The Red House MysteryMilne, A. A. (Alan Alexander)
General
The Red House Mystery
Milne, A. A. (Alan Alexander)
Detective and mystery stories; England -- Fiction
Cayley put the bag in the bottom of the boat, stepped in, and using an
oar as a punt-pole, pushed slowly off. Then, very silently, he rowed
towards the middle of the pond.
He had stopped. The oars rested on the water. He picked up the bag from
between his feet, leant over the nose of the boat, and rested it
lightly on the water for a moment. Then he let go. It sank slowly. He
waited there, watching; afraid, perhaps, that it might rise again.
Antony began to count....
And now Cayley was back at his starting-place. He tied up the boat,
looked carefully round to see that he had left no traces behind him,
and then turned to the water again. For a long time, as it seemed to
the watchers, he stood there, very big, very silent, in the moonlight.
At last he seemed satisfied. Whatever his secret was, he had hidden it;
and so with a gentle sigh, as unmistakable to Antony as if he had heard
it, Cayley turned away and vanished again as quietly as he had come.
Antony gave him three minutes, and stepped out from the trees. He
waited there for Bill to join him.
“Six,” whispered Bill.
Antony nodded.
“I’m going round to the front of the house. You get back to your tree
and watch, in case Cayley comes again. Your bedroom is the left-hand
end one, and Cayley’s the end but one? Is that right?”
Bill nodded.
“Right. Wait in hiding till I come back. I don’t know how long I shall
be, but don’t be impatient. It will seem longer than it is.” He patted
Bill on the shoulder, and with a smile and a nod of the head he left
him there.
What was in the bag? What could Cayley want to hide other than a key or
a revolver? Keys and revolvers sink of themselves; no need to put them
in a bag first. What was in the bag? Something which wouldn’t sink of
itself; something which needed to be helped with stones before it would
hide itself safely in the mud.
Well, they would find that out. There was no object in worrying about
it now. Bill had a dirty night’s work in front of him. But where was
the body which Antony had expected so confidently or, if there were no
body, where was Mark?
More immediately, however, where was Cayley? As quickly as he could
Antony had got to the front of the house and was now lying in the
shrubbery which bordered the lawn, waiting for the light to go up in
Cayley’s window. If it went up in Bill’s window, then they were
discovered. It would mean that Cayley had glanced into Bill’s room, had
been suspicious of the dummy figure in the bed, and had turned up the
light to make sure. After that, it was war between them. But if it went
up in Cayley’s room—
There was a light. Antony felt a sudden thrill of excitement. It was in
Bill’s room. War!
The light stayed there, shining vividly, for a wind had come up,
blowing the moon behind a cloud, and casting a shadow over the rest of
the house. Bill had left his curtains undrawn. It was careless of him;
the first stupid thing he had done, but—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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