Bishop stood by and listened. But his mind was elsewhere. He was thinking of the Jack's killers and the threat they might pose. As the others spoke he headed to a phone to make a call to the office.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:58, Wed 12 Nov 2014.

  Annabel stood with the group, listening to the exchange. She had no idea if this professor could help them, but it certainly could not hurt to pick his brain for what he knows about cults. Cults, in this day and age, Annabel gave a slight shudder thinking of it. At least this sand bat one sounded like it was not part of them, hopefully.

"Bo, you should sit and rest," Rosalie urged.  His face looked strained to her and she could not imagine what sort of pain his wounds might be causing him.  "Come and sit with me."  She gestured to the guest chairs behind the lectern that afforded an excellent vantage of the entire hall and were within easy listening distance of the conversation between the two men.  While she'd spent much of her day on the train, Rosalie was weary from the travel and hadn't been all that keen on coming to the lecture in the first place.  Now that she'd heard the man, she wasn't quite sure what information the professor had that Jackson thought might be of use.

In reply to Rosalie Elias (msg # 57):

Bo hesitates, torn between fatigue and machismo. Then he sighs and lets Rosalie conduct him to one of the chairs, suppressing a slight groan as he sits down.

"Thanks, Rosalie. Good idea," he smiles at her.

After a moment he asks: "Do you want me to get you a pistol, something to carry around with you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 13:35, Thu 13 Nov 2014.

"You've hit the nail on the head, Dr. Elias. Most of my research dealing with cults specializes on the Sand Bat cult. The only thing I know of other cults comes from things I've read, which honestly is mostly found in your son's books," he said.
This message was last updated by the player at 16:55, Sat 15 Nov 2014.

Leo nodded, though was a little disappointed that the man's knowledge was mostly limited to this single cult. "You mentioned during your lecture that Mister MacWhirr recorded deaths in a similar fashion to the way people were killed by the cult centuries ago. Do you believe that the bat cult is returning?"

"Well now, hrmm," he said, stroking his beard. "That's the heart of it. Given all of your son's findings, I don't suppose it's out of the question, the cult returning - though I never thought it should be the case before I came across MacWhirr and his slides and tales. For students of anthropology, I deliberately left that conclusion vague and unstated, so they may draw it on their own or at least think about the possibilities. As for my own view, I am afraid that this is all too similar to the modus operandi of the original cult. I cannot but think that someone is trying to resurrect it, or perhaps that it never quite went away, but only underground."

Bo speaks up from his seat nearby: "What's the link between Australian aborigines and Negroes in Harlem, Professor?"

"Link? I'm not sure there's any link at all," he said looking a bit perplexed at the question from the seated man.

Philip watched and listened intently.  He knew so little about what had been happening that he didn't want to miss a thing.

"Unless of course, you're suggesting that there's some evidence linking these men you speak of to Australia or the Sand Bat cult. I might be able to help you there. None of my work concerns Negro cults in Harlem, so I'm afraid I can't offer much guidance on the subject. That seems like something Jackson Elias might have looked into more than me, I daresay," he said.

Leo still had a few more questions for the professor, but he waited for Bo to explain what he was thinking. Perhaps there was something Leo hadn't considered that would provide a linkage between the two groups.

In reply to Professor Anthony Cowles (msg # 65):

"I don't know," Walter replies slowly, "The clubs with the bats teeth just sounded like the marks made on Jackson's head is all. Sorry. It's been a long day."

"There were teeth marks on his head?" he asked, intrigued. "Small punctures in a random array?"

"That's what I understand, yeah. I didn't get much of a look at it myself. Leo, what would you say?"

Leo nodded slowly. "Something along those lines. I don't think we brought a copy of the pattern with us, but I could probably sketch something similar from memory if you have paper and pen available."

He readily offers both paper and pen to Dr. Elias to have him draw the symbol.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:01, Wed 19 Nov 2014.

Leo sketched the symbol as he recalled it, though with lines and slashes rather than two-dimensional representations.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm afraid I've never seen anything like this before. I'm afraid you might have misunderstood me earlier. The bat teeth form a random pattern, whereas this was purposefully drawn," he said.

Leo frowned briefly. "Huh. I guess that's a dead end. This bat cult, though, about when do you think it went into dormancy? And when were the attacks that Mister MacWhirr documented in his journals?"

"Well, I originally thought it went into dormancy hundreds of years ago - before the British arrived in Australia, to be sure. I hesitate to put a date on such things, especially considering MacWhirr's story. That was roughly a dozen years ago - his entry was dated the 17th of April, 1912, I believe," he said.

Leo nodded. "And did you discover any other tales of this 'Rainbow Snake'? Or is there a Rainbow Snake cult or anything of that kind?"

Bishop returned from making as telephone call stood quietly watching and listening. It appeared the lecture had nothing to do with Jack's death, but Bishop would leave that to the others to decide.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:54, Sat 22 Nov 2014.

Philip listened with interest.  He had never come across any references to these cults before and he was making mental notes.

There could be another book in this!

"I'm afraid not. None of my research has mentions of the Rainbow Snake, and there are no records of such a group - at least that I have been able to find," he said.

He pulls out a business card with his contact information and hands it to Leo. "Here's my contact information in Australia. I'm leaving to return to Australia in a few days, so you can reach me there if you have any other questions. Unless there's anything further, I've actually kept my daughter Ewa waiting for quite some time. She'll start to get worried if I'm out too much longer."