Gale Warning by Dornford Yates

knows how to follow a highly suspicious man. Neither William nor I can do that, because we are known: neither Carson nor Bell can do that, because, as our servants, they have been seen with us: but, as luck will have it, I’ve got someone just as good. He is to be Bagot’s servant, if Bagot will take him on. But that’s for later, of course: he mustn’t be seen with him yet. His name is Rowley, and he used to be in the service of a very great friend of us both.
    “All City men, even office-boys, go out to lunch: and Bagot, of course, will conform to that excellent rule. So, it is to be hoped, will Bagot’s man. Either going or coming, therefore, the two are certain to meet before very long. And when they do, Bagot will put his right hand – not into his trouser-pocket, but into the pocket of his jacket, as if he were feeling for something which he had lost. Rowley will see the gesture, and Rowley will do the rest.”
    “How will Rowley know me?” said I.
    “He knows you already,” said Mansel. “He was on the platform tonight. But I don’t want you to know him, till we’re over this fence. Oh, and by the way, I shouldn’t lunch at the club. After six it doesn’t matter so much, for people begin to clear out about half-past five. But when I arranged your election, I did not count on your being an office-boy.”
    “Inconsistency rampant,” said Chandos.
    “D’you think it’s safe for him to be seen going in?”
    “For the moment, yes,” said Mansel. “He looks like a member, and not like an office-boy: and few, outside Howson and Dewlap’s, will know he’s an office-boy. There is a very slight risk: but I think we’ve got to take it, because, as a line of communication, the club is ideal.”
    Lady Audrey lifted her voice.
    “Suppose all goes as we hope. Mr Bagot shows him to Rowley, and Rowley follows him home – and Rowley then finds out that the fellow is leaving for France on the following day.”
    “We must leave that night,” said Mansel, “and pick him up on arrival – ‘somewhere in France.’ I promise you, Audrey, so far as mere man can do it, we shall leave nothing to chance. Bell will cross the Channel on Monday, to fix up some sort of base on the other side. He gets on well with the French and he’s very, very good at that sort of thing. He ought to have everything ready in six days’ time: and then he’ll sit down and wait: he’s not coming back. So that, though we may have to leave at a moment’s notice, at least we can always be sure of a flying start.”
    Lady Audrey regarded him straitly.
    “I believe you have reason to think that when Mr Bagot’s man goes, he will go by road.”
    “I have this reason to think so – that that is what I should do. You see, from his point of view, it is absolutely vital that he should not do that very thing which we hope so much that he will – lead some unauthorized person up to his master’s lair. Not that he loves Barabbas: but if Barabbas goes down, his occupation is gone.
    “Now, if a man travels by train, or even by air, he cannot choose his company, and however much he mistrusts it, once he is moving, he’s got to stay where he is. But what is very much worse, from a criminal’s point of view, he has to use stations or ports, as the case may be: and, quite apart from the fact that stations and ports are beloved by plain-clothes men, the movement in those places is such that, however skilful he is, he can never be sure that he isn’t being watched by somebody there. But if a man goes by road in his private car, he can make sure that he isn’t being followed or watched. I mean, I think that’s clear. Half a dozen times in the day, he can, if he pleases, confirm that desirable fact. And if he’s not sure, he can stop or turn or go back. Better still, he can lie up by day and travel by night, when the lights of a following car would instantly give it away.”
    Lady Audrey drew in her breath.
    “If you’re right, and he goes