They helped him up, all laughing, while Leiser brushed the dust from Avery’s clothes. The knives were put away while they did physical training; Avery took part.
When it was over, Lowe said, “We’ll just have a spot of unarmed combat and that will do nicely.”
Haldane glanced at Leiser. “Have you had enough?”
“I’m all right.”
Lowe took Avery by the arm and stood him in the center of the gym mat. “You sit on the bench,” he called to Leiser, “while I show you a couple of things.”
He put a hand on Avery’s shoulder. “We’re only concerned with five marks, whether we got a knife or not. What are they?”
“Groin, kidneys, belly, heart and throat,” Leiser replied wearily.
“How do you break a man’s neck?”
“You don’t. You smash his windpipe at the front.”
“What about a blow on the back of the neck?”
“Not with the bare hands. Not without a weapon.” He had put his face in his hands.
“Correct.” Lowe moved his open palm in slow motion toward Avery’s throat. “Hand open, fingers straight, right?”
“Right,” Leiser said.
“What else do you remember?”
A pause. “Tiger’s Claw. An attack on the eyes.”
“Never use it,” the sergeant replied shortly. “Not as an attacking blow. You leave yourself wide open. Now for the strangleholds. All from behind, remember? Bend the head back, so, hand on the throat, so, and squeeze.” Lowe looked over his shoulder: “Look this way, please, I’m not doing this for my own benefit… Come on, then, if you know it all, show us some throws!”
Leiser stood up, locking arms with Lowe, and for a while they struggled back and forth, each waiting for the other to offer an opening. Then Lowe gave way, Leiser toppled and Lowe’s hand slapped the back of his head, thrusting it down so that Leiser fell face forward heavily onto the mat.
“You fall a treat,” said Lowe with a grin, and then Leiser was upon him, twisting Lowe’s arm savagely back and throwing him very hard so that his little body hit the carpets like a bird hitting the windshield of a car.
“You play fair!” Leiser demanded, “or I’ll damn well hurt you.”
“Never lean on your opponent,” Lowe said shortly. “And don’t lose your temper in the gym.” He called across to Avery. “You have a turn now, sir; give him some exercise.”
Avery stood up, took off his jacket and waited for Leiser to approach him. He felt the strong grasp upon his arms and was suddenly conscious of the frailty of his body when matched against this adult force. He tried to seize the forearms of the older man, but his hands could not encompass them; he tried to break free, but Leiser held him; Leiser’s head was against his own, filling his nostrils with the smell of hair oil. He felt the damp stubble of his cheek and the close, rank heat of his thin, straining body. Putting his hands on Leiser’s chest he forced himself back, throwing all his energy into one frantic effort to escape the suffocating constriction of the man’s embrace. As he drew away they caught sight of one another, it might have been for the first time, across the heaving cradle of their entangled arms; Leiser’s face, contorted with exertion, softened into a smile; the grip relaxed.
Lowe walked over to Haldane. “He’s foreign, isn’t he?”
“A Pole. What’s he like?”
“I’d say he was quite a fighter in his day. Nasty. He’s a good build. Fit too, considering.”
“I see,” Haldane said.
“How are you these days, sir, in yourself? All right, then?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“That’s right. Twenty years. Amazing, really. Kiddies all grown up.”
“I’m afraid I have none.”
“Mine, I mean.”
“Ah.”
“See any of the old crowd, then, sir? How about Mr. Smiley?”
“I’m afraid I have not kept in touch. I am not a gregarious kind of person. Shall we settle up?”
Lowe stood lightly to attention while Haldane prepared to pay him: traveling money, salary, and thirty-seven and six for the knife, plus twenty-two shillings for the sheath, a flat metal one with a spring to facilitate extraction. Lowe wrote him a receipt, signing it S. L. for reasons of security. “I got the knife at cost,” he explained. “It’s a fiddle we work through the Sports Club.” He seemed proud of that.