Eager-Wright put his head round the door.
‘I say, Campion,’ he said, ‘half a minute. The sergeant and a patrol have just brought in those two prize idiots, Scatty and Lugg. They’ve walked from Kepesake. Come and swear to ’em, will you?’
Mr Campion hurried out to the rescue of his henchman. Lugg, lugubrious and sorry for himself, was sitting on the doorstep of the mill with Scatty at his side, while their captors stood round, amused and tolerant.
‘The army,’ said Mr Lugg, casting a baleful glance at his employer, his voice packed with scorn. ‘The blinking army. Can’t do a little quiet job without the army turning out. It’s Yes, mister sergeant, No, mister sergeant, the whole time. I get sick of it. Yes, sir,’ he added hastily before the expression in Mr Campion’s face. ‘Yes, sir. Come to report, sir. All quiet, sir.’
After satisfying the sergeant Mr Campion turned away. He was unbearably weary. His head was burning, his mouth was dry. The adventure was over, then; the victory complete. He walked slowly upstairs.
As he passed Amanda’s room Aunt Hatt came out. She was smiling.
‘She’s better, I do believe,’ she confided. ‘Quite herself again, but a little weak. Go in and see her. She’s anxious to hear that everything’s all right.’
Campion went into the gay little room. Amanda, white and a trifle pinched, but very much alive, grinned at him from the bed.
‘Hallo, Orph.,’ she said. ‘Come to report to the Lieut? What’s the worst?’
‘There isn’t any,’ he said, sitting down on the end of the bed. ‘This sensational business has come to a successful close, as we say in the board room. The treasure has gone to town in the charge of a minute but magnificent portion of the British army, the missing earl is well on the way to his place in Dod, we’re both alive, thanks to you, and I’m half asleep.’
‘Good,’ said Amanda and sighed. A spasm of pain passed over her face, and her eyes fluttered open, surprise in their brown depths. ‘It hurts when I do that,’ she said. ‘But I’ll be all right in a day or two. I’m very healthy, my teeth are good, I never snore, my relations say I have a sweet temper.’
Campion sat looking at her, and she lifted a hand with some difficulty, and laid it on his arm.
‘Don’t be frightened,’ she said. ‘I’m not proposing marriage to you. But I thought you might consider me as a partner in the business later on. You see, when Hal comes into the estate Scatty and I are going to have a thin time. I don’t want to go to a finishing school, you know.’
‘Good Lord, no,’ said Campion, aghast at the prospect.
‘That’s all,’ said Amanda. ‘Get that well into your head. No higher education for me. I say, do you ever think about Biddy Pagett? You know – Biddy Lobbett.’
Mr Campion, dishevelled, and unbeautifully clad, met her frank enquiring gaze with one of his rare flashes of undisguised honesty.
‘Yes,’ he said.
Amanda sighed. ‘I thought so. Look here,’ she went on. ‘I shan’t be ready for about six years yet. But then – well, I’d like to put you on the top of my list.’
Campion held out his hand with sudden eagerness. ‘Is that a bet?’
Amanda’s small cold fingers grasped his own. ‘Done,’ she said.
Mr Campion sat where he was for a long time, staring out across the room. His face was expressive, a luxury he scarcely ever permitted himself. At last he rose slowly to his feet and stood looking down very tenderly at this odd little person who had come crashing through one of the most harrowing adventures he had ever known and with unerring instinct had torn open old scars, revived old fires which he had believed extinct.
‘What’s going to change you in six years, you rum little grig?’ he said slowly.
She did not stir. Her eyes were closed. Her lips were parted, and her breath came regularly and evenly.
Amanda was asleep.
Also available in Vintage
Margery Allingham
MYSTERY MILE
‘To Albert Campion has fallen the honour of being the first detective to feature in a story which is also by any standard a distinguished novel’
Observer
Judge Crowdy Lobbett has found evidence pointing to the identity of the criminal mastermind behind the deadly Simister gang. After four attempts on his life, he ends up seeking the help of the enigmatic and unorthodox amateur sleuth, Albert Campion.
After Campion bundles Lobbett off to a country house in Mystery Mile deep in the Suffolk countryside, all manner of adventures ensue. It’s a race against time for Campion to get the judge to safety and decipher the clue to their mysterious enemy’s name. Luckily for Judge Lobbett, underneath his constant stream of nonsensical banter, Campion displays a diamond-sharp intelligence and a natural detective’s instinct . . .
‘Miss Allingham’s strength lies in her power of characterisation, in her striking talent for painting the social background against which she shows her characters, in her skill in the use of words whereby she paints so vividly the scene she describes’
Guardian
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Epub ISBN: 9781448138036
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First published in Great Britain by William Heinemann in 1933
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