He pointed at the little handgun he was still holding in his hand.
"Now you take your gun, here, sir. The--"
"It isn"t my gun," Sir Pierre interrupted firmly.
"I was speaking rhetorically, sir," said Master Sean with infinite patience. "This gun or any other gun in general, if you see what I mean, sir. It"s even harder to place the ownership of a gun. Most of the wear on a gun is purely mechanical. It don"t matter _who_ pulls the trigger, you see, the erosion by the gases produced in the chamber, and the wear caused by the bullet pa.s.sing through the barrel will be the same. You see, sir, "tisn"t relevant _to the gun_ who pulled its trigger or what it"s fired at. The bullet"s a slightly different matter. To the bullet, it _is_ relevant which gun it was fired from and what it hit. All these things simply have to be taken into account, Sir Pierre."
"I see," said the knight. "Very interesting, Master Sean." Then he turned to Lord Darcy. "Is there anything else, your lordship? There"s a great deal of county business to be attended to."
Lord Darcy waved a hand. "Not at the moment, Sir Pierre. I understand the pressures of government. Go right ahead."
"Thank you, your lordship. If anything further should be required, I shall be in my office."
As soon as Sir Pierre had closed the door, Lord Darcy held out his hand toward the sorcerer. "Master Sean; the gun."
Master Sean handed it to him. "Ever see one like it before?" he asked, turning it over in his hands.
"Not _exactly_ like it, my lord."
"Come, come, Sean; don"t be so cautious. I am no sorcerer, but I don"t need to know the Laws of Similarity to be able to recognise an _obvious_ similarity."
"Edinburgh," said Master Sean flatly.
"Exactly. Scottish work. The typical Scot gold work; remarkable beauty. And look at that lock. It has "Scots" written all over it--and more. "Edinburgh", as you said."
Dr. Pateley, having replaced his carefully polished gla.s.ses, leaned over and peered at the weapon in Lord Darcy"s hand. "Couldn"t it be Italian, my lord? Or Moorish? In Moorish Spain, they do work like that."
"No Moorish gunsmith would put a hunting scene on the b.u.t.t," Lord Darcy said flatly, "and the Italians wouldn"t have put heather and thistles in the field surrounding the huntsman."
"But the _FdM_ engraved on the barrel," said Dr. Pateley, "indicates the--"
"Ferrari of Milan," said Lord Darcy. "Exactly. But the barrel is of much newer work than the rest. So are the chambers. This is a fairly old gun--fifty years old, I"d say. The lock and the b.u.t.t are still in excellent condition, indicating that it has been well cared for, but frequent usage--or a single accident--could ruin the barrel and require the owner to get a replacement. It was replaced by Ferrari."
"I see," said Dr. Pateley somewhat humbled.
"If we open the lock ... Master Sean, hand me your small screwdriver.
Thank you. If we open the lock, we will find the name of one of the finest gunsmiths of half a century ago--a man whose name has not yet been forgotten--Hamish Graw of Edinburgh. Ah! There! You see?" They did.
Having satisfied himself on that point, Lord Darcy closed the lock again. "Now, men, we have the gun located. We also know that a guest in this very castle is Laird Duncan of Duncan. The Duncan of Duncan himself. A Scot"s laird who was, fifteen years ago, His Majesty"s Minister Plenipotentiary to the Free Grand Duchy of Milan. That suggests to me that it would be indeed odd if there were not some connection between Laird Duncan and this gun. Eh?"
"Come, come, Master Sean," said Lord Darcy, rather impatiently. "We haven"t all the time in the world."
"Patience, my lord; patience," said the little sorcerer calmly. "Can"t hurry these things, you know." He was kneeling in front of a large, heavy traveling chest in the bedroom of the guest apartment occupied temporarily by Laird and Lady Duncan, working with the lock. "One position of a lock is just as relevant as the other so you can"t work with the bolt. But the pin-tumblers in the cylinder, now, that"s a different matter. A lock"s built so that the breaks in the tumblers are not related to the surface of the cylinder when the key is out, but there is a relation when the key"s _in_, so by taking advantage of that relevancy--Ah!"
The lock clicked open.
Lord Darcy raised the lid gently.
"Carefully, my lord!" Master Sean said in a warning voice. "He"s got a spell on the thing! Let me do it." He made Lord Darcy stand back and then lifted the lid of the heavy trunk himself. When it was leaning back against the wall, gaping open widely on its hinges, Master Sean took a long look at the trunk and its lid without touching either of them. There was a second lid on the trunk, a thin one obviously operated by a simple bolt.
Master Sean took his sorcerer"s staff, a five-foot, heavy rod made of the wood of the quicken tree or mountain ash, and touched the inner lid. Nothing happened. He touched the bolt. Nothing.
"Hm-m-m," Master Sean murmured thoughtfully. He glanced around the room, and his eyes fell on a heavy stone doorstop. "That ought to do it." He walked over, picked it up, and carried it back to the chest.
Then he put it on the rim of the chest in such a position that if the lid were to fall it would be stopped by the doorstop.
Then he put his hand in as if to lift the inner lid.
The heavy outer lid swung forward and down of its own accord, moving with blurring speed, and slammed viciously against the doorstop.
Lord Darcy ma.s.saged his right wrist gently, as if he felt where the lid would have hit if he had tried to open the inner lid. "Triggered to slam if a human being sticks a hand in there, eh?"
"Or a head, my lord. Not very effectual if you know what to look for.
There are better spells than that for guarding things. Now we"ll see what his lordship wants to protect so badly that he practices sorcery without a license." He lifted the lid again, and then opened the inner lid. "It"s safe now, my lord. _Look at this!_"
Lord Darcy had already seen. Both men looked in silence at the collection of paraphernalia on the first tray of the chest. Master Sean"s busy fingers carefully opened the tissue paper packing of one after another of the objects. "A human skull," he said. "Bottles of graveyard earth. Hm-m-m--this one is labeled "virgin"s blood." And this! A Hand of Glory!"
It was a mummified human hand, stiff and dry and brown, with the fingers partially curled, as though they were holding an invisible ball three inches or so in diameter. On each of the fingertips was a short candle-stub. When the hand was placed on its back, it would act as a candelabra.
"That pretty much settles it, eh, Master Sean?" Lord Darcy said.
"Indeed, my lord. At the very least, we can get him for possession of materials. Black magic is a matter of symbolism and intent."
"Very well. I want a complete list of the contents of that chest. Be sure to replace everything as it was and relock the trunk." He tugged thoughtfully at an earlobe. "So Laird Duncan has the Talent, eh?
Interesting."
"Aye. But not surprising, my lord," said Master Sean without looking up from his work. "It"s in the blood. Some attribute it to the Dedannans, who pa.s.sed through Scotland before they conquered Ireland three thousand years ago, but, however that may be, the Talent runs strong in the Sons of Gael. It makes me boil to see it misused."
While Master Sean talked, Lord Darcy was prowling around the room, reminding one of a lean tomcat who was certain that there was a mouse concealed somewhere.
"It"ll make Laird Duncan boil if he isn"t stopped," Lord Darcy murmured absently.
"Aye, my lord," said Master Sean. "The mental state necessary to use the Talent for black sorcery is such that it invariably destroys the user--but, if he knows what he"s doing, a lot of other people are hurt before he finally gets his."
Lord Darcy opened the jewel box on the dresser. The usual traveling jewelry--enough, but not a great choice.
"A man"s mind turns in on itself when he"s taken up with hatred and thoughts of revenge," Master Sean droned on. "Or, if he"s the type who _enjoys_ watching others suffer, or the type who doesn"t care but is willing to do anything for gain, then his mind is already warped and the misuse of the Talent just makes it worse."
Lord Darcy found what he was looking for in a drawer, just underneath some neatly folded lingerie. A small holster, beautifully made of Florentine leather, gilded and tooled. He didn"t need Master Sean"s sorcery to tell him that the little pistol fit it like a hand in a glove.
Father Bright felt as though he had been walking a tightrope for hours. Laird and Lady Duncan had been talking in low, controlled voices that betrayed an inner nervousness, but Father Bright realized that he and the Countess had been doing the same thing. The Duncan of Duncan had offered his condolences on the death of the late Count with the proper air of suppressed sorrow, as had Mary, Lady Duncan. The Countess had accepted them solemnly and with grat.i.tude. But Father Bright was well aware that no one in the room--possibly, he thought, no one in the world--regretted the Count"s pa.s.sing.
Laird Duncan sat in his wheelchair, his sharp Scots features set in a sad smile that showed an intent to be affable even though great sorrow weighed heavily upon him. Father Bright noticed it and realized that his own face had the same sort of expression. No one was fooling anyone else, of that the priest was certain--but for anyone to admit it would be the most boorish breach of etiquette. But there was a haggardness, a look of increased age about the Laird"s countenance that Father Bright did not like. His priestly intuition told him clearly that there was a turmoil of emotion in the Scotsman"s mind that was ... well, _evil_ was the only word for it.
Lady Duncan was, for the most part, silent. In the past fifteen minutes, since she and her husband had come to the informal tea, she had spoken scarcely a dozen words. Her face was masklike, but there was the same look of haggardness about her eyes as there was in her husband"s face. But the priest"s emphatic sense told him that the emotion here was fear, simple and direct. His keen eyes had noticed that she wore a shade too much make-up. She had almost succeeded in covering up the faint bruise on her right cheek, but not completely.