Shadow of the Hangman(57)

‘They’re back,’ he declared.

‘To whom do you refer, my lord?’

‘I speak of those unspeakable Luddites.’

‘They no longer exist,’ said Grocott. ‘Thanks to our prompt action, they were suppressed a couple of years ago. Those that were neither hanged nor imprisoned were transported to Australia. They can’t smash machinery to pieces from Botany Bay. It’s a geographical impossibility.’

‘Then who attacked this factory in Nottinghamshire?’

‘It was not the Luddites.’

‘Find me another culprit.’

He handed the report to Grocott who studied it before passing it back to him.

‘The machinery was not destroyed, my lord,’ he noted. ‘The whole factory was burnt down.’

‘In the course of the blaze, the machinery was badly damaged. That’s the hallmark of the Luddites. Fearing that they’d be put out of work by machines, they sought to destroy them.’

‘It’s much easier to light a fire than to smash heavy machinery to pieces. This is probably the work of some jealous rival or of an operative dismissed from his post. We are not facing a revolution in Nottinghamshire, my lord.’

‘The county is nevertheless simmering. It’s the same with Lancashire and Yorkshire. Opposition to the status quo is mounting all the time. It’s inevitable that it will break out into something more dangerous and concerted.’

‘Then it will be suppressed without mercy,’ said Grocott.

‘That’s my worry. Brutal suppression creates more enemies for us and we have enough of those already.’ He put the report aside. ‘Well, distressing as that incident was, it did have the virtue of waking me up again. What you see on my desk, Grocott, is the most stultifying rubbish. Most of it will go straight into the wastepaper basket where it belongs.’

‘It will vanish without trace before morning, my lord. Levitt will see to that. I’m eternally gratefully to the person who guided her into my hands.’

‘The only problem is that having her here reminds us inescapably of Horner’s disappearance. That still baffles me.’

‘I had hoped that the Skillen brothers would have found her by now.’

‘They will – you may bank on it. They will.’

‘I thought you’d diverted their energies to the search for the two American fugitives.’

‘Yes, I did, but Horner will not be abandoned. Peter Skillen, in particular, will not let that matter rest. He’s a resolute man which is why I employ him so much.’

‘In this instance, my lord,’ said Grocott, ‘you may have over-employed him.’

‘I don’t believe that it’s possible to do that.’

The undersecretary drew up a chair beside that of the Home Secretary and worked through the remaining correspondence with him. It was largely of a routine nature and there were no other reports of violence in the shires. Both men were all too aware of the problems caused by the ending of the long war with France. Discharged soldiers had found no employment waiting for them and had become fractious. Clubs of working men and of dissident members of the middle class had been formed to foment trouble. Agitators had popped up in the major cities and there were even voices in parliament calling for radical reform. To a dyed-in-the-wool reactionary like Sidmouth, it was all very disturbing. Grocott, too, was troubled, well aware of what was bubbling away beneath the apparently placid surface of English life.

A tap on the door interrupted them. A clerk entered with the news that they had a visitor who insisted on seeing them urgently on an important manner. When he heard that the visitor was Micah Yeomans, the Home Secretary asked for him to be admitted at once. The Bow Street Runner was soon standing before him with a smile as broad as the Thames on his face. Greetings were exchanged.

‘Thank you for seeing me at such short notice, my lord,’ said Yeomans.

‘You are not given to overstatement, Mr Yeomans. When you talk of urgency, something of significance has invariably happened.’

‘It has certainly done so in this case.’

‘May we know what it is?’ asked Grocott.

‘First, let me ask a question. Have Peter and Paul Skillen managed to complete their most recent assignment?’

‘Why do you wish to know that?’

‘All will become clear in a moment.’

‘Then the answer is that the twin brothers have yet to meet with success.’

‘I thought so,’ said Yeomans, grinning complacently.

‘Why do you find that so amusing?’ wondered Sidmouth. ‘Their investigation is related to my safety. Is a threat to my life something which has a comical appeal to you, Mr Yeomans?’