Rex had not yet quite recovered from the shock of learning that so sane a man as De Richleau could seriously believe in all this gibberish about the Occult. He was very far from being convinced himself, but he refrained from airing his scepticism and instead, as the taxi rattled north through Baker Street, he began to consider the practical side of their expedition. There had been eight men at least in Simon’s house when they left it. He glanced towards the Duke. ‘Are you carrying a gun?’
‘No, and if I were it would be useless.’
‘Holy Smoke! You are bats or else I am.’ Rex shrugged his broad shoulders and began to wonder if he was not living through some particularly vivid and horrible dream. Soon he would wake perhaps; sweating a little from the nightmare picture which De Richleau had drawn for him of age-old evil, tireless and vigilant, cloaked from the masses by modern scepticism yet still a potent force stalking the dark ways of the night, conjured into new life by strange delvers into ancient secrets for their unhallowed ends; but wake he must, to the bright, clear day and Simon’s chuckle over a tankard of Pim’s cup at luncheonthat such fantastic nonsense should centre about him even in a dream. Yet there was Tanith, so strange and wise and beautiful, looking as though she had just stepped out of a painting by some great master of the Italian Renaissance. It was no dream that he had at last actually met and spoken with her that evening at Simon’s house, among all those queer people whom the Duke declared so positively to be Satan worshippers; and if she was flesh and blood they must be too.
On the north side of Lord’s cricket ground, De Richleau stopped the taxi. ‘Better walk the rest of the way,’ he murmured as he paid off the man. ‘Simon’s arrived by now and it would be foolish to warn them of our coming.’
‘Thought you said Mocata was overlooking us with the evil eye?’ Rex replied as they hurried along Circus Road.
‘He may be. I can’t say, but possibly he thinks we would never dare risk a second visit to the house tonight. If we exercise every precaution we may catch him off his guard. He’s just as vulnerable as any other human being except when he is actually employing his special powers.’
Side by side they passed through two streets where the low roofs of the old-fashioned houses were only faintly visible above the walls that kept them immune from the eyes of the curious, each set, silent and vaguely mysterious, among its whispering trees; then they entered the narrow, unlit cul-de-sac.
Treading carefully now, they covered the two hundred yards to its end and halted, gazing up at the darkened mass of the upper stories which loomed above the high wall. Not a chink of light betrayed that the house was tenanted, although they knew that, apart from the servants, thirteen people had congregated there to perform some strange midnight ceremony little over an hour before.
‘Think they’ve cleared out?’ Rex whispered.
‘I doubt it.’ The Duke stepped forward and tried the narrow door. It was fast locked.
‘Can’t we call the police in to raid the place?’
De Richleau shrugged impatiently. ‘What could we charge them with that a modern station-sergeant would understand?’
‘Kidnapping!’ Rex urged below his breath. ‘If I were back home I’d have the strong arm squad here in under half an hour. Get the whole bunch pinched and gaoled pending trial. They’d be out of the way then for a bit, even if I had to pay up heavy damages afterwardsan’ meantime we’d pop Simon in a mental home till he got his wits back.’
Rex! Rex!’ The Duke gave a low, delighted chuckle. ‘It’s an enchanting idea, and if we were in the States I really believe we might pull it offbut here it’s impossible.’
‘What do you figure to do then?’
‘Go in and see if Simon has returned.’
‘I’m game, but the odds are pretty heavy.’
‘If we’re caught we must run for it.’
‘O.K., but if we fail to make our getaway they’ll call the police and have us gaoled for housebreaking.’
‘Nono,’ De Richleau muttered. ‘They won’t want to draw the attention of the police to their activities, and the one thing that matters is to get Simon out of here.’
‘All right.’ Rex placed his hands on his knees, and stooping his great shoulders, leaned his head against the wall. ‘Up you go.’ The Duke bent towards him. ‘Listen!’ he whispered. ‘Once we’re inside we’ve got to stick together whatever happens. God knows what they’ve used this house of Simon’s for, but the whole place reeks of evil.’
‘Oh shucks!’ Rex muttered contemptuously. ‘I mean it,’ De Richleau insisted. ‘If you take that attitude I’d rather go in alone. This is the most dangerous business I’ve ever been up against, and if it wasn’t for the thought of Simon nothing on earth would tempt me to go over this wall in the middle of the night.’
‘Ohall right. Have it your own way.’ ‘You’ll obey me implicitlyevery word I say?’
‘Yes, don’t fret yourself––’
‘Good, and remember you are to bolt for it the instant I give the word, because the little knowledge that I possess may only protect us for a very fleeting space of time.’ The Duke clambered on to Rex’s shoulders and heaved himself up on to the coping. Rex stepped back a few yards and took a flying leap; next second he had scrambled up beside De Richleau. For a moment they both sat astride the wall peering down into the shadows of the garden, then they dropped silently into a flower-border on the other side.
‘The first thing is to find a good line of retreat in case we have to get out in a hurry,’ breathed the Duke.
‘What about this?’ Rex whispered back, slapping the trunk of a well-grown laburnum tree.
De Richleau nodded silently. One glance had assured him that with the aid of the lower branches two springs would bring them to the top of the wall. Then he moved at a quick, stealthy run across a small open space of lawn to the shelter of some bushes that ran round the side of the house.
From their new cover Rex surveyed the side windows. No glimmer of light broke the expanse of the rambling old mansion. As the Duke moved on, he followed, until the bushes ended at the entrance of a back yard, evidently giving on to the kitchen quarters.
‘Have a care,’ he whispered, jerking De Richleau’s sleeve. ‘They may have a dog.’
‘They couldn’t,’ replied the Duke positively. ‘Dogs are simple, friendly creatures but highly psychic. The vibrations in a place where Black Magic was practised would cause any dog to bolt for a certainty.’ With light, quick, padding steps he crossed the yard and came out into the garden on the far side of the house.
Here too every window was shrouded in darkness and an uncanny stillness brooded over the place.
‘I don’t like it,’ whispered De Richleau. ‘Simon can’t have been back more than a quarter of an hour at the outsideso there ought still to be lights in the upper rooms. Anyhow, it looks as if the others have gone home, which is somethingwe must chance an ambush.’
He pointed to a narrow, ground floor window. ‘That’s probably the lavatory, and most people forget to close their lavatory windowscome on !’
Silently Rex followed him across the grass, then gripping him by the knees, heaved him up until he was well above the level of the sill.
The sash creaked, the upper half of the window slid down, and the Duke’s head and shoulders disappeared inside.
For a moment Rex watched his wriggling legs, heard a bump, followed by a muffled oath, and then clambered up on to the sill.
‘Hurt yourself?’ he whispered, as De Richleau’s face appeared, a pale blot in the darkness.
‘Not muchthough this sort of thing is not amusing for a man of my age. The door here is unlocked, thank goodness.’