Strange Conflict (19 page)

‘I'll sit with you as well,' said Marie Lou. ‘Hark at that damn'd door! It's enough to drive anyone crazy.'

As they listened they could hear a door slamming somewhere in the west wing. It kept on banging rhythmically about every thirty seconds, as though someone was constantly opening it, pulling it back and then crashing it to.

‘Let's make a move,' said the Duke abruptly. ‘Tomorrow, when I'm feeling stronger, I'll perform a banishing ritual and try to get rid of these things for you. They're not dangerous in themselves and are quite a low form of elemental sent by our enemy to annoy us, so I don't think there should be any great difficulty in driving them away.'

As he limped off to the library with Marie Lou and Simon, to prepare the great pentacle for the night, Richard and Rex lit candles and together descended into the cellars of the house. They were centuries old, having thick stone walls and heavy doors so that they differed little from actual mediaeval dungeons and quite possibly had been used for that purpose in the bad old days when the Lord Abbots held temporal as well as spiritual sway over the lands adjacent to Cardinals Folly.

One of them was now used as a wine-cellar and two others for lumber of various kinds, but a fourth was empty
and it was into this that Richard had locked the two enemy agents. Taking a huge key from its nail beside the door, he unlocked it, and holding their candles aloft they went in.

The Japanese was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the floor, and the other man was lying propped-up in a corner. They blinked a little from having been in total darkness for over two hours, and Rex said:

‘Now then, you two, you'd better get this straight. We're not standing any nonsense. You tried to rub us out, and unless you answer the questions I'm going to put to you we're going to rub
you
out. Got that?'

‘No understand Engleesh,' said the Jap.

‘Oh yes, you do,' boomed Rex. ‘And what's more, you're going to talk it, unless you want both your ears torn off.'

‘No understand Engleesh,' repeated the Jap impassively.

Rex looked over at the other man. ‘How about you, comrade? Are you going to talk a little Engleesh or do I knock your teeth down your throat?'

The man had scrambled slowly to his feet but he just stood there and dumbly shook his head.

‘These guys are asking for trouble,' Rex remarked to Richard, ‘and in a minute they're going to get it.'

Richard laid a hand on his arm. ‘Before you start in on them, let me have a go. I'll bet they understand all right. With a war on, they couldn't keep out of the clutches of the police for twenty-four hours unless they could talk enough English to make themselves understood while getting about the country. But the Jap looks as though he could take a lot of punishment without squealing, so I think we stand a better chance of getting what we want by exerting mental pressure.'

‘Play it your way if you like,' Rex shrugged. ‘I don't want to soil my hands on the dirty little rat.'

Richard then addressed the prisoners, speaking very slowly and clearly in a hard, cold voice. ‘Listen, both of you. This is my house. There are no servants here and no one will come down to these cellars whatever happens. You can shout until you have no voices left, but nobody will hear you, and if you persist in forgetting how to talk I mean to forget that I have ever set eyes on either, of you. This cellar, as you see, is absolutely empty; there is no food and no water in it, and not even a bed on which to lie down.
What is more, the stone floor is damp and cold. If you persist in refusing to answer my questions my friend and I will leave you here and we shall
not—come
—
back.
No food and no water will be brought to you, so in the course of a day or two you will die of thirst—and a very unpleasant form of death you will find it.
Now,
are you going to be sensible or do you prefer to die here?'

Both the prisoners maintained a sullen silence, so after waiting a little, Rex said: That line's no good, Richard— at least, it won't get us anywhere at the moment. They'd probably stick it for twenty-four hours anyhow before they decided to spill the beans. We'll have to try something else if we want quick results.'

It was very cold down in the cellar, and very quiet. The only sound that disturbed the stillness was the faint but persistent banging of the door upstairs in the west wing. It was the cold chill of the place which gave Richard a new inspiration.

‘I know how we can hasten matters,' he said grimly. ‘Whatever we get out of them, we shan't be able to make use of it until tomorrow morning, and in any case we ought to search their clothes to see if they have anything of interest on them. Let's strip them both and leave them here in the cold all night. I bet they'll be ready enough to talk by the time we've had our breakfast.'

‘Yep,' Rex nodded. ‘Good stunt, that; and if they die of pneumonia afterwards—what the hell! Better folk than they are dying as we stand here, as a result of the Nazi air-raids. Let's do as you say. For the sake of a blanket and a cup of hot soup apiece tomorrow morning they'll be ready to give their own mothers away.'

Carefully setting their candles down on the floor, near the door, they advanced upon the Jap. Having felt that they were more than a match for the two prisoners neither of them had thought it necessary to bring down a gun, and seeing that they were unarmed the Jap stood up, apparently prepared to defend himself. The European slithered sideways a little, as though about to make a dash for the door. Rex was watching him out of the corner of his eye and let him cover a few feet. Then, just as he was on the point of dashing forward, Rex suddenly swung round and struck
him behind the ear. With a gasp he stumbled against the wall and slid to the floor.

The Japanese took advantage of the diversion to leap at Richard. They went down with a mighty crash that nearly drove the breath out of Richard's body. He was underneath, and he knew at once, from the way in which his arms were seized and twisted giving him a moment's excruciating pain, that the wiry little devil on top of him was a Judo expert.

But no amount of ju-jutsu could prevail against Rex's Herculean strength; his great hands closed about the Jap's collar and the seat of his pants. With one violent jerk he tore him from on top of Richard then flung him sideways against the stone wall of the cellar.

As Richard struggled, panting, to his feet, Rex dived after the Jap and, picking him up again, shook him as a terrier shakes a rat.

‘Come on, Richard,' he cried; ‘I've got the little swine; just tear his clothes off him for me, will you?'

In vain the Jap squirmed and kicked. Between them they ripped off every shred of his clothes and flung him, gasping, in a corner.

‘Now for the other feller,' said Rex, kicking the Jap's clothes toward the door. Together they advanced upon the European, who, apparently only semi-conscious, lay moaning on the floor. Rex sat him up and Richard pulled off his coat. It was at that moment that over Rex's shoulder Richard caught sight of something which made his blood turn to water in his veins.

The thing that Richard saw was not alarming in itself. Had he been down in that cellar a month or so before and seen it he would just have stood there wondering what on earth it could be, since it was no more than a tiny blob of purplish-red light, about as big as a firefly, hovering near the ceiling. He would probably have thought then that it was some form of phosphorescent beetle, but now he knew instantly that it must be something infinitely more dangerous.

Ever since the Duke had started his operations on the astral Richard had known that they might be subject to attacks from Evil entities, and during the past few days they had had ample evidence that the war was now being carried into their own camp. This little glimmer of red light might be only a low form of Elemental, like the poltergeists which had been causing them so much annoyance but were comparatively harmless. On the other hand, it might be some terrible Saatii manifestation from the Outer Circle which had come on the scene to protect the two thugs who were pawns in its physical game. If so, in the next few moments both he and Rex, unprotected as they were by astral barriers, stood a good chance of losing their reason.

With a strangled shout of ‘Rex! Quick! Get out!' Richard sprang away from the man whose clothes he had been removing.

Rex instantly swung round and saw the Thing behind him. Even in that brief space of time the reddish glow had increased from the size of a peanut to that of a golf ball.
The radiance it gave off was much brighter, lighting the whole corner of the cellar and glinting redly upon the naked body of the Jap which lay below it. In the same glance Rex saw that the two candles which they had set up near the door were flickering wildly, though there was not even a breath of draught in the musty cellar. Simultaneously both of them flung themselves at the door and wrenched it open.

As they did so the candles fluttered out; yet the cellar was not plunged in darkness. The lurid red glow now lit the whole place and the manifestation had swollen to the size of a cricket ball. Sweating with terror they threw themselves out into the passage and started to run along it, but they both had the awful sensation that something was pulling them back.

To lift each foot meant a colossal effort. It was as though they were trying to run under water, and the dark passage stretched out before them seeming to be a hundred yards in length instead of the bare twenty that it actually measured. Utilising every ounce of their will-power they fought their way forward until, when they were half way along the passage, Rex gave a moaning cry, stumbled and fell.

Time seemed to be standing still in that awful moment, as Richard stooped and, grabbing Rex by the arm, endeavoured to heave him to his feet. As he pulled at the weighty, seemingly inert form of his friend he was striving with all his might to remember the words of certain abjurations against evil things which he had heard de Richleau utter years before; but his brain seemed to be clogged and sluggish, so that in spite of all his efforts he could not recall even the first words of the Latin exorcism that he was seeking.

Instinctively he muttered the simple plea, ‘Lord, protect us; O Lord, protect us,' and his call was answered.

He remembered de Richleau telling him that one of the best protections against evil was the blue vibration: that one should think of oneself as entirely surrounded by an oval aura of blue light and as actually wearing on one's forehead a crucifix set in an up-ended horseshoe, both of which symbols were glowing there in brilliant blue, a few inches above one's eyes.

As he ‘thought blue' new strength seemed to come to him.
Somehow he managed to jerk Rex back onto his feet while whispering hoarsely: ‘The blue aura, Rex—the horseshoe and the Cross—think of them in blue.'

‘Yes,' gasped Rex, ‘yes.' And together they again stumbled along the passage. Yet the Thing behind them refused to give up its prey. Although they dared not look over their shoulders they knew that it had emerged from the cellar and was following with silent stealth, exerting all its force to drag them back.

For a few moments they could both see the Blue Light that was surrounding them, but gradually it dimmed, and by the time they reached the foot of the stairs the baleful Magenta Light from behind them had overcome it. The stairs appeared to stretch up and up into infinity and their feet were so weighted that it seemed impossible that either would ever be able to mount to the floor above. A terrible load now pressed upon their shoulders so that they could no longer stand upright. They were bent almost double, so that only the first few stairs came within the range of their vision.

‘O Lord, protect us—O Lord, protect us,' Richard whispered again, and with a fresh effort they mounted the first three stairs only to collapse side by side upon the fourth.

A wave of reddish light seemed to pass over them, blinding them to all else. They were submerged in it, breathless, gasping. The beating of their hearts was laboured, slowing down, so that the redness before their eyes darkened to a purple-tinted blackness. Both felt that the end was upon them when suddenly Simon's voice cut into their dulled consciousness. He was calling from the top of the stairs.

‘Richard! Rex!'

His shout was followed by a gasp of dismay as he saw them lying there huddled together. Then, in a ringing voice, he cried aloud the words that Richard had been unable to remember. ‘
Fundamenta ejus in montibus sanctis
!'

Immediately the Magenta Light faded, their limbs were free of the awful weight which held them down, and next moment Simon, who had rushed down towards them, was dragging them both helter-skelter up the stairs. Breathless, shaking, and still chilled with the terror of the Evil which had been upon them, they stumbled across the hall and into the library.

De Richleau was already asleep within the pentacle and Marie Lou, dressed for bed, was sitting beside him. As they burst into the room she made an angry gesture for silence, fearing that they would wake the Duke; then she caught sight of their white, scared faces.

‘What's happened?' she asked sharply.

It was Simon who answered after swiftly shutting the door and making the sign of the Cross over it.

‘I'd just been upstairs getting ready for the night,' he panted; ‘suddenly struck me that Richard and Rex had been down in that cellar a long time; wondered if anything had gone wrong, so I—er—went down to see—found them in a shocking muddle.'

Richard was mopping the perspiration from his forehead but Simon's old expression for any sort of trouble brought a faint smile to his lips, and he took up the tale:

‘The prisoners wouldn't talk, so Rex and I decided to leave them without clothes down in that damp, cold cellar for the night. We'd stripped the Jap and were just about to start on the other feller when the Big Black that we're up against must have tumbled to what was on. Either he arrived in person or sent something pretty nasty to get us. I've never been more utterly afraid in all my life.'