`His heart is quite strong, and it doesn't look as if he had a stroke. I think he fainted from sheer terror. He'll probably be quite all right when he comes round.'
`Thank God!' John murmured. `From what you said I thought I'd killed him.'
Ignoring the remark, C. B. swivelled round, set the fallen vase upright, and picking up another poured from it about half its contents into the one that had been knocked over.
`What's the point of doing that?' John asked.
`To repair the breach in this astral defence work, of course.'
`Do you really think that herbs and horseshoes and candles can protect people from evil spirits?'
`Certainly I do; if they are arranged in accordance with the proper formula. There are natural laws which govern everything. These, although scorned and ignored by modern science, are just as potent in achieving their object as a radar screen, or the use of our latest inventions for dispersing fog.'
John glanced round a little nervously. `After the terror I felt in that crypt to night, I'm no longer sceptical about there being all sorts of horrors lurking in such a place as this; so it's a comfort to know you think this bag of tricks will provide an effective protection for us.'
`I'm not quite so worried about ourselves, as about him,' C. B. said, and he began to slap Beddows' face in an attempt to bring him round. As his slaps had no effect, he lowered the body into a more comfortable position and went on, `I don't think we've much to fear at the moment, but the danger to him will be acute as long as he remains unconscious.,
'Why should that be, since he is in the pentacle with us?'
`Because his spirit is temporarily out of his body. That will give his enemies the best possible chance to capture it. If they were quick off the mark when we broke the magic circle by entering it, and the vase was upset, they may have done so already. If not, I think there is a good chance of the restored pentacle protecting him. But I don't know enough about these things to be certain. All I do know is that in his present state he is ten times more vulnerable than we are; so it's obvious that if there are any evil forces in this room it is him they will attempt to destroy.'
`What ... what will happen if they succeed?'
`When he comes round it won't be him. The personality inside him will no longer be Henry Beddows. His body will have been taken possession of by a demon.'
`Just as you say occurs with Christina every night?'
`No. Far worse than that. She still makes sense. He will be permanently demented. Off his chump for good.'
`You are really convinced that evil spirits can drive people mad?'
`I haven't the least doubt about it. Ignore the Bible if you will, and scoff at all the records of such happenings in mediaeval times as based upon ignorant superstition. That gets you nowhere, unless you can account in some other way for certain types of loss of mental control that have afflicted great numbers of people from the earliest times, and still continue to do so. Most cases of lunacy are obviously due to physical causes; but any doctor will tell you that he has met with forms of madness which cannot be explained by any theory so far accepted by science; and most of the honest ones will admit that the symptoms in such cases tally with those described by the priests of all nations who have studied these things, as indications that the victim is “possessed of a devil”.'
John nodded. `I suppose in these days we are far too apt to discount the Bible; and if one believes at all, one can hardly refuse to accept the account of Christ and the Gadarene swine. Still, all that apart, it seems to me that we have good grounds for regarding this chap as a bit round the bend already. No one who wasn't would choose for a costume in which to sit up all night three suits of underclothes and pyjamas, instead of day things and an overcoat or anyway a good warm dressing gown.'
`On the contrary, the clothes he is wearing show that he understands what he is up against.' C. B. flashed his torch round the floor. `Look how thoroughly the whole place has been swept and garnished before the pentacle was laid out. That shows he was aware that elementals are helped to materialise by dirt and filth. Above all they are attracted by the impurities of the human body. When he decided to fortify himself in here he evidently took every possible precaution against bringing in with him anything that might aid the enemy. Soiled clothes of any kind, or cushions and rugs that had been in use, would do so; that is why he made do with such underclothes and bedding as he could take straight from the linen cupboard.'
`From the bristles on his chin it looks as if he has been sitting here for several days; but I suppose he must have left the pentacle now and again in the daytime.'
`Why? Were you thinking about his natural functions?'
`Yes. If you are right about human impurities, his own would form a dangerous focus within the pentacle, and he could not possibly have controlled himself long enough to grow that beard.'
`An Indian fakir could; so could he if he is an expert practitioner of Yoga particularly if he has eaten very little. Each time he left the pentacle he would have to remake it to restore its maximum potency, and seeing the state he was in it is most unlikely he would leave its protection even for a few minutes, unless it was absolutely unavoidable.'
`He must practice Yoga then, otherwise .'
`No. He got round that problem another way.' C. B. was shining his torch down into the tea chest. More than half of it was occupied by a large metal container, and he added, `Look, I'll bet that thing is a form of Elsan specially fitted with an air tight lid.'
The only other things in the chest were two tins of dry biscuits and a dozen bottles, about half of which were still full of water. `I expect you're right,' John conceded. `Anyhow, you are about his not eating much.'
`He wouldn't dare to bring meat, game or fish into the pentacle and after a day or two even fruit might start to go bad.'
`He must have been mighty scared to shut himself up here and go on a prison diet.'
`Yes, scared stiff,' C. B, agreed, switching out his torch to economise its battery. `But what luck to have found him here. If only he is all right when he comes round, and we can get him to talk freely while he is so scared, we shall have solved the riddle of where Christina stands in all this.'
`We know that already. That devilish Canon is after her to feed her blood to his filthy homunculi.
'I mean we'll get to the bottom of the whole business we'll find out how she came under Copely Syle's influence in the first place, and what the tie up is between him and her father. I thought it might be blackmail, but there's more to it than that. Finding him in this pentacle shows that he, too, is an occultist of no mean order. I want to know if he is another Black who has quarreled with the Canon, or a White who has found the odds too much for him; and if either or both of them are associated with other practitioners of the Black Art. We know that the day after to morrow is the peak point of Christina's danger; and we have every hope now of keeping her out of their clutches till it is past; but we've got to think of her future too. Having been mixed up with these people, she is highly liable to get drawn in as a witch unless we can take steps to prevent it. Only by getting at the full truth can we hope to free her from their evil influence once and for all.'
John nodded. `Of course, we've got to do that somehow, or the way in which they are able to dominate her mind at night will continue to make her vulnerable at any time. But what is likely to happen if, when Beddows comes to, we find that he is possessed?'