"Деннис Уитли. The Devil Rides Out (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

strangely that I was alarmed. His tongue was protruding from between
his teeth and his face was nearly black; then I saw that his neck
was terribly swollen and that a ribbon was cutting deeply into his
flesh. I cut the ribbon, fearing that he would choke-the jewel
dropped off, so I brought it straight to you.'
'All right! you may go-and it is unnecessary to wait up- I may be
late.' As the door closed the Duke swung round towards Rex. 'Simon
must have woken the moment Max's back was turned, pulled on a few
clothes, then slipped out of the window and down the fire-escape.
'Sure,' Rex agreed. 'He's well on his way back to St. John's Wood
by now.;
'Come on-we'll follow. We've got to save him from those devils
somehow. I don't know what they're after but there must be something
pretty big and very nasty behind all this. It can't have been easy
to involve a man like Simon to the extent they obviously have, and
they would never have gone to all that trouble to recruit an
ordinary dabbler in the occult. They are after really big stakes of
some kind, and they need him as a pawn in their devilish game.'
'Think we can beat him to it?' Rex asked as they ran down the
staircase of the block and out into Curzon Street.
'I doubt it-Hi, taxi!' De Richleau waved an arm.
'He can't have more than five minutes' start.'
'Too much in a fifteen minutes' run.' The Duke's voice was grim
as they climbed into the cab.
'What d'you figure went amiss?'
'I don't know for certain, but there is no doubt that our poor
friend is completely under Mocata's influence-has been for months I
expect. In such a case Mocata's power over him would be far stronger
than my own which was only exercised, in the hope of protecting him,
for the first time tonight. It was because I feared that Mocata
might countermand my orders, even from a distance, and compel Simon
to return that I placed the symbol of Light round his neck.'
'And when Max took it off Mocata got busy on him eh?'
'I think Mocata was at work before that. He probably witnessed
everything that took place in a crystal or through a medium and
exerted all his powers to cause Simon's neck to swell the moment he
got into bed, hoping to break the ribbon that held the charm.'
Rex had not yet quite recovered from the shock of learning that
so sane a man as De Richleau could seriously believe in all this
gibberish about the Occult. He was very far from being convinced
himself, but he refrained from airing his scepticism and instead, as
the taxi rattled north through Baker Street, he began to consider
the practical side of their expedition. There had been eight men at
least in Simon's house when they left it. He glanced towards the
Duke. 'Are you carrying a gun?'
'No, and if I were it would be useless.'
'Holy Smoke! You are bats or else I am.' Rex shrugged his broad
shoulders and began to wonder if he was not living through some
particularly vivid and horrible dream. Soon he would wake perhaps;
sweating a little from the nightmare picture which De Richleau had