The Astonishing Adventure of Jane SmithWentworth, Patricia
General
The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith
Wentworth, Patricia
Adventure stories; Cousins -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories
“I’m not sure, it’s awfully risky. But I could walk home from the
headland, that would be much safer, and if I’ve been missed, it would
account for my absence.”
Molloy bent a sulky look on her.
“The headland—you know that too?” he said. Then, with an impatient jerk
he switched off the light, turned on his torch, and walked ahead of Jane
in silence.
CHAPTER XXII
Never in all her life had Jane seen anything so beautiful as the clear
rain-washed sky, the grey rain-stilled sea. The little thud of the stone
closing between her and Mr. Molloy was one of the most delightful sounds
that she had ever heard. She felt as if she had never really appreciated
the daylight before. There were nice woolly clouds on the horizon. The
damp air was fresh, not like the air in those abominable passages. There
was a gorse bush with about two and a half yellow flowers on it, rather
sodden with the rain. Jane regarded them with intense affection.
She walked down the gravel path, drawing long breaths and ready to sing
with pure relief—“Ease after toyle, port after stormie seas.” She
frowned, remembering the next line. After all, they were not out of the
wood yet. An unpleasant proverb succeeded Spenser’s line—“He laughs
longest who laughs last.”
“Rubbish,” said Jane out loud, and she began to run.
She came in with such a glowing colour that Mr. Ember, who met her in
the hall, was moved to remark upon it.
“You seem to have enjoyed your walk. Where have you been?”
“Round by the headland,” said Jane.
The roll of typed paper pricked her knee beneath her stocking top. In
her arms she carried a sheaf of yellow tulips. She made haste to her
room and set the flowers in a jar on the broad window ledge where they
could be plainly seen from the terrace. With all her heart she prayed
that George Patterson, who was Anthony Luttrell, would see them. She did
not know that George Patterson had ceased to exist, and that Anthony
Luttrell, having taken the law into his own impatient hands, was on his
way to London.
There had been an encounter with Raymond in the laboratory—her hand for
a moment on his arm, his muscles rigid under her touch; not a word
spoken on either side, not a word needed. The scene carried Anthony to
his breaking-point. At the next roll-call George Patterson was missing.
Meanwhile Raymond was behind a locked door, and Jane set yellow tulips
on her window-sill.
Having made her signal, Jane turned her mind to the lists. She was
afraid to keep them on her, and she was afraid to hide them anywhere
else. If Molloy missed them, and had any means of communicating with
Ember, she would be searched, and her room would be searched. Whatever
happened to her, they must not recover the lists until she had copied
them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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