‘But when did you say the killings stopped? The late seventeenth century?’
‘That’s right. Quite abruptly, from what I’ve read about it, and the demon and his hounds were never heard around Dartmoor again, although of course he continued to live in legend. Even his original name survived among the few locals who still practised Druid magic. And this is an interesting fact: when he visited Plymouth, William Blake, the poet and artist, was told the legend by an old fellow from Tavistock, but probably because of the old fellow’s thick Devon accent he misheard the name as “Jesus”.
‘Blake mistakenly assumed that Jesus had walked around Dartmoor, seeking out unbaptised babies, and that was when he wrote “And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England’s mountains green?” What he didn’t realise was that his poem was inspired not by the Son of God but by one of the most malevolent forces in all human history.’
They reached Sampford Spiney and turned into the driveway of Allhallows Hall. Rob switched off the engine and sat quiet for a moment before he opened the door.
‘You’re sure that you’re up to this?’ he asked Father Salter.
Father Salter laid a hand on his arm and said gently, ‘Probably not. But if I can chase out this demon, I shall know that I can beat any other evil spirit that ever comes my way, and that includes the Lord of the Flies himself.’
37
Vicky opened the front door for them and pressed her hand to her chest in relief.
‘Thank you so much for coming, father. I was petrified that you wouldn’t.’
‘As I was telling Rob, my dear, we don’t call ourselves “Christian soldiers” for nothing. There are times when we have to gird our loins and face our enemy, no matter how fearful we are.’
Rob led Father Salter into the middle of the hallway. ‘We’ve left everything just as it was when Francis was killed.’
Before he looked around at anything else, Father Salter went across and stood in front of the silhouette of Francis on the bricked-up cellar doorway. The blood was beginning to soak into the plaster and it was already turning brown. He reached out and touched it with his fingertips and then he made the sign of the cross and murmured a benediction. ‘In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti…’
After that, he turned away from the wall and surveyed the scattered remains of Francis’s attempt at spiritual decontamination.
‘I can see that Francis was trying to carry out the ritual we call Mala omnia expurget, but with the addition of some strong Druidic symbolism, such as this cat with three heads, and this horrible grey sheepskin. He told me that he would be. I’m extremely surprised that it wasn’t effective.’
‘After he had shouted out its name, the whole house started shaking,’ Vicky told him.
Father Salter unclipped his briefcase and took out a white fringed stole, which he kissed, draped around his neck, and then again made the sign of the cross.
‘From the way in which poor Francis was pulled through the wall here, there’s no doubt at all in my mind that the force is located here, behind this blocked-off doorway. But even though it’s confined down in the cellar, its evil influence is clearly strong enough to have permeated the foundations and the very stones of the walls themselves, all the way up to the tiles on the roof. Its great supernatural strength was obviously the reason that it was hunted down and caught and brought here. Its presence here in the house gave the Wilmingtons the power that was needed to convert the priest’s hide that Nicholas Owen had crafted for them into a witching room.’
‘Who do you think caught it? And how?’ asked Rob. ‘I mean, how the hell do you go about catching a thing like that and bricking it up in your cellar?’
‘As I said before, Rob, every demon has its weak spot, just as the purest among us are susceptible now and again to temptation. Whoever caught it must have had an intimate knowledge of the moors around here, and of the stories associated with every tor and every leat. You said that you’d met John Kipling. He’ll be the man to ask about it. He’s likely to know the date when dead children stopped being found on the moors, and he may even have a census of who was living in Sampford Spiney at the time, and who was acquainted with the Wilmingtons.’
He approached the cellar doorway again, and stood there silently for a few seconds with his head bowed. ‘Do you know,’ he said, ‘I can actually hear it. At the Pontifical University in Rome they teach you how to listen for the malevolence that sometimes radiates from demonic possession. I have heard it several times before, but I have never come across anything like this – never. This has a completely different pitch to it, if you follow me. Satan’s demons almost always sing sweetly and seductively, to cajole us into doing wrong, but this is so jarring and discordant. It’s like some wind instrument being played in all the wrong keys. The Fluter.’
Rob came and stood next to him. ‘I could sense something myself. I don’t know… I couldn’t hear anything, not like you, but I could certainly feel something. It was like static electricity, like when you rub a balloon and it makes your hair all stand on end.’
‘Then we must get to work, Rob, without delay, and exorcise it. But before we begin the ritual of exorcism, we should go up to the witching room and offer prayers and words of encouragement to those who are trapped there. We may not be able to see them, but they will be able to hear us, I’m sure, and if any souls are going to give us moral and spiritual support, they will.’
‘If you do manage to exorcise it, will they all be
