‘Where to?’
‘Just up at the back somewhere, I fancy. Behind the dancers.’
‘And you, yourself? Did you go anywhere near the dolmen on your return?’
Ralph looked again at Dr Otterly and seemed to be undecided. ‘I’m not sure,’ he said. ‘I don’t really remember.’
‘Do you remember, Dr Otterly?’
‘I think,’ Otterly said quietly, ‘that Ralph did make a round trip during the dance. I suppose that would bring him fairly close to the stone.’
‘Behind it?’
‘Yes, behind it.’
Ralph said: ‘I remember now. Damn’ silly of me. Yes, I did a trip round.’
‘Did you notice the Guiser lying in the hollow?’
Ralph lit himself a cigarette and looked at the tip. He said: ‘I don’t remember.’
‘That’s a pity.’
‘Actually, at the time, I was thinking of something quite different.’
‘Yes?’
‘Yes. I’d caught sight of Camilla,’ said Ralph simply.
‘Where was she?’
‘At the side and towards the back. The left side, as you faced the dancing arena. OP, she calls it.’
‘By herself?’
‘Yes, then.’
‘But not earlier? Before she ran away from “Crack”?’
‘No.’ Ralph’s face slowly flooded to a deep crimson. ‘At least, I don’t think so.’
‘Of course she wasn’t,’ Dr Otterly said in some surprise. ‘She came up with the party from this pub. I remember thinking what a picture the two girls made, standing there together in the torchlight.’
‘The two girls?’
‘Camilla was there with Trixie and her father.’
‘Was she?’ Alleyn asked Ralph.
‘I – ah – I – yes, I believe she was.’
‘Mr Stayne,’ Alleyn said, ‘you will think my next question impertinent and you may refuse to answer it. Miss Campion has been very frank about your friendship. She has told me that you are fond of each other but that, because of her mother’s marriage and her own background, in its relation to yours, she feels an engagement would be a mistake.’
‘Which is most utter and besotted bilge,’ Ralph said hotly. ‘Good God, what age does she think she’s living in! Who the hell cares if her mum was a blacksmith’s daughter?’
‘Perhaps she does.’
‘I never heard such a farrago of unbridled snobbism.’
‘All right. I dare say not. You said, just now, I think, that Miss Campion had refused to see you. Does that mean you haven’t spoken to each other since you’ve been in South Mardian?’
‘I really fail to understand –‘
‘I’m sure you don’t. See here, now. Here’s an old man with his head off, lying on the ground behind a sacrificial stone. Go back a bit in time. Here are eight men, including the old man, who performed a sort of playdance as old as sin. Eight men,’ Alleyn repeated and vexedly rubbed his nose. ‘Why do I keep wanting to say “nine”. Never mind. On the face of it, the old man never leaves the arena or dance floor or stage or whatever the hell you like to call it. On the face of it, nobody offered him any violence. He dances in full view. He has his head cut off in pantomime and in what for want of a better word, we must call fun. But it isn’t really cut off. You exchanged signals with him after the fun so we know it isn’t. He hides in a low depression. Eight minutes later, when he’s meant to resurrect and doesn’t, he is found to be genuinely decapitated. That’s the story everybody gives us. Now, as a reasonably intelligent chap and a solicitor into the bargain, don’t you think that we want to know every damn’ thing we can find out about these eight men and anybody connected with them?’
‘You mean – just empirically. Hoping something will emerge?’
‘Exactly. You know very well that where nothing apropos does emerge, nothing will be made public.’
‘Oh, no, no, no,’ Ralph ejaculated irritably. ‘I suppose I’m being tiresome. What was this blasted question? Have I spoken to Camilla since we both came to South Mardian? All right, I have. After church on Sunday. She’d asked me not to, but I did because the sight of her in church was too much for me.’
‘That was your only reason?’
‘She was upset. She’d come across Ernie howling over a dead dog in the copse.’
‘Bless my soul!’ Alleyn ejaculated. ‘What next in South Mardian? Was the dog called Keeper?’
Ralph grinned. ‘I suppose it is all a bit Brontë. The Guiser had shot it because he said it wasn’t healthy, which was no more than God’s truth. But Ernie cut up uncommonly rough and it upset Camilla.’
‘Where did you meet her?’
‘Near the forge. Coming out of the copse.’
‘Did you see the Guiser on this occasion?’
After a very long pause, Ralph said: ‘Yes. He came up.’
‘Did he realize that you wanted to marry his granddaughter?’
‘Yes.’
‘And what was his reaction?’
Ralph said: ‘Unfavourable.’
‘Did he hold the same views that she does?’
‘More or less.’
‘You discussed it there and then?’
‘He sent Camilla away first.’
‘Will you tell me exactly all that was said?’
‘No. It was nothing to do with his death. Our conversation was entirely private.’
Fox contemplated the point of his pencil and Dr Otterly cleared his throat.
‘Tell me,’ Alleyn said abruptly, ‘this thing you wear as the Betty – it’s a kind of stone age crinoline to look at, isn’t it?’
Ralph said nothing.
‘Am I dreaming it, or did someone tell me that it’s sometimes used as a sort
