‘I wanted sleep terribly when I got up to that hotel bedroom, but I knew that I mustn’t allow myself to, so I took some paper from the lounge, and borrowed a pencil. Then I threw myself into a trance with the paper before me and the pencil in my hand. When I looked at it again I had quite enough information scribbled down to enable me to follow you here.’
Rex accepted this amazing explanation quite calmly. Had he been told such a thing a few days before he would have considered it fantastic, but it never even occurred to him that it was in any way extraordinary that a woman desiring to know his whereabouts should throw herself into a trance and employ automatic writing.
He glanced at the old grandfather clock which stood ticking away in a corner of the low-raftered room. Half an hour had sped by already and he was feeling guilty now at having left Simon. He would never be able to forgive himself if, in his absence, any harm befell his friend. Now that he knew Tanith was safe he must get back to Cardinals Folly, so he announced abruptly: ‘I’m mighty sorry, but I’ve got Simon to look after so I can’t stay here much longer.’
‘Oh, Rex,’ her eyes held his imploringly. ‘You must not unless you take me with you. If you leave me alone, Mocata will be certain to get me.’
For a moment Rex hesitated miserably, wrestling with the quandary that faced him. If Tanith was telling the truth, he couldn’t possibly leave her to be drawn back by that terrible power of evil. But was she? So far she had been Mocata’s puppet. How much truth was there in this pretended change of heart? Had Mocata planted her there in order to lure him deliberately away from Simon’s side.
It occurred to him that he might take her back with him to Cardinals Folly, for if she was speaking the truth she was in the same case as Simon. They could keep the two of them together and concentrate their forces against the black magician. But he dismissed the idea almost as soon as it entered his mind. To do so would be playing Mocata’s game with a vengeance. If Tanith were acting consciously or unconsciously under his influence, God alone knew what powers she might possess to aid her master once they accepted her as a friend in their midst. If he took her there it would be like introducing one of the enemy into a beleaguered fortress.
‘What are you afraid might happen if I leave you?’ he asked suddenly.
‘You can’tyou mustn’t,’ her eyes pleaded with him. ‘Not only for my own sake, but your friends’ as well. Mocata has a hundred means of knowing where Simon is and where I am too. He may arrive here at any moment. It’s no good pretending, Rex. I know beyond any question that I cannot resist him and he’ll work through me, however much my will is set against it. He’s told me a dozen times that he had never met a woman who is such a successful medium for him as myself. So you can be certain that he is on his way here now.’
‘What d’you think he’ll do when he turns up?’
‘He will throw me into a trance and call Simon to him. Then if Simon fails to come Mocata may curse him through me.’
Rex shrugged. ‘Don’t worry. De Richleau’s a wily old bird. He’ll turn the curse aside some way.’
‘But you don’t seem to understand,’ she sobbed. ‘If a cure is sent out it must lodge somewhere, and if it fails to reach its objective because there is an equally strong influence working against it, the vibrations recoil and impinge upon the sender.’
‘Steady now.’ He took her hands and tried to soothe her. ‘If that is so I guess we couldn’t find a better way to tickle up Mocata.’
‘Nono! He never does these things himselfat least I have never known him tojust in case he fails, because then he would have to pay the penalty. Instead, he uses other peoplehypnotises them and makes them throw out the thought or the wish. That is what he will do to me. If he succeeds, you will no longer be able to protect Simon, and if he fails, it is I who will pay the price. That is why you’ve just got to stay with me and prevent him using me as his instrument.’
‘Holy smoke! Then we’re in a proper jam!’ Rex’s brain was working swiftly. If she were telling the truth, she was in real danger. If not, at least Simon still had Richard and Marie Lou to take care of him until the Duke’s return.
All his chivalry and his love for her which seemed to have blossomed overnight welled up and told him that he must chance her honesty and remain there to protect her. ‘All right, I’ll stay,’ he said after a moment.
‘Oh, thank God!’ she sighed. ‘Thank God!
‘But tell me,’ he went on, ‘just why is it you’re such a kingpin medium to this man. What about old Madame D’Urfe and the rest. Can’t he do his stuff through them?
Tanith looked at him through tear-dimmed eyes and shook her head. ‘Not in the same way. You see there is rather an unusual link between us. My number is twenty and so is his.’
Rex frowned. ‘What exactly do you mean by that?’ he asked in a puzzled voice.
‘I mean our astrological numbers,’ she replied quietly. ‘Give me a piece of paper, and I will show you.’
Rex handed her a few sheets from a nearby table and a pencil from his waistcoat pocket, then she quickly drew out a list of the numerical values to the letters of the alphabet:
A=1 K=2 S=3
B=2 L=3 T=4
C=3 M=4 U=6
D=4 N=5 V=6
E=5 O=7 W=6
F=8 P=8 X=5
G=3 Q=1 Y=1
H=5 R=2 Z=7
I or J=1
‘There!’ she went on. ‘By substituting numbers for the letters in anyone’s name and adding them up you get their occult number which indicates the planet that influences them most in all spiritual affairs. It must be the name by which they are most generally knowneven if it is a pet name. Now look!’
M=4 T=4
O=7 A=1
C=3 N=5
A=1 I=1
T=4 T=4
A=1 H=5
____ ____
20 2+0 = 2 20 2 + 0 = 2
____ ____
‘You see how closely our vibrations are attuned. Two is the value of the Moon, to which both he and I are subject, and any names having a total numerical value which would reduce by progressive additions to two, such as eleven or twenty-nine or thirty-eight or forty-seven, would give us some affinity, but that they actually add up to the same compound number shows that we are attuned to a very remarkable degree. That is why I have proved such an exceptionally good medium for him to work through.’
‘But you are utterly different from him,’ Rex protested.
‘Of course,’ she nodded gravely. ‘One’s birth date gives the material number, which is generally that of another planet and modifies the influence of the spiritual number considerably. As it happens mine is May 2ndagain a two you see, so I am an almost pure type. Moon people are intensely imaginative, artistic, romantic, gentle by nature and not very strong physically. They are rather over-sensitive and lacking in self-confidence, unsettled too, and liable to be continually changing their plans, but most of them, of course, have some balancing factor. Mocata gets all his imaginative and psychic qualities from the Moon, but his birthday is April 24th which adds up to six, and six being the number of Venus, he is very strongly influenced by that planet. Venus people are extremely magnetic. They attract others easily and are usually loved and worshipped by those under them, but very often they are obstinate and unyielding. It is that in his nature which balances the weakness of the Moon and makes him so determined in carrying out his plans.’