John Creasey - Meet The Baron

“You think I’ve possibilities, then?”

“I’d like to prove it.”

Lorna laughed, but the mockery was back in her eyes.

“Do you ever think of anything but amusement ?”

“Why, yes. I think so. I study Ruff’s Guide.”

“That’s an evasion.”

“Naturally,” acknowledged Mannering, chuckling. “Is there time these days to cope with anything but amusement ? It’s a life’s work to watch for every variety.”

“I believe, too, you even work overtime.”

“I wasn’t thinking of musical comediennes.” Mannering smiled. “They’re the novice grades. There are endless other things — and I’ve found them all wanting.”

“It may have been you who were wanting.”

“More than likely, but my education’s not finished. Well, it’s something past ten. How does the Dernier suggest itself?”

“No other dates?”

“Two. One I’ve already missed; the other I’m willing to forget.”

“H’m.” Her eyes held his, with a glimmer of mingled amusement, mockery, and challenge. “Should I trust myself to such a memory ?”

Mannering laughed as he crushed his cigarette into a tray.

“The safest way never to lose a thing is never to have it,” he said.

“I’m ready to try anything once,” said Lorna. “While I powder my nose, spread the good news among the parents, and try not to see the light in their eyes.”

She turned away easily, and walked towards the stairs. Mannering stood watching her, and his lips moved.

“A cat,” he said, “but a wild-cat. Lord, what a life! One Lucy and one Hugo produced her. Her!”

And she liked that “yet”.

At half-past one they left the Dernier Club, and Mannering handed Lorna into a taxi.

“Chelsea,” he asked, “or Langford Terrace?”

“Langford Terrace,” said Lorna. “Even for the West home’s best — and probably safest.”

Mannering instructed the driver and climbed into the cab.

“That remark,” he said, as they moved from the kerb, “was the fourth you’ve made to-night that wasn’t worthy of you.”

“Both your standards and your arithmetic sound horribly precise,” Lorna said.

“And need revising for the brave new world?” chuckled Mannering. “Well, was the Dernier nearer your standard ?”

“Divine — if only there’d been a decent floor, plenty of room, and a breath of air,” she answered.

“You’ve forgotten the negro band that should have been white,” said Mannering. “Are you trying to convince me you are typical of the variable feminine ?”

“I may be, but I wasn’t trying to convince you of anything. I think I’d like to paint you. Head and shoulders.”

“Thanks, but I prefer photographs.”

“They can only reflect what you look like, not what you are.”

“What am I?”

“I haven’t discovered — yet.”

Mannering chuckled.

“I liked that “yet”,” he said.

CHAPTER FOUR

TOUCH-AND-GO

JOHN MANNERINQ HAD ENJOYED THE EVENING, NOT SOLELY because of the discovery that Lorna Fauntley was what he called, for want of a better description, intriguing. The Fauntley strong-room remained in his thoughts like a sharp etching — something he could not forget. He remembered, for he had forced them into his mind, the numbers of the safe’s combination; and there was little about the precautions Fauntley took to guard his collection that Mannering  didn’t know. If there was one thing that really worried him, it was the armed guard.

By now Mannering had thoroughly accustomed himself to the thought that he would start a campaign of cracksman-ship, even though so far the thing was hazy in his mind, and he was tempted to laugh at it rather than take it seriously. What easier way of making money than as a gentleman-thief?

A thief? The word made him stop and think. “Cracksman” sounded more pleasant; it gave the project a Robin Hood gallantry; but if he was to be honest with himself, and it was absurd to be anything else, he would earn the name of thief — and deserve it.

As he thought of these things a sardonic smile curved the corners of his lips. If the word itself was hard to face, so were facts. Cash he must have, and quickly, or he would go under. Going under was the devil, whereas his very life gave him opportunities to steal in a hundred places — yes, and without the slightest risk of suspicion.

The decision that had been hovering in his mind came to a head on the afternoon following the dinner at the Fauntleys’. Mannering weighed up the chances coolly, and decided that the odds favoured him. In the Fauntley strongroom he had been presented with as near a “sitter” as a cracksman could pray for, and it was almost like looking a gift-horse in the mouth to refuse the opportunity.

The decision being reached, he did not propose to lose much time. The quicker he made the plunge the better.

He realised that there were several things he would need, but most important of all, he told himself, was a weapon to help him in emergency. He decided cheerfully that the most effective would be a gas-pistol with a load of diluted gas, but for the moment that was impossible. He had an old Army revolver, however, without ammunition to fit it; if he took it with him it might have a demoralising effect on anyone he met — it was absurd, he knew, to be sure that he would get through without some trouble — and if necessary its butt would come in useful as a club. Yes, the revolver was what he wanted.

The rest was comparatively easy.

Towards evening, with the prospect of the raid on the Fauntley house making his heart beat fast, he spent an hour making various small purchases. For tools he told himself he needed two small screwdrivers, two thin files, and a tiny hammer. He bought a pair of thin rubber gloves from a department-store, and later a pair of rubber-soled golf-shoes. Finally — and he chuckled when the idea came — he bought a handkerchief with the initials T.B. on it. The initials meant nothing to him then — and he had no idea what they were likely to mean; he proposed to use it simply as an admirable “clue” to leave behind for the police.

He was ready.

And he was going through with the first effort; he knew that until he did he would be restless; as much as anything else he was hungering for a gamble that carried a real risk, and, providing his victims were sufficiently wealthy to sustain the financial loss, his conscience would not trouble him.

He felt cool enough as he approached the Fauntley home that night, and his nerves seemed steadier than ever as he walked towards Langford Terrace and entered the grounds of the house by the side-entrance. It was shadowed there, and he was hidden from the street by a thick hedge. The situation was perfect, for one of the library windows opened on to this side of the house.

And there was a light coming from it, given by the reading-lamp in one corner, where the armed guard was sitting and waiting for the dawn to come. Mannering knew he had only to outwit the man and he was through. Only!

Very softly, and with a set smile on his lips, he approached the window.

Misgivings stronger than any that had attacked him before flooded through John Mannering’s mind as he came closer to the window. The odds against him seemed multiplied enormously; the slightest slip now, and he would be in the armed guard’s power; the police would be called; Fauntley would recognise him. He felt hot, and his hands trembled as he touched the window-sill.

He told himself that he had been too impetuous: he should have taken more than a single afternoon to collect the things he would need for burglary; he wasn’t making capital of his advantages as he should have done; he was acting like a fool, making his first attempt as though he had been schooled in the East End by practised thieves. Before he was qualified to try to raid a place from the outside he would have to learn a lot in the art of safe-breaking, of forcing entries, of covering his tracks.

On the other hand, once he was in the strong-room he could get at the one safe without any trouble. The combination ran through his mind time and time again, word-perfect. But he should have given up the idea when he had heard of the armed guard.

The back of his neck and his forehead were sticky. He could see the guard in a far corner, and he wondered whether the man would shoot to kill if he met with an intruder. His courage seemed to ebb away. . . .

Three words that flashed across his mind halted the flight of his nerves, and made his smile more natural. He seemed to see Lorna Fauntley’s eyes, and hear her murmured “Even doing it”.

He was capable of doing it. Damn it, he couldn’t go so far and then back out. The door of the strong-room was less than twenty feet away from him; he could see the polished brass of the door-knob, and a picture of the glittering cascade of the Gabrienne collection came to his mind. He breathed more steadily, and he dipped his gloved right hand into his pocket.

He smiled more when he felt cold steel through the thin rubber of his gloves. The Army revolver, a relic of the days of the War — he had been in Flanders for the last year of it — rested there. He had been wise enough to bring it unloaded; to risk carrying loaded weapons would have been insane, for the authorities dealt harshly with armed thieves. Now the precautions he had taken and the preparations he had made seemed more reasonable.

He left the revolver in his pocket, and took out one of the screwdrivers. Every pocket of his coat contained something that would help him — a file, a torch, the handkerchief marked T.B. He had no real idea of what tools he would want, but the screwdriver would be best for levering up the window.

He glanced up, seeing that the top frame was open a little. The window was unlatched. Unless the bottom frame squeaked as he pushed it up there was a chance that he would get in without rousing the guard. Fauntley had unwittingly relieved him of several causes for anxiety. He knew that he could open the window without starting an alarm-bell, for the only alarm was controlled by the strongroom door.

He exerted a little pressure after wedging the chisel-end of the screwdriver beneath the window, and felt it move a fraction of an inch. There was no sound at all. Very gently, and with his breath coming faster every second, he levered it up. There was an inch to spare now — ample room for his -fingers.

He replaced the screwdriver, and took the revolver from his pocket, resting it on the sill. All the time the noise of late traffic passing the Terrace came to his ears, while occasionally he heard the hurrying footsteps of a man or a woman, and he found it hard not to let these sounds distract him. But as he put his fingers beneath the window he forgot everything except the man sitting in the far corner, whose heavy features were thrown into strong relief by the reading-lamp.

Mannering pushed the window up another inch, fraction by fraction. Suddenly the man in the corner moved. Mannering stopped, his limbs suddenly very cold. The guard lifted his head, looking towards the window, and darted his hand towards his pocket.

“God,” thought Mannering, “it’s all up!”

He couldn’t have turned away if he had wanted to; he felt there was no strength at all in his limbs. He stared, fascinated by the approaching disaster.

And then he saw the handkerchief in the guard’s hand, saw his head go back, and heard a sneeze that seemed to shatter the silence. Mannering’s heart turned over — or so he thought — and then his mind worked very quickly; he saw how he could turn the absurd development to advantage. He was still cold after the moment of fear, but he pushed at the window less cautiously now.

The guard sneezed three times, and by the time he had stopped the window was up two feet or more, and moving noiselessly. Mannering pushed it another foot, and then, as the other put his handkerchief back into his pocket, backed away from the window, taking shelter by the walls. He could see his man, saw the quick glance round the room . . . .

“Close,” Mannering muttered under his breath. “Thank the Lord for that sneeze! . . .”

He stopped muttering, and his eyes gleamed. He saw the guard glance towards the window again, and he realised that the other man was probably feeling a draught. Even as the thought flashed through his mind he saw the other move, and he realised that the open window would shout suspicion.

And then Mannering saw how it would also help him.

Breathing very softly, he drew into the shadows, waiting, as the guard came soft-footed towards the window. He could just see the man as he reached the window, and he saw him peer suspiciously. He could almost hear him thinking, asking himself whether he had for once forgotten to close the window or whether it had just been pushed up.

Mannering took just time enough to measure the distance, and then he acted. With the muzzle of the revolver in his hand he swung his right arm. The butt of the gun crashed into the man’s solar plexus; there was a single gasp, not loud enough to make itself heard more than a few yards away, and the guard staggered back.

In an instant Mannering was alter him. But as he climbed into the room his coat caught, and he wasted precious seconds. The guard had recovered sufficiently to dart his hand towards his own gun when Mannering looked up. His hand moved, and his unloaded gun was very threatening. The guard hesitated.

“Put your hands up,” said Mannering very softly.

The words were low, but the guard heard them while his fingers were dipping into his pocket. He stopped, seeing the gun in Mannering’s hand for the first time, seeing too a tall, heavily-built man clad from chin to knees in a mackintosh, with a trilby pulled low over his eyes and a handkerchief tied loosely round his neck. Mannering knew he might need to pull that up as a mask later, but while it was necessary to talk he couldn’t use it.

He drew his right leg into the room and straightened up. The guard stared, without moving, his eyes on the gun. Mannering’s lips curved a little as he realised that the other was prepared to take many chances, but not to risk his life even for the Fauntley jewels. His hands were level with his ears.

“Put them right up,” Mannering said, still softly and in a voice that Lord Fauntley himself would not have recognised. “Now stand up.”

The other obeyed without a word. Mannering’s eyes danced, and for a moment he was tempted to count his chickens too soon. Gad! This was child’s play.

He stopped smiling, and walked slowly across the room until he was within ten feet of his victim. Then he ordered again: Turn round and face the wall — and keep those hands up!”

It was like watching a film; Mannering couldn’t get it into his mind that it was really happening, that he’d made his first step. But if there was unreality about it at least his brain worked quickly, and prompted him to step quickly to the guard as the man’s back was turned towards him. Nor did he hesitate as he reached within striking-distance. This was the worst part of the job, but it couldn’t be avoided.

He moved his revolver, gripping it by the barrel, and rapped quickly at the back of the guard’s close-cropped head. The man gasped and grunted, swaying a little uncertainly. Mannering pocketed his gun, swung the other round, and jerked an upper-cut that connected with a vicious snap. The guard’s body sagged, and his eyes rolled.