The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie (read e book .txt) đ
- Author: Agatha Christie
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âAnswer?â said Julius. His face paled.
âYou knowâwhen you asked me toâmarry you,â faltered Tuppence, her eyes downcast in the true manner of the early Victorian heroine, âand wouldnât take no for an answer. Iâve thought it well overâââ
âYes?â said Julius. The perspiration stood on his forehead.
Tuppence relented suddenly.
âYou great idiot!â she said. âWhat on earth induced you to do it? I could see at the time you didnât care a twopenny dip for me!â
âNot at all. I hadâand still haveâthe highest sentiments of esteem and respectâand admiration for youâââ
âHâm!â said Tuppence. âThose are the kind of sentiments that very soon go to the wall when the other sentiment comes along! Donât they, old thing?â
âI donât know what you mean,â said Julius stiffly, but a large and burning blush overspread his countenance.
âShucks!â retorted Tuppence. She laughed, and closed the door, reopening it to add with dignity: âMorally, I shall always consider I have been jilted!â
âWhat was it?â asked Jane as Tuppence rejoined her.
âJulius.â
âWhat did he want?â
âReally, I think, he wanted to see you, but I wasnât going to let him. Not until to-night, when youâre going to burst upon every one like King Solomon in his glory! Come on! Weâre going to shop!â
To most people the 29th, the much-heralded âLabour Day,â had passed much as any other day. Speeches were made in the Park and Trafalgar Square. Straggling processions, singing the Red Flag, wandered through the streets in a more or less aimless manner. Newspapers which had hinted at a general strike, and the inauguration of a reign of terror, were forced to hide their diminished heads. The bolder and more astute among them sought to prove that peace had been effected by following their counsels. In the Sunday papers a brief notice of the sudden death of Sir James Peel Edgerton, the famous K.C., had appeared. Mondayâs paper dealt appreciatively with the dead manâs career. The exact manner of his sudden death was never made public.
Tommy had been right in his forecast of the situation. It had been a one-man show. Deprived of their chief, the organization fell to pieces. Kramenin had made a precipitate return to Russia, leaving England early on Sunday morning. The gang had fled from Astley Priors in a panic, leaving behind, in their haste, various damaging documents which compromised them hopelessly. With these proofs of conspiracy in their hands, aided further by a small brown diary taken from the pocket of the dead man which had contained a full and damning rĂ©sumĂ© of the whole plot, the Government had called an eleventh-hour conference. The Labour leaders were forced to recognize that they had been used as a catâs paw. Certain concessions were made by the Government, and were eagerly accepted. It was to be Peace, not War!
But the Cabinet knew by how narrow a margin they had escaped utter disaster. And burnt in on Mr. Carterâs brain was the strange scene which had taken place in the house in Soho the night before.
He had entered the squalid room to find that great man, the friend of a lifetime, deadâbetrayed out of his own mouth. From the dead manâs pocket-book he had retrieved the ill-omened draft treaty, and then and there, in the presence of the other three, it had been reduced to ashes.... England was saved!
And now, on the evening of the 30th, in a private room at the Savoy, Mr. Julius P. Hersheimmer was receiving his guests.
Mr. Carter was the first to arrive. With him was a choleric-looking old gentleman, at sight of whom Tommy flushed up to the roots of his hair. He came forward.
âHa!â said the old gentleman, surveying him apoplectically. âSo youâre my nephew, are you? Not much to look atâbut youâve done good work, it seems. Your mother must have brought you up well after all. Shall we let bygones be bygones, eh? Youâre my heir, you know; and in future I propose to make you an allowanceâand you can look upon Chalmers Park as your home.â
âThank you, sir, itâs awfully decent of you.â
âWhereâs this young lady Iâve been hearing such a lot about?â
Tommy introduced Tuppence.
âHa!â said Sir William, eyeing her. âGirls arenât what they used to be in my young days.â
âYes, they are,â said Tuppence. âTheir clothes are different, perhaps, but they themselves are just the same.â
âWell, perhaps youâre right. Minxes thenâminxes now!â
âThatâs it,â said Tuppence. âIâm a frightful minx myself.â
âI believe you,â said the old gentleman, chuckling, and pinched her ear in high good-humour. Most young women were terrified of the âold bear,â as they termed him. Tuppenceâs pertness delighted the old misogynist.
Then came the timid archdeacon, a little bewildered by the company in which he found himself, glad that his daughter was considered to have distinguished herself, but unable to help glancing at her from time to time with nervous apprehension. But Tuppence behaved admirably. She forbore to cross her legs, set a guard upon her tongue, and steadfastly refused to smoke.
Dr. Hall came next, and he was followed by the American Ambassador.
âWe might as well sit down,â said Julius, when he had introduced all his guests to each other. âTuppence, will youâââ
He indicated the place of honour with a wave of his hand.
But Tuppence shook her head.
âNoâthatâs Janeâs place! When one thinks of how sheâs held out all these years, she ought to be made the queen of the feast to-night.â
Julius flung her a grateful glance, and Jane came forward shyly to the allotted seat. Beautiful as she had seemed before, it was as nothing to the loveliness that now went fully adorned. Tuppence had performed her part faithfully. The model gown supplied by a famous dressmaker had been entitled âA tiger lily.â It was all golds and reds and browns, and out of it rose the pure column of the girlâs white throat, and the bronze masses of hair that crowned her lovely head. There was admiration in every eye, as she took her seat.
Soon the supper party was in full swing, and with one accord Tommy was called upon for a full and complete explanation.
âYouâve been too darned close about the whole business,â Julius accused him. âYou let on to me that you were off to the Argentineâthough I guess you had your reasons for that. The idea of both you and Tuppence casting me for the part of Mr. Brown just tickles me to death!â
âThe idea was not original to them,â said Mr. Carter gravely. âIt was suggested, and the poison very carefully instilled, by a past-master in the art. The paragraph in the New York paper suggested the plan to him, and by means of it he wove a web that nearly enmeshed you fatally.â
âI never liked him,â said Julius. âI felt from the first that there was something wrong about him, and I always suspected that it was he who silenced Mrs. Vandemeyer so appositely. But it wasnât till I heard that the order for Tommyâs execution came right on the heels of our interview with him that Sunday that I began to tumble to the fact that he was the big bug himself.â
âI never suspected it at all,â lamented Tuppence. âIâve always thought I was so much cleverer than Tommyâbut heâs undoubtedly scored over me handsomely.â
Julius agreed.
âTommyâs been the goods this trip! And, instead of sitting there as dumb as a fish, let him banish his blushes, and tell us all about it.â
âHear! hear!â
âThereâs nothing to tell,â said Tommy, acutely uncomfortable. âI was an awful mugâright up to the time I found that photograph of Annette, and realized that she was Jane Finn. Then I remembered how persistently she had shouted out that word âMargueriteââand I thought of the pictures, andâwell, thatâs that. Then of course I went over the whole thing to see where Iâd made an ass of myself.â
âGo on,â said Mr. Carter, as Tommy showed signs of taking refuge in silence once more.
âThat business about Mrs. Vandemeyer had worried me when Julius told me about it. On the face of it, it seemed that he or Sir James must have done the trick. But I didnât know which. Finding that photograph in the drawer, after that story of how it had been got from him by Inspector Brown, made me suspect Julius. Then I remembered that it was Sir James who had discovered the false Jane Finn. In the end, I couldnât make up my mindâand just decided to take no chances either way. I left a note for Julius, in case he was Mr. Brown, saying I was off to the Argentine, and I dropped Sir Jamesâs letter with the offer of the job by the desk so that he would see it was a genuine stunt. Then I wrote my letter to Mr. Carter and rang up Sir James. Taking him into my confidence would be the best thing either way, so I told him everything except where I believed the papers to be hidden. The way he helped me to get on the track of Tuppence and Annette almost disarmed me, but not quite. I kept my mind open between the two of them. And then I got a bogus note from Tuppenceâand I knew!â
âBut how?â
Tommy took the note in question from his pocket and passed it round the table.
âItâs her handwriting all right, but I knew it wasnât from her because of the signature. Sheâd never spell her name âTwopence,â but anyone whoâd never seen it written might quite easily do so. Julius had seen itâhe showed me a note of hers to him onceâbut Sir James hadnât! After that everything was plain sailing. I sent off Albert post-haste to Mr. Carter. I pretended to go away, but doubled back again. When Julius came bursting up in his car, I felt it wasnât part of Mr. Brownâs planâand that there would probably be trouble. Unless Sir James was actually caught in the act, so to speak, I knew Mr. Carter would never believe it of him on my bare wordâââ
âI didnât,â interposed Mr. Carter ruefully.
âThatâs why I sent the girls off to Sir James. I was sure theyâd fetch up at the house in Soho sooner or later. I threatened Julius with the revolver, because I wanted Tuppence to repeat that to Sir James, so that he wouldnât worry about us. The moment the girls were out of sight I told Julius to drive like hell for London, and as we went along I told him the whole story. We got to the Soho house in plenty of time and met Mr. Carter outside. After arranging things with him we went in and hid behind the curtain in the recess. The policemen had orders to say, if they were asked, that no one had gone into the house. Thatâs all.â
And Tommy came to an abrupt halt.
There was silence for a moment.
âBy the way,â said Julius suddenly, âyouâre all wrong about that photograph of Jane. It was taken from me, but I found it again.â
âWhere?â cried Tuppence.
âIn that little safe on the wall in Mrs. Vandemeyerâs bedroom.â
âI knew you found something,â said Tuppence reproachfully. âTo tell you the truth, thatâs what started me off suspecting you. Why didnât you say?â
âI guess I was a mite suspicious too. It had been got away from me once, and I determined I wouldnât let on Iâd got it until a photographer had made a dozen copies of it!â
âWe all kept back something or other,â said Tuppence thoughtfully. âI suppose secret service work makes you like that!â
In the pause that ensued, Mr. Carter took from his pocket a small shabby brown book.
âBeresford has just said that I would not have believed Sir James Peel Edgerton to be guilty unless, so to speak, he was caught in the act. That is so. Indeed, not until I read the entries in this little book could I bring myself fully to credit the amazing truth. This book will pass into the possession of Scotland Yard, but it will never be publicly exhibited. Sir Jamesâs long association with the law would make it undesirable. But to you, who know the truth, I propose to read certain passages which will throw some light on the extraordinary mentality of this great man.â
He opened the book, and turned the thin pages.
â... It is madness to keep this book. I know that. It is documentary evidence against me. But I have never shrunk from taking risks. And I feel an urgent need for self-expression.... The book will only be taken from my dead body....
â... From an early age I realized that I had exceptional abilities. Only a fool underestimates his capabilities. My brain power was greatly above the average. I know that I was born to succeed. My appearance was the only thing against me. I was quiet and insignificantâutterly nondescript....
â... When I
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