Death by Night by John Creasey

Author:John Creasey [Creasey, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Agora Books

13

Triumph for Forster

‘This doesn’t look so good,’ said Garry Cartwright.

Even in the circumstances, and with the thought of the possible effect of the fire, which was starting, uppermost in his mind, Loftus had to smile.

‘It isn’t so good,’ he said. ‘Trouble is, young woman, you’ve put us all in a spot. Your own people, a dozen of the hated Government officials, servants and my trio are liable to suffer badly for this escapade.’

‘It can’t be helped,’ she said. ‘We didn’t expect Forster to trace us here.’

Forster’s men undoubtedly surrounded the Manor. He might have a dozen with him, or even more. It was reasonable to suppose that he had more than one machine-gun, and as reasonable to assume that he was able to see in the dark. Which meant that it would be impossible to get out, for any sortie would mean ruthless gunplay.

He was taking chance enough as it was.

The Manor was a mile and a half from the village, and on a quiet night it was likely that the shooting would be heard. Certainly flames would be seen if they reached any proportions. There were lights blazing from some of the windows, for the niceties of black-out had been ignored; any casual passer-by might see that, and report. In fact help might come at any moment.

And might not.

Loftus straightened up after putting the unconscious man in the passage, and saw that the girl had gone. He heard hurried footsteps. Mayhew and a policeman came towards him, and Mayhew’s face held more than a hint of alarm.

‘Loftus! They’re using incendiary bombs!’

‘Don’t talk in exclamation marks,’ said Loftus irritably. ‘I fancied they were. Where?’

‘At the side entrance.’

‘Have you been to the front?’

‘Yes, it’s all quiet there. But what are we going to do?’

‘What can we do?’ asked Loftus. ‘Try to put the fires out, and hope to God that someone gets along in time. We can’t go out.’

‘Someone must get word through to Winchester,’ muttered Mayhew. ‘The water comes from a well, and it’s been blocked up. We’ve no means of putting out the fire, and it will be blazing everywhere in half an hour.’

‘Ye-es,’ said Loftus. ‘All the same, we can’t get out.’

‘We can try,’ said Mayhew grimly.

Loftus rested a hand on his shoulder.

‘Mayhew, I agree with you in principle. But we’ve got to try parleying with the gentlemen outside. If we try to get through for help, we’ll just be mown down.’

‘In the dark...’

‘It’s not dark to them,’ said Loftus quietly.

‘Don’t be a damned fool!’ snapped Mayhew.

‘Loftus!’

The call came from some way off, but it was comparatively loud and spoken so oddly that Mayhew broke off in the middle of his sentence. The voice, thought Loftus, was coming through a megaphone, and probably from the direction of the front door. He did not recognise it, but the ‘s’ had a sibilance that reminded him of Oundle’s description of Forster’s hissing utterance.

‘Loftus!’

As the second call came Oundle came hurrying from the main hall. He was smoke-grimed and dishevelled, and his big eyes were no longer ingenuous.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.