He had decided to call on Hudson at his office. At half past two, therefore, he drove his speedy little car down to the Secretariat and made his way to a door over which a printed inscription informed him that the great man sat within. He knocked and a voice bade him enter.
Inside sat Hudson, a cigar in his mouth, looking anything but busy. As soon as he recognised his visitor, however, he started with surprise, and his face changed colour.
‘Good afternoon!’ said Hugh calmly, and without waiting to be invited, seated himself in a chair on the side of the large flat desk directly opposite to the other.
‘To – to what am I indebted for – for this visit? stammered Hudson.
‘A burning desire to have a few words with you,’ replied Hugh.
The shining light of the Indian Civil Service pulled himself together and looked haughtily at his visitor.
‘I can only see people here,’ he said, ‘who have business with my department, and I presume yours is not!’
‘Not exactly!’ admitted Hugh.
‘Then perhaps you will be good enough to call at my bungalow, if you desire to talk to me on a personal matter. I am a busy man!’
‘You look it!’
‘Whether I look it or not has nothing to do with the matter. Will you be good enough to go?’
‘No,’ said Hugh; ‘I have come to talk to you here, and I am going to talk here.’
Hudson rose indignantly.
‘Look here, Professor Shannon—’ he began.
‘Sit down, Hudson, and be sensible!’ interrupted Hugh. ‘It’s not the slightest bit of use your taking that tone. How’s your friend Rahtz, by the way? I was sorry to hear that he is so ill – Enteric, isn’t it?’
Hudson sank into a chair, his face pale, his eyes searching his visitor’s face affrightedly.
‘What – what do you mean?’ he asked.
Hugh looked at him in pretended surprise.
‘That’s rather an extraordinary question, isn’t it?’ he inquired. ‘What explanation can a simple question like that require? I saw in the paper that Rahtz was ill – in fact, Miles and I were with him when he was first taken ill – and knowing you to be a friend of his, I naturally inquired after his health.’
‘I’m no more a friend of Rahtz’s than you are – in fact, I don’t like the man very much!’
‘Don’t you?’ said Hugh pleasantly. ‘I thought you and he were great pals.’
‘Not a bit,’ said Hudson eagerly. ‘I suppose Miles put that into your head, because he saw us together in Bombay. But I met Rahtz and – and—’
‘Novar!’ supplied Hugh.
‘Novar – quite by accident, and naturally, they being from the same district as myself, you understand, we spent some time together.’
‘I see! But why this long explanation? It is immaterial to me whether you are friendly with Rahtz or not. I merely asked you how he is?’
‘Quite! Quite! But I’m afraid I can’t tell you. I only knew he was ill through seeing it in the paper, just as you did.’
‘H’m!’ grunted Hugh. ‘Beastly thing enteric, as bad as smallpox and – cholera!’
‘Cholera!’ gasped Hudson, and his face became positively ghastly. ‘What do you know about cholera?’
‘Nothing much,’ said Shannon calmly, ‘except that it is a pretty rotten disease. The very mention of it seems to upset you!’
‘I – I’ve had it once, that’s why!’
‘Oh!’
Hudson slowly recovered himself, and the colour began to come back to his face.
‘Do you mean to say,’ he asked querulously, ‘that you actually called here to ask me about Rahtz’s condition?’
‘No.’ Hugh leant forward. ‘I came to ask you why you persuaded Miss Gregson to do the dastardly thing she did?’
‘I?’ almost screamed Hudson. ‘How dare you suggest such a thing?’
‘Now don’t get excited!’ said Hugh. ‘I am not suggesting it. I am quite well aware that you arranged it. I want to know why!’
‘I did not arrange it – I knew nothing about it!’
Hugh shook his head reproachfully.
‘You’re lying, Hudson!’ he said. ‘I know it, and you know it.’
The other began to bluster.
‘You’re insulting, damnably insulting, sir. You’ll hear more of this,’ he croaked.
‘That’s why I’ve called,’ said Hugh patiently. ‘I’m waiting to hear more!’
‘Leave my office at once!’
‘If I leave your office without your admission, I’ll tell the Committee of the Club the whole truth of the matter, and let you taste a little of the medicine you administered to me. Further, I will also inform the Governor, who, it appears, heard of the incident at the Club.’
‘Don’t be such a fool, Shannon!’ said Hudson, and he no longer blustered. ‘It’s untrue, I tell you absolutely untrue! Who has been maligning me to you?’
‘Nobody! I have the facts in my possession.’
‘You think that because of what occurred on board ship, I was trying to have my revenge. But you’re mistaken, hopelessly mistaken. I would not think of doing such a thing!’
‘Oh, look here!’ said Hugh in disgust. ‘Why the devil don’t you act the man for once in your rotten life, and tell the truth!’
‘I am telling the truth! I assure you I am!’
Shannon rose to his feet.
‘Very well!’ he said. ‘I’ll carry out my threat. You worm,’ he went on, ‘you haven’t one spark of manliness in you, and I’ll regret to my dying day that I didn’t throw you overboard when you so grossly insulted my sister. You’re riding for a fall, my man, and it is going to be a pretty desperate one when it comes. And to think that a fellow like you is supposed to uphold Great Britain’s prestige out here! Why you’re not fit to associate with the lowest coolie!’
He walked to the door and was about to step outside, when:
‘Stop!’ cried Hudson in accents of utter misery. And truly he looked a wretched object.
‘Well?’ said Hugh coldly.
‘Please sit down!’
Shannon returned to his seat.
‘I’m going to make a confession to you, Shannon,’ went on the broken man before him.
Hugh’s heart missed a beat. Was he going to find out what tie bound Hudson to Novar and Rahtz!
‘Go on!’ he said.
‘I suppose it is no use denying any longer that I did help to persuade Olive Gregson to – to do what she did. I suppose she told you that?’
‘No; she did not!’
‘Well, she told Miles then?’
‘Nor Miles!’
‘Then how did you know?’
‘That is my business, and I am not prepared to discuss it with you. Is that the extent of your confession?’
‘Will you promise not to report me to – to the Governor, nor to any one else?’
‘I’ll promise not to speak of your connection with the happening in the Club, if that’s what you mean?’
Hudson nodded slowly.
‘I arranged with Miss Gregson to come to Lahore,’ he said, ‘and thereby try to ruin you, but there were others besides myself!’
‘Ah!’ ejaculated Hugh. ‘Who were they?’
‘I cannot tell you,’ said Hudson in a tone of abject misery. ‘If I did, my life would not be worth a moment’s purchase. And if they didn’t kill me, they would ruin me.’
Hugh stared at him.
‘You’re being rather theatrical, Hudson,’ he said sternly. ‘This is the twentieth century, and you’re apparently trying to transport me back a hundred years or so.’
‘I’m telling you the absolute truth now,’ groaned Hudson, and the wretchedness depicted on his face carried conviction.
‘Do you mean to say that you are being blackmailed by somebody?’
‘In a sense; yes!’
‘Well, be a man and report it to the police!’
‘I can’t – I only wish
I could. If the police knew they would—’ He stopped suddenly and bit his lip as though realising that he had said too much.
‘I see,’ said Hugh quietly. ‘Sometime in your past life you did something, shall we say, illegal? These people, whoever they are, found out all about it, and thus got you into their power. Now they compel you to do all they decree with the threat of exposure hanging over your head. Is that it?’
‘Yes!’
‘And you won’t tell me who these people are?’
‘No; I can’t – I can’t!’
‘Very well! I won’t press you! And they persuaded you to get Miss Gregson to come to Lahore to slander me?’
‘Yes!’
‘Think again, Hudson!’ said Hugh sternly. ‘How did they know of the existence of Miss Gregson?’
Hudson’s wretched-looking eyes gazed at him in quick alarm.
‘I told them about her – and you,’ he said slowly.
‘Quite so! And suggested the plot?’
Hudson nodded.
‘You – you made me hate you!’ he said, almost in a whisper.
‘Because I protected my sister from a skunk,’ remarked Hugh bitterly.
He rose from his seat once more.
‘Well, I’ve made a certain promise, Hudson,’ he said, ‘and I’ll keep it. But, if a word of warning from me is any good, I advise you to get away from your fellow conspirators as soon as you possibly can, or you’ll find yourself in the queerest street you’ve ever imagined.’
He strode to the door, and turned. Hudson’s eyes followed him.
‘I’ve spared you today,’ went on Hugh, ‘but, if you cross my path again, God help you!’
He went out, and stopped dead. A car had just drawn up, and Novar was getting out. As the latter saw Hugh, his face blanched, and he looked at him like a man who had received a shock.
‘Hullo, Shannon!’ he said, with an attempt at unconcern. ‘Have you been in to see Mr Hudson?’
‘Yes,’ said Hugh. ‘And I presume you are here for the same object?’
‘Well, yes I am!’ said Novar looking at him searchingly.
‘I’m afraid you’ll find him a bit limp,’ said Shannon. ‘He doesn’t seem to be very well today!’
Novar frowned.
‘What is the matter with him?’ he inquired.
‘I really couldn’t say! By the way, that reminds me, how is your friend Rahtz?’
For a moment the two men looked straight into each other’s eyes.
‘He is improving, I am delighted to say,’ said Novar at last.
‘I’m glad to hear that. I must call and see him, as soon as he is able to receive visitors.’
‘I daresay that will be in a day or two,’ replied Novar.
‘Of course, you’ve been already,’ said Hugh; ‘but you and Mr Rahtz are such old friends, are you not?’
Again the Russian looked at him, as though striving to penetrate right into the inner recesses of his mind.
‘We are rather – er – friendly,’ he admitted.
Hugh smiled.
‘Have you ever played poker, Mr Novar?’ he asked, à propos of nothing.
‘Poker! Good gracious, no! Why do you ask?’ inquired the other in surprise.
‘I thought not,’ said Hugh calmly. ‘People who play it, and play it well, get what is known as the poker face. Cheerio!’
And with this remarkable observation, Hugh climbed into his car and drove away.
Novar watched him until he was out of sight, a worried frown upon his brow. Then he knocked hastily upon the door of Hudson’s office. There was no reply, so without further ado he entered.
A quarter of an hour later, he emerged, and entering his car was driven rapidly to Rahtz’s bungalow. In spite of the serious condition of the latter, Novar remained with him for some time, and when he eventually came forth, there was a look on his face that promised ill for some one. He drove away as though in a great hurry. As he disappeared, a small man emerged from among some bushes, and cautiously made his way into the road where a bicycle was leaning against a tree.
‘Well, the afternoon has not been wasted altogether,’ said Cousins to himself. ‘First Kamper and then Novar, and from the look of the latter I should think that war has been declared! Bella! Horrida bella!’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
A Deputation to Novar
Hugh and Miles made two attempts on successive days to see Rahtz, only to be told on both occasions that he was too ill to receive visitors. They had a long chat with Mrs Rahtz on the second day, and came away wondering what she knew. She had been very nice to them, and spoke as though she was quite convinced that her husband had had a sharp attack of enteric, and they were both persuaded that she had little, if any, idea of his antagonism to Shannon and the cause of it.
They were soon aware that war had been declared in very earnest against them. On the day after Hugh’s visit to Hudson he had a narrow escape from colliding with a brick wall, owing to the steering-gear of his car becoming loose. On examination he found that it had been tampered with, and resolved to lock the garage up at night. The next evening he was out with Joan and Miles when a large touring car swung round a corner in front of them, and missed them by inches, chiefly owing to Hugh’s presence of mind and his skilful manipulation of the wheel. Miles, too, had conclusive proof that he was also a marked man, for he was attacked by three men with lathis when walking home from the Club after a bridge party one night, and it was only the unexpected approach of a car with powerful headlights that saved him. Things were becoming exciting indeed, and when Cousins was also attacked, but got away through deeming discretion the better part of valour, as he put it, Hugh and Miles tried to persuade Joan to leave Lahore and visit some friends in Delhi until all danger was passed. She, however, refused to go, and no amount of persuasion could influence her.
Every precaution the three men could think of was taken; none of them ever went unarmed, and Cousins added to his domestic duties by hovering round the kitchen while meals were being served, in order to guard against any attempts from outside to poison the food. They considered Joan to be in almost as much danger as themselves and she was never permitted to go anywhere without one or the other of them being with her. Naturally this duty almost entirely devolved upon Miles, to the satisfaction of the two of them.
At last things came to a head. A few evenings before the meeting Hugh walked to the gate of the bungalow just before dinner to watch for the American and Joan, who had gone out in the car and were rather late. He was standing leaning against the gate post, when something whizzed by him, and stuck quivering in the woodwork. It was a long, ugly knife! He swung round, drew his revolver, and tried to pierce the darkness with his eyes. But there was not a sound for some minutes. To his hypersensitive mind every second seemed to be laden with peril, even the woodland creatures appeared to have become silent in expectation of tragedy. All his world was in fact at a standstill as though watching with bated breath for the attack which it knew was imminent. Hugh Shannon was a brave man, but there is something fantastic and unnerving in waiting in the dark, knowing one is surrounded by enemies, being unable to see them, and yet every moment expecting a knife to fly through the gloom and pierce one. As he stood there, every nerve, every faculty strained to its utmost, he felt a creepy sensation in his spine.
Presently he moved gently towards the place from which the knife must have been thrown, then, suddenly, there came a rush of feet. A shadow loomed in front of him, and without hesitation, he fired, but at the same moment his arm was struck up, and he was grappled, apparently by two men from behind, presently aided by two others who attacked him in front. The revolver was wrested from his grasp and flung away, but Hugh, exerting all his magnificent strength, fought like a veritable Titan. Back and forth the combatants swayed and not a word was uttered by any of them, the only sounds that disturbed the stillness being the crunch of feet and the laboured breathing of the five men. Hugh twisted and tore, doubled u
p and butted at his opponents, but they clung like leeches, and do what he would he could not shake them off, until at last, with a superhuman effort he freed his right arm, and laid about him with a will. Two men went down and were immediately up again, but he had been given the opportunity of freeing himself from the other two, and with a mighty heave he threw one right over his shoulders, and shook the other off.
They were in front of him now and he retreated until he was standing with his back to the gate post. Then again two flew at him with knives raised to strike; the first he hit with all his force on the point of the jaw, and with a queer groan the fellow dropped and lay motionless; the other Hugh caught by the wrist, which he bent until there was a snap and a howl of agony. In a flash the remaining two were upon him again.
‘Cousins!’ he shouted.
‘I’m here!’ replied a voice close by. And the ideal valet, who had heard the sound of a scuffle while standing by the kitchen, and had come to investigate, joined in the fray with a vigour that showed the state of his feelings.
Hugh’s assailants were thrown into confusion by this unexpected attack, and drew back for a fraction of a second, and in that infinitesimal space of time Hugh collected all his strength into one huge blow, which landed between the eyes of the man nearest him, and the latter crumpled up and fell without a groan. The other fellow, whom Cousins was pummelling with a will, then tore himself away and fled. And at that moment the whole place was lit up with a brilliant radiance, the car turned into the drive and, with a jarring of brakes, came to a standstill.
‘Holy Mike!’ exclaimed the voice of Miles. ‘Have you fellows been practising for the world’s heavyweight championship?’
And indeed, the headlights of the car revealed a strange sight. The two men whom Hugh had hit lay on the ground, one completely unconscious with a lump the size of a duck’s egg between his eyes; the other groaning in a state of semi-sensibility with a fractured jaw. Another man was sitting at the side of the road nursing a broken right arm, and intermingling his groans with curses. Hugh’s clothes were torn, his hair tousled, and an ugly bruise disfigured his left cheek, while he stood looking down at his victims, with his fists clenched and breathing deeply. Cousins completed the picture. He was standing with his hands in his pockets and not a hair out of place, surveying the stricken field with an air of curiosity tinged with disappointment.
Devil's Cocktail (Wallace of the Secret Service Series) Page 25
