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The baroness, seated at the opposite end from her great-grandson, bent like a living question mark, or vulture, over her soup. This was the onlyfood she was served, and she allowed it to get cold before she finallyfinished it. She said very little and only looked up twice, once to stare a long timeat Childe. She looked as if she had only recently been brought out of anEgyptian pyramidand as if she would just as soon go back into the crypt. Her di
Mrs. Grasatchow, although as fat as two sows put together, had aremarkablywhite, flawless, and creamy skin and enormous purplish eyes. When shehad been younger and thi
She had drunk far more than the Chinese, Pao, who had downed muchwine during the evening, but not much relative to her. Yet nobodyreprimanded her, but Igescu seemed concerned about Pao. He was speaking to him in acorner, andthough Childe could not hear them, he saw Igescu's hand come down onPao's wrist, and Igescu shook his head and then jerked the thumb of hisother hand at Childe.
Suddenly, Pao began to shake, and he ran out of the room. He wasin a hurryto get out, but Childe did not think that he was about to vomit. Hedid not have the pale skin and desperate expression of one whose guts are ready tolaunch their contents.
The dishes were cleared and cigars and brandy and wine wereserved. (My God! was Mrs. Grasatchow really going to smoke that ten-dollar cigar andpour down ahuge snifter of brandy on top of that whiskey?)
The baron spoke to Childe:
"You realize, of course, that I could easily have had you killedfor trespassing, for entering, for voyeurism, et cetera, but mostly forentering? Now, perhaps, you would like to tell me what you are up to?"
Childe hesitated. The baron knew his name and must, therefore, know that he was a private investigator. And that he had been a partner of Colben. He must realize that, somehow, Childe had tracked him down, and he must becurious about what had led Childe here. He might be wondering if Childe had toldanybody thathe was coming out here.
Childe decided to be frank. He also decided that he would tell the baron that the LAPD knew he was here and that if they did not hear from himat a certain time, they would come out here to find out why.
Igescu listened with a smile that seemed amused. He said, "Ofcourse! And what would they find if they did come out here, which they are notlikely todo?"
Perhaps they would find something Igescu did not suspect. Theymight findtwo naked people tied to each other. Igescu might have a difficulttime explaining them, but they would not be a dangerous liability. Justpuzzling tothe police and inconvenient to Igescu.
At that moment Vasili Chornkin and Mrs. Krautschner, fullyclothed, entered. They stopped for a moment, stared at Childe, and then walked on in. The blonde stopped by Igescu to whisper in his ear; the man sat down and orderedsomethingto eat. Igescu looked at Childe, frowned, and then smiled. He saidsomething toMrs. Krautschner. She laughed and sat down by Chornkin.
Childe felt even more trapped. He could do nothing except, perhaps, make abreak for it, but he doubted that he would get far. There was nothingfor him to do except drift with the current of Igescu's wishes and hope that hewould get achance to escape.
The baron, looking over the brandy snifter just below his nose, said, "Didyou get a chance to read Le Garrault, Mr. Childe?"
"No, I didn't. But I understand the UCLA library is closedbecause of the smog."
The baron stood up. "Let's go into the library and talk whereit's quieter."
Mrs. Grasatchow heaved up from the chair, blowing like analcoholic whale. She put an arm around Childe's shoulder; the flesh drooped liketangles ofjungle vines. "I'll go with you, baby, you don't want to go withoutme."
"You can stay here for the time being," Igescu said.
Mrs. Grasatchow glared at the baron, but she dropped her arm fromChilde and sat down.
The library was a large dark room with leather-covered walls andmassive dark-wood built-in shelves and at least five thousand books, some ofthem looking centuries old. The baron sat down in an overstuffed leather- covered chair with a wooden back carved in the form of a bat-winged Satan. Childe sat down in a similar chair, the back of which was a carved troll.
"Le Garrault..." the baron said. "What's going on here?" Childe said. "Why the party?" "You aren't interested in Le Garrault?" "Sure, I'm interested. But I think there are things of much more
interest just now. For instance, my survival."
"That is up to you, of course. One's survival is always up toone's self. Other people only play the part that you permit. But then, that'sanother theory. For the present, let's pretend that you are my guest and mayleave at any time you wish--which can be the true situation, for all you know. Believe me, I am not telling you about Le Garrault just to pass the time. AmI?"
The baron continued to smile. Childe thought about Sybil and gotangry. Buthe knew that it would do no good to ask the baron about her. If thebaron had her, he would admit it only if it served some purpose of his.
"The old Belgian scholar knew more about the occult and thesupernatural andthe so-called weird than any other man who ever lived. I don't meanthat he knew more than anybody else. I mean that he knew more than any other man."
The baron paused to draw in cigar smoke. Childe felt himselfgetting tense, although he was making an effort to relax.
"Old Le Garrault found records which other scholars did not find or else saw in these records what other scholars missed. Or possibly he may havetalked to some of the--what should I call them? unmen?--some of the unmen, thepseudo-men, and gotten his facts, which we shall theory, directly from them.
"In any event, Le Garrault speculated that the so calledvampires, werewolves, poltergeists, ghosts, and so on, might be livingcreatures from a parallel universe. Or a number of parallel universes. You know what aparalleluniverse is?"
"It's a concept originated by some science-fiction author, Ibelieve," Childe said. "I think that the theory is that a number, perhaps aninfinite number, of universes may occupy the same space. They can do thisbecause theyare all polarized or at right angles to each other. Those terms areactuallymeaningless, but they do signify that some physical mechanism enablesmore than one cosmos to fill the same quote space unquote. The concept ofparalleluniverses was used and is being used by science-fiction writers todepict worldsjust like ours, or only slightly differing, or wildly different. Likean Earth where the South won the Civil War. That idea has been used at least three times, that I know of."
"Very good," the baron said. "Except that your examples are notquitecorrect. None of the three stories you are thinking about postulateda paralleluniverse. Churchill's and Kantor's were what if stories, and Moore'swas a time travel story. But you have the right idea. However, Le Garrault wasthe first to publish the theory of parallel universes, although the publicationwas so restricted and so obscure that very few people knew about it. And LeGarrault did not postulate a series of universes which diverged only slightlyat one end of the series, that is, the end nearest to Earth's cosmos, anddiverged more thefurther away you got from Earth's.