When he has sent a man on his mission, he refuses to see him again until the work has been done. If he wishes to send for you or communicate with you, he will. But it"s useless for you to try and see him yourself. You can drop me at the office!"
Desmond was inclined to agree with her on this point and said so.
"There is one thing especially that puzzles me, Miss Mackwayte,"
Desmond observed as they drove westward again, "and that is, how anyone could have known about your having this box of Nur-el-Din"s. Was there anybody else in the room when she gave you the package?"
"No," said Barbara, "I don"t think so. Wait a minute, though, Nur-el-Din"s maid must have come in very shortly after for I remember the opened the door when Captain Strangwise came to tell me daddy was waiting to take me home."
"Do you remember if Nur-el-Din actually mentioned the package in the presence of the maid!"
"As far as I can recollect just as the maid opened the door to Captain Strangwise, Nur-el-Din was impressing on me again to take great care of the package. I don"t think she actually mentioned the box but I remember her pointing at my bag where I had put the package."
"The maid didn"t see Nur-el-Din give you the box?"
"No, I"m sure of that. The room was empty save for us two. It was only just before Captain Strangwise knocked that I noticed Marie arranging Nur-el-Din"s dresses. She must have come in afterwards without my seeing her."
"Well then, this girl, Marie, didn"t see the dancer give you the box but she heard her refer to it. Is that right?"
"Yes, and, of course, Captain Strangwise..."
"What about him?"
"He must have heard what Nur-el-Din was saying, too!"
Desmond rubbed his chin.
"I say, you aren"t going to implicate old Strangwise, too, are you?" he asked.
Barbara did not reflect his smile.
"He seems to know Nur-el-Din pretty well," she said, "and I"ll tell you something else, that woman"s afraid of your friend, the Captain!"
"What do you mean?" asked Desmond.
"I was watching her in the gla.s.s last night as he was talking to her while you and I and daddy were chatting in the corner. I don"t know what he said to her, but she glanced over her shoulder with a look of terror in her eyes. I was watching her face in the gla.s.s. She looked positively hunted!"
The taxi stopped. Desmond jumped out and helped his companion to alight.
"Au revoir." she said to him, "never fear, you and I will meet very soon again!"
With that she was gone. Desmond looked at his watch. It pointed to a quarter to six.
"Now I wonder what time the leave-train starts tonight," he said aloud, one foot on the sideboard of the taxi.
"At 7.45, sir," said a voice.
"Desmond glanced round him. Then he saw it was the taxi-driver who had spoken.
"7.45, eh?" said Desmond. "From Victoria, I suppose?"
"Yes, sir," said the taxi-man.
"By Jove, I haven"t much time," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the officer "and there are some things I want to get before I go back across the Channel. And I shall have to see the Railway Transport Officer about my pa.s.s."
"That"s all right, sir," said the taxi-man, "I have your papers here"; he handed Desmond a couple of slips of paper which he took from his coat-pocket; "those will take you back to France all right, I think you"ll find!"
Desmond looked at the papers: they were quite in order and correctly filled up with his name, rank and regiment, and date.
The taxi-man cut short any further question by saying:
"If you"ll get into the cab again, sir, I"ll drive you where you want to go, and then wait while you have your dinner and take you to the station. By the way, your dinner"s ordered too!"
"But who the devil are you?" asked Desmond in amazement.
"On special service, the same as you, sir!" said the man with a grin and Desmond understood.
Really, the Chief was extremely thorough.
They went to the stores in the Haymarket, to Fortnum and Mason"s, and lastly, to a small, grubby shop at the back of Mayfair where Desmond and his brother had bought their cigarettes for years past. Desmond purchased a hundred of their favored brand, the Dionysus, as a reserve for his journey back to France, and stood chatting over old times with the fat, oily-faced Greek manager as the latter tied up his cigarettes into a clean white paper parcel, neatly sealed up with red sealing wax.
Then Desmond drove back to the Nineveh Hotel where he left his taxi-driving colleague in the courtyard on the understanding that at 7.25 the taxi would be waiting to drive him to the station.
Desmond went straight upstairs to his room to put his kit together. In the strong, firmly woven web spread by the Chief, he felt as helpless as a fly caught in a spider"s mesh. He had no idea of what his plans were. He only knew that he was going back to France, and that it was his business to get on the leave-boat that night.
As he pa.s.sed along the thickly carpeted, silent corridor to his room, he saw the door of Strangwise"s room standing ajar. He pushed open the door and walked in unceremoniously. A suitcase stood open on the floor with Strangwise bending over it. At his elbow was a table crowded with various parcels, a case of razors, different articles of kit, and some books. Desmond halted at the door, his box of cigarettes dangling from his finger.
"Hullo, Maurice," he said, "are you off, too?"
Strangwise spun round sharply. The blood had rushed to his face, staining it with a dark, angry flush.
"My G.o.d, how you startled me!" he exclaimed rather testily. "I never heard you come in!"
He turned rather abruptly and went on with his packing. He struck Desmond as being rather annoyed at the intrusion; the latter had never seen him out of temper before.
"Sorry if I b.u.t.ted in," said Desmond, sliding his box of cigarettes off his finger on to the littered table and sitting down on a chair. "I came in to say good-bye. I"m going back to France to-night!"
Maurice looked round quickly. He appeared to be quite his old self again and was all smiles now.
"So soon?" he said. "Why, I thought you were getting a job at the War Office!"
Desmond shook his head.
"Not good enough," he replied, "it"s back to the sandbags for mine. But where are you off to?"
"Got a bit of leave; the Intelligence folk seem to be through with me at last, so they"ve given me six weeks!"
"Going to the country" asked Desmond.
Strangwise nodded.