I wondered if I could make a dash for the door, but my limbs were already leaden. I kept thinking: Alone in the house . everybody gone . alone with a woman who is mad.
She was looking down at her hands . those hands which were waiting to strangle me . but not till I slept, so I must not sleep. I must keep awake. I must find some way of out witting her.
I said: “You play the spinet well, Mrs. Laud.”
It was eerie-the manner in which she supped from the malevolent personality of the murderess to that of the homely housekeeper.
“Oh yes, I used to play for Mr. Henniker. He told me about this Jessica who was your mother. I didn’t like that much because I was fond of Mr. Henniker myself. He had this fancy about playing and her coming back.
So I played for him and he said it reminded him of her. “
“And then you played for me?”
You started to pry, didn’t you? As soon as you got back you did. You always had your eyes open and you were looking for the Green Flash. I knew that. I got wonderful ideas from the power that’s there. I was there when you looked with Mr. Madden and I saw you with Mr. Dickson. I watched you take down The Pride of the Peacock. I didn’t want Lilias to many Jeremy Dickson. I wanted Mr. Madden for her. That was a fancy of mine. I guessed Mr. Henniker would leave him the Green Flash and then it would be partly hers. But no, it was mine. Never mind Lilias . because you’d come then and you’d have to be got rid of. I didn’t want Lilias to have it, even. It was mine and I wanted to keep it. “
“You’ve been getting it to work for you, have you?" She nodded.
“It first came to me when Tom Paling came’ over to the house and I went into the stables and meddled with the wheel of the buggy. Then he had his accident and Jimson had his job and did very well at it. You see, the Flash puts the notions into your head and shows you how to do it.”
“So you lured me to the gallery.”
“I wanted you to think it was your mother warning you.”
“Why did you want me warned?”
The Flash is clever. It never does anything without reason. I wanted you to tell people you were afraid . because you thought your husband wanted you out of the way, didn’t you? When wives die mysteriously husbands are the first to be suspected. I knew how things were . separate bedrooms and Isa Bannock. I thought you’d tell someone. He used to play the spinet long ago. Ben liked to hear him at it. And he knew about the stairs, didn’t he ? “
“So it was you who played, and you escaped by way of the stairs and then you arranged for me to have an accident and if I was killed you would have seen that my husband was suspected?”
“It was not really the Flash’s idea. That was mine. It wasn’t very good. It was hardly likely that a fall down those stairs would have been the end of you … and there was all that playing to get you up there and I could easily have been caught at that. But if you’d had a bad accident it would have stopped your prying for a bit and it would be a sort of preliminary if you know what I mean. Lilias spoilt it. She got hysterical about my playing the spinet and she and Jimson tried to stop me. They were always watching me closely. They didn’t know I had the Flash, of course, but they thought I’d changed and they got frightened.”
I must stay awake and keep her talking so I said: T$y this . time had you given up the idea of Lilias’s marrying my husband? “
Well, it could have been a good idea but the main thing . was to keep the Flash. When I came into my room that night and saw Ezra Bannock looking into my workbox I knew he had guessed. There was something in his face which told me. ”
” So you killed him? “
“Yes, I did. I waited for him at Glover’s Gully and I shot him and buried aim there. He’d have stayed there hidden for y, years if it hadn’t been for that horse. And you were the one who found him. That was it … The idea came to me that you were Danger. The Flash put it into my mind so I knew it was right’ ” And the letter from Jeremy Dickson ? “
“I spent hours copying his writing on his acceptance to the invitation to the treasure hunt. I think I did well. There again it was the Flash. I thought that would have done it. (( And Lilias … my own daughter stopped it. She found that letter. What was she doing prying in your room? She was jealous of you with Jeremy. Well, she found it and she swore it wasn’t his writing. She went into the town with the letter and it was all spoiled again. Now of course something’s got a to be done.”
Her face puckered and she looked as though she were going to burst into tears.
“I could see it in Mr. Madden’s face. I could see he wasn’t going to let it rest. Someone had threatened you and he’ll find out too much.
He’s like Mr. Henniker. He’ll go on and on until he gets to the bottom of things . and I’ve got stop him. ”
"You will never be able to.”
She looked cunning. The Flash has the answer. The Flash always has the answer. There’s no beating the Flash. It’s only when I don’t let myself listen that I go wrong . like burying that purse. That was silly. I took it because I wanted them to think it was for robbery. I should have thrown it away in the Bush somewhere. Then it wouldn’t have mattered if it had been found. So then I had to get it back and that was wrong . ,. I won’t act without the Flash again. The Flash is all-powerful. No one can go against it. ” You tried to kill me and you didn’t. Twice you’ve failed.”
“I didn’t Understand what the Hash was telling me.”
“And you think you do now ?”
"yes. I’ve got it all clear now.
Oh God, I prayed, help me to fight off this overwhelming desire to shut my eyes and escape into oblivion, help me to keep awake. While I’m awake I’m safe. I’ve got to keep her talking.
“It won’t work, Mrs. Laud,” I said.
She looked startled.
“You have drugged me. You’ve got so far and you think you’re going to kill me.”
She nodded, smiling benignly. She looked down at her hands and stretched her fingers, flexing them.
“Suppose you kill me,” I went on.
“I shall be in this room. How will you explain what happened to me? You’ll be exposed as a murderess.
They don’t let murderesses live, Mrs. Laud. So what good will it do you ? “
“You won’t be here,” she said.
“You’ll disappear.” She laughed and it was a demoniacal laughter that sent cold shivers down my spine. It reminded me that I was fighting for my life with a woman who was mad and yet had the strength to kill me. One false step could be the end of me. I could see no way of escape. I felt trapped.
In the palm of her hands she still held the Green Flash. She seemed as though she could not put it down, as though she were afraid that if she let it go some power would leave her.
All these months when I had been living in this house with her she had been mad.
I did not speak because while she forgot my presence, as she appeared to now, I was gaining precious moments. She would not touch me while I was conscious. She was not by nature a violent woman; it was only this thing which had possessed her which could make her capable of perpetrating acts of violence.
I thought of Joss . I could not stop thinking of Joss. I was still tingling with memories of our encounter. There was so much explaining to do . but one fact surpassed all others. He had come down into the mine to bring me up. He had risked his life to save me. He had come riding to the mine with all speed when he had seen the letter. He loved me. He wanted me. Those steps in the corridor had been his. He had given Isa Bannock the Harlequin to sting me into awareness of my true feelings and he had done so, because it was after this that I had realized my need of him. We had both been foolish; we had refused to see the truth. Ben had been wiser than we had. auu iiuw wiicii i saw n cic any I was in deadly danger of losing it. Our pride had kept us apart-mine no less than Joss’s; and now in his ignorance he had left me! alone with the murderess.