The Murder of Busy Lizzie

‘Be sticking your neck out if he happens to be the murderer, won’t you?’

‘My neck is not very long, dear child.’

‘Wonder what Pere Lovelaine thinks you can do?’

Marius, taking the steep upward path towards the road which led back to the hotel, was pondering on this problem with such absorption that, until a flying figure dived at him out of the darkness and astonished and infuriated him by bringing him to the ground, he had no idea that his departure from Puffins had been witnessed by anybody except Laura, and therefore he was totally unprepared for this unmannerly encounter.

It was fortunate for him that the path, although rather rough, was on a sharp slope, for, instead of his opponent being able to get his hands on his victim’s throat, as appeared to be his intention, the pair of them rolled over and over towards the front door of the house. Marius was small and spare and made no claim to athletic prowess, but he had never been self-indulgent and was in good condition. Moreover, he did not lose his head. Realising at once that he was no match for a much heavier adversary and one who had taken him by surprise, he adopted his only real means of defence, and shouted loudly for help so long as he could keep the other man from throttling him. He had good lungs and a rather high tenor voice which carried well. The front door of Puffins was flung open and a flood of light fell upon the struggling pair.

‘What the hell?’ enquired the voice of Dame Beatrice’s sturdy manservant George. He was immediately joined by Laura, who said, ‘What is it, George?’ At this the aggressor scrambled up with some celerity, kicked out at the prostrate Marius and made off at a scrambling gallop which almost at once took him out of the orbit of the light which shone from the house. Marius picked himself up, limping from the kick which, intended for his groin, had taken him harmlessly but painfully on the top of the left thigh, and apologised for creating a disturbance.

‘He must have mistaken me for somebody else. Perhaps he thought I was an escaping burglar,’ he said when, having been taken into the house and given brandy, he had recounted his experience.

‘Well, be that as it may,’ said Laura firmly, ‘I’m going the rounds of the house before you leave, to make sure the doors and windows are shut, then I shall arm Henri, our cook, with our heaviest poker and his special kitchen knife, and George and I will escort you back to the hotel.’

‘What is Henri’s function to be, then?’ Dame Beatrice meekly enquired.

‘Guard duty, until George and I get back.’

‘You really mustn’t trouble to come with me,’ said Marius, proving that, in spite of his children’s opinion of him, he possessed heroic qualities.

‘Nonsense!’ said Laura. ‘I only hope the dotty blighter tries again, that’s all.’

Marius did not bolster up this hope, but made no further protest about being escorted back to the hotel.

chapter fifteen

Ariadne’s String-box

‘Or else tuck up your gray frock,

And saddle your goat on your green cock,

And may his bridle a bottom of thread

To roll up how many miles you have rid.’

Ben Jonson

« ^ »

But who could it have been, Father?’ asked Sebastian after breakfast on the following morning.

‘I really believe, now that I have had time to consider the matter, that it was Eliza’s murderer, my boy.’

‘But why attack you?’

‘There was the attack on and the attempted drowning of Ransome, if you have described the incident correctly.’

‘You mean it’s a family thing? Well, I’m rather glad you think so, because I’ll tell you something else. Somebody made two spirited attempts to get into our chalet last night. Maggie scared him off the first time, but —’

‘Good heavens! I trust your doors were locked?’

‘They’re self-locking and the windows were shut. Maggie and I like a fug. No, the chap, whoever he was, was trying to force a window when Maggie spotted him. Later he nearly battered a door down with his knocking. Then he gave a dirty laugh when we challenged him and breezed off. We didn’t get much sleep, I can tell you. Don’t suppose you did, either.’

‘What did Dame Beatrice have to say?’ asked Margaret.

‘She did not commit herself, my dear.’

‘Not even after you were set upon?’

‘She thought that was an interesting development.’

‘Means she thinks there’s somebody gunning for us,’ said Sebastian, ‘and really there can’t be much doubt about it now. I suppose you’ve no idea who your attacker could have been, Father?’

‘None at all. It seems that somebody must have followed me to Puffins last evening and waited for me to emerge.’

‘That sounds like somebody staying at the hotel who saw you leave and followed you. I suppose you didn’t happen to mark his face in any way when he collared you?’ suggested Sebastian.

‘I’m afraid not, my boy. My only object was to keep his hands from my throat. All I know is that he was a heavier man than I, and may have been an older one, but of that I cannot be sure.’

‘Did you get any clue as to the way he was dressed? I mean, for instance, did you get any impression of an oiled-wool jersey, such as the fishermen wear, or a bird-watcher’s anorak or anything identifiable, Father?’ asked Margaret. Marius shook his head.

‘I could not say what he was wearing, except that his boots were heavy. The kick on the thigh which I sustained is extremely painful.’

‘Good thing it wasn’t in your ribs,’ said Sebastian. ‘That’s the usual target. Well, what’s our course of action?’

‘I really think we had better carry out my plan of leaving Great Skua. I dislike to turn my back on danger, but really there seems little point in our remaining here under these circumstances, when we cannot even identify our enemy. I shall be glad, I must say, to receive your assurance that you will both exercise every care, right up to the moment of our embarkation. I do hope, Sebastian, that you will make no difficulties about returning home with your sister and me.’

‘Oh, I think the three of us should stick together,’ said Sebastian. ‘Aunt Eliza and Ransome and now you, Father, is coming it a bit too thick. By all means let’s catch the next boat. It will be a score for Boobie when we all come crawling back, but there are worse things than her shouts of triumph.’

‘Your mother is expecting us shortly, I telephoned her from the mainland. There will be no teasing on her side. She will be most relieved when we return safe and sound.’

This proved to be the case. Clothilde welcomed them, as she had promised, and had ordered a most appetising meal which she had planned long since. She listened with suitable horror to the account of the abduction of Ransome and the attack on Marius, and suggested that the latter should ask for police protection until Eliza’s murderer was apprehended.

‘I hardly think that will be necessary, my dear,’ said Marius. ‘The danger spot is the island itself, I feel sure. Besides, all the incidents will bear other interpretations if one considers them logically and calmly. Eliza’s death may well have been accidental; Ransome may have been the victim of crude horseplay; I myself may have been mistakenly identified by my attacker. There is really nothing to go on.’

‘All the same, you thought it best to leave the island as soon as ever you could.’

‘Oh, we were pretty tired of it,’ said Sebastian, ‘and our reason for going there did not, after all, obtain. It was to curry favour with Aunt Eliza that we set forth, and, as circumstances had it, we did not even meet her. What about Greece, Father? Is there any chance that we might finish the holiday there?’

‘No, there is not,’ said Clothilde, before her husband could answer the question. ‘Marius, I did not intend to