The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax Read online

  Colin said despairingly, "Let's go outside."

  "Delighted," said his uncle. "I wondered at the time why I chose such a gloomy place to celebrate the end of my incarceration."

  The sunlight was almost blinding. "How did you recognize me?" asked Colin miserably.

  His uncle said witheringly, "My dear chap, you're my nephew. Oh, don't look so worried, I can't imagine anyone else recognizing you. I have a remarkable memory for faces, you know. When I saw you I thought, 'Those are Colin's cheekbones and eyes, in fact that looks precisely like Colin in peasant clothes and moustache.' And then— considering the circumstances, which have been somewhat jarring—I thought, 'Why not Colin in peasant clothes and moustache?' Now for heaven's sake tell me what the hell you've been up to while I've been in Erzurum. I don't mean to mix my metaphors—"

  That was his uncle, thought Colin, concerned over metaphors in the midst of a trying situation. "Yes, sir," he said as they sat down on the bench outside the cafe. "Well, you see it's this way, sir—and I'll have to talk quickly—three friends of mine have been kidnapped here in Yozgat and are in a house about a mile away."

  "I see," said his uncle. "Well, of course then you've got to get them out," he said without so much as a blink of the eye.

  "Yes, sir," Colin agreed with a faint smile.

  "One of these—er, friends—is the alleged murderess the police are looking for?" he inquired.

  "Yes sir—but she didn't murder anyone. Uncle Hu. I was with her when Henry's body was left in the studio— your studio—" He stopped. He could not think of any possible way to explain the events of the past two days to his uncle. "It's all quite complicated," he added weakly. "Can't you just pretend you didn't see me and go on to Istanbul?"

  His uncle considered this. "I could," he said reflectively, "but not without hearing your plans first. You have made plans,' haven't you?" he said sharply.

  "Yes, sir."

  "Stop sir-ing me, I'm not your father." He frowned. "The thing is, I won't have you going to jail—horrid places, Turkish jails. I could volunteer. I'm not without experience in this kind of rescue operation—I was in the war, you know, and God knows these jails are to be avoided, your mother would never forgive me if—"

  At that moment Sabahat hurried around the corner, gave a cry of relief at seeing him, and cried breathlessly, "We’re ready—it's all settled! Yozgat's leading poet is going to read a poem of welcome—the same one he made up for the Premier's visit two years ago!—and the Greek Orthodox priest is going to say a prayer!"

  "Poets? Priests?" said Uncle Hu with interest. He looked appreciatively at Sabahat and then at Colin. "I say—you do seem to be managing something rather well, do you mind terribly if 1 come along, too?"

  13

  Mrs. Pollifax sighed and opened her eyes. She had fallen or been pushed to the floor, still tied to the chair, so that her cheek rested on the hard earthen floor and any spontaneous movement was impossible. She heard Sandor say in a loud voice, "Canavar . . ." and she knew that something had happened to awaken her but she did not know what. From the other room—the door was open—she heard Dr. Belleaux say in a low voice, "Bring the serum out anyway, we'll have to risk its killing her, there's no other way . . ."

  "Magda," said Mrs. Pollifax in what she believed to be a loud clear voice, but realized a second later was only a whisper. She could not see Magda from where she lay— it must be Magda they had taken into the other room. She could see Sandor's feet not far away, the toes springing from his torn sneakers, but she could not see any more of him without lifting her head, and her head was on fire with a ribbon of pain that moved from cheekbone to brain. Concussion, she thought drowsily; could cheekbones have concussion? and then she drifted off again into unconsciousness.

  When she next opened her eyes it was with the impression that she was in danger of being attacked by rats. She realized that she had been dreaming of rats gnawing their way through the wall, and for a moment, awakening, she thought she might still be within her nightmare because she distinctly heard rustling noises in the wall. But that is definitely a rat in the wall, she thought, listening. I'm not losing my mind after all. I've regained consciousness! There was not a great deal of reassurance in this thought because her circumstances had not changed. She remained huddled on the floor in the semi-darkness, her cheek pressed to the earth, the murmur of voices ebbing and rising from the other room. But she discovered that she was feeling better: still stiff and bruised but no longer aflame. She knew that it was blood she could taste when she licked her lips, and her nose ached, but it no longer throbbed, and the ribbon of pain had vanished. She dared to hope that no bones had been broken.

  The voices from the other room were audible and she tried to make sense of them but she was still too blurred. She heard ". . , having gone to Bulgaria to help with security arrangements for the Festival of Youth. . . ." and then, "You had intended from the first to go to the British Consulate in Istanbul?"

  "Not alone, no ..." That was Magda's voice, oddly toneless. "But I had not expected to be looked for so quick or so—so accurately. I could not make trouble for my gypsy friends."

  Gypsies, thought Mrs. Pollifax, frowning. Surely Magda ought not to be speaking about gypsies to Dr. Belleaux? She wondered what time it was, and as she licked her dry lips she wondered if she might call out for water. She felt very tired and dull. She tried to focus her eyes on Sandows disreputable sneakers and then she tried to practice thinking very carefully. She supposed it was Thursday—no, no, it must still be Wednesday, late afternoon or early evening of their arrival day in Yozgat, and Dr. Belleaux had promised that presently they would be shot and carried off in the black car to an archaeological dig. That was not a very pleasant thought. She wondered if her body would ever be found and identified. Perhaps it was better if it wasn't, she reflected, since it would only prove extremely embarrassing to Mr. Carstairs and then of course there were her children. They were very nice children, Roger and Jane, but they would simply not understand how their mother came to be murdered in Turkey disguised as a native peasant woman. Nor would she be there to soften the explanation that between Garden Club meetings and her hospital work she had acquired this interesting little sideline as a CIA courier. It was not the sort of thing one could explain, certainly not to Jane at least.

  But as her sluggishness diminished Mrs. Pollifax remembered that there was even more to be concerned about: there was Dr. Belleaux. The thought of Carstairs continuing to trust the man so appalled her that it jerked her to full consciousness at last, and in time to hear Dr. Belleaux say quite clearly. "You have been described as a defecting Communist agent, Madame Ferenci-Sabo. You are known to the Russians in this manner, too. But actually you have worked for the Americans all these years, is this not true?"

  Mrs. Pollifax gasped, terrifyingly alert at last. It must have been drugs they had administered to Magda to force her to speak. Words overheard earlier came back to her . . , we'll have to risk its killing her, there's no other way . . . Not an ordinary drug then, but one of the truth serums.

  No no no, she screamed, but no sound came from her throat and it was part of this nightmare that she could move her lips and her tongue yet make no sound. She began to struggle against the ropes that held her bound, frustrated by her helplessness to halt or delay Magda's confession to being a double agent.

  "Yes, that is true," Magda said in reply, still in that cold, toneless voice. "I have been—am—a counteragent."

  As Mrs. Pollifax sagged defeatedly she caught a glimpse of Sandor now, his head turned to listen. She noted the welt across his cheekbone and the gag stuffed into his mouth—he must have gone on shouting—and she thought, Now he knows what Magda is, too.

  "I see," Dr. Belleaux said, and his voice shook a little, betraying his excitement at discovering that his wild suspicion was a literal fact. He drew a sharp breath and when he spoke again there was barely suppressed triumph in his voice, as if he knew he stumbled upon a masquerade so outrage
ous and so sinister that its ramifications would be felt everywhere—and especially on his own career, thought Mrs. Pollifax bitterly.

  "Please tell me next how you notified the Americans after your extraordinary escape from my two men."

  "I took money. Stefan had left some on the table, Turkish lira, and I took it. One of the gypsies in Istanbul sent a cable for me."

  "And the address to which you sent it?"

  Magda recited a cover address in Baltimore.

  'Thank you!" said Dr. Belleaux cheerfully. "Thank you very much. Now I would like to discuss with you where you have hidden the missing document, the top secret paper you brought out of Russia with—"

  He stopped abruptly. Mrs. Pollifax had heard it, too, an indefinable sound of movement outside, of something brushing the front door. Now she realized it had been a knock; it was repeated.

  "What the devil!" exclaimed Dr. Belleaux. "Stefan!"

  "Evet," said Stefan calmly. "It is only a young girl, I saw her come. She has a notebook and pencil."

  "She will have heard voices. Answer and get rid of her. Assim, hide the hypodermic. Cover the woman so she looks ill."

  Mrs. Pollifax had been holding her breath. Now she expelled it and cleared her throat, testing it to see if her voice worked yet. If she could only scream—Practicing, she said in a small, hoarse, voice, "Someone—is—at—the—door."

  She at least captured Sandor's attention; he made a frustrated rumbling noise in his throat and she saw him strain at his ropes. Stefan was unbolting and opening the front door. Mrs. Pollifax heard a clear young voice speak with a rush of enthusiasm and charm. But the words were Turkish—she had forgotten they would be. Mrs. Pollifax formed a scream in her throat. "Help!" she called out raspily. "Help! Help!"

  Dr. Belleaux murmured something in Turkish in an amused voice, gave a little laugh and crossed the floor to close the door between the two rooms. With this act he blotted them out with finality.

  Tears came to Mrs. Pollifax's eyes. "I'm sorry, Sandor," she said. "I would have liked to really scream but it's my voice. I can't."

  Sandor rumbled again in reply. "I'm sorry you've been hurt and tied up and gagged," she told him, because it was important to practice speaking in case a second opportunity arose. "I'm sure you must be extremely sorry you ever joined us, but you must have overheard enough to realize this is something more important than any of us individually. It's the only attitude I can suggest," she added primly. The tears had run down her face to mingle with the dried blood on her cheeks. "I can only tell you—oh that rat in the wall is annoying," she cried furiously. "It's not enough that we're surrounded by human rats, there has to be—" She turned her head toward the outside wall.

  Her gasp was almost as audible as her attempt to scream, for the wall was literally disappearing before her eyes. Sunshine was entering the dark room, inch by inch, as brick after brick was tidily, efficiently and very hastily removed by a pair of large brown human hands. Mrs. Pollifax could not believe it: either her vision or her mind had been seriously affected and she was hallucinating. Within seconds a space appeared large enough for a pair of shoulders, and at once a pair of shoulders blocked off the light that had bruised and stabbed her swollen eyes. The words that slipped from Mrs. Pollifax's lips were entirely unpremeditated; she said incredulously, "Wotthehell!"

  It had the effect of turning Sandor's head immediately, and as he saw the light, the opening, and the man's head his eyes widened in shock. Clearly he saw it too, and she was not hallucinating at all. The man's shoulders cleared the opening and he lifted his head. Mrs. Pollifax had never seen him before; his face was dark, tough, crafty. He lifted a finger to his lips, and after pulling his legs through the hole he tiptoed across the room. He was followed by a second man, and he too was a stranger to Mrs. Pollifax, so that she became certain that she must have lost consciousness again and was dreaming some happy, wishful fantasy of rescue.

  The second man was tall, lanky and dusty. As if by pre-arrangement he went to Sandor. Neither man expected them to be capable of walking. Ropes were quickly slashed. Smoothly Mrs. Pollifax was picked up, carried to the opening in the wall and tilted forward on her knees. Hands reached in from outside and gently grasped Mrs. Pollifax's bleeding fingers. She was half-pushed and half-pulled through the aperture into the blinding brilliant sun of a late afternoon that contained—of all things—a smiling Colin Ramsey.

  "Colin!" she gasped.

  "Yes," he said, grinning. "Isn't it wonderful?" As Sandor was pushed out into the sunshine Colin raised both arms and waved at someone she could not see. The tall, sandy-haired man followed Sandor out of the hole and the dark, fierce-looking one began swiftly replacing the bricks.

  "You'll have to walk several yards before you can rest," Colin said firmly. "We have to get you to the front corner of the1 house, and we have only three minutes to do it."

  She understood nothing of this except that it was obviously not a dream, and that it was being managed with infinite precision so that she need do nothing at all. Nothing except walk, which was nearly impossible, but if Colin said it had to be done she would do it. Her feet felt like stumps, bloodless and lifeless, and her knees kept betraying her. Colin supported her, and the sandy-haired man supported Sandor, and slowly they reached the cover of a bedraggled grape vine at the corner of the house. Here the third man caught up with them and crouched down behind them as they waited.

  A van drove slowly up the empty street. Colin's van? thought Mrs. Pollifax, bewildered, but that had been abandoned in Ankara. The van pulled up in front of the house. Half a dozen young people in western clothes leaped down from the rear and began unloading—it couldn't be possible— trays of fruit and food, jugs of water and huge armfuls of bright flowers. A man in the robes of a priest climbed down from the driver's seat and joined them; Mrs. Pollifax saw that they were going to walk up to the house in which she had been captive.

  "Oh, stop them!" she whispered, and then, "Magda's in there!"

  "We know that," Colin said calmly. "Sabahat knocked at the door a few minutes ago saying she was taking a census. She reported three men and an invalid woman in the front room."

  "Sabahat? Census?" repeated Mrs. Pollifax dazedly.

  "Now," Colin said to the sandy-haired man. The stranger nodded and walked down to the empty van and backed it up the cart track to Mrs. Pollifax and Sandor. "Get in quickly," Colin told her.

  They fell clumsily into the rear, and then the van backed down into the street, this time pointing toward town, the motor kept running by the tall stranger. Colin and the dark gypsy-looking man moved toward the house, and incredulously Mrs. Pollifax leaned out to watch. The young people and the priest had absolutely vanished—into the house, realized Mrs. Pollifax disbelievingly—leaving the door wide open. Inside, it looked as if a party was in full bloom—and into this melee walked Colin and the gypsy.

  A moment later they backed out carrying an unconscious Magda between them. A girl joined them, laughing and calling over her shoulder to the young people behind her. For one incredible moment Mrs. Pollifax saw Dr. Belleaux swim to the door like a salmon fighting his way upstream, A crowd of laughing youngsters accosted him and pulled him back. Furious, he stretched out his two hands toward Magda, face livid, and then someone placed a plate of grapes in those outstretched hands, a garland of flowers was lowered over his head and slowly he was sucked back into the living-room, overwhelmed by currents too strong for him.

  "What on earth—!" cried Mrs. Pollifax to Colin as the two men placed Magda in the rear of the van.

  Colin grinned. "It's a love-in. Dr. Belleaux is being smothered with non-violence." He turned and grinned at the girl. "This is Sabahat, whose idea it was—Sabahat Pasha. Sabahat, ask Sebastien to sit up front and take us to the gypsies now, will you?"

  "How do you do," Sabahat said, smiling at Mrs. Pollifax. "I'm so glad you are safe." She spoke to the gypsy in Turkish and then extended her hand to Colin. "I will make certain the three men do not
get away for as long as is possible. I cannot promise much but it may help you a little," she told him gravely. "Allaha ismarladik, Colin Ramsey."

  He shook his head. "Not for long, Sabahat," he said, firmly holding on to her hand. "You know I'll be back. In the meantime how can I thank you?"

  She dimpled charmingly. "But my friends have always wished to meet such a scholar as Dr. Belleaux—there is no need to explain the situation to them. You are giving them a big day, and it is I who should thank you!"

  He grinned. "Fair exchange then." He released her hand and shouted, "Okay, Uncle Hu, let's gol"

  As the van roared into life and raced down the street Mrs. Pollifax exclaimed, "Did you call that man Uncle Hu?"

  "Quite a lot has happened," Colin said modestly. "Yes, that's Uncle Hu. Letting him help seemed the least I could do, he's already spent one night in jail because of us, which places him beyond the pale. This is the van he drives—he was on his way back from Erzurum. The chap with him is a gypsy named Sebastien. I picked him up before I ran into Uncle Hu, he has a dancing bear and he stayed behind the other gypsies to wait for Magda."

  Mrs. Pollifax looked at him in amazement. "Colin," she said, "you're an extraordinary young man."

  He returned her glance, looked startled, and then a slow smile spread across his face. "Yes," he said with an air of discovery. "I believe I am."

  14

  Their Precipitous Flight from Yozgat was interrupted by Sebastien, who somewhat desperately reminded them that he had a horse, a dog, a wagon and a dancing bear to be retrieved. Colin crawled up front to the window and held a three-way conversation, the translations supplied by his uncle, but he crawled back to report that Sebastien was adamant: he could not go any further without his ménage. They stopped briefly beside the road at the place where the gypsy had made camp; Sebastien looked for several moments at Uncle Hu's map, then marked a cross on the road, halfway between Yozgat and Kayseri.