Latest / The Dalehouse Murder / Accident or——?

Transcript

Accident or——? · The Dalehouse Murder

• 0:01
  Chapter thirteen of The Dale House Murder by Francis Everton. This Liberal Box recording
• 0:07
  is in the public domain. Read by yoganand The Dale House Murder, Chapter
• 0:14
  thirteen accident or I unrested and pulled aside the curtains to admit the moon's pale,
• 0:21
  haunting light. My bed had been moved close up to the window,
• 0:24
  and again there was little fall from the daytime temperature. The condition of heat
• 0:28
  and drought seemed stable and set forever. I propped myself up in the pillows
• 0:33
  and lighted a cigarette. Outside I could just see the top of the garden
• 0:37
  wall at the front of the house, a ridge of steel blue, where
• 0:40
  the moonlight caught the tiles aslant, a barrier of black beneath moonlight. Sunlight
• 0:46
  speeding through the ears, flung wide of the earth and caught by a dead
• 0:49
  world and killed. Sunlight with a life sucked out of it. Flowers and
• 0:54
  bees, sparkling waves, ruddy basking babies, hot desert sands, and the
• 0:59
  light and the glow of the sun. Graveyards, tombstones, rotten creaking doors,
• 1:06
  deserted derelict old houses, and sad lovers sighs in the pale cold light
• 1:10
  of the moon. How it has always disturbed me, this shadow light,
• 1:15
  even its beauty, filling my heart with an ache and a pain. It
• 1:19
  came slanting in obliquely through the window, picking up the crockery on the washed
• 1:23
  stand in ghastly white, making long distorted shadows in the floor and up the
• 1:27
  walls. Only two nights ago, just such another band of light had pierced
• 1:32
  the dark of Stella's room to find her dead and kiss her kinky, coppery
• 1:36
  hair, and to night missus Kenley perhaps was listening for the gentle turning of
• 1:40
  the handle to a door, and for someone moving stealthily outside it. I
• 1:45
  hated to think of her alone in the night, perhaps depending for a safety
• 1:49
  on a single bolt. I hated to think of her, a woman little
• 1:53
  more than a girl, alone in this dreadful house, her wits pitted against
• 1:57
  those of one callous enough to murder and face it out and threatened dark doings.
• 2:01
  Again, I wished she had taken me further into her confidence. Who
• 2:07
  and what did she fear? Last night? In spite of the doctor's injunction
• 2:10
  to lock my door, I had felt little sense of reality, little sense
• 2:15
  of any immediate danger, But to night it came upon me that some way
• 2:19
  in this old house, death might still be lurking, that someone who had
• 2:23
  stolen soft footed into Stella's room and out again the cowardly deed accomplished, was
• 2:28
  still at large, and perhaps even now hatching further deviltry. That there was
• 2:34
  a real, concrete danger. I had no doubt. Or why had Alport
• 2:38
  brought her a bowl to fix to her door? She had told me that
• 2:42
  he was married, but how closely, almost intimately, they had sat together
• 2:46
  on the bench behind the garage, partly to enable them to whisper, no
• 2:50
  doubt. But was it only that? Or was there something more? I
• 2:53
  thought of her clear gray eyes and brave, straight carriage, and there welled
• 2:58
  up in my feelings pity, half jealousy. That should have told me plainly
• 3:02
  enough whither I was heading. Oh yes, I was greatly interested in Missus
• 3:07
  Kenley Janet, player, gray eyed, fearless Janet planted in the middle of
• 3:14
  this tragedy by that ugly little gargoyle of a man to do his dirty work,
• 3:19
  Janet alone in fighting against tell Us murderer, perhaps the placid doctor.
• 3:23
  And if it were he, after all, then God, how I hated
• 3:28
  him. A hundred little scenes and gestures flashed across my vision, Scenes of
• 3:31
  cold deceit and gestures of hypocrisy, scenes and gestures void of truth, killed
• 3:38
  and sucked try of sincerity by his placid impassivity, like those ghost beams of
• 3:43
  reflected sunlight that had been rifled off color and warmth by the equally placid moon.
• 3:47
  The Tundish in the dining room, begging us to bury our suspicions at
• 3:53
  Alport's inquiry, flicking the ash from the end of his cigarette, Alport's insinuations
• 3:58
  having as little effect as water on a greasy slope. Painting Kenneth talking of
• 4:01
  the murderous activities of the anti vaccinationists with a cool effrontery before us, all
• 4:08
  making love to Ethel the Tundish impassive and callous and cruel, with his mask
• 4:14
  of a face and twinkling, unbetraying eyes. These and other little pictures rose
• 4:17
  before my sleepless eyes. And if it were he WoT chance at a girl
• 4:23
  against him? I recalled the rustling in the hedge as Janet and I came
• 4:27
  from a secret talk behind the garage. Had someone overheard us? Then was
• 4:31
  some other member of her household, aware of her true identity and purpose.
• 4:36
  Stella poisoned one night, Dark deeds are done in dalehouse at night, stuck
• 4:42
  up against the landing wall the next. A cool hand and a callous must
• 4:46
  have been the one that cut those words from the daily paper. Which of
• 4:49
  us, besides the doctor would have the nerve for the venture? Fool fool
• 4:54
  I was, of course it was he. No wonder Janet was afraid,
• 4:58
  for I saw a look of f when she heard the rustle in the hedge,
• 5:01
  and realized that we might have been overheard. And now she was all
• 5:05
  alone in her room, protected perhaps by nothing but a flimsy bolt. I
• 5:11
  jumped out of bed and opened my door. The landing was quiet, No
• 5:14
  sound reached my ears. I crept along to her room and listened outside the
• 5:17
  door. Should I knock and make sure that she was safe? And if
• 5:21
  the others heard me and were roused, cut away any ultimate chance I might
• 5:27
  have of being of service to her. As I hesitated, I saw another
• 5:30
  picture of the doctor, the doctor, this time, not the man.
• 5:33
  Could that be hypocrisy, too? God, what a vacillating, doddering fool
• 5:39
  I was, doddering, doddering, grass, fluttering here and there in the
• 5:43
  fickle wind of my own imaginations making. I went miserably back to my room
• 5:47
  and tried to compose myself for such sleep as my whirling thoughts might allow me.
• 5:53
  I endeavored to think of ordinary, homely things, of my everyday work
• 5:57
  of Brenda. But Brenda's brown eyes turned to gray, those clear gray eyes
• 6:01
  of Janets, which had held me with their look and set my heart of
• 6:04
  flutter. No doubt, both my brain and nervous system were overstrained. For
• 6:10
  hardly once in a twelvemonth is my sleep disturbed by dreams. But again,
• 6:14
  as on the two previous nights, my subconscious mental activities were pronounced enough to
• 6:18
  be registered among my waking thoughts. This time I was down on the Romney
• 6:23
  flats that lie between the Rye and the sea. I had once spent a
• 6:27
  holiday there. I was in a bicycle, an antiquated heavy piece of iron
• 6:30
  mongery, pushing wearily along a winding road, making every yard with effort.
• 6:35
  Though neither wind nor hill barred progress. I was both urgent and belated.
• 6:41
  Raie must be reached before dark. And although these swirling wreaths of mist like
• 6:45
  slim, transparent shouts were rising from the marshes to meet the falling dusk.
• 6:49
  But Raie must be reached before dark, and my paddles clanked. Rye must
• 6:54
  be reached before dark. As they turned the rusty chain. Now when I
• 6:58
  look down at the road, I saw it dimly through the thickening mist.
• 7:01
  Now I saw it not at all, nothing but undulating, fleasy sheets of
• 7:06
  opaque cloud. Their legs completely hid in the cattle on the marsh lands,
• 7:11
  appeared to float on the top of the mist, like huge grotusquely shaped ducts
• 7:15
  that floated on the pond. Now they loomed suddenly large. Now they disappeared
• 7:19
  as they pushed my way along the road. Rye must be reached. Ere
• 7:24
  the clock struck again, the church on the hill, and always the mist
• 7:28
  was rising. Now it was up to my chin. Now I was completely
• 7:31
  engulfed. Now my head was clear. Once more, I missed the road
• 7:35
  and githered frightfully on the edge of the ditch. I regained my balance with
• 7:41
  a thrill of exquisite relief. But I could hear the preliminary whirring of the
• 7:44
  wheels, and the clock was about to strike too late, too late.
• 7:49
  I had failed I ran full tilt into a gate across the road. There
• 7:54
  was a crash, and I woke with a start. The moon had moved
• 7:58
  round and shone full on my bedroom door. Too late, Too late,
• 8:03
  Too late, went throbbing through my head like a dirge. I gazed stupidly
• 8:07
  at the door, still half asleep, and wondering why the mist had so
• 8:11
  quickly lifted My God, how I loath the moonlight? Too late? Too
• 8:16
  late? Chan it brave, lonely Janet? Or she's safe? Too late?
• 8:24
  What could these unaided repetitions potent? I sprang to the door. The
• 8:28
  landing was black, and the moonlight through my open doorway littered like a spotlight
• 8:31
  playing on a darkened stage. I snipped the air. My sweet, sickly
• 8:35
  smell greeted my nostrils, half familiar. Then I recognized it for what it
• 8:39
  was. The unheld, the enervating smell of escaping gas cook in a fuddled,
• 8:45
  drunken state, must have made some blunder when she turned it off down
• 8:48
  below stairs. There was no gas in the house above the basement, so
• 8:52
  it must be coming from there. I slipped on my dressing gown and hurried
• 8:56
  down. When I opened the door that topped the basement stairs. It made
• 8:58
  me in a pungent wave. I closed the door with a bang. No
• 9:03
  one can go down there in safety. That was obvious. There were movements
• 9:07
  on the stair abow and I switched on the light in the hall. It
• 9:09
  was Janet, God bless her. How dainty she looked. The tundish was
• 9:13
  falling close at her heels, and I nearly cried out my alarm when I
• 9:16
  saw him just above her. How strange I thought that just those two in
• 9:22
  all the house should have been wakeful enough to hear hello, Jeff Cock.
• 9:26
  We seemed to take it in turn to prowl the house at night and get
• 9:28
  caught in the act. What's a muss gas? Can't you smell it?
• 9:33
  The basement's full. We shall have to open a door from the outside before
• 9:37
  we can turn it off. The doctor ran toward the dispensary, and I
• 9:41
  unbolted the front door and ran out into the night, followed by Janet.
• 9:45
  We descended the area steps and peered in through the kitchen window. We could
• 9:48
  see nothing. It was impossible to see. Here goes, I said,
• 9:52
  kicking in a pane of glass, slipping in my hand, I unlashed the
• 9:56
  window and threw it wide open. The reed poured out into our faces,
• 10:01
  and we had to step back to let it dispers The Tundish ran down the
• 10:05
  area steps a bundle of wet towel in his arms. Smash in the other
• 10:09
  window. He said, Cook may be still in there, for all we
• 10:11
  know. I hastened to obey. By this time a policeman had entered the
• 10:16
  gate and stood behind us. Anything wrong here, he queried. I heard
• 10:20
  a window smash. I thought, oh, gas, is it anybody in
• 10:24
  there? We don't know yet. The Constable produced an electric tarch and turned
• 10:30
  its beams into the dark kitchen, sweeping it from side to side. Pare
• 10:33
  We gasped together by the table was seated and motionless figure, arms extended on
• 10:39
  the table and head fallen forward on them alteredly. The doctor was wrapping a
• 10:43
  wet towel over his nose and mouth, and the Constable and I hastened to
• 10:46
  follow his example. Two of us will be enough. He said, you
• 10:50
  stay your jeff cork to give us a hand when we get her to the
• 10:52
  window. The policeman turned on his torch again and we washed them run across
• 10:56
  the kitchen to the still figure in the arm chair. Undsh darted first to
• 11:01
  the gastow, then back to the woman. He and the policeman picked her
• 11:03
  up between them and staggered to the window. They set it down for a
• 11:07
  minute on the broad sill while they drew long breadths. Then we lifted her
• 11:11
  out and laid her on the ground. The constable played the light on her
• 11:13
  face. A head and shoulders shed in the bright circle of light made a
• 11:18
  ghastly black framed picture. White faced, blue lips, eyes half open,
• 11:22
  showing glimpse of yellow whiteness. She looked like some giant jellyfish, washed her
• 11:28
  show and falling the beach a mass of bondless phlabbiness. The doctor knelt beside
• 11:33
  her, loosening her dress and placing his hand on her heart. There's another
• 11:37
  flashlight on my dressing table. Would one of you mind fetching it? He
• 11:41
  said, looking up quickly. His question a command and someemmonia from the dispensary
• 11:45
  to Janet, and eyes sprang to obey. I ran to the dispensary.
• 11:48
  She upstairs for the torch. We were both back in a few minutes.
• 11:52
  She held the torch with a steady hand chester alight, the doctor said,
• 11:56
  looking up. But a few minutes more. A few minutes more, the
• 12:00
  policemen achored, that have been another inquest. There may be yet, said
• 12:05
  the Tundush in his pleasant conversational tones. He runfastened the clouds and was slapping
• 12:09
  a bare chest with the wet towels, but there was no change in the
• 12:13
  livid, upturned face. He poured ammonia on one of the towels and held
• 12:16
  it under a nose. There was no response to the treatment. We'll have
• 12:20
  to try artificial respiration, he said at length. And missus Kenley, can
• 12:24
  you get me a hot bottle. The bottles are on the caboard in the
• 12:26
  bathroom, and you'll find a spirit lamp standing on the sideboard in the dining
• 12:31
  room. Better not light the gas down here just yet. Janet handed a
• 12:35
  torch to me and ran indoors. I can take turns with you, sir,
• 12:39
  the policeman offered helpfully. I've had this job before. He cast off
• 12:43
  his tunic and helmet as he spoke, and rolled up his sleeves. So
• 12:46
  the grim struggle went on in the moonlight. I watched and held the torch
• 12:50
  while they fought in turns with the drunken creature's life, the half as stuck,
• 12:54
  and still they walked on. Was she going to slip away? I
• 12:58
  wondered, and take with her into the great unknown waterwy It was that she
• 13:03
  knew of Stella's death. But at last I heard a gasping breath. The
• 13:07
  doctor stopped and wiped his sprow. Close call, Now what about that hot
• 13:11
  bottle? Even as he spoke, Janet ran down the steps, her arms
• 13:16
  filled with blankets. We wrapped up the ungainly figure warmly. She was breathing
• 13:20
  now, but still unconscious. The doctor still knelt by his side holding a
• 13:24
  wrist. Better ring up the hospital constable and ask for the ambulance. She'll
• 13:28
  want no care, then we can give her here. Drunkenness has not improved
• 13:31
  a chance of pulling through. The sooner she is there, the better.
• 13:35
  The policeman harried indoors, and soon I heard him at the telephone. I
• 13:39
  was surprised that none of the rest of her party had been roused by the
• 13:43
  banging of the brasement door, the smashing of glass, the voices outside,
• 13:46
  and the gentle running to and fro. But they were all of them young
• 13:50
  and healthy. I reflected, and the previous night had been a broken one.
• 13:54
  The ambulance drew up at the gate. The two attendants came in with
• 13:58
  a stretcher. They lifted her gently and bore her away. We all drew
• 14:01
  a breath of relief as a car slid smoothly down the road. The constable
• 14:05
  resumed his tunic, drunken, old beast, he said, she'll pull through,
• 14:09
  you see if she don't. And she had been a good woman,
• 14:13
  with a loving husband and three or four nice little kids, she'd have counked
• 14:16
  out. That's the way it is. Her sort takes a lot of killing.
• 14:20
  Welcher, I'd better take a look round. Then I must ride up
• 14:22
  my report and be off. Janet ran down the steps as he spoke,
• 14:28
  come in and have some tea before you go. I've just made some of
• 14:31
  the dining room. We went in and sat at the big table. Janet
• 14:35
  had made the tea with Ethel's spirit lamp and had hunted up a tin of
• 14:37
  biscuits. Never was a midnight snack more welcome. But what a strangely assorted
• 14:43
  little group it was. The policeman, solid and comfortable in appearance, but
• 14:46
  amusingly iel at ease, fingering a notebook which he had extracted from his inner
• 14:50
  recesses of his tunic. What were the thoughts, I wondered, slowly penetrating
• 14:56
  the brain behind his good tempered face as he thanked Janet awkwardly for his biscuits
• 15:00
  and his tea. Janet, Ah, Janet, how piquant and dainty you
• 15:05
  looked, And what a contrast to that horrible figure on which my gaze had
• 15:09
  been concentrated for the last half hour. More. Janet might have been a
• 15:15
  lifelong inmate of the house, and our tea an alf known affair of gossip
• 15:18
  made attended and cake stand be flanked so easily and pleasantly she chatted. But
• 15:24
  what were your thoughts, Janet, as you asked the doctor with a smile,
• 15:28
  if his tea was as he liked it, the thundish, if his
• 15:33
  thoughts could have been bred? How eagerly I should have scanned the page,
• 15:37
  expecting to read of double driven treachery or heroic unselfish optimism. I know not
• 15:41
  which, and myself, distrusting the doctor and liking him at once, torrant
• 15:48
  of the blue coated limb of the law, wishing them both in hate's Dalehouse
• 15:52
  and its recurrent gruesome happenings a thing of the past. And Janet and I
• 15:56
  alone together in some sheltered peach scented nuke on the moose, where I met
• 16:00
  Hope to stir in her an answering thrill to my own. The constable sat
• 16:06
  down his cup and rose, thank you, miss. He said, that's
• 16:10
  done me a power of good, and now I must have a look round
• 16:12
  and get back to my beat. We went down to the basement with him.
• 16:15
  Janet had set all the doors wide open while we had been working over
• 16:19
  the cook and the atmosphere was breathable. Once more, was the kitchen door
• 16:23
  shut, Miss yes, and the door into the scullery tool We entered the
• 16:29
  kitchen. There was a kettle on the gas toe on the table, an
• 16:32
  empty glass, and beside it an overturned whiskey bottle. It was empty except
• 16:37
  for a few drops, and the tablecloth was stained and wet where whisky had
• 16:41
  been upset. That was a tap that was turned on, said the doctor,
• 16:45
  pointing out the one leading to the ring under the kettle. Good thing
• 16:48
  you had electric light down here, the policeman remarked. If she had had
• 16:52
  a gas light, that it had been a fine burst up. He wrote
• 16:56
  up his notes laboriously, took my name and Janet's, and went to the
• 17:00
  open window, where he passed his hand on the sill to say, no
• 17:03
  need to bother about all those windows and doors being open. The place can
• 17:07
  do with a bit more air. Me and my mate will see us.
• 17:11
  It's all right. I hope you won't be having no more disturbaners, sir,
• 17:15
  good night. The policeman, having departed to complete his night's widgel,
• 17:18
  the doctor picked up the wet towel's whiskey bottle and glass, and we went
• 17:22
  upstairs to the hall. There we paused to look at one another. Well,
• 17:27
  missus Kenley, the tunder shaid, quietly, what do you think of
• 17:30
  the household you have come to? Pretty lord aunt? We seriously though,
• 17:36
  I'm very sorry that you have been letting for this. It was bad enough
• 17:38
  before. Janet smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Oh never mind me, I'm
• 17:44
  used to a staring life. She glanced at the wrist watch. Not half
• 17:48
  past three yet, there's time for sleep still, And look it's getting light
• 17:52
  already. We went to the open door. Another day was spreading fast already
• 17:56
  the east was growing pale and putting out the asked pale stars. A little
• 18:02
  breeze blowing, ruffling her hair, and the birds were sleepily tuning the first
• 18:06
  shy notes of their morning song. Whatever this new born day might have in
• 18:10
  store for us, the black hours of another night had passed, and for
• 18:14
  the moment at least, it was good to enjoy the pregnant morning stillness,
• 18:18
  with its promise of brighter things to come. Well, said the Tundish.
• 18:22
  At last, we'd better turn and get what sleep we can. I'll just
• 18:26
  scribble a note for any explaining matters or else. Poor girl, she'll get
• 18:30
  a shock in the morning. He went back to the consulting room, taking
• 18:33
  the towels in the bottle and glass along with him. For a few brief
• 18:37
  moments, Janet and I were alone. Are you all right? I asked,
• 18:41
  anxiously. Quite. Why shouldn't I be? She smiled at my look
• 18:45
  of concern. Oh, I don't know, but I felt worried about you
• 18:49
  before I went off to sleep last night. I didn't like to think of
• 18:52
  you alone. I wish my room were next to yours. It's just as
• 18:56
  well that I had a bold mister cheff Cork when I went to lock the
• 19:00
  door, I found that the key had disappeared. I am quite certain it
• 19:03
  was there this afternoon. Look here, I shan't go to bed. I'd
• 19:07
  pretend to and then come back and lie down the drawing room with the door
• 19:11
  open. No, please, miss jeff Cork, I don't want you to
• 19:15
  do anything that might call for comment. I shall be perfectly safe, and
• 19:18
  no one will very easily get past that dolt, and I will revolver with
• 19:22
  me as well. Yes, doctor Alice coming back, Please don't fuss.
• 19:26
  The doctor came back, holding a note address to Annie, which he placed
• 19:30
  on the hall table. Now for bed, he said. We went upstairs,
• 19:33
  side by side. The doctor disappeared into his room, Janet into hers.
• 19:37
  I lingered outside my door until I heard a bold short home. Then
• 19:42
  I turned the key in my own door unrest and tumbled into bed. The
• 19:48
  end of chapter thirteen.