'Now it won't do any good your outthinkin' the chief, I can tell you straight away,' chided Larry. 'Transmogrification, that's the ten-pound word for what he does. And you has to give yourself over to it.'
'What work is that?'
'Transmogrifying: You know what that means, don't you?'
'The transformation of souls.'
'That's the ticket. And I'm here to give witness. Gave me appreciation of the finer things that in my thickheaded way I was sorely lacking. I goes to plays regular now and sits in the stalls like a genuine swell. I listens to music. Taught me how to read proper, too. No more penny dreadfuls for yours truly, I enjoys lit-ter-a-ture. There's this French feller, Balzac, I'm partial to; writes about life in a real sort of way. Common folk and their predicaments.'
'I'm partial to Balzac myself.'
'Well, one day we should have a proper chat about him, and I do look forward to it. That's what the guv'nor does, see; provokes you to think. Has a way of askin' questions that takes you up the next rung of the ladder. Hard work. Surprisin' how few folks ever develop the habit. This is where you want it, right here.' Larry tapped himself on the side of the head. 'So what do I owe Mr. S, you ask? Only my life. Only my life.'
Larry stopped to roll a cigarette, using the distraction to veil some deeper vein of emotion. Just then Sparks emerged from the inner room, dressed again in his customary black. Zeus immediately scrambled from under the bench to shake his hand.
'Gentlemen, let's be off,' Sparks said, cuffing Zeus affectionately. 'The hour is late, and we've a full night of burglary and stealth ahead of us.'
'I'll fetch me tools,' Larry said eagerly, as he skipped to the door.
'All for the cause, Doyle,' said Sparks, seeing the hesitancy on his face. 'Sorry, Zeus, old man, we shan't be taking you with us tonight.'
Sparks pocketed a handful of vials from a rack on the bench and straightaway left the flat. Doyle bit his tongue and followed. Zeus dealt with his disappointment admirably and resumed his solitary vigil.
Except for the occasional after-theater cab, Montague Street was deserted by that time of night, and a fleecy mass of fog made subterfuge all the easier. The imperial facade of the British Museum presided over the street like a tomb of the ancients. As they made their way to Russell Street, Doyle glanced back at the windows of Sparks's apartment and was surprised to see a light burning and the silhouette of a man framed in the sill.
'Tailor's dummy,' said Sparks, noticing his interest. 'Took a sniper's bullet intended for me once: never complained. There's a soldier for you.'
Ducking through a cobbled alley, they arrived at the rear of the building Doyle recognized as the one seen earlier in the photograph of the woman. They blended into the shadows; then, with a nod from Sparks, Larry skipped silently across the alley and up the steps to the back door.
'Larry always appreciates a chance to polish his cracks-manship,' said Sparks quietly. 'Barry's no slouch, and he's a damn sight better scaling a wall, but Larry's touch with a lock is second to none.'
'So this is breaking and entering, plain and simple,' said Doyle, a touch of fustian unease creeping into his tone.
'You're not going to blow the whistle on us, are you, Doyle?'
'How can we be sure this is the right establishment?'
'Our friend the Presbyterian minister made the rounds of Russell Street today, peddling his deathless monograph on advanced cattle-breeding techniques in the Outer Hebrides.'
'I had no idea I was earlier in the company of such an esteemed author.'
'As it happens, I did have such a monograph in my files, dashed off on holiday there a few years back. I don't know about you; hard for me to sit quiet on holiday. All I think about is work.'
'Hm. I do like a bit of fishing.'
'Casting or fly?'
'Fly. Trout mainly.'
'Gives the fish a sporting chance. In any case, imagine my surprise this afternoon when one of the Russell Street firms made an offer to purchase my pamphlet right on the spot.'
'You sold your monograph?' asked Doyle, feeling the sour drip of authorial envy.
'Snapped it right up. I tell you, there's no accounting for people's taste. I hadn't even gone so far as to invent a name for the man: a monograph-bearing Presbyterian is usually more than sufficient to ward off even the most inquiring mind. Had them make the check out to charity. Poor chap: four hours old and already denied his proper royalties.' Sparks looked across the street, where Larry was giving them a wave. 'Ah, I see Larry has completed the preliminaries. Here we go, Doyle.'
Sparks led the way across the alley. Larry held the door as they slipped inside, then followed and closed up behind them. Sparks lit a candle, throwing reflections off a building directory on the corridor wall.
'Rathborne and Sons, Limited,' read Sparks. 'There's a service door round the corner that I think you'll find preferable, Larry.'
Down and left around the hallway they moved to the entrance, where Sparks held the candle aloft as Larry went back to work.
'Let me get this monograph business straight: They paid you on the spot right then and there for it?' said Doyle, unable to let go of his fixation.
'Not a princely sum, but enough to keep Zeus in soup bones for a stretch.'
Larry eased open the door to the offices.
'Thank you for those kind words, Larry, why don't you keep an eye on the hall while we have a look inside?'
Larry tipped his cap. Not a peep from him since they'd left the flat, observed Doyle, whereas Barry went positively jabberwocky in a tight spot: How odd, their patterns of speech are directly reversible.
By the dim light of the candle, they explored the offices of Rathbome and Sons. Subdued reception area. Rows of clerks' desks: sheaves of invoices, contracts, bills of lading. It seemed a neat and orderly concern, handsomely accoutred, ran with a minimum of fuss, but other than that, utterly unremarkable.
'So this is the last house to which you submitted your manuscript, and you don't recall receiving it back from them,' said Sparks.
'Yes. So Lady Nicholson's father and brother must be involved somehow.'
'One brother we know of. The late George B. Other than that, nothing's available on the Rathborne family in public record. I've found no reference to a Rathborne the Elder whatsoever.'
'That's odd.'
'Perhaps not. This firm is six years old. Hardly an enduring tradition passed down for generations.'
'You're suggesting there is no Rathborne the Elder?'
'You do ran a fast track, Doyle. I wanted to have a look back here,' said Sparks, leading him toward the rear. 'Our friend the clergyman was rather firmly denied access to any of the senior executives.'
They moved to a row of closed doors. Finding one with chairman emblazoned on the smoked-glass window panel locked, Sparks handed the candle to Doyle, took a small set of twin picks from his pocket, and worked them into the keyhole.
'No interest in cattle-breeding?'
'From what I could gather during my visit, they didn't seem terribly interested in books generally.'
'Whatever do you mean, Jack?'
'I fingered a catalog of their published works. Singularly unimpressive; works on the occult seem to be the specialite de la maison, a trickle of legal publishing—hardly enough volume of trade to support such a well- appointed concern as this—and no fiction whatsoever,' said Sparks, manipulating the picks like a pair of chopsticks. A click was heard inside, and the door popped open. Sparks pushed it open the rest of the way.
'I now recall it was their interest in the occult that prompted me to send my manuscript here originally. In my amateurish eagerness, I didn't take the time to discover if they had an ongoing interest in fiction.'
'I didn't wish to put it so indelicately,' said Sparks as he took back the candle and entered the office.
'Quite all right; any author worth his salt needs to inure himself to criticism. So, if they have no interest in fiction here, the question is why wasn't the book simply returned to me straight off?'
'I suspect your title—'The Dark Brotherhood'—must have caught someone's eye.'
