The Reader Is Warned

She frowned. 'His hands?'

'His hands,' agreed H. M. 'At a pinch, y'know, I might even accept the possibility that you mean better than you seem to mean.'

Hilary sat back, releasing her breath. Sanders laughed to get rid of a certain tension.

'Will somebody tell me what this is all about?' he asked. 'We're not here to talk about social evenings, are we? Why shouldn't she go out to supper with whoever she pleases ?'

'Of course. Why not?' said Hilary coldly. 'It was only that the chief inspector brought it up.'

'Now, miss! -'

'And after all,' pursued Sanders, 'she's going out to dinner with me to-night, if it comes to that. Aren't you?' 'Yes, of course, Jack. Only...' 'Well, aren't you?'

'Yes, yes, of course. Besides, this isn't the place to talk about that. I've got to get back to the office. Please excuse me.' Finishing her coffee, "she got up and pulled the waterproof round her shoulders. For the first time she faced him. Her manner was one of quiet efficiency: a reserve, a poise which was not shaken.

'Right, then,' said Sanders, cheerfully. 'I'll call for you at seven-thirty sharp. Don't be late.'

'Jack-'

'Here, you've got to have a taxi. You can't walk to Richmond Terrace in all this.'

'Jack, may I speak to you a moment? - The rest of you will excuse us, won't you?'

'Miss,' said Chief Inspector Masters, with a curious look at her, 'all this may be no business of ours. On the other hand (excuse me), it may be. I'd just like to bet you, now, that I know what you're going to tell him. And anything about Mr Ruddy Pennik, anything at all about him or the people he's with, for whatever reason, interests me. Why can't you go out to dinner with anybody else to-night?'

He got to his feet.

Outside the great dingy oblong of the plate-glass window, a figure moved along in the rain; it turned in at the restaurant, navigated the revolving door, and came in. Herman Pennik, removing his sodden hat and coat, beckoned imperiously to a waiter even as he turned to smile at them.

CHAPTER XV

The mango-tree was growing.

That was how Sanders saw Pennik's character. New tentacles were stirring out from under the cloth, and coming to blossom.

The worst of it was that they all had to pretend this was only an ordinary lunch, such as a few other people were eating in the now nearly empty restaurant. The steamy air, which had set a film over mirrors and decorations alike, was now subsiding. Over empty tables waiters slapped with their cloths at ancient crumbs. In the midst of this somnolence the party could not raise their voices, could not sit in any but stiff and constrained attitudes, whatever might be going to happen.

Pennik spoke first. It was an optical illusion that his face or the least detail of his appearance had changed: it had not. Yet there was a new set about him, a new cause for satisfaction, which Sanders did not yet understand.

'Sir Henry Merrivale?' inquired Pennik, with his light eyes fixed.

‘That's right. Join us?'

‘Thank you.'

He handed his coat and hat to the waiter, and it was in the waiter's face, not in that of any of the others, that you saw reflected the emotional state round that table. In the waiter's face you saw sudden recognition. Taking Pennik's things, he turned round and walked rapidly away.

‘I must be going,' said Hilary. 'I really must. Jack, if I could have a word with you?'

'Please sit down, Miss Keen,' Pennik requested. His tone was formal, but inside him Sanders felt he was holding his thick ribs with amusement. That was it: he somehow conveyed the impression of being thicker, not only of body and face, but perhaps even of mind. ‘No, no, you must not go. If you are late at the office, all that can be arranged.'

'I only wish it could.'

'Do you? If everything else were as easy!' said Pennik. ' "And you should have the sun and moon to wear, if I were king."'

'That would be very nice,' said Hilary. She sat down.

'How do you do, Mr Masters ?' pursued Pennik, to a chief inspector who was watching him as warily as you might watch a cat at which it may soon be necessary to throw a botde. 'And you, Mr Chase?'

'Sorry. Got to go. You'll excuse me,' said Chase.

He got up stiffly and walked out of the restaurant, whirling his waterproof behind him without even bothering to put it on. They saw him standing just outside, bare-headed and semi-bald in the rain, peering up and down to decide in which direction his appointment lay. He collided with a little group of loungers who had huddled under the shelter of the overhang at the door, and were looking steadily into the restaurant.

Indubitably, something was going to happen. .

'I regret,' Pennik continued, again fixing his attention on H. M., 'I genuinely regret having had to turn you away from the Black Swan the other night. For I have looked forward to a meeting. Under the circumstances, however, I felt that to see you would be a disturbing influence. Can you understand that?'

H. M. had got his cigar lighted.

'No apology necessary, son. - But what are you doin' here now?'

'To tell you the truth, I was following Miss Keen.'

'Then it was you ...' Hilary began.

'Following you in the taxi? Yes, my poppet, I am afraid it was. I like looking at you. Yes, I honestly do like looking at you, if you follow my meaning. You stimulate me. Under your inspiration I feel that even a modest fellow like myself might do great things.' Hilary's face flamed, but she did not dare comment. Pennik was opening and shutting his hands. 'When I saw all of our - er - protagonists seated round the council board here, I could not resist joining in. For one thing, I wanted to see Chief Inspector Masters.' Masters stiffened.

'I wanted to ask him a question,' explained Pennik.

'If there are any questions being asked hereabouts,' Masters said,'I’ll ask 'em, if you please. And I've got a question or two for you, Mr Pennik. What are you doing in London? What's your permanent address, in case we want to get hold of you ? You were last at the Black Swan Hotel. Well?'

Pennik smiled.

'Well, I don't live there, you know. I have a flat in Bloomsbury - a modest flat, as suits my tastes. I will write you the address. Er - what I really wanted to know, Mr Masters, was this. Would there be any objection to my leaving the country?''

A blow in the solar plexus could not have been worse.

'Leaving the country?' breathed Masters. 'Yes, sir, there smacking well would be an objection to your leaving the country. If you think you can start all this rumpus and then walk out, you'll soon find out you can't.'

Again Pennik smiled. Though his little, light, flickering eyes were on Hilary, he gave the question his attention.

'Be comforted, Mr Masters. I have no intention of deserting you. I meant for a few hours only, on a visit to France. I have received a signal honour in being asked to make a radio broadcast -'

'Oh, ah, yes,' said Masters, maliciously. 'I remember. For the cheese company, wasn't it?'

Pennik laughed outright. It gave him an odd look, as though his face were unused to laughter and these new sensations produced queer wrinkles when he did laugh. He seemed genuinely to like the chief inspector; in fact, he bore malice towards nobody.

'No. Hadn't you heard? All that is changed. I have been officially invited to speak over the French government radio station to-morrow night. I shall speak first in French, and then in English. Nine forty-five to ten-fifteen is the time, in case you are interested.' His forehead was ruffled with an annoyance not unmixed with amusement. 'You know, my good friend, I am afraid the French have rather misunderstood the nature of my claims. All these nonsensical rumours of death-machines and-such clap-trap -' He shook his head.

'They will mislead themselves, gentlemen. They will persist in attributing to me powers I don't have and never claimed to have. Heaven knows my thesis is modest enough. It is only surprising because, in its present scientific application, it is new.' Here Pennik hesitated a little; Sanders wondered why. 'I do not want them, therefore, to be misled by such tales and be disappointed. At the same time, when they hear what I have to say I don't think they will be disappointed. Nor will my friends in England be disappointed. By God, gentlemen, the million people who hear me shall not be disappointed.'

They all looked at him.

'Just a minute, son,' said H. M. He put down his cigar on the edge of his plate. 'Do you mean you're proposin' to kill somebody else?'

'Yes,' said Pennik.

Again it was perhaps a full minute before anybody spoke. Then, anticipating any objection, Pennik explained himself with painstaking lucidity.

'You hardly need to point out to me, gentlemen, that so far I have put myself consistently in the wrong. I admit that. I am no master of strategy. I am a human being, and liable to act in a fit of impulse. I killed Mr Constable deliberately, in the firm and solemn conviction that I was 'doing good by it. But Mrs Constable's death - well, why not? Why not? If I acted in anger, why not?'

Masters's tone was flat.

'So you did that,' he said, 'because I said you couldn't kill an ant with a fly-swatter.'

'I accepted her challenge. Now she is dead. But hear me a little further!' He tapped his blunt forefinger on the table. 'I am not going to abuse a force which seems so simple to me and so mysterious to you. I said it must be used for good; and I meant just that. But I will not fail to use an opportunity like the present one. Think of what it means. To me has been given an opportunity such as has been granted to few men in the history of the world. I am explaining to children something they do not understand. I must prove it to them by nursery instances. Very well. When I speak to them tomorrow night, they will not be satisfied with talk. I will take a human life like a globe of glass in my hands, and smash it down on the floor before them: then they can see for themselves. I will tell them who is going to die, and where, and how. When they have seen the bone crack and the heart stop, they may possibly understand that I mean what I say.'

He drew in his breath. His excitement simmered down, and now he became cheerful with a restrained and ghoulish cheerfulness.

'Too much talk, too much talk,' he added, rubbing his hands together briskly. 'As Antony said to Cleopatra (eh, Miss Keen?), I am not here to talk. But there is something about your expression, Mr Masters, if you will excuse me for saying so, which always impels me to get above myself. Anyhow, that is what I propose to do. And I really do not see how you are going to stop me.'

'Steady, Masters!’ said H. M., sharply. 'Sit down.'

'But-'

'I said sit down, son.'

The chair creaked. All this time H. M. had continued to smoke with unhurried placidness; but he trimmed the ash off his cigar after almost every puff. Dr Sanders, however, was watching Pennik. And as Pennik leaned across the table towards Hilary during the first part of what was just said, he had never before noticed that Pennik had such a blubberlike mouth.

'If this gentleman,' began the chief inspector, 'thinks he can go over to France and show off; and if he thinks I can't stop him, then, by George! -'

'Are you goin' to be quiet?' interrupted H. M. He turned back to Pennik. 'Well... now. If you want to go and make this splash, it's your business. I don't see you'll be needed for anything to-morrow. There's the inquest to-morrow afternoon, of course, but your testimony won't be needed for that.'

Pennik showed quick interest.

'The inquest? What inquest?'

'On Sam Constable, the first victim.'

'I don't think I understand you, sir. There was an inquest on Mr Constable. And it was adjourned.'

'That's right, son. But since by law it's got to be held sooner or later, they're goin' to hold it to-morrow and get it over with.'

Pennik sat up straight.

'I still don't think I understand.'

'Looky here,' said H. M., rubbing his hands rather desperately over his forehead. 'A man dies, d'ye see? The police think there may have been dirty work.' (Here Pennik smiled.) 'So they get the inquest adjourned so's they can work on it. But if there's not enough evidence of any kind against anybody, then as a matter o' law the coroner has got to hold an inquest. They do that so that they can officially record the cause of death. A coroner's inquest is an inquiry into what caused death.'

'But they will not be able to tell what caused his death, will they?'

'No, they won't.'

'Then why hold the inquest?'

With a powerful effort H. M. kept his temper.

'I dunno,' he said. 'It's only the law. Lord love a duck, J didn't make it. Don't blame me. You got to have pity on our blindness; you got to remember that it's not every day a coroner has to hold an inquest on the vicdm of a telepathic conk over the onion. But, before the red specks start dancin' in front of my eyes, try to accept it. It's a matter of form -they'll return an open verdict sayin' they don't know how he died, that's all. So if you want to go to Paris or Timbuctoo, go ahead. You're not a witness.'

'I am aware,' said Pennik, enjoying himself, 'that I am not a witness. But I am the murderer, and therefore I feel some slight interest in the proceedings. When is this inquest to be held?'

"Three o'clock to-morrow afternoon.'

'Where?'

'At Grovetop. Look here, you're not thinking of goin'?' Pennik opened his eyes.

'Sir,' he replied, 'you must excuse my morbid interest in these public spectacles; but if you think I shall remain away from it you do not know your man. I may be only the murderer, but I am curious to hear what they say about me.' He looked thoughtful. 'Three o'clock: yes, that can be managed. An Air France plane is at my disposal, you may be glad to hear. I can attend the inquest and still be in plenty of time for Paris to-night. I will even make a statement, if you like. It may assist the coroner in his unfortunate dilemma.'

Chief Inspector Masters looked at him.

'You're not (hurrum!) you're not by any chance afraid of being lynched, are you, sir?'

Pennik laughed.

'No. You don't know your own countrymen, my friend. They may talk a great deal in private; but the quality which comes from an ingrained horror of making a scene will keep them quiet in public. If I am presented to one of them, the worst he will do is cut me dead; and I must contrive to put up with that.' '

'So you mean to go down there in all your glory, do you?'

'Yes.'

'And you seriously intend to go to Paris and - and -'

'Kill someone else? Yes, I do. With the best of motives, I do. Tell me, do you think I am a fraud now?'

Masters gripped the edge of the table.

'Why don't you tell me, Mr Pennik? You're the thought-reading bloke. Or pretend to be. Why don't you tell me?'

'With pleasure. You are thinking that I really did commit these murders; but that I did it in some commonplace physical way you have not as yet fathomed. Is that correct?

Ah, I see by your face it is. Well, since the "commonplace physical way" must be much more curious than any modest claim I make, I have no objection.'

'You haven't given any thought to the choice of the next victim, have you?'

'It will not be you, Chief Inspector. At heart you are not a bad fellow, and in your own way you are useful. No; in -'

Hilary spoke in a small, quiet voice.

'I am sorry; I simply can't stay any longer. I must get back to the office, and that's all there is to it.'

Pennik was deprecating but firm. 'My dear, your lightest whim shall be indulged. But that is not a whim; it is depressing nonsense. Didn't you hear what I said ? All that can be adjusted.'

'Oh, what's the good of talking like that? I don't want anything adjusted. I only want to get out of here. Pull your chair-'

'I am sorry,' said Pennik, his face clouding, 'that I was rather abrupt about revealing my plans. But I could not resist the expressive faces of these gentlemen, and so I was a little premature. Listen in pity while I explain what I mean. I don't want you to go back to the office. In fact, I had rather hoped to persuade you to come with me to Paris.'

For the first time since Pennik's arrival, Dr Sanders spoke.

'Take your hand off her arm,' he said.

It was as though everything in the restaurant had come to a standstill. And this was true in a literal sense as well. Though he was not aware of it, Sanders was the first to raise his voice above the studied muttering of the group by the window. He did not speak very loudly, even then; but it was like a stone flung through the window. And, in the background, the movement of waiters ceased.

'I beg your pardon?'.

'I said, take your hand off her arm,' Sanders repeated. Their voices were clearly audible now. Pennik hitched his chair round.

'Ah, my friend the doctor,' he said with an air of enlightenment. 'I had not noticed you. How do you do, sir? You sat there so quietly, doubtless thinking long, long thoughts, that I have been ill-mannered enough to overlook your presence.',

'I wonder if you can guess what the thoughts were.' Pennik made a weary gesture.

'Sir, we have had all this out before. Several times I feared I should have difficulties with you; once, at the Black Swan Hotel on Sunday morning, I was almost certain of it. But let me play the peacemaker. Please do not trouble me with parlour-games now. That business is of no consequence. It was an hors-d'ouvre, deliberately designed to catch the attention -'

'Oh.'

'And may I ask why you say that?'

'Because that's what I thought it was,' said Sanders.

Beside them, the big plate-glass windows went white with lightning, picking out every detail down to the turn of a lip or the design on a spoon. But Pennik had his back to it, so that Sanders could not see his face. He wished he could see it, for he had a feeling that the momentary change in the aspect of the window was no greater than the momentary change in Pennik's features. Thunder exploded after it, spreading out and losing itself in the curtain of the rain. .

Pennik spoke quietly.

'I still don't understand.'

'Well, this thought-reading. Masters got it out of Larry Chase on Sunday night that you'd been fishing for information about everybody. With this "reading-the-subconscious-mind" business you had us both coming and going. If we had something deeply worrying us, and you said, "This is what is in your subconscious mind," we couldn't very well deny it, could we? But all you needed was information. For the rest, intelligent deductive work combined with what, in a book I went after the other night, is called Muscle-reading-'

Hilary Keen, moving behind Pennik's back, was making frantic signals to him. But Sanders paid no attention. 'So if you really killed those two people -'

'if I killed them?' repeated Pennik. 'You said the same thing once before, if I remember correctly. And I must beg leave to give you the same answer and die same warning, which you were prudent enough not to disregard. Are you challenging me, sir ?'

Sanders pushed his coffee-cup to one side.

'Yes,' he said.

CHAPTER XVI

That it would ever stop raining seemed open to doubt. When the five-twenty train pulled out of Charing Cross, immersed in steam like a kettle, little could be seen from the windows. But the train was almost empty, so that they had a first-class compartment to themselves, and two of them were walking up and down within its confines. . It was barely five minutes later when H. M. spoke. He said:

'For the love of Esau, can't this caterpillar go any faster?'

'Perhaps I'd better go up and speak to the engine-driver,' suggested Masters, not without sarcasm. 'Give him half a crown, or something. Why the rush, sir? Fourways waited for you yesterday, when you promised to come down and didn't. Why can't it wait now?'

H. M. did not answer this. He sighted over his spectacles, put his fists on his hips, and glared at Dr John Sanders, who was sitting down.

'You young ass!' he said.