'Perhaps not,' he said.
Joe looked across the table at me. 'What's the matter? Feeling ill, Neil?'
'No, I'm all right,' I said. But he wasn't convinced and went over to the bar and got me a drink. 'We'd better all have a drink,' he said. 'Might clear the air a bit.'
But it didn't. The liquor seemed cold and uninteresting and my mouth remained unpleasantly dry.
As soon as lunch was over, Joe got up and said, ''Fraid I'll have to tear myself away from this cheerful gathering.' And when nobody showed any desire for him to stay, he went back to his developing.
Mayne got up then and went upstairs. We heard the key turn in the lock of Valdini's room and the sound of his boots crossing to the window. Then I the door shut and the key was turned in the lock again. When he came back into the room, he said, 'Now we can get started. Come with me, will you, Engles?'
Keramikos and I were left alone. We looked at each other. 'Can't we do something?' I said.
Keramikos shrugged his shoulders. 'It is difficult when you are dealing with a man who is armed and who will not hesitate to shoot. You might take up a chair and try to brain him as he comes in through the door again. Or you might throw a bottle at him and hope to stun him. Or again you might walk out through that door into the snow and try to get down to the bottom of the slittovia. For myself, I prefer to wait. Mayne is not the only one who has a gun. I took the precaution some time back of preparing for just such an eventuality. I have been in many difficult situations in my life. And I have discovered that always there is the moment. We shall see.' He was very pale and the lips of his small mouth were pressed close together so that they were the same colour as his skin.
'I'd rather take a chance than be shot like Stelben shot those men,' I said.
Again he shrugged his shoulders. He was not interested. I looked down the passage to the kitchen. There was no sign of Mayne. I glanced at the window facing the slittovia. Keramikos had his gun — but would he use it to assist us? I didn't trust him. My mind was suddenly made up. I crossed to the window and opened it. There was a deep bed of snow on the wooden platform below. And beyond the platform, the sleigh track, piled with drift snow, fell away into the murk of driving snow. 'Shut the window after me, will you?' I said to Keramikos.