"_If he does not come before I count a hundred he will not come at all...._"
"_If I thrust in that finger and anything happens I shall know what to do...._"
And then her cry as the ring jammed and the finger was withdrawn without it.
But understand that all this did not take a moment, and that I was still down in the cellar, looking up at that hypnotizing cone of white light.
The glimpse suddenly vanished, and I heard Esdaile's voice. I had not heard him come down.
"Stand back a bit," he said, his hand on my sleeve.
Then it was that my eyes fell on the floor.
On the floor? Rather on the roof itself, for, spread out over the floor, was a perfect image of that glazed studio roof high above us. The divisions between the panes were marvelously penciled there, and about one of them, though not the one I had expected, the browning branches of the mulberry crept and played. Something darted across and was gone--a bird.
And it was too late to bet now, for the book was closed. By merely seeing that the roof-blinds were open, and then pushing away a rug with his foot, Philip had confounded us all. Again I hardly heard his words: "House simply a big pinhole camera, you see...." Once more I was seeing what he had seen that morning so many months ago.
His mild astonishment at witnessing that phenomenon for the first time (for it was the first time)--
His interested realization of the cause of it as he had stood there with the bottle of liqueur in his hand----
And then the half-heard shock and the light tremor of the house and the whole astonishing scene instantly enacted before his eyes!
But I had little time to marvel anew. He was speaking.
"... so down they came, not at this end, but over there, in reverse, you know. And of course I'd no idea then it was Chummy; didn't learn that till the afternoon; I simply saw him point that pistol at the other man, who crumpled up. That was a shock, you understand, but you could have knocked me down with a feather when I saw another shape crawl across and pick the pistol up!... Eh? Oh, with the light above they were silhouettes more or less; we'll send somebody up and try if you like; but I knew it was Monty the moment I came upstairs and saw him."
"I'm afraid I can't give you any very clear account of it. Time didn't seem to exist, if you know what I mean. But I know that all of a sudden I was moving furniture about, to break up that beastly picture, a bit on a box top and another bit on a sofa-end and so on. It didn't seem quite decent, somehow, all spread out dead flat like that. But I don't wonder you fellows were puzzled."