Читать книгу The Kidnapping of Madame Storey and Other Stories (Madame Storey) - Footner Hulbert - Страница 9

We worked very late that night. The Commissaire de Police sent Mme. Storey a batch of reports from the various men who had been at work on the case during the day, and after studying them she had dictated suggestions for the work of the following day.

All this had been sealed up and sent off by a waiting messenger, and we were sitting in the salon of our suite, smoking, talking idly, letting ourselves relax in preparation for sleep. It was about half-past one I suppose, and a great silence had fallen on Monte Carlo, broken only by the occasional dull roar of a car on the main road at the top of the gardens. The Southern French, like their neighbours the Italians, have a great fondness for roaring through the small hours with their cut-outs open.

Suddenly there was a discreet tap on the door. We had heard no one approach.

"Who is it?" asked Mme. Storey coolly.

A low voice answered: "A letter from the Commissaire de Police, Madame."

There was something not quite right about that voice, and Mme. Storey's face turned grim. I was thankful that the door was a stout one, and securely bolted. "Shove it under the door," she said.

There was a silence. No letter appeared. Then the voice whined: "It is too thick to go under the door, Madame."

"Then it must wait until morning," she said coolly. "I have retired."

Another pause. Though I put my head to the door I could not hear a sound from the other side. But I had the feeling that there was more than one man in the corridor, conferring. Then we heard retreating footsteps.

I looked at Mme. Storey questioningly. My heart was beating like a motor. Still, the incident appeared to be over. She lit a fresh cigarette, saying:

"They must think we are downy birds."

There was another tap on the door.

"Well?" said Mme. Storey.

"If you please, Madame," said the whining voice, "the Commissaire says it is very important."

Mme. Storey's lip curled in contempt. "Go away!" she said. "If you bother me again I shall telephone to the office."

We were both facing the door listening for the sound of his footsteps. One of those mysterious intimations caused me to turn my head. I saw four masked men. They had entered through the balcony windows. One of them was wearing a brown suit with a button missing. That was the thing which struck me.

Before I could scream a soft mass was thrown over my head and drawn tight; a down coverlet. A bent arm was flung around my head, drawing it back until I thought my neck would break, stifling any cries. I was held thus while a rope was cast around and around my body, binding my arms and legs fast. I guessed that Mme. Storey was being treated in the same way but I could hear nothing.

I struggled with all my might. I did my utmost to cry out. But it was no good. The men who had hold of me knew just what they had to do. I was like an infant in their hands. They worked with terrifying swiftness. Before I had recovered from the shock of being seized, I was hoisted over the shoulder of one of them and run out through the door.

All this time something hard, a towel I suppose, was pressing the coverlet into my face and I was at the point of suffocation. Fiery spots danced before my eyes, and my ears rang. My senses wavered. Down the corridor; through another door and down a flight of steps. I could hear nothing. They must have been in their stocking-feet.

Endless corridors, scraping against one side then the other. My senses weren't registering properly. We stopped, and I heard a voice say as from an immense distance: "Open the door and look out." Another answered: "All clear." I was shot into the open air and immediately flung into a car which started with the exhaust wide open. Then I passed out.

But only for a moment. When consciousness came back the exhaust was still roaring. I could breathe more freely now. The pressure had been removed from my face, but there was a rope drawing the coverlet into my mouth so that I could not cry out. I groaned, but that feeble sound was swallowed in the noise of the engine. Suddenly the exhaust was shut off, and I judged that we had passed out of town.

We slowed down for a sharp turn, passed it and increased speed again. We almost stopped, crawled around a complete half turn and speeded up again. Another turn, and I knew where we were. Climbing to La Turbie. I hope I may never know such another moment. Up to that moment I had been blindly resisting like an animal. Now I knew fear, and it drained all the blood from my heart.

I pictured the hideous cliff I had looked over that morning with the stain of blood on the rocks below. A phrase rang through my head: Broke every bone in his body! The prospect of such a death was worse than death. I died a thousand deaths on that mountain road. I went mad because I could not scream and struggle.

I had no sense that Mme. Storey was anywhere near me. So far as I could tell I was planted on the back seat of a closed car with a man on either side of me. They never spoke. Silent on each side of me they afflicted me with an unspeakable terror, like two death's heads conducting me to my death.

As we crawled around one of the close turns, I heard a speeding car above us, and then I knew why Mme. Storey was not beside me. For awhile I forgot myself in the horror of her death; a life like hers to be cut off!

When the car stopped, I went mad with fear again. I was all fear. In my imagination I was screaming at the top of my voice: No! No! No! But I could make no sound, or almost none.

There was a pause while the two parties conferred together. A voice said: "Send the little one first." Another answered: "No, both together."

Suddenly all fear left me. I suppose it is like that with men in battle when faced with inevitable death. The thought comes to you: Well, what's the difference?

One man took me by the shoulders, another by the ankles. They gave me a little shake as if to make sure of their grip. From the other party came the cold voice:

"Swing them well out. Three times. Let go when I say three."

At that moment my whole life seemed to spread out before me. Every loved face that I had ever known passed before my eyes.

They began to swing me. One! Two! Three! They let go.... I knew nothing more.

After awhile, as it seemed to me, I began to dream. A delicious dream of running water; a swift little river in the American countryside with alders and willows growing overhead, the sunlight striking through and dappling the water. A drowsy June afternoon with the hum of bees. Blue sky, white clouds, grass rippled by the wind.

Suddenly I realised that it was faintly light, and that Rosika was bending over me with a face of concern. She was bathing my temples with a wet handkerchief. For a moment I thought I had wakened to a new existence.

"Where are we?" I asked.

She smiled. "In the same old wicked, world, my dear!"

I was filled with a grinding confusion. "But ... but ... but," I stammered.

"Look around you!" she said.

Raising myself on my elbow I saw that I was lying in grass at the foot of a low stone wall. We were at La Turbie because I saw the ruined Roman tower against the pale morning sky. But it was not the hideous bastion on the edge of the cliffs. Below me were ghostly olive trees on their terraces.

"Look!" said Mme. Storey. "When I got clear of my bonds I found this pinned to my sleeve." She held up a piece of paper on which some words had been roughly printed. I read:

"This is just to show you what we can do when we want. We don't like killing women, but if you don't take warning from this, we won't stop next time with giving you a fright."

Then the reaction set in. "We're all right! We're all right!" I screamed, laughing and crying together. Then I was sick.

When I felt better Mme. Storey helped me to my feet, and we climbed over the wall. The road lay on the other side of it. I was still pretty groggy.

"I'm sorry we have a long walk before us," said Mme. Storey. "Fortunately it's downhill. Our abductors were wonderfully considerate. They brought our coats along, and flung them over the wall after us."

I looked down at Monte Carlo, just beginning to show through the mist. "Horrible, horrible place!" I said with a shiver. "The hotel management must have been a party to what happened last night. To be kidnapped out of our own rooms!"

"Not at all!" said Mme. coolly. "You've lost your sense of proportion, Bella. We are up against a gang of clever and adventurous rogues, that's all. No doubt they hired the room over ours, and dropped down to our balcony with ropes. They were perfectly acquainted with the interior of the hotel. They carried us down the service stairs and through the service passages. At that hour of the night they would be deserted. If there was a watchman he was bribed."

"And what are we going to do now?" I asked.

"We are going to act just as our enemies want us to act, like a pair of frightened women. We are going to take the first train out of Monte Carlo. It leaves at quarter to seven."