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The Secret Adversary
Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie’s first Tommy and Tuppence mystery adventure, reissued with a striking cover designed to appeal to the latest generation of Agatha Christie fans and book lovers.Tommy and Tuppence, two young people short of money and restless for excitement, embark on a daring business scheme – Young Adventurers Ltd.Their advertisement says they are ‘willing to do anything, go anywhere’. But their first assignment, for the sinister Mr Whittington, plunges them into more danger than they ever imagined…
The Secret Adversary
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by
The Bodley Head Limited 1922
Agatha Christie® Tommy & Tuppence® The Secret Adversary™
Copyright © 1922 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.
www.agathachristie.com (http://www.agathachristie.com)
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
Cover illustration based on photographs © 2014 Endor Productions.
Stills photographer: Laurence Cendrowicz
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007590599
Ebook Edition © Jan 2015 ISBN: 9780007422777
Version: 2017-04-17
To all those who lead monotonous lives in the hope that they may experience at second-hand the delights and dangers of adventure.
Contents
Cover (#ueb7c05f7-90bd-5ded-9a94-ab0d989a9250)
Title Page (#u6a0acbac-4419-54b6-8f2b-da5d68d54f9c)
Copyright (#u17c0691e-28c2-505e-a563-e206e495450f)
Dedication (#uc1511c4b-6ba6-5419-8b3b-d9ea634afe45)
Prologue (#u119a49cb-292d-5f83-b037-c67dfee9eaeb)
CHAPTER 1: The Young Adventurers, Ltd. (#u79756a04-6f8d-519a-a335-c6862abae4eb)
CHAPTER 2: Mr Whittington’s Offer (#ub3401cc1-f7c2-5db1-8a92-c337c3503b2e)
CHAPTER 3: A Setback (#u3921fd16-635e-52e1-bc32-6948cdb5f907)
CHAPTER 4: Who Is Jane Finn? (#u243d9ea1-599c-599d-a7a3-1193d8fb568d)
CHAPTER 5: Mr Julius P. Hersheimmer (#ufef5b075-1931-52a7-82c2-131e9f2bfb96)
CHAPTER 6: A Plan of Campaign (#u748453f5-1cfe-51f4-af4b-4ae095e08c1b)
CHAPTER 7: The House in Soho (#u5ea13925-fd8a-5487-aed1-84cea320abc7)
CHAPTER 8: The Adventures of Tommy (#uda224844-1b63-5344-9f90-58e5452246cd)
CHAPTER 9: Tuppence Enters Domestic Service (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 10: Enter Sir James Peel Edgerton (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 11: Julius Tells a Story (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 12: A Friend in Need (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 13: The Vigil (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 14: A Consultation (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 15: Tuppence Receives a Proposal (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 16: Further Adventures of Tommy (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 17: Annette (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 18: The Telegram (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 19: Jane Finn (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 20: Too Late (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 21: Tommy Makes a Discovery (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 22: In Downing Street (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 23: A Race Against Time (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 24: Julius Takes a Hand (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 25: Jane’s Story (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 26: Mr Brown (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 27: A Supper Party at the Savoy (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 28: And After (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Agatha Christie (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#u8d756c98-2dec-518f-b55e-f123fa3f6747)
It was 2 p.m. on the afternoon of May 7th, 1915. The Lusitania had been struck by two torpedoes in succession and was sinking rapidly, while the boats were being launched with all possible speed. The women and children were being lined up awaiting their turn. Some still clung desperately to husbands and fathers; others clutched their children closely to their breasts. One girl stood alone, slightly apart from the rest. She was quite young, not more than eighteen. She did not seem afraid, and her grave steadfast eyes looked straight ahead.
‘I beg your pardon.’
A man’s voice beside her made her start and turn. She had noticed the speaker more than once amongst the first-class passengers. There had been a hint of mystery about him which had appealed to her imagination. He spoke to no one. If anyone spoke to him he was quick to rebuff the overture. Also he had a nervous way of looking over his shoulder with a swift, suspicious glance.
She noticed now that he was greatly agitated. There were beads of perspiration on his brow. He was evidently in a state of overmastering fear. And yet he did not strike her as the kind of man who would be afraid to meet death!
‘Yes?’ Her grave eyes met his inquiringly.
He stood looking at her with a kind of desperate irresolution.
‘It must be!’ he muttered to himself. ‘Yes—it is the only way.’ Then aloud he said abruptly: ‘You are an American?’
‘Yes.’
‘A patriotic one?’
The girl flushed.
‘I guess you’ve no right to ask such a thing! Of course I am!’
‘Don’t be offended. You wouldn’t be if you knew how much there was at stake. But I’ve got to trust someone—and it must be a woman.’
‘Why?’
‘Because of “women and children first.”’ He looked round and lowered his voice. ‘I’m carrying papers—vitally important papers. They may make all the difference to the Allies in the war. You understand? These papers have got to be saved! They’ve more chance with you than with me. Will you take them?’
The girl held out her hand.
‘Wait—I must warn you. There may be a risk—if I’ve been followed. I don’t think I have, but one never knows. If so, there will be danger. Have you the nerve to go through with it?’
The girl smiled.
‘I’ll go through with it all right. And I’m real proud to be chosen! What am I to do with them afterwards?’
‘Watch the newspapers! I’ll advertise in the personal column of The Times, beginning “Shipmate.” At the end of three days if there’s nothing—well, you’ll know I’m down and out. Then take the packet to the American Embassy, and deliver it into the Ambassador’s own hands. Is that clear?’
‘Quite clear.’
‘Then be ready—I’m going to say goodbye.’ He took her hand in his. ‘Goodbye. Good luck to you,’ he said in a louder tone.
Her hand closed on the oilskin packet that had lain in his palm.
The Lusitania settled with a more decided list to starboard. In answer to a quick command, the girl went forward to take her place in the boat.
CHAPTER 1 (#u8d756c98-2dec-518f-b55e-f123fa3f6747)
The Young Adventurers, Ltd. (#u8d756c98-2dec-518f-b55e-f123fa3f6747)
‘Tommy, old thing!’
‘Tuppence, old bean!’
The two young people greeted each other affectionately, and momentarily blocked the Dover Street Tube exit in doing so. The adjective ‘old’ was misleading. Their united ages would certainly not have totalled forty-five.
‘Not seen you for simply centuries,’ continued the young man. ‘Where are you off to? Come and chew a bun with me. We’re getting a bit unpopular here—blocking the gangway as it were. Let’s get out of it.’
The girl assenting, they started walking down Dover Street towards Piccadilly.
‘Now then,’ said Tommy, ‘where shall we go?’
The very faint anxiety which underlay his tone did not escape the astute ears of Miss Prudence Cowley, known to her intimate friends for some mysterious reason as ‘Tuppence.’ She pounced at once.
‘Tommy, you’re stony!’
‘Not a bit of it,’ declared Tommy unconvincingly. ‘Rolling in cash.’
‘You always were a shocking liar,’ said Tuppence severely, ‘though you did once persuade Sister Greenbank that the doctor had ordered you beer as a tonic, but forgotten to write it on the chart. Do you remember?’
Tommy chuckled.
‘I should think I did! Wasn’t the old cat in a rage when she found out? Not that she was a bad sort really, old Mother Greenbank! Good old hospital—demobbed like everything else, I suppose?’
Tuppence sighed.
‘Yes. You too?’
Tommy nodded.
