The door led, he knew, to a small library and for a moment he thought that the light must have been left on by mistake: so he moved in that direction to switch it off. Then he heard low voices coming from the room. His curiosity aroused about who could be there in the middle of the night, he tiptoed forward. His soft bedroom slippers made no sound on the polished parquet. Holding his breath he advanced to the door. Turning sideways he squinted through the narrow opening between the door and the wall. In a mirror he could now see that the occupants of the room were Monsignor Don Alberuque and Chela.
They were standing near the centre table. On it there was a brief case which Adam recognised as the one that Ramon had brought with him. It was open, so it seemed obvious that Chela had purloined it and that they had either picked or forced its lock.
Alberuque was putting some papers back in it as he said:
`There is nothing here, dear child, to cause us undue anxiety; but you did well to get hold of it for me so that I could have a sight of the Ambassador's report. Upon the other matter the Good Lord will reward you for your excellent sense. That this stranger should have been sent to you at this time is a certain sign that our endeavours have the blessing of the Holy Spirit. I cannot stress too greatly the importance of inducing him to give us his willing aid; so you must secure and bind him to our interests, whatever the cost.'
Pausing, he made the sign of the Cross on her forehead and went on, `From whatever sins you may have to commit in order to achieve this end, I hereby promise in advance to absolve you. With him in our midst as a sign of God's intent, we cannot fail to triumph. You are now, my child, a chosen vessel and I know you will not fail me.'
Withdrawing from the door without making a sound, Adam tiptoed back up the stairs, his mind in a whirl. What were the two of them planning? Had it to do with this rumoured revolution?
'That seemed hardly likely, yet the Church and the wealthy formed alliances against Communists and atheists. But Chela was, apparently, a Communist of a sort, so that did not make sense
either; and she had obviously got hold of her brother's despatch case without his knowledge. Then greatest conundrum of all could it be he to whom Alberuque had referred?
He was no saint or holy man whose participation in some crusade could influence the people, so it seemed most improbable. Yet who else could it be? No other stranger had suddenly come into Chela's life so that it could be said of him that he had been `sent'. Utterly mystified, he got back into his bed, lay pondering for a while, then fell asleep.
CHAPTER 7
Our Man' in Mexico
IT WAS nine o'clock when Adam was roused by a soft footed valet pulling open the slats of the Venetian blinds so that sunlight streamed into the room. As Adam sat up, the man made a low bow, wished him a smiling buenos dias, then wheeled a breakfast trolley into the room.
On the trolley there was coffee, some strips of paw paw, pineapple, mango and apple, known in Mexico as a `fruit plate', and a basket holding little sweet cakes and crisp white rolls. After a good drink of coffee Adam made a dead set at the rolls, for the white bolios of Mexico had been one of his discoveries. In Europe and the United States the refinement of flour and modern baking methods have in recent times rendered bread almost tasteless. But for Mexicans to have wheat bread in their houses, as well as maize cakes, is a status symbol and they insist that the wheat should be undiluted and hand baked. The result is a revelation to visiting foreigners and Adam had found the rolls so delicious that he would willingly have made a main meal of them alone.
As he ate, the events of the previous night gave him plenty to think about. Why, he wondered again, should Monsignor Alberuque be so anxious to know what the F.B.I. had found out about a possible revolution that he had induced Chela to steal temporarily her half brother's brief case for him? For it seemed evident that that was what he had done.
The obvious inference was that he, as well as Bernadino, was involved in the conspiracy. It was always in the interests of capitalists to secure cheap labour; but the Church, as the protector of the poor, should be opposed to that. There could, though, be another angle to it. Alberuque was no village priest. As a Don he must be of noble descent and as a Monsignor a minor Prince of the Church. In every country such worldly prelates had often ignored the well being of the masses if by so doing they could get for themselves rich benefices and great estates. And the lower
orders of the clergy were bound to obey their superiors. Perhaps,
therefore, the capitalists and the Bishops had made a pact. Yet, if
that were so, why had not Bernadino told Alberuque what was
afoot or, when Chela had reported to the Monsignor what she had
overheard, had he not asked Bernadino about it, instead of coming in the middle of the night to examine the contents of Ramon’s brief case?
Finding no answer to this puzzle, Adam's mind turned to the other. For the past five days he had been almost constantly in Chela's company, he had now met most of her closest friends and she had talked freely to him about them. If some man who particularly interested her had recently come into her life surely he would have been at one of the parties to which Adam had gone with her or, at least, she would have made some mention of him. But there had not been the least indication that such a man existed; so it seemed inescapable that Adam was the `stranger' to whom Alberuque had referred. Yet how could he possibly be of any value to them as the figurehead in a revolution? The very idea was absurd.
There must then be some other explanation. Perhaps the `stranger' was someone right outside Chela's social circle: a man her father and friends knew nothing about. If that was so, and the `stranger' was a clandestine acquaintance that would account for her never having mentioned him.
At this idea Adam was seized with sudden perturbation. He had had ample evidence that half a dozen men were in eager pursuit of Chela, but she had seemed indifferent to all of them. This might explain that. This new supposition made it probable that he had a rival, and a really dangerous one, for if there was a man that Chela was meeting in secret that would make him all the more interesting to her. It might even be that she was already in love with him. Still worse, Alberuque had as good as ordered her to use her charms to secure his aid in their plans and, by giving her absolution in advance, clearly indicated that, if need be, she should give herself to him.
Mentally, Adam began to writhe. If she was willing, to lose her to another would be bad enough. But it might be that she was not, yet would obey Alberuque and sacrifice herself as a martyr to her cause. It was as well for the Monsignor that he was not then in the room for, at the thought, a fierce surge of anger ran through Adam. Had he at that moment had the chance, he would have used those great hands of his to choke the life out of the unscrupulous priest. As it was, he could only relieve his feelings by a flow of curses consigning the priest to an obscene hell, and when he grew calmer determine to do everything possible to thwart his designs.
Yet how he could set about that was another problem. To disclose to Chela that he knew she had enabled Alberuque to read the despatch for which her half brother was responsible would
embarrass her so much that a breach between them was certain to result, and there seemed no other way in which he could lead her to talk of her secret activities. All he could do, for the time being, was to talk to her casually about the Monsignor, in the hope of picking up some clue, and weigh every word she said, on the off chance that she might give some indication of the identity of the man upon whom Alberuque had ordered her to use her wiles.