The Coming of The Strangers

by John Lymington

  She looked at him, startled by his tone.

  “What do you mean?”

  “They want to get rid of us now, Laura. We knew—and they know—they can affect our brains when they want to. The first effort could have been successful and got us out, but it wasn’t quite strong enough. Supposing they didn’t have to get us out?” “I don’t—understand, quite.”

  “Supposing they made us kill each other?” he said.

  “They couldn’t!” She was horrified. “It just isn’t possible!” “They’ve been watching,” he said. “They’ve seen their influence work. They’ve seen the girl, they’ve seen Robert, Elfrida, me. They’ve seen us go off the rails, and they know from that which ones to concentrate on, the weak ones, Robert, the girl and me.”

  “It’s impossible… ”

  “It isn’t. But we’ve got to keep watching. Watch Robert. It’s almost dead certain he’s the one they’ll go for first.”

  She drew a deep breath.

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll watch. But I can’t believe… ” Her voice faded.

  “If he changes, you’ll know,” Sebastian said.

  She caught his arm.

  “John, are you sure this—this influence is really there?” she asked. Couldn t it be that we’re all so—scared that we’re not acting like ourselves any more?”

  His heart sank for a moment, then rose again in anger.

  “You saw the girl change! ” he said. “You said yourself… ”

  “Yes, but look at it quietly,” she said. “That girl has been kept down by her father all her life. He’s interfered with her wishes, tried. to put his own thoughts in place of hers. She’s never been away from home to escape. Now, all of a sudden, she thinks she she’s going to be killed. It’s a big possibility. And there’s one tiling she can enjoy that none of us can. She sees a few hours of absolute freedom ahead, no matter what is going to happen at the end of it. All of a sudden she can do as she likes, as she wants, and there’s not much time to do it in. It’s a sudden escape. It needn’t have been anything from outside.”

  He looked away from her to the bright square of the window. Sweat started on him again.

  “No, Laura,” he said, staring. “You could be right.”

  He turned towards the door.

  “Let’s get back to the others,” he said.

  As he followed her he knew the pressure was beginning again, and he knew that he was alone.

  “Laura!” he said.

  She turned in the hall.

  “I love you,” he whispered. “I want you to remember that, whatever happens.”

  She stayed still in a shadow, so that he could not see her face.

  “But the girl actcd naturally,” she said. “And so did you.” “For heaven’s sake, you don’t think I’ve been making up excuses, do you?” he said angrily. “What does it matter that I Sassed a girl? Nothing at all, Laura. But the reason why is the Important thing. The reason why! ”

  know the reason why,” she said softly. “It’s perfectly awful.”

  She turned towards the lounge door. He wiped his face with his hands and watched her go through the door into the moonlit room as if she was something he was losing.

  As he came into the room Harris said breathlessly,

  “They’ve stopped scratching on the roof.”

  “There’s no way in. I told you,” Sebastian said.

  “Yes, but you forget things,” Harris said sharply. “You thought there was a torch, and there wasn’t. So that car went away. We could have signalled, sent him away for help, but you deliberately wasted time out there”

  “I didn’t waste anything!” Sebastian said furiously. “There is a torch out there, but the garage doors were open! ”

  “What difference does that make?” Harris cried. “It could have saved our lives! ”

  “They were in the garage,” Sebastian said in an icy voice. “That’s what you say! ” Harris snarled. “We have to believe you for everything. You’re the only one who knows these things. You’re the only friend they’ve got, and we’ve been listening to you, doing what you say, what you want us to do—and you’re on their side! ”

  “Don’t start a fight, for goodness sake! Elfnda said in a voice like a little scream.

  “It’s true what he says,” Robert growled. That s what I ve been saying all along. Why listen to him? Look at the spot we’re in for listening. Bloody things trying to get in the doors, in the windows, on the roof ! ”

  “Don’t get so excited,” Laura said. “That isn’t going to help!”

  Jill suddenly stood close to Sebastian and slipped an arm through his, pressing it against her side. His arm stiffened, then he put a hand across to hers. She could hear the swift, fearful beating of his heart as he watched the inevitable heating up of the people confronting him.

  “Well, the car’s gone, anyway,” Harris shouted, “and it’s your damned fault. You deliberately wasted time out there to make sure it did go ”

  “Would you like to go out there into that garage, then?” Sebastian challenged. “You can go! Nobody’s standing in the way. Not until you get out there! ”

  “That’s the sort of story you’ve been stuffing us up with all the time!” Harris said. “We’ve had to take your word for everything, because there’s been nothing to see! How do we know there were these things outside when you first kept us here? “We didn’t see anything.”

  “You can now! The marks out there ” Sebastian said.

  “Yes, now” Harris sneered. “They’ve had time to get there, since you told us to stay! Plenty of time. You sold the pass to these bloody things to get this place in their hands and now you’ve sold us, too!”

  “Din’t, don’t!” bleated Elfrida. “It sounds dreadful, putting it like that! ”

  “What other way is there to put it?” Robert interrupted. “It’s true. He’s sold the ruddy pass and us with it. We’ll croak here, but hell be all right. None of his pals is going to hurt him. It’s only us that’s got to be kep quiet, not him. He’s in it! He’s been in it all along!”

  Laura put her hands to her head and pressed.

  “That isn’t true she said suddenly. Leave him alone!”

  Jill hissed, close to his face.

  “Why do you stand for it?” she urged. Hit him. Little swine!”

  Harris was atanding close to Sebastian, fists clenched, teeth showing as he bit them togeather.

  ‘You’re the one that’s got everything out of this!” he cried “They’re your friends. “They paid you to help them, now you bloody well pay them to help us! Go on! Go and make them let us out! You can ! They’re your friends…”

  Don’t be such a fool!” Sebastian shouted, knowing he was in vain. “They’re no more mine than you are! ”

  “What’s the matter with you people?” Elfrida said, sharply. “if somebody doesn’t want to stay there’s a very easy way out— through the window.”

  Robert turned on her.

  “It’s too late now! ’’ he shouted. “That’s what I keep saying. We’ve been kept here till it is too late. It’s a trick. It’s all a Trick! ”

  “How can it be?” Laura protested. “Don’t you think… ”

  “That torch was a trick!” Harris said, snarling at her. “You can’t deny that. He just wasted the time till the car went away— ”

  “Why didn’t you open the window and shout?” Sebastian said “If it was so important…”

  “He’s too damn scared to touch a window!” Jill said contemptuously. “Too scared to shout for help. He’s only going for you because he’s too scared to do anything for himself.”

  “I’m scared,” Harris snapped. “But I’m not daft! I can see what’s going on… ”

  “It’s taken a damn long time,” Sebastian said.

  “Stop bawling! ” Laura cried suddenly.

  “You could have knocked a pane out and shouted through that,” Jill said, still picking Harris. “But you’re too sca
red even far that. Why blame him when you were too frightened yourself?”

  “You could have done the same!” Harris said. “It doesn’t take a man to shout! ”

  “It wasn’t her,” Roherf interrupted. “He’s the bastard we’re after!”

  “All right,” Sebastian said. “So I am. But how’s it going to help for you to kick up hell now? There are only six of us”

  “There’s only five as far as I’m concerned,” Robert said. “Five people in trouble, mister. That’s all! ”

  “Why must you keep on about it?” Elfrida said impatiently. “Even if he did what’s the good of keeping on arguing?”

  “Because he deliberately kept us here so that we should be murdered! ” Robert shouted. “It’s him! He’s the reason why we’re here, trapped in this bloody death house! Him ! Nobody else! We’re the ones that arc going to cop it, but he’s the one that deserves it! I had an officer like him. Sent us out when he knew wc didn’t have a chance. I remember him. We shot him. That’s what ought to happen to you! ”

  “No, no!” Laura stepped suddenly in between Robert and Sebastian. For a moment she stood there, as if trying to understand why she had done it.

  “Of course you defend him!” Harris said. “You ve got a reason. He’d see you out, no matter what! ”

  “That’s working it down to four!” Sebastian said ironically.

  “Very soon you‘11 work it down to two - two so scared for their

  own skins they’re ready to blame anybody for it. I’ve told you the truth. I’ve done the best I can to keep you alive. If you don’t believe me, then get out—now! Go on! Get out and run! ”

  “You know it’s too late for that!” Harris said, breathlessly. “That was the idea—to keep us here until it was too late !”

  “So no matter what I say you stop me defending myself,” Sebastian said. “All right then. Please yourselves. Think what you like and be damned! ”

  For several seconds everyone in the room stood quite still, bewildered, as if suddenly waking to what they had been doing and were shocked into stillness by it.

  Robert’s expression did not change from the sullen, but there was a faint puzzlement in his eyes, as if he could not recall what he had been saying. He turned away, looked with a frown at Elfrida, and then began to roll a cigarette.

  Harris, eyes on Sebastian and Laura, began to back away from them.

  “I’m all of a twitter,” Elfrida said. “I can’t stand this continual argument.”

  Jill let go Sebastian’s arm and turned away. She found herself looking at Laura. Sebastian wiped his brow on his sleeve.

  “Well, that must have been interesting to watch,” he said huskily. “Another spasm like that and something will happen !”

  “It could be quite normal,” Laura said, looking at him. “Fear can do these things.”

  He shrugged.

  “Maybe,” he said.

  “I’ve got a ruddy headache,” Harris said uneasily.

  “Have some of this cold tea,” said Elfrida, pouring.

  Robert finished his cigarette, and stood by the sea windows looking out on to the balcony. As he licked the paper he heard a soft sound, a new sound, a soft hiss and thud. He looked back at the others.

  “Hear that?” he said hoarsely.

  “What?” Elfrida dropped the teapot. She had gone too far. “Don’t for God’s sake say there’s anything else! I don’t think I can bear it! ”

  Laura went to her as Harris, cocking his head, said,

  “What is it? Where is it?”

  “It’s somewhere under the floor here, by the wall,” Robert said, his heavy face pale and lined as folded dough.

  “They’re underneath!” Hlfrida gave a little shriek. “Just as you said. Underneath! ”

  “There’s concrete underneath!” Sebastian said, desperately, “listen to me a minute. They’ve been scraping on the roof, squeaking at the windows, pretending they’re getting in at the but they haven’t pushed a solitary physical effort to get m. It’s part of a nerve war. That’s all! The more scared we are the sooner the end will come …”

  “Nerve war!” Robert scoffed. “Seems like a real war to me. They found out they can’t get in the windows. They found there’s no opening on the roof. So now they’re going the other way, the way they know about. Nerve war my bottom. This is it!”

  3

  At three-thirty, when Darrow was at his home, restless and uneasy without any firm foundation for it, Doctor Maclaren rang him.

  ‘‘Your tramp, laddie,” Maclaren said. “He was picked up by a lookout on the grounded cruiser. The surgeon aboard didn’t like the look of him and sent him straight ashore. I’ve been over to Whitesand starting the p.m., but I’m calling you, laddie, because this is something special.”

  “Sure it’s the tramp from this beach?”

  “Certain sure. The tide runs right round that way, and there couldn’t be a doubt. Laddie, this was no suicide. He hasna got a head! ”

  “Well?” Darrow said, impatience making this information seem usual.

  “At first I thought it had been sawn off, but now I see it’s been nipped off. Supposing you had a huge pair of shears with edges, and you nipped somebody’s throat, well it wud be ice this.”

  “The witness—what’s his name? I’ve forgotten, but he’s chauffeur and he swears the man was thrown in.”

  “’Well, yes that could be,” Maclaren said. “If you grabbed him by the throat with these big shears and jerked him upwards, the injuries wud just fit that.”

  “You mean like the claw of some giant crustacean?”

  “Aye, indeed. I can think o’ nothing else.”

  “Some kind of giant crab from an unexplored part of the deep sea.”

  “So many sea creatures are almost invisible,” Maclaren said. “And there may be dozens of these things on the beach,” Darrow said, and had a sick emptiness swing his stomach. “And if they were giants their shells would be like armour.”

  “Aye. That’s a good line to think on,” Maclaren said.

  “I wonder?” Darrow said, almost to himself. “Do you think it’s really possible? It feels like a nightmare to me right now.” “Of course it’s possible,” Maclaren said. “In fact, it’s here. But ye’re not going to get anybody to believe it until they actually run into them, and judging by the look o’ this wayfarer, by then it’ll be too late! ”

  “Mac, have you got anything there that can actually prove this?”

  “Prove it? There’ll always be some clever Dick who’ll say he caught his head between a couple of rocks and that the movement of the tide sawed it off.”

  “Could be that, could it?” Darrow’s heart went down again. “There are those who’d sooner make up such nonsense than believe something that’ll scare ’em. Nobody likes things that aren’t normal. That’s why deformed animals never survive. The others won’t let ’em.” .

  “Look, Mac, if what you think is right, can you think of a way of dealing with them?”

  “Aye, but it means waiting.”

  “Waiting? Why?”

  “At present they can’t be seen. Their pigment doesn’t fit our spectrum. But if they’re beasts they’ll have to eat, and there’s no food in this world that can’t be seen. Ye see, ye canna have something invisible that also shields something inside it. If ye put something in a glass case ye can see it. And as I think, they’ll have to eat and the food’ll be visible, and then the assimilation of the food will be visible, getting about the body functions, gradually feeding the blood corpuscles—and gradually, man, you’ll see them. Maybe only a framework at the start, but you’ll see them.”

  Darrow stared out at the bright, clear sky of a new day, fresh and keen.

  “And how long do yon think that’s going to take?” he said. “Could take place in hours,” Maclaren said. “Depends how long they can go on without food.”

  “Is that what you’d do?” Darrow said.

  “What else can ye do? T
here may be only two or three of these Traums about, or there may be two or three hundred.” “Traums?”

  “A Traum is a bad dream. What I mean is that ye might find a few and go for them and not see there’s a couple of dozen behind you. Once you start hunting them, man, they won’t be leaving spoor on the sands. They’ll stand on the hard road and ye’ll be as useful as a feller playing Blind Man’s Buff.”

  “But it might be dangerous to wait.”

  “It’s a damn sight more dangerous not to. It’s advice that always suits higher authority. When ye don’t know what to do in a given situation, wait and hope it’ll turn out right. That’s medical advice, too, laddie, though I’m giving away a trade secret.”

  Darrow hesitated.

  there’s no danger so long as nobody goes down there,” Maclaren said. “Obviously this here tramp ran into one and it clocked him. But nobody else has been hurt, because nobody else has been down there. If you can keep people away till they start showing themselves that seems the logical thing to do.” Darrow made up his mind.

  “You say Laura Benson went away?” he asked.

  “I told her to go back, but you know what women are.”

  “All right. Then I’ll find out if anybody is down there. It seems everything hangs on that.’’

  He rang off, looked up Sebastian’s number and dialled it. The tone said Number Unobtainable. He dialled the operator. “Temporarily out of Service” the operator said.

  “Do you mean cut off?”

  “Yes” “The line was cut last night, I think?”

  “Hr, yes there was trouble. But this isn’t that.”

  “This is a police inquiry.”

  “Oh well, it’s for not paying the bill.”

  It seemed to make everything normal. Darrow felt cheated. He rang Laura Benson’s number, but there was no reply, so it seemed that the shrewd Maclaren was right, and that she had ignored his advice.

  He thought of Elfrida, at first hesitated to disturb such an old woman so early, and then frowned as he remembered the Rolls parked in her side drive.