Читать книгу The Seven Sleepers - Francis Beeding - Страница 3

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It all started with the loss of my luggage.

I was returning home to England from a trip to the Tuscan towns by way of the Riviera, and I had registered my trunk to Genoa. On arriving at that city, however, I discovered, after much difficult enquiry, in the course of which I was assured that Italy, thanks to Signor Mussolini, was a great and glorious country which would shortly be undisputed mistress of the Mediterranean and the most efficient nation in Europe, that my effects had been despatched to Geneva. It was pointed out, for my consolation, that the difference between “Genova” and “Ginevra” was almost negligible.

Fortunately I was in no great need of consolation. I was, in fact, delighted with the discovery of my loss. It was an omen. All roads, it seemed, were leading me to Beatrice.

Beatrice Harvel, whom I had met in London during the War, was now on the staff of the League of Nations. She had been for two years in Geneva and I had not seen her during all that time. I had parted with her in the conviction that a penniless officer newly demobilised, as I then was, not yet broken to the paths of commerce, was in no position to lay his name and absence of fortune at her feet. During the last few days, however, my position and prospects had changed remarkably for the better. My Uncle James, calling me into his office some three weeks previously, had announced his immediate intention of making me a partner in his business, and had given me to understand that I might regard myself as his heir.

On the strength of these gratifying assurances, I was taking a short holiday, and confirming myself in the intention of going ultimately to Geneva in order to discover how I stood with the girl who had never ceased to be in my thoughts since I had waved her an affectedly cheerful farewell some two years ago at Victoria. It was stimulating to discover that my luggage had anticipated me and was calling me forward to the fatal moment. I decided then and there to go after it immediately, and within half an hour of this decision I had taken the express for Lausanne and was rolling towards the Swiss frontier.

But let there be no misunderstanding. The loss of my luggage was the pretext and not the cause of my sudden descent upon the city of Geneva. But for Beatrice, I might quite well have abandoned my trunk to whatever complicated doom was reserved for it under the appropriate regulations. To this day, in fact, I maintain that it was Beatrice who, in the last analysis, awoke the Seven Sleepers untimely. But I am anticipating.

I shall have little leisure, once this story is under way, to tell you anything about myself, so I had better take this opportunity, while I am still a mere member of the travelling public, to explain at any rate who I am, and how I am customarily employed.

I was born in 1894 in the village of Steynhurst, Sussex (where my mother still resides), and christened Thomas, Thomas Henry Preston. I was educated at Stowerbridge, where I took prizes for history, physical jerks, and running. I was also in the Rugger Fifteen and captain of the school boxing team. I was destined for Oxford, but before going up my people sent me for two years to the University of Bonn, where I learnt to speak German almost, if not quite, as well as a German himself. I think I must have inherited a gift for languages from my mother, who talks six or seven. I was about to go to Oxford when the War broke out, which upset my plans, for I entered the army instead, serving right through in the Royal Field Artillery, and emerging in the end with two wounds, the Military Cross and a captaincy.

For my personal appearance, it is shortest to quote from my passport:

Height: 5 feet 11 inches.

Colour of eyes: blue.

Colour of hair: fair.

Special peculiarities: none.

I should add that unkind friends have accused me of a certain resemblance to the sons of the Fatherland, owing, I suppose, to my fair hair and the rather crude blue of my eyes. I am apt, however, to become violent when this subject is mentioned, and it is not usually pressed.

Most of the men of my family are more remarkable for their physical prowess than for their business efficiency, and it was a lucky day for us all when my father’s sister, Agatha Preston, married my Uncle James. Uncle James is widely known to commerce as Jebbutt, of Jebbutt and Jebbutt, Hardware Manufacturers, Birmingham. I have spent the last two years in learning the business; and, if you are interested, I can quote you a line in saucepans or sell you a thousand bedsteads without referring to the price list. I find it difficult to be enthusiastic in these activities, but at a time when the salt of the earth, who sacrificed four years of their youth to save the world, spends its abundant leisure for the most part in polishing the hard benches of labour exchange waiting-rooms, I can only thank the lucky stars that made me heir to a wholesale tinker.

I had caught my train at Genoa with only a minute to spare, and I had had no time to buy anything to read. There was one other occupant of the carriage. He was a Swiss, and, for the moment, he was absorbed in the morning papers. I had not seen them yet and wondered why he was so closely intrigued. He was not exactly excited—his race is seldom excited—but he showed a degree of mild interest in the foreign telegrams which was almost unprecedented in my acquaintance with his compatriots.

“Vous permettez, Monsieur?” I said, and I put my hand on the Journal de Paris.

He nodded and resumed his reading.

The news accorded well with my hopeful spirits, and the exhilaration of the December sunlight. There was, it appeared, a reasonable prospect at last of a European settlement. The long dispute between France and Germany seemed on the eve of conclusion. Germany had capitulated. She would pay any reparations that might be asked of her, down to the last farthing. There was to be some sort of inter-allied conference in Paris, and the German Government pledged itself in advance to accept its ruling. As a proof of her good faith, Germany was prepared at once to apply for admission to the League of Nations, to order an immediate resumption of work in the Ruhr, and to despatch to France large stocks of timber and coal that had been accumulated just outside the occupied territory. These announcements gave a finishing touch to the morning.

“Excellent news,” I remarked to my Swiss companion.

Rather to my surprise, I found him frankly incredulous.

“Germany,” he informed me, after some necessary preliminaries, “is still the most important country in Europe. She will never be found kneeling at the feet of her late enemies. Germany is a great nation.”

I did not contradict him, and he proceeded to define his conception of national greatness in a final and comprehensive announcement.

“The German Government,” he said, “has just purchased three hundred thousand aluminium saucepans.”

“Three hundred thousand saucepans!” I exclaimed.

“Aluminium saucepans,” insisted my new acquaintance. “No government could possibly require three hundred thousand saucepans, but it is conceivable that it might require large quantities of aluminium. It takes one back to the good old days.”

“The good old days?” I echoed, in the tone of one who seeks an explanation.

“During the War,” he explained, “we sold thousands of tons of aluminium to the German Government. I’m Albert Golay (Golay fils)”—he bowed to me ceremoniously—“of Ufholtz and Golay of Neuhausen.”

I knew the firm well by repute. Were they not my rivals in peace (now that I was a tinker) as they had been my enemies in war (when I was a soldier)? But for Ufholtz and Golay there would have been precious little aluminium for the friendly Zeppelins. I looked with interest at Golay fils. Here was the neutral trader incarnate. For him the War stood simply for the “good old days.” And apparently, so far as he was concerned, they were coming back again.

“Three hundred thousand saucepans,” I repeated softly.

“It was just two months ago,” said Golay fils. “We are sending them via Basle to Hanover as fast as we can turn them out. Two thirds of the purchase price was paid in advance, and no haggling at the figures.”

“And you suspect the German Government?”

“Private firms don’t do business on that scale or in that manner. It’s the government touch. Besides, I recognised the agent. He bought from us during the War. Funny fellow, tall and thin, bald as an egg. Stutters terribly. We met in Basle, by arrangement, to negotiate the deal, and as soon as it was concluded he slipped round right away to the bank and paid me in notes.”

“I should like to meet that man,” I said. “I’m by way of selling saucepans myself.”

“Aluminium saucepans?”

“No, sir. I’m afraid I can’t tell the precise nature of the material. It’s a trade secret.”

At this point we were interrupted by an attendant, who came along the corridor announcing that the first lunch was being served in the restaurant car.

We left our compartment and found that the restaurant was only half full. My Swiss companion, after a glance round the tables, saw someone he knew at the far end, whom we joined, on receiving from him a friendly sign. I was introduced as a brother bagman, and was soon listening to an interminable discussion of trade conditions in Europe.

Our new companion, it seemed, was a Swede, and the pair talked engagingly of supply and demand, of the exchange and of transport. Inevitably their conversation went round to the “good old days,” more particularly as the Swede was a traveller for the Svenska Kullagar Fabriken. I had heard a good deal about this firm during the War from a friend of mine in the Ministry of Blockade. It was at that time the largest manufactory of ball bearings in the world, and the desperate need of our government for this essential commodity had virtually dictated our Swedish policy.

Then suddenly I pricked up my ears. Certainly it was a most extraordinary coincidence, though less extraordinary than it seemed perhaps. Europe is small and the routes into Switzerland are limited. That our Swiss friend, who was returning to Neuhausen, should encounter our Swedish friend, who was going to Basle, was not so very singular, nor indeed that they should both have done an excellent stroke of business with one and the same gentleman, who was conducting his operations in Switzerland. Anyhow, there it was. The Swede was also celebrating a partial return to the “good old days.” He had met a tall, thin gentleman in Basle, and he was going to meet him again in Geneva—a gentleman who stuttered and was as bald as an egg. And he had received an order from this person for ball bearings that recalled the most prosperous days of blood and iron. Moreover, he had been offered two thirds of the purchase price in advance and a big premium for immediate delivery.

“This tall thin gentleman,” I asked, “what does he call himself?” I spoke in German, this being a language common to the three of us.

“Herr Schreckermann,” said the Swede.

“He was a government agent during the War,” said Golay. “I assume he is still buying for the authorities at Berlin.”

“I’m not so sure of that,” said the Swede. “The German Government is bankrupt. It certainly hasn’t hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs to squander abroad. It looks to me as though Schreckermann were acting for a big financial group. Stinnes himself would be hard put to it to find all that money at a moment’s notice.”

“Anyhow,” said Golay, “the money’s there,” a fact which, so far as this neutral merchant was concerned, finally disposed of any international problem that might lurk behind these princely transactions.

I was getting tired of my neutral friends, and, bidding them a brief “Good day,” I quitted the restaurant car, leaving them to their ball bearings and their aluminium saucepans.

Some hours later the tedious journey was drawing to its close. I had lost my travelling companions at the Swiss frontier, and the train was now running down the Rhone valley in the darkness. It would soon be at Lausanne, where I had to change for Geneva.

I remember that my mind, roused I suppose by the conversation over lunch, dwelt vaguely on the European situation. I am a very ordinary sort of fellow and have no special knowledge of what is styled foreign politics. I read the newspapers pretty regularly at my club, and occasionally chat for half an hour over a glass of sherry with old Thompson, whose special foible it is to carry about some new and sensational rumour of another crisis in Paris, Berlin or Moscow. I was, I must own, astonished at the utter and entire surrender of Germany, but there seemed to be no doubt whatever as to the facts. I glanced at the newspapers which were scattered about the carriage. All the news agencies agreed. Germany had capitulated and was advertising the fact broadcast.

By this time I had reached Lausanne, where I had an hour to wait. I bought a Swiss paper, and the news it contained confirmed and amplified the earlier reports. The paper gave the text of a proclamation issued by the German Government, which consisted in an exhortation to all German citizens to resume work immediately in the Ruhr. The War had been forced on the German people by a bad ruler, but that did not free them from responsibility. They must pay just reparations to the full. Only in that way could they hope to re-establish the prosperity of their country. Let every man put his shoulder to the wheel, and by united effort pay the former enemies of Germany, and thus ensure peaceful relations in the future.

I thought that I was to be alone in my carriage between Lausanne and Geneva, but, as the train was moving, another traveller scrambled up the steps, and, tripping over the top one, fell flat on his face in the corridor, where I happened to be standing, casting at my feet a small despatch case which burst open and scattered its contents over the floor.

With many apologies he picked himself up, and I saw that he was a short dark man between thirty and thirty-five. He was of the Southern French type, with the brownest eyes I have ever seen, eager and sanguine of expression, the obvious countryman of Tartarin and d’Artagnan.

I helped him to collect his belongings, which he packed roughly into the despatch case. He was profuse in his gratitude and explained that he had mistaken the time of the train.

As he was somewhat dusty about the knees as a result of his accident, I offered him the loan of a clothes brush from my own suit case, which he accepted and retired to make himself presentable, carrying his despatch case with him. When he had gone, I realised that the door of the coach was probably still open, and I went out to close it.

On returning to my compartment, I trod on something hard, which felt like a coin. I stooped down and picked up what proved instead to be a small, round disc, made of copper, with a hole in it for threading upon a chain or key ring. Stamped on one side of it were the letters “R.F.”, and on the other side number “17.”

I was still examining this when the traveller returned and handed me back my brush, with renewed thanks. As he did so, he noticed what I was holding in my hand.

“Pardon, Monsieur,” he said, “but I think you have found something which belongs to me.”

I assented and handed it to him. He looked at it sharply and then put it in his waistcoat pocket.

We talked together for the hour which the train took to reach Geneva.

I discovered him to be an extraordinarily pleasant and interesting companion. He was a French officer who had served right through the War and been wounded at Verdun, and, when he discovered that I too had seen some service on the Western Front, we soon found enough to talk about.

After exchanging various war reminiscences, I remembered the news in the paper and congratulated him on the triumph of the French policy.

For a moment his eyes lit with interest, and from a man of his type and origin one expected at once a stream of vivid comment and exclamation. To my surprise, however, he did not very readily respond. He was clearly about to do so, and then suddenly appeared to pull himself up, almost as though someone had tapped him on the shoulder and told him to be careful.

“It is a complete success,” I ventured. “Germany is on her knees.”

He looked at me queerly for a moment.

“Vous croyez?” he said.

There was a world of Gallic scepticism in that brief remark and in the tone in which it was uttered. I would have liked to discuss the position with him frankly and at large, but already the train was slowing down.

As I got up to collect my things, the Frenchman turned to me and said quickly:

“I must thank you particularly for having found my identification disc. It is an old war souvenir, which I should be very sorry to lose.”

I said something polite to him in reply and hoped that we should encounter in Geneva. He answered me cordially enough, but said nothing of a further meeting, which, for a man of his obvious enthusiastic temper, seemed to me a little odd. I remembered then that he had not given me the slightest hint of his occupation, though I had been almost excessively communicative in regard to myself.

Had I had the least idea of the strange circumstances in which we were to meet again, I should have wondered less at his reserve.