Postern of Fate (Tommy & Tuppence 5)

She found Clarence sitting on a decayed basket chair on the veranda or loggia, whichever you liked to call it. He appeared to be making a late breakfast off potato crisps and held a bar of chocolate in his left hand.

'Morning, missus,' said Clarence. 'Come to see if I could be any help.'

'Well,' said Tuppence, 'of course we do want help in the garden. I believe you used to help Isaac at one time.'

'Ah well, now and again I did. Not that I know very much. Don't say that Isaac knew much neither. Lot of talk with him, lot of talking saying what a wonderful time he used to have. What a wonderful time it was for the people who employed him. Yes, he used to say he was the head gardener to Mr Bolingo. You know, as lives farther along the river. Great big house. Yes, it's turned into a school now. Head gardener there, he said he used to be. But my grandmother says there isn't a word of truth in that.'

'Well, never mind,' said Tuppence. 'Actually, I wanted to turn a few more things out of that little greenhouse place.'

'What, d'you mean the shed, the glass shed? KK, isn't it?'

'Quite right,' said Tuppence. 'Fancy your knowing the proper name of it.'

'Oh well, it was always used to be called that. Everybody says so. They say it's Japanese. I don't know if that's true.'

'Come on,' said Tuppence. 'Let's go there.'

A procession formed consisting of Tommy, Tuppence, Hannibal, the dog, with Albert abandoning the washing up of breakfast for something more interesting bringing up the rear. Hannibal displayed a great deal of pleasure after attending to all the useful smells in the neighbourhood. He rejoined them at the door of KK and sniffed in an interested manner.

'Hullo, Hannibal,' said Tuppence, 'are you going to help us? You tell us something.'

'What kind of a dog is he?' asked Clarence. 'Somebody said as he is the kind of dog they used to keep for rats. Is that so?'

'Yes, that's quite true,' said Tommy. 'He's a Manchester Terrier, an old English Black and Tan.'

Hannibal, knowing he was being talked about, turned his head, waggled his body, beat his tail with a good deal of exuberance. He then sat down and looked proud of himself.

'He bites, doesn't he?' said Clarence. 'Everyone says so.'

'He's a very good guard dog,' said Tuppence. 'He looks after me.'

'That's quite right. When I'm away he looks after you,' said Tommy.

'The postman said he nearly got bitten four days ago.'

'Dogs are rather like that with postmen,' said Tuppence. 'Do you know where the key of KK is?'

'I do,' said Clarence. 'Hanging up in the shed. You know, the shed where the flower-pots are.'

He went off and returned shortly with the once rusty but now more or less oiled key.

'Been oiling this key, Isaac must have,' he said.

'Yes, it wouldn't turn very easily before,' said Tuppence.

The door was opened.

The Cambridge china stool with the swan wreathed round it was looking rather handsome. Obviously Isaac had polished it up and washed it, with the idea of transferring it to the veranda when the weather was suitable for sitting out.

'Ought to be a dark blue one too,' said Clarence. 'Isaac used to say Oxford and Cambridge.'

'Is that true?'

'Yes. Dark blue Oxford and pale blue Cambridge. Oh, and Oxford was the one that smashed, was it?'

'Yes. Rather like the boat race, isn't it?'

'By the way, something's happened to that rocking-horse, hasn't it? There's a lot of mess about in KK.'

'Yes.'

'Funny name like Matilda, hasn't she?'

'Yes. She had to have an operation,' said Tuppence.

Clarence seemed to think this very amusing. He laughed heartily.

'My Great-Aunt Edith had to have an operation,' he said. 'Took out part of her inside but she got well.'

He sounded slightly disappointed.

'I suppose there's no real way of getting inside these things,' said Tuppence.

'Well, I suppose you can smash them like the dark blue one was smashed.'

'Yes. There's no other way, is there? Funny those sort of S-kind of slits around the top. Why, you could post things in there, couldn't you, like a post-box.'

'Yes,' said Tommy, 'One could. It's an interesting idea. Very interesting, Clarence,' he said kindly.

Clarence looked pleased.

'You can unscrew 'em, you know,' he said.

'Unscrew them, can you?' said Tuppence. 'Who told you that?'

'Isaac. I've seen 'im do it often. You turn them upside down and then you begin to swing the top round. It's stiff sometimes. You pour a little oil round all the cracks and when it's soaked in a bit you can turn it round.'

'Oh.'

'The easiest way is to put it upside down,'

'Everything here always seems to have to be turned upside down,' said Tuppence. 'We had to do that to Mathilde before we could operate.'

For the moment Cambridge seemed to be entirely obstreperous, when quite suddenly the china began to revolve and very shortly afterwards they managed to unscrew it completely and lift it off.

'Lot of rubbish in here, I should think,' said Clarence.

Hannibal came to assist. He was a dog who liked helping in anything that was going on. Nothing, he thought, was complete unless he took a hand or a paw in it. But with him it was usually a nose in the investigation. He stuck his nose down, growled gently, retired an inch or two and sat down.

'Doesn't like it much, does he?' said Tuppence, and looked down into the somewhat unpleasant mass inside.

'Ow!' said Clarence.

'What's the matter?'

'Scratched myself. There's something hanging down from a nail on the side here. I don't know if it's a nail or what it is. It's something. Ow!'

'Wuff, wuff!' said Hannibal, joining in.

'There's something hung on a nail just inside. Yes, I've got it. No, it's slipping. Yes, here I am. I've got it.'

Clarence lifted out a dark tarpaulin package.

Hannibal came and sat at Tuppence's feet. He growled.

'What's the matter, Hannibal?' said Tuppence.

Hannibal growled again. Tuppence bent down and smoothed the top of his head and ears.

'What's the matter, Hannibal?' said Tuppence. 'Did you want Oxford to win and now Cambridge have won, you see. Do you remember,' said Tuppence to Tommy, 'how we let him watch the boat race once on television?'

'Yes,' said Tommy, 'he got very angry towards the end and started barking so that we couldn't hear anything at all.'

'Well, we could still see things,' said Tuppence, 'that was something. But if you remember, he didn't like Cambridge winning.'

'Obviously,' said Tommy, 'he studied at the Oxford Dogs' University.'

Hannibal left Tuppence and came to Tommy and wagged his tail appreciatively.

'He likes your saying that,' said Tuppence, 'it must be true. I myself,' she added, 'think he has been educated at the Dogs' Open University.'

'What were his principal studies there?' asked Tommy, laughing.

'Bone disposal.'

'You know what he's like.'

'Yes, I know,' said Tuppence. 'Very unwisely, you know, Albert gave him the whole bone of a leg of mutton once. First of all I found him in the drawing-room putting it under a cushion, then I forced him out through the garden door and shut it. And I looked out of the window and he went into the flower-bed where I'd got gladioli, and buried it very carefully there. He's very tidy with his bones, you know. He never tries to eat them. He always puts them away for a rainy day.'

'Does he ever dig them up again?' asked Clarence, assisting on this point of dog lore.

'I think so,' said Tuppence. 'Sometimes when they're very,

very old and would have been better if they had been left buried.'

'Our dog doesn't like dog biscuits,' said Clarence.