The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley Read Free Book Online Page A

Taxi!’ De Richleau waved an arm.
    â€˜He can’t have more than five minutes’ start.’
    â€˜Too much in a fifteen minute run.’ The Duke’s voice was grim as they climbed into the cab.
    â€˜What d’you figure went amiss?’
    â€˜I don’t know for certain, but there is no doubt that our poor friend is completely under Mocata’s influence, has been for months I expect. In such a case Mocata’s power over him would be far stronger than my own which was only exercised, in the hope of protecting him, for the first time tonight. It was because I feared that Mocata might countermand my orders, even from a distance, and compel Simon to return that I placed the symbol of Light round his neck.’
    â€˜And when Max took it off Mocata got busy on him eh?’
    â€˜I think Mocata was at work before that. He probably witnessed everything that took place in a crystal or through a medium and exerted all his powers to cause Simon’s neck to swell the moment he got into bed, hoping to break the ribbon that held the charm.’
    Rex had not yet quite recovered from the shock of learning that so sane a man as De Richleau could seriously believe in all this gibberish about the occult. He was very far from being convinced himself, but he refrained from airing his scepticism and instead, as the taxi rattled north through Baker Street, he began to consider the practical side of their expedition. There had been eight men at least in Simon’s house when they left it. He glanced towards the Duke. ‘Are you carrying a gun?’
    â€˜No, and if I were it would be useless.’
    â€˜Holy Smoke! You are bats or else I am.’ Rex shrugged his broad shoulders and began to wonder if he was not living through some particularly vivid and horrible dream. Soon he would wake perhaps; sweating a little from the nightmare picture which De Richleau had drawn for him of age-old evil, tireless and vigilant, cloaked from the masses by modern scepticism yet still a potent force stalking the dark ways of the night, conjured into new life by strange delvers into ancient secrets for their unhallowed ends; but wake he must, to the bright, clear day and Simon’s chuckle, over a tankard of Pirn’s cup at luncheon, that such fantastic nonsense should centre about him even in a dream. Yet there was Tanith, so strange and wise and beautiful, looking as though she had just stepped out of a painting by some great master of the Italian Renaissance. It was no dream that he had at last actually met and spoken with her that evening at Simon’s house, among all those strange people whom the Duke declared so positively to be Satan worshippers; and if she was flesh and blood they must be too.
    On the north side of Lord’s cricket ground, De Richleau stopped the taxi.‘Better walk the rest of the way,’ he murmured as he paid off the man. ‘Simon’s arrived by now and it would be foolish to warn them of our coming.’
    â€˜Thought you said Mocata was overlooking us with the evil eye?’ Rex replied as they hurried along Circus Road.
    â€˜He may be. I can’t say, but possibly he thinks we would never dare risk a second visit to the house tonight. If we exercise every precaution we may catch him off his guard. He’s just as vulnerable as any other human being except when he is actually employing his special powers.’
    Side by side they passed through two streets where the low roofs of the old-fashioned houses were only faintly visible above the walls that kept them immune from the eyes of the curious, each set silent and vaguely mysterious, among its whispering trees; then they entered the narrow, unlit cul-de-sac.
    Treading carefully now, they covered the two hundred yards to its end and halted, gazing up at the darkened mass of the upper stories which loomed above the high wall. Not a chink of light betrayed that the house was tenanted, although they knew