Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham

Author:Margery Allingham [Allingham, Margery]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Private investigators, Private investigators - England, London (England), Mystery & Detective, Fiction, Mystery fiction, Traditional British, Campion; Albert (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9781933397573
Publisher: Felony & Mayhem
Published: 2006-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Pharisees’ Clearing

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When Mr. Campion sailed down the drive of the Tower at about ten o’clock the next morning, Penny met him some time before he reached the garage. She came running across the sunlit lawn towards him, her yellow hair flopping in heavy braids against her cheeks.

Campion stopped the car and she sprang on to the running-board.

He noticed immediately a certain hint of excitement in her manner, and her first words were not reassuring.

“I’m so glad you’ve come,” she said. “Something terrible has happened to Lugg.”

Mr. Campion took off his spectacles as though to see her better.

“You’re joking,” he said hopefully.

“Of course I’m not.” Penny’s blue eyes were dark and reproachful. “Lugg’s in bed in a sort of fit. I haven’t called the doctor yet, as you said on the phone last night that you’d be down early.”

Mr. Campion was still looking at her in incredulous amazement. “What do you mean? A sort of fit?” he said. “Apoplexy or something?”

Penny looked uncomfortable and seemed to be debating how much to say. Eventually she took a deep breath and plunged into the story.

“It happened about dawn,” she said. “I woke up hearing a sort of dreadful howling beneath my window. I looked out, and there was Lugg outside on the lawn. He was jumping about like a maniac and bellowing the place down. I was just going down myself when Branch, whose room is over mine, you know, scuttled out and fetched him in. No one could do anything with him. He was gibbering and raving, and very puffed.” She paused. “It may seem absurd to say so, but it looked to me like hysterics.”

Mr. Campion replaced his glasses. “What an extraordinary story,” he said. “I suppose he hadn’t found the key to the wine cellars, by any chance?”

“Oh, no, it wasn’t anything like that.” Penny spoke with unusual gravity. “Don’t you see what happened? He’d been down to Pharisees’ Clearing. He saw what Aunt Di saw.”

Her words seemed to sink into Mr. Campion’s brain slowly. He sat motionless in the car in the middle of the drive staring in front of him.

“My hat,” he said at last. “That’s a step in the right direction, if you like. I only meant to keep the old terror occupied. I had no idea there’d be any serious fun toward.”

He started the car and crawled slowly forward, the girl beside him.

“Albert,” she said severely, “you didn’t tell him to go down there at night, did you? Because, if so, you’re directly responsible for this. You didn’t believe me when I told you there was something fearful there. You seem to forget that it killed Aunt Di.”

Mr. Campion looked hurt. “Your Aunt Diana and my friend Magersfontein Lugg are rather different propositions,” he said. “I only told him to improve the shining hour by finding out what it was down there. I’ll go and see him at once. What does Branch say about it?”

“Branch is very discreet,” murmured Penny. “Look here, you’d better leave the car here and go straight up.

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