Read The Curious Quests of Brigadier Ffellowes for Free Online Page B

the open. As it was, Dad made him see some alienist or something: they were just coming in then. I've seen the medical reports. Chap said he could do nothing with Lionel, nothing at all, and would be afraid to try. Fact is, I've never felt quite safe while he was nearby. Sounds silly, but Isobel and I have no kids, which makes him heir. Rotten thing to suspect your own brother, but he's been such an all - round bloody piece of work ... ' His voice trailed off.
     
                  " 'That's the oldest of all crimes,' I said in a tight voice, 'murder for a throne or title. If you get away with it, it's called rebellion. One thing is clear to me, and that is that all your present troubles have started since your brother came on the scene. To my knowledge, and I'd like this confirmed, there has never been any trouble of any even vaguely supernatural nature in this house, or around it, until recently?'
     
                  "Isobel looked at James. After all, it was his house. He shook his head, finally. 'No,' he said, 'I can think of nothing. I expect I would have heard, too. I used to be awfully put down about it as a kid at school, come to think of it . All the others had places with Anne Boleyn or someone walking, and Cavaliers on the battlements. When they asked me, I had nothing to tell them, not even a monk or headless serf, or whatever. No, Donald, there has never been anything of the kind here.'
     
                  "I could only take refuge in silence. Poor devil, if my slowly coalescing ideas were correct, he was about to get an overabundance of all the things he had treated so lightly!
     
                  "We dined early. There was little conversation, and that was of a nature which omitted any discussion of what we were awaiting. Traheal came up the stairs with me, and I knew that, on his part, it was no accident . 'Well, sir,' he said hoarsely, 'have you got some idea now of what we are going through?'
     
                  "I stared at him, not out of any class consciousness, I assure you, but simply because my thoughts were elsewhere. Then, I realized that a good man was asking for information.
     
                  " 'Yes,' I answered bluntly. 'I think the whole thing centers around his lordship's brother. What do you think?'
     
                  "The blaze of anger on his face surprised me, though it should not have done so had I thought . After all, Lord Lionel had grown up in these parts.
     
                  " 'I knew it,' he said. 'Just what I've been telling the rest of them. There's black evil, and he's the man to bring it . Sir, when he was even a little child, he was wrong. We all knew this! The Earl, God bless him, never could see what his brother was like ... but we could! My father was of the opinion that he was mad! All the servants used to watch him when he was young, so that he was never unobserved. We all felt that he would do his lordship an evil. And he tried, sir.' He looked at me in a questioning way, as if debating what else he could tell me.
     
                  " 'I know about the ground glass,' I said in answer to his look. 'I shall do my utmost to protect the Earl and Countess, yes, and you all as well. But I may need help. If I am right, there is a most ancient malignancy gathering around this house, yes, and one which seems to be gaining strength.' Looking back from this distant point in time, it seems the maddest conversation ever held between a guest at an English country house and its dignified butler! But, you know, after what we had seen it seemed quite normal, in the context .
     
                  "I continued: 'By the way, Traheal, did you know the two men Lord Lionel employs were Bretons? I am told that their language is very close to the original Cornish. And I think Lord Lionel doesn't want this known. Do you make anything of that?'
     
                  "He