She went to the dresser and got out one of the Vineyard's costumes. There was a white silk blouse and black trousers. I put them on. The trousers were tight around the waist. She put on a red robe. While she was fastening it, I found the brandy decanter and had a drink.
“What's the routine?” I asked.
“Not so loud.” She came close to me. “There's one guard at the door,” she whispered. “We get rid of him, and then everything's jake.”
“Isn't the door locked?”
“I've got a duplicate key.”
“It doesn't sound bad,” I said. “Only how will we get rid of the guard?”
“You'll have to kill him.”
She said this as though she was saying I should have another drink. I stared at her. The moonlight showed no expression at all on her face. She was pale and calm. Her eyes were like black pools of water, the pupils were so big. I began to get that feeling of being in a dream again.
“Listen,” I said. “We're not killing anybody.”
“We'll make it look like an accident.”
“No,” I said.
She saw I meant it. “All right. We can get him out of the way. I can.”
“You're not fooling?”
“I do think it's safer to kill him.”
“I won't go for murder, and that's final.”
“Come on, then.” Her voice was scornful. She pushed me towards the door.
“Don't we wear shoes?”
She gave me another push. We went out the hall and through the back door and around the women's building, all the time walking in the shadows. The grass was wet with dew. It felt cool underfoot. From the look of the moon I figured it was about two o'clock. The buildings were all dark. Everybody was asleep. We walked back of some bushes towards the temple. I padded along silently in my bare feet.
The temple was white in the moonlight, its shape smooth and round like a cake. It looked very big. I saw lights flickering behind one of the stained-glass windows. There was a woman on the window, the Virgin, I guess; and the lights made her look as though she was shaking her head at us. It gave me a hell of a start. I pointed the lights out to the Princess.
“Candles,” she whispered. “They burn all the time.”
We went around to the back of the temple. A bat flew a couple of times at my white shirt. I stumbled over a sprinkler. The Princess came to a door and halted. She listened at the door, then turned to me.
“You'll have to tie up the guard,” she whispered.
“What with?”
She handed me some silk cord; the kind she wore around her waist to keep her robe together. I tried to break it but I couldn't. “Okay,” I said.
She opened the door. At the far end of a long room I saw light faintly reflected. I couldn't see what made the light. She closed the door and we went down five stone steps. The stone was cold on my feet. We walked along a stone floor towards the light, moving slowly. I smelled an odour of decay, not strong, but very plain. It reminded me of the stink around the Kansas City stockyards. I thought it was probably old Solomon upstairs, turning over in his coffin.
At the end of the room was another door. This one was open. I saw now the reflected light was flickering a little. It came from a candle. The Princess looked around the door, and then touched my hand. Her fingers felt feverish. I moved forward. I saw a man in a costume like mine sitting by a padlocked door. There was a candle burning on the stone floor by his chair, the yellow flame looking thin in all the darkness. The man was asleep, his chin resting on his chest. He had bushy black hair. The Princess nudged me forward.
I got about half way to the man when he woke up. He blinked his eyes at me, still half asleep. “Who is it?”
I walked slowly so as not to scare him. He looked at me, trying to see who I was. He had a big round face and heavy eyebrows. He didn't get alarmed until he noticed I hadn't any shoes. Then he stood up, and I jumped him. We went down together, splintering the chair under us. He fought hard, but I was stronger. I got my hands on his throat and began to choke him, pushing my thumbs into the muscles under his jaw. He kicked in agony and the candle went out. I held him down with my weight, feeling his breath rattle under my palms. Suddenly he went limp and I let go of his throat.
“Are you all right, honey?” the Princess whispered.
“Yes.”
I went through the man's pockets and found a packet of matches. I lit the candle. The light showed the Princess standing by the man, staring down at him. “Did you kill him?”
“Hell, no!”
She looked at me as though she'd never seen me before. She watched me tie his hands and feet and gag him with his undershirt. Her eyes were strange, as though she was in a trance. She gave me a key. “For the padlock.”
I left her looking down at him and went to the door. The key wasn't a very good fit. It turned hard, but I got it around. The lock came open. I took it off the hasp and shoved open the door.
