Death at the Bar

Watchman got up and moved into the window. Mrs Ives came in with a tray.

‘Storm coming up?’ Parish suggested.

‘’Ess, sir. Very black outside,’ said Mrs Ives.

The next roll of thunder lasted twice as long as the others and ended in a violent tympanic rattle. Mrs Ives cleared the table and went away. Cubitt moved into the ingle-nook and leant his elbows on the mantelpiece. The room had grown darker. A flight of gulls, making for the sea, passed clamorously over the village. Watchman pulled back the curtains and leant over the window-sill. Heavy drops of rain had begun to fall. They hit the cobble-stones in the inn yard with loud slaps.

‘Here comes the rain,’ said Parish, unnecessarily.

Old Abel Pomeroy came into the Public from the far door. He began to shut the windows and called through into the Private.

‘We’m in for a black storm, souls.’

A glint of lightning flickered in the yard outside. Parish stood up scraping his chair-legs on the floor-boards.

‘They say,’ said Parish, ‘that if you count the seconds between the flash and the thunder it gives you the distance –’

A peal of thunder rolled up a steep crescendo.

‘– the distance away in fifths of a mile,’ ended Parish.

‘Do shut up, Seb,’ implored Watchman, not too unkindly.

‘Damn it all,’ said Parish. ‘I don’t know what the hell’s the matter with you. Do you, Norman?’

Abel Pomeroy came through the bar into the taproom.

‘Be colder soon, I reckon,’ he said. ‘If you’d like a fire gentlemen –’

‘We’ll light it, Abel, if we want it,’ said Cubitt.

‘Good enough, sir.’ Abel looked from Cubitt and Parish to Watchman, who still leant over the window-sill.

‘She’ll come bouncing and teeming through that window, Mr Watchman, once she do break out. Proper deluge she’ll be.’

‘All right, Abel. I’ll look after the window.’

A livid whiteness flickered outside. Cubitt and Parish had a momentary picture of Watchman, in silhouette against the background of inn-yard and houses. A second later the thunder broke in two outrageous claps. Then, in a mounting roar, the rain came down.

‘Yurr she comes,’ said Abel.

He switched on the light and crossed to the door into the passage.

‘Reckon Legge’ll bide tonight after all,’ said Abel.

Watchman spun round.

‘Is Legge going away?’ he asked.

‘He’m called away on business, sir, to Illington. But that lil’ car of his leaks like a lobster-pot. Reckon the man’d better wait till tomorrow. I must look to the gutters or us’ll have the rain coming in through upstairs ceilings.’

He went out.

The evening was now filled with the sound of rain and thunder. Watchman shut the window and came into the room. His head was wet.

He said: ‘It’s much colder. We might have that fire.’

Cubitt lit the fire and they watched the first flames rise uncertainly among the driftwood.

‘The rain’s coming down the chimney,’ said Parish. ‘Hallo! Who’s this?’

The taproom door opened slowly. There, on the threshold, stood the Hon. Violet Darragh, dripping like a soused hen. Her cotton dress was gummed to her person with such precision that it might as well have melted. Her curls were flattened into streaks, and from the brim of her hat poured little rivers that rushed together at the base of her neck, and, taking the way of least resistance, streamed centrally to her waist where they deployed and ran divergently to the floor. With one hand she held a canvas hold-all, with the other a piece of paper that still bore streaks of cobalt-blue and veridian across its pulpy surface. She might have been an illustration from one of the more Rabelaisian pages of La Vie Parisienne.

‘My dear Miss Darragh!’ ejaculated Watchman.

‘Ah, look at me!’ said Miss Darragh. ‘What a pickle I’m in, and me picture ruined. I was determined to finish it and I stayed on till the thunder and lightning drove me away in terror of me life, and when I emerged from the tunnel didn’t it break over me like the entire contents of the ocean. Well, I’ll go up now and change, for I must look a terrible old sight.’

She glanced down at herself, gasped, cast a comical glance at the three men, and bolted.

Will Pomeroy and two companions entered the Public from the street door. They wore oilskin hats and coats, and their boots squelched on the floor-boards. Will went into the bar and served out drinks. Parish leant over the private bar and gave them good-evening.

‘You seem to have caught it in the neck,’ he observed.

‘That’s right, Mr Parish,’ said Will. ‘She’s a proper masterpiece. The surface water’ll be pouring through the tunnel if she keeps going at this gait. Here you are chaps, I’m going to change.’

He went through the Private into the house, leaving a wet trail behind him. They heard him at the telephone in the passage. He had left the door open and his voice carried above the sound of the storm.

‘That you, Dessy? Dessy, this storm’s a terror. You’d better not drive that old car over tonight. Tunnel’ll be a running stream. It’s not safe.’

Watchman began to whistle under his breath. Abel returned and took Will’s place in the bar.

‘I’d walk over myself,’ Will was saying, ‘only I can’t leave father single-handed. We’ll have a crowd in, likely, with this weather.’

‘I’m going to have a drink,’ said Watchman suddenly.

‘Walk?’ said Will. ‘You’re not scared of lightning, then. Good enough, and nobody better pleased than I am. I’ll lend you a sweater and, Dessy, you’d better warn them you’ll likely stay the night. Why not? So I do, then and you’ll find it out, my dear. I’ll come a fetch along the way to meet you.’

The receiver clicked. Will stuck his head round the door.

‘Dessy’s walking over, Dad. I’ll go through the tunnel to meet her. Have you seen Bob Legge?’

‘He said he’d be up to Illington tonight, sonny.’

‘He’ll never make it. Has he left?’

‘In his room yet, I fancy.’

‘I’ll see,’ said Will. ‘I’ve told Dessy she’d better stay the night.’