the name of a village five miles from it where he can meet you on one condition.' 'Let's hear it.' 'That neither of you seek to restrain me in any way once we reach our destination.' 'No. I'll not agree to that.' 'Then I certainly will not give you any information which will enable your friend to appear on the scene and help you.' 'I'll get him there some way-don't you worry.' 'That leaves me a free hand to prevent you if I can-doesn't it?' As he swallowed his cocktail she glanced at the clock. 'It's ten past now, so unless you prefer not to go we must start at once.' Consoling himself with the thought that De Richleau could have got no more out of her even if he had questioned her himself, Rex led her out and settled her in the Rolls then, before starting up the engine, he listened intently for a moment, hoping that even yet he might catch the low, steady purr of the big Hispano which would herald the Duke's eleventh hour arrival, but the evening silence brooded unbroken over the trees and lane. Reluctantly he set the car in motion and as they ran down the gravel sweep, Tanith said quietly, 'Please drive to New-bury.' 'But that's no more than twenty miles from here!' 'Oh, I will give you further directions when we reach it,' she smiled, and for a little time they drove in silence through the quiet byways until they entered the main Bath Road at Theale. At Newbury, she gave fresh instructions. 'To Hungerford now,' and the fast, low touring Rolls sped out of the town eating up another ten miles of the highway to the west. 'Where next?' he asked, scanning the houses of the market town for its most prosperous-looking inn and mentally registering The Bear. It was just seven o'clock-another few miles and they would be about half-way to the secret rendezvous. He did not dare to stop in the town in case she gave him the slip and hired another car or went on by train, but when they were well out in the country again he meant to telephone the Duke, who must have arrived at Pangbourne by this time, and urge him to follow as far as Hungerford at once-then sit tight at The Bear until he received further information. Tanith was studying the map. 'There are two ways from here,' she said, 'but I think it would be best to keep to the main road as far as Maryborough.' A few miles out of Hungerford the country became less populous with only a solitary farmhouse here and there, peaceful and placid in the evening light. Then these, too, were left behind and they entered a long stretch of darkening woodlands, the northern fringe of Savernake Forest. Both were silent, thinking of the night to come which was now so close upon them and the struggle of wills that must soon take place. Rex brought the car down to a gentle cruising speed and watched the road-sides intently. At a deserted hairpin bend, where a byway doubled back to the south-east, he found just what he wanted, a telephone call-box. Turning the car off the main road he pulled up, and noted with quick appreciation that they had entered one of the most beautiful avenues he had even seen. As far as the eye could see it cut clean through the forest, the great branches meeting overhead in the sombre gloom of the falling night, it looked like the nave of some titanic cathedral deserted by mankind; but he had no leisure to admire it to the full, and stepping out, called to Tanith over his shoulder: 'Won't be a minute-just want to put through'a call.' She smiled, but the queer look that he had seen earlier in the day came into her eyes again. 'So you mean to trick me and let De Richleau know the direction we have taken?' 'I wouldn't call it that,' he protested. 'In order to get in touch with Simon I bargained to take you to this place you're so keen to get to, but I reserved the right to stop you taking any part yourself, and I need the Duke to help me.' 'And I agreed, because it was the only way in which I could get away from Pangbourne, but I reserved the right to do all in my power to attend the meeting. However,' she shrugged lightly, 'do as you will.' 'Thanks.' Rex entered the box, spoke to the operator, and having inserted the necessary coins, secured his number. Next minute he was speaking to De Richleau. 'Hello! Rex here. I've got the girl and she's agreed- Oh, Hell!' He dropped the receiver and leapt out of the box. While his back was turned Tanith had moved into the driver's seat. The engine purred, the Rolls slid forward. He clutched frantically at the rear mudguard but his fingers slipped and he fell sprawling in the road. When he scrambled to his feet the long blue car was almost hidden by a trail of dust as it roared down the avenue, and while he was still cursing his stupidity, it disappeared into the shadows of the forest. 14 The Duke de Richleau Takes the Field At 7.20. Rex was through again to the Duke, gabbling out the idiotic way in which he had allowed Tanith to fool him and leave him stranded in Savernake Forest. At 7.22. De Richleau had heard all he had to tell and was ordering him to return to Hungerford as best he could, there to await instructions at The Bear. At 7.25. Tanith was out of the Forest and on a good road again, some five miles south-east of Marlborough, slowing down to consult her map. At 7.26. The Duke was through to Scotland Yard. At 7.28. Rex was loping along at a steady trot through the gathering darkness, praying that a car would appear from which he could ask a lift. At 7.30. De Richleau was speaking to the Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, a personal friend of his. 'It's not the car that matters,' he said, 'but the documents which are in it. Their immediate recovery is of vital importance to me and I should consider it a great personal favour if any reports which come in may be sent at once to the Police Station at Newbury.' At 7.32. Tanith was speeding south towards Tidworth, having decided that to go round Salisbury Plain via Amesbury would save her time on account of the better roads. At 7.38. Scotland Yard was issuing the following communique by wireless: 'All stations. Stolen. A blue touring Rolls, 1934 model. Number OA 1217. Owner, Duke de Richleau. Last seen in Savernake Forest going south-east at 19 hours 15, but reported making for Marlborough. Driven by woman. Age twenty-three-attractive appearance-tall, slim, fair hair, pale face, large hazel eyes, wearing light green summer costume and small hat. Particulars required by Special Department. Urgent. Reports to Newbury,' At 7.42. De Richleau received a telephone call at Pang-bourne. 'Speakin' fer Mister Clutterbuck,' said the voice, 'bin tryin' ter get yer this lars' arf hour, sir. The green Daimler passed through Camberley goin' south just arter seven o'clock.' At 7.44. Tanith was running past the military camp at Tid-worth still going south. At 7.45. Rex was buying a second-hand bicycle for cash at three times its value from a belated farm-labourer. At 7.48. The Duke received another call. 'I have a special from Mr. Clutterbuck,' said a new voice. 'The Yellow Sports Sunbeam passed Devizes going south at 7.42.' At 7.49. Tanith reached the Andover-Amesbury road and turned west along it. At 7.54. De Richleau climbed Into his Hispano. 'My night glasses-thank you,' he said as he took a heavy pair of binoculars from Max. 'Any messages which come in for me up to 8.25 are to.be relayed to the police at Newbury, after that to Mr. Van Ryn at the Bear Inn, Hungerford, up till 8.40, and from then on to the police at Newbury again.' At 7.55. Tanith was approaching a small cross-roads on the outskirts of Amesbury. A Police-Sergeant who had left the station ten minutes earlier spotted the number of her car, and stepping out into the road called on her to halt. She swerved violently, missing him by inches, but managed to swing the car into the by-road leading north. At 7.56. Rex was pedalling furiously along the road to Hungerford with all the strength of his muscular legs. At 7.58. Tanith, livid with rage that Rex should have put the police on to her as though she were a common car thief, had spotted another policeman near the bridge in Bulford village. Not daring to risk his holding her up in the narrow street, she switched up another side-road leading north-east 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 OA 1217, 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 And-over Road. At 8.5. 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-Marl -borough 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 bf 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 Devizes-most 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 you-Good night.' At 8.27. Tanith had reached a cross-road two miles north of Tidworth and turning west took a dreary wind-swept 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 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. 'Yep-Max 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 Roils number OA 1217 as it switched to the left at a 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 the girl-I'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 Ames-bury. 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, Bill-we'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 comer 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 rending, 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 second, '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 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, sir-can'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 too-for 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. 15 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 in 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 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 horse-shoe in your aura.' 'How d'you mean?' Rex frowned, obviously puzzled. 'Just imagine if you can that you are actually wearing a horse- shoe 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 added. '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 bottJe 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, nostrils, 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 stillness-although a hundred people were reported to be gathered there-they 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. As they slipped down the other side, they paused for a moment, peering through the great tree-trunks, but here on the inside of the wall beneath the wide-spreading branches of century-old oaks and chestnuts they were in pitch darkness, and could see nothing ahead other than the vague outline of the trees. 'In manus tuas, domine,' murmured the Duke, crossing himself; then holding their crucifixes before them they moved forward stealthily, their feet crackling the dry twigs with a faint snapping as they advanced. After a few moments the darkness lightened and they came out on the edge of a wide lawn. To their left, two hundred yards away, they saw the dim, shadowy bulk of a rambling old house, and through a shrubbery which separated them from it, faint chinks of light coming from the ground floor windows. Now, too, they could hear an indistinct murmur, which betrayed the presence of many people. Keeping well within the shadow of the trees, they moved cautiously along until they had passed the shrubbery and could get a clear view of the low, old-fashioned mansion. Only the ground-floor windows showed lights and these were practically obscured by heavy curtains. The upper stories were dark and lifeless. Still in silence, and instinctively agreeing upon their movements, the two friends advanced again and began to make a circle of the house. On the far side they found the cars parked just as Clutterbuck had described, upon a gravel sweep, and counted up to fifty-seven of them. 'By Jove,' Rex breathed. 'This lot would rejoice an automobile salesman's heart.' The Duke nodded. Not more than half a dozen out of the whole collection were ordinary, moderately-priced machines. The rest bore out De Richleau's statement that the practitioners of the Black Art in modern times were almost exclusively people of great wealth. A big silver Rolls stood nearest to them; beyond it a golden Bugatti. Then a supercharged Mercedes, another Rolls, an Isotta Fraschini whose bonnet alone looked as big as an Austin Seven, and so the line continued with Alfa Romeos, Daimlers, Hispanos and Bentleys, nearly every one distinctive of its kind. At a low estimate there must have been ?100,000 worth of motor-cars parked in that small area. As they paused there for a moment a mutter of voices and a sudden burst of laughter came from a ground-floor window. Rex tip-toed softly forward across the gravel. De Richleau followed and, crouching down with their heads on a level with the low sill, they were able to see through a chink in the curtains into the room. It was a long, low billiards-room with two tables, and the usual settees ranged along the walls. Both tables were covered with white cloths upon which were piles of plates, glasses, and an abundant supply of cold food. About the room, laughing, smoking and talking, were some thirty chauffeurs who, having delivered their employers at the rendezvous, were being provided with an excellent spread to keep them busy and out of the way. The Duke touched Rex on the shoulder, and they tiptoed quietly back to the shelter of the bushes. Then, making a circle of the drive, they passed round the other side of the house, which was dark and deserted, until they came again to the lighted windows at the back which they had first seen. The curtains of these had been more carefully drawn than those of the billiards-room where the chauffeurs were supping, and it was only after some difficulty that they found a place at one where they were able to observe a small portion of the room. From what little they could see, the place seemed to be a large reception-room, with parquet floor, painted walls and Italian furniture. The head of a man, who was seated with his back to the window, added to their difficulty in seeing into the room but the glimpse they could get was sufficient to show that all the occupants of it were masked and their clothes hidden under black dominoes, giving them all a strangely funereal appearance. As the man by the window turned his head De Richleau, who was occupying their vantage point at the time, observed that his hah- was grey and curly and that he had lost the top portion of his left ear, which ended in a jagged piece of flesh. The Duke felt that there was something strangely familiar in that mutilated ear, but he could not for the life of him recall exactly where he had seen it. Not at Simon's party, he was certain but, although he watched the man intently, no memory came to aid his recognition. The others appeared to be about equal numbers of both sexes as far as the Duke could judge from the glimpses he got of them as they passed and repassed the narrow orbit of his line of vision. The masks and dominoes made it particularly difficult for him to pick out any of the Satanists whom he had seen at the previous party but, after a little, he noticed a man with a dark-skinned, fleshy neck and thin, black hair whom he felt certain was the Babu, and a little later a tall, lank, fair-haired figure who was undoubtedly the Albino. After a time Rex took his place at their observation post. A short, fat man was standing now in the narrow line of sight. A black mask separated his pink, bald head from the powerful fleshy chin-it could only be Mocata. As he watched, another domino came up, the beaky nose, the bird-like head, the narrow, stooping shoulders of which must surely belong to Simon Aron. 'He's here,' whispered Rex. 'Who-Simon?' 'Yes. But how we're going to get at him in this crush is more than I can figure out.' That has been worrying me a lot,' De Richleau whispered back. 'You see, I have had no time to plan any attempt at rescue. My whole day has been taken up with working at the Museum and then organising the discovery of this rendezvous, I had to leave the rest to chance, trusting that an opportunity might arise where we could find Simon on his own if they had locked him up, or at least with only a few people, when there would be some hope of our getting him away. All we can do for the moment is to bide our time. Are there any signs of them starting their infernal ritual?' 'None that I can see. It's only a "conversation piece" in progress at the moment.' De Richleau glanced at his watch. 'Just on eleven,' he murmured, 'and they won't get going until midnight, so we have ample time before we need try anything desperate. Something may happen to give us a better chance before that.' For another ten minutes they watched the strange assembly. There was no laughter but, even from outside the window, the watchers could sense a tenseness in theatmosphereanda strange suppressed excitement. De Richleau managed to identify the Eurasian, the Chinaman and old Madame D'Urfe with her parrot beak. Then it seemed to him that the room was gradually emptying. The man with the mutilated ear, whose head had obscured their view, stood up and moved away and the low purr of a motor-car engine came to them from the far side of the house. 'It looks as if they're leaving,' muttered the Duke; 'perhaps the Sabbat is not to be held here after all. In any case, this may be the chance we're looking for. Come on.' Stepping as lightly as possible to avoid the crunching of the gravel, they stole back to the shrubbery and round the house to the place where the cars were parked. As they arrived a big car full of people was already running down the drive. Another was in the process of being loaded up with a number of hampers and folding tables. Then that also set off with two men on the front seat. Rex and De Richleau, crouching in the bushes, spent the best part of half an hour watching the departure of the assembly. Every moment they hoped to see Simon. If they could only identify him among those dark shapes that moved between the cars they meant to dash in and attempt to carry him off. If would be a desperate business but there was no time left in which to make elaborate plans; under cover of darkness and the ensuing confusion there was just a chance that they might get away with it. No chauffeurs were taken and a little less than ha!f the number of cars utilised. Where me guests had presumably arrived in ones, twos, and threes, they now departed crowded five and six apiece in the largest of the cars. When only a dozen or so of the Satanists were left the Duke jogged Rex's arm. 'We've missed him I'm afraid. We had better make for our own car now or we may lose track of them,' and, filled with growing concern at the difficulties which stood between them and Simon's rescue, they turned and set off at a quick pace through the trees to the broken place in the wall. Scrambling over, they ran at a trot down the lane. Once in the car, De Richleau drove it back on to the main road and then pulled up as far as possible in the shadow of the overhanging trees. A big Delage came out of the park gates a hundred yards farther along the road and turning east sped away through the village. 'Wonder if that's the last,' Rex said softly. 'I hope not,' De Richleau replied. They have been going off at about two-minute intervals, so as not to crowd the road and make too much of a procession of it. If it is the last, they would be certain to see our lights and become suspicious. With any luck the people in the Delage will take us for the following car if we can slip in now, and the next to follow will believe our rear light to be that of the Delage.' He released his brake, and the Hispano slid forward. On the far side of the village they picked up the rear light of the Delage moving at an easy pace and followed to the cross-roads where they had met Clutterbuck an hour and a half earlier. Here the car turned north along a by-road, and they followed for a few miles upward on to the higher level of the desolate rolling grassland, unbroken by house or farmstead, and treeless except for, here and there, a coppice set upon a gently sloping hillside. Rex was watching out of the back window and had assured himself that another car was following in their rear, for upon that open road motor headlights were easily visible for miles. They passed through the village of Chitterne St. Mary, then round the steep curve to the entrance of its twin parish, Chitterne All Saints. At the latter the car which they were following switched into a track runinng steeply uphill to the northeast, then swiftly down again into a long valley bottom and up the other side on to a higher crest. They came to a crossroads where four tracks met in another valley and turned east to run on for another mile, bumping and skidding on the little-used, pathlike way. After winding a little, the car ahead suddenly left the track altogether and ran on to the smooth short turf. After following the Delage for a mile or more across the grass, De Richleau saw it pull up on the slope of the downs where the score or so of cars which had brought the Satanists to this rendezvous were parked in a ragged line. He swiftly dimmed his lights, and ran slowly forward, giving the occupants of the Delage time to leave their car before he pulled up the Hispano as far from it as he dared without arousing suspicion in the others. The car following, which seemed to be the last in the procession, passed quite close to them and halted ten yards ahead, also disgorging its passengers, Rex and the Duke waited for a moment, still seated in the darkness of the Hispano, then after a muttered conference, Rex got out to go forward and investigate. He returned after about ten minutes to say that the Satanists had gone over the crest of the hill into the dip beyond, carrying their hampers and their gear with them. 'We had better drive on then,' said the Duke, 'and park our car with theirs. It's likely to be noticed if the moon gets up.' 'There isn't a rnoonfl Rex told him. 'We're in the dark quarter. But it would be best to have it handy all the same.' They drove on until they reached the other cars, all of whose lights had been put out, then, getting out, set off at a stealthy trot in the direction the Satanists had taken. Within a few moments, they arrived at the brow of the hill and saw that spread below them lay a natural amphitheatre. At the bottom, glistening faintly, lay a small tarn or lake, and De Richleau nodded understandingly. This is the place where the devilry will actually be done without a doubt. No Sabbat can be held except in a place which is near open water.' Then the two friends lay down in the grass to watch for Simon among the dark group of figures who were moving about the water's edge. Some were busy unpacking the hampers, and erecting the small folding-tables which they had brought. The light was just sufficient for Rex to see that they were spreading upon them a lavish supper. As he watched, he saw a group of about a dozen move over to the left towards a pile of ancient stones which, in the uncertain light, seemed to form a rugged, natural throne. De Richleau's eyes were also riveted upon the spot and, to his straining gaze, it seemed that there was a sudden stirring of movement in the shadows there. The whole body of masked, black-clad figures left the lake and joined those near the stones, who seemed to be their leaders. After a moment the watchers could discern a tall, dark form materialising on the throne and, as they gazed with tense expectancy, a faint shimmer of pale violet light began to radiate from it. Even at that distance, this solitary illumination of the dark hollow was sufficient for the two friends to realise that the thing which had appeared out of the darkness, seated upon those age-old rocks, was the same evil entity that De Richleau had once taken for Mocata's black servant, and which had manifested itself to Rex with such ghastly clarity in Simon's silent house. The Sabbat was about to commence. 16 The Sabbat Straining their eyes and ears for every sound and movement from the assembly in the dark shadows below, Rex and the Duke lay side by side on the rim of the saucer-shaped depression in the downland. As far as they could judge, they were somewhere about half-way between the two hamlets of Imber and Tilshead, with Chitterne All Saints in their rear and the village of Easterton, where Tanith had crashed, about five miles to the north. The country round about was desolate and remote. Once in a while some belated Wiltshire yokel might cross the plain by night upon a special errand created by emergency; but even if such a one had chanced to pass that way on this Walpurgis-Nacht, the hidden meeting-place-guarded by its surrounding hills-was far from the nearest track, and at that midnight hour no living soul seemed to be stirring within miles of the spot which the Satanists had chosen for the worship of their Infernal Master. In the faint starlight they could see that the tables were now heaped with an abundance of food and wine, and that the whole crowd had moved over towards the throne round which they formed a wide circle, so that the nearest came some little way up the slope and were no more than fifty yards from where the Duke and Rex lay crouched in the grass. 'How long does it last?' Rex asked, beneath his breath, a little nervously. 'Until cock-crow, which I suppose would be at about four o'clock at this time of the year. It is a very ancient belief that the crowing of a cock has power to break spells, so these ceremonies, in which the power to cast spells is given, never last longer. Keep a sharp look out for Simon.' 'I am, but what will they be doing all that time?' First, they will make their homage to the Devil. Then they will gorge themselves on the food that they have brought and get drunk on the wine; the idea being that everything must be done contrary to the Christian ritual. They will feast to excess as opposed to the fasting which religious people undergo before their services. Look! There are the leaders before the altar now.' Rex followed the Duke's glance, and saw that half a dozen black figures were placing tall candles-eleven of them in a circle and the twelfth inside it-at the foot of the throne. As they were lighted the twelve candles burned steadily in the windless night with a strong blue flame, illuminating a circle of fifty feet radius including the tables where the feast was spread. Outside this ring the valley seemed darker than before, filled with pitch-black shadows so that the figures in the area of light stood out clearly as though upon a bright circular stage. 'Those things they have lighted are the special black candles made of pitch and sulphur,' muttered the Duke. 'You will be able to smell them in a minute. But look at the priests: didn't I tell you that there is little difference between this modern Satanism and Voodoo? We might almost be witnessing some heathen ceremony in an African jungle!' While the crowd had been busy at the tables, their leaders had donned fantastic costumes. One had a huge cat mask over his head and a furry cloak, the tail of which dangled behind him on the ground; another wore the headdress of a repellent toad; the face of a third, still masked, gleamed bluish for a moment in the candle-light from between the distended jaws of a wolf, and Mocata, whom they could still recognise by his squat obesity, now had webbed wings sprouting from his shoulders which gave him the appearance of a giant bat. Rex shivered. 'It's that infernal cold again rising up the hill,' he said half-apologetically. 'Say-look at the thing on the throne. It's changing shape.' Until the candles had been lit, the pale violet halo which emanated from the figure had been enough to show that it was human and the face undoubtedly black. But, as they watched, it changed to a greyish colour, and something was happening to the formation of the head. 'It is the Goat of Mendes, Rex!' whispered the Duke. 'My God! this is horrible!' And even as he spoke, the manifestation took on a clearer shape; the hands, held forward almost in an attitude of prayer but turned downward, became transformed into two great cloven hoofs. Above rose the monstrous bearded head of a gigantic goat, appearing to be at least three times the size of any other which they had ever seen. The two slit-eyes, slanting inwards and down, gave out a red baleful light. Long pointed ears cocked upwards from the sides of the shaggy head, and from the bald, horrible unnatural bony skull, which was caught by the light of the candles, four enormous curved horns spread out-sideways and up. Before the apparition the priests, grotesque and terrifying beneath their beast-head masks and furry mantles, were now swinging lighted censers, and after a little a breath of the noisome incense was wafted up the slope. Rex choked into his hand as the fumes caught his throat, then whispered: 'What is that filth they're burning?' 'Thorn, apple leaves, rue, henbane, dried nightshade, myrtle and other herbs,' De Richleau answered. 'Some are harmless apart from their stench, but others drug the brain and excite the senses to an animal fury of lust and eroticism as you will see soon enough. If only we could catch sight of Simon,' he added desperately. 'Look, there he is!' Rex exclaimed. 'Just to the left of the toad- headed brute.' The goat rose, towering above the puny figures of its unhallowed priests, and turned its back on them; upon which one stooped slightly to give the osculam-infame as his mark of homage. The others followed suit, then the whole circle of Satanists drew in towards the throne and, in solemn silence, followed their example, each bending to salute his master in an obscene parody of the holy kiss which is given to the Bishop's ring. Simon was among the last, and as he approached the throne, Rex grabbed De Richleau's arm. 'It's now or never,' he grunted. 'We've got to make some effort. We can't let this thing go through.' 'Hush,' De Richleau whispered back. This is not the baptism. That will not be until after they have feasted-just before the orgy. Our chance must come.' As the two lay there in the rough grass, each knew that the time was close at hand when they must act if they meant to attempt Simon's rescue. Yet, despite the fact that neither of them lacked courage, both realised with crushing despondency how slender their chances of success would be if they ran down the slope and charged that multitude immersed in their ghoulish rites. There were at least a hundred people in that black-robed crowd and it seemed an utter impossibility to overcome such odds. Rex leaned over towards the Duke and voiced his thoughts aloud, 'We're right up against it this time unless you can produce a brainwave. We'd be captured in ten seconds if we tried getting Simon away from this bunch of maniacs.' 'I know,' De Richleau agreed miserably. 'I did not bargain for them all being shut up together in one room in that house or coming on to this place in a solid crowd. If only they would split up a little we might isolate Simon with just two or three of them, down the rest, and get him away before the main party knew what was happening; but as things are I am worried out of my wits. If we charge in, and they catch us, I have not a single doubt but that we should never be allowed to come up out of this hollow alive. We know too much, and they would kill us for a certainty. In fact, they would probably welcome the chance on a night like this to perform a little human sacrifice in front of that ghastly thing on the stones there.' 'Surely they wouldn't go in for murder even if they do practise this filthy parody of religion?' whispered Rex incredulously. De Richleau shook his head. 'The Bloody Sacrifice is the oldest magical rite in the world. The slaying of Osiris and Adonis, the mutilation of Attis and the cults of Mexico and Peru, were all connected with it. Even in the Old Testament you read that the sacrifice which was most acceptable to God the Father was one of blood, and St. Paul tells us that "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission".' 'That was just ancient heathen cruelty.' 'Not altogether. The blood is the Life. When it is shed, energy-animal or human as the case may be-is released into the atmosphere. If it is shed within a specially prepared circle, that energy can be caught and stored or redirected in precisely the same way as electric energy is caught and utilised by our modern scientists.' 'But they wouldn't dare to sacrifice a human being?' 'It all depends upon the form of evil they wish to bring upon the world. If it is war they will seek to propitiate Mars with a virgin ram; if they desire the spread of unbridled lust-a goat, and so on. But the human sacrifice is more potent for all purposes than any other, and these wretched people are hardly human at the moment. Their brains are diseased and their mentality is that of the hags and warlocks of the Dark Ages.' 'Oh, Hell!' Rex groaned, 'we've simply got to get Simon out of this some way.' The Goat turned round again after receiving the last kiss, holding between its hoofs a wooden cross about four feet in length. With a sudden violent motion it dashed the crucifix against the stone, breaking it into two pieces. Then the cat-headed man, who seemed to be acting the part of Chief Priest, picked them up. He threw the broken end of the shaft towards a waiting group, who pounced upon it and smashed it into matchwood with silent ferocity, while he planted the crucifix end upside down in the ground before the Goat. This apparently concluded the first portion of the ceremony. The Satanists now hurried over to the tables where the banquet was spread out. No knives, forks, spoons or glasses were in evidence. But this strange party, governed apparently by a desire to throw themselves back into a state of bestiality, grabbed handfuls of food out of the silver dishes and, seizing the bottles, tilted them to drink from the necks, gurgling and spitting as they did so and spilling the wine down their dominoes. Not one of them spoke a word, and the whole macabre scene was carried out in a terrible unnatural silence, as though it were a picture by Goya come to life. 'Let's, creep down nearer,' whispered the Duke. 'While they are gorging themselves an opportunity may come for us to get hold of Simon. If he moves a few paces away from them for a moment, don't try to argue with him, but knock him out.' At a stealthy crawl, the two friends moved down the hillside to within twenty yards of the little lake, at the side of which the tables were set. The throne still occupied by the monstrous goat was only a further fifteen yards away from them, and by the light of the twelve black candles burning with an unnaturally steady flame even in that protected hollow among the hills, they could see the clustered figures sufficiently well to recognise those whom they knew among them despite their masks and dominoes. Simon, like the rest, was gnawing at a chunk of food as though he had suddenly turned into an animal, and, as they watched, he snatched a bottle of wine from a masked woman standing nearby, spilling a good portion of its contents over her and himself; then he gulped down the rest. For a few moments Rex felt again that he must be suffering from a nightmare. It seemed utterly beyond understanding that any cultured man like Simon, or other civilised people such as these must normally be, could behave with such appalling bestiality. But it was no nightmare. In that strange, horrid silence, the Satanists continued for more than half an hour to fight and tumble like a pack of wolfish dogs until the tables had been overthrown and the ground about the lakeside was filthy with the remaining scraps of food, gnawed bones and empty bottles. At last Simon, apparently three parts drunk, lurched away from the crash and flung himself down on the grass a little apart from the rest, burying his head between his hands. 'Now!' whispered the Duke. 'We've got to get him.' With Rex beside him, he half rose to his feet, but a tall figure had broken from the mass and reached Simon before they could move. It was the man with the mutilated ear, and in another second a group of two women and. three more men had followed him. De Richleau gritted his teeth to suppress an oath and placed a restraining hand on Rex's shoulder. 'It's no good,' he muttered savagely. 'We must wait a bit. Another chance may come.' And they sank down again into the shadows. The group about the tables was now reeling drunk, and the whole party in a body surged back towards the Goat upon its throne. Rex and De Richleau had been watching Simon so intently they had failed to notice until then that Mocata and the half dozen other masters of the Left Hand Path had erected a special table before the Goat, and were feeding from it. Yet they appeared strangely sober compared with the majority of the crowd who had fed beside the lake. 'So the Devil feeds, too,' Rex murmured. 'Yes,' agreed the Duke, 'or at least the heads of his priesthood, and a gruesome meal it is if I know anything about it. A little cannibalism, my friend. It may be a stillborn baby or perhaps some unfortunate child that they have stolen and murdered, but I would stake anything that it is human flesh they are eating.' As he spoke, a big cauldron was brought forward and placed before the throne. Then Mocata and the others with him each took a portion of the food which they had been eating from the table and cast it into the great iron pot. One of them threw in a round ball which met the iron with a dull thud. Rex shuddered as he realised that the Duke was right. The round object was a human skull. 'They're going to boil up the remains with various other things,' murmured the Duke, 'and then each of them will be given a little flask of that awful brew at the conclusion of the ceremony, together with a pile of ashes from the wood fire they are lighting under the cauldron now. They will be able to use them for their infamous purposes throughout the year until the next Great Sabbat takes place.' 'Oh, Hell!' Rex protested. 'I can't believe that they can work any harm with that human mess, however horrid it may be. It's just not reasonable.' 'Yet you believe that the Blessed Sacrament has power for good,' De Richleau whispered. 'This is the antithesis of the Body of Our Lord, and I assure you, Rex, that, while countless wonderful miracles have been performed by the aid of the Host, terrible things can be accomplished by this blasphemous decoction.' Rex had no deep religious feeling, but he was shocked and horrified to the depths of his being by this frightful parody of the things he had been taught to hold sacred in his childhood. 'Dear God,' muttered the Duke, 'they are about to commit the most appalling sacrilege. Don't look, Rex-don't look.' He buried his face in his hands and began to pray, but Rex continued to watch despite himself, his gaze held by some terrible fascination. A great silver chalice was being passed from hand to hand, and very soon he realised the purpose to which it was being put, but could not guess the intention until it was handed back to the cat- headed man. One of the other officiating priests at the infamy produced some round white discs which Rex recognised at once as Communion Wafers-evidently stolen from some church. In numbed horror he watched the Devil's acolytes break these into pieces and throw them into the brimming chalice, then stir the mixture with the broken crucifix and hand the resulting compound to the Goat, who, clasping it between its great cloven hoofs, suddenly tipped it up so that the whole contents was spilled upon the ground. Suddenly, at last, the horrid silence was rent, for the whole mob surged forward shouting and screaming as though they had gone insane, to dance and stamp the fragments of the Holy Wafers into the sodden earth. 'Phew!' Rex choked out, wiping the perspiration from his forehead. 'This is a ghastly business. I can't stand much more of it. They're mad, stark crazy, every mother's son of them.' 'Yes, temporarily.'The Duke looked up again.'Some of them are probably epileptics, and nearly all must be abnormal. This revolting spectacle represents a release of all their pent-up emotions and suppressed complexes, engendered by brooding over imagined injustice, lust for power, bitter hatred of rivals in love or some other type of success and good fortune. That is the only explanation for this terrible exhibition of human depravity which we are witnessing.' 'Thank God, Tanith's not here. She couldn't have stood it. She'd have gone mad, I know, or tried to run away. And then they'd probably have murdered her. But what are we going to do about Simon?' De Richleau groaned. 'God only knows. If I thought there were the least hope, we'd charge into this rabble and try to drag him out of it, but the second they saw us they would tear us limb from limb.' The fire under the cauldron was burning brightly, and as the crowd moved apart Rex saw that a dozen women had now stripped themselves of their dominoes and stood stark naked in the candle- light. They formed a circle round the cauldron, and holding hands, with their backs turned to the inside of the ring, began a wild dance around it anti-clockwise towards the Devil's left. In a few moments the whole company had stripped off their dominoes and joined in the dance, tumbling and clawing at one another before the throne, with the exception of half a dozen who sat a little on one side, each with a musical instrument, forming a small band. But the music which they made was like no other that Rex had ever heard before, and he prayed that he might never hear the like again. Instead of melody, it was a harsh, discordant jumble of notes and broken chords which beat into the head with a horrible nerve-racking intensity and set the teeth continually on edge. To this agonising cacophony of sound the dancers, still masked, quite naked and utterly silent but for the swift movement of their feet, continued their wild, untimed gyrations, so that rather than the changing pattern of an ordered ballet the scene was one of a trampling mass of bestial animal figures. Drunk with an inverted spiritual exaltation and excess of alcohol-wild-eyed and apparently hardly conscious of each other-the hair of the women streaming disordered as they pranced, and the panting breath of the men coming in laboured gasps-they rolled and lurched, spun and gyrated, toppled, fell, picked themselves up again, and leaped with renewed frenzy in one revolting carnival of mad disorder. Then, with a final wailing screech from the violin, the band ceased and the whole party flung themselves panting and exhausted upon the ground, while the huge Goat rattled and clacked its monstrous cloven hoofs together and gave a weird laughing neigh in a mockery of applause. De Richleau sat up quickly. 'God help us, Rex, but we've got to do something now. When these swine have recovered their wind the next act of this horror will be the baptism of the Neophytes and after that the foulest orgy, with every perversion which the human mind is capable of conceiving. We daren't wait any longer. Once Simon is baptised, we shall have lost our last chance ot saving him from permanent and literal Hell in this life and the next.' 'I suppose it's just possible we'll pull it off now they've worked themselves into this state?' Rex hazarded doubtfully. 'Yes, they're looking pretty done at the moment,' the Duke agreed, striving to bolster up his waning courage for the desperate attempt. 'Shall we-shall we chance it?' Rex hesitated. He too was filled with a horrible fear as to the fate which might overtake them once they left the friendly shadows to dash into that ring of evil blue light. In an effort to steady his frayed nerves, he gave a travesty of a laugh, and added: 'The odds aren't quite so heavy against us now they've lost their trousers. No one fights his best like that.' 'It's not the pack that I'm so frightened of, but that ghastly thing sitting on the rocks.' De Richleau's voice was hoarse and desperate. 'The protections I have utilised may not prove strong enough to save us from the evil which is radiating from it.' 'If we have faith,' gasped Rex, 'won't that be enough?' De Richleau shivered. The numbing cold which lapped up out of the hollow in icy waves seemed to sap all his strength and courage. 'It would,' he muttered. 'It would if we were both in a state of grace.' At that pronouncement Rex's heart sank. He had no terrible secret crime with which to charge himself, but although circumstances had appeared to justify it at the time, both he and the Duke had taken human life, and who, faced with the actual doorway of the other world, can say that they are utterly without sin? Desperately now he fought to regain his normal courage. In the dell the Satanists had recovered their wind and were forming in the great semi-circle again about the throne. The chance to rescue Simon was passing with the fleeting seconds, while his friends stood crouched and tongue-tied, their minds bemused by the reek of the noxious incense which floated up from the hollow, their bodies chained by an awful, overwhelming fear. Three figures now moved out into the open space before the Goat. Upon the left the beast-like, cat-headed high priest of Evil; upon the right Mocata, his gruesome bat's wings fluttering a little from his hunched-up shoulders; between them, naked, trembling, almost apparently in a state of collapse, they supported Simon. 'It's now or never!' Rex choked out. 'No-I can't do it,' moaned the Duke, burying his face in his hands and sinking to the ground. 'I'm afraid, Rex. God forgive me, I'm afraid.' 17 Evil Triumphant As the blue Rolls, number OA 1217, came to rest with a sickening thud against the back of the big barn outside Easter-ton Village, Tanith was flung forward against the windscreen. Fortunately the Duke's cars were equipped with splinter-proof glass and so the windows remained intact, but for the moment she was half-stunned by the blow on her head and painfully 'winded' by the wheel, which caught her in the stomach. For a few sickening seconds she remained dazed and gasping for breath. Then she realised that she had escaped serious injury, and that the police would be on her at any moment. Her head whirling, her breath stabbing painfully, she threw open the door of the Rolls and staggered out on to the grass. In a last desperate effort to evade capture, she lurched at an unsteady run across the coarse tussocks and just as the torches of the police appeared over the same hillock, which had slowed down the wild career of the car, she flung herself down in a ditch, sheltered by a low hedge, some thirty yards from the scene of the accident. She paused there only long enough to regain her breath, and then began to crawl away along the runnel until it ended on the open plain. Taking a stealthy look over the hedge, she saw her pursuers were still busy examining the car, so she took a chance and ran for it, trusting in the darkness of the night to hide her from them. After she had covered a mile she flopped exhausted to the ground, drawing short gulping breaths into her straining lungs -her heart thudding like a hammer. When she had recovered a little, she looked back to find that the village and the searching officers were now hidden from her by a sloping crest of down-land. It seemed that she had escaped-at least for the time being-and she began to wonder what she had better do. From what she remembered of the map, the house at Chil-bury where the Satanists were gathering preparatory to holding the Great Sabbat was at least a dozen miles away. It would be impossible for her to cover that distance on foot even if she were certain of the direction in which it lay, and the fact that she was wanted by the police debarred her from trying to seek a lift in a passing car if she were able to find the main road again. In spite of her desperate attempt to reach the rendezvous in the stolen Rolls, and the frantic excitement of her escape from the police, she found to her surprise that a sudden reaction had set in, and she no longer felt that terrible driving urge to be present at the Sabbat. Her anger against Rex had subsided. She had tricked him over the car, and he had retaliated by putting the police on her track. She realised now that he could only have done it on account of his overwhelming anxiety to prevent her from joining Mocata, and smiled to herself in the darkness as she thought again of his anxious, worried face as he had tried so hard that afternoon on the river to dissuade her from what she had only considered, till then, to be a logical step in her progress towards gaining supernatural powers. She began to wonder seriously for the first time if he was not right, and that during these last months which she had spent with Madame D'Urfe her brain had become clouded almost to the point of mania by this obsession to the exclusion of all natural and reasonable thoughts. She recalled those queer companions who were travelling the same path as herself, most of them far further advanced upon it, of whom she had seen so much hi recent times. The man with the hare-lip, the one-armed Eurasian, the Albino and the Babu. They were not normal any one of them and, while living outwardly the ordinary life of monied people, dwelt secretly in a strange sinister world of their own, flattering themselves and each other upon their superiority to normal men and women on account of the strange powers that they possessed, yet egotistical and hard- hearted to the last degree. This day spent with the buoyant, virile Rex among the fresh green of the countryside and the shimmering sunlight of the river's bank, had altered Tanith's view of them entirely; and now, in a great revulsion of feeling, she could only wonder that her longing for power and forgetfulness of her foreordained death had blinded her to their cruel way of life for so long. She stood up and, smoothing down her crumpled green linen frock, did her best to tidy herself. But she had lost her bag in the car smash, so not only was she moneyless but had no comb with which to do her hair. However, feeling that now Rex had succeeded in preventing her reaching the meeting-place he would be certain to call off the police, she set out at a brisk pace away from Easterton towards where she believed the main Salisbury-Devizes road to lie; hoping to find a temporary shelter for the night and then make her way back to London in the morning. Before she had gone two hundred yards, her way was blocked by a tail, barbed-wire fence shutting in some military enclosure, so she turned left along it. Two hundred yards farther on the fence ended, but she was again brought up by another fence and above it the steep embankment of a railway line. She hesitated then, not wishing to turn back in the direction of Easter-ton, and was wondering what it would be best to do, when a dark, hunched figure seemed to form out of the shadows beside her. She started back, but recovered herself at once on realising that it was only a bent old woman. 'You've lost your way, dearie?' croaked the old crone. 'Yes,' Tanith admitted. 'Can you show me how I get on to the Devizes road?' 'Come with me, my pretty.. I am going that way myself,' said the old woman in a husky voice, which seemed to Tanith in some strange way vaguely familiar. 'Thank you.' She turned and walked along the bridle-path that followed the embankment to the west, searching her mind as to where she could have heard that husky voice before. 'Give me your hand, dearie. The way is rough for my old feet,' croaked the ancient crone; and Tanith willingly offered her arm. Then, as the old woman rested a claw upon it, a sudden memory of long ago flooded her mind. It was of the days when, as a little girl living in the foothills of the Carpathians, she had made a friend of an old gypsy-woman who used to come to the village for the fair and local Saints' Days, with her band of Ziganes. It was from her that Tanith had first learned her strange powers of clairvoyance and second sight. Many a time she had scrambled down from the rocky mount upon which her home was set to the gypsy encampment outside the village to gaze with marvelling eyes at old Mizka who knew so many wonderful things, and could tell of the past and of the future by gazing into a glass of water or consulting her grimy pack of Tarot cards. Tanith could still see those pasteboards which had such fascinating pictures upon them. The twenty-two cards of the Major Arcana, said by some to be copies of the original Book of Thoth, which contained all wisdom and was given to mankind by the ancient ibis-headed Egyptian god. For thousands of years such packs had been treasured and reproduced from one end of the world to the other and were treasured still, from the boudoirs of modern Paris to the tea- houses of Shanghai, wherever people came secretly in the quiet hours to learn, from those who could read them, the secrets of the future. As she walked on half unconscious of her strange companion, Tanith recalled them in their right and fateful order. The Juggler with his table-meaning mental rectitude; the High Priestess like a female Pope-wisdom; the Empress-night and darkness; the Emperor-support and protection; the Pope-reunion and society; the Lovers-marriage; iheChariot-triumph and despotism; Justice, a winged figure with sword and scales-the law, the Hermit with his lantern-a pointer towards good; the Wheel of Fortune carrying a cat and a demon round with it-success and wealth; Strength, a woman wrenching open the jaws of a lion-power and sovereignty; the Hanged Man lashed by his right ankle tp a beam and dangling upside down while holding two money bags-warning to be prudent; Death with his scythe-ruin and destruction; Temperance, a woman pouring liquid from one vase to another-moderation; the Devil, batwinged, goatfaced, with a human head protruding from his belly-force and blindness; the Lightning- struck Tower with people falling from it-want, poverty and imprisonment; the Star-disinterestedness; the Moon~speech and lunacy; the Sun-light and science; the Judgement-typifying will; the World, a naked woman with goat and ram below-travel and possessions; then last but not least the card that has no number, the Fool, foretelling dementia, rapture and extravagance. Old Mizka had been a willing teacher, and Tanith, the child, an eager pupil, for she had spent a lonely girlhood in that castle on the hill separated by miles of jagged valleys difficult to traverse from other children of her own postion, and debarred by custom from adopting the children of the villagers as her playmates. Long before her time she had learned all the secrets of life from the old gipsy, who talked for hours in her husky voice of lovers and marriage and lovers again, and potions to bring sleep to suspicious husbands and philtres which could warm the heart of the coldest man towards a woman who desired his caresses. 'Mizka," Tanith whispered suddenly. 'It is you-isn't it?' 'Yes, dearie. Yes-old Mizka has come a long way tonight to set her pretty one upon the road.' 'But how did you ever come to England?' 'No matter, dearie. Don't trouble your golden head about that, Old Mizka started you upon the road, and she has been sent to guide your feet tonight.' Tanith hung back for a second in sudden alarm, but the claw upon her arm urged her forward again with gentle strength as she protested. 'But I don't want to go! Not... not to the .,.' The old crone chuckled. 'What foolishness is this? It is the road that you have taken all your life, ever since Mizka told you of it as a little girl. Tonight is the night that old Mizka has seen for so many years in her dreams-the night when you shall know all things, and be granted powers which come to few. How fortunate you are to have this opportunity when you are yet so young.' At the old woman's silken words, a new feeling crept into Tanith's heart. She had been dwelling upon Rex's face as she crossed the plain, and all the health-giving freshness of his gay clean modernity, but now she was drawn back into another world; the one of which she had thought so long, in which a very few chosen people could perform the seemingly impossible -bend others to their will-cause them to fall or rise-place unaccountable obstacles in their path at every turn, or smooth their way to a glorious success. That was more than riches, more than fame; the supreme pinnacle to which any man or woman could rise, and all her longing to reach those heights before she died came back to her. Rex was a pleasant, stupid child; De Richleau a meddlesome fool, who did not understand the danger of the things with which he was trying to interfere. Mocata was a Prince in power and knowledge. She should be unutterably grateful that he had considered her worthy of the honour which she was about to receive. 'It is not far, dearie. Not so far as you have thought. The great Festival does not take place in the house at Chilbury. That was only a meeting place, and the Sabbat is to be held upon these downs only a few miles from here. Come with me, and you shall receive the knowledge and the power that you seek.' A curtain of forgetfuiness seemed to be falling over Tanith's mind-a feeling of intoxication-mental and physical, flooded through her. She felt her eyes closing . . . closing ... as she muttered: 'Yes. Knowledge and Power. Hurry, Mizka! Hurry, or we shall be too late,' All her previous hesitations had now been blotted out, and although they were walking over coarse grass, it seemed to her that they trod a smooth and even way. Her mind was obsessed again with the sole thought of reaching the Sabbat in time. 'That is my own beautiful one talking now,' crooned the old beldame in a honeyed voice. 'But have no fear, the night is young, and we shall reach the meeting-place of the Covens before the hour when our Master will appear.' Tanith was holding herself stiffly as she walked. Her golden head thrown back, her eyes dilated to an enormous size-the muscles at the sides of her mouth twitched incessantly as the old woman's smooth babble flowed on. They crossed the road, although Tanith was hardly conscious of it as, with Mizka beside her, she stepped out, a new strength surging through her despite her long and tiring day. Then as she mounted an earthy bank a dark and furry presence brushed against her legs, and looking down she saw the golden eyes of a great black cat. For a moment she was startled, but the old woman chuckled in the darkness. 'It is only Nebiros,' she muttered. 'You have played with him often as a child, dearie, and he is so pleased to see you now.' The cat mewed with pleasure as Tanith stooped for a moment to stroke its furry back. Then they hastened on again. For hours it seemed they tramped over the grassy tussocks, up gently-sloping hills and down again into lonesome valleys unbroken by trees or cottages or farmsteads, ever on to the secret place where the Satanists would be gathering now, until old Mizka, walking at Tanith's left, suddenly pulled up-clutching at her arm with her bony hand. 'Shut your eyes, dearie,' she hissed in a sharp whisper. 'Shut your eyes. There is something here that it is not good for you to see. I will guide you.' Tanith did as she was bid mechanically, and although she could no longer see the rough ground over which they were passing, she did not stumble but continued to step forward evenly at a good pace. Yet she had a feeling that she was no longer alone with the old woman, but that a third person was now walking with them at her right hand. Then, a low voice, bell-like and clear, sounded in her ears. 'Tanith, my darling. Look at me, I implore you.' At the shock of hearing that well-loved voice, the curtain lifted for a moment and Tanith opened her eyes again. To her right, she saw the figure of her mother dressed in white as she had last seen her before she had set out to some great party where she had died of a sudden heart attack. Round her neck hung a rope of pearls, and her head was adorned with a half-hoop of diamond stars. The figure shone by some strange unnatural light in the surrounding darkness, seeming as pure and translucent as carved crystal. 'My dear one,' the voice went on, 'my folly of encouraging your gift of second sight has led you into terrible peril. I beg you by all that is good and holy to draw back while there is yet time.' Despite the urging hand which clawed upon her arm, Tanith stumbled for the first time in the long grass and, wrenching her arm away, stood still. In a flash of insight which seared through her drugged brain, she knew then that old Mizka was not a living being, but a Dark Angel sent to lead her to the Sabbat, and that her mother had come at this moment from the world beyond as an Angel of Light to draw her back again into the safety and protection of holy things. Mizka was babbling and crowing upon her left, urging her onward with a terrible force and intensity. The words 'power' -'crowning your life'-'mastery of all' came again and again in her rapid speech, and Tanith moved a few steps forward. But her mother's voice, imploring again, came clearly in her ears. Tanith, my darling, I am only allowed to appear to you because of your great danger, and for the briefest space. I am called back already, but I beg you in the name of the love that we had for each other, not to go. There is a better influence in your life. Trust in it while there is still time, otherwise you will be dragged down into the pit and we shall never meet again.' Suddenly the voice changed, becoming cold and commanding, 'Back, Mizka-back whence you came. I order you by the names of Isis, mother of Horus, Kwan-Yin, mother of Hau-Ki, and Mary, mother of Our Lord.' The voice ceased on a thin wall as though, all unwillingly, the spirit had been drawn back while its abjuration to the demon was only half completed. With a wild cry and arms outstretched, Tanith dashed forward to the place where that nebulous moon-white being had floated, but where the apparition of her mother had been a second before, only a little breeze ruffled the long grasses. A feeling of immense fatigue bowed her shoulders as she turned towards old Mizka and the cat. But they too had vanished. She sank upon her knees and began to pray, feverishly at first and then less strongly, until her tongue tripped upon the words and at last she fell silent. Almost unconsciously she rose to her feet and found herself, the night wind playing gently in her hair, standing upon a hilltop gazing down into a shallow valley. A new and terrible fear gripped at her heart, for she saw below her, by the strange unearthly light of a ring of blue candles, the Satanists gathering for their unholy ceremony, and knew that evil powers had led her feet by devious paths to the place of the Great Sabbat that she might participate after all. She stood for a moment, the blood draining from her face, quick tremors of horror and apprehension running down her body. She wanted to turn and flee into the dark, protective shadows of the night, but she could not tear her eyes away from that terrible figure seated upon the rocky throne, before which the Satanists were making their obscene obeisance. Some terrible uncanny power kept her feet rooted to the spot, and although her mother's warning still rang in her ears, she could not drag her gaze away from that blasphemous mockery of God proceeding in a horrid silence a hundred yards down the slope from where she stood. Time ceased to exist for Tanith then. An unearthly chill seemed to creep up out of the valley, swirling and eddying about her legs as a cold current suddenly strikes a bather in a warm patch of sea. The chill crept upward to the level of her breasts, numbing her limbs and dulling her faculties until she could have cried out with the pain. She watched the gruesome banquet with loathing and repulsion, but as she saw those ghoul-like figures tilting the bottles to their mouths she was suddenly beset by an appalling desire to drink. Although her limbs were cold, her mouth seemed parched; her throat swollen and burning. She was seized with an unutterable longing to rush forward, down the slope, and grab one of those bottles with which to slake her all-consuming thirst. Yet she remained rooted, held back by her higher consciousness; the vision of her mother no longer before her physical eyes, but clear in her mentality just as she had seen it, tall, slender and white-clad, with a sparkling hoop of star-like diamonds glistening above the hair drawn back from the high, broad forehead. At the defamation of the Host, she was seized by a shuddering rigor in all her limbs. She tried to shut her eyes but they remained fixed and staring while silent tears welled from them and gushed down her cheeks. She endeavoured to cross herself, but her hand, numb with that awful cold, refused to do the bidding of her brain and remained hanging limp and frozen at her side. She endeavoured to pray, but her swollen tongue refused its office, and her mind seemed to have gone utterly blank so that she could not recall even the opening words of the Paternoster or Ave Maria. She knew with a sudden appalling clarity that having even been the witness of this blasphemous sacrilege was enough to damn her for all eternity, and that her own wish to attend this devilish saturnalia had been engendered only by a stark madness caught like some terrible contagious disease from her association with these other unnatural beings who were the victims of a ghastly lunacy; In vain she attempted to cast herself upon her knees, to struggle back from this horror, but she seemed to be caught in an invisible vice and could not lift her glance for one single second from that small lighted circle which stood out so clearly in the surrounding darkness of the mysterious valley. She saw the Satanists strip off their dominoes and shuddered afresh-almost retching-as she watched them tumbling upon each other in the disgusting nudity of their ritual dance. Old Madame D'Urfe, huge-buttocked and swollen, prancing by some satanic power with all the vigour of a young girl who had only just reached maturity; the Babu, dark-skinned, fleshy, hideous; the American woman, scraggy, lean-flanked and hag-like with empty, hanging breasts; the Eurasian, waving the severed stump of his arm in the air as he gavotted beside the unwieldy figure of the Irish bard, whose paunch stood out like the grotesque belly of a Chinese god. 'They are mad, mad, mad,' she found herself saying over and over again, as she rocked to and fro where she stood, weeping bitterly, beating her hands together and her teeth chattering in the icy wind. The dance ceased on a high wail of those discordant instruments and then the whole of that ghastly ghoul-like crew sank down together in a tangled heap before the Satanic throne. Tanith wondered for a second what was about to happen next, even as she made a fresh effort to drag herself away. Then Simon was led out from among the rest and she knew all too soon that the time of baptism was at hand. As she realised it, a new menace came upon her. Without her own volition, her feet began to move. In a panic of fear she found herself setting one before the other and advancing slowly down the hill. She tried to scream, but her voice would not come. She tried to throw herself backward, but her body was held rigid, and an irresistible suction dragged at each of her feet in turn, lifting it a few inches from the ground and pulling it forward, so that, despite her uttermost effort of will to resist the evil force, she was being drawn slowly but surely to receive her own baptism. The weird unearthly music had ceased. An utter silence filled the valley. She was no more than ten yards from the nearest of those debased creatures who hovered gibbering about the throne. Suddenly she whimpered with fright for although she was still hidden by the darkness, the great horned head of the Goat turned and its fiery eyes became fixed upon her. She knew then that there was no escape. The warnings from Rex and her mother had come too late. Those powers which she had sought to suborne now held her in their grip and she must submit to this loathsome ritual despite the shrinking of her body and her soul, with all the added horror of full knowledge that it meant final and utter condemnation to the bottomless pit. 18 The Power of Light At the sight of De Richleau's breakdown Rex almost gave in too. The cold sweat of terror had broken out on his own forehead, yet he was still fighting down his fear and, after a moment, the collapse of that indomitable leader to whom he had looked so often and with such certain faith in the worst emergencies brought him a new feeling of responsibility. His generous nature was great enough to realise that the Duke's courage had only proved less than his own on this occasion because of his greater understanding of the peril they were called upon to face. Now, it was as though the elder man had been wounded and put out of action, so Rex felt that it was up to him to take command. 'We can't Jet this thing be,' he said with sudden firmness, stooping to place an arm round De Richleau's shaking shoulders. 'You stay here. I'm going down to face the music.' 'No-no, Rex.' The Duke grabbed at his coat. 'They'll murder you without a second thought.' 'Will they? We'll see!' Rex gave a grating laugh. 'Well, if they do you'll have something you can fix on them that the police will understand. It'll be some consolation to think you'll see to it that these devils swing for my murder if they do me in.' 'Wait I I won't let you go alone,' the Duke stumbled to his feet. 'Don't you realise that death is the least thing I fear. One look from die eyes of the Goat could send you mad-then where is the case to put before the police? Half the people in our asylums may be suffering from a physical lesion of the brain but the others are unaccountably insane. The real reason is demoniac possession brought about by looking upon terrible things that they were never meant to see.' 'I'll risk it.' Rex was desperate now. He held up the crucifix. This is going to protect me, because I've got faith that it will.' 'All right then-but even madness isn't the worst that can happen to us. This life is nothing-I'm thinking of the next. Oh, God, if only dawn would come or we had some form of Light that we could bring to bear on these worshippers of Darkness.' Rex took a pace forward. 'If we'd known what we were going to be up against we'd have brought a searchlight on a truck. That would have given this bunch something to think about if light has the power you say. But it's no good worrying about that now. We've got to hurry.' 'No-wait!' the Duke exclaimed with sudden excitement. 'I've got it. This way-quick!' He turned and set off up the hill at a swift crouching run. Rex followed, and when they reached the brow easily overtook him. 'What's the idea,' he cried, using his normal voice for the first time for hours. 'The car!' De Richleau panted, as he pelted over the rough grass to the place where they had left the Hispano. To attack them is a ghastly risk in any case, but this will give us a sporting chance.' Rex reached it first and flung open the door. The Duke tumbled in and got the engine going. It purred on a low note as they bumped forward in the darkness to the brow of the hill. 'Out on the running-board, Rex,' snapped De Richleau as he thrust out the clutch. He seemed in those few moments to have recovered all his old steel-like indomitable purpose. 'It's a madman's chance because it's ten to one we'll get stuck going up the hill on the other side, but we must risk that. When I use the engine again, snap on the lights. As we go past, throw your crucifix straight at the thing on the throne. Then try and grab Simon by the neck.' 'Fine!' Rex laughed suddenly, all his tension gone now that he was at last going into action. 'Go to it!' The car slid forward, silently gathering momentum as it rushed down the steep slope. Next second they were almost upon the nearest of the Satanists. The Duke let in the clutch and Rex switched on the powerful headlights of the Hispano. With the suddenness of a thunderclap a shattering roar burst upon the silence of the valley-as though some monster plane was diving full upon that loathsome company from the cloudy sky. At the same instant, the whole scene was lit in all its ghast-liness by a blinding glare which swept towards them at terrifying speed. The great car bounded forward, the dazzling beams threw into sharp relief the naked forms gathered in the hollow. De Richleau jammed his foot down on the accelerator and, calling with all his will upon the higher powers for their protection, charged straight for the Goat of Mendes upon his Satanic throne. At the first flash of those blinding lights which struck full upon them, the Satanists rushed screaming for cover. It was as though two giant eyes of some nightmare monster leapt at them from the surrounding darkness and the effect was as that of a fire-hose turned suddenly upon an angry threatening mob. Then- maniacal exaltation died away. The false exhilaration of the alcohol, the pungent herbal incense and the drug-laden ointments which they had smeared upon their bodies, drained from them. They woke as from an intoxicated nightmare to the realisation of their nakedness and helplessness. For a moment some of them thought that the end had come and that the Power of Darkness had cashed in their bond, claiming them for its own upon this last Walpurgis-Nacht. Others, less deeply imbued with the mysteries of the Evil cult, forgot the terrible entity whose powers they had come to beg in return for their homage and, reverting to their normal thoughts, saw themselves caught and ruined in some ghastly scandal, believing those blinding shafts of light from the great Hispano to herald the coming of the police. As the grotesque nude figures scattered with shrieks of terror the car bounded from ridge to ridge heading straight for the monstrous Goat. When the lights fell upon it Rex feared for an instant that the malefic rays which streamed from its baleful eyes would overcome the headlights of the car. The lamps flickered and dimmed, but as the Duke clung to the wheel he was concentrating with all the power of his mind upon visualising the horseshoe surmounted by a cross in silver light just above the centre of his forehead, setting the symbol in his aura and, at the same time, repeating the lines of the Ninety-first Psalm which is immensely powerful against all evil manifestations. ' "Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the most High: shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say unto the Lord, Thou are my hope, and my stronghold: my God, in Him will I trust. For He shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter: and from the noisome pestilence." ' From the time Rex switched on the headlights, it was only a matter of seconds before the big car hurtled forward like a living thing right on to the ground where the Sabbat was being held. Rex, clinging to the coachwork, and also visualising that symbol which De Richleau had impressed so strongly upon him, leaned from the step of the car and, with all his force, threw the ivory crucifix straight in the terrible face of the monstrous beast. The Duke swerved the car to avoid the throne and Simon who, alone of all the Satanists, remained standing but apparently utterly unconscious of what was happening. The blue flames of the black candles set upon the hellish altar went out as though quenched by some invisible hand. The lights of the car regained their full brilliance, and once again they heard the terrible screaming neigh which seemed to echo over the desolate Plain for miles around as the crucifix, shining white in the glow of the headlights, passed through the face of the Goat. A horrible stench of burning flesh mingled with the choking odour from the sulphur candles, filled the air like some poisonous gas, but there was no time to think or analyse sensations. After that piercing screech, the brute upon the rocks disappeared. At the same instant Rex grabbed Simon by the neck and hauled him bodily on to the step of the car as it charged the farther slope of the hollow. ' Jolting and bouncing it breasted the rise, hesitating for the fraction of a second upon the brink as though some awful power was striving to draw it backwards. But the Duke threw the gear lever into low, and they lurched forward again on to level ground, Rex, meanwhile, had flung open the door at the back and dragged Simon inside where he collapsed on the floor in a senseless heap. Instinctively, although De Richleau had warned him not to do so, he glanced out of the back window down into the valley where they had witnessed such terrible things, but it lay dark, silent, and seemingly deserted. The car was travelling now at a better pace, although De Richleau did not dare to use the full power of his engine for fear that they should strike a sudden dip or turn over in some hidden gully. For a mile they raced north-eastward while, without ceasing, the Duke muttered to himself those protective lines: ' "He shall defend thee under his wings, and thou shall be safe under his feathers: his faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night: nor for the arrow that flieth by day; For the pestilence that walketh in darkness: nor for the sickness that destroyeth in the noon-day."' Then to his joy, they struck a track at right-angles, and he turned along it to the north-westward, slipping into top gear. The car bounded forward and seemed to fly as though in truth all the devils of Hell were unleashed behind it in pursuit. Swerving, jolting, and bounding across the grassy ruts, they covered five miles in twice as many minutes until they came upon the Lavington- Westbury road. Even then De Richleau would not slow down but, turning in the direction of London, roared on, swerving from bend to bend with utter disregard for danger in his fear of the greater danger that lay behind. They flashed through Earlstoke, Market Lavington and then Easterton, where, unseen by them, the Blue Rolls lay just off the road in a ditch where Tanith had crashed it a few hours before; then Bushall, Upavon, Ludgershall and so to Andover, having practically completed a circuit of the Plain. Here at last, at the entrance of the town, the Duke brought the car to a halt and turned in his seat to look at Rex, 'How is he?' he asked. 'About all-in I reckon. He is as cold as blazes, and he hasn't fluttered an eyelid since I hauled him into the car. My God I what a ghastly business.' 'Grim, wasn't it!' De Richleau for once was looking more than his age. His grey face was lined and heavy pouches seemed to have developed beneath his piercing eyes. His shoulders were hunched as he leaned for a moment apparently exhausted over the wheel. Then he pulled himself together with a jerk and thrusting his hand in his pocket, took out a flask which he passed to Rex. 'Give him some of this-as much as you can get him to swallow. It may help to pull him round.' Rex turned to where Simon lay hunched up beneath the car rugs on the back seat beside him and forcing open his mouth poured a good portion of the old brandy into it. Simon choked suddenly, gasped, and jerked up his head. His eyes flickered open and he stared at Rex, but there was no recognition in them. Then his lids closed again and his head fell backwards on the seat. 'Well, he's alive, thank God,' murmured Rex. 'While you've been driving like a maniac I've been scared that we had lost poor Simon for good and all. But now we'd best get him back to London or to the nearest doctor just as soon as we can.' 'I daren't.' De Richleau's eyes were full of a desperate anxiety. That devilish mob will have recovered themselves and are probably back at the house near Chilbury by now. They will be plotting something against us you may be certain.' 'You mean that as Mocata knows your flat he will concentrate on it to get Simon back-just as he did before?' 'Worse, I doubt if they'd ever let us reach it.' 'Oh, shucks!' Rex frowned impatiently, 'How're they going to stop us?' 'They can control all the meaner things-bats, snakes, rats, foxes, owls-as well as cats and certain breeds of dog like the Wolfhound and Alsatian. If one of those dashed beneath the wheels of the car when we were going at any speed it might turn over. Besides, within certain limits, they can control the elements, so they could ensure a dense local fog surrounding us the whole way, and every mile of it we'd be facing the risk of another car that hadn't seen our lights smashing into us head on at full speed. If they combine the whole of their strength for ill it's a certainty they'll be able to bring about some terrible accident before we can cover the seventy miles to London. Remember too, this is still Walpurgis-Nacht and every force of evil that is abroad will be leagued against us. For every moment until dawn we three remain in the direst peril.' 19 The Ancient Sanctuary 'Well, we can't stay here,' Rex protested. 'I know, and we've got to find some sanctuary where we can keep Simon safe until morning.' 'How about a church?' 'Yes, if we could find one that is open. But they will all be locked up at this hour.' 'Couldn't we get some local parson out of bed?' 'If I knew one anywhere near here I'd chance it, but how can we possibly expect a stranger to believe the story that we should have to tell? He would think us madmen, or probably that it was a plot to rob his church. But wait a moment! By Jove, I've got it! We'll take him to the oldest cathedral in Britain and one that is open to the skies.' With a sudden chuckle of relief, De Richleau set the car in motion again and began to reverse it. 'Surely you're not going back?' Rex asked anxiously. 'Only three miles to the fork-roads at Weyhill, then down to Amesbury.' 'Well, don't you call that going back?' 'Perhaps, but I mean to take him to Stonehenge. If we can reach it, we shall be in safety, even though it is no more than a dozen miles from Chilbury.' Once more the car rocketed along the road across those grassy, barren slopes, cleaving the silent darkness of the night with its great arced headlights. Twenty minutes later they passed again through the twisting streets of Amesbury, now silent and shuttered while its inhabitants slept, not even dreaming of the terrible battle which was being fought out that night between the Power of Light and the Power of Darkness, so near to them in actuality and yet so remote to the teeming life of everyday modern England. A mile outside the town, they ran up the slope to the wire fence which rings in the Neolithic monument, Stonehenge. The Duke drove the car into the deserted car park beside the road and there they left it. Rex carried Simon, wrapped in De Richleau's great-coat and the car rug, while the Duke followed him through the wire with the suitcase containing his protective impedimenta. As they staggered over the grass, the vast monoliths of the ancient place of worship stood out against the skyline-the timeless symbols of a forgotten cult that ruled Britain, before the Romans came to bring more decorative and more human gods. They passed the outer circle of great stone uprights upon some of which the lintels forming them into a ring of arches still remain. Then De Richleau led the way between the mighty chunks of fallen masonry to where, beside the two great trili-thons, the sandstone altar slab lies half buried beneath the remnants of the central arch. At a gesture from the Duke, Rex laid Simon, still unconscious, upon it. Then he looked up doubtfully. 'I suppose you know what you're doing, but I've always heard that the Druids, who built this place, were a pretty grim lot. Didn't they sacrifice virgins on this stone and practise all sorts of pagan rites? I should have thought this place would be more sacred to the Power of Evil than the Power of Good.' 'Don't worry, Rex,' De Richleau smiled in the darkness. 'It is true that the Druids performed sacrifices, but they were sun- worshippers. At the summer solstice, the sun rises over the hilltop there, shedding its first beam of light directly through the arch on to this altar stone. This place is one of the most hallowed spots in all Europe because countless thousands of long-dead men and women have worshipped here-calling upon the Power of Light to protect them from the evil things that go in darkness-and the vibrations of their souls are about us now making a sure buttress and protection until the coming of the dawn.' With gentle hands, they set about a more careful examination of Simon. His body was still terribly cold but they found that, except for where Rex had clawed at his neck, he had suffered no physical injury. 'What do you figure to do now?' Rex asked as the Duke opened his suitcasej 'Exorcise him in due form, in order to try and drive out any evil spirit by which he may be possessed.' 'Like the Roman Catholic priests used to do in the Middle