Strange Conflict (18 page)

‘That's true,' the Duke nodded. ‘I take it they haven't started on the physical plane? None of you have been attacked while walking in the grounds or seen any suspicious-looking strangers about, eh?'

‘There were a couple of men this morning …' Richard began, but he left his sentence unfinished.

At that instant there was a sound, of crashing glass as something hurtled through the window. Next second there rolled from underneath the curtains a large, round, black object. One glance at it was enough; with a horrid sinking feeling they all recognised it to be a high-explosive bomb.

The attack was so unexpected, yet synchronised so perfectly with de Richleau's question about suspicious persons loitering in the grounds, that none of them had the least doubt as to what the black object was. Quite clearly, their adversary on the astral had communicated with enemy agents in England who had now had time to reach Cardinals Folly and attempt their destruction.

From the fact that the attack had taken place within a few minutes of the Duke's arrival at the house, it looked as though their physical enemies had purposely waited for his return in order that an attempt might be made to blot all five of them out in one murderous stroke.

The bomb was a large pineapple grenade. De Richleau knew instantly that it was big enough to wreck the room and kill or mutilate them all. At any second it would disintegrate with a blinding flash into a hundred flying splinters of jagged steel.

Had the curtains not been drawn he would have grabbed it up and hurled it back through the window, praying that he might be in time to get it out of the house before it went off. But the curtains
were
drawn, so it would bounce off them into the middle of the floor. It seemed that the only thing he could do was to throw himself full-length upon it and endeavour to save his friends by deliberately sacrificing himself.

Just as he flung himself forward, Simon, who was nearer the bomb, jerked out his foot and kicked it away from them. With a frantic effort the Duke recovered his balance,
swerved, and, grabbing an armchair, swung it round against a bookcase underneath which the bomb had rolled.

Marie Lou had been sitting in an armchair by the fire. She half rose from it then gave a stifled cry as she was knocked backwards into it again by Richard, who had thrown himself on top of her to protect her from the deadly splinters.

Next second there was a deafening roar. The whole house shook. For an instant the outlines of everything in the room seemed to quiver in a livid spurt of light, then all was plunged in darkness.

The Duke and Simon were hurled off their feet. The armchair in which Marie Lou was lying, with Richard spread-eagled on top of her, was thrown over sideways and they both rolled across the floor.

After a moment the darkness lightened. The bulk of the fire was still glowing although some of the burning logs had been blown out of the grate on to the hearth and a few embers had fallen on the Persian rugs. There was a strong smell of burning.

‘Darling! Darling, are you all right?' Richard's voice came, frantic with anxiety, as he groped for Marie Lou.

‘Yes,' she panted. ‘But you—are you hurt?'

‘No,' he gasped, scrambling to his feet. ‘Simon—Greyeyes—where are you?'

‘Here,' Simon replied, picking himself up from the other side of the fireplace. ‘Anybody got a light?'

But from the Duke there was no reply.

A moment later they heard Malin calling from the doorway, ‘Mr. Richard—sir—madam! What's happened? Are you hurt?'

‘No, Malin, no. But I'm afraid His Grace is,' Richard called back. ‘Quick! Get a light—some candles!'

As Malin hurried off, Marie Lou began piling the burning logs back into the grate so that they would give more light, while the two men groped about in the semi-darkness for de Richleau's body. From the little they could see it seemed that the whole bookcase had been flung on top of the Duke and that he must lie crushed beneath it. With frantic fingers they tore at the splintered wood.

‘Where's Rex?' Richard cried suddenly. ‘We need his strength to get this thing up. Rex! Where the hell are you?'

It was Marie Lou who answered. ‘He's not here—he was standing near the door and I saw him spring through it into the hall just before the bomb exploded.'

Malin returned at that moment, carrying some lighted candles, and for the first time they were able to see the extent of the damage. The bomb had blown the whole of the lower portion of the bookcase to smithereens, and its top part, together with the books which had cascaded from it, lay in the centre of the room, a scattered heap, with the armchair overturned beneath it. There was a gaping hole in the lower part of the wall against which the bookcase had stood, several large lumps of plaster had fallen from the ceiling, the fireplace was full of soot, every ornament in the room was broken, and practically every piece of furniture was either scarred or torn.

As Malin held the lighted candles above his head they saw that the Duke was lying pinned beneath the armchair and half buried under the pile of books. Now that they could see properly they were soon able to get to work and within a few moments had dragged him clear.

At first they feared that he was dead, but they soon found that he was breathing, and although he had been badly cut about the face by flying glass from the bookcase they could find only one other wound upon him, which was in his right foot. Evidently in a last desperate effort to protect his friends as much as possible he had thrown himself, kneeling, into the armchair, facing towards the bookcase in an endeavour to keep it and the chair in position by his own weight. The explosion had thrown the whole lot over but the padding of the chair had saved him from the bomb fragments, except for the piece in his foot, which must have been dangling down.

‘We'd better take him to the library,' said Richard, ‘and put him in the pentacle; otherwise some of these swine may get him on the astral while he's unconscious.'

Malin helped them to carry the Duke, and it was the first time that he had been in the library since they had taken possession of it. Richard caught him eyeing with ill-concealed disapproval all the paraphernalia of the pentacle, so he said quietly:

‘I expect you think we've been monkeying with spiritualism, Malin, and that it's our own fault that we've had all
this trouble in the house these last few days, but I give you my word that we haven't been doing this for our own amusement.'

‘It's not for me to criticise, Mr. Richard, sir,' replied the elderly retainer gravely, ‘but I've always held that spiritualism never brought any good to anyone.'

‘I heartily agree,' responded Richard feelingly, as they laid the Duke down on his bed. ‘Still, that explosion just now had nothing to do with spirits; it was caused by a hand-grenade hurled through the window by a Nazi spy.'

‘Good gracious me, sir! We seem to have got ourselves right in the front line, then, in a manner of speaking.'

‘That's just what it is, Malin, and—though this is hardly the time to explain things to you—all this paraphernalia here and the trouble we've been having is part of the same business. I'm most touched by the way you've stayed on, but I think now that the enemy has started in to try and murder us you had better, for your own safety, follow the example of the rest of the staff.'

‘I shouldn't dream of doing so, sir, as long as you have any use for me. It's quite enough for me to know that His Grace and the rest of you are up against the Nazis. But I must say that I miss my sleep; the banging of the doors at night is something chronic. With your permission I was thinking of occupying a room in Mr. MacPherson's cottage for the time being and coming up to the house each day.'

MacPherson was Richard's head gardener, and he thought the plan an excellent one so he suggested that Malin should pack a bag and take up his quarters in the cottage that very evening.

Marie Lou came hurrying in with a basin of hot water, towels and bandages. She sponged the blood from the cuts on de Richleau's face and soon afterwards he came round, to heave a sigh of relief when he found that except for scratches and bruises the others were uninjured.

On removing his right shoe and sock they found that a tiny fragment of the bomb had torn its way through the flesh at the side of his foot. The wound was painful but it did not appear that any of the tendons were cut, so they considered that they had all come off very lightly.

By now they were wondering what in the world could have happened to Rex; but when Marie Lou was half way
through bandaging the injured foot the mystery of his disappearance was solved.

There was a sound of trampling feet in the hall and Rex's voice shouting directions, then a little man staggered into the library, bowed almost double under the weight of a taller man whom he was carrying slung across his shoulders. Rex entered triumphantly behind them.

‘Thank the Lord you're all all right!' he gasped, after a swift glance round; then with his mighty hand he gave the man in front of him a swift push which sent the fellow and his burden sprawling to the floor.

Suddenly he laughed. ‘I got ‘em—got both the devils. They were standing around waiting to come in after the pineapple went off—to make certain that they'd rubbed us out.'

‘Well done, Rex—well done!' cried Marie Lou, and all eyes were turned upon the woebegone-looking prisoners.

The one whom Rex had forced to become a beast of burden was a short, wiry-looking little Japanese man; the other, who was still unconscious, was a tall, thin, sallow-faced European. To have taken both of them captive was no small feat of work—but then, Rex was no ordinary man. His great height gave him a huge stride which few people could outdistance, and woe betide anybody who angered him once he was near enough to exert his giant strength agaisst the culprit.

He related quite casually that he had caught the Jap first and, picking him up by the neck, had used him as a missile to bring the other fellow down. The European had tried to knife him as he came up, but he had hit the man one sledgehammer blow which had rendered him unconscious. In the meantime the Jap had attempted to make off again but had very soon been brought back and booted round in a circle until he had submitted to orders.

They all agreed that it was a grand piece of work and de Richleau, who had recovered a little, sat up to question the prisoners. He soon found, however, that in his still groggy state the job was too much for him, so Marie Lou insisted that he should lie down and leave it to the others.

The European prisoner was now groaning and soon came round sufficiently for them to heave him to his feet. It was then decided that both of them should be locked up in one
of the numerous cellars which lay under the older wing of Cardinals Folly. Richard led the way out while Rex shepherded his charges along with ungentle prods and Simon went off with Marie Lou to help her to prepare dinner.

To have eaten in the pentacle would have destroyed its occult protection, so three-quarters of an hour later de Richleau was helped along to the dining-room where they gathered for their evening meal. Malin had departed for the gardener's cottage so they waited on themselves. Full night had come and with it the poltergeists had resumed their irritating activities, announcing their arrival by the violent banging of a door somewhere in the servants' quarters soon after the friends had sat down to table. They endeavoured to ignore the sound as they discussed the new situation.

Considering that one of the best rooms in his house had been totally wrecked, Richard was in good spirits, as he felt confident that they ought to be able to screw all sorts of useful information out of their two captives, but the Duke was by no means so optimistic.

‘I doubt if they know anything about the astral side of the business,' he said. ‘Our real adversary will have communicated with the head of the Nazi spy system in Britain and asked that we should be eliminated. These two thugs were detailed to do the job; but I should think it most unlikely that they have the least idea as to
why
they were ordered to murder us.'

‘Still,' remarked Simon, ‘if we hand them over to the police, Military Intelligence might be able to get out of them the name of the man from whom they received their instructions. Trouble is, though, that no one in this country dare handle spies without velvet gloves unless they're willing to risk the sack.'

‘That's true,' Richard muttered bitterly. ‘They've shot one or two recently, but we had to be at war for fifteen months and get a new Home Secretary before they even had the guts to do that. I'll bet anything that the Government hasn't given permission for our Intelligence people to third degree the swine yet. Lots of people still don't seem to have got it into their heads that Hitler is waging
Total
war against us, and that if we want to win we've got to wage Total war against him.'

‘As I see it, what the counter-espionage people are allowed to do, or are not allowed to do, doesn't cut any ice with us,' commented Rex. ‘We've got these two palookas in the can, so why not a little private session? I just hate hurting people, but I wouldn't lose any sleep at all on account of giving these hoodlums another beating-up.'

‘You can try your hand, if you like, and see what you can get out of them,' de Richleau agreed. ‘I'm feeling distinctly shaky still, so I'm going straight back to bed. I shan't try anything tonight on the astral but will concentrate on recouping my strength instead. All the same, I should be grateful if one of you would watch beside me until the rest turn in.'

‘Um,' Simon nodded. ‘Since you went to London and the trouble started here we've made it a rule to go about in couples after dark and for two of us to sleep by turns in the pentacle while the other two watch. Never have liked rough houses myself, so I'm game to leave our visitors to the tender care of Rex and Richard.'