Codeword Golden Fleece by Dennis Wheatley

Parliament without the faintest legal grounds for such an act.’
    Mack spread out his hands deprecatingly. ‘Let us not use the unpleasant word “arrest”. You will all continue entirely free to go and come in the house and grounds as you wish; but Imust ask you not to go beyond them and to send no more letters or telegrams while you are here.’
    ‘A thorn by any other name is still a thorn,’ remarked the Duke with his cynical smile. ‘And for how long, may I ask, do you propose to detain us?’
    ‘A few days only. Von Geisenheim is returning to Germany tomorrow for fresh instructions. He should be back by Monday, or Tuesday at the latest. One final talk should settle matters. I shall then return to Warsaw, and, if you and your friends care to accompany me, I will gladly do what I can to make up for the inconvenience I have caused you, by seeing that you get the highest priorities to expedite your journey home.’
    ‘Thank you—General. May I assume that you will let our hostess know the reason why the Eatons will not be departing, after all, tomorrow morning?’
    ‘Certainly, my dear Duke, and please convey to them my sincerest apologies.’
    ‘By all means,’ agreed de Richleau, slightly inclining his handsome head, as he moved towards the door.
    He found Richard and Marie Lou where he had left them. They had felt at once that the summoning of the Duke boded no good for their plans, and now, as he approached, they both shot him a swift glance of interrogation.
    ‘We’re stymied,’ he told them in a low voice. ‘Mack believed that we were already on to his little game. I think I managed to bluff him that we hadn’t even guessed who he was. But, all the same, he is taking no chances. All three of us are more or less under house arrest.’
    ‘I’ll pinch a car and make a bolt for it tonight, then,’ Richard murmured. ‘Only thing to do.’
    ‘You’ll do nothing of the kind,’ the Duke countered softly. ‘I inferred that I accepted the situation and would do my best to persuade you to do the same; but I warned him that you might quite possibly resent his interference with your plans most strongly and make trouble for him later. I want you to play up to that rôle. I think the two of you had better go off to bed in a huff, right away, without saying good-night to anyone; and tomorrow Richard can make a formal protest to our poor little host.’
    ‘But we’ve got to agree on a plan for getting away from here,’ Richard objected. ‘Let’s go out into the garden again and talk it over.’
    De Richleau shook his head. ‘It’s no good trying to rush things. Mack will almost certainly use the chauffeurs to form a guard for the garage tonight; and, even if you could get a car, as I said an hour ago, they would catch you long before you could cross the frontier. You play your part of showing natural resentment by going off to bed while I play mine of having accepted the situation under protest by staying down here for a bit. That’s the best way to lull their suspicions; and if we can do that we’ll stand a much better chance of getting away later on.’
    ‘What
is
all this about?’ Marie Lou asked with a puzzled frown. ‘Neither of you has told me a thing yet, except about pretending that Fleur’s birthday is next Monday and using that as an excuse for leaving here tomorrow.’
    ‘I’m sorry, Princess,’ the Duke said contritely, ‘but I want to avoid giving the impression that we three are conspiring. Please be a darling and take Richard upstairs, then he can tell you all about it.’
    ‘All right, Greyeyes.’ She turned to Richard. ‘Come along, my sweet, and remember that we’ve both got to look thoroughly sulky.’
    When they had gone the Duke carried on a desultory conversation with some of the Poles, at the same time listening with half an ear to the wireless; but he did not wait up to hear the midnight news, as he knew already that Hitler would not, after all, make his bid for