"Father!" hissed Roberta, scandalised. "You cannot attack policemen!"
"Your statement is demonstrably inaccurate," said the professor haughtily. "Now help move them inside, lest more of these interfering peelers come to foil our plans."
We did as we were told, dragging both policemen through the gate before laying them out on the floor. Roberta moved them onto their sides, confirmed they were breathing, then rounded on her father. "You will be jailed for this if they catch you!" she hissed.
"This pair will not be catching anyone," said the professor. "Now do come on, or Snetton will open his rift and we shall be facing hordes of slavering demons instead of two dozen relatively harmless spirits."
Harmless? I was glad he thought so, especially as those same spirits had succeeded in stripping his life force earlier, leaving him for dead. But there was no time to dwell on this, because the professor had already lowered himself to the tracks, and was now striding towards the underground tunnel.
Roberta and I followed, catching up with the professor, and the three of us moved to the narrow path beside the railway tracks. Here, the ground was packed dirt, and we walked in relative silence. Ahead, in the distance, I could already make out the baleful red glow which I knew emanated from Lord Snetton's portal. Was it my imagination, or did it seem brighter than before?
"What was that?" muttered Roberta suddenly.
We stopped to listen, and then we all heard it. Someone had just coughed, and the faint sound came from the tunnel ahead of us.
"A guard?" murmured the professor. "A wise precaution, I suppose, and yet another impediment to our success."
I crouched and moved closer to the tunnel wall, and as I did so I saw the man framed against the distant red glow. He was perhaps fifty yards away, leaning casually against the tunnel wall, and he appeared to have a long wooden club in his hand. This was leaning casually across one shoulder, and it looked a heavy and substantial weapon. In addition, the man was tall and well-built, and more than a match for any of us. I beckoned to the others, and they crouched beside me to look for themselves.
"My sword is useless against that bruiser," said the professor. "He has the reach on me, and would smash it with that club of his before I could get close."
"I have the revolver still," I murmured in reply.
The professor shook his head. "Fire a single shot in these tunnels, and you will attract more enemies to our position."
"What if I walked up to him and threatened—"
"I have an idea," said Roberta. "Come, we must get closer."
She said no more, and the three of us moved along the tunnel in a crouch, placing our feet carefully. Once we were twenty yards from the man, she stopped, sinking to the ground. I heard a faint noise, and saw her turning over pieces of clinker in the nearby rail bed. She found what she was looking for, and handed me a substantial piece of stone roughly the size of my fist. Then she took the pronged weapon from her father, taking a firm hold of the grip.
"On three!" she whispered. "One, Two, Three!"
I stood there with the piece of stone in my hand, unsure what I was meant to do. Roberta, meanwhile, looked displeased.
"Mr Jones," she hissed. "I know you did not attend university, but when my father and I hired you as a bookkeeper we assumed you could at least count to three."
I mumbled an apology.
"Perhaps, instead of berating the poor boy, you should tell him what you require of him," whispered the professor.
"Is it not obvious?" Roberta gestured at the stone and explained patiently. "On three, I want you to throw that past the guard. When it lands it will make a noise, and he will turn to investigate. I will hurry up behind and subdue him."
I wanted to tell her I was not the man for the job, and that my throwing accuracy was questionable at the best of times. I wasn't even certain I could reach the man, let alone throw the heavy stone beyond him. But there was no time to explain, since Roberta had started counting once more.
"One. Two. Three!"
I threw the stone as hard as I could, quickly losing sight of it in the darkness. We all held our breath, and then we heard a solid thud. The guard's head jerked sideways, and he promptly fell in a heap.
Roberta lowered her weapon. "That will do just as well, I suppose."
I worried I might have killed the man, but when we reached him he was already recovering and clutching at his head. Roberta, unmoved by his pain, pressed the forked tip of the sword to his chest, and the man jerked violently before lying still.
"That's the spirit," growled the professor, showing not the slightest concern for our latest victim. "And now, let us confront the chief architects of this evil plan!"
Chapter 38
We reached the turn in the tunnel, and the three of us gazed in horrified awe upon the scene beyond. The portal was now several times larger than when I had last laid eyes on it, and the edges had begun to revolve slowly, leaving swirling eddies of blood-red light in mid-air. The centre opened on a fiery landscape, where a jet-black sky was shot through with lightning bolts exhibiting the hue and gleam of polished rubies. There was movement in that landscape, and my mouth turned dry as I saw the horde of unholy creatures impatient to emerge from that hellish portal. Some latecomers fought their way to the head of the heaving mass, and I saw several of these evil denizens torn apart by tooth and claw before my very eyes.
Meanwhile, three dozen spirits whirled around the chamber on our side of the rift, as though guarding Lord Snetton from intruders.
Slowly, silently, we withdrew around the corner to confer.
"There is but one way to win
