The Devil Rides Out (42 page)

‘No,' the Duke said sadly. ‘I haven't lost my nerve, but look at it if you like on the basis which you suggest, Richard–that this is a perfectly normal kidnapping. Say Fleur were being held to ransom by a group of unscrupulous gangsters, such as operate in the States, the gang being in a position to know what is going on in your house. They have threatened to kill Fleur if you bring the police into the business. Now, would you be prepared to risk that in such circumstances?'

‘No, I should pay up, as most wretched parents seem to, on the off-chance that the gang gave me a square deal and I got the child back unharmed. But this is different. I'll stake my oath that Mocata means to double-cross us anyhow. If it were only Simon that he wanted he might be prepared to let us have Fleur back in exchange. You seem to forget what Tanith told you. He doesn't know that we know his intentions, but she was absolutely definite on three points. One, he means to do his damnedest to bring her back. Two, he will fail unless he makes the attempt in the next few days. Three,
the only way that can be done is by performing a full Black Mass, including the sacrifice of a baptised child.
Kidnappings take time to plan in a civilised country unless you want the police on your track. Mocata has succeeded in one where he thinks there is a fair chance of keeping the police out of it, and no one in their senses could suggest that he's the sort of man who would run the risk of doing another just for the joy of keeping his word with us. It's as clear as daylight that he is using Fleur as bait to get hold of Simon and then he'll do us down by killing the child in the end.'

De Richleau slit open a roll and slipped a slice of ham inside it. ‘Well,' he said as he began to trim the ragged edges neatly, ‘it is for you and Marie Lou
to decide. The prospect of sitting in this room for hours on end doing nothing is about the grimmest I've ever had to face in a pretty crowded lifetime. I would give most things I really value for a chance to have another cut at him. The only things that deters me for one moment is the risk to Fleur.'

‘I know that well enough,' Richard acknowledged, ‘but I am convinced our only chance of seeing her alive again is to call in the police, and trust to running him to earth before nightfall.'

‘I wouldn't,' Simon shook his head, ‘I wouldn't honestly, Richard. He's certain to find out if we take steps against him. We shall waste hours here being questioned by the local bigwigs, and it's a hundred to one against their being able to corner him in a single day. Fleur is safe for the moment, for God's sake don't make things worse than they are. I know the man and he's as heartless as a snake. It's signing Fleur's death warrant to try and tackle him like this.'

Marie Lou listened to these conflicting arguments in miserable indecision. She was torn violently from side to side by each in turn. Simon spoke with such absolute conviction that it seemed certain Richard's suggested intervention would precipitate her child's death, and yet she felt, too, how right Richard was in his belief that Mocata was certain to doublecross them, and having trapped them into surrendering Simon, retain Fleur for this abominable sacrifice which Tanith had told them he was so anxious to make. The horns of the dilemma seemed to join and form a vicious circle which went round and round in her aching head.

The others fell silent and Richard looked across at her. ‘Well, dearest, which is it to be?'

‘Oh, I don't know,' she moaned. ‘Both sides seem right and yet the risk is so appalling either way.'

He laid his hand gently on her hair. ‘It's beastly having to make such a decision, and if we were alone in this I wouldn't dream of asking you. I'd do what I thought best myself unless you were dead against it, but as the others disagree with me so strongly what can I do but ask you to decide?'

Wringing her hands together in agonised distress at this horrible problem with which she was faced, Marie Lou looked desperately from side to side, then her glance fell on Rex. He was sitting hunched up in a dejected attitude on the far side of Tanith's body, his eyes fixed in hopeless misery on the dead girl's face.

‘Rex,' she said hoarsely, ‘you haven't said what you think yet. Both these alternatives seem equally ghastly to me. What do you advise?'

‘Eh?' He looked up quickly ‘It's mighty difficult and I was just trying to figure it out. I hate the thought of doing nothing, waiting about when you've got a packet of trouble is just real hell to me, and I'd like to get after this bird with a gun. But Simon's so certain that if we did it would be fatal to Fleur, and I guess the Duke thinks that way too. They both know him, you must remember, and Richard doesn't, which is a point to them, but I've got a hunch that we are barking up the wrong tree, and that this is a case for what Greyeyes calls his masterly policy of inactivity. The old game of giving the enemy enough rope so he'll hang himself in the end.

‘Any sort of compromise is all against my nature, but I reckon it's the only policy that offers now. If we stay put here and carry out Mocata's instructions to the letter, we'll at least be satisfied in our minds that we are
not bringing any fresh danger on Fleur. But let's go that far and no farther. We all know Simon is willing enough to cash in his checks, but I don't think we ought to let him. Instead, we'll keep him here. That is going to force Mocata to scratch his head a whole heap. He'll not do Fleur in before he's had another cut at getting hold of Simon, so it will be up to him to make the next move in the game, and that may give us a fresh opening. The situation can't be worse than it is at present, and when he shows his hand again, given a spot of luck, we might be able to ring the changes on him yet.'

De Richleau smiled, for the first time in days, it seemed. ‘My friend, I salute you,' he said, with real feeling in his voice. ‘I am growing old, I think, or I should have thought of that myself. It is by far and away the most sensible thing that any of us have suggested yet.'

With a sigh of relief, Marie Lou moved over and, stooping down, kissed Rex on the cheek. ‘Rex, darling, bless you. In our trouble we've been forgetting yours, and it is very wonderful that you should have thought of a real way out for us in the midst of your sorrow. I dreaded having to make that decision just now more than anything that I have had to do in my whole life.'

He smiled rather wanly. ‘That's all right, darling. There's nothing so mighty clever about it, but it gives us time, and you must try and comfort yourself with the thought that time and the angels are on our side.'

Even Richard's frantic anxiety to set out immediately in search of his Fleur d'amour was overcome for the time being by Rex's so obviously sensible suggestion. In his agitation he had eaten nothing yet, but now he sat down to cut some sandwiches, and set about persuading Marie Lou that she must eat the first of them in order to keep up her strength. Then he looked over at the Duke.

‘I left that note for Malin where he's bound to see it–slipped it under his bedroom door, so we shan't be disturbed here. Is there anything at all that we can do?'

‘Nothing, I fear, only possess ourselves with such patience as we can, but we're all at about the end of our tether, so we ought to try and get some sleep. If Mocata makes some fresh move this evening it's on the cards that we shall be up again all night.'

‘I'll get some cushions,' Simon volunteered. ‘I suppose there's no harm in bringing used articles into this room now?'

‘None. You had better collect all the stuff you can and we'll make up some temporary beds on the floor.'

Simon, Richard and Rex left the room and returned a few moments later with piles of cushions and all the rugs that they could find. They placed some fresh logs on the smouldering ashes of the fire and then set about laying out five makeshift resting-places.

When they had finished, Marie Lou allowed Richard to lead her over to one of them and tuck her up, although she protested that, exhausted though she was, she would never be able to sleep. The rest lay down, and then Richard switched out the light.

Full day had come at last, but it was of little use, for the range of vision was limited to about fifteen yards. The mist outside the windows seemed, if anything, denser than before, and it swirled and eddied in curling wreaths above the damp stones of the terrace, muffling the noises of the countryside and shutting out the light.

None of them felt that they would be able to sleep. Rex's gnawing sorrow
for Tanith preyed upon his mind. The others, racked with anxiety for Fleur, turned restlessly upon their cushions. Every now and then they heard Marie Lou give way to fits of sobbing as though her heart would break. But the stress of those terrible night hours and the emotions they had passed through since had exhausted them completely. Marie Lou's bursts of sobbing became quieter and then ceased. Richard fell into an uneasy doze. De Richleau and Rex breathed evenly, sunk at last in a heavy sleep.

Hours later Marie Lou was dreaming that she was seated in an ancient library reading a big, old-fashioned book, the cover of which was soft and hairy like a wolf's skin, and that as she read it a circle of iron was bound about her head. Then the scene changed. She was in the pentacle again, and that loathsome sack-like Thing was attacking Fleur. She awoke–started up with a sudden scream of fear.

Her waking was little better than the nightmare when memory flooded back into her mind. Yet that too and the present only seemed other phases of the frightful dream; the comfortable library denuded of its furniture; Tanith's dead body lying in the centre of the floor and the dimness of the room from those horrible fog banks shutting out the sunshine. They could not possibly be anything but figments of the imagination.

The men had roused at once, and crowded round her, shadowy figures in the uncertain light. De Richleau pressed the electric switch. They blinked a little, and looked at each other sleepily, then their eyes turned to the place where Simon had lain.

With one thought their glances shifted to the window and they knew that while they slept their friend had gone out, into that ghostly unnatural night, to keep his grim appointment.

It was Rex who noticed the chalk marks on the floor. He stepped over and saw that Simon, lacking pencil and paper, had used these means to leave them a short message. Slowly he deciphered the scribbled words and read them out:

Please don't fuss or try to come after me. This is my muddle, so am keeping appointment. Do as Mocata has ordered. Am certain that is only chance of saving Fleur.

Love to all.       Simon

‘Aw, Hell!' exclaimed Rex as he finished. ‘The dear heroic little sap has gone and put paid to my big idea. Mocata has got him
and
Fleur now on top of having killed Tanith. If you ask me we're properly sunk.'

De Richleau groaned. ‘It is just like him. We ought to have guessed that he would do this.'

‘You're right there,' Richard agreed sadly. ‘I've known him longer than any of you, and I did my damnedest to prevent him sacrificing himself for nothing, but it seems to me he's only done the very thing you said he should.'

‘That's not quite fair,' the Duke protested mildly. ‘I only said I thought it
right that he should
with certain modifications.
I had it in my mind that we might follow him at a distance. We should have arrived at the rendezvous before Mocata could have known that we had left this place, and we might have pulled something off. As it was, I thought Rex's idea so much better that I abandoned mine.'

‘I'm sorry,' Richard apologised huskily. ‘But Simon's my oldest friend you know, and this on top of all the rest …'

‘Do you–do you think the poor sweet is right, and that his having given himself up will be of any use?' whispered Marie Lou.

Richard shrugged despondently. ‘Not the least, dearest. I hate to seem ungracious, and you all know how devoted I am to Simon but in his anxiety to do the right thing he's handed Mocata our only decent card. We can sit here till Doomsday, but there's no chance now of making any fresh move which might give us a new opening. We've wasted the Lord knows how many precious hours, and we're in a worse hole than we were before. I'm going to carry out my original intention and get on to the police.'

‘I wouldn't do that,' Rex caught him by the arm. ‘It'll only mean our wasting further time in spilling long dispositions to a bunch of cops, and you're all wrong about our not having made anything on the new deal. We've had a sleep which we needed mighty badly, and we've lulled Mocata into a false sense of security. Just because we've remained put here all morning like he said and Simon's come over with the goods, he'll think he's sitting pretty now and maybe let up on his supervision stunt. Let's cut out bothering with the police and get after him ourselves this minute.'

Marie Lou shivered slightly and then nodded. ‘Rex is right, you know. Mocata has got what he wants now, so it is very unlikely that he is troubling to keep up us under observation any more, but how do you propose to try to find him?'

‘We will go straight to Paris,' De Richleau announced, with a display of his old form. ‘You remember Tanith told us that by tonight he would be there holding a conversation with a man who had lost the upper portion of his left ear. That is Castelnau, the banker, I am certain, so the thing for us to do is to make for Paris and hunt him out.'

‘How do you figure on getting there?' asked the practical Rex.

‘By plane, of course. Mocata is obviously travelling that way or he could never get there by tonight. Richard must take us in his four-seater, and if Mocata has to motor all the way to Croydon before he can make a start, we'll be there before him. Is your plane in commission, Richard?'

‘Yes, the plane's all right. It's in the hangar at the bottom of the meadow, and when I took her out three days ago she was running perfectly. I don't much like the look of this fog, though, although, of course, it's probably only a ground mist.'