The Fourth Estate (44 page)

Once his funds
had been deposited, Armstrong cleared all his debts, which left him with less
than £40 in the account. He told Sally that in future she should not pay any bills
over 00 until they had received at least three demands for payment.

Charlotte,
already six months pregnant with their second child, joined Dick in London a
few days after he had signed the lease on the Knightsbridge flat. When she was
first shown round the four rooms, she didn’t comment on how small they were
compared with their spacious apartment in Berlin. She was only too happy to
have escaped from Germany.

As Armstrong
traveled to and from the office by bus each day, he wondered how long it would be
before he had a car and a driver. Once the company had been registered, he flew
to Berlin arid talked a reluctant Hahn into a loan of ~1,000. He returned to
London with a check and a dozen manuscripts, having promised that they would be
translated within days, and that the money would be repaid as soon as he signed
the first foreign distribution deal. But he was facing a problem that he
couldn’t admit to Hahn. Although Sally spent hours on the phone trying to
arrange appointments with the chairmen of all the leading scientific publishing
houses in London, she quickly discovered that their doors didn’t open for
Captain Armstrong MC in the way they had done in Berlin.

On those
evenings when he got home before midnight, Charlotte would ask him how the
business was doing. “Never better” took the place of “top secret.” But she
couldn’t help noticing that thin brown envelopes were regularly dropping
through their letterbox, and seemed to get stuffed into the nearest drawer,
unopened. When she flew out to Lyon for the birth of their second child, Dick
assured her that by the time she returned he would have signed his first big
contract.

Ten days later,
while Armstrong was dictating an answer to the one letter he’d received that
morning, there was a knock on tile door. Sally bustled across the room to open
it, and came face to face with their first custorner. Geoffrey Bailey, a
Canadian who represented a small publisher in Montreal, had actually got out of
the lift on the wrong floor. But an hour later he left clutching three German
scientific manuscripts. Once he had had them translated, and had realized their
commercial potential, he returned with a check, and signed a contract for the
Canadian and French rights on all three books.

Armstrong banked
the check, but didn’t bother to inform Julius Hahn of the transaction.

1-hanks to Mr.
Bailey, by the time Charlotte arrived back at Heathrow six weeks later,
carrying Nicole in her arms, Dick had signed two more contracts, with
publishers from Spain and Belgium. She was surprised to find that he had
acquired a large Dodge automobile, and that Private Benson was behind the
wheel. What he didn’t tell her was that the Dodge was on the “never never,” and
that he couldn’t always afford to pay Benson at the end of the week.

“It impresses
the customers,” he said, and assured her that business was looking better and
better. She tried to ignore the fact that some of his stories had changed since
she’d been away, and that the unopened brown envelopes remained in the drawer.
But even she was impressed when he told her that Colonel Oakshott was back in
London, and had visited Dick and asked him if he knew of anyone who might
employ an old soldier.

Armstrong had
been the fifth person he had approached, and none of the others had anything to
offer someone of his age or seniority. T’he following day Oakshott had been
appointed to the board of Armstrong Communications at a salary of £1,000 a
year, although his monthly check wasn’t always honored on the first
presentation.

Once the first
three manuscripts had been published in Canada, France, Belgium and Spain, more
and more foreign publishers began to get out of the lift on the right floor,
later leaving Armstrong’s office carrying long typewritten lists of all the
books whose rights were available.

As Armstrong
began to close an increasing number of deals, he cut down on his trips to
Berlin, sending Colonel Oakshott in his place, and giving him the unenviable
task ofexplaining tolulius Hahn why the cash flowwas so slow. Oakshott
continued to believe everything Armstrong told him-after all, hadn’t they
served as officers in the same regiment?-and so, for some time, did Hahn.

But despite the
occasional coup with foreign houses, Armstrong was still having no luck in
convincing a leading British publisher to take on the rights to his books.
After months of being told, “I’ll get back to You, Captain Armstrong,” he began
to wonderjUst how long it was going to take him to push open the door that
would allow him to become part of the British publishing establishment.

It was on an
October morning when Armstrong was staring across at the massive edifices of
the Globe and the Glizen-the nation’s two most popular dailies-that Sally told
him a journalist from The Times was on the line.

Armstrong
nodded.

“I’ll put you
through to Captain Armstrong,” she said.

Armstrong
crossed the room and took the receiver from her hand. “It’s Dick Armstrong,
chairman of Armstrong Communications. How can I help you?”

“My name is
Neville Andrade. I’m the science correspondent of The Times.

I recently
picked up the French edition of one of Julius Hahn’s publications, The Germans
and (be Atom Bomb, and was curious to know how many other titles you have in
translation.” Armstrong put the phone down an hour later, having told Andrade
his life story and promised that his driver would have the complete list of
titles on his desk by midday.

When he arrived
at the office late the following morning, because of what Londoners described
as a pea-souper, Sally told him she had taken seven calls in twenty minutes. As
the phone rang again, she pointed to his desk. A copy of The Times lay open at
the science page. Armstrong sat down and began to read Andrade’s long piece
about the atom bomb and how, despite losing the war, German scientists still
remained far ahead of the rest of the world in many fields.

The phone rang
again, but he remained puzzled as to why Sally was being besieged until he came
to the final paragraph of the article. “The key to this information is held by
Captain Richard Armstrong MC, who controls the translation rights in all the
publications of the prestigious Julius Hahn empire.”

Within days, the
phrase “We’ll get back to you, Captain Armstrong,” became “I’m sure we can
match those terms, Dick,” and he began selecting which houses would be allowed
to publish his manuscripts and distribute his magazines. People he had never
been able to get an appointment with in the past were inviting him to lunch at
the Garrick, even if, having met him, they didn’t go as far as suggesting he
should become a member.

By the end of
the year Armstrong had finally returned the C 1,000, and it was no longer
possible for Colonel Oakshott to convince Hahn that his chairman was still
having a tough time getting anyone to sign a contract.

Oakshott was
glad Hahn couldn’t see that the Dodge had been replaced by a Bentley, and that
Benson was now wearing a smart gray uniform and a peaked cap. Armstrong’s
newest problem was to find suitable new offices and qualified staff, so that he
could keep up with the rapid expansion. When the floors above and below him
fell vacant, he signed new leases for them within hours.

It was at the
annual reunion of the North Staffordshire Regiment at the Caf6 Royal that
Armstrong bumped into Major Wakeham. He discovered that Peter had just been
demobbed, and was about to take up a job in personnel with the Great Western
Railway. Armstrong spent the rest of the evening persuading him that Armstrong
Communications was a better prospect. Peter joined him as general manager the
following Monday.

Once Peter had
settled in, Armstrong began to travel all over the world-from Montreal to New
York to Tokyo to Christchurch-selling Hahn manuscripts, and always demanding
large advances. He began to place the money in several different bank accounts,
with the result that even Sally couldn’t be quite sure just how much the
company had on deposit at any one time, or where it was located. Whenever he
was back in England, he found his small staff quite unable to keep Lip with the
demands of an ever-growing order book. And Charlotte had become tired of him
commenting on how much the children had grown.

When the lease
for the entire building in Fleet Street came on the market, he immediately
snapped it up. Now even the most skeptical potential customer who visited him
in his new offices accepted that Captain Armstrong was safe to do business
with. Rumors reached Berlin of Armstrong’s success, but Hahn’s letters
requesting details of sales figures country by Country, sight of all overseas
contracts and audited accounts were studiously ignored.

Colonel
Oakshott, who was left to report Hahn’s growing incredulity at Armstrong’s
claims that the company was having difficulty in breaking even, was treated
more and more like a messenger boy, despite the fact that he had recently been
appointed deputy chairman. But even after Oakshott threatened to resign, and
Stephen Hallet warned Armstrong that he had received a letter from Hahn’s
London solicitors threatening to terminate their partnership, Armstrong remained
unperturbed. He felt confident that as long as the law prevented Hahn from
traveling outside Germany, he had no way of discovering how large his empire
had grown, and therefore how much 50 percent actually represented.

Within weeks of
Winston Churchill’s government being returned to power in 195 1, all
restrictions on travel for German citizens were lifted.

Armstrong was
not surprised to learn from the colonel that Hahn’s and Schultzs first trip
abroad would be to London.

After a long consultation
with a KC at Gray’s Inn, the two Germans took a taxi to Fleet Street for a
meeting with their overseas partner. Hahn’s habit of punctuality had not
deserted him in old age, and Sally met the two men in reception. She guided
them up to Dick’s vast new office, and hoped they were suitably impressed by
the hustle and bustle of activity that was taking place all around them.

They entered
Armstrong’s office to be greeted with the expansive smile they both remembered
so well. Schultz was shocked by how much weight the captain had put on, and
didn’t care for his colorful bow tie.

“Welcome, my
dear old friends,” Armstrong began, holding out his arms like a large bear. “it
has been far too long.” He appeared surprised to receive a cool response, but
he ushercd thmi to the comfortable seats on the other side of his partner’s
desk, then returned to an elevated chair which allowed hirn to tower over them.
Behind him on the wall hung a large blown-up photograph of Field Marshal
Montgomery pinning the Militarv Cross on the young captain’s chest.

Once Sally had
I)OUred his guests Brazilian coffee served in bone china cups, Hahn wasted no
time in trying to tell Armstrong-as he referred to him-the purpose of their
visit. He was just about to embark on his well-prepared speech when one of the
four phones on the desk began ringing, Armstrong grabbed it, and Hahn assumed
that he would instruct his secretary to hold all further calls. But instead he
began an intense conversation in Russian. No sooner had he fini%hed than
another phone rang, and he started a fresh dialogue in French. Hahn and Schultz
hid their misgivings and waited patiently for Captain Armstrong to complete the
calls.

“So sorry,” said
Armstrong, after he had finally put the third phone down, “but as you can see,
the damn thing never stops ringing. And 50 percent of it,” he added with a
broad smile, “is on your behalf.”

Hahn was just
about to begin his speech a second time, when Armstrong Pulled open his top
drawer and took out a box of Havana cigars, a sight neither of his guests had
seen for over ten years. He pushed the box across the desk. Hahn waved a hand
in dismissal, and Schultz reluctantly followed his chairman’s lead.

Hahn tried to
begin a third time.

“By the way,”
said Armstrong, “I’ve booked a table for lunch at the Savoy Grill. Anybody
who’s anybody eats at the Grill.” He gave them another expansive smile.

“We are not free
for lunch,” said Hahn curtly.

“But we have so
much to discuss,” insisted Armstrong, not least catching up on old times.”

“We have very
little to discuss,” said Hahn. “Especially old times.”

Armstrong was
silenced for a moment.

“I am sorry to
have to inform you, Captain Armstrong,” Hahn continued, “that we have decided
to terminate our arrangement with you.”

“But thats not
possible,” said Armstrong. “We have a binding legal agreement.”

“You have
obviously not read the document for some time,” said Hahn. “If you had, you
would be only too aware of the penalties for failing to fulfill your financial
obligations to us.”

“But I intend to
fulfill “ ‘In the event of non-payment, after twelve months all overseas rights
automatically revert to the parent company.’ “ Hahn sounded as if he knew the
clause off by heart.

“But I can clear
all my obligations immediately,” said Armstrong, not at all certain that he
could.