Root of All Evil
Page 20
“Jolly decent of you,” said Jimmy. “Have another drink before you embark on the perilous ascent.” He said the last two words twice to make sure of getting them right. Caro was smiling now, sitting in the corner and holding hands with Roger.
In fact, the singing only went on for half an hour or so, before the whole party decided to get some rest. Caro took one of the two middle bunks, Roger and Jimmy the two lowest. Soon all was dark and quiet, except for the tiny blue bulb that burned in the ceiling, the soft breathing of the sleepers, and the thrumming wheels on the ribbon-stretch of rails. In his tiny compartment at the rear of the last coach, Edward cursed Mrs. Buckfast steadily, and with satisfaction, as he compiled his passenger list: between him and the engine driver, the sinuous length of train was all asleep.
At breakfast time next morning they were miraculously among mountains. True, the railway itself ran through wide, flat green valleys, like the beds of dried-up lakes, but all around the mountains reared proudly, fresh green giving way to grey rock, to evergreen, and finally, high above, to glistening white snow. All along the train, voices and spirits rose. The sun shone, and the snow, suddenly real, suddenly remembered, was a lure, a liberator, a potent magic. Soon, soon...
The Austrian border was left behind at half-past nine: by eleven the train was winding along the broad green valley of the River Inn, ringed by lofty mountains: at eleven-twenty precisely, the engine drew to a hissing, panting halt, and a guttural voice outside on the platform was shouting “Innsbruck! Innsbruck!” into the crisp, sunny air.
All the characters and events portrayed in this work are fictitious.
ROOT OF ALL EVIL
A Felony & Mayhem “British” mystery
PUBLISHING HISTORY
First UK print edition (Collins): 1984
First US print edition (Doubleday): 1984
Felony & Mayhem print and digital editions: 2020
© 1984 by M. D. Brown
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63194-232-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ferrars, E. X., author.
Title: Root of all evil / E.X. Ferrars.
Description: Felony & Mayhem edition. | New York : Felony & Mayhem Press, 2020. | “A Felony & Mayhem mystery”--Title page verso. | Summary: “Retired professor Andrew Basnett visits his elderly (very wealthy) cousin and lands in the middle of a violent and devious struggle over inheritance”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020012306 | ISBN 9781631942310 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781631942327 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Basnett, Andrew (Fictitious character)--Fiction. | Retired teachers--England--Fiction. | Botanists--England--Fiction.. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PR6003.R458 R6 2020 | DDC 823/.912--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012306