The Portuguese Escape (40 page)

Julia and Torrens exchanged glances. But Torrens wanted above all to get the business in hand organised.

‘Quite so, Sir,' he said briskly. ‘Now, Colonel Marques and his men are coming to fetch him about 4 a.m. Can someone stay up to let them in? And do you agree to his staying here till then; locked in, of course?'

The Duke pondered—Julia saw him glance again at the cot in the corner, and guessed at his distaste.

‘Yes, of course,' he said, then with a shrug, as if shaking off his private thoughts. ‘Elidio shall let these people in and bring them up by the back stairs, so that they will not be heard.'

‘Thank you, Sir. I shall wait up myself, of course.'

‘In that case you had better use my study. I will tell Elidio to keep the fire in. Now let us return to our drinks. Miss Probyn, will you not join us?'

In the study Mgr Subercaseaux suddenly put a question.

‘Major Torrens, I think you said that this creature upstairs is probably the principal in the organisation?‘ Torrens nodded. 'That being so,' Subercaseaux proceeded, ‘and at least three of his associates being also laid by the heels, might not this be a good opportunity to get Dr. Horvath out of the country, before they have a chance to reorganise?'

‘That was my idea. Have you done with him?'

‘Substantially, yes; we could finish in a couple of hours. And since his Grace will be driving back to Lisbon on Friday for the wedding, it occurs to me that Dr. Horvath could travel down as he came up—if you agree, Duke?'

‘Of course. Strange how one keeps on forgetting this wedding!' the Duke said. ‘It had quite passed from my mind again.'

Subercaseaux turned to Torrens.

‘You would, of course, have to make your transatlantic arrangements,' he said. ‘How quickly could you do it?'

Torrens considered.

‘Do you know, Sir,' he said, ‘I think I had better go down with Colonel Marques when he comes to collect the body—a
corpus vile
if ever there was one!'

‘Leave at four in the morning?' The Duke looked horrified.

‘Yes, Sir. Of course I must hear whether Marques agrees with the Monsignor's estimate of the situation; if he does, I think we should go ahead. Could Father Antal spend just the Friday night in your Lisbon house again? You have been so good already that I hesitate to ask it, but it would save a lot of complicated arrangements.'

‘I am vexed that you should hesitate to ask!' the Duke said warmly. ‘I think you must know what a privilege it has been to have so great a man as Dr. Horvath under my roof.'

Major Torrens was rather crushed by this. He had never realised that Father Antal was in any sense a ‘great' man in his own right; he regarded him as a little priest—a bit of a theologian, apparently, and as nice as you like, of course —whose special knowledge of conditions in Hungary made the Americans covet him for broadcasting on
The Voice of America
. As for the Vatican, God knew
whom
they attached importance to, or why: though one had to admit that the Roman Catholic Church was one of the few things that really seemed to worry the Kremlin, so good luck to it! He was relieved when the Monsignor put another question.

‘You think you can get the agent from America over by Saturday to take him back? That seems rather quick work.'

‘Oh, no. This is only Wednesday—well it will be Thursday in half an hour!' he said, glancing at the clock. ‘But if Marques is on time we should be in Lisbon by ten-thirty tomorrow morning, and I ought to get through to Washington in an hour at most.'

‘That is only seven-thirty there,' the Monsignor observed.

‘Yes, but that office works round the clock. I don't know how long they'll take to lay on the special plane, but even their smaller jets do the trip in nine or ten hours.'

‘You will telephone to Washington?' the Duke put in, much interested.

‘Radio-telephone, Sir. With a scrambler, of course: that is how Roosevelt and Churchill used to have those long heart-to-hearts during the war.'

‘They will come to Portela?' Subercaseaux asked.

‘I shouldn't think so—much more likely Montijo. But Marques will have to arrange all that. He can have the plane advised which airport to use when it stops at the Azores to refuel. Then they can take Father Antal off some time on Saturday.'

Julia spoke.

‘Is all this rush really necessary?' she said coolly to Torrens. ‘It's a little hard on Hetta, don't you think? She'll hardly have any time with Father A. at this rate; only tomorrow, and I gather the Monsignor proposes to mop up most of that. Considering what she's been through for the sake of seeing him, I think it's rather tough.'

Torrens looked annoyed and hurt; the Monsignor gave his barking laugh.

‘Dear Miss Probyn, you remind us of the human element, so rightly the woman's role! But in this case perhaps there are over-riding considerations.'

The Duke did not laugh.

‘Miss Probyn, could not Countess Hetta come down with us to Lisbon on Friday? Then she could spend a quiet evening with Dr. Horvath, and possibly Saturday morning also. It is easy to take a third car if we need it.'

‘Duke dear, you're an angel! Yes, that's perfect. But I don't think you'll need to take a third car; Mr. Atherley has to get back to Lisbon on Friday, so
he
could drive Hetta down.'

Subercaseaux threw her an enquiring glance, but he said nothing.

‘Of course all this is subject to Colonel Marques approving of the plan,' Torrens said. ‘Duke, if you will excuse me I think I'll go and put my things together now, so that there will be no delay when he comes.'

‘Certainly, my dear Torrens. Ring when you are ready, and Elidio will have your luggage brought down.' He rose as he spoke. ‘I am afraid that this is Goodbye,' he said, ‘but I hope only for the present. We shall see you in Lisbon, of course. Your visit has been a great pleasure.'

Once again Major Torrens was abashed by his host's words; he spoke almost haltingly as he tried to express his own thanks. ‘You've been unbelievably good to us, Sir.' Then, hastily, he made his escape.

‘I think I'll go up too, Duke,' Julia said, observing that her host was still on his feet—that was the sort of thing the darling Duque managed so well, she reflected amusedly, as she watched the Monsignor reluctantly heaving himself up out of his comfortable armchair.

Miss Probyn once again set her little Travalarm, and appeared in the study a few minutes after 4 a.m., in a highly becoming black velvet house-coat.

‘Good heavens, Julia!' the Major exclaimed, surprised and glowing. ‘What on earth are you doing down here?'

‘I just thought I'd come and see the coffin carried out, and hear what the Colonel has to say.'

‘
Darling!
' But the embrace on which Torrens was just embarking was forestalled by a sound of car-wheels on the gravel outside the windows; he stood back, and listened.

‘Coming in with his engine shut off—good man,' Julia commented.

‘He's early,' Torrens said resentfully; a moment later Elidio ushered in the Colonel.

‘Well, our man is still fast asleep, I hope?' Marques said, shaking hands. ‘An excellent piece of work, this.'

‘You'd better come up and see if it
is
your man, Colonel. He should be quiet enough still.'

‘Oh, I know it's our man,' Marques said. ‘Our people traced him to São Pedro do Sul this evening, but there was an inexcusable delay about getting the report through. However, the counter-espionage in this house is so good that it didn't matter! If you will just give me the key of the room, Major, my men will carry him down.'

‘We'd better go up with them; no one in the house knows where he is,' said Torrens.

‘Oh yes, the Duke gave instructions to his butler.' Indeed at that moment Elidio appeared at the door and asked the Colonel for
a chave;
Torrens, amused, handed over the key.

‘There; now we need not disturb ourselves,' the Colonel
said, going across to the fire and holding out his hands to the blaze. ‘Do I see whisky? That would be very welcome —the night is quite chilly.' And soon the Chief of the Security Police, glass in hand, was listening very contentedly while the Major outlined his plans.

‘Admirable. Yes, by all means come down with me; I have two cars. And this is an excellent moment to get Horvath out; their organisation here is disrupted for the time being—there were note-books on the three we caught, so we were able to land several others as well.'

‘
Did
any of them come in on the plane with Father Antal?' Julia put in unexpectedly. Marques glanced at her with amusement.

‘Yes; four. How much you know, Mademoiselle!'

Presently Elidio, perfectly impassive, appeared at the door and announced that
este homem
, the agents, and the luggage of the Senhor Comandante were all now in the cars.

‘Oh, but look here—
momentinho
, Elidio—they must have some coffee or something before they start off again!' the girl exclaimed. She spoke to the servant; Elidio said smugly that the policemen had already partaken of coffee and bread.

‘Are you sure
you
don't want coffee or something?' she asked Colonel Marques.

‘
Au contraire
, whisky was much better. So,
en route
' He bowed over Julia's hand; Torrens gripped it hard. A moment later she heard the cars crunch over the gravel and hum away up the drive.

When Julia told the Duke in the morning that Torrens was gone, and that the Colonel had given his blessing to the plan for getting Father Antal out of Portugal at the week-end, her host drew a pad towards him and began one of his careful computations, jotting down names as he spoke.

‘So you go, and I, and my sister—the wedding party; also both our divines; five.' He drummed with his fingers on the desk. ‘I think if possible we must take Dom Pedro by car; he was miserable coming up. He dislikes riding in the Land-Rover, it seems.'

‘I don't wonder!' Julia exclaimed bluntly. The Duke laughed.

‘But you say Monsieur Atherley is driving down, and could take the little Countess; could he not take Dom Pedro too?'

‘
No
, Duke; not on any account!'

‘Oh?' He raised an eyebrow at her. ‘You have some combination in your head?' he asked.

‘Yes—“a consummation devoutly to be wished”, and you really
mustn't
spoil it. Let Townsend Waller drive Dom Pedro down; if he does mislay
him
it won't matter,' said Julia coolly. ‘The Communists wouldn't hold that poor old creature for twelve hours! Townsend can't stay here for ever, either.'

Ericeira burst out laughing.

‘Miss Probyn, I sometimes envy your remorselessness! It simplifies many problems. Very well: Dom Pedro either with us or with the American, Atherley and the Countess.' He made more notes, and looked up at her again.

‘But your delightful friend, Mrs. Hathaway! We are forgetting her. Presumably she will wish to return to Lisbon also. How vexatious that we must leave just now! I should have liked her to pay us a much longer visit; she is interested in agriculture.'

‘Why shouldn't she stay here, then? We shall all three be back on Sunday evening—if I may come back?'

‘Of course you come back! But you think Mrs. Hathaway would not mind this, being left for two days in the company of a child and a nurse?'

‘Judging by a talk I overheard between her and Nanny this morning I think she'd love it. They were getting on like a house on fire.'

‘Very well; so it shall be. You are the best judge. I must say,' the Duke said thoughtfully, ‘that it would give me great pleasure to show your friend something of the estate, and of my plantations. She appears to have a considerable knowledge of forestry.'

Julia, who knew Mrs. Hathaway's knowledge of forestry to be confined to conducting acrimonious disputes on her Aunt Ellen's behalf with the Forestry Commission about ‘dedicating' some of the woods at Glentoran, was
delighted, though not surprised, that her old friend should have spent the previous evening to such good purpose, and hastened off to open the plan to her.

In the hall, however, she was intercepted by Atherley.

‘Julia, be a good friend! Can you somehow break through the sort of harem system that seems to operate in this house? I really do want to talk to Hetti, but the women apparently never appear downstairs except at meals, or in a covey.'

Julia laughed. Richard's picturesque description of Portuguese country-house life was in fact extremely apt.

‘I'll do what I can,' she said. ‘But of course you realise that the really important thing is for her to get as much time as possible with Father Antal, since he's flying to America at the week-end.'

‘
Is
he? When was that settled?'

‘With Colonel Marques, early this morning. Oh, of course you don't know—it's
such
a performance!' And she told him about Luzia's and Nanny's exploits. Atherley bayed with delight.

‘That
glorious
girl! Really she is a wonder.' But then he pressed his request about Hetta.

‘Well have a little
patience
, Richard!' Miss Probyn said, her voice displaying a marked absence of that quality. ‘Anyhow on the Duque's car-and-passenger schedule for returning to Lisbon tomorrow you are billed to drive Hetti down,
alone.
'

‘You've arranged that? Oh bless you.'

‘Yes. He wanted to plant you with Dom Pedro as well, but I suppressed it. So even if you don't get much time with her today, you'll have all tomorrow.'

‘Do I have to take her back to Dorothée?' Richard asked apprehensively.

‘Oh Lord no! To the Palace; she's staying there till after the wedding, anyhow.'