The Man in the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie [65]
‘No, I haven’t,’ I admitted frankly.
‘Or fallen in love, either?’
I did not answer.
The car drew up at our destination and brought the conversation to a close. We got out and began the slow ascent to the World’s View. Not for the first time, I felt a slight discomfort in Colonel Race’s company. He veiled his thoughts so well behind those impenetrable black eyes. He frightened me a little. He had always frightened me. I never knew where I stood with him.
We climbed in silence till we reached the spot where Rhodes lies guarded by giant boulders. A strange eerie place, far from the haunts of men, that sings a ceaseless paean of rugged beauty.
We sat there for time in silence. Then descended once more, but diverging slightly from the path. Sometimes it was a rough scramble and once we came to a sharp slope or rock that was almost sheer.
Colonel Race went first, then turned to help me.
‘Better lift you,’ he said suddenly, and swung me off my feet with a quick gesture.
I felt the strength of him as he set me down and released his clasp. A man of iron, with muscles like taut steel. And again I felt afraid, especially as he did not move aside, but stood directly in front of me, staring into my face.
‘What are you really doing here, Anne Beddingfeld?’ he said abruptly.
‘I’m a gipsy seeing the world.’
‘Yes, that’s true enough. The newspaper correspondent is only a pretext. You’ve not the soul of a journalist. You’re out for your own hand–snatching at life. But that’s not all.’
What was he going to make me tell him? I was afraid–afraid. I looked him full in the face. My eyes can’t keep secrets like his, but they can carry the war into the enemy’s country.
‘What are you really doing here, Colonel Race?’ I asked deliberately.
For a moment I thought he wasn’t going to answer. He was clearly taken aback, though. At last he spoke, and his words seemed to afford him a grim amusement.
‘Pursuing ambition,’ he said. ‘Just that–pursuing ambition. You will remember, Miss Beddingfeld, that “by that sin fell the angels,” etc.’
‘They say,’ I said slowly, ‘that you are really connected with the Government–that you are in the Secret Service. Is that true?’
Was it my fancy, or did he hesitate for a fraction of a second before he answered?
‘I can assure you, Miss Beddingfeld, that I am out here strictly as a private individual travelling for my own pleasure.’
Thinking the answer over later, it struck me as slightly ambiguous. Perhaps he meant it to be so.
We rejoined the car in silence. Half-way back to Bulawayo we stopped for tea at a somewhat primitive structure at the side of the road. The proprietor was digging in the garden, and seemed annoyed at being disturbed. But he graciously promised to see what he could do. After an interminable wait, he brought us some stale cakes and some lukewarm tea. Then disappeared to his garden again.
No sooner had he departed than we were surrounded by cats, six of them all miaowing piteously at once. The racket was deafening. I offered them some pieces of cake. They devoured them ravenously. I poured all the milk there was into a saucer and they fought each other to get it.
‘Oh,’ I cried indignantly, ‘they’re starved! It’s wicked. Please, please, order some more milk and another plate of cake.’
Colonel Race departed silently to do my bidding. The cats had begun miaowing again. He returned with a big jug of milk and the cats finished it all.
I got up with determination on my face.
‘I’m going to take those cats home with us–I shan’t leave them here.’
‘My dear child, don’t be absurd. You can’t carry six cats as well as fifty wooden animals round with you.’
‘Never mind the wooden animals. These cats are alive. I shall take them back with me.’
‘You will do nothing of the kind.’ I looked at him resentfully but he went on: ‘You think me cruel–but one can’t go through life sentimentalizing over these things. It’s no good standing out–I shan’t allow you to take them. It’s a primitive country, you know, and I’m stronger than you.’
I always know when I am beaten. I went