They Found Him Dead Part 11

"Oh, to h.e.l.l with that rubbis.h.!.+" he said. "Keep your mouth shut, that's all I ask of you!"

She said in a voice of ice: "Indeed! Well, that's interesting, at all events."

"I didn't mean that!" he answered quickly, releasing her. "But it seems to me you don't realise how serious this is. Of course I didn't do it-naturally I didn't!-but when I left you I went back to the Royal and had one or two, and like a fool started to drive up to town. Got pinched about ten miles from here. You see how suspicious it looks? Then there's that little swine, Timothy, yapping to the police about having seen me drive off from here in a flat spin. All lies, of course, and so I told that thick-headed superintendent."

"Why do you say that to me?" asked Rosemary calmly. "You were quite beside yourself. I don't blame you, but it's quite useless to tell me that you were--"

"All right, go and tell the police I was crazy with the shock of having lost you! Go on, tell them, if you're so d.a.m.ned keen on the truth!"

"Whatever else I am," said Rosemary, "I am loyal."

Miss Allison would have enjoyed the unconscious humour in this remark, but Dermott saw nothing absurd in it and replied at once: "I know, I know! Fact of the matter is, the whole thing's a bit on top of me. You must be guided by me." He gave an unconvincing laugh. "That pretty little head of yours wasn't made for all this brainwork, darling. Just do as I say, and everything will be all right."

He left her, and after vainly trying to engage Miss Allison in a discussion on the affair, with particular reference to her own spiritual reactions, Rosemary rang up Mrs. Pemble and begged her to come to tea. "I feel stifled here!" she announced. "There's no one I can talk to. I feel if I have to bottle it all up much longer I shall go out of my mind."

Betty was suitably flattered by this invitation and made haste to a.s.sure Rosemary how well she understood what she meant. "The only thing is, it's Nanny's afternoon off, and I can't leave the children," she said.

Rosemary was not very fond of children, but the prospect of acquiring a sympathetic listener was too enticing to be foregone. She at once included Jennifer and Peter in her invitation, consoling herself with the thought that Timothy could quite well amuse them.

Timothy, however, did not see the matter in the same light and said so with more frankness than civility.

Rosemary somewhat unwisely retorted that he would do as he was told, whereupon Timothy went off immediately in search of his stepbrother, whom he found in the library with Miss Allison, and enlisted his support.

Jim was sufficiently annoyed to hear that Rosemary had invited a comparative stranger to tea at such a time to uphold Timothy. Miss Allison went farther and said darkly that one of these days Rosemary would get what was coming to her. At this point Rosemary came in, also to enlist Jim's support. Jim said in a rather cold voice that he wanted Timothy to go on an errand to Portlaw. This led to a spirited and slightly acrimonious dialogue, during the course of which Jim requested Rosemary to remember that this was hardly the moment to invite strangers to tea, Miss Allison advised her not to indulge in any indiscreet conversation with a garrulous woman like Betty, and Rosemary supposed, viciously, that she ought to have asked Jim's permission to invite anyone to his house.

Before he could reply, Pritchard came into the room to tell him that Mr. Paul Mansell wished to speak to him on the telephone. He said: "All right; I'll come"; and to Rosemary: "Aunt Emily's permission is the one you should have asked."

"I think," said Rosemary as he went out, "that as Clement's widow I am ent.i.tled to some consideration!"

"Considering you have just informed us all that you are in love with Mr. Dermott, I think the less you say about being Clement's widow the better it will be!" retorted Miss Allison.

Rosemary looked at her. "You don't understand me a bit, do you?" she said. "I've always had the feeling that you disliked me."

Miss Allison deigned no response to this, so Rosemary went away.

"Say, sister!" quoth Mr. Harte; "you're a peach!"

Miss Allison laughed. "Oh, Timothy, I'm afraid I'm merely a cat. I suppose you couldn't take those ghastly children down to the lake and push them in?"

"Nope!" said Mr. Harte. "I don't want the cops to have the drop on me."

"I expect you're right," agreed Miss Allison.

Jim came back into the room. "Can you lose yourself, or do you want me to give you a real errand?" he inquired of his stepbrother.

"I'm going to Portlaw to see James Cagney's new film," replied Timothy. "You can give me an errand if you like."

"Well, buy me a box of matches, or a local paper or something," said Jim. Mr. Harte said that he would if he remembered, and vanished.

"What did Paul Mansell want?" asked Patricia.

"He's coming up to see me-to talk things over. I told him I really hadn't had time to get my bearings, but that didn't seem to deter him."

"The Australian business," she said. She raised her eyes to his face. "Jim, let them do what they want!"

"My dear good child, I can't decide on a matter like that at a moment's notice!" he replied. "I haven't gone into it. All I know is that Silas and Clement were dead against it!"

"Jim!" She laid a hand on his and clasped it. "Never mind that! It can't matter to you how much money you have to put up for it. Let them do as they like!"

He looked down at her, half smiling. "I thought you wanted to marry a very rich man?"

"Don't be silly. I'm serious, Jim. Let the Mansells have it as they want! You'll still be a very rich man."

"True, my love; but that isn't quite the point. I'm not a bit interested in Kane and Mansell's nets, but Silas and Clement were, and I shouldn't like to let them down. I can't possibly decide a question of that size offhand."

"Jim, couldn't you get out of having anything to do with the firm?"

"Yes; what I rather think I should like to do, if the Mansells would consent, is to turn the whole thing into a public company."

"Would they like that?"

"Depends on who had control. They might."

"Then do it. I-Jim, I'm frightened!"

"Pat, you cuckoo!"

"I know. But I'm still frightened. I don't want to sound like Rosemary, but there's some awful feeling of-of danger hanging over this place. You can say I'm overwrought if you like, and perhaps I am. I've tried to shake it off, but I can't. I tell you, Jim, I can hardly bear to let you out of my sight for fear something may happen to you."

He put his arm round her comfortingly. "My sweet, you've let this get on top of you."

"Yes. I know. But don't tell Paul Mansell you won't consent to the Australian scheme! Please don't, Jim!"

"No, of course I shan't. I don't propose to commit myself in any way till I've had time to look into it."

"They want an answer at once. Jim, don't you realise that there's someone utterly ruthless at work?"

His arm slackened about her. The smile faded from his face. "Go on. What are you getting at?"

"First Mr. Kane and now Clement," she said, nervously rolling her handkerchief between her hands. "It sounds fantastic-I know it sounds fantastic; but that Scotland Yard man thinks Mr.

Kane's death was murder. He asked me question after question."

"Are you seriously suggesting that the Mansells did away with Silas and Clement all because of a split on a matter of business policy?"

"Not old Mr. Mansell, no. But Paul could. You don't know him, Jim. He's horrible."

"I don't want to be rude, darling, but have you been consorting much with Timothy of late?"

"Oh, Jim, don't laugh! I'm so sure it's serious!"

"Well, I promise I won't turn down the Australian scheme today. Will that do?"

"I wish you'd consent to it."

"Not really, Pat."

She reflected. "No, I suppose not. Sorry. Do as you think best. I've gone a trifle over at the knees."

"What you want is a good stiff blow," said Jim. "How would you like one in the Seamew? I rather thought of having her out tomorrow."

"I should probably be scared white," replied Miss Allison candidly. "However, I quite see that if I mean to go through with this marriage I shall have to get used to racing cars and speedboats. I'll go with you if Mrs. Kane doesn't want me."

Shortly after three o'clock Paul Mansell arrived at Cliff House, bringing with him his sister and her two children. Betty Pemble had been inspired to array her offspring in their best clothes, undeterred by any consideration of the unsuitability of jade-green silk for garden wear. Peter, who was a strong-minded-looking child of three, wore in addition to his jade knickers a frilled s.h.i.+rt of primrose yellow. Judging from his expression, which was forbidding, he did not regard his gala raiment with favour. Jennifer, on the other hand, who was three years his senior, was looking pleased and rather smug. She had beguiled the tedium of the drive out from Portlaw with a flow of innocent prattle which made her uncle wonder savagely why no one had had the sense to stifle her at birth.

Upon arrival at Cliff House she skipped out of the car and offered to embrace her hostess. "How do you do, Mrs. Kane? Look, Mrs. Kane, I've got my party frock on! Do you know, Peter was awfully naughty, Mrs. Kane, and he screamed because he didn't want to have his clothes changed? I wasn't naughty. I'm three years older than Peter, Mrs. Kane. He's only a silly baby."

"Hush, darling!" said her mother fondly. "Give Auntie Rosemary a nice kiss, Peter dear."

"No," said Peter, with a lowering look at Rosemary. "Don't want to."

Betty bent over him and said in a coaxing voice: "Darling, you know you promised Mummy you'd be a good boy. You love Auntie Rosemary, don't you?"

Master Pemble, exasperated, thrust her off with one fat clenched fist. "I don't want to!" he repeated loudly.

"Oh, please don't worry about it!" begged Rosemary. "I can never see why children should be expected to kiss everyone. Really, I don't in the least want him to!"

"No, Peter must do what he's told," said Betty firmly. "I always insist on them obeying me, you know: it's the only way. Now, darling, listen! You wouldn't like Mummy to take you home again, would you?"

"I want to go home!" replied Master Pemble. "I want to go home now! I do want to go home! I do!"

His mother interrupted this steady crescendo, saying: "Oh, Peter! Don't you know how sad it makes Mummy when you behave like this?"

"I'm not naughty, Mummy, am I?" asked Jennifer, jumping from one foot to the other with more energy than grace. " I kissed Mrs. Kane without being told to, didn't I, Mummy?"

"Yes, darling; but don't jump about like that! You'll get so hot."

Master Pemble, pardonably annoyed, saw fit at this point to deal his ecstatic sister a shrewd blow in the ribs. Jennifer at once complained of his brutality in a whining voice, and by the time Betty had reminded her that Peter was only a very little boy, after all, and told Peter that boys never, never hit girls, the original cause of the dispute had been forgotten. Rosemary, who by no means enjoyed the unenviable role of one waiting to be embraced by a reluctant child, made haste to conduct the party on to the south lawn below the terrace.

"You don't know how glad I am to see you!" she told Betty. "Honestly, if you hadn't come I think I should have gone mad!"

"My dear, I was only too pleased to come. I know so well what you must be-no, Peter dear, you mustn't pick the pretty flowers! Just look at them, but not touch! Aren't they lovely? I'm sure Auntie Rosemary wouldn't mind you smelling them. Jennifer darling, you show Peter how to smell the pretty flowers." She turned to Rosemary. "Jennifer's got the most extraordinary love of beauty. Of course, it's just heaven to her to be in this perfect garden. She'll talk of nothing else for weeks. I do so believe in bringing them up to have only beautiful thoughts, don't you?"

"I don't know," said Rosemary impatiently. "I don't know anything about children. I suppose they'll be all right playing about by themselves, won't they?"

"Oh, perfectly!" Betty a.s.sured her, sitting down in one of the deck chairs under a large cedar.

"As long as they don't go out of sight, or anything. Run along, darlings, and play quietly together."

"There isn't anything to play with, Mummy," objected Jennifer.

"Never mind, darling; just run along and amuse yourselves! Mummy wants to talk to Auntie Rosemary."

"But, Mummy--"

"p.u.s.s.y!" suddenly exclaimed Master Pemble as the kitchen cat crossed the lawn. "I want the p.u.s.s.y!"

Both children immediately launched themselves in the direction of the cat, screaming: "It's my p.u.s.s.y! I saw it first. You're not to have it." A fight to the death seemed inevitable; but the cat, after one horrified look, made for the shelter of the nearest hedge like a streak of lightning. The children, after vainly trying to lure it out again, returned disconsolately to their elders, and Peter informed Rosemary that he had had a p.u.s.s.y once.

"Yes, and do you know what happened to him, Auntie Rosemary?" asked Jennifer eagerly. "He got out on to the road, and a motorcar came and killed him flat!"

"He was squashed!" corroborated Peter with enthusiasm.

"I can't think who told them that!" said Betty in an annoyed voice. "I mean, I've always been so careful not to let them know anything about Death and that sort of thing."

For the next quarter of an hour all conversation between the two ladies was punctuated by admonitions from Betty to her children and answering whines from them that there was nothing to do. Fortunately for Rosemary's temper she caught sight of one of the gardeners and had the happy thought of consigning the children to his care. They went off with him, followed by a fire of affectionate reminders not to get hot, or cold, or overtired, or dirty, and were not seen again until teatime, the entertainment offered by the gardener being of a high order, namely, the plucking and drawing of a fowl killed that morning.

While Rosemary was unburdening herself to Betty Pemble in the garden, Jim Kane was confronting Paul Mansell in the library and thinking privately that he was a fairly nasty piece of work.

Upon arrival at Cliff House Paul had stayed only to greet Rosemary before going into the house.

Pritchard had shown him into the library, where Jim presently joined him, and after a slight interchange of civilities he had broached the object of his talk. His father and he, though averse from obtruding the matter so soon, were anxious to know what the chief shareholder's policy was to be.

Jim laughed and shook his head. "No use asking me that yet, Mansell. I haven't had time to find my feet. Nets aren't much in my line, you know."

"Quite. We quite appreciate that," smiled Paul, crossing one leg over the other and gently swinging a suede-clad foot. "I expect it would suit you best to let Dad buy you out. You don't want to be bothered by business. I know I wouldn't touch it if I were in your place."

This was the conclusion Jim had already reached, but he now felt an irrational disinclination to leave the business in the Mansells' hands. He said: "No, I don't think I want to be bought out, thanks.

How would you and your father feel about turning it into a public company?"

Paul Mansell put up his brows. "Rather a large question to answer offhand, isn't it? I don't know that I think Dad would quite cotton on to the idea. I really haven't considered it. What I came about-a.s.suming that you don't wish to get out of having anything to do with the business-was to talk over the new venture with you. I don't know whether you've been told anything about our Australian scheme?"

"A certain amount," replied Jim.

"Ah, perhaps I had better explain it to you!" Paul said languidly.

Jim heard the explanation out, merely interrupting once or twice to put a question. His questions were so pertinent that Paul began to realise that this big cheerful young man was not the fool he had supposed him to be. His eyes narrowed a little; his voice grew more suave.

"On the face of it, it looks good," Jim admitted when Paul Mansell had done. "At the same time, I know next to nothing about the business, and I want to go into things before I start making any decisions. I take it you don't expect me to give you an answer offhand?"

"I think," said Paul gently, "that it would be wisest for you to allow yourself to be guided by us."

All trace of his smile left Jim's face. The muscles about his mouth hardened, giving him a slightly pugnacious expression. He looked steadily into Paul's eyes and said with deliberation: "Do you?"

Paul made a graceful gesture with one hand. "My dear fellow, haven't you just said that you know nothing about the business?"

"Next to nothing," said Jim.