Comes the Dark Stranger - Jack Higgins [12]
He still spoke in that weird, croaking whisper. Shane offered him a cigarette and said, ‘I was badly injured. Mainly the brain. It caused a total blackout. I only regained my memory a few days ago.’
Graham gave him a light and leaned back in his chair. ‘It can hardly have been pleasant,’ he said, ‘but it sounds interesting. Tell me about it?’
Shane looked out across the valley to the town, hidden in the mist and rain below, and started to talk. At first he tried not to look at Graham, but he found it impossible to avoid glancing at him occasionally. Each time he did so he found the other man gazing at him unblinkingly.
When he had finished, Graham sighed heavily. ‘I was right first time. You have been dead in a way. This is a sort of rebirth for you. Very interesting. I’m sure the psychiatrists would find you a fruitful subject for study.’
Shane frowned, and glanced at him sharply. ‘What do you mean?’
Graham shrugged. ‘An experience like yours would be enough to send a more delicately balanced person completely over the edge of sanity. After all, it must be a hell of a shock to wake up one morning and find you’re seven years older. It’s a large slice of one’s life. Can’t you remember any of it?’
Shane shook his head and leaned forward. ‘No, I can’t remember a thing except what the doctors have told me. But I remember those six hours in the temple before the bombs fell. I remember Colonel Li and the volley outside when they shot Simon.’
There was a moment of stillness, and Graham said softly, ‘So you remember that, do you? You remember our old friend Colonel Li?’
Shane shivered violently. ‘I can still hear that club foot of his in my dreams,’ he said. ‘Sliding along the corridor and halting outside the cell door.’
Graham sighed. ‘I must admit I find it difficult to forget him, but other things happened afterwards that pushed his memory well down into my subconscious.’
‘And what were those other things?’ Shane asked. ‘When I checked you through records at the War Office they told me you’d never been a prisoner. They had you listed as wounded in action and medically discharged. That’s one thing I couldn’t understand.’
Graham shrugged. ‘It’s very simple really. After the bombing I was pretty dazed but otherwise unhurt. The whole place was a shambles. There didn’t seem to be any other survivors and, to be brutally honest, I didn’t hang around to look for any. I found our uniforms in what was left of Colonel Li’s office. There wasn’t much left of the colonel, by the way. I pulled on the first battledress that came to hand, and got to hell out of there. They were still raking the place with cannon-fire as I went down the hill.’
‘And then what?’ Shane asked.
Graham shrugged and took a cigarette from a slim gold case. ‘I managed to get across the river.’ A faint smile touched his twisted mouth. ‘I was about two hundred yards from the Allied lines when I stepped on a land-mine.’
‘What a lousy break,’ Shane said.
Graham shrugged. ‘Anyway, they did their best for me. Not a very good best as you can see, but there wasn’t a great deal left for them to work on. I couldn’t talk for a year, but finally they brought a German surgeon over and he did some new operation on my vocal chords. Now I can speak after a fashion.’
Shane couldn’t think of anything to say. He got to his feet and moved across to the window. ‘At least you’re not short of money, judging by this place.’
Graham nodded. ‘My uncle died the week before that last patrol. Remember when I got the letter from his lawyers? I promised you all one hell of a binge in Tokyo next leave to celebrate. When I got out of hospital I sold out to a combine and bought this house. It was the conservatory that appealed to me. I’ve made quite a hobby out of orchid cultivation. It’s a tricky business, you know.’
‘Were you surprised when you heard that Wilby, Crowther, and Steele