Strange Conflict (14 page)

Having given the order for the change of course, however, Carruthers spoke to no one. He was a red-faced tight-lipped man and the Duke soon formed the impression that he was not the type to give anything away by casual talk. It looked as if the Nazi spy—if there was one on board—gained his information by securing access to the orders when the Captain was not about, and any such attempt might not take place for several hours.

It was now getting on for ten o'clock and de Richleau began to look about for signs of Marie Lou or Simon. He was already conscious of an urge to get back to his own body and he hoped that they would not be late, as the strain of resisting the drag might become considerable.

It was just after ten when Marie Lou silently appeared beside him. She had purposely retained in her astral form the features which de Richleau knew in Earth life so that he should have no difficulty in recognising her, but she was considerably taller than her mortal self and under the yachting-cap which she was wearing he noted that she had given herself golden hair instead of her chestnut curls.

Both were naturally invisible and soundless to the men on the bridge near them but their astrals could speak to each other in their normal voices.

He smiled at her and said: ‘Why the increase in height, Princess, when you are quite perfect in your mortal body? I don't like it at all.'

She looked slightly piqued. That's the first time I've ever had the reverse of a compliment from you, Greyeyes dear. I've always wanted to be taller; I'm such a silly little person when I'm on Earth and height gives me dignity.'

‘You foolish child,' he laughed. ‘Who would ever wish
you to be dignified? And, in any case, if it's your whim to be taller you should certainly consult a cheval-glass when composing your astral. Don't you see that although those lovely long legs you have given yourself are remarkably beautiful, as legs they are entirely out of proportion to your body?'

Somewhat abashed, Marie Lou looked down and proceeded to adjust herself a little. ‘How about my hair, though?' she asked, removing her cap. ‘Do you like me as a blonde?'

He considered her carefully for a moment. ‘Yes. Not better, but as well; and you would be totally enchanting whatever colour hair you had.'

‘Thank you. Sometimes I make it powder-blue, but I thought that was hardly suited to this occasion.'

‘No,' the Duke agreed; ‘a little too exotic. But I can imagine situations in which it would prove immensely attractive.'

‘I suppose nothing's happened yet, or you wouldn't be so concerned with my appearance?'

‘No, nothing. Carruthers is the name of the man commanding the convoy; he's that rather red-faced fellow over there standing on his own at the port side of the bridge, staring out across the water. Directly he got back on board with his orders he opened them up, read them and put them in the safe, which is near the head of his bunk inside his bridge cabin. Except to give the officer of the watch a new course he hasn't spoken to a soul yet, so up to the moment he remains the only person in the whole convoy who knows the route that it has been ordered to take.'

At that moment Simon, who had been a little longer in getting off to sleep than Marie Lou, joined them. They both recognised him at once as he, too, had retained his earthly features, but in all other respects his astral was very different from his mortal body. Instead of the narrow-shouldered, stooping fellow that they knew, Simon appeared as a splendidly-set-up man of about thirty with dark, flashing eyes and his head beautifully set on a pair of broad shoulders. He was dressed in a warm, leather ski-ing suit, a type of garment that he never wore on Earth, and from the vigour of his movements no one would have doubted that
he could have got his Cresta colours if that had been his wish.

‘Well, how're things?' he asked in a rich, strong voice as he came towards them.

‘I've just been telling Marie Lou,' said the Duke. ‘The orders are in the safe and no one has yet seen them except the Captain, and he hasn't passed them on to anyone else, so for the time being your job is a very straightforward one: all you have to do is to watch the safe and the Captain.'

‘Right,' said Simon. ‘We'll take over, then, and you'd better get back. We'll expect to see you again at about seven o'clock this evening.'

‘That's it,' agreed the Duke; ‘but if you see anyone about to start any funny business you're both to summon me at once with all the force of your wills, and I shall join you as quickly as I can.'

As he finished speaking his astral faded and they knew that he had returned to his mortal body at Cardinals Folly.

The day was grey and dreary. Spread out over several miles the eighteen ships were slowly ploughing their way through the icy green seas of the North Atlantic. In each a sharp watch for enemy submarines was being kept by warmly-clad look-outs in the crow's-nests, while other members of the crew fore and aft stood near the antiaircraft guns, scanning the skies, through binoculars, for Nazi planes. Otherwise there was little activity in any of the ships and the crews were going about their dangerous but monotonous routine duties.

At half-past ten Captain Carruthers went forward and carried out an inspection of a portion of the crew's quarters, after which he talked for a little with his second-in-command; but Simon, who was standing within a few feet of them, noted that the Captain made no mention of the route that the convoy had been ordered to take.

By half-past eleven the sun had come out so the navigating officer was able to get his midday observation without any difficulty. When he had worked out the ship's position he reported to Carruthers, who ordered a slight change of course which turned the convoy a few degrees further to southward. At one o'clock the Captain lunched in solitary state and immediately afterwards, fully dressed, he lay down on his bunk to sleep.

Shortly after three, a ship, half a mile away on the starboard quarter of the convoy leader, suddenly blazed off with one of its guns. Instantly every ship leapt into activity, put on its maximum speed and, altering course, began to zigzag from side to side.

Carruthers came running out on to the bridge with a pair of binoculars and swift signals from one ship to another fluttered up and down. But there was no more firing; very soon everything returned to normal and Carruthers went back to his bunk. One of the look-outs on the ship that had fired the gun had thought that he had sighted the periscope of an enemy submarine, but it had turned out to be a piece of driftwood which was bobbing up and down some distance away.

As the afternoon wore on Simon and Marie Lou became thoroughly bored with their job but they did not relax their vigilance. At five o'clock a steward roused the Captain and brought him tea, after which he went out on to the bridge again. Dusk was now closing in upon the troubled waters and the other ships were only just visible. In all the long day they had not sighted another vessel, and had seen only one British patrolling aeroplane, but at about half-past five they heard the drone of powerful engines and the sailors immediately rushed to anti-aircraft stations.

However, it proved that the planes were a flight of new bombers being flown across from Canada to Britain. As their leader sighted the convoy on the darkening sea he dipped in salute, bringing the great plane down quite low so that for a moment it looked as though it must graze the mast-heads, while the sailors, who had all run up on deck, gave the airmen a rousing cheer.

Just before six the second-in-command entered the bridge cabin and made a report to Carruthers about a seaman who had met with an accident the previous day. Apparently the doctor had feared that he would die, but the man had now taken a turn for the better. The two officers had a pink-gin together and talked for a little time about routine matters, then they listened to the six-o'clock news on the wireless.

By this time Simon was getting restless, as normally he needed little sleep and nine hours was an unusually
long spell for him, although he had thought that he would manage it quite easily after having been up all the previous night. Marie Lou told him that he could go home if he wished, as she was quite capable of staying on duty for another couple of hours if necessary, and the Duke was due to put in an appearance long before that; but Simon said that he was determined to stick it out and subdue his urge to return to his body until de Richleau relieved him.

De Richleau arrived at seven o'clock to the moment, as the ship's bell was still clanging, and they told him that they had nothing to report. Night had now fallen and all three of them were standing out in the black darkness of the bridge. The Duke was just about to tell the others that they could return home when he suddenly shivered and looked about him quickly.

Astral bodies are not affected by the weather conditions of Earth, so the clothing that the three were wearing was a mental concession to the scene about them and in no sense because such garments were necessary to protect them from the wind and flying spray; but astral forms
do
feel the cold or heat natural to any astral phenomena which may be in their vicinity—hence the discomfort that the Duke had suffered when he had had to take the form of an Able Seaman on the first night that he had gone out to watch the Admiral and the Admiral had sailed an astral sea in on astral ship.

‘Do either of you feel anything unusual?' the Duke asked sharply.

As astrals present in an Earth scene, neither of the others had, up to that moment, been conscious of the temperature at all, but as de Richleau spoke Marie Lou said:

‘Yes. It seems to be getting awfully cold.'

Simon turned at the same moment and glanced over his shoulder. ‘There's quite a wind blowing from somewhere, and it can't be an Earth wind; there must be something pretty nasty passing near us at the moment.'

De Richleau nodded. ‘It may be passing; but somehow I don't think so. For the time being you two had better remain with me.'

The cold had increased to a deadly chill and he knew that abominable wind to be a certain indication of the
presence of disembodied Evil. With a sudden absolute conviction that his theory was right—the Nazis
were
using the occult—he turned towards the cabin.

‘Come on!' he cried. ‘Quick! This is the thing for which we have been waiting.'

Now that the presence of the unknown Evil could be so definitely felt, de Richleau knew that the astral which was working for the Nazis might appear at any moment. If they remained as they were the astral would see them and, if it realised that they were spying on it, would either make off or give battle, according to its power. In either case they would be robbed of the opportunity of seeing how it did its work, so as they passed into the Captain's cabin de Richleau, knowing that his companions could not raise themselves to a higher level of consciousness, swiftly told them to change their forms. As he spoke, he became a fly and they immediately followed suit.

So far no strange astral form was visible and there was nothing whatever to indicate the presence of Evil except that grim, unnatural cold which they could feel but which, apparently, the Captain could not, for his cabin was warmly heated and he was not wearing his fleece-lined oilskins or sou'-wester.

Carruthers was now seated at a wall desk with a ledger opened up in front of him. For some little time nothing happened. Then Marie Lou, her sense of the mischievous getting the better of her uneasiness about the source of the cold, decided to amuse herself by tickling the taciturn sailor and alighted with her six feet spread well out, on the tip of his nose.

Contrary to her expectations, he did not draw back and make an ineffective grab at her, but sat there unheeding, as he continued to examine his accounts regarding the bottom
of his glass. She performed a little dance to rouse him, but almost at once de Richleau's voice reached her.

‘This is no time for playing the fool,' he said with unusual sharpness, ‘and you ought to have the sense to realise that he can neither feel nor see you, because whatever form you take you're still on the astral. I ordered the change only to make us less conspicuous to any evil entity that may appear.'

With a word of contrition, Marie Lou gave up her sport and flew off to one of the white-painted girders above the Captain's head. Just as she had settled there his steward came in to lay the table for dinner.

In due course dinner was served but the Captain did not seem to have much of an appetite and only toyed with his food. He sat there for some time over each course and appeared deep in thought; a “thriller” lay open on the table beside him but he did not attempt to read it.

Having finished his dinner Carruthers went over and lay down on his bunk, while the table was cleared and the cabin tidied. For the best part of an hour the intense cold had continued unabated, and Simon was now having to struggle hard to keep himself asleep, but no manifestation of any kind other than the cold was perceptible to the astral senses of the watchers.

It was well past eight when the Captain rolled off his bunk and, crossing the cabin to the safe, began to fumble for his keys.

De Richleau signed to his two companion flies to come near him so that all three of them by standing with their legs just touching could increase their resistance should the evil Entity actually appear now that the critical moment was come.

Carruthers got the safe open, pulled out the despatch-box, unlocked it and took out the convoy route order. Carrying it over to his bunk, he sat down with the instructions in his hand and began to re-read them.

The cold had now become positively icy and Simon felt himself absolutely drooping with desire to fall awake, but at a slight pressure from the Duke he roused and saw that something was moving just above the Captain's head.

Next minute the ‘Thing' was plain to all three of them. It was a thick-lipped negro face behind which a high-domed
head and powerful shoulders began to materialise.