Once more Miss Silver watched the faces and, more revealing still, the hands.
Ella Comperton said, “Nonsense!” but her hands shook. Cosmo Frith crumpled up the Times and turned with astonishment in every line of his features. Mabel and Ernest Wadlow did exactly the same thing. They both said, “Oh!” and their mouths dropped open. Richard Treherne made a sharp movement and said, frowning deeply, “Rachel! Good God-you don’t mean that!” Caroline made no movement and no sound. Her eyes were fixed on Rachel’s face, and only Rachel herself could see what was in them.
Rachel said quite firmly, “Yes, I do mean it. Someone came up behind me in the dark and pushed me over the cliff.”
There was some sound from everyone in the room-a catch of the breath, a sharp release, something very near a gasp-and from Miss Silver herself a fluttered, “Dear, dear me!”
“But, my dear-” said Cosmo Frith. He let the paper fall and came close. “Rachel, my dear, you can’t mean it! Why didn’t you tell us at once? There must be some madman about-that is, if you really do mean-My dear, the police should have been informed.”
Miss Silver said in her prim, cool voice,
“Perhaps the police were informed. Did you inform them, Miss Treherne?”
She received a protesting look which left her quite unmoved. Rachel said,
“No.”
“But, my dear,” said Cosmo, “they ought to be communicated with at once. Tell me everything you can, and I’ll ring them up-”
Rachel stopped him.
“No-I won’t call in the police-” She paused, and added, “this time.”
If there was anyone in the room who realized the significance of those added words, no sign betrayed it.
“Won’t you tell us exactly what happened?” said Richard Treherne.
“It’s all nonsense!” said Mabel querulously. “Because if you went over that cliff, why weren’t you killed? It really is nonsense.”
Ernest put a hand on her arm.
“Now, now-don’t excite yourself, Mabel. I don’t really think you should have been subjected to a shock like this. But what you say is, of course, perfectly correct.”
Ella Comperton joined the chorus.
“There is surely some exaggeration. You have, I believe, some bruises and a scratch or two, but you cannot expect us to believe that you fell off the cliff on to the rocks and got off with no more than that.”
Rachel sat up a little straighter.
“If I had gone down on to the rocks, you would all be attending an inquest instead of sitting here and telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
Cosmo’s hand came down on her shoulder.
“My dear, I think we hardly do know what we’re talking about-any of us. This has been a great shock. Speaking for myself, I-my dear, it’s a terrible shock.” His hand pressed down for a moment, and was withdrawn. He got out a handkerchief and blew his nose. “I don’t mind saying that it’s knocked me over.”
“Rachel, please tell us exactly what happened,” said Richard.
She told them without emotion.
“If I had gone down on to the rocks-as I said just now-I shouldn’t be here. I didn’t go down. I caught at a bush, and it held me.”
“Dear me,” said Miss Silver-“most providential!”
“But you couldn’t have been pushed,” said Ella Comperton. “It’s really quite impossible. Besides, who would push you? It is absurd.”
Ernest Wadlow plucked off his glasses with a nervous gesture and set them back upon his nose at a different angle.
“As Ella says-”
“And how did you get up again?” said Mabel in an accusing voice.
Caroline leaned forward and caught a fold of Rachel’s skirt. They heard her whisper something. Richard thought it was “You’re here.”
Rachel’s eyes went from one to another before she said,
“I was certainly pushed. I went over the cliff because I was pushed. The hand that pushed me rolled a stone down over the edge-afterwards-while I was hanging there-to make sure-at least I suppose it was to make sure. One of those big stones-it just missed me. I was able to hold on till Gale Brandon came by. He ran to Nanny’s cottage- and tore up her sheets to make a rope-and got me up. He saved my life.”
Cosmo blew his nose again, and pushed the handkerchief back into his pocket.
“My dear-this is really-I don’t know when I’ve been so shocked. You will forgive me-you must know what we all feel about you. It seems quite incredible that anyone should try to harm you. But we’ve got to be practical. The police should be called in at once.”
“I have nothing to say to the police.”
“Dear me,” said Miss Silver, “I should suppose-of course I am very ignorant about such matters, but surely you must have some idea as to the identity of the person who attacked you.” She looked about her as she spoke, in a manner at once artless and inquisitive. “You must have some idea, surely?”
The room was suddenly silent. It was just as if all the small, usual, unnoticed sounds had ceased, and because they had ceased you noticed them. They left that strained, waiting silence.
Rachel broke it. She said, “None,” and all the sounds began again.
Ella Comperton let go the arms of her chair and sat back. Richard got up in a hurry. Caroline Ponsonby dropped her hand from Rachel’s skirt and pitched sideways off her stool in a dead faint.
Chapter Twenty-five
How is Caroline?” said Cosmo Frith.
His knock had brought Rachel to her sitting-room door. He stood there just beyond the threshold looking more perturbed than she had ever seen him, his usual genial expression quite overcast, his voice uncertain.
“She’s better. She ought to be quiet. We’ve left her lying down. She really oughtn’t to talk.”
Rachel went on saying these things to stop herself thinking, to stop Cosmo asking her why Caroline had fainted. If only everyone would go away and leave her alone.
But Cosmo was coming in. He took her arm, closed the door, and led her to a chair. He then seated himself in a purposeful manner. Nothing could be more certain than what that purpose was. Conversation-and conversation of the most serious character. He said without any of his usual poise,
“My dear, I expect you’d rather be alone, but after what you told us just now I felt-well, I won’t worry you with what I felt, but there are things which I am bound to say to you.”
Rachel looked across at him, and her heart warmed a little. She had always been fond of Cosmo, and without taking his proposals too seriously had been assured of his affection; but to see him so visibly shaken by her danger, this did thaw some of the ice about her heart. She was touched and melted. Her eyes thanked him as she said,
“It’s over. Don’t let us think about it.”
“But, my dear, we must. Do you really mean that you won’t call in the police?”
She nodded.
“But, my dear-why? Do let me beg of you-”
She shook her head.
“No, Cosmo.”
“Why?”
“I can’t tell you why.”
He leaned forward. “My dear, I had better tell you that your story is being-how shall I put it-questioned. Ernest and Mabel seem to have made up their minds that the shock of your fall had led you to imagine that you were pushed. Ella agrees with them. When I came away they were exchanging stories about people who had suffered from hallucinations and loss of memory after a shock.”
Rachel’s eyes brightened becomingly.
“I am sorry to disappoint everybody, but I really did go over the cliff. Unfortunately for Ella’s theory of hallucination-I feel quite sure that it was Ella-I have a witness, a perfectly credible witness, in Gale Brandon.”
Cosmo Frith’s eyebrows drew together.
“Ah, yes-he saved your life. But it wasn’t the fall they were questioning, my dear. Honestly, Rachel, can you be absolutely certain that you were pushed?”