Free Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham

know myself almost. He’s like you, isn’t he?’
    ‘Is he?’
    ‘I think so, very. Except for the one important thing.’
    ‘What’s that?’
    She looked up at him and there was a sort of rueful shyness in her young face.
    ‘He loves me so. He’s doing his best about it but it’s bubbling out all over him and making him shy and silly, like an undergraduate or a peasant or something. And since he’s a great man – because he is brilliant, you know – well, that makes it pretty irresistible.’ She paused and shook herself. ‘Let’s not discuss it. It’s not a bit in your line and things are getting up speed, aren’t they? I feel disgusted with myself for getting – er – overtaken by this thing, but it’s like that. It does – er – overtake. Tell me about Anscombe.’
    ‘He was murdered.’
    ‘What?’ She sat staring at him. ‘But that’s impossible! Who?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    Amanda clasped her knees and her heart-shaped face looked small and worried as she rested her chin on them.
    ‘Of course, I’m not competent to judge anything in this business,’ she said unexpectedly, ‘since I don’t know the full strength.’
    ‘My dear,’ he said with elaborate deference, because he was still tingling from the blow which seemed to have hurt the secret forgotten part of himself even more than his conscious needy present, ‘I only wish I could tell you.’
    ‘Yes, well, you can’t,’ she said briefly. ‘You’re under oath and that’s final. I don’t mind. I know you well enough to work under sealed orders. Otherwise I’d hardly have done the unforgivable thing and got Lee to invite us down here without telling him you were working on something in the town. I’ve got your assurance that it’s desperately important; that’s good enough.’
    Campion was standing with his back to her and did not dare look round.
    ‘Let’s see,’ he said mendaciously, ‘how long have we known Lee?’
    ‘You mean how long have I known him,’ objected Amanda. ‘You’ve known him three days, as you very well know. I came down here from Dell on some work on the new armour for the Seraphim planes. There was a man working at the Institute we had to get hold of. I made friends with Lee then.’
    She was talking gibberish, apart from the all-important dates, as far as Campion was concerned, and he wondered how far he dared press her for information. Fortunately she helped him unconsciously.
    ‘Have you told anyone about the hospital episode this afternoon?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Nor have I. And I was thinking, Albert, I don’t suppose Anscombe did. So suppose we stick to our original plan, which is, if you remember, that I took you into Coachingford on Sunday night to catch the London express. That was immediately after you had the wire which was waiting for you when we arrived. Then yesterday I was supposed to fetch you from the same station after your return. At dinner tonight I was very vague about our delay, but it was a sticky gathering anyway and didn’t matter. Still, if it does come up we’ll have to call it tyre trouble. How’s that?’
    ‘Excellent,’ he said dubiously and waited for her to continue.
    ‘How did you get on at Coachingford?’ she enquired at last.
    He shrugged his shoulders and she nodded gloomily.
    ‘Like that?’ she said. ‘Never mind. It’ll come suddenly. I don’t like this Anscombe business, though. That’s horrible. Just when we thought he knew something.’
    He turned on her. ‘What made you think he knew something?’
    ‘I don’t know. I just got that impression.’
    ‘Not – “fifteen”?’
    ‘Fifteen?’ She seemed surprised. ‘Fifteen what?’
    ‘Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest,’ he said and half wondered if he had invented the ringing phrase.
    ‘Yo-ho-ho and some nice sound sleep,’ said Amanda. ‘You can’t do any more tonight, anyway, if the whole world’s at stake. You go to bed.’
    Campion leant heavily on the back of the chair which