Dennis Wheatley - The Devil Rides Out

At 8.21. Tanith came out on the main Salisbury-Marlborough road and, realising that there was nothing for it but to chance being held up at Tidworth, turned north.

At 8.22. Rex had sunk his second tankard of good Berkshire ale and took up his position in the doorway of The Bear to watch for the Duke.

At 8.23. Tanith, possessed now, it seemed, by some inhuman glee, chortled with laughter as a Military Policeman leapt from the road to let her flash past the entrance of Tidworth Camp.

At 8.24. De Richleau entered Newbury Police Station and learned that the Blue Rolls had been sighted in Amesbury half an hour earlier.

At 8.25. Tanith had pulled up, a mile north of Tidworth, and was studying her map again. She decided that her only hope of reaching the secret rendezvous now lay in taking the by-roads across the northern end of Salisbury Plain.

At 8.26. The Duke was reading two messages which had been handed to him by the Newbury Police. One said : Green Daimler passed through Basingstoke going west at 7.25. Max per Clutterbuck, and the other, Green Daimler passed through Andover going west at 8.0. Max per Clutterbuck. He nodded, quickly summing up the position to himself. ‘Green is heading west through Amesbury by now, and Blue was seen making in the same direction, while Yellow took the other route and is coming south from Devizes—most satisfactory so far.’ He then turned to the Station Sergeant: ‘I should be most grateful if you would have any further messages which may come for me relayed to Amesbury. Thank you—Good night.’

At 8.27. Tanith had reached a cross-road two miles north of Tidworth and turning west took a dreary windswept road which crosses one of the most desolate parts of the Plain. Dusk had come and with it an overwhelming feeling that whatever happened she must be present at the meeting. The fact that she was about seventeen miles farther from her destination than she had been at Amesbury did not depress her, for she had misled Rex as to the vital necessity of her being there by sunset, and the actual Sabbat did not begin until midnight.

At 8.32. Rex was taking a message over the telephone of The Bear at Hungerford.

At 8.35. Tanith was passing the Aerodrome at Upavon, and forced to slow down owing to the curving nature of the road ahead.

At 8.37. De Richleau’s Hispano roared into Hungerford, and Rex, who had resumed his position in the doorway of The Bear ran out to meet it. ‘Any messages?’ the Duke asked as he scrambled in.

‘Yep—Max called me. A bird named Clutterbuck says a Yellow Sunbeam passed through Westbury heading south at five minutes past eight.’

‘Good,’ nodded the Duke, who already had the car in motion again.

At 8.38. Tanith was free of the twisting patch of road by Upavon and out on the straight across the naked Plain once more. If only she could keep clear of the police, she felt that she would be able to reach the meeting-place in another forty-five minutes. A wild, unnatural exaltation drove her on as the Blue Rolls ate up the miles towards the west.

At 8.39. Rex was asking : ‘What is all this about a Yellow Sunbeam anyway? It was a Blue Rolls I got stung for.’ And the Duke replied, with his grey eyes twinkling : ‘Don’t worry about the Rolls. The police saw your young friend with it in Amesbury a little after eight. They will catch her for us you may be certain.’

At 8.40. The police at Newbury were relaying a message from Max for the Duke to their colleagues at Amesbury.

At 8.41. De Richleau was saying : ‘Don’t be a fool, Rex. I only said that I could not call in the police unless these people committed some definite breach of the law. Car stealing is a crime, so I have been able to utilise them in this one instance— that’s all.’

At 8.44. Two traffic policemen on a motor-cycle combination, which had set out from Devizes a quarter of an hour before, spotted the back number-plate of Blue Rolls number OA 1217 as it switched to the left fork road where they were stationed, but Tanith had caught sight of them, and her headlights streaked away, cutting a lane through the darkness to the south-westward.

At 8.45. The Hispano was rocking from side to side as it flew round the bends of the twisting road south-west of Hungerford. The Duke had heard Rex’s account of the way Tanith had tricked him but refused to enlighten him about the Yellow Sunbeam.

‘No, no,’ he said impatiently. ‘I want to hear every single thing you learned from this girl—I’ll tell you my end later.’

At 8.46. The traffic policemen had their machine going all out and were in full cry after the recklessly driven Rolls.

At 8.47. The Police at Newbury were relaying a second message from Max for the Duke to their colleagues at Amesbury.

At 8.48. Tanith saw the lights of Easterton village looming up in the distance across the treeless grassland as she hurtled south-westward in the Rolls.

At 8.49. The traffic policeman in the side-car said : ‘Steady, Bill—we’ll get her in a minute.’

At 8.50. The Hispano had passed the cross-roads nine miles south-west of Hungerford and come out on to the straight. De Richleau had now heard everything of importance which Rex had to tell and replied abruptly to his renewed questioning : ‘For God’s sake don’t pester me now. It’s no easy matter to keep this thing on the road when we’re doing eighty most of the time.’

At 8.51. Tanith clutched desperately at the wheel of the Rolls as with screaming tyres it shot round the corner of the village street. The police siren in her ears shrilled insistently for her to halt. She took another bend practically on two wheels, glimpsed the darkness of the open country again for a second then, with a rendering, splintering crash, the off-side mudguards tore down a length of wooden palings. The car swerved violently, dashed up a steep bank then down again, rocking and plunging, until it came to rest, with a sickening thud, against the back of a big barn.

At 9.8. The Duke, with Rex beside him, entered Amesbury Police Station and the two messages which had been phoned through from Newbury were handed to him. The first read : Green Daimler passed through Amesbury going west at 8.15, and the second, Yellow Sunbeam halted Chilbury 8.22. Both were signed : Max per Clutterbuck.

As De Richleau slipped them into his pocket an Inspector came out of an inner room. ‘We’ve got your car, sir,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Heard the news only this minute. Two officers spotted the young woman at the fork roads south of Devizes and gave chase. She made a mucker of that bad bend in Easterton village. Ran it through a garden and up a steep bank.’

‘Is she hurt?’ asked Rex anxiously.

‘No, sir—can’t be. Not enough to prevent her hopping out and running for it. I reckon it was that bank that saved her and the car too—for I gather it’s not damaged anything to speak of.’

‘Has she been caught?’ inquired the Duke.

‘Not yet, sir, but I expect she will be before morning.’

As De Richleau nodded his thanks, and spread out a map to find the village of Chilbury, the desk telephone shrilled. The constable who answered it scribbled rapidly on a pad and then passed the paper over to him. ‘Here’s another message for you sir.’

Rex glanced over the Duke’s shoulder and read, Green Daimler halted Chilbury 8.30. Other cars parked in vicinity and more arriving. Will await you cross-roads half a mile south of village. Clutterbuck.

De Richleau looked up and gave a low chuckle. ‘Got them!’ he exclaimed. ‘Now we can talk.’

At 9.14. They were back in the car.

CHAPTER XV

THE ROAD TO THE SABBAT

The big Hispano left the last houses of Amesbury behind and took the long, curving road across the Plain to the west. De Richleau, driving now at a moderate pace, was at last able to satisfy Rex’s curiosity.