Read In Spite of Thunder for Free Online Page B

think you ought to hear there’s not a word of truth in it.”
    “Madam, the value of your opinion …!”
    “It’s not my opinion. Please! I can show you proof, but I don’t even ask you to accept my word or anybody else’s.”
    “Indeed? Whose testimony is being offered?”
    “Your own. You were with us. You were one of the party that spent one night at the guest-house; and then, next morning, we all drove on up to Hitler’s lodge for a lunch we never had. If Eve drugged or poisoned Mr. Matthews in some way, how did she do it?”
    “Madam, we’re here to determine that point!”
    “I couldn’t agree more. How did she do it? And when? And where?”
    Here Paula lifted a trembling hand as though to shade her eyes.
    “I don’t understand that part about Mr. Ferrier,” she cried. “I don’t even think it matters. Whatever he said, you can put it down as a joke. How stupid people are! They’re always associating Mr. Ferrier with Shakespeare. And yet, if they’ve ever seen him as Shaw’s Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra , or as Higgins in Pygmalion , they should know he’s best in satiric comedy. He’s like that in real life. No, no, I can see what you’re going to ask. I don’t know him well, though I’ve met him often. Eve says he’s like that; so does everyone else.”
    “Go on, dear lady,” Hathaway cried in sudden suavity. “Continue my interesting conversation with yourself.”
    “Wait, please! I was thinking. …”
    Paula’s eyes, of that luminous and disturbing quality, looked past Brian as though she had observed something in the foyer. But she did not even see the marble-floored foyer, or the colours of cream and orange and black, or the glittering glass doors to the street.
    “The Gasthof züm Türken ! That was the name of the guesthouse, or hostel, or whatever it was, where our party spent the night. Do you remember?”
    “All too well. I have a photograph here—”
    “Never mind the photograph! Next morning the four of our particular group, you and Eve and Mr. Matthews and I, all had breakfast at the same table. There was nobody else at the table. It was just eight o’clock. Is that true?”
    “Granted, granted!”
    “Mr. Matthews wouldn’t have a mouthful to eat or drink. He said he never did at breakfast. You called him a food-faddist; you urged him to have a cup of coffee at least, because you said we shouldn’t get lunch until half-past one. Is that true?”
    “I don’t deny. …”
    “From that moment onward the four of us stayed together in a very close little group. That’s natural; people do; Eve was the only one of us who spoke German. We sat on the terrace together. We waited for the cars together. We drove up to the Eagle’s Nest in the same car. Between eight o’clock and at least a quarter past one, we were closer together than I am to you now. Do you agree?”
    Hathaway stood motionless, his eyes searching.
    “Sir Gerald, do you agree?”
    “In candour and honesty: very well. Yes!”
    “At a quarter past one, as soon as we had reached the Eagle’s Nest, Eve and Mr. Matthews went straight out on the balcony-terrace? And it was only a matter of seconds, thirty or forty for all I remember, that Eve screamed? You’re nodding, aren’t you? Then when and where and how was the poor man poisoned?”
    “I might remind you, dear lady! The victim was showing signs of this ‘altitude’ giddiness by one o’clock. If the dosage occurred before eight in the morning …”
    “Five hours?” Paula breathed. “Honestly; five hours? I’ve known a lot of amateur detectives, believe me; every paper has one. Can you name any poison or drug, even the slowest on earth or one in capsule form, that would hold off for five hours?”
    “No. There is none. I concede it.”
    Hathaway strode round from behind the sofa.
    “Stop!” he added. “I further allow that the victim took nothing to eat or drink between eight o’clock and one-fifteen. What is more, with all of us so