At 7.59. The Amesbury Police-Sergeant dropped off a lorry beside the constable on duty at the main cross-roads of the town and warned him to watch out for a Blue Rolls, number OA1217, recklessly driven by a young woman who was wanted by the Yard.
At 8.1. Tanith had slowed down and was wondering desperately if she dared risk another attempt to pass through Amesbury. Deciding against it she ran on, winding in and out through the narrow lanes, to the north-eastward.
At 8.2. Rex had abandoned his bicycle outside the old Alms-houses at Froxfield and was begging a lift from the owner of a rickety Ford who was starting into Hungerford.
At 8.3. The Amesbury Police-Sergeant was reporting to Newbury the appearance of the ‘wanted’ Rolls.
At 8.4. Tanith pulled up, hopelessly lost in a tangle of twisting lanes.
At 8.6. De Richleau swung the Hispano on to the main Bath Road. His cigar tip glowed red in the twilight as he sank his chin into the collar of his coat and settled down to draw every ounce out of the great powerful car.
At 8.8. Tanith had discovered her whereabouts on the map and found that she had been heading back towards the Andover Road.
At 8.9. The Amesbury Police-Sergeant was warning the authorities at Andover to keep a look-out for the stolen car in case it headed back in that direction.
At 8.10. Tanith had turned up a rough track leading north through some woods in the hope that it would enable her to get past the Military Camp at Tidworth without going through it.
At 8.12 Rex was hurrying into The Bear Inn at Hungerford.
At 8.14. Tanith was stuck again, the track having come to an abrupt end at a group of farm buildings.
At 8.17. The Duke was hurtling along the straight, about five miles east of Newbury.
At 8.19. Tanith was back at the entrance of the track and turning into a lane that led due east.
At 8.20. The Amesbury Police-Sergeant left the station again. He had completed his work of warning Salisbury, Devizes, Warminster and Winchester to watch for the stolen Rolls.
At 8.21. Tanith came out on the main Salisbury-Marlborough road and, realising that there was nothing for it but to chance being held up at Tidworth, turned north.
At 8.22. Rex had sunk his second tankard of good Berkshire ale and took up his position in the doorway of The Bear to watch for the Duke.
At 8.23. Tanith, possessed now, it seemed, by some inhuman glee, chortled with laughter as a Military Policeman leapt from the road to let her flash past the entrance of Tidworth Camp.
At 8.24. De Richleau entered Newbury Police Station and learned that the Blue Rolls had been sighted in Amesbury half an hour earlier.
At 8.25. Tanith had pulled up, a mile north of Tidworth, and was studying her map again. She decided that her only hope of reaching the secret rendezvous now lay in taking the by-roads across the northern end of Salisbury Plain.
At 8.26. The Duke was reading two messages which had been handed to him by the Newbury Police. One said : Green Daimler passed through Basingstoke going west at 7.25. Max per Clutterbuck, and the other, Green Daimler passed through Andover going west at 8.0. Max per Clutterbuck. He nodded, quickly summing up the position to himself. ‘Green is heading west through Amesbury by now, and Blue was seen making in the same direction, while Yellow took the other route and is coming south from Devizesmost satisfactory so far.’ He then turned to the Station Sergeant: ‘I should be most grateful if you would have any further messages which may come for me relayed to Amesbury. Thank youGood night.’
At 8.27. Tanith had reached a cross-road two miles north of Tidworth and turning west took a dreary windswept road which crosses one of the most desolate parts of the Plain. Dusk had come and with it an overwhelming feeling that whatever happened she must be present at the meeting. The fact that she was about seventeen miles farther from her destination than she had been at Amesbury did not depress her, for she had misled Rex as to the vital necessity of her being there by sunset, and the actual Sabbat did not begin until midnight.
At 8.32. Rex was taking a message over the telephone of The Bear at Hungerford.
At 8.35. Tanith was passing the Aerodrome at Upavon, and forced to slow down owing to the curving nature of the road ahead.
At 8.37. De Richleau’s Hispano roared into Hungerford, and Rex, who had resumed his position in the doorway of The Bear ran out to meet it. ‘Any messages?’ the Duke asked as he scrambled in.
‘YepMax called me. A bird named Clutterbuck says a Yellow Sunbeam passed through Westbury heading south at five minutes past eight.’
‘Good,’ nodded the Duke, who already had the car in motion again.
At 8.38. Tanith was free of the twisting patch of road by Upavon and out on the straight across the naked Plain once more. If only she could keep clear of the police, she felt that she would be able to reach the meeting-place in another forty-five minutes. A wild, unnatural exaltation drove her on as the Blue Rolls ate up the miles towards the west.
At 8.39. Rex was asking : ‘What is all this about a Yellow Sunbeam anyway? It was a Blue Rolls I got stung for.’ And the Duke replied, with his grey eyes twinkling : ‘Don’t worry about the Rolls. The police saw your young friend with it in Amesbury a little after eight. They will catch her for us you may be certain.’
At 8.40. The police at Newbury were relaying a message from Max for the Duke to their colleagues at Amesbury.
At 8.41. De Richleau was saying : ‘Don’t be a fool, Rex. I only said that I could not call in the police unless these people committed some definite breach of the law. Car stealing is a crime, so I have been able to utilise them in this one instance that’s all.’
At 8.44. Two traffic policemen on a motor-cycle combination, which had set out from Devizes a quarter of an hour before, spotted the back number-plate of Blue Rolls number OA 1217 as it switched to the left fork road where they were stationed, but Tanith had caught sight of them, and her headlights streaked away, cutting a lane through the darkness to the south-westward.
At 8.45. The Hispano was rocking from side to side as it flew round the bends of the twisting road south-west of Hungerford. The Duke had heard Rex’s account of the way Tanith had tricked him but refused to enlighten him about the Yellow Sunbeam.
‘No, no,’ he said impatiently. ‘I want to hear every single thing you learned from this girlI’ll tell you my end later.’
At 8.46. The traffic policemen had their machine going all out and were in full cry after the recklessly driven Rolls.
At 8.47. The Police at Newbury were relaying a second message from Max for the Duke to their colleagues at Amesbury.
At 8.48. Tanith saw the lights of Easterton village looming up in the distance across the treeless grassland as she hurtled south-westward in the Rolls.
At 8.49. The traffic policeman in the side-car said : ‘Steady, Billwe’ll get her in a minute.’
At 8.50. The Hispano had passed the cross-roads nine miles south-west of Hungerford and come out on to the straight. De Richleau had now heard everything of importance which Rex had to tell and replied abruptly to his renewed questioning : ‘For God’s sake don’t pester me now. It’s no easy matter to keep this thing on the road when we’re doing eighty most of the time.’
At 8.51. Tanith clutched desperately at the wheel of the Rolls as with screaming tyres it shot round the corner of the village street. The police siren in her ears shrilled insistently for her to halt. She took another bend practically on two wheels, glimpsed the darkness of the open country again for a second then, with a rendering, splintering crash, the off-side mudguards tore down a length of wooden palings. The car swerved violently, dashed up a steep bank then down again, rocking and plunging, until it came to rest, with a sickening thud, against the back of a big barn.
At 9.8. The Duke, with Rex beside him, entered Amesbury Police Station and the two messages which had been phoned through from Newbury were handed to him. The first read : Green Daimler passed through Amesbury going west at 8.15, and the se
cond, Yellow Sunbeam halted Chilbury 8.22. Both were signed : Max per Clutterbuck.
As De Richleau slipped them into his pocket an Inspector came out of an inner room. ‘We’ve got your car, sir,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Heard the news only this minute. Two officers spotted the young woman at the fork roads south of Devizes and gave chase. She made a mucker of that bad bend in Easterton village. Ran it through a garden and up a steep bank.’
‘Is she hurt?’ asked Rex anxiously.
‘No, sircan’t be. Not enough to prevent her hopping out and running for it. I reckon it was that bank that saved her and the car toofor I gather it’s not damaged anything to speak of.’
‘Has she been caught?’ inquired the Duke.
‘Not yet, sir, but I expect she will be before morning.’
As De Richleau nodded his thanks, and spread out a map to find the village of Chilbury, the desk telephone shrilled. The constable who answered it scribbled rapidly on a pad and then passed the paper over to him. ‘Here’s another message for you sir.’
Rex glanced over the Duke’s shoulder and read, Green Daimler halted Chilbury 8.30. Other cars parked in vicinity and more arriving. Will await you cross-roads half a mile south of village. Clutterbuck.
De Richleau looked up and gave a low chuckle. ‘Got them!’ he exclaimed. ‘Now we can talk.’
At 9.14. They were back in the car.
CHAPTER XV
THE ROAD TO THE SABBAT
The big Hispano left the last houses of Amesbury behind and took the long, curving road across the Plain to the west. De Richleau, driving now at a moderate pace, was at last able to satisfy Rex’s curiosity.
‘It is quite simple, my dear fellow. Immediately I learned from you that Madame D’Urfe was leaving Claridges for the Sabbat at four o’clock, I realised that in her we had a second line of inquiry. Having promised to meet you at Pangbourne, I couldn’t very well follow her myself, so I got in touch with an ex-superintendent of Scotland Yard named Clutterbuck, who runs a Private Inquiry Agency.’
‘But I thought you said we must handle this business on our own,’ Rex protested.
‘That is so, and Clutterbuck has no idea of the devilry that we are up against. I only called him for the purpose of tracing cars and watching people, which is his normal business. After I had explained what I wanted to him he arranged for half a dozen of his assistants to be in readiness with motor-cycles. Then I took him round to Claridges in order to point the old woman out to him. As luck would have it, I spotted the Albino that we saw at the party last night come out at half past three and drive off in the Yellow Sports Sunbeam, so that gave us a third line, and Clutterbuck sent one of his men after him. The Countess left in the Green Daimler a good bit after four, and that’s why I was delayed in getting down to Pangbourne. Clutterbuck trailed her in his own car, and directly we knew that she was making for the west, sent the rest of his squad ahead in order to pick her up again if by any chance he lost her. That is how the reports of the movements of the two cars came through to me.’
‘How about Mocata? He was at Claridges when Tanith phoned the old woman, round about half past one!
‘Unfortunately, he must have left by the time I came on the scene, but it doesn’t matter, because he is certain to be with the rest.’
Rex grinned. ‘It was a pretty neat piece of staff work.’
The few miles across the Plain were soon eaten up, and the Duke had scarcely finished giving Rex particulars of his campaign when they reached the lonely windswept cross-roads half a mile south of Chilbury. A car was drawn up at the side of the road and near it a group of half a dozen men with motor cycles stood talking in low voices. As the Hispano was brought to a standstill, a tall, thin man left the group and came over to De Richleau.
‘The persons you are wanting are in the big house on the far side of the village, sir,’ he said. ‘You can’t miss it because the place is surrounded by trees, and they are the only ones hereabouts.’
‘Thank you,’ De Richleau nodded. ‘Have you any idea how many people have arrived for this party?’
‘I should think a hundred or so at a rough guess. There are quite fifty cars parked in the grounds at the back of the house, and some of them had two or three occupants. Will you require my assistance any further?’
‘Not now. I am very pleased with the way you have handled this little affair, and should I need your help later on, I will get in touch with you again.’
Rex nudged the Duke just as he was about to dismiss Clutterbuck. ‘If there’s a hundred of them, we won’t stand an earthly on our own. Why not keep these people? Eight or nine of us might be able to put up a pretty good show!
‘Impossible,’ De Richleau replied briefly, while the detective eyed the two of them with guarded interest, wondering what business they were engaged upon but satisfied in his own mind that, since Rex had suggested retaining him, he had not lent himself to anything illegal. ‘If there’s nothing else I can do then, sir,’ he said, touching his hat, I and my men will be getting back to London.’
‘Thank you,’ De Richleau acknowledged the salute. ‘Good night.’ As the detective turned away, he let out the clutch of the Hispano.
With the engine just ticking over, they slipped through the silent village. Most of the cottages were already in darkness. The only bright light came from the tap-room of the tiny village inn, while the dull glow from curtained windows in one or two of the upper rooms of the houses showed that those inhabitants of the little hamlet who were not already in bed would very shortly be there.
To the south of the road, on the far side of the village, they came upon a thick belt of ancient trees extending for nearly a quarter of a mile and, although no house was visible behind the high stone wall that shut them in, they knew from Clutterbuck’s description that this must be the secret rendezvous.
A chalky lane followed the curve of the wall where it left the main road and, having driven a hundred yards along it, they turned the car so that it might be in immediate readiness to take the road again, and parked it on a grassy slope that edged the lane.
‘As the Duke alighted, he pulled out a small suitcase. ‘These are the results of my morning’s research at the British Museum,’ he said, opening it up.
Rex leaned forward curiously to survey the strange assortment of things the case contained : a bunch of white flowers, a bundle of long grass, two large ivory crucifixes, several small phials, a bottleapparently of waterand a number of other items; but he stepped quickly back as a strong, pungent, unpleasant odour struck his nostrils.
De Richleau gave a grim chuckle. ‘You don’t like the smell of the Asafoetida grass and the Garlic flowers, eh? But they are highly potent against evil my friend, and if we can only secure Simon they will prove a fine protection for him. Here, take this crucifix.’
‘What’ll I do with it?’ Rex asked, admiring for a moment the beautiful carving on the sacred symbol.
‘Hold it in your hand from the moment we go over this wall, and before your face if we come upon any of these devilish people.’
While De Richleau was speaking, he had taken a little plush box from the suitcase, and out of it a rosary from which dangled a small, gold cross. Reaching up, he hung it about Rex’s neck, explaining as he did so: ‘Should you drop the big one, or if it is knocked from your hand by some accident, this will serve as a reserve defence. In addition, I want you to set another above a horseshoe in your aura.’
‘How d’you mean?’ Rex frowned, obviously puzzled.
‘Just imagine if you can that you are actually wearing a horseshoe surmounted by a crucifix on your forehead. Think of it as glowing there in the darkness an inch or so above your eyes. That is an even better protection than any ordinary material symbol, but it is difficult to concentrate sufficiently to keep it there without long practice, so we must wear the sign as well.’ The Duke placed a similar rosary round his own neck and took two small phials from the open case. ‘Mercury and Salt,’ he ad
ded. ‘Place one in each of your breast pockets!’ Rex did as he was bid. ‘But why are we wearing crucifixes when you put a swastika on Simon before?’ he asked.
‘I was wrong. That is the symbol of Light in the East, where I learned what little I know of the Esoteric Doctrine. There, it would have proved an adequate barrier, but here, where Christian thoughts have been centred on the Cross for many centuries, the crucifix has far more potent vibrations.’
He took up the bottle and went on: ‘This is holy water from Lourdes, and with it I shall seal the nine openings of your body that no evil may enter it at any one of them. Then you must do the same for me.’
With swift gestures, the Duke made the sign of the cross in holy water upon Rex’s eyes, nostril’s, lips, etc., and then Rex performed a similar service for him.
De Richleau picked up the other crucifix and shut the case. ‘Now we can start,’ he said. ‘I only wish that we had a fragment of the Host apiece. That is the most powerful defence of all, and with it we might walk unafraid into hell itself. But it can only be obtained by a layman after a special dispensation, and I had no time to plead my case for that today.’
The night was fine and clear, but only a faint starlight lit the surrounding country, and they felt rather than saw the rolling slopes of the Plain which hemmed in the village and the house, where they were set in a sheltered dip. The whole length of the high stone wall was fringed, as far as they could see, by the belt of trees, and through their thick, early-summer foliage no glimpse of light penetrated to show the exact position of the house.
Since no sound broke the stillnessalthough a hundred people were reported to be gathered therethey judged the place to be somewhere in the depths of the wood at a good distance from the wall; yet despite that, as they walked quickly side by side down the chalky lane, they spoke only in whispers, lest they disturb the strange stillness that brooded over that night-darkened valley.
At length they found the thing that they were seeking, a place where the old wall had crumbled and broken at the top. A pile of masonry had fallen into the lane, making a natural step a couple of feet in height, and from it they found no difficulty in hoisting themselves up into the small breach from which it had tumbled.
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