Part 3

As they passed the city limits, Joe dropped his speed to well below the posted limit and watched for a stop light ahead. Finally, he saw one, and he timed his arrival. Abruptly, as he reached it, he shot the car through the amber light just as the red flashed on. The Mercury stopped for the red light, and as the image receded in the rear-vision mirror, Joe breathed easier. "He didn't go through the red light," he said.

Pearl was watching. "The light's changing again," she said. "He's coming up pretty fast."

Joe put on his right-turn light and made a normal turn at the next corner. The Mercury made the turn too. Joe made another right turn two blocks down. The Mercury made one too.

"That settles it," said Joe. "He's following us all right."

* * * * *

Once again he maneuvered the car back onto the main highway and then continued through the heart of town. The Mercury was right behind, but now there was a car which had slipped in between. Joe timed his speed again, and once more barely made it through an amber light before the red. The car behind him halted, and so did the Mercury, by necessity. Joe poured on the gas and at the next corner turned right. He sped to the next block, turned right again, then left at an alley. He roared through it, turned right once more, and raced three blocks along the way they had come, and finally made another right turn back to the main street. He was lucky, and made it through a green light. Several more turns, and he headed straight out of town at right angles to his original route. Moments later they found themselves on a gravel road marked County Trunk M.

"Is there anything behind us?" asked Joe.

Pearl, who had been watching alertly all the while, turned and sat down facing the front again. "Nothing," she said. "You've shaken him."

"I was lucky," Joe observed. "Got every break. Now we will take a few byways for awhile, and then take a look at the map and see where we are. We can get to your mother's by another route. We'll get there late tonight, but at least we've lost the Devil for awhile--if that's who he was."

"Who else would it have been?" asked Pearl.

"Ed Sullivan, trying to sell another Mercury," joked Joe. But deep inside him he didn't feel humorous. Did the Devil have a way of knowing where they were? This first time it was conceivable that he'd caught them leaving the house, and had followed them all the way. But if he hadn't, then he had some other way of knowing, and if that was true, they wouldn't really have ditched him. He'd pick up the trail again, and all his evasive tactics would have been in vain.

"He must have followed us from the house," said Pearl suddenly.

* * * * *

Joe looked at her. "You've been thinking the same thing I have," he said. "I _hope_ that's how he found us!"

"I hope so too," said Pearl.

"Daddy, I'm hungry," said Jimmy from the back seat.

"Okay, son. But you'll have to wait until we find a town. Then we'll stop at a restaurant."

"How are you going to find a town on this road?" said Jimmy disgustedly. "Why did you go on such a bumpy road. Is this the way to Grandma's house?"

"Not exactly," said Joe. "We just took a little detour."

"To keep that man with the horns from following us?" asked Jimmy.

Joe gripped the wheel tightly. "Horns?" he asked, staring at Pearl. "What man with horns?"

"Why that man we were racing with. He had horns growing out of his head."

"I didn't see any horns," said Joe.

"He did too have horns," said Jimmy. "I didn't like him, and I'm glad you got away from him. But now I'm hungry."

"I'm glad too, son," said Joe. He licked his lips. "But it must have been that man's hair that looked like horns. He didn't really have any."

"When are we going to get to a restaurant?" inquired Jimmy impatiently. "I'm awful hungry!"

Pearl laid a hand on Joe's arm. "Don't press it, Joe. Sometimes children see things grownups can't. Let him forget it."

* * * * *

Joe nodded, and for a moment there was silence. Then Jimmy's voice piped up again.

"I won't forget it," he said positively. "They were _red_ horns."

They had eaten, having eventually found a small town with a restaurant, and now they were on their way again. The children were asleep in the back seat, and Pearl was studying a road map with the aid of a dash light that came on when she opened the ashtray.

"A few miles more, and we will be on Highway 10. That will run into 38, and we can take that down to 26. From there it's only ten miles to Mother's place."

"How many miles?"

Pearl began adding the figures on the map. Finally, she said, "About one hundred and thirty."

"That'll get us to your mother's by about eleven. They'll be in bed."

"Can't be helped," said Pearl. "Unless we stop at the next town and phone ahead."

"Good idea. We'll do it. Then they can have a place ready for the kids. They'll be crabby when we wake them, and if the bed's ready, we can just dump them into it."

They drove on a few minutes in silence, then Pearl said, "The Devil's in a very unusual position."

"How so?"

"Well, if you actually killed his real body while he was out of it, then I presume it's useless to him any more."

"I suppose it is," conceded Joe.

"Then he'll have to continue to use the bodies of other people, or of other--things."

"Won't change things any," observed Joe. "He used other people's bodies at will anyway. At least that's what he inferred when he talked about hypnotizing me and using my body. Now he'll just have to do it all the time. Nobody knew when he was among them before, and that hasn't changed."

"The point is, he hasn't any body of his own, any more. If it were me, I'd be very much disturbed and put out about it. And I'd be determined to get even. Joe, we're running away now, and we've eluded him for now, but how can we do it all our lives? Sooner or later he'll find us, and we'll have to live in fear of that moment at all times. I don't think I can face the prospect."

"But now you are jumping to conclusions," argued Joe. "How do you know he can find us? Does he even know our names?"

"I ... I don't think so," confessed Pearl. "We never mentioned it--but didn't you say he knew you were a private detective, and that's why he selected you as his base of operations for whatever it was he wanted to stir up in our town?"

"Yes, he did," admitted Joe. "So I'll grant you, it is most likely that he does know our name. So we can change it."

"What kind of a life is it going to be, living under assumed names, looking into dark corners, suspecting every person we see?" said Pearl, almost in tears. "I don't think I can take it."

"But what else can we do?"

"I don't know. But there _must_ be something."

"He's not all-powerful," said Joe. "Otherwise he'd have the whole roost to himself. The churches wouldn't exist...."

* * * * *

He looked suddenly at Pearl. "The churches!" he exclaimed. "They've been his competition for two thousand years--they must know something about how to handle him! We'll go to a priest, get his advice. I've heard of certain rites and chants to exorcise devils. They must have one for Satan himself!"

"When we get to the next town, I'll call Mother," said Pearl, "and you go to the parish house and talk to the priest. Maybe there's something he can do to help us be prepared. We might need that help even tonight. I keep feeling that there is a way the Devil knows things, and that he'd know where to find us when he wants to."

"Maybe in his own body, yes. But in a human body, he might be subject to some limitations. Let's hope clairvoyance is one of the things he won't be able to exercise to full effect."

"You're whistling in the dark," said Pearl.

Joe didn't answer her. He was looking at some headlights coming up behind them. For several miles he watched them, then breathed in relief as they turned off. At least the Devil hadn't found them yet.

* * * * *

They came to a small town soon, and stopped at a filling station across from a church. Pearl used the phone while Joe had the car gassed up. He questioned the attendant and found that the priest lived right next door to the church, and that he usually was in at this time of the evening.

When the car had been serviced, he pulled it over to the side and waited until Pearl came out of the station.

"Did you get her?" he asked.

"Yes. She'll be waiting for us."

"Good. You stay with the kids while I go see the priest."

Joe crossed the street and went up to the door of the parish house. He rang the bell. The housekeeper came to the door and welcomed him in with a smile.

"Father Lengowski will be out in a moment," she said, indicating a chair in the waiting room.

Joe had barely settled himself when the priest walked in. He was a jovial type, and his voice was booming. "What can I do for you, young man?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Joe hesitantly, "I came for a little information, and perhaps for a little advice."

"Are you in trouble?" asked the priest.

"Not in the usual way," said Joe. "But I _am_ in trouble. Maybe I'd better explain it. You see, several months ago the Devil came to my house, and said he was going to set up headquarters for some new deviltry he had in mind in my town. He also said he was going to use my body while he was there, and that he'd take over by hypnosis. Well, I can't be hypnotized, so it didn't work--but we scuffled. He was choking me, and would have gained control of my body except for my wife. She hit him over the head with a snow shovel, and while he was unconscious we chained him to the basement wall where I formerly kept a big dog of mine. We nailed the basement door shut, and left him there. But he finally escaped, by changing bodies with a mouse. That's when this trouble in the world started--you'll recollect that for several months, crime and evil had taken a holiday...."

* * * * *

He stopped, and eyed the priest, who had been staring at him and licking his lips. "You don't believe me," he said.

"It isn't a matter of belief," said the priest. "But granting that all this is true, what do you want of me?"

"Just some information. For instance, I believe the Church knows some means of exorcism, or some way of overcoming the Devil's influence."

"Well, yes, there are such things. But why do you wish to know this? As you say, the Devil is no longer at your house...."

"True enough. But you see, when I found out he'd escaped, I shot the mouse...."

"Shot ... the mouse?" Father Lengowski shifted his feet nervously.

"Well, that is, I shot the Devil's body, thus killing the mouse. Of course, it also made it impossible for the Devil to regain his own body--it was quite dead and useless."

"I see ... and what can the exorcism rites do?"

"Well, you see, the Devil is very angry with us, and he's been following us in a Mercury. We eluded him in a town awhile back, and now we're on our way to my wife's mother's place, to sort of hide out awhile. But if he should find us, we'd like some sort of defense...."

"Exorcism might work," said Father Lengowski nervously. "But we'd have to have the Devil, or the possessed person, right before us, and you couldn't do it. I don't believe I could do it. Perhaps the Bishop...."

"I'm afraid such a complicated procedure won't help, Father Lengowski. There won't be time, if he should appear. What I want is something we can use ourselves, in an emergency."

"Well, there is an old stand-by," said Father Lengowski, "very simple. I will give you a blessed crucifix, and you merely hold it before you, thrusting it out at the Devil, and utter the words 'Get Thee behind me, Satan.'"

"I've heard of that," admitted Joe.

"Good. You wait here, and I'll get a crucifix." The priest hastened from the room, closing the door behind him. But it did not latch securely, and slowly swung open again. And Joe heard the priest's voice speaking urgently on the phone in the hallway outside. He heard a few words, and then, face growing red, he leaped to his feet and made his way swiftly to the door. He let himself out and ran down the steps and across the street to the car. He piled into the front seat and jabbed his thumb on the starter button.

"What's the matter?" asked Pearl in alarm.

"Nothing much. That priest thinks I'm a nut, and he's calling the local gendarmes. We've got to get out of here before we wind up in the bug-pokey. I've learned one thing in there--we can't go around saying the Devil's chasing us in a Mercury!"

"Oh, Joe!" said Pearl, then subsided, her face strained in the darkness as Joe drove hastily out of town.

* * * * *

"We're almost there," said Pearl. "We've just passed the Jacobi's place."

It was after midnight, and Joe sighed in relief. He was tired of driving, and the tension had been telling on him. He had found himself staring at the rear-view mirror half the time, almost dreading the appearance of any headlights coming from behind. And when they had appeared, he had waited anxiously, slowing the car for the headlights to pass. They always did, but he continually expected that they would not, that instead they would pull up behind, and settle into steady pursuit.

"Do you think we dare tell your mother anything about all this?" he asked.

"Heavens, no!" said Pearl. "At least not for a few days. We can tell Dad, though. I think, without too much trouble. He's always believed me, and he will still, I know."

"Then mum's the word until you break the ice," said Joe. "We'll just get the kids to bed, and then get to bed ourselves as fast as we can. There'll be plenty of time later to talk."

The porch light was on when he drove the car into the farmyard. A swarm of bugs flew dizzily around it, and literally coated the living-room window, where a light was on.

As he turned off the ignition, Pearl's mother appeared in the doorway. "I'll open the door and you come in quick," she called. "I don't want all these bugs to swarm in."

"You needn't have left the light on," said Joe. "We'd have found our way."

He turned to Pearl. "You take one of the suitcases and go ahead, get the bed ready. I'll bring Sally first, then come back for Jimmy. I don't think either of them will wake up."

The children did not wake, although Jimmy mumbled something about horns, and his grandmother thought it was very cute.

"The lad's dreaming," she said.

"I wish he were," said Joe.

Grandmother looked at him blankly. "But he is. He's talking about somebody with horns. He's having a nightmare--oh, he isn't sick, is he?" Immediately she hovered over Jimmy like the epitome of anxiety itself.

"Of course not," Joe assured her. "He's sound as a bell. I merely meant I hoped he wasn't having a nightmare."

* * * * *

But as he put Jimmy down on the bed to which Grandmother led him, he was frowning slightly. It should not be like a small boy to dream of the Devil, especially if he didn't know he was the Devil. It didn't seem that the afternoon's experience should have created so deep an impression upon him that it would recur in his dreams. Did it mean that somehow Jimmy was sensing the Devil, and his possible nearness? Was the Devil really on their trail, homing in on them with some occult sense peculiarly his own?

Out in the living room, Pearl was engaging in animated conversation with her mother. Already they were inspecting pictures of the other seventy-seven grandchildren, and gossiping like mad. Joe interrupted.

"Mother," he said, "I've always admired your common sense, and I just know you want us all to go to bed immediately, and save all the visiting for tomorrow. Please don't let us keep you from your beauty rest."

"You're always so tactful," she said in return. "I've always said you were a wonderful son-in-law. A wonderful husband and father. A fine...."

"Thank you, Mother. Now show us where we sleep, and we'll let you get back into your comfy bed."

"You'll sleep in our bed, and Dad and I will take the couch and the davenport."

"Oh, no," protested Joe. "Pearl and I can sleep on the couch and davenport. No use you giving up your bed. Besides Dad doesn't like those broken springs on the couch ... do you, Dad?"

His father-in-law grinned. "Of course not, son. But you are dealing with your mother-in-law, and there's no arguing. For thirty years she has made a practice of making herself--and me--uncomfortable when the kids come home. She couldn't sleep if she wasn't putting herself out!"

"Yeah, I know," agreed Joe. "The Mother-Martyr complex. She's got the worst case I ever saw!"

"Joe, you're the greatest kidder ..." said Grandmother.

"Who's kidding?" asked Joe, grinning at her. "Show me to my bedroom before you change your mind."

Long after the house was silent, he lay beside Pearl, thinking.

"Are you asleep?" she asked finally.

"You're awake too?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I keep thinking of the Devil looking for us," said Joe.

"And I keep thinking he'll find us," said Pearl. "Somehow, I have a feeling we're not fooling him at all."

"Go to sleep," said Joe. "He'd have to have radar to find us."

"You know," said Pearl, "that's a good name for it! And right now I feel like a blip on a radar screen."

"But a mighty pretty blip," said Joe. He kissed her good night and then turned on his shoulder to go to sleep.

In the morning he awoke to find Pearl already up. He climbed into his clothes and went out into the kitchen. Pearl was sitting at the table, eating a grapefruit.

"Where's your mother?" asked Joe.

"Out in the driveway, talking to somebody--a neighbor, I suppose."

The kitchen door opened, and Dad came in, carrying a gallon jug full of fresh milk and two freshly picked musk-melons cradled in one arm. "First ones ripe," he said cheerfully. "We'll let you kids initiate the patch. Where's Mother? She can fix them for us...."

"Out front, talking to a neighbor," said Joe.

Dad deposited the melons on the sink and set the jug of milk in the refrigerator. "Neighbor? Wonder who'd stop out front, and not drive right into the yard...?"

He walked through the house to the front room, and peered out through the curtains. Then he came back.

"Ain't no neighbor," he said. "Somebody in a Mercury."

Joe jumped and Pearl dropped her spoon.

"Here, let me get you another spoon," said Dad. "Floor's pretty dirty--we had thrashers here yesterday...."

The sound of footsteps on the back porch preceded the opening of the screen door. Pearl and Joe turned and stared.

"Why, Joe," said Pearl's mother. "You up already? You could have stayed in bed a couple more hours, and got your sleep out." She walked up to him, took his face in her hands, and kissed him. Then she turned. "Dad, you found some ripe melons!" she exclaimed. "How lovely. I'll fix them right now, and we'll have them before I fix the pancakes."

* * * * *

Joe looked at Pearl, then sat down at a chair. "I'm starved," he said. "Those pancakes sound real good."

"Who was that outside?" asked Dad.

"Oh, some fellow asking the directions to Highway 13."

"I suppose you told him to take the next fork to the left, then turn right at Perkin's general store," said Dad.

"Why, of course, Dad," said Mother. "That's the way to go, isn't it?"

"No," said Dad.

She turned and put her hands on her hips. "Now, Dad, you know very well that is the way to Highway 13."

"Usually," agreed Dad. "But it's closed now. Under repair. If he takes it, he'll be axle-deep in sand inside a quarter mile."

"Oh, dear, I forgot about that," said Mother, anxiety showing itself on her face.

"Don't worry about it," said Dad. "If he does get stuck, he'll come walking back here, and I can make five dollars pulling him out with the tractor."

"You know you won't do any such thing," declared Mother. "You never charged anybody yet for pulling them out. Land sakes, you want Joe to think you're a highwayman?"

"Isn't that why you sent him that way, so I could make five dollars?" asked Dad, a twinkle in his eye.

"No, it isn't," said Mother. "But, come to think of it, it is a good idea, isn't it?"

"If I didn't know you," said Dad, "I'd say you meant that. You aren't usually a kidder, Mother. What's got into you?"

"Maybe it's Joe," said Mother. "He appreciates kidding, don't you, Joe?"

"Sometimes," said Joe, looking at her sharply. There was no twinkle in her eye. "But I didn't know you could do it with such a straight face?"

"Don't see why not," she said. She turned back to the sink. "Do you kids want some ice cream in your melons?"

"In the morning, for breakfast?" asked Pearl.

"Dad will eat ice cream any time," she said, "and as long as he'll be having some, we might as well all do the same. These melons are delicious that way, and who cares what time of day it is?"

"I want some melon with ice cream in it, too!"

* * * * *

Jimmy's piping voice came from the doorway, and he pranced out into the kitchen in his shorts.

"Looks like I should have gotten some more melons," said Dad, beginning to move toward the door.

"Never mind," said Mother. "He can have my piece. I don't feel like eating anyway. Jimmy, go get some clothes on before you catch cold. This morning air is a bit chilly--Dad, close the door."

"Why, Grandma, what big horns you have," said Jimmy, staring at her.

Joe froze in his chair.

Dad chuckled as he made his way to the door to close it. "Like father, like son," he said. "Already he's kidding his Grandma! Hey, here comes that fellow already, walking back. He got stuck, all right!"

Pearl's chair fell over with a clatter as she rose abruptly to her feet. She faced the door, her face white.