Fear by Night (28 page)

“
Charles
!”

“Honest it did—and smashed my boat. I say, darling, you'll be prepared to swear I was sober—won't you?”

Ann shivered.

“Charles—what is it? I saw it too—in the moonlight. And then a cloud went over the moon, but I could hear it—swimming. And, Charles, Mary says it's a devil, and she told me to keep away from the water or it would get me. That was why I was so afraid when you didn't come, because I knew you wouldn't go away and just leave me.”

Charles spared a hand from the knots to pat her shoulder and then went on again.

“Whatever it is, it rammed me good and hard. I've got some ideas about it, but I shan't tell you what they are. When we get out of here I'm going to get to the bottom of it whatever it is. Well, I had to go to Ardgair to get my boat mended. They took all day over it, and coming back there was a beast of a fog, and I took a toss on one of those damned hairpin bends and went over the cliff. I gather that the toss was arranged by a bloke called Hector, because I heard your Mr. Halliday telling him to make sure he'd cleared the track again. I think he'd banked it up on the inside with some good selections of the local boulder. There are several places where it wouldn't take much to send you over.”

“You're sure you weren't hurt?”

“I told you I wasn't.” He patted her again. “I don't mind telling you I was like you for a bit—I thought I was dead. And when I came round there was about a ton of car between me and the outside world. She'd turned turtle and boxed me in, and there I might have been till now if your kind friends hadn't come along and got me out. I should say they'd been waiting for Hector's little smash and blew in to pick up the bits. Hector and that prize swab Anderson seemed a good deal peeved that I wasn't dead, but your Mr. Halliday seemed to think it was all right as it was. I'm afraid I made rather a poor show, but they hauled me out from under the car, and just as I was getting ready to say thank you, the swine Hector sat on my head and the other two tied me up. I landed a couple of good kicks, but I'm afraid they didn't do much damage. When they'd tied me up, they shoved a gag in my mouth, slung a blanket over me, and carried home the corpse.”

“I saw them out of my window,” said Ann—“and that's when I really did think you were dead. I saw them carry you in.”

“How did you know it was me?”

“I
knew
it was. And I went down and found out about this place.”

“Only one more knot,” said Charles. “Yes, there we come to it—what is this place?”

“Cellars under the house. They're awfully old. There's one way in through the wash-house floor, and another through the cow-shed. That's how I came. Mary showed me.”

Charles frowned over the last knot.

“Then that's the way we'll be going as soon as I've got this undone.”

“They won't let us go.”

Charles looked up with a set, frowning face.

“Look here, my dear, what
is
this show? What are they after, and how far will they go? Is it old Paulett's money, or is there something else as well?”

Ann's voice came back in a slow whisper.

“It's the money—and it's me—like you said. If I'm dead, Gale Anderson's wife gets the lot, so Gale Anderson wants me to be dead. He tried to kill me yesterday afternoon.'

“
Ann
!”

“It's all right—he didn't. But it was a most frightfully near thing. You say, how far will they go? Well, Gale Anderson will go as far as murder, and he'll rather enjoy doing it. He pushed down boulders on me, and I had to jump off the cliff into the loch. Hilda would be getting the money all right if Jimmy Halliday hadn't fished me out.”

“
Halliday
?”

Ann gave a little shaky laugh.

“Jimmy is my noble preserver. My skirt was caught up on a rock, and he threw me a knife to cut it away. I only did it just in time, because that beast Gale was crawling along the cliff to get at me.”

“Halliday saved you?”

Ann nodded.

“He's my noble preserver. He doesn't want me to be dead, because he wants to marry me. You see, Hilda having the money isn't as much fun for him as it is for Gale. Besides, if Uncle Elias has died by now, Hilda's out of it. This is where you come in.”

“Where do I come in?”

“Well, Jimmy does think he's awfully fascinating, but still I don't think even he was quite sure that I'd marry him all in a hurry like that. You come in as the turn of the screw. Jimmy put it very nicely. He said that if I married him, he could be sure you'd hold your tongue because you wouldn't want to hurt my husband, but that otherwise he was afraid things would be very dangerous and unpleasant for you. He seemed quite sorry about it. I don't think Jimmy cares about murdering people. He's not cold-blooded like Gale Anderson or blood-thirsty like Hector, but all the same I don't think he'd stick at killing someone if it was a choice between that and his own safety.”

“His safety?” said Charles. “What's he been up to? There's something besides this, isn't there? Do you know what it is?”

“N-no. But there's something. He as good as told me that. He said he wanted to settle down and get married because his business was a risky one and he wanted to get out of it before anything happened to upset the old lady. He is a good son, you know.”

“Damn his being a good son! What's he been doing? Smuggling dope?”

“I don't know. Do you think it might be that?”

“Well, it would be an awfully good place for it. I expect the old lady goes down with her bonnet-boxes full of cocaine.”

“Oh no, she wouldn't! She's frightfully respectable.”

“Well, I know how I'd do it,” said Charles. “I'd have a minion who delivered groceries once a week or so—tinned food and all that sort of thing—bottles—plenty of bottles—things with screw tops. And the returned empties wouldn't be empty at all—they'd be neatly packed with dope. I say, darling, that's one way out—we can make him an offer for the goodwill of the business and set up in the dope-running line.”

“Charles, do be serious!”

“Darling, when I'm serious I can't see any way out at all. I'm afraid I was a bit optimistic when I spoke as if we could just walk out through the cowshed. I don't quite know how I'm going to get you off the island. And even if we had a boat, we wouldn't be much forrader, because my poor old bus is quite definitely a wreck.”

“Jimmy's got a car.”

“I hoped he had. I thought I'd found a garage in the ruins the other night, but it was too dark to make sure. Well, that's that—and we might steal a boat after dark, but I'm awfully afraid there's nothing to be done by daylight, and that means you'll have to go back now and come down again at night.”

“Charles, I
can't
!”

Ann's heart quailed within her. To have to do it all over again, to have to go back—she just didn't feel that she could do it.

Charles put his arms round her.

“Darling, I simply don't see any other way. And it will be the last lap. You've been so awfully brave.”

“Oh, Charles—don't make me!”

“Darling, what else can we do? Steady on, and just think. That brute Anderson's got a revolver—he shoved it up against my ear before they started to tie me up. I don't know if the others are armed, but I should think it's practically a dead cert that they are. Hector would have a knife if he hadn't got anything else, but I should think they've all got firearms. We simply haven't got an earthly chance of getting away in daylight. You'll have to bolt me in and go back. If one of them comes down alone, I can make sure of laying him out. If they come two together, I'd still have a pretty good chance, because they'd be expecting me to be tied up. Well then, if they didn't come back, the third man would probably come and look for them, so with a bit of luck I might lay them all out and go off with you in style. And failing that, you'll have to come down when the house is asleep and let me out. You see you must bolt me in, or I won't get a chance of springing a surprise on them.”

Ann shocked back from that. To push the bolt between her and Charles was to cut herself off from her only helper. She was to do that and then go back to Mrs. Halliday, who had turned against her, to Jimmy, who had made her feel his brute strength, to Gale Anderson, who had tried to kill her. She said these names to herself, but she did not say Hector's name. Just why she feared him so much she could not have said, but she did fear him—more than Jimmy, who meant to force her into marrying him—more than Gale, who had come within an ace of murdering her.

She looked at Charles in a dumb misery of fear.

“What is it, darling? Ann, what is it?”

“I
can't
lock you in!”

“Darling, you must. Don't you see, if the bolt's drawn back, they'll know someone's been down here, and I won't get a chance of surprising them. Do go on being brave for just a little bit longer. I know it's beastly for you, but I've got a plan. As soon as you've got away I shall kick up the devil's own row here—shout and yell, and bang with my heels, and all that sort of thing. There are some packing-cases over there that I can have a go at. By the way, that's where I got my idea about the dope from—there's some fairly suspicious looking stuff in them. I was having a look at it with my torch when you started in on the bolt. Well, if it is dope, and they think I'm kicking the stuff about, someone's pretty well bound to come down and see what's happening.”

“What's that?” said Ann in a sudden strained whisper.

“What's what?”

She caught his arm and held it convulsively.

“That noise. Listen!”

CHAPTER XXXIII

They listened. There was no sound.

“What did you hear?” said Charles on a whispered breath.

“Someone moved the barrel—I'm sure they did.”

Charles reached silently over to the lantern and put it out. He pushed it into Ann's hand in the dark.

“Get a little bit up the passage you came by, and don't come out whatever happens. I'll catch them coming down. Hop it, darling!”

He had her out of the cellar and into the open space as he spoke. There was one gleam from his torch to show the low arch through which she must go, and then she was down on her hands and knees crawling into the passage.

Charles felt an immense relief. This was going to be rather fun, only Ann had got to keep out of it. He risked his torch again for a moment, had a passing wonder as to where the other arched passage went to, and located the steps going up to the roof. If they had moved the barrel, they had not raised the stone yet. The steps went straight up without an atom of cover. Better get back to the cellar, and make a rush before they had time to notice the bolt.

He had taken the first step towards the door, when panting, and stumbling to her feet, Ann caught at him. Her hands shook, her breath hurried. She whispered against his ear,

“Someone's coming down that way! Hector! I saw the light!
Charles
!”

As she spoke his name, and before he had time to do anything at all, the flagstone at the top of the steps was tilted up and a bright shaft of light shone through the opening. Jimmy Halliday's voice said,

“He should be through by now.”

And with that Charles remembered the second archway. He made for it, his arm round Ann. The torch showed a rough passage about four feet high with a sudden turn to the right a few feet in. He stooped to it, pulling her with him, and got round the bend, with a sound of voices in the cellar behind him. There were three of them all right. If he had been alone, he would have waited for them at the bend and trusted to luck, but Gale Anderson's revolver stuck in his mind. This narrow space, and Ann, and a man who had tried to kill her only yesterday—it wasn't good enough.

He hurried her along, throwing the beam of the torch in front and praying for another bend. If it didn't come soon, they'd be done. Gale Anderson would be able to pot them as they ran. He put Ann in front, and felt a coldness between his shoulder-blades. The roof had risen and they could stand upright, and suddenly there came, not one bend, but two. Charles felt an extreme relief.

The passage went on turning and twisting. It got rougher and rougher till all trace of a made path was gone and they climbed and slipped in a rocky fissure which began to take a sharp downward slope.

They came suddenly into the cave. One moment the torch shone back on them from black dripping walls which almost touched, and the next its long beam travelled far across a place of shadows and strange echoing sounds.

Charles caught Ann by the arm and swung the torch about.

“Careful—it's awfully steep here. We're down to the loch. Better let me go first.”

They were on the edge of a fifteen-foot cliff. The path went down it in zigzags, with stanchions set here and there to hold to. At the foot of it the waters of the loch lapped against a pebbly beach. On the far side there were boulders piled in fantastic heaps. Charles hurried Ann across the beach and behind the rocks. He had no plan. The whole thing had come so suddenly. He thought now that he ought to have got her round the bends and gone back. There wasn't much chance for them here in this open place. If he had been alone, he would have tried swimming for it.… Was it just possible that Jimmy Halliday kept a boat here? That was a handy little beach, and private. It might suit Jimmy pretty well to have a private landing-place. Now that he had put his torch out, he could see a faint glimmer as of reflected daylight in the direction of the loch. That meant that there was an exit above water—probably not so very much above water.

He stared across the cave in the direction from which they had come. There was no light to show where the passage was—no light, and no sound—no sound anywhere, except the lapping of the water and Ann's soft troubled breathing. She had sunk down on the stones, and crouched there, pressed close to him with her cheek against his shoulder. He said to himself, “I'll count twenty. If I don't see or hear anything by then, I'll chance it. There might be a boat.”