'It makes a cracking cigar divan does this,' he said.
'And it will be fit for nothing else once you've smothered it in ash,' said Fielding. 'The Lady will not like it.'
No, I thought, but she won't be the one who cleans it.
'You have lots of books on ships,' I said to Fielding.
'About ships, I think you mean,' he replied. 'I assure you that none of them are on ships. I have many about railways as well, and quite a fair number of novels.'
'He's got enough books to start a bookshop,' said Vaughan, 'and that's just what he means to do.'
An interval of silence, and then Fielding leant a little my way, like a man about to pass on a confidence. 'There's a good lock-up shop on Newborough, Mr Stringer,' he said. 'If it falls into my hands, it will be re-fitted throughout and will indeed become a bookshop as Vaughan says…'
'Second-hand books,' said Vaughan, nodding at the ceiling, as though he thoroughly approved of the idea.
'Antiquarian,' corrected Fielding.
He seemed to have the ability to start and finish businesses just like that; seemed to have the capital to do it as well – and to buy new books.
'Theo… Mr Vaughan here… was showing me some of your cards for the platform machines,' I said. 'Just my sort of thing, they were.'
'But you take a close interest in the railways, Mr Stringer,' said Fielding, cocking his head and smiling at me. 'The average passenger does not, or so Mr Robinson of the North Eastern company assured me.'
'Robinson's a pill,' said Vaughan.
'He told me', Fielding ran on, still smiling, 'that as a supplier of images I lacked the common touch.'
'Bloody nerve,' said Vaughan, who'd already mentioned to me this famous saying of Robinson's.
'Told me to my face,' continued Fielding, 'and do you know… he was putting on a silk top hat at the time.'
It was impossible to tell from his expression how angry he was, if at all.
'You must be pretty mad at the Company,' I said.
'I should just think he is,' Vaughan said.
He would keep putting his two bob's worth in. Again, it was hard to work out if Fielding minded very much.
'Pretty mad?' Fielding repeated coolly. 'From their point of view they acted logically. I admit that I rode my own hobby horses a little too hard.'
'The straw that broke the camel's back', Vaughan put in, 'was Sunderland station.'
'I produced a card showing Sunderland station at night,' said Fielding, blowing smoke in the direction of the sea,'… illuminated by the new system of oil lighting supplied by the Kitson Company. On the rear of the card was given the number of lamps, also the cost of oil and mantles, installation and maintenance. It came out at three farthings per lamp per hour.'
'Cheap,' I said.
'Decidedly,' said Vaughan, who was trying to blow smoke rings.
'But Robinson didn't care for it,' Fielding continued. 'He told me, 'It's meant to be a post card not a company report,' and suggested instead a card showing holiday makers at Sunderland. I then made the mistake – as I now see in retrospect – of venturing to suggest that only a certified lunatic would take a holiday in Sunderland, which does not have any beach to speak of.'
'Factories,' said Vaughan, 'that's what Sunderland has.'
'Where were the pair of you living when you had the card business?' I enquired.
'Leeds,' said Fielding. 'I was rather shaken after the collapse of the business. I moved here last summer – a sort of convalescence, I suppose.'
'Then he wrote to me saying I might like it,' Vaughan added.
'Where were you in Leeds? If you don't mind my asking?'
'Central,' said Fielding, uncrossing his legs, and I wondered: Is he being short with me?
'Both in the same digs?'
'Howard was at the better part of town,' said Vaughan, blowing smoke.
. Blackburn had lived at Roundhay; I wanted to work it in.
'I know a spot called Roundhay,' I said. 'You weren't there by any chance?'
'We were not,' said Fielding, and he cocked his head at me, as if to say: 'Now why ever did you ask that?'
Vaughan was eyeing me too.
'You two must like having this place to yourself in the winter,' I said presently.
No reply from either of them.
'Do you ever come here in summer, Jim?' Vaughan suddenly enquired. 'I mean, do you fire the excursions?'
'I'm usually rostered another way,' I said. 'Half the time I'm running into…' And I revolved the towns of Yorkshire for a while:'…Hull.'
'Ah, now Hull is the plum,' said Fielding, rising from his chair and carrying his cigar stub towards the fire, where he dropped it carefully into the flames; he then brushed the ash from his fingers and briefly inspected his fingernails. 'One of our cards showed the electric coaling belts on the Riverside Quay,' he added, returning to his seat.
'Shown on a day of heavy rain, they were,' said Vaughan.
'Good job old Robinson never saw that one or he'd have put the mockers on sooner than he did.'
He was examining his own cigar, which, like mine, had a little way to run. 'Sound smoke, wouldn't you say, Howard?'
'A little dry,' said Fielding, speaking as though his mind was elsewhere.
'I wonder why that is?'
'We should keep a little pot of water in the cedar-wood box.'
I was about to try and get the conversation back to the winter visitors, as a way of returning to the subject of Ray Blackburn, when Fielding unexpectedly saved me the bother.
'Yes,' he said with a sigh, 'it was my suggestion that the Lady advertise for railway men. Well, she was in rather low water then as now. But then, you see, the first one we had in went missing.'
'I know,' I said, somewhat alarmed in case I had revealed my true identity, and perhaps too fast, for Vaughan propped himself up on his couch while Fielding rose once more from his seat, and stood before me with arms folded and one little foot tapping away.
'Of course,' I said, 'Ray Blackburn was Leeds and I'm York, so I didn't know the fellow personally. But I know what happened.'
'You know!' exclaimed Fielding with half a smile.
'Disappeared in the night,' said Vaughan. 'Spirited away in the dead of bloody night, Jim.'
'To obtrude a fact or two, Mr Stringer,' said Fielding, 'Mr Blackburn went to bed at about eleven-thirty, and was nowhere to be seen when the boy went up to him with a cup of tea at seven the next morning.'
I didn't much care for that, since the boy had promised to bring me tea at seven as well. I was certain that I'd been installed in the room Blackburn had occupied, and it was beginning to seem as though I'd stepped into his very boots.
'Were you both in the house when it happened?' I enquired.
'Oh dear,' said Fielding, 'you sound like the gentlemen in blue.'
He was down on the coppers then, and that was unusual for a respectable sort like him.
'Same people in the house then as now,' said Vaughan, 'which is why we've all been on the spot these past weeks. How many police teams would you say we'd had, Howard? Past counting isn't it?'
'Not quite,' said Fielding. 'We've had three visits from the Scarborough men, two from the Leeds. A little potation?' he enquired of me, nodding towards the sideboard.
'But we're right out!' exclaimed Vaughan.
'I took the liberty of replenishing the supply,'
'Spanish sherry?' said Vaughan, rising to his feet.
'It's in the usual place,' said Fielding, and he nodded significantly at Vaughan.
Well, that place was evidently outside the room, for Vaughan went quickly out of the door and returned after a few moments – in which Fielding kept silence while smiling at me – carrying a tray on which stood a bottle and some small glasses. He set this down on the top of the piano and began to pour, slopping the stuff about rather as
