Dennis Wheatley - The Devil Rides Out

‘Ordinarily he was perfectly normal and his manners were charming, but now and again he used to get irritable fits. They came on about once a month and after he had been boiling up for twenty-four hours, he used to clear out for a couple of days and nights. I don’t know where he used to go to at those times, but I ran into him one morning early, when he had just returned from one of these bouts, and he was in a shocking state : filthy dirty, a two days’ growth of beard on his chin, his clothes all torn and absolutely stinking of drink. It looked to me as if he hadn’t been to bed at all the whole time but had been wallowing in every sort of debauchery down in the slums of the East End.

‘He is quite an exceptional hypnotist, of course, and keeps himself in touch with what is going on in Paris, Berlin, New York and a dozen other places by throwing various women, who used to come and visit him regularly, into a trance. One of them wasp a girl called Tanith, a perfectly lovely creature. You may have seen her at the party, and he says she is by far the best medium he’s ever had. He can use her almost like a telephone and plug in right away to whatever he wants to know about. Whereas with the others there are very often hitches and delays.’

‘You let him hypnotise you, too, of course?’

‘Yes, in order to get these financial results.’

‘I thought as much,’ De Richleau nodded. ‘And after you had allowed him to do it willingly for some little time he was able to block out your own mentality entirely and govern your every thought. That’s why you’ve failed to realise what’s been going on. It is just as though he’d been keeping you drugged the whole time.’

‘Um,’ Simon agreed miserably. ‘It makes me positively sick to think of it, but I suppose he has been gradually preparing me for this Ritual to Saturn which he meant to perform two nights ago and… .’ He broke off suddenly as Rex appeared between two of the great monoliths.

Grinning from ear to ear, Rex displayed his purchases for their inspection. A pair of grey flannel shorts, a khaki shirt, black and white check worsted stockings, a gaudy tie of a revolting magenta hue, a pair of waders, a cricket cap quartered in alternate triangular sections of orange and mauve, and a short, dark blue bicyclist’s cape.

‘Only things I could get,’ he volunteered cheerfully. ‘The people who run the local Co-op don’t live on the premises, so I had to knock up a sports outfitter.’

De Richleau sat back and roared with laughter while Simon fingered the queer assortment of garments doubtfully. ‘You’re joking Rex,’ he protested with a sheepish grin. ‘I can’t return to London in this get-up.’

‘We’re not going to London,’ the Duke announced. ‘But to Cardinals Folly.’

‘What—to Marie Lou’s?’ Rex looked at him sharply. ‘How did you come to get that idea–’

‘Something that Simon said just after you left us.’

Simon shook his head jerkily. ‘I don’t like it — not a little bit. I’d never forgive myself if I brought danger into their home.’

‘You will do as you’re told my friend,’ De Richleau’s voice brooked no further argument. ‘Richard and Marie Lou are the most mentally healthy couple I know. The atmosphere of their sane and happy household will be the very best protection we could find for you, and all of us are certain of a warm welcome. No harm will come to them if we exercise reasonable precautions, and the help of their right-thinking minds will give us the extra strength we need. Besides, they are about the only people to whom we can explain the whole situation without being taken for madmen. Now hurry up and array yourself like the champion of next year’s Olympic Games.’

With a shrug of his narrow shoulders Simon disappeared behind the stones while Rex added : ‘That’s right. I ordered ham and eggs to be got ready at the local inn and I’m mighty anxious to start in on them.’

‘Eggs and fruit,’ cut in the Duke, ‘but no ham for any of us. It is essential that we should avoid meat for the moment. If we are to retain our astral strength our physical bodies must undergo a semi-fast at least.’

Rex groaned. ‘Why, oh, why dear Simon, did you ever go hunting Talismen and let your friends in for this? When I went to Russia after the Shulimoff jewels and you came to get me out of trouble, at least it didn’t prevent your feeding decently when you had the chance.’

‘That reminds me,’ De Richleau threw over his shoulder in the direction where Simon was struggling into his queer garments. ‘What is this Talisman? Rex mentioned it last night.’

‘It’s the reason why Mocata is certain to make every effort to get possession of me again,’ Simon’s voice came back. ‘It is buried somewhere, and adepts of the Left Hand Path have been seeking it for centuries. It conveys almost limitless powers upon its possessor and Mocata has discovered that its whereabouts will be revealed if he can practise the ritual to Saturn in conjunction with Mars with someone who was born in a certain year at the hour of that conjunction. There can’t be many such, but for my sins I happen to be one, and even if he can find others they might not be suitable for various reasons.’

‘Yes, I realise that. But what is the Talisman?’

‘I don’t really know. Except for conducting my business on the lines suggested by Mocata, I don’t think my brain has been functioning at all in the last two months. But it’s called the Talisman of Set.’

‘What!’ The Duke sprang to his feet as Simon appeared grotesquely attired in his incongruous new clothes, his long knees protruding beneath the shorts, the absurd cricket cap set at a rakish angle on his head, and the cycling cloak flapping about his shoulders.

Rex dissolved into tears of laughter, but the Duke’s grim face quickly sobered his mirth.

‘The Talisman of Set,’ De Richleau repeated almost in a whisper.

‘Yes, it has something to do with four horsemen I think— but what on earth’s the matter?’ Simon’s big mouth fell open in dismay at the sight of the Duke’s horror-stricken eyes.

‘It has indeed! The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,’ De Richleau grated out. ‘War, Plague, Famine and Death. We all know what happened the last time those four terrible entities were unleashed to cloud the brains of statesmen and rulers.’

‘You’re referring to the Great War I take it,’ Rex said soberly.

‘Of course, and every adept knows that it started because one of the most terrible Satanists who ever lived found one of the secret gateways through which to release the four horsemen.’

‘I thought the Germans got a bit above themselves,’ Rex hazarded, ‘although it seems that lots of other folks were pretty well as much to blame !’

‘You fool!’ De Richleau suddenly swung upon him. ‘Germany did not make the war. It came out of Russia. It was Russia who instigated the murder at Sarajevo, Russia who backed Serbia to resist Austria’s demands, Russia who mobilised first and Russia who invaded Germany. The monk Rasputin was the Evil genius behind it all. He was the greatest Black Magician that the world has known for centuries. It was he who found one of the gateways through which to let forth the four horsemen that they might wallow in blood and destruction—and I know the Talisman of Set to be another. Europe is ripe now for any trouble and if they are loosed again, it will be final Armageddon. This is no longer a personal matter of protecting Simon. We’ve got to kill Mocata before he can secure the Talisman and prevent him plunging the world into another war.’

CHAPTER XXI

CARDINALS FOLLY

RICHARD Eaton read the telegram a second time.