Free The Ka of Gifford Hillary by Dennis Wheatley Page B

the night at Longshot Hall, and we are no longer like uncle and nephew, but the closest friends.
    These, then, were the six men whom I had to do my best to persuade to join me in refusing a valuable order for whatI was convinced were patriotic reasons, but might well appear to some of them to be very far-fetched ones.
    As I took my seat at the head of the table I felt inwardly excited and a little nervous. It was not that I lacked confidence in myself; but I knew that I was in for a battle, and the thought that what I was about to do might even lead to an open quarrel with men I liked and respected was a far from pleasant one.
    On glancing down the agenda, I saw that ‘Sales report by Admiral Sir Tuke Waldron’ was item number five. That meant that I would have to control my patience for at least an hour; for, much as I should have liked to plunge into the matter of the E-boats right away, and get it over, I had to wait until he told us about the new contract. To have done otherwise would have given away the fact that I had previous knowledge of it, and it was of the utmost importance to avoid giving them grounds for suspecting that I had been put up to the line I meant to take by anyone associated with the Government.
    The clock ticked round with maddening slowness to three-forty, while I strove to concentrate on the normal affairs of the Company; but, at last, I was able to call on the Admiral for his report. Even then a further ten minutes elapsed while he told us about the past month’s activities by his sales staff. Evidently he was saving his own coup for a
bonne bouche
, and, at length, with pardonable satisfaction, he produced it.
    A murmur of congratulation ran round the table, then I said: ‘To have landed us this order is a fine feat, Admiral; and you certainly deserve the thanks of the Board. But recently I have been giving a lot of thought to this question of E-boats, and I have come to the conclusion that we ought not to accept contracts to build any more of them.’
    It would have been more truthful to say that for the greater part of the past forty hours I had been wondering how the Board would take my bombshell, and rehearsing in my mind what I should say in an endeavour to bring as many as possible of its members round to my view.
    They reacted much as I expected. Toiller, McFarlane, Lord Wiltshire and Johnny all stared at me in swift surprise. The Admiral exclaimed: ‘Lord alive, man; why ever not?’ And the good solid James, who was seated on my right, said:‘I haven’t a clue what’s in your mind, Giff; but perhaps you’ll enlighten us?’
    Looking at old Toiller, I asked: ‘As Secretary of the Company, would you say that its financial situation is a satisfactory one?’
    ‘Why, yes, Sir Gifford,’ he replied after a second. ‘You must know yourself how well we’ve been doing since the Conservative Government brought prosperity back to the country, and that during these past few years we have been able to put large sums to reserve. Our affairs are in better shape now than they have been for a very long time.’
    ‘Thank you,’ I said, and turned to James. ‘Will you tell the Board how we stand about work to keep our people going for the next twelve months or so?’
    He shrugged. ‘We’ve plenty of that; and the demand for small boats is still on the up and up. My problem is to get enough skilled labour.’
    ‘What’s all this to do with it?’ the Admiral exclaimed impatiently.
    He was on my left, and glancing at him I replied: ‘It is just that I wished to have recorded in the minutes what we all already know. Namely that the financial position of the Company will not be seriously impaired, or a number of our people thrown out of employment, should the Board decide to decline this Admiralty contract.’
    ‘But why should we?’ he asked in a puzzled voice. ‘What the devil are you driving at?’
    I gave him the works then. My heart was beating a little faster but I said quite