Ruth laughed softly. So did Dr. Laurier.
"You know," Ruth observed, '1 thought this evening would never end. I almost choked over dinner."
"So did I," said Ricky, for some reason deeply impressed by this coincidence of thought. I’m sorry Mother didn't come down after all."
"I assure you, Richard," declared the precise and conservative Dr. Laurier, "that Lady Fleet is in no danger. I have given her half a grain of morphia. We, on the other hand, have a stimulant"
All five were strung up, each of them not quite his or her normal self, which may account for much that happened afterwards. Each would have denied this. But if anybody had been watching them — and there was someone watching — that person would have seen it in a quick movement a turn and gleam of an eye against the head-lights.
"I should have thought" said Ruth, "that you people who lived in this district must have been terrified. I mean, of escaped prisoners."
Stannard chuckled, his lips folded back from gleaming teeth.
"My dear, you are still confusing local prisons with convict prisons."
"I'm afraid I don't remember the difference."
"Come, now! If a man's sentence is anything from six months to two years, with time off for good behaviour, he won't endanger it by trying to escape. Some of them go mad, of course. But an attempted break is rare." Then Stannard's eyes narrowed. "Stop, though I There is an alarm-bell, aside from the ordinary main bell"