The Fourth Estate. Jeffrey Archer by Archer; Jeffrey Archer

Author:Archer; Jeffrey Archer
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780330419086
Publisher: Pan Publishing
Published: 1996-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

NEWS CHRONICLE

25 OCTOBER 1951

Final Poll Gives Churchill the Lead

"AND HOW WILL you be paying, Mr. Armstrong?" asked the estate

agent.

"It's Captain Armstrong, actually."

"I'm sorry, Captain Armstrong."

"I'll pay by check."

It had taken Armstrong ten days to find suitable accommodation, and he

only signed the short lease on a flat in Stanhope Gardens when the

agent mentioned that a retired brigadier was living on the floor

above.

The search for an appropriate office took even longer, because it

needed to have an address that would convince Julius Hahn that

Armstrong had been in publishing all his life.

When John D. Wood asked what price range he had in mind, a very junior

agent was handed the assignment.

Two weeks later, Armstrong settled on an office that was even smaller

than his flat in Stanhope Gardens. Although he couldn't altogether

accept the agent's description of the 308-square- foot room with a

lavatory on the floor above as ideal, perfect and unique, it did have

two advantages. The

Fleet Street address, and a rent he could afford to pay-for the first

three months. "if you'll be kind enough to sign on the bottom line,

Captain Armstrong."

Armstrong unscrewed the top of his new Parker pen and signed the

contract.

"Good. Then that's settled," said the young agent as he waited for the

ink to dry. "The rent for this property is, as you know, Captain

Armstrong, E 10 a week, payable quarterly in advance.

Perhaps you

would be kind enough to let me have a check for El 30."

"I'll send one of my staff round with a check later this afternoon,"

said

Armstrong, straightening his bow tie.

The agent hesitated for a moment, and then placed the contract in his

briefcase. "I'm sure that will be all right, Captain Armstrong," he

said, handing over the keys to the smallest property on their books.

Armstrong felt confident that Hahn would have no way of knowing, when

he rang FLE 6093 and heard the words "Armstrong Communications," that

his publishing house consisted of one room, two desks, a filing cabinet

and a recently installed telephone. And as for "one of my staff," one

was correct. Sally Carr had returned to London the week before, and

had joined him as his personal assistant earlier that morning.

Armstrong had been unable to give the estate agent a check immediately

because he had only recently opened an account with Barclays, and the bank was unwilling to issue a checkbook until it

received the promised transfer of funds from Holt & Co in Berlin. The

fact that he was Captain Armstrong MC, as he kept reminding them,

didn't seem to impress the manager.

When the money did eventually come through, the manager confessed to

his accounts clerk that after their meeting he had expected a little

more than

C217 9s. 6d. to be deposited in Captain Armstrong's account.

While he was waiting for the money to be transferred, Armstrong

contacted

Stephen Hallet at his offices in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and asked him to

register Armstrong Communications as a private company.

That cost him

another E 10.

No sooner had the company been formed than another un payable bill

landed on

Sally's desk. This time Armstrong didn't have a dozen bottles of

claret to settle the account, so he invited Hallet to become company

secretary.

Once

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