Oliva Cresswell remembered nothing. She did not remember being thrust
limply into a long narrow box, nor hearing Beale's voice, nor the click
of the door that fastened him in Dr. van Heerden's bedroom. If she cried
out, as she did, she had no recollection of the fact.
"Carry her, box and all, to her flat. The door is open," whispered van
Heerden to the two men who had made their lightning disappearance into
the anatomical cases at the sound of Beale's knock.
"What shall we do?"
"Wait till I come to you. Hurry!"
They crossed the landing and passed through the open door of Oliva's
flat and the doctor closed the door behind them and returned in time to
release the savage Beale.
He watched him racing down the stairs, darted to the door of Oliva's
rooms, opened it and went in. In ten seconds she had been lifted from
her narrow prison and laid on her bed, the box had been returned to the
place where it had stood in the doctor's study and the men had returned
to join van Heerden in Oliva's darkened sitting-room.
Van Heerden had switched on the light in the girl's room and then
noticed for the first time that one of her shoes was missing. Quickly he
slipped off the remaining shoe.
"You wait here," he told the men, "until you hear Beale return. Then
make your escape. On your way down leave the shoe on the stairs. It will
help to put our friend off the trail."
Half an hour after the discovery of the shoe on the stairs Beale went
out accompanied by his visitors.
The doctor watched the dark figures disappear into the night from the
window of his sitting-room and made his way back to the girl's flat. She
was lying where he had left her, feeling dizzy and sick. Her eyes closed
in a little grimace of distaste as he put on the light.
"How does my little friend feel now?" he asked coolly.
She made no reply.
"Really, you must not sulk," he said chidingly, "and you must get used
to being polite because you are going to see a great deal of me. You had
better get up and put your coat on."
She noticed that he had a medicine glass in his hand, half-filled with a
milky-white liquor.
"Drink this," he said.
She pushed it away.
"Come, drink it," he said, "you don't suppose I want to poison you, do
you? I don't even want to drug you, otherwise it would have been simple
to have given you a little more ether. Drink it. It will take that hazy
feeling out of your head."
She took the glass with an unsteady hand and swallowed its contents. It
was bitter and hot and burnt her throat, but its effects were magical.
In three minutes her mind had cleared and when she sat up she could do
so without her head swimming.
"You will now put on your coat and hat, pack a few things that you want
for a journey, and come along with me."
"I shall do nothing of the sort," she said, "I advise you to go, Dr. van
Heerden, before I inform the police of your outrageous conduct."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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