Chapter 20 #2
She beckoned. He cast a glance backward, then crawled up to her.
“What the deuce are you doing here?” he repeated in an audible whisper.
“Never mind that. Come on down and explain what’s going on.”
Phillip shook his head. “Something might happen while I’m not watching.”
“Listen, old dear, you can’t do anything to help Gloria on your own, and Alec can’t plan the most effective help with you playing the loose cannon.”
“Fletcher’s here?”
“Of course. A fat lot of use I’d be to you on my own. Alec, Tommy, Binkie, and four servants—eight men with you. Enough to rescue her. Do come on. Time may be important.”
He cast another longing glance in the direction of the hut, then raised himself the last few inches to look down the other side. The others had moved along the track and now stood directly below Daisy and Phillip. Tommy gestured urgently.
“Oh, right-oh,” Phillip sighed.
Daisy was already so sodden she simply sat on the grass and whooshed down the bank. Alec broke her fall, catching her hands and pulling her to him.
“He argued,” she said, breathless but smug, as Phillip landed beside her. “He wouldn’t have come for Owen.”
Alec’s smile was maddeningly sceptical. He let her go and said, “Petrie, have any of the men left yet to pick up the ransom?”
“No. They’re all in the hut with Gloria, all four of them. The fellow on watch over the track refused to stick it out in the rain. We can easily bag the lot. Let’s go!” He took a step forward.
“Hold on,” said Alec, not budging.
“Steady, old chap.” Tommy put out a restraining hand. “We need to know a bit more about what we’re getting into.”
“Carlin,” Alec addressed the gamekeeper, “can you sneak around and keep an eye on the gateway without being seen?”
“Aye, sir.”
“Off you go, then.” He eyed the wiry gardener. “Morgan, you look pretty nippy on your feet. Go with Carlin but keep back, well out of sight. If he sees anyone leave, you run back to tell us.”
The two went off. Alec turned back to Phillip. “The hut has only one door, I take it?”
“Yes, doesn’t it, Daisy? A narrow opening, round the other side. I couldn’t see it from here.”
“So you don’t know whether there is an actual door or only a doorway?”
“There never used to be a door, just old, rusty iron hinges sticking out of the wall.”
“They haven’t had much time to rig one up,” Daisy said. “It seems like forever but it was only last night they left the witch’s cottage.”
“Could have brought one with them,” Binkie put in. “Knew they might have to come here, what? Had a tent.”
“True. Damn—sorry, Daisy!—I wish I knew. What about windows?”
“Not even window-holes,” Phillip said promptly, and Daisy nodded agreement. “No holes in the walls. Actually, though one thinks of it as dilapidated, it’s pretty solid except for the chimney. The bit sticking up fell into the inside bit and blocked it up an age ago.”
“No big holes in the walls,” Daisy corrected him, “but whatever was used to stuff up the gaps between the stones is gone. I saw their light through dozens of little holes.”
“By Jove, you’re right! We can peep through and see what they’re up to before we burst in. Let’s go, Fletcher. We out-number them two to one.”
“Good odds,” Alec acknowledged, “but they have Miss Arbuckle. With three, say, to fight us off in a narrow doorway, leaving one to threaten her—no, I don’t like it. Pearson?”
“I have to agree. What’s more, if we go in through the gateway to spy on them through the chinks in the walls, we risk being seen by whoever comes out to go for the money. All he has to do is run back to warn them and they become virtually impregnable.”
Phillip groaned. “What do we do then?”
“Wait,” said Alec. “With one or more gone, we can surround the place unseen and have a much better chance of dealing with the rest. I’d hoped to station men all around on top of the bank, but it looks as if that’s out.”
“Impossible,” Daisy confirmed. “The grass is too short for handholds and much too slippery for footholds. Even Binkie couldn’t shove all of you up there.”
“So I’ll leave Carlin watching the gateway. Let’s see, who’s the best runner besides Morgan?”
“Me, sir,” said Ernest eagerly. “I always win the egg-and-spoon race at the church fête.”
“I’m not so bad myself,” Phillip protested.
“Then both of you go round the other way and keep an eye on the track down to the lane. In case Carlin misses something, see which of you can get back here fastest if anyone goes down.”
Phillip and the footman hurried off around the bend.
“All right,” said Alec, “with Petrie safe out of the way—Bincombe, do you think you can put Pearson on top of the mound?”
Binkie surveyed Tommy’s middling-tall but stocky form. “Give it a try,” he grunted.
Even with Truscott helping on one side and Alec on the other, Tommy proved too great a weight for Binkie to boost to the crest. After three attempts, Alec turned with a rueful face to Daisy.
“Aren’t you glad I came?” she said tartly.
“I could fetch Owen back. He can’t weigh much more than you.”
“That would waste time. I’m ready. I just wish I’d thought to bring some chocolate.”
Truscott delved into his pocket. “Here, Miss Daisy. Never go anywhere without it.”
“Angel!”
This time, tired by his efforts to hoist Tommy, Binkie gave her just enough impetus to reach the top safely. She lay there, nibbling chocolate, her gaze fixed on the hut. Nothing moved.
The murmur of voices came from both the hut and the track below, where Tommy and Alec were no doubt discussing a plan of attack. Every now and then, Alec called up softly, and Daisy responded with a wave to show she was still alert.
She was too damp and chilly to feel the least drowsiness, despite insufficient sleep last night.
Though she would have liked to sit up and huddle with her arms around her knees, that would make her stand out silhouetted against the skyline.
Still, the temptation grew as the risk waned with the daylight.
It was growing dark. Nothing moved.
And then came the growl of a motor engine and a light in the sky, headlamp beams glinting off a thousand raindrops. Footsteps pounded along the track as Phillip and Ernest arrived from one direction, Owen Morgan from the other.
Daisy strained her ears to hear their excited but hushed voices. Not that she couldn’t guess what was going on: Crawford had arrived.
A flicker of light crossed the gateway and the engine’s rumble was suddenly louder before it cut off.
At the same moment Daisy noticed the appearance of a glimmer of light reflected from the rain falling directly beyond the hut.
Twisting, she leaned as far down the slope as she could without losing her balance.
“Alec! They have a door!”
“Thanks, love. You have your torch?”
“Yes.”
“Flash once if Crawford goes to the hut, twice if he’s carrying a bag, three times if anyone comes out and goes to the car. Got it?”
“Got it.”
She hauled herself back up, just in time to see a torch-beam start to bob along from the gateway towards the hut. While trying to keep an eye on it, she extricated her own torch from her pocket, reached down the bank, and flashed the button on once.
As Crawford came a little closer, the back-scatter of light from his torch revealed a bulging attaché-case in his other hand. Daisy flashed twice.
“Right, miss.” Ernest’s low voice, then his footsteps, running.
Daisy glanced down. The rotters had gone and left her!
She looked back at the hut. Crawford’s figure stood out momentarily against the dancing raindrops, then vanished. The light from the doorway vanished too, as the makeshift door thudded shut.
The voices within were louder now, but still unintelligible. The only light was the flecks glowing through the chinks between the stones in the wall, a galaxy of irregular stars come to rest on earth.
A shadow eclipsed a patch of stars, a man-shaped shadow. As it moved on, another took its place and then a third.
They were surrounding the hut. Daisy could not decide whether she was sorry or very, very glad she had promised to keep well out of the way. It was agony not to be able to tell what was going on.
For what seemed an age nothing appeared to happen. Then everything happened at once.
Light flooded from the opening door. A man yelled. Alec cried out, “Police! Come out one by one with your hands raised.” Someone shouted. Gloria squealed.
A few moments of ominous quiet were followed by an urgent voice. Then came a gunshot, and a scream of pain.
Alec? Her heart choking her, Daisy slid down the bank and ran towards the hut.