She picked up the Daily Leader again, and read it out.
“I should go three hearts. 12 tricks. Ace of Spades. Necessary to finesse the King.”
“Rather an expensive way of learning Bridge,” was Tommy’s comment.
“Don’t be an ass. That’s nothing to do with Bridge. You see, I was lunching with a girl yesterday at the Ace of Spades. It’s a queer little underground den in Chelsea, and she told me that it’s quite the fashion at these big shows to trundle round there in the course of the evening for bacon and eggs and Welsh Rabbits-Bohemian sort of stuff. It’s got screened off booths all round it. Pretty hot place, I should say.”
“And your idea is-?”
“Three hearts stands for the Three Arts Ball to-morrow night, 12 tricks is twelve o’clock, and the Ace of Spades is the Ace of Spades.”
“And what about its being necessary to finesse the King?”
“Well, that’s what I thought we’d find out.”
“I shouldn’t wonder if you weren’t right, Tuppence,” said Tommy magnanimously. “But I don’t quite see why you want to butt in upon other people’s love affairs.”
“I shan’t butt in. What I’m proposing is an interesting experiment in detective work. We need practice.”
“Business is certainly not too brisk,” agreed Tommy. “All the same, Tuppence, what you want is to go to the Three Arts Ball and dance! Talk of red herrings.”
Tuppence laughed shamelessly.
“Be a sport, Tommy. Try and forget you’re thirty-two and have got one grey hair in your left eyebrow.”
“I was always weak where women were concerned,” murmured her husband. “Have I got to make an ass of myself in fancy dress?”
“Of course, but you can leave that to me. I’ve got a splendid idea.”
Tommy looked at her with some misgiving. He was always profoundly mistrustful of Tuppence’s brilliant ideas.
When he returned to the flat on the following evening, Tuppence came flying out of her bedroom to meet him.
“It’s come,” she announced.
“What’s come?”
“The costume. Come and look at it.”
Tommy followed her. Spread out on the bed was a complete fireman’s kit with shining helmet.
“Good God!” groaned Tommy. “Have I joined the Wembley fire brigade?”
“Guess again,” said Tuppence. “You haven’t caught the idea yet. Use your little grey cells, mon ami. Scintillate, Watson. Be a bull that has been more than ten minutes in the arena.”
“Wait a minute,” said Tommy. “I begin to see. There is a dark purpose in this. What are you going to wear, Tuppence?”
“An old suit of your clothes, an American hat and some horn spectacles.”
“Crude,” said Tommy. “But I catch the idea. McCarty incog. And I am Riordan.”
“That’s it. I thought we ought to practice American detective methods as well as English ones. Just for once I am going to be the star, and you will be the humble assistant.”
“Don’t forget,” said Tommy warningly, “that it’s always an innocent remark by the simple Denny that puts McCarty on the right track.”
But Tuppence only laughed. She was in high spirits.
It was a most successful evening. The crowds, the music the fantastic dresses-everything conspired to make the young couple enjoy themselves. Tommy forgot his role of the bored husband dragged out against his will.
At ten minutes to twelve, they drove off in the car to the famous-or infamous-Ace of Spades. As Tuppence had said, it was an underground den, mean and tawdry in appearance, but it was nevertheless crowded with couples in fancy dress. There were closed in booths round the walls, and Tommy and Tuppence secured one of these. They left the doors purposely a little ajar so that they could see what was going on outside.
“I wonder which they are-our people, I mean,” said Tuppence. “What about that Columbine over there with the red Mephistopheles?”
“I fancy the wicked Mandarin and the lady who calls herself a Battleship-more of a fast Cruiser, I should say.”
“Isn’t he witty?” said Tuppence. “All done on a little drop of drink! Who’s this coming in dressed as the Queen of Hearts-rather a good get up, that.”
The girl in question passed into the booth next to them accompanied by her escort who was “the gentleman dressed in newspaper” from Alice in Wonderland. They were both wearing masks-it seemed to be rather a common custom at the Ace of Spades.