Sowing Seeds
BONYWOKETWICEduring the day, heard the wild south wind rampaging about the saw-bench and the woodstack, and slept again. When he woke the third time, the wind was tired out, and the silence was returning like a jackal following departure of the lion.
The next hour he spent doing nothing save trying to recall the exact phraseology used by Disraeli on the subject of meditation. It went something like: “The art of meditation may be exercised at all hours; enabling one to retire amidst a crowd, be calm amidst distraction, be wise amidst folly.” He was still not satisfied that he had it aright when he lifted the hem of the tarpaulin. It was quite dark, the rain had stopped, the stars remained dead, the water birds were happy, and all was well.
Dressing with care not to cut his throat by contact with the under part of the circular saw, he crawled out, and with the soundlessness of a raindrop sliding down a window gained the levee and the Folly, to scrub his teeth and wash. Back again under the tarpaulin, he combed his hair, felt his unshaven chin, and ate heartily. On setting out to earn his salary, none could say he was unpresentable.
The cook was in her kitchen, the mistress sat sewing in her sitting-room, the patient lay abed reading a farm journal, and, doubtless, the man of the house was playing his games in the dark. The front door was locked and all the ground-floor windows fastened. Only the open kitchen door offered a road in… but not to Bony.
He slipped the catch of the dining-room window and took that road. Memory, assisted by the tip of his wire “sword”, took him to the door without upsetting the furniture.
Because lock and handle might need oiling, the operation of opening the door occupied a full minute. Beyond was the hall, and directly opposite was the lounge door. The hall was unlit. The lounge door was wide open, and the lamp by which Mary Answerth was reading made of the doorway an oblong sheet of ancient copper. To the right, a darker oblong marked entry to the passage leading kitchenwards.
Bony flowed into the hall and up the grand staircase to the spanning gallery. There it was completely dark, for the comparative light without failed to penetrate the magnificently coloured window. The house was as completely silent as it was completely dark on this upper floor, and he drifted along the right passage until his cat’s whisker stopped him at Morris Answerth’s door. A fingertip found the bolt home in the door frame, and the padlock to keep it there. The key hung from the wall nail.
Down upon the floor, he brought an ear to the inch-wide space between door and floor. The room beyond the door was also dark and silent until he detected what at first defeated him… Morris humming a tune. It was “Three blind mice, See how they run…” In accordance with the bee’s position to the door, so did the sound wax and wane. Presently, the humming ceased, and the silence was next interrupted by a scratching noise, difficult to define.
Following the scratching, another long silence ended by soft and rhythmic breathing. The breathing was close… very close to Bony. On the far side of the door, Morris was lying with an ear hard against the space at the bottom, and probably not more than four inches from Bony’s ear. The situation amused Bony, but he feared to smile lest laughter betray him. With lips parted, he controlled his breathing, and was glad that the advantage was with him.
He was first there, and the light draught under the door was from Morris to him. He could smell the very faint aroma of the oil on Morris’s head, and he hoped that no one below would open a window or a door and thus reverse the draught, when Morris might smell him.
Unaware if Time governed Janet’s habits, with particular reference to her stepbrother, Bony had to accept the probability that at any moment she might ascend with Morris’s supper tray and thus curtail the period required to movehimself from the door. The door faced the passage to the gallery and the hall stairs: in the other direction the passage terminated at the top of the back stairs. That way offered strategic withdrawal.
To roll away from the door without so much as a bone creaking or a shoe scraping the floor occupied a full minute, but Bony was satisfied that what hecould not himself hear would not reach Morris. Thereafter, to drift was easy.
He entered the room beyond the captive’s bedroom, closed the door and dared to switch on his torch to pinpoint stacked furniture and a way through it to reach the window. Pocketing the torch, he eased the catch, which had not been moved for years, and silently opened the window.
Having returned to the angle of the passage, he had to wait a half-hour before the darkness towards the gallery was suddenly pierced by a mounting light. When Janet appeared with her tray, he retreated to the unused room.
Passing swiftly to the window, he leaned out as far as was possible, when he could just see the night-glint on the panes of the window next-door. That window was opened as far as the lattice permitted. Within that room, the bed softly creaked when taking Morris’s weight. The seconds lagged before Janet’s light coloured the window-panes. Then came Janet’s voice, distant but clear.
“Asleep, dear?”
“No, Janet, not quite.”
“Poor boy! I wasn’t able to come up earlier, but I’ve been thinking of you. I’ve brought you a cup of cocoa and a few of your favourite biscuits. The fruit, remember, you must eat first thing in the morning before you get up. We must keep the body cleansed, you know, and the cheeks rosy.”
“Thank you, Janet. What have you been doing this evening?”
“Oh, just working on my accounts. What with one thing and another, I’m very tired tonight.”
“I am, too. I have been waiting for you,” Morris said.
“So you really miss me. I cannot imagine what I’d do if I hadn’t you to care for, Morris, if I didn’t know you were always waiting for me. I’m so proud of you now you are growing up such a fine strong boy.”
There was a pause during which Bony heard a cup being placed on its saucer. Then:
“Is Mary better?” Morris asked.
“A little better, I think. Soon she will want to come to see you. You will be good, won’t you? You must always try not to lose your temper, because if you do, you might forget how strong you are, and how easily you could place one of your hands under her chin, and the other behind her shoulders, and then push up and back and snap her neck like a carrot. You will remember, won’t you?”
“Yes, Janet, I’ll remember.”
The man’s voice was almost toneless, and Bony marked it because the voice had been animated when directed to him. He wondered if this front to his sister had long been adopted to conceal from her his true personality, as he concealed from her so many other matters. She spoke again, and Bony would have given much to have observed her face.
“You must never forget, too, how I told you to behave when a stranger comes to the house. Doctor Lofty might come again tomorrow to see Mary, and he might want to come up to see you. We Answerths always mind our own business, as I’ve told you so often, and we never permit anyone else to know anything of it. Remember the story of the little boy who talked to the strange man and was taken to the forest and left alone to die there. You will remember, won’t you?”
“Yes, Janet. I’ll tell Doctor Lofty nothing at all. Do you really think Mary will soon be well enough to come up here?”
“Yes, dear.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh, Morris! Why?”
“I want a lamp,” replied Morris.
“Please don’t go over all that again, dear. You know quite well that Mary says you are not to have a lamp. She has said a thousand times that you might upset it and burn the house down.”
There was a pregnant silence till Morris asked:
“If Mary had been killed, you would let me have a lamp, wouldn’t you, Janet?”
“I would certainly think about it,” cooed Janet.
“Would you give me a lamp like the one Bony gave me?”
Instantly the dove changed to a hawk.
“Bony gave you a lamp! Did you say that Bony gave you a lamp? Answer me.”
“Yes. Please don’t scold me, Janet. It was a beautiful lamp, but after I had played with it for a little while it wouldn’t work. I took it to pieces to find out why it wouldn’t go when I pressed the tiny knob, and I couldn’t make it light again. Please, Janet! I don’t like your face.”
“Why did Bony give you the lamp?”
“Because…”
“Don’t think, Morris. Why did he give you the lamp?”
Morris, however, had gained time to think. He replied:
“He wanted to know who killed Mother.”
“Go on.”
“I didn’t know, Janet. I only asked him if he’d like to know. He said he would like to know who killed Mother, but I wouldn’t tell him. I wouldn’t tell him anything, Janet. Now, please take that look off your face, Janet. You know it frightens me. Please, Janet. Please.”
The man’s voice now contained more colour, more tone. Janet didn’t speak, and Morris began to sob. After a little while, Janet said, soothingly:
“There, there, dear. It’s all over now. I’m glad you didn’t tell him about Mother. Now dry your eyes. What else did Bony ask you?”
“He asked me… if I could read. I said yes, I could. And Doctor Lofty asked if I could write and I said I could just a little. I showed them the books, and my train and Meccano set.”
“That was kind of you. What else did they ask you about?”
“Only about the lamp, Janet. You see, they brought a wonderful bright lamp with them, and they said it belonged to Mary. And when I asked if I might have it, they said no, as Mary would not like me to have her lamp. I think I was rude to them, Janet. I’m ever so sorry, truly. So I asked them to forgive me before they left, and Bony gave me his lamp.”
“Bring me the lamp, dear.”
Janet’s voice was calm. Bony could not pass a fraction further out of the window without losing balance, and still was unable to see into the next room. He ached to observe Janet’s face during the period when, he was sure, Morris was in the outer room. Then he heard Morris say:
“Here are all the pieces, Janet.”
“Every one of them?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll take them away on the tray, and later I’ll slip out and throw them into the Folly. They must never be seen by Mary, and you know what she would do if she found them. Don’t you, Morris?”
“I…”
“You do know, but I’ll tell you what she would do. When she found out why Bony gave you a lamp, you would have to tell her about asking him if he’d like to know who killed Mother, and she would go very red in the face and her eyes would have red fire in them, and she would make me whip you while she held you.
“So you mustn’t tell her about it. Or say anything about Mother to anyone who may come to visit you. If they find out who killed Mother, they’d take you away and lock you up in a bare room. Just a bare room, mind you, where there’s nothing to play with, and where I wouldn’t be allowed to see you. And they would stick red hot bodkins into you, until you screamed and screamed.”
Bony could hear Morris sobbing.
“Now dry your tears, dear, and go to sleep. Lie down and I’ll tuck you in. That’s right, now. Just forget about the lamp. Mary will never know now. And as you are falling asleep keep on saying over and over: ‘I must not tell about Mother, not to anyone.’ Say it aloud to me.”
Morris repeated the phrases.
“Now good night, dear. I’ll always stand by you. But do remember how strong you are, and how easily you could kill Mary if you lost your temper. We would be so very happy without her, Morris, and if she died you might have a nice lamp like the one Bony gave you. But that won’t be for a long time, because it wouldn’t be right to kill Mary, bad as she is.”
“Do you forgive me, Janet?”
“Yes, and here’s my forgiving kiss. You did upset me, though, but never mind, I’ll take an aspirin to cure my headache. You have said your prayers?”
“Yes. Good night, Janet.”
Janet’s voice came so softly that Bony barely detected thewords: “Good night, dear boy. You must always love me like I love you. Sleep well.”
“Sleep well, Janet, and good night.”
The light waned from the diamond-shaped window-panes. Through that open window, Bony heard the door to the passage being closed, and, immediately after, the bed creaked violently as Morris sprang from it. There followed unbroken silence. Bony waited a full five minutes, expecting to see the steel lattice being pushed open, the blanket rope being let down to the ground. He waited another five minutes and then decided that Morris was lying on the floor at the foot of the outer door.