Part 19 (2/2)

'Billy!' he exclaimed. 'Whatever is the matter?'

The youngster skidded to a halt, looking at him warily before his ident.i.ty penetrated. 'Oh, it's you,' he said, relieved.

'Quick, we got to warn the Doctor!'

'Warn him about what?' asked Doyle, alarmed.

'His friend she were in the graveyard. Two men've took her to the factory.'

'Good Lord!' Doyle was shocked. 'She was supposed to be recuperating at Fulbright Hall. What the d.i.c.kens was she thinking of? Still, no time to worry about that now.' He thought fast. 'Billy, are there any of your irregular friends you can rouse?'

'Aye,' the boy agreed, puzzled.

'If there's one who can ride a horse, the Doctor has one stabled here at the tavern. Send a message to Sir Alexander Cromwell and tell him what's happened. He'll have to organize the forces of the law.'

'Aye. What about the Doctor?'

'I'll rouse him myself.' Doyle gave him an encouraging smile. 'We were going to go to the factory tonight anyway. The game has just become a trifle more urgent, that's all. On your way, Billy.'

'Righto, sir.' Billy saluted in a ragged fas.h.i.+on and then ran off.

Excitement glowed within Doyle as he ran back inside the tavern and up the stairs to the Doctors room. He hammered on the door and called his friend's name. A moment later the Doctor threw open the door.

'Whatever is the matter?' he growled.

Doyle was pleased to see the man was fully dressed and pulling on his deerstalker. 'It's Miss Smith,' he gasped. 'She's been taken by two ruffians to the factory. She was in the graveyard, apparently. And you told her to stay at the Hall!'

'Sarah never does what she's told,' complained the Doctor. 'She's almost as bad as me in that respect. Right, let's go.'

He hurried past Doyle and down the stairs. The medical man whirled around and followed him.

'What was she thinking of?' complained Doyle as they tame out into the street. He fingered the revolver he carried in his pocket, a trusty Adams .450 that constantly threatened to fall to the ground as he hurried to keep up with the Doctor.

'She realized that there was a good chance of the grave-robbers striking again,' the Doctor snapped. 'She must have been waiting for them and been captured.'

'Oh.' Doyle considered this a moment. 'Didn't you think there was a chance of them striking?'

'Of course I did,' the Doctor growled. 'That's why I left them to it. I figured that if they stole the body, we'd discover it at the factory when we arrived. That way there would be clear and conspicuous grounds for the arrests of all concerned. As usual, Sarah's jumped the gun and landed us all in serious trouble.'

It was beginning to dawn on Doyle how little he'd antic.i.p.ated the Doctor's complex planning. 'It was a smart idea,' he approved.

'And now wasted,' the Doctor complained. He gestured ahead. 'There's the factory now.'

'Right.' Doyle drew his revolver. 'Do we storm the walls, break down the gate or what?'

'I'll go for the what,' the Doctor replied softly. 'We aren't the first people to arrive here tonight. Unless I'm very much mistaken, there goes a man I'm eager to have more than a few words with. Quickly, follow me, but don't shoot or make any untoward noise!'

He sprang forward, like a leopard after a gazelle. Doyle struggled to keep up with him as he dashed through the few remaining dark streets after the shadowy figures ahead of them. He and the Doctor were almost upon the two men when the leader whirled about with an exclamation. He lowered a walking stick as he saw who it was.

'Doctor!' exclaimed Colonel Ross, startled. 'I was not expecting you quite yet.'

'I didn't think you were,' the Doctor growled, coming to a halt a few feet from him and Abercrombie. The tubbier man looked shocked and worried. 'But it was a smart move to hold off using that air rifle of yours. As it is, you're a sight too free with it for my liking.'

'I had no option,' Ross protested.

'There are always options,' the Doctor snapped. 'But what I want right now are some explanations. You've played the man of mystery long enough.'

'Doctor,' exclaimed Doyle, gasping to catch his breath after their sprint, 'can't this wait until later? Miss Smith could be in grave danger inside there.'

'Nothing that a few moments now will affect,' the Doctor answered. 'And Colonel Ross's information may aid us considerably once we penetrate that lair.' He turned back to the man again. 'What have you been hiding? Aside from that scoundrel Breckinridge, who did you expect to find in there tonight?'

Ross hesitated, his face troubled. Finally he seemed to realize that he had no way out of this situation other than to provide the Doctor with what he wished to know. With a deep sigh, he admitted: 'My brother.'

A putrid stench in her nostrils shocked Sarah back to awareness. Gagging, she struggled to move her hands to cover her mouth, but was not able. As she coughed and choked, her mind started to focus once again. As she began to become aware of her surroundings, she wished she were still unconscious. 'Take it away,' she gasped, and the offensive odour was finally capped.

'Back in the land of the living, are we?' asked a cheery voice. 'At least for the time being, that is.'

Sarah struggled to free both her mind and body, but only the former worked. Her vision sharpened and she could make out only too clearly where she was. It had to be some kind of a laboratory, hewn out of base rock. Presumably deep underground, since there were signs of moisture on the wall and a constant dripping noise in the background. The air had that stale taste of caves or of old, musty books. The room was roughly twenty feet across in both directions and about ten high, but it was unfinished and none of the walls were terribly smooth. The floor, as a contrast, was almost polished to a s.h.i.+ne.

Though electric lights were scattered about the chamber at irregular intervals, the place was still dark and creepy.

That was without including the other trappings that made it even creepier.

She managed to straighten herself up, finding there was floor beneath her unsteady feet. Her hands were manacled together above her head, above a pipeline that had supported her while she was out. The circulation in her hands was barely adequate, but she doubted that an appeal for freedom would cut any ice around here.

The pipe she was chained over was one of about a dozen leading from the uncertain realms behind her into this room.

Most of them led into a series of large gla.s.s tanks, but three of them led into a huge gla.s.s cylinder that stood in splendid isolation opposite her. The lights seemed to be concentrated about this tank, which was about five feet across and stretched almost to the ceiling. A thick, bluish liquid filled the column almost to the top. Bubbles gently stirred the liquid.

Inside the gla.s.s cylinder was a mermaid.

Well, no, not exactly. It was male, for one thing, that much was clear. A young boy by the look of him, with curly black hair and haunted eyes. There were what looked like gill slits in the side of his neck which pulsed regularly, issuing some of the tiny streams of bubbles that rose within the column. The hands appeared webbed, the muscles of the shoulder abnor-mally strong.

From the waist down, any resemblance to a human being ceased. The skin there was greyer, and the legs fused to make a longer body that ended in a tail that gently thrashed from side to side, enabling the merperson to maintain a constant position in the tube.

Sarah was enthralled and sickened by the sight.

When she could drag her eyes away from the creature, she swept them quickly over the rest of the room. Stacked along one wall were open vats of chemicals. In the center of the room was a large pit. Within the pit and rising to about four feet above the hole was a large metal vat. Within it was some kind of gurgling, bubbling mess. It had the appearance of hand cream, but one that was pallid and unsettled, moving and venting constantly.

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