| |||||
|
III
Philip grasped her shoulder.
He said, and his voice was urgent and grim:
‘This settles it. Armstrong is in hiding somewhere in that house. I’m go-
ing to get him.’
But Vera clung to him. She cried:
‘Don’t be a fool. It’s us now! We’re next! He wants us to look for him!
He’s counting on it!’
Philip stopped. He said thoughtfully:
‘There’s something in that.’
Vera cried:
‘At any rate you do admit now I was right.’
He nodded.
‘Yes—you win! It’s Armstrong all right. But where the devil did he hide
himself? We went over the place with a fine-tooth comb.’
Vera said urgently:
‘If you didn’t find him last night, you won’t find him now…That’s common
sense.’
Lombard said reluctantly:
‘Yes, but—’
‘He must have prepared a secret place beforehand — naturally — of
course it’s just what he would do. You know, like a Priest’s Hole in old
manor houses.’
‘This isn’t an old house of that kind.’
‘He could have had one made.’
Philip Lombard shook his head. He said:
‘We measured the place—that first morning. I’ll swear there’s no space
unaccounted for.’
Vera said:
‘There must be…’
Lombard said:
‘I’d like to see—’
Vera cried:
‘Yes, you’d like to see! And he knows that! He’s in there—waiting for
you.’
Lombard said, half bringing out the revolver from his pocket:
‘I’ve got this, you know.’
‘You said Blore was all right—that he was more than a match for Arm-
strong. So he was physically, and he was on the look out too. But what you
don’t seem to realize is that Armstrong is mad! And a madman has all the
advantages on his side. He’s twice as cunning as any one sane can be.’
Lombard put back the revolver in his pocket. He said:
‘Come on, then.’
IV
Lombard said at last:
‘What are we going to do when night comes?’
Vera didn’t answer. He went on accusingly:
‘You haven’t thought of that?’
She said helplessly:
‘What can we do? Oh, my God, I’m frightened…’
Philip Lombard said thoughtfully:
‘It’s fine weather. There will be a moon. We must find a place—up by
the top cliffs perhaps. We can sit there and wait for morning. We mustn’t
go to sleep…We must watch the whole time. And if any one comes up to-
wards us, I shall shoot!’
He paused:
‘You’ll be cold, perhaps, in that thin dress?’
Vera said with a raucous laugh:
‘Cold? I should be colder if I were dead!’
Philip Lombard said quietly:
‘Yes, that’s true…’
Vera moved restlessly.
She said:
‘I shall go mad if I sit here any longer. Let’s move about.’
‘All right.’
They paced slowly up and down, along the line of the rocks overlooking
the sea. The sun was dropping towards the west. The light was golden and
mellow. It enveloped them in a golden glow.
Vera said, with a sudden nervous little giggle:
‘Pity we can’t have a bathe…’
Philip was looking down towards the sea. He said abruptly:
‘What’s that, there? You see—by that big rock? No—a little farther to the
right.’
Vera stared. She said:
‘It looks like somebody’s clothes!’
‘A bather, eh?’ Lombard laughed. ‘Queer. I suppose it’s only seaweed.’
Vera said:
‘Let’s go and look.’
‘It is clothes,’ said Lombard as they drew nearer. ‘A bundle of them.
That’s a boot. Come on, let’s scramble along here.’
They scrambled over the rocks.
Vera stopped suddenly. She said:
‘It’s not clothes—it’s a man…’
The man was wedged between two rocks, flung there by the tide earlier
in the day.
Lombard and Vera reached it in a last scramble. They bent down.
A purple discoloured face—a hideous drowned face… Lombard said:
‘My God! it’s Armstrong…’
|
|||||
- 发表评论
-
- 最新评论 进入详细评论页>>
