The Watercress File: Being the Further Adventures of That Man from C. A. M. P. Read Online Free PDF Page A

that—but not until after I had come on the scene—oh, not fully, mind. I wasn’t yet a baby boy, but I was more than a twinkle in my father’s eye. He was a fine handsome devil, so my mother told me when she finally confessed the story. He wooed her and won her, but he wouldn’t wed.”
    â€œAn age old story,” Jackie said.
    â€œYes. So, her father, of course, was all for taking a horsewhip to him and making him marry, but you know the pride of the Irish, and once he’d laughed at her, me mother wouldn’t have him. So while I was making my presence felt, and seen, she remained a single girl, and Mr. Mathews continued to court her. Finally she told him about me, and about her folly, and he just laughed and said he’d known about that since the morning after, and it made not an ort of difference. So they were married a month before I joined the family, and instead of the Timothy O’Malley I was to have been, I was Craig Mathews.”
    He paused and sat quietly for a moment, and Jackie thought he was perhaps embarrassed to have talked so much, to someone he hardly knew, and little liked.
    â€œSo now you know,” Craig said at length, “that you’re with the worst sort of companion a man could ask for—an illegitimate Irish Catholic, from Boston.”
    Jackie’s first impulse was to laugh, but he realized in the nick of time that he was being dared to laugh—Craig was quite serious, summing up any complaints and asking to be reassured.
    â€œAs a matter of fact, I’d be hard pressed to think of a better companion,” Jackie said instead. “It’s not every day I get to ride around with a heavenly youth from the Emerald Isles, full of stuff and blarney.”
    Even the driver had to laugh at that, and Craig joined in, although he blushed also as he remembered that the young man with him was an admitted and obviously active homosexual.
    They arrived then at their destination, what at first glance appeared to be merely a cleaning plant. As Jackie followed Craig inside, he realized that was only a front. Inside, behind a curtained dressing room, another door let them into a small but efficient-looking office.
    â€œI just want to copy this,” Craig explained, removing the note. “I’ll send it to headquarters for decoding, with our driver. But I want to make a copy for us, in case anything should happen to him.”
    â€œMake two copies,” Jackie suggested. “In case anything happens to you.”
    Craig shot him a quick glance, but he did not argue, and when he returned from the adjoining room a moment later, he had two copies, one of which he handed to Jackie, the other he locked in a drawer.
    â€œI’ll be right back,” he said as he went back to the front of the shop. “I want to give Fred the original and send him on his way.”
    He was back again in a minute. “Now we wait,” he announced. “How about some coffee?”
    â€œNo thanks,” Jackie answered, seating himself on a small, Naugahyde-covered divan and loosening his necktie. He rarely needed stimulants of any sort; he was trained to be always alert and ready at any time.
    â€œSorry I can’t offer anything to help pass the time,” Craig said, sitting at the desk.
    â€œI could make suggestions,” Jackie said with a meaningful smile. “But I doubt you’d appreciate them, let alone go along with them.”
    â€œYou’re right,” Craig agreed quickly, keeping his face expressionless.
    Very frustrating, Jackie decided with a frown. He wondered if that one even showed any feeling when he was reaching a magnificent explosion. Of course, he’d like nothing better than an opportunity to answer that question through firsthand experience. But thus far he wasn’t making much progress toward creating that opportunity.
    Oh well, there was always Honey back at the house. He was grateful for the fact