‘Oh, you needn’t worry about that. I resigned from the Coldstream six months ago, so I’m my own boss these days. Of course, there’s my job with the Akers Wentworth people. I’m testing the new Akers “Eagle” fighter, but there’s nothing to prevent my taking on a private engagement to fly a man like Fink-Drummond out to catch a ship off the west coast of Ireland. If we left to-night, I should normally be back to-morrow morning and, if I failed to return, the assumption would be that the plane had crashed and we’d both been drowned at sea. That would be just too bad. But there’s nothing that anybody could do about it.’
‘Well, that’s exactly what I want. And it takes a whale of a load off my mind to know you’re free to do it.’
‘That’s all damned fine! But what about Conchita?’
Hemmingway considered for a moment. ‘The best thing we can do is to call her in on this, and see what she’s got to say herself. Let’s go and get her.’
They turned back and walked quickly up the slope to the french windows of the long drawing-room on the south side of the house. Conchita was talking to some people by the buffet, but Rupert succeeded in getting her away, and, once the three of them were out in the garden, Hemmingway told all over again the story of Fink-Drummond’s activities.
‘I refuse to be separated from Rupert for all that time,’ she said, when Hemmingway had finished. ‘You see, for the first time in my life I’m really in love, and I couldn’t bear the thought of being parted from him even for a week.’
Hemmingway shot her an anxious look. ‘I know we’re asking an incredibly hard thing of you, but there’s so much at stake, and none of us know an airman we could trust with such an important secret, except Rupert.’
Her generous mouth twitched with amusement. ‘I do understand how much is at stake, so therefore he shall go—but I intend to go with him.’
‘Would you?’ exclaimed Rupert, his face lighting up.
‘Why not, darling? Do you not think it would be rather fun for us to elope?’
‘By Jove! And to-night, as ever was.’
‘To-night, my sweet. We will pass out of this so stupid social world, and go into hiding together for just as long as you like.’
Hemmingway smiled at her. ‘Well, now, isn’t that just splendid!’
‘It’ll be the most glorious adventure of my life,’ Rupert cried ‘and I’ve had a few already. But we’re not out of the wood yet, by a long chalk. Where are we going to on this honeymoon of ours?’
‘Anywhere you like,’ Hemmingway said airily.
‘That’s not so easy. Surely you realise that planes are labelled and numbered, just like cars, these days; and my big beauty is a special model which plenty of air people would recognise on sight. We’ve got to land somewhere; and, whatever airport we chose, our landing would be reported. It would be known in England a few hours later, and that would upset the entire apple-cart.’
‘Let me solve this difficulty,’ Conchita suggested. ‘Why should we not fly to my old home in Spain? It is an estate of many thousand acres, in La Mancha. My house-servants were loyal to me in the Revolution, and, even if they wished to talk, who could they talk to when the nearest city is Ciudad Real, fifty miles away? The house is in what you call here the back of beyond. We have no neighbours, only little peasant villages scattered over the Great Plain.’
‘That’s a grand idea,’ Rupert agreed, ‘as long as no officious person sees us landing.’
She laughed. ‘My dear one, the peasantry are so ignorant that they’re only just learning to read. How could they possibly know one aeroplane from another, even if they saw it? But few of them will do so, if we land at dawn. And then we will lock the plane away out of sight in one of the great barns.’
‘It sounds good to me,’ Hemmingway admitted. ‘But, wait a minute! If it’s a land-plane it couldn’t come down on the sea; so you’d never have used it for taking Fink-Drummond to catch a liner. The air reporters will spot that as soon as the story breaks.’
‘Fortunately, we’re all right there. She’s an amphibian, so we could come down equally well on land or water.’
‘How about the distance, though? It’s clear from what you said just now that to land at any place en route would give the whole game away. Can you make it in one hop?’
‘It’s under a thousand miles, and, fuelled to capacity, my new bus could cover three times that distance.’
‘How long will it take you to get there?’
‘About five hours.’
‘Fine. I reckon that’s a little longer than you’d need to overtake the Falconia, but not enough to matter. If you leave at one, you’d be certain of having the morning light to land by.’
‘Yes, and I’d need that to spot the ship. It’s important, too, that I should pass the Spanish military aerodromes while it’s still dark; otherwise they might send up a plane to challenge me. I hope they haven’t built a drome anywhere near your place, Conchita?’
‘No. I am sure I should know of it if they had.’
‘That’s O.K., then, as I shall fly very high until we have to land.’
‘Right,’ Hemmingway nodded. ‘Now, this is the drill. You go straight home from here, Rupert, get your plane ready, and tell your mechanics you’re flying Fink-Drummond out to catch the Falconia off the west coast of Ireland. You’re leaving at one o’clock, but you don’t want to keep them up once the plane is ready. Say you’re taking your fiancée with you, just for the trip, and that you expect to be back at—well, whatever you work out to be the normal hour to-morrow morning.
‘I’ll take Conchita back to London in my car. She must pack and tell her maids the same story. But, for goodness’ sake, Conchita, don’t take a lot of luggage, because you’re only supposed to be staying up all night. It’s hard to ask you to leave most of your things behind, but, strictly speaking, you shouldn’t set off with much more than your beauty-box.’
‘That I understand,’ she replied gravely. ‘But, as I am flying to my own home, I have no need to do so. For the simple life that we shall lead I have plenty of clothes out there.’
‘Good. Then I want you to order a car from Daimler Hire to pick you up at midnight. You must make a special point of insisting that they supply you one which has blinds. Directly you get in the car pull them down, and tell the man to drive to Bryanston Square. You’ll find me waiting by the garden railings opposite No. 102. That’s Fink-Drummond’s house. Luckily, I’m about his height, and dark. I shall be carrying a big suitcase as though for a journey, wearing an overcoat with a fur collar pulled up round my face, and a gangster hat right down over my eyes.
‘Directly you drive up in the car I shall jump into it, taking care that the chauffeur doesn’t see my face. You will then tell him to drive us down to Rupert’s place at Cobham. When we arrive I shall get out with my bag and walk round the side of the house. You’ll pay the man off, and tell him to drive back to London. Then ring the front door bell, and when Rupert’s man answers it say to him, “Would you tell Captain Brand that we’ve arrived, and that Mr. Fink-Drummond is so anxious to get off that he’s gone straight round to the plane.”
‘Rupert will be lurking in the lounge listening for your arrival. Directly he hears the butler go to open the front door he will come out into the hall dressed all ready for his flight. He should hear what you say to his man about Fink-Drummond being in such a hurry to get off, and greet you at once with the words: “In that case it’s not much good my offering you a drink.” He’ll then join you on the doorstep, say good night to his man, and walk with you round to the hangar.
‘I shall be there to give a hand with the plane, if necessary, and to see you off with my blessing. After which I’ll have to do a cross-country walk of six or seven miles into Epsom, knock up a garage there, and hire a car to take me back to London. Is that all clear?’
The others agreed that it was, and he went on:
‘Grand. Now, let’s see how things will pan out from there on. I can fix it this eve
ning that a small news paragraph appears in one or two of the leading morning papers, saying that, for urgent private reasons, Fink-Drummond has left England by plane to join his wife, who is on the S.S. Falconia, two days out, bound for New York. The midday editions of the evening papers will carry a more prominent story: “Ex-Cabinet Minister’s dash to join his wife on outward-bound Atlantic liner. Famous airman, Captain Brand, engaged at short notice to fly him out. Brand takes beautiful fiancée with him as passenger on trip.”
‘By midday your people, Rupert, will be getting really worried about your not having returned. They’ll ‘phone the Air Ministry and the balloon will go up. The late editions of the evening papers will carry a headline story: “Ex-Cabinet Minister, ace airman, and fiancée reported lost over Atlantic.”
‘The Falconia will radio home that she is keeping a constant look-out, but has seen nothing of you. In the following mornings papers there will be a real hullabaloo, and I’m sorry to say we’ll have to cost the country a whole packet of money sending up planes to look for you; but, of course, without result. After a day or two the excitement will die down, and it will be believed that all three of you have been drowned at sea.
‘If any of Fink-Drummond’s relatives feel that there is something queer about his sudden departure, and start to make inquiries, this is what they will learn. That he was last seen at Sam’s wedding here, to-day. Then …’
‘Wait a minute, though,’ Rupert interrupted. ‘How about the chauffeur in the car that brought him down? His man is bound to wonder what’s happened when he fails to leave with the other guests.’
‘Say! I’m glad you thought of that. I must fix it. I’ll have a message sent him, when people start to go, that he’s to drive home empty, as his chief is returning to London with the Marchesa del Serilla. That will tie up nicely with the rest of the story later on.
‘Getting back to the investigation. The chauffeur will tell Fink-Drummond’s relatives that he left here with Conchita. For a few hours Fink-Drummond disappears entirely, and no one will ever be able to find out what he did during that time, but that dovetails with this mysterious personal business on which it was so urgent that he should see his wife. The Daimler people will say that Conchita hired one of their cars to collect her at midnight, and specially insisted that the car should have blinds.
‘Their man will tell his story: that, having picked her up, she pulled down the blinds in the car, and he then drove her to Bryanston Square, where they picked up a man whose face he did not see; but whose description will roughly tally with that of Fink-Drummond. And this man was carrying a large suitcase, as though for a journey. The couple were then driven down to Captain Brand’s place at Cobham, where the lady paid the car off.
‘Conchita’s maid, when questioned, will say that her mistress arrived back from Sam’s wedding, and said that Captain Brand was going to take her on a night-flying trip out over the Atlantic with Mr. Fink-Drummond.
‘Rupert’s mechanics will tell their story of how he returned from Sam’s wedding to supervise their getting his plane ready for a special trip because he was going to fly Fink-Drummond to join his wife that night.
‘And Rupert’s butler will conclude the chain by informing inquirers how Conchita arrived at the house about one in the morning with Fink-Drummond, and told Rupert, in his presence, that Fink-Drummond was in such a hurry to get off that he had gone straight round to the hangar. The plane took off a few minutes later, and that is that.’
‘Marvellous!’ purred Conchita. ‘You seem to have thought of everything; except for one small point. What if he has some important dinner to-night, a speech to make, or a banquet to attend? Will they not start to search for him prematurely when he does not return to his house or send any message?’
‘That certainly is a snag to be got over. How would it be if Rupert telephoned Fink-Drummond’s secretary to cancel all his engagements because urgent business made it necessary for him to spend the late afternoon in the City; and, after that, his plans were so uncertain that he might not be able to get back to-night? The inference afterwards would be that he’d made up his mind to join his wife at the last moment, returned to Bryanston Square, let himself in, and packed his own bag as he was in too much of a hurry to ring for any of the servants.’
Rupert shook his head. ‘The part about my telephoning’s all right, but not your inference about his returning to pack his bag. Otherwise one of his bags with his brushes, shaving tackle, and so on, would be missing from the house; and we can’t just wish them into vanishing into thin air.’
‘Sure, sure.’ Hemmingway passed a hand over his big forehead. ‘Yes, we must better that. I’ll tell you. When you ‘phone, speak to his butler. That’s less risky than the secretary, who might start asking awkward questions. Tell the butler to pack him a bag for a couple of nights away from home, then to take it to Grosvenor House, check it into the cloakroom there, and say that the Marchesa del Serilla will call for it.’
‘Do you think the butler would take such instructions from me without any confirmation from his master?’
‘You’ve been to Fink-Drummond’s house, haven’t you?’
‘Yes. I’ve lunched there two or three times.’
‘That’ll be all right, then. It’s not like asking him to let a lot of jewels or important papers out of his keeping, and he must know that you and Conchita are not the sort of people who’d enter into an elaborate plot to steal a week-end suitcase.’
‘That’s true.’
‘Then Conchita will collect the bag from Grosvenor House around midnight, and instead of picking me up in Bryanston Square I’ll be waiting on that quiet corner behind Grosvenor House where Park Street joins Mount Street.’
‘That is much better,’ Conchita conceded, ‘except that everyone will think he ran away with me.’
Rupert laughed and squeezed her arm. ‘Not as it’s my plane you’re both going in, my sweet. They’ll just believe that, as I was flying him out and you were in the secret, you helped him in his trouble by running him around to places in your car and picking up his things for him so that nobody should know, outside us three, what sort of funny business he was occupied on or whom he saw during the evening, before he made his get-away.’
Hemmingway gave a sigh of relief. ‘Well, thank goodness we’ve sorted that. I’m most terribly grateful to you both, and I know Sam will be, too.’
‘Not a bit of it,’ Rupert smiled. ‘Let’s go and drink the old boy’s health in another glass of wine, before the happy couple depart for their honeymoon.’
‘I’ll have a drink with you later. As best man, it’s up to me to see they’ve got all their things together before they go.’
Conchita and Rupert went back arm-in-arm through the french windows into the drawing-room, while Hemmingway entered the front door. For a few moments he was busy giving final instructions and seeing the pile of luggage loaded on to the car. Then Sam came downstairs and looked across at him inquiringly.
Hemmingway nodded. ‘It’s all fixed.’
‘Good work,’ Sam smiled. ‘But if there’s any trouble, you must cable me and I’ll return at once to take responsibility.’
‘Don’t worry. I won’t have to.’
They talked together for a few moments about business arrangements during Sam’s absence, but broke off as Lavina and Margery came downstairs.
‘I think I’ve got all your things,’ Hemmingway said to Lavina, ‘but you might just check them up. I know Sam’s stuff but I’m not so used to yours.’
‘Of course I will.’ She went out with him on to the porch and together they ran over her pieces of luggage in the waiting car.
Margery, meanwhile, had turned in the other direction and was talking to Sam. From where they stood they were out of earshot of Hemmingway and Lavina but could see them just outside the open doorway.
At that moment Hemmingway held out his hand to Lavina and said: ‘Well, I’ll say good-bye now, before the crush surrounds you. Hap
py honeymoon.’
She looked up into those strange, wise eyes of his again and once more she had that sensation of vague fear. But Lavina was a courageous person and believed that the best way to conquer fear of anything was to face it boldly. This was fear of herself; not fear of him. And she knew that, since they would be together so much in the future, she must root it out now, once and for all.
To prove herself she smiled back into his eyes and said: ‘Thanks so much for all you’ve done to-day, but isn’t it usual for the best man to kiss the bride?’
‘Not in the States, and I’m half American,’ he laughed. ‘I’m a poor hand at kissing people, too, unless I really mean it; and, if I did that, I’m afraid I’d make an awful hash of your makeup!’
It was said with such charming lightness that it was quite impossible for Lavina to take offence, but she was determined not to be side-tracked so she answered gaily: ‘All right, then, I’ll kiss you.’ And, standing on tiptoe for a second, she gave him a swift kiss on the cheek.
Sam and Margery had witnessed the little scene from the distance. As he turned towards her to say something he saw that her face was strained and intent.
‘May I give you a piece of advice?’ she asked suddenly.
‘Why, yes.’ He lifted an eyebrow in surprise.
‘Sack that secretary of yours.’
‘Sack Hemmingway! Good Lord, why?’
‘You’d better, unless you want your marriage broken up. He’s young, extraordinarily attractive and the type that doesn’t fall easily for women but, when they do, fall hard—and I know Lavina. All her life she’s battened on admiration. She’ll never rest until she’s made him as mad about her as all the other men she’s ever known for any length of time.’
‘Margery!’ Sam was really shocked. ‘How can you say such a frightful thing about your own sister?’
Suddenly Margery turned away and burst into a violent fit of tears.
Sam cast an anxious glance towards the drawing-room, flung an arm round the weeping girl’s shoulders and pushed her into the cloakroom nearby; pulling the door to behind them.
Sixty Days to Live Page 6
