The Pride of the Peacock (44 page)

Her face puckered and she looked as though she were going to burst into tears.

5 “I could see it in Mr. Madden’s face. I could see he wasn’t going to let it rest. Someone had threatened you and he’ll find out too much.

He’s like Mr. Henniker. He’ll go on and on until he gets to the bottom of things . and I’ve gotj stop him. ” Tou will never be able to.”

She looked cunning. The Flash has the answer. The Flash always has the answer. There’s no beating the Flash. It’s only when I don’t let myself listen that I go wrong . like burying that purse. That was silly. I took it because I wanted them to think it was for robbery. I should have thrown it away in the Bush somewhere. Then it wouldn’t have mattered if it had been found. So then I had to get it back and that was wrong . ,. I won’t act without the Flash again. The Flash is all-powerful. No one can go against it. ” You tried to kill me and you didn’t. Twice you’ve failed.”

“I didn’t Understand what the Hash was telling me.”

“And you think you do now ?”

un yes. I’ve got it all clear now.

Oh God, I prayed, help me to fight off this overwhelming desire to shut my eyes and escape into oblivion, help me to keep awake. While I’m awake I’m safe. I’ve got to keep her talking.

“It won’t work, Mrs. Laud,” I said.

She looked startled.

“You have drugged me. You’ve got so far and you think you’re going to kill me.”

She nodded, smiling benignly. She looked down at her hands and stretched her fingers, flexing them.

“Suppose you kill me,” I went on.

“I shall be in this room. How will you explain what happened to me? You’ll be exposed as a murderess.

They don’t let murderesses live, Mrs. Laud. So what good will it do you ? “

“You won’t be here,” she said.

“You’ll disappear.” She laughed and it was a demoniacal laughter that sent cold shivers down my spine. It reminded me that I was fighting for my life with a woman who was mad and yet had the strength to kill me. One false step could be the end of me. I could see no way of escape. I felt trapped.

In the palm of her hands she still held the Green Flash. She seemed as though she could not put it down, as though she were afraid that if she let it go some power would leave her.

All these months when I had been living in this house with her she had been mad.

I did not speak because while she forgot my presence, as she appeared to now, I was gaining precious moments. She would not touch me while I was conscious. She was not by nature a violent woman; it was only this thing which had possessed her which could make her capable of perpetrating acts of violence.

I thought of Joss . I could not stop thinking of Joss. I was still tingling with memories of our encounter. There was so much explaining to do . but one fact surpassed all others. He had come down into the mine to bring me up. He had risked his life to save me. He had come riding to the mine with all speed when he had seen the letter. He loved me. He wanted me. Those steps in the corridor had been his. He had given Isa Bannock the Harlequin to sting me into awareness of my true feelings and he had done so, because it was after this that I had realized my need of him. We had both been foolish; we had refused to see the truth. Ben had been wiser

tnan we nau. auu iiuw wiicii i saw n cic any l was in deadly danger of losing it. Our pride had kept us apart-mine no less than Joss’s; and now in his ignorance he had left me ]F alone with the murderess.

son Death faced me and if it was victorious I would never know ou the life Joss had promised me. I could see two roads stretch-ring out before me-one ended abruptly in death and the other was full of exciting twists and turns which life with Joss ‘, would be. I should long ago have started down that road.

Why had I been such a fool as to fear it ? Oh, where are you now. Joss? I wondered. I want us to start to live. now.

Where would it end? He was off on a false trail, hunting for Jeremy Dickson who was no doubt sitting in his Sydney office discussing the properties of certain stones which had recently been found in the Fancy mines. Mrs. Laud was remembering.

“Everything is ready. It’s in the garden … I shall bury you ( there and no one will think to look. I shall hide your travelling bag and some of your clothes will be missing.”

p “You couldn’t do it, Mrs. Laud. Think what happened to Ezra Bannock’s purse. The Flash wasn’t very clever about that, was it?”

a “I told you that it did not want that. It was where I went wrong. I wouldn’t mock it, if I were you. It’d never forgive you. It was warning me then. It was saying: ” Bury her deep. 5 No one must find her like she found the purse . “”

“Still you were wrong about the purse.”

“It was meant as a warning to me. It was a preparation for this. That’s how it happens sometimes.”

“It seems strange to be sitting here discussing my burial.”

“What are you getting at, Mrs. Madden? You’ve always been one for a joke. But this is no joke. I shall tell them that you have the Green Flash, that you showed it to me, that I tried to persuade you to give it up. That you’ve gone right away with the Flash.”

“It wouldn’t be possible. Unless you are going to kill Wattle and bury her too.”

“Oh no. You’ll have gone away with someone who came for you. He brought horses and you rode away together.”

“Jeremy Dickson, I suppose.” That could do for a start. “

“And when he comes back?” The Flash will know. Why don’t you go to

sleep? It’s better if you do. Then we can get it over “I’m not going to sleep.”

“You must. You can’t help it.”

She was wildly fanatical. I saw the greed in her eyes and I thought:

This stone has done this to her. She means to do exactly what she has told me. This stone ruined my mother’s life and now I may well die because of it. I have seen it and that is enough, for I understand what it can do. There is evil in it and it has taken possession of this woman.

I gripped the table. Waves and waves of weariness swept over me. I tried not to think of the softness of a feather bed and downy pillows.

I thought of death and Joss’s coming back and finding me gone. Would he really believe that I had gone off with Jeremy Dickson . and later when Jeremy returned, with some person unknown . taking with me the Green Flash?

Others had been possessed by that stone. Would he believe that it could happen to me?

I must stay alive. I was fighting for my life as I had never fought for anything. I must remind myself that all that stood between joss and me and our exciting future was a madwoman.

I heard myself saying over and over again: “You could never do it…”

I saw her face as though it floated before me . the mask down . the madness of the possessed, and I knew that her very madness would give her the powers she needed.

The scene in this room was getting more and more remote. I felt that I was outside looking in on the actions of others:

myself limp and lifeless being dragged to a spot in the garden where the sandy loose soU encroached on the cultivated part. It would be easy to bury me quickly there and later she would make ,a better job of it. She would give me a deeper grave. She would take my clothes away and hide them . I saw Joss returning from the hunt for Jeremy Dickson which would prove fruitless. How could it be otherwise when he was working in Sydney? I could see his anger, his fury, his wounded pride. How. he had hated to be repulsed by me! How he had retaliated by wounding me through Isa Bannock!

And now he would believe that I had deceived him. How could he? Her plan could not work. With whom should I have gone off? There was no one who could possibly be suspected.

Yet who would believe that the quiet unassuming housekeeper could be capable of such diabolical plans? But it was

not really this one. It was the devil which possessed her. I; I heard myself murmuring: “No … no .. no …” hap The minutes were ticking by.

son “Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo …” said the silly little bird in out her dock. I could hear the cuckoos going on and on in my tur head, as I felt myself slipping away. But every time I brought myself back. I s. She was getting worried.

“I don’t understand this. You should be off by now.” tw “My will-power is stronger than your drug, Mrs. Laud.” bli “Why,” she said, ‘anyone would think you had the Hash. “

“It is mine … by right. I share it jointly with my husband. Perhaps it knows that.” I saw the real fear in her eyes.

Tes/ I went on.

“It knows. See how it shines for me. It cc knows it is mine.”

“No, no. I’ve had it all this time. It’s not the one who owns it by law. It was meant to be mine. I’d never had anything t very much before but with the Flash I had everything. It’s possession that counts. All this time ifs worked for me.” n “But not against me, Mrs. Laud. You made an accident for Tom Paling. You killed Ezra Bannock. You lured me to the stairs but see how I saved myself.

Then you tried the mine a and I was rescued. “

Her face had turned a pale grey.

You see,” I went on, ‘the Flash won’t hurt me because I’m’s the true owner. It’s mine, Mrs. Laud.”

Til never give it up. never,” she screamed.

“Look, Mrs. Laud, it’s only a piece of opal… silica deposited at some time in the rock. How can you attach special powers to that?”

She looked at me as though she did not understand what I was talking about.

“It’s done you a great deal of harm,” I went on.

“Don’t you see?” She stared at me blankly.

Oh, thank you. God, I prayed, I’m fighting off my sleepiness. I’m going to do it. I’m going to live. Keep her talking. Keep remembering that Joss is waiting for you and you are going to start to live as you never have before.

“You’ve become obsessed by a stone … by a legend … you’ve built all this up in your mind, but it doesn’t really exist.”

“How dare you call it just a stone. You haven’t lived with it. You haven’t held it in your hands. Look now …”

“Yes, let me see it. Let me hold it in my hands.”

She shook her head craftily.

“Oh no. You can see it from where you are. Look at it. It’s the sun going down into the sea. If you look closely you might catch a sudden flash of green. That’s what the sun does and that’s what my Green Flash does too.”

I was alert suddenly. I thought I heard sounds from below.

Someone was coming. I looked at her, but she was staring at the opal absorbed in the wonder of it and her own beliefs.

Waves of relief were sweeping over me. I believed I had won.

The door was flung open. Joss was there. Someone else was with him. It was Jimson.

Jimson cried out in a voice of anguish: “Mother.”

She stood up, her eyes on her son.

“You’ve brought him back,” she screamed. ‘lilias did it before . and now you. My own children . “She stood up clutching the stone. Joss’s eyes were on me and I stood up and tottered towards him, for now that the need to hold tightly to consciousness was no longer urgent I felt the waves of drowsiness too much to resist.

Joss caught me in his arms. He said my name twice. It was wonderful how much he could express by just that. He held me against him and I was content to stay there.

I heard Jimson’s voice, anguished, pleading: “Mother, I had to. I knew something was wrong.”

Joss said: “Give me what you’re holding in your hand, Mrs. Laud.”

Her agonized scream broke into my unconsciousness bringing me back into the room. There was silence which seemed to go on and on.

When I awoke from my drugged sleep I remembered it all vividly every intonation of her voice, every expression on her face.

Joss told me how she had cried out that she would never give up the Green Flash, and before they could stop her she had dashed on to the terrace.

When they picked her up from the stones below she was dead, but still clutching the Green Flash in her hands.

It was six months later when Joss and I went back to Oakland a new me, a new Joss. They had been a wonderful six months of discovery and

adventure-the greatest adventure of all, being loved and p. loving.

bar Lilias had married Jeremy Dickson before we sailed. She son talked to me a great deal and told me how she and Jimson out hA both realized that their mother was verging on madness, tur though they had not guessed how far she had gone. They had not been aware of course that she had the Green Flash, I s; but they suspected that something had turned her brain. They had discovered that she played the spinet and this was what tw had so upset Lilias on that occasion when I had discovered bli her hysterically crying. Both she and Jimson, while being eager to protect their mother, had wondered what her motive had been. When I had had the accident on the stairs and had been lured to the mine they became very suspicious; and that was why Jimson, when he had heard that I had been left in cc a weak state with his mother, decided to tell Joss of his anxieties for my safety, which resulted in Joss’s speedy return to the house.

t( Lilias, in great distress, tried to explain to me, but I told her there was no need to. I understood perfectly. They had n tried hard to protect their mother who had done everything for them when they had been helpless children. She had come to Peacocks, had worked for Ben, had loved him and hoped a to marry him. But Ben did not want marriage and she had had to content herself with a home for herself and her children. She had been a very conventional woman and the’s situation had worried her a great deal. I could imagine how she grappled with her conscience and how she might have quietened it by telling it she did what she did for her children’s sake. But it would have preyed on her mind, I realized, and she would have been constantly trying to make things right. If Ulias had married Joss she might have felt everything was worthwhile. That was certainly in her mind, Lilias told me, and it was the reason why she had tried to stop a match between her daughter and Jeremy Dickson.

Then she had discovered the Green Hash and the madness had set in. It had led her to maim Tom Paling, to murder Ezra and to attempt to kill me. Still, somewhere at the back of her mind must have been the idea that if I were not there Joss might marry Ulias, but her great fear was that I would find the Green Bash. She had been jealous of my mother and that had meant that she had been against me from the start.