Strange Conflict by Dennis Wheatley

round at his friends. ‘I take it that I can count upon you three?’
    Simon nodded, and Richard said with a smile: ‘Of course; but as Rex and I have only just turned up we haven’t the faintest idea yet what all this is about.’
    Sir Pellinore told them, upon which Rex said:
    â€˜All three of us were with the Duke in that ghastly Talisman of Set affair, so we’re acquainted with the occult sufficiently to lend a hand under his direction, but right now I’m tied up with the Royal Air Force.’
    â€˜I could arrange for your leave to be indefinitely extended,’ said Sir Pellinore.
    â€˜Good,’ remarked the Duke. ‘Richard is his own master; but how about you, Simon? Can you manage to get away from your office possibly for several weeks?’
    â€˜Um—don’t want to a bit, but this is obviously more important.’
    As the Duke spoke again his first words were almost drowned in the booming of the guns, but the others just caught them.
    â€˜If we’re going to wage war on the astral plane we’ll have to leave London. It’s essential that we should be able to work in some place where we shall run as little risk aspossible of being disturbed by purely physical excitements.’
    â€˜You’d better all come down and stay at Cardinals Folly,’ suggested Richard at once. ‘We hardly even hear a plane go over down there in the depths of the country, and you know that Marie Lou would be delighted to have you.’
    â€˜No, Richard,’ de Richleau shook his head. ‘We brought quite enough trouble on Marie Lou last time we broke a lance against the Devil, and with Fleur in the house I wouldn’t even consider it.’
    â€˜Fleur’s not in the house; she’s sharing a governess with another little girl, the daughter of friends of mine who live up in Scotland. And remember, as Marie Lou was involved last time she knows as much about this sort of thing as Simon, Rex or myself.’
    De Richleau considered for a moment. He knew that Richard’s beautiful little wife had an abundance of sound common sense as well as an extraordinarily strong will and that, as had often happened before, her counsel might be most useful to them. This was Total war, and while women everywhere were risking their lives to carry on the nation’s work during the blitzkrieg there could be no case for exempting a woman from this very curious job of war work in which she could be just as effective as any man. At length he said:
    â€˜Thanks, then, Richard; we’ll accept your offer. The next thing is for me to meet the man at the Admiralty who decides the routes that the convoys are to take.’
    Sir Pellinore looked a little startled. ‘I, er …’ he began, ‘I hardly feel that we can let the Admiral in on what you propose to do. You’ve made me feel that it’s just possible that you’ve hit the nail on the head as to the manner in which this leakage of information is reaching Germany, but I’m afraid you’d find him a much more sticky proposition.’
    â€˜It’s not necessary,’ smiled the Duke. ‘All I need is to meet him socially for an hour or two.’
    â€˜Well, that’s easy. I’ve already arranged for him to lunch with me tomorrow because I felt pretty confident that I could interest you in this business tonight; and as no time must be lost in getting to work I was hoping that you would join us so that you could put up any questions you might have.’
    â€˜Splendid. A general discussion on the subject would, in any case, prove helpful, and of course it’s still quite possible that my theory that the occult is being used is entirely wrong.’ De Richleau looked round at the others. ‘Then, if you’re agreeable, we’ll all go down to Cardinals Folly in the afternoon.’
    They sat talking together for another half-hour, then there came a lull in the