The Satanist by Dennis Wheatley Page B

parson put in an appearance. He had come to call on Mrs. M. for the same sort of reason that I had intended to give. Having drawn a blank we went downstairs together and I offered to give him a lift back to his vicarage in my car. Naturally, we discussed Morden’s tragically early death in general terms and it transpired that up to a few months ago he looked on Teddy as one of the ewe-lambs of his parish. Mrs. M. is an R.C. so he hardly knew her. That’s why he hadn’t called before; and he’d done so then only as a Christian act, to see if she was getting over things all right. But Teddy had been brought up as a staunch Protestant and, although he married out of his own Church, he had continued to attend it regularly and to act as a sidesman.’
    Barney paused and ran a hand through his mop of short dark curls. ‘That is, up to a few months ago; but quite suddenly he stopped going. At first the padre thought he must be away on holiday, but he ran into him one evening, learnt that he had not been away and naturally enquired the reason for his back-sliding. Teddy seemed a bit embarrassed but was persuaded to come to the vicarage for a glass of sherry; then he came clean. Apparently he had become a Theosophist, and could no longer fully believe in the doctrines of the Church.’
    Instantly Verney’s interest quickened, but he only said: ‘That certainly sounds rather queer in a well-balanced chap like Morden. Where do we go from there?’
    ‘The padre tried to argue him out of it; but Teddy wouldn’t budge. Apparently he had been attending a course of lectures and séances. He maintained that the things that took place there could not be faked, and he was convinced that the Theosophists held the true key to the after-life. As luck would have it, he mentioned the name of the woman who runs the circle at which these miracles are performed, and the padre remembered it. She is a Mrs. Wardeel.’
    ‘Have you managed to trace her?’
    ‘Yes, Sir. I got her address through the Society for Psychical Research. It is 204 Barkston Gardens. I gathered from the man I got her address from that Theosophists and Spiritualists don’t usually hold the same beliefs; but this Mrs. Wardeel seems to be running a cult of her own that combines the two, as at her meetings lectures on the theory of the thing are followed by actual demonstrations of being able to get into touch with the spirit world.’
    ‘And you intend to follow this up?’
    ‘I shall if you don’t think it a waste of time Sir. Actually I wrote off to Mrs. Wardeel at once and asked if I could attend one of her meetings. As I couldn’t provide any introduction, I thought she might prove a bit cagey about letting a stranger into these mysteries; so I took your tip about using my title to add a bit of snob value to my request. Anyhow, it worked. I had a typed letter back from her secretary saying that Mrs. Wardeel was always happy to spread enlightenment among people of sufficient education to be fitted to receive it, and that I should send a cheque for five guineas as the fee for a course of six lectures. I sent my cheque, and the first is tonight.’
    ‘Go, by all means,’ smiled C.B. ‘It might lead to something; one never can tell. I wonder, though,’ he added after a moment, ‘what the real explanation is about Morden. Did he really get bitten with this mumbo-jumbo, or did he deliberately desert his Church because he thought he was being watched and wanted to convince these people that he had fallen completely for the line they were selling him?’
    Barney shook his curly head. ‘I fear that’s a thing that now we’ll never know.’
    ‘True enough, young feller. Anyway, don’t let them turn you into a spook addict.’
    ‘No fear of that, Sir,’ Barney grinned. ‘The odds are, though, that I’ll get no more than a good laugh over the fun and games by which a few small-time crooks make a living out of the bunch of loonies that I’ll find at this place