Mediterranean Nights Read Free Page A

right.
    â€˜We’ve got to get her, Thornton,’ he said sharply. ‘You see that, don’t you? Our people are after
him
, only you and I know about her.’
    Well, I didn’t like the job a bit, so I suggested that he should either get in touch with the London men or call in the French.
    He told me that I ought to know that all London agents report direct—not to him, he wouldn’t know them if he saw them—and that they didn’t even know each other. As for the French, we were up against them just as much as all the rest in these days. If they laid hands on those tracings they would photograph them for a certainty before they passed them on to us.
    â€˜Why not get on to London again?’ I asked. ‘Tell them what we suspect and they can instruct their people over here.’
    â€˜But, damn it, man, you know the woman already!’ he protested. ‘Look at the lead you’ve got—give her some dinner somewhere. One of the porters at the Ritz is on my Paris list—he’ll search her room while she’s with you.’
    I didn’t like the idea, and I said so, but he began to plead with me.
    â€˜Now look here, Thornton; this is really serious. If those tracings reach their destination they may do us untold harm. This woman’s got to be separated from her luggage for an hour or two—and it’s up to you.’
    Well, it was a service matter and I had no alternative but to give in, so I told him I’d telephone if I could arrange it.
    My talk with Harvey hadn’t lasted more than twenty minutes, so I was back at the hotel in under half an hour, and directly I reached my room I sat down to write a veryformal and guarded note. I felt that was the best line and I was right.
    Ten minutes after I had sent the letter to her room she telephoned; said how kind it was of me to think of her—that she was feeling better and would like to dine, provided I did not mind that she was not permitted to dance afterwards—then she asked what restaurant I suggested.
    I mentioned one or two and we settled on the Tour d’Argent.
    I took the opportunity of securing her room number by inquiring at the office to which room I had been talking, and I found that she was next to Essenbach—on the same floor as myself. That settled it in my mind that they were acting together. You see, it is so handy to have another room near your own into which you can slip, when you are liable to be beaten up at any moment.
    I told Harvey what I had done, and he asked me to ring him again at a Passy number before I left the Tour d’Argent. He would have heard by then from his man at the Ritz.
    When the Lady Lisabetta joined me in the hall an hour or so later, she looked more charming than ever.
    I should have enjoyed that dinner if I hadn’t known what was going on behind the scenes. In the war, of course, I’d become hardened to dealing with the actress-courtesan type who dabble in espionage, but this was a woman of distinction, so you can imagine how I disliked the false position I was in!
    After we had finished dinner I excused myself for a moment and got Harvey on the ‘phone. ‘Well,’ I asked, ‘all serene?’
    But it wasn’t—his man had drawn blank at the hotel, so she must have the goods on her, and my heart sank like a stone. You see, I knew what was coming next before he spoke.
    â€˜You know the drill?’ he said.
    I knew the drill all right, but I told him I couldn’t do it—he must send one of his Paris people along to take over—but he protested that anyone who didn’t know her wouldn’t have a chance—and wanted to know what sort of midsummer madness I was suffering from.
    Then of course I realised where I was drifting. If she hadbeen old and ugly it would never have entered my head to kick at being asked to take the usual steps. As it was, I just hated the idea, but I had to go through with