In the part of the cupboard which was meant for dresses stood Heatherley Egg.
Sophia’s scream sounded like a train going through a tunnel. Then she became very angry indeed.
‘Stupid,’ she said, ‘to frighten me like that. Anyway, what’s the point of waiting in Florence’s cupboard – she’s on duty, doesn’t come off till six.’
Heatherley slid out into the room and gripped her arm. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘we have got to get this straight.’
‘Oh, don’t let’s bother,’ said Sophia, who had lost interest now that she had recovered from her fright. ‘God knows I’m not a prude, and Florence’s private life has nothing to do with me. Live in her cupboard if you like to; I don’t care.’
‘See here, Sophia, you can’t get away with that. Now, sit down; we have to talk this over.’
‘You haven’t seen some Cachets Fèvre anywhere, have you? I lent her a box and, of course, she didn’t bring them back; people never do, do they? It doesn’t matter to speak of, I must go to bed. Well, good night, Heatherley. What about breakfast? Do you like it in your own cupboard, or downstairs?’
She went towards the door.
‘Oh, no you don’t!’ said Heatherley, in quite a menacing sort of voice, very different from his usual transatlantic whine. ‘You can’t fool me that way, Sophia. Very clever, and I should have been quite taken in, but I happened to watch you through the keyhole. Those bags have false bottoms, haven’t they, the gasmask contains a camera, doesn’t it, and there are code signals sewn into the stuffing of those stays. Eh?’
‘Are there, how simply fascinating! Is that why they are so bumpy? Do go on!’
‘Quite an actress, aren’t you, and I might easily have believed you if you hadn’t sent off the pigeon with a phoney message.’
‘The dear thing asked to go out.’
‘Yes, knowing how stupid you are, Sophia, I might have believed that everything had passed over your head, but you can’t laugh off that pigeon. So come clean now; you’ve known the whole works since Greta disappeared, haven’t you?’
‘What works? Darling Heth, do tell me; it does sound such heaven.’
‘As you know so much already, I guess I better had, too, tell you everything. Florence, of course, as you are no doubt aware, is a secret agent, working under a pseudonym, and with a false American passport. Her real name is Edda Eiweiss and she is the head of the German espionage in this country.’
‘You don’t say so! Good for Florence,’ said Sophia. ‘I never thought she would have had the brains.’
‘Gee, Florence is probably the cleverest, most astute and most daring secret agent alive today.’
‘Do go on. What are you? Florence’s bottle-washer?’
‘Why no, not at all. I am engaged in counter-espionage on behalf of the Allied Governments, but Florence, of course, believes that I am one of her gang. Now, what I want to know is, are you employed by anybody, or are you on your own?’
‘But neither,’ said Sophia, opening her eyes very wide.
‘Sophia, I want an answer to my question, please. I have laid my cards on the table; let’s have a look at yours.’
‘Oh, on my own, of course,’ said Sophia. As Heatherley seemed to be crediting her with these Machiavellian tactics it would be a pity to undeceive him.
‘I thought so. Now, Sophia, I need your help. A woman’s wits are just what I lack, so listen carefully to me. I have found out a great deal, but not all, about the German system of espionage. By November tenth, I shall have all the facts that will enable the Government to round up the entire corps of spies at present operating in this country. On that day we can catch the gang, Florence and her associates, but not before. Will you come in on this with me, Sophia?’ He clutched her shoulders and stared with his light blue eyes into her face. ‘Before you answer, let me tell you that it is difficult and dangerous work. You risk death, and worse, if you undertake it, but the reward, to a patriotic soul, is great.’
‘Rather, of course I will.’ Sophia was delighted. She, and not Olga, was now up to the neck in a real-life spy story.
‘Understand, you must take all your orders from me. One false step might render useless my work of months.’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘And not act on your own initiative at all?’
‘No, no.’
‘Sophia, you are a brave woman and a great little patriot. Shake.’ They shook.
‘Can I ask you a question?’
‘Go right ahead.’
‘Well, what happened to Greta in the end?’
‘What did she say to you?’ asked Heatherley, with a searching look.
‘I don’t understand.’
‘What did she say when you saw her in the Post on that stretcher?’
‘Well, but she couldn’t speak. She had a sort of bandage on her tongue, you see.’
‘Sophia,’ Heatherley’s voice again took on that horrid rasping tone, ‘you promised to be perfectly frank with me. Come clean now, what was she doing with her eyes?’
‘Oh, her eyes. Yes, she must have had a great grit in one of them, I should imagine. She was blinking like mad; I had quite forgotten.’
‘She was winking out a message to you in Morse Code. What was that message, Sophia? No double crossing –’
‘My dear Heatherley, however should I know?’
‘You don’t know Morse Code?’
Sophia saw that she might just as well have admitted to an Ambassador of the old school that she knew no French. She decided that as she did long to be a counter-spy with Heatherley and that as she could quite quickly learn the Morse Code (she knew
