Explore "The Crime at Black Dudley" by Margery Allingham on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A hasty search revealed the fact that Mr. Campion had indeed disappeared, and the discovery, coupled with Chris Kennedy's experience of the morning, reduced the entire company to an unpleasant state of nerves. The terrified Anne Edgeware and the wounded rugby blue comforted each other in a corner by the fire. Prenderby's little fiancée clung to his hand as a frightened child might have done. The others talked volubly, but every minute the general gloom deepened.
In the midst of this the lunch gong in the outer hall sounded, as if nothing untoward had happened. For some moments nobody moved. Then Wyatt got up. "Well, anyway," he said, "they seem to intend to feed us -- let's go in, shall we?"