Page 84 - the-thirty-nine-steps

of those three spies getting the pull on me like this. I hoped
that at any rate I might be able to twist one of their necks
before they downed me.
The more I thought of it the angrier I grew, and I had to
get up and move about the room. I tried the shutters, but
they were the kind that lock with a key, and I couldn’t move
them. From the outside came the faint clucking of hens in
the warm sun. Then I groped among the sacks and boxes.
I couldn’t open the latter, and the sacks seemed to be full
of things like dog-biscuits that smelt of cinnamon. But, as
I circumnavigated the room, I found a handle in the wall
which seemed worth investigating.
It was the door of a wall cupboard what they call a ‘press’
in Scotland and it was locked. I shook it, and it seemed rath-
er flimsy. For want of something better to do I put out my
strength on that door, getting some purchase on the han-
dle by looping my braces round it. Presently the thing gave
with a crash which I thought would bring in my warders to
inquire. I waited for a bit, and then started to explore the
cupboard shelves.
There was a multitude of queer things there. I found an
odd vesta or two in my trouser pockets and struck a light. It
was out in a second, but it showed me one thing. There was
a little stock of electric torches on one shelf. I picked up one,
and found it was in working order.
With the torch to help me I investigated further. There
were bottles and cases of queer-smelling stuffs, chemicals
no doubt for experiments, and there were coils of fine cop-
per wire and yanks and yanks of thin oiled silk. There was

84 The Thirty-Nine Steps