Fear by Night by Patricia Wentworth Page B

?” That was one man. And the other had said, “ I’m sure” ; and, “ Don’t speak so loud” ; and, “ She must be got away before she knows .”
    Ann thought about that. There was a girl who was coming in for money under a will, and she didn’t know about it, because they had said, “ If he dies, the whole thing will be in the papers. She must be got away before she knows .”
    There was a girl.… What girl?… How should Ann Vernon know?… Ann Vernon.… What girl?… Ann Vernon …
    â€œNonsense!”
    Ann said the word out loud in a clear angry voice. She went on saying it. “Nonsense—nonsense— nonsense! ” If she said it often enough, perhaps that would make it nonsense. How could this girl, who was being left a lot of money, be Ann Vernon? Why, there wasn’t a single solitary soul in the world who would leave her a penny.
    Elias Paulett.
    The name said itself with frightening distinctness.
    Her mother’s uncle, Elias Paulett.
    â€œNonsense!” said Ann again.
    He was very rich. He had cut her mother off when she married. He must be an old man now.…
    â€œWhat nonsense! He doesn’t know me—he’s never see me!”
    And at once the voices from the Luxe came tuning in: “ He’s never seen her;” and, “ He’s not going to. You must get her away at once .” And—words with hardly any breath behind them; “ And then ?”
    No one has answered that. Someone had said, “ Well, devil take the hindmost .” No one had answered that “ And then ?”—unless the whisper that had echoed in the cleft had answered it: “ Murder .”
    Was it all nonsense?
    The cleft voices repeated themselves—Gale Anderson’s voice: “ I suppose it’ll have to be a boating accident .” And it was Gale Anderson who had said, on the boat when the storm was driving them, “ Damn fool to send her down! There’ll never be a better opportunity .”
    Opportunity for what?”
    The cleft voice whispered the answer:
    â€œ Murder .”
    Ann didn’t say “Nonsense!” this time. She put her hands to her ears as if she could shut out the sound of that whisper, and she said, not loudly but in a hurried, stumbling undertone,
    â€œOh, no—no—no—no— no !”
    A long time went by. She did not know how long. And then came the sounds of the two men returning—real sounds, loud and vigorous. Ann drew back from the window in a revulsion of feeling. The whispering voices fell away. She was piecing scraps together and making an ugly picture out of nothing.
    She saw Gale Anderson come across the grass smiling, and behind him Jimmy Halliday, sunburnt and noisy, with a creel of fish on his arm. His voice came up to her like a blustering wind.
    â€œLeaving me to do all the work, young fellow! What do you think these fish weigh? Give me a hand, can’t you, and we’ll show the old lady what we’ve brought her for her supper.”
    Gale Anderson turned just under Ann’s window and looked back. He spoke with a laugh in his voice.
    â€œOh, devil take the hindmost!” he said.

CHAPTER XIII
    Mrs. Halliday was very chatty at supper. She had two helpings of fish, and snapped Riddle’s I nose off when, in handing her the second, she bent close to her ear and murmured what was apparently a protest.
    â€œWhat’s that? Speak up if you’ve got anything to say! And don’t you go tickling me like that, Eliza Riddle, or I’ll say something we’ll both be sorry for—only you’ll be sorrier than me! And if I want ten ’elpings I’ll have ten ’elpings, so you keep your tongue where it was put and stop wagging it!”
    Riddle sniffed silently. Her drooping, obstinate nose became slightly pink at the end. She continued to sniff whilst she cut and handed bread, and, still