Sorcery Worketh Not

Midnight approached as the black cavern in the hillside was all that was not bathed in the silver light of the full moon. A pillar protruded on each side in front of the cave.

A man came along and started some funny preparations. Funny as in weird, not as in amusing really. George White had made up his black mind. He was going to do magic. Susan was going to be his.

The hairlock was there. The diverse magic items by which he was goin to invoke the dark forces were there. He knew the books of Kabbalah and similar lore. Now was the time.

He started drawing a diagram with chalk on the granite floor. One line, a corner, another line … the diagram was soon complete. He shouted out for triumph :

 « Susan, you'll be mine after all ! »

As he turned down again to draw the signs in the corners, a foot came out behind the pillar to the right. It was the foot that had kept him down in Dublin. Another one stepped out, trod on the diagram, smudged a corner. He looked up at Georgina. She waited until she had his eyes facing hers.

« Why are you so eager to damn your soul for Susan, when you can have me with no magic at all ? »

« What … what did you say, Georgina ? »

« I somehow knew I'd regret listening to that name, George. Came a warlock, called me Georgina, and hey presto, I'm … well, I'm an idiot. 

« Don't touch me yet ! You will abjure the devil and all his works and all his pomps before we are wed, or it's off. »

George White stared at her, gasped for a moment, then helped her efface the diagram.

« Guess I've been an idiot for most of my life. But I do guess I owe you that too. »

There was not a line left, just some chalk smudge, but he bowed down and swept as much off with his hand as he could. And a smile cracked across the face of Georgina.

« For how long were you standing there ? »

« Well, I had prayed a rosary all over three times before you arrived. »

« How long is that then ? »

« Ah, you won't know unless you learn to pray the rosary. »

« You might teach me ? »

« Yes, but not here and not now . » Then Georgina called back into the cave : « Julian, Dick, get out and see him burn the hairlock. »

They came out. Ann was not there, she would have thought this adventure even scarier than those she had when younger. Tim, of course was no more. But the three remaining of the Famous Five watched the hairlock take fire, burn with a flame, curdle up into burnt hair which is no longer hair. That was not the only reason : they also knew how he might have interpreted Georgina being there alone with him, so they took no risk about that.