‘She’s locked in,’ said Edmund, stooping down. He turned the key and Mitzi came out like a bounding tiger.

The dining-room light was still on. Silhouetted against it Mitzi presented a picture of insane terror and continued to scream. A touch of comedy was introduced by the fact that she had been engaged in cleaning silver and was still holding a chamois leather and a large fish slice.

‘Be quiet, Mitzi,’ said Miss Blacklock.

‘Stop it,’ said Edmund, and as Mitzi showed no disposition to stop screaming, he leaned forward and gave her a sharp slap on the cheek. Mitzi gasped and hiccuped into silence.

‘Get some candles,’ said Miss Blacklock. ‘In the kitchen cupboard. Patrick, you know where the fusebox is?’

‘The passage behind the scullery? Right, I’ll see what I can do.’

Miss Blacklock had moved forward into the light thrown from the dining-room and Dora Bunner gave a sobbing gasp. Mitzi let out another full-blooded scream.

‘The blood, theblood!’ she gasped. ‘You are shot-Miss Blacklock, you bleed to death.’

‘Don’t be so stupid,’ snapped Miss Blacklock. ‘I’m hardly hurt at all. It just grazed my ear.’

‘But Aunt Letty,’ said Julia, ‘the blood.’

And indeed Miss Blacklock’s white blouse and pearls and her hands were a horrifyingly gory sight.

‘Ears always bleed,’ said Miss Blacklock. ‘I remember fainting in the hairdresser’s when I was a child. The man had only just snipped my ear. There seemed to be a basin of blood at once. But wemust have some light.’

‘I get the candles,’ said Mitzi.

Julia went with her and they returned with several candles stuck into saucers.

‘Now let’s have a look at our malefactor,’ said the Colonel. ‘Hold the candles down low, will you, Swettenham? As many as you can.’

‘I’ll come the other side,’ said Phillipa.