TheMovingFinger

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, Inc. ]ts trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, Inc., 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10103. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 THE MOVING FINGER CHAPTER I I have often recalled the morning when the first of the anonymous letters came. It arrived at breakfast and I turned it over in the idle way one does when time goes slowly and every event must be spun out to its full extent. It was, I saw, a local letter with a typewritten address. I opened it before the two with London postmarks, since one of them was clearly a bill, and on the other I recognized the handwriting of one of my more tire-some cousins. It seems odd, now, to remember that Joanna and I were more amused by the letter than anything else. We hadn't, then, the faintest inkling of what was to come--the trail of blood and violence and suspicion and fear. One simply didn't associate that sort of thing with Lymstock......