Strange Conflict (17 page)

‘Oh, yes, we have,' countered the Duke. ‘There's one thing we know quite definitely: he comes from an island in which part of the coast is shaped rather like a lobster's claw with blunt ends. That was unquestionably a portion of this Earth and if I saw it again, or even the outline of it on a map, I should recognise it.'

‘Are you quite sure that it was an island?' asked Marie Lou.

‘I wouldn't swear to it, as the place covered a very considerable area and the further distances were indistinct, merging into the sea and sky; but that was the impression I got.'

‘I didn't,' she shook her head. ‘It seemed to me that we were just over the coast-line of a great peninsula, but I agree that it would be easy to recognise that bit of coast on seeing it again.'

‘You're probably right about its having been a peninsula. It couldn't have been one of the Frisian Islands; they're too small and flat; yet it's almost certain to be a portion of the Continent of Europe. Still, as the Germans now control Denmark and Norway our enemy may quite well be operating from one of the islands in the Baltic or on the Norwegian coast.'

‘That's it!' exclaimed Marie Lou. ‘I remember that away from the shore the country was very mountainous, so it was
probably a great cape jutting out between two of the Norwegian fjords.'

When they had finished their meal they went back to the library and, getting out Richard's
Times
atlas, began to study very carefully the coast-line of Northern Europe, but they could see no stretch of coast tallying with that over which their astrals had been poised earlier in the night.

‘This atlas is the best of its kind in existence,' remarked the Duke, ‘but to find what we want we really need a set of large-scale maps, so tomorrow I'll go up to the Admiralty. In any case I want to visit the British Museum to read up certain old key works on Magic, which they are bound to have there, in order to renew my knowledge of protection.'

It was now well past four in the morning so they decided to go up to bed, Richard and Rex to sleep, the others to lie down, but the Duke warned Marie Lou and Simon that if they fell asleep again, in spite of the long hours that they had slept during the day, they were to remain very close to their bodies because now that the adversary had seen them and, having followed them back to Cardinals Folly, knew where they lived he might still be lurking in the neighbourhood, waiting for a chance to attack them immediately they returned to the astral plane.

When they met again the following morning Simon reported that he had only dozed and had had no trouble, but Marie Lou came down the stairs looking pale and ill. She said that she had dropped off to sleep at about five o'clock and—certainly not through any exercise of her own will—had suddenly found herself in a maze like that at Hampton Court, except that the whole place positively reeked of evil, and, strive as she would, she could not find her way out. It had seemed to her that for hours on end she had fled in uncontrollable terror up and down countless paths flanked by tall box-hedges without being able to discover the exit, and all the time she was horribly aware that something intensely evil was stalking her from corridor to corridor of the maze, though it never actually got round each corner until she had put another one between herself and it.

She had been utterly dead-beat and was beginning to despair when Richard, in the uniform of a park-keeper, had
suddenly appeared on the stand in the centre of the maze, from which he could look down into all the paths and so direct her out of it; upon which she had wakened up still sweating with cold fear.

De Richleau regarded her gravely. ‘I'm so sorry, Princess. This is my fault, and if I hadn't been so shaken after what occurred last night I should have realised it sooner. From now on none of you must sleep anywhere, even for an hour, except within the pentacle, and when you're asleep your astrals must not go outside it. Only so will you be safe from similar and perhaps even more terrible experiences.'

‘Did you not experience anything?' she asked.

He shook his head. ‘No. I was entirely unmolested. That may have been because I am the most powerful amongst us, and they would naturally seek to wear down and destroy the weaker of us two first; or it may be because you were still thinking of this business when you went to sleep, which would enable them to reach you more easily, whereas I took the precaution of cleansing my mind of the whole matter before I slept. I blame myself a lot for having forgotten to suggest these things to you.'

She shrugged a little wearily. ‘It doesn't matter, Greyeyes dear, as long as the pentacle will give us adequate protection tonight.'

‘It will, if you construct it correctly. I shall be in London and I can look after myself, but you've seen me make it so frequently in the past fortnight that you should be able to do it for yourself without any mistakes. Do you think you can?'

‘Yes. In any case the others will be here to help me and see that I don't slip up in any of the details. It's rather surprising, though, that nothing happened to Simon—don't you think?'

‘No. Apparently he only dozed; and, anyhow, our adversary only saw him as a hornet, whereas he saw you and me face to face. But now that the battle is on I shouldn't be surprised if the astral of everybody in this house is attacked systematically—even those of the servants.'

‘Oh heavens!' Marie Lou made a face. ‘What can we do to protect them?'

De Richleau laughed rather mirthlessly. ‘Nothing, I'm
afraid; unless we make them all sleep in pentacles. But, quite frankly, I rather shrink from the task of endeavouring to explain warfare on the astral plane, and its possible consequences, to Malin and your maids; it would only confirm them in their view that we're off our heads and they would probably give notice in a body.'

‘It looks as though they may do that anyhow,' said Richard glumly, ‘but the main point is—can any harm come to them? If so, it's only right that I should send them away at once.'

‘That's hardly necessary,' de Richleau replied. ‘The forces against us will very soon discover which of the people in this house is giving active assistance to Marie Lou and myself. In consequence they'll concentrate their malice against them and leave the servants alone after giving them a few exceptionally unpleasant nightmares.'

‘Nightmares don't actually hurt anyone, so if that's the case we're justified in saying nothing to them,' Richard declared, ‘but while you're away the rest of us will definitely stick to the pentacle.'

‘Definitely,' de Richleau agreed. ‘This is a much more desperate business than I bargained for, but without asking I feel certain that you're all game to see it through.'

A murmur of assent went up and he continued. ‘I shall probably be away for three or four days, reading up this stuff in the Museum. While I am absent for goodness' sake don't try anything on your own; as far as you can manage it you had better take turns to sleep two at a time. You'll each then have a companion while you're out of your bodies and two guardians who're awake to watch that no attempt is made by the forces of Evil to disturb or break the defences of the pentacle while the other two are sleeping. By the time I return I hope to be much better equipped to face the enemy than I was when I so rashly undertook this incredible campaign.'

After lunch the Duke left them to motor to London, and he dined that night with Sir Pellinore. In the simplest language that he could formulate, and omitting all those details which made the whole affair seem so preposterously unreal, he told the elderly Baronet what had happened and asked for arrangements to be made at the Admiralty so that he
could examine the large-scale charts of the coast of Northern Europe.

Sir Pellinore now treated the question with the utmost gravity. Having had some time to think over what de Richleau had told him of the occult, and having since taken the opportunity to hold several long conversations with other people who were interested in the subject, he had formed the conclusion that de Richleau's theory was by no means as wildly improbable as it had at first sounded. The more he went into the matter the more logical it became, as although he had asked question after question of an old friend of his who was a convinced believer in reincarnation, every question had been satisfactorily answered, leaving no loose ends, and while Sir Pellinore always declared that he had no brain at all, he certainly possessed an extraordinarily fine sense of logic. It was, in fact, this extraordinary facility for directness in thought, and complete confidence in his own judgments, that had given him his immense success in life. De Richleau therefore found him very much more subdued, interested and willing to consider further possible developments than he had expected, and the visit to the Admiralty was arranged for the following morning without any trouble.

Next day the Duke spent over three hours with a lieutenant-commander, who was a map expert, in one of the chart rooms at the Admiralty, but although he surveyed the coast of Norway from the Arctic to the Kattegat, a good part of the Baltic, the whole of Denmark, and the coasts of Germany, Holland, Belgium and France, he could not discover any island or promontory which had the same coastal formation as that which he and Marie Lou had seen in their hour of peril.

Having exhausted this avenue he obtained permission from one of the curators of the British Museum, who was a friend of his, to study certain priceless old manuscripts; which were removed, specially for him, from the vaults in which they had been placed to protect them from destruction in air-raids. For the best part of three days he devoted himself to these ancient screeds, making copious notes from them. He then paid a visit to Culpeper House, in Bruton Street, and purchased a strange assortment of items from
the famous herbalists. On the fourth day he lunched with Sir Pellinore.

When he had reported his lack of success at the Admiralty the Baronet asked him what he intended to do.

‘I must go out again,' replied the Duke, ‘and utilise every means in my power to discover the identity of this person who is acting for the Nazis on the astral plane. Whoever he is, and wherever he is, we've got to find him and kill him.'

Sir Pellinore nodded. ‘You're setting yourself no small task, and I imagine that the danger you'll have to run is considerable. I wish I could thank you officially, on behalf of the Government, but, quite honestly, they'd think that I'd gone off my rocker if I attempted to tell them of the extraordinary work you're doing. However, I'm sure it will be a great satisfaction to you to know that I heard this morning that the convoy, the start of which you witnessed, has so far remained immune from attack and is now outside the danger area.'

De Richleau smiled. ‘Then we've done something at least. We evidently succeeded in disturbing the astral agent before he could memorise the full particulars of the route. But I must tell you frankly that the battle is only just beginning and I'm pretty anxious as to what may have happened at Cardinals Folly in my absence.'

‘What do you fear?'

‘I don't quite know, but it's hardly to be expected that the enemy will leave my friends alone having once located the spot from which we're working. It was a great misfortune that they were able to follow Mrs. Eaton and myself back that night. There's another thing, too. Since they can use the astral to communicate it will have been known in Berlin for some days now that we're on to what they're up to. In consequence, the Gestapo will almost certainly instruct their agents here to attack us on the physical plane, and a little matter like murder has never stopped the Nazis yet.'

‘Good God! D'you mean to say you think that they'll send some of their people in this country gunning for you?'

‘Yes. Just as my objective is to kill the occultist who is communicating, their objective will now be to kill myself and my friends so that we cannot operate further against them.'

Sir Pellinore let out a long whistle and quickly poured himself out another ration of old brandy before he said: ‘I think I'd better secure police protection for you.'

De Richleau shook his head. ‘That would require all sorts of difficult explanations, and the fewer of us that are involved in this business the better. It will take some time for Berlin to communicate with their agents here and set them on to us, so I don't fear anything of that kind for some days yet and I'd rather that you didn't get police protection for us unless it becomes absolutely necessary. At the moment my anxieties for my friends are confined to some form of astral attack that may be launched against them.'

When the Duke got back to Cardinals Folly that night he found that he had real reason for his anxiety. His four friends were seated in glum silence in the drawing-room, but immediately he entered it they all started to talk at once.

From the night of his departure to London the house had been rendered almost untenable by what Richard described as a whole company of poltergeists. They smashed china, tore the curtains, threw water upon the beds, slammed doors until the sound had driven nearly everybody crazy, and performed innumerable other acts of mischief each night while darkness lasted. On the second day the servants had left in a body, with the exception of Richard's faithful butler-valet, Malin, who had refused to be scared and, with his usual smiling urbanity, had just let the Duke into the house.

‘I was afraid of something of this sort,' confessed de Richleau, and he looked at Marie Lou contritely. ‘I can't say how sorry I am to have brought such trouble to your house, Princess.'

She gave him a forlorn smile. ‘Don't worry, Greyeyes dear. At least it gives us the feeling that we're doing our bit. It's a little frightening at times and the inconvenience is absolutely infuriating, but it's nothing to the
flak
that our airmen must go through when they bomb Germany, or what our sailors have to put up with.'