Eleven
It was Tuppence’s turn to talk to the fisherman on the end of the pier¹.
She had hoped against hope that Mr. Grant might have had some com-fort for her. But her hopes were soon dashed. He stated definitely that nonews of any kind had come from Tommy.
Tuppence said, trying her best to make her voice assured and business-like:
“There’s no reason to suppose that anything has—happened to him?”
“None whatever. But let’s suppose it has.”
“What?”
“I’m saying—supposing it has. What about you?”
“Oh, I see—I—carry on, of course.”
“That’s the stuff. There is time to weep after the battle. We’re in the thickof the battle now. And time is short. One piece of information you broughtus has been proved correct. You overheard a reference to the fourth. Thefourth referred to is the fourth of next month. It’s the date fixed² for the bigattack on this country.”
“You’re sure?”
“Fairly sure. They’re methodical people, our enemies. All their plansneatly made and worked out. Wish we could say the same of ourselves.
Planning isn’t our strong point. Yes, the fourth is The Day. All these raidsaren’t the real thing—they’re mostly reconnaissance—testing our defencesand our reflexes to air attack. On the fourth comes the real thing.”
“But if you know that—”
“We know The Day is fixed. We know, or think we know, roughly, where.?.?. (But we may be wrong there.) We’re as ready as we can be. But it’s theold story of the siege of Troy. They knew, as we know, all about the forceswithout. It’s the forces within we want to know about. The men in theWooden Horse! For they are the men who can deliver up the keys of thefortress. A dozen men in high places, in command, in vital spots, by issu-ing conflicting orders, can throw the country into just that state of confu-sion necessary for the German plan to succeed. We’ve got to have insideinformation in time.”
Tuppence said despairingly:
“I feel so futile—so inexperienced.”
“Oh, you needn’t worry about that. We’ve got experienced people work-ing, all the experience and talent we’ve got—but when there’s treacherywithin we can’t tell who to trust. You and Beresford are the irregularforces. Nobody knows about you. That’s why you’ve got a chance to suc-ceed—that’s why you have succeeded up to a certain point.”

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