The Sinful Stones by Peter Dickinson

Author:Peter Dickinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller
Published: 2015-02-03T04:09:13+00:00

6

With precisely that turn, with precisely that nod, had Doctor Braybrook, M.A., D.D., said his farewell to the world when the policeman led him, grosser then, out of the dock at the Old Bailey. A nod as calm and dismissive as if he had been turning away on the expensive new stage of St Estephe’s Preparatory School after telling the assembled boys exactly how far they fell short of the ideal of the English Gentleman which it was the mission of St Estephe’s to produce.

Pibble crouched in the dark and started to work his way across the cell, waving his arms like feelers before him. Even in that position it was difficult to resist the instinctive ducking of his head, as though the cell were suddenly full of solid obstacles.

It had been a Fraud Squad case, but because of the number and influence of the parents involved an officer of known tact had been seconded to help with the blackmail side; that had been Pibble. He had given evidence for four hours, watched all the time by those unforgettable gold eyes. And yet he had forgotten them.

His left hand found the boulder. He clutched it with his right. It felt strangely slimy. No, that was the sweat on his palms. He rested against the rock, knowing now that he would have to find a lot of strength somewhere in the crannies of his own system. He had, so far, endured or drifted on the island with a curious fatalism. All he was really interested in up here had happened so long ago, was already fixed in time, that it seemed as if each minute of the current day was equally decreed and fated. A dangerous attitude, that, for a man about to be forcibly converted to a fanatical faith. So far as he’d thought about it, he’d done what he could with logical argument; now the insane tide of the Faith of the Sealed had obliterated all the landmarks of reason, and the only sensible course, it had seemed, was to wait till it ebbed and try again. Sir Francis had thirty-six hours-worth of cortisone. Pibble had been sure that in that time his captors must see that they couldn’t get away with it. But now … if Providence was Braybrook, the tide would never ebb.

He stood up, unhunching his head by an effort of will. In about two hours Sir Francis would be at the Macdonalds’ cottage. They might be persuaded to hide Pibble, and then in the night he could try to sneak back to the radio telephone. Or … But not unless he could get out; and the walls were two feet thick, or the building would never have stood. Digging took weeks. That left …

On the way back from the Common with his draggled and muddied kite under one arm, young Jamie had stopped to gawp at the viaduct as a tank engine trundled a line of clacking trucks across it. Father’s mouth was already open to explain, but Jamie was bored with the phenomenon of steam-power and forestalled him.

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.