A. Merritt's Fantasy Magazine, April 1950 — page 66: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

66 A. MERRITT’S FANTASY enough for the attacker to cause any bruises. A child of twelve might,” Tott observed. “And you say—the place where ~ the body was found—”’ “You mean you'd like to give it a once over? Because there’s absolutely nothing to be seen. There are no footprints of any sort—that grass wouldn’t register any— and there’s nothing but the very faint im- press made by the body, and the equally faint tracks Jeft by Sergeant Willis and his bicycle—and Willis was as careful not to obliterate anything as I should have been myself. My trouble though,-is that there was nothing to obliterate.” Tott looked at his watch. “It’s getting rather late, but I think I’d like to look at that spot while the light holds.” “Tl drive you there, if you like,” Gees offered. “And [ll come along too,” Perry said. “Tf you, Mr. Tott, can make any sugges- tions, I shall be only too pleased to have them, because I've got to own that up to the present—unless those chaps out beating the woods find something, that is —I’m absolutely at sea.” They went to Gees’ car, and Tott seated himself in the back so that Perry, beside Gees, could guide them- But Gees needed no great amount of guiding, having come up from the Grange and through Hedling- ton when he had left Kefra at the Grange the day before. It came to him as some- thing of a shock that only thirty hours or so had passed since he had last seen her. He drove past the last house of the village, which was set in a depression along the height which rose over Barnby. The road curved westward, over the high- est part of the ridge; anc then a gentle descent brought them to a point where the low stone wall bounding the road on their right receded to take in over an acre of tussocky grass land, on which grew a few hawthorn bushes. As Perry called a halt, Gees saw a uni- formed constable midway between two ot the bushes. Perry got out of the car as it aopce “This is all that’s left of what used to be Hedlington Common,” he observed. “The rest of it has been enclosed.” | “And the child came up that hill,” Tott suggested, pa at the steep descent toward which the car was heading. “MUST have come that way,” Perry assented: “And—you can see the Grange chimneys over there—” he pointed as he spoke—‘‘while Barnby itself, what there is of it, is down under us, under the side of this hill. By which I mean—any- one coming from the Grange—”’ “Yes,” Tott said, as the sentence re- mained incomplete, “but—it’ s not my case, and I don’t intend to take any hand in it. But—no offense intended—you seem to me almost anxious to acquit the Grange people.” ae: don’ t see it as possible to do anything else,’ Perry pointed out. “After that talk with Miss Kefra—my estimate of her—”’ Again he broke off, frowning as if re-- sentful of Tott’s insistence. . “T believe,” Tott said very slowly, “‘in their normal moments people who suffer from a homicidal mania can be absolutely -charming.” “Did you ever hear of anyone afflicted with homicidal mania who made use of cats?” Perry asked. “Or leopards or lions or tigers, or whatever this thing or these things might be? Because I'll put my life against a stick of celery that nothing human caused the wounds that brought that poor child to her death. That’s im- possible.” . “You may remember—” Gees, still seated in the car, spoke to Tott—‘I sketched a bare outline of a theory on the drive here.” And when I attach any importance to that theory,” Tott answered sourly, “it'll be time for me to apply for long leave and spend it in a lunatic asylum. Are you going to wait here for us?” Gees shook his head. “I’m going on a bit. I wonder—Mr. Perry, if I feel like Staying the night round here, do you +] think I could get a decent room at the | Rest And Be Thankful spot?” “Sure of it, Mr. Green. They've nubeee staying there this time of year, but they’ve got three or four rooms.””. “T expect [ll come back, then,’’ Gees said, as he released his hand brake to let the car forward on the slope. “If I go on to Cheltenham instead, many thanks for admitting me to your council.”’ “He’s a clever chap,” Tott observed to comicbooks.co — IF - _ = _———_—