that even now, with Magnus missing for so long, it would surely be to say that someone had picked him up with loss of memory and taken him to hospital. Vita came and stood beside me, her hand in mine.
'That was a message from Liskeard police station,' said the Inspector. 'Word has come through that one of our patrols has found the body of a man resembling Professor Lane near the railway-line just this side of Treverran tunnel. He seems to have received a blow on the head from a passing train, unobserved by the driver or the guard. He managed, apparently, to crawl into a small disused hut just above the line, and then he collapsed. It looks as if he must have been dead for some hours.' I went on standing there, staring at the Inspector. Shock is a peculiar thing, numbing emotion. It was as though life itself had ebbed away, leaving me a shell, like Magnus. I was only aware of Vita holding my hand.
'I understand,' I said, but it was not my voice. 'What do you want me to do?'
'They are on their way to the mortuary in Fowey now, Mr. Young,' he said. 'I hate to trouble you at such a moment, but I think it would be best if we took you there right away to identify the body. I should like to think, for both your sakes, yours and Mrs. Young's, that it is not Professor Lane, but in the circumstances I can't offer you much hope.'
'No,' I said, 'no, of course not.'
I let go of Vita's hand and walked towards the door and out of the house into the hot sunlight. Some Scouts were putting up tents in the field beyond the Kilmarth meadow. I could hear them shouting and laughing, and hammering the pegs into the ground.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE MORTUARY WAS a smallish, red-brick building not far from Fowey station. There was nobody there when we arrived: the second patrol car was still on its way. When I got out of the car the Inspector looked at me a moment, and then he said, 'Mr. Young, there may be some delay. I'd like to offer you a cup of coffee and a sandwich at the caf+® just up the road.'
'Thank you,' I said, 'but I'm all right.'
'I can't insist,' he continued, 'but it really would be wise. You'll feel the better for it.'
I gave in, and allowed him to lead me along to the caf+®, and we each had some coffee, and I had a ham sandwich too. As we sat there I thought of the times in the past, as undergraduates, when Magnus and I had travelled down by train to Par to stay with his parents at Kilmarth. The rattle in the darkness and the echo of sound in the tunnel, and suddenly that welcome emergence into the light, with green fields on either side. Magnus must have made that journey every school holiday as a boy. Now he had met his death by the entrance to that same tunnel. It would make sense to no one. Not to the police, or to his many friends, or to anyone but myself. I should be asked why a man of his intelligence had wandered close to a railway-line on a summer's evening at dusk, and I should have to say that I did not know. I did know. Magnus was walking in a time when no railway-line existed. He was walking in an age when the hillside was rough pasture, even scrub. There was no gaping tunnel mouth yawning from the hillside in that other world, no metal lines, no track, only the bare grassland, and perhaps a man astride a pony, leading him on…
'Yes?' I said. The Inspector was asking me if Professor Lane had any relatives.
'I'm sorry,' I said, 'I didn't hear what you said. No, Commander and Mrs. Lane have been dead for a number of years, and there were no other children. I've never heard him mention cousins or anyone.' There must be a lawyer somewhere who dealt with his affairs, a bank which managed his finances: now I came to think of it I did not even know his secretary's name. Our relationship, binding, intimate, did not concern itself with day-to-day matters, with ordinary concerns. There must be someone other than myself who would know about all this. Presently the constable came to tell the Inspector that the second patrol car had arrived, and the ambulance too, and we walked back to the mortuary. The constable murmured something which I did not hear, and the Inspector turned to me.
'Doctor Powell from Fowey happened to be at Tywardreath police station when the message came through from our patrol,' he said, 'and he agreed to make a preliminary examination of the body. Then it will be up to the Coroner's pathologist to conduct the post mortem.'
'Yes,' I said. Post mortem.. inquest… the whole paraphernalia of the law.
I went into the mortuary. The first person I saw was the doctor I had met at the lay-by, who had watched me recovering from my attack of vertigo over ten days ago. I saw the instant recognition in his eyes, but he did not let on when the Inspector introduced us.
'I'm sorry about this,' he said, and then, abruptly, 'If you haven't seen anyone before who's been badly smashed up in an accident, let alone a friend, it's not a pleasant sight. This man has had a great gash on the head.'
He took me to the stretcher lying on the long table. It was Magnus, but he looked different — smaller, somehow. There was a sort of cavity caked with blood above his right eye. There was dried blood on his jacket, which was torn, and a tear in one of his trouser legs.
'Yes,' I said, 'yes, that is Professor Lane.'
I turned away, because Magnus himself wasn't there. He was still walking in the fields above the Treesmill valley, or looking about him, in great wonder, in some other undiscovered world.
'If it's any consolation to you,' said the doctor, 'he couldn't have lived very long after receiving a blow like that. God knows how he managed to crawl the few yards to the hut — he wouldn't have been conscious of his movements, he would have died literally a few moments afterwards.' Nothing was a consolation, but I thanked him all the same. 'You mean', I said, 'he would not have lain there, wondering why nobody came?'
'No,' he answered, 'definitely not. But I'm sure the Inspector will let you have the full details, as soon as we know the extent of the injuries.'
There was a walking-stick lying at the end of the table. The sergeant pointed it out to the Inspector. 'The stick was lying half-way down the embankment, sir,' he said, 'a short distance from the hut. The Inspector looked enquiringly at me, and I nodded. Yes,' I said, 'it's one of many he had. His father collected walking-sticks; there are about a dozen in his flat in London.'
'I think the best thing to do now is for us to run you straight back to Kilmarth, Mr. Young,' said the Inspector. 'You'll be kept fully informed, of course. You realise that you will be required to give evidence at the inquest.'
'Yes,' I said. I wondered what would happen to Magnus's body after the post mortem. I wondered if it was going to lie there through the weekend. Not that it mattered. Not that anything mattered. As the Inspector shook hands he said that they would probably come out on Monday and ask me a few more questions, in case I could add to my original statement. 'You see, Mr. Young,' he explained, 'there might be a question of amnesia, or even suicide.'
'Amnesia,' I repeated. 'That's loss of memory, isn't it? Most unlikely. And suicide, definitely no. The Professor was the last man in the world to do such a thing, and he had no cause. He was looking forward to the weekend, and was in very good spirits when I spoke to him on the telephone.'
'Quite so,' said the Inspector. 'Well, that's just the sort of statement the Coroner will want to have from you.'
The constable dropped me at the house, and I walked very slowly through the garden and up the steps. I poured out the equivalent of a triple whisky, and flung myself on the divan bed in the dressing-room. I must have passed out shortly afterwards, for when I woke up it was late afternoon or early evening, and Vita was sitting on the chair near by with a book in her hands, the last of the sun coming through the western window that gave on to the patio.
'What's the time?' I asked.
'About half-after six,' she said, and came and sat on the bed beside me.
'I thought it wisest to let you lie, she went on. The doctor who saw you at the mortuary telephoned during the afternoon, and asked if you were all right, and I told him you were sleeping. He said to let you sleep as long as possible, it was the best thing that could happen.' She put her hand in mine and it was comforting, like being a child again.
'What did you do with the boys?' I asked. 'The house seems very quiet.'
