S
CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1954
Margery Allingham, a reviewer has declared, could "Bat No. 1 for England in any crime fiction Test Match." Here she displays her skill in creating atmosphere atmosphere - for a murder theme. Mr Campion, favourite fiction
IR
Leo Persuivant,
On Christmas Day In The Morning
Silr Lea nodded hia white hend. "Horrible," he agreed. the Chief Constable, "Now, let me get this clear. The had been sitting in man appears to have been run
comfortable down bi B
Benham-Ashby study after a magnificent crossroads.
handful EL lunch and talking shyly of
of
白
By MARGERY ALLINGHAM
his
"
a Christmassy detective, appears
Loot down and says the what seemed a mile, only to here on the Ashby road, just
It was not a sordid room, yet They report other journey, over the stile and encounter a second sille and a the walls were unpapered, the before the bend.
plain plank bridge over a that they were almost run down so on, would have been
stream, furniture old, without being in followed wildly driven saloon
by a car impossible." by a
briof orch of anyway antique, and tile place *All of which would argue, what appeared to be simple bog. could hardly have been nt the
called which came up behind them.
"It misveri and carcored off observed Mr Camplon brightly, As he struggled out of it Pussy beat. But at the moment
met a car pushed back his drippng out of their sight round the "that the postman
hat was festive. There took Pussy
the and gazod came back from
was bolly the constable.
over the two pictures, and on "You're not having a game, the mantel the sadness of Christmas cigarettes from the box at his bend towards the crossing. But after he
them in oldo and arranged
few minutes later, half a mile cottage between the stile and
above the stove farther on, on the other side of the policeman's house."
suppose?" he inquired briefly, crowd DI while his guest, Mr Camross on the shining surface of
"Constable
"No sir, no." He pointed to cards.
bright Christmas "That's what the the crossroads, a police car met, pin. most favoured of his the table.
eyes A Pussy's black "Here is and succeeded in stopping, the thought." "Look,"
near distance. ho sald.
bump in the AS BOOT 18 large house party, had been
alight here was
saloon.
were snapping.
"Good Heavens!" Leo regard- the Ashby road with a
and the ho'd telephoned a row,
for help he ed its desolation with dismay. laughing at him gently.
bend in it and here, running at
wind getting the
up slipped down to the cottage to "Does anybody the driver,
rently right angles slap through
live suddenly, started up again, see it Nookes had called there.
there?" curve, is the Benham road.
"Oil skridded and smashed the car on
yes, sir, An old widow lady, Mrs Fyson's the name." the nearest telephone pole. The
"Alono?"
aghast. "How old?"
"I don't rightly know, Bir
Over seventy-five Quite old.
eyes
I was true, the younger man had admitted, his pale behind his sleepy horn-rimmed spectacles, that, however good the or- THIS morning the Benham postman, old Fred Noakes, anisation, the festival was
a bachelor, thank God, and a good hever quite the same after chap, caffio along the
middle-aged, but road loaded down with mail,"
Leo "OD bicycle," murmured then only dear old wou'd expect it to be, and, Camplon
site was
meanwhile, what a truly re markable bird that had
! וויויגן
But at that point the Superin- had arrived with hix tendent grim hulle story and everything had seemed qulle spoiled.
A! the
moment their visitor Sul
high-backed in a
chair. against a panelled wall festooned with holly and tinsel, his round black eyes hard and preoccupied Under a short grey hair
QUPERINTENDENT Pussy was
one of those lean and urgent countrymen who never quite lose their fondness for a genuine wonder. Despite years of ex- perlence and disillusion the ng what simply can't have happened and yet indubitably
pince A
in their
ind
retalus
He was holding forth about one now, I had already ruined bis Christmas and had kept a great many other people out in day, but nothing
the sleet all
would
induce him to leave
alone, even for five minutes.
The
plate of
...
"Naturally. On a bicycle. He
about
at the last farm before
of
Mir
must
man,"
Ho
WILS
a
THEIR hostess sat between them, near the table. It was set for a small tea party.
Leo pulled himself together. "I must apologise," he began, This is an Imposition on such a day. I...."
"Not at all," she said. "Oh, not at all. Visitors are a great treat. Not everybody braves my footpath in winter,"
car turned out to be stolen, and 667HEN he found he had, he scarched the road. He was there were four helf-full bottles "We
The two mystified though, because both gin, in the back.
WETU both fighting he and his missus had been at
be." occupants Benham
their drunk and are now detained."
window for an hour
Leo stopped in his tracks and off his watching for the mail, and they a slience fell on the company. took Campion
hadn't seen a spocincles and blinked.
vehicle of any
Campion broke the spell.
"But SOMI people do, of "You suggest that there was sort go by either way.
"Delinitely no walk for
course?" ventured Mr Campion do
a car did hit the postman dying he you?"
"If A connection, called
ho sald
fatuously. firmly. he Deli "Fred and the gin where
I must have "Doctor'a evidenco
"Of cours,** completely
She shot hirn the crossroads and left just murmured.
turned
back and gone
after convincing. don't you think? her shy smile. "Certainly. ten o'clock. We know drinkers met at the crossroads,
Any signs on the car wards,"
Now were here, perhaps we every week. "What should drop in
They send down Leo frowned at him. a cup of in fact.
and see the from the villaga every week, about the other witnesses? Did householder."
and only this morning a young they see any second car?"
man, the policeman to be exact, "As I see "No," said Pussy.
came all the way over the fields to wish me the compliments of the season and to know if I'd got my post."
"And you had." Leo glanced the array of cards with
Ho чуда
kindly, "If sentimental amily man with a
horror of loneliness.
Pusers.
DUSSY shrugged.
"Our chaps are at work
that now, ho
sald.
on
very
the He nodded to
EXQ shivered.
Buis at
he
She nodded at
that because he had len there. Then his way bed the crossing und on him over towards Benham proper."
Ite
Tooked up paused and
his shoul- it, It's a proper mystery, a kind
of not
"We can't all from his cigarettes.
nice miracle, and "There was very little traffic
those two beauties are going
get in," he objected, "Perhaps early today, terrible weather all
"The to get away with murder on the the Superintendent..
"No. You and I will go," Whatever our the
time, and
strength of it. quite a bit of
second
complicated fellows find smash has
was obstinale. activity later, so we've got nu
on the car they'll Campion a tit, but last timo
that all right with you, Super" reitet. Well, to things ukid marks to help us.
never got past the doctor."
Mr resume, no one seems to have phoned they were hopeful."
Camplon got up
Pussy waved them on sadly. "But my dear fellow!"* Sir chap,
have to dig for us we soc oid Noakes. poor
The sleet was beating on the you
shall be just about here," hour Leo was puzzled. "If you can close unnit
on half An
windows.
said cheerfully. evidence Ket
"I'm over my expert
of Chief Constable.
ankles now. What # "I fear we shall have to see Does anybody
place! Then the Benhum constable, collision between the car and
ever come here some three hundred the postman, your worries are
that
it gets footpath before
except the postman, constable?" yards from the crossing, on the
utterly dark, you know. In
Campion took Leo's arm and Benham road, came out of his
"That is, of course, 11 the this weather conditions may led him firmly round to the house and walked down to his
medical evidence permits the have changed by tomorrow."
front of the cottage. Leo hung the post was to see if
theory that the unfortunate
On Christmas back. Leo alghed. Kate
His repugnance was as coming
fellow picked himself up and day in the morning!" he quoted "He saw the postinan at once, struggled the
I hate this," he muttered. three hundred bitterly tape you're right parent as the cold.
their dreary "Go on, Knock if you must." lying in the middle of the road yarda
He was house," his machine. acrosa
Mr Journey at the Benham, police
Camplon oboyed. At dend then "
They Inspected the crossroads wide. and the bend and
the spot
aler
who lives
on ordering for him, were dis- put in Leo. appearing without him noticing
them, and
and soda stood untarted
at his
There waS
a
over
towards the
constable'r They
Pussy hesitated. "There' the trouble,"
*IF admitted.
that were
አዩ
2
the brave collection with deep affection.
"It's lovely to see them all up there again. It's one of the real joys of Christmas, isn't it? Messages from people you love and who love you-and all so pretty, too."
"Did you come down bright and early to meet the postman?”
station to pick up the constable, once the door was opened very was disarmingly innocent, but
to grler,
D
in,"
THE Chief Constable's question
who looked ashamed and dropped her eyes.
ut-
And then looking past morning.
tein fact, I was only just
there
all,
A little old woman stood be- we'd be sitting pretty, but it's where the saloon cer had come fore him. suggest he'd been try- turkey sand-Yusorry on, do you?" not, and I'll tell you why.
"Oh dear,"
she said
"I wasn't upl Wasn't wiches, which Leo had insisted
"In that three hundred yards
expectedly, and her voice was dreadfull 1. Wis late this "Yes He was walking, push- of Benham road, between the
stile the world was grey him at the skulking Leo: "Two the glass of scotch ing the bike, and had dropped crossing and the pot where old By the time they reached the friendly, you are damp. Come
Fred died, there is " his tracks. in
stle which
and freezing.
of you! Well, isn't that nice? picking the letters off the mat Down tho
Mr Campion negotiated the Mind your poor heade.
when the depressed fracture in the side leads to a footpath.
policeman the best part of
stile, and the Chief Constable
He helped me gather of his skull where something footpath,
milo over
"You'll have to all down at called. very followed struck quarter of a
There the nice bay. him with say
rough going, there is one small
some once," she said, laughing as she them, difficulty. It was an awkward waved them to two little chairs, were such a lot. I lay lazily letters cottage. and at that cottage climb, and the path below was "You must undo that," she in bed this morning, thinking of
It wound went on, touching Leo's coat. them instead of moving. narrow and slippery. morning.
out into the mist before them, "Otherwise you
may take cold
"Still you heard them come." "The doctor
"And Jay's Noakes apparently without end.
when you go out. It is so very Leo was very satisfied. might havo staggered the three
The
procession slid
But so scason- you knew they were there." and chilly, isn't it. the road ปท hundred yards
(Continued on Pugo 13) scrambled on in silence for able, and that's always nice.” leaning on his bike, but he puts
P
car mirror-had
"You run see I had to come at once," he was saying for the
"I had to, I don't him. Third time.
ve got the doctor's report. see what happened and that's inet It's sori of miracle. I'll show you that later. Mean- Besides," he eyed them angrily, while, there's something else."
Pussy's Anger moved to his "fancy killing a poor old pool-
morning! other line of cigarettes, Christmas
Un- "Also, just about ten, there That's Inbuman, isn't it? hatural."
were a couple of fellows walking
mac
on
were dolivered
this
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