The Mystery of a Butcher's Shop

CHAPTER III

Midsummer Madness

I

THE night was hot. Felicity Broome, tossing on her small single bed at the Vicarage, found sleep an impossibility. She counted imaginary sheep, she thought over the events of the day, she played an imaginary set of tennis, she visualized the top of her dressing-table and recalled to mind which aunt had presented her with each of the pretty but inexpensive adjuncts which reposed on it, and upon what festival, anniversary, or occasion she received the gift – but all was to no purpose. Hot and wide-awake she remained. She flung off first the coverlet and then the sheet. She sat up. She seized the pillows and banged and punched them. She lay down again. The pillows still felt as though they were filled with lumps of wood instead of soft down feathers. Felicity groaned and flung her slim body restlessly about.

A car went by along the main road. Somewhere in the house a man was talking interminably. Her father, she knew. The vicar seldom retired to bed before twelve.

A bat flew into the room, fluttered uncertainly round in a jerky, frightened fashion, and flew out again. Somewhere an owl was calling. Two men went by, their heavy boots ringing sharply on the road.

There was no moon, but through the wide-open uncurtained window she could see the stars clustered gemlike, remote and shining, in the clear night sky. Felicity slid out of bed and walked to the window. She leaned out into the glimmering faëry darkness.

Away to the left lay the thickly wooded park of the Manor House. The trees were like a drifting cloud, felt rather than seen. Mysteriously attractive they loomed, shadowy, awesome, and inviting.

Felicity ran a comb through her short dark hair; soft and shining was her hair, like silk. She gave it a toss to settle it into place, then she pulled on a pair of rubber-soled gymnasium-shoes, tightened the string of her pyjama trousers, thrust her arms into the sleeves of her old school blazer, and climbed cat-like down the porch on to the Vicarage flower-bed.

Her father’s study was at the side of the house. Felicity was thankful for this. She felt instinctively that, broadminded as the vicar undoubtedly was, he could scarcely be expected to approve of his motherless daughter’s present walking costume. Felicity slipped noiselessly across the lawn, vaulted the low stone wall which separated the Vicarage garden from the churchyard, and flitted like some slim, entrancing ghost in and out among the gleaming tombstones. She reached the ancient lych-gate, climbed profanely over it, and dropped down into the road. This was a mere sandy Jane which acted as tributary to the main Bossbury-London thoroughfare, which ran clean through the centre of Wandles Parva village.

Around her and above her head, beneath her feet, before her and behind, were all the scents and sounds and silence of night. Felicity breathed them in – breathed long and deeply. The firm, long, winding road, the quiet hedgerows, filled her with nameless joy. She longed to travel in their company to the world’s end and into the fields of asphodel that grace the heaven of youth.

The main road was deserted. Not even a car passed by. The lights of the village were out. The village itself lay behind her. Beyond was ecstasy. The solitude itself was adventure.

Less than five minutes’ easy walking brought her to the little wicket gate which opened into the Manor House park. Felicity pushed at the gate. It was not locked, but appeared to be stuck fast. She pushed again. Standing at this portal which bordered the enchanted land she imagined so attractive, her courage failed her. The gloomy woods were black with heavy shadows. The place looked lonely, not with the loneliness and charm of quiet solitude, not even with the loneliness of death, but awesome with the loneliness of living things whose thoughts were not as hers. The true witch-magic of a wood on a midsummer night when the trees are heavy with leaves, and every leaf, however still the forest, has a voice and a secret all its own, affrighted and unnerved her. She was in half a mind to retreat; to leave the pagan temple for a safe and Christian pillow. The factor of the fast-shut gate decided her. To make it an excuse of cowardice was to condemn herself. Retreating a dozen steps, she darted forward, placed one hand upon the topmost rail, and vaulted neatly over it.

It was eerily dark among the trees. They whispered to Felicity their strange and awesome secrets. They were old. They had some mystery in their keeping, and they leaned towards her with their gloomy branches and brushed her cheek with their summer-heavy leaves, trying to attract and snare her – trying to tell her something which she could never understand. Felicity trembled, and her courage failed her. She remembered that in the centre of this great deciduous wood some bygone owner of the Manor House had planted a circle of pines. Tall, straight, and stark they waited, towering into heaven; and in the centre of their circle stood the Stone of Sacrifice. Felicity had heard queer tales about the Stone. It was a solid block of granite, roughly triangular in shape, and once, so ran the legends, it had been the altar of some prehistoric temple to the sun. Priests of a lost religion had sacrificed upon it to their god the flesh of rams or cattle or the blood of human kind. What dread ecstatic dances, what strange and awful sights, what deeds of violence and cruelty the Stone had witnessed, the girl could only guess. She turned, and began to retrace her steps.

Suddenly she stumbled upon the narrow pathway which led towards the Manor House, or, conversely, to the road. Irresolute, she halted and glanced round. All the blood in her body came racing to her head. In the near distance, and among the shadowy trees, she saw a steady gleam of light.

II

‘Aubrey dear,’ said Mrs Bryce Harringay for the fifth time. She had commenced by saying it lovingly. She had continued by saying it coaxingly. Then she had proceeded to put it petulantly, and at length she resorted to command. This also having failed to produce the desired reaction on the part of her son, she had fallen back on a fond and foolish mother’s last hope – entreaty.

‘All right, mater,’ her heir returned, also for the fifth time. He sighed, thrust a picture postcard of Hobbs into a copy of The Hairy Ape, laid Mr O’Neill on top of the piano and followed his mother up the stairs.

‘Good night, Jim, old man,’ he remarked as he passed out of the room. Jim Redsey looked up from his own book and nodded. He looked harassed and ill.

At the top of the stairs, Mrs Bryce Harringay paused.

‘Good night, Aubrey dear. Now do try to be down in time for breakfast to-morrow morning. Remember – “Punctuality is the politeness of princes.” So charming of them, I always think. So you will make a special effort, won’t you?’

‘Righto. Good night, mater. Sleep well. Oh, do you want, me to come and goggle under the bed for you?’

‘Well –’ said Mrs Bryce Harringay hesitatingly. It was a strong woman’s one weakness, this fear of burglars under the bed.

‘Righto,’ said Aubrey good-naturedly. He preceded her into the room and switched on the electric light, for the wealthy Rupert possessed his own electric plant and paid his own electrician to look after it. Having looked solemnly under his mother’s bed, Aubrey stepped across to the window and, pulling back the edge of the blind which Mrs Bryce Harringay’s maid had already drawn down, he peered out. Although the hour was late, it was not dark outside. He could perceive the outline of the summer-house, and some formless shadows which were the roses and the flowering garden-beds by day. Suddenly a shaft of light shone broadly out on to the gravel path, and, from the library below, a man stepped out and walked towards the stables. Aubrey watched him go, and in a few seconds observed that he returned and apparently switched off the electric light.

‘For goodness’ sake, Aubrey, come away from that window and let me go to bed,’ said Mrs Bryce Harringay petulantly. ‘Here is Louise. Good night, dear.’

‘Good night, mater. So long.’ And he slipped out. The maid bestowed upon his back the special smile she kept for every member of his sex, and turned to attend her mistress.

Aubrey shot into his own room like lightning, kicked off his pumps, pulled on a pair of rubber-soled gymnasium-shoes, flung off his dress clothes and climbed into shorts and a sweater, then tiptoed to the door, regardless of the wild disorder he was leaving in his bedroom. As quickly as he could manage to do without making a noise, he shot downstairs and into the library. It was in darkness, but a strong scent of roses with which the hot night filled the room informed him that the French windows were wide open. Fearful of being too late to see the fun, he stepped out on the gravel path, slipped quickly aside on to the short, friendly turf of the lawn which would deaden the sound of his footsteps, and ran towards the garage and the stables.

‘Elementary, Watson, you goop!’ crowed Aubrey, as, coming within sight of the stables, the circle of light cast by a hurricane lamp met his gaze. ‘So there you are, Jimsey my buck! Now we shall find out what the spade is for. Perhaps he’s robbed old Rupert’s safe and is going to bury the spoils! I wonder what the little game really is, though?’

Seeking the shelter of a thick clump of laurels, he lay with his face as close to the ground as was possible, and waited patiently. He crushed a spider, which was tunnelling a panic-stricken way between his shirt and his body, by the simple expedient of rolling on it, scratched his left ear, which was beginning to itch maddeningly, and held his breath so as not to betray his presence. He had not long to wait. A muffled oath, in a voice unmistakably belonging to his cousin James Redsey, who had dropped the spade with a clatter upon the brick flooring of the stable, was followed by the appearance of a large black shadow looming against the starlit-scented dimness of the night, and Redsey passed by at a swift pace, carrying the hurricane lamp in his left hand and the spade across his right shoulder. He seemed in great haste, and was obviously bent upon some secret and important errand.

‘Got gymmers on, like me,’ thought Aubrey, noting Redsey’s noiseless footsteps. ‘Silly ass to tread on the very edge of the turf like that, though! Any idiot could trace him to-morrow.’

He allowed Jim about thirty paces’ start, then, moving like the shadow of a cat, sinuous, gliding, and without a sound, he began to follow him.

When they were well away from the windows of the house, Jim abandoned the cover afforded by bushes and flowering plants, and struck out boldly across the park. On this open ground, Aubrey had need to exercise much care in order to keep his presence secret. At irregular intervals, Jim Redsey halted and looked round as though some sixth mysterious sense were warning him that he was being followed. Rejoicing at the absence of the moon, Aubrey, who was bending nearly double in his determination to avoid being discovered, sank down and lay full length in the dew-drenched grass of this open country and was soaked to the skin by the time they reached the outskirts of the Manor Woods. Here Jim made his last halt before plunging in among the trees.

He was immediately lost to sight, and a less venturesome person than Aubrey Harringay would have paused at this juncture and contemplated abandoning the chase. Such a thought, however, did not enter Aubrey’s head, so, although the chances were decidedly in favour of his running full tilt into his cousin in the confusion engendered by the countless tree-trunks and the darkness, he plunged in after Jim and was immediately swallowed up among the trees.

III

Human curiosity is a strange and awe-inspiring thing. Felicity Broome’s first impulse on beholding the gleam of light among the trees had been to turn and run. She was on the path; she could find the road. Inside ten minutes she could be safely between the sheets of her bed. The upbringing of the modern girl, however, can scarcely be said to encourage the instinctive adoption of first impulses. More powerful than this deterrent was the force of curiosity. Who was walking in the Manor Woods at night? Why was he armed with a lantern? Could it be poachers? But what was there to poach? The recollection of Jim Redsey’s stealthy, strange manoeuvres with the spade flashed into her mind. Felicity, her fears forgotten, her curiosity lusting to be sated, crept cautiously along the path to get a nearer view.

The first thing she saw was the Stone. There it crouched, a loathsome, toad-like thing, larger than ever in the semi-darkness. She herself was sheltering behind a pine. Away from her – in that most strange of symbols, a complete and perfect circle – stretched its tall upstanding brothers, a ring of witch’s sentries guarding unhallowed ground. Ten yards, or thereabouts, from the Stone, lantern in hand, like some gigantic, lumbering, hag-ridden will-o’-the-wisp, was Rupert Sethleigh’s cousin Redsey. Just as Felicity recognized him, he set down the lantern and began to dig.

IV

In less than a minute, Aubrey Harringay realized that he was hopelessly lost in the woods. The tree-trunks, crowding together, barred his progress. He tore his socks and shorts on briars and brambles, his woollen sweater caught on to low-growing branches, his face was soon scratched and bleeding, and, although he had explored the woods from end to end in daylight, he began to realize that they seemed a different place by night. He halted and listened. Suddenly, a few yards in front of him and a little to his right, the gleam of the hurricane lamp intensified the surrounding gloom.

‘Doggo!’ thought Aubrey, hastily stepping aside and concealing himself behind a tree. He had gained the middle of the wood. He crept forward, from tree to tree, until he was in sight of his cousin. The hurricane lamp, now standing on the ground, shone on the glinting surface of the quartz-encrusted triangular block of granite which went by the name of the Stone of Sacrifice, or the Druids’ Altar. The tree behind which Aubrey’s wiry body was concealed chanced to be a massive, smooth-trunked beech, but immediately in front of him, surrounding the rude stone altar which occupied the centre of the clearing, was a circle of sighing pines whose tall, straight trunks rose dread and awesome, towering into the night sky like guardian spirits of the brooding Stone.

Jim Redsey walked into the circle of light caused by the hurricane lamp and began to dig. The light loam was easy to move. Jim’s arms and body moved with rhythmic grace. The pile of earth beside him grew and grew.

‘Great jumping cats!’ said Aubrey to himself. ‘The chap is trying to get through to Australia! What is the little game? Is he walking in his sleep?’

Having effected a cavity some six feet long and of a fair depth – Aubrey judged it to be about three feet down – Jim laid down the spade. Then he stepped down into the hole very carefully and disappeared from view.

‘Chap must be off his chump!’ thought Aubrey, more amused than uneasy at these curious manoeuvres. ‘Must be sleep-walking! Thinks he’s in bed now, I expect. Wonder whether I ought to wake him up? Old Tompkins says it’s dangerous to wake up sleep-walkers. They go loony or something. Wonder what I’d better do? Anyway, I’ll pinch the spade before he can do any damage with it.’

He was about to act upon this idea when Jim Redsey’s head and shoulders appeared above the hole in the ground, and he stood up, stepped carefully out on to the sparse grass of the clearing, and walked away from Aubrey towards a clump of hazel bushes. Scarcely had he disappeared within their depths when Aubrey, worming his way snakewise over the short grass, approached the spade, seized it by the handle, and wriggled back into cover, dragging the spade after him. Felicity, more surprised than ever, witnessed this performance, but made no sign.

Jim reappeared as suddenly as he had gone. He seemed hesitating and uncertain, and stood gazing at the bushes in either surprise or dismay – in the darkness it was impossible to tell which it was. He disappeared again into the same clump, and after a few moments, during which Felicity and Aubrey, from opposite sides of the clearing, could both hear him charging about and swearing softly but bitterly as he did so, he again appeared and began searching other clumps of bushes near at hand.

Nearer and nearer to Aubrey he approached. Aubrey considered the wisdom of retiring from the scene, but realized that to do so without attracting Redsey’s attention would tax all his woodcraft, even without the additional burden of the spade. Hampered by the latter, which was large and heavy, he knew that he must be heard. Of course, he might have left the spade behind and so glided away, but, having once acquired, as it were, the flag of the opposing forces, he felt that death in its company would be preferable to the dishonour of abandoning it. He remained hidden where he was. Redsey, groping blasphemously among the bushes in quest of some object or objects unknown, the non-appearance of which seemed to be causing him the gravest uneasiness, suddenly seized his ear. Aubrey let out a yell which caused Mrs Bryce Harringay, far away in the Manor House, to stir in her sleep. Leaping up, and clinging fast to the spade as representing the spoils and the trophies of war, he sped through the woods towards the Manor House, and his mother. Luckily for himself, he stumbled upon the path and flew down it, turning as it turned, doubled on itself, and ever straining every nerve to detect the sounds of pursuit.

Behind him, but less fortunate, in that he had missed the narrow path, and was thus in imminent peril of rushing into a tree or tripping over briars and brambles and small low-growing bushes, Jim Redsey crashed and stumbled.

Suddenly Aubrey burst from the woods on to the vastness of the open park. A good half-miler in the school sports, he galloped on. Jim Redsey, extricating himself from the mass of brambles into which he had fallen, and swearing softly and continuously as he denuded his hair and person of clinging blackberry stems, realized that his quarry had escaped him and that further pursuit was hopeless.

Perplexed and worried, he reached the house just as Aubrey Harringay, having deposited the spade on one of the flower-beds where he assumed the gardener would find it early in the morning, was pulling the sheet up past his chin and wiping the perspiration off his face with it.

V

Felicity had recognized Aubrey, although she realized that Jim Redsey, in full cry after the lad, had failed to do so. When all sounds of pursuit had died away, and Felicity’s fluttering heart had resumed its normal beating, she began to realize that she was alone in a large and terrifying wood, and that the hour was very late. Visions of a peaceful bedroom came to her.

‘But, before I go –’ she thought to herself.

The lineal descendant of Eve in Eden crept cautiously forward until she stood beside the hole which James Redsey had seen fit to dig. She peered into its depths and shuddered. To the daughter of the spiritual adviser to the parish, the six-foot hole presented the appearance of a freshly dug grave!