then ht another cigarette.
'Well, either way well have him in the bag soon,' said Jagger.
There was an uneasy silence. It was still unbroken when Eames, who had appeared behind the counter a moment earlier, caught sight of Hunter, lifted the flap and came over to the group.
'Everything all right, gentlemen?'
'Yes, thank you, landlord,' said Jagger. 'Very nice bit of pie indeed.'
'Thank you, sir.' Eames turned to Hunter. 'I don't suppose there'll be any recent news of Mrs. Casement, will there, Captain?'
'Only that she went into hospital this morning.'
'Yes, I heard she was going. It'll be early days yet, then, to expect to hear anything. But what a shocking business. Out of a dear sky. Act of God, as you might say.'
'Yes,' said Hunter, 'you might well say that.'
'Just as she and Mr. Churchill had become so attached. How is he, by the way?'
'I saw him for a moment this morning. He seems to be bearing up fairly well.'
'A fine young gentleman, that. Would you give him my very best wishes, Captain?'
'Indeed I will, Mr. Eames, and thank you very much.'
'Well…' Eames seemed to want to say more, but ducked his head, said quickly, 'Good afternoon, gentlemen,' and left them.
'It's the most awful thing,' said Leonard to Jagger. 'This Casement girl has just developed cancer, very young, not much more than thirty, and she's, uh, involved with young Churchill, one of the-'
'Of course, lieutenant, Blue Howards, that's right. The youngest on the team, as I remember. Friend of yours, is he, Hunter?'
'Yes.'
'Very sad. Tragic, in fact.'
'You know, Max,' said Leonard thoughtfully, 'it strikes me as rather the sort of thing our Anti-Death League friend might have included in that notice of his if it had come up by then and he'd known about it.'
'Exactly the sort of thing.'
Leonard turned to Jagger again. 'Some harmless nut put up a lot of notices round the camp calling for a meeting of what he called the Anti-Death League. Nobody turned up; it was a complete washout. There was a poem too which got sent to the padre and might have been by the same chap. Nothing in it really, as it's turned out, but it got me quite worried at the time, I don't mind telling you.'
'You must let me have a look,' said Jagger. 'Especially the poem. I rather care for a bit of poetry, though I know it's not to everybody's taste.' He laughed.
The alarm buzzer on Leonard's wrist sounded. The three jumped up and ran out of the building into the yard, where Leonard's car was parked. He flung the door open, releasing a waft of heat, got behind the wheel, switched the radio on and spoke enthusiastically into the microphone.
'Hullo, Control. Padlock here. Over.'
A voice on the loudspeaker said, 'Hullo, Padlock. Message from public library. Book has been found. I say again, book has been found. Representative will meet you as arranged. Over.'
'Roger,' said Leonard in a trembling voice. 'Out.'
He sat still for a moment, then turned in his seat and looked at them.
'Well, gentlemen,' he said finally, 'shall we go and get him?'
The other two climbed in and Leonard drove off down the village street, narrowly missing a parked lorry full of some root crop. As they went he outlined his plan, which was simple but to all appearance workable. After that nobody spoke until they reached a point some two hundred yards from the main gate of the hospital. Here Leonard drew into the side and stopped.
'This is where I'm meeting my man,' he said, got out and urinated into the hedge, or pretended to.
There was silence apart from the feeble chirrup of a bird and the ticking of the engine as it lost heat. After a moment Jagger spoke suddenly and angrily from over Hunter's shoulder,
'Rifle, rifle, rifle,' he said. 'Rifle this, rifle that, rifle the other thing. Buggering rifle.'
'It has been a nuisance, certainly.'
'Bloody sight worse than that, old lad.'
Leonard got back in again and they moved away.
'It's in that big hallstand affair outside his room,' he said. 'Bold as brass.'
'What took the blind bastards so long to find it, then?' asked Jagger.
'He keeps a bag of golf-clubs there most of the time. They thought the rifle in its covering was another one, I gathered.'
Jagger gave a groan of Venables pitch. 'There's some heads'll roll when this little lot's over,' he said.
