`Wake up, my pretty. It's time for us to be going. We ought to have started before, really.'
As she disentangled herself and began to tidy her hair she shivered and replied, `Yes, I suppose we ought. Although the sun is still shining, it has turned quite cold.'
`At this time of the year it always does at this hour. The sun loses its power and the wind changes, bringing the icy currents down from the snow on top of the mountains. More elderly people die of pneumonia on this coast than anywhere else in the world. They only have to once forget to take an overcoat with them if they are going to be out after five o'clock, and they've had it. I don't wonder you're chilly in that light frock. Come on now! We'll step out and get your circulation going.'
She stood up and brushed down her skirt, while he crammed the empty bottle and glasses back into the basket. Two minutes later they were on their way down the hill, but its steepness prevented their pace from being much faster than that at which they had come up; so it was well past six when they arrived back at Christina's villa to collect the things she had packed that morning.
John carried the suitcase across, and in Molly's sitting room they found her with Colonel Verney. He was a tall, rather thin, man, and, as he stood up to be introduced to Christina, would have appeared to be even taller but for a slight stoop that was habitual to him. His hair was going grey, parted in the centre, and brushed smoothly back. His face was longish, with a firm mouth and determined chin; but the other features were dominated by the big aggressive nose that had earned him the nickname of Conky Bill or, as most of his friends called him for short, C. B. His eyebrows were thick and prawn like. Below them his grey eyes had the curious quality of seeming to look right through one. He usually spoke very quietly, in an almost confidential tone, and gave the pleasing impression that there were very few things out of which he did not derive a certain amount of amusement.
To Christina he said, `Well, young lady, I hear you are being pursued by bad men, but I usually eat a couple for breakfast; so you must lead me to them. Perhaps we can have a little talk after dinner, then I'll have a better idea how to set my traps.'
Christina smiled in reply. `I don't think there is much I can tell you that I haven't already told Mrs. Fountain, but I'll answer any questions you like.'
Taking her by the arm, Molly said, `Come along, my dear. Last night we had to pop you into bed just anyhow; so I'll come up with you to your room and see that you have everything you want.'
C. B. and John had already smiled a greeting at one another; so the latter followed the two women out of the room with Christina's bag. When he returned two minutes later, the tall Colonel said
`Well, young feller! How's the world been treating you?' `I've no complaints, sir, thanks,' John replied cheerfully. `And it's very nice to have you with us again.'
`To tell you the truth, I was delighted when your mother rang up. I was due to spend the next few days getting out a lot of tiresome statistics, and it gave me just the excuse I needed to unload the job on to one of my stooges.'
`I'm very glad you could come, sir. This seems a most extraordinary business, and I can't make head or tail of it.'
`You mean the Black Magic slant to it, eh? Well, I don't suppose you would. Those boys are experts at keeping their lights under bushels; so the general public rarely hears anything about them except from an occasional article appearing in the press, and they generally write that off as nonsense.'
`May I give you another drink, sir? Then perhaps you would tell me something about it.'
`Do, John.' C. B. began to refill a very clean, long stemmed pipe. `Mine's a gin and French. But why so much of the “sir” all of a sudden? I know I'm an old fogey, but you've known me long enough to call me C. B. You always used to when you were a little chap.'
John grinned. 'Ah! But I've done my military service since then, and we were taught that we should always call the Colonel “sir” at least three times before slapping him on the back.'
`Not a bad precept either. Come and sit down, and tell me what you make of this girl Christina, and the set up next door.'
`I don't think there is much to tell about her villa.' John handed the Colonel his drink, then perched himself on the sofa. `The old gardener who looks after the place and caretaker when it is empty has been there for years. Maria, the Catalan borne, is a rather surly type, but as she was engaged by Christina's father there doesn't seem any reason to suppose that there is anything fishy about her. We know definitely now that the de Grasses are simply acting as the Canon's agents, but. ..'
`How do you know?' put in C. B. quietly.
`Because Jules de Grasse told me so himself,' John replied, and went on to give an account of the visit he had received that morning.
`Sounds good enough on the face of it,' commented the Colonel. `All right. Carry on.'
`I was only going to add that, while we haven't the ghost of an idea why the Canon wants to get hold of Christina, I believe we would be more than half way to solving the whole problem if we could find out what is wrong with the girl herself.!
'Good reasoning, John. Your mother is convinced that it is a case of possession : but what do you think?'
`I'm damned if I know. There can be no question about these changes in her personality. I've seen them for myself. During the day time she is a nice kid straightforward, good natured, and as far as worldliness goes you wouldn't put her age as much over seventeen. But at night she becomes utterly different bold, sensual as a cat and, according to her own account, evil minded and malicious. If we were still living in mediaeval times I suppose one would regard possession by the Devil as a perfectly reasonable explanation; but it is a bit much to swallow in these days, isn't it?'
`For you, perhaps; but not for me. I've seen scores of such cases, John; and at this very moment there are hundreds of people in our asylums whose apparent lunacy is really due to an evil spirit or, to call it by its right name, which I prefer, a demon having got into their bodies.'
`Well,' John gave a faint smile, `as you and Mother are both so positive that such things still happen I suppose I must accept it that they do. But if what you say about the asylums is correct, why is no attempt ever made to get the devils out of all these poor wretches?'
`Because the modem medicos refuse to recognise the facts. Even if they did they wouldn't know how to set about it; and for that matter very few other people would either.'
`When Mother and I were talking about it last night, she seemed to think you would.'
`Lord bless you, no ! I'm no exorcist. I've never dabbled in Magic Black or White in my life. I regard it as much too dangerous.'
`Does that mean you won't be able to do anything for Christina?'
`That depends.' Conky Bill's voice became low and slightly conspiratorial. `If I can get a half Nelson on the Black who has bewitched her, I could. Even a few facts about minor breaches of the law might enable me to pull a fast one. There is nothing that these birds dislike so much as the police taking an interest in their affairs, and given something to go on there would be a good chance for me to exert enough pressure on them to get the spell taken off.,
'You think Mother's right, then, about her having been bewitched?'
`I am accepting that theory for the moment!
'But why in the world should they pick on a girl like Christina? She has never been mixed up in spiritualism, or anything of that kind.!
'Ask me another, young feller. But I expect we shall find that there is a tie up of some sort. On the other hand, any girl who has so few intimate relationships is always particularly vulnerable. Nine times out of ten they are the ones who disappear; because they have no friends and relatives to start a hue and cry about them. If those people at the place where she was at in Paris had been crooks, she might have been shipped off to Buenos Aires, and her father would have been none the wiser for months afterwards.'
`It looks to me as if he got in first; and it is the very fact that he got wise to it that something pretty nasty was being planned against her that accounts for her present situation.'
C. B. nodded. `Yes, you've got something there.!
'Do you think their object is to White Slave her?'
`No; although if they did get hold of her she would be a dam' sight better off in a brothel.'
`What exactly is their game, then?'
`They are always on the hunt for neophytes. Satan is a greedy master, and to retain his favour they need a
