In the darkness I heard stones hitting the flags close to the Spook and more tiles falling off the roof above him. He cried out in pain maybe two or three times, and despite having been told to watch from the window and wait for the boggart to come inside, I wondered if I should go out and try to help. My master was having a hard time of it and seemed certain to come off worst.
I stared out into the darkness, trying to see what was happening, hoping for lightning to light up the yard again. I just couldn't see the Spook at all. But then the back door began to creak open very slowly. Terrified, I moved away from it, retreating until my back was against the wall. Was the boggart coming for me now? I placed the lantern on the table and got ready to reach into my breeches pockets for the salt and iron. A dark shape slowly crossed the threshold into the kitchen and I froze, petrified, but then sucked in a breath as I saw the Spook on his hands and knees. He'd been crawling towards the door in the shadow of the wall. Thaf s why I hadn't been able to see him.
I rushed forward, slammed the door shut, then helped him towards the table. It was a struggle because his whole body seemed to be trembling and there wasn't much strength in his legs. He was a mess. The boggart had hurt him badly: there was blood all over his face and a lump the size of an egg on his forehead. He rested both hands against the table's edge, struggling to keep on his feet. When he opened his mouth to speak, I could see that one of his front teeth was missing. He wasn't a pretty sight.
'Don't worry, lad,' he croaked. 'We've got him on the run. He hasn't much strength left and now it's time to finish him off. Get ready to use the salt and iron, but whatever happens, don't miss!'
By 'on the run' the Spook meant he'd offered himself as a target and the boggart had used up a lot of its energy in trying to destroy him and was now a lot weaker. But how much weaker? It would still be very dangerous.
At that very moment the door burst open again and this time the boggart did come in. The lightning flashed and I saw the round head and the six arms caked in mud. But there was a difference: it looked much smaller now. It had lost some of its power and the Spook hadn't suffered in vain.
My heart hammering and my knees trembling, I moved forward to face the boggart. Then I reached into my pockets and pulled out two handfuls and hurled them straight at the boggart. Salt from my right hand; iron from my left.
Despite what it had cost him, the Spook had done everything by the book. Firstly he'd burned the boggart's tree, taking away its store of energy. Secondly he'd offered himself as a target outside, bleeding away even more of the boggart's strength. But I had to finish the job inside. And I couldn't afford to miss.
There was only the draught from the window and open door, and my aim was good. The cloud of salt and iron struck the boggart full on. There was a scream, so loud and shrill that it set my teeth on edge and almost burst my eardrums. The salt was burning the creature, the iron sapping the last of its power. The next moment the boggart disappeared.
It was gone. Gone for ever. I'd finished it off!
But my relief was short-lived. I saw the Spook stagger and knew that he was about to fall. I tried to reach him -1 really tried. But I was too late. His knees buckled, he lost his grip on the table and collapsed backwards, banging his head on the kitchen flags very hard. I struggled to lift him but he was a dead weight, and I noticed, to my dismay, that his nose was bleeding badly.
I began to panic. At first I couldn't hear him breathing. Then, at last, I made out the breath fluttering very faintly in his throat. The Spook was seriously hurt and needed a doctor urgently.
Chapter 9
I ran all the way down the hill to the village in the torrential rain, the thunder crashing overhead and vivid streaks of lightning forking the sky.
I hadn't a clue where the doctor lived and, in desperation, knocked on the first door I came to. There was no answer so I hammered on the next one with my fists. When that brought no answer either, I remembered that the Spook's brother, Andrew, had a shop somewhere in the village. So I ran further down towards the centre, stumbling across the cobbles and through the rivulets of rainwater that were cascading down the hill. It took me a long time to find Andrew's place. It was smaller than the Priestown one he'd rented, but it was in a good location, in Babylon Lane, just round the corner from what seemed to be the village's main row of shops. A flash of lightning illuminated the sign above the window:
Andrew Gregory
Master Locksmith
I rapped hard on the shop door with my knuckles and, when that brought no response, seized the handle and rattled it violently, still to no avail. I wondered if Andrew was away doing a job somewhere. Maybe staying overnight in another village. Then I heard the sash window of a bedroom above the next shop being raised and a man's angry voice called out into the night.
'Be off with you! Be off at once! What do you mean making all that commotion at this time o' night when decent folk need their sleep?'
'I need a doctor!' I shouted up towards the dark oblong of the window. 'It's urgent. A man could be dying!'
'Well, you're wasting your time here! That's a locksmith's shop!'
'I work for Andrew Gregory's brother. He lives in the house up the clough on the edge of the moor. I'm his apprentice!'
The lightning flashed again and I glimpsed the face above, and saw fear etched into it. The whole village probably knew that Andrew's brother was a spook.
'There's a doctor lives on the Bolton Road, about a hundred yards or so to the south!'