‘Yes, I’m afraid he will. But there is a lot of methane in the air down here — hence the smell. I was just grateful it didn’t ignite.’
Eddie could see now that it was Liz holding his hand. Her grip tightened as she thought about what Sir William had said. But before any of them could reply, the whole tunnel began to shake. Dust fell from the arched roof and the match went out.
‘The creature,’ George said quietly in the darkness. ‘It’s coming after us.’
‘Then let’s keep moving,’ Sir William said. Another match flared into life and he led the way along the tunnel. ‘We may have to postpone a detailed investigation for the moment.’
‘Where’re we going?’ Eddie wondered.
‘Wherever it leads. But ideally I should like to find a narrower side tunnel.’ Sir William paused as another bellowing roar echoed round the tunnel. ‘And soon.’
They went as fast as they dared, hoping they could stay ahead of the monster. The tunnel was narrow — maybe it wouldn’t want to follow too far in case it got stuck. But each time Eddie thought they had gone far enough and it might have given up, another roar rang off the brickwork and brought dust down into their hair and mouths and eyes.
At one point they reached an intersection of tunnels. Their tunnel was joined by two more — a choice of directions. Sir William led them down one of the side tunnels, perhaps hoping that Eddie’s scent would be lost in the smell of the sewers and the monster would instinctively go straight on.
‘You think it can hear us?’ George asked.
‘Probably. But remembering how weak its smell was, let’s hope all its other senses are equally dulled.’
‘Some chance,’ Eddie muttered.
‘You know I really think we must be making good progress,’ Sir William announced after several more minutes.
‘You think we’ve come far enough to be safe?’ Liz asked.
‘Oh I shouldn’t think so for a moment. No, no — I mean if Lorimore is desperate enough to risk sending this animal or whatever it is through London to find us, then he must consider us to be a real threat of some sort.’
‘And that’s a good thing?’ George asked, his voice strained.
Another match flared, illuminating Sir William’s craggy face and deepening the lines across his forehead. ‘Oh I think so. What is he worried about, hmm? Something he is afraid we can do or discover or work out.’
‘The only clue we have is the fragment of Glick’s diary,’ George told him. ‘It’s meaningless.’ He had to shout to be heard above the almost continuous roar of the approaching creature. ‘We have to get out of here.’
‘No it isn’t meaningless,’ Sir William went on calmly. ‘That’s his mistake, do you see? If Lorimore had ignored us, we might well have come to that conclusion. But as it is, by his actions, he is telling us that the diary fragment is a vital clue. He is afraid that from that clue we can make some fundamental discovery. Presumably the same discovery as he himself is hoping to make. The difference is that he knows what he is looking for while we are working in the dark. In more ways than one,’ he added as the match sputtered and went out. ‘I do think someone should invent an everlasting match,’ he grumbled, striking another. ‘However, Lorimore is evidently afraid that we might deduce what he is after from that fragment.’
‘Which means,’ Liz said, glancing apprehensively back down the tunnel, ‘that we can do just that.’
More dust and ancient mortar fell from the ceiling. The tunnel was shaking in time with the creature’s thumping steps. Eddie could hear the rhythmic thud of its feet and the rasping of its breath. It had not taken the obvious route where the tunnels joined, and now it was almost upon them. ‘If we live long enough,’ he said nervously.
‘Let’s try through here, shall we?’ Sir William said, and disappeared into the tunnel wall.
Eddie could see it now — the huge creature was bent almost double. It filled the tunnel as it charged towards them. The match-light faded as Sir William disappeared, and Eddie was left with the impression of huge teeth snapping at him in the darkness. He could smell the monster’s oily breath as he scrabbled at the wall, desperately trying to find where the others had gone. Jaws clamped shut close to his face, as he finally found the opening and fell shrieking into it.
There was a narrow gap — a short passageway leading into another parallel tunnel. Eddie was barely through when another roar echoed after him, followed by a frantic scrabbling and scraping. He could imagine the monster slashing at the entrance of the passage with its knife-like claws — gouging out chunks of brick as it widened the passage so it could follow them.
‘Let’s hope it isn’t clever enough to realise that these tunnels probably join up further on,’ Sir William said.
‘I think it’s time we found a way out of here,’ George said.
‘Indeed it is. I’m down to my last couple of matches.’
‘Perhaps there isn’t a way out,’ Liz said quietly.
‘There must be an inspection hatch or something somewhere,’ George told her. ‘Probably up that way. The tunnel slopes slightly, and a hatch is likely to be at a higher point.’
‘Good thinking,’ Sir William said. ‘Let’s take a look shall we?’ He led them up the tunnel in the direction George had indicated. To their relief, the sound of the monster’s frantic scraping and scratching gradually faded into the distance.
‘So let’s recap on what we know,’ Sir William suggested. They were walking slowly in darkness now, their feet splashing through the thin stream of foul-smelling water that was washing down the tunnel. ‘Lorimore wants the final volume of Glick’s diary. Presumably for some entry he believes is in it. An entry that means nothing in itself, but provides a clue to what Lorimore is really after. Some clue that no one else has yet managed to decipher.’
‘He approached Albert Wilkes to get hold of it,’ George said. ‘Maybe he murdered Albert when he refused to help.’
‘Or maybe he died of natural causes,’ Sir William said.
‘What about Wilkes’s body?’ Liz asked.
‘Yes, a rum do,’ Sir William told them. ‘It sounds fantastic, but I believe that Lorimore somehow reanimated Wilkes in the hope he would retrieve the diary, or at least show them where it was kept. Instead of which poor old Wilkes surprised them by settling back into his usual routine. They thought he’d gone to his house to get the diary, and instead he went home for tea.’
‘That’s why Blade was trying to get him back,’ Eddie realised.
‘So they somehow switched him off, as it were, when that didn’t work. And then they replaced the body, rather hastily, when there was a possibility it might be dug up again,’ Liz said. ‘When Mrs Wilkes told people her husband was walking.’
‘A very hasty job indeed,’ Sir William agreed. ‘In fact they didn’t have time to put him back together properly after whatever they had done to him. They were forced to use bones that came from elsewhere, for example. They hoped no one would notice. I shudder to think to what use Lorimore had put the poor man’s own limbs.’
‘And now we find he has this … creature at his beck and call,’ George said.
‘Yes,’ Sir Wiliam agreed. ‘I should like to learn more about that. How Lorimore has managed to reconstruct a dinosaur, if that is indeed what it is.’
‘A question for another day, perhaps,’ Liz suggested. ‘I don’t fancy trying to examine the brute down here.’
Eddie was running his hand along the crumbling bricks of the tunnel wall as they shambled along. As Sir William was speaking, Eddie’s hand hit something — a rusted metal bar running down the tunnel wall. He suppressed a cry of surprise and pain.
There was another bar close after the first. The rust was brittle and sharp, flaking off under his palm. He was about to move on, when he realised what it must be.
‘Hang on! It think there’s a ladder here.’
‘Good work, young man. I have just one match left for this contingency.’
A moment later it flared into life, and Eddie could see that it was indeed a rusty iron ladder, set into the wall of the tunnel.
‘It doesn’t look too secure,’ George said. He pulled at it experimentally and dust and lumps of old cement showered down from above.
‘Beggars can’t be choosers,’ Sir William said.
