would have preferred to stay out of sight.
What roused him finally was the sound of a heavy lorry moving up in low gear from the main gate. In it were some of the soldiers who, after traversing nine or ten miles apiece during the closing stages and aftermath of Exercise Nabob, had been turned out of their beds two and a half hours before reveille and transported back to the hills for yet another sweep on foot. All this was on Leonard's order and they knew it. Their debussing point would be in sight of the car park and he had no desire to run the gauntlet of their swearing, with perhaps, given the speed at which their feelings had mounted the last time he was near them, a few bursts of machine-pistol fire thrown in. He got quickly out of his car and hurried up to the Mess building.
An armed sentry outside the ante-room door came to attention as he passed. He saluted with less than his usual punctilio and made his way to the door of the Command Post, which opened to him after a short interval.
'At ease, please,' he said uneasily to the sergeant-major and corporal who had risen to mark his entry. 'Anything new?'
'No, sir,' said the sergeant-major, 'not since the ten o'clock report, the one we passed-'
'Which you passed to me over the air, quite so.'
'He's due to check in again any minute, sir.'
'Oddly enough, that's why I'm here.'
'Find anything up there, sir?' asked the corporal.
'No. Nothing. Nothing at all.'
'Who do you reckon did it, sir?' persisted the corporal. 'This bloke you're having watched? Is he the same one as you were all looking for on the Exercise?'
'Yes. I shall know more very soon.'
'But how could he have got hold of one of those things?' The corporal did not notice a silencing glare from the sergeant-major. 'And what did he think he was playing at? That place isn't a military objective, is it?'
Before Leonard could order the sergeant-major to have the corporal put under close arrest and on punishment diet, the civilian telephone rang.
'Mr. Lock's house,' said Leonard into it.
'Public library here.'
'Go ahead. Lock speaking.'
'I'm afraid there's still no sign of that book you wanted, sir. We've looked in just about all the usual places.'
'Start looking in the unusual places, then, and quick about it.'
'Yes, sir. The trouble is, there are one or two, uh, bookcases that we can't get into without a key.'
'Get into them just the same. Remember it's a very large book. It shouldn't be at all difficult to find. Now what about the chief librarian? What's he been up to?'
'Just going round the shelves as before in his usual routine, sir. But he certainly looks under the weather. One of us asked him what the bandage was in aid of and he said he had a fall. No details.'
'Mm. Any unusual visitors to the library?'
'No, sir.'
'Well, you go off and find that book or I'll report you to the Town Clerk.'
'Right, sir.'
Leonard rang off, then picked up the receiver again, dialed the exchange and asked to be connected to the special tests engineer. While he waited, he stared at the other two men in turn until they picked up the magazines they had been reading when he arrived. He had not minded the way they looked at him as much as the way they looked at each other. Eventually a voice spoke into his ear.
'Special tests here.'
'Lock speaking. The frequency of the day is five kilocycles. How's the equipment?'
'No faults have developed. We've had four more transmissions since you spoke to me earlier, three outgoing and one incoming, all of good quality.'
'Are you sure?'
'Of course I'm sure. The incoming was from a doctor in the town, the outgoing were to the local golf club, a drug company and a wine merchant. We tested as usual after each transmission, and the quality was undoubtedly good. It's all here on tape; you can check for yourself if you want.'
'Never mind. The moment you get a transmission with the slightest hint of bad quality I want to know about it at once, you understand?'
'Of course I understand. Is there anything else?'
'No. All right. Good-bye.'
Ringing off finally, Leonard frowned. The first man he had talked to had sounded satisfied, if not pleased, with having no information to impart; the second had sounded casual, towards the end almost impatient. The latter was the more annoying. This mere technician, this electrical eavesdropper, seemed to imagine he was on a level with a qualified phylactologist like himself. Leonard thought he understood how, thirty years ago, a master
