Ngaio Marsh - Color Scheme

“Might you have missed it, Uncle?” asked Barbara suddenly and Dikon noticed how the men all looked at her as if a domestic pet had given utterance.

“Conceivably,” said Dr. Ackrington. “I don’t think so. However. Now you, Edward.”

“It’s unfortunate,” said Gaunt airily, “that nobody saw the doctor whizzing past the geysers.”

“I am aware of that. I realize my position. The purple policeman has doubtless put some fantastic interpretation upon the circumstance. I agree that I am unfortunate in that I was unobserved.”

“But you were observed, James,” said the Colonel, opening his eyes very widely. “I observed you, you know.” iv

The Colonel seemed to be mildly gratified by his brother-in-law’s reception of this news. He smiled gently and nodded his head at Dr. Ackrington, who gaped at him, opened and shut his mouth once or twice, and finally swore softly under his breath.

“I was behind you, you know,” Colonel Claire added. “Walkin’.”

“I didn’t suppose, Edward, that you cycled through the thermal region. May I ask why you have not mentioned this before?”

Colonel Claire returned the classic answer: “Nobody asked me,” he said.

“Were you hard on his heels the whole way, Colonel?”

“Eh? No, Falls. No, you see he went so fast. I caught sight of him when I got to that gap in the hedge round the village and then the bumps in the ground hid him. Then I saw him again when I got to the top of the mound. He was nearly over at the hill by then.”

“I must say it’s not my idea of a cast-iron alibi,” said Gaunt, who seemed to welcome any chance of scoring off Dr. Ackrington. “Two little peeps in the dark with craters and mounds between you.”

“Oh, he had a torch,” said the Colonel. “Hadn’t you, James? And, by the way, the scream was much later. I was nearly home when I heard the scream. I thought it was a bird,” added the Colonel.

“What sort of bird, for God’s sake?”

“A mutton-bird, James. They make beastly noises at night.”

“There are no mutton-birds round here, Edward.”

“Does it matter?” asked Dikon wearily.

“Not two hoots, I should have thought,” said Gaunt bitterly. “I’ve always detested nature study.”

“He is sure of himself all of a sudden,” thought Dikon.

They ploughed on with the Colonel’s story. When asked if he had noticed the gap in the path he became distressingly vague and changed his mind with each question as it was put to him. Falls took a hand. “You say you had a pocket torch, Colonel. Now my recollection of the gap is that it showed rather sharp and dark in the torchlight, like a shadow or even a stain across the outer edge of the path.”

“Yes!” the Colonel exclaimed. “That’s a jolly good way of describin’ it. Like a black stain.”

“Then you did see it?”

“I only said it was a good way of describin’ it. Vivid.”

“Didn’t you notice that the white flag at the top was missing?”

“Ah! Now, did I? You’d notice a thing like that, wouldn’t you?”

Dr. Ackrington groaned and executed a rapid tattoo with h is fingers on the table.

“But then again,” the Colonel said, “one saw the red flags going off at the foot of the mound, so naturally one wouldn’t follow them . And the path is quite sharply defined and that. One would just follow it up the mound, wouldn’t one, Agnes?”

“What, dear?” said Mrs. Claire, startled by this sudden demand upon her attention. “Yes, of course. Naturally.”

“The hole!” Dr. Ackrington shouted. “The gap! For pity’s sake pull yourself together, Edward. Throw your mind, a courtesy title for your cerebral arrangements, I fear, back to your walk up the path. Visualize it. Think. Concentrate.”

Colonel Claire obediently screwed up his face and shut his eyes tightly.

“Now,” said Dr. Ackrington, “you are climbing the path, using your torch. Do you see the white flag on the top of the mound?”

Colonel Claire, without opening his eyes, shook his head.

“Then, as you reach the top, what do you see?”

“Nothing. How can I? I’m flat on my face.”

“What! ”

“I fell down, you know. Flat.”

“What the devil did you do that for?”

“I don’t know,” said Colonel Claire, opening his eyes very wide. “Not on purpose, of course. I caught sight of you some way ahead and I thought to myself, ‘Hullo, there goes James,’ and there, at that moment, went I. It gave me quite a fright because after all one is close to the edge up there. However, I picked myself up and carried on.”

“Did you fall into the hole, dear?” asked Mrs. Claire, solicitously.

“What hole, Agnes?”

“James seems to think there was a hole,” she muttered.

“Did you look to see why you’d fallen? Did you examine the path with your torch?”

“How could I, James, when the torch had gone out? I fell on it and it wouldn’t go again. But I could see the flags dimly so I was all right.”

“I’m so glad you weren’t hurt, dear,” said his wife.

“And so there, in effect,” said the Colonel quite cosily, “we are.”

“Precisely nowhere,” said Dr. Ackrington. “I take it you can’t produce a witness to your movements, Edward?”

“Not unless Questing saw me. And even if he’s alive, as we all seem to have agreed, he’s vanished into thin air, so that’s no good, is it?”

Dr. Ackrington pointed at his nephew. “You,” he said.

“Bert and Colly and I were together,” said Simon. “A chap from Harpoon gave us a lift back. Ernie Priest, it was. Some of the boys over there wanted us to stay for a drink but I don’t think it’s so hot getting dragged in on those parties. It was Eru Saul’s gang and I draw the line there. Ernie had a bottle of beer in the car. We had one with him and he dropped us up at the front gate. That’s right, isn’t it, Bert?”

“I’ll say,” said Smith moodily.

“Did any of you leave the hall during the performance?” asked Falls.

“You did, didn’t you, Bert?”

“What if I did!” cried Smith, instantly on the defensive. “Sure, I did. I went out with two of the boys for a quick one. There’s some people when they’ve got a drink on the place has the decency to offer you one.” He looked accusingly at Gaunt. “ Some people, I said,” he added. “Not everyone.”

“Who were the two youths?” Dr. Ackrington demanded.

“Eru Saul and Maui Matai.”

“Did you separate at all, Mr. Smith?” asked Falls.

“That’s right, pick on me. We did not . We stuck together and we got back in time to hear his nibs screeching his socks off.”

“Are you talking about me?” asked Gaunt, bristling.

“That’s right.”

“I should be glad to know at what point in my performance I could be said, even by a drunken Philistine, to screech.”

“ ‘ Once more into the blasted breeches, pals ,’ ” said Smith in a shrill falsetto. “ ‘ Once more .’ We could hear you all the way down the path. Does it hurt you much?”

“Cut it out, for Pete’s sake, Bert,” whispered Simon and stifled a laugh.

“I resent this,” said Gaunt breathing noisily.

“My dear Gaunt, surely not?” soothed Mr. Falls. “A piquant incident! You will dine off it when the undesirable publicity has subsided. I should like to ask Mr. Smith and Mr. Claire,” he went on, “if they and Mr. Gaunt’s man remained in the hall until the general exodus.”

“Yes,” said Simon, glaring at him.

“Did you see Questing go out?” asked Dr. Ackrington.

“Too right we did,” said Smith — “he was talking to us. Well, to me. Very pleased with his bit of a speech and skiting about it. It was while we were with some of the Maori gang, wasn’t it, Sim? Outside the hall.”