Of the Amulet, and the Garway Glade
Our heroes began the morning at Paddington, where Captain Leighton met the party with two pieces of news. The first: someone had pushed a strange amulet through his letterbox in the night. The second: a letter, received that morning, from the literary representative of Professor George Wyndham, who seemed in some distress. After a brief discussion with his Lordship, the Captain wired Mr Clarence Kensington from the platform — he would attend to the matter on his return from the trip — and the party took the next train westward.
Spencer had arranged accommodation at the Railway Hotel in Cardiff. His Lordship, the Captain, the Sergeant, Professor Clarke, and indeed Samson — the Professor's adored dog — could not shake the feeling that someone, or something, was watching them as they left the station. A few whiskeys were imbibed at the hotel bar to steady the nerves.
The Night at the Railway Hotel
That night, the unflappable Spencer was woken by a strange scratching at his bedroom window. He discreetly roused the Captain, who was bunking down with him, and then his Lordship. Returning to his room, he found the Captain had opened the curtains and was staring with horror at the abomination clawing at the glass.
His Lordship ordered everyone onto the landing and requested Spencer to wake the others. The thing thudded onto the landing window; the party moved to the Professor's room, where it promptly landed against that window, its unspeakable efforts becoming more intense. Someone noticed the amulet in the Captain's smoking-jacket pocket. Concluding that the amulet was what the creature wanted, the Captain flung it into the corridor — only to discover it had appeared in his pocket once again.
The beast smashed through the window and the party fled to the salon downstairs, where, without further ado, the abomination appeared at the windows there. Spencer sought to rouse the hotel staff, feeling that his Lordship was unsuitably discommoded. The Captain felt that the time for retreating was over, and that if all else failed, a fusillade of concentrated fire was the best approach. His Lordship concurred, and ordered the men with firearms outside — his Lordship in his dressing gown, the Captain in his smoking jacket, and the elderly Professor in his nightgown and cap. The Captain fired the first round, his Lordship the second, before the Professor gave the beast both barrels from his shotgun, sending it back from whence it came.
After some deft handling of the local constabulary by the Sergeant, and the smoothing-over of any misunderstanding with the staff by Spencer, sleep was deemed impossible. The party took an early breakfast and headed off to the station.
The Garway Glade
The journey to Garway was arduous — a branch-line train to Abergavenny, then a long carriage ride. The party checked in at the Garway Inn, arranged rooms, refreshed themselves, and headed off to the church on the hill above the village.
The Professor noted the foundations of an earlier structure of considerable antiquity beneath the present building, and discovered evidence of a recent excavation in the floor. The Sergeant, surveying the wooded glade below, started to get the feeling he had been there before — and when he looked again, he was certain of it. The men decided to advance toward the glade.
It was at this point that they noted the complete absence of any animal sounds except the plaintive bleating of what they took to be a distressed goat or lamb. A feeling of unease gripped his Lordship, and he ordered the men forward in line. As they approached, they made out an altar-like block of ancient stone. Three figures emerged from the trees, one clutching a goat by the neck. They placed the goat upon the altar and quickly slaughtered it, before beginning a strange, unsettling chant.
Perhaps due to the shredded nerves of the previous night; perhaps Tomlinson's flashbacks to the brutal slaying of Lady Edith Burton-Smith; perhaps the grief that Sandy and the Captain felt for the loss of an estranged brother and a trusted friend; perhaps simply the creeping sense of evil emanating from the woods — the men opened fire without warning. Tomlinson charged in wielding the nightstick that had eliminated the need for the hangman's noose around the neck of the Limehouse Piper.
After a brief skirmish, the cultists were dispatched. His Lordship searched the bodies, finding that each carried a Katar knife — which Tomlinson confirmed were the weapons of the Indian henchmen of the Limehouse Piper at the Ghost Station Massacre. His Lordship also discovered the address of the Punjab Spice Company upon one of the bodies.
Captain Leighton insisted that the bodies be burned, a practice he had adopted in India; despite some reservations from the Professor, his Lordship agreed. The Professor suggested that the amulet be given to one of the corpses, and the Captain concurred, ceding to the Professor's deeper understanding of all things occult. The Captain proceeded to heap the bodies around the altar, covered them in lantern oil, and set them ablaze. All the while the Professor maintained overwatch on the trees, from which they all still felt a brooding presence. They watched the bodies burn before deciding to return to the Inn before nightfall.
The papers note the hour of the party's return: half past five upon the afternoon of Sunday the eighth of October, 1893, in heavy rain.