The House on the Strand

by Daphne Du Maurier

  "What, climb the embankment, get through the wire, and scramble down the bank on to the line?" he said. "And in the darkness too? I shouldn't care to try it myself."

  In point of fact, it was what we did right then, in broad daylight. He led the way, I followed, and once over the wire he pointed to the disused hut, covered with ivy, a few yards higher up the embankment, just above the line.

  "The undergrowth is beaten down because we were here yesterday," he told me, "but Professor Lane's tracks were plain enough, where he dragged himself clear of the line and up to the hut; semi-conscious as he must have been, it showed almost superhuman strength and tremendous courage."

  Which world had surrounded Magnus, the present or the past? Had the freight train rattled towards the tunnel unobserved, as he scrambled down the bank on to the line? With the engine already in the tunnel did he make to cross the line, which in his vision was grass-meadow still, sloping down to the stream below, and so was struck by the swinging wagon? In either world, it was the coup de grace. He could not have known what hit him. The instinct for survival made him crawl towards the hut, and then, please God, merciful oblivion, no sudden loneliness, no knowledge of imminent death.

  We stood there, staring into the empty hut, and the Inspector showed me the spot on the earthen floor where Magnus had died. The place was impersonal, without atmosphere, like some forgotten toolshed with the gardener long gone.

  "It hasn't been used for years," he said. "The gangs working on the line used to brew tea here, and eat their pasties. They use the other hut lower down now, and that not often."

  We turned away, retracing our footsteps along the overgrown bank to the strands of sagging wire through which we had climbed. I looked across to the opposite hills, some of them thickly wooded. There was a farm to the left, with a smaller building above it, and away to the north another cluster of buildings. I asked their names. The farm was Colwith, and the smaller building had been a schoolhouse once. The third, almost out of sight, was another farm, Strickstenton.

  "We're on the borders of three parishes here," the Inspector said, "Tywardreath, St. Sampsons or Golant, and Lanlivery. Mr. Kendall of Pelyn is a big landowner hereabouts. Now that's a fine old manor house for you, Pelyn, just down the main road on the way to Lostwithiel. Been in the family for centuries."

  "How many centuries?"

  "Well, Mr. Young, I'm no expert. Four, maybe?"

  Pelyn could not turn itself into Tregest. None of the names fitted Tregest. Somewhere here, though, within walking distance, Magnus had been following Roger to Oliver Carminowe's dwelling, whether it was manor house or farm.

  "Inspector," I said, "even now, despite all you've shown me, I believe Professor Lane intended to find the head of the stream somewhere in the valley, and cross it to the other side."

  "With what object, Mr. Young?" He looked at me, not unsympathetic but frankly curious, trying to see my point of view.

  "If you get bitten by the past," I said, "whether you're a historian, or an archaeologist, or even a surveyor, it's like a fever in the blood; you never rest content until you've solved the problem before you. I believe that Professor Lane had one object in mind, and that was why he decided to get off at Par rather than St. Austell. He was determined to walk up this valley, for some reason which we shall probably never discover, despite the railway line."

  "And stood there, with the train passing, and then walked into the rear?"

  "Inspector, I don't know. His hearing was good, his eyesight was good, he loved life. He didn't walk into the back of the train deliberately."

  "I hope you'll convince the Coroner, Mr. Young, for Professor Lane's sake. You almost convince me."

  "Almost?" I asked.

  "I'm a policeman, Mr. Young, and there's a piece missing somewhere; but I agree with you, we shall probably never find it."

  We retraced our steps up the long field to the gate at the top of the hill. As we drove back I asked him if he had any idea how long it would be before the inquest was held.

  "I can't tell you exactly," he answered. "A number of factors are involved. The Coroner will do his best to expedite matters, but it may be ten days or a fortnight, especially as the Coroner is bound to sit with a jury, in view of the unusual circumstances of the death. By the way, the pathologist for the area is on holiday, and the Coroner asked Dr. Powell if he would perform the autopsy, as he had already examined the body. The doctor agreed. We should have his report sometime today."

  I thought of the many times Magnus had dissected animals, birds, plants, bringing to his work a cool detachment which I admired. He suggested once that I should watch him remove the organs of a newly-slaughtered pig. I stood it for five minutes, and then my stomach turned. If anyone had to dissect Magnus now, I was glad it was Dr. Powell.

  We arrived at the police station just as the constable came down the steps. He said something to the Inspector, who turned to me.

  "We've finished the examination of Professor Lane's clothes and effects," he said. "We are prepared to hand them over to you if you are willing to accept the responsibility."

  "Certainly," I replied. "I doubt if anyone else will claim them. I'm hoping to hear from his lawyer, whoever he may be."

  The constable returned in a few minutes with a brown paper parcel. The wallet was separate, lying on the top, and a paperback he must have bought to read in the train, Some Experiences of an Irish RM by Somerville and Ross. Anything less conducive to a sudden brainstorm or attempted suicide I could not imagine.

  "I hope," I said to the Inspector, "you've noted down the title of the book for the Coroner's attention."

  He assured me gravely that he had already done so. I knew I should never open the paper parcel, but I was glad to have the wallet and the stick.

  I drove back to Kilmarth feeling tired, dispirited, no nearer to a conclusion. Before I turned off the main road I stopped on the crown of Polmear hill to let a car pass. I recognized the driver--it was Dr. Powell. He pulled in at the side of the road by the grass verge, and I did the same. Then he got out and came to my window.

  "Hello," he said. "How are you feeling?"

  "All right," I told him. "I've just been out to Treverran tunnel with the Inspector."

  "Oh, yes," he said. "Did he tell you I'd done the post-mortem?"

  "Yes," I said.

  "My report goes to the Coroner," he went on, "and you'll know about it in due course. But, unofficially, you would probably like to know that it was the blow on the head that killed Professor Lane, causing extensive hemorrhage to the brain. There were other injuries too, due to falling; there's no doubt he must have walked slap into one of the wagons on the freight train."

  "Thank you," I said. "It's good of you to tell me personally."

  "Well," he said, "you were his friend, and the most directly concerned. Just one other thing. I had to send the contents of the stomach away for analysis. A matter of routine, actually. Just to satisfy the Coroner and jury he wasn't loaded with whiskey or anything else at the time."

  "Yes," I said, "yes, of course."

  "Well, that's about it," he said. "I'll see you in Court."

  He returned to his own car, and I went slowly down the drive to Kilmarth. Magnus drank sparingly in the middle of the day. He could conceivably have had a gin and tonic on the train. Possibly a cup of tea during the afternoon. This much, I supposed, would show up in analysis. What else?

  I found Vita and the boys already at lunch. There had been a series of telephone calls throughout the morning, including one from Magnus's lawyer, a man called Dench, and Bill and Diana from Ireland, who had heard the news over the radio.

  "It's going to be endless," said Vita. "Did the Inspector say anything about the inquest?"

  "Probably not for ten days or a fortnight," I told her.

  "Not much holiday for us," she sighed.

  The boys went out of the room to collect their next course and she turned to me, her face anxious. "I didn't say anything in fro
nt of them," she said in a low voice, "but Bill was aghast at the news, not just because it was such a tragedy anyway, but because he wondered if there was anything awful behind it. He wasn't specific, but he said you'd know what he meant."

  I laid down my knife and fork. "Bill said what?"

  "He was rather mysterious," she said, "but is it true you told him about some gang of thugs in the neighborhood who were going about attacking people? He hoped you had told the police."

  It only needed that, and Bill's ham-fisted, misplaced efforts to help, to put us all in trouble.

  "He's crazy," I said shortly. "I never told him anything of the sort."

  "Oh," she said, "oh, well..." and then she added, her face still troubled, "I do hope you have told the Inspector everything you know."

  The boys came back into the dining-room and we finished the meal in silence. Afterwards I took the paper parcel, the wallet and the walking-stick up to the spare-room. Somehow they seemed to belong there, with the rest of the things hanging in the wardrobe. I would use the stick myself; it was the last thing that Magnus had ever held in his hands.

  I remembered the collection at the flat. There had been a gun-stick and a sword-stick, a stick with a telescope at one end, and another with a bird's head on the handle. This one was comparatively simple, with the usual silver knob on top, engraved with Commander Lane's initials. He had been the originator of the craze for family walking-sticks, and vaguely I had a recollection of him showing me this particular example, long ago, when I was staying at Kilmarth. It contained some gadget, I had forgotten what, but by pressing the knob down a spring was released. I tried it; nothing happened. I tried it again and then twisted the knob, and something clicked. I unwound the knob and it came away in my hands, and revealed a minute silverlined measure, just large enough to hold a half-dram of spirit or other liquid. The measure had been wiped clean, probably by a tissue thrown away or buried, when Magnus set off upon his last walk, but I knew now, with absolute certainty, what it must have contained.

  18

  The lawyer, Herbert Dench, telephoned again during the afternoon, and expressed great shock at his client's sudden death. I told him that the inquest was not likely to be for ten days or a fortnight, and suggested that he should leave the funeral arrangements to me, coming down himself on the morning of the cremation. This suited him, greatly to my relief, for he sounded what Vita called a "stuffed shirt," and with luck would have the tact to return by an afternoon train, which meant that he wouldn't be on our hands for more than a couple of hours or so.

  "I would not trespass upon your time at all, Mr. Young," he said, "were it not out of respect for the late Professor Lane and the unhappy circumstances of his death, and for the fact that you are a beneficiary under his will."

  "Oh," I said, rather taken aback, "I had not realized..." and hoped it would be the walking-sticks.

  "It is something I would prefer not to discuss over the telephone," he added.

  It was not until I had put down the receiver that I realized I was in a somewhat awkward position, living in Magnus's house rent-free by verbal agreement. It might be the lawyer's intention to kick us out in the shortest possible time, immediately after the inquest, perhaps. The thought stunned me. Surely he would not do such a thing? I would offer to pay rent, of course, but he might bring up some objection, and say the place must be shut up, or handed over to agents prior to a sale. I was depressed and shaken enough, without the prospect of a sudden move to make things worse.

  I spent the rest of the afternoon on the telephone, arranging about the funeral, after checking with the police that it was in order to go ahead, and finally ringing back the lawyer to tell him what I had arranged. None of it seemed to have anything to do with Magnus. What the undertaker did, what happened in the meantime to his body, the whole paraphernalia of death before committal to the flames, did not concern the man who had been my friend. It was as though he had become part of that separate world I knew, the world of Roger, of Isolda.

  Vita came into the library when I had finished telephoning. I was sitting at Magnus's desk by the window, staring out to sea.

  "Darling," she said, "I've been thinking," and she came and stood behind me, putting her hands on my shoulders. "When the inquest is over, don't you think it would be best if we went away? It would be rather awkward for us to go on staying here, and sad for you, and in a way the whole point of it has gone, hasn't it?"

  "What point?" I asked.

  "Well, the loan of the house, now Magnus is dead. I can't help feeling an interloper, and that we've really no right to be here. Surely it would be much more sensible if we spent the rest of the holidays somewhere else? It's only the beginning of August. Bill was saying over the telephone how lovely Ireland is; they've found a delightful hotel in Connemara, some old castle or other, with its own private fishing."

  "I bet he has," I said. "Twenty guineas a night, and full of your compatriots."

  "Don't be unfair! He was just trying to be helpful. He took it for granted you would want to get away from here."

  "Well, I don't," I said. "Not unless the lawyer kicks us out, and that's a different matter."

  I told her that the cremation was fixed for Thursday, and that Dench would be coming down, and perhaps some of Magnus's staff as well. The prospect of guests for lunch or dinner, or even the night, took her mind off the longer-term suggestion of Ireland, but as it turned out we were spared the worst of it, for Dench and Magnus's senior assistant, John Willis, elected to travel down together through the Wednesday night, attend the cremation, accept our hospitality for lunch, and return to London by a night-train. The boys were sent off for the whole of Thursday for a fishing expedition in charge of the obliging Tom.

  I remember little of the cremation service, beyond thinking how Magnus might have devised a simpler method of disposing of the dead by chemicals instead of by fire. Our companions in mourning, Herbert Dench and John Willis, were quite unlike what I had imagined. The lawyer was big, hearty, unpompous, ate an enormous lunch, and regaled us while we consumed our funeral meats with stories of Hindu widows committing suttee on their husbands' pyres. He had been born in India, and swore he had witnessed such a sacrifice as a babe in arms.

  John Willis was a little mouse-like man, with intent eyes behind horn-rimmed spectacles, who would not have looked out of place behind a bank's grille; I could not picture him at Magnus's elbow, ministering to live monkeys or dissecting their brain cells. He barely uttered. Not that this signified, for the lawyer spoke enough for all.

  Lunch over, we walked through to the library, and Herbert Dench bent to his dispatch case for a formal reading of the will, in which apparently John Willis figured as well as I. Vita, tactfully, was about to withdraw, but the lawyer told her to stay.

  "No necessity for that, Mrs. Young," he said cheerfully. "It's very short and to the point."

  He was right. Legal language apart, Magnus had left whatever financial assets he possessed at the time of his death to his own college for the advancement of biophysics. His flat in London and his personal effects there were to be sold, and the money given to the same cause, with the exception of his library, which he bequeathed to John Willis in gratitude for ten years of professional cooperation and personal friendship. Kilmarth, with all its contents, he left to me, for my own use or to dispose of, as I wished, in memory of years of friendship dating back to undergraduate days, and because the former occupants of the house would have wished it so. And that was all.

  "I take it," said the lawyer, smiling, "that by the former occupants he is referring to his parents, Commander and Mrs. Lane, whom I believe you knew?"

  "Yes," I said, bewildered, "yes, I was very fond of them both."

  "Well, there we are. It's a delightful house. I hope you will be very happy here."

  I looked at Vita. She was lighting a cigarette, her usual defense in a moment of sudden shock. "How... how extraordinarily generous of the Professor," she said. "I really don't
know what to say. Of course it's up to Dick whether he intends to keep it or not. Our future plans are in a state of flux at present."

  There was a moment's awkward silence, as Herbert Dench looked from one to the other of us.

  "Naturally," he said, "you will have a great deal to discuss together. You realize, of course, that the house and contents will have to be valued for probate. I would appreciate it if I could see over it, by the way, if it wouldn't be too much trouble?"

  "Why, of course."

  We all rose to our feet, and Vita said, "The Professor had a laboratory in the basement, a most alarming place--at least, so my small sons thought. I suppose the things there would hardly go with the house but should be returned to his laboratory in London? Perhaps Mr. Willis would know what they are."

  Her face was all innocence, but I had the impression that her mention of the laboratory was deliberate, and she wanted to know what was there.

  "A laboratory?" queried the lawyer. "Did the Professor do any work down here?" He addressed himself to Willis.

  The little mouse-like man blinked behind his horn-rimmed spectacles. "I very much doubt it," he said with diffidence, "and, if he did, it would be of little scientific importance, and have no connection with his work in London. He may have made a few experiments, just to amuse himself on a rainy day--certainly nothing more, or he would have mentioned it to me."

  Good man. If he knew anything he was not going to commit himself. I could see that Vita was on the point of saying I had told her the contents of the laboratory were of inestimable value, so I suggested that we should inspect the laboratory before visiting the rest of the house.

  "Come along," I said to Willis, "you're the expert. The room used to be an old laundry in Commander Lane's day, and Magnus kept a lot of bottles and jars in it."

  He looked at me, but said nothing. We all trooped down to the basement, and I opened the door.

  "There you are," I said. "Nothing very exciting. Just a lot of old jars, as I told you."

  Vita's face was a study as she looked around her. Amazement, disbelief, and then a swift glance of inquiry at me. No monkey's head, no embryo kittens, only the empty rows of bottles. She had the supreme intelligence to remain silent.