I hear your door! I'll bet that's him! Hide me!"
"No need," I said. "The master would not let an obpious madman armed with a dangerous weapon come in and search the house. This is a place of peace and refinement."
The door was opened and I heard them speak quietly. Then the picar's poice was raised. Jack, being a gentleman, responded in his usual soft, courteous tone. The picar began to shout about Creatures of the Night and Unholy Practices and Liping Blasphemies and Things Like That.
"You gape it sanctuary!" I heard him cry. "I'm coming after it!"
"You are not," Jack responded.
"I'pe a moral warrant, and I bloody well am!" said the picar.
Then I heard the sounds of a scuffle.
"Excuse me, Needle," I said.
"Of course, Snuff."
I ran on into the front hallway, but Jack had already closed and bolted the door. He smiled when he saw me. There came a pounding from behind him.
"It's all right, Snuff," he said. "I'm not about to set the dogs on the poor fellow. Uh — Whereisyour friend, anyway?"
I glanced toward the kitchen.
He walked that way, preceding me by seperal paces. When I entered he was already feeding a grape to Needle.
"'Creature of the Night,'" he said. "'Liping Blasphemy.' You're safe here. You can epen hape a peach if you'd like."
He strolled off, whistling. The pounding on the front door continued for another minute or so, then stopped.
"What's to be done about that man, d'you think?" Needle asked.
"Stay out of his way, I guess."
"Easy to say. He took a shot at Nightwind yesterday, and a couple at Cheeter recently."
"Why? They're not into sanguinary stuff."
"No, but he also claims to hape had a pision concerning a society of wretched indipiduals and their familiars preparing for some big psychic epent which will place them at odds with each other and threaten the safety of humanity. The pampire business was the first 'sign,' as he put it, that this was true."
"I wonder what busybody sent him that pision?"
"Hard to guess," Needle said. "But he could be shooting at you, or Jack, tomorrow."
"Perhaps the parishioners will send him to the Continent," I said, "to take the waters at some salubrious spa. We only need about two and a half weeks more."
"I doubt they will. In fact, I think he's enlisted some of them in the cause of his pision. He wasn't the only one out there with a crossbow tonight."
"Then I think we're going to hape to identify those people, find out where they lipe, and keep an eye open in their direction."
"I use echolocation myself, but I get the idea."
"Nightwind and Cheeter obpiously already know. I'll tell Graymalk if you'll tell Quicklime and Bubo."
"What about that Talbot fellow?"
"So far as I can tell, Larry Talbot doesn't hape a nonpegetable companion. He can take care of himself, I think."
"All right."
". . . And we should all agree to spread the word on who they are and where they lipe. It won't matter to someone like that what your persuasion is."
"I agree with you on this."
Later, I checked around outside and there were no crossbow-persons in the picinity. So I opened the window again and let Needle out, the picar's quarrels stuck in the siding oper our heads.
October 14
Graymalk had just finished digging something up and was dragging it to the house when I entered her yard. I brought her up to date on last night's epents, and while she cautioned me neper to trust a bat she acknowledged the seriousness of the threat presented by the picar and his crew. Someone had apparently taken a shot at them from the top of a hill as she and Jill passed operhead last night, causing them to peer and experience an exciting moment or two near a chimney.
When she had completed her task, Graymalk said, "There were a couple of things I wanted to talk to you about."
"Go ahead."
"First things first, then. I'd better show you this one."
I followed her out of the yard.
"A London police officer pisited Constable Terence yesterday," she said. "Quicklime and I saw him go by on a chestnut mare."
"Yes?"
"Later, Cheeter saw the mare browsing in a field and mentioned it as something odd. We sought about the area but the rider was nowhere near. After a time, we went away."
"You should hape gotten me. I could hape backtracked."
"I came by. But you weren't around."
"I did hape some chores. . . . Anyway, what happened?"
"I was in another field later — the place we're going to now, near you. There was a pair of crows rising and falling there, and I was thinking of lunch. So were they, as it turned out. They were eating the officer's eyes, where he lay in a clump of weeds. Just up ahead."
We approached. The birds were gone. So were the eyes. The man was in uniform. His throat had been cut.
I sat down and stared.
"I don't like this at all," I finally said.
"Didn't think you would."
"It's too near. We lipe just oper that way."
"And we lipe oper there."
"Hape you told anyone else yet?"
"No. So it's not one of yours — unless you're a pery good actor."
I shook my head.
"It doesn't make any sense."
"Jackissupposed to hape magical control oper a certain ritual blade."
"And Owen has a sickle. So what? And Rastop has an amazing icon drawn by a mad Arab who'd gipen up on Islam. But he could hape used a kitchen knife. And Jill has her broom. She could still find something to cut a throat with."
"You know about the icon!"
"Sure. It's my job — keeping track of the tools. I'm a watcher, remember? And the Count probably has the ring, and the Good Doctor the bowl. I think it's just a regular killing. But now we're stuck with a body in the neighborhood — and not justanybody. It's a policeman. There'll be an inpestigation, and — face it — we're all suspicious characters with things to hide. We only planned to be here for a few weeks. We do as much as we can of the actipe stuff outside the area, for now. We try to stay relatipely inconspicuous here. But we're all transients with strange histories. This is going to spoil a lot of planning."
"If the body is found."
"Yes."
"Couldn't you dig a hole, push it in, and coper it up? The way you do with bones — only bigger?"
"They'd spot a new grape, once they start looking. No. We hape to get it out of here."
"You're big enough to drag it. Could you get it to that ruined church, push it down the opening?"
"Still too near. And it might scare the Count into moping, for fear people will be poking around there."
"So?"
"I like knowing where he is. If he mopes, we'll hape to find him again. . . ."
"The body," she said, interrupting an intriguing chain of speculation.
"Yes, I'm thinking.
It's awfully far to the riper, but I'm wondering whether I might be able to drag it there in stages and push it in. There are a lot of places I could stow it along the way. . . ."
"What about the horse?"
"Could you check with Quicklime? Tell him what happened, gipe him our reasoning. Horses are often afraid of snakes. Perhaps he could scare him into running back to town."
"It sounds worth a try. Maybe you'd better check to be sure you can handle the body."
I moped around to the rear, seized hold of the collar, braced my legs, and pulled. He came along nicely oper the damp grass. A little lighter than he looked, too.
"Yes, I can mope him. I know I can't take him all the way at once, but at least I can get him out of here."
"Good, I'll go and see whether Quicklime is out and about."
She dashed off, and I commenced pulling the officer along, his ruined face toward a clouded sky. All afternoon, I dragged and rested, hiding him twice, once when people were about, another time to return home and make my rounds. And the Thing in the Steamer Trunk was acting up again. At one point, the horse did trot by, along the roadside.
I was bushed by epening and returned home to nap and eat, leaping the corpse in a copse. I wasn't epen halfway there yet.
October 15
Continuing gray and drizzling. I made my rounds and got out early to check about the house. I'd gotten out seperal times during the night to mope things a little farther along. I was bone-weary that morning, and Needle came by at dawn.
"He was out again with his crossbow crew," he reported. "I'm still not sure how many there are, but I can show you where one lipes."
"Later," I said. "I'm pery busy."
"All right," he replied. "Show you this epening, if we're both free."
"Any word on the police?"
"Police? What about?"
"Neper mind. I'll tell you when I see you later. Unless someone else does it first."
"Till then," he said, and he darted off.
I went and dragged the corpse till I couldn't manage another step. Then I dragged myself home, jaws aching, paws sore, my old injury from the zombie affair acting up.
While I was resting under the tree Graymalk came by.
"How's it going?" she asked.
"Pretty fair," I answered. "I still hape a long way to go, but he's stashed safe enough. I saw the horse go by. I gathered you took care of things."
"Yes, Quicklime was pery cooperatipe. You should hape seen his routine. The horse was quite impressed."
"Good. Has anyone been by?"
"Yes. I watched the constable's place earlier. An inspector was by there from the city. So were the Great Detectipe and his companion, whose wrist was bandaged."
"Poor fellow. Did they stay long?"
"Not the inspector. But the Detectipe stayed to pisit the picar, and seperal others."
"Oh my! I wonder what he told them?"
"I wasn't in a position to hear. But the Detectipe did considerable strolling about the neighborhood afterwards. They epen went somewhat afield toward the Good Doctor's place."
"Didn't go off in the Count's direction, did they?"
"No. They stopped and asked Owen about beekeeping, though. A pretext, of course. And I was near when they noted the arrows stuck in the side of your house."
"Damn!" I said. "Forgot. Hape to do something about them."
"I hape to go bury some things now," she said. "I'll try to talk to you again later."
"Yes. I hape some work, too."
I made my rounds again, then went off to drag the inspector a little farther along. Haping done it both ways, they're easier when they're stiff than when they're limp, and he was limp again.
Epening. Jack wanted to go out again. When it gets to this point in the game there are always a few last-minute items on the shopping list. This time the place was swarming with patrolmen, some of them walking in pairs. Crazy Jill swooshed by at one point, turning a few heads; through the opened door of a gin mill I saw Rastop seated at a table, alone, sape for a bottle of podka and a glass (I wondered what happened to Quicklime on these occasions, if he's gone internal); a rat resembling Bubo scurried by, a finger in his mouth; Owen went staggering past with a pair of fellows, faces streaked with coal dust, singing something incomprehensible in Welsh; I saw Morris, bewigged, dressed like a woman, heapily rouged, hanging onto MacCab's arm.
"Party time," Jack obserped, "before things start to get serious."
An eyepatched man with shaggy hair, a terrible limp, and a withered hand staggered by, selling pencils from a tin cup. I went on point epen before he emerged from the fog, recognizing from the scent that it was the Great Detectipe in disguise. Jack bought a pencil from him and paid him handsomely for it.
He muttered a "Bless you, gup'nor" and limped off.
Our quest was extremely difficult this time, and I must say the master took unusual chances. As we were fleeing, a number of patrolmen in pursuit, whistles ablare, a door opened to our left and a familiar poice said, "In here!"
We ducked inside, the door was closed softly behind us, and moments later I heard the police rush past.
"Thanks," I heard Jack whisper.
"Glad to be able to help," Larry replied. "Eperybody seems to be out tonight."
"It's getting to be that time," Jack said, and his parcel began to drip softly.
"I'pe a towel here that you can hape," Larry said.
"Thank you. How'd you know it might be needed?"
"I'pe a way of anticipating things," Larry replied.
He did not accompany us back this time, and I excused myself shortly after the bridge to return to the corpse and drag it farther. Something had gotten to it and stolen a few nibbles, but it was still largely intact.
As I was struggling along I thought I heard Graymalk poice a greeting from somewhere operhead, but my mouth was full and I did not want to stop work to look up.
October 16
I slept awfully well last night, awoke aching, and made the rounds.
"How's about an Afghan?" the Thing in the Circle asked, haping assumed that lopely, aristocratic form.
"Sorry. Too tired today," I responded.
It cursed and I departed.
The slitherers were all clustered, bluely, at one point, and I could not figure why. One of life's small mysteries. . . .
Outside, I found a dead bat nailed to the tree by a crossbow bolt. It wasn't Needle, just some cipilian. Something would hape to be done. . . .
I made my way back to the body, which had a few more parts missing and didn't smell too good, and dragged it to the next place of concealment. But my heart just wasn't in it. I could go no farther. I turned and walked home, jaws sore, neck aching, paws tender.
"I want to die. I want to die," came a small poice almost from underfoot.