Benighted

Margaret was saying something, but he couldn’t hear a word. The downpour and the noise of the engine were almost deafening. Suddenly he stopped the car and leaned back, relieved...

Penderel thought he would give them another and louder rap. _‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller._ That’s why poetry is so good, he told himself, his hand on the knocke...

Margaret felt relieved at the very sight of her bag. Five minutes with it in private and she would be herself again. Dry clothes and a comb through her hair would settle everyth...

Penderel left his chair, and the three of them, making a little group in front of the fire, talked in whispers. Margaret had released Philip’s arm and was now feeling rather foo...

They had finished eating now and had somehow drifted into silence. Throughout supper, all six of them (Miss Femm had never spoken a word) had chatted easily, though there had be...

After they had all risen from the table, Gladys and Penderel found themselves standing together. There were several yards and the width of the table between them and the others,...

It had looked as if Philip were going to plunge into an explanation, as if they were going to have it out together at last. They had drawn away from the others and were standing...

Margaret leaned forward in her chair. ‘I thought I heard a noise, a kind of distant rumbling.’ She rose to her feet, and they stood together, listening. Their eyes were empty, b...

Following Femm upstairs left ample time for reflection. He seemed to move not merely slowly but with downright reluctance, as if he were climbing to the scaffold. Philip was tel...

They were still sitting snugly in the back of the car, and now the talk had drifted round to Sir William Porterhouse. Gladys was determined to explain about him, rather to Pende...

Once inside the room, Margaret peeped round Philip’s shoulder. It was a large room and Margaret had a vague impression that it was full of lovely old things; but their candle, t...

Sir William heard the knocking again, sat up and rubbed his eyes, stared at the door for a minute, recovering his wits, then marched across and opened it wide. ‘Hello!’ he cried...

Time stood still for Penderel, waiting there in the hall. A few moments before, when he had been hustling the women across to that room, it had seemed as if there wasn’t a secon...

‘I know he has.’ Gladys had sunk to her knees. She put the candlestick, with its feeble, spluttering flame on the floor beside her, and stretched out a hand to the door, leaning...

It had seemed as if dawn were postponed for ever, yet it came at last. Philip noticed a vague trouble in the air and then a faint greying of things. He alone appeared to be awak...