IX
FAIR WARNING
It was much more than a map of the metropolis that Toye carried in hisable head. He knew the right places for the right things, from histailor's at one end of Jermyn Street to his hatter's at the other, andfrom the man for collars and dress shirts, in another of St. James', tothe only man for soft shirts, on Piccadilly. Hilton Toye visited themall in turn this fine September morning, and found the select teamagreeably disengaged, readier than ever to suit him. Then he gazedcritically at his boots. He was not so dead sure that he had struck theonly man for boots. There had been a young fellow aboard the _KaiserFritz_, quite a little bit of a military blood, who had come ashore ina pair of cloth tops that had rather unsettled Mr. Toye's mind just onthat one point.
He thought of this young fellow when he was through with the soft-shirtman on Piccadilly. They had diced for a drink or two in thesmoking-room, and Captain Aylmer had said he would like to have Toye seehis club any time he was passing and cared to look in for lunch. He hadsaid so as though he would like it a great deal, and suddenly Toye had amind to take him at his word right now. The idea began with those bootswith cloth tops, but that was not all there was to it; there wassomething else that had been at the back of Toye's mind all morning, andnow took charge in front.
Aylmer had talked some about a job in the war office that enabled him tolunch daily at the Rag; but what his job had been aboard a Germansteamer Toye did not know and was not the man to inquire. It was nobusiness of his, anyway. Reference to a card, traded for his own inSouthampton Water, and duly filed in his cigarette-case, reminded him ofthe Rag's proper style and title. And there he was eventuallyentertained to a sound, workmanlike, rather expeditious meal.
"Say, did you see the cemetery at Genoa?" suddenly inquired the visitoron their way back through the hall. A martial bust had been admiredextravagantly before the question.
"Never want to see it again, or Genoa either," said Captain Aylmer. "Thesmoking-room's this way."
"I judge you didn't care a lot about the city?" pursued Toye as theyfound a corner.
"Genoa? Oh, I liked it all right, but you get fed up in a couple ofdays neither ashore nor afloat. It's a bit amphibious. Of course you cango to a hotel, if you like; but not if you're only a poor Britishsoldier."
"Did you say you were there two days?" Toye was cutting his cigar asthough it were a corn.
"Two whole days, and we'd had a night in the Bay of Naples just before."
"Is that so? I only came aboard at Genoa. I guess I was wise," addedToye, as though he was thinking of something else. There was no sort offeeling in his voice, but he was sucking his left thumb.
"I say, you've cut yourself!"
"I guess it's nothing. Knife too sharp; please don't worry, CaptainAylmer. I was going to say I only got on at Genoa, and they couldn'tgive me a room to myself. I had to go in with Cazalet; that's how I sawso much of him."
It was Toye's third separate and independent attempt to introduce thename and fame of Cazalet as a natural topic of conversation. Twice hishost had listened with adamantine politeness; this time he was enjoyingquite the second-best liqueur brandy to be had at the Rag; and he leanedback in his chair.
"You were rather impressed with him, weren't you?" said Captain Aylmer."Well, frankly, I wasn't, but it may have been my fault. It does ratherwarp one's judgment to be shot out to Aden on a potty job at this timeo' year."
So that was where he had been? Yes, and by Jove he had to see a manabout it all at three o'clock.
"One of the nuts," explained Captain Aylmer, keeping his chair with finerestraint. Toye rose with finer alacrity. "I hope you won't think merude," said the captain, "but I'm afraid I really mustn't keep himwaiting."
Toye said the proper things all the way to the hat-stand, and there tookfrontal measures as a last resort. "I was only going to ask you onething about Mr. Cazalet," he said, "and I guess I've a reason forasking, though there's no time to state it now. What did you think ofhim, Captain Aylmer, on the whole?"
"Ah, there you have me. 'On the whole' is just the difficulty," saidAylmer, answering the straight question readily enough. "I thought hewas a very good chap as far as Naples, but after Genoa he was anotherbeing. I've sometimes wondered what happened in his three or four daysashore."
"Three or _four_, did you say?"
And at the last moment Toye would have played Wedding Guest to Aylmer'sAncient Mariner.
"Yes; you see, he knew these German boats waste a couple of days atGenoa, so he landed at Naples and did his Italy overland. Rather a goodidea, I thought, especially as he said he had friends in Rome; but wenever heard of 'em beforehand, and I should have let the whole thingstrike me a bit sooner if I'd been Cazalet. Soon enough to take ahand-bag and a tooth-brush, eh? And I don't think I should have run itquite so fine at Genoa, either. But there are rum birds in this world,and always will be!"
Toye felt one himself as he picked his way through St. James' Square. Ifit had not been just after lunch, he would have gone straight and had acocktail, for of course he knew the only place for _them_. What he didwas to slue round out of the square, and to obtain for the asking, atanother old haunt, on Cockspur Street, the latest little time-table ofcontinental trains. This he carried, not on foot but in a taxi, to theSavoy Hotel, where it kept him busy in his own room for the best part ofanother hour. But by that time Hilton Toye looked more than an hourolder than on sitting down at his writing-table with pencil, paper andthe little book of trains; he looked horrified, he looked distressed,and yet he looked crafty, determined and immensely alive. He proceeded,however, to take some of the life out of himself, and to add still moreto his apparent age, by repairing for more inward light and leading to aTurkish bath.
Now the only Turkish bath, according to Hilton Toye's somewhatexclusive code, was not even a hundred yards from Cazalet's hotel; andthere the visitor of the morning again presented himself before theafternoon; now merely a little worn, as a man will look after losing astone an hour on a warm afternoon, and a bit blue again about the chin,which of course looked a little deeper and stronger on that account.
Cazalet was not in; his friend would wait, and in fact waited over anhour in the little lounge. An evening paper was offered to him; he tookit listlessly, scarcely looked at it at first, then tore it in hisanxiety to find something he had quite forgotten--from the newspaperend. But he was waiting as stoically as before when Cazalet arrived intremendous spirits.
"Stop and dine!" he cried out at once.
"Sorry I can't; got to go and see somebody," said Hilton Toye.
"Then you must have a drink."
"No, I thank you," said Toye, with the decisive courtesy of a totalabstainer.
"You look as if you wanted one; you don't look a bit fit," said Cazaletmost kindly.
"Nor am I, sir!" exclaimed Toye. "I guess London's no place for me inthe fall. Just as well, too, I judge, since I've got to light out againstraight away."
"You haven't!"
"Yes, sir, this very night. That's the worst of a business that takesyou to all the capitals of Europe in turn. It takes you so long to flitaround that you never know when you've got to start in again."
"Which capital is it this time?" said Cazalet. His exuberant genialityhad been dashed very visibly for the moment. But already his highspirits were reasserting themselves; indeed, a cynic with an ear mighthave caught the note of sudden consolation in the question that Cazaletasked so briskly.
"Got to go down to Rome," said Toye, watching the effect of his words.
"But you've just come back from there!" Cazalet looked no worse thanpuzzled.
"No, sir, I missed Rome out; that was my mistake, and here's thissituation been developing behind my back."
"What situation?"
"Oh, why, it wouldn't interest you! But I've got to go down to Rome,whether I like it or not, and I don't like it any, because I don't haveany friends there. And that's what I'm doing right here. I was wonderingif you'd do something fo
r me, Cazalet?"
"If I can," said Cazalet, "with pleasure." But his smiles were gone.
"I was wondering if you'd give me an introduction to those friends ofyours in Rome!"
There was a little pause, and Cazalet's tongue just showed between hislips, moistening them. It was at that moment the only touch of color inhis face.
"_Did_ I tell you I'd any friends there?"
The sound of his voice was perhaps less hoarse than puzzled. Toye madehimself chuckle as he sat looking up out of somber eyes.
"Well, if you didn't," said he, "I guess I must have dreamed it!"