'Don't you worry, I've brought that with me.' Jagger patted his breast pocket. 'It's conditional on the rifle being found in his possession.'
'Of course, I wouldn't move until that happens.'
'That's the way to talk. Well yes, by all means get Hunter to come, then. We'll have to watch our tongues, though, won't we? Ah, you were right about him being a good lad. He's bringing my pint over.'
Half an hour later the three were at the counter of the saloon bar in the White Hart. Anne, the round- faced barmaid, was on duty.
'Isn't it shocking about poor Mrs. Casement?' she asked Hunter.
'Yes, terrible. I'll have one of those ham sandwiches, please.'
'They're tongue, sir. It seems only yesterday she was in here behind the bar.'
'That'll do. Well, she's in good hands. Have you any mustard?'
'And three pints of keg,' said Jagger. 'That's if neither of you have got any other ideas.'
'I've got lots of other ideas,' said Hunter, 'but it'll be better for everybody if I keep them to myself. Incidentally I can recommend the pickled onions.'
'Good idea. I'll have six, please, miss.'
They settled themselves at a small oval table by the window. The sun was streaming in and Leonard drew the heavy linen curtain before getting down to the first of two Scotch eggs. The room was not crowded and seemed pleasantly dark and cool. When he had disposed of a large pork pie and asked Leonard a few questions, Jagger said,
'So the way you look at it, it's all over bar the shouting. Once we've nabbed him, then it's money for jam picking up his contact inside the camp. I hope you're right.'
Leonard nearly finished a mouthful of Scotch egg, making disagreeing noises the while, and said, 'Not money for jam. No. Substantially easier, though. A man of Best's personality make-up might easily tell us everything we want to know with a little pressure, or even without any at all.'
'Mm. It's possible. You know, the more I think about that personality make-up of Best's the more interested I get.' Jagger sat in a hunched position on the padded window-seat, blinking his pale greenish eyes and licking fragments of pie off his teeth. He spoke slowly. 'If he's all we take him for, he's been given a highly specialized espionage job concerned with finding out and transmitting secrets. Just secrets. Then, on the spur of the moment and at great risk of immediate discovery, he pinches a rifle and goes straight off and shoots it at something. Whatever else that does, it advertises the fact that someone's got that rifle who shouldn't have. You see? The rifle's a secret. If a fellow gets hold of a secret, he ought to try to stop it leaking out that anybody's got hold of the secret, or the secret instantly becomes less valuable.'
'I told you he was unbalanced,' said Leonard. 'He could have suffered a sudden outburst of paranoia. We'll probably get the answer to that when we question him. Anyway, I was going to say that, failing any sort of complete confession from him, the spy in the camp will be cut off from his line of communication and so neutralized for the time being. Then we can set it up so that as soon as the opposition start trying to provide him with another outlet, or he starts looking for one, we'll have him. So far I've been working from hand to mouth on this job, but with Best captured I'll be able to get all the men and resources I care to ask for.'
'It's a pity in a way you've got to pull Best in,' said Hunter, stubbing out a cigarette on the considerable remains of his tongue sandwich. 'If you left him at liberty with a close watch on him, he might lead you to other people.'
Jagger sniffed. 'Can't be done, my lad,' he said. 'He can do a lot more harm with that thing in his possession. And we can hardly take it back off him and let him go on as usual. Even a fellow with his personality make-up would think there was something a bit fishy about that.'
'But what harm can he do? He's got no more ammunition.'
'No no, I mean he's got to get bits of the thing away somehow to be gone over by experts, plus photographs and so forth.'
'Can't you stop him?'
'We daren't risk it, bugger it,' said Jagger, suddenly irritated. 'There's a sight too much at stake, my lad. At the moment we don't know who his courier is or how he gets to him or anything. We're still very much in the dark about all that end of it.'
'I see. But there is just one thing I don't see.'
'Well?'
'This is where Max has been so useful,' put in Leonard. 'Constructive criticism.'
'I'm sure. Well, Hunter?'
'Now Best's got the rifle, what more does he want? What can his contact in the camp have to tell him? After he'd tipped him off about the Exercise, I should have thought his job was done.'
'No no no. There's lots of other stuff Best needs. Technical details, stuff about tactics, strategic plans, all that.'
'Perhaps he's already got it.'
'Impossible.' Leonard was emphatic. 'I'd have known.'
'But look. Don't you think he's behaving like somebody who's got all he needs?'
Leonard merely shook his head, but Jagger stiffened in his chair. Hunter looked at him for a moment,
