h they now guessed  to
be the Talisman aloft in his left hand. A glowing phosphorescent
circle appeared on the damp stone flags in his tracks and, as he
completed the circuit, they felt their limbs relax.
  Again they rushed at him, but were brought up with a jerk.  It
was impossible to break out of that magic circle in which he had
confined them.
  With  slow  steps,  the Satanist returned to  the  chapel  and
proceeded to light a row of black candles upon the broken  altar
there.  Then, with a little gasp of unutterable fear, Marie  Lou
saw  that Fleur was crouching in a dark corner near the upturned
earth from which the Talisman had been recovered.
  'Fleur-darling!'  she cried imploringly,  stretching  out  her
arms,  but the child did not seem to hear. With round  eyes  she
knelt  there near the altar, staring out towards the crypt,  but
apparently seeing nothing.
  Mocata  lit some incense in a censer and swung it rhythmically
before the broken altar,murmuring strange invocations.
  He  moved so smoothly and silently that he might have  been  a
phantom but for the lisping intonation of his low musical voice.
Then  Fleur  began to cry, and the sobbing of the child  had  an
unmistakable  reality  which tore at the  very  fibre  of  their
hearts.
  Again and again they tried to break out of the circle, but  at
last,  forced  to give up their frantic attempts, they  crouched
together straining against the invisible barrier, watching  with
fear-distended eyes as a gradual materialisation began  to  form
in the clouds of incense above the altar stone.
  At  first  it seemed to be the face of Mocata's black familiar
that  Rex  had  seen  in  Simon's  house,  but  it  changed  and
lengthened. A pointed beard appeared on the chin and four  great
curved  horns  sprouted from the head. Soon it became  definite,
clear  and  solid. That monstrous, shaggy beast  that  had  held
court  on Salisbury Plain, the veritable Goat of Mendes,  glared
at  them  with  its  red, baleful, slanting  eyes,  and  belched
foetid, deathly breaths from its cavernous nostrils.
  Mocata raised the Talisman and set it upon the forehead of the
Beast,  laying  it lengthwise upon the flat, bald,  bony  skull,
where  it blazed like some magnificent jewel which had a strange
black centre. Then he stooped, seized the child and, tearing off
her  clothes,  flung her naked body full length upon  the  altar
beneath the raised fore-hooves of the Goat.
  Sick   with  apprehension  and  frantic  with  distress,   the
prisoners  in the circle heard the sorcerer begin to intone  the
terrible lines of the Black Mass.
  Horrified  but  powerless, they watched the  swinging  of  the
censer,  the  chanting  of  the  blasphemous  prayers,  and  the
blessing  of  the dagger by the Goat, knowing that  at  the  con
clusion of the awful ceremony, the perverted maniac playing  the
part  of the devil's priest would rip the child open from throat
to groin while offering her soul to Hell.
  Half  crazy with fear, they saw Mocata pick up the  knife  and
raise his arm above the little body, about to strike.


                               33

                     Death of a Man Unknown,
                       From Natural Causes

  Rex stood with the sweat pouring down his face. The muscles of
his arms jerked convulsively. His whole will was concentrated in
an  effort  to fling himself forward, up the steps; yet,  except
for  the tremors which ran through his body, the invisible power
held him motionless in its grip.
  De  Richleau prayed. Silent but inceasing, his soundless words
vibrated  on the ether. He knew the futility of any  attempt  at
physical  intervention,  and doubted now  if  his  supplications
could avail when pitted against such a terrible manifestation of
evil as the Goat of Mendes.
  Richard  crouched near him, his face white and bloodless,  his
eyes  staring. His arms were stretched out, as though to  snatch
Fleur  away  or  in an appeal for mercy, but he could  not  move
them.
  Marie  Lou had one hand resting on his shoulder. She was  past
fear  for  herself, past all thought of that terrible end  which
might  come  to them in a few moments, past even the  horror  of
losing  Richard  should they all be blotted out  in  some  awful
final darkness.
  She  did  not  pray or strive to dash towards her  child.  The
pulsing  of  her  heart seemed to be temporarily suspended.  Her
brain  was  working with that strange clarity which  only  comes
upon  those  rare occasions when danger appears to  be  so  over
whelming  that there is no possible escape. Into her mind  there
came  a  clear-cut picture of herself as she  had  been  in  her
dream,  holding what De Richleau said was the great Red Book  of
Appin. Her fingers could feel the very cover again with its soft
hairy skin.
  Simon  dropped to his knees between the Duke and Rex. He  made
an  effort to cast himself forward but rocked very slightly from
side  to side, stricken with an agony of misery and remorse.  It
was  his folly which had led his friends into this terrible pass
and  now  he did the only thing he could to make atonement.  His
brain no longer clouded, but with full knowledge of the enormity
of  the  thing,  he offered himself silently  to  the  Power  of
Darkness if Fleur might be spared.
  Mocata  paused for a moment, the knife still poised above  the
body  of  the  child,  to  turn and look  at  him.  The  thought
vibration had been so strong that he had caught it, but  he  had
already  drawn all that he needed out of Simon. Slowly his  pale
lips  crumpled in a cruel smile. He shook his head in  rejection
of the offer and raised the knife again.
  The Duke's hand jerked up in a frantic effort to stay the blow
by  the sign of the cross, but it was struck down to his side by
one  of the rays from the Talisman, just as though some powerful
physical force had hit it.
  Richard's  jaws opened as though about to shout but  no  sound
issued from them.
  With a supreme effort Rex lowered his head to charge, but  the
invisible  weight  of  twenty  men  seemed  to  force  back  his
shoulders.
  Before the mental eyes of Marie Lou the Red Book of Appin  lay
open.  Again  she  saw the stained vellum  page  and  the  faded
writing in strange characters upon it. And once more as  in  her
drearn  she  could understand the one sentence: 'They  only  who
Love  without  Desire shall have power granted to  them  in  the
Darkest Hour.'
  Then her lips opened. With no knowledge of its meaning, and  a
certainty  that  she  had  never seen it  written  or  heard  it
pronounced   before,  she  spoke  a  strange  word-having   five
syllables.
  The  effect  was  instantaneous. The whole chamber  rocked  as
though  shaken  by an earthquake. The walls receded,  the  floor
began to spin. The crypt gyrated with such terrifying speed that
the  occupants of the circle clutched frantically at each  other
to  save  themselves from falling. The altar candles swayed  and
danced  before  their distended eyes. The Talisman  of  Set  was
swept from between the horns of the monstrous Goat, and bouncing
down the steps of the chapel, came to rest on the stone flags at
De Richleau's feet.
  Mocata  staggered back. The Goat reared up on  its  hind  legs
above him. A terrible neighing sound came from its nostrils  and
the  slanting  eyes  swivelled in their sockets;  their  baleful
light  flashing round the chamber. The Beast seemed to grow  and
expand  until  it was towering above them all as they  crouched,
petrified with fear. The stench of its foetid breath poured from
between  the  bared teeth until they were retching with  nausea.
Mocata's  knife clattered upon the stones as he raised his  arms
in  frantic terror to defend himself. The awful thing  which  he
had  called up out of the Pit gave a final screaming  neigh  and
struck  with  one of its great fore-hooves. He was  thrown  with
frightful  force  to  the  floor, where  he  lay  sprawled  head
downmost on the chapel steps.
  There  was  a  thunderous  crash as though  the  heavens  were
opening.  The crypt ceased to rock and spin. The Satanic  figure
dissolved in upon itself. For a fraction of time the watchers in
the  circle saw the black human face of the Malagasy,  distorted
with pain and rage, where that of the Goat had been before. Then
that too disappeared behind a veil of curling smoke.
  The  black  candles on the altar flickered and went  out.  The
chamber  remained lit only by the phosphorescent glow  from  the
Talisman. De Richleau had snatched it from the floor and held it
in  his open hand. By its faint light they saw Fleur sit up. She
gave  a  little wail and slid from the low altar  stone  to  the
ground;  then she stood gaping towards her mother, yet her  eyes
were  round  and sightless like those of one who  walks  in  her
sleep.
  Suddenly an utter silence beyond human understanding descended
like  a cloak and closed in from the shadows that were all about
them.
  Almost imperceptibly a faint unearthly music, coming from some
immense  distance, reached their ears. At first it sounded  like
the  splashing  of  spring  water  in  a  rock-bound  cave,  but
gradually  it  grew in volume, and swelled into a strange  chant
rendered  by boys' voices of unimaginable purity. All  fear  had
gone  from  them as, one by one, they fell upon their knees  and
listened  entranced to the wonder and the beauty of that  litany
of praise. Yet all their eyes were riveted on Fleur.
  The  child  walked very slowly forward but, as  she  advanced,
some extraordinary change was taking place about her. The little
body,  naked  a moment before, became clothed in a golden  mist.
Her  shoulders  broadened and she grew in height.  Her  features
became partially obscured, then they lost their infant roundness
and took on the bony structure of an adult. The diaphanous cloud
of  light  gradually materialised into the graceful folds  of  a
long,   yellow,  silken  robe.  The  dark  curls  on  the   head
disappeared leaving a high, beautifully proportioned skull.
  As  the  chant  ceased on a great note of exultation  all  sem
blance to the child had vanished. In her place a full-grown  man
stood  before  them. From his dress he had the appearance  of  a
Thibetan  Lama,  but  his esthetic face was  as  much  Aryan  as
Mongolian, blending the highest characteristics of the two;  and
just as it seemed that he had passed the barriers of race, so he
also appeared to have cast off the shackles of worldly time. His
countenance  showed all the health and vigour of a  man  in  the
great  years when he has come to full physical development,  and
yet  it  had the added beauty which is only seen in  that  of  a
frail, scholarly divine who has devoted a whole lifetime to  the
search for wisdom. The grave eyes which were bent upon them held
Strength,  Knowledge,  and  Power,  together  with  an  infinite
tenderness and angelic compassion unknown to mortal man.
  The apparition did not speak by word of mouth. Yet each one of
the  kneeling group heard the low, silver, bell-like voice  with
perfect clearness.
  'I  am a Lord of Light nearing perfection after many lives, It
is  wrong  that  you should draw me from my meditations  in  the
Hidden Valley-yet I pardon you because your need was great.  One
here  has imperilled the flame of Life by seeking to use  hidden
mysteries for an evil purpose; another also, who lies beyond the
waters,  has  been stricken in her earthly body  for  that  same
reason.  The  love you bear each other has been  a  barrier  and
protection,  yet would it have availed you nothing  had  it  not
been  for She who is the Mother. The Preserver barkens  ever  to
the  prayer which goes forth innocent of all self-desire and so,
for  a  moment,  I  am permitted to appear 'to you  through  the
medium  of  this  child  whose thoughts know  no  impurity.  The
Adversary has been driven back to the dark Halls of Shaitan  and
shall  trouble  you no more. Live out the days of your  allotted
span. Peace be upon you and about you. Sleep and Return.'
  For a moment it seemed that they had been ripped right out  of
the crypt and were looking down into it. The circle had become a
flaming  sun.  Their  bodies were dark shadows  grouped  in  its
centre. The peace and silence of death surged over them in great
saturating waves. They were above the monastery. The great  ruin
became a black speck in the distance. Then everything faded.
  Time  ceased, and it seemed that for a thousand thousand years
they floated, atoms of radiant matter in an immense immeasurable
void-circling,    for   ever   circling   in    the    soundless
stratosphere-beings shut off from every feeling  and  sensation,
as  though  travelling  with  effortless  impulse  five  hundred
fathoms deep, below the current levels of some uncharted sea.
  Then, after a passage of eons in human time they saw Cardinals
Folly  again infinitely far beneath them, their bodies lying  in
the  pentacle-and that darkened room. In an utter eerie  silence
the  dust  of  centuries  was falling .  .  .  falling.  Softly,
impalpably,  like  infinitely tiny  particles  of  swansdown  it
seemed  to cover them, the room, and all that was in it, with  a
fine grey powder.

                        *   *   *   *   *

  De Richleau raised his head. It seemed to him that he had been
on  a  long journey and then slept for many days. He passed  his
hand  across  his eyes and saw the familiar bookshelves  in  the
semi-darkened library. The bulbs above the cornice flickered and
the lights came full on.
  He saw that Simon's eyes were free from that terrible maniacal
glare,  but  that  he  still lay bound  in  the  centre  of  the
pentacle.
  As  he bent forward and hastily began to untie Simon's turning
they  saw him. Tall-haggard-distraught-a dark fondling  her  and
murmuring. 'We're safe, darling-safe.'
  'She-she's  not dead-is she?' It was Rex's voice, and  turning
they  saw him. Tall-haggard-distraught-a dark silhouette against
the  early  morning light which filtered in through the  french-
windows-bearing Tanith's body in his arms.
  Marie  Lou  sprang up with a little wailing cry. With  Richard
behind her she raced across the room and through the door in the
wall which concealed the staircase to the nursery.
  The  Duke hurried over to Rex. Simon kicked his feet free  and
stood up, exclaiming: 'I"ve had a most extraordinary dream.'
  'About  all of us going to Paris?' asked De Richleau,  as  the
three  of them lowered Tanith's body to the floor, 'and then  on
to a ruined monastery in northern Greece?'
  'That's it-but how-did you know?'
  'Because I had the same myself-if it was a dream!'
  An  hysterical  laugh came from the stairway and  next  moment
Marie  Lou was beside them, great tears streaming down her face,
but Fleur clutched safely in her arms.
  The  child, freshly woken from her sleep, gazed at  them  with
wide,  blue  eyes,  and then she said: 'Fleur  wants  to  go  to
Simon.'
  The Duke was examining Tanith. Simon rose from beside him. His
eyes held all the love that surged in the great heart which beat
between his narrow shoulders. He covered his short-sighted  eyes
with  his  hands  for  a second then backed  away.  'No,  Fleur,
darling-I've been-I'm still ill you know.'
  'Nonsense-that's all over,' Richard cried quickly, 'go on- for
God's sake take her-Marie Lou's going to faint.'
  'Oh, Richard! Richard!' As Simon grabbed the child, Marie  Lou
swayed  towards her husband, and leaning on him drew her fingers
softly  down his face. 'I will be all right in a moment -but  it
was a dream-wasn't it?'
  'She's  alive!' exclaimed the Duke suddenly, his hand  pressed
below Tanith's heart. 'Quick, Rex-some brandy.'
  'Of course, dearest,' Richard was comforting Marie Lou. 'We've
never  been out of this room-look, except Rex, we are  still  in
pyjamas.'
  'Why,  yes-I  thought-- Oh, but look at this poor  girl!'  She
slipped from his arms and knelt beside Tanith.
  Rex  came  crashing  back  with a decanter  and  a  glass.  De
Richleau  snatched  the  brandy from  him.  Marie  Lou  piliowed
Tanith's head upon her knees and Richard held her chin.  Between
them they succeeded in getting a little of the spirit down  her
throat; a spasm crossed her face and then her eyes opened.
  'Thank God!' breathed Rex. 'Thank God.'
  She  smiled  and  whispered his name, as  the  natural  colour
flooded back into her face.
  'Never-never have I had such a terrible nightmare!'  exclaimed
Marie  Lou.  'We were in a crypt-and that awful man  was  there.
He...'
  'So you dreamed it too!' Simon interrupted. 'About you finding
me at that warehouse in Asnieres and the Paris police?'
  'That's  it,' said Richard. 'It's amazing that we  should  all
have dreamed the same thing but there's no other explanation for
it.  None  of  us  can possibly have left this  house  since  we
settled down in the pentacle-- Yes, last night!'
  'Then  I've certainly been dreaming too.' Rex lifted his  eyes
for  a moment from Tanith's face. 'It must have started with  me
when I fell asleep at the inn-or earlier, for I'd have sworn  De
Richleau  and  I were out all the night before careering  around
half of England to stop some devilry.'
  'We  were,'  said  the  Duke slowly. 'Tanith's  presence  here
proves  that,  but she was never dead except in our  dream,  and
that  started when you arrived here with her in your  arms.  The
Satanists at Simon's house, our visit there afterwards, and  the
Sabbat  were all facts. It was only last night, while our bodies
slept,  that our subconscious selves were drawn out of  them  to
continue the struggle with Mocata on another plane.'
  'Mocata!' Simon echoed. 'But-but if we've been dreaming he  is
still alive.'
  'No,  he is dead.' The quiet, sure statement came from  Tanith
as she sat up, and taking Rex's hand scrambled to her feet.
  'How is it you're so certain?' he asked huskily.
  'I  can  see him. He is not far from here-lying head downwards
on some steps.'
  That's  how  we saw him in the dream,' said Richard,  but  she
shook her head.
  'No,  I. had no dream, I remember nothing after Mocata entered
my  room  at  the inn and forced me to sleep-but you  will  find
him-somewhere quite near the house-out there.'
  'The  age-old law,' De Richfeau murmured. 'A life for  a  life
and a soul for a soul. Yes, since you have been restored to us I
am quite certain that he will have paid the penalty.'
  Simon  nodded.  'Then we're really free of this  nightmare  at
last?'
  'Yes. Dream or no dream, the Lord of Light who appeared to  us
drove  back the Power of Darkness, and promised that  we  should
all live unmolested by it to the end of our allotted span. Come,
Richard,'  the Duke took his host's arm, 'let us find our  coats
and  take  a look round the garden-then we shall have done  with
this horrible business.'
  As  they  moved away Tanith smiled up at Rex. 'Did you  really
mean what you said last night?'
  'Did  I mean it!' he cried, seizing both her hands. 'Just  you
let me show you how!'
  'Simon,' said Marie Lou pointedly, 'that child will catch  her
death of cold in nothing but her nightie-do take her back to the
nursery  while  I get the servants to hurry forward  breakfast.'
And  the old familiar happy smile parted his wide mouth as Fleur
took a flying leap into his arms.
  Tanith's  face grew a little wistful as Rex drew her  to  him.
'My  darling,' she hesitated, 'you know that it will be only for
a little time, about eight months-no more.'
  'Nonsense!' he laughed. 'You were certainly dead to all of  us
last  night,  so  your prophecy's been fulfilled  and  the  evil
lifted-we're both going to live together for a hundred years.'
  She  hid  her  face against his shoulder, not quite  believing
yet,  but  a  new hope dawning in her heart, from his  certainty
that  she  had passed through the Valley of the Shadow and  come
out  again upon the other side. Her happiness, and his, demanded
that she accept his view and act henceforth as though the danger
to her life was past.
  'Then  if  you  want them, my days are yours,'  she  murmured,
'whatever their number may be.'
  There  was no trace of fog and a fair, true dawn was  breaking
when, outside the library windows, De Richleau and Richard found
Mocata's  body. It lay on the stone steps which fed  up  to  the
terrace, sprawling head downwards, in the early light of the May
morning.
  The coroner will find no difficulty in bringing in a verdict,'
the Duke observed after one glance at the face. 'They'll say  it
is heart, of course. It is best not to touch the body, presently
we  will telephone the police. None of us need say we have  ever
seen  him before if you tell Malin to keep quiet about his visit
yesterday  afternoon. You may be certain that his  friends  will
not  come forward to mention his acquaintance with Simon or  the
girl.'
  Richard  nodded. 'Yes. "Death of a Man Unknown,  from  Natural
Causes," will be the only epilogue to this strange story.'
  'Not  quite,  but this must be between us, Richard.  I  prefer
that the others should not know. Take me to your boiler-house.'
  'The boiier-house-whatever for?'
  Til tell you in a minute,'
  'Alt  right!' With a puzzled look Richard led the  Duke  along
the  terrace,  round by the kitchen quarters and  into  a  small
building where a furnace gave a subdued roar.
  De  Richleau  lifted  the  latch  and  the  door  swung  back,
disclosing the glowing coke within. Then he extended  his  right
fist and slowly opened it.
  'Good God!' exclaimed Richard, 'However did you come by that?'
  In  De  Richleau's  palm  lay a shrunken,  mummified  phallus,
measuring no more than the length of a little finger, hard, dry,
and  almost black with age. It was the Talisman of Set, just  as
they had seen it in their recent dream adorning the brow of  the
monstrous Goat.
  'I  found  myself  clutching it when  I  awoke,'  he  answered
softly.
  'But-but that thing must have come from somewhere!'
  'Perhaps  it  is a concrete symbol of the evil  that  we  have
fought,  which  has been given over into our hands  for  destruc
tion.'
  As  the  Duke finished speaking he cast the Talisman into  the
glowing  furnace  where they watched it  until  it  was  utterly
consumed.
  'If  we  were only dreaming how can you possibly explain  it?'
Richard insisted.
'I cannot.' De Richleau shrugged a little wearily. 'Even the
greatest seekers after Truth have done little more than lift the
corner of the veil which hides the vast Unknown, but it is my
belief that during the period of our dream journey we have been
living in what the moderns call the fourth dimension- divorced
from time.'