boat churned its way round the rock. Now at last the house came into view. The south side of the island was quite different. It shelved gently down to the sea. The house was there facing south—low and square and modern-looking with rounded windows letting in all the light.
An exciting house—a house that lived up to expectation!
Fred Narracott shut off the engine, they nosed their way gently into a little natural inlet between rocks.
Philip Lombard said sharply:
‘Must be difficult to land here in dirty weather.’
Fred Narracott said cheerfully:
‘Can’t land on Soldier Island when there’s a south-easterly. Sometimes ’tis cut off for a week or more.’
Vera Claythorne thought:
‘The catering must be very difficult. That’s the worst of an island. All the domestic problems are so worrying.’
The boat grated against the rocks. Fred Narracott jumped out and he and Lombard helped the others to alight. Narracott made the boat fast to a ring in the rock. Then he led the way up steps cut in the cliff.
General Macarthur said:
‘Ha! delightful spot!’
But he felt uneasy. Damned odd sort of place.
As the party ascended the steps and came out on a terrace above, their spirits revived. In the open doorway of the house a correct butler was awaiting them, and something about his gravity reassured them. And then the house itself was really most attractive, the view from the terrace magnificent…
The butler came forward bowing slightly. He was a tall lank man, grey-haired and very respectable. He said:
‘Will you come this way, please.’
In the wide hall drinks stood ready. Rows of bottles. Anthony Marston’s spirits cheered up a little. He’d just been thinking this was a rum kind of show. None of his lot! What could old Badger have been thinking about to let him in for this? However, the drinks were all right. Plenty of ice, too.
What was it the butler chap was saying?
Mr Owen—unfortunately delayed—unable to get here till tomorrow. Instructions—everything they wanted—if they would like to go to their rooms?… dinner would be at eight o’clock…
V
Vera had followed Mrs Rogers upstairs. The woman had thrown open a door at the end of a passage and Vera had walked into a delightful bedroom with a big window that opened wide upon the sea and another looking east. She uttered a quick exclamation of pleasure.
Mrs Rogers was saying:
‘I hope you’ve got everything you want, Miss?’
Vera looked round. Her luggage had been brought up and had been unpacked. At one side of the room a door stood open into a pale blue-tiled bathroom.
She said quickly:
‘Yes, everything, I think.’
‘You’ll ring the bell if you want anything, Miss?’
Mrs Rogers had a flat monotonous voice. Vera looked at her curiously. What a white bloodless ghost of a woman! Very respectable-looking, with her hair dragged back from her face and her black dress. Queer light eyes that shifted the whole time from place to place.
Vera thought:
‘She looks frightened of her own shadow.’
Yes, that was it—frightened!
She looked like a woman who walked in mortal fear…
A little shiver passed down Vera’s back. What on earth was the woman afraid of?
She said pleasantly:
‘I’m Mrs Owen’s new secretary. I expect you know that.’
Mrs Rogers said:
‘No, Miss, I don’t know anything. Just a list of the ladies and gentlemen and what rooms they were to have.’
Vera said:
‘Mrs Owen didn’t mention me?’
Mrs Rogers’ eyelashes flickered.
‘I haven’t seen Mrs Owen—not yet. We only came here two days ago.’
Extraordinary people, these Owens, thought Vera. Aloud she said:
‘What staff is there here?’
‘Just me and Rogers, Miss.’
Vera frowned. Eight people in the house—ten with the host and hostess—and only one married couple to do for them.
Mrs Rogers said:
‘I’m a good cook and Rogers is handy about the house. I didn’t know, of course, that there was to be such a large party.’
Vera said:
‘But you can manage?’
‘Oh yes, Miss, I can manage. If there’s to be large parties often perhaps Mrs Owen could get extra help in.’
Vera said, ‘I expect so.’
Mrs Rogers turned to go. Her feet moved noiselessly over the ground. She drifted from the room like a shadow.
Vera went over to the window and sat down on the window seat. She was faintly disturbed. Everything—somehow—was a little queer. The absence of the Owens, the pale ghostlike Mrs Rogers. And the guests! Yes, the guests were queer, too. An oddly assorted party.
Vera thought:
‘I wish I’d seen the Owens… I wish I knew what they were like.’
She got up and walked restlessly about the room.
A perfect bedroom decorated throughout in the modern style. Off-white rugs on the gleaming parquet floor—faintly tinted walls—a long mirror surrounded by lights. A mantelpiece bare of ornaments save for an enormous block of white marble shaped like a bear, a piece of modern sculpture in which was inset a clock. Over it, in a gleaming chromium frame, was a big square of parchment—a poem.
She stood in front of the fireplace and read it. It was the old nursery rhyme that she remembered from her childhood days.
Ten little soldier boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were Nine.
Nine little soldier boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were Eight.
Eight little
