‘For what?’
‘Everything.’
As they received their drinks, Archer became aware that an altercation was going on just outside the room, with raised voices and what sounded like part of a human frame bouncing off the door. Was Doll fighting Raleigh?
‘Just about everything. You’ll have learnt a lot in the last few years which will stand you in good stead when you get into the great world.’
Archer’s mouth opened. ‘You mean that this is what life is like.’
‘Roughly.’
Doll called from the doorway. ‘Would you come, Mr Archer, quickly?’
Archer hurried over, followed by Davison, who said: ‘If there’s anything to see I’m going to see it.’
Four men confronted one another in the confined space at the stairhead: Hargreaves, Sergeant Fleming, Doll and Raleigh. Whatever he might have been doing a moment earlier, Hargreaves was doing nothing now except being held from behind by Fleming and denounced by Raleigh. Doll stood to one side, his file under his arm.
‘I didn’t know anything like this was going to happen, sir,’ Fleming shouted to Archer. ‘He just said very quiet he’d like to see the major if he was free, to apologize to him about the parliament, and I said couldn’t it wait till the morning, and he said, still very quiet, his conscience was—’
‘You dare come here and say that to me,’ Raleigh shouted through this. His soft face had a glistening flush. ‘You dirty little homo. Can’t leave a decent lad alone. Rotten to the core. I know what goes on in that billet of yours. I’m going to take you off that draft and have you court-martialled for… for filth. There are plenty of people who’d be only too glad—’
Cleaver stepped forward and caught him by the arm. ‘Shut up, major. Pipe down, you bloody fool. Come back in here, for Christ’s sake.’
The major shook off Cleaver’s hand. The movement brought him face to face with Archer. A theatrical sneer twisted Raleigh’s soft features. ‘And as for you… Tarred with the same brush. An officer. Selected for his qualities of leadership. That’s good. I like that.’
There was a pause. The moment it was over Archer realized that he should have used it either to help Fleming get Hargreaves down the stairs or help Cleaver get Raleigh back into the anteroom. He could even have told the major just a little of what he thought of him. But he spent the time quailing under the major’s stare.
Panting a little, Raleigh took up a fighting stance in front of Hargreaves. At the same time Colonel Davison spoke from the edge of the group. ‘That’ll do, everybody.’ Fleming’s expression made Archer turn quickly. He saw with incredulity that Davison was leaning against the door-jamb and levelling his drawn revolver in Raleigh’s general direction.
‘Often wanted to use this,’ Davison said. He was thin and very tall. ‘Properly,I mean. Not just on pigeons. Well, better late than never.’
‘Put that away, Colonel,’ Cleaver said.
Davison grinned. ‘Sounds as if I’m exposing myself. But I know what you mean. My turn now. Who’s gonna make me?’
‘Let’s be sensible.’
At this, Davison collapsed in laughter. ‘One up to you, by God. Funny, isn’t it? — always turns out like this if you try to do anything. Chaps saying let’s be sensible. Let’s be that whatever we do. Oh, my Christ.’
Still laughing, he staggered through the group and ended up by the banisters, laboriously trying to fit his revolver back into its holster. The major swung back towards Hargreaves. Afterwards opinion was divided on whether he was really going to hit him, but Doll evidently thought so, for he bounded forward and shouldered the major aside. Raleigh collided hard with Davison, whose attention was distracted by his revolver and holster and who at once, with a single cracking of wood, fell through the banisters and down into the tiled hall. He landed with another cracking sound which made the backs of Archer’s thighs turn cold. Doll ran down the stairs, closely followed by Cleaver. Hargreaves said: ‘I’m sorry, Mr Archer.’
V
‘Cup of tea for you, sir. And the newspapers.’
‘Thank you. Did you get on to the hospital?’ Major Raleigh spoke almost without inflection, as he usually did these days.
‘Yes, sir. Progress maintained. Too early yet to say when he’ll be up and about again, but the concussion’s definitely not as bad as they thought at first and the arm’s coming along as well as can be expected after a complicated fracture.’
Outside, heavy transport could be heard toiling in low gear. ‘What’s that row?’
‘That’s 424 Wireless forming up to move out, sir. They’re due at the railhead at fifteen-hundred hours.’
‘I know.’
‘Are you going down to see them off, sir?’
‘No.’
‘Oh, by the way, Colonel Davison sent you a message, sir.’
‘Did he?’
‘Yes, he did, sir. Thanks for the party and he hopes he wasn’t a nuisance.’
The major screwed up his soft face as a motor-bike revved up in the road below. ‘Shut the window, will you, Doll?’
‘Right, sir.’ The operation completed, Doll turned round and leant against the sill. ‘Well, we’ve all been very lucky, sir, really, haven’t we? Things might have turned out much more serious. By the way, I thought you were very wise not to go on with that idea of yours of having Hargreaves court-martialled. Very wise indeed, sir.’
‘When I want your opinion of my decisions, Doll, I’ll ask for it.’ This tripped less well off the major’s tongue than it might have done at another time. Only Colonel Davison’s accident had prevented that last encounter with Hargreaves from degenerating into a serious breach of order. The persistence of this thought bothered Raleigh. He said wearily: ‘And while you’re here I’d like you to tell me in detail how Hammond got on to that list with Hargreaves.’
‘I’ve nothing to add to my previous account, sir, but still. You asked me to complete the list at my discretion, right? So seeing Hargreaves’s name there, and knowing that Hammond was his mate, I put him down too. We’ve always done that sort of thing.’
‘Is that all you knew?’
‘Why, of course, sir. What else is there to know?’
‘How did Archer come to sign that message?’
‘Well, again as before, sir, Mr Archer happened to call in at the Orderly Room and I asked him, as I might have asked any officer who was available. There were one or two things piled up and I wanted to get them off.’
‘Did Mr Archer read it through before he signed it?’
‘I really couldn’t say, sir. Quite likely he had enough confidence in me not to bother. You’ve often done the same yourself, sir, and believe me I very much appreciate the implied compliment.’
‘Are you telling me the truth, Doll?’
‘Mr Archer will confirm every word I’ve said, sir, as far as it concerns him.’
The major sighed heavily. ‘I suppose that’s that.’
‘I suppose so, sir. Actually it’s a pity we’ve lost Hammond, a very pleasant young fellow I agree, but it’s not going to make much difference, sir, is it? There’d have been nothing for him to do here after the Signal Office closes down next week. I don’t suppose any of us will be together much longer. Captain Cleaver and Mr Archer and the others on twenty-four-hour warning. You’ll be all on your own here before very long, sir.’
‘I’m looking forward to it.’
Doll almost smiled. ‘Of course, it’s Mr Archer who’s come best out of this. Dodging the Far East after all. What a bit of luck that was, eh, sir?’
Something close to attention entered the major’s manner. ‘Dodging the Far East?’
‘Oh, no doubt about it, sir. Even if he goes tomorrow it’ll take him ten days to get home, the way things are. Then he’ll go on twenty-eight days’ leave, which’ll bring him to the first week in September. And with his release due a month at most after that it wouldn’t be worth anybody’s while to put him on a boat. No, he’s—’