Aleister headed to the stable behind Yeats and Jack who had dashed out immediately after the storm's end. As he entered he saw Jack tearing a canvas off of a large box labeled DANGER - EXPLOSIVES.
Jack had produced a set of keys and was busy unlocking the box when Aleister approached him, hand stroking his salt & pepper goatee. 'Jack, let's not be too hasty, especially with all that. We may not need black roses or lillies yet.'
Jack didn't look up from his task. 'You think not? You think THAT was just some freak weather anomaly!?'Aleister's hand was on his arm then. 'A posteriori, Jack.'
Jack sighed and stood up facing Aleister finally. 'What, then. We can't simply sit here...'Aleister held up his hand. 'I'm not suggesting we do nothing. But, let us not go haring off into the dark of night like a pair of anserine rookies! And leave that crate locked until we're sure of it's absolute need. Come on. Let's take a look at where that beam of red hit the ground.'
Yeats was ready with electric torches from their cache of anachronistic implements that could be used without attracting too much attention, at least in more private circumstances. Jack slung the canvas over the sinister crate and stalked outside behind the others, as they headed off toward the south pasture.
The moon cast a wan, cold light as they searched the area most likely to have been the target of the weird nocturnal phenomenon they'd just witnessed. As their torches swept the ground, nothing seemed to be amiss, until Yeats cried out, 'Here's something, see? The grasses have been flattened here.'
Jack and Aleister crept slowly toward the spot indicated by Yeats. As their torch beams swept the area, there seemed to be a sort of pattern in the flattened grass. 'So it seems, Yeats! See here Jack, almost a crop-circle there, eh?' Aleister's torch outlined a circular route in the dry yellow grasses.
'That's not all,' Jack's torch found a center within the circle,'Look there, a triangle, is it?'
'Bloody hell yes.'Aleister stood back aways to take in the entire glyph now that it had been isolated. 'Some damned new escutcheon of El Juan's now I suppose?'
'It would seem so. And it's just like him, to be so 'flash' as they'd say now.The man's maniacal egotism knows no bounds.' Jack's features betrayed his sour thoughts. ' I'd love to destroy the damned thing, but I suppose we should wait and study it come daylight.'
Aleister looked around them, and studied the sky. 'That's probably best, let's be out here at first light and take some still shots of it at least. I'll analyze the grasses' molecular structure. Let's head back to the house, and try to get some sleep then. Tomorrow could be a long day.'
. . . . . .
Emmeline arose rather late, even for a Saturday, with a vague feeling of unease. What had happened last night? She'd had that odd dream, or had it all been only a dream? She seemed to recall a building of sorts, all very familiar,with a sense of nostalgia, yet it was somewhere she couldn't place. But that strange storm that happened and then suddenly dissipated as though it had never been, that was no dream, surely.
She noticed with pleasure that Alice had been up before her and, true to her word, had been busy conjuring up a spice-laden gingerbread exotic as any from Alladin's magic lamp. Settling down to hot Earl Grey and with gingerbread melting in her mouth, the trials and mysteries of the night gradually faded into a cool but sunny afternoon.
She was deep in study of Mr. Engels's new book when Alice came in through the front door,carrying a bundle of letters. 'Mail's in!' she announced. 'And there's something here for you that you should find of interest, I'll warrant!'So saying she handed a short stack of letters to Em, with the envelope of note on top bearing foreign postage.
'Ah, a letter from Liverpool! And about time, too!' Emmeline tore open the envelope and extracted the tall,thin A6 stationery.'That Keefcliff has been uncharacteristically silent for some weeks, the rascal.' As Em bent intently over her letter, Alice hung up her coat on the hallway coathooks and joined her friend in the parlor, studying Emmeline's face for 'clues'...'Well, what's he say then?'
'Oh, Alice, you know it will take awhile to decipher his chicken-scratches, blast him!' but she was smiling. 'The main thing I've managed to de-code, is that he will be here, well, in San Francisco that is, on the Solstice!'
'Well, well! How serendipitous!'Alice sat down and began unlacing her boots.
'Yes,indeed. But don't worry, Al! We shall still make our show at Mendation's! He is coming to San Francisco for a short stop en route to Mexico, after which their ship will be returning to B.C. for awhile. He promises to stop again in the City on the way back and to spend more time here then. This Solstice stop-over is to be a quick one: "Mr. Orez and I earnestly request the pleasure of your company and Mrs. Stein's, in joining us for luncheon at Neptune's Palace in San Francisco on the 22nd." Let's see, when was this sent? October, so he was thinking ahead, bless him.Well, Alice? Do you think we should throw all rational thought to the winds and join these peripatetic reprobates...?'
Alice sighed and smiled as she kicked off both boots.'Why not?'She leaned back on the sofa and relaxed. 'It has been awhile since we've graced those rascals' presence...let's see...last summer I believe, wasn't it? Mercy! San Francisco hasn't heard the like since, I'll wager.'
'Oh, dear...between Captain Omen's broad Liverpudlian and Mr. Orez's flaming Portugese, if we hadn't been there to 'translate' they'd both have wound up in a Buddhist temple instead finding the 'buddha'- that is 'butter'- they were after!'
Em smiled and held the brittle sheets at arm's length and then peered closely at the intriguing cryptograms thereon. 'At least that's about all I'm able to puzzle out at the moment. I'll study this at a later date...Well! Our Solstice excursion will be a busy one!' She folded the crackling foreign sheets back into the envelope. 'By the way, Alice, did you hear thunder last night?'
Just then came a rather loud series of knocks upon the front door. 'I don't know about last night,' said Alice, 'But did it sound something like that? Who the blazes could this be?'
'Don't fash yourself, Al, I'll get it!' Emmeline rose to see who was at the door, suprised to find the short winter afternoon already growing dark. She looked prudently through the peep-hole before opening, and was rather discomfited to be met by the unanticipated arrival of Mr. Van Horn.
'Mister Van Horn!' Emmeline opens the door to find Jack standing, hat-in-hand as it were. 'What brings you here?'
'Miss Page, greetings! I realize that this is very short notice, but I thought that you would want to be notified of Dr. Parsons's findings regarding the matter of the injured lads from the tournament. I do hope I'm not interrupting anything major...?' Jack raised an eyebrow as he looked beyond Em's shoulder, attempting to judge how private their conversation should be.
'Oh, no, not at all...'Em recovered herself and cast a glance at Alice, who was busy hiding her boots neath the sofa whilst she exchanged them for a pair of embroidered Chinese slippers.'Do come in, Mr. Van Horn, please.'
Emmeline led Jack to the parlor, and introduced him to Alice with, 'This is Jack Van Horn, Alice!--the gentleman whose friend Dr. Parsons exsanguinated me the other evening!'
'My dear Miss Page!Mrs. Stein! It wasn't like that, I assure you...'Jack flustered.
Alice rescued him with a smile and a hearty hand-clasp. 'I'm Alice Stein, Emmeline's friend and housemate. Don't worry, Mr. Van Horn, I'm sure she deserved it, whatever it was!' ('Al!' Em protested, hands on hips.) Alice stood, 'I would love to hear more, but just now my dogs are barking and I'm taking to my bed, with a hot cuppa. Emmeline will offer you the same, no doubt, at some point...?' Alice finished with a wicked glance Em's way as she sashayed into the kitchen,'Delighted to have met you, Jack.'she finished and took her exit.
Emmeline sighed, and offered Jack the sofa. 'Do have a seat, Jack. And don't mind Alice, this is her home and lord love her she will do as she wilt herein! We've been friends forever and she delights in teasing me to distraction. Now, would you care for tea, or coffee perhaps?'
Jack smiled, 'I rather like Alice.' he seemed almost shy suddenly.'Actually, I was hoping to tempt you with the offer of coming with me to Crowley House. I, that is we, would be pleased to show you Aleister's mad scientist's lair and explain the results of his rather intriguing analysis of the case in question.If, that is, you aren't too busy this evening?'
'Evening, already!' It had all come round too quickly for Em,who was not usually such a late riser. 'No, of course I'm not too busy! I have had the 'case' as you call it, much on my mind. Give me but a minute to change into boots, and to take along afew things...I'll just tell Alice we're going.Do make yourself comfortable and I'll be right back'
Jack perched on the edge of the sofa and looked distractedly about the parlor. His gaze beheld a stack of letters on the tea-table before him, with one large envelope on top postmarked 'Royal Mail' from Liverpool, England.Addressed from a certain Captain Keithcliff Omen. Hmmm. Some sea-faring uncle or other, no doubt, thought Jack dismissively.
'All ready then!' Emmeline reappeared, hatted, booted and ready to ride, 'I'll just grab my coat.. I shall be glad of the Solstice soon, and we shall have longer days at last.'
Jack opened the door for her.'Ah yes, the Solstice! Do you celebrate, Miss Page?'
'Every year, Jack.Indeed we do!'and with that they were off into the darkening chill of a winter's eve.
. . . . . .
Back at Crowley House, Aleister is straightening up his laboratory. thinking it will pass muster even to the discerning feminine eye.He hears a small commotion upstairs that announces the return of Jack, and he thinks, the succesful appropriation of Miss Page as well...this is confirmed by the clatter of booted feet upon the stairway as Jack and Emmeline descend upon his scientist's sanctum.
'Miss Page!' Aleister whirls to greet her. 'How kind of you to grace my humble
Newtonian lair on such short notice!'
'Thank you for your invitation, Doctor! I promise to keep my elbows close and not to knock anything about...'Emmeline grinned mischeviously.
'Not to worry, my dear. Anything non-replaceable I have stored safely away...Now!'
Parsons brought forward a tube-like leather carrying case. 'I would like to show you this instrument. It is one of my own design. Indeed, I could be guilty as charged for it's invention, interalia...'He added suggestively and then opened the case and extracted the telescoping instrument that he and Jack were using the night that they had investigated the tournament playing field.
Emmeline viewed the object, made of brass with copper joinings and polished glass lenses, but having an odd sort of bulge in the middle in which several rotating rings were placed in a chamfer so that they may be swivelled and locked into various placements.
'It would seem to be a sort of telescope?' she looked inquiringly at the doctor. 'but what this has to do with blood samples I confess quite escapes me, Doctor Parsons.'
'All will be made clear, dear lady!' Parsons returned the scope to it's case. 'But first of all, let me assure you that any danger is now passed, regarding the unfortunate outcome of the library's tournament.'
'How so, doctor?' asked Em.
'Rather than bore you with lengthy explanations, I would prefer to simply show you how we came to our deductions. If you would permit, Miss Page, I will demonstrate to you just what this singular instrument is used for!'
'I am intrigued, indeed! But surely you can tell me something of...'Emmeline began.
'No, no...you must see it to believe it, as the saying goes. Forgive my country manners, or the lack! Jack, do take Miss Page to the parlor and get her a cup of something hot! Let us pack a thermos as well, to take with us.'
'...pack a, what?' asked Em,'And wherever are we going with it?'
Jack took Emmeline's arm and directed her to the stairs, casting a warning eye at Parsons. '...another of the good doctor's inventions...it is a vacuum-sealed mobile pitcher for keeping hot potables hot. Would cocoa be agreeable to you, Emmeline?'
As they ascended into the kitchen, Emmeline allowed as how cocoa would be agreeable indeed. 'But enough of this mystery, gentlemen! Just what are your plans, pray tell?'
Aleister bustled about setting a pan of milk onto the burner and readying for their mystery trip. 'No mystery, Miss Page. We are heading to the library.'
. . . . . . .
The doctor suited action to words and before long he, Emmeline,& Jack arrived at the Central Branch and Yeats pulled them up at the rear entrance. 'We'll park the trap here and walk over to the esplanade,'Jack reached up to hand Emmeline onto the street. Loading a small satchel with him, Jack took Emmeline's arm and joined the doctor who was heading onto the field, taking the odd scope from it's carrying case.
The moon was high by this time, and the trio left short, pale shadows on the green as they advanced to the middle of the field. The doctor consulted his pocket-watch, glanced up at the moon, and then began scanning the area with his scope. Adjusting the odd rotating middle-section to some specifications known only to him, Parsons swept the field slowly until he paused with a soft,'Aha!'
With a look of satisfaction, visible even in the moonlight, he handed Emmeline the scope's narrow end. 'Just peer through this lense, my dear. Focus on the oak tree there near the edge of the field. Tell me what you see.'
Emmeline complied, holding the instrument to her eye.Being accustomed to her own telescope, the doctor's seemed rather heavier. At first, she could see nothing save a close-up view of the old oak, but as she slowly moved the lense sideways, she thought she could perceive a sort of greenish mist that seemed to coalesce into a shape of some kind. Emmeline gave a gasp of surprise as the figure appeared to make deliberate movements, bending, standing, and finally moving away behind the tree...
'You see it then, Miss Page,'the doctor enquired, casting a glance over at Jack, who had remained thus far in silence, content to observe.
'I, I see something!' Em answered, 'But what manner of phenomenon is it, exactly, doctor?' Emmeline gazed through the scope, trying to track the insubstantial quarry.
'You could, I suppose, call this a spectre-scope. And the phenomenon that it registers, Miss Page, is indeed, a spectre.' The doctor answered.
At this, Emmeline took the eyepiece away from her view and looked at the doctor without a trace of humor. 'You are surely not serious, Dr. Parsons.'
Jack decided it was time to intervene. 'He is serious, Emmeline.'She looked from Jack to the doctor,unable to decide if this was all some elaborate ruse or not.'Please believe we would not presume inveiglement upon your good will.'
'Do pour us some of that cocoa, won't you Jack?' Parsons took Em's arm and they walked over to a small copse of willow nearby. 'I had hoped, that if you saw this with your own eyes, you would be more inclined to believe us. I realize that we are perhaps, asking much of your capacity for the hetetofore untried...'
Jack pressed a mug of the hot drink into her gloved hands. Emmeline took a sip, drinking down the warming liquid along with the hogwash, she decided...what manner of men were these, to go to such lengths for a gruesome jest? Not at all in good taste....damn, and they seemed so sane, at first. Well, mostly so.
Jack sighed. 'She believes us to be perpetrators of a tasteless jape, Aleister.'
Aleister had his back to them. He had retrieved his scope and was watching the spot near the oak tree again. 'Ah, here they come now. Take a look, Jack!'he said, handing the instrument over.
Seizing the scope, Jack fixed it upon the oak in the distance. 'It looks like, 4, no 5 or 6 altogether this time.' he looked at Emmeline. 'When Aleister and I came out here after the tournament, there were even more.'
Emmeline was curious in spite of herself. 'Let's see, then.' Jack handed it to Em who again focused where she had seen the apparition before. Oh my stars, she thought, whatever are those...things?...It seemed as though greenish figures had gathered into a conclave of their own strange fancies...were we as odd to them as they were to us? she wondered. 'Can they see us?' she asked, more inclined to believe, now that she had seen so many figures. Surely such a gathering could hardly be manipulated like some ectoplasmic side-show.
'They can, and do.'the doctor answered.'But fear not, they mean no harm to us.'
Emmeline lowered the scope and addressed Aleister.'How do you know this?'
'Because, my dear Miss Page, both Jack and I have some Native American blood, as do you yourself.'
A sigh escaped Emmeline. She handed the scope back to Parsons. 'Doctor, I am very confused. Just now, I do not know whether to be frightened, furious or just numb with bewilderment! I believe I must insist on being returned home at once,' '
. . . . . .
Ah, what now, dear readers? Our Em seems to be immersed ever deeper into some dark & dubious plot of the dodgy duo of Jack and Aleister. And what of the advent of this wandering native of perfidious Albion, Captain Omen? A singularly suspicious and sensational Solstice is in the near future, that is certain! Be sure to pick up the next penny installment of - Emmeline Page, Revolutionary Librarian!
This particular chapter could be made more agreeable with a fine mug of hot cocoa added with whatever spice your fancy demands, along to the tune of 'Sweet and Lowdown'- music from the Woody Allen motion picture;composed by Dick Hymen with fine solo guitar by Howard Alden. Cheers!
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