"Singing Rock," I said gently, and pointed.
Singing Rock turned, and saw the single hate-filled eye. He licked his lips nervously, and then spoke to Karen in a quiet, strained voice.
"Who are you?" he asked. "Where do you come from?"
There was silence at first, but then Karen Tandy whispered hoarsely: "I — am — much — mightier — than — you. Your — medicine — is — of — no — consequence — to — me. I — will — soon — slay — you — little — brother."
"What is your name?" said Singing Rock.
"My — name — is — Misquamacus — I — will — soon — slay — you — little — brother — from — the — plains."
Singing Rock stepped back nervously, staring at the single eye. Even when the eye dropped shut again, he was rubbing his hands in agitation against his surgical robe.
"What's the matter?" I asked him.
"It's Misquamacus, " he whispered, as though he were afraid of being overhead. "He's one of the most notorious and powerful medicine men of all Indian history."
"You've heard of him?"
"Anyone who knows anything about Indian magic has heard of him. Even the Sioux knew about him, way back before the white men came. He was considered to be the greatest of all medicine men, and he was in contact with manitous and demons that no other medicine man would dare to summon."
"What does that mean?" said Jack Hughes anxiously. "Does that mean you can't fight him?"
Singing Rock was sweating under his surgical face mask. "Oh, I can fight him, all right. But I don't give much for my chances of winning. Misquamacus was said to be able to control even the most ancient and wicked of Indian spirits. There were some manitous that were so old and evil that by the time the first white men arrived in America, they were only known in legend and stories by most tribes. But Misquamacus regularly called them for his own use. If he calls on them now, today, I just can't imagine what will happen."
"But what can a spirit do?" I asked him. "Can they actually hurt people who don't believe in them?"
"Of course," explained Singing Rock. "Just because you don't believe a tiger is going to maul you, that doesn't prevent it from doing so, does it? Once these manitous have been summoned into the physical world, they have physical powers and physical existence."
"Holy Christ," said Dr. Hughes.
Singing Rock sniffed. "He won't help you. These demons have nothing to do with Christianity at all. You can fight Christian demons with crucifixes and holy water, but these demons will just laugh at you."
"This circle," I said, pointing to the ring of powder and bones. "Do you think this will hold him?"
Singing Rock shook his head. "I don't think so. Not for more than a few minutes, anyway. It might just give me the time to work a couple of spells on him, something to hold him down for longer. But Misquamacus was one of the greatest of circle-markers himself He could draw circles that would hold back the most terrible spirits. This circle is the strongest one I'm capable of drawing, but he'll know how to break through that without any difficulty at all."
"What I'm worried about is Karen, " said Jack Hughes. "If we're going to have a full-scale battle of wizards right here in her room, do you think she can possibly survive it?"
"Dr. Hughes," said Singing Rock. "This is all-or-nothing. If I win this battle, then she will survive. If I don't, then I can't give you any guarantees about who will survive. With a medicine man as strong as Misquamacus, we might all of us die. You don't seem to understand what these manitous are. When I say they're powerful, I don't just mean they can knock a man over. If they're released from limbo without any control on them at all, they could wipe out this hospital, this whole block, this city."
"Oh, come on, now," said Dr. Hughes. Singing Rock made a last check of his medicine circle, and then led us out of Karen Tandy's room. In the corridor, we peeled off our face masks and untied out robes.
"All I can say is — wait and see," said Singing Rock. "Now, I could use a meal and a beer. Is there anywhere to eat in this hospital?"
"Follow me," said Jack Hughes. "It's going to be along night, so we might as well fuel up now."
I checked the time. Five-oh-five. By this time tomorrow, we would know whether we had won. If we hadn't, I couldn't even imagine what five-oh-five on Tuesday evening would bring.
Lieutenant Marino of the NYPD was waiting for me in Dr. Hughes' office when we got back from eating. He was sitting patiently with his hands in his lap his black brush-cut hair sticking up like Mickey Spillane before his weekly visit to the barber.
"Mr. Erskine?" he said, rising to shake my hand.
I looked at him cautiously. "Did you want something, lieutenant?"
"Oh, this and that. You must be Dr. Hughes, sir," he said to Jack. "I'm Lieutenant Marino." He flashed his badge.
"This is Singing Rock," I said, introducing Singing Rock.
"Pleased to know you," replied Lieutenant Marino. There was hand-shaking all round.
"Is there any problem?" I said.
"You could say that," said Lieutenant Marino. "Do you know two people called Amelia Crusoe and Stewart MacArthur?"
"Of course, they're old friends of mine. What's the trouble?"
"They're dead," said Lieutenant Marino. "There was a fire in their apartment in the Village this morning, and they were both killed."
I felt weird and trembly all over. I found a seat and sat down, and Dr. Hughes fetched out his bottle of bourbon and poured me a glass. I swallowed a long mouthful. Lieutenant Marino passed me a cigarette, and lit it for me. When I spoke, my voice was dry and croaky.
"God, that's terrible," I said. "How did it happen?"
"We don't know," shrugged Marino. "I was hoping that maybe you had some ideas about that."
"What do you mean? What kind of ideas could I have about it? I've only just found out."
Lieutenant Marino leaned forward confidentially. "Mr. Erskine, on Saturday morning, an old lady called Mrs. Herz fell down a flight of steps and died. This is Monday. Two people are caught in a strange kind of flash fire in their apartment, and they die. All of these people have something in common. They're all friends of yours. Now, do you think I'm right to make a routine inquiry, or don't you?"
I sat back. My hands were shaking like two old men with the palsy.
"I guess you're right But I have a witness who can tell you where I was this morning. I was up at La Guardia collecting Singing Rock here from his flight from South Dakota."
"Is that true?" Lieutenant Marino asked Singing Rock.
Singing Rock nodded. He seemed to be thoughtful and preoccupied, and I wondered just what was turning over in his mind.
"Okay," said Lieutenant Marino, standing up. "That's all I wanted. I'm sorry I had to bring you such bad news."
He got ready to leave, but Singing Rock held his arm.
"Lieutenant," he said. "Do you know what actually happened — with these two people?"
"It's hard to tell," replied Marino. "It seems as though the fire was instantaneous — more of a bomb than a fire. Both of the bodies were cindered up. We're checking for explosives now, but there wasn't any blast damage, so I don't know whether we'll find any. It may have been some kind of freak electrical fault. We won't know for two or three days."
"Okay, lieutenant," said Singing Rock quietly. "Thank you."
Lieutenant Marino went to the door.
"Mr. Erskine, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't leave town for a day or so. I'd like to know where to reach you in case there are any further inquiries."
"Sure," I told him softly. "I'll be around."
As soon as he'd gone, Singing Rock came over to me and laid his hand on my shoulder.