His Excellency Governor Wallace Read online

  ‘Every precaution will be taken to ensure that,’ was the reply. ‘And when can I expect to hear from you, Sir Leonard?’

  ‘You will have my decision at ten o’clock tomorrow morning.’

  Wallace bowed courteously, and walked from the room.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Wallace Accepts the Appointment

  Sir Leonard retired to bed at a very late hour that night. It was the height of the London season, and he attended one or two functions with Lady Wallace before he felt himself at liberty to seek the seclusion of the study of his house in Piccadilly. There eventually, he removed his dress coat, donned an old smoking jacket and, having filled and lit a pipe, settled down to a careful perusal of the reports sent from Sir Stanley Ferguson, the Governor of Hong Kong, to the Colonial Secretary. Although of a lengthy nature they were distinctly discursive and prolix, and he learnt little more from them than he already knew. There was not the slightest doubt, however, that an exceedingly grave situation had arisen in the Far East, and it was not long before he decided that, if he were to cope with the conspiracy at all successfully, it was necessary for him to be on the spot himself. Whether it was politic that he should go out as Acting-Governor was a different matter, and he sat considering the point until well in to the small hours. Apart from his own dislike of holding a position in which he would necessarily be almost continually in the limelight, he felt at first that being so much in the public eye would be a distinct obstacle to his activities. On the other hand it would certainly be a definite advantage to possess full executive power, while it should be possible to shed the limelight on occasions if essential. Carefully he weighed up all the pros and cons and, at last, locking away the documents in his safe, went off to bed with his mind made up. He had decided to accept the Premier’s offer.

  He told Lady Wallace at breakfast that he had been asked to act as Governor of Hong Kong while Sir Stanley Ferguson was on leave. She was astonished, especially when he went on to inform her that, on consideration, he had resolved to take the post. Molly longed ardently for the day to come when her husband would retire from his position as Chief of the Intelligence Service, and either accept an appointment of less danger, or settle down to the life of a country gentleman. Always when he left her on his hazardous missions, she suffered the most acute anxiety, and a good deal of her life, in consequence, was an ordeal of nerve-racking apprehension. She did her utmost to hide her solicitude from him, knowing that her duty as his wife lay in doing all she could to assist, and not interfere with or hinder him in his work. Her nobility of character was to be expected in a woman whose family had ever been noted for its intense patriotism, but that did not prevent her from suffering. Sir Leonard fully realised what she endured, but never commented. His pride in her was perhaps even greater than her pride in him. Theirs was a great devotion and a perfect understanding. That he should be prepared to accept what, at least on the surface, appeared to be an innocuous appointment, even if it were only for six months or thereabouts, gave her a good deal of surprise as well as unqualified delight. Of course, she understood that behind it must lie some urgent necessity for his presence in Hong Kong, but she argued to herself that a public appointment of such a nature would, at least, be assured of comparative freedom from the dangers he usually faced.

  Without going very deeply into the circumstances that had led to such an appointment being offered to him, he told her there had been malpractices in the control of finance in the colony and certain other leakages, and that he would be required to investigate. She felt a glow of pleasure, when he went on with a smile to talk of the success she would undoubtedly prove as ‘The Governor’s Lady’. He impressed upon her the necessity of making her preparations for the voyage at once in order that they could sail at the earliest possible moment. Afterwards he gave instructions to Batty, his manservant, which caused that worthy to beam with hearty approval. During his career as a sailor, Batty had been stationed in Hong Kong for two years on HMS Tamar, which had then been the guardship. The prospect of returning to the Far East appealed to him immensely. A gentleman who viewed the imminent departure of his chief with less complacence was Major Brien. He did not relish being left in charge at headquarters for so long a period.

  ‘It will take you five weeks to go out and five weeks to return, on top of a sojourn out there of six months or more,’ he complained. ‘Hang it all, Leonard! You’ll be away for at least eight months.’

  ‘Well, what does that matter?’ asked Wallace. ‘I have perfect confidence in your ability to carry on.’

  ‘I haven’t. Suppose something requiring the brains and ingenuity that only you can provide turns up, what then?’

  ‘Your trouble, Bill, is that you suffer from an inferiority complex. You have become so used to leaving things to me that you’re afraid to rely upon yourself. But I rely upon you, so remember that. One of these days I may decide to retire. Then you would find yourself in charge permanently.’

  ‘God forbid!’ murmured Brien fervently. ‘When you go I go also.’

  ‘Nonsense! But reverting to the present situation: you have a splendid man in Maddison to support you, and several others, and you can always keep in touch with me in an emergency. Ten or twelve thousand miles means nothing in these days of wireless.’

  Brien had perforce to be content with that but, as the time drew near for Sir Leonard’s departure, the frown upon his second in command’s brow grew more portentous, his fair hair seemed to become permanently ruffled. The Prime Minister had received Sir Leonard’s decision at the time promised, and had made no attempt to hide the satisfaction it gave him. The appointment duly appeared in the Gazette, and Sir Leonard had the honour of being received by the King at Buckingham Palace. His Majesty once again showed his great interest in the work of the Intelligence Service, and expressed the hope that, in his forthcoming investigations, Wallace would be as successful as he had been in the past.

  Sir Leonard left nothing to chance. Thorough in everything he did, he took care to ensure that, as far as possible, Major Brien should have no reason to complain that any instructions or advice that could be of assistance to him, while left in charge, should be neglected. With that meticulous regard for detail and power of anticipation that had always been the admiration of his lifelong friend, he made easy the path the latter would have to tread during his absence abroad. Carter, one of his ablest assistants, a young man who had graduated to the Secret Service by way of the Criminal Investigation Department, was to accompany him ostensibly as secretary. Another man, perhaps the most brilliant of his agents, had a prolonged interview with him, as a result of which Mr Gerald Cousins, travelling under an assumed name, left London very hurriedly by airliner one bright morning for the East. At last, a couple of days before he and Lady Wallace were due to embark at Marseilles, satisfied that he had neglected nothing, Sir Leonard allowed himself to relax. It was then that he received a typewritten missive dated from the Charing Cross Hotel.

  Sir,

  You will be well advised to abandon your intention of proceeding to Hong Kong. It will be realised by certain people in that colony that you have accepted the appointment of Governor for reasons not unconnected with their nefarious activities. Those people will not stick at murder to safeguard themselves.

  I am, Sir,

  Your obedient servant,

  John Baxter

  The receipt of such a document naturally had no effect on Sir Leonard’s plans, but it afforded him a certain amount of elation. Here, he reflected, was one who perhaps could give him very important information. He and Maddison promptly visited the Charing Cross Hotel, and asked to see Mr Baxter. When the latter learnt who they were, he appeared terrified. He looked like a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Escorting them to his bedroom, and taking care to bolt the door, he declared that by accident he had discovered that a very prominent individual was concerned in the Hong Kong conspiracy. Since then he had gone in fear for his life. He had narrowly escaped assas
sination on several occasions, and eventually, giving up an important post that he had held for years, had left Hong Kong, and returned to England. Even then, he asserted, he was not safe. Only that morning he had discovered that the rooms on either side of his had been engaged by three Phillipinos, thought to be brothers – two being in one, and the third occupying the other apartment alone. Their name – Gochuico – was unfamiliar to him, but that meant nothing. The significant fact was that the important individual, of whose connection with the scandal he was aware, had Philippinos in his service.

  He was extremely reluctant to divulge the name of the man, but, urged by Sir Leonard, he was about to do so when, from the direction of the window, came the sharp report of a revolver, followed by a groan as Baxter collapsed. Maddison at once sprang to his side, and bent over him. He was dead, a small hole in the centre of his forehead testifying to the accuracy of the shot that had been fired at him.

  Heedless of his own danger, Wallace had darted across to the window. As far as he could see there was no one outside, but he quickly discovered how the assassin had come – and gone. The rooms below possessed bay windows, and thus extended some feet farther out than those of the floor above, forming a kind of balcony. The murderer had simply stepped out of the window of a neighbouring room, no doubt had listened to the conversation and, at the crucial moment, had killed Baxter, afterwards diving back from whence he had come. Shouting to Maddison to send for the manager, and telephone Scotland Yard, Sir Leonard tore across to the door, and stepped out into the corridor. He was just in time to observe three men hurry into an elevator. One glanced back. He was a small fellow with black hair, sallow complexion, and dark, almond-shaped eyes. The others were a little taller, but he could not see their faces. His shouts to the lift attendant were not heard, whereupon he raced desperately down the stairs. He was too late, of course, to intercept them, but he learnt the direction the men had taken.

  For a long time, aided by the station police and several porters, Sir Leonard searched the neighbourhood without success. The Philippinos had vanished completely. He gave up the quest at last, returning to the hotel. Except in the neighbourhood of Baxter’s room, there appeared no excitement. Residents and members of the staff had either not heard the shot, or had mistaken it for something less thrilling. Inspector Graham of Scotland Yard was in charge; had already searched the adjoining rooms, finding several indications of a hurried flight. There was little doubt that the Gochuico brothers had followed Baxter to England, and that it was one of them who had murdered him.

  The suitcases belonging to the Philippinos were opened, and carefully searched by Maddison and Wallace, but nothing was found to give a clue in any way to the identity of the man who had ordered Baxter’s death; nothing, in fact, of any help whatever. The dead man’s belongings proved equally negative. In the numerous letters and notebooks found in his trunk there was no mention at all of the Hong Kong scandal, and certainly of no one likely to be involved in it. Somewhat disappointed, Sir Leonard eventually gave up the search, and, as the police surgeon had arrived with another inspector, he and Maddison departed, leaving the police to take charge. He telephoned Scotland Yard for news that night after dinner. He was told that the three Gochuico brothers were still at large, and no clue to their whereabouts had been obtained. A description of them had been circulated, and all ports warned, but, as Sir Leonard remarked, there was not much hope. Men who had committed a crime so daring would be certain to have taken steps to ensure their getting away safely from England.

  He felt that he had been robbed of an opportunity of obtaining some valuable information. However, the knowledge he possessed might be of great assistance in his efforts to unmask the Hong Kong conspirators. Whether or not the three men who had tracked Baxter to England were really brothers and their name Gochuico, it should not prove a very difficult task to discover what prominent citizen of Hong Kong employed men of their race. Wallace had not anticipated an easy task in Hong Kong, or one free from danger. Events would now cause him to be doubly cautious. He had had ample proof of the lengths to which the conspirators would go.

  It was necessary, of course, that certain aspects of the murder of Baxter should be hushed up; that no mention of the Secret Service being interested should be permitted to come out at the inquest. The police handled the matter satisfactorily enough from Sir Leonard’s point of view. They furnished the press with the story of a vendetta which had ended in Baxter being traced to London and assassinated. The manager of the hotel was sworn to secrecy regarding the presence on the scene of the Chief of the Intelligence Corps and his assistant, Maddison. As the name of his hotel was not divulged, he was somewhat relieved. It is no advertisement for a hotel to be known as the scene of a murder.

  Leaving Major Brien and Maddison to watch events, with instructions to learn all they could from the Gochuicos, in the event of the latter being captured, Wallace left London with his wife by the P&O special train. Their son, Adrian, remained in England at school, to his great disgust. Lady Wallace had been inclined to persuade her husband to allow the little fellow to accompany them, but he had pointed out that Adrian was getting on so well at school that it would have been a great pity to have interrupted his progress for so long a period as eight months. At the back of his mind was the feeling that, if danger arose in Hong Kong, it would be better if Adrian were not in the colony. He was not too happy about Molly accompanying him, but, short of telling her his fears, he was unable to furnish her with any reason why she should remain in England.

  They had their first taste of the formality of the life of a governor of a British Colony, when they were officially received at Marseilles by the captain of the ship on which they were to travel. They embarked at once; Carter, who was to act as Sir Leonard’s secretary, following them up the gangway, leaving Batty and Lady Wallace’s maid to see to the disposal of the luggage. The captain entertained them in his cabin for half an hour before the Rawalpindi sailed, and Sir Leonard impressed on him that the less formality there was on the boat the better he would be pleased. Captain Taylor smiled with a good deal of relief.

  ‘I am glad to hear you insist on that, Sir Leonard,’ he admitted with bluff heartiness. ‘We get so many bigwigs – I beg your pardon,’ he interrupted himself with a grin, ‘I meant important people – travelling to and fro who insist on the strictest punctilio that it is a comfort to know you want none of it.’

  When Lady Wallace had gone to her cabin to get settled in, as she put it, Captain Taylor became grave.

  ‘It’s none of my business, of course, Sir Leonard,’ he observed, ‘but, knowing who you are and something of affairs in Hong Kong, it doesn’t require a great deal of acumen to guess why you are going there as governor. If I may presume to give you a word of warning, I advise you to be continually on the qui vive from the moment you set foot on the island.’

  ‘What do you know?’ questioned Wallace sharply.

  ‘Nothing. That is, nothing of any help to you. There is a gigantic conspiracy going on, aimed, it is believed, chiefly at Britain’s power in the Far East. It won’t cease because that wholesale embezzlement of government funds has been discovered. My knowledge merely amounts to what I have been told in the clubs, the office, and by the compradors who come aboard full of tales, and I suppose your official information is infinitely greater and more reliable than mine.’

  ‘I’m not so sure,’ commented Sir Leonard. ‘A Chinese comprador very often possesses a fund of private intelligence that is far more valuable than any amount of official information.’

  Captain Taylor smiled.

  ‘Ah! You know the breed?’

  ‘Well enough to feel interested in anything you can repeat that has been told to you by them about affairs in Hong Kong.’

  ‘I’ll do my best, sir, to remember all I have been told during the voyage, and place it at your disposal.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  There came a knock at the door; a young officer looked in.

/>   ‘Pilot’s aboard, sir,’ he announced, ‘and all’s ready for casting off.’

  The captain nodded, and dismissed him with a wave of his hand. He and Sir Leonard rose from their chairs.

  ‘Tell me,’ invited the latter; ‘why did you think it necessary to warn me to be on my guard in Hong Kong?’

  Taylor shrugged his shoulders.

  ‘Your reputation is well-known all over the world,’ he replied, ‘and if it is so evident to me why you, of all men, should accept an appointment of such a nature, it is hardly likely that the men you are after will overlook the reason. They will fear your coming, Sir Leonard, and I’m afraid will do their utmost to – to—’

  He hesitated.

  ‘Put me out of the way,’ supplied Wallace with a smile. ‘Perhaps you are right, Taylor, but for heaven’s sake keep your fears to yourself when my wife is about.’

  ‘Of course,’ returned the other, a suspicion of indignation in his tone. ‘I shall be glad,’ he went on, ‘if you and Lady Wallace will do me the honour of taking coffee with me up here after dinner, sir.’

  ‘We shall be delighted,’ responded Wallace, ‘if you’ll remember to refrain from being so confoundedly formal.’

  The captain chuckled, and went up to the bridge. Descending to the promenade deck, Sir Leonard stood with the chattering throng watching the hawsers being cast off, as the tugs got into position, and began to warp the Rawalpindi from the P&O dock. The throb of the engines, the hoarse commands from the bridge, the excitable shouting of the French dockhands on the quay below gave him a sense of thrill. Lady Wallace found him, and they stood together watching the panorama of Marseilles, as the ship drew out from the docks and headed for the open sea. The great statue of the Virgin surmounting the belfry of Notre Dame de la Garde sparkled in the sunshine; every detail was visible. A funicular car could be seen clearly, as it made its way up the mountainside to the church which probably holds the most commanding position of any place of worship in the world. Several of their fellow passengers, the majority men, also stayed in the neighbourhood, but they had no eyes for the charms of the land they were rapidly leaving. Unobtrusively they were looking at and admiring the beautiful woman so close to them. Sir Leonard knew it, and smiled to himself. He was quite used to the sight of approving men and envious women studying the glorious chestnut hair waving so attractively round the shapely head, the deep blue eyes, perfectly formed lips, dainty nose, and clear unspoilt complexion of his wife. He felt no resentment; rather he approved. He was generous enough and humble enough to feel that he had no right to monopolise such beauty.