Traitor's Purse is a crime novel written by Margery Allingham.

It was originally
published in 1941 in the United Kingdom by Heinemann, London and in the United
States by Doubleday, New York as The Sabotage Murder Mystery. It is the eleventh
novel in the Albert Campion series and is set during the Second World War.

Contents
1 Plot introduction
2 Plot summary
3 Characters in "Traitor's Purse"
4 Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
5 References
6 External links
Plot introduction
Albert Campion wakes in hospital suffering from amnesia. He knows there is
something vital he must do, but he cannot remember what it is – or even his own
name. He finds himself on the run, suspected of attacking a policeman, as he tries
to avert a catastrophe.

The action takes place during the early years of the Second World War in the
fictional town of Bridge in South West England, which is run by an ancient
hereditary organisation, the Masters of Bridge.

Traitor's Purse (1941), 2006 Vintage paperback edition

Plot summary
In the early days of World War II, a man wakes in a country hospital to find he
cannot remember anything prior to his arrival except that he has something vital to
do, somehow connected to the number fifteen. He hears voices outside discussing an
unconscious patient – who they say has killed a policeman and will be hanged.
Assuming that he is the patient being discussed, the man escapes in a stolen car
but soon realises he is being followed. Instead of the police, however, the car is
driven by a woman who appears to assisting the amnesiac man in his mission; she
refers to him as "Albert Campion". The car also contains an old man, Mr Anscombe.
After seeing Anscombe home, the two continue to the house of Lee Aubrey, the head
of a local scientific research body called the Institute, with whom they are
staying. Campion begins to remember the woman, who is called Amanda, and due to
their familiarity begins to assume that they are married, only to be shocked when
Amanda informs him she wants to break off their engagement. As such, he does not
tell her about his amnesia.

Campion receives a letter from Stanislaus Oates, an acquaintance from Scotland

Yard, telling him to investigate Anscombe – moments before Superintendent Hutch of
the local police arrives to inform the party that Anscombe is dead. Campion, the
last person to see Anscombe alive, accompanies Hutch to the scene of the death, and
the two are joined by Pyne, a fellow guest of Aubrey's. Pyne's familiar, friendly
manner convinces Campion that the two are friends, prompting him to confide in
Pyne. Campion is thus horrified when, after Pyne leaves, Hutch informs him that
they had only met three days before.

Amanda tells Campion that she is falling in love with Lee Aubrey, causing him
further anguish. Later that night, Hutch arrives at Aubrey's home in secret to meet
with Campion; the two had previously arranged a covert mission into the nearby town
of Bridge. Hutch smuggles Campion into the Council Chamber, a meeting place for a
local organisation of dignitaries known as the Masters of Bridge, which is built
into caves in a hill overlooking the town. Bluffing his way through an
investigation of the site, Campion finds an agenda for a meeting which mentions
Minute Fifteen, and Anscombe's sudden retirement from the order. Exploring further,
he finds a vast cavern filled with hundreds of trucks.
The next day, Aubrey takes Campion for a tour of the Institute, a scientific where
they meet Mrs Ericson, whose volunteer workers are housed in the Institute grounds
– she is clearly infatuated with Aubrey. They also meet a researcher who is
developing a new, very powerful explosive. Hutch approaches Campion, asking him
questions to prove his identity; Campion realises that Pyne has hinted that Campion
might be an imposter, and ironically due to his amnesia he cannot prove his true
identity. Panicking, he knocks Hutch out and flees to the nearby town of
Coachingford. There, on instinct, he enters a local newsagent's shop where in a
backroom he encounters a man who recognises him—his manservant, Lugg. Campion
confides to Lugg about his condition, and Lugg shows him a basket filled with a
large sum of bank notes that Campion left on his previous visit.

Soon after, a sinister man with a gun arrives at the newsagents and attempts to
bribe Campion to leave town. Upon realising that Campion is not the imposter he
suspects him to be, the man panics and flees. Amanda summons Campion to a nearby
hotel where he meets the sister of Mr Anscombe. Miss Anscombe gives Campion her
brother's diary, and tells him she believes he was smuggling contraband in the
caves under the hill. The hotel is surrounded by both police and criminals, so
Campion escapes over the roofs and catches a train to London where he meets Sir
Henry Bull, a high-ranking member of HM Treasury and one of the Masters of Bridge.
He tells Campion that Minute Fifteen is a war loan, details of which are going to
be mailed to every taxpayer in the country. Realising Pyne's involvement with the
affair, Campion rushes back to Coachingford but is arrested at the train station.
Panicking and desperate, Campion attempts to escape the police station but is
violently subdued by the skeptical officers and knocked unconscious.

Upon awakening, Campion's memories of the events preceding his arrival at the
hospital are restored. He remembers that he and Oates were investigating a
counterfeiting operation undercover, but had been ambushed by their enemies and
assaulted, causing Campion's amnesia. The prisoner that was being discussed when
Campion awoke was in fact the unconscious and disguised Oates. When Amanda arrives
to post bail, Campion finally realises what the scheme he must foil is; an attempt
to flood the United Kingdom with large sums of counterfeit money, which would
devalue the pound sterling, cause inflation to skyrocket and destabilise the
economy and the government. The money is to be posted at the same time as news
about the Minute Fifteen war loan, disguised as a social security payment to the
poor. Campion manages to get himself released barely in time to make it back to the
caves under the Council Chamber, where he discovers that the money is about to be
transported. Using the experimental explosive he was shown at the Institute,
Campion manages to destroy the counterfeit money, killing Pyne and several of his
men in the process.

Afterwards, Campion and Hutch realise Pyne could not have carried out the plan by
himself. The mastermind is revealed to be Lee Aubrey. Aubrey confidently admits
what he has done—having decided that the government was too inefficiently run to
survive, he intended to use the scheme to bring down the government and install
himself as a technocratic dictator in its place. Afterwards, Amanda and Campion
talk, and Amanda admits that Aubrey had lost interest in her once he had convinced
her that she was in love with him. Realising he has taken Amanda for granted,
Campion proposes that they marry the next day, and she agrees.