The Fashion In Shrouds by Margery Allingham Page B

funny,’ he said.
    He was still lost in unquiet thought when the fat man reappeared, his face shining.
    â€˜Look ’ere,’ he said with even less ceremony than usual, ‘look ’ere. Look what I’ve found on the doorstep. ’Ere’s a bottle o’ milk for you.’
    Mr Campion raised his eyes to the newcomer and for an instant he did not recognize the heart-shaped face with the triangular smile and the expression that was as resourceful, as eager, and as infinitely young as when he had last seen it six years before.
    â€˜Hullo, Orph,’ said Amanda Fitton. ‘The lieut. has come to report. This is a nice thing to get in my face when I look up at your window for the first time in six years.’
    She held out a small brown paw and displayed a yellow button with a rose painted on it lying in the palm.
    â€˜Thank you, Amanda.’ Mr Campion took the button and pocketed it. ‘It burst off my waistcoat as my heart leapt at your approach. A most extraordinary phenomenon. I wondered what on earth it was. Why did you come? I mean, nothing wrong, I hope?’
    Amanda pulled off her hat and the full glory of the Pontisbright hair glowed in the evening light.
    â€˜It’s about my Chief, Alan Dell,’ she said, ‘and frightfully confidential. I say, Albert, you don’t know a man called Ramillies, do you?’

Chapter Seven
    MR CAMPION LEANT back in the taxi-cab, which smelt like the inside of the dressing-up trunk in the attic of his childhood’s home, and glanced at the shadowy form beside him with a return of a respect he had forgotten. The six years between eighteen and twenty-four had certainly not robbed Amanda of her pep. On the whole he was inclined to think they must have added power to her elbow.
    It was now a little after twelve, and the night, it seemed, was yet a babe.
    â€˜What I still don’t understand is how you got there,’ he said. ‘I thought aeroplane works were holies of holies.’
    â€˜So they are.’ Amanda sounded cheerful in the darkness. ‘It took me three and a half years to do it, but I’m a pretty good engineer, you know. I went straight into the shops when I got some money. I hadn’t a sufficiently decent education to take an ordinary degree, so I had to go the back way. My title helped, though,’ she added honestly.
    â€˜Did it? What does your brother say about it?’
    â€˜The little earl?’ Lady Amanda Fitton’s respect for young Hal did not seem to have increased. ‘He’s still at Oxford. He seemed to be dying of old age last time I saw him. He’s given me up for the time being. Aunt Hat says he’s gathering strength. Meanwhile don’t take your mind off the business in hand. This is serious. I’m up here on a sacred mission. You don’t seem to realize that. The man Ramillies and his crowd must be called off A.D. What am I going to tell the boys?’
    Mr Campion stirred.
    â€˜Amanda,’ he inquired, ‘was I a hero in my youth?’
    â€˜A hero? No, of course not. What’s the matter with you?’ She was surprised. ‘You’ve got introspective or had a serious illness or something. You were a useful, dependable sort of person and the only soul I could think of to come to in this idiotic mess. Besides, in view of one thing and another, I thought you might know something about it already. Look here, you forget about yourself for a minute and consider the situation. Here’s a man – a genius, Albert; there’s no one like him – and in the middle of serious and important work he’s got hold of by the wretched Ramillies and his crowd and taken completely off his course. It’s a frightful calamity; you must see that. We can’t get on without him. The whole machine-room is held up. Drawings are waiting for his okay. Specimen parts are ready to be tried out. All kinds of details you wouldn’t understand. And