The Secrets of Dr. Taverner by Dion Fortune Read Free Book Online

and dignified, vibrating with emotion
     
    "Do you regret it?" asked Taverner.
     
    "I do," returned the voice that was not the boy's voice. "I have asked of the Great Ones that I may be permitted to restore that which I stole."
     
    "Thy request is granted," said Taverner. "Do that which thou hast to do, and the blessing of the Great Ones be upon thee."
     
    Slowly the boy rolled over and sat up, but I saw at a glance that it was not the same individual who confronted us: a man, mature, of strong character and determined purpose, looked out of the boy's blue eyes.
     
    "I go," he said, "to restore that which I took. Give me the means."
     
    We went round, he and Taverner and I, to the garage, and got out the car. "Which way do you want to go?" asked my colleague. The lad pointed to the south-west, and Taverner turned the car in the direction of the Marble Arch. Piloted by the man who was not Robson, we went south down Park Lane, and finally came out in the tangle of mean streets behind Victoria Station; thence we turned east. We pulled up behind the Tate Gallery, and the boy got out.
     
    "From here," he said, "I go on alone," and he disappeared down a side street.
     
    Although we waited for a matter of half-an-hour, Taverner did not stop the engine. "We may want to get out of here quick," he said. Then, just as I was beginning to wonder if we were going to spend the night in the open, we heard running footsteps coming down the street, and Robson leapt into the car. That Taverner's precaution in not stopping the engine was justified was proved by the fact that close upon Robson's heels other footsteps sounded.
     
    "Quick, Rhodes," cried Taverner. "Hang the rug over the back." I did as I was bid, and succeeded in obscuring the number plate, and as the first of our pursuers rounded the corner, the big car leapt into its stride, and we drew clear.
     
    No one spoke on the journey to Hindhead.
     
    We entered the sleeping house as quietly as might be, and as Taverner turned on the office lights, I saw that Robson carried a curious looking volume bound in vellum. We did not tarry in the office, however, for Taverner led us through the sleeping house to a door which I knew led down to the cellar stairs.
     
    "Come too, Rhodes," said Taverner. "You have seen the beginning of this matter, and you shall see the end, for you have shared in the risk, and although you are not one of Us, I know that I can rely on your discretion."
     
    We passed down the spiral stone stairs and along a flagged passage. Taverner unlocked a door, and admitted us to a wine cellar. He crossed this, and unlocked a further door. A dim point of flame illumined the darkness ahead of us, swaying uneasily in the draught. Taverner turned on a light, and to my intense surprise I found myself in a chapel. High carved stalls were built into the walls on three sides, and on the fourth was an altar. The flickering light I had seen in the darkness came from the floating wick of a lamp hung above our heads as the centre point of a great Symbol.
     
    Taverner lit the incense in a bronze thurible, and set it swinging. He handed Robson the black robe of an Inquisitor, and he himself assumed another one; then these two cowled figures faced one another across the floor of the empty chapel. Taverner began what was evidently a prayer. I could not gather its substance, for I am unable to follow spoken Latin. Then came a Litany of question and response, Robson, the London clerk, answering in the deep resonant voice of a man accustomed to intone across great buildings. Then he rose to his feet, and with the stately steps of a processional advanced to the altar, and laid thereon the ragged and mildewed manuscript he held in his hands. He knelt, and what absolution the sombre figure that stood over him pronounced, I cannot tell, but he rose to his feet like a man from whose shoulders a great burden has been rolled.
     
    Then for the first time, Taverner spoke in his native tongue.