Page 49 - WTP Vol. XIII #3

look.
Laughing at his surprise, Horwitz said, “Yes, even Chief Inspector’s read poetry—occasionally.”
“I am also employed by the Bank of London, where I make my true keep,” Eliot replied to mask his embar- rassment.
“A banker! Excellent,” Horwitz exclaimed. “It’s what we need these days, poets out of their ivory towers and into the Exchequer. But more to the point, what can an eminent anthropologist and a banker-poet say about Captain Graves’ reputation?”
“Right,” Eliot said leaning across Horwitz’s desk. “Graves is an associate of mine, both a gentleman and honorable man. We’ve been working on a com- pendium of Modern Poetry together, but it seems to be taking a devilishly long time, what with Robert in France so much of the time.”
“That’s a fact,” Graves said laughing. “But little I can do about it, Eliot, lest you have some sway with the King or the Commandant of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers.”
“I don’t think I have much capital in those regions,” he replied. “But you don’t seem to let the war slow you down. Three poems last month in the Times and two for the Academy. I guess you and Siegfried Sas- soon simply pull manuscripts to edit in the trenches whenever there’s a lull in the fighting.”
“Exactly,” Graves said, pounding Eliot on the back.
“You’d be surprised how much a gas attack or an infantry frontal assault on an impregnable position can sharpen your senses; leads to the most outra- geous imagery imagined.”
“Actually, I don’t want to imagine, Robert” Eliot ad- mitted. “That kind or martial verse I leave to you, Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen.”
Interrupting this poetic non sequitur, Frazer said, “Inspector, I was nearby when Eliot received the note from Captain Graves asking for this avouchment and was intrigued by the circumstances it described; a most uncommon murder it seems.”
“Uncommon is a polite way to put it, and to be honest Captain Graves’ involvement seems to be inadvertent at best. Yet the crime was so heinous I was compelled by the Chief Magistrate to detain all remotely in- volved. Graves came here just this afternoon inquir-
“The four men stood in silence; no words
suitable to annotate the story just recited.”
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