Eye For A Tooth by Dornford Yates Read Free Book Online Page A

slipped across the road, made my way through the bracken and reached the track. And there I was standing, regarding the strangers’ car, when Jonathan Mansel came limping up to my side.
    “I’m inclined to think,” he said, “they should have a flat tyre. One of the back ones, William.” I stooped to unscrew the valve. “I want to have a look at their luggage, and we don’t want to be disturbed. They may be able to get along without lights, but changing a wheel in the dark is a hell of a job.”
    “They’ve got the torch,” said I.
    “It’s broken,” said Mansel, and laughed. “I followed Mr Forecast and laid him out. Then I did in his torch: then I lighted my own and went on – for the look of the thing. When I was close to the culvert, I had a look back. As you probably know, the three were sitting down, smoking, quite close to where Forecast went in. So that was all right. I doubt if they’ll take any action before he comes to – that’ll be in about twenty minutes. When he does, there’ll be trouble to burn; and he’ll have the deuce of a head for twenty-four hours. And here are the others. Before we move, we’d better go through their car.”
    The search revealed the car’s papers, but nothing else. And those we left. Then we re-entered the cars, and ran without our lights for a couple of miles. Then Mansel put on his sidelights, as much to help me along as anything else, and twenty-five minutes later we stopped at the top of the hill below which Latchet lay.
    Carson and Rowley stayed with the Rolls and the Lowland, with orders to turn them about, so that, if we had to leave quickly, the cars would be ready to move the way they had come. Mansel and George and I were to enter the inn: but Bell we took as far as the forecourt and posted him there.
    As before, the door was unlatched, and there was no light to be seen. We passed upstairs quietly enough.
    It was easy to guess that Gulf and China and Boney were sharing poor Bowshot’s room: for a second, smaller bed was standing against a wall, and three dirty pairs of pyjamas had been laid out by some maid. As may be imagined, they travelled extremely light, and our disagreeable search was very soon done. We found no papers at all, but a clip of ammunition suggested that someone went armed.
    On the opposite side of the landing we found a sitting-room, far too handsome and pleasant to lodge such villainous guests. That this room, too, had been Bowshot’s, there can he no doubt; and the thought that its present tenants included the two who had actually shed his blood for some reason made me more angry than anything else. And here perhaps I should say that I was very much disappointed that, now that we knew the truth, no violence at all had been offered to those two men. That Mansel’s judgment was good, I knew very well: but an hour ago all four had been at our mercy, if we had cared to strike, and, knowing what Fortune is, I doubted that such a chance would occur again.
    It was in Forecast’s bedroom that we found a battered dispatch-case, right at the back of a wardrobe, behind some clothes. The thing was locked, but we very soon had it open – to find what Mansel had hoped for, and more than that.
    Mansel was after their passports: “for,” said he, “without their passports, they cannot leave Austria. They dare not go to a Consul, men like this. And so they will stay – at our convenience. And before they go – if they go – I’ll have the truth of this murder from bottom to top.” And now their passports were there – the four of them tied together – and George slid them into a pocket and said, “What next?”
    ‘Next’ was a quarto envelope, such as some lawyers use. It was neither addressed nor sealed, and when Mansel drew out its contents, I saw him open his eyes. There were some typewritten sheets, and pinned to these was a map, very roughly done. There was also an envelope, addressed to Duke Saul of Varvic, which was