The Society of Dread by Glenn Dakin Read Free Book Online

Sam and Magnus were in the labyrinth too. How he wished he could be with his friends now.
    Wait for police contact,
he reminded himself.
    But I am the Candle Man! Is waiting all I can do?
    Just then, there was a polite tap at the door. ‘Breakfast, sir!’
    Montmerency, the enormous butler, wheeled in a large cart piled with steaming silver pots and covered dishes. He plucked the lid off the main dish like a conjurer performing a trick.
    ‘A Montmerency special,’ he said. ‘Eggs, porksausage, kidneys, fried gammon, tomatoes, bubble and squeak and black pudding. That’ll put colour in your cheeks, sir, not them bowls of birdseed Cook has been doing for you.’
    Theo eyed the mound of animal parts in front of him. Really, he preferred the birdseed.
    ‘Thank you,’ he said flatly.
    ‘By the way, sir,’ the butler said. ‘There’s an old friend of yours outside – wants to have a word.’
    ‘A friend?’ Theo’s heart leapt. ‘Show him in!’
    The butler’s footsteps disappeared down the hall. Theo looked at his cooked breakfast warily. He broke a corner off a piece of toast and nibbled it.
    A skinny, whiskered tramp came through the door. Theo’s heart sank – he had been hoping to see Sam’s cheery face.
    ‘Good morning, sir,’ Theo said politely. He did not wish to be rude. He had once heard tramps referred to as knights of the road, so he decided ‘Sir’ was the safest form of address.
    The tramp stopped a few feet away from Theo and gazed at him with ice-blue eyes.
    ‘So at last we meet,’ the man said in a hushed voice.
    ‘Oh, you!’ said Theo. ‘I saw you in the street.’ He surveyed the stranger, who looked unkempt and gaunt, but not half as weathered and down-at-heel as he had expected a tramp to be.
    ‘I know all about tramps,’ Theo said, feeling a little awkward. ‘Gentlemen of the open road. No worries, no cares. Whistling a merry tune as you scrump an apple from a passing orchard.’
    ‘I am not a tramp,’ the figure replied in wounded tones. ‘Do I look like I could whistle a merry tune?’ He drew himself up indignantly. ‘I am Ex-chief Benevolence of the Society of Good Works, ex-second-in-command only to the deceased Dr Saint, the right honourable Lord Timeus Dove.’
    Theo went white.

Chapter Ten
Dove of Peace
    ‘L ord Dove?’ Theo gasped.
    ‘The same,’ the stranger said. ‘I know much about you, Theobald. But, owing to the extreme secrecy of our Society, we have, of course, never met.’
    ‘B-but how –?’ Theo began to stammer. ‘I mean, why –?’
    The figure raised a finger to his lips. ‘Not so loud!’ he said. ‘The police are everywhere. I’ve seen them stamping in and out of here all hours, looking through Dr Saint’s old files and records. There seems to be a constable at every door.’
    ‘Well, the police are here to protect me from people like you!’ said Theo, starting to take off his gloves.
    He
has returned, Theo remembered. Lord Dove had been missing since Dr Saint’s defeat. Was this his new arch-enemy?
    ‘Stop!’ hissed Lord Dove, backing towards the door. ‘You don’t need protecting from me any more. Much as I hate it, you’re the head of my Society!’
    Theo kept his distance.
    ‘But I always heard that you were an immaculately dressed man – even more so than Dr Saint,’ Theo said, puzzled at Lord Dove’s scruffy appearance. ‘Mr Nicely told me about your white suit and lilac gloves.’
    ‘I’ve been on the run,’ Lord Dove snapped. ‘Hiding in tunnels, flitting from one wretched hole to another, like a fox.’ He looked affronted. ‘Anyway,’ he added, ‘to avoid capture I have to appear as little like myself as possible!’
    Theo thought about this. ‘Oh, yes,’ he said, the cleverness of this strategy hitting him. ‘That’s rather good! But why have you come? And how did you get in?’
    ‘Under a word of truce. “Rapscallion”,’ he said. ‘Your staff had to let me in. It’s old Society rules. Luckily