Mr. Calder & Mr. Behrens by Michael Gilbert

Author:Michael Gilbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mr. Calder & Mr. Behrens
ISBN: 9780755132331
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2013-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

Mr. Calder’s methods were usually simple and straightforward. On this occasion he put on his oldest clothes, armed himself with a fishing rod, and sat down to fish at a point just outside the boundary fence of the Clipstone Sand and Gravel Company. Soon after he had started, a man came out of a gate in the fence and stood watching him. From his appearance and walk he was an ex-naval type, Mr. Calder guessed. At this moment he succeeded in hooking a sizable fish.

This served as a convenient introduction, and Mr. Calder was soon deep in conversation with Chief Petty Officer Seward. He mentioned that he was putting up for a few days at the local pub. Seward agreed that the beer there was drinkable, and that he might be down there himself after work.

By ten o’clock that evening, in the friendly atmosphere of the saloon bar, Mr. Calder had learned a good deal about the Clipstone Sand and Gravel Company and its owner.

“He’s all right,” said Seward. “I mean, you don’t find many like him nowadays. He knows what he wants, and he likes to get his own way, no messing about. But if he likes you, he’ll do anything for you.”

“And if he doesn’t like you?”

“If he doesn’t like you,” said Seward with a grin, “you clear out quick. We had a chap once who set himself up as a sort of shop steward. Wanted to get us unionised. The colonel soon put a stop to it.”

“How did he manage to do that?”

“Threw him in the river.”

“I see,” said Calder thoughtfully.

“I don’t say he would have got away with it in the usual outfit, but we’re more a sort of family business. All ex-service. We’ve even got our own fleet.”

Mr. Calder had seen the neat row of grey metal barges anchored to the jetty.

“Lovely jobs,” said Seward. “Self-powered. One man can handle them easily. Built to ferry stuff ashore on the beaches at D-day. Picked them up from the Crown Agents after the war. Most of our stuff – sand and aggregate, that is – goes up by river. And they bring back umber piling and iron sheeting. When we’re opening a new section of quarry, we have to blanket off each section as we go—”

He expounded the intricacies of the quarryman’s job, and Mr. Calder, who always liked to learn about other people’s work, listened with interest.

He said to Mr. Behrens when he met him three days later, “Mounteagle’s a real buccaneer. The sort of man who used to go out to India in the seventeenth century and come back with a fortune and a hobnailed liver. But he’s running a very useful outfit, and his men swear by him.”

“Would he be capable of blowing up a Member of Parliament?” said Mr. Behrens.

“Think nothing of it. He chucked a shop steward into the river.”

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