The Hunter and the Trapped Read Online Free PDF Page B

with all his possessions. They consulted me.”
    â€œAfter opening Fawcett’s letter themselves?”
    â€œYes. I think they were justified.”
    â€œI see. So you read the letter, too?”
    â€œI did.”
    â€œWhat did it prove? That Fawcett had ruined this boy?”
    â€œFawcett had turned him down. But not before they had reached a position of considerable intimacy.”
    â€œWhat d’ you mean by that?”
    â€œEverything short of physical intimacy.”
    â€œOh, for Christ’s sake!” William was exasperated. “An unbalanced lad with homosexual leanings gets a crush on an older man, is quite rightly put in his place, goes off in an hysterical state and drowns himself. Blame his unobservant, ignorant parents, but not – really not – Fawcett!”
    â€œYou don’t understand. I told them there was nothing they could do. I told them they must let Fawcett have the letter. Or rather I would give it to him, telling him not to destroy it in case the body turned up and there was an inquest. This is unlikely as Darson disappeared in mid-Atlantic. But I thought it might serve as a warning to him. I also warned the parents against attempting any sort of action against Fawcett. I explained the danger of a libel action. They had no wish for publicity, poor things. It would have done more harm to their boy’s memory than anything else.”
    He stopped speaking, looking at William with a kind of horror in his eyes.
    â€œI shall never forget Fawcett’s face when he read the letter.”
    â€œHe was shocked by it?”
    â€œFor one instant he was shocked and terrified. Abject terror. Then he drew himself up and read it to the end and stood looking at it as still as a statue, with a hard look on his face that I can’t describe. He reminded me of those Egyptian things on vases – sacrifices – priests in masks – you know what I mean?”
    â€œThe dark gods,” murmured William. “Saturnalia – the devil and all his works … It dies hard, our inheritance.”
    â€œI don’t know what you mean,” Hubert said, suspiciously, afraid once more that his friend was treating him lightly.
    â€œI’m not sure that I do myself,” William answered. “But I think Penny’s safe enough. Her feelings, however strong, are clearly normal. It makes all the difference. And girls definitely don’t go into a decline for love, these days.”
    â€œI never thought they did.”
    â€œTake her away on the boat. Get a promising crew. When are you going?”
    â€œIn a fortnight. Actually I’ve got two boys lined up already that Penny knows and likes.”
    â€œBetter and better. Rivals should help to restore her self-esteem. Help her to make up her mind, too. At least, engage her interest.”
    Hubert looked at his friend with disapproval.
    â€œI don’t know why you choose to be flippant over the whole thing. The poor child is very genuinely miserable. To her it’s all serious in the extreme.”
    â€œOf course it is. All the more reason for us to make light of it.”
    â€œI don’t agree.”
    â€œNo,” said William, suddenly allowing himself to become serious. “No, I suppose you can’t.”
    Hubert did not stay long after that. Though William had not been much help it had been a relief to state his case to him. For an uncommitted person his views and arguments were probably sound. They would be shared by most of his other friends, perhaps not wholeheartedly by those with grown-up daughters. That was really the trouble with William. His own children were still too young to present him with modern problems. Pity he had married comparatively late. It had been a slight barrier between them ever since.
    When he had seen Hubert into the lift William went back into the drawing room, collected the glasses and took them away to the kitchen sink, where he left them