Pursuit of Passy Page 22

CHAPTER IX

  THE SPIDER AND THE FLY

  WE descended the stairs in the dark and turned off into a room. Just inside the door a man was lying practically naked. I never troubled to think who he might be but stepped across the body after Carnac and walked across to the window. Carnac opened it very softly, listened carefully and then climbed out and helped me through after him. As far as I could see we were now in the garden at the back of the house and Carnac set off quickly across the grass till we came to a wall. This was quite beyond me to tackle in my weak condition, but Carnac lifted me up and I managed to struggle on top and drop over the other side.

  My recollections of the next hour or two are extremely blurred and vague. I remember scrambling through an interminable succession of gardens and hedges, over walls and all the time avoiding the roads. Several times we had to cross a street and then Carnac would leave me in the shadow while he went forward cautiously to see that the way was clear and then appear silently and lead me quickly across the danger area. These precautions were very necessary for once or twice I remember he seized me suddenly and pulled me down, and we would lie motionless on the ground hardly daring to breathe while the steady tramp of footsteps went by.

  I couldn't think what we were doing or what Carnac intended to do; I was just beyond caring. Looking back, I am amazed at the strength and determination of my companion. I am no lightweight, and he had to help me on many occasions, lifting and dragging me over walls, yet he seemed never to tire but kept on, coolly and carefully making our way through the darkness.

  After what seemed an age we stopped in a small garden and Carnac made me sit down. I was very nearly at the end of my tether and I think he realised this, for he left me on the ground and disappeared in the direction of the house. I heard a gentle tapping and after a long pause a door creaked as it was opened. There followed the soft murmur of voices and then he came back and lifted me up. I noticed that he had another man with him.

  “Courage, mon ami,” he whispered, “we are nearly safe now. Can you make just one more effort?”

  I nodded miserably and we walked on, Carnac and the other man supporting me.

  After a short distance I saw the outline of a large building ahead and we came right up to it and stopped in the shadow. They set me down and vanished but were back again in a few minutes and took me round the corner. We scrambled in through a window and were taken in the darkness along a corridor and up some stairs. Here a, door was opened and they carried me into the room and lay me on a bed. It looked like a rough operating theatre and I remember a man in white overalls examining me while Carnac talked to him, and then they must have given me an injection for gradually everything went dark and I slipped away gently into oblivion.