Doctor Who_ Daemons - Barry Letts [24]
The Doctor stopped and looked down into her anxious little face. 'Of course not,' he smiled, 'I'm glad of your company.'
As he started to clear the tunnel mouth of the splintered planks which had proved so ineffective a barrier, Jo glanced timorously around. She had that prickly feeling at the back of the neck which always meant to her that somebody was watching. Or could it be some thing... ?
'In we go,' said the Doctor, switching on his torch.
The dank blackness of the earth tunnel was, if that were possible, even less welcoming than when the television lights had guided Jo to the scene of disaster the night before. Soon they were clambering cautiously over the pile of rubble which had buried the Professor and the Doctor. The Doctor turned the beam of his powerful lamp into the black hole beyond. 'What are we looking for?' whispered Jo.
'I'll know when I find it,' replied the Doctor, infuriatingly.
As far as Jo could see the large chamber in the heart of the barrow was completely empty. Here was no treasure, no tomb of a bronze-age chieftain. Professor Horner was again proved wrong.
Inside, they were able to stand upright. The Doctor played his light along the smooth curves of the walls. 'It's enormous,' said Jo, her voice echoing oddly from the depths of the chamber.
The Doctor shone his torch onto the floor and began systematically examining it, foot by foot. 'If my theory's right, Jo, we're all in great danger; mortal danger.'
'You mean...everyone in the village?
'I mean everyone in the whole world... Ah!'
The beam of light had fallen on a large bump in the earth floor. The Doctor squatted down by it and produced a little trowel. While Jo held the light, he carefully scraped and dug the hard impacted soil away from a silvery object some fifteen inches long.
'What is it?'
'What does it look like?' returned the Doctor.
'Like... like a model spaceship.'
'Full marks! Except that it isn't a model.'
'What is it then?'
The Doctor cleared the last bit of earth. 'Take a look at the shape of this chamber we're in.'
Puzzled, Jo turned the light once more onto the walls—and then back to the tiny spaceship. 'It's the same! I mean, they're the same shape!'
The Doctor nodded. Different size, that's all. Try picking it up.'
Jo put out a hand and gave an experimental tug. The metallic object was quite immovable.
'Here, hold this.' She handed the torch to the Doctor and tried with both hands. 'It's fixed down,' she said.
The Doctor shook his head. 'You can't pick it up because it weighs about... oh... about seven hundred and fifty tons, at a rough guess.'
'Oh, come on! Be serious.'
'I am serious. You see...'
There it was again see that prickly feeling. Jo gripped the Doctor's arm. 'Ssh!!!' she breathed. 'Listen...' Something was coming down the tunnel, scrape, slither scrape...
The Doctor quietly backed against the wall opposite the opening, his arm protectively around Joe shoulders. He switched off the torch.
Nearer and nearer came the thing in the tunnel scrape, slither, scrape, slither... It stopped. Suddenly two gleaming red eyes were shining out of the darkness and the chamber was filled with a series of uncanny shrieks and roars.
Jo, nearly fainting from fright, still managed to stop herself from screaming as the Doctor turned the full beam of his flashlamp directly onto the thing in the entrance.
There stood the gargoyle from the Cavern. Its misshapen stone body crouching evilly, its claws outstretched, its bat-like wings stretched above its head; it was alive, terrifyingly alive, its blood-red eyes shining from the grotesque face, while from its hideously twisted mouth came roar after unearthly roar.
6 Meetings
The Vicar was standing at the highest window in the Vicarage—the little window on the top landing—apparently looking across to the treetops at the mighty Goat's Back Ridge. He was watching the Devil's Hump and yet... he had his eyes closed. The Master was in full telepathic communication with his faithful servant, the gargoyle, Bok. Through Bok's eyes