The Pride of the Peacock (43 page)

To find Jeremy Dickson. He’s concerned in this and I want to know the meaning of that letter. ” ‘lilias said it wasn’t quite his handwriting.”

“Ulias is trying to defend him. He’s somewhere in the cc neighbourhood and I’m sending people out to look for him. I was waiting for you to wake up so that I could tell you this and where I was going.” te “I cannot believe this of Jeremy Dickson.”

“One can never believe these things of the people who do n: them.

That’s why they get away with them . up to a point. “

“You really believe he sent that letter, don’t you? Why should he want me dead ? It doesn’t make sense.”

a That’s what we have to find out. I’ve sent off parties in all directions. I’m going off now and taking Jimson with me. “

“Do you think he had anything to do with the purse?” ‘s “What purse?4 ” Ezra’s. I found it in the orchard . buried there. “

You couldn’t have. “

“I did, and later someone took it from my room.”

He was puzzled. I had an idea that he thought the poisonous gases had made me a little lightheaded.

He said: “We’ll talk about all that later. I just wanted to make sure you were all right before I went.” His eyes blazed for a moment.

“I

can’t forget,” he went on, ‘that you might have died in that mine .. believing that I wanted to kill you.”

“It’s over now,” I answered.

“What I’m remembering now is that you risked your life to save me.”

He grinned, his old self again.

“I just had to,” he said.

“It was pure selfishness, for what good would mine have been to me without you?”

I felt then (hat I had reached the summit of happiness.

Joss became brisk.

“You’re to have a restful day. I’m going lo leave you m me care 01 ivus i-auu

Then he took me into his arms and held me as though he would never let me go, and I was content to remain there.

He said: “If Ben were looking down … or up from wherever he is … he’d be pleased with himself. I reckon he’s laughing in the way we remember so well and saying:

“I told you so” “

Then he kissed me again and again.

Till sundown. “

14.

THE GREEN FLASH

I rose in a leisurely way, washed and dressed. I was still feeling a little dazed. Mrs. Laud came to my room to see how I was.

“Not at all bad,” I answered.

“Just a little tired.”

“It’s to be expected after what happened. What would you like to eat?”

“I’ll wait for luncheon.”

“Come to my room and I’ll make a cup of tea.”

That would be nice,” I said.

“Come up when you’re ready. I’ll go and put the kettle on.

Within five minutes I was knocking at her door.

“Do come in. You look so much better. The tea’s all ready. I’ve poured out.”

“What a cosy room this is,” I said.

“I always thought so. Mr. Henniker used to like to come in for a cup of tea.”

I sat down in the chair she had pulled up to the table with the plush runner. Her workbox was open, and a piece of needlework lay on the table.

“Oh, Mrs. Madden, what bad luck you’ve had lately. First you nearly fall down the stairs and then you get into that mine. It looks like bad luck, doesn’t it? People will be saying you must have taken the Green Flash and this is the result of it.”

I sipped the tea, which was refreshingly warming.

“People will say anything.”

That’s a fact, they will. But it was bad luck, wasn’t it? first one and then the other. I’d like to know what that

“It’s very good, thank you.”

“Drink it up and I’ll give you another cup. I always say there’s nothing like a nice cup of tea.”

There’s a good deal in that. “

They’re regular tea drinkers out here . every bit as much as We are at Home. Let me give you that other cup. “

Thank you, Mrs. Laud. “

“Do you feel rather sleepy?”

“I feel a little… strange.”

“I thought you did somehow. The house is quiet now, isn’t it? Do you know, we’re the only ones here. Everybody’s out. They’ve all gone on this wild goose chase. All except two of the girls and I said they could ride into the town and get some goods for me. They’re both friendly with gougers there.” She chuckled.

“I reckon they won’t hurry back.”

Then I noticed that she was watching me very intently and that there was a strange gleam in her eyes.

Tm going to show you something before you go,” she said.

“Show me something… before go… where?”

“It’s in my workbox. There’s a little secret drawer. You remember that night … the treasure hunt? That Ezra … he knew. I could see the look in his eyes that something had led him to my workbox.”

I tried to stand up but I couldn’t. My legs seemed as though they were not part of my body.

“Don’t try to go yet. You’ll want to see this. I had it since he went away. Mr. Henniker couldn’t have been far out at sea when I found it. I was always particular about the spring cleaning. You can’t trust those servants. There was always a lot I liked to do myself. I was always very fond of that picture. Mr. Henniker used to like it. He said it reminded him of Joss and he had a way of looking at it and laughing to himself and it struck me that there was something rather special about it. That was why I paid such special attention to it. I found the spring and then I knew it was meant. That was how it happened.” She leaned forward, her arms on the table. There’s something inside it, something that’s alive . a living god. Do you remember Aladdin’s lamp? Well, it’s like that, you see. The genie is there and it does your bidding. “

I said: “You’re talking about the Green Flash at Sunset, Mrs. Laud.”

“Yes; she answered. That’s what I’m talking about’ ” Are you telling me that you had it all the time? “

hJU IJ1. 6U t,^U (,tJ ^UU^U. t k ^UUU^Vf uuv* ^u*u^ w T v& u<
w, —A”–It was as though she had been impersonating someone at a masque and now it was the time for the unmasking. I had never known this woman.p>

No wonder I had felt that she was like the chorus in a Greek play-she and her family. She was no longer the mild housekeeper so grateful to have become the master’s mistress and found shelter for herself and her family all those years. She was someone else. But perhaps the mild housekeeper was the real person and that it was another which looked out at me from those wild eyes. She was possessed.

She repeated: “You shall see it before you go. I want you to see it. I shall never forget the moment when I found it at the back of that picture and it just burst on me … all that brilliance, all that power.

“I’m yours,” it said to me.

“Keep me. I’ll work for you.

Anything you want will be yours. ” I wasn’t going to keep it at first.

I was just going to have it in my room and look at it. I used to wake up in the night and remember I’d got it. I’d get out of bed and look at it. And then I started to see that I could do anything I wanted because the Green Flash would give it to me. “

“Show it to me, Mrs. Laud,” I said quietly.

She drew the workbox towards her and fumbled there. I have never seen a miser counting his gold, but I could imagine what he would look like and that was as Mrs. Laud looked at that moment. Her face changed again; her mouth twitched and her eyes blazed. I thought: She really is mad. The Green Flash has driven her mad.

She took out a mass of cotton wool; her fingers shook as she unwrapped it. Then she took something in the palms of her hands and crooned over it as a mother might over a baby.

She leaned across the table and there it lay in all its fabulous glory, the most magnificent opal of all time, the stone which had shaped my destiny, the unlucky one, the most beautiful jewel I had ever or would ever see in my life.

It is impossible to put into words the qualities of that stone. I can say it was large . even larger than I had expected it to be; even with my sparse knowledge I knew that it was perfect in every way. I can say that there was the deep blue of a tropical sea and the lighter blue of a cloudless sky and the glint of red was like shafts of sunlight breaking over the sea. But this does not convey the utter fascination, the aura, the living quality. It had life; it changed as one looked. I was feeling more and more dizzy and hazy and it really seemed

uj ua. mai i 1-uuiu luac myscu m in-‘l si. muii’-ui’g wum.

drown in that deep, deep blue sea. It had a power, that stone;

a subtle emanation came from it. It was magnetic and I could not stop myself reaching out to take it.

“Oh no you don’t,” she said.

“You think you’re going to take it from me, don’t you? You think you’ve found it at last. I tell you this, Mrs. Madden, I’m only showing it to you, that’s all. I thought you should see it before you died.”

“Before … I died… ?”

“Feel sleepy, don’t you? It won’t hurt. You won’t know anything. It was something I put in your tea … nice peaceful sleep, that’s all.

Look at my hands. They’re strong. You’ve got a little neck. I’ve often looked at it. It’ll be easy. I know just where to press. But I’ll wait until you’re fast asleep. I don’t like hurting things . so it’s better that way. You’ll know nothing about it. “

I could feel the hair rising on my scalp and it was because she spoke so quietly in such a matter-of-fact way that it was so sinister. It was only when she mentioned the Green Flash that her hysteria became apparent. I was alone in this house with a madwoman. I had not really taken her seriously until I had seen the Green Flash. Then I knew that she was indeed mad. She had put a sleeping draught into my tea; and I was going to get more and more drowsy under its influence.

I wondered if I could make a dash for the door, but my limbs were already leaden. I kept thinking: Alone in the house . everybody gone . alone with a woman who is mad.

She was looking down at her hands . those hands which were waiting to strangle me . but not till I slept, so I must not sleep. I must keep awake. I must find some way of out witting her.

I said: “You play the spinet well, Mrs. Laud.”

It was eerie-the manner in which she supped from the malevolent personality of the murderess to that of the homely housekeeper.

“Oh yes, I used to play for Mr. Henniker. He told me about this Jessica who was your mother. I didn’t like that much because I was fond of Mr. Henniker myself. He had this fancy about playing and her coming back.

So I played for him and he said it reminded him of her. “

“And then you played for me?”

You started to pry, didn’t you? As soon as you got back you did. You always had your eyes open and you were looKing for the Green Flash. I knew that. I got wonderful ideas from the power that’s there. I was there when you looked with Mr. Madden and I saw you with Mr. Dickson. I watched you take down The Pride of the Peacock. I didn’t want Ulias to many Jeremy Dickson. I wanted Mr. Madden for her. That was a fancy of mine. I guessed Mr. Henniker would leave him the Green Flash and then it would be partly hers. But no, it was mine. Never mind Lilias . because you’d come then and you’d have to be got rid of. I didn’t want Ulias to have it, even. It was mine and I wanted to keep it. “

“You’ve been getting it to work for you, have you?8 She nodded.

“It first came to me when Tom Paling came’ over to the house and I went into the stables and meddled with the wheel of the buggy. Then he had his accident and Jimson had his job and did very well at it. You see, the Flash puts the notions into your head and shows you how to do it.”

“So you lured me to the gallery.”

“I wanted you to think it was your mother warning you.”

“Why did you want me warned?”

The Flash is clever. It never does anything without reason. I wanted you to tell people you were afraid . because you thought your husband wanted you out of the way, didn’t you? When wives die mysteriously husbands are the first to be suspected. I knew how things were . separate bedrooms and Isa Bannock. I thought you’d tell someone. He used to play the spinet long ago. Ben liked tp hear him at it. And he knew about the stairs, didn’t he ? “

“So it was you who played, and you escaped by way of the stairs and then you arranged for me to have an accident and if I was killed you would have seen that my husband was suspected?”

“It was not really the Flash’s idea. That was mine. It wasn’t very good. It was hardly likely that a fall down those stairs would have been the end of you … and there was all that playing to get you up there and I could easily have been caught at that. But if you’d had a bad accident it would have stopped your prying for a bit and it would be a sort of preliminary if you know what I mean. Ulias spoilt it. She got hysterical about my playing the spinet and she and Jimson tried to stop me. They were always watching me closely. They didn’t know I had the Flash, of course, but they thought I’d changed and they got frightened.”

i musi stay awake and Keep her talking so I said: T$y this . time had you given up the idea of Lilias’s marrying my ^ husband? “

r Well, it could have been a good idea but the main thing . was to keep the Flash. When I came into my room that night ^ and saw Ezra Bannock looking into my workbox I knew he had guessed. There was something in his face which told me. ” t ” So you killed him? “

‘< “fes, I did. I waited for him at Glover’s Gully and I shot ^y him and buried aim there. He’d have stayed there hidden for y, years if it hadn’t been for that horse. And you were the one who found him. That was it … The idea came to me that you were Danger. The Flash put it into my mind so I knew it was right’ ” And the letter from Jeremy Dickson ? “

p( “I spent hours copying his writing on his acceptance to the invitation to the treasure hunt. I think I did well. There again it was the Flash. I thought that would have done it. (( And Ulias … my own daughter stopped it. She found that letter. What was she doing prying in your room? She was n jealous of you with Jeremy. Well, she found it and she swore it wasn’t his writing. She went into the town with the letter and it was all spoiled again. Now of course something’s got a to be done.”