Read Online Red In The Morning by Dornford Yates - Free Book Online

him: but he’s modernized the first floor and made it into a really excellent flat. Here he and his wife repair, whenever they can. When they are not there, it stands empty: but, after a word with Mansel, he saw the wisdom of letting the flat to us. He’s returning to duty tomorrow, so we can go in the next day. His mother will feed us, and Carson and Bell and Rowley will do the rest. The flat has a separate entrance, and the cars can go in the barn.”
    “Splendid,” said I. “Where is this – sanctuary?”
    “Thirty-one miles from Arx and eleven from Ray.”
    “Ray, I know. Which way do you go from Ray?”
    “South and by west.”
    “That’s off my map,” said I.
    “It gives the impression of being off most people’s maps.”
    “So much the better,” said I. “And how about Arx?”
    “Mansel and Carson are having a peep this evening.”
    I nodded. Then –
    “Where are we bound for now?”
    “Only a barn, I’m afraid: but Rowley’s cooking some food, and we’ve got some beer upon ice.”
    “What more can anyone ask? When shall we be there?”
    “Under the hour. It’s not very far from Pau.”
    Sure enough, we reached the barn before it was half-past eight, and a quarter of an hour later Mansel and Carson arrived. As we ate a most excellent supper, the former made his report.
    This was disappointing.
    “Arx lies in a valley, and it is served by one road: this road runs right through it from east to west. So much the map told me. You won’t be surprised to hear that I avoided that road. I chose a parallel road about three miles south, and when I was level with Arx, I left the Rolls with Carson and took to my feet. The idea was to gain the top of the intervening ridge and then look down upon Arx in the valley below… I looked down on the valley all right, but not upon Arx. I could see the road which serves it on either side; but then the woods closed in. I was directly above it, for I could hear its cascade, which is marked on the map: but neither château nor village can be surveyed from the south. So tomorrow we must try from the north. There aren’t any woods that side, so we ought to have a clear view.”
    “Early,” said I. “I’ll lay Gedge doesn’t get up before nine o’clock.”
    “I doubt if he’s there,” said Mansel. “Unless I’m much mistaken, he’s looking for me. Which brings me to something we’ve never had time to discuss. How did he trace us to Anise?”
    “I’m damned if I know,” said I.
    “Nor I. It’s got me beat. But I think I’ve told you that Gedge is no ordinary man. Brevet has, anyway. All of his kidney regard him with great respect. They’d rather go to jug than get across Gedge. So we must be on the tips of our toes. He’s caught me bending twice: once, two days ago, and once a year or so back. On each of those occasions I had good reason to think that he could not know where I was. But he did. So Carson is watching now. A sentinel is something which we must always have.” He looked at John Bagot. “I’ve told you plainly, John, that you should not be on in this scene. Your place is with Audrey. This affair is ours and has nothing to do with you.”
    “Yes, it has,” said John Bagot. “Jenny was left in our charge, and we let her go.”
    “That is not being fair to yourself.”
    “Then put it like this,” said John. “If you were placed as I am, would you retire to Wiltshire and hope for the best?”
    “I might if I were just married.”
    “To Audrey Nuneham?”
    We all of us laughed at that, for Audrey’s one regret was that she had been born a woman and not a man.
    “Well, so be it,” said Mansel. “But no funny business, John. You’ve got to do as we say.”
    Then we strolled for half an hour, before we went to our beds in some sweet-smelling hay.
     
    At half-past six the next morning I saw the sun strike the roof of the Château of Arx.
    The house was more of a castle than châteaux usually are and was hanging above the village