Back Room Girl: By the author of Paul Temple. Francis Durbridge

’em up?’

      ‘Well,’ said the Chief Inspector with a smile, ‘it’s not quite so simple as that. For one thing, I’m not sure exactly where they are, and for another, and the most important, Delouris, to the best of our information, isn’t with them – yet.’

      ‘What do you mean by “yet”?’ asked Roy.

      ‘Just that he isn’t wherever the others are. Our latest report says that he was seen two days ago in the north of England, but we’re rather expecting him to pay us a visit soon when they’re ready to move. You see, to some extent, indeed to a very large extent, we’re using this mine and what’s going on here as bait for a trap. We must be sure that when it’s sprung they’re all in it, but especially Delouris. He’s the man we want most of all. He’s dangerous.’

      ‘Sounds a bit risky to me with all this at stake,’ said Roy, ‘but I suppose you know best. But what makes you think they’re in the neighbourhood, anyway? And how did they get to know about this place? Has somebody talked?’

      ‘I think they’re in the neighbourhood because within the last few months a Ministry of Food depot, located here during the war, has twice been robbed of substantial supplies. A number of farms have also missed food and clothing, and some weeks ago a coal pit not far from here was robbed of tools, props, and even a few tubs.’

      ‘I see the point about the food and clothes,’ said Roy, ‘but why the mining tools?’

      ‘Well, this is a mine, isn’t it?’ asked Karen Silvers, rather impatiently – ‘and one way of getting into a mine, especially if you don’t want to be seen going in at the front door, would be to mine your way into it – if you’ll forgive the pun.’

      ‘But surely that would attract attention, wouldn’t it?’ objected Roy. ‘You can’t start mining even in a spot as quiet as this without somebody spotting you. Or can you?’

      ‘Forgive me for pointing out that mining is an underground occupation,’ said Karen drily.

      ‘It’s certainly a possibility we’ve got to watch,’ said Leyland, ‘but so far we haven’t found any trace of it, or, indeed, of any of them. No one has even reported seeing any strangers, and you know what Cornish villagers are about strangers. That’s where you may be able to help. The Cornish police know, of course, that I’m down here, but they think it’s just to investigate the robberies. I’ve kept out of the public eye as much as possible because I don’t want any gossip about my being here. You’re pretty well known in the village by this time and you could make enquiries for me without attracting attention. I’d also like you to keep your eyes and ears open for anything suspicious, and let me know.’

      ‘But how can I do that without coming to the mine?’ asked Roy.

      ‘Leave a message addressed to me at Torcombe police station. I make a call there some time or other every day or night, usually night.’

      ‘Right,’ said Roy. ‘I could do with a little excitement again. Perhaps I’ve been stagnating too much here.’

      Chief Inspector Leyland smiled. ‘I wondered how long you’d stick it when Bill Darkis told me you were here.’

      ‘Now don’t get me wrong,’ protested Roy. ‘I’m going to stay until I finish that book, if I bust in the attempt, and perhaps longer if Scotland Yard will leave me in peace, but a change of routine may do me good. Besides,’ he added, with a smiling glance at Miss Silvers, ‘there are other attractions about the job.’

      The Chief Inspector shot a look at them. Roy grinned.

      ‘One point that still puzzles me,’ he went on, ‘is how Delouris and his gang got wind of this in the first place and how they all knew where to make for when they got out.’

      ‘We’re not sure about that, but about six months after this place began to operate we rounded up a spy not ten miles from here. He was shot, of course, but he might have got a radio message away before we picked him up. That could have been sent back to Delouris, who had escaped a couple of months earlier. We think that – with help, of course – he engineered the escapes of the other men he wanted for his scheme and told them to meet him in this locality. Since then, they may have got some information from Pat, one of our stewards, who disappeared a couple of weeks ago. He knew a little of what was going on here – not much, thank God, but knowing Delouris and some of the gang he’s got with him, including a couple of the worst Gestapo types, I shouldn’t imagine they’ll stop at anything to get what they can out of him.’

      ‘Poor Pat,’ said Miss Silvers. ‘I liked him almost as much as Tom. And I’m sure he wouldn’t talk.’

      Roy glanced questioningly at Leyland.

      ‘I’m afraid,’ he said to the girl ‘that you don’t know the habits of our late enemies very well. You should have been in France with me once or twice. It’s surprising what a man will do if he’s merely hit across the throat with a rubber truncheon. Of course, Delouris probably hasn’t got the sort of facilities here that they had in France, but I’ve no doubt he’s capable of devising some.’

      The girl was looking a bit pale.

      ‘I hope I haven’t said anything to shock you,’ said Roy, ‘but you ought to know the kind of people you’re up against.’

      He stretched and looked at his watch. ‘About time I was getting back to the chalet,’ he said – ‘that is, if I’m permitted to go.’

      Both Leyland and Miss Silvers smiled. Roy gingerly felt the back of his head.

      ‘You must introduce me to Joe sometime,’ he said. ‘I’d rather like to meet him.’

      Leyland also looked at his watch. ‘I’d rather you didn’t go until it gets really dark, if you don’t mind,’ he said. ‘If I hadn’t a hell of a lot of reports to do I’d show you around. Perhaps Miss Silvers …’ He looked at her with an unspoken question. ‘She knows much more about the technicalities of this place than I do.’

      She did not look very enthusiastic. ‘Well, I’ve got a good deal of work of my own to do—’

      ‘But you could put it off for one evening, couldn’t you?’ pleaded Roy. ‘After all, you don’t get many visitors here, and you do owe me a little compensation, I think.’

      ‘Very well,’ she said, with a well-I-suppose-I-can’t-get-out-of-it air, ‘but this mustn’t be taken as a precedent. Anyway, I don’t suppose you’ll be coming here again. Will he, Chief?’

      ‘I don’t think it would be very advisable,’ said Leyland. ‘For more than security reasons.’

      ‘And what exactly do you mean by that remark?’ demanded Roy, though there was a glint in his eye which told the Chief Inspector that he knew exactly what he meant.

      ‘Nothing at all, nothing at all,’ said Leyland airily. ‘Well, get off if you’re going. I’ve work to do.’

      They went.

       CHAPTER VII

       Atomic Secrets

      ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to put it to me in words of one syllable,’ Roy remarked to Miss Silvers as they went along a corridor outside the room they had just left. ‘I’m a child where scientific matters are concerned.’

      ‘Only in scientific matters?’

      ‘Miss Silvers,’ said Roy with mock severity, ‘I’m beginning to think you don’t like me.’

      She ignored this and stopped at a door on her right. ‘I suppose I ought really to have begun showing you the thing from the beginning,’ she said, ‘but that would have