Among Those Absent , livre ebook

Among Those Absent
by Manning Coles

First published in 1948
This edition published by Rare Treasures
Victoria, BC Canada with branch offices in the Czech Republic and Germany
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Among Those Absent

In which Tommy Hambledon, on holiday from theIntelligence Branch, makes an inside investigation ofjail-breaking.

Among Those Absent
Manning Coles

TO
WINIFRED-CLAIRE LABRISH
AND
LUCY-CLAIRE
ALSO

I OPERATION STONEWALL
D own the middle of the room there was a long, polishedtable, furnished as for a Board Meeting with blotting-paper,ink-pots, ash-trays and note-paper arranged with geometricalprecision. The Detective-Superintendent responsiblefor the arrangements gave one more critical look at the table,moved one blotting-pad a quarter of an inch to the left andwent out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Fiveminutes later the door opened again, a dozen men came intogether and stood about talking quietly until a tall grey-hairedman entered and went straight to the arm-chair at the head ofthe table.
“Please be seated, gentlemen. Thank you. Now, I thinkyou all know that this rather unusual meeting has been calledat the express desire of the Home Secretary in order that we mayconsult together about what steps can be taken to deal withthose to whom—er—‘Stone walls do not a prison make noriron bars a cage.’ In fact, any course of action upon which wedecide might well be called, in the jargon of the day, ‘OperationStonewall.’ ”
The Commissioner paused, looked at some notes he held inhis hand, and went on in a more business-like tone.
“Every one of you here knows some part of this story, butnot many of you, I think, know it as a whole. It will be aswell, perhaps, if I run through it as briefly as possible so thatwe may all have an equal knowledge of the essential facts.Here they are.
“For just over two years there has been a series of daring andsuccessful prison-breaks. Disquieteningly successful. Those ofyou present here who are Prison Governors have had personalexperience of them. What is so particularly—er—disquieteningabout it is not merely the fact that prisoners have got away,because that is a thing which is bound to happen occasionallynow that we no longer manacle our charges and confine themin dungeons. It is the fact that they are not recaptured, at least,not at once. They are diligently sought for, but not foundunless and until they have done some other crime which hasbrought them within reach of the law. In most cases—in allcases, in fact—they have either been apprehended abroad, or theyhave spent some time abroad and have been arrested on theirreturn to this country. That is correct, Chief-InspectorBagshott?”
“That is so, sir, in every case we have dealt with so far.”
“It follows,” went on the Commissioner, “that behind theseescapes there is an extremely efficient organisation which notonly gets the men out of prison but conceals them afterwardsand conveys them away to a place of safety. Now for a fewfigures. It is difficult to say exactly where to begin, since theorganisation does not advertise its successes, but we have agreedto take as the start the escape of the forger Greenwall fromParkhurst Prison just over two years ago. He escaped from aworking-party, evaded his pursuers, and was not seen again untilhe was arrested in Paris on a similar charge eighteen monthslater. We applied for his extradition and he was handed backto us by the courtesy of the French authorities. Since then—thatis, within the space of twenty-six months—there have beenno less than nineteen successful prison-breaks, counting as twothe case of the coiner Mankatell who has escaped twice.”
The Commissioner paused to blow his nose, rearranged hisnotes and continued.
“The methods employed have varied in each case to suit thedifficulties encountered. In the majority of cases we have afairly clear idea of how the scheme was worked, in two orthree cases—two certainly—we have none at all. The prisonerwas there and then he was not.”
One of the Prison Governors previously referred to sighedsuddenly and then looked round to see if anyone had noticed it.
“The obvious conclusion,” went on the Commissioner, “isthat in these cases someone has bribed a warder. Such a thingis commendably rare but it would be absurd to regard it asimpossible. No amount of inquiry has, however, enabled usto identify the warder, or warders, responsible. It follows,therefore, that if a warder was guilty, that warder is stillemployed. A disquietening thought.”
He followed his general remarks by giving a short account ofeach of the nineteen cases and of the prisoner concerned, referringevery time to one or other of the men at the table for confirmationor fuller details. One of the escaped prisoners was aforeigner named Vissek.
“An expert housebreaker,” said the Commissioner. “He isa national of a friendly Power, and when we applied to thePolice of that Power for news of him, they found him for usand very courteously sent him back. It is in regard to this manthat Mr. Hambledon, of Foreign Office Intelligence, is with us.Can you tell us anything interesting about him, Hambledon?”
“I knew him,” said Hambledon. “He was—we are alldiscreet here—working for the Intelligence Service of the Powerto which the Commissioner has just referred. Why not? Weall do it, friendly or no. He was an extremely able burglar,but as an Intelligence Agent he wasn’t so bright. He wouldget in anywhere, even into the most impossible places, and Iwish I knew how he did it. I would back him to break into theTower of London and steal the Crown Jewels. Only—if theCrown Jewels had been replaced by replicas in paste, he wouldhave brought them away quite happily. That is a metaphor, hemay have been an expert about jewels for all I know. I onlyknow that in the case of documents of any kind he was singularlyeasily foxed. I don’t wish to say anything unkind about apoor man in trouble, but I must admit I found him very usefulon at least three occasions. Eventually, of course, this Governmentgot tired of paying him for things like breaking into theChinese Embassy for a list of the Chinese troops in UpperBurma and coming away with a Chinese laundry bill——”
“Oh, really, Hambledon!” said the Commissioner across thelaughter.
“It’s a fact,” said Hambledon seriously. “I put it there forhim myself. You couldn’t expect him to read Chinese. Sohis Government sacked him and he took to ordinary burglaryfor a living. When he bolted back home they naturally didn’twant him starting in business over there, so they made a magnificentgesture and handed him back. Sensible people, the—thePower in question.”
“These international courtesies,” murmured one of thePrison Governors.
“Quite, quite,” said the Commissioner hastily. “The nextcase, gentlemen——”
At the end of the discussion the Commissioner put down hisnotes and leaned back in his chair.
“Has anyone anything further to add? No? Very well.Full minutes of this meeting have, as you noticed, been taken,and a practically verbatim report will be sent to the HomeSecretary. I thank you all for your attendance.”
Ten days later Hambledon received, to his surprise, a summonsto an interview with the Home Secretary himself. Inaccordance with instructions Hambledon said nothing about itto anybody, not even to Chief-Inspector Bagshott of ScotlandYard who usually knew as much about his doings as anyone.At the appointed hour Tommy Hambledon arrived at the HomeOffice and was not kept waiting more than ten minutes.
“The subject I wanted to talk to you about,” said the Minister,“or rather, the subject I wanted you to advise me about, if youwill, is all this prison-breaking business. Will you have acigar?”
“Thank you,” said Tommy.
“I had a very full account of that meeting you attended theother day and I read it very carefully, but I can’t say that Ifound it very helpful.”
“No?”
“I was hoping that some fresh and ingenious method wouldhave been put forward for preventing escapes, but I must admitI found none. More careful checking and counter-checking,greater vigilance—the treatment as before only stronger, inshort. That was all. Do you agree?”
“Yes,” said Hambledon frankly, “I do. But one shouldremember that they were all policemen—even the PrisonGovernors in a sense—and their actions are all laid down forthem in Regulations. I think that’s an excellent thing, mindyou; unregulated police are the devil, I’ve met them in Germanyand didn’t like them a bit. But you can’t have strict Regulationsand sparkling initiative.”
The Home Secretary nodded. “That’s perfectly true, butwhat I was thinking was this. They all look at the problem fromthe inside, as it were. Escapes must be prevented: double thewarders, build another six feet on the walls, frame better regulationsfor working parties, all that sort of thing. Now I waswondering whether escapes couldn’t be forestalled.”
Hambledon nodded. “It’s exasperating to consider that youcould probably open up the whole thing by giving one man fivehundred pounds and a free passage to the Argentine, if onlyyou knew whom to give it to.”
“You have done as I knew you would,” said the Minister.“You have put your finger on the spot, and that brings us to thereason why I sent for you, Mr. Hambledon, and not for apoliceman. You have spent years of your valuable life findingout what people were going to do before they did it. Can youadvise me how to find the man for the five hundred pounds?”
“When I received your letter making this appointment,” saidHambledon slowly, “I guessed it would be this which youwanted to discuss, and I spent the intervening three days thinkingit over. There isn’t much doing in my D