The Dreeson Incident(127)

Jackson guffawed, but Cory Joe managed to keep a straight face.



"Engaged by spring would be my best assessment, Sir."





Frankfurt am Main


"Now that the others are gone, Mathurin, it is time for you to be on your way as well. Don't arrive so early that your face will have become familiar by the fourth of March."



"I am gratified to have been entrusted with your most confidential plans, Guillaume."



Locquifier narrowed his eyes. "No, you're not."



"Well, of course not. But one does what one can to maintain life's little courtesies. Do say 'ta-ta" to Robert for me."





Isaac de Ron duly reported to Soubise that Deneau, Ancelin, and Brillard were no longer at the inn Zum Weissen Schwan. Also that he had not managed to find out where they went, but that they had left with two other men, just a day or so after those had come into Frankfurt—newly arrived, as far as de Ron knew. They hadn't even stayed long enough to register their presence with the pastor of the Huguenot church.



Soubise sent the information on to his brother. Henri de Rohan replied that de Ron was to continue to observe but not, of course, to display any undue curiosity. Presumably, the 'dear departed' would turn up somewhere. He would alert the remainder of the family's agents, particularly along the travel routes between Frankfurt and Scotland. They might well be joining Ducos.



In a flash of humor, Rohan added that they would probably not be showing up in Haarlem, since Mauger was presumably still enjoying his honeymoon. Both brothers had thoroughly enjoyed Dumais' report describing the man's courtship and marriage.



Since Locquifier and the others had always met with Vincenz Weitz elsewhere, de Ron had no reason to notice that Weitz, also, had left Frankfurt.





Chapter 40





Halle


"Pull those hoses straight! I mean straight! No kinks!" Bryant Holloway was shouting at the top of his lungs.



"You do realize," the warden of the Halle fire watch said, "that these men are mostly casual day laborers, Tagelöhner who at this season of the year find available jobs very thin on the ground. They may learn to handle the hoses today, but that does not signify that they will be available to handle the hoses the next time we have a fire. If I were in charge of this project, I would train only citizens of Halle. People who can be relied upon to turn out because it is in their own interest. Men who have wives, children, houses, shops. Whose idea was it to use so many extra hands?"



"Someone in the USE Fire Marshall's office in Magdeburg. I started with your citizens and shopkeepers, but it became pretty obvious, pretty fast, that they prefer to be in their warm shops doing their own work rather than out here slogging through a lot of cold, slippery, muck. It's one thing to join a bucket brigade when a fire's actually burning and your livelihood's in danger . . ."



He made a sudden dash for the pump. "No, no! Not like that!"



The head of the fire watch followed him.



"Pay attention, damn it!You have to work as a team."



The warden sighed. "These are fairly tough characters, mostly. Boatmen, dock workers. Strong of body and weak of mind. Not the kind who find it easy to work together smoothly."



"Hell, maybe bribery will help."



"I doubt it. I know that man, though—the second one you have on the pump lever. He used to be a fairly good rope-maker, before his family died and he lost his business through neglect." The warden waved. "Klick, Friedrich Klick. Hier!"



A half hour later, Klick seemed to have grasped the purpose of the training drill. He went to explain it to the others. This involved standing in the cold, wearing boots that were far from waterproof, for another half hour. Bryant shivered.



Klick waved. "We are ready to begin."



"Fine, take your places."



They men moved. Began the drill. Bryant looked at the hose crew with horror. "No, no, not that way!" He ran over to the wagon to which the crew was trying to attach the hose end. "Don't force, it, for God's sake. You'll strip the screw threads. They're just wood—the wagon and the fasteners on end of the hose, both. Do it like this."



He looked around.



Klick was leaning on the pump.



The fire watch captain had disappeared. Back to his own warm shop somewhere in town, presumably.



He put his hands on his hips. Christ, but he hated Archie Stannard.



Bribery time.



"After you've gotten it right twice in a row, I'll buy every man here a beer."



That helped a little, but not much.



"Anyone who gets it right, I'll tell him about a job out of this cesspit of a town—give him the name of a man who's hiring for work a lot easier than this."