Page:ManInBrownSuit-Christie.pdf/150

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CHAPTER XX

I drove to the hotel. There was no one in the lounge that I knew. I ran upstairs and tapped on Suzanne's door. Her voice bade me "come in." When she saw who it was she literally fell on my neck.

"Anne, dear, where have you been? I've been worried to death about you. What have you been doing?"

"Having adventures," I replied. "Episode III of 'The Perils of Pamela.'"

I told her the whole story. She gave vent to a deep sigh when I finished.

"Why do these things always happen to you?" she demanded plaintively. "Why does no one gag me and bind me hand and foot?"

"You wouldn't like it if they did," I assured her. "To tell you the truth, I'm not nearly so keen on having adventures myself as I was. A little of that sort of thing goes a long way."

Suzanne seemed unconvinced. An hour or two of gagging and binding would have changed her views quickly enough. Suzanne likes thrills, but she hates being uncomfortable.

"And what are we all doing now?" she asked.

"I don't quite know," I said thoughtfully. "You still go to Rhodesia, of course, to keep an eye on Pagett——"

"And you?"

That was just my difficulty. Had Chichester gone on the Kilmorden, or had he not? Did he mean to carry out his original plan of going to Durban? The hour of his leaving Muizenberg seemed to point to an affirmative

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