Through The Wall

She was coming towards the door, but before she reached it she turned to say something more. What it was, Pe

It was at this point that Miss Silver drew back from the sill upon which she had been leaning. The conversation which she had overheard alarmed her very much. She considered that the time had come to take a step of which the Chief Constable could not possibly approve, a fact which she deplored without allowing this in any way to deflect her.

As she emerged upon the landing she observed that Richard Cu

“Mr. Cu

“What do you want me to do?”

“I am going through into the other house. The door has been unlocked, and I have taken the precaution of oiling the bolts. If I call you, come at once. If I do not, stay in the passage on this side of the door.”

“Do you want me to call Wilkins?”

“No-there must be no noise. If there should be any disturbance, you can call to him. I think you had better take off your shoes.”

A low-powered bulb afforded enough light for him to see that she had not neglected this precaution herself, and that even in black woollen stockings her feet were remarkably neat. They carried her without any sound at all past Ina Felton’s empty room to the door between the houses. When he joined her there the bolts were drawn back and she was turning the handle. The passage and the landing beyond were dark, a circumstance which she considered providential.

Leaving the door ajar behind her, she went forward along the passage and disappeared from Richard Cu

Chapter 40

Cassy Remington came across the landing from her sister’s room. She did not put on the light, because she had lived nearly twenty years in the house and could have walked about it blindfold either by day or by night. As she opened her bedroom door, someone moved over by the window.

On the instant her hand was at the switch. The light showed Pe

“Good gracious me-what a fright you gave me, Pe

“I want to speak to you.”

“Well, I’m here, aren’t I? And half the insects in the cove will be here too, with the windows open and the light drawing them.” She came across the room at a run as she spoke, pulled the casements to, drew the curtains across them, and said sharply, “Well, what is it?”

As she came back into the middle of the room, Pe

“I want to speak to you. I must.”

Cassy Remington had not shut the door behind her when she came in. She did not shut it now. Why should she? Felix was in his room across the landing, and Florence in hers. If either of them opened a door, she would hear it at once- she was very proud of her quick hearing. They were both behind shut doors, and there was no one else in the house. She left the door as it was, and said softly,

“What do you want, Pe

Pe

“I want to speak to you. I want to tell you I heard what you said just now-in Aunt Florence’s room.”

Cassy made one of her jerky movements.

“I should think you would be ashamed of listening at a door. Like a spy!”

Pe

“No, I am not ashamed. You said you were going to tell the police it was Felix. You said you were going to say that you saw him come in from the road at twenty to five.”

Cassy nodded.

“It will be my duty. I ought to have told them at once.”

Pe

Cassy Remington laughed.

“That is your story! Mine is different. I shall say he came in by the gate at twenty to five. I shall be asked about it at the inquest, and that is what I shall say. On oath!”

“Why?”

“Really, Pe

“I can tell you why. I can tell the police. They took away that dress you washed, didn’t they? You told them you washed it on Saturday and rolled it down for ironing in case you went down on the beach after tea today. But you didn’t wash it on Saturday. The door of your wardrobe was open this morning when I came in to help you make your bed, and that navy blue dress was hanging there. It hadn’t been washed then.”

“What does it matter when it was washed?”

“It wasn’t washed at lunch-time.”

“I suppose you went and looked in my cupboard!”

Pe

There was a silence in the room. Outside on the dark landing Miss Silver waited for it to break. She could see no more than the handsbreadth of the open door had to show-a section of wallpaper, curtains, coverlet, carpet. Nothing to inform her of where Pe

The edge of the pedestal table came into view, with the cup of coffee standing on Miss Cassy’s library book. A little more, and she could see Miss Cassy’s shoulder, arm, and hand. The arm hung straight. The hand gripped on a fold of her grey skirt. If it had been clenched like that upon anything which would have served as a missile or a weapon, Miss Silver would have gone in at once, but all that it clutched was a piece of grey fla

The door moved a very little more. Cassy Remington’s head came into the picture. It was turned towards the window. The silence was broken by a light, high laugh.

“Really! My dear Pe

Pe

The hand remained at its dreadful tension, but the light laugh came again.

“Oh, my dear Pe