Footsteps in the Dark

by Джорджетт Хейер

  Charles turned quickly towards Peter. "That settles it! Gloves! Now how did he make his get-away?"

  "Almost any way," Peter said. "He'd have had plenty of time to get across the hall before any of us reached the stairs."

  "It is no use being obstinate about it," Mrs. Bosanquet said. "It was no man,, but an apparition. I am now convinced of the existence of such things. Perhaps it was sent to open my eyes."

  "All dressed up in a Dominican habit and black gloves," said Charles. "I hardly think so. Take a look at the front door, Peter."

  "Bolted, and the chain in position. I happened to notice. What about this window?"

  Charles strode across to it, and flung back the curtains. "It's bolted - no, by Jove, it's not!" He turned to Bowers, who up till now had been a scared auditor. "Bowers, do you remember if you bolted this to-night?"

  Bowers shook his head. "No, sir. At least, I don't think so. Begging your pardon, sir, but the mistress always likes it left open till you go up to bed. I thought you bolted it."

  "That's right," Peter said. "And to-night we sat in the drawing-room. That's how it got forgotten. Cheer up, Aunt Lilian! What you saw was someone dressed up to give you a fright, and that's how he got in."

  "No, my dear, you are wrong," Mrs. Bosanquet said firmly. "It had no need of doors or windows. For all we know it is still present, though now invisible."

  Celia gave one moan of horror, and implored Charles to take her back to town at once.

  "I think we'd all better go back to bed for the rest of the night, and discuss it in the morning," Charles said. "I don't see that we shall do much good trying to search the garden now. We'll bolt this window, though. And what about having Margaret to sleep in your room, Aunt? Would you prefer it?"

  "Not at all," she replied. "If it re-appeared, Margaret would be of no assistance to me, or any of you. I shall go quietly up, and to sleep, for I feel I shall not see it again to-night."

  On account of the night's disturbance breakfast was put back next morning for an hour, but contrary to everyone's expectations Mrs. Bosanquet was the first down. When Celia, Margaret, and Peter appeared they found her looking as placid as ever, and reading the morning paper. "Good morning, my dears," she said, laying the paper down. "I see there has been fresh trouble in China. I feel one has so much to be thankful for in not being Chinese."

  "Darling Aunt Lilian!" said Margaret, twinkling. "You really are a marvellous person!"

  "On the contrary I fear I am a very ordinary one. And why you should think so merely because I remarked…'

  "Oh, I didn't! But after what you went through last night I wonder you can be so calm."

  "I lay awake and thought about that for some time after you had left me," said Mrs. Bosanquet. "Do you know, I have come to the conclusion that I behaved very foolishly?"

  Celia looked up hopefully. "Do you mean you may have imagined it after all?"

  "No, my dear, certainly not. I am not at all imaginative. In fact, your uncle used very often to say I was too mundane. But then he was extremely imaginative himself, and could tell the most entertaining stories, as I daresay you remember."

  "Then how did you behave foolishly?" asked Peter, helping himself from one of the dishes on the sideboard.

  "In screaming in that uncontrolled manner. I realise now that my proper course would have been to have challenged the apparition, and commanded it to tell me what it wanted. For, on thinking it over, I am convinced it manifested itself for some good purpose. Thank you, Peter, yes, I will have an egg." She began to tap the shell briskly. "It is obviously an unquiet spirit, and when you consider that it no doubt belongs to the remains you discovered in that very nasty, airless little cupboard, one can hardly wonder at it."

  "I do wish you wouldn't, Aunt!" begged Celia. "Even in broad daylight you give me the creeps."

  "Then you are being very silly, dear child. Good morning, Charles. I hope you slept well to make up for your loss of sleep earlier in the night."

  Charles took his seat at the head of the table. "I am grateful for the inquiry, Aunt, but no, I didn't. I might have, but for the fact that I was constrained to get up three times; once to look under the bed, once to open the wardrobe, once to demonstrate to your niece that the noise she persistently heard was the wind rustling the creeper outside the window."

  "Well, I'm sorry, darling," Celia said, "but after what happened you can't be surprised that I was nervous."

  "Surprise, my love," responded her husband, "was not the emotion I found myself a prey to."

  "Perhaps it'll convince you that the only thing to do is to go back to town this very day," Celia said pleadingly.

  "I confess that a prospect of any more such nights doesn't attract me," said Charles. "But what's the opinion of Aunt Lilian?"

  "I was about to say, when you came in," answered Mrs. Bosanquet, "that I have considered the matter very carefully, and come to the conclusion that we should be doing wrong to leave the Priory."

  Charles paused in the act of conveying a piece of toast from his plate to his mouth, and stared at her. "Well, I'm damned!" he said inelegantly. "Give me some coffee, Celia: I must drink Aunt Lilian's health."

  "Very wrong indeed," nodded Mrs. Bosanquet. "Perhaps we have it in our power to set the ghost free. It probably wants us to do something, and to that end it has been endeavouring to attract our notice."

  "I see," said Charles gravely. "And probably it can't make out why we all seem so shy of it. I wonder how it'll try to - er - attract our notice next? It's already knocked a picture down, and thrown a skull at our feet, and made you faint. It must be getting quite disheartened at our failure to appreciate the true meaning of these little attentions."

  "It is all very well for you to make a mock of such things, Charles," Mrs. Bosanquet said with dignity, "but I am perfectly serious. So much so that I am determined to do my best to get into communication with it. And since Margaret is going to town on Thursday to see her dentist I shall ask her to call at my flat, and request Parker to give her my planchette board, which is in the old brown trunk in the lobby."

  Celia was regarding her in fascinated horror. "Are you really proposing to sit with a planchette in this house?" she asked faintly.

  "Not only I, my dear, but all of us. We sit round in a circle, laying the tips of our fingers on the board, and wait for some message to be transcribed."

  "Nothing," said Celia vehemently, "would induce me to take part in any such proceeding! The whole thing's bad enough as it is without us trying to invoke the Monk."

  "Very well," said Mrs. Bosanquet, not in the least ruffled, "if that is how you feel about it it would be no good your attempting to sit with us. But I for one shall certainly make the attempt."

  "This means you won't go back to town!" Celia said unhappily. "I knew what it would be! No, don't tell me I can go without you, Charles. I may be a bad wife, and wake you up to look in the wardrobe in the small hours, but I am not such a bad wife that I'd go away and leave you with a ghost and a planchette."

  "I wish you would go back to town, old lady," Charles said. "I don't mean that I don't appreciate this selfimmolating heroism, but it's no use scaring yourself, and nothing dire is at all likely to happen to me. If I thought there was any danger," he added handsomely, "you should stay and share it with me."

  "Thanks," said Celia. "I might have known you'd joke about it. I don't know whether there's what you call danger, but if you're going to ask for trouble by putting your hands on Aunt's horrible planchette I shan't leave your side for one moment."

  "Cheer up!" Charles said. "I don't mind giving the board a shove to please Aunt Lilian, but last night has completely convinced me that the Monk is as real as you are. In fact, if Margaret is going to town on Thursday she can rout out my service revolver, and the cartridges she'll find with it, and bring them back with her."

  "If you think that I should be pleased by you deliberately pushing the board, you are sadly mistaken," said Mrs. Bosanquet severely. "M
oreover, I have the greatest objection to fire-arms, and if you propose to let off guns at all hours of the day I shall be obliged to go back to London."

  She was with difficulty appeased, and only a promise extracted from Charles not to fire any lethal weapon without due warning soothed her indignation. Breakfast came to an end, and after Celia had had a heart-to-heart talk with her husband, and Margaret hadd begged Peter not to do anything rash, such as shooting at vague figures seen in the dark, the two men left the house, ostensibly to fish.

  "What we are going to do now," said Charles, "is to carry on some investigations on our own."

  "Then we'd better drift along to the Bell," said Peter. "We may as well put in some fishing till opening time, though. If you want to pump old Wilkes you won't find him up yet."

  Charles consulted his watch. "I make it half-past ten."

  "I daresay you do, but friend Wilkes takes life easy. He's never visible at this hour. Not one of our early risers.

  "All right then," Charles said. "We might fish the near stream for a bit."

  Sport, however, proved poor that morning, and shortly before twelve they decided to give up, and stroll on towards the inn. They were already within a few minutes' walk of it, and they arrived before the bar was open.

  "Have you been into the courtyard yet?" Peter asked. "You ought to see that. Real Elizabethan work; you can almost imagine miracles and moralities being played there. Come on." He led the way through an arch in the middle of the building, and they found themselves in a cobbled yard, enclosed by the house. A balcony ran all round the first storey, and various bedroom windows opened on to this. A modern garage occupied the end of the building opposite the archway into the street, but Mr. Wilkes had had this built in keeping with the rest of the inn, and had placed his petrol pump as inconspicuously as possible. Some clipped yews in wooden tubs stood in the yard, and the whole effect was most picturesque. Having inspected the older part of the house, and ascertained that the original structure did indeed date from the fourteenth century, they wandered into the garage, which they found stood where the old stables had once been. Michael Strange's two-seater was standing just inside the entrance and one of the garage hands was washing it down. Charles, under pretext of examining the car, soon fell into easy conversation with the man, and leaving him to extract what information he could, Peter strolled off to where he could hear the throb of an engine at work. He had some knowledge of such machines, and a great deal of interest. He easily located the engine-room, went in, leaving the door open behind him, and found, as he had thought, that the engine drove the electric light plant. No one was there, and the first thing that struck him was the size of the plant. Puzzled, he stood looking at it, wondering why such a powerful machine and such a large plant had been installed for the mere purpose of supplying light for the inn. He was just about to inspect it more closely when someone came hurriedly into the room behind him.

  "Oo's in 'ere?" demanded a sharp voice.

  Peter turned to find Spindle, the barman, at his elbow. The man looked annoyed, but when he saw whom he was addressing he curbed his testiness, and said more mildly: "Beg pardon, sir, but no one's allowed inside this 'ere engine-room."

  "That's all right," said Peter. "I shan't meddle with it. I was just wondering why…'

  "I'm sorry, sir, but orders is orders, and I shall 'ave to ask you to come out. If the boss was to 'ear about me leaving the door unlocked I should get into trouble." He had edged himself round Peter, obscuring his view of the plant, and now tried to crowd him out. Somewhat surprised Peter gave way, and backed into the yard again.

  "You seem to be afraid I shall upset it. What's the matter?" he said.

  Spindle was locking the door of the place, and until he had pocketed the key he did not answer. Then he said: "It's not that, sir, but we 'ave to be careful. You wouldn't believe the number of young fellers we've 'ad go in and start messin' about with the plant, to see 'ow it worked. Cost Mr. Wilkes I wouldn't like to say 'ow much money to 'ave it put right once, sir. Not that I mean you'd go for to 'urt it, but I've 'ad me orders, and it's as much as my place is worth to let anyone in."

  "Oh, all right," said Peter, still surprised at the man's evident perturbation. "But why has Wilkes installed such a large plant? Surely it's generating far more electricity than you can possibly use?"

  "I couldn't say, sir, I'm sure. And begging your pardon, sir, it's opening time, and I've got to get back to me work." He touched his forehead as he spoke and scuttled off into the inn again, leaving Peter to stare after him in still greater bewilderment.

  Charles came across the yard from the garage. "Did I hear certain magic words? I move that we repair to the bar forthwith. What have you been up to?"

  "I went to look at the electric-light plant, only that ass, Spindle, hustled me out before I'd had time to see much. I must ask Wilkes about it."

  Charles groaned. "Must you? I mean, we didn't come to talk about amps and dynamos, and I know from bitter experience that once you get going on that soul-killing topic…'

  "I want to know why Wilkes has got such a powerful plant. I hadn't time to look closely, but from what I could see of it it was generating enough electricity to light the whole village."

  "Well, perhaps it does," Charles suggested. "Can we get into the bar without going back into the street?"

  "Yes, through the coffee-room." Peter opened a door which led into a dark little passage, with kitchens giving on to it. At the end of the passage was the coffee-room, and they walked through this to the frosted glass door that opened into the taproom itself.

  There was no one but Spindle in the taproom when they entered, but they had hardly given their orders when Wilkes came in from his private sanctum, and bade them a cheery good morning.

  "Hullo, Wilkes! Just up?" Peter twitted him.

  The landlord smiled good humouredly. "Now, sir, now! You will have your joke. Two half-cans was it? Come on, Spindle, look alive! There you are, sir!" He seized the tankards from his henchman, and planked them down in front of his guests.

  "Very quiet this morning, aren't you?" Charles said.

  "Well, we're only just open, sir. They'll start coming in presently. I see you've been fishing. Bad weather for it today."

  "Rotten. No luck at all." Charles took a draught of beer. "How's business with you?"

  "So-so, sir, so-so. We get a fair sprinkling of car people in to lunch, but there's not many as stays the night."

  "I see Mr. Strange is still here."

  "Yes, sir, he's here. And there's Miss Crowslay and Miss Williams, down for their usual fortnight, and Mr. Ffolliot. Artists, sir, great place for artists and such-like, this is."

  "Still got your commercial?"

  "In a manner of speaking I suppose I have, but he's one of them as is here today and gone tomorrow, if you know what I mean. Well, it's the nature of his business, I daresay, but I'd rather have someone more regular, so to speak. That Mr. Fripp, well, you never know where you are with himm because some days he has to go off and spend the night away, and others he's back to supper when you wasn't expecting him. However, as my missus was saying only this morning, it's all in the way of business, and I'm sure times are that bad I'm glad to get anyone staying in the house."

  Peter put down his tankard. "I say, Wilkes, what's the meaning of that monstrous electric plant you've got outside? You can't need a thing that size, surely?"

  The landlord coughed, and looked rather sheepish. "I'm sorry you've seen that, Mr. Fortescue, sir."

  "Yes, but why? Spindle pushed me out before I'd time to do more than glance at the thing. He seemed in a great way about it."

  Spindle looked deprecatingly at the landlord, and withdrew to the other end of the bar.

  "Spindle's a fool, sir," said Mr. Wilkes, not mincing matters. "Though mind you, you wouldn't hardly believe the number of people there are that ain't to be trusted anywhere near a delicate bit of machinery. I do have to be strict, and that's a fact. Of course, I know
you're different, sir, and that's why I'm sorry you saw it." He went through the form of wiping down the bar, which seemed to be a habit with him. "You see, sir, in a manner of speaking I was a bit had over that plant."

  "I should think you were," Peter said. "You could supply the whole village with it."

  "Well, I don't know about that, sir," Mr. Wilkes said cautiously. "It ain't such a powerful machine as what it looks. Still, I don't deny it's bigger nor what I want. Not but what we use a lot of power here. Because, mind you, I had the whole place wired for heating as well, there not being any gas laid on, and then there's the refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners and what not."

  "Rot!" Peter said, "you don't need a plant that size for the amount of electricity you use in heating."

  Mr. Wilkes once more wiped down the bar. "True enough, sir, I don't. But when I took over this house I don't mind telling you I hadn't ever had anything to do with electric plants, me having always lived in a town. I didn't know no more about it than what half the young gentlemen do, who try and meddle with it. And I did have a notion to run a laundry off it, just by way of a sidebusiness, as you might call it. So what with one thing and another I let myself be talked into putting up a plant that cost me a mint of money, and ain't, between ourselves, as cheap to run as what the smooth-tongued fellow that sold it me said it would be. Excuse me, sir, half a moment!" He hurried away to attend to a farmer who had come in, and Charles and Peter went to sit down at a table in the window.

  The taproom began to fill up, and soon there were quite a number of people in it. They were mostly villagers, and there was no sign of Strange, or his odd associate. But a few minutes before one o'clock a man came in who was obviously no farm-hand. He attracted Peter's attention at once, but this was not surprising, since his appearance and conduct were alike out of the ordinary. Artist was stamped unmistakably upon him. His black hair was worn exceedingly long; he had a carelessly tied, very flowing piece of silk round his neck; his fingers were stained with paint; he had a broadbrimmed hat crammed on to his head; and was the owner of a pointed beard.