Breathing

It was the sound of leaves being carried on a breeze across a hard surface.

Making my way across the room, I passed the dark corner where Eager, O' Malley and their Dutch medic were hunkered down. My eyes met Eager's and he nodded. Eager and O'Malley were American mercenaries, though they didn't like to think of themselves as such. The just claimed themselves as hired protection and nothing more. Their rifles told a different story.

Why the Prescott Group had felt it necessary to employ men of such questionable character for a chore that was so evidently unnecessary was beyond my comprehension, but following the strange noise in the wall, I was for the first time comforted by the presence of the men.

Once past the Mercenaries, I made my way to Professor Norcutt. As I approached his lip quivered, as if verging on a sneer, but then they pulled back into a condescending smile.

"What unsettles you, master Carter? Afraid of ... how did you call it? The boogeyman?" Norcutt sniped. "I thought all of my notions of this place were too fantastic to even consider by your reckoning."

It was strange how little his chiding bothered me then, where it would normally have incited anger.

Another thud and grind died away and again I heard the moving air, this time louder and more ominous.

"Tell me that you did not hear that?" I asked of the Professor, whose brow had furrowed at the sound's appearance. He stilled for a second, waiting as another blow was struck and again the sound was evident.

"Quentin," Norcutt said, ignoring my query and turning to his assistant, "what time is it?"

"Nearing four o'clock, sir," Quentin answered after checking his pocket watch.

Norcutt nodded, and seemed to pause in thought, but following another blow to the stone by Lusk, and another hackle raising movement of air, the professor seated himself in the cloth, folding chair he had asked me to bring for him.

"We shall be through by sunset as planned," Norcutt said, smiling. "And then master Carter, we shall see what there is to be seen. For now, I want you to go upstairs and wait for Professor Ludlow. He should be arriving shortly. If you could update him on our progress and then show him down here, I would appreciate it."

Norcutt spoke as though he was asking me to do him a favor, but he was very obviously issuing a demand.

I nodded, not bothering to respond verbally to his order. I actually silently thanked him for giving me reason to remove myself from the basement and the presence of that fell breathing beyond the wall.

As I was walking away, I heard the ominous sound once more, and then came the distant voice of Professor Norcutt as I ascended the creaking stairs.

"Moving air in a sealed chamber can only mean that my suspicions are correct..." he was saying as I passed from range and out of the cellar.

After pouring a cup of coffee from the thermos, I moved onto the porch that faced the narrow approach. Sipping at the still-hot beverage my mind wandered a bit to the argument with Norcutt that had prompted my invitation to this endeavor.

William Norcutt had been studying for many of these latter years of his life the intricate class system, beliefs, and history of the various druidic orders that had moved silently among the British Isles centuries ago. When I was granted permission to enroll at Prescott, Norcutt had been one of the reasons I was eager to begin. I had heard that his mind was sharp, and that none alive knew more of secret societies that moved behind the scenes of the world that we inhabited.

Norcutt the man had been a tremendous disappointment when compared to Norcutt the legend.