hands jerked forward and clamped about my throat.
I staggered backwards, gasping at the terrible pressure.
«Hee-hee!» cried my neighbour. «Now you’re done for!»
The fiend’s bloated white face was right by mine and I could see directly into the glass section of his strange headgear. Inside seemed to float a purplish miasma.
I dug my nails into the flesh of his throttling hands but he did not even react, forcing me backwards as I beat and pounded at his face. My head felt as though it would explode at any second. Desperately, I thrust my thumbs into his eyes and pushed with all my strength. The soft flesh gave sickeningly but still I pressed on, digging into the very sockets and forcing my thumbs upwards.
No scream did he make, nor sign that he felt even a scintilla of pain.
«Told you! Told you so! They feel nothing! The devils!» cackled my fellow prisoner.
I hammered my fists against my attacker’s chest but his great weight forced me to my knees. I groped wildly about in the straw. The revolver!
Rolling us both over with a supreme effort, I grasped at the pearl handle of the gun, aimed desperately and loosed off a bullet into the brute’s chest.
He was knocked back as though plucked by a giant hand, staggered and slumped against the wall. I groped at my throat and rubbed my crushed wind-pipe, struggling to draw ragged, whooping breaths.
Suddenly the helmeted monster was on his feet again, seemingly oblivious to the wound in his chest. He surged forward, his great hands flexing, intent on rejoining battle at once. Though dazed and exhausted, I scrabbled to my feet and made a dash for the door. The fellow threw himself forward and grabbed at my ankles, succeeding in getting both hands around one of them and bringing me down on the floor. I swivelled on my rump and planted my boot in the middle of his face, kicking savagely until I felt his nose crack and bright blood fountain on to my trouser leg.
I tried to take aim again but the lumbering giant gripped my other ankle and shook me about like a rag-doll. The pistol went off but was sent clattering against the wall.
With a cry I shuffled forward and managed to get my fingers under the edge of the helmet. I tugged violently, desperately.
Swarming forward with one last effort and gripping the helmet for dear life, I kicked the fellow in the throat sending him vaulting backwards. I was left clutching the brass helmet in both hands.
And now he began to scream. A dreadful tortured gurgle it was as his suddenly bare head was exposed to the world. There were huge gory gouges in his temples where the attaching screws had been ripped out and he raised his hands to them, gasping in pain and shock.
«Lor! You done for him! How did you manage that?» hissed my hairy cellmate in amazement.
I glanced down at the helmet. The strange, gaseous substance still swirled within the glass enclosure but I could now see that thin, delicate pipes led from it into the screws that been affixed to my attacker’s temples. A tarry liquid began to leak from inside and its dark mauve colour was at once familiar. And then I remembered. I felt my overtaxed brain making connections like points changing on a railway. It was the same stuff that had nearly done for me and Charlie.
I looked down at the strange helmet again. Piped directly into its poor owner’s blood-stream the mauve stuff had rendered him little more than a zombie!
Putting the helmet carefully aside, I scrabbled for my revolver and levelled it at the prone figure.
The man had begun to weep from his gory eyes, great heavy tears mixing with the drool and blood plastered over his dead-white face. He tried to raise himself up on one hand but sank back to the floor with a great cry. I suddenly realized there wasn’t much time.
Scuttling across to him on my knees, I managed to raise the fellow’s head up, cradling it in the crook of my arm. It was like the Death of bloody Nelson.
«Tell me,» I whispered. «Who did this to you?»
The mauve fluid was trickling out of the wounds in his temples. Great rasping gulps began to sound from the fellow’s blood-caked mouth and then, with a dreadful, rattling gurgle, he pitched back into my arms, quite dead.
I got to my feet. The fellow had been sent to collect me or to kill me. Either way, it was wise to get moving.
«Wait! Wait!» cried my neighbour. «What about me?»
I paused on the threshold. «You’re no use to me in this babbling state.»
I slipped through the open door and out in to the darkened corridor.
As I passed the adjacent cell, the old fellow thrust towards me desperately. «Please! I’ll tell you. Just let me out!»
I took a chance and shot the lock off. He raced out into the corridor but I covered him warily. He seemed just the type to leap for my throat.
«All right,» I muttered, backing away from the stink he gave off. «Where are we?»
He pushed his long grey hair from his eyes. «Why, the Vesuvius Club, of course!»
«Still? Good. That’s good. Now tell me more about Poop and these looted treasures.»
I gestured with the pistol and we began to creep off up the corridor, keeping our voices low.
«I knew Mr Poop. Did a lot of work for him. I know my way about this city, you see.»
«You’re an informant?»
The old man cackled. «I keeps my ear to the ground.»
«Go on.»
«Well, Signor Poop was on to some sort of racket in stolen stuff. Old statues and that sort of thing, hocked off to the best Chelsea drawing rooms and nobs’ offices. He reckoned that’s how Venus’s fella got the V Club up and running. They was smuggling stuff out of Naples in coffins, pretending it was bodies, then smuggling the moolah back in. We was getting close to nabbing them when… well…»
I nodded slowly. «You got your ear a little too close to the ground, eh?»
This must be the fellow Charlie had mentioned. I scratched my chin. Where was Charlie now? It was vital that I find him and pump him (for information, you understand).
We emerged suddenly into a curtained area and there, sitting on a stool with his back towards us was the curious ape-like chap who had greeted me when I first arrived. I gestured to my bearded friend that he should make for the front door and scarper. He nodded and gave me a little bow then I cleared my throat noisily and the monkey-man turned on his stool.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Poop’s informant steal towards the exit and, silently, slip through it to freedom.
My head still ached appallingly from the mauve gas but I thrust my hands into my trouser pockets and looked about with a casual air. «Hello again! Got a little lost in all these damned corridors. Had a little adventure, but found my way back. Not to worry.»
With a merry wave, I strode off down the long corridor. When finally I stood once more before the great doors I paused to make myself presentable. Magnified by the gasping gas-jets, my shadow leapt hugely over the walls. Once again, the sweet sounds of debauchery bled from under them.
Raising my fist, I hammered twice on the black surface.
Almost immediately, the doors rasped open and a flickering red light washed over me. I stepped inside but felt my way barred at once by a great bear-like shape.
Membership was clearly an exclusive affair.
Charlie, of course, had previously gained us ingress and I suddenly realized that it might be a little more difficult alone.
«Yes?» came a thick voice from the dimness.
I was damned if I was going to say «May I come in, please?» so instead I ordered «Stand aside» with all the boldness I could muster.
There was movement in the darkness which I realized must be the fellow shaking his fat head. «Can’t do that, sir. You have to give the signal.»
