The cock's raucous challenge, seeming unnaturally loud as it echoed from the stone arches overhead, sounded like the voice of doom. The two men halted in their tracks. The blood rushed to their hearts. Fearfully they jerked white faces round towards the left hand aisle and the shadowy tier of cages behind the row of pillars, from which the crowing came.
There was nothing really terrifying about the sound itself it was hearing it so unexpectedly in those surroundings. They had forgotten that although, according to the inspector's account, the Canon had disposed of all his maimed animals, he had not removed the chickens, doves and other fowl which he used for sacrifices. In the darkness they had all been silently sleeping, till the sudden switching on of all the lights had aroused them to chirp and flutter in a false dawn.
As realisation dawned upon the two intruders, that this was no demon giving tongue in the likeness of a bird, they let go their breath and breathed again; but only for a moment. Something moved swiftly behind one of the pillars. Both of them glimpsed the quick, furtive jump of a shadowy body, but neither could have said what it was. Instead of advancing further, they remained there, staring apprehensively at the base of the pillar behind which it had disappeared.
Before they could make up their minds to leave it unaccounted for in their rear, their attention was distracted to the roof. A faint squeaking sounded up in the shadows above the row of lights. There was a sudden movement up there too, then the squeaking ceased.
`Come on!' said John. `We're wasting time.'
As he spoke the thing behind the pillar moved again. It sprang out into the open, a yard ahead of them, right in their path. Their gasps merged into sighs of relief. It was an obscene and ugly creature, but appeared to be no more than an exceptionally large toad.
John took another step forward. His foot had not reached the ground when something hurtled at his head from above, like a small dive bomber. He gave a cry of fear and ducked, but caught a swift sight of the thing as it streaked downward between his upturned face and the nearest light. As he did so he upbraided himself for showing such funk, when the squeaking should have told him that the creatures above the lights were only bats.
Next moment he had cause for real terror. The toad had been watching him with bright, jewel like, unwinking eyes. Suddenly its mouth opened and it laughed.
That deep unholy chuckle, coming from a reptile, sent chills rippling down their spines. Instinctively they backed towards the steps.
`We've got to go forward,' said C. B. hoarsely. `If we lose our nerve now, we're finished.'
In two paces they recovered their lost ground; but the toad held his. Then an extraordinary thing happened. Its outline blurred and it crepitated until it turned into a yellowish green ball of gaseous matter. An instant later there were two toads squatting where there had been only one before.
With unbelieving eyes they stared at the twin creatures begotten so mysteriously. As they did so they heard a swish in the air above them, and this time two bats came hurtling at their heads. Both of them ducked; the two toads laughed, wobbled into whirling balls and became four.
It was at that moment that the lights went out.
For a few seconds they were blinded by the darkness; then they became conscious of a glow behind them. Swinging round they saw that the door had opened, and the Canon's coloured servant stood framed in it.
It occurred to them only then that he must have a key to the door in order to keep the furnace going and feed the birds. What had brought him on the scene they could not guess. They had been in the crypt for about two minutes. It was possible that he had heard the cock crow, or seen a light below the door, or simply come to stoke the furnace up for the night, or perhaps been summoned as the guardian of the place by some occult signal. They could only be certain that it was he who had turned out the lights; for as they swung upon him, he still had his dark hand on the two lowest switches.
After the unnerving episode of the toad a human enemy
held few terrors for the nocturnal intruders. The Egyptian was as tall as C. B. and the flowing white burnous which concealed his limbs gave him the appearance of being considerably more powerful; yet without a second's hesitation John tensed his muscles to spring up the steps towards him.
C. B. did likewise, then swiftly averted his gaze and shouted a warning. `Don't look at his eyes! Don't look at his eyes!'
It came too late. John was already staring straight into the coloured man's white rimmed eyeballs. The reason why he had switched out the lights instantly became clear. It was to prevent them dazzling him and to enable his eyes to become luminous in the semi darkness. In his coffee coloured face they now showed up brilliantly. They held John's gaze so that he could not draw it away, and seemed to increase in size with extraordinary swiftness. To his fury and amazement his body made a futile jerk, but he was incapable of launching himself up the stone stairway. The eyes that bored into his grew bigger and bigger, until they merged and became one great blinding circle of light. An intolerable pain shot through his head, his knees gave under him and he crumpled up on the lowest step.
The Egyptian had overcome him in a matter of seconds by catching his glance as he was about to jump. But C. B., after one glimpse of the baleful light in the coloured man's eyes, had torn his own away. Riveting his gaze on the stone flags of the floor for a moment, he concentrated both his mental and physical strength. Swiftly, he muttered a short prayer; then, without raising his glance, he hurled himself at the Egyptian's legs.
John had at that second collapsed. Having dealt successfully with one intruder, the Egyptian turned on the other. But he had time only to kick C. B. in the chest. The force of the kick would have broken C.B.’s breast bone had the man been wearing boots, but he had on only soft leather sandals. The jolt was no worse than a punch from a pugilist wearing boxing gloves; yet that was bad enough. It shook C. B. sufficiently to make him gasp and boggle his tackle. Instead of getting the man beneath the knees, he succeeded in grasping him only by one ankle. Tightening his grip, he drew a deep breath, then threw his weight backward.
The Egyptian's foot flew from beneath him and he crashed to the ground. Without losing a second he kicked out with his other foot. It caught C. B, on the head and sent him reeling down the steps. But John, now freed for a few seconds from the paralyzing effect of that hypnotic stare, was on his feet again. He still grasped in his right hand the steel case opener that he had been holding when he came down the chimney. Rushing up the steps he beat wildly at the coloured man with it Just as he was struggling back on to his feet. One blow caught him on the shoulder, and he let out a yell of pain. The second landed on his forehead. Without another sound, he went down like a pole axed bullock.
C. B. came panting up the steps into the doorway. Seeing the look on John's face he muttered, `Don't worry! These Arab types have heads like cannon balls. You haven't killed him. But he'll be out long enough not to bother us again. Help me to get him back into the passage.'
Grasping the unconscious man by the legs and shoulders, they pulled him from the stair head and clear of the door; then for a second they stood in it side by side, staring down into the crypt.
It was lit now only by the glow coming from the passage behind them, and was no longer silent. From all sides of it came weird discordant noises, as though it was filled with horrible, half human, half animal life. A lunatic like chuckling mingled with the bleating of a goat. The cock was crowing again, the bats squeaked as though they were now a legion, a pig grunted, and as a background to it there came a low rhythmical throbbing of voodoo drums.