Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh

Author:Ngaio Marsh [Marsh, Ngaio]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: C429, Extratorrents, Kat
Published: 2010-01-22T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Journey

They had exhausted themselves arguing about the gap in Hart's story. They had said the same things over and over again. They longed to go to bed and yet were held prisoner in their chairs by a dreadful lassitude. They kept telling Nicholas to go to bed and he kept saying that he would go. They spoke in low voices to a vague background of drumming rain. Mandrake felt as if it was William himself who kept them there; William who, behind locked doors, now suffered the indignities of death. He could not help but think of that figure in the chair. Suppose, with those stealthy changes, William's body were to move? Suppose they were to hear, above the murmur of rain, a dull thud in the room next door? Nicholas too must have been visited by some such thoughts, for he said: "I can't bear to think of him--can't we--can't we?" And Mandrake had to explain again that they must not move William.

"Do you think," he asked Jonathan, "that with this rain the roads will be passable in the morning? What about the telephone? Is there any chance that the lines will be fixed up?"

There was a telephone in the library and from time to time they had tried it, knowing each time that it was useless. "If the roads are anything like passable," Mandrake said, "I'll drive into Chipping in the morning."

"You?" said Nicholas.

"Why not? My club-foot doesn't prevent me from driving a car, you know," said Mandrake. This was one of the speeches, born of his deformity, which he sometimes blurted out and always regretted.

"I didn't mean that," said Nicholas. "I'm sorry."

"Why shouldn't I go?" asked Mandrake, looking from one to another. "Even if we can't break Hart's alibi, I suppose none of you will suspect me. After all, I was shoved in the pond."

"I keep forgetting that complication," said Jonathan.

"I don't," Mandrake rejoined warmly.

"We ought none of us to forget it," said Chloris. "It's the beginning of the whole thing. If only you'd gone on looking out of the pavilion window, Nicholas!"

"I know. But I was half undressed and hellish cold. I just saw it was Mandrake and answered his wave. If only I had looked out again!"

"I've not the least doubt about what you'd have seen," Mandrake rejoined. "You'd have seen that infamous little man come up in a flurry of snow from behind the pavilion, and you'd have seen him launch a sort of flying tackle at my back."

"I've made a complete hash of everything," Nicholas burst out. "You're all being very nice about it, I know, but the facts stare you in the eye, don't they? I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that if I hadn't baited Hart this would never have happened. Well, let him get on with it, by God. He's messed it up three times, hasn't he? Let him have another pot at me. I shan't duck."

"Nick," said Hersey, "don't show off, my dear. Are we never to

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