Two Flights Up by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Author:Mary Roberts Rinehart [Roberts Rinehart, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784088156
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2013-07-16T20:32:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THERE WAS NO DOUBT that the house was being watched, nor any doubt in Warrington’s mind as to why.

“They’d have picked me up before this if it hadn’t been for that dog,” he considered grimly.

He retreated from the window and stood in the centre of the darkened room, and swaying branches by the street lamps threw ghostly shadows on the walls. He might have been a ghost himself, so still he stood.

All sorts of thoughts were hurtling through his brain. Suppose the fellow had followed him that morning and saw him leave the suitcase at the Cox apartment? That would involve them undoubtedly; and the fact of Holly’s mysterious absence that afternoon began to obtrude itself. Suppose it had already involved them!

He went back to the window again and saw that the Brooks car was still there. A moment later, however, he heard the door close and watched it moving off, and he started down the stairs. He must see Holly and learn what had happened. But he did not go down.

Mrs. Bayne was on the landing below, peering down so absorbedly that she had not heard him.

“Scared!” he said to himself. “Knows something’s wrong, and doesn’t know what it is.”

Well, let her be scared. She had got them all into a pretty mess. She and her fine-lady ways and her shallow, unscrupulous mind. Only, she wasn’t going to involve Holly; he’d damn’ well take care of that.

He heard Holly go into her mother’s room and the door close; and leaving his own door open, he sat down in the worn chair by his empty hearth and waited as patiently as he could. He had an idea, possibly unfounded, that to turn on his lights would be to bring a ring at the bell and perhaps a warrant for his arrest. Yet there were moments as he sat there when the whole situation seemed not only incredible but ridiculous. A dozen other things might account for the man across the street; it was because he himself felt guilty that he was so sure the espionage was for him.

Odd, how even to be suspected of wrongdoing undermined a man’s morale!

Sometime during that long period of waiting he had a new thought: If they were really after him, they might be watching the rear of the house too. He made his way quietly into Margaret’s empty room across the hall and stared out, but he could see nothing. Only the forlorn dog had crept out of his shelter and was growling and sniffing at the gate.

He considered it extremely probable that the gate, like the front of the house, was being watched.

“Taking no chances!” he reflected, and went back to his room.

Of course, there was this chance: They had certainly found the bond, but had they found the suitcase? If not, things were not so bad. Mrs. Bayne might claim her husband had given the bond to her years ago, and that she had been holding it for an emergency. Whether they believed her or not did not matter, once the suitcase was turned over.

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