Read Online The Glass-Sided Ants' Nest by Peter Dickinson - Free Book Online

the white-haired woman must come with him to Berlin to search for her lover, although the bad man well knew that this lover was tied with a rope in a barge near Wapping. But the white-haired woman turned the coin over and saw that it had two heads, and from that she knew the badness of the man, whom she tricked, so that he went to Berlin while she untied the rope that bound her lover.”
    The Kus sighed and clucked with nostalgic appreciation.
    â€œDid Aaron see this?” said Pibble.
    â€œAaron saw this.”
    Pause for thought—excited reverie, rather. Suppose the conversation with Dr. Mackenzie had been about whether it was fair to the Kus for Caine to stay in the village, and suppose Caine had tossed a crook penny to decide, and suppose, all this time after, Aaron had seen this drivel on the telly and (being distrustful of Caine—that we know) had found a chance to nip next door and look for the coin. . . Steady, steady. How could Caine have known Aaron knew? How could he have got in? Could Mrs. Caine be lying about his being away? Why (an academic point) had the Kus insisted on Rebecca’s telling the story first when they all knew? Just because we want Caine to be our man it doesn’t let us off the rest of the rigmarole. Stop daydreaming; search house. (Anyway, even for Caine, you couldn’t call it more than a fractional-motive.)
    â€œOh well,” he said, “thank you very much. I shall have to ask you all to stay here for quite a time yet, while I and my men look through the rest of the house. Perhaps it would be best if we started with Eve and Paul’s quarters, and then Leah took us over the women’s hut. Then Melchizedek can take us through the men’s hut, and then you can all go to your own quarters while we do the rest of the house.”
    The Kus said nothing, but Eve gave him a minute encouraging nod. Pibble turned and found that Fernham was still in the room, which saved an undignified bellowing for minions down the stairs.
    â€œO.K., Fernham, will you hang on here and keep an eye on things? I think Dr. Ku has a bedroom down here, and I’ll try to clear that first.”
    â€œYessir.”
    Eve’s bedroom. A place for sleeping in, a world of taste away from Mrs. Pibble’s dainty, pink-frilled, feminine retreat. White walls, no pictures, mannish dressing table, long built-in cupboard, bookcase of Penguins mostly with blue covers, ruddy great brass bedstead with white candlewick cover. Pibble lay gently on the bed, which responded with a thousand twanging instruments. He moved himself a careful half inch, and achieved a rich rococo chord. He rolled right across the snowy expanse and found that the whole bed was mined with noise. Well, it was an alibi of a sort, though he’d hate to have to bring the witness into court. Look through cupboard. Not a skirt in sight, but some brave summer blouses in the drawers and every shade of trousering. Separate section held two blue pin-stripe suits, above drawers with a few white shirts, socks, and underwear—Paul’s wardrobe. Tiny bathroom next door, but nothing there; linen basket empty; medicine cupboard Spartan—but ha! folder of contraceptive pills, solving the unaskable question. Rum, Pibble thought, that he should feel distinctly relieved. Nothing hidden in lavatory cistern or any of the other places amateurs always think of. Back to living room.
    There were three rooms on the floor above—the one where the body had lain, another small one with a big bed in it (one of the places, presumably, where the Kus didn’t go to sleep to beget children), and the women’s hut, which Leah unlocked for him.
    Walls had been knocked down to make a very big room. The windows in the far corner were barred, so that section might once have been a nursery. The place was light and clean, not jungly or un-English, not even strange, except for the number of beds in it; rows of modern divans were