Leaving the cellars, they strode purposefully towards the stage and were horrified when a little old woman grabbed at them. “You’ve ruined your make-up,” she scolded, peering up at the streaks of dirt on their faces. “Where on earth have you been to get your faces so dirty?” Murdo and Tammy looked at one another warily as the woman made an exasperated noise. “Come in here this minute! How could you ever think of going on stage with your make-up in that state! Really!”
It was fortunate for both Tammy and Murdo that by the time she had finished with them, they were more or less completely unrecognizable for, as she shepherded them towards the extras, milling in the wings for the next crowd scene, several policemen emerged from the cellars and looked around, completely thunderstruck at having landed bang in the middle of a pantomime!
Murdo managed to keep a straight face as they mingled with the rest of the exotically attired cast but his mind was in turmoil. How had the police got onto them so quickly? Could Wullie have ratted on them?
It hadn’t been Wullie who had ratted on them, however. Wullie was still in dreamland under a fortune in used banknotes. No, it had been the ghosts that had given the game away, for Mary King had remembered Neil’s words and, to this day, the policemen present remember the look on their Chief Inspector’s face when Mary King had sailed into view and halted the rampaging ghosts.
“My good man,” she’d said imperiously. The Chief Inspector’s jaw had dropped in amazement and he’d straightened instinctively for, despite a difference of at least five centuries, he realized that he was being addressed by the equivalent of a Morningside lady of good family and a proper tartar at that. “My good man,” she continued, “we are just as anxious as you are to find the people who did this. We will help you all we can. My friends here,” she indicated the ghosts, “will show you where they might be hiding!”
The astounded policemen looked at their Chief Inspector in total amazement as he nodded and so it was that, five minutes later, a large, totally gob-smacked slice of the Edinburgh Constabulary found itself fanning out through the tunnels and alleys of the Underground City with ghosts as guides. The Chief Inspector gulped, hoped he’d done the right thing and, preferring not to think of what he was going to write in his report, set off with the old Codger leading the way, along a narrow street that apparently led to the Assembly Hall.
“That’s got rid of them,” Mary King said thankfully as she and the remaining ghosts watched the last of the policemen disappear. “Come now,” she said, looking at their fearful faces, “they’re probably still sealed up but we’ve got to be sure, haven’t we?”
The cellars of the Plague People, as she had told Murdo, were close by but although they had little more to do than walk round a corner, the ghosts eyed one another sideways and moved with a strange reluctance. As it happened, they heard them before they saw them and were seized by a sudden dread as the faint bubbling, moaning noise that seeped through the walls into the alley seemed to grow louder as they approached. Clarinda gave a shriek of fear and Mr Rafferty clapped a hand over his mouth in horror — for the blast of the explosion had not only blown open the vault, it had drastically weakened the sides of the houses. Their walls were bulging, weak and crumbling and they gaped in horror as, poking out from amid the streams of dust trickling down into the alley, they could see long, white fingers groping frantically through the cracks in the stone-work, picking and poking away desperately, trying to get out.
The Plague People! There was no doubt about it! There was nothing they could do to stop them! They would surely soon be free! Suddenly a long, thin, pasty-white arm crept through a slit in the wall and groped at the air with long, crooked fingers.
It was enough! The ghosts fled in terror!
23. Goblin Market
As Murdo and Tammy mingled with the crowd onstage, they gradually relaxed. Dressed as they were, they had managed to blend in quite well and if they kept their heads down, Murdo reckoned, then they might well get away with it. He winked at Tammy. No one, so far, had accosted them and although they both kept a wary eye on the increasing numbers of policemen that prowled the wings they were soon caught up in the action of the plot as Ali Baba attempted to rescue his beloved Morgana from among the exotically dressed slave-girls who were being paraded in the market before the tall, impressive figure of the Sultan.
Nevertheless, they almost jumped out of their skins when two huge, green monsters suddenly erupted from a tall, gold-framed mirror that stood nearby. It was only when the rest of the crowd shied away in fright that they realized that this wasn’t part of the act, for the wave of fear that rippled through the cast was genuine. Everyone stared in horror at the dreadful creatures, absolutely dumbfounded.