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I had the good fortune to find myself running across a scruffy lawn which, although slippery as the result of being so damp, was at least flat and unobstructed. Across it I fled, until stumbled into a border of dormant shrubs. I was only just able to slow my advance in time to avoid tearing myself to pieces on the sharp branches that jutted out in all directions. Breathing heavily, I looked back over my shoulder. There was no sign of Selkman. Things were, for once, going in my favour.
With my heart beating like a drum from the exhilaration of the chase, I tried to think through my next move; one which I hoped would take me to the road that ran past the house and do so without my stumbling into my pursuer. I couldn’t be certain where the road lay in relation to my position since I had arrived at the house from the opposite direction and in a state of some confusion. I briefly considered making my way round to the other side of the building, but the risk of being discovered seemed too great. It was clear that, in respect of his knowledge of the land, Selkman had a considerable advantage over me and was, no doubt, at that very moment plotting his own next move.
It occurred to me that the next part of this fearful game we were engaged in would be rather like chess, as we attempted to outwit each other in the semi-blindness of the ever present fog. Seeing my situation in such terms brought a broad smile to my face, for I felt confident I possessed the sharper brain of the two of us. On the other hand, should Sneijder become involved, the situation would be very different indeed.
Then, barely visible through the fog, I saw a silhouette of a figure emerge into the garden from the kitchen. There could be no doubt who it was, since Selkman was by far the largest fellow in the house. I dropped slowly to my haunches, watching all the time, nerves beginning once more to pick at my confidence. But I needn’t have worried, for Selkman stole silently around to the front of the house, no doubt thinking I would make a bid to retrace my tracks in the hope of finding one of the few cottages or farms I had passed in the farm cart.
With Selkman gone from the scene, I began to pick my way through the border until I came to what appeared to be a small copse of mixed trees, some pine, some birch and others I couldn’t name. I should have pushed on, I knew very well, but, looking back once more at the house, almost vanished into the fog, I felt a pang of guilt and a sense that I was running away when I should have been standing my ground. There was no need for such thoughts, of course, since Elizabeth had made her wishes very clear, but, all the same, I could not push them from my mind. So, in a state of some confusion, I entered the edge of the copse and dropped on to my heels in the lee of a rough-barked pine, the scent of which was so clear and persistent that even the damp air of the fog could not stop it reaching my nostrils.
What, I wondered, was I to do? My original aim seemed a sound one. Make good my escape, so narrowly won, then find assistance and return to rescue Elizabeth and her fellow patients. It should have been a straightforward matter for me to press on. Lord knows, I had no idea how long it would take me to find some lonely cottage or hillside farm. Lingering there in the trees was only going to delay the matter.
But, still I could not bring myself to move. Guilt and fear gnawed away at me like two hungry fellows who had alighted on a splendid meal. The guilt, of course, was the thought that I was running away like a veritable coward, too afraid to face the challenge and risk injury or more. There was some truth in that, after all, for the prospect of having my neck broken by the hands of Selkman was a real one and no man wants to give up his life so young, especially when there seemed so little hope of defeating my opponents. All the same, I would have put my life on the line if there was not the very real possibility of some other more likely means of salvation.
No, it was not guilt but rather fear that made me hesitate when I seemed on the brink of victory. Even if I did manage to avoid getting lost on the hills and found some sort of assistance, what might we find upon our return? Could Sneijder really risk a brazen attempt at bluffing his way out of a sticky situation? Should he be challenged, he would insist, no doubt, that, as a result of my concussion, I had been suffering from wild delusions that caused me to imagine all manner of outrages. And as for his patients, including Elizabeth, he could merely point out that each one of them was there for the very reason they needed his specialist attention to help them recover from mental and emotional illness.
Perhaps, under other circumstances, such a defence might prove enough to save the Doctor, but I was as certain as could be that Elizabeth would prove to be a firm and persistent opponent of the Doctor and that in turn might well turn the situation against him.
And there was the real problem. If Sneijder should either not have the nerve to bluff his way through the situation or came to the conclusion that any such attempt would more than likely result in failure, then his only option, it appeared to me, would be to put an end to those who might prove his guilt. For the time being, I was at no risk of harm, but Elizabeth was in a wholly desperate situation, her safety anything but assured.
That was the real cause of my hesitation. A growing sense of dread that, if I left there and then, by the time I returned it would be to find Elizabeth brutally murdered. It wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility that Sneijder might try to dress it up as some terrible accident, thereby leaving no one to collaborate my story, for I felt certain the other three patients I had encountered were not up to doing any such thing.
I rolled my right fist in the palm of my left hand and knew my mind was made up. I was not going any further. No, I was determined to take on and defeat my opponents and thereby deprive them of the chance to silence Elizabeth for ever. Now all I needed to do was work out some scheme by which I could give myself a half-decent chance of success.
