`I shall leave for the South of France first thing in the morning. Ellen should be safe now; but I mean to hunt Copely Syle down, and see to it that he goes to the Hell to which he has led so many others.'
C. B. endeavoured to hide his surprise at the transformation in Beddows, which was evidently the first sign of the payment he would now have to make for the twenty one years of favour he had secured by unholy means: then he said to John, `The outside chance of the Canon's coming back to morrow is taken care of by the police. They will pinch him if he lands illegally in the marshes. There is nothing more we can do here now; so we'll go South too.'
Glancing again at Beddows, he added, `I think it would be best if you accompanied us back to Colchester, as we must make a very early start. They will find you a room at the Red Lion, then we can all drive up to London together.'
`That suits me,' Beddows agreed. `But I'll have to get into some clothes and pack a bag. I am feeling very weak, too, from my long semi fast. While I am getting dressed perhaps you would go down to the larder. Jutson asked me through the door this morning if I was all right, as he had seen that somebody had been up here; but he doesn't know why I locked myself in, or anything about this business. He is very well paid to ask no questions; but all the same, the less he knows, the better; so I'd rather not have him routed out. It would save time, too, if you'd open up a tin or two for me yourselves, and I'll leave a note for him before we go. You will find quite a selection of tinned stuff down there, but anything will do.'
Together they descended to the first floor: Beddows went into his bedroom and the others continued on downstairs to prepare a picnic meal. A quarter of an hour later, when he joined them in the dining room, they had ready a spread of sardines, cold ham and tinned peaches. After their ordeal C. B. and John also felt hungry; so they sat down with him and, while he ate ravenously, kept him company.
Soon after midnight they left the table and went out to the car. As Beddows stowed his suitcase in the back he said, `I've never done the Government down more than I've had to; but this is a case in which I have no scruples. It may need big money to finance bringing Copely Syle to book; so we can't afford to observe currency restrictions. Fortunately, I've always kept a tidy sum in my wall safe against an emergency; so I was able to pack the best part of three thousand pounds in fivers into a couple of pairs of shoes.'
C. B. smiled a little wryly. `I'd rather you hadn't told me that; but since you have, how about if the emigration authorities search your baggage?'
Beddows smiled. `They might if I went to and fro regular. But the odds are all on my getting away with it once.'
At twenty five past twelve the night porter let them into the Red Lion. He booked Beddows a room on the same floor as the others, and entered an order from C. B. to call them all at a quarter to five. Before they went upstairs C. B. telephoned his office and asked the night duty officer to ring Northolt, and use all the pull he could to secure three seats on the plane leaving for Nice at 7.16.
Then they went up to their rooms, got the worst of the dirt off themselves with a quick wash, and, mentally exhausted from the strain of the past few hours. fell asleep as soon as their heads touched their pillows.
When C.B.’s bedside telephone rang, he roused out of a deep sleep and picked up the receiver, It was the night porter, who said
`Your call, sir. It's a quarter to five and about half an hour ago I took a telephone message from your office. It was to report a telegram which reads “Special stop Despatched from Police Headquarters Nice at naught hours twenty stop Christina removed from prison without authority twenty three hours fifteen stop Has since disappeared without trace stop Signed Malouet.”'
`Thank you,' said C. B. quietly; but as he hung up, his face was grim. In a few minutes he would have to break it to John that, although they had braved such fearful perils during the earlier part of the night they had, after all, failed to save Christina. Beddows had abjured Satan at a little after half past eleven. By about eighteen minutes the Canon had beaten them to it again.
23
The Cave of the Bats
Over the cups of coffee that the night porter had made for them and on the long drive to the airport, John and his two companions spoke little. After learning the contents of Malouet's telegram they could only hope that by the time they got to Nice the police would have succeeded in tracing the vanished prisoner: in the meantime all speculation on their chances of rescuing Christina was futile.
At Northolt a young man from C.B.’s office met them to take over his car, and told him that only by luck had it been possible to get three passages for Nice by the first plane that morning. The Riviera season was still at its height and the aircraft booked to capacity; but one travel agent had rung up the previous afternoon to charter a special plane for ten; so B.E.A. had decided to put an additional Viking on the run, which would carry Colonel Verney's party. C. B. then asked him to send a telegram to Molly, to let her know that they were on the plane and ask her to meet them at Nice.
The regular plane left on scheduled time, but there was some delay in its relief getting off, as it was held for two of the party of ten who, it transpired, were motoring down from Scotland. The others all appeared to know one another and were all middle aged or elderly people. Their clothes and hand baggage suggested that they were all very well off, which was borne out by a remark that John heard exchanged between two of the three women in the party, to the effect that they had decided to make the trip at the last moment only to attend a wedding.
While in the waiting room he had ample time to study their fellow passengers, but his thoughts being otherwise occupied he took little notice of them, except to remark that they seemed an exceptionally ugly lot. He reminded himself then that most fellow travellers seen at airports, railway stations and boarding liners appeared unprepossessing until one got to know them; yet his impression was strengthened on the arrival of the couple who had been motoring through the night from Scotland. The man was very tall and so lean that his skin seemed stretched over the bones of his face to a degree that made it almost corpse like, while the woman had the most disconcerting squint that he ever remembered seeing.
In spite of the delay, which held up the take off until twenty minutes to eight, the flying conditions were so good that the aircraft made up most of the lost time, and they came down in the brilliant sunshine of Nice at ten past one. Molly and Malouet were both there to meet them and, after Beddows had been introduced, the elderly ex inspector said
`I regret to say I have no news for you; but one gets as good a lunch at the airport restaurant here as anywhere in Nice; so I have booked a table. While we eat I will tell you all that is known of the most extraordinary occurrence last night.’
The meal justified his recommendation, but John scarcely noticed the wonderful selection of hors d'oeuvres, or the point at which he passed from eating Loup flambe to Escalope de Veau Milanese he was too intent on Malouet's report and the discussion that followed.
Apparently getting Christina out of prison had proved a much easier matter for the Canon than her friends had supposed would be the case, as he had found it necessary to exert his occult powers on only one person.
Three nights before, a murder had occurred in Nice. At a bistrot in the old part of the town a sailor had been mortally wounded by a knife thrust during a brawl in which several men were concerned. There was some doubt which of two men had delivered the fatal stab, and the patron of the place declared that a girl called Marie Courcelle must know the truth, because the quarrel had been
over her and she had been within an arm's length of the victim when the stabbing took place. The two suspects were Marie's lover and her brother, and both were under arrest, but she, evidently reluctant to give evidence against either, had promptly disappeared. However, the police had picked her up the previous morning in Marseilles, taken her into custody as a material witness, brought her back to Nice in the afternoon and lodged her in the women's prison which
, also held Christina.
In accordance with French police practice, the huge d'Instruction had ordered a re enactment of the affair at the scene of the crime with all the principal participants present; and that no time might be lost he had ordered it for that evening at approximately the same hour as the stabbing had taken place two evenings earlier. It was at this point that the Canon must have entered the game.
The assumption was that he had learnt of the affair when, on his arrival, he had discussed ways and means with the de Grasses and had decided to make use of the huge d'Instruction. In any case, for some reason which this examining magistrate was afterwards utterly unable to explain, he had written Christina's name instead of Marie's on the form authorizing the release of prisoners under guard for questioning. A Black Maria had picked up the two men then called for Christina. The head wardress or duty knew nothing of the enquiry the magistrate was conducting and had acted on the instruction to hand over Christina, simply assuming that she was required for questioning about her own case at the Prefecture.
On the arrival of the Black Maria at the bistrot the mistake had at once become apparent. The magistrate, still presumably under the influence of the Canon, had then decided that the Black Maria should remain outside for the time being with the two men in it, while Christina was sent back to prison in a taxi and Marie brought there instead. A single gendarme had, quite reasonably, been considered an adequate escort for one young woman, and as a taxi driver, who had been having a drink at the bistrot when it was temporarily cleared by the police, was still outside among the little crowd that had collected they set off in his cab.
In the light of what had then occurred it seemed certain that the taxi driver was one of de Grasse's people, and had been deliberately planted in the bistrot. After driving a few hundred yards he had turned into a dark alley way, pulled up and opened the door of his cab. He had told the gendarme that he had stopped only to slip into his lodgings to pick up the thermos of hot coffee his wife would have ready for him for his night's work. While he was talking, another man opened the other door of the cab and, as the gendarme turned, squirted a water pistol in his eyes. The driver had then hit him on the back of the head, rendering him unconscious: He had come round to find himself bound, gagged and face down among some bushes. Later he had recovered sufficiently to squirm his way on to a path near the gate of a private garden, and to attract the attention of a passer by. He had been dumped in the grounds of a villa on the road to Villefranche and he naturally had no idea what had become of the taxi or Christina.
When Malouet had finished his report, C. B. asked, `How about Upson's seaplane? Is it known where he landed the Canon?'
`We think so;' Malouet pulled at his grey moustache; `but we cannot be absolutely certain. Last night there was a strange occurrence out at the great reservoir from which Nice draws her water supply. It is situated some miles inland from the city, up a broad valley in which few people live, other than scattered market garden cultivators. Soon after dark a car drove up to the quarters of the Superintendent. The men who work there had gone for the day; so he was alone except for his wife and son and the night watchman, who has a small office in the building. Four armed men got out of the car, entered the place, herded its inmates into the boiler room and kept them there for three quarters of an hour. There was no attempt at robbery and no damage done, other than the disconnecting of the telephone.
`When the intruders had gone the Superintendent reported this apparently pointless hold up to the police. They could offer no theory to account for it then; but further enquiries in the neighborhood this morning elicited the information that a seaplane was seen to come down on the reservoir about an hour after sunset. It would not have been visible from any considerable distance, but several people saw it land, and take off again about twenty minutes later. A woman living nearby states that a covered lorry with powerful headlights had been stationary on the road alongside the reservoir for some time before the plane came down. Such a large sheet of water would, of course, be easy to pick up as long as there was any light at all; so the headlights near it were probably used not only to help guide it in, but also as a signal to the pilot that all preparations had been made for his landing. Evidently, too, the men who held up the Superintendent and night watchman did so to ensure that they should know nothing of this illegal proceeding until after it had been completed; so they would be unable to interfere or communicate with the police.'
`I take it the police have not succeeded in tracing the lorry?' C. B. asked.
Malouet made a negative gesture. `One could hardly expect them to. Its presence there was not reported till this morning, and the description given of it was only of the vaguest.'
`Then the Canon has got away with the game again,' John commented bitterly. `It is a hundred to one on that having been Upson's seaplane. And how darned clever of them to have planned the timing of the job so well. By delaying his departure till the afternoon, Copely Syle was able to fly practically straight in to Nice, yet give Upson the benefit of last light for crossing the mountains. He must have worked fast, though, to have pulled that one over the huge d'Instruction so soon after his arrival.'
C. B. shrugged. `Two and a half hours should have been ample if the de Grasses had the job already planned and everything prepared for him. Then there is always the possibility that it proved unnecessary to resort to a magical operation. Not all law officers would be above taking a bribe to alter a name in an official document.'
`This man is, I think, an honourable magistrate,' Malouet said. `But one can never be certain of such things. There is, too, the fact that Satanism is world wide in its ramifications; so it is even possible that he is a secret associate of the Canon's, and acted as he did on a simple request.'
`Have you reason to suppose that Black Magic is widely practised down here?' C. B. enquired.
`I would not say that. Among the peasants up in the hill villages sorcery has played its part from time immemorial, and still does so. On the coast there is some sorcery, too, of a quite different type, which is resorted to by people who live here only for the gambling. Inveterate gamblers are always superstitious and easily become the dupes of occulists who promise them aid to win money at the tables. But activities which suggest the presence of genuine Satanists are no more frequent here than in Paris or Marseilles.'
`I asked because I think it very unlikely that the Canon will attempt to tackle this business to night on his own. Even if he doesn't assemble a full coven, he will almost certainly need a few brother warlocks to assist him with the homunculus. It occurred to me that if there are certain people in these parts whom you suspect of being practitioners of the Black Art, we might trace him through them.'
`You have been thinking on the same lines as myself,' Malouet nodded. `There is an antique dealer in Cannes, a Polish countess living here in Nice, and one or two others who may be worth investigating. I was going to suggest that this afternoon we should see if we could pick up a lead from one of them.'
`What about the de Grasses?' John demanded. `They are up to their ears in this.'
The ex inspector gave him a pitying look. `Is it likely that we should have neglected them, Monsieur; or that they are such fools as to have exposed themselves? M. le Marquis is still laid up with his wound and Count Jules has an alibi covering him from seven o'clock till past midnight.'
`But they must know the whole story. Upson is their man and the Canon travelled by his seaplane.'
`There is no proof whatever, Monsieur, that the seaplane that landed on the reservoir was Upson's.'
`Who can doubt it; or that the de Grasses did all the spade work for getting Christina out of prison?'
`Let us accept that,' agreed Malouet. `The police are endeavouring to trace the lorry which presumably drove away the Canon and the homunculus, and the taxi in which Mademoiselle Christina was carried off. But in both cases they have very little to go on, and nothing at all that links either up with the de Grasses.'
<
br /> `They know the truth! We must get it out of them!' exclaimed John impatiently.
Molly laid a hand on his arm. `Johnny dear, don't be unreasonable. Since there is nothing with which they can be charged, the police have no excuse for questioning them; and they certainly won't give anything away to us.'
`But, Mumsie, we've got to make them, somehow,' he protested. `It is our only chance to find out what has been done with Christina.'
`There is still a chance that we may get a line through one of these occultists whom Monsieur Malouet suggests that we should investigate this afternoon,' C. B. put in quietly.
`Perhaps ! But we have only this afternoon left to work in,' John argued desperately. `So we can't possibly afford to ignore the only people we are all convinced could give us the facts if they liked. I am going to ring up Jules and make him give me an appointment.'
`Just as you like.' C. B. gave a little shrug. `But I'm afraid you will be knocking your head up against a brick wall.'
John jumped up and left the table to telephone. When he returned a few minutes later he said, `I got on to Jules at the Capricorn, and he has agreed to see me at four o'clock. Mumsie, you'll drive me over, won't you? And I'd like Mr. Beddows to come with us. He has certain arguments which I think might induce Jules to talk.'
Beddows had taken very little part in the conversation, but he now gave a quick nod and said, `I get the idea it's O.K. by me.'
C. B. had also got it, and turned a serious glance on John. `It's worth trying, though I doubt if Jules will prove willing to make any admissions, whatever you offer. Still, I can guess how you must be feeling; so good luck.'
As they left the table Malouet said, `Colonel Verney and I will maintain contact with the police in case they pick up any information about the lorry or the cab, and will spend the afternoon ourselves making enquiries in other quarters. If you wish to get in touch with us, ring up Inspector Drouet at the Prefecture in Nice. I will see to it that he knows from time to time where to get hold of us.'
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