The Angry Mountain Read Online Free Page B

floor.”
    He sat down then and for a moment he said nothing. His body, hunched in the big arm-chair, seemed suddenly shrivelled and old. “Jan Tu č ek has been arrested,” he said slowly.
    â€œArrested?” I think I’d known it ever since I’d walked into his office. But to hear it put bluntly into words shook me.
    â€œWhy?” I asked.
    He shrugged his shoulders. “Why is any one arrested in Czechoslovakia to-day? He fought in England during the war. That alone is sufficient to make him suspect. Also he is an industrialist.” His voice was low and somehow fatalistic.It was as though he saw in this the beginning of the end for himself.
    â€œIs he in prison?” I asked.
    He shook his head. “They do not go so far yet. That Is why they search his office. They look for evidence. For the moment he is confined to his house. Perhaps he will be released to-morrow. And then—perhaps not.” He gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. “This sort of thing hangs over all of us of the old Czechoslovakia. So many have disappeared already.”
    â€œBut what has he done? “I asked.
    â€œI do not know.” He took off his glasses and began to polish them as though afraid of showing some emotion. There was a heavy, audible silence between us. At length he picked up a newspaper from under a pile of papers, peered at it and then held it out to me. “Column two,” he said. “The Rinkstein story.”
    It was down-page, quite a small story headed: DIAMOND DEALER ARRESTED—RINKSTEIN ACCUSED OF ILLEGAL CURRENCY DEALS. “Who is Rinkstein?” I asked him.
    â€œIsaac Rinkstein is one of the biggest jewellers in Prague.”
    â€œWhat’s his arrest got to do with Tu č ek?”
    â€œEverything—nothing. I do not know.” He shrugged his shoulders. “All I know is he deal in diamonds and precious stones.”
    â€œBut he’s been arrested for illegal currency operations,” I pointed out.
    He smiled wryly. “That is the legal excuse. It is his dealings in precious stones that will interest the authorities, I think.” He bent the ruler between his two hands till I thought it must break. “I am very much afraid Rinkstein will talk.” He got up suddenly and took the paper away from me. “You must go now. I have talk too much already. Please repeat nothing—nothing, you understand?” He was looking at me and I saw he was frightened. “Sixteen yearsI have been with the Tu č ek company.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Good-bye, Mr. Farrell.” His hand was cold and soft.
    â€œI’ll be back in Pilsen in about three months,” I said as he took me to the door. “I shall look forward to seeing you again then.”
    His lips twisted in a thin smile. “I hope so,” he said. He opened the door and called to his assistant to get me a car. It was with a feeling of relief that I was swept through the factory gates and out into the streets of Pilsen. Black clouds were coming up from the west and as I got out at my hotel the first drops of rain fell on the dry pavements.
    I phoned the airport and checked that my passage to Munich and through to Milan was fixed. Then I got my raincoat and hurried across the road to the bookshop on the corner. It was not quite five. I searched through the paper backs with my eye on the door. Five o’clock struck from a nearby church. There was no sign of Maxwell. I stayed on until the shop shut at five-thirty. But he didn’t come. I bought several books and after waiting for a bit in the doorway, went back to the hotel. There was no message for me at the desk. I ordered tea to be sent up to my room and tried to finish off my report. But my mind could concentrate on nothing but Tu č ek’s arrest. Also I was worried about Maxwell.
    In the end I went down to the bar. For a while I tried to persuade myself that Tu č ek and Maxwell