Heil Harris! Read Online Free PDF

turned on all the lights.
    Hayburn turned pale. “Is this sensible? We can be seen vividly from the street.”
    It was an old greengrocer’s shop with two workrooms and a kitchen at the rear. The flats above had a separate entrance and there didn’t seem to be a basement with an illegal printing press.
    “Of course we can be seen,” sighed Emma. “The important thing is to look at home. Higgs, sit at that desk and look bolshie. Watch complacently while we go through the files.” She turned to the colonel and shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose the only thing for you is to go into the kitchen and make a pot of tea.”
    “But—”
    “It steadies the nerves when you’re working late. And if the constable on the beat does drop in for a chat he’s bound to recognise you. So keep out of the way while we do the work.”
    Colonel Hayburn wrestled with his convictions that a woman’s place was in the kitchen, then he grunted and did as he was ordered. Emma remained in command of the three terrified burglars to sort through the party papers. They made sad reading. A mailing list of seven hundred supporters — who were in fact „only people who had attended a meeting or a jumble sale. One hundred and three card carrying members, seventy-two of whom hadn’t paid their subscriptions for years. And in another drawer were letters from King Street, carbon copies of letters to the Morning Star, humdrum letters of solid support for this and that, massive protest in the strongest possible terms against other enormities. She wondered why they were bothering. Was this the truth behind that awful spectre that haunted western civilisation? Seedy, hard up and intellectually sterile.
    “They might be glad if we set this place on fire,” said Emma. “They need the insurance money.”
    “Hurry up,” grumbled Higgs. “We’ve been here thirty-five minutes.”
    Emma noticed that the games master was tinkering with the petrol bomb as if it were a prayer wheel and the genuine schoolmaster kept sidling up to the window and peering into the street. “You’d better chase up that cup of tea,” she ordered. “Tell the colonel we’re thirsty.”
    Corporal Higgs crept into the kitchen. “Colonel Hay burn,” he whispered, “sir.”
    “Get out,” she heard him say thickly. “I’m busy.” He was just visible through the crack at the side of the door, slumped thoughtfully over the kitchen table and staring at a bottle.
    “Let’s get out of this place,” snapped the schoolmaster. “I’m damned scared.”
    Emma laughed brightly and sat at the desk. “No point in coming here without making a full search of the premises.” She was enjoying the occasion. It was a real test of their manhood. She carefully picked the desk lock with a bent pin while they sweated.
    “Quick,” the games master shouted. “Here’s a copper.”
    “Relax. Carry on sorting through those pamphlets for heaven’s sake. You’re all behaving like schoolboys on a scrumping expedition. Wasn’t this supposed to be a test of nerve?” She shook her head at their childish ways before turning her attention back to the papers in the desk.
    The Co-operative, Wholesale Society Bank folder showed that the party had a credit of thirty-seven pounds and that someone called B. H. Keegan kept them solvent. The bottom drawer contained files, marked with such names as Hayburn, Throgmorton, Harris... One of the Werewolves, Emma realised, must be a spy.
    The street door knob rattled from the outside.
    The files listed who had attended the seven meetings since January and summarised what was said. It gave thumbnail sketches of individual members and made guesses at such matters as finance and backing. It should be easy to work out who had made these reports.
    There was a knock at the street door.
    “There’s a knock at the door,” said the games master.
    “So answer it,” Emma said patiently. “And remember that if you look nervous we’ll all be arrested.”
    He went