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it all right. The Bomb is probably a corpse, and if I hadn’t been pretty nippy with my brakes, you’d have been one too. What’s the bright idea?”
    â€œI didn’t—” said Lucilla. “I mean there wasn’t any idea—I mean I only wanted to shoot you with the torch and see if you’d jump. You see, it takes no end of a nerve to be any good at looking after me, so I thought I’d better find out whether it was any use letting you come. I mean if I really lay down and screamed, I suppose Aunt Marina and Uncle Geoffrey wouldn’t make me have you.”
    â€œI don’t know. Are you going to try?” said Sarah.
    It would have given her the greatest possible pleasure to box Lucilla’s ears. They appeared to be rather above the level of her own and temptingly near. She swept the ray across her face instead. Pale face, pale hair, round pale blue eyes that blinked against the light. A long thin slip of a girl in heavy black. She let the torch fall again.
    â€œYou haven’t told me what happened,” she said. The anger had gone out of her and she felt rather cold.
    There was an odd little silence, rather a breathless little silence.
    â€œI fell,” said Lucilla in a small uneven voice.
    â€œHow did you fall?”
    â€œI don’t know—I just fell. I didn’t mean to.”
    That was what Sarah had been wondering. A good deal depended on it. If Lucilla had meant to fall, no extra salary was going to drag Sarah Trent into her affairs. And then quite suddenly she was sure that Lucilla hadn’t meant to fall. Her every instinct told her so. Lucilla’s giggle told her so, and Lucilla’s really brazen cheek. She might be a little beast, but she wasn’t a would-be suicide.
    Sarah gave a laugh of pure relief.
    â€œWell, are you going to lie down and scream?” she said.
    Lucilla giggled in the dark.
    â€œI don’t think so. You can come on appro if you like. I suppose they’ve engaged you. Uncle Geoffrey wanted a young one, and Aunt Marina’s hated everyone she’s seen so far. Can do.”
    â€œHow do you know I’ll come?” said Sarah.
    â€œWell, you wouldn’t let a little thing like this put you off—I mean, would you? I knew you’d do as soon as you called me a blinking idiot. A real proper governess would have said ‘ My dear child! ’” She broke off and gave a whistle of dismay. “Oh golly! I shall be late for dinner! I say, they’ve not let you go without any food, have they?”
    â€œI’m supposed to be dining with a friend,” said Sarah. “Sometime, you know, in the remote future, if I ever do get back to town.”
    â€œWill she wait for you?” said Lucilla.
    â€œOh yes, he’ll wait,” said Sarah.

CHAPTER III
    Bertrand could wait, and Bertrand certainly would have to wait. If she got back by nine, The Bomb would be doing her proud. The picture of Bertrand Darnac waiting for his dinner till nine o’clock made Sarah feel warm and pleased all over. “ So good for you, Ran darling,” she murmured as The Bomb turned the corner into the main road.
    She felt at peace with all the world. Aunt Marina was a pussy old thing. When Sarah stroked her, she would purr. Uncle Geoffrey was going to eat out of her hand. She knew the symptoms. Lucilla was undoubtedly a little devil, but she would probably be quite an amusing little devil. Over and above all this, and the twenty pounds, and the prospect of acquiring The Bomb , there was the heady exhilaration which is natural when you think you have killed someone and then find that you haven’t. It was amusing to be alive, and it was going to be very amusing to see Bertrand’s face when she arrived hours late. If The Bomb hadn’t behaved like a perfect saint after being run up the bank, Ran might have waited till closing time. “Noble, angel Bomb !” said Sarah in a much