‘I see. But there must be a number of people working for him on his nature reserve – to say nothing of some sort of household up at Ailsworth Court. Even if nobody comes at all near this tower, it ought to be possible to attract attention.’
‘Look about you,’ Miles said rather grimly. ‘And tell me just how it’s to be done.’
‘Very well.’ Howard explored the confined space methodically. ‘It’s certainly not going to be easy,’ he said. ‘Nothing approximating to a window – only these narrow apertures head high. And the whole structure seems uncommonly robust. Do you know just what’s above and below us?’
‘What’s below is a sort of storeroom. What’s immediately above is just like this: blank wall covered with maps. And up above that again is the actual observation chamber, or whatever it’s called.’
Howard nodded. ‘Nothing to begin battering the place down with – is there? Those two benches are much too flimsy.’ He paused in thought. ‘But at least they’d burn. And we have a penknife to make shavings. And matches. I suppose that’s the line to take. A fire.’ He looked seriously at his brother. ‘Call it a controlled fire.’
There was a moment’s silence. ‘You lead, I follow,’ Miles said. And added: ‘What about having your own first pow-pow with Ailsworth before trying quite so desperate a remedy? He’ll be back in no time. With a nice packed lunch.’
‘From what you tell me about him, it would be a waste of time. And time is something we just can’t waste. The situation in the outer world, remember, is that we’ve
both
disappeared. And I don’t see that anybody is particularly likely to find us. We’ve got to get away under our own steam, Miles, as quickly as we can. And see what can be done with the police and Clandon and anybody else in the know about hushing the damned thing up.’
‘Very well. But just what sort of fire are you envisaging?’
‘Not – at least in the first instance – one that would actually burn a way out for us.’ Howard had produced his penknife and begun to strip shavings from the bench on which he was sitting. ‘My idea is somehow to contrive a good trail of smoke through one of those apertures. If we can manage that, it’s bound to attract notice quite soon. And Ailsworth can’t reasonably keep people away from his precious tower once it’s seen to be on fire. Agreed?’
‘Agreed.’ Miles produced a penknife of his own. ‘By the way, what was that you said about being distracted by something, just before coming down here?’
Howard Juniper frowned, as if at a recollection he found disturbing. ‘Do you remember Karl Grindrod?’ he asked.
‘Grindrod?’ Miles was startled. ‘Of course I do. A nasty piece of work.’
‘Quite so. Well, he turned up at Oxford. Bad luck – wouldn’t you say? Still, I was asking for it.’
Miles made an impatient gesture. ‘I don’t follow. Explain yourself.’
‘It’s a pity that all the fun in
Through the Looking-Glass
comes from taking just one more risk. I enjoyed being a prep-school master at a conference of prep-school masters. But it was while I was being just that, and going around with a large label in my buttonhole saying “Miles Juniper, Splaine Croft”, that I ran slap into Grindrod. What he was doing in Oxford, I don’t know.’
‘And he recognized you?’
‘Just at the time, I wasn’t quite sure. He said nothing committal himself. But, in fact, he did recognize me – as subsequent events proved. He was one of the few chaps, remember, who could identify us one from the other at sight. And he’d never tell how he managed it.’
Miles nodded. ‘A sinister bastard, I always thought. And I haven’t the slightest doubt he indulged the notion that being able to bring off that little bit of detection might some day be turned to his advantage.’
‘You were quite right, my boy. He turned up at the lab yesterday and managed to be shown in on me.’
‘The devil he did!’ Miles looked thoroughly alarmed. ‘I can imagine that you found it distracting, all right. What did he say?’
‘Very little. I think he found it disappointing that – so to speak – I wasn’t you.’ Howard laughed softly. ‘He couldn’t have tumbled to the fact that I was me pretending to be you pretending to be me. At least I suppose not.’
‘What excuse did he give for his visit? We’ve neither of us ever kept up with him. I’d a notion he’d turned a thoroughly bad hat, who was obliged to live abroad.’
‘Yes, I think I had some such idea myself. He simply said that he’d run into you in Oxford, and that this had put it into his head to look me up too. For the sake, he said, of old times. But he said it with as sinister a grin as he could contrive. I’m quite sure he envisaged our meeting as a preliminary stage in an attempt at blackmail.’
Miles Juniper flushed darkly. ‘The filthy swine!’
‘He’d know very well, you see, that our old tricks are something that our present reputations can’t afford. Particularly mine, Miles, if I may say so. In middle age, any disclosure of the sort would brand us, not as harmless practical jokers, but as irresponsible neurotics. Grindrod had a reasonable expectation of having stumbled on a good thing.’
‘But he didn’t ask for money there and then?’
Howard shook his head. ‘No,’ he said slowly. ‘He didn’t. I was left with a notion that it wasn’t – well, that it wasn’t our own modest bank balances that he had an eye on.’
‘
You’re quite right
.’
There was a split second’s silence – and then both Howard and Miles Juniper sprang to their feet and stared upwards. In the ceiling above their heads the small trapdoor had opened, and a face was peering down at them.
‘You’re quite right,’ Karl Grindrod repeated. ‘
Your
money’s no use to me. I don’t go after chicken feed. You’re going to do me prouder than that, friends. Nasty views you have of me, haven’t you? Before we’ve finished with each other you’ll know you’re quite right there too.’
‘So you followed me down, did you?’ Howard Juniper asked quietly. ‘A hopeful sort of crook, you seem to have turned out, Karl Grindrod.’
‘I followed you down, all right. And stayed in the same pub, although I took care you didn’t see me. And then followed you here. I had to keep out of the way while that old fellow was bringing you to this tower. There’s almost no cover, you know. But as soon as he’d cleared out, I came along, and I’ve heard quite a lot of what you’ve been saying. Odd birds keep odd company, don’t they? By the way, I’m not off my head, you know. In fact, I’m among the saner part of your acquaintance.’
‘Then you’d better do the sane thing, Grindrod, and see what you can do about getting us out. Whatever your own designs upon us, it can’t be to your advantage that we should be kept locked up by a demented peer.’
Grindrod laughed softly. ‘I’m not so sure of that. The Juniper brothers, if I may say so, are very picturesquely circumstanced at the moment. I’m not sure that a conscientious citizen oughtn’t to suspect them of being up to something questionable. Perhaps I ought to call in the local police – and the newspapers.’
‘You’re talking nonsense, Grindrod, as you very well know. Publicity might be awkward for my brother and myself, I agree. But the little lark we’ve been up to would be far from utterly impeaching our credit in a court of law. It’s a very good guess that you are known to the police, and that as soon as they see a sporting chance of gaoling you, they’ll act. If you make blackmailing proposals to us now, there’s an excellent prospect that our subsequent evidence will be enough to sink you. We’re in a hurry, by the way, but not a desperate one. So take a minute or two to think it over.’
‘Well, well!’ Grindrod again gave his soft laugh. ‘If I may say so, Juniper, it’s a pleasure to converse with so intelligent an old acquaintance. You see this just as a test of nerve – isn’t that right? If you and your brother don’t lose your heads, it isn’t me that’s got you, but you who have got me. However, that just isn’t true. As you’ve been saying in your little talk together, a public exposure of this prank would as good as finish you professionally. Your bugs and so on are far too important to be in the hands of an erratic practical joker. But there’s another factor to consider. You’d agree, I suppose, that you’re both in the power of a madman?’
At this, Miles Juniper broke in. ‘Blast you – you know we are.’
‘Quite so. And if Lord Ailsworth’s conduct comes under investigation, it won’t be long before he reveals that, in his mature judgement, the human race is a mistake, and that he has the most splendid plans for liquidating it. That being so, the actual liquidating of two specimens of that race on his estate would be laid at his door without question. Don’t you agree?’
Howard Juniper laughed in his turn. ‘I see no reason, Grindrod, either to agree or disagree with an entirely idle hypothesis. Talk sense.’
‘Not so much of that
de haut
en bas
stuff, Howard Juniper.’ Grindrod was suddenly angry. ‘I’m in control of this situation – and you can’t bluff me that you don’t know it. Your demented peer has simplified my job by a long way. If I’d simply had to tackle you in your lab – or in your precious brother’s school – it might have come to a test of nerve between us. But now, nothing of the sort applies. Do what I tell you, and I’ll get you out of this. Refuse, and you’ll neither of you live to make trouble for me. And the world will believe that the madman who kidnapped you ceased to find your blasted faces bearable and took a shotgun to them. Take a minute or two to think
that
over.’
For some seconds there was silence. It was broken only by a whirr of wings as a flight of wild duck passed near the tower. Then Miles Juniper spoke. ‘And just what is it you want?’ he asked.
‘No, no, Miles – we’re not interested in asking him that.’ Howard spoke gently to his brother. ‘He wants nothing that is ours to give.’
‘I want nothing, Professor Juniper, that you don’t keep under your hat.’ Grindrod laughed harshly. ‘Don’t think I haven’t been in on this sort of thing before. I know just where I am with people as high up in secret research as you are. You can put down on a couple of sheets of paper, and straight out of your head, what I can get a cool fifty thousand pounds for. Enough to retire on, for a modest person like myself. It’s true that I won’t understand a single word or formula in it. But I’ve somebody I can pretty quickly check up with. And when I know I’ve got the goods, I’ll let you out.’
‘And how do we know we can trust you to do that?’ Miles Juniper demanded.
Ever so gently, Howard Juniper sighed. ‘My dear chap,’ he murmured, ‘need you pursue a discussion that’s so obviously idle? We’ve nothing more to say to Grindrod – nothing at all.’
‘It’s a very good question.’ Through the little trapdoor, Grindrod nodded with an appearance of great approval at Miles. ‘I see your difficulty at once. But just consider. As soon as I’ve got what I want from your brother, neither of you can be the slightest menace to me, since Professor Juniper will have committed quite as serious a crime as I have. I’ll be able to pass you in the street without the faintest tremor. But the other course you’re thinking of – my getting my stuff, going back on my bargain, killing you, and leaving Lord Ailsworth to take the knock – does, I frankly admit, carry just a small degree of risk. Something might go wrong, and then I’d have had it. No’ – and Grindrod contrived an evil chuckle– ‘I think you can have reasonable confidence in my behaving towards you in a thoroughly honourable way. Nothing to disgrace our common heritage in that old school tie. So think it over, friends. I’ll be back for another quiet chat later.’ Grindrod paused. ‘You dirty stuck-up rats,’ he said with sudden venom. And the trapdoor closed with a bang.
For some moments neither brother said anything. They could hear Grindrod’s footsteps on the wooden staircase running down the tower.
‘Well, that’s better – isn’t it?’ Howard asked cheerfully.
‘Better? No doubt it’s something to see the back of him even for half an hour.’
‘I don’t mean that. I mean that Grindrod’s turning up in this way rather improves the situation. Of course he isn’t going to get anything out of us; and I’m certain he hasn’t really got the nerve for murder. His pottering round with his precious plan is a hopeful element of disturbance, if you ask me. It’s almost certain that Ailsworth will be keeping a sharp eye on his tower, and I don’t see how Grindrod can hope to come and go unobserved. There’s hardly any cover, as he himself said. So we’ll hope for complications, and this tower’s being drawn, as a consequence, a little into notice. Meanwhile, we’d better get on with our preparations for fire-raising.’
‘You always did manage the buoyant view, Howard.’ Miles Juniper was regarding his brother with mingled admiration and resentment. ‘But why should he suggest we think it over? Why should he propose to go off and come back again, when the trip increases the element of risk? Nerve-war? Does he think it will wear us down?’
‘Quite possibly. I wish this knife were a little sharper.’ Howard seemed uninterested in further speculation.
‘It’s because he thinks I’ll work on you.’ Miles laughed harshly. ‘Like the fellow in the play. “What says my brother? Death is a fearful thing. Let me live: what sin you do to save a brother’s life, Nature dispenses with the deed so far that it becomes a virtue.”’
Howard smiled whimsically. ‘My dear Miles, I envy you your command of Shakespeare. It’s a graceful accomplishment. And a solace.’
‘“Oh you beast! Oh faithless coward! Oh dishonest wretch!”’ Miles laughed again – but this time as if with a curious sense of tension relieved. ‘And what’s the moral?’ He looked happily at Howard – an equal at an equal. ‘Not to have hysterical scenes, I suppose.’ He paused, and then glanced at his watch. ‘Almost lunchtime. And that reminds me, my dear Howard. I’ve bad news for you.’
‘Bad news?’
‘Ailsworth is a vegetarian. And his little basket is stocked up accordingly.’
Cudworth stopped the car and gazed across the estuary. ‘That it?’ he asked.
Appleby nodded. ‘That’s it. Secured against trespass, you see, by wire fences running down into the sea. Those affairs sticking up are observation towers. The girl showed me the smaller one. You’d think from here they were on water, but actually they’re on dry land, more or less. You can just see the top of Ailsworth Court itself beyond that bit of timber. It’s a big place.’