It appeared that Robert de Langton had returned from the crusades with a mysterious and alluring foreign wife, reputedly of faerie blood, whom he called Prudence. His dutiful wife brought with her a curious dowry, an ornately carved sandalwood box, and the only request she ever made of her husband was that he never attempt to open the box and see what was inside. For seven years husband and wife lived happily until, one night, under the influence of alcohol, he decided to see what was in the box. Opening it he found a spectacular crown, a jar of rare oils and a statue. His curiosity satisfied he went to sleep. The following morning his beautiful wife, Prudence, was waiting for him when he awoke. She told him that she knew he had broken his vow and looked into the box and that, having done so, she would leave and he would never see him again. Surprisingly the story seemed to end happily for Robert re-married, had children and lived to a ripe old age.

Mortimer, hoping to find out more about Langton, went back to the library shelves, searching for more books concerning local legends. He quickly turned up another piece of information that might be useful. The occultist turned up a legend concerning a faerie gathering at a place called Riddlers Mound on Midsummer's Night. The legend was buried in a piece concerning other tumuli in the Cheltenham area. Although there was no direct mention of Langton the connection with faerie drew it to the keen eyed researcher's attention.

While we checked through the massed ranks of books in the library of 19 XXXXXXXXX Street the young computer wizard, Luke, was surfing the net, looking for anything relating to the Comte San Graal, Langton or the mysterious happenings off the New England coast. He uncovered a great deal of information relating to the missing man but, while doing so, also gained the interest of the unfriendly men from a foreign Intelligence Agency who attempted to trace his signal. Fortunately for all concerned the straight arrows of the Information Espionage section were no match for young Luke's formidable computer skills. Having evaded the attentions of America's bloodhounds Luke came down to inform Mortimer and I what he had discovered – at virtually the same moment Sergeant Jones returned with the others, bearing the fruit of their search of the Comte San Graal's home.

Now that the team was back together we collated the information we had gathered, to see if we could piece together what was behind the disappearances. Sergeant Jones and his team filled us in on what they had discovered.

The search of the missing man's room revealed a number of items of interest, among them a copy of his family tree going back over 700 years to the de Langton of local legend. They also discovered among his personal effects a number of letters addressed to an R. Fitzhubert, of the Chivalric Order of the Hermetic Order of the Veiled Temple, requesting that he be allowed membership of their order and that his title be recognised. The Knights of the Veiled Temple turned down his initial request politely but, as the disgruntled 'Comte' bombarded them with more missives, took an increasingly curt approach. Finally, perhaps in desperation, Langton attempted to blackmail Fitzhubert with pictures of his sexual pecadillos but, although the Hermeticist offered to pay for the pictures he still refused to let Robert join his exclusive order. Mortimer mentioned that the Hermetic Knights of the Veiled Temple were almost certainly a noble order dedicated to the preservation of Templar lore and might have links with a centuries old secret society who claim to have preserved the true bloodline of the Nazarene.

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