Part 13 (2/2)

s...o...b..ld did not linger further. He might not be able within his heart of hearts to condemn the Doctor's cavalier and unwarranted behaviour, but neither could he bring himself to condone it.

Although he was filled with both excitement and trepidation at the pending adventure, Dobbs drifted off into a light sleep. He was awakened by the Doctor's insistent knock at his door. Dobbs pulled on his coat over the clothes he was still wearing and joined the Doctor on the landing.

'What time is it?'

'A shade before three. Won't be light for a few hours yet.'

They made their silent way down through the house, pausing only when there was a creak from above them. Dobbs held his breath, feeling a p.r.i.c.k of guilty conscience that they had not involved their host in their plans. But the Doctor's argument that s...o...b..ld would rather not know of their intentions had seemed persuasive at the time.

Hearing no further sounds from above, they continued on their furtive way. The Doctor managed to draw back the bolts and undo the lock on the front door without making much noise, and he carefully closed the door behind them. Still without a word, they made their way down the Rectory drive and up the hill towards the Grange.

Getting into the house was rather easier than Dobbs had antic.i.p.ated. He imagined the Doctor had some devious and convoluted plan to pick the lock of the door and deal with the heavy bolts and chain. In the event, the Doctor's strategy was to walk all round the Grange in the hope that they would find a ground floor window that was unlatched.

That's a bit of luck,' Dobbs hissed as the Doctor led him round to a window that was indeed slightly open.

'Luck? I don't believe in luck.' The Doctor gestured for Dobbs to lace his fingers together to make a cradle for his foot. 'I unlatched it when I was here for Nepath's coffee morning.'

'Coffee morning?' Dobbs asked. But the weight was gone from his hands, and the Doctor's feet were disappearing through the window. Moments later, the Doctor was at the window, reaching down to help the Professor through.

The house was in darkness. Only the light of the pale crescent moon shone at intervals through open curtains to illuminate their progress. The Doctor led Dobbs through the night silence, up a flight of stairs and off into a wing of the large house. At every point where they might be overlooked, or where there was a door within sight, they paused, and Dobbs caught his breath. His stomach was churning and he was sure that anyone asleep nearby would be wakened by the beating of his nervous heart.

'Here we are,' the Doctor murmured as he opened a door and stepped into another darkened room.

Dobbs followed him inside and the Doctor closed the door behind them. They were in a room that was about twenty feet square. As Dobbs's eyes adjusted to the gloom he could make out cabinets arranged round the walls. A table stood at the front of the room, chairs set out in front of it and he realised this was the room where the Doctor had attended Nepath's auction.

The Doctor seemed not to have needed to let his eyes adjust. He was already at a display cabinet, examining the contents through the gla.s.s doors.

'Anything of interest?' Dobbs inquired, making his careful way over to join the Doctor.

'Not in here, I'm afraid.' The Doctor's eyes gleamed in the faint light. 'But he'd hardly put it on display. We must extend our search. Leave no stone unturned, no nook or cranny unexamined.' With that, he was gone.

It took Dobbs a moment to work out quite where he had gone. It was when the door opened again that he realised the Doctor was leaving the room, and he hastened to catch up.

'Let's try this one,' the Doctor whispered as he opened the next door along the corridor. He opened the door, and immediately closed it again, moving on to the next one. 'Small bedroom,' he explained. 'Empty.'

About half way along the corridor the Doctor gave a quiet exclamation of delight and stepped inside a room. Dobbs followed, expecting to find himself once more negotiating a gloomy half*darkness. But in fact there was more than enough light to see. There were no curtains at the high windows and so the moonlight streamed into the room unhindered. It cast its pale light over the display cases and cabinets, the packing crates and tea chests, the bare floorboards and the door at the far end of the room.

Dobbs lost track of the time they spent rummaging about in the gloom. Before long he was bored with the process despite the inherent danger of the situation. 'What are we looking for?' he asked.

'I really don't know,' the Doctor admitted. 'I just hope I know when I find it.'

'So do I,' Dobbs said. He pulled another carefully*wrapped bundle from the packing case he was searching. A few tugs at the tissue paper covering the item was enough to satisfy him it was nothing out of the ordinary or sinister. It was a statue of a bird, its wings spread. It looked vaguely familiar, but he pushed the wrapping back into place nonetheless.

'What was that?' the Doctor demanded close beside him.

Dobbs froze. 'I heard nothing.'

'No, no, no. What was it you just wrapped up again?'

'Oh. A bird.' It came to him then. 'Same as one in the case you were looking at in that first room.'

'The Phoenix,' the Doctor said, his voice an urgent whisper.

Dobbs shrugged, handing the package to the Doctor. 'If you say so.'

The Doctor pulled the tissue paper from the statue, ripping it away. 'The display case in the other room was labelled Urdesh Urdesh,' he said as he freed the bird. 'It contained the items that Nepath claims have the memory ability, can reform themselves in the heat. Here, hold this.' He thrust the metal bird back at Dobbs and dropped to the floor.

'What are you doing?' Dobbs demanded as the Doctor crawled round the crate on all fours examining the sides.

'Aha!' With a harsh whisper of triumph the Doctor pointed to dark writing stencilled on one of the sides. It read 'Urdesh Province'. Then he started rummaging in the newspaper packing and pulling items out of the crate and unwrapping them frantically. As he unrolled each item he dropped the tissue paper to the floor and handed the artefact to Dobbs. Before long his arms were full.

'Doctor,' Dobbs said, 'all these items were in the cabinet. Or copies of them anyway.'

'Copies, yes,' the Doctor agreed with delight. 'And these seem normal enough. Just genuine valuable antique exotica.' He started to retrieve the items from Dobbs, re*wrapping each one carefully and rapidly then returning it to the packing case.

'You mentioned copies earlier,' Dobbs said slowly as he thought back to their after*dinner conversation. 'Plato, was it?'

'You think these are the originals from which the others imperfectly derive?' The Doctor took the final artefact the phoenix from Dobbs and smothered it efficiently in tissue paper. 'You may be right. But it isn't any celestial mechanism at work here.'

'No?'

'No. It's a con.'

'What?'

'A confidence trick.' The Doctor started across the room. He was making for the door on the far side. 'A deception. This property that Nepath says comes from the secret techniques and ceremonies of the Urdesh, this quasi*religious expertise is nothing of the sort.' He paused in front of the door, turning to face Dobbs. 'He's making the things himself. There is no refining, no magic, no distillation or manufacturing process. It's a property inherent in the material itself.'

He did not wait for Dobbs to comment. He opened the door. Beyond was a black void, an impenetrable darkness. The Doctor stepped into it.

Dobbs stood for what seemed a life time at the edge of the darkness. The Doctor seemed to have been swallowed up. For a few seconds Dobbs had heard his m.u.f.fled footsteps fading deeper into the void. Now there was nothing. just as he was deciding that perhaps the easiest and safest thing would be to turn and leave, to abandon the Doctor to whatever fate had befallen him, he heard the sc.r.a.pe of a match and saw the sudden flare of light across the room.

The Doctor had found a gas lamp on the far wall and was lighting it. The light as the mantel caught cast angular shadows across his face as he leaned across to replace the cover, and the soft glow seemed to permeate the room. There were curtains at the windows here, heavy and dull drawn across to blot out any trace of natural light.

Beneath the light, beside the Doctor, stood a single large, upright display case. It reminded Dobbs of the animal cases in the Natural History Museum.

'There.' The Doctor stepped back, evidently pleased with himself. He shook the match to extinguish it. A dark trickle of smoke continued to rise from the blackened stump of wood. 'Oh dear.' As he spoke, the Doctor was standing between Dobbs and the display case, obscuring his view. 'Oh dear, oh me.'

Dobbs walked across to join the Doctor, to see what was in the case.

The Doctor was shaking his head, lips pursed tightly together. 'I don't like the look of that at all.'

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