'Look,' said Deering, shutting his eyes for a moment. 'To start with he doesn't have to search high and low because Ayscue always puts his keys with his loose change and the rest of it on his dressing-table when he hangs up his pants at night. Now then. In comes Evans with the tea tomorrow morning, puts it down by the bed, picks up Ayscue's shoes and buggers off out again, whipping the keys as he goes. I'm standing by with my bit of wax and in ten seconds I've done my stuff and I'm on my way. Evans goes back with the shoes and dumps the keys before Ayscue's got his eyes open. Okay? If you can't trust me to take the impression properly you can go down to the huts and do it yourself.'
'I'd be noticed. Nobody pays much attention to a batman wherever he is.'
'Oh, thanks very much, I'm sure. Any other worries?'
'That's all, Deering, thank you.'
The batman came to something not unlike attention. 'Thank you, sir. Good night.'
Left alone, Leonard paced the uneven floor of his room. He was feeling mildly uncomfortable, tense, short of confidence, a state he was growing familiar with. His walk brought him face to face with the major in his picture. A slight further decrease in confidence made him avoid that blue-eyed stare. It seemed to him to hold disappointment, perhaps reproach.
He was as far as ever from unmasking his spy; further, actually. Regular and searching inquiry among the S1 group showed that no officer still under suspicion had asked any of them anything whatever about Operation Apollo. Nor had anybody else, for that matter. A resolute incuriosity pervaded the camp. And the Ayscue thing, he felt sure, was a false trail, merely something he must factually and officially satisfy himself about. Meanwhile there was no news from the London end. The spy's new contact there, replacing the man recently arrested, was still untraced.
Then there was this new lead. He ought, he supposed, to be grateful for the least ray of light. But what it seemed to illuminate was as repugnant to his theories as if it had been specially contrived as such. And, with a prescience unusual in him, he could guess already that following it up would take a lot out of him, personally rather than professionally. He knew he ought to think that the last bit made it better, not worse, but could not manage to.
A knock came at his door. It proved to be from the hand of Ross-Donaldson.
'Ready?' he asked.
'Yes.'
'Let's go.'
They left the building and got into Leonard's car. This was fitted with a two-way radio set tuned to the frequency of the Command Post and the emergency station. Leonard switched it on and picked up the microphone. Conscious of Ross-Donaldson looking uninterestedly at him, he said,
'Hullo, Control. Padlock here. Over.'
After some delay a north-country voice answered from the loudspeaker.
'Hullo, Padlock. Control receiving you. Over.'
'Am leaving area for short period. Test personal alarm.'
A puny buzz sounded from an instrument strapped to Leonard's right wrist.
'Hullo, Control. Okay. Out.'
'What's that thing for?' asked Ross-Donaldson as they rolled down towards the gate.
'It tells me when there's something for me on the radio link. I always carry it when I move out of telephonic communication.'
'There's a telephone where we're going.'
'It may be insecure.'
'Oh yes, of course it may. How silly of me to forget that.'
'Security Officer and Adjutant,' said Leonard to the guard corporal. 'Operational.'
'You must suffer a certain amount from training-action disparity,' said Ross-Donaldson a moment later. 'Especially in the absence of the usual action-surrogates.'
'What are you talking about?'
'Things like parades, exercises, guards. Organized games don't help much because they aren't derived from training.'
'I still can't understand a word you're saying.'
'You see the phenomenon most clearly, of course, in troops brought to a high pitch of training for some specialized operation which is then unexpectedly canceled. Immediate plummeting of morale, indiscipline, drunkenness, petty crime, even medium-scale desertion. Not that I'm suggesting you'd go to those lengths. Tonight's expedition should help you a little to reduce tension.'
'I think I see what you mean now,' said Leonard. 'Roughly.'
After they had driven for some time he said,
'Don't introduce me as a Security man whatever you do.'
'That might ruin everything, I do see.'
'Just Captain Leonard of the Sailors.'
'Right.'
'If you could manage to mention casually that I'm on very secret work at the camp it might be very
