Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (246 page)

At
the
end
of
that
time
he
heard
the
latch
of
the
door
click,
arid looking
out
from
his
position
behind
the
curtain,
he
saw
the
door slowly
open.
Archie
Cranfield
came
through
the
doorway
into
the room,
and
shut
the
door
behind
him.
Then
he
stood
for
a
while
by the
door,
very
still,
but
breathing
heavily.
Mr.
Twiss
was
on
the
point of
coming
forward
and
announcing
his
presence,
but
there
was
something
so
strange
and
secret
in
Cranfield's
behaviour
that,
in
spite
of certain
twinges
of
conscience,
he
remained
hidden
in
his
seat.
He
did more
than
remain
hidden.
He
made
a
chink
between
the
curtain
and the
wall,
and
watched.
He
saw
Cranfield
move
swiftly
over
to
the
fireplace,
seize
a
little
old-fashioned
clock
in
a
case
of
satinwood
which stood
upon
the
mantelshelf,
raise
it
in
the
air,
and
dash
it
with
an ungovernable
fury
on
to
the
stone
hearth.
Having
done
this
unac-

MASON: THE CLOCK

countable
thing,
Cranfield
dropped
into
the
chair
which
Mr.
Twiss had
drawn
up.
He
covered
his
face
with
his
hands
and
suddenly
began to
sob
and
wail
in
the
most
dreadful
fashion,
rocking
his
body
from side
to
side
in
a
very
paroxysm
of
grief.
Mr.
Twiss
was
at
his
wit's
end to
know
what
to
do.
He
felt
that
to
catch
a
man
sobbing
would
be
to earn
his
undying
resentment.
Yet
the
sound
was
so
horrible,
and
produced
in
him
so
sharp
a
discomfort
and
distress,
that,
on
the
other hand,
he
could
hardly
keep
still.
The
paroxysm
passed,
however,
almost
as
quickly
as
it
had
come,
and
Cranfield,
springing
to
his
feet, rang
the
bell.
Humphreys
answered
it.

"I
have
knocked
the
clock
off
the
mantelshelf
with
my
elbow, Humphreys,"
he
said.
"I
am
afraid
that
it
is
broken,
and
the
glass might
cut
somebody's
hand.
Would
you
mind
clearing
the
pieces away?"

He
went
out
of
the
room,
and
Humphreys
went
off
for
a
dustpan. Mr.
Twiss
was
able
to
escape
from
the
billiard
room
unnoticed.
But it
was
a
long
time
before
he
recovered
from
the
uneasiness
which
the incident
aroused
in
him.

Four
days
later
the
two
men
left
the
house
together.
The
servants had
been
paid
off.
Humphreys
had
gone
with
the
luggage
to
London by
an
earlier
train.
Mr.
Twiss
and
Archie
Cranfield
were
the
last
to
go. Cranfield
turned
the
key
in
the
lock
of
the
front
door
as
they
stood upon
the
steps.

"I
shall
never
see
the
inside
of
that
house
again,"
he
said
with
a gusty
violence.

"Will
you
allow
me
to
get
rid
of
it
for
you?"
asked
Mr.
Twiss;
and for
a
moment
Cranfield
looked
at
him
with
knotted
brows,
blowing the
while
into
the
wards
of
the
key.