Death in the Andamans by M. M. Kaye Page B

suppose ____ ?’
    â€˜No, I don’t!’ said Charles firmly. ‘I see no evil, I hear no evil and I speak no evil. Not at the moment, anyway. I am suffering from post-prandial torpor and I intend to slumber. So pipe down, light-of-my-life, and let us have not only peace but quiet.’
    The lorry had been parked in the shade of the house, and presently a faint, unexpectedly cold breeze stole across the garden, cooling the clogging warmth of the afternoon to a more pleasant temperature. A drowsy silence fell, in which Charles snored gently and a wandering bluebottle investigated Nick’s unconscious chin …
    *   *   *
    Afterwards not one of them could be quite certain at what point they had awakened. But awakened they were, all four of them. And by the time they had arrived at full consciousness they had overheard sufficient to make them realize that this was no time to rise and disclose themselves. Therefore they lay still, concealed by the high wooden sides of the lorry, while a scant yard away the cousins Shilto exchanged words of an uncousinly nature.
    Piecing together, in the light of after-events, what they could remember of that conversation, it appeared that John Shilto had offered to buy back his cousin’s plantation at more than twice the price he had originally received for it; giving, as a reason for this astounding gesture, his desire to put an end to the old quarrel between them. This offer Ferrers was in the process of rejecting with every indication of scorn and loathing when the occupants of the lorry awoke to the fact that they were involuntarily eavesdropping on a private conversation.
    â€˜â€” and if,’ announced Ferrers Shilto, concluding a speech generously interlarded with expressions of a distressingly personal and opprobrious character, ‘you imagine for one minute that I am going to be had for a mug twice over by a crook like you, you can think again! You could offer me forty times the sum you swindled out of me for that stinking, rat-ridden, pestilential plantation, and I wouldn’t take it! And what’s more I shall make my will tomorrow — just to be sure that you never get your hands on it! No, my beloved cousin, this is where I get my own back at last. That plantation is mine. Every single, slimy acre of it, wet or dry. And if you so much as set foot on it, I’ll have my servants thrash you off it!’
    His voice rose until it cracked hysterically, and the elder Shilto, with one parting vitriolic epithet, turned on his heel and retired from the field of battle.
    Presently Ferrers too departed, and Charles, having made a cautious survey, announced that the coast was clear. ‘An exhilarating interlude, wasn’t it? Teeming with drama, passion, human interest and mystery. The works! I enjoyed it immensely. What sort of dirty work do you suppose our John is up to now? Or have we witnessed a miracle and is he a genuine victim of remorse and the Christmas spirit? A sort of latter-day Scrooge? Somehow, I doubt it.’
    â€˜What about “speaking no evil” now?’ inquired Valerie.
    â€˜Ah, but that was when I was feeling somnolent and well fed. As I am now no longer either, I am only too willing to believe the worst of everyone. So let us dismiss the case of Shilto versus Shilto and concentrate instead on getting some tea before my disposition deteriorates still further. Hand me down those rugs, my love.’
    They walked round the side of the house, and passing under the creeper-clad porch, crossed to the far end of the lawn to where the remainder of the party were grouped about a well-covered tablecloth spread in the shade of the frangipani trees.
    â€˜Come and talk to me for a change, Copper,’ invited Ronnie Purvis. ‘There’s room for a small one this end. Move over, Hurridge, and let us grab this damsel off the Navy. Have some sandwiches: the damp ones are cucumber and the mangled and