Postern of Fate (Tommy & Tuppence 5)

'Good boy, Hannibal,' said Tommy, 'good boy. Don't you think so?'

He turned his head to Mr Crispin.

'Knows his enemies, doesn't he - and your enemies.'

'Oh dear,' said Tuppence. 'Has Hannibal bitten you?'

'A very nasty nip,' said Miss Mullins, rising to her feet and scowling at Hannibal.

'His second one, isn't it?' said Tommy. 'Chased you out of our pampas grass, didn't he?'

'He knows what's what,' said Mr Crispin. 'Doesn't he, Dodo, my dear? Long time since I've seen you, Dodo, isn't it?'

Miss Mullins got up, shot a glance at Tuppence, at Tommy and at Mr Crispin.

'Mullins,' said Mr Crispin. 'Sorry I'm not up to date. Is that a married name or are you now known as Miss Mullins?'

'I am Iris Mullins, as I always was.'

'Ah, I thought you were Dodo. You used

to be Dodo to me. Well, dear, I think - nice to have seen you, but I think we'd better get out of here quickly. Drink your coffee. I expect that's all right, Mrs Beresford? I'm very pleased to meet you. If I might advise you, I shouldn't drink your coffee.'

'Oh dear, let me take the cup away.'

Miss Mullins pressed forward. In a moment Crispin stood between her and Tuppence.

'No, Dodo dear I wouldn't do that,' he said. 'I'd rather have charge of it myself. The cup belongs to the house, you know, and of course it would be nice to have an analysis of exactly what's in it just now. Possibly you brought a little dose with you, did you? Quite easy to put a little dose into the cup as you're handing it to the invalid or the supposed invalid.'

'I assure you I did no such thing. Oh, do call your dog off.' Hannibal showed every desire to pursue her down the staircase.

'He wants to see you off the premises,' said Tommy. 'He's rather particular about that. He likes biting people who are going out through the front door. Ah, Albert, there you are. I thought you'd be just outside the other door. Did you see what happened, by any chance?'

Albert put his head round the dressing-room door across the room.

'I saw all right. I watched her through the crack of the hinge. Yes. Put something in the missus's cup, she did. Very neat. Good as a conjuror, but she did it all right.'

'I don't know what you mean,' said Miss Mullins. 'I - oh dear, oh dear, I must go. I've got an appointment. It's very important.'

She shot out of the room and down the stairs. Hannibal gave one glance and went after her. Mr Crispin showed no sign of animosity, but he too left hurriedly in pursuit.

'I hope she's a good runner,' said Tuppence, 'because if she isn't Hannibal will catch up with her. My word, he's a good guard dog, isn't he?'

'Tuppence, that was Mr Crispin, sent us by Mr Solomon. Came at a very good moment, didn't he? I think he's been waiting his time to see what might be going to happen. Don't break that cup and don't pour any of that coffee away until we've got a bottle or something to put it in. It's going to be analysed and we're going to find out what's in it. Put your best dressing-gown on, Tuppence, and come down to the sitting-room and we'll have some drinks there before lunch.'

'And now, I suppose,' said Tuppence, 'we shall never know what any of it means or what it is all about.'

She shook her head in deep despondency. Rising from her chair, she went towards the fireplace.

'Are you trying to put a log on?' said Tommy. 'Let me. You've been told not to move about much.'

'My arm's quite all right now,' said Tuppence. 'Anyone would think I'd broken it or something. It was only a nasty scrape or graze.'

'You have more to boast about than that,' said Tommy. 'It was definitely a bullet wound. You have been wounded in war.'

'War it seems to have been all right,' said Tuppence. 'Really!'

'Never mind,' said Tommy, 'we dealt with the Mullins very well, I think.'

'Hannibal,' said Tuppence, 'was a very good dog there, wasn't he?'

'Yes,' said Tommy, 'he told us. Told us very definitely. He just leapt for that pampas grass. His nose told him, I suppose. He's got a wonderful nose.'

'I can't say my nose warned me,' said Tuppence. 'I just thought she was rather an answer to prayer, turning up. And I quite forgot we were only supposed to take someone who had worked for Mr Solomon. Did Mr Crispin tell you anything more? I suppose his name isn't really Crispin.'

'Possibly not,' said Tommy.

'Did he come to do some sleuthing too? Too many of us here, I should say.'

'No,' said Tommy, 'not exactly a sleuth. I think he was sent for security purposes. To look after you.'

'To look after me,' said Tuppence, 'and you, I should say. Where is he now?'

'Dealing with Miss Mullins, I expect.'

'Yes, well, it's extraordinary how hungry these excitements make one. Quite peckish, as one might say. Do you know, there's nothing I can imagine I'd like to eat more than a nice hot crab with a sauce made of cream with just a touch of curry powder.'

'You're well again,' said Tommy. 'I'm delighted to hear you feeling like that about food.'

'I've never been ill,' said Tuppence. 'I've been wounded. That's quite different.'

'Well,' said Tommy, 'anyway you must have realized as I did that' when Hannibal let go all out and told you an enemy was close at hand in the pampas grass, you must have realized that Miss Mullins was the person who, dressed as a man, hid there and shot at you -'

"But then,' said Tuppence, 'we thought that she'd have another go. I was immured with my wound in bed and we made our arrangements. Isn't that right, Tommy?'

'Quite right,' said Tommy, 'quite right. I thought probably she wouldn't leave it too long to come to the conclusion that one of her bullets had taken effect and that you'd be laid up in bed.'

'So she came along full of feminine solicitude,' said Tuppence.

'And our arrangement was very good, I thought,' said Tommy. 'There was Albert on permanent guard, watching every step she took, every single thing she did -'

'And also,' said Tuppence, 'bringing me up on a tray a cup of coffee and adding another cup for the visitor.'

'Did you see Mullins - or Dodo, as Crispin called her - put anything in your cup of coffee?'

'No,' said Tuppence, 'I must admit that I didn't. You see, she seemed to catch her foot in something and she knocked over that little table with our nice vase on it, made a great deal of apology, and my eye of course was on the broken vase and whether it was too bad to mend. So I didn't see her.'

'Albert did,' said Tommy. 'Saw it through the hinge where he'd enlarged it a crack so that he could look through.'

'And then it was a very good idea to put Hannibal in confinement in the bathroom but leaving the door only half latched because, as we know, Hannibal is very good at opening doors. Not of course if they're completely latched, but if they only look latched or feel latched he takes one great spring and comes in like a - oh, like a Bengal tiger.'

'Yes,' said Tommy, 'that is quite a good description.'

'And now I suppose Mr Crispin or whatever his name is has finished making his enquiries, although how he thinks Miss Mullins can be connected with Mary Jordan, or with a dangerous figure like Jonathan Kane who only exists in the past -'

'I don't think he only exists in the past. I think there may be a new edition of him, a re-birth, as you might say. There are a lot of young members, lovers of violence, violence at any price, the merry muggers society if there's anything called that, and the super-fascists regretting the splendid days of Hitler and his merry group.'

'I've just been reading Count Hannibal,' said Tuppence. 'Stanley Weyman. One of his best. It was among the Alexander books upstairs.'

'What about it?'

'Well, I was thinking that nowadays it's really still like that. And probably always has been. All the poor children who went off to the Children's Crusade so full of joy and pleasure and vanity, poor little souls. Thinking they'd been appointed by the Lord to deliver Jerusalem, that the seas would part in front of them so that they could walk across, as Moses did in the Bible. And now all these pretty girls and young men who appear in courts the whole time, because they've smashed down some wretched old age pensioner or elderly person who had just got a little money or something in the bank. And there was St Bartholomew's Massacre. You see, all these things do happen again. Even the new fascists were mentioned the other day in connection with a perfectly respectable university. Ah well, I suppose nobody will ever really tell us anything. Do you really think that Mr Crispin will find out something more about a hiding-place that nobody's yet discovered? Cisterns. You know, bank robberies. They often hid things in cisterns. Very damp place, I should have thought, to hide something. Do you think when he's finished making his enquiries or whatever it is, he'll come back here and continue looking after me - and you, Tommy?'

'I don't need him to look after me,' said Tommy.

'Oh, that's j

ust arrogance,' said Tuppence.

'I think he'll come to say goodbye,' said Tommy.

'Oh yes, because he's got very nice manners, hasn't he?'

'He'll want to make sure that you're quite all right again.'

'I'm only wounded and the doctor's seen to that.'