Doctor Who_ Daemons - Barry Letts [67]
She stood up. 'There we are,' she said briskly. 'We've put our shoulders to the wheel and we're nearly at the top of the hill... Er... I think perhaps, you should get in here with me, Sergeant.'
'Thank you, ma'am, but I'd feel daft standing in that thing.'
'You'll feel very much dafter if our stone friend should hit you by mistake—or on purpose, for the matter of that.'
The Sergeant looked vainly around for help. The Brigadier was apparently involved in a vigorous argument with Captain Yates and Sergeant Osgood.
'Right, Miss Hawthorne Very thoughtful of you,' he said, and gingerly stepped into the middle of the magic circle.
'Oh, it's not entirely unselfish, Sergeant,' said Miss Hawthorne coyly. 'You see, I need your help.'
'My help? I don't know anything about magic.'
'No, but you play cricket, I'm sure.'
'Well, yes.'
Miss Hawthorne pointed at the heap of stones. 'Do you think,' she said, 'that a good cricketer could hit a wicket at... let's see...' She gauged her distance between the circle and Bok with a countrywoman's eye. 'Oh... about thirty yards, I'd say.'
Benton grinned. 'I can have ago,' he said, and picking up one of the stones, hefted it in his hand to get the weight. 'Ready, ma'am?' he said.
'Ready,' she said, holding the amulet which hung on her chest between finger and thumb.
Sergeant Benton threw the first stone. It narrowly missed the imp, but the noise of its bouncing off a headstone served to warn Bok that he was once more being attacked. He turned sharply, a claw half raised, gleaming eyes darting this way and that.
Miss Hawthorne could hardly breathe for suffocating excitement. This was the real thing! Her forays into the actual practice of her craft had been few and simple, mainly concerned with the bringing of good fortune to her friends. But this... Now she could find out the extent of her powers for certain. Though of course, should she fail, she wouldn't know anything about it. She smiled wryly at the thought .
'Here we go again,' Benton was saying. He had selected the smoothest and roundest stone from the pile. With a practised flick of the wrist, he sent it flying accurately to its target. It struck Bok a sharp blow on the side of the head. The ugly creature leapt up with an evil snarl. Spotting Benton and Miss Hawthorne and, at once guessing that they were the source of the attack, he raised himself some seven feet into the air with a couple of powerful strokes of his bat-like wings and pointed his claw straight at them.
And then the incredible happened. All at once his eyes turned blank and he seemed to be frozen solid. Falling heavily to the ground, he cracked into three or four pieces, which lay unmoving, the fragments of an inanimate stone carving.
'It worked!' said Benton . But Miss Hawthorne knew better.
'He hadn't even attacked,' she said, sounding almost disappointed.
At that moment, however, the vestry door was flung open and a flock of hooded figures came streaming out. Among them could be seen the scarlet robe of the Master, the distinctive Edwardian clothes of the Doctor and the white tabard which Jo was wearing.
'Get down!' the Doctor was shouting. 'The whole thing's going up at any second.'
Benton seized Miss Hawthorne and pulled her down to the shaking ground. The windows of the church were glowing red with heat and there was a roaring like a furnace at full blast.
The Doctor and the others ran past the remnants of the gargoyle and onto the green, where they flung themselves down with the rest. There was a long moment of suspense. Then the church blew up.
The Master stood glowering at Sergeant Benton, who was covering him with a gun, while straining his ears to listen in to the Doctor's conversation with the Brigadier, a little way across the green.
'What happened?' Lethbridge Stewart was saying.
'Jo saved us all,' said the Doctor, smiling down at her.
'I did?' Jo looked up from pulling off the tabard.
'Yes, my dear. By that ridiculous and foolhardy act of self-sacrifice. You see, Azal couldn't handle a fact as illogical