Adders on the Heath

'I'll put the car away while you're dumping. Somehow I don't think we're going to need it tomorrow.'

They met in the bar a quarter of an hour later.

'Tell me why we shan't need the car,' said Denis, over a pint of bitter. 'I thought you were going to walk your legs off while you were alone, and that we were to ride in the stately limousine as soon as I turned up. Incidentally, I'm sorry for the delay, but I got let in for playing polo.'

'You mean you preferred playing polo to getting down here when you said you would? Then it serves you right that you've missed all the fun of being my fellow gaolbird.'

'You don't say!'

'I do say. I've been scared out of my wits until now, but I don't seem to care quite so much now you've turned up.'

'Absolutely the right spirit. Tell me all. I can see you've lost weight since last we met.'

Richardson told him all. It was a straightforward narrative but, as Denis remarked at the end of it, fraught with unusual interest.

'There's only one thing to do,' he said.

'Confess, and get myself hanged?'

'That would be going too far and is, in any case, unnecessary. No, what you need, at this crisis in a young man's affairs, is the advice and assistance of my great-aunt.'

'Not Lady Selina?'

'Perish the thought! I refer to the one and only Dame Beatrice. Your corpses will be meat and drink to her.'

'Dame Beatrice? But?-Oh, she wouldn't take me on, would she? I mean, I've never even met her!'

'The loss is hers and can soon be remedied.'

'You'll really ask her?'

'Yes, of course, and I know she'll come. You must tell her everything, you know, just as you've told it to me. No hedging or ditching. She can't be expected to work with blinkers on. Your two rows with Colnbrook must be exposed with all their low-life implications and you'll have to confess that you saw these two birds on the heath, so that you knew they were in the neighbourhood. And if I were you,' continued Denis earnestly, 'I'd come clean to the Superintendent, too. He's bound to dig it all out sooner or later-the police do, you know-and you'll be in a far stronger position if the information comes from you in the first place.'

'Well, I don't know about that,' said Richardson, very doubtfully. 'I'm certain that he suspects me, whereas Dame Beatrice, I take it, will not.'

'She'll start from scratch, keeping an open mind. Still, you have an ingenuous, unbearded sort of face and are obviously frightened to death, so perhaps she'll give you the benefit of the doubt.'

'You are a Job's comforter!' said Richardson; but he looked quite happy again.

'Meanwhile,' Denis added, 'I will bend my own not inconspicuous intellect to your problem and let you know my conclusions in the morning. Sleep well!'

CHAPTER FOUR

IN SEARCH OF A BODY

'Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments.'

Shakespeare

'What we ought to do,' said Denis, on the following morning, 'and I've slept on this, I might tell you, because it actually occurred to me last night when I got to bed...'

'Is to tell the Superintendent there's Colnbrook's body hidden away somewhere. He won't believe us, you know. Besides-'

'You go too fast. Let me finish. It occurred to me last night, as I tossed restlessly on my pillow, that what we must do is to find that second body-or, rather, that first body-before they hold the inquest on the body found in your tent by the police.'

'But how on earth can we do that?'

'We will quarter the ground. Isn't there a riding stables at hand? We shall hire a couple of docile, trustworthy hacks and look for clues.'

'What about Dame Beatrice?'

'Fun first, business later. Must you have still another piece of toast?'

'Yes, really I must. But, about the horses...'

'Unreliable, you think?'

'I don't think that. I do think we'd be much better off on foot-that is, if we really must look for Colnbrook.'

'Why? I loathe a lot of walking.'

'Very well. You ride, I'll walk, and we'll compare notes at lunch.'