The Man in the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie [96]
‘Don’t you? It means that I’ve found the “Colonel”. It means that on January 8th last you were not at Cannes, but at Marlow. It means that when your tool, Madame Nadina, turned against you, you planned to do away with her–and at last we shall be able to bring the crime home to you.’
‘Indeed? And from whom did you get all this interesting information? From the man who is even now being looked for by the police? His evidence will be very valuable.’
‘We have other evidence. There is someone else who knew that Nadina was going to meet you at the Mill House.’
Sir Eustace looked surprised. Colonel Race made a gesture with his hand. Arthur Minks alias the Rev. Edward Chichester alias Miss Pettigrew stepped forward. He was pale and nervous, but he spoke clearly enough:
‘I saw Nadina in Paris the night before she went over to England. I was posing at the time as a Russian Count. She told me of her purpose. I warned her, knowing what kind of man she had to deal with, but she did not take my advice. There was a wireless message on the table. I read it. Afterwards I thought I would have a try for the diamonds myself. In Johannesburg Mr Rayburn accosted me. He persuaded me to come over to his side.’
Sir Eustace looked at him. He said nothing, but Minks seemed visibly to wilt.
‘Rats always leave a sinking ship,’ observed Sir Eustace. ‘I don’t care for rats. Sooner or later, I destroy vermin.’
‘There’s just one thing I’d like to tell you, Sir Eustace,’ I remarked. ‘That tin you threw out of the window didn’t contain the diamonds. It had common pebbles in it. The diamonds are in a perfectly safe place. As a matter of fact they’re in the big giraffe’s stomach. Suzanne hollowed it out, put the diamonds in with cotton wool, so that they wouldn’t rattle, and plugged it up again.’
Sir Eustace looked at me for some time. His reply was characteristic:
‘I always did hate that blinking giraffe,’ he said. ‘It must have been instinct.’
Chapter 34
We were not able to return to Johannesburg that night. The shells were coming over pretty fast, and I gathered that we were now more or less cut off, owing to the rebels having obtained possession of a new part of the suburbs.
Our place of refuge was a farm some twenty miles or so from Johannesburg–right out on the veld. I was dropping with fatigue. All the excitement and anxiety of the last two days had left me little better than a limp rag.
I kept repeating to myself, without being able to believe it, that our troubles were really over. Harry and I were together and we should never be separated again. Yet all through I was conscious of some barrier between us–a constraint on his part, the reason of which I could not fathom.
Sir Eustace had been driven off in an opposite direction accompanied by a strong guard. He waved his hand airily to us on departing.
I came out on to the stoep early on the following morning and looked across the veld in the direction of Johannesburg. I could see the great dumps glistening in the pale morning sunshine, and I could hear the low rumbling mutter of the guns. The Revolution was not over yet.
The farmer’s wife came out and called me in to breakfast. She was a kind, motherly soul, and I was already very fond of her. Harry had gone out at dawn and had not yet returned, so she informed me. Again I felt a stir of uneasiness pass over me. What was this shadow of which I was so conscious between us?
After breakfast I sat out on the stoep, a book in my hand which I did not read. I was so lost in my own thoughts that I never saw Colonel Race ride up and dismount from his horse. It was not until he said ‘Good morning, Anne,’ that I became aware of his presence.
‘Oh,’ I said, with a flush, ‘it’s you.’
‘Yes. May I sit down?’
He drew a chair up beside me. It was the first time we had been alone together since that day at the Matopos. As always, I felt that curious mixture of fascination and fear that he never failed to inspire in me.
‘What is the news?’ I asked.
‘Smuts will be in Johannesburg