Contraband

      'By jove, your night's work wasn't wasted after all.'

      'Far from it as I've managed to locate one of their bases on the other side as well.'

      'Good man. Where was it?'

      Gregory's eyes narrowed a fraction. 'Before I let you in on that I want you to promise me something.'

      'What?'

      'That if we succeed in rounding up this mob you'll take no action against Mademoiselle Sabine Szenty.'

      'Sorry, I can't. It would be more than my job's worth. I don't bear the lady any ill will for the way she led me up the garden path at Deauville; but she's in this thing up to the neck. She's operating a stocking factory in Paris as cover for supplying contraband, she's actively assisting in running the goods, and even travelling them this end as well.'

      'Know anything about Lord Gavin Fortescue?' Gregory asked casually.

      'Not much. Of course we have it on the records that he's been mixed in with all sorts of shady deals but we've never been able to get enough evidence to bring a case against him.'

      'Well, believe me, he's a devil incarnate and while I'll give it you that the girl's probably acting the way she does largely from sheer love of adventure, she was probably forced into it originally through some hold that the old man's got over her. Now, I'm not boasting when I say that I can give you some real help in clearing this thing up. You'll admit yourself that I've done more in twenty-four hours than you have in six weeks; discovered one of their bases on the other side, and run this place, to earth, which is obviously Lord Gavin's forward operation headquarters. As the price of my further help I want you to give Sabine a break when you pull these people in.'

      'You've been lucky tonight,' Wells said thoughtfully, 'though it wasn't all luck I'll admit. But what further help can you give me?'

      'The location of one of their French bases to start with and for future operations my association with Mademoiselle Sabine. If you arrest her prematurely, on some minor charge, you'll ruin the whole shooting match, and you can't work her yourself now because she's already aware that you're a Scotland Yard man. On the other hand I can. I got her out of a nasty hole in Deauville and we parted on a very friendly footing, so if your people can locate her in London tomorrow morning, assuming that she's on her way there now, I can get in touch with her again and follow up the whole business without her suspecting what I'm after. See the line of country?'

      'I do and it's a good one. All the same I can't promise to let her off. The best I can do is to say that we won't press the case against her more than we have to and we'll see to it that she gets the maximum benefit of any extenuating circumstances which she may be able to plead before the court.'

      Gregory stood up, pulled out a cigarette, lighted it, and began to walk up and down impatiently. 'But you can't understand!' he burst out. 'This girl's only a pawn in the game.'

      'She's engaged in smuggling and I can prove it Wells said doggedly. 'She is running a permanent business in order to evade the customs and facilitate the importation of contraband silk.'

      'Silk!' Gregory swung upon him angrily. 'Haven't your people told you the truth about what's at the bottom of all this?'

      The Inspector's eyes opened wider. 'What on earth d'you mean?' he asked in a puzzled voice.

      'Know anything about the present situation in China?'

      'No. What's that got to do with it anyway?'

      'Only that the Japs have organised smuggling gangs to break down the customs barriers of Northern China that are costing the Chinese Government a hundred million dollars a year in revenue, wrecking their home industries, and making it utterly impossible for the duty paid goods of other nations to compete in the same market. It's the same sort of thing we're up against here. Britain's been a free market too long for our business rivals to submit tamely to our protective laws. Our enemies are engaged in a desperate attempt to smash up the whole of our new commercial system. If, consciously or unconsciously, Sabine can enable us to defeat their ends what the devil does it matter if she has been cajoled or trapped into placing her stocking factory at Gavin Fortescue's disposal as a blind.5

      Wells hesitated. 'How d'you know that is so?'

      'I don't, but do you never use deduction?'

      'I prefer to stick to facts and I know she's smuggling silk into this country.

      Gregory stared at the younger man stonily. 'Is that all you're after? Good God, you're in the Special Branch. You know where the Bolsheviks last concentrated all their energies don't you Spain, and Spain went Red in consequence. Having done their work there they're concentrating now on France. Any fool could see that who reads his daily paper. Next it will be our turn and you sit there talking about silk!'

      'I'm afraid I'm rather dense,' confessed the Inspector. 'You've just said yourself that the smugglers are out to wreck our protective barriers. Surely silk now constitutes one of the most important items in our tariffs?'

      'Of course. But don't you see that if silk can be smuggled in other things can as well. To bankrupt our business houses and cut our customs revenue in half is only their first objective. Unless we can checkmate them they'll start dumping anarchists and agitators here by the hundred all the scum whose fulltime job it is to spread discontent and ruin. Then they'll send cargoes of illicit arms to. their secret depots, and bombs, and poison gas and every sort of foulness to desecrate England's green and pleasant land. For God's sake man! Forget petty larceny for a bit and give me a free hand to stop that arch traitor Gavin Fortescue staging a Red Revolution.'

10

The Strange Tenant of Quex Park

      Five minutes later Mrs. Bird put her head round the door and announced: 'Baked beans and very good butter, all good people come to supper.'

      Gregory smiled at the old tag as they followed her out of the hall and down the stone flagged passage. He had managed to convince the Inspector of the real menace to Britain which lay behind the modern smuggling racket, and given him particulars of the secret depot on the Calais downs, after an agreement had been reached that they should pool their intelligence for the future.

      Those were the best terms he could get, as he had never intended for one moment to withhold such vital information and he had demanded immunity for Sabine only in the hope that he might be able to trap the Inspector into making some promise which might prove useful later, while knowing quite well that the officer had no power to release her once she had been arrested.

      In Mrs. Bird's cosy sitting room they found Rudd busily dishing up generous portions of scrambled eggs on to large squares of thick hot toast.

      All four of them set to with gusto having acquired a remarkable appetite from their night's adventures. When they had done the Inspector turned to their hostess.

      'Now you're satisfied that I'm a police officer, Mrs. Bird, I'm sure you won't object to my asking you a few questions.'

      'Ask away young man,' she said cheerfully. 'Being a law-abiding woman it's my duty to answer.'

      'Good; perhaps you'd tell us then, in your own words, how long you've been here and what you know about the owners of this house.'

      'I don't know a thing about them except what I've heard from the gardeners who keeps the place in order. He's a Major Powell Cotton; a fine gentleman and a great hunter, so they say. There's a museum next to the house where he keeps his trophies, lions and tigers and all sorts of fearsome looking beasts, though stuffed of course. He and his wife shot every one themselves, and they're away now in some unchristian place looking for white leopards, if you ever heard of such a thing have been for months and may be for another year so meantime the Park's been let through an agent.'