‘Oh, Rex,’ her eyes held his imploringly. ‘You must not unless you take me with you. If you leave me alone, Mocata will be certain to get me.’
For a moment Rex hesitated miserably, wrestling with the quandary that faced him. If Tanith was telling the truth, he couldn’t possibly leave her to be drawn back by that terrible power of evil. But was she? So far she had been Mocata’s puppet. How much truth was there in this pretended change of heart? Had Mocata planted her there in order to lure him deliberately away from Simon’s side.
It occurred to him that he might take her back with him to Cardinals Folly, for if she was speaking the truth she was in the same case as Simon. They could keep the two of them together and concentrate their forces against the black magician. But he dismissed the idea almost as soon as it entered his mind. To do so would be playing Mocata’s game with a vengeance. If Tanith were acting consciously or unconsciously under his influence, God alone knew what powers she might possess to aid her master once they accepted her as a friend in their midst. If he took her there it would be like introducing one of the enemy into a beleaguered fortress.
‘What are you afraid might happen if I leave you?’ he asked suddenly.
‘You can’tyou mustn’t,’ her eyes pleaded with him. ‘Not only for my own sake, but your friends’ as well. Mocata has a hundred means of knowing where Simon is and where I am too. He may arrive here at any moment. It’s no good pretending, Rex. I know beyond any question that I cannot resist him and he’ll work through me, however much my will is set against it. He’s told me a dozen times that he had never met a woman who is such a successful medium for him as myself. So you can be certain that he is on his way here now.’
‘What d’you think he’ll do when he turns up?’
‘He will throw me into a trance and call Simon to him. Then if Simon fails to come Mocata may curse him through me.’
Rex shrugged. ‘Don’t worry. De Richleau’s a wily old bird. He’ll turn the curse aside some way.’
‘But you don’t seem to understand,’ she sobbed. ‘If a cure is sent out it must lodge somewhere, and if it fails to reach its objective because there is an equally strong influence working against it, the vibrations recoil and impinge upon the sender.’
‘Steady now.’ He took her hands and tried to soothe her. ‘If that is so I guess we couldn’t find a better way to tickle up Mocata.’
‘Nono! He never does these things himselfat least I have never known him tojust in case he fails, because then he would have to pay the penalty. Instead, he uses other peoplehypnotises them and makes them throw out the thought or the wish. That is what he will do to me. If he succeeds, you will no longer be able to protect Simon, and if he fails, it is I who will pay the price. That is why you’ve just got to stay with me and prevent him using me as his instrument.’
‘Holy smoke! Then we’re in a proper jam!’ Rex’s brain was working swiftly. If she were telling the truth, she was in real danger. If not, at least Simon still had Richard and Marie Lou to take care of him until the Duke’s return.
All his chivalry and his love for her which seemed to have blossomed overnight welled up and told him that he must chance her honesty and remain there to protect her. ‘All right, I’ll stay,’ he said after a moment.
‘Oh, thank God!’ she sighed. ‘Thank God!
‘But tell me,’ he went on, ‘just why is it you’re such a kingpin medium to this man. What about old Madame D’Urfe and the rest. Can’t he do his stuff through them?
Tanith looked at him through tear-dimmed eyes and shook her head. ‘Not in the same way. You see there is rather an unusual link between us. My number is twenty and so is his.’
Rex frowned. ‘What exactly do you mean by that?’ he asked in a puzzled voice.
‘I mean our astrological numbers,’ she replied quietly. ‘Give me a piece of paper, and I will show you.’
Rex handed her a few sheets from a nearby table and a pencil from his waistcoat pocket, then she quickly drew out a list of the numerical values to the letters of the alphabet:
A=1 K=2 S=3
B=2 L=3 T=4
C=3 M=4 U=6
D=4 N=5 V=6
E=5 O=7 W=6
F=8 P=8 X=5
G=3 Q=1 Y=1
H=5 R=2 Z=7
I or J=1
‘There!’ she went on. ‘By substituting numbers for the letters in anyone’s name and adding them up you get their occult number which indicates the planet that influences them most in all spiritual affairs. It must be the name by which they are most generally knowneven if it is a pet name. Now look!’
M=4 T=4
O=7 A=1
C=3 N=5
A=1 I=1
T=4 T=4
A=1 H=5
____ ____
20 2+0 = 2 20 2 + 0 = 2
____ ____
‘You see how closely our vibrations are attuned. Two is the value of the Moon, to which both he and I are subject, and any names having a total numerical value which would reduce by progressive additions to two, such as eleven or twenty-nine or thirty-eight or forty-seven, would give us some affinity, but that they actually add up to the same compound number shows that we are attuned to a very remarkable degree. That is why I have proved such an exceptionally good medium for him to work through.’
‘But you are utterly different from him,’ Rex protested.
‘Of course,’ she nodded gravely. ‘One’s birth date gives the material number, which is generally that of another planet and modifies the influence of the spiritual number considerably. As it happens mine is May 2ndagain a two you see, so I am an almost pure type. Moon people are intensely imaginative, artistic, romantic, gentle by nature and not very strong physically. They are rather over-sensitive and lacking in self-confidence, unsettled too, and liable to be continually changing their plans, but most of them, of course, have some balancing factor. Mocata gets all his imaginative and psychic qualities from the Moon, but his birthday is April 24th which adds up to six, and six being the number of Venus, he is very strongly influenced by that planet. Venus people are extremely magnetic. They attract others easily and are usually loved and worshipped by those under them, but very often they are obstinate and unyielding. It is that in his nature which balances the weakness of the Moon and makes him so determined in carrying out his plans.’
‘What do I come under?’ Rex asked with sudden curiosity. ‘My names are so short that I’m generally known by all three.’
‘Again Tanith took the paper and quickly worked out the equivalent of his name.
R = 2
E = 5
X = 5
_____ = 12
V = 6
A = 1
N = 5
_____ = 12
R = 2
Y = 1
N = 5
____ = 8
____
32 and 3+2=5
She looked at him sharply. ‘Yes, I am not surprised. Five is a fortunate and magic number which comes under Mercury. Such people are versatile and mercurial, quick in thought and decision, impulsive in action and detest plodding work. They make friends easily with every type and have a wonderful elasticity of character which can recover at once from any setback. Even though I do not know you well, I am certain that all this is true of you. I expect you are a born speculator as well and every type of risk attracts you.’
‘That certainly is so,’ Rex grinned as he went on thoughtfully : ‘But I should have thought that there was a good bit of the Sun about you because you have such strong individuality and you are so definite in your views.’
‘I was born on the 19th of August if that gives you a line.’
She smiled. ‘Yes, 19 is 1+9 which equals ten and 1+0 equals 1, the number of the Sun. So I was right, and it is that part of you which I think attracts me so much. Sun and Moon people always get on well together.’
‘I don’t know anything about that,’ Rex said softly. ‘But I’m dead sure I could n
ever see too much of you.’
She lifted her eyes from his quickly as though almost in fright and to break the pause that followed he asked: ‘What number is Simon associated with?’
‘He was born under Saturn as we know only too well, and his occult number is certain to be the Saturnian eight,’ Tanith replied promptly, scribbling the name and numbers on the paper.
S=3
I=1
M=4
O-7
N=5
––=20
A=1
R=2
O=7
N=5_
____ = 15
___
35 and 3 + 5 = 8
‘By Jove! That’s queer,’ Rex murmured as he saw the name worked out quite simply to the number she had predicted.
‘He is a typical number eight person too,’ she went on. ‘They have deep intense natures and are often lonely at heart because they are frequently misunderstood. Sometimes they play a most important part on life’s stage and nearly always a fatalistic one. They are almost fanatically loyal to persons they are fond of or causes they take up, and carry things through regardless of making enemies. It is not a fortunate number to be born under as a rule, and such people usually become great successes or great failures.’
Rex drew the paper towards him, and taking the pencil from her began to work out for himself the numerical symbols of De Richleau, Richard Eaton and Mary Lou.
‘This is amazing,’ Tanith exclaimed when he had finished. ‘The Duke not only comes under the eight like Simon, but their compound numberthirty-fiveis the same as well. He should have immense influence with Simon through that affinity, just as Mocata has over me, and the nine in his name gives him the additional qualities of the born leader, independence, success, courage and determination. If anyone in the world can save your friend, that extraordinary combination of strength and sympathy will enable De Richleau to do so.’
‘But d’you see that the names Richleau and Ryn boil down to eight as well, linking us both with Simon. That’s strange isn’t it?’
‘Not altogether. Any numerologist who knew of your devotion to each other would expect to find some such affinity in your numbers. You will see, too, that you other friend, Richard Eaton, is a four person, which accounts for his sympathy towards you. The eight is formed by two halves or circles and, four being the half of eight, persons with those numbers will always incline
towards each other. Then his wife, like myself, is a two which again linked to all four of you because it is divisible into eight.’
Rex nodded. ‘It’s the strangest mystery I’ve met up with in the whale of a while. There isn’t a single odd number in the whole series, but tell me, would this combination of eights be a good thing d’you reckonor no?’
‘It is very, very potent,’ she said slowly. ‘888 is the number given to Our Lord by students of Occultism in His aspect as the Redeemer. Add them together and you get twenty-four. 2+4=6 which is the number of Venus, the representative of Love. That is the complete opposite of 666 which Revelations give as the number of the Beast. The three sixes add to eighteen, and 1+8=9, the symbol of MarsDe Richleau’s secondary quality which makes him a great leader and fighter, but in its pure state represents Destruction, Force and War.’
At the mention of War, Rex’s whole mind was jerked from the quiet, comfortable, old-fashioned inn parlour to a mental picture of De Richleau as he stood only a few hours before with the light of dawn breaking over Stonehenge. He saw again the Duke’s grey face and unnaturally bright eyes as he spoke of the Talisman of Set; that terrible gateway out of Hell through which, if Mocata found it, those dread four horsemen would come riding, invisible but all-powerful, to poison the thoughts of peace-loving people and manipulate unscrupulous statesmen, influencing them to plunge Europe into fresh calamity.
Not only had they to fight Mocata for Simon’s safety and Tanith’s as well but, murder though it might be to people lacking in understanding, they had to kill him even if they were forced to sacrifice themselves.
With sudden clarity Rex saw that Tanith’s appeal for protection offered a golden opportunity to carry the war into the enemy’s camp. She was so certain that Mocata would appear to claim her, and De Richleau had stated positively that while daylight lasted the Satanist was no more powerful than any other thug.
‘Why,’ Rex thought, with a quick tightening of his great muscles, ‘should he not seize Mocata by force when he arrived; then send for the Duke to decide what they should do with him.’
Only one difficulty seemed to stand in the way. He could hardly attack a visitor and hold him prisoner in The Pride of Peacocks. Mr. Wilkes might object to that. But apparently Mocata could find Tanith with equal ease wherever she was, so she must be got out of the inn to some place where the business could be done without interference.
For a moment the thought of Cardinals Folly entered his mind again, but if he once took Tanith there, they could hardly turn her out later on, and she might become a highly dangerous focus in the coming night; besides, Mocata might not care to risk a visit to the house in daylight with the odds so heavily against him, and that would ruin the whole plan. Then he remembered the woods at the bottom of the garden behind the inn. If he took Tanith there and Mocata did turn up he would have a perfectly free hand in dealing with him. He glanced across at Tanith and suggested casually: ‘What about a little stroll?’
She shook her fair head, and lay back with half-closed eyes in the armchair. ‘I would love’ to, but I am so terribly tired. I had no proper sleep you know last night’
He nodded. ‘We didn’t get much either. We were sitting around Stonehenge the best part of the time till dawn. After that we went into Amesbury where the Duke took a room. The people there must have thought us a queer partyone room for three people and beds being specially shifted into it at half-past seven in the morning, but he was insistent that we shouldn’t leave Simon for a second. So we had about four hours shut-eye on those three beds, all tied together by our wrists and ankles; but it’s a glorious afternoon and the woods round here are just lovely now it’s May.’
‘If you like.’ She rose sleepily. ‘I dare not go to sleep in any case. You mustn’t let me until tomorrow morning. After midnight it will be May 2nd, the mystic two again you see, and my birthday. So during the dark hours tonight I shall be passing into my fatal day. It may be good or evil, but in such circumstances it is almost certain to bring some crisis in my life, and I’m afraid, Rex, terribly afraid.’
He drew her arm protectively through his and led her out through the back door into the pleasant garden which boasted two large, gay archery targets, a pastime that Jeremiah Wilkes had seen fit to institute for the amusement of the local gentry, deriving considerable profit therefrom when they bet each other numerous rounds of drinks upon their prowess with the six-foot bow.
A deep border of dark wallflowers sent out their heady scent at the farther end of the lawn and beyond them the garden opened on to a natural wooded glade. A small stream marked the boundary of Mr. Wilkes’s domain and when they reached it, Rex passed his arm round Tanith’s body, lifted her before she could protest, and with one spring of his long legs cleared the brook. She did not struggle from his grasp, but looked up at him curiously as she lay placid in his arms.
‘You must be very strong,’ she said. ‘Most men can lift a woman, but it can’t be easy to jump a five-foot brook with one.’
‘I’m strong enough,’ he smiled into her face, not attempting to put her down. ‘Strong enough for both of us. You needn’t worry.’ Then, still carrying her in his arms, he walked on into the depths of the wood until the fresh, green beech trees hid them from the windows of the inn.
‘You will get awfully tired,’ she said lazily. ‘Not me,’ he declared, shaking his head. ‘You may be tall, but you’re only a featherweight. I could carry you a mile if I wanted, and it wouldn’t hurt me any.’
‘You needn’t,’ she smiled up at him. ‘You ca
n put me down now and we’ll sit under the trees. It’s lovely here. You were quite rightmuch nicer than the inn.’
He laid her down very gently on a sloping bank, but instead of rising, knelt above her with one arm still about her shoulders and looked down into her eyes. ‘You love me,’ he said suddenly. ‘Don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ she confessed with troubled shadows brooding in her golden eyes. ‘I do. But you mustn’t love me, Rex. You know what I told you yesterday. I’m going to die. I’m going to die soonbefore the year is out.’
‘You’re not,’ he said, almost fiercely. ‘We’ll break this devil MocataDe Richleau will, I’m certain.’
‘But, my dear, it’s nothing to do with him,’ she protested sadly. ‘It’s just Fate, and you haven’t known me long, so it’s not too late yet for you to keep a hold on yourself. You mustn’t love me, because if you do, it will only make you terribly unhappy when I die.
‘You’re not going to die,’ he repeated, and then he laughed suddenly, boyishly, all his mercurial nature rising to dispel such gloomy thoughts. ‘If we both die tomorrow,’ he said suddenly, ‘we’ve still got today, and I love you, Tanith. That’s all there is to it.’
Her arms crept up about his neck and with sudden strength she kissed him on his mouth.
He grabbed her then, his lips seeking hers again and again, while he muttered little phrases of endearment, pouring out all the agony of anxiety that he had felt for her during the past night and the long run from Amesbury in the morning. She clung to him, laughing a little hysterically although she was not far from tears. This strange new happiness was overwhelming to her, flooding her whole being now with a desperate desire to live; to put behind her those nightmare dreams from which she had woken shuddering in the past months at visions of herself torn and bleeding, the victim of some horrible railway accident, or trapped upon the top storey of a blazing building with no alternative but to leap into the street below. For a moment it almost seemed to her that no real foundation existed for the dread which had haunted her since childhood. She was young, healthy and full of life. Why should she not enjoy to the full all the normal pleasures of life with this strong, merry-eyed man who had come so suddenly into her existence.
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