The Devil Rides Out Read Online Free Page A

more slowly. Stairs were the one thing which ruffled his otherwise equable temper and he had no desire to lose it now. By the time he arrived in the lofty chamber, with Rex behind him, Simon had all the lights switched on.
    â€˜Well you’ve certainly gone in for it properly,’ Rex remarked as he surveyed the powerful telescope slanting to the roof and a whole arsenal of sextants, spheres and other astrological impedimenta ranged about the room.
    â€˜It’s rather an exact science you see,’ Simon volunteered.
    â€˜Quite,’ agreed the Duke briefly. ‘But I wonder, a little, that you should consider charts of the Macrocosm necessary to your studies.
    â€˜Oh, those!’ Simon shrugged his narrow shoulders as he glanced around the walls. ‘They’re only for fun–relics of the Alchemistic nonsense in the Middle Ages, but quite suitable for decoration.’
    â€˜How clever of you to carry out your scheme of decoration on the floor as well.’ The Duke was thoughtfully regarding a five-pointed star enclosed within two circles between which numerous mystic characters in Greek and Hebrew had been carefully drawn.
    â€˜Yes, good idea, wasn’t it?’ Simon tittered into his hand. It was the familiar gesture which both his friends knew so well, yet somehow his chuckle had not quite its usual ring.
    The silence that followed was a little awkward, and in it, all three plainly heard a muffled scratching noise that seemed to come from a large wicker basket placed against the wall.
    â€˜You’ve got mice here, Simon,’ said Rex casually, but De Richleau had stiffened where he stood. Then, before Simon could bar his way, he leapt towards the hamper and ripped open the lid.
    â€˜Stop that!’ cried Simon angrily, and dashing forward he forced it shut again, but too late, for within the basket the Duke had seen two living pinioned fowls—a black rooster and a white hen.
    With a sudden access of bitter fury he turned on Simon, and seizing him by his silk lapels, shook him as a terrier shakes a rat. ‘You fool,’ he thundered. ‘I’d rather see you dead than monkeying with Black Magic.’

3
The Esoteric Doctrine
    â€˜Take… take your hands off me,’ Simon gasped.
    His dark eyes blazed in a face that had gone deathly white and only a superhuman effort enabled him to keep his clenched fists pressed to his sides.
    In another second he would have hit the Duke but Rex, a head taller than either of them, laid a mighty hand on the shoulder of each and forced them apart.
    â€˜Have a heart now, just what is all this?’ His quiet, familiar voice, with its faint American intonation, sobered the others immediately. De Richleau swinging on his heel, strode to the other side of the observatory where he stood for a moment, with his back towards them, regaining control of his emotions.
    Simon, panting a little, gave a quick, nervous wriggle of his bird-like head and smoothed out the lapels of his evening coat.
    â€˜Now, I’ll tell you,’ he said jerkily, ‘I never asked either of you to come here tonight, and even my oldest friends have no right to butt in on my private affairs. I think you’d better go.’
    The Duke turned, passing one hand over his greying hair. All trace of his astonishing outburst had disappeared and he was once more the handsome, distinguished figure that they knew so well.
    â€˜I’m sorry, Simon,’ he said gravely. ‘But I felt as a father might who sees his child trying to pick live coals out of the fire.’
    â€˜I’m not a child,’ muttered Simon, sullenly.
    â€˜No, but I could not have more affection for you if you were actually my son, and it is useless now to deny that you are playing the most dangerous game that has ever been known to mankind throughout the ages.’
    â€˜Oh, come,’ a quick smile spread over Rex’s ugly, attractive face. ‘That’s a