‘It may yet cut your throat,’ Meredith rejoined grimly. A spasm of self-disgust twisted his face as he realized how unfortunately apposite his words were. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.’

‘I think we should leave,’ said Ann abruptly. Bourne bestowed on her a ‘my dear young lady, your opinion carries no weight with me’ look.

It turned out that Joyce supported her. Hunt was not sure. Paul was conscious of his own indecision, his mind tugged by a desire to ensure safety for Carol and himself and a shivering reluctance to huddle blanket-clad in the back of the car in the snow. He heard Pollard chip in.

‘Of course there’s no need for everyone to go with the majority wish. I suggest that we each decide. Any who wish to spend the night in the cars will be helped by the others to make themselves as comfortable as possible. For myself,’ he grinned ruefully, ‘I shall stay. Out of cowardice. I fear the thought of what my chaps would think if they learned I’d quit a house because of spooks. How about you, Ted?’

‘You don’t leave me much choice, do you? I’ll stay.’

With a dull leaden feeling of foreboding, Meredith saw the lure of creature comforts and the mind’s gift for rationalization winning the day. He couldn’t really blame them. Bourne’s explanation of the dome’s collapse could well be the correct one. And yet, even while he listened to himself agree to stay in the house that night, he felt his conviction deepen that they were making the wrong decision.

They agreed that the women should go and prepare a meal even although they all professed to have no appetite. The men would try to clear away the blood-soaked debris piled up in the hall, scattered across the stairs in the futile frenzy of the attempt to save Fletcher and Swanson.

They set to work, using pails, mops and brooms found in the scullery, carrying everything down to the dank and icy depths of the cellars. Without tarpaulins and battens of wood, it was impossible to rig up a proper awning to shelter the hall from the heavy snow falling through the black gap above it. The heavy flakes drifted downwards, illuminated by the glow from the two oil-lamps set up in the hall. The incongruity of snow falling unchecked within the core of a house produced a strange and eerie effect.