The Doctor patted her shoulder comfortingly, and said, "It"s not as bad as you think... Don"t worry we"ll soon put this right." He looked up into the heavens impatiently, saying to whomsoever might be listening, "Well, come on, come on if you want to play games, let"s get on with it!"
Was there a faint echo of laughter, far away, in reply or was it just the wind sighing in the treetops?
Zoe pointed: "Whatever is that?"
The Doctor turned: in the doorway stood the familiar blackboard and easel, with its identikit collection of sc.r.a.ps from a score of photographs.
"It"s perfectly simple," he explained to Zoe. "All I have to do is put Jamie"s face together again."
" Again? Again? " She looked at the photographic sc.r.a.ps then, accusingly, at the Doctor.. "You mean you did this before?" " She looked at the photographic sc.r.a.ps then, accusingly, at the Doctor.. "You mean you did this before?"
"Well - uh - yes..."
"And that"s how Jamie"s face got all changed you made a mess of it, didn"t you?"
The Doctor defended himself: "No, no I wouldn"t say that it was quite a creditable effort for a first attempt. I happened to be a little rushed, that"s all... Now, let me see
his eyes which are his eyes?"
He started to choose a likely pair; but Zoe stopped him and handed him the correct ones. The Doctor cleared his throat: "Ah, yes I know, I know don"t keep interfering...
Between them, they sorted out the various features that made up Jamie"s face, and put them together on the blank cut-out.
Immediately the two dimensions increased to three: Jamie resumed his shape and stature, and came to life again this time, with his own face. Zoe hugged him thankfully.
"Oh, Jamie thank goodness you"re back!"
"Back?" He stared at her. "What d"ye mean "back"? I haven"t been anywhere... "
The Doctor smilingly produced his pocket-mirror again, as Zoe explained: "You"ve got your face back."
"I have?" Jamie checked his reflection and grinned broadly. "Aye so I have... That"s a lot better."
With renewed confidence, he indicated the front door which still stood half-open, and suggested: "What d"ye say we explore inside the house? You never know we might find out a bit more about what"s going on."
The Doctor agreed, and they all entered the ramshackle mansion. As they walked in, the front door swung slowly shut behind them.
They looked about them: the sight that met their eyes was very curious a high-ceilinged hall, lit by antique candelabra, with flickering flames that guttered into trickles of wax.
"There must be somebody here," Zoe pointed out.
"Someone had to light the candles."
She looked around nervously and gasped, as a sudden flurry of movement caught her eye. At one end of the hall was a long table, covered in a damask cloth that had once been white, but was now discoloured with dust and grime.
At the head.of the table stood a wedding cake: it had been there for years, and had long since gone mouldy only its thick sugar icing held it together, in three grand tiers that had begun to topple at a precarious angle. Cobwebs veiled it, from the topmost wreath of orange blossom to the ceremonial knife, laid out ready to cut the cake a knife that was never used.
And at the heart of the cake, a family of mice had made their nest: they twitched their tails and disappeared at the sight of the newcomers.
Zoe shuddered: "A wedding cake that was never cut... "
"For a wedding that never took place," the Doctor completed her sentence. "But that"s another story by a chap called d.i.c.kens you wouldn"t know about him either, I"m afraid... Shall we proceed?"
Jamie had ventured a little further, and now reported back: "There are four pa.s.sages leading out of this hall and four flights of stone steps that all seem to lead downwards...
Into the cellars by the look of it... It"d be very easy to get lost in a place like this."
"Just a moment!" The Doctor stooped, and picked up a small round object which lay at his feet. "A ball of twine...
This must be an invitation."
"What do you mean?"
"It"s the cla.s.sic method of finding the way through a maze. Jamie take the end of the string and tie it to the door."
Jamie did as he was told and then made an unpleasant discovery.
"Hey this door isn"t just shut... It"s locked!"
Zoe looked at the Doctor apprehensively: "You think we"re meant to go on, don"t you? Down into the cellars?
You believe that wherever we go whatever we do they"re expecting us?"
"It seems to be a reasonable supposition," agreed the Doctor. "Come along let"s make a start. And Jamie you pay out the twine as we go but whatever happens, don"t let go of it!"
(In the Control Centre, the Master had momentarily abandoned the bank of monitors in favour of a new toy a round screen, rather like a radar installation: a high-pitched eletronic blip sounded each time the radar arm swept across it.
What it showed was a cross-section of a complex maze a tangle of pa.s.sages, leading to one clear area at the very centre. And there were three moving dots of light, slowly making their way into the maze, inch by inch.
The Master clucked approvingly as he watched their progress.
"Ah, yes the good Doctor is commendably prompt... I wonder how long it will take him to get to the heart of the mystery.") It was certainly very difficult. The flight of stone steps had led the three explorers into an underground warren of tunnels which seemed to be carved out of solid rock. Each tunnel led in turn to another dark alleys opened up left and right and at every few steps they had to stop and decide which way to go, as Jamie continued to unwind his ball of thread.
"Which way now, I wonder?" the Doctor asked, when they reached yet another junction.
"To the right," said Zoe firmly.
"How can you be so sure?" he wanted to know. "Both ways look equally unattractive to me."
"It must be to the right I"ve been working it out... It soon fell into a clear pattern. Once we avoided the dead ends, it was easy enough first right, second left, third right, fourth left and so on... A simple arithmetic progression."
The Doctor smiled admiringly: "What it is to have a mathematical brain."
Jamie interrupted: "That"s all very well but I have news for you... The twine"s run out." He showed them that they had got to the end of the thread. "D"ye think we should go back?"
The Doctor made up his mind quickly: "No, Jamie you stay here Zoe and I will explore a little further. There must be a way out of this place, and I"d rather like to find it."
Zoe said quietly: "Perhaps they don"t want us to find a way out out? Only a way in in... "
But they continued with their plan of campaign, leaving Jamie standing on guard. He didn"t much fancy the idea of waiting, alone, in these underground pa.s.sages, and he tried to whistle to keep his spirits up but his lips were dry.
(On the radar screen, the Master noticed that one of the three dots of light had stopped, leaving the other two to go on towards the centre. He felt sure that the Doctor must be one of the exploring duo, and urged him on excitedly: "Yes yes don"t stop now you"re almost there!"
The dots of light flickered on into maze.) It was a roughly circular chamber, hewn out of the rock, lit by one flickering torch stuck in an iron sconce on the wall, which threw leaping shadows. Zoe and the Doctor moved forward, and found themselves in the dead centre of" the maze. She whispered: "I was right... It isn"t a way out it"s a dead-end... I don"t like it let"s go back."
"Yes, yes in a moment," the Doctor tried to rea.s.sure her. "I was rather expecting another welcoming committee possibly I was wrong... But there must have been someone here, not so long ago look at the footprints on the floor."
Zoe looked down: it was hard to see in the flickering torchlight, but... "They don"t look like footprints to me,"
she said. "More like the tracks of an animal oh, Doctor!"
She broke off, her voice shaking; the flickering half-light picked out a pile of bones and a human skull... She clutched at his arm, saying, "I know it"s silly, but I keep remembering the story of the Minotaur... You know? It was half a man, half a bull and it lived at the heart of a labyrinth and there were human sacrifices... "
The Doctor patted her hand: "Yes, my dear but I don"t think we need to be alarmed. After all, we do know that the Minotaur is only a "
But Zoe wasn"t listening. She was staring in horror at the opposite wall of rock. There was a light in the tunnel, and it threw up a gigantic shadow: the shadow of a misshapen creature with broad shoulders, and a vast, powerful head and on that head was a pair of horns... The horns of a bull.
A few hundred yards away, in the dark, empty tunnel, Jamie still stood at his post.
He was cold and he was scared, and he was fed up with standing still: he wished very much that he could have stayed with the others but what was the good of wishing?
Somebody had to keep guard over the end of the thread, otherwise they"d never get out of this miserable place.
Oh, well at least if he had to wait, he might as well make himself comfortable.
He sat down on a heap of stones: but that wasn"t very pleasant the stones were cold and wet, and they had very sharp edges. What he needed was a cushion. He decided to improvise, and took off his jacket, rolling it up into a bundle: he would sit on that instead.
Feeling slightly more comfortable, he tried to whistle again and this time succeeded in producing the ghost of an old Scottish tune: one that he remembered his brothers and sisters dancing to in the barn at home. He whistled the tune as cheerily as he could, casting his mind back to memories of happy family parties the village caelidh caelidh, long ago and far away...
The melody faltered and went out of tune, as he felt a lump in his throat. It was a mistake to remember the old days too clearly. You had to look ahead: you must never look back.
The silence that followed seemed even more oppressive than before... But was it an unbroken silence? He thought he heard something, in the distance... A strange bellowing sound but so far off, he couldn"t be sure if he was imagining it. These winding tunnels played strange tricks on your ears, setting up all kinds of echoes and re-echoes.
He cupped his hands to his mouth and called: "Doctor?
Zoe! Are you all right?"
Then he waited; But there was no response: nothing but the dripping of water from the stone ceiling to the rocky floor below.
"Doctor! What"s happening?" he called again.
This time there was an answer of sorts: and one that made the hairs on the back of his neck bristle. He heard the unmistakeable sound of marching feet: the noise of the toy soldiers coming towards him.
He held his breath and tried to make himself invisible, pressing back against the cold, damp wall of rock.
The tramp of feet grew nearer, and then he saw a beam of light approaching.
One mechanical soldier came into view, stamping towards him along the tunnel. It turned its head from side to side, and the beams of light from its helmet lens raked the stone walls.
Jamie shrank still further back, and the beam of light crossed him stopped shifted back, as if it were looking for him. Jamie crouched down, and the light swung from side to side, before picking him out again.
Jamie looked up and understood.
"Is that how you can find me? With that wee lighthouse of yours?"
(On the monitor screen, the Master watched, fascinated, as the young lad gazed straight into the light they remained face to face for a moment, as if they were looking into each other"s eyes.) "So that"s it," Jamie said. "That"s how you see... "
Then, in one swift movement, he picked up his jacket from the floor, and shook it out, holding it at arms-length, as a bullfighter holds out his cape and suddenly flung it upwards and forwards, over the soldier"s helmet, shrouding the magnesium ray.
(In the Control Centre, the Master gave a cry of rage as the screen went blank: "You brainless idiot! Get yourself free, throw it off. Don"t let the boy escape!") But while the toy soldier threshed around blindly, Jamie took to his heels; he abandoned the ball of twine, and made a run for it. He didn"t know where he was going he only knew he had to get away.
The sound of his running footsteps echoed down the tunnel: but they were soon blotted out by another, much more terrifying sound.
Jamie listened; and his blood ran cold. There was no doubt about it this time.
Deep in the heart of the labyrinth, he heard the sound of a mighty roar: the roar of a crazed animal, about to devour its prey.
6.
The Facts of Fiction Within the hollow chamber at the centre of the labyrinth, the noise was almost overpowering.
The Doctor and Zoe shrank away instinctively, and he put a protective arm around her shoulders. He could feel her slender frame trembling, as the unearthly sound continued: the cry of an enraged monster.
It grew even louder, and the terrifying shadow at the mouth of the tunnel rose up like a thundercloud as the beast approached.
At last it emerged into the chamber: a grotesque and loathsome figure.
The Minotaur was, as Zoe had said, half-man, half-bull.
From the shoulders down it appeared to be a man a man with strong, muscular forearms and a barrel-like chest.