Реджинальд Хилл - Matlock's System

“Yes, but how is it that they’ve managed to get by without Age Laws for nearly thirty years? Their problems must have been as grave as ours when all this started.”

“Not quite. There was more room for one thing. But yes, of course they had basically the same population problem as us. Worse perhaps. But the Abbot assured me yesterday, that the population of Scotland is smaller today than it was thirty years ago.”

Ernst whistled.

“But how?”

“Two things. They had no Age Law. But in those early days there were many things they didn’t have. Among them was an efficient Health Service. We’d cut off its head. It’s so hard to die in England that we had to invent a new way to do it. But Nature provided ways in plenty for the Scots. There were no outbreaks of plague or anything like that, you understand. It was just that people began dying from things no one here has died of in years. Infant mortality rate shot up, expectation of life dropped down.”

“But that alone can’t have accounted for a total drop after thirty years!”

“No. I said there were two things. The second was the struggle for survival before central, or bi-central government was effectively established. The new clan wars.”

“You mean, they fought?” asked Ernst incredulously.

“Oh yes, they fought. And died. Many thousands. There are still outbreaks. The Central government which is Glasgow-based at this moment doesn’t discourage it. It keeps the population down. Keeps the people on the alert. The Border Scots in particular have reverted to type and foraging raids into Cumberland and Northumberland are fairly common. They act as a cover for the full-scale smuggling organization which is almost certainly run by McDonwald’s mates, if the Abbot is to be believed. There are crippling tariffs on all imports from England. But a constant stream of stuff is crossing illegally by helicopter and boat.”

“But why doesn’t Browning just move in? Why play at shots across the Border when you could wipe the Lowlands half off the earth in a couple of rocket attacks?”

“The Scots have got sentimental friends all over the world. America in particular. There are lots of other countries from France up who would welcome the chance to walk into England. We must not appear the aggressor. In any case, you can’t raze a mountainous country with ordinary missiles. And that’s where they’d be, up in the mountains. And you don’t drop nuclear bombs on your own doorstep.”

“Anyway,” said Lizzie impatiently, “we’re wasting time talking about what Browning can or cannot do. The point is, what are we going to do? What are you going to do, Matt. You’re the man in demand.”

Matlock looked round the tiny circle. Lizzie, her eyes fixed on him, her face full of life and hope. Ernst, relaxed in his chair, regarding him rather quizzically. Colin, seated a little further back than the others, his thin face shadowed and brooding.

“This is what I’ve called you here to decide. I’m faced with a set of rather curious alternatives.”

“There’s only one choice, Matt,” interjected Ernst leaning forward in his eagerness to talk. But Matlock held his hand up, a strangely rhetorical gesture for him.

“Wait a moment, Ernst. Colin, you haven’t said a word since we started. What’s on your mind?”

Colin slowly shook his head as if to clear it. “I’m wondering if any of us have really faced what we’re talking about,” he said. “I mean, really faced it?”

He was very agitated and stood up now as if to brace himself more firmly to hurl out his words.

“Matt, listen to me. This country of ours is in a mess, we all know that. There’s something rotten in the way it’s governed, in some of those who govern it. And we’ve opposed them together for a score of years. We’ve worked hard, all of us, in that time. We’ve used every means possible. But we’ve always worked within the law. But this thing you’re talking about now, Matt, talking about as if you accept it without qualm, this situation which has suddenly sprung up overnight, this has nothing to do with persuasion, and education, nothing to do even with political scheming and chicanery. This is open revolution you’re talking about, Matt. This is civil war.”

There followed a long silence. Colin, as though his words had been the strings which pulled him upright, slumped back into his chair and looked stonily at the carpet. Ernst turned away in mock exasperation and pursed his lips in a soundless whistle. Lizzie half leaned over to Colin, then turned back to Matt, then leaned back over to Colin and placed her hand on his forearm.

“Thank you, Colin,” said Matlock. “Now, Ernst.”

The words came tumbling out, bumping together in their eagerness to take to the air.

“There’s no question what we must do, Matt. For Godsake what’s the matter with you, Colin? This is an opportunity to do something meaningful. This is heaven-sent. Here on a plate is being handed to us the power and authority we’ve been striving for for years. We’ve got to take it.”

In his turn he subsided, slight beads of sweat along the one deep furrow in his forehead. Looking at it, Matlock was reminded of the quiet Scot with the pale hollow in his temple.

“Lizzie,” he said.

“I could argue and debate,” she said quietly. “I could throw accusations of disloyalty at Colin. I could ask Ernst if power and authority are really what we’ve been striving for. But what’s the point? I cannot help you make up your mind, Matt. In fact I don’t think any of us have ever really been able to do that despite what you might have let us think. All I will say is that when you’ve made up your mind what to do and start counting the heads of your followers, you should always start at two. I’ll be there.”

“Thank you, Lizzie,” said Matlock without any reciprocal show of emotion. “You’re quite right, of course. I have made up my mind. Colin, I respect you for what you say. I could reply that this civil war is going to take place anyway and that I must do what I can to make gentle its course. But that would be Jesuitical. No, I embrace this chance without reservation. We have moved beyond the realm of political action. We moved beyond it when I resigned all those years ago though I never realized it till yesterday. And once we move out of the area of political possibilities, we have moved out of the realm of democratic government. As for you Ernst, I wish to give you no offence but this I must say. You are very dear to me and you are my legally appointed successor. But the laws under which you are so appointed are the laws we will fight to overthrow. What I may become and what you may inherit will then be in no way connected other than by my own feeling for you, which not all may share.”

Ernst rose angrily.

“Is this what you think of me?”

“No, it is not. But I am speaking publicly now. I have not been a public man for many years despite my campaigns. You may not find me always to your taste.”

“Can you speak publicly to me, Matt?” asked Lizzie challengingly.

“Yes, I can. I will make you in public what you have long been in private. My wife. We will make at least one of Browning’s forgeries true.”

“Matt!” cried Lizzie, her face a-gleam.

He took her in his arms.

“Perhaps we can adopt Ernst and make the other true also.”

Ernst looked as though he were going to resent this for a moment, then his face reluctantly unfolded into smiles and eventually laughter.

“You do that,” he said, “that way at least I’ll get your money.”

The three of them now all looked at Colin who got to his feet and moved away. For a heart-jolting moment, Matlock thought he was going to leave. But he only went as far as the drink cupboard and started to fill four glasses.