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Evelith was silent for a while. Then he said, 'With f Enid's help — Enid and Anne Putnam and the rest of the wonder-workers who are descended from the original I witches of Salem — with their help, I have been able to communicate with Joseph Evelith through séances and I signs. Until I can release him from Tezcatlipoca's service, I my family will remain outcast and doomed, forever I shadowed by disease and ruin. My own wife… and both my children… all of them were taken by hepatitis. I myself have been sick with angina for years.'

'So where does Mictantecutli come into this?' I asked him. 'Surely another demon is only going to make things worse.'

He shook his head. Tezcatlipoca is Mictantecutli's servant, and must obey it. If I can bring Mictantecutli here, and keep it imprisoned with the same magical bonds that the Narragansett wonder-worker used in the days of David Dark, then I can command it to tell Tezcatlipoca to let my ancestor go. The blight will be lifted.'

'Why can't you use the magical bonds on Tezcatlipoca? If it's a servant of Mictantecutli, then surely it's far less powerful.'

'It is. But only the spells that bound Mictantecutli have survived through history. Nothing relating to Tezcatlipoca has been passed down at all. Quamus and I have tried many different chants and incantations, and scores of different rituals. Some of them have succeeded in raising the most terrifying spirits you can imagine. That is what caused all the noise and the lights that the local people have been complaining about. But none have succeeded in trapping or taming Tezcatlipoca.'

I stood up, and walked around the sofa. Somehow I felt uncomfortable, sitting so close to old man Evelith. There was something dry and unreal about him, as if his tuxedo and his evening trousers were nothing more than propped-up, empty clothes. I said, 'What guarantee do you have that Mictantecutli will do what you ask?'

'No guarantee at all, except that it will believe that releasing my ancestor will be the only way in which it will be given its freedom.'

'You'd release it?'

Duglass Evelith shook his head. 'I'd tempt it with the prospect of release. But can you imagine what would happen if a demon like that actually got loose? It has greater power than a ten-megaton bomb. It can influence the weather, the course of history, the very turning of the earth. It can raise corpses from their graves, and cut the most grisly swathe through the living population that you could ever imagine.'

'Are you sure of that?'

'How sure does anybody need to be? Mictantecutli has been lying under Salem Harbour for 300 years, and so there is no recent history to support what I say. But come down to my library, and I will show you indisputable evidence that Mictantecutli was responsible for the extinction of the entire Toltec people in Mexico; that his European manifestation was responsible for each of the Black Death pandemics, which killed twenty-five million people in Europe alone, up until the end of the 17th century, when Esau Hasket at last imprisoned it. I will show you evidence, some strong, some admittedly circumstantial, that Mictantecutli was involved in most of the bloodiest wars and the cruelest human deeds in history. Pliny said that Caligula, who was the bloodiest and most licentious of all Roman emperors, had been possessed after only eight months of his reign by a spirit which he called the Man of Bones.'

I said cautiously, 'You don't think that Mictantecutli would find it difficult to survive in a skeptical world like we have today? I mean, some of a demon's strength must come from how strongly people believe in it, surely?'

'Demons are not fairies from Peter Pan,' said old man Evelith, turning around to stare at me. 'They don't acquire more strength because a million people throughout the world say, "We do believe in demons!" '

'Still,' I said. 'I can't see a giant skeleton being able to make much impact on a society that's learned to live with the bomb, and the automobile, and put up buildings only just short of a mile high. Can you? Really?'

'What do you want me to say?' asked old man Evelith. 'Mictantecutli is the most vengeful and powerful being that ever was, excluding the Lord our God. I don't think it would be very impressed by H-bombs, or Chevrolets, or the Sears building. No, sir.'

At that moment, there was a brief knock at the door, and Quamus came in. 'Mr Evelith, sir, excuse me. There's a visitor for Mr Trenton. Miss McCormick.'

Duglass Evelith stood up. 'Show her in, Quamus. Perhaps she'd like to stay for dinner, Mr Trenton?'

'If it won't be any trouble.'

'Not at all. This house hasn't seen any guests for years; I think I shall enjoy having some company.'

Gilly came in, and I introduced her to Duglass Evelith. She smiled and nodded, obviously a little overawed by the gates and the dog and the old-fashioned gloom of the halls and the corridors. When Duglass Evelith had gone, she came over and gave me a kiss, and squeezed me affectionately. She wore a natural-coloured cotton dress with ties at the shoulders and pockets, and it made her look fresh and young and pretty.

This is like Castle Dracula,' she said. 'Have you checked to see if Mr Evelith's face actually appears in any of the mirrors?'

'Too late if it doesn't,' I smiled. 'Sit down. I think I can even offer you a drink. Would you like to stay for dinner?'

Td adore it. This place is so creepy.'

I poured us two small glasses of whisky from the half-bottle I had brought with me in my suitcase. 'How's Edward?' I asked her. 'Did he say anything after I'd gone?'

'Edward's funny. You mustn't think too badly of him. He's been searching for this wreck for so long, and now that he's found it I think that he's almost frightened of bringing it up. He's one of these archaeologists who love to explore the unknown, but once they've found out what it is, they don't know what to do with it.'

'I think I follow you. But why is he being so pernickety about bringing up the wreck so slowly, and so scrupulously? He knows how dangerous this demon could be.'

'He's afraid of making a mistake, that's all,' Gilly told me. 'If he makes a mess of this wreck, then everybody at the Peabody is going to treat him like a blundering amateur. Apart from that, he's up against a credibility problem, too, just like you are. Nobody believes in demons; not even me. Well, you believe in demons, but you're an exception. And the whole point is that if he chops his way into the wreck, and damages it, and then finds out that there's nothing in there, or that the copper vessel doesn't contain anything dangerous after all… how's he going to explain it? "I smashed up this valuable historical monument because I thought there was a devil inside it"? Jesus, John, he'd lose his job. He's on the verge of losing it anyway, because of all the time he's been taking off.'

'My heart bleeds,' I said, unsympathetically. 'Meanwhile, scores of people in Granitehead are being plagued by terrifying apparitions. Do you know that one of my neighbours went missing tonight? He said he was going to meet his dead brother, and now they can't find him. I can tell you, Gilly: I've a good mind to dive down to that wreck and bring that copper vessel up by myself.'

'You'll have to hurry if you're thinking of doing that. Edward's going to register the wreck tomorrow as belonging to the Wardwell-Brough Maritime Archaeological Trust, or some such fancy title. He's also going to arrange to have the wreck marked with an official coastguard buoy and protected around the clock by an official coastguard patrol. He'll be making an announcement to the newspapers and the television, too.'