Contraband

      He opened the door of his bedroom. The light behind him was enough for him to see his bed. Upon it, stretched out on the eiderdown, her head buried in the pillows, and sleeping as soundly as a little child was Sabine.

19

Joy and Frustration

      Gregory paused there in the doorway staring at her. Then, as though feeling his presence in her sleep, she stirred and, as he stepped forward, her eyes opened.

      'So you are here at last.' She raised herself on one elbow. 'I thought that you would never come and I was so tired I dropped off to sleep.'

      He sat down quickly on the bed beside her and took her hands. 'My dear! How did you get here? Who let you in?'

      'That nice man, Rudd. He said you were at Scotland Yard and that he had just sent up a spare key of the house for you. He offered to telephone to say I was here, but I would not let him and, not knowing how long you would be, I sent him back to bed again.'

      A slow smile lit Gregory's lined face. 'You can have no possible conception how terribly glad I am to see you.'

      She slid an arm round his shoulders and, pulling herself up, let her cheek rest against his. 'You are safe, cherie, safe. That is the only thing which matters.'

      'Yes, thanks to you, but how did you know they managed to get us out of those devilish sands in time?'

'Sir Pellinore. All last night and all today I have been almost crazy with anxiety. I got out of the Park early this morning, before anybody was up, and telephoned to Carlton House Terrace from the village. Sir Pellinore was away and no one there could tell me where he had gone to. After that, I had no chance to phone again. I dared not do so from the house: in case Gavin cut in on the line, and all through the afternoon he kept me busy, typing out endless sheets of figures for him because, you see, I have acted as his secretary for all his most confidential business. After dinner he made me play backgammon with him and I thought I should go mad trying to conceal my desperate anxiety from those sharp eyes of his. At eleven o'clock we went up to bed and I had to give him a little time to settle down; but by midnight I had crept out of the house again and down to the village. Sir Pellinore was in when I called him up. He told me that you were safe back in London, so I knocked, up a garage, hired a car and drove straight here to you.'

      Gregory smiled again, a little bantering smile. 'Have you come to me for good?'

      'Yes, if you want me.'

      'Sabine, you know I do! But you mean to cut clear of this Gavin Fortescue business for good and all don't you?'

      'Yes. You were right about him. I did not know it, because he has always been so good to me, but that man is the devil in human form, I t'ink. Last night, when the Limper telephoned him that you had been caught, he sat there and told me quite calmly what he intended to do with you and the police inspector. I was horrified. Smuggling is one thing but murder another; and what a fiendish mind he must have to conceive such a terrible way of killing his enemies. I determined then that I must get away from him at whatever cost to my mother and myself; yet I had to pretend complete indifference at the time so that he should have no suspicion of my intentions. Immediately he left for Ash Level I telephoned to Sir Pellinore.'

      Gregory nodded. 'It must have been grim for you, darling. It was grim for us, too; because they didn't get us out until the very last moment. I really thought our numbers were up.'

      'But why? The tide was not low till half past six and I warned Sir Pellinore in ample time,'

      'The police wanted Gavin and the Limper to remain under the impression they had done us in; so our rescue was not attempted until the Limper's boat had got back to land and we were buried up to our armpits in the quicksand. I take it Gavin doesn't know that we escaped, does he?'

      'No, otherwise I am sure he would have spoken of it to me during the day. He seemed to have brushed the whole affair from his mind as though it had never happened; that was what made it so terrible for me. I felt quite certain that I should have heard of it if the police had raided his base at Ash Level. I waited hour after hour on tenterhooks, but no news came and I feared most terribly that something had happened to Sir Pellinore, so that he had been unable to pass my warning on to the police at all.'

      'You poor darling; but never mind, we're safe enough now and it's the next move we've got to consider. Time's important, so I think, if you're not feeling too done up, you had best come up to Scotland Yard with me. We'll get Superintendent Marrowfat out of bed again and you must tell him all you know.'

      She drew quickly away from him. 'But no! It is impossible for me to do that. To break away from Gavin myself is one thing, but to betray him quite another. How can you ask me to, when you know he saved my mother and me from starvation, and that he has been as generous as any father to me, giving me everything that I've ever had.'

      'Now listen, Sabine,' he turned a little and faced her squarely, 'you've got to be sensible about this. I value loyalty myself above any other quality in a man or woman but Gavin Fortescue has placed himself outside the bounds of any decent code. Whatever he may have done for you in the past was done entirely for his own ends. When he saw you first, as a little girl, he had the sense to realise that one day you'd be a very beautiful woman and, even then, you probably showed signs that you'd be a very clever one, too. He realised that by an outlay, which meant nothing to him with his immense wealth, he could forge in you an instrument which would be of the very greatest use in furthering his scheme a few years later; and his foresight has been justified. You've already paid him  back, more than paid him back, by taking criminal risks which he had no earthly right to expect of you, for every penny he spent on your education or allowed your mother.'

      'That may be so, but nothing would induce me to trompe him.'

      'But, my darling, you must think of yourself. You don't seem to realise that you've committed yourself to all sorts of criminal actions. The net is closing in on the whole of Gavin's organisation now. You'll be arrested with the Limper and the others and charged like any ordinary female crook. The Court will deal lightly with you. compared with the others, because you gave information which saved myself and Wells from death, but they won't let you off entirely. You'll be sent to prison, Sabine. Don't you understand what that means. You can't, of course, or you'd never hesitate, but for a woman like you it will be a living hell and there's only one way you can save yourself from that: you've got to turn King's' Evidence before the balloon goes up, so the court may use their full discretion in your case.'

      'I can't, I tell you. I will not.'

      'Please, Sabine, I beg you to.'

      'No, Gregory, no. Whatever he has done, he has also been my friend. If I did as you wish my self-respect would be gone for ever.'

      'Then there's only one thing for it; I've got to get you out of England before the police decide to act.'