The Ka of Gifford Hillary (34 page)

Daisy had given a little shudder and gasped: ‘Oh Johnny! What an awful thought. I suppose it’s possible. But no; that sort of thing doesn’t happen in these days. The doctors have methods of doing things now that they didn’t have in the past. They always make really certain that a person’s gone before they sign the death certificate.’

‘God knows I hope you’re right!’ Johnny muttered. ‘All the same, the more I think of it the more the idea worries me. You see it’s the only one that fits all the facts as we know them.’

‘It is, if you are right about it being your uncle who appeared to me; but I don’t believe you are, dear. I’d bet six dozen pairs of nylons against a smack on the behind that it was someone who was mixed up in your uncle’s death, and has an axe to grind in putting a stop to your detecting.’

‘It couldn’t have been. There is too great a weight of evidence against that.’

‘Honest, ducks, there isn’t. The message he sent you was just the sort of thing he would have sent if he’d been what I think; and if he is a real “black” he may have psychic powers far beyond what’s common. It’s true that etheric doubles mostly appear as themselves and in the clothes their body is wearing. But if it was him that killed your uncle, he’d know what he looked like and how he was dressed, and he might have willed me to see him just as your uncle was a few minutes before his death. That would account for their descriptions tallying, and even for the double stripe on the trousers. See what I mean?’

‘I do, Daisy. But I don’t subscribe to it. Uncle Giff never dabbled in the occult, neither does Ankaret. I’d be sure to have heard of it if they had. The idea that he was killed by a black magician is much too far-fetched. And even that would not account for the message about the suit-case.’

‘I’ve already told you that this “black” might have been overlooking you.’

‘No. However great his supernatural powers his consciousness could not be in more than one place at a time; and the odds against its having been in one particular place at three o’clock this afternoon are fantastic. It is frightful to have to consider the alternative. But I’ve got to. And what is more I’ll have to do something about it.’

‘What can you do?’

‘Damned if I know!’ Johnny gave her a worried look. ‘But we can’t just leave things like this. Put into words it sounds about as hopeful as to enquire about life on Mars; but I suppose the best way to start would be for me to try to find out a bit more about the behaviour of etheric doubles.’

‘There are plenty of books about that.’

‘Maybe, but ninety per cent of those sort of books are bally-hoo written by cranks or crooks who don’t really know anything.’

‘You can’t say that of the ancient writings. The priests of the old civilisations studied such things for hundreds of years. They were the scientists of those days, and they found out an awful lot; particularly the Egyptians. Not only the priests, but most of the better off ones, spent a good part of their lives
preparing for their deaths by building tombs for themselves and furnishing them. Being so taken up with the after life it stands to reason that they learned more than any other people about the supernatural. Lots of the papyrus they left have been translated; so you could read some of them.’

‘No; that’s no good. It might be if I had the time; but I dipped into one once and it would take me weeks to extract the sort of information I want from such a mass of gibberish. This thing is urgent; perhaps desperately so. I’ve got to get a better line on it right away.’

‘Why not try the Society for Psychical Research, then?’

‘Ah!’ Johnny came quickly to his feet. ‘That really is a good idea. May I use your telephone?’

‘Of course, ducks.’

Johnny disappeared into her bedroom. He was away for quite a time, but when he came back he was smiling.

‘That’s fixed,’ he told her. ‘When I said that I wanted to consult someone about etheric doubles, the girl who answered the ‘phone said would I write in and make an appointment. I pulled a fast one then by telling her that I was an R.A.F. officer on leave in London for only one night. By luck there is a meeting going on there at the moment, and being a good sort said she’d see what she could do. She got hold of a chap called Wilfred Tibitts who has agreed to see me in his flat in Tavistock Square at half-past nine this evening.’

Daisy returned his smile, but shook her head. ‘I’m afraid you’re wasting your time, Johnny. Still, perhaps a talk with an expert will convince you that your uncle really is dead, and so set your mind at rest.’

‘I hope to God you’re right,’ he rejoined feelingly. ‘And now, how about some dinner? We might go to the Clarendon. That would save us from getting stuck in a traffic jam up West.’

‘O.K. by me, Johnny.’ Daisy stood up. ‘I’ll get my things on. I won’t be a jiffy.’

She was considerably longer than the word implied, but when she emerged from her bedroom she was, as they say, an ‘eye-full’. Her clothes were just a shade too loud, and her make-up a trifle too obvious, to be in impeccable taste; but, all the same, she would have passed anywhere as a
respectable film starlet and most men would have felt rather pleased to be seen with her.

That fine old coaching inn, the Clarendon on Hammersmith Broadway, still maintains an excellent restaurant, and although Johnny’s thoughts obviously drifted from his pretty companion from time to time, they both made a very good meal. Afterwards he dropped her at Earls Court Station, garaged his car, and went on by tube to keep his appointment with Mr. Tibitts.

When Johnny rang the bell of a first-floor flat on the south side of Tavistock Square, it was answered by a short round man of about sixty. His head was bald except for wisps of grey hair above his ears, and his friendly grin was made a little alarming by front teeth which stood out like those of a rabbit.

‘Come in,’ he said. ‘Come in. Pleased to meet you.’

‘Thank you, Sir. It’s very good of you to see me at such short notice.’ Johnny returned the vigorous handshake and followed his new acquaintance down a high narrow passage into a lofty ill-proportioned room.

The houses in Tavistock Square had been built in late Georgian times to accommodate single well-to-do families, but the decline of the district had resulted in most of them being cut up into a number of apartments early in the present century, when the conversion of such mansions was still in its infancy. The big L-shaped drawing-room on the first floor, into a part of which Mr Tibitts led Johnny, had been partitioned off into three, with results which were architecturally disastrous. Nevertheless, crammed book-shelves on all four walls and two easy-chairs beside the fire-place made it far from uncomfortable.

‘Now,’ said Mr. Tibitts, having waved Johnny to one of the chairs. ‘Let’s hear about your trouble. I may as well tell you at once, though, that if you have children or a pregnant woman in the house you may be certain that they are at the bottom of it.’

Johnny looked distinctly puzzled, but Mr. Tibitts smiled genially and went on: ‘The genuine poltergeist is very rare; in fact a very rare bird indeed. But if you are really being troubled by one nothing would give me greater pleasure than to investigate it.’

‘I’m afraid there is some mistake,’ Johnny murmured. ‘The matter I wish to consult you about has nothing to do with poltergeists.’

‘Oh dear!’ The little man was clearly distressed. ‘That’s very disappointing. That fool of a girl in the office knows perfectly well that my special subject is poltergeists. Still, as you are here—if there is any other way that I can help you.’

‘I’m sure you can.’ Johnny waved a hand towards the serried rows of books. ‘If you have read even half of these your knowledge of the supernatural must be immense.’

‘So-so,’ admitted Mr. Tibitts, ‘so-so. The unknown, or the unexplained to be more accurate, has been my principal interest all my life. But the subject is vast and its ramifications are innumerable. I’m weak on werewolves, for example, and vampires. Central Europe is the place for them, and I’ve never been able to afford to go there.’

Johnny only half suppressed a smile. ‘This is nothing so … so out of the ordinary as that. Four days ago my uncle died, and he has since twice appeared to a lady of my acquaintance.’

‘Tell me about her. Is she a professional medium?’

‘No. Her mother was, though; and she used to tell fortunes herself, but gave it up several years ago.’

Mr. Tibitt’s protruding teeth thrust themselves out in a sudden grin. ‘Don’t trust her, my friend. Hysteria or trickery. Probably the latter. Women with just a smattering of psychic knowledge often get up to these games to impress their men friends. I’ve exposed scores of them, hundreds in my time. That is the function of the Society, you know. Some people believe that we are delighted to go and gape at any so-called manifestation, but that’s not the case at all. Our aim is research and we conduct our investigations just as seriously as any other scientific body. In fact we spend most of our time unmasking fakes.’

‘Are you then still a sceptic?’ Johnny asked.

‘No, no; far from it. No one who studies these matters with an open mind could possibly remain so for long. Mental telepathy for example is now a proven fact. Foreknowledge of coming events is another matter upon which there can no longer be any reasonable doubt. And in my opinion the evidence
for survival after death is overwhelming. But we have to sort out the wheat from the chaff, and unfortunately there is far more chaff than wheat.’

‘What you say gives me all the more confidence in consulting you. But I don’t think that in this case there can be any question of trickery. There is good reason to believe that the young woman concerned inherited a certain degree of psychic sensitivity. I have known her well for quite a time, and she has nothing to gain by deceiving me. In fact it was I who persuaded her, more or less against her will, to try to find out what had happened to my uncle.’

‘I take it you mean whether he is happy in the beyond. Well, what results did she get—or tell you that she got?’

‘He, or a form that resembled him in every particular, appeared to her. Personally, owing to certain messages this apparition sent me through her, I am convinced that it was my uncle. The puzzling part of the matter is that, although I saw him myself in a state that I believed to be death, and the doctors certified to be death, she saw him three days later as an etheric double.’

‘Very interesting. Quite extraordinary in fact—that is if she is really capable of judging such matters.’

‘She says she has often seen night-walkers, as she calls them, and that after the death of her mother and father she was several times visited by their spirits. So she ought to know the difference. That is, if there is one?’

‘Oh, she is right about that. No one who has seen both could possibly mistake the double of a living person for his immortal spirit.’

‘Perhaps you would be kind enough to explain to me about these supernatural qualities with which it seems we are all endowed. My friend said that the ancient Egyptians had got further than any other people in their investigations of such mysteries, and I don’t doubt that you have read a lot of their writings on the subject.’

‘I have; and very interesting they are. Your friend was right, of course, about their having made a scientific study of the occult. In fact no other people have ever been so greatly preoccupied with what would happen to them after they were dead. I would not say, though, that they had got further in penetrating the veil than ourselves.’

‘Why should you think that?’ Johnny enquired.

‘Because they lacked the scientific instruments that we possess. They had no electrical appliances or infra-red photography with which to check results. Nevertheless their basic theory on the immortal attributes of man was sound, and has never been questioned all through the ages. I say basic because the truth, as we still believe it, must have been discovered in very ancient times, but as happens in all religions it later became distorted by many generations of priests. Or perhaps I should say over-elaborated by the hair-splitting which is a fault common to the theologians of all races.’

Mr. Tibitts began to fill a pipe, and went on: ‘Anyone who tried to get at the underlying truth by reading the papyri of the middle and later dynasties would become hopelessly confused. By then they had divided the spiritual attributes of the personality into the Ka or Double, the Sáhu or Spirit Body, the Khaibit or Shadow, and the Khu or Spirit Soul. They complicated things even further by attributing a separate soul to the Ka, which they called the Ba, and maintaining that the Heart also had independent non-physical qualities.’

Johnny smiled. ‘I’m glad that I didn’t adopt my friend’s suggestion and attempt to unravel the mysteries for myself.’

‘You wouldn’t have got far if you had.’ Mr. Tibitt’s rabbit teeth flashed in a responsive grin. ‘What is more, as you are interested in etheric doubles you would have been sadly misled. In their anxiety to protect every non-physical attribute that they had from attack by evil forces they put up separate defences for them all. Having endowed the Ka with a soul they had to protect that, hence the little statues of themselves called Ka figures that they had buried with them in their tombs. The Ka figure was for the Ka soul to live in when it was compelled to leave the physical body at death. They believed too that it needed food and clothing and could make use of the etheric counterparts of such necessities when they were placed in the tomb with it. The funeral tests are full of exhortations to relatives to provide a plentitude of the good things of this life for the Ka of the deceased. Through many generations they must have wasted millions upon millions of pounds worth of goods in this way; because, of course, their theologians had led them into error about the continued existence of the Ka. When a person dies it ceases to exist.’

‘Are you fully convinced about that?’

‘Entirely. We cannot yet explain the Ka scientifically; but all of us are charged with electricity, and it is now believed that the Ka’s function is that of a generator, which leaves the body in sleep and on its return recharges us so that we can undertake fresh activities. It is that which makes sleep imperative; for if we don’t sleep, and give the Ka a chance to do its work, we run down. You will see for yourself that when the physical body is dead the Ka no longer has any function to perform. It is, for all practical purposes, a part of the physical body; so dies with it.’