Джон Пристли - Salt is Leaving

"Plain ridiculous, Super. Bzzz . Dr Salt "ud never come to a place like this. Besides, I'd heard he'd left Birkden. Still, if you"re not satisfied, you could have a look down there-"

"No, they make me feel dizzy. "Night – dizzy – I mean, Buzzy!" And the superintendent went out without even a glance at Dr Salt and Maggie. She drew a long breath. How oddly men behaved! Impossible to imagine women being so angry and then playing a sort of complicated silly game!

"He's not so bad, old Hurst," said Buzzy comfortably. "Live and let live. Bzzz . It's the colonel and some of these young busies, sweating for promotion, who are the bastards. Now drink up, you two, and have another."

Maggie shook her head at Salt. "Not just now, thanks, Buzzy," he said, for both of them. Then, for himself, he added: "I have an idea I ought to keep my wits about me tonight."

2

For the next half-hour or so nothing happened, except that the room seemed stuffier and stuffier, the beat of the band began to be irritating, and Maggie started to feel she had had quite enough of this place. She was in fact feeling thoroughly bored when, as so often happens, the whole character of the evening suddenly changed.

There was no excitement at first. Somebody merely walked in. It was the Mr Aricson that she and Dr Salt had visited at his home.

Buzzy was not pleased to see him. "Now just a minute, just a minute. Bzzz . There's no reception going on, y"know. This is my office. Private . Bzzz! "

"If you want me to apologize, Mr Duffield, then I apologize," Aricson said hastily. "Sir Arnold Donnington asked me to find his daughter, Erica, and take her home. I've been inquiring all over the place – and now I understand she's here."

"Oh – she's here all right. Saturday night with the riffraff. Bzzz . And she was more than half stoned last time I caught sight of her. She's a bloody pest, your Miss Erica is. If I bar her, I'll run into trouble. If I let her carry on like this much longer, I'll run into trouble. I can't win with this bit. Bzzz . She's down there somewhere – maybe close to passing out. Black coffee and a lie down in the Ladies " Cloaks -"

"Buzzy, I'm a fool," cried Salt, jumping up. "I must take a look at that girl. Come on, Maggie. You too, Aricson. Buzzy, lead the way downstairs."

The youngsters on the floor, moving energetically but as if in a trance, never noticed the four of them as they hurried round towards the entrance. There was something half absurd, half sinister, Maggie felt, about this setting and this whole situation. They might have been hurrying around the edge of some complicated service that belonged to an utterly strange religion. Then Buzzy led the way to the Ladies and waved Maggie in. Three girls were staring at a fourth, laid out on a sofa and obviously unconscious. "Come on," said Maggie sharply, "we must get her out of here. There's a doctor waiting outside."

They carried her across to a small ticket office at the entrance.

"What did I tell you?" said Buzzy. "Out like a light – see? Bzzz ."

"Quiet, Buzzy! This might be something different," Salt told him.

Maggie had time to see Salt begin examining the girl – raising her eyelids, feeling her pulse – but then he called over his shoulder. "Maggie, ring for the ambulance. Phone here, isn't there? Then after the ambulance get me the General Hospital – doctor on duty. Say it's very urgent. Don't stand any nonsense from anybody."

"But look, Doc," she heard Buzzy say. "She's only had a few too many, hasn't she?"

"No, it's different this time." Then Salt was at her elbow, and when she had called the ambulance and was through to the hospital, he took the receiver himself. "Come along, come along, come along . . . Who's that? Dr Harrison? This is Dr Salt. I'm at Buzzy " s Club and there's a girl here, Erica Donnington, who's been mixing barbiturates and alcohol . . . Yes, coma of course, but not deep yet. Pulse 55. Respiration and heart not too bad. Corneal reflex present . . . Yes, the ambulance is on its way. I'll bring her in. No, we can tell her father."

After putting down the receiver, he handed Maggie a key. "Go back to the flat and wait for me, Maggie. Aricson can drop you there. Where is he?"

"I'm here." He had been waiting just outside.

"Now, Aricson, this is what I want you to do. Drop Miss Culworth at my flat – it'll be on your way – then go out and collect Sir Arnold, tell him what's happened and where his daughter will be – the General Hospital – ask for Dr Harrison. Right?"

"Right. Ready, Miss Culworth?"

"Just a moment. That's not all. You can also tell him this. It's serious, but I think we've caught her in time. But – as soon as he knows she's out of danger, I shall expect to see him at my flat, whatever time it may be. Tell him I've too much evidence now to let this go any farther. I have to see him tonight . No, don't let's have any more blustering," he added severely. "I mean what I say. This is where we all stop playing games. Right, Maggie my dear. Wait for me."

3

After she had spent about half an hour alone in Salt's flat and then heard somebody ringing at the door, Maggie felt frightened. This couldn't be Salt because the door wasn't locked and he could have walked straight in. And if it wasn't Salt, then who was it? But if they were dangerous characters, they could walk straight in too, like those three horrible young men. She went and opened the door about three inches, at the same time asking who it was.

"Come on, you chump," said Alan. "It's only us."

Us already, these two, Maggie told herself as she let them in. Then she saw they had that sleepy triumphant look, cats-full-of-cream air, of two people who not long ago had been enthusiastically making love.

"Where's Dr Salt?" said Jill. "I've come specially to thank him."

"Oh – Jill!" cried Maggie, who was genuinely pleased. "Has Alice Marton offered you that job?"

"She has. You know about that, do you, Maggie?"

"Alice and Salt were talking about it last night, and she asked me what I thought." Maggie's tone was now perhaps rather lofty. "Salt and I were dining at the Beverly - Astoria , and we were talking to Alice in the Cocktail Bar."

Jill gave Maggie a look that said What"s-going-on-between-you-and-Salt, and Maggie gave Jill a look that replied Nothing-I-can-tell-you-and-just-mind-your-own-business. Quite oblivious of this lightning exchange, Alan puffed at his pipe, regarded both girls benevolently, and then said, "If it comes off, it'll settle our problem very neatly. We"re very grateful to Dr Salt."

"You don't mind his playing God, then?" Maggie asked him, too sweetly.

Her brother remained unruffled. "Jill said that, not me. Anyhow, where is he, Mag?"

She explained what had happened at Buzzy"s. "And I must say," she concluded, "this Erica Donnington looked terrible, but Salt said they may have caught her in time. And if he hadn't been there – and acted so quickly – she'd probably be dead now. Oh – and another thing. Salt told Aricson to tell Sir Arnold Donnington that as soon as he knew his daughter was out of danger, he – Sir Arnold – had to come here, whatever time it was. Salt didn't say so but I'm sure this is the Noreen Wilks thing. He's going to settle it tonight somehow. He says he's leaving on Monday morning."

"He won't want us here," said Jill hastily. She was looking frightened.

"You never know with Salt," said Maggie. "It's quite possible he might want you here. Anyhow, I'm expecting him any minute now."

"I brought some whisky." Alan got up. "It's not mine – it's Jill"s-"

"Strictly speaking, it isn't even mine," said Jill with a faint smile. "It was bought and paid for by United Anglo-Belgian Fabrics – and the last I shall see-"