‘Good heavens!’ said the young man from London. ‘But that would-be awfully dangerous.’
‘Wouldn’t it? Well, I’ll be pushing on. Don’t forget, will you? A man with his throat cut near the Grinders.’
‘The Grinders. Oh, yes. I’ll remember. But, I say?’
‘Yes?’
‘Don’t you think I’d better come along with you? To protect you, you know, and that sort of thing?’
Harriet laughed. She felt convinced that the young man was not keen on passing the Grinders.
‘As you like,’ she said indifferently, walking on.
‘I could show you the cottages,’ suggested the young man. ‘Very well,’ said Harriet. ‘Come along. We’ll have to be as quick as we can.’
A quarter of an hour’s walk brought them to the cottages two low thatched buildings standing on the right-hand side of the road. In front of them a high hedge had been planted, screening them from the sea-gales and, incidentally, helping to cut off all view of the shore. Opposite them, on the other side of the road, a narrow walled lane twisted down to the sea’s edge. From Harriet’s point of view, the cottages were a disappointment. They were inhabited by an aged, crone, two youngish women and some small children, but the men were all out fishing. They were late back; today but were expected on the evening tide. Harriet’s story was listened to with flattering interest and enthusiasm, and the wives promised to tell their husbands about it when they came in. They also offered refreshment which, this time, Harriet accepted. She felt pretty sure; that the body would by now be covered by the tide and that half an hour could make no real difference. Excitement had made her weary. She drank the tea and was thankful.
The companions then resumed their walk, the gentleman from London, whose name was Perkins, complaining of a blistered heel. Harriet ignored him. Surely something would soon come along.
The only, thing that came was a fast saloon car, which overtook them about half a mile further on. The proud chauffeur, seeing two dusty trampers signalling, as it appeared to him, for a lift, put his stern foot down on the accelerator and drove on.
‘The beastly road-hog!’ said Mr Perkins, pausing to caress his blistered heel.
‘Saloons with chauffeurs are never any good,’ said Harriet. ‘What we want is a lorry, or a seven-year-old Ford. Oh, look! What’s that?
‘That’ was a pair of gates across the road and a little cottage standing beside it.
‘A level-crossing, by all that’s lucky! Harriet’s sinking courage revived. ‘There must be somebody here.’
There was. There were, in fact, two people — a cripple and a small girl. Harriet eagerly asked where she could get hold of a car or a telephone.
‘You’ll find that all right in the village, miss,’ said the cripple. ‘Leastways, it ain’t what you’d call a village, exactly, but Mr Hearn that keeps the grocery, he’s got a telephone. This here’s Darley Halt, and Darley is about ten minutes walk. You’ll find somebody there all right, miss, for certain. Excuse me a minute, miss. Liz! the gates!’
The child ran out to open the gates to let through a small boy leading an immense-cart-horse.
‘Is there a train coming through? asked Harriet, idly, as the gates were pushed across the road again.
‘Not for half an hour, miss. We keeps the gates shut most times. There ain’t a deal of traffic along, this road, and they, keeps the cattle from straying on to the line. There’s a good many trains in the day. It’s the main line from Wilvercombe to Heathbury. Of course, the expresses don’t stop here, only the locals, and they only stops twice a day, except market days.’
‘No, I see.’ Harriet wondered why she was asking about the trains, and then suddenly realised that, with her professional interest in time-tables, she was instinctively checking up the ways and means of approaching the Grinders. Train, car, boat — how had the dead man got there?
‘What time—?’
No, it didn’t matter. The police could check that up. She thanked the gate-keeper, pushed her way through, the side-wickets and strode on, with Mr Perkins limping after her.
The road still ran beside the coast, but the cliffs were gradually sloped, down almost to sea-level. They saw a clump of trees and a hedge and a little lane, curving away past the ruins of an abandoned cottage to a wide space of green on which stood a tent, close by the sandy beach, with smoke going up from a campers’ fire beside it. As they passed the head of this lane a man emerged from it, carrying a petrol-tin. He wore a pair of old flannel slacks, and a khaki shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbow. His soft hat was pulled down rather low over his eyes, which were further protected by a, pair of dark spectacles.
Harriet stopped him and asked if they were anywhere near the village.
‘A few minutes farther on,’ he replied, briefly, but civilly enough ‘I want to telephone,’ went on Harriet. ‘I’m told I can do so at the grocer’s. Is that right?’
‘Oh, yes. Just across on the other side of the green. You can’t mistake it. It’s the only shop there is.’
‘Thank you. Oh, by the way — I suppose there isn’t a policeman in the village?’
The man halted as he was about to turn away and stared at her, shading his eyes from the sun’s glare. She noticed a snake tattooed in red and blue upon his forearm, and wondered whether he might perhaps have been a sailor.
‘No, there’s no policeman living in Darley. We share a constable with the next village, I believe he floats round on a bicycle occasionally. Anything wrong?’
‘There’s been an accident along the coast,’ said Harriet. ‘I’ve found a dead man.’
‘Good lord! Well, you’d better telephone through to Wilvercombe.’
‘Yes, I will, thanks. Come along, Mr Perkins. Oh! he’s’ gone on.’
Harriet caught up her companion, rather annoyed by his patent eagerness to dissociate himself from her and her errand.
‘There’s no need to stop and speak to everybody,’ complained Mr Perkins, peevishly. ‘I don’t like the look of that fellow, and we’re quite near the place now. I came through here this morning, you know.’
‘
‘I only wanted to ask if there was a policeman,’ explained Harriet, peaceably. She did not want to argue with Mr Perkins. She had other things to think of. Cottages had begun to appear, small, sturdy buildings, surrounded by little patches of gay garden. The road turned suddenly inland, and she observed with joy telegraph poles, more houses and at length a little green, with a smithy at one corner and children playing cricket on the grass. In the centre of the green stood an ancient elm, with a seat round it and an ancient man basking in the sunshine; and on the opposite side was a shop, with ‘Geo. Hearn: Grocer, displayed on a sign above it.
‘Thank goodness!’ said Harriet.
She almost ran across the little green and into the village shop, which was festooned with boots and frying-pans, and appeared to sell everything from acid drops to corduroy trousers.
A bald-headed man advanced helpfully from behind a pyramid of canned goods.