PLAYING THE SPY
When the child had passed all the signposts on the road of
convalescence, had reached perfect health, Masters ceased his visits to
the bungalow. His interest in Gracie induced him not to avoid meeting
her on the front.
The child was all warmth and affection and love for the man she was
going to marry. The mother hid her aching heart behind a smile: a
woman's usual veil. It was not what a novelist describes as a sad sweet
smile; it had degenerated into an hysterical, jerky, clattering, little
laugh.
The weather continued fine; the author prolonged his stay. For that
reason--anyway, for his own satisfaction he set down that as the
cause--he stayed on at Wivernsea.
Not a day passed but he met his little sweetheart. Not a day passed but
the breach between the man and woman widened. Soon the conventional
greeting at meeting and parting came to be dreaded by each.
They dared not look into each other's eyes. As hands met for those two
brief moments, each involuntarily looked away from the other. Fingers
were clasped limply; fell away awkwardly. Heartiness, even of the
faintest description, was sadly lacking in the shake.
One morning he had a letter from his lawyers. It called for his
attendance in London; a question of making an affidavit over some
copyright infringement. He resolved to catch the fast train up, and so
be able to get back by the fast evening train down.
He was at the station early, having inquiries to make. A parcel of books
sent down to him had, by reason of the railway company's vagaries, not
reached him. Those inquiries made and satisfied, he purchased
newspapers.
Messrs. Smith and Son occupied a space in the booking office. As he
dealt with the juvenile representative of the great Strand firm, he was
standing with his back to the ticket pigeon-hole. He was presently
startled by hearing a voice he recognized, saying:
"First-class, return, London, please."
He turned round sharply, expecting to see the mistress of Ivy Cottage;
he could have sworn to her voice anywhere. A woman plainly dressed,
almost shabbily, with a long thick veil, stood purchasing the ticket.
She repeated the demand; the ticket seller had not caught the words.
Hearing it a second time, Masters had no shadow of doubt about the
voice's owner. There were no two voices like it in the world. But the
costume amazed him; could only be explained one way.
Not a pleasant way, either. It was a disguise! Masters felt certain of
it. She had always been well, expensively dressed. Now, by reason of
that, the change was the more striking.
There were three minutes before the train was due; five minutes passed
before it arrived. The shabbily-dressed woman paced the platform.
Masters watched her from the waiting-room window; five minutes of utter
misery.
The station bell rang a second time, the train came in. The veiled woman
hurried to a first-class carriage in front of the train. The guard
opened a door and she entered one of its compartments. A moment after
Masters had entered another.
His purchases at the bookstall lay on the seat beside him all the way to
London; he did not read a line of them. For two whole hours he sat
stonily looking out of the window, thinking. Thinking, as well as the
numb feeling of wretchedness and horror holding him would allow.
It was the first really cold day of the approaching winter. With a view
to travelling in comfort, Masters had unpacked, and was wearing a long
heavy ulster. It changed his appearance altogether. He knew that, and,
bred of the knowledge, there came a desire to track the woman in the
other compartment.
With his coat-collar up, she would not be likely to recognize him. It
would be possible to follow her and see what this mysterious disguise
and flight to London meant; whether she was really as black as his
suspicion painted her, as appearances represented her.
Was it a gentlemanly thing to do?... He did not pause to answer his own
question. Curiosity and the desire, the necessity, to either set at rest
or confirm his fears outweighed everything. Any certainty is better than
suspense; we always say so and feel it so--until that certainty is
known.
His mind was quickly made up: to follow her. Besides, how could he tell
but what she might have need of him; the disguise led to the thought of
such a possibility. Masters' was a fertile brain; a dozen such
possibilities entered his mind at once. Disguise very frequently meant
danger. If that were the case it was his duty, as a man, to shield her.
He would not fail her--so he argued with himself. A desire to do any
particular thing causes us to find reasons for its justification;
excellent reason. He had made up his mind to follow her.
At Charing Cross the woman in the front part of the train alighted....
Got into a hansom cab.... Masters got into another. A disturbing
recollection came to him of a private detective in one of his own books
who had acted in similar fashion. But he was not deterred by it.
"Where to, sir?"
Through the trap in the cab roof the inquiry came. Looking up he
answered the driver:
"Keep that hansom in sight. I want to see, and not be seen--do you
understand?"
"I'm fly."
As the Jehu answered he shut one eye. Then, as he closed the trap, said
to himself:
"Man from the Yard--what's she been a-doin' of, I wonder?"
The first cab went over Westminster Bridge, turned into Lambeth, pulled
up outside a corner public house. The second cab slowed down and passed
the first at walking pace. The woman was paying her fare. Then she
entered a door on the glass panels of which were inscribed the words:
BOTTLE AND JUG DEPARTMENT
Masters' cabman knew his business; promptly reined in his horse just
round the corner.
"That do you, sir?"
He put the question as Masters alighted, and was feeling in his trousers
pocket; the driver continued:
"She's gone into the _Green Dragon_ round the corner, she has. We passed
the pub a minute agone."
Masters winced. Then reflected that the cabman was only fulfilling his
duty zealously. Rewarded him with a half-sovereign.
"Going back, sir?"
Golden fares are rare enough to be worth looking after for a return
journey.
"Perhaps--I don't know."
"I'll be stopping here, sir--here, for half-an-hour if you should want
me, sir."
Masters nodded.... Passed through a door brass-plated with the words:
HOTEL ENTRANCE.
A flight of stairs faced him. To the left was another door,
glass-lettered with the word:
SALLOON.
Into the saloon Masters went. Square panels of bevelled ground glass
pivoted on their centres along the top of the bar, shielding the
occupants of the saloon from the gaze of those in the opposite bar.
As he entered, Masters heard the woman he had followed enquiring over
the bar:
"Mr. Rigby? He is staying here--he expects me."
The hesitation in the enquiring voice made the barman look up.
Nervousness in women is rather an uncommon thing to find in the bar of a
Surrey-side public-house.
"Oh, yes. But you've come in the wrong way. Round the corner and in at
the hotel entrance. You'll find him on the second floor, room 15."
She went out. The bar-tender crossing to him, Masters called for a
whisky and soda. Tasted, then tilted the glass, and let the contents be
soaked up by the sawdust on the floor. It was not a drink which he
thought likely to benefit him. The Lambeth blend of whisky did not
somehow seem to tickle his palate.
Watching through the saloon door, he presently saw the veiled woman come
in through the hotel entrance, and ascend the stairs. Allowing
half-a-minute to elapse, he passed out and followed in her steps. As he
commenced the ascent of the second flight he heard a door close; guessed
it to be the door of room No. 15.
Reaching the passage on the second floor he noted that the door of room
No. 14 was shut. No. 15 was shut too. No. 16 was open. He paused on its
threshold. Cast an eye round; not a soul was in the passage; entered.
Then the door of No. 16 was shut too; shut, and the key turned on the
inside.
A hurried glance satisfied him that it was an unoccupied room. He was
glad of that; an explanation that he had entered to wash his hands would
suffice, should need of such excuse arise. All the rooms, he guessed,
were bedrooms on that floor.
A door was in the dividing wall of Nos. 15 and 16. To that Masters
applied his ear. A sense of the contemptibility of the action was strong
upon him; yet he could not refrain from acting so.
Something crossed his mind about the end justifying the means. It was a
principle he had always violently combated; practice and theory are
sometimes at variance. Shame was merged into a feeling of gladness: that
there was no key in the lock; it made hearing easier. And he meant to go
the whole length; to listen.
As he did so, reflected that such a despicable act as eavesdropping
would have been impossible to him a month ago. Suggested to himself that
she had brought him to it.
That is men's way--even the best of them.