Secret of Chimneys - Agatha Christie [52]
As he spoke they turned the corner of the terrace. A massive figure was advancing towards them. Anthony, who had not yet seen the great Mr Herman Isaacstein, looked at him with considerable interest.
‘Ah, Baron,’ said Isaacstein, waving a big black cigar he was smoking, ‘this is a bad business–a very bad business.’
‘My good friend, Mr Isaacstein, it is indeed,’ cried the Baron. ‘All our noble edifice in ruins is.’
Anthony tactfully left the two gentlemen to their lamentations, and retraced his steps along the terrace.
Suddenly he came to a halt. A thin spiral of smoke was rising into the air apparently from the very centre of the yew hedge.
‘It must be hollow in the middle,’ reflected Anthony ‘I’ve heard of such things before.’
He looked swiftly to right and left of him. Lord Caterham was at the farther end of the terrace with Captain Andrassy. Their backs were towards him. Anthony bent down and wriggled his way through the massive yew.
He had been quite right in his supposition. The yew hedge was really not one, but two, a narrow passage divided them. The entrance to this was about halfway up, on the side of the house. There was no mystery about it, but no one seeing the yew hedge from the front would have guessed at the probability.
Anthony looked down the narrow vista. About halfway down, a man was reclining in a basket chair. A half-smoked cigar rested on the arm of the chair, and the gentleman himself appeared to be asleep.
‘Hm!’ said Anthony to himself. ‘Evidently Mr Hiram Fish prefers sitting in the shade.’
Chapter 16
Tea in the Schoolroom
Anthony regained the terrace with the feeling uppermost in his mind that the only safe place for private conversations was the middle of the lake.
The resonant boom of a gong sounded from the house, and Tredwell appeared in a stately fashion from a side door
‘Luncheon is served, my lord.’
‘Ah!’ said Lord Caterham, brisking up a little. ‘Lunch!’
At that moment two children burst out of the house. They were high-spirited young women of twelve and ten, and though their names might be Dulcie and Daisy, as Bundle had affirmed, they appeared to be more generally known as Guggle and Winkle. They executed a kind of war dance, interspersed with shrill whoops till Bundle emerged and quelled them.
‘Where’s Mademoiselle?’ she demanded.
‘She’s got the migraine, the migraine, the migraine!’ chanted Winkle.
‘Hurrah!’ said Guggle, joining in.
Lord Caterham had succeeded in shepherding most of his guests into the house. Now he laid a restraining hand on Anthony’s arm.
‘Come to my study,’ he breathed. ‘I’ve got something rather special there.’
Slinking down the hall, far more like a thief than like the master of the house, Lord Caterham gained the shelter of his sanctum. Here he unlocked a cupboard and produced various bottles.
‘Talking to foreigners always makes me so thirsty,’ he explained apologetically. ‘I don’t know why it is.’
There was a knock on the door, and Virginia popped her head round the corner of it.
‘Got a special cocktail for me?’ she demanded.
‘Of course,’ said Lord Caterham hospitably. ‘Come in.’
The next few minutes were taken up with serious rites.
‘I needed that,’ said Lord Caterham with a sigh, as he replaced his glass on the table. ‘As I said just now, I find talking to foreigners particularly fatiguing. I think it’s because they’re so polite. Come along. Let’s have some lunch.’
He led the way to the dining-room. Virginia put her hand on Anthony’s arm, and drew him back a little.
‘I’ve done my good deed for the day,’ she whispered. ‘I got Lord Caterham to take me to see the body.’
‘Well?’ demanded Anthony eagerly.
One theory of his was to be proved or disproved.
Virginia was shaking her head.
‘You were wrong,’ she whispered. ‘It’s Prince Michael all right.’
‘Oh!’ Anthony was deeply chagrined.
‘And Mademoiselle had the migraine,’ he added aloud, in a dissatisfied tone.
‘What has that got to do with it?’
‘Probably nothing, but I wanted to see her. You see, I’ve found out that Mademoiselle has the second room