Frankie's Letter - By Dolores Gordon-Smith Page 0,46
do anything of the sort. The whole point of a secret agent, he thought ruefully, was to remain secret. The preliminary article had been bad enough but the interview he had just given constituted a spectacular burning of his boats. Still, this was what Sir Charles wanted. ‘What happens to the notes now, Sherston?’ he asked. ‘Are you going to publish them as they are?’
Sherston smiled at this innocent abroad. ‘Oh no, my dear fellow. After you’ve looked the notes over, I’ll give them to Lissett, the editor of the Sentinel. He’s a very sound man. I propose to run a series of articles. We’ll drum up some really good publicity and I’ll be very much surprised if the Sentinel doesn’t knock every other newspaper into a cocked hat.’
His air of eager anticipation increased. ‘D’you remember the series of invasion stories we ran before the war, Elstead?’ he asked, turning to his secretary. ‘That was only fiction, of course,’ he added to Anthony, ‘but my word, it was a stunt and a half.’
‘It certainly was, sir,’ agreed Elstead with a reminiscent grin. ‘We had all our street vendors dressed as German soldiers,’ he explained, turning to Anthony, ‘with the banner, “This Could Be True”, emblazoned on every stand. We had to put out extra editions, it was so successful.’
‘We’ll go one better with this,’ said Sherston happily. ‘We’ll run the story over a couple of weeks, then put all the articles together and print it as a separate magazine. We’re thinking of transforming a few streets into a replica of a German town, based on the information you’ve given us. We won’t have any problems with the authorities, as long as we make the entrance fee payable to a good charity. What d’you reckon, Colonel? The Red Cross should fit the bill, unless you’ve got a pet charity of your own.’
For a wild moment Anthony thought of saying the Sons of Hibernia, just to see how Sherston would react, but he quelled the notion. ‘The Red Cross seems very suitable,’ he agreed.
‘Excellent!’ said Sherston enthusiastically. ‘We can dress it up, have soldiers lording over civilians and so on, show them what it’s really like to live crushed under the Kaiser’s heel. We can even stage a rooftop escape,’ he added with a laugh. ‘That’ll make London sit up.’
Anthony winced. The chances of remaining anonymous after that were virtually nil. ‘That’ll take some time to arrange, won’t it?’ he asked hopefully.
‘No time at all,’ said Sherston, crushing Anthony’s hopes as effectively as any heel of the Kaiser’s. ‘You’ll be amazed at how quickly we can put it together. You, of course, will be our consultant on the project, Colonel.’
‘I’ll have to get permission,’ said Anthony, clutching at this fragile straw.
‘With any luck there won’t be any trouble about that,’ said Sherston heartily. ‘As well as the Sentinel I intend to run pieces in some of our other papers and magazines. For instance, Hearth and Home will get a lot a mileage out of the comparison between what a typical German can expect for dinner, say, and an ordinary British working man.’
‘What about the Citizen?’ put in Elstead. ‘Banks of the Citizen loves the scare stuff and a Hidden Hand Of Germany story. The Colonel’s insights will give them a lot of material on how to spot a spy.’
‘Well done, Elstead,’ said Sherston. ‘Note that down.’ His enthusiasm increased. ‘Why, even Market Garden and Allotment Times can run an article on German versus British food production.’ Anthony winced once more and Sherston turned on him sharply. ‘You mustn’t despise any journal, Colonel, no matter how trivial the subject matter may seem.’
That hadn’t been the reason why Anthony had recoiled but he didn’t feel able to explain himself. At this rate, he thought ruefully, Sherston might as well start a paper called Intelligence Agent News by Anthony Brooke, Esq., and have done with it. He didn’t make the suggestion; Sherston might just do it.
‘Let me show you the range of the Sherston Press, Colonel,’ said Sherston, walking to the desk to where the newspapers and magazines were. ‘I have all our papers delivered here, of course.’
He picked up the pile and handed it to Anthony. ‘These are today’s, together with the current issues of our weekly and monthly magazines. Why don’t you look through them? You might be able to see an angle for your story that I’ve overlooked.’
This seemed monumentally unlikely, but Anthony was anxious to get away. ‘Can I take them