him out of trouble. Wel, out of the worst kind of trouble, anyways.
'Ventualy we fell apart. I had me a job, a good one, too, and there was a girl... but never mind 'bout that.
One night A. C. came around to my place, and he'd had too much to drink. Said he wanted to talk. Wel you know how drunks ramble. But there's rambling and rambling. My brother was looking at me sort of strange and breathing slow and heavy. And you know, Necroscope, I couldn't help but remember that night when Poppy told me about the balance between our obis, and how A. C. Doyle Jamieson wouldn't come into his own while Poppy was still alive; and how even then there 'd be me to steer a path for him. And I admit I thought: ' Wel, looks like A.C.'s about ready to start steering his own path!' and I thought: 'This boy wants my obi, too!'
Anyways, I asked him what was the trouble, and he told me the leader of another gang was after his skin. But A.C. could only catch a 'glimpse' of this boy every now and then. I mean, an obeah glimpse, you know? Like when Poppy knew that a enemy was after him? But this was serious stuff, and A.C. needed to know this guy's every move. But he couldn't, 'cos my obeah was blocking his! And I had heard 'bout this boy and knowed he was real bad stuff.
Wel, like a fool I told A.C. I'd rein back on it, and I did just that. I hadn't given my obi hardly a thought since my talk with Poppy, but now I concentrated on clearing the way for A.C. It weren't nothing physical, al in the mind. I just quit from giving of obi. 1 figure you knows what I'm talking 'bout, Necroscope, 'cos you be like that. But. . . oh, I had bad dreams for a couple nights, 'til A.C. came to see me again.
And by then it's been the time of the full moon, obi time, and I has seen in the papers how this other guy is dead and all tore up. And here's my brother, A.C. Doyle Jamieson, on top of the world, not like when I last saw him; 'cept just like before I couldn't believe that of him, not of my brother. But just in case, I lets my obi flow again; I send it out of me not just to guide but to counter Arthur! And he knows / done it, o' course.
How? 'Cos he picked up on.a enemy - me!
Wel, a month went by ... it was full moon time again ... and after that... I mean it was then that... Harry, I was out of it! But don't ask me to tell you 'bout it, 'cos I won't. Andyou already had it from the others. And it's because you had it from them that I knows it were Arthur. See, the way it happened to them is how it happened to me. Just exactly. So in the end I has to face up to it; but like I always tells myself, A. C. was my brother, after all...
'You will know, of course,' Harry told R.L. Stevenson Jamieson in a while, 'that the best your brother can expect is to be put away, probably for the rest of his days? And I do mean the very best he can expect.'
And the worst?
'He thinks he's a werewolf, R. L., and to my way of thinking he won't be safe even behind bars or in a padded cell!
But the worst is death. If he puts up a fight... well, he just has to lose. Because if he doesn't, other people will. They'll lose their lives.'
He sensed R. L. 's nod. / suppose I knowed that, deep down inside. Sure I did, 'cos if I hadn't, I wouldn't a come toyou. But I figured if he got to go, best at your hands, Necroscope.
'Not if I can help it, R.L.,' Harry shook his head. 'Not now I've spoken to you. But if it comes down to it ...'
I'll understand, R. L. told him. And Harry, if I can be of any help ...?
'Well, perhaps you can at that.' For out of the blue, the Necroscope had an idea. And: 'How's your obi, R.L.?'
Eh? (And Harry could almost see the surprised expression on the other's face). Why, it be gone down into the earth with me!
'Oh, really?' For Harry