‘I don’t quite see how he can get near enough…’
‘Let him charter a plane and lose his way over the area. Not himself personally, of course, but stroke three or stroke two. Who is stroke two?’ ‘Professor Sanchez, sir. But he’d be shot down. They have air-force planes patrolling all that section.’
‘They have, have they?’
‘To spot for rebels.’
‘So they say. Do you know, I’ve got a hunch, Hawthorne.’
‘Yes, sir?’
‘That the rebels don’t exist. They’re purely notional. It gives the Government all the excuse it needs to shut down a censorship over the area.’ ‘I hope you are right, sir.’
‘It would be better for all of us,’ the Chief said with exhilaration, ‘if I were wrong. I fear these things, I fear them, Hawthorne.’ He put back his monocle and the light left the wall. ‘Hawthorne, when you were here last did you speak to Miss Jenkinson about a secretary for 59200 stroke 5?’ ‘Yes, sir. She had no obvious candidate, but she thought a girl called Beatrice would do.’
‘Beatrice? How I hate all these Christian names. Fully trained?’
‘Yes.’
‘The time has come to give our man in Havana some help. This is altogether too big for an untrained agent with no assistance. Better send a radio-operator with her.’
‘Wouldn’t it be a good thing if I went over first and saw him? I could take a look at things and have a talk with him.’
‘Bad security, Hawthorne. We can’t risk blowing him now. With a radio he can communicate direct with London. I don’t like this tie-up with the Consulate, nor do they.’
‘What about his reports, sir?’
‘He’ll have to organize some kind of courier service to Kingston. One of his travelling salesmen. Send out instructions with the secretary. Have you seen her?’
‘No, sir.’
‘See her at once. Make sure she’s the right type. Capable of taking charge on the technical side. You’ll have to put her au fait with his establishment. His old secretary will have to go. Speak to the A. O. about a reasonable pension until her natural date for retirement.’ ‘Yes, sir,’ Hawthorne said. ‘Could I take one more look at those drawings?’
‘That one seems to interest you. What’s your idea of it?’
‘It looks,’ Hawthorne said miserably, ‘like a snap-action coupling.’ When he was at the door the Chief spoke again. ‘You know, Hawthorne, we owe a great deal of this to you. I was told once that you were no judge of men, but I backed my private Judgement. Well done, Hawthorne.’ ‘Thank you, sir.’ He had his hand on the door-knob.
‘Hawthorne.’
‘Yes, sir?’
‘Did you find that penny note-book?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Perhaps Beatrice will.’
It was not a night Wormold was ever likely to forget. He had chosen on Milly’s seventeenth birthday to take her to the Tropicana. It was a more innocent establishment than the Nacional in spite of the roulette-rooms, through which visitors passed before they reached the cabaret. Stage and dance-floor were open to the sky. Chorus-girls paraded twenty feet up among the great palm-trees, while pink and mauve searchlights swept the floor. A man in bright blue evening clothes sang in Anglo-American about Paree. Then the piano was wheeled away into the undergrowth, and the dancers stepped down like awkward birds from among the branches.
‘It’s like the Forest of Arden,’ Milly said ecstatically. The duenna wasn’t there: she had left after the first glass of champagne. ‘I don’t think there were palms in the Forest of Arden. Or dancing girls.’
‘You are so literal, Father.’
‘You like Shakespeare?’ Dr Hasselbacher asked. ‘Oh, not
Shakespeare there’s far too much poetry. You know the kind of thing -Enter a messenger. “My Lord the Duke advances on the right.” “Thus make we with glad heart towards the fight.”
‘Is that Shakespeare?’
‘It’s like Shakespeare.’
‘What nonsense you talk, Milly.’
‘All the same the Forest of Arden is Shakespeare too, I think,’ Dr Hasselbacher said.
‘Yes, but I only read him in Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare. He cuts out all the messengers and the sub-Dukes and the poetry.’ ‘They give you that at school?’
‘Oh no, I found a copy in Father’s room.’
‘You read Shakespeare in that form, Mr Wormold?’ Dr Hasselbacher asked with some surprise.
‘Oh no, no. Of course not. I really bought it for Milly.’
‘Then why were you so cross the other day when I borrowed it?’ ‘I wasn’t cross. It was just that I don’t like you poking about… among things that don’t concern you.’
‘You talk as though I were a spy,’ Milly said.
‘Dear Milly, please don’t quarrel on your birthday. You are neglecting Dr Hasselbacher.’
‘Why are you so silent, Dr Hasselbacher?’ Milly asked, pouring out her second glass of champagne.
‘One day you must lend me Lamb’s Tales, Milly. I too find Shakespeare difficult.’
A very small man in a very tight uniform waved his hand towards their table.
‘You aren’t worried are you, Dr Hasselbacher?’
‘What should I be worried about, dear Milly, on your birthday? Except about the years of course.’
‘Is seventeen so old?’
‘For me they have gone too quickly.’
The man in the tight uniform stood by their table and bowed. His face had been pocked and eroded like the pillars on the sea-front. He carried a chair which was almost as big as himself.
‘This is Captain Segura, Father.’
‘May I sit down?’ He inserted himself between Milly and Dr Hasselbacher without waiting for Wormold’s reply. He said, ‘I am so glad to meet Milly’s father.’ He had an easy rapid insolence you had no time to resent before he had given fresh cause for annoyance. ‘Introduce me to your friend, Milly.’ ‘This is Dr Hasselbacher.’
Captain Segura ignored Dr Hasselbacher and filled Milly’s glass. He called a waiter. ‘Bring me another bottle.’
‘We are just going, Captain Segura,’ Wormold said.
‘Nonsense. You are my guest. It is only just after midnight.’
Wormold’s sleeve caught a glass. It fell and smashed, like the birthday party. ‘Waiter, another glass.’ Segura began to sing softly, ‘The rose I plucked in the garden,’ leaning towards Milly, turning his back on Dr Hasselbacher. Milly said, ‘You are behaving very badly.’
‘Badly? To you?’
‘To all of us. This is my seventeenth birthday party, and it’s my father’s party not yours.’
‘Your seventeenth birthday? Then you must certainly be my guests. I’ll invite some of the dancers to our table.’
‘We don’t want any dancers,’ Milly said.
‘I am in disgrace?’
‘Yes.’
‘Ah,’ he said with pleasure, ‘it was because today I was not outside the school to pick you up. But, Milly, sometimes I have to put police work first. Waiter, tell the conductor to play “Happy Birthday to You”.’
‘Do no such thing,’ Milly said. ‘How can you be so…. so vulgar?’ ‘Me? Vulgar?’ Captain Segura laughed happily. ‘She is such a little jester,’ he said to Wormold. ‘I like to joke too. That is why we get on so well together.’
‘She tells me you have a cigarette-case made out of human skin.’ ‘How she teases me about that. I tell her that her skin would make a lovely..
Dr Hasselbacher got up abruptly. He said, ‘I am going to watch the roulette.’
‘He doesn’t like me?’ Captain Segura asked. ‘Perhaps he is an old admirer, Milly? A very old admirer, ha, ha!’