Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie Read Free Book Online Page A

said.
    His secretary's voice spoke.
    'The Minister is here waiting to see you.'
    'Is he now?' said Colonel Pikeaway. 'And what Minister is that? The Baptist minister from the church round the corner?'
    'Oh no, Colonel Pikeaway, it's Sir George Packham.'
    'Pity,' said Colonel Pikeaway, breathing asthmatically. 'Great pity. The Reverend McGill is far more amusing. There's a splendid touch of hell fire about him.'
    'Shall I bring him in, Colonel Pikeaway?'
    'I suppose he will expect to be brought in at once. Under Secretaries are far more touchy than Secretaries of State,' said Colonel Pikeaway gloomily. 'All these Ministers insist on coming in and having kittens all over the place.'
    Sir George Packham was shown in. He coughed and wheezed. Most people did. The windows of the small room were tightly closed. Colonel Pikeaway reclined in his chair, completely smothered in cigar ash. The atmosphere was almost unbearable and the room was known in official circles as the 'small cathouse'.
    'Ah, my dear fellow,' said Sir George, speaking briskly and cheerfully in a way that did not match his ascetic and sad appearance. 'Quite a long time since we've met, I think.'
    'Sit down, sit down do,' said Pikeaway. 'Have a cigar?'
    Sir George shuddered slightly.
    'No, thank you,' he said, 'no, thanks very much.'
    He looked hard at the windows. Colonel Pikeaway did not take the hint. Sir George cleared his throat and coughed again before saying:
    'Er - I believe Horsham has been to see you.'
    'Yes, Horsham's been and said his piece,' said Colonel Pikeaway, slowly allowing his eyes to close again.
    'I thought it was the best way. I mean, that he should call upon you here. It's most important that things shouldn't get round anywhere.'
    'Ah,' said Colonel Pikeaway, 'but they will, won't they?'
    'I beg your pardon?'
    'They will,' said Colonel Pikeaway.
    'I don't know how much you - er - well, know about this last business.'
    'We know everything here,' said Colonel Pikeaway. 'That's what we're for.'
    'Oh - oh yes, yes certainly. About Sir S.N. - you know who I mean?'
    'Recently a passenger from Frankfurt,' said Colonel Pikeaway.
    'Most extraordinary business. Most extraordinary. One wonders - one really does not know, one can't begin to imagine...'
    Colonel Pikeaway listened kindly.
    'What is one to think?' pursued Sir George. 'Do you know him personally?'
    'I've come across him once or twice,' said Colonel Pikeaway.
    'One really cannot help wondering -'
    Colonel Pikeaway subdued a yawn with some difficulty. He was rather tired of Sir George's thinking, wondering, and imagining. He had a poor opinion anyway of Sir George's process of thought. A cautious man, a man who could be relied upon to run his department in a cautious manner. Not a man of scintillating intellect. Perhaps, thought Colonel Pikeaway, all the better for that. At any rate, those who think and wonder and are not quite sure are reasonably safe in the place where God and the electors have put them.
    'One cannot quite forget,' continued Sir George, 'the disillusionment we have suffered in the past.'
    Colonel Pikeaway smiled kindly.
    'Charleston, Conway and Courtland,' he said. 'Fully trusted, vetted and approved of. All beginning with C, all crooked as sin.'
    'Sometimes I wonder if we can trust anyone,' said Sir George unhappily.
    'That's easy,' said Colonel Pikeaway, 'you can't.'
    'Now take Stafford Nye,' said Sir George. 'Good family, excellent family, knew his father, his grandfather.'
    'Often a slip-up in the third generation,' said Colonel Pikeaway.
    The remark did not help Sir George.
    'I cannot help doubting - I mean, sometimes he doesn't really seem serious.'
    'Took my two nieces to see the chateaux of the Loire when I was a young man,' said Colonel Pikeaway unexpectedly. 'Man fishing on the bank. I had my fishing-rod with me, too. He said to me, “Vous n'êtes pas un pecheur sérieux. Vous avez des femmes avec vous”.'
    'You mean you think Sir Stafford -?'
    'No, no, never been