Death of a Peer by Ngaio Marsh Page A

contained movement with her hands. Her husband stood before her.
    “Well, darling?” she asked.
    “Immy,” said Lord Charles, “he’s not dead. He’s alive still ”
    “Will he live?”
    “It doesn’t seem possible.”
    “Charlie — if he dies?”
    “It seems that if Gabriel dies he will have been murdered.”
    There was a dead silence and then Henry said in a strange voice: “Isn’t there a book called
It Can’t Happen Here
?”
    Stephen said: “Of c-course he’s murdered. Of course he’ll die. With that thing through his b-brain, why didn’t he die at once?”
    “Shut up,” said Colin.
    Lord Charles sat on the arm of his wife’s chair and put his hand on her shoulder. It was the first time Roberta had ever seen him do this. “Where’s Patch?” he asked.
    “I sent her away with Mike and Nanny. She — didn’t see, but I thought—”
    “Yes. She and Mike will know of course but it might be as well, Imogen, if you told them. The rest of you had better hear the whole story now. Unless Robin—”
    Roberta said, “If it’s private of course—”
    “Private! My dear child, it will be front-page news in every paper by to-morrow.”
    “So it will!” Frid ejaculated. “I say, we ought to tell Nigel Bathgate. It’d be a lovely scoop for him, wouldn’t it?”
    “I must say, Frid,” said Henry, “I think that a particularly mad suggestion of yours.”
    “I don’t see why. As Daddy says, it will be in all the papers anyway so why not give Nigel a break? I daresay he’d fight off all the other press-men for us. Shall I ring him up, Mummy?”
    “Not now, Frid. And yet I don’t know. Nigel might be a sort of protection, Charlie.”
    “I really do not consider,” said Lord Charles with emphasis, “that one rings up young journalists, however charming, and tells them that one’s relations have been murderously assaulted! You none of you seem to realize…” He broke off and looked at Roberta who was still hovering doubtfully. “Robin, my dear, we have no secrets from you. I’m only so sorry that you should have been plunged into this nightmare. Stay by all means, if you will.”
    “Don’t go away, Robin,” said Henry.
    “No, don’t go,” said the others. So Roberta stayed.
    Lord Charles beat gently on his wife’s shoulder with his thin hand. Without looking up at him she leant towards him.
    “I’m glad it’s Dr. Kantripp,” she said. “He knows us so well. It would have been much worse if he had been a stranger.”
    “It would have made no difference.”
    “None?” asked Charlot on an indrawn breath.
    “Very little, at any rate.”
    “What will happen?” she asked.
    “A man from the police-station is here. At the moment he is telephoning Scotland Yard. There’s another man in there with Gabriel.”
    There was a short silence broken by Charlot.
    “Well,” she said, “none of us tried to kill him, of course, so I suppose we simply tell the truth.”
    Nobody answered her.
    “Don’t we?” Charlot persisted.
    “We’ll tell the truth,” said Lord Charles, “certainly.” He looked at his children. “I want you to listen carefully. Your uncle was alone in the lift for some time before he and Aunt Violet were taken down. It seems that he was sitting in the lift with his hat pulled forward and his head bent. Your aunt only discovered that he was hurt after the lift had gone some way down. You all must have heard the return. Now each of you may have to account for your movements after your — after he got into the lift. Try to remember exactly what you did and where you were. If…”
    He broke off abruptly. The doctor had come into the room.
    Dr. Kantripp was stocky and dark, with a pleasingly ugly face. He looked profoundly unhappy.
    “They’re coming,” he said, “immediately.”
    “Good,” said Lord Charles.
    “Dr. Kantripp,” said Charlot, “will he live?”
    “He may — survive for a little, Lady Charles.”
    “Will he be able to speak?”
    “I