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Endean soon noticed that Sha
“Yes.”
“Is it co
“Yes.”
“Do you want to meet?”
“I think we ought,” said Sha
“Okay. About eleven suit you?”
“Sure,” said Sha
“Your place?”
“Suits me fine.”
“I’ll be there at eleven,” said Endean and hung up.
Sha
Dupree had made a little progress in the three days he had been working. The hundred pairs of socks, T-shirts, and underpants were on order and would be ready for collection by Friday. He had found a supplier for the fifty combat tunics and had placed the order. The same firm could have provided trousers to match, but, according to his orders, Dupree was seeking another firm to supply the trousers, so that no one supplier would realize he was providing complete sets of uniforms. Dupree mentioned that no one seemed suspicious in any case, but Sha
Ja
Before the South African left, Sha
When he had finished he gave Dupree the letter and ordered him to post it, express rate, that same evening from Trafalgar Square. He explained he would have done it himself, but he had to wait in the flat for Langarotti to call from Marseilles.
He was getting very hungry by eight, when Langarotti finally called, his voice crackling over a telephone line that must have been created personally by the inventor of that antique masterpiece the French telephone network.
Sha
“I checked into a hotel and sent you a telegram with my address on it,” said Langarotti.
“I know. I got it,” shouted Sha
“I hired a scooter and toured all the shops that deal in the kind of merchandise we are looking for,” came the voice. “There are three manufacturers in each category. I got the addresses and names of the three boat-makers and wrote off to each for their brochures. I should get them in a week or so. Then I can order the best-suited from the local dealers, quoting the maker’s name and brand name of the article,” said Langarotti.
“Good idea,” said Sha
“They depend on the kind we pick from the brochures I shall get. One depends on the other. But don’t worry. On the second thing we need, there are thousands of every kind and description in the shops along this coast. With spring coming, every shop in every port is stocking up with the latest models.”
“Okay. Fine,” Sha
“I can get that easy enough,” said Langarotti from the other end. “But I think it will be better in Toulon. You can guess why.”
Sha
“Fair enough, you know that area best,” said Sha
“Okay,” said Langarotti. “Is that all?”
“Yes, for the moment. Send me those brochures as soon as you get them, with your own comments and the prices. We must stay in budget.”
“Right. By-by,” called Langarotti, and Sha
Endean arrived at eleven the next morning and spent an hour reading the report and accounts and discussing both with Sha
“Fair enough,” he said at length. “How are things going?”
“Well,” said Sha
“You have three and a half thousand in London, and seven thousand in Belgium,” objected Endean.
“Yes, I know. But there is going to be a spate of payments soon.”
He explained he would have to pay Joha
“It all mounts up,” he said. “The big payments, of course, are the arms and the boat. They form over half the total budget.”
“All right,” said Endean. “I’ll consult and prepare a draft to your Belgian account for another twenty thousand pounds. Then the transfer can be made on a telephone call from me to Switzerland. In that way it will only take a matter of hours, when you need it.” He rose to go. “Anything else?”
“No,” said Sha
“Cable me at the usual address when you leave and when you get back,” said Endean.
The drawing room in the sprawling apartment above Cottesmore Gardens, not far from Kensington High Street, was gloomy in the extreme, with heavy drapes across the windows to shut out the spring sunshine. A gap a few inches wide between them allowed a little daylight to filter in through thick net curtains. Between the four formally placed and overstuffed chairs, each of them late-Victorian pieces, myriad small tables bore assorted bric-a-brac. There were buttons from long-punctured uniforms, medals won in long-past skirmishes with long-liquidated heathen tribes. Glass paperweights nudged Dresden china dolls, cameos of once demure Highland beauties, and fans that had cooled faces at balls whose music was no longer played.