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‘That and a lot more no doubt,’ said Mrs Pascoe. ‘But they pushed him out, all the same.’
‘Out of what?’
‘Cashiered, court-martialled, badges of rank stripped off, sword broken in half, muffled drums, the works.’
‘Poor old man. I’m sure it was a miscarriage of justice.’
‘That’s because you don’t know him.’
Mrs Pascoe looked as if she were waiting for Gerald to offer her another whisky.
‘It’s a thing he could never live down,’ said Phrynne, brooding to herself, and tucking her legs beneath her. ‘No wonder he’s so queer if all the time it was a mistake.’
‘I just told you it was not a mistake,’ said Mrs Pascoe insolently.
‘How can we possibly know?’
‘You can’t. I can. No one better.’ She was at once aggressive and tearful.
‘If you want to be paid,’ cried Gerald, forcing himself in, ‘make out your bill. Phrynne, come upstairs and pack.’ If only he hadn’t made her unpack between their walk and dinner.
Slowly Phrynne uncoiled and rose to her feet. She had no intention of either packing or departing, nor was she going to argue. ‘I shall need your help,’ she said. ‘If I’m going to pack.’
In Mrs Pascoe there was another change. Now she looked terrified. ‘Don’t go. Please don’t go. Not now. It’s too late.’
Gerald confronted her. ‘Too late for what?’ he asked harshly.
Mrs Pascoe looked paler than ever. ‘You said you wanted a car,’ she faltered. ‘You’re too late.’ Her voice trailed away.
Gerald took Phrynne by the arm. ‘Come on up.’
Before they
reached the door, Mrs Pascoe made a further attempt. ‘You’ll be all right if you stay. Really you will.’ Her voice, normally somewhat strident, was so feeble that the bells obliterated it. Gerald observed that from somewhere she had produced the whisky bottle and was refilling her tumbler.
With Phrynne on his arm he went first to the stout front door. To his surprise it was neither locked nor bolted, but opened at a half-turn of the handle. Outside the building the whole sky was full of bells, the air an inferno of ringing.
He thought that for the first time Phrynne’s face also seemed strained and crestfallen. ‘They’ve been ringing too long,’ she said, drawing close to him. ‘I wish they’d stop.’
‘We’re packing and going. I needed to know whether we could get out this way. We must shut the door quietly.’
It creaked a bit on its hinges, and he hesitated with it half-shut, uncertain whether to rush the creak or to ease it. Suddenly, something dark and shapeless, with its arm seeming to hold a black vesture over its head, flitted, all sharp angles, like a bat, down the narrow ill-lighted street, the sound of its passage audible to none. It was the first being that either of them had seen in the streets of Holihaven; and Gerald was acutely relieved that he alone had set eyes upon it. With his hand trembling, he shut the door much too sharply.
But no one could possibly have heard, although he stopped for a second outside the Lounge. He could hear Mrs Pascoe now weeping hysterically; and again was glad that Phrynne was a step or two ahead of him. Upstairs the Commandant’s door lay straight before them: they had to pass close beside the Japanese figure, in order to take the passage to the left of it.
But soon they were in their room, with the key turned in the big rim lock.
‘Oh God,’ cried Gerald, sinking on the double bed. ‘It’s pandemonium.’ Not for the first time that evening he was instantly more frightened than ever by the unintended appositeness of his own words.
‘It’s pandemonium all right,’ said Phrynne, almost calmly. ‘And we’re not going out in it.’
He was at a loss to divine how much she knew, guessed, or imagined; and any word of enlightenment from him might be inconceivably dangerous. But he was conscious of the strength of her resistance, and lacked the reserves to battle with it.
She was looking out of the window into the main street. ‘We might will them to stop,’ she suggested wearily.
Gerald was now far less frightened of the bells continuing than of their ceasing. But that they should go on ringing until day broke seemed hopelessly impossible.
Then one peal stopped. There could be no other explanation for the obvious diminution in sound.
