceptions of warfare. Only a very limited number of people have the faintest idea of what is likely to happen if there is a blow-up. By pure chance I am one of them, whereas your father has long since ceased to have access to Top Secret matters. You must admit that’s true.’

‘Yes,’ Sue agreed, ‘I suppose it is.’

‘Very well, then. In fairness to me you’ve got to keep your father’s views out of this. And even if he were right it doesn’t alter the situation. I’ve given you my word that I had no hand in Giff’s plot to sabotage the Navy; but it is my considered opinion, based on the very latest appreciations of what the next war will be like, that for the safety of our country the Navy must sacrifice itself and rest upon its past glories. That being so, it is my positive duty to throw any little weight that I may have into working towards what is called the New Look, which amounts to merging all three Services into one that has few, if any, ships.’

For a moment Sue was silent, then she said: ‘I’d never try to come between you and your conscience, Johnny. Since you consider that your duty, that’s what you must do. All the same I feel this makes an awful breach between us.’

‘Oh come, darling!’ He reached out and took her hand. ‘Don’t think I don’t understand your feelings. You wouldn’t be you if you’d just taken it as a matter of course; and it was a piece of really bad luck for both of us that we should have been driven into discussing the issue at all. But since we’ve had to, I think you’ll agree now that your resentment has nothing personal in it, and is really the outcome of loyalty and affection for the things you have been brought up to admire.’

Sue had not withdrawn her hand, and she nodded. ‘I suppose it is really.’

‘Then surely you’re not going to let sentiment for something impersonal weigh with you more than all we mean to one another? I’ve been nearly crazy with worry since we quarrelled. You do still love me, Sue, don’t you?’

‘Of—of course I do,’ she gulped, now very near to tears.

‘Oh my sweet, bless you for that! Don’t cry, darling. Please, please let’s forget all this and never say another word about
it. Let’s think of nothing but one another and be wonderfully happy together as we were before.’

In response she lifted her face and turned towards him. Next moment they were in each other’s arms.

This happy outcome of their meeting took one load off my mind, and feeling that to linger there longer would be unwarrantable spying on them, I returned to the car to wait with as much patience as I could muster until Johnny should convey me back to Longshot.

As I expected, the wait proved a lengthy one and it was made the less supportable by my no longer having anything to keep my mind off gloomy speculations about what might happen to Ankaret once Johnny had gone through my papers. The only hope for her now seemed to be in his deciding against handing her forgeries over to the police. If she refused to talk, without professional aid he would still be unable to prove that she had known anything about either of the murders until after they had been committed, and it did not seem to have occurred to him that she might have played an active part in them. It was therefore possible that, rather than expose the family to the scandal that her trial as an accessory would bring about, he might show her mercy. It was too, I could only suppose, some such line of reasoning which at the critical moment had determined her against putting an end to herself.

At last the lovers, all unsuspicious of my presence, rejoined me, and we set off towards Sue’s home. Johnny pulled up on the corner from which he had collected her, and after a prolonged succession of good-night kisses they tore themselves apart. Humming cheerfully to himself now he headed the car south-east. As we ran onward I took no particular notice of the glow in the sky ahead; for I knew that it was caused by the escape jet of the huge oil refinery at Fawley, which can be seen for many miles around. But when we drew nearer to Longshot I saw that the glow was brighter over a spot that lay well to the west of Fawley and that it had an angry reddish tinge. After another mile the truth flashed upon me. My old home was on fire.

Johnny realised it at the same moment. Jamming his foot down on the accelerator he proceeded to take risks on the corners that he would never normally have done. Fortunately
the lodge gates were open and to the accompaniment of loud blasts of the horn the car shot through them. Half way up the drive we rounded a group of ancient trees and could see the house clearly. It was the east wing that was on fire and tongues of flame were leaping up from a gaping hole in its roof.