‘Tanith,’ the Duke repeated; ‘but you don’t know where she is, do you?’
‘Sure.’ Rex laughed, for the first time in several hours. ‘Having got acquainted with her after all this while, I wouldn’t be such a fool as to quit that party without nailing her address.’
‘I must confess that I’m surprised she gave it to you.’
‘She hadn’t fallen to it that I wasn’t one of their bunch then! She’s staying at Claridges.’
‘Do you think you can get hold of her?’
‘Don’t you worry, I meant to, anyhow.’
‘You must be careful, Rex. This woman is very lovely, I know, but she’s probably damnably dangerous.’
‘I’ve never been scared of a female yet, and surely these people can’t do me much harm in broad daylight?’
‘No, except for ordinary human trickery they are almost powerless between sunrise and sunset.’
‘Fine. Then I’ll go right round to Claridges as soon as she is likely to be awake tomorrow… today, rather.’
‘You don’t know her real name though, do you?’
‘I shouldn’t worry. There aren’t two girls like her staying at Claridges—there aren’t two like her in all London.’
De Richleau stood up and began to pace the floor like some huge cat. ‘What do you intend to say to her?’ he asked at length.
‘Why, that we’re just worried stiff about Simon, and that its absolutely imperative that she should help us out. I’ll give her a frank undertaking not to do anything against Mocata or any of her pals if she’ll come clean with me, though Heaven knows I can’t think she’s got any real friends in a crowd like that.’
‘Rex, Rex.’ The Duke smiled affectionately down into the honest face of the young giant stretched in the armchair. ‘And what, may I ask, do you intend to do should this lovely lady refuse to tell you anything?’
‘I can threaten to call in the cops, I suppose, though I’d just hate to do anything like that on her.’
De Richleau gave his eloquent expressive shrug. ‘My dear fellow, unless we can get some actual evidence of ordinary criminal activities against Mocata and his friends, the police are absolutely ruled out of this affair, and she would know it.’
‘I don’t see why,’ Rex protested stubbornly. ‘These people have kidnapped Simon, that’s what it boils down to, and that’s as much a crime as running a dope joint’
‘Perhaps, and if they had hit him on the head our problem would be easy. The difficulty is that to all outward appearances he has joined them willingly and in his right mind. Only we know that he is acting under some powerful and evil influence which has been brought to bear on him, and how in the world are you going to charge anyone with raising the devil, or its equivalent, in a modern police court?’
‘Well, what do you suggest?’
‘Listen.’ The Duke perched himself on the arm of Rex’s chair. ‘Even if this girl is an innocent party like Simon, she will not tell you anything willingly, she will be too frightened. As a matter of fact, now that she knows you are not a member of their infernal circle it is doubtful if she will even see you, but if she does, well, you’ve got to get hold of her somehow.’
‘I’ll certainly have a try, but it’s not all that easy to kidnap people in a city like London.’
‘I don’t mean that exactly, but rather that you should induce her, by fair means or foul, to accompany you to some place where I can talk to her at my leisure. If she is only a neophyte I know enough of this dangerous business to frighten her out of her wits. If she is something more there will be a mental tussle, and I may learn something from the cards which she is forced to throw on the table.’
‘O.K. I’ll pull every gun I know to persuade her into coming here with me for a cocktail.’
De Richleau shook his head. ‘No, I’m afraid that won’t do. Immediately she realised the reason she had been brought here she would insist on leaving, and we couldn’t stop her. If we tried she would break a window and yell Murder! We have got to get her to a place where she will see at once the futility of trying to call for outside help. I have it! Do you think you could get her down to Pangbourne?’
‘What? To that river place of yours?’
‘Yes; I haven’t been down there yet this year, but I can send Max down first thing in the morning to open it up and give it an airing.’
‘You talk as though I were falling off a log to get a girl to come boating on the Thames at what’s practically a first meeting. Can’t you weigh in and lend a hand yourself?’
‘No. I shall be at the British Museum most of the day. It is so many years since I studied the occult that there are a thousand things I have forgotten. It is absolutely imperative that I should immerse myself in some of the old key works for a few hours and rub up my knowledge of protective measures. I must leave you to handle the girl, Rex, and remember, Simon’s safety will depend almost wholly on your success. Get her there somehow, and I’ll join you in the late afternoon, say about six.’
Rex grinned. ‘It’s about as stiff a proposition as sending me in your place to study the Cabbala, but I’ll do my best.’
‘Of course you will.’ The Duke began to pace hurriedly up and down again. ‘But go gently with her, I beg you. Avoid any questions about this horrible business as you would the plague. Play the lover. Be just the nice young man who has fallen in love with a beautiful girl. If she asks you about our having abducted Simon from the party, say you were completely in the dark about it. That you have known me for years, and that I sprung some story on you about his having fallen into the hands of a gang of blackmailers, so you just blindly followed my lead without a second thought. Not a word to her about the supernatural—you know nothing of that. You must be as incredulous as you were with me when I first talked to you of it. And, above all, if you can get her to Pangbourne, don’t let her know that I am coming down.’
‘Surely—I get the line you want me to play all right.’
‘Good. You see, if I can only squeeze some information out of her which will enable us to find out where Mocata is living, we will go down and keep the place under observation for a day or two. He is almost certain to have Simon with him. We will note the times that Mocata leaves the house and plan our raid accordingly. If we can get Simon into our hands again I swear Mocata shan’t get him back a second time.’
‘That’s certainly the idea.’
‘There is only one thing I am really frightened of.’
‘What’s that?’
De Richleau paused opposite Rex’s chair. ‘What I heard this evening of Simon’s approaching change of name, to Abraham, you remember. That, of course, would be after Abraham the Jew, a very famous and learned mystic of the early centuries. He wrote a book which is said to be the most informative ever compiled concerning the Great Work. It was lost sight of for several hundred years, but early in the fifteenth century came into the possession of a Parisian bookseller named Nicolas Flamel who, by its aid, performed many curious rites. Flamel was buried in some magnificence, and a few years later certain persons who were anxious to obtain his secrets opened his grave to find the book which was supposed to have been buried with him. Neither Flamel nor the book was there, and there is even some evidence to show that he was still living a hundred years later in Turkey, which is by no means unbelievable to those who have any real knowledge of the strange powers acquired by the true initiate such as those in the higher orders of the Yoga sects. That is the last we know of the Book of Abraham the Jew, but it seems that Simon is about to take his name in the service of the Invisible.’
‘Well–what’ll happen then?’
‘That he will be given over entirely to the Power of Evil, because he will renounce his early teaching and receive his re-baptism at the hands of a high adept of the Left Hand Path. Until that is done we can still save him, because all the invisible powers of Good will be fighting on our side, but after, they will withdraw, and what we call the Soul of Simon Aron will be dragged down into the Pit.’
‘Are you sure of that? Baptism into the Christian Faith doesn’t ensure one going to Heaven, why should this other sprinkling be a guarantee of anyone going to Hell?’
‘It’s such a big question, Rex, but briefly it is like this. Heaven and Hell are only symbolical of growth to Light or disintegration to Darkness. By Christian, or any other true religious baptism, we renounce the Devil and all his Works, thereby erecting a barrier which it is difficult for Evil forces to surmount, but anyone who accepts Satanic baptism does exactly the reverse. They wilfully destroy the barrier of Astral Light which is our natural protection and offer themselves as a medium through which the powers of Darkness may operate on mankind.
‘They are tempted to it, of course, by the belief that it will give them supernatural powers over their fellow-men, but few of them realise the appalling danger. There is no such person as the Devil, but there are vast numbers of Earthbound spirits, Elementals, and Evil Intelligences of the Outer Circle floating in our midst. Nobody who has even the most elementary knowledge of the occult can doubt that. They are blind and ignorant, and except for the last, under comparatively rare circumstances, not in the least dangerous to any normal man or woman who leads a reasonably upright life, but they never cease to search in a fumbling way for some gateway back into existence as we know it. The surrender of one’s own volition gives it to them, and, if you need an example, you only have to think of the many terrible crimes which are perpetrated when reason and will are entirely absent owing to excess of alcohol. An Elemental seizes upon the unresisting intelligence of the human and forces them to some appalling deed which is utterly against their natural instincts.
‘That, then, is the danger. While apparently only passing through an ancient barbarous and disgusting ritual, the Satanist, by accepting baptism, surrenders his will to the domination of powers which he believes he will be able to to use for his own ends, but in actual fact he becomes the spiritual slave of an Elemental, and for ever after is nothing but the instrument of its evil purposes.’
‘When do you figure they’ll try to do this thing?’
‘Not for a week or so, I trust. It is essential that it should take place at a real Sabbat, when at least one Coven of thirteen is present, and after our having broken up their gathering tonight I hardly think they will risk meeting again for some little time, unless there is some extraordinary reason why they should.’
‘That gives us a breathing space then; but what’s worrying me is that it’s so early in the year to ask a young woman to go picnicking on the river.’
‘Why? The sunshine for the last few days has been magnificent.’
‘Still, it’s only April 29th, the 30th, I mean.’
‘What!’ De Richleau stood there with a new and terrible anxiety burning in his eyes. ‘Good God! I never realised!’
‘What’s the trouble?’
‘Why, that was only one Coven we saw tonight, and there are probably a dozen scattered over England. The whole pack are probably on their way by now to the great annual gathering. It’s a certainty they will take Simon with them. They’d never miss the chance of giving him his Devil’s Christening at the Grand Sabbat of the year.’
‘What in the world are you talking about?’ Rex hoisted himself swiftly out of his chair.
‘Don’t you understand, man?’ De Richleau gripped him by the shoulder. ‘On the last night of April every peasant in Europe still double-locks his doors. Every latent force for Evil in the world is abroad. We’ve got to get hold of Simon in the next twenty hours. This coming night, April 30th, is Saint Walburga’s Eve.’