شام با آقای گلدفینگر

CHAPTER SIX

Dinner with Mr. Goldfinger

Bond went back to his hotel room and had a shower. While he was drying himself, a member of the hotel staff knocked at the door.

‘There’s a phone message from Mr. Goldfinger, sir,’ he said. ‘He would like to invite you to dinner at his house tonight. He lives at The Grange, in Reculver. Can you arrive at six’thirty?’

‘Please tell Mr. Goldfinger that I’ll be delighted to have dinner with him,’ replied Bond. He felt very pleased. He’d beaten Goldfinger twice and now Goldfinger was interested in him. Goldfinger wanted to find out more about Bond. He wanted to find a way to fight him and win.

Just after six o’clock, Bond drove to Reculver. He turned off the main road and followed the path leading up to Goldfinger’s house. The Grange was a dark and ugly house. To the right of it there were tall trees, and a tall factory chimney was behind them.

Bond rang the front door bell. The same Korean who had come to Royal St Marks with Goldfinger that afternoon opened the door. He was still wearing his bowler hat.

He led Bond into a large gloomy living room. A small fire was burning in the fireplace. Two armchairs were in front of the fire and there was a tray of drinks on a table between them. There were stairs leading from the living room to the floor above. All the decorations and furniture in the room were dark and ugly.

The Korean pointed silently to the drinks tray, then went out through a door at one side of the room.

Bond heard a phone ringing somewhere in the house. Then there was the sound of a voice and footsteps coming down a passage. A door under the wooden staircase opened and Goldfinger appeared. He was wearing a purple dinner jacket.

‘It was very kind of you to come, Mr. Bond,’ he said. ‘But I’m afraid that I have to leave you for a short time. I’ve just had a phone call. One of my Korean staff is in trouble with the police. I have to go and talk to them and find out what the problem is. My servant will drive me there. Please have a drink. I won’t be more than half an hour.’

‘That’s fine,’ said Bond.

‘This room is very dark,’ said Goldfinger. ‘I’ll put the lights on.’ He turned on a switch and suddenly lights shone all round the room. Now it was as bright as a film studio.

A few minutes later, Bond heard the sound of a car going away down the drive. He looked round the hall. Why had Goldfinger left him alone? Was it a trap? Bond looked at his watch. Five minutes had passed since Goldfinger had left. Bond decided to take a risk. Even if Goldfinger had prepared a trap, this was a good opportunity to look round the house while Goldfinger was away. The factory would be a good place to start.

Bond opened the door that Goldfinger’s servant had gone through and found himself in a passage. He walked along the passage and out through a door at the end. He was now standing in a courtyard. The long wall of the factory was on the other side of the courtyard. Bond crossed the courtyard and looked through a window into the factory.

Inside Goldfinger’s factory there were two blast furnaces for melting metal. The whole building was lit with very bright lights. Under the powerful lights, Bond saw four Koreans working on Goldfinger’s Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost. They had taken the door off the right side of the car and they were fitting a new panel of metal into it. ‘Nothing interesting there,’ thought Bond. He went back to the living room and looked at his watch. He had ten minutes before Goldfinger returned! He decided to check the rooms upstairs. Bond climbed the stairs and walked along the passage. He opened doors and looked inside the rooms.

But none of them had furniture in them.

Suddenly, a large, ginger-red cat appeared. It rubbed its body against Bond’s trouser legs and followed him.

Bond opened a door at the end of the passage and found that he was in Goldfinger’s bedroom. All the lights in the room were on. Bond looked around quickly but he couldn’t see anything unusual. The room was comfortable, with large cupboards and a small shelf of books beside the bed.

Bond glanced at his watch again. There were only five minutes before Goldfinger came back! It was time to go. He took a last look round the room and moved to the door. Suddenly he stopped and listened carefully. There was a soft sound coming from one of the cupboards. It was the sound of a machine with an electric motor.

Bond carefully opened the cupboard door. The noise of the motor was coming from behind some coats. He pushed them out of the way and saw three separate strips of film. They were moving down from three slots near the top of the cupboard and falling into a deep container.

So this was the trap! Three cine-cameras had been filming Bond from the time that Goldfinger had left the house. The cameras must be hidden somewhere in the living room, the courtyard outside the factory, and Goldfinger’s bedroom. When Goldfinger had switched on the lights, he’d also switched on the cameras.

Now Goldfinger would know that Bond had been looking round his house. What could Bond do? He heard a soft cry from beside the bedroom door. The cat! It had followed him into the room.

Suddenly Bond had an idea. He’d thought of a way to destroy the film. And Goldfinger would think that the cat had done it.

Bond picked up the cat. Holding the animal in his arms, he leant over the container and began to pick up the long strips of film. The bright light coming through the open cupboard door exposed the film - it destroyed the pictures on it. Now Goldfinger would have no pictures of Bond searching the house.

When Bond was sure that all the film was exposed, he put the strips back into the container. Then he dropped the cat down on top of the strips of film. The cat couldn’t get out of the deep container. It lay down on top of the strips and went to sleep. ‘Goldfinger will think that the cat pushed open the door of the cupboard,’ Bond said to himself. ‘Then it wanted to play with the moving strips of film, so it jumped into the container. He’ll believe that the bright light in the room exposed the film.’

Bond ran back along the passage and down the stairs to the living room. He poured himself a drink, picked up a magazine, and sat down in one of the chairs. He didn’t hear the sound of a car coming back, but suddenly the front door opened. Goldfinger had entered the room.

‘Hello,’ Bond said, turning round. ‘Is everything OK?’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Goldfinger. ‘It was a misunderstanding. I talked to the police and they let my servant go. You had to wait here alone. I’m sorry about that. I hope that you weren’t bored. I’ll just go upstairs and wash. Then we’ll have dinner.’

Goldfinger walked up the stairs and along the passage. There was silence. Bond had another drink and read more of the magazine. Then he heard Goldfinger coming back down the stairs. He looked up. Goldfinger was standing in front of him with the ginger cat in his arms.

‘Goldfinger found the cat in the cupboard,’ Bond said to himself. ‘He must have seen the exposed film too.’

Goldfinger rang a bell beside the fireplace.

‘Do you like cats,’ he asked Bond.

‘They’re OK,’ Bond replied.

The door opened and Goldfinger’s Korean servant came into the room. He was wearing his bowler hat and a pair of shiny black gloves.

‘This is Oddjob,’ said Goldfinger, turning to Bond. ‘I call him Oddjob because he does all kinds of work for me. He can’t speak. Oddjob, show Mr. Bond your hands.’

Oddjob pulled off his gloves and held out his hands. They were huge and strong, and all the fingers were the same length. Oddjob turned his hands over and Bond saw that the servant had no fingernails. Down the edge of each hand there was a hard line of thick, shiny skin.

Goldfinger pointed to the thick wooden banister that went up beside the stairs. He nodded to Oddjob and the Korean servant walked over to the banister. He lifted his right hand high above his head and brought it down across the banister. The edge of his hand struck the banister like an axe. The powerful blow broke the banister and pieces of wood fell down onto the floor.

‘His feet are as powerful as his hands,’ said Goldfinger. ‘Oddjob, the mantelpiece.’ He pointed to the heavy shelf of wood above the fireplace. It was about six inches higher than the top of Oddjob’s bowler hat.

Goldfinger nodded and Oddjob leapt high in the air. His right foot struck the mantelpiece and Bond heard a terrible noise as the mantelpiece broke.

Bond stared at Oddjob in astonishment. He’d never met anyone like him before. Oddjob was tremendously strong. He was like a machine.

‘Good, Oddjob,’ said Goldfinger. ‘Here.’ He threw the cat to Oddjob, who caught it quickly. ‘I’m tired of this animal. You may have it for dinner.’ Oddjob smiled a cruel smile.

Bond felt disgusted but he was careful not to show his feelings. Goldfinger suspected that Bond, not the cat, had found the film and destroyed it. Goldfinger was giving Bond a warning by showing Oddjob’s strength and cruelty. And Bond understood this.

‘Why does he always wear that bowler hat,’ asked Bond calmly, looking at the servant.

‘Oddjob,’ called Goldfinger as the servant was leaving the room. ‘The hat!’ He pointed at a wooden panel on the wall near the fireplace.

Oddjob was holding the cat under his left arm. He lifted his right hand, took the hat off his head and threw it at the panel. There was a ringing sound. The edge of the bowler hat stuck deep in the panel.

Goldfinger smiled at Bond.

‘Oddjob’s hat is made of a light but strong metal,’ he said. ‘It’s a very useful weapon. That blow would have smashed a man’s head or cut his neck.’

‘Yes, indeed,’ said Bond politely. Oddjob pulled his hat out of the panel and went out. ‘Time for dinner,’ said Goldfinger. He led the way through into a dining room. In the centre of the room, a round table was prepared for a meal. The table had lighted candles, silver cutlery and sparkling glasses on it. Bond and Goldfinger were served an excellent dinner by Goldfinger’s Korean staff.

‘Your Rolls-Royce is a beautiful car,’ said Bond. ‘Was it made in about 1925?’

‘Yes,’ said Goldfinger. ‘I’ve had to make some changes to it. For example, I had to increase the power of the brakes. The body of the car is armour-plated so it’s very heavy.’

‘What happens when you take the car to Europe,’ asked Bond. ‘Isn’t it too heavy for a plane?’

‘I book a whole plane for myself,’ replied Goldfinger. ‘I book with the Silver City company. Their planes fly from Ferryfield Airport. I go to Europe twice a year on golfing holidays, so they know me well. In fact, I’m going to Europe tomorrow.’

They talked about money and Bond’s work at Universal Export. Bond told Goldfinger that he wanted to leave the company. Bond was still hoping that Goldfinger would offer him a job. But Goldfinger didn’t seem very interested.

After dinner, Goldfinger got up from the table and went towards the front door. Bond followed and held out his hand. ‘Well, many thanks for the excellent dinner,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we’ll meet again one day.’

Goldfinger looked closely at Bond and shook his hand slowly. ‘I’m sure that we will meet again,’ he said.

All the way back to his hotel, Bond thought about what Goldfinger had said. What did he mean? Was he going to make contact with Bond again?

Bond decided that he would follow Goldfinger to Europe. But he would have to be careful - very careful.