Matthew Plampin - The Devil’s Acre

Hastings was standing very quietly at his elbow.

‘Enough of this, Tom,’ he said, turning away. ‘I’m leaving.’

The gun-maker’s exit from the reception room and descent down to the entrance hall passed in a wrathful blur. Only the form of a short, blond, neat-looking Englishman, inserted directly in his path at the base of the stairs, prevented him from storming straight out into the night. Sam drew up, taking in the fellow irascibly. He was no servant, but no lord either. Was he a lackey of one of the ministers, come to upbraid him – or an embassy man, laden with the Ambassador’s chidings? Not caring to hear either, Sam made to push past, bellowing for his surtout and hat, wishing to God that he had some whiskey.

‘That should not have been permitted, Colonel,’ this blond man said, ‘the way you were treated up there. Lady Wardell should not have been allowed to have been so impertinent towards a businessman of your standing. Mr Buchanan really should have intervened.’

This won him another moment of Sam’s time. He stood, wordlessly challenging the man to hold his interest.

‘She is something of a fanatic,’ he continued dryly, ‘always toiling in the service of some great cause or other – and only content when raising funds for the religious education of the poor, or the dispatching of missionaries to distant cannibal isles. You are most fortunate, as an American, that she did not also take you to task over the dreadful unwholesomeness of slavery.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘I cannot help but suspect, in fact, that she only came here tonight in search of trouble.’

‘Yes, well, some women ain’t all maple sugar,’ Sam answered warily. ‘What the devil d’you want?’

The blond man made no reaction to this hostile tone. ‘My name is Lawrence Street, Colonel, and I am a long-standing admirer of your inventions. I was deeply impressed by the pistols included in the display of the Great Exhibition, and have followed your fortunes closely ever since.’

Sam’s surtout and hat arrived. He put them on, thanking this Mr Street for his kind remarks, genuinely welcoming the approbation after his mauling by Lady Wardell.

‘I wished to say, also, that you must not fret over the loss of your chance with Clarendon and Newcastle,’ Street went on. ‘You must realise that our government, like your own, is rather out of sorts at present. The Earl of Aberdeen, although a fine man by all accounts, is a most unsatisfactory Prime Minister, and he has staffed his cabinet with men as ill-suited to their posts as he is to his. Not, of course, that those two upstairs would be particularly suited to any; but they certainly have no notion whatsoever of the pressures of the international stage, or of the changing nature of modern conflict. Many feel that when a war of any magnitude arrives – and the sense among us is very much that it will, before too long – Great Britain will be found sorely lacking, thanks largely to the glaring inefficacy of our Lords Clarendon and Newcastle.’

This speech was delivered swiftly and softly, and heard only by Sam; Street had made it inaudible even to the servants standing directly behind them. It had the clear ring of expertise. This was an operator of the smartest variety. Sam regarded his companion anew. Mr Street was about his age, with cold, rather inexpressive eyes and a head of the most astonishing white-blond hair. There was something jerky and puppet-like about him, which his small stature served only to accentuate; he was plainly a political, desky type who’d spent his years within the cramped confines of the city, well away from wood, field and stream. But his calm, calculating face, framed by the full whiskers of an intellectual Englishman, told Sam that Lawrence Street was also someone with whom he could talk seriously – and who might well prove useful.

They walked together towards the embassy doors. Sam’s mind was occupied now by a vision of a vast marching army, of two or three marching armies in fact, thousands upon thousands of men, each and every one of them wearing a new Colt Navy upon his belt.

‘Mr Street, did I hear you say that there is to be war in Europe?’

Street nodded. ‘It is believed so; in Europe or on her fringes. And Great Britain will not be ready. We need your guns, Colonel, and soon. Yet you have just seen for yourself how lightly our ministers wear their duty – and how easily they are distracted from it.’

‘I’ll regain their interest soon enough.’

They went outside. Sam welcomed the evening’s chill; it felt like fresh freedom after the stifling ordeals of the embassy. He left the surtout unbuttoned as he descended to the pavement of Grosvenor Square.

Street had stopped at the top of the steps. He was shaking his head. ‘Forgive me, Colonel, but I must say that such a course would be a poor use of your time. There are others of equal standing and influence who have a true interest in your endeavours. They see the potential of your factory and your weapons, and the advantages they offer over anything already produced in this country – over the pistols of Mr Adams, say. They would have you succeed here, supplying our forces with all the revolvers you could manufacture. Don’t take any further trouble with Clarendon and his ilk.’

Sam realised then that Street was at the ambassadorial residence that evening with the express purpose of meeting with him and having this talk. He was a proxy, most likely; a plan of some sort was being put into motion. ‘By thunder, Mr Street, who are these people?’ he exclaimed. ‘And how do they propose that this is to be achieved?’

A faint shadow of amusement passed over Street’s features. ‘First of all, we need your factory to work properly. The main engine, I hear, is underpowered, and causing the machinery to drag most terribly.’

Sam frowned. His orders were that no one outside the Colt Company was to be told of the factory’s troubles, but word had obviously leaked out. He opened his mouth to dispute Street’s confident assessment, but said nothing. The man was utterly sure of his information – and furthermore, it was correct. This is a devious critter indeed, the gun-maker thought. He’s trying to unbalance me, to set me on the back foot so that I will fall more easily into his wider scheme.

‘Once the factory is running your friends can help you,’ Street continued. ‘Commodore Hastings upstairs, for instance, and also those to whom I have already alluded. All will be in a better position to make your case, and at the very highest levels.’

‘Who the devil are these men, these mysterious friends of mine?’ Sam demanded. ‘This cloak-and-dagger horseshit don’t butter no parsnips with me, Mr Street! I will know, damn it, or I will forget we’ve ever met!’

The little blond fellow crossed his arms, taking in the dark square, unmoved by Sam’s show of anger. ‘May I ask you a question, Colonel?’

Sam glanced up at the embassy windows. Someone was looking out at them; they pulled back abruptly. He gestured his assent.

‘Why did you decide to establish your factory in London? Why not Paris, or Berlin, or Amsterdam?’

Rather impatiently, Sam began to reel off the list of reasons for his choice – the reputation he had acquired at the Great Exhibition, the frequent steamers crossing between New York and Liverpool, the common tongue that meant his engineers could quickly train up new operatives – when Street stopped him.

‘Was it not because of the bond that you feel between my country and your own? The powerful sense that we are brethren, sprung from the same Anglo-Saxon stock, not only speaking the same language, as you say, but possessing the same enlightened feelings – the same civilising impulse? Did you not wish specifically to endow Great Britain’s armed forces with the spectacular advantage of your revolver?’