Finally, standing next to the center post, he shook his asson for the last time. "By the powers of all the Voudoun; by the powers of Faith, Hope and Charity; make this circle our sanctuary. Let none who wish us harm stand in the shadow of our poteau-mitan."

  He turned to Ape and shrugged his shoulders. His old eyes gleamed with excitement. "My father taught me that ritual sixty years ago. In all of my days, I never once used it. Until tonight."

  "What now?" asked Ape.

  "We sit and wait," said Papa Benjamin. "Not for very long, I suspect. In the meantime, tell me about yourself, my student. The more I know about your past, the better I can plan your future. How did a man of your education come to work for Willis Royce?"

  "You want to hear my life story with the Dark Man due here any minute?" said Ape, incredulously.

  "Why not?" replied Papa Benjamin. "Remember this as your first lesson, Ape Largo. Fear makes you weak. It strengthens our enemy. He lives on such emotions. Better to laugh at death than to cower before it."

  Folding his legs beneath him, Ape squatted on the dirt floor next to Papa Benjamin. In a voice like the rasp of an old record, he began his story.

  32

  Leo met her at the door.

  "Tim fell asleep a few minutes ago. I heard the car in the driveway and came down to investigate." His brow wrinkled with concern. "You're home rather early. I didn't expect you back for hours. Is something the matter?"

  Janet nodded, not knowing what to say. She had never discussed her personal life with her father.

  "Take off your coat," said Leo, "and come with me to the sun porch. The sight of all those lush green plants always relaxes me. They'll do wonders for you. Once your nerves settle down, we can talk."

  As usual, Leo was right. The peace and serenity of the arboretum acted like a powerful tranquilizer. The two of them sat in silence for nearly twenty minutes. Gradually, Janet felt the tension draining out of her body. Taking a few deep breaths to brace herself, she told her father the whole sad story.

  "So you think you lost him already?" he asked when she finished speaking. He shook his head in disagreement. "I believe you underestimate Taine's persistence. He struck me as a very determined man who usually got his way, no matter how long it took."

  A bittersweet smile crossed Janet's face. "You project your own personal characteristics on other people, Father," she said, wistfully. "He asked me to trust him, to take him at his word, and I couldn't do it. I wasn't ready to make that kind of commitment to a stranger. I refused to blindly trust a man I hardly knew. That thought terrified me."

  A stray tear trickled down her cheek. "He brought it on himself," she said, feeling sorry for herself. "What's he hiding? Why can't he tell me the truth?"

  "You raise a good point," said Leo, folding his fingers together across his chest. "Perhaps you already know the answer. Sometimes the solution to a question is obvious if we just look in the right place."

  He leaned forward, his expression benign. "Assuming Taine truly cares for you, why wouldn't he tell you everything you want to know? Try to think of a motive for his actions."

  "I don't know," said Janet, feeling as dejected as ever. She had no idea what her father was talking about. "I just don't know."

  Leo made a face. "If you would use your brain for a minute, the answer is obvious. At least, it is to me. Your hero wants to protect you from harm. According to what you told me, he knows quite a bit about this Black Lodge. How much is too much? The Masters of the Order obviously consider Mr. Taine a threat to their secrecy. Remember the fate of those reporters investigating Harmon Sangmeister. These men play very rough."

  "But—but—but," stuttered Janet, sensing the truth in Leo's words. "Do you really think he's worried about my safety?"

  "It makes perfect sense to me," said Leo. "Taine strikes me as the noble martyr type. He suffers from a mental disease too common among dedicated young men—an overactive sense of responsibility. To keep you from suffering, he sacrifices his own chance for happiness."

  "I think you tend to exaggerate a bit," said Janet, her spirits lifting a little. "I agree that Taine does sound rather formal at times. I know why. Like lots of single men, he's really very shy. I can manage that. You make Taine sound foolish."

  "Of course I do. You know my opinion of self-sacrifice," said Leo, smiling. "To yourself be true—and let everyone else look out for themselves.

  "I look at things from a practical standpoint. Taine is risking his life for his client and a girl he met a day ago. That seems like a pretty bad bargain to me. The odds are all with the Black Lodge. Still, I can't help but admire his courage."

  "And I turned my back on him," said Janet, bitter with herself. She felt like a heel.

  "Grow up, Janet," said Leo, snorting in derision. He looked at her for a minute without saying anything. Finally he shook his head in annoyance.

  "I see now how Roger manipulated you with such skill. To think I raised a child so easily deceived." He beat his fingers together as he spoke, a sure sign of his annoyance. "Taine wanted you to reject him. He planned that whole scene in the restaurant. It was the one way he could get you out of the picture. Think about it for a minute. Who initiated the discussion in the first place? There was no reason for him to discuss the case tonight. If he wanted to keep everything confidential as he claimed, he never would have mentioned his investigation at all.

  "Give Taine a little credit. He deliberately distorted everything he told you so as to make you suspicious. If that ploy hadn't worked, he would have tried another. Face the facts. He threw you a line and you grabbed it."

  "But why couldn't he have told me the truth and let me make my decisions based on that?" said Janet.

  "I already told you. He wanted you safely out of the way before taking any more risks. Taine obviously felt that if he told you the truth, you might have insisted on helping him despite the danger."

  "Goddamn it," said Janet, her expression furious. Finally, she understood what had taken place. "I hate it when other people make up my mind for me. Taine treated me like a child. That rotten son-of-a-bitch. I'm going to set things straight with him right now."

  Her face burning bright red, she stood up and headed for the door.

  "Where are you going?" asked Leo. "You can call him from the phone here."

  "Call him?" she answered. "Call him? I'm looking up Mr. Taine's address in the phone book. Then I'm going right over there to tell him what I think of his lousy scheme."

  "Calm down, Janet," said her father. "Remember, he acted this way because he wanted to protect you."

  At the door to the arboretum, she turned and flashed Leo a quick grin. "I know that, too, Father. That's the other reason I plan to visit Mr. Taine. Don't wait up for me."

  And with a laugh at his incredulous expression, she departed.

  33

  It beat the hell out of fighting a bear," said Ape, shaking his head ruefully. Seeing the confused expression on Papa Benjamin's face, he laughed.

  "Circus sawdust runs in my veins instead of blood. At least it feels that way at times. Until I met Willis Royce, I spent most of my life in the sideshow.

  "I was born and raised in a traveling circus. My father worked as the strongman for the show. He made his living bending nails and ripping phone books for the rubes on the midway. The show billed him as "Tongo, the Ape-Man from the Congo," though he was born and raised in Jersey City. Obviously, I inherited my strength and good looks from him.

  "My mother was employed as a cook for the show. No beauty queen, she married in desperation and lived to regret it. Dad drank too much and too often. A cold, distant man, he turned into a loudmouth, aggressive drunk after a few beers."

  Ape's face twisted into a cold mask of anger. He spoke as if a disinterested observer, but pain filled his every word. "Like many alcoholics, he refused to recognize his problem. Instead, he took out his frustrations and anger on his wife and child. I grew up terrified of his weekly beatings."

  "Why didn't your mother leave him?" asked Papa Benjamin.

  "She wanted to," said Ape, "but he swore that if she ever did, he would track her down and kill her. She believed him, and so did I. He made her life a living hell.

  "An ugly, misshapen child, I grew up with few acquaintances and no close friends. The older I got, the worse I looked. When I was six, I got tagged with the nickname, 'Ape.' It fit me like a glove. After a while, even my parents called me that. Don't ask me my real name. I don't remember it.

  "None of the other circus people allowed any of their children to come play because of my father's reputation. The only joy in my life came from the circus school.

  "All of the performers' children attended the classes. They were conducted by the show's manager, John Huff. A bright, articulate man, he changed my life. He taught me the beauty of the printed word. Through him, I discovered the wonderful world of books. Reading offered me the only escape from my father's brutality."

  He sighed deeply. "Mother never got away. They both died just before my fourteenth birthday, in a fiery automobile accident. Drunk driving, the police ruled it. I was free from my father, but I lost the only person who ever loved me.

  "I stayed on with the circus, working first as a roustabout and then, later, in my father's old job as the strongman."

  "What about the authorities?" asked Papa Benjamin. "You were only a teenager."

  "Things worked different in a traveling show," said Ape, chuckling. "Two days after the accident, we were three states away at our next booking. Nobody ever came searching for me. Not that it mattered. Circus people looked after their own.

  "Besides, at fourteen, I stood five feet tall and weighed nearly two hundred and thirty pounds. I could bend tenpenny spikes with my fingers and crush bricks in my hands. No one doubted me when I claimed to be eighteen."

  "You learned how to fight in the circus?" asked Papa Benjamin.

  "Nah. That part of my education came later. I did spend a lot of time working out with the high-wire people though. With my strong arms, they figured I could become a tremendous aerial performer. I picked up a lot of tricks, but never could master the more difficult maneuvers. For all of my size and strength, I lacked the proper coordination.

  "The circus disbanded when I was twenty-two. TV and movies and other forms of entertainment killed the traveling shows. Only a few big outfits could afford to keep going. Ours wasn't one of them.

  "I went to night school for a while, trying to complete my education. Trouble was that nobody believed I had a brain in my head. The teachers took one look and classified me as hopeless before I said a word. After a short time, I gave up on regular schools. Between public libraries and correspondence schools, I learned on my own.

  "Without any family or friends, I spent those years drifting from place to place. Most of the time, I worked as a bouncer in bars. It was easy work and paid pretty well. My ugly features proved to be an asset. One look at me, and the most unruly drunks usually settled down quick.

  "I tried working as a pro wrestler after that. The job paid great. Most of the guys involved in the racket were a pretty good bunch. They accepted me with no questions. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by men my size. And being so ugly actually worked to my advantage. I made a wonderful villain. Unfortunately, my lack of muscular control tripped me up again.

  "No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't control my own strength. During rehearsals, I constantly sent men flying out of the ring by accident. Once or twice, I tore off a turnbuckle without realizing it. Not surprisingly, the other wrestlers refused to fight me. Even though it was all faked, they dared not climb into a ring with me. One wrong move on my part, and they could be permanently maimed or even killed.

  "My life reached an all-time low after that. Jake LaBruski, another ex-wrestler convinced me to work with him on a bar hustle.

  "Jake owned a trained bear named Otto. He bought it from some carny owner years before. A big, fat Asian black bear, Otto had been taught to box. Bears are a lot smarter than you think. Actually, all he did was swing his huge paws at anyone foolish enough to get close to him. Which, as you might guess, was me, night after night."

  Papa Benjamin frowned. "You fought with this beast?"

  "The term fighting exaggerates what actually took place. It was more like a sparring match. The bear outweighed me by five hundred pounds. I wasn't crazy enough to get him angry. He considered the whole thing a big game.

  "The three of us, Jake, Otto and me, drove from small town to small town, on a tour of all the cheap bars and sleazy dives in the South and the lower Midwest. Jake did all the arranging. Otto and I provided the entertainment."

  Ape shook his head. "What thrill people got from watching a man battling a bear never ceased to puzzle me. But they flocked to the show. Otto and I fought to standing room only crowds wherever we went. We were as popular as Jell-O wrestling or dwarf throwing. The law gave us trouble from time to time, as did the animal rights people, but Jake always managed to keep the show on the road."

  "This bear, Otto," asked Papa Benjamin, "he never hurt you?"

  "Not intentionally," said Ape. "I managed to dodge around the ring pretty well. Once in a while, though, he swatted me pretty good. That always got the crowd cheering. You should have heard them yell the night he cracked two of my ribs."

  "You met Willis Royce at one of these matches?"

  "Yeah. Say what you want about the Bocar, but you got to admit the man had style. He wanted a bodyguard whose very appearance would scare off any potential troublemakers. I fit the bill. Not many men wanted to tangle with a guy who resembled a gorilla. A few well-placed rumors, and my reputation grew to match my looks."

  "All of those killings attributed to you?"

  "Pure BS," said Ape. "Royce linked my name with every unsolved murder in the Midwest. Nobody other than the cops ever bothered checking the truth behind the stories. After a while, the police stopped wasting their time. They realized I'm no killer."

  "I suspected as—" began Papa Benjamin but never finished.

  A loud hammering jarred the door to the oum'phor, effectively silencing him in midsentence.

  "Like all evil spirits, he knocks before entering an inhabited room. Remember," he added sharply, "do not disturb the markings of the circle."

  Ape drew in a deep breath as Papa Benjamin called out in a shrill voice, "Enter, in the name of peace and the Mysteres of voodoo."

  34

  The locked door swung open silently, as if guided by ghostly hands. A few seconds passed and then the Dark Man walked into the room. Ape immediately noted that the giant wore his long coat and cowboy hat. In his gloved right hand, he openly carried his blood-stained butcher's cleaver. Ape felt sure the outfit was another manifestation of the creature's physical form. The dark clothes and weapon were as much a part of the thing as were its hands and legs.

  "That detective, Taine, spoke the truth," whispered Papa Benjamin. "This creature belongs to the night itself. He is a creation of nightmares, of absolute darkness."

  Ape licked his lips and glanced about the room. The lights seemed dimmer. Long, menacing shadows stretched from the Dark Man to the walls. Ape suddenly was very conscious of the fact that the only thing separating him from his nemesis was a thin line of white chalk.

  He looked back at Papa Benjamin for reassurance. As if sensing his fears, the little old man smiled at him and nodded briefly. His face reflected a confidence that Ape only wished he shared.

  "Royce took a long time to die," said the Dark Man, his voice deep with menace. Each step he took brought him closer and closer to the magic circle. "I tried to keep him alive as long as possible. A little cut here, a little cut there, until his body was spread all over the room."

  The monster's loud laughter filled the oum'phor. The walls shook with his terrible humor. "What an enjoyable time I had. If only all of my victims struggled so hard to stay alive. You can't imagine the pleasure he provided. Unfortunately, he died before I could express my thanks. So it goes."

  The giant shook his fist holding the butcher's cleaver. "Enough talk about him. I still have another meddler to eliminate tonight after I'm done here. You escaped me earlier by a trick, Ape Largo. I dislike being fooled. I'm here to collect my debt. You owe me one life—yours."

  With two quick steps, the Dark Man reached the edge of the veve. Caught unawares, Ape instinctively ducked down and threw his arms up over his head. Beads of sweat exploded across his forehead. He fully expected to die in the next few seconds.

  Up into the air went the bloody cleaver. Gracefully, almost like a ballerina, the Dark Man pivoted on one huge leg, directing all of his thrust into one devastating strike.

  Like a bolt of lightning, the cleaver hurtled downward, aimed directly at Ape's head. The air trembled with the force of the blow. There was nothing Ape could do to stop it, nor did he have to. With a screech of shrieking metal, the weapon slammed to a dead stop halfway through its arc.

  Ape glanced down to the ground. Try as he might, the Dark Man could not move the cleaver an inch past the outer line of the veve. It was as if the magic circle created an invisible shield extending up and around the chalk lines.

  Papa Benjamin laughed, a short barking sound that mocked the Dark Man. "I thought as much. Your magic cannot harm us. Go away and leave us alone," he commanded, with a wave of one hand. "Your filth desecrates the grounds of my oum'phor."

  The Dark Man hesitated for a second, as if considering the request. Then, with incredible speed, he slashed down again with his cleaver. This time, Ape didn't even blink as the blade froze when it encountered the invisible barrier.

  For the next ten minutes, the Dark Man chopped furiously at the magic shield. Ape watched in horrified fascination as the monster struck one futile blow after another. Untiring, he tested every inch of the circle. The magic held firm against his attack.

  Finally the giant gave up. Tucking the cleaver inside his coat, he stepped back. His red coal eyes burned angrily in the darkness beneath his cowboy hat.