The Astonishing Adventure of Jane SmithWentworth, Patricia
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The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith
Wentworth, Patricia
Adventure stories; Cousins -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories
“I had forgotten you walked in your sleep,” she said. “I don’t like
locked doors as a rule, but I suppose you had better keep yours
fastened. I shouldn’t like you to walk into the sea and get drowned, or
break your neck falling off the terrace. Get back to your bed. I’m just
going to mine. I’ve been working late.”
She went out, and it was a long, long time before Jane, who had heard
the soft footfalls die away in the distance, dared open the door and
take a hasty look along the corridor. It was quite empty.
After another pause she went to the cupboard door and opened it. The
flooring stretched unbroken; there was no square hole, and no Henry. She
sat down on the floor, hesitated, and then knocked lightly.
Under her very hand a board rose with a little jerk—a line of light
showed, and Henry’s voice said softly:
“All clear?”
“Yes, be quick, I daren’t wait.”
“Who was it?”
“Lady Heritage.”
“What did she want?”
“I don’t know. She said she saw a light. Henry, she frightens me, she
really does.”
The board rose a little higher.
“A sleuth who gets frightened is no earthly——” said Henry firmly. “Now
look here, Jane, I can get you out of this quite easily if you want to
come. You are the only person in the house whom I haven’t interviewed.
Mr. Ember said that of course I shouldn’t want to see you, as you did
not get here until after the leakage must have taken place. I made no
comment at the time, but it is perfectly open to me to insist on seeing
you, to say that I am not satisfied with the interview, and to take you
back to London for further interrogation.”
Henry had opened the trap door about a foot. His face, lighted from
below, looked very odd with the chin almost resting on a board at Jane’s
feet and the trap held up by one hand and only just clearing his hair.
Jane would have wanted to laugh if his last suggestion had appalled her
less.
“Oh, you mustn’t,” she said. “If you do that, it’s all up. Mr. Ember
would never, never, never, allow you to interview me. He’d be afraid of
what I might say, and he’d find some awful way of keeping me quiet. As
to letting me go off to London with you, well, if we started we’d
certainly never get there. And oh, Henry, please, please go away. I’m
sure they suspect something, and if she comes again, or if he comes—oh,
Henry, do go.”
“All right,” said Henry. “Now, Jane, look here. I’m off before
breakfast, but I can make an excuse to come down at any time if you want
me. If anything is going wrong, or you get frightened, or if you want to
get out of it write for patterns of jumper wool to the Misses Kent,
Hermione Street, South Kensington. It’s a real wool shop and they’ll
send you real patterns, but Miss Kent will ring me up the minute she
gets your letter. I’ll come down straight away, and you look out for me
here.”
“Do you mean you’ll come and stay? Won’t they suspect something?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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