Part 7 (1/2)

They need not have worried about the fissure being concealed by the snow. It split the moorland like a jagged cut, a wide, dark, serrated hole. There was no snow either side of the fissure for several feet, and the gra.s.s that poked through the rocky ground looked dry and dead.

Dobbs knelt at the edge of the snow and felt the bare ground beside the fissure.

'Warm?' the Doctor asked.

'Warm enough for the snow not to settle.'

'Hmm. Deep then,' the Doctor commented. He took a step closer to the edge, leaning forward and trying to peer into the depths of the hole. Wisps of smoke were curling from the abyss and rising, twisting into the sky.

'We can worry about the depth later,' Dobbs decided. 'First we should plot its size and position on a map. Mr Gaddis, if you would be so kind?' He held out his hand.

'What?' Gaddis had been watching the Doctor. 'Oh, of course' He pulled the satchel from his shoulder and opened it. From inside he took a folded map of the area.

Dobbs relieved him of the map and opened it out, holding the large paper flapping in the light breeze. The Doctor turned back from the fissure, the wind ruffling his hair as it rippled the map.

'How do you propose to plot it?' he asked. 'Looks about, what, ten feet across? We'll have to find the ends to work out its length. And it may be changing of course.'

'We can check that,' Gaddis a.s.sured him. 'We'll take bearings on each end today, then again tomorrow and see if they have changed. Try again in a week and we should know if there's any movement and how rapid it is.'

The Doctor pursed his lips together, sucking in his cheeks. 'Not much by way of precise landmarks for triangulation,' he observed. 'If you want an accurate measurement.'

'There is the dam,' Dobbs pointed out. 'And the church spire.'

'The mine too, if that's what it is over there.' Gaddis nodded as he reached inside the satchel again.

Dobbs and the Doctor both looked where Gaddis had indicated. Sure enough, Dobbs could just make out a few low buildings huddled together, brown wood just visible through the snow that clad them and masked their shape against the hill that might have been material worked out from the mine.

'I think perhaps your idea of precision is a little different from mine,' Dobbs heard the Doctor murmur. He ignored the comment and took the compa.s.s from Gaddis.

But any irritation was lost as he watched the needle. 'How very peculiar,' he said. He gave the instrument a little shake and looked again. 'What have you been keeping with this?' he asked Gaddis. 'Nothing magnetic, I hope?'

Gaddis frowned in surprise. 'Of course not, Professor. Is there a problem?'

Dobbs held out the compa.s.s. 'Indeed there is '

Gaddis reached across to take back the compa.s.s, but the Doctor beat him to it, lifting it from Dobbs's surprised hand and turning immediately away.

'Excuse me,' Dobbs exclaimed.

'Doctor, may I?' Gaddis reached out again.

The Doctor remained oblivious to them both. His attention was focused on the compa.s.s. He stared intently at it for several seconds, then swung suddenly round, never taking his eyes from it. Moments later he was bounding across the landscape, keeping parallel to the fissure, Gaddis and Dobbs trailing in his wake. He stopped at last, licked his finger and held it in the air. Then he shook his head in apparent irritation and drew a heavy sigh.

'Doctor, the compa.s.s,' Gaddis said, annoyed. 'If I may have it, please?'

'Oh, of course.' He tossed it towards Gaddis, and turned away again towards the fissure, as if he had completely lost interest. 'It won't tell you anything,' his voice floated back.

The compa.s.s had landed in front of Gaddis, upside down on the damp ground. Dobbs watched as the younger man picked it up and brushed the surface with the side of his hand. It took him only a second to see that the Doctor was right. The needle of the compa.s.s was spinning, turning back and forth, unable to settle on a single direction.

'What does it mean?' he asked in surprise. 'Professor?'

Dobbs shrugged. 'It is as if there were another magnet nearby,' he said. 'Sufficient to divert the needle from pointing North.'

'But why does it swing back and forth so alarmingly?'

'Of course it's a magnetic influence.' It was the Doctor who replied. He was still staring at the fissure, facing away from the others. 'It swings because the magnet the Professor postulates is so large.'

Dobbs coughed, a way of showing both amus.e.m.e.nt and disbelief. 'But there is nothing here, Doctor. Nothing so large that it could exert such an influence.'

'Unless...' Gaddis walked slowly over to join the Doctor. 'Do you mean...?'

The Doctor waited until Dobbs had joined them, staring down at the smoky hole, before he answered. 'Exactly,' he said in a low voice. And despite the warm air he could feel rising from the fissure in front of him, Dobbs s.h.i.+vered.

'I have come across,' Gaddis said slowly, hesitantly, 'some sites, usually ancient sites, where there seem to be lines emanating. Under the surface. Hidden.'

'Lines?' Dobbs asked: What do you mean, hidden lines? If they're hidden, how do you know they're there?'

'You can... feel them. That's the only way I can describe it.'

Dobbs snorted in derision. 'Feel them! How scientific an observation is that?'

'Go on,' the Doctor said gently. He shot a glance at Dobbs, remonstrating.

Gaddis shrugged. 'Well, that's it, really. I don't know what they are. I just wondered ' He shrugged again.

'Whether we might not have some similar phenomenon here?' the Doctor finished for him. He was nodding vigorously. 'Good thought, good thought.'

Dobbs had listened to enough of this, and could contain himself no longer. 'It is not a good thought,' he exploded. 'Mysterious invisible lines of goodness*only*knows*what '

'Magnetic influence?' the Doctor suggested.

Dobbs ignored him '- snaking out across the landscape from a perfectly natural fissure caused by seismic activity. Utter nonsense, Mr Gaddis. And I'm surprised you even give it credence, Doctor,' he added.

'I take it you are not convinced.'

'No, sir. And even if I were, I struggle to understand how we would test this theory or what we should make of it were we able to test it.' Dobbs folded his arms, daring one of them to answer.

It was Gaddis who spoke first. 'I have found that dowsing gives a good indication of the path of '

'Dowsing?' Dobbs stared. Was he hearing correctly? 'Dowsing?!'

'What's wrong with dowsing?' the Doctor asked, his voice making the question sound reasonable.

'Ancient old wives' balderdash without a shred of scientific foundation or experimental value, not testable or verifiable in any way.' Dobbs paused for breath. 'Is that a serious question? What's wrong with it?'

The Doctor seemed unperturbed by Dobbs's outburst. 'Yet you were willing to consult a compa.s.s,' he said. 'How very eccentric.'

Dobbs drew himself up as tall as he could. hands on his coat lapels as he looked down his nose. 'There is at least one eccentric person here,' he said, his gaze flicking from the Doctor to Gaddis and back, 'quite possibly two. And I am confident that neither of them is me.' He waited for this to sink in, and then added: 'Now, let us have no more talk of such idiosyncratic methods and confine ourselves to observable, verifiable science, shall we?'