THE SECRET ADVERSARY BY AGATHA CHRISTIE

house and rap sharply, with a peculiar rhythm, on the door. It was opened

promptly, he said a word or two to the doorkeeper, then passed inside. The door

was shut to again.

It was at this juncture that Tommy lost his head. What he ought to have

done, what any sane man would have done, was to remain patiently where he was

and wait for his man to come out again. What he did do was entirely foreign to

the sober common sense which was, as a rule, his leading characteristic.

Something, as he expressed it, seemed to snap in his brain. Without a moment’s

pause for reflection he, too, went up the steps, and reproduced as far as he was

able the peculiar knock.

The door swung open with the same promptness as before. A villainous-faced

man with close-cropped hair stood in the doorway.

“Well?” he grunted.

It was at that moment that the full realization of his folly began to come

home to Tommy. But he dared not hesitate. He seized at the first words that

came into his mind.

“Mr. Brown?” he said.

To his surprise the man stood aside.

“Upstairs,” he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, “second door on

your left.”

CHAPTER VIII

THE ADVENTURES OF TOMMY

TAKEN aback though he was by the man’s words, Tommy did not hesitate. If

audacity had successfully carried him so far, it was to be hoped it would carry

him yet farther. He quietly passed into the house and mounted the ramshackle

staircase. Everything in the house was filthy beyond words. The grimy paper, of

a pattern now indistinguishable, hung in loose festoons from the wall. In every

angle was a grey mass of cobweb.

Tommy proceeded leisurely. By the time he reached the bend of the

staircase, he had heard the man below disappear into a back room. Clearly no

suspicion attached to him as yet. To come to the house and ask for “Mr. Brown”

appeared indeed to be a reasonable and natural proceeding.

At the top of the stairs Tommy halted to consider his next move. In front

of him ran a narrow passage, with doors opening on either side of it. From the

one nearest him on the left came a low murmur of voices. It was this room which

he had been directed to enter. But what held his glance fascinated was a small

recess immediately on his right, half concealed by a torn velvet curtain. It was

directly opposite the left-handed door and, owing to its angle, it also

commanded a good view of the upper part of the staircase. As a hiding-place for

one or, at a pinch, two men, it was ideal, being about two feet deep and three

feet wide. It attracted Tommy mightily. He thought things over in his usual

slow and steady way, deciding that the mention of “Mr. Brown” was not a request

for an individual, but in all probability a password used by the gang. His

lucky use of it had gained him admission. So far he had aroused no suspicion.

But he must decide quickly on his next step.

Suppose he were boldly to enter the room on the left of the passage. Would

the mere fact of his having been admitted to the house be sufficient? Perhaps a

further password would be required, or, at any rate, some proof of identity.

The doorkeeper clearly did not know all the members of the gang by sight, but it

might be different upstairs. On the whole it seemed to him that luck had served

him very well so far, but that there was such a thing as trusting it too far. To

enter that room was a colossal risk. He could not hope to sustain his part

indefinitely; sooner or later he was almost bound to betray himself, and then he

would have thrown away a vital chance in mere foolhardiness.

A repetition of the signal knock sounded on the door below, and Tommy, his

mind made up, slipped quickly into the recess, and cautiously drew the curtain

farther across so that it shielded him completely from sight. There were several

rents and slits in the ancient material which afforded him a good view. He