The Man who Missed the War

by Dennis Wheatley

  The memory of the half-naked, self-mutilated bodies and the glowing eyes of the blood-maddened priests was too recent in the minds of both Philip and Gloria for either of them to make light of Zadok’s words. After a moment Gloria said:

  ‘Would you be telling us something about yourselves now?’

  ‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘I will satisfy your curiosity as far as I can. My race originated in the great semi-tropical island of Atzlan.’

  ‘Is that the same as Atlantis?’ inquired Philip.

  ‘Yes. In your language it is called so. You know our history then?’

  ‘We know only the legend that a great civilisation once flourished in a large island situated in the centre of the Atlantic; and that about eleven thousand years ago it was destroyed by earthquakes, and nearly all the people were drowned in a terrible Flood.’

  ‘That is so. We are descendants of some of those who escaped. They were in a ship and managed to survive even after being wrecked on this fearful coast. It was fortunately summer. Before winter came they had found the great cavern which is now the Temple. These rooms and hundreds of others have been made by the many generations that have lived here since. But do you know why Atzlan was destroyed?’

  ‘No. Not really. There is a vague idea that it was because the people had become evil and the Gods decided to wipe them out.’

  Zadok shook his skinny, bald head. ‘There is only one god who has any power in the planet which you call Earth. We know him as Shaitan—or the Remorseless One. Atzlan was destroyed by Flood and Fire because its people forgot him and did not offer him enough hearts. He became angry. He warned us, but we heeded him not, so he tore apart the paradise in which we lived and sent the remnant of us into exile. Here we must remain until we have placated him by offering the full sum of the sacrifice that he requires. When that has been done he will free us from our imprisonment in this icy world and give us back all the rich, warm lands of the earth.’

  ‘I see,’ said Philip hesitantly. ‘That’s why your priests are so eager to make as many sacrifices as they can, I suppose?’

  ‘Yes. But here the numbers that we can afford to sacrifice are small; and we dare not take more than a few score of Leprechauns from their valley each year. They would die out. So our greatest offerings to Shaitan are made in other ways. In the meantime, we watch with interest all that happens in the outer world from which you come.’

  ‘You’re talking in riddles, now,’ said Gloria. ‘D’you really mean that you’re in touch with what goes on in places like the United States?’

  ‘Certainly we are,’ Zadok gave her a mirthless grin. ‘The Lords of the Mountain—that is the seven of us who rule here—are very powerful magicians. In America you would call us scientists, but it is the same thing. In your countries television is only in its infancy. Here we have perfected it to such a degree that we can make our screens show us any part of the world we wish. We can not only focus on a room in Berlin, Washington or Tokyo; we can also listen to all that the people in it say.’

  ‘In that case you must know how the war is going,’ put in Philip quickly. ‘Do please tell us all about it. We’ve had no news of the outside world since the end of October, 1942.’

  ‘That was just before the Anglo-American expeditions landed in North Africa,’ remarked Rakil, entering the conversation for the first time. ‘Unfortunately, the Germans were taken by surprise, so the Allies secured French Morocco and Algeria quite quickly; but we managed to hold them up in Tunisia all winter.’

  ‘The African landings marked the turning of the tide against the Axis,’ said Zadok, taking up the tale. ‘It was about that time that the Germans were held by the Russians at Stalingrad. Later they suffered a major defeat there. Since then the Russians have reconquered a great part of their lost territories.’

  ‘By jove!’ exclaimed Philip, and he was just about to add: ‘What splendid news!’ when he caught himself in time and substituted: ‘That’s pretty bad. But what about the Western Allies? Don’t tell me that those filthy British are going to come out top dogs after all?’

  Zadok shook his head. ‘This war is a long way from being over yet. It is true that with the help of the new American armies the British now control all North Africa. General Alexander’s armies from Egypt joined up with the American General Eisenhower’s armies in Tunisia last May. Then on July the 10th they invaded Sicily. After conquering the island they went on to Italy, and the Anglo-Americans are now fighting about fifty miles south of Rome.’

  ‘All this must be pretty worrying for Mussolini,’ Philip murmured.

  ‘He has gone. His own Fascist Council turned on him soon after the landings in Sicily. They made him a prisoner but Hitler helped him to escape. He is now with the Germans who took over as much of Italy as they could after Mussolini’s downfall; but he has no more power.’

  ‘The hearts of the Italian people never were in the war, anyway,’ Philip remarked.

  ‘Perhaps not,’ Zadok replied. ‘But there are forty-five millions of them. Their armed forces were greater than those of Britain at the time they entered the war and within a few days of that Britain was left to face the might of Germany alone. The additional burden of having to fight a second power with a larger population than her own would have meant the end for any people less pigheaded than the accursed British. How they managed to defend their island and at the same time defeat great Italian armies thousands of miles away in Abyssinia, Eritrea and Libya still remains a miracle.’

  ‘I suppose the explanation lies in the fact that the quality of the Italian troops and generalship was nothing like up to the standard of those produced by the Empire.’

  ‘True, yet the Italians outnumbered the Empire forces by at least six to one and individually many of the Italians fought with great gallantry. For instance in 1942 two Italian sailors sank two of Britain’s biggest battleships.’

  ‘Two men sank two battleships!’ gasped Philip. ‘How on earth did they do that?’

  ‘They entered Alexandria harbour in a midget submarine, got out and attached two limpet bombs to the bilge keels of Queen Elizabeth and Valiant. The explosion of the bombs tore holes in the hulls of the two great ships and caused them to founder on the mud of the harbour. Both of them were out of action for many months.’

  Gloria glanced at Philip expecting one of his usual outbursts on the lines of big ships now being as great a waste of effort in a modern war as equipping an Armoured Division with elephants, but he did not rise.

  Instead he was thinking. ‘Well, anyway, that released their destroyer escorts to do useful work and British superiority in the Eastern Mediterranean was obviously not affected. Let’s hope someone has taken the lesson to heart. Those Italian sailors were probably paid about 8 lira a day and each of them rendered £8,000,000 of British war capital useless for many months. What a commentary on our pre-war naval building programme!’ After a moment he said:

  ‘Tell us about the war at sea.’

  ‘Last April it was announced by Washington that in the year 1942 the Allies lost twelve million tons of shipping. The losses for 1943 have not been given yet, but we believe them to be heavier. The British Navy Minister—the First Lord, they call him—said in a speech last June that the losses for the previous month—May, 1943—were so far the heaviest for any month since the war began.’

  ‘Twelve million tons a year,’ said Philip. ‘That’s terrific. The whole British Empire only owned twenty-one million tons in 1939, and the United States less than nine million. But, of course, their navies weren’t planned to fight an anti-U-boat war, and they spent nearly all their money on types of ships that were no good for that sort of thing. It’s a marvel they’ve been able to find enough shipping to prevent Britain from being starved out.’

  ‘Once the United States started in you can bet they built plenty,’ remarked Gloria.

  ‘You are American yourself, yes?’ Rakil shot at her swiftly.

  ‘No, sir!’ she lied promptly, a look of sur
prised innocence in her bright blue eyes. ‘Why would you think that? I’m Irish, and I’d only been living for a year in New York before my husband came over. I hated the place. Roosevelt and his New Deal and all that sort of thing have no appeal for me. It’s just Socialism and Communism under another name. I’m all for the old countries like Spain and Italy where the Church still exercise an influence on the lives of the people. Quite apart from my family’s just hatred of the dirty British, I’ve a great admiration for Mussolini and General Franco. That’s why I’d like to see Hitler win.’

  ‘Of course,’ Rakil nodded. ‘I had forgotten that you are an Irish Catholic. It is just that having lived in the States you have some idea of what American production can do. You are right about their shipbuilding. Without it Britain would have been starved out long ago. It is almost as much of a miracle as some of the things we do here. For many months past they have been making ships in merely a matter of days. And the way in which they turn out aeroplanes …’ He left the sentence unfinished and held up his long, bony hands with an expression of amazed despair.

  ‘How is the air war going?’ Philip inquired.

  ‘Not well for Germany,’ Zadok replied. ‘The R.A.F. bomber crews have proved as efficient as their tighter pilots did earlier in the war. For years now, with a force that gets bigger and bigger, they have been smashing at German cities. Hardly a night passes without an attack by them. And for the past year the Americans have been bombing Germany in daylight. That required great courage. They lost heavily at first, but their air fleets are now so large that the Germans can no longer effectively oppose them. By these great night and day attacks Hamburg, Cologne and Bremen have been almost wiped out. The industrial area of the Ruhr has been half-destroyed and the centre of Berlin reduced to little but a vast pile of rubble.’

  Philip had positively to fight to keep his delighted feelings from appearing in his face and to say with suitable gravity: ‘Then things don’t look too good for Hitler?’

  Zadok gave him a crafty smile. ‘On the surface, no. His defeats in Russia have cost him many of his best divisions. The collapse of Italy is for him a serious blow. The destruction of the German cities and industries might even intimidate a lesser man into contemplating surrender. Fortunately, that is only one side of the picture. Much of his vital war industry is now transferred safely underground. The Russians are a long way yet from the gates of Berlin and there has been great devastation in their country. They also have suffered great losses in dead and prisoners, Stalin can still feed his armies, but his people are paying dearly for that. I do not believe that the Russians alone can defeat Hitler.’

  ‘There is the Anglo-American Army in Italy,’ murmured Philip.

  ‘It may conquer Italy; but what of the barrier of the Alps? No. Hitler’s only real danger is that the Anglo-Americans should succeed in landing an army in France. He would then be forced to fight on two open fronts.’

  ‘Is there any likelihood of that?’

  ‘Yes. The British have been planning what they call “The Return to the Continent” for a long time. Even when it looked as if their own island would soon be conquered, Churchill created a special staff in his own office to plan for that. But Hitler may prevent them from ever launching their invasion. His plans are far advanced for waging a new type of warfare. His scientists have mastered the problem of the aerial-torpedo. These robot-aircraft packed with explosive will be sent from great distances against London and the other British cities. The Germans are also making rockets—huge rockets that will fly two hundred miles carrying ten tons of explosive. Then there are smaller rockets which will fly just as far and are filled with some sort of fire-making chemical. When the time comes all these will be sent in great numbers. They will destroy much of the Anglo-American shipping and all the British ports from which the invasion could be launched.’

  ‘I see,’ said Philip thoughtfully. ‘Then a sort of stalemate may result; except that, as the Allies have the lead in the air war and the German cities are already in such a bad state, the German people may rat on the Nazis and force them to ask for an armistice.’

  Zadok cackled with laughter. ‘There is no fear of that. All the German people who matter are Nazis. As for the rest they have no power. They could no more force their will on Hitler than the Leprechauns could force their will upon us Lords of the Mountain. Hitler’s only real danger is that the Anglo-Americans might launch their invasion before his new weapons are sufficiently advanced for him to bring them fully into operation.’

  ‘Speaking of the Leprechauns,’ Gloria cut in quickly, ‘when we were before your Council this morning you said that the fetching of them was necessary to the preservation of their own race. What did you mean by that?’

  ‘You will remember that when you lived in their valley there occurred each month what you would call an electric storm. Here we are on exactly the same latitude as the Magnetic Pole. As I have told you, my race is old in Magic—or Natural Science, if you prefer that name. We can so direct electric force as to disperse all cloud above the valley of the Leprechauns and create climatic conditions suitable for them to live there. But blood is necessary to the operation. Human blood must be spilt on the stone of the Remorseless One at the same instant as the current is sent out. The Annual levy of Leprechauns provides one for each of the thirteen months. It is these sacrifices alone which prevent the rest of the race being frozen to death.’

  ‘How did they come here in the first place?’ asked Philip.

  ‘Their ancestors were brought by ours in the ship from Atzlan. To perform a major magic it was always necessary to offer up a human sacrifice to Shaitan. The Leprechauns were used for that purpose. In the first years after my ancestors’ arrival the Leprechauns nearly died out, because life in the caves here did not suit them. It was to preserve their race that the valley was made habitable, and they were transferred there.’

  ‘What made you so anxious to keep them alive, then, when you’ve been killing the poor little things off ever since?’ Gloria demanded.

  ‘We need them as a pool on which to draw for mass sacrifices to the Remorseless One. There are certain special ceremonies. The installation of a new High Priest. The funeral of one of the Seven Lords—that is one of the elders whom you met in Council this morning. And for other exceptional occasions.’

  For a moment there was silence; then, to take her mind off the terrible picture that the old man’s words had conjured up, Gloria said: ‘You haven’t told us anything about the Jap war yet.’

  Zadok glanced towards Rakil, but the gaunt man had just stood up, and he said: ‘Zadok is responsible for watching London and myself for watching Washington. One of my sessions is due to start shortly, so I must leave you now. But we shall meet tomorrow. The Pacific war is very complicated, so it would be easier to explain with maps. I will take you both to see mine.’

  When they had thanked him a servant was summoned, and the two newcomers were led back to their own quarters. It was a great relief to be able to sink down on their piles of cushions with the knowledge that they had passed their tests satisfactorily and that it seemed unlikely that they would be called on to lie and pretend any more at least for that evening.

  At first they were a little silent as their minds were still busy getting into perspective the extraordinary things they had learnt that afternoon. Then Philip said:

  ‘Of course, the whole thing’s fantastic; yet everything they said about the war makes sense. And, if they haven’t got some scientific means of finding out what’s going on, how could they know anything about it at all?’

  ‘I think they’re horrible,’ said Gloria. ‘And those old men are worse even than Coxitl. Zadok said just as casual as you please that they used to sacrifice the Little People to do their magics long before that was necessary to keep the valley from being frozen over like the rest of this awful country.’

  ‘The tragedy is that, although they’ve been doing it for all these years, it isn’t really necessar
y at all.’

  ‘How d’you mean, Boy?’

  ‘Well, these people are a queer mixture. Shut off like this for thousands of years from all other races, they’ve developed in some ways and not in others. They don’t seem to have any aeroplanes or motor snow-ploughs, and they may know very little about chemistry and biology, but they appear to be far ahead of us where electricity is concerned. On the other hand, they evidently still believe that the fact of killing somebody in a special kind of way will result in certain physical repercussions like thunderclaps or a shower of rain; and that is pure nonsense.’

  ‘D’you mean that, if they did whatever they do do with their electrical paraphernalia and didn’t bother about making a human sacrifice at all, that they’d be getting their results just the same?’

  ‘That’s it, darling. I’m dead-sure the two things haven’t the remotest connection. They only go on making the sacrifices because they’ve made them from time immemorial and still believe them to be an essential part of the procedure.’

  Soon after this the servants came in to bath them and serve their dinner. Afterwards, as they had been forbidden to leave their apartment, there seemed no alternative but to settle down for the night. As it had been a day of great strain, they were by no means reluctant to do so, but before going to sleep Gloria said: