The Seven Dials Mystery - Agatha Christie [39]
Chapter 14
The Meeting of the Seven Dials
It would be as well to pass over the sufferings of the next four hours as quickly as possible. Bundle found her position extremely cramped. She had judged that the meeting, if meeting there was to be, would take place at a time when the club was in full swing–somewhere probably between the hours of midnight and two a.m.
She was just deciding that it must be at least six o’clock in the morning when a welcome sound come to her ears, the sound of the unlocking of a door.
In another minute the electric light was switched on. The hum of voices, which had come to her for a minute or two, rather like the far-off roar of sea waves, ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and Bundle heard the sound of a bolt being shot. Clearly someone had come in from the gaming room next door, and she paid tribute to the thoroughness with which the communicating door had been rendered sound-proof.
In another minute the intruder came into her line of vision–a line of vision that was necessarily somewhat incomplete but which yet answered its purpose. A tall man, broad-shouldered and powerful looking, with a long black beard, Bundle remembered having seen him sitting at one of the baccarat tables on the preceding night.
This, then, was Alfred’s mysterious Russian gentleman, the proprietor of the club, the sinister Mr Mosgorovsky. Bundle’s heart beat faster with excitement. So little did she resemble her father that at this minute she fairly gloried in the extreme discomfort of her position.
The Russian remained for some minutes standing by the table, stroking his beard. Then he drew a watch from his pocket and glanced at the time. Nodding his head as though satisfied, he again thrust his hand into his pocket and, pulling out something that Bundle could not see, he moved out of the line of vision.
When he reappeared she could hardly help giving a gasp of surprise.
His face was now covered by a mask–but hardly a mask in the conventional sense. It was not shaped to the face. It was a mere piece of material hanging in front of the features like a curtain in which two slits were pierced for the eyes. In shape it was round and on it was the representation of a clock face, with the hands pointing to six o’clock.
‘The Seven Dials!’ said Bundle to herself.
And at that minute there came a new sound–seven muffled taps.
Mosgorovsky strode across to where Bundle knew was the other cupboard door. She heard a sharp click, and then the sound of greetings in a foreign tongue.
Presently she had a view of the newcomers.
They also wore clock masks, but in their case the hands were in a different position–four o’clock and five o’clock respectively. Both men were in evening dress–but with a difference. One was an elegant, slender young man wearing evening clothes of exquisite cut. The grace with which he moved was foreign rather than English. The other man could be better described as wiry and lean. His clothes fitted him sufficiently well, but no more, and Bundle guessed at his nationality even before she heard his voice.
‘I reckon we’re the first to arrive at this little meeting.’
A full pleasant voice with a slight American drawl, and an inflection of Irish behind it.
The elegant young man said in good, but slightly stilted English:
‘I had much difficulty in getting away to-night. These things do not always arrange themselves fortunately. I am not, like No 4 here, my own master.’
Bundle tried to guess at his nationality. Until he spoke, she had thought he might be French, but the accent was not a French one. He might possibly, she thought, be an Austrian, or a Hungarian, or even a Russian.
The American moved to the other side of the table, and Bundle heard a chair being pulled out.
‘One o’clock’s being a great success,’ he said. ‘I congratulate you on taking the risk.’
Five o’clock shrugged