The Ghosts of N-Space - Barry Letts [86]
Jeremy automatically drew back into the shadows.
‘Still!’ snapped the Brigadier, in an undertone.
299
But the sinister form turned away and walked purposefully and with growing strength along the front of the keep and round the corner out of sight.
He was going round the back! thought Jeremy in horror.
‘I say, are the other doors locked?’
‘I checked them myself,’ said the Brigadier. ‘On the other hand, they’re ordinary wooden doors. Come on!
Uncle, bring your gun.’
He started for the other end of the hall. ‘I’d better stay here and keep watch,’ squeaked Jeremy; then, hearing the pitch of his voice, brought it down several octaves to add, ‘I mean, suppose those chaps out there wake up and –’
‘We’ll keep together. Come along, I may need you,’
said the Brigadier, disappearing through the far door, closely followed by an excited Mario, clutching his blunderbuss in one hand and the leather pouch which contained its ammunition in the other.
The journey to the rear of the house was somewhat hampered by their having to wait for Jeremy to catch up; and by the stops for Mario to get his breath and for the Brigadier to remove the erratically waving blunderbuss from his uncertain-custody; and by the necessity for them to retrace their steps after the Brigadier, exasperated, had gone on ahead and taken the wrong turning.
300
But when they arrived at last at the window at the end of the first floor gallery which overlooked the courtyard, it was clear that whatever else he was up to, Max wasn’t interested in getting in to the house.
He must have gained access to the cloistered yard by climbing over the ruined part of the wall, just as Sarah and Jeremy had on that first eventful evening. He was standing near the clifftop with his back to them, holding his hands up in the air. The ever present wind gusting from the sea brought them fragments of his chanting, though Jeremy could make no sense of what he heard.
What was he trying to do? thought Jeremy. Was he summoning up more of those beastly creatures? He’d had quite enough of them, thank you very much. Oh Lor’! Was that one coming now?
As they watched, a flicker of light was appearing among the fallen stones and in the air above the edge of the cliff.
‘This is just what I was afraid of,’ said the Brigadier.
‘The Doctor warned me that he might try it.’
‘But what’s he doing? I don’t understand,’ said Jeremy, plaintively. Why did nobody ever tell him anything?
The Brigadier ignored his question. ‘We’ve got to try and stop him – and we haven’t got much time,’ he went on.
‘Now listen carefully…’
301
He glanced at his watch and then continued in even more urgent tones. ‘Apparently midnight is H-Hour as far as Operation Max Vilmio is concerned.’ Jeremy took a quick look at his own watch. Six minutes to go. Six minutes?
‘If he times it right,’ the Brigadier went on, ‘he’ll be through into N-Space; and all Hell will be let loose – and I’m not joking. But if he misses it, we’ve stopped him. Our only hope is to use the blunderbuss again as a delaying tactic.’
‘Too far away. By far, too far,’ said Mario.
‘Precisely. That’s where you two come in. I shall proceed to the door to the garden, and make my way to the archway between the garden and the courtyard. This will bring me into a commanding position on his right flank within close enough range to have a chance of at least blinding him once more – and perhaps doing him a real mischief.’
‘Is my gun,’ said Mario, reaching out to take it from the Brigadier.
‘No, Uncle. I need you in the doorway below us, to distract his attention as I get into position. If he caught sight of me out of the corner of his eye, I’d be a goner.’ And what about me? thought Jeremy. What delights has he thought up for me?
302
‘Now, your job, Jeremy,’ he went on, ‘is probably