Scoop-Evelyn-Waugh [47]
Dr. Benito was at the party, very neat, very affable, very self-possessed, smiling wickedly on all sides. He approached William. "Mr. Boot," he said, "you must be very lonely without your colleagues." "No, I much prefer it." "And it is dull for you," Dr. Benito insisted, in the level patient tones of a mesmerist; "very dull, with so little happening in the town. So I have arranged a little divertissement for you." "It is very kind but I am greatly diverted here." "You are too kind to our simple little city. But I think I can promise you something better. Now that the summer has come there will be no difficulty. You shall have a little tour of our country and see some of its beauties � the forest of Popo for instance and the great waterfall at Chip." "It's very kind of you...Some other time, perhaps." "No, no, at once. It is all arranged. I have a motor-car. I cannot alas go with you myself, but I will send a charming young man � very cultured, a University graduate � who will be able to explain everything as well as I can. You will find my country people very hospitable. I have arranged for you to spend tonight just outside the city at the villa of the postmaster-general. Then you will be able to start early in the morning for the mountains. You will see much more than any of your colleagues, who, I hear, are not being fortunate in their trip to Laku. Perhaps you will be able to do a little lion shooting." "Thank you very much indeed, Dr, Benito, but I don't want to leave Jacksonburg at the moment." "There will be room for any companion you care to take." "No, thank you." "And you will, of course, be the guest of the Government." "It's not that." "You will see most interesting native dances, curious customs," �he smiled more horribly than before, � "some of the tribes are most primitive and interesting." "I'm very sorry, I can't go." "But it is all arranged." "I'm very sorry. You should have consulted me before you took so much trouble." "My Government would not like you to lose financially by their hospitality. I quite see that you would not be able to do your work fully during your absence but any reasonable recompense..." "Look here, Dr. Benito," said William. "You're being a bore. I'm not going." Dr. Benito suddenly stopped smiling. "Everyone will be very disappointed," he said.
William told Bannister what had been said. "Yes, they want to get you out of the way. They don't want any journalists here when the fun starts. They even took the trouble to shift Olafsen. They told him there was cholera down the line." "Plague." "Some lie anyway. I'm in communication with our agent there by telephone. Everyone's as fit as a flea." "Perhaps if he knew I'd got the sack he wouldn't bother so much." "He wouldn't believe it. He must have seen your cable; all the foreign cables go to his office before they're delivered. He thinks it a trick. That's the disadvantage of being clever in Benito's way." "You seem to know most things that go on in this town." "It's a hobby. Must do something. If I stuck to my job I should spend the day answering commercial questionnaires. Did you get anything interesting out of the Minister?" "No." "He sticks to his job."
As William drove back from the Legation he pondered over the question of when and in what terms he should break the news of his recall to K�hen. He need not have worried. In the first place he found a cable awaiting him:�
CONGRATULATIONS STORY CONTRACT UNTERMINATED UPFOLLOW FULLEST SPEEDILIEST
In the second place K�hen was no longer at the Pension Dressler; a posse of soldiers had come for her that afternoon and taken her away in a closed motor-car. "I suppose it is because of her papers," said Frau Dressler. "She telephoned to the German Consulate but they would not help her. She should not have been upset. When they put white people in prison here they are well looked after. She will be as comfortable," she added with unprofessional candour, "as she was here. There is one of the secret police waiting to see you. I would not let him into your room. He is in the dining-room." William found a natty young Negro smoking from a long cigarette holder. "Good evening," he said. "I have come from Dr. Benito to take you for a little tour in the mountains." "I told Dr. Benito I could not go." "He hoped you would change your mind." "Why have you arrested Miss K