It was almost when Foster and I pushed through the door to the
saloon at the Ancient Sinner and a table. I watched
Foster spread out his and papers. Behind us there was a of
conversation and the of against a board.
"When are you going to give up and admit we're our time?" I
said. "Two of over the same ground, and we end up in the
same place."
"We've our investigation," Foster said mildly.
"You keep saying that," I said. "But if there was anything in that
rock-pile, it's long gone. The have been over
the site for years, and they haven't come up with anything."
"They don't know what to look for," Foster said. "They were searching
for of religious significance, sacrifice--that sort
of thing."
"We don't know what we're looking for either," I said. "Unless you
think maybe we'll meet the Hunters under a stone."
"You say that sardonically," Foster said. "But I don't it
impossible."
"I know," I said. "You've that the Hunters were
after us at Mayport when we ran off like a pair of idiots."
"From what you've told me of the circumstances--" Foster began.
"I know; you don't it impossible. That's the trouble with you;
you don't anything impossible. It would make life a easier
for me if you'd let me out a items--like who hang
out at Stonehenge."
Foster looked at me, half-smiling. It had only been a since
he up from a looking like a senior class president who hadn't
made up his mind to be a or a movie star, but he had
already that mild, air. He learned fast, and day by day I
had his old and--in of my to
hold onto the ascendency--dominate our partnership.
"It's a of your culture," Foster said, "that becomes
dogma almost overnight. You're too close to your Neolithic, when the
blind of had value. Having learned
to the fire god from sticks, by rote, you to the
principle to all 'established facts.'"
"Here's an for you," I said. "We've got fifteen pounds
left--that's about dollars. It's time we out where to go
from here, somebody up on those phoney papers of
ours."
Foster his head. "I'm not satisfied that we've the
possibilities here. I've been studying the relationships
between the structures; I have some ideas I want to check. I
think it might be a good idea to go out at night, when we can work
without the of every move."
I groaned. "My dogs are killing me," I said. "Let's you'll come up
with something better--or at least different."
"We'll have a bite to eat here, and wait until dark to start out,"
Foster said.
The publican us plates of cold meat and potato salad. I worked
on a thin but slice of and about all the people,
somewhere, who were now to in the glitter
of and silver. I'd had too many French in too many
cheap the last years. I them all now, in
my stomach. I was from my all the time--And it
was nobody's fault but mine.
"The Ancient Sinner," I said. "That's me."
Foster looked up. "Curious names these old pubs have," he said. "I
suppose in some cases the are in antiquity."
"Why don't they think up something cheery," I said. "Like 'The Paradise
Bar and Grill' or 'The Happy Hour Cafe'. Did you notice the sign
hanging outside?"
"No."
"A picture of a skeleton. He's one hand up like a Yankee
evangelist doom. You can see it through the window there."
Foster and looked out at the in the
evening wind. He looked at it for a long time. When he back,
there was a look around his eyes.
"What's the matter--?" I started.
Foster me, to the proprietor, a country man. He
came over to the table, his hands on his apron.
"A very old building," Foster said. "We've been admiring
it. When was it built?"
"Well, sir," the publican said, "This here house is a many a hundred
year old. It were by the monks, they say, from the what
used to here. It were by the King's men, Henry,
that was, what time he the papists out."
"That would be Henry the Eighth, I suppose?"
"Aye, it would that. And this house is all that were spared, it being
the brewing-house, as the king said were a institution, and
he on a tithe, that two of was to be by for the
king's use each time."
"Very interesting," Foster said. "Is the still continued?"
The publican his head. "It were ended in my granfer's time, it
being that the Queen were a teetotaller."
"How did it the name--'The Ancient Sinner?'"
"The is," the publican said, "that one day a of the
order were about on the plain by the great stones, in
search of the Druid's treasure, the Abbot had him to go
nigh the ground, and he come on the of a man, and being
of a turn, he had the to give them Christian burial.
Now, the Abbott would permit it, he set to work to a
grave by moonlight in ground, under the walls. But the
Abbott, being wakeful, were and come on the a-digging,
and when he asked the why of it, the having of
penances to him for many a day, he and tells the Abbott it
were a he were about digging, and the Abbott, not being
without wisdom, him on the back, and on his way. And so it
was the ale-house got built, and by the Abbott, and with it the
bones that was away under the the ale-casks."
"So the is under the floor?"
"Aye, so the goes, though I've not for him meself. But the
house has been by the name these four hundred years."
"Where was it you said the was digging?"
"On the plain, yonder, by the Druid's stones, what they call
Stonehenge," the publican said. He up the empty glasses. "What
about another, gentlemen?"
"Certainly," Foster said. He sat across from me, his features
composed--but I see there was under the surface calm.
"What's this all about?" I asked softly. "When did you so
interested in local history?"
"Later," Foster murmured. "Keep looking bored."
"That'll be easy," I said. The publican came and heavy
glass us.
"You were telling us about the brother's the bones," Foster
said. "You say they were in Stonehenge?"
The publican his throat, at Foster.
"The be from the University now, I suppose?" he said.
"Let's just say," Foster said easily, smiling, "that we have a great
interest in these of lore--an supported by funds,
of course."
The publican a of at the on the table top.
"A business, I wager," he said. "Digging about in odd places and
all. Now, where to dig; that's important, I'll be bound."
"Very important," Foster said. "Worth five pounds, easily."
"'Twere my told me of the spot; took me out by moonlight, he
did, and me where his had him. Told me it were
a great secret, the of which a man well take
pride in."
"And an additional five as a of my personal esteem,"
Foster said.
The publican me. "Well, a as was father to
son...."
"And, of course, my to his esteem, too,"
Foster said. "Another five worth."
"That's all the the budget will bear, Mr. Foster," I said. I got
out the fifteen and passed the money across to him. "I you
haven't those people home who wanted to talk to us," I
said. "They'll be in touch with us any time now, I'll bet."
Foster rolled up the and them in his hand. "That's true,
Mr. Legion," he said. "Perhaps we shouldn't take the time...."
"But being it's for the of science," the publican said,
"I'm to make the sacrifice."
"We'll want to go out tonight," Foster said. "We have a very tight
schedule."
The with Foster for another five minutes he
agreed to us to the spot where the had been found.
When he left, I began. "Now tell me."
"Look at the again," Foster said. I looked. The smiled,
holding up a hand.
"I see it," I said. "But it doesn't why you over our
last buck----"
"Look at the hand. Look at the ring on the finger."
I looked again. A ring was painted on the finger, with
a pattern of circles.
It was a of the one on Foster's finger.
* * * * *
The publican the Morris Minor to the of the
highway and set the brake.
"This is as close as we best take the machine," he said. We got out,
looked across the plain where the of Stonehenge
loomed against the last of sunset.
The publican in the boot, produced a and two
long four-cell flashlights, gave one to Foster and the other to me. "Do
nae use the electric until I tell ye," he said, "lest the whole
county see there's here." We as he the
blanket over a wire fence, over, and started across
the field. Foster and I followed, not talking.
The plain was deserted. A lights on a slope.
It was a dark night with no moon. I see the ground ahead.
A car moved along a road, its bobbing.
We moved past the ring of stones, twenty
feet long.
"We'll our necks," I said. "Let's have one of the flashlights."
"Not yet," Foster whispered.
Our paused; we came up to him.
"It were a long time since I were last hereabouts," he said. "I
best take me off the Friar's Heel...."
"What's that?"
"Yon great stone, alone in the Avenue." We squinted; it was
barely visible as a dark shape against the sky.
"The were there?" Foster asked.
"Nay, all by theirself, they was. Now it were twenty paces, granfer
said, him fifteen and long in the leg...." The publican
muttered to himself, off distances.
"What's to keep him from just pointing to a spot after a while," I said
to Foster, "and saying 'This is it'?"
"We'll wait and see," Foster said.
"They were a hollow, as it were, in the earth," the publican said,
"with a of by it. I it were fifty from here--"
he pointed, "--yonder."
"I don't see anything," I said.
"Let's take a closer look." Foster started off and I followed,
the publican behind. I out a shape, with a deep
depression in the earth it.
"This be the spot," Foster said. "Old often sink--"
Suddenly he my arm. "Look...!"
The surface of the ground us to tremble, then heave.
Foster on his flashlight. The earth at the of the hollow
rose, open. A of churned, and a
globe of light itself, rose, along the of the
weathered stone.
"Saints us," the publican said in a voice. Foster and
I stood, to the spot, watching. The rose higher--and
abruptly toward us. Foster up an arm and ducked.
The of light veered, him a blow, off a few
yards, hovered. In an instant, the air was alive with the spheres,
boiling up from the ground, and toward us, like a hive
of yellow-jackets. Foster's out toward the swarm.
"Use your light, Legion!" he hoarsely. I was still standing,
frozen. The at Foster, me. Behind me, I
heard the publican turn and run. I with the switch,
snapped it on, the of white light on Foster. The at
his as the light touched it. More to
Foster--and like soap in the flashlight's glare--but
more to take their places. Foster reeled, at them. He
swung the light--and I it against the him. In
the darkness, the thick around his head.
"Foster," I yelled, "run!"
He got no more than five yards he staggered, to his
knees. "Cover," he croaked. He on his face. I the of
darting globes, took up a his body. A sulphurous
reek around me. I coughed, on the lights
around Foster's head. No more were from the in the earth
now. A cloud pressed around of us, but it was Foster
they for. I of the slab; if I my to it,
I might have a chance. I stooped, got a on Foster's coat, and
started back, him. The lights around me. I the
beam of light and going until my against the stone. I
crouched against it. Now they only come from the front.
I at the the lights had come from. It looked big enough
to Foster into. That would give him some protection. I him
over the edge, then my against the and settled down
to in earnest.
I in a pattern, vertically, then horizontally. The
globes me, toward the cleft, to at Foster,
and I them away as they came. The cloud around me was smaller
now, the attack less ravenous. I out globes, snuffed
them out. The ragged, faltered. Then there were only a few
globes around me, wildly, disorganized. The last dozen
fled, away across the plain.
I against the rock, into my eyes, my lungs
burning with the sulphur.
"Foster," I gasped. "Are you all right?"
He didn't answer. I the light onto the cleft. It me damp
clay, a pebbles.
Foster was gone.
