They at any rate were fellow-countrymen and
honest men, and their tender mercies would be kinder than these
ghoulish aliens. But they wouldn't have listened to me. That old
devil with the eyelids had not taken long to get rid of them. I
thought he probably had some kind of graft with the constabulary.
Most likely he had letters from Cabinet Ministers saying he was to
be given every facility for plotting against Britain. That's the sort
of owlish way we run our politics in the Old Country.
The three would be back for lunch, so I hadn't more than a
couple of hours to wait. It was simply waiting on destruction, for I
could see no way out of this mess. I wished that I had Scudder's
courage, for I am free to confess I didn't feel any great fortitude.
The only thing that kept me going was that I was pretty furious. It
made me boil with rage to think of those three spies getting the
pull on me like this. I hoped that at any rate I might be able to
twist one of their necks before they downed me.
The more I thought of it the angrier I grew, and I had to get up
and move about the room. I tried the shutters, but they were the
kind that lock with a key, and I couldn't move them. From the
outside came the faint clucking of hens in the warm sun. Then I
groped among the sacks and boxes. I couldn't open the latter, and
the sacks seemed to be full of things like dog-biscuits that smelt of
cinnamon.
Pages:
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107