The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer Page A

that you are present at these—er—carouses?" demanded John.
    "Of course I am not! It is what Huby tells me. He is very old, and he pretends to be deaf, for he was quite sure Coate could be up to no good, as soon as he laid eyes on him. Only he cannot conceive, any more than I can, what it could be that should bring him to the Peak district, or why he should ally himself with such a poor creature as Henry."
    "I haven't met Henry, but I apprehend you don't think it possible that he might have hired Coate for some nefarious purpose? The fellow sounds to me very like a paid bravo."
    She considered this for a moment, but gave a decided negative. "For Coate is the master, not Henry. Besides, what use could he find for a bravo here?"
    "Well, if your Cousin Henry is indeed the snirp you think him, I can only suppose that he is useful to Coate for some reason as yet hidden from us. Perhaps he is in possession of some vital secret necessary to the success of Coate's plans."
    She looked at him sceptically. "You don't believe that!"
    "I don't know. There must be some reason for such an ill-assorted alliance!"
    "I think you must be quizzing me! Such a notion is fantastic!"
    "Very likely, but I might say the same of your apprehensions. Oh, no! don't eat me! I haven't said it, and I swear I don't think it!"
    She cast him a fulminating look. "Perhaps, sir, you believe me to be suffering from the merest irritation of the nerves?"
    "Not a bit of it! I believe you to be a woman of admirable common sense, and I place the utmost reliance on what you tell me. If you were the most vapourish female imaginable, I must still lend an attentive ear to your story: do not let us forget that a gatekeeper, stationed almost at your door, has disappeared under circumstances which one can only call mysterious! That is quite as fantastic as anything you have told me, you know!"
    Slightly mollified, she said: "It seems absurd, but do you suppose Brean's disappearance may be connected in some way with whatever it is those two are plotting?"
    "Certainly I do—though in what way I must own I have not the smallest conjecture! However, it will not do to be applying the principles of common sense to a situation which we clearly perceive to be something quite out of the ordinary, so do not tell me, ma'am, that it is fantastic to suppose that your cousin and his friend can have anything to do with a gatekeeper!"
    She smiled, but absently, saying, after a moment: "I thought I was indulging my fancy only, but—the thing is, Captain Staple, that I am persuaded my cousin is suspicious of you! I don't know who told him that there was a new gatekeeper at the Crowford pike, but he knows it, and has been asking me who you are, and what has become of Brean."
    "Well, that does not encourage us to think that Brean is working with him," John admitted. "On the other hand, he might be cutting a sham—making it appear, you see, as though he knew nothing of Brean. Or even being afraid of what Brean may be doing."
    "No, I don't think it is that," she replied, knitting her brows. "Coate seems not to care about it. He came into the room when Henry was questioning me, and all he said was that he had fancied you were not the man who had opened to him before, but for his part he had paid very little heed to you."
    "Well, before he is much older he will be paying a great deal of heed to me," observed John. "However, you were very right not to tell him so! He is too set in his ways, and a surprise will be good for him. For anything we know, of course, he and Brean may have decided to tip Cousin Henry the double. Or—— But the possibilities stretch into infinity!"
    "Are you funning again?" she demanded. "I collect that you think it all incredible!"
    "Not a bit of it! You will allow, however, that in this prosaic age it is certainly unusual to find oneself suddenly in the middle of what promises to be an excellent adventure! I have spent the better part of my life looking for adventure,