Free Codeword Golden Fleece by Dennis Wheatley Page A

more charming.’
    ‘It went off better than I expected,’ Richard confessed. That fellow Ignac gave us rather a suspicious look, but she sent him away to fetch something for her, so he wasn’t in on the latter part of the conversation and had no chance to ask awkward questions.’
    ‘Quiet!’ breathed the Duke through unmoving lips. ‘Here he comes.’
    Next moment Count Ignac joined them. A pale smile lit up his thin face as he addressed the Duke:
    ‘General Mack has sent me to ask you if you would be kind enough to join him for a few moments in the library.’
    ‘Certainly.’ The Duke smiled back, and leaving his friends he followed the Count out of the lounge through a curtained entrance that gave on to a square, booklined room. In one corner of it there was a large, ornate porcelain stove, and in front of this General Mack was standing, his hands clasped behind his back. As soon as the curtains had fallen into place he began in his suave, slightly high-pitched voice:
    ‘I am told, Duke, that your friends, Mr. and Mrs. Eaton, are thinking of leaving Lubieszow tomorrow morning?’
    ‘That is so,’ de Richleau agreed aminably.
    Mack nodded his high, semi-bald head, which, with his long nose, gave him a faint resemblance to a bird of prey. ‘I see. Well, much as I regret to inconvenience them, I fear that I cannot agree to their departure.’
    The Duke drew himself up. ‘Really, General! Even from our host such a statement would border on impertinence. By what right—’
    Raising a hand, Mack cut him short. ‘This is no question ofhosts or guests, and it is best we should not mince matters any further. I have no intention of permitting either you or your friends to leave this house; and to ensure that I am placing all three of you under arrest.’

5
Pistols are Drawn
    ‘But this is fantastic!’ exclaimed the Duke.
    ‘It is nothing of the kind,’ snapped Mack. ‘It is an elementary precaution.’
    ‘Against what?’
    ‘Against you or your friends prejudicing the safety of the State.’
    ‘Indeed!’ De Richleau’s eyebrows lifted. ‘I had always believed that Poland was a properly constituted democracy in which it was illegal for army officers arbitrarily to arrest law-abiding citizens.’
    Mack’s sallow face paled a little. ‘That is true; but you must know perfectly well that my authority far exceeds that of any ordinary army officer.’
    The Duke had realised within a minute of entering the room that the game was up, and that nothing he could say would persuade or intimidate Mack into letting the Eatons go; but the best policy to allay suspicion was obviously to continue the pretence that he had no idea what lay behind the General’s apparently strange behaviour. Accordingly, he now burst out in well-simulated anger:
    ‘A general naturally has more authority than a lieutenant, but that still does not entitle him to override the civil law. In any case, how can the Eatons’ departure prejudice the safety of the State? Either you are under some complete misapprehension regarding us or you have been drinking. This talk of “authority” and “arrests” does not make sense, and I demand a proper explanation.’
    ‘D’you mean …?’ Mack hesitated and frowned slightly. ‘Can it possibly be that you don’t know who I am?’
    ‘Since you were introduced to me as General Mack,’ the Duke began with some asperity, ‘I naturally assumed …’ His voice suddenly tailed off, his eyes widened, and he exclaimed: ‘Good heavens! When we first met I had a feeling that I had seen you somewhere before, but as your name was not familiar I dismissed it. Of course, it was your photograph I had seen in the newspapers. You are——’
    ‘My dear Duke!’ Mack interrupted. He was smiling now. ‘I fear I have been very stupid, and I can hardly wonder at your resenting my apparently arbitrary conduct.’
    ‘Well, frankly,’ the Duke smiled back, ‘I am still most puzzled about that. I can’t for