Джорджетт Хейер: Footsteps in the Dark

"The gun! The gun!" Michael cried. The sergeant seized the Monk's pistol arm, and wrenched it round. The gun fell clattering to the ground and the sergeant quickly picked it up.

To and fro the struggling men swayed, and before the sergeant had time to reach them they were down on the floor, Michael uppermost.

The sergeant called: "All right, sir!" and launched his bulk into the fray.

"Got him!" Michael panted, and there was a click as the handcuffs snapped together. "Take him, sergeant, and be careful; he's damned strong."

The sergeant had blown long and loud on his whistle, and they could hear men hurrying down the passage. The Monk, once the handcuffs were on, had ceased to struggle, but stood passive in the sergeant's grip. From first to last he had not uttered a word.

The inspector dashed in, followed by a sturdy constable. "You've got him?" he cried. "Well done, sir! Well done! Hullo, are you hurt?"

"Only a scratch," Michael said. "Flesh wound. Couldn't grab his pistol hand in time. Take him up to the house."

In the library were by this time not only Charles and Flinders, but Celia and Mrs. Bosanquet as well, and the two prisoners from below, who had been escorted up, after the capture of the gang, by a solicitous policeman.

When the Monk came through the open panel Mrs. Bosanquet gave a small shriek of dismay, and not even the sight of the guard about the cowled figure reassured her. She got behind a table, and commanded Charles not to take his gun off the Monk for one moment.

Michael came through the panel. "Now then!" he said. "Let us have a look at you." He went up to the still figure, and pulled the cowl back from the Monk's head.

There was a gasp of utter astonishment from Celia. For the man who stood revealed was none other than Colonel Ackerley.

He made no movement to resist, and the expression on his face as he looked at the assembled company was one of sardonic scorn.

"But - but I don't understand!" Mrs. Bosanquet said in a voice of complete bewilderment. "That's the Colonel!"

Michael had taken the handcuffed wrists and jerked them up to look at the gloves the Colonel wore. As Margaret had described, they were buttoned gloves of some cotton fabric, and one button was missing. "That was a little mistake of yours, Colonel," he said. "I shouldn't have expected you to slip up on a detail like that."

It was plain the Colonel, not in the habit of buttoning his gloves, had not until now noticed the loss of one significant button. His eyes searched Michael's face for a moment, and a shade of uneasiness crept into his own.

None of this was betrayed by his voice, however. "Well, Mr. Strange," he said, quite in his own manner. "I congratulate you. You are cleverer than the others who have tried to find me out." He looked at Charles, and his sneer returned. "Your efforts were not quite so brilliant." His glance went back to Michael; it was as though he felt everyone else in the room to be beneath contempt. "As a matter of interest, how did you guess my identity?"

"When a man of your stamp is seen to be on terms of apparent intimacy with the local publican," Michael answered, "one is apt to draw unwelcome conclusions."

The Colonel raised his brows. "Indeed, Mr. Strange? Or to leap to conclusions, shall we say? If you had no other reason than that for suspecting me you made a lucky guess."

Michael smiled. "Oh, not quite!" he said. "When a man gives out that he is going to play bridge at the County Club in Manfield, and I discover his car to be still in the locked garage, I feel that requires a little explanation. I'm sorry I can't give you a more detailed account of all the things that led me to be sure you were the man I was after, but time is getting on. You will no doubt hear all you want to know at your trial." He made a sign to Inspector Tomlinson, and the two attendant policemen grasped the Colonel's arms again to march him away.

He resisted, but it was only to bow to Gelia. "Au revoir, my dear Mrs. Malcolm," he said. He turned to Margaret, who had been standing like a statue, listening. "As for you, Miss Fortescue, I am sure that you will be relieved to know that in spite of your damnably annoying behaviour, I had very little intention of leaving you to starve as you so palpably feared. And may I give you a word of advice? When next you escape from prison, and return to it with the idea of bluffing your captor, drink some of the water you have been supplied with. Had you thought of that you would have given your clever Mr. Strange less trouble, for I might then have been in the printing-room when he surprised my staff."

She did not answer him; he laughed shortly, and turned to Mrs. Bosanquet. "I was amused at your efforts to conjure up my wraith, madam," he said. "I was behind the panel at the time, and really I was almost tempted to appear. I always hate to disoblige the ladies." He bowed again, and without so much as glancing at the men of the party, went out under escort.

There was a long silence. Then Charles sat down weakly. "Let no one speak to me," he said. "I shall no doubt recover in time."

"But Ackerley!" Peter stammered. "Draycott, how the devil did you arrive at it?"

"Well, you heard some of my reasons," Michael said. "But the first clue I had was Time. You see these forgeries have been going on for five years, and it seemed probable that they were from the beginning carried out from this place. That ruled out Titmarsh: he only came here three years ago. Roote has been here an even shorter time; various other inhabitants round about have been here too long a time. It was only Ackerley who came to live at the White House five years ago, and I thought it significant that his arrival was shortly followed by the arrival not only of Duval, but of Wilkes also to take over the Bell Inn. Now Wilkes paid a very large sum for the Bell: too large a sum for an inn so little frequented. And by lying up in odd corners I found that a pretty close intimacy seemed to exist between the two men. Wilkes was the only one who knew who the Monk was; you might call him the Monk's chief of staff. That set me on to Ackerley, and that's where Fripp came in handy. After the murder of Duval I let Fripp break into the Colonel's house one night when the servants had gone to bed. You know that they slept over the garage. And of course the Colonel was out on his secret business. I told you Fripp was clever with locks. And he's not burdened with any scruples. He found a bottle of chloroform, which is now in my possession…"

"But didn't the Colonel miss it?" Charles demanded.

"No; for the very good reason that Fripp exchanged it for one almost identical. He also found the missing book. I'll let you have that when the trial's over; those two pages cut from the copy at the British Museum are most interesting."

"House-breaking!" Charles said, casting up his eyes. "Our incorruptible police!"

"Oh no!" Michael grinned. Jimmy's not a policeman. He would be insulted to hear you say so."

Peter struck in: "But an officer in the army - I suppose he wasn't, though?"

"On the contrary, he was. But he left the army under rather odd circumstances. It was hushed up, but I discovered on inquiry that his reputation was not exactly savoury. I wondered when he seemed loth to tell me where exactly he had been stationed."

"I can't get over it!" Celia burst out. "That cheery, sporting Colonel! He must be a monster!" She got up. "I'm going to bed. My head's in a positive whirl. And Charles! All these horrible secret passages have got to be blocked up.

"Leave it to Draycott," said Charles. "I'm going away for a rest-cure. And I suppose he's going to be as much an owner as I am. Not that I approve, but there! when are my wishes ever considered?" He rose and prepared to follow his wife out. Over his shoulder he said: "And don't be more than half an hour saying good night, you two."