The Incident at Fives Castle (An Angela Marchmont Mystery #5) by Clara Benson Read Free Book Online Page B

surely that doesn’t matter now?’ said the Earl. ‘Why, we are all here for the express purpose of looking at them.’
    ‘True,’ said Buchanan. ‘But as Klausen explained to me, the documents themselves are completely useless without his presence, since they are so advanced in nature that only he or someone equally qualified can explain them. Believe me,’ he went on in response to their protests, ‘if I thought it would do any good I should go and get them now, but it won’t. I’ve looked at them, and can’t make head or tail of them. They seem to be in some kind of code, for one thing.’
    ‘This Klausen fellow must have a sort of morbid persecution complex, to go to all these lengths,’ said the Earl.
    Jameson shook his head.
    ‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘You know, don’t you, that he was invited by the other side to work for them? When he said no they made threats against him—threats which were pretty vague but which convinced him that his life was in danger. That was a few years ago when he was a brilliant young scientist and before he won the International Prize for physics, but for some time he never travelled anywhere without a bodyguard.’
    ‘Why should his life be in danger, though?’ objected Gabe Bradley. ‘Surely what the other side want is his knowledge and expertise? They’re hardly going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.’
    ‘He feared he was in danger of being kidnapped,’ said Jameson. ‘The other lot aren’t above drugging people and spiriting them away to work on their scientific projects, you know.’
    ‘Well, that may or may not be the case,’ said the Earl. ‘And if it is, and if Klausen is intercepted and carried off en route to Fives Castle, I only hope you’ve put the papers in a safe place, Buchanan.’
    He spoke half-jokingly, but the Foreign Secretary nodded seriously.
    ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘They are locked securely away. Nobody will be able to find them without searching very carefully for them.’
    ‘Well, then,’ said Aubrey Nash, ‘all we can do now is wait for him to arrive—if he ever does.’
    Sandy Buchanan stood up and walked over to the window. It was still snowing thickly.
    ‘Don’t worry, he will,’ he said.

SEVEN
     
    The next morning Angela was already dressed and was just brushing her hair in front of the glass when there was a knock at her door.
    ‘May I come in?’ said Gertie, peeping into the room. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were shining with the light of exercise. ‘The boys came and dragged me out of bed early this morning,’ she explained. ‘We’ve been building a snowman. I say, Angela, it’s the most gorgeous day—simply stunning. The snow is three feet thick in places.’
    She ran over to the window and looked out, and Angela joined her. As Gertie had said, it was a beautiful day. The early sun gleamed off the thick covering of white and threw everything into sharp relief. It had been too dark to see much the day before when she had arrived, but now Angela saw that Fives Castle was set on the ridge of a hill, looking out over a deep glen carpeted with fir trees. Below her window was a grand terrace from which a flight of steps led down to a sloping lawn. The whole of the landscape before her was hidden under a counterpane of crisp white. Out on the lawn she saw Gus and Bobby capering about a half-finished snowman, throwing snowballs at each other. She could hear their distant yells of laughter and was very tempted to join them.
    ‘I actually came in to cadge a cigarette,’ said Gertie. ‘Father’s had me under penance ever since that bust-up at the Copernicus Club, and I’ve had to promise not to smoke as he doesn’t approve of it in women, so when I’m at home I’m reduced to begging from others.’
    ‘Claude doesn’t seem to approve of it either, I notice,’ said Angela, handing her cigarette-case to Gertie.
    ‘Oh yes, he’s a frightful stiff,’ said Gertie. ‘He’s always telling