`Even that was not the full measure of her malice. Naturally, after I thought Isobel was dead I went all to pieces for a bit. But I was young and healthy, and next spring I started to tumble Hettie evenings in the barn. I've told you how she got in the family way with Ellen and spilled the beans about it. That must have given Mother Durnsford a fine old laugh. I didn't know it then, but she had learned from Isobel's letters how anxious I was to educate and improve myself. Nothing could have been more likely to scotch that than to tie me up to a brainless little working class slut who was going to have a kid, and would probably go on producing them like rabbits.
`Well, it didn't work out that way. But she succeeded in robbing me of Isobel; and you are quite right in your idea that losing her altered my whole life. I still don't see, though, what that has to do with the Canon and Ellen.'
John had listened to Beddows' love story with intense interest, and now he asked, `Did you ever find out what happened to Isobel?'
`Yes. After I found those letters I had enquiries made. There had been a world war in between, but they succeeded in tracing her up. She did die, but not till nearly a year after I believed her dead; and ever since I learned that I've been tortured by the belief that she just let herself die of a broken heart.'
`Say she had lived, Mr. Beddows, and you had found out sooner that she was alive would you have married her after your first wife died?'
`Of course I would.!
'But you couldn't possibly have married a person as fine as she was, unless you had first forsworn the Devil. To have continued secretly as a Satanist would have robbed your marriage with her of all the genuine happiness you expected to derive from it.'
`Yes; I see that,' Beddows admitted slowly. `Still, love is the greatest protective force in existence. I think hers would have proved strong enough to shield me from all but loss of my worldly wealth. Anyhow, it's true that I should have had to abjure in order to put myself right with her; and for her sake I would have risked anything.'
`You must have loved her very deeply.'
`More than anything in this world or the next.'
`Then you will be able to understand how I feel, Mr. Beddows, when I tell you that I love your daughter.'
Beddows raised his eyebrows. `Is that so? You haven't known her very long, have you?'
`No; but in the hours we have spent together much more has happened than during an ordinary courtship. We are already engaged to be married.'
For the first time a glint of humour showed in Beddows' brown eyes as he asked, `Am I to take it that you've come here to night to ask my consent?'
`We should be glad to have your blessing,' John answered seriously. `But first we need the help that only you can give. And you know how desperately we need it.'
`I'm sorry. Indeed I am. But it's no good harking back to that.'
`Mr. Beddows, you have just said that you loved Isobel more than anything in this world or the next. That implies that you still love her spirit. If it were here in this room to night as it may well be and could speak to you, what would it say? You know as well as I do that it would beg you to become again the person it knew and loved. It would urge you to defy Satan in order to save your daughter and make possible the happiness of another pair of lovers.'
`Yes,' Beddows muttered. `That's what it would say.'
`Then if you still love her, do this for her sake.'
The eyes of the man in the pentacle suddenly blazed, and he shouted, `Damn you, stop torturing me! I can’t! I won’t! Get to hell out of here P
After his long and skilful guidance of their talk, John had felt that he was almost on the verge of victory; so
Beddows' outburst came as a bitter disappointment. For a moment he remained silent, searching his mind for some last card that might yet win him over. To his distress he could think of nothing approaching the potency of the arguments he had already used; so he could only fall back upon what he felt to be a frail piece of reasoning, unlikely to alter a mind so evidently fixed by terror in its determination. Nevertheless he threw out the suggestion with no lessening of persistence.
`You were saying a little while ago that if Isobel had still been alive and you had abjured to put yourself right with her, you thought that her love would have protected you from all but the loss of your worldly wealth. Surely, although she is now a spirit, her love would continue to protect you?'
`No.' Beddows' voice was firm. `For all I know, during those last months she may have believed that I had deliberately jilted her, and died hating me. I can't afford to chance that. There is one thing and one thing only that could protect me. That is to cheat Satan by getting back the Pact I signed with him.'
John's muscles tensed. `D'you know where it is?' `Copely Syle has it.'
`I naturally supposed so; but he wouldn't carry it about on him. I mean, do you know where he keeps it?'
`I don't know for certain, but I can give a good guess. It is a hundred to one that after offering it up he would place a document of that kind under the Satanic altar in his crypt.'
`Then ...' John hesitated.
Beddows flung out his hands in a violent gesture of protest. `No, no! Don't think of it. Forget what I said! You're young and healthy! You should have many years of happiness ahead of you. There are plenty of other girls in the world besides Ellen. You would be crazy to try to raise that altar. You would be blasted where you stood. If you did survive you would be found as a gibbering idiot in the morning. I wouldn't let my worst enemy attempt to get that Pact.'
Slowly John stood up. `If I do get it, and give it to you to destroy, will you swear to me by your love for Isobel immediately to abjure Satan?'
A shudder ran through Beddows. With eyes distended by horror he stared up at John. For a moment he was silent, then he gasped, `All right! I swear. But I warned you: I warned you! You'll be going to your death.'
22
The Devil's Altar
The palms of John's hands were already sweating. His memory of the impotence and fear he had felt when in the crypt twenty four hours earlier was still vivid in his mind; yet he had made his decision the moment Beddows had spoken of the Pact as the price on which he must insist for his co operation.
John had come there determined to secure that co operation somehow; not only because it could bring to naught the Canon's attempt to get Christina out of prison during the night that was already upon them, but also because on that depended her whole future. To save her from an abominable death at the hands of Copely Syle was the overriding consideration for the moment, but even success in that could later prove a barren victory if she were to continue to be the nightly victim of evil cravings which, now she was out in the world, must soon lead her to become cynically immoral, decadent, unscrupulous and, perhaps, criminal. Only her father could save her from that by ratting on his bargain with the Devil. Since his price for that was the Pact, he must have it.
The mere idea of going into the crypt again filled John with terrifying qualms. He felt that to argue the matter further could only weaken his resolution, and that in immediate action lay his sole hope of maintaining it long enough to force himself to enter that Satanic stronghold Then he got there; so he said abruptly
`Perhaps you are right, and I'll be dead in an hour. If not, I'll be back here.' Then he turned towards the door.
'Hi C. B. called after him. `If we've got to do this thing, we had better take some weapons with us.'