Sixty Days to Live (27 page)

‘Damn’!’ said Lavina forcibly. ‘What the hell do we do now?’

‘We can either stay here, join the crowd and try and muscle into one of the cars they pull up, or start walking out of London.’ Hemmingway’s voice was quite dispassionate.

‘We might wait here till doomsday,’ she sniffed. ‘It’s really a sort of general post that’s going on. They’re simply turning one lot of people out of a car so that another lot can get away.’

‘Sure. But there were only two of us in the Rolls and about ten of them packed into it before it drove off. If they manage to hold up a lorry or two, we might quite well get places. I’m game to walk myself but I’m afraid you’d just hate it, so in this case I’m leaving the choice to you.’

The question was unexpectedly settled for them. Three vans came streaking up the road from the direction of Forest Hill. They pulled up just in front of the barrier and a score of policemen tumbled out. Evidently one of the local police had seen what was going on and had succeeded in getting assistance.

Some of the roughs in the crowd began to hurl bricks and bottles. Hemmingway grabbed Lavina’s arm and dragged her back into the shelter of the Station doorway. Striking out right and left with their batons the police drove the mob back. In two minutes it was all over: the organisers of the hold-up broke and scattered.

A few men whom the police had collared were bundled into one of the vans; they removed the wire barricade, coiled it up and put it in another; then they drove off again.

‘What filthy luck that they didn’t come on the scene ten minutes earlier!’ Hemmingway muttered. ‘Anyway, we’ve no option now; we’ll have to walk.’

‘Hell!’ Lavina glanced at her feet. ‘Anyway, thank goodness I had day shoes on when I left St. James’s Square. Let’s go then.’

They set off up the hill past the two towers of the Crystal
Palace on its summit and entered Church Street, Upper Norwood, where the road sloped down again. Rather to her surprise, after they had been going for about half an hour Lavina felt better. Although she had only spent three out of the last forty-eight hours in bed, she had been sitting or lying about in the grounds of Buckingham Palace for more than half that time and, whenever her brain had been too tired to wonder any more about what was going to happen to her she had dozed quite a lot; so that her exhaustion when Hemmingway had found her had been much more mental than physical, and the walking was doing her good.

The day was overcast so they could see neither the sun nor the comet, which had now approached sufficiently near the earth to have been visible, even in daylight, if the clouds had not intervened. But the day was warm, dry and windless, so walking was pleasant enough even on the pavements of the suburbs through which they passed, now that there were no shopping crowds to impede their progress.

Although it took them a little to the east of the shortest cross-country course to Dorking, Hemmingway had decided to bypass Croydon from fear of becoming involved with other lawless mobs in that densely populated area and the few people they met were hurrying along on their own concerns. Cars and vans, all on their way south, passed from time to time, but their drivers ignored Hemmingway’s signals, so eventually he realised that it would be hopeless to try and cadge a lift until they were farther out of London. As they walked on Lavina gave him her version of the affair at the Dorchester and details of her internment. Then he retailed to her an account of Derek’s adventures and ended with his own exploit in getting away with the stolen car.

She laughed a lot at the way he had fooled the police into helping him to prepare the Rolls and, as Hemmingway’s one idea was to keep her mind occupied so that she should not tire too quickly, he began to tell her some amusing episodes of the days when he had been struggling for a living in New York.

The vague antagonism that had arisen between them before the hold-up had now entirely disappeared and for the first time they were really discovering each other as individuals. Each found the other had more in them than they had previously supposed. Lavina displayed a practical streak in her views on people and
affairs with which Hemmingway would not have credited her; and from having considered him as an almost monkishly seriously minded man she revised her opinion and decided that he was really a very cheerful and amusing person.

It was 8.30 when they had careered away from the ‘Main Brace’ in the Rolls and by 11 o’clock they were passing through Shirley. Neither of them had yet breakfasted and they both discovered suddenly that they were extremely hungry; so they began to look about for a place where they could get something to eat.

Here in the more distant suburbs there were more people about, as such districts had not been evacuated and comparatively few of their inhabitants had gone off on their own to the country. Most of them were either attending services at the churches or remaining in their own homes, killing time to the best of their ability until they could learn their fate.

In the shopping centres there were ration queues here and there in front of the food dealers who were now being supplied by the Government organisation that had been set up; but most of the other shops were closed, no buses were running and there were very few cars about.

Inquiries of people in the queues soon informed Hemmingway that he would not be able to get meat, fish, bread, butter or milk without having a ration card; but, although the grocers’ stores had been sadly depleted in the last few days, they still had a certain amount of stock. At one Hemmingway managed to buy a tin of oxtail soup; at another some biscuits and potted shrimps; and at a third a tin of cherries.

To Lavina’s joy they also found a chemist’s shop that was open so she was able to get a comb, mirror, face cream, lipstick and powder; while Hemmingway added aspirins, a bottle of Evian, a bottle of lime-juice and two collapsible drinking cups to their store. Just as they were leaving she joked him about his confession to having used up all her scent the night before, so he promptly bought her the most expensive bottle in the shop.

Having no tin-opener and being unable to buy one, Hemmingway had got the chemist to open the tins for them and, as it would have been awkward for them to carry the open tins far, they turned into the first field that they came to on their way to Selsdon.

It was quite a small field—just a plot that had never been
built on—between two fair-sized houses with long gardens. Crawling through a hole in its broken fence, they sank down gratefully in the long grass and began their picnic.

They had to eat out of tins and spread the shrimps on the biscuits with their fingers but after their long night out and the exertions of the morning the food tasted heavenly, and they both agreed that it was the best meal they had had for years.

‘I think we’re entitled to a bit of a rest now,’ Hemmingway said when they had done.

‘My dear,’ she smiled, ‘I don’t think you’ll ever get me on my feet again, anyway. I haven’t walked so far for ages.’

‘You’ll have to walk much farther yet, unless we can get a lift from somebody. We’ve only covered about five miles so far and, if I possibly can, I mean to get you down to Stapleton tonight.’

‘How far is it?’

Hemmingway got out his map and studied the country. ‘About fifteen miles as the crow flies; that means at least twenty by the highways.’

‘Twenty miles?’ gasped Lavina.

‘Sounds tough but it’s not too bad, really. It’s just past midday and if he started now an athlete could get down there by teatime. Even walking without effort one can cover three miles an hour so, for us, it would be about a seven hour trudge. Say we give ourselves two hours’ rest and start at two o’clock, if we could keep going all the time we’d be there by nine. Let’s allow fifteen minutes in every hour for a breather and we should still be able to make it at the latest by eleven. Think you can do it?’

Lavina yawned. ‘I don’t know, but I’ll try.’

‘You’re a good guy when one gets to know you,’ he smiled appreciatively. ‘Say we don’t reckon to get in till eleven, we’ll only have to average just over two miles an hour. You ought to be able to do that if you can only keep the old feet going one in front of the other.’

‘You’re a good guy too—once one gets to know you—and I’m getting to know you fast,’ she laughed in reply. ‘I expect I’ll manage it somehow. But how about our waking up at two o’clock? If I sleep now I shall probably lie here like a log till midnight.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m pretty good at that sort of thing; trained myself when I was a kid and I’ve found it mighty useful ever
since to be able to drop off anywhere and wake again at will. As I’ve been up all night it’s a bit of a risk, but I’m going to chance it. A couple of hours’ sleep now will set me up again for quite a time but if I don’t have it I’ll be too beat to get you over the last lap this evening.’ They lay down among the long grass and wild flowers and were conscious only for a moment of their perfume in the heat before dropping off to sleep.

When Hemmingway woke it was a quarter past two and he felt that his gift had not let him down too badly. He roused Lavina and, after she had tidied her hair and attended to her face, they set off along the road towards Selsdon. It was pleasant walking at a leisurely pace through Addiscombe Woods and they took their first rest on the top of the hill there.

It was then that they first noticed something queer about the sky. The clouds, which were of the pale-grey summery variety, had taken on a faintly pink tinge. Neither of them commented on it but both wondered with vague alarm if the comet, now being so much nearer, was about to produce its strange effect in spite of the fact that there were many hours yet to go before sundown. Everything was very still; not a leaf rustled in the windless air and it was so hot that most of the people they saw were walking in their shirtsleeves with their coats over their arms. Hemmingway followed their example and began to curse the weight of the satchel of papers he was still carrying.

With the slowly-reddening sky in mind they kept a close watch on themselves as they went on their way through Sanderstead, but experienced nothing unusual except a spontaneous gaiety that caused them to laugh a lot even at the most stupid things. At last they reached the main Brighton road and turning left along it through Purley tried once more to get a lift by hailing each of the few south-bound vehicles that passed them but, failing, they left it by a right-hand fork about a mile south of the town and, walking along some roads lined with substantial houses, at last reached more or less open country.

Hemmingway was much happier now that they had got clear of London. A thin trickle of refugees was still moving along all the roads that led out of the capital but if they could avoid populous places there seemed little risk now that they would run into mobs from which they might suffer violence. At their fourth halt Hemmingway reckoned they were more than half-way, having
walked another eight miles, making thirteen in all since the morning; but Lavina was going well and he had a reasonably good hope that they would manage the remaining twelve miles which they still had to cover before nightfall.

As they went on again the pinkish-red of the sky gradually grew deeper and the atmosphere more sultry. Suddenly, without in the least intending to do so, Lavina began to sing. Hemmingway joined in and for a mile or more they marched along singing all the choruses they could think of together. Only the fact that their throats became parched through the stifling heat put an end to their impromptu concert and caused Lavina to suggest that they should try to get a cup of tea somewhere.

They were now going through narrow, twisting, hilly lanes; real country that might have been a hundred miles from London. There was not a soul about and even the scattered houses were hidden from them by high hedges. At a break in one they saw a garden gate and turned in through it; but a large dog rushed at them barking furiously. Hemmingway was only just in time to push Lavina out of the gate and slam it behind them; then the angry beast, its jaws slavering, scraped upon the woodwork with its claws in a frantic endeavour to get over it and attack them.

They had no means of knowing if it was just an ill-tempered brute kept by its owner to drive off tramps or if the red glow from the skies had turned its brain; but the dog showed all the signs of madness so it was certainly not worth risking its attacking them by trying to get up to the house.

At the next house they were more fortunate. It was hardly larger than a cottage but had a garden gay with flowers and in front of the porch they observed an old gentleman skipping. Approaching, they asked if they might buy a cup of tea from him. He panted out that they were very welcome to one and could make it for themselves but that he must not pause until he had done another hundred skips.

Leaving their strange host they went into his kitchen, made tea and carried him out a cup; but he only shook his head, so they retired to drink their own in his comfortable sitting-room. While they were there the floor suddenly seemed to move slightly beneath them and the tea rocked in the cups. It was an earth tremor and Lavina looked at Hemmingway apprehensively; but
it was over in a moment and gave them no further cause for alarm.

On going outside they found their host red-faced, pop-eyed and gasping, but still skipping; and no argument which Hemmingway could produce would induce him to stop, except for a few moments from time to time to regain his breath. So, although they feared that he would have a heart attack if he kept it up till sunset, they had to leave him there still labouring in the grip of his strange mania.

Both of them were tired now but somehow it no longer seemed quite such an urgent matter that they should reach Stapleton that night. The reddish glow pervaded everything, changing the colours of the landscape so that it seemed strange and unreal. They felt as though, instead of tea, they had been drinking absinth and were slightly drunk upon it; their perceptions were hypersensitive, sharpened to every sound and feeling; yet they were filled with a delicious lassitude.