‘Catch him!’
But in these last few yards of the race there was no chance of catching Ben. The black river had slowed and stopped, and had then suddenly become a black tumult, and as he tumbled out into the road he tumbled up again in a single bump. He did not know what he was doing. All he knew was that he was doing it, and that, somewhere in the blackness, a face was beginning to appear—a face he had not dared to materialise in his mind before lest it should turn him into sobbing impotence.
But now the face was close at hand! It was staring at him—anxiously, fearfully, beseechingly. He sobbed, yes, but not with impotence. Each sob brought activity to his limbs, and added an explosion to the twisted engine within. Before the occupants of the rescuers’ cars realised that Ben was out of the leading one, he was through the gate of Greystones and speeding along the drive.
Even in his delirium he stuck to the grass. When he came round the final curve and was forced upon gravel, he ran lightly, on tip-toe to the front-door. The front-door was open.
He ought to have been surprised. It was all too easy. But he was not surprised. All this was nothing to do with him. God was taking a hand, and when God takes a hand it’s all right, see?
Another door stood open. Again he wasn’t surprised. He passed through the second doorway. A Spaniard lay on the ground, dead. Beyond the Spaniard was a girl, bound. But Ben’s eyes did not rest on either of these. They rested on the figure of an old man with a revolver in his hand …
Two arms and two legs, spraying out from a whirling blotch of body in the middle, swooped on top of Mr Lovelace. He raised his revolver, to find it wrested from him. And now he was on the ground, struggling to retain consciousness of a world that had suddenly gone mad, and that was, therefore, hardly worth the compliment of remembering. So he gave up trying, and ceased temporarily to remember it.
Five seconds later, the inspector, followed by his constables, leapt into the house. The sight that met him astonished even his hardened eyes. A tightly bound girl was in the throes of violent hysterics, two men lay on the floor—one dead, the other unconscious—while a third swayed round dizzily and gulped, in a voice of choking triumph:
‘And now, inspector, yer can ’ave me!’
The arms of the law went round Ben as he swooned—but they went round very gently.
THE END
About the Author
Son of novelist Benjamin Farjeon, and brother to children’s author Eleanor, playwright Herbert and composer Harry, Joseph Jefferson Farjeon (1883–1955) began work as an actor and freelance journalist before inevitably turning his own hand to writing fiction. Described by the Sunday Times as ‘a master of the art of blending horrors with humour’, Farjeon was a prolific author of mystery novels, with more than 60 books published between 1924 and 1955. His first play, No. 17, was produced at the New Theatre in 1925, when the actor Leon M. Lion ‘made all London laugh’ as Ben the tramp, an unorthodox amateur detective who became the most enduring of all Farjeon’s creations. Rewritten as a novel in 1926 and filmed by Alfred Hitchcock six years later, with Mr Lion reprising his role, No.17’s success led to seven further books featuring the warm-hearted but danger-prone Ben: ‘Ben is not merely a character but a parable—a mixture of Trimalchio and the Old Kent Road, a notable coward, a notable hero, above all a supreme humourist’ (Seton Dearden, Time and Tide). Although he had become largely forgotten over the 60 years since his death, J. Jefferson Farjeon’s reputation made an impressive resurgence in 2014 when his 1937 Crime Club book Mystery in White was reprinted by the British Library, returning him to the bestseller lists and resulting in readers wanting to know more about this enigmatic author from the Golden Age of detective fiction.
Also in this series
No. 17
The House Opposite
Murderer’s Trail
Little God Ben
Detective Ben
Ben on the Job
Number Nineteen
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
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Canada
HarperCollins Canada
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New Zealand
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http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London, SE1 9GF
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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New York, NY 10007
http://www.harpercollins.com
Ben Sees It Through Page 25