Bredon was not allowed to escape so easily. Leyland insisted that their plans must be settled at once, before supper time. “You see,” he said, “we’ve got to make rings round Brinkman, and he’s got to fancy that he is not under observation. That’s going to be a difficult job. But it’s made easy for us, rather, by the fact that Friday night is cinema night in Chilthorpe.”
“A cinema at Chilthorpe!” protested Mr. Pulteney. “Good God!”
“Yes, there’s a sort of barn out behind the rectory, and one of these travelling shows comes round once a week or once a fortnight. It’s extraordinary how civilization has developed, isn’t it? My idea was this: our friend the barmaid is to come in at supper, and ask us if we shall be wanting anything for the night, and whether she can go out. The Boots, she will say quite truthfully, is going to the cinema, and she wants to do the same. Mrs. Davis will be kept busy at the bar. Therefore there will be nobody to attend to the bell if we ring—she will ask us whether we mind that.”
“Machiavellian!” said Mr. Pulteney.
“Then somebody—you, Mrs. Bredon, for choice—will suggest our making up a party for the cinema. Your husband will refuse, because he wants to stay at home playing patience.”
“Come, I like this scheme,” said Bredon. “It seems to me to be all on the right lines. I only hope that you will allow me to be as good as my word.”
“That’s all right; I’m coming to that. The rest of us will consent to accompany Mrs. Bredon; Brinkman, presumably, will refuse. Soon after supper—the performance is at eight—we will all leave the house in the direction of the cinema, which is fortunately the opposite direction from the garage.”
“And have I got to sit through an evening performance in the barn?” asked Angela.
“Why, no; I want you and Mr. Eames to make your way back to the inn, by turning off along the lane which leads to the old mill; then you can come in quietly by the privet-hedge at the back. Then I want you, Mr. Eames, to wait about in the passage which leads to the bar, dodging down the cellar stairs if Brinkman comes to the bar to have a fortifier on his way. I hope your reputation will not suffer from these movements. You will keep your eye on the front of the house, in case Brinkman goes out that way.”
“He’s a fool if he does,” said Bredon. “In the first place, it’s a shorter way to the garage to take the path that goes out at the back. And in the second place, if he takes that path he will be unnoticed, whereas if he comes out by the front door he will be under the eyes of the bar parlour.”