Spinsters in Jeopardy by Ngaio Marsh Page A

important these people don’t get a line on who I am.”
    “I know.”
    “I haven’t told you anything about them, but I think I’ll have to come moderately clean when there’s a chance. It’s a rum setup. I’ll get you out of it as soon as possible.”
    “I’m not worrying now we know about the charades. Funny! You said there might be an explanation, but we never thought of charades, did we?”
    “No,” Allcyn said, “we didn’t, did we?” and suddenly kissed her. “Now, I suppose I’ll have to wash again,” he added.
    Raoul came down the passage with Baradi’s servant. They were carrying the improvised stretcher and were dressed in white overalls.
    Raoul said: “Madame!” to Troy, and to Alleyn, “It appears, Monsieur, that M. le Docteur orders Mademoiselle to be taken to the operating room. Is that convenient for Monsieur?”
    “Of course. We are under Dr. Baradi’s orders.”
    “Authority,” Raoul observed, “comes to roost on strange perches, Monsieur.”
    “That,” Alleyn said, “will do.”
    Raoul grinned and opened the door. They took the stretcher in and laid it on the floor by the bed. When they lifted her down to it, Miss Truebody opened her eyes and said distinctly: “But I would prefer to stay in bed.” Raoul deftly tucked blankets under her. She began to wail dismally.
    Troy said: “It’s all right, dear. You’ll be all right,” and thought: “But I never call people dear!”
    They carried Miss Truebody into the room across the passage and put her on the table by the window. Troy went with them, holding her hand. The window coverings had been removed and a hard glare beat down on the table. The room still reeked of disinfectant. There was a second table on which a number of objects were now laid out. Troy, after one glance, did not look at them again. She held Miss Truebody’s hand and stood between her and the instrument table. A door in the wall facing her opened and Baradi appeared against a background of bathroom. He wore his gown and a white cap. Their austerity of design emphasized the opulence of his nose and eyes and teeth. He had a hypodermic syringe in his left hand.
    “So, after all, you are to assist me?” he murmured to Troy. But it was obvious that he didn’t entertain any such notion.
    Still holding the flaccid hand, she said: “I thought perhaps I should stay with her until…”
    “But of course! Please remain a little longer.” He began to give instructions to Alleyn and the two men. He spoke in French presumably, Troy thought, to spare Miss Truebody’s feelings. “I am left-handed,” he said. “If I should ask for anything to be handed to me you will please remember that. Now, Mr. Allen, we will show you your equipment, isn’t it? Milano!” Raoul brought a china dish from the instrument table. It had a bottle and a hand towel on it. Alleyn looked at it and nodded. “
Parfaitement,
” he said.
    Baradi took Miss Truebody’s other hand and pushed up the long sleeve of her nightgown. She stared at him and her mouth worked soundlessly.
    Troy saw the needle slide in. The hand she held flickered momentarily and relaxed.
    “It is fortunate,” Baradi said as he withdrew the needle, “that this little Dr. Claudel had Pentothal. A happy coincidence.”
    He raised Miss Truebody’s eyelid. The pupil was out of sight. “Admirable,” he said. “Now, Mr. Allen, we will, in a moment or two, induce a more profound anaesthesia which you will continue. I shall scrub up and in a few minutes more we begin operations.” He smiled at Troy, who was already on the way to the door. “One of our party will join you presently on the roof-garden. Miss Locke; the Honourable Grizel Locke. I believe she has a vogue in England. Quite mad, but utterly charming.”
    Troy’s last impression of the room, a vivid one, was of Baradi, enormous in his white gown and cap, of Alleyn standing near the table and smiling at her, of Raoul and the Egyptian servant waiting near the