Cost Price (27 page)

“Consider it done,” said Palin, and got to his feet.

“You take the kit-bag, Bell, and hitch it on to your back.”

As he was doing my bidding—

“And Orris, sir?” said Bell.

“I – contributed to his death…but he almost got me, Bell. Sloper was dead right. I tore him off me at last, but he never let go.”

Bell was nodding his head.

“I was always afraid of him, sir. He had a look of Casemate about him. An’ all day yesterday I couldn’t get him out of my mind.”

“You’re perfectly right,” I said. “He had a look of Casemate. So history repeats herself, for they both of them got a long way – and both of them failed.”

Casemate was a mean fellow – an underling rogue: but that Mansel is living today was not his fault.

And then came Jasper.

With my hand in his—

“Well, Jasper,” I said. “You would have me take the lad.”

“I am proud that you did so, sir.”

“When you answered for his courage, you were on very sure ground. He has one of the greatest hearts that I have ever known. He has been my rod and my staff. Had I not taken him with me, I must have lost my life.”

Tears began to trickle down Jasper’s cheeks.

“I have no words,” he said simply. “My cup is full.”

A few moments later, our strange procession took shape. First Palin, with Colette in his arms. Then myself, between Bell and Jasper, an arm about either’s neck. And Bell was bearing the kit-bag upon his back.

I held the party back, for, though I did my best, I could hardly move my legs and kept on falling asleep. Indeed, I shall never know how we got as far as we did, before Palin and Bell and Jasper came into view; for Colette and I had come to the end of our tether some time before that: but each, I think, was reluctant to let the other down.

So we came back to Jade, at about a quarter past ten…of a lovely summer morning…just as the bells were knolling the peasants to church.

When I woke, I was in my tent, and Colette was sitting still, with her eyes on my face.

“Hullo, my sweet,” I said. “And how do you feel?”

“I am only just up,” she said, “and I am perfectly well. But how are you, my darling? You do not look as you did at The Vat of Melody.”

“I’m quite all right,” I said. “But I think I shall always be tired for the rest of my life. Send me Bell, will you, sweetheart? And come back in half an hour.”

“I’m here, sir,” said Bell, from behind me. “You’re sure you’re all night?”

“As good as new, Bell. Did I look very bad?”

Bell spoke between his teeth.

“Never again, sir,” he said. “I’ll never let you out of my sight.”

“Never again,” I said. “I promise you that. By the way, are the gems all right?”

“Under that blanket, sir.”

Whilst I was making my toilet, Palin arrived.

“If the half,” he said, “of what Colette says is true, I ought to have left my shoes outside your tent.”

Razor in hand—

“I’ll overlook it,” I said. “And what do you know?”

“No more than you do,” said Palin, “and probably not as much. A wire went off to Mansel at midday yesterday. ‘All well’, it said, as arranged. It seemed an understatement, but let that go.”

“Yesterday?” said I. “What day is it now?”

“It’s just four o’clock on Monday afternoon. You’re sure you’re all right, Chandos? You look fine-drawn.”

“Sound as a bell,” I said. “I’m only tired.”

“Breakfast?”

I wrinkled my nose.

“Not very much. A cup of coffee, perhaps, and a piece of toast. My appetite will return, but it will have to be lured.”

Colette, of course, brought me my breakfast and made me eat. But once I was bathed and shaved, I felt a new man.

As I lighted a cigarette—

“Tell me your story, Colette. You know what happened to me; but–”

“I have no idea,” screamed Colette, “what happened to you. In an effort to emulate Bell, I have waited till now to be told. And the effort has told upon me. I know you fell into the water, from which, against all reason, you came out alive. But I do not know why you fell in or why the rope only took us halfway across.”

“D’you mean,” I said, “you don’t know why I failed to land?”

“How should I, Adam dearest? I know that the rope stopped swinging almost at once. And so I did as you said and climbed into the tree. When you did not follow, I tried to take hold of the rope, but this was in the grip of the water and you did not seem to be there. I nearly fainted then, but somehow or other I made my way down the trunk and so to the ground. I was standing by the side of the torrent – I think I was crying your name, when out of the boiling water I saw an animal climbing on to a rock. I thought that it was a seal, for it had the look of a seal: only it moved so slowly, as though it was very tired. And then I knew it was you.

“I watched you climb on to the rock: and there you sat down, with the water racing about you, and sank your head on your chest. I was sure that you had been injured – I had no doubt. I cried, but you could not hear me, and, after a minute or two, you began to sway. This terrified me, so I ran for something to throw. I found a piece of stick, and I threw it and saw you wave. And then, a long time after, I saw you close to the bank.”

“And brought me ashore, great heart – God save your pretty face.”

Colette blew me a kiss. Then—

“And now please tell me, Adam, why you fell down.”

“When I left the bank,” I said, “I was carrying you on my back and Orris about my legs.”

Colette’s eyes widened in horror.

“Orris,” she breathed. “It was Orris?”

“We were hanging, all three together, over the stream.”

Colette shut her eyes.

“God in heaven,” she breathed. “And you held on until I was up in the tree.” She opened her eyes. “Did you kill the vermin, Adam?”

“I had to do with his death.”

Shortly I told her what happened from the time when I left the bank to the time when I reached the rock. As I made an end—

“You must hand it to Orris,” I said. “He knew how to do his stuff.”

“I hand him nothing, Adam. Orris was only a jackal. The whole of that day he never dared to attack. But when you were badly placed, he summoned up courage to run between your legs.”

She may on may not have been right. I cannot pretend to say. I think it is clear that Orris’ hatred of me overruled his desire for the gems. If it comes to that, it also overruled his desire to live; for he must have known that to cast me into that water would cost him his life. Yet, he did as he did. And, as I told Colette, you must give the devil his due. For his job was to bring me down – and he very near did.

Had the weights been there, I could not have appeared that night. But Colette appeared, as usual, and Palin, as I had predicted, far more than took my place. He could speak and sing Italian and was an immense success; his improvised scene with Colette took the house by storm, and when Jasper and he were together, I nearly died of laughing, although I could understand but a quarter of what was said.

He was a great acquisition, as I had known he would be: and I think he enjoyed every moment, for he was a showman born. That he should fall for Colette was natural enough: and, though she did not accept them, she did not reject his addresses out of hand. This, frankly, did my heart good, for Andrew Palin was one of the very best: and he used Colette as he used Olivia Ferrers, which shows, I think, that he found her a lady of high degree.

And so she was. Many a time I have wondered who was her sire. She did not know: she scarcely remembered her mother. She had no name but Colette. I sometimes think that Jasper worshipped her mother, who died of love for somebody greater than he. But that is pure speculation; for Colette knew nothing at all, and Jasper never talked.

We passed from Jade to Gala, from Gala to Eglantine. Each time we moved, I sent a note to Mansel, c/o The Heart of Gold. And then, on a Saturday evening, a week to the hour since I had sat watching the sunset above the smuggler’s way, I looked up to see him standing in the mouth of my tent.

“Oh, very good,” said I. “Very good, indeed.”

“All well, William?”

I glanced at the blanket beside me.

“They’re under that. Bell and Palin and I take it in turns to sit here. I’m growing used to them now, but I shan’t be sorry to get them off my hands.”

“You took them out of the weights?”

I began to laugh.

“Yes,” I said. “I took them out of the weights. And now sit down, for I’m going to tell you a tale that will take a month from your life.”

Mansel sat down, smiling.

“You never cabled till Sunday. That told me that someone or something had put a spoke in your wheel.”

I told him my tale.

When I came to Odin’s lapse, he covered his face with his hands.

“Not a month,” he said. “A year. Even though all is well, it makes me feel weak at the knees.”

“I don’t believe I’ll ever be quite the same.”

“I know,” said Mansel. “I’ve had some. Such things are bad for the soul. Never mind. Let me have Act Two.”

By the time my tale was done, the performance was about to begin, so Bell and Carson took over, and Mansel and I went to sit at the back of ‘the house’. And when the show was over, I introduced Mansel to Jasper and then to Colette.

Mansel bowed to Colette. Then he took her small hand and put it up to his lips.

“I’m not going to thank you,” he said. “One doesn’t thank great ladies for being themselves. But I’m very glad you were there. Apart from the fact that I value William’s life, to have you beside him must have meant everything.”

Colette dropped her eyes, and the colour came into her face.

As once before, I picked her up and set her down on my shoulder.

“That is how,” I said, “she deserved to come home.”

“I deserve nothing,” said Colette. “I found it a great adventure. And I would do it with Adam all over again.”

“But not with me,” said Mansel.

Colette’s fingers gripped my shoulder.

“Only with Adam,” she said. “Others might have got there: but Adam’s the only man who could have got back.”

Mansel smiled up at her. Then he put up his arms and lifted her down. On her way to the ground he held her, so that her pretty face was level with his.

“We’ve a bond in common,” he said.

Colette looked him full in the eyes. Then she said something to him which I could not hear. And Mansel nodded and set her cheek against his…

At supper I sat, as usual, on Jasper’s left; and Colette between Palin and me. But Mansel would not sit upon Jasper’s right. Instead, he took his seat with the smaller fry, whom he had put at their ease before one minute was out. And before the end of supper, Odin was actually standing behind his seat, with an eye to his plate and his glass, which, so far as I know, he never had done before. But that was always the way, for Mansel induced a very respectful devotion wherever he went. His manner was very easy and his address superb: but his powerful personality seemed to warm people’s hearts. Strangers would do for him what they would not do for friends; and yet he never cajoled them or ‘played them up’. He was always perfectly natural in all that he said and did, but he had that indefinable presence which very few are born with and none can ever acquire.

It was past eleven o’clock when we bade the others good night, and Mansel, Palin and I repaired to my tent. And while Mansel told his tale, Carson and Bell were moving in the shadows outside.

“From what you tell me, William, the efforts I made to divert attention from you were of little avail. I fancy the truth is this – that the Boche, being well aware of his own incompetence, determined, as children do, to follow a better man. The police had their hand upon Friar. The latter had taken them straight to Wagensburg. Very well. Friar should lead them again, and when he had run us to earth, the Boche would come in. His hold upon Friar appears to have been rather loose, but I think it unlikely that he could have left the district, unless he had done as you did and forced the frontier. And that is a thing that Friar could never have done. He would never have tried to do it, for thieves have other ways of getting their booty out.

“My efforts, however, attracted attention to me; and the Customs were up on their toes when I came to the German border,
en route
for France. That was last Thursday week, as we had arranged. On one excuse or another they held me for forty-eight hours. The Rolls was pushed into a shed, coachbuilders were summoned, and there, before my eyes, her body was stripped. Upholstery and trimming – off they came, to Carson’s distraction, as you may well believe. And then the rules came out. Amid intense excitement, the secret locker was found: but when they opened this, it was full of spares. That was a nasty knock, but they wouldn’t let go. They took the tyres off the wheels, and when they drew blank there, they took off the petrol tank and opened that. They then declared their intention of taking the gearbox down, but I suggested they drained it and looked inside.

“‘Sir,’ said the wallah-in-chief, ‘will you swear that that box is empty?’

“‘Certainly not,’ said I. ‘It’s full of gears and oil.’

“‘But nothing else?’

“‘You’d much better look,’ said I. ‘You don’t seem to like my word.’

“At that, they threw in their hand. And gave the coachbuilders orders to put things back. All things considered, I think they did very well, but I never got off until Saturday afternoon.

“I wasn’t troubled again. Probably word had gone through that I wasn’t worth powder and shot. So I came to Strasburg on Sunday.

“It was a nasty jar to find no cable from you, and I don’t mind admitting I passed a sleepless night. I decided to wait until midday on Monday. If your wire hadn’t come by then, I should have to go back. And then, on Monday morning, your wire arrived.

“I left Carson to bring the Rolls and took to the air…

“The first thing I did was to get hold of George St Olave. He is one of the Standing Committee, controlling all museums and things like that. And George is a very live wire. When he’d heard what I had to say, he sent for some keeper or other who knows about precious stones. And there our luck came in, for, by the grace of God, the keeper had been overseas and had seen the breviary of Pope Alexander the Sixth. And in that is the Pope’s own list of these fabulous gems. When I told him the collection was intact and was waiting to come to England, he damned near died. And when I said that I’d seen them and helped to put them up, he kept on walking round me, as if I wasn’t real.

“‘But,’ he kept saying, ‘the thing’s incredible.’

“‘I know it is,’ said I. ‘The brutal fact remains that I have driven hundreds of miles with those gems in the boot of my car. And now please tell me this – does England want them or not? If she wants them, she has them for nothing. If she doesn’t want them, they go to the USA – where they will be sold.’” He looked at George.

“‘We’ve
got
to have them,’ he said.

“‘Then no funny business,’ said I. ‘We’ve got them as far as Trieste. But Austria’s after them, and so is Germany. Any moment now Italy may sit up, and they’re on her soil. To be frank, we’ve got a long way: but this is where you come in, and unless you come in damned quick, you’ll lose the lot.’

“‘What d’you suggest?’ they said.

“‘A private yacht,’ said I. ‘Gammon’s is in commission, I happen to know. If you tell him the truth, I’m sure that he will lend her. She’s got to be at Trieste as soon as ever she can. And when she’s there, the Captain must take my orders, because it is up to me to get the gems on board. And when we get to England, the Customs must let us alone. If you can’t arrange that, I won’t play.’

“‘I’ll see to that,’ says George.

“‘Two things more.’ I laid your two passports down. ‘Those men have risked their lives to get the gems over the border and into Italy. I want diplomatic visas for both – and I want them in twenty-four hours. Unless and until I get them, I will not leave for Trieste.’

“‘I’ll do it somehow,’ says George. ‘To Cleveland Row?’