Strange Conflict (7 page)

‘No, it's not fear of bombs that has brought me out of London, my dear, but something much more desperate.'

Her face suddenly went serious and she nodded quickly. ‘All right, then. But come inside. At least I've had time to mix the cocktails.'

Richard made a grimace as he followed her into the long, low drawing-room which in summer had such a lovely view through its french windows over the terraced garden. ‘I'm afraid our luck's out, darling; we're all on the wagon.'

She stopped dead and her eyes grew rounder, showing just a trace of fear as she stared at de Richleau. ‘The library—no drinks!—you—you don't mean that one of you is threatened again by something awful from the other side?'

‘No,' the Duke reassured her, ‘but it has fallen to us to break a lance against Hitler on the astral.'

‘I don't like it,' she said suddenly, ‘I don't like it.'

Richard put his arm round her shoulders. ‘Darling, the Blacks are getting information into Germany by occult means—at least, that's what we believe—and someone's got to go out from Earth to try to stop them. As you know very well, one needs quiet and peaceful surroundings for work of that kind, so I felt sure that I was doing what you would have wished in telling Greyeyes that he must come and stay with us while he wages this strangest of all battles for Britain.'

She spread out her hands in a little foreign gesture. ‘Of course you were right. I should never have forgiven him if I'd learnt afterwards that he had gone elsewhere. I only meant that anything to do with the occult is so damnably dangerous.'

‘After the way you stuck it with your mobile canteen in Coventry all through the night that the Nazis turned the place into a living Hell, I'd come to the conclusion that you'd ceased to fear anything,' Richard said seriously.

She squeezed his hand. ‘That was different, darling. What could any of us do but carry on? And at least we
knew
the worst that could happen—whereas on the other side there are some horrors that one can't even visualise. I'm frightened for you and Rex and Simon more than for myself, because out of my body I'm much stronger than most men.'

De Richleau took her free hand and kissed it. ‘I knew I could count on you, Princess, and, if need be, now we're together we'll be able to form a cohort of five warriors of the Light.'

Rex had picked up the cocktail-shaker and was smelling its contents. ‘What a lousy break!' he murmured. ‘Pineapple-juice and Bacardi rum, my favourite cocktail, yet I mustn't drink any.' He glanced at Marie Lou. ‘I'll bet fifty bucks, too, that Greyeyes means to crack down hard on anything good you may have thought up for our dinner.'

‘Oh dear!' she exclaimed ruefully. ‘If I'd had the least warning of this I should have known that he'd want us all to become vegetarians for the time being. As it is, I've just been getting all sorts of lovely things out from my emergency war stores—foie gras, peaches in Benedictine, tinned cream …'

‘Now, stop making my mouth water, you little hoarder!' Rex waved her into silence with one of his huge hands.

‘Hoarder—nothing!' laughed Richard. ‘All our supplies were bought months before the war, when the seas were still open to replace them and the fact of buying extra stuff was good for trade. Why the Government didn't run a campaign urging everybody to buy all the tinned things they could, while the going was good, I can't imagine. Innumerable little private stocks scattered in thousands of homes all over the country would have proved an absolute blessing now that the nation's on short rations.'

‘One man I know did, in the spring of 1939,' said the Duke. ‘He was at that time writing for the
Sunday Graphic
and his theory was that everybody who could possibly afford to lay in stocks, however small, should do so; because then, if we had to go to war and a time of shortage came, richer people would be partially provided for and that would leave much more in the shops for the poorer people. But the only encouragement he got from the Ministry of Home Security was a semi-official announcement that there was no
harm
in people laying in emergency stores. But I don't doubt that the people who took his tip are grateful to him this winter.'

‘Well, we just mustn't think about all those nice things we were going to have for dinner,' said the practical Marie Lou. ‘Instead, you'd better tell me what you'd like.'

‘No meat, or soup with meat-juice in it,' said the Duke; ‘a little fish, if you have it, and vegetables with fruit or nuts afterwards.'

Rex groaned, but Simon said jerkily with a grin at Marie Lou: ‘Left a parcel with Malin—five Dover soles—knew what we were in for, so thought they might come in useful.'

‘Simon, darling, you always were the most thoughtful person in the world, bless you. Except for tinned things there's not a scrap of fish in the house; but I can manage the fruit and nuts.' Marie Lou hurried away to give fresh orders for their dinner while Richard led the men upstairs to park their things and wash.

When they came down again Richard said to the Duke: ‘Why do you want to sleep in the library? D'you mean to erect a pentacle there, as you did before?'

‘Yes. I thought it would be easier for you to strip the library than one of the bedrooms upstairs and to keep it locked up so that the servants don't go into it in the daytime. I only wish that I'd had a chance to get into proper training for this business, but every day is precious, so I mean to start tonight.'

‘That's taking a pretty big risk, isn't it?'

‘I don't think so. As the Blacks can't possibly know yet that we intend to go out against them there's not the least likelihood of their attacking me on the astral or endeavouring to harm my body while I'm out of it. The trouble will start if I once get on to anything and they happen to notice me snooping about. After all, this is just the same as any other investigation except that it is to be carried out on a different plane. If we were dealing with enemy agents in their physical bodies I should probably get myself a job in the Admiral's house, and nobody operating there would take much interest in me until they noticed that I was following them or prying into matters which were no concern of mine. A really good detective is rarely spotted until he has his man in the bag, therefore I've good reason to hope that nobody will tumble to what I'm up to till I've found out what I want to know; and once I've done that we should be in a position to take counter-measures. Just as a safeguard I propose that you three should take turns to sit up and watch while I sleep, as all of you know enough to help me to get back to my body quickly if I run into any
trouble, and, in addition, you'll be on hand in the unlikely event of my being abruptly awakened by a burglar or a bomb.'

‘Right-oh,' said Richard. ‘Directly we've dined we'll set about clearing the library.'

Thanks to the Dover soles which Simon had had the forethought to purchase before they left London that afternoon, their simple meal, washed down with water, was palatable beyond their expectations. When they had finished, Richard gave instructions to his butler that on no account were they to be disturbed and they all migrated to the big library.

The library, octagonal in shape and slightly sunken below ground level, was the principal room in the oldest part of the house. Comfortable sofas and large armchairs stood about the uneven polished oak of the floor, a pair of globes occupied two angles of the book-lined walls, and a great oval, mahogany writing-table of Chippendale design stood before the wide french window. Owing to its sunken position the lighting of the room was dim in daylight yet its atmosphere was by no means gloomy. A log-fire upon a twelve-inch pile of ashes was kept burning in the wide fireplace all through the year and at night when the curtains were drawn—as they now were—the room was lit with the soft radiance of concealed ceiling-lights which Richard had installed. It was a friendly, restful place, well suited for quiet work or idle conversation.

‘We must strip the room of furniture, carpets—everything,' said the Duke, ‘and I shall need brooms and a mop to polish the floor.'

The men then began moving the furniture out into the hall while Marie Lou fetched a selection of implements from the housemaid's cupboard. For a quarter of an hour they worked in silence, until nothing remained in the big library except the serried rows of gilt-tooled books.

‘I would like the room to be gone over thoroughly,' the Duke smiled at Marie Lou, ‘particularly the floor, since evil emanations can fasten on the least trace of dust to assist their materialisation, and I may, if I get into trouble, be chased back here.'

‘Certainly, Greyeyes dear,' said Marie Lou, and with the help of the others she set about dusting, sweeping and
polishing while de Richleau went out to collect a suit-case holding his ritual paraphernalia and a number of large parcels containing numerous items which he had purchased that morning. As the Duke unpacked them the others saw that they consisted of several pillows, rubber Li-Los, silk dressing-gowns, sets of pyjamas and bedroom slippers.

‘Whatever have you brought all those things for?' asked Marie Lou.

‘Surely you remember that nothing which is even slightly soiled must be within the pentacle,' he replied. ‘Impurities are bound to linger in bedding and clothes even if they have only been used for a few hours, and it is just upon such things that elementais fasten most readily; but I'm relying on you to provide us with clean sheets, blankets and pillowcases.'

‘Of course,' she said gravely. ‘I'll go up and raid the linen-cupboard. How many sets do you want?'

‘Only one for the moment as I am going out alone tonight. The others will be able to sleep in their own beds except during the few hours that each of them will be on watch here beside me.'

The floor was now so scrupulously clean that they could have eaten from it, and as Marie Lou went off to fetch the things for which the Duke had asked he opened his suitcase and took from it a piece of chalk, a length of string and a foot-rule. Marking a spot in the centre of the room he asked Richard to hold the end of the string to it, measured off exactly seven feet, and then, using him as a pivot, drew a large circle in chalk upon the floor.

Next the string was lengthened and an outer circle drawn, then the more complicated part of the operation began. A five-rayed star had to be made with its points touching the outer circle and its valleys resting upon the inner; but while such a defence can be highly potent if it is constructed with geometrical accuracy, should the angles vary more than a fraction the pentacle would prove not only useless but even dangerous.

For half an hour they measured and checked with string and rule and marking-chalk, but at last the broad chalk-lines were drawn to the Duke's satisfaction, forming the magical five-pointed star which would give him protection
from any evil thing which might endeavour to molest him while he slept.

He then, with careful spacing, chalked in round the rim of the inner circle the following powerful exorcism: INRI
ADAM
TE
DAGERAM
AMRTET
ALGAR
ALGASTNA
and after reference to an old book which he had brought with him drew certain curious and ancient symbols in the valleys and the mounts of the micro-cosmic star.