Colour Scheme. Ngaio Marsh

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СКАЧАТЬ themselves. He is no good. But even he comes to me to warn me of this Questing.’

      The Colonel’s novel dropped with a loud slap. His eyebrows climbed his forehead, his eyes and mouth opened. He turned pale.

      ‘Hey?’ he said. ‘Questing? What about Questing?’

      ‘You have not been listening, Colonel,’ said Rua, rather crossly.

      ‘Yes, I have, only I didn’t catch everything. I’m getting deaf.’

      ‘I am sorry. I have been telling you that Mr Questing has been looking for curios on the Peak and boasting that in a little while Wai-ata-tapu will be his property. I have to come to ask you in confidence if this is true.’

      ‘What’s all this about Questing?’ demanded Dr Ackrington, appearing at the doorway in his dressing-gown. ‘’Evening, Rua. How are you?’

      ‘It began by being about Gaunt and a concert party,’ said the Colonel unhappily. ‘It’s only just turned into something in confidence about Questing.’

      ‘Well, if it’s in confidence, why the devil did you call me? There seems to be conspiracy in this house to deny my sciatica thermal treatment.’

      ‘I wanted to ask you if you thought Gaunt would like to go to a concert. Rua’s people have very kindly offered …’

      ‘How the devil do I know? Ask young Bell. Very nice of you, Rua, I must say.’

      ‘And then Rua began to talk about Questing and the Peak.’

      ‘Why don’t you call him Quisling and be done with it?’ Dr Ackrington demanded loudly. ‘It’s what he is, by God.’

      ‘James! I really must insist – You have no shred of evidence.’

      ‘Haven’t I? Haven’t I? Very well. Wait and see.’

      Rua stood up. ‘If it is not troubling you too much,’ he said, ‘perhaps you would ask Mr Gaunt’s secretary …?’

      ‘Yes, yes,’ the Colonel agreed hurriedly. ‘Of course. Wait a minute, will you?’

      He stumbled out of the room, and they heard him thump along the verandah towards Geoffrey Gaunt’s quarters.

      Rua’s old eyes were very bright and cunning as he looked at Dr Ackrington, but he did not speak.

      ‘So he’s been trespassing, has he?’ asked Dr Ackrington venomously. ‘I could have told you that when the Hippolyte was torpedoed.’

      Rua made a brusque movement with his wrinkled hands but still he did not speak.

      ‘He does it by night sometimes, doesn’t he?’ Dr Ackrington went on. ‘Doesn’t he go up by night, with a flash lamp? Good God, my dear fellow, I’ve seen it myself. Curios be damned.’

      ‘Somehow,’ Rua said mildly, ‘I have never been able to enjoy spy stories. They always seem to me to be incredible.’

      ‘Indeed!’ Dr Ackrington rejoined acidly. ‘So this country, alone in the English-speaking world, stands immune from the activities of enemy agents. And why, pray? Do you think the enemy is frightened of us? Amazing complacency!’

      ‘But he has been seen digging.’

      ‘Do you imagine he would be seen semaphoring? Of course he digs. No doubt he robs your ancestors’ graves. No doubt he will have some infamous booty to exhibit when he is brought to book.’

      Rua pinched his lower lip and became very solemn. ‘I have felt many regrets,’ he said, ‘for the old age which compelled me to watch my grandsons and great-grandsons set out to war without me. But if you are right, there is still work in Ao-tea-roa for an old warrior.’ He chuckled, and Dr Ackrington looked apprehensively at him.

      ‘I have been indiscreet,’ he said. ‘Keep this under your hat, Rua. A word too soon and we shan’t get him. I may tell you I have taken steps. But, see here. There’s a certain amount of cover on the Peak. If your young people haven’t altogether lost the art of their forebears –’

      ‘We must arrange something,’ said Rua composedly. ‘Yes. No doubt something can be arranged.’

      ‘What is it, dear?’ said Mrs Claire, appearing abruptly in the doorway. ‘Oh! Oh, I thought Edward called me, James. Good evening, Rua.’

      ‘I did call you about half an hour ago,’ said her husband crossly from behind her back, ‘but it’s all over now. Old Rua was here with some – oh, you’re still there, Rua. Mr Gaunt’s secretary says they’ll be delighted.’

      Barbara came running distractedly from the kitchen. She and her parents formed up in a sort of queue outside the door.

      ‘What is it, Daddy?’ she asked. ‘What do you want?’

      ‘Nobody wants anything,’ shouted her father angrily. ‘Everybody’s delighted. Why do you all come running at me?’

      ‘My people will be very pleased,’ said Rua. ‘I shall go now and tell them. I wish you all good evening.’

      As he walked along the verandah his great-granddaughter, Huia, flew out and excitedly rang the dinner bell in his face. He gave her a good-natured buffet and struck for home. Dikon, looking startled, came out on the verandah followed by Gaunt. Huia, over-stimulated by her first view of the celebrity, flashed her eyes, laughed excitedly and continued to peal her bell until Barbara took it away from her.

      ‘I think that must be dinner,’ said Mrs Claire with a bright assumption of surprise, while their ears still rang with the din. She turned with poise towards Gaunt. ‘Shall we go in?’ she asked gently, and they formed up into a kind of procession, trailing after each other towards the dining-room door. At the last moment Simon appeared, as usual from the direction of the cabins, where he had a sort of workshop.

      But the first night’s dinner was not to go forward without the intrusion of that particular form of grotesque irrelevance which Dikon was learning to associate with the Claires, for, as Gaunt and Mrs Claire approached the front door, a terrific rumpus broke out in the kitchen.

      ‘Where’s the Colonel?’ an agitated voice demanded. ‘I’ve got to see the Colonel.’

      Smith, dishevelled and with threads of blood crossing his face, blundered through the dining-room from the kitchen, thrust Gaunt and Mrs Claire aside, and seized the Colonel by his coat lapels. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘you’ve got to do something. You’ve got to look after me. He tried to kill me.’

       CHAPTER FOUR

       Red for Danger

      Dikon, mindful of his only other encounter with him and influenced by an exceedingly significant smell, came to the conclusion that Mr Smith was mad drunk. Perhaps a minute went by before he realised that he was merely terrified. It was obvious that the entire Claire family made the same mistake for they СКАЧАТЬ