N or M_ - Agatha Christie [75]
Tommy and Tuppence stared.
‘Incredible! ’ said the former.
Grant shook his head.
‘You do not know the force of the German propaganda. It appeals to something in man, some desire or lust for power. These people were ready to betray their country not for money, but in a kind of megalomaniacal pride in what they, they themselves, were going to achieve for that country. In every land it has been the same. It is the Cult of Lucifer–Lucifer, Son of the Morning. Pride and a desire for personal glory!’
He added:
‘You can realise that, with such persons to issue contradictory orders and confuse operations, how the threatened invasion would have had every chance to succeed.’
‘And now?’ said Tuppence.
Mr Grant smiled.
‘And now,’ he said, ‘let them come! We’ll be ready for them!’
Chapter 16
‘Darling,’ said Deborah. ‘Do you know I almost thought the most terrible things about you?’
‘Did you?’ said Tuppence. ‘When?’
Her eyes rested affectionately on her daughter’s dark head.
‘That time when you sloped off to Scotland to join Father and I thought you were with Aunt Gracie. I almost thought you were having an affair with someone.’
‘Oh, Deb, did you?’
‘Not really, of course. Not at your age. And of course I knew you and Carrot Top are devoted to each other. It was really an idiot called Tony Marsdon who put it into my head. Do you know, Mother–I think I might tell you–he was found afterwards to be a Fifth Columnist. He always did talk rather oddly–how things would be just the same, perhaps better if Hitler did win.’
‘Did you–er–like him at all?’
‘Tony? Oh no–he was always rather a bore. I must dance this.’
She floated away in the arms of a fair-haired young man, smiling up at him sweetly. Tuppence followed their revolutions for a few minutes, then her eyes shifted to where a tall young man in Air Force uniform was dancing with a fair-haired slender girl.
‘I do think, Tommy,’ said Tuppence, ‘that our children are rather nice.’
‘Here’s Sheila,’ said Tommy.
He got up as Sheila Perenna came towards their table.
She was dressed in an emerald evening dress which showed up her dark beauty. It was a sullen beauty tonight and she greeted her host and hostess somewhat ungraciously.
‘I’ve come, you see,’ she said, ‘as I promised. But I can’t think why you wanted to ask me.’
‘Because we like you,’ said Tommy smiling.
‘Do you really?’ said Sheila. ‘I can’t think why. I’ve been perfectly foul to you both.’
She paused and murmured:
‘But I am grateful.’
Tuppence said:
‘We must find a nice partner to dance with you.’
‘I don’t want to dance. I loathe dancing. I came just to see you two.’
‘You will like the partner we’ve asked to meet you,’ said Tuppence smiling.
‘I–’ Sheila began. Then stopped–for Carl von Deinim was walking across the floor.
Sheila looked at him like one dazed. She muttered:
‘You–’
‘I, myself,’ said Carl.
There was something a little different about Carl von Deinim this evening. Sheila stared at him, a trifle perplexed. The colour had come up on her cheeks, turning them a deep glowing red.
She said a little breathlessly:
‘I knew that you would be all right now–but I thought they would still keep you interned?’
Carl shook his head.
‘There is no reason to intern me.’
He went on:
‘You have got to forgive me, Sheila, for deceiving you. I am not, you see, Carl von Deinim at all. I took his name for reasons of my own.’
He looked questioningly at Tuppence, who said:
‘Go ahead. Tell her.’
‘Carl von Deinim was my friend. I knew him in England some years ago. I renewed acquaintanceship with him in Germany just before the war. I was there then on special business for this country.’
‘You were in the Intelligence?’ asked Sheila.
‘Yes. When I was there, queer things