Читать книгу Standish Gets His Man - Percy Francis Westerman - Страница 3
Оглавление"Get Busy!"
"Mornin', Standish!"
"Good morning, sir!"
Inspector Colin Standish, of the Royal Air Constabulary, knew better than to add, "You sent for me, sir!" when summoned into Colonel Robartes' presence.
The superintendent tapped his finger on a map of England spread upon his desk, and held down by four leaden weights.
"They've arrived!" he announced. "And, worse luck, they've started work already!"
In spite of the ambiguity of his chief's statement, Standish laboured under no delusions as to what he meant.
Mike Doran and Toni Pergelli, high-lights of the American gangsters, experts in the use of the submachine-gun, stickers at nothing, had publicly stated their intention to cross the Herring Pond and to give Britishers a practical demonstration of certain methods favoured by the hard-boiled tough of New York and Chicago.
Few people had taken the threat seriously, although New Scotland Yard, having no need to sit up, had taken notice. Detectives had kept close watch upon ports, large and small. At the air-ports vigilance had been redoubled; machines of the Royal Air Constabulary had maintained ceaseless patrol around the coasts of the British Isles.
Without the knowledge of the general members of the British public, the cost of these precautions had reached alarming figures, about which the taxpayer would certainly ask questions in the near future. The authorities had made up their minds to take no chances. They realized that a couple of American gangsters at work in this country were as dangerous as a tsetse fly let loose in a South African racing-stable, where thousands of pounds of damage would be done before the insect was swatted.
"Started work already, sir?"
"Yes; but not in the North-Eastern area," explained Colonel Robartes. "They got to work yesterday afternoon at a place called Brackley. Here it is"—pointing to the map—"midway between Northampton and Oxford, and a matter of about sixty miles from London. Know the place, by any chance?"
"Yes, sir; I've motored through the town more than once."
"H'm, no need for me to have given you its position, then," remarked the superintendent. "What matters is that Doran and Pergelli have raided a bank there, plugged the cashier, and have got away with £3000 in notes."
Colin drew a mental picture of the scene—the broad highway intersected towards the south end of the town by a pillared and venerable town hall.
"How do they know Doran carried out the raid, sir?" asked Standish.
"He telegraphed the information to Scotland Yard half an hour later," replied Colonel Robartes. "He's that sort of boaster. The message was handed in at Northampton, twenty miles away, in less than half an hour after the robbers left the bank at Brackley."
"They used a car, of course?"
"A high-powered one. She was doing eighty in the main street. Spectators declared that a man on the rear seat was holding a machine-gun. That may be pure imagination; on the other hand it's quite possible. We're up against a tough proposition, Standish!"
Colin agreed, although for the present he failed to see how the Royal Air Constabulary was to be brought into the affair other than by aerial co-operation with the mobile and local police. There seemed very little chance of the "air cops" being brought into direct contact with the alien gangsters—a surmise that subsequently proved that Inspector Colin Standish was by no means infallible.
"Is there any information as to how the gangsters arrived here, sir?" he asked.
"Absolutely none! They carried out the raid on the very day of their self-advertised date of arrival! In spite of the net spread for them they have eluded the cordon. It's my belief they've come by air."
"Direct from the States, sir?"
Colonel Robartes shrugged his shoulders.
"Perhaps—why not? Nowadays flying the Atlantic from west to east isn't a remarkable feat. What is remarkable, however, is that they succeeded in evading our air patrols. I should not be surprised to learn that they flew via the Azores, refuelled somewhere in Spain or Portugal, and then entered this country by way of the south or east coasts."
Colin smiled wrily. If the gangsters had flown inland over the Yorkshire or Lincolnshire coasts the responsibility was partly his. He had been on patrol between Flamborough Head and Cromer on the night preceding the Brackley raid. His wireless operator had been constantly in communication with the chain of listening posts, and every inbound aircraft had been detected and identified.
If it were true that the gangsters were employing a 'plane as well as a car, then the situation was one that would vitally affect the Royal Air Constabulary. Their duties were of a civil nature, and their methods of bringing down offending aircraft were limited to the use of the anti-magneto rays. If the air bandits resorted to the use of firearms, which seemed likely, then either the Royal Air Force would be asked to cooperate—a step that would be regarded by the Royal Air Constabulary as a slur upon their capabilities—or else the air police would have to be armed with more effective weapons than their revolvers and automatic pistols. In effect, until the menace was removed, the air police would be auxiliaries to the military Royal Air Force.
"You'd better stand by with your flight for instant action, Standish," continued his chief. "Anyone on leave?"
"No, sir."
"Good! Of course you'll warn all officers and men in your flight that leave is suspended. We can't have——"
The telephone bell trilled shrilly.
"Yes, this is North-Eastern area headquarters," replied Colonel Robartes. "Yes ... At twelve-fifteen? ... I see ... You're 'phoning further details in a few minutes.... Right, I'll see to it."
He replaced the receiver.
"News has just come through that another bank raid has taken place; this time in York. The bandits made off in the direction of Bridlington, though that may have been a blind. You'd better get a move on, Standish. Patrol the whole of section E and keep me informed. You will also be in touch with the local police at York, Driffield, Beverley, Selby and York. Get busy!"
