Inspector West At Home

trousers pockets. Mark contemplated him with a frown of concentration on his forehead. Janet had gone to bed and Tennant was pretending to be immersed in an evening paper.

Roger looked at him.

“Do you feel tired ?” he asked.

“Who, me?” Tennant dropped the paper and jumped up. “I’m never tired.”

“Who, me ?” asked Mark, forlornly.

“Both of you,” said Roger. “I think we’d better keep an eye on Oliphant’s .house. Do you know where it is, Mark?”

“He’s in Cheyne Walk, just round the corner from a flat I used to have,” said Mark. “Any instructions?”

“Just keep a lonely vigil,” Roger said with a grin.

The others seemed glad of the opportunity to go out, but when they had gone Roger wondered whether it were wise. Abbott had been generous when he had asked to be allowed to handle Oliphant, but it might have been better to have put Yard men to watch him. The danger was that Oliphant would probably recognise a Yard man at sight.

Roger went to bed; Janet, now that Lois had gone, was less on edge and she looked very tired and spoke sleepily from the pillows.

“Back home tomorrow,” she said; “we needn’t stay here now, darling, need we?”

“No,” said Roger.

An Irish maid brought morning tea at eight o’clock. The sun shone through the net curtains at the window and made even the grey slate roofs of adjoining buildings look bright and cheerful. Downstairs, the BBC announcer reading the news had bright things to say about the economic state of the nation.

Janet was fresh-eyed as she sat up in bed, but when she got up she felt dizzy and sat down again abruptly. Startled, Roger said :

“Are you all right ?”

“Er — yes, I’m fine,” said Janet. She was smiling, although she looked pale, the change in her since she had got out of bed was astonishing. “Darling,” she said in an unsteady voice, “sometimes you’re as blind as a bat!”

“Oh,” said Roger. “Am I?”

“I’ve suspected it for some time but I wanted to be really sure. I was sure on my birthday, but I couldn’t worry you after Abbott came.”

“What are you talking about?” demanded Roger, completely mystified.

Janet’s eyes were dewy. “Darling,” she said, “doesn’t morning sickness mean anything to you?”

“Morning —” Roger began, and then his expression altered, he stared incredulously, started to speak but stopped, tongue-tied. He moved and looked down at her as she stared at him, smiling. He gasped : “No ! No, darling, not a baby!”

“Well,” said Janet. “It’s five years since we were married, or had you forgotten? The marvel is that it didn’t happen before.” She laughed. “What shall we call him, if it’s a boy?”

Roger felt like a man in a dream.

He should have realised it for several days past, or at least suspected it. Everything which had puzzled him was explained, her excitability and quick changes of mood, the ease of her tears, her occasional moments of acerbity.

His first reaction was of delight tinged with anxieties about the little luxuries that he would not be able to provide because of the war. A more urgent matter was the possibility that in his amazement he had made her think that he was lukewarm about it. Had he been sufficiently enthusiastic? Or had he depressed her ?

He had left her to do the packing while he went on to open the house, to get the car and to get in touch with Mark before going to the Yard. He had only vaguely outlined his own programme and he hardly gave a thought to Malone and Oliphant. His mind could not grapple with those problems as well as digest Janet’s news. He travelled by taxi and now and again caught himself grinning inanely; when he did so he closed his mouth firmly. Once, when he lit a cigarette, he began to grin so widely that it dropped from his lips. He smothered an exclamation of annoyance, then surrendered himself for five minutes to an orgy of self- congratulation.

It would be easier to make a detour and drive along the Embankment where he expected to find either Tennant or Mark. He saw young Tennant, and wondered what had possessed him to give a job which required an expert to Lois’s fiance, and he was relieved that Mark must be somewhere in the offing.

Tennant started.

“Oh, it’s you, is it?” said the tousled young man. “I thought it was another policeman. I’ve been asked what I’m doing here twice already.”

Roger smiled and Tennant went on :

“What are you so pleased about?”

“Oh, I’m not pleased,” said Roger. “Where’s Mark?”

“At the other end of the street.”

“Has anything happened ?”

“No one’s gone in or out of the place.”

“They will,” said Roger. “It’s a tiresome business, but don’t get impatient. This is what you worried me for, after all!”