Read Online Dark of the moon - Dr. Gideon Fell 22 by John Dickson Carr - Free Book Online Page B

Palmetto —you will also see it in pictures of the Alabama —was the second to be adopted: a white ensign with the smaller square of the battle-flag in the upper left-hand corner. Firebrands objected to this as looking far too much like a flag of surrender. They said—"
    "During a recent affair outside New York," boomed Dr. Fell, "some argument and confusion arose relating to the number of stars in the Confederate flag. But why, by thunder, are we entangled with flags now? What does this mean?"
    "It means," replied Henry Maynard, standing beside the writing-table and brushing the fingertips of his right hand gently over its surfac e, "that I am straying from the subject. And you deserve better than that I will stray from the subject no longer.
    "I was disturbed, Dr. Fell. I was badly disturbed, and I confess it. This arose at lunch time, after Joe Ashcroft had driven Miss Bruce to the Francis Marion Hotel to intercept Mr. Grantham; at her own request a whim of Camilla's.
    "George—you remember George, the butler, who admitted you?—thought he had seen someone skulking in this room. I feared for certain papers in the Sheraton desk over there. Precipitately I rushed to the telephone and rang the hotel. I asked you, I all but entreated you, to come here at once. And now I ask you . . ."
    "Yes?"
    "I ask you," answered Henry Maynard, "to forget that phone call entirely."
    5
    Yellow lamplight fell strongly on the man's intent face. He took a cigarette from a silver box on the table, but thought better of this and put it back. The rain had slackened; it was still sluicing and splashing down the house, but the buzz of the air-conditioner could be heard again. Dr. Fell reared up in his leather chair. . "Forget it, you say?"
    "If you will be so good. I was very foolish; I confess that too. I should have realized nobody could have gotten at those papers. Without smashing the desk to pieces; they are in a secret drawer. And they are still there, safe and untouched."
    "May I ask, sir, the nature of these papers? For instance, are they some 'calculations' of yours?"
    "Certainly not!" The other looked genuinely astonished. "Why do you ask?"
    "Miss Bruce mentioned—even insisted upon—the fact that, though you still sit up here in the ev ening and on the terrace in the afternoon, you seem no longer preoccupied with 'calculating something.'"
    "The papers, Dr. Fell, relate only to my late brother's estate. Since there has never been any mystery about the disposition of the estate, they are of no real importance at all. Believe me, they could be lost or burnt without the slightest ill-effect to Madge or to me or to anyone else on earth."
    "Then why should a threat to them upset you?"
    "Because, if the truth must be told, like my daughter I suffer from moods. Have you never said to yourself, 'I must find such and such a document; it is vital to have that document; what if it were missing?'—though it is not vital and you know it. I seldom admit this foible; the cold reasoner must not seem a sham or a fraud. But I go to an extreme—and then change my mind."
    "It is not the first time, I believe, you have changed your mind in the past fortnight May I revert to that presently?"
    "If you insist Meanwhile, you are thinking . . . ?"
    "It would be difficult," grunted Dr. Fell, puffing out his cheeks, "properly to formulate such thoughts as exist. 'Blow hot, blow cold,' or perhaps blow the whole business. This won't do; it won't do at all! Is my quest of a thousand miles to end in moonshine and wild geese? And you were so very urgent! If you had not been so urgent, I told my friends on the way here, I should have preferred to spend the afternoon exploring Charleston or visiting Fort Sumter."
    "Oh, Fort Sumter!" Henry Maynard said abruptly. "Come with me, please."
    All his tight-lipped reserve had gone. Beckoning them to their feet, he conducted them to a door in the left-hand wall. This opened into a good-sized billiard-room, also oak-panelled,