CHAPTER   17.

NOT QUITE ENDED.

It was a nice night out. But Amanda knew he’d meant her to come. So she climbed, in the dark, with the most delicate care. He was waiting for her, sprawled on the balcony floor. Lips at her ear, he said, “It’s plain, isn’t it? You’ll be the one to go for those fuchsia cuttings. Fanny’s coming to dinner.”

“I know.”

“Somebody will have to go, or they’ll die, she’ll say.”

“I know. I see.”

“There’ll be chloral in your favorite drink tomorrow night.”

“I know. I know.”

“But then what? How can she work it?”

“I can’t see any further,” she confessed.

“How will she start the car? Be sure that it is started? And rig the doors? How can she?”

“There must be a way. It’s what we don’t know. It’s what we—”

“Mandy, tomorrow you’ll have to get out of here long enough to call Kelly.”

“Why?”

“My God, to take care! Tell him he’ll have to be down in the canyon. It’ll be this way. In the first place, we’ll see that you don’t get any chloral. But she’ll think you do.

We’ll have to take care of that. I’ll ask for some liqueur too, as tonight. Somehow, we’ll swap our glasses. If no chance comes up naturally, we’ll have to make a chance. You make a chance, if you can. For me to do it. Turn her away for a second. I have an idea. I’ll clear all the junk off that round table, the one with the revolving top. That’ll be the way to do it. You manage to sit near and put your glass on that table. Remember. Mandy, will you trust me to swap those drinks?”

“Yes.”

“Behind your back?”

“Yes, Thone. Yes, but you—”

“You must go ahead then, and drink yours, just as you always do. Mine won’t matter because I can dawdle with it. She won’t be thinking of mine or watching me. But listen, if it goes wrong and we’re not able to swap them, then you must not leave the house. I won’t allow it. I’ll open up the whole thing before—”

“All right,” she said.

“Mandy, is your heart O.K.?”

“My h-heart?”

“Chloral’s bad on a shaky heart. We won’t go another step if there is the slightest chance.”

“My heart’s fine.”

“Sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Doctor’s word for it?”

“Yes, I have.”

“What the hell am I talking about? Listen, Mandy, you’ll get no chloral. Promise. Unless I say so, you mustn’t drink anything at all.”

“All right,” she said numbly.

“Now, in case … Tell Kelly that somebody will have to be down there to watch how she does it, for one thing. You’ll know, but we should have another witness. For another thing, to be sure you’re not caught in there, after all, the way …” His head fell on his hands.… “the way Belle was.”

Mandy shivered. Her throat was dry with pity, with terror.

He moved again. “Shall we call it off? I can’t ask you to do this! My God, it’s an impossible thing.”

“We can’t call it off,” she said. “We don’t know yet.”

“We know, well enough.”

“Not how.”

“No proof.” He groaned. She could feel his agony.

“What will I tell Mr. Kelly?” she prodded.

“To watch the garage. Keep listening. If he hears the car running with the doors closed, he’s to break in. But not to call the house. We better not risk that. He mustn’t be seen down there, either. Tell him early, tell him from eight on, to be sure.”

“I touched the chloral box,” she said.

“Did you?”

“I thought she was—wanting me to.”

“Was she?”

“Oh, Thone, I don’t know. I don’t know. Are we scaring ourselves to death for nothing?”

“I don’t think so. Mandy, can you walk into that trap? I wish it were the other way around.”

“No, no. I’ll be all right.”

“Your hands are cold.” He touched them.

“I’m freezing.”

“If it weren’t for—my mother …”

She lifted her face away from the cold metal bar. “There isn’t really any danger,” she said. “It isn’t as if I were going to walk alone.”

His fingers peeled hers off the bar and were warm around them. Then his whisper, so nearly soundless, “Nothing must happen to you, Amanda, Mandy.” She thought, then, that although the words stopped, he said, “Darling.”

“What—did you call me?” she murmured, bewildered.

He repeated, “Mandy.”

She closed her eyes. No word, then. Yet he knew what word it was she hadn’t heard with ears. The night was star-spangled. The night was perfumed. Her mouth, in the dark, was smiling.

Let him not speak, then. Neither would she.

She thought, not moving her lips, Good night, dear Thone.

“Good night,” he whispered, answering.