The Devil's Cocktail (10 page)

‘And now, Miss Shannon and gentlemen, that's my story, and I'm here to help see this thing through. The United States is in this little affair up to the neck.'

He stopped talking and with a sigh took another cigar from his case. Hugh got up and walked thoughtfully up and down the room.

‘It seems to me, Oscar,' remarked Cousins, ‘that the British Secret Service has a lot to thank you for!'

‘I guess not,' replied Miles. ‘You put me on to those guys. I reckon you saw through them and the credit's yours.'

Hugh stopped walking, and looked keenly at the other two.

‘Just imagine!' he said. ‘Here have we been thinking that Russia
was only harmful in an insidious way that she could merely stab us and other nations in the back, by means of Bolshevik propaganda, and all the time she is preparing to invade India, and is in alliance with Germany, whom we thought crushed. Good Heavens! It's absolutely astounding. But how on earth is this invasion to take place!'

‘You've got me there!' said Miles. ‘At her most powerful period Russia couldn't manage an invasion, and I'm darned if I know how her fleet can swoop on India. Even if she has built a hoard of ships, they've sure got to come a mighty long distance from either direction to get here.'

‘Great Scott!' ejaculated Cousins.

The others looked at him in surprise.

‘What's getting you, Jerry?' inquired the American.

‘I think I've got it,' said the little man. ‘The fleets they mean are not battleships and cruisers, but
airships
!'

Hugh whistled.

‘I believe you've hit it!' said Miles.

‘That's it,' said Hugh, with decision. ‘While we've been watching their Communistic antics with contemptuous indifference, they've been secretly building airships, perhaps for years, and for Germany as well as for themselves.'

‘And China, too,' nodded Cousins. ‘I suppose behind all the disorder in that country, which we sent our troops to check, the Russians and Germans are drilling and equipping an orderly army and building airships somewhere in the interior. Certainly, Oscar my lad, you have tumbled on the biggest plot that has ever threatened the peace of the world.'

‘And we know so much, and yet so little,' said Hugh. ‘When did you say that meeting was to be held, Miles?'

‘On December the twenty-first! I don't know where, or at what time, of course.'

‘That's got to be found out, even if I have to wring someone's neck for the information. Today is the eighteenth of November, so we've got a month. I shall be present at that meeting!'

‘Sure!'

Joan went white.

‘Oh, Hugh!' she said. ‘Will that be necessary?'

‘Absolutely!' he replied.

‘Perhaps Miles or I will go instead, Miss Shannon,' said Cousins.

She looked at him gratefully.

‘No!' said Hugh with determination. ‘That is my job and I'm going to do it. Joan knows that it is my duty, and naturally she will agree that I must not back out!'

She nodded her head slowly, and her face was whiter than before.

‘Of course not,' she murmured; ‘but now I know more than I ever did the terrible dangers you Secret Service people must face.'

Miles leant forward and patted her hand.

‘I guess you're built of pluck, Miss Joan,' he said. ‘Don't worry! Jerry and I'll see Hugh through. In fact,' he added whimsically, ‘we'll see each other through, I reckon.'

‘Now,' said Cousins to Hugh, ‘what are you going to do about Rahtz and the rest?'

‘Let 'em carry on, of course,' said Hugh, with decision. ‘The time hasn't come to pull them up yet!'

Miles nodded approvingly.

‘If you had them arrested now,' he said, ‘it might precipitate the whole show, and God knows what would happen then, for neither my country nor yours would be ready.'

‘I shall send a coded report of what Miles has discovered to the Chief,' went on Hugh.

‘And I'll send one through to my headquarters,' said the American,
‘then my Foreign Office can communicate with yours, and once they get going – my! I guess there's a surprise coming all right, but not the surprise Russia and Germany anticipate.'

‘Don't forget that there are two spies in your college watching you Shannon!' warned Cousins.

Hugh grinned.

‘Most interesting!' he said nonchalantly. ‘I shall have to discover who they are. Kamper's more likely to be dangerous; anyhow I can always have him arrested without raising any suspicion – he's wanted so badly already.'

‘The only thing is that you've got to catch him first,' said Cousins dryly.

‘By the way, what did you find in Hudson's pocket, Miles?' asked Shannon.

‘I'd almost forgotten about that,' replied the other. ‘Here it is!'

He took a large wallet from an inside pocket, and searching inside it, drew out a small folded sheet of paper. He handed it to Hugh without a word.

The latter took it, and examined it critically. On it was a roughly drawn map of India, with a dragon neatly sketched on the eastern side, an eagle to the north, and another on the north-west, and an eagle and dragon side by side in the centre.

‘I wonder what that means!' he said.

‘I took it to mean that the Chinese attack comes from the east, and the Russian from the other points, and that they will meet in the centre,' said Miles.

‘H'm!' grunted Hugh. ‘There doesn't seem to be much significance in that – rather absurd in fact. I think there must be a deeper meaning behind it. You'd better keep it! We may find out what it really is for!'

He handed it back, and Miles gave it to Cousins who glanced
casually at it and then gave it up with a shrug. They were about to resume their discussion when there came a knock at the front door.

‘Visitors!' said Hugh. ‘Damn!'

‘Hugh!' said Joan reprovingly.

‘Well, I don't want visitors just now.'

‘I guess I'd better scatter,' said the American. ‘I'll do some unpacking.' And he went off to his own room.

Cousins rose to his feet with a sigh.

‘Oh, woe is me!' he said. ‘This answering of knocks does not fit in with my idea of a valet's life.
Mauvais honte
fills my breast!'

He left the room with the expression of a man going to the scaffold. Two minutes later he was back, a curious look on his face.

‘Mr and Mrs Rahtz!' he announced.

Joan went white, and Hugh started with surprise, but recovered himself immediately.

‘Be careful, Joan!' he hissed.

Cousins bowed the visitors in and withdrew.

Mr Rahtz was tall, dark-visaged, and possessed a large greying moustache, which apparently he had cultivated to hide the cruelty of his mouth. Mrs Rahtz was florid, fat and overdressed, in a style suitable to a girl twenty years her junior. She wore shingled hair which had been dyed a reddish brown and clashed badly with her dress of emerald green, and a small brown hat with a large brown feather. Joan almost blinked as she looked at her. Rahtz was probably three or four years his wife's senior, but Mrs Rahtz was obviously on the wrong side of forty-five.

She greeted Joan with a simper, while Rahtz shook hands with Hugh in a bluff hearty manner that somewhat belied his appearance.

‘We heard you were settled in your bungalow, my dear,' said Mrs Rahtz, ‘and thought we would be among the first to call on you. I hope we have not called too soon?'

‘Not at all,' replied Joan, ‘but as a matter of fact, we only came in this morning.'

‘Really! I thought you had been here for three or four days. You seem to have settled down very quickly.'

‘We have a very efficient man,' said Joan, ‘and it was mainly through his efforts that the house was ready before we took possession.'

‘You are lucky to have been able to bring an English manservant with you, Shannon,' said Rahtz. ‘Most of us have to put up with natives, and they are very slow and not altogether trustworthy.'

‘As a matter of fact,' replied Hugh, ‘I was going to leave him behind, but he wanted to come so much that I hadn't the heart to refuse him. You see he has been with us so long. Luckily I have an income of my own, so there was no real reason why he should stay at home.'

‘No, of course not!'

‘Mr Abdullah told us all about you,' simpered Mrs Rahtz, ‘and naturally we were eager to meet you. Such a charming man, don't you think?' she added to Joan.

‘Mr Abdullah?'

‘Yes!'

‘Yes, he is. I like him very much, and so does Hugh.'

‘Of course, when we heard of your arrival, my husband was a wee bit jealous of Mr Abdullah's luck in getting you. He badly wants a first-class man at the head of his own English department.'

Rahtz nodded.

‘Yes,' he said; ‘I am not too well served in that direction in my college. I have three or four Indian professors, who have specialised in the English language, but that is not the same thing as an Englishman, and like all Indians who teach English, they are inflated with their own importance and imagine they know a lot more than they do. I contend,' he went on, ‘that in order to teach a language properly,
the professor should be a native of the country whose language he teaches. Even I, though I was educated and partially brought up in England, do not feel myself a master of English.'

‘Are you not an Englishman?' asked Hugh innocently.

‘No, I am a Russian!' He looked at Hugh keenly as he spoke.

‘Are you really?' asked the latter, with an appearance of quiet interest.

‘I would never have taken you for anything but an absolute Englishman,' said Joan.

Rahtz smiled.

‘Of course I spent many years in England,' he said; ‘and I have been in the education department of the Punjab for ten years.'

‘Mr Miles described you as a regular Englishman,' said Joan naïvely. ‘You met him in Bombay, didn't you?'

For a moment a startled expression appeared on Rahtz's face, and he glanced hurriedly at his wife.

‘Miles?' he said, as though trying to remember the name. ‘Oh, yes! He's the toll American, isn't he? A most charming fellow. I happened to be in Bombay with a friend of mine for a conference a couple of weeks ago, and we met Hudson, who introduced us to him. They were fellow passengers of yours, were they not?'

Hugh nodded.

‘I remember now he spoke about you. For a moment his name eluded me. That is the young man I told you about, my dear,' he added turning to his wife.

‘Oh, yes, I remember,' she said. ‘You asked him to call, did you not?'

‘Yes.' He turned to Hugh. ‘He must have arrived in Lahore already then?'

‘He called on us today,' replied Shannon, ‘and we invited him
to stay here. I believe he is unpacking his bags at the moment. He'll be delighted to see you again – he spoke so highly of you. I'll go and get him!'

A puzzled expression crossed Rahtz's face, as Hugh left the room. He looked like a man who was not quite sure of his ground. Mrs Rahtz and Joan chatted amiably.

‘Of course you will become members of the club?' said the former. ‘You will meet most charming people there. Life is very slow out here, unless one belongs to a club.'

‘We have already been nominated,' replied Joan. ‘I expect we shall be elected in a day or two.'

‘Really! That is unusually quick work. Generally it takes such a long time to become a member. They are so particular, you know.'

‘Surely you are not a Russian, Mrs Rahtz?' asked Joan suddenly.

The other woman looked questioningly at her, then smiled. ‘No, dear,' she said. ‘I was born in Australia, but have lived most of my life in India.'

Miles came in, followed by Hugh. He shook hands cordially with Rahtz.

‘This is a great pleasure, Mr Rahtz!' he said. ‘I'm very glad to meet you again.'

He was introduced to Mrs Rahtz, and bowed low over her hand.

‘I was looking forward to calling on you, Mrs Rahtz,' he said gallantly. ‘Your husband gave me an invitation, of which I intended to avail myself in a day or two.'

‘We shall be delighted to welcome you at our home, Mr Miles,' she replied with another of her girlish simpers.

‘I was surprised to find that you had already arrived, Miles,' said Rahtz.

‘I came up sooner than I first intended. And I surely did not
expect such a welcome as I got. Miss Shannon and her brother have insisted on my staying here.'

‘So she told us. She has anticipated an invitation which it would have been our pleasure to have given you.'

‘It's very good of you, Mr Rahtz. I kinder feel that I have almost come home, with all this kindness flowing about.'

Rahtz looked at him sharply, as though he half suspected that the American was laughing at him, but all he saw in the latter's face was a look of bland innocence. Tea was served shortly, and Cousins brought in the things and waited on them with a gravity and thoroughness that made Joan want to laugh. He wore a dark suit with a black bow and looked every inch the well-trained manservant.

Shortly after tea Mr and Mrs Rahtz rose to take their leave, and invited the Shannons and Miles to dine with them one day during the week, an invitation that was accepted apparently with pleasure by all. When they had gone, Miles threw himself into an armchair, and chuckled.

‘Old Rahtz made an early call,' he said. ‘I suppose he wanted to see you for himself, Shannon, and perhaps find out a thing or two. I bet that man's mind was mighty busy all the time he was here.'

‘He had a surprise when he heard that you were staying with us,' said Hugh.

‘Did I do right in mentioning that Mr Miles had spoken of Mr Rahtz?' asked Joan.

Hugh grinned.

‘There was no harm in it,' he said. ‘He'd be bound to know sooner or later that Miles was here, and it made everything look above board. As a matter of fact, Joan, it was clever of you to mention our friend here in the way you did. I told Miles when I called him, and he roared with laughter.'

‘Sure!' said the American. ‘I was tickled to death.'

Cousins came in, and stood respectfully by the door.

‘May I sit down, miss?' he asked humbly.

Hugh pushed him into a chair.

‘You old humbug,' he said, ‘I know I shall laugh one of these days when you're acting the well-disciplined servant.'

‘Why? Don't I do it all right?'

‘You do it as though you were born to it, Jerry,' said the American.

‘I was in your service for six years remember!'

‘I just forgot that – so you were!'

Hugh looked at Miles seriously.

‘Are you really coming into this business with us?' he asked.

‘I sure am! It's to the interest of the USA that I should ally myself with you.'

‘Good! I'm rather handicapped by being at the College most of the day, and besides I appear to be a carefully watched man, so a lot will depend upon Cousins.'

‘I guess he's going to be mighty closely watched too,' said Miles. ‘It'll take him all his time to shake off his watchers. That leaves me – I'll have to get busy.'

‘If I can't shake off any little fellow who's got his eye on my movements,' said Cousins with contempt, ‘this hand has lost its cunning and this brain its power. No, Oscar, my lad, you needn't think that you're going to do all the dirty work, while I'm about.'

‘Well, I'll call on our friend Hudson tomorrow – there may be some information to be gained from him somehow. Say, I don't think a whole lot of that fellow; he's an all-fired traitor, and there's a whole lot of trouble coming to him later on.'

‘There is,' said Hugh, through set teeth, ‘and I hope it will be my job to bring it to him. Well, we all know pretty well what we are
going to do – I must get that report of mine off tonight.'

‘Say,' said Miles suddenly, ‘I must get a bearer. I knew there was something I had to do.'

‘I have half a dozen coming tomorrow for selection,' said Hugh. ‘Perhaps you'll find one to suit you among them.'

‘Sure thing! But what do you want a bearer for? Isn't Jerry the goods?'

‘Look here, Miles—' began that worthy.

‘Now then, little man, don't get sore!' chuckled Miles. ‘I was thinking that you were the best manservant that ever was. You ought to take that as a compliment!'

Cousins threw a cushion at him, and then apologised to Joan for throwing her furniture about. There came another knock at the door.

‘If that is another caller,' said the little man, ‘I'll jam him in the door, and dance with glee at his agony.'

He went out and came back with a telegram in his hand.

‘Telegram!' he said laconically.

Tearing open the envelope, Shannon glanced hurriedly through the wire.

‘Cable from the Chief,' he said. ‘Get the code book, Cousins, like a good chap!'

The small book was brought quickly from the despatch case, in which it was always kept locked and, while the others talked in subdued voices, Hugh carefully decoded the cablegram. When he had finished he threw down his pencil and whistled. Three pairs of eyes looked at him eagerly.

‘Just listen to this!' he said.

‘Wait a minute, Shannon,' said Miles, and rising from his chair, he walked quickly to the windows, and out on to the veranda. Presently he returned and, shutting the windows carefully, resumed his seat.

‘I thought I saw a shadow pass by. It might have been the sweeper or somebody harmless, but it's just as well not to take any risks, especially as we know this house is watched.'

Hugh nodded, and Joan looked round apprehensively.

‘It is sent direct from the Chief,' said Shannon, ‘and reads:

‘I take off my hat to your Chief,' said Miles. ‘How in the name of all that's holy did he cotton on to Novar and Rahtz?'

‘The British Secret Service is a live organisation,' said Cousins. ‘We do not spin, neither do we sew, but we get there all the same!'

‘Well, anyway,' said Hugh, ‘we have already got on to Rahtz and Novar and know Kamper is in Lahore, so we're well prepared.'

‘You also know that events are developing,' said Joan.

‘We sure do!' murmured Miles.