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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34522-8.txt b/34522-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..20874ba --- /dev/null +++ b/34522-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10871 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Secret of the League, by Ernest Bramah + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Secret of the League + The Story of a Social War + +Author: Ernest Bramah + +Release Date: November 30, 2010 [EBook #34522] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + + THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE + + The Story of a Social War + + By ERNEST BRAMAH + + + THOMAS NELSON + AND SONS + + + + +[Illustration: She began to unbuckle the frozen straps of his gear.] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. IRENE + +II. THE PERIOD, AND THE COMING OF WINGS + +III. THE MILLION TO ONE CHANCE + +IV. THE COMPACT + +V. THE DOWNTRODDEN + +VI. MISS LISLE TELLS A LONG POINTLESS STORY + +VII. "SCHEDULE B" + +VIII. TANTROY EARNS HIS WAGE + +IX. SECRET HISTORY + +X. THE ORDER OF ST. MARTIN OF TOURS + +XI. MAN BETWEEN TWO MASTERS + +XII. BY TELESCRIBE + +XIII. THE EFFECT OF THE BOMB + +XIV. THE LAST CHANCE AND THE COUNSEL OF EXPEDIENCE + +XV. THE GREAT FIASCO + +XVI. THE DARK WINTER + +XVII. THE INCIDENT OF THE 13TH OF JANUARY + +XVIII. THE MUSIC AND THE DANCE + +XIX. THE "FINIS" MESSAGE + +XX. STOBALT OF SALAVEIRA + +XXI. THE BARGAIN OF FAMINE + +XXII. "POOR ENGLAND" + + + + +THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +IRENE + + +"I suppose I am old-fashioned"--there was a murmur of polite dissent +from all the ladies present, except the one addressed--"Oh, I take it as +a compliment nowadays, I assure you; but when I was a girl a young lady +would have no more thought of flying than of"--she paused almost on a +note of pained surprise at finding the familiar comparison of a lifetime +cut off--"well, of standing on her head." + +"No," replied the young lady in point, with the unfeeling candour that +marked the youthful spirit of the age, "because it wasn't invented. But +you went bicycling, and your mothers were very shocked at first." + +"I hardly think that you can say that, Miss Lisle," remarked another of +the matrons, "because I can remember that more than twenty years ago one +used to see quite elderly ladies bicycling." + +"After the others had lived all the ridicule down," retorted Miss Lisle +scornfully. "Oh yes; I quite expect that in a few more years you will +see quite elderly ladies flying." + +The little party of matrons seated on the Hastings promenade regarded +each other surreptitiously, and one or two smiled slightly, while one or +two shuddered slightly. "Flying is very different, dear," said Mrs Lisle +reprovingly. "I often think of what your dear grandfather used to say. +He said"--impressively--"that if the Almighty had intended that we +should fly, He would have sent us into the world with wings upon our +backs." + +There was a murmur of approval from all--all except Miss Lisle, that is. + +"But do you ever think of what Geoffrey replied to dear grandpapa when +he heard him say that once, mother?" said the unimpressed daughter. "He +said: 'And don't you think, sir, that if the Almighty had intended us to +use railways, He would have sent us into the world with wheels upon our +feet?'" + +"I do not see any connection at all between the two things," replied her +mother distantly. "And such a remark seems to me to be simply +irreverent. Birds are born with wings, and insects, and so on, but +nothing, as far as I am aware, is born with wheels. Your grandfather +used to travel by the South Eastern regularly every day, or how could he +have reached his office? and he never saw anything wrong in using +trains, I am sure. In fact, when you think of it you will see that what +Geoffrey said, instead of being any argument, was supremely silly." + +"Perhaps he intended it to be," replied Miss Lisle with suspicious +meekness. "You never know, mother." + +Such a remark merited no serious attention. Why should any one, least of +all a really clever young man like Geoffrey, deliberately _intend_ to be +silly? There was too often, her mother had observed, an utter lack of +relevance in Irene's remarks. + +"I think that it is a great mistake to have white flying costumes as so +many do," observed another lady. "They look--but perhaps they wish to." + +"Certainly when they use lace as well it really seems as though they do. +Oh!" + +There was a passing shadow across the group and a slight rustle in the +air. Scarcely a dozen yards above the promenade a young lady was flying +strongly down the wind with the languid motion of the "swan stroke." She +wore white--and lace trimming. Mrs Lisle gazed fixedly out to sea. Even +Irene felt that the vision was inopportune. + +"There are always some who overdo a thing," she remarked. "There always +have been. That was only Velma St Saint of the New Gaiety; she flies +about the front every day for the advertisement of the thing: I wonder +that she doesn't drop handbills as she goes. There's plenty of room up +on the Castle Hill--in fact, you aren't supposed to fly west of the +Breakwater--but there will always be some----" A vague resentment closed +the period. + +"Are you staying at the Palatial this time?" asked the lady who had +mentioned lace, feeling it tactful to change the subject. "I think that +you used to." + +"Oh, haven't you seen?" was the reply. "The Palatial has been closed for +the last six months." + +"Yes, it's a great pity," remarked another. "It looks so depressing too, +right on the front. But they simply could not go on. I suppose that the +rates here are something frightful now." + +"Oh, enormous, my dear; but it was not that alone. The Palatial has +always aimed at being a 'popular' hotel, and so few of the upper middle +class can afford hotels now. Then the new tax on every servant above +one--calculated as fifty per cent. of their wages, I think, but there +are so many new taxes to remember--proved the last straw." + +"Yes, it is fifty per cent. I remember because I had to give up my +between-maid to pay the cook's tax. But I thought that hotels were to be +exempt?" + +"Not in the end. It was argued that hotels existed for the convenience +of the monied classes, and that they ought to pay for it. So a large +number of hotels are closed altogether; others work with a reduced +staff, and a great many servants have been thrown out of employment." + +Miss Lisle laughed unpleasantly. "A good thing, too," she remarked. "I +hate hotel servants. So does everybody. It is the only good thing I have +heard of the Labour Government doing." + +"I am sure I don't hate them," said Mrs Lisle, looking round with +pathetic resignation, "although they certainly had become rather +grasping and over-bearing of late. But it was quite an unforeseen +development of the scheme that so many should lose their places. Indeed +the special object of the tax was to create a fund--'earmarked' I think +they call it--out of which to meet the growing pension claim, now that +so few of the servant class think it worth while to save." + +Miss Lisle laughed again, this time with a note of genuine amusement. + +("A most unpleasant girl, I fear," murmured the lady who had raised the +white costume question, to her neighbour in a whisper: "so odd.") + +"It made a great difference at the registry offices. There are a dozen +maids to be had any day where there were really none before. Only one +cannot afford to keep them now." + +There was a word, a sigh, and an "Ah!" to mark this point of agreement +among the four ladies. + +"I am afraid that the Government confiscation of all dividends above +five per cent. bears very heavily on some," remarked one after a pause. +"I know a poor soul of over sixty-five, nearly blind too, whose husband +had invested all his savings in the company he had worked for because he +knew that it was safe, and, having a good reserve, intended to pay ten +per cent. for a long time. When he died it brought her in fifty pounds a +year. Now----" + +There were little signs of sympathy and commiseration from the group. +The sex was beginning to take an unwonted interest in terms +financial--per centage, surrender value, trustee stock, unearned +increment, and so on. They had reason to do so, for revolutionary +finance was very much in the air, or, rather, had come tangibly down to +earth at length: not the placid city echoes that were wont to ripple +gently across the breakfast-table a few years earlier without leaving +any one much better or much worse off, but the galvanic adjustment that +by a stroke made the rich well-to-do, the well-to-do just so-so, the +struggling poor, and left the poor where they were before. The frenzied +effort that in a session strove to tear up the trees of the forest and +leave the plants beneath untouched; to pull to pieces the intertwined +fabric of a thousand years' growth and to create from it a bundle of +straight and equal twigs; in a word, to administer justice on the +principle of knocking out one eye in all the sound because a number of +people were unfortunately born or fallen blind. + +"Five and twenty," mused Mrs Lisle. "I suppose it is just possible." + +"It is really less than that," explained the other. "You may have +noticed that as it is now no good making more than five per cent., most +companies pay even less. There is no incentive to do well." + +"One hears of even worse cases on every hand," said another of the +ladies. "I am trying to interest people in a poor deformed creature +whose father left her an annuity derived from ground rents in the +City.... As it has been worked out I think that she owes the Incomes +Adjustment Department lawyers something a year now. But private charity +seems almost to have ceased altogether. Have you heard that 'Jim's' is +closed?" + +It was true. St James's Hospital, whose unvarnished record was, "Three +hundred of the very poor treated freely each day," was a thing of the +past, and across its portal, where ten years before a couple of stalwart +gentlemen wearing red ties had rested for a moment, while they lit their +pipes, a banner with the strange device, "Curse your Charity!" now ran +the legend, "Closed for want of Funds." + +"I wonder sometimes," mused the last speaker, "why some one doesn't do +something." + +"But," objected another, "what is there to do? What is there?" + +They all agreed that there was nothing--absolutely nothing. Every one +else was tacitly making the same admission; that was the fatal symptom. + +Miss Lisle jumped up and began to move away unceremoniously. + +"Where are you going, dear?" asked her mother in mild reproof. + +"Oh, anywhere," replied Irene restlessly. + +"But what for?" persisted Mrs Lisle. + +"Oh, anything." + +"That is 'nothing,' Miss Lisle," smiled the tactful lady of the party, +anxious to smooth over the awkwardness of the moment. + +"No, it is at least something," flung back the girl brusquely; and with +swinging strides she set off at a furious pace towards the open country. + +"Irene is a little impulsive at times," apologized her mother, sitting +back with placidly folded hands. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE PERIOD, AND THE COMING OF WINGS + + +An intelligent South Sea Islander, who had been imported into this +country to stimulate missionary enterprise, on his return had said that +the most marked characteristic of the English of the period was what +they called "snap." + +The nearest equivalent in his own language signifying literally "quick +hot words," he had some difficulty in conveying the impression he +desired, and his circle had to rest content that "snap" permeated the +journalism, commerce, politics, drama, and social life of the English, +had assailed their literature, and was beginning to influence religion, +art, and science. It may be admitted that the foreign gentleman's visit +had coincided with a period of national stress, for the week in question +had embraced the more entertaining half of a general election, seen the +advent of two new farthing daily papers, and been marked by the Rev. +Sebastian Tauthaul's striking series of addresses from the pulpit of the +City Sanctum, entitled "If Christ put up for Battersea." It had also +included the launching of a new cocoa, a new soap, and a new +concentrated food. + +The new food was called "Chip-Chunks." "A name which I venture to think +spells success of itself," complacently remarked its inventor. "A very +good name indeed," admitted his advertising manager. "It has the great +desideratum that it might be anything, and, on the other hand, it might +equally well be nothing." "Just so," said the inventor with weighty +approval; "just so." A "snap-line" was required that would ineradicably +fix Chip-Chunks in the public mind, and "Bow-wow! Feel chippy? Then +champ Chip-Chunks" was found in an inspired moment. It was, of course, +fully cooked and already quite digested. It was described as the delight +of the unweaned infant, the mainstay of the toothless nonagenarian, and +so simple and wholesome that it could be safely taken and at once +assimilated by the invalid who had undergone the operation of having his +principal organ of digestion removed. So little, indeed, remained for +nature and the human parts to do in the matter of Chip-Chunks as to +raise the doubt whether it might not be simpler and scarcely less +nutritive to open the tin and pour the contents down the drain +forthwith. + +As Chip-Chunks was designed for those who were disinclined to exercise +the functions of digestion, so Isabella soap made an appeal to those who +disliked work and had something of an antipathy to soap at all. One did +not wash with Isabella, it was assured: one sat down and watched it. It +had its "snap-lines," too: + +"You write it 'wash,' but you call it 'wosh.' + +"What is the difference? + +"There is 'a' difference. + +"There is also 'a' difference between Isabella soap and all other soaps: + +"All the difference. + +"That's our point. Put it in your washtub and watch it." + + * * * * * + +Cocoa was approached in a more sober spirit. Soap may blow bubbles of +light and airy fancy, pills _ricochet_ from one gay conceit to another, +meat extracts gambol with the irresponsible exuberance of bulls in china +cups, but cocoa relied upon sincerity and statistics. Kingcup cocoa was +the last word of the expert. It won its way into the great heart of the +people by driving home the significant fact that it contained .00001 per +cent. more phosphorus, and .000002 per cent. less of something fatty, +than any other cocoa in existence. When the newspaper reader of the +period had been confronted by this assertion, in various guises, +seventeen thousand times, he had reached a state of mind in which .00001 +per cent. more phosphorus and .000002 per cent. less fat represented the +difference between vigorous manhood and drivelling imbecility. + +The Rev. Sebastian was all "snap." His topical midday +addresses--described by himself as "Seven minutes +sandwich-sermonettes"--have already been referred to. Young men who were +pressed for time were bidden to bring their bath buns or buttered scones +and eat openly and unashamed. Workmen with bread and cheese and pots of +beer were welcomed with effusion. This particular series extended over +the working days of a week, and was subdivided thus: + + _Monday._--The Issues before the Constituency. + + _Tuesday._--His Address to the Electors. + + _Wednesday._--The Day of the Contest. + + _Thursday._--Which Way are you Voting? + + _Friday._--Spoiled Papers. + + _Saturday._--At the Top of the Poll and the Leader of + our Party. + + * * * * * + +Of the new papers, of their sprightliness, their enterprise, their +general all-roundness, their almost wicked experience of the ways of the +world, from a quite up-to-date fund of junior office witticism to a +knowledge of the existence of actresses who do not act, outwardly +respectable circles of society who play cards for money on Sunday, and +(exclusively for the benefit of their readers) places where quite +high-class provisions (only nominally damaged) could be bought cheap on +Saturday nights, it is unnecessary to say much. Of their irresponsible +cock-sureness, their bristling combativeness, their amazing powers of +prophetic penetration, and, it must be confessed, their ineradicable air +of somewhat second-rate infant phenomenonship, their crumbling yellow +files still bear witness. As a halfpenny is half a penny, so a farthing +is half a halfpenny, and the mind that is not too appalled by the +possibilities of the development can people for itself this journalistic +Eden. + +_The Whip_ described its programme as "Vervy and nervy; brainy and +champagny." _The Broom_ relied more on solider attractions of the "News +of the World in Pin Point Pars" and "Knowledge in Nodules" order. Both +claimed to be written exclusively by "brainy" people, and both might +have added, with equal truth, read exclusively by brainless. Avowedly +appealing "to the great intellect of the nation," neither fell into the +easy mistake of aiming too high, and the humblest son of toil might take +them up with the fullest confidence of finding nothing from beginning to +end that was beyond his simple comprehension. + +But the most cursory review of national "snappishness" would be +incomplete if it omitted the field of politics, especially when the +period in question contained so concentrated an accumulation of "snap" +as a general election. Contests had long ceased to be decided on the +merits of individuals or of parties, still less to be the occasions for +deliberate consideration of policy. Each group had its label and its +"snap-cries." The outcome as a whole--the decision of each division with +few exceptions--lay in the hands of a class which, while educated to the +extent of a little reading and a little writing, was practically +illiterate in thought, in experience, and in discrimination. To them a +"snap-cry" was eminently suited, as representing a concrete idea and +being in fact the next best argument to a decayed egg. That national +disaster had never so far been evolved out of this rough-and-ready +method could be traced to a variety of saving clauses. At such a time +the strict veracity of the cries raised was not to be too closely +examined; indeed, there was not the time for contradiction, and therein +lay the essence of some of the most successful "snaps." + +Misrepresentation, if on a sufficiently large scale, was permissible, +but it was advisable to make it wholesale, lurid, and applied not to an +individual but to a party--emphasising, of course, the fact that your +opponent was irretrievably pledged to that party through thick and thin. + +In other words, it was quite legitimate for A to declare that the policy +of the party to which his opponent B belonged was a policy of murder, +rapine, piracy, black-mail, highway robbery, extermination, and +indiscriminate bloodshed; that they had swum to office on a sea of tears +racked from the broken hearts of an outraged peasantry, risen to power +on the apex of a smoking hecatomb of women and children, and kept their +position by methods of ruthless barbarism; that assassination, polygamy, +thuggeeism, simony, bureaucracy, and perhaps even an additional penny on +the poor man's tea, would very likely be found included in their +official programme; that they were definitely pledged to introduce +Kalmucks and Ostyaks into the Government Dock-yards, who would work in +chained gangs, be content with three farthings for a fourteen hours' +day, and live exclusively on engine waste and barley-water. + +This and much more was held to be fair political warfare which should +not offend the keenest patriot. But if A so far descended to vulgar +personalities as to accuse B himself of employing an urchin to scare +crows at eightpence a day when the trade union rate for crow-scaring was +ninepence, he stood a fair chance of having an action for libel or +defamation of character on his hands in addition to an election. + +Under such a system the least snappy went to the wall. Happy was the man +who was armed not necessarily with a just cause, but with a name that +lent itself to topical alliteration. Who could resist the appeal to + + Vote for Frank Blarney. + Fresh Brooms in Parliament. + Fewer Bungles during the next five years. + Financial Betterment at home. + Free Breakfast-tables for the People. + Flourishing Businesses all round. + +--especially when it was coupled with the reminder that + +Every vote given to A. J. Wallflower is a slice of bread filched from +your innocent children's hard-earned loaf. + + * * * * * + +Of course the schools could not escape the atmosphere. The State-taught +children were wonderfully snappy--for the time being. Afterwards, it +might be noticed, that when the props were pulled away they were +generally either annoyingly dull or objectionably pert, or, perhaps, +offensively dully-pert, according to whether their nature was backward +or forward, or a mixture of both. The squad-drilled units could remember +wonderfully well--for the time; they could apply the rules they learned +in just the way they were taught to apply them--for the time. But they +could not remember what they had not been drilled to remember; they +could not apply the rules in any other way; they could not apply the +principles at all; and they could not think. + +High and low, children were not allowed to think; with ninety-nine +mothers out of a hundred its proper name was "idleness." "I do not like +to see you sitting down doing nothing, dear," said every mother to every +daughter plaintively. "Is there no sewing you might do?" So the would-be +thoughtful child was harried into working, or playing, or eating, or +sleeping, as though a mind contentedly occupied with itself was an +unworthy or a morbid thing. + +Yet it was a too close adherence to the national character that proved +to be the undoing of Wynchley Slocombe, who is now generally admitted to +have been the father of the form of aerial propulsion so widely enjoyed +to-day. Like everybody else, he had read the offer of the Traffic and +Locomotion Department of a substantial reward for a satisfactory +flying-machine, embracing "any contrivance ... that would by +demonstration enable one or more persons, freed from all earth-support +or connection (_a_) to remain stationary at will, at any height between +50 and 1500 feet; (_b_) at that height to travel between two points one +mile apart within a time limit of seven minutes and without deviating +more than fifty yards from a straight line connecting the two points; +(_c_) to travel in a circle of not less than three miles in +circumference within a time limit of fifteen minutes." Wynchley took an +ordinary intelligent interest in the subject, but he had no thought of +competing. + +It was not until the last day of the period allowed for submitting plans +that Wynchley's great idea occurred to him. There was then no time for +elaborating the germ or for preparing the requisite specifications, even +if he had any ability to do so, which he had not, being, in fact, quite +ignorant of the subject. But he remembered hearing in his youth that +when a former Government of its day had offered a premium for a +convenient method of dividing postage stamps (until that time sold in +unperforated sheets and cut up as required by the users), the successful +competitor had simply tendered the advice, "Punch rows of little holes +between them." In the same spirit Wynchley Slocombe took half a sheet of +silurian notepaper (now become famous, and preserved in the South +Kensington Museum) and wrote on it, "Fasten on a pair of wings, and +practise! practise!! practise!!!" It was to be the aerial counterpart of +"Gunnery! Gunnery!! Gunnery!!!" + +Unfortunately, the departmental offices were the only places in England +where "snap" was not recognised. Wynchley was regarded as a suicidal +lunatic--a familiar enough figure in flying-machine circles--and his +suggestion was duly pigeon-holed without consideration. + +The subsequent career of the unhappy man may be briefly stated. +Disappointed in his hopes of an early recognition, and not having +sufficient money at his disposal to demonstrate the practicability of +his idea, he took to writing letters to the President of the Board, and +subsequently to waylaying high officials and demanding interviews with +them. Dismissed from his situation for systematic neglect of duty, he +became a "poor litigant with a grievance" at the Law Courts, and +periodically applied for summonses against the Prime Minister, the Lord +Mayor of London, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Still later his name +became a by-word as that of a confirmed window-breaker at the Government +offices. A few years afterwards, a brief paragraph in one or two papers +announced that Wynchley Slocombe, "who, some time ago, gained an +unenviable notoriety on account of his hallucinations," had committed +suicide in a Deptford model lodging-house. + +In the meanwhile two plans for flying-machines had been selected as +displaying the most merit, and their inventors were encouraged to press +on with the construction under a monetary grant. Both were finished +during the same week, and for the sake of comparison they were submitted +to trial on the same day upon Shorncliffe plain. _Vimbonne VI._, which +resembled a much-distended spider with outspread legs, made the first +ascent. According to instructions, it was to demonstrate its ability to +go in a straight line by descending in a field near the Military Canal, +beyond Seabrook, but from the moment of its release it continued to +describe short circles with a velocity hitherto unattained in any +air-ship, until its frantic constructor was too dizzy to struggle with +its mechanism any longer. The _Moloch_ was then unmoored, and took up +its position stationary at a height of 1000 feet with absolute +precision. It was built on the lines of a gigantic centipede, with two +rows of clubby oars beneath, and ranked as the popular favourite. Being +instructed, for the sake of variety, to begin with the three mile +circle, the _Moloch_ started out to sea on the flash of the gun, the +sinuous motion that rippled down its long vertebrate body producing an +effect, accidental but so very life-like, that many of the vast +concourse assembled on the ground turned pale and could not follow it +unmoved.... + +There have been many plausible theories put forward by experts to +account for the subsequent disaster, but for obvious reasons the real +explanation can never progress beyond the realms of conjecture, for the +_Moloch_, instead of bending to the east, encircling Folkestone and its +suburbs, and descending again in the middle of Shorncliffe Camp, +continued its unswerving line towards the coast of France, and never +held communication with civilised man again. + +So exact was its course, however, that it was easy to trace its passage +across Europe. It reached Boulogne about four o'clock in the afternoon, +and was cheered vociferously under the pathetic impression that +everything was going well. Amiens saw it a little to the east in the +fading light of evening, and a few early citizens of Dijon marked it +soon after dawn. Its passage over the Alps was accurately timed and +noted at several points, and the Italian frontier had a glimpse of it, +very high up, it was recorded, at nightfall. A gentleman of Ajaccio, +travelling in the interior of the island, thought that he had seen it +some time during the next day; and several Tripoli Greeks swore that it +had passed a few yards above their heads a week later; but the testimony +of the Corsican was deemed the more reliable of the two. A relief +expedition was subsequently sent out and traversed a great part of +Africa, but although the natives in the district around the Albert +Nyanza repeatedly prostrated themselves and smacked their thighs +vigorously--the tribal signs of fear and recognition--when shown a small +working model of the _Moloch_, no further trace was ever obtained of it. + +The accident had a curious sequel in the House of Commons, which +significantly illustrates how unexpected may be the ultimate +developments of a chain of circumstance. It so happened that in addition +to its complement of hands, the _Moloch_ carried an assistant +under-secretary to the Board of Agriculture. This gentleman, who had +made entomology a lifelong study, was invaluable to his office, and the +lamentable consequence of his absence was that when the President of the +Board rose the following night to answer a question respecting the +importation of lady-birds to arrest an aphis plague then devastating the +orchards of the country, he ingenuously displayed so striking an +unfamiliarity with the subject that his resignation was demanded, the +Government discredited, and a dissolution forced. In particular, the +hon. gentleman convulsed the House by referring throughout to lady-birds +as "the female members of the various feathered tribes," and warmly +defending their importation as the only satisfactory expedient in the +circumstances. + +Wynchley's suggestion remained on file for the next few years, and would +doubtless have crumbled to dust unfruitfully had it not been for a +trivial incident. A junior staff clerk, finding himself to be without +matches one morning, and hesitating to mutilate the copy of--let us say, +the official Pink Paper which he was reading at the moment, +absent-mindedly tore a sheet haphazard from a bundle close at hand. As +he lit his cigarette, the name of Wynchley Slocombe caught his eye and +stirred a half-forgotten memory, for the unfortunate Wynchley had been a +stock jest in the past. + +Herbert Baedeker Phipps now becomes a force in the history of aerial +conquest. He smoothed out the paper from which he had only torn off a +fragment, read the stirring "Practise! Practise!! Practise!!!" (at least +it has since been recognised to be stirring--stirring, inspired, and +pulsating with the impassioned ardour of neglected genius), and pondered +deeply to the accompaniment of three more cigarettes. Was there anything +in it? Why could not people fly by means of artificial wings? There had +been attempts; how did the enthusiasts begin? Usually by precipitating +themselves out of an upper window in the first flush of their +self-confidence. They were killed, and wings fell into disfavour; but +the same result would attend the unsophisticated novice who made his +first essay in swimming by diving off a cliff into ten fathoms deep of +water. Here, even in a denser medium, was the admitted necessity for +laborious practice before security was assured. + +Phipps looked a step further. By nature man is ill-equipped for flying, +whereas he possesses in himself all the requisites for successful +propulsion through the water. Yet he needs practice in water; more +practice therefore in air. For thousands of years mankind has been +swimming and thereby lightening the task for his descendants, to such an +extent that in certain islands the children swim almost naturally, even +before they walk; whereas, with the solitary exception of a certain +fabled gentleman who made the attempt so successfully and attained such +a height that the sun melted the wax with which he had affixed his wings +(Styckiton in convenient tubes not being then procurable), no man has +ever flown. More, more practice. The very birds themselves, Phipps +remembered, first require parental coaching in the art, while aquatic +creatures and even the amphibia take to that element with developed +faculties from their birth. Still more need of practice for ungainly +man. Here, he was convinced, lay the whole secret of failure and +possible success. "Practise! Practise!! Practise!!!" The last word was +with Wynchley Slocombe. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MILLION TO ONE CHANCE + + +So wings came--to stay, every one admitted, although most people +complained that after all flying was not so wonderful when one could do +it as they thought it would have been. For at the first glance the +popular fancy had inclined towards pinning on a pair of gauzy appendages +and soaring at once into empyrean heights with the spontaneity of a +lark, or of lightly fluttering from point to point with the ease and +grace of a butterfly. They found that a pair of wings cost rather more +than a high-grade bicycle, and that the novice who could struggle from +the stage into a net placed twenty yards away, after a month's course of +daily practices, was held to be very promising. There was no more talk +of England lying at the mercy of any and every invader; for one man, and +one only, had so far succeeded in crossing even the Channel, and that at +its narrowest limit. For at least three years after the conversion of +Phipps the generality of people gleaned their knowledge of the progress +of flying from the pages of the comic papers. To the comic papers wings +had been sent as an undiluted blessing. + +But if alatics, in their infancy, did not come up to the wider +expectation, there were many who found in it a novel and exhilarating +sport. There were also those who, discovering something congenial in the +new force, set quietly and resolutely to work to develop its +possibilities and to raise it above the level of a mere fashionable +novelty. There have always been some, a few, not infrequently +Englishmen, who have unostentatiously become pre-eminent in every +development of science with a fixity of purpose. Their names rarely +appear in the pages of history, but they largely write it. + +Hastings permitted mixed flying. It was a question that had embittered +many a town council. To one section it seemed intolerable that a father, +a husband, or a brother should be torn for twenty minutes from the side +of his female relatives; to the opposing section it seemed horrible that +coatless men should be allowed to spread their wings within a hundred +and fifty yards of shoeless women. + +"I have no particular convictions," one prominent citizen remarked, "but +in view of the existing railway facilities it is worth while considering +whether we shall have any visitors at all this season if we stand in the +way of families flying down together." The humour of the age was flowing +mordaciously, even as the wit of France had done little more than a +century before. The readiest jests carried a tang, whether turning upon +personal poverty, municipal extravagance, or national incapacity. +Opinion being evenly divided, the local rate of seventeen shillings in +the pound influenced the casting vote in favour of mixed flying. There +were necessary preparations, including a captive balloon in which an +ancient mariner, decked out with a pair of wings like a superannuated +Cupid, was posted to render assistance to the faltering. The rates at +once rose to seventeen shillings and sixpence, but the principle of the +enterprise was admitted to be sound. + +So on this pleasant summer afternoon--an ideal day for a fly, said every +one--the heights above the old town were echoing to the ceaseless gaiety +of the watching crowd, for alatics had not yet ceased to be a novelty, +while the air above was cleft by a hundred pairs of beating wings. + +"A remarkable sight," said an old man who had opened conversation with +the sociable craving of the aged; "ten years ago we little expected +this." + +"Why, no," replied his chance acquaintance on the seat; "if I remember +rightly, the tendency was all towards a combination either of a balloon +and a motor-car or of a submarine and a band-box." + +"You don't fly yourself?" + +The young man--and he was a stalwart enough youth--looked at himself +critically as if mentally picturing the effect of a pair of wings upon +his person. "Well, no," he replied; "one doesn't get the time for +practice. Then consider the price of the things. And the annual +licence--oh, they won't let you forget _that_, I assure you. Well, is it +worth it?" + +The old man shook his head in harmonious agreement; decidedly for him it +was not worth it. "Perhaps you are in Somerset House?" he remarked +tentatively. It is not the young who are curious; they have the +fascinating study of themselves. + +"Not exactly," replied the other, veiling by this diplomatic ambiguity +an eminent firm of West End drapers; "but I happen to have rather +exceptional chances of knowing what is going on behind the scenes in +London. I can assure you, sir, that in spite of the last sixpence on the +income-tax and the hen-roost tax, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has +sent out stringent orders to whip up every penny in the hope of +lessening a serious deficit." + +"There may possibly be a deficit," admitted the old man with bland +assurance; "but what do a few millions, either one way or the other, +matter to a country with our inexhaustible resources? We are certainly +passing through a period of financial depression, but the unfailing +lesson of the past has been that a cycle of bad years is inevitably +followed by a cycle of good years, and in the competition with foreign +countries our advantage of free trade ensures our pre-eminence." For it +is a mistake now to ascribe optimism to youth. Those youths have by this +time grown up into old men. Age is the optimist because it has seen so +many things "come right," so many difficulties "muddled through." Also +because they who would have been pessimistic old men have worried +themselves into early graves. Your unquenchable optimist needs no pill +to aid digestion. "Then," he concluded, "why trouble yourself +unnecessarily on a beautiful day like this!" + +"Oh, it doesn't trouble me," laughed the other man; "at least the +deficit doesn't; nor the income-tax, I regret to say. But I rather kick +at ten per cent. on my season ticket and a few other trifles when I +consider that there used to be better national value without them. And I +rather think that most others have had about enough of it." + +"Patience, patience; you are a young man yet. Look round. I don't think +I ever saw the grass greener for the time of the year, and in my front +garden I noticed only to-day that the syringa is out a full week earlier +than I can remember.... Eh! What is it? Which way? Where?" + +The clerk was on his feet suddenly, and standing on the seat. Every one +was standing up, and all in a common impulse were pointing to the sky. +Some--women--screamed as they stood and watched, but after a gasp of +horrified surprise, like a cry of warning cut short because too late, +the mingling noises of the crowd seemed to shrink away in a breath. +Every one had read of the sickening tragedies of broken cross-rods or of +sudden loss of wing-power--ærolanguisis it was called--and one was +taking place before their eyes. High up, very high at first, and a +little to the east, a female figure was cleaving headlong through the +air, and beyond all human power to save. + +So one would have said; so every one indeed assumed; and when a second +later another figure crossed their range it only heralded a double +tragedy. It drew a gasp ... a gasp that lingered, spun out long and +turned to one loud, tumultuous shout. The next minute men were shouting +incoherently, dancing wildly, shaking hands with all and any, and +expressing frantic relief in a hundred frantic ways. + +Thus makes his timely entry into this chronicle Gatacre Stobalt, and +reviewing the progress of flying as it then immaturely stood, it is not +too much to say that no other man could have turned that tragedy. With +an instinctive judgment of time, distance, angle, and his own powers, +Stobalt, from a hundred feet above, had leapt as a diver often leaps as +he leaves the plank, and with rigid outstretched wings was dropping +earthward on all but a plummet line. It was the famous "razor-edge" +stroke at its narrowest angle, the delight of strong and daring fliers, +the terror of those who watched beneath. It may be realised by ascending +to the highest point of St Paul's and contemplating a dive into the +flooded churchyard. + +The moment was a classic one in the history of the wing. The air had +claimed its victims as the waters have; and there was a legitimate +pride, since the enterprise was no longer foolhardy, that they had never +been withheld. But never before had a rescue been effected beyond the +limits of the nets; it was not then deemed practicable and the axiom of +the sport "A broken wing is a broken neck," so far held good. Yet here +was a man, no novice in the art, deliberately pointing sheer to earth on +a line that must bring him, if unswervingly maintained, into contact +with the falling girl beneath. Up to that point the attempt would have +been easy if daring, beyond it nothing but the readiest self-possession +and the most consummate skill could avert an irretrievable disaster to +himself. + + * * * * * + +"You have not even had the curiosity to ask if I am hurt yet." Her voice +certainly was. + +"X = - 4 {C^2} {x^3}," murmured Stobalt abstractedly. "I assure you," he +explained, leaving the higher mathematics at her reproach, "that I had +quite satisfied myself that you were not.... It all turns on the extra +tension thrown on the crank by the additional three feathers. I am +convinced that English makers have gone as far as they safely can in +that direction." He glanced at her wings as he mused. They were of the +familiar detached feather--or "venetian blind," as it was commonly +called--pattern, and wonderfully graceful in their long sweep and +elegant poise. Made of the purest white celluloid, just tinted with a +delicate and deepening pink at the base, they harmonised with her +sea-green costume as faultlessly as the lily with the leaves it springs +from. Stobalt himself used the more difficult but much more powerful +"bat" shape, built up of gold-beaters' skin; he had already folded them +in rest, but in those early days the prudish conventions of the air +debarred the girl from seeking a like repose. + +"I should certainly discard the three outside feathers," he summed up. + +"I shall certainly discard the whole thing," she replied. "I do not know +which felt the worse--being killed or being saved." + +He made a gesture that would seem to say that the personal details of +the adventure were better dismissed. He was plainly a man of few words, +but the mechanical defect still held his interest. + +"One understands that a brave man always dislikes being thanked," she +continued a little nervously; "and, indeed, what can I say to thank you? +You have saved my life, and I know that it must have been at a +tremendous risk to yourself." + +"I think," he said, "that the sooner you forget the incident.... That +and the removal of those three feathers." His gestures were deliberate +and the reverse of vivacious, but when he glanced up and moved a hand, +it at once conveyed to the girl that in his opinion nothing else need +stand in the way of her recovered powers and confidence. + +"And there is," she said timidly, "nothing?" Precisely what there might +be had not occurred to her satisfactorily. + +"Nothing," he said, without the air of being heroic in his generosity. +"Unless," he added, "you care to promise that you will not let----" He +stopped with easy self-possession and turned enquiringly to a man in +some official dress who had suddenly appeared in the glade. + +"Have you a licence?" demanded the official, ignoring Stobalt and +addressing himself in a style that at one time would have been deemed +objectionably abrupt, to the lady. He was in point of fact a policeman, +and from a thong on his wrist swung a truncheon, while the butt of a +revolver showed at his belt. He wore no number or identifying mark, for +it had long since been agreed that it must be objectionable to their +finer feelings to treat policemen as though they were--one cannot say +convicts, for a sympathetic Home Secretary had already discontinued the +numbering of convicts on the ground that it created a state of things +"undistinguishable from slavery," though not really slavery--but as +though they were railway bridges or district council lamp-posts. "Treat +a man as a dog, and he becomes a dog," had been the invincible argument +of the band of humanitarians who had introduced what was known as the +"Get-up-when-you-like-and-have-what-you-want" system of prison +discipline, and "Treat a man as a lamp-post, and he becomes a +lamp-post," had been the logical standpoint of the Amalgamated Union of +Policemen and Plain Clothes Detectives. + +"Yes," replied the girl, and her voice had not quite that agreeable +intonation that members of the force usually hear from the lips of fair +young ladies nowadays. "Do you wish to see it?" + +"What else should I ask you if you had one for?" he demanded with the +innate boorishness of the heavy-witted man. "Of course I want to see +it." + +She opened the little bag that hung from her girdle and handed him a +paper without a word. + +"Muriel Ursula Percy Sleigh Hampden?" It would be idle to pretend that +the names pleased him, or that he tried to veil his contempt. + +"Yes," she replied. + +He indicated his private disbelief--or possibly merely took a ready +means of exercising his authority in a way that he knew to be +offensive--by producing a small tin box from one of his pockets and +passing it to her without any explanation. The requirement was so +universal in practice, however, that no explanation was necessary, for +the signature, as the chief mark of identification, had long been +superseded by the simpler and more effective thumb-sign. Miss Hampden +made a slight grimace when she saw the condition of the soft wax which +the box contained, but she obediently pressed it with her thumb and +passed it back again. As her licence bore another thumb-sign, stamped in +pigment, it was only necessary for the constable to compare the two (a +process simplified by the superimposing glass, a contrivance not unlike +a small opera-glass with converging tubes) in order to satisfy himself +at once whether the marks were the impress of the same thumb. Apparently +they were, for with a careless "Right-O," he proceeded on his way, +swinging his truncheon with an easy grace, and occasionally striking off +the end of an overhanging branch. + +"I wonder," said Stobalt, when at length the zealous officer had quite +disappeared in search of other fields for tactful activity, "I wonder if +you are a daughter of Sir John Hampden?" + +"Yes," she replied, looking at him with renewed interest. "His only +daughter. Do you know my father?" + +He shook his head. "I have been away, but we see the papers sometimes," +he said. "The Sir John I mean," he explained, as though the point were a +matter of some moment, "was a few years ago regarded as the one man who +might unite our parties and save the position." + +"There is only one Sir John Hampden," she replied. "But it was too +late." + +"Oh yes," he admitted vaguely, dismissing the subject. + +Both were silent for a few minutes; it might be noticed that people +often became thoughtful when they spoke of the past in those years. +Indeed, an optimist might almost have had some ground for believing that +a thinking era had begun. + +When he spoke again it was with something of an air of constraint. "You +asked me just now if there was--anything. Well, I have since +thought----" + +"Yes?" she said encouragingly. + +"I have thought that I should like to meet your father. I hear +everywhere that he is the most inaccessible man in London; but perhaps +if you could favour me with a line of introduction----" + +"Oh yes," she exclaimed gladly. "I am sure that he would wish to thank +you. I will write to-morrow." + +"I have paper and a pencil here," he suggested. "I have been a sailor," +he added, as though that simple statement explained an omnipercipient +resourcefulness; as perhaps it did. + +"If you prefer it," she said, accepting the proffered stationery. It did +not make the least difference, she told herself, but this business-like +expedition chilled her generous instincts. + +"I leave for town to-night," was all he vouchsafed. + +For a few minutes she wrote in silence, while he looked fixedly out to +sea. "What name am I to write, please?" she asked presently. + +"Oh, Salt--George Salt," he replied in a matter-of-fact voice, and +without turning his head. + +"Is it 'Mr Salt,' or 'Captain,' or----?" + +"Just 'Mr,' please. And"--his voice fell a little flat in spite of +himself, but he did not meet her eyes--"and would it be too much if I +asked you to mention the circumstances under which we met?" + +She bent a little lower over the paper in a shame she could not then +define. "I will not fail to let my father know how heroic you have been, +and to what an extent we are indebted to you," she replied +dispassionately. + +"Thank you." Suddenly he turned with an arresting gesture, and impulsive +speech trembled on his tongue. But the sophistries of explanation, +apology, self-extenuation, were foreign to the nature of this strong +keen-featured man, whose grey and not unkindly eyes had gained their +tranquil depth from long intercourse with sea and sky--those two masters +who teach the larger things of life. The words were never spoken, his +arm fell down again, and the moment passed. + +"I have never," he was known to say with quiet emphasis in later years, +"regretted silence. I have never given way to an impulse and spoken +hastily without regretting speech." + +The London evening papers were being cried in the streets of the old +Cinque Port as "George Salt" walked to the station a few hours later. A +general election was drawing to its desultory close, but the results +seemed to excite curiously little interest among the well-dressed, +leisured class that filled the promenades. It was a longer sweep of the +pendulum than had ever been anticipated in the days when politics were +more or less the pastime of the rich, and the working classes neither +understood nor cared to understand them--only understood that whatever +else happened nothing ever came their way. + +The man who had been a sailor bought two papers of very different views, +the _Pall Mall Gazette_ and the orthodox labour organ called _The +Masses_. Neither rejoiced, but to despair _The Masses_ added a note of +ingenuous surprise as it summarised the contest as a whole. This was how +the matter stood: + + POSITION OF PARTIES AT THE DISSOLUTION + Labour Members 300 + Socialists 140 + Liberals 112 + Unionists 40 + + PARTY GAINS + Socialist Gains 204 + Moderate Labour Gains 5 + Imperial Party Gains 0 + + POSITION OF PARTIES IN THE NEW PARLIAMENT + Socialists 344 + Moderate Labour Party (all groups) 179 + Combined Imperial Party (Liberals and + Unionists) 68 + +(The above returns do not include the Orkney and Shetland Islands.) + + Socialist majority over all possible combinations 97 + +There is no need to trace the development of political events leading up +to this position. It lends itself to summary. The Labour party had come +into power by pointing out to voters of the working classes that its +members were their brothers, and promising them a great deal of property +belonging to other people and a good many privileges which they +vehemently denounced in every other class. When in power they had thrown +open the doors of election to one and all. The Socialist party had come +into power by pointing out to voters of the working classes that its +members were even more their brothers, and promising them a still larger +share of other people's property (some, indeed, belonging to the more +prosperous of the Labour representatives then in office) and still +greater privileges. Yet the editor of _The Masses_ was both pained and +surprised at the result. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE COMPACT + + +A strong man and a prominent politician, Sir John Hampden had occupied +the unfamiliar position in Parliament of belonging to no party. To no +party, that is, as the term had then been current in English politics; +for, more discerning than most of his contemporaries, he had foreseen +the obliteration of the existing boundaries and the phenomenal growth of +purely class politics even in the old century. It was, he recognised, to +be that development of the franchise with which the world was later to +become tolerably familiar: civil war on constitutional lines. His +warnings fell on very stony ground. The powers that had never yet +prepared for war abroad until the enemy had comfortably occupied all the +strategic points, lest they should wound some wily protesting old +gentleman's susceptibilities, were scarcely likely to take time by the +forelock--or even by a hind fetlock, to enlarge the comparison--at home. +While the Labour party was bringing pressure upon the Government of the +day to grant an extension of suffrage that made Labour the master of +eight out of every ten constituencies, the two great classical parties +were quarrelling vehemently whether £5000 should be spent upon a +sanatorium at Hai Yang and £5,000,000 upon a dockyard at Pittiescottie, +or £5,000,000 upon a dockyard at Hai Yang and £5000 upon a sanatorium at +Pittiescottie. When it is added that the Labour party was definitely +pledged to the inauguration of universal peace by declining to go to war +on any provocation, and looked towards wholesale disarmament as the +first means of economy on attaining office, the cataclysmal humour of +the situation becomes apparent. + +They attained office, as it has been seen, thanks largely to the great +Liberal party whom they succeeded. The great Liberal party, like the +editor of _The Masses_ some years later, was pained and surprised at +this ingratitude. The great Liberal party had never contemplated such a +development, and through thick and thin had insisted upon regarding the +Labour party as its ally, notwithstanding the fact that the "ally" had +always laughed uproariously at the "alliance," and had pleasantly +announced its intention of strewing Westminster with the wreckage of all +existing capitalistic parties when once it was strong enough to do so. + +Little wonder that that great Liberal Administration was destined to +pass down to future ages as the "House of Pathetic Fools." Posterity +adjudicated that no greater example of servile fatuousness could be +produced. This was unjust, for on 20th June 1792, Louis XVI., certainly, +let it be admitted, harder pressed, had accepted a red "cap of liberty," +and putting it on in obedience to the command of the "extreme party" of +his time, had bowed right and left with ingratiating friendliness, while +a Labour gentleman, bearing upon a pike a raw cow's heart labelled "The +heart of an aristocrat," roared out, with his twenty thousand friends, +an amused approval. + +It was out of the material of the two great traditional parties that Sir +John Hampden tried to create his "class" coalition to meet the new +conditions. The spectacle of working men suddenly dropping party +differences and merging into a solid phalanx of labour was before their +eyes, but the Tories were disintegrated and inert, the Whigs +self-satisfied and cock-sure. The years of grace--just so many years as +Sir John was before his contemporaries--passed. Then came a brief +period, desperate indeed, but not hopeless, while something might yet be +done; but the leaders of the historical parties were waiting for some +happy chance by which they might retract and yet preserve their dignity. +It was during this crisis that the party whose idea of dignity was +symbolised by the escort of a brass band on a green-grocer's cart, +abolished the House of Lords, suspended the naval programme, and +confiscated all ecclesiastical landed property. Panic reigned, but there +could be no appeal, for the party in power had never concealed their +aims and aspirations, and now that they had been returned, they were +only carrying out their promises. + +That is putting their position so mildly as to be almost unjust. They +were, indeed, among political parties the only one immaculate and beyond +reproach. All others had trimmed and whittled, promised and recalled, +sworn and forsworn, till political assurances were emptier than +libertines' vows. The Socialists had nailed their manifesto to the mast, +and no man could charge them with duplicity. On every platform from +Caithness to Cornwall they had stood openly and declared: We are the +enemies to Capital; we are at war with Society as it is at present +constituted; we are for the forcible distribution of wealth, however +come by, the abolition of class distinctions, and the levelling of +humanity, with the unskilled labourer as the ideal standard. + +"Good fellows all," had, in effect, declared their Liberal "allies," +"and they do not really mean that--not phraseologically accurately, that +is. We go in for a little, say, serpent-charming ourselves at election +times, and when these excellent men are in Parliament the refining +influence of the surroundings will tone them down wonderfully, and they +will turn out thoroughly moderate and conciliatory members." + +"Don't you make any error about that, comrades," the Socialistic-Labour +candidates had replied; and with a candour unparalleled in the history +of electioneering they had not merely hinted this or said it among +themselves, but had freely and honourably proclaimed it to the four +winds. "If you like to help us just now that's your affair, and we are +quite willing to profit by it. But if you knew what you were doing, you +would go home and all have the nightmare." + +"So naïve!" smiled the great Liberal party. "Suppose they have to talk +like that at present to please the unemployed." + +Then came the deluge. Sir John Hampden could have every section of the +middle and upper class political parties to lead if he so deigned, but +wherever else he might lead them there was no possible hope of it being +to St. Stephen's. It was, as his daughter had said, then too late. +Labour members of one complexion or another had captured three-quarters +of the constituencies, and there was not the slightest chance of ousting +them. + +So it came about that in less than a decade from the first alarm, the +extremity of the patriot's hope was that in perhaps twenty years' time, +when the country was reduced to bankruptcy and the position of a third +class power, and when there was no more property to confiscate in the +interest of the working class voter, a popular rising or a foreign +invasion might again place a responsible administration in power. But in +the meantime the organisations of the old parties fell to pieces, the +parties themselves ceased to be powers, their leaders were half +forgotten. Sir John Hampden might still be a rallying point if he raised +a standard in a time of renewed hope, but there was no hope, and Sir +John was reported to have broken his staff, drowned his books, and cut +himself off from politics in the bitterness of his indignation and +impotent despair. + +It was in something very like this mood that George Salt found him, and +it was an issue of the mood that would have made him inaccessible to a +less resourceful man. Day after day he had denied himself to his old +associates, and little disappointed hucksters who were anxious to betray +their party for their conscience' sake--provided there was a definite +offer of a more lucrative position in a new party--vainly shadowed his +doorway with ready-made cabals in their pocket-books. But the man who +had been a sailor and spoke few words had an air that carried where +fluency and self-assurance failed. Even then, almost at his first words, +Sir John would have closed the subject, definitely and without +discussion. + +"Politics do not concern me, Mr Salt," he said, rising, with an angry +flash in the eyes whose fighting light gave the lie to the story of +abandoned hope. "If that is your business you have reached me by a +subterfuge." + +"Having reached you," replied Salt, unmoved, "will you allow me to put +my suggestions before you?" + +"I have no doubt that they are interesting," replied the baronet, +falling into smooth indifference, "but, as you may see, I am exclusively +devoted to Euplexoptera now." It might be true, for the table before him +was covered with specimens, scientific instruments and entomological +works, while not even a single newspaper betrayed an interest in the +day; but a world of bitterness smouldered beneath his half-scornful +admission. "If," he continued in the same vein, "you have an idea for an +effective series of magic lantern slides, you will find the offices of +the Union of Imperial Agencies in Whitehall." + +The first act to which the new Government was pledged was the evacuation +of Egypt, and the mighty counterblast from the headquarters of the +remnant of the great opposing organisation was, it should be explained, +a travelling magic lantern van, designed to satisfy rural voters as to +the present happy condition of the fellahin! + +"Possibly you would hardly complain that I am not prepared to go far +enough," replied the visitor. "But in order to discuss that, I must have +your serious attention." + +"I have already expressed myself," replied Sir John formally. "I am not +interested." + +"If you will hear me out and then repeat that, I will go," urged Salt +with desperate calmness. "Yet I have thrown up the profession of my life +because I hold that there is a certain remedy. And I have come a hundred +miles to-night to offer it to you: for you are the man. Realise that I +am vitally concerned." + +"I am very sorry," replied Sir John courteously, but without the +faintest encouragement, "but the matter is beyond me. Leave me, and try +some younger, less disillusionised man." + +"There is no other man who will serve my purpose." Sir John stared hard, +as well he might: others had not been in the habit of appealing to him +to serve their purposes. "You are the natural leader of our classes. You +alone can inspire them; you alone have the authority to call them to any +effort." + +"I have been invited to lead a hundred forlorn hopes," replied Sir John. +"A dozen years--nine years--aye, perhaps even six years ago any one of +them might have been sufficient. Now--I have my earwigs. Good night, Mr +Salt." + +The dismissal was so unmistakably final that the most stubborn +persistence could scarcely ignore it. Mr Salt rose, but only to approach +the table by which Sir John was standing. + +"I wished to have you with me on the bare merits of my plan," he said in +a low voice, "but you would not. But you shall save England in spite of +your dead heart. Read this letter." + +For a moment it seemed doubtful how Hampden would take so brusque a +demand. Another second and he might have imperiously ordered Salt to +leave the house, when his eyes fell with a start upon the writing thrust +before him, and taking the letter in his hand he read it through, read +it twice. + +"Little fool!" he said, so low that it sounded tenderly; "poor little +fool!" Then aloud: "Am I to understand that you have saved my daughter's +life?" + +"Yes," replied George Salt, and even the tropical sunburn could not +cover his hot shame. + +"At great personal risk to yourself?" + +Again the reply was, "Yes," without an added word. + +"Why did you not let me know of this before?" + +"Does that matter now?" It had been his master card, but a very +humiliating one to play throughout: to trade upon that moment's +instinctive heroism, to assert his bravery, to apprise it at its worth, +and to claim a fit return. + +"No," admitted Sir John with intuition, "I don't suppose it does. The +position then is, that instead of exchanging the usual compliments +applicable to the occasion, I express my gratitude by listening to your +views on the political situation? And further," he continued, with the +same gentle air of irony, accepting Salt's silent acquiescence, "that I +proceed to liquidate my obligation fully by identifying myself with a +scheme which you have in your pocket for averting national disaster?" + +"No," replied Salt sharply. "That is for you to accept or reject +unconditionally on your own judgment." + +"Very well. I am entirely at your service now." + +"In the first place, then, I ask you to admit that a state of civil war +morally exists, and that the only possible hope for our existence lies +in adopting the methods of covert civil war to secure our ends." + +"Admit! Good God! I have been shrieking it into deaf ears for half my +life, it seems," cried Sir John, suddenly stirred despite himself. "They +called me the Phantom Storm-petrel--'Wolf-cry' Hampden, Heaven knows +what not--through an entire decade. Admit! Go on, Mr Salt. I accept your +first clause more easily than Lord Stirling swallowed Socialistic +amendments to his own Bills, and that is saying a great deal." + +"Then," continued Salt, taking a bundle of papers from an inner pocket +and selecting a docket of half a dozen typewritten sheets from it, "I +propose for your acceptance the following plan of campaign." + +He looked round the littered desk for a vacant space on which to lay the +document. With an impetuous movement of his arm Sir John swept books, +trays, and insects into one chaotic heap, and spreading the summary +before him plunged into it forthwith. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DOWNTRODDEN + + +"Kumreds," announced Mr Tubes with winning familiarity, "I may say now +and once and for all that you've thoroughly convinced _me_ of the +justice of your claims. But that isn't saying that the thing's as good +as done, so don't go slinging it broadcast in the next pub you come to. +There's our good kumred the Chancellor of the Exchequer to be taken into +account, and while I'm about it let me tell you straight that these +Cabinet jobs, whether at twenty, fifty, or a hundred quid a week, aren't +the softest things going, as some of you chaps seem to imagine." + +"Swap you, mate, then," called out a facetious L. & N. W. fireman. "Yus, +and throw the missis and kids into the bargain. Call it a deal?" + +In his modest little house the Right Hon. James Tubes, M.P., Secretary +of State for the Home Department, was receiving a deputation. Success, +said his friends, had not spoiled him; others admitted that success had +not changed him. From the time of his first appearance in Parliament he +had been dubbed "Honest Jim" (perhaps a somewhat empty compliment in +view of the fact that every Labour constituency had barbed unconscious +satire at its own expense by distinguishing its representative as +"Honest" Tom, Dick, or Harry), and after his elevation to Cabinet rank +he still remained honest. More to the point, because more apparent, he +remained unpretentious. It is true that he ceased to wear, as a personal +concession to the Prime Minister, by whose side he sat, the grimy coal +miner's suit in which he had first appeared in the House to the +captivating of all hearts; but, more fortunate than Caractacus, he +escaped envy by continuing to occupy his humble villa in Kilburn. The +expenses of a Cabinet Minister, even in a Socialist Government, must +inevitably be heavier than those of a private member, but this admirable +man illustrated the uselessness of riches by continuing to live frugally +but comfortably upon a tenth of his official income. According to +intimate rumour he prudently invested the superfluous nine-tenths +against a rainy day in the gilt-edged securities of countries where +Socialism was least rampant. + +Mr Tubes never refused to see a deputation, and when their views had +been laid before him it was rare indeed that he was not able to declare +a warm personal interest in their objects. True, he could not always +undertake to carry their recommendations into effect; as a Minister he +could not always express official approval of them, but they were rarely +sent away without the moral support of that wink which is proverbially +as significant as a more compromising form of agreement. Whether the +particular expression of the great voice of the people was in the +direction of the State adoption of Zulu orphans, or the compulsory +removal of park palings from around private estates, the deputation +could always go away with the inward satisfaction that however his words +might read to outsiders on the morrow, they knew that as a man and a +comrade, he, Jim Tubes, was with them heart and soul. "It costs +nothing," he was wont to remark broad-mindedly to his home +circle--referring, of course, to his own sympathetic attitude; for some +of the ingenuous proposals which he countenanced were found in practice +to prove very costly indeed--"and who knows what may happen next?" + +But on this occasion, as far as compliance lay within his power, there +had been no need for mental reservation. The railway-men had been +patient under capitalistic oppression in the past; they were convincing +now in argument; and they were moderate in their demands for the future. +It was no "Væ victis!" that these sturdy wearers of green corduroy +trousers held out to their employers, but a cheery "Come now, mates. +Fair does and we'll mess along somehow till the next strike." + +Mr Drugget, M.P., introduced the deputation. It consisted of railway +workers of all the lower grades with the exception of clerks. After many +ineffectual attempts to get clerks to enter the existing Labour ring, it +had been seriously proposed by the Labour wirepullers (who loved them in +spite of their waywardness, and would have saved them, and their votes +and their weekly contribution, from themselves) that they should form a +Union of their own in conjunction with shop assistants and domestic +servants. When the clerks (of whom the majority employed domestic +servants directly or indirectly in their homes or in their lodgings) +laughed slightly at the proposal; when the shop assistants smiled +self-consciously, and when the domestic servants giggled openly, the +promoters of this amusing triple alliance cruelly left them to their +fate thenceforward, pettishly declaring that all three were a set of +snobs--a designation which they impartially applied to every class of +society except their own, and among themselves to every minute +subdivision of Labour except the one which they adorned. + +It devolved upon a rising young "greaser" in the service of the Great +Northern to explain, as spokesman, the object of the visit. Under the +existing unfair conditions the directors of the various companies were +elected at large salaries by that unnecessary and parasitic group, the +shareholders, while the workmen--the true creators of every penny of +income--had no direct hand in the management of affairs. When they +wished to approach the chief authorities it was necessary for them to +send delegates from their Union, who were frequently kept waiting ten +minutes in an ante-room; and although of late years their demands were +practically always conceded without demur, the position was anomalous +and humiliating. What seemed only reasonable to them, then, was that +they should have the right to elect an equal number of directors from +among themselves, who should sit on the Board with the other directors, +have equal powers, and receive similar salaries. + +"To be, in fact, your permanent deputation to the Board," suggested the +Home Secretary. + +"That's it--with powers," replied the G. N. man. + +"There'll be some soft jobs going--then," murmured a shunter, who was +getting on in years, reflectively. + +"No need for the missis to take in young men lodgers if you get one, eh, +Bill?" said his neighbour jocosely. + +Whether it was the extreme unlikelihood of his ever being made a +director, or some other deeper cause, the secret history of the period +does not say, but Bill turned upon his innocent friend in a very +aggressive mood. + +"What d'yer mean--young men lodgers?" he demanded warmly. "What call +have you to bring that up? Come now!" + +"Why, mate," expostulated the offending one mildly, "no one said +anything to give any offence. What's the 'arm? Your missis does take in +lodgers, same as plenty more, don't she? Well, then!" + +"I can take a 'int along the lines as well as any other," replied Bill +darkly. "It's gone far enough between pals. See? I never said anything +about your sister leaving that there laundry, did I? Never, I didn't." + +"And what about it if you did?" demanded the neighbour, growing hot in +his turn. "I should think you'd have enough----" + +"Gentlemen, gentlemen," expostulated the glib young spokesman, as the +voices rose above the conversational whisper, "let us have absolute +unanimity, if _you_ please--expressed in the usual way, by all saying +nothing together." + +"Wha's matter with Bill?" murmured the next delegate with polite +curiosity. + +"Seems to me the little man is troubled with his teef," replied the +unfortunate cause of the ill-feeling, with smouldering passion. "Strike +me if he isn't. Ah!" And seeing the impropriety of relieving his +feelings in the usual way in a Cabinet Minister's private study, he +relapsed into bitter silence. + +Mr Tubes having expressed his absolute approval of this detail of the +programme, the second point was explained. Why, it was demanded, should +the provisions of the Employers' Liability Act apply only to the hours +during which a man was at work? Furthermore, why should they apply only +to accidents? Supposing, said Mr William Mulch, the spokesman in +question, that a bloke went out in a social way among his friends, as +any bloke might, caught the small-pox, and got laid up for life with +after-effects, or died? Or suppose the bloke, after sweating through a +day's work, went home dog-tired to his miserable hovel, and broke his +leg falling over the carpet, or poisoned his hand opening a tin of +sardines? They looked to the present Government to extend the working of +the Act so as to cover the disablement or death of employés from every +cause whatever, natural death included, and wherever they might be at +the time. Under the present unfair and artificial conditions of labour, +the work-people were nothing but the slaves and chattels of capitalists, +and it was manifestly unfair that the latter should escape their +responsibilities after exploiting a man's labour for their own greedy +ends, simply because he happened to die of hydrophobia or senile decay, +or because the injury that disabled him was received outside the +foetid, insanitary den where in exchange for a bare sordid pittance +his flesh was ground from his bones for eight hours daily. + +The Right Hon. gentleman expressed his entire concurrence with this +provision also, and roused considerable enthusiasm by mentioning that +some time ago he had independently arrived at the conclusion that such a +clause was urgently required. + +Before the next point was considered, Comrade Tintwistle asked +permission to say a few words. He explained that he had no intention of +introducing a discordant note. On the contrary, he heartily supported +the proposal as far as it went, but--and here he wished to say that +though he only voiced the demands of a minority, it was a large, a +growing, and a noisy minority--it did not go far enough. The contention +of those he represented was that the responsibility of employers ought +to extend to the wives and families of their work-people. Many a poor +comrade was sadly harassed by having to keep a crippled child who would +never be a bread-winner, or an ailing wife who was incapable of looking +after his home comfort properly. They were fighting over again the +battle that they had won in the matter of free meals for school +children. It had taken years to convince people that it was equally +necessary that children who did not happen to be attending school should +have meals provided for them, and even more necessary to see that their +mothers should be well nourished; it had taken even longer to arrive at +the logical conclusion that if free meals were requisite, free clothes +were not a whit less necessary. No one nowadays doubted the soundness of +that policy, yet here they were again timorously contemplating +half-measures, while the insatiable birds of prey who sucked their blood +laughed in their sleeve at the spectacle of the British working men +hiding their heads ostrich-like in the shifting quicksand of a fool's +paradise. + +The signs of approval that greeted this proposal showed clearly enough +that other members of the deputation had sympathetic leanings towards +the larger policy of the minority. Mr Tubes himself more than hinted at +the possibility of a personal conversion in the near future. "In the +meantime," he remarked, "everything is on your side. Your position is +logical, moderate, and just. All can admit that, although we may not all +exactly agree as to whether the time is ripe for the measure. With every +temptation to wipe off some of the arrears of injustice of the past, we +must not go so far as to kill the goose that lays the golden egg." + +"How do you make that out?" demanded an unsophisticated young signalman. +"It's the work of the people that produces every penny that circulates." + +"Oh, just so," replied Tubes readily. "That is the real point of the +story. It was the grains of corn that made the eggs, and the goose did +nothing but sit and lay them. We must always have our geese." He turned +to the subject in hand again with a laugh, and approved a few more +modest suggestions for abolishing "privileges." + +"The last point," continued the spokesman, "is one that closely concerns +the principles that we all profess. I refer to the obsolete and +humiliating anachronism that with a Government pledged to the +maintenance of social equality in office, at any hour of the day, at +practically every railway station throughout the land you will still see +trains subdivided as regards designation and accommodation into first, +second, and third classes. It is a distinction which to us, as the +representatives of the so-called third class, is nothing more or less +than insulting. Why should me and my missis when we travel be compelled +to sit where the accidents generally happen and have to put up with +eighteen in a compartment, when smug clerks and saucy ladies' maids, who +are no better than us, enjoy the comparative luxury of only fifteen in a +compartment away from the collisions, and snide financiers and +questionable duchesses, who are certainly a good deal worse, sit in +padded rooms, well protected front and rear, and never know what it is +to be packed more than six a-side? If that isn't class distinction I +should like to know what is. It isn't--Gawd help us!--that we wish to +mix with these people, or that we envy their position or covet their +wealth. Such motives have never entered into the calculations of those +who have been foremost in Socialistic propaganda. But as thoughtful and +self-respecting units of an integral community we object to being +segregated by the imposition of obsolete and arbitrary barriers, we do +resent the artificial creation of social grades, and we regard with +antagonism and distrust the unjust accumulation of labour-created wealth +in the hands of the idle and incapable few. + +"But if this is the standpoint of the great mass of the democracy, to us +of the Amalgamated Unions of Railway Workers and Permanent Way Staffs +the invidious distinction has a closer significance. As ordinary +citizens our sense of equality is outraged by the demarcations I have +referred to; but as our work often places us in a temporary +subordination to the occupants of these so-called first and second +classes, whom we despise intellectually and resent economically, we +incur the additional stigma of having to render them an external +deference which we recognise to be obsolete and servile. The Arden and +Avon Valley case, which earned the martyrdom of dismissal for William +Jukson and ultimately involved forty thousand of us in a now historic +strike, simply because that heroic man categorically refused to the +doddering Duke of Pentarlington any other title than the honourable +appellation of 'Comrade,' is doubtless still fresh within your minds. We +lost on that occasion through insufficiency of funds, but the ducal +portmanteau over which William Jukson took his memorable stand, will yet +serve as a rallying point to a more successful issue." + +Mr Mulch paused for approbation, which was not stinted, but before he +could resume, a passionate little man who had been rising to a more +exalted state of fervour with every demand, suddenly hurled himself like +a human wedge into the forefront of the proceedings. + +"Kumrids!" he exclaimed, breathless from the first, "with your kind +permission I would say a few words embodying a suggestion which, though +not actually included in the agenda, is quite in 'armony with the +subject before us." + +"Won't it keep?" suggested a tired delegate hopefully. + +"The suggestion is briefly this," continued the little man, far too +enthusiastic to notice any interruption, "that as a tribute to William +Jukson's sterling determination and as a perpetual reminder of the +issues raised, we forthwith add to the banners of the Amalgamated Unions +one bearing an allegorical design consisting of two emblematic figures +struggling for the possession of a leather portmanteau with the words +'No Surrender!' beneath. The whole might be made obvious to a person of +the meanest intelligence by the inscription 'A. and A. V. Ry. Test Case. +W. J. upholds the Principles of Social Democracy and Vindicates the +People's Rights,' running round." + +"Why should he be running round?" asked a slow-witted member of the +deputation. + +"Who running round?" demanded the last speaker, amenable to outside +influence now that he had said his say. + +"William Jukson. Didn't you say he was to be on this banner vindicating +the people's rights running round? He stood there on the platform, man +to man, so I've always heard." + +The redoubtable Jukson's champion cast a look of ineffable contempt upon +his simple brother and made a gesture expressive of despair. "That's +all," he said, and sat down. + +Mr Mulch resumed his interrupted innings. "The suggestion will doubtless +receive attention if submitted through the proper channels," he remarked +a little coldly. It was one thing to take the indomitable Jukson under +his own ægis; quite another to countenance his canonisation at a period +when strenuous candidates were more numerous than remunerative niches. +"But to revert to the subject in hand from which we have strayed +somewhat. It only remains for me to say that all artificial distinctions +between class and class are distasteful to the people at large, +detestable to the powerful Unions on whose behalf we are here to-day, +and antagonistic to the interests of the community. We confidently look, +therefore, to the present Government to put an end to a state of things +that is inconsistent with the maintenance of practical Socialism." + +Towards this proposal, also, Mr Tubes turned a friendly ear, but he +admitted that in practice his sympathies must be purely platonic, for +the time at least. In truth, the revenue yielded by the taxation of +first and second class tickets was so considerable that it could not be +ignored. Many people adopted the third class rather than suffer the +exaction, and the receipts of all the railway companies in the kingdom +fell considerably--to the great delight of that large section of the +Socialistic party that had not yet begun to think. But the majority of +the wealthy still paid the price, and not a few among the weak, aged, +and timorous, among children, old men, and ladies, were driven to the +superior classes which they could ill afford by the increased difficulty +of finding a seat elsewhere, and by the growing truculence of the +workmen who were thrust upon them in the thirds. For more than a decade +it had been observed that when a seat in tram or train was at stake the +age of courtesy was past, but a new Burke, listening to the conversation +of those around, might too frequently have cause to think that the age +of decency had faded also. Another development, contributing to the +maintenance of the higher classes, was the fact that one was as heavily +mulcted if he turned to any of the other forms of more exclusive +travelling. Private carriages of all kinds were the butt of each +succeeding Budget, even bicycles (unless owned by workmen) were not +exempt; and so heavily was the Chancellor's hand laid upon motor cars +(except such as were the property of Members of Parliament) that even +the Marquis of Kingsbery was satisfied, and withdrew his threat to haunt +the Portsmouth Road with an elephant gun. + +And yet, despite the persistence of a Stuart in imposing taxation and +the instincts of a Vespasian in making it peculiarly offensive, the +Treasury was always in desperate straits. The reason was not far to +seek. In the old days Liberal governments had at times proved +extravagant; Tory governments had perhaps oftener proved even more +extravagant; but in each case it was the tempered profusion of those who +through position and education were too careless to count their pence +and too unconcerned to be dazzled by their pounds. The Labour and the +Socialist administrations proved superlatively extravagant: and there is +nothing more irredeemable than the spendthrift recklessness of your +navvy who has unexpectedly "come into money." The beggar was truly on +horseback, or, to travel with the times, he had set off in his motor +car, and he was now bowling along the great high-road towards the +cliff-bound sea of national perdition, a very absent-minded beggar +indeed, with a merry hand upon the high speed gear. + +"I am with you heart and soul," therefore declared Mr Tubes as a man, +and as a member of the Cabinet added--"in principle. But the +contemplated Act for providing State maintenance of strikers, in strikes +approved of by the Board of Trade, makes it extremely undesirable to +abolish any of the existing sources of revenue, at least until we see +what the measure will involve." + +"Save on the Navy, then," growled a malcontent in the rear rank. + +"We have already reduced the Navy to the fullest extent that we consider +it desirable to go at present; that is to say, to the common-sense +limit--equality with any one of the other leading powers." + +"The Army, then." + +"We have already reduced the Army very considerably, but with a navy on +the lines which I have indicated and an army traditionally weaker at the +best than those of the great military powers, which are also naval +powers, is it prudent?" The gesture that closed the sentence clearly +expressed Mr Tubes's own misgivings on the subject. He had always been +regarded as a moderate though a vacillating man among his party, and the +"reduce everything and chance it" policy of a powerful section of the +Cabinet disturbed his rest at times. + +"Why halt ye between two opinions?" exclaimed a clear and singularly +sweet voice from the doorway. "Temporise not with the powers of darkness +when the day of opportunity is now at hand. Sweep away arms and armies, +engines of war and navies, in one vast and irresistible wave of +Universal Brotherhood. Beat the swords into ploughshares, cast your guns +into instruments of music, let all strife cease. Extend the hand of +friendship and equality not only man to man and class to class, but +nation to nation and race to race. Make a great feast, and in love and +fellowship compel them to come in: so shall you inaugurate the reign of +Christ anew on earth." + +Every one looked at the speaker and then glanced at his neighbour with +amusement, contempt, enquiry, here and there something of approval, in +his eye. "The Mad Parson," "Brother Ambrose," "The Ragged Priest," "St +Ambrose of Shadwell," ran from lip to lip as a few recognised the +tonsured barefoot figure standing in his shabby cassock by the door. Mr +Tubes alone, seated out of the range of whispers and a victim to the +defective sight that is the coal-pit heritage throughout the world, +received no inkling of his identity, and, assuming that he was a late +arrival of the deputation, sought to extend a gentle conciliation. + +"The goal of complete disarmament is one that we never fail to strive +for," he accordingly replied, "but our impulsive comrade must admit that +the present is hardly the moment for us to make the experiment entirely +on our own. Prudence----" + +"Prudence!" exclaimed the ragged priest with flashing vehemence. "There +is no more cowardly word in the history of that Black Art which you call +Statecraft. All your wars, all your laws, all tyranny, injustice, +inhumanity, all have their origin in a fancied prudence. It marks the +downward path in whitened milestones more surely than good intentions +pave that same decline. Dare! dare! dare! man. Dare to love your +brother. Herod was prudent when he sought to destroy all the children of +Bethlehem; it was prudence that led Pilate to deliver up our Master to +the Jews. The deadly _ignis fatuus_ of prudence marched and +counter-marched destroying armies from the East and from the West +through every age, formed vast coalitions and dissolved them +treacherously, made dynasties and flung them from the throne. It led +pagan Rome, it illumined the birth of a faith now choked in official +bonds, it danced before stricken Europe, lit the martyrs' fires, lured +the cold greed of commerce, and now hangs a sickly beacon over +Westminster. But prudence never raised the fallen Magdalene nor forgave +the dying thief. Christ was not _prudent_." + +"Christ, who's 'e?" said a man who had a reputation for facetiousness to +maintain. "Oh! I remember. _He's_ been dead a long time." + +Ambrose turned on him the face that led men and the eye that quelled. +"My brother," he almost whispered across the room, "if you die with that +in your heart it were better for you that He had never lived." + +There was something in the voice, the look, the presence, that checked +the ready methods by which a hostile intruder was wont to be expelled. +All recognised a blind inspired devotion beside which their own party +enthusiasm was at the best pale and thin. Even to men who were wholly +indifferent to the forms of religion, Ambrose's self-denying life, his +ascetic discipline, his fanatical whole-heartedness, his noble--almost +royal--family, and the magnetic influence which he exercised over masses +of the most wretched of the poor and degraded gave pause for thought, +and often extorted a grudging regard. Not a few among those who had +dispassionately watched the rise and fall of parties held the opinion +that the man might yet play a wildly prominent part in the nation's +destinies and involve a tragedy that could only yet be dimly guessed: +for most men deemed him mad. + +"Whatever you may wish to say this is neither the time nor the place," +said Mr Drugget mildly. "We are not taking part in a public meeting +which invites discussion, but are here in a semi-private capacity to +confer with the Home Secretary." + +"There is no time or place unseasonable to me, who come with Supreme +authority," replied Ambrose. "Nor, if the man is worthy of his office, +can the Home Secretary close his ears to the representative of the +people." + +"The people!" exclaimed a startled member of the Amalgamated Unions. +"What d'yer mean by the 'representative of the people'? _We_ are the +representatives of the people. We _are_ the people!" + +"You?" replied Ambrose scornfully, sweeping the assembly with his eye +and returning finally with a disconcerting gaze to the man who spoke, +"you smug, easy, well-fed, well-clad, well-to-do in your little way, +self-satisfied band of Pharisees, _you_ the people of the earth! Are you +the poor, are you the meek, the hungry, the persecuted? You are the +comfortable, complacent _bourgeoisie_ of labourdom. You can never +inherit the Kingdom of Christ on earth. Outside your gates, despised of +all, stand His chosen people." + +There was a low, rolling murmur of approval, growing in volume before it +died away, but it rose not within the chamber but from the road outside. + +"Mr Tubes," whispered the introducer of the deputation uneasily, "give +the word, sir. Shall we have this man put out?" + +"No, no," muttered Tubes, with his eyes fixed on the window and turning +slightly pale; "wait a minute. Who are those outside?" + +The Member of Parliament looked out; others were looking too, and for a +moment not only their own business was forgotten, but the indomitable +priest's outspoken challenge passed unheeded in a curious contemplation +of his following. At that period the sight was a new one in the streets +of London, though afterwards it became familiar enough, not only in the +Capital, but to the inhabitants of every large town and city throughout +the land. + +Ambrose had been called "The Ragged Priest," and it was a very ragged +regiment that formed his bodyguard; he was "The Mad Parson," and an +ethereal mania shone in the faces of many of his followers, though as +many sufficiently betrayed the slum-bred cunning, the inborn brutishness +of the unchanged criminal and the hooligan, thinly cloaked beneath a +shifty mask of assumed humility. As became "St Ambrose," the banners +which here and there stood out above the ranks--mere sackcloth standards +lashed to the roughest poles--nearly all bore religious references in +their crude emblems and sprawling inscriptions. The gibes at charity, +the demands for work of an earlier decade had given place to another +phase. "Christ is mocked," was one; "Having all things in common," ran +another; while "As it was in the beginning," "Equality, in Christ," "Thy +Kingdom come," might frequently be seen. But a more significant note was +struck by an occasional threat veiled beneath a text, as "The sun shall +be turned into darkness, the moon into blood," though their leader +himself never hinted violence in his most impassioned flights. Among the +upturned faces a leisurely observer might have detected a few that were +still conspicuous in refinement despite their sordid settings--women +chiefly, and for the most part fanatical converts who had been swept off +their feet by Ambrose's eloquence in the more orthodox days when he had +thrilled fashionable congregations from the pulpit of a Mayfair church. +Other women there were in plenty; men, old and young; even a few +children; dirty, diseased, criminal, brutalised, vicious, crippled, the +unemployed, the unemployable. Beggars from the streets, begging on a +better lay; thieves hopeful of a larger booty; malcontents of every +phase; enemies of society reckoning on a day of reckoning; the +unfortunate and the unfortunates swayed by vague yearnings after +righteousness; schemers striving for their private ends; with a salting +of the simple-hearted; all held together so far by the vehement +personality of one fanatic, and glancing down the ranks one could +prophesy what manner of monster out of the depths this might prove when +it had reached rampant maturity. Poverty, abject poverty, was the +dominant note; for all who marched beneath the ragged banner must go in +rags. + +Mr Drugget was the first to recover himself. "Look here," he said, +turning to Ambrose aggressively, "I don't quite catch on to your game, +but that's neither here nor there. If you want to know what I call it, I +call it a bit of blasted impertinence to bring a mob like that to a +man's private house, no matter who he may be. What's more, this is an +unlawful gathering according to Act of Parliament." + +"That which breaks no divine commandment cannot be unlawful," replied +Ambrose, unmoved. "I recognise no other law. And you, who call +yourselves Socialists and claim equality, what are your laws but the old +privileges which you denounced in others extended to include yourselves, +what your equality but the spoliation of those above you?" + +"We are practical Socialists," exclaimed one or two members with +dignity. "As reasonable men we recognise that there must be a limit +somewhere." + +"Practical is the last thing you can claim to be. You are impractical +visionaries; for it would be as easy for a diver to pause in mid-air as +for mankind to remain at a half-way house to Equality. All! All! Every +man-made distinction must be swept away. Neither proprietor nor +property, paid leader nor gain, task-work nor pride of place; nothing +between God and man's heart. That is the only practical Socialism, and +it is at hand." + +"Not while we're in office," said the Home Secretary shortly. + +"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," cast back Ambrose. "Where is now the +great Unionist party? In a single season the sturdy Liberal stronghold +crumbled into dust. You deposed a Labour government that was deemed +invulnerable in its time. Beware, the hand is already on the wall. Those +forces which you so blindly ignore will yet combine and crush you." + +It was not unlikely. In former times it would have required barricades +and some personal bravery. But with universal suffrage the power of the +pauper criminal was no less than that of the ducal millionaire, and the +alcohol lunatic, presenting himself at the poll between the spasms of +_delirium tremens_, was as potent a force as the philosopher. A party +composed of paupers, aliens, chronic unemployed, criminals, lunatics, +unfortunates, the hysterical and degenerate of every kind, together with +so many of the working classes as might be attracted by the glamour of a +final and universal spoliation, led by a sincere and impassioned +firebrand, might yet have to be reckoned with. + +"And you, comrade?" said a railway-man with pardonable curiosity. "When +you've had your little fling, who's going to turn _you_ out and come +in?" + +"We!" exclaimed Ambrose with a touch of genuine surprise; "how can you +be so blind! We represent the ultimate destiny of mankind." + +In another age and another place a form of government called the States +General, and largely composed of amiable clerics, had been called up to +redress existing grievances. Being found too slow, it gave place to the +National Assembly, and, to go yet a little faster, became the +Legislative Assembly. This in turn was left behind by the more +expeditious Girondins, but as even they lagged according to the bustling +times, the Jacobins came into favour. The ultimate development of +quick-change Equality was reached in the Hébertists. From one to another +had been but a step, and they were all "The People"; but while the +States General had looked for the millennium by the abolition of a +grievance here and there, and the lightening of a chafing collar in the +mass, the followers of Hébert found so little left for them to abolish +that they abolished God. The experiment convinced the sagest of the +leaders that human equality is only to be found in death, and, true to +their principles, they "equalised" a million of their fellow-countrymen +through the instrumentality of the guillotine, and other forms of moral +suasion. Grown more tender-hearted, "The People" no longer thirsted for +another section of "The People's" blood--only for their money; and in +place of Fouquier-Tinville and the Gentleman with the Wooden Frame, +their instruments of justice were represented by a Chancellor of the +Exchequer, and an individual delivering blue papers. + +"We represent the ultimate destiny of mankind: absolute equality," +announced Ambrose. "Any other condition is inconsistent with the +professions to which your party has repeatedly pledged itself. Will you, +my brother," he continued, addressing himself to the Home Secretary, +"receive a deputation?" + +The deputation was already waiting at the outer door, three men and +three women. It included a countess, a converted house-breaker, and an +anarchist who had become embittered with life since the premature +explosion of one of his bombs had blown off both his arms and driven him +to subsist on the charitable. The other three were uninteresting +nonentities, but all were equal in their passion for equality. + +"We are all pledged to the principle of social equality, and every step +in that direction that comes within the range of practical politics must +have our sympathy," replied Mr Tubes. "Further than that I am not +prepared to commit myself at present. That being the case, there would +be no object in receiving a deputation." To this had Mr Tubes come at +last. + +"The unending formula," said Brother Ambrose with weary bitterness. "... +Bread, and you give them stones ... Man," he cried with sudden energy, +"almost within your grasp lies the foundation of New Jerusalem, +tranquil, smiling, sinless. What stands in your way? Nothing, nothing! +truly nothing but the heavy shadow of the old and cruel past. Throw it +off; is it not worth doing? No more spiritual death, no more sorrow of +the things of this world, nor crying, 'Neither shall there be any more +pain: for the former things are passed away.'" + +"I have nothing more to say," responded the Home Secretary coldly, +bending over his desk to write. + +"Then I have much more to do," retorted Ambrose impetuously, "and that +shall be with the sword of my mouth." He strode from the room with an +air that no amount of legislative equality could ever confer upon any of +those he left behind, and a moment later his ragged escort was in motion +homeward--slumward. + +"Kumreds," said Mr Tubes, looking up, "the harmony of the occasion has +been somewhat impaired by an untoward incident, but on the whole I think +that you may rest well satisfied with the result of your +representations. Having another appointment I must now leave you, but I +have given instructions for some beer and sandwidges to be brought in, +and I trust that in my enforced absence you will all make yourselves +quite at home." He shook hands with each man present and withdrew. + +"Beer and sandwidges!" muttered Comrade Tintwistle, with no affectation +of delight, to a chosen spirit. "And this is the man we pay fifty quid a +week to!" + +"Ah!" assented the friend, following Mr Tubes's hospitable directions by +strolling round the room and fingering the ornaments. "Well, when it +comes to a general share-out I don't know but what I should mind having +this here little round barometer for my parlour." + +"Neat little thing," assented Tintwistle with friendly interest. "What +does it say?" + +"Seems to be dropping from 'Change' to 'Stormy,'" read the friend. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MISS LISLE TELLS A LONG POINTLESS STORY + + +Sir John Hampden lived within a stone-throw of the Marble Arch; George +Salt had established himself in Westminster; and about midway between +the two, in the neighbourhood of Pall Mall, a convenient but quite +unostentatious suite of offices had been taken and registered as the +headquarters of the Unity League. + +The Unity League was a modern organisation that had come into existence +suddenly, and with no great parade, within a week of that day when +George Salt had forced Hampden to hear what he wished to say, a day now +nearly two years ago. The name was simple and commonplace, and therefore +it aroused neither curiosity nor suspicion; it was explained by the fact +that it had only one object: "By constitutional means to obtain an +adequate representation of the middle and upper classes in Parliament," +a phrase rendered by the lighter-hearted members colloquially as "To +kick out the Socialists." The Government, quite content to govern +constitutionally (in the wider sense) and to be attacked +constitutionally (in the narrower sense), treated the existence of the +Unity League as a playful ebullition on the part of the milch sections +of society, and raised the minimum income-tax to four and threepence as +a sedative. + +At first the existence of the League met with very little response and +no enthusiasm among those for whom it was intended. It had become an +article of faith with the oppressed classes that no propagandism could +ever restore an equitable balance of taxation. Every change must +inevitably tend to be worse than the state before. To ask the working +classes (the phrase lingered; by the demarcation of taxation it meant +just what it conventionally means to-day, and, similarly, it excluded +clerical workers of all grades)--to ask this privileged class which +dominated practically every constituency to throw out their own people +and put in a party whose avowed policy would be to repeal the Employers' +Liability Act (Extended), the Strikes Act, the Unemployed Act, the +Amended Companies Act, the Ecclesiastical Property Act, the infamous +Necessity Act, and a score of other preposterous Acts of Injustice +before they even gave their attention to anything else, had long been +recognised to be grotesque. A League, therefore, which spoke of working +towards freedom on constitutional lines fell flat. The newspapers +noticed it in their various individual fashions, and all but the +Government organs extended to it a welcome of cold despair. The general +reader gathered the impression that he might look for its early demise. + +The first revulsion of opinion came when it was understood that Sir John +Hampden had returned to public life as the President of the League. What +his name meant to his contemporaries, how much the League gained from +his association, may be scarcely realised in an age existing under +different and more conflicting conditions. Briefly, his personality +lifted the effort into the plane--not of a national movement, for with +the nation so sharply riven by two irreconcilable interests that was +impossible, but certainly beyond all cavil as to motives and methods. +When it was further known that he was not lending his name +half-heartedly as to a forlorn hope, or returning reluctantly as from a +tardy sense of duty, men began to wonder what might lie behind. + +The first public meeting of the newly formed League deepened the +impression. Men and women of the middle and upper classes were invited +to become members. The annual subscription being a guinea, none but +adults were expected. Those of the working class were not invited. If +the subscription seemed large, the audience was asked to remember what +lay at stake, and to compare with it the case of the artisan cheerfully +contributing his sixpence a week to the strike fund of his class. "As a +result there is a Strikes Act now in force," the President reminded +them, "and the artisan no longer pays the cost----" + +"No, we do," interjected a listener. + +"I ask you to pay it for three years longer; no more, perhaps less," +replied Hampden with a reassuring smile, and his audience stared. + +If the subscription seemed large for an organisation of the kind the +audience was assured that it was by no means all, or even the most, that +would be expected of them. They must be prepared to make some sacrifice +when called upon; the nature he could not indicate at that early stage. +No balance sheet would be published; no detailed reports would be +issued. There would be no dances, no garden-parties, no club houses, no +pretty badges. The President warned them that membership offered no +facilities for gaining a precarious footing in desirable society, +through the medium of tea on the Vicarage lawn, or croquet in the Home +Park. "We are not playing at tin politics nowadays," he caustically +remarked. + +That closed the exordium. In a different vein Hampden turned to review +the past, and with the chartered freedom of the man who had prophesied +it all, he traced in broad lines and with masterly force the course of +Conservative ineptitude, Radical pusillanimity, Labour selfishness, and +Socialistic tyranny. What would be the crowning phase of grab +government? History foreshadowed it; common-sense certified it. Before +the dark curtain of that last stupendous act the wealth and wisdom, the +dignity and responsibility of the nation, stood in paralysed expectancy. + +There was a telling pause; a dramatic poignant silence hung over the +massed crowd that listened to the one man who could still inspire a +kindling spark of hope. Then, just at the opportune moment, a friendly +challenge gave the effective lead: + +"And what does Sir John Hampden offer now?" + +"Absolute victory," replied the speaker, with the thrilling energy of +quiet but assured conviction, "and with it the ending of this nightmare +dream of life in which we are living now, when every man in his +half-guilty helplessness shuns his own thoughts, and all are filled with +a new unnatural pain: the shame of being Englishmen. Blink the fact or +not, it is civil war upon which we are now engaged. Votes are the +weapons, and England and her destiny, nothing more or less, are the +stakes. It has frequently been one of the curious features even of the +most desperate civil struggles of the past, that while battles were +raging all around, towns besieged, and thrones falling, commerce was at +the same time being carried on as usual, wordy controversies on trivial +alien subjects were being hotly discussed by opposing sections, as +though their pedantic differences were the most serious matters in the +world, and the ordinary details of everyday life were proceeding as +before. So it is to-day, but civil, social, war is in our midst, +and--again blink it or not--we are losing, and wage it as it is being +waged we shall continue to lose. I am not here to-day to urge the +justice of our cause, to palliate unwise things done, to indulge in +regrets for wise things left undone. One does not discuss diplomacy in +the middle of a battle. I am here to hold out a new hope for the triumph +of our cause, for the revival of an era of justice, for the recovered +respect of nations. I have never been accused of undue optimism, yet +fully weighing my words, I stand on this platform to-night to share with +you my conviction that it is within our power, in three years' time, to +send an overwhelming majority of our reconstructed party into power, to +reduce the income-tax to a sane and normal level, and to recommence the +building up of a treasonably neglected navy." + +Another man--perhaps any other man--would have been met by ridicule, but +Hampden's reputation was unique. The one point of emphasis that could +not fail to impress itself upon every listener was that there _was_ +something behind all this. It was a point that did not convey itself +half so forcefully in the newspaper reports, so that, as Socialists and +their friends did not attend the meetings (even as members of the +wealthier classes had ignored Socialistic "vapourings" in days gone by), +any menace to the Government that the League might contain was lost on +them for the present. It was the moral of an old fable: the Dog in +Luxury grown slothful and unready. + +The subscription deterred few. It was an epoch when everything was, +apparently, being given away for nothing; though never had the +grandfatherly maxim that in business nothing ever is offered without its +price, been so keenly observed. But superficially, to ride in a penny +'bus entitled one to a probable pension for life; to buy a pound of tea +was only the preliminary to being presented with a motor-car or a grand +piano. Fortunes lurked in cigarette boxes, whole libraries sprang +gratuitously from the columns of the daily papers; not only oxen, but +silver spoons inexhaustible were compressed within the covers of each +jar of meat extract, and buried treasure, "Mysterious Millionaires," and +"Have-you-that-ten-pound-note?" men littered the countryside. To be +asked to subscribe a guinea for nothing definite in return, was +therefore a pleasing novelty which took amazingly. So, too, the idea of +participating in some sort of legal revolution which would entail +sacrifices and result in unexpected developments, was found to be +delightfully invigorating. How the movement spread is a matter of +history. Incomes had been reduced wholesale, yet, so great was the +confidence in Hampden's name, that many members sent their subscription +ten times told. When he asked, as he frequently did at the close of a +meeting, for recruits who were willing to devote their whole time unpaid +to the work in various departments, more than could be accepted were +invariably forthcoming. All members proselytised on their own +initiative, but within these there were thousands of quiet and devoted +workers who were in close touch with the office of the League. They +acted on detailed instructions in their methods, and submitted regular +reports of progress and of the state of public feeling in every part of +the kingdom and among every class of the community. To what length the +roll of membership had now extended only two men knew, even +approximately. All that could be used as a guide was the fact that it +was the exception rather than the rule anywhere to find a family among +the classes aimed at, that did not contain at least one member; while +London, within the same indicated limits, had practically gone solid for +membership. + +And George Salt? The public knew nothing of him; his name did not appear +in connection with the League, nor did he ever take a place among the +notables upon the platform at its meetings. But the thousands of the +inner ring knew him very well, and few whose business led them to the +offices missed encountering him. He was officially supposed to be a +League secretary to Sir John Hampden, endowed with large discretionary +powers. + +At the moment when this chapter opens he was receiving in his office a +representative of the leading Government organ: a daily paper which +purveyed a mixture of fervent demagogism and child-like inconsistency, +for the modest sum of one halfpenny. _The Tocsin_, as it was called, was +widely read by a public who believed every word it contained, with that +simple credulity in what is printed which is one of the most pathetic +features of the semi-illiterate. + +Mr Hammet, the representative of _The Tocsin_, had come to find out what +was really behind the remarkable spread of the Unity League. Possibly +members of the Government were beginning to fidget. Salt had seen him +for the purpose of telling him everything else that he cared to know. To +enquirers, the officials of the League were always candid and open, and +laughingly disclaimed any idea of a mysterious secret society. So Salt +admitted that they really hoped for a change of public opinion shortly; +that they based their calculation on the inevitable swing of the +pendulum, and so forth. He allowed it to be drawn easily from him that +they had great faith in party organisation, and that perhaps--between +themselves and not for publication--the Government would be surprised by +a substantial lowering of their majority at the next election, as a +result of quiet, unostentatious "spade work." "As a party we are not +satisfied with the state of things," he said. "We cannot be expected to +be satisfied with it, and we are certainly relying on a stronger +representation in opposition to make our views felt." + +"Quite right," said Mr Hammet sympathetically. He closed the note-book +in which he had made a few entries and put it away, to indicate that his +visit was officially at an end, and whatever passed between them now was +simply one private gentleman talking to another, and might be regarded +as sacredly confidential. Salt also relaxed the secretarial manner which +he had taken the pains to acquire, and seemed as though he would be glad +of a little human conversation with a man who knew life and Fleet +Street: which meant, of course, that both were prepared to be +particularly alert. + +"I was at one of your meetings the other night--the Albert Hall one," +remarked the newspaper man casually. "Your Chief fairly took the crowd +with him. No being satisfied with a strong opposition for him! Why, he +went bald-headed for sweeping the country and going in with a couple of +hundred majority or so." + +Salt laughed appreciatively. "No good being down-hearted," he replied. +"That was the end of all the old organisations. 'We see no hope for the +future, so you all may as well mark time,' was their attitude, and they +dropped out. 'When anything turns up we intend being ready for it, so +come in now,' we say." + +"Seems to take all right too," admitted Mr Hammet. "I was offered a +level dollar by a friend of mine the other day that you had over half a +million members. I took it in a sporting spirit, because I know that +half a million needs a lot of raking in, and I put it at rather less +myself--but, of course, as you are close about it we can never settle +up." Half a million, it may be observed, was everybody's property, as an +estimate on "excellent authority." + +"We don't publish figures, as a matter of fact," admitted Salt +half-reluctantly, "but I don't know why there should be any very +particular secret about it----" + +"Oh, every office has its cupboards and its skeletons," said Mr Hammet +generously. "But if one could see inside," he added with a knowing look, +"I think that I should win." + +"No," exclaimed Salt suddenly. "I don't mind telling you in confidence. +We have passed the half million: passed it last--well, some time ago." + +"Lucky for me that it is in confidence," remarked the pressman with a +grimace, "or I should have to pay up. What is the exact figure, then?" +he ventured carelessly. + +"No one could quite tell you that," replied Salt, equally off-hand. + +"Six hundred thousand?" suggested Mr Hammet. + +"Oh, that is a considerable advance,--a hundred thousand," admitted Salt +with transparent disappointment. It is not pleasant when you have +impressed your man to have him expecting too much the next minute. + +"I was thinking of the old Buttercup League," said Mr Hammet. "You took +the remains over, lock, stock, and barrel, I believe?" + +"Yes, all that would come. Half belonged to your party really, and half +of the remainder were children. What an organisation that was in its +time! A million and a half!" The smart young newspaper man noted Mr +Salt's open admiration for these figures. It convinced him that the +newer League was not yet within measurable distance of half that total. + +"And in the end it did--what?" he remarked. + +Salt was bound to apologise. "What is there to do, after all?" he +admitted. "What can you do but keep your people together, show them +where their interest lies, and wait?" + +"And rake in the shekels?" suggested Mr Hammet airily. + +"Oh, that!" agreed Salt a little uneasily. "Of course one has to look +after the finances." + +"Ra-ther," agreed Mr Hammet. "Wish I had the job. Do you smoke here as a +general thing?" + +"Oh yes," replied Salt, who never did. "Try one of these." + +"Fairish cigars. Better than you'd find in the old man's private box up +at our show," was the verdict. "But then we haven't a revenue of half a +million." + +"Of course I rely on you not to say anything about our numbers," said +the secretary anxiously. + +The visitor made a reassuring gesture, expressive of inviolable secrecy. +"Though I suppose you have to make a return for income-tax purposes," he +mused. "My aunt! what an item you must have!" + +"No," replied Salt. "We do not pay anything." + +Mr Hammet stared in incredulous surprise. "How do you manage to work +it?" he demanded familiarly. "You don't mean that they have forgotten +you?" + +"No; it's quite simple," explained Salt. "Your friends made the funds +and incomes of Trades Unions sacred against claims and taxes of every +kind a few years ago, and we rank as a Trade Union." + +"Don't call them my friends, please God," exclaimed Mr Hammet with +ingratiating disloyalty. "I work as in a house of bondage. You don't +publish any balance-sheet, by the way, do you?" + +"No, we don't see why we should let every one know how the money is +being spent. No matter how economically things are carried on there are +always some who want to interfere." + +"Especially if they sampled your weeds," suggested the visitor +pleasantly. "Pretty snug cribs you must have, but that's not my +business. Between ourselves, what does Sir John draw a year?" + +"Nothing," protested Salt eagerly, too eagerly. "As President of the +League he does not receive a penny." + +Sharp Mr Hammet, who prided himself upon being a terror for exposures +and on having a record of seven flagrant cases of contempt of court, +read the secretary's eagerness like an open book. "But then there are +Committees, Sub-committees, Executives, Emergency Funds, and what not," +he pointed out, "and our unpaid League President may be Chairman of one, +and Secretary of another, and Grand Master of a third with a royal +salary from each, eh? Can you assure me----" + +"Oh, well; of course," admitted Salt, cornered beyond prevarication, +"that is a private matter that has to do with the officials of the +League alone. But you may take it from me that every one in these +offices earns his salary whatever it may be." + +Mr Hammet smiled his polite acquiescence broadly. + +"Same here, changing the scene of action to Stonecutter Street," he +commented. "Do you happen to know how Sir John came to start this +affair? Well, Tagg M.P. met Miss Hampden once and wanted to marry her. +He called on Sir John, who received him about as warmly as a shoulder of +Canterbury lamb even before he knew what his business was. When he did +know, he gave such an exhibition of sheet lightning that Tagg, who is +really a very level-headed young fellow in general, completely lost his +nerve and tried to dazzle him into consenting, by offering him a safe +seat in the Huddersfield division and a small place in the Government if +he'd consent to put up as a bracketted Imperialist hyphened Socialist. +Then the old man kicked Tagg out of the house, and swore to do the same +with his Government within three years. At least that's what I heard +about the time, but very likely there isn't a word of truth in it;" a +tolerably safe inference on Mr Hammet's part, as, in point of fact, he +had concocted Mr Tagg's romance on the spur of the moment. + +"No," volunteered Salt. "I don't think that that is the true story, or I +should have heard something about it. It's rather curious that you +should have mentioned it. I believe----But it's scarcely worth taking +up your time with." + +"Not at all: I mean that I am quite interested," protested Mr Hammet. + +"Well--of course it sounds rather absurd in the broad light of day, but +I believe, as a matter of fact, that he was led into founding the League +simply as the result of a dream." + +"A dream!" exclaimed Mr Hammet, deeply surprised. "What sort of a +dream?" + +"Well, it naturally must have been a rather extraordinary dream to +affect him so strongly. In fact you might perhaps call it a vision." + +"A vision!" repeated Mr Hammet, thoroughly absorbed in the mysterious +element thus brought in. "Do I understand that this is Sir John's own +explanation?" Hampden's sudden return to activity had, indeed, from time +to time been a riddle of wide interest. + +"Oh no," Salt hastened to correct. "I expect that he would be the last +man to admit it, or to offer any explanation at all. Of course the +history of the world has been changed in every age through dreams and +visions, but that explanation nowadays, in a weighty matter, would run +the risk of being thought trivial and open to ridicule." + +"But what do you base your deductions upon, then?" demanded Mr Hammet, +rather fogged by the serious introduction of this new light. "Is Sir +John a believer in clairvoyance?" + +"I am afraid that I must not state the real grounds for several reasons, +if you won't think me discourteous," replied Salt firmly. "But this I +may say: that I had occasion to see Sir John late one night, and then he +had not the faintest intention of coming forward. Early the following +morning I saw him again, and by that time the whole affair was cut and +dried. Of course you are at liberty to confirm or contradict the story +just as you like, if you should happen to come across it again." + +In a state of conscious bewilderment through which he was powerless to +assert himself, Mr Hammet submitted to polite dismissal. The visible +result of his interview was half a column of peptonised personalities in +_The Tocsin_, rendered still easier of assimilation to the dyspeptic +mind by being well cut up into light paragraphs and garnished with +sub-headings throughout. The unseen result, except to the privileged +eyes of half a dozen people, was a confidential report which found its +way ultimately into the desk of the Home Secretary. The following points +summarised Mr Hammet's deductions. + + * * * * * + +"The Unity League probably has a membership of half a million. It may be +safely assumed that it does not exceed that figure by a hundred thousand +at the most. + +"While largely recruiting by the device of holding out a suggestion of +some indefinite and effective political scheme, the policy of the League +will be that of _laisser faire_, and its influence may be safely +ignored. Very little of its vast income is spent in propagandism or +organisation. On the contrary, there is the certainty that considerable +sums are lying at short notice at the banks, and strong evidence that +equally large sums have been sent out of the country through the agency +of foreign houses. + +"Many men of so-called 'good position' enjoy obvious sinecure posts +under the League, and all connected with the organisation appear to draw +salaries disproportionate to their positions, and in some cases wildly +disproportionate. + +"The plain inference from the bulk of evidence is that the League is, +and was formed to be, the preserve for a number of extravagant and +incapable unemployed of the so-called upper and upper-middle classes, +who have organised this means of increasing their incomes to balance the +diminution which they have of late years experienced through the +equalising legislation of Socialism. The money sent abroad is doubtless +a reserve for a few of the higher officials to fall back on if future +contingencies drive them out of this country. + +"This information has been carefully derived from a variety of sources, +including John Hampden's secretary, a man called Salt. Salt appears to +be a simple, unsuspicious sort of fellow, and with careful handling +might be used as a continual means of securing information in the future +should there be any necessity." + + * * * * * + +The simple, unsuspicious secretary had dismissed Mr Hammet with scarcely +another thought as soon as that gentleman had departed. In order to fit +himself for the requirements of his new sphere of action, Salt had, +during the past two years, compelled himself to acquire that art of +ready speech which we are told is the most efficient safeguard of our +thoughts. But he hated it. Most of all he despised the necessity of +engaging in such verbal chicane as Mr Hammet's mission demanded. Of that +mission he had the amplest particulars long before the representative of +_The Tocsin_ had passed his threshold. He knew when he was coming, why +he was coming, and the particular points upon which information was +desired. He could have disconcerted Hammet beyond measure by placing +before him a list of all those persons who had been so delicately +sounded, together with an abstract of the results; and finally, he +received as a matter of ordinary routine a copy of the confidential +report three hours before it reached Mr James Tubes. Armies engaged in +active warfare have their Intelligence Departments, and the Secret +Service of the Unity League was remarkably complete and keen. + +"My name is Irene Lisle," said the next caller, and there being nothing +particular to say in reply Salt expressed himself by his favourite +medium--silence; but in such a way that Miss Lisle felt encouraged to +continue. + +"I have come to you because I am sick of seeing things go on as they +have been going for years, and no one doing anything. I believe that you +_are_ going to do something." + +"Why?" demanded Salt with quiet interest. It mattered--it might matter a +great deal--why this unknown Miss Lisle should have been led to form +that conclusion. + +"I have a great many friends--some in London, others all over the +country. I have been making enquiries lately, through them and also by +other means. It is generally understood that your membership is about +half a million, and you tacitly assent to that." She took up a scrap of +waste paper that lay before her, and writing on it, passed it across the +desk. "That, however, is my estimate. If I am right, or anything like +it, you are concealing your strength." + +Salt took the paper, glanced at it, smiled and shook his head without +committing himself to any expression. But he carefully burned the +fragment with its single row of figures after Miss Lisle had left. + +"I have attended your meetings," continued Miss Lisle composedly, "for, +of course, I am a member in the ordinary way. I came once as a matter of +curiosity, or because one's friends were speaking of it, and I came +again because, even then, I was humbled and dispirited at the shameful +part that our country was being made to play before the world. I caught +something, but I did not grasp all--because I am not a man, I suppose. I +saw meeting after meeting of impassive unemotional, black-coated +gentlemen lifted into the undemonstrative white-heat of purposeful +enthusiasm by the suggestion of that new hope which I failed to +understand. At one of the earliest Queen's Hall meetings I particularly +noticed a young man who sat next to me. He was just an ordinary +keen-faced, gentlemanly, well-dressed, athletic-looking youth, who might +have been anything from an upper clerk to a millionaire. He sat through +the meeting without a word or a sign of applause, but when at the finish +twenty volunteers were asked for, to give their whole time to serving +the object of the League, he was the first to reach the platform, with a +happier look on his face, in the stolid English style, than I should +have ever expected to see there. It was beyond me. Then among the +audiences one frequently heard remarks such as 'I believe there's +something behind it all'; 'I really think Hampden has more than an idea'; +'It strikes me that we are going to have something livelier than tea and +tennis,' and suggestions of that kind. Some time ago, after a meeting at +Kensington, I was walking home alone when you overtook me. Immediately in +front were two gentlemen who had evidently been to the meeting also, and +they were discussing it. At that moment one said emphatically to the +other: 'I don't know what it is, but that it _is_ something I'll +swear; and if it is I'd give them my last penny sooner than have things +as they are.' Sir John Hampden, who was with you, looked at you +enquiringly, and you shook your head and said, 'Not one of our men.' +'Then I believe it's beginning to take already,' he replied." + +Two things occurred to Salt: that Miss Lisle might be a rather sharp +young lady, and that he and Hampden had been unusually careless. +"Anything else?" was all he said. + +"It's rather a long wild tale, and it has no particular point," +explained the lady. + +"If you can spare the time," he urged. The long pointless tale might be +a pointer to others beside Miss Lisle. + +"I was cycling a little way out in the country recently," narrated Miss +Lisle, "when I found that I required a spanner, or I could not go on. It +was rather a lonely part for so near London, within ten or twelve miles, +I suppose, and there was not a house to be seen. I wheeled my bicycle +along and soon came to a narrow side lane. It had a notice 'Private +Road' up, and I could not see far down it as it wound about very much, +but it seemed to be well used, so I turned into it hoping to find a +house. There was no house, for after a few turns the lane ended +suddenly. It ended, so to speak, in a pair of large double doors--like +those of a coach-house--for before me was a stream crossed by an iron +bridge; immediately beyond that a high wall and the doors. But do you +care for me to go on?" + +"If you please," said Salt, and paid the narrative the compliment of a +close and tranquil attention. + +"It was rather a peculiar place to come on unexpectedly," continued Miss +Lisle. "It had originally been a powder works, and the old notices +warning intruders had been left standing; as a matter of fact a stranger +would probably still take it to be a powder mill, but one learned +locally that it was the depot and distributing centre of an artificial +manure company with a valuable secret process. Which, of course, made it +less interesting than explosives." + +"And less dangerous," suggested Salt, smiling. + +"I don't know," shot back Miss Lisle with a glance. "Mark the +precautions. There was the stream almost enclosing this place--the size, +I suppose, of a considerable farm--and in the powder mill days it had +been completely turned into an island by digging a canal or moat at the +narrowest point of the bend. Immediately on the other side of the water +rose the high brick wall topped with iron spikes. The one bridge was the +only way across the stream, the one set of double doors, as high as the +wall, the only way through beyond. Inside was thickly wooded. I don't +suggest wild animals, you know, but savage dogs would not surprise me. + +"As I stood there, concluding that I should have to turn back, I heard a +heavy motor coming down the lane. It came on very quickly as though the +driver knew the twisting road perfectly, shot across the bridge, the big +gates fell open apparently of their own accord, and it passed inside. I +had only time to note that it was a large trade vehicle with a square +van-like body, before the gates had closed again." + +Miss Lisle paused for a moment, but she had by no means reached the end +of her pointless adventure. + +"I had seen no one but the motor driver, but I was mistaken in thinking +that there was no one else to see, for as I stood there undecided a +small door in the large gate was opened and a man came out. He was +obviously the gate-keeper, and in view of the notices I at once +concluded that he was coming to warn me off, so I anticipated him by +asking him if he could lend me a spanner. He muttered rather surlily +that if I waited there he would see, and went back, closing the little +door behind him. I thought that I heard the click of a self-acting lock. +Presently he came back just as unamiable as before and insisted on +screwing up the bolt himself--to get me away the sooner, I suppose. He +absolutely started when I naturally enough offered him sixpence--I +imagine the poor man doesn't get very good wages--and went quite red as +he took it." + +"And all ended happily?" remarked Salt tentatively, as though he had +expected that a possible relevance might have been forthcoming after +all. + +"Happily but perplexingly," replied Miss Lisle, looking him full in the +face as she unmasked the point of her long pointless story. "For the +surly workman who was embarrassed by sixpence was my gentlemanly +neighbour of the Queen's Hall meeting, and I was curious to know how he +should be serving the object of the League by acting as a gate-keeper to +the Lacon Equalised Superphosphate Company." + +Salt laughed quietly and looked back with unmoved composure. "No doubt +many possible explanations will occur to you," he said with very +plausible candour. "The simplest is the true one. Several undertakings +either belong to the League or are closely connected with it, for +increasing its revenue or for other purposes. The Lacon is one of +these." + +"And I don't doubt that even the position of doorkeeper is a responsible +one, requiring the intelligence of an educated gentleman to fill it," +retorted Miss Lisle. "It must certainly be an exacting one. You know +better than I do how many great motor vans pass down that quiet little +lane every hour. They bear the names of different companies, they are +ingeniously different in appearance, and they pass through London by +various roads and by-roads. But they have one unique resemblance: they +are all driven by mechanics who are astonishingly disconcerted by the +offer of stray sixpences and shillings! It is the same at the little +private wharf on the canal a mile away. It was quite a relief to find +that the bargemen were common human bargees!" + +Salt still smiled kindly. The slow, silent habit gives the best mask +after all. "And why have you come to me?" he asked. + +"Because I _know_ that you are going to do something, and I want to +help. I loathe the way things are being done down there." The nod meant +the stately Palace of Westminster, though it happened to be really in +the direction of Charing Cross, but it was equally appropriate, for the +monuments of the Government, like those of Wren, lay all around. "Who +can go on playing tennis as usual when an ambassador who learned his +diplomacy in a Slaughter-housemen's Union represents us by acting +alternately as a fool and a cad before an astounded Paris? Or have an +interest in bridge when the Sultan of Turkey is contemptuously ordering +us to keep our fleet out of sight of Mitylene and we apologise and obey? +I will be content to address envelopes all day long if it will be of any +use. Surely there are other secret processes down other little lanes? I +will even be the doorkeeper at another artificial manure works if there +is nothing else!" + +Salt sat thinking, but from the first he knew that for good or ill some +degree of their confidence must be extended to a woman. It is the common +experience of every movement when it swells beyond two members: or +conspiracies would be much more dangerous to their foes. + +"It may be monotonous, perhaps even purposeless as far as you can see," +he warned. "I do not know yet, and it will not be for you to say." + +Miss Lisle flushed with the pleasurable thrill of blind sacrifice. "I +will not question," she replied. "Only if there should be any need you +might find that an ordinary uninteresting middle-class girl with a +slangy style and a muddy complexion could be as devoted as a Flora +Macdonald or a Charlotte Corday." + +Salt made a quiet deprecating gesture. "A girl with a fearless truthful +face can be capable of any heroism," he remarked as he began to write. +"Especially when she combines exceptional intelligence with exceptional +discretion. Only," he added as an afterthought, "it may be uncalled-for, +and might be inconvenient in a law-abiding constitutional age." + +"I quite understand that now; the conscientious addressing of circulars +shall bound my horizon. Only, please let me be somewhere in it, when it +_does_ come." + +"I say, Salt," drawled an immaculately garbed young man, lounging into +the room, "do you happen----" + +Miss Lisle, who had been cut off from the door by a screen, rose to +leave. + +"Oh, I say, I beg your pardon," exclaimed the young man. "They told me +that you were alone." + +"I shall be disengaged in a moment," replied Salt formally. "At ten +o'clock to-morrow morning then, Miss Lisle, please." She bowed and +withdrew, the Honourable Freddy Tantroy, who had lingered rather +helplessly, holding the door as she went out and favouring her with a +criticising glance. + +"Always making rotten ass of myself," murmured that gentleman +plaintively. "General Office fault. Engaging lady clerk? Not bad idea, +but you might have gone in for really superior article while you were +about it. Cheaper in the end. Oh, I don't know, though." + +"Miss Lisle came with the best of recommendations," said Salt almost +distantly. One might have judged that he had no desire for Mr Tantroy's +society, but that reasons existed why he should not tell him so. + +"Yes, I know," nodded Freddy sagely; "they do. Hockey girl, I should +imagine. Face of the pomegranate type, carved by amateur whose hand +slipped when he was doing the mouth. Prefer the pink and pneumatic style +myself. Matter taste." + +Salt made no reply. The only possible reply was the one he denied +himself. He occupied the time by burning a scrap of paper with a single +row of figures. + +"I say, Salt. I was really coming about something, but I've forgotten +what," announced the honourable youth after a vacuous pause. "Oh, I +remember. That elusive old cheesecake of a hunk of mine. Do you happen +to know where the volatile Sir John is to be unearthed?" + +"I imagine that your uncle is in Paris at this moment," replied Salt. +"He is expected back to-morrow." + +"Paris!" exclaimed Freddy with some interest. "Good luck at the Pink +Windmill, old boy! Anything in the air, Salt? Projected French landing +at Brighton pier next week? Seriously, don't you think League bit of +gilded fizzle? Expected something with coloured lights long ago." + +"I think that we have every reason to be satisfied with the progress," +replied Salt. "The weight of a great organisation must exercise some +influence in the end." + +"Oh yes," retorted Mr Tantroy with a cunning look. "That's the other +face of double-headed Johnny they have stuffed in museums. Well, all in +good time, little Freddy, if you sit quiet." He carried out this +condition literally for a couple of minutes, gazing pensively at a +slender ring he wore. Then: "I'll tell you what, Salt," he continued. "I +wish you'd use benign influence with Sir John. Tired of apeing the +golden ass, and I am thinking of settling down. Want an office here and +absolutely grinding hard work ten to four, and couple of thousand a year +or so until I'm worth more. Fact is, met girl I could absolutely exist +for ever with in gilded bird-cage. Been Vivarium lately?" + +"No," replied Salt. + +"Oh, well, no good trying my rotten powers description. Must go with me +some night and see. She hangs by her toes to a slack wire eighty-five +feet above the stage and sings: + + 'Things are strangely upside down, dear boys. + Nowadays.' + +No getting away from it, she is positively the most crystallised damson +that ever stepped out of lace-edged box. No fear monotony in home with +girl like that. The very thought of it----! Well, come out and have +drink, Salt?" + +"Thanks, no," replied Salt. "I've quite got out of the habit." + +"Great Scott!" exclaimed Freddy, aghast. "You better try some of those +newspaper things that Johnnies with funny addresses and members of the +Greek Royal Family write up to say have done them no end. I say, Salt, I +suppose there is spare office in this palatial suite that I could have +if I grappled with the gilded effort?" + +"I really don't know that there is." He had not the most shadowy faith +in the Honourable Freddy's perseverance, even in intention, for a week. +To expect any real work from him was out of the question. "We are rather +overcrowded here as it is." + +"If I were you, Salt, I should insist upon the old man removing better +premises somewhere. Place seems absolutely congealed with underlings. +Just listen to that in next room: it's like hive of gilded bees. What is +it?" + +"Simply routine work going on," said Salt half-impatiently. "Sorry I +can't spare the time to come out with you." + +"Oh, that's all right-angled," said Freddy, taking the hint and rising. +"Sorry. Pramp, pramp. You think I shall find Sir John here Friday if I +look in?" + +"Yes, here; but desperately busy." + +"Er, thanks," drawled Freddy, with just a suggestion of vice. "Perhaps +my uncle will be able to spare me five minutes when he has done with +you." + +He drifted languidly through the door and sauntered down the passage. At +the door of the room where the monotonous voice rose and fell in the +ceaseless repetition of short sentences, he paused to light a cigarette. +For perhaps a full minute he remained quite motionless, the cigarette +between his lips, the match pressed ready against the corrugations of +the jewelled box he held. + +"Listretton, Fergus, 572 Upper Holloway Road, N. + +"Listwell-Phelps, J. Walter, F.R.S., Department of Ethopian Antiquities, +British Museum, W.C. + +"Litchit, Miss, Dressmaker, 15 The Grove, Westpoint-on-Sea. + +"Little, Rev. H. K., The Vicarage, Lower Skerrington, Dorset. + +"Little, Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Vernon, C.B., V.C., 14a Eaton +Square, S.W. + +"Littlejohn, John George, Byryxia, Cole Park, Twickenham." + +Freddy Tantroy lit his cigarette and passed on. The prosaic list of new +members dictated to an entering clerk did not interest him. Five names a +minute, three hundred an hour, three thousand a day; an ordinary day, +weeks after any special meeting, and in the flat season of the year. But +it did not interest Mr Tantroy. Immersed in a scheme for taxing baths, +soda-water syphons, and asparagus beds, and further occupied with the +unexpectedly delicate details of withdrawing from India, it did not +interest the Government. + +It was only the ordinary routine work of the Unity League. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"SCHEDULE B" + + +On the following day Sir John Hampden returned from Paris. A week later +and he had again left London. At the office of the League it was +impossible to learn where he had gone; perhaps fishing, it was +suggested. In any case he was taking a well-earned holiday and did not +want to be troubled with business, so that nothing was being forwarded. +A little later any one might know for the asking that he was in +Berlin--and returning the next day. There was never any secret made of +Sir John's movements if the office knew them, only he occasionally liked +to cut himself completely off from communication in order to ensure a +perfect rest. As soon as the office knew where he was, every one else +could know too; only it invariably happened that he was on his way back +by that time. The incident was repeated. Callers at Trafalgar Chambers +found all the heads communicative and very leisured. It came out that +nothing much was being done just then; it was not the time of the year +for politics. For all the good they were doing three-quarters of the +offices might be closed for the next few months and three-quarters of +the staff take a holiday. In fact, that was what they were doing to a +large extent. It was Mr Salt's turn as soon as Sir John got back. + +That time it was St. Petersburg. + +For a man who had been a sailor George Salt displayed a curious taste +when he came to take his holiday. The sea had no call for him, nor the +coast-line any charm. The inland resorts, the golf centres, moors, +lakes, mountains and rivers, all were passed by. It was not even to an +"undiscovered" village or some secluded country house that he turned his +footsteps in hope of perfect change. On the contrary, where the +ceaseless din of industry made rest impossible; where the puny but +irresistible hands of generations of mankind had scarred the face of +earth like a corroding growth, where the sky was shut out by smoke, +vegetation stifled beneath a cloak of grime, day and night turned into +one lurid vulcanian twilight, in which by bands and companies, by trains +and outposts, dwarfish men toiled in the unlovely rhythm of hopeless, +endless labour: the lupus-spots of nature; there Salt spent his holiday. +Coal was the loadstone that drew him on, and in a vast contour his +journey through that month defined the limits of the coal-fields of the +land. + +In the subsequent histories of this period no mention of Salt's +significant appearance in the provinces finds a place. Yet in presenting +a dispassionate review of the succeeding events it is impossible to +ignore its influence; although, to adopt a just proportion, it is not +necessary to deal with it at length. It was not a vital detail of the +scheme on which the League had staked its cause; it was less momentous +than any of Hampden's three Continental missions; but by disarming +opposition in certain influential quarters when the crisis came, it +removed a possible cause of dissension from the first. That is its +place. + +It was an indication of the extreme care with which the operations had +been developed, that even at this point there were still only two men +who had any real knowledge of what the plan of campaign would be. There +were those who did not hesitate to declare that a hostile demonstration +was being arranged by a foreign power with whom Hampden had come to an +understanding. At a favourable moment a pretext for a quarrel would be +found, relations would be broken off immediately, ambassadors recalled, +and within three days England would be threatened with war. If +necessary, an actual invasion would take place, and in view of the +sweeping reductions in the army and navy no one thought it worth while +to express a doubt that an actual invasion could take place. After +arranging for a suitable indemnity the invaders would withdraw, leaving +a provisional government in power, with Hampden at its head. This was +the extremists' view, and the majority, feeling at heart that however +England might be internally riven and their liberties assailed, nothing +could ever justify so unpatriotic a course, held that Hampden was +incapable of the step. Others suggested civil war; passive resistance to +the payment of rates and taxes on so organised a scale as to embarrass +the Government for supplies; an alliance, on a basis not readily +discernible, with the rank and file of the Socialist party; the secret +importation of a sufficient number of aliens to turn an election; and a +variety of other ingenious devices, easy to suggest but difficult to +maintain. Those who, like Miss Lisle, observed the most, talked the +least. + +Among the working men of the country--the class that the League had come +into being to control--it had passed into the category of a second +Buttercup League and was ignored. A few, better informed, accepted the +conclusions that Mr Hammet and his associates had arrived at, and +laughed quietly in their sleeves at the thought of the coming +humiliation of the confiding members. Last of all there remained a +scattered few here and there, who, through natural suspicion or a +shrewder wisdom than their fellows, had of late begun to detect in the +existence of the League a real menace to themselves, and to urge the +powers, and Mr Tubes in particular, to counteract its aims. It might +have been a race, a desperate race, but for one simple thing. Hampden +had asked for three years in which to complete his plans, and both +friends and foes, deducing from every experience of the past, ranging +from the opening of an exhibition to the closing of a war, had conceded +that this meant four at least. But Hampden and the man who had been a +sailor had no intention of being embarrassed by a race. Not three years +meaning four, but three years meaning two, had underlain the boast, and +at the end of two years, although there was still much to be gained by +time and an unfettered choice of the moment of attack, there was no +probability of being forestalled on any important point. + +Such was the position when Salt set out on his provincial holiday. + +He had nothing to learn; elementary detail of that kind belonged to +another journey, when, more than two years ago, he had made the +self-same tour. He did not go to offer peace or war; that die had been +cast blindly--who shall say how many years before?--in Northampton boot +factories, Lancashire mills, Durham coal-pits, in Radical clubs and +Labour cabinets. But in war, and in civil war most of all, every blow +aimed at the foe must spend its expiring force upon a friend--and +therefore Salt went to the coal-fields. + +At each centre he was met by a high official of the League who had local +knowledge. The man made his report; it concerned a list he brought, a +list of names. Sometimes it contained only three or four names, +sometimes as many dozens. If to each name there stood the word +"Content," Salt passed on to his next centre. If some were reported to +be holding out or dissatisfied, Salt remained. When he resumed his +methodical way the word "Content" had been added to every name. + +Only once did failure threaten to mar his record. A Lancashire colliery +proprietor, a man who had risen from the lowest grade of labour, as men +more often did in the hard, healthy days of emulous rivalry than in the +later piping times of union-imposed collective indolence, did not wish +to listen. Positive, narrow, over-bearing, he was permeated with the +dogmatic egotism of his successful life. He had never asked another +man's advice; he had never made a mistake. As hard as the ground out of +which he had carved his fortune, he hated and despised his men; they +knew it, and hated and respected him in return. His own brother worked +as a miner in his "1500 deep" and received a miner's wage. He hated his +master with the rest. Lomas was the "closest" employer in the north +central coal-field, and the richest. But there were fewer widows and +orphans in Halghcroft than in any other pit village of its size, and +Lomas spent nothing in insurance. Under his immediate eye cage cables +did not snap, tram shackles part, nor did unexpected falls of shoring +occur. His men did not smoke at their work, and no mysterious explosion +had ever engaged the attention of a Board of Trade enquiry. + +Salt found him sitting in his shirt sleeves in a noble room, furnished +in the taste and profusion of a crowded pantechnicon with the most +costly specimens of seventeen periods of decorative art. He received him +with his usual manner, and that was the manner of a bellicose curmudgeon +towards an unwelcome deputation of suppliants. For emphasis, between the +frank didactic aphorisms which formed his arguments and his rules of +life, he banged with his fist a _lapis lazuli_ table, and lowered his +voice in a confidential aside to inform his visitor that three thousand +pounds was the figure that the little piece of furniture had cost him, +and that in matters of taste he stuck at nothing--an unnecessary piece +of information after one had cast an astonished glance around that +bizarre room. + +In Lomas's future there loomed a knighthood--the consummation in his +mind of all earthly ambition and the possible fruit of a lavish charity +of the kind that is scarcely the greatest of the three, and his policy +was wholly dictated by a fear of endangering his chances. He would have +resented the suggestion, in the face of several munificent donations +that he had recently made to certain funds, and a gracious +acknowledgment which he had received, that the King was not following +his career with a personal interest. What, then, was the King's attitude +towards the Unity League and its plan of campaign? Had Salt anything to +show? It was useless to protest the inviolability of royal neutrality; +Lomas only banged the _lapis lazuli_. That was good enough for +outsiders, he retorted: now, between themselves? The strong man who was +restrained by diplomatic conventions could make no headway with the +strong man who was frankly primitive in his selfishness, and Salt +withdrew, baffled, but unperturbed. But the sequel was that before he +left his hotel the following day Lomas had waited upon him with full +acquiescence to the terms, and the central coal-field was "Content." + +The inference might be that at last the intentions of the League must +have been disclosed. The reality was nothing of the kind. What had been +revealed to these men, then--the largest employers of labour of any +class throughout the country--to which they had signified their consent? +it may be asked. And the truth was that nothing had been revealed; that +even the officers of the League who sounded them were in the dark. In +the past, industrial struggles had always been between capital and +labour. That vaster encounter, upon which the League was now +concentrating its energies, was not to be on such clearly defined lines, +and in the strife capital might suffer side by side with labour. Against +that contingency the coal influence had now been indemnified in the name +of the Unity League and the future Government, and the guarantee had +been accepted. It was a far-reaching precaution in the end; it narrowed +the issue, and it secured more than neutrality in a quarter where open +hostility might have otherwise been proclaimed. It just tended to +realise that perfection of detail and completeness of preparation that +mark the successful campaign. + +But if there was nothing more to learn in the sense that the data upon +which the League had based its plans had long since been complete, it +was impossible for a thoughtful observer to pass through the land +without learning much. Even two years of increasing privilege had left a +deeper mark. A lavish policy of "Bread and Circuses" was again depleting +the countryside, choking the towns, and destroying the instinct of +citizenship, just as it had speeded the decline of another world-power +two thousand years before. While wages had remained practically +stationary, the leisure of the working man had been appreciably +increased, and it was now being discovered that the working man had no +way of passing his leisure except in spending money. Betting and +drunkenness had increased in direct ratio to the lengthened hours of +enforced idleness, and other disquieting indications of how the time was +being spent, were brought home to those who moved among the poor. Where +the money came from, the books of the great thrift societies at once +revealed. There was no longer any necessity for the working man to save; +his wages were guaranteed, his risks of sickness and every other +adversity were insured against, his old age was pensioned, his children +were, if necessary, State-adopted. + +Even the Trades Unions had abolished their subscriptions and dissipated +their reserves. There was no need of thrift now, for the Government was +the working man's savings bank, and had cut out the debit pages of his +pass-book. It was almost the Millennium. The only drawback was that, +with all this affluence around, the working man found himself very much +in the condition of a financial Ancient Mariner. There was a great deal +of money being spent on him, and for him, and by him, but he never had +any in his pocket. And the working man's wife was even worse off. + +Other classes there were which found themselves in the same position, +but not by the same process. The rich were taxed up to the eyes, but the +rich had obvious means of retrenchment. But the great mass of the middle +class had no elastic extravagances upon which they could economise. Even +under favourable conditions they were for the most part fulfilling +Disraeli's pessimistic dictum: to the generality, manhood had been a +struggle. It had passed into a failure. It stood face to face with the +certainty of becoming a disaster. Inevitably there were tragedies.... So +it happened that the one vivid haunting picture that George Salt carried +down into later years from this period was not a lurid impression of +some blackened earth-gnarled scene of Dantesque desolation, not even a +memory of any of the incidents of his own personal triumph, but the +sharp details of an episode that lay quite off the high-road of his +work. + +He was walking along a pretty country lane one evening (for it is a +characteristic of many of these unhappy regions that almost to the edge +of man's squalid usurpation Nature spreads her most gracious charms) +when a sudden thunderstorm drove him to seek the hospitality of a +labourer's cottage. + +The man who opened the door was not a labourer, although he was shabbily +dressed. He looked sombrely at his visitor. "What is it?" he asked, +standing in the doorway with no sign of invitation. + +"It is raining very heavily," replied Salt. "I should like to shelter, +if you will permit me." + +The man seemed to notice the downpour, which had now become a continuous +stream, for the first time. "I'm very busy," he said churlishly. + +"If I might stand just inside your doorway?" suggested Salt. + +"No, come in," said the host with an air of sudden resolution. "After +all----" He led the way out of the tiny entrance-hall into a room. Salt +could not refrain from noticing that although the furniture was meagre, +the walls were covered with paintings. + +"I am an artist," said the brusque tenant of the cottage, noticing the +involuntary glance around. "Come--in return for shelter you shall tell +me what you think of these things." + +"I am not a critic," replied Salt, stepping from picture to picture, +"and it would be presumptuous, therefore, for me to give an opinion on +works that I do not understand, although I can recognise them as +striking and unconventional." + +"Ah," commented the artist. "And that?" + +He indicated a portrait with a nod. It was in an earlier, a smoother, +and less characteristic style. To the man who was no artist it was a +very beautiful painting of a very beautiful girl. + +"My dead wife," said the artist, as Salt stood in silent admiration. "I +have buried her this afternoon." + +The man who had never known or even seen her felt a stab as he looked up +at the lovely, smiling face. + +"Well," said the painter roughly, "why don't you say how sorry you are, +or some platitude of that sort?" + +Salt turned away, to leave the other alone meeting the sweet eyes. +"Because I cannot say how sorry I am," he replied with gentle pity. + +"Oh, my beloved!" he heard the whisper. "Not long, not long." + +"You are packing," Salt continued a minute later. "Let me help you--with +some." + +A heap of straw and shavings littered the floor; boxes and cases stood +ready at hand. + +"No," replied the man, looking moodily at his preparations. "I have +changed my mind. I have to go on a journey to-night, but I shall leave +this place as it is and secure the doors and windows instead." + +He brought tools, and together they nailed across the cottage windows +the stout old-fashioned shutters that secured them. Neither spoke much. + +"Come," said the artist, when the melancholy work was complete; "the +storm is over. Our roads lie together for a little way." He locked the +outer door, and stood lingering reluctantly with his hand upon the key. +"A moment," he said, unlocking the door again, and entering. "Only a +moment. Wait for me at the gate." + +Salt waited as he was directed beside a dripping linden. The storm had +indeed passed over, but the sky was low and grey. Little rivulets +meandered in changing currents down the garden path; from beneath the +narrow lane came the continuous sobbing rush of some unseen swollen +water-course. The hand of despair lay heavy across the scene; it seemed +as though Nature had wept herself out, but was uncomforted. Salt +pictured the lonely man standing before the soulless, smiling creation +of his own hand. + +The door opened, the lock again creaked mournfully as its rusty bolt was +driven home, and without a backward glance the artist came slowly down +the walk, twisting the clumsy key aimlessly upon his finger. He stopped +at a tangled patch where the anemone struggled vainly among the choking +bindweed, and the hyacinths and lupines had been beaten down to earth. + +"Her garden!" he said aloud, and a spasm crossed his face. "But now how +overgrown." On a thought he dropped the key gently among the luxuriant +growth and turned away. + +"I will tell you why my wife died," said the artist suddenly, after they +had passed round a bend of the road that hid the cottage from their +sight. "It should point a moral, and it will not take long." + +"It may plead a cause," replied Salt. + +"Ah!" exclaimed his companion, looking at him sharply. "Who are you, +then?" + +"You do not know me, but you may know my business. I am Salt of the +Unity League." + +"Strange," murmured the other. "Well, then, Mr Salt, my name is Leslie +Garnet, and, as I have told you, I am an artist. Ten years ago, at the +age of thirty, I came into a small legacy--three hundred pounds a year, +to be precise. Up to that time I had been making a somewhat precarious +living by illustration; on the strength of my fortune--which, of course, +to a successful man in any walk of life would be the merest pittance--I +rearranged my plans. + +"Black and white work was drudgery to me, and it would never be anything +else, because it was not my medium, but it was the only form of +pictorial art that earned a livelihood. Pictures had ceased to sell. At +the same time I had encouragement for thinking that I could do something +worthy of existence in the higher branch of art. + +"I don't want to trouble you with views. I made my choice. I determined +to live frugally on my income, give up hack work, to the incidental +advantage of some other poor struggler, and devote myself wholly to +pictures which might possibly bring me some recognition at the end of a +lifetime--more probably not--but pictures which would certainly never +enrich me. I do not think that the choice was an ignoble one--but, of +course, it was purely a personal matter. + +"It was very soon afterwards that I got married. Had I thought of that +step earlier I might have acted differently. As it was, Hilda would not +hear of it. There seemed no need; we were very comfortable on our small +income in a tiny way. + +"Nine years ago that. You know the course of events. My income was +derived from a prudently invested capital, so disposed as to give the +highest safe return. Not many years had passed before the Government +then in power fixed seven per cent. as the highest rate of interest +compatible with commercial morality, and confiscated all above. My fixed +system of living was embarrassed by a deduction of fifty pounds a year. +The next year an open-minded Chancellor, in need of a few millions to +spend on free amusements for the working class, was converted to the +principle that two per cent. of immorality still remained, so five was +made the maximum, and my small income was thus permanently reduced to +two hundred pounds. + +"We received this second blow rather blankly, but Hilda would not hear +of surrender. As a matter of fact, I soon found out that there was +practically no chance of it, and that in throwing up all connections +when I did, I had burned my boats. Artists of every kind were turning to +illustration work, but half of the magazines were dead. We gave up the +flat that had been made pretty and home-like with inexpensive taste, and +moved into three dreary rooms. + +"You know what the next development would be, perhaps? Yes, the Unearned +Incomes Act. And you will understand how it affected me. + +"I was assessed in the same class as the Duke of Belgravia and Mr +Dives-Keeps, the millionaire, as a gentleman of private income, capable +of earning a living, but electing to live in idleness on invested +capital not of my own creating. I was married, could not plead +'encumbrances' in any form, well-educated, strong and healthy, and in +the prime of life. So I came under 'Schedule B,' and must pay a tax of +ten shillings and sixpence in the pound. It was nothing that I might +actually work twelve hours every day. Officially I must be living in +voluptuous idleness, because the work of my hands did not bring me in an +income bearing any appreciable proportion to my private means. The +Government that denounced Riches in every form and had come in on the +mandate of the poor and needy, recognised no other standard of +attainment but Money. Therefore 'Schedule B.' + +"Of course the effect of that was overwhelming. I could not afford a +studio, I could not afford a model. I could scarcely afford materials. +My wife, who had long been delicate, was now really ill, between anxiety +and the unaccustomed daily work to which she bound herself. One of the +companies from which I derived a portion of my income failed at this +time: ruined by foreign competition and home restrictions. In a panic I +endeavoured to get work of any kind. I had not the experience necessary +for the lowest rungs of commerce; I was unknown in art. Who would employ +a broken-down man beginning life at thirty-eight? I was too old. + +"I was warned that appeal was useless, but I did appeal before the +Commission. It was useless. I learned that mine was a thoroughly bad +case from every official point of view, with no redeeming feature: that +I was, in fact, a parasite upon the social system; and I narrowly +escaped having the assessment raised. + +"It was then that we left London and came to this cottage. My wife's +health was permanently undermined, and change of air was necessary even +to prolong her life. Her native county was recommended; that is why we +chose this spot. When I reviewed affairs I found that I had a clear +fifty pounds a year. And there, a few miles to the west, where you see +that tracery of wheels and scaffolding against the sun, and there, a few +miles to the north, where you see that pall of smoke upon the air, there +lie hundreds and hundreds of cottages where gross luxury is rampant, +where beneath one roof family incomes of ten times mine are free from +any tax at all. + +"That is enough for you to fill in the detail," continued Garnet +bitterly, as he revived the memory of the closing scenes. "Doctors, +things that had to be bought, bare existence. What remained of the +investments sold for what a forced sale would bring--you know what that +means to-day. The end you have seen. And there, Mr Salt, is the story to +your hand. Here is the churchyard.... Killed, to make a Labour holiday!" + +He opened the rustic gate of the hillside churchyard and led the way to +a newly-turned mound, where the perfume hung stagnantly from the +rain-lashed petals of a great sheaf of Bermuda lilies. + +"I remain here," he said quietly, after a few minutes' silence by the +grave-side. "Your road lies straight on, along the field path. You can +even see the smoke of Thornley from here, lying to your right." + +Salt did not reply. Looking intently in the opposite direction, he was +locating with a seaman's eye another cloud of smoke that rose above the +tree-tops in the valley they had left. + +"Your house!" he exclaimed, pointing. "Man!" he cried suddenly, with a +flash of intuition, "what are you doing? You fired the straw before we +left!" + +A sharp report was the only answer. Salt turned too late to arrest his +arm, only in time to catch him as he fell. He lowered him--there was +nothing else to do--lowered him on to the wet sods that flanked the +mound, and knelt by his side so that he might support him somewhat. To +one who had been on battle-fields there was no need to wonder what to +do. It was a matter not of minutes but of seconds. The mute eyes met his +dimly; he heard the single whisper, "Hilda," and then, without a tremor, +Garnet, self-murdered, pressed a little more heavily against his arm and +lay across the yet unfinished grave of his State-murdered wife. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TANTROY EARNS HIS WAGE + + +"I think," observed Salt reflectively, soon after his return, "that you +had better take a short holiday now, Miss Lisle." + +Miss Lisle looked up from her work--she was not addressing circulars, it +may be stated--with an expression not quite devoid of suspicion. + +"I will, if you wish me to do so, sir," she replied meekly. "But, +personally, I do not require one." + +"You have been of great use to us while I was away," he explained +kindly, but with official precision, "and now that I am back again you +have the opportunity." + +Miss Lisle coloured rather rapturously at the formal praise, but the +astute young woman did not allow her exaltation to beguile her senses. + +"A week's holiday?" she asked. + +"I would suggest a fortnight," he replied. + +"That would be until the end of June?" + +Salt agreed. + +"Then nothing is likely to happen before the end of June?" + +He laughed frankly. There was no trace of the mystery and restraint, of +the electric tension in the air, that forerun portentous events, as we +are told, to be noticed about the office of the League. + +"A great deal may happen before that time, but nothing, I think I can +assure you, that comes within your meaning." + +"Is there any particular place that you would like me to go to?" + +"Oh, not at all. Forget Trafalgar Chambers and business entirely for the +time." + +Possibly Miss Lisle had looked for some hidden meaning behind the simple +suggestion of a holiday: had anticipated "another secret process down +another little lane." At any rate, she did not rejoice at the prospect; +on the contrary, she declined it. + +"Thank you, sir," she replied, "but unless it is for your convenience, I +should prefer to go on addressing circulars." + +Salt frowned slightly and smiled slightly, and inwardly admitted to +himself that he had probably expected worse things when he had first +accepted Miss Lisle's services. + +"I am a very plain, straightforward person in all my dealings," he +remarked, "and you, outside the strict line of work here, have an +oblique vein that taxes the imagination. Further, it carries the sting +that with all you generally arrive at the same conclusion as I do, only +a little earlier." + +"I have a loathsome, repulsive nature, I know," admitted Irene +cheerfully. "Trivial, ill-mannered, suspicious. I require strict +discipline. That is why I am better here." + +"So far I have not been inconvenienced by the two first characteristics. +It is a mistake, perhaps, to be over-suspicious." + +"Yes," agreed the lady with a level glance. "It only ends in you finding +people out, when otherwise you might have gone on believing in them to +the last." + +Salt had only known Miss Lisle for a few months, and for a third of the +period he had not seen her. But he knew that when she showed a +disposition to take up his time something more than the amenities of +conversation lay behind her words. He remembered that level glance. It +foreshadowed another "long pointless tale." + +"For instance?" he suggested encouragingly. + +"If I left this office locked when I went out to lunch, for instance, +and found it still locked but the papers slightly disarranged on my +return," she replied. + +"Anything more?" + +"It is very unpleasant to set traps, of course, but if I put a little +dab of typewriter ink on the inner handle of the door when I next went +out, and subsequently found a slight stain of a similar colour on my +white glove after shaking hands with some one, the suspicion would be +deepened." + +"I think that the matter is of sufficient importance for you to tell me +all you know," he said gravely. "If you hesitate to be definite for fear +of making a mistake, I will take pains to verify your suspicions and I +will accept all responsibility." + +"Then I accuse Mr Tantroy of being a paid spy in the service of the +Government." + +"Tantroy!" exclaimed Salt with a momentary feeling of incredulity. +"Tantroy! It seems impossible, but, after all, it is possible enough. +You know, of course, that he has a room here now, and might even think +in his inexperience that he was at liberty to come into this office at +any time." + +"But not to take impressions of my keys and have duplicates made; nor to +copy extracts in my absence; nor to open and examine the cipher +typewriter." + +"Has that been left unlocked?" he demanded sharply. + +"No," she replied. "You have the only key that I know of. But it _has_ +been unlocked, and I infer that the code has been copied." + +For quite three minutes there was silence. Salt was thinking, not idly, +but estimating exactly the effect of what had happened. Miss Lisle was +waiting, with somewhat rare perception, until he was ready to continue. + +"Sooner or later something of the sort was bound to come," he summed up +quietly, without a trace of discomfiture. "It is only the personality +that is surprising. His interests are identical with ours; he has +everything to gain by our success. Why; why on earth?" + +"I think that I can explain that in three words," suggested Miss Lisle. +"Velma St Saint." + +Salt looked enquiringly. He had forgotten the Hon. Freddy's deity for +the moment. + +"Of the Vivarium," added Irene. + +"Oh, the lady who hangs by her toes," he remarked with enlightenment. + +"'The World's Greatest Inverted Cantatrice'!" quoted Miss Lisle. "That +is her celebrated 'Upside Down' song that the organ is playing in the +street below. A few years ago she got a week's engagement at the Elysium +at a salary of eighty pounds. She calculated from that that she could +afford to spend four thousand a year, and although all theatrical +incomes have steadily declined ever since until she only gets ten pounds +a week now, she has never been able to make any difference in her style +of living.... Of course there is a deficit to be made up." + +"It is just as well. If it had not been Tantroy it would have been some +one abler. Now what has he done, what has he learned?" + +"Duplicate keys of this door and of my desk have been made. The lock of +the cipher typewriter case is not of an elaborate pattern, and any one +bringing a quantity of keys of the right size would probably find one to +answer. I don't think that either your desk or the safe has been opened; +certainly not since I began to notice. The papers to which he would have +access are consequently not highly important." + +"Letters?" suggested Salt. "For instance, my letters lying here until +you forwarded them. There is a post in at eight o'clock in the morning; +others after you have left up to ten at night. There would be every +opportunity for abstracting some, opening them at leisure, and then +dropping them into the letter-box again a little later." + +"No," said Miss Lisle. "I took precautions against that." + +"How?" he demanded, and waited very keenly for her answer. + +"Simply by arriving here before eight and remaining until ten." + +"Thank you." It was all he said, but it did not leave Miss Lisle with +the empty feeling that virtue had merely been its own reward. + +"Perhaps I ought to add that Mr Tantroy tried to get information from +me," she remarked distantly. "He--he came here frequently and wished me +to accept presents; boxes of chocolate at first, I think, and jewellery +afterwards. It was a mistake he made." + +"Yes," assented Salt thoughtfully, "I think it was. There is one other +thing, Miss Lisle. You could scarcely know with whom he was negotiating +on the other side?" + +"No," she admitted regretfully; "I had not sufficient time. That was why +I did not wish to go away just now." + +"I do not think that you need hesitate to leave it now. I am not taking +it out of your hands, only carrying on another phase that you have made +possible. It will simplify matters if I have the office to myself. Could +you find an opportunity for telling Tantroy casually that you are taking +a fortnight's holiday?" + +Her answer hung just a moment. Had he known Tantroy better he might have +guessed. "Yes, certainly," she replied hastily, with a little stumble in +her speech. + +Perhaps he guessed. "No," he corrected himself. "On second thoughts, it +does not matter." + +"I do not mind," she protested loyally. + +"If it were necessary I should not hesitate to ask you," he replied half +brusquely. "It is not." + +"Very well. I will go to-morrow." + +That evening, when he was alone. Salt unlocked the typewriter case to +which Miss Lisle had alluded, took out the machine, and seating himself +before it proceeded to compose a letter upon which he seemed to spend +much consideration. As his fingers struck the keys, upon the sheet of +paper in the carrier there appeared the following mystifying +composition: + + kbeljsl + + wopmjvsjxkivslilscalkwespljkjscwecsspssp + fxfejsloxmjcneoeqjdncs---- + +It was, in fact, as Miss Lisle had said, a code typewriter. The letters +which appeared on the paper did not correspond with the letters on the +keys. According to the keyboard the writing should have been: + + mydrstr + + nwhvsltscmpltrprtbfrmndthrsmstbndbtthtth + prpslhvfrmltdsfsblndth---- + +and signified, to resolve it into its ultimate form: + + MY DEAR ESTAIR,--I now have Salt's complete report before me, + and there seems to be no doubt that the proposal I have + formulated is feasible, and the---- + +Written without vowels, stops, capitals, or spaces, this gave a very +serviceable cryptograph, but there was an added safeguard. After +completing the first line the writer moved a shift-key and brought +another set of symbols into play--or, rather, the same symbols under a +different arrangement. The process was repeated for the third line, and +then the fourth line returned to the system of the first. Thus three +codes were really in operation, and the danger of the key being found by +the frequent recurrence of certain symbols (the most fruitful cause of +detection) was almost overcome. Six identical machines were in +existence. One has been accounted for; Sir John Hampden had another; and +a third was in the possession of Robert Estair, the venerable titular +head of the combined Imperial party. A sociable young publican, who had +a very snug house in the neighbourhood of Westminster Abbey, could have +put his hand upon the fourth; the fifth was in the office of a +super-phosphate company carrying on an unostentatious business down a +quiet little lane about ten or a dozen miles out of London; and the +sixth had fallen to the lot of a busy journalist, who seemed to have the +happy knack of getting political articles and paragraphs accepted +without demur by all the leading newspapers by the simple expedient of +scribbling "Urgent" and some one else's initials across the envelopes he +sent them in. Communications of the highest importance never reached the +stage of ink and paper, but the six machines were in frequent use. In +_bonâ fide_ communications the customary phraseology with which letters +begin and end was not used, it is perhaps unnecessary to say. So obvious +a clue as the short line "kbeljsl" at the head of a letter addressed to +Estair would be as fatal to the secrecy of any code as the cartouched +"Cleopatra" and "Ptolemy" were to the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphics. +That Salt wrote it may be taken as an indication that he had another end +in view; and it is sometimes a mistake to overrate the intelligence of +your opponents. When the letter was finished he put it away in his +pocket-book, arranged the fastenings of both safe and desk so that he +could tell if they had been disturbed, and then went home. + +The next morning his preparations advanced another step. He brought with +him a new letter copying-book, a silver cigarette-case with a plain +polished surface, and a small jar of some oily preparation. With a +little of the substance from the jar he smeared the cigarette-case all +over, wiped away the greater part again until nothing but an almost +imperceptible trace remained, and then placed it carefully within his +desk. The next detail was to write a dozen letters with dates extending +over the last few days. All were short; all were quite unimportant; they +were chiefly concerned with appointments, references to future League +meetings, and the like. Some few were written in cipher, but the +majority were plain reading, and Salt signed them all in Sir John's +name, appending his own initials. To sign the long letter which he had +already written he cut off from a note in the baronet's own handwriting +the signature "John Hampden," fastened it lightly at the foot of the +typewritten sheet, and then proceeded to copy all the letters into the +new book. The effect was patent: one letter and one alone stood out +among the rest as of pre-eminent importance. The completion was reached +by gumming upon the back of the book a label inscribed "Hampden. +Private," treating the leather binding with a coating of the preparation +from the jar, and finally substituting it in the safe in place of the +genuine volume. Then he burned his originals of all the fictitious +letters and turned to other matters. + +It was not until two days later that Mr Tantroy paid Salt a passing +visit. He dropped in in a friendly way with the plea that the burden of +his own society in his own room, where he apparently spent two hours +daily in thinking deeply, had grown intolerable. + +"You are always such a jolly busy, energetic chap, Salt, that it quite +bucks me up to watch you," he explained. + +Salt, however, was not busy that afternoon. He only excused himself to +ring for a note, which was lying before him already addressed, to be +taken out, and then gave his visitor an undivided attention. He was +positively entertaining over his recent journeyings. Freddy Tantroy had +never thought that the chap had so much in him before. + +"Jolly quaint set of beggars you must have had to do with," he remarked. +"Thought that you were having gilded flutter Monte Carlo, or Margate, or +some of those places where crowds people go." + +Salt looked across at him with a smile. "I think that there was an +impression of that sort given out," he replied. "But, between ourselves, +it was strictly on a matter of business." + +"We League Johnnies do get most frightfully rushed," said Freddy +sympathetically. "Bring it off?" + +"Better than I had expected. I don't think it will be long before we +begin to move now. You would be surprised if I could tell you of the +unexpected form it will take." + +"Don't see why you shouldn't," dropped Tantroy negligently. + +Salt allowed the moment to pass on a note of indecision. + +"Perhaps I am speaking prematurely," he qualified. "Things are only +evolving at the moment, and I don't suppose that there will be anything +at all doing during the next few weeks. I have even sent Miss Lisle off +on a holiday." + +"Noticed the fair Irene's empty chair," said Freddy. "For long?" + +"I told her to take a fortnight. She can have longer if she wants." + +"Wish Sir John could spare me; but simply won't hear of it. Don't fancy +you find girl much good, though." + +"Oh, she is painstaking," put in her employer tolerantly. + +"No initiative," declared Tantroy solemnly. "No idea of rising to the +occasion or of making use of her opportunities." + +"You noticed that?" To Freddy's imagination it seemed as though Salt was +regarding him with open admiration. + +He wagged his head judicially. "I knew you'd like me to keep eye on +things while you were away," he said, "so I looked in here occasionally +as I passed. Don't believe she had any idea what to do. Invariably found +her sitting here in gilded idleness at every hour of the day. If I were +you, should sack her while she is away." + +Salt thought it as well to change the subject. + +"By the way," he remarked, "I came across what seemed to me a rather +good thing in cigarettes at Cardiff, and I wanted to ask your opinion +about them. It's a new leaf--Bolivian with a Virginian blend, not on the +market yet. I wish you'd try one now." + +There was nothing Freddy Tantroy liked better than being asked to give +his opinion on tobacco from the standpoint of an expert. He took the +case held out to him, selected a cigarette with grave deliberation, and +leaned back in his chair with a critical air, preparing to deliver +judgment. Salt returned the case to its compartment in the desk. + +"It has a very distinctive aroma," announced Freddy sagely, after he had +drawn a few whiffs, held the cigarette under his nose, waved it slowly +in the air before him, and resorted to several other devices of +connoisseurship. + +"I thought so too," agreed Salt. He had bought a suitable packet of some +obscure brand in a side street, as he walked to the office two days +before. + +"Cardiff," mused Tantroy. "Variety grotesque holes you seem to have +explored, Salt." + +"Oh, I had to see a lot of men all over the place. I got a few packets +of these from a docker who had them from a South American merchant in a +roundabout way. Smuggled, of course." All along, his conversation had +touched upon labourers, mill-hands, miners, and other sons of toil. +Apparently, as Tantroy noted, he had scarcely associated with any other +class. He was lying deliberately, and in a manner calculated to alienate +the sympathy of many excellent people; for there is a worthy and not +inconsiderable class with an ineradicable conviction that although in a +just cause the sixth commandment may be suspended, as it were by Act of +Parliament, and the killing of your enemy become an active virtue, yet +in no case is it permissible to tell him a falsehood. If it is necessary +to deceive him the end must be gained by leading him to it by inference. +But Salt belonged to a hard-grained school which believed in doing +things thoroughly, and when on active service he swept the sophistries +away. He had to mislead a man whose very existence he believed to be +steeped in treachery and falsehood, and, as the most effectual way, he +lied deliberately to him. + +"Frantic adventure," drawled Tantroy. "Didn't know League dealt in +people that kind." + +"Of course, I saw all sorts," corrected Salt hastily, as though he +feared that he had indicated too closely the trend of his business; +"only it happened that those were the most amusing," and to emphasise +the fact he launched into another anecdote. At an out-of-the-way village +there was neither hotel nor inn. His business was unfinished, and it was +desirable that he should stay the night there. At last he heard of a +small farm-house where apartments were occasionally let, and, making his +way there, he asked if he could have a room. The woman seemed doubtful. +"Of course, as I am a stranger, I should wish to pay you in advance," +said Salt. "It isn't that, sir," replied the hostess, "but I like to be +sure of making people comfortable." "I don't think that we shall +disagree about that," he urged. "Perhaps not," she admitted, "but the +last gentleman was very hard to please. Everything I got him he'd had +better somewhere else till he was sick of it. But," she added in a burst +of confidence, "look what a swell _he_ was! I knew that nothing would +satisfy him when I saw him come in a motor-car puffed out with rheumatic +tyres, and wearing a pair of them _blasé_ kid boots." + +Tantroy contributed an appreciative cackle, and Salt, leaning back in +his chair, pressed against a pile of books standing on his desk so that +they fell to the ground with a crash. + +By the time he had picked them up again a telegram was waiting at his +elbow. He took it, opened it with a word of apology, and with a sharp +exclamation pulled out his watch. Before Tantroy could realise what was +happening, Salt had caught up his hat and gloves, slammed down his +self-locking desk, and, after a single hasty glance round the room, was +standing at the door. + +"Excuse me, won't you?" he called back. "Most important. Can just catch +a train. Pull my door to after you, please," and the next minute he was +gone. + +Left to himself, Tantroy's first action was not an unnatural one in the +circumstance. He picked up the telegram which Salt had left in his wild +hurry and read it. "_Come at once, if you wish to see Vernon alive_," +was the imperative message, and it appeared to have been handed in at +Croydon half an hour before. He stepped to the window, and from behind +the curtains he saw Salt run down the steps into the road, call a hansom +from the rank near at hand, and disappear in the direction of Victoria +at a gallop. + +Mr Tantroy sat down again, and his eyes ran over the various objects in +the room in quick succession. The code typewriter. He had all he wanted +from that. Salt's desk. Locked, of course. The girl's desk. Locked, and, +as he knew, not worth the trouble of unlocking with his duplicate key. +The safe----His heart gave a bound, his eyes stood wide in incredulous +surprise, and he sprang to his feet and stealthily crossed the room to +make sure of his astounding luck. The safe was unlocked! The door stood +just an inch or so ajar, and Salt, having failed to notice it in his +hurried glance, was on his way to Croydon! + +Living in a pretentious, breathless age, drawn into a social circle +beside whose feverish artificiality the _natural_ artificiality +inseparable from any phase of civilisation stood comparable to a sturdy, +healthy tree, badly brought up, neglected, petted, the Honourable +Frederick Tantroy had grown to the form of the vacuous pose which he had +adopted. Beneath it lay his real character. A moderately honest man +would not have played his part, but an utterly weak one could not have +played it. It demanded certain qualities not contemptible. There were +risks to be taken, and he was prepared to take them, and in their +presence his face took on a stronger, even better, look. He bolted the +door on the inside, picked up a few sheets of paper from the desk-top, +and without any sign of nervousness or haste began to do his work. + +It was fully three hours later when Salt returned; for with that extreme +passion for covering every possible contingency that marked his career, +he had been to Croydon. Many a better scheme has failed through the +neglect of a smaller detail. The room, when he entered it and secured +the door, looked exactly as when he left, three hours before. For all +the disarrangement he had caused, Tantroy might have melted out of it. + +On the top of his desk, at the side nearest to the safe, lay a packet of +octavo scribbling paper. He took out the sheets and twice counted them. +Thirty-one, and he had left thirty-four. His face betrayed no emotion. +Satisfaction at having outwitted a spy was merged in regret that there +must need be one, and pain on Hampden's account that his nephew should +be the traitor. He unlocked his desk and carefully lifted out the +cigarette-case, pulled open the safe door, and took up the fictitious +letter-book. To the naked eye the finger-prints on each were scarcely +discernible, but under the magnifying lenses of the superimposing glass +all doubt was finally dispelled. They were there, they corresponded, +they were identical. Thumb to thumb, finger to finger, and line to line +they fitted over one another without a blur or fault. It was, as it +often proved to be in those days, hanging evidence. + +Salt relocked the safe, tore out the used pages of the letter-book, and +reduced them to ashes on the spot. The less important remains of the +book he took with him to his chambers, and there burned them from cover +to cover before he went to bed. + +It had served its purpose, and not a legitimate trace remained. Around +the stolen copy the policy of the coming strife might crystallise, and +towards any issue it might raise Salt could look with confidence. +Finally, if the unforeseen arose, the way was clear for Sir John to +denounce a shameless forgery, and who could contradict his indignant +word? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SECRET HISTORY + + +Under succeeding administrations, each pledged to a larger policy to +themselves and a smaller one towards every one else, most of the +traditional outward forms of government had continued to be observed. +Thus there was a Minister for the Colonies, though the Colonies +themselves had shamefacedly one by one dropped off into the troubled +waters of weak independence, or else clung on with pathetic loyalty in +spite of rebuff after rebuff, and the disintegration of all mutual +interests, until nothing but the most shadowy bond remained. There was a +Secretary of State for War in spite of the fact that the flag which the +Government nailed to the mast when it entered into negotiations with an +aggrieved and aggressive Power, bore the legend, "Peace at any Price. +None but a Coward Strikes the Weak." There had been more than one First +Lord of the Admiralty whose maritime experience had begun and ended on +the familiar deck of the _Koh-I-Noor_. There were practically all the +usual officers of ministerial rank--and the recipients of ministerial +salaries. + +Apart from the enjoyment of the title and the salary, however, there +were a few members of the Cabinet who exercised no real authority. Lord +Henry Stokes had been the last of upper class politicians of standing to +accept office under the new _régime_. Largely in sympathy with the +democratic tendency of the age, optimistic as to the growth of +moderation and restraint in the ranks of the mushroom party, and +actuated by the most sterling patriotism, Lord Henry had essayed the +superhuman task of premiership. Superhuman it was, because no mortal +could have combined the qualities necessary for success in the face of +the fierce distrust and jealousy which his rank and social position +excited in the minds of the rawer recruits of his own party; superhuman, +because no man possessing his convictions could have long reconciled +with them the growing and not diminishing illiberality of those whom he +was to lead. There were dissensions, suspicions, and recriminations from +the first. The end came in a tragic scene, unparalleled among the many +historic spectacles which the House has witnessed. A trivial point in +the naval estimates was under discussion, and Lord Henry, totally out of +sympathy with the bulk of his nominal following, had risen to patch up +the situation on the best terms he could. At the end of a studiously +moderate speech, which had provoked cheers from the opposition and +murmurs of dissent from his own party throughout, he had wound up his +plea for unity, toleration, and patriotism, with the following words: +"It is true that here no Government measure is at stake, no crisis is +involved, and honourable members on this side of the House are free of +party trammels and at liberty to vote as seems best to each. But if the +motion should be persisted in, an inevitable conclusion must be faced, +an irretrievable step will have been taken, and of the moral outcome of +that act who dare trace the end?" + +There was just a perceptible pause of sullen silence, then from among +the compact mass that sat behind their leader rose a coarse voice, +charged with a squiggling laugh. + +"We give it up, 'Enry. If it's a riddle about morals, suppose you ask +little Flo?" + +It was an aside--it was afterwards claimed that it was a drunken +whisper--but it was heard, as it was meant to be heard, throughout the +crowded Chamber. From the opposition ranks there was torn a cry, almost +of horror, at the enormity of the insult, at the direful profanation of +the House. Responsible members of the Government turned angrily, +imploringly, frantically upon their followers. At least half of these, +sitting pained and scandalised, needed no restraint, but from the +malcontents and extreme wings came shriek upon shriek of boisterous +mirth, as they rocked with laughter about their seats. As for Lord +Henry, sitting immobile as he scanned a paper in his hand, he did not +appear to have heard at first, nor even to have noticed that anything +unusual was taking place. But the next minute he turned deadly pale, +began to tremble violently, and with a low and hurried, "Your help, +Meadowsweet!" he stumbled from the Hall. + +For twenty years he had been a member of the House, years of +full-blooded politics when party strife ran strong, but never before had +the vaguest innuendo from that deep-seared, unforgotten past dropped +from an opponent's lips. It had been reserved for his own party to +achieve that distinction and to exact the crowning phase of penance in +nature's inexorable cycle. + +Apologists afterwards claimed that too much had been made of the +incident--that much worse things were often said, and passed, at the +meetings of Boards of Guardians and Borough Councils. It was as true as +it was biting: worse things were said at Borough Councils, and the +Mother of Parliaments had sunk to the rhetorical level of a Borough +Council. + +Stokes never took his seat again, and with him there passed out of that +arena the last of a hopeful patriotic group, whose only failure was that +they tried to reconcile two irreconcilable forces of their times. + +It did not result, however, that no men of social position were to be +found among the Labour benches. There was a demand, and there followed +the supply. Rank, mediocrity, and moral obsequiousness were the +essentials for their posts. There were no more Stokeses to be had, so +obliging creatures were obtained who were willing for a consideration to +be paraded as the successors to his patriotic mantle. They were plainly +made to understand their position, and if they ventured to show +individuality they soon resigned. Nominally occupying high offices, they +had neither influence, power, nor respect; like Marlborough in +compliance they had "to do it for their bread." They were ruled by their +junior lords, assistants, and underlings in various degrees. Many of +these men, too strong to be ignored, were frankly recognised to be +impossible in the chief offices of State. As a consequence the Cabinet +soon became an empty form. Its councils were still held, but the +proceedings were cut and dried in advance. The real assembly that +dictated the policy of the Government was the Expediency Council, held +informally as the necessity arose. + +The gathering which was taking place at the Premier's house on this +occasion had been convened for the purpose of clearing the air with +regard to the policy to be pursued at home. The Government had come into +power with very liberal ideas on the question of what ought to be done +for the working classes. They had made good their promises, and still +that free and enlightened body, having found by experience that they +only had to ask often enough and loudly enough to be met in their +demands, were already clamouring for more. The most moderate section of +the Government was of opinion that the limit had been reached; others +thought that the limit lay yet a little further on; the irresponsibles +denied that any limit could be fixed at all. That had been the +experience of every administration for a long time past, and each one in +turn had been succeeded by its malcontents. + +Mr Strummery, the Premier, did not occupy the official residence +provided for him. Mrs Strummery, an excellent lady who had once been +heard to remark that she could never understand why her husband was +called _Prime Minister_ when he was not a _minister_ at all, flatly +declared that the work of cleaning the windows alone of the house in +Downing Street put it out of the question. Even Mr Strummery, who, among +his political associates, was reported to have rather exalted ideas of +the dignity of his position, came to the conclusion, after fully +considering the residence from every standpoint, that he might not feel +really at home there. It was therefore let, furnished, to an American +lady who engineered wealthy _débutantes_ from her native land into "the +best" English society, and the Strummerys found more congenial +surroundings in Brandenburg Place. There, within a convenient distance +of the Hampstead Road and other choice shopping centres, Mrs Strummery, +like the wife of another eminent statesman whose statue stood almost +within sight of her bedroom windows, was able to indulge in her amiable +foible for cheap marketing. And if the two ladies had this in common, +the points of resemblance between their respective lords (the moral side +excluded) might be multiplied many-fold, for no phrase put into Mr +Strummery's mouth could epigrammatise his point of view more concisely +than Fox's inopportune toast, "Our Sovereign: the People." History's +dispassionate comment was that the sentiment which lost the abler man +his Privy Councillorship in his day, gained for the other a Premiership +a century later. + +"One thing that gets me is why no one ever seems to take any notice of +us when we have a Council on," remarked the President of the Board of +Education with an involuntary plaint in his voice. He was standing on +the balcony outside the large front room on Mr Strummery's first +floor--a room which boasted the noble proportions of a _salon_, and +possibly served as one in Georgian days. Certainly Brandenburg Place did +not present a spectacle of fluttering animation at the prospect of +seeing the great ones of the land assembling within its bounds. At one +end of the thoroughfare a milkman was going from area to area with a +prolonged melancholy cry more suggestive of Stoke Poges churchyard than +of any other spot on earth; at the opposite end a grocer's errand boy, +with basket resourcefully inverted upon his head, had sunk down by the +railings to sip the nectar from a few more pages of "Iroquois Ike's Last +Hope; or, The Phantom Cow-Puncher's Bride." Midway between the two a +cat, in the act of crossing the road, had stopped to twitch a forepaw +with that air of imperturbable deliberateness in its movements that no +other created thing can ever succeed in attaining. In a house opposite +some one was rattling off the exhilarating strains of "Humming Ephraim," +but even when a hansom cab and two four-wheelers drove up in quick +succession to the Premier's door, no one betrayed curiosity to the +extent of looking out of the window. The Minister of Education noted +these things as he stood on the balcony, and possibly he felt another +phase of the gratitude of men that often left Mr Wordsworth mourning. "I +can remember the time when crowds used to wait hours in the rain along +Downing Street--our people, too--to catch a sight of Estair or +Nettlebury. I won't exactly say that it annoys me, because I've seen too +much of the hollowness of things for that, but it certainly is rummy why +it should be so." + +"A very good thing, too," commented the Premier briskly from the room. +"I don't know that we could have a greater compliment. The people know +that we are plain, straightforward men like themselves, and they know +that we are doing our work without having to come and see us at it. They +don't regard us almost as little deities--interesting to see, but quite +different and above themselves. That's why." + +Every one in the room said "Hear! Hear!" as though that exactly defined +his own sentiments; and every one in the room looked rather sad, as +though at the back of their collective minds there lurked a doubt +whether it might not be more pleasant to be regarded almost as little +deities. + +"You needn't go as far back as Estair and Nettlebury," put in Vossit of +the Treasury. "See how they fairly 'um round Hampden whenever he's +about." + +"Not us," interposed another man emphatically. "Let them go on their own +messin' way; it'll do us no harm. You never saw a working man at any of +their high and mighty meetings." + +"So much the worse, for they didn't want them. But there ought to have +been working men there, from the very first meeting until now." The +speaker was one of the most recent additions to the potent circle of the +Brandenburg Place councils, and the freedom of criticism which he +allowed himself had already been the subject of pained comment on the +part of a section of his seniors. + +"Well," suggested some one, with politely-pointed meaning, "I don't know +what's to prevent one individual from attending a meeting if he so +wants. He'd probably find one going on somewhere at this minute if he +looked round hard. Doesn't seem to me that any one's holding him back." + +"Now, now," reproved Mr Guppling, the Postmaster-General, "let the man +speak if he has anything on his mind. Come now, comrade, what do you +mean?" + +"I don't know what I mean," replied the comrade, at which there was a +general shout of laughter. "I don't know what I mean," he continued, +having secured general attention by this simple device of oratory, +"because I am told in those Government quarters where I ought to be able +to find information, that no information has been collected, no +systematic enquiries made, nothing is known, in fact. Therefore, I do +not know what I mean because I do not know--none of us know--what the +Unity League means. But I know this: that a hostile organisation of over +a million and a half strong----" + +Dissent came forcibly from every quarter of the room. "Not half!" was +the milder form it took. + +"----of over a million and a half strong," continued the speaker +grimly--"perhaps more, in fact, than all our Trades Unions put +together--with an income very little less than what all the Trades +Unions put together used to have, and funds in hand probably more, is a +living menace in our midst, and ought to have been closely watched." + +"It keeps 'em quiet," urged the Foreign Under-Secretary. + +"Too quiet. I don't like my enemy to be quiet. I prefer him to be +talking large and telling us exactly what he's going to do." + +"They're going to chuck us out, Tirrel; that's what they're going to +do," said a sarcastic comrade playfully. "So was the Buttercup League, +so was the Liberal-Conservative alliance. Lo, history repeats itself!" + +"I see a long line of strong men fallen in the past--premiers, popes, +kings, generals, ambassadors," replied Tirrel. "They all took it for +granted that when they had got their positions they could keep them +without troubling about their enemies any more. That's generally the +repeating point in history." + +Mr Strummery felt that the instances were perhaps getting too near home. +"Come, come, chaps, and Comrade Tirrel in particular," he said mildly, +"don't imagine that nothing is being done in the proper quarter because +you mayn't hear much talk about it. Our Executives work and don't talk. +I think that you may trust our good comrade Tubes to keep an eye on the +Unity League." + +"Wish he'd keep an eye on the clock," murmured a captious member. "Not +once," he added conclusively, "but three times out of four." + +There was a vigorous knock at the front door, and the hurried footsteps +of some one ascending the stairs with the consciousness that he was +late. + +"Talk of Tubes and you'll have a puncture," confided a comrade of +humorous bent to his neighbour, and on the words the Home Secretary, +certainly with very little breath left in him, entered the room and made +his apologies. + +The special business for which the Council had been called together was +to consider a series of reports from the constituencies, and to decide +how to be influenced by their tenor. The Government had no desire to +wait for a general election in order to find out the views of the +electors of the country; given a close summary of those sentiments, it +might be possible to fall in with their wishes, and thereby to be spared +the anxiety of an election until their septennial existence had run its +course; or, if forced by the action of their own malcontents to take +that unwelcome step, at least to cut the ground from beneath their +opponents' feet in advance. + +If there was not complete unanimity among those present, there was no +distinct line of variance. Men of the extremest views had naturally not +been included, and although the prevailing opinion was that the +conditions of labour had been put upon a fair and equitable basis during +their tenure of office--or as far in that direction as it was possible +to go without utterly stampeding capitalists and ratepayers from the +country--there were many who were prepared to go yet a little further if +it seemed desirable. + +Judging from the summarised reports, it did seem desirable. From the +mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire, the coal-pits of the north and west, +the iron fields of the Midlands, the quarries of Derbyshire, the boot +factories of Northampton and the lace factories of Nottingham, from +every swarming port around the coast, and from that vast cosmopolitan +clearing house, the Capital itself, came the same tale. The people did +not find themselves so well off as they wished to be; they were, in +fact, rather poorer than before. There was nothing local about it. The +Thurso flag-stone hewer shared the symptoms with his Celtic brother, +digging out tin and copper from beneath the Atlantic waters beyond +Pendeen; the Pembroke dock-hand and the Ipswich mechanic were in just +the same position. When industries collapsed, as industries had an +unhappy character for doing about the period, no one had any reserves. +It was possible to live by provision of the Government, but the working +man had been educated up to requiring a great deal more than bare +living. When wages went down in spite of all artificial inflation, or +short time was declared, a great many working-class houses, financed +from week to week but up to the hilt in debt, went down too. The +agricultural labourer was the least disturbed; he had had the least done +for him, and he had never known a "boom." The paradox remained that with +more money the majority of the poor were poorer than before, and they +were worse than poor, for they were dissatisfied. The remedy, of course, +was for some one to give them still more money, not for them to spend +less. The shortest way to that remedy, as they had been well taught by +their agitators in the past, was to clamour for the Government to do +something else for them, and therefore they were clamouring now. + +"That is the position," announced Mr Tubes, when he had finished reading +the general summary. "The question it raises may not be exactly urgent, +but it is at least pressing. On the one hand, there is the undoubted +feeling of grievance existing among a large proportion of electors--our +own people. On the other hand, there is the serious question of national +finances not to be overlooked. As the matter is one that must ultimately +concern me more closely than anybody else, I will reserve my own opinion +to the last." + +The view taken by those present has already been indicated. Their +platform was that of Moderate Socialism; they wished it always to be +understood that they were practical. They had the interest of their +fellow working men (certainly of no other class of the community) at +heart, but as Practical Socialists they had a suspicion (taking the +condition of the Exchequer into consideration) that for the moment they +had reached the limit of Practical Socialism. There was an undoubted +dilemma. If a mistake of policy on their part let in the impractical +Socialists, the result would be disastrous. Most of them regarded the +danger as infinitesimal; like every other political party during the +last two centuries, they felt that they could rely on the "sound +common-sense of the community." Still, admitting a possibility, even if +it was microscopic, might it not be more--say practically socialistic +(the word "patriotic" had long been expunged from their vocabulary) in +the end to make some slight concessions? If there existed a more +material inducement it was not referred to, and any ingenuous comrade, +using as an argument in favour of compliance a homely proverb anent the +inadvisability of quarrelling with one's bread and butter, would have +been promptly discouraged. Yet, although the actors themselves in this +great morality play apparently overlooked the consideration, it is +impossible for the spectator to ignore the fact. Some few members of the +Cabinet might have provided for a rainy day, but even to many of +official class, and practically to all of the rank and file, a reversal +at the polls must mean that they would have to give up a variety of +highly-esteemed privileges and return to private life in less +interesting capacities, some in very humble ones indeed. + +It ended, as it was bound to end, in compromise. They would not play +into the hands of the extreme party and ignore the voice of the +constituencies; they would not be false to their convictions and be +dictated to by the electors. They would decline to bring in the +suggested Minimum Wage Bill, and they would not impose the Personal +Property Tax. They would meet matters by extending the National +Obligations Act, and save money on the Estimates. They would be sound, +if commonplace. + +The formal proceedings having been concluded, it was open for any one to +introduce any subject he pleased in terms of censure, enquiry or +discussion. Comrade Tirrel was on his feet at once, and returned to the +subject that lay heavy on his mind. + +"Is the Home Secretary in possession of any confidential information +regarding the Unity League?" he demanded; "and can he assure us, in view +of the admittedly hostile object of the organisation, that adequate +means are being taken to neutralise any possible lines of action it may +adopt?" + +"The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative," +replied Mr Tubes in his best parliamentary manner. "As regards the +second part, I may state that after considering the reports we have +received it is not anticipated that the League offers any serious menace +to the Government. Should the necessity arise, the Council may rely upon +the Home Office taking the requisite precautions." + +"The answer is satisfactory as far as it goes. Being in possession of +special information, will the Home Secretary go a step further and allay +the anxiety that certainly exists in some quarters, by indicating the +real intentions and proposed _modus operandi_ of the League?" + +Mr Tubes conferred for a moment with his chief. "I may say that on broad +lines the League has no definite plan for the future, and its +intentions, as represented by the policy of its heads, will simply be to +go on existing so long as the deluded followers will continue their +subscriptions. I may point out that the League has now been in existence +for two years, and during that time it has done nothing at all to +justify its founders' expectations; it has not embarrassed us at any +point nor turned a single by-election. For two years we heard +practically nothing of it, and there has been no fresh development to +justify the present uneasiness which it seems to be causing in the minds +of a few nervous comrades. Its membership is admittedly imposing, but +the bare fact that a million and a half of people are foolish +enough----" + +There was a significant exchange of astonished glances among the +occupants of Mr Strummery's council chamber. Murmurs grew, and Mr +Guppling voiced the general feeling by calling the Home Secretary's +attention to the figures he had mentioned "doubtless inadvertently." + +"No," admitted Mr Tubes carelessly, "that is our latest estimate. From +recent information we have reason to think that the previous figure we +adopted was too low--or the League may have received large additions +lately through some accidental cause. We are now probably erring as +widely on the other side, but it is the safe side, and I therefore +retain that figure." + +Mr Tirrel had not yet finished, but he was listened to with respectful +attention now. + +"Is the Home Secretary in a position to tell us who this man Salt is?" +was his next enquiry. + +The Home Secretary looked frankly puzzled. "Who _is_ Salt?" he replied, +innocently enough. + +"That is the essential point of my enquiry," replied the comrade. +"Salt," he continued, his voice stilling the laughter it had raised, "is +the Man behind the Unity League. You think it is Hampden, but I tell you +that you are mistaken. Hampden is undoubtedly a dangerous power; the +classes will follow him blindly, and he is no mere figure-head, but it +was Salt who stirred Hampden from his apathy, and it is Salt who pulls +the wires." + +"And who is Salt?" demanded the Premier, as Mr Tubes offered no comment. + +Tirrel shook his head. "I know no more than I have stated," he replied; +"but his secret influence must be tremendous, and all doubt as to the +identity of the man and his past record should be set at rest." + +Mr Tubes looked up from the papers he had before him with a gleam of +subdued anger in his eye. "I think that our cock-sure kumred has geete +howd of another mare's neest," he remarked, relapsing unconsciously into +his native dialect as he frequently did when stirred. "I remember +hearin' o' this Saut in one o' th' reports, and here it is. So far from +being a principal, he occupies a very different position--that of +Hampden's private secretary, which would explain how he might have to +come into contact with a great many people without having any real +influence hissel. He is described in my confidential report as a simple, +unsuspicious man, who might be safely made use of, and, in fact, most of +my information is derived from that source." + +There was a sharp, smothered exclamation from one or two men, and then a +sudden stillness fell upon the room. Mr Tubes was among the last to +realise the trend of his admission. + +"Are we to understand that the greater part--perhaps the whole--of the +information upon which the Home Office has been relying, and of the +assurances of inaction which have lulled our suspicions to rest, have +been blindly accepted from this man Salt, the head and fount of the +League itself?" demanded Tirrel with ominous precision. "If that +indicates the methods of the Department, I think that this Council will +share my view when I suggest that the terms 'simple' and 'unsuspicious' +have been inaccurately allotted--to Salt." + +Mr Tubes made no reply. Lying at the bottom of the man's nature +smouldered a volcanic passion that he watched as though it were a +sleeping beast. Twice in his public career it had escaped him, and each +time the result had been a sharp reverse to his ambitions. +Repression--firm, instant, and unconditional--was the only safeguard, so +that now recognising the danger-signal in his breast, he sat without a +word in spite of the Premier's anxious looks, in spite of the concern of +those about him. + +"I will not press for a verbal reply," continued Tirrel after a telling +pause; "the inference of silence makes that superfluous. But I will ask +whether the Home Secretary is aware that Salt has been quietly engaged +in canvassing the provinces for a month, and whether he has any +information about his object and results. Yes," he continued vehemently, +turning to those immediately about him, "for a month past this simple, +unsuspecting individual from whom we derive our confidential information +has been passing quietly and unmarked from town to town; and if you were +to hang a map of England on the wall before me, I would undertake to +trace his route across the land by the points of most marked discontent +in the report to which we have just listened." + +A knock at the locked door of the room saved the Home Secretary for the +moment from the necessity of replying. It was an unusual incident, and +when the nearest man went and asked what was wanted, some one was +understood to reply that a stranger, who refused to give his name, +wished to see Mr Tubes. Perhaps Mr Tubes personally might have welcomed +a respite, but the master of the house anticipated him. + +"Tell him, whoever he may be, that Mr Tubes cannot be disturbed just +now," he declared. + +"He says it's important, very important," urged the voice, with a +suggestion of largess received and more to come, in its eagerness. + +"Then let him write it down or wait," said Mr Strummery decisively, and +the matter was supposed to have ended. + +The momentary interruption had broken the tension and perhaps saved +Tubes from a passionate outburst. He rose to make a reply without any +sign of anger or any fear that he would not be able to smooth away the +awkward impression. + +"As far as canvassing in the provinces is concerned," he remarked +plausibly, "it is open for any man, whatever his politics may be, to do +that from morning to night all his life if he likes, so long as it isn't +for an illegal object. As regards Salt having been engaged this way for +the past month, it is quite true that I have had no intimation of the +fact so far. I may explain that as my Department has not yet come to +regard the Unity League as the one object in the world to which it must +devote its whole attention, I am not in the habit of receiving reports +on the subject every day, nor even every week. It may be, however----" + +There was another knock upon the door. Mr Tubes stopped, and the Premier +frowned. In the space between the door and the carpet there appeared for +a second a scrap of paper; the next moment it came skimming a few yards +into the room. There was no attempt to hold further communication, and +the footsteps of the silent messenger were heard descending the stairs +again. + +Mr Vossit, who sat nearest to the door, picked up the little oblong +card. He saw, as he could scarcely fail to see, that it was an ordinary +visiting-card, and on the upper side, as it lay, there appeared a +roughly-pencilled sign--two lines at right angle drawn through a +semicircle, it appeared superficially to be. As he handed it to Mr Tubes +he reversed the position so that the name should be uppermost, and again +he saw, as he could scarcely fail to see, that the other side was blank. +The roughly-pencilled diagram was all the message it contained. + +"It may be, however----" the Home Secretary was repeating +half-mechanically. He took the card and glanced at the symbol it bore. +"It may be, however," he continued, as though there had been no +interruption, "that I shall very soon be in possession of the full facts +to lay before you." Then with a few whispered words to the Premier and a +comprehensive murmur of apology to the rest of the company, he withdrew. + +Fully a quarter of an hour passed before there was any sign of the +absent Minister, and then it did not take the form of his return. The +conversation, in his absence, had worked round to the engaging +alternative of whether it was more correct to educate one's son at Eton +or at Margate College, when a message was sent up requesting the +Premier's attendance in another room. After another quarter of an hour +some one was heard to leave the house, but it was ten minutes later +before the two men returned. It was felt in the atmosphere that some new +development was at hand, and they had to run the curious scrutiny of +every eye. Both had an air of constraint, and both were rather pale. The +Premier moved to his seat with brusque indifference, and one who knew +Tubes well passed a whispered warning that Jim had got his storm-cone +fairly hoisted. The door was locked again, chairs were drawn up to the +table, and a hush of marked expectancy settled over the meeting. + +The Prime Minister spoke first. + +"In the past half-hour a letter has come into our possession that may +cause us to alter our arrangements," he announced baldly. "How it came +into our possession doesn't matter. All that does matter is, that it's +genuine. Tubes will read it to you." + +"It is signed 'John Hampden,' addressed to Robert Estair, and dated +three days ago," contributed the Home Secretary just as briefly. "The +original was in cipher. This is the deciphered form: + + "'MY DEAR ESTAIR,--I now have Salt's complete report before me, + and there seems to be no doubt that the proposal I have + formulated is feasible, and the moment almost ripe. Salt has + covered all the most important industrial centres, and + everywhere the reports of our agents are favourable to the + plan. Not having found universal happiness and a complete + immunity from the cares incident to humanity in the privileges + which they so ardently desired and have now obtained, the + working classes are tending to believe that the panacea must + lie, not in greater moderation, but in extended privilege. + + "'For the moment the present Government is indisposed to go + much further, not possessing the funds necessary for enlarged + concessions and fearing that increased taxation might result in + a serious stream of emigration among the monied classes. For + the moment the working men hesitate to throw in their lot with + the extreme Socialists, distrusting the revolutionary and + anarchical wing of that party, and instinctively feeling that + any temporary advantage which they might enjoy would soon be + swallowed up in the reign of open lawlessness that must + inevitably arise. + + "'For the moment, therefore, there is a pause, and now occurs + the opportunity--perhaps the last in history--for us to + retrieve some of the losses of the past. There are scruples to + be overcome, but I do not think that an alliance with the + moderate section of the Labour interest is inconsistent with + the aims and traditions of the great parties which our League + represents. It would, of course, be necessary to guarantee to + our new allies the privileges which they now possess, and even + to promise more; but I am convinced, not only by past + experience but also by specific assurances from certain + quarters, that they would prefer to remain as they are, and + form an alliance with us rather than grasp at larger gains and + suffer absorption into another party which they dare not trust. + + "'From the definite nature of this statement you will gather + that the negotiations are more than in the air. The + distribution of Cabinet offices will have to be considered at + once. B---- might be first gained over with the offer of the + Exchequer. He carries great weight with a considerable section + of his party, and is dissatisfied with his recognition so far. + Heape is a representative man who would repay early attention, + especially as he is, at the moment, envious of R----'s better + treatment. But these are matters of detail. The great thing is + to _get back on any terms_. Once in power, by a modification of + the franchise we might make good our position. I trust that + this, a desperate remedy in a desperate time, will earn at + least your tacit acquiescence. Much is irretrievably lost; + England remains--yet. + + "Yours sincerely, + + "JOHN HAMPDEN.'" + +Six men were on their feet before the signature was reached. With an +impatient gesture Strummery waved them collectively aside. + +"We all know your opinion on the writer and the letter, and we can all +put it into our own words without wasting time in listening," he said +with suppressed fury. "In five minutes' time I shall entirely reopen the +consideration of the reports which we met this afternoon to discuss." + +"Has any effort been made to learn the nature of Estair's reply?" +enquired Tirrel. If he was not the least moved man in the room he was +the least perturbed, and he instinctively picked out the only point of +importance that remained. + +"It probably does not exist in writing," replied Mr Tubes, avoiding +Tirrel's steady gaze. "I find that he arrived in town last night. There +would certainly be a meeting." + +"Was Bannister summoned to this Council?" demanded another. It was taken +for granted that "B" stood for Bannister. + +"Yes," replied the Premier, with one eye on his watch. "He was +indisposed." + +"I protest against the reference to myself," said Heape coldly. + + * * * * * + +Mr Strummery nodded. "Time's up," he announced. + +That is the "secret history" of the Government's sudden and inexplicable +conversion to the necessity of the Minimum Wage Bill and to the +propriety of imposing the Personal Property Tax. A fortnight later the +Prime Minister outlined the programme in the course of a speech at +Newcastle. The announcement was received almost with stupefaction. For +the first time in history, property--money, merchandise, personal +belongings--was to be saddled with an annual tax apart from, and in +addition to, the tax it paid on the incomes derived from it. It was an +entire wedge of the extreme policy that must end in Partition. It was +more than the poorer classes had dared to hope; it was more than the +tax-paying classes had dared to fear. It marked a new era of extended +privilege for the one; it marked the final extinction of hope even among +the hopeful for the other. + +"It could not have happened more opportunely for us even if we had +arranged it in every detail," declared Hampden, going into Salt's room +with the tidings in huge delight, a fortnight later. + +"No," agreed Salt, looking up with his slow, pleasant smile. "Not even +if we had arranged it." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE ORDER OF ST MARTIN OF TOURS + + +Sir John Hampden paused for a moment with arrested pen. He had been in +the act of crossing off another day on the calendar that hung inside his +desk, the last detail before he pulled the roll-top down for the night, +when the date had caught his eye with a sudden meaning. + +"A week to-day, Salt," he remarked, looking up. + +"A week to-day," repeated Salt. "That gives us seven more days for +details." + +Hampden laughed quietly as he bent forward and continued the red line +through the "14." + +"That is one way of looking at it," he said. "Personally, I was rather +wishing that it had been to-day. I confess that I cannot watch the +climax of these two years approaching without feeling keyed up to +concert pitch. I suppose that you never had any nerves?" + +"I suppose not. If I had, the Atlantic water soon washed them out." + +"But you are superstitious?" he asked curiously. It suddenly occurred to +him how little he really knew of the man with whom he was linked in such +a momentous hazard. + +"Oh yes. Blue water inoculates us all with that. Fortunately, mine does +not go beyond trifles, such as touching posts and stepping over paving +stones--a hobby and not a passion, or I should have to curb it." + +"Do you really do things like that? Well, I remember Northland, the +great nerve specialist, telling me that most people have something of +the sort--a persistent feeling of impending calamity unless they conform +to some trivial impulse. I am exempt." + +"Yes," commented Salt; "or you would hardly be likely to cross off the +date before the day is over." + +"Good Heavens!" exclaimed Hampden. "What an age we live in! Is it tannin +or the dregs of paganism? And you think it would be tempting Providence +to do it while there are five more hours to run?" + +"I never do it, as a matter of fact," admitted Salt with perfect +seriousness. "Of course, I _know_ that nothing would happen in the five +hours if I did, but, all the same, I rather think that something would." + +"I hope that something will," said Hampden cheerfully. "Dinner, for +example. Did I ever strike you as a gourmet, Salt? Well, nevertheless, I +am a terrific believer in regular meals, although I don't care a straw +how simple they are. You may read of some marvellous Trojan working +under heavy pressure for twenty-four hours, and then snatching a hurried +glass of Château d'Yquem and a couple of Abernethy biscuits, and going +on again for another twenty-four. Don't believe it, Salt. If he is not +used to it, his knees go; if he is used to it, they have gone already. +If I were a general I solemnly declare that I would risk more to feed my +men before an engagement, than I would risk to hold the best position +all along the front. Your hungry man may fight well enough for a time, +but the moment he is beaten he knows it. And, strangely enough, we +English have won a good many important battles after we had been +beaten." + +He had been locking up the safe and desk as he ran on, and now they +walked together down the corridor. At the door of his own office Salt +excused himself for a moment and went in. When he rejoined the baronet +at the outer door, he held in his hand a little square of thin paper on +which was printed in bold type + + JULY 14. + +"You will regret it," said Hampden, not wholly jestingly. He saw at once +that it was the tag for the day, torn from his calendar, that Salt held. + +"No," he replied, crumpling up the scrap of paper and throwing it away, +"I may remember, but I shall not regret. When you have to think twice +about doing a thing like that, it is time to do it.... You have no +particular message for Deland?" + +"None at all, personally, I think. You will tell him as much as we +decided upon. Let him know that his post will certainly be one of the +most important outside the central office. What time do you go?" + +"The 10 train from Marylebone. Deland will be waiting up for me. There +is an early restaurant train in the morning--the 7.20, getting in at +10.40. I shall breakfast _en route_, and come straight on here." + +"That's right. Look out for young Hampshire in the train; he will +probably wait on you, but you won't recognise him unless you remember +the Manners-Clinton nose in profile. He regards it as a vast joke, but +he is very keen. And sleep all the time you aren't feeding. Can't do +better. Good night." + +Salt laughed as he turned into Pall Mall, speculating for a moment, by +the light of his own knowledge, how little time this strenuous, +simple-living man devoted to the things he advocated. If he had been +able to follow Sir John's electric brougham for the remainder of that +night he would have had still more reason to be sceptical. + +When Hampden reached his house and strode up to the door with the +elastic step of a young man, despite his iron-grey hair and burden of +responsibility, instead of the bronze Medusa knocker that had dropped +from the hands of Pietro Sarpi and Donato in its time, his eyes +encountered the smiling face of his daughter as she swung open the door +before him. She had been sitting at an open window of the dull-fronted +house until she saw the Hampden livery in the distance. + +"There is some one waiting in the library to see you," she said, as he +kissed her cheek. "He said that he would wait ten minutes; you had +already been seven." + +"Who is it?" he asked in quiet expectation. It was not unusual for +Muriel to watch for him from the upper room, and to come down into the +hall to welcome him, but to-night he saw at once that there was a mild +excitement in her manner. "Who is it?" he asked. + +She told him in half a dozen whispered words, and then returned to the +drawing-room and the society of a depressing companion, who chanced to +be a poor and distant cousin, while Sir John turned toward the library. + +"Tell Styles to remain with the brougham if he is still in front," he +said to a passing footman. The visit might presage anything. + +A young man, an inconspicuous young man in a blue serge suit, rose from +the chair of Jacobean oak and Spanish leather where he had been sitting +with a bowler hat between his hands and a cheap umbrella across his +knees, and made a cursory bow as he began to search an inner pocket. + +"Sir John Hampden?" he enquired. + +"Yes," replied the master of the house, favouring his visitor with a +more curious attention than he received in return. "You are from +Plantagenet House, I believe?" + +The young man detached his left hand from the search and turned down the +lapel of his coat in a perfunctory display of his credentials. Pinned +beneath so that it should not obtrude was an insignificant little medal, +so small and trivial that it would require the closest scrutiny to +distinguish its design and lettering. + +But Sir John Hampden did not require any assurance upon the point. He +knew by the evidence of just such another medallion which lay in his own +possession that upon one side, around the engraved name of the holder, +ran the inscription, "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart;" +upon the other side a representation of St Martin dividing his cloak +with the beggar. It was the badge of the Order of St Martin of Tours. + +The Order of St Martin embodied the last phase of organised benevolence. +In the history of the world there had never been a time when men so +passionately desired to help their fellow men; there had never been a +time when they found it more difficult to do so to their satisfaction. +From the lips of every social reformer, from the reports of the +charitable organisations, from the testimony of the poor themselves the +broad indictment had gone forth that every casual beggar was a rogue and +a vagabond. Promiscuous alms-giving was tabulated among the Seven Curses +of London. + +Organised charity was the readiest alternative. Again obliging +counsellors raised their conscientious voices. Organised charity was +wasteful, inelastic, unsympathetic, often superfluous. The preacher +added a warning note: Let none think that the easy donation of a cheque +here and there was charity. It was frequently vanity, it was often a +cowardly compromise with conscience, it was never an absolution from the +individual responsibility. + +So brotherly love continued, but often did not fructify, and the man who +felt that he had the true Samaritan instinct, as he passed by on the one +side of the suburban road, looked at his ragged neighbour lying under +the hedge on the other side in a fit which might be epilepsy but might +equally well be soap-suds in the mouth, and assured himself that if only +he could believe the case to be genuine there was nothing on earth he +would not do for the man. + +It was a very difficult age, every one admitted: "Society was so +complex." + +There was evidence of the generous feeling--ill-balanced and spasmodic, +it is true--on every hand. The poor were bravely, almost blindly, good +to their neighbours in misfortune. The better-off were lavish--or had +been until a few years previously--when they had certified proof that +the cases were deserving. If a magistrate or a police court missionary +gave publicity to a Pathetic Case, the Pathetic Case might be sure of +being able to retire on a comfortable annuity. If only every Pathetic +Case could have been induced to come pathetically into the clutches of a +sympathetic police court cadi, instead of dying quite as pathetically in +a rat-hole, one of the most pressing problems of benevolence might have +been satisfactorily solved. + +The Order of St Martin of Tours was one of the attempts to reconcile the +generous yearnings of mankind with modern conditions. Its field of +action had no definable limit, and whatever a man wished to give it was +prepared to utilise. It was not primarily concerned with money, although +judged by the guaranteed resources upon which it could call if +necessary, it would rank as a rich society. It imposed no subscription +and made no outside appeal. Upon its books, against the name of every +member, there was entered what he bound himself to do when it was +required of him. It was a vast and comprehensive list, so varied that +few ever genuinely applied for the services of the Order without their +needs being satisfied. The city man willing to give a foolish and +repentant youth another chance of honest work; the Sussex farmer anxious +to prove what a month of South Down fare and Channel breezes would do +for a small city convalescent; the prim little suburban lady, much too +timid to attempt any personal contact with the unknown depths of sin and +suffering, but eager to send her choicest flowers and most perfect fruit +to any slum sick-room; the good-hearted laundry girl who had been +through the fires herself, offering to "pal up to any other girl what's +having a bit of rough and wants to keep straight without a lot of +jaw,"--all found a deeper use in life beneath the sign of St Martin's +divided cloak. Children, even little children, were not shut out; they +could play with other, lonely, little children, and renounce some toys. + +The inconspicuous young man standing in Sir John Hampden's library--he +was in a cheap boot shop, but he gave his early closing day to serve the +Order as a messenger, and there were millionaires who gave less--found +the thing he searched for, and handed to Sir John an unsealed envelope. + +"I accept," said the baronet, after glancing at the slip it contained. +This was what he accepted: + + ORDER OF ST. MARTIN OF TOURS. + + _Case_. . . John Flak, 45 Paradise Buildings, + Paradise Street, Drury Lane, W.C. + + _Cause_ . . Street Accident. + + _Requirement_ Service through the night. + + _Recommender_ L. K. Stone, M.D., 172 Great Queen + Street, W.C. + + WALTHAM, MASTER. + +He could have declined; and his membership would have been at an end. +But in a mission of personal service he could not accept and appoint a +substitute. The Order was modern, business-like, reasonable, +unemotional, and quite prepared to take humanity as it was. It did not +seek to impose the ideal Christian standard, logically recognising that +if a man gave _all_ he possessed, a system of Christian laws (a Cæsar +whom he was likewise bidden to obey) would at once incarcerate him in a +prison for having no visible means of subsistence, and, if he persisted +in his unnatural Christian conduct, in a lunatic asylum, where in its +appointed season he would have the story of the Rich Ruler read for his +edification. + +The Order was practical and "very nice to do with;" but it had a +standard, and as a protest against that widespread reliance in the +omnipotence of gold that marred the age it allowed no delegation of an +office of mercy. On all points it was open; its thin medallion +symbolised no mysteries or secret vows; nor, and on this one point it +was unbending, as far as lay in the power of the Order should any +second-hand virtue find place beneath its saintly ensign. + +A few years before, Paradise Street, with that marked inappropriateness +that may be traced in the nomenclature of many London thoroughfares, had +been the foulest, poorest, noisomest, most garbage-strewn and +fly-infested region even in the purlieus of Drury Lane. It was not +markedly criminal, it was merely filthy; and when smell-diseases broke +out in central London it was generally found that they radiated from +Paradise Street like ripples from a dead dog thrown into a pond. +Presently a type foundry in the next street, growing backwards because +it was impossible to expand further in any other direction, pushed down +the flimsy tenements that stood between and reared a high wall, pierced +with windows of prismatic glass, in their place. Soon public +authorities, seeing that the heavens did not fall when a quarter of +Paradise Street did, suddenly and unexpectedly tore down another quarter +as though they had received a maddened impulse and Paradise Street had +been a cardboard model. The phoenix that appeared on this site was a +seven-storied block of workmen's dwellings. It could not be said to have +given universal satisfaction. The municipal authorities who devised it +bickered entertainingly over most of the details that lay between the +foundations and the chimney-pots; the primitive dwellers in Paradise +Street looked askance at it, as they did at most things not in liquid +form; social reformers complained that it drove away the very poor and +brought in a class of only medium poor; and ordinary people noticed that +in place of the nearest approach to artistic dirt to be found in the +metropolis, some one had substituted uninteresting squalor. + +Hampden dismissed his carriage in Lincoln's Inn Fields and walked the +remainder of the way. He had changed into a dark lounge suit before he +left, but, in spite of the principle he had so positively laid down, he +had not stayed to dine. The inevitable, morbid little group marked the +entrance to Paradise Buildings, but the incident was already three hours +old, and the larger public interest was being reserved for the +anticipated funeral. + +A slipshod, smug-faced woman opened the door of No. 45 in response to +his discreet knock. He stepped into a small hall where coal was stored +in a packing-case, and, on her invitation, through into the front room. +Five more untidy women, who had been drinking from three cups, got up as +he entered, and passed out, eyeing him with respectful curiosity as they +went, and each dropping a word of friendly leavetaking to the slatternly +hostess. + +"Don't be down'arted, my dear." + +"See you later, Emm." + +"Let's know how things are going, won't you?" + +"You'll remember about that black alpaker body?" + +"Well, so long, Mrs Flak. Gord bless yer." + +Sir John waited until the hall door closed behind the last frowsy woman. + +"I am here to be of any use I can," he said. "Did Dr Stone mention that +some one would come?" + +"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," she replied. She stood in the middle of the +room, a picture of domestic incapacity, with a foolish look upon her +rather comely features. The room was not bare of furniture, was not +devoid of working-class comforts, but the dirty dishes, the dirty +clothing, the dirty floor, told the plain tale. + +"I do not know any particulars of the case yet." He saw at once that he +would have to take the lead in every detail. "Did the doctor speak of +coming again, or leave any message?" + +"Yes, sir," she replied readily. She lifted an ornament on the +mantelpiece and gave him a folded sheet of paper, torn from a note-book, +that had been placed there for safety. He had the clearest impression +that it would never have occurred to the woman to give it to him +unasked. + +"To rep of O. St M.," ran the pencilled scrawl. "Shall endeavour to look +in 8-8.30.--L.K.S." + +Even as he took out his watch there came a business-like knock at the +door, an active step in the hall, and beneath the conventional greeting, +the two men were weighing one another. + +Dr Stone had asked the Order to send a man of common-sense who could +exercise authority if need be, and one who would not be squeamish in his +surroundings. For reasons of his own he had added that if with these +qualifications he combined that of being a Justice of the Peace, so much +the better. Dr Stone judged that he had the man before him. Hampden saw +a brisk, not too well shaven, man in a light suit, with a straw hat and +a serviceable stick in his hands, until he threw them on the table. +There was kindness and decision behind his alert eyes, and his manner +was that of a benevolent despot marshalling his poor patients--and he +had few others--as a regiment before him, marching them right and left +in companies, bringing them sharply to the front, and bidding them to +stand there and do nothing until they were told. + +"You haven't been into the other room yet?" he asked. "No, well----" + +He stopped with his hand on the door knob, turned back like a pointer on +the suspicion of a trail, and looked keenly at the woman, then around +the bestrewn room. If her eyes had slid the least betraying glance, +Hampden did not observe it, but the doctor, without a word, strode to +the littered couch, put his hand behind a threadbare cushion, and drew +out a half-filled bottle. There was a gluggling ripple for a few +seconds, and the contents had disappeared down the sink, while the +terebinthine odour of cheap gin hung across the room. + +"Not here, Mrs Flak," he said sharply; and without changing her +expression of vacuous good-nature, the woman meekly replied, "No, sir." + +Dr Stone led the way into the inner room and closed the door behind +them. A man, asleep, insensible, or dead, lay on the bed, his face half +hidden in bandages. + +"This is the position," explained the doctor, speaking very rapidly, for +his time was mapped out with as little waste as there is to be found +between the squares on a chess board. "This man went out of here a few +hours ago and walked straight into an empty motor 'bus that was going +round this way. That's how they all put it: he walked right into the +thing. Why? He was a sober enough man, an attendant of some kind at one +of the west end clubs. Because, as I have good reason to suppose, he was +thinking absorbingly of something else. + +"Well, they carried him in here; it ought to have been the hospital, of +course, but it was at his own doorstep it took place, you see, and it +doesn't really matter, because to-morrow morning----!" + +"He will die then?" asked Hampden in a whisper, interpreting the quick +gesture. + +"Oh, he will die as sure as his head is a cracked egg-shell. Between +midnight and dawn, I should say. But before the end I look confidently +for an interval of consciousness, or rather sub-consciousness. If I am +wrong I shall have kept you up all night for nothing; if I am right you +will probably hear something that he wants to say very much." + +"Whatever was in his mind when he met with the accident?" + +"That is my conviction. There has already been an indication of partial +expression. Curiously enough, I have had two exactly similar cases, and +this is going just the same way. In one it was a sum of money a man had +banked under another name to keep it from his wife and for his children; +in the second it was a blow struck in a scuffle, and an innocent man was +doing penal servitude for it." + +"That is what you wished to have some one here for chiefly, then?" asked +Hampden. + +"Everything, practically. You see the kind of people around? The wife is +a fool; the neighbours are the class of maddening dolts who leave a +suicide hanging until a policeman comes to cut him down. They would hold +an orgie in the next room. In excitement the women fly to gin as +instinctively as a nun flies to prayer. Order them out if they come, but +I don't think that they will trouble you after I have spoken to the +woman as I go. If there is anything to be caught it will have to be on +the hop, so to speak. It may be a confession, a deposition of legal +value, or only a request; one cannot guess. Questioning, when the +sub-conscious stage is reached, might lead to something. It's largely a +matter of luck, but intelligence may have an innings." + +"Is there nothing to be done--in the way of making it easier for him?" + +Dr Stone made a face expressive of their helplessness and shrugged his +shoulders; then mentioned a few simple details. + +"He will never know," he explained. "Even when he seems conscious he +will feel no pain and remember nothing of the accident. The clock will +be mercifully set back." He smiled whimsically. "Forgive me if it never +strikes." He turned to go. "The nearest call office is the kiosk in +Aldwych," he remarked. "I am 7406 Covent Garden." No paper being visible +he wrote the number on the wall. "After 10.30 as a general thing," he +added. + +So the baronet was left alone with the still figure that counterfeited +death so well, the man who would be dead before the dawn. He stepped +quietly to the bed and looked down on him. The lower half of the face +was free from swathing, and the lean throat and grizzled beard struck +Sir John with a momentary surprise. It was the face of an elderly man; +he had expected to find one not more than middle-aged as the companion +of the young woman in the other room. + +There was a single chair against the wall, and he sat down. There was +nothing else to do but to sit and wait, to listen to the sounds of +voluminous life that rose from the street beneath, the careful creaking +movements in the room beyond. From the shallow wainscotting near the bed +came at intervals the steady ticking of a death-watch. It was nothing, +as every one knew, but the note of an insect calling for its mate, but +it thrilled and grew large in the stillness of the chamber ominously. + +A low tap on the door came as a relief. He found the woman standing +there. + +"Is there anything different?" she asked, hanging on to the door. "I +kept on thinking I heard noises." + +"No, there is no change," he replied. "Will you come in?" + +She shrank back at the suggestion. "Gord 'elp us, no!" she cried. "It's +bad enough out there." + +"What are you afraid of?" he asked kindly. + +She had no words for it. Self-analysis did not enter into her daily +life. But, sitting there alone among the noises, real and imagined, she +had reached a state of terror. + +"There is nothing at all dreadful, nothing that would shock you," he +said, referring to the appearance of the dying man. "You are his wife, +are you not?" + +The foolish look, half stubborn, half vacuous, flickered about her face. +"As good as," she replied. "It's like this----" + +"I see." He had no desire to hear the recital of the sordid details. + +"His wife's in a mad-house. Won't never be anywhere else, and I've been +with him these five years, an honest woman to him all the time," she +said, bridling somewhat at the suggestion of reproach. "No one's got no +better right to the things, I'm sure." Her eloquence was stirred not so +much to defend her reputation as by the fear that some one might step in +to claim "the things." + +"There will be plenty of time to talk about that when--when it is +necessary," he said. "Has he no relations about here who ought to be +told?" + +"Nah," she said decisively; "no one but me. Why, he didn't even have no +friends--no pals of his own class, as you may say. Very close about +himself he was. All he thought of was them political corkses, as they +call um." She came nearer to the door again, the gossiping passion of +her class stronger than her fear, now that the earlier restraint of his +presence was wearing off. "It's the only thing we ever had a 'arsh word +about. It's all right and well for them that make a living at it, but +many and many a time my 'usband's lost 'alf a day two and three times a +week to sit in the Distingwidged Strangers' Gallery. You mightn't 'ardly +think it, sir, but he was hand and foot with some of the biggest men +there are; he was indeed." + +Hampden was looking at her curiously. He read into her "'arsh word" the +ceaseless clatter of her nagging, shameless tongue when the old man +brought home a few shillings less than he was wont; the aftermath of +sullen silence, the unprepared meals and neglected home. He pictured him +a patient, long-suffering old man, and pitied him. And now she took +pride and boasted of the very things that she had upbraided him with. + +"Vickers he knew," she continued complacently, "and Drugget. He's shaken +hands with Mr Strummery, the Prime Minister, more than onest. Then +Tubes--you've heard speak of him?--he found Mr Tubes a very pleasant +gentleman. Oh, and a lot more I can't remember." + +Hampden disengaged himself from further conversation with a single +formal sentence, and returned to his vigil. There he was secure from her +callous chatter. He saw the renewed look of terror start into her eyes +when a board behind her creaked as the door was closing. He heard the +startled shriek, but her squalid avarice cut off his sympathies. He sat +down again and looked round at the already familiar objects in the room. +The form lying on the bed had not changed a fraction of its rigid +outline; but he missed something somewhere in the room, and for a minute +he could not identify it. Then he remembered the ticking of the +death-watch. It had ceased. He looked at his watch; it was not yet nine +o'clock. + +He had not been back more than ten minutes when the subdued tapping--it +was rather a timid scrape, as though she feared that a louder summons +might call another forth--was repeated. + +"I don't see that it's no good my staying here," she gasped. "I've been +sitting there till the furniture fair began to move towards me, and +every bloomin' rag about the place had a face in it. It's giving me the +fair horrors." + +He could not ignore her half-frenzied state. "What do you want to do?" +he asked. + +"I want to go out for a bit," she replied, licking her thin feline lips. +"You don't know what it's like. I want to hear real people talk and not +see things move. I'll come back soon; before Gord, I will." + +"Yes, _how_ will you came back?" + +"I won't. May it strike me dead if I touch a drop. I'll go straight into +Mrs Rugg's across the street, and she's almost what you might call a +teetotaler." + +"The man you call your husband is dying in there, and he may need your +help at any minute," he said sternly. It needed no gift of divination to +prophesy that if the woman once left the place she would be hopelessly +drunk before an hour had passed. "Don't sit down doing nothing but +imagining things," he continued. "Make yourself some tea, and then when +one of your friends comes round to see you, you can let her stay. But +only one, mind." + +He saw the more sullen of her looks settle darkly about her face as he +closed the door. He waited to hear the sound of the kettle being moved, +the tea-cup clinking, but they never came. An unnatural, uncreaking +silence reigned instead. He opened the door quietly and looked out. That +room was empty, and, as he stood there, a current of cooler air fell +across his cheek. Half a dozen steps brought him to the entrance to the +little hall--the only other room there was. It also was empty, and the +front door stood widely open. There was only one possible inference: +"Mrs Flak" had fled. + +Sir John had confessed to possessing nerves, and to few men the +situation would have been an inviting one. Still, there was only one +possible thing to do, and he closed the door again, noticing, as he did +so, that the action locked it. As he stood there a moment before +returning to the bedroom and its tranquil occupant lying in his rigid, +unbreathing sleep, a slight but continuous sound caught his ear. It was +the most closely comparable (to attempt to define it) with the whirring +of a clock as the flying pinion is released before it strikes. Or it +might be that the doctor's simile prompted the comparison. It was not +loud, but the room beyond seemed very, very still. + +It was not a time to temporise with the emotions. Hampden stepped into +the next room and stood listening. He judged--nay, he was sure--that the +sound came from the bedroom, but it was not repeated. Instead, something +very different happened, something that was either terrifying or +natural, according to the conditions that provoked it. Quite without +warning there came a voice from the next room, a full, level, healthy +voice, even strong, and speaking in the ordinary manner of conversation. + +"Will you please tell Mr Tubes that I am waiting here to see him?" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MAN BETWEEN TWO MASTERS + + +There was something in the situation that was more than gruesome, +something that was peculiarly unnerving. + +In his anticipation of this moment as he had sat almost by the bedside, +Hampden had conjectured that the dying man would perhaps lift a hand or +move his head uneasily with the first instinct of returning +consciousness. A sigh, a groan, might escape him, incoherent words +follow, then broken but rational expressions of his suffering, and +entreaties that something might be done to ease the pain. Or perhaps, +after realising his position, he would nerve himself to betray no +unmanly weakness, and, in the words of the significant old phrase, +"turning his face to the wall," endure in stoical silence to the end. It +would be painful, perhaps acutely distressing, but it would not be +unnatural. + +There had been no groan, no sigh or broken words, no indication of +weakness or suffering behind that half-closed door, nothing but the +curious clock-like sound that had gone before the voice. And that voice! +It was as full and strong, as vibrant and as ordinary as his own could +ever be. Standing in the middle of the living-room Sir John could not +deceive himself. It came from the other room where a minute before he +had left the dying--yes, the almost dead--man lying with stark outline +on the bed. There was no alternative: it was from those pallid lips that +the words had come, it was by that still, inanimate man that they were +spoken. + +The suddenness of the whole incident was shocking in itself, but that +was not all; the mere contrast to what he had looked for was +disconcerting, but there was something more; the curious unexpected +nature of the request, if request it was, was not without its element of +mystery, but above and beyond all else was the thought--the thought that +for a dreadful moment held his heart and soul in icy bonds--what sight +when he returned to the inner room, as return at once he must, what +gruesome sight would meet his eyes? + +What phantoms his misgivings raised, every man may conjecture for +himself. Follow, then, another step in imagination, and having given a +somewhat free and ghastly fancy rein, push the chamber door cautiously +and inch by inch, or fling it boldly open as you will; then pause upon +the threshold, as Hampden did, in sharp surprise. + +Nothing was altered, no single detail had undergone the slightest +change! On the bed, rigid and very sharp beneath the single unclean +sheet, lay the body of the mangled man. Not a fold of his shroud-like +wrapping differed from its former line, it did not seem possible that a +breath had stirred him. + +Had the voice been a trick of the imagination? Hampden knew, as far as +mortal man can be sure of any mortal sense, that the voice had been as +real as his life itself. Then----? It occurred to him in a flash: here +was the stage of under-consciousness of which Dr Stone had spoken. Of +his pain, the accident, where he at that moment lay, and all his real +surroundings, the sufferer knew nothing, and never would know. But out +of the shock and shattering, some of the delicate machinery of the brain +still kept its balance, and would continue to exercise its functions to +the end. + +It was an ordeal, but it had to be done. It was the purpose for which he +had been summoned. Sir John moved to the bedside, nerved himself to +watch the ashen face, and said slowly and distinctly: "Mr Tubes is not +here. Do you wish to see him?" + +There was just a perceptible pause, and then the bloodless lips replied. +But not the faintest tremor of a movement stirred the body otherwise +from head to foot, and in the chilling absence of expression the simile +occurred to Hampden of bubbles rising from some unseen working to the +surface of an inky pool. + +"I have come on purpose. Let him be told that it is most important." + +Hampden had to feel his way. The woman had mentioned that Flak was at +least on terms of acquaintanceship with Mr Tubes. The doctor had +surmised that the man had something he must say before he died. But was +this the one true line, or a mere vagary of the sub-conscious state--a +twist in the tortuous labyrinth that would lead to nothing? + +"He is not here at present," he said. "If you will tell me what you wish +to say I will write it down, so that it cannot fail to reach him." + +"No. I cannot tell any one else. I must see him." + +"Mr Tubes is a very busy man. You know that he is the Home Secretary. Is +it of sufficient importance to telegraph for him?" + +This time the answer followed on his last word with startling rapidity. +Until the last phase that was the only variation in the delivery of the +sentences--that sometimes there was a pause as though the working of the +mind had to make a revolution before it reached the point of the mental +clutch, at others it dropped into its gear at once. + +"It is important enough to send a coach and four for him," was the +reply. + +Hampden might not be convinced of this but he was satisfied of one +thing: the coherence of idea was being regularly maintained. How long +would it last? It occurred to him to put the question. + +"I shall have to go out either to send the telegram myself or to find +some one who will take it," he explained. "Until Mr Tubes comes or sends +his reply will you _remain here_?" + +It was rather eerie to be holding conversation with the fragment of a +man's brain with the man himself for all practical purposes eliminated. +But he seemed to have arrived at a practical understanding with the +centre of sub-consciousness. + +"I will remain," was the unhesitating reply, and Hampden felt assured +that the line would not be lost. + +He had not definitely settled in his mind what to do when he opened the +door leading on to the common stairs. A small child who had been +loitering outside in a crouching position staggered back in momentary +alarm at his sudden appearance. It was a ragged girl, perhaps ten or +twelve years old, with cruelly unwieldy boots upon her stockingless +feet, matted hair, and a precocious face full of unchildish knowledge. +The inference that she had been applying either an eye or an ear to the +keyhole was overwhelming. + +Her fear--it was only the slum child's instinct of flight--died out when +she saw the gentleman. Toffs (so ran her experience) do not hit you for +nothing. + +"Ee's in there yet, ain't ee?" she whispered, coming back boldly and +looking up confidentially to his face. "I 'eard yer talking, but I +couldn't tell what yer said. 'Ow long d'yer think 'e'll last?" + +Sir John looked down at the child, the child who had never been young, +in shuddering pity. + +"It was me what picked 'is 'at up, but they wouldn't let me go in," she +continued, as though the fact gave her a standing in the case. "Did yer +see it in there?" She looked proudly at her right hand with horrid +significance. + +"Come in here," he said, after considering. "Can you run an errand?" + +Her face reflected gloating eagerness as she entered, her attitude had +just a tinge of pleasurable awe. He did not permit her to go further +than the hall. + +"Is it to do with 'im?" she asked keenly. "Yehs!" + +"It is to go to the post office in Fleet Street," he explained. "You +must go as fast as ever you can." + +"I can go anywhere as well as any boy, and as fast if I take my boots +off. When that there Italian knifed her man--him what took up with Shiny +Sal--in the Lane a year ago, it was me what fetched the police." + +He left her standing there--her face to the chink of the door before he +had turned away--and went into the next room to write the message. He +desired to make it neither too insistent nor too immaterial. "John Flak, +of 45 Paradise Buildings, Paradise Street, Drury Lane, has met with +fatal accident, and earnestly desires to see you on important business," +was the form it took. He had sufficient stamps in his pocket for the +payment, and to these he added another for a receipt. + +"You can read?" he asked, returning to her. + +"Yehs!" she replied with her curious accent of lofty scorn at so +ingenuous a question. "I read all the murders and sewercides to Blind +Mike every Sunday morning." + +"Well, go as fast as you can to the post office in Fleet Street, and +give them this paper where you see 'Telegrams' written up. Then wait for +another piece of paper which they will give you, and bring it back to +me. Here is sixpence for you now, and you shall have another shilling +when you come back." He was making it more profitable for her to be +honest than to be dishonest, which is perhaps the safest way in an +emergency. + +It was nearly ten o'clock when he looked at his watch on her departure; +it was not ten minutes past when she returned. She was panting but +exultant, and watched his face for commendation as she gave him the +receipt, as a probationary imp might watch the face of the Prince of +Darkness on bringing in his first human soul. One boot she had dropped +in her wild career, but so far from stopping to look for it, she had +thrown away the other then as useless. + +Leaving the ghoul-child seated on the coal to thrill delightfully at +every unknown sound, Hampden returned to the bedside. Much of the first, +the absolutely cold horror of the situation, was gone. He judged it +better not to allow too long an interval of silence in which that dim +consciousness might slip back into the outer space of trackless +darkness. Now that he knew what to expect it was not very unlike +speaking to one who slept and held converse in his sleep. + +"I have sent for Mr Tubes, but, making due allowance, he can scarcely +get here in less than an hour," he said. "If in the meantime there is +anything that you wish to tell me, to make doubly sure, it will be +received as a most sacred confidence." + +There was a longer pause than any before, so long that the watcher by +the bedside was preparing to speak again; then the lips slowly opened, +and the same full, substantial voice made reply. + +"I will wait. But he must be quick--quick!" + +The words seemed to disclose a fear, but there was no outward sign of +failing power. Hampden ventured on another point. + +"Are you in pain?" he asked. + +The reply came more quickly this time, and, perhaps because he was +looking for some such indication, the listener fancied that he caught +the faintest stumbling, a little blurring of the outline here and there. + +"No, I am in no pain. But I have a terrible anxiety that weighs me +down." + +There was nothing to be gained by further questioning. Sir John returned +to the other room. The fire was low and the grate choked with ashes; he +had begun to replenish it when a curious sound startled him. He only +heard it between the raspings of the poker as he raked the ashes out, +but it was not to be mistaken. It was the sharp, dry, clock-like +whirring that had been the first indication of life and speech beyond +the bedroom door more than an hour before. + +A board creaked behind him, and he turned with an exclamation to see the +dreadful child standing in the middle of the room. Barefooted, she had +slipped noiselessly in from the hall at the first tremor of that unusual +sound, and now, with her dilated eyes fixed fearfully on the door, her +shrinking form bent forward, she slowly crept nearer step by step. Her +face quivered with terror, her whole body shook, but she went on as +surely as though a magnet drew her. + +"What are you doing?" cried Hampden sharply. "Why did you not stay where +I told you?" + +She turned her face, but not her eyes, towards him. "Yer heard it, +didn't yer?" she whispered. "Ain't that what they call the death-rattle +what comes?" + +He took her by the shoulder and swung her impatiently round. "Go back, +you imp," he commanded. "Back and stay there, or you shall go out." + +She crept back, looking fearfully over her shoulder all the way. +Something else was happening to engage Hampden's attention. In the next +room the man was speaking, speaking spontaneously, as he had done once +before, but beyond all doubt the voice was weaker now. The momentary +interruption of the child's presence had drowned the first part of the +sentence, but Hampden caught a word that strung up every faculty he +possessed--"League." + +"----League will then suddenly issue a notice to all its members, +putting an embargo--a boycott, if you will--on----" + +The voice trailed off, and, although he sprang to the door, Sir John +could not distinguish another word. But that fragment alone was +sufficiently startling. To the President of the Unity League it could +only have one meaning; for it was true! Some--how much?--of their plan +lay open. And to how many was it known? The terrible anxiety of this +poor, battered wreck, unconsciously loyal to his class in death, to give +the warning before he passed away, seemed to indicate that nothing but +the frayed thread of one existence stood in the League's path yet. + +Was there anything to be done? That was Hampden's first thought. There +was plainly one thing: to learn, if possible, before Mr Tubes's arrival, +how much was known. + +Nothing was changed; only the death-watch ticked again. He leaned over +the bed in his eagerness, and, stilling the throbbing excitement of his +blood, tried to speak in a tone of commonplace indifference. + +"Yes, continue." + +There was no response. + +"Repeat the sentence," he commanded, concentrating his voice in his +desperation, and endeavouring by mere force of will to impose its +authority on the indefinite consciousness. + +Just as well might he have commanded the man to get up and walk. + +Had that last elusive thread that held him to mortality been broken? +Hampden bent still lower. The pallid face was no more pallid than +before, but before it could scarcely have been more death-like. The +acutest test could not have found a trace of breath. He put together the +gradual failing of the voice that little more than an hour ago had been +as full and vigorous as his own, the unfinished sentence, the +silence---- + +Suddenly he straightened himself by the bedside with a sense of guilt +that struck him like a blow. What was he thinking--hoping? Who was +he--Sir John Hampden, President of the Unity League? Not in that room! +The man who watched by the bedside stood there even as the humblest +servant of the Order of St. Martin, pledged while in that service to +succour in "trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity." + +It did not occur to him to debate the point. His way seemed very +straight and clear. His plain duty to the dying man was to try by every +means in his power to carry out his one overwhelming desire. Its +successful accomplishment might aim a more formidable blow at his own +ambition than almost anything else that could happen. It could not ward +off the attack upon which the League was now concentrating--nothing +could do that--but an intimate knowledge of the details of that scheme +of retaliation might act in a hundred adverse ways. Hampden did not stop +to consider what might happen on the one side and on the other. A +thousand years of argument and sophistries could not alter the one great +fact of his present duty. He had a very simple conscience, and he +followed it. + +If he could have speeded Mr Tubes's arrival he would have done so now. +He went into the hall to listen. The street child was still there, +sitting on the coal, as sharp-eyed and wakefully alert as ever. He had +forgotten her. + +"Come, little imp," he said kindly, "I ought to have packed you off long +ago." It was, in point of fact, nearly eleven o'clock. + +"Ain't doin' no aharm to the coal," she muttered. + +"That's not the question. You ought to have been at home and in bed by +this time of night." + +She looked up at him sharply with a suspicion that such innocence in a +grown-up man could not be unassumed. + +"Ain't got no bed," she said contemptuously. "Ain't got no 'ome." + +A sentence rang through his mind: "The birds of the air have nests." + +"Where do you sleep?" he asked. + +"Anywhere," she replied. + +"And how do you live?" + +"Anyhow." + +The lowest depths of human poverty had not been abolished by Act of +Parliament after all. + +A knock at the door interrupted the reflection. The child had already +heard the step and sought to efface herself in the darkest corner. + +Hampden had not noticed the significance of the knock. He opened the +door, prepared to admit the Home Secretary. So thoroughly had he +dissociated his own personality from the issue, that he felt the keenest +interest that the man should arrive before it was too late. He opened +the door to admit him, and experienced an actual pang of disappointment +when he saw who stood outside. + +He had sent a telegram instead. Whatever the telegram said did not +matter very much. Hampden instinctively guessed that he was not coming +then--was not on his way. Anything less than that would be too late. + +He took the orange envelope and opened it beneath the flaring gas that +piped and whistled at the stairhead. + +"There is no reply," he said quietly, folding the paper slowly and +putting it away in his pocket-book. Were it not that the gain to Hampden +of the League was so immense one might have thought, to see him at that +moment, that he felt ashamed of something in life. + +Members of Parliament had every department of the postal system freely +at their service. The statement may not be out of place, for this was +what the telegram contained: + + "Deeply regret to hear of Comrade Flak's accident, and will + have it fully enquired into. Was it while he was engaged at + work? Cannot, however, recall any business upon which he could + wish to see me. Probably a mental hallucination caused by + shock. Have been terribly busy all day, and am engaged at this + moment with important State papers which _must_ be finished + before I go to bed. If it is thought desirable I will, on + receiving another wire, come first thing in the morning, but + before deciding to take this course I beg you to consider + incessant calls made on my time. Let everything possible be + done for the poor fellow. + + "JAMES TUBES." + +The burden of failure pressed on Hampden as he walked slowly to the +bedroom. In that environment of death his own gain did not touch him at +all, so completely had he succeeded in eliminating for the time every +consideration except an almost fanatical sense of duty to the articles +of the Order. It would be better, he felt, if the shadowy consciousness +that hovered around the bed could have sunk finally into its eternal +sleep, without suffering the pang of being recalled only to hear _this_, +but something in the atmosphere of the room, a brooding tension of +expectancy that seemed to quicken in the silence, warned him that this +was not to be. + +"A reply has been received from Mr Tubes in answer to our telegram." + +"He is here?" There was no delay this time; there was an intense +eagerness that for a brief minute overcame the growing weakness. + +"No. He cannot come. He regrets, but he is engaged on matters of +national importance." + +Silence. Painful silence. In it Hampden seemed to share the cruel +frustration of so great a hope deferred. + +"There is this," he continued, more for the sake of making any +suggestion than from a belief in its practicability; "I might go and +compel him to come. If he understood the urgency----" + +"It is too late.... A little time ago there was a thin white mist; now +it is a solid wall of dense rolling fog. It is nearer--relentless, +unevadable...." + +"I can still write down what you have to say. Consider, it is the only +hope." + +"I cannot judge.... I had a settled conviction that no other ear.... +Stay, quick; there are the notes! Incomplete, but they will put him on +the track.... Swear, swear that you will place them in his hand unread." + +"I swear to do as you ask me. Go on quickly." + +"To-night, now. Do not ... do not let ... do not wait...." + +"Yes, yes. But the notes? Where are they? How am I to know them?" The +voice was growing very thin and faltering, weaker with every word. The +disappointment had sapped all its failing strength at a single blow. + +"The notes ... yes. You will explain.... The black wall ... how it +towers!..." He was whispering inaudibly. + +Hampden leaned over the dying man in a final effort. + +"Flak!" he cried, "the notes on the Unity League! Where are they? +Speak!" + +"The envelope"--he caught a breath of sound--"... coat lining.... _I +must go_!" + +Twenty minutes later Sir John picked up his motor brougham in New Oxford +Street. He had telephoned immediately on leaving Paradise Buildings for +it to start out at once and wait for him near Mudie's corner. In +Paradise Street he had seen a bacchanalian group surrounding "Mrs Flak," +high priestess, who chanted a song in praise of home and the domestic +virtues. It was at this point that he missed the ghoul-child from his +side. + +A south-east wind was carrying the midnight boom of the great clock at +Westminster as far as Kilburn when he turned out of the High Road, and +the little clocks around had taken up the chorus, like small dogs +envious of the baying of a hound, as he stopped before the Home +Secretary's house. + +There was a light still burning in a room on the ground floor, and it +was Mr Tubes himself who came to the door. + +"I have to place in your hands an envelope of papers entrusted to me by +a man called Flak who died in Paradise Street an hour ago," said +Hampden, and with the act he brought his night of duty as a faithful +servant of his Order to an end. + +"Oh, that's you," said Mr Tubes, peering out into the darkness. "I had a +wire about it. So the poor man is dead?" + +"Yes," replied Hampden a shade drily. "The poor man is dead." + +Mr Tubes fancied that he saw the lamps of a cab beyond his garden gate, +and he wondered whether he was being expected to offer to pay the fare. + +"Well, it's very good of you to take the trouble, though, between +ourselves, I hardly imagine that the papers are likely to be of any +importance," he remarked. "Now may I ask who I am indebted to?" + +Hampden had already turned to go. He recognised that in the strife which +he was about to precipitate, the man who stood there would be his +natural antagonist, and he regretted that he could not find it in his +nature to like him any better than he did. + +"What I have done, I have done as a servant of the Order of St Martin," +he replied. "What I am about to do," he added, "I shall do as Sir John +Hampden." + +And leaving Mr Tubes standing on the doorstep in vast surprise, the +electric carriage turned its head-lights to the south again. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BY TELESCRIBE + + +What Sir John Hampden was "about to do" he had decided in the course of +the outward journey. + +There was nothing in his actions, past or prospective, that struck him +as illogical. He would have said, indeed, that they were the only +possible outcome of the circumstance. + +For the last four hours, as the nameless emissary of the Order to whose +discipline he bound himself, he had merged every other feeling in his +duty to the dying man and in the fulfilment of a death-bed charge. + +That was over; now, as the President of the Unity + +League, he was on his way to try by every means in his power to minimise +the effect of what he had done; to anticipate and counteract the value +of the warning he had so scrupulously conveyed. + +It was a fantastic predicament. He had sat for perhaps half an hour with +the unsealed envelope in his pocket, and no eye had been upon him. He +had declared passionately, year after year, that class and class were +now at war, that the time for courteous retaliation was long since past, +that social martial law had been proclaimed. Yet as he drove back to +Trafalgar Chambers he would have given a considerable sum of money--the +League being not ill provided, say fifty thousand pounds--to know the +extent of those notes. + +When he reached the offices it was almost half-past twelve. Salt would +be flying northward as fast as steam could take him, and for the next +two hours at least, cut off from the possibility of any communication. +The burden of decision lay on Hampden alone. + +He had already made it. Within an hour he would have pledged the League +to a line of policy from which there was no retreat. Before another day +had passed the Government could recall the little band of secret service +agents and consign their reports to the wastepaper basket. Every one +would know everything. Everything? He smiled until the remembrance of +that cheap frayed envelope in Mr Tubes's possession drove the smile +away. + +Next to his own office stood the instrument room. Here, behind double +doors that deadened every sound, were ranged the telephones, the tape +machines, the Fessenden-d'Arco installation, and that most modern +development of wireless telegraphy which had come just in time to save +the over-burdened postal system from chronic congestion, the telescribe. + +Hampden had not appeared to move hurriedly, but it was just seventeen +seconds after he had sent his brougham roving eastward that he stood +before the telephone. + +"1432 St Paul's, please." + +There was a sound as of rushing water and crackling underwood. Then the +wire seemed to clear itself like a swimmer rising from the sea, and a +quiet, far-away voice was whispering in his ear: "Yes, I'm Lidiat." + +"I am at Trafalgar Chambers," said Hampden, after giving his name. "I +want you to drop _anything_ you are on and come here. If my motor is not +waiting for you at the corner of Chancery Lane, you will meet it along +the Strand." + +At the other end of the wire, Lidiat--the man who possessed the sixth +code typewriter--looked rather blankly at his pipe, at the little silver +carriage clock ticking on the mantelpiece, at the fluted white-ware +coffee set, and at his crowded desk. Then, concluding that if the +President of the Unity League sent a message of that kind after midnight +and immediately rang off again he must have a good reason for it, he +locked up his room as it stood, took up a few articles promiscuously +from the rack in the hall, and walked out under the antique archway into +Fleet Street. + +In the meantime the Exchange was being urged to make another attempt to +get on with "2743 Vincent," this time with success. + +"Mr Salt is not 'ere, I repeat, sir," an indignant voice was protesting. +"He is out of town." + +"Yes, yes, Dobson, I know," replied "St James's." "I am Sir John +Hampden. What train did your master go by?" + +"Beg pardon, sir," apologised "Vincent." "Didn't recognise your voice at +first, Sir John. The wires here is 'issing 'orrible to-night. He went by +the 10 o'clock from the Great Central, and told me to meet the 10.40 +Midland to-morrow morning." + +"He did actually go by the 10 train?" + +"I 'anded him the despatch case through the carriage window not five +minutes before the whistle went. He was sitting with his----" + +"Thank you, Dobson. That's all I wanted to know. Sorry if you had to get +up. Good night," and Sir John cut off a volume of amiable verbosity as +he heard the bell of his Launceston ring in the street below. + +"Fellow watching your place," said Lidiat, jerking his head in the +direction of a doorway nearly opposite, as Hampden admitted him. Had he +himself been the object of the watcher's attention it would have been +less remarkable, for had not the time and the place been London after +midnight, Lidiat's appearance must have been pronounced bizarre. +Reasonable enough on all other points he had a fixed conviction that it +was impossible for him to work after twelve o'clock at night unless he +wore a red silk skull cap, flannels, and yellow Moorish slippers. Into +this æsthetic costume he had changed half an hour before Hampden rang +him up, and in it, with the addition of a very short overcoat and a silk +hat that displayed an inch of red beneath the brim, he now stepped from +the brougham, a large, bovine-looking man, perfectly bald, and still +clinging to his pipe. + +Hampden laughed contemptuously as he glanced across the street. + +"They have put on half a dozen private enquiry men lately," he +explained. "They are used to divorce, and their sole idea of the case +seems to be summed up in the one stock phrase, 'watching the house.' +Possibly they expect to see us through the windows, making bombs. Why +don't they watch Paris instead? Egyptian Three Per Cents. have gone up +75 francs in the last fortnight, all from there, and for no obvious +reason." + +Lidiat nodded weightily. "We stopped too much comment," he said. "Lift +off?" + +"There are only two short flights," apologised Hampden. "Yes; I saw that +even the financial papers dismissed it as a 'Pied Piper rise.' Here we +are." + +They had not lingered as they talked, although the journalist ranked +physical haste and bodily exertion--as typified by flights of +stairs--among the forbidden things of life. + +Hampden had brought him to the instrument room. In view of what he was +asking of Lidiat, some explanation was necessary, but he put it into the +narrowest possible form. It was framed not on persuasiveness but +necessity. + +"Salt is away, something has happened, and we have to move a week before +we had calculated." + +Lidiat nodded. He accepted the necessity as proved; explanation would +have taken time. His training and occupation made him chary of +encouraging two words when one would do, between midnight and the hour +when the newspapers are "closed up" and the rotaries begin to move. + +"I should like," continued Hampden, "in to-day's issue of every morning +paper a leader, two six-inch items of news, one home one foreign, and a +single column six-inch advertisement set in the middle of a full white +page." + +Lidiat had taken off his hat and overcoat and placed them neatly on a +chair. It occurred to him as a fair omen that Providence had dealt +kindly with him in not giving him any opportunity of changing his +clothes. He now took out his watch and hung it on a projecting stud of +the telephone box. + +"Yes, and the minimum?" He did not think, as a lesser man with equal +knowledge of Fleet Street might have done, that Hampden had gone mad. He +knew that conventionally such a programme was impossible, but he had +known of impossible things being done, and in any case he understood by +the emphasis that this was what Hampden would have done under freer +circumstances. + +"That is what I leave to you. The paragraphs and comment at some length +I shall look for. The provinces are out of the question, I suppose? The +eight leading London dailies _must_ be dealt with." + +"You give me _carte blanche_, of course--financially?" + +"Absolutely, absolutely. Guarantee everything to them. Let them arrange +for special trains at all the termini. Let them take over all the +garages, motor companies, and cab yards in London as going concerns for +twelve hours. They will all be in it except _The Tocsin_ and _The +Masses_. We can deal with the distributing houses later. You see the +three points? It is the patriotic thing to do at any cost; they can have +anything they like to make up time; and it is absolutely essential." + +"Yes," said Lidiat; "and the matter?" + +Hampden had already taken a pencilled sheet of paper from his pocket. He +had written it on his way up to Kilburn. He now handed it to the +journalist. + +"Between four and five o'clock that will be telescribed over the entire +system," he explained. "Those who are not on the call will see it in the +papers or hear from others. Every one will know before to-night." + +He watched Lidiat sharply as he read the statement. Apart from the two +principals, he was the first man in England to receive the confidence, +and Sir John had a curiosity, not wholly idle, to see how it would +strike him. But Lidiat was not, to use an obsolete phrase, "the man in +the street." He absorbed the essence of the manifesto with a trained, +practical grasp, and then held out his hand for the other paper, while +his large, glabrous face remained merely vacant in its expression. + +The next paper was a foreign telegram in cipher, and as Lidiat read the +decoded version that was pinned to it, the baronet saw, or fancied that +he saw, the flicker of a keener light come into his eyes and such a +transient wave across his face, as might, in a man of impulse, indicate +enthusiasm or appreciation. + +"Are there to be any more of these--presently?" was all he said. + +"I think that I might authorise you to say that there will be others to +publish, as the moment seems most propitious." + +"Very good. I will use the instruments now." + +"There is one more point," said Hampden, writing a few short lines on a +slip of paper, "that it might be desirable to make public now." + +Lidiat took the paper. This was what he read: + + "_You are at liberty to state definitely that the membership of + the Unity League now exceeds five million persons._" + +There was a plentiful crop of grey hairs sown between Charing Cross and +Ludgate Hill in the early hours of that summer morning. With his mouth +to the telephone, Lidiat stirred up the purlieus of Fleet Street and the +Strand until office after office, composing room after composing room, +and foundry after foundry, all along the line, began to drone and hum +resentfully, like an outraged apiary in the dead of night. When he once +took up the wire he never put it down again until he had swept the +"London Dailies: Morning" section of Sell and Mitchell from beginning to +end. Those who wished to retort and temporise after he had done with +them, had to fall back upon the telescribe--which involved the +disadvantage to Fleet Street of having to write and coldly transmit the +indignant messages that it would fain pour hot and blistering into its +tormentor's ear. For two hours and a half by the watch beneath his eye +he harrowed up all the most cherished journalistic traditions of the +land, and from a small, box-like room a mile away, he controlled the +reins of the Fourth Estate of an Empire--a large, fat, perspiring man of +persuasive authority, and conscious of unlimited capital at his back. + +By the end of that time chaos had given place to order. _The Scythe_ had +shown an amenable disposition with a readiness suggesting that it +possibly knew more than it had told in the past. _The Ensign_ was won +over by persuasion and the condition of the Navy, and _The Mailed Fist_ +was clubbed and bullied and cajoled with big names until it was dazed. +For seven minutes Lidiat poured patriotism into the ear of _The +Beacon's_ editor, and gold into the coffers of _The Beacon's_ manager, +and then turned aside to win over _The Daily News-Letter_ by telling it +what _The Daily Chronicler_ was doing, and the _Chronicler_ by reporting +the _News-Letter's_ acquiescence. _The Morning Post Card_ remained +obdurate for half an hour, and only capitulated after driving down and +having an interview with Hampden. _The Great Daily_--well, for more than +a year _The Great Daily_ had been the property and organ of the League, +only no one had suspected it. The little _Illustrated Hour_, beset by +the difficulty of half-tone blocks, and frantic at the thought of having +to recast its plates and engage in the mysteries of "making ready" again +after half its edition had been run off, was the last to submit. So long +was it in making up its mind, that at last Lidiat sarcastically proposed +an inset, and, taking the suggestion in all good faith, the _Illustrated +Hour_ startled its sober patrons by bearing on its outside page a gummed +leaflet containing a leaderette and two news paragraphs. + +So the list spun out. Lidiat did not touch the provinces, but sixteen +London dailies, including some sporting and financial organs, marked the +thoroughness of his work. At half-past three he finally hung up the +receiver; and taking the brougham, rode like another Wellington over the +field of his still palpitating Waterloo. His appearance, bovine and +imperturbable despite the shameful incongruity of his garb when revealed +in the tremulous and romantic dawn of a day and of an epoch, and further +set off by the unimpeachable correctness of the equipage from which he +alighted, was a thing that rankled in the minds of lingering compositors +and commissionaires until their dying days. + +A few minutes after his departure Hampden returned to the telephone and +desired to make the curious connection "1 Telescribe." + +"Who is there?" he asked, when "1 Telescribe" responded. + +The man at the other end explained that he was a clerk on the main +platform of "1 Telescribe"--name of Firkin, if the fact was of +Metropolitan interest. + +"Is Mr Woodbarrow there yet?" + +It appeared, with increased respect, that Mr Woodbarrow was in his own +office and could be informed of the gentleman's name. + +"Please tell him that Sir John Hampden wishes to speak with him." + +In two minutes another voice filtered through the wire, a voice which +Hampden recognised. + +"What are you running with now, Mr Woodbarrow?" he asked, when brief +courtesies had been exchanged. + +Mr Woodbarrow made an enquiry, and was able to report that a 5 H.P. +Tangye was supplying all the power they needed at that hour. Nothing was +coming through, he explained, except a few press messages from America, +a little business from Australia, and some early morning news from +China. + +"I should be obliged if you would put on the two Westinghouses as soon +as you can, and then let me know when you can clear the trunk lines for +a minute. Within the next hour I want to send an 'open board' message." + +There was no response to this matter-of-fact request for an appreciable +five seconds, but if ever silence through a telephone receiver conveyed +an impression of blank amazement at the other end, it was achieved at +that moment. + +"Do I rightly understand, Sir John," enquired Mr Woodbarrow at the end +of those five seconds, "that you wish to repeat a message over the +entire system?" + +"That is quite correct." + +"It will constitute a record." + +"An interesting occasion, then." + +"Have you calculated the fees, Sir John?" + +"No, I have not had the time. You will let me know when the power is +up?" + +Mr Woodbarrow, only just beginning to realise fully the magnitude of the +occasion and tingling with anticipation, promised to act with all +possible speed, and going to his own room Sir John took up an agate pen +and proceeded to write with special ink on prepared paper this +encyclical despatch. + +A library of books had been written on the subject of the telescribe +within two years of its advent, but a general description may be +outlined untechnically in a page or two. It was, for the moment, the +last word of wireless telegraphy. It was efficient, it was speedy, it +was cheap, and it transmitted in facsimile. It had passed the stage of +being wondered at and had reached that of being used. It was universal. +It was universal, that is, not in the sense that tongues are universally +in heads, for instance, but, to search for a parallel, as universal as +letter-boxes are now on doors, book-cases in houses, or cuffs around +men's wrists. There were, in point of number, about three millions on +the index book. + +It was speedy because there was no call required, no intervention of a +connecting office to wait for. That was purely automatic. Above the +telescribe box in one's hall, study, or sitting-room, was a wooden panel +studded with eight rows of small brass knobs, sixteen knobs in each row. +These could be depressed or raised after the manner of an electric light +stud, and a similar effect was produced: a connection was thereby made. + +All the country--England and Wales--was mapped out into sixteen primary +divisions, oblong districts of equal size. The top row of brass knobs +corresponded with these divisions, and by pulling down any knob the +operator was automatically put into communication with that part of the +system, through the medium of the huge central station that reared its +trellised form, like an Eiffel Tower, above the hill at Harrow, and the +subsidiary stations which stood each in the middle of its division. + +The second stage was reached by subdividing each primary division into +sixteen oblong districts, and with these the second row of knobs +corresponded. Six more times the subdividing process was repeated, and +each subdivision had its corresponding row. The final division +represented plots of ground so small that no house or cottage could +escape location. + +Pulling down the corresponding studs on the eight rows instantly and +automatically established the connection. The written communication +could then be transmitted, and in the twinkling of an eye it was traced +on a sheet of paper in the receiving box. There was no probability of +the spaces all being occupied with telescribes for some years to come. A +calculation will show that there was provision for a good many thousand +million boxes, but only three million were fixed and attuned at this +period. + +That, briefly, was the essential of the telescribe system. It was +invaluable for most purposes, but not for all. Though speedier than the +letter, it lacked its privacy when it reached its destination, and it +also, in the eyes of many, lacked the sentimental touch, as from hand to +hand, which a letter may convey. It carried no enclosures, of course, +and, owing to the difficulties of ink and paper, printed matter could +not be telescribed at all. It cost twice as much as a letter, but as +this was spread in the proportion of three-quarters to the sender and +one quarter to the receiver the additional cost was scarcely felt by +either. Thus it came about that although the telescribe had diminished +the volume of telegrams by ninety per cent., and had made it possible +still to cope with a volume of ordinary postal correspondences which up +to that time had threatened to swamp the department, it had actually +superseded nothing. + +At four o'clock Mr Woodbarrow called up Sir John and reported that the +two great engines were running smoothly, and that for three minutes the +entire system would be closed against any message except his. In other +words, while the "in" circuit was open to three million boxes, the "out" +circuit was closed against all except one. It was not an absolutely +necessary precaution, for overlapping telescripts "stored latent" until +the way was clear, but it was not an occasion on which to hesitate about +taking every safeguard. + +The momentous order was already written. Hampden opened the lid of a +small flat box supported on the telescribe shelf by four vulcanite feet, +put the paper carefully in, and closed the lid again. He had pulled down +the eight rows of metal studs in anticipation of Woodbarrow's message, +and there was only one more thing to do. A practical, unemotional man, +and not unused, in an earlier decade, to controlling matters of national +importance with energy and decision, he now stood with his hand above +the fatal switch, not in any real doubt about his action, but with a +kind of fascinated time-languor. A minute had already passed. To pull +down the tiny lever and release it would not occupy a second. At what +period of those three minutes should he do it? How long _dare_ he leave +it? He caught himself wondering whether on the last second--and with an +angry exclamation at the folly he pressed the lever home. + +There was no convulsion of nature; a little bell a foot away gave a +single stroke, and that was all the indication that the President of the +Unity League had passed the Rubicon and unmasked his battery. + +This was what he had written and scattered broadcast over the land: + + "THE UNITY LEAGUE. + + "The time has now arrived when it is necessary for the League + to take united action in order to safeguard the interests of + its members. + + "In directing a course which may entail some inconvenience, but + can hardly, with ordinary foresight, result in real hardship, + your President reminds you of the oft-repeated warning that + such a demand would inevitably be made upon your sincerity. The + opportunity is now at hand for proving that as a class our + resource and endurance are not less than those of our + opponents. + + "On or before the 22nd July, members of the League will cease + until further notice to purchase or to use coal in the form of + (_a_) Burning Coal (except such as may be already on their + premises), (_b_) Coke (with the exception as before), (_c_) + Gas, (_d_) Coal-produced electricity. + + "The rule applies to all private houses, offices, clubs, + schools, and similar establishments; to all hotels, + restaurants, boarding-houses and lodging-houses, with the + exception (for the time) of necessary kitchen fires, which will + be made the subject of a special communication, to all + greenhouses and conservatories not used for the purposes of + trade; and to all shops, workshops, and similar buildings where + oil or other fuel or illuminant not produced or derived from + coal can be safely substituted. + + "Members of the League who have no coal in stock, and who do + not possess facilities for introducing a substitute + immediately, are at liberty to procure sufficient to last for a + week. With this exception members are required to cancel all + orders at present placed for coal. The League will take all + responsibility and will defend all actions for breach of + contract. + + "_Members of the League are earnestly requested to co-operate + in this line of action both as regards the letter and the + spirit of the rule._ + + "MEMBERS ARE EMPHATICALLY ASSURED THAT EVERY POSSIBLE + DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN FULLY CONSIDERED DURING + THE PAST TWO YEARS, AND IT IS ADVANCED WITH ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE + THAT NOTHING UNFORESEEN CAN HAPPEN TO MAR ITS SUCCESSFUL + CONCLUSION. + + "Nothing but the loyal co-operation of members is required to + ensure the triumph of those Principles of Government which the + League has always advocated, and a complete attainment of the + object for which the League came into existence. + + "JOHN HAMPDEN, _President_. + + "TRAFALGAR CHAMBERS, + + "LONDON, 15^{_th_} _July_ 1918." + +In the past the world had seen very many strikes on the part of workers, +not selfishly conceived in their essence, but bringing a great deal of +poverty and misery in their train, and declared solely for the purpose +of benefiting the strikers through the necessity of others. In the more +recent past the world had seen employers combine and declare a few +strikes (the word will serve a triple purpose) for just the same end and +accompanied by precisely similar results. It was now the turn of the +consumers to learn the strike lesson, the most powerful class of all, +but the most heterogeneous to weld together. The object was the same but +pursued under greater stress; the weapons would be similar but more +destructive; the track of desolation would be there but wider, and the +end----On that morning of the 15th of July the end lay beyond a very +dim and distant shock of dust and turmoil that the eye of none could +pierce. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE EFFECT OF THE BOMB + + +Mr Strummery having finished his breakfast with the exception of a +second glass of hot water, which constituted the amiable man's only +beverage, took up his copy of _The Scythe_. He had already glanced +through _The Tocsin_, in which he had a small proprietary interest, but +he also subscribed to _The Scythe_, partly because it brought to his +door a library which he found useful when he had to assume an intimate +knowledge of a subject at a day's notice, partly because the crudely +blatant note of _The Tocsin_ occasionally failed to strike a sympathetic +cord. + +He had found that morning in his telescribe receiver the Trafalgar +Chambers manifesto which had been flashed to friend and foe alike. He +had read it with a frown; it savoured of impertinence that it should be +sent to him. He finished it with a laugh, half-contemptuous, +half-annoyed. He saw that it was a stupid move unless the League had +abandoned all hope of forming the League-Labour alliance; in any case, +it was a blow that stung but could not wound. All the chances were that +nothing would come of it; _but_, if a million people did give up burning +coal for say a month, if a million people _did_ that--well, it would be +very inconvenient to themselves, but there would certainly be a good +many tens of thousand pounds less wages paid out in districts that +seemed to be far from satisfactory even as it was. + +_The Tocsin_ did not refer to the matter at all. Mr Strummery opened +_The Scythe_, and was rather surprised to see, beneath five lines of +heavy heading on the leader page, a full account of Sir John Hampden's +sudden move. Instinctively his eye turned to the leader columns. As he +had half expected there was a leader on the subject, not very long but +wholly benedictory. In rather less measured phrases than the premier +organ usually adopted and with other signs of haste, readers were urged +to enter whole-heartedly into this development of bloodless civil war of +which the impending Personal Property Act had been the first unmasked +blow. He glanced on, not troubling about the views advanced until a +casual statement drew a smothered exclamation from his lips. "An +argument which will be used in a practical form by the five million +adult members now on the books of the League--" ran the +carelessly-dropped information. "It is a lie--a deliberately misleading +lie," muttered the Premier angrily; but it was the truth. He read on. +The article concluded: "In this connection the strong action taken by M. +Gavard, as indicated in the telegrams from Paris which we print +elsewhere, may be purely a coincidence, but it is curiously akin to +those 'mathematical coincidences' that fall into their places in a +well-planned campaign." + +Mr Strummery had no difficulty in finding the telegrams alluded to. +Rushed through in frantic haste, the type had stood a hair's breadth +higher than it should, and in the resulting blackness the words of the +headlines leapt to meet his eye. + + THE INDUSTRIAL WAR IN FRANCE + + PROHIBITIVE TAX ON COAL + + _From Our Special Correspondent_ + + PARIS _Wednesday Night._ + + "It is authoritatively stated that the industrial crisis which + has been existing in the north, and to some extent in the + Lyonnais districts, for the past six months is on the eve of a + settlement. Yesterday M. Gavard returned from S. Etienne, and + after seeing several of his colleagues and some leading members + of the Chamber of Commerce, left at once for Lens. Early this + morning he was met at the Maison du Peuple by deputations from + the Syndicate of Miners, the 'Broutchouteux,' the Association + of Mine Owners, the Valenciennes iron masters, and + representatives of some other industries. + + "The proceedings were conducted in private, but it is + understood in well-informed circles here that in accordance + with the plenary powers conferred on him by the Chambers in + view of the critical situation, M. Gavard proposed to raise the + small existing tax on imported coal to an _ad valorem_ tax of + 55 p.c. The mine owners on their side will guarantee a minimum + wage of 8f. 15c., and commence working at once, reinstating all + men within a week of the imposing of the tax. The amalgamated + industries acquiesce to a general immediate advance of 1f. + 75_c._ per ton (metric) in the price of coal, and will start + running as soon as the first portion of their orders can be + filled. + + "Troops are still being massed in the affected districts, but + after last Thursday's pitched battle a tone of sullen apathy is + generally preserved. There was, however, severe rioting at + Anzin this morning, and about 200 casualties are reported." + + + PARIS. _Later._ + + "The terms of settlement contained in my earlier message are + confirmed. They will remain in operation for a year. The tax + will come into force almost immediately, three days' grace + being allowed for vessels actually in French ports to unload. + In view of your Government's subsidy to English coal + exportation and its disastrous effects on French mining, and, + subsequently, on other industries, the imposition of the tax + will be received with approval in most quarters." + +As the Prime Minister reached the end of the paragraph he heard a +vehicle stop at his door, followed by an attack on bell and knocker that +caused Mrs Strummery no little indignation. It was Mr Tubes arriving, +after indulging in the unusual luxury of a cab, and the next minute he +was shown into his chief's presence. Both men unconsciously frowned +somewhat as they met, but the ex-collier was infinitely the more +disturbed of the two. + +"You got my 'script?" he asked, as they shook hands. + +"No; did you write?" replied Mr Strummery. "To tell the truth, this +meddling piece of imbecility on Hampden's part, and his gross +impertinence in sending it to me, put everything else out of my head for +the moment. You have seen it?" + +"You wouldn't need to ask that if you'd passed a newspaper shop," said +Mr Tubes grimly. "The newsbills are full of nothing else. 'COAL WAR +PROCLAIMED,' 'HAMPDEN'S REPLY TO THE P.P. TAX,' 'UNITY LEAGUE +MANIFESTO,' and a dozen more. I had private word of it last night, but +too late to do anything. That's why I asked half a dozen of +them--Vossit, Guppling, Chadwing, and one or two more--to meet me here +at half-past nine. Happen a few others will drop in now." + +"Well, don't let them see that you think the world is coming to an end," +said the Premier caustically. "Nothing may come of it yet." + +"That's all very well, Strummery," said Mr Tubes, with rising anger. +"All very well for you; you don't come from a Durham division. I shall +have it from both sides. Twenty thousand howling constituents and six +hundred raving members." + +"Let them rave. They know better than press it too far. As for the +miners, if they have to lose by it we can easily make grants to put them +right." A sudden thought struck him; he burst out laughing. "Well, +Tubes," he exclaimed boisterously, "I can excuse myself, but I should +have thought that a man who came from a Durham constituency would have +seen _that_ before. Hampden must either be mad, or else he knows that +his precious League won't stand very much. Don't you see? We are in the +middle of summer now, and _for the next three months people will be +burning hardly any coal at all_!" + +The Home Secretary jumped up and began to pace the room in seething +impatience, before he could trust himself to speak. + +"Don't talk like that before the House with fifty practical men in it, +for God's sake, Strummery," he exclaimed passionately. "Hampden couldn't +well have contrived a more diabolical moment. Do you know what the +conditions are? Well, listen. No one _is_ burning any coal, and so it +will be no hardship for them to do without. But every one is on the +point of filling his cellar at summer prices to last all through the +winter. And Hampden's five million----" + +"I don't believe that," interposed the Premier hastily. + +"Well, I do--now," retorted his colleague bitterly. "His five million +are the five million biggest users of domestic coal in the country. They +use more than all the rest put together. And they all fill their cellars +in the summer or autumn." + +"Then?" suggested Mr Strummery. + +"Then they won't now," replied Mr Tubes. "That's all. The next ten weeks +are the busiest in the year, from the deepest working to the suburban +coal-shoot. Go and take a look round if you want to see. Every waggon, +every coal-yard, every railway siding, every pit-bank is chock-full, +ready. Only the cellars are empty. If the cellars are going to remain +empty, what happens?" He threw out his left hand passionately, with a +vigorous gesture. It suggested laden coal carts, crowded yards, +over-burdened railways, all flung a stage back on to the already +congested pit-heads, and banking up coal like the waters of the divided +Red Sea into a scene of indescribable confusion. + +The Prime Minister sat thinking moodily, while his visitor paced the +room and bit his lips with unpleasant vehemence. In the blades of +morning sun, as he crossed and recrossed the room, one saw that Mr +Tubes, neither tall nor stout but large, loosely boned, loosely dressed +and loosely groomed, had light blue eyes, strong yellow teeth which came +prominently into view as he talked, and a spotted sallow complexion, +which conveyed the unfortunate, and unjust, impression of being dirty. + +"We shall have to do something to carry them on till the winter, that's +all," declared Mr Strummery at length. "There's no doubt that the +Leaguers will have to use coal then." + +"It's no good thinking that we can settle it off-hand with a few +thousand pounds of strike pay, Strummery," said the Home Secretary +impatiently, "because we can't. You have to know the conditions to see +how that is. If there's a strike, the article has to be supplied from +somewhere else at more money, and every one except those who _want_ to +strike keep on very much as before. But here, by God, they have us all +along the line! Anything from fifty to a hundred thousand miners less +required at one end, and anything from five to ten thousand coal carters +at the other. And between? And dependent on each lot all through?" His +ever-ready arm emphasised the situation by a comprehensive sweep. +"You've heard say that coal is the life-blood of the country, happen?" +he added. "Well, we're the heart." + +"What do you suggest, then?" + +"It's all a matter of money. If it can be done we must make up the +difference; buy it, pay for it, and store it. There are the dockyards, +the barracks, and we could open depôts here and in all the big towns. In +that way we could spread it over as long a period as we liked. Then +there's export. I think that has touched its limit for the time, but we +might find it cheaper in the end to stimulate it more." + +"Yes; but what about this French business? Are you allowing for that in +your estimate?" + +"What French business?" + +"The French tax," said the Premier impatiently, pointing to the open +_Scythe_. "You've seen about it, haven't you?" + +He had not. He snatched up the paper, muttering as he read the first few +lines that he had glanced through _The Tocsin_ before he came out, and +that had been all. His voice became inaudible as he read on. When he had +finished he was very pale. He flung the paper down and walked to the +window, and stood there looking out without a word. The declaration of +the coal war had filled him with smouldering rage; the Paris telegram +had effectually chilled it. Before, he had felt anger; now he felt +something that, expressed in words, was undistinguishable from fear. + +The men whom he had asked to meet him there were beginning to arrive. +They had already heard Vossit and Chadwing pass upstairs talking. There +was a step in the hall outside that could only belong to Tirrel. He had +not been summoned, but, as Mr Tubes had anticipated, a few others were +beginning to drop in. Guppling and two men whom he had met on the +doorstep came in as Mr Tubes was finishing the Paris news. + +"It's not much good talking about it now," he said, turning from the +window, "but if I had known of _this_, or even that the other would be +out, I should have come here myself without bringing all these chaps +down too. Not but what they'd have come, though. But when I wrote to +them I'd just got the information, you understand, and it was thought +that Hampden wouldn't be doing anything for a week at least." + +"He was too clever for you again?" said Strummery vindictively, as he +rose to go upstairs. + +"So it seems," admitted Mr Tubes indifferently. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LAST CHANCE AND THE COUNSEL OF EXPEDIENCE + + +In the salon, where a month before they had drafted the outline of the +Personal Property Bill, under the impression that government was a +parlour game and Society a heap of spelicans, eight or nine men were +already assembled. One or two sat apart, with ugly looks upon their +faces. Mr Vossit was dividing his time between gazing up to the ceiling +and making notes in a memorandum book as the points occurred to him. Sir +Causter Kerr, Baronet of the United Kingdom, and Chevalier of the Order +of the Golden Eagle, who in return for a thousand pounds a year +permitted himself to be called First Lord of the Admiralty in a +Socialist Government, was standing before a steel engraving with the +title in German, "Defeat of the British at Majuba Hill, 27th February +1881," but, judging from the slight sardonic grin on his thin features, +he was thinking of something else. Sir Causter Kerr had assuredly not +been invited to the meeting. The rest of the company stood together in +one group, where they talked and laughed and looked towards the door +from time to time, in expectation of their host's arrival. + +The talk and laughter dropped to a whisper and a smile as Mr Strummery +entered and Mr Tubes followed, and with short greetings passed to their +places at the table. The Prime Minister was popular, or he would not +have held that position, but Mr Tubes was not. He was Home Secretary by +virtue of the voice of the coal interest, so much the largest labour +organisation in the country that if its wishes were ignored it could, +like another body of miners in the past, very effectively demand to +"know the reason why." + +"Well, Jim, owd lad," said Cecil Brown hilariously, taking advantage of +the fact that formal proceedings had not yet commenced, "hast geete howd +o' onny more cipher pappers, schuzheou?" Cecil Brown, it may be +explained, held that he had the privilege of saying offensive things to +his friends without being considered offensive, and as no one ever +thought of calling him anything else but "Cecil Brown," he was probably +right. Of the Colonial Office, he was in some elation at the moment that +his usually despised Department was quite out of this imbroglio. + +"Ah, that was a very red, red herring, I'm more than thinking now," said +Mr Guppling reflectively. + +"Certainly a salt fish, eh, Tirrel?" said Cecil Brown. + +Mr Strummery rapped sharply on the table with his knuckles, to indicate +that the proceedings had better begin. A hard-working, conscientious +man, he entirely missed the lighter side of life. He sometimes laughed, +but in conversation his face never lit up with the ready, spontaneous +smile; not because he was sad, but because he failed to see, not only +the utility of a jest, but its point also. That conversational sauce +which among friends who understand one another frequently takes the +outer form of personal abuse, was to him merely flagrant insult. + +Mr Tubes leaned across and spoke to his chief; and looking down the +table the Premier allowed his gaze to rest enquiringly on Sir Causter +Kerr. + +A man who _had_ been invited jumped up. "I called on Comrade Kerr on my +way here and took the liberty of asking him to come, because I thought +that we might like to know something of the condition of the navy," he +explained. + +"For what purpose?" enquired Mr Strummery smoothly. + +"Because," he replied, flaring up suddenly with anger, "because I regard +this damned French tax, without a word of notice to us or our +representative, as nothing more or less than a _casus belli_." + +The proceedings had begun. + +"Case of tinned rabbits!" contemptuously retorted a Mr Bilch, sitting +opposite. "What d'yer think you're going to do if it is? Why, my infant, +the French fleet would knock you and your _belli_ into a packing _casus_ +in about ten minutes if you tried it on. You'll have to stomach that +_casus belli_, and as many more as they care to send you." + +Mr Bilch was a new man, and was spoken of as a great acquisition to his +party, though confessedly uncertain in his views and frequently +illogical in his ground. His strength lay in the "happy turns" with +which his speech was redolent, and his splendid invulnerability to +argument, reason, or fact. He had formerly been a rag-sorter, and would +doubtless have remained inarticulate and unknown had he not one day +smoothed out a sheet of _The Tocsin_ from the bin before him as he ate +his dinner. A fully reported speech was therein described as perhaps the +greatest oratorical masterpiece ever delivered outside Hyde Park. Mr +Bilch read the speech, and modestly fancied that he could do as well +himself. From that moment he never looked back, and although he was +still a plain member he had forced his way by sheer merit into the +circle of the Council Chamber. + +"It is against our principles to consider that contingency," interposed +the Premier; "and in any case it is premature to talk of war when the +courts of arbitration----" + +"That's right enough," interrupted the man who had first spoken of war, +"and when it was a matter of fighting to grab someone else's land to +fatten up a gang of Stock Exchange Hebrews, I was with you through thick +and thin, but this is different. The very livelihood of our people is +aimed at. I've nothing to say against the Hague in theory, but when you +remember that we've never had a single decision given in our favour it's +too important to risk to that. But why France should have done this, in +this way and just at this moment, is beyond me." + +Yet it was not difficult to imagine. When many English manufactories +were closed down altogether, or removed abroad because the conditions at +home were too exacting for them, less coal was required in England. Less +coal meant fewer colliers employed, and this touched the Government most +keenly. The same amount of coal _must_ be dug, especially as the +operation of the Eight Hours Act had largely increased the number of +those dependent on the mines; therefore more must be exported. The coal +tax had long since gone; a substantial bounty was now offered on every +ton shipped out of the country. It made a brave show. Never were such +piping times known from Kirkcaldy to Cardiff. English coal could be shot +down in Rouen, Nantes, or Bordeaux, even in Lille and Limoges, at a +price that defied home competition. Prices fell; French colliery +proprietors reduced wages; French miners came out on strike--a general +strike--and for the time being French collieries ceased to have any +practical existence. But France was requiring a million tons of coal a +week, and having done the mischief, England could only, at the moment, +let her have a quarter of a million a week, while German and Belgian +coal had been knocked out of the competition and diverted elsewhere. The +great industries had to cease working; chaos, civil war and anarchy +began to reign.... + +"Why France should have done this is beyond me." + +There was another reason, deeper. It was a commonplace that England had +been cordially hated in turn by every nation in and out of Europe, but +with all that there was no responsible nation in or out of Europe that +dare contemplate a weak, a dying, England. France looked at the map of +Europe, and the thought of the German Eagle flying over Dover Castle and +German navies patrolling the seas from Land's End to The Skawe haunted +her dreams. Russia wanted nothing in the world so much as another Thirty +Years' Peace. Spain had more to lose than to gain; Italy had much to +lose and nothing at all to gain. All the little independent states and +nations remembered the Treaties of Vienna and Berlin, and trembled at +the thought of what might happen now. Germany alone might have had +visions, but Germany had a nightmare too, and when the man who ruled her +councils with a strong if tortuous policy saw wave after wave of the +infectious triumph of Socialism reach his own shores, he recognised that +England's weakness was more hostile to his ambitions than England's +strength. + +No one wanted two Turkeys in Europe. + +"I don't see why we shouldn't make a naval demonstration, at all +events," some one suggested hopefully. "That used to be enough, and the +French Government must have plenty to look after at home." + +"Naval demonstration be boiled!" exclaimed Mr Bilch forcibly. "Send your +little Willie to Hamley's for a tin steamer, and let him push it off +Ramsgate sands if you want a naval demonstration, comrade. But don't +show the Union Jack inside the three-mile limit on the other side of the +Channel, or you'll have something so hot drop on your hands that you +won't be able to lick it off fast enough." + +"I fail to see that," said Mr Vossit. "Heaven forbid that I should raise +my voice in favour of bloodshed, but if it were necessary for +self-preservation our navy is at least equal to that of any other +power." + +"Is it?" retorted Mr Bilch, with so heavily-laden an expression of +contemptuous derision on his face that it seemed as though he might be +able to take it off, like a mask, and hang it on some one else. "Is it? +Oh, it is, is it? Well, ask that man there. Ask him, is all I say. +Simply ask _him_." His contorted face was thrust half-way across the +table towards Mr Vossit, while his rigid arm with extended forefinger +was understood to indicate Sir Causter Kerr. + +"As the subject has been raised, perhaps the First Lord of the Admiralty +will reassure us on that point," said the Premier. + +"Dear, dear, no," replied Causter Kerr blandly. "We couldn't carry it +through, Premier. You must not think of going to extremes." + +There was a moody silence in which men looked angrily at Kerr and at one +another. + +"Are we to understand that the navy is _not_ equal to that of any other +power?" demanded Mr Vossit. + +"On paper, yes, comrade," replied Kerr, with a pitying little smile, +"but on deep water, where battles are usually fought, no. It is a +curious paradox that in order to be equal to any other single power +England must be really very much stronger. I should also explain that +from motives of economy no battleships have been launched or laid +down during the last three years, and only four cruisers of +questionable armament. Then as regards gunnery. From motives of +economy actual practice is never carried out now, but the championship, +dating from last year, lies at present with the armoured cruiser +_Radium_:--stationary regulation target, 1-1/2 miles distant, speed 4 +knots, quarter charges, 3 hits out of 27 shots. As regards effective +range----" + +"Tell them this," struck in Mr Bilch, "they'll understand it better. +Tell them that the _Intrepidy_ could sail round and round the Channel +Fleet and bloody well throw her shells over the moon and down on to +their decks without ever once coming into range. Tell them that." + +"The picture so graphically drawn by Comrade Bilch is substantially +correct," corroborated Sir Causter Kerr. "The _Intrépide_, together with +three other battleships of her class, has an effective range of between +four and five thousand yards more than that of any English ship.... But +you have been told all this so often, comrades, that I fear it cannot +interest you." Sir Causter was having his revenge for two years of +subservience at a thousand pounds a year. + +"Then perhaps you will tell us, as First Lord of the Admiralty--the job +you are paid for doing--what you imagine the navy is kept up for?" +demanded a comrade with fierce resentment. + +"As far as I have been encouraged to believe, in that capacity," replied +Kerr with easy insolence, "I imagine that its duties consist nowadays in +patrolling the lobster-pots, and in amusing the visitors on the various +seaside promenades by turning the searchlights on." + +"We won't ask you to remain any longer," said the Premier. + +Sir Causter Kerr rose leisurely. "Good morning, comrades," he remarked +punctiliously, and going home wrote out his resignation, "from motives +of patriotism," and sent a copy of the letter to all the papers. + +A man who had been standing by the door listening to the conversation +now came forward with a copy of an early special edition of the _Pall +Mall Gazette_ in his hand. + +"You needn't sweat yourselves about being equal to a single power or +not," he remarked with an unpleasant laugh. "Look at the 'fudge' there." +And he threw the paper on the table, as though he washed his hands of it +and many other things. + +Mr Bilch secured it, and turning to the space which is left blank for +the inclusion of news received up to the very moment of going to press, +he read aloud the single item it contained. + + COAL WAR + + BERLIN, _Thursday Morning_. + + "The action which France is reported to have taken had for some + time been anticipated here. On all sides there is the opinion, + amounting to conviction, that Germany must at once call into + operation the power lying dormant in the Penalising Tariff and + impose a tax on imported coal. It is agreed that otherwise, in + her frantic endeavours to restore the balance of her export + trade, England would flood this country with cheap coal and + precipitate a state of things similar to that from which France + is just emerging. + + "Emphasis is laid on the fact that such a measure will be + self-protective and in no way aggressive. It is not anticipated + that the tax will exceed 2 mks. 50 pf., or at the most 3 mks. + per ton." + +"Export value, eight and elevenpence," murmured a late arrival, one of +the fifty practical men in the House. "Yes, I imagine that two marks +fifty will just about knock the bottom out." + +"Is there nothing we can offer them in exchange?" demanded some one. +"Nothing we can hit them back with?" + +Cecil Brown, who was suspected of heterodoxy on this one point, +crystallised the tariff question into three words. + +"Nothing but tears," he replied. + +"If there's one thing that fairly makes me hot it's the way we always +have to wait for some one else to tell us what's going on," said the +comrade who had brought in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, looking across at +the Foreign Office Under-Secretary resentfully. "A fellow in Holborn +here pokes the paper under my nose and asks me what we're going to do +about it, and there I don't even know what is being done at us. What I +want to know is, what our ambassadors and Foreign Office think they're +there for. It's always the same, and then there'll be the questions in +Parliament, and we know nothing. Makes us look like a set of kiddin' +amateurs." + +The fact had been noticed. Former governments had not infrequently +earned the title in one or two departments. Later governments had +qualified for it in every department. The reason lay on the surface; the +members of those parliaments and the men who sent them were themselves +bunglers and amateurs in their daily work and life. Except in the +stereotyped product of machinery, accuracy was scarcely known. The man +who had built a house in England at that period, the man who had had a +rabbit-hutch built to order, the man who had stipulated for one article +to be made _exactly_ like a copy, the man who had been so unfortunate as +to require "the plumbers in," the man who had to do with labour in any +shape or form, the man who had been "faithfully" promised delivery or +completion by a certain stated time, the woman who shopped, the person +who merely existed with open eyes, could all testify out of experiences, +some heartrending, some annoying, some simply amusing, that precision +and reliability scarcely existed among the lower grades of industry and +commerce. It was a period of transition. The worker had cast off the +love, the delicacy, the intelligence of the craftsman, and he had not +yet attained to the unvarying skill of the automaton. In another century +one man would only be able to fix throttle valve connections on to +hot-water pipes, but his fixing of throttle valves would be a thing to +dream about, while the initial letter A's of his brother, whose whole +life would be devoted to engraving initial letter A's on brass +dog-collar plates, would be as near unswerving perfection as mundane +initials ever could be. + +"Makes us look like a set of tinkerin' amateurs." + +"One inference is plain enough," said Mr Guppling, smoothing over the +suggestion. "These three things weren't going to happen all together of +their own accord. There's a deep game somewhere, and seeing what's at +stake our powers ought to be wide enough for us to put our hands on them +and stop it." + +There was a murmur of approval. Having been taken by surprise, the idea +of peremptorily "stopping it" was a peculiarly attractive one. + +But there were malcontents who were not to be appeased so easily, and a +Comrade Pennefarthing, who had arrived in the meantime, raised an old +cry in a new form. + +"I won't exactly say that we've been betrayed," he declared, glancing at +the group of orthodox Ministers who sat together, "but game or no game I +will say that we've been damned badly served with information." + +Comrade Tirrel stood up. He had not yet spoken at all, and he was +accorded instant silence, for men were beginning to look to him. "It is +now nearly eleven o'clock," he said in his quick, incisive tone, "and +some of us have been here for upwards of an hour. We met to consider a +situation. That situation still remains. May I ask that the Home +Secretary, who is doubly qualified for the task, should tell us the +extent of the danger and its probable effect?" + +If Mr Tubes possessed a double qualification he also laboured under a +corresponding disability. As the representative of a mining +constituency, a practical expert, and a leading member of a Government +which existed by the goodwill of the workers--largely of the miners--it +would be scarcely to his interest to minimise the gathering cloud. As +the Minister for the Home Department, the blacker he made the picture +the greater the volume of obloquy he drew upon his head for not having +foreseen the danger; the more relief he asked for, the fiercer the +opposition he would encounter from hostile sections and from the +perturbed heads of a depleted Treasury. + +"We are still very much in the dark as to what has really happened, is +happening, and will happen," he remarked tamely. "An appreciable drop in +the demand for coal, whether for home or export, will certainly have a +disturbing effect on the conditions of labour in many departments. But +the difficulties of estimating the effects are so great----" + +There were murmurs. Whatever might be the failings of Socialistic +oratory, flatness and excess of moderation did not lie among them. + +"Figures," suggested Tirrel pointedly. + +"Perhaps Comrade Tirrel will take the job in hand instead of me," said +Tubes bitterly, but without any show of anger. "Doubtless he'd get a +better hearing." + +"No," replied Tirrel gravely, "the moment is too critical for +recrimination. If the Home Secretary lays the position frankly before +us, he will have no cause to complain of an unsympathetic hearing, nor, +as far as I can speak, of a whole-hearted support in taking means to +safeguard it." + +It occurred to Mr Tubes then, for the first time in his life--and it was +almost like a shock to feel it--that the man who had always seemed to +throw himself into sharp antagonism to himself might be actuated by +higher motives than personal jealousy after all. He continued his +speech. + +"If we accept the figure of five millions as a correct return of the +Unity League membership, and if we assume that they will all obey the +boycott, then we are face to face with the fact that on the basis of a +four ton per person average, twenty million tons of coal must be written +off the home consumption." + +"But the four tons per head average includes the entire industrial +consumption of the country," objected Mr Vossit. + +"That is so," admitted Mr Tubes, "but it also includes a great many +people whose use of coal is practically _nil_. An alternative basis is +to assume that two millions of the members are house-holders. Then +taking ten tons a year as their average household consumption--and +admitting that all the wealthiest men in the country are included the +average is not too high--we arrive at just the same result. + +"The exports, on the other hand, do not depend on estimate: we have the +actual returns. France takes fifteen million tons in round numbers. For +the purpose of facing the worst, we may therefore assume that the work +of digging and handling thirty-five million tons will be suddenly cut +off." + +"Germany," some one reminded him. + +"Germany is wholly conjectural at present. I have no objection to taking +it into account as well, if it is thought desirable, but I would point +out that we are being influenced by the merest rumour." + +"No," objected Tirrel, but without any enmity, "I think that we must +regard Germany as lost. We are just beginning to touch the outskirts of +a vast organisation which has been quietly perfecting its plan of +operation for years. I do not regard a German tax as settled because of +this one rumour, but I do regard it as settled because at this precise +moment the rumour has been allowed to appear." + +"Germany ten millions," accepted Mr Tubes. "Total decrease, forty-five +million tons." + +"Don't you be too sure of that, comrade," warned Mr Bilch. "Why, it's +not twelve o'clock yet by a long way. There'll be half a dozen editions +out before the 'Three o'clock winners.'" Mr Bilch evidently regarded his +shaft that each fresh edition might contain a new country imposing a tax +humorously, but several comrades looked towards the Home Secretary +enquiringly. + +"The other large importers are Italy, Russia, Sweden, Egypt, Spain and +Denmark," said Mr Tubes, who could have talked coal statistics for hours +if necessary. "All these, with the possible exception of Russia, _must_ +import. It is unlikely that the estimate I have given will be exceeded +from that cause." + +"And the result?" + +"Above and below, about a million men are now employed in raising +236,000,000 tons. It is simple arithmetic.... In less than a month about +two hundred thousand more men will be out of work." + +Mr Chadwing, Chancellor of the Exchequer, moved uneasily in his chair. + +"That is the full extent?" enquired Cecil Brown. + +"No," admitted the Home Secretary. "That is the inevitable direct +result. Forty-five million tons less will be carried by rail, or cart, +or ship, or all three. A fair sprinkling of railway-men, carters, +dockers, stokers, sailors, and other fellows will be dropped off too. +There will be fewer railway trucks built this next year, less doing in +the fire-grate trade, several thousand horses not wanted, a slight +falling off in road-mending work. There is not a trade in England, from +steeple-building to hop-picking, that will not be a little worse off +because of those 45,000,000 tons. Then the two hundred thousand +out-of-work miners will burn less coal at home, the ships and the +engines will burn less, and the workshops and the smithies will burn +less, and the whole process will be repeated again and again, for coal +is like a snowball in its cumulative effects, and it cannot stand +still." + +If Mr Tubes had come to compromise, he had remained to publish +broadcast. + +Perhaps no one quite understood the danger yet, for the mind, used to +everyday effects, does not readily grasp the extent of a calamity, and +six hours before there had not been a cloud even the size of a man's +hand on their horizon. The Premier thought it was impolitic on his +colleague's part; the Treasury officials looked on it as a move to force +their hands; the Foreign Under-Secretary was suspicious that Mr Tubes +was leading away by some mysterious by-path from the unpreparedness of +his own Department to Foreign Office remissness. They all continued to +look silently at the Home Secretary as he continued to stand. + +"The indirect effects will involve about two million people to some +extent," he summed up. + +"That, at least, is the worst?" said Cecil Brown with an encouraging +smile, for Mr Tubes remained standing. + +The Prime Minister made an impatient movement; the Treasury heads looked +at one another and said with their eyes, "He is really overdoing it"; +the Foreign Office man scowled unconsciously, and Cecil Brown continued +to smile consciously. + +"The worst is this: that a great many pits are working to-day at a bare +profit, partly in the hope of better things, partly because we stimulate +the trade. The crisis we are approaching will hang over the coal fields +like a blight, and one crippled industry will bring down another. _All_ +the poorer mines will close down. You need only look back to '93 to see +that. Neither I nor any one else can give you a forecast of what that +will involve, but you may be sure of this: that although '93 with its +17,000,000 tons of a decrease half-ruined the English coal fields for a +decade, '93 was a shrimp to what this is going to be." + +"Then let us stimulate the trade more, until the crisis is over," +suggested Cecil Brown. + +Mr Tubes gave a short, dry laugh. "I commend that course to Comrade +Chadwing," he said, as he sat down. + +The Chancellor of the Exchequer was busy with his papers. + +"Let me dispel any idea of that kind at once," he remarked, without +looking up. "The moment is not only an unfortunate one--it is an utterly +impossible one for making any extra disbursement however desirable." + +"Well," said Mr Bilch, looking round on the moody assembly paternally, +"it seems that the situation is like this here, mates: The navy is no +messin' good at all, same as I told you; the army's a bit worse; +Treasury empty, yes; the Home Office don't know what's going on at home, +and the Foreign Office possesses just the same amount of valuable +information as to what is happening abroad. Lively, ain't it? Well, it's +lucky that Bilch is still Bilch." + +No one rose to his mordant humour. Even Cecil Brown had forgotten how to +smile. + +"If our comrade has any suggestion to make----" said the Premier +discouragingly. + +"Yes, sir," replied Mr Bilch. "I have the wisdom of the serpent to rub +into your necks if you'll only listen. We haven't any navy, so we can't +fight if we wanted to; we haven't any money, so we can't pay out. Tubes +here doesn't know what's going to happen at home, and Jevons doesn't +rightly know what has happened abroad. What is to be done? I'll tell +you. Wait. Wait and see. Wait, and let them all simmer down again. Why," +he cried boisterously, looking round on them in good-humoured, friendly +contempt, "to see your happy, smiling faces one would think that the +canary had died or the lodger gone off without paying his rent. For why? +Because a bloke in a frock-coat and a top hat gets on to a wooden horse +and blows a tin trumpet, and the export trade in a single article of +commerce is temporarily disarranged--perhaps!" + +Mr Strummery nodded half absent-mindedly; the Treasury men smiled +together; Mr Chadwing murmured "Very true"; and nearly every one looked +relieved. Comrade Bilch was certainly a rough member, but the man had a +shrewd common-sense, and they began to feel that they had been hasty in +their dismal forebodings. + +"Haven't we been threatened with this and that before?" demanded Mr +Bilch dogmatically. "Of course we have, and what came of it? Nothing. +Haven't there been strikes and lock-outs, some big some little, every +year? According to Comrade Tubes, this is going to be the champion. That +remains to be seen. What I say is, don't play into their hands in a +panic. Wait and see what's required. That don't commit us to anything." + +"It may be too late then," said Mr Tubes, but he said "may" now and not +"will." + +"There may be no need to do anything then," replied Mr Bilch. "And +remember this: that the minute you begin to shout 'Crisis!' you make +one. All round us; all at us. My rag-bags! what a run on the old bank +there would be! But if you go on just as usual, taking no notice of no +one? Why, before long there will come a wet day or a cold night, and +Johnny Hampden's aunt will say to Johnny Hampden's grandmamma: 'My dear, +I feel positively starved. Don't you think that we might have a _little_ +fire without Johnny knowing?' And the old lady will say: 'Well, do you +know, my pet, I was just going to say the same thing myself. Suppose you +run out and buy a sack of coal?' And before you can say 'coughdrop' +every blessed aunt and mother and first cousin of the Unicorn League +will be getting in her little stock of coal." + +It was what every one wished to believe, and therefore they were easily +persuadable. It was a national characteristic. The country had never +entered into a war during the past fifty years without being assured by +every authority, from the Commander-in-Chief down to the suburban +barber, that as soon as the enemy got a little tap on the head they +would be making for home, howling for peace as they went. All these men +had known strikes; many had been involved in them: some had controlled +their organisation. They had seen the men of their own class loyally and +patiently facing poverty and hardship for the sake of a principle, and +enduring day after day and week after week, and, if necessary, month +after month; they had seen the women of their own class preaching +courage and practising heroism by the side of their men while their +bodies were racked by cold and hunger and their hearts were crushed by +the misery around; they had seen even the children of their class +learning an unnatural fortitude. They accepted it as a commonplace of +life, an asset on which they could rely. _But they did not believe that +any other class could do it._ It did not occur to them to consider +whether the officers of an army are usually behind the rank and file in +valour, sacrifice, or endurance. + +Doubtless there were among them some who were not deceived, but they +wilfully subordinated their clearer judgment to the policy of the +moment. + +Tirrel was the one exception. + +"There can be no more fatal mistake of the dangerous position into which +we have been manoeuvred than to assume that we shall be easily +delivered from it by the weakness of our opponents before we have the +least indication that weakness exists," he declared, as soon as +Mr Bilch had finished, speaking vigorously, but without any of the +assertiveness and personal feeling that had gained him many enemies in +the past. "I agree with every word that Comrade Tubes has spoken. We all +do; we all _must_ admit it or be blind. What on earth, then, have we to +hope for in a policy of drift, of sitting tight and doing nothing in the +hope of things coming round of their own accord? It is madness, my +comrades, sheer madness, I tell you, and a month hence it will be +suicide." + +He dropped his voice and swept the circle of faces with a significant +glance. + +"It is through such madness on the part of others that we are here +to-day." + +Mr Chadwing smiled the thin smile of expediency. + +"It is one thing for a comrade with no official responsibility to say +that a certain course does not satisfy him," he said; "it may be quite +another thing for those who have to consider ways and means to do +anything different. Perhaps Comrade Tirrel will kindly enlighten us as +to what in our position he would do?" + +"I see two broad courses open," replied Tirrel, without any hesitation +in accepting the challenge. "Both, as you will readily say, have their +disadvantages, but neither is so fatal as inaction. The first is +aggressive. The Unity League has declared war on us. Very well, let it +have war. I would propose to suspend the _habeas corpus_, arrest Hampden +and Salt, declare the object and existence of the Unity League illegal, +close its offices and confiscate its funds. There are between five and +ten million pounds somewhere. Do you reflect what that would do? It +would at least keep two hundred thousand out-of-work miners from actual +starvation for a year. Prompt action would inevitably kill the boycott +movement at home. The foreign taxes, my comrades, you would probably +find to have a very marked, though perhaps undiscoverable, connection +with the home movement, and when the latter was seen to be effectually +dealt with, I venture to predict that the former could be compromised. +If the confiscated funds were not sufficient to meet the distress, I +should not hesitate to requisition for State purposes in a time of +national emergency all incomes above a certain figure in a clean sweep." + +A medley of cries met this despotic programme throughout. Even Tirrel's +friends felt that he was throwing away his reputation; and he had more +enemies than friends. + +"You'd simply make the situation twice as involved," exclaimed Mr Vossit +as the mouthpiece of the babel. "The liberty of the subject! It would +mean civil war. They'd rise." + +"Who would rise?" demanded Tirrel. + +"The privileged classes." + +"But they _have_ risen," he declared vehemently. "This _is_ civil war. +What more do you want?" + +It was a question on which they all had views, and for the next five +minutes the room was full of suggestions, not of what they themselves +wanted, but of what would be the probable action of the classes if +driven to extremities. + +"Very well," assented Tirrel at last; "that is what they will do next as +it is, for they consider that they are in extremities." + +"Well, comrade," said Mr Bilch broadly, "you don't seem to have put your +money on a winner this event. What's your other tip?" + +"Failing that, the other reasonable course is conciliation. I would +suggest approaching Hampden and Salt to find out whether they are open +to consider a compromise. The details would naturally require careful +handling, but if both sides were willing to come to an understanding, a +basis could be found. As things are, I should consider it a gain to drop +the Personal Property Tax, the Minimum Wage Bill, to guarantee the +inviolability of capital against further taxation while we are in +office, and to make generous concessions for the fuller representation +of the monied classes in Parliament, in return for the abandonment of a +coal war, the dispersal in some agreed way of the League reserves, the +reduction of the subscription to a nominal sum, and a frank undertaking +that the League would not adopt a hostile policy while the agreement +remained in force." + +This proposal was even less to the temper of the meeting than the former +one had been, and the latter half of it was scarcely heard among the +fusillade of hostile cries. No one laughed when a hot-headed comrade +stood upon a chair and howled "Traitor!" + +Tirrel looked round on the assembly. Practically every man who had a +tacit right to join in the deliberative Council had arrived, and the +room was full; but there was not a single member among them willing to +face the necessity for strong and immediate action, and they were +hostile to the man who just touched the secret depths of their +unconfessed and innermost misgivings. Mr Tubes felt that he had done his +duty, and need not invite reference to his delicate position by further +emphasising unpalatable truths; he had presented the spectacle of a weak +man startled into boldness, now he was sufficiently himself again to go +with the majority. The more responsible members of the Government +distrusted Tirrel in every phase; the smaller fry relied on the wisdom +of orthodoxy, and agreed that the man who could blow the hotness of +extirpation and the coldness of conciliation with the same breath must +prove an unworthy guide; and on every hand there was the tendency of +settled authority to deprecate novel and unmatured proceedings. + +Tirrel had become the Hampden of an earlier decade among his party. + +"You call me 'Traitor,'" he said, turning to the man who had done so. +"Write down the word, comrade, and then, if you will bring it to me +without a blush six months hence, I will wear it round my neck in +penance." + +He bowed to the Premier and withdrew, not in anger or with a mean sense +of injustice, but because he felt that it would be sheer mockery to +share the deliberations of a Council when their respective views, on a +matter which he believed to be the very crux of their existence, were +antagonistic in their essences. + +After his departure the progress was amazing. His ill-considered +proposals had cleared the air. Every one knew exactly what he did not +want, and that was a material step towards arriving at the opposite +goal. + +At the end of a few hours a very effective and comprehensive scheme for +quietly and systematically doing nothing had been almost unanimously +arrived at. Several quires of paper had been covered with suggestions, +some of them being accepted as they stood, some recommended for +elaboration, some passed for future consideration, some thrown out. The +ambassador in Paris was to retire (on the ground of ill-health) if he +could not satisfactorily explain the position. A special mission was to +be sent to Berlin to get really at the bottom of things, and, if +possible, have the tax either not put on or taken off, according to the +situation when they arrived there. A legal commission was to rout out +every precedent to see if the Unity League was not doing something +outside the powers of a trade union (a very forlorn hope); and all over +the country enquiries were to be made and assurances given, all very +discreetly and without the least suggestion of panic. + +The only doubtful point was whether every one else would play the game +with the same delicate regard for Ministerial susceptibilities, or +whether some might not have the deplorable taste to create scenes, send +deputations, demand work with menace, claim the literal fulfilment of +specific pledges, incite to riot and violence, stampede the whole +community, and otherwise act inconsiderately towards the Government, +when they discovered the very awkward circumstances in which their +leaders had involved them. + +The first indication of a jarring note fell to the lot of the President +of the Board of Trade in the shape of a telegram which reached him early +on the following morning. This was its form: + + "From the Council of the Amalgamated Union of Chimney Sweepers + and Federated Carpet Beaters. (Membership, 11,372).--Seventeen + million estimated chimneys stop smoking. No soot, precious + little dust. Where the Hell do we come in? + + "BLANKINTOSH, _Secretary_." + +A few years before, it had been officially discovered that there were +four or five curiously adaptable words, without which the working man +was quite unable to express himself in the shortest sentence. When on +very ceremonious occasions he was debarred their use, he at once fell +into a pitiable condition of aphasia. Keenly alive to the class-imposed +disadvantages under which these men existed, the Government of that day +declared that it was a glaring anomaly that the poor fellows should not +be allowed to use a few words that were so essential to their expression +of every emotion, while the rich, with more time on their hands, could +learn a thousand synonyms. The law imposing a shilling fine for each +offence (five shillings in the case of "a gentleman," for even then +there was one law for the rich and another for the poor) was therefore +repealed, and the working man was free to swear as much as he liked +anywhere, which, to do him justice, he had done all along. + +It was for this reason that Mr Blankintosh's pointed little message was +accepted for transmission; but there was evidently a limit, for, when +the President of the Board of Trade, an irascible gentleman who had, in +the colloquial phrase, "got out of bed on the wrong side" that morning, +dashed off a short reply, it was brought back to him by a dispirited +messenger two hours later with the initials of seventeen postmasters and +the seventeen times repeated phrase, "Refused. Language inadmissible." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE GREAT FIASCO + + +The Government allowed the 22nd day of July to pass without a sign. They +were, as their supporters convincingly explained to anxious enquirers, +treating the Unity League and all its works with silent contempt. They +were "doing nothing" strategically, they wished it to be understood; a +very different thing from "doing nothing" through apathy, indecision, or +bewilderment, but very often undistinguishable the one from the other in +the result. + +On the 22nd day of July seventeen million "estimated chimneys" ceased to +pollute the air. The League was not concerned with the exact number, and +they accepted the chimney sweepers' figures. It was more to the purpose +that the order was being loyally and cheerfully obeyed. The idea of +fighting the Government with the Government's own chosen people, +appealed to the lighter side of a not unhumorous nation. + +Ever since the institution of a Socialistic press, and from even remoter +times than the saplinghood of the "Reformer's Tree," Fleet Street party +hacks and Hyde Park demagogues had been sharpening their wit upon the +"black-coated" brigade, the contemptible _bourgeoisie_ of "Linton +Villas," "Claremonts," and "Holly Lodges," taunting them with +self-complacency, political apathy, and social parasitism. The +proportion of moral degradation conferred by a coat intentionally black, +in comparison with one that is merely approaching that condition through +the personal predilections of its owner, has never yet been defined, and +the relative æsthetic values of the architectural pretensions of +villadom, compared with the unswerving realism of the "Gas Works Views," +"Railway Approach Cottages," and "Cement Terraces," of the back streets, +may be left to the matured judgment of an unprejudiced posterity. The +great middle class in all its branches had never hitherto made any reply +at all. Now that it had begun to retort in its own effective way, the +Government agreed that the best counterblast would be--to wait until it +all blew over. + +There were naturally defections from the first. A friendly spy in Mr +Tubes's secret service managed to secure the information without much +trouble that within seven days of the publication of the order no less +than 4372 notices of resignation had been received at headquarters. He +was hastening away with this evidence of the early dissolution of the +League when his grinning informant called him back to whisper in his ear +that during the same period there had been 17,430 new members enrolled, +and that while the resignations seemed to have practically ceased the +enrolments were growing in volume. In addition to these there were +battalions who joined in the policy of the League through sympathy with +its object without formally binding themselves as members. + +In some of its aspects the success of the movement erred in excess. +There were men, manufacturers, who in their faith and enthusiasm wished +to close their works at once, and, regardless of their own loss, throw +their workmen and their unburnt coal into the balance. It was not +required; it was not even desirable then. The League's object was to +disorganise commerce as little as possible beyond the immediate +boundaries of the coal trade. They were not engaged in an internecine +war, and every one of their own people deprived of employment was a +loss. Cases of hardship there would be; they are common to both sides in +every phase of stubborn and prolonged civil strife, but from the "class" +point of view coal had the pre-eminent advantage that its weight and +bulk gave employment to a hundred of the "masses" to every one of +themselves. There were also two circumstances that discounted any sense +of injustice on this head. Firstly, there was a spirit of sacrifice and +heroism in the air, born of the time and the situation; and secondly, it +soon became plain that the League was engaged in vast commercial +undertakings and was absorbing all the men of its own party who were +robbed of their occupation by the development of the war. + +A firm starting business with an unencumbered capital of ten million +sterling, enjoying a "private income" of five millions a year, and not +troubled with the necessity of earning any dividend at all, could afford +to be a generous employer. + +From the first moment it was obvious that oil must take the place of +coal. That was the essence of the strife. _The Tocsin_ set to work in +frantic haste to prove that it was impossible; to show that all the +authorities of the past and present had agreed that no real substitute +for coal existed. It was quite true, and it was quite false. It was not +a world struggle. Abroad, foreign coal was being substituted for English +coal. At home only half a million tons a week were in issue at the +first. Afterwards, as coal stagnation fed coal stagnation, the tonnage +rose steadily, but the calorific ratio of coal and oil, the basis of all +comparison, simply did not exist, except on paper, for the two fuels in +domestic use. + +_The Tocsin's_ second article convinced its readers that all the lamp +companies in the world could not keep up with the abnormal demand for +lamps, stoves, and oil-cookers, that the ridiculous proposal of the +League would involve, if it were not providentially ordained that it was +foredoomed to grotesque failure by the dead weight of its own fatuous +ineptitude. + +In practice the two single firms of Ripplestone of Birmingham, and +Schuyler of Cleveland, U.S.A., at once put on the market a varied stock +that filled every requirement. There was no waiting. As _The Tocsin_ +bitterly remarked, it soon became apparent that the demand had been +foreseen and "treacherously provided against during the past two years." + +The third _Tocsin_ article on the situation dealt statistically with the +oil trade of the world. It necessarily fell rather flat, because _The +Tocsin_ Special Commissioner entered upon the task with the joyous +conviction that the world's output would not be sufficient for the +demand, the world's oil ships not numerous enough to transport it. As he +dipped into the figures, however, he made the humiliating discovery that +the increased demand would do little more than ruffle the surface of the +oil market. The Baku oil fields could supply it without inconvenience; +the United States could do it by contract at a ten per cent. advance; +the newly-discovered wells of Nova Scotia alone would be equal to the +demand if they diverted all their produce across the Atlantic. + +He threw down his pen in despair, and then picked it up again to +substitute invective for statistics. Before his eyes the motor-tanks of +the Anglo-Pennsylvanian Oil Company, of London and Philadelphia, and the +Anglo-Caucasian Oil Company, of London and Baku, were going on their +daily rounds. It was still a matter for wonder how well equipped the +sudden call had found those two great controlling oil companies. It was +yet to be learned that for their elaborate designations there might be +substituted the simple name "Unity League." + +It was submitting _The Tocsin_ young man to rather a cruel handicap to +send him to the British Museum Reading Room for a few hours with +instructions to prove impossible what Salt and Hampden had been +straining every nerve for two years to make inevitable. + +Three articles exhausted his proof that a successful coal boycott under +modern conditions was utterly impossible. + +He went out into the city and the suburbs, interviewing coal merchants +and coal agents with the object of drawing a harrowing picture of the +gloom and depression that had fallen upon these unfortunate creatures at +the hands of their own class League. + +He found them all bearing up well under the prospect, but much too busy +to give him more than a few minutes of their time. Every one of them had +been appointed an oil agent to the League firms, and League members were +ordering their oil through them, just as heretofore they had ordered +coal. It was very easy, profitable work for them; they had nothing to do +but to transmit the orders to the League firms and the fast +business-like motor-tanks distributed the oil. But half of the coal +carters were now under notice to leave, and there were indications that +work was very scarce. Each motor-tank displaced twenty men and twenty +horses. Already, it was said, thousands of horses had been sent out to +grass from London alone. + +Externally, as far as the Capital was concerned at all events, things +were going on very much the same as before, when the struggle was a +fortnight old. Elsewhere signs were not lacking. The Government had +received disquieting reports from its agents here and there, but so far +it was meeting the situation by refusing to acknowledge that it existed. +A march of the Staffordshire miners had been averted by the men's +leaders being privately assured that it would embarrass the Government's +plans. The march had been deferred under protest; so far the +organisation answered to the wheel. But the Midlands were clamorously +demanding exceptional relief for the exceptional conditions. Monmouth +had seen a little rioting, and in Glamorgan the bands of incendiaries +called "Beaconmen," who set fire to the accumulations of coal stacked at +the collieries, had already begun their work. Cardiff was feeling the +effect of having a third of its export trade in coal suddenly lopped +off, and Newport, Swansea, Kirkcaldy, Blyth, Hull, Sunderland, Glasgow, +and the Tyne ports were all in the same position. Most of the railways +had found it necessary to dispense with their entire supernumerary +staff, and most of the railway workshops had been put on short time. In +London alone, between four and five thousand out-of-work gas employés +were drawing Government pay. + +About the third week in August the Premier, Mr Tubes, and the Chancellor +of the Exchequer had a long private conference. As a result Mr Strummery +called an Emergency Council. It was a thin, acrimonious gathering. Some +one brought the tidings that seven more companies in South London were +substituting Diesel oil engines for steam. He had all the dreary +developments statistically worked out on paper. Nobody wanted to hear +them, but he poured them out into the unwilling ears, down to the climax +that it represented two hundred and forty-seven fewer men required at +the pits. + +It served as a text, however, for Mr Chadwing to hang his proposal on. +After a month of inaction, the Government was at length prepared to go +to the length of admitting that abnormal conditions prevailed. Oil had +thrown a quarter of a million of their people out of employment. Let oil +keep them. He proposed to retaliate with a 50 per cent. tax on imported +oil, to come into operation under Emergency Procedure on the 1st of +September. + +There were men present to whom the suggestion of taxing a raw article, +necessary to a great proportion of the poor, was frankly odious. They +were prepared to attack the proposal as a breach of faith. A few words +from Mr Strummery, scarcely more than whispered, explained the necessity +for the tax and the menace of the situation. + +Those who had not been following events closely, paled to learn the +truth. + +The Treasury was living from hand to mouth, for the City had ceased to +take up its Bills. Unless "something happened" before the New Year +dawned, it would have to admit its inability to continue the Unemployed +Grant. Already a quarter of a million men and their dependents, in +addition to the normal average upon which the estimates were based, had +been suddenly thrown upon the resources of the Department. If Mr Tubes's +forecast proved correct, double that number would be on their hands +within another month. The development of half a million starving men who +had been taught to look to the Government for everything, looking and +finding nothing, could be left to each individual imagination. + +The Oil Tax came into operation on the 1st of September. Under the plea +of becoming more "business-like," a great many of the Parliamentary +safeguards had been swept away, and such procedure was easy. All grades +of petroleum had already advanced a few pence the gallon under the +increased demand, and the poorer users had expressed their indignation. +When they found, one day, that the price had suddenly leapt to half as +much again, their wrath was unbounded. It was in vain for Ministers to +explain that the measure was directed against their enemies. They knew +that it fell on _them_, and demanded in varying degrees of politeness to +be told why some luxury of the pampered, leisured classes had not been +chosen instead. The reason was plain to those who studied Blue Books. So +highly taxed was every luxury now that the least fraction added to its +burden resulted in an actually decreased revenue from that source. + +But if the mere tax and increase had impressed the poor unfavourably, a +circumstance soon came to light that enraged them. + +In spite of the tax the members of the Unity League were still being +supplied with oil at the old prices, and they were assured that they +would continue to be supplied without advance, even if the tax were +doubled! + +The poor, ever suspicious of the doings of those of their own class when +set high in authority, at once leapt to the conclusion that they were +being made the victims of a double game. It was nothing to them that the +Anglo-Pennsylvanian and the Anglo-Caucasian companies were now trading +at a loss; it was common knowledge that their richer League neighbours +had not had the price of their oil increased, and they knew all too well +that they themselves had. With the lack of balanced reasoning that had +formerly been one of the Government's best weapons, they at once +concluded that they alone were paying the tax, and the unparalleled +injustice of it sowed a crop of bitterness in their hearts. + +If that was the net result at home, the foreign effect of the policy was +not a whit more satisfactory. Studland, the Consul-General at Odessa, +one of the most capable men in the Service, cabled a despatch full of +temperate and solemn warning the moment he heard of the step. It was too +late then, if, indeed, his words would have been regarded. Russia +replied by promptly trebling her existing tax on imported coal, and at +the same time gave Germany rebate terms that practically made it a tax +on _English_ coal. It was said that Russia had only been waiting for a +favourable opportunity, and was more anxious to develop her own new coal +fields in the Donetz basin than to import at all. As far as the Treasury +was concerned, the oil tax yielded little more than was absorbed by the +thirty thousand extra men thrown out of work by Russia's action. The +Government had given a rook for a bishop. + +A little time ago the Cabinet had been prepared to greet winter as a +friend. Without quite possessing the ingenuousness of their amiable +Comrade Bilch, they had thought cynically of the pampered aristocrats +shivering in Mayfair drawing-rooms, of the comfort-loving middle classes +sitting before their desolate suburban hearths, of blue-faced men +setting out breakfastless for freezing offices, and of pallid women +weeping as they tried to warm the hands of little children, as they put +them in their icy beds. + +And now? All their cynical sympathy had apparently been in vain. There +were not going to be any cold breakfasts, freezing offices, or shivering +women and children. Warming stoves and radiators raised the temperature +of a room much quicker than a fire did, and kept it equable without any +attention. Oil cookers took the place of the too often erratic kitchen +range. Mrs Strummery innocently threw the Premier into a frenzy one +morning by dilating on the advantages of a "Britonette" stove which she +had been shown by a Tottenham Court Road ironmonger. The despised, +helpless "classes" were going on very comfortably. They were going on +even gaily; "Oil Scrambles" constituted a new and popular form of +entertainment for long evenings; from Wimbledon came the information +that "Candle Cinderellas" would have a tremendous rage during the +approaching season; and in Cheapside and the Strand the penny hawkers +were minting money with the novel and diverting "Coal Sack Puzzle." + +But the winter was approaching, though no longer as a friend. If England +should say to-morrow what Lancashire was saying that day, there were +portents of stirring times in the air. Already Northumberland, Durham, +and Yorkshire were muttering in their various uncouth dialects, and +Lanark was subscribing to disquieting sentiments in its own barbarous +tongue. Derbyshire was becoming uneasy, Staffordshire was scarcely +answering to the wheel, and Nottingham was in revolt against what it +considered to be the too compliant attitude of the Representation +Committee. The rioting in Monmouth was only restrained from becoming +serious in its proportions by the repeated assurances from Westminster +that the end was in sight; and the "Beaconmen" of Glamorgan were openly +boasting that before long they would "light such a candle" that the +ashes would fall upon London like a Vesuvian cloud. + +Still nearer home was the disturbing spectacle of the railway-men thrown +out of work, the coal carters, the stablemen, the gasworkers, the canal +boatmen, the general labourers, the tool-makers, the wheel-wrights, the +chimney sweepers, the brushmakers. The sequence of dependence could be +traced, detail by detail, through every page of the trade directory. + +They had all been taught to clamour to the Government in every +emergency, and this administration they regarded as peculiarly their +own. It was not a case of Frankenstein's Monster getting out of hand; +this Monster had created its Frankenstein, and could dissolve him if he +proved obstinate. All that Frankenstein had ventured to do so far had +been to reduce the Unemployed Grant to three quarters of its normal rate +"in view of the unprecedented conditions of labour," and where two or +more unemployed were members of one family, to make a further small +deduction. The action had not been well received. "In view of the +unprecedented conditions of labour" the unemployed had looked for more +rather than for less. When the rate was fixed they had been given to +understand that it represented the minimum on which an out-of-work man +could be decently asked to live. Why, then, had their own party reduced +it? Funds? Tax some luxury! + +Even the Government assurance, an ingenious adaptation of truth by the +light of Mr Chadwing's figures, that they "did not anticipate having to +impose the reduced grant for many more weeks, but at the same time +counselled economy in every working-class home," did not restore mutual +good feeling. The general rejoinder was that the Government had "better +not," and the reference to economy was stigmatised as gratuitously +inept. + +In the meantime the situation was reacting unfavourably upon Mr +Strummery and the chief officers of State, not only in Parliament but +even in the Cabinet itself. Consultations between the Premier and half a +dozen of his most trusted Ministers were of daily occurrence. One day, +towards the end of September, Mr Strummery privately intimated to all +the "safe" members of the Council that it was necessary to meet to +consider what further steps to take. + +The meeting was a "packed" one in that the Tirrels, the Browns, and the +Bilches of the party were not invited and knew nothing of it. There was +no reason why Mr Strummery should not call together a section of his +followers if he wished, and discuss policy with them, but at the moment +it was dangerous, because the conclave was just strong enough to be able +to impose its will upon Parliament, and yet individually it was composed +of weak men. It was dangerous because half a dozen weak men, rendered +desperate by the situation into which they were being inevitably driven, +had resolved to act upon heroic lines. As Balzac had remarked, "There is +nothing more horrible than the rebellion of a sheep," but the horrible +consequences generally fall upon its own head in the end. + +Mr Chadwing's statement informed the despondent gathering that on the +existing lines it would be necessary to suspend the wholesale operation +of the relief fund about the middle of December. By reducing the grant +in varying degrees it would be possible to carry on for perhaps three +months beyond that date, but to reach the furthest limit the individual +relief would have become so insignificant that it would only result in +an actual crisis being precipitated earlier than would be the case if +they went on as they were doing. + +That was all that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had to say. The +uninitiated men looked at one another in mute enquiry. There was +something in the air. What was coming? + +The Premier rose to explain. He admitted that they had underrated the +danger of the situation at first. Measures that might have sufficed then +were useless now. Oil was the pivot of the whole question. The oil tax +had not realised expectations. To raise the tax would only alienate the +affections of their own people without reaching the heart of the matter. +They had already taken one bite at a cherry. + +He paused and looked round, an indifferent swimmer forced by giant +circumstance to face his Niagara. + +He proposed as a measure of national emergency to prohibit the +importation of oil altogether. + +There was a gasp of surprise; a moment of stupefaction. Strange things +were again being done in the name of Liberty. + +Mr Tubes's voice, enumerating the results and advantages of the step, +recalled their wandering thoughts. There was little need for the +recital; the effect of so unexpected a _coup_ leapt to the mind at once. + +The Leaguers must either burn coal or starve. The home oil deposits had +long ceased to be worked. Wood under modern conditions was +impracticable; peat was equally debarred, and neither could meet a +sudden emergency in sufficient quantity; electricity meant coal, and was +far from universal. The League movement must collapse within a week. + +There were other points, all in favour of the course. Although it might +slightly inconvenience many working-class homes it would not take their +money as a heavier tax would, and it must convince all that the end was +well in sight. It would induce the poor to use more coal, more gas, in +itself a step towards that desired end. It would teach Russia a sharp +lesson, and Russia's sins were the freshest in their minds. + +All were convinced, and all against their will. There was something +sinister in the proposal; the thought of it fell like a shadow across +the room. + +"It is not a course I would recommend or even assent to as a general +thing," said Mr Strummery. "But we are fighting for the existence of our +party, for the lives of thousands of our people. It is no exaggeration. +Think of the awful misery that must sweep the country in the coming +winter if the League holds out. If we do not break the wicked power of +those two men, there is no picture of national calamity to be found in +the past that can realise the worst." + +"It is their game," said Mr Tubes bitterly. "The cowards are striking at +the women and children through the men." + +He ignored the fact that his party had struck the first blow, and had +had the word "War!" figuratively nailed to the staff of their red banner +for years. In war one usually strikes some one, and on the whole it is +perhaps less reprehensible to strike women and children through men than +_vice versa_. But it was an acceptable sentiment on the face of it, and +it sounded all right at the moment. + +"Moreover," added the Premier, "there will be this danger in the +situation: that blinded by passions and desperate through misery, the +people may fail to realise who are the real causes of their plight." + +Yes, there was that possibility to be faced by thoughtful Socialistic +Ministers. The people are not very subtle in their reasoning. The most +pressing fact of their existence would be that the Government, which had +promised to keep them from starvation in return for their votes, had had +their votes and was allowing them to starve. + +"I think that we must all agree to the necessity of the step," said one +of the minor men, "though our feelings are all against it." + +"Quite so," admitted Mr Strummery. "Let us hope that being a sharp +remedy it will only need to be a short one." + +Surprise was the essence of the _coup_, and the "business-like" +procedure of Parliament permitted this when the Government was backed by +a large automatic majority. The expeditious passing of the measure was a +foregone conclusion, yet a few shrewd warning voices were raised against +it even among the stalwarts. The regular opposition voted against it as +a matter of course. The most moderate section of the Labour Party and +the extreme Socialists, who both elected to sit on the opposition side +of the House, refrained from voting, and a few Ministers, who were +distracted between their private opinions and their party duty, were +diplomatically engaged elsewhere. + +The Bill first received the attention of the House on the 25th of +September, the day after the Premier had called his informal meeting. It +became law on the 28th, and three days later, the 1st of October, Great +Britain was absolutely "closed" against the introduction of mineral +burning oils on any terms. + +The country received the measure with mixed feelings, but on the whole +with the admission that it would be effective and with an expression of +dislike. The coal mining districts hailed it with enthusiasm, and the +same reception was accorded it among the affected industries, but +outside these it was nowhere popular, and in certain working-class +quarters it evoked the bitterest hostility. It was felt even by those +who stood to gain much by the overthrow of the League that their +instincts rebelled against the means; possibly the underlying feeling +was distrust of the exercise of power so despotic. It was admitted that +the League's action with respect to coal stood on a different plane. Any +member could at once resign; it was questionable if one could not use +coal and still remain a member. Certainly no coercion was used. But in +the matter of oil a necessary commodity was absolutely ruled out, and, +whether he wished or nor, every one must obey. By the 8th of October the +retail price of petroleum of an average quality was 2s. 9d. the gallon, +and the price was rising as the end of the stock came in sight. + +One curious circumstance excited remark. The Unity League members were +still being supplied at the original price. The League was keeping its +word gallantly to the end. The Government had calculated that the two +interested companies might have a reserve that would last a week. The +average stock which the consumer might be supposed to have in hand would +carry them on for a further five days, and the economy which they would +doubtless practise might hold off the climax for five more. The 17th of +October came to be confidently mentioned in Government circles as the +date of the Unity League's surrender. + +It might have been merely coincidence, but on the 17th of October Mr +Strummery chose to entertain a few of his colleagues to dinner in the +House. + +In spite of the host's inevitable jug of boiling water, an air of genial +humour, almost of gaiety, pervaded the board. Mr Tubes was +entertainingly reminiscent; Chadwing succeeded in throwing off the +weight of the Treasury; Comrade Stubb, fresh from the soil, proved to +have a dry humour of his own; and Cecil Brown, who was always socially +welcome, made a joke which almost surprised the Premier into a smile. + +Mr Tubes was in the middle of a sentence when Cecil Brown, with his face +turned towards the door, laid his hand upon the speaker's arm. + +"A minute, Tubes," he said. "There is something unusual going on out +there." + +"Perhaps it is----" began Chadwing, and stopped. The same thought had +occurred to at least three of them. Perhaps they were coming to tell +them that Hampden had accepted his defeat. Whatever it might be, a dozen +members who had entered the room in a confused medley were making their +way towards the Premier's table. A man who seemed to concentrate their +attention was in their midst; some were apparently trying to hold him +back, while others urged him on. While yet some distance off he broke +away from them all, and running forward, reached the table first. + +It was Comrade Bilch, so dishevelled, red, and heated, that it did not +occur to any one to doubt that he was drunk. For a second he stood +looking at them stupidly, and then he suddenly opened his mouth and +poured out so appalling a string of vile and nauseating abuse that men +who were near drew aside. + +"Why, in Heaven's name, don't you take him away?" exclaimed Cecil Brown, +appealing to those who formed the group beyond the table. + +They would have done so, but Comrade Bilch raised his hand as though to +enjoin attention for a moment. A change seemed to have come over him +even in that brief passage of time. He walked up to the table and leaned +heavily upon it with both fists, while his breath came in throbs, and +the colour played about his face like the reflection of a raging fire. +When he spoke it was without a single oath; all his uncleanness had +dropped away from him as though he recognised its threadbare poverty in +the face of the colossal news he brought. + +"Gentlemen," he said, leaning forward and breathing very hard, "you +would have it, and you have got your way. You've made oil contraband, +and not a drop can be landed in Great Britain now. It can't be brought, +but it can be used when it is here, and the Unity League that you have +done it all to starve has got two hundred million gallons safely stowed +away at Hanwood! Yes, while our people will have to grope and freeze +through the winter, _they_ are quite comfortably provided for, and you, +whether you leave the bar on or whether you take it off, you have made +us the laughing-stock of Europe!" + +An awed silence fell on the group. Not the most shadowy suspicion of +such a miscarriage had ever stirred the most cautious. All their qualms +had been in the direction of swallowing the unpalatable measure, not of +doubting its efficacy. They seemed to be the puny antagonists of some +almost superhuman power that not only brushed their most elaborate plans +aside, but actually led them on to pave the way to their own undoing. + +Mr Tubes was the first to speak. "It can't be true," he whispered. "It +is impossible." + +"Oh, everything's impossible with you, especially when it's happened," +retorted Mr Bilch contemptuously. "Pity you didn't live when there were +real miracles about." + +"But the time?" protested some one. "How could they do it in the time?" + +"Time!" said Mr Bilch, "what more do you want? They've had two years, +and they've used two years. If those----" He stopped suddenly, jerked +his head twice with a curious motion, and fell to the ground in a fit. + +There were plenty of good friends to look after him without troubling +the Ministerial group. The dinner-party broke up in the face of so +inauspicious a series of events, and before another hour had passed the +story of the gigantic fiasco had reached every club in London, and was +being cabled to every capital in Christendom. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE DARK WINTER + + +The autumn of 1918 had proved unusually mild. It was said that many of +the migratory birds delayed their exodus for weeks beyond their normal +times, and in sheltered gardens and hedgerows in the south of England +flowers and fruit were making an untimely show; but about midday on the +24th of November it began to grow dark, and, without any indication of +fog, it grew darker, until the greater part of England and Wales was +plunged into a nocturnal gloom. As there was a marked fall in the +temperature, men looked up to the clouds and predicted snow, but they +were wrong. Had it snowed it might have been the White Winter of 1918, +for that night the frost began, and the 24th of November had already +become an ill-omened date to usher in a frost. It did not belie its +character. The next day broke clear but bitter, and those who read +newspapers learned with curious interest that during the night the +seven-tailed comet of 1744 had been observed by several astronomers, to +the great confusion of their science, for its appearance was premature +by a round hundred thousand years. The phenomenon afterwards grew into a +portent to the vulgar mind, for that was the beginning of the great +frost that lasted seven weeks without an intermission. + +Outside certain limits, life was proceeding very much as before. The +condition of the upper classes was not materially different from what it +had been before the policy of retaliation had been declared. The +Personal Property Tax had not been proceeded with, and the Minimum Wage +Bill had been dropped for the time. There were diplomatic explanations; +the real reason was that the Cabinet was too sharply divided over the +expediency of anything in those days to make the passing of important +measures practicable. While none had the courage to go to an extreme +either in aggression or in conciliation, there was a multitude of +counsel vehemently wrangling over the wisdom of little concessions and +little aggressions. + +In London the great increase in the number of unemployed began to be +observable in the early autumn. The obsolete "marches of unemployed" +were revived, but, as might have been foreseen, except among the poor +themselves, they met with no financial encouragement. Even the poor were +becoming careful of their pence. They saw what the winter must mean, for +every one knew of a score of deserving cases around his own door, and it +was commonly reported that the Government contemplated reducing the +Unemployed Grant to two-thirds its normal basis before the year was out. +That was the Cabinet's idea for "breaking it gently." So, meeting with +no response in the suburbs, the City, or the West End, the processions +groaned occasionally, broke a few windows, enhanced the bitter feeling +existing against their class by frightening more than a few ladies, and +were finally kept in check by the special constabulary raised in the +suburbs, the City, and the West End. Finding so little profit for their +exertions, they abandoned their indiscriminate peregrinations, and took +to demonstrating before St Stephen's and to hooting outside the houses +of Cabinet Ministers until the processions and meetings were disallowed. + +There was no public charity that winter, either organised or +spontaneous, for the benefit of the working-class poor. The conditions +of labour would have warranted a Mansion House Fund being opened in +September, but no one suggested it, and no one would have contributed to +it. Abroad it was generally recognised that England was involved in +civil war to which it behoved them to act as neutrals. The Socialists in +Belgium collected and despatched the sum of £327, 14s. 6d. for the +relief of their "persecuted confraternity in England," but as the pomp +and circumstances attending the inauguration of the Fund had led their +persecuted confraternity in England to expect at least a quarter of a +million sterling, some intemperate remarks greeted the consummation of +the effort, and it was not repeated. + +To those who did not look very deeply into the situation it appeared +that a long, hard winter must operate against the interests of the +League. Their opponents would burn more coal. The Government, indeed, +issued an appeal asking them to do so, and thus to relieve the tension +in the provinces. The response was not promising. The Government was, in +effect, told to mind its own business, and particularly that detail of +its business which consisted in the guarantee of a full and undocked +living wage to every worker in or out of work. The contention so far had +been that with the surfeit, coal would be so cheap that even the poorest +could burn it unstintingly. But soon a new and rather terrible +development grew out of the complex situation. Coal became dear, not +only dear in the ordinary sense of the word--winter prices--but very, +very dear. The simple truth was that a disorganised industry always +moves on abnormal lines, and coal was a routed, a shattered, industry. + +There was no oil to be had by any but members of the League; in some +places there was no gas to be had, for many of the small gas companies, +and some of the large ones, had found it impossible to continue amidst +the dislocation of their trade, and the cheapest coal was being retailed +in the streets of London at two shillings the hundred-weight. The +Government had left oil contraband after the discovery of the League's +secret store down the quiet country lane, for they recognised that to +remove the embargo immediately would kill them with ridicule. They +promised themselves that the freedom of commerce should be restored at +the first convenient opportunity. In the meanwhile they decided to do as +they had done in other matters: they bravely ignored the fact that the +League members were any better off than any one else, and declined to +believe the evidence that any store existed. + +That was the state of affairs before the winter set in, and in London +alone. The Capital was feeling some of the remoter effects of the blow, +but from the provinces, from the actual battle-fields, there came grim +stories. Northumberland, which had been loth to accept the Eight Hours +Bill, now traced the whole of the trouble to that head, and declared +that the only hope was for the Government to make a complete surrender +to the Unity League, on the one condition that it restored a normal +demand for coal both at home and abroad. Durham, on the contrary, held +that it was necessary for the Government to crush or wear out the +League. In both counties there had been fierce conflict between the +rival factions, and blood had been freely shed. After a single day's +rioting at Newcastle and Gateshead seventeen dead bodies had been +collected by the ambulances. + +The "Beaconmen" in Glamorgan were setting fire to the pits themselves in +a spirit of fanaticism. In one instance a fire had spread beyond the +intended limits, and an explosion, in which three score of their +unfortunate fellow-workmen perished, had been the net result. The +Midlands were the least disturbed, and even there Walsall had seen a +mass meeting at which thirty thousand colliers and other affected +workmen had called insistently with threats upon the Government, in +pathetic ignorance of the Treasury's plight, to purchase the nation's +coal pits at once, and resume full time at all of them, as the only +means of averting a national calamity. + +And all this had been taking place in the mild autumn, while the +Government was still paying out sufficient relief funds to ensure that +actual starvation should not touch any one, long before it had been +driven to take the country into its confidence. The spectre of cold and +hunger had not yet been raised to goad the men to madness; so far they +regarded existence at least as assured, and the question that was +stirring them to rebellion was not the fundamental one of the "right to +live," but the almost academic issue of the right to live apart from the +natural vicissitudes of life. + +The Government had other troubles on hand. The two principal causes for +anxiety among these, if not actually of their own hatching, had +certainly sprung from a common stock. + +The Parliament sitting at College Green deemed the moment opportune for +issuing a Declaration of Independence and proclaiming a republic. Three +years before, all Irishmen had been withdrawn from the British army and +navy on the receipt of Dublin's firmly-worded note to the effect that +since the granting of extended Home Rule, Irishmen came within the +sphere of the Foreign Enlistment Act. These men formed the nucleus of a +very useful army with which Ireland thought it would be practicable to +hold out in the interior until foreign intervention came to its aid. +Possibly England thought so too, for Mr Strummery's Ministry contented +itself with issuing what its members described as a firm and dignified +protest. Closely examined, it was discoverable that the dignified +portion was a lengthy recapitulation of ancient history; the firm +portion a record of Dublin's demands since Home Rule had been conceded, +while the essential part of the communication informed the new republic +that its actions were not what his Majesty's Ministers had expected of +it, and that they would certainly reserve the right of taking the matter +in hand at some future time more suitable to themselves. + +The other harassment was that Leicester lay at the mercy of an epidemic +of small-pox which threatened to become historic in the annals of the +scourge. In the second month the average daily number of deaths had +risen to 120, and there was no sign of a decrease. In the autumn it was +hoped that the winter would kill the disease; in the winter it was +anticipated that it would die out naturally under the influence of the +spring sunshine. The situation affected Mr Chadwing more closely than +any of his colleagues, for Leicester had the honour of returning the +Chancellor of the Exchequer as one of its members. Under normal +conditions Mr Chadwing made a practice of visiting his constituency and +addressing a meeting every few weeks, but during the six months that the +epidemic raged he found himself unable to leave London. His attitude was +perfectly consistent, in spite of the hard things that some of his +supporters said of him in his absence: like the majority of his +constituents, he had a Conscientious Objection to vaccination, but he +also had an even stronger conscientious objection to encountering +small-pox infection. + +The 24th of November ushered in a new phase of the strife. It marked the +beginning of the Dark Winter. Early in December the newspapers began to +draw comparisons between the weather then prevailing and the hard +winters on record. At that date it was noticeable how many +rustic-looking vagrants were to be seen walking aimlessly about the +streets of London. The unemployed from the country were beginning to +flock in for the mere sense of warmth. The British Museum, St. Paul's +Cathedral, the free libraries, and other places where it was possible to +escape from the dreadful rigour of the streets, were crowded by day. At +night long _queues_ of miserable creatures haunted the grids of +restaurants, the sheltered sides of theatres, the windows of printing +houses, and any spot where a little warmth exhaled. On the nights of the +4th, the 5th, and the 6th of December the thermometer on Primrose Hill +registered 3° below zero. On the 7th pheasants were observed feeding +among the pigeons in the main street of Highgate, and from that time +onwards wild birds of the rarer kinds were no unusual sight in the +London parks and about the public buildings. In the country it was +remarked that the small birds had begun to disappear, and the curious +might read any morning of frozen goldfinches being picked up in +Camberwell, larks about Victoria Park, and starlings, robins, +blackbirds, and such like fry everywhere. By this time dairymen had +discovered that it was impossible to deliver milk unless they carried a +brazier of live charcoal on their cart or hand-truck. Local +correspondents in the provinces had ceased to report ordinary cases of +death from cold and exposure; there were cases in the streets of London +every night. + +Early in December Sir John Hampden was approached unofficially by a few +members of Parliament, including one or two of minor official rank, to +learn his "terms." The suggestions were tentative on both sides, and +nothing was stated definitely. But out of the circumlocution it might be +inferred that he expressed his willingness to rescind the boycott, and +to devote five million pounds to public relief at once, in return for +certain modifications of the franchise and an immediate dissolution. +Nothing came of the movement, and during the first week of December the +Government sent round to the post-offices and to all the Crown tax +collectors notices that the licences ordinarily falling due on the 1st +of January must be taken out on or before the 15th of the current month, +and the King's Taxes similarly collected in advance. The League did not +make any open comment on this departure, but every member merely ignored +it, and when the 16th of December was reached, it devolved upon the +officers of the Crown to enforce the payment by legal process. In the +language of another age, the Government was faced by five million +"Passive Resisters." It soon became apparent that instead of getting in +the taxes a fortnight before their time, the greater part of the revenue +from that source would be delayed at least a month later than usual. + +On the 20th of December one million and three-quarters State-supported +unemployed of various grades presented themselves at the appointed +trades unions committee rooms, workhouse offices, employment bureaux, +Treasury depôts, from which the Fund was administered, to receive their +weekly "wage." As they passed in they were confronted by a formal notice +to the effect that the disbursement was then reduced to half its usual +amount. As they passed out they came upon another formal notice to the +effect that after the following week the Grant would be "temporarily +suspended." Possibly that also embodied an idea of "breaking it gently." + +The cry of surprise, rage, and terrified foreboding that rose from every +town and village of the land when the direful news was at length +understood, can never be described. Its echoes were destined to roll +through the pages of English history for many a generation. The +immediate result was that rioting broke out in practically all parts of +the country except the purely agricultural. The people who had been +promised a perpetual life of milk and honey had "murmured" when they +were offered bread and water. Now there seemed every prospect of the +water reaching them as ice, and the bread-board being empty, and their +"murmuring" took a sharper edge. In some places there were absolute +stampedes of reason. In justice it has to be remembered that by this +time the most pitiless winter of modern times had been heaping misery on +misery for a month, that the chance of finding work or relief was +recognised to be the forlornest hope, and that very, very few had a +reserve of any kind. + +The indiscriminate disturbances of the 20th of December were easily +suppressed. A people that has been free for generations loses the gift +for successful rioting in the face of armed discipline, even of the most +inadequate strength. But for constitutional purposes the body of one +dragooned rioter in England was worth more than a whole "Vladimir's +battue" east of the Baltic. + +On the 27th of December the certified unemployed drew their diminished +pittance for the last time. They left the buildings in many places with +the significant threat that they would return that day week, and if +there was nothing for them would "warm their hands" there at the least. +There was renewed rioting that day also. The forces of law and order had +been strengthened; the rioters appeared to have been better organised. +In one or two towns the rioting began to approach the Continental level. +Bolton was said to have proved itself far from amateurish, and Nuneaton +was spoken of as being distinctly promising. At the end of that day +public buildings had to be requisitioned in several places to lay out +the spoils of victory and defeat. + +Two days later every newspaper contained an "open letter" from Sir John +Hampden to the Government, in which he unconditionally offered them, on +behalf of the Unity League and in the name of humanity, sufficient funds +to pay the half grant for four weeks longer. It was a humane offer, but +its proper name was strategy. It embarrassed the Government to decide +whether to accept or decline. It embarrassed them if they accepted, and +if they declined it embarrassed them most of all. They declined; or, to +be precise, they ignored the offer. + +By this time England might be said to be under famine. London, in its +ice-bound straits, began curiously to assume the appearance of a +mediæval city. By night one might meet grotesquely clad bands of +revellers returning from some ice carnival (for the Thames had long been +frozen from the Tower to Gravesend) by the light of lanterns and torches +which they carried. None but those who had nothing to lose ventured out +into the streets at night except by companies. Thieves and bludgeoners +lurked in every archway, and arrests were seldom made; beggars +importuned with every wile and in every tone, and new fantastic creeds +and extravagant new parties sent out their perfervid disciples to +proclaim Utopias at every corner. + +To add to the terror of the night there suddenly sprang into prominence +the bands of "Running Madmen" who swept through the streets like fallen +leaves in an autumn gale. Barefooted, gaunt, and wildly dressed in rags, +they broke upon the astonished wayfarer's sight, and passed out again +into the gloom before he could ask himself what strange manner of men +they were. Never alone, seldom exceeding a score in any band, they ran +keenly as though with some purposeful end in view, for the most part +silently, but now and then startling the quiet night with an +inarticulate wail or a cry of woe or lamentation, but they turned from +street to street in aimless intricacy, and sought no definite goal. They +were never seen by day, and whence they came or where they had their +homes none could say, but the steady increase in the number of their +bands showed that they were undoubtedly the victims of a contagious +mania such as those that have appeared in the past from time to time. + +Almost as ragged and unkempt was the army that by day marched under the +standard of Brother Ambrose towards the sinless New Jerusalem. Reading +the abundant signs all round with an inspired and fatalistic eye, +Ambrose uncompromisingly announced that all the portents of the +Millennium were now fulfilled, and that the reign of temporal power on +earth was at an end. Each day his eloquence mounted to a wilder flight, +each day he dreamed new dreams and saw fresh visions, and promised to +his followers more definitely the spoil of victory, and parcelled out +the smiling, fruitful land. Drawn by every human passion, recruits +poured into his ranks, and when he marched in tattered state to mark the +boundaries of the impending Golden City, the Legions of the Chosen +rolled not in their thousands, but in their tens of thousands, singing +hymns and interspersing ribaldry. + +A very different spectacle was afforded by the bands of the Gilded Youth +which by day patrolled the approaches to houses of the better class, +wherever smoke had been seen issuing from the chimneys, and by night +with equal order and thoroughness turned out the public gas lamps in the +streets, until many of the authorities at last gave up the lighting of +the lamps as a useless formality. + +It was impossible for the occupants of a house that had incurred their +enmity to have them removed by force, or to maintain an attitude of +unconcern in the face of their demonstration, yet everything they did +came under the term of "Peaceful Picketing" within the provisions of the +Act, and an attempt to fix responsibility upon the Unity League for the +high-handed action of its agents in a few cases where the Gilded Youth +had gone beyond their powers, failed ignominiously through the precedent +afforded by the final settlement of the celebrated Tawe Valley Case. + +In the provinces the rioters were burning coal, burning coal-pits, +smashing machinery and destroying property indiscriminately, blind to +the fact that some of the immediate effects were falling on their +fellow-workmen, and that most of the ultimate effects would fall upon +themselves. In London and elsewhere the bands of the Gilded Youth were +going quietly and systematically about their daily work, "peacefully" +terrorising house-holders into submission, and carefully turning out the +public lamps at night as soon as they were lit. To the reflective mind +it was rather a dreadful power that the time had called into being: an +educated mob that "rioted peacefully" and did nothing at all that was +detrimental to its own interest. + +Each morning people assured one another that so unparalleled a frost +could last no longer, but each night the air seemed to be whetted to a +keener edge, and each day there came fresh evidences of its power. Early +in January it was computed that all the small birds that had not taken +refuge in towns were dead, partly through the cold itself, but equally +by starvation, for the ground yielded them nothing, and the trees and +shrubs upon which they had been able to rely for food in former winters +had long since perished. There were none but insignificant hollies to be +seen in English gardens for the next generation, and in exposed +situations forest trees and even oaks were split down to the ground. + +All this time there was very little destructive rioting going on in +London on any organised scale, but every night breadths of wood pavement +were torn up by the homeless vagrants, who were now allowed to herd +where they could, and great fires set burning at which the police warmed +themselves and mingled supinely with the crowd. By day the police went +in pairs, by night they patrolled in companies of five. For the +emergency of serious rioting the military were always kept in readiness; +against the more ordinary depredations on private property the owners +were practically left to defend themselves. In those dark weeks watch +duty became one of the regular occupations among the staff of every +London business, and short shrift was given to intruders. Inquests went +like marriages in busy churches at Easter-tide--in batches, and the +morning cart that picked up the frozen dead had only one compartment. + +The time was past when the effects of the vast disorganisation could be +localised. Every trade and profession, every trivial and obscure +calling, and every insignificant little offshoot of that great trunk +called Commerce was involved in depression; it was not too much to say +that every individual in the land was feeling some ill effect. Frantic +legislation had begun it ten years before; the coal war had brought it +to a climax, and the grip of the long, hard winter had pressed like a +hostile hand upon the land. + +It had resolved itself into a war of endurance. Coal was no longer the +pivot; it was money, immediate money with which to buy bread at the +bakers' shops, where they carried on their trade with the shutters up +and loaded weapons laid out in the upper rooms. + +Not the least curious feature of the struggle was the marked +disinclination of the starving populace to pillage or bloodshed. +Doubtless they saw that whatever they might individually profit by a +reign of terror, their cause and party had nothing to gain from it. Such +an outburst must inevitably react unfavourably upon the Government of +the day, and it was _their_ party then in power. But they had not the +mob instinct in them; they were not composed of the ordinary mob +element. In the bulk they were neither criminals nor hooligans, but +matter-of-fact, disillusionised working men, and the instincts of their +class have ever been steady and law-abiding. In Cheapside a gang of +professional thieves blew out the iron shutter of a jeweller's shop with +dynamite, and securing a valuable haul of jewellery in the momentary +confusion, sought to hide themselves among the mob. Far from entering +into their aspirations, the mob promptly conveyed them to the nearest +police station, and returned to the owner the valuable articles that had +been scattered about the street. The climax of the incident was reached +by half a dozen of the most stalwart unemployed gladly accepting a few +shillings each to guard the broken window until the shutter was +repaired. + +At the collieries, the mills, the workshops, and the seats of labour +there were outrages against property, but away from the immediate +centres there was neither cupidity nor resentment. Whenever disturbances +of the kind took place they were invariably in pursuit of food or +warmth. The men were dispirited, and by this time they regarded their +cause as lost. Their leaders, in and out of Parliament, were classed +either as incompetent generals in a war, or as traitors who had misled +the people. The people only asked them now to make the terms of +surrender so that they might live; and they did not hesitate to declare +roundly that the old times when they had had to look after themselves +more, and had not been body and soul at the disposal of semi-political +Unions, were preferable on the whole. + +The position of the Cabinet was daily growing more critical. Its chiefs +were execrated and insulted whenever they were seen. All the approaches +to the House were held by military guards, and the members reached its +gates singly, and almost by stealth. Every day placards, written and +printed, were found displayed in public places, calling on the +Government that had no money to let in one that had. "You thought more +of your position than of our needs when Hampden offered us help," ran +one that Mr Strummery found nailed to his front door. "You have always +thought more of your positions than of our needs. You have used our +needs to raise yourselves to those positions. Now, since you no longer +represent the wishes of the People, give way to others." + +The delay of the Government in throwing up an utterly untenable position +was inexplicable to most people. Many said that the reason was that +Hampden refused to take office under the existing franchise, and no one +but Hampden could form an administration in that crisis that could hope +to live for a day. Whatever the reason might be, it was obvious that the +Government was drifting towards a national tragedy that would be +stupendous, for in less than a month's time, it was agreed on all hands, +the daily tale of starved and famished dead would have reached its +thousands. + +Still the Government hung on, backed in sullen submission by its +automatic majority. Changes in the Cabinet were of almost daily record, +but the half dozen men of prominence remained. Cecil Brown was the last +of the old minor men to be dropped. A dog trainer, who had taken up +politics, succeeded him. "It is too late now," Cecil Brown was reported +to have said when he learned who was to be his successor. "They want +bread, not circuses!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE INCIDENT OF THE 13TH OF JANUARY + + +"I do not altogether like it," said A. + +"Do you prefer to leave things as they are, then?" demanded B. + +A. went over and stood by the window, looking moodily out. + +"It is merely a necessity," said C. + +"The necessity of a necessity," suggested D. happily. + +"Perhaps you are not aware," said B., addressing himself to the man +standing at the window, "that the suggestion of arresting Salt did not +come from us in the first case." + +"Is that so?" replied A., coming back into the room. "I certainly +assumed that it did." + +"On the contrary," explained B., "it was Inspector Moeletter who +reported to his superiors that he had succeeded in identifying the +mysterious man who was seen with Leslie Garnet, the artist, about the +time of his death. He would have got his warrant in the ordinary way, +only in view of the remarkable position that Salt occupies just now, +Stafford very naturally communicated with us." + +"The only point that troubles us," remarked C. reflectively, "is that +none of us can persuade himself in the remotest degree that Salt killed +Garnet." + +"I certainty require to have the evidence before I can subscribe to +that," said B. "The man who is daily killing hundreds----" + +"Ah, that is the difference," commented D. + +"Where are the Monmouth colliers now?" asked C., after a pause. + +"Newbury, this morning," replied D. "Reading, to-night." + +"And the Midland lot?" + +"Towcester, I think." + +"If Hampden formally asks for protection for the oil store at Hanwood, +after the miners' threat to burn it, what are you going to do?" asked A. + +"I should suggest telling him to go and boil himself in it, since he has +got it there," replied C. + +"There will be no need to tell him anything but the bare fact, and that +is that with twenty-five thousand turbulent colliers pouring into London +and adding to the disaffected element already here, we cannot spare a +single man," replied B. + +"I quite agree with that," remarked D., drawing attention to his +freshly-scarred cheek. "I had a tribute of the mob's affection as I came +in this morning." + +"That's your popularity," said C. "Your photograph is so much about that +no one has any difficulty in recognising you. How do you get on in that +way, B.?" + +"I?" exclaimed B. with a startled look. "Oh, I always drive with the +blinds down now." + +"Are any extra military coming in before Friday?" asked A. + +"Yes, the Lancers from Hounslow. They come into the empty Albany Street +Barracks to-night. Then I think that there are to be some extra infantry +in Whitehall, from Aldershot. Cadman is seeing to all that." + +"But you know that the Lancers are being drawn from Hounslow?" asked C. +with a meaning laugh. + +"Yes, I know that," admitted B. "Why do you laugh, C.?" + +C.'s only reply was to laugh again. + +"I will tell you why he laughs," volunteered D. "He laughs, B., because +the Lancers withdrawn from Hounslow to Regent's Park, Salt under arrest +at Stafford, and the Monmouth colliers coming along the Bath road and +passing within a mile or two of Hanwood, represent the three angles of a +very acute triangle." + +"There is still Hampden," muttered B. + +"Yes; what is going to happen to Hampden?" asked C., with a trace of his +mordant amusement. + +A., who was walking about the room aimlessly, stopped and faced the +others. + +"I'll tell you what," he exclaimed emphatically. "I said just now that I +didn't like the idea of smuggling Salt away like this, and, although it +may be advisable, I don't. But I wish to God that we had openly arrested +the pair of them as traitors, and burned their diabolical store before +every one's eyes three months ago." + +"Ah," said D. thoughtfully, "it was too early then. Now it's too late." + +"It may be too late to have its full effect," flashed out B., "but it +won't be too late to make them suffer a bit along with our own people." + +"Provided that the oil is burned," said D. + +"Provided that no protection can be sent," remarked C. + +"Provided that Salt is arrested," added A. + +There was a knock at the door. It explained the attitude of the four men +in the room and their scattered conversation. They had been awaiting +some one. + +He came into the room and saluted, a powerfully-built man with "uniform" +branded on every limb, although he wore plain clothes then. + +"Detective-Inspector Moeletter?" said B. + +"Yes, sir," said the inspector, and stood at attention. + +"You have the warrant?" continued B. + +Moeletter produced it, and passed it in for inspection. It was made out +on the preceding day, signed by the Stipendiary Magistrate of Stafford, +and it connected George Salt with Leslie Garnet by the link of Murder. + +"When you applied for this warrant," said B., looking hard at the +inspector, "you considered that you had sufficient evidence to support +it?" + +Moeletter looked puzzled for a moment, as though the question was one +that he did not quite follow in that form. For a moment he seemed to be +on the verge of making an explanation; then he thought better of it, and +simply replied: "Yes, sir." + +"At all events," continued B. hastily, "you have enough evidence to +justify a remand? What are the points?" + +"We have abundant evidence that Salt was in the neighbourhood about the +time of the tragedy; that fact can scarcely be contested. Coming nearer, +an old man, who had been hedging until the storm drove him under a high +bank, saw a gentleman enter Garnet's cottage about half-past five. +Without any leading he described this man accurately as Salt, and picked +out his photograph from among a dozen others. About an hour later, two +boys, who were bird-nesting near Stourton Hill church, heard a shot. +They looked through the hedge into the graveyard and saw one man lying +apparently dead on the ground, and another bending over him as though he +might be going through his pockets. Being frightened, they ran away and +told no one of it for some time, as boys would. Of course, sir, that's +more than six months ago now, but the description they give tallies, and +I think that we may claim a strong presumption of identity taking into +consideration the established time of Salt's arrival at Thornley." + +"That is all?" said B. + +"As regards identity," replied the inspector. "On general grounds we +shall show that for some time before his death Garnet had been selling +shares and securities which he held, and that although he lived frugally +no money was found in the remains of his house or on his person, and no +trace of a banking account or other investment can be discovered. Then +we allege that 'George Salt' is not the man's right name, although we +have not been able to follow that up yet. He is generally understood to +have been a sailor recently, and the revolver found beside the body was +of a naval pattern. I should add that the medical evidence at the +inquest was to the effect that the wound might have been self-inflicted, +but that the angle was unusual." + +B. returned the warrant to the inspector. + +"That will at least ensure a remand for a week for you to continue your +investigations?" + +"I think so, sir." + +"Without bail?" + +"If it is opposed." + +"We oppose it, then. Did you bring any one down with you?" + +Inspector Moeletter had not done so. He had not been able to anticipate +what amended instructions he might receive in London, so he had thought +it as well to come alone. + +"For political reasons it is desirable that nothing should be known +publicly of the arrest until you have your prisoner safely at Stafford," +said B. "At present he is motoring in the southern counties. I have +information that he will leave Farnham this afternoon between three and +half-past and proceed direct to Guildford. Is there any reason why you +should not arrest him between the two places?" + +Inspector Moeletter knew of none. + +"It will be preferable to doing so in either town from our point of +view," continued B., "and it is not known whether he intends leaving +Guildford to-night." + +The inspector took out an innocent-looking pocket-book, whose elastic +band was a veritable hangman's noose, and noted the facts. + +"Is a description of the motor-car available?" he enquired. + +B. picked up a sheet of paper. "It is a large car, a 30 H.P. Daimler, +with a covered body, and painted in two shades of green," he read from +the paper. "The number is L.N. 7246." + +"I would suggest bringing him straight on in the car," said Moeletter. +"It would obviate the publicity of railway travelling." + +B. nodded. "There is another thing," he said. "It is absolutely +necessary to avoid the London termini. They are all watched +systematically by agents of the League--spies who call themselves +patriots. You will take the 7.30 train with your prisoner, but you will +join it at Willesden. I will have it stopped for you." + +"I shall need a man who can drive the motor to go down with me," the +detective reminded him. + +B. struck a bell. "Send Sergeant Tolkeith in," he said to the attendant. + +Sergeant Tolkeith was apparently being kept ready in the next room, to +be slipped at the fall of the flag, so to speak. He came in very +smartly. + +"You will remain with Inspector Moeletter while he is in London, and +make all the necessary arrangements for him," instructed B. "I suppose +that there are men at Scotland Yard available now who can drive every +kind of motor?" + +Sergeant Tolkeith hazarded the opinion that there were men at Scotland +Yard at that moment who could drive--he looked round the room in search +of some strange or Titanic vehicle to which the prowess of Scotland Yard +would be equal--"Well, Anything." + +"A man who knows the roads," continued B. "Though, for that matter, it's +a simple enough route--the Portsmouth road all the way to Kingston, and +then across to Willesden. You had better avoid Guildford, by the way, +coming back. Now, what other assistance will you require?" + +"How many are there likely to be in the car, sir?" + +"No one but Salt, I am informed. He has been touring alone for a week +past, at all events." + +"In that case, sir, we had better take a couple of men from Guildford +and drive towards Farnham. We can wait at a suitable place in the road +and make the arrest. Then when the irons are on I shall need no one +beyond the driver I take with me. The two local men--you'll want Mr +Salt's _chauffeur_ detained for a few hours, I suppose, sir?" + +"Yes, certainly; until you are well on your way. And any one else who +may happen to be in the car. I will give you authority covering that." + +"The two local men can take him, or them, back to Guildford--it will be +dark by the time they get there--for detention while enquiries are being +made. Then if a plain-clothes man meets me at Willesden we can go on, +and our driver can take the car on to Scotland Yard." + +"You see no difficulty throughout?" said B. anxiously. The inspector +assured him that all seemed plain sailing. It was not his place to +foresee difficulties in B.'s plans. + +"Then I shall expect you to report to me from Stafford about 10.30 +to-night that everything is satisfactory. Let me impress on you as a +last word the need of care and _unconcern_ in this case. It must be +successfully carried out, and to do that there must be no fuss or +publicity." + +"Sergeant," said Detective-Inspector Moeletter, when they were outside, +"between ourselves, can you tell me this: why they think it necessary to +have three mute gentlemen looking on while we arrange a matter of this +sort?" + +"Between ourselves, sir," replied Sergeant Tolkeith, looking cautiously +around, "it's my belief that it's come to this: that they are all +half-afraid of themselves and can't trust one another." + +"D.," remarked C., as they left together a few minutes later, "does +anything strike you about B.?" + +"It strikes me that he looks rather like an undertaker's man when he is +dressed up," replied D. + +"Does it not strike you that he is _afraid_?" + +"Oh," admitted D., stroking his wounded cheek, "that's quite possible. +So am I, for that matter." + +"So may we all be in a way," said C.; "but it is different with him. I +believe that he is in a _blue funk_. He's fey, and he's got Salt on the +brain. Just remember that I venture on this prophecy: if Salt through +any cause does not happen to get arrested, B. will throw up the sponge." + + * * * * * + +The office of the Unity League in Trafalgar Chambers was little more +than an empty hive now. The headquarters of the operations had been +transferred to the colony at Hanwood, and most of the staff had +followed. With the declaration of the coal war, an entirely different +set of conditions had come into force. The old offices had practically +become a clearing house for everything connected with the League, and +the high tide of active interest swept on elsewhere. + +Miss Lisle remained, a person of some consequence, but in her heart she +sighed from time to time for a sphere of action "down another little +lane." + +On the afternoon of the 13th of January she returned to the office about +half-past three, and going to the instrument room unlocked the +telescribe receiver-box and proceeded to sort the dozen communications +which it contained--the accumulation of an hour--before passing them on +to be dealt with. Most fell into clearly-defined departments at a +glance. It was not until she reached the last, the earliest sent, that +she read it through, but as she read that her whole half-listless, +mechanical manner changed. With the first line apathy fell from her like +a cloak; before she had finished, every limb and feature conveyed a +sense of tingling excitement. In frantic haste she dragged the special +writing materials across the table towards her, dashed off a sprawling, +"Stop Mr Salt at any cost.--LISLE," and flashed it off to the League +agency at Farnham. + +A couple of minutes must pass before she could get any reply. She picked +up the cause of her excitement, and for the second time read the message +it contained: + +"If you want to keep your Mr Salt from being arrested on a charge of +murder, warn him that Inspector Moeletter from Stafford will be waiting +for him on the road between Farnham and Guildford at three o'clock this +afternoon with a warrant. No one believes in it, but he will be taken on +in his motor to Willesden, and on to Stafford by the 7.30, and kept out +of the way for a week while things have time to happen at Hanwood. There +will be just enough evidence to get a remand, as there was to get a +warrant. This is from a friend, who may remind you of it later and prove +who he is by this sign." + +The letter finished with a rough drawing of a gallows and a broken rope. +It was written in a cramped, feigned hand and addressed to Sir John +Hampden. It might have been lying in the box for an hour. + +The telescribe bell gave its single note. Irene opened the box in +feverish dread. An exclamation of despair broke from her lips as some +words on the paper stood out in the intensity of their significance even +before she took the letter from the box. + +This was what Farnham replied: + +"Hope nothing is the matter. Mr Salt left here quite half an hour ago, +in his motor, for Guildford. He will stay there the night, or proceed to +Hanwood according to the time he is occupied. Please let me know if +there is any trouble." + +Half an hour! There was not the remotest chance of intercepting him. +Already, under ordinary circumstances, he would be in the outskirts of +Guildford. It only remained to verify the worst. She wrote a brief +message asking Mr Salt if he would kindly communicate with her +immediately on his arrival, and despatched it to the agency at +Guildford. If there was no reply to that request during the next +half-hour she would accept the arrest as an established fact. And there +being nothing apparently to do for the next half-hour, Miss Lisle, very +much to the surprise of ninety-nine out of her hundred friends could +they have seen her, went down on her knees in the midst of a roomful of +the latest achievements of science and began to pray that a miracle +might happen. + + * * * * * + +"I suppose that I may smoke?" said Salt. He was sitting handcuffed in +his own motor-car, charged with murder, and formally cautioned that +anything he should say might be used as evidence against him. It was +scarcely a necessary warning in his case; with the exception of an +equally formal protest against the arrest, he had not opened his lips +until now. He and Moeletter had sat silently facing one another in the +comfortably-appointed, roomy car, Salt with his face to the driver and +leaning back in his easy seat with outward unconcern, the detective +braced to a more alert attitude and with his knees almost touching those +of his prisoner. For a mile or more--for perhaps seven or eight minutes +by time, for the new driver was cautious with the yet unknown car--they +had proceeded thus. + +Yet Salt was very far from being unconcerned as he leaned back +negligently among the cushions. He was thinking keenly, and with the +settled, tranquil gaze that betrayed nothing, watching alertly the miles +of dreary high-road that stretched along the Hog's Back before them. He +had long foreseen the possibility of arrest, and he had taken certain +precautions; but to safeguard himself effectually he would have had to +abandon the more important part of his work, and the risk he ran was the +smaller evil of the two. But he had not anticipated this charge. Some +legal jugglery with "conspiracy" had been in his mind. + +"I suppose that I may smoke?" Half a mile ahead a solitary wayfarer was +approaching. Salt might have noted him, but there was nothing remarkable +in his appearance except that pedestrians--or vehicles either, for that +matter--were rare along the Hog's Back on that bitter winter afternoon. + +"Why, certainly, sir; in your own car, surely," replied the inspector +agreeably. He was there to do his duty, and he had done it, even down to +the detail of satisfying himself by search that his prisoner carried no +weapon. Beyond that there was no reason to be churlish, especially as +every one had to admit that there was no telling what might have +happened in a week's or a month's time. "Can I help you in any way?" + +"Thank you, I will manage," replied Salt, and in spite of his manacles +he succeeded without much difficulty in taking out his cigarette-case +and a match-box. He lit a cigarette, blew out the match, and then looked +hesitatingly round the rather elegant car, at the rich velvety carpet on +the floor, at the half-burned vesta in his hand. Then with easy +unconcern he lowered the window by his side and leaned forward towards +it. + +It was a perfectly natural action, but Inspector Moeletter owed at least +one step in his promotion to a habit of always being on his guard +against natural-seeming actions of that kind. His left foot quickly and +imperceptibly slid across the carpet, so that if Salt made any +ill-judged attempt to leave the car he must inevitably come to grief +across that rigid barrier; with a ready eye Moeletter noted afresh the +handle of the door, the size of the window frame, and every kindred +detail. His hands lay in unostentatious readiness by his side, and he +felt no apprehension. + +But Salt had not the faintest intention of attempting any sensational +act. He dropped the match leisurely from between his fingers, cast a +glance up to the sky, where the lowering clouds had long been +threatening snow, and then drew in his head. But in some way, either +from his position, a jolt of the car, or a touch against the sash, as he +did so his cap was jerked off, and, despite a quick but clumsy attempt +to catch it in his fettered hands, it was whirled away behind in their +eddying wake. + +"Please stop," he said, turning to Moeletter. "I am afraid that I shall +find it too cold without." + +The detective was not pleased, but there was nothing in the mishap that +he could take objection to. Further, he had no wish to make his prisoner +in any way noticeable during the latter part of their journey. "Pull up, +Murphy," he called through the tube by his shoulder, and with a grinding +that set its owner's teeth on edge, the car came to a standstill in two +lengths. + +Moeletter had intended that the driver should recover the cap, but he +was saved the trouble. The solitary pedestrian had happened to be on the +spot at the moment of the incident, and he was standing by the open +window almost as soon as the car stopped. Forgetful of his indignity, +Salt stretched out a manacled hand and received his property. "Thank +you," he said with a pleasant smile. "I am much obliged." + +"Go on," said Moeletter, through the tube. + +"I think that I had better get used to these--'darbies' is the +professional name, is it not, Inspector?--to these 'darbies' before I +look out again," remarked Salt good-humouredly. + + * * * * * + +The telescribe bell announced another message. It found Irene sitting at +the table in the instrument room with ordnance maps around her and the +index book of the League's most trusted agents lying open on the shelf. +She just glanced at the clock as she jumped up. It was 4.15, exactly the +last minute of the half-hour that she had fixed as the limit of +uncertainty. The message might even yet be from Salt. But it was not; it +was this instead: + +"Fear Mr Salt has been arrested. He is in his motor-car, handcuffed, +proceeding towards Guildford, in charge of man who has appearance of +belonging to police force. Driver is not Mr Salt's man. Mr S. made opp. +for me to see sit., but said nothing. Passed just W. of Puttenham 3.55. +Roads good, but snow beginning. Car trav only 10-12 m. hour. Shall +remain here on chance being use. Don't hesitate." + +A hall-formed plan was already floating in the space between Miss +Lisle's adventurous brain and the maps. The Puttenham message +crystallised it. There was now something to go on. The route she knew +already; the times and mileages also lay beneath her hand. The scheme +had a hundred faults, and only one thing to recommend it--that it might +succeed. For ten minutes she flung herself into the details of the maps, +jotting down a time, a distance, here and there a detail of the road. +"Puttenham" might remain at his box till dawn, but all the work, all the +chance, was forward--before the car. At the end of ten minutes Irene +picked up the accumulation of her labours and rang up the telephone +exchange. + + * * * * * + +"What is it, Murphy?" demanded the inspector through the tube, as the +car came to a dead stop. "Something else in the way?" + +"I can't quite make it out, sir," was the reply. "We're just outside the +long railway arch, and there seems to be something on fire towards the +other end. Terrible lot of smoke coming through." + +"Can't we run up to it?" + +"This is an unusually long bridge--fifty or sixty yards, I should say. I +hardly like to take you on into that smoke, sir." + +"Oh, very well. Jump down and see what it is. Only be as sharp as you +can." + +It was now pitch dark, and a driving, biting storm of snow and hail was +blowing across their path from the east. When the constable-_chauffeur_ +had learned sufficient of the car to give him confidence, the storm had +swept down, and their progress had been scarcely any faster. There had +been delays, too. By Ripley a heavy farm waggon had broken down almost +before their eyes, and it had been ten minutes before a spare chain +horse could be obtained to drag it to the roadside. Further on some men +felling a tree in a coppice had clumsily allowed it to fall across the +road, and another ten minutes elapsed before it was cut in two and +rolled aside. Fortunately they were not pressed for time. Fortunately, +also, the driver knew the way, for few people were afoot to face that +dreadful stream of snow and ice with the lashing wind and the numbing +cold. Two, two or three, or perhaps four men had chanced to be at hand +when the car stopped, making their way towards the bridge, but the +wreathing snow soon cut them off. Occasionally, when the wind and drift +hung for a moment, a figure or two showed dimly and gigantic in the murk +of the tunnel. Nothing of the fire could be seen, but the smoke +continued to pour out, and the mingled odour of burned and unburned oil +filled the car. + +In a few minutes the driver returned. When he had left his seat +Moeletter had leaned forward, and with a gruff word of half apology had +laid a hand upon the rug across Salt's knees, so that he held, or at +least controlled, the connecting links of the handcuffs, while at the +same time his other hand had dropped quietly down to his hip-pocket. He +now lowered the window on the further side, still keeping his left hand +on the rug. + +"Oil cart ablaze, sir," gasped the driver, between paroxysms of +coughing. "Road simply running fire, and the fumes awful." His face was +almost completely protected beneath cap, goggles, and a storm shade that +fell from the cap over the shoulders and buttoned across the mouth, but +no covering had seemed effectual against the suffocating reek of the +burning oil. The fire had melted the snow off his clothes, and he stood +by the door with a bar of darkness just falling across his face, and the +electric light through the lowered window blazing upon his gleaming +leathers, his gauntlets and puttee leggings, and the cumbrous numbered +badge that the regulations then imposed. + +"It will be some time before the road is passable?" asked Moeletter with +a frown. + +"Oh, hours perhaps," was the sputtering reply. "Would suggest going by +Molesey Bridge, sir. Best way now." + +"Is it much out?" + +"The turning is half a mile back. From there it is no further than this +way." + +"And you know the way perfectly?" + +The driver nodded. "Perfectly, sir." + +"Very well; go on. We have plenty of time yet, but you might get a few +more miles out of her, if you think you can." + +The driver jumped up to his seat, the horn gave its bull-like note of +warning, and gliding round the car began to head back towards Esher with +the open common on either side and the pelting wind behind. It slackened +for a moment at the fork in the high-road, turned to the right, and then +began to draw away northward with an increased speed that showed the +driver to be capable of rising to his instructions. + +"It is fortunate that the inspector is not a motoring man," thought Salt +to himself with an inward smile. "This is very much too good." But the +inspector only noticed that with the increased speed the car seemed to +run more smoothly, and even then he had no means of judging what the +increase had become. The man whose car it was knew that a very different +explanation than mere speed lay behind the sudden change that made the +motion now sheer luxury. He knew with absolute conviction what had +happened, and he would have known without any further evidence that the +driver who now had his hand upon the wheel was a thousand miles ahead of +constable-_chauffeur_ Murphy in motor-craft. + +It was not the first suggestion of some friendly influence at work that +had stirred his mind. The incident of the stranded waggon across the +road by Ripley was little in itself. Even when they were a second time +delayed by the fallen tree a few miles further on nothing but an +unreasoning hope could have called it more than coincidence. But with +the third episode a matured plan began to loom through the meaningless +delays. Oil was here, and where there was oil in England at that day the +hand of the Unity League might be traced not far away. In his mind's eye +Salt ran over half a dozen miles of the Portsmouth road. As far as he +could remember, if it was _intended_ to block the road there was +scarcely a more suitable spot than the long railway bridge to be found +between Esher and Kingston, and, followed the thought, if it was +intended to force Moeletter to accept the bridge at Molesey, no point in +all the high-road south of the fork would have served. + +The three accidents had taken place each at the exact point where it +would best serve its purpose. + +Salt did not even glance at the driver when he returned from the fire. +He leaned back in his seat in simple enjoyment, and Inspector Moeletter +thought from his appearance that he was going to sleep. + +There was little to be gained by looking out, apart from the policy of +unconcern. The huge white motor-car that was waiting in the cross-road +by Esher station had its head-lights masked, and in the snow-storm and +the night it could not have been seen ten yards away. The driver of the +green car sounded his horn for the road as he swept by, and ten seconds +later the white car glided out from its place of concealment like a +ghostly mastodon, and, baring its dazzling lamps, began to thrash along +the road in the other's wake. + +What would be their route when they had crossed the bridge? That was +Salt's constant thought now, not because he was troubled by the chances, +but because it was the next point in the unknown plan that would serve +to guide him. He had not long to wait under the dexterous pilotage of +the unknown hand outside. The flat, straight road became a tortuous +village street, the lights of the Molesey shops and inns splashed in +splintering blurs across the streaming windows, an iron bridge shook and +rumbled beneath their wheels, and they were in Middlesex. + +The horn brayed out a continuous warning note, the car swung off to the +left, and Salt, with his eyes closed, knew exactly what had been +arranged. + +But there was yet Inspector Moeletter to be reckoned with. He was +ignorant of the roads, but he had a well-developed gift of location, and +the abrupt turn to the left when he had seen what appeared to be a broad +high-road leading straight on from Molesey Bridge, gave him a moment's +thought. He turned to the speaking-tube. + +"Are you sure that this is right, Murphy?" he asked sharply. "Kingston +must lie away on the right." + +"We go through Hampton this way, sir, and into the Kingston road at +Twickenham," came the chattering reply in a half-frozen voice. "It is +just as near, and we don't meet the wind." + +It was quite true, although the inspector might not know it, but the +ready explanation seemed to satisfy him. Another circumstance would have +set his mind at rest. At Hampton the route took them equally to the +right. Salt did not know the road intimately, but he knew that if his +surmise was correct, they must very soon draw away to the left again. +What would happen then? For three or four miles they would run between +hedges and encounter nothing more urban than a scattered hamlet. +Twickenham they would never see that night. Inspector Moeletter was far +from being unsophisticated, and his suspicion had already once, +apparently, been touched. How would the race end? + +The car slowed down for a moment, but so smoothly that it was almost +imperceptible, and with a clanging bell an electric tram swung into +their vision and out again. Salt was taking note of every trifle in this +enthralling game. Why, he asked himself, had so expert a driver +slackened speed with plenty of room to pass? He saw a possible +explanation. They had been meeting and overtaking trams at intervals all +the way from Molesey Bridge. In another minute they would have left the +high-road and the tram route, and the driver wished to hide the fact +from Moeletter as long as possible. He had therefore _waited_ to meet +this tram so that the inspector might unconsciously carry in his mind +the evidence of their presence to the last possible point. + +They were no longer on the high-road; they had glided off somewhere +without a warning note or any indication of speed or motion to betray +the turn they had taken. The houses were becoming sparser, fields +intervened, with here and there a strung-out colony of cottages. Soon +even the scattered buildings ceased, or appeared so rarely that they +only dotted long stretches of country lanes, and at every yard they +trembled on the verge of detection. Nothing but the glare of light +inside the vehicle and the storm and darkness beyond could have hid for +a moment from even the least suspicious of men the fact that they were +no longer travelling even the most secluded of suburban high-roads. And +now, as if aware that the deception could not be maintained much longer, +the driver began to increase the speed at every open stretch. Again +nothing but his inspired skill and the perfectly-balanced excellence of +the car could disguise the fact that they flew along the level road; +while among the narrow winding lanes they rushed at a headlong pace, +shooting down declines and breasting little hills without a pause. The +horn boomed its warning every second, and from behind came the answering +note of the long white motor. It had crept nearer and nearer since they +left the high-road, and its brilliant head-lights now lit up the way as +far as the pilot car. Little chance for Moeletter to convoy his prisoner +out of those deserted lanes whatever happened now! + +What means, what desperate means, he might have taken in a gallant +attempt to retrieve the position if he had suspected treachery just a +minute before he did, one may speculate but never know. + +As it was, the uneasy instinct that everything was not right awoke too +late for him to make the stand. It was less than ten minutes after +meeting the last tram that he peered out into the night doubtfully, but +in those ten minutes the green car had all but won its journey's end. + +"Murphy," he cried imperiously, with his mouth to the tube and a +startled eye on Salt, "tell me immediately where we are." + +"A minute, sir," came the hasty answer, as the driver bent forward to +verify some landmark. "This brake---- + +"Stop this instant!" roared the inspector, rising to his feet in rage +and with a terrible foreboding. + +There was a muffled rattle as they shot over a snow-laden bridge, a +curious sense of passing into a new atmosphere, and then with easy +precision the car drew round and stopped dead before the open double +doors of its own house. No one spoke for a moment. There was another +muffled roar outside, the sound of heavy iron doors clashing together, +and the great white car reproduced their curve and drew up by their +side. + +From the driver's seat of the green car the Hon. Bruce Wycombe, son and +heir of old Viscount Chiltern and the most skilful motorist in Europe, +climbed painfully down, and, pulling off his head-gear, opened the door +of the car with a bow that would have been more graceful if he had been +less frozen. + +"Welcome to Hanwood after your long journey, Inspector Moeletter!" he +exclaimed most affably. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE MUSIC AND THE DANCE + + +Along the great west road, ten thousand Monmouth colliers were streaming +towards London, in every stage of famine and discomfort. What they +intended to do when they reached the Capital they had no clearer idea +than had the fifteen thousand Midlanders at Barnet. All they knew was +that they were starving at home, and they could be no worse off in +London. Also in London there was to be found the Government, the +Government that had betrayed them. + +The conception of the march had been wild, the execution was lamentable. +The leaders might have taken Napoleon's descent on Moscow as their +model. Ten hand-carts exhausted their commissariat. They were to live on +the land they passed through; but the land was agricultural and poor, +the populace regarded the Monmouth colliers as foreigners, and the +response was scanty. Only one circumstance saved the march from becoming +a tragedy of hundreds instead of merely, as it was, a tragedy of scores. + +The men were being fed from London. By whom, and why, not even their +leaders knew, but each night a railway truck full of provisions was +awaiting their arrival at a station on their route, and each day the +men's leader-in-chief was informed where the next supply would be. It +influenced them to continue their journey pacifically when they must +otherwise, sooner or later, have abandoned all restraint and marched +through anarchy. It enabled them to reach London. It added another +element to the Government's distraction in their day of reckoning. It +was a Detail. + +But at Windsor there were no provisions waiting. No one knew why. The +station authorities had nothing to suggest. After a week's regular +supply the leaders had come to expect their daily truck-load, had come +to rely implicitly upon it, and had made no other arrangements. They +conferred together anxiously; it was all there was for them to do. +Windsor was not sympathetic towards them. They had not expected it to +be, but they had expected to be independent of Windsor's friendship. Two +thousand special constables escorted them in and shepherded them +assiduously. Otherwise there might have been disturbances, for a Castle +guard comprised the extent of Windsor's military resources then. As it +was, the miners reached the Royal Borough hungry, and left it famished. +A rumour spread along the ranks as they set out that an unfortunate +mistake had been made, but that supplies would be awaiting them in Hyde +Park. + +If that was a detail, as it might well have been, it was not wholly +successful. The men were hungry and dispirited, but London was not their +immediate goal. For weeks they had been telling the vacillating Cabinet +what ought to be done with the oil at Hanwood, and as they set out they +had boasted to their brothers across the Rhymney that before they +returned they would show them how to fire a beacon that would singe the +hair of five million Leaguers. Midway between Windsor and London they +proceeded to turn off from the highway under the direction of their +leaders, and debouching from the narrow lanes on to the fields beyond, +they began to advance across the country in a straggling, far-flung +wave. + +On the previous day both the Home Office and the War Office had received +applications for protection from the Company at Hanwood, backed by +evidence which left no possible doubt that the Monmouth unemployed +contemplated an organised attack on the oil store. The two departments +replied distantly, that in view of the existing conditions within the +Metropolis and the forces at their disposal, it was impossible to +despatch either troops or constabulary to protect private property in +isolated districts. Hanwood acknowledged these replies, and gave notice +with equal punctilio that they would take the best means within their +power for safeguarding their interests, and at the same time formally +notified the Government that they held them responsible, through their +failure to carry out the obligations of their office, for all the +developments that the situation might lead to--an exchange of civilities +which in private life is sometimes attained much more simply by two +disputants consigning each other to the society of the Prince of +Darkness in four words. + +Whatever there might be behind the intimation, there was little to +indicate it at dusk that afternoon. The stranger or the native passing +along Miss Lisle's secluded lane would have noticed only two +circumstances to suggest anything unusual in the air. + +A few hundred feet above the trees within the wall, a box-kite was +straining at its rope in the rising gale. From the basket car a man +watched every movement of the countryside through his field-glasses, and +conversed from time to time through a telephone with the kite section +down below. A second wire ran from the field telephone to a room of the +offices where Salt was engaged with half a dozen of the chiefs of the +Council of the League. Sir John Hampden was not present. He was +remaining in London to afford the Government every facility for +negotiating a settlement whenever they might desire it. + +In the lane, a group of men with tickets in their hats were loitering +about the bridge. They comprised a Peaceful Picket within the meaning of +the Act. They had been there since daybreak, and so far no one had shown +any wish to dispute their position. + +The war-kite and the picket in the lane were the "eyes" of the opposing +belligerents. + +The League had nothing to gain by submitting the issue to the +arbitrament of lead and fire. No one had anything to gain by it, but +after a bout at fisticuffs a defeated child will sometimes pick up a +dangerous stone and fling it. The League had accepted the challenge of +those who marched beneath the red banner for war on constitutional +lines. Some of those who marched beneath the red banner were now +disposed to try the effect of beating their ploughshares into swords, +and however much the League might have preferred them to keep to their +bargain, the most effective retort was to turn their own pacific sickles +into bayonets. + +In the staff room Salt was addressing his associates--half military, +half political--who now represented the innermost Council of the League. +Some of them had been members of former Ministries, others soldiers who +had worn the insignia of generals, but they rendered to this unknown man +among them an unquestioning allegiance, because of what he had already +done, because he inspired them with absolute reliance in what he would +yet succeed in doing, and, not least, because he had the air that fitted +the position. + +"More than two years ago," he was saying, "the first draft of the +formation and operations of the League contained a section much to the +following effect: + +"'It is an essential feature of the plan that the League should work on +constitutional lines from beginning to end and in contemplation of +bringing about the desired reforms without firing a solitary shot or +violating a single law. + +"'Nevertheless, it is inevitable that when the position becomes acute +civil disorders will arise out of the involved situation, and +demonstrations of the affected people will threaten the Government of +the day on the one hand and the proposed League on the other. + +"'In these circumstances it will be prudent to contemplate, as a last +phase of the struggle, an organised military attack on the property of +the League, masked under the form of a popular riot, but instigated or +connived at by responsible authorities. I propose, therefore, to +establish the League stores in a position naturally suited for defence, +and to adopt such further precautions as will render them secure against +ordinary attack.' + +"We have now reached that closing phase of the struggle," continued +Salt. "On the evidence of this report from Sir John Hampden we may +assume that within twenty-four hours our aggressive work will be over. +Will our opponents, in the language of the street, 'go quietly'?" + +"It has fallen to my lot to read the Riot Act on three occasions," said +one of the company, "and I have seen disturbances in Ireland; but I have +never before known an unorganised mob to surround a position completely +and then to sit down to wait for night." + +"Lieutenant Vivash wishes to speak to Mr Salt personally," said a +subordinate, appearing at the door. + +Salt stepped into the ante-room, and spoke through the telephone. + +"Yes, Vivash," he said to the man in the kite a quarter of a mile away. +"What is it?" + +"Two general service wagons with bridge-making tackle have just been +brought up, and are waiting in Welland Wood," reported Vivash. "There is +a movement among the colliers over Barfold Rise. With them are about two +hundred men carrying rifles. They are not in uniform, but they _march_." + +Salt turned to another instrument and jerked the switch rapidly from +plate to plate as he distributed his orders. + +"Captain Norris, strengthen the Territorials at the outer wire North." + +"Send up two star rockets to recall the motor-cycle scouts." + +"Tell Disturnal to have the searchlights in immediate readiness." + +"Fire brigade, full strength, turn out with chemical engine, and stand +under earthwork cover at central tank." + +He turned again to the kite telephone to ask Vivash a detail. There was +no response. + +"Get on with Lieutenant Vivash as soon as you can, and let me know at +once," he said to the one who was in charge, as he returned to the staff +room. + +In less than a minute the operator was at the door again. + +"I am afraid there is something the matter, sir," he explained. "I can +get no reply either from Lieutenant Vivash or from the kite section." + +"Ring up the despatch room. Let some one go at once to Mr Moore and +return here with report." + +"Yes, sir." He turned to go. "Here _is_ Mr Moore," he exclaimed, +standing aside from the door. + +They all read some disaster in his face as he entered. + +"I am deeply sorry to say that Lieutenant Vivash has been shot." + +"Is he seriously hurt?" asked some one. + +"He is dead. He was shot through the head by a marksman in Welland +Wood." + +Salt broke the shocked silence. + +"We have lost a brave comrade," he said simply. "Come, General Trench, +let us visit the walls." + +It was dark when they returned. Salt passed through the room, calling to +his side the man with whom he had been most closely associated at +Hanwood, and traversing some passages led the way up a winding staircase +into the lantern of the tower. Here, under the direction of an +ex-officer of Royal Engineers, two powerful searchlights were playing on +every inch of doubtful ground that lay within their radius beyond the +entanglement that marked the outer line of the defences. + +Nothing had been seen; not a solitary invader had yet shown himself +within the zone of light. The officer in charge was explaining a +technical detail of the land when, without the faintest warning, a +fulgent blaze of light suddenly ran along the edge of a coppice half a +mile away, and a noise like the crackling of a hundred new-lit fires +drifted on the wind. With the echo, a thick hedge to the east and a wood +lying on the west joined in the vicious challenge. A few bullets +splashed harmlessly against the steel shield that ingeniously protected +the lantern. + +The searchlights oscillated uncertainly from sky to earth under the +shock of the surprise, and then settled down to stream unwinkingly into +the eyes of the enemy, while in the double darkness the defenders hugged +the earth behind the wire and began to reply with cool deliberation to +the opening volleys. + +There was a knock upon the door of the little lantern room, and a +telescribe message was placed before Salt. It bore a sign showing that +it had come over the private system which the League maintained between +Hanwood and the head office. He read it through twice, and for almost +the first time since he had left his youth behind, he stood in absolute +indecision. + +"It is necessary for me to go at once to London," he said, turning to +his companion, when he had made an irrevocable choice. "You will take +command in my absence, Evelyn, under the guidance of the Council." + +"May I venture to remind you, sir, that we are completely surrounded?" +said Orr-Evelyn through his blank surprise. + +"I have not overlooked it. You will----" + +There was a sullen roar away in the north, a mile behind the coppice +that had first spoken. Something whistled overhead, not unmelodiously, +and away to the south a shell burst harmlessly among the ridges of a +ploughed field. The nearer searchlight elevated its angle a fraction and +centred upon a cloud of smoke that hung for a moment until the gale +whirled it to disintegration. The army, like the navy, had reverted to +black powder. It was Economy; and as it was not intended ever to go to +war again, it scarcely mattered. + +"Marsham will engage that gun from both platforms D and E. Make every +effort to silence it with the least delay; it is the only real menace +there is. Hold the entanglement, but not at too heavy a cost. If it +should be carried----Come to my room." + +"You have considered the possible effect of your withdrawal at this +moment, Salt?" said Orr-Evelyn in a low voice, as they hastened together +along the passages. + +"I can leave the outcome in your hands with absolute reliance," replied +Salt. "If Hanwood is successfully held until to-morrow, it will devolve +upon Sir John Hampden to dictate terms to the Government. The end is +safely in sight independent of my personality.... My reputation----!" He +dismissed that phase with a shrug. + +He threw open the door of his private office. A shallow mahogany case, +about a foot square, locked and sealed, was sunk into the opposite wall. +Salt knocked off the wax and opened the case with a key which he took +off the ring and gave to Orr-Evelyn as he spoke. Inside the case were a +dozen rows of little ivory studs, each engraved with a red number. +Fastened to the inside of the lid was a scale map of the land lying +between the outer wall and the wire fence. Every stud had its +corresponding number, surrounded by a crimson circle, indicated on the +plan. + +"If the entanglement should be carried you will take no further risk," +continued Salt. "Captain Ford will give you the general indication of +the attack from the lantern. There are two men detailed to each block of +mines who will signal you the exact moment for firing each mine. Those +are the numbered indicators above the box. Good-bye." + +He paused at the door; time was more than life to him, but he had an +ordered thought for everything. + +"If you hear no more of me, and what might be imagined really troubles +you, Evelyn, you can make use of this," he remarked, and laid the +telescript he had received upon a table. + +It was not the time for words, written or spoken, beyond those of the +sheerest necessity. Half an hour passed before Orr-Evelyn had an +opportunity of glancing through the letter that had called Salt from his +post. When he had finished it he took it down, and read it aloud to the +headquarter staff amidst the profoundest silence, in passionate +vindication of his friend and leader. This was what they heard: + + "UNITY LEAGUE, TRAFALGAR CHAMBERS. + + "The building is surrounded by mob. Seaton Street, Pantile + Passage, and Pall Mall and the Haymarket, as far as I can see, + densely packed with frantic men. All others in building had + left earlier. _I shall remain._ Wires cut, and fear that you + may not receive this, as other telescribe messages for help + unanswered. Mob howling continuously for Sir John Hampden and + Mr Salt; dare not look out again, stoned. Shall delay advance, + doors and stairs, as long as possible, and burn all important + League books and papers last resource. + + "Good-bye all, my dear friends. + + "IRENE LISLE." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE "FINIS" MESSAGE + + +The storm had not decreased its violence when, three minutes later, Salt +stood unperceived on the broad coping outside an upper storey of the +tower, and, sinking forward into the teeth of the gale, was borne +upwards with rigid wings as a kite ascends. + +In accordance with his instructions the two searchlights had turned +their beams steadily earthward for the time, and in the absolute +blackness of the upper air he could pass over the firing lines of +friends and foes in comparative safety. As he rose higher and higher +before turning to scud before the wind, he saw, as on a plan, the whole +field of operations, just distinguishable in its masses of grey and +black, with the points of interest revealing themselves by an occasional +flash. Immediately beneath him, beneath him at first, but every second +drawing away to the south-west as he drifted in the gale he breasted, +lay Hanwood, with its three outer lines of defence. From above it seemed +as though a very bright needle was every now and then thrust out from +the walls into the dark night and drawn back again. On each of the +platforms D and E two 4.7-inch quick-firing guns appeared to be rocking +slightly in the wind. By all the indication there was of smoke or noise, +or even flame, the gunners might have been standing idly behind their +shields; but over the steep scarp of the little hill, a mile and a half +away, shells were being planted every ten yards or so, with the +methodical regularity of a farmer dropping potatoes along a furrow. + +Salt might not have quite expected that there would be the necessity to +fire those guns when, a year before, he had obtained for Hanwood its +complement of the finest artillery that the world produced, but when the +necessity did arise, there was no need for the League gunners to use +black powder. + +When he had reached the height he required, simply leaning against the +wind, Salt moved a pinion slightly and bore heavily towards the right. +It was the supreme moment for the trial of skill, as the long flight +that followed it was the trial of endurance. If his nerve had failed, if +a limb had lost its tension for the fraction of a second, his brain +reeled amidst that tearing fury of the element, or a single ring or +swivel not answered to its work, he would have been crumpled up +hopelessly, beyond the chance of recovery, and flung headlong to the +earth. As it was, the wind swept him round in a great half circle, but +it was the wind his servant, not his master, and he turned its lusty +violence to serve his ends. He caught a passing glimpse of the coppice +whence the attack had first been opened; he saw beneath him the line of +guns ensconced behind the hill, one already overturned and centred in +confusion; and then the sweeping arc reached its limit, and he came, as +it seemed, to anchor in mid-air, with the earth slipping away beneath +him as the banks glide past a smoothly-moving train, and a thousand +weights and forces dragging at his aching arms. + +He had nothing to do but to maintain a perfect balance among the +conflicting cross winds that shot in from above and below, and from +north and south, and to point his course towards the glow in the sky +that marked the Capital. A dozen words could express it, but it required +the skill of the practised wingman, the highest development of every +virile quality, and the spur of a necessity not less than life and +death, to dignify the attempt above the foolhardy. Whether beyond all +that the accomplishment lay within the bounds of human endurance was a +further step. It would at that time have been impossible to pronounce +either way with any authority, for not only had the attempt never been +made, but nothing approaching the attempt had been made. A breeze that +ran five miles an hour was considered enough for any purpose; to take to +the air when the anemometer indicated fifteen miles an hour was not +allowed at the practice grounds, and the record in this direction lay +with an expert who had accomplished a straight flight in a wind that +travelled a little less than thirty miles an hour. The storm on the +night of the 15th of January tore across the face of the land with a +general velocity of fifty or sixty miles an hour, rising at times even +higher. + +Under the racking agony of every straining tendon and the heady pressure +of the wind, a sense of mundane unreality began to settle upon the +flier. He saw the earth and its landmarks being drawn smoothly and +swiftly from beneath him with the detachment of a half-conscious dream. +He saw--for he remembered afterwards--the Thames lying before him like a +whip flicked carelessly across the plain. A town loomed up, black and +inchoate, on his right, developed into streets and terraces, and slid +away into the past. It was Richmond. The river, never far away, now +slipped beneath him at right angles, reappeared to hold a parallel +course upon his left, and flung a horse-shoe coil two miles ahead. A +colony of strange shining roofs and domes next challenged recognition. +They were the conservatories at Kew, looking little more than garden +frames, and they were scarcely lost to view before he was over the +winding line of Brentford's quaint old High Street, now, as it appeared, +packed with a dense, moving crowd. The irresistible pounding of the gale +was edging the glow of London further and further to his right. +Instinctively he threw more weight into the lighter scale, and slowly +and certainly the point of his destination swung round before his face +again. + +Thenceforward it was all town. Gunnersbury became Chiswick, Chiswick +merged into Hammersmith, Kensington succeeded, in ceaseless waves of +houses that ran north and south, and long vistas of roofs that stretched +east and west. It was a kaleidoscope of contrasts. Scenes of saturnalian +gaiety, where ant-like beings danced in mad abandonment round fires that +blocked the road, or seemed to gyrate by companies in meaningless +confusion, bounded districts plunged into an unnatural gloom and +solitude, where for street after street neither the footstep of a +wayfarer nor the light of a public lamp broke the uncanny spell. +Immediately beyond, by the glare of the flambeaux which they carried, an +orderly concourse might be marching eastward, and fringing on their +route a garish gutter mart, where busy costermongers drove their roaring +trade and frugal housewives did their marketing with less outward +concern than if the crisis in the State had been a crisis in the price +of butter. + +The multitudinous sounds beat on his ears through the plunging gale like +a babel of revelry heard between the intermittent swinging of an +unlatched door. The sights in their grotesque perspective began to melt +together lazily. The upper air grew very cold. The weights hung heavier +every mile, the contending forces pulled more resistlessly. Strange +fancies began to assail him as the brain shrank beneath the strain; +doubts and despairs to gather round like dark birds of the night with +hopeless foreboding in the dull measure of their funereal wings. In that +moment mind and body almost failed to contend against the crushing odds; +nothing but his unconquerable heart flogged on his dying limbs. + +It was scarcely more than half an hour after she had written her +despairing message that from her post at the head of the broad stone +staircase Irene Lisle heard a noise in the garret storey above that sent +her flying back to her stronghold. It was the last point from which she +had expected an attack. Through the keyhole of the door behind which she +had taken refuge, she saw a strangely outlined figure groping his way +cumbrously down the stairs, and then, without a word or cry, but with a +face whiter than the paper that had summoned him, she threw open the +door to admit Salt. + +He walked heavily along the corridor and turned into his own room, while +she relocked the door and followed him. There was mute enquiry in her +eyes, but she did not speak. + +A powerful oil-stove stood upon the hearth-stone, throwing its beams +across the room. He stood over it while the beaded ice melted from his +hair and fell hissing on the iron. He opened his mouth, and the sound of +his voice was like the thin piping of a reed. She caught a word, and +began to unbuckle the frozen straps of his gear. When he was free he +tried to raise his hand to a pocket of his coat, but the effort was +beyond the power of the cramped limb. Irene interpreted the action, and, +finding there a flask, filled the cup and held it to his lips. + +She got a blue, half-frozen smile of thanks over the edge of the cup. +"Ah," he said, beginning to find his voice again, and stamping about the +room, "we owe Wynchley Slocombe a monument, you and I, Miss Lisle. Now +you must write a telescript for me, please; for I cannot." + +"If you will remain here, where it is warmer, I will bring the +materials," she suggested. + +He thanked her and allowed her to go, watching her with thoughtful eyes +that were coming back to life. She paused a moment at the top of the +stairs to listen down the shaft, and then sped quickly through the smoke +to the instrument room on the floor beneath. + +Salt glanced round the office. On and about his desk all the books and +papers that might be turned to a hostile purpose had been stacked in +readiness, and by them stood the can of oil that was to ensure their +complete destruction. He stepped up to the window and looked out +cautiously. Every pane of glass was broken--every pane of glass in +Trafalgar Chambers was broken, for that matter--but it was not easy for +an unprepared mob to force an entrance. When the Unity League had taken +over the whole block of building in its expansion many alterations had +been carried out, and among these had been to fix railings that sprang +from the street and formed an arch, not only over the basement, but over +the ground floor windows also. If the shutters on the windows had been +closed in time, the assailants would have been baffled at another point, +but the shutters had been overlooked, and the mob, after lighting great +fires in the street, was now flinging the blazing billets through the +lower windows. + +In a very brief minute Irene was back again with the telescribe +accessories. She seated herself at a table, dipped her pen into the ink, +and looked up without a word. + + "TRAFALGAR CHAMBERS. + + "6.25 P.M.," dictated Salt. "Most of the miners drawn off and + passing through Brentford. Over Barfold Rise half battery of + 18-pounders, one out of action. In Spring Coppice and Welland + Wood about four companies regulars each. Reconnoitre third + position assuming same proportion. Act." + +He stood considering whether there was anything more to add usefully. +The sound of Irene's agate pen tapping persistently against the table +caught his ear. + +"You are not very much afraid?" he asked with kindly reassurance in his +voice as he looked at her hand. + +"No, not now," she replied; but as she wrote she had to still the +violent trembling of her right hand with the left. + + "All going well here. Send messenger Hampden with report + immediately after engagement," he concluded. + +"I will try to sign it myself." He succeeded in sprawling a recognisable +"George Salt" across the paper, and after it wrote "Finis," which +happened to be the pass-word for the day. + +"Your message came through; this may possibly do the same," he remarked. +He turned off the radiator as orderly as though he had reached the close +of a working day, and they went out together, locking the doors behind +them. + +"They were attacking Hanwood when you left?" she asked with the tensest +interest. They had sent off the telescript, and it seemed to Irene that +they had reached the end of things. + +"Yes," he replied. "But all the same," he added, as a fresh outburst of +cries rose from the street, and the light through the shattered window +attracted a renewed fusillade of missiles, "I think that we have kept +our promise to let you be in the thick of it." + +She shook her head with the very faintest smile. "That seems a very long +time ago. But you, how could _you_ come? When I sent I never thought ... +I never dreamed----" + +"It was possible to leave," he said. "My work is done. Yes," in reply to +her startled glance, "it has all happened!" + +"You mean----?" she asked eagerly. + +He took a paper from his pocket-book. It was, as she saw immediately, a +telescript from Sir John Hampden. It had reached him at Hanwood an hour +before he left. + + "I have this afternoon received a deputation of Ministerialists + who have the adherence of a majority in the House without + taking the Opposition into account," she read. "The + Parliamentary Representation Committees throughout the country + are frantically insisting upon members accepting _any terms_, + if we will give an undertaking that the normal balance of trade + and labour shall be restored at once. The Cabinet is going to + pieces every hour, and the situation can no longer either be + faced or ignored by the Government. There will be a great scene + in the House to-night. The deputation will see me again + to-morrow morning with a formal decision. I have confidential + assurances that a complete acceptance is a foregone conclusion. + The arrival of the Midland colliers to-night, if not of those + from Monmouth, will precipitate matters." + +Tears she could not hold back stood in her eyes as she returned to him +the paper. "Then it has not been in vain," she said softly. + +"No," he replied. "Nothing has been in vain." + +They stood silently for a minute, looking back over life. So might two +shipwrecked passengers have stood on a frail raft waiting for the end, +resigned but not unhopeful of a larger destiny beyond, while the +elements boiled and roared around them. + +"It was very weak of me to send that message," said Irene presently; +"the message that brought you. I suppose," she added, "that it _was_ the +message that brought you?" + +"Yes, thank God!" he replied. + +"And if it had been impossible for you to come? If it had been an +utterly critical moment in every way, what would you have done?" + +He laughed a little, quietly, as he looked at her. "The question did not +arise, fortunately," he replied. + +"No," she admitted; "only I felt a little curious to know, now that +everything is over. It _is_, isn't it? There is nothing to be done?" + +"Oh yes," he replied with indomitable cheerfulness. "There is always +something to be done." + +"A chance?" she whispered incredulously. "A chance of escape, you mean?" + +"It is possible," he said. "At least, I will go and hear what they have +to say." + +"No! no!" she cried out, as a dreadful scene rose to her imagination. +"You cannot understand. Don't you hear that?... They would kill you." + +"I do not suppose that I shall find myself popular," he said with a +smile, "but I will take care. You--I think you must stay here." + +"Cannot I come with you?" she pleaded. "See, I am armed." + +He took the tiny weapon that she drew from her dress and looked at it +with gentle amusement. It was a pretty thing of ivory and nickeled +steel, an elaborate toy. He pressed the action and shook out the +half-dozen tiny loaded caps--they were little more than that--upon his +palm. + +"I would rather that you did not use this upon a mob," he said, +reloading it. "It would only exasperate, without disabling. As for +stopping a rush--why, I doubt if one of these would stop a determined +rabbit. You have better weapons than this." + +"I suppose you are right. Only it gave me a little confidence. Then you +shall keep it for a memento, if you will." + +"No; it might hold off a single assailant, I suppose. I should value +this much more, if I might have it." He touched a silk tie that she had +about her neck, as he spoke; it was one that she had often worn. She +held up her head for him to disengage it. + +"Some day," he said, lingering a little over the simple operation, "you +will understand many things, Irene." + +"I think that I understand everything now," she replied with a brave +glance. "Everything that is worth understanding." + +He placed the folded tie in an inner pocket, and went down the stone +steps without another word. The well was thick with smoke, but the fire +had not yet spread beyond the lower rooms. Half-way down he encountered +a barricade of light office furniture which the girl had flung across +the stairs and drenched with oil. It was no obstacle in itself, but at +the touch of a match it would have sprung into a conflagration that +would have held the wildest mob at bay for a few precious moments. He +picked his way through it, descended the remaining stairs, and unlocked +the outer door. Beyond this was an iron curtain that had been lowered. A +little door in it opened directly on to the half-dozen steps that led +down to Seaton Street. + +Salt looked through a crevice of the iron curtain, and listened long +enough to learn that there was no one on the upper steps; for the upper +steps, indeed, commanded no view of the windows, and the windows were +the centres of all interest. Satisfied on this point, he quietly +unlocked the door and stepped out. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +STOBALT OF SALAVEIRA + + +To the majority of those who thronged Seaton Street the effect of Salt's +sudden--instantaneous, as it seemed--and unexpected appearance was to +endow it with a dramatic, almost an uncanny, value. The front rows, +especially those standing about the steps, fell back, and the further +rows pressed forward. And because an undisciplined mob stricken by acute +surprise must express its emotion outwardly--by silence if it has +hitherto been noisy, and by exclamation if it has been silent--the +shouts and turmoil in the street instantly dwindled away to nothing, +like a breath of vapour passing from a window pane. + +Salt raised his hand, and he had the tribute of unstirring silence, the +silence for the moment of blank astonishment. + +"My friends and enemies," he said, in a voice that had learned +self-possession from the same school that Demosthenes had practised in, +"you have been calling me for some time. In a few minutes I must listen +to whatever you have to say, but first there is another matter that we +must arrange. I take it for granted that when you began your spirited +demonstration here you had no idea that there was a lady in the +building. Not being accustomed to the sterner side of politics, so +formidable a display rather disconcerted her, and not knowing the +invariable chivalry of English working men, she hesitated to come out +before. Now, as it is dark, and the streets of London are not what they +once were, I want half a dozen good stout fellows to see the lady safely +to her home." + +"Be damned!" growled a voice among the mass. "What do you take us for?" + +"Men," retorted Salt incisively; "or there would be no use in asking +you." + +"Yes, men, but famished, desperate, werewolf men," cried a poor, gaunt +creature clad in grotesque rags, who stood near. "Men who have seen +_our_ women starve and sink before our eyes; men who have watched _our_ +children dying by a slower, crooler death than fire. An eye for an eye, +tyrant! Your League has struck at _our_ women folk through us." + +"Then strike at ours through us!" cried Salt, stilling with the measured +passion of his voice the rising murmurs of assent. "I am here to offer +you a substitute. Do you think that no woman will mourn for me?" He sent +his voice ringing over their heads like a prophetic knell. "The cause +that must stoop to take the life of a defenceless woman is lost for +ever." + +As long as he could offer them surprises he could hold the mere mob in +check, but there was among the crowd an element that was not of the +crowd, a chosen sprinkling who were superior to the swaying passions of +the moment. + +"Not good enough," said a decently-dressed, comfortable-looking man, who +had little that was famished, desperate, or wolfish in his appearance. +"You're both there, and there you shall both stay, by God! Eh, +comrades?" He spoke decisively, and made a movement as though he would +head a rush towards the steps. + +Salt dropped one hand upon the iron door with a laugh that sounded more +menacing than most men's threats. + +"Not so fast, Rorke," he said contemptuously; "you grasp too much. Even +in your unpleasant business you can practise moderation. I am here, but +there is no reason on earth why I should stay. Scarcely more than half +an hour ago I was at Hanwood--where, by the way, your friends are being +rather badly crumpled up--and you are all quite helpless to prevent me +going again." + +They guessed the means; they saw the unanswerable strength of his +position, and recognised their own impotence. "Who are you, any way?" +came a dozen voices. + +"I am called George Salt: possibly you have heard the name before. Come, +men," he cried impatiently, "what have you to think twice about? Surely +it is worth while to let a harmless girl escape to make certain of that +terrible person Salt." + +There was a strangled scream in the vestibule behind. Unable to bear the +suspense any longer, Irene had crept down the stairs in time to hear the +last few sentences. For a minute she had stood transfixed at the horror +of the position she realised; then, half-frenzied, she flung herself +against Salt's arm and tried to beat her way past to face the mob. + +"You shall not!" she cried distractedly. "I will not be saved at that +price. I shall throw myself out of the window, into the fire, anywhere. +Yes, I'm desperate, but I know what I am saying. Come back, and let us +wait together; die together, if it is to be, but I don't go alone." + +The crowd began to surge restlessly about in waves of excited motion. +The interruption, in effect, had been the worst thing that could have +happened. There were in the throng many who beneath their seething +passion could appreciate the nobility of Salt's self-sacrifice; many who +in the midst of their sullen enmity were wrung with admiration for +Irene's heroic spirit, but the contagion to press forward dominated all. +Salt had irretrievably lost his hold upon their reason, and with that +hold he saw the last straw of his most forlorn hope floating away. In +another minute he must either retreat into the burning building where he +might at any time find the stairs impassable with smoke, or remain to be +overwhelmed by a savage rush and beaten to the ground. + +"Men," cried Irene desperately, "listen before you do something that +will for ever make to-day shameful in the history of our country. Do you +know whom you wish to kill? He is the greatest Englishman----" + +There were angry cries from firebrands scattered here and there among +the crowd, and a movement from behind, where the new contingents +hurrying down the side streets pressed most heavily, flung the nearest +rows upon the lower steps. Salt's revolver, which he had not shown +before, drove them back again and gave him a moment's grace. + +"Quick!" he cried. "My offer still holds good." + +One man shouldered his way through to the front, and, seeing him, Salt +allowed him to come on. He walked up the steps deliberately, with a face +sad rather than revengeful, and they spoke together hurriedly under the +shadow of the large-bore revolver. + +"If it can be done yet, I'll be one of the posse to see to the young +lady," said the volunteer. "I have no mind to wait for the other job +that's coming." + +"Take care of her; get her back into the hall," replied Salt. "Gently, +very gently, friend." + +Two more volunteers had their feet upon the steps, one, a butcher, +reeking of the stalls, the other sleek and smug-faced, with the +appearance of a prosperous artisan. + +"I'll pick my men," cried Salt sharply, and his steady weapon emphasised +his choice, one man passing on through the iron doorway, the other +turning sharp from the insistent barrel to push his way back into the +crowd with a bitter imprecation. + +It was too much to hope that the position could be maintained. The +impatient mob had only been held off momentarily from its purpose as a +pack of wolves can be stayed by the fleeing traveller who throws from +his sleigh article after article to entice their curiosity. Salt had +nothing more to offer them. His life was already a hostage to the honour +of those whom he had allowed to pass. Others were pressing on to him +with vengeance-laden cries. The terrible irresistible forward surge of a +soulless mob, when individuality is merged into the dull brutishness of +a trampling herd, was launched. + +"Capt'n Stobalt!" cried a lusty voice at his shoulder. + +Salt turned instinctively. A man in sailor's dress, with the guns and +star of his grade upon his sleeve, had climbed along the arch of the +railings with a sailor's resourcefulness, and had reached his ear. Salt +remembered him quite well, but he did not speak a word. + +"Ah, sir, I thought that warn't no other voice in the world, although +the smoke befogged my eyes a bit. Keep back, you gutter rats!" he roared +above every other sound, rising up in his commanding position and +balancing himself by a stanchion of the gate; "d'ye think you know who +you're standing up before, you toggle-chested galley-sharks! Salt? Aye, +he's _salt_ enough! 'Tis Capt'n Stobalt of the old _Ulysses_. +_Stobalt of Salaveira!_" + +Three years before, the moment would have found Salt cold, as cold as +ice, and as unresponsive, but he had learned many things since then, and +sacrificed his pride and reticence on many altars. + +He saw before him a phalanx of humanity startled into one common +expression of awe and incredulity; he saw the hostile wave that was to +overwhelm him spend itself in a sharp recoil. By a miracle the fierce +lust of triumphant savagery had died out of the starved, pathetic faces +now turned eagerly to him; by a miracle the gathering roar for vengeance +had sunk into an expectant hush, broken by nothing but the whispered +repetition of his name on ten thousand lips. He saw in a flash a hundred +details of the magic of that name; he knew that if ever in his life he +must throw restraint and moderation to the winds and paint his rôle in +broad and lurid colours, that moment had arrived, and at the call he +took his destiny between his hands. + +They saw him toss his weapon through the railings into the space +beneath, marked him come to the edge of the step and stand with folded +arms defenceless there before them, and the very whispers died away in +breathless anticipation. + +"Yes," he cried with a passionate vehemence that held their breath and +stirred their hearts, "I am Stobalt of Salaveira, the man who brought +you victory when you were trembling in despair. I saved England for you +then, but that was when men loved their country, and did not think it a +disgraceful thing to draw a sword and die for her. What is that to you +to-day, you who have been taught to forget what glory means; and what is +England to you to-day, you whose leaders have sold her splendour for a +higher wage?" + +"No! No!" cried a thousand voices, frantic to appease the man for whose +blood they had been howling scarcely a minute before. "You shall be our +leader! We will follow you to death! Stobalt of Salaveira! Stobalt for +ever! Stobalt of Salaveira! Stobalt and England!" + +The frenzied roar of welcome, the waving hands, the hats flung high, the +mingled cries caught from lip to lip went rolling up the street, +kindling by a name and an imperishable memory other streets and other +crowds into a tumult of mad enthusiasm. Along Pall Mall, through +Trafalgar Square, into the Strand and Whitehall, north by Regent Street +and the Haymarket to Piccadilly, running east and west, splitting north +and south, twisting and leaping from group to group and mouth to mouth, +ran the strange but stirring cry, carrying wonder and concern on its +wing, but always passing with a cheer. + +Seven years had passed since the day of Salaveira, and the memory of it +was still enough to stir a crowd to madness. For there had been no +Salaveiras since to dim its splendour. Seven years ago the name of +Salaveira had brought pallor to the cheek, and the thought of what was +happening there stole like an icy cramp round the heart of every +Englishman. The nation had grown accustomed to accept defeat on land +with the comfortable assurance that nothing could avert a final victory. +Its pride was in its navy: invincible!... + +The war that came had been of no one's seeking, but it came, and the +nation called upon its navy to sweep the presumptuous enemy from off the +seas. Then came a pause: a rumour, doubted, disbelieved, but growing +stronger every hour. The English fleets, not so well placed as they +might have been, "owing to political reasons that made mobilisation +inadvisable while there was still a chance of peace being maintained," +were unable to effect a junction immediately, and were falling back +before the united power of the New Alliance. Hour after hour, day after +day, night after night, crowds stood hopefully, doubtfully, +incredulously, in front of the newspaper office windows, waiting for the +news that never came. The fleets had not yet combined. The truth first +leaked, then blazed: they were unable to combine! Desperately placed on +the outer line they were falling back, ever falling back into a more +appalling isolation. A coaling station had been abandoned just where its +presence proved to have been vital; a few battleships had been dropped +from the programme, and the loss of their weight in the chain just +proved fatal. + +Men did not linger much at Fleet Street windows then; they slunk to and +fro singly a hundred times a day, read behind the empty bulletins with +poignant intuition, and turned silently away. In the mourning Capital +they led nightmare lives from which they could only awake to a more +definite despair, and the first word of the hurrying newsboy's raucous +shout sent a sickening wave of dread to every heart. There was +everything to fear, and nothing at all to hope. Could peace be made--not +a glorious, but a decent, living peace? Was--was even London safe? Kind +friends abroad threw back the answers in the fewest, crudest words. +England would have to sue for peace on bended knees and bringing heavy +tribute in her hands. London lay helpless at the mercy of the foe to +seize at any moment when it suited him. + +All this time Commander Stobalt, in command of the _Ulysses_ by the +vicissitudes of unexpected war and separated from his squadron on +detached service, was supposed to be in Cura Bay, a thousand miles away +from Salaveira, flung there with the destroyers _Limpet_ and _Dabfish_ +by the mere backwash of the triumphant allied fleet. According to the +rules of naval warfare he _ought_ to have been a thousand miles away; +according to the report of the allies' scouts he _was_ a thousand miles +away. But miraculously one foggy night the _Ulysses_ loomed spectrally +through the shifting mist that drifted uncertainly from off the land and +rammed the first leviathan that crossed her path, while the two +destroyers torpedoed her next neighbour. Then, before leviathans 3 and 4 +had begun to learn from each other what the matter was, the _Ulysses_ +was between them, sprinkling their decks and tops with small shell, and +perforating their water-line and vital parts with large shell from a +range closer than that at which any engagement had been fought out since +the day when the Treasury had begun to implore the Admiralty to impress +upon her admirals what a battleship really cost before they sent her +into action. For the _Ulysses_ had everything to gain and nothing but +herself to lose, and when morning broke over Salaveira's untidy bay, she +had gained everything, and lost so little that even the New Alliance +took no pride in mentioning it in the cross account. + +It was, of course, as every naval expert could have demonstrated on the +war-game board, an impossible thing to do. Steam, searchlights, wireless +telegraphy, quick-firing guns, and a hundred other innovations had +effaced the man; and the spirit of the Elizabethan age was at a +discount. What Drake would have done, or Hawkins, what would have been a +sweet and pleasing adventure to Sir Richard Grenville, or another Santa +Cruz to Blake, would have been in their heirs unmitigated suicide by the +verdict of any orthodox court martial. Largely imbued with the +Elizabethan spirit--the genius of ensuring everything that was possible, +and then throwing into the scale a splendid belief in much that seemed +impossible--Stobalt succeeded in doing what perhaps no one else would +have succeeded in doing, merely because perhaps no one else would have +tried. + +"Stobalt of Salaveira! Come down and lead us!" The wild enthusiasm, the +strange unusual cries, went echoing to the sky and reverberating down +every street and byway. Behind barred doors men listened to the shout, +and wondered; crouching in alleys, tramping the road with no further +hope in life, beggars and out-casts heard the name and dimly associated +it with something pleasant in the past. It met the force of special +constables hastening from the west; it fell on the ears of Mr Strummery, +driving by unfrequented ways towards the House. "Stobalt and England! +Stobalt for us! Stobalt and the Navy!" It was like another Salaveira +night with Stobalt there among them--the man who was too modest to be +fêted, the man whose very features were unknown at home, Stobalt of +Salaveira! + +Imagine it. Measure by the fading but not yet quite forgotten memory of +another time of direful humiliation and despair what Salaveira must have +been. They had passed a week of fervent exaltation, a week of calm +assurance, a week of rather tremulous hope, and for the last quarter a +long dumb misery that conveyed no other sense of time in later years +than that of formless night. They were waiting for the stroke of doom. +Then at midnight came the sudden tumult from afar, sounding to those who +listened in painful silence strangely unlike the note of defeat, the +frantic, mingled shouts, the tearing feet in the road beneath, the wild +bells pealing out, the guns and rockets to add to the delirium of the +night, and the incredible burden of the intoxicating news: "Great +Victory! Salaveira Relieved!! Utter Annihilation of the Blockading +Fleet!!!" + +The Philosopher might withdraw to solitude and moralise; the Friend of +Humanity stand aside, pained that his countrymen should possess so much +human nature, but to the great primitive emotional heart of the +community the choice lay between going out and shouting and staying in +and going mad. Never before in history had there been a victory that so +irresistibly carried the nation off its feet. To the populace it had +seemed from beginning to end to contain just those qualities of +daredevilry and fortuitous ease that appeal to the imagination. They +were quite mistaken; the conception had been desperate, but beyond that +the details of the relief of Salaveira had been as methodical, as +painstaking, and as far-seeing as those which had marked the civil +campaign now drawing to a close. + +That was why a famished, starving mob remembered Salaveira. They would +have stoned a duke or burned a bishop with very little compunction, but +Stobalt ranked among their immortals. They did not even seem to question +the mystery of Salt's identity. As the flames began to lap out of the +lower windows of Trafalgar Chambers, and it became evident that their +work there was done, a stalwart bodyguard ranged themselves about his +person and headed the procession. Hurriedly committing Irene to the +loyal sailor's charge, Stobalt resigned himself good-humouredly to his +position until he could seize an opportunity discreetly to withdraw. + +Not without some form of orderliness the great concourse marched into +the broader streets. Stobalt had no idea of their destination; possibly +there was no preconcerted plan, but--as such things happen--a single +voice raised in a pause gave the note. It did not fall on barren ground, +and the next minute the countless trampling feet moved to a brisker +step, and the new cry went rolling ominously ahead to add another terror +to the shadowy phantasmagoria of the ill-lit streets. + +"To Westminster! Down with the Government! To Westminster!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE BARGAIN OF FAMINE + + +Sir John Hampden had not to wait until the morning to meet the +deputation of Ministerialists again. Late the same evening a few men, +arriving together, presented themselves at one of the barricades that +closed the Mayfair street, and were at once admitted. Many of the +residential west-end districts which were not thoroughfares for general +traffic were stockaded in those days and maintained their street guard. +The local officials protested, the inhabitants replied by instancing a +few of the cases where an emergency had found the authorities powerless +to extend protection, and there the matter ended. It was scarcely worth +while stamping out a spark when they stood upon a volcano. + +Sir John received the members in the library--a disspirited handful of +men who had written their chapter of history and were now compelled to +pass on the book to other scribes, as every party must. Only this party +had thought that it was to be the exception. + +"Events are moving faster than the clock," apologised Cecil Brown, with +a rather dreary smile. He was present as the representative of that body +in the House which was not indisposed to be courteous and even +conciliatory in attitude towards an opponent, while it yielded nothing +of its principles: a standpoint unintelligible to most of the rank and +file of the party. "Doubtless we are not unexpected, Sir John Hampden?" + +"Comrade," corrected a member who was made of sterner metal. They were +there to deliver up their rifles, but this stalwart soldier of Equality +clung tenaciously to an empty cartridge case. + +"I am no less desirous than yourselves of coming to a settlement," +replied Sir John. "If there is still any matter of detail----?" + +The plenipotentiaries exchanged glances of some embarrassment. + +"Have you not heard?" asked Mr Soans, whose voice was the voice of the +dockyard labourers. + +"I can scarcely say until I know what you refer to," was the plausible +reply. "I have found that all communication has been cut during the last +few hours." He lightly indicated the instruments against the wall. + +They all looked towards Cecil Brown, the matter being rather an +unpleasant one. + +"The fact is, the House has been invaded by a tumultuous rabble. They +overcame all resistance by the mere force of numbers, and"--he could not +think of a less ominous phrase at the moment--"well, simply turned us +out.... Quite Cromwellian proceedings. We left them passing very large +and comprehensive resolutions," he concluded. + +"Your people!" said the uncompromising man accusingly. + +"Scarcely," protested Hampden with a smile. "The ends may be the ends of +Esau, but the means----" + +"Not our people; they couldn't possibly be ours to come and turn on us +like that." + +"Suppose we say, without defining them further," said Sir John, "that +they were simply"--he paused for a second to burn the thrust gently home +with a little caustic silence--"simply The People." + +Mr Vossit made a gesture of impatience towards his colleague. + +"Whether Queen Anne, died of gout or apoplexy isn't very material now," +he said with a touch of bitterness. "We are here to conduct the +funeral." + +"I wish to meet you in every possible way I can," interposed Hampden, +"but I must point out to you that at so short a notice I am deprived of +the counsel of any of my associates. I had hoped that by the time of the +meeting to-morrow morning----" + +"Is that necessary if the Memorandum is accepted by the Government?" + +"Without discussion?" + +Mr Vossit shrugged his shoulders. "As far as I am concerned, Sir John. +The concession of a word or two, or a phrase here and there, can make no +difference. It is our Sedan, and the heavier you make the terms, the +more there will be for us to remember it by." + +"I am content," subscribed Mr Guppling. "We have been surprised and +routed, not by the legitimate tactics of party strife, but by methods +undistinguishable from those of civil war." + +Hampden's glance was raised mechanically to an inscribed panel that hung +upon the wall in easy view, where it formed a curious decoration. The +ground colour was dull black, and on it in white lettering was set forth +a trenchant sentiment selected from the public utterances of every +prominent member of the Government and labelled with his name. It was a +vindication and a spur that he had kept before his eyes through the +years of ceaseless preparation, for in each extract one word was picked +out in the startling contrast of an almost blinding crimson, and that +one word was WAR. Even Sir John's enemies, those who called Salt a +machine of blood and iron, admitted him to be a kindly gentleman, and +his glance had been involuntary, for he had no desire to emphasise +defeat upon the vanquished. The thing was done, however, and following +the look every man who sat there met his own flamboyant challenge from +the past; for all, without exception, had thrown down the gauntlet once +in no uncertain form. War--but that had meant them waging war against +another when it was quite convenient for them to do so, not another +waging war against themselves out of season. War--but certainly not war +that turned them out of office, only war that turned their opponents out +of office. + +The rather strained silence was broken by the sound of footsteps +approaching from the hall. + +"We are still short of the Home Secretary and Comrade Tirrel," explained +Mr Chadwing to the master of the house. "We divided forces. They were +driving I understand. Perhaps----" + +It was. They came in slowly, for the Home Secretary faltered in his gait +and had a hunted look, while Tirrel led him by the arm. Both carried +traces of disorder, even of conflict. + +"Oh yes; they held us up," said Tirrel with a savage laugh, as his +colleagues gathered round. "He was recognised in Piccadilly by a crowd +of those ungrateful dogs from the pits. I shouted to the cabman to drive +through them at a gallop, but the cur jumped off his seat howling that +he was their friend. I was just able to get the reins; we bumped a bit, +but didn't upset, fortunately. I left the cab at the corner of the +street, here." He turned his back on the Home Secretary, who sat huddled +in a chair, and, facing the others, made a quick gesture indicating that +Mr Tubes was unwell and had better be left alone. + +"I brought him here, Sir John," he said, crossing over to the baronet +and speaking in a half-whisper, "because I really did not know where +else to take him. For some reason he appears to be almost execrated just +now. His house in Kilburn will be marked and watched, I am afraid. And +in that respect I daresay we are all in the same boat." + +"He appears to be ill," said Hampden, rising. "I will----" + +"Please don't," interrupted Tirrel decisively. "Any kind of attention +distresses him, I find. It is a collapse. He has been shaken for some +time past, and the attack to-night was the climax. His nerve is +completely gone." + +"As far as his safety is concerned," suggested the host with an +expression of compassion, "I think that we can ensure that here against +any irregular force. And certainly it would be the last place in which +they would think of looking for him. For the night, at least, you had +better leave him in our charge." + +"Thank you," said Tirrel; "it is very good of you. I will. Of course," +he added, as he turned away, "we shall have to assume his acquiescence +to any arrangement we may reach. Unofficially I can guarantee it." + +They seated themselves round the large table, Sir John and his private +secretary occupying one end, the plenipotentiaries ranging around the +other three sides. As they took their places Mr Drugget and another +member were announced. They did not appear to have been expected, but +they found seats among their colleagues. The Home Secretary sat apart, +cowering in an easy-chair, and stretching out his hands timorously from +time to time to meet the radiant heat of the great oil stove. + +The composition of the meeting was not quite the same as that of the +deputation which had paved the way to it earlier in the day. It was more +official, for the action of the deputation had forced the hand of the +Cabinet--to the relief of the majority of that body, it was whispered. +But there was one notable Minister absent. + +"I represent the Premier," announced Mr Drugget, rising. "If his +attendance in person can be dispensed with, he begged to be excused." + +"I offer no objection," replied Hampden. "If in the exceptional +circumstances the Prime Minister should desire to see me privately, I +will meet him elsewhere." + +"The Premier is indisposed, I regret to say." + +"In that case I would wait upon him at his own house, should he desire +it," proffered Sir John. + +"I will convey to him your offer," replied Mr Drugget. "In the meantime +I am authorised to subscribe Mr Strummery's acquiescence to the terms, +subject to one modification." + +"One word first, please," interposed Sir John. "I must repeat what I had +already said before you arrived. I am unable just now to consult my +colleagues, in concert with whom the Memorandum was drafted. If it is +necessary to refer back on any important detail----" + +Mr Tubes half rose from his chair with a pitiable look of terror in his +eyes and gave a low cry as a turbulent murmur from some distant street +reached his ears. + +"It's all right, comrade," said Cecil Brown reassuringly. "You're safe +enough here, Jim." + +"Aye, aye," whispered Tubes fearfully; "but did you hear that +shout?--'To the lamp-post!' They fling it at me from every crowd. It +haunts me. That is what I--I--yes, that is what I fear." + +"No good arguing," muttered Tirrel across the table. "Leave him to +himself; there's nothing else to be done just now." + +"I can at least express the Premier's views" resumed Mr Drugget. "He +would prefer the Bill for Amending the Franchise to be brought forward +as a private Bill by a member of the Opposition rather than make it a +Government measure. The Government would grant special facilities, and +not oppose it. The Premier would advise a dissolution immediately the +Bill passed." + +There was a knock at the library door. The secretary attended to it with +easy discretion, and for a minute was engaged in conversation with some +one beyond. + +Sir John looked at Mr Drugget in some amazement, and most of the members +of his own party regarded their leader's proxy with blank surprise. + +"I was hardly prepared for so fundamental an objection being raised at +this hour," said the baronet. "It amounts, of course, to bringing an +alternative proposal forward." + +"The result would be the same; I submit that it is scarcely more than a +matter of detail." + +"Then why press it?" + +Mr Drugget's expression seemed to convey the suggestion that he had no +personal wishes at all in the matter, but felt obliged to make the best +case he could for his chief. + +"The Premier not unnaturally desires that the real authors of so +retrogressive and tyrannical an Act should be saddled with the nominal +as well as the actual responsibility," he replied. "Possibly he fears +that in some remote future the circumstances will be forgotten, and his +name be handed down as that of a traitor." + +The private secretary took the opportunity of the sympathetic murmur +which this attitude evoked to exchange a sentence with Sir John. Then he +turned to the door and beckoned to the man who stood outside. + +"I must ask your indulgence towards a short interruption, gentlemen," +said Hampden, as a cyclist, in grey uniform, entered and handed him a +despatch. "It is possible that some of my friends may even now be on +their way to join me." + +They all regarded the messenger with a momentary curious interest; all +except two among them. Over Mr Drugget and the comrade who had arrived +with him the incident seemed to exercise an absorbing fascination. After +a single, it almost seemed a startled, glance at the soldier-cyclist, +their eyes met in a mutual impulse, and then instantly turned again to +fix on Hampden's face half-stealthily, but as tensely as though they +would tear the secret from behind his unemotional expression. + +"It's all very well, Drugget--in justice," anxiously murmured Mr Vossit +across the table, "but, as things are, we've got to be quick, and accept +considerably less than justice. For Heaven's sake, don't prolong the +agony, after to-day's experience." + +"If you hang on to that," warned Mr Guppling, "you will only end in +putting off till to-morrow not a whit better terms than you can make +to-night." + +"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," muttered Mr Drugget impatiently, not +withdrawing his fascinated gaze. + +In the silence of the room they again heard the crescive ululation of +the street, distant still, but sounding louder than before to their +strained imagination, and terrible in its suggestion of overwhelming, +unappeasable menace. Mr Tubes started uneasily in his chair. + +"Will _that_ wait?" demanded Mr Guppling with some passion. + +"A very little time longer; your coming here to-night has thrown us +out," pleaded Mr Drugget's companion, in a more conciliatory whisper. +"To-morrow morning, a few hours, an hour--perhaps even----" + +The messenger had been dismissed without an answer. Looking up with +sudden directness, Hampden caught one man's eyes fixed on him with a +furtive intensity that betrayed his hopes and fears. + +"The attack on Hanwood has completely failed," quietly announced Sir +John, holding the startled gaze relentlessly. "The guns have been +captured and brought in. The troops have been surrounded, disarmed, and +dispersed, with the exception of those of the higher rank who are +detained. There have, unfortunately, been casualties on both sides." + +"I--I--I--Why do you address yourself to me, Sir John?" stammered the +disconcerted man, turning very white, and exhibiting every painful sign +of guilt and apprehension. + +"Are we to understand that your property at Hanwood has been attacked by +an armed force of regulars?" asked one with sincere incredulity, as +Hampden remained silent. + +"It is unhappily true." + +"And defended by an evidently superior force of armed men, unlawfully +assembled there," retorted a militant comrade defiantly. + +"In view of the strained position to which the circumstances must give +rise, I will take the responsibility of withdrawing the Premier's one +objection to the Memorandum as it stands," announced Mr Drugget with dry +lips. + +"In that case I will ask Mr Lloyd to read the terms of the agreement +formally before we append our signatures," said Hampden, without +offering any further comment. + +A printed copy of the Articles was passed to each delegate; on the table +before Sir John lay the engrossed form in duplicate. From one of these +the secretary proceeded to read the terms of the agreement, which was +frankly recognised on both sides as the death-warrant of socialistic +ascendency in England. + +From the Government the League required only one thing: the immediate +passing of "A Bill to amend the Qualifications of Voters in +Parliamentary Elections," to be followed by a dissolution and its +inevitable consequence, a general election. But of the result of that +election no one need cherish any illusions, for it would be decided +according to the new qualification; and shorn of its parliamentary +phraseology, the new Act was to sweep away the existing adult suffrage, +and, broadly, substitute for it a £10 occupation qualification, with, +still worse, a plurality of voting power in multiples of £10, according +to the rateable value of the premises occupied. It was wholly immoral +according to the democratic tendency of the preceding age, but it was +wholly necessary according to the situation which had resulted from it. + +A genial Autocrat, Professor, and Poet has set forth in one of his +works, for the sake of the warning it conveys, the story of a little boy +who, on coming into the possession of a nice silver watch, and examining +it closely, discovered among the works "a confounded little _hair_ +entangled round the balance-wheel." Of course his first care was to +remove this palpable obstruction, with the result that the watch +accomplished the work of twenty-four hours in an insignificant fraction +of a second, and then refused to have anything more to do with practical +chronometry. On coming into possession of their new toy the Socialists +had discovered many "confounded little _hairs_" wrapped away among the +works of that elaborate piece of machinery, the English Constitution, +all obviously impeding its free working. Recklessly, even gaily, they +had pulled them out one after another, cut them across the middle and +left pieces hanging if they could not find the ends, dragged out lengths +anyhow. For a time the effect had been dazzlingly pyro-technical when +seen from below. The Constitution had gone very, very, very fast; it had +covered centuries in a few years; and as it went it got faster. But +unfortunately it had stopped suddenly. And every one saw that while it +remained in the hands of its nominal masters it would never go again. + +Had the times been less critical some other means of effecting the same +end might have been found. But although it was scarcely more than +whispered yet, for four hours England had been involved in actual, +deadly, civil war; and water once spilled is hard to gather up. Under +ordinary circumstances the expedient of disenfranchising a party would +have proved unpopular even with the bitterest among that party's +enemies. As it was, it was simply accepted as the necessary +counterstroke to their own policy of aggression. + +"If the 'most business-like Government of modern times' can instance a +single business where eleven shareholders to the amount of a sovereign +apiece can come in and outvote ten shareholders who have each a stake of +a thousand pounds in the concern, and then proceed to wreck it," was a +remark typical of the view people took, "then--why, then the record of +the Government will lose its distinction as an absolutely unique blend +of fatuous imbecility and ramping injustice, that's all." + +So there was to be a general election very soon in which the issue would +lie between the League party and the shattered, shipwrecked +Administration that had no leaders, no coherence, and scarcely a name to +rally to. It was estimated that Labour of one complexion or another +might hold between thirty and forty seats, if the working classes cared +to support representatives after the Payment of Members Act had been +repealed. It was computed that in more than four hundred constituencies +League candidates would be returned unopposed. There could be no denying +that our countrymen of 1918 (_circa_) lived through an interesting +period of their country's history. The League party would go to the poll +with no pledges, and their policy for the present was summed up in the +single phrase, "As in 1905." It was to be the cleanest of slates. + +"How soon can the Bill become law under the most expeditious handling?" +Hampden had asked of those who formed the earlier deputation, and the +answer had been, "Three days!" Solely from the "business" point of view +it was magnificent, and it was certainly convenient as matters stood. In +three more days a general election could be in full swing, waged, in the +emergency, on the existing register supplemented by the books of the +local authorities and the voters' receipts for rates or taxes. In a +single day it could be over. Within a week England would have +experienced a change in her affairs as far-reaching as the Conquest or +the Restoration. + +Mr Lloyd, to return to Sir John Hampden's library, read the first +article to the breathless assembly. It had been tacitly agreed that the +time had come when the conditions must be accepted without discussion; +but when the fateful clause was finished a deep groan, not in empty +hostile demonstration, but irresistibly torn from the unfeigned depths +of their emotion, escaped many of the Ministers. Boabdil el Chico's +sigh, when he reached the point where the towers and minarets of Granada +were lost to him for ever, was not more sincere or heart-racked. Even +Sir John could not have claimed that he felt unmoved. + +The secretary read on. The League entered into certain undertakings. It +guaranteed that the normal conditions of the home coal trade should be +restored, and the men called back to the pits by an immediate order for +ten million tons. Temporary relief work of various kinds would be +instituted at once to meet the distress. The Unemployed Grant would be +reopened for nine weeks to carry over the winter; for three weeks fully, +for three weeks at the rate of two-thirds, and for the last period +reduced to one-third. The colliers in London would be carried back to +their own districts as fast as the railways could get out the trains. + +There were many other points of detail, and they all had a common +aim--the obliteration of the immediate past and the restoration of that +public confidence which in a country possessing natural resources is the +foundation stone of national prosperity. Already there were facts for +the present and portents for the future. Men of influence and position, +who had been driven out of England by the terrible atmosphere of +political squalor cast over an Empire by a Government that had learned +to think municipally, were even now beginning to return; and that most +responsive seismograph which faithfully reflected every change in the +world's condition for good or ill predicted better times. In other +words, consols had risen in three months from 54-1/2 to 68 and the bulk +of the buying was said to be for investment. + +"If it is not trenching on the forbidden ground, I should like to ask +for an assurance on one point," said a member with a dash of acrimony. +The secretary had finished his task, and then for perhaps ten seconds +they had sat in silence, speculating half unconsciously upon the future, +as each dimly saw it, that lay beyond the momentous step they were about +to take. "I refer to the question of coal export. It is, of course, a +more important outlet than the domestic home consumption. Is the League +in a position to guarantee that the taxation will be rescinded without +delay?" + +"I think it would be a very unwarrantable presumption for us to assume +that any one outside the governments of the countries interested +possesses that influence, and that it would be a very undesirable, a +very undiplomatic, proceeding to hint at the possibility of any such +concession in the document I have before me," replied Sir John suavely. +"Beyond that, I would add that it will be manifestly to the interest of +the next government to restore the bulk of foreign trade to a normal +level; and that should the League party find itself in office, it will +certainly make representations through the usual channels." + +"Quite like old times," said Mr Soans dryly. "I suppose that we shall +have to be content with that. Let us hope that it will prove a true +saying that those who hide can find." + +He picked up a pen as he finished speaking, signed the paper that had +been passed to him first by reason of his position at the table, and +thrust it vehemently from him to his neighbour. Mr Chadwing held up his +pen to the light to make sure that it contained no obstruction on so +important an occasion, signed his name with clerkly precision, and then +carefully wiped his pen on the lining of his coat. Cecil Brown looked +down with the faint smile that covered his saddest moments as he added +the slender strokes of his signature, and Tirrel dashed off the +ink-laden characters of his with tightened lips and a sombre frown. +Consciously or unconsciously every man betrayed some touch of character +in that act. Mr Vossit made a wry grimace as he passed the paper on; and +Mr Guppling, with an eye on a possible line in Fame's calendar, snapped +his traitorous pen in two and cast the pieces dramatically to the +ground. + +When the last signature had been written, some of the members stood up +to take their leave at once, but Hampden and Tirrel made a simultaneous +motion to detain them. The master of the house gave way to his guest. + +"I am not up to cry over spilled milk," said Tirrel with his customary +bluntness. "What is done, is done. We shall carry out the terms, Sir +John Hampden, and you and your party will be in office in a week. But +you are not merely taking over the administration of a constitution: you +are taking over a defeated country. I ask you, as the head of your party +and the future Premier, to do one thing, and I ask it entirely on my own +initiative, and without the suggestion or even the knowledge of my +friends or colleagues. Let your first act be to publish a general +amnesty. It does not touch me.... But there have been things on both +sides. You may perhaps know my views; I would have crushed your League +by strong means when it was possible if I had had my way. None the less, +there is not the most shadowy charge that could hang over me to-day, and +for that reason it is permissible for me to put in this petition. The +nation is shattered, torn, helpless. Do not look too closely into the +past ... pacify." + +"The question has not arisen between my associates and myself, but I do +not imagine that we should hold conflicting views, and I may say that +for my part I enter cordially into the spirit of the suggestion," +replied Hampden frankly. "Anything irregular that could come within the +meaning of political action in its widest sense I should be favourable +towards making the object of a general pardon.... While we are together, +I will go a step further, and on this point I have the expressed +agreement of my friends. You, sir, have assumed without any reserve that +our party will be returned to office. I accept that assumption. You have +also compared our work to the pacification of a conquered nation. That +also may be largely admitted. We shall be less a political party +returned to power by the even chances of a keenly-fought election, and +checked by an alert opposition, than a social autocracy imposing our +wishes--as we believe for the public good--on the country. For twenty +years, as I forecast the future, there will be no effective opposition. +Yet a great deal of our work will have reference to the class whom the +opposition would represent, the class upon whose wise and statesmanlike +pacification the tranquillity, and largely the prosperity, of the +country, will depend." + +Some few began to catch the drift of Hampden's meaning, and those who +did all glanced instinctively towards Cecil Brown. + +"You have used, and I have accepted, the comparison of a conquered +nation," continued Sir John. "When a country has been forcibly occupied +the work of pacification is one of the first taken in hand by a prudent +conqueror. There is usually a Board or Committee of Conciliation, and in +that body are to be found some of the foremost of those who resisted +invasion while resistance seemed availing.... It would be analogous to +that, in my opinion, if a supporter of the present Government was +offered and accepted a position in the next. There would be no +suggestion--there would be no possibility--of his being in accord with +the Cabinet in its general policy. He would be there as an expert to +render service to both parties in the work of healing the scars of +conflict. If the proposal appears to be exceptional and the position +untenable at first sight, it is only because the prosaic parliamentary +machinery of normal times has by a miracle been preserved into times +that are abnormal." + +There was an infection of low laughter, amused, sardonic, some +good-natured and a little ill-natured, and a few cries of "Cecil Brown!" +in a subdued key. + +"The moment seemed a favourable one for laying the proposal before the +members of the Government," went on Hampden, unmoved, "though, of +course, I do not expect an answer now. On the assumption that we are +returned to power, it is our intention to create a new department to +exist as long as the conditions require it, and certainly as long as the +next Parliament. Its work will be largely conciliation, and it will deal +with the disorganisation of labour. In the same confidential spirit with +which you have spoken of the future without reserve, I may say that +should I be called upon to form a Ministry, I shall--and I have the +definite acquiescence of my colleagues--offer the Presidentship of the +Board to Mr Cecil Brown ... the office of Parliamentary Secretary to Mr +Tirrel." + +If Hampden had wished to surprise, he certainly succeeded. The open +laugh that greeted the first name was cut off as suddenly and completely +as the light is cut off when the gas-tap is turned, by the gasp that the +second name evoked. To many among them the offer had been the merest +party move; Cecil Brown's name a foregone conclusion. The addition of +Tirrel, whose rather brilliant qualities and quite fantastic sense of +honour they were prone to lose sight of behind his vehement +battle-front, was stupefying. + +It was Tirrel who was the first to break the silence of astonishment on +this occasion, not even waiting, with characteristic impetuousness, for +his chief-designate to offer an opinion. + +"You say that you do not want an answer now, Sir John, but you may have +it, as far as I am concerned," he cried, with the defiant air that +marked his controversial passages. "From any other man of your party the +proposal would have been an insult; from you it is an amiable mistake. +_You_ do not think that you can buy us with the bribe of office, but you +think that there is no further party work for us to do: that Socialism +in England to-day is dead. I tell you, Sir John Hampden, with the +absolute conviction of an inspired truth, that it will triumph yet. You +will not see it; I may not see it, but it is more likely that the hand +of Time itself should fail than that the ideals to which we cling should +cease to draw men on. We, who are the earliest pioneers of that +untrodden path, have made many mistakes; we are paying for them now; but +we have learned. Some of our mistakes have brought want and suffering to +thousands of your class, but for hundreds of years your mistakes have +been bringing starvation and misery to millions of our class. From your +presence we go down again into the weary years of bondage, to work +silently and unmarked among those depths of human misery from which our +charter springs. I warn you, Sir John Hampden--for I know that the +warning will be dead and forgotten before the year is out--that our +reign will come again; and when the star of a new and purified Socialism +arises once more on a prepared and receptive world the very forces of +nature would not be strong enough to arrest its triumphant course." + +"Hear! hear!" said Mr Vossit perfunctorily, as he looked round +solicitously for his hat. "Well, I suppose we may as well be going." + +Cecil Brown recalled his wistful smile from the contemplation of a +future chequered with many scenes of light and shade. + +"I thank you, Sir John," he replied with a look of friendly +understanding, "but I also must go down with my own party." + +"I hope that the decision in neither case will be irrevocable," said +Hampden with regret, but as he spoke he knew that the hope was vain. + +They had already begun to file out of the room, with a touch here and +there of that air of constraint that the party had never been quite able +to shake off on ceremonial occasions. They left Mr Tubes cowering before +the stove, and raising his head nervously from time to time to listen to +the noises of the street. + +Mr Guppling, determined that his claims should not escape the eye of +Fame, paused at the door. + +"When we leave this room, John Hampden," he proclaimed in a loud and +impressive voice, and throwing out his hand with an appropriate gesture, +"we leave Liberty behind us, bound, gagged, and helpless, on the floor!" + +"Very true, Mr Guppling," replied Sir John good-humouredly. "We will +devote our first efforts to releasing her." + +Mr Guppling smiled a bitter, cutting smile, and left the shaft to +rankle. It was not until he was out in the street that a sense of the +possible ambiguity of his unfortunate remark overwhelmed him with +disgust. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +"POOR ENGLAND." + + +With the account of the signing of the dissolution terms, and a brief +reference to the sweeping victory of the League party--already +foreshadowed, indeed, to the point of the inevitable--the unknown +chronicler, whose version of the Social War this narrative has followed, +brings his annals to a close. That war being finished, and by the +repudiation of their Socialistic mentors on the part of a large section +of the working classes, finished by more than a mere paper treaty, the +worthy scribe announces with praiseworthy restraint that there is no +more to be said. + +"These men," he declares, in the quaint and archaic language of the +past,--and he might surely have added "these women" also--"came not +reluctantly, but in no wise ambitiously, out of the business of their +own private lives to serve their country as they deemed; and that being +accomplished to a successful end, would have returned, nothing loth, to +more obscure affairs, having sought no personal gain beyond that which +grew from public security, an equitable burden of citizenship, and a +recovered pride among the nations. Albeit some must needs remain to +carry on the work." + +Even the not unimportant detail of who remained to carry on the work, +and in what capacities, is not recorded, but the distribution of rewards +and penalties, on the lines of strict poetic justice, may be safely left +to the individual reader's sympathies, with the definite assurance that +everything happened exactly as he would have it. At the length of three +times as much space as would have sufficed to dispose of these points +once and for all, this superexact historian goes on to set out his +reasons for not doing so. He claims, in short, that his object was to +portray the course of the social war, not to recount the adventures of +mere individuals; and with the suggestion of a wink between his pen and +paper that may raise a doubt whether he, on his side, might not be +endowed with the power of casting a critical eye upon other periods than +his own, he indulges in a little pleasantry at the expense of writers +who, under the pretext of developing their hero's character, begin with +his parent's childhood, and continue to the time of his grandchildren's +youth. For himself, he asserts that nothing apart from the course of the +social war, its rise and progress, has been allowed to intrude, and that +ended, and their work accomplished, its champions are rather heroically +treated, very much as the Arabian magician's army was disposed of until +it was required again, and to all intents and purposes turned into stone +just where they stood. + +But from other sources it is possible to glean a little here and there +of the course of subsequent events. To this patchwork record the +_Minneapolis Journal_ contributes a cartoon laden with the American +satirist's invariable wealth of detail. + +A very emaciated John Bull, stretched on his bed, is just struggling +back to consciousness and life. On a table by his side stands a bottle +labelled "Hampden's U. L. Mixture," to which he owes recovery. On the +walls one sees various maps which depict a remarkably Little England +indeed. Some sagacious economist, in search of a strip of canvas with +which to hold together a broken model of a black man, has torn off the +greater part of South Africa for the purpose. Over India a spider has +been left to spin a web so that scarcely any of the Empire is now to be +seen. Upper Egypt is lost behind a squab of ink which an irresponsible +urchin has mischievously taken the opportunity to fling. Every colony +and possession shows signs of some ill-usage. + +"Say, John," "Uncle Sam," who has looked in, is represented as saying, +"you've had a bad touch of the 'sleeping sickness.' You'd better take +things easy for a spell to recuperate. I'll keep an eye on your house +while you go to the seashore." + +That was to be England's proud destiny for the next few years--to take +things easy and recuperate! There is nothing else for the pale and +shaken convalescent to do; but the man who has delighted in his strength +feels his heart and soul rebel against the necessity. Fortunate for +England that she had good friends in that direful hour. The United +States, sinking those small rivalries over which cousins may strive even +noisily at times in amiable contention, stretched a hand across the +waters and astonished Europe by the message, "Who strikes England +wantonly, strikes me": a sentiment driven home by the diplomatic hint +that for the time being the Monroe Doctrine was suspended west of Suez. + +France--France who had been so chivalrously true to her own ally in that +stricken giant's day of incredible humiliation--looked across The Sleeve +with troubled, anxious eyes, and whispered words of sympathy and hope. +Gently, very tactfully, she offered friendship with both hands, without +a tinge of the patronage or protection that she could extend; and by the +living example of her own tempestuous past and gallant recovery from +every blow, pointed the way to power and self-respect. + +Japan, whose treaty had been thrown unceremoniously back to her many +years before, now drew near again with the cheerful smile that is so +mild in peace, so terrible in war. Prefacing that her own enviable +position was entirely due to the enlightened virtues of her emperor, she +now proposed another compact on broad and generous lines, by which +England--a "high contracting Power," as she was still magnanimously +described--was spared the most fruitful cause for anxiety in the East. + +"You didn't mind allying with us when you were at the head of the +nations," said Japan. "We come to you--now. Besides, all very good +business for us in the end. You build up again all right, no time." + +Japan's authority to speak on the subject of "building up" was not to be +disputed. The nations had forgotten the time, scarcely a quarter of a +century before, when they had been amused by "Little Japan's" +progressive ambitions. And when Japan had taken over the "awakening" +arrangements of a sister-nation on terms that gave her fifty million +potential warriors to draw upon and train (warriors whom one of +England's most revered generals had characterised as "Easily led; easily +fed; fearless of death"), non-amusement in some quarters gave way to +positive trepidation. + +The sympathetic nations spoke together, and agreed that something must +be done to give "Poor England" another chance; as, in the world of +commerce, friendly rivals will often gather round the man who has fallen +on evil days to set him on his feet again. + +So England was to have a fair field and liberty to work out her own +salvation. But she was not to wake up and find that it had all been a +hideous dream. Egypt had been put back to the time of the Khalifa. India +had lost sixty years of pacification and progress. Ireland was a +republic, at least in name, and depending largely on Commemoration +Issues of postage stamps for a revenue. South Africa was for the South +Africans. There were many other interesting items, but these were, as it +might be expressed to a nation of shopkeepers, the leading lines. + +If the worst abroad was bad enough, there was one encouraging feature at +home. With the election of the new government industries began to +revive, trade to improve, the money market to throw off its depression, +and the natural demand for labour to increase: not gradually, but +instantly, phenomenally. It was as though a dam across some great river +had been removed, and with the impetus every sluggish little tributary +was quickened and drawn on in new and sparkling animation. It was not +necessary to argue upon it from a party point of view; it was a concrete +fact that every one admitted. There was only one explanation, and it met +the eye at every turn. Capital reappeared, and money began to circulate +freely again. Why? There was security. + +It was not the Millennium; it was the year 19--, and a "capitalistic" +government was in office; but the "masses" discovered that they were +certainly not worse off than before. Working men now wore, it is true, a +little less of the air of being so many presidents of South American +republics when they walked about the streets; but that style had never +really suited them, and they soon got out of it. The men who had come +into power were not of the class who oppress. The strife of the past was +being forgotten; its lessons were remembered. What was good and +practical of Socialistic legislation was retained. So it came about that +the vanquished gained more by defeat than they would have done by +victory. + +It was undeniable that, in common with mankind at large, they still from +time to time experienced pain, sickness, disappointment, hardship, and +general adversity. Those who were employed by gentlemen were treated as +gentlemen treat their work-people; those who were so unfortunate as to +be in the service of employers who had no claim to that title continued +to be treated as cads and despots treat their employés. Those among them +who were gentlemen themselves extended a courteous spirit towards their +masters, and those among them who were the reverse continued to act +towards employers and the world around as churls and blusterers act, and +so the compensating balance of nature was more or less harmoniously +preserved. + +And what of the future? Will the nation that was so sharply taught dread +the fire like the burned child, or return to the flame as the scorched +moth does? Alas, the memory of a people is short, even as the wisdom of +a proverb is conflictingly two-edged. + +Or, if the warning fades and the necessity grows large again, will there +be found another Stobalt to respond to the call? "For those whom Heaven +afflicts there is a chance," contributes the Sage of another land; "but +they who persistently work out their own undoing are indeed hopeless." + +Or may it be that the faith of Tirrel will be justified, and that in the +process of time there will emerge from man's ceaseless groping after +perfection a new wisdom, under whose yet undreamt-of scheme and +dispensation all men will be content and reconciled? + +The philosopher shakes his head weightily and remains silent--thereby +adding to his reputation. The prophets prophesy; the old men dream +dreams and the young men see visions, and the dispassionate speculate. +On all sides there is a multitude of the counsel in which, as we must +believe, lies wisdom. + +It is an interesting situation, and as it can only be definitely settled +beyond the dim vista of future centuries, the pity is that we shall +never know. + + +THE END. + + + + +NELSON LIBRARY + +_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME._ + + + 1. The Marriage of William Ashe. + 2. The Intrusions of Peggy. + 3. The Fortune of Christina M'Nab. + 4. The Battle of the Strong. + 5. Robert Elsmere. + 6. No. 5 John Street. + 7. Quisanté. + 8. Incomparable Bellairs. + 9. History of David Grieve. + 10. The King's Mirror. + 11. John Charity. + 12. Clementina. + 13. If Youth but Knew. + 14. The American Prisoner. + 15. His Grace. + 16. The Hosts of the Lord. + 17. The God in the Car. + 18. The Lady of the Barge. + 19. The Odd Women. + 20. Matthew Austin. + 21. The Translation of a Savage. + 22. The Octopus. + 23. White Fang. + 24. The Princess Passes. + 25. Sir John Constantine. + 26. The Man from America. + 27. A Lame Dog's Diary. + 28. The Recipe for Diamonds. + 29. Woodside Farm. + 30. Monsieur Beaucaire, and The Beautiful Lady. + 31. The Pit. + 32. An Adventurer of the North. + 33. The Wages of Sin. + 34. Lady Audley's Secret. + 35. Eight Days. + 36. Owd Bob. + 37. The Duenna of a Genius. + 38. His Honor and a Lady. + 39. Marcella. + 40. Selah Harrison. + 41. The House with the Green Shutters. + 42. Mrs Galer's Business. + 43. Old Gorgon Graham. + 44. Major Vigoureux. + 45. The Gateless Barrier. + 46. Kipps. + 47. Moonfleet. + 48. Springtime. + 49. French Nan. + 50. The Food of the Gods. + 51. Raffles. + 52. Cynthia's Way. + 53. Clarissa Furiosa. + 54. Love and Mr Lewisham. + 55. The Lonely Lady of Grosvenor Square. + 56. Thompson's Progress. + 57. The Primrose Path. + 58. Lady Rose's Daughter. + 59. Romance. + 60. The War of the Carolinas. + 61. Katharine Frensham. + 62. The Professor on the Case. + 63. Love and the Soul-Hunters. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Secret of the League, by Ernest Bramah + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE *** + +***** This file should be named 34522-8.txt or 34522-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/5/2/34522/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Secret of the League + The Story of a Social War + +Author: Ernest Bramah + +Release Date: November 30, 2010 [EBook #34522] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/tp.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE</h1> + +<h3>The Story of a Social War</h3> + +<h2>By ERNEST BRAMAH</h2> + + +<h3>THOMAS NELSON<br /> +AND SONS</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/front.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3>She began to unbuckle the frozen straps of his gear.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">Irene</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">The Period, and the Coming of Wings</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">The Million to One Chance</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. <span class="smcap">The Compact</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">The Downtrodden</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">Miss Lisle tells a Long Pointless Story</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. "<span class="smcap">Schedule B</span>"</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">Tantroy earns his Wage</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">Secret History</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">The Order of St. Martin of Tours</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">Man between Two Masters</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. <span class="smcap">By Telescribe</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">The Effect of the Bomb</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">The Last Chance and the Counsel of Expedience</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">The Great Fiasco</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">The Dark Winter</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">The Incident of the 13th of January</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">The Music and the Dance</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <span class="smcap">The "Finis" Message</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. <span class="smcap">Stobalt of Salaveira</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. <span class="smcap">The Bargain of Famine</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. "<span class="smcap">Poor England</span>"</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#NELSON_LIBRARY">NELSON LIBRARY</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>IRENE</h3> + + +<p>"I suppose I am old-fashioned"—there was a murmur of polite dissent +from all the ladies present, except the one addressed—"Oh, I take it as +a compliment nowadays, I assure you; but when I was a girl a young lady +would have no more thought of flying than of"—she paused almost on a +note of pained surprise at finding the familiar comparison of a lifetime +cut off—"well, of standing on her head."</p> + +<p>"No," replied the young lady in point, with the unfeeling candour that +marked the youthful spirit of the age, "because it wasn't invented. But +you went bicycling, and your mothers were very shocked at first."</p> + +<p>"I hardly think that you can say that, Miss Lisle," remarked another of +the matrons, "because I can remember that more than twenty years ago one +used to see quite elderly ladies bicycling."</p> + +<p>"After the others had lived all the ridicule down," retorted Miss Lisle +scornfully. "Oh yes; I quite expect that in a few more years you will +see quite elderly ladies flying."</p> + +<p>The little party of matrons seated on the Hastings promenade regarded +each other surreptitiously, and one or two smiled slightly, while one or +two shuddered slightly. "Flying is very different, dear," said Mrs Lisle +reprovingly. "I often think of what your dear grandfather used to say. +He said"—impressively—"that if the Almighty had intended that we +should fly, He would have sent us into the world with wings upon our +backs."</p> + +<p>There was a murmur of approval from all—all except Miss Lisle, that is.</p> + +<p>"But do you ever think of what Geoffrey replied to dear grandpapa when +he heard him say that once, mother?" said the unimpressed daughter. "He +said: 'And don't you think, sir, that if the Almighty had intended us to +use railways, He would have sent us into the world with wheels upon our +feet?'"</p> + +<p>"I do not see any connection at all between the two things," replied her +mother distantly. "And such a remark seems to me to be simply +irreverent. Birds are born with wings, and insects, and so on, but +nothing, as far as I am aware, is born with wheels. Your grandfather +used to travel by the South Eastern regularly every day, or how could he +have reached his office? and he never saw anything wrong in using +trains, I am sure. In fact, when you think of it you will see that what +Geoffrey said, instead of being any argument, was supremely silly."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he intended it to be," replied Miss Lisle with suspicious +meekness. "You never know, mother."</p> + +<p>Such a remark merited no serious attention. Why should any one, least of +all a really clever young man like Geoffrey, deliberately <i>intend</i> to be +silly? There was too often, her mother had observed, an utter lack of +relevance in Irene's remarks.</p> + +<p>"I think that it is a great mistake to have white flying costumes as so +many do," observed another lady. "They look—but perhaps they wish to."</p> + +<p>"Certainly when they use lace as well it really seems as though they do. +Oh!"</p> + +<p>There was a passing shadow across the group and a slight rustle in the +air. Scarcely a dozen yards above the promenade a young lady was flying +strongly down the wind with the languid motion of the "swan stroke." She +wore white—and lace trimming. Mrs Lisle gazed fixedly out to sea. Even +Irene felt that the vision was inopportune.</p> + +<p>"There are always some who overdo a thing," she remarked. "There always +have been. That was only Velma St Saint of the New Gaiety; she flies +about the front every day for the advertisement of the thing: I wonder +that she doesn't drop handbills as she goes. There's plenty of room up +on the Castle Hill—in fact, you aren't supposed to fly west of the +Breakwater—but there will always be some——" A vague resentment closed +the period.</p> + +<p>"Are you staying at the Palatial this time?" asked the lady who had +mentioned lace, feeling it tactful to change the subject. "I think that +you used to."</p> + +<p>"Oh, haven't you seen?" was the reply. "The Palatial has been closed for +the last six months."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's a great pity," remarked another. "It looks so depressing too, +right on the front. But they simply could not go on. I suppose that the +rates here are something frightful now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, enormous, my dear; but it was not that alone. The Palatial has +always aimed at being a 'popular' hotel, and so few of the upper middle +class can afford hotels now. Then the new tax on every servant above +one—calculated as fifty per cent. of their wages, I think, but there +are so many new taxes to remember—proved the last straw."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is fifty per cent. I remember because I had to give up my +between-maid to pay the cook's tax. But I thought that hotels were to be +exempt?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the end. It was argued that hotels existed for the convenience +of the monied classes, and that they ought to pay for it. So a large +number of hotels are closed altogether; others work with a reduced +staff, and a great many servants have been thrown out of employment."</p> + +<p>Miss Lisle laughed unpleasantly. "A good thing, too," she remarked. "I +hate hotel servants. So does everybody. It is the only good thing I have +heard of the Labour Government doing."</p> + +<p>"I am sure I don't hate them," said Mrs Lisle, looking round with +pathetic resignation, "although they certainly had become rather +grasping and over-bearing of late. But it was quite an unforeseen +development of the scheme that so many should lose their places. Indeed +the special object of the tax was to create a fund—'earmarked' I think +they call it—out of which to meet the growing pension claim, now that +so few of the servant class think it worth while to save."</p> + +<p>Miss Lisle laughed again, this time with a note of genuine amusement.</p> + +<p>("A most unpleasant girl, I fear," murmured the lady who had raised the +white costume question, to her neighbour in a whisper: "so odd.")</p> + +<p>"It made a great difference at the registry offices. There are a dozen +maids to be had any day where there were really none before. Only one +cannot afford to keep them now."</p> + +<p>There was a word, a sigh, and an "Ah!" to mark this point of agreement +among the four ladies.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid that the Government confiscation of all dividends above +five per cent. bears very heavily on some," remarked one after a pause. +"I know a poor soul of over sixty-five, nearly blind too, whose husband +had invested all his savings in the company he had worked for because he +knew that it was safe, and, having a good reserve, intended to pay ten +per cent. for a long time. When he died it brought her in fifty pounds a +year. Now——"</p> + +<p>There were little signs of sympathy and commiseration from the group. +The sex was beginning to take an unwonted interest in terms +financial—per centage, surrender value, trustee stock, unearned +increment, and so on. They had reason to do so, for revolutionary +finance was very much in the air, or, rather, had come tangibly down to +earth at length: not the placid city echoes that were wont to ripple +gently across the breakfast-table a few years earlier without leaving +any one much better or much worse off, but the galvanic adjustment that +by a stroke made the rich well-to-do, the well-to-do just so-so, the +struggling poor, and left the poor where they were before. The frenzied +effort that in a session strove to tear up the trees of the forest and +leave the plants beneath untouched; to pull to pieces the intertwined +fabric of a thousand years' growth and to create from it a bundle of +straight and equal twigs; in a word, to administer justice on the +principle of knocking out one eye in all the sound because a number of +people were unfortunately born or fallen blind.</p> + +<p>"Five and twenty," mused Mrs Lisle. "I suppose it is just possible."</p> + +<p>"It is really less than that," explained the other. "You may have +noticed that as it is now no good making more than five per cent., most +companies pay even less. There is no incentive to do well."</p> + +<p>"One hears of even worse cases on every hand," said another of the +ladies. "I am trying to interest people in a poor deformed creature +whose father left her an annuity derived from ground rents in the +City.... As it has been worked out I think that she owes the Incomes +Adjustment Department lawyers something a year now. But private charity +seems almost to have ceased altogether. Have you heard that 'Jim's' is +closed?"</p> + +<p>It was true. St James's Hospital, whose unvarnished record was, "Three +hundred of the very poor treated freely each day," was a thing of the +past, and across its portal, where ten years before a couple of stalwart +gentlemen wearing red ties had rested for a moment, while they lit their +pipes, a banner with the strange device, "Curse your Charity!" now ran +the legend, "Closed for want of Funds."</p> + +<p>"I wonder sometimes," mused the last speaker, "why some one doesn't do +something."</p> + +<p>"But," objected another, "what is there to do? What is there?"</p> + +<p>They all agreed that there was nothing—absolutely nothing. Every one +else was tacitly making the same admission; that was the fatal symptom.</p> + +<p>Miss Lisle jumped up and began to move away unceremoniously.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going, dear?" asked her mother in mild reproof.</p> + +<p>"Oh, anywhere," replied Irene restlessly.</p> + +<p>"But what for?" persisted Mrs Lisle.</p> + +<p>"Oh, anything."</p> + +<p>"That is 'nothing,' Miss Lisle," smiled the tactful lady of the party, +anxious to smooth over the awkwardness of the moment.</p> + +<p>"No, it is at least something," flung back the girl brusquely; and with +swinging strides she set off at a furious pace towards the open country.</p> + +<p>"Irene is a little impulsive at times," apologized her mother, sitting +back with placidly folded hands.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE PERIOD, AND THE COMING OF WINGS</h3> + + +<p>An intelligent South Sea Islander, who had been imported into this +country to stimulate missionary enterprise, on his return had said that +the most marked characteristic of the English of the period was what +they called "snap."</p> + +<p>The nearest equivalent in his own language signifying literally "quick +hot words," he had some difficulty in conveying the impression he +desired, and his circle had to rest content that "snap" permeated the +journalism, commerce, politics, drama, and social life of the English, +had assailed their literature, and was beginning to influence religion, +art, and science. It may be admitted that the foreign gentleman's visit +had coincided with a period of national stress, for the week in question +had embraced the more entertaining half of a general election, seen the +advent of two new farthing daily papers, and been marked by the Rev. +Sebastian Tauthaul's striking series of addresses from the pulpit of the +City Sanctum, entitled "If Christ put up for Battersea." It had also +included the launching of a new cocoa, a new soap, and a new +concentrated food.</p> + +<p>The new food was called "Chip-Chunks." "A name which I venture to think +spells success of itself," complacently remarked its inventor. "A very +good name indeed," admitted his advertising manager. "It has the great +desideratum that it might be anything, and, on the other hand, it might +equally well be nothing." "Just so," said the inventor with weighty +approval; "just so." A "snap-line" was required that would ineradicably +fix Chip-Chunks in the public mind, and "Bow-wow! Feel chippy? Then +champ Chip-Chunks" was found in an inspired moment. It was, of course, +fully cooked and already quite digested. It was described as the delight +of the unweaned infant, the mainstay of the toothless nonagenarian, and +so simple and wholesome that it could be safely taken and at once +assimilated by the invalid who had undergone the operation of having his +principal organ of digestion removed. So little, indeed, remained for +nature and the human parts to do in the matter of Chip-Chunks as to +raise the doubt whether it might not be simpler and scarcely less +nutritive to open the tin and pour the contents down the drain +forthwith.</p> + +<p>As Chip-Chunks was designed for those who were disinclined to exercise +the functions of digestion, so Isabella soap made an appeal to those who +disliked work and had something of an antipathy to soap at all. One did +not wash with Isabella, it was assured: one sat down and watched it. It +had its "snap-lines," too:</p> + +<p>"You write it 'wash,' but you call it 'wosh.'</p> + +<p>"What is the difference?</p> + +<p>"There is 'a' difference.</p> + +<p>"There is also 'a' difference between Isabella soap and all other soaps:</p> + +<p>"All the difference.</p> + +<p>"That's our point. Put it in your washtub and watch it."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Cocoa was approached in a more sober spirit. Soap may blow bubbles of +light and airy fancy, pills <i>ricochet</i> from one gay conceit to another, +meat extracts gambol with the irresponsible exuberance of bulls in china +cups, but cocoa relied upon sincerity and statistics. Kingcup cocoa was +the last word of the expert. It won its way into the great heart of the +people by driving home the significant fact that it contained .00001 per +cent. more phosphorus, and .000002 per cent. less of something fatty, +than any other cocoa in existence. When the newspaper reader of the +period had been confronted by this assertion, in various guises, +seventeen thousand times, he had reached a state of mind in which .00001 +per cent. more phosphorus and .000002 per cent. less fat represented the +difference between vigorous manhood and drivelling imbecility.</p> + +<p>The Rev. Sebastian was all "snap." His topical midday +addresses—described by himself as "Seven minutes +sandwich-sermonettes"—have already been referred to. Young men who were +pressed for time were bidden to bring their bath buns or buttered scones +and eat openly and unashamed. Workmen with bread and cheese and pots of +beer were welcomed with effusion. This particular series extended over +the working days of a week, and was subdivided thus:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Monday.</i>—The Issues before the Constituency.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Tuesday.</i>—His Address to the Electors.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Wednesday.</i>—The Day of the Contest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Thursday.</i>—Which Way are you Voting?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Friday.</i>—Spoiled Papers.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Saturday.</i>—At the Top of the Poll and the Leader of our Party.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Of the new papers, of their sprightliness, their enterprise, their +general all-roundness, their almost wicked experience of the ways of the +world, from a quite up-to-date fund of junior office witticism to a +knowledge of the existence of actresses who do not act, outwardly +respectable circles of society who play cards for money on Sunday, and +(exclusively for the benefit of their readers) places where quite +high-class provisions (only nominally damaged) could be bought cheap on +Saturday nights, it is unnecessary to say much. Of their irresponsible +cock-sureness, their bristling combativeness, their amazing powers of +prophetic penetration, and, it must be confessed, their ineradicable air +of somewhat second-rate infant phenomenonship, their crumbling yellow +files still bear witness. As a halfpenny is half a penny, so a farthing +is half a halfpenny, and the mind that is not too appalled by the +possibilities of the development can people for itself this journalistic +Eden.</p> + +<p><i>The Whip</i> described its programme as "Vervy and nervy; brainy and +champagny." <i>The Broom</i> relied more on solider attractions of the "News +of the World in Pin Point Pars" and "Knowledge in Nodules" order. Both +claimed to be written exclusively by "brainy" people, and both might +have added, with equal truth, read exclusively by brainless. Avowedly +appealing "to the great intellect of the nation," neither fell into the +easy mistake of aiming too high, and the humblest son of toil might take +them up with the fullest confidence of finding nothing from beginning to +end that was beyond his simple comprehension.</p> + +<p>But the most cursory review of national "snappishness" would be +incomplete if it omitted the field of politics, especially when the +period in question contained so concentrated an accumulation of "snap" +as a general election. Contests had long ceased to be decided on the +merits of individuals or of parties, still less to be the occasions for +deliberate consideration of policy. Each group had its label and its +"snap-cries." The outcome as a whole—the decision of each division with +few exceptions—lay in the hands of a class which, while educated to the +extent of a little reading and a little writing, was practically +illiterate in thought, in experience, and in discrimination. To them a +"snap-cry" was eminently suited, as representing a concrete idea and +being in fact the next best argument to a decayed egg. That national +disaster had never so far been evolved out of this rough-and-ready +method could be traced to a variety of saving clauses. At such a time +the strict veracity of the cries raised was not to be too closely +examined; indeed, there was not the time for contradiction, and therein +lay the essence of some of the most successful "snaps."</p> + +<p>Misrepresentation, if on a sufficiently large scale, was permissible, +but it was advisable to make it wholesale, lurid, and applied not to an +individual but to a party—emphasising, of course, the fact that your +opponent was irretrievably pledged to that party through thick and thin.</p> + +<p>In other words, it was quite legitimate for A to declare that the policy +of the party to which his opponent B belonged was a policy of murder, +rapine, piracy, black-mail, highway robbery, extermination, and +indiscriminate bloodshed; that they had swum to office on a sea of tears +racked from the broken hearts of an outraged peasantry, risen to power +on the apex of a smoking hecatomb of women and children, and kept their +position by methods of ruthless barbarism; that assassination, polygamy, +thuggeeism, simony, bureaucracy, and perhaps even an additional penny on +the poor man's tea, would very likely be found included in their +official programme; that they were definitely pledged to introduce +Kalmucks and Ostyaks into the Government Dock-yards, who would work in +chained gangs, be content with three farthings for a fourteen hours' +day, and live exclusively on engine waste and barley-water.</p> + +<p>This and much more was held to be fair political warfare which should +not offend the keenest patriot. But if A so far descended to vulgar +personalities as to accuse B himself of employing an urchin to scare +crows at eightpence a day when the trade union rate for crow-scaring was +ninepence, he stood a fair chance of having an action for libel or +defamation of character on his hands in addition to an election.</p> + +<p>Under such a system the least snappy went to the wall. Happy was the man +who was armed not necessarily with a just cause, but with a name that +lent itself to topical alliteration. Who could resist the appeal to</p> + +<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" width="60%"> +<tr><td>Vote for</td><td>Frank</td><td>Blarney.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Fresh</td><td>Brooms in Parliament.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Fewer</td><td>Bungles during the next five years.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Financial</td><td>Betterment at home.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Free</td><td>Breakfast-tables for the People.</td></tr> +<tr><td></td><td>Flourishing</td><td>Businesses all round.</td></tr> +</table> + + +<p>—especially when it was coupled with the reminder that</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Every vote given to A. J. Wallflower is a slice of bread filched from +your innocent children's hard-earned loaf.</p></blockquote> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Of course the schools could not escape the atmosphere. The State-taught +children were wonderfully snappy—for the time being. Afterwards, it +might be noticed, that when the props were pulled away they were +generally either annoyingly dull or objectionably pert, or, perhaps, +offensively dully-pert, according to whether their nature was backward +or forward, or a mixture of both. The squad-drilled units could remember +wonderfully well—for the time; they could apply the rules they learned +in just the way they were taught to apply them—for the time. But they +could not remember what they had not been drilled to remember; they +could not apply the rules in any other way; they could not apply the +principles at all; and they could not think.</p> + +<p>High and low, children were not allowed to think; with ninety-nine +mothers out of a hundred its proper name was "idleness." "I do not like +to see you sitting down doing nothing, dear," said every mother to every +daughter plaintively. "Is there no sewing you might do?" So the would-be +thoughtful child was harried into working, or playing, or eating, or +sleeping, as though a mind contentedly occupied with itself was an +unworthy or a morbid thing.</p> + +<p>Yet it was a too close adherence to the national character that proved +to be the undoing of Wynchley Slocombe, who is now generally admitted to +have been the father of the form of aerial propulsion so widely enjoyed +to-day. Like everybody else, he had read the offer of the Traffic and +Locomotion Department of a substantial reward for a satisfactory +flying-machine, embracing "any contrivance ... that would by +demonstration enable one or more persons, freed from all earth-support +or connection (<i>a</i>) to remain stationary at will, at any height between +50 and 1500 feet; (<i>b</i>) at that height to travel between two points one +mile apart within a time limit of seven minutes and without deviating +more than fifty yards from a straight line connecting the two points; +(<i>c</i>) to travel in a circle of not less than three miles in +circumference within a time limit of fifteen minutes." Wynchley took an +ordinary intelligent interest in the subject, but he had no thought of +competing.</p> + +<p>It was not until the last day of the period allowed for submitting plans +that Wynchley's great idea occurred to him. There was then no time for +elaborating the germ or for preparing the requisite specifications, even +if he had any ability to do so, which he had not, being, in fact, quite +ignorant of the subject. But he remembered hearing in his youth that +when a former Government of its day had offered a premium for a +convenient method of dividing postage stamps (until that time sold in +unperforated sheets and cut up as required by the users), the successful +competitor had simply tendered the advice, "Punch rows of little holes +between them." In the same spirit Wynchley Slocombe took half a sheet of +silurian notepaper (now become famous, and preserved in the South +Kensington Museum) and wrote on it, "Fasten on a pair of wings, and +practise! practise!! practise!!!" It was to be the aerial counterpart of +"Gunnery! Gunnery!! Gunnery!!!"</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, the departmental offices were the only places in England +where "snap" was not recognised. Wynchley was regarded as a suicidal +lunatic—a familiar enough figure in flying-machine circles—and his +suggestion was duly pigeon-holed without consideration.</p> + +<p>The subsequent career of the unhappy man may be briefly stated. +Disappointed in his hopes of an early recognition, and not having +sufficient money at his disposal to demonstrate the practicability of +his idea, he took to writing letters to the President of the Board, and +subsequently to waylaying high officials and demanding interviews with +them. Dismissed from his situation for systematic neglect of duty, he +became a "poor litigant with a grievance" at the Law Courts, and +periodically applied for summonses against the Prime Minister, the Lord +Mayor of London, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Still later his name +became a by-word as that of a confirmed window-breaker at the Government +offices. A few years afterwards, a brief paragraph in one or two papers +announced that Wynchley Slocombe, "who, some time ago, gained an +unenviable notoriety on account of his hallucinations," had committed +suicide in a Deptford model lodging-house.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile two plans for flying-machines had been selected as +displaying the most merit, and their inventors were encouraged to press +on with the construction under a monetary grant. Both were finished +during the same week, and for the sake of comparison they were submitted +to trial on the same day upon Shorncliffe plain. <i>Vimbonne VI.</i>, which +resembled a much-distended spider with outspread legs, made the first +ascent. According to instructions, it was to demonstrate its ability to +go in a straight line by descending in a field near the Military Canal, +beyond Seabrook, but from the moment of its release it continued to +describe short circles with a velocity hitherto unattained in any +air-ship, until its frantic constructor was too dizzy to struggle with +its mechanism any longer. The <i>Moloch</i> was then unmoored, and took up +its position stationary at a height of 1000 feet with absolute +precision. It was built on the lines of a gigantic centipede, with two +rows of clubby oars beneath, and ranked as the popular favourite. Being +instructed, for the sake of variety, to begin with the three mile +circle, the <i>Moloch</i> started out to sea on the flash of the gun, the +sinuous motion that rippled down its long vertebrate body producing an +effect, accidental but so very life-like, that many of the vast +concourse assembled on the ground turned pale and could not follow it +unmoved....</p> + +<p>There have been many plausible theories put forward by experts to +account for the subsequent disaster, but for obvious reasons the real +explanation can never progress beyond the realms of conjecture, for the +<i>Moloch</i>, instead of bending to the east, encircling Folkestone and its +suburbs, and descending again in the middle of Shorncliffe Camp, +continued its unswerving line towards the coast of France, and never +held communication with civilised man again.</p> + +<p>So exact was its course, however, that it was easy to trace its passage +across Europe. It reached Boulogne about four o'clock in the afternoon, +and was cheered vociferously under the pathetic impression that +everything was going well. Amiens saw it a little to the east in the +fading light of evening, and a few early citizens of Dijon marked it +soon after dawn. Its passage over the Alps was accurately timed and +noted at several points, and the Italian frontier had a glimpse of it, +very high up, it was recorded, at nightfall. A gentleman of Ajaccio, +travelling in the interior of the island, thought that he had seen it +some time during the next day; and several Tripoli Greeks swore that it +had passed a few yards above their heads a week later; but the testimony +of the Corsican was deemed the more reliable of the two. A relief +expedition was subsequently sent out and traversed a great part of +Africa, but although the natives in the district around the Albert +Nyanza repeatedly prostrated themselves and smacked their thighs +vigorously—the tribal signs of fear and recognition—when shown a small +working model of the <i>Moloch</i>, no further trace was ever obtained of it.</p> + +<p>The accident had a curious sequel in the House of Commons, which +significantly illustrates how unexpected may be the ultimate +developments of a chain of circumstance. It so happened that in addition +to its complement of hands, the <i>Moloch</i> carried an assistant +under-secretary to the Board of Agriculture. This gentleman, who had +made entomology a lifelong study, was invaluable to his office, and the +lamentable consequence of his absence was that when the President of the +Board rose the following night to answer a question respecting the +importation of lady-birds to arrest an aphis plague then devastating the +orchards of the country, he ingenuously displayed so striking an +unfamiliarity with the subject that his resignation was demanded, the +Government discredited, and a dissolution forced. In particular, the +hon. gentleman convulsed the House by referring throughout to lady-birds +as "the female members of the various feathered tribes," and warmly +defending their importation as the only satisfactory expedient in the +circumstances.</p> + +<p>Wynchley's suggestion remained on file for the next few years, and would +doubtless have crumbled to dust unfruitfully had it not been for a +trivial incident. A junior staff clerk, finding himself to be without +matches one morning, and hesitating to mutilate the copy of—let us say, +the official Pink Paper which he was reading at the moment, +absent-mindedly tore a sheet haphazard from a bundle close at hand. As +he lit his cigarette, the name of Wynchley Slocombe caught his eye and +stirred a half-forgotten memory, for the unfortunate Wynchley had been a +stock jest in the past.</p> + +<p>Herbert Baedeker Phipps now becomes a force in the history of aerial +conquest. He smoothed out the paper from which he had only torn off a +fragment, read the stirring "Practise! Practise!! Practise!!!" (at least +it has since been recognised to be stirring—stirring, inspired, and +pulsating with the impassioned ardour of neglected genius), and pondered +deeply to the accompaniment of three more cigarettes. Was there anything +in it? Why could not people fly by means of artificial wings? There had +been attempts; how did the enthusiasts begin? Usually by precipitating +themselves out of an upper window in the first flush of their +self-confidence. They were killed, and wings fell into disfavour; but +the same result would attend the unsophisticated novice who made his +first essay in swimming by diving off a cliff into ten fathoms deep of +water. Here, even in a denser medium, was the admitted necessity for +laborious practice before security was assured.</p> + +<p>Phipps looked a step further. By nature man is ill-equipped for flying, +whereas he possesses in himself all the requisites for successful +propulsion through the water. Yet he needs practice in water; more +practice therefore in air. For thousands of years mankind has been +swimming and thereby lightening the task for his descendants, to such an +extent that in certain islands the children swim almost naturally, even +before they walk; whereas, with the solitary exception of a certain +fabled gentleman who made the attempt so successfully and attained such +a height that the sun melted the wax with which he had affixed his wings +(Styckiton in convenient tubes not being then procurable), no man has +ever flown. More, more practice. The very birds themselves, Phipps +remembered, first require parental coaching in the art, while aquatic +creatures and even the amphibia take to that element with developed +faculties from their birth. Still more need of practice for ungainly +man. Here, he was convinced, lay the whole secret of failure and +possible success. "Practise! Practise!! Practise!!!" The last word was +with Wynchley Slocombe.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE MILLION TO ONE CHANCE</h3> + + +<p>So wings came—to stay, every one admitted, although most people +complained that after all flying was not so wonderful when one could do +it as they thought it would have been. For at the first glance the +popular fancy had inclined towards pinning on a pair of gauzy appendages +and soaring at once into empyrean heights with the spontaneity of a +lark, or of lightly fluttering from point to point with the ease and +grace of a butterfly. They found that a pair of wings cost rather more +than a high-grade bicycle, and that the novice who could struggle from +the stage into a net placed twenty yards away, after a month's course of +daily practices, was held to be very promising. There was no more talk +of England lying at the mercy of any and every invader; for one man, and +one only, had so far succeeded in crossing even the Channel, and that at +its narrowest limit. For at least three years after the conversion of +Phipps the generality of people gleaned their knowledge of the progress +of flying from the pages of the comic papers. To the comic papers wings +had been sent as an undiluted blessing.</p> + +<p>But if alatics, in their infancy, did not come up to the wider +expectation, there were many who found in it a novel and exhilarating +sport. There were also those who, discovering something congenial in the +new force, set quietly and resolutely to work to develop its +possibilities and to raise it above the level of a mere fashionable +novelty. There have always been some, a few, not infrequently +Englishmen, who have unostentatiously become pre-eminent in every +development of science with a fixity of purpose. Their names rarely +appear in the pages of history, but they largely write it.</p> + +<p>Hastings permitted mixed flying. It was a question that had embittered +many a town council. To one section it seemed intolerable that a father, +a husband, or a brother should be torn for twenty minutes from the side +of his female relatives; to the opposing section it seemed horrible that +coatless men should be allowed to spread their wings within a hundred +and fifty yards of shoeless women.</p> + +<p>"I have no particular convictions," one prominent citizen remarked, "but +in view of the existing railway facilities it is worth while considering +whether we shall have any visitors at all this season if we stand in the +way of families flying down together." The humour of the age was flowing +mordaciously, even as the wit of France had done little more than a +century before. The readiest jests carried a tang, whether turning upon +personal poverty, municipal extravagance, or national incapacity. +Opinion being evenly divided, the local rate of seventeen shillings in +the pound influenced the casting vote in favour of mixed flying. There +were necessary preparations, including a captive balloon in which an +ancient mariner, decked out with a pair of wings like a superannuated +Cupid, was posted to render assistance to the faltering. The rates at +once rose to seventeen shillings and sixpence, but the principle of the +enterprise was admitted to be sound.</p> + +<p>So on this pleasant summer afternoon—an ideal day for a fly, said every +one—the heights above the old town were echoing to the ceaseless gaiety +of the watching crowd, for alatics had not yet ceased to be a novelty, +while the air above was cleft by a hundred pairs of beating wings.</p> + +<p>"A remarkable sight," said an old man who had opened conversation with +the sociable craving of the aged; "ten years ago we little expected +this."</p> + +<p>"Why, no," replied his chance acquaintance on the seat; "if I remember +rightly, the tendency was all towards a combination either of a balloon +and a motor-car or of a submarine and a band-box."</p> + +<p>"You don't fly yourself?"</p> + +<p>The young man—and he was a stalwart enough youth—looked at himself +critically as if mentally picturing the effect of a pair of wings upon +his person. "Well, no," he replied; "one doesn't get the time for +practice. Then consider the price of the things. And the annual +licence—oh, they won't let you forget <i>that</i>, I assure you. Well, is it +worth it?"</p> + +<p>The old man shook his head in harmonious agreement; decidedly for him it +was not worth it. "Perhaps you are in Somerset House?" he remarked +tentatively. It is not the young who are curious; they have the +fascinating study of themselves.</p> + +<p>"Not exactly," replied the other, veiling by this diplomatic ambiguity +an eminent firm of West End drapers; "but I happen to have rather +exceptional chances of knowing what is going on behind the scenes in +London. I can assure you, sir, that in spite of the last sixpence on the +income-tax and the hen-roost tax, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has +sent out stringent orders to whip up every penny in the hope of +lessening a serious deficit."</p> + +<p>"There may possibly be a deficit," admitted the old man with bland +assurance; "but what do a few millions, either one way or the other, +matter to a country with our inexhaustible resources? We are certainly +passing through a period of financial depression, but the unfailing +lesson of the past has been that a cycle of bad years is inevitably +followed by a cycle of good years, and in the competition with foreign +countries our advantage of free trade ensures our pre-eminence." For it +is a mistake now to ascribe optimism to youth. Those youths have by this +time grown up into old men. Age is the optimist because it has seen so +many things "come right," so many difficulties "muddled through." Also +because they who would have been pessimistic old men have worried +themselves into early graves. Your unquenchable optimist needs no pill +to aid digestion. "Then," he concluded, "why trouble yourself +unnecessarily on a beautiful day like this!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it doesn't trouble me," laughed the other man; "at least the +deficit doesn't; nor the income-tax, I regret to say. But I rather kick +at ten per cent. on my season ticket and a few other trifles when I +consider that there used to be better national value without them. And I +rather think that most others have had about enough of it."</p> + +<p>"Patience, patience; you are a young man yet. Look round. I don't think +I ever saw the grass greener for the time of the year, and in my front +garden I noticed only to-day that the syringa is out a full week earlier +than I can remember.... Eh! What is it? Which way? Where?"</p> + +<p>The clerk was on his feet suddenly, and standing on the seat. Every one +was standing up, and all in a common impulse were pointing to the sky. +Some—women—screamed as they stood and watched, but after a gasp of +horrified surprise, like a cry of warning cut short because too late, +the mingling noises of the crowd seemed to shrink away in a breath. +Every one had read of the sickening tragedies of broken cross-rods or of +sudden loss of wing-power—ærolanguisis it was called—and one was +taking place before their eyes. High up, very high at first, and a +little to the east, a female figure was cleaving headlong through the +air, and beyond all human power to save.</p> + +<p>So one would have said; so every one indeed assumed; and when a second +later another figure crossed their range it only heralded a double +tragedy. It drew a gasp ... a gasp that lingered, spun out long and +turned to one loud, tumultuous shout. The next minute men were shouting +incoherently, dancing wildly, shaking hands with all and any, and +expressing frantic relief in a hundred frantic ways.</p> + +<p>Thus makes his timely entry into this chronicle Gatacre Stobalt, and +reviewing the progress of flying as it then immaturely stood, it is not +too much to say that no other man could have turned that tragedy. With +an instinctive judgment of time, distance, angle, and his own powers, +Stobalt, from a hundred feet above, had leapt as a diver often leaps as +he leaves the plank, and with rigid outstretched wings was dropping +earthward on all but a plummet line. It was the famous "razor-edge" +stroke at its narrowest angle, the delight of strong and daring fliers, +the terror of those who watched beneath. It may be realised by ascending +to the highest point of St Paul's and contemplating a dive into the +flooded churchyard.</p> + +<p>The moment was a classic one in the history of the wing. The air had +claimed its victims as the waters have; and there was a legitimate +pride, since the enterprise was no longer foolhardy, that they had never +been withheld. But never before had a rescue been effected beyond the +limits of the nets; it was not then deemed practicable and the axiom of +the sport "A broken wing is a broken neck," so far held good. Yet here +was a man, no novice in the art, deliberately pointing sheer to earth on +a line that must bring him, if unswervingly maintained, into contact +with the falling girl beneath. Up to that point the attempt would have +been easy if daring, beyond it nothing but the readiest self-possession +and the most consummate skill could avert an irretrievable disaster to +himself.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"You have not even had the curiosity to ask if I am hurt yet." Her voice +certainly was.</p> + +<p>"X = - 4 {C^2} {x^3}," murmured Stobalt abstractedly. "I assure you," he +explained, leaving the higher mathematics at her reproach, "that I had +quite satisfied myself that you were not.... It all turns on the extra +tension thrown on the crank by the additional three feathers. I am +convinced that English makers have gone as far as they safely can in +that direction." He glanced at her wings as he mused. They were of the +familiar detached feather—or "venetian blind," as it was commonly +called—pattern, and wonderfully graceful in their long sweep and +elegant poise. Made of the purest white celluloid, just tinted with a +delicate and deepening pink at the base, they harmonised with her +sea-green costume as faultlessly as the lily with the leaves it springs +from. Stobalt himself used the more difficult but much more powerful +"bat" shape, built up of gold-beaters' skin; he had already folded them +in rest, but in those early days the prudish conventions of the air +debarred the girl from seeking a like repose.</p> + +<p>"I should certainly discard the three outside feathers," he summed up.</p> + +<p>"I shall certainly discard the whole thing," she replied. "I do not know +which felt the worse—being killed or being saved."</p> + +<p>He made a gesture that would seem to say that the personal details of +the adventure were better dismissed. He was plainly a man of few words, +but the mechanical defect still held his interest.</p> + +<p>"One understands that a brave man always dislikes being thanked," she +continued a little nervously; "and, indeed, what can I say to thank you? +You have saved my life, and I know that it must have been at a +tremendous risk to yourself."</p> + +<p>"I think," he said, "that the sooner you forget the incident.... That +and the removal of those three feathers." His gestures were deliberate +and the reverse of vivacious, but when he glanced up and moved a hand, +it at once conveyed to the girl that in his opinion nothing else need +stand in the way of her recovered powers and confidence.</p> + +<p>"And there is," she said timidly, "nothing?" Precisely what there might +be had not occurred to her satisfactorily.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," he said, without the air of being heroic in his generosity. +"Unless," he added, "you care to promise that you will not let——" He +stopped with easy self-possession and turned enquiringly to a man in +some official dress who had suddenly appeared in the glade.</p> + +<p>"Have you a licence?" demanded the official, ignoring Stobalt and +addressing himself in a style that at one time would have been deemed +objectionably abrupt, to the lady. He was in point of fact a policeman, +and from a thong on his wrist swung a truncheon, while the butt of a +revolver showed at his belt. He wore no number or identifying mark, for +it had long since been agreed that it must be objectionable to their +finer feelings to treat policemen as though they were—one cannot say +convicts, for a sympathetic Home Secretary had already discontinued the +numbering of convicts on the ground that it created a state of things +"undistinguishable from slavery," though not really slavery—but as +though they were railway bridges or district council lamp-posts. "Treat +a man as a dog, and he becomes a dog," had been the invincible argument +of the band of humanitarians who had introduced what was known as the +"Get-up-when-you-like-and-have-what-you-want" system of prison +discipline, and "Treat a man as a lamp-post, and he becomes a +lamp-post," had been the logical standpoint of the Amalgamated Union of +Policemen and Plain Clothes Detectives.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the girl, and her voice had not quite that agreeable +intonation that members of the force usually hear from the lips of fair +young ladies nowadays. "Do you wish to see it?"</p> + +<p>"What else should I ask you if you had one for?" he demanded with the +innate boorishness of the heavy-witted man. "Of course I want to see +it."</p> + +<p>She opened the little bag that hung from her girdle and handed him a +paper without a word.</p> + +<p>"Muriel Ursula Percy Sleigh Hampden?" It would be idle to pretend that +the names pleased him, or that he tried to veil his contempt.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied.</p> + +<p>He indicated his private disbelief—or possibly merely took a ready +means of exercising his authority in a way that he knew to be +offensive—by producing a small tin box from one of his pockets and +passing it to her without any explanation. The requirement was so +universal in practice, however, that no explanation was necessary, for +the signature, as the chief mark of identification, had long been +superseded by the simpler and more effective thumb-sign. Miss Hampden +made a slight grimace when she saw the condition of the soft wax which +the box contained, but she obediently pressed it with her thumb and +passed it back again. As her licence bore another thumb-sign, stamped in +pigment, it was only necessary for the constable to compare the two (a +process simplified by the superimposing glass, a contrivance not unlike +a small opera-glass with converging tubes) in order to satisfy himself +at once whether the marks were the impress of the same thumb. Apparently +they were, for with a careless "Right-O," he proceeded on his way, +swinging his truncheon with an easy grace, and occasionally striking off +the end of an overhanging branch.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said Stobalt, when at length the zealous officer had quite +disappeared in search of other fields for tactful activity, "I wonder if +you are a daughter of Sir John Hampden?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied, looking at him with renewed interest. "His only +daughter. Do you know my father?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "I have been away, but we see the papers sometimes," +he said. "The Sir John I mean," he explained, as though the point were a +matter of some moment, "was a few years ago regarded as the one man who +might unite our parties and save the position."</p> + +<p>"There is only one Sir John Hampden," she replied. "But it was too +late."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," he admitted vaguely, dismissing the subject.</p> + +<p>Both were silent for a few minutes; it might be noticed that people +often became thoughtful when they spoke of the past in those years. +Indeed, an optimist might almost have had some ground for believing that +a thinking era had begun.</p> + +<p>When he spoke again it was with something of an air of constraint. "You +asked me just now if there was—anything. Well, I have since +thought——"</p> + +<p>"Yes?" she said encouragingly.</p> + +<p>"I have thought that I should like to meet your father. I hear +everywhere that he is the most inaccessible man in London; but perhaps +if you could favour me with a line of introduction——"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," she exclaimed gladly. "I am sure that he would wish to thank +you. I will write to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"I have paper and a pencil here," he suggested. "I have been a sailor," +he added, as though that simple statement explained an omnipercipient +resourcefulness; as perhaps it did.</p> + +<p>"If you prefer it," she said, accepting the proffered stationery. It did +not make the least difference, she told herself, but this business-like +expedition chilled her generous instincts.</p> + +<p>"I leave for town to-night," was all he vouchsafed.</p> + +<p>For a few minutes she wrote in silence, while he looked fixedly out to +sea. "What name am I to write, please?" she asked presently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Salt—George Salt," he replied in a matter-of-fact voice, and +without turning his head.</p> + +<p>"Is it 'Mr Salt,' or 'Captain,' or——?"</p> + +<p>"Just 'Mr,' please. And"—his voice fell a little flat in spite of +himself, but he did not meet her eyes—"and would it be too much if I +asked you to mention the circumstances under which we met?"</p> + +<p>She bent a little lower over the paper in a shame she could not then +define. "I will not fail to let my father know how heroic you have been, +and to what an extent we are indebted to you," she replied +dispassionately.</p> + +<p>"Thank you." Suddenly he turned with an arresting gesture, and impulsive +speech trembled on his tongue. But the sophistries of explanation, +apology, self-extenuation, were foreign to the nature of this strong +keen-featured man, whose grey and not unkindly eyes had gained their +tranquil depth from long intercourse with sea and sky—those two masters +who teach the larger things of life. The words were never spoken, his +arm fell down again, and the moment passed.</p> + +<p>"I have never," he was known to say with quiet emphasis in later years, +"regretted silence. I have never given way to an impulse and spoken +hastily without regretting speech."</p> + +<p>The London evening papers were being cried in the streets of the old +Cinque Port as "George Salt" walked to the station a few hours later. A +general election was drawing to its desultory close, but the results +seemed to excite curiously little interest among the well-dressed, +leisured class that filled the promenades. It was a longer sweep of the +pendulum than had ever been anticipated in the days when politics were +more or less the pastime of the rich, and the working classes neither +understood nor cared to understand them—only understood that whatever +else happened nothing ever came their way.</p> + +<p>The man who had been a sailor bought two papers of very different views, +the <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i> and the orthodox labour organ called <i>The +Masses</i>. Neither rejoiced, but to despair <i>The Masses</i> added a note of +ingenuous surprise as it summarised the contest as a whole. This was how +the matter stood:</p> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Position of Parties at the Dissolution</span></h4> +<table width="30%"> +<tr><td>Labour Members</td><td>300</td></tr> +<tr><td>Socialists</td><td>140</td></tr> +<tr><td>Liberals</td><td>112</td></tr> +<tr><td>Unionists</td><td>40</td></tr> +</table> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Party Gains</span></h4> +<table width="30%"> +<tr><td>Socialist Gains</td><td>204</td></tr> +<tr><td>Moderate Labour Gains</td><td>5</td></tr> +<tr><td>Imperial Party Gains</td><td>0</td></tr> +</table> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Position of Parties in the New Parliament</span></h4> +<table width="40%"> +<tr><td>Socialists</td><td>344</td></tr> +<tr><td>Moderate Labour Party (all groups)</td><td>179</td></tr> +<tr><td>Combined Imperial Party (Liberals Unionists)</td><td>68</td></tr> +</table> + +<h4>(The above returns do not include the Orkney and Shetland Islands.)</h4> + +<table cellspacing="2" width="40%"> +<tr><td>Socialist majority over all possible combinations</td><td>97</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>There is no need to trace the development of political events leading up +to this position. It lends itself to summary. The Labour party had come +into power by pointing out to voters of the working classes that its +members were their brothers, and promising them a great deal of property +belonging to other people and a good many privileges which they +vehemently denounced in every other class. When in power they had thrown +open the doors of election to one and all. The Socialist party had come +into power by pointing out to voters of the working classes that its +members were even more their brothers, and promising them a still larger +share of other people's property (some, indeed, belonging to the more +prosperous of the Labour representatives then in office) and still +greater privileges. Yet the editor of <i>The Masses</i> was both pained and +surprised at the result.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE COMPACT</h3> + + +<p>A strong man and a prominent politician, Sir John Hampden had occupied +the unfamiliar position in Parliament of belonging to no party. To no +party, that is, as the term had then been current in English politics; +for, more discerning than most of his contemporaries, he had foreseen +the obliteration of the existing boundaries and the phenomenal growth of +purely class politics even in the old century. It was, he recognised, to +be that development of the franchise with which the world was later to +become tolerably familiar: civil war on constitutional lines. His +warnings fell on very stony ground. The powers that had never yet +prepared for war abroad until the enemy had comfortably occupied all the +strategic points, lest they should wound some wily protesting old +gentleman's susceptibilities, were scarcely likely to take time by the +forelock—or even by a hind fetlock, to enlarge the comparison—at home. +While the Labour party was bringing pressure upon the Government of the +day to grant an extension of suffrage that made Labour the master of +eight out of every ten constituencies, the two great classical parties +were quarrelling vehemently whether £5000 should be spent upon a +sanatorium at Hai Yang and £5,000,000 upon a dockyard at Pittiescottie, +or £5,000,000 upon a dockyard at Hai Yang and £5000 upon a sanatorium at +Pittiescottie. When it is added that the Labour party was definitely +pledged to the inauguration of universal peace by declining to go to war +on any provocation, and looked towards wholesale disarmament as the +first means of economy on attaining office, the cataclysmal humour of +the situation becomes apparent.</p> + +<p>They attained office, as it has been seen, thanks largely to the great +Liberal party whom they succeeded. The great Liberal party, like the +editor of <i>The Masses</i> some years later, was pained and surprised at +this ingratitude. The great Liberal party had never contemplated such a +development, and through thick and thin had insisted upon regarding the +Labour party as its ally, notwithstanding the fact that the "ally" had +always laughed uproariously at the "alliance," and had pleasantly +announced its intention of strewing Westminster with the wreckage of all +existing capitalistic parties when once it was strong enough to do so.</p> + +<p>Little wonder that that great Liberal Administration was destined to +pass down to future ages as the "House of Pathetic Fools." Posterity +adjudicated that no greater example of servile fatuousness could be +produced. This was unjust, for on 20th June 1792, Louis XVI., certainly, +let it be admitted, harder pressed, had accepted a red "cap of liberty," +and putting it on in obedience to the command of the "extreme party" of +his time, had bowed right and left with ingratiating friendliness, while +a Labour gentleman, bearing upon a pike a raw cow's heart labelled "The +heart of an aristocrat," roared out, with his twenty thousand friends, +an amused approval.</p> + +<p>It was out of the material of the two great traditional parties that Sir +John Hampden tried to create his "class" coalition to meet the new +conditions. The spectacle of working men suddenly dropping party +differences and merging into a solid phalanx of labour was before their +eyes, but the Tories were disintegrated and inert, the Whigs +self-satisfied and cock-sure. The years of grace—just so many years as +Sir John was before his contemporaries—passed. Then came a brief +period, desperate indeed, but not hopeless, while something might yet be +done; but the leaders of the historical parties were waiting for some +happy chance by which they might retract and yet preserve their dignity. +It was during this crisis that the party whose idea of dignity was +symbolised by the escort of a brass band on a green-grocer's cart, +abolished the House of Lords, suspended the naval programme, and +confiscated all ecclesiastical landed property. Panic reigned, but there +could be no appeal, for the party in power had never concealed their +aims and aspirations, and now that they had been returned, they were +only carrying out their promises.</p> + +<p>That is putting their position so mildly as to be almost unjust. They +were, indeed, among political parties the only one immaculate and beyond +reproach. All others had trimmed and whittled, promised and recalled, +sworn and forsworn, till political assurances were emptier than +libertines' vows. The Socialists had nailed their manifesto to the mast, +and no man could charge them with duplicity. On every platform from +Caithness to Cornwall they had stood openly and declared: We are the +enemies to Capital; we are at war with Society as it is at present +constituted; we are for the forcible distribution of wealth, however +come by, the abolition of class distinctions, and the levelling of +humanity, with the unskilled labourer as the ideal standard.</p> + +<p>"Good fellows all," had, in effect, declared their Liberal "allies," +"and they do not really mean that—not phraseologically accurately, that +is. We go in for a little, say, serpent-charming ourselves at election +times, and when these excellent men are in Parliament the refining +influence of the surroundings will tone them down wonderfully, and they +will turn out thoroughly moderate and conciliatory members."</p> + +<p>"Don't you make any error about that, comrades," the Socialistic-Labour +candidates had replied; and with a candour unparalleled in the history +of electioneering they had not merely hinted this or said it among +themselves, but had freely and honourably proclaimed it to the four +winds. "If you like to help us just now that's your affair, and we are +quite willing to profit by it. But if you knew what you were doing, you +would go home and all have the nightmare."</p> + +<p>"So naïve!" smiled the great Liberal party. "Suppose they have to talk +like that at present to please the unemployed."</p> + +<p>Then came the deluge. Sir John Hampden could have every section of the +middle and upper class political parties to lead if he so deigned, but +wherever else he might lead them there was no possible hope of it being +to St. Stephen's. It was, as his daughter had said, then too late. +Labour members of one complexion or another had captured three-quarters +of the constituencies, and there was not the slightest chance of ousting +them.</p> + +<p>So it came about that in less than a decade from the first alarm, the +extremity of the patriot's hope was that in perhaps twenty years' time, +when the country was reduced to bankruptcy and the position of a third +class power, and when there was no more property to confiscate in the +interest of the working class voter, a popular rising or a foreign +invasion might again place a responsible administration in power. But in +the meantime the organisations of the old parties fell to pieces, the +parties themselves ceased to be powers, their leaders were half +forgotten. Sir John Hampden might still be a rallying point if he raised +a standard in a time of renewed hope, but there was no hope, and Sir +John was reported to have broken his staff, drowned his books, and cut +himself off from politics in the bitterness of his indignation and +impotent despair.</p> + +<p>It was in something very like this mood that George Salt found him, and +it was an issue of the mood that would have made him inaccessible to a +less resourceful man. Day after day he had denied himself to his old +associates, and little disappointed hucksters who were anxious to betray +their party for their conscience' sake—provided there was a definite +offer of a more lucrative position in a new party—vainly shadowed his +doorway with ready-made cabals in their pocket-books. But the man who +had been a sailor and spoke few words had an air that carried where +fluency and self-assurance failed. Even then, almost at his first words, +Sir John would have closed the subject, definitely and without +discussion.</p> + +<p>"Politics do not concern me, Mr Salt," he said, rising, with an angry +flash in the eyes whose fighting light gave the lie to the story of +abandoned hope. "If that is your business you have reached me by a +subterfuge."</p> + +<p>"Having reached you," replied Salt, unmoved, "will you allow me to put +my suggestions before you?"</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt that they are interesting," replied the baronet, +falling into smooth indifference, "but, as you may see, I am exclusively +devoted to Euplexoptera now." It might be true, for the table before him +was covered with specimens, scientific instruments and entomological +works, while not even a single newspaper betrayed an interest in the +day; but a world of bitterness smouldered beneath his half-scornful +admission. "If," he continued in the same vein, "you have an idea for an +effective series of magic lantern slides, you will find the offices of +the Union of Imperial Agencies in Whitehall."</p> + +<p>The first act to which the new Government was pledged was the evacuation +of Egypt, and the mighty counterblast from the headquarters of the +remnant of the great opposing organisation was, it should be explained, +a travelling magic lantern van, designed to satisfy rural voters as to +the present happy condition of the fellahin!</p> + +<p>"Possibly you would hardly complain that I am not prepared to go far +enough," replied the visitor. "But in order to discuss that, I must have +your serious attention."</p> + +<p>"I have already expressed myself," replied Sir John formally. "I am not +interested."</p> + +<p>"If you will hear me out and then repeat that, I will go," urged Salt +with desperate calmness. "Yet I have thrown up the profession of my life +because I hold that there is a certain remedy. And I have come a hundred +miles to-night to offer it to you: for you are the man. Realise that I +am vitally concerned."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry," replied Sir John courteously, but without the +faintest encouragement, "but the matter is beyond me. Leave me, and try +some younger, less disillusionised man."</p> + +<p>"There is no other man who will serve my purpose." Sir John stared hard, +as well he might: others had not been in the habit of appealing to him +to serve their purposes. "You are the natural leader of our classes. You +alone can inspire them; you alone have the authority to call them to any +effort."</p> + +<p>"I have been invited to lead a hundred forlorn hopes," replied Sir John. +"A dozen years—nine years—aye, perhaps even six years ago any one of +them might have been sufficient. Now—I have my earwigs. Good night, Mr +Salt."</p> + +<p>The dismissal was so unmistakably final that the most stubborn +persistence could scarcely ignore it. Mr Salt rose, but only to approach +the table by which Sir John was standing.</p> + +<p>"I wished to have you with me on the bare merits of my plan," he said in +a low voice, "but you would not. But you shall save England in spite of +your dead heart. Read this letter."</p> + +<p>For a moment it seemed doubtful how Hampden would take so brusque a +demand. Another second and he might have imperiously ordered Salt to +leave the house, when his eyes fell with a start upon the writing thrust +before him, and taking the letter in his hand he read it through, read +it twice.</p> + +<p>"Little fool!" he said, so low that it sounded tenderly; "poor little +fool!" Then aloud: "Am I to understand that you have saved my daughter's +life?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied George Salt, and even the tropical sunburn could not +cover his hot shame.</p> + +<p>"At great personal risk to yourself?"</p> + +<p>Again the reply was, "Yes," without an added word.</p> + +<p>"Why did you not let me know of this before?"</p> + +<p>"Does that matter now?" It had been his master card, but a very +humiliating one to play throughout: to trade upon that moment's +instinctive heroism, to assert his bravery, to apprise it at its worth, +and to claim a fit return.</p> + +<p>"No," admitted Sir John with intuition, "I don't suppose it does. The +position then is, that instead of exchanging the usual compliments +applicable to the occasion, I express my gratitude by listening to your +views on the political situation? And further," he continued, with the +same gentle air of irony, accepting Salt's silent acquiescence, "that I +proceed to liquidate my obligation fully by identifying myself with a +scheme which you have in your pocket for averting national disaster?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Salt sharply. "That is for you to accept or reject +unconditionally on your own judgment."</p> + +<p>"Very well. I am entirely at your service now."</p> + +<p>"In the first place, then, I ask you to admit that a state of civil war +morally exists, and that the only possible hope for our existence lies +in adopting the methods of covert civil war to secure our ends."</p> + +<p>"Admit! Good God! I have been shrieking it into deaf ears for half my +life, it seems," cried Sir John, suddenly stirred despite himself. "They +called me the Phantom Storm-petrel—'Wolf-cry' Hampden, Heaven knows +what not—through an entire decade. Admit! Go on, Mr Salt. I accept your +first clause more easily than Lord Stirling swallowed Socialistic +amendments to his own Bills, and that is saying a great deal."</p> + +<p>"Then," continued Salt, taking a bundle of papers from an inner pocket +and selecting a docket of half a dozen typewritten sheets from it, "I +propose for your acceptance the following plan of campaign."</p> + +<p>He looked round the littered desk for a vacant space on which to lay the +document. With an impetuous movement of his arm Sir John swept books, +trays, and insects into one chaotic heap, and spreading the summary +before him plunged into it forthwith.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE DOWNTRODDEN</h3> + + +<p>"Kumreds," announced Mr Tubes with winning familiarity, "I may say now +and once and for all that you've thoroughly convinced <i>me</i> of the +justice of your claims. But that isn't saying that the thing's as good +as done, so don't go slinging it broadcast in the next pub you come to. +There's our good kumred the Chancellor of the Exchequer to be taken into +account, and while I'm about it let me tell you straight that these +Cabinet jobs, whether at twenty, fifty, or a hundred quid a week, aren't +the softest things going, as some of you chaps seem to imagine."</p> + +<p>"Swap you, mate, then," called out a facetious L. & N. W. fireman. "Yus, +and throw the missis and kids into the bargain. Call it a deal?"</p> + +<p>In his modest little house the Right Hon. James Tubes, M.P., Secretary +of State for the Home Department, was receiving a deputation. Success, +said his friends, had not spoiled him; others admitted that success had +not changed him. From the time of his first appearance in Parliament he +had been dubbed "Honest Jim" (perhaps a somewhat empty compliment in +view of the fact that every Labour constituency had barbed unconscious +satire at its own expense by distinguishing its representative as +"Honest" Tom, Dick, or Harry), and after his elevation to Cabinet rank +he still remained honest. More to the point, because more apparent, he +remained unpretentious. It is true that he ceased to wear, as a personal +concession to the Prime Minister, by whose side he sat, the grimy coal +miner's suit in which he had first appeared in the House to the +captivating of all hearts; but, more fortunate than Caractacus, he +escaped envy by continuing to occupy his humble villa in Kilburn. The +expenses of a Cabinet Minister, even in a Socialist Government, must +inevitably be heavier than those of a private member, but this admirable +man illustrated the uselessness of riches by continuing to live frugally +but comfortably upon a tenth of his official income. According to +intimate rumour he prudently invested the superfluous nine-tenths +against a rainy day in the gilt-edged securities of countries where +Socialism was least rampant.</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes never refused to see a deputation, and when their views had +been laid before him it was rare indeed that he was not able to declare +a warm personal interest in their objects. True, he could not always +undertake to carry their recommendations into effect; as a Minister he +could not always express official approval of them, but they were rarely +sent away without the moral support of that wink which is proverbially +as significant as a more compromising form of agreement. Whether the +particular expression of the great voice of the people was in the +direction of the State adoption of Zulu orphans, or the compulsory +removal of park palings from around private estates, the deputation +could always go away with the inward satisfaction that however his words +might read to outsiders on the morrow, they knew that as a man and a +comrade, he, Jim Tubes, was with them heart and soul. "It costs +nothing," he was wont to remark broad-mindedly to his home +circle—referring, of course, to his own sympathetic attitude; for some +of the ingenuous proposals which he countenanced were found in practice +to prove very costly indeed—"and who knows what may happen next?"</p> + +<p>But on this occasion, as far as compliance lay within his power, there +had been no need for mental reservation. The railway-men had been +patient under capitalistic oppression in the past; they were convincing +now in argument; and they were moderate in their demands for the future. +It was no "Væ victis!" that these sturdy wearers of green corduroy +trousers held out to their employers, but a cheery "Come now, mates. +Fair does and we'll mess along somehow till the next strike."</p> + +<p>Mr Drugget, M.P., introduced the deputation. It consisted of railway +workers of all the lower grades with the exception of clerks. After many +ineffectual attempts to get clerks to enter the existing Labour ring, it +had been seriously proposed by the Labour wirepullers (who loved them in +spite of their waywardness, and would have saved them, and their votes +and their weekly contribution, from themselves) that they should form a +Union of their own in conjunction with shop assistants and domestic +servants. When the clerks (of whom the majority employed domestic +servants directly or indirectly in their homes or in their lodgings) +laughed slightly at the proposal; when the shop assistants smiled +self-consciously, and when the domestic servants giggled openly, the +promoters of this amusing triple alliance cruelly left them to their +fate thenceforward, pettishly declaring that all three were a set of +snobs—a designation which they impartially applied to every class of +society except their own, and among themselves to every minute +subdivision of Labour except the one which they adorned.</p> + +<p>It devolved upon a rising young "greaser" in the service of the Great +Northern to explain, as spokesman, the object of the visit. Under the +existing unfair conditions the directors of the various companies were +elected at large salaries by that unnecessary and parasitic group, the +shareholders, while the workmen—the true creators of every penny of +income—had no direct hand in the management of affairs. When they +wished to approach the chief authorities it was necessary for them to +send delegates from their Union, who were frequently kept waiting ten +minutes in an ante-room; and although of late years their demands were +practically always conceded without demur, the position was anomalous +and humiliating. What seemed only reasonable to them, then, was that +they should have the right to elect an equal number of directors from +among themselves, who should sit on the Board with the other directors, +have equal powers, and receive similar salaries.</p> + +<p>"To be, in fact, your permanent deputation to the Board," suggested the +Home Secretary.</p> + +<p>"That's it—with powers," replied the G. N. man.</p> + +<p>"There'll be some soft jobs going—then," murmured a shunter, who was +getting on in years, reflectively.</p> + +<p>"No need for the missis to take in young men lodgers if you get one, eh, +Bill?" said his neighbour jocosely.</p> + +<p>Whether it was the extreme unlikelihood of his ever being made a +director, or some other deeper cause, the secret history of the period +does not say, but Bill turned upon his innocent friend in a very +aggressive mood.</p> + +<p>"What d'yer mean—young men lodgers?" he demanded warmly. "What call +have you to bring that up? Come now!"</p> + +<p>"Why, mate," expostulated the offending one mildly, "no one said +anything to give any offence. What's the 'arm? Your missis does take in +lodgers, same as plenty more, don't she? Well, then!"</p> + +<p>"I can take a 'int along the lines as well as any other," replied Bill +darkly. "It's gone far enough between pals. See? I never said anything +about your sister leaving that there laundry, did I? Never, I didn't."</p> + +<p>"And what about it if you did?" demanded the neighbour, growing hot in +his turn. "I should think you'd have enough——"</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, gentlemen," expostulated the glib young spokesman, as the +voices rose above the conversational whisper, "let us have absolute +unanimity, if <i>you</i> please—expressed in the usual way, by all saying +nothing together."</p> + +<p>"Wha's matter with Bill?" murmured the next delegate with polite +curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Seems to me the little man is troubled with his teef," replied the +unfortunate cause of the ill-feeling, with smouldering passion. "Strike +me if he isn't. Ah!" And seeing the impropriety of relieving his +feelings in the usual way in a Cabinet Minister's private study, he +relapsed into bitter silence.</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes having expressed his absolute approval of this detail of the +programme, the second point was explained. Why, it was demanded, should +the provisions of the Employers' Liability Act apply only to the hours +during which a man was at work? Furthermore, why should they apply only +to accidents? Supposing, said Mr William Mulch, the spokesman in +question, that a bloke went out in a social way among his friends, as +any bloke might, caught the small-pox, and got laid up for life with +after-effects, or died? Or suppose the bloke, after sweating through a +day's work, went home dog-tired to his miserable hovel, and broke his +leg falling over the carpet, or poisoned his hand opening a tin of +sardines? They looked to the present Government to extend the working of +the Act so as to cover the disablement or death of employés from every +cause whatever, natural death included, and wherever they might be at +the time. Under the present unfair and artificial conditions of labour, +the work-people were nothing but the slaves and chattels of capitalists, +and it was manifestly unfair that the latter should escape their +responsibilities after exploiting a man's labour for their own greedy +ends, simply because he happened to die of hydrophobia or senile decay, +or because the injury that disabled him was received outside the +fœtid, insanitary den where in exchange for a bare sordid pittance +his flesh was ground from his bones for eight hours daily.</p> + +<p>The Right Hon. gentleman expressed his entire concurrence with this +provision also, and roused considerable enthusiasm by mentioning that +some time ago he had independently arrived at the conclusion that such a +clause was urgently required.</p> + +<p>Before the next point was considered, Comrade Tintwistle asked +permission to say a few words. He explained that he had no intention of +introducing a discordant note. On the contrary, he heartily supported +the proposal as far as it went, but—and here he wished to say that +though he only voiced the demands of a minority, it was a large, a +growing, and a noisy minority—it did not go far enough. The contention +of those he represented was that the responsibility of employers ought +to extend to the wives and families of their work-people. Many a poor +comrade was sadly harassed by having to keep a crippled child who would +never be a bread-winner, or an ailing wife who was incapable of looking +after his home comfort properly. They were fighting over again the +battle that they had won in the matter of free meals for school +children. It had taken years to convince people that it was equally +necessary that children who did not happen to be attending school should +have meals provided for them, and even more necessary to see that their +mothers should be well nourished; it had taken even longer to arrive at +the logical conclusion that if free meals were requisite, free clothes +were not a whit less necessary. No one nowadays doubted the soundness of +that policy, yet here they were again timorously contemplating +half-measures, while the insatiable birds of prey who sucked their blood +laughed in their sleeve at the spectacle of the British working men +hiding their heads ostrich-like in the shifting quicksand of a fool's +paradise.</p> + +<p>The signs of approval that greeted this proposal showed clearly enough +that other members of the deputation had sympathetic leanings towards +the larger policy of the minority. Mr Tubes himself more than hinted at +the possibility of a personal conversion in the near future. "In the +meantime," he remarked, "everything is on your side. Your position is +logical, moderate, and just. All can admit that, although we may not all +exactly agree as to whether the time is ripe for the measure. With every +temptation to wipe off some of the arrears of injustice of the past, we +must not go so far as to kill the goose that lays the golden egg."</p> + +<p>"How do you make that out?" demanded an unsophisticated young signalman. +"It's the work of the people that produces every penny that circulates."</p> + +<p>"Oh, just so," replied Tubes readily. "That is the real point of the +story. It was the grains of corn that made the eggs, and the goose did +nothing but sit and lay them. We must always have our geese." He turned +to the subject in hand again with a laugh, and approved a few more +modest suggestions for abolishing "privileges."</p> + +<p>"The last point," continued the spokesman, "is one that closely concerns +the principles that we all profess. I refer to the obsolete and +humiliating anachronism that with a Government pledged to the +maintenance of social equality in office, at any hour of the day, at +practically every railway station throughout the land you will still see +trains subdivided as regards designation and accommodation into first, +second, and third classes. It is a distinction which to us, as the +representatives of the so-called third class, is nothing more or less +than insulting. Why should me and my missis when we travel be compelled +to sit where the accidents generally happen and have to put up with +eighteen in a compartment, when smug clerks and saucy ladies' maids, who +are no better than us, enjoy the comparative luxury of only fifteen in a +compartment away from the collisions, and snide financiers and +questionable duchesses, who are certainly a good deal worse, sit in +padded rooms, well protected front and rear, and never know what it is +to be packed more than six a-side? If that isn't class distinction I +should like to know what is. It isn't—Gawd help us!—that we wish to +mix with these people, or that we envy their position or covet their +wealth. Such motives have never entered into the calculations of those +who have been foremost in Socialistic propaganda. But as thoughtful and +self-respecting units of an integral community we object to being +segregated by the imposition of obsolete and arbitrary barriers, we do +resent the artificial creation of social grades, and we regard with +antagonism and distrust the unjust accumulation of labour-created wealth +in the hands of the idle and incapable few.</p> + +<p>"But if this is the standpoint of the great mass of the democracy, to us +of the Amalgamated Unions of Railway Workers and Permanent Way Staffs +the invidious distinction has a closer significance. As ordinary +citizens our sense of equality is outraged by the demarcations I have +referred to; but as our work often places us in a temporary +subordination to the occupants of these so-called first and second +classes, whom we despise intellectually and resent economically, we +incur the additional stigma of having to render them an external +deference which we recognise to be obsolete and servile. The Arden and +Avon Valley case, which earned the martyrdom of dismissal for William +Jukson and ultimately involved forty thousand of us in a now historic +strike, simply because that heroic man categorically refused to the +doddering Duke of Pentarlington any other title than the honourable +appellation of 'Comrade,' is doubtless still fresh within your minds. We +lost on that occasion through insufficiency of funds, but the ducal +portmanteau over which William Jukson took his memorable stand, will yet +serve as a rallying point to a more successful issue."</p> + +<p>Mr Mulch paused for approbation, which was not stinted, but before he +could resume, a passionate little man who had been rising to a more +exalted state of fervour with every demand, suddenly hurled himself like +a human wedge into the forefront of the proceedings.</p> + +<p>"Kumrids!" he exclaimed, breathless from the first, "with your kind +permission I would say a few words embodying a suggestion which, though +not actually included in the agenda, is quite in 'armony with the +subject before us."</p> + +<p>"Won't it keep?" suggested a tired delegate hopefully.</p> + +<p>"The suggestion is briefly this," continued the little man, far too +enthusiastic to notice any interruption, "that as a tribute to William +Jukson's sterling determination and as a perpetual reminder of the +issues raised, we forthwith add to the banners of the Amalgamated Unions +one bearing an allegorical design consisting of two emblematic figures +struggling for the possession of a leather portmanteau with the words +'No Surrender!' beneath. The whole might be made obvious to a person of +the meanest intelligence by the inscription 'A. and A. V. Ry. Test Case. +W. J. upholds the Principles of Social Democracy and Vindicates the +People's Rights,' running round."</p> + +<p>"Why should he be running round?" asked a slow-witted member of the +deputation.</p> + +<p>"Who running round?" demanded the last speaker, amenable to outside +influence now that he had said his say.</p> + +<p>"William Jukson. Didn't you say he was to be on this banner vindicating +the people's rights running round? He stood there on the platform, man +to man, so I've always heard."</p> + +<p>The redoubtable Jukson's champion cast a look of ineffable contempt upon +his simple brother and made a gesture expressive of despair. "That's +all," he said, and sat down.</p> + +<p>Mr Mulch resumed his interrupted innings. "The suggestion will doubtless +receive attention if submitted through the proper channels," he remarked +a little coldly. It was one thing to take the indomitable Jukson under +his own ægis; quite another to countenance his canonisation at a period +when strenuous candidates were more numerous than remunerative niches. +"But to revert to the subject in hand from which we have strayed +somewhat. It only remains for me to say that all artificial distinctions +between class and class are distasteful to the people at large, +detestable to the powerful Unions on whose behalf we are here to-day, +and antagonistic to the interests of the community. We confidently look, +therefore, to the present Government to put an end to a state of things +that is inconsistent with the maintenance of practical Socialism."</p> + +<p>Towards this proposal, also, Mr Tubes turned a friendly ear, but he +admitted that in practice his sympathies must be purely platonic, for +the time at least. In truth, the revenue yielded by the taxation of +first and second class tickets was so considerable that it could not be +ignored. Many people adopted the third class rather than suffer the +exaction, and the receipts of all the railway companies in the kingdom +fell considerably—to the great delight of that large section of the +Socialistic party that had not yet begun to think. But the majority of +the wealthy still paid the price, and not a few among the weak, aged, +and timorous, among children, old men, and ladies, were driven to the +superior classes which they could ill afford by the increased difficulty +of finding a seat elsewhere, and by the growing truculence of the +workmen who were thrust upon them in the thirds. For more than a decade +it had been observed that when a seat in tram or train was at stake the +age of courtesy was past, but a new Burke, listening to the conversation +of those around, might too frequently have cause to think that the age +of decency had faded also. Another development, contributing to the +maintenance of the higher classes, was the fact that one was as heavily +mulcted if he turned to any of the other forms of more exclusive +travelling. Private carriages of all kinds were the butt of each +succeeding Budget, even bicycles (unless owned by workmen) were not +exempt; and so heavily was the Chancellor's hand laid upon motor cars +(except such as were the property of Members of Parliament) that even +the Marquis of Kingsbery was satisfied, and withdrew his threat to haunt +the Portsmouth Road with an elephant gun.</p> + +<p>And yet, despite the persistence of a Stuart in imposing taxation and +the instincts of a Vespasian in making it peculiarly offensive, the +Treasury was always in desperate straits. The reason was not far to +seek. In the old days Liberal governments had at times proved +extravagant; Tory governments had perhaps oftener proved even more +extravagant; but in each case it was the tempered profusion of those who +through position and education were too careless to count their pence +and too unconcerned to be dazzled by their pounds. The Labour and the +Socialist administrations proved superlatively extravagant: and there is +nothing more irredeemable than the spendthrift recklessness of your +navvy who has unexpectedly "come into money." The beggar was truly on +horseback, or, to travel with the times, he had set off in his motor +car, and he was now bowling along the great high-road towards the +cliff-bound sea of national perdition, a very absent-minded beggar +indeed, with a merry hand upon the high speed gear.</p> + +<p>"I am with you heart and soul," therefore declared Mr Tubes as a man, +and as a member of the Cabinet added—"in principle. But the +contemplated Act for providing State maintenance of strikers, in strikes +approved of by the Board of Trade, makes it extremely undesirable to +abolish any of the existing sources of revenue, at least until we see +what the measure will involve."</p> + +<p>"Save on the Navy, then," growled a malcontent in the rear rank.</p> + +<p>"We have already reduced the Navy to the fullest extent that we consider +it desirable to go at present; that is to say, to the common-sense +limit—equality with any one of the other leading powers."</p> + +<p>"The Army, then."</p> + +<p>"We have already reduced the Army very considerably, but with a navy on +the lines which I have indicated and an army traditionally weaker at the +best than those of the great military powers, which are also naval +powers, is it prudent?" The gesture that closed the sentence clearly +expressed Mr Tubes's own misgivings on the subject. He had always been +regarded as a moderate though a vacillating man among his party, and the +"reduce everything and chance it" policy of a powerful section of the +Cabinet disturbed his rest at times.</p> + +<p>"Why halt ye between two opinions?" exclaimed a clear and singularly +sweet voice from the doorway. "Temporise not with the powers of darkness +when the day of opportunity is now at hand. Sweep away arms and armies, +engines of war and navies, in one vast and irresistible wave of +Universal Brotherhood. Beat the swords into ploughshares, cast your guns +into instruments of music, let all strife cease. Extend the hand of +friendship and equality not only man to man and class to class, but +nation to nation and race to race. Make a great feast, and in love and +fellowship compel them to come in: so shall you inaugurate the reign of +Christ anew on earth."</p> + +<p>Every one looked at the speaker and then glanced at his neighbour with +amusement, contempt, enquiry, here and there something of approval, in +his eye. "The Mad Parson," "Brother Ambrose," "The Ragged Priest," "St +Ambrose of Shadwell," ran from lip to lip as a few recognised the +tonsured barefoot figure standing in his shabby cassock by the door. Mr +Tubes alone, seated out of the range of whispers and a victim to the +defective sight that is the coal-pit heritage throughout the world, +received no inkling of his identity, and, assuming that he was a late +arrival of the deputation, sought to extend a gentle conciliation.</p> + +<p>"The goal of complete disarmament is one that we never fail to strive +for," he accordingly replied, "but our impulsive comrade must admit that +the present is hardly the moment for us to make the experiment entirely +on our own. Prudence——"</p> + +<p>"Prudence!" exclaimed the ragged priest with flashing vehemence. "There +is no more cowardly word in the history of that Black Art which you call +Statecraft. All your wars, all your laws, all tyranny, injustice, +inhumanity, all have their origin in a fancied prudence. It marks the +downward path in whitened milestones more surely than good intentions +pave that same decline. Dare! dare! dare! man. Dare to love your +brother. Herod was prudent when he sought to destroy all the children of +Bethlehem; it was prudence that led Pilate to deliver up our Master to +the Jews. The deadly <i>ignis fatuus</i> of prudence marched and +counter-marched destroying armies from the East and from the West +through every age, formed vast coalitions and dissolved them +treacherously, made dynasties and flung them from the throne. It led +pagan Rome, it illumined the birth of a faith now choked in official +bonds, it danced before stricken Europe, lit the martyrs' fires, lured +the cold greed of commerce, and now hangs a sickly beacon over +Westminster. But prudence never raised the fallen Magdalene nor forgave +the dying thief. Christ was not <i>prudent</i>."</p> + +<p>"Christ, who's 'e?" said a man who had a reputation for facetiousness to +maintain. "Oh! I remember. <i>He's</i> been dead a long time."</p> + +<p>Ambrose turned on him the face that led men and the eye that quelled. +"My brother," he almost whispered across the room, "if you die with that +in your heart it were better for you that He had never lived."</p> + +<p>There was something in the voice, the look, the presence, that checked +the ready methods by which a hostile intruder was wont to be expelled. +All recognised a blind inspired devotion beside which their own party +enthusiasm was at the best pale and thin. Even to men who were wholly +indifferent to the forms of religion, Ambrose's self-denying life, his +ascetic discipline, his fanatical whole-heartedness, his noble—almost +royal—family, and the magnetic influence which he exercised over masses +of the most wretched of the poor and degraded gave pause for thought, +and often extorted a grudging regard. Not a few among those who had +dispassionately watched the rise and fall of parties held the opinion +that the man might yet play a wildly prominent part in the nation's +destinies and involve a tragedy that could only yet be dimly guessed: +for most men deemed him mad.</p> + +<p>"Whatever you may wish to say this is neither the time nor the place," +said Mr Drugget mildly. "We are not taking part in a public meeting +which invites discussion, but are here in a semi-private capacity to +confer with the Home Secretary."</p> + +<p>"There is no time or place unseasonable to me, who come with Supreme +authority," replied Ambrose. "Nor, if the man is worthy of his office, +can the Home Secretary close his ears to the representative of the +people."</p> + +<p>"The people!" exclaimed a startled member of the Amalgamated Unions. +"What d'yer mean by the 'representative of the people'? <i>We</i> are the +representatives of the people. We <i>are</i> the people!"</p> + +<p>"You?" replied Ambrose scornfully, sweeping the assembly with his eye +and returning finally with a disconcerting gaze to the man who spoke, +"you smug, easy, well-fed, well-clad, well-to-do in your little way, +self-satisfied band of Pharisees, <i>you</i> the people of the earth! Are you +the poor, are you the meek, the hungry, the persecuted? You are the +comfortable, complacent <i>bourgeoisie</i> of labourdom. You can never +inherit the Kingdom of Christ on earth. Outside your gates, despised of +all, stand His chosen people."</p> + +<p>There was a low, rolling murmur of approval, growing in volume before it +died away, but it rose not within the chamber but from the road outside.</p> + +<p>"Mr Tubes," whispered the introducer of the deputation uneasily, "give +the word, sir. Shall we have this man put out?"</p> + +<p>"No, no," muttered Tubes, with his eyes fixed on the window and turning +slightly pale; "wait a minute. Who are those outside?"</p> + +<p>The Member of Parliament looked out; others were looking too, and for a +moment not only their own business was forgotten, but the indomitable +priest's outspoken challenge passed unheeded in a curious contemplation +of his following. At that period the sight was a new one in the streets +of London, though afterwards it became familiar enough, not only in the +Capital, but to the inhabitants of every large town and city throughout +the land.</p> + +<p>Ambrose had been called "The Ragged Priest," and it was a very ragged +regiment that formed his bodyguard; he was "The Mad Parson," and an +ethereal mania shone in the faces of many of his followers, though as +many sufficiently betrayed the slum-bred cunning, the inborn brutishness +of the unchanged criminal and the hooligan, thinly cloaked beneath a +shifty mask of assumed humility. As became "St Ambrose," the banners +which here and there stood out above the ranks—mere sackcloth standards +lashed to the roughest poles—nearly all bore religious references in +their crude emblems and sprawling inscriptions. The gibes at charity, +the demands for work of an earlier decade had given place to another +phase. "Christ is mocked," was one; "Having all things in common," ran +another; while "As it was in the beginning," "Equality, in Christ," "Thy +Kingdom come," might frequently be seen. But a more significant note was +struck by an occasional threat veiled beneath a text, as "The sun shall +be turned into darkness, the moon into blood," though their leader +himself never hinted violence in his most impassioned flights. Among the +upturned faces a leisurely observer might have detected a few that were +still conspicuous in refinement despite their sordid settings—women +chiefly, and for the most part fanatical converts who had been swept off +their feet by Ambrose's eloquence in the more orthodox days when he had +thrilled fashionable congregations from the pulpit of a Mayfair church. +Other women there were in plenty; men, old and young; even a few +children; dirty, diseased, criminal, brutalised, vicious, crippled, the +unemployed, the unemployable. Beggars from the streets, begging on a +better lay; thieves hopeful of a larger booty; malcontents of every +phase; enemies of society reckoning on a day of reckoning; the +unfortunate and the unfortunates swayed by vague yearnings after +righteousness; schemers striving for their private ends; with a salting +of the simple-hearted; all held together so far by the vehement +personality of one fanatic, and glancing down the ranks one could +prophesy what manner of monster out of the depths this might prove when +it had reached rampant maturity. Poverty, abject poverty, was the +dominant note; for all who marched beneath the ragged banner must go in +rags.</p> + +<p>Mr Drugget was the first to recover himself. "Look here," he said, +turning to Ambrose aggressively, "I don't quite catch on to your game, +but that's neither here nor there. If you want to know what I call it, I +call it a bit of blasted impertinence to bring a mob like that to a +man's private house, no matter who he may be. What's more, this is an +unlawful gathering according to Act of Parliament."</p> + +<p>"That which breaks no divine commandment cannot be unlawful," replied +Ambrose, unmoved. "I recognise no other law. And you, who call +yourselves Socialists and claim equality, what are your laws but the old +privileges which you denounced in others extended to include yourselves, +what your equality but the spoliation of those above you?"</p> + +<p>"We are practical Socialists," exclaimed one or two members with +dignity. "As reasonable men we recognise that there must be a limit +somewhere."</p> + +<p>"Practical is the last thing you can claim to be. You are impractical +visionaries; for it would be as easy for a diver to pause in mid-air as +for mankind to remain at a half-way house to Equality. All! All! Every +man-made distinction must be swept away. Neither proprietor nor +property, paid leader nor gain, task-work nor pride of place; nothing +between God and man's heart. That is the only practical Socialism, and +it is at hand."</p> + +<p>"Not while we're in office," said the Home Secretary shortly.</p> + +<p>"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," cast back Ambrose. "Where is now the +great Unionist party? In a single season the sturdy Liberal stronghold +crumbled into dust. You deposed a Labour government that was deemed +invulnerable in its time. Beware, the hand is already on the wall. Those +forces which you so blindly ignore will yet combine and crush you."</p> + +<p>It was not unlikely. In former times it would have required barricades +and some personal bravery. But with universal suffrage the power of the +pauper criminal was no less than that of the ducal millionaire, and the +alcohol lunatic, presenting himself at the poll between the spasms of +<i>delirium tremens</i>, was as potent a force as the philosopher. A party +composed of paupers, aliens, chronic unemployed, criminals, lunatics, +unfortunates, the hysterical and degenerate of every kind, together with +so many of the working classes as might be attracted by the glamour of a +final and universal spoliation, led by a sincere and impassioned +firebrand, might yet have to be reckoned with.</p> + +<p>"And you, comrade?" said a railway-man with pardonable curiosity. "When +you've had your little fling, who's going to turn <i>you</i> out and come +in?"</p> + +<p>"We!" exclaimed Ambrose with a touch of genuine surprise; "how can you +be so blind! We represent the ultimate destiny of mankind."</p> + +<p>In another age and another place a form of government called the States +General, and largely composed of amiable clerics, had been called up to +redress existing grievances. Being found too slow, it gave place to the +National Assembly, and, to go yet a little faster, became the +Legislative Assembly. This in turn was left behind by the more +expeditious Girondins, but as even they lagged according to the bustling +times, the Jacobins came into favour. The ultimate development of +quick-change Equality was reached in the Hébertists. From one to another +had been but a step, and they were all "The People"; but while the +States General had looked for the millennium by the abolition of a +grievance here and there, and the lightening of a chafing collar in the +mass, the followers of Hébert found so little left for them to abolish +that they abolished God. The experiment convinced the sagest of the +leaders that human equality is only to be found in death, and, true to +their principles, they "equalised" a million of their fellow-countrymen +through the instrumentality of the guillotine, and other forms of moral +suasion. Grown more tender-hearted, "The People" no longer thirsted for +another section of "The People's" blood—only for their money; and in +place of Fouquier-Tinville and the Gentleman with the Wooden Frame, +their instruments of justice were represented by a Chancellor of the +Exchequer, and an individual delivering blue papers.</p> + +<p>"We represent the ultimate destiny of mankind: absolute equality," +announced Ambrose. "Any other condition is inconsistent with the +professions to which your party has repeatedly pledged itself. Will you, +my brother," he continued, addressing himself to the Home Secretary, +"receive a deputation?"</p> + +<p>The deputation was already waiting at the outer door, three men and +three women. It included a countess, a converted house-breaker, and an +anarchist who had become embittered with life since the premature +explosion of one of his bombs had blown off both his arms and driven him +to subsist on the charitable. The other three were uninteresting +nonentities, but all were equal in their passion for equality.</p> + +<p>"We are all pledged to the principle of social equality, and every step +in that direction that comes within the range of practical politics must +have our sympathy," replied Mr Tubes. "Further than that I am not +prepared to commit myself at present. That being the case, there would +be no object in receiving a deputation." To this had Mr Tubes come at +last.</p> + +<p>"The unending formula," said Brother Ambrose with weary bitterness. "... +Bread, and you give them stones ... Man," he cried with sudden energy, +"almost within your grasp lies the foundation of New Jerusalem, +tranquil, smiling, sinless. What stands in your way? Nothing, nothing! +truly nothing but the heavy shadow of the old and cruel past. Throw it +off; is it not worth doing? No more spiritual death, no more sorrow of +the things of this world, nor crying, 'Neither shall there be any more +pain: for the former things are passed away.'"</p> + +<p>"I have nothing more to say," responded the Home Secretary coldly, +bending over his desk to write.</p> + +<p>"Then I have much more to do," retorted Ambrose impetuously, "and that +shall be with the sword of my mouth." He strode from the room with an +air that no amount of legislative equality could ever confer upon any of +those he left behind, and a moment later his ragged escort was in motion +homeward—slumward.</p> + +<p>"Kumreds," said Mr Tubes, looking up, "the harmony of the occasion has +been somewhat impaired by an untoward incident, but on the whole I think +that you may rest well satisfied with the result of your +representations. Having another appointment I must now leave you, but I +have given instructions for some beer and sandwidges to be brought in, +and I trust that in my enforced absence you will all make yourselves +quite at home." He shook hands with each man present and withdrew.</p> + +<p>"Beer and sandwidges!" muttered Comrade Tintwistle, with no affectation +of delight, to a chosen spirit. "And this is the man we pay fifty quid a +week to!"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" assented the friend, following Mr Tubes's hospitable directions by +strolling round the room and fingering the ornaments. "Well, when it +comes to a general share-out I don't know but what I should mind having +this here little round barometer for my parlour."</p> + +<p>"Neat little thing," assented Tintwistle with friendly interest. "What +does it say?"</p> + +<p>"Seems to be dropping from 'Change' to 'Stormy,'" read the friend.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>MISS LISLE TELLS A LONG POINTLESS STORY</h3> + + +<p>Sir John Hampden lived within a stone-throw of the Marble Arch; George +Salt had established himself in Westminster; and about midway between +the two, in the neighbourhood of Pall Mall, a convenient but quite +unostentatious suite of offices had been taken and registered as the +headquarters of the Unity League.</p> + +<p>The Unity League was a modern organisation that had come into existence +suddenly, and with no great parade, within a week of that day when +George Salt had forced Hampden to hear what he wished to say, a day now +nearly two years ago. The name was simple and commonplace, and therefore +it aroused neither curiosity nor suspicion; it was explained by the fact +that it had only one object: "By constitutional means to obtain an +adequate representation of the middle and upper classes in Parliament," +a phrase rendered by the lighter-hearted members colloquially as "To +kick out the Socialists." The Government, quite content to govern +constitutionally (in the wider sense) and to be attacked +constitutionally (in the narrower sense), treated the existence of the +Unity League as a playful ebullition on the part of the milch sections +of society, and raised the minimum income-tax to four and threepence as +a sedative.</p> + +<p>At first the existence of the League met with very little response and +no enthusiasm among those for whom it was intended. It had become an +article of faith with the oppressed classes that no propagandism could +ever restore an equitable balance of taxation. Every change must +inevitably tend to be worse than the state before. To ask the working +classes (the phrase lingered; by the demarcation of taxation it meant +just what it conventionally means to-day, and, similarly, it excluded +clerical workers of all grades)—to ask this privileged class which +dominated practically every constituency to throw out their own people +and put in a party whose avowed policy would be to repeal the Employers' +Liability Act (Extended), the Strikes Act, the Unemployed Act, the +Amended Companies Act, the Ecclesiastical Property Act, the infamous +Necessity Act, and a score of other preposterous Acts of Injustice +before they even gave their attention to anything else, had long been +recognised to be grotesque. A League, therefore, which spoke of working +towards freedom on constitutional lines fell flat. The newspapers +noticed it in their various individual fashions, and all but the +Government organs extended to it a welcome of cold despair. The general +reader gathered the impression that he might look for its early demise.</p> + +<p>The first revulsion of opinion came when it was understood that Sir John +Hampden had returned to public life as the President of the League. What +his name meant to his contemporaries, how much the League gained from +his association, may be scarcely realised in an age existing under +different and more conflicting conditions. Briefly, his personality +lifted the effort into the plane—not of a national movement, for with +the nation so sharply riven by two irreconcilable interests that was +impossible, but certainly beyond all cavil as to motives and methods. +When it was further known that he was not lending his name +half-heartedly as to a forlorn hope, or returning reluctantly as from a +tardy sense of duty, men began to wonder what might lie behind.</p> + +<p>The first public meeting of the newly formed League deepened the +impression. Men and women of the middle and upper classes were invited +to become members. The annual subscription being a guinea, none but +adults were expected. Those of the working class were not invited. If +the subscription seemed large, the audience was asked to remember what +lay at stake, and to compare with it the case of the artisan cheerfully +contributing his sixpence a week to the strike fund of his class. "As a +result there is a Strikes Act now in force," the President reminded +them, "and the artisan no longer pays the cost——"</p> + +<p>"No, we do," interjected a listener.</p> + +<p>"I ask you to pay it for three years longer; no more, perhaps less," +replied Hampden with a reassuring smile, and his audience stared.</p> + +<p>If the subscription seemed large for an organisation of the kind the +audience was assured that it was by no means all, or even the most, that +would be expected of them. They must be prepared to make some sacrifice +when called upon; the nature he could not indicate at that early stage. +No balance sheet would be published; no detailed reports would be +issued. There would be no dances, no garden-parties, no club houses, no +pretty badges. The President warned them that membership offered no +facilities for gaining a precarious footing in desirable society, +through the medium of tea on the Vicarage lawn, or croquet in the Home +Park. "We are not playing at tin politics nowadays," he caustically +remarked.</p> + +<p>That closed the exordium. In a different vein Hampden turned to review +the past, and with the chartered freedom of the man who had prophesied +it all, he traced in broad lines and with masterly force the course of +Conservative ineptitude, Radical pusillanimity, Labour selfishness, and +Socialistic tyranny. What would be the crowning phase of grab +government? History foreshadowed it; common-sense certified it. Before +the dark curtain of that last stupendous act the wealth and wisdom, the +dignity and responsibility of the nation, stood in paralysed expectancy.</p> + +<p>There was a telling pause; a dramatic poignant silence hung over the +massed crowd that listened to the one man who could still inspire a +kindling spark of hope. Then, just at the opportune moment, a friendly +challenge gave the effective lead:</p> + +<p>"And what does Sir John Hampden offer now?"</p> + +<p>"Absolute victory," replied the speaker, with the thrilling energy of +quiet but assured conviction, "and with it the ending of this nightmare +dream of life in which we are living now, when every man in his +half-guilty helplessness shuns his own thoughts, and all are filled with +a new unnatural pain: the shame of being Englishmen. Blink the fact or +not, it is civil war upon which we are now engaged. Votes are the +weapons, and England and her destiny, nothing more or less, are the +stakes. It has frequently been one of the curious features even of the +most desperate civil struggles of the past, that while battles were +raging all around, towns besieged, and thrones falling, commerce was at +the same time being carried on as usual, wordy controversies on trivial +alien subjects were being hotly discussed by opposing sections, as +though their pedantic differences were the most serious matters in the +world, and the ordinary details of everyday life were proceeding as +before. So it is to-day, but civil, social, war is in our midst, +and—again blink it or not—we are losing, and wage it as it is being +waged we shall continue to lose. I am not here to-day to urge the +justice of our cause, to palliate unwise things done, to indulge in +regrets for wise things left undone. One does not discuss diplomacy in +the middle of a battle. I am here to hold out a new hope for the triumph +of our cause, for the revival of an era of justice, for the recovered +respect of nations. I have never been accused of undue optimism, yet +fully weighing my words, I stand on this platform to-night to share with +you my conviction that it is within our power, in three years' time, to +send an overwhelming majority of our reconstructed party into power, to +reduce the income-tax to a sane and normal level, and to recommence the +building up of a treasonably neglected navy."</p> + +<p>Another man—perhaps any other man—would have been met by ridicule, but +Hampden's reputation was unique. The one point of emphasis that could +not fail to impress itself upon every listener was that there <i>was</i> +something behind all this. It was a point that did not convey itself +half so forcefully in the newspaper reports, so that, as Socialists and +their friends did not attend the meetings (even as members of the +wealthier classes had ignored Socialistic "vapourings" in days gone by), +any menace to the Government that the League might contain was lost on +them for the present. It was the moral of an old fable: the Dog in +Luxury grown slothful and unready.</p> + +<p>The subscription deterred few. It was an epoch when everything was, +apparently, being given away for nothing; though never had the +grandfatherly maxim that in business nothing ever is offered without its +price, been so keenly observed. But superficially, to ride in a penny +'bus entitled one to a probable pension for life; to buy a pound of tea +was only the preliminary to being presented with a motor-car or a grand +piano. Fortunes lurked in cigarette boxes, whole libraries sprang +gratuitously from the columns of the daily papers; not only oxen, but +silver spoons inexhaustible were compressed within the covers of each +jar of meat extract, and buried treasure, "Mysterious Millionaires," and +"Have-you-that-ten-pound-note?" men littered the countryside. To be +asked to subscribe a guinea for nothing definite in return, was +therefore a pleasing novelty which took amazingly. So, too, the idea of +participating in some sort of legal revolution which would entail +sacrifices and result in unexpected developments, was found to be +delightfully invigorating. How the movement spread is a matter of +history. Incomes had been reduced wholesale, yet, so great was the +confidence in Hampden's name, that many members sent their subscription +ten times told. When he asked, as he frequently did at the close of a +meeting, for recruits who were willing to devote their whole time unpaid +to the work in various departments, more than could be accepted were +invariably forthcoming. All members proselytised on their own +initiative, but within these there were thousands of quiet and devoted +workers who were in close touch with the office of the League. They +acted on detailed instructions in their methods, and submitted regular +reports of progress and of the state of public feeling in every part of +the kingdom and among every class of the community. To what length the +roll of membership had now extended only two men knew, even +approximately. All that could be used as a guide was the fact that it +was the exception rather than the rule anywhere to find a family among +the classes aimed at, that did not contain at least one member; while +London, within the same indicated limits, had practically gone solid for +membership.</p> + +<p>And George Salt? The public knew nothing of him; his name did not appear +in connection with the League, nor did he ever take a place among the +notables upon the platform at its meetings. But the thousands of the +inner ring knew him very well, and few whose business led them to the +offices missed encountering him. He was officially supposed to be a +League secretary to Sir John Hampden, endowed with large discretionary +powers.</p> + +<p>At the moment when this chapter opens he was receiving in his office a +representative of the leading Government organ: a daily paper which +purveyed a mixture of fervent demagogism and child-like inconsistency, +for the modest sum of one halfpenny. <i>The Tocsin</i>, as it was called, was +widely read by a public who believed every word it contained, with that +simple credulity in what is printed which is one of the most pathetic +features of the semi-illiterate.</p> + +<p>Mr Hammet, the representative of <i>The Tocsin</i>, had come to find out what +was really behind the remarkable spread of the Unity League. Possibly +members of the Government were beginning to fidget. Salt had seen him +for the purpose of telling him everything else that he cared to know. To +enquirers, the officials of the League were always candid and open, and +laughingly disclaimed any idea of a mysterious secret society. So Salt +admitted that they really hoped for a change of public opinion shortly; +that they based their calculation on the inevitable swing of the +pendulum, and so forth. He allowed it to be drawn easily from him that +they had great faith in party organisation, and that perhaps—between +themselves and not for publication—the Government would be surprised by +a substantial lowering of their majority at the next election, as a +result of quiet, unostentatious "spade work." "As a party we are not +satisfied with the state of things," he said. "We cannot be expected to +be satisfied with it, and we are certainly relying on a stronger +representation in opposition to make our views felt."</p> + +<p>"Quite right," said Mr Hammet sympathetically. He closed the note-book +in which he had made a few entries and put it away, to indicate that his +visit was officially at an end, and whatever passed between them now was +simply one private gentleman talking to another, and might be regarded +as sacredly confidential. Salt also relaxed the secretarial manner which +he had taken the pains to acquire, and seemed as though he would be glad +of a little human conversation with a man who knew life and Fleet +Street: which meant, of course, that both were prepared to be +particularly alert.</p> + +<p>"I was at one of your meetings the other night—the Albert Hall one," +remarked the newspaper man casually. "Your Chief fairly took the crowd +with him. No being satisfied with a strong opposition for him! Why, he +went bald-headed for sweeping the country and going in with a couple of +hundred majority or so."</p> + +<p>Salt laughed appreciatively. "No good being down-hearted," he replied. +"That was the end of all the old organisations. 'We see no hope for the +future, so you all may as well mark time,' was their attitude, and they +dropped out. 'When anything turns up we intend being ready for it, so +come in now,' we say."</p> + +<p>"Seems to take all right too," admitted Mr Hammet. "I was offered a +level dollar by a friend of mine the other day that you had over half a +million members. I took it in a sporting spirit, because I know that +half a million needs a lot of raking in, and I put it at rather less +myself—but, of course, as you are close about it we can never settle +up." Half a million, it may be observed, was everybody's property, as an +estimate on "excellent authority."</p> + +<p>"We don't publish figures, as a matter of fact," admitted Salt +half-reluctantly, "but I don't know why there should be any very +particular secret about it——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, every office has its cupboards and its skeletons," said Mr Hammet +generously. "But if one could see inside," he added with a knowing look, +"I think that I should win."</p> + +<p>"No," exclaimed Salt suddenly. "I don't mind telling you in confidence. +We have passed the half million: passed it last—well, some time ago."</p> + +<p>"Lucky for me that it is in confidence," remarked the pressman with a +grimace, "or I should have to pay up. What is the exact figure, then?" +he ventured carelessly.</p> + +<p>"No one could quite tell you that," replied Salt, equally off-hand.</p> + +<p>"Six hundred thousand?" suggested Mr Hammet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that is a considerable advance,—a hundred thousand," admitted Salt +with transparent disappointment. It is not pleasant when you have +impressed your man to have him expecting too much the next minute.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of the old Buttercup League," said Mr Hammet. "You took +the remains over, lock, stock, and barrel, I believe?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, all that would come. Half belonged to your party really, and half +of the remainder were children. What an organisation that was in its +time! A million and a half!" The smart young newspaper man noted Mr +Salt's open admiration for these figures. It convinced him that the +newer League was not yet within measurable distance of half that total.</p> + +<p>"And in the end it did—what?" he remarked.</p> + +<p>Salt was bound to apologise. "What is there to do, after all?" he +admitted. "What can you do but keep your people together, show them +where their interest lies, and wait?"</p> + +<p>"And rake in the shekels?" suggested Mr Hammet airily.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that!" agreed Salt a little uneasily. "Of course one has to look +after the finances."</p> + +<p>"Ra-ther," agreed Mr Hammet. "Wish I had the job. Do you smoke here as a +general thing?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," replied Salt, who never did. "Try one of these."</p> + +<p>"Fairish cigars. Better than you'd find in the old man's private box up +at our show," was the verdict. "But then we haven't a revenue of half a +million."</p> + +<p>"Of course I rely on you not to say anything about our numbers," said +the secretary anxiously.</p> + +<p>The visitor made a reassuring gesture, expressive of inviolable secrecy. +"Though I suppose you have to make a return for income-tax purposes," he +mused. "My aunt! what an item you must have!"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Salt. "We do not pay anything."</p> + +<p>Mr Hammet stared in incredulous surprise. "How do you manage to work +it?" he demanded familiarly. "You don't mean that they have forgotten +you?"</p> + +<p>"No; it's quite simple," explained Salt. "Your friends made the funds +and incomes of Trades Unions sacred against claims and taxes of every +kind a few years ago, and we rank as a Trade Union."</p> + +<p>"Don't call them my friends, please God," exclaimed Mr Hammet with +ingratiating disloyalty. "I work as in a house of bondage. You don't +publish any balance-sheet, by the way, do you?"</p> + +<p>"No, we don't see why we should let every one know how the money is +being spent. No matter how economically things are carried on there are +always some who want to interfere."</p> + +<p>"Especially if they sampled your weeds," suggested the visitor +pleasantly. "Pretty snug cribs you must have, but that's not my +business. Between ourselves, what does Sir John draw a year?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," protested Salt eagerly, too eagerly. "As President of the +League he does not receive a penny."</p> + +<p>Sharp Mr Hammet, who prided himself upon being a terror for exposures +and on having a record of seven flagrant cases of contempt of court, +read the secretary's eagerness like an open book. "But then there are +Committees, Sub-committees, Executives, Emergency Funds, and what not," +he pointed out, "and our unpaid League President may be Chairman of one, +and Secretary of another, and Grand Master of a third with a royal +salary from each, eh? Can you assure me——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well; of course," admitted Salt, cornered beyond prevarication, +"that is a private matter that has to do with the officials of the +League alone. But you may take it from me that every one in these +offices earns his salary whatever it may be."</p> + +<p>Mr Hammet smiled his polite acquiescence broadly.</p> + +<p>"Same here, changing the scene of action to Stonecutter Street," he +commented. "Do you happen to know how Sir John came to start this +affair? Well, Tagg M.P. met Miss Hampden once and wanted to marry her. +He called on Sir John, who received him about as warmly as a shoulder of +Canterbury lamb even before he knew what his business was. When he did +know, he gave such an exhibition of sheet lightning that Tagg, who is +really a very level-headed young fellow in general, completely lost his +nerve and tried to dazzle him into consenting, by offering him a safe +seat in the Huddersfield division and a small place in the Government if +he'd consent to put up as a bracketted Imperialist hyphened Socialist. +Then the old man kicked Tagg out of the house, and swore to do the same +with his Government within three years. At least that's what I heard +about the time, but very likely there isn't a word of truth in it;" a +tolerably safe inference on Mr Hammet's part, as, in point of fact, he +had concocted Mr Tagg's romance on the spur of the moment.</p> + +<p>"No," volunteered Salt. "I don't think that that is the true story, or I +should have heard something about it. It's rather curious that you +should have mentioned it. I believe——But it's scarcely worth taking +up your time with."</p> + +<p>"Not at all: I mean that I am quite interested," protested Mr Hammet.</p> + +<p>"Well—of course it sounds rather absurd in the broad light of day, but +I believe, as a matter of fact, that he was led into founding the League +simply as the result of a dream."</p> + +<p>"A dream!" exclaimed Mr Hammet, deeply surprised. "What sort of a +dream?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it naturally must have been a rather extraordinary dream to +affect him so strongly. In fact you might perhaps call it a vision."</p> + +<p>"A vision!" repeated Mr Hammet, thoroughly absorbed in the mysterious +element thus brought in. "Do I understand that this is Sir John's own +explanation?" Hampden's sudden return to activity had, indeed, from time +to time been a riddle of wide interest.</p> + +<p>"Oh no," Salt hastened to correct. "I expect that he would be the last +man to admit it, or to offer any explanation at all. Of course the +history of the world has been changed in every age through dreams and +visions, but that explanation nowadays, in a weighty matter, would run +the risk of being thought trivial and open to ridicule."</p> + +<p>"But what do you base your deductions upon, then?" demanded Mr Hammet, +rather fogged by the serious introduction of this new light. "Is Sir +John a believer in clairvoyance?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid that I must not state the real grounds for several reasons, +if you won't think me discourteous," replied Salt firmly. "But this I +may say: that I had occasion to see Sir John late one night, and then he +had not the faintest intention of coming forward. Early the following +morning I saw him again, and by that time the whole affair was cut and +dried. Of course you are at liberty to confirm or contradict the story +just as you like, if you should happen to come across it again."</p> + +<p>In a state of conscious bewilderment through which he was powerless to +assert himself, Mr Hammet submitted to polite dismissal. The visible +result of his interview was half a column of peptonised personalities in +<i>The Tocsin</i>, rendered still easier of assimilation to the dyspeptic +mind by being well cut up into light paragraphs and garnished with +sub-headings throughout. The unseen result, except to the privileged +eyes of half a dozen people, was a confidential report which found its +way ultimately into the desk of the Home Secretary. The following points +summarised Mr Hammet's deductions.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"The Unity League probably has a membership of half a million. It may be +safely assumed that it does not exceed that figure by a hundred thousand +at the most.</p> + +<p>"While largely recruiting by the device of holding out a suggestion of +some indefinite and effective political scheme, the policy of the League +will be that of <i>laisser faire</i>, and its influence may be safely +ignored. Very little of its vast income is spent in propagandism or +organisation. On the contrary, there is the certainty that considerable +sums are lying at short notice at the banks, and strong evidence that +equally large sums have been sent out of the country through the agency +of foreign houses.</p> + +<p>"Many men of so-called 'good position' enjoy obvious sinecure posts +under the League, and all connected with the organisation appear to draw +salaries disproportionate to their positions, and in some cases wildly +disproportionate.</p> + +<p>"The plain inference from the bulk of evidence is that the League is, +and was formed to be, the preserve for a number of extravagant and +incapable unemployed of the so-called upper and upper-middle classes, +who have organised this means of increasing their incomes to balance the +diminution which they have of late years experienced through the +equalising legislation of Socialism. The money sent abroad is doubtless +a reserve for a few of the higher officials to fall back on if future +contingencies drive them out of this country.</p> + +<p>"This information has been carefully derived from a variety of sources, +including John Hampden's secretary, a man called Salt. Salt appears to +be a simple, unsuspicious sort of fellow, and with careful handling +might be used as a continual means of securing information in the future +should there be any necessity."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The simple, unsuspicious secretary had dismissed Mr Hammet with scarcely +another thought as soon as that gentleman had departed. In order to fit +himself for the requirements of his new sphere of action, Salt had, +during the past two years, compelled himself to acquire that art of +ready speech which we are told is the most efficient safeguard of our +thoughts. But he hated it. Most of all he despised the necessity of +engaging in such verbal chicane as Mr Hammet's mission demanded. Of that +mission he had the amplest particulars long before the representative of +<i>The Tocsin</i> had passed his threshold. He knew when he was coming, why +he was coming, and the particular points upon which information was +desired. He could have disconcerted Hammet beyond measure by placing +before him a list of all those persons who had been so delicately +sounded, together with an abstract of the results; and finally, he +received as a matter of ordinary routine a copy of the confidential +report three hours before it reached Mr James Tubes. Armies engaged in +active warfare have their Intelligence Departments, and the Secret +Service of the Unity League was remarkably complete and keen.</p> + +<p>"My name is Irene Lisle," said the next caller, and there being nothing +particular to say in reply Salt expressed himself by his favourite +medium—silence; but in such a way that Miss Lisle felt encouraged to +continue.</p> + +<p>"I have come to you because I am sick of seeing things go on as they +have been going for years, and no one doing anything. I believe that you +<i>are</i> going to do something."</p> + +<p>"Why?" demanded Salt with quiet interest. It mattered—it might matter a +great deal—why this unknown Miss Lisle should have been led to form +that conclusion.</p> + +<p>"I have a great many friends—some in London, others all over the +country. I have been making enquiries lately, through them and also by +other means. It is generally understood that your membership is about +half a million, and you tacitly assent to that." She took up a scrap of +waste paper that lay before her, and writing on it, passed it across the +desk. "That, however, is my estimate. If I am right, or anything like +it, you are concealing your strength."</p> + +<p>Salt took the paper, glanced at it, smiled and shook his head without +committing himself to any expression. But he carefully burned the +fragment with its single row of figures after Miss Lisle had left.</p> + +<p>"I have attended your meetings," continued Miss Lisle composedly, "for, +of course, I am a member in the ordinary way. I came once as a matter of +curiosity, or because one's friends were speaking of it, and I came +again because, even then, I was humbled and dispirited at the shameful +part that our country was being made to play before the world. I caught +something, but I did not grasp all—because I am not a man, I suppose. I +saw meeting after meeting of impassive unemotional, black-coated +gentlemen lifted into the undemonstrative white-heat of purposeful +enthusiasm by the suggestion of that new hope which I failed to +understand. At one of the earliest Queen's Hall meetings I particularly +noticed a young man who sat next to me. He was just an ordinary +keen-faced, gentlemanly, well-dressed, athletic-looking youth, who might +have been anything from an upper clerk to a millionaire. He sat through +the meeting without a word or a sign of applause, but when at the finish +twenty volunteers were asked for, to give their whole time to serving +the object of the League, he was the first to reach the platform, with a +happier look on his face, in the stolid English style, than I should +have ever expected to see there. It was beyond me. Then among the +audiences one frequently heard remarks such as 'I believe there's +something behind it all'; 'I really think Hampden has more than an idea'; +'It strikes me that we are going to have something livelier than tea and +tennis,' and suggestions of that kind. Some time ago, after a meeting at +Kensington, I was walking home alone when you overtook me. Immediately in +front were two gentlemen who had evidently been to the meeting also, and +they were discussing it. At that moment one said emphatically to the +other: 'I don't know what it is, but that it <i>is</i> something I'll +swear; and if it is I'd give them my last penny sooner than have things +as they are.' Sir John Hampden, who was with you, looked at you +enquiringly, and you shook your head and said, 'Not one of our men.' +'Then I believe it's beginning to take already,' he replied."</p> + +<p>Two things occurred to Salt: that Miss Lisle might be a rather sharp +young lady, and that he and Hampden had been unusually careless. +"Anything else?" was all he said.</p> + +<p>"It's rather a long wild tale, and it has no particular point," +explained the lady.</p> + +<p>"If you can spare the time," he urged. The long pointless tale might be +a pointer to others beside Miss Lisle.</p> + +<p>"I was cycling a little way out in the country recently," narrated Miss +Lisle, "when I found that I required a spanner, or I could not go on. It +was rather a lonely part for so near London, within ten or twelve miles, +I suppose, and there was not a house to be seen. I wheeled my bicycle +along and soon came to a narrow side lane. It had a notice 'Private +Road' up, and I could not see far down it as it wound about very much, +but it seemed to be well used, so I turned into it hoping to find a +house. There was no house, for after a few turns the lane ended +suddenly. It ended, so to speak, in a pair of large double doors—like +those of a coach-house—for before me was a stream crossed by an iron +bridge; immediately beyond that a high wall and the doors. But do you +care for me to go on?"</p> + +<p>"If you please," said Salt, and paid the narrative the compliment of a +close and tranquil attention.</p> + +<p>"It was rather a peculiar place to come on unexpectedly," continued Miss +Lisle. "It had originally been a powder works, and the old notices +warning intruders had been left standing; as a matter of fact a stranger +would probably still take it to be a powder mill, but one learned +locally that it was the depot and distributing centre of an artificial +manure company with a valuable secret process. Which, of course, made it +less interesting than explosives."</p> + +<p>"And less dangerous," suggested Salt, smiling.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," shot back Miss Lisle with a glance. "Mark the +precautions. There was the stream almost enclosing this place—the size, +I suppose, of a considerable farm—and in the powder mill days it had +been completely turned into an island by digging a canal or moat at the +narrowest point of the bend. Immediately on the other side of the water +rose the high brick wall topped with iron spikes. The one bridge was the +only way across the stream, the one set of double doors, as high as the +wall, the only way through beyond. Inside was thickly wooded. I don't +suggest wild animals, you know, but savage dogs would not surprise me.</p> + +<p>"As I stood there, concluding that I should have to turn back, I heard a +heavy motor coming down the lane. It came on very quickly as though the +driver knew the twisting road perfectly, shot across the bridge, the big +gates fell open apparently of their own accord, and it passed inside. I +had only time to note that it was a large trade vehicle with a square +van-like body, before the gates had closed again."</p> + +<p>Miss Lisle paused for a moment, but she had by no means reached the end +of her pointless adventure.</p> + +<p>"I had seen no one but the motor driver, but I was mistaken in thinking +that there was no one else to see, for as I stood there undecided a +small door in the large gate was opened and a man came out. He was +obviously the gate-keeper, and in view of the notices I at once +concluded that he was coming to warn me off, so I anticipated him by +asking him if he could lend me a spanner. He muttered rather surlily +that if I waited there he would see, and went back, closing the little +door behind him. I thought that I heard the click of a self-acting lock. +Presently he came back just as unamiable as before and insisted on +screwing up the bolt himself—to get me away the sooner, I suppose. He +absolutely started when I naturally enough offered him sixpence—I +imagine the poor man doesn't get very good wages—and went quite red as +he took it."</p> + +<p>"And all ended happily?" remarked Salt tentatively, as though he had +expected that a possible relevance might have been forthcoming after +all.</p> + +<p>"Happily but perplexingly," replied Miss Lisle, looking him full in the +face as she unmasked the point of her long pointless story. "For the +surly workman who was embarrassed by sixpence was my gentlemanly +neighbour of the Queen's Hall meeting, and I was curious to know how he +should be serving the object of the League by acting as a gate-keeper to +the Lacon Equalised Superphosphate Company."</p> + +<p>Salt laughed quietly and looked back with unmoved composure. "No doubt +many possible explanations will occur to you," he said with very +plausible candour. "The simplest is the true one. Several undertakings +either belong to the League or are closely connected with it, for +increasing its revenue or for other purposes. The Lacon is one of +these."</p> + +<p>"And I don't doubt that even the position of doorkeeper is a responsible +one, requiring the intelligence of an educated gentleman to fill it," +retorted Miss Lisle. "It must certainly be an exacting one. You know +better than I do how many great motor vans pass down that quiet little +lane every hour. They bear the names of different companies, they are +ingeniously different in appearance, and they pass through London by +various roads and by-roads. But they have one unique resemblance: they +are all driven by mechanics who are astonishingly disconcerted by the +offer of stray sixpences and shillings! It is the same at the little +private wharf on the canal a mile away. It was quite a relief to find +that the bargemen were common human bargees!"</p> + +<p>Salt still smiled kindly. The slow, silent habit gives the best mask +after all. "And why have you come to me?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Because I <i>know</i> that you are going to do something, and I want to +help. I loathe the way things are being done down there." The nod meant +the stately Palace of Westminster, though it happened to be really in +the direction of Charing Cross, but it was equally appropriate, for the +monuments of the Government, like those of Wren, lay all around. "Who +can go on playing tennis as usual when an ambassador who learned his +diplomacy in a Slaughter-housemen's Union represents us by acting +alternately as a fool and a cad before an astounded Paris? Or have an +interest in bridge when the Sultan of Turkey is contemptuously ordering +us to keep our fleet out of sight of Mitylene and we apologise and obey? +I will be content to address envelopes all day long if it will be of any +use. Surely there are other secret processes down other little lanes? I +will even be the doorkeeper at another artificial manure works if there +is nothing else!"</p> + +<p>Salt sat thinking, but from the first he knew that for good or ill some +degree of their confidence must be extended to a woman. It is the common +experience of every movement when it swells beyond two members: or +conspiracies would be much more dangerous to their foes.</p> + +<p>"It may be monotonous, perhaps even purposeless as far as you can see," +he warned. "I do not know yet, and it will not be for you to say."</p> + +<p>Miss Lisle flushed with the pleasurable thrill of blind sacrifice. "I +will not question," she replied. "Only if there should be any need you +might find that an ordinary uninteresting middle-class girl with a +slangy style and a muddy complexion could be as devoted as a Flora +Macdonald or a Charlotte Corday."</p> + +<p>Salt made a quiet deprecating gesture. "A girl with a fearless truthful +face can be capable of any heroism," he remarked as he began to write. +"Especially when she combines exceptional intelligence with exceptional +discretion. Only," he added as an afterthought, "it may be uncalled-for, +and might be inconvenient in a law-abiding constitutional age."</p> + +<p>"I quite understand that now; the conscientious addressing of circulars +shall bound my horizon. Only, please let me be somewhere in it, when it +<i>does</i> come."</p> + +<p>"I say, Salt," drawled an immaculately garbed young man, lounging into +the room, "do you happen——"</p> + +<p>Miss Lisle, who had been cut off from the door by a screen, rose to +leave.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say, I beg your pardon," exclaimed the young man. "They told me +that you were alone."</p> + +<p>"I shall be disengaged in a moment," replied Salt formally. "At ten +o'clock to-morrow morning then, Miss Lisle, please." She bowed and +withdrew, the Honourable Freddy Tantroy, who had lingered rather +helplessly, holding the door as she went out and favouring her with a +criticising glance.</p> + +<p>"Always making rotten ass of myself," murmured that gentleman +plaintively. "General Office fault. Engaging lady clerk? Not bad idea, +but you might have gone in for really superior article while you were +about it. Cheaper in the end. Oh, I don't know, though."</p> + +<p>"Miss Lisle came with the best of recommendations," said Salt almost +distantly. One might have judged that he had no desire for Mr Tantroy's +society, but that reasons existed why he should not tell him so.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," nodded Freddy sagely; "they do. Hockey girl, I should +imagine. Face of the pomegranate type, carved by amateur whose hand +slipped when he was doing the mouth. Prefer the pink and pneumatic style +myself. Matter taste."</p> + +<p>Salt made no reply. The only possible reply was the one he denied +himself. He occupied the time by burning a scrap of paper with a single +row of figures.</p> + +<p>"I say, Salt. I was really coming about something, but I've forgotten +what," announced the honourable youth after a vacuous pause. "Oh, I +remember. That elusive old cheesecake of a hunk of mine. Do you happen +to know where the volatile Sir John is to be unearthed?"</p> + +<p>"I imagine that your uncle is in Paris at this moment," replied Salt. +"He is expected back to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Paris!" exclaimed Freddy with some interest. "Good luck at the Pink +Windmill, old boy! Anything in the air, Salt? Projected French landing +at Brighton pier next week? Seriously, don't you think League bit of +gilded fizzle? Expected something with coloured lights long ago."</p> + +<p>"I think that we have every reason to be satisfied with the progress," +replied Salt. "The weight of a great organisation must exercise some +influence in the end."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," retorted Mr Tantroy with a cunning look. "That's the other +face of double-headed Johnny they have stuffed in museums. Well, all in +good time, little Freddy, if you sit quiet." He carried out this +condition literally for a couple of minutes, gazing pensively at a +slender ring he wore. Then: "I'll tell you what, Salt," he continued. "I +wish you'd use benign influence with Sir John. Tired of apeing the +golden ass, and I am thinking of settling down. Want an office here and +absolutely grinding hard work ten to four, and couple of thousand a year +or so until I'm worth more. Fact is, met girl I could absolutely exist +for ever with in gilded bird-cage. Been Vivarium lately?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Salt.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, no good trying my rotten powers description. Must go with me +some night and see. She hangs by her toes to a slack wire eighty-five +feet above the stage and sings:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Things are strangely upside down, dear boys.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nowadays.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>No getting away from it, she is positively the most crystallised damson +that ever stepped out of lace-edged box. No fear monotony in home with +girl like that. The very thought of it——! Well, come out and have +drink, Salt?"</p> + +<p>"Thanks, no," replied Salt. "I've quite got out of the habit."</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" exclaimed Freddy, aghast. "You better try some of those +newspaper things that Johnnies with funny addresses and members of the +Greek Royal Family write up to say have done them no end. I say, Salt, I +suppose there is spare office in this palatial suite that I could have +if I grappled with the gilded effort?"</p> + +<p>"I really don't know that there is." He had not the most shadowy faith +in the Honourable Freddy's perseverance, even in intention, for a week. +To expect any real work from him was out of the question. "We are rather +overcrowded here as it is."</p> + +<p>"If I were you, Salt, I should insist upon the old man removing better +premises somewhere. Place seems absolutely congealed with underlings. +Just listen to that in next room: it's like hive of gilded bees. What is +it?"</p> + +<p>"Simply routine work going on," said Salt half-impatiently. "Sorry I +can't spare the time to come out with you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all right-angled," said Freddy, taking the hint and rising. +"Sorry. Pramp, pramp. You think I shall find Sir John here Friday if I +look in?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, here; but desperately busy."</p> + +<p>"Er, thanks," drawled Freddy, with just a suggestion of vice. "Perhaps +my uncle will be able to spare me five minutes when he has done with +you."</p> + +<p>He drifted languidly through the door and sauntered down the passage. At +the door of the room where the monotonous voice rose and fell in the +ceaseless repetition of short sentences, he paused to light a cigarette. +For perhaps a full minute he remained quite motionless, the cigarette +between his lips, the match pressed ready against the corrugations of +the jewelled box he held.</p> + +<p>"Listretton, Fergus, 572 Upper Holloway Road, N.</p> + +<p>"Listwell-Phelps, J. Walter, F.R.S., Department of Ethopian Antiquities, +British Museum, W.C.</p> + +<p>"Litchit, Miss, Dressmaker, 15 The Grove, Westpoint-on-Sea.</p> + +<p>"Little, Rev. H. K., The Vicarage, Lower Skerrington, Dorset.</p> + +<p>"Little, Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Vernon, C.B., V.C., 14a Eaton +Square, S.W.</p> + +<p>"Littlejohn, John George, Byryxia, Cole Park, Twickenham."</p> + +<p>Freddy Tantroy lit his cigarette and passed on. The prosaic list of new +members dictated to an entering clerk did not interest him. Five names a +minute, three hundred an hour, three thousand a day; an ordinary day, +weeks after any special meeting, and in the flat season of the year. But +it did not interest Mr Tantroy. Immersed in a scheme for taxing baths, +soda-water syphons, and asparagus beds, and further occupied with the +unexpectedly delicate details of withdrawing from India, it did not +interest the Government.</p> + +<p>It was only the ordinary routine work of the Unity League.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>"SCHEDULE B"</h3> + + +<p>On the following day Sir John Hampden returned from Paris. A week later +and he had again left London. At the office of the League it was +impossible to learn where he had gone; perhaps fishing, it was +suggested. In any case he was taking a well-earned holiday and did not +want to be troubled with business, so that nothing was being forwarded. +A little later any one might know for the asking that he was in +Berlin—and returning the next day. There was never any secret made of +Sir John's movements if the office knew them, only he occasionally liked +to cut himself completely off from communication in order to ensure a +perfect rest. As soon as the office knew where he was, every one else +could know too; only it invariably happened that he was on his way back +by that time. The incident was repeated. Callers at Trafalgar Chambers +found all the heads communicative and very leisured. It came out that +nothing much was being done just then; it was not the time of the year +for politics. For all the good they were doing three-quarters of the +offices might be closed for the next few months and three-quarters of +the staff take a holiday. In fact, that was what they were doing to a +large extent. It was Mr Salt's turn as soon as Sir John got back.</p> + +<p>That time it was St. Petersburg.</p> + +<p>For a man who had been a sailor George Salt displayed a curious taste +when he came to take his holiday. The sea had no call for him, nor the +coast-line any charm. The inland resorts, the golf centres, moors, +lakes, mountains and rivers, all were passed by. It was not even to an +"undiscovered" village or some secluded country house that he turned his +footsteps in hope of perfect change. On the contrary, where the +ceaseless din of industry made rest impossible; where the puny but +irresistible hands of generations of mankind had scarred the face of +earth like a corroding growth, where the sky was shut out by smoke, +vegetation stifled beneath a cloak of grime, day and night turned into +one lurid vulcanian twilight, in which by bands and companies, by trains +and outposts, dwarfish men toiled in the unlovely rhythm of hopeless, +endless labour: the lupus-spots of nature; there Salt spent his holiday. +Coal was the loadstone that drew him on, and in a vast contour his +journey through that month defined the limits of the coal-fields of the +land.</p> + +<p>In the subsequent histories of this period no mention of Salt's +significant appearance in the provinces finds a place. Yet in presenting +a dispassionate review of the succeeding events it is impossible to +ignore its influence; although, to adopt a just proportion, it is not +necessary to deal with it at length. It was not a vital detail of the +scheme on which the League had staked its cause; it was less momentous +than any of Hampden's three Continental missions; but by disarming +opposition in certain influential quarters when the crisis came, it +removed a possible cause of dissension from the first. That is its +place.</p> + +<p>It was an indication of the extreme care with which the operations had +been developed, that even at this point there were still only two men +who had any real knowledge of what the plan of campaign would be. There +were those who did not hesitate to declare that a hostile demonstration +was being arranged by a foreign power with whom Hampden had come to an +understanding. At a favourable moment a pretext for a quarrel would be +found, relations would be broken off immediately, ambassadors recalled, +and within three days England would be threatened with war. If +necessary, an actual invasion would take place, and in view of the +sweeping reductions in the army and navy no one thought it worth while +to express a doubt that an actual invasion could take place. After +arranging for a suitable indemnity the invaders would withdraw, leaving +a provisional government in power, with Hampden at its head. This was +the extremists' view, and the majority, feeling at heart that however +England might be internally riven and their liberties assailed, nothing +could ever justify so unpatriotic a course, held that Hampden was +incapable of the step. Others suggested civil war; passive resistance to +the payment of rates and taxes on so organised a scale as to embarrass +the Government for supplies; an alliance, on a basis not readily +discernible, with the rank and file of the Socialist party; the secret +importation of a sufficient number of aliens to turn an election; and a +variety of other ingenious devices, easy to suggest but difficult to +maintain. Those who, like Miss Lisle, observed the most, talked the +least.</p> + +<p>Among the working men of the country—the class that the League had come +into being to control—it had passed into the category of a second +Buttercup League and was ignored. A few, better informed, accepted the +conclusions that Mr Hammet and his associates had arrived at, and +laughed quietly in their sleeves at the thought of the coming +humiliation of the confiding members. Last of all there remained a +scattered few here and there, who, through natural suspicion or a +shrewder wisdom than their fellows, had of late begun to detect in the +existence of the League a real menace to themselves, and to urge the +powers, and Mr Tubes in particular, to counteract its aims. It might +have been a race, a desperate race, but for one simple thing. Hampden +had asked for three years in which to complete his plans, and both +friends and foes, deducing from every experience of the past, ranging +from the opening of an exhibition to the closing of a war, had conceded +that this meant four at least. But Hampden and the man who had been a +sailor had no intention of being embarrassed by a race. Not three years +meaning four, but three years meaning two, had underlain the boast, and +at the end of two years, although there was still much to be gained by +time and an unfettered choice of the moment of attack, there was no +probability of being forestalled on any important point.</p> + +<p>Such was the position when Salt set out on his provincial holiday.</p> + +<p>He had nothing to learn; elementary detail of that kind belonged to +another journey, when, more than two years ago, he had made the +self-same tour. He did not go to offer peace or war; that die had been +cast blindly—who shall say how many years before?—in Northampton boot +factories, Lancashire mills, Durham coal-pits, in Radical clubs and +Labour cabinets. But in war, and in civil war most of all, every blow +aimed at the foe must spend its expiring force upon a friend—and +therefore Salt went to the coal-fields.</p> + +<p>At each centre he was met by a high official of the League who had local +knowledge. The man made his report; it concerned a list he brought, a +list of names. Sometimes it contained only three or four names, +sometimes as many dozens. If to each name there stood the word +"Content," Salt passed on to his next centre. If some were reported to +be holding out or dissatisfied, Salt remained. When he resumed his +methodical way the word "Content" had been added to every name.</p> + +<p>Only once did failure threaten to mar his record. A Lancashire colliery +proprietor, a man who had risen from the lowest grade of labour, as men +more often did in the hard, healthy days of emulous rivalry than in the +later piping times of union-imposed collective indolence, did not wish +to listen. Positive, narrow, over-bearing, he was permeated with the +dogmatic egotism of his successful life. He had never asked another +man's advice; he had never made a mistake. As hard as the ground out of +which he had carved his fortune, he hated and despised his men; they +knew it, and hated and respected him in return. His own brother worked +as a miner in his "1500 deep" and received a miner's wage. He hated his +master with the rest. Lomas was the "closest" employer in the north +central coal-field, and the richest. But there were fewer widows and +orphans in Halghcroft than in any other pit village of its size, and +Lomas spent nothing in insurance. Under his immediate eye cage cables +did not snap, tram shackles part, nor did unexpected falls of shoring +occur. His men did not smoke at their work, and no mysterious explosion +had ever engaged the attention of a Board of Trade enquiry.</p> + +<p>Salt found him sitting in his shirt sleeves in a noble room, furnished +in the taste and profusion of a crowded pantechnicon with the most +costly specimens of seventeen periods of decorative art. He received him +with his usual manner, and that was the manner of a bellicose curmudgeon +towards an unwelcome deputation of suppliants. For emphasis, between the +frank didactic aphorisms which formed his arguments and his rules of +life, he banged with his fist a <i>lapis lazuli</i> table, and lowered his +voice in a confidential aside to inform his visitor that three thousand +pounds was the figure that the little piece of furniture had cost him, +and that in matters of taste he stuck at nothing—an unnecessary piece +of information after one had cast an astonished glance around that +bizarre room.</p> + +<p>In Lomas's future there loomed a knighthood—the consummation in his +mind of all earthly ambition and the possible fruit of a lavish charity +of the kind that is scarcely the greatest of the three, and his policy +was wholly dictated by a fear of endangering his chances. He would have +resented the suggestion, in the face of several munificent donations +that he had recently made to certain funds, and a gracious +acknowledgment which he had received, that the King was not following +his career with a personal interest. What, then, was the King's attitude +towards the Unity League and its plan of campaign? Had Salt anything to +show? It was useless to protest the inviolability of royal neutrality; +Lomas only banged the <i>lapis lazuli</i>. That was good enough for +outsiders, he retorted: now, between themselves? The strong man who was +restrained by diplomatic conventions could make no headway with the +strong man who was frankly primitive in his selfishness, and Salt +withdrew, baffled, but unperturbed. But the sequel was that before he +left his hotel the following day Lomas had waited upon him with full +acquiescence to the terms, and the central coal-field was "Content."</p> + +<p>The inference might be that at last the intentions of the League must +have been disclosed. The reality was nothing of the kind. What had been +revealed to these men, then—the largest employers of labour of any +class throughout the country—to which they had signified their consent? +it may be asked. And the truth was that nothing had been revealed; that +even the officers of the League who sounded them were in the dark. In +the past, industrial struggles had always been between capital and +labour. That vaster encounter, upon which the League was now +concentrating its energies, was not to be on such clearly defined lines, +and in the strife capital might suffer side by side with labour. Against +that contingency the coal influence had now been indemnified in the name +of the Unity League and the future Government, and the guarantee had +been accepted. It was a far-reaching precaution in the end; it narrowed +the issue, and it secured more than neutrality in a quarter where open +hostility might have otherwise been proclaimed. It just tended to +realise that perfection of detail and completeness of preparation that +mark the successful campaign.</p> + +<p>But if there was nothing more to learn in the sense that the data upon +which the League had based its plans had long since been complete, it +was impossible for a thoughtful observer to pass through the land +without learning much. Even two years of increasing privilege had left a +deeper mark. A lavish policy of "Bread and Circuses" was again depleting +the countryside, choking the towns, and destroying the instinct of +citizenship, just as it had speeded the decline of another world-power +two thousand years before. While wages had remained practically +stationary, the leisure of the working man had been appreciably +increased, and it was now being discovered that the working man had no +way of passing his leisure except in spending money. Betting and +drunkenness had increased in direct ratio to the lengthened hours of +enforced idleness, and other disquieting indications of how the time was +being spent, were brought home to those who moved among the poor. Where +the money came from, the books of the great thrift societies at once +revealed. There was no longer any necessity for the working man to save; +his wages were guaranteed, his risks of sickness and every other +adversity were insured against, his old age was pensioned, his children +were, if necessary, State-adopted.</p> + +<p>Even the Trades Unions had abolished their subscriptions and dissipated +their reserves. There was no need of thrift now, for the Government was +the working man's savings bank, and had cut out the debit pages of his +pass-book. It was almost the Millennium. The only drawback was that, +with all this affluence around, the working man found himself very much +in the condition of a financial Ancient Mariner. There was a great deal +of money being spent on him, and for him, and by him, but he never had +any in his pocket. And the working man's wife was even worse off.</p> + +<p>Other classes there were which found themselves in the same position, +but not by the same process. The rich were taxed up to the eyes, but the +rich had obvious means of retrenchment. But the great mass of the middle +class had no elastic extravagances upon which they could economise. Even +under favourable conditions they were for the most part fulfilling +Disraeli's pessimistic dictum: to the generality, manhood had been a +struggle. It had passed into a failure. It stood face to face with the +certainty of becoming a disaster. Inevitably there were tragedies.... So +it happened that the one vivid haunting picture that George Salt carried +down into later years from this period was not a lurid impression of +some blackened earth-gnarled scene of Dantesque desolation, not even a +memory of any of the incidents of his own personal triumph, but the +sharp details of an episode that lay quite off the high-road of his +work.</p> + +<p>He was walking along a pretty country lane one evening (for it is a +characteristic of many of these unhappy regions that almost to the edge +of man's squalid usurpation Nature spreads her most gracious charms) +when a sudden thunderstorm drove him to seek the hospitality of a +labourer's cottage.</p> + +<p>The man who opened the door was not a labourer, although he was shabbily +dressed. He looked sombrely at his visitor. "What is it?" he asked, +standing in the doorway with no sign of invitation.</p> + +<p>"It is raining very heavily," replied Salt. "I should like to shelter, +if you will permit me."</p> + +<p>The man seemed to notice the downpour, which had now become a continuous +stream, for the first time. "I'm very busy," he said churlishly.</p> + +<p>"If I might stand just inside your doorway?" suggested Salt.</p> + +<p>"No, come in," said the host with an air of sudden resolution. "After +all——" He led the way out of the tiny entrance-hall into a room. Salt +could not refrain from noticing that although the furniture was meagre, +the walls were covered with paintings.</p> + +<p>"I am an artist," said the brusque tenant of the cottage, noticing the +involuntary glance around. "Come—in return for shelter you shall tell +me what you think of these things."</p> + +<p>"I am not a critic," replied Salt, stepping from picture to picture, +"and it would be presumptuous, therefore, for me to give an opinion on +works that I do not understand, although I can recognise them as +striking and unconventional."</p> + +<p>"Ah," commented the artist. "And that?"</p> + +<p>He indicated a portrait with a nod. It was in an earlier, a smoother, +and less characteristic style. To the man who was no artist it was a +very beautiful painting of a very beautiful girl.</p> + +<p>"My dead wife," said the artist, as Salt stood in silent admiration. "I +have buried her this afternoon."</p> + +<p>The man who had never known or even seen her felt a stab as he looked up +at the lovely, smiling face.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the painter roughly, "why don't you say how sorry you are, +or some platitude of that sort?"</p> + +<p>Salt turned away, to leave the other alone meeting the sweet eyes. +"Because I cannot say how sorry I am," he replied with gentle pity.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my beloved!" he heard the whisper. "Not long, not long."</p> + +<p>"You are packing," Salt continued a minute later. "Let me help you—with +some."</p> + +<p>A heap of straw and shavings littered the floor; boxes and cases stood +ready at hand.</p> + +<p>"No," replied the man, looking moodily at his preparations. "I have +changed my mind. I have to go on a journey to-night, but I shall leave +this place as it is and secure the doors and windows instead."</p> + +<p>He brought tools, and together they nailed across the cottage windows +the stout old-fashioned shutters that secured them. Neither spoke much.</p> + +<p>"Come," said the artist, when the melancholy work was complete; "the +storm is over. Our roads lie together for a little way." He locked the +outer door, and stood lingering reluctantly with his hand upon the key. +"A moment," he said, unlocking the door again, and entering. "Only a +moment. Wait for me at the gate."</p> + +<p>Salt waited as he was directed beside a dripping linden. The storm had +indeed passed over, but the sky was low and grey. Little rivulets +meandered in changing currents down the garden path; from beneath the +narrow lane came the continuous sobbing rush of some unseen swollen +water-course. The hand of despair lay heavy across the scene; it seemed +as though Nature had wept herself out, but was uncomforted. Salt +pictured the lonely man standing before the soulless, smiling creation +of his own hand.</p> + +<p>The door opened, the lock again creaked mournfully as its rusty bolt was +driven home, and without a backward glance the artist came slowly down +the walk, twisting the clumsy key aimlessly upon his finger. He stopped +at a tangled patch where the anemone struggled vainly among the choking +bindweed, and the hyacinths and lupines had been beaten down to earth.</p> + +<p>"Her garden!" he said aloud, and a spasm crossed his face. "But now how +overgrown." On a thought he dropped the key gently among the luxuriant +growth and turned away.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you why my wife died," said the artist suddenly, after they +had passed round a bend of the road that hid the cottage from their +sight. "It should point a moral, and it will not take long."</p> + +<p>"It may plead a cause," replied Salt.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" exclaimed his companion, looking at him sharply. "Who are you, +then?"</p> + +<p>"You do not know me, but you may know my business. I am Salt of the +Unity League."</p> + +<p>"Strange," murmured the other. "Well, then, Mr Salt, my name is Leslie +Garnet, and, as I have told you, I am an artist. Ten years ago, at the +age of thirty, I came into a small legacy—three hundred pounds a year, +to be precise. Up to that time I had been making a somewhat precarious +living by illustration; on the strength of my fortune—which, of course, +to a successful man in any walk of life would be the merest pittance—I +rearranged my plans.</p> + +<p>"Black and white work was drudgery to me, and it would never be anything +else, because it was not my medium, but it was the only form of +pictorial art that earned a livelihood. Pictures had ceased to sell. At +the same time I had encouragement for thinking that I could do something +worthy of existence in the higher branch of art.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to trouble you with views. I made my choice. I determined +to live frugally on my income, give up hack work, to the incidental +advantage of some other poor struggler, and devote myself wholly to +pictures which might possibly bring me some recognition at the end of a +lifetime—more probably not—but pictures which would certainly never +enrich me. I do not think that the choice was an ignoble one—but, of +course, it was purely a personal matter.</p> + +<p>"It was very soon afterwards that I got married. Had I thought of that +step earlier I might have acted differently. As it was, Hilda would not +hear of it. There seemed no need; we were very comfortable on our small +income in a tiny way.</p> + +<p>"Nine years ago that. You know the course of events. My income was +derived from a prudently invested capital, so disposed as to give the +highest safe return. Not many years had passed before the Government +then in power fixed seven per cent. as the highest rate of interest +compatible with commercial morality, and confiscated all above. My fixed +system of living was embarrassed by a deduction of fifty pounds a year. +The next year an open-minded Chancellor, in need of a few millions to +spend on free amusements for the working class, was converted to the +principle that two per cent. of immorality still remained, so five was +made the maximum, and my small income was thus permanently reduced to +two hundred pounds.</p> + +<p>"We received this second blow rather blankly, but Hilda would not hear +of surrender. As a matter of fact, I soon found out that there was +practically no chance of it, and that in throwing up all connections +when I did, I had burned my boats. Artists of every kind were turning to +illustration work, but half of the magazines were dead. We gave up the +flat that had been made pretty and home-like with inexpensive taste, and +moved into three dreary rooms.</p> + +<p>"You know what the next development would be, perhaps? Yes, the Unearned +Incomes Act. And you will understand how it affected me.</p> + +<p>"I was assessed in the same class as the Duke of Belgravia and Mr +Dives-Keeps, the millionaire, as a gentleman of private income, capable +of earning a living, but electing to live in idleness on invested +capital not of my own creating. I was married, could not plead +'encumbrances' in any form, well-educated, strong and healthy, and in +the prime of life. So I came under 'Schedule B,' and must pay a tax of +ten shillings and sixpence in the pound. It was nothing that I might +actually work twelve hours every day. Officially I must be living in +voluptuous idleness, because the work of my hands did not bring me in an +income bearing any appreciable proportion to my private means. The +Government that denounced Riches in every form and had come in on the +mandate of the poor and needy, recognised no other standard of +attainment but Money. Therefore 'Schedule B.'</p> + +<p>"Of course the effect of that was overwhelming. I could not afford a +studio, I could not afford a model. I could scarcely afford materials. +My wife, who had long been delicate, was now really ill, between anxiety +and the unaccustomed daily work to which she bound herself. One of the +companies from which I derived a portion of my income failed at this +time: ruined by foreign competition and home restrictions. In a panic I +endeavoured to get work of any kind. I had not the experience necessary +for the lowest rungs of commerce; I was unknown in art. Who would employ +a broken-down man beginning life at thirty-eight? I was too old.</p> + +<p>"I was warned that appeal was useless, but I did appeal before the +Commission. It was useless. I learned that mine was a thoroughly bad +case from every official point of view, with no redeeming feature: that +I was, in fact, a parasite upon the social system; and I narrowly +escaped having the assessment raised.</p> + +<p>"It was then that we left London and came to this cottage. My wife's +health was permanently undermined, and change of air was necessary even +to prolong her life. Her native county was recommended; that is why we +chose this spot. When I reviewed affairs I found that I had a clear +fifty pounds a year. And there, a few miles to the west, where you see +that tracery of wheels and scaffolding against the sun, and there, a few +miles to the north, where you see that pall of smoke upon the air, there +lie hundreds and hundreds of cottages where gross luxury is rampant, +where beneath one roof family incomes of ten times mine are free from +any tax at all.</p> + +<p>"That is enough for you to fill in the detail," continued Garnet +bitterly, as he revived the memory of the closing scenes. "Doctors, +things that had to be bought, bare existence. What remained of the +investments sold for what a forced sale would bring—you know what that +means to-day. The end you have seen. And there, Mr Salt, is the story to +your hand. Here is the churchyard.... Killed, to make a Labour holiday!"</p> + +<p>He opened the rustic gate of the hillside churchyard and led the way to +a newly-turned mound, where the perfume hung stagnantly from the +rain-lashed petals of a great sheaf of Bermuda lilies.</p> + +<p>"I remain here," he said quietly, after a few minutes' silence by the +grave-side. "Your road lies straight on, along the field path. You can +even see the smoke of Thornley from here, lying to your right."</p> + +<p>Salt did not reply. Looking intently in the opposite direction, he was +locating with a seaman's eye another cloud of smoke that rose above the +tree-tops in the valley they had left.</p> + +<p>"Your house!" he exclaimed, pointing. "Man!" he cried suddenly, with a +flash of intuition, "what are you doing? You fired the straw before we +left!"</p> + +<p>A sharp report was the only answer. Salt turned too late to arrest his +arm, only in time to catch him as he fell. He lowered him—there was +nothing else to do—lowered him on to the wet sods that flanked the +mound, and knelt by his side so that he might support him somewhat. To +one who had been on battle-fields there was no need to wonder what to +do. It was a matter not of minutes but of seconds. The mute eyes met his +dimly; he heard the single whisper, "Hilda," and then, without a tremor, +Garnet, self-murdered, pressed a little more heavily against his arm and +lay across the yet unfinished grave of his State-murdered wife.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>TANTROY EARNS HIS WAGE</h3> + + +<p>"I think," observed Salt reflectively, soon after his return, "that you +had better take a short holiday now, Miss Lisle."</p> + +<p>Miss Lisle looked up from her work—she was not addressing circulars, it +may be stated—with an expression not quite devoid of suspicion.</p> + +<p>"I will, if you wish me to do so, sir," she replied meekly. "But, +personally, I do not require one."</p> + +<p>"You have been of great use to us while I was away," he explained +kindly, but with official precision, "and now that I am back again you +have the opportunity."</p> + +<p>Miss Lisle coloured rather rapturously at the formal praise, but the +astute young woman did not allow her exaltation to beguile her senses.</p> + +<p>"A week's holiday?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I would suggest a fortnight," he replied.</p> + +<p>"That would be until the end of June?"</p> + +<p>Salt agreed.</p> + +<p>"Then nothing is likely to happen before the end of June?"</p> + +<p>He laughed frankly. There was no trace of the mystery and restraint, of +the electric tension in the air, that forerun portentous events, as we +are told, to be noticed about the office of the League.</p> + +<p>"A great deal may happen before that time, but nothing, I think I can +assure you, that comes within your meaning."</p> + +<p>"Is there any particular place that you would like me to go to?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not at all. Forget Trafalgar Chambers and business entirely for the +time."</p> + +<p>Possibly Miss Lisle had looked for some hidden meaning behind the simple +suggestion of a holiday: had anticipated "another secret process down +another little lane." At any rate, she did not rejoice at the prospect; +on the contrary, she declined it.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," she replied, "but unless it is for your convenience, I +should prefer to go on addressing circulars."</p> + +<p>Salt frowned slightly and smiled slightly, and inwardly admitted to +himself that he had probably expected worse things when he had first +accepted Miss Lisle's services.</p> + +<p>"I am a very plain, straightforward person in all my dealings," he +remarked, "and you, outside the strict line of work here, have an +oblique vein that taxes the imagination. Further, it carries the sting +that with all you generally arrive at the same conclusion as I do, only +a little earlier."</p> + +<p>"I have a loathsome, repulsive nature, I know," admitted Irene +cheerfully. "Trivial, ill-mannered, suspicious. I require strict +discipline. That is why I am better here."</p> + +<p>"So far I have not been inconvenienced by the two first characteristics. +It is a mistake, perhaps, to be over-suspicious."</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed the lady with a level glance. "It only ends in you finding +people out, when otherwise you might have gone on believing in them to +the last."</p> + +<p>Salt had only known Miss Lisle for a few months, and for a third of the +period he had not seen her. But he knew that when she showed a +disposition to take up his time something more than the amenities of +conversation lay behind her words. He remembered that level glance. It +foreshadowed another "long pointless tale."</p> + +<p>"For instance?" he suggested encouragingly.</p> + +<p>"If I left this office locked when I went out to lunch, for instance, +and found it still locked but the papers slightly disarranged on my +return," she replied.</p> + +<p>"Anything more?"</p> + +<p>"It is very unpleasant to set traps, of course, but if I put a little +dab of typewriter ink on the inner handle of the door when I next went +out, and subsequently found a slight stain of a similar colour on my +white glove after shaking hands with some one, the suspicion would be +deepened."</p> + +<p>"I think that the matter is of sufficient importance for you to tell me +all you know," he said gravely. "If you hesitate to be definite for fear +of making a mistake, I will take pains to verify your suspicions and I +will accept all responsibility."</p> + +<p>"Then I accuse Mr Tantroy of being a paid spy in the service of the +Government."</p> + +<p>"Tantroy!" exclaimed Salt with a momentary feeling of incredulity. +"Tantroy! It seems impossible, but, after all, it is possible enough. +You know, of course, that he has a room here now, and might even think +in his inexperience that he was at liberty to come into this office at +any time."</p> + +<p>"But not to take impressions of my keys and have duplicates made; nor to +copy extracts in my absence; nor to open and examine the cipher +typewriter."</p> + +<p>"Has that been left unlocked?" he demanded sharply.</p> + +<p>"No," she replied. "You have the only key that I know of. But it <i>has</i> +been unlocked, and I infer that the code has been copied."</p> + +<p>For quite three minutes there was silence. Salt was thinking, not idly, +but estimating exactly the effect of what had happened. Miss Lisle was +waiting, with somewhat rare perception, until he was ready to continue.</p> + +<p>"Sooner or later something of the sort was bound to come," he summed up +quietly, without a trace of discomfiture. "It is only the personality +that is surprising. His interests are identical with ours; he has +everything to gain by our success. Why; why on earth?"</p> + +<p>"I think that I can explain that in three words," suggested Miss Lisle. +"Velma St Saint."</p> + +<p>Salt looked enquiringly. He had forgotten the Hon. Freddy's deity for +the moment.</p> + +<p>"Of the Vivarium," added Irene.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the lady who hangs by her toes," he remarked with enlightenment.</p> + +<p>"'The World's Greatest Inverted Cantatrice'!" quoted Miss Lisle. "That +is her celebrated 'Upside Down' song that the organ is playing in the +street below. A few years ago she got a week's engagement at the Elysium +at a salary of eighty pounds. She calculated from that that she could +afford to spend four thousand a year, and although all theatrical +incomes have steadily declined ever since until she only gets ten pounds +a week now, she has never been able to make any difference in her style +of living.... Of course there is a deficit to be made up."</p> + +<p>"It is just as well. If it had not been Tantroy it would have been some +one abler. Now what has he done, what has he learned?"</p> + +<p>"Duplicate keys of this door and of my desk have been made. The lock of +the cipher typewriter case is not of an elaborate pattern, and any one +bringing a quantity of keys of the right size would probably find one to +answer. I don't think that either your desk or the safe has been opened; +certainly not since I began to notice. The papers to which he would have +access are consequently not highly important."</p> + +<p>"Letters?" suggested Salt. "For instance, my letters lying here until +you forwarded them. There is a post in at eight o'clock in the morning; +others after you have left up to ten at night. There would be every +opportunity for abstracting some, opening them at leisure, and then +dropping them into the letter-box again a little later."</p> + +<p>"No," said Miss Lisle. "I took precautions against that."</p> + +<p>"How?" he demanded, and waited very keenly for her answer.</p> + +<p>"Simply by arriving here before eight and remaining until ten."</p> + +<p>"Thank you." It was all he said, but it did not leave Miss Lisle with +the empty feeling that virtue had merely been its own reward.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I ought to add that Mr Tantroy tried to get information from +me," she remarked distantly. "He—he came here frequently and wished me +to accept presents; boxes of chocolate at first, I think, and jewellery +afterwards. It was a mistake he made."</p> + +<p>"Yes," assented Salt thoughtfully, "I think it was. There is one other +thing, Miss Lisle. You could scarcely know with whom he was negotiating +on the other side?"</p> + +<p>"No," she admitted regretfully; "I had not sufficient time. That was why +I did not wish to go away just now."</p> + +<p>"I do not think that you need hesitate to leave it now. I am not taking +it out of your hands, only carrying on another phase that you have made +possible. It will simplify matters if I have the office to myself. Could +you find an opportunity for telling Tantroy casually that you are taking +a fortnight's holiday?"</p> + +<p>Her answer hung just a moment. Had he known Tantroy better he might have +guessed. "Yes, certainly," she replied hastily, with a little stumble in +her speech.</p> + +<p>Perhaps he guessed. "No," he corrected himself. "On second thoughts, it +does not matter."</p> + +<p>"I do not mind," she protested loyally.</p> + +<p>"If it were necessary I should not hesitate to ask you," he replied half +brusquely. "It is not."</p> + +<p>"Very well. I will go to-morrow."</p> + +<p>That evening, when he was alone. Salt unlocked the typewriter case to +which Miss Lisle had alluded, took out the machine, and seating himself +before it proceeded to compose a letter upon which he seemed to spend +much consideration. As his fingers struck the keys, upon the sheet of +paper in the carrier there appeared the following mystifying +composition:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">kbeljsl<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">wopmjvsjxkivslilscalkwespljkjscwecsspssp<br /></span> +<span class="i0">fxfejsloxmjcneoeqjdncs——<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was, in fact, as Miss Lisle had said, a code typewriter. The letters +which appeared on the paper did not correspond with the letters on the +keys. According to the keyboard the writing should have been:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">mydrstr<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">nwhvsltscmpltrprtbfrmndthrsmstbndbtthtth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">prpslhvfrmltdsfsblndth——<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and signified, to resolve it into its ultimate form:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">My Dear Estair</span>,—I now have Salt's complete report before me, +and there seems to be no doubt that the proposal I have +formulated is feasible, and the——</p></blockquote> + +<p>Written without vowels, stops, capitals, or spaces, this gave a very +serviceable cryptograph, but there was an added safeguard. After +completing the first line the writer moved a shift-key and brought +another set of symbols into play—or, rather, the same symbols under a +different arrangement. The process was repeated for the third line, and +then the fourth line returned to the system of the first. Thus three +codes were really in operation, and the danger of the key being found by +the frequent recurrence of certain symbols (the most fruitful cause of +detection) was almost overcome. Six identical machines were in +existence. One has been accounted for; Sir John Hampden had another; and +a third was in the possession of Robert Estair, the venerable titular +head of the combined Imperial party. A sociable young publican, who had +a very snug house in the neighbourhood of Westminster Abbey, could have +put his hand upon the fourth; the fifth was in the office of a +super-phosphate company carrying on an unostentatious business down a +quiet little lane about ten or a dozen miles out of London; and the +sixth had fallen to the lot of a busy journalist, who seemed to have the +happy knack of getting political articles and paragraphs accepted +without demur by all the leading newspapers by the simple expedient of +scribbling "Urgent" and some one else's initials across the envelopes he +sent them in. Communications of the highest importance never reached the +stage of ink and paper, but the six machines were in frequent use. In +<i>bonâ fide</i> communications the customary phraseology with which letters +begin and end was not used, it is perhaps unnecessary to say. So obvious +a clue as the short line "kbeljsl" at the head of a letter addressed to +Estair would be as fatal to the secrecy of any code as the cartouched +"Cleopatra" and "Ptolemy" were to the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphics. +That Salt wrote it may be taken as an indication that he had another end +in view; and it is sometimes a mistake to overrate the intelligence of +your opponents. When the letter was finished he put it away in his +pocket-book, arranged the fastenings of both safe and desk so that he +could tell if they had been disturbed, and then went home.</p> + +<p>The next morning his preparations advanced another step. He brought with +him a new letter copying-book, a silver cigarette-case with a plain +polished surface, and a small jar of some oily preparation. With a +little of the substance from the jar he smeared the cigarette-case all +over, wiped away the greater part again until nothing but an almost +imperceptible trace remained, and then placed it carefully within his +desk. The next detail was to write a dozen letters with dates extending +over the last few days. All were short; all were quite unimportant; they +were chiefly concerned with appointments, references to future League +meetings, and the like. Some few were written in cipher, but the +majority were plain reading, and Salt signed them all in Sir John's +name, appending his own initials. To sign the long letter which he had +already written he cut off from a note in the baronet's own handwriting +the signature "John Hampden," fastened it lightly at the foot of the +typewritten sheet, and then proceeded to copy all the letters into the +new book. The effect was patent: one letter and one alone stood out +among the rest as of pre-eminent importance. The completion was reached +by gumming upon the back of the book a label inscribed "Hampden. +Private," treating the leather binding with a coating of the preparation +from the jar, and finally substituting it in the safe in place of the +genuine volume. Then he burned his originals of all the fictitious +letters and turned to other matters.</p> + +<p>It was not until two days later that Mr Tantroy paid Salt a passing +visit. He dropped in in a friendly way with the plea that the burden of +his own society in his own room, where he apparently spent two hours +daily in thinking deeply, had grown intolerable.</p> + +<p>"You are always such a jolly busy, energetic chap, Salt, that it quite +bucks me up to watch you," he explained.</p> + +<p>Salt, however, was not busy that afternoon. He only excused himself to +ring for a note, which was lying before him already addressed, to be +taken out, and then gave his visitor an undivided attention. He was +positively entertaining over his recent journeyings. Freddy Tantroy had +never thought that the chap had so much in him before.</p> + +<p>"Jolly quaint set of beggars you must have had to do with," he remarked. +"Thought that you were having gilded flutter Monte Carlo, or Margate, or +some of those places where crowds people go."</p> + +<p>Salt looked across at him with a smile. "I think that there was an +impression of that sort given out," he replied. "But, between ourselves, +it was strictly on a matter of business."</p> + +<p>"We League Johnnies do get most frightfully rushed," said Freddy +sympathetically. "Bring it off?"</p> + +<p>"Better than I had expected. I don't think it will be long before we +begin to move now. You would be surprised if I could tell you of the +unexpected form it will take."</p> + +<p>"Don't see why you shouldn't," dropped Tantroy negligently.</p> + +<p>Salt allowed the moment to pass on a note of indecision.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I am speaking prematurely," he qualified. "Things are only +evolving at the moment, and I don't suppose that there will be anything +at all doing during the next few weeks. I have even sent Miss Lisle off +on a holiday."</p> + +<p>"Noticed the fair Irene's empty chair," said Freddy. "For long?"</p> + +<p>"I told her to take a fortnight. She can have longer if she wants."</p> + +<p>"Wish Sir John could spare me; but simply won't hear of it. Don't fancy +you find girl much good, though."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she is painstaking," put in her employer tolerantly.</p> + +<p>"No initiative," declared Tantroy solemnly. "No idea of rising to the +occasion or of making use of her opportunities."</p> + +<p>"You noticed that?" To Freddy's imagination it seemed as though Salt was +regarding him with open admiration.</p> + +<p>He wagged his head judicially. "I knew you'd like me to keep eye on +things while you were away," he said, "so I looked in here occasionally +as I passed. Don't believe she had any idea what to do. Invariably found +her sitting here in gilded idleness at every hour of the day. If I were +you, should sack her while she is away."</p> + +<p>Salt thought it as well to change the subject.</p> + +<p>"By the way," he remarked, "I came across what seemed to me a rather +good thing in cigarettes at Cardiff, and I wanted to ask your opinion +about them. It's a new leaf—Bolivian with a Virginian blend, not on the +market yet. I wish you'd try one now."</p> + +<p>There was nothing Freddy Tantroy liked better than being asked to give +his opinion on tobacco from the standpoint of an expert. He took the +case held out to him, selected a cigarette with grave deliberation, and +leaned back in his chair with a critical air, preparing to deliver +judgment. Salt returned the case to its compartment in the desk.</p> + +<p>"It has a very distinctive aroma," announced Freddy sagely, after he had +drawn a few whiffs, held the cigarette under his nose, waved it slowly +in the air before him, and resorted to several other devices of +connoisseurship.</p> + +<p>"I thought so too," agreed Salt. He had bought a suitable packet of some +obscure brand in a side street, as he walked to the office two days +before.</p> + +<p>"Cardiff," mused Tantroy. "Variety grotesque holes you seem to have +explored, Salt."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I had to see a lot of men all over the place. I got a few packets +of these from a docker who had them from a South American merchant in a +roundabout way. Smuggled, of course." All along, his conversation had +touched upon labourers, mill-hands, miners, and other sons of toil. +Apparently, as Tantroy noted, he had scarcely associated with any other +class. He was lying deliberately, and in a manner calculated to alienate +the sympathy of many excellent people; for there is a worthy and not +inconsiderable class with an ineradicable conviction that although in a +just cause the sixth commandment may be suspended, as it were by Act of +Parliament, and the killing of your enemy become an active virtue, yet +in no case is it permissible to tell him a falsehood. If it is necessary +to deceive him the end must be gained by leading him to it by inference. +But Salt belonged to a hard-grained school which believed in doing +things thoroughly, and when on active service he swept the sophistries +away. He had to mislead a man whose very existence he believed to be +steeped in treachery and falsehood, and, as the most effectual way, he +lied deliberately to him.</p> + +<p>"Frantic adventure," drawled Tantroy. "Didn't know League dealt in +people that kind."</p> + +<p>"Of course, I saw all sorts," corrected Salt hastily, as though he +feared that he had indicated too closely the trend of his business; +"only it happened that those were the most amusing," and to emphasise +the fact he launched into another anecdote. At an out-of-the-way village +there was neither hotel nor inn. His business was unfinished, and it was +desirable that he should stay the night there. At last he heard of a +small farm-house where apartments were occasionally let, and, making his +way there, he asked if he could have a room. The woman seemed doubtful. +"Of course, as I am a stranger, I should wish to pay you in advance," +said Salt. "It isn't that, sir," replied the hostess, "but I like to be +sure of making people comfortable." "I don't think that we shall +disagree about that," he urged. "Perhaps not," she admitted, "but the +last gentleman was very hard to please. Everything I got him he'd had +better somewhere else till he was sick of it. But," she added in a burst +of confidence, "look what a swell <i>he</i> was! I knew that nothing would +satisfy him when I saw him come in a motor-car puffed out with rheumatic +tyres, and wearing a pair of them <i>blasé</i> kid boots."</p> + +<p>Tantroy contributed an appreciative cackle, and Salt, leaning back in +his chair, pressed against a pile of books standing on his desk so that +they fell to the ground with a crash.</p> + +<p>By the time he had picked them up again a telegram was waiting at his +elbow. He took it, opened it with a word of apology, and with a sharp +exclamation pulled out his watch. Before Tantroy could realise what was +happening, Salt had caught up his hat and gloves, slammed down his +self-locking desk, and, after a single hasty glance round the room, was +standing at the door.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, won't you?" he called back. "Most important. Can just catch +a train. Pull my door to after you, please," and the next minute he was +gone.</p> + +<p>Left to himself, Tantroy's first action was not an unnatural one in the +circumstance. He picked up the telegram which Salt had left in his wild +hurry and read it. "<i>Come at once, if you wish to see Vernon alive</i>," +was the imperative message, and it appeared to have been handed in at +Croydon half an hour before. He stepped to the window, and from behind +the curtains he saw Salt run down the steps into the road, call a hansom +from the rank near at hand, and disappear in the direction of Victoria +at a gallop.</p> + +<p>Mr Tantroy sat down again, and his eyes ran over the various objects in +the room in quick succession. The code typewriter. He had all he wanted +from that. Salt's desk. Locked, of course. The girl's desk. Locked, and, +as he knew, not worth the trouble of unlocking with his duplicate key. +The safe——His heart gave a bound, his eyes stood wide in incredulous +surprise, and he sprang to his feet and stealthily crossed the room to +make sure of his astounding luck. The safe was unlocked! The door stood +just an inch or so ajar, and Salt, having failed to notice it in his +hurried glance, was on his way to Croydon!</p> + +<p>Living in a pretentious, breathless age, drawn into a social circle +beside whose feverish artificiality the <i>natural</i> artificiality +inseparable from any phase of civilisation stood comparable to a sturdy, +healthy tree, badly brought up, neglected, petted, the Honourable +Frederick Tantroy had grown to the form of the vacuous pose which he had +adopted. Beneath it lay his real character. A moderately honest man +would not have played his part, but an utterly weak one could not have +played it. It demanded certain qualities not contemptible. There were +risks to be taken, and he was prepared to take them, and in their +presence his face took on a stronger, even better, look. He bolted the +door on the inside, picked up a few sheets of paper from the desk-top, +and without any sign of nervousness or haste began to do his work.</p> + +<p>It was fully three hours later when Salt returned; for with that extreme +passion for covering every possible contingency that marked his career, +he had been to Croydon. Many a better scheme has failed through the +neglect of a smaller detail. The room, when he entered it and secured +the door, looked exactly as when he left, three hours before. For all +the disarrangement he had caused, Tantroy might have melted out of it.</p> + +<p>On the top of his desk, at the side nearest to the safe, lay a packet of +octavo scribbling paper. He took out the sheets and twice counted them. +Thirty-one, and he had left thirty-four. His face betrayed no emotion. +Satisfaction at having outwitted a spy was merged in regret that there +must need be one, and pain on Hampden's account that his nephew should +be the traitor. He unlocked his desk and carefully lifted out the +cigarette-case, pulled open the safe door, and took up the fictitious +letter-book. To the naked eye the finger-prints on each were scarcely +discernible, but under the magnifying lenses of the superimposing glass +all doubt was finally dispelled. They were there, they corresponded, +they were identical. Thumb to thumb, finger to finger, and line to line +they fitted over one another without a blur or fault. It was, as it +often proved to be in those days, hanging evidence.</p> + +<p>Salt relocked the safe, tore out the used pages of the letter-book, and +reduced them to ashes on the spot. The less important remains of the +book he took with him to his chambers, and there burned them from cover +to cover before he went to bed.</p> + +<p>It had served its purpose, and not a legitimate trace remained. Around +the stolen copy the policy of the coming strife might crystallise, and +towards any issue it might raise Salt could look with confidence. +Finally, if the unforeseen arose, the way was clear for Sir John to +denounce a shameless forgery, and who could contradict his indignant +word?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>SECRET HISTORY</h3> + + +<p>Under succeeding administrations, each pledged to a larger policy to +themselves and a smaller one towards every one else, most of the +traditional outward forms of government had continued to be observed. +Thus there was a Minister for the Colonies, though the Colonies +themselves had shamefacedly one by one dropped off into the troubled +waters of weak independence, or else clung on with pathetic loyalty in +spite of rebuff after rebuff, and the disintegration of all mutual +interests, until nothing but the most shadowy bond remained. There was a +Secretary of State for War in spite of the fact that the flag which the +Government nailed to the mast when it entered into negotiations with an +aggrieved and aggressive Power, bore the legend, "Peace at any Price. +None but a Coward Strikes the Weak." There had been more than one First +Lord of the Admiralty whose maritime experience had begun and ended on +the familiar deck of the <i>Koh-I-Noor</i>. There were practically all the +usual officers of ministerial rank—and the recipients of ministerial +salaries.</p> + +<p>Apart from the enjoyment of the title and the salary, however, there +were a few members of the Cabinet who exercised no real authority. Lord +Henry Stokes had been the last of upper class politicians of standing to +accept office under the new <i>régime</i>. Largely in sympathy with the +democratic tendency of the age, optimistic as to the growth of +moderation and restraint in the ranks of the mushroom party, and +actuated by the most sterling patriotism, Lord Henry had essayed the +superhuman task of premiership. Superhuman it was, because no mortal +could have combined the qualities necessary for success in the face of +the fierce distrust and jealousy which his rank and social position +excited in the minds of the rawer recruits of his own party; superhuman, +because no man possessing his convictions could have long reconciled +with them the growing and not diminishing illiberality of those whom he +was to lead. There were dissensions, suspicions, and recriminations from +the first. The end came in a tragic scene, unparalleled among the many +historic spectacles which the House has witnessed. A trivial point in +the naval estimates was under discussion, and Lord Henry, totally out of +sympathy with the bulk of his nominal following, had risen to patch up +the situation on the best terms he could. At the end of a studiously +moderate speech, which had provoked cheers from the opposition and +murmurs of dissent from his own party throughout, he had wound up his +plea for unity, toleration, and patriotism, with the following words: +"It is true that here no Government measure is at stake, no crisis is +involved, and honourable members on this side of the House are free of +party trammels and at liberty to vote as seems best to each. But if the +motion should be persisted in, an inevitable conclusion must be faced, +an irretrievable step will have been taken, and of the moral outcome of +that act who dare trace the end?"</p> + +<p>There was just a perceptible pause of sullen silence, then from among +the compact mass that sat behind their leader rose a coarse voice, +charged with a squiggling laugh.</p> + +<p>"We give it up, 'Enry. If it's a riddle about morals, suppose you ask +little Flo?"</p> + +<p>It was an aside—it was afterwards claimed that it was a drunken +whisper—but it was heard, as it was meant to be heard, throughout the +crowded Chamber. From the opposition ranks there was torn a cry, almost +of horror, at the enormity of the insult, at the direful profanation of +the House. Responsible members of the Government turned angrily, +imploringly, frantically upon their followers. At least half of these, +sitting pained and scandalised, needed no restraint, but from the +malcontents and extreme wings came shriek upon shriek of boisterous +mirth, as they rocked with laughter about their seats. As for Lord +Henry, sitting immobile as he scanned a paper in his hand, he did not +appear to have heard at first, nor even to have noticed that anything +unusual was taking place. But the next minute he turned deadly pale, +began to tremble violently, and with a low and hurried, "Your help, +Meadowsweet!" he stumbled from the Hall.</p> + +<p>For twenty years he had been a member of the House, years of +full-blooded politics when party strife ran strong, but never before had +the vaguest innuendo from that deep-seared, unforgotten past dropped +from an opponent's lips. It had been reserved for his own party to +achieve that distinction and to exact the crowning phase of penance in +nature's inexorable cycle.</p> + +<p>Apologists afterwards claimed that too much had been made of the +incident—that much worse things were often said, and passed, at the +meetings of Boards of Guardians and Borough Councils. It was as true as +it was biting: worse things were said at Borough Councils, and the +Mother of Parliaments had sunk to the rhetorical level of a Borough +Council.</p> + +<p>Stokes never took his seat again, and with him there passed out of that +arena the last of a hopeful patriotic group, whose only failure was that +they tried to reconcile two irreconcilable forces of their times.</p> + +<p>It did not result, however, that no men of social position were to be +found among the Labour benches. There was a demand, and there followed +the supply. Rank, mediocrity, and moral obsequiousness were the +essentials for their posts. There were no more Stokeses to be had, so +obliging creatures were obtained who were willing for a consideration to +be paraded as the successors to his patriotic mantle. They were plainly +made to understand their position, and if they ventured to show +individuality they soon resigned. Nominally occupying high offices, they +had neither influence, power, nor respect; like Marlborough in +compliance they had "to do it for their bread." They were ruled by their +junior lords, assistants, and underlings in various degrees. Many of +these men, too strong to be ignored, were frankly recognised to be +impossible in the chief offices of State. As a consequence the Cabinet +soon became an empty form. Its councils were still held, but the +proceedings were cut and dried in advance. The real assembly that +dictated the policy of the Government was the Expediency Council, held +informally as the necessity arose.</p> + +<p>The gathering which was taking place at the Premier's house on this +occasion had been convened for the purpose of clearing the air with +regard to the policy to be pursued at home. The Government had come into +power with very liberal ideas on the question of what ought to be done +for the working classes. They had made good their promises, and still +that free and enlightened body, having found by experience that they +only had to ask often enough and loudly enough to be met in their +demands, were already clamouring for more. The most moderate section of +the Government was of opinion that the limit had been reached; others +thought that the limit lay yet a little further on; the irresponsibles +denied that any limit could be fixed at all. That had been the +experience of every administration for a long time past, and each one in +turn had been succeeded by its malcontents.</p> + +<p>Mr Strummery, the Premier, did not occupy the official residence +provided for him. Mrs Strummery, an excellent lady who had once been +heard to remark that she could never understand why her husband was +called <i>Prime Minister</i> when he was not a <i>minister</i> at all, flatly +declared that the work of cleaning the windows alone of the house in +Downing Street put it out of the question. Even Mr Strummery, who, among +his political associates, was reported to have rather exalted ideas of +the dignity of his position, came to the conclusion, after fully +considering the residence from every standpoint, that he might not feel +really at home there. It was therefore let, furnished, to an American +lady who engineered wealthy <i>débutantes</i> from her native land into "the +best" English society, and the Strummerys found more congenial +surroundings in Brandenburg Place. There, within a convenient distance +of the Hampstead Road and other choice shopping centres, Mrs Strummery, +like the wife of another eminent statesman whose statue stood almost +within sight of her bedroom windows, was able to indulge in her amiable +foible for cheap marketing. And if the two ladies had this in common, +the points of resemblance between their respective lords (the moral side +excluded) might be multiplied many-fold, for no phrase put into Mr +Strummery's mouth could epigrammatise his point of view more concisely +than Fox's inopportune toast, "Our Sovereign: the People." History's +dispassionate comment was that the sentiment which lost the abler man +his Privy Councillorship in his day, gained for the other a Premiership +a century later.</p> + +<p>"One thing that gets me is why no one ever seems to take any notice of +us when we have a Council on," remarked the President of the Board of +Education with an involuntary plaint in his voice. He was standing on +the balcony outside the large front room on Mr Strummery's first +floor—a room which boasted the noble proportions of a <i>salon</i>, and +possibly served as one in Georgian days. Certainly Brandenburg Place did +not present a spectacle of fluttering animation at the prospect of +seeing the great ones of the land assembling within its bounds. At one +end of the thoroughfare a milkman was going from area to area with a +prolonged melancholy cry more suggestive of Stoke Poges churchyard than +of any other spot on earth; at the opposite end a grocer's errand boy, +with basket resourcefully inverted upon his head, had sunk down by the +railings to sip the nectar from a few more pages of "Iroquois Ike's Last +Hope; or, The Phantom Cow-Puncher's Bride." Midway between the two a +cat, in the act of crossing the road, had stopped to twitch a forepaw +with that air of imperturbable deliberateness in its movements that no +other created thing can ever succeed in attaining. In a house opposite +some one was rattling off the exhilarating strains of "Humming Ephraim," +but even when a hansom cab and two four-wheelers drove up in quick +succession to the Premier's door, no one betrayed curiosity to the +extent of looking out of the window. The Minister of Education noted +these things as he stood on the balcony, and possibly he felt another +phase of the gratitude of men that often left Mr Wordsworth mourning. "I +can remember the time when crowds used to wait hours in the rain along +Downing Street—our people, too—to catch a sight of Estair or +Nettlebury. I won't exactly say that it annoys me, because I've seen too +much of the hollowness of things for that, but it certainly is rummy why +it should be so."</p> + +<p>"A very good thing, too," commented the Premier briskly from the room. +"I don't know that we could have a greater compliment. The people know +that we are plain, straightforward men like themselves, and they know +that we are doing our work without having to come and see us at it. They +don't regard us almost as little deities—interesting to see, but quite +different and above themselves. That's why."</p> + +<p>Every one in the room said "Hear! Hear!" as though that exactly defined +his own sentiments; and every one in the room looked rather sad, as +though at the back of their collective minds there lurked a doubt +whether it might not be more pleasant to be regarded almost as little +deities.</p> + +<p>"You needn't go as far back as Estair and Nettlebury," put in Vossit of +the Treasury. "See how they fairly 'um round Hampden whenever he's +about."</p> + +<p>"Not us," interposed another man emphatically. "Let them go on their own +messin' way; it'll do us no harm. You never saw a working man at any of +their high and mighty meetings."</p> + +<p>"So much the worse, for they didn't want them. But there ought to have +been working men there, from the very first meeting until now." The +speaker was one of the most recent additions to the potent circle of the +Brandenburg Place councils, and the freedom of criticism which he +allowed himself had already been the subject of pained comment on the +part of a section of his seniors.</p> + +<p>"Well," suggested some one, with politely-pointed meaning, "I don't know +what's to prevent one individual from attending a meeting if he so +wants. He'd probably find one going on somewhere at this minute if he +looked round hard. Doesn't seem to me that any one's holding him back."</p> + +<p>"Now, now," reproved Mr Guppling, the Postmaster-General, "let the man +speak if he has anything on his mind. Come now, comrade, what do you +mean?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know what I mean," replied the comrade, at which there was a +general shout of laughter. "I don't know what I mean," he continued, +having secured general attention by this simple device of oratory, +"because I am told in those Government quarters where I ought to be able +to find information, that no information has been collected, no +systematic enquiries made, nothing is known, in fact. Therefore, I do +not know what I mean because I do not know—none of us know—what the +Unity League means. But I know this: that a hostile organisation of over +a million and a half strong——"</p> + +<p>Dissent came forcibly from every quarter of the room. "Not half!" was +the milder form it took.</p> + +<p>"——of over a million and a half strong," continued the speaker +grimly—"perhaps more, in fact, than all our Trades Unions put +together—with an income very little less than what all the Trades +Unions put together used to have, and funds in hand probably more, is a +living menace in our midst, and ought to have been closely watched."</p> + +<p>"It keeps 'em quiet," urged the Foreign Under-Secretary.</p> + +<p>"Too quiet. I don't like my enemy to be quiet. I prefer him to be +talking large and telling us exactly what he's going to do."</p> + +<p>"They're going to chuck us out, Tirrel; that's what they're going to +do," said a sarcastic comrade playfully. "So was the Buttercup League, +so was the Liberal-Conservative alliance. Lo, history repeats itself!"</p> + +<p>"I see a long line of strong men fallen in the past—premiers, popes, +kings, generals, ambassadors," replied Tirrel. "They all took it for +granted that when they had got their positions they could keep them +without troubling about their enemies any more. That's generally the +repeating point in history."</p> + +<p>Mr Strummery felt that the instances were perhaps getting too near home. +"Come, come, chaps, and Comrade Tirrel in particular," he said mildly, +"don't imagine that nothing is being done in the proper quarter because +you mayn't hear much talk about it. Our Executives work and don't talk. +I think that you may trust our good comrade Tubes to keep an eye on the +Unity League."</p> + +<p>"Wish he'd keep an eye on the clock," murmured a captious member. "Not +once," he added conclusively, "but three times out of four."</p> + +<p>There was a vigorous knock at the front door, and the hurried footsteps +of some one ascending the stairs with the consciousness that he was +late.</p> + +<p>"Talk of Tubes and you'll have a puncture," confided a comrade of +humorous bent to his neighbour, and on the words the Home Secretary, +certainly with very little breath left in him, entered the room and made +his apologies.</p> + +<p>The special business for which the Council had been called together was +to consider a series of reports from the constituencies, and to decide +how to be influenced by their tenor. The Government had no desire to +wait for a general election in order to find out the views of the +electors of the country; given a close summary of those sentiments, it +might be possible to fall in with their wishes, and thereby to be spared +the anxiety of an election until their septennial existence had run its +course; or, if forced by the action of their own malcontents to take +that unwelcome step, at least to cut the ground from beneath their +opponents' feet in advance.</p> + +<p>If there was not complete unanimity among those present, there was no +distinct line of variance. Men of the extremest views had naturally not +been included, and although the prevailing opinion was that the +conditions of labour had been put upon a fair and equitable basis during +their tenure of office—or as far in that direction as it was possible +to go without utterly stampeding capitalists and ratepayers from the +country—there were many who were prepared to go yet a little further if +it seemed desirable.</p> + +<p>Judging from the summarised reports, it did seem desirable. From the +mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire, the coal-pits of the north and west, +the iron fields of the Midlands, the quarries of Derbyshire, the boot +factories of Northampton and the lace factories of Nottingham, from +every swarming port around the coast, and from that vast cosmopolitan +clearing house, the Capital itself, came the same tale. The people did +not find themselves so well off as they wished to be; they were, in +fact, rather poorer than before. There was nothing local about it. The +Thurso flag-stone hewer shared the symptoms with his Celtic brother, +digging out tin and copper from beneath the Atlantic waters beyond +Pendeen; the Pembroke dock-hand and the Ipswich mechanic were in just +the same position. When industries collapsed, as industries had an +unhappy character for doing about the period, no one had any reserves. +It was possible to live by provision of the Government, but the working +man had been educated up to requiring a great deal more than bare +living. When wages went down in spite of all artificial inflation, or +short time was declared, a great many working-class houses, financed +from week to week but up to the hilt in debt, went down too. The +agricultural labourer was the least disturbed; he had had the least done +for him, and he had never known a "boom." The paradox remained that with +more money the majority of the poor were poorer than before, and they +were worse than poor, for they were dissatisfied. The remedy, of course, +was for some one to give them still more money, not for them to spend +less. The shortest way to that remedy, as they had been well taught by +their agitators in the past, was to clamour for the Government to do +something else for them, and therefore they were clamouring now.</p> + +<p>"That is the position," announced Mr Tubes, when he had finished reading +the general summary. "The question it raises may not be exactly urgent, +but it is at least pressing. On the one hand, there is the undoubted +feeling of grievance existing among a large proportion of electors—our +own people. On the other hand, there is the serious question of national +finances not to be overlooked. As the matter is one that must ultimately +concern me more closely than anybody else, I will reserve my own opinion +to the last."</p> + +<p>The view taken by those present has already been indicated. Their +platform was that of Moderate Socialism; they wished it always to be +understood that they were practical. They had the interest of their +fellow working men (certainly of no other class of the community) at +heart, but as Practical Socialists they had a suspicion (taking the +condition of the Exchequer into consideration) that for the moment they +had reached the limit of Practical Socialism. There was an undoubted +dilemma. If a mistake of policy on their part let in the impractical +Socialists, the result would be disastrous. Most of them regarded the +danger as infinitesimal; like every other political party during the +last two centuries, they felt that they could rely on the "sound +common-sense of the community." Still, admitting a possibility, even if +it was microscopic, might it not be more—say practically socialistic +(the word "patriotic" had long been expunged from their vocabulary) in +the end to make some slight concessions? If there existed a more +material inducement it was not referred to, and any ingenuous comrade, +using as an argument in favour of compliance a homely proverb anent the +inadvisability of quarrelling with one's bread and butter, would have +been promptly discouraged. Yet, although the actors themselves in this +great morality play apparently overlooked the consideration, it is +impossible for the spectator to ignore the fact. Some few members of the +Cabinet might have provided for a rainy day, but even to many of +official class, and practically to all of the rank and file, a reversal +at the polls must mean that they would have to give up a variety of +highly-esteemed privileges and return to private life in less +interesting capacities, some in very humble ones indeed.</p> + +<p>It ended, as it was bound to end, in compromise. They would not play +into the hands of the extreme party and ignore the voice of the +constituencies; they would not be false to their convictions and be +dictated to by the electors. They would decline to bring in the +suggested Minimum Wage Bill, and they would not impose the Personal +Property Tax. They would meet matters by extending the National +Obligations Act, and save money on the Estimates. They would be sound, +if commonplace.</p> + +<p>The formal proceedings having been concluded, it was open for any one to +introduce any subject he pleased in terms of censure, enquiry or +discussion. Comrade Tirrel was on his feet at once, and returned to the +subject that lay heavy on his mind.</p> + +<p>"Is the Home Secretary in possession of any confidential information +regarding the Unity League?" he demanded; "and can he assure us, in view +of the admittedly hostile object of the organisation, that adequate +means are being taken to neutralise any possible lines of action it may +adopt?"</p> + +<p>"The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative," +replied Mr Tubes in his best parliamentary manner. "As regards the +second part, I may state that after considering the reports we have +received it is not anticipated that the League offers any serious menace +to the Government. Should the necessity arise, the Council may rely upon +the Home Office taking the requisite precautions."</p> + +<p>"The answer is satisfactory as far as it goes. Being in possession of +special information, will the Home Secretary go a step further and allay +the anxiety that certainly exists in some quarters, by indicating the +real intentions and proposed <i>modus operandi</i> of the League?"</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes conferred for a moment with his chief. "I may say that on broad +lines the League has no definite plan for the future, and its +intentions, as represented by the policy of its heads, will simply be to +go on existing so long as the deluded followers will continue their +subscriptions. I may point out that the League has now been in existence +for two years, and during that time it has done nothing at all to +justify its founders' expectations; it has not embarrassed us at any +point nor turned a single by-election. For two years we heard +practically nothing of it, and there has been no fresh development to +justify the present uneasiness which it seems to be causing in the minds +of a few nervous comrades. Its membership is admittedly imposing, but +the bare fact that a million and a half of people are foolish +enough——"</p> + +<p>There was a significant exchange of astonished glances among the +occupants of Mr Strummery's council chamber. Murmurs grew, and Mr +Guppling voiced the general feeling by calling the Home Secretary's +attention to the figures he had mentioned "doubtless inadvertently."</p> + +<p>"No," admitted Mr Tubes carelessly, "that is our latest estimate. From +recent information we have reason to think that the previous figure we +adopted was too low—or the League may have received large additions +lately through some accidental cause. We are now probably erring as +widely on the other side, but it is the safe side, and I therefore +retain that figure."</p> + +<p>Mr Tirrel had not yet finished, but he was listened to with respectful +attention now.</p> + +<p>"Is the Home Secretary in a position to tell us who this man Salt is?" +was his next enquiry.</p> + +<p>The Home Secretary looked frankly puzzled. "Who <i>is</i> Salt?" he replied, +innocently enough.</p> + +<p>"That is the essential point of my enquiry," replied the comrade. +"Salt," he continued, his voice stilling the laughter it had raised, "is +the Man behind the Unity League. You think it is Hampden, but I tell you +that you are mistaken. Hampden is undoubtedly a dangerous power; the +classes will follow him blindly, and he is no mere figure-head, but it +was Salt who stirred Hampden from his apathy, and it is Salt who pulls +the wires."</p> + +<p>"And who is Salt?" demanded the Premier, as Mr Tubes offered no comment.</p> + +<p>Tirrel shook his head. "I know no more than I have stated," he replied; +"but his secret influence must be tremendous, and all doubt as to the +identity of the man and his past record should be set at rest."</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes looked up from the papers he had before him with a gleam of +subdued anger in his eye. "I think that our cock-sure kumred has geete +howd of another mare's neest," he remarked, relapsing unconsciously into +his native dialect as he frequently did when stirred. "I remember +hearin' o' this Saut in one o' th' reports, and here it is. So far from +being a principal, he occupies a very different position—that of +Hampden's private secretary, which would explain how he might have to +come into contact with a great many people without having any real +influence hissel. He is described in my confidential report as a simple, +unsuspicious man, who might be safely made use of, and, in fact, most of +my information is derived from that source."</p> + +<p>There was a sharp, smothered exclamation from one or two men, and then a +sudden stillness fell upon the room. Mr Tubes was among the last to +realise the trend of his admission.</p> + +<p>"Are we to understand that the greater part—perhaps the whole—of the +information upon which the Home Office has been relying, and of the +assurances of inaction which have lulled our suspicions to rest, have +been blindly accepted from this man Salt, the head and fount of the +League itself?" demanded Tirrel with ominous precision. "If that +indicates the methods of the Department, I think that this Council will +share my view when I suggest that the terms 'simple' and 'unsuspicious' +have been inaccurately allotted—to Salt."</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes made no reply. Lying at the bottom of the man's nature +smouldered a volcanic passion that he watched as though it were a +sleeping beast. Twice in his public career it had escaped him, and each +time the result had been a sharp reverse to his ambitions. +Repression—firm, instant, and unconditional—was the only safeguard, so +that now recognising the danger-signal in his breast, he sat without a +word in spite of the Premier's anxious looks, in spite of the concern of +those about him.</p> + +<p>"I will not press for a verbal reply," continued Tirrel after a telling +pause; "the inference of silence makes that superfluous. But I will ask +whether the Home Secretary is aware that Salt has been quietly engaged +in canvassing the provinces for a month, and whether he has any +information about his object and results. Yes," he continued vehemently, +turning to those immediately about him, "for a month past this simple, +unsuspecting individual from whom we derive our confidential information +has been passing quietly and unmarked from town to town; and if you were +to hang a map of England on the wall before me, I would undertake to +trace his route across the land by the points of most marked discontent +in the report to which we have just listened."</p> + +<p>A knock at the locked door of the room saved the Home Secretary for the +moment from the necessity of replying. It was an unusual incident, and +when the nearest man went and asked what was wanted, some one was +understood to reply that a stranger, who refused to give his name, +wished to see Mr Tubes. Perhaps Mr Tubes personally might have welcomed +a respite, but the master of the house anticipated him.</p> + +<p>"Tell him, whoever he may be, that Mr Tubes cannot be disturbed just +now," he declared.</p> + +<p>"He says it's important, very important," urged the voice, with a +suggestion of largess received and more to come, in its eagerness.</p> + +<p>"Then let him write it down or wait," said Mr Strummery decisively, and +the matter was supposed to have ended.</p> + +<p>The momentary interruption had broken the tension and perhaps saved +Tubes from a passionate outburst. He rose to make a reply without any +sign of anger or any fear that he would not be able to smooth away the +awkward impression.</p> + +<p>"As far as canvassing in the provinces is concerned," he remarked +plausibly, "it is open for any man, whatever his politics may be, to do +that from morning to night all his life if he likes, so long as it isn't +for an illegal object. As regards Salt having been engaged this way for +the past month, it is quite true that I have had no intimation of the +fact so far. I may explain that as my Department has not yet come to +regard the Unity League as the one object in the world to which it must +devote its whole attention, I am not in the habit of receiving reports +on the subject every day, nor even every week. It may be, however——"</p> + +<p>There was another knock upon the door. Mr Tubes stopped, and the Premier +frowned. In the space between the door and the carpet there appeared for +a second a scrap of paper; the next moment it came skimming a few yards +into the room. There was no attempt to hold further communication, and +the footsteps of the silent messenger were heard descending the stairs +again.</p> + +<p>Mr Vossit, who sat nearest to the door, picked up the little oblong +card. He saw, as he could scarcely fail to see, that it was an ordinary +visiting-card, and on the upper side, as it lay, there appeared a +roughly-pencilled sign—two lines at right angle drawn through a +semicircle, it appeared superficially to be. As he handed it to Mr Tubes +he reversed the position so that the name should be uppermost, and again +he saw, as he could scarcely fail to see, that the other side was blank. +The roughly-pencilled diagram was all the message it contained.</p> + +<p>"It may be, however——" the Home Secretary was repeating +half-mechanically. He took the card and glanced at the symbol it bore. +"It may be, however," he continued, as though there had been no +interruption, "that I shall very soon be in possession of the full facts +to lay before you." Then with a few whispered words to the Premier and a +comprehensive murmur of apology to the rest of the company, he withdrew.</p> + +<p>Fully a quarter of an hour passed before there was any sign of the +absent Minister, and then it did not take the form of his return. The +conversation, in his absence, had worked round to the engaging +alternative of whether it was more correct to educate one's son at Eton +or at Margate College, when a message was sent up requesting the +Premier's attendance in another room. After another quarter of an hour +some one was heard to leave the house, but it was ten minutes later +before the two men returned. It was felt in the atmosphere that some new +development was at hand, and they had to run the curious scrutiny of +every eye. Both had an air of constraint, and both were rather pale. The +Premier moved to his seat with brusque indifference, and one who knew +Tubes well passed a whispered warning that Jim had got his storm-cone +fairly hoisted. The door was locked again, chairs were drawn up to the +table, and a hush of marked expectancy settled over the meeting.</p> + +<p>The Prime Minister spoke first.</p> + +<p>"In the past half-hour a letter has come into our possession that may +cause us to alter our arrangements," he announced baldly. "How it came +into our possession doesn't matter. All that does matter is, that it's +genuine. Tubes will read it to you."</p> + +<p>"It is signed 'John Hampden,' addressed to Robert Estair, and dated +three days ago," contributed the Home Secretary just as briefly. "The +original was in cipher. This is the deciphered form:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"'<span class="smcap">My Dear Estair</span>,—I now have Salt's complete report before me, +and there seems to be no doubt that the proposal I have +formulated is feasible, and the moment almost ripe. Salt has +covered all the most important industrial centres, and +everywhere the reports of our agents are favourable to the +plan. Not having found universal happiness and a complete +immunity from the cares incident to humanity in the privileges +which they so ardently desired and have now obtained, the +working classes are tending to believe that the panacea must +lie, not in greater moderation, but in extended privilege.</p> + +<p>"'For the moment the present Government is indisposed to go +much further, not possessing the funds necessary for enlarged +concessions and fearing that increased taxation might result in +a serious stream of emigration among the monied classes. For +the moment the working men hesitate to throw in their lot with +the extreme Socialists, distrusting the revolutionary and +anarchical wing of that party, and instinctively feeling that +any temporary advantage which they might enjoy would soon be +swallowed up in the reign of open lawlessness that must +inevitably arise.</p> + +<p>"'For the moment, therefore, there is a pause, and now occurs +the opportunity—perhaps the last in history—for us to +retrieve some of the losses of the past. There are scruples to +be overcome, but I do not think that an alliance with the +moderate section of the Labour interest is inconsistent with +the aims and traditions of the great parties which our League +represents. It would, of course, be necessary to guarantee to +our new allies the privileges which they now possess, and even +to promise more; but I am convinced, not only by past +experience but also by specific assurances from certain +quarters, that they would prefer to remain as they are, and +form an alliance with us rather than grasp at larger gains and +suffer absorption into another party which they dare not trust.</p> + +<p>"'From the definite nature of this statement you will gather +that the negotiations are more than in the air. The +distribution of Cabinet offices will have to be considered at +once. B—— might be first gained over with the offer of the +Exchequer. He carries great weight with a considerable section +of his party, and is dissatisfied with his recognition so far. +Heape is a representative man who would repay early attention, +especially as he is, at the moment, envious of R——'s better +treatment. But these are matters of detail. The great thing is +to <i>get back on any terms</i>. Once in power, by a modification of +the franchise we might make good our position. I trust that +this, a desperate remedy in a desperate time, will earn at +least your tacit acquiescence. Much is irretrievably lost; +England remains—yet.</p> + +<p>"Yours sincerely,</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">John Hampden</span>.'"</p></blockquote> + +<p>Six men were on their feet before the signature was reached. With an +impatient gesture Strummery waved them collectively aside.</p> + +<p>"We all know your opinion on the writer and the letter, and we can all +put it into our own words without wasting time in listening," he said +with suppressed fury. "In five minutes' time I shall entirely reopen the +consideration of the reports which we met this afternoon to discuss."</p> + +<p>"Has any effort been made to learn the nature of Estair's reply?" +enquired Tirrel. If he was not the least moved man in the room he was +the least perturbed, and he instinctively picked out the only point of +importance that remained.</p> + +<p>"It probably does not exist in writing," replied Mr Tubes, avoiding +Tirrel's steady gaze. "I find that he arrived in town last night. There +would certainly be a meeting."</p> + +<p>"Was Bannister summoned to this Council?" demanded another. It was taken +for granted that "B" stood for Bannister.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the Premier, with one eye on his watch. "He was +indisposed."</p> + +<p>"I protest against the reference to myself," said Heape coldly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Mr Strummery nodded. "Time's up," he announced.</p> + +<p>That is the "secret history" of the Government's sudden and inexplicable +conversion to the necessity of the Minimum Wage Bill and to the +propriety of imposing the Personal Property Tax. A fortnight later the +Prime Minister outlined the programme in the course of a speech at +Newcastle. The announcement was received almost with stupefaction. For +the first time in history, property—money, merchandise, personal +belongings—was to be saddled with an annual tax apart from, and in +addition to, the tax it paid on the incomes derived from it. It was an +entire wedge of the extreme policy that must end in Partition. It was +more than the poorer classes had dared to hope; it was more than the +tax-paying classes had dared to fear. It marked a new era of extended +privilege for the one; it marked the final extinction of hope even among +the hopeful for the other.</p> + +<p>"It could not have happened more opportunely for us even if we had +arranged it in every detail," declared Hampden, going into Salt's room +with the tidings in huge delight, a fortnight later.</p> + +<p>"No," agreed Salt, looking up with his slow, pleasant smile. "Not even +if we had arranged it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>THE ORDER OF ST MARTIN OF TOURS</h3> + + +<p>Sir John Hampden paused for a moment with arrested pen. He had been in +the act of crossing off another day on the calendar that hung inside his +desk, the last detail before he pulled the roll-top down for the night, +when the date had caught his eye with a sudden meaning.</p> + +<p>"A week to-day, Salt," he remarked, looking up.</p> + +<p>"A week to-day," repeated Salt. "That gives us seven more days for +details."</p> + +<p>Hampden laughed quietly as he bent forward and continued the red line +through the "14."</p> + +<p>"That is one way of looking at it," he said. "Personally, I was rather +wishing that it had been to-day. I confess that I cannot watch the +climax of these two years approaching without feeling keyed up to +concert pitch. I suppose that you never had any nerves?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose not. If I had, the Atlantic water soon washed them out."</p> + +<p>"But you are superstitious?" he asked curiously. It suddenly occurred to +him how little he really knew of the man with whom he was linked in such +a momentous hazard.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes. Blue water inoculates us all with that. Fortunately, mine does +not go beyond trifles, such as touching posts and stepping over paving +stones—a hobby and not a passion, or I should have to curb it."</p> + +<p>"Do you really do things like that? Well, I remember Northland, the +great nerve specialist, telling me that most people have something of +the sort—a persistent feeling of impending calamity unless they conform +to some trivial impulse. I am exempt."</p> + +<p>"Yes," commented Salt; "or you would hardly be likely to cross off the +date before the day is over."</p> + +<p>"Good Heavens!" exclaimed Hampden. "What an age we live in! Is it tannin +or the dregs of paganism? And you think it would be tempting Providence +to do it while there are five more hours to run?"</p> + +<p>"I never do it, as a matter of fact," admitted Salt with perfect +seriousness. "Of course, I <i>know</i> that nothing would happen in the five +hours if I did, but, all the same, I rather think that something would."</p> + +<p>"I hope that something will," said Hampden cheerfully. "Dinner, for +example. Did I ever strike you as a gourmet, Salt? Well, nevertheless, I +am a terrific believer in regular meals, although I don't care a straw +how simple they are. You may read of some marvellous Trojan working +under heavy pressure for twenty-four hours, and then snatching a hurried +glass of Château d'Yquem and a couple of Abernethy biscuits, and going +on again for another twenty-four. Don't believe it, Salt. If he is not +used to it, his knees go; if he is used to it, they have gone already. +If I were a general I solemnly declare that I would risk more to feed my +men before an engagement, than I would risk to hold the best position +all along the front. Your hungry man may fight well enough for a time, +but the moment he is beaten he knows it. And, strangely enough, we +English have won a good many important battles after we had been +beaten."</p> + +<p>He had been locking up the safe and desk as he ran on, and now they +walked together down the corridor. At the door of his own office Salt +excused himself for a moment and went in. When he rejoined the baronet +at the outer door, he held in his hand a little square of thin paper on +which was printed in bold type</p> + +<blockquote><p>JULY 14.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"You will regret it," said Hampden, not wholly jestingly. He saw at once +that it was the tag for the day, torn from his calendar, that Salt held.</p> + +<p>"No," he replied, crumpling up the scrap of paper and throwing it away, +"I may remember, but I shall not regret. When you have to think twice +about doing a thing like that, it is time to do it.... You have no +particular message for Deland?"</p> + +<p>"None at all, personally, I think. You will tell him as much as we +decided upon. Let him know that his post will certainly be one of the +most important outside the central office. What time do you go?"</p> + +<p>"The 10 train from Marylebone. Deland will be waiting up for me. There +is an early restaurant train in the morning—the 7.20, getting in at +10.40. I shall breakfast <i>en route</i>, and come straight on here."</p> + +<p>"That's right. Look out for young Hampshire in the train; he will +probably wait on you, but you won't recognise him unless you remember +the Manners-Clinton nose in profile. He regards it as a vast joke, but +he is very keen. And sleep all the time you aren't feeding. Can't do +better. Good night."</p> + +<p>Salt laughed as he turned into Pall Mall, speculating for a moment, by +the light of his own knowledge, how little time this strenuous, +simple-living man devoted to the things he advocated. If he had been +able to follow Sir John's electric brougham for the remainder of that +night he would have had still more reason to be sceptical.</p> + +<p>When Hampden reached his house and strode up to the door with the +elastic step of a young man, despite his iron-grey hair and burden of +responsibility, instead of the bronze Medusa knocker that had dropped +from the hands of Pietro Sarpi and Donato in its time, his eyes +encountered the smiling face of his daughter as she swung open the door +before him. She had been sitting at an open window of the dull-fronted +house until she saw the Hampden livery in the distance.</p> + +<p>"There is some one waiting in the library to see you," she said, as he +kissed her cheek. "He said that he would wait ten minutes; you had +already been seven."</p> + +<p>"Who is it?" he asked in quiet expectation. It was not unusual for +Muriel to watch for him from the upper room, and to come down into the +hall to welcome him, but to-night he saw at once that there was a mild +excitement in her manner. "Who is it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She told him in half a dozen whispered words, and then returned to the +drawing-room and the society of a depressing companion, who chanced to +be a poor and distant cousin, while Sir John turned toward the library.</p> + +<p>"Tell Styles to remain with the brougham if he is still in front," he +said to a passing footman. The visit might presage anything.</p> + +<p>A young man, an inconspicuous young man in a blue serge suit, rose from +the chair of Jacobean oak and Spanish leather where he had been sitting +with a bowler hat between his hands and a cheap umbrella across his +knees, and made a cursory bow as he began to search an inner pocket.</p> + +<p>"Sir John Hampden?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied the master of the house, favouring his visitor with a +more curious attention than he received in return. "You are from +Plantagenet House, I believe?"</p> + +<p>The young man detached his left hand from the search and turned down the +lapel of his coat in a perfunctory display of his credentials. Pinned +beneath so that it should not obtrude was an insignificant little medal, +so small and trivial that it would require the closest scrutiny to +distinguish its design and lettering.</p> + +<p>But Sir John Hampden did not require any assurance upon the point. He +knew by the evidence of just such another medallion which lay in his own +possession that upon one side, around the engraved name of the holder, +ran the inscription, "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart;" +upon the other side a representation of St Martin dividing his cloak +with the beggar. It was the badge of the Order of St Martin of Tours.</p> + +<p>The Order of St Martin embodied the last phase of organised benevolence. +In the history of the world there had never been a time when men so +passionately desired to help their fellow men; there had never been a +time when they found it more difficult to do so to their satisfaction. +From the lips of every social reformer, from the reports of the +charitable organisations, from the testimony of the poor themselves the +broad indictment had gone forth that every casual beggar was a rogue and +a vagabond. Promiscuous alms-giving was tabulated among the Seven Curses +of London.</p> + +<p>Organised charity was the readiest alternative. Again obliging +counsellors raised their conscientious voices. Organised charity was +wasteful, inelastic, unsympathetic, often superfluous. The preacher +added a warning note: Let none think that the easy donation of a cheque +here and there was charity. It was frequently vanity, it was often a +cowardly compromise with conscience, it was never an absolution from the +individual responsibility.</p> + +<p>So brotherly love continued, but often did not fructify, and the man who +felt that he had the true Samaritan instinct, as he passed by on the one +side of the suburban road, looked at his ragged neighbour lying under +the hedge on the other side in a fit which might be epilepsy but might +equally well be soap-suds in the mouth, and assured himself that if only +he could believe the case to be genuine there was nothing on earth he +would not do for the man.</p> + +<p>It was a very difficult age, every one admitted: "Society was so +complex."</p> + +<p>There was evidence of the generous feeling—ill-balanced and spasmodic, +it is true—on every hand. The poor were bravely, almost blindly, good +to their neighbours in misfortune. The better-off were lavish—or had +been until a few years previously—when they had certified proof that +the cases were deserving. If a magistrate or a police court missionary +gave publicity to a Pathetic Case, the Pathetic Case might be sure of +being able to retire on a comfortable annuity. If only every Pathetic +Case could have been induced to come pathetically into the clutches of a +sympathetic police court cadi, instead of dying quite as pathetically in +a rat-hole, one of the most pressing problems of benevolence might have +been satisfactorily solved.</p> + +<p>The Order of St Martin of Tours was one of the attempts to reconcile the +generous yearnings of mankind with modern conditions. Its field of +action had no definable limit, and whatever a man wished to give it was +prepared to utilise. It was not primarily concerned with money, although +judged by the guaranteed resources upon which it could call if +necessary, it would rank as a rich society. It imposed no subscription +and made no outside appeal. Upon its books, against the name of every +member, there was entered what he bound himself to do when it was +required of him. It was a vast and comprehensive list, so varied that +few ever genuinely applied for the services of the Order without their +needs being satisfied. The city man willing to give a foolish and +repentant youth another chance of honest work; the Sussex farmer anxious +to prove what a month of South Down fare and Channel breezes would do +for a small city convalescent; the prim little suburban lady, much too +timid to attempt any personal contact with the unknown depths of sin and +suffering, but eager to send her choicest flowers and most perfect fruit +to any slum sick-room; the good-hearted laundry girl who had been +through the fires herself, offering to "pal up to any other girl what's +having a bit of rough and wants to keep straight without a lot of +jaw,"—all found a deeper use in life beneath the sign of St Martin's +divided cloak. Children, even little children, were not shut out; they +could play with other, lonely, little children, and renounce some toys.</p> + +<p>The inconspicuous young man standing in Sir John Hampden's library—he +was in a cheap boot shop, but he gave his early closing day to serve the +Order as a messenger, and there were millionaires who gave less—found +the thing he searched for, and handed to Sir John an unsealed envelope.</p> + +<p>"I accept," said the baronet, after glancing at the slip it contained. +This was what he accepted:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">ORDER OF ST. MARTIN OF TOURS.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Case</i>. . . John Flak, 45 Paradise Buildings, Paradise Street, Drury Lane, W.C.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Cause</i> . . Street Accident.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Requirement</i> . . Service through the night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Recommender</i> . . L. K. Stone, M.D., 172 Great Queen Street, W.C.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Waltham, Master.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He could have declined; and his membership would have been at an end. +But in a mission of personal service he could not accept and appoint a +substitute. The Order was modern, business-like, reasonable, +unemotional, and quite prepared to take humanity as it was. It did not +seek to impose the ideal Christian standard, logically recognising that +if a man gave <i>all</i> he possessed, a system of Christian laws (a Cæsar +whom he was likewise bidden to obey) would at once incarcerate him in a +prison for having no visible means of subsistence, and, if he persisted +in his unnatural Christian conduct, in a lunatic asylum, where in its +appointed season he would have the story of the Rich Ruler read for his +edification.</p> + +<p>The Order was practical and "very nice to do with;" but it had a +standard, and as a protest against that widespread reliance in the +omnipotence of gold that marred the age it allowed no delegation of an +office of mercy. On all points it was open; its thin medallion +symbolised no mysteries or secret vows; nor, and on this one point it +was unbending, as far as lay in the power of the Order should any +second-hand virtue find place beneath its saintly ensign.</p> + +<p>A few years before, Paradise Street, with that marked inappropriateness +that may be traced in the nomenclature of many London thoroughfares, had +been the foulest, poorest, noisomest, most garbage-strewn and +fly-infested region even in the purlieus of Drury Lane. It was not +markedly criminal, it was merely filthy; and when smell-diseases broke +out in central London it was generally found that they radiated from +Paradise Street like ripples from a dead dog thrown into a pond. +Presently a type foundry in the next street, growing backwards because +it was impossible to expand further in any other direction, pushed down +the flimsy tenements that stood between and reared a high wall, pierced +with windows of prismatic glass, in their place. Soon public +authorities, seeing that the heavens did not fall when a quarter of +Paradise Street did, suddenly and unexpectedly tore down another quarter +as though they had received a maddened impulse and Paradise Street had +been a cardboard model. The phœnix that appeared on this site was a +seven-storied block of workmen's dwellings. It could not be said to have +given universal satisfaction. The municipal authorities who devised it +bickered entertainingly over most of the details that lay between the +foundations and the chimney-pots; the primitive dwellers in Paradise +Street looked askance at it, as they did at most things not in liquid +form; social reformers complained that it drove away the very poor and +brought in a class of only medium poor; and ordinary people noticed that +in place of the nearest approach to artistic dirt to be found in the +metropolis, some one had substituted uninteresting squalor.</p> + +<p>Hampden dismissed his carriage in Lincoln's Inn Fields and walked the +remainder of the way. He had changed into a dark lounge suit before he +left, but, in spite of the principle he had so positively laid down, he +had not stayed to dine. The inevitable, morbid little group marked the +entrance to Paradise Buildings, but the incident was already three hours +old, and the larger public interest was being reserved for the +anticipated funeral.</p> + +<p>A slipshod, smug-faced woman opened the door of No. 45 in response to +his discreet knock. He stepped into a small hall where coal was stored +in a packing-case, and, on her invitation, through into the front room. +Five more untidy women, who had been drinking from three cups, got up as +he entered, and passed out, eyeing him with respectful curiosity as they +went, and each dropping a word of friendly leavetaking to the slatternly +hostess.</p> + +<p>"Don't be down'arted, my dear."</p> + +<p>"See you later, Emm."</p> + +<p>"Let's know how things are going, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"You'll remember about that black alpaker body?"</p> + +<p>"Well, so long, Mrs Flak. Gord bless yer."</p> + +<p>Sir John waited until the hall door closed behind the last frowsy woman.</p> + +<p>"I am here to be of any use I can," he said. "Did Dr Stone mention that +some one would come?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," she replied. She stood in the middle of the +room, a picture of domestic incapacity, with a foolish look upon her +rather comely features. The room was not bare of furniture, was not +devoid of working-class comforts, but the dirty dishes, the dirty +clothing, the dirty floor, told the plain tale.</p> + +<p>"I do not know any particulars of the case yet." He saw at once that he +would have to take the lead in every detail. "Did the doctor speak of +coming again, or leave any message?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," she replied readily. She lifted an ornament on the +mantelpiece and gave him a folded sheet of paper, torn from a note-book, +that had been placed there for safety. He had the clearest impression +that it would never have occurred to the woman to give it to him +unasked.</p> + +<p>"To rep of O. St M.," ran the pencilled scrawl. "Shall endeavour to look +in 8-8.30.—L.K.S."</p> + +<p>Even as he took out his watch there came a business-like knock at the +door, an active step in the hall, and beneath the conventional greeting, +the two men were weighing one another.</p> + +<p>Dr Stone had asked the Order to send a man of common-sense who could +exercise authority if need be, and one who would not be squeamish in his +surroundings. For reasons of his own he had added that if with these +qualifications he combined that of being a Justice of the Peace, so much +the better. Dr Stone judged that he had the man before him. Hampden saw +a brisk, not too well shaven, man in a light suit, with a straw hat and +a serviceable stick in his hands, until he threw them on the table. +There was kindness and decision behind his alert eyes, and his manner +was that of a benevolent despot marshalling his poor patients—and he +had few others—as a regiment before him, marching them right and left +in companies, bringing them sharply to the front, and bidding them to +stand there and do nothing until they were told.</p> + +<p>"You haven't been into the other room yet?" he asked. "No, well——"</p> + +<p>He stopped with his hand on the door knob, turned back like a pointer on +the suspicion of a trail, and looked keenly at the woman, then around +the bestrewn room. If her eyes had slid the least betraying glance, +Hampden did not observe it, but the doctor, without a word, strode to +the littered couch, put his hand behind a threadbare cushion, and drew +out a half-filled bottle. There was a gluggling ripple for a few +seconds, and the contents had disappeared down the sink, while the +terebinthine odour of cheap gin hung across the room.</p> + +<p>"Not here, Mrs Flak," he said sharply; and without changing her +expression of vacuous good-nature, the woman meekly replied, "No, sir."</p> + +<p>Dr Stone led the way into the inner room and closed the door behind +them. A man, asleep, insensible, or dead, lay on the bed, his face half +hidden in bandages.</p> + +<p>"This is the position," explained the doctor, speaking very rapidly, for +his time was mapped out with as little waste as there is to be found +between the squares on a chess board. "This man went out of here a few +hours ago and walked straight into an empty motor 'bus that was going +round this way. That's how they all put it: he walked right into the +thing. Why? He was a sober enough man, an attendant of some kind at one +of the west end clubs. Because, as I have good reason to suppose, he was +thinking absorbingly of something else.</p> + +<p>"Well, they carried him in here; it ought to have been the hospital, of +course, but it was at his own doorstep it took place, you see, and it +doesn't really matter, because to-morrow morning——!"</p> + +<p>"He will die then?" asked Hampden in a whisper, interpreting the quick +gesture.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he will die as sure as his head is a cracked egg-shell. Between +midnight and dawn, I should say. But before the end I look confidently +for an interval of consciousness, or rather sub-consciousness. If I am +wrong I shall have kept you up all night for nothing; if I am right you +will probably hear something that he wants to say very much."</p> + +<p>"Whatever was in his mind when he met with the accident?"</p> + +<p>"That is my conviction. There has already been an indication of partial +expression. Curiously enough, I have had two exactly similar cases, and +this is going just the same way. In one it was a sum of money a man had +banked under another name to keep it from his wife and for his children; +in the second it was a blow struck in a scuffle, and an innocent man was +doing penal servitude for it."</p> + +<p>"That is what you wished to have some one here for chiefly, then?" asked +Hampden.</p> + +<p>"Everything, practically. You see the kind of people around? The wife is +a fool; the neighbours are the class of maddening dolts who leave a +suicide hanging until a policeman comes to cut him down. They would hold +an orgie in the next room. In excitement the women fly to gin as +instinctively as a nun flies to prayer. Order them out if they come, but +I don't think that they will trouble you after I have spoken to the +woman as I go. If there is anything to be caught it will have to be on +the hop, so to speak. It may be a confession, a deposition of legal +value, or only a request; one cannot guess. Questioning, when the +sub-conscious stage is reached, might lead to something. It's largely a +matter of luck, but intelligence may have an innings."</p> + +<p>"Is there nothing to be done—in the way of making it easier for him?"</p> + +<p>Dr Stone made a face expressive of their helplessness and shrugged his +shoulders; then mentioned a few simple details.</p> + +<p>"He will never know," he explained. "Even when he seems conscious he +will feel no pain and remember nothing of the accident. The clock will +be mercifully set back." He smiled whimsically. "Forgive me if it never +strikes." He turned to go. "The nearest call office is the kiosk in +Aldwych," he remarked. "I am 7406 Covent Garden." No paper being visible +he wrote the number on the wall. "After 10.30 as a general thing," he +added.</p> + +<p>So the baronet was left alone with the still figure that counterfeited +death so well, the man who would be dead before the dawn. He stepped +quietly to the bed and looked down on him. The lower half of the face +was free from swathing, and the lean throat and grizzled beard struck +Sir John with a momentary surprise. It was the face of an elderly man; +he had expected to find one not more than middle-aged as the companion +of the young woman in the other room.</p> + +<p>There was a single chair against the wall, and he sat down. There was +nothing else to do but to sit and wait, to listen to the sounds of +voluminous life that rose from the street beneath, the careful creaking +movements in the room beyond. From the shallow wainscotting near the bed +came at intervals the steady ticking of a death-watch. It was nothing, +as every one knew, but the note of an insect calling for its mate, but +it thrilled and grew large in the stillness of the chamber ominously.</p> + +<p>A low tap on the door came as a relief. He found the woman standing +there.</p> + +<p>"Is there anything different?" she asked, hanging on to the door. "I +kept on thinking I heard noises."</p> + +<p>"No, there is no change," he replied. "Will you come in?"</p> + +<p>She shrank back at the suggestion. "Gord 'elp us, no!" she cried. "It's +bad enough out there."</p> + +<p>"What are you afraid of?" he asked kindly.</p> + +<p>She had no words for it. Self-analysis did not enter into her daily +life. But, sitting there alone among the noises, real and imagined, she +had reached a state of terror.</p> + +<p>"There is nothing at all dreadful, nothing that would shock you," he +said, referring to the appearance of the dying man. "You are his wife, +are you not?"</p> + +<p>The foolish look, half stubborn, half vacuous, flickered about her face. +"As good as," she replied. "It's like this——"</p> + +<p>"I see." He had no desire to hear the recital of the sordid details.</p> + +<p>"His wife's in a mad-house. Won't never be anywhere else, and I've been +with him these five years, an honest woman to him all the time," she +said, bridling somewhat at the suggestion of reproach. "No one's got no +better right to the things, I'm sure." Her eloquence was stirred not so +much to defend her reputation as by the fear that some one might step in +to claim "the things."</p> + +<p>"There will be plenty of time to talk about that when—when it is +necessary," he said. "Has he no relations about here who ought to be +told?"</p> + +<p>"Nah," she said decisively; "no one but me. Why, he didn't even have no +friends—no pals of his own class, as you may say. Very close about +himself he was. All he thought of was them political corkses, as they +call um." She came nearer to the door again, the gossiping passion of +her class stronger than her fear, now that the earlier restraint of his +presence was wearing off. "It's the only thing we ever had a 'arsh word +about. It's all right and well for them that make a living at it, but +many and many a time my 'usband's lost 'alf a day two and three times a +week to sit in the Distingwidged Strangers' Gallery. You mightn't 'ardly +think it, sir, but he was hand and foot with some of the biggest men +there are; he was indeed."</p> + +<p>Hampden was looking at her curiously. He read into her "'arsh word" the +ceaseless clatter of her nagging, shameless tongue when the old man +brought home a few shillings less than he was wont; the aftermath of +sullen silence, the unprepared meals and neglected home. He pictured him +a patient, long-suffering old man, and pitied him. And now she took +pride and boasted of the very things that she had upbraided him with.</p> + +<p>"Vickers he knew," she continued complacently, "and Drugget. He's shaken +hands with Mr Strummery, the Prime Minister, more than onest. Then +Tubes—you've heard speak of him?—he found Mr Tubes a very pleasant +gentleman. Oh, and a lot more I can't remember."</p> + +<p>Hampden disengaged himself from further conversation with a single +formal sentence, and returned to his vigil. There he was secure from her +callous chatter. He saw the renewed look of terror start into her eyes +when a board behind her creaked as the door was closing. He heard the +startled shriek, but her squalid avarice cut off his sympathies. He sat +down again and looked round at the already familiar objects in the room. +The form lying on the bed had not changed a fraction of its rigid +outline; but he missed something somewhere in the room, and for a minute +he could not identify it. Then he remembered the ticking of the +death-watch. It had ceased. He looked at his watch; it was not yet nine +o'clock.</p> + +<p>He had not been back more than ten minutes when the subdued tapping—it +was rather a timid scrape, as though she feared that a louder summons +might call another forth—was repeated.</p> + +<p>"I don't see that it's no good my staying here," she gasped. "I've been +sitting there till the furniture fair began to move towards me, and +every bloomin' rag about the place had a face in it. It's giving me the +fair horrors."</p> + +<p>He could not ignore her half-frenzied state. "What do you want to do?" +he asked.</p> + +<p>"I want to go out for a bit," she replied, licking her thin feline lips. +"You don't know what it's like. I want to hear real people talk and not +see things move. I'll come back soon; before Gord, I will."</p> + +<p>"Yes, <i>how</i> will you came back?"</p> + +<p>"I won't. May it strike me dead if I touch a drop. I'll go straight into +Mrs Rugg's across the street, and she's almost what you might call a +teetotaler."</p> + +<p>"The man you call your husband is dying in there, and he may need your +help at any minute," he said sternly. It needed no gift of divination to +prophesy that if the woman once left the place she would be hopelessly +drunk before an hour had passed. "Don't sit down doing nothing but +imagining things," he continued. "Make yourself some tea, and then when +one of your friends comes round to see you, you can let her stay. But +only one, mind."</p> + +<p>He saw the more sullen of her looks settle darkly about her face as he +closed the door. He waited to hear the sound of the kettle being moved, +the tea-cup clinking, but they never came. An unnatural, uncreaking +silence reigned instead. He opened the door quietly and looked out. That +room was empty, and, as he stood there, a current of cooler air fell +across his cheek. Half a dozen steps brought him to the entrance to the +little hall—the only other room there was. It also was empty, and the +front door stood widely open. There was only one possible inference: +"Mrs Flak" had fled.</p> + +<p>Sir John had confessed to possessing nerves, and to few men the +situation would have been an inviting one. Still, there was only one +possible thing to do, and he closed the door again, noticing, as he did +so, that the action locked it. As he stood there a moment before +returning to the bedroom and its tranquil occupant lying in his rigid, +unbreathing sleep, a slight but continuous sound caught his ear. It was +the most closely comparable (to attempt to define it) with the whirring +of a clock as the flying pinion is released before it strikes. Or it +might be that the doctor's simile prompted the comparison. It was not +loud, but the room beyond seemed very, very still.</p> + +<p>It was not a time to temporise with the emotions. Hampden stepped into +the next room and stood listening. He judged—nay, he was sure—that the +sound came from the bedroom, but it was not repeated. Instead, something +very different happened, something that was either terrifying or +natural, according to the conditions that provoked it. Quite without +warning there came a voice from the next room, a full, level, healthy +voice, even strong, and speaking in the ordinary manner of conversation.</p> + +<p>"Will you please tell Mr Tubes that I am waiting here to see him?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>MAN BETWEEN TWO MASTERS</h3> + + +<p>There was something in the situation that was more than gruesome, +something that was peculiarly unnerving.</p> + +<p>In his anticipation of this moment as he had sat almost by the bedside, +Hampden had conjectured that the dying man would perhaps lift a hand or +move his head uneasily with the first instinct of returning +consciousness. A sigh, a groan, might escape him, incoherent words +follow, then broken but rational expressions of his suffering, and +entreaties that something might be done to ease the pain. Or perhaps, +after realising his position, he would nerve himself to betray no +unmanly weakness, and, in the words of the significant old phrase, +"turning his face to the wall," endure in stoical silence to the end. It +would be painful, perhaps acutely distressing, but it would not be +unnatural.</p> + +<p>There had been no groan, no sigh or broken words, no indication of +weakness or suffering behind that half-closed door, nothing but the +curious clock-like sound that had gone before the voice. And that voice! +It was as full and strong, as vibrant and as ordinary as his own could +ever be. Standing in the middle of the living-room Sir John could not +deceive himself. It came from the other room where a minute before he +had left the dying—yes, the almost dead—man lying with stark outline +on the bed. There was no alternative: it was from those pallid lips that +the words had come, it was by that still, inanimate man that they were +spoken.</p> + +<p>The suddenness of the whole incident was shocking in itself, but that +was not all; the mere contrast to what he had looked for was +disconcerting, but there was something more; the curious unexpected +nature of the request, if request it was, was not without its element of +mystery, but above and beyond all else was the thought—the thought that +for a dreadful moment held his heart and soul in icy bonds—what sight +when he returned to the inner room, as return at once he must, what +gruesome sight would meet his eyes?</p> + +<p>What phantoms his misgivings raised, every man may conjecture for +himself. Follow, then, another step in imagination, and having given a +somewhat free and ghastly fancy rein, push the chamber door cautiously +and inch by inch, or fling it boldly open as you will; then pause upon +the threshold, as Hampden did, in sharp surprise.</p> + +<p>Nothing was altered, no single detail had undergone the slightest +change! On the bed, rigid and very sharp beneath the single unclean +sheet, lay the body of the mangled man. Not a fold of his shroud-like +wrapping differed from its former line, it did not seem possible that a +breath had stirred him.</p> + +<p>Had the voice been a trick of the imagination? Hampden knew, as far as +mortal man can be sure of any mortal sense, that the voice had been as +real as his life itself. Then——? It occurred to him in a flash: here +was the stage of under-consciousness of which Dr Stone had spoken. Of +his pain, the accident, where he at that moment lay, and all his real +surroundings, the sufferer knew nothing, and never would know. But out +of the shock and shattering, some of the delicate machinery of the brain +still kept its balance, and would continue to exercise its functions to +the end.</p> + +<p>It was an ordeal, but it had to be done. It was the purpose for which he +had been summoned. Sir John moved to the bedside, nerved himself to +watch the ashen face, and said slowly and distinctly: "Mr Tubes is not +here. Do you wish to see him?"</p> + +<p>There was just a perceptible pause, and then the bloodless lips replied. +But not the faintest tremor of a movement stirred the body otherwise +from head to foot, and in the chilling absence of expression the simile +occurred to Hampden of bubbles rising from some unseen working to the +surface of an inky pool.</p> + +<p>"I have come on purpose. Let him be told that it is most important."</p> + +<p>Hampden had to feel his way. The woman had mentioned that Flak was at +least on terms of acquaintanceship with Mr Tubes. The doctor had +surmised that the man had something he must say before he died. But was +this the one true line, or a mere vagary of the sub-conscious state—a +twist in the tortuous labyrinth that would lead to nothing?</p> + +<p>"He is not here at present," he said. "If you will tell me what you wish +to say I will write it down, so that it cannot fail to reach him."</p> + +<p>"No. I cannot tell any one else. I must see him."</p> + +<p>"Mr Tubes is a very busy man. You know that he is the Home Secretary. Is +it of sufficient importance to telegraph for him?"</p> + +<p>This time the answer followed on his last word with startling rapidity. +Until the last phase that was the only variation in the delivery of the +sentences—that sometimes there was a pause as though the working of the +mind had to make a revolution before it reached the point of the mental +clutch, at others it dropped into its gear at once.</p> + +<p>"It is important enough to send a coach and four for him," was the +reply.</p> + +<p>Hampden might not be convinced of this but he was satisfied of one +thing: the coherence of idea was being regularly maintained. How long +would it last? It occurred to him to put the question.</p> + +<p>"I shall have to go out either to send the telegram myself or to find +some one who will take it," he explained. "Until Mr Tubes comes or sends +his reply will you <i>remain here</i>?"</p> + +<p>It was rather eerie to be holding conversation with the fragment of a +man's brain with the man himself for all practical purposes eliminated. +But he seemed to have arrived at a practical understanding with the +centre of sub-consciousness.</p> + +<p>"I will remain," was the unhesitating reply, and Hampden felt assured +that the line would not be lost.</p> + +<p>He had not definitely settled in his mind what to do when he opened the +door leading on to the common stairs. A small child who had been +loitering outside in a crouching position staggered back in momentary +alarm at his sudden appearance. It was a ragged girl, perhaps ten or +twelve years old, with cruelly unwieldy boots upon her stockingless +feet, matted hair, and a precocious face full of unchildish knowledge. +The inference that she had been applying either an eye or an ear to the +keyhole was overwhelming.</p> + +<p>Her fear—it was only the slum child's instinct of flight—died out when +she saw the gentleman. Toffs (so ran her experience) do not hit you for +nothing.</p> + +<p>"Ee's in there yet, ain't ee?" she whispered, coming back boldly and +looking up confidentially to his face. "I 'eard yer talking, but I +couldn't tell what yer said. 'Ow long d'yer think 'e'll last?"</p> + +<p>Sir John looked down at the child, the child who had never been young, +in shuddering pity.</p> + +<p>"It was me what picked 'is 'at up, but they wouldn't let me go in," she +continued, as though the fact gave her a standing in the case. "Did yer +see it in there?" She looked proudly at her right hand with horrid +significance.</p> + +<p>"Come in here," he said, after considering. "Can you run an errand?"</p> + +<p>Her face reflected gloating eagerness as she entered, her attitude had +just a tinge of pleasurable awe. He did not permit her to go further +than the hall.</p> + +<p>"Is it to do with 'im?" she asked keenly. "Yehs!"</p> + +<p>"It is to go to the post office in Fleet Street," he explained. "You +must go as fast as ever you can."</p> + +<p>"I can go anywhere as well as any boy, and as fast if I take my boots +off. When that there Italian knifed her man—him what took up with Shiny +Sal—in the Lane a year ago, it was me what fetched the police."</p> + +<p>He left her standing there—her face to the chink of the door before he +had turned away—and went into the next room to write the message. He +desired to make it neither too insistent nor too immaterial. "John Flak, +of 45 Paradise Buildings, Paradise Street, Drury Lane, has met with +fatal accident, and earnestly desires to see you on important business," +was the form it took. He had sufficient stamps in his pocket for the +payment, and to these he added another for a receipt.</p> + +<p>"You can read?" he asked, returning to her.</p> + +<p>"Yehs!" she replied with her curious accent of lofty scorn at so +ingenuous a question. "I read all the murders and sewercides to Blind +Mike every Sunday morning."</p> + +<p>"Well, go as fast as you can to the post office in Fleet Street, and +give them this paper where you see 'Telegrams' written up. Then wait for +another piece of paper which they will give you, and bring it back to +me. Here is sixpence for you now, and you shall have another shilling +when you come back." He was making it more profitable for her to be +honest than to be dishonest, which is perhaps the safest way in an +emergency.</p> + +<p>It was nearly ten o'clock when he looked at his watch on her departure; +it was not ten minutes past when she returned. She was panting but +exultant, and watched his face for commendation as she gave him the +receipt, as a probationary imp might watch the face of the Prince of +Darkness on bringing in his first human soul. One boot she had dropped +in her wild career, but so far from stopping to look for it, she had +thrown away the other then as useless.</p> + +<p>Leaving the ghoul-child seated on the coal to thrill delightfully at +every unknown sound, Hampden returned to the bedside. Much of the first, +the absolutely cold horror of the situation, was gone. He judged it +better not to allow too long an interval of silence in which that dim +consciousness might slip back into the outer space of trackless +darkness. Now that he knew what to expect it was not very unlike +speaking to one who slept and held converse in his sleep.</p> + +<p>"I have sent for Mr Tubes, but, making due allowance, he can scarcely +get here in less than an hour," he said. "If in the meantime there is +anything that you wish to tell me, to make doubly sure, it will be +received as a most sacred confidence."</p> + +<p>There was a longer pause than any before, so long that the watcher by +the bedside was preparing to speak again; then the lips slowly opened, +and the same full, substantial voice made reply.</p> + +<p>"I will wait. But he must be quick—quick!"</p> + +<p>The words seemed to disclose a fear, but there was no outward sign of +failing power. Hampden ventured on another point.</p> + +<p>"Are you in pain?" he asked.</p> + +<p>The reply came more quickly this time, and, perhaps because he was +looking for some such indication, the listener fancied that he caught +the faintest stumbling, a little blurring of the outline here and there.</p> + +<p>"No, I am in no pain. But I have a terrible anxiety that weighs me +down."</p> + +<p>There was nothing to be gained by further questioning. Sir John returned +to the other room. The fire was low and the grate choked with ashes; he +had begun to replenish it when a curious sound startled him. He only +heard it between the raspings of the poker as he raked the ashes out, +but it was not to be mistaken. It was the sharp, dry, clock-like +whirring that had been the first indication of life and speech beyond +the bedroom door more than an hour before.</p> + +<p>A board creaked behind him, and he turned with an exclamation to see the +dreadful child standing in the middle of the room. Barefooted, she had +slipped noiselessly in from the hall at the first tremor of that unusual +sound, and now, with her dilated eyes fixed fearfully on the door, her +shrinking form bent forward, she slowly crept nearer step by step. Her +face quivered with terror, her whole body shook, but she went on as +surely as though a magnet drew her.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing?" cried Hampden sharply. "Why did you not stay where +I told you?"</p> + +<p>She turned her face, but not her eyes, towards him. "Yer heard it, +didn't yer?" she whispered. "Ain't that what they call the death-rattle +what comes?"</p> + +<p>He took her by the shoulder and swung her impatiently round. "Go back, +you imp," he commanded. "Back and stay there, or you shall go out."</p> + +<p>She crept back, looking fearfully over her shoulder all the way. +Something else was happening to engage Hampden's attention. In the next +room the man was speaking, speaking spontaneously, as he had done once +before, but beyond all doubt the voice was weaker now. The momentary +interruption of the child's presence had drowned the first part of the +sentence, but Hampden caught a word that strung up every faculty he +possessed—"League."</p> + +<p>"——League will then suddenly issue a notice to all its members, +putting an embargo—a boycott, if you will—on——"</p> + +<p>The voice trailed off, and, although he sprang to the door, Sir John +could not distinguish another word. But that fragment alone was +sufficiently startling. To the President of the Unity League it could +only have one meaning; for it was true! Some—how much?—of their plan +lay open. And to how many was it known? The terrible anxiety of this +poor, battered wreck, unconsciously loyal to his class in death, to give +the warning before he passed away, seemed to indicate that nothing but +the frayed thread of one existence stood in the League's path yet.</p> + +<p>Was there anything to be done? That was Hampden's first thought. There +was plainly one thing: to learn, if possible, before Mr Tubes's arrival, +how much was known.</p> + +<p>Nothing was changed; only the death-watch ticked again. He leaned over +the bed in his eagerness, and, stilling the throbbing excitement of his +blood, tried to speak in a tone of commonplace indifference.</p> + +<p>"Yes, continue."</p> + +<p>There was no response.</p> + +<p>"Repeat the sentence," he commanded, concentrating his voice in his +desperation, and endeavouring by mere force of will to impose its +authority on the indefinite consciousness.</p> + +<p>Just as well might he have commanded the man to get up and walk.</p> + +<p>Had that last elusive thread that held him to mortality been broken? +Hampden bent still lower. The pallid face was no more pallid than +before, but before it could scarcely have been more death-like. The +acutest test could not have found a trace of breath. He put together the +gradual failing of the voice that little more than an hour ago had been +as full and vigorous as his own, the unfinished sentence, the +silence——</p> + +<p>Suddenly he straightened himself by the bedside with a sense of guilt +that struck him like a blow. What was he thinking—hoping? Who was +he—Sir John Hampden, President of the Unity League? Not in that room! +The man who watched by the bedside stood there even as the humblest +servant of the Order of St. Martin, pledged while in that service to +succour in "trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity."</p> + +<p>It did not occur to him to debate the point. His way seemed very +straight and clear. His plain duty to the dying man was to try by every +means in his power to carry out his one overwhelming desire. Its +successful accomplishment might aim a more formidable blow at his own +ambition than almost anything else that could happen. It could not ward +off the attack upon which the League was now concentrating—nothing +could do that—but an intimate knowledge of the details of that scheme +of retaliation might act in a hundred adverse ways. Hampden did not stop +to consider what might happen on the one side and on the other. A +thousand years of argument and sophistries could not alter the one great +fact of his present duty. He had a very simple conscience, and he +followed it.</p> + +<p>If he could have speeded Mr Tubes's arrival he would have done so now. +He went into the hall to listen. The street child was still there, +sitting on the coal, as sharp-eyed and wakefully alert as ever. He had +forgotten her.</p> + +<p>"Come, little imp," he said kindly, "I ought to have packed you off long +ago." It was, in point of fact, nearly eleven o'clock.</p> + +<p>"Ain't doin' no aharm to the coal," she muttered.</p> + +<p>"That's not the question. You ought to have been at home and in bed by +this time of night."</p> + +<p>She looked up at him sharply with a suspicion that such innocence in a +grown-up man could not be unassumed.</p> + +<p>"Ain't got no bed," she said contemptuously. "Ain't got no 'ome."</p> + +<p>A sentence rang through his mind: "The birds of the air have nests."</p> + +<p>"Where do you sleep?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Anywhere," she replied.</p> + +<p>"And how do you live?"</p> + +<p>"Anyhow."</p> + +<p>The lowest depths of human poverty had not been abolished by Act of +Parliament after all.</p> + +<p>A knock at the door interrupted the reflection. The child had already +heard the step and sought to efface herself in the darkest corner.</p> + +<p>Hampden had not noticed the significance of the knock. He opened the +door, prepared to admit the Home Secretary. So thoroughly had he +dissociated his own personality from the issue, that he felt the keenest +interest that the man should arrive before it was too late. He opened +the door to admit him, and experienced an actual pang of disappointment +when he saw who stood outside.</p> + +<p>He had sent a telegram instead. Whatever the telegram said did not +matter very much. Hampden instinctively guessed that he was not coming +then—was not on his way. Anything less than that would be too late.</p> + +<p>He took the orange envelope and opened it beneath the flaring gas that +piped and whistled at the stairhead.</p> + +<p>"There is no reply," he said quietly, folding the paper slowly and +putting it away in his pocket-book. Were it not that the gain to Hampden +of the League was so immense one might have thought, to see him at that +moment, that he felt ashamed of something in life.</p> + +<p>Members of Parliament had every department of the postal system freely +at their service. The statement may not be out of place, for this was +what the telegram contained:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Deeply regret to hear of Comrade Flak's accident, and will +have it fully enquired into. Was it while he was engaged at +work? Cannot, however, recall any business upon which he could +wish to see me. Probably a mental hallucination caused by +shock. Have been terribly busy all day, and am engaged at this +moment with important State papers which <i>must</i> be finished +before I go to bed. If it is thought desirable I will, on +receiving another wire, come first thing in the morning, but +before deciding to take this course I beg you to consider +incessant calls made on my time. Let everything possible be +done for the poor fellow.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">James Tubes.</span>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>The burden of failure pressed on Hampden as he walked slowly to the +bedroom. In that environment of death his own gain did not touch him at +all, so completely had he succeeded in eliminating for the time every +consideration except an almost fanatical sense of duty to the articles +of the Order. It would be better, he felt, if the shadowy consciousness +that hovered around the bed could have sunk finally into its eternal +sleep, without suffering the pang of being recalled only to hear <i>this</i>, +but something in the atmosphere of the room, a brooding tension of +expectancy that seemed to quicken in the silence, warned him that this +was not to be.</p> + +<p>"A reply has been received from Mr Tubes in answer to our telegram."</p> + +<p>"He is here?" There was no delay this time; there was an intense +eagerness that for a brief minute overcame the growing weakness.</p> + +<p>"No. He cannot come. He regrets, but he is engaged on matters of +national importance."</p> + +<p>Silence. Painful silence. In it Hampden seemed to share the cruel +frustration of so great a hope deferred.</p> + +<p>"There is this," he continued, more for the sake of making any +suggestion than from a belief in its practicability; "I might go and +compel him to come. If he understood the urgency——"</p> + +<p>"It is too late.... A little time ago there was a thin white mist; now +it is a solid wall of dense rolling fog. It is nearer—relentless, +unevadable...."</p> + +<p>"I can still write down what you have to say. Consider, it is the only +hope."</p> + +<p>"I cannot judge.... I had a settled conviction that no other ear.... +Stay, quick; there are the notes! Incomplete, but they will put him on +the track.... Swear, swear that you will place them in his hand unread."</p> + +<p>"I swear to do as you ask me. Go on quickly."</p> + +<p>"To-night, now. Do not ... do not let ... do not wait...."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. But the notes? Where are they? How am I to know them?" The +voice was growing very thin and faltering, weaker with every word. The +disappointment had sapped all its failing strength at a single blow.</p> + +<p>"The notes ... yes. You will explain.... The black wall ... how it +towers!..." He was whispering inaudibly.</p> + +<p>Hampden leaned over the dying man in a final effort.</p> + +<p>"Flak!" he cried, "the notes on the Unity League! Where are they? +Speak!"</p> + +<p>"The envelope"—he caught a breath of sound—"... coat lining.... <i>I +must go</i>!"</p> + +<p>Twenty minutes later Sir John picked up his motor brougham in New Oxford +Street. He had telephoned immediately on leaving Paradise Buildings for +it to start out at once and wait for him near Mudie's corner. In +Paradise Street he had seen a bacchanalian group surrounding "Mrs Flak," +high priestess, who chanted a song in praise of home and the domestic +virtues. It was at this point that he missed the ghoul-child from his +side.</p> + +<p>A south-east wind was carrying the midnight boom of the great clock at +Westminster as far as Kilburn when he turned out of the High Road, and +the little clocks around had taken up the chorus, like small dogs +envious of the baying of a hound, as he stopped before the Home +Secretary's house.</p> + +<p>There was a light still burning in a room on the ground floor, and it +was Mr Tubes himself who came to the door.</p> + +<p>"I have to place in your hands an envelope of papers entrusted to me by +a man called Flak who died in Paradise Street an hour ago," said +Hampden, and with the act he brought his night of duty as a faithful +servant of his Order to an end.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's you," said Mr Tubes, peering out into the darkness. "I had a +wire about it. So the poor man is dead?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," replied Hampden a shade drily. "The poor man is dead."</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes fancied that he saw the lamps of a cab beyond his garden gate, +and he wondered whether he was being expected to offer to pay the fare.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's very good of you to take the trouble, though, between +ourselves, I hardly imagine that the papers are likely to be of any +importance," he remarked. "Now may I ask who I am indebted to?"</p> + +<p>Hampden had already turned to go. He recognised that in the strife which +he was about to precipitate, the man who stood there would be his +natural antagonist, and he regretted that he could not find it in his +nature to like him any better than he did.</p> + +<p>"What I have done, I have done as a servant of the Order of St Martin," +he replied. "What I am about to do," he added, "I shall do as Sir John +Hampden."</p> + +<p>And leaving Mr Tubes standing on the doorstep in vast surprise, the +electric carriage turned its head-lights to the south again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>BY TELESCRIBE</h3> + + +<p>What Sir John Hampden was "about to do" he had decided in the course of +the outward journey.</p> + +<p>There was nothing in his actions, past or prospective, that struck him +as illogical. He would have said, indeed, that they were the only +possible outcome of the circumstance.</p> + +<p>For the last four hours, as the nameless emissary of the Order to whose +discipline he bound himself, he had merged every other feeling in his +duty to the dying man and in the fulfilment of a death-bed charge.</p> + +<p>That was over; now, as the President of the Unity</p> + +<p>League, he was on his way to try by every means in his power to minimise +the effect of what he had done; to anticipate and counteract the value +of the warning he had so scrupulously conveyed.</p> + +<p>It was a fantastic predicament. He had sat for perhaps half an hour with +the unsealed envelope in his pocket, and no eye had been upon him. He +had declared passionately, year after year, that class and class were +now at war, that the time for courteous retaliation was long since past, +that social martial law had been proclaimed. Yet as he drove back to +Trafalgar Chambers he would have given a considerable sum of money—the +League being not ill provided, say fifty thousand pounds—to know the +extent of those notes.</p> + +<p>When he reached the offices it was almost half-past twelve. Salt would +be flying northward as fast as steam could take him, and for the next +two hours at least, cut off from the possibility of any communication. +The burden of decision lay on Hampden alone.</p> + +<p>He had already made it. Within an hour he would have pledged the League +to a line of policy from which there was no retreat. Before another day +had passed the Government could recall the little band of secret service +agents and consign their reports to the wastepaper basket. Every one +would know everything. Everything? He smiled until the remembrance of +that cheap frayed envelope in Mr Tubes's possession drove the smile +away.</p> + +<p>Next to his own office stood the instrument room. Here, behind double +doors that deadened every sound, were ranged the telephones, the tape +machines, the Fessenden-d'Arco installation, and that most modern +development of wireless telegraphy which had come just in time to save +the over-burdened postal system from chronic congestion, the telescribe.</p> + +<p>Hampden had not appeared to move hurriedly, but it was just seventeen +seconds after he had sent his brougham roving eastward that he stood +before the telephone.</p> + +<p>"1432 St Paul's, please."</p> + +<p>There was a sound as of rushing water and crackling underwood. Then the +wire seemed to clear itself like a swimmer rising from the sea, and a +quiet, far-away voice was whispering in his ear: "Yes, I'm Lidiat."</p> + +<p>"I am at Trafalgar Chambers," said Hampden, after giving his name. "I +want you to drop <i>anything</i> you are on and come here. If my motor is not +waiting for you at the corner of Chancery Lane, you will meet it along +the Strand."</p> + +<p>At the other end of the wire, Lidiat—the man who possessed the sixth +code typewriter—looked rather blankly at his pipe, at the little silver +carriage clock ticking on the mantelpiece, at the fluted white-ware +coffee set, and at his crowded desk. Then, concluding that if the +President of the Unity League sent a message of that kind after midnight +and immediately rang off again he must have a good reason for it, he +locked up his room as it stood, took up a few articles promiscuously +from the rack in the hall, and walked out under the antique archway into +Fleet Street.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the Exchange was being urged to make another attempt to +get on with "2743 Vincent," this time with success.</p> + +<p>"Mr Salt is not 'ere, I repeat, sir," an indignant voice was protesting. +"He is out of town."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, Dobson, I know," replied "St James's." "I am Sir John +Hampden. What train did your master go by?"</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, sir," apologised "Vincent." "Didn't recognise your voice at +first, Sir John. The wires here is 'issing 'orrible to-night. He went by +the 10 o'clock from the Great Central, and told me to meet the 10.40 +Midland to-morrow morning."</p> + +<p>"He did actually go by the 10 train?"</p> + +<p>"I 'anded him the despatch case through the carriage window not five +minutes before the whistle went. He was sitting with his——"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Dobson. That's all I wanted to know. Sorry if you had to get +up. Good night," and Sir John cut off a volume of amiable verbosity as +he heard the bell of his Launceston ring in the street below.</p> + +<p>"Fellow watching your place," said Lidiat, jerking his head in the +direction of a doorway nearly opposite, as Hampden admitted him. Had he +himself been the object of the watcher's attention it would have been +less remarkable, for had not the time and the place been London after +midnight, Lidiat's appearance must have been pronounced bizarre. +Reasonable enough on all other points he had a fixed conviction that it +was impossible for him to work after twelve o'clock at night unless he +wore a red silk skull cap, flannels, and yellow Moorish slippers. Into +this æsthetic costume he had changed half an hour before Hampden rang +him up, and in it, with the addition of a very short overcoat and a silk +hat that displayed an inch of red beneath the brim, he now stepped from +the brougham, a large, bovine-looking man, perfectly bald, and still +clinging to his pipe.</p> + +<p>Hampden laughed contemptuously as he glanced across the street.</p> + +<p>"They have put on half a dozen private enquiry men lately," he +explained. "They are used to divorce, and their sole idea of the case +seems to be summed up in the one stock phrase, 'watching the house.' +Possibly they expect to see us through the windows, making bombs. Why +don't they watch Paris instead? Egyptian Three Per Cents. have gone up +75 francs in the last fortnight, all from there, and for no obvious +reason."</p> + +<p>Lidiat nodded weightily. "We stopped too much comment," he said. "Lift +off?"</p> + +<p>"There are only two short flights," apologised Hampden. "Yes; I saw that +even the financial papers dismissed it as a 'Pied Piper rise.' Here we +are."</p> + +<p>They had not lingered as they talked, although the journalist ranked +physical haste and bodily exertion—as typified by flights of +stairs—among the forbidden things of life.</p> + +<p>Hampden had brought him to the instrument room. In view of what he was +asking of Lidiat, some explanation was necessary, but he put it into the +narrowest possible form. It was framed not on persuasiveness but +necessity.</p> + +<p>"Salt is away, something has happened, and we have to move a week before +we had calculated."</p> + +<p>Lidiat nodded. He accepted the necessity as proved; explanation would +have taken time. His training and occupation made him chary of +encouraging two words when one would do, between midnight and the hour +when the newspapers are "closed up" and the rotaries begin to move.</p> + +<p>"I should like," continued Hampden, "in to-day's issue of every morning +paper a leader, two six-inch items of news, one home one foreign, and a +single column six-inch advertisement set in the middle of a full white +page."</p> + +<p>Lidiat had taken off his hat and overcoat and placed them neatly on a +chair. It occurred to him as a fair omen that Providence had dealt +kindly with him in not giving him any opportunity of changing his +clothes. He now took out his watch and hung it on a projecting stud of +the telephone box.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and the minimum?" He did not think, as a lesser man with equal +knowledge of Fleet Street might have done, that Hampden had gone mad. He +knew that conventionally such a programme was impossible, but he had +known of impossible things being done, and in any case he understood by +the emphasis that this was what Hampden would have done under freer +circumstances.</p> + +<p>"That is what I leave to you. The paragraphs and comment at some length +I shall look for. The provinces are out of the question, I suppose? The +eight leading London dailies <i>must</i> be dealt with."</p> + +<p>"You give me <i>carte blanche</i>, of course—financially?"</p> + +<p>"Absolutely, absolutely. Guarantee everything to them. Let them arrange +for special trains at all the termini. Let them take over all the +garages, motor companies, and cab yards in London as going concerns for +twelve hours. They will all be in it except <i>The Tocsin</i> and <i>The +Masses</i>. We can deal with the distributing houses later. You see the +three points? It is the patriotic thing to do at any cost; they can have +anything they like to make up time; and it is absolutely essential."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Lidiat; "and the matter?"</p> + +<p>Hampden had already taken a pencilled sheet of paper from his pocket. He +had written it on his way up to Kilburn. He now handed it to the +journalist.</p> + +<p>"Between four and five o'clock that will be telescribed over the entire +system," he explained. "Those who are not on the call will see it in the +papers or hear from others. Every one will know before to-night."</p> + +<p>He watched Lidiat sharply as he read the statement. Apart from the two +principals, he was the first man in England to receive the confidence, +and Sir John had a curiosity, not wholly idle, to see how it would +strike him. But Lidiat was not, to use an obsolete phrase, "the man in +the street." He absorbed the essence of the manifesto with a trained, +practical grasp, and then held out his hand for the other paper, while +his large, glabrous face remained merely vacant in its expression.</p> + +<p>The next paper was a foreign telegram in cipher, and as Lidiat read the +decoded version that was pinned to it, the baronet saw, or fancied that +he saw, the flicker of a keener light come into his eyes and such a +transient wave across his face, as might, in a man of impulse, indicate +enthusiasm or appreciation.</p> + +<p>"Are there to be any more of these—presently?" was all he said.</p> + +<p>"I think that I might authorise you to say that there will be others to +publish, as the moment seems most propitious."</p> + +<p>"Very good. I will use the instruments now."</p> + +<p>"There is one more point," said Hampden, writing a few short lines on a +slip of paper, "that it might be desirable to make public now."</p> + +<p>Lidiat took the paper. This was what he read:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<i>You are at liberty to state definitely that the membership of +the Unity League now exceeds five million persons.</i>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>There was a plentiful crop of grey hairs sown between Charing Cross and +Ludgate Hill in the early hours of that summer morning. With his mouth +to the telephone, Lidiat stirred up the purlieus of Fleet Street and the +Strand until office after office, composing room after composing room, +and foundry after foundry, all along the line, began to drone and hum +resentfully, like an outraged apiary in the dead of night. When he once +took up the wire he never put it down again until he had swept the +"London Dailies: Morning" section of Sell and Mitchell from beginning to +end. Those who wished to retort and temporise after he had done with +them, had to fall back upon the telescribe—which involved the +disadvantage to Fleet Street of having to write and coldly transmit the +indignant messages that it would fain pour hot and blistering into its +tormentor's ear. For two hours and a half by the watch beneath his eye +he harrowed up all the most cherished journalistic traditions of the +land, and from a small, box-like room a mile away, he controlled the +reins of the Fourth Estate of an Empire—a large, fat, perspiring man of +persuasive authority, and conscious of unlimited capital at his back.</p> + +<p>By the end of that time chaos had given place to order. <i>The Scythe</i> had +shown an amenable disposition with a readiness suggesting that it +possibly knew more than it had told in the past. <i>The Ensign</i> was won +over by persuasion and the condition of the Navy, and <i>The Mailed Fist</i> +was clubbed and bullied and cajoled with big names until it was dazed. +For seven minutes Lidiat poured patriotism into the ear of <i>The +Beacon's</i> editor, and gold into the coffers of <i>The Beacon's</i> manager, +and then turned aside to win over <i>The Daily News-Letter</i> by telling it +what <i>The Daily Chronicler</i> was doing, and the <i>Chronicler</i> by reporting +the <i>News-Letter's</i> acquiescence. <i>The Morning Post Card</i> remained +obdurate for half an hour, and only capitulated after driving down and +having an interview with Hampden. <i>The Great Daily</i>—well, for more than +a year <i>The Great Daily</i> had been the property and organ of the League, +only no one had suspected it. The little <i>Illustrated Hour</i>, beset by +the difficulty of half-tone blocks, and frantic at the thought of having +to recast its plates and engage in the mysteries of "making ready" again +after half its edition had been run off, was the last to submit. So long +was it in making up its mind, that at last Lidiat sarcastically proposed +an inset, and, taking the suggestion in all good faith, the <i>Illustrated +Hour</i> startled its sober patrons by bearing on its outside page a gummed +leaflet containing a leaderette and two news paragraphs.</p> + +<p>So the list spun out. Lidiat did not touch the provinces, but sixteen +London dailies, including some sporting and financial organs, marked the +thoroughness of his work. At half-past three he finally hung up the +receiver; and taking the brougham, rode like another Wellington over the +field of his still palpitating Waterloo. His appearance, bovine and +imperturbable despite the shameful incongruity of his garb when revealed +in the tremulous and romantic dawn of a day and of an epoch, and further +set off by the unimpeachable correctness of the equipage from which he +alighted, was a thing that rankled in the minds of lingering compositors +and commissionaires until their dying days.</p> + +<p>A few minutes after his departure Hampden returned to the telephone and +desired to make the curious connection "1 Telescribe."</p> + +<p>"Who is there?" he asked, when "1 Telescribe" responded.</p> + +<p>The man at the other end explained that he was a clerk on the main +platform of "1 Telescribe"—name of Firkin, if the fact was of +Metropolitan interest.</p> + +<p>"Is Mr Woodbarrow there yet?"</p> + +<p>It appeared, with increased respect, that Mr Woodbarrow was in his own +office and could be informed of the gentleman's name.</p> + +<p>"Please tell him that Sir John Hampden wishes to speak with him."</p> + +<p>In two minutes another voice filtered through the wire, a voice which +Hampden recognised.</p> + +<p>"What are you running with now, Mr Woodbarrow?" he asked, when brief +courtesies had been exchanged.</p> + +<p>Mr Woodbarrow made an enquiry, and was able to report that a 5 H.P. +Tangye was supplying all the power they needed at that hour. Nothing was +coming through, he explained, except a few press messages from America, +a little business from Australia, and some early morning news from +China.</p> + +<p>"I should be obliged if you would put on the two Westinghouses as soon +as you can, and then let me know when you can clear the trunk lines for +a minute. Within the next hour I want to send an 'open board' message."</p> + +<p>There was no response to this matter-of-fact request for an appreciable +five seconds, but if ever silence through a telephone receiver conveyed +an impression of blank amazement at the other end, it was achieved at +that moment.</p> + +<p>"Do I rightly understand, Sir John," enquired Mr Woodbarrow at the end +of those five seconds, "that you wish to repeat a message over the +entire system?"</p> + +<p>"That is quite correct."</p> + +<p>"It will constitute a record."</p> + +<p>"An interesting occasion, then."</p> + +<p>"Have you calculated the fees, Sir John?"</p> + +<p>"No, I have not had the time. You will let me know when the power is +up?"</p> + +<p>Mr Woodbarrow, only just beginning to realise fully the magnitude of the +occasion and tingling with anticipation, promised to act with all +possible speed, and going to his own room Sir John took up an agate pen +and proceeded to write with special ink on prepared paper this +encyclical despatch.</p> + +<p>A library of books had been written on the subject of the telescribe +within two years of its advent, but a general description may be +outlined untechnically in a page or two. It was, for the moment, the +last word of wireless telegraphy. It was efficient, it was speedy, it +was cheap, and it transmitted in facsimile. It had passed the stage of +being wondered at and had reached that of being used. It was universal. +It was universal, that is, not in the sense that tongues are universally +in heads, for instance, but, to search for a parallel, as universal as +letter-boxes are now on doors, book-cases in houses, or cuffs around +men's wrists. There were, in point of number, about three millions on +the index book.</p> + +<p>It was speedy because there was no call required, no intervention of a +connecting office to wait for. That was purely automatic. Above the +telescribe box in one's hall, study, or sitting-room, was a wooden panel +studded with eight rows of small brass knobs, sixteen knobs in each row. +These could be depressed or raised after the manner of an electric light +stud, and a similar effect was produced: a connection was thereby made.</p> + +<p>All the country—England and Wales—was mapped out into sixteen primary +divisions, oblong districts of equal size. The top row of brass knobs +corresponded with these divisions, and by pulling down any knob the +operator was automatically put into communication with that part of the +system, through the medium of the huge central station that reared its +trellised form, like an Eiffel Tower, above the hill at Harrow, and the +subsidiary stations which stood each in the middle of its division.</p> + +<p>The second stage was reached by subdividing each primary division into +sixteen oblong districts, and with these the second row of knobs +corresponded. Six more times the subdividing process was repeated, and +each subdivision had its corresponding row. The final division +represented plots of ground so small that no house or cottage could +escape location.</p> + +<p>Pulling down the corresponding studs on the eight rows instantly and +automatically established the connection. The written communication +could then be transmitted, and in the twinkling of an eye it was traced +on a sheet of paper in the receiving box. There was no probability of +the spaces all being occupied with telescribes for some years to come. A +calculation will show that there was provision for a good many thousand +million boxes, but only three million were fixed and attuned at this +period.</p> + +<p>That, briefly, was the essential of the telescribe system. It was +invaluable for most purposes, but not for all. Though speedier than the +letter, it lacked its privacy when it reached its destination, and it +also, in the eyes of many, lacked the sentimental touch, as from hand to +hand, which a letter may convey. It carried no enclosures, of course, +and, owing to the difficulties of ink and paper, printed matter could +not be telescribed at all. It cost twice as much as a letter, but as +this was spread in the proportion of three-quarters to the sender and +one quarter to the receiver the additional cost was scarcely felt by +either. Thus it came about that although the telescribe had diminished +the volume of telegrams by ninety per cent., and had made it possible +still to cope with a volume of ordinary postal correspondences which up +to that time had threatened to swamp the department, it had actually +superseded nothing.</p> + +<p>At four o'clock Mr Woodbarrow called up Sir John and reported that the +two great engines were running smoothly, and that for three minutes the +entire system would be closed against any message except his. In other +words, while the "in" circuit was open to three million boxes, the "out" +circuit was closed against all except one. It was not an absolutely +necessary precaution, for overlapping telescripts "stored latent" until +the way was clear, but it was not an occasion on which to hesitate about +taking every safeguard.</p> + +<p>The momentous order was already written. Hampden opened the lid of a +small flat box supported on the telescribe shelf by four vulcanite feet, +put the paper carefully in, and closed the lid again. He had pulled down +the eight rows of metal studs in anticipation of Woodbarrow's message, +and there was only one more thing to do. A practical, unemotional man, +and not unused, in an earlier decade, to controlling matters of national +importance with energy and decision, he now stood with his hand above +the fatal switch, not in any real doubt about his action, but with a +kind of fascinated time-languor. A minute had already passed. To pull +down the tiny lever and release it would not occupy a second. At what +period of those three minutes should he do it? How long <i>dare</i> he leave +it? He caught himself wondering whether on the last second—and with an +angry exclamation at the folly he pressed the lever home.</p> + +<p>There was no convulsion of nature; a little bell a foot away gave a +single stroke, and that was all the indication that the President of the +Unity League had passed the Rubicon and unmasked his battery.</p> + +<p>This was what he had written and scattered broadcast over the land:</p> + +<h4>"THE UNITY LEAGUE.</h4> + +<blockquote> + +<p>"The time has now arrived when it is necessary for the League +to take united action in order to safeguard the interests of +its members.</p> + +<p>"In directing a course which may entail some inconvenience, but +can hardly, with ordinary foresight, result in real hardship, +your President reminds you of the oft-repeated warning that +such a demand would inevitably be made upon your sincerity. The +opportunity is now at hand for proving that as a class our +resource and endurance are not less than those of our +opponents.</p> + +<p>"On or before the 22nd July, members of the League will cease +until further notice to purchase or to use coal in the form of +(<i>a</i>) Burning Coal (except such as may be already on their +premises), (<i>b</i>) Coke (with the exception as before), (<i>c</i>) +Gas, (<i>d</i>) Coal-produced electricity.</p> + +<p>"The rule applies to all private houses, offices, clubs, +schools, and similar establishments; to all hotels, +restaurants, boarding-houses and lodging-houses, with the +exception (for the time) of necessary kitchen fires, which will +be made the subject of a special communication, to all +greenhouses and conservatories not used for the purposes of +trade; and to all shops, workshops, and similar buildings where +oil or other fuel or illuminant not produced or derived from +coal can be safely substituted.</p> + +<p>"Members of the League who have no coal in stock, and who do +not possess facilities for introducing a substitute +immediately, are at liberty to procure sufficient to last for a +week. With this exception members are required to cancel all +orders at present placed for coal. The League will take all +responsibility and will defend all actions for breach of +contract.</p> + +<p>"<i>Members of the League are earnestly requested to co-operate +in this line of action both as regards the letter and the +spirit of the rule.</i></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Members are emphatically assured that every possible +development of the campaign has been fully considered during +the past two years, and it is advanced with absolute confidence +that nothing unforeseen can happen to mar its successful +conclusion.</span></p> + +<p>"Nothing but the loyal co-operation of members is required to +ensure the triumph of those Principles of Government which the +League has always advocated, and a complete attainment of the +object for which the League came into existence.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">John Hampden</span>, <i>President</i>.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Trafalgar Chambers</span>,</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">London</span>, 15<sup><i>th</i></sup> <i>July</i> 1918."</p></blockquote> + +<p>In the past the world had seen very many strikes on the part of workers, +not selfishly conceived in their essence, but bringing a great deal of +poverty and misery in their train, and declared solely for the purpose +of benefiting the strikers through the necessity of others. In the more +recent past the world had seen employers combine and declare a few +strikes (the word will serve a triple purpose) for just the same end and +accompanied by precisely similar results. It was now the turn of the +consumers to learn the strike lesson, the most powerful class of all, +but the most heterogeneous to weld together. The object was the same but +pursued under greater stress; the weapons would be similar but more +destructive; the track of desolation would be there but wider, and the +end——On that morning of the 15th of July the end lay beyond a very +dim and distant shock of dust and turmoil that the eye of none could +pierce.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE EFFECT OF THE BOMB</h3> + + +<p>Mr Strummery having finished his breakfast with the exception of a +second glass of hot water, which constituted the amiable man's only +beverage, took up his copy of <i>The Scythe</i>. He had already glanced +through <i>The Tocsin</i>, in which he had a small proprietary interest, but +he also subscribed to <i>The Scythe</i>, partly because it brought to his +door a library which he found useful when he had to assume an intimate +knowledge of a subject at a day's notice, partly because the crudely +blatant note of <i>The Tocsin</i> occasionally failed to strike a sympathetic +cord.</p> + +<p>He had found that morning in his telescribe receiver the Trafalgar +Chambers manifesto which had been flashed to friend and foe alike. He +had read it with a frown; it savoured of impertinence that it should be +sent to him. He finished it with a laugh, half-contemptuous, +half-annoyed. He saw that it was a stupid move unless the League had +abandoned all hope of forming the League-Labour alliance; in any case, +it was a blow that stung but could not wound. All the chances were that +nothing would come of it; <i>but</i>, if a million people did give up burning +coal for say a month, if a million people <i>did</i> that—well, it would be +very inconvenient to themselves, but there would certainly be a good +many tens of thousand pounds less wages paid out in districts that +seemed to be far from satisfactory even as it was.</p> + +<p><i>The Tocsin</i> did not refer to the matter at all. Mr Strummery opened +<i>The Scythe</i>, and was rather surprised to see, beneath five lines of +heavy heading on the leader page, a full account of Sir John Hampden's +sudden move. Instinctively his eye turned to the leader columns. As he +had half expected there was a leader on the subject, not very long but +wholly benedictory. In rather less measured phrases than the premier +organ usually adopted and with other signs of haste, readers were urged +to enter whole-heartedly into this development of bloodless civil war of +which the impending Personal Property Act had been the first unmasked +blow. He glanced on, not troubling about the views advanced until a +casual statement drew a smothered exclamation from his lips. "An +argument which will be used in a practical form by the five million +adult members now on the books of the League—" ran the +carelessly-dropped information. "It is a lie—a deliberately misleading +lie," muttered the Premier angrily; but it was the truth. He read on. +The article concluded: "In this connection the strong action taken by M. +Gavard, as indicated in the telegrams from Paris which we print +elsewhere, may be purely a coincidence, but it is curiously akin to +those 'mathematical coincidences' that fall into their places in a +well-planned campaign."</p> + +<p>Mr Strummery had no difficulty in finding the telegrams alluded to. +Rushed through in frantic haste, the type had stood a hair's breadth +higher than it should, and in the resulting blackness the words of the +headlines leapt to meet his eye.</p> + +<h4>THE INDUSTRIAL WAR IN FRANCE</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Prohibitive Tax on Coal</span></h4> + +<blockquote> +<p><i>From Our Special Correspondent</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Paris</span> <i>Wednesday Night.</i></p> + +<p>"It is authoritatively stated that the industrial crisis which +has been existing in the north, and to some extent in the +Lyonnais districts, for the past six months is on the eve of a +settlement. Yesterday M. Gavard returned from S. Etienne, and +after seeing several of his colleagues and some leading members +of the Chamber of Commerce, left at once for Lens. Early this +morning he was met at the Maison du Peuple by deputations from +the Syndicate of Miners, the 'Broutchouteux,' the Association +of Mine Owners, the Valenciennes iron masters, and +representatives of some other industries.</p> + +<p>"The proceedings were conducted in private, but it is +understood in well-informed circles here that in accordance +with the plenary powers conferred on him by the Chambers in +view of the critical situation, M. Gavard proposed to raise the +small existing tax on imported coal to an <i>ad valorem</i> tax of +55 p.c. The mine owners on their side will guarantee a minimum +wage of 8f. 15c., and commence working at once, reinstating all +men within a week of the imposing of the tax. The amalgamated +industries acquiesce to a general immediate advance of 1f. +75<i>c.</i> per ton (metric) in the price of coal, and will start +running as soon as the first portion of their orders can be +filled.</p> + +<p>"Troops are still being massed in the affected districts, but +after last Thursday's pitched battle a tone of sullen apathy is +generally preserved. There was, however, severe rioting at +Anzin this morning, and about 200 casualties are reported."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Paris.</span> <i>Later.</i></p> + +<p>"The terms of settlement contained in my earlier message are +confirmed. They will remain in operation for a year. The tax +will come into force almost immediately, three days' grace +being allowed for vessels actually in French ports to unload. +In view of your Government's subsidy to English coal +exportation and its disastrous effects on French mining, and, +subsequently, on other industries, the imposition of the tax +will be received with approval in most quarters."</p></blockquote> + +<p>As the Prime Minister reached the end of the paragraph he heard a +vehicle stop at his door, followed by an attack on bell and knocker that +caused Mrs Strummery no little indignation. It was Mr Tubes arriving, +after indulging in the unusual luxury of a cab, and the next minute he +was shown into his chief's presence. Both men unconsciously frowned +somewhat as they met, but the ex-collier was infinitely the more +disturbed of the two.</p> + +<p>"You got my 'script?" he asked, as they shook hands.</p> + +<p>"No; did you write?" replied Mr Strummery. "To tell the truth, this +meddling piece of imbecility on Hampden's part, and his gross +impertinence in sending it to me, put everything else out of my head for +the moment. You have seen it?"</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't need to ask that if you'd passed a newspaper shop," said +Mr Tubes grimly. "The newsbills are full of nothing else. 'COAL WAR +PROCLAIMED,' 'HAMPDEN'S REPLY TO THE P.P. TAX,' 'UNITY LEAGUE +MANIFESTO,' and a dozen more. I had private word of it last night, but +too late to do anything. That's why I asked half a dozen of +them—Vossit, Guppling, Chadwing, and one or two more—to meet me here +at half-past nine. Happen a few others will drop in now."</p> + +<p>"Well, don't let them see that you think the world is coming to an end," +said the Premier caustically. "Nothing may come of it yet."</p> + +<p>"That's all very well, Strummery," said Mr Tubes, with rising anger. +"All very well for you; you don't come from a Durham division. I shall +have it from both sides. Twenty thousand howling constituents and six +hundred raving members."</p> + +<p>"Let them rave. They know better than press it too far. As for the +miners, if they have to lose by it we can easily make grants to put them +right." A sudden thought struck him; he burst out laughing. "Well, +Tubes," he exclaimed boisterously, "I can excuse myself, but I should +have thought that a man who came from a Durham constituency would have +seen <i>that</i> before. Hampden must either be mad, or else he knows that +his precious League won't stand very much. Don't you see? We are in the +middle of summer now, and <i>for the next three months people will be +burning hardly any coal at all</i>!"</p> + +<p>The Home Secretary jumped up and began to pace the room in seething +impatience, before he could trust himself to speak.</p> + +<p>"Don't talk like that before the House with fifty practical men in it, +for God's sake, Strummery," he exclaimed passionately. "Hampden couldn't +well have contrived a more diabolical moment. Do you know what the +conditions are? Well, listen. No one <i>is</i> burning any coal, and so it +will be no hardship for them to do without. But every one is on the +point of filling his cellar at summer prices to last all through the +winter. And Hampden's five million——"</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that," interposed the Premier hastily.</p> + +<p>"Well, I do—now," retorted his colleague bitterly. "His five million +are the five million biggest users of domestic coal in the country. They +use more than all the rest put together. And they all fill their cellars +in the summer or autumn."</p> + +<p>"Then?" suggested Mr Strummery.</p> + +<p>"Then they won't now," replied Mr Tubes. "That's all. The next ten weeks +are the busiest in the year, from the deepest working to the suburban +coal-shoot. Go and take a look round if you want to see. Every waggon, +every coal-yard, every railway siding, every pit-bank is chock-full, +ready. Only the cellars are empty. If the cellars are going to remain +empty, what happens?" He threw out his left hand passionately, with a +vigorous gesture. It suggested laden coal carts, crowded yards, +over-burdened railways, all flung a stage back on to the already +congested pit-heads, and banking up coal like the waters of the divided +Red Sea into a scene of indescribable confusion.</p> + +<p>The Prime Minister sat thinking moodily, while his visitor paced the +room and bit his lips with unpleasant vehemence. In the blades of +morning sun, as he crossed and recrossed the room, one saw that Mr +Tubes, neither tall nor stout but large, loosely boned, loosely dressed +and loosely groomed, had light blue eyes, strong yellow teeth which came +prominently into view as he talked, and a spotted sallow complexion, +which conveyed the unfortunate, and unjust, impression of being dirty.</p> + +<p>"We shall have to do something to carry them on till the winter, that's +all," declared Mr Strummery at length. "There's no doubt that the +Leaguers will have to use coal then."</p> + +<p>"It's no good thinking that we can settle it off-hand with a few +thousand pounds of strike pay, Strummery," said the Home Secretary +impatiently, "because we can't. You have to know the conditions to see +how that is. If there's a strike, the article has to be supplied from +somewhere else at more money, and every one except those who <i>want</i> to +strike keep on very much as before. But here, by God, they have us all +along the line! Anything from fifty to a hundred thousand miners less +required at one end, and anything from five to ten thousand coal carters +at the other. And between? And dependent on each lot all through?" His +ever-ready arm emphasised the situation by a comprehensive sweep. +"You've heard say that coal is the life-blood of the country, happen?" +he added. "Well, we're the heart."</p> + +<p>"What do you suggest, then?"</p> + +<p>"It's all a matter of money. If it can be done we must make up the +difference; buy it, pay for it, and store it. There are the dockyards, +the barracks, and we could open depôts here and in all the big towns. In +that way we could spread it over as long a period as we liked. Then +there's export. I think that has touched its limit for the time, but we +might find it cheaper in the end to stimulate it more."</p> + +<p>"Yes; but what about this French business? Are you allowing for that in +your estimate?"</p> + +<p>"What French business?"</p> + +<p>"The French tax," said the Premier impatiently, pointing to the open +<i>Scythe</i>. "You've seen about it, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>He had not. He snatched up the paper, muttering as he read the first few +lines that he had glanced through <i>The Tocsin</i> before he came out, and +that had been all. His voice became inaudible as he read on. When he had +finished he was very pale. He flung the paper down and walked to the +window, and stood there looking out without a word. The declaration of +the coal war had filled him with smouldering rage; the Paris telegram +had effectually chilled it. Before, he had felt anger; now he felt +something that, expressed in words, was undistinguishable from fear.</p> + +<p>The men whom he had asked to meet him there were beginning to arrive. +They had already heard Vossit and Chadwing pass upstairs talking. There +was a step in the hall outside that could only belong to Tirrel. He had +not been summoned, but, as Mr Tubes had anticipated, a few others were +beginning to drop in. Guppling and two men whom he had met on the +doorstep came in as Mr Tubes was finishing the Paris news.</p> + +<p>"It's not much good talking about it now," he said, turning from the +window, "but if I had known of <i>this</i>, or even that the other would be +out, I should have come here myself without bringing all these chaps +down too. Not but what they'd have come, though. But when I wrote to +them I'd just got the information, you understand, and it was thought +that Hampden wouldn't be doing anything for a week at least."</p> + +<p>"He was too clever for you again?" said Strummery vindictively, as he +rose to go upstairs.</p> + +<p>"So it seems," admitted Mr Tubes indifferently.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>THE LAST CHANCE AND THE COUNSEL OF EXPEDIENCE</h3> + + +<p>In the salon, where a month before they had drafted the outline of the +Personal Property Bill, under the impression that government was a +parlour game and Society a heap of spelicans, eight or nine men were +already assembled. One or two sat apart, with ugly looks upon their +faces. Mr Vossit was dividing his time between gazing up to the ceiling +and making notes in a memorandum book as the points occurred to him. Sir +Causter Kerr, Baronet of the United Kingdom, and Chevalier of the Order +of the Golden Eagle, who in return for a thousand pounds a year +permitted himself to be called First Lord of the Admiralty in a +Socialist Government, was standing before a steel engraving with the +title in German, "Defeat of the British at Majuba Hill, 27th February +1881," but, judging from the slight sardonic grin on his thin features, +he was thinking of something else. Sir Causter Kerr had assuredly not +been invited to the meeting. The rest of the company stood together in +one group, where they talked and laughed and looked towards the door +from time to time, in expectation of their host's arrival.</p> + +<p>The talk and laughter dropped to a whisper and a smile as Mr Strummery +entered and Mr Tubes followed, and with short greetings passed to their +places at the table. The Prime Minister was popular, or he would not +have held that position, but Mr Tubes was not. He was Home Secretary by +virtue of the voice of the coal interest, so much the largest labour +organisation in the country that if its wishes were ignored it could, +like another body of miners in the past, very effectively demand to +"know the reason why."</p> + +<p>"Well, Jim, owd lad," said Cecil Brown hilariously, taking advantage of +the fact that formal proceedings had not yet commenced, "hast geete howd +o' onny more cipher pappers, schuzheou?" Cecil Brown, it may be +explained, held that he had the privilege of saying offensive things to +his friends without being considered offensive, and as no one ever +thought of calling him anything else but "Cecil Brown," he was probably +right. Of the Colonial Office, he was in some elation at the moment that +his usually despised Department was quite out of this imbroglio.</p> + +<p>"Ah, that was a very red, red herring, I'm more than thinking now," said +Mr Guppling reflectively.</p> + +<p>"Certainly a salt fish, eh, Tirrel?" said Cecil Brown.</p> + +<p>Mr Strummery rapped sharply on the table with his knuckles, to indicate +that the proceedings had better begin. A hard-working, conscientious +man, he entirely missed the lighter side of life. He sometimes laughed, +but in conversation his face never lit up with the ready, spontaneous +smile; not because he was sad, but because he failed to see, not only +the utility of a jest, but its point also. That conversational sauce +which among friends who understand one another frequently takes the +outer form of personal abuse, was to him merely flagrant insult.</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes leaned across and spoke to his chief; and looking down the +table the Premier allowed his gaze to rest enquiringly on Sir Causter +Kerr.</p> + +<p>A man who <i>had</i> been invited jumped up. "I called on Comrade Kerr on my +way here and took the liberty of asking him to come, because I thought +that we might like to know something of the condition of the navy," he +explained.</p> + +<p>"For what purpose?" enquired Mr Strummery smoothly.</p> + +<p>"Because," he replied, flaring up suddenly with anger, "because I regard +this damned French tax, without a word of notice to us or our +representative, as nothing more or less than a <i>casus belli</i>."</p> + +<p>The proceedings had begun.</p> + +<p>"Case of tinned rabbits!" contemptuously retorted a Mr Bilch, sitting +opposite. "What d'yer think you're going to do if it is? Why, my infant, +the French fleet would knock you and your <i>belli</i> into a packing <i>casus</i> +in about ten minutes if you tried it on. You'll have to stomach that +<i>casus belli</i>, and as many more as they care to send you."</p> + +<p>Mr Bilch was a new man, and was spoken of as a great acquisition to his +party, though confessedly uncertain in his views and frequently +illogical in his ground. His strength lay in the "happy turns" with +which his speech was redolent, and his splendid invulnerability to +argument, reason, or fact. He had formerly been a rag-sorter, and would +doubtless have remained inarticulate and unknown had he not one day +smoothed out a sheet of <i>The Tocsin</i> from the bin before him as he ate +his dinner. A fully reported speech was therein described as perhaps the +greatest oratorical masterpiece ever delivered outside Hyde Park. Mr +Bilch read the speech, and modestly fancied that he could do as well +himself. From that moment he never looked back, and although he was +still a plain member he had forced his way by sheer merit into the +circle of the Council Chamber.</p> + +<p>"It is against our principles to consider that contingency," interposed +the Premier; "and in any case it is premature to talk of war when the +courts of arbitration——"</p> + +<p>"That's right enough," interrupted the man who had first spoken of war, +"and when it was a matter of fighting to grab someone else's land to +fatten up a gang of Stock Exchange Hebrews, I was with you through thick +and thin, but this is different. The very livelihood of our people is +aimed at. I've nothing to say against the Hague in theory, but when you +remember that we've never had a single decision given in our favour it's +too important to risk to that. But why France should have done this, in +this way and just at this moment, is beyond me."</p> + +<p>Yet it was not difficult to imagine. When many English manufactories +were closed down altogether, or removed abroad because the conditions at +home were too exacting for them, less coal was required in England. Less +coal meant fewer colliers employed, and this touched the Government most +keenly. The same amount of coal <i>must</i> be dug, especially as the +operation of the Eight Hours Act had largely increased the number of +those dependent on the mines; therefore more must be exported. The coal +tax had long since gone; a substantial bounty was now offered on every +ton shipped out of the country. It made a brave show. Never were such +piping times known from Kirkcaldy to Cardiff. English coal could be shot +down in Rouen, Nantes, or Bordeaux, even in Lille and Limoges, at a +price that defied home competition. Prices fell; French colliery +proprietors reduced wages; French miners came out on strike—a general +strike—and for the time being French collieries ceased to have any +practical existence. But France was requiring a million tons of coal a +week, and having done the mischief, England could only, at the moment, +let her have a quarter of a million a week, while German and Belgian +coal had been knocked out of the competition and diverted elsewhere. The +great industries had to cease working; chaos, civil war and anarchy +began to reign....</p> + +<p>"Why France should have done this is beyond me."</p> + +<p>There was another reason, deeper. It was a commonplace that England had +been cordially hated in turn by every nation in and out of Europe, but +with all that there was no responsible nation in or out of Europe that +dare contemplate a weak, a dying, England. France looked at the map of +Europe, and the thought of the German Eagle flying over Dover Castle and +German navies patrolling the seas from Land's End to The Skawe haunted +her dreams. Russia wanted nothing in the world so much as another Thirty +Years' Peace. Spain had more to lose than to gain; Italy had much to +lose and nothing at all to gain. All the little independent states and +nations remembered the Treaties of Vienna and Berlin, and trembled at +the thought of what might happen now. Germany alone might have had +visions, but Germany had a nightmare too, and when the man who ruled her +councils with a strong if tortuous policy saw wave after wave of the +infectious triumph of Socialism reach his own shores, he recognised that +England's weakness was more hostile to his ambitions than England's +strength.</p> + +<p>No one wanted two Turkeys in Europe.</p> + +<p>"I don't see why we shouldn't make a naval demonstration, at all +events," some one suggested hopefully. "That used to be enough, and the +French Government must have plenty to look after at home."</p> + +<p>"Naval demonstration be boiled!" exclaimed Mr Bilch forcibly. "Send your +little Willie to Hamley's for a tin steamer, and let him push it off +Ramsgate sands if you want a naval demonstration, comrade. But don't +show the Union Jack inside the three-mile limit on the other side of the +Channel, or you'll have something so hot drop on your hands that you +won't be able to lick it off fast enough."</p> + +<p>"I fail to see that," said Mr Vossit. "Heaven forbid that I should raise +my voice in favour of bloodshed, but if it were necessary for +self-preservation our navy is at least equal to that of any other +power."</p> + +<p>"Is it?" retorted Mr Bilch, with so heavily-laden an expression of +contemptuous derision on his face that it seemed as though he might be +able to take it off, like a mask, and hang it on some one else. "Is it? +Oh, it is, is it? Well, ask that man there. Ask him, is all I say. +Simply ask <i>him</i>." His contorted face was thrust half-way across the +table towards Mr Vossit, while his rigid arm with extended forefinger +was understood to indicate Sir Causter Kerr.</p> + +<p>"As the subject has been raised, perhaps the First Lord of the Admiralty +will reassure us on that point," said the Premier.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear, no," replied Causter Kerr blandly. "We couldn't carry it +through, Premier. You must not think of going to extremes."</p> + +<p>There was a moody silence in which men looked angrily at Kerr and at one +another.</p> + +<p>"Are we to understand that the navy is <i>not</i> equal to that of any other +power?" demanded Mr Vossit.</p> + +<p>"On paper, yes, comrade," replied Kerr, with a pitying little smile, +"but on deep water, where battles are usually fought, no. It is a +curious paradox that in order to be equal to any other single power +England must be really very much stronger. I should also explain that +from motives of economy no battleships have been launched or laid +down during the last three years, and only four cruisers of +questionable armament. Then as regards gunnery. From motives of +economy actual practice is never carried out now, but the championship, +dating from last year, lies at present with the armoured cruiser +<i>Radium</i>:—stationary regulation target, 1-1/2 miles distant, speed 4 +knots, quarter charges, 3 hits out of 27 shots. As regards effective +range——"</p> + +<p>"Tell them this," struck in Mr Bilch, "they'll understand it better. +Tell them that the <i>Intrepidy</i> could sail round and round the Channel +Fleet and bloody well throw her shells over the moon and down on to +their decks without ever once coming into range. Tell them that."</p> + +<p>"The picture so graphically drawn by Comrade Bilch is substantially +correct," corroborated Sir Causter Kerr. "The <i>Intrépide</i>, together with +three other battleships of her class, has an effective range of between +four and five thousand yards more than that of any English ship.... But +you have been told all this so often, comrades, that I fear it cannot +interest you." Sir Causter was having his revenge for two years of +subservience at a thousand pounds a year.</p> + +<p>"Then perhaps you will tell us, as First Lord of the Admiralty—the job +you are paid for doing—what you imagine the navy is kept up for?" +demanded a comrade with fierce resentment.</p> + +<p>"As far as I have been encouraged to believe, in that capacity," replied +Kerr with easy insolence, "I imagine that its duties consist nowadays in +patrolling the lobster-pots, and in amusing the visitors on the various +seaside promenades by turning the searchlights on."</p> + +<p>"We won't ask you to remain any longer," said the Premier.</p> + +<p>Sir Causter Kerr rose leisurely. "Good morning, comrades," he remarked +punctiliously, and going home wrote out his resignation, "from motives +of patriotism," and sent a copy of the letter to all the papers.</p> + +<p>A man who had been standing by the door listening to the conversation +now came forward with a copy of an early special edition of the <i>Pall +Mall Gazette</i> in his hand.</p> + +<p>"You needn't sweat yourselves about being equal to a single power or +not," he remarked with an unpleasant laugh. "Look at the 'fudge' there." +And he threw the paper on the table, as though he washed his hands of it +and many other things.</p> + +<p>Mr Bilch secured it, and turning to the space which is left blank for +the inclusion of news received up to the very moment of going to press, +he read aloud the single item it contained.</p> + +<h4>COAL WAR</h4> +<blockquote> + +<p><span class="smcap">Berlin</span>, <i>Thursday Morning</i>.</p> + +<p>"The action which France is reported to have taken had for some +time been anticipated here. On all sides there is the opinion, +amounting to conviction, that Germany must at once call into +operation the power lying dormant in the Penalising Tariff and +impose a tax on imported coal. It is agreed that otherwise, in +her frantic endeavours to restore the balance of her export +trade, England would flood this country with cheap coal and +precipitate a state of things similar to that from which France +is just emerging.</p> + +<p>"Emphasis is laid on the fact that such a measure will be +self-protective and in no way aggressive. It is not anticipated +that the tax will exceed 2 mks. 50 pf., or at the most 3 mks. +per ton."</p></blockquote> + +<p>"Export value, eight and elevenpence," murmured a late arrival, one of +the fifty practical men in the House. "Yes, I imagine that two marks +fifty will just about knock the bottom out."</p> + +<p>"Is there nothing we can offer them in exchange?" demanded some one. +"Nothing we can hit them back with?"</p> + +<p>Cecil Brown, who was suspected of heterodoxy on this one point, +crystallised the tariff question into three words.</p> + +<p>"Nothing but tears," he replied.</p> + +<p>"If there's one thing that fairly makes me hot it's the way we always +have to wait for some one else to tell us what's going on," said the +comrade who had brought in the <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, looking across at +the Foreign Office Under-Secretary resentfully. "A fellow in Holborn +here pokes the paper under my nose and asks me what we're going to do +about it, and there I don't even know what is being done at us. What I +want to know is, what our ambassadors and Foreign Office think they're +there for. It's always the same, and then there'll be the questions in +Parliament, and we know nothing. Makes us look like a set of kiddin' +amateurs."</p> + +<p>The fact had been noticed. Former governments had not infrequently +earned the title in one or two departments. Later governments had +qualified for it in every department. The reason lay on the surface; the +members of those parliaments and the men who sent them were themselves +bunglers and amateurs in their daily work and life. Except in the +stereotyped product of machinery, accuracy was scarcely known. The man +who had built a house in England at that period, the man who had had a +rabbit-hutch built to order, the man who had stipulated for one article +to be made <i>exactly</i> like a copy, the man who had been so unfortunate as +to require "the plumbers in," the man who had to do with labour in any +shape or form, the man who had been "faithfully" promised delivery or +completion by a certain stated time, the woman who shopped, the person +who merely existed with open eyes, could all testify out of experiences, +some heartrending, some annoying, some simply amusing, that precision +and reliability scarcely existed among the lower grades of industry and +commerce. It was a period of transition. The worker had cast off the +love, the delicacy, the intelligence of the craftsman, and he had not +yet attained to the unvarying skill of the automaton. In another century +one man would only be able to fix throttle valve connections on to +hot-water pipes, but his fixing of throttle valves would be a thing to +dream about, while the initial letter A's of his brother, whose whole +life would be devoted to engraving initial letter A's on brass +dog-collar plates, would be as near unswerving perfection as mundane +initials ever could be.</p> + +<p>"Makes us look like a set of tinkerin' amateurs."</p> + +<p>"One inference is plain enough," said Mr Guppling, smoothing over the +suggestion. "These three things weren't going to happen all together of +their own accord. There's a deep game somewhere, and seeing what's at +stake our powers ought to be wide enough for us to put our hands on them +and stop it."</p> + +<p>There was a murmur of approval. Having been taken by surprise, the idea +of peremptorily "stopping it" was a peculiarly attractive one.</p> + +<p>But there were malcontents who were not to be appeased so easily, and a +Comrade Pennefarthing, who had arrived in the meantime, raised an old +cry in a new form.</p> + +<p>"I won't exactly say that we've been betrayed," he declared, glancing at +the group of orthodox Ministers who sat together, "but game or no game I +will say that we've been damned badly served with information."</p> + +<p>Comrade Tirrel stood up. He had not yet spoken at all, and he was +accorded instant silence, for men were beginning to look to him. "It is +now nearly eleven o'clock," he said in his quick, incisive tone, "and +some of us have been here for upwards of an hour. We met to consider a +situation. That situation still remains. May I ask that the Home +Secretary, who is doubly qualified for the task, should tell us the +extent of the danger and its probable effect?"</p> + +<p>If Mr Tubes possessed a double qualification he also laboured under a +corresponding disability. As the representative of a mining +constituency, a practical expert, and a leading member of a Government +which existed by the goodwill of the workers—largely of the miners—it +would be scarcely to his interest to minimise the gathering cloud. As +the Minister for the Home Department, the blacker he made the picture +the greater the volume of obloquy he drew upon his head for not having +foreseen the danger; the more relief he asked for, the fiercer the +opposition he would encounter from hostile sections and from the +perturbed heads of a depleted Treasury.</p> + +<p>"We are still very much in the dark as to what has really happened, is +happening, and will happen," he remarked tamely. "An appreciable drop in +the demand for coal, whether for home or export, will certainly have a +disturbing effect on the conditions of labour in many departments. But +the difficulties of estimating the effects are so great——"</p> + +<p>There were murmurs. Whatever might be the failings of Socialistic +oratory, flatness and excess of moderation did not lie among them.</p> + +<p>"Figures," suggested Tirrel pointedly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Comrade Tirrel will take the job in hand instead of me," said +Tubes bitterly, but without any show of anger. "Doubtless he'd get a +better hearing."</p> + +<p>"No," replied Tirrel gravely, "the moment is too critical for +recrimination. If the Home Secretary lays the position frankly before +us, he will have no cause to complain of an unsympathetic hearing, nor, +as far as I can speak, of a whole-hearted support in taking means to +safeguard it."</p> + +<p>It occurred to Mr Tubes then, for the first time in his life—and it was +almost like a shock to feel it—that the man who had always seemed to +throw himself into sharp antagonism to himself might be actuated by +higher motives than personal jealousy after all. He continued his +speech.</p> + +<p>"If we accept the figure of five millions as a correct return of the +Unity League membership, and if we assume that they will all obey the +boycott, then we are face to face with the fact that on the basis of a +four ton per person average, twenty million tons of coal must be written +off the home consumption."</p> + +<p>"But the four tons per head average includes the entire industrial +consumption of the country," objected Mr Vossit.</p> + +<p>"That is so," admitted Mr Tubes, "but it also includes a great many +people whose use of coal is practically <i>nil</i>. An alternative basis is +to assume that two millions of the members are house-holders. Then +taking ten tons a year as their average household consumption—and +admitting that all the wealthiest men in the country are included the +average is not too high—we arrive at just the same result.</p> + +<p>"The exports, on the other hand, do not depend on estimate: we have the +actual returns. France takes fifteen million tons in round numbers. For +the purpose of facing the worst, we may therefore assume that the work +of digging and handling thirty-five million tons will be suddenly cut +off."</p> + +<p>"Germany," some one reminded him.</p> + +<p>"Germany is wholly conjectural at present. I have no objection to taking +it into account as well, if it is thought desirable, but I would point +out that we are being influenced by the merest rumour."</p> + +<p>"No," objected Tirrel, but without any enmity, "I think that we must +regard Germany as lost. We are just beginning to touch the outskirts of +a vast organisation which has been quietly perfecting its plan of +operation for years. I do not regard a German tax as settled because of +this one rumour, but I do regard it as settled because at this precise +moment the rumour has been allowed to appear."</p> + +<p>"Germany ten millions," accepted Mr Tubes. "Total decrease, forty-five +million tons."</p> + +<p>"Don't you be too sure of that, comrade," warned Mr Bilch. "Why, it's +not twelve o'clock yet by a long way. There'll be half a dozen editions +out before the 'Three o'clock winners.'" Mr Bilch evidently regarded his +shaft that each fresh edition might contain a new country imposing a tax +humorously, but several comrades looked towards the Home Secretary +enquiringly.</p> + +<p>"The other large importers are Italy, Russia, Sweden, Egypt, Spain and +Denmark," said Mr Tubes, who could have talked coal statistics for hours +if necessary. "All these, with the possible exception of Russia, <i>must</i> +import. It is unlikely that the estimate I have given will be exceeded +from that cause."</p> + +<p>"And the result?"</p> + +<p>"Above and below, about a million men are now employed in raising +236,000,000 tons. It is simple arithmetic.... In less than a month about +two hundred thousand more men will be out of work."</p> + +<p>Mr Chadwing, Chancellor of the Exchequer, moved uneasily in his chair.</p> + +<p>"That is the full extent?" enquired Cecil Brown.</p> + +<p>"No," admitted the Home Secretary. "That is the inevitable direct +result. Forty-five million tons less will be carried by rail, or cart, +or ship, or all three. A fair sprinkling of railway-men, carters, +dockers, stokers, sailors, and other fellows will be dropped off too. +There will be fewer railway trucks built this next year, less doing in +the fire-grate trade, several thousand horses not wanted, a slight +falling off in road-mending work. There is not a trade in England, from +steeple-building to hop-picking, that will not be a little worse off +because of those 45,000,000 tons. Then the two hundred thousand +out-of-work miners will burn less coal at home, the ships and the +engines will burn less, and the workshops and the smithies will burn +less, and the whole process will be repeated again and again, for coal +is like a snowball in its cumulative effects, and it cannot stand +still."</p> + +<p>If Mr Tubes had come to compromise, he had remained to publish +broadcast.</p> + +<p>Perhaps no one quite understood the danger yet, for the mind, used to +everyday effects, does not readily grasp the extent of a calamity, and +six hours before there had not been a cloud even the size of a man's +hand on their horizon. The Premier thought it was impolitic on his +colleague's part; the Treasury officials looked on it as a move to force +their hands; the Foreign Under-Secretary was suspicious that Mr Tubes +was leading away by some mysterious by-path from the unpreparedness of +his own Department to Foreign Office remissness. They all continued to +look silently at the Home Secretary as he continued to stand.</p> + +<p>"The indirect effects will involve about two million people to some +extent," he summed up.</p> + +<p>"That, at least, is the worst?" said Cecil Brown with an encouraging +smile, for Mr Tubes remained standing.</p> + +<p>The Prime Minister made an impatient movement; the Treasury heads looked +at one another and said with their eyes, "He is really overdoing it"; +the Foreign Office man scowled unconsciously, and Cecil Brown continued +to smile consciously.</p> + +<p>"The worst is this: that a great many pits are working to-day at a bare +profit, partly in the hope of better things, partly because we stimulate +the trade. The crisis we are approaching will hang over the coal fields +like a blight, and one crippled industry will bring down another. <i>All</i> +the poorer mines will close down. You need only look back to '93 to see +that. Neither I nor any one else can give you a forecast of what that +will involve, but you may be sure of this: that although '93 with its +17,000,000 tons of a decrease half-ruined the English coal fields for a +decade, '93 was a shrimp to what this is going to be."</p> + +<p>"Then let us stimulate the trade more, until the crisis is over," +suggested Cecil Brown.</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes gave a short, dry laugh. "I commend that course to Comrade +Chadwing," he said, as he sat down.</p> + +<p>The Chancellor of the Exchequer was busy with his papers.</p> + +<p>"Let me dispel any idea of that kind at once," he remarked, without +looking up. "The moment is not only an unfortunate one—it is an utterly +impossible one for making any extra disbursement however desirable."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mr Bilch, looking round on the moody assembly paternally, +"it seems that the situation is like this here, mates: The navy is no +messin' good at all, same as I told you; the army's a bit worse; +Treasury empty, yes; the Home Office don't know what's going on at home, +and the Foreign Office possesses just the same amount of valuable +information as to what is happening abroad. Lively, ain't it? Well, it's +lucky that Bilch is still Bilch."</p> + +<p>No one rose to his mordant humour. Even Cecil Brown had forgotten how to +smile.</p> + +<p>"If our comrade has any suggestion to make——" said the Premier +discouragingly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," replied Mr Bilch. "I have the wisdom of the serpent to rub +into your necks if you'll only listen. We haven't any navy, so we can't +fight if we wanted to; we haven't any money, so we can't pay out. Tubes +here doesn't know what's going to happen at home, and Jevons doesn't +rightly know what has happened abroad. What is to be done? I'll tell +you. Wait. Wait and see. Wait, and let them all simmer down again. Why," +he cried boisterously, looking round on them in good-humoured, friendly +contempt, "to see your happy, smiling faces one would think that the +canary had died or the lodger gone off without paying his rent. For why? +Because a bloke in a frock-coat and a top hat gets on to a wooden horse +and blows a tin trumpet, and the export trade in a single article of +commerce is temporarily disarranged—perhaps!"</p> + +<p>Mr Strummery nodded half absent-mindedly; the Treasury men smiled +together; Mr Chadwing murmured "Very true"; and nearly every one looked +relieved. Comrade Bilch was certainly a rough member, but the man had a +shrewd common-sense, and they began to feel that they had been hasty in +their dismal forebodings.</p> + +<p>"Haven't we been threatened with this and that before?" demanded Mr +Bilch dogmatically. "Of course we have, and what came of it? Nothing. +Haven't there been strikes and lock-outs, some big some little, every +year? According to Comrade Tubes, this is going to be the champion. That +remains to be seen. What I say is, don't play into their hands in a +panic. Wait and see what's required. That don't commit us to anything."</p> + +<p>"It may be too late then," said Mr Tubes, but he said "may" now and not +"will."</p> + +<p>"There may be no need to do anything then," replied Mr Bilch. "And +remember this: that the minute you begin to shout 'Crisis!' you make +one. All round us; all at us. My rag-bags! what a run on the old bank +there would be! But if you go on just as usual, taking no notice of no +one? Why, before long there will come a wet day or a cold night, and +Johnny Hampden's aunt will say to Johnny Hampden's grandmamma: 'My dear, +I feel positively starved. Don't you think that we might have a <i>little</i> +fire without Johnny knowing?' And the old lady will say: 'Well, do you +know, my pet, I was just going to say the same thing myself. Suppose you +run out and buy a sack of coal?' And before you can say 'coughdrop' +every blessed aunt and mother and first cousin of the Unicorn League +will be getting in her little stock of coal."</p> + +<p>It was what every one wished to believe, and therefore they were easily +persuadable. It was a national characteristic. The country had never +entered into a war during the past fifty years without being assured by +every authority, from the Commander-in-Chief down to the suburban +barber, that as soon as the enemy got a little tap on the head they +would be making for home, howling for peace as they went. All these men +had known strikes; many had been involved in them: some had controlled +their organisation. They had seen the men of their own class loyally and +patiently facing poverty and hardship for the sake of a principle, and +enduring day after day and week after week, and, if necessary, month +after month; they had seen the women of their own class preaching +courage and practising heroism by the side of their men while their +bodies were racked by cold and hunger and their hearts were crushed by +the misery around; they had seen even the children of their class +learning an unnatural fortitude. They accepted it as a commonplace of +life, an asset on which they could rely. <i>But they did not believe that +any other class could do it.</i> It did not occur to them to consider +whether the officers of an army are usually behind the rank and file in +valour, sacrifice, or endurance.</p> + +<p>Doubtless there were among them some who were not deceived, but they +wilfully subordinated their clearer judgment to the policy of the +moment.</p> + +<p>Tirrel was the one exception.</p> + +<p>"There can be no more fatal mistake of the dangerous position into which +we have been manœuvred than to assume that we shall be easily +delivered from it by the weakness of our opponents before we have the +least indication that weakness exists," he declared, as soon as +Mr Bilch had finished, speaking vigorously, but without any of the +assertiveness and personal feeling that had gained him many enemies in +the past. "I agree with every word that Comrade Tubes has spoken. We all +do; we all <i>must</i> admit it or be blind. What on earth, then, have we to +hope for in a policy of drift, of sitting tight and doing nothing in the +hope of things coming round of their own accord? It is madness, my +comrades, sheer madness, I tell you, and a month hence it will be +suicide."</p> + +<p>He dropped his voice and swept the circle of faces with a significant +glance.</p> + +<p>"It is through such madness on the part of others that we are here +to-day."</p> + +<p>Mr Chadwing smiled the thin smile of expediency.</p> + +<p>"It is one thing for a comrade with no official responsibility to say +that a certain course does not satisfy him," he said; "it may be quite +another thing for those who have to consider ways and means to do +anything different. Perhaps Comrade Tirrel will kindly enlighten us as +to what in our position he would do?"</p> + +<p>"I see two broad courses open," replied Tirrel, without any hesitation +in accepting the challenge. "Both, as you will readily say, have their +disadvantages, but neither is so fatal as inaction. The first is +aggressive. The Unity League has declared war on us. Very well, let it +have war. I would propose to suspend the <i>habeas corpus</i>, arrest Hampden +and Salt, declare the object and existence of the Unity League illegal, +close its offices and confiscate its funds. There are between five and +ten million pounds somewhere. Do you reflect what that would do? It +would at least keep two hundred thousand out-of-work miners from actual +starvation for a year. Prompt action would inevitably kill the boycott +movement at home. The foreign taxes, my comrades, you would probably +find to have a very marked, though perhaps undiscoverable, connection +with the home movement, and when the latter was seen to be effectually +dealt with, I venture to predict that the former could be compromised. +If the confiscated funds were not sufficient to meet the distress, I +should not hesitate to requisition for State purposes in a time of +national emergency all incomes above a certain figure in a clean sweep."</p> + +<p>A medley of cries met this despotic programme throughout. Even Tirrel's +friends felt that he was throwing away his reputation; and he had more +enemies than friends.</p> + +<p>"You'd simply make the situation twice as involved," exclaimed Mr Vossit +as the mouthpiece of the babel. "The liberty of the subject! It would +mean civil war. They'd rise."</p> + +<p>"Who would rise?" demanded Tirrel.</p> + +<p>"The privileged classes."</p> + +<p>"But they <i>have</i> risen," he declared vehemently. "This <i>is</i> civil war. +What more do you want?"</p> + +<p>It was a question on which they all had views, and for the next five +minutes the room was full of suggestions, not of what they themselves +wanted, but of what would be the probable action of the classes if +driven to extremities.</p> + +<p>"Very well," assented Tirrel at last; "that is what they will do next as +it is, for they consider that they are in extremities."</p> + +<p>"Well, comrade," said Mr Bilch broadly, "you don't seem to have put your +money on a winner this event. What's your other tip?"</p> + +<p>"Failing that, the other reasonable course is conciliation. I would +suggest approaching Hampden and Salt to find out whether they are open +to consider a compromise. The details would naturally require careful +handling, but if both sides were willing to come to an understanding, a +basis could be found. As things are, I should consider it a gain to drop +the Personal Property Tax, the Minimum Wage Bill, to guarantee the +inviolability of capital against further taxation while we are in +office, and to make generous concessions for the fuller representation +of the monied classes in Parliament, in return for the abandonment of a +coal war, the dispersal in some agreed way of the League reserves, the +reduction of the subscription to a nominal sum, and a frank undertaking +that the League would not adopt a hostile policy while the agreement +remained in force."</p> + +<p>This proposal was even less to the temper of the meeting than the former +one had been, and the latter half of it was scarcely heard among the +fusillade of hostile cries. No one laughed when a hot-headed comrade +stood upon a chair and howled "Traitor!"</p> + +<p>Tirrel looked round on the assembly. Practically every man who had a +tacit right to join in the deliberative Council had arrived, and the +room was full; but there was not a single member among them willing to +face the necessity for strong and immediate action, and they were +hostile to the man who just touched the secret depths of their +unconfessed and innermost misgivings. Mr Tubes felt that he had done his +duty, and need not invite reference to his delicate position by further +emphasising unpalatable truths; he had presented the spectacle of a weak +man startled into boldness, now he was sufficiently himself again to go +with the majority. The more responsible members of the Government +distrusted Tirrel in every phase; the smaller fry relied on the wisdom +of orthodoxy, and agreed that the man who could blow the hotness of +extirpation and the coldness of conciliation with the same breath must +prove an unworthy guide; and on every hand there was the tendency of +settled authority to deprecate novel and unmatured proceedings.</p> + +<p>Tirrel had become the Hampden of an earlier decade among his party.</p> + +<p>"You call me 'Traitor,'" he said, turning to the man who had done so. +"Write down the word, comrade, and then, if you will bring it to me +without a blush six months hence, I will wear it round my neck in +penance."</p> + +<p>He bowed to the Premier and withdrew, not in anger or with a mean sense +of injustice, but because he felt that it would be sheer mockery to +share the deliberations of a Council when their respective views, on a +matter which he believed to be the very crux of their existence, were +antagonistic in their essences.</p> + +<p>After his departure the progress was amazing. His ill-considered +proposals had cleared the air. Every one knew exactly what he did not +want, and that was a material step towards arriving at the opposite +goal.</p> + +<p>At the end of a few hours a very effective and comprehensive scheme for +quietly and systematically doing nothing had been almost unanimously +arrived at. Several quires of paper had been covered with suggestions, +some of them being accepted as they stood, some recommended for +elaboration, some passed for future consideration, some thrown out. The +ambassador in Paris was to retire (on the ground of ill-health) if he +could not satisfactorily explain the position. A special mission was to +be sent to Berlin to get really at the bottom of things, and, if +possible, have the tax either not put on or taken off, according to the +situation when they arrived there. A legal commission was to rout out +every precedent to see if the Unity League was not doing something +outside the powers of a trade union (a very forlorn hope); and all over +the country enquiries were to be made and assurances given, all very +discreetly and without the least suggestion of panic.</p> + +<p>The only doubtful point was whether every one else would play the game +with the same delicate regard for Ministerial susceptibilities, or +whether some might not have the deplorable taste to create scenes, send +deputations, demand work with menace, claim the literal fulfilment of +specific pledges, incite to riot and violence, stampede the whole +community, and otherwise act inconsiderately towards the Government, +when they discovered the very awkward circumstances in which their +leaders had involved them.</p> + +<p>The first indication of a jarring note fell to the lot of the President +of the Board of Trade in the shape of a telegram which reached him early +on the following morning. This was its form:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"From the Council of the Amalgamated Union of Chimney Sweepers +and Federated Carpet Beaters. (Membership, 11,372).—Seventeen +million estimated chimneys stop smoking. No soot, precious +little dust. Where the Hell do we come in?</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Blankintosh</span>, <i>Secretary</i>."</p></blockquote> + +<p>A few years before, it had been officially discovered that there were +four or five curiously adaptable words, without which the working man +was quite unable to express himself in the shortest sentence. When on +very ceremonious occasions he was debarred their use, he at once fell +into a pitiable condition of aphasia. Keenly alive to the class-imposed +disadvantages under which these men existed, the Government of that day +declared that it was a glaring anomaly that the poor fellows should not +be allowed to use a few words that were so essential to their expression +of every emotion, while the rich, with more time on their hands, could +learn a thousand synonyms. The law imposing a shilling fine for each +offence (five shillings in the case of "a gentleman," for even then +there was one law for the rich and another for the poor) was therefore +repealed, and the working man was free to swear as much as he liked +anywhere, which, to do him justice, he had done all along.</p> + +<p>It was for this reason that Mr Blankintosh's pointed little message was +accepted for transmission; but there was evidently a limit, for, when +the President of the Board of Trade, an irascible gentleman who had, in +the colloquial phrase, "got out of bed on the wrong side" that morning, +dashed off a short reply, it was brought back to him by a dispirited +messenger two hours later with the initials of seventeen postmasters and +the seventeen times repeated phrase, "Refused. Language inadmissible."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>THE GREAT FIASCO</h3> + + +<p>The Government allowed the 22nd day of July to pass without a sign. They +were, as their supporters convincingly explained to anxious enquirers, +treating the Unity League and all its works with silent contempt. They +were "doing nothing" strategically, they wished it to be understood; a +very different thing from "doing nothing" through apathy, indecision, or +bewilderment, but very often undistinguishable the one from the other in +the result.</p> + +<p>On the 22nd day of July seventeen million "estimated chimneys" ceased to +pollute the air. The League was not concerned with the exact number, and +they accepted the chimney sweepers' figures. It was more to the purpose +that the order was being loyally and cheerfully obeyed. The idea of +fighting the Government with the Government's own chosen people, +appealed to the lighter side of a not unhumorous nation.</p> + +<p>Ever since the institution of a Socialistic press, and from even remoter +times than the saplinghood of the "Reformer's Tree," Fleet Street party +hacks and Hyde Park demagogues had been sharpening their wit upon the +"black-coated" brigade, the contemptible <i>bourgeoisie</i> of "Linton +Villas," "Claremonts," and "Holly Lodges," taunting them with +self-complacency, political apathy, and social parasitism. The +proportion of moral degradation conferred by a coat intentionally black, +in comparison with one that is merely approaching that condition through +the personal predilections of its owner, has never yet been defined, and +the relative æsthetic values of the architectural pretensions of +villadom, compared with the unswerving realism of the "Gas Works Views," +"Railway Approach Cottages," and "Cement Terraces," of the back streets, +may be left to the matured judgment of an unprejudiced posterity. The +great middle class in all its branches had never hitherto made any reply +at all. Now that it had begun to retort in its own effective way, the +Government agreed that the best counterblast would be—to wait until it +all blew over.</p> + +<p>There were naturally defections from the first. A friendly spy in Mr +Tubes's secret service managed to secure the information without much +trouble that within seven days of the publication of the order no less +than 4372 notices of resignation had been received at headquarters. He +was hastening away with this evidence of the early dissolution of the +League when his grinning informant called him back to whisper in his ear +that during the same period there had been 17,430 new members enrolled, +and that while the resignations seemed to have practically ceased the +enrolments were growing in volume. In addition to these there were +battalions who joined in the policy of the League through sympathy with +its object without formally binding themselves as members.</p> + +<p>In some of its aspects the success of the movement erred in excess. +There were men, manufacturers, who in their faith and enthusiasm wished +to close their works at once, and, regardless of their own loss, throw +their workmen and their unburnt coal into the balance. It was not +required; it was not even desirable then. The League's object was to +disorganise commerce as little as possible beyond the immediate +boundaries of the coal trade. They were not engaged in an internecine +war, and every one of their own people deprived of employment was a +loss. Cases of hardship there would be; they are common to both sides in +every phase of stubborn and prolonged civil strife, but from the "class" +point of view coal had the pre-eminent advantage that its weight and +bulk gave employment to a hundred of the "masses" to every one of +themselves. There were also two circumstances that discounted any sense +of injustice on this head. Firstly, there was a spirit of sacrifice and +heroism in the air, born of the time and the situation; and secondly, it +soon became plain that the League was engaged in vast commercial +undertakings and was absorbing all the men of its own party who were +robbed of their occupation by the development of the war.</p> + +<p>A firm starting business with an unencumbered capital of ten million +sterling, enjoying a "private income" of five millions a year, and not +troubled with the necessity of earning any dividend at all, could afford +to be a generous employer.</p> + +<p>From the first moment it was obvious that oil must take the place of +coal. That was the essence of the strife. <i>The Tocsin</i> set to work in +frantic haste to prove that it was impossible; to show that all the +authorities of the past and present had agreed that no real substitute +for coal existed. It was quite true, and it was quite false. It was not +a world struggle. Abroad, foreign coal was being substituted for English +coal. At home only half a million tons a week were in issue at the +first. Afterwards, as coal stagnation fed coal stagnation, the tonnage +rose steadily, but the calorific ratio of coal and oil, the basis of all +comparison, simply did not exist, except on paper, for the two fuels in +domestic use.</p> + +<p><i>The Tocsin's</i> second article convinced its readers that all the lamp +companies in the world could not keep up with the abnormal demand for +lamps, stoves, and oil-cookers, that the ridiculous proposal of the +League would involve, if it were not providentially ordained that it was +foredoomed to grotesque failure by the dead weight of its own fatuous +ineptitude.</p> + +<p>In practice the two single firms of Ripplestone of Birmingham, and +Schuyler of Cleveland, U.S.A., at once put on the market a varied stock +that filled every requirement. There was no waiting. As <i>The Tocsin</i> +bitterly remarked, it soon became apparent that the demand had been +foreseen and "treacherously provided against during the past two years."</p> + +<p>The third <i>Tocsin</i> article on the situation dealt statistically with the +oil trade of the world. It necessarily fell rather flat, because <i>The +Tocsin</i> Special Commissioner entered upon the task with the joyous +conviction that the world's output would not be sufficient for the +demand, the world's oil ships not numerous enough to transport it. As he +dipped into the figures, however, he made the humiliating discovery that +the increased demand would do little more than ruffle the surface of the +oil market. The Baku oil fields could supply it without inconvenience; +the United States could do it by contract at a ten per cent. advance; +the newly-discovered wells of Nova Scotia alone would be equal to the +demand if they diverted all their produce across the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>He threw down his pen in despair, and then picked it up again to +substitute invective for statistics. Before his eyes the motor-tanks of +the Anglo-Pennsylvanian Oil Company, of London and Philadelphia, and the +Anglo-Caucasian Oil Company, of London and Baku, were going on their +daily rounds. It was still a matter for wonder how well equipped the +sudden call had found those two great controlling oil companies. It was +yet to be learned that for their elaborate designations there might be +substituted the simple name "Unity League."</p> + +<p>It was submitting <i>The Tocsin</i> young man to rather a cruel handicap to +send him to the British Museum Reading Room for a few hours with +instructions to prove impossible what Salt and Hampden had been +straining every nerve for two years to make inevitable.</p> + +<p>Three articles exhausted his proof that a successful coal boycott under +modern conditions was utterly impossible.</p> + +<p>He went out into the city and the suburbs, interviewing coal merchants +and coal agents with the object of drawing a harrowing picture of the +gloom and depression that had fallen upon these unfortunate creatures at +the hands of their own class League.</p> + +<p>He found them all bearing up well under the prospect, but much too busy +to give him more than a few minutes of their time. Every one of them had +been appointed an oil agent to the League firms, and League members were +ordering their oil through them, just as heretofore they had ordered +coal. It was very easy, profitable work for them; they had nothing to do +but to transmit the orders to the League firms and the fast +business-like motor-tanks distributed the oil. But half of the coal +carters were now under notice to leave, and there were indications that +work was very scarce. Each motor-tank displaced twenty men and twenty +horses. Already, it was said, thousands of horses had been sent out to +grass from London alone.</p> + +<p>Externally, as far as the Capital was concerned at all events, things +were going on very much the same as before, when the struggle was a +fortnight old. Elsewhere signs were not lacking. The Government had +received disquieting reports from its agents here and there, but so far +it was meeting the situation by refusing to acknowledge that it existed. +A march of the Staffordshire miners had been averted by the men's +leaders being privately assured that it would embarrass the Government's +plans. The march had been deferred under protest; so far the +organisation answered to the wheel. But the Midlands were clamorously +demanding exceptional relief for the exceptional conditions. Monmouth +had seen a little rioting, and in Glamorgan the bands of incendiaries +called "Beaconmen," who set fire to the accumulations of coal stacked at +the collieries, had already begun their work. Cardiff was feeling the +effect of having a third of its export trade in coal suddenly lopped +off, and Newport, Swansea, Kirkcaldy, Blyth, Hull, Sunderland, Glasgow, +and the Tyne ports were all in the same position. Most of the railways +had found it necessary to dispense with their entire supernumerary +staff, and most of the railway workshops had been put on short time. In +London alone, between four and five thousand out-of-work gas employés +were drawing Government pay.</p> + +<p>About the third week in August the Premier, Mr Tubes, and the Chancellor +of the Exchequer had a long private conference. As a result Mr Strummery +called an Emergency Council. It was a thin, acrimonious gathering. Some +one brought the tidings that seven more companies in South London were +substituting Diesel oil engines for steam. He had all the dreary +developments statistically worked out on paper. Nobody wanted to hear +them, but he poured them out into the unwilling ears, down to the climax +that it represented two hundred and forty-seven fewer men required at +the pits.</p> + +<p>It served as a text, however, for Mr Chadwing to hang his proposal on. +After a month of inaction, the Government was at length prepared to go +to the length of admitting that abnormal conditions prevailed. Oil had +thrown a quarter of a million of their people out of employment. Let oil +keep them. He proposed to retaliate with a 50 per cent. tax on imported +oil, to come into operation under Emergency Procedure on the 1st of +September.</p> + +<p>There were men present to whom the suggestion of taxing a raw article, +necessary to a great proportion of the poor, was frankly odious. They +were prepared to attack the proposal as a breach of faith. A few words +from Mr Strummery, scarcely more than whispered, explained the necessity +for the tax and the menace of the situation.</p> + +<p>Those who had not been following events closely, paled to learn the +truth.</p> + +<p>The Treasury was living from hand to mouth, for the City had ceased to +take up its Bills. Unless "something happened" before the New Year +dawned, it would have to admit its inability to continue the Unemployed +Grant. Already a quarter of a million men and their dependents, in +addition to the normal average upon which the estimates were based, had +been suddenly thrown upon the resources of the Department. If Mr Tubes's +forecast proved correct, double that number would be on their hands +within another month. The development of half a million starving men who +had been taught to look to the Government for everything, looking and +finding nothing, could be left to each individual imagination.</p> + +<p>The Oil Tax came into operation on the 1st of September. Under the plea +of becoming more "business-like," a great many of the Parliamentary +safeguards had been swept away, and such procedure was easy. All grades +of petroleum had already advanced a few pence the gallon under the +increased demand, and the poorer users had expressed their indignation. +When they found, one day, that the price had suddenly leapt to half as +much again, their wrath was unbounded. It was in vain for Ministers to +explain that the measure was directed against their enemies. They knew +that it fell on <i>them</i>, and demanded in varying degrees of politeness to +be told why some luxury of the pampered, leisured classes had not been +chosen instead. The reason was plain to those who studied Blue Books. So +highly taxed was every luxury now that the least fraction added to its +burden resulted in an actually decreased revenue from that source.</p> + +<p>But if the mere tax and increase had impressed the poor unfavourably, a +circumstance soon came to light that enraged them.</p> + +<p>In spite of the tax the members of the Unity League were still being +supplied with oil at the old prices, and they were assured that they +would continue to be supplied without advance, even if the tax were +doubled!</p> + +<p>The poor, ever suspicious of the doings of those of their own class when +set high in authority, at once leapt to the conclusion that they were +being made the victims of a double game. It was nothing to them that the +Anglo-Pennsylvanian and the Anglo-Caucasian companies were now trading +at a loss; it was common knowledge that their richer League neighbours +had not had the price of their oil increased, and they knew all too well +that they themselves had. With the lack of balanced reasoning that had +formerly been one of the Government's best weapons, they at once +concluded that they alone were paying the tax, and the unparalleled +injustice of it sowed a crop of bitterness in their hearts.</p> + +<p>If that was the net result at home, the foreign effect of the policy was +not a whit more satisfactory. Studland, the Consul-General at Odessa, +one of the most capable men in the Service, cabled a despatch full of +temperate and solemn warning the moment he heard of the step. It was too +late then, if, indeed, his words would have been regarded. Russia +replied by promptly trebling her existing tax on imported coal, and at +the same time gave Germany rebate terms that practically made it a tax +on <i>English</i> coal. It was said that Russia had only been waiting for a +favourable opportunity, and was more anxious to develop her own new coal +fields in the Donetz basin than to import at all. As far as the Treasury +was concerned, the oil tax yielded little more than was absorbed by the +thirty thousand extra men thrown out of work by Russia's action. The +Government had given a rook for a bishop.</p> + +<p>A little time ago the Cabinet had been prepared to greet winter as a +friend. Without quite possessing the ingenuousness of their amiable +Comrade Bilch, they had thought cynically of the pampered aristocrats +shivering in Mayfair drawing-rooms, of the comfort-loving middle classes +sitting before their desolate suburban hearths, of blue-faced men +setting out breakfastless for freezing offices, and of pallid women +weeping as they tried to warm the hands of little children, as they put +them in their icy beds.</p> + +<p>And now? All their cynical sympathy had apparently been in vain. There +were not going to be any cold breakfasts, freezing offices, or shivering +women and children. Warming stoves and radiators raised the temperature +of a room much quicker than a fire did, and kept it equable without any +attention. Oil cookers took the place of the too often erratic kitchen +range. Mrs Strummery innocently threw the Premier into a frenzy one +morning by dilating on the advantages of a "Britonette" stove which she +had been shown by a Tottenham Court Road ironmonger. The despised, +helpless "classes" were going on very comfortably. They were going on +even gaily; "Oil Scrambles" constituted a new and popular form of +entertainment for long evenings; from Wimbledon came the information +that "Candle Cinderellas" would have a tremendous rage during the +approaching season; and in Cheapside and the Strand the penny hawkers +were minting money with the novel and diverting "Coal Sack Puzzle."</p> + +<p>But the winter was approaching, though no longer as a friend. If England +should say to-morrow what Lancashire was saying that day, there were +portents of stirring times in the air. Already Northumberland, Durham, +and Yorkshire were muttering in their various uncouth dialects, and +Lanark was subscribing to disquieting sentiments in its own barbarous +tongue. Derbyshire was becoming uneasy, Staffordshire was scarcely +answering to the wheel, and Nottingham was in revolt against what it +considered to be the too compliant attitude of the Representation +Committee. The rioting in Monmouth was only restrained from becoming +serious in its proportions by the repeated assurances from Westminster +that the end was in sight; and the "Beaconmen" of Glamorgan were openly +boasting that before long they would "light such a candle" that the +ashes would fall upon London like a Vesuvian cloud.</p> + +<p>Still nearer home was the disturbing spectacle of the railway-men thrown +out of work, the coal carters, the stablemen, the gasworkers, the canal +boatmen, the general labourers, the tool-makers, the wheel-wrights, the +chimney sweepers, the brushmakers. The sequence of dependence could be +traced, detail by detail, through every page of the trade directory.</p> + +<p>They had all been taught to clamour to the Government in every +emergency, and this administration they regarded as peculiarly their +own. It was not a case of Frankenstein's Monster getting out of hand; +this Monster had created its Frankenstein, and could dissolve him if he +proved obstinate. All that Frankenstein had ventured to do so far had +been to reduce the Unemployed Grant to three quarters of its normal rate +"in view of the unprecedented conditions of labour," and where two or +more unemployed were members of one family, to make a further small +deduction. The action had not been well received. "In view of the +unprecedented conditions of labour" the unemployed had looked for more +rather than for less. When the rate was fixed they had been given to +understand that it represented the minimum on which an out-of-work man +could be decently asked to live. Why, then, had their own party reduced +it? Funds? Tax some luxury!</p> + +<p>Even the Government assurance, an ingenious adaptation of truth by the +light of Mr Chadwing's figures, that they "did not anticipate having to +impose the reduced grant for many more weeks, but at the same time +counselled economy in every working-class home," did not restore mutual +good feeling. The general rejoinder was that the Government had "better +not," and the reference to economy was stigmatised as gratuitously +inept.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the situation was reacting unfavourably upon Mr +Strummery and the chief officers of State, not only in Parliament but +even in the Cabinet itself. Consultations between the Premier and half a +dozen of his most trusted Ministers were of daily occurrence. One day, +towards the end of September, Mr Strummery privately intimated to all +the "safe" members of the Council that it was necessary to meet to +consider what further steps to take.</p> + +<p>The meeting was a "packed" one in that the Tirrels, the Browns, and the +Bilches of the party were not invited and knew nothing of it. There was +no reason why Mr Strummery should not call together a section of his +followers if he wished, and discuss policy with them, but at the moment +it was dangerous, because the conclave was just strong enough to be able +to impose its will upon Parliament, and yet individually it was composed +of weak men. It was dangerous because half a dozen weak men, rendered +desperate by the situation into which they were being inevitably driven, +had resolved to act upon heroic lines. As Balzac had remarked, "There is +nothing more horrible than the rebellion of a sheep," but the horrible +consequences generally fall upon its own head in the end.</p> + +<p>Mr Chadwing's statement informed the despondent gathering that on the +existing lines it would be necessary to suspend the wholesale operation +of the relief fund about the middle of December. By reducing the grant +in varying degrees it would be possible to carry on for perhaps three +months beyond that date, but to reach the furthest limit the individual +relief would have become so insignificant that it would only result in +an actual crisis being precipitated earlier than would be the case if +they went on as they were doing.</p> + +<p>That was all that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had to say. The +uninitiated men looked at one another in mute enquiry. There was +something in the air. What was coming?</p> + +<p>The Premier rose to explain. He admitted that they had underrated the +danger of the situation at first. Measures that might have sufficed then +were useless now. Oil was the pivot of the whole question. The oil tax +had not realised expectations. To raise the tax would only alienate the +affections of their own people without reaching the heart of the matter. +They had already taken one bite at a cherry.</p> + +<p>He paused and looked round, an indifferent swimmer forced by giant +circumstance to face his Niagara.</p> + +<p>He proposed as a measure of national emergency to prohibit the +importation of oil altogether.</p> + +<p>There was a gasp of surprise; a moment of stupefaction. Strange things +were again being done in the name of Liberty.</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes's voice, enumerating the results and advantages of the step, +recalled their wandering thoughts. There was little need for the +recital; the effect of so unexpected a <i>coup</i> leapt to the mind at once.</p> + +<p>The Leaguers must either burn coal or starve. The home oil deposits had +long ceased to be worked. Wood under modern conditions was +impracticable; peat was equally debarred, and neither could meet a +sudden emergency in sufficient quantity; electricity meant coal, and was +far from universal. The League movement must collapse within a week.</p> + +<p>There were other points, all in favour of the course. Although it might +slightly inconvenience many working-class homes it would not take their +money as a heavier tax would, and it must convince all that the end was +well in sight. It would induce the poor to use more coal, more gas, in +itself a step towards that desired end. It would teach Russia a sharp +lesson, and Russia's sins were the freshest in their minds.</p> + +<p>All were convinced, and all against their will. There was something +sinister in the proposal; the thought of it fell like a shadow across +the room.</p> + +<p>"It is not a course I would recommend or even assent to as a general +thing," said Mr Strummery. "But we are fighting for the existence of our +party, for the lives of thousands of our people. It is no exaggeration. +Think of the awful misery that must sweep the country in the coming +winter if the League holds out. If we do not break the wicked power of +those two men, there is no picture of national calamity to be found in +the past that can realise the worst."</p> + +<p>"It is their game," said Mr Tubes bitterly. "The cowards are striking at +the women and children through the men."</p> + +<p>He ignored the fact that his party had struck the first blow, and had +had the word "War!" figuratively nailed to the staff of their red banner +for years. In war one usually strikes some one, and on the whole it is +perhaps less reprehensible to strike women and children through men than +<i>vice versa</i>. But it was an acceptable sentiment on the face of it, and +it sounded all right at the moment.</p> + +<p>"Moreover," added the Premier, "there will be this danger in the +situation: that blinded by passions and desperate through misery, the +people may fail to realise who are the real causes of their plight."</p> + +<p>Yes, there was that possibility to be faced by thoughtful Socialistic +Ministers. The people are not very subtle in their reasoning. The most +pressing fact of their existence would be that the Government, which had +promised to keep them from starvation in return for their votes, had had +their votes and was allowing them to starve.</p> + +<p>"I think that we must all agree to the necessity of the step," said one +of the minor men, "though our feelings are all against it."</p> + +<p>"Quite so," admitted Mr Strummery. "Let us hope that being a sharp +remedy it will only need to be a short one."</p> + +<p>Surprise was the essence of the <i>coup</i>, and the "business-like" +procedure of Parliament permitted this when the Government was backed by +a large automatic majority. The expeditious passing of the measure was a +foregone conclusion, yet a few shrewd warning voices were raised against +it even among the stalwarts. The regular opposition voted against it as +a matter of course. The most moderate section of the Labour Party and +the extreme Socialists, who both elected to sit on the opposition side +of the House, refrained from voting, and a few Ministers, who were +distracted between their private opinions and their party duty, were +diplomatically engaged elsewhere.</p> + +<p>The Bill first received the attention of the House on the 25th of +September, the day after the Premier had called his informal meeting. It +became law on the 28th, and three days later, the 1st of October, Great +Britain was absolutely "closed" against the introduction of mineral +burning oils on any terms.</p> + +<p>The country received the measure with mixed feelings, but on the whole +with the admission that it would be effective and with an expression of +dislike. The coal mining districts hailed it with enthusiasm, and the +same reception was accorded it among the affected industries, but +outside these it was nowhere popular, and in certain working-class +quarters it evoked the bitterest hostility. It was felt even by those +who stood to gain much by the overthrow of the League that their +instincts rebelled against the means; possibly the underlying feeling +was distrust of the exercise of power so despotic. It was admitted that +the League's action with respect to coal stood on a different plane. Any +member could at once resign; it was questionable if one could not use +coal and still remain a member. Certainly no coercion was used. But in +the matter of oil a necessary commodity was absolutely ruled out, and, +whether he wished or nor, every one must obey. By the 8th of October the +retail price of petroleum of an average quality was 2s. 9d. the gallon, +and the price was rising as the end of the stock came in sight.</p> + +<p>One curious circumstance excited remark. The Unity League members were +still being supplied at the original price. The League was keeping its +word gallantly to the end. The Government had calculated that the two +interested companies might have a reserve that would last a week. The +average stock which the consumer might be supposed to have in hand would +carry them on for a further five days, and the economy which they would +doubtless practise might hold off the climax for five more. The 17th of +October came to be confidently mentioned in Government circles as the +date of the Unity League's surrender.</p> + +<p>It might have been merely coincidence, but on the 17th of October Mr +Strummery chose to entertain a few of his colleagues to dinner in the +House.</p> + +<p>In spite of the host's inevitable jug of boiling water, an air of genial +humour, almost of gaiety, pervaded the board. Mr Tubes was +entertainingly reminiscent; Chadwing succeeded in throwing off the +weight of the Treasury; Comrade Stubb, fresh from the soil, proved to +have a dry humour of his own; and Cecil Brown, who was always socially +welcome, made a joke which almost surprised the Premier into a smile.</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes was in the middle of a sentence when Cecil Brown, with his face +turned towards the door, laid his hand upon the speaker's arm.</p> + +<p>"A minute, Tubes," he said. "There is something unusual going on out +there."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is——" began Chadwing, and stopped. The same thought had +occurred to at least three of them. Perhaps they were coming to tell +them that Hampden had accepted his defeat. Whatever it might be, a dozen +members who had entered the room in a confused medley were making their +way towards the Premier's table. A man who seemed to concentrate their +attention was in their midst; some were apparently trying to hold him +back, while others urged him on. While yet some distance off he broke +away from them all, and running forward, reached the table first.</p> + +<p>It was Comrade Bilch, so dishevelled, red, and heated, that it did not +occur to any one to doubt that he was drunk. For a second he stood +looking at them stupidly, and then he suddenly opened his mouth and +poured out so appalling a string of vile and nauseating abuse that men +who were near drew aside.</p> + +<p>"Why, in Heaven's name, don't you take him away?" exclaimed Cecil Brown, +appealing to those who formed the group beyond the table.</p> + +<p>They would have done so, but Comrade Bilch raised his hand as though to +enjoin attention for a moment. A change seemed to have come over him +even in that brief passage of time. He walked up to the table and leaned +heavily upon it with both fists, while his breath came in throbs, and +the colour played about his face like the reflection of a raging fire. +When he spoke it was without a single oath; all his uncleanness had +dropped away from him as though he recognised its threadbare poverty in +the face of the colossal news he brought.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," he said, leaning forward and breathing very hard, "you +would have it, and you have got your way. You've made oil contraband, +and not a drop can be landed in Great Britain now. It can't be brought, +but it can be used when it is here, and the Unity League that you have +done it all to starve has got two hundred million gallons safely stowed +away at Hanwood! Yes, while our people will have to grope and freeze +through the winter, <i>they</i> are quite comfortably provided for, and you, +whether you leave the bar on or whether you take it off, you have made +us the laughing-stock of Europe!"</p> + +<p>An awed silence fell on the group. Not the most shadowy suspicion of +such a miscarriage had ever stirred the most cautious. All their qualms +had been in the direction of swallowing the unpalatable measure, not of +doubting its efficacy. They seemed to be the puny antagonists of some +almost superhuman power that not only brushed their most elaborate plans +aside, but actually led them on to pave the way to their own undoing.</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes was the first to speak. "It can't be true," he whispered. "It +is impossible."</p> + +<p>"Oh, everything's impossible with you, especially when it's happened," +retorted Mr Bilch contemptuously. "Pity you didn't live when there were +real miracles about."</p> + +<p>"But the time?" protested some one. "How could they do it in the time?"</p> + +<p>"Time!" said Mr Bilch, "what more do you want? They've had two years, +and they've used two years. If those——" He stopped suddenly, jerked +his head twice with a curious motion, and fell to the ground in a fit.</p> + +<p>There were plenty of good friends to look after him without troubling +the Ministerial group. The dinner-party broke up in the face of so +inauspicious a series of events, and before another hour had passed the +story of the gigantic fiasco had reached every club in London, and was +being cabled to every capital in Christendom.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>THE DARK WINTER</h3> + + +<p>The autumn of 1918 had proved unusually mild. It was said that many of +the migratory birds delayed their exodus for weeks beyond their normal +times, and in sheltered gardens and hedgerows in the south of England +flowers and fruit were making an untimely show; but about midday on the +24th of November it began to grow dark, and, without any indication of +fog, it grew darker, until the greater part of England and Wales was +plunged into a nocturnal gloom. As there was a marked fall in the +temperature, men looked up to the clouds and predicted snow, but they +were wrong. Had it snowed it might have been the White Winter of 1918, +for that night the frost began, and the 24th of November had already +become an ill-omened date to usher in a frost. It did not belie its +character. The next day broke clear but bitter, and those who read +newspapers learned with curious interest that during the night the +seven-tailed comet of 1744 had been observed by several astronomers, to +the great confusion of their science, for its appearance was premature +by a round hundred thousand years. The phenomenon afterwards grew into a +portent to the vulgar mind, for that was the beginning of the great +frost that lasted seven weeks without an intermission.</p> + +<p>Outside certain limits, life was proceeding very much as before. The +condition of the upper classes was not materially different from what it +had been before the policy of retaliation had been declared. The +Personal Property Tax had not been proceeded with, and the Minimum Wage +Bill had been dropped for the time. There were diplomatic explanations; +the real reason was that the Cabinet was too sharply divided over the +expediency of anything in those days to make the passing of important +measures practicable. While none had the courage to go to an extreme +either in aggression or in conciliation, there was a multitude of +counsel vehemently wrangling over the wisdom of little concessions and +little aggressions.</p> + +<p>In London the great increase in the number of unemployed began to be +observable in the early autumn. The obsolete "marches of unemployed" +were revived, but, as might have been foreseen, except among the poor +themselves, they met with no financial encouragement. Even the poor were +becoming careful of their pence. They saw what the winter must mean, for +every one knew of a score of deserving cases around his own door, and it +was commonly reported that the Government contemplated reducing the +Unemployed Grant to two-thirds its normal basis before the year was out. +That was the Cabinet's idea for "breaking it gently." So, meeting with +no response in the suburbs, the City, or the West End, the processions +groaned occasionally, broke a few windows, enhanced the bitter feeling +existing against their class by frightening more than a few ladies, and +were finally kept in check by the special constabulary raised in the +suburbs, the City, and the West End. Finding so little profit for their +exertions, they abandoned their indiscriminate peregrinations, and took +to demonstrating before St Stephen's and to hooting outside the houses +of Cabinet Ministers until the processions and meetings were disallowed.</p> + +<p>There was no public charity that winter, either organised or +spontaneous, for the benefit of the working-class poor. The conditions +of labour would have warranted a Mansion House Fund being opened in +September, but no one suggested it, and no one would have contributed to +it. Abroad it was generally recognised that England was involved in +civil war to which it behoved them to act as neutrals. The Socialists in +Belgium collected and despatched the sum of £327, 14s. 6d. for the +relief of their "persecuted confraternity in England," but as the pomp +and circumstances attending the inauguration of the Fund had led their +persecuted confraternity in England to expect at least a quarter of a +million sterling, some intemperate remarks greeted the consummation of +the effort, and it was not repeated.</p> + +<p>To those who did not look very deeply into the situation it appeared +that a long, hard winter must operate against the interests of the +League. Their opponents would burn more coal. The Government, indeed, +issued an appeal asking them to do so, and thus to relieve the tension +in the provinces. The response was not promising. The Government was, in +effect, told to mind its own business, and particularly that detail of +its business which consisted in the guarantee of a full and undocked +living wage to every worker in or out of work. The contention so far had +been that with the surfeit, coal would be so cheap that even the poorest +could burn it unstintingly. But soon a new and rather terrible +development grew out of the complex situation. Coal became dear, not +only dear in the ordinary sense of the word—winter prices—but very, +very dear. The simple truth was that a disorganised industry always +moves on abnormal lines, and coal was a routed, a shattered, industry.</p> + +<p>There was no oil to be had by any but members of the League; in some +places there was no gas to be had, for many of the small gas companies, +and some of the large ones, had found it impossible to continue amidst +the dislocation of their trade, and the cheapest coal was being retailed +in the streets of London at two shillings the hundred-weight. The +Government had left oil contraband after the discovery of the League's +secret store down the quiet country lane, for they recognised that to +remove the embargo immediately would kill them with ridicule. They +promised themselves that the freedom of commerce should be restored at +the first convenient opportunity. In the meanwhile they decided to do as +they had done in other matters: they bravely ignored the fact that the +League members were any better off than any one else, and declined to +believe the evidence that any store existed.</p> + +<p>That was the state of affairs before the winter set in, and in London +alone. The Capital was feeling some of the remoter effects of the blow, +but from the provinces, from the actual battle-fields, there came grim +stories. Northumberland, which had been loth to accept the Eight Hours +Bill, now traced the whole of the trouble to that head, and declared +that the only hope was for the Government to make a complete surrender +to the Unity League, on the one condition that it restored a normal +demand for coal both at home and abroad. Durham, on the contrary, held +that it was necessary for the Government to crush or wear out the +League. In both counties there had been fierce conflict between the +rival factions, and blood had been freely shed. After a single day's +rioting at Newcastle and Gateshead seventeen dead bodies had been +collected by the ambulances.</p> + +<p>The "Beaconmen" in Glamorgan were setting fire to the pits themselves in +a spirit of fanaticism. In one instance a fire had spread beyond the +intended limits, and an explosion, in which three score of their +unfortunate fellow-workmen perished, had been the net result. The +Midlands were the least disturbed, and even there Walsall had seen a +mass meeting at which thirty thousand colliers and other affected +workmen had called insistently with threats upon the Government, in +pathetic ignorance of the Treasury's plight, to purchase the nation's +coal pits at once, and resume full time at all of them, as the only +means of averting a national calamity.</p> + +<p>And all this had been taking place in the mild autumn, while the +Government was still paying out sufficient relief funds to ensure that +actual starvation should not touch any one, long before it had been +driven to take the country into its confidence. The spectre of cold and +hunger had not yet been raised to goad the men to madness; so far they +regarded existence at least as assured, and the question that was +stirring them to rebellion was not the fundamental one of the "right to +live," but the almost academic issue of the right to live apart from the +natural vicissitudes of life.</p> + +<p>The Government had other troubles on hand. The two principal causes for +anxiety among these, if not actually of their own hatching, had +certainly sprung from a common stock.</p> + +<p>The Parliament sitting at College Green deemed the moment opportune for +issuing a Declaration of Independence and proclaiming a republic. Three +years before, all Irishmen had been withdrawn from the British army and +navy on the receipt of Dublin's firmly-worded note to the effect that +since the granting of extended Home Rule, Irishmen came within the +sphere of the Foreign Enlistment Act. These men formed the nucleus of a +very useful army with which Ireland thought it would be practicable to +hold out in the interior until foreign intervention came to its aid. +Possibly England thought so too, for Mr Strummery's Ministry contented +itself with issuing what its members described as a firm and dignified +protest. Closely examined, it was discoverable that the dignified +portion was a lengthy recapitulation of ancient history; the firm +portion a record of Dublin's demands since Home Rule had been conceded, +while the essential part of the communication informed the new republic +that its actions were not what his Majesty's Ministers had expected of +it, and that they would certainly reserve the right of taking the matter +in hand at some future time more suitable to themselves.</p> + +<p>The other harassment was that Leicester lay at the mercy of an epidemic +of small-pox which threatened to become historic in the annals of the +scourge. In the second month the average daily number of deaths had +risen to 120, and there was no sign of a decrease. In the autumn it was +hoped that the winter would kill the disease; in the winter it was +anticipated that it would die out naturally under the influence of the +spring sunshine. The situation affected Mr Chadwing more closely than +any of his colleagues, for Leicester had the honour of returning the +Chancellor of the Exchequer as one of its members. Under normal +conditions Mr Chadwing made a practice of visiting his constituency and +addressing a meeting every few weeks, but during the six months that the +epidemic raged he found himself unable to leave London. His attitude was +perfectly consistent, in spite of the hard things that some of his +supporters said of him in his absence: like the majority of his +constituents, he had a Conscientious Objection to vaccination, but he +also had an even stronger conscientious objection to encountering +small-pox infection.</p> + +<p>The 24th of November ushered in a new phase of the strife. It marked the +beginning of the Dark Winter. Early in December the newspapers began to +draw comparisons between the weather then prevailing and the hard +winters on record. At that date it was noticeable how many +rustic-looking vagrants were to be seen walking aimlessly about the +streets of London. The unemployed from the country were beginning to +flock in for the mere sense of warmth. The British Museum, St. Paul's +Cathedral, the free libraries, and other places where it was possible to +escape from the dreadful rigour of the streets, were crowded by day. At +night long <i>queues</i> of miserable creatures haunted the grids of +restaurants, the sheltered sides of theatres, the windows of printing +houses, and any spot where a little warmth exhaled. On the nights of the +4th, the 5th, and the 6th of December the thermometer on Primrose Hill +registered 3° below zero. On the 7th pheasants were observed feeding +among the pigeons in the main street of Highgate, and from that time +onwards wild birds of the rarer kinds were no unusual sight in the +London parks and about the public buildings. In the country it was +remarked that the small birds had begun to disappear, and the curious +might read any morning of frozen goldfinches being picked up in +Camberwell, larks about Victoria Park, and starlings, robins, +blackbirds, and such like fry everywhere. By this time dairymen had +discovered that it was impossible to deliver milk unless they carried a +brazier of live charcoal on their cart or hand-truck. Local +correspondents in the provinces had ceased to report ordinary cases of +death from cold and exposure; there were cases in the streets of London +every night.</p> + +<p>Early in December Sir John Hampden was approached unofficially by a few +members of Parliament, including one or two of minor official rank, to +learn his "terms." The suggestions were tentative on both sides, and +nothing was stated definitely. But out of the circumlocution it might be +inferred that he expressed his willingness to rescind the boycott, and +to devote five million pounds to public relief at once, in return for +certain modifications of the franchise and an immediate dissolution. +Nothing came of the movement, and during the first week of December the +Government sent round to the post-offices and to all the Crown tax +collectors notices that the licences ordinarily falling due on the 1st +of January must be taken out on or before the 15th of the current month, +and the King's Taxes similarly collected in advance. The League did not +make any open comment on this departure, but every member merely ignored +it, and when the 16th of December was reached, it devolved upon the +officers of the Crown to enforce the payment by legal process. In the +language of another age, the Government was faced by five million +"Passive Resisters." It soon became apparent that instead of getting in +the taxes a fortnight before their time, the greater part of the revenue +from that source would be delayed at least a month later than usual.</p> + +<p>On the 20th of December one million and three-quarters State-supported +unemployed of various grades presented themselves at the appointed +trades unions committee rooms, workhouse offices, employment bureaux, +Treasury depôts, from which the Fund was administered, to receive their +weekly "wage." As they passed in they were confronted by a formal notice +to the effect that the disbursement was then reduced to half its usual +amount. As they passed out they came upon another formal notice to the +effect that after the following week the Grant would be "temporarily +suspended." Possibly that also embodied an idea of "breaking it gently."</p> + +<p>The cry of surprise, rage, and terrified foreboding that rose from every +town and village of the land when the direful news was at length +understood, can never be described. Its echoes were destined to roll +through the pages of English history for many a generation. The +immediate result was that rioting broke out in practically all parts of +the country except the purely agricultural. The people who had been +promised a perpetual life of milk and honey had "murmured" when they +were offered bread and water. Now there seemed every prospect of the +water reaching them as ice, and the bread-board being empty, and their +"murmuring" took a sharper edge. In some places there were absolute +stampedes of reason. In justice it has to be remembered that by this +time the most pitiless winter of modern times had been heaping misery on +misery for a month, that the chance of finding work or relief was +recognised to be the forlornest hope, and that very, very few had a +reserve of any kind.</p> + +<p>The indiscriminate disturbances of the 20th of December were easily +suppressed. A people that has been free for generations loses the gift +for successful rioting in the face of armed discipline, even of the most +inadequate strength. But for constitutional purposes the body of one +dragooned rioter in England was worth more than a whole "Vladimir's +battue" east of the Baltic.</p> + +<p>On the 27th of December the certified unemployed drew their diminished +pittance for the last time. They left the buildings in many places with +the significant threat that they would return that day week, and if +there was nothing for them would "warm their hands" there at the least. +There was renewed rioting that day also. The forces of law and order had +been strengthened; the rioters appeared to have been better organised. +In one or two towns the rioting began to approach the Continental level. +Bolton was said to have proved itself far from amateurish, and Nuneaton +was spoken of as being distinctly promising. At the end of that day +public buildings had to be requisitioned in several places to lay out +the spoils of victory and defeat.</p> + +<p>Two days later every newspaper contained an "open letter" from Sir John +Hampden to the Government, in which he unconditionally offered them, on +behalf of the Unity League and in the name of humanity, sufficient funds +to pay the half grant for four weeks longer. It was a humane offer, but +its proper name was strategy. It embarrassed the Government to decide +whether to accept or decline. It embarrassed them if they accepted, and +if they declined it embarrassed them most of all. They declined; or, to +be precise, they ignored the offer.</p> + +<p>By this time England might be said to be under famine. London, in its +ice-bound straits, began curiously to assume the appearance of a +mediæval city. By night one might meet grotesquely clad bands of +revellers returning from some ice carnival (for the Thames had long been +frozen from the Tower to Gravesend) by the light of lanterns and torches +which they carried. None but those who had nothing to lose ventured out +into the streets at night except by companies. Thieves and bludgeoners +lurked in every archway, and arrests were seldom made; beggars +importuned with every wile and in every tone, and new fantastic creeds +and extravagant new parties sent out their perfervid disciples to +proclaim Utopias at every corner.</p> + +<p>To add to the terror of the night there suddenly sprang into prominence +the bands of "Running Madmen" who swept through the streets like fallen +leaves in an autumn gale. Barefooted, gaunt, and wildly dressed in rags, +they broke upon the astonished wayfarer's sight, and passed out again +into the gloom before he could ask himself what strange manner of men +they were. Never alone, seldom exceeding a score in any band, they ran +keenly as though with some purposeful end in view, for the most part +silently, but now and then startling the quiet night with an +inarticulate wail or a cry of woe or lamentation, but they turned from +street to street in aimless intricacy, and sought no definite goal. They +were never seen by day, and whence they came or where they had their +homes none could say, but the steady increase in the number of their +bands showed that they were undoubtedly the victims of a contagious +mania such as those that have appeared in the past from time to time.</p> + +<p>Almost as ragged and unkempt was the army that by day marched under the +standard of Brother Ambrose towards the sinless New Jerusalem. Reading +the abundant signs all round with an inspired and fatalistic eye, +Ambrose uncompromisingly announced that all the portents of the +Millennium were now fulfilled, and that the reign of temporal power on +earth was at an end. Each day his eloquence mounted to a wilder flight, +each day he dreamed new dreams and saw fresh visions, and promised to +his followers more definitely the spoil of victory, and parcelled out +the smiling, fruitful land. Drawn by every human passion, recruits +poured into his ranks, and when he marched in tattered state to mark the +boundaries of the impending Golden City, the Legions of the Chosen +rolled not in their thousands, but in their tens of thousands, singing +hymns and interspersing ribaldry.</p> + +<p>A very different spectacle was afforded by the bands of the Gilded Youth +which by day patrolled the approaches to houses of the better class, +wherever smoke had been seen issuing from the chimneys, and by night +with equal order and thoroughness turned out the public gas lamps in the +streets, until many of the authorities at last gave up the lighting of +the lamps as a useless formality.</p> + +<p>It was impossible for the occupants of a house that had incurred their +enmity to have them removed by force, or to maintain an attitude of +unconcern in the face of their demonstration, yet everything they did +came under the term of "Peaceful Picketing" within the provisions of the +Act, and an attempt to fix responsibility upon the Unity League for the +high-handed action of its agents in a few cases where the Gilded Youth +had gone beyond their powers, failed ignominiously through the precedent +afforded by the final settlement of the celebrated Tawe Valley Case.</p> + +<p>In the provinces the rioters were burning coal, burning coal-pits, +smashing machinery and destroying property indiscriminately, blind to +the fact that some of the immediate effects were falling on their +fellow-workmen, and that most of the ultimate effects would fall upon +themselves. In London and elsewhere the bands of the Gilded Youth were +going quietly and systematically about their daily work, "peacefully" +terrorising house-holders into submission, and carefully turning out the +public lamps at night as soon as they were lit. To the reflective mind +it was rather a dreadful power that the time had called into being: an +educated mob that "rioted peacefully" and did nothing at all that was +detrimental to its own interest.</p> + +<p>Each morning people assured one another that so unparalleled a frost +could last no longer, but each night the air seemed to be whetted to a +keener edge, and each day there came fresh evidences of its power. Early +in January it was computed that all the small birds that had not taken +refuge in towns were dead, partly through the cold itself, but equally +by starvation, for the ground yielded them nothing, and the trees and +shrubs upon which they had been able to rely for food in former winters +had long since perished. There were none but insignificant hollies to be +seen in English gardens for the next generation, and in exposed +situations forest trees and even oaks were split down to the ground.</p> + +<p>All this time there was very little destructive rioting going on in +London on any organised scale, but every night breadths of wood pavement +were torn up by the homeless vagrants, who were now allowed to herd +where they could, and great fires set burning at which the police warmed +themselves and mingled supinely with the crowd. By day the police went +in pairs, by night they patrolled in companies of five. For the +emergency of serious rioting the military were always kept in readiness; +against the more ordinary depredations on private property the owners +were practically left to defend themselves. In those dark weeks watch +duty became one of the regular occupations among the staff of every +London business, and short shrift was given to intruders. Inquests went +like marriages in busy churches at Easter-tide—in batches, and the +morning cart that picked up the frozen dead had only one compartment.</p> + +<p>The time was past when the effects of the vast disorganisation could be +localised. Every trade and profession, every trivial and obscure +calling, and every insignificant little offshoot of that great trunk +called Commerce was involved in depression; it was not too much to say +that every individual in the land was feeling some ill effect. Frantic +legislation had begun it ten years before; the coal war had brought it +to a climax, and the grip of the long, hard winter had pressed like a +hostile hand upon the land.</p> + +<p>It had resolved itself into a war of endurance. Coal was no longer the +pivot; it was money, immediate money with which to buy bread at the +bakers' shops, where they carried on their trade with the shutters up +and loaded weapons laid out in the upper rooms.</p> + +<p>Not the least curious feature of the struggle was the marked +disinclination of the starving populace to pillage or bloodshed. +Doubtless they saw that whatever they might individually profit by a +reign of terror, their cause and party had nothing to gain from it. Such +an outburst must inevitably react unfavourably upon the Government of +the day, and it was <i>their</i> party then in power. But they had not the +mob instinct in them; they were not composed of the ordinary mob +element. In the bulk they were neither criminals nor hooligans, but +matter-of-fact, disillusionised working men, and the instincts of their +class have ever been steady and law-abiding. In Cheapside a gang of +professional thieves blew out the iron shutter of a jeweller's shop with +dynamite, and securing a valuable haul of jewellery in the momentary +confusion, sought to hide themselves among the mob. Far from entering +into their aspirations, the mob promptly conveyed them to the nearest +police station, and returned to the owner the valuable articles that had +been scattered about the street. The climax of the incident was reached +by half a dozen of the most stalwart unemployed gladly accepting a few +shillings each to guard the broken window until the shutter was +repaired.</p> + +<p>At the collieries, the mills, the workshops, and the seats of labour +there were outrages against property, but away from the immediate +centres there was neither cupidity nor resentment. Whenever disturbances +of the kind took place they were invariably in pursuit of food or +warmth. The men were dispirited, and by this time they regarded their +cause as lost. Their leaders, in and out of Parliament, were classed +either as incompetent generals in a war, or as traitors who had misled +the people. The people only asked them now to make the terms of +surrender so that they might live; and they did not hesitate to declare +roundly that the old times when they had had to look after themselves +more, and had not been body and soul at the disposal of semi-political +Unions, were preferable on the whole.</p> + +<p>The position of the Cabinet was daily growing more critical. Its chiefs +were execrated and insulted whenever they were seen. All the approaches +to the House were held by military guards, and the members reached its +gates singly, and almost by stealth. Every day placards, written and +printed, were found displayed in public places, calling on the +Government that had no money to let in one that had. "You thought more +of your position than of our needs when Hampden offered us help," ran +one that Mr Strummery found nailed to his front door. "You have always +thought more of your positions than of our needs. You have used our +needs to raise yourselves to those positions. Now, since you no longer +represent the wishes of the People, give way to others."</p> + +<p>The delay of the Government in throwing up an utterly untenable position +was inexplicable to most people. Many said that the reason was that +Hampden refused to take office under the existing franchise, and no one +but Hampden could form an administration in that crisis that could hope +to live for a day. Whatever the reason might be, it was obvious that the +Government was drifting towards a national tragedy that would be +stupendous, for in less than a month's time, it was agreed on all hands, +the daily tale of starved and famished dead would have reached its +thousands.</p> + +<p>Still the Government hung on, backed in sullen submission by its +automatic majority. Changes in the Cabinet were of almost daily record, +but the half dozen men of prominence remained. Cecil Brown was the last +of the old minor men to be dropped. A dog trainer, who had taken up +politics, succeeded him. "It is too late now," Cecil Brown was reported +to have said when he learned who was to be his successor. "They want +bread, not circuses!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>THE INCIDENT OF THE 13TH OF JANUARY</h3> + + +<p>"I do not altogether like it," said A.</p> + +<p>"Do you prefer to leave things as they are, then?" demanded B.</p> + +<p>A. went over and stood by the window, looking moodily out.</p> + +<p>"It is merely a necessity," said C.</p> + +<p>"The necessity of a necessity," suggested D. happily.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are not aware," said B., addressing himself to the man +standing at the window, "that the suggestion of arresting Salt did not +come from us in the first case."</p> + +<p>"Is that so?" replied A., coming back into the room. "I certainly +assumed that it did."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary," explained B., "it was Inspector Moeletter who +reported to his superiors that he had succeeded in identifying the +mysterious man who was seen with Leslie Garnet, the artist, about the +time of his death. He would have got his warrant in the ordinary way, +only in view of the remarkable position that Salt occupies just now, +Stafford very naturally communicated with us."</p> + +<p>"The only point that troubles us," remarked C. reflectively, "is that +none of us can persuade himself in the remotest degree that Salt killed +Garnet."</p> + +<p>"I certainty require to have the evidence before I can subscribe to +that," said B. "The man who is daily killing hundreds——"</p> + +<p>"Ah, that is the difference," commented D.</p> + +<p>"Where are the Monmouth colliers now?" asked C., after a pause.</p> + +<p>"Newbury, this morning," replied D. "Reading, to-night."</p> + +<p>"And the Midland lot?"</p> + +<p>"Towcester, I think."</p> + +<p>"If Hampden formally asks for protection for the oil store at Hanwood, +after the miners' threat to burn it, what are you going to do?" asked A.</p> + +<p>"I should suggest telling him to go and boil himself in it, since he has +got it there," replied C.</p> + +<p>"There will be no need to tell him anything but the bare fact, and that +is that with twenty-five thousand turbulent colliers pouring into London +and adding to the disaffected element already here, we cannot spare a +single man," replied B.</p> + +<p>"I quite agree with that," remarked D., drawing attention to his +freshly-scarred cheek. "I had a tribute of the mob's affection as I came +in this morning."</p> + +<p>"That's your popularity," said C. "Your photograph is so much about that +no one has any difficulty in recognising you. How do you get on in that +way, B.?"</p> + +<p>"I?" exclaimed B. with a startled look. "Oh, I always drive with the +blinds down now."</p> + +<p>"Are any extra military coming in before Friday?" asked A.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the Lancers from Hounslow. They come into the empty Albany Street +Barracks to-night. Then I think that there are to be some extra infantry +in Whitehall, from Aldershot. Cadman is seeing to all that."</p> + +<p>"But you know that the Lancers are being drawn from Hounslow?" asked C. +with a meaning laugh.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know that," admitted B. "Why do you laugh, C.?"</p> + +<p>C.'s only reply was to laugh again.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you why he laughs," volunteered D. "He laughs, B., because +the Lancers withdrawn from Hounslow to Regent's Park, Salt under arrest +at Stafford, and the Monmouth colliers coming along the Bath road and +passing within a mile or two of Hanwood, represent the three angles of a +very acute triangle."</p> + +<p>"There is still Hampden," muttered B.</p> + +<p>"Yes; what is going to happen to Hampden?" asked C., with a trace of his +mordant amusement.</p> + +<p>A., who was walking about the room aimlessly, stopped and faced the +others.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what," he exclaimed emphatically. "I said just now that I +didn't like the idea of smuggling Salt away like this, and, although it +may be advisable, I don't. But I wish to God that we had openly arrested +the pair of them as traitors, and burned their diabolical store before +every one's eyes three months ago."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said D. thoughtfully, "it was too early then. Now it's too late."</p> + +<p>"It may be too late to have its full effect," flashed out B., "but it +won't be too late to make them suffer a bit along with our own people."</p> + +<p>"Provided that the oil is burned," said D.</p> + +<p>"Provided that no protection can be sent," remarked C.</p> + +<p>"Provided that Salt is arrested," added A.</p> + +<p>There was a knock at the door. It explained the attitude of the four men +in the room and their scattered conversation. They had been awaiting +some one.</p> + +<p>He came into the room and saluted, a powerfully-built man with "uniform" +branded on every limb, although he wore plain clothes then.</p> + +<p>"Detective-Inspector Moeletter?" said B.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," said the inspector, and stood at attention.</p> + +<p>"You have the warrant?" continued B.</p> + +<p>Moeletter produced it, and passed it in for inspection. It was made out +on the preceding day, signed by the Stipendiary Magistrate of Stafford, +and it connected George Salt with Leslie Garnet by the link of Murder.</p> + +<p>"When you applied for this warrant," said B., looking hard at the +inspector, "you considered that you had sufficient evidence to support +it?"</p> + +<p>Moeletter looked puzzled for a moment, as though the question was one +that he did not quite follow in that form. For a moment he seemed to be +on the verge of making an explanation; then he thought better of it, and +simply replied: "Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"At all events," continued B. hastily, "you have enough evidence to +justify a remand? What are the points?"</p> + +<p>"We have abundant evidence that Salt was in the neighbourhood about the +time of the tragedy; that fact can scarcely be contested. Coming nearer, +an old man, who had been hedging until the storm drove him under a high +bank, saw a gentleman enter Garnet's cottage about half-past five. +Without any leading he described this man accurately as Salt, and picked +out his photograph from among a dozen others. About an hour later, two +boys, who were bird-nesting near Stourton Hill church, heard a shot. +They looked through the hedge into the graveyard and saw one man lying +apparently dead on the ground, and another bending over him as though he +might be going through his pockets. Being frightened, they ran away and +told no one of it for some time, as boys would. Of course, sir, that's +more than six months ago now, but the description they give tallies, and +I think that we may claim a strong presumption of identity taking into +consideration the established time of Salt's arrival at Thornley."</p> + +<p>"That is all?" said B.</p> + +<p>"As regards identity," replied the inspector. "On general grounds we +shall show that for some time before his death Garnet had been selling +shares and securities which he held, and that although he lived frugally +no money was found in the remains of his house or on his person, and no +trace of a banking account or other investment can be discovered. Then +we allege that 'George Salt' is not the man's right name, although we +have not been able to follow that up yet. He is generally understood to +have been a sailor recently, and the revolver found beside the body was +of a naval pattern. I should add that the medical evidence at the +inquest was to the effect that the wound might have been self-inflicted, +but that the angle was unusual."</p> + +<p>B. returned the warrant to the inspector.</p> + +<p>"That will at least ensure a remand for a week for you to continue your +investigations?"</p> + +<p>"I think so, sir."</p> + +<p>"Without bail?"</p> + +<p>"If it is opposed."</p> + +<p>"We oppose it, then. Did you bring any one down with you?"</p> + +<p>Inspector Moeletter had not done so. He had not been able to anticipate +what amended instructions he might receive in London, so he had thought +it as well to come alone.</p> + +<p>"For political reasons it is desirable that nothing should be known +publicly of the arrest until you have your prisoner safely at Stafford," +said B. "At present he is motoring in the southern counties. I have +information that he will leave Farnham this afternoon between three and +half-past and proceed direct to Guildford. Is there any reason why you +should not arrest him between the two places?"</p> + +<p>Inspector Moeletter knew of none.</p> + +<p>"It will be preferable to doing so in either town from our point of +view," continued B., "and it is not known whether he intends leaving +Guildford to-night."</p> + +<p>The inspector took out an innocent-looking pocket-book, whose elastic +band was a veritable hangman's noose, and noted the facts.</p> + +<p>"Is a description of the motor-car available?" he enquired.</p> + +<p>B. picked up a sheet of paper. "It is a large car, a 30 H.P. Daimler, +with a covered body, and painted in two shades of green," he read from +the paper. "The number is L.N. 7246."</p> + +<p>"I would suggest bringing him straight on in the car," said Moeletter. +"It would obviate the publicity of railway travelling."</p> + +<p>B. nodded. "There is another thing," he said. "It is absolutely +necessary to avoid the London termini. They are all watched +systematically by agents of the League—spies who call themselves +patriots. You will take the 7.30 train with your prisoner, but you will +join it at Willesden. I will have it stopped for you."</p> + +<p>"I shall need a man who can drive the motor to go down with me," the +detective reminded him.</p> + +<p>B. struck a bell. "Send Sergeant Tolkeith in," he said to the attendant.</p> + +<p>Sergeant Tolkeith was apparently being kept ready in the next room, to +be slipped at the fall of the flag, so to speak. He came in very +smartly.</p> + +<p>"You will remain with Inspector Moeletter while he is in London, and +make all the necessary arrangements for him," instructed B. "I suppose +that there are men at Scotland Yard available now who can drive every +kind of motor?"</p> + +<p>Sergeant Tolkeith hazarded the opinion that there were men at Scotland +Yard at that moment who could drive—he looked round the room in search +of some strange or Titanic vehicle to which the prowess of Scotland Yard +would be equal—"Well, Anything."</p> + +<p>"A man who knows the roads," continued B. "Though, for that matter, it's +a simple enough route—the Portsmouth road all the way to Kingston, and +then across to Willesden. You had better avoid Guildford, by the way, +coming back. Now, what other assistance will you require?"</p> + +<p>"How many are there likely to be in the car, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No one but Salt, I am informed. He has been touring alone for a week +past, at all events."</p> + +<p>"In that case, sir, we had better take a couple of men from Guildford +and drive towards Farnham. We can wait at a suitable place in the road +and make the arrest. Then when the irons are on I shall need no one +beyond the driver I take with me. The two local men—you'll want Mr +Salt's <i>chauffeur</i> detained for a few hours, I suppose, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly; until you are well on your way. And any one else who +may happen to be in the car. I will give you authority covering that."</p> + +<p>"The two local men can take him, or them, back to Guildford—it will be +dark by the time they get there—for detention while enquiries are being +made. Then if a plain-clothes man meets me at Willesden we can go on, +and our driver can take the car on to Scotland Yard."</p> + +<p>"You see no difficulty throughout?" said B. anxiously. The inspector +assured him that all seemed plain sailing. It was not his place to +foresee difficulties in B.'s plans.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall expect you to report to me from Stafford about 10.30 +to-night that everything is satisfactory. Let me impress on you as a +last word the need of care and <i>unconcern</i> in this case. It must be +successfully carried out, and to do that there must be no fuss or +publicity."</p> + +<p>"Sergeant," said Detective-Inspector Moeletter, when they were outside, +"between ourselves, can you tell me this: why they think it necessary to +have three mute gentlemen looking on while we arrange a matter of this +sort?"</p> + +<p>"Between ourselves, sir," replied Sergeant Tolkeith, looking cautiously +around, "it's my belief that it's come to this: that they are all +half-afraid of themselves and can't trust one another."</p> + +<p>"D.," remarked C., as they left together a few minutes later, "does +anything strike you about B.?"</p> + +<p>"It strikes me that he looks rather like an undertaker's man when he is +dressed up," replied D.</p> + +<p>"Does it not strike you that he is <i>afraid</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," admitted D., stroking his wounded cheek, "that's quite possible. +So am I, for that matter."</p> + +<p>"So may we all be in a way," said C.; "but it is different with him. I +believe that he is in a <i>blue funk</i>. He's fey, and he's got Salt on the +brain. Just remember that I venture on this prophecy: if Salt through +any cause does not happen to get arrested, B. will throw up the sponge."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The office of the Unity League in Trafalgar Chambers was little more +than an empty hive now. The headquarters of the operations had been +transferred to the colony at Hanwood, and most of the staff had +followed. With the declaration of the coal war, an entirely different +set of conditions had come into force. The old offices had practically +become a clearing house for everything connected with the League, and +the high tide of active interest swept on elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Miss Lisle remained, a person of some consequence, but in her heart she +sighed from time to time for a sphere of action "down another little +lane."</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the 13th of January she returned to the office about +half-past three, and going to the instrument room unlocked the +telescribe receiver-box and proceeded to sort the dozen communications +which it contained—the accumulation of an hour—before passing them on +to be dealt with. Most fell into clearly-defined departments at a +glance. It was not until she reached the last, the earliest sent, that +she read it through, but as she read that her whole half-listless, +mechanical manner changed. With the first line apathy fell from her like +a cloak; before she had finished, every limb and feature conveyed a +sense of tingling excitement. In frantic haste she dragged the special +writing materials across the table towards her, dashed off a sprawling, +"Stop Mr Salt at any cost.—<span class="smcap">Lisle</span>," and flashed it off to the League +agency at Farnham.</p> + +<p>A couple of minutes must pass before she could get any reply. She picked +up the cause of her excitement, and for the second time read the message +it contained:</p> + +<p>"If you want to keep your Mr Salt from being arrested on a charge of +murder, warn him that Inspector Moeletter from Stafford will be waiting +for him on the road between Farnham and Guildford at three o'clock this +afternoon with a warrant. No one believes in it, but he will be taken on +in his motor to Willesden, and on to Stafford by the 7.30, and kept out +of the way for a week while things have time to happen at Hanwood. There +will be just enough evidence to get a remand, as there was to get a +warrant. This is from a friend, who may remind you of it later and prove +who he is by this sign."</p> + +<p>The letter finished with a rough drawing of a gallows and a broken rope. +It was written in a cramped, feigned hand and addressed to Sir John +Hampden. It might have been lying in the box for an hour.</p> + +<p>The telescribe bell gave its single note. Irene opened the box in +feverish dread. An exclamation of despair broke from her lips as some +words on the paper stood out in the intensity of their significance even +before she took the letter from the box.</p> + +<p>This was what Farnham replied:</p> + +<p>"Hope nothing is the matter. Mr Salt left here quite half an hour ago, +in his motor, for Guildford. He will stay there the night, or proceed to +Hanwood according to the time he is occupied. Please let me know if +there is any trouble."</p> + +<p>Half an hour! There was not the remotest chance of intercepting him. +Already, under ordinary circumstances, he would be in the outskirts of +Guildford. It only remained to verify the worst. She wrote a brief +message asking Mr Salt if he would kindly communicate with her +immediately on his arrival, and despatched it to the agency at +Guildford. If there was no reply to that request during the next +half-hour she would accept the arrest as an established fact. And there +being nothing apparently to do for the next half-hour, Miss Lisle, very +much to the surprise of ninety-nine out of her hundred friends could +they have seen her, went down on her knees in the midst of a roomful of +the latest achievements of science and began to pray that a miracle +might happen.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"I suppose that I may smoke?" said Salt. He was sitting handcuffed in +his own motor-car, charged with murder, and formally cautioned that +anything he should say might be used as evidence against him. It was +scarcely a necessary warning in his case; with the exception of an +equally formal protest against the arrest, he had not opened his lips +until now. He and Moeletter had sat silently facing one another in the +comfortably-appointed, roomy car, Salt with his face to the driver and +leaning back in his easy seat with outward unconcern, the detective +braced to a more alert attitude and with his knees almost touching those +of his prisoner. For a mile or more—for perhaps seven or eight minutes +by time, for the new driver was cautious with the yet unknown car—they +had proceeded thus.</p> + +<p>Yet Salt was very far from being unconcerned as he leaned back +negligently among the cushions. He was thinking keenly, and with the +settled, tranquil gaze that betrayed nothing, watching alertly the miles +of dreary high-road that stretched along the Hog's Back before them. He +had long foreseen the possibility of arrest, and he had taken certain +precautions; but to safeguard himself effectually he would have had to +abandon the more important part of his work, and the risk he ran was the +smaller evil of the two. But he had not anticipated this charge. Some +legal jugglery with "conspiracy" had been in his mind.</p> + +<p>"I suppose that I may smoke?" Half a mile ahead a solitary wayfarer was +approaching. Salt might have noted him, but there was nothing remarkable +in his appearance except that pedestrians—or vehicles either, for that +matter—were rare along the Hog's Back on that bitter winter afternoon.</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly, sir; in your own car, surely," replied the inspector +agreeably. He was there to do his duty, and he had done it, even down to +the detail of satisfying himself by search that his prisoner carried no +weapon. Beyond that there was no reason to be churlish, especially as +every one had to admit that there was no telling what might have +happened in a week's or a month's time. "Can I help you in any way?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I will manage," replied Salt, and in spite of his manacles +he succeeded without much difficulty in taking out his cigarette-case +and a match-box. He lit a cigarette, blew out the match, and then looked +hesitatingly round the rather elegant car, at the rich velvety carpet on +the floor, at the half-burned vesta in his hand. Then with easy +unconcern he lowered the window by his side and leaned forward towards +it.</p> + +<p>It was a perfectly natural action, but Inspector Moeletter owed at least +one step in his promotion to a habit of always being on his guard +against natural-seeming actions of that kind. His left foot quickly and +imperceptibly slid across the carpet, so that if Salt made any +ill-judged attempt to leave the car he must inevitably come to grief +across that rigid barrier; with a ready eye Moeletter noted afresh the +handle of the door, the size of the window frame, and every kindred +detail. His hands lay in unostentatious readiness by his side, and he +felt no apprehension.</p> + +<p>But Salt had not the faintest intention of attempting any sensational +act. He dropped the match leisurely from between his fingers, cast a +glance up to the sky, where the lowering clouds had long been +threatening snow, and then drew in his head. But in some way, either +from his position, a jolt of the car, or a touch against the sash, as he +did so his cap was jerked off, and, despite a quick but clumsy attempt +to catch it in his fettered hands, it was whirled away behind in their +eddying wake.</p> + +<p>"Please stop," he said, turning to Moeletter. "I am afraid that I shall +find it too cold without."</p> + +<p>The detective was not pleased, but there was nothing in the mishap that +he could take objection to. Further, he had no wish to make his prisoner +in any way noticeable during the latter part of their journey. "Pull up, +Murphy," he called through the tube by his shoulder, and with a grinding +that set its owner's teeth on edge, the car came to a standstill in two +lengths.</p> + +<p>Moeletter had intended that the driver should recover the cap, but he +was saved the trouble. The solitary pedestrian had happened to be on the +spot at the moment of the incident, and he was standing by the open +window almost as soon as the car stopped. Forgetful of his indignity, +Salt stretched out a manacled hand and received his property. "Thank +you," he said with a pleasant smile. "I am much obliged."</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Moeletter, through the tube.</p> + +<p>"I think that I had better get used to these—'darbies' is the +professional name, is it not, Inspector?—to these 'darbies' before I +look out again," remarked Salt good-humouredly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The telescribe bell announced another message. It found Irene sitting at +the table in the instrument room with ordnance maps around her and the +index book of the League's most trusted agents lying open on the shelf. +She just glanced at the clock as she jumped up. It was 4.15, exactly the +last minute of the half-hour that she had fixed as the limit of +uncertainty. The message might even yet be from Salt. But it was not; it +was this instead:</p> + +<p>"Fear Mr Salt has been arrested. He is in his motor-car, handcuffed, +proceeding towards Guildford, in charge of man who has appearance of +belonging to police force. Driver is not Mr Salt's man. Mr S. made opp. +for me to see sit., but said nothing. Passed just W. of Puttenham 3.55. +Roads good, but snow beginning. Car trav only 10-12 m. hour. Shall +remain here on chance being use. Don't hesitate."</p> + +<p>A hall-formed plan was already floating in the space between Miss +Lisle's adventurous brain and the maps. The Puttenham message +crystallised it. There was now something to go on. The route she knew +already; the times and mileages also lay beneath her hand. The scheme +had a hundred faults, and only one thing to recommend it—that it might +succeed. For ten minutes she flung herself into the details of the maps, +jotting down a time, a distance, here and there a detail of the road. +"Puttenham" might remain at his box till dawn, but all the work, all the +chance, was forward—before the car. At the end of ten minutes Irene +picked up the accumulation of her labours and rang up the telephone +exchange.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"What is it, Murphy?" demanded the inspector through the tube, as the +car came to a dead stop. "Something else in the way?"</p> + +<p>"I can't quite make it out, sir," was the reply. "We're just outside the +long railway arch, and there seems to be something on fire towards the +other end. Terrible lot of smoke coming through."</p> + +<p>"Can't we run up to it?"</p> + +<p>"This is an unusually long bridge—fifty or sixty yards, I should say. I +hardly like to take you on into that smoke, sir."</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well. Jump down and see what it is. Only be as sharp as you +can."</p> + +<p>It was now pitch dark, and a driving, biting storm of snow and hail was +blowing across their path from the east. When the constable-<i>chauffeur</i> +had learned sufficient of the car to give him confidence, the storm had +swept down, and their progress had been scarcely any faster. There had +been delays, too. By Ripley a heavy farm waggon had broken down almost +before their eyes, and it had been ten minutes before a spare chain +horse could be obtained to drag it to the roadside. Further on some men +felling a tree in a coppice had clumsily allowed it to fall across the +road, and another ten minutes elapsed before it was cut in two and +rolled aside. Fortunately they were not pressed for time. Fortunately, +also, the driver knew the way, for few people were afoot to face that +dreadful stream of snow and ice with the lashing wind and the numbing +cold. Two, two or three, or perhaps four men had chanced to be at hand +when the car stopped, making their way towards the bridge, but the +wreathing snow soon cut them off. Occasionally, when the wind and drift +hung for a moment, a figure or two showed dimly and gigantic in the murk +of the tunnel. Nothing of the fire could be seen, but the smoke +continued to pour out, and the mingled odour of burned and unburned oil +filled the car.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes the driver returned. When he had left his seat +Moeletter had leaned forward, and with a gruff word of half apology had +laid a hand upon the rug across Salt's knees, so that he held, or at +least controlled, the connecting links of the handcuffs, while at the +same time his other hand had dropped quietly down to his hip-pocket. He +now lowered the window on the further side, still keeping his left hand +on the rug.</p> + +<p>"Oil cart ablaze, sir," gasped the driver, between paroxysms of +coughing. "Road simply running fire, and the fumes awful." His face was +almost completely protected beneath cap, goggles, and a storm shade that +fell from the cap over the shoulders and buttoned across the mouth, but +no covering had seemed effectual against the suffocating reek of the +burning oil. The fire had melted the snow off his clothes, and he stood +by the door with a bar of darkness just falling across his face, and the +electric light through the lowered window blazing upon his gleaming +leathers, his gauntlets and puttee leggings, and the cumbrous numbered +badge that the regulations then imposed.</p> + +<p>"It will be some time before the road is passable?" asked Moeletter with +a frown.</p> + +<p>"Oh, hours perhaps," was the sputtering reply. "Would suggest going by +Molesey Bridge, sir. Best way now."</p> + +<p>"Is it much out?"</p> + +<p>"The turning is half a mile back. From there it is no further than this +way."</p> + +<p>"And you know the way perfectly?"</p> + +<p>The driver nodded. "Perfectly, sir."</p> + +<p>"Very well; go on. We have plenty of time yet, but you might get a few +more miles out of her, if you think you can."</p> + +<p>The driver jumped up to his seat, the horn gave its bull-like note of +warning, and gliding round the car began to head back towards Esher with +the open common on either side and the pelting wind behind. It slackened +for a moment at the fork in the high-road, turned to the right, and then +began to draw away northward with an increased speed that showed the +driver to be capable of rising to his instructions.</p> + +<p>"It is fortunate that the inspector is not a motoring man," thought Salt +to himself with an inward smile. "This is very much too good." But the +inspector only noticed that with the increased speed the car seemed to +run more smoothly, and even then he had no means of judging what the +increase had become. The man whose car it was knew that a very different +explanation than mere speed lay behind the sudden change that made the +motion now sheer luxury. He knew with absolute conviction what had +happened, and he would have known without any further evidence that the +driver who now had his hand upon the wheel was a thousand miles ahead of +constable-<i>chauffeur</i> Murphy in motor-craft.</p> + +<p>It was not the first suggestion of some friendly influence at work that +had stirred his mind. The incident of the stranded waggon across the +road by Ripley was little in itself. Even when they were a second time +delayed by the fallen tree a few miles further on nothing but an +unreasoning hope could have called it more than coincidence. But with +the third episode a matured plan began to loom through the meaningless +delays. Oil was here, and where there was oil in England at that day the +hand of the Unity League might be traced not far away. In his mind's eye +Salt ran over half a dozen miles of the Portsmouth road. As far as he +could remember, if it was <i>intended</i> to block the road there was +scarcely a more suitable spot than the long railway bridge to be found +between Esher and Kingston, and, followed the thought, if it was +intended to force Moeletter to accept the bridge at Molesey, no point in +all the high-road south of the fork would have served.</p> + +<p>The three accidents had taken place each at the exact point where it +would best serve its purpose.</p> + +<p>Salt did not even glance at the driver when he returned from the fire. +He leaned back in his seat in simple enjoyment, and Inspector Moeletter +thought from his appearance that he was going to sleep.</p> + +<p>There was little to be gained by looking out, apart from the policy of +unconcern. The huge white motor-car that was waiting in the cross-road +by Esher station had its head-lights masked, and in the snow-storm and +the night it could not have been seen ten yards away. The driver of the +green car sounded his horn for the road as he swept by, and ten seconds +later the white car glided out from its place of concealment like a +ghostly mastodon, and, baring its dazzling lamps, began to thrash along +the road in the other's wake.</p> + +<p>What would be their route when they had crossed the bridge? That was +Salt's constant thought now, not because he was troubled by the chances, +but because it was the next point in the unknown plan that would serve +to guide him. He had not long to wait under the dexterous pilotage of +the unknown hand outside. The flat, straight road became a tortuous +village street, the lights of the Molesey shops and inns splashed in +splintering blurs across the streaming windows, an iron bridge shook and +rumbled beneath their wheels, and they were in Middlesex.</p> + +<p>The horn brayed out a continuous warning note, the car swung off to the +left, and Salt, with his eyes closed, knew exactly what had been +arranged.</p> + +<p>But there was yet Inspector Moeletter to be reckoned with. He was +ignorant of the roads, but he had a well-developed gift of location, and +the abrupt turn to the left when he had seen what appeared to be a broad +high-road leading straight on from Molesey Bridge, gave him a moment's +thought. He turned to the speaking-tube.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure that this is right, Murphy?" he asked sharply. "Kingston +must lie away on the right."</p> + +<p>"We go through Hampton this way, sir, and into the Kingston road at +Twickenham," came the chattering reply in a half-frozen voice. "It is +just as near, and we don't meet the wind."</p> + +<p>It was quite true, although the inspector might not know it, but the +ready explanation seemed to satisfy him. Another circumstance would have +set his mind at rest. At Hampton the route took them equally to the +right. Salt did not know the road intimately, but he knew that if his +surmise was correct, they must very soon draw away to the left again. +What would happen then? For three or four miles they would run between +hedges and encounter nothing more urban than a scattered hamlet. +Twickenham they would never see that night. Inspector Moeletter was far +from being unsophisticated, and his suspicion had already once, +apparently, been touched. How would the race end?</p> + +<p>The car slowed down for a moment, but so smoothly that it was almost +imperceptible, and with a clanging bell an electric tram swung into +their vision and out again. Salt was taking note of every trifle in this +enthralling game. Why, he asked himself, had so expert a driver +slackened speed with plenty of room to pass? He saw a possible +explanation. They had been meeting and overtaking trams at intervals all +the way from Molesey Bridge. In another minute they would have left the +high-road and the tram route, and the driver wished to hide the fact +from Moeletter as long as possible. He had therefore <i>waited</i> to meet +this tram so that the inspector might unconsciously carry in his mind +the evidence of their presence to the last possible point.</p> + +<p>They were no longer on the high-road; they had glided off somewhere +without a warning note or any indication of speed or motion to betray +the turn they had taken. The houses were becoming sparser, fields +intervened, with here and there a strung-out colony of cottages. Soon +even the scattered buildings ceased, or appeared so rarely that they +only dotted long stretches of country lanes, and at every yard they +trembled on the verge of detection. Nothing but the glare of light +inside the vehicle and the storm and darkness beyond could have hid for +a moment from even the least suspicious of men the fact that they were +no longer travelling even the most secluded of suburban high-roads. And +now, as if aware that the deception could not be maintained much longer, +the driver began to increase the speed at every open stretch. Again +nothing but his inspired skill and the perfectly-balanced excellence of +the car could disguise the fact that they flew along the level road; +while among the narrow winding lanes they rushed at a headlong pace, +shooting down declines and breasting little hills without a pause. The +horn boomed its warning every second, and from behind came the answering +note of the long white motor. It had crept nearer and nearer since they +left the high-road, and its brilliant head-lights now lit up the way as +far as the pilot car. Little chance for Moeletter to convoy his prisoner +out of those deserted lanes whatever happened now!</p> + +<p>What means, what desperate means, he might have taken in a gallant +attempt to retrieve the position if he had suspected treachery just a +minute before he did, one may speculate but never know.</p> + +<p>As it was, the uneasy instinct that everything was not right awoke too +late for him to make the stand. It was less than ten minutes after +meeting the last tram that he peered out into the night doubtfully, but +in those ten minutes the green car had all but won its journey's end.</p> + +<p>"Murphy," he cried imperiously, with his mouth to the tube and a +startled eye on Salt, "tell me immediately where we are."</p> + +<p>"A minute, sir," came the hasty answer, as the driver bent forward to +verify some landmark. "This brake——</p> + +<p>"Stop this instant!" roared the inspector, rising to his feet in rage +and with a terrible foreboding.</p> + +<p>There was a muffled rattle as they shot over a snow-laden bridge, a +curious sense of passing into a new atmosphere, and then with easy +precision the car drew round and stopped dead before the open double +doors of its own house. No one spoke for a moment. There was another +muffled roar outside, the sound of heavy iron doors clashing together, +and the great white car reproduced their curve and drew up by their +side.</p> + +<p>From the driver's seat of the green car the Hon. Bruce Wycombe, son and +heir of old Viscount Chiltern and the most skilful motorist in Europe, +climbed painfully down, and, pulling off his head-gear, opened the door +of the car with a bow that would have been more graceful if he had been +less frozen.</p> + +<p>"Welcome to Hanwood after your long journey, Inspector Moeletter!" he +exclaimed most affably.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE MUSIC AND THE DANCE</h3> + + +<p>Along the great west road, ten thousand Monmouth colliers were streaming +towards London, in every stage of famine and discomfort. What they +intended to do when they reached the Capital they had no clearer idea +than had the fifteen thousand Midlanders at Barnet. All they knew was +that they were starving at home, and they could be no worse off in +London. Also in London there was to be found the Government, the +Government that had betrayed them.</p> + +<p>The conception of the march had been wild, the execution was lamentable. +The leaders might have taken Napoleon's descent on Moscow as their +model. Ten hand-carts exhausted their commissariat. They were to live on +the land they passed through; but the land was agricultural and poor, +the populace regarded the Monmouth colliers as foreigners, and the +response was scanty. Only one circumstance saved the march from becoming +a tragedy of hundreds instead of merely, as it was, a tragedy of scores.</p> + +<p>The men were being fed from London. By whom, and why, not even their +leaders knew, but each night a railway truck full of provisions was +awaiting their arrival at a station on their route, and each day the +men's leader-in-chief was informed where the next supply would be. It +influenced them to continue their journey pacifically when they must +otherwise, sooner or later, have abandoned all restraint and marched +through anarchy. It enabled them to reach London. It added another +element to the Government's distraction in their day of reckoning. It +was a Detail.</p> + +<p>But at Windsor there were no provisions waiting. No one knew why. The +station authorities had nothing to suggest. After a week's regular +supply the leaders had come to expect their daily truck-load, had come +to rely implicitly upon it, and had made no other arrangements. They +conferred together anxiously; it was all there was for them to do. +Windsor was not sympathetic towards them. They had not expected it to +be, but they had expected to be independent of Windsor's friendship. Two +thousand special constables escorted them in and shepherded them +assiduously. Otherwise there might have been disturbances, for a Castle +guard comprised the extent of Windsor's military resources then. As it +was, the miners reached the Royal Borough hungry, and left it famished. +A rumour spread along the ranks as they set out that an unfortunate +mistake had been made, but that supplies would be awaiting them in Hyde +Park.</p> + +<p>If that was a detail, as it might well have been, it was not wholly +successful. The men were hungry and dispirited, but London was not their +immediate goal. For weeks they had been telling the vacillating Cabinet +what ought to be done with the oil at Hanwood, and as they set out they +had boasted to their brothers across the Rhymney that before they +returned they would show them how to fire a beacon that would singe the +hair of five million Leaguers. Midway between Windsor and London they +proceeded to turn off from the highway under the direction of their +leaders, and debouching from the narrow lanes on to the fields beyond, +they began to advance across the country in a straggling, far-flung +wave.</p> + +<p>On the previous day both the Home Office and the War Office had received +applications for protection from the Company at Hanwood, backed by +evidence which left no possible doubt that the Monmouth unemployed +contemplated an organised attack on the oil store. The two departments +replied distantly, that in view of the existing conditions within the +Metropolis and the forces at their disposal, it was impossible to +despatch either troops or constabulary to protect private property in +isolated districts. Hanwood acknowledged these replies, and gave notice +with equal punctilio that they would take the best means within their +power for safeguarding their interests, and at the same time formally +notified the Government that they held them responsible, through their +failure to carry out the obligations of their office, for all the +developments that the situation might lead to—an exchange of civilities +which in private life is sometimes attained much more simply by two +disputants consigning each other to the society of the Prince of +Darkness in four words.</p> + +<p>Whatever there might be behind the intimation, there was little to +indicate it at dusk that afternoon. The stranger or the native passing +along Miss Lisle's secluded lane would have noticed only two +circumstances to suggest anything unusual in the air.</p> + +<p>A few hundred feet above the trees within the wall, a box-kite was +straining at its rope in the rising gale. From the basket car a man +watched every movement of the countryside through his field-glasses, and +conversed from time to time through a telephone with the kite section +down below. A second wire ran from the field telephone to a room of the +offices where Salt was engaged with half a dozen of the chiefs of the +Council of the League. Sir John Hampden was not present. He was +remaining in London to afford the Government every facility for +negotiating a settlement whenever they might desire it.</p> + +<p>In the lane, a group of men with tickets in their hats were loitering +about the bridge. They comprised a Peaceful Picket within the meaning of +the Act. They had been there since daybreak, and so far no one had shown +any wish to dispute their position.</p> + +<p>The war-kite and the picket in the lane were the "eyes" of the opposing +belligerents.</p> + +<p>The League had nothing to gain by submitting the issue to the +arbitrament of lead and fire. No one had anything to gain by it, but +after a bout at fisticuffs a defeated child will sometimes pick up a +dangerous stone and fling it. The League had accepted the challenge of +those who marched beneath the red banner for war on constitutional +lines. Some of those who marched beneath the red banner were now +disposed to try the effect of beating their ploughshares into swords, +and however much the League might have preferred them to keep to their +bargain, the most effective retort was to turn their own pacific sickles +into bayonets.</p> + +<p>In the staff room Salt was addressing his associates—half military, +half political—who now represented the innermost Council of the League. +Some of them had been members of former Ministries, others soldiers who +had worn the insignia of generals, but they rendered to this unknown man +among them an unquestioning allegiance, because of what he had already +done, because he inspired them with absolute reliance in what he would +yet succeed in doing, and, not least, because he had the air that fitted +the position.</p> + +<p>"More than two years ago," he was saying, "the first draft of the +formation and operations of the League contained a section much to the +following effect:</p> + +<p>"'It is an essential feature of the plan that the League should work on +constitutional lines from beginning to end and in contemplation of +bringing about the desired reforms without firing a solitary shot or +violating a single law.</p> + +<p>"'Nevertheless, it is inevitable that when the position becomes acute +civil disorders will arise out of the involved situation, and +demonstrations of the affected people will threaten the Government of +the day on the one hand and the proposed League on the other.</p> + +<p>"'In these circumstances it will be prudent to contemplate, as a last +phase of the struggle, an organised military attack on the property of +the League, masked under the form of a popular riot, but instigated or +connived at by responsible authorities. I propose, therefore, to +establish the League stores in a position naturally suited for defence, +and to adopt such further precautions as will render them secure against +ordinary attack.'</p> + +<p>"We have now reached that closing phase of the struggle," continued +Salt. "On the evidence of this report from Sir John Hampden we may +assume that within twenty-four hours our aggressive work will be over. +Will our opponents, in the language of the street, 'go quietly'?"</p> + +<p>"It has fallen to my lot to read the Riot Act on three occasions," said +one of the company, "and I have seen disturbances in Ireland; but I have +never before known an unorganised mob to surround a position completely +and then to sit down to wait for night."</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant Vivash wishes to speak to Mr Salt personally," said a +subordinate, appearing at the door.</p> + +<p>Salt stepped into the ante-room, and spoke through the telephone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Vivash," he said to the man in the kite a quarter of a mile away. +"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Two general service wagons with bridge-making tackle have just been +brought up, and are waiting in Welland Wood," reported Vivash. "There is +a movement among the colliers over Barfold Rise. With them are about two +hundred men carrying rifles. They are not in uniform, but they <i>march</i>."</p> + +<p>Salt turned to another instrument and jerked the switch rapidly from +plate to plate as he distributed his orders.</p> + +<p>"Captain Norris, strengthen the Territorials at the outer wire North."</p> + +<p>"Send up two star rockets to recall the motor-cycle scouts."</p> + +<p>"Tell Disturnal to have the searchlights in immediate readiness."</p> + +<p>"Fire brigade, full strength, turn out with chemical engine, and stand +under earthwork cover at central tank."</p> + +<p>He turned again to the kite telephone to ask Vivash a detail. There was +no response.</p> + +<p>"Get on with Lieutenant Vivash as soon as you can, and let me know at +once," he said to the one who was in charge, as he returned to the staff +room.</p> + +<p>In less than a minute the operator was at the door again.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid there is something the matter, sir," he explained. "I can +get no reply either from Lieutenant Vivash or from the kite section."</p> + +<p>"Ring up the despatch room. Let some one go at once to Mr Moore and +return here with report."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir." He turned to go. "Here <i>is</i> Mr Moore," he exclaimed, +standing aside from the door.</p> + +<p>They all read some disaster in his face as he entered.</p> + +<p>"I am deeply sorry to say that Lieutenant Vivash has been shot."</p> + +<p>"Is he seriously hurt?" asked some one.</p> + +<p>"He is dead. He was shot through the head by a marksman in Welland +Wood."</p> + +<p>Salt broke the shocked silence.</p> + +<p>"We have lost a brave comrade," he said simply. "Come, General Trench, +let us visit the walls."</p> + +<p>It was dark when they returned. Salt passed through the room, calling to +his side the man with whom he had been most closely associated at +Hanwood, and traversing some passages led the way up a winding staircase +into the lantern of the tower. Here, under the direction of an +ex-officer of Royal Engineers, two powerful searchlights were playing on +every inch of doubtful ground that lay within their radius beyond the +entanglement that marked the outer line of the defences.</p> + +<p>Nothing had been seen; not a solitary invader had yet shown himself +within the zone of light. The officer in charge was explaining a +technical detail of the land when, without the faintest warning, a +fulgent blaze of light suddenly ran along the edge of a coppice half a +mile away, and a noise like the crackling of a hundred new-lit fires +drifted on the wind. With the echo, a thick hedge to the east and a wood +lying on the west joined in the vicious challenge. A few bullets +splashed harmlessly against the steel shield that ingeniously protected +the lantern.</p> + +<p>The searchlights oscillated uncertainly from sky to earth under the +shock of the surprise, and then settled down to stream unwinkingly into +the eyes of the enemy, while in the double darkness the defenders hugged +the earth behind the wire and began to reply with cool deliberation to +the opening volleys.</p> + +<p>There was a knock upon the door of the little lantern room, and a +telescribe message was placed before Salt. It bore a sign showing that +it had come over the private system which the League maintained between +Hanwood and the head office. He read it through twice, and for almost +the first time since he had left his youth behind, he stood in absolute +indecision.</p> + +<p>"It is necessary for me to go at once to London," he said, turning to +his companion, when he had made an irrevocable choice. "You will take +command in my absence, Evelyn, under the guidance of the Council."</p> + +<p>"May I venture to remind you, sir, that we are completely surrounded?" +said Orr-Evelyn through his blank surprise.</p> + +<p>"I have not overlooked it. You will——"</p> + +<p>There was a sullen roar away in the north, a mile behind the coppice +that had first spoken. Something whistled overhead, not unmelodiously, +and away to the south a shell burst harmlessly among the ridges of a +ploughed field. The nearer searchlight elevated its angle a fraction and +centred upon a cloud of smoke that hung for a moment until the gale +whirled it to disintegration. The army, like the navy, had reverted to +black powder. It was Economy; and as it was not intended ever to go to +war again, it scarcely mattered.</p> + +<p>"Marsham will engage that gun from both platforms D and E. Make every +effort to silence it with the least delay; it is the only real menace +there is. Hold the entanglement, but not at too heavy a cost. If it +should be carried——Come to my room."</p> + +<p>"You have considered the possible effect of your withdrawal at this +moment, Salt?" said Orr-Evelyn in a low voice, as they hastened together +along the passages.</p> + +<p>"I can leave the outcome in your hands with absolute reliance," replied +Salt. "If Hanwood is successfully held until to-morrow, it will devolve +upon Sir John Hampden to dictate terms to the Government. The end is +safely in sight independent of my personality.... My reputation——!" He +dismissed that phase with a shrug.</p> + +<p>He threw open the door of his private office. A shallow mahogany case, +about a foot square, locked and sealed, was sunk into the opposite wall. +Salt knocked off the wax and opened the case with a key which he took +off the ring and gave to Orr-Evelyn as he spoke. Inside the case were a +dozen rows of little ivory studs, each engraved with a red number. +Fastened to the inside of the lid was a scale map of the land lying +between the outer wall and the wire fence. Every stud had its +corresponding number, surrounded by a crimson circle, indicated on the +plan.</p> + +<p>"If the entanglement should be carried you will take no further risk," +continued Salt. "Captain Ford will give you the general indication of +the attack from the lantern. There are two men detailed to each block of +mines who will signal you the exact moment for firing each mine. Those +are the numbered indicators above the box. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>He paused at the door; time was more than life to him, but he had an +ordered thought for everything.</p> + +<p>"If you hear no more of me, and what might be imagined really troubles +you, Evelyn, you can make use of this," he remarked, and laid the +telescript he had received upon a table.</p> + +<p>It was not the time for words, written or spoken, beyond those of the +sheerest necessity. Half an hour passed before Orr-Evelyn had an +opportunity of glancing through the letter that had called Salt from his +post. When he had finished it he took it down, and read it aloud to the +headquarter staff amidst the profoundest silence, in passionate +vindication of his friend and leader. This was what they heard:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Unity League, Trafalgar Chambers.</span></p> + +<p>"The building is surrounded by mob. Seaton Street, Pantile +Passage, and Pall Mall and the Haymarket, as far as I can see, +densely packed with frantic men. All others in building had +left earlier. <i>I shall remain.</i> Wires cut, and fear that you +may not receive this, as other telescribe messages for help +unanswered. Mob howling continuously for Sir John Hampden and +Mr Salt; dare not look out again, stoned. Shall delay advance, +doors and stairs, as long as possible, and burn all important +League books and papers last resource.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye all, my dear friends.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Irene Lisle.</span>"</p></blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE "FINIS" MESSAGE</h3> + + +<p>The storm had not decreased its violence when, three minutes later, Salt +stood unperceived on the broad coping outside an upper storey of the +tower, and, sinking forward into the teeth of the gale, was borne +upwards with rigid wings as a kite ascends.</p> + +<p>In accordance with his instructions the two searchlights had turned +their beams steadily earthward for the time, and in the absolute +blackness of the upper air he could pass over the firing lines of +friends and foes in comparative safety. As he rose higher and higher +before turning to scud before the wind, he saw, as on a plan, the whole +field of operations, just distinguishable in its masses of grey and +black, with the points of interest revealing themselves by an occasional +flash. Immediately beneath him, beneath him at first, but every second +drawing away to the south-west as he drifted in the gale he breasted, +lay Hanwood, with its three outer lines of defence. From above it seemed +as though a very bright needle was every now and then thrust out from +the walls into the dark night and drawn back again. On each of the +platforms D and E two 4.7-inch quick-firing guns appeared to be rocking +slightly in the wind. By all the indication there was of smoke or noise, +or even flame, the gunners might have been standing idly behind their +shields; but over the steep scarp of the little hill, a mile and a half +away, shells were being planted every ten yards or so, with the +methodical regularity of a farmer dropping potatoes along a furrow.</p> + +<p>Salt might not have quite expected that there would be the necessity to +fire those guns when, a year before, he had obtained for Hanwood its +complement of the finest artillery that the world produced, but when the +necessity did arise, there was no need for the League gunners to use +black powder.</p> + +<p>When he had reached the height he required, simply leaning against the +wind, Salt moved a pinion slightly and bore heavily towards the right. +It was the supreme moment for the trial of skill, as the long flight +that followed it was the trial of endurance. If his nerve had failed, if +a limb had lost its tension for the fraction of a second, his brain +reeled amidst that tearing fury of the element, or a single ring or +swivel not answered to its work, he would have been crumpled up +hopelessly, beyond the chance of recovery, and flung headlong to the +earth. As it was, the wind swept him round in a great half circle, but +it was the wind his servant, not his master, and he turned its lusty +violence to serve his ends. He caught a passing glimpse of the coppice +whence the attack had first been opened; he saw beneath him the line of +guns ensconced behind the hill, one already overturned and centred in +confusion; and then the sweeping arc reached its limit, and he came, as +it seemed, to anchor in mid-air, with the earth slipping away beneath +him as the banks glide past a smoothly-moving train, and a thousand +weights and forces dragging at his aching arms.</p> + +<p>He had nothing to do but to maintain a perfect balance among the +conflicting cross winds that shot in from above and below, and from +north and south, and to point his course towards the glow in the sky +that marked the Capital. A dozen words could express it, but it required +the skill of the practised wingman, the highest development of every +virile quality, and the spur of a necessity not less than life and +death, to dignify the attempt above the foolhardy. Whether beyond all +that the accomplishment lay within the bounds of human endurance was a +further step. It would at that time have been impossible to pronounce +either way with any authority, for not only had the attempt never been +made, but nothing approaching the attempt had been made. A breeze that +ran five miles an hour was considered enough for any purpose; to take to +the air when the anemometer indicated fifteen miles an hour was not +allowed at the practice grounds, and the record in this direction lay +with an expert who had accomplished a straight flight in a wind that +travelled a little less than thirty miles an hour. The storm on the +night of the 15th of January tore across the face of the land with a +general velocity of fifty or sixty miles an hour, rising at times even +higher.</p> + +<p>Under the racking agony of every straining tendon and the heady pressure +of the wind, a sense of mundane unreality began to settle upon the +flier. He saw the earth and its landmarks being drawn smoothly and +swiftly from beneath him with the detachment of a half-conscious dream. +He saw—for he remembered afterwards—the Thames lying before him like a +whip flicked carelessly across the plain. A town loomed up, black and +inchoate, on his right, developed into streets and terraces, and slid +away into the past. It was Richmond. The river, never far away, now +slipped beneath him at right angles, reappeared to hold a parallel +course upon his left, and flung a horse-shoe coil two miles ahead. A +colony of strange shining roofs and domes next challenged recognition. +They were the conservatories at Kew, looking little more than garden +frames, and they were scarcely lost to view before he was over the +winding line of Brentford's quaint old High Street, now, as it appeared, +packed with a dense, moving crowd. The irresistible pounding of the gale +was edging the glow of London further and further to his right. +Instinctively he threw more weight into the lighter scale, and slowly +and certainly the point of his destination swung round before his face +again.</p> + +<p>Thenceforward it was all town. Gunnersbury became Chiswick, Chiswick +merged into Hammersmith, Kensington succeeded, in ceaseless waves of +houses that ran north and south, and long vistas of roofs that stretched +east and west. It was a kaleidoscope of contrasts. Scenes of saturnalian +gaiety, where ant-like beings danced in mad abandonment round fires that +blocked the road, or seemed to gyrate by companies in meaningless +confusion, bounded districts plunged into an unnatural gloom and +solitude, where for street after street neither the footstep of a +wayfarer nor the light of a public lamp broke the uncanny spell. +Immediately beyond, by the glare of the flambeaux which they carried, an +orderly concourse might be marching eastward, and fringing on their +route a garish gutter mart, where busy costermongers drove their roaring +trade and frugal housewives did their marketing with less outward +concern than if the crisis in the State had been a crisis in the price +of butter.</p> + +<p>The multitudinous sounds beat on his ears through the plunging gale like +a babel of revelry heard between the intermittent swinging of an +unlatched door. The sights in their grotesque perspective began to melt +together lazily. The upper air grew very cold. The weights hung heavier +every mile, the contending forces pulled more resistlessly. Strange +fancies began to assail him as the brain shrank beneath the strain; +doubts and despairs to gather round like dark birds of the night with +hopeless foreboding in the dull measure of their funereal wings. In that +moment mind and body almost failed to contend against the crushing odds; +nothing but his unconquerable heart flogged on his dying limbs.</p> + +<p>It was scarcely more than half an hour after she had written her +despairing message that from her post at the head of the broad stone +staircase Irene Lisle heard a noise in the garret storey above that sent +her flying back to her stronghold. It was the last point from which she +had expected an attack. Through the keyhole of the door behind which she +had taken refuge, she saw a strangely outlined figure groping his way +cumbrously down the stairs, and then, without a word or cry, but with a +face whiter than the paper that had summoned him, she threw open the +door to admit Salt.</p> + +<p>He walked heavily along the corridor and turned into his own room, while +she relocked the door and followed him. There was mute enquiry in her +eyes, but she did not speak.</p> + +<p>A powerful oil-stove stood upon the hearth-stone, throwing its beams +across the room. He stood over it while the beaded ice melted from his +hair and fell hissing on the iron. He opened his mouth, and the sound of +his voice was like the thin piping of a reed. She caught a word, and +began to unbuckle the frozen straps of his gear. When he was free he +tried to raise his hand to a pocket of his coat, but the effort was +beyond the power of the cramped limb. Irene interpreted the action, and, +finding there a flask, filled the cup and held it to his lips.</p> + +<p>She got a blue, half-frozen smile of thanks over the edge of the cup. +"Ah," he said, beginning to find his voice again, and stamping about the +room, "we owe Wynchley Slocombe a monument, you and I, Miss Lisle. Now +you must write a telescript for me, please; for I cannot."</p> + +<p>"If you will remain here, where it is warmer, I will bring the +materials," she suggested.</p> + +<p>He thanked her and allowed her to go, watching her with thoughtful eyes +that were coming back to life. She paused a moment at the top of the +stairs to listen down the shaft, and then sped quickly through the smoke +to the instrument room on the floor beneath.</p> + +<p>Salt glanced round the office. On and about his desk all the books and +papers that might be turned to a hostile purpose had been stacked in +readiness, and by them stood the can of oil that was to ensure their +complete destruction. He stepped up to the window and looked out +cautiously. Every pane of glass was broken—every pane of glass in +Trafalgar Chambers was broken, for that matter—but it was not easy for +an unprepared mob to force an entrance. When the Unity League had taken +over the whole block of building in its expansion many alterations had +been carried out, and among these had been to fix railings that sprang +from the street and formed an arch, not only over the basement, but over +the ground floor windows also. If the shutters on the windows had been +closed in time, the assailants would have been baffled at another point, +but the shutters had been overlooked, and the mob, after lighting great +fires in the street, was now flinging the blazing billets through the +lower windows.</p> + +<p>In a very brief minute Irene was back again with the telescribe +accessories. She seated herself at a table, dipped her pen into the ink, +and looked up without a word.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Trafalgar Chambers.</span></p> + +<p>"6.25 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>," dictated Salt. "Most of the miners drawn off and +passing through Brentford. Over Barfold Rise half battery of +18-pounders, one out of action. In Spring Coppice and Welland +Wood about four companies regulars each. Reconnoitre third +position assuming same proportion. Act."</p></blockquote> + +<p>He stood considering whether there was anything more to add usefully. +The sound of Irene's agate pen tapping persistently against the table +caught his ear.</p> + +<p>"You are not very much afraid?" he asked with kindly reassurance in his +voice as he looked at her hand.</p> + +<p>"No, not now," she replied; but as she wrote she had to still the +violent trembling of her right hand with the left.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"All going well here. Send messenger Hampden with report +immediately after engagement," he concluded.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"I will try to sign it myself." He succeeded in sprawling a recognisable +"George Salt" across the paper, and after it wrote "Finis," which +happened to be the pass-word for the day.</p> + +<p>"Your message came through; this may possibly do the same," he remarked. +He turned off the radiator as orderly as though he had reached the close +of a working day, and they went out together, locking the doors behind +them.</p> + +<p>"They were attacking Hanwood when you left?" she asked with the tensest +interest. They had sent off the telescript, and it seemed to Irene that +they had reached the end of things.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied. "But all the same," he added, as a fresh outburst of +cries rose from the street, and the light through the shattered window +attracted a renewed fusillade of missiles, "I think that we have kept +our promise to let you be in the thick of it."</p> + +<p>She shook her head with the very faintest smile. "That seems a very long +time ago. But you, how could <i>you</i> come? When I sent I never thought ... +I never dreamed——"</p> + +<p>"It was possible to leave," he said. "My work is done. Yes," in reply to +her startled glance, "it has all happened!"</p> + +<p>"You mean——?" she asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>He took a paper from his pocket-book. It was, as she saw immediately, a +telescript from Sir John Hampden. It had reached him at Hanwood an hour +before he left.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"I have this afternoon received a deputation of Ministerialists +who have the adherence of a majority in the House without +taking the Opposition into account," she read. "The +Parliamentary Representation Committees throughout the country +are frantically insisting upon members accepting <i>any terms</i>, +if we will give an undertaking that the normal balance of trade +and labour shall be restored at once. The Cabinet is going to +pieces every hour, and the situation can no longer either be +faced or ignored by the Government. There will be a great scene +in the House to-night. The deputation will see me again +to-morrow morning with a formal decision. I have confidential +assurances that a complete acceptance is a foregone conclusion. +The arrival of the Midland colliers to-night, if not of those +from Monmouth, will precipitate matters."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Tears she could not hold back stood in her eyes as she returned to him +the paper. "Then it has not been in vain," she said softly.</p> + +<p>"No," he replied. "Nothing has been in vain."</p> + +<p>They stood silently for a minute, looking back over life. So might two +shipwrecked passengers have stood on a frail raft waiting for the end, +resigned but not unhopeful of a larger destiny beyond, while the +elements boiled and roared around them.</p> + +<p>"It was very weak of me to send that message," said Irene presently; +"the message that brought you. I suppose," she added, "that it <i>was</i> the +message that brought you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, thank God!" he replied.</p> + +<p>"And if it had been impossible for you to come? If it had been an +utterly critical moment in every way, what would you have done?"</p> + +<p>He laughed a little, quietly, as he looked at her. "The question did not +arise, fortunately," he replied.</p> + +<p>"No," she admitted; "only I felt a little curious to know, now that +everything is over. It <i>is</i>, isn't it? There is nothing to be done?"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," he replied with indomitable cheerfulness. "There is always +something to be done."</p> + +<p>"A chance?" she whispered incredulously. "A chance of escape, you mean?"</p> + +<p>"It is possible," he said. "At least, I will go and hear what they have +to say."</p> + +<p>"No! no!" she cried out, as a dreadful scene rose to her imagination. +"You cannot understand. Don't you hear that?... They would kill you."</p> + +<p>"I do not suppose that I shall find myself popular," he said with a +smile, "but I will take care. You—I think you must stay here."</p> + +<p>"Cannot I come with you?" she pleaded. "See, I am armed."</p> + +<p>He took the tiny weapon that she drew from her dress and looked at it +with gentle amusement. It was a pretty thing of ivory and nickeled +steel, an elaborate toy. He pressed the action and shook out the +half-dozen tiny loaded caps—they were little more than that—upon his +palm.</p> + +<p>"I would rather that you did not use this upon a mob," he said, +reloading it. "It would only exasperate, without disabling. As for +stopping a rush—why, I doubt if one of these would stop a determined +rabbit. You have better weapons than this."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you are right. Only it gave me a little confidence. Then you +shall keep it for a memento, if you will."</p> + +<p>"No; it might hold off a single assailant, I suppose. I should value +this much more, if I might have it." He touched a silk tie that she had +about her neck, as he spoke; it was one that she had often worn. She +held up her head for him to disengage it.</p> + +<p>"Some day," he said, lingering a little over the simple operation, "you +will understand many things, Irene."</p> + +<p>"I think that I understand everything now," she replied with a brave +glance. "Everything that is worth understanding."</p> + +<p>He placed the folded tie in an inner pocket, and went down the stone +steps without another word. The well was thick with smoke, but the fire +had not yet spread beyond the lower rooms. Half-way down he encountered +a barricade of light office furniture which the girl had flung across +the stairs and drenched with oil. It was no obstacle in itself, but at +the touch of a match it would have sprung into a conflagration that +would have held the wildest mob at bay for a few precious moments. He +picked his way through it, descended the remaining stairs, and unlocked +the outer door. Beyond this was an iron curtain that had been lowered. A +little door in it opened directly on to the half-dozen steps that led +down to Seaton Street.</p> + +<p>Salt looked through a crevice of the iron curtain, and listened long +enough to learn that there was no one on the upper steps; for the upper +steps, indeed, commanded no view of the windows, and the windows were +the centres of all interest. Satisfied on this point, he quietly +unlocked the door and stepped out.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>STOBALT OF SALAVEIRA</h3> + + +<p>To the majority of those who thronged Seaton Street the effect of Salt's +sudden—instantaneous, as it seemed—and unexpected appearance was to +endow it with a dramatic, almost an uncanny, value. The front rows, +especially those standing about the steps, fell back, and the further +rows pressed forward. And because an undisciplined mob stricken by acute +surprise must express its emotion outwardly—by silence if it has +hitherto been noisy, and by exclamation if it has been silent—the +shouts and turmoil in the street instantly dwindled away to nothing, +like a breath of vapour passing from a window pane.</p> + +<p>Salt raised his hand, and he had the tribute of unstirring silence, the +silence for the moment of blank astonishment.</p> + +<p>"My friends and enemies," he said, in a voice that had learned +self-possession from the same school that Demosthenes had practised in, +"you have been calling me for some time. In a few minutes I must listen +to whatever you have to say, but first there is another matter that we +must arrange. I take it for granted that when you began your spirited +demonstration here you had no idea that there was a lady in the +building. Not being accustomed to the sterner side of politics, so +formidable a display rather disconcerted her, and not knowing the +invariable chivalry of English working men, she hesitated to come out +before. Now, as it is dark, and the streets of London are not what they +once were, I want half a dozen good stout fellows to see the lady safely +to her home."</p> + +<p>"Be damned!" growled a voice among the mass. "What do you take us for?"</p> + +<p>"Men," retorted Salt incisively; "or there would be no use in asking +you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, men, but famished, desperate, werewolf men," cried a poor, gaunt +creature clad in grotesque rags, who stood near. "Men who have seen +<i>our</i> women starve and sink before our eyes; men who have watched <i>our</i> +children dying by a slower, crooler death than fire. An eye for an eye, +tyrant! Your League has struck at <i>our</i> women folk through us."</p> + +<p>"Then strike at ours through us!" cried Salt, stilling with the measured +passion of his voice the rising murmurs of assent. "I am here to offer +you a substitute. Do you think that no woman will mourn for me?" He sent +his voice ringing over their heads like a prophetic knell. "The cause +that must stoop to take the life of a defenceless woman is lost for +ever."</p> + +<p>As long as he could offer them surprises he could hold the mere mob in +check, but there was among the crowd an element that was not of the +crowd, a chosen sprinkling who were superior to the swaying passions of +the moment.</p> + +<p>"Not good enough," said a decently-dressed, comfortable-looking man, who +had little that was famished, desperate, or wolfish in his appearance. +"You're both there, and there you shall both stay, by God! Eh, +comrades?" He spoke decisively, and made a movement as though he would +head a rush towards the steps.</p> + +<p>Salt dropped one hand upon the iron door with a laugh that sounded more +menacing than most men's threats.</p> + +<p>"Not so fast, Rorke," he said contemptuously; "you grasp too much. Even +in your unpleasant business you can practise moderation. I am here, but +there is no reason on earth why I should stay. Scarcely more than half +an hour ago I was at Hanwood—where, by the way, your friends are being +rather badly crumpled up—and you are all quite helpless to prevent me +going again."</p> + +<p>They guessed the means; they saw the unanswerable strength of his +position, and recognised their own impotence. "Who are you, any way?" +came a dozen voices.</p> + +<p>"I am called George Salt: possibly you have heard the name before. Come, +men," he cried impatiently, "what have you to think twice about? Surely +it is worth while to let a harmless girl escape to make certain of that +terrible person Salt."</p> + +<p>There was a strangled scream in the vestibule behind. Unable to bear the +suspense any longer, Irene had crept down the stairs in time to hear the +last few sentences. For a minute she had stood transfixed at the horror +of the position she realised; then, half-frenzied, she flung herself +against Salt's arm and tried to beat her way past to face the mob.</p> + +<p>"You shall not!" she cried distractedly. "I will not be saved at that +price. I shall throw myself out of the window, into the fire, anywhere. +Yes, I'm desperate, but I know what I am saying. Come back, and let us +wait together; die together, if it is to be, but I don't go alone."</p> + +<p>The crowd began to surge restlessly about in waves of excited motion. +The interruption, in effect, had been the worst thing that could have +happened. There were in the throng many who beneath their seething +passion could appreciate the nobility of Salt's self-sacrifice; many who +in the midst of their sullen enmity were wrung with admiration for +Irene's heroic spirit, but the contagion to press forward dominated all. +Salt had irretrievably lost his hold upon their reason, and with that +hold he saw the last straw of his most forlorn hope floating away. In +another minute he must either retreat into the burning building where he +might at any time find the stairs impassable with smoke, or remain to be +overwhelmed by a savage rush and beaten to the ground.</p> + +<p>"Men," cried Irene desperately, "listen before you do something that +will for ever make to-day shameful in the history of our country. Do you +know whom you wish to kill? He is the greatest Englishman——"</p> + +<p>There were angry cries from firebrands scattered here and there among +the crowd, and a movement from behind, where the new contingents +hurrying down the side streets pressed most heavily, flung the nearest +rows upon the lower steps. Salt's revolver, which he had not shown +before, drove them back again and gave him a moment's grace.</p> + +<p>"Quick!" he cried. "My offer still holds good."</p> + +<p>One man shouldered his way through to the front, and, seeing him, Salt +allowed him to come on. He walked up the steps deliberately, with a face +sad rather than revengeful, and they spoke together hurriedly under the +shadow of the large-bore revolver.</p> + +<p>"If it can be done yet, I'll be one of the posse to see to the young +lady," said the volunteer. "I have no mind to wait for the other job +that's coming."</p> + +<p>"Take care of her; get her back into the hall," replied Salt. "Gently, +very gently, friend."</p> + +<p>Two more volunteers had their feet upon the steps, one, a butcher, +reeking of the stalls, the other sleek and smug-faced, with the +appearance of a prosperous artisan.</p> + +<p>"I'll pick my men," cried Salt sharply, and his steady weapon emphasised +his choice, one man passing on through the iron doorway, the other +turning sharp from the insistent barrel to push his way back into the +crowd with a bitter imprecation.</p> + +<p>It was too much to hope that the position could be maintained. The +impatient mob had only been held off momentarily from its purpose as a +pack of wolves can be stayed by the fleeing traveller who throws from +his sleigh article after article to entice their curiosity. Salt had +nothing more to offer them. His life was already a hostage to the honour +of those whom he had allowed to pass. Others were pressing on to him +with vengeance-laden cries. The terrible irresistible forward surge of a +soulless mob, when individuality is merged into the dull brutishness of +a trampling herd, was launched.</p> + +<p>"Capt'n Stobalt!" cried a lusty voice at his shoulder.</p> + +<p>Salt turned instinctively. A man in sailor's dress, with the guns and +star of his grade upon his sleeve, had climbed along the arch of the +railings with a sailor's resourcefulness, and had reached his ear. Salt +remembered him quite well, but he did not speak a word.</p> + +<p>"Ah, sir, I thought that warn't no other voice in the world, although +the smoke befogged my eyes a bit. Keep back, you gutter rats!" he roared +above every other sound, rising up in his commanding position and +balancing himself by a stanchion of the gate; "d'ye think you know who +you're standing up before, you toggle-chested galley-sharks! Salt? Aye, +he's <i>salt</i> enough! 'Tis Capt'n Stobalt of the old <i>Ulysses</i>. +<i>Stobalt of Salaveira!</i>"</p> + +<p>Three years before, the moment would have found Salt cold, as cold as +ice, and as unresponsive, but he had learned many things since then, and +sacrificed his pride and reticence on many altars.</p> + +<p>He saw before him a phalanx of humanity startled into one common +expression of awe and incredulity; he saw the hostile wave that was to +overwhelm him spend itself in a sharp recoil. By a miracle the fierce +lust of triumphant savagery had died out of the starved, pathetic faces +now turned eagerly to him; by a miracle the gathering roar for vengeance +had sunk into an expectant hush, broken by nothing but the whispered +repetition of his name on ten thousand lips. He saw in a flash a hundred +details of the magic of that name; he knew that if ever in his life he +must throw restraint and moderation to the winds and paint his rôle in +broad and lurid colours, that moment had arrived, and at the call he +took his destiny between his hands.</p> + +<p>They saw him toss his weapon through the railings into the space +beneath, marked him come to the edge of the step and stand with folded +arms defenceless there before them, and the very whispers died away in +breathless anticipation.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he cried with a passionate vehemence that held their breath and +stirred their hearts, "I am Stobalt of Salaveira, the man who brought +you victory when you were trembling in despair. I saved England for you +then, but that was when men loved their country, and did not think it a +disgraceful thing to draw a sword and die for her. What is that to you +to-day, you who have been taught to forget what glory means; and what is +England to you to-day, you whose leaders have sold her splendour for a +higher wage?"</p> + +<p>"No! No!" cried a thousand voices, frantic to appease the man for whose +blood they had been howling scarcely a minute before. "You shall be our +leader! We will follow you to death! Stobalt of Salaveira! Stobalt for +ever! Stobalt of Salaveira! Stobalt and England!"</p> + +<p>The frenzied roar of welcome, the waving hands, the hats flung high, the +mingled cries caught from lip to lip went rolling up the street, +kindling by a name and an imperishable memory other streets and other +crowds into a tumult of mad enthusiasm. Along Pall Mall, through +Trafalgar Square, into the Strand and Whitehall, north by Regent Street +and the Haymarket to Piccadilly, running east and west, splitting north +and south, twisting and leaping from group to group and mouth to mouth, +ran the strange but stirring cry, carrying wonder and concern on its +wing, but always passing with a cheer.</p> + +<p>Seven years had passed since the day of Salaveira, and the memory of it +was still enough to stir a crowd to madness. For there had been no +Salaveiras since to dim its splendour. Seven years ago the name of +Salaveira had brought pallor to the cheek, and the thought of what was +happening there stole like an icy cramp round the heart of every +Englishman. The nation had grown accustomed to accept defeat on land +with the comfortable assurance that nothing could avert a final victory. +Its pride was in its navy: invincible!...</p> + +<p>The war that came had been of no one's seeking, but it came, and the +nation called upon its navy to sweep the presumptuous enemy from off the +seas. Then came a pause: a rumour, doubted, disbelieved, but growing +stronger every hour. The English fleets, not so well placed as they +might have been, "owing to political reasons that made mobilisation +inadvisable while there was still a chance of peace being maintained," +were unable to effect a junction immediately, and were falling back +before the united power of the New Alliance. Hour after hour, day after +day, night after night, crowds stood hopefully, doubtfully, +incredulously, in front of the newspaper office windows, waiting for the +news that never came. The fleets had not yet combined. The truth first +leaked, then blazed: they were unable to combine! Desperately placed on +the outer line they were falling back, ever falling back into a more +appalling isolation. A coaling station had been abandoned just where its +presence proved to have been vital; a few battleships had been dropped +from the programme, and the loss of their weight in the chain just +proved fatal.</p> + +<p>Men did not linger much at Fleet Street windows then; they slunk to and +fro singly a hundred times a day, read behind the empty bulletins with +poignant intuition, and turned silently away. In the mourning Capital +they led nightmare lives from which they could only awake to a more +definite despair, and the first word of the hurrying newsboy's raucous +shout sent a sickening wave of dread to every heart. There was +everything to fear, and nothing at all to hope. Could peace be made—not +a glorious, but a decent, living peace? Was—was even London safe? Kind +friends abroad threw back the answers in the fewest, crudest words. +England would have to sue for peace on bended knees and bringing heavy +tribute in her hands. London lay helpless at the mercy of the foe to +seize at any moment when it suited him.</p> + +<p>All this time Commander Stobalt, in command of the <i>Ulysses</i> by the +vicissitudes of unexpected war and separated from his squadron on +detached service, was supposed to be in Cura Bay, a thousand miles away +from Salaveira, flung there with the destroyers <i>Limpet</i> and <i>Dabfish</i> +by the mere backwash of the triumphant allied fleet. According to the +rules of naval warfare he <i>ought</i> to have been a thousand miles away; +according to the report of the allies' scouts he <i>was</i> a thousand miles +away. But miraculously one foggy night the <i>Ulysses</i> loomed spectrally +through the shifting mist that drifted uncertainly from off the land and +rammed the first leviathan that crossed her path, while the two +destroyers torpedoed her next neighbour. Then, before leviathans 3 and 4 +had begun to learn from each other what the matter was, the <i>Ulysses</i> +was between them, sprinkling their decks and tops with small shell, and +perforating their water-line and vital parts with large shell from a +range closer than that at which any engagement had been fought out since +the day when the Treasury had begun to implore the Admiralty to impress +upon her admirals what a battleship really cost before they sent her +into action. For the <i>Ulysses</i> had everything to gain and nothing but +herself to lose, and when morning broke over Salaveira's untidy bay, she +had gained everything, and lost so little that even the New Alliance +took no pride in mentioning it in the cross account.</p> + +<p>It was, of course, as every naval expert could have demonstrated on the +war-game board, an impossible thing to do. Steam, searchlights, wireless +telegraphy, quick-firing guns, and a hundred other innovations had +effaced the man; and the spirit of the Elizabethan age was at a +discount. What Drake would have done, or Hawkins, what would have been a +sweet and pleasing adventure to Sir Richard Grenville, or another Santa +Cruz to Blake, would have been in their heirs unmitigated suicide by the +verdict of any orthodox court martial. Largely imbued with the +Elizabethan spirit—the genius of ensuring everything that was possible, +and then throwing into the scale a splendid belief in much that seemed +impossible—Stobalt succeeded in doing what perhaps no one else would +have succeeded in doing, merely because perhaps no one else would have +tried.</p> + +<p>"Stobalt of Salaveira! Come down and lead us!" The wild enthusiasm, the +strange unusual cries, went echoing to the sky and reverberating down +every street and byway. Behind barred doors men listened to the shout, +and wondered; crouching in alleys, tramping the road with no further +hope in life, beggars and out-casts heard the name and dimly associated +it with something pleasant in the past. It met the force of special +constables hastening from the west; it fell on the ears of Mr Strummery, +driving by unfrequented ways towards the House. "Stobalt and England! +Stobalt for us! Stobalt and the Navy!" It was like another Salaveira +night with Stobalt there among them—the man who was too modest to be +fêted, the man whose very features were unknown at home, Stobalt of +Salaveira!</p> + +<p>Imagine it. Measure by the fading but not yet quite forgotten memory of +another time of direful humiliation and despair what Salaveira must have +been. They had passed a week of fervent exaltation, a week of calm +assurance, a week of rather tremulous hope, and for the last quarter a +long dumb misery that conveyed no other sense of time in later years +than that of formless night. They were waiting for the stroke of doom. +Then at midnight came the sudden tumult from afar, sounding to those who +listened in painful silence strangely unlike the note of defeat, the +frantic, mingled shouts, the tearing feet in the road beneath, the wild +bells pealing out, the guns and rockets to add to the delirium of the +night, and the incredible burden of the intoxicating news: "Great +Victory! Salaveira Relieved!! Utter Annihilation of the Blockading +Fleet!!!"</p> + +<p>The Philosopher might withdraw to solitude and moralise; the Friend of +Humanity stand aside, pained that his countrymen should possess so much +human nature, but to the great primitive emotional heart of the +community the choice lay between going out and shouting and staying in +and going mad. Never before in history had there been a victory that so +irresistibly carried the nation off its feet. To the populace it had +seemed from beginning to end to contain just those qualities of +daredevilry and fortuitous ease that appeal to the imagination. They +were quite mistaken; the conception had been desperate, but beyond that +the details of the relief of Salaveira had been as methodical, as +painstaking, and as far-seeing as those which had marked the civil +campaign now drawing to a close.</p> + +<p>That was why a famished, starving mob remembered Salaveira. They would +have stoned a duke or burned a bishop with very little compunction, but +Stobalt ranked among their immortals. They did not even seem to question +the mystery of Salt's identity. As the flames began to lap out of the +lower windows of Trafalgar Chambers, and it became evident that their +work there was done, a stalwart bodyguard ranged themselves about his +person and headed the procession. Hurriedly committing Irene to the +loyal sailor's charge, Stobalt resigned himself good-humouredly to his +position until he could seize an opportunity discreetly to withdraw.</p> + +<p>Not without some form of orderliness the great concourse marched into +the broader streets. Stobalt had no idea of their destination; possibly +there was no preconcerted plan, but—as such things happen—a single +voice raised in a pause gave the note. It did not fall on barren ground, +and the next minute the countless trampling feet moved to a brisker +step, and the new cry went rolling ominously ahead to add another terror +to the shadowy phantasmagoria of the ill-lit streets.</p> + +<p>"To Westminster! Down with the Government! To Westminster!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>THE BARGAIN OF FAMINE</h3> + + +<p>Sir John Hampden had not to wait until the morning to meet the +deputation of Ministerialists again. Late the same evening a few men, +arriving together, presented themselves at one of the barricades that +closed the Mayfair street, and were at once admitted. Many of the +residential west-end districts which were not thoroughfares for general +traffic were stockaded in those days and maintained their street guard. +The local officials protested, the inhabitants replied by instancing a +few of the cases where an emergency had found the authorities powerless +to extend protection, and there the matter ended. It was scarcely worth +while stamping out a spark when they stood upon a volcano.</p> + +<p>Sir John received the members in the library—a disspirited handful of +men who had written their chapter of history and were now compelled to +pass on the book to other scribes, as every party must. Only this party +had thought that it was to be the exception.</p> + +<p>"Events are moving faster than the clock," apologised Cecil Brown, with +a rather dreary smile. He was present as the representative of that body +in the House which was not indisposed to be courteous and even +conciliatory in attitude towards an opponent, while it yielded nothing +of its principles: a standpoint unintelligible to most of the rank and +file of the party. "Doubtless we are not unexpected, Sir John Hampden?"</p> + +<p>"Comrade," corrected a member who was made of sterner metal. They were +there to deliver up their rifles, but this stalwart soldier of Equality +clung tenaciously to an empty cartridge case.</p> + +<p>"I am no less desirous than yourselves of coming to a settlement," +replied Sir John. "If there is still any matter of detail——?"</p> + +<p>The plenipotentiaries exchanged glances of some embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Have you not heard?" asked Mr Soans, whose voice was the voice of the +dockyard labourers.</p> + +<p>"I can scarcely say until I know what you refer to," was the plausible +reply. "I have found that all communication has been cut during the last +few hours." He lightly indicated the instruments against the wall.</p> + +<p>They all looked towards Cecil Brown, the matter being rather an +unpleasant one.</p> + +<p>"The fact is, the House has been invaded by a tumultuous rabble. They +overcame all resistance by the mere force of numbers, and"—he could not +think of a less ominous phrase at the moment—"well, simply turned us +out.... Quite Cromwellian proceedings. We left them passing very large +and comprehensive resolutions," he concluded.</p> + +<p>"Your people!" said the uncompromising man accusingly.</p> + +<p>"Scarcely," protested Hampden with a smile. "The ends may be the ends of +Esau, but the means——"</p> + +<p>"Not our people; they couldn't possibly be ours to come and turn on us +like that."</p> + +<p>"Suppose we say, without defining them further," said Sir John, "that +they were simply"—he paused for a second to burn the thrust gently home +with a little caustic silence—"simply The People."</p> + +<p>Mr Vossit made a gesture of impatience towards his colleague.</p> + +<p>"Whether Queen Anne, died of gout or apoplexy isn't very material now," +he said with a touch of bitterness. "We are here to conduct the +funeral."</p> + +<p>"I wish to meet you in every possible way I can," interposed Hampden, +"but I must point out to you that at so short a notice I am deprived of +the counsel of any of my associates. I had hoped that by the time of the +meeting to-morrow morning——"</p> + +<p>"Is that necessary if the Memorandum is accepted by the Government?"</p> + +<p>"Without discussion?"</p> + +<p>Mr Vossit shrugged his shoulders. "As far as I am concerned, Sir John. +The concession of a word or two, or a phrase here and there, can make no +difference. It is our Sedan, and the heavier you make the terms, the +more there will be for us to remember it by."</p> + +<p>"I am content," subscribed Mr Guppling. "We have been surprised and +routed, not by the legitimate tactics of party strife, but by methods +undistinguishable from those of civil war."</p> + +<p>Hampden's glance was raised mechanically to an inscribed panel that hung +upon the wall in easy view, where it formed a curious decoration. The +ground colour was dull black, and on it in white lettering was set forth +a trenchant sentiment selected from the public utterances of every +prominent member of the Government and labelled with his name. It was a +vindication and a spur that he had kept before his eyes through the +years of ceaseless preparation, for in each extract one word was picked +out in the startling contrast of an almost blinding crimson, and that +one word was WAR. Even Sir John's enemies, those who called Salt a +machine of blood and iron, admitted him to be a kindly gentleman, and +his glance had been involuntary, for he had no desire to emphasise +defeat upon the vanquished. The thing was done, however, and following +the look every man who sat there met his own flamboyant challenge from +the past; for all, without exception, had thrown down the gauntlet once +in no uncertain form. War—but that had meant them waging war against +another when it was quite convenient for them to do so, not another +waging war against themselves out of season. War—but certainly not war +that turned them out of office, only war that turned their opponents out +of office.</p> + +<p>The rather strained silence was broken by the sound of footsteps +approaching from the hall.</p> + +<p>"We are still short of the Home Secretary and Comrade Tirrel," explained +Mr Chadwing to the master of the house. "We divided forces. They were +driving I understand. Perhaps——"</p> + +<p>It was. They came in slowly, for the Home Secretary faltered in his gait +and had a hunted look, while Tirrel led him by the arm. Both carried +traces of disorder, even of conflict.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes; they held us up," said Tirrel with a savage laugh, as his +colleagues gathered round. "He was recognised in Piccadilly by a crowd +of those ungrateful dogs from the pits. I shouted to the cabman to drive +through them at a gallop, but the cur jumped off his seat howling that +he was their friend. I was just able to get the reins; we bumped a bit, +but didn't upset, fortunately. I left the cab at the corner of the +street, here." He turned his back on the Home Secretary, who sat huddled +in a chair, and, facing the others, made a quick gesture indicating that +Mr Tubes was unwell and had better be left alone.</p> + +<p>"I brought him here, Sir John," he said, crossing over to the baronet +and speaking in a half-whisper, "because I really did not know where +else to take him. For some reason he appears to be almost execrated just +now. His house in Kilburn will be marked and watched, I am afraid. And +in that respect I daresay we are all in the same boat."</p> + +<p>"He appears to be ill," said Hampden, rising. "I will——"</p> + +<p>"Please don't," interrupted Tirrel decisively. "Any kind of attention +distresses him, I find. It is a collapse. He has been shaken for some +time past, and the attack to-night was the climax. His nerve is +completely gone."</p> + +<p>"As far as his safety is concerned," suggested the host with an +expression of compassion, "I think that we can ensure that here against +any irregular force. And certainly it would be the last place in which +they would think of looking for him. For the night, at least, you had +better leave him in our charge."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Tirrel; "it is very good of you. I will. Of course," +he added, as he turned away, "we shall have to assume his acquiescence +to any arrangement we may reach. Unofficially I can guarantee it."</p> + +<p>They seated themselves round the large table, Sir John and his private +secretary occupying one end, the plenipotentiaries ranging around the +other three sides. As they took their places Mr Drugget and another +member were announced. They did not appear to have been expected, but +they found seats among their colleagues. The Home Secretary sat apart, +cowering in an easy-chair, and stretching out his hands timorously from +time to time to meet the radiant heat of the great oil stove.</p> + +<p>The composition of the meeting was not quite the same as that of the +deputation which had paved the way to it earlier in the day. It was more +official, for the action of the deputation had forced the hand of the +Cabinet—to the relief of the majority of that body, it was whispered. +But there was one notable Minister absent.</p> + +<p>"I represent the Premier," announced Mr Drugget, rising. "If his +attendance in person can be dispensed with, he begged to be excused."</p> + +<p>"I offer no objection," replied Hampden. "If in the exceptional +circumstances the Prime Minister should desire to see me privately, I +will meet him elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"The Premier is indisposed, I regret to say."</p> + +<p>"In that case I would wait upon him at his own house, should he desire +it," proffered Sir John.</p> + +<p>"I will convey to him your offer," replied Mr Drugget. "In the meantime +I am authorised to subscribe Mr Strummery's acquiescence to the terms, +subject to one modification."</p> + +<p>"One word first, please," interposed Sir John. "I must repeat what I had +already said before you arrived. I am unable just now to consult my +colleagues, in concert with whom the Memorandum was drafted. If it is +necessary to refer back on any important detail——"</p> + +<p>Mr Tubes half rose from his chair with a pitiable look of terror in his +eyes and gave a low cry as a turbulent murmur from some distant street +reached his ears.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, comrade," said Cecil Brown reassuringly. "You're safe +enough here, Jim."</p> + +<p>"Aye, aye," whispered Tubes fearfully; "but did you hear that +shout?—'To the lamp-post!' They fling it at me from every crowd. It +haunts me. That is what I—I—yes, that is what I fear."</p> + +<p>"No good arguing," muttered Tirrel across the table. "Leave him to +himself; there's nothing else to be done just now."</p> + +<p>"I can at least express the Premier's views" resumed Mr Drugget. "He +would prefer the Bill for Amending the Franchise to be brought forward +as a private Bill by a member of the Opposition rather than make it a +Government measure. The Government would grant special facilities, and +not oppose it. The Premier would advise a dissolution immediately the +Bill passed."</p> + +<p>There was a knock at the library door. The secretary attended to it with +easy discretion, and for a minute was engaged in conversation with some +one beyond.</p> + +<p>Sir John looked at Mr Drugget in some amazement, and most of the members +of his own party regarded their leader's proxy with blank surprise.</p> + +<p>"I was hardly prepared for so fundamental an objection being raised at +this hour," said the baronet. "It amounts, of course, to bringing an +alternative proposal forward."</p> + +<p>"The result would be the same; I submit that it is scarcely more than a +matter of detail."</p> + +<p>"Then why press it?"</p> + +<p>Mr Drugget's expression seemed to convey the suggestion that he had no +personal wishes at all in the matter, but felt obliged to make the best +case he could for his chief.</p> + +<p>"The Premier not unnaturally desires that the real authors of so +retrogressive and tyrannical an Act should be saddled with the nominal +as well as the actual responsibility," he replied. "Possibly he fears +that in some remote future the circumstances will be forgotten, and his +name be handed down as that of a traitor."</p> + +<p>The private secretary took the opportunity of the sympathetic murmur +which this attitude evoked to exchange a sentence with Sir John. Then he +turned to the door and beckoned to the man who stood outside.</p> + +<p>"I must ask your indulgence towards a short interruption, gentlemen," +said Hampden, as a cyclist, in grey uniform, entered and handed him a +despatch. "It is possible that some of my friends may even now be on +their way to join me."</p> + +<p>They all regarded the messenger with a momentary curious interest; all +except two among them. Over Mr Drugget and the comrade who had arrived +with him the incident seemed to exercise an absorbing fascination. After +a single, it almost seemed a startled, glance at the soldier-cyclist, +their eyes met in a mutual impulse, and then instantly turned again to +fix on Hampden's face half-stealthily, but as tensely as though they +would tear the secret from behind his unemotional expression.</p> + +<p>"It's all very well, Drugget—in justice," anxiously murmured Mr Vossit +across the table, "but, as things are, we've got to be quick, and accept +considerably less than justice. For Heaven's sake, don't prolong the +agony, after to-day's experience."</p> + +<p>"If you hang on to that," warned Mr Guppling, "you will only end in +putting off till to-morrow not a whit better terms than you can make +to-night."</p> + +<p>"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," muttered Mr Drugget impatiently, not +withdrawing his fascinated gaze.</p> + +<p>In the silence of the room they again heard the crescive ululation of +the street, distant still, but sounding louder than before to their +strained imagination, and terrible in its suggestion of overwhelming, +unappeasable menace. Mr Tubes started uneasily in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Will <i>that</i> wait?" demanded Mr Guppling with some passion.</p> + +<p>"A very little time longer; your coming here to-night has thrown us +out," pleaded Mr Drugget's companion, in a more conciliatory whisper. +"To-morrow morning, a few hours, an hour—perhaps even——"</p> + +<p>The messenger had been dismissed without an answer. Looking up with +sudden directness, Hampden caught one man's eyes fixed on him with a +furtive intensity that betrayed his hopes and fears.</p> + +<p>"The attack on Hanwood has completely failed," quietly announced Sir +John, holding the startled gaze relentlessly. "The guns have been +captured and brought in. The troops have been surrounded, disarmed, and +dispersed, with the exception of those of the higher rank who are +detained. There have, unfortunately, been casualties on both sides."</p> + +<p>"I—I—I—Why do you address yourself to me, Sir John?" stammered the +disconcerted man, turning very white, and exhibiting every painful sign +of guilt and apprehension.</p> + +<p>"Are we to understand that your property at Hanwood has been attacked by +an armed force of regulars?" asked one with sincere incredulity, as +Hampden remained silent.</p> + +<p>"It is unhappily true."</p> + +<p>"And defended by an evidently superior force of armed men, unlawfully +assembled there," retorted a militant comrade defiantly.</p> + +<p>"In view of the strained position to which the circumstances must give +rise, I will take the responsibility of withdrawing the Premier's one +objection to the Memorandum as it stands," announced Mr Drugget with dry +lips.</p> + +<p>"In that case I will ask Mr Lloyd to read the terms of the agreement +formally before we append our signatures," said Hampden, without +offering any further comment.</p> + +<p>A printed copy of the Articles was passed to each delegate; on the table +before Sir John lay the engrossed form in duplicate. From one of these +the secretary proceeded to read the terms of the agreement, which was +frankly recognised on both sides as the death-warrant of socialistic +ascendency in England.</p> + +<p>From the Government the League required only one thing: the immediate +passing of "A Bill to amend the Qualifications of Voters in +Parliamentary Elections," to be followed by a dissolution and its +inevitable consequence, a general election. But of the result of that +election no one need cherish any illusions, for it would be decided +according to the new qualification; and shorn of its parliamentary +phraseology, the new Act was to sweep away the existing adult suffrage, +and, broadly, substitute for it a £10 occupation qualification, with, +still worse, a plurality of voting power in multiples of £10, according +to the rateable value of the premises occupied. It was wholly immoral +according to the democratic tendency of the preceding age, but it was +wholly necessary according to the situation which had resulted from it.</p> + +<p>A genial Autocrat, Professor, and Poet has set forth in one of his +works, for the sake of the warning it conveys, the story of a little boy +who, on coming into the possession of a nice silver watch, and examining +it closely, discovered among the works "a confounded little <i>hair</i> +entangled round the balance-wheel." Of course his first care was to +remove this palpable obstruction, with the result that the watch +accomplished the work of twenty-four hours in an insignificant fraction +of a second, and then refused to have anything more to do with practical +chronometry. On coming into possession of their new toy the Socialists +had discovered many "confounded little <i>hairs</i>" wrapped away among the +works of that elaborate piece of machinery, the English Constitution, +all obviously impeding its free working. Recklessly, even gaily, they +had pulled them out one after another, cut them across the middle and +left pieces hanging if they could not find the ends, dragged out lengths +anyhow. For a time the effect had been dazzlingly pyro-technical when +seen from below. The Constitution had gone very, very, very fast; it had +covered centuries in a few years; and as it went it got faster. But +unfortunately it had stopped suddenly. And every one saw that while it +remained in the hands of its nominal masters it would never go again.</p> + +<p>Had the times been less critical some other means of effecting the same +end might have been found. But although it was scarcely more than +whispered yet, for four hours England had been involved in actual, +deadly, civil war; and water once spilled is hard to gather up. Under +ordinary circumstances the expedient of disenfranchising a party would +have proved unpopular even with the bitterest among that party's +enemies. As it was, it was simply accepted as the necessary +counterstroke to their own policy of aggression.</p> + +<p>"If the 'most business-like Government of modern times' can instance a +single business where eleven shareholders to the amount of a sovereign +apiece can come in and outvote ten shareholders who have each a stake of +a thousand pounds in the concern, and then proceed to wreck it," was a +remark typical of the view people took, "then—why, then the record of +the Government will lose its distinction as an absolutely unique blend +of fatuous imbecility and ramping injustice, that's all."</p> + +<p>So there was to be a general election very soon in which the issue would +lie between the League party and the shattered, shipwrecked +Administration that had no leaders, no coherence, and scarcely a name to +rally to. It was estimated that Labour of one complexion or another +might hold between thirty and forty seats, if the working classes cared +to support representatives after the Payment of Members Act had been +repealed. It was computed that in more than four hundred constituencies +League candidates would be returned unopposed. There could be no denying +that our countrymen of 1918 (<i>circa</i>) lived through an interesting +period of their country's history. The League party would go to the poll +with no pledges, and their policy for the present was summed up in the +single phrase, "As in 1905." It was to be the cleanest of slates.</p> + +<p>"How soon can the Bill become law under the most expeditious handling?" +Hampden had asked of those who formed the earlier deputation, and the +answer had been, "Three days!" Solely from the "business" point of view +it was magnificent, and it was certainly convenient as matters stood. In +three more days a general election could be in full swing, waged, in the +emergency, on the existing register supplemented by the books of the +local authorities and the voters' receipts for rates or taxes. In a +single day it could be over. Within a week England would have +experienced a change in her affairs as far-reaching as the Conquest or +the Restoration.</p> + +<p>Mr Lloyd, to return to Sir John Hampden's library, read the first +article to the breathless assembly. It had been tacitly agreed that the +time had come when the conditions must be accepted without discussion; +but when the fateful clause was finished a deep groan, not in empty +hostile demonstration, but irresistibly torn from the unfeigned depths +of their emotion, escaped many of the Ministers. Boabdil el Chico's +sigh, when he reached the point where the towers and minarets of Granada +were lost to him for ever, was not more sincere or heart-racked. Even +Sir John could not have claimed that he felt unmoved.</p> + +<p>The secretary read on. The League entered into certain undertakings. It +guaranteed that the normal conditions of the home coal trade should be +restored, and the men called back to the pits by an immediate order for +ten million tons. Temporary relief work of various kinds would be +instituted at once to meet the distress. The Unemployed Grant would be +reopened for nine weeks to carry over the winter; for three weeks fully, +for three weeks at the rate of two-thirds, and for the last period +reduced to one-third. The colliers in London would be carried back to +their own districts as fast as the railways could get out the trains.</p> + +<p>There were many other points of detail, and they all had a common +aim—the obliteration of the immediate past and the restoration of that +public confidence which in a country possessing natural resources is the +foundation stone of national prosperity. Already there were facts for +the present and portents for the future. Men of influence and position, +who had been driven out of England by the terrible atmosphere of +political squalor cast over an Empire by a Government that had learned +to think municipally, were even now beginning to return; and that most +responsive seismograph which faithfully reflected every change in the +world's condition for good or ill predicted better times. In other +words, consols had risen in three months from 54-1/2 to 68 and the bulk +of the buying was said to be for investment.</p> + +<p>"If it is not trenching on the forbidden ground, I should like to ask +for an assurance on one point," said a member with a dash of acrimony. +The secretary had finished his task, and then for perhaps ten seconds +they had sat in silence, speculating half unconsciously upon the future, +as each dimly saw it, that lay beyond the momentous step they were about +to take. "I refer to the question of coal export. It is, of course, a +more important outlet than the domestic home consumption. Is the League +in a position to guarantee that the taxation will be rescinded without +delay?"</p> + +<p>"I think it would be a very unwarrantable presumption for us to assume +that any one outside the governments of the countries interested +possesses that influence, and that it would be a very undesirable, a +very undiplomatic, proceeding to hint at the possibility of any such +concession in the document I have before me," replied Sir John suavely. +"Beyond that, I would add that it will be manifestly to the interest of +the next government to restore the bulk of foreign trade to a normal +level; and that should the League party find itself in office, it will +certainly make representations through the usual channels."</p> + +<p>"Quite like old times," said Mr Soans dryly. "I suppose that we shall +have to be content with that. Let us hope that it will prove a true +saying that those who hide can find."</p> + +<p>He picked up a pen as he finished speaking, signed the paper that had +been passed to him first by reason of his position at the table, and +thrust it vehemently from him to his neighbour. Mr Chadwing held up his +pen to the light to make sure that it contained no obstruction on so +important an occasion, signed his name with clerkly precision, and then +carefully wiped his pen on the lining of his coat. Cecil Brown looked +down with the faint smile that covered his saddest moments as he added +the slender strokes of his signature, and Tirrel dashed off the +ink-laden characters of his with tightened lips and a sombre frown. +Consciously or unconsciously every man betrayed some touch of character +in that act. Mr Vossit made a wry grimace as he passed the paper on; and +Mr Guppling, with an eye on a possible line in Fame's calendar, snapped +his traitorous pen in two and cast the pieces dramatically to the +ground.</p> + +<p>When the last signature had been written, some of the members stood up +to take their leave at once, but Hampden and Tirrel made a simultaneous +motion to detain them. The master of the house gave way to his guest.</p> + +<p>"I am not up to cry over spilled milk," said Tirrel with his customary +bluntness. "What is done, is done. We shall carry out the terms, Sir +John Hampden, and you and your party will be in office in a week. But +you are not merely taking over the administration of a constitution: you +are taking over a defeated country. I ask you, as the head of your party +and the future Premier, to do one thing, and I ask it entirely on my own +initiative, and without the suggestion or even the knowledge of my +friends or colleagues. Let your first act be to publish a general +amnesty. It does not touch me.... But there have been things on both +sides. You may perhaps know my views; I would have crushed your League +by strong means when it was possible if I had had my way. None the less, +there is not the most shadowy charge that could hang over me to-day, and +for that reason it is permissible for me to put in this petition. The +nation is shattered, torn, helpless. Do not look too closely into the +past ... pacify."</p> + +<p>"The question has not arisen between my associates and myself, but I do +not imagine that we should hold conflicting views, and I may say that +for my part I enter cordially into the spirit of the suggestion," +replied Hampden frankly. "Anything irregular that could come within the +meaning of political action in its widest sense I should be favourable +towards making the object of a general pardon.... While we are together, +I will go a step further, and on this point I have the expressed +agreement of my friends. You, sir, have assumed without any reserve that +our party will be returned to office. I accept that assumption. You have +also compared our work to the pacification of a conquered nation. That +also may be largely admitted. We shall be less a political party +returned to power by the even chances of a keenly-fought election, and +checked by an alert opposition, than a social autocracy imposing our +wishes—as we believe for the public good—on the country. For twenty +years, as I forecast the future, there will be no effective opposition. +Yet a great deal of our work will have reference to the class whom the +opposition would represent, the class upon whose wise and statesmanlike +pacification the tranquillity, and largely the prosperity, of the +country, will depend."</p> + +<p>Some few began to catch the drift of Hampden's meaning, and those who +did all glanced instinctively towards Cecil Brown.</p> + +<p>"You have used, and I have accepted, the comparison of a conquered +nation," continued Sir John. "When a country has been forcibly occupied +the work of pacification is one of the first taken in hand by a prudent +conqueror. There is usually a Board or Committee of Conciliation, and in +that body are to be found some of the foremost of those who resisted +invasion while resistance seemed availing.... It would be analogous to +that, in my opinion, if a supporter of the present Government was +offered and accepted a position in the next. There would be no +suggestion—there would be no possibility—of his being in accord with +the Cabinet in its general policy. He would be there as an expert to +render service to both parties in the work of healing the scars of +conflict. If the proposal appears to be exceptional and the position +untenable at first sight, it is only because the prosaic parliamentary +machinery of normal times has by a miracle been preserved into times +that are abnormal."</p> + +<p>There was an infection of low laughter, amused, sardonic, some +good-natured and a little ill-natured, and a few cries of "Cecil Brown!" +in a subdued key.</p> + +<p>"The moment seemed a favourable one for laying the proposal before the +members of the Government," went on Hampden, unmoved, "though, of +course, I do not expect an answer now. On the assumption that we are +returned to power, it is our intention to create a new department to +exist as long as the conditions require it, and certainly as long as the +next Parliament. Its work will be largely conciliation, and it will deal +with the disorganisation of labour. In the same confidential spirit with +which you have spoken of the future without reserve, I may say that +should I be called upon to form a Ministry, I shall—and I have the +definite acquiescence of my colleagues—offer the Presidentship of the +Board to Mr Cecil Brown ... the office of Parliamentary Secretary to Mr +Tirrel."</p> + +<p>If Hampden had wished to surprise, he certainly succeeded. The open +laugh that greeted the first name was cut off as suddenly and completely +as the light is cut off when the gas-tap is turned, by the gasp that the +second name evoked. To many among them the offer had been the merest +party move; Cecil Brown's name a foregone conclusion. The addition of +Tirrel, whose rather brilliant qualities and quite fantastic sense of +honour they were prone to lose sight of behind his vehement +battle-front, was stupefying.</p> + +<p>It was Tirrel who was the first to break the silence of astonishment on +this occasion, not even waiting, with characteristic impetuousness, for +his chief-designate to offer an opinion.</p> + +<p>"You say that you do not want an answer now, Sir John, but you may have +it, as far as I am concerned," he cried, with the defiant air that +marked his controversial passages. "From any other man of your party the +proposal would have been an insult; from you it is an amiable mistake. +<i>You</i> do not think that you can buy us with the bribe of office, but you +think that there is no further party work for us to do: that Socialism +in England to-day is dead. I tell you, Sir John Hampden, with the +absolute conviction of an inspired truth, that it will triumph yet. You +will not see it; I may not see it, but it is more likely that the hand +of Time itself should fail than that the ideals to which we cling should +cease to draw men on. We, who are the earliest pioneers of that +untrodden path, have made many mistakes; we are paying for them now; but +we have learned. Some of our mistakes have brought want and suffering to +thousands of your class, but for hundreds of years your mistakes have +been bringing starvation and misery to millions of our class. From your +presence we go down again into the weary years of bondage, to work +silently and unmarked among those depths of human misery from which our +charter springs. I warn you, Sir John Hampden—for I know that the +warning will be dead and forgotten before the year is out—that our +reign will come again; and when the star of a new and purified Socialism +arises once more on a prepared and receptive world the very forces of +nature would not be strong enough to arrest its triumphant course."</p> + +<p>"Hear! hear!" said Mr Vossit perfunctorily, as he looked round +solicitously for his hat. "Well, I suppose we may as well be going."</p> + +<p>Cecil Brown recalled his wistful smile from the contemplation of a +future chequered with many scenes of light and shade.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, Sir John," he replied with a look of friendly +understanding, "but I also must go down with my own party."</p> + +<p>"I hope that the decision in neither case will be irrevocable," said +Hampden with regret, but as he spoke he knew that the hope was vain.</p> + +<p>They had already begun to file out of the room, with a touch here and +there of that air of constraint that the party had never been quite able +to shake off on ceremonial occasions. They left Mr Tubes cowering before +the stove, and raising his head nervously from time to time to listen to +the noises of the street.</p> + +<p>Mr Guppling, determined that his claims should not escape the eye of +Fame, paused at the door.</p> + +<p>"When we leave this room, John Hampden," he proclaimed in a loud and +impressive voice, and throwing out his hand with an appropriate gesture, +"we leave Liberty behind us, bound, gagged, and helpless, on the floor!"</p> + +<p>"Very true, Mr Guppling," replied Sir John good-humouredly. "We will +devote our first efforts to releasing her."</p> + +<p>Mr Guppling smiled a bitter, cutting smile, and left the shaft to +rankle. It was not until he was out in the street that a sense of the +possible ambiguity of his unfortunate remark overwhelmed him with +disgust.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>"POOR ENGLAND."</h3> + + +<p>With the account of the signing of the dissolution terms, and a brief +reference to the sweeping victory of the League party—already +foreshadowed, indeed, to the point of the inevitable—the unknown +chronicler, whose version of the Social War this narrative has followed, +brings his annals to a close. That war being finished, and by the +repudiation of their Socialistic mentors on the part of a large section +of the working classes, finished by more than a mere paper treaty, the +worthy scribe announces with praiseworthy restraint that there is no +more to be said.</p> + +<p>"These men," he declares, in the quaint and archaic language of the +past,—and he might surely have added "these women" also—"came not +reluctantly, but in no wise ambitiously, out of the business of their +own private lives to serve their country as they deemed; and that being +accomplished to a successful end, would have returned, nothing loth, to +more obscure affairs, having sought no personal gain beyond that which +grew from public security, an equitable burden of citizenship, and a +recovered pride among the nations. Albeit some must needs remain to +carry on the work."</p> + +<p>Even the not unimportant detail of who remained to carry on the work, +and in what capacities, is not recorded, but the distribution of rewards +and penalties, on the lines of strict poetic justice, may be safely left +to the individual reader's sympathies, with the definite assurance that +everything happened exactly as he would have it. At the length of three +times as much space as would have sufficed to dispose of these points +once and for all, this superexact historian goes on to set out his +reasons for not doing so. He claims, in short, that his object was to +portray the course of the social war, not to recount the adventures of +mere individuals; and with the suggestion of a wink between his pen and +paper that may raise a doubt whether he, on his side, might not be +endowed with the power of casting a critical eye upon other periods than +his own, he indulges in a little pleasantry at the expense of writers +who, under the pretext of developing their hero's character, begin with +his parent's childhood, and continue to the time of his grandchildren's +youth. For himself, he asserts that nothing apart from the course of the +social war, its rise and progress, has been allowed to intrude, and that +ended, and their work accomplished, its champions are rather heroically +treated, very much as the Arabian magician's army was disposed of until +it was required again, and to all intents and purposes turned into stone +just where they stood.</p> + +<p>But from other sources it is possible to glean a little here and there +of the course of subsequent events. To this patchwork record the +<i>Minneapolis Journal</i> contributes a cartoon laden with the American +satirist's invariable wealth of detail.</p> + +<p>A very emaciated John Bull, stretched on his bed, is just struggling +back to consciousness and life. On a table by his side stands a bottle +labelled "Hampden's U. L. Mixture," to which he owes recovery. On the +walls one sees various maps which depict a remarkably Little England +indeed. Some sagacious economist, in search of a strip of canvas with +which to hold together a broken model of a black man, has torn off the +greater part of South Africa for the purpose. Over India a spider has +been left to spin a web so that scarcely any of the Empire is now to be +seen. Upper Egypt is lost behind a squab of ink which an irresponsible +urchin has mischievously taken the opportunity to fling. Every colony +and possession shows signs of some ill-usage.</p> + +<p>"Say, John," "Uncle Sam," who has looked in, is represented as saying, +"you've had a bad touch of the 'sleeping sickness.' You'd better take +things easy for a spell to recuperate. I'll keep an eye on your house +while you go to the seashore."</p> + +<p>That was to be England's proud destiny for the next few years—to take +things easy and recuperate! There is nothing else for the pale and +shaken convalescent to do; but the man who has delighted in his strength +feels his heart and soul rebel against the necessity. Fortunate for +England that she had good friends in that direful hour. The United +States, sinking those small rivalries over which cousins may strive even +noisily at times in amiable contention, stretched a hand across the +waters and astonished Europe by the message, "Who strikes England +wantonly, strikes me": a sentiment driven home by the diplomatic hint +that for the time being the Monroe Doctrine was suspended west of Suez.</p> + +<p>France—France who had been so chivalrously true to her own ally in that +stricken giant's day of incredible humiliation—looked across The Sleeve +with troubled, anxious eyes, and whispered words of sympathy and hope. +Gently, very tactfully, she offered friendship with both hands, without +a tinge of the patronage or protection that she could extend; and by the +living example of her own tempestuous past and gallant recovery from +every blow, pointed the way to power and self-respect.</p> + +<p>Japan, whose treaty had been thrown unceremoniously back to her many +years before, now drew near again with the cheerful smile that is so +mild in peace, so terrible in war. Prefacing that her own enviable +position was entirely due to the enlightened virtues of her emperor, she +now proposed another compact on broad and generous lines, by which +England—a "high contracting Power," as she was still magnanimously +described—was spared the most fruitful cause for anxiety in the East.</p> + +<p>"You didn't mind allying with us when you were at the head of the +nations," said Japan. "We come to you—now. Besides, all very good +business for us in the end. You build up again all right, no time."</p> + +<p>Japan's authority to speak on the subject of "building up" was not to be +disputed. The nations had forgotten the time, scarcely a quarter of a +century before, when they had been amused by "Little Japan's" +progressive ambitions. And when Japan had taken over the "awakening" +arrangements of a sister-nation on terms that gave her fifty million +potential warriors to draw upon and train (warriors whom one of +England's most revered generals had characterised as "Easily led; easily +fed; fearless of death"), non-amusement in some quarters gave way to +positive trepidation.</p> + +<p>The sympathetic nations spoke together, and agreed that something must +be done to give "Poor England" another chance; as, in the world of +commerce, friendly rivals will often gather round the man who has fallen +on evil days to set him on his feet again.</p> + +<p>So England was to have a fair field and liberty to work out her own +salvation. But she was not to wake up and find that it had all been a +hideous dream. Egypt had been put back to the time of the Khalifa. India +had lost sixty years of pacification and progress. Ireland was a +republic, at least in name, and depending largely on Commemoration +Issues of postage stamps for a revenue. South Africa was for the South +Africans. There were many other interesting items, but these were, as it +might be expressed to a nation of shopkeepers, the leading lines.</p> + +<p>If the worst abroad was bad enough, there was one encouraging feature at +home. With the election of the new government industries began to +revive, trade to improve, the money market to throw off its depression, +and the natural demand for labour to increase: not gradually, but +instantly, phenomenally. It was as though a dam across some great river +had been removed, and with the impetus every sluggish little tributary +was quickened and drawn on in new and sparkling animation. It was not +necessary to argue upon it from a party point of view; it was a concrete +fact that every one admitted. There was only one explanation, and it met +the eye at every turn. Capital reappeared, and money began to circulate +freely again. Why? There was security.</p> + +<p>It was not the Millennium; it was the year 19—, and a "capitalistic" +government was in office; but the "masses" discovered that they were +certainly not worse off than before. Working men now wore, it is true, a +little less of the air of being so many presidents of South American +republics when they walked about the streets; but that style had never +really suited them, and they soon got out of it. The men who had come +into power were not of the class who oppress. The strife of the past was +being forgotten; its lessons were remembered. What was good and +practical of Socialistic legislation was retained. So it came about that +the vanquished gained more by defeat than they would have done by +victory.</p> + +<p>It was undeniable that, in common with mankind at large, they still from +time to time experienced pain, sickness, disappointment, hardship, and +general adversity. Those who were employed by gentlemen were treated as +gentlemen treat their work-people; those who were so unfortunate as to +be in the service of employers who had no claim to that title continued +to be treated as cads and despots treat their employés. Those among them +who were gentlemen themselves extended a courteous spirit towards their +masters, and those among them who were the reverse continued to act +towards employers and the world around as churls and blusterers act, and +so the compensating balance of nature was more or less harmoniously +preserved.</p> + +<p>And what of the future? Will the nation that was so sharply taught dread +the fire like the burned child, or return to the flame as the scorched +moth does? Alas, the memory of a people is short, even as the wisdom of +a proverb is conflictingly two-edged.</p> + +<p>Or, if the warning fades and the necessity grows large again, will there +be found another Stobalt to respond to the call? "For those whom Heaven +afflicts there is a chance," contributes the Sage of another land; "but +they who persistently work out their own undoing are indeed hopeless."</p> + +<p>Or may it be that the faith of Tirrel will be justified, and that in the +process of time there will emerge from man's ceaseless groping after +perfection a new wisdom, under whose yet undreamt-of scheme and +dispensation all men will be content and reconciled?</p> + +<p>The philosopher shakes his head weightily and remains silent—thereby +adding to his reputation. The prophets prophesy; the old men dream +dreams and the young men see visions, and the dispassionate speculate. +On all sides there is a multitude of the counsel in which, as we must +believe, lies wisdom.</p> + +<p>It is an interesting situation, and as it can only be definitely settled +beyond the dim vista of future centuries, the pity is that we shall +never know.</p> + + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NELSON_LIBRARY" id="NELSON_LIBRARY"></a>NELSON LIBRARY</h2> + +<h3><i>UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.</i></h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">1. The Marriage of William Ashe.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">2. The Intrusions of Peggy.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">3. The Fortune of Christina M'Nab.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">4. The Battle of the Strong.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">5. Robert Elsmere.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">6. No. 5 John Street.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">7. Quisanté.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">8. Incomparable Bellairs.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">9. History of David Grieve.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">10. The King's Mirror.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">11. John Charity.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">12. Clementina.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">13. If Youth but Knew.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">14. The American Prisoner.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">15. His Grace.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">16. The Hosts of the Lord.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">17. The God in the Car.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">18. The Lady of the Barge.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">19. The Odd Women.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">20. Matthew Austin.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">21. The Translation of a Savage.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">22. The Octopus.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">23. White Fang.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">24. The Princess Passes.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">25. Sir John Constantine.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">26. The Man from America.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">27. A Lame Dog's Diary.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">28. The Recipe for Diamonds.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">29. Woodside Farm.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">30. Monsieur Beaucaire, and The Beautiful Lady.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">31. The Pit.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">32. An Adventurer of the North.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">33. The Wages of Sin.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">34. Lady Audley's Secret.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">35. Eight Days.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">36. Owd Bob.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">37. The Duenna of a Genius.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">38. His Honor and a Lady.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">39. Marcella.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">40. Selah Harrison.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">41. The House with the Green Shutters.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">42. Mrs Galer's Business.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">43. Old Gorgon Graham.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">44. Major Vigoureux.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">45. The Gateless Barrier.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">46. Kipps.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">47. Moonfleet.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">48. Springtime.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">49. French Nan.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">50. The Food of the Gods.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">51. Raffles.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">52. Cynthia's Way.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">53. Clarissa Furiosa.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">54. Love and Mr Lewisham.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">55. The Lonely Lady of Grosvenor Square.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">56. Thompson's Progress.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">57. The Primrose Path.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">58. Lady Rose's Daughter.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">59. Romance.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">60. The War of the Carolinas.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">61. Katharine Frensham.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">62. The Professor on the Case.<br /></span> +<span class="i8">63. Love and the Soul-Hunters.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Secret of the League, by Ernest Bramah + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE *** + +***** This file should be named 34522-h.htm or 34522-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/5/2/34522/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Secret of the League + The Story of a Social War + +Author: Ernest Bramah + +Release Date: November 30, 2010 [EBook #34522] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + + + + + THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE + + The Story of a Social War + + By ERNEST BRAMAH + + + THOMAS NELSON + AND SONS + + + + +[Illustration: She began to unbuckle the frozen straps of his gear.] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +I. IRENE + +II. THE PERIOD, AND THE COMING OF WINGS + +III. THE MILLION TO ONE CHANCE + +IV. THE COMPACT + +V. THE DOWNTRODDEN + +VI. MISS LISLE TELLS A LONG POINTLESS STORY + +VII. "SCHEDULE B" + +VIII. TANTROY EARNS HIS WAGE + +IX. SECRET HISTORY + +X. THE ORDER OF ST. MARTIN OF TOURS + +XI. MAN BETWEEN TWO MASTERS + +XII. BY TELESCRIBE + +XIII. THE EFFECT OF THE BOMB + +XIV. THE LAST CHANCE AND THE COUNSEL OF EXPEDIENCE + +XV. THE GREAT FIASCO + +XVI. THE DARK WINTER + +XVII. THE INCIDENT OF THE 13TH OF JANUARY + +XVIII. THE MUSIC AND THE DANCE + +XIX. THE "FINIS" MESSAGE + +XX. STOBALT OF SALAVEIRA + +XXI. THE BARGAIN OF FAMINE + +XXII. "POOR ENGLAND" + + + + +THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +IRENE + + +"I suppose I am old-fashioned"--there was a murmur of polite dissent +from all the ladies present, except the one addressed--"Oh, I take it as +a compliment nowadays, I assure you; but when I was a girl a young lady +would have no more thought of flying than of"--she paused almost on a +note of pained surprise at finding the familiar comparison of a lifetime +cut off--"well, of standing on her head." + +"No," replied the young lady in point, with the unfeeling candour that +marked the youthful spirit of the age, "because it wasn't invented. But +you went bicycling, and your mothers were very shocked at first." + +"I hardly think that you can say that, Miss Lisle," remarked another of +the matrons, "because I can remember that more than twenty years ago one +used to see quite elderly ladies bicycling." + +"After the others had lived all the ridicule down," retorted Miss Lisle +scornfully. "Oh yes; I quite expect that in a few more years you will +see quite elderly ladies flying." + +The little party of matrons seated on the Hastings promenade regarded +each other surreptitiously, and one or two smiled slightly, while one or +two shuddered slightly. "Flying is very different, dear," said Mrs Lisle +reprovingly. "I often think of what your dear grandfather used to say. +He said"--impressively--"that if the Almighty had intended that we +should fly, He would have sent us into the world with wings upon our +backs." + +There was a murmur of approval from all--all except Miss Lisle, that is. + +"But do you ever think of what Geoffrey replied to dear grandpapa when +he heard him say that once, mother?" said the unimpressed daughter. "He +said: 'And don't you think, sir, that if the Almighty had intended us to +use railways, He would have sent us into the world with wheels upon our +feet?'" + +"I do not see any connection at all between the two things," replied her +mother distantly. "And such a remark seems to me to be simply +irreverent. Birds are born with wings, and insects, and so on, but +nothing, as far as I am aware, is born with wheels. Your grandfather +used to travel by the South Eastern regularly every day, or how could he +have reached his office? and he never saw anything wrong in using +trains, I am sure. In fact, when you think of it you will see that what +Geoffrey said, instead of being any argument, was supremely silly." + +"Perhaps he intended it to be," replied Miss Lisle with suspicious +meekness. "You never know, mother." + +Such a remark merited no serious attention. Why should any one, least of +all a really clever young man like Geoffrey, deliberately _intend_ to be +silly? There was too often, her mother had observed, an utter lack of +relevance in Irene's remarks. + +"I think that it is a great mistake to have white flying costumes as so +many do," observed another lady. "They look--but perhaps they wish to." + +"Certainly when they use lace as well it really seems as though they do. +Oh!" + +There was a passing shadow across the group and a slight rustle in the +air. Scarcely a dozen yards above the promenade a young lady was flying +strongly down the wind with the languid motion of the "swan stroke." She +wore white--and lace trimming. Mrs Lisle gazed fixedly out to sea. Even +Irene felt that the vision was inopportune. + +"There are always some who overdo a thing," she remarked. "There always +have been. That was only Velma St Saint of the New Gaiety; she flies +about the front every day for the advertisement of the thing: I wonder +that she doesn't drop handbills as she goes. There's plenty of room up +on the Castle Hill--in fact, you aren't supposed to fly west of the +Breakwater--but there will always be some----" A vague resentment closed +the period. + +"Are you staying at the Palatial this time?" asked the lady who had +mentioned lace, feeling it tactful to change the subject. "I think that +you used to." + +"Oh, haven't you seen?" was the reply. "The Palatial has been closed for +the last six months." + +"Yes, it's a great pity," remarked another. "It looks so depressing too, +right on the front. But they simply could not go on. I suppose that the +rates here are something frightful now." + +"Oh, enormous, my dear; but it was not that alone. The Palatial has +always aimed at being a 'popular' hotel, and so few of the upper middle +class can afford hotels now. Then the new tax on every servant above +one--calculated as fifty per cent. of their wages, I think, but there +are so many new taxes to remember--proved the last straw." + +"Yes, it is fifty per cent. I remember because I had to give up my +between-maid to pay the cook's tax. But I thought that hotels were to be +exempt?" + +"Not in the end. It was argued that hotels existed for the convenience +of the monied classes, and that they ought to pay for it. So a large +number of hotels are closed altogether; others work with a reduced +staff, and a great many servants have been thrown out of employment." + +Miss Lisle laughed unpleasantly. "A good thing, too," she remarked. "I +hate hotel servants. So does everybody. It is the only good thing I have +heard of the Labour Government doing." + +"I am sure I don't hate them," said Mrs Lisle, looking round with +pathetic resignation, "although they certainly had become rather +grasping and over-bearing of late. But it was quite an unforeseen +development of the scheme that so many should lose their places. Indeed +the special object of the tax was to create a fund--'earmarked' I think +they call it--out of which to meet the growing pension claim, now that +so few of the servant class think it worth while to save." + +Miss Lisle laughed again, this time with a note of genuine amusement. + +("A most unpleasant girl, I fear," murmured the lady who had raised the +white costume question, to her neighbour in a whisper: "so odd.") + +"It made a great difference at the registry offices. There are a dozen +maids to be had any day where there were really none before. Only one +cannot afford to keep them now." + +There was a word, a sigh, and an "Ah!" to mark this point of agreement +among the four ladies. + +"I am afraid that the Government confiscation of all dividends above +five per cent. bears very heavily on some," remarked one after a pause. +"I know a poor soul of over sixty-five, nearly blind too, whose husband +had invested all his savings in the company he had worked for because he +knew that it was safe, and, having a good reserve, intended to pay ten +per cent. for a long time. When he died it brought her in fifty pounds a +year. Now----" + +There were little signs of sympathy and commiseration from the group. +The sex was beginning to take an unwonted interest in terms +financial--per centage, surrender value, trustee stock, unearned +increment, and so on. They had reason to do so, for revolutionary +finance was very much in the air, or, rather, had come tangibly down to +earth at length: not the placid city echoes that were wont to ripple +gently across the breakfast-table a few years earlier without leaving +any one much better or much worse off, but the galvanic adjustment that +by a stroke made the rich well-to-do, the well-to-do just so-so, the +struggling poor, and left the poor where they were before. The frenzied +effort that in a session strove to tear up the trees of the forest and +leave the plants beneath untouched; to pull to pieces the intertwined +fabric of a thousand years' growth and to create from it a bundle of +straight and equal twigs; in a word, to administer justice on the +principle of knocking out one eye in all the sound because a number of +people were unfortunately born or fallen blind. + +"Five and twenty," mused Mrs Lisle. "I suppose it is just possible." + +"It is really less than that," explained the other. "You may have +noticed that as it is now no good making more than five per cent., most +companies pay even less. There is no incentive to do well." + +"One hears of even worse cases on every hand," said another of the +ladies. "I am trying to interest people in a poor deformed creature +whose father left her an annuity derived from ground rents in the +City.... As it has been worked out I think that she owes the Incomes +Adjustment Department lawyers something a year now. But private charity +seems almost to have ceased altogether. Have you heard that 'Jim's' is +closed?" + +It was true. St James's Hospital, whose unvarnished record was, "Three +hundred of the very poor treated freely each day," was a thing of the +past, and across its portal, where ten years before a couple of stalwart +gentlemen wearing red ties had rested for a moment, while they lit their +pipes, a banner with the strange device, "Curse your Charity!" now ran +the legend, "Closed for want of Funds." + +"I wonder sometimes," mused the last speaker, "why some one doesn't do +something." + +"But," objected another, "what is there to do? What is there?" + +They all agreed that there was nothing--absolutely nothing. Every one +else was tacitly making the same admission; that was the fatal symptom. + +Miss Lisle jumped up and began to move away unceremoniously. + +"Where are you going, dear?" asked her mother in mild reproof. + +"Oh, anywhere," replied Irene restlessly. + +"But what for?" persisted Mrs Lisle. + +"Oh, anything." + +"That is 'nothing,' Miss Lisle," smiled the tactful lady of the party, +anxious to smooth over the awkwardness of the moment. + +"No, it is at least something," flung back the girl brusquely; and with +swinging strides she set off at a furious pace towards the open country. + +"Irene is a little impulsive at times," apologized her mother, sitting +back with placidly folded hands. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE PERIOD, AND THE COMING OF WINGS + + +An intelligent South Sea Islander, who had been imported into this +country to stimulate missionary enterprise, on his return had said that +the most marked characteristic of the English of the period was what +they called "snap." + +The nearest equivalent in his own language signifying literally "quick +hot words," he had some difficulty in conveying the impression he +desired, and his circle had to rest content that "snap" permeated the +journalism, commerce, politics, drama, and social life of the English, +had assailed their literature, and was beginning to influence religion, +art, and science. It may be admitted that the foreign gentleman's visit +had coincided with a period of national stress, for the week in question +had embraced the more entertaining half of a general election, seen the +advent of two new farthing daily papers, and been marked by the Rev. +Sebastian Tauthaul's striking series of addresses from the pulpit of the +City Sanctum, entitled "If Christ put up for Battersea." It had also +included the launching of a new cocoa, a new soap, and a new +concentrated food. + +The new food was called "Chip-Chunks." "A name which I venture to think +spells success of itself," complacently remarked its inventor. "A very +good name indeed," admitted his advertising manager. "It has the great +desideratum that it might be anything, and, on the other hand, it might +equally well be nothing." "Just so," said the inventor with weighty +approval; "just so." A "snap-line" was required that would ineradicably +fix Chip-Chunks in the public mind, and "Bow-wow! Feel chippy? Then +champ Chip-Chunks" was found in an inspired moment. It was, of course, +fully cooked and already quite digested. It was described as the delight +of the unweaned infant, the mainstay of the toothless nonagenarian, and +so simple and wholesome that it could be safely taken and at once +assimilated by the invalid who had undergone the operation of having his +principal organ of digestion removed. So little, indeed, remained for +nature and the human parts to do in the matter of Chip-Chunks as to +raise the doubt whether it might not be simpler and scarcely less +nutritive to open the tin and pour the contents down the drain +forthwith. + +As Chip-Chunks was designed for those who were disinclined to exercise +the functions of digestion, so Isabella soap made an appeal to those who +disliked work and had something of an antipathy to soap at all. One did +not wash with Isabella, it was assured: one sat down and watched it. It +had its "snap-lines," too: + +"You write it 'wash,' but you call it 'wosh.' + +"What is the difference? + +"There is 'a' difference. + +"There is also 'a' difference between Isabella soap and all other soaps: + +"All the difference. + +"That's our point. Put it in your washtub and watch it." + + * * * * * + +Cocoa was approached in a more sober spirit. Soap may blow bubbles of +light and airy fancy, pills _ricochet_ from one gay conceit to another, +meat extracts gambol with the irresponsible exuberance of bulls in china +cups, but cocoa relied upon sincerity and statistics. Kingcup cocoa was +the last word of the expert. It won its way into the great heart of the +people by driving home the significant fact that it contained .00001 per +cent. more phosphorus, and .000002 per cent. less of something fatty, +than any other cocoa in existence. When the newspaper reader of the +period had been confronted by this assertion, in various guises, +seventeen thousand times, he had reached a state of mind in which .00001 +per cent. more phosphorus and .000002 per cent. less fat represented the +difference between vigorous manhood and drivelling imbecility. + +The Rev. Sebastian was all "snap." His topical midday +addresses--described by himself as "Seven minutes +sandwich-sermonettes"--have already been referred to. Young men who were +pressed for time were bidden to bring their bath buns or buttered scones +and eat openly and unashamed. Workmen with bread and cheese and pots of +beer were welcomed with effusion. This particular series extended over +the working days of a week, and was subdivided thus: + + _Monday._--The Issues before the Constituency. + + _Tuesday._--His Address to the Electors. + + _Wednesday._--The Day of the Contest. + + _Thursday._--Which Way are you Voting? + + _Friday._--Spoiled Papers. + + _Saturday._--At the Top of the Poll and the Leader of + our Party. + + * * * * * + +Of the new papers, of their sprightliness, their enterprise, their +general all-roundness, their almost wicked experience of the ways of the +world, from a quite up-to-date fund of junior office witticism to a +knowledge of the existence of actresses who do not act, outwardly +respectable circles of society who play cards for money on Sunday, and +(exclusively for the benefit of their readers) places where quite +high-class provisions (only nominally damaged) could be bought cheap on +Saturday nights, it is unnecessary to say much. Of their irresponsible +cock-sureness, their bristling combativeness, their amazing powers of +prophetic penetration, and, it must be confessed, their ineradicable air +of somewhat second-rate infant phenomenonship, their crumbling yellow +files still bear witness. As a halfpenny is half a penny, so a farthing +is half a halfpenny, and the mind that is not too appalled by the +possibilities of the development can people for itself this journalistic +Eden. + +_The Whip_ described its programme as "Vervy and nervy; brainy and +champagny." _The Broom_ relied more on solider attractions of the "News +of the World in Pin Point Pars" and "Knowledge in Nodules" order. Both +claimed to be written exclusively by "brainy" people, and both might +have added, with equal truth, read exclusively by brainless. Avowedly +appealing "to the great intellect of the nation," neither fell into the +easy mistake of aiming too high, and the humblest son of toil might take +them up with the fullest confidence of finding nothing from beginning to +end that was beyond his simple comprehension. + +But the most cursory review of national "snappishness" would be +incomplete if it omitted the field of politics, especially when the +period in question contained so concentrated an accumulation of "snap" +as a general election. Contests had long ceased to be decided on the +merits of individuals or of parties, still less to be the occasions for +deliberate consideration of policy. Each group had its label and its +"snap-cries." The outcome as a whole--the decision of each division with +few exceptions--lay in the hands of a class which, while educated to the +extent of a little reading and a little writing, was practically +illiterate in thought, in experience, and in discrimination. To them a +"snap-cry" was eminently suited, as representing a concrete idea and +being in fact the next best argument to a decayed egg. That national +disaster had never so far been evolved out of this rough-and-ready +method could be traced to a variety of saving clauses. At such a time +the strict veracity of the cries raised was not to be too closely +examined; indeed, there was not the time for contradiction, and therein +lay the essence of some of the most successful "snaps." + +Misrepresentation, if on a sufficiently large scale, was permissible, +but it was advisable to make it wholesale, lurid, and applied not to an +individual but to a party--emphasising, of course, the fact that your +opponent was irretrievably pledged to that party through thick and thin. + +In other words, it was quite legitimate for A to declare that the policy +of the party to which his opponent B belonged was a policy of murder, +rapine, piracy, black-mail, highway robbery, extermination, and +indiscriminate bloodshed; that they had swum to office on a sea of tears +racked from the broken hearts of an outraged peasantry, risen to power +on the apex of a smoking hecatomb of women and children, and kept their +position by methods of ruthless barbarism; that assassination, polygamy, +thuggeeism, simony, bureaucracy, and perhaps even an additional penny on +the poor man's tea, would very likely be found included in their +official programme; that they were definitely pledged to introduce +Kalmucks and Ostyaks into the Government Dock-yards, who would work in +chained gangs, be content with three farthings for a fourteen hours' +day, and live exclusively on engine waste and barley-water. + +This and much more was held to be fair political warfare which should +not offend the keenest patriot. But if A so far descended to vulgar +personalities as to accuse B himself of employing an urchin to scare +crows at eightpence a day when the trade union rate for crow-scaring was +ninepence, he stood a fair chance of having an action for libel or +defamation of character on his hands in addition to an election. + +Under such a system the least snappy went to the wall. Happy was the man +who was armed not necessarily with a just cause, but with a name that +lent itself to topical alliteration. Who could resist the appeal to + + Vote for Frank Blarney. + Fresh Brooms in Parliament. + Fewer Bungles during the next five years. + Financial Betterment at home. + Free Breakfast-tables for the People. + Flourishing Businesses all round. + +--especially when it was coupled with the reminder that + +Every vote given to A. J. Wallflower is a slice of bread filched from +your innocent children's hard-earned loaf. + + * * * * * + +Of course the schools could not escape the atmosphere. The State-taught +children were wonderfully snappy--for the time being. Afterwards, it +might be noticed, that when the props were pulled away they were +generally either annoyingly dull or objectionably pert, or, perhaps, +offensively dully-pert, according to whether their nature was backward +or forward, or a mixture of both. The squad-drilled units could remember +wonderfully well--for the time; they could apply the rules they learned +in just the way they were taught to apply them--for the time. But they +could not remember what they had not been drilled to remember; they +could not apply the rules in any other way; they could not apply the +principles at all; and they could not think. + +High and low, children were not allowed to think; with ninety-nine +mothers out of a hundred its proper name was "idleness." "I do not like +to see you sitting down doing nothing, dear," said every mother to every +daughter plaintively. "Is there no sewing you might do?" So the would-be +thoughtful child was harried into working, or playing, or eating, or +sleeping, as though a mind contentedly occupied with itself was an +unworthy or a morbid thing. + +Yet it was a too close adherence to the national character that proved +to be the undoing of Wynchley Slocombe, who is now generally admitted to +have been the father of the form of aerial propulsion so widely enjoyed +to-day. Like everybody else, he had read the offer of the Traffic and +Locomotion Department of a substantial reward for a satisfactory +flying-machine, embracing "any contrivance ... that would by +demonstration enable one or more persons, freed from all earth-support +or connection (_a_) to remain stationary at will, at any height between +50 and 1500 feet; (_b_) at that height to travel between two points one +mile apart within a time limit of seven minutes and without deviating +more than fifty yards from a straight line connecting the two points; +(_c_) to travel in a circle of not less than three miles in +circumference within a time limit of fifteen minutes." Wynchley took an +ordinary intelligent interest in the subject, but he had no thought of +competing. + +It was not until the last day of the period allowed for submitting plans +that Wynchley's great idea occurred to him. There was then no time for +elaborating the germ or for preparing the requisite specifications, even +if he had any ability to do so, which he had not, being, in fact, quite +ignorant of the subject. But he remembered hearing in his youth that +when a former Government of its day had offered a premium for a +convenient method of dividing postage stamps (until that time sold in +unperforated sheets and cut up as required by the users), the successful +competitor had simply tendered the advice, "Punch rows of little holes +between them." In the same spirit Wynchley Slocombe took half a sheet of +silurian notepaper (now become famous, and preserved in the South +Kensington Museum) and wrote on it, "Fasten on a pair of wings, and +practise! practise!! practise!!!" It was to be the aerial counterpart of +"Gunnery! Gunnery!! Gunnery!!!" + +Unfortunately, the departmental offices were the only places in England +where "snap" was not recognised. Wynchley was regarded as a suicidal +lunatic--a familiar enough figure in flying-machine circles--and his +suggestion was duly pigeon-holed without consideration. + +The subsequent career of the unhappy man may be briefly stated. +Disappointed in his hopes of an early recognition, and not having +sufficient money at his disposal to demonstrate the practicability of +his idea, he took to writing letters to the President of the Board, and +subsequently to waylaying high officials and demanding interviews with +them. Dismissed from his situation for systematic neglect of duty, he +became a "poor litigant with a grievance" at the Law Courts, and +periodically applied for summonses against the Prime Minister, the Lord +Mayor of London, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Still later his name +became a by-word as that of a confirmed window-breaker at the Government +offices. A few years afterwards, a brief paragraph in one or two papers +announced that Wynchley Slocombe, "who, some time ago, gained an +unenviable notoriety on account of his hallucinations," had committed +suicide in a Deptford model lodging-house. + +In the meanwhile two plans for flying-machines had been selected as +displaying the most merit, and their inventors were encouraged to press +on with the construction under a monetary grant. Both were finished +during the same week, and for the sake of comparison they were submitted +to trial on the same day upon Shorncliffe plain. _Vimbonne VI._, which +resembled a much-distended spider with outspread legs, made the first +ascent. According to instructions, it was to demonstrate its ability to +go in a straight line by descending in a field near the Military Canal, +beyond Seabrook, but from the moment of its release it continued to +describe short circles with a velocity hitherto unattained in any +air-ship, until its frantic constructor was too dizzy to struggle with +its mechanism any longer. The _Moloch_ was then unmoored, and took up +its position stationary at a height of 1000 feet with absolute +precision. It was built on the lines of a gigantic centipede, with two +rows of clubby oars beneath, and ranked as the popular favourite. Being +instructed, for the sake of variety, to begin with the three mile +circle, the _Moloch_ started out to sea on the flash of the gun, the +sinuous motion that rippled down its long vertebrate body producing an +effect, accidental but so very life-like, that many of the vast +concourse assembled on the ground turned pale and could not follow it +unmoved.... + +There have been many plausible theories put forward by experts to +account for the subsequent disaster, but for obvious reasons the real +explanation can never progress beyond the realms of conjecture, for the +_Moloch_, instead of bending to the east, encircling Folkestone and its +suburbs, and descending again in the middle of Shorncliffe Camp, +continued its unswerving line towards the coast of France, and never +held communication with civilised man again. + +So exact was its course, however, that it was easy to trace its passage +across Europe. It reached Boulogne about four o'clock in the afternoon, +and was cheered vociferously under the pathetic impression that +everything was going well. Amiens saw it a little to the east in the +fading light of evening, and a few early citizens of Dijon marked it +soon after dawn. Its passage over the Alps was accurately timed and +noted at several points, and the Italian frontier had a glimpse of it, +very high up, it was recorded, at nightfall. A gentleman of Ajaccio, +travelling in the interior of the island, thought that he had seen it +some time during the next day; and several Tripoli Greeks swore that it +had passed a few yards above their heads a week later; but the testimony +of the Corsican was deemed the more reliable of the two. A relief +expedition was subsequently sent out and traversed a great part of +Africa, but although the natives in the district around the Albert +Nyanza repeatedly prostrated themselves and smacked their thighs +vigorously--the tribal signs of fear and recognition--when shown a small +working model of the _Moloch_, no further trace was ever obtained of it. + +The accident had a curious sequel in the House of Commons, which +significantly illustrates how unexpected may be the ultimate +developments of a chain of circumstance. It so happened that in addition +to its complement of hands, the _Moloch_ carried an assistant +under-secretary to the Board of Agriculture. This gentleman, who had +made entomology a lifelong study, was invaluable to his office, and the +lamentable consequence of his absence was that when the President of the +Board rose the following night to answer a question respecting the +importation of lady-birds to arrest an aphis plague then devastating the +orchards of the country, he ingenuously displayed so striking an +unfamiliarity with the subject that his resignation was demanded, the +Government discredited, and a dissolution forced. In particular, the +hon. gentleman convulsed the House by referring throughout to lady-birds +as "the female members of the various feathered tribes," and warmly +defending their importation as the only satisfactory expedient in the +circumstances. + +Wynchley's suggestion remained on file for the next few years, and would +doubtless have crumbled to dust unfruitfully had it not been for a +trivial incident. A junior staff clerk, finding himself to be without +matches one morning, and hesitating to mutilate the copy of--let us say, +the official Pink Paper which he was reading at the moment, +absent-mindedly tore a sheet haphazard from a bundle close at hand. As +he lit his cigarette, the name of Wynchley Slocombe caught his eye and +stirred a half-forgotten memory, for the unfortunate Wynchley had been a +stock jest in the past. + +Herbert Baedeker Phipps now becomes a force in the history of aerial +conquest. He smoothed out the paper from which he had only torn off a +fragment, read the stirring "Practise! Practise!! Practise!!!" (at least +it has since been recognised to be stirring--stirring, inspired, and +pulsating with the impassioned ardour of neglected genius), and pondered +deeply to the accompaniment of three more cigarettes. Was there anything +in it? Why could not people fly by means of artificial wings? There had +been attempts; how did the enthusiasts begin? Usually by precipitating +themselves out of an upper window in the first flush of their +self-confidence. They were killed, and wings fell into disfavour; but +the same result would attend the unsophisticated novice who made his +first essay in swimming by diving off a cliff into ten fathoms deep of +water. Here, even in a denser medium, was the admitted necessity for +laborious practice before security was assured. + +Phipps looked a step further. By nature man is ill-equipped for flying, +whereas he possesses in himself all the requisites for successful +propulsion through the water. Yet he needs practice in water; more +practice therefore in air. For thousands of years mankind has been +swimming and thereby lightening the task for his descendants, to such an +extent that in certain islands the children swim almost naturally, even +before they walk; whereas, with the solitary exception of a certain +fabled gentleman who made the attempt so successfully and attained such +a height that the sun melted the wax with which he had affixed his wings +(Styckiton in convenient tubes not being then procurable), no man has +ever flown. More, more practice. The very birds themselves, Phipps +remembered, first require parental coaching in the art, while aquatic +creatures and even the amphibia take to that element with developed +faculties from their birth. Still more need of practice for ungainly +man. Here, he was convinced, lay the whole secret of failure and +possible success. "Practise! Practise!! Practise!!!" The last word was +with Wynchley Slocombe. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MILLION TO ONE CHANCE + + +So wings came--to stay, every one admitted, although most people +complained that after all flying was not so wonderful when one could do +it as they thought it would have been. For at the first glance the +popular fancy had inclined towards pinning on a pair of gauzy appendages +and soaring at once into empyrean heights with the spontaneity of a +lark, or of lightly fluttering from point to point with the ease and +grace of a butterfly. They found that a pair of wings cost rather more +than a high-grade bicycle, and that the novice who could struggle from +the stage into a net placed twenty yards away, after a month's course of +daily practices, was held to be very promising. There was no more talk +of England lying at the mercy of any and every invader; for one man, and +one only, had so far succeeded in crossing even the Channel, and that at +its narrowest limit. For at least three years after the conversion of +Phipps the generality of people gleaned their knowledge of the progress +of flying from the pages of the comic papers. To the comic papers wings +had been sent as an undiluted blessing. + +But if alatics, in their infancy, did not come up to the wider +expectation, there were many who found in it a novel and exhilarating +sport. There were also those who, discovering something congenial in the +new force, set quietly and resolutely to work to develop its +possibilities and to raise it above the level of a mere fashionable +novelty. There have always been some, a few, not infrequently +Englishmen, who have unostentatiously become pre-eminent in every +development of science with a fixity of purpose. Their names rarely +appear in the pages of history, but they largely write it. + +Hastings permitted mixed flying. It was a question that had embittered +many a town council. To one section it seemed intolerable that a father, +a husband, or a brother should be torn for twenty minutes from the side +of his female relatives; to the opposing section it seemed horrible that +coatless men should be allowed to spread their wings within a hundred +and fifty yards of shoeless women. + +"I have no particular convictions," one prominent citizen remarked, "but +in view of the existing railway facilities it is worth while considering +whether we shall have any visitors at all this season if we stand in the +way of families flying down together." The humour of the age was flowing +mordaciously, even as the wit of France had done little more than a +century before. The readiest jests carried a tang, whether turning upon +personal poverty, municipal extravagance, or national incapacity. +Opinion being evenly divided, the local rate of seventeen shillings in +the pound influenced the casting vote in favour of mixed flying. There +were necessary preparations, including a captive balloon in which an +ancient mariner, decked out with a pair of wings like a superannuated +Cupid, was posted to render assistance to the faltering. The rates at +once rose to seventeen shillings and sixpence, but the principle of the +enterprise was admitted to be sound. + +So on this pleasant summer afternoon--an ideal day for a fly, said every +one--the heights above the old town were echoing to the ceaseless gaiety +of the watching crowd, for alatics had not yet ceased to be a novelty, +while the air above was cleft by a hundred pairs of beating wings. + +"A remarkable sight," said an old man who had opened conversation with +the sociable craving of the aged; "ten years ago we little expected +this." + +"Why, no," replied his chance acquaintance on the seat; "if I remember +rightly, the tendency was all towards a combination either of a balloon +and a motor-car or of a submarine and a band-box." + +"You don't fly yourself?" + +The young man--and he was a stalwart enough youth--looked at himself +critically as if mentally picturing the effect of a pair of wings upon +his person. "Well, no," he replied; "one doesn't get the time for +practice. Then consider the price of the things. And the annual +licence--oh, they won't let you forget _that_, I assure you. Well, is it +worth it?" + +The old man shook his head in harmonious agreement; decidedly for him it +was not worth it. "Perhaps you are in Somerset House?" he remarked +tentatively. It is not the young who are curious; they have the +fascinating study of themselves. + +"Not exactly," replied the other, veiling by this diplomatic ambiguity +an eminent firm of West End drapers; "but I happen to have rather +exceptional chances of knowing what is going on behind the scenes in +London. I can assure you, sir, that in spite of the last sixpence on the +income-tax and the hen-roost tax, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has +sent out stringent orders to whip up every penny in the hope of +lessening a serious deficit." + +"There may possibly be a deficit," admitted the old man with bland +assurance; "but what do a few millions, either one way or the other, +matter to a country with our inexhaustible resources? We are certainly +passing through a period of financial depression, but the unfailing +lesson of the past has been that a cycle of bad years is inevitably +followed by a cycle of good years, and in the competition with foreign +countries our advantage of free trade ensures our pre-eminence." For it +is a mistake now to ascribe optimism to youth. Those youths have by this +time grown up into old men. Age is the optimist because it has seen so +many things "come right," so many difficulties "muddled through." Also +because they who would have been pessimistic old men have worried +themselves into early graves. Your unquenchable optimist needs no pill +to aid digestion. "Then," he concluded, "why trouble yourself +unnecessarily on a beautiful day like this!" + +"Oh, it doesn't trouble me," laughed the other man; "at least the +deficit doesn't; nor the income-tax, I regret to say. But I rather kick +at ten per cent. on my season ticket and a few other trifles when I +consider that there used to be better national value without them. And I +rather think that most others have had about enough of it." + +"Patience, patience; you are a young man yet. Look round. I don't think +I ever saw the grass greener for the time of the year, and in my front +garden I noticed only to-day that the syringa is out a full week earlier +than I can remember.... Eh! What is it? Which way? Where?" + +The clerk was on his feet suddenly, and standing on the seat. Every one +was standing up, and all in a common impulse were pointing to the sky. +Some--women--screamed as they stood and watched, but after a gasp of +horrified surprise, like a cry of warning cut short because too late, +the mingling noises of the crowd seemed to shrink away in a breath. +Every one had read of the sickening tragedies of broken cross-rods or of +sudden loss of wing-power--aerolanguisis it was called--and one was +taking place before their eyes. High up, very high at first, and a +little to the east, a female figure was cleaving headlong through the +air, and beyond all human power to save. + +So one would have said; so every one indeed assumed; and when a second +later another figure crossed their range it only heralded a double +tragedy. It drew a gasp ... a gasp that lingered, spun out long and +turned to one loud, tumultuous shout. The next minute men were shouting +incoherently, dancing wildly, shaking hands with all and any, and +expressing frantic relief in a hundred frantic ways. + +Thus makes his timely entry into this chronicle Gatacre Stobalt, and +reviewing the progress of flying as it then immaturely stood, it is not +too much to say that no other man could have turned that tragedy. With +an instinctive judgment of time, distance, angle, and his own powers, +Stobalt, from a hundred feet above, had leapt as a diver often leaps as +he leaves the plank, and with rigid outstretched wings was dropping +earthward on all but a plummet line. It was the famous "razor-edge" +stroke at its narrowest angle, the delight of strong and daring fliers, +the terror of those who watched beneath. It may be realised by ascending +to the highest point of St Paul's and contemplating a dive into the +flooded churchyard. + +The moment was a classic one in the history of the wing. The air had +claimed its victims as the waters have; and there was a legitimate +pride, since the enterprise was no longer foolhardy, that they had never +been withheld. But never before had a rescue been effected beyond the +limits of the nets; it was not then deemed practicable and the axiom of +the sport "A broken wing is a broken neck," so far held good. Yet here +was a man, no novice in the art, deliberately pointing sheer to earth on +a line that must bring him, if unswervingly maintained, into contact +with the falling girl beneath. Up to that point the attempt would have +been easy if daring, beyond it nothing but the readiest self-possession +and the most consummate skill could avert an irretrievable disaster to +himself. + + * * * * * + +"You have not even had the curiosity to ask if I am hurt yet." Her voice +certainly was. + +"X = - 4 {C^2} {x^3}," murmured Stobalt abstractedly. "I assure you," he +explained, leaving the higher mathematics at her reproach, "that I had +quite satisfied myself that you were not.... It all turns on the extra +tension thrown on the crank by the additional three feathers. I am +convinced that English makers have gone as far as they safely can in +that direction." He glanced at her wings as he mused. They were of the +familiar detached feather--or "venetian blind," as it was commonly +called--pattern, and wonderfully graceful in their long sweep and +elegant poise. Made of the purest white celluloid, just tinted with a +delicate and deepening pink at the base, they harmonised with her +sea-green costume as faultlessly as the lily with the leaves it springs +from. Stobalt himself used the more difficult but much more powerful +"bat" shape, built up of gold-beaters' skin; he had already folded them +in rest, but in those early days the prudish conventions of the air +debarred the girl from seeking a like repose. + +"I should certainly discard the three outside feathers," he summed up. + +"I shall certainly discard the whole thing," she replied. "I do not know +which felt the worse--being killed or being saved." + +He made a gesture that would seem to say that the personal details of +the adventure were better dismissed. He was plainly a man of few words, +but the mechanical defect still held his interest. + +"One understands that a brave man always dislikes being thanked," she +continued a little nervously; "and, indeed, what can I say to thank you? +You have saved my life, and I know that it must have been at a +tremendous risk to yourself." + +"I think," he said, "that the sooner you forget the incident.... That +and the removal of those three feathers." His gestures were deliberate +and the reverse of vivacious, but when he glanced up and moved a hand, +it at once conveyed to the girl that in his opinion nothing else need +stand in the way of her recovered powers and confidence. + +"And there is," she said timidly, "nothing?" Precisely what there might +be had not occurred to her satisfactorily. + +"Nothing," he said, without the air of being heroic in his generosity. +"Unless," he added, "you care to promise that you will not let----" He +stopped with easy self-possession and turned enquiringly to a man in +some official dress who had suddenly appeared in the glade. + +"Have you a licence?" demanded the official, ignoring Stobalt and +addressing himself in a style that at one time would have been deemed +objectionably abrupt, to the lady. He was in point of fact a policeman, +and from a thong on his wrist swung a truncheon, while the butt of a +revolver showed at his belt. He wore no number or identifying mark, for +it had long since been agreed that it must be objectionable to their +finer feelings to treat policemen as though they were--one cannot say +convicts, for a sympathetic Home Secretary had already discontinued the +numbering of convicts on the ground that it created a state of things +"undistinguishable from slavery," though not really slavery--but as +though they were railway bridges or district council lamp-posts. "Treat +a man as a dog, and he becomes a dog," had been the invincible argument +of the band of humanitarians who had introduced what was known as the +"Get-up-when-you-like-and-have-what-you-want" system of prison +discipline, and "Treat a man as a lamp-post, and he becomes a +lamp-post," had been the logical standpoint of the Amalgamated Union of +Policemen and Plain Clothes Detectives. + +"Yes," replied the girl, and her voice had not quite that agreeable +intonation that members of the force usually hear from the lips of fair +young ladies nowadays. "Do you wish to see it?" + +"What else should I ask you if you had one for?" he demanded with the +innate boorishness of the heavy-witted man. "Of course I want to see +it." + +She opened the little bag that hung from her girdle and handed him a +paper without a word. + +"Muriel Ursula Percy Sleigh Hampden?" It would be idle to pretend that +the names pleased him, or that he tried to veil his contempt. + +"Yes," she replied. + +He indicated his private disbelief--or possibly merely took a ready +means of exercising his authority in a way that he knew to be +offensive--by producing a small tin box from one of his pockets and +passing it to her without any explanation. The requirement was so +universal in practice, however, that no explanation was necessary, for +the signature, as the chief mark of identification, had long been +superseded by the simpler and more effective thumb-sign. Miss Hampden +made a slight grimace when she saw the condition of the soft wax which +the box contained, but she obediently pressed it with her thumb and +passed it back again. As her licence bore another thumb-sign, stamped in +pigment, it was only necessary for the constable to compare the two (a +process simplified by the superimposing glass, a contrivance not unlike +a small opera-glass with converging tubes) in order to satisfy himself +at once whether the marks were the impress of the same thumb. Apparently +they were, for with a careless "Right-O," he proceeded on his way, +swinging his truncheon with an easy grace, and occasionally striking off +the end of an overhanging branch. + +"I wonder," said Stobalt, when at length the zealous officer had quite +disappeared in search of other fields for tactful activity, "I wonder if +you are a daughter of Sir John Hampden?" + +"Yes," she replied, looking at him with renewed interest. "His only +daughter. Do you know my father?" + +He shook his head. "I have been away, but we see the papers sometimes," +he said. "The Sir John I mean," he explained, as though the point were a +matter of some moment, "was a few years ago regarded as the one man who +might unite our parties and save the position." + +"There is only one Sir John Hampden," she replied. "But it was too +late." + +"Oh yes," he admitted vaguely, dismissing the subject. + +Both were silent for a few minutes; it might be noticed that people +often became thoughtful when they spoke of the past in those years. +Indeed, an optimist might almost have had some ground for believing that +a thinking era had begun. + +When he spoke again it was with something of an air of constraint. "You +asked me just now if there was--anything. Well, I have since +thought----" + +"Yes?" she said encouragingly. + +"I have thought that I should like to meet your father. I hear +everywhere that he is the most inaccessible man in London; but perhaps +if you could favour me with a line of introduction----" + +"Oh yes," she exclaimed gladly. "I am sure that he would wish to thank +you. I will write to-morrow." + +"I have paper and a pencil here," he suggested. "I have been a sailor," +he added, as though that simple statement explained an omnipercipient +resourcefulness; as perhaps it did. + +"If you prefer it," she said, accepting the proffered stationery. It did +not make the least difference, she told herself, but this business-like +expedition chilled her generous instincts. + +"I leave for town to-night," was all he vouchsafed. + +For a few minutes she wrote in silence, while he looked fixedly out to +sea. "What name am I to write, please?" she asked presently. + +"Oh, Salt--George Salt," he replied in a matter-of-fact voice, and +without turning his head. + +"Is it 'Mr Salt,' or 'Captain,' or----?" + +"Just 'Mr,' please. And"--his voice fell a little flat in spite of +himself, but he did not meet her eyes--"and would it be too much if I +asked you to mention the circumstances under which we met?" + +She bent a little lower over the paper in a shame she could not then +define. "I will not fail to let my father know how heroic you have been, +and to what an extent we are indebted to you," she replied +dispassionately. + +"Thank you." Suddenly he turned with an arresting gesture, and impulsive +speech trembled on his tongue. But the sophistries of explanation, +apology, self-extenuation, were foreign to the nature of this strong +keen-featured man, whose grey and not unkindly eyes had gained their +tranquil depth from long intercourse with sea and sky--those two masters +who teach the larger things of life. The words were never spoken, his +arm fell down again, and the moment passed. + +"I have never," he was known to say with quiet emphasis in later years, +"regretted silence. I have never given way to an impulse and spoken +hastily without regretting speech." + +The London evening papers were being cried in the streets of the old +Cinque Port as "George Salt" walked to the station a few hours later. A +general election was drawing to its desultory close, but the results +seemed to excite curiously little interest among the well-dressed, +leisured class that filled the promenades. It was a longer sweep of the +pendulum than had ever been anticipated in the days when politics were +more or less the pastime of the rich, and the working classes neither +understood nor cared to understand them--only understood that whatever +else happened nothing ever came their way. + +The man who had been a sailor bought two papers of very different views, +the _Pall Mall Gazette_ and the orthodox labour organ called _The +Masses_. Neither rejoiced, but to despair _The Masses_ added a note of +ingenuous surprise as it summarised the contest as a whole. This was how +the matter stood: + + POSITION OF PARTIES AT THE DISSOLUTION + Labour Members 300 + Socialists 140 + Liberals 112 + Unionists 40 + + PARTY GAINS + Socialist Gains 204 + Moderate Labour Gains 5 + Imperial Party Gains 0 + + POSITION OF PARTIES IN THE NEW PARLIAMENT + Socialists 344 + Moderate Labour Party (all groups) 179 + Combined Imperial Party (Liberals and + Unionists) 68 + +(The above returns do not include the Orkney and Shetland Islands.) + + Socialist majority over all possible combinations 97 + +There is no need to trace the development of political events leading up +to this position. It lends itself to summary. The Labour party had come +into power by pointing out to voters of the working classes that its +members were their brothers, and promising them a great deal of property +belonging to other people and a good many privileges which they +vehemently denounced in every other class. When in power they had thrown +open the doors of election to one and all. The Socialist party had come +into power by pointing out to voters of the working classes that its +members were even more their brothers, and promising them a still larger +share of other people's property (some, indeed, belonging to the more +prosperous of the Labour representatives then in office) and still +greater privileges. Yet the editor of _The Masses_ was both pained and +surprised at the result. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE COMPACT + + +A strong man and a prominent politician, Sir John Hampden had occupied +the unfamiliar position in Parliament of belonging to no party. To no +party, that is, as the term had then been current in English politics; +for, more discerning than most of his contemporaries, he had foreseen +the obliteration of the existing boundaries and the phenomenal growth of +purely class politics even in the old century. It was, he recognised, to +be that development of the franchise with which the world was later to +become tolerably familiar: civil war on constitutional lines. His +warnings fell on very stony ground. The powers that had never yet +prepared for war abroad until the enemy had comfortably occupied all the +strategic points, lest they should wound some wily protesting old +gentleman's susceptibilities, were scarcely likely to take time by the +forelock--or even by a hind fetlock, to enlarge the comparison--at home. +While the Labour party was bringing pressure upon the Government of the +day to grant an extension of suffrage that made Labour the master of +eight out of every ten constituencies, the two great classical parties +were quarrelling vehemently whether L5000 should be spent upon a +sanatorium at Hai Yang and L5,000,000 upon a dockyard at Pittiescottie, +or L5,000,000 upon a dockyard at Hai Yang and L5000 upon a sanatorium at +Pittiescottie. When it is added that the Labour party was definitely +pledged to the inauguration of universal peace by declining to go to war +on any provocation, and looked towards wholesale disarmament as the +first means of economy on attaining office, the cataclysmal humour of +the situation becomes apparent. + +They attained office, as it has been seen, thanks largely to the great +Liberal party whom they succeeded. The great Liberal party, like the +editor of _The Masses_ some years later, was pained and surprised at +this ingratitude. The great Liberal party had never contemplated such a +development, and through thick and thin had insisted upon regarding the +Labour party as its ally, notwithstanding the fact that the "ally" had +always laughed uproariously at the "alliance," and had pleasantly +announced its intention of strewing Westminster with the wreckage of all +existing capitalistic parties when once it was strong enough to do so. + +Little wonder that that great Liberal Administration was destined to +pass down to future ages as the "House of Pathetic Fools." Posterity +adjudicated that no greater example of servile fatuousness could be +produced. This was unjust, for on 20th June 1792, Louis XVI., certainly, +let it be admitted, harder pressed, had accepted a red "cap of liberty," +and putting it on in obedience to the command of the "extreme party" of +his time, had bowed right and left with ingratiating friendliness, while +a Labour gentleman, bearing upon a pike a raw cow's heart labelled "The +heart of an aristocrat," roared out, with his twenty thousand friends, +an amused approval. + +It was out of the material of the two great traditional parties that Sir +John Hampden tried to create his "class" coalition to meet the new +conditions. The spectacle of working men suddenly dropping party +differences and merging into a solid phalanx of labour was before their +eyes, but the Tories were disintegrated and inert, the Whigs +self-satisfied and cock-sure. The years of grace--just so many years as +Sir John was before his contemporaries--passed. Then came a brief +period, desperate indeed, but not hopeless, while something might yet be +done; but the leaders of the historical parties were waiting for some +happy chance by which they might retract and yet preserve their dignity. +It was during this crisis that the party whose idea of dignity was +symbolised by the escort of a brass band on a green-grocer's cart, +abolished the House of Lords, suspended the naval programme, and +confiscated all ecclesiastical landed property. Panic reigned, but there +could be no appeal, for the party in power had never concealed their +aims and aspirations, and now that they had been returned, they were +only carrying out their promises. + +That is putting their position so mildly as to be almost unjust. They +were, indeed, among political parties the only one immaculate and beyond +reproach. All others had trimmed and whittled, promised and recalled, +sworn and forsworn, till political assurances were emptier than +libertines' vows. The Socialists had nailed their manifesto to the mast, +and no man could charge them with duplicity. On every platform from +Caithness to Cornwall they had stood openly and declared: We are the +enemies to Capital; we are at war with Society as it is at present +constituted; we are for the forcible distribution of wealth, however +come by, the abolition of class distinctions, and the levelling of +humanity, with the unskilled labourer as the ideal standard. + +"Good fellows all," had, in effect, declared their Liberal "allies," +"and they do not really mean that--not phraseologically accurately, that +is. We go in for a little, say, serpent-charming ourselves at election +times, and when these excellent men are in Parliament the refining +influence of the surroundings will tone them down wonderfully, and they +will turn out thoroughly moderate and conciliatory members." + +"Don't you make any error about that, comrades," the Socialistic-Labour +candidates had replied; and with a candour unparalleled in the history +of electioneering they had not merely hinted this or said it among +themselves, but had freely and honourably proclaimed it to the four +winds. "If you like to help us just now that's your affair, and we are +quite willing to profit by it. But if you knew what you were doing, you +would go home and all have the nightmare." + +"So naive!" smiled the great Liberal party. "Suppose they have to talk +like that at present to please the unemployed." + +Then came the deluge. Sir John Hampden could have every section of the +middle and upper class political parties to lead if he so deigned, but +wherever else he might lead them there was no possible hope of it being +to St. Stephen's. It was, as his daughter had said, then too late. +Labour members of one complexion or another had captured three-quarters +of the constituencies, and there was not the slightest chance of ousting +them. + +So it came about that in less than a decade from the first alarm, the +extremity of the patriot's hope was that in perhaps twenty years' time, +when the country was reduced to bankruptcy and the position of a third +class power, and when there was no more property to confiscate in the +interest of the working class voter, a popular rising or a foreign +invasion might again place a responsible administration in power. But in +the meantime the organisations of the old parties fell to pieces, the +parties themselves ceased to be powers, their leaders were half +forgotten. Sir John Hampden might still be a rallying point if he raised +a standard in a time of renewed hope, but there was no hope, and Sir +John was reported to have broken his staff, drowned his books, and cut +himself off from politics in the bitterness of his indignation and +impotent despair. + +It was in something very like this mood that George Salt found him, and +it was an issue of the mood that would have made him inaccessible to a +less resourceful man. Day after day he had denied himself to his old +associates, and little disappointed hucksters who were anxious to betray +their party for their conscience' sake--provided there was a definite +offer of a more lucrative position in a new party--vainly shadowed his +doorway with ready-made cabals in their pocket-books. But the man who +had been a sailor and spoke few words had an air that carried where +fluency and self-assurance failed. Even then, almost at his first words, +Sir John would have closed the subject, definitely and without +discussion. + +"Politics do not concern me, Mr Salt," he said, rising, with an angry +flash in the eyes whose fighting light gave the lie to the story of +abandoned hope. "If that is your business you have reached me by a +subterfuge." + +"Having reached you," replied Salt, unmoved, "will you allow me to put +my suggestions before you?" + +"I have no doubt that they are interesting," replied the baronet, +falling into smooth indifference, "but, as you may see, I am exclusively +devoted to Euplexoptera now." It might be true, for the table before him +was covered with specimens, scientific instruments and entomological +works, while not even a single newspaper betrayed an interest in the +day; but a world of bitterness smouldered beneath his half-scornful +admission. "If," he continued in the same vein, "you have an idea for an +effective series of magic lantern slides, you will find the offices of +the Union of Imperial Agencies in Whitehall." + +The first act to which the new Government was pledged was the evacuation +of Egypt, and the mighty counterblast from the headquarters of the +remnant of the great opposing organisation was, it should be explained, +a travelling magic lantern van, designed to satisfy rural voters as to +the present happy condition of the fellahin! + +"Possibly you would hardly complain that I am not prepared to go far +enough," replied the visitor. "But in order to discuss that, I must have +your serious attention." + +"I have already expressed myself," replied Sir John formally. "I am not +interested." + +"If you will hear me out and then repeat that, I will go," urged Salt +with desperate calmness. "Yet I have thrown up the profession of my life +because I hold that there is a certain remedy. And I have come a hundred +miles to-night to offer it to you: for you are the man. Realise that I +am vitally concerned." + +"I am very sorry," replied Sir John courteously, but without the +faintest encouragement, "but the matter is beyond me. Leave me, and try +some younger, less disillusionised man." + +"There is no other man who will serve my purpose." Sir John stared hard, +as well he might: others had not been in the habit of appealing to him +to serve their purposes. "You are the natural leader of our classes. You +alone can inspire them; you alone have the authority to call them to any +effort." + +"I have been invited to lead a hundred forlorn hopes," replied Sir John. +"A dozen years--nine years--aye, perhaps even six years ago any one of +them might have been sufficient. Now--I have my earwigs. Good night, Mr +Salt." + +The dismissal was so unmistakably final that the most stubborn +persistence could scarcely ignore it. Mr Salt rose, but only to approach +the table by which Sir John was standing. + +"I wished to have you with me on the bare merits of my plan," he said in +a low voice, "but you would not. But you shall save England in spite of +your dead heart. Read this letter." + +For a moment it seemed doubtful how Hampden would take so brusque a +demand. Another second and he might have imperiously ordered Salt to +leave the house, when his eyes fell with a start upon the writing thrust +before him, and taking the letter in his hand he read it through, read +it twice. + +"Little fool!" he said, so low that it sounded tenderly; "poor little +fool!" Then aloud: "Am I to understand that you have saved my daughter's +life?" + +"Yes," replied George Salt, and even the tropical sunburn could not +cover his hot shame. + +"At great personal risk to yourself?" + +Again the reply was, "Yes," without an added word. + +"Why did you not let me know of this before?" + +"Does that matter now?" It had been his master card, but a very +humiliating one to play throughout: to trade upon that moment's +instinctive heroism, to assert his bravery, to apprise it at its worth, +and to claim a fit return. + +"No," admitted Sir John with intuition, "I don't suppose it does. The +position then is, that instead of exchanging the usual compliments +applicable to the occasion, I express my gratitude by listening to your +views on the political situation? And further," he continued, with the +same gentle air of irony, accepting Salt's silent acquiescence, "that I +proceed to liquidate my obligation fully by identifying myself with a +scheme which you have in your pocket for averting national disaster?" + +"No," replied Salt sharply. "That is for you to accept or reject +unconditionally on your own judgment." + +"Very well. I am entirely at your service now." + +"In the first place, then, I ask you to admit that a state of civil war +morally exists, and that the only possible hope for our existence lies +in adopting the methods of covert civil war to secure our ends." + +"Admit! Good God! I have been shrieking it into deaf ears for half my +life, it seems," cried Sir John, suddenly stirred despite himself. "They +called me the Phantom Storm-petrel--'Wolf-cry' Hampden, Heaven knows +what not--through an entire decade. Admit! Go on, Mr Salt. I accept your +first clause more easily than Lord Stirling swallowed Socialistic +amendments to his own Bills, and that is saying a great deal." + +"Then," continued Salt, taking a bundle of papers from an inner pocket +and selecting a docket of half a dozen typewritten sheets from it, "I +propose for your acceptance the following plan of campaign." + +He looked round the littered desk for a vacant space on which to lay the +document. With an impetuous movement of his arm Sir John swept books, +trays, and insects into one chaotic heap, and spreading the summary +before him plunged into it forthwith. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DOWNTRODDEN + + +"Kumreds," announced Mr Tubes with winning familiarity, "I may say now +and once and for all that you've thoroughly convinced _me_ of the +justice of your claims. But that isn't saying that the thing's as good +as done, so don't go slinging it broadcast in the next pub you come to. +There's our good kumred the Chancellor of the Exchequer to be taken into +account, and while I'm about it let me tell you straight that these +Cabinet jobs, whether at twenty, fifty, or a hundred quid a week, aren't +the softest things going, as some of you chaps seem to imagine." + +"Swap you, mate, then," called out a facetious L. & N. W. fireman. "Yus, +and throw the missis and kids into the bargain. Call it a deal?" + +In his modest little house the Right Hon. James Tubes, M.P., Secretary +of State for the Home Department, was receiving a deputation. Success, +said his friends, had not spoiled him; others admitted that success had +not changed him. From the time of his first appearance in Parliament he +had been dubbed "Honest Jim" (perhaps a somewhat empty compliment in +view of the fact that every Labour constituency had barbed unconscious +satire at its own expense by distinguishing its representative as +"Honest" Tom, Dick, or Harry), and after his elevation to Cabinet rank +he still remained honest. More to the point, because more apparent, he +remained unpretentious. It is true that he ceased to wear, as a personal +concession to the Prime Minister, by whose side he sat, the grimy coal +miner's suit in which he had first appeared in the House to the +captivating of all hearts; but, more fortunate than Caractacus, he +escaped envy by continuing to occupy his humble villa in Kilburn. The +expenses of a Cabinet Minister, even in a Socialist Government, must +inevitably be heavier than those of a private member, but this admirable +man illustrated the uselessness of riches by continuing to live frugally +but comfortably upon a tenth of his official income. According to +intimate rumour he prudently invested the superfluous nine-tenths +against a rainy day in the gilt-edged securities of countries where +Socialism was least rampant. + +Mr Tubes never refused to see a deputation, and when their views had +been laid before him it was rare indeed that he was not able to declare +a warm personal interest in their objects. True, he could not always +undertake to carry their recommendations into effect; as a Minister he +could not always express official approval of them, but they were rarely +sent away without the moral support of that wink which is proverbially +as significant as a more compromising form of agreement. Whether the +particular expression of the great voice of the people was in the +direction of the State adoption of Zulu orphans, or the compulsory +removal of park palings from around private estates, the deputation +could always go away with the inward satisfaction that however his words +might read to outsiders on the morrow, they knew that as a man and a +comrade, he, Jim Tubes, was with them heart and soul. "It costs +nothing," he was wont to remark broad-mindedly to his home +circle--referring, of course, to his own sympathetic attitude; for some +of the ingenuous proposals which he countenanced were found in practice +to prove very costly indeed--"and who knows what may happen next?" + +But on this occasion, as far as compliance lay within his power, there +had been no need for mental reservation. The railway-men had been +patient under capitalistic oppression in the past; they were convincing +now in argument; and they were moderate in their demands for the future. +It was no "Vae victis!" that these sturdy wearers of green corduroy +trousers held out to their employers, but a cheery "Come now, mates. +Fair does and we'll mess along somehow till the next strike." + +Mr Drugget, M.P., introduced the deputation. It consisted of railway +workers of all the lower grades with the exception of clerks. After many +ineffectual attempts to get clerks to enter the existing Labour ring, it +had been seriously proposed by the Labour wirepullers (who loved them in +spite of their waywardness, and would have saved them, and their votes +and their weekly contribution, from themselves) that they should form a +Union of their own in conjunction with shop assistants and domestic +servants. When the clerks (of whom the majority employed domestic +servants directly or indirectly in their homes or in their lodgings) +laughed slightly at the proposal; when the shop assistants smiled +self-consciously, and when the domestic servants giggled openly, the +promoters of this amusing triple alliance cruelly left them to their +fate thenceforward, pettishly declaring that all three were a set of +snobs--a designation which they impartially applied to every class of +society except their own, and among themselves to every minute +subdivision of Labour except the one which they adorned. + +It devolved upon a rising young "greaser" in the service of the Great +Northern to explain, as spokesman, the object of the visit. Under the +existing unfair conditions the directors of the various companies were +elected at large salaries by that unnecessary and parasitic group, the +shareholders, while the workmen--the true creators of every penny of +income--had no direct hand in the management of affairs. When they +wished to approach the chief authorities it was necessary for them to +send delegates from their Union, who were frequently kept waiting ten +minutes in an ante-room; and although of late years their demands were +practically always conceded without demur, the position was anomalous +and humiliating. What seemed only reasonable to them, then, was that +they should have the right to elect an equal number of directors from +among themselves, who should sit on the Board with the other directors, +have equal powers, and receive similar salaries. + +"To be, in fact, your permanent deputation to the Board," suggested the +Home Secretary. + +"That's it--with powers," replied the G. N. man. + +"There'll be some soft jobs going--then," murmured a shunter, who was +getting on in years, reflectively. + +"No need for the missis to take in young men lodgers if you get one, eh, +Bill?" said his neighbour jocosely. + +Whether it was the extreme unlikelihood of his ever being made a +director, or some other deeper cause, the secret history of the period +does not say, but Bill turned upon his innocent friend in a very +aggressive mood. + +"What d'yer mean--young men lodgers?" he demanded warmly. "What call +have you to bring that up? Come now!" + +"Why, mate," expostulated the offending one mildly, "no one said +anything to give any offence. What's the 'arm? Your missis does take in +lodgers, same as plenty more, don't she? Well, then!" + +"I can take a 'int along the lines as well as any other," replied Bill +darkly. "It's gone far enough between pals. See? I never said anything +about your sister leaving that there laundry, did I? Never, I didn't." + +"And what about it if you did?" demanded the neighbour, growing hot in +his turn. "I should think you'd have enough----" + +"Gentlemen, gentlemen," expostulated the glib young spokesman, as the +voices rose above the conversational whisper, "let us have absolute +unanimity, if _you_ please--expressed in the usual way, by all saying +nothing together." + +"Wha's matter with Bill?" murmured the next delegate with polite +curiosity. + +"Seems to me the little man is troubled with his teef," replied the +unfortunate cause of the ill-feeling, with smouldering passion. "Strike +me if he isn't. Ah!" And seeing the impropriety of relieving his +feelings in the usual way in a Cabinet Minister's private study, he +relapsed into bitter silence. + +Mr Tubes having expressed his absolute approval of this detail of the +programme, the second point was explained. Why, it was demanded, should +the provisions of the Employers' Liability Act apply only to the hours +during which a man was at work? Furthermore, why should they apply only +to accidents? Supposing, said Mr William Mulch, the spokesman in +question, that a bloke went out in a social way among his friends, as +any bloke might, caught the small-pox, and got laid up for life with +after-effects, or died? Or suppose the bloke, after sweating through a +day's work, went home dog-tired to his miserable hovel, and broke his +leg falling over the carpet, or poisoned his hand opening a tin of +sardines? They looked to the present Government to extend the working of +the Act so as to cover the disablement or death of employes from every +cause whatever, natural death included, and wherever they might be at +the time. Under the present unfair and artificial conditions of labour, +the work-people were nothing but the slaves and chattels of capitalists, +and it was manifestly unfair that the latter should escape their +responsibilities after exploiting a man's labour for their own greedy +ends, simply because he happened to die of hydrophobia or senile decay, +or because the injury that disabled him was received outside the +foetid, insanitary den where in exchange for a bare sordid pittance +his flesh was ground from his bones for eight hours daily. + +The Right Hon. gentleman expressed his entire concurrence with this +provision also, and roused considerable enthusiasm by mentioning that +some time ago he had independently arrived at the conclusion that such a +clause was urgently required. + +Before the next point was considered, Comrade Tintwistle asked +permission to say a few words. He explained that he had no intention of +introducing a discordant note. On the contrary, he heartily supported +the proposal as far as it went, but--and here he wished to say that +though he only voiced the demands of a minority, it was a large, a +growing, and a noisy minority--it did not go far enough. The contention +of those he represented was that the responsibility of employers ought +to extend to the wives and families of their work-people. Many a poor +comrade was sadly harassed by having to keep a crippled child who would +never be a bread-winner, or an ailing wife who was incapable of looking +after his home comfort properly. They were fighting over again the +battle that they had won in the matter of free meals for school +children. It had taken years to convince people that it was equally +necessary that children who did not happen to be attending school should +have meals provided for them, and even more necessary to see that their +mothers should be well nourished; it had taken even longer to arrive at +the logical conclusion that if free meals were requisite, free clothes +were not a whit less necessary. No one nowadays doubted the soundness of +that policy, yet here they were again timorously contemplating +half-measures, while the insatiable birds of prey who sucked their blood +laughed in their sleeve at the spectacle of the British working men +hiding their heads ostrich-like in the shifting quicksand of a fool's +paradise. + +The signs of approval that greeted this proposal showed clearly enough +that other members of the deputation had sympathetic leanings towards +the larger policy of the minority. Mr Tubes himself more than hinted at +the possibility of a personal conversion in the near future. "In the +meantime," he remarked, "everything is on your side. Your position is +logical, moderate, and just. All can admit that, although we may not all +exactly agree as to whether the time is ripe for the measure. With every +temptation to wipe off some of the arrears of injustice of the past, we +must not go so far as to kill the goose that lays the golden egg." + +"How do you make that out?" demanded an unsophisticated young signalman. +"It's the work of the people that produces every penny that circulates." + +"Oh, just so," replied Tubes readily. "That is the real point of the +story. It was the grains of corn that made the eggs, and the goose did +nothing but sit and lay them. We must always have our geese." He turned +to the subject in hand again with a laugh, and approved a few more +modest suggestions for abolishing "privileges." + +"The last point," continued the spokesman, "is one that closely concerns +the principles that we all profess. I refer to the obsolete and +humiliating anachronism that with a Government pledged to the +maintenance of social equality in office, at any hour of the day, at +practically every railway station throughout the land you will still see +trains subdivided as regards designation and accommodation into first, +second, and third classes. It is a distinction which to us, as the +representatives of the so-called third class, is nothing more or less +than insulting. Why should me and my missis when we travel be compelled +to sit where the accidents generally happen and have to put up with +eighteen in a compartment, when smug clerks and saucy ladies' maids, who +are no better than us, enjoy the comparative luxury of only fifteen in a +compartment away from the collisions, and snide financiers and +questionable duchesses, who are certainly a good deal worse, sit in +padded rooms, well protected front and rear, and never know what it is +to be packed more than six a-side? If that isn't class distinction I +should like to know what is. It isn't--Gawd help us!--that we wish to +mix with these people, or that we envy their position or covet their +wealth. Such motives have never entered into the calculations of those +who have been foremost in Socialistic propaganda. But as thoughtful and +self-respecting units of an integral community we object to being +segregated by the imposition of obsolete and arbitrary barriers, we do +resent the artificial creation of social grades, and we regard with +antagonism and distrust the unjust accumulation of labour-created wealth +in the hands of the idle and incapable few. + +"But if this is the standpoint of the great mass of the democracy, to us +of the Amalgamated Unions of Railway Workers and Permanent Way Staffs +the invidious distinction has a closer significance. As ordinary +citizens our sense of equality is outraged by the demarcations I have +referred to; but as our work often places us in a temporary +subordination to the occupants of these so-called first and second +classes, whom we despise intellectually and resent economically, we +incur the additional stigma of having to render them an external +deference which we recognise to be obsolete and servile. The Arden and +Avon Valley case, which earned the martyrdom of dismissal for William +Jukson and ultimately involved forty thousand of us in a now historic +strike, simply because that heroic man categorically refused to the +doddering Duke of Pentarlington any other title than the honourable +appellation of 'Comrade,' is doubtless still fresh within your minds. We +lost on that occasion through insufficiency of funds, but the ducal +portmanteau over which William Jukson took his memorable stand, will yet +serve as a rallying point to a more successful issue." + +Mr Mulch paused for approbation, which was not stinted, but before he +could resume, a passionate little man who had been rising to a more +exalted state of fervour with every demand, suddenly hurled himself like +a human wedge into the forefront of the proceedings. + +"Kumrids!" he exclaimed, breathless from the first, "with your kind +permission I would say a few words embodying a suggestion which, though +not actually included in the agenda, is quite in 'armony with the +subject before us." + +"Won't it keep?" suggested a tired delegate hopefully. + +"The suggestion is briefly this," continued the little man, far too +enthusiastic to notice any interruption, "that as a tribute to William +Jukson's sterling determination and as a perpetual reminder of the +issues raised, we forthwith add to the banners of the Amalgamated Unions +one bearing an allegorical design consisting of two emblematic figures +struggling for the possession of a leather portmanteau with the words +'No Surrender!' beneath. The whole might be made obvious to a person of +the meanest intelligence by the inscription 'A. and A. V. Ry. Test Case. +W. J. upholds the Principles of Social Democracy and Vindicates the +People's Rights,' running round." + +"Why should he be running round?" asked a slow-witted member of the +deputation. + +"Who running round?" demanded the last speaker, amenable to outside +influence now that he had said his say. + +"William Jukson. Didn't you say he was to be on this banner vindicating +the people's rights running round? He stood there on the platform, man +to man, so I've always heard." + +The redoubtable Jukson's champion cast a look of ineffable contempt upon +his simple brother and made a gesture expressive of despair. "That's +all," he said, and sat down. + +Mr Mulch resumed his interrupted innings. "The suggestion will doubtless +receive attention if submitted through the proper channels," he remarked +a little coldly. It was one thing to take the indomitable Jukson under +his own aegis; quite another to countenance his canonisation at a period +when strenuous candidates were more numerous than remunerative niches. +"But to revert to the subject in hand from which we have strayed +somewhat. It only remains for me to say that all artificial distinctions +between class and class are distasteful to the people at large, +detestable to the powerful Unions on whose behalf we are here to-day, +and antagonistic to the interests of the community. We confidently look, +therefore, to the present Government to put an end to a state of things +that is inconsistent with the maintenance of practical Socialism." + +Towards this proposal, also, Mr Tubes turned a friendly ear, but he +admitted that in practice his sympathies must be purely platonic, for +the time at least. In truth, the revenue yielded by the taxation of +first and second class tickets was so considerable that it could not be +ignored. Many people adopted the third class rather than suffer the +exaction, and the receipts of all the railway companies in the kingdom +fell considerably--to the great delight of that large section of the +Socialistic party that had not yet begun to think. But the majority of +the wealthy still paid the price, and not a few among the weak, aged, +and timorous, among children, old men, and ladies, were driven to the +superior classes which they could ill afford by the increased difficulty +of finding a seat elsewhere, and by the growing truculence of the +workmen who were thrust upon them in the thirds. For more than a decade +it had been observed that when a seat in tram or train was at stake the +age of courtesy was past, but a new Burke, listening to the conversation +of those around, might too frequently have cause to think that the age +of decency had faded also. Another development, contributing to the +maintenance of the higher classes, was the fact that one was as heavily +mulcted if he turned to any of the other forms of more exclusive +travelling. Private carriages of all kinds were the butt of each +succeeding Budget, even bicycles (unless owned by workmen) were not +exempt; and so heavily was the Chancellor's hand laid upon motor cars +(except such as were the property of Members of Parliament) that even +the Marquis of Kingsbery was satisfied, and withdrew his threat to haunt +the Portsmouth Road with an elephant gun. + +And yet, despite the persistence of a Stuart in imposing taxation and +the instincts of a Vespasian in making it peculiarly offensive, the +Treasury was always in desperate straits. The reason was not far to +seek. In the old days Liberal governments had at times proved +extravagant; Tory governments had perhaps oftener proved even more +extravagant; but in each case it was the tempered profusion of those who +through position and education were too careless to count their pence +and too unconcerned to be dazzled by their pounds. The Labour and the +Socialist administrations proved superlatively extravagant: and there is +nothing more irredeemable than the spendthrift recklessness of your +navvy who has unexpectedly "come into money." The beggar was truly on +horseback, or, to travel with the times, he had set off in his motor +car, and he was now bowling along the great high-road towards the +cliff-bound sea of national perdition, a very absent-minded beggar +indeed, with a merry hand upon the high speed gear. + +"I am with you heart and soul," therefore declared Mr Tubes as a man, +and as a member of the Cabinet added--"in principle. But the +contemplated Act for providing State maintenance of strikers, in strikes +approved of by the Board of Trade, makes it extremely undesirable to +abolish any of the existing sources of revenue, at least until we see +what the measure will involve." + +"Save on the Navy, then," growled a malcontent in the rear rank. + +"We have already reduced the Navy to the fullest extent that we consider +it desirable to go at present; that is to say, to the common-sense +limit--equality with any one of the other leading powers." + +"The Army, then." + +"We have already reduced the Army very considerably, but with a navy on +the lines which I have indicated and an army traditionally weaker at the +best than those of the great military powers, which are also naval +powers, is it prudent?" The gesture that closed the sentence clearly +expressed Mr Tubes's own misgivings on the subject. He had always been +regarded as a moderate though a vacillating man among his party, and the +"reduce everything and chance it" policy of a powerful section of the +Cabinet disturbed his rest at times. + +"Why halt ye between two opinions?" exclaimed a clear and singularly +sweet voice from the doorway. "Temporise not with the powers of darkness +when the day of opportunity is now at hand. Sweep away arms and armies, +engines of war and navies, in one vast and irresistible wave of +Universal Brotherhood. Beat the swords into ploughshares, cast your guns +into instruments of music, let all strife cease. Extend the hand of +friendship and equality not only man to man and class to class, but +nation to nation and race to race. Make a great feast, and in love and +fellowship compel them to come in: so shall you inaugurate the reign of +Christ anew on earth." + +Every one looked at the speaker and then glanced at his neighbour with +amusement, contempt, enquiry, here and there something of approval, in +his eye. "The Mad Parson," "Brother Ambrose," "The Ragged Priest," "St +Ambrose of Shadwell," ran from lip to lip as a few recognised the +tonsured barefoot figure standing in his shabby cassock by the door. Mr +Tubes alone, seated out of the range of whispers and a victim to the +defective sight that is the coal-pit heritage throughout the world, +received no inkling of his identity, and, assuming that he was a late +arrival of the deputation, sought to extend a gentle conciliation. + +"The goal of complete disarmament is one that we never fail to strive +for," he accordingly replied, "but our impulsive comrade must admit that +the present is hardly the moment for us to make the experiment entirely +on our own. Prudence----" + +"Prudence!" exclaimed the ragged priest with flashing vehemence. "There +is no more cowardly word in the history of that Black Art which you call +Statecraft. All your wars, all your laws, all tyranny, injustice, +inhumanity, all have their origin in a fancied prudence. It marks the +downward path in whitened milestones more surely than good intentions +pave that same decline. Dare! dare! dare! man. Dare to love your +brother. Herod was prudent when he sought to destroy all the children of +Bethlehem; it was prudence that led Pilate to deliver up our Master to +the Jews. The deadly _ignis fatuus_ of prudence marched and +counter-marched destroying armies from the East and from the West +through every age, formed vast coalitions and dissolved them +treacherously, made dynasties and flung them from the throne. It led +pagan Rome, it illumined the birth of a faith now choked in official +bonds, it danced before stricken Europe, lit the martyrs' fires, lured +the cold greed of commerce, and now hangs a sickly beacon over +Westminster. But prudence never raised the fallen Magdalene nor forgave +the dying thief. Christ was not _prudent_." + +"Christ, who's 'e?" said a man who had a reputation for facetiousness to +maintain. "Oh! I remember. _He's_ been dead a long time." + +Ambrose turned on him the face that led men and the eye that quelled. +"My brother," he almost whispered across the room, "if you die with that +in your heart it were better for you that He had never lived." + +There was something in the voice, the look, the presence, that checked +the ready methods by which a hostile intruder was wont to be expelled. +All recognised a blind inspired devotion beside which their own party +enthusiasm was at the best pale and thin. Even to men who were wholly +indifferent to the forms of religion, Ambrose's self-denying life, his +ascetic discipline, his fanatical whole-heartedness, his noble--almost +royal--family, and the magnetic influence which he exercised over masses +of the most wretched of the poor and degraded gave pause for thought, +and often extorted a grudging regard. Not a few among those who had +dispassionately watched the rise and fall of parties held the opinion +that the man might yet play a wildly prominent part in the nation's +destinies and involve a tragedy that could only yet be dimly guessed: +for most men deemed him mad. + +"Whatever you may wish to say this is neither the time nor the place," +said Mr Drugget mildly. "We are not taking part in a public meeting +which invites discussion, but are here in a semi-private capacity to +confer with the Home Secretary." + +"There is no time or place unseasonable to me, who come with Supreme +authority," replied Ambrose. "Nor, if the man is worthy of his office, +can the Home Secretary close his ears to the representative of the +people." + +"The people!" exclaimed a startled member of the Amalgamated Unions. +"What d'yer mean by the 'representative of the people'? _We_ are the +representatives of the people. We _are_ the people!" + +"You?" replied Ambrose scornfully, sweeping the assembly with his eye +and returning finally with a disconcerting gaze to the man who spoke, +"you smug, easy, well-fed, well-clad, well-to-do in your little way, +self-satisfied band of Pharisees, _you_ the people of the earth! Are you +the poor, are you the meek, the hungry, the persecuted? You are the +comfortable, complacent _bourgeoisie_ of labourdom. You can never +inherit the Kingdom of Christ on earth. Outside your gates, despised of +all, stand His chosen people." + +There was a low, rolling murmur of approval, growing in volume before it +died away, but it rose not within the chamber but from the road outside. + +"Mr Tubes," whispered the introducer of the deputation uneasily, "give +the word, sir. Shall we have this man put out?" + +"No, no," muttered Tubes, with his eyes fixed on the window and turning +slightly pale; "wait a minute. Who are those outside?" + +The Member of Parliament looked out; others were looking too, and for a +moment not only their own business was forgotten, but the indomitable +priest's outspoken challenge passed unheeded in a curious contemplation +of his following. At that period the sight was a new one in the streets +of London, though afterwards it became familiar enough, not only in the +Capital, but to the inhabitants of every large town and city throughout +the land. + +Ambrose had been called "The Ragged Priest," and it was a very ragged +regiment that formed his bodyguard; he was "The Mad Parson," and an +ethereal mania shone in the faces of many of his followers, though as +many sufficiently betrayed the slum-bred cunning, the inborn brutishness +of the unchanged criminal and the hooligan, thinly cloaked beneath a +shifty mask of assumed humility. As became "St Ambrose," the banners +which here and there stood out above the ranks--mere sackcloth standards +lashed to the roughest poles--nearly all bore religious references in +their crude emblems and sprawling inscriptions. The gibes at charity, +the demands for work of an earlier decade had given place to another +phase. "Christ is mocked," was one; "Having all things in common," ran +another; while "As it was in the beginning," "Equality, in Christ," "Thy +Kingdom come," might frequently be seen. But a more significant note was +struck by an occasional threat veiled beneath a text, as "The sun shall +be turned into darkness, the moon into blood," though their leader +himself never hinted violence in his most impassioned flights. Among the +upturned faces a leisurely observer might have detected a few that were +still conspicuous in refinement despite their sordid settings--women +chiefly, and for the most part fanatical converts who had been swept off +their feet by Ambrose's eloquence in the more orthodox days when he had +thrilled fashionable congregations from the pulpit of a Mayfair church. +Other women there were in plenty; men, old and young; even a few +children; dirty, diseased, criminal, brutalised, vicious, crippled, the +unemployed, the unemployable. Beggars from the streets, begging on a +better lay; thieves hopeful of a larger booty; malcontents of every +phase; enemies of society reckoning on a day of reckoning; the +unfortunate and the unfortunates swayed by vague yearnings after +righteousness; schemers striving for their private ends; with a salting +of the simple-hearted; all held together so far by the vehement +personality of one fanatic, and glancing down the ranks one could +prophesy what manner of monster out of the depths this might prove when +it had reached rampant maturity. Poverty, abject poverty, was the +dominant note; for all who marched beneath the ragged banner must go in +rags. + +Mr Drugget was the first to recover himself. "Look here," he said, +turning to Ambrose aggressively, "I don't quite catch on to your game, +but that's neither here nor there. If you want to know what I call it, I +call it a bit of blasted impertinence to bring a mob like that to a +man's private house, no matter who he may be. What's more, this is an +unlawful gathering according to Act of Parliament." + +"That which breaks no divine commandment cannot be unlawful," replied +Ambrose, unmoved. "I recognise no other law. And you, who call +yourselves Socialists and claim equality, what are your laws but the old +privileges which you denounced in others extended to include yourselves, +what your equality but the spoliation of those above you?" + +"We are practical Socialists," exclaimed one or two members with +dignity. "As reasonable men we recognise that there must be a limit +somewhere." + +"Practical is the last thing you can claim to be. You are impractical +visionaries; for it would be as easy for a diver to pause in mid-air as +for mankind to remain at a half-way house to Equality. All! All! Every +man-made distinction must be swept away. Neither proprietor nor +property, paid leader nor gain, task-work nor pride of place; nothing +between God and man's heart. That is the only practical Socialism, and +it is at hand." + +"Not while we're in office," said the Home Secretary shortly. + +"Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin," cast back Ambrose. "Where is now the +great Unionist party? In a single season the sturdy Liberal stronghold +crumbled into dust. You deposed a Labour government that was deemed +invulnerable in its time. Beware, the hand is already on the wall. Those +forces which you so blindly ignore will yet combine and crush you." + +It was not unlikely. In former times it would have required barricades +and some personal bravery. But with universal suffrage the power of the +pauper criminal was no less than that of the ducal millionaire, and the +alcohol lunatic, presenting himself at the poll between the spasms of +_delirium tremens_, was as potent a force as the philosopher. A party +composed of paupers, aliens, chronic unemployed, criminals, lunatics, +unfortunates, the hysterical and degenerate of every kind, together with +so many of the working classes as might be attracted by the glamour of a +final and universal spoliation, led by a sincere and impassioned +firebrand, might yet have to be reckoned with. + +"And you, comrade?" said a railway-man with pardonable curiosity. "When +you've had your little fling, who's going to turn _you_ out and come +in?" + +"We!" exclaimed Ambrose with a touch of genuine surprise; "how can you +be so blind! We represent the ultimate destiny of mankind." + +In another age and another place a form of government called the States +General, and largely composed of amiable clerics, had been called up to +redress existing grievances. Being found too slow, it gave place to the +National Assembly, and, to go yet a little faster, became the +Legislative Assembly. This in turn was left behind by the more +expeditious Girondins, but as even they lagged according to the bustling +times, the Jacobins came into favour. The ultimate development of +quick-change Equality was reached in the Hebertists. From one to another +had been but a step, and they were all "The People"; but while the +States General had looked for the millennium by the abolition of a +grievance here and there, and the lightening of a chafing collar in the +mass, the followers of Hebert found so little left for them to abolish +that they abolished God. The experiment convinced the sagest of the +leaders that human equality is only to be found in death, and, true to +their principles, they "equalised" a million of their fellow-countrymen +through the instrumentality of the guillotine, and other forms of moral +suasion. Grown more tender-hearted, "The People" no longer thirsted for +another section of "The People's" blood--only for their money; and in +place of Fouquier-Tinville and the Gentleman with the Wooden Frame, +their instruments of justice were represented by a Chancellor of the +Exchequer, and an individual delivering blue papers. + +"We represent the ultimate destiny of mankind: absolute equality," +announced Ambrose. "Any other condition is inconsistent with the +professions to which your party has repeatedly pledged itself. Will you, +my brother," he continued, addressing himself to the Home Secretary, +"receive a deputation?" + +The deputation was already waiting at the outer door, three men and +three women. It included a countess, a converted house-breaker, and an +anarchist who had become embittered with life since the premature +explosion of one of his bombs had blown off both his arms and driven him +to subsist on the charitable. The other three were uninteresting +nonentities, but all were equal in their passion for equality. + +"We are all pledged to the principle of social equality, and every step +in that direction that comes within the range of practical politics must +have our sympathy," replied Mr Tubes. "Further than that I am not +prepared to commit myself at present. That being the case, there would +be no object in receiving a deputation." To this had Mr Tubes come at +last. + +"The unending formula," said Brother Ambrose with weary bitterness. "... +Bread, and you give them stones ... Man," he cried with sudden energy, +"almost within your grasp lies the foundation of New Jerusalem, +tranquil, smiling, sinless. What stands in your way? Nothing, nothing! +truly nothing but the heavy shadow of the old and cruel past. Throw it +off; is it not worth doing? No more spiritual death, no more sorrow of +the things of this world, nor crying, 'Neither shall there be any more +pain: for the former things are passed away.'" + +"I have nothing more to say," responded the Home Secretary coldly, +bending over his desk to write. + +"Then I have much more to do," retorted Ambrose impetuously, "and that +shall be with the sword of my mouth." He strode from the room with an +air that no amount of legislative equality could ever confer upon any of +those he left behind, and a moment later his ragged escort was in motion +homeward--slumward. + +"Kumreds," said Mr Tubes, looking up, "the harmony of the occasion has +been somewhat impaired by an untoward incident, but on the whole I think +that you may rest well satisfied with the result of your +representations. Having another appointment I must now leave you, but I +have given instructions for some beer and sandwidges to be brought in, +and I trust that in my enforced absence you will all make yourselves +quite at home." He shook hands with each man present and withdrew. + +"Beer and sandwidges!" muttered Comrade Tintwistle, with no affectation +of delight, to a chosen spirit. "And this is the man we pay fifty quid a +week to!" + +"Ah!" assented the friend, following Mr Tubes's hospitable directions by +strolling round the room and fingering the ornaments. "Well, when it +comes to a general share-out I don't know but what I should mind having +this here little round barometer for my parlour." + +"Neat little thing," assented Tintwistle with friendly interest. "What +does it say?" + +"Seems to be dropping from 'Change' to 'Stormy,'" read the friend. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MISS LISLE TELLS A LONG POINTLESS STORY + + +Sir John Hampden lived within a stone-throw of the Marble Arch; George +Salt had established himself in Westminster; and about midway between +the two, in the neighbourhood of Pall Mall, a convenient but quite +unostentatious suite of offices had been taken and registered as the +headquarters of the Unity League. + +The Unity League was a modern organisation that had come into existence +suddenly, and with no great parade, within a week of that day when +George Salt had forced Hampden to hear what he wished to say, a day now +nearly two years ago. The name was simple and commonplace, and therefore +it aroused neither curiosity nor suspicion; it was explained by the fact +that it had only one object: "By constitutional means to obtain an +adequate representation of the middle and upper classes in Parliament," +a phrase rendered by the lighter-hearted members colloquially as "To +kick out the Socialists." The Government, quite content to govern +constitutionally (in the wider sense) and to be attacked +constitutionally (in the narrower sense), treated the existence of the +Unity League as a playful ebullition on the part of the milch sections +of society, and raised the minimum income-tax to four and threepence as +a sedative. + +At first the existence of the League met with very little response and +no enthusiasm among those for whom it was intended. It had become an +article of faith with the oppressed classes that no propagandism could +ever restore an equitable balance of taxation. Every change must +inevitably tend to be worse than the state before. To ask the working +classes (the phrase lingered; by the demarcation of taxation it meant +just what it conventionally means to-day, and, similarly, it excluded +clerical workers of all grades)--to ask this privileged class which +dominated practically every constituency to throw out their own people +and put in a party whose avowed policy would be to repeal the Employers' +Liability Act (Extended), the Strikes Act, the Unemployed Act, the +Amended Companies Act, the Ecclesiastical Property Act, the infamous +Necessity Act, and a score of other preposterous Acts of Injustice +before they even gave their attention to anything else, had long been +recognised to be grotesque. A League, therefore, which spoke of working +towards freedom on constitutional lines fell flat. The newspapers +noticed it in their various individual fashions, and all but the +Government organs extended to it a welcome of cold despair. The general +reader gathered the impression that he might look for its early demise. + +The first revulsion of opinion came when it was understood that Sir John +Hampden had returned to public life as the President of the League. What +his name meant to his contemporaries, how much the League gained from +his association, may be scarcely realised in an age existing under +different and more conflicting conditions. Briefly, his personality +lifted the effort into the plane--not of a national movement, for with +the nation so sharply riven by two irreconcilable interests that was +impossible, but certainly beyond all cavil as to motives and methods. +When it was further known that he was not lending his name +half-heartedly as to a forlorn hope, or returning reluctantly as from a +tardy sense of duty, men began to wonder what might lie behind. + +The first public meeting of the newly formed League deepened the +impression. Men and women of the middle and upper classes were invited +to become members. The annual subscription being a guinea, none but +adults were expected. Those of the working class were not invited. If +the subscription seemed large, the audience was asked to remember what +lay at stake, and to compare with it the case of the artisan cheerfully +contributing his sixpence a week to the strike fund of his class. "As a +result there is a Strikes Act now in force," the President reminded +them, "and the artisan no longer pays the cost----" + +"No, we do," interjected a listener. + +"I ask you to pay it for three years longer; no more, perhaps less," +replied Hampden with a reassuring smile, and his audience stared. + +If the subscription seemed large for an organisation of the kind the +audience was assured that it was by no means all, or even the most, that +would be expected of them. They must be prepared to make some sacrifice +when called upon; the nature he could not indicate at that early stage. +No balance sheet would be published; no detailed reports would be +issued. There would be no dances, no garden-parties, no club houses, no +pretty badges. The President warned them that membership offered no +facilities for gaining a precarious footing in desirable society, +through the medium of tea on the Vicarage lawn, or croquet in the Home +Park. "We are not playing at tin politics nowadays," he caustically +remarked. + +That closed the exordium. In a different vein Hampden turned to review +the past, and with the chartered freedom of the man who had prophesied +it all, he traced in broad lines and with masterly force the course of +Conservative ineptitude, Radical pusillanimity, Labour selfishness, and +Socialistic tyranny. What would be the crowning phase of grab +government? History foreshadowed it; common-sense certified it. Before +the dark curtain of that last stupendous act the wealth and wisdom, the +dignity and responsibility of the nation, stood in paralysed expectancy. + +There was a telling pause; a dramatic poignant silence hung over the +massed crowd that listened to the one man who could still inspire a +kindling spark of hope. Then, just at the opportune moment, a friendly +challenge gave the effective lead: + +"And what does Sir John Hampden offer now?" + +"Absolute victory," replied the speaker, with the thrilling energy of +quiet but assured conviction, "and with it the ending of this nightmare +dream of life in which we are living now, when every man in his +half-guilty helplessness shuns his own thoughts, and all are filled with +a new unnatural pain: the shame of being Englishmen. Blink the fact or +not, it is civil war upon which we are now engaged. Votes are the +weapons, and England and her destiny, nothing more or less, are the +stakes. It has frequently been one of the curious features even of the +most desperate civil struggles of the past, that while battles were +raging all around, towns besieged, and thrones falling, commerce was at +the same time being carried on as usual, wordy controversies on trivial +alien subjects were being hotly discussed by opposing sections, as +though their pedantic differences were the most serious matters in the +world, and the ordinary details of everyday life were proceeding as +before. So it is to-day, but civil, social, war is in our midst, +and--again blink it or not--we are losing, and wage it as it is being +waged we shall continue to lose. I am not here to-day to urge the +justice of our cause, to palliate unwise things done, to indulge in +regrets for wise things left undone. One does not discuss diplomacy in +the middle of a battle. I am here to hold out a new hope for the triumph +of our cause, for the revival of an era of justice, for the recovered +respect of nations. I have never been accused of undue optimism, yet +fully weighing my words, I stand on this platform to-night to share with +you my conviction that it is within our power, in three years' time, to +send an overwhelming majority of our reconstructed party into power, to +reduce the income-tax to a sane and normal level, and to recommence the +building up of a treasonably neglected navy." + +Another man--perhaps any other man--would have been met by ridicule, but +Hampden's reputation was unique. The one point of emphasis that could +not fail to impress itself upon every listener was that there _was_ +something behind all this. It was a point that did not convey itself +half so forcefully in the newspaper reports, so that, as Socialists and +their friends did not attend the meetings (even as members of the +wealthier classes had ignored Socialistic "vapourings" in days gone by), +any menace to the Government that the League might contain was lost on +them for the present. It was the moral of an old fable: the Dog in +Luxury grown slothful and unready. + +The subscription deterred few. It was an epoch when everything was, +apparently, being given away for nothing; though never had the +grandfatherly maxim that in business nothing ever is offered without its +price, been so keenly observed. But superficially, to ride in a penny +'bus entitled one to a probable pension for life; to buy a pound of tea +was only the preliminary to being presented with a motor-car or a grand +piano. Fortunes lurked in cigarette boxes, whole libraries sprang +gratuitously from the columns of the daily papers; not only oxen, but +silver spoons inexhaustible were compressed within the covers of each +jar of meat extract, and buried treasure, "Mysterious Millionaires," and +"Have-you-that-ten-pound-note?" men littered the countryside. To be +asked to subscribe a guinea for nothing definite in return, was +therefore a pleasing novelty which took amazingly. So, too, the idea of +participating in some sort of legal revolution which would entail +sacrifices and result in unexpected developments, was found to be +delightfully invigorating. How the movement spread is a matter of +history. Incomes had been reduced wholesale, yet, so great was the +confidence in Hampden's name, that many members sent their subscription +ten times told. When he asked, as he frequently did at the close of a +meeting, for recruits who were willing to devote their whole time unpaid +to the work in various departments, more than could be accepted were +invariably forthcoming. All members proselytised on their own +initiative, but within these there were thousands of quiet and devoted +workers who were in close touch with the office of the League. They +acted on detailed instructions in their methods, and submitted regular +reports of progress and of the state of public feeling in every part of +the kingdom and among every class of the community. To what length the +roll of membership had now extended only two men knew, even +approximately. All that could be used as a guide was the fact that it +was the exception rather than the rule anywhere to find a family among +the classes aimed at, that did not contain at least one member; while +London, within the same indicated limits, had practically gone solid for +membership. + +And George Salt? The public knew nothing of him; his name did not appear +in connection with the League, nor did he ever take a place among the +notables upon the platform at its meetings. But the thousands of the +inner ring knew him very well, and few whose business led them to the +offices missed encountering him. He was officially supposed to be a +League secretary to Sir John Hampden, endowed with large discretionary +powers. + +At the moment when this chapter opens he was receiving in his office a +representative of the leading Government organ: a daily paper which +purveyed a mixture of fervent demagogism and child-like inconsistency, +for the modest sum of one halfpenny. _The Tocsin_, as it was called, was +widely read by a public who believed every word it contained, with that +simple credulity in what is printed which is one of the most pathetic +features of the semi-illiterate. + +Mr Hammet, the representative of _The Tocsin_, had come to find out what +was really behind the remarkable spread of the Unity League. Possibly +members of the Government were beginning to fidget. Salt had seen him +for the purpose of telling him everything else that he cared to know. To +enquirers, the officials of the League were always candid and open, and +laughingly disclaimed any idea of a mysterious secret society. So Salt +admitted that they really hoped for a change of public opinion shortly; +that they based their calculation on the inevitable swing of the +pendulum, and so forth. He allowed it to be drawn easily from him that +they had great faith in party organisation, and that perhaps--between +themselves and not for publication--the Government would be surprised by +a substantial lowering of their majority at the next election, as a +result of quiet, unostentatious "spade work." "As a party we are not +satisfied with the state of things," he said. "We cannot be expected to +be satisfied with it, and we are certainly relying on a stronger +representation in opposition to make our views felt." + +"Quite right," said Mr Hammet sympathetically. He closed the note-book +in which he had made a few entries and put it away, to indicate that his +visit was officially at an end, and whatever passed between them now was +simply one private gentleman talking to another, and might be regarded +as sacredly confidential. Salt also relaxed the secretarial manner which +he had taken the pains to acquire, and seemed as though he would be glad +of a little human conversation with a man who knew life and Fleet +Street: which meant, of course, that both were prepared to be +particularly alert. + +"I was at one of your meetings the other night--the Albert Hall one," +remarked the newspaper man casually. "Your Chief fairly took the crowd +with him. No being satisfied with a strong opposition for him! Why, he +went bald-headed for sweeping the country and going in with a couple of +hundred majority or so." + +Salt laughed appreciatively. "No good being down-hearted," he replied. +"That was the end of all the old organisations. 'We see no hope for the +future, so you all may as well mark time,' was their attitude, and they +dropped out. 'When anything turns up we intend being ready for it, so +come in now,' we say." + +"Seems to take all right too," admitted Mr Hammet. "I was offered a +level dollar by a friend of mine the other day that you had over half a +million members. I took it in a sporting spirit, because I know that +half a million needs a lot of raking in, and I put it at rather less +myself--but, of course, as you are close about it we can never settle +up." Half a million, it may be observed, was everybody's property, as an +estimate on "excellent authority." + +"We don't publish figures, as a matter of fact," admitted Salt +half-reluctantly, "but I don't know why there should be any very +particular secret about it----" + +"Oh, every office has its cupboards and its skeletons," said Mr Hammet +generously. "But if one could see inside," he added with a knowing look, +"I think that I should win." + +"No," exclaimed Salt suddenly. "I don't mind telling you in confidence. +We have passed the half million: passed it last--well, some time ago." + +"Lucky for me that it is in confidence," remarked the pressman with a +grimace, "or I should have to pay up. What is the exact figure, then?" +he ventured carelessly. + +"No one could quite tell you that," replied Salt, equally off-hand. + +"Six hundred thousand?" suggested Mr Hammet. + +"Oh, that is a considerable advance,--a hundred thousand," admitted Salt +with transparent disappointment. It is not pleasant when you have +impressed your man to have him expecting too much the next minute. + +"I was thinking of the old Buttercup League," said Mr Hammet. "You took +the remains over, lock, stock, and barrel, I believe?" + +"Yes, all that would come. Half belonged to your party really, and half +of the remainder were children. What an organisation that was in its +time! A million and a half!" The smart young newspaper man noted Mr +Salt's open admiration for these figures. It convinced him that the +newer League was not yet within measurable distance of half that total. + +"And in the end it did--what?" he remarked. + +Salt was bound to apologise. "What is there to do, after all?" he +admitted. "What can you do but keep your people together, show them +where their interest lies, and wait?" + +"And rake in the shekels?" suggested Mr Hammet airily. + +"Oh, that!" agreed Salt a little uneasily. "Of course one has to look +after the finances." + +"Ra-ther," agreed Mr Hammet. "Wish I had the job. Do you smoke here as a +general thing?" + +"Oh yes," replied Salt, who never did. "Try one of these." + +"Fairish cigars. Better than you'd find in the old man's private box up +at our show," was the verdict. "But then we haven't a revenue of half a +million." + +"Of course I rely on you not to say anything about our numbers," said +the secretary anxiously. + +The visitor made a reassuring gesture, expressive of inviolable secrecy. +"Though I suppose you have to make a return for income-tax purposes," he +mused. "My aunt! what an item you must have!" + +"No," replied Salt. "We do not pay anything." + +Mr Hammet stared in incredulous surprise. "How do you manage to work +it?" he demanded familiarly. "You don't mean that they have forgotten +you?" + +"No; it's quite simple," explained Salt. "Your friends made the funds +and incomes of Trades Unions sacred against claims and taxes of every +kind a few years ago, and we rank as a Trade Union." + +"Don't call them my friends, please God," exclaimed Mr Hammet with +ingratiating disloyalty. "I work as in a house of bondage. You don't +publish any balance-sheet, by the way, do you?" + +"No, we don't see why we should let every one know how the money is +being spent. No matter how economically things are carried on there are +always some who want to interfere." + +"Especially if they sampled your weeds," suggested the visitor +pleasantly. "Pretty snug cribs you must have, but that's not my +business. Between ourselves, what does Sir John draw a year?" + +"Nothing," protested Salt eagerly, too eagerly. "As President of the +League he does not receive a penny." + +Sharp Mr Hammet, who prided himself upon being a terror for exposures +and on having a record of seven flagrant cases of contempt of court, +read the secretary's eagerness like an open book. "But then there are +Committees, Sub-committees, Executives, Emergency Funds, and what not," +he pointed out, "and our unpaid League President may be Chairman of one, +and Secretary of another, and Grand Master of a third with a royal +salary from each, eh? Can you assure me----" + +"Oh, well; of course," admitted Salt, cornered beyond prevarication, +"that is a private matter that has to do with the officials of the +League alone. But you may take it from me that every one in these +offices earns his salary whatever it may be." + +Mr Hammet smiled his polite acquiescence broadly. + +"Same here, changing the scene of action to Stonecutter Street," he +commented. "Do you happen to know how Sir John came to start this +affair? Well, Tagg M.P. met Miss Hampden once and wanted to marry her. +He called on Sir John, who received him about as warmly as a shoulder of +Canterbury lamb even before he knew what his business was. When he did +know, he gave such an exhibition of sheet lightning that Tagg, who is +really a very level-headed young fellow in general, completely lost his +nerve and tried to dazzle him into consenting, by offering him a safe +seat in the Huddersfield division and a small place in the Government if +he'd consent to put up as a bracketted Imperialist hyphened Socialist. +Then the old man kicked Tagg out of the house, and swore to do the same +with his Government within three years. At least that's what I heard +about the time, but very likely there isn't a word of truth in it;" a +tolerably safe inference on Mr Hammet's part, as, in point of fact, he +had concocted Mr Tagg's romance on the spur of the moment. + +"No," volunteered Salt. "I don't think that that is the true story, or I +should have heard something about it. It's rather curious that you +should have mentioned it. I believe----But it's scarcely worth taking +up your time with." + +"Not at all: I mean that I am quite interested," protested Mr Hammet. + +"Well--of course it sounds rather absurd in the broad light of day, but +I believe, as a matter of fact, that he was led into founding the League +simply as the result of a dream." + +"A dream!" exclaimed Mr Hammet, deeply surprised. "What sort of a +dream?" + +"Well, it naturally must have been a rather extraordinary dream to +affect him so strongly. In fact you might perhaps call it a vision." + +"A vision!" repeated Mr Hammet, thoroughly absorbed in the mysterious +element thus brought in. "Do I understand that this is Sir John's own +explanation?" Hampden's sudden return to activity had, indeed, from time +to time been a riddle of wide interest. + +"Oh no," Salt hastened to correct. "I expect that he would be the last +man to admit it, or to offer any explanation at all. Of course the +history of the world has been changed in every age through dreams and +visions, but that explanation nowadays, in a weighty matter, would run +the risk of being thought trivial and open to ridicule." + +"But what do you base your deductions upon, then?" demanded Mr Hammet, +rather fogged by the serious introduction of this new light. "Is Sir +John a believer in clairvoyance?" + +"I am afraid that I must not state the real grounds for several reasons, +if you won't think me discourteous," replied Salt firmly. "But this I +may say: that I had occasion to see Sir John late one night, and then he +had not the faintest intention of coming forward. Early the following +morning I saw him again, and by that time the whole affair was cut and +dried. Of course you are at liberty to confirm or contradict the story +just as you like, if you should happen to come across it again." + +In a state of conscious bewilderment through which he was powerless to +assert himself, Mr Hammet submitted to polite dismissal. The visible +result of his interview was half a column of peptonised personalities in +_The Tocsin_, rendered still easier of assimilation to the dyspeptic +mind by being well cut up into light paragraphs and garnished with +sub-headings throughout. The unseen result, except to the privileged +eyes of half a dozen people, was a confidential report which found its +way ultimately into the desk of the Home Secretary. The following points +summarised Mr Hammet's deductions. + + * * * * * + +"The Unity League probably has a membership of half a million. It may be +safely assumed that it does not exceed that figure by a hundred thousand +at the most. + +"While largely recruiting by the device of holding out a suggestion of +some indefinite and effective political scheme, the policy of the League +will be that of _laisser faire_, and its influence may be safely +ignored. Very little of its vast income is spent in propagandism or +organisation. On the contrary, there is the certainty that considerable +sums are lying at short notice at the banks, and strong evidence that +equally large sums have been sent out of the country through the agency +of foreign houses. + +"Many men of so-called 'good position' enjoy obvious sinecure posts +under the League, and all connected with the organisation appear to draw +salaries disproportionate to their positions, and in some cases wildly +disproportionate. + +"The plain inference from the bulk of evidence is that the League is, +and was formed to be, the preserve for a number of extravagant and +incapable unemployed of the so-called upper and upper-middle classes, +who have organised this means of increasing their incomes to balance the +diminution which they have of late years experienced through the +equalising legislation of Socialism. The money sent abroad is doubtless +a reserve for a few of the higher officials to fall back on if future +contingencies drive them out of this country. + +"This information has been carefully derived from a variety of sources, +including John Hampden's secretary, a man called Salt. Salt appears to +be a simple, unsuspicious sort of fellow, and with careful handling +might be used as a continual means of securing information in the future +should there be any necessity." + + * * * * * + +The simple, unsuspicious secretary had dismissed Mr Hammet with scarcely +another thought as soon as that gentleman had departed. In order to fit +himself for the requirements of his new sphere of action, Salt had, +during the past two years, compelled himself to acquire that art of +ready speech which we are told is the most efficient safeguard of our +thoughts. But he hated it. Most of all he despised the necessity of +engaging in such verbal chicane as Mr Hammet's mission demanded. Of that +mission he had the amplest particulars long before the representative of +_The Tocsin_ had passed his threshold. He knew when he was coming, why +he was coming, and the particular points upon which information was +desired. He could have disconcerted Hammet beyond measure by placing +before him a list of all those persons who had been so delicately +sounded, together with an abstract of the results; and finally, he +received as a matter of ordinary routine a copy of the confidential +report three hours before it reached Mr James Tubes. Armies engaged in +active warfare have their Intelligence Departments, and the Secret +Service of the Unity League was remarkably complete and keen. + +"My name is Irene Lisle," said the next caller, and there being nothing +particular to say in reply Salt expressed himself by his favourite +medium--silence; but in such a way that Miss Lisle felt encouraged to +continue. + +"I have come to you because I am sick of seeing things go on as they +have been going for years, and no one doing anything. I believe that you +_are_ going to do something." + +"Why?" demanded Salt with quiet interest. It mattered--it might matter a +great deal--why this unknown Miss Lisle should have been led to form +that conclusion. + +"I have a great many friends--some in London, others all over the +country. I have been making enquiries lately, through them and also by +other means. It is generally understood that your membership is about +half a million, and you tacitly assent to that." She took up a scrap of +waste paper that lay before her, and writing on it, passed it across the +desk. "That, however, is my estimate. If I am right, or anything like +it, you are concealing your strength." + +Salt took the paper, glanced at it, smiled and shook his head without +committing himself to any expression. But he carefully burned the +fragment with its single row of figures after Miss Lisle had left. + +"I have attended your meetings," continued Miss Lisle composedly, "for, +of course, I am a member in the ordinary way. I came once as a matter of +curiosity, or because one's friends were speaking of it, and I came +again because, even then, I was humbled and dispirited at the shameful +part that our country was being made to play before the world. I caught +something, but I did not grasp all--because I am not a man, I suppose. I +saw meeting after meeting of impassive unemotional, black-coated +gentlemen lifted into the undemonstrative white-heat of purposeful +enthusiasm by the suggestion of that new hope which I failed to +understand. At one of the earliest Queen's Hall meetings I particularly +noticed a young man who sat next to me. He was just an ordinary +keen-faced, gentlemanly, well-dressed, athletic-looking youth, who might +have been anything from an upper clerk to a millionaire. He sat through +the meeting without a word or a sign of applause, but when at the finish +twenty volunteers were asked for, to give their whole time to serving +the object of the League, he was the first to reach the platform, with a +happier look on his face, in the stolid English style, than I should +have ever expected to see there. It was beyond me. Then among the +audiences one frequently heard remarks such as 'I believe there's +something behind it all'; 'I really think Hampden has more than an idea'; +'It strikes me that we are going to have something livelier than tea and +tennis,' and suggestions of that kind. Some time ago, after a meeting at +Kensington, I was walking home alone when you overtook me. Immediately in +front were two gentlemen who had evidently been to the meeting also, and +they were discussing it. At that moment one said emphatically to the +other: 'I don't know what it is, but that it _is_ something I'll +swear; and if it is I'd give them my last penny sooner than have things +as they are.' Sir John Hampden, who was with you, looked at you +enquiringly, and you shook your head and said, 'Not one of our men.' +'Then I believe it's beginning to take already,' he replied." + +Two things occurred to Salt: that Miss Lisle might be a rather sharp +young lady, and that he and Hampden had been unusually careless. +"Anything else?" was all he said. + +"It's rather a long wild tale, and it has no particular point," +explained the lady. + +"If you can spare the time," he urged. The long pointless tale might be +a pointer to others beside Miss Lisle. + +"I was cycling a little way out in the country recently," narrated Miss +Lisle, "when I found that I required a spanner, or I could not go on. It +was rather a lonely part for so near London, within ten or twelve miles, +I suppose, and there was not a house to be seen. I wheeled my bicycle +along and soon came to a narrow side lane. It had a notice 'Private +Road' up, and I could not see far down it as it wound about very much, +but it seemed to be well used, so I turned into it hoping to find a +house. There was no house, for after a few turns the lane ended +suddenly. It ended, so to speak, in a pair of large double doors--like +those of a coach-house--for before me was a stream crossed by an iron +bridge; immediately beyond that a high wall and the doors. But do you +care for me to go on?" + +"If you please," said Salt, and paid the narrative the compliment of a +close and tranquil attention. + +"It was rather a peculiar place to come on unexpectedly," continued Miss +Lisle. "It had originally been a powder works, and the old notices +warning intruders had been left standing; as a matter of fact a stranger +would probably still take it to be a powder mill, but one learned +locally that it was the depot and distributing centre of an artificial +manure company with a valuable secret process. Which, of course, made it +less interesting than explosives." + +"And less dangerous," suggested Salt, smiling. + +"I don't know," shot back Miss Lisle with a glance. "Mark the +precautions. There was the stream almost enclosing this place--the size, +I suppose, of a considerable farm--and in the powder mill days it had +been completely turned into an island by digging a canal or moat at the +narrowest point of the bend. Immediately on the other side of the water +rose the high brick wall topped with iron spikes. The one bridge was the +only way across the stream, the one set of double doors, as high as the +wall, the only way through beyond. Inside was thickly wooded. I don't +suggest wild animals, you know, but savage dogs would not surprise me. + +"As I stood there, concluding that I should have to turn back, I heard a +heavy motor coming down the lane. It came on very quickly as though the +driver knew the twisting road perfectly, shot across the bridge, the big +gates fell open apparently of their own accord, and it passed inside. I +had only time to note that it was a large trade vehicle with a square +van-like body, before the gates had closed again." + +Miss Lisle paused for a moment, but she had by no means reached the end +of her pointless adventure. + +"I had seen no one but the motor driver, but I was mistaken in thinking +that there was no one else to see, for as I stood there undecided a +small door in the large gate was opened and a man came out. He was +obviously the gate-keeper, and in view of the notices I at once +concluded that he was coming to warn me off, so I anticipated him by +asking him if he could lend me a spanner. He muttered rather surlily +that if I waited there he would see, and went back, closing the little +door behind him. I thought that I heard the click of a self-acting lock. +Presently he came back just as unamiable as before and insisted on +screwing up the bolt himself--to get me away the sooner, I suppose. He +absolutely started when I naturally enough offered him sixpence--I +imagine the poor man doesn't get very good wages--and went quite red as +he took it." + +"And all ended happily?" remarked Salt tentatively, as though he had +expected that a possible relevance might have been forthcoming after +all. + +"Happily but perplexingly," replied Miss Lisle, looking him full in the +face as she unmasked the point of her long pointless story. "For the +surly workman who was embarrassed by sixpence was my gentlemanly +neighbour of the Queen's Hall meeting, and I was curious to know how he +should be serving the object of the League by acting as a gate-keeper to +the Lacon Equalised Superphosphate Company." + +Salt laughed quietly and looked back with unmoved composure. "No doubt +many possible explanations will occur to you," he said with very +plausible candour. "The simplest is the true one. Several undertakings +either belong to the League or are closely connected with it, for +increasing its revenue or for other purposes. The Lacon is one of +these." + +"And I don't doubt that even the position of doorkeeper is a responsible +one, requiring the intelligence of an educated gentleman to fill it," +retorted Miss Lisle. "It must certainly be an exacting one. You know +better than I do how many great motor vans pass down that quiet little +lane every hour. They bear the names of different companies, they are +ingeniously different in appearance, and they pass through London by +various roads and by-roads. But they have one unique resemblance: they +are all driven by mechanics who are astonishingly disconcerted by the +offer of stray sixpences and shillings! It is the same at the little +private wharf on the canal a mile away. It was quite a relief to find +that the bargemen were common human bargees!" + +Salt still smiled kindly. The slow, silent habit gives the best mask +after all. "And why have you come to me?" he asked. + +"Because I _know_ that you are going to do something, and I want to +help. I loathe the way things are being done down there." The nod meant +the stately Palace of Westminster, though it happened to be really in +the direction of Charing Cross, but it was equally appropriate, for the +monuments of the Government, like those of Wren, lay all around. "Who +can go on playing tennis as usual when an ambassador who learned his +diplomacy in a Slaughter-housemen's Union represents us by acting +alternately as a fool and a cad before an astounded Paris? Or have an +interest in bridge when the Sultan of Turkey is contemptuously ordering +us to keep our fleet out of sight of Mitylene and we apologise and obey? +I will be content to address envelopes all day long if it will be of any +use. Surely there are other secret processes down other little lanes? I +will even be the doorkeeper at another artificial manure works if there +is nothing else!" + +Salt sat thinking, but from the first he knew that for good or ill some +degree of their confidence must be extended to a woman. It is the common +experience of every movement when it swells beyond two members: or +conspiracies would be much more dangerous to their foes. + +"It may be monotonous, perhaps even purposeless as far as you can see," +he warned. "I do not know yet, and it will not be for you to say." + +Miss Lisle flushed with the pleasurable thrill of blind sacrifice. "I +will not question," she replied. "Only if there should be any need you +might find that an ordinary uninteresting middle-class girl with a +slangy style and a muddy complexion could be as devoted as a Flora +Macdonald or a Charlotte Corday." + +Salt made a quiet deprecating gesture. "A girl with a fearless truthful +face can be capable of any heroism," he remarked as he began to write. +"Especially when she combines exceptional intelligence with exceptional +discretion. Only," he added as an afterthought, "it may be uncalled-for, +and might be inconvenient in a law-abiding constitutional age." + +"I quite understand that now; the conscientious addressing of circulars +shall bound my horizon. Only, please let me be somewhere in it, when it +_does_ come." + +"I say, Salt," drawled an immaculately garbed young man, lounging into +the room, "do you happen----" + +Miss Lisle, who had been cut off from the door by a screen, rose to +leave. + +"Oh, I say, I beg your pardon," exclaimed the young man. "They told me +that you were alone." + +"I shall be disengaged in a moment," replied Salt formally. "At ten +o'clock to-morrow morning then, Miss Lisle, please." She bowed and +withdrew, the Honourable Freddy Tantroy, who had lingered rather +helplessly, holding the door as she went out and favouring her with a +criticising glance. + +"Always making rotten ass of myself," murmured that gentleman +plaintively. "General Office fault. Engaging lady clerk? Not bad idea, +but you might have gone in for really superior article while you were +about it. Cheaper in the end. Oh, I don't know, though." + +"Miss Lisle came with the best of recommendations," said Salt almost +distantly. One might have judged that he had no desire for Mr Tantroy's +society, but that reasons existed why he should not tell him so. + +"Yes, I know," nodded Freddy sagely; "they do. Hockey girl, I should +imagine. Face of the pomegranate type, carved by amateur whose hand +slipped when he was doing the mouth. Prefer the pink and pneumatic style +myself. Matter taste." + +Salt made no reply. The only possible reply was the one he denied +himself. He occupied the time by burning a scrap of paper with a single +row of figures. + +"I say, Salt. I was really coming about something, but I've forgotten +what," announced the honourable youth after a vacuous pause. "Oh, I +remember. That elusive old cheesecake of a hunk of mine. Do you happen +to know where the volatile Sir John is to be unearthed?" + +"I imagine that your uncle is in Paris at this moment," replied Salt. +"He is expected back to-morrow." + +"Paris!" exclaimed Freddy with some interest. "Good luck at the Pink +Windmill, old boy! Anything in the air, Salt? Projected French landing +at Brighton pier next week? Seriously, don't you think League bit of +gilded fizzle? Expected something with coloured lights long ago." + +"I think that we have every reason to be satisfied with the progress," +replied Salt. "The weight of a great organisation must exercise some +influence in the end." + +"Oh yes," retorted Mr Tantroy with a cunning look. "That's the other +face of double-headed Johnny they have stuffed in museums. Well, all in +good time, little Freddy, if you sit quiet." He carried out this +condition literally for a couple of minutes, gazing pensively at a +slender ring he wore. Then: "I'll tell you what, Salt," he continued. "I +wish you'd use benign influence with Sir John. Tired of apeing the +golden ass, and I am thinking of settling down. Want an office here and +absolutely grinding hard work ten to four, and couple of thousand a year +or so until I'm worth more. Fact is, met girl I could absolutely exist +for ever with in gilded bird-cage. Been Vivarium lately?" + +"No," replied Salt. + +"Oh, well, no good trying my rotten powers description. Must go with me +some night and see. She hangs by her toes to a slack wire eighty-five +feet above the stage and sings: + + 'Things are strangely upside down, dear boys. + Nowadays.' + +No getting away from it, she is positively the most crystallised damson +that ever stepped out of lace-edged box. No fear monotony in home with +girl like that. The very thought of it----! Well, come out and have +drink, Salt?" + +"Thanks, no," replied Salt. "I've quite got out of the habit." + +"Great Scott!" exclaimed Freddy, aghast. "You better try some of those +newspaper things that Johnnies with funny addresses and members of the +Greek Royal Family write up to say have done them no end. I say, Salt, I +suppose there is spare office in this palatial suite that I could have +if I grappled with the gilded effort?" + +"I really don't know that there is." He had not the most shadowy faith +in the Honourable Freddy's perseverance, even in intention, for a week. +To expect any real work from him was out of the question. "We are rather +overcrowded here as it is." + +"If I were you, Salt, I should insist upon the old man removing better +premises somewhere. Place seems absolutely congealed with underlings. +Just listen to that in next room: it's like hive of gilded bees. What is +it?" + +"Simply routine work going on," said Salt half-impatiently. "Sorry I +can't spare the time to come out with you." + +"Oh, that's all right-angled," said Freddy, taking the hint and rising. +"Sorry. Pramp, pramp. You think I shall find Sir John here Friday if I +look in?" + +"Yes, here; but desperately busy." + +"Er, thanks," drawled Freddy, with just a suggestion of vice. "Perhaps +my uncle will be able to spare me five minutes when he has done with +you." + +He drifted languidly through the door and sauntered down the passage. At +the door of the room where the monotonous voice rose and fell in the +ceaseless repetition of short sentences, he paused to light a cigarette. +For perhaps a full minute he remained quite motionless, the cigarette +between his lips, the match pressed ready against the corrugations of +the jewelled box he held. + +"Listretton, Fergus, 572 Upper Holloway Road, N. + +"Listwell-Phelps, J. Walter, F.R.S., Department of Ethopian Antiquities, +British Museum, W.C. + +"Litchit, Miss, Dressmaker, 15 The Grove, Westpoint-on-Sea. + +"Little, Rev. H. K., The Vicarage, Lower Skerrington, Dorset. + +"Little, Lieutenant-General Sir Alfred Vernon, C.B., V.C., 14a Eaton +Square, S.W. + +"Littlejohn, John George, Byryxia, Cole Park, Twickenham." + +Freddy Tantroy lit his cigarette and passed on. The prosaic list of new +members dictated to an entering clerk did not interest him. Five names a +minute, three hundred an hour, three thousand a day; an ordinary day, +weeks after any special meeting, and in the flat season of the year. But +it did not interest Mr Tantroy. Immersed in a scheme for taxing baths, +soda-water syphons, and asparagus beds, and further occupied with the +unexpectedly delicate details of withdrawing from India, it did not +interest the Government. + +It was only the ordinary routine work of the Unity League. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"SCHEDULE B" + + +On the following day Sir John Hampden returned from Paris. A week later +and he had again left London. At the office of the League it was +impossible to learn where he had gone; perhaps fishing, it was +suggested. In any case he was taking a well-earned holiday and did not +want to be troubled with business, so that nothing was being forwarded. +A little later any one might know for the asking that he was in +Berlin--and returning the next day. There was never any secret made of +Sir John's movements if the office knew them, only he occasionally liked +to cut himself completely off from communication in order to ensure a +perfect rest. As soon as the office knew where he was, every one else +could know too; only it invariably happened that he was on his way back +by that time. The incident was repeated. Callers at Trafalgar Chambers +found all the heads communicative and very leisured. It came out that +nothing much was being done just then; it was not the time of the year +for politics. For all the good they were doing three-quarters of the +offices might be closed for the next few months and three-quarters of +the staff take a holiday. In fact, that was what they were doing to a +large extent. It was Mr Salt's turn as soon as Sir John got back. + +That time it was St. Petersburg. + +For a man who had been a sailor George Salt displayed a curious taste +when he came to take his holiday. The sea had no call for him, nor the +coast-line any charm. The inland resorts, the golf centres, moors, +lakes, mountains and rivers, all were passed by. It was not even to an +"undiscovered" village or some secluded country house that he turned his +footsteps in hope of perfect change. On the contrary, where the +ceaseless din of industry made rest impossible; where the puny but +irresistible hands of generations of mankind had scarred the face of +earth like a corroding growth, where the sky was shut out by smoke, +vegetation stifled beneath a cloak of grime, day and night turned into +one lurid vulcanian twilight, in which by bands and companies, by trains +and outposts, dwarfish men toiled in the unlovely rhythm of hopeless, +endless labour: the lupus-spots of nature; there Salt spent his holiday. +Coal was the loadstone that drew him on, and in a vast contour his +journey through that month defined the limits of the coal-fields of the +land. + +In the subsequent histories of this period no mention of Salt's +significant appearance in the provinces finds a place. Yet in presenting +a dispassionate review of the succeeding events it is impossible to +ignore its influence; although, to adopt a just proportion, it is not +necessary to deal with it at length. It was not a vital detail of the +scheme on which the League had staked its cause; it was less momentous +than any of Hampden's three Continental missions; but by disarming +opposition in certain influential quarters when the crisis came, it +removed a possible cause of dissension from the first. That is its +place. + +It was an indication of the extreme care with which the operations had +been developed, that even at this point there were still only two men +who had any real knowledge of what the plan of campaign would be. There +were those who did not hesitate to declare that a hostile demonstration +was being arranged by a foreign power with whom Hampden had come to an +understanding. At a favourable moment a pretext for a quarrel would be +found, relations would be broken off immediately, ambassadors recalled, +and within three days England would be threatened with war. If +necessary, an actual invasion would take place, and in view of the +sweeping reductions in the army and navy no one thought it worth while +to express a doubt that an actual invasion could take place. After +arranging for a suitable indemnity the invaders would withdraw, leaving +a provisional government in power, with Hampden at its head. This was +the extremists' view, and the majority, feeling at heart that however +England might be internally riven and their liberties assailed, nothing +could ever justify so unpatriotic a course, held that Hampden was +incapable of the step. Others suggested civil war; passive resistance to +the payment of rates and taxes on so organised a scale as to embarrass +the Government for supplies; an alliance, on a basis not readily +discernible, with the rank and file of the Socialist party; the secret +importation of a sufficient number of aliens to turn an election; and a +variety of other ingenious devices, easy to suggest but difficult to +maintain. Those who, like Miss Lisle, observed the most, talked the +least. + +Among the working men of the country--the class that the League had come +into being to control--it had passed into the category of a second +Buttercup League and was ignored. A few, better informed, accepted the +conclusions that Mr Hammet and his associates had arrived at, and +laughed quietly in their sleeves at the thought of the coming +humiliation of the confiding members. Last of all there remained a +scattered few here and there, who, through natural suspicion or a +shrewder wisdom than their fellows, had of late begun to detect in the +existence of the League a real menace to themselves, and to urge the +powers, and Mr Tubes in particular, to counteract its aims. It might +have been a race, a desperate race, but for one simple thing. Hampden +had asked for three years in which to complete his plans, and both +friends and foes, deducing from every experience of the past, ranging +from the opening of an exhibition to the closing of a war, had conceded +that this meant four at least. But Hampden and the man who had been a +sailor had no intention of being embarrassed by a race. Not three years +meaning four, but three years meaning two, had underlain the boast, and +at the end of two years, although there was still much to be gained by +time and an unfettered choice of the moment of attack, there was no +probability of being forestalled on any important point. + +Such was the position when Salt set out on his provincial holiday. + +He had nothing to learn; elementary detail of that kind belonged to +another journey, when, more than two years ago, he had made the +self-same tour. He did not go to offer peace or war; that die had been +cast blindly--who shall say how many years before?--in Northampton boot +factories, Lancashire mills, Durham coal-pits, in Radical clubs and +Labour cabinets. But in war, and in civil war most of all, every blow +aimed at the foe must spend its expiring force upon a friend--and +therefore Salt went to the coal-fields. + +At each centre he was met by a high official of the League who had local +knowledge. The man made his report; it concerned a list he brought, a +list of names. Sometimes it contained only three or four names, +sometimes as many dozens. If to each name there stood the word +"Content," Salt passed on to his next centre. If some were reported to +be holding out or dissatisfied, Salt remained. When he resumed his +methodical way the word "Content" had been added to every name. + +Only once did failure threaten to mar his record. A Lancashire colliery +proprietor, a man who had risen from the lowest grade of labour, as men +more often did in the hard, healthy days of emulous rivalry than in the +later piping times of union-imposed collective indolence, did not wish +to listen. Positive, narrow, over-bearing, he was permeated with the +dogmatic egotism of his successful life. He had never asked another +man's advice; he had never made a mistake. As hard as the ground out of +which he had carved his fortune, he hated and despised his men; they +knew it, and hated and respected him in return. His own brother worked +as a miner in his "1500 deep" and received a miner's wage. He hated his +master with the rest. Lomas was the "closest" employer in the north +central coal-field, and the richest. But there were fewer widows and +orphans in Halghcroft than in any other pit village of its size, and +Lomas spent nothing in insurance. Under his immediate eye cage cables +did not snap, tram shackles part, nor did unexpected falls of shoring +occur. His men did not smoke at their work, and no mysterious explosion +had ever engaged the attention of a Board of Trade enquiry. + +Salt found him sitting in his shirt sleeves in a noble room, furnished +in the taste and profusion of a crowded pantechnicon with the most +costly specimens of seventeen periods of decorative art. He received him +with his usual manner, and that was the manner of a bellicose curmudgeon +towards an unwelcome deputation of suppliants. For emphasis, between the +frank didactic aphorisms which formed his arguments and his rules of +life, he banged with his fist a _lapis lazuli_ table, and lowered his +voice in a confidential aside to inform his visitor that three thousand +pounds was the figure that the little piece of furniture had cost him, +and that in matters of taste he stuck at nothing--an unnecessary piece +of information after one had cast an astonished glance around that +bizarre room. + +In Lomas's future there loomed a knighthood--the consummation in his +mind of all earthly ambition and the possible fruit of a lavish charity +of the kind that is scarcely the greatest of the three, and his policy +was wholly dictated by a fear of endangering his chances. He would have +resented the suggestion, in the face of several munificent donations +that he had recently made to certain funds, and a gracious +acknowledgment which he had received, that the King was not following +his career with a personal interest. What, then, was the King's attitude +towards the Unity League and its plan of campaign? Had Salt anything to +show? It was useless to protest the inviolability of royal neutrality; +Lomas only banged the _lapis lazuli_. That was good enough for +outsiders, he retorted: now, between themselves? The strong man who was +restrained by diplomatic conventions could make no headway with the +strong man who was frankly primitive in his selfishness, and Salt +withdrew, baffled, but unperturbed. But the sequel was that before he +left his hotel the following day Lomas had waited upon him with full +acquiescence to the terms, and the central coal-field was "Content." + +The inference might be that at last the intentions of the League must +have been disclosed. The reality was nothing of the kind. What had been +revealed to these men, then--the largest employers of labour of any +class throughout the country--to which they had signified their consent? +it may be asked. And the truth was that nothing had been revealed; that +even the officers of the League who sounded them were in the dark. In +the past, industrial struggles had always been between capital and +labour. That vaster encounter, upon which the League was now +concentrating its energies, was not to be on such clearly defined lines, +and in the strife capital might suffer side by side with labour. Against +that contingency the coal influence had now been indemnified in the name +of the Unity League and the future Government, and the guarantee had +been accepted. It was a far-reaching precaution in the end; it narrowed +the issue, and it secured more than neutrality in a quarter where open +hostility might have otherwise been proclaimed. It just tended to +realise that perfection of detail and completeness of preparation that +mark the successful campaign. + +But if there was nothing more to learn in the sense that the data upon +which the League had based its plans had long since been complete, it +was impossible for a thoughtful observer to pass through the land +without learning much. Even two years of increasing privilege had left a +deeper mark. A lavish policy of "Bread and Circuses" was again depleting +the countryside, choking the towns, and destroying the instinct of +citizenship, just as it had speeded the decline of another world-power +two thousand years before. While wages had remained practically +stationary, the leisure of the working man had been appreciably +increased, and it was now being discovered that the working man had no +way of passing his leisure except in spending money. Betting and +drunkenness had increased in direct ratio to the lengthened hours of +enforced idleness, and other disquieting indications of how the time was +being spent, were brought home to those who moved among the poor. Where +the money came from, the books of the great thrift societies at once +revealed. There was no longer any necessity for the working man to save; +his wages were guaranteed, his risks of sickness and every other +adversity were insured against, his old age was pensioned, his children +were, if necessary, State-adopted. + +Even the Trades Unions had abolished their subscriptions and dissipated +their reserves. There was no need of thrift now, for the Government was +the working man's savings bank, and had cut out the debit pages of his +pass-book. It was almost the Millennium. The only drawback was that, +with all this affluence around, the working man found himself very much +in the condition of a financial Ancient Mariner. There was a great deal +of money being spent on him, and for him, and by him, but he never had +any in his pocket. And the working man's wife was even worse off. + +Other classes there were which found themselves in the same position, +but not by the same process. The rich were taxed up to the eyes, but the +rich had obvious means of retrenchment. But the great mass of the middle +class had no elastic extravagances upon which they could economise. Even +under favourable conditions they were for the most part fulfilling +Disraeli's pessimistic dictum: to the generality, manhood had been a +struggle. It had passed into a failure. It stood face to face with the +certainty of becoming a disaster. Inevitably there were tragedies.... So +it happened that the one vivid haunting picture that George Salt carried +down into later years from this period was not a lurid impression of +some blackened earth-gnarled scene of Dantesque desolation, not even a +memory of any of the incidents of his own personal triumph, but the +sharp details of an episode that lay quite off the high-road of his +work. + +He was walking along a pretty country lane one evening (for it is a +characteristic of many of these unhappy regions that almost to the edge +of man's squalid usurpation Nature spreads her most gracious charms) +when a sudden thunderstorm drove him to seek the hospitality of a +labourer's cottage. + +The man who opened the door was not a labourer, although he was shabbily +dressed. He looked sombrely at his visitor. "What is it?" he asked, +standing in the doorway with no sign of invitation. + +"It is raining very heavily," replied Salt. "I should like to shelter, +if you will permit me." + +The man seemed to notice the downpour, which had now become a continuous +stream, for the first time. "I'm very busy," he said churlishly. + +"If I might stand just inside your doorway?" suggested Salt. + +"No, come in," said the host with an air of sudden resolution. "After +all----" He led the way out of the tiny entrance-hall into a room. Salt +could not refrain from noticing that although the furniture was meagre, +the walls were covered with paintings. + +"I am an artist," said the brusque tenant of the cottage, noticing the +involuntary glance around. "Come--in return for shelter you shall tell +me what you think of these things." + +"I am not a critic," replied Salt, stepping from picture to picture, +"and it would be presumptuous, therefore, for me to give an opinion on +works that I do not understand, although I can recognise them as +striking and unconventional." + +"Ah," commented the artist. "And that?" + +He indicated a portrait with a nod. It was in an earlier, a smoother, +and less characteristic style. To the man who was no artist it was a +very beautiful painting of a very beautiful girl. + +"My dead wife," said the artist, as Salt stood in silent admiration. "I +have buried her this afternoon." + +The man who had never known or even seen her felt a stab as he looked up +at the lovely, smiling face. + +"Well," said the painter roughly, "why don't you say how sorry you are, +or some platitude of that sort?" + +Salt turned away, to leave the other alone meeting the sweet eyes. +"Because I cannot say how sorry I am," he replied with gentle pity. + +"Oh, my beloved!" he heard the whisper. "Not long, not long." + +"You are packing," Salt continued a minute later. "Let me help you--with +some." + +A heap of straw and shavings littered the floor; boxes and cases stood +ready at hand. + +"No," replied the man, looking moodily at his preparations. "I have +changed my mind. I have to go on a journey to-night, but I shall leave +this place as it is and secure the doors and windows instead." + +He brought tools, and together they nailed across the cottage windows +the stout old-fashioned shutters that secured them. Neither spoke much. + +"Come," said the artist, when the melancholy work was complete; "the +storm is over. Our roads lie together for a little way." He locked the +outer door, and stood lingering reluctantly with his hand upon the key. +"A moment," he said, unlocking the door again, and entering. "Only a +moment. Wait for me at the gate." + +Salt waited as he was directed beside a dripping linden. The storm had +indeed passed over, but the sky was low and grey. Little rivulets +meandered in changing currents down the garden path; from beneath the +narrow lane came the continuous sobbing rush of some unseen swollen +water-course. The hand of despair lay heavy across the scene; it seemed +as though Nature had wept herself out, but was uncomforted. Salt +pictured the lonely man standing before the soulless, smiling creation +of his own hand. + +The door opened, the lock again creaked mournfully as its rusty bolt was +driven home, and without a backward glance the artist came slowly down +the walk, twisting the clumsy key aimlessly upon his finger. He stopped +at a tangled patch where the anemone struggled vainly among the choking +bindweed, and the hyacinths and lupines had been beaten down to earth. + +"Her garden!" he said aloud, and a spasm crossed his face. "But now how +overgrown." On a thought he dropped the key gently among the luxuriant +growth and turned away. + +"I will tell you why my wife died," said the artist suddenly, after they +had passed round a bend of the road that hid the cottage from their +sight. "It should point a moral, and it will not take long." + +"It may plead a cause," replied Salt. + +"Ah!" exclaimed his companion, looking at him sharply. "Who are you, +then?" + +"You do not know me, but you may know my business. I am Salt of the +Unity League." + +"Strange," murmured the other. "Well, then, Mr Salt, my name is Leslie +Garnet, and, as I have told you, I am an artist. Ten years ago, at the +age of thirty, I came into a small legacy--three hundred pounds a year, +to be precise. Up to that time I had been making a somewhat precarious +living by illustration; on the strength of my fortune--which, of course, +to a successful man in any walk of life would be the merest pittance--I +rearranged my plans. + +"Black and white work was drudgery to me, and it would never be anything +else, because it was not my medium, but it was the only form of +pictorial art that earned a livelihood. Pictures had ceased to sell. At +the same time I had encouragement for thinking that I could do something +worthy of existence in the higher branch of art. + +"I don't want to trouble you with views. I made my choice. I determined +to live frugally on my income, give up hack work, to the incidental +advantage of some other poor struggler, and devote myself wholly to +pictures which might possibly bring me some recognition at the end of a +lifetime--more probably not--but pictures which would certainly never +enrich me. I do not think that the choice was an ignoble one--but, of +course, it was purely a personal matter. + +"It was very soon afterwards that I got married. Had I thought of that +step earlier I might have acted differently. As it was, Hilda would not +hear of it. There seemed no need; we were very comfortable on our small +income in a tiny way. + +"Nine years ago that. You know the course of events. My income was +derived from a prudently invested capital, so disposed as to give the +highest safe return. Not many years had passed before the Government +then in power fixed seven per cent. as the highest rate of interest +compatible with commercial morality, and confiscated all above. My fixed +system of living was embarrassed by a deduction of fifty pounds a year. +The next year an open-minded Chancellor, in need of a few millions to +spend on free amusements for the working class, was converted to the +principle that two per cent. of immorality still remained, so five was +made the maximum, and my small income was thus permanently reduced to +two hundred pounds. + +"We received this second blow rather blankly, but Hilda would not hear +of surrender. As a matter of fact, I soon found out that there was +practically no chance of it, and that in throwing up all connections +when I did, I had burned my boats. Artists of every kind were turning to +illustration work, but half of the magazines were dead. We gave up the +flat that had been made pretty and home-like with inexpensive taste, and +moved into three dreary rooms. + +"You know what the next development would be, perhaps? Yes, the Unearned +Incomes Act. And you will understand how it affected me. + +"I was assessed in the same class as the Duke of Belgravia and Mr +Dives-Keeps, the millionaire, as a gentleman of private income, capable +of earning a living, but electing to live in idleness on invested +capital not of my own creating. I was married, could not plead +'encumbrances' in any form, well-educated, strong and healthy, and in +the prime of life. So I came under 'Schedule B,' and must pay a tax of +ten shillings and sixpence in the pound. It was nothing that I might +actually work twelve hours every day. Officially I must be living in +voluptuous idleness, because the work of my hands did not bring me in an +income bearing any appreciable proportion to my private means. The +Government that denounced Riches in every form and had come in on the +mandate of the poor and needy, recognised no other standard of +attainment but Money. Therefore 'Schedule B.' + +"Of course the effect of that was overwhelming. I could not afford a +studio, I could not afford a model. I could scarcely afford materials. +My wife, who had long been delicate, was now really ill, between anxiety +and the unaccustomed daily work to which she bound herself. One of the +companies from which I derived a portion of my income failed at this +time: ruined by foreign competition and home restrictions. In a panic I +endeavoured to get work of any kind. I had not the experience necessary +for the lowest rungs of commerce; I was unknown in art. Who would employ +a broken-down man beginning life at thirty-eight? I was too old. + +"I was warned that appeal was useless, but I did appeal before the +Commission. It was useless. I learned that mine was a thoroughly bad +case from every official point of view, with no redeeming feature: that +I was, in fact, a parasite upon the social system; and I narrowly +escaped having the assessment raised. + +"It was then that we left London and came to this cottage. My wife's +health was permanently undermined, and change of air was necessary even +to prolong her life. Her native county was recommended; that is why we +chose this spot. When I reviewed affairs I found that I had a clear +fifty pounds a year. And there, a few miles to the west, where you see +that tracery of wheels and scaffolding against the sun, and there, a few +miles to the north, where you see that pall of smoke upon the air, there +lie hundreds and hundreds of cottages where gross luxury is rampant, +where beneath one roof family incomes of ten times mine are free from +any tax at all. + +"That is enough for you to fill in the detail," continued Garnet +bitterly, as he revived the memory of the closing scenes. "Doctors, +things that had to be bought, bare existence. What remained of the +investments sold for what a forced sale would bring--you know what that +means to-day. The end you have seen. And there, Mr Salt, is the story to +your hand. Here is the churchyard.... Killed, to make a Labour holiday!" + +He opened the rustic gate of the hillside churchyard and led the way to +a newly-turned mound, where the perfume hung stagnantly from the +rain-lashed petals of a great sheaf of Bermuda lilies. + +"I remain here," he said quietly, after a few minutes' silence by the +grave-side. "Your road lies straight on, along the field path. You can +even see the smoke of Thornley from here, lying to your right." + +Salt did not reply. Looking intently in the opposite direction, he was +locating with a seaman's eye another cloud of smoke that rose above the +tree-tops in the valley they had left. + +"Your house!" he exclaimed, pointing. "Man!" he cried suddenly, with a +flash of intuition, "what are you doing? You fired the straw before we +left!" + +A sharp report was the only answer. Salt turned too late to arrest his +arm, only in time to catch him as he fell. He lowered him--there was +nothing else to do--lowered him on to the wet sods that flanked the +mound, and knelt by his side so that he might support him somewhat. To +one who had been on battle-fields there was no need to wonder what to +do. It was a matter not of minutes but of seconds. The mute eyes met his +dimly; he heard the single whisper, "Hilda," and then, without a tremor, +Garnet, self-murdered, pressed a little more heavily against his arm and +lay across the yet unfinished grave of his State-murdered wife. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +TANTROY EARNS HIS WAGE + + +"I think," observed Salt reflectively, soon after his return, "that you +had better take a short holiday now, Miss Lisle." + +Miss Lisle looked up from her work--she was not addressing circulars, it +may be stated--with an expression not quite devoid of suspicion. + +"I will, if you wish me to do so, sir," she replied meekly. "But, +personally, I do not require one." + +"You have been of great use to us while I was away," he explained +kindly, but with official precision, "and now that I am back again you +have the opportunity." + +Miss Lisle coloured rather rapturously at the formal praise, but the +astute young woman did not allow her exaltation to beguile her senses. + +"A week's holiday?" she asked. + +"I would suggest a fortnight," he replied. + +"That would be until the end of June?" + +Salt agreed. + +"Then nothing is likely to happen before the end of June?" + +He laughed frankly. There was no trace of the mystery and restraint, of +the electric tension in the air, that forerun portentous events, as we +are told, to be noticed about the office of the League. + +"A great deal may happen before that time, but nothing, I think I can +assure you, that comes within your meaning." + +"Is there any particular place that you would like me to go to?" + +"Oh, not at all. Forget Trafalgar Chambers and business entirely for the +time." + +Possibly Miss Lisle had looked for some hidden meaning behind the simple +suggestion of a holiday: had anticipated "another secret process down +another little lane." At any rate, she did not rejoice at the prospect; +on the contrary, she declined it. + +"Thank you, sir," she replied, "but unless it is for your convenience, I +should prefer to go on addressing circulars." + +Salt frowned slightly and smiled slightly, and inwardly admitted to +himself that he had probably expected worse things when he had first +accepted Miss Lisle's services. + +"I am a very plain, straightforward person in all my dealings," he +remarked, "and you, outside the strict line of work here, have an +oblique vein that taxes the imagination. Further, it carries the sting +that with all you generally arrive at the same conclusion as I do, only +a little earlier." + +"I have a loathsome, repulsive nature, I know," admitted Irene +cheerfully. "Trivial, ill-mannered, suspicious. I require strict +discipline. That is why I am better here." + +"So far I have not been inconvenienced by the two first characteristics. +It is a mistake, perhaps, to be over-suspicious." + +"Yes," agreed the lady with a level glance. "It only ends in you finding +people out, when otherwise you might have gone on believing in them to +the last." + +Salt had only known Miss Lisle for a few months, and for a third of the +period he had not seen her. But he knew that when she showed a +disposition to take up his time something more than the amenities of +conversation lay behind her words. He remembered that level glance. It +foreshadowed another "long pointless tale." + +"For instance?" he suggested encouragingly. + +"If I left this office locked when I went out to lunch, for instance, +and found it still locked but the papers slightly disarranged on my +return," she replied. + +"Anything more?" + +"It is very unpleasant to set traps, of course, but if I put a little +dab of typewriter ink on the inner handle of the door when I next went +out, and subsequently found a slight stain of a similar colour on my +white glove after shaking hands with some one, the suspicion would be +deepened." + +"I think that the matter is of sufficient importance for you to tell me +all you know," he said gravely. "If you hesitate to be definite for fear +of making a mistake, I will take pains to verify your suspicions and I +will accept all responsibility." + +"Then I accuse Mr Tantroy of being a paid spy in the service of the +Government." + +"Tantroy!" exclaimed Salt with a momentary feeling of incredulity. +"Tantroy! It seems impossible, but, after all, it is possible enough. +You know, of course, that he has a room here now, and might even think +in his inexperience that he was at liberty to come into this office at +any time." + +"But not to take impressions of my keys and have duplicates made; nor to +copy extracts in my absence; nor to open and examine the cipher +typewriter." + +"Has that been left unlocked?" he demanded sharply. + +"No," she replied. "You have the only key that I know of. But it _has_ +been unlocked, and I infer that the code has been copied." + +For quite three minutes there was silence. Salt was thinking, not idly, +but estimating exactly the effect of what had happened. Miss Lisle was +waiting, with somewhat rare perception, until he was ready to continue. + +"Sooner or later something of the sort was bound to come," he summed up +quietly, without a trace of discomfiture. "It is only the personality +that is surprising. His interests are identical with ours; he has +everything to gain by our success. Why; why on earth?" + +"I think that I can explain that in three words," suggested Miss Lisle. +"Velma St Saint." + +Salt looked enquiringly. He had forgotten the Hon. Freddy's deity for +the moment. + +"Of the Vivarium," added Irene. + +"Oh, the lady who hangs by her toes," he remarked with enlightenment. + +"'The World's Greatest Inverted Cantatrice'!" quoted Miss Lisle. "That +is her celebrated 'Upside Down' song that the organ is playing in the +street below. A few years ago she got a week's engagement at the Elysium +at a salary of eighty pounds. She calculated from that that she could +afford to spend four thousand a year, and although all theatrical +incomes have steadily declined ever since until she only gets ten pounds +a week now, she has never been able to make any difference in her style +of living.... Of course there is a deficit to be made up." + +"It is just as well. If it had not been Tantroy it would have been some +one abler. Now what has he done, what has he learned?" + +"Duplicate keys of this door and of my desk have been made. The lock of +the cipher typewriter case is not of an elaborate pattern, and any one +bringing a quantity of keys of the right size would probably find one to +answer. I don't think that either your desk or the safe has been opened; +certainly not since I began to notice. The papers to which he would have +access are consequently not highly important." + +"Letters?" suggested Salt. "For instance, my letters lying here until +you forwarded them. There is a post in at eight o'clock in the morning; +others after you have left up to ten at night. There would be every +opportunity for abstracting some, opening them at leisure, and then +dropping them into the letter-box again a little later." + +"No," said Miss Lisle. "I took precautions against that." + +"How?" he demanded, and waited very keenly for her answer. + +"Simply by arriving here before eight and remaining until ten." + +"Thank you." It was all he said, but it did not leave Miss Lisle with +the empty feeling that virtue had merely been its own reward. + +"Perhaps I ought to add that Mr Tantroy tried to get information from +me," she remarked distantly. "He--he came here frequently and wished me +to accept presents; boxes of chocolate at first, I think, and jewellery +afterwards. It was a mistake he made." + +"Yes," assented Salt thoughtfully, "I think it was. There is one other +thing, Miss Lisle. You could scarcely know with whom he was negotiating +on the other side?" + +"No," she admitted regretfully; "I had not sufficient time. That was why +I did not wish to go away just now." + +"I do not think that you need hesitate to leave it now. I am not taking +it out of your hands, only carrying on another phase that you have made +possible. It will simplify matters if I have the office to myself. Could +you find an opportunity for telling Tantroy casually that you are taking +a fortnight's holiday?" + +Her answer hung just a moment. Had he known Tantroy better he might have +guessed. "Yes, certainly," she replied hastily, with a little stumble in +her speech. + +Perhaps he guessed. "No," he corrected himself. "On second thoughts, it +does not matter." + +"I do not mind," she protested loyally. + +"If it were necessary I should not hesitate to ask you," he replied half +brusquely. "It is not." + +"Very well. I will go to-morrow." + +That evening, when he was alone. Salt unlocked the typewriter case to +which Miss Lisle had alluded, took out the machine, and seating himself +before it proceeded to compose a letter upon which he seemed to spend +much consideration. As his fingers struck the keys, upon the sheet of +paper in the carrier there appeared the following mystifying +composition: + + kbeljsl + + wopmjvsjxkivslilscalkwespljkjscwecsspssp + fxfejsloxmjcneoeqjdncs---- + +It was, in fact, as Miss Lisle had said, a code typewriter. The letters +which appeared on the paper did not correspond with the letters on the +keys. According to the keyboard the writing should have been: + + mydrstr + + nwhvsltscmpltrprtbfrmndthrsmstbndbtthtth + prpslhvfrmltdsfsblndth---- + +and signified, to resolve it into its ultimate form: + + MY DEAR ESTAIR,--I now have Salt's complete report before me, + and there seems to be no doubt that the proposal I have + formulated is feasible, and the---- + +Written without vowels, stops, capitals, or spaces, this gave a very +serviceable cryptograph, but there was an added safeguard. After +completing the first line the writer moved a shift-key and brought +another set of symbols into play--or, rather, the same symbols under a +different arrangement. The process was repeated for the third line, and +then the fourth line returned to the system of the first. Thus three +codes were really in operation, and the danger of the key being found by +the frequent recurrence of certain symbols (the most fruitful cause of +detection) was almost overcome. Six identical machines were in +existence. One has been accounted for; Sir John Hampden had another; and +a third was in the possession of Robert Estair, the venerable titular +head of the combined Imperial party. A sociable young publican, who had +a very snug house in the neighbourhood of Westminster Abbey, could have +put his hand upon the fourth; the fifth was in the office of a +super-phosphate company carrying on an unostentatious business down a +quiet little lane about ten or a dozen miles out of London; and the +sixth had fallen to the lot of a busy journalist, who seemed to have the +happy knack of getting political articles and paragraphs accepted +without demur by all the leading newspapers by the simple expedient of +scribbling "Urgent" and some one else's initials across the envelopes he +sent them in. Communications of the highest importance never reached the +stage of ink and paper, but the six machines were in frequent use. In +_bona fide_ communications the customary phraseology with which letters +begin and end was not used, it is perhaps unnecessary to say. So obvious +a clue as the short line "kbeljsl" at the head of a letter addressed to +Estair would be as fatal to the secrecy of any code as the cartouched +"Cleopatra" and "Ptolemy" were to the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphics. +That Salt wrote it may be taken as an indication that he had another end +in view; and it is sometimes a mistake to overrate the intelligence of +your opponents. When the letter was finished he put it away in his +pocket-book, arranged the fastenings of both safe and desk so that he +could tell if they had been disturbed, and then went home. + +The next morning his preparations advanced another step. He brought with +him a new letter copying-book, a silver cigarette-case with a plain +polished surface, and a small jar of some oily preparation. With a +little of the substance from the jar he smeared the cigarette-case all +over, wiped away the greater part again until nothing but an almost +imperceptible trace remained, and then placed it carefully within his +desk. The next detail was to write a dozen letters with dates extending +over the last few days. All were short; all were quite unimportant; they +were chiefly concerned with appointments, references to future League +meetings, and the like. Some few were written in cipher, but the +majority were plain reading, and Salt signed them all in Sir John's +name, appending his own initials. To sign the long letter which he had +already written he cut off from a note in the baronet's own handwriting +the signature "John Hampden," fastened it lightly at the foot of the +typewritten sheet, and then proceeded to copy all the letters into the +new book. The effect was patent: one letter and one alone stood out +among the rest as of pre-eminent importance. The completion was reached +by gumming upon the back of the book a label inscribed "Hampden. +Private," treating the leather binding with a coating of the preparation +from the jar, and finally substituting it in the safe in place of the +genuine volume. Then he burned his originals of all the fictitious +letters and turned to other matters. + +It was not until two days later that Mr Tantroy paid Salt a passing +visit. He dropped in in a friendly way with the plea that the burden of +his own society in his own room, where he apparently spent two hours +daily in thinking deeply, had grown intolerable. + +"You are always such a jolly busy, energetic chap, Salt, that it quite +bucks me up to watch you," he explained. + +Salt, however, was not busy that afternoon. He only excused himself to +ring for a note, which was lying before him already addressed, to be +taken out, and then gave his visitor an undivided attention. He was +positively entertaining over his recent journeyings. Freddy Tantroy had +never thought that the chap had so much in him before. + +"Jolly quaint set of beggars you must have had to do with," he remarked. +"Thought that you were having gilded flutter Monte Carlo, or Margate, or +some of those places where crowds people go." + +Salt looked across at him with a smile. "I think that there was an +impression of that sort given out," he replied. "But, between ourselves, +it was strictly on a matter of business." + +"We League Johnnies do get most frightfully rushed," said Freddy +sympathetically. "Bring it off?" + +"Better than I had expected. I don't think it will be long before we +begin to move now. You would be surprised if I could tell you of the +unexpected form it will take." + +"Don't see why you shouldn't," dropped Tantroy negligently. + +Salt allowed the moment to pass on a note of indecision. + +"Perhaps I am speaking prematurely," he qualified. "Things are only +evolving at the moment, and I don't suppose that there will be anything +at all doing during the next few weeks. I have even sent Miss Lisle off +on a holiday." + +"Noticed the fair Irene's empty chair," said Freddy. "For long?" + +"I told her to take a fortnight. She can have longer if she wants." + +"Wish Sir John could spare me; but simply won't hear of it. Don't fancy +you find girl much good, though." + +"Oh, she is painstaking," put in her employer tolerantly. + +"No initiative," declared Tantroy solemnly. "No idea of rising to the +occasion or of making use of her opportunities." + +"You noticed that?" To Freddy's imagination it seemed as though Salt was +regarding him with open admiration. + +He wagged his head judicially. "I knew you'd like me to keep eye on +things while you were away," he said, "so I looked in here occasionally +as I passed. Don't believe she had any idea what to do. Invariably found +her sitting here in gilded idleness at every hour of the day. If I were +you, should sack her while she is away." + +Salt thought it as well to change the subject. + +"By the way," he remarked, "I came across what seemed to me a rather +good thing in cigarettes at Cardiff, and I wanted to ask your opinion +about them. It's a new leaf--Bolivian with a Virginian blend, not on the +market yet. I wish you'd try one now." + +There was nothing Freddy Tantroy liked better than being asked to give +his opinion on tobacco from the standpoint of an expert. He took the +case held out to him, selected a cigarette with grave deliberation, and +leaned back in his chair with a critical air, preparing to deliver +judgment. Salt returned the case to its compartment in the desk. + +"It has a very distinctive aroma," announced Freddy sagely, after he had +drawn a few whiffs, held the cigarette under his nose, waved it slowly +in the air before him, and resorted to several other devices of +connoisseurship. + +"I thought so too," agreed Salt. He had bought a suitable packet of some +obscure brand in a side street, as he walked to the office two days +before. + +"Cardiff," mused Tantroy. "Variety grotesque holes you seem to have +explored, Salt." + +"Oh, I had to see a lot of men all over the place. I got a few packets +of these from a docker who had them from a South American merchant in a +roundabout way. Smuggled, of course." All along, his conversation had +touched upon labourers, mill-hands, miners, and other sons of toil. +Apparently, as Tantroy noted, he had scarcely associated with any other +class. He was lying deliberately, and in a manner calculated to alienate +the sympathy of many excellent people; for there is a worthy and not +inconsiderable class with an ineradicable conviction that although in a +just cause the sixth commandment may be suspended, as it were by Act of +Parliament, and the killing of your enemy become an active virtue, yet +in no case is it permissible to tell him a falsehood. If it is necessary +to deceive him the end must be gained by leading him to it by inference. +But Salt belonged to a hard-grained school which believed in doing +things thoroughly, and when on active service he swept the sophistries +away. He had to mislead a man whose very existence he believed to be +steeped in treachery and falsehood, and, as the most effectual way, he +lied deliberately to him. + +"Frantic adventure," drawled Tantroy. "Didn't know League dealt in +people that kind." + +"Of course, I saw all sorts," corrected Salt hastily, as though he +feared that he had indicated too closely the trend of his business; +"only it happened that those were the most amusing," and to emphasise +the fact he launched into another anecdote. At an out-of-the-way village +there was neither hotel nor inn. His business was unfinished, and it was +desirable that he should stay the night there. At last he heard of a +small farm-house where apartments were occasionally let, and, making his +way there, he asked if he could have a room. The woman seemed doubtful. +"Of course, as I am a stranger, I should wish to pay you in advance," +said Salt. "It isn't that, sir," replied the hostess, "but I like to be +sure of making people comfortable." "I don't think that we shall +disagree about that," he urged. "Perhaps not," she admitted, "but the +last gentleman was very hard to please. Everything I got him he'd had +better somewhere else till he was sick of it. But," she added in a burst +of confidence, "look what a swell _he_ was! I knew that nothing would +satisfy him when I saw him come in a motor-car puffed out with rheumatic +tyres, and wearing a pair of them _blase_ kid boots." + +Tantroy contributed an appreciative cackle, and Salt, leaning back in +his chair, pressed against a pile of books standing on his desk so that +they fell to the ground with a crash. + +By the time he had picked them up again a telegram was waiting at his +elbow. He took it, opened it with a word of apology, and with a sharp +exclamation pulled out his watch. Before Tantroy could realise what was +happening, Salt had caught up his hat and gloves, slammed down his +self-locking desk, and, after a single hasty glance round the room, was +standing at the door. + +"Excuse me, won't you?" he called back. "Most important. Can just catch +a train. Pull my door to after you, please," and the next minute he was +gone. + +Left to himself, Tantroy's first action was not an unnatural one in the +circumstance. He picked up the telegram which Salt had left in his wild +hurry and read it. "_Come at once, if you wish to see Vernon alive_," +was the imperative message, and it appeared to have been handed in at +Croydon half an hour before. He stepped to the window, and from behind +the curtains he saw Salt run down the steps into the road, call a hansom +from the rank near at hand, and disappear in the direction of Victoria +at a gallop. + +Mr Tantroy sat down again, and his eyes ran over the various objects in +the room in quick succession. The code typewriter. He had all he wanted +from that. Salt's desk. Locked, of course. The girl's desk. Locked, and, +as he knew, not worth the trouble of unlocking with his duplicate key. +The safe----His heart gave a bound, his eyes stood wide in incredulous +surprise, and he sprang to his feet and stealthily crossed the room to +make sure of his astounding luck. The safe was unlocked! The door stood +just an inch or so ajar, and Salt, having failed to notice it in his +hurried glance, was on his way to Croydon! + +Living in a pretentious, breathless age, drawn into a social circle +beside whose feverish artificiality the _natural_ artificiality +inseparable from any phase of civilisation stood comparable to a sturdy, +healthy tree, badly brought up, neglected, petted, the Honourable +Frederick Tantroy had grown to the form of the vacuous pose which he had +adopted. Beneath it lay his real character. A moderately honest man +would not have played his part, but an utterly weak one could not have +played it. It demanded certain qualities not contemptible. There were +risks to be taken, and he was prepared to take them, and in their +presence his face took on a stronger, even better, look. He bolted the +door on the inside, picked up a few sheets of paper from the desk-top, +and without any sign of nervousness or haste began to do his work. + +It was fully three hours later when Salt returned; for with that extreme +passion for covering every possible contingency that marked his career, +he had been to Croydon. Many a better scheme has failed through the +neglect of a smaller detail. The room, when he entered it and secured +the door, looked exactly as when he left, three hours before. For all +the disarrangement he had caused, Tantroy might have melted out of it. + +On the top of his desk, at the side nearest to the safe, lay a packet of +octavo scribbling paper. He took out the sheets and twice counted them. +Thirty-one, and he had left thirty-four. His face betrayed no emotion. +Satisfaction at having outwitted a spy was merged in regret that there +must need be one, and pain on Hampden's account that his nephew should +be the traitor. He unlocked his desk and carefully lifted out the +cigarette-case, pulled open the safe door, and took up the fictitious +letter-book. To the naked eye the finger-prints on each were scarcely +discernible, but under the magnifying lenses of the superimposing glass +all doubt was finally dispelled. They were there, they corresponded, +they were identical. Thumb to thumb, finger to finger, and line to line +they fitted over one another without a blur or fault. It was, as it +often proved to be in those days, hanging evidence. + +Salt relocked the safe, tore out the used pages of the letter-book, and +reduced them to ashes on the spot. The less important remains of the +book he took with him to his chambers, and there burned them from cover +to cover before he went to bed. + +It had served its purpose, and not a legitimate trace remained. Around +the stolen copy the policy of the coming strife might crystallise, and +towards any issue it might raise Salt could look with confidence. +Finally, if the unforeseen arose, the way was clear for Sir John to +denounce a shameless forgery, and who could contradict his indignant +word? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SECRET HISTORY + + +Under succeeding administrations, each pledged to a larger policy to +themselves and a smaller one towards every one else, most of the +traditional outward forms of government had continued to be observed. +Thus there was a Minister for the Colonies, though the Colonies +themselves had shamefacedly one by one dropped off into the troubled +waters of weak independence, or else clung on with pathetic loyalty in +spite of rebuff after rebuff, and the disintegration of all mutual +interests, until nothing but the most shadowy bond remained. There was a +Secretary of State for War in spite of the fact that the flag which the +Government nailed to the mast when it entered into negotiations with an +aggrieved and aggressive Power, bore the legend, "Peace at any Price. +None but a Coward Strikes the Weak." There had been more than one First +Lord of the Admiralty whose maritime experience had begun and ended on +the familiar deck of the _Koh-I-Noor_. There were practically all the +usual officers of ministerial rank--and the recipients of ministerial +salaries. + +Apart from the enjoyment of the title and the salary, however, there +were a few members of the Cabinet who exercised no real authority. Lord +Henry Stokes had been the last of upper class politicians of standing to +accept office under the new _regime_. Largely in sympathy with the +democratic tendency of the age, optimistic as to the growth of +moderation and restraint in the ranks of the mushroom party, and +actuated by the most sterling patriotism, Lord Henry had essayed the +superhuman task of premiership. Superhuman it was, because no mortal +could have combined the qualities necessary for success in the face of +the fierce distrust and jealousy which his rank and social position +excited in the minds of the rawer recruits of his own party; superhuman, +because no man possessing his convictions could have long reconciled +with them the growing and not diminishing illiberality of those whom he +was to lead. There were dissensions, suspicions, and recriminations from +the first. The end came in a tragic scene, unparalleled among the many +historic spectacles which the House has witnessed. A trivial point in +the naval estimates was under discussion, and Lord Henry, totally out of +sympathy with the bulk of his nominal following, had risen to patch up +the situation on the best terms he could. At the end of a studiously +moderate speech, which had provoked cheers from the opposition and +murmurs of dissent from his own party throughout, he had wound up his +plea for unity, toleration, and patriotism, with the following words: +"It is true that here no Government measure is at stake, no crisis is +involved, and honourable members on this side of the House are free of +party trammels and at liberty to vote as seems best to each. But if the +motion should be persisted in, an inevitable conclusion must be faced, +an irretrievable step will have been taken, and of the moral outcome of +that act who dare trace the end?" + +There was just a perceptible pause of sullen silence, then from among +the compact mass that sat behind their leader rose a coarse voice, +charged with a squiggling laugh. + +"We give it up, 'Enry. If it's a riddle about morals, suppose you ask +little Flo?" + +It was an aside--it was afterwards claimed that it was a drunken +whisper--but it was heard, as it was meant to be heard, throughout the +crowded Chamber. From the opposition ranks there was torn a cry, almost +of horror, at the enormity of the insult, at the direful profanation of +the House. Responsible members of the Government turned angrily, +imploringly, frantically upon their followers. At least half of these, +sitting pained and scandalised, needed no restraint, but from the +malcontents and extreme wings came shriek upon shriek of boisterous +mirth, as they rocked with laughter about their seats. As for Lord +Henry, sitting immobile as he scanned a paper in his hand, he did not +appear to have heard at first, nor even to have noticed that anything +unusual was taking place. But the next minute he turned deadly pale, +began to tremble violently, and with a low and hurried, "Your help, +Meadowsweet!" he stumbled from the Hall. + +For twenty years he had been a member of the House, years of +full-blooded politics when party strife ran strong, but never before had +the vaguest innuendo from that deep-seared, unforgotten past dropped +from an opponent's lips. It had been reserved for his own party to +achieve that distinction and to exact the crowning phase of penance in +nature's inexorable cycle. + +Apologists afterwards claimed that too much had been made of the +incident--that much worse things were often said, and passed, at the +meetings of Boards of Guardians and Borough Councils. It was as true as +it was biting: worse things were said at Borough Councils, and the +Mother of Parliaments had sunk to the rhetorical level of a Borough +Council. + +Stokes never took his seat again, and with him there passed out of that +arena the last of a hopeful patriotic group, whose only failure was that +they tried to reconcile two irreconcilable forces of their times. + +It did not result, however, that no men of social position were to be +found among the Labour benches. There was a demand, and there followed +the supply. Rank, mediocrity, and moral obsequiousness were the +essentials for their posts. There were no more Stokeses to be had, so +obliging creatures were obtained who were willing for a consideration to +be paraded as the successors to his patriotic mantle. They were plainly +made to understand their position, and if they ventured to show +individuality they soon resigned. Nominally occupying high offices, they +had neither influence, power, nor respect; like Marlborough in +compliance they had "to do it for their bread." They were ruled by their +junior lords, assistants, and underlings in various degrees. Many of +these men, too strong to be ignored, were frankly recognised to be +impossible in the chief offices of State. As a consequence the Cabinet +soon became an empty form. Its councils were still held, but the +proceedings were cut and dried in advance. The real assembly that +dictated the policy of the Government was the Expediency Council, held +informally as the necessity arose. + +The gathering which was taking place at the Premier's house on this +occasion had been convened for the purpose of clearing the air with +regard to the policy to be pursued at home. The Government had come into +power with very liberal ideas on the question of what ought to be done +for the working classes. They had made good their promises, and still +that free and enlightened body, having found by experience that they +only had to ask often enough and loudly enough to be met in their +demands, were already clamouring for more. The most moderate section of +the Government was of opinion that the limit had been reached; others +thought that the limit lay yet a little further on; the irresponsibles +denied that any limit could be fixed at all. That had been the +experience of every administration for a long time past, and each one in +turn had been succeeded by its malcontents. + +Mr Strummery, the Premier, did not occupy the official residence +provided for him. Mrs Strummery, an excellent lady who had once been +heard to remark that she could never understand why her husband was +called _Prime Minister_ when he was not a _minister_ at all, flatly +declared that the work of cleaning the windows alone of the house in +Downing Street put it out of the question. Even Mr Strummery, who, among +his political associates, was reported to have rather exalted ideas of +the dignity of his position, came to the conclusion, after fully +considering the residence from every standpoint, that he might not feel +really at home there. It was therefore let, furnished, to an American +lady who engineered wealthy _debutantes_ from her native land into "the +best" English society, and the Strummerys found more congenial +surroundings in Brandenburg Place. There, within a convenient distance +of the Hampstead Road and other choice shopping centres, Mrs Strummery, +like the wife of another eminent statesman whose statue stood almost +within sight of her bedroom windows, was able to indulge in her amiable +foible for cheap marketing. And if the two ladies had this in common, +the points of resemblance between their respective lords (the moral side +excluded) might be multiplied many-fold, for no phrase put into Mr +Strummery's mouth could epigrammatise his point of view more concisely +than Fox's inopportune toast, "Our Sovereign: the People." History's +dispassionate comment was that the sentiment which lost the abler man +his Privy Councillorship in his day, gained for the other a Premiership +a century later. + +"One thing that gets me is why no one ever seems to take any notice of +us when we have a Council on," remarked the President of the Board of +Education with an involuntary plaint in his voice. He was standing on +the balcony outside the large front room on Mr Strummery's first +floor--a room which boasted the noble proportions of a _salon_, and +possibly served as one in Georgian days. Certainly Brandenburg Place did +not present a spectacle of fluttering animation at the prospect of +seeing the great ones of the land assembling within its bounds. At one +end of the thoroughfare a milkman was going from area to area with a +prolonged melancholy cry more suggestive of Stoke Poges churchyard than +of any other spot on earth; at the opposite end a grocer's errand boy, +with basket resourcefully inverted upon his head, had sunk down by the +railings to sip the nectar from a few more pages of "Iroquois Ike's Last +Hope; or, The Phantom Cow-Puncher's Bride." Midway between the two a +cat, in the act of crossing the road, had stopped to twitch a forepaw +with that air of imperturbable deliberateness in its movements that no +other created thing can ever succeed in attaining. In a house opposite +some one was rattling off the exhilarating strains of "Humming Ephraim," +but even when a hansom cab and two four-wheelers drove up in quick +succession to the Premier's door, no one betrayed curiosity to the +extent of looking out of the window. The Minister of Education noted +these things as he stood on the balcony, and possibly he felt another +phase of the gratitude of men that often left Mr Wordsworth mourning. "I +can remember the time when crowds used to wait hours in the rain along +Downing Street--our people, too--to catch a sight of Estair or +Nettlebury. I won't exactly say that it annoys me, because I've seen too +much of the hollowness of things for that, but it certainly is rummy why +it should be so." + +"A very good thing, too," commented the Premier briskly from the room. +"I don't know that we could have a greater compliment. The people know +that we are plain, straightforward men like themselves, and they know +that we are doing our work without having to come and see us at it. They +don't regard us almost as little deities--interesting to see, but quite +different and above themselves. That's why." + +Every one in the room said "Hear! Hear!" as though that exactly defined +his own sentiments; and every one in the room looked rather sad, as +though at the back of their collective minds there lurked a doubt +whether it might not be more pleasant to be regarded almost as little +deities. + +"You needn't go as far back as Estair and Nettlebury," put in Vossit of +the Treasury. "See how they fairly 'um round Hampden whenever he's +about." + +"Not us," interposed another man emphatically. "Let them go on their own +messin' way; it'll do us no harm. You never saw a working man at any of +their high and mighty meetings." + +"So much the worse, for they didn't want them. But there ought to have +been working men there, from the very first meeting until now." The +speaker was one of the most recent additions to the potent circle of the +Brandenburg Place councils, and the freedom of criticism which he +allowed himself had already been the subject of pained comment on the +part of a section of his seniors. + +"Well," suggested some one, with politely-pointed meaning, "I don't know +what's to prevent one individual from attending a meeting if he so +wants. He'd probably find one going on somewhere at this minute if he +looked round hard. Doesn't seem to me that any one's holding him back." + +"Now, now," reproved Mr Guppling, the Postmaster-General, "let the man +speak if he has anything on his mind. Come now, comrade, what do you +mean?" + +"I don't know what I mean," replied the comrade, at which there was a +general shout of laughter. "I don't know what I mean," he continued, +having secured general attention by this simple device of oratory, +"because I am told in those Government quarters where I ought to be able +to find information, that no information has been collected, no +systematic enquiries made, nothing is known, in fact. Therefore, I do +not know what I mean because I do not know--none of us know--what the +Unity League means. But I know this: that a hostile organisation of over +a million and a half strong----" + +Dissent came forcibly from every quarter of the room. "Not half!" was +the milder form it took. + +"----of over a million and a half strong," continued the speaker +grimly--"perhaps more, in fact, than all our Trades Unions put +together--with an income very little less than what all the Trades +Unions put together used to have, and funds in hand probably more, is a +living menace in our midst, and ought to have been closely watched." + +"It keeps 'em quiet," urged the Foreign Under-Secretary. + +"Too quiet. I don't like my enemy to be quiet. I prefer him to be +talking large and telling us exactly what he's going to do." + +"They're going to chuck us out, Tirrel; that's what they're going to +do," said a sarcastic comrade playfully. "So was the Buttercup League, +so was the Liberal-Conservative alliance. Lo, history repeats itself!" + +"I see a long line of strong men fallen in the past--premiers, popes, +kings, generals, ambassadors," replied Tirrel. "They all took it for +granted that when they had got their positions they could keep them +without troubling about their enemies any more. That's generally the +repeating point in history." + +Mr Strummery felt that the instances were perhaps getting too near home. +"Come, come, chaps, and Comrade Tirrel in particular," he said mildly, +"don't imagine that nothing is being done in the proper quarter because +you mayn't hear much talk about it. Our Executives work and don't talk. +I think that you may trust our good comrade Tubes to keep an eye on the +Unity League." + +"Wish he'd keep an eye on the clock," murmured a captious member. "Not +once," he added conclusively, "but three times out of four." + +There was a vigorous knock at the front door, and the hurried footsteps +of some one ascending the stairs with the consciousness that he was +late. + +"Talk of Tubes and you'll have a puncture," confided a comrade of +humorous bent to his neighbour, and on the words the Home Secretary, +certainly with very little breath left in him, entered the room and made +his apologies. + +The special business for which the Council had been called together was +to consider a series of reports from the constituencies, and to decide +how to be influenced by their tenor. The Government had no desire to +wait for a general election in order to find out the views of the +electors of the country; given a close summary of those sentiments, it +might be possible to fall in with their wishes, and thereby to be spared +the anxiety of an election until their septennial existence had run its +course; or, if forced by the action of their own malcontents to take +that unwelcome step, at least to cut the ground from beneath their +opponents' feet in advance. + +If there was not complete unanimity among those present, there was no +distinct line of variance. Men of the extremest views had naturally not +been included, and although the prevailing opinion was that the +conditions of labour had been put upon a fair and equitable basis during +their tenure of office--or as far in that direction as it was possible +to go without utterly stampeding capitalists and ratepayers from the +country--there were many who were prepared to go yet a little further if +it seemed desirable. + +Judging from the summarised reports, it did seem desirable. From the +mills of Lancashire and Yorkshire, the coal-pits of the north and west, +the iron fields of the Midlands, the quarries of Derbyshire, the boot +factories of Northampton and the lace factories of Nottingham, from +every swarming port around the coast, and from that vast cosmopolitan +clearing house, the Capital itself, came the same tale. The people did +not find themselves so well off as they wished to be; they were, in +fact, rather poorer than before. There was nothing local about it. The +Thurso flag-stone hewer shared the symptoms with his Celtic brother, +digging out tin and copper from beneath the Atlantic waters beyond +Pendeen; the Pembroke dock-hand and the Ipswich mechanic were in just +the same position. When industries collapsed, as industries had an +unhappy character for doing about the period, no one had any reserves. +It was possible to live by provision of the Government, but the working +man had been educated up to requiring a great deal more than bare +living. When wages went down in spite of all artificial inflation, or +short time was declared, a great many working-class houses, financed +from week to week but up to the hilt in debt, went down too. The +agricultural labourer was the least disturbed; he had had the least done +for him, and he had never known a "boom." The paradox remained that with +more money the majority of the poor were poorer than before, and they +were worse than poor, for they were dissatisfied. The remedy, of course, +was for some one to give them still more money, not for them to spend +less. The shortest way to that remedy, as they had been well taught by +their agitators in the past, was to clamour for the Government to do +something else for them, and therefore they were clamouring now. + +"That is the position," announced Mr Tubes, when he had finished reading +the general summary. "The question it raises may not be exactly urgent, +but it is at least pressing. On the one hand, there is the undoubted +feeling of grievance existing among a large proportion of electors--our +own people. On the other hand, there is the serious question of national +finances not to be overlooked. As the matter is one that must ultimately +concern me more closely than anybody else, I will reserve my own opinion +to the last." + +The view taken by those present has already been indicated. Their +platform was that of Moderate Socialism; they wished it always to be +understood that they were practical. They had the interest of their +fellow working men (certainly of no other class of the community) at +heart, but as Practical Socialists they had a suspicion (taking the +condition of the Exchequer into consideration) that for the moment they +had reached the limit of Practical Socialism. There was an undoubted +dilemma. If a mistake of policy on their part let in the impractical +Socialists, the result would be disastrous. Most of them regarded the +danger as infinitesimal; like every other political party during the +last two centuries, they felt that they could rely on the "sound +common-sense of the community." Still, admitting a possibility, even if +it was microscopic, might it not be more--say practically socialistic +(the word "patriotic" had long been expunged from their vocabulary) in +the end to make some slight concessions? If there existed a more +material inducement it was not referred to, and any ingenuous comrade, +using as an argument in favour of compliance a homely proverb anent the +inadvisability of quarrelling with one's bread and butter, would have +been promptly discouraged. Yet, although the actors themselves in this +great morality play apparently overlooked the consideration, it is +impossible for the spectator to ignore the fact. Some few members of the +Cabinet might have provided for a rainy day, but even to many of +official class, and practically to all of the rank and file, a reversal +at the polls must mean that they would have to give up a variety of +highly-esteemed privileges and return to private life in less +interesting capacities, some in very humble ones indeed. + +It ended, as it was bound to end, in compromise. They would not play +into the hands of the extreme party and ignore the voice of the +constituencies; they would not be false to their convictions and be +dictated to by the electors. They would decline to bring in the +suggested Minimum Wage Bill, and they would not impose the Personal +Property Tax. They would meet matters by extending the National +Obligations Act, and save money on the Estimates. They would be sound, +if commonplace. + +The formal proceedings having been concluded, it was open for any one to +introduce any subject he pleased in terms of censure, enquiry or +discussion. Comrade Tirrel was on his feet at once, and returned to the +subject that lay heavy on his mind. + +"Is the Home Secretary in possession of any confidential information +regarding the Unity League?" he demanded; "and can he assure us, in view +of the admittedly hostile object of the organisation, that adequate +means are being taken to neutralise any possible lines of action it may +adopt?" + +"The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative," +replied Mr Tubes in his best parliamentary manner. "As regards the +second part, I may state that after considering the reports we have +received it is not anticipated that the League offers any serious menace +to the Government. Should the necessity arise, the Council may rely upon +the Home Office taking the requisite precautions." + +"The answer is satisfactory as far as it goes. Being in possession of +special information, will the Home Secretary go a step further and allay +the anxiety that certainly exists in some quarters, by indicating the +real intentions and proposed _modus operandi_ of the League?" + +Mr Tubes conferred for a moment with his chief. "I may say that on broad +lines the League has no definite plan for the future, and its +intentions, as represented by the policy of its heads, will simply be to +go on existing so long as the deluded followers will continue their +subscriptions. I may point out that the League has now been in existence +for two years, and during that time it has done nothing at all to +justify its founders' expectations; it has not embarrassed us at any +point nor turned a single by-election. For two years we heard +practically nothing of it, and there has been no fresh development to +justify the present uneasiness which it seems to be causing in the minds +of a few nervous comrades. Its membership is admittedly imposing, but +the bare fact that a million and a half of people are foolish +enough----" + +There was a significant exchange of astonished glances among the +occupants of Mr Strummery's council chamber. Murmurs grew, and Mr +Guppling voiced the general feeling by calling the Home Secretary's +attention to the figures he had mentioned "doubtless inadvertently." + +"No," admitted Mr Tubes carelessly, "that is our latest estimate. From +recent information we have reason to think that the previous figure we +adopted was too low--or the League may have received large additions +lately through some accidental cause. We are now probably erring as +widely on the other side, but it is the safe side, and I therefore +retain that figure." + +Mr Tirrel had not yet finished, but he was listened to with respectful +attention now. + +"Is the Home Secretary in a position to tell us who this man Salt is?" +was his next enquiry. + +The Home Secretary looked frankly puzzled. "Who _is_ Salt?" he replied, +innocently enough. + +"That is the essential point of my enquiry," replied the comrade. +"Salt," he continued, his voice stilling the laughter it had raised, "is +the Man behind the Unity League. You think it is Hampden, but I tell you +that you are mistaken. Hampden is undoubtedly a dangerous power; the +classes will follow him blindly, and he is no mere figure-head, but it +was Salt who stirred Hampden from his apathy, and it is Salt who pulls +the wires." + +"And who is Salt?" demanded the Premier, as Mr Tubes offered no comment. + +Tirrel shook his head. "I know no more than I have stated," he replied; +"but his secret influence must be tremendous, and all doubt as to the +identity of the man and his past record should be set at rest." + +Mr Tubes looked up from the papers he had before him with a gleam of +subdued anger in his eye. "I think that our cock-sure kumred has geete +howd of another mare's neest," he remarked, relapsing unconsciously into +his native dialect as he frequently did when stirred. "I remember +hearin' o' this Saut in one o' th' reports, and here it is. So far from +being a principal, he occupies a very different position--that of +Hampden's private secretary, which would explain how he might have to +come into contact with a great many people without having any real +influence hissel. He is described in my confidential report as a simple, +unsuspicious man, who might be safely made use of, and, in fact, most of +my information is derived from that source." + +There was a sharp, smothered exclamation from one or two men, and then a +sudden stillness fell upon the room. Mr Tubes was among the last to +realise the trend of his admission. + +"Are we to understand that the greater part--perhaps the whole--of the +information upon which the Home Office has been relying, and of the +assurances of inaction which have lulled our suspicions to rest, have +been blindly accepted from this man Salt, the head and fount of the +League itself?" demanded Tirrel with ominous precision. "If that +indicates the methods of the Department, I think that this Council will +share my view when I suggest that the terms 'simple' and 'unsuspicious' +have been inaccurately allotted--to Salt." + +Mr Tubes made no reply. Lying at the bottom of the man's nature +smouldered a volcanic passion that he watched as though it were a +sleeping beast. Twice in his public career it had escaped him, and each +time the result had been a sharp reverse to his ambitions. +Repression--firm, instant, and unconditional--was the only safeguard, so +that now recognising the danger-signal in his breast, he sat without a +word in spite of the Premier's anxious looks, in spite of the concern of +those about him. + +"I will not press for a verbal reply," continued Tirrel after a telling +pause; "the inference of silence makes that superfluous. But I will ask +whether the Home Secretary is aware that Salt has been quietly engaged +in canvassing the provinces for a month, and whether he has any +information about his object and results. Yes," he continued vehemently, +turning to those immediately about him, "for a month past this simple, +unsuspecting individual from whom we derive our confidential information +has been passing quietly and unmarked from town to town; and if you were +to hang a map of England on the wall before me, I would undertake to +trace his route across the land by the points of most marked discontent +in the report to which we have just listened." + +A knock at the locked door of the room saved the Home Secretary for the +moment from the necessity of replying. It was an unusual incident, and +when the nearest man went and asked what was wanted, some one was +understood to reply that a stranger, who refused to give his name, +wished to see Mr Tubes. Perhaps Mr Tubes personally might have welcomed +a respite, but the master of the house anticipated him. + +"Tell him, whoever he may be, that Mr Tubes cannot be disturbed just +now," he declared. + +"He says it's important, very important," urged the voice, with a +suggestion of largess received and more to come, in its eagerness. + +"Then let him write it down or wait," said Mr Strummery decisively, and +the matter was supposed to have ended. + +The momentary interruption had broken the tension and perhaps saved +Tubes from a passionate outburst. He rose to make a reply without any +sign of anger or any fear that he would not be able to smooth away the +awkward impression. + +"As far as canvassing in the provinces is concerned," he remarked +plausibly, "it is open for any man, whatever his politics may be, to do +that from morning to night all his life if he likes, so long as it isn't +for an illegal object. As regards Salt having been engaged this way for +the past month, it is quite true that I have had no intimation of the +fact so far. I may explain that as my Department has not yet come to +regard the Unity League as the one object in the world to which it must +devote its whole attention, I am not in the habit of receiving reports +on the subject every day, nor even every week. It may be, however----" + +There was another knock upon the door. Mr Tubes stopped, and the Premier +frowned. In the space between the door and the carpet there appeared for +a second a scrap of paper; the next moment it came skimming a few yards +into the room. There was no attempt to hold further communication, and +the footsteps of the silent messenger were heard descending the stairs +again. + +Mr Vossit, who sat nearest to the door, picked up the little oblong +card. He saw, as he could scarcely fail to see, that it was an ordinary +visiting-card, and on the upper side, as it lay, there appeared a +roughly-pencilled sign--two lines at right angle drawn through a +semicircle, it appeared superficially to be. As he handed it to Mr Tubes +he reversed the position so that the name should be uppermost, and again +he saw, as he could scarcely fail to see, that the other side was blank. +The roughly-pencilled diagram was all the message it contained. + +"It may be, however----" the Home Secretary was repeating +half-mechanically. He took the card and glanced at the symbol it bore. +"It may be, however," he continued, as though there had been no +interruption, "that I shall very soon be in possession of the full facts +to lay before you." Then with a few whispered words to the Premier and a +comprehensive murmur of apology to the rest of the company, he withdrew. + +Fully a quarter of an hour passed before there was any sign of the +absent Minister, and then it did not take the form of his return. The +conversation, in his absence, had worked round to the engaging +alternative of whether it was more correct to educate one's son at Eton +or at Margate College, when a message was sent up requesting the +Premier's attendance in another room. After another quarter of an hour +some one was heard to leave the house, but it was ten minutes later +before the two men returned. It was felt in the atmosphere that some new +development was at hand, and they had to run the curious scrutiny of +every eye. Both had an air of constraint, and both were rather pale. The +Premier moved to his seat with brusque indifference, and one who knew +Tubes well passed a whispered warning that Jim had got his storm-cone +fairly hoisted. The door was locked again, chairs were drawn up to the +table, and a hush of marked expectancy settled over the meeting. + +The Prime Minister spoke first. + +"In the past half-hour a letter has come into our possession that may +cause us to alter our arrangements," he announced baldly. "How it came +into our possession doesn't matter. All that does matter is, that it's +genuine. Tubes will read it to you." + +"It is signed 'John Hampden,' addressed to Robert Estair, and dated +three days ago," contributed the Home Secretary just as briefly. "The +original was in cipher. This is the deciphered form: + + "'MY DEAR ESTAIR,--I now have Salt's complete report before me, + and there seems to be no doubt that the proposal I have + formulated is feasible, and the moment almost ripe. Salt has + covered all the most important industrial centres, and + everywhere the reports of our agents are favourable to the + plan. Not having found universal happiness and a complete + immunity from the cares incident to humanity in the privileges + which they so ardently desired and have now obtained, the + working classes are tending to believe that the panacea must + lie, not in greater moderation, but in extended privilege. + + "'For the moment the present Government is indisposed to go + much further, not possessing the funds necessary for enlarged + concessions and fearing that increased taxation might result in + a serious stream of emigration among the monied classes. For + the moment the working men hesitate to throw in their lot with + the extreme Socialists, distrusting the revolutionary and + anarchical wing of that party, and instinctively feeling that + any temporary advantage which they might enjoy would soon be + swallowed up in the reign of open lawlessness that must + inevitably arise. + + "'For the moment, therefore, there is a pause, and now occurs + the opportunity--perhaps the last in history--for us to + retrieve some of the losses of the past. There are scruples to + be overcome, but I do not think that an alliance with the + moderate section of the Labour interest is inconsistent with + the aims and traditions of the great parties which our League + represents. It would, of course, be necessary to guarantee to + our new allies the privileges which they now possess, and even + to promise more; but I am convinced, not only by past + experience but also by specific assurances from certain + quarters, that they would prefer to remain as they are, and + form an alliance with us rather than grasp at larger gains and + suffer absorption into another party which they dare not trust. + + "'From the definite nature of this statement you will gather + that the negotiations are more than in the air. The + distribution of Cabinet offices will have to be considered at + once. B---- might be first gained over with the offer of the + Exchequer. He carries great weight with a considerable section + of his party, and is dissatisfied with his recognition so far. + Heape is a representative man who would repay early attention, + especially as he is, at the moment, envious of R----'s better + treatment. But these are matters of detail. The great thing is + to _get back on any terms_. Once in power, by a modification of + the franchise we might make good our position. I trust that + this, a desperate remedy in a desperate time, will earn at + least your tacit acquiescence. Much is irretrievably lost; + England remains--yet. + + "Yours sincerely, + + "JOHN HAMPDEN.'" + +Six men were on their feet before the signature was reached. With an +impatient gesture Strummery waved them collectively aside. + +"We all know your opinion on the writer and the letter, and we can all +put it into our own words without wasting time in listening," he said +with suppressed fury. "In five minutes' time I shall entirely reopen the +consideration of the reports which we met this afternoon to discuss." + +"Has any effort been made to learn the nature of Estair's reply?" +enquired Tirrel. If he was not the least moved man in the room he was +the least perturbed, and he instinctively picked out the only point of +importance that remained. + +"It probably does not exist in writing," replied Mr Tubes, avoiding +Tirrel's steady gaze. "I find that he arrived in town last night. There +would certainly be a meeting." + +"Was Bannister summoned to this Council?" demanded another. It was taken +for granted that "B" stood for Bannister. + +"Yes," replied the Premier, with one eye on his watch. "He was +indisposed." + +"I protest against the reference to myself," said Heape coldly. + + * * * * * + +Mr Strummery nodded. "Time's up," he announced. + +That is the "secret history" of the Government's sudden and inexplicable +conversion to the necessity of the Minimum Wage Bill and to the +propriety of imposing the Personal Property Tax. A fortnight later the +Prime Minister outlined the programme in the course of a speech at +Newcastle. The announcement was received almost with stupefaction. For +the first time in history, property--money, merchandise, personal +belongings--was to be saddled with an annual tax apart from, and in +addition to, the tax it paid on the incomes derived from it. It was an +entire wedge of the extreme policy that must end in Partition. It was +more than the poorer classes had dared to hope; it was more than the +tax-paying classes had dared to fear. It marked a new era of extended +privilege for the one; it marked the final extinction of hope even among +the hopeful for the other. + +"It could not have happened more opportunely for us even if we had +arranged it in every detail," declared Hampden, going into Salt's room +with the tidings in huge delight, a fortnight later. + +"No," agreed Salt, looking up with his slow, pleasant smile. "Not even +if we had arranged it." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE ORDER OF ST MARTIN OF TOURS + + +Sir John Hampden paused for a moment with arrested pen. He had been in +the act of crossing off another day on the calendar that hung inside his +desk, the last detail before he pulled the roll-top down for the night, +when the date had caught his eye with a sudden meaning. + +"A week to-day, Salt," he remarked, looking up. + +"A week to-day," repeated Salt. "That gives us seven more days for +details." + +Hampden laughed quietly as he bent forward and continued the red line +through the "14." + +"That is one way of looking at it," he said. "Personally, I was rather +wishing that it had been to-day. I confess that I cannot watch the +climax of these two years approaching without feeling keyed up to +concert pitch. I suppose that you never had any nerves?" + +"I suppose not. If I had, the Atlantic water soon washed them out." + +"But you are superstitious?" he asked curiously. It suddenly occurred to +him how little he really knew of the man with whom he was linked in such +a momentous hazard. + +"Oh yes. Blue water inoculates us all with that. Fortunately, mine does +not go beyond trifles, such as touching posts and stepping over paving +stones--a hobby and not a passion, or I should have to curb it." + +"Do you really do things like that? Well, I remember Northland, the +great nerve specialist, telling me that most people have something of +the sort--a persistent feeling of impending calamity unless they conform +to some trivial impulse. I am exempt." + +"Yes," commented Salt; "or you would hardly be likely to cross off the +date before the day is over." + +"Good Heavens!" exclaimed Hampden. "What an age we live in! Is it tannin +or the dregs of paganism? And you think it would be tempting Providence +to do it while there are five more hours to run?" + +"I never do it, as a matter of fact," admitted Salt with perfect +seriousness. "Of course, I _know_ that nothing would happen in the five +hours if I did, but, all the same, I rather think that something would." + +"I hope that something will," said Hampden cheerfully. "Dinner, for +example. Did I ever strike you as a gourmet, Salt? Well, nevertheless, I +am a terrific believer in regular meals, although I don't care a straw +how simple they are. You may read of some marvellous Trojan working +under heavy pressure for twenty-four hours, and then snatching a hurried +glass of Chateau d'Yquem and a couple of Abernethy biscuits, and going +on again for another twenty-four. Don't believe it, Salt. If he is not +used to it, his knees go; if he is used to it, they have gone already. +If I were a general I solemnly declare that I would risk more to feed my +men before an engagement, than I would risk to hold the best position +all along the front. Your hungry man may fight well enough for a time, +but the moment he is beaten he knows it. And, strangely enough, we +English have won a good many important battles after we had been +beaten." + +He had been locking up the safe and desk as he ran on, and now they +walked together down the corridor. At the door of his own office Salt +excused himself for a moment and went in. When he rejoined the baronet +at the outer door, he held in his hand a little square of thin paper on +which was printed in bold type + + JULY 14. + +"You will regret it," said Hampden, not wholly jestingly. He saw at once +that it was the tag for the day, torn from his calendar, that Salt held. + +"No," he replied, crumpling up the scrap of paper and throwing it away, +"I may remember, but I shall not regret. When you have to think twice +about doing a thing like that, it is time to do it.... You have no +particular message for Deland?" + +"None at all, personally, I think. You will tell him as much as we +decided upon. Let him know that his post will certainly be one of the +most important outside the central office. What time do you go?" + +"The 10 train from Marylebone. Deland will be waiting up for me. There +is an early restaurant train in the morning--the 7.20, getting in at +10.40. I shall breakfast _en route_, and come straight on here." + +"That's right. Look out for young Hampshire in the train; he will +probably wait on you, but you won't recognise him unless you remember +the Manners-Clinton nose in profile. He regards it as a vast joke, but +he is very keen. And sleep all the time you aren't feeding. Can't do +better. Good night." + +Salt laughed as he turned into Pall Mall, speculating for a moment, by +the light of his own knowledge, how little time this strenuous, +simple-living man devoted to the things he advocated. If he had been +able to follow Sir John's electric brougham for the remainder of that +night he would have had still more reason to be sceptical. + +When Hampden reached his house and strode up to the door with the +elastic step of a young man, despite his iron-grey hair and burden of +responsibility, instead of the bronze Medusa knocker that had dropped +from the hands of Pietro Sarpi and Donato in its time, his eyes +encountered the smiling face of his daughter as she swung open the door +before him. She had been sitting at an open window of the dull-fronted +house until she saw the Hampden livery in the distance. + +"There is some one waiting in the library to see you," she said, as he +kissed her cheek. "He said that he would wait ten minutes; you had +already been seven." + +"Who is it?" he asked in quiet expectation. It was not unusual for +Muriel to watch for him from the upper room, and to come down into the +hall to welcome him, but to-night he saw at once that there was a mild +excitement in her manner. "Who is it?" he asked. + +She told him in half a dozen whispered words, and then returned to the +drawing-room and the society of a depressing companion, who chanced to +be a poor and distant cousin, while Sir John turned toward the library. + +"Tell Styles to remain with the brougham if he is still in front," he +said to a passing footman. The visit might presage anything. + +A young man, an inconspicuous young man in a blue serge suit, rose from +the chair of Jacobean oak and Spanish leather where he had been sitting +with a bowler hat between his hands and a cheap umbrella across his +knees, and made a cursory bow as he began to search an inner pocket. + +"Sir John Hampden?" he enquired. + +"Yes," replied the master of the house, favouring his visitor with a +more curious attention than he received in return. "You are from +Plantagenet House, I believe?" + +The young man detached his left hand from the search and turned down the +lapel of his coat in a perfunctory display of his credentials. Pinned +beneath so that it should not obtrude was an insignificant little medal, +so small and trivial that it would require the closest scrutiny to +distinguish its design and lettering. + +But Sir John Hampden did not require any assurance upon the point. He +knew by the evidence of just such another medallion which lay in his own +possession that upon one side, around the engraved name of the holder, +ran the inscription, "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart;" +upon the other side a representation of St Martin dividing his cloak +with the beggar. It was the badge of the Order of St Martin of Tours. + +The Order of St Martin embodied the last phase of organised benevolence. +In the history of the world there had never been a time when men so +passionately desired to help their fellow men; there had never been a +time when they found it more difficult to do so to their satisfaction. +From the lips of every social reformer, from the reports of the +charitable organisations, from the testimony of the poor themselves the +broad indictment had gone forth that every casual beggar was a rogue and +a vagabond. Promiscuous alms-giving was tabulated among the Seven Curses +of London. + +Organised charity was the readiest alternative. Again obliging +counsellors raised their conscientious voices. Organised charity was +wasteful, inelastic, unsympathetic, often superfluous. The preacher +added a warning note: Let none think that the easy donation of a cheque +here and there was charity. It was frequently vanity, it was often a +cowardly compromise with conscience, it was never an absolution from the +individual responsibility. + +So brotherly love continued, but often did not fructify, and the man who +felt that he had the true Samaritan instinct, as he passed by on the one +side of the suburban road, looked at his ragged neighbour lying under +the hedge on the other side in a fit which might be epilepsy but might +equally well be soap-suds in the mouth, and assured himself that if only +he could believe the case to be genuine there was nothing on earth he +would not do for the man. + +It was a very difficult age, every one admitted: "Society was so +complex." + +There was evidence of the generous feeling--ill-balanced and spasmodic, +it is true--on every hand. The poor were bravely, almost blindly, good +to their neighbours in misfortune. The better-off were lavish--or had +been until a few years previously--when they had certified proof that +the cases were deserving. If a magistrate or a police court missionary +gave publicity to a Pathetic Case, the Pathetic Case might be sure of +being able to retire on a comfortable annuity. If only every Pathetic +Case could have been induced to come pathetically into the clutches of a +sympathetic police court cadi, instead of dying quite as pathetically in +a rat-hole, one of the most pressing problems of benevolence might have +been satisfactorily solved. + +The Order of St Martin of Tours was one of the attempts to reconcile the +generous yearnings of mankind with modern conditions. Its field of +action had no definable limit, and whatever a man wished to give it was +prepared to utilise. It was not primarily concerned with money, although +judged by the guaranteed resources upon which it could call if +necessary, it would rank as a rich society. It imposed no subscription +and made no outside appeal. Upon its books, against the name of every +member, there was entered what he bound himself to do when it was +required of him. It was a vast and comprehensive list, so varied that +few ever genuinely applied for the services of the Order without their +needs being satisfied. The city man willing to give a foolish and +repentant youth another chance of honest work; the Sussex farmer anxious +to prove what a month of South Down fare and Channel breezes would do +for a small city convalescent; the prim little suburban lady, much too +timid to attempt any personal contact with the unknown depths of sin and +suffering, but eager to send her choicest flowers and most perfect fruit +to any slum sick-room; the good-hearted laundry girl who had been +through the fires herself, offering to "pal up to any other girl what's +having a bit of rough and wants to keep straight without a lot of +jaw,"--all found a deeper use in life beneath the sign of St Martin's +divided cloak. Children, even little children, were not shut out; they +could play with other, lonely, little children, and renounce some toys. + +The inconspicuous young man standing in Sir John Hampden's library--he +was in a cheap boot shop, but he gave his early closing day to serve the +Order as a messenger, and there were millionaires who gave less--found +the thing he searched for, and handed to Sir John an unsealed envelope. + +"I accept," said the baronet, after glancing at the slip it contained. +This was what he accepted: + + ORDER OF ST. MARTIN OF TOURS. + + _Case_. . . John Flak, 45 Paradise Buildings, + Paradise Street, Drury Lane, W.C. + + _Cause_ . . Street Accident. + + _Requirement_ Service through the night. + + _Recommender_ L. K. Stone, M.D., 172 Great Queen + Street, W.C. + + WALTHAM, MASTER. + +He could have declined; and his membership would have been at an end. +But in a mission of personal service he could not accept and appoint a +substitute. The Order was modern, business-like, reasonable, +unemotional, and quite prepared to take humanity as it was. It did not +seek to impose the ideal Christian standard, logically recognising that +if a man gave _all_ he possessed, a system of Christian laws (a Caesar +whom he was likewise bidden to obey) would at once incarcerate him in a +prison for having no visible means of subsistence, and, if he persisted +in his unnatural Christian conduct, in a lunatic asylum, where in its +appointed season he would have the story of the Rich Ruler read for his +edification. + +The Order was practical and "very nice to do with;" but it had a +standard, and as a protest against that widespread reliance in the +omnipotence of gold that marred the age it allowed no delegation of an +office of mercy. On all points it was open; its thin medallion +symbolised no mysteries or secret vows; nor, and on this one point it +was unbending, as far as lay in the power of the Order should any +second-hand virtue find place beneath its saintly ensign. + +A few years before, Paradise Street, with that marked inappropriateness +that may be traced in the nomenclature of many London thoroughfares, had +been the foulest, poorest, noisomest, most garbage-strewn and +fly-infested region even in the purlieus of Drury Lane. It was not +markedly criminal, it was merely filthy; and when smell-diseases broke +out in central London it was generally found that they radiated from +Paradise Street like ripples from a dead dog thrown into a pond. +Presently a type foundry in the next street, growing backwards because +it was impossible to expand further in any other direction, pushed down +the flimsy tenements that stood between and reared a high wall, pierced +with windows of prismatic glass, in their place. Soon public +authorities, seeing that the heavens did not fall when a quarter of +Paradise Street did, suddenly and unexpectedly tore down another quarter +as though they had received a maddened impulse and Paradise Street had +been a cardboard model. The phoenix that appeared on this site was a +seven-storied block of workmen's dwellings. It could not be said to have +given universal satisfaction. The municipal authorities who devised it +bickered entertainingly over most of the details that lay between the +foundations and the chimney-pots; the primitive dwellers in Paradise +Street looked askance at it, as they did at most things not in liquid +form; social reformers complained that it drove away the very poor and +brought in a class of only medium poor; and ordinary people noticed that +in place of the nearest approach to artistic dirt to be found in the +metropolis, some one had substituted uninteresting squalor. + +Hampden dismissed his carriage in Lincoln's Inn Fields and walked the +remainder of the way. He had changed into a dark lounge suit before he +left, but, in spite of the principle he had so positively laid down, he +had not stayed to dine. The inevitable, morbid little group marked the +entrance to Paradise Buildings, but the incident was already three hours +old, and the larger public interest was being reserved for the +anticipated funeral. + +A slipshod, smug-faced woman opened the door of No. 45 in response to +his discreet knock. He stepped into a small hall where coal was stored +in a packing-case, and, on her invitation, through into the front room. +Five more untidy women, who had been drinking from three cups, got up as +he entered, and passed out, eyeing him with respectful curiosity as they +went, and each dropping a word of friendly leavetaking to the slatternly +hostess. + +"Don't be down'arted, my dear." + +"See you later, Emm." + +"Let's know how things are going, won't you?" + +"You'll remember about that black alpaker body?" + +"Well, so long, Mrs Flak. Gord bless yer." + +Sir John waited until the hall door closed behind the last frowsy woman. + +"I am here to be of any use I can," he said. "Did Dr Stone mention that +some one would come?" + +"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," she replied. She stood in the middle of the +room, a picture of domestic incapacity, with a foolish look upon her +rather comely features. The room was not bare of furniture, was not +devoid of working-class comforts, but the dirty dishes, the dirty +clothing, the dirty floor, told the plain tale. + +"I do not know any particulars of the case yet." He saw at once that he +would have to take the lead in every detail. "Did the doctor speak of +coming again, or leave any message?" + +"Yes, sir," she replied readily. She lifted an ornament on the +mantelpiece and gave him a folded sheet of paper, torn from a note-book, +that had been placed there for safety. He had the clearest impression +that it would never have occurred to the woman to give it to him +unasked. + +"To rep of O. St M.," ran the pencilled scrawl. "Shall endeavour to look +in 8-8.30.--L.K.S." + +Even as he took out his watch there came a business-like knock at the +door, an active step in the hall, and beneath the conventional greeting, +the two men were weighing one another. + +Dr Stone had asked the Order to send a man of common-sense who could +exercise authority if need be, and one who would not be squeamish in his +surroundings. For reasons of his own he had added that if with these +qualifications he combined that of being a Justice of the Peace, so much +the better. Dr Stone judged that he had the man before him. Hampden saw +a brisk, not too well shaven, man in a light suit, with a straw hat and +a serviceable stick in his hands, until he threw them on the table. +There was kindness and decision behind his alert eyes, and his manner +was that of a benevolent despot marshalling his poor patients--and he +had few others--as a regiment before him, marching them right and left +in companies, bringing them sharply to the front, and bidding them to +stand there and do nothing until they were told. + +"You haven't been into the other room yet?" he asked. "No, well----" + +He stopped with his hand on the door knob, turned back like a pointer on +the suspicion of a trail, and looked keenly at the woman, then around +the bestrewn room. If her eyes had slid the least betraying glance, +Hampden did not observe it, but the doctor, without a word, strode to +the littered couch, put his hand behind a threadbare cushion, and drew +out a half-filled bottle. There was a gluggling ripple for a few +seconds, and the contents had disappeared down the sink, while the +terebinthine odour of cheap gin hung across the room. + +"Not here, Mrs Flak," he said sharply; and without changing her +expression of vacuous good-nature, the woman meekly replied, "No, sir." + +Dr Stone led the way into the inner room and closed the door behind +them. A man, asleep, insensible, or dead, lay on the bed, his face half +hidden in bandages. + +"This is the position," explained the doctor, speaking very rapidly, for +his time was mapped out with as little waste as there is to be found +between the squares on a chess board. "This man went out of here a few +hours ago and walked straight into an empty motor 'bus that was going +round this way. That's how they all put it: he walked right into the +thing. Why? He was a sober enough man, an attendant of some kind at one +of the west end clubs. Because, as I have good reason to suppose, he was +thinking absorbingly of something else. + +"Well, they carried him in here; it ought to have been the hospital, of +course, but it was at his own doorstep it took place, you see, and it +doesn't really matter, because to-morrow morning----!" + +"He will die then?" asked Hampden in a whisper, interpreting the quick +gesture. + +"Oh, he will die as sure as his head is a cracked egg-shell. Between +midnight and dawn, I should say. But before the end I look confidently +for an interval of consciousness, or rather sub-consciousness. If I am +wrong I shall have kept you up all night for nothing; if I am right you +will probably hear something that he wants to say very much." + +"Whatever was in his mind when he met with the accident?" + +"That is my conviction. There has already been an indication of partial +expression. Curiously enough, I have had two exactly similar cases, and +this is going just the same way. In one it was a sum of money a man had +banked under another name to keep it from his wife and for his children; +in the second it was a blow struck in a scuffle, and an innocent man was +doing penal servitude for it." + +"That is what you wished to have some one here for chiefly, then?" asked +Hampden. + +"Everything, practically. You see the kind of people around? The wife is +a fool; the neighbours are the class of maddening dolts who leave a +suicide hanging until a policeman comes to cut him down. They would hold +an orgie in the next room. In excitement the women fly to gin as +instinctively as a nun flies to prayer. Order them out if they come, but +I don't think that they will trouble you after I have spoken to the +woman as I go. If there is anything to be caught it will have to be on +the hop, so to speak. It may be a confession, a deposition of legal +value, or only a request; one cannot guess. Questioning, when the +sub-conscious stage is reached, might lead to something. It's largely a +matter of luck, but intelligence may have an innings." + +"Is there nothing to be done--in the way of making it easier for him?" + +Dr Stone made a face expressive of their helplessness and shrugged his +shoulders; then mentioned a few simple details. + +"He will never know," he explained. "Even when he seems conscious he +will feel no pain and remember nothing of the accident. The clock will +be mercifully set back." He smiled whimsically. "Forgive me if it never +strikes." He turned to go. "The nearest call office is the kiosk in +Aldwych," he remarked. "I am 7406 Covent Garden." No paper being visible +he wrote the number on the wall. "After 10.30 as a general thing," he +added. + +So the baronet was left alone with the still figure that counterfeited +death so well, the man who would be dead before the dawn. He stepped +quietly to the bed and looked down on him. The lower half of the face +was free from swathing, and the lean throat and grizzled beard struck +Sir John with a momentary surprise. It was the face of an elderly man; +he had expected to find one not more than middle-aged as the companion +of the young woman in the other room. + +There was a single chair against the wall, and he sat down. There was +nothing else to do but to sit and wait, to listen to the sounds of +voluminous life that rose from the street beneath, the careful creaking +movements in the room beyond. From the shallow wainscotting near the bed +came at intervals the steady ticking of a death-watch. It was nothing, +as every one knew, but the note of an insect calling for its mate, but +it thrilled and grew large in the stillness of the chamber ominously. + +A low tap on the door came as a relief. He found the woman standing +there. + +"Is there anything different?" she asked, hanging on to the door. "I +kept on thinking I heard noises." + +"No, there is no change," he replied. "Will you come in?" + +She shrank back at the suggestion. "Gord 'elp us, no!" she cried. "It's +bad enough out there." + +"What are you afraid of?" he asked kindly. + +She had no words for it. Self-analysis did not enter into her daily +life. But, sitting there alone among the noises, real and imagined, she +had reached a state of terror. + +"There is nothing at all dreadful, nothing that would shock you," he +said, referring to the appearance of the dying man. "You are his wife, +are you not?" + +The foolish look, half stubborn, half vacuous, flickered about her face. +"As good as," she replied. "It's like this----" + +"I see." He had no desire to hear the recital of the sordid details. + +"His wife's in a mad-house. Won't never be anywhere else, and I've been +with him these five years, an honest woman to him all the time," she +said, bridling somewhat at the suggestion of reproach. "No one's got no +better right to the things, I'm sure." Her eloquence was stirred not so +much to defend her reputation as by the fear that some one might step in +to claim "the things." + +"There will be plenty of time to talk about that when--when it is +necessary," he said. "Has he no relations about here who ought to be +told?" + +"Nah," she said decisively; "no one but me. Why, he didn't even have no +friends--no pals of his own class, as you may say. Very close about +himself he was. All he thought of was them political corkses, as they +call um." She came nearer to the door again, the gossiping passion of +her class stronger than her fear, now that the earlier restraint of his +presence was wearing off. "It's the only thing we ever had a 'arsh word +about. It's all right and well for them that make a living at it, but +many and many a time my 'usband's lost 'alf a day two and three times a +week to sit in the Distingwidged Strangers' Gallery. You mightn't 'ardly +think it, sir, but he was hand and foot with some of the biggest men +there are; he was indeed." + +Hampden was looking at her curiously. He read into her "'arsh word" the +ceaseless clatter of her nagging, shameless tongue when the old man +brought home a few shillings less than he was wont; the aftermath of +sullen silence, the unprepared meals and neglected home. He pictured him +a patient, long-suffering old man, and pitied him. And now she took +pride and boasted of the very things that she had upbraided him with. + +"Vickers he knew," she continued complacently, "and Drugget. He's shaken +hands with Mr Strummery, the Prime Minister, more than onest. Then +Tubes--you've heard speak of him?--he found Mr Tubes a very pleasant +gentleman. Oh, and a lot more I can't remember." + +Hampden disengaged himself from further conversation with a single +formal sentence, and returned to his vigil. There he was secure from her +callous chatter. He saw the renewed look of terror start into her eyes +when a board behind her creaked as the door was closing. He heard the +startled shriek, but her squalid avarice cut off his sympathies. He sat +down again and looked round at the already familiar objects in the room. +The form lying on the bed had not changed a fraction of its rigid +outline; but he missed something somewhere in the room, and for a minute +he could not identify it. Then he remembered the ticking of the +death-watch. It had ceased. He looked at his watch; it was not yet nine +o'clock. + +He had not been back more than ten minutes when the subdued tapping--it +was rather a timid scrape, as though she feared that a louder summons +might call another forth--was repeated. + +"I don't see that it's no good my staying here," she gasped. "I've been +sitting there till the furniture fair began to move towards me, and +every bloomin' rag about the place had a face in it. It's giving me the +fair horrors." + +He could not ignore her half-frenzied state. "What do you want to do?" +he asked. + +"I want to go out for a bit," she replied, licking her thin feline lips. +"You don't know what it's like. I want to hear real people talk and not +see things move. I'll come back soon; before Gord, I will." + +"Yes, _how_ will you came back?" + +"I won't. May it strike me dead if I touch a drop. I'll go straight into +Mrs Rugg's across the street, and she's almost what you might call a +teetotaler." + +"The man you call your husband is dying in there, and he may need your +help at any minute," he said sternly. It needed no gift of divination to +prophesy that if the woman once left the place she would be hopelessly +drunk before an hour had passed. "Don't sit down doing nothing but +imagining things," he continued. "Make yourself some tea, and then when +one of your friends comes round to see you, you can let her stay. But +only one, mind." + +He saw the more sullen of her looks settle darkly about her face as he +closed the door. He waited to hear the sound of the kettle being moved, +the tea-cup clinking, but they never came. An unnatural, uncreaking +silence reigned instead. He opened the door quietly and looked out. That +room was empty, and, as he stood there, a current of cooler air fell +across his cheek. Half a dozen steps brought him to the entrance to the +little hall--the only other room there was. It also was empty, and the +front door stood widely open. There was only one possible inference: +"Mrs Flak" had fled. + +Sir John had confessed to possessing nerves, and to few men the +situation would have been an inviting one. Still, there was only one +possible thing to do, and he closed the door again, noticing, as he did +so, that the action locked it. As he stood there a moment before +returning to the bedroom and its tranquil occupant lying in his rigid, +unbreathing sleep, a slight but continuous sound caught his ear. It was +the most closely comparable (to attempt to define it) with the whirring +of a clock as the flying pinion is released before it strikes. Or it +might be that the doctor's simile prompted the comparison. It was not +loud, but the room beyond seemed very, very still. + +It was not a time to temporise with the emotions. Hampden stepped into +the next room and stood listening. He judged--nay, he was sure--that the +sound came from the bedroom, but it was not repeated. Instead, something +very different happened, something that was either terrifying or +natural, according to the conditions that provoked it. Quite without +warning there came a voice from the next room, a full, level, healthy +voice, even strong, and speaking in the ordinary manner of conversation. + +"Will you please tell Mr Tubes that I am waiting here to see him?" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +MAN BETWEEN TWO MASTERS + + +There was something in the situation that was more than gruesome, +something that was peculiarly unnerving. + +In his anticipation of this moment as he had sat almost by the bedside, +Hampden had conjectured that the dying man would perhaps lift a hand or +move his head uneasily with the first instinct of returning +consciousness. A sigh, a groan, might escape him, incoherent words +follow, then broken but rational expressions of his suffering, and +entreaties that something might be done to ease the pain. Or perhaps, +after realising his position, he would nerve himself to betray no +unmanly weakness, and, in the words of the significant old phrase, +"turning his face to the wall," endure in stoical silence to the end. It +would be painful, perhaps acutely distressing, but it would not be +unnatural. + +There had been no groan, no sigh or broken words, no indication of +weakness or suffering behind that half-closed door, nothing but the +curious clock-like sound that had gone before the voice. And that voice! +It was as full and strong, as vibrant and as ordinary as his own could +ever be. Standing in the middle of the living-room Sir John could not +deceive himself. It came from the other room where a minute before he +had left the dying--yes, the almost dead--man lying with stark outline +on the bed. There was no alternative: it was from those pallid lips that +the words had come, it was by that still, inanimate man that they were +spoken. + +The suddenness of the whole incident was shocking in itself, but that +was not all; the mere contrast to what he had looked for was +disconcerting, but there was something more; the curious unexpected +nature of the request, if request it was, was not without its element of +mystery, but above and beyond all else was the thought--the thought that +for a dreadful moment held his heart and soul in icy bonds--what sight +when he returned to the inner room, as return at once he must, what +gruesome sight would meet his eyes? + +What phantoms his misgivings raised, every man may conjecture for +himself. Follow, then, another step in imagination, and having given a +somewhat free and ghastly fancy rein, push the chamber door cautiously +and inch by inch, or fling it boldly open as you will; then pause upon +the threshold, as Hampden did, in sharp surprise. + +Nothing was altered, no single detail had undergone the slightest +change! On the bed, rigid and very sharp beneath the single unclean +sheet, lay the body of the mangled man. Not a fold of his shroud-like +wrapping differed from its former line, it did not seem possible that a +breath had stirred him. + +Had the voice been a trick of the imagination? Hampden knew, as far as +mortal man can be sure of any mortal sense, that the voice had been as +real as his life itself. Then----? It occurred to him in a flash: here +was the stage of under-consciousness of which Dr Stone had spoken. Of +his pain, the accident, where he at that moment lay, and all his real +surroundings, the sufferer knew nothing, and never would know. But out +of the shock and shattering, some of the delicate machinery of the brain +still kept its balance, and would continue to exercise its functions to +the end. + +It was an ordeal, but it had to be done. It was the purpose for which he +had been summoned. Sir John moved to the bedside, nerved himself to +watch the ashen face, and said slowly and distinctly: "Mr Tubes is not +here. Do you wish to see him?" + +There was just a perceptible pause, and then the bloodless lips replied. +But not the faintest tremor of a movement stirred the body otherwise +from head to foot, and in the chilling absence of expression the simile +occurred to Hampden of bubbles rising from some unseen working to the +surface of an inky pool. + +"I have come on purpose. Let him be told that it is most important." + +Hampden had to feel his way. The woman had mentioned that Flak was at +least on terms of acquaintanceship with Mr Tubes. The doctor had +surmised that the man had something he must say before he died. But was +this the one true line, or a mere vagary of the sub-conscious state--a +twist in the tortuous labyrinth that would lead to nothing? + +"He is not here at present," he said. "If you will tell me what you wish +to say I will write it down, so that it cannot fail to reach him." + +"No. I cannot tell any one else. I must see him." + +"Mr Tubes is a very busy man. You know that he is the Home Secretary. Is +it of sufficient importance to telegraph for him?" + +This time the answer followed on his last word with startling rapidity. +Until the last phase that was the only variation in the delivery of the +sentences--that sometimes there was a pause as though the working of the +mind had to make a revolution before it reached the point of the mental +clutch, at others it dropped into its gear at once. + +"It is important enough to send a coach and four for him," was the +reply. + +Hampden might not be convinced of this but he was satisfied of one +thing: the coherence of idea was being regularly maintained. How long +would it last? It occurred to him to put the question. + +"I shall have to go out either to send the telegram myself or to find +some one who will take it," he explained. "Until Mr Tubes comes or sends +his reply will you _remain here_?" + +It was rather eerie to be holding conversation with the fragment of a +man's brain with the man himself for all practical purposes eliminated. +But he seemed to have arrived at a practical understanding with the +centre of sub-consciousness. + +"I will remain," was the unhesitating reply, and Hampden felt assured +that the line would not be lost. + +He had not definitely settled in his mind what to do when he opened the +door leading on to the common stairs. A small child who had been +loitering outside in a crouching position staggered back in momentary +alarm at his sudden appearance. It was a ragged girl, perhaps ten or +twelve years old, with cruelly unwieldy boots upon her stockingless +feet, matted hair, and a precocious face full of unchildish knowledge. +The inference that she had been applying either an eye or an ear to the +keyhole was overwhelming. + +Her fear--it was only the slum child's instinct of flight--died out when +she saw the gentleman. Toffs (so ran her experience) do not hit you for +nothing. + +"Ee's in there yet, ain't ee?" she whispered, coming back boldly and +looking up confidentially to his face. "I 'eard yer talking, but I +couldn't tell what yer said. 'Ow long d'yer think 'e'll last?" + +Sir John looked down at the child, the child who had never been young, +in shuddering pity. + +"It was me what picked 'is 'at up, but they wouldn't let me go in," she +continued, as though the fact gave her a standing in the case. "Did yer +see it in there?" She looked proudly at her right hand with horrid +significance. + +"Come in here," he said, after considering. "Can you run an errand?" + +Her face reflected gloating eagerness as she entered, her attitude had +just a tinge of pleasurable awe. He did not permit her to go further +than the hall. + +"Is it to do with 'im?" she asked keenly. "Yehs!" + +"It is to go to the post office in Fleet Street," he explained. "You +must go as fast as ever you can." + +"I can go anywhere as well as any boy, and as fast if I take my boots +off. When that there Italian knifed her man--him what took up with Shiny +Sal--in the Lane a year ago, it was me what fetched the police." + +He left her standing there--her face to the chink of the door before he +had turned away--and went into the next room to write the message. He +desired to make it neither too insistent nor too immaterial. "John Flak, +of 45 Paradise Buildings, Paradise Street, Drury Lane, has met with +fatal accident, and earnestly desires to see you on important business," +was the form it took. He had sufficient stamps in his pocket for the +payment, and to these he added another for a receipt. + +"You can read?" he asked, returning to her. + +"Yehs!" she replied with her curious accent of lofty scorn at so +ingenuous a question. "I read all the murders and sewercides to Blind +Mike every Sunday morning." + +"Well, go as fast as you can to the post office in Fleet Street, and +give them this paper where you see 'Telegrams' written up. Then wait for +another piece of paper which they will give you, and bring it back to +me. Here is sixpence for you now, and you shall have another shilling +when you come back." He was making it more profitable for her to be +honest than to be dishonest, which is perhaps the safest way in an +emergency. + +It was nearly ten o'clock when he looked at his watch on her departure; +it was not ten minutes past when she returned. She was panting but +exultant, and watched his face for commendation as she gave him the +receipt, as a probationary imp might watch the face of the Prince of +Darkness on bringing in his first human soul. One boot she had dropped +in her wild career, but so far from stopping to look for it, she had +thrown away the other then as useless. + +Leaving the ghoul-child seated on the coal to thrill delightfully at +every unknown sound, Hampden returned to the bedside. Much of the first, +the absolutely cold horror of the situation, was gone. He judged it +better not to allow too long an interval of silence in which that dim +consciousness might slip back into the outer space of trackless +darkness. Now that he knew what to expect it was not very unlike +speaking to one who slept and held converse in his sleep. + +"I have sent for Mr Tubes, but, making due allowance, he can scarcely +get here in less than an hour," he said. "If in the meantime there is +anything that you wish to tell me, to make doubly sure, it will be +received as a most sacred confidence." + +There was a longer pause than any before, so long that the watcher by +the bedside was preparing to speak again; then the lips slowly opened, +and the same full, substantial voice made reply. + +"I will wait. But he must be quick--quick!" + +The words seemed to disclose a fear, but there was no outward sign of +failing power. Hampden ventured on another point. + +"Are you in pain?" he asked. + +The reply came more quickly this time, and, perhaps because he was +looking for some such indication, the listener fancied that he caught +the faintest stumbling, a little blurring of the outline here and there. + +"No, I am in no pain. But I have a terrible anxiety that weighs me +down." + +There was nothing to be gained by further questioning. Sir John returned +to the other room. The fire was low and the grate choked with ashes; he +had begun to replenish it when a curious sound startled him. He only +heard it between the raspings of the poker as he raked the ashes out, +but it was not to be mistaken. It was the sharp, dry, clock-like +whirring that had been the first indication of life and speech beyond +the bedroom door more than an hour before. + +A board creaked behind him, and he turned with an exclamation to see the +dreadful child standing in the middle of the room. Barefooted, she had +slipped noiselessly in from the hall at the first tremor of that unusual +sound, and now, with her dilated eyes fixed fearfully on the door, her +shrinking form bent forward, she slowly crept nearer step by step. Her +face quivered with terror, her whole body shook, but she went on as +surely as though a magnet drew her. + +"What are you doing?" cried Hampden sharply. "Why did you not stay where +I told you?" + +She turned her face, but not her eyes, towards him. "Yer heard it, +didn't yer?" she whispered. "Ain't that what they call the death-rattle +what comes?" + +He took her by the shoulder and swung her impatiently round. "Go back, +you imp," he commanded. "Back and stay there, or you shall go out." + +She crept back, looking fearfully over her shoulder all the way. +Something else was happening to engage Hampden's attention. In the next +room the man was speaking, speaking spontaneously, as he had done once +before, but beyond all doubt the voice was weaker now. The momentary +interruption of the child's presence had drowned the first part of the +sentence, but Hampden caught a word that strung up every faculty he +possessed--"League." + +"----League will then suddenly issue a notice to all its members, +putting an embargo--a boycott, if you will--on----" + +The voice trailed off, and, although he sprang to the door, Sir John +could not distinguish another word. But that fragment alone was +sufficiently startling. To the President of the Unity League it could +only have one meaning; for it was true! Some--how much?--of their plan +lay open. And to how many was it known? The terrible anxiety of this +poor, battered wreck, unconsciously loyal to his class in death, to give +the warning before he passed away, seemed to indicate that nothing but +the frayed thread of one existence stood in the League's path yet. + +Was there anything to be done? That was Hampden's first thought. There +was plainly one thing: to learn, if possible, before Mr Tubes's arrival, +how much was known. + +Nothing was changed; only the death-watch ticked again. He leaned over +the bed in his eagerness, and, stilling the throbbing excitement of his +blood, tried to speak in a tone of commonplace indifference. + +"Yes, continue." + +There was no response. + +"Repeat the sentence," he commanded, concentrating his voice in his +desperation, and endeavouring by mere force of will to impose its +authority on the indefinite consciousness. + +Just as well might he have commanded the man to get up and walk. + +Had that last elusive thread that held him to mortality been broken? +Hampden bent still lower. The pallid face was no more pallid than +before, but before it could scarcely have been more death-like. The +acutest test could not have found a trace of breath. He put together the +gradual failing of the voice that little more than an hour ago had been +as full and vigorous as his own, the unfinished sentence, the +silence---- + +Suddenly he straightened himself by the bedside with a sense of guilt +that struck him like a blow. What was he thinking--hoping? Who was +he--Sir John Hampden, President of the Unity League? Not in that room! +The man who watched by the bedside stood there even as the humblest +servant of the Order of St. Martin, pledged while in that service to +succour in "trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity." + +It did not occur to him to debate the point. His way seemed very +straight and clear. His plain duty to the dying man was to try by every +means in his power to carry out his one overwhelming desire. Its +successful accomplishment might aim a more formidable blow at his own +ambition than almost anything else that could happen. It could not ward +off the attack upon which the League was now concentrating--nothing +could do that--but an intimate knowledge of the details of that scheme +of retaliation might act in a hundred adverse ways. Hampden did not stop +to consider what might happen on the one side and on the other. A +thousand years of argument and sophistries could not alter the one great +fact of his present duty. He had a very simple conscience, and he +followed it. + +If he could have speeded Mr Tubes's arrival he would have done so now. +He went into the hall to listen. The street child was still there, +sitting on the coal, as sharp-eyed and wakefully alert as ever. He had +forgotten her. + +"Come, little imp," he said kindly, "I ought to have packed you off long +ago." It was, in point of fact, nearly eleven o'clock. + +"Ain't doin' no aharm to the coal," she muttered. + +"That's not the question. You ought to have been at home and in bed by +this time of night." + +She looked up at him sharply with a suspicion that such innocence in a +grown-up man could not be unassumed. + +"Ain't got no bed," she said contemptuously. "Ain't got no 'ome." + +A sentence rang through his mind: "The birds of the air have nests." + +"Where do you sleep?" he asked. + +"Anywhere," she replied. + +"And how do you live?" + +"Anyhow." + +The lowest depths of human poverty had not been abolished by Act of +Parliament after all. + +A knock at the door interrupted the reflection. The child had already +heard the step and sought to efface herself in the darkest corner. + +Hampden had not noticed the significance of the knock. He opened the +door, prepared to admit the Home Secretary. So thoroughly had he +dissociated his own personality from the issue, that he felt the keenest +interest that the man should arrive before it was too late. He opened +the door to admit him, and experienced an actual pang of disappointment +when he saw who stood outside. + +He had sent a telegram instead. Whatever the telegram said did not +matter very much. Hampden instinctively guessed that he was not coming +then--was not on his way. Anything less than that would be too late. + +He took the orange envelope and opened it beneath the flaring gas that +piped and whistled at the stairhead. + +"There is no reply," he said quietly, folding the paper slowly and +putting it away in his pocket-book. Were it not that the gain to Hampden +of the League was so immense one might have thought, to see him at that +moment, that he felt ashamed of something in life. + +Members of Parliament had every department of the postal system freely +at their service. The statement may not be out of place, for this was +what the telegram contained: + + "Deeply regret to hear of Comrade Flak's accident, and will + have it fully enquired into. Was it while he was engaged at + work? Cannot, however, recall any business upon which he could + wish to see me. Probably a mental hallucination caused by + shock. Have been terribly busy all day, and am engaged at this + moment with important State papers which _must_ be finished + before I go to bed. If it is thought desirable I will, on + receiving another wire, come first thing in the morning, but + before deciding to take this course I beg you to consider + incessant calls made on my time. Let everything possible be + done for the poor fellow. + + "JAMES TUBES." + +The burden of failure pressed on Hampden as he walked slowly to the +bedroom. In that environment of death his own gain did not touch him at +all, so completely had he succeeded in eliminating for the time every +consideration except an almost fanatical sense of duty to the articles +of the Order. It would be better, he felt, if the shadowy consciousness +that hovered around the bed could have sunk finally into its eternal +sleep, without suffering the pang of being recalled only to hear _this_, +but something in the atmosphere of the room, a brooding tension of +expectancy that seemed to quicken in the silence, warned him that this +was not to be. + +"A reply has been received from Mr Tubes in answer to our telegram." + +"He is here?" There was no delay this time; there was an intense +eagerness that for a brief minute overcame the growing weakness. + +"No. He cannot come. He regrets, but he is engaged on matters of +national importance." + +Silence. Painful silence. In it Hampden seemed to share the cruel +frustration of so great a hope deferred. + +"There is this," he continued, more for the sake of making any +suggestion than from a belief in its practicability; "I might go and +compel him to come. If he understood the urgency----" + +"It is too late.... A little time ago there was a thin white mist; now +it is a solid wall of dense rolling fog. It is nearer--relentless, +unevadable...." + +"I can still write down what you have to say. Consider, it is the only +hope." + +"I cannot judge.... I had a settled conviction that no other ear.... +Stay, quick; there are the notes! Incomplete, but they will put him on +the track.... Swear, swear that you will place them in his hand unread." + +"I swear to do as you ask me. Go on quickly." + +"To-night, now. Do not ... do not let ... do not wait...." + +"Yes, yes. But the notes? Where are they? How am I to know them?" The +voice was growing very thin and faltering, weaker with every word. The +disappointment had sapped all its failing strength at a single blow. + +"The notes ... yes. You will explain.... The black wall ... how it +towers!..." He was whispering inaudibly. + +Hampden leaned over the dying man in a final effort. + +"Flak!" he cried, "the notes on the Unity League! Where are they? +Speak!" + +"The envelope"--he caught a breath of sound--"... coat lining.... _I +must go_!" + +Twenty minutes later Sir John picked up his motor brougham in New Oxford +Street. He had telephoned immediately on leaving Paradise Buildings for +it to start out at once and wait for him near Mudie's corner. In +Paradise Street he had seen a bacchanalian group surrounding "Mrs Flak," +high priestess, who chanted a song in praise of home and the domestic +virtues. It was at this point that he missed the ghoul-child from his +side. + +A south-east wind was carrying the midnight boom of the great clock at +Westminster as far as Kilburn when he turned out of the High Road, and +the little clocks around had taken up the chorus, like small dogs +envious of the baying of a hound, as he stopped before the Home +Secretary's house. + +There was a light still burning in a room on the ground floor, and it +was Mr Tubes himself who came to the door. + +"I have to place in your hands an envelope of papers entrusted to me by +a man called Flak who died in Paradise Street an hour ago," said +Hampden, and with the act he brought his night of duty as a faithful +servant of his Order to an end. + +"Oh, that's you," said Mr Tubes, peering out into the darkness. "I had a +wire about it. So the poor man is dead?" + +"Yes," replied Hampden a shade drily. "The poor man is dead." + +Mr Tubes fancied that he saw the lamps of a cab beyond his garden gate, +and he wondered whether he was being expected to offer to pay the fare. + +"Well, it's very good of you to take the trouble, though, between +ourselves, I hardly imagine that the papers are likely to be of any +importance," he remarked. "Now may I ask who I am indebted to?" + +Hampden had already turned to go. He recognised that in the strife which +he was about to precipitate, the man who stood there would be his +natural antagonist, and he regretted that he could not find it in his +nature to like him any better than he did. + +"What I have done, I have done as a servant of the Order of St Martin," +he replied. "What I am about to do," he added, "I shall do as Sir John +Hampden." + +And leaving Mr Tubes standing on the doorstep in vast surprise, the +electric carriage turned its head-lights to the south again. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +BY TELESCRIBE + + +What Sir John Hampden was "about to do" he had decided in the course of +the outward journey. + +There was nothing in his actions, past or prospective, that struck him +as illogical. He would have said, indeed, that they were the only +possible outcome of the circumstance. + +For the last four hours, as the nameless emissary of the Order to whose +discipline he bound himself, he had merged every other feeling in his +duty to the dying man and in the fulfilment of a death-bed charge. + +That was over; now, as the President of the Unity + +League, he was on his way to try by every means in his power to minimise +the effect of what he had done; to anticipate and counteract the value +of the warning he had so scrupulously conveyed. + +It was a fantastic predicament. He had sat for perhaps half an hour with +the unsealed envelope in his pocket, and no eye had been upon him. He +had declared passionately, year after year, that class and class were +now at war, that the time for courteous retaliation was long since past, +that social martial law had been proclaimed. Yet as he drove back to +Trafalgar Chambers he would have given a considerable sum of money--the +League being not ill provided, say fifty thousand pounds--to know the +extent of those notes. + +When he reached the offices it was almost half-past twelve. Salt would +be flying northward as fast as steam could take him, and for the next +two hours at least, cut off from the possibility of any communication. +The burden of decision lay on Hampden alone. + +He had already made it. Within an hour he would have pledged the League +to a line of policy from which there was no retreat. Before another day +had passed the Government could recall the little band of secret service +agents and consign their reports to the wastepaper basket. Every one +would know everything. Everything? He smiled until the remembrance of +that cheap frayed envelope in Mr Tubes's possession drove the smile +away. + +Next to his own office stood the instrument room. Here, behind double +doors that deadened every sound, were ranged the telephones, the tape +machines, the Fessenden-d'Arco installation, and that most modern +development of wireless telegraphy which had come just in time to save +the over-burdened postal system from chronic congestion, the telescribe. + +Hampden had not appeared to move hurriedly, but it was just seventeen +seconds after he had sent his brougham roving eastward that he stood +before the telephone. + +"1432 St Paul's, please." + +There was a sound as of rushing water and crackling underwood. Then the +wire seemed to clear itself like a swimmer rising from the sea, and a +quiet, far-away voice was whispering in his ear: "Yes, I'm Lidiat." + +"I am at Trafalgar Chambers," said Hampden, after giving his name. "I +want you to drop _anything_ you are on and come here. If my motor is not +waiting for you at the corner of Chancery Lane, you will meet it along +the Strand." + +At the other end of the wire, Lidiat--the man who possessed the sixth +code typewriter--looked rather blankly at his pipe, at the little silver +carriage clock ticking on the mantelpiece, at the fluted white-ware +coffee set, and at his crowded desk. Then, concluding that if the +President of the Unity League sent a message of that kind after midnight +and immediately rang off again he must have a good reason for it, he +locked up his room as it stood, took up a few articles promiscuously +from the rack in the hall, and walked out under the antique archway into +Fleet Street. + +In the meantime the Exchange was being urged to make another attempt to +get on with "2743 Vincent," this time with success. + +"Mr Salt is not 'ere, I repeat, sir," an indignant voice was protesting. +"He is out of town." + +"Yes, yes, Dobson, I know," replied "St James's." "I am Sir John +Hampden. What train did your master go by?" + +"Beg pardon, sir," apologised "Vincent." "Didn't recognise your voice at +first, Sir John. The wires here is 'issing 'orrible to-night. He went by +the 10 o'clock from the Great Central, and told me to meet the 10.40 +Midland to-morrow morning." + +"He did actually go by the 10 train?" + +"I 'anded him the despatch case through the carriage window not five +minutes before the whistle went. He was sitting with his----" + +"Thank you, Dobson. That's all I wanted to know. Sorry if you had to get +up. Good night," and Sir John cut off a volume of amiable verbosity as +he heard the bell of his Launceston ring in the street below. + +"Fellow watching your place," said Lidiat, jerking his head in the +direction of a doorway nearly opposite, as Hampden admitted him. Had he +himself been the object of the watcher's attention it would have been +less remarkable, for had not the time and the place been London after +midnight, Lidiat's appearance must have been pronounced bizarre. +Reasonable enough on all other points he had a fixed conviction that it +was impossible for him to work after twelve o'clock at night unless he +wore a red silk skull cap, flannels, and yellow Moorish slippers. Into +this aesthetic costume he had changed half an hour before Hampden rang +him up, and in it, with the addition of a very short overcoat and a silk +hat that displayed an inch of red beneath the brim, he now stepped from +the brougham, a large, bovine-looking man, perfectly bald, and still +clinging to his pipe. + +Hampden laughed contemptuously as he glanced across the street. + +"They have put on half a dozen private enquiry men lately," he +explained. "They are used to divorce, and their sole idea of the case +seems to be summed up in the one stock phrase, 'watching the house.' +Possibly they expect to see us through the windows, making bombs. Why +don't they watch Paris instead? Egyptian Three Per Cents. have gone up +75 francs in the last fortnight, all from there, and for no obvious +reason." + +Lidiat nodded weightily. "We stopped too much comment," he said. "Lift +off?" + +"There are only two short flights," apologised Hampden. "Yes; I saw that +even the financial papers dismissed it as a 'Pied Piper rise.' Here we +are." + +They had not lingered as they talked, although the journalist ranked +physical haste and bodily exertion--as typified by flights of +stairs--among the forbidden things of life. + +Hampden had brought him to the instrument room. In view of what he was +asking of Lidiat, some explanation was necessary, but he put it into the +narrowest possible form. It was framed not on persuasiveness but +necessity. + +"Salt is away, something has happened, and we have to move a week before +we had calculated." + +Lidiat nodded. He accepted the necessity as proved; explanation would +have taken time. His training and occupation made him chary of +encouraging two words when one would do, between midnight and the hour +when the newspapers are "closed up" and the rotaries begin to move. + +"I should like," continued Hampden, "in to-day's issue of every morning +paper a leader, two six-inch items of news, one home one foreign, and a +single column six-inch advertisement set in the middle of a full white +page." + +Lidiat had taken off his hat and overcoat and placed them neatly on a +chair. It occurred to him as a fair omen that Providence had dealt +kindly with him in not giving him any opportunity of changing his +clothes. He now took out his watch and hung it on a projecting stud of +the telephone box. + +"Yes, and the minimum?" He did not think, as a lesser man with equal +knowledge of Fleet Street might have done, that Hampden had gone mad. He +knew that conventionally such a programme was impossible, but he had +known of impossible things being done, and in any case he understood by +the emphasis that this was what Hampden would have done under freer +circumstances. + +"That is what I leave to you. The paragraphs and comment at some length +I shall look for. The provinces are out of the question, I suppose? The +eight leading London dailies _must_ be dealt with." + +"You give me _carte blanche_, of course--financially?" + +"Absolutely, absolutely. Guarantee everything to them. Let them arrange +for special trains at all the termini. Let them take over all the +garages, motor companies, and cab yards in London as going concerns for +twelve hours. They will all be in it except _The Tocsin_ and _The +Masses_. We can deal with the distributing houses later. You see the +three points? It is the patriotic thing to do at any cost; they can have +anything they like to make up time; and it is absolutely essential." + +"Yes," said Lidiat; "and the matter?" + +Hampden had already taken a pencilled sheet of paper from his pocket. He +had written it on his way up to Kilburn. He now handed it to the +journalist. + +"Between four and five o'clock that will be telescribed over the entire +system," he explained. "Those who are not on the call will see it in the +papers or hear from others. Every one will know before to-night." + +He watched Lidiat sharply as he read the statement. Apart from the two +principals, he was the first man in England to receive the confidence, +and Sir John had a curiosity, not wholly idle, to see how it would +strike him. But Lidiat was not, to use an obsolete phrase, "the man in +the street." He absorbed the essence of the manifesto with a trained, +practical grasp, and then held out his hand for the other paper, while +his large, glabrous face remained merely vacant in its expression. + +The next paper was a foreign telegram in cipher, and as Lidiat read the +decoded version that was pinned to it, the baronet saw, or fancied that +he saw, the flicker of a keener light come into his eyes and such a +transient wave across his face, as might, in a man of impulse, indicate +enthusiasm or appreciation. + +"Are there to be any more of these--presently?" was all he said. + +"I think that I might authorise you to say that there will be others to +publish, as the moment seems most propitious." + +"Very good. I will use the instruments now." + +"There is one more point," said Hampden, writing a few short lines on a +slip of paper, "that it might be desirable to make public now." + +Lidiat took the paper. This was what he read: + + "_You are at liberty to state definitely that the membership of + the Unity League now exceeds five million persons._" + +There was a plentiful crop of grey hairs sown between Charing Cross and +Ludgate Hill in the early hours of that summer morning. With his mouth +to the telephone, Lidiat stirred up the purlieus of Fleet Street and the +Strand until office after office, composing room after composing room, +and foundry after foundry, all along the line, began to drone and hum +resentfully, like an outraged apiary in the dead of night. When he once +took up the wire he never put it down again until he had swept the +"London Dailies: Morning" section of Sell and Mitchell from beginning to +end. Those who wished to retort and temporise after he had done with +them, had to fall back upon the telescribe--which involved the +disadvantage to Fleet Street of having to write and coldly transmit the +indignant messages that it would fain pour hot and blistering into its +tormentor's ear. For two hours and a half by the watch beneath his eye +he harrowed up all the most cherished journalistic traditions of the +land, and from a small, box-like room a mile away, he controlled the +reins of the Fourth Estate of an Empire--a large, fat, perspiring man of +persuasive authority, and conscious of unlimited capital at his back. + +By the end of that time chaos had given place to order. _The Scythe_ had +shown an amenable disposition with a readiness suggesting that it +possibly knew more than it had told in the past. _The Ensign_ was won +over by persuasion and the condition of the Navy, and _The Mailed Fist_ +was clubbed and bullied and cajoled with big names until it was dazed. +For seven minutes Lidiat poured patriotism into the ear of _The +Beacon's_ editor, and gold into the coffers of _The Beacon's_ manager, +and then turned aside to win over _The Daily News-Letter_ by telling it +what _The Daily Chronicler_ was doing, and the _Chronicler_ by reporting +the _News-Letter's_ acquiescence. _The Morning Post Card_ remained +obdurate for half an hour, and only capitulated after driving down and +having an interview with Hampden. _The Great Daily_--well, for more than +a year _The Great Daily_ had been the property and organ of the League, +only no one had suspected it. The little _Illustrated Hour_, beset by +the difficulty of half-tone blocks, and frantic at the thought of having +to recast its plates and engage in the mysteries of "making ready" again +after half its edition had been run off, was the last to submit. So long +was it in making up its mind, that at last Lidiat sarcastically proposed +an inset, and, taking the suggestion in all good faith, the _Illustrated +Hour_ startled its sober patrons by bearing on its outside page a gummed +leaflet containing a leaderette and two news paragraphs. + +So the list spun out. Lidiat did not touch the provinces, but sixteen +London dailies, including some sporting and financial organs, marked the +thoroughness of his work. At half-past three he finally hung up the +receiver; and taking the brougham, rode like another Wellington over the +field of his still palpitating Waterloo. His appearance, bovine and +imperturbable despite the shameful incongruity of his garb when revealed +in the tremulous and romantic dawn of a day and of an epoch, and further +set off by the unimpeachable correctness of the equipage from which he +alighted, was a thing that rankled in the minds of lingering compositors +and commissionaires until their dying days. + +A few minutes after his departure Hampden returned to the telephone and +desired to make the curious connection "1 Telescribe." + +"Who is there?" he asked, when "1 Telescribe" responded. + +The man at the other end explained that he was a clerk on the main +platform of "1 Telescribe"--name of Firkin, if the fact was of +Metropolitan interest. + +"Is Mr Woodbarrow there yet?" + +It appeared, with increased respect, that Mr Woodbarrow was in his own +office and could be informed of the gentleman's name. + +"Please tell him that Sir John Hampden wishes to speak with him." + +In two minutes another voice filtered through the wire, a voice which +Hampden recognised. + +"What are you running with now, Mr Woodbarrow?" he asked, when brief +courtesies had been exchanged. + +Mr Woodbarrow made an enquiry, and was able to report that a 5 H.P. +Tangye was supplying all the power they needed at that hour. Nothing was +coming through, he explained, except a few press messages from America, +a little business from Australia, and some early morning news from +China. + +"I should be obliged if you would put on the two Westinghouses as soon +as you can, and then let me know when you can clear the trunk lines for +a minute. Within the next hour I want to send an 'open board' message." + +There was no response to this matter-of-fact request for an appreciable +five seconds, but if ever silence through a telephone receiver conveyed +an impression of blank amazement at the other end, it was achieved at +that moment. + +"Do I rightly understand, Sir John," enquired Mr Woodbarrow at the end +of those five seconds, "that you wish to repeat a message over the +entire system?" + +"That is quite correct." + +"It will constitute a record." + +"An interesting occasion, then." + +"Have you calculated the fees, Sir John?" + +"No, I have not had the time. You will let me know when the power is +up?" + +Mr Woodbarrow, only just beginning to realise fully the magnitude of the +occasion and tingling with anticipation, promised to act with all +possible speed, and going to his own room Sir John took up an agate pen +and proceeded to write with special ink on prepared paper this +encyclical despatch. + +A library of books had been written on the subject of the telescribe +within two years of its advent, but a general description may be +outlined untechnically in a page or two. It was, for the moment, the +last word of wireless telegraphy. It was efficient, it was speedy, it +was cheap, and it transmitted in facsimile. It had passed the stage of +being wondered at and had reached that of being used. It was universal. +It was universal, that is, not in the sense that tongues are universally +in heads, for instance, but, to search for a parallel, as universal as +letter-boxes are now on doors, book-cases in houses, or cuffs around +men's wrists. There were, in point of number, about three millions on +the index book. + +It was speedy because there was no call required, no intervention of a +connecting office to wait for. That was purely automatic. Above the +telescribe box in one's hall, study, or sitting-room, was a wooden panel +studded with eight rows of small brass knobs, sixteen knobs in each row. +These could be depressed or raised after the manner of an electric light +stud, and a similar effect was produced: a connection was thereby made. + +All the country--England and Wales--was mapped out into sixteen primary +divisions, oblong districts of equal size. The top row of brass knobs +corresponded with these divisions, and by pulling down any knob the +operator was automatically put into communication with that part of the +system, through the medium of the huge central station that reared its +trellised form, like an Eiffel Tower, above the hill at Harrow, and the +subsidiary stations which stood each in the middle of its division. + +The second stage was reached by subdividing each primary division into +sixteen oblong districts, and with these the second row of knobs +corresponded. Six more times the subdividing process was repeated, and +each subdivision had its corresponding row. The final division +represented plots of ground so small that no house or cottage could +escape location. + +Pulling down the corresponding studs on the eight rows instantly and +automatically established the connection. The written communication +could then be transmitted, and in the twinkling of an eye it was traced +on a sheet of paper in the receiving box. There was no probability of +the spaces all being occupied with telescribes for some years to come. A +calculation will show that there was provision for a good many thousand +million boxes, but only three million were fixed and attuned at this +period. + +That, briefly, was the essential of the telescribe system. It was +invaluable for most purposes, but not for all. Though speedier than the +letter, it lacked its privacy when it reached its destination, and it +also, in the eyes of many, lacked the sentimental touch, as from hand to +hand, which a letter may convey. It carried no enclosures, of course, +and, owing to the difficulties of ink and paper, printed matter could +not be telescribed at all. It cost twice as much as a letter, but as +this was spread in the proportion of three-quarters to the sender and +one quarter to the receiver the additional cost was scarcely felt by +either. Thus it came about that although the telescribe had diminished +the volume of telegrams by ninety per cent., and had made it possible +still to cope with a volume of ordinary postal correspondences which up +to that time had threatened to swamp the department, it had actually +superseded nothing. + +At four o'clock Mr Woodbarrow called up Sir John and reported that the +two great engines were running smoothly, and that for three minutes the +entire system would be closed against any message except his. In other +words, while the "in" circuit was open to three million boxes, the "out" +circuit was closed against all except one. It was not an absolutely +necessary precaution, for overlapping telescripts "stored latent" until +the way was clear, but it was not an occasion on which to hesitate about +taking every safeguard. + +The momentous order was already written. Hampden opened the lid of a +small flat box supported on the telescribe shelf by four vulcanite feet, +put the paper carefully in, and closed the lid again. He had pulled down +the eight rows of metal studs in anticipation of Woodbarrow's message, +and there was only one more thing to do. A practical, unemotional man, +and not unused, in an earlier decade, to controlling matters of national +importance with energy and decision, he now stood with his hand above +the fatal switch, not in any real doubt about his action, but with a +kind of fascinated time-languor. A minute had already passed. To pull +down the tiny lever and release it would not occupy a second. At what +period of those three minutes should he do it? How long _dare_ he leave +it? He caught himself wondering whether on the last second--and with an +angry exclamation at the folly he pressed the lever home. + +There was no convulsion of nature; a little bell a foot away gave a +single stroke, and that was all the indication that the President of the +Unity League had passed the Rubicon and unmasked his battery. + +This was what he had written and scattered broadcast over the land: + + "THE UNITY LEAGUE. + + "The time has now arrived when it is necessary for the League + to take united action in order to safeguard the interests of + its members. + + "In directing a course which may entail some inconvenience, but + can hardly, with ordinary foresight, result in real hardship, + your President reminds you of the oft-repeated warning that + such a demand would inevitably be made upon your sincerity. The + opportunity is now at hand for proving that as a class our + resource and endurance are not less than those of our + opponents. + + "On or before the 22nd July, members of the League will cease + until further notice to purchase or to use coal in the form of + (_a_) Burning Coal (except such as may be already on their + premises), (_b_) Coke (with the exception as before), (_c_) + Gas, (_d_) Coal-produced electricity. + + "The rule applies to all private houses, offices, clubs, + schools, and similar establishments; to all hotels, + restaurants, boarding-houses and lodging-houses, with the + exception (for the time) of necessary kitchen fires, which will + be made the subject of a special communication, to all + greenhouses and conservatories not used for the purposes of + trade; and to all shops, workshops, and similar buildings where + oil or other fuel or illuminant not produced or derived from + coal can be safely substituted. + + "Members of the League who have no coal in stock, and who do + not possess facilities for introducing a substitute + immediately, are at liberty to procure sufficient to last for a + week. With this exception members are required to cancel all + orders at present placed for coal. The League will take all + responsibility and will defend all actions for breach of + contract. + + "_Members of the League are earnestly requested to co-operate + in this line of action both as regards the letter and the + spirit of the rule._ + + "MEMBERS ARE EMPHATICALLY ASSURED THAT EVERY POSSIBLE + DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN FULLY CONSIDERED DURING + THE PAST TWO YEARS, AND IT IS ADVANCED WITH ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE + THAT NOTHING UNFORESEEN CAN HAPPEN TO MAR ITS SUCCESSFUL + CONCLUSION. + + "Nothing but the loyal co-operation of members is required to + ensure the triumph of those Principles of Government which the + League has always advocated, and a complete attainment of the + object for which the League came into existence. + + "JOHN HAMPDEN, _President_. + + "TRAFALGAR CHAMBERS, + + "LONDON, 15^{_th_} _July_ 1918." + +In the past the world had seen very many strikes on the part of workers, +not selfishly conceived in their essence, but bringing a great deal of +poverty and misery in their train, and declared solely for the purpose +of benefiting the strikers through the necessity of others. In the more +recent past the world had seen employers combine and declare a few +strikes (the word will serve a triple purpose) for just the same end and +accompanied by precisely similar results. It was now the turn of the +consumers to learn the strike lesson, the most powerful class of all, +but the most heterogeneous to weld together. The object was the same but +pursued under greater stress; the weapons would be similar but more +destructive; the track of desolation would be there but wider, and the +end----On that morning of the 15th of July the end lay beyond a very +dim and distant shock of dust and turmoil that the eye of none could +pierce. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE EFFECT OF THE BOMB + + +Mr Strummery having finished his breakfast with the exception of a +second glass of hot water, which constituted the amiable man's only +beverage, took up his copy of _The Scythe_. He had already glanced +through _The Tocsin_, in which he had a small proprietary interest, but +he also subscribed to _The Scythe_, partly because it brought to his +door a library which he found useful when he had to assume an intimate +knowledge of a subject at a day's notice, partly because the crudely +blatant note of _The Tocsin_ occasionally failed to strike a sympathetic +cord. + +He had found that morning in his telescribe receiver the Trafalgar +Chambers manifesto which had been flashed to friend and foe alike. He +had read it with a frown; it savoured of impertinence that it should be +sent to him. He finished it with a laugh, half-contemptuous, +half-annoyed. He saw that it was a stupid move unless the League had +abandoned all hope of forming the League-Labour alliance; in any case, +it was a blow that stung but could not wound. All the chances were that +nothing would come of it; _but_, if a million people did give up burning +coal for say a month, if a million people _did_ that--well, it would be +very inconvenient to themselves, but there would certainly be a good +many tens of thousand pounds less wages paid out in districts that +seemed to be far from satisfactory even as it was. + +_The Tocsin_ did not refer to the matter at all. Mr Strummery opened +_The Scythe_, and was rather surprised to see, beneath five lines of +heavy heading on the leader page, a full account of Sir John Hampden's +sudden move. Instinctively his eye turned to the leader columns. As he +had half expected there was a leader on the subject, not very long but +wholly benedictory. In rather less measured phrases than the premier +organ usually adopted and with other signs of haste, readers were urged +to enter whole-heartedly into this development of bloodless civil war of +which the impending Personal Property Act had been the first unmasked +blow. He glanced on, not troubling about the views advanced until a +casual statement drew a smothered exclamation from his lips. "An +argument which will be used in a practical form by the five million +adult members now on the books of the League--" ran the +carelessly-dropped information. "It is a lie--a deliberately misleading +lie," muttered the Premier angrily; but it was the truth. He read on. +The article concluded: "In this connection the strong action taken by M. +Gavard, as indicated in the telegrams from Paris which we print +elsewhere, may be purely a coincidence, but it is curiously akin to +those 'mathematical coincidences' that fall into their places in a +well-planned campaign." + +Mr Strummery had no difficulty in finding the telegrams alluded to. +Rushed through in frantic haste, the type had stood a hair's breadth +higher than it should, and in the resulting blackness the words of the +headlines leapt to meet his eye. + + THE INDUSTRIAL WAR IN FRANCE + + PROHIBITIVE TAX ON COAL + + _From Our Special Correspondent_ + + PARIS _Wednesday Night._ + + "It is authoritatively stated that the industrial crisis which + has been existing in the north, and to some extent in the + Lyonnais districts, for the past six months is on the eve of a + settlement. Yesterday M. Gavard returned from S. Etienne, and + after seeing several of his colleagues and some leading members + of the Chamber of Commerce, left at once for Lens. Early this + morning he was met at the Maison du Peuple by deputations from + the Syndicate of Miners, the 'Broutchouteux,' the Association + of Mine Owners, the Valenciennes iron masters, and + representatives of some other industries. + + "The proceedings were conducted in private, but it is + understood in well-informed circles here that in accordance + with the plenary powers conferred on him by the Chambers in + view of the critical situation, M. Gavard proposed to raise the + small existing tax on imported coal to an _ad valorem_ tax of + 55 p.c. The mine owners on their side will guarantee a minimum + wage of 8f. 15c., and commence working at once, reinstating all + men within a week of the imposing of the tax. The amalgamated + industries acquiesce to a general immediate advance of 1f. + 75_c._ per ton (metric) in the price of coal, and will start + running as soon as the first portion of their orders can be + filled. + + "Troops are still being massed in the affected districts, but + after last Thursday's pitched battle a tone of sullen apathy is + generally preserved. There was, however, severe rioting at + Anzin this morning, and about 200 casualties are reported." + + + PARIS. _Later._ + + "The terms of settlement contained in my earlier message are + confirmed. They will remain in operation for a year. The tax + will come into force almost immediately, three days' grace + being allowed for vessels actually in French ports to unload. + In view of your Government's subsidy to English coal + exportation and its disastrous effects on French mining, and, + subsequently, on other industries, the imposition of the tax + will be received with approval in most quarters." + +As the Prime Minister reached the end of the paragraph he heard a +vehicle stop at his door, followed by an attack on bell and knocker that +caused Mrs Strummery no little indignation. It was Mr Tubes arriving, +after indulging in the unusual luxury of a cab, and the next minute he +was shown into his chief's presence. Both men unconsciously frowned +somewhat as they met, but the ex-collier was infinitely the more +disturbed of the two. + +"You got my 'script?" he asked, as they shook hands. + +"No; did you write?" replied Mr Strummery. "To tell the truth, this +meddling piece of imbecility on Hampden's part, and his gross +impertinence in sending it to me, put everything else out of my head for +the moment. You have seen it?" + +"You wouldn't need to ask that if you'd passed a newspaper shop," said +Mr Tubes grimly. "The newsbills are full of nothing else. 'COAL WAR +PROCLAIMED,' 'HAMPDEN'S REPLY TO THE P.P. TAX,' 'UNITY LEAGUE +MANIFESTO,' and a dozen more. I had private word of it last night, but +too late to do anything. That's why I asked half a dozen of +them--Vossit, Guppling, Chadwing, and one or two more--to meet me here +at half-past nine. Happen a few others will drop in now." + +"Well, don't let them see that you think the world is coming to an end," +said the Premier caustically. "Nothing may come of it yet." + +"That's all very well, Strummery," said Mr Tubes, with rising anger. +"All very well for you; you don't come from a Durham division. I shall +have it from both sides. Twenty thousand howling constituents and six +hundred raving members." + +"Let them rave. They know better than press it too far. As for the +miners, if they have to lose by it we can easily make grants to put them +right." A sudden thought struck him; he burst out laughing. "Well, +Tubes," he exclaimed boisterously, "I can excuse myself, but I should +have thought that a man who came from a Durham constituency would have +seen _that_ before. Hampden must either be mad, or else he knows that +his precious League won't stand very much. Don't you see? We are in the +middle of summer now, and _for the next three months people will be +burning hardly any coal at all_!" + +The Home Secretary jumped up and began to pace the room in seething +impatience, before he could trust himself to speak. + +"Don't talk like that before the House with fifty practical men in it, +for God's sake, Strummery," he exclaimed passionately. "Hampden couldn't +well have contrived a more diabolical moment. Do you know what the +conditions are? Well, listen. No one _is_ burning any coal, and so it +will be no hardship for them to do without. But every one is on the +point of filling his cellar at summer prices to last all through the +winter. And Hampden's five million----" + +"I don't believe that," interposed the Premier hastily. + +"Well, I do--now," retorted his colleague bitterly. "His five million +are the five million biggest users of domestic coal in the country. They +use more than all the rest put together. And they all fill their cellars +in the summer or autumn." + +"Then?" suggested Mr Strummery. + +"Then they won't now," replied Mr Tubes. "That's all. The next ten weeks +are the busiest in the year, from the deepest working to the suburban +coal-shoot. Go and take a look round if you want to see. Every waggon, +every coal-yard, every railway siding, every pit-bank is chock-full, +ready. Only the cellars are empty. If the cellars are going to remain +empty, what happens?" He threw out his left hand passionately, with a +vigorous gesture. It suggested laden coal carts, crowded yards, +over-burdened railways, all flung a stage back on to the already +congested pit-heads, and banking up coal like the waters of the divided +Red Sea into a scene of indescribable confusion. + +The Prime Minister sat thinking moodily, while his visitor paced the +room and bit his lips with unpleasant vehemence. In the blades of +morning sun, as he crossed and recrossed the room, one saw that Mr +Tubes, neither tall nor stout but large, loosely boned, loosely dressed +and loosely groomed, had light blue eyes, strong yellow teeth which came +prominently into view as he talked, and a spotted sallow complexion, +which conveyed the unfortunate, and unjust, impression of being dirty. + +"We shall have to do something to carry them on till the winter, that's +all," declared Mr Strummery at length. "There's no doubt that the +Leaguers will have to use coal then." + +"It's no good thinking that we can settle it off-hand with a few +thousand pounds of strike pay, Strummery," said the Home Secretary +impatiently, "because we can't. You have to know the conditions to see +how that is. If there's a strike, the article has to be supplied from +somewhere else at more money, and every one except those who _want_ to +strike keep on very much as before. But here, by God, they have us all +along the line! Anything from fifty to a hundred thousand miners less +required at one end, and anything from five to ten thousand coal carters +at the other. And between? And dependent on each lot all through?" His +ever-ready arm emphasised the situation by a comprehensive sweep. +"You've heard say that coal is the life-blood of the country, happen?" +he added. "Well, we're the heart." + +"What do you suggest, then?" + +"It's all a matter of money. If it can be done we must make up the +difference; buy it, pay for it, and store it. There are the dockyards, +the barracks, and we could open depots here and in all the big towns. In +that way we could spread it over as long a period as we liked. Then +there's export. I think that has touched its limit for the time, but we +might find it cheaper in the end to stimulate it more." + +"Yes; but what about this French business? Are you allowing for that in +your estimate?" + +"What French business?" + +"The French tax," said the Premier impatiently, pointing to the open +_Scythe_. "You've seen about it, haven't you?" + +He had not. He snatched up the paper, muttering as he read the first few +lines that he had glanced through _The Tocsin_ before he came out, and +that had been all. His voice became inaudible as he read on. When he had +finished he was very pale. He flung the paper down and walked to the +window, and stood there looking out without a word. The declaration of +the coal war had filled him with smouldering rage; the Paris telegram +had effectually chilled it. Before, he had felt anger; now he felt +something that, expressed in words, was undistinguishable from fear. + +The men whom he had asked to meet him there were beginning to arrive. +They had already heard Vossit and Chadwing pass upstairs talking. There +was a step in the hall outside that could only belong to Tirrel. He had +not been summoned, but, as Mr Tubes had anticipated, a few others were +beginning to drop in. Guppling and two men whom he had met on the +doorstep came in as Mr Tubes was finishing the Paris news. + +"It's not much good talking about it now," he said, turning from the +window, "but if I had known of _this_, or even that the other would be +out, I should have come here myself without bringing all these chaps +down too. Not but what they'd have come, though. But when I wrote to +them I'd just got the information, you understand, and it was thought +that Hampden wouldn't be doing anything for a week at least." + +"He was too clever for you again?" said Strummery vindictively, as he +rose to go upstairs. + +"So it seems," admitted Mr Tubes indifferently. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LAST CHANCE AND THE COUNSEL OF EXPEDIENCE + + +In the salon, where a month before they had drafted the outline of the +Personal Property Bill, under the impression that government was a +parlour game and Society a heap of spelicans, eight or nine men were +already assembled. One or two sat apart, with ugly looks upon their +faces. Mr Vossit was dividing his time between gazing up to the ceiling +and making notes in a memorandum book as the points occurred to him. Sir +Causter Kerr, Baronet of the United Kingdom, and Chevalier of the Order +of the Golden Eagle, who in return for a thousand pounds a year +permitted himself to be called First Lord of the Admiralty in a +Socialist Government, was standing before a steel engraving with the +title in German, "Defeat of the British at Majuba Hill, 27th February +1881," but, judging from the slight sardonic grin on his thin features, +he was thinking of something else. Sir Causter Kerr had assuredly not +been invited to the meeting. The rest of the company stood together in +one group, where they talked and laughed and looked towards the door +from time to time, in expectation of their host's arrival. + +The talk and laughter dropped to a whisper and a smile as Mr Strummery +entered and Mr Tubes followed, and with short greetings passed to their +places at the table. The Prime Minister was popular, or he would not +have held that position, but Mr Tubes was not. He was Home Secretary by +virtue of the voice of the coal interest, so much the largest labour +organisation in the country that if its wishes were ignored it could, +like another body of miners in the past, very effectively demand to +"know the reason why." + +"Well, Jim, owd lad," said Cecil Brown hilariously, taking advantage of +the fact that formal proceedings had not yet commenced, "hast geete howd +o' onny more cipher pappers, schuzheou?" Cecil Brown, it may be +explained, held that he had the privilege of saying offensive things to +his friends without being considered offensive, and as no one ever +thought of calling him anything else but "Cecil Brown," he was probably +right. Of the Colonial Office, he was in some elation at the moment that +his usually despised Department was quite out of this imbroglio. + +"Ah, that was a very red, red herring, I'm more than thinking now," said +Mr Guppling reflectively. + +"Certainly a salt fish, eh, Tirrel?" said Cecil Brown. + +Mr Strummery rapped sharply on the table with his knuckles, to indicate +that the proceedings had better begin. A hard-working, conscientious +man, he entirely missed the lighter side of life. He sometimes laughed, +but in conversation his face never lit up with the ready, spontaneous +smile; not because he was sad, but because he failed to see, not only +the utility of a jest, but its point also. That conversational sauce +which among friends who understand one another frequently takes the +outer form of personal abuse, was to him merely flagrant insult. + +Mr Tubes leaned across and spoke to his chief; and looking down the +table the Premier allowed his gaze to rest enquiringly on Sir Causter +Kerr. + +A man who _had_ been invited jumped up. "I called on Comrade Kerr on my +way here and took the liberty of asking him to come, because I thought +that we might like to know something of the condition of the navy," he +explained. + +"For what purpose?" enquired Mr Strummery smoothly. + +"Because," he replied, flaring up suddenly with anger, "because I regard +this damned French tax, without a word of notice to us or our +representative, as nothing more or less than a _casus belli_." + +The proceedings had begun. + +"Case of tinned rabbits!" contemptuously retorted a Mr Bilch, sitting +opposite. "What d'yer think you're going to do if it is? Why, my infant, +the French fleet would knock you and your _belli_ into a packing _casus_ +in about ten minutes if you tried it on. You'll have to stomach that +_casus belli_, and as many more as they care to send you." + +Mr Bilch was a new man, and was spoken of as a great acquisition to his +party, though confessedly uncertain in his views and frequently +illogical in his ground. His strength lay in the "happy turns" with +which his speech was redolent, and his splendid invulnerability to +argument, reason, or fact. He had formerly been a rag-sorter, and would +doubtless have remained inarticulate and unknown had he not one day +smoothed out a sheet of _The Tocsin_ from the bin before him as he ate +his dinner. A fully reported speech was therein described as perhaps the +greatest oratorical masterpiece ever delivered outside Hyde Park. Mr +Bilch read the speech, and modestly fancied that he could do as well +himself. From that moment he never looked back, and although he was +still a plain member he had forced his way by sheer merit into the +circle of the Council Chamber. + +"It is against our principles to consider that contingency," interposed +the Premier; "and in any case it is premature to talk of war when the +courts of arbitration----" + +"That's right enough," interrupted the man who had first spoken of war, +"and when it was a matter of fighting to grab someone else's land to +fatten up a gang of Stock Exchange Hebrews, I was with you through thick +and thin, but this is different. The very livelihood of our people is +aimed at. I've nothing to say against the Hague in theory, but when you +remember that we've never had a single decision given in our favour it's +too important to risk to that. But why France should have done this, in +this way and just at this moment, is beyond me." + +Yet it was not difficult to imagine. When many English manufactories +were closed down altogether, or removed abroad because the conditions at +home were too exacting for them, less coal was required in England. Less +coal meant fewer colliers employed, and this touched the Government most +keenly. The same amount of coal _must_ be dug, especially as the +operation of the Eight Hours Act had largely increased the number of +those dependent on the mines; therefore more must be exported. The coal +tax had long since gone; a substantial bounty was now offered on every +ton shipped out of the country. It made a brave show. Never were such +piping times known from Kirkcaldy to Cardiff. English coal could be shot +down in Rouen, Nantes, or Bordeaux, even in Lille and Limoges, at a +price that defied home competition. Prices fell; French colliery +proprietors reduced wages; French miners came out on strike--a general +strike--and for the time being French collieries ceased to have any +practical existence. But France was requiring a million tons of coal a +week, and having done the mischief, England could only, at the moment, +let her have a quarter of a million a week, while German and Belgian +coal had been knocked out of the competition and diverted elsewhere. The +great industries had to cease working; chaos, civil war and anarchy +began to reign.... + +"Why France should have done this is beyond me." + +There was another reason, deeper. It was a commonplace that England had +been cordially hated in turn by every nation in and out of Europe, but +with all that there was no responsible nation in or out of Europe that +dare contemplate a weak, a dying, England. France looked at the map of +Europe, and the thought of the German Eagle flying over Dover Castle and +German navies patrolling the seas from Land's End to The Skawe haunted +her dreams. Russia wanted nothing in the world so much as another Thirty +Years' Peace. Spain had more to lose than to gain; Italy had much to +lose and nothing at all to gain. All the little independent states and +nations remembered the Treaties of Vienna and Berlin, and trembled at +the thought of what might happen now. Germany alone might have had +visions, but Germany had a nightmare too, and when the man who ruled her +councils with a strong if tortuous policy saw wave after wave of the +infectious triumph of Socialism reach his own shores, he recognised that +England's weakness was more hostile to his ambitions than England's +strength. + +No one wanted two Turkeys in Europe. + +"I don't see why we shouldn't make a naval demonstration, at all +events," some one suggested hopefully. "That used to be enough, and the +French Government must have plenty to look after at home." + +"Naval demonstration be boiled!" exclaimed Mr Bilch forcibly. "Send your +little Willie to Hamley's for a tin steamer, and let him push it off +Ramsgate sands if you want a naval demonstration, comrade. But don't +show the Union Jack inside the three-mile limit on the other side of the +Channel, or you'll have something so hot drop on your hands that you +won't be able to lick it off fast enough." + +"I fail to see that," said Mr Vossit. "Heaven forbid that I should raise +my voice in favour of bloodshed, but if it were necessary for +self-preservation our navy is at least equal to that of any other +power." + +"Is it?" retorted Mr Bilch, with so heavily-laden an expression of +contemptuous derision on his face that it seemed as though he might be +able to take it off, like a mask, and hang it on some one else. "Is it? +Oh, it is, is it? Well, ask that man there. Ask him, is all I say. +Simply ask _him_." His contorted face was thrust half-way across the +table towards Mr Vossit, while his rigid arm with extended forefinger +was understood to indicate Sir Causter Kerr. + +"As the subject has been raised, perhaps the First Lord of the Admiralty +will reassure us on that point," said the Premier. + +"Dear, dear, no," replied Causter Kerr blandly. "We couldn't carry it +through, Premier. You must not think of going to extremes." + +There was a moody silence in which men looked angrily at Kerr and at one +another. + +"Are we to understand that the navy is _not_ equal to that of any other +power?" demanded Mr Vossit. + +"On paper, yes, comrade," replied Kerr, with a pitying little smile, +"but on deep water, where battles are usually fought, no. It is a +curious paradox that in order to be equal to any other single power +England must be really very much stronger. I should also explain that +from motives of economy no battleships have been launched or laid +down during the last three years, and only four cruisers of +questionable armament. Then as regards gunnery. From motives of +economy actual practice is never carried out now, but the championship, +dating from last year, lies at present with the armoured cruiser +_Radium_:--stationary regulation target, 1-1/2 miles distant, speed 4 +knots, quarter charges, 3 hits out of 27 shots. As regards effective +range----" + +"Tell them this," struck in Mr Bilch, "they'll understand it better. +Tell them that the _Intrepidy_ could sail round and round the Channel +Fleet and bloody well throw her shells over the moon and down on to +their decks without ever once coming into range. Tell them that." + +"The picture so graphically drawn by Comrade Bilch is substantially +correct," corroborated Sir Causter Kerr. "The _Intrepide_, together with +three other battleships of her class, has an effective range of between +four and five thousand yards more than that of any English ship.... But +you have been told all this so often, comrades, that I fear it cannot +interest you." Sir Causter was having his revenge for two years of +subservience at a thousand pounds a year. + +"Then perhaps you will tell us, as First Lord of the Admiralty--the job +you are paid for doing--what you imagine the navy is kept up for?" +demanded a comrade with fierce resentment. + +"As far as I have been encouraged to believe, in that capacity," replied +Kerr with easy insolence, "I imagine that its duties consist nowadays in +patrolling the lobster-pots, and in amusing the visitors on the various +seaside promenades by turning the searchlights on." + +"We won't ask you to remain any longer," said the Premier. + +Sir Causter Kerr rose leisurely. "Good morning, comrades," he remarked +punctiliously, and going home wrote out his resignation, "from motives +of patriotism," and sent a copy of the letter to all the papers. + +A man who had been standing by the door listening to the conversation +now came forward with a copy of an early special edition of the _Pall +Mall Gazette_ in his hand. + +"You needn't sweat yourselves about being equal to a single power or +not," he remarked with an unpleasant laugh. "Look at the 'fudge' there." +And he threw the paper on the table, as though he washed his hands of it +and many other things. + +Mr Bilch secured it, and turning to the space which is left blank for +the inclusion of news received up to the very moment of going to press, +he read aloud the single item it contained. + + COAL WAR + + BERLIN, _Thursday Morning_. + + "The action which France is reported to have taken had for some + time been anticipated here. On all sides there is the opinion, + amounting to conviction, that Germany must at once call into + operation the power lying dormant in the Penalising Tariff and + impose a tax on imported coal. It is agreed that otherwise, in + her frantic endeavours to restore the balance of her export + trade, England would flood this country with cheap coal and + precipitate a state of things similar to that from which France + is just emerging. + + "Emphasis is laid on the fact that such a measure will be + self-protective and in no way aggressive. It is not anticipated + that the tax will exceed 2 mks. 50 pf., or at the most 3 mks. + per ton." + +"Export value, eight and elevenpence," murmured a late arrival, one of +the fifty practical men in the House. "Yes, I imagine that two marks +fifty will just about knock the bottom out." + +"Is there nothing we can offer them in exchange?" demanded some one. +"Nothing we can hit them back with?" + +Cecil Brown, who was suspected of heterodoxy on this one point, +crystallised the tariff question into three words. + +"Nothing but tears," he replied. + +"If there's one thing that fairly makes me hot it's the way we always +have to wait for some one else to tell us what's going on," said the +comrade who had brought in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, looking across at +the Foreign Office Under-Secretary resentfully. "A fellow in Holborn +here pokes the paper under my nose and asks me what we're going to do +about it, and there I don't even know what is being done at us. What I +want to know is, what our ambassadors and Foreign Office think they're +there for. It's always the same, and then there'll be the questions in +Parliament, and we know nothing. Makes us look like a set of kiddin' +amateurs." + +The fact had been noticed. Former governments had not infrequently +earned the title in one or two departments. Later governments had +qualified for it in every department. The reason lay on the surface; the +members of those parliaments and the men who sent them were themselves +bunglers and amateurs in their daily work and life. Except in the +stereotyped product of machinery, accuracy was scarcely known. The man +who had built a house in England at that period, the man who had had a +rabbit-hutch built to order, the man who had stipulated for one article +to be made _exactly_ like a copy, the man who had been so unfortunate as +to require "the plumbers in," the man who had to do with labour in any +shape or form, the man who had been "faithfully" promised delivery or +completion by a certain stated time, the woman who shopped, the person +who merely existed with open eyes, could all testify out of experiences, +some heartrending, some annoying, some simply amusing, that precision +and reliability scarcely existed among the lower grades of industry and +commerce. It was a period of transition. The worker had cast off the +love, the delicacy, the intelligence of the craftsman, and he had not +yet attained to the unvarying skill of the automaton. In another century +one man would only be able to fix throttle valve connections on to +hot-water pipes, but his fixing of throttle valves would be a thing to +dream about, while the initial letter A's of his brother, whose whole +life would be devoted to engraving initial letter A's on brass +dog-collar plates, would be as near unswerving perfection as mundane +initials ever could be. + +"Makes us look like a set of tinkerin' amateurs." + +"One inference is plain enough," said Mr Guppling, smoothing over the +suggestion. "These three things weren't going to happen all together of +their own accord. There's a deep game somewhere, and seeing what's at +stake our powers ought to be wide enough for us to put our hands on them +and stop it." + +There was a murmur of approval. Having been taken by surprise, the idea +of peremptorily "stopping it" was a peculiarly attractive one. + +But there were malcontents who were not to be appeased so easily, and a +Comrade Pennefarthing, who had arrived in the meantime, raised an old +cry in a new form. + +"I won't exactly say that we've been betrayed," he declared, glancing at +the group of orthodox Ministers who sat together, "but game or no game I +will say that we've been damned badly served with information." + +Comrade Tirrel stood up. He had not yet spoken at all, and he was +accorded instant silence, for men were beginning to look to him. "It is +now nearly eleven o'clock," he said in his quick, incisive tone, "and +some of us have been here for upwards of an hour. We met to consider a +situation. That situation still remains. May I ask that the Home +Secretary, who is doubly qualified for the task, should tell us the +extent of the danger and its probable effect?" + +If Mr Tubes possessed a double qualification he also laboured under a +corresponding disability. As the representative of a mining +constituency, a practical expert, and a leading member of a Government +which existed by the goodwill of the workers--largely of the miners--it +would be scarcely to his interest to minimise the gathering cloud. As +the Minister for the Home Department, the blacker he made the picture +the greater the volume of obloquy he drew upon his head for not having +foreseen the danger; the more relief he asked for, the fiercer the +opposition he would encounter from hostile sections and from the +perturbed heads of a depleted Treasury. + +"We are still very much in the dark as to what has really happened, is +happening, and will happen," he remarked tamely. "An appreciable drop in +the demand for coal, whether for home or export, will certainly have a +disturbing effect on the conditions of labour in many departments. But +the difficulties of estimating the effects are so great----" + +There were murmurs. Whatever might be the failings of Socialistic +oratory, flatness and excess of moderation did not lie among them. + +"Figures," suggested Tirrel pointedly. + +"Perhaps Comrade Tirrel will take the job in hand instead of me," said +Tubes bitterly, but without any show of anger. "Doubtless he'd get a +better hearing." + +"No," replied Tirrel gravely, "the moment is too critical for +recrimination. If the Home Secretary lays the position frankly before +us, he will have no cause to complain of an unsympathetic hearing, nor, +as far as I can speak, of a whole-hearted support in taking means to +safeguard it." + +It occurred to Mr Tubes then, for the first time in his life--and it was +almost like a shock to feel it--that the man who had always seemed to +throw himself into sharp antagonism to himself might be actuated by +higher motives than personal jealousy after all. He continued his +speech. + +"If we accept the figure of five millions as a correct return of the +Unity League membership, and if we assume that they will all obey the +boycott, then we are face to face with the fact that on the basis of a +four ton per person average, twenty million tons of coal must be written +off the home consumption." + +"But the four tons per head average includes the entire industrial +consumption of the country," objected Mr Vossit. + +"That is so," admitted Mr Tubes, "but it also includes a great many +people whose use of coal is practically _nil_. An alternative basis is +to assume that two millions of the members are house-holders. Then +taking ten tons a year as their average household consumption--and +admitting that all the wealthiest men in the country are included the +average is not too high--we arrive at just the same result. + +"The exports, on the other hand, do not depend on estimate: we have the +actual returns. France takes fifteen million tons in round numbers. For +the purpose of facing the worst, we may therefore assume that the work +of digging and handling thirty-five million tons will be suddenly cut +off." + +"Germany," some one reminded him. + +"Germany is wholly conjectural at present. I have no objection to taking +it into account as well, if it is thought desirable, but I would point +out that we are being influenced by the merest rumour." + +"No," objected Tirrel, but without any enmity, "I think that we must +regard Germany as lost. We are just beginning to touch the outskirts of +a vast organisation which has been quietly perfecting its plan of +operation for years. I do not regard a German tax as settled because of +this one rumour, but I do regard it as settled because at this precise +moment the rumour has been allowed to appear." + +"Germany ten millions," accepted Mr Tubes. "Total decrease, forty-five +million tons." + +"Don't you be too sure of that, comrade," warned Mr Bilch. "Why, it's +not twelve o'clock yet by a long way. There'll be half a dozen editions +out before the 'Three o'clock winners.'" Mr Bilch evidently regarded his +shaft that each fresh edition might contain a new country imposing a tax +humorously, but several comrades looked towards the Home Secretary +enquiringly. + +"The other large importers are Italy, Russia, Sweden, Egypt, Spain and +Denmark," said Mr Tubes, who could have talked coal statistics for hours +if necessary. "All these, with the possible exception of Russia, _must_ +import. It is unlikely that the estimate I have given will be exceeded +from that cause." + +"And the result?" + +"Above and below, about a million men are now employed in raising +236,000,000 tons. It is simple arithmetic.... In less than a month about +two hundred thousand more men will be out of work." + +Mr Chadwing, Chancellor of the Exchequer, moved uneasily in his chair. + +"That is the full extent?" enquired Cecil Brown. + +"No," admitted the Home Secretary. "That is the inevitable direct +result. Forty-five million tons less will be carried by rail, or cart, +or ship, or all three. A fair sprinkling of railway-men, carters, +dockers, stokers, sailors, and other fellows will be dropped off too. +There will be fewer railway trucks built this next year, less doing in +the fire-grate trade, several thousand horses not wanted, a slight +falling off in road-mending work. There is not a trade in England, from +steeple-building to hop-picking, that will not be a little worse off +because of those 45,000,000 tons. Then the two hundred thousand +out-of-work miners will burn less coal at home, the ships and the +engines will burn less, and the workshops and the smithies will burn +less, and the whole process will be repeated again and again, for coal +is like a snowball in its cumulative effects, and it cannot stand +still." + +If Mr Tubes had come to compromise, he had remained to publish +broadcast. + +Perhaps no one quite understood the danger yet, for the mind, used to +everyday effects, does not readily grasp the extent of a calamity, and +six hours before there had not been a cloud even the size of a man's +hand on their horizon. The Premier thought it was impolitic on his +colleague's part; the Treasury officials looked on it as a move to force +their hands; the Foreign Under-Secretary was suspicious that Mr Tubes +was leading away by some mysterious by-path from the unpreparedness of +his own Department to Foreign Office remissness. They all continued to +look silently at the Home Secretary as he continued to stand. + +"The indirect effects will involve about two million people to some +extent," he summed up. + +"That, at least, is the worst?" said Cecil Brown with an encouraging +smile, for Mr Tubes remained standing. + +The Prime Minister made an impatient movement; the Treasury heads looked +at one another and said with their eyes, "He is really overdoing it"; +the Foreign Office man scowled unconsciously, and Cecil Brown continued +to smile consciously. + +"The worst is this: that a great many pits are working to-day at a bare +profit, partly in the hope of better things, partly because we stimulate +the trade. The crisis we are approaching will hang over the coal fields +like a blight, and one crippled industry will bring down another. _All_ +the poorer mines will close down. You need only look back to '93 to see +that. Neither I nor any one else can give you a forecast of what that +will involve, but you may be sure of this: that although '93 with its +17,000,000 tons of a decrease half-ruined the English coal fields for a +decade, '93 was a shrimp to what this is going to be." + +"Then let us stimulate the trade more, until the crisis is over," +suggested Cecil Brown. + +Mr Tubes gave a short, dry laugh. "I commend that course to Comrade +Chadwing," he said, as he sat down. + +The Chancellor of the Exchequer was busy with his papers. + +"Let me dispel any idea of that kind at once," he remarked, without +looking up. "The moment is not only an unfortunate one--it is an utterly +impossible one for making any extra disbursement however desirable." + +"Well," said Mr Bilch, looking round on the moody assembly paternally, +"it seems that the situation is like this here, mates: The navy is no +messin' good at all, same as I told you; the army's a bit worse; +Treasury empty, yes; the Home Office don't know what's going on at home, +and the Foreign Office possesses just the same amount of valuable +information as to what is happening abroad. Lively, ain't it? Well, it's +lucky that Bilch is still Bilch." + +No one rose to his mordant humour. Even Cecil Brown had forgotten how to +smile. + +"If our comrade has any suggestion to make----" said the Premier +discouragingly. + +"Yes, sir," replied Mr Bilch. "I have the wisdom of the serpent to rub +into your necks if you'll only listen. We haven't any navy, so we can't +fight if we wanted to; we haven't any money, so we can't pay out. Tubes +here doesn't know what's going to happen at home, and Jevons doesn't +rightly know what has happened abroad. What is to be done? I'll tell +you. Wait. Wait and see. Wait, and let them all simmer down again. Why," +he cried boisterously, looking round on them in good-humoured, friendly +contempt, "to see your happy, smiling faces one would think that the +canary had died or the lodger gone off without paying his rent. For why? +Because a bloke in a frock-coat and a top hat gets on to a wooden horse +and blows a tin trumpet, and the export trade in a single article of +commerce is temporarily disarranged--perhaps!" + +Mr Strummery nodded half absent-mindedly; the Treasury men smiled +together; Mr Chadwing murmured "Very true"; and nearly every one looked +relieved. Comrade Bilch was certainly a rough member, but the man had a +shrewd common-sense, and they began to feel that they had been hasty in +their dismal forebodings. + +"Haven't we been threatened with this and that before?" demanded Mr +Bilch dogmatically. "Of course we have, and what came of it? Nothing. +Haven't there been strikes and lock-outs, some big some little, every +year? According to Comrade Tubes, this is going to be the champion. That +remains to be seen. What I say is, don't play into their hands in a +panic. Wait and see what's required. That don't commit us to anything." + +"It may be too late then," said Mr Tubes, but he said "may" now and not +"will." + +"There may be no need to do anything then," replied Mr Bilch. "And +remember this: that the minute you begin to shout 'Crisis!' you make +one. All round us; all at us. My rag-bags! what a run on the old bank +there would be! But if you go on just as usual, taking no notice of no +one? Why, before long there will come a wet day or a cold night, and +Johnny Hampden's aunt will say to Johnny Hampden's grandmamma: 'My dear, +I feel positively starved. Don't you think that we might have a _little_ +fire without Johnny knowing?' And the old lady will say: 'Well, do you +know, my pet, I was just going to say the same thing myself. Suppose you +run out and buy a sack of coal?' And before you can say 'coughdrop' +every blessed aunt and mother and first cousin of the Unicorn League +will be getting in her little stock of coal." + +It was what every one wished to believe, and therefore they were easily +persuadable. It was a national characteristic. The country had never +entered into a war during the past fifty years without being assured by +every authority, from the Commander-in-Chief down to the suburban +barber, that as soon as the enemy got a little tap on the head they +would be making for home, howling for peace as they went. All these men +had known strikes; many had been involved in them: some had controlled +their organisation. They had seen the men of their own class loyally and +patiently facing poverty and hardship for the sake of a principle, and +enduring day after day and week after week, and, if necessary, month +after month; they had seen the women of their own class preaching +courage and practising heroism by the side of their men while their +bodies were racked by cold and hunger and their hearts were crushed by +the misery around; they had seen even the children of their class +learning an unnatural fortitude. They accepted it as a commonplace of +life, an asset on which they could rely. _But they did not believe that +any other class could do it._ It did not occur to them to consider +whether the officers of an army are usually behind the rank and file in +valour, sacrifice, or endurance. + +Doubtless there were among them some who were not deceived, but they +wilfully subordinated their clearer judgment to the policy of the +moment. + +Tirrel was the one exception. + +"There can be no more fatal mistake of the dangerous position into which +we have been manoeuvred than to assume that we shall be easily +delivered from it by the weakness of our opponents before we have the +least indication that weakness exists," he declared, as soon as +Mr Bilch had finished, speaking vigorously, but without any of the +assertiveness and personal feeling that had gained him many enemies in +the past. "I agree with every word that Comrade Tubes has spoken. We all +do; we all _must_ admit it or be blind. What on earth, then, have we to +hope for in a policy of drift, of sitting tight and doing nothing in the +hope of things coming round of their own accord? It is madness, my +comrades, sheer madness, I tell you, and a month hence it will be +suicide." + +He dropped his voice and swept the circle of faces with a significant +glance. + +"It is through such madness on the part of others that we are here +to-day." + +Mr Chadwing smiled the thin smile of expediency. + +"It is one thing for a comrade with no official responsibility to say +that a certain course does not satisfy him," he said; "it may be quite +another thing for those who have to consider ways and means to do +anything different. Perhaps Comrade Tirrel will kindly enlighten us as +to what in our position he would do?" + +"I see two broad courses open," replied Tirrel, without any hesitation +in accepting the challenge. "Both, as you will readily say, have their +disadvantages, but neither is so fatal as inaction. The first is +aggressive. The Unity League has declared war on us. Very well, let it +have war. I would propose to suspend the _habeas corpus_, arrest Hampden +and Salt, declare the object and existence of the Unity League illegal, +close its offices and confiscate its funds. There are between five and +ten million pounds somewhere. Do you reflect what that would do? It +would at least keep two hundred thousand out-of-work miners from actual +starvation for a year. Prompt action would inevitably kill the boycott +movement at home. The foreign taxes, my comrades, you would probably +find to have a very marked, though perhaps undiscoverable, connection +with the home movement, and when the latter was seen to be effectually +dealt with, I venture to predict that the former could be compromised. +If the confiscated funds were not sufficient to meet the distress, I +should not hesitate to requisition for State purposes in a time of +national emergency all incomes above a certain figure in a clean sweep." + +A medley of cries met this despotic programme throughout. Even Tirrel's +friends felt that he was throwing away his reputation; and he had more +enemies than friends. + +"You'd simply make the situation twice as involved," exclaimed Mr Vossit +as the mouthpiece of the babel. "The liberty of the subject! It would +mean civil war. They'd rise." + +"Who would rise?" demanded Tirrel. + +"The privileged classes." + +"But they _have_ risen," he declared vehemently. "This _is_ civil war. +What more do you want?" + +It was a question on which they all had views, and for the next five +minutes the room was full of suggestions, not of what they themselves +wanted, but of what would be the probable action of the classes if +driven to extremities. + +"Very well," assented Tirrel at last; "that is what they will do next as +it is, for they consider that they are in extremities." + +"Well, comrade," said Mr Bilch broadly, "you don't seem to have put your +money on a winner this event. What's your other tip?" + +"Failing that, the other reasonable course is conciliation. I would +suggest approaching Hampden and Salt to find out whether they are open +to consider a compromise. The details would naturally require careful +handling, but if both sides were willing to come to an understanding, a +basis could be found. As things are, I should consider it a gain to drop +the Personal Property Tax, the Minimum Wage Bill, to guarantee the +inviolability of capital against further taxation while we are in +office, and to make generous concessions for the fuller representation +of the monied classes in Parliament, in return for the abandonment of a +coal war, the dispersal in some agreed way of the League reserves, the +reduction of the subscription to a nominal sum, and a frank undertaking +that the League would not adopt a hostile policy while the agreement +remained in force." + +This proposal was even less to the temper of the meeting than the former +one had been, and the latter half of it was scarcely heard among the +fusillade of hostile cries. No one laughed when a hot-headed comrade +stood upon a chair and howled "Traitor!" + +Tirrel looked round on the assembly. Practically every man who had a +tacit right to join in the deliberative Council had arrived, and the +room was full; but there was not a single member among them willing to +face the necessity for strong and immediate action, and they were +hostile to the man who just touched the secret depths of their +unconfessed and innermost misgivings. Mr Tubes felt that he had done his +duty, and need not invite reference to his delicate position by further +emphasising unpalatable truths; he had presented the spectacle of a weak +man startled into boldness, now he was sufficiently himself again to go +with the majority. The more responsible members of the Government +distrusted Tirrel in every phase; the smaller fry relied on the wisdom +of orthodoxy, and agreed that the man who could blow the hotness of +extirpation and the coldness of conciliation with the same breath must +prove an unworthy guide; and on every hand there was the tendency of +settled authority to deprecate novel and unmatured proceedings. + +Tirrel had become the Hampden of an earlier decade among his party. + +"You call me 'Traitor,'" he said, turning to the man who had done so. +"Write down the word, comrade, and then, if you will bring it to me +without a blush six months hence, I will wear it round my neck in +penance." + +He bowed to the Premier and withdrew, not in anger or with a mean sense +of injustice, but because he felt that it would be sheer mockery to +share the deliberations of a Council when their respective views, on a +matter which he believed to be the very crux of their existence, were +antagonistic in their essences. + +After his departure the progress was amazing. His ill-considered +proposals had cleared the air. Every one knew exactly what he did not +want, and that was a material step towards arriving at the opposite +goal. + +At the end of a few hours a very effective and comprehensive scheme for +quietly and systematically doing nothing had been almost unanimously +arrived at. Several quires of paper had been covered with suggestions, +some of them being accepted as they stood, some recommended for +elaboration, some passed for future consideration, some thrown out. The +ambassador in Paris was to retire (on the ground of ill-health) if he +could not satisfactorily explain the position. A special mission was to +be sent to Berlin to get really at the bottom of things, and, if +possible, have the tax either not put on or taken off, according to the +situation when they arrived there. A legal commission was to rout out +every precedent to see if the Unity League was not doing something +outside the powers of a trade union (a very forlorn hope); and all over +the country enquiries were to be made and assurances given, all very +discreetly and without the least suggestion of panic. + +The only doubtful point was whether every one else would play the game +with the same delicate regard for Ministerial susceptibilities, or +whether some might not have the deplorable taste to create scenes, send +deputations, demand work with menace, claim the literal fulfilment of +specific pledges, incite to riot and violence, stampede the whole +community, and otherwise act inconsiderately towards the Government, +when they discovered the very awkward circumstances in which their +leaders had involved them. + +The first indication of a jarring note fell to the lot of the President +of the Board of Trade in the shape of a telegram which reached him early +on the following morning. This was its form: + + "From the Council of the Amalgamated Union of Chimney Sweepers + and Federated Carpet Beaters. (Membership, 11,372).--Seventeen + million estimated chimneys stop smoking. No soot, precious + little dust. Where the Hell do we come in? + + "BLANKINTOSH, _Secretary_." + +A few years before, it had been officially discovered that there were +four or five curiously adaptable words, without which the working man +was quite unable to express himself in the shortest sentence. When on +very ceremonious occasions he was debarred their use, he at once fell +into a pitiable condition of aphasia. Keenly alive to the class-imposed +disadvantages under which these men existed, the Government of that day +declared that it was a glaring anomaly that the poor fellows should not +be allowed to use a few words that were so essential to their expression +of every emotion, while the rich, with more time on their hands, could +learn a thousand synonyms. The law imposing a shilling fine for each +offence (five shillings in the case of "a gentleman," for even then +there was one law for the rich and another for the poor) was therefore +repealed, and the working man was free to swear as much as he liked +anywhere, which, to do him justice, he had done all along. + +It was for this reason that Mr Blankintosh's pointed little message was +accepted for transmission; but there was evidently a limit, for, when +the President of the Board of Trade, an irascible gentleman who had, in +the colloquial phrase, "got out of bed on the wrong side" that morning, +dashed off a short reply, it was brought back to him by a dispirited +messenger two hours later with the initials of seventeen postmasters and +the seventeen times repeated phrase, "Refused. Language inadmissible." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE GREAT FIASCO + + +The Government allowed the 22nd day of July to pass without a sign. They +were, as their supporters convincingly explained to anxious enquirers, +treating the Unity League and all its works with silent contempt. They +were "doing nothing" strategically, they wished it to be understood; a +very different thing from "doing nothing" through apathy, indecision, or +bewilderment, but very often undistinguishable the one from the other in +the result. + +On the 22nd day of July seventeen million "estimated chimneys" ceased to +pollute the air. The League was not concerned with the exact number, and +they accepted the chimney sweepers' figures. It was more to the purpose +that the order was being loyally and cheerfully obeyed. The idea of +fighting the Government with the Government's own chosen people, +appealed to the lighter side of a not unhumorous nation. + +Ever since the institution of a Socialistic press, and from even remoter +times than the saplinghood of the "Reformer's Tree," Fleet Street party +hacks and Hyde Park demagogues had been sharpening their wit upon the +"black-coated" brigade, the contemptible _bourgeoisie_ of "Linton +Villas," "Claremonts," and "Holly Lodges," taunting them with +self-complacency, political apathy, and social parasitism. The +proportion of moral degradation conferred by a coat intentionally black, +in comparison with one that is merely approaching that condition through +the personal predilections of its owner, has never yet been defined, and +the relative aesthetic values of the architectural pretensions of +villadom, compared with the unswerving realism of the "Gas Works Views," +"Railway Approach Cottages," and "Cement Terraces," of the back streets, +may be left to the matured judgment of an unprejudiced posterity. The +great middle class in all its branches had never hitherto made any reply +at all. Now that it had begun to retort in its own effective way, the +Government agreed that the best counterblast would be--to wait until it +all blew over. + +There were naturally defections from the first. A friendly spy in Mr +Tubes's secret service managed to secure the information without much +trouble that within seven days of the publication of the order no less +than 4372 notices of resignation had been received at headquarters. He +was hastening away with this evidence of the early dissolution of the +League when his grinning informant called him back to whisper in his ear +that during the same period there had been 17,430 new members enrolled, +and that while the resignations seemed to have practically ceased the +enrolments were growing in volume. In addition to these there were +battalions who joined in the policy of the League through sympathy with +its object without formally binding themselves as members. + +In some of its aspects the success of the movement erred in excess. +There were men, manufacturers, who in their faith and enthusiasm wished +to close their works at once, and, regardless of their own loss, throw +their workmen and their unburnt coal into the balance. It was not +required; it was not even desirable then. The League's object was to +disorganise commerce as little as possible beyond the immediate +boundaries of the coal trade. They were not engaged in an internecine +war, and every one of their own people deprived of employment was a +loss. Cases of hardship there would be; they are common to both sides in +every phase of stubborn and prolonged civil strife, but from the "class" +point of view coal had the pre-eminent advantage that its weight and +bulk gave employment to a hundred of the "masses" to every one of +themselves. There were also two circumstances that discounted any sense +of injustice on this head. Firstly, there was a spirit of sacrifice and +heroism in the air, born of the time and the situation; and secondly, it +soon became plain that the League was engaged in vast commercial +undertakings and was absorbing all the men of its own party who were +robbed of their occupation by the development of the war. + +A firm starting business with an unencumbered capital of ten million +sterling, enjoying a "private income" of five millions a year, and not +troubled with the necessity of earning any dividend at all, could afford +to be a generous employer. + +From the first moment it was obvious that oil must take the place of +coal. That was the essence of the strife. _The Tocsin_ set to work in +frantic haste to prove that it was impossible; to show that all the +authorities of the past and present had agreed that no real substitute +for coal existed. It was quite true, and it was quite false. It was not +a world struggle. Abroad, foreign coal was being substituted for English +coal. At home only half a million tons a week were in issue at the +first. Afterwards, as coal stagnation fed coal stagnation, the tonnage +rose steadily, but the calorific ratio of coal and oil, the basis of all +comparison, simply did not exist, except on paper, for the two fuels in +domestic use. + +_The Tocsin's_ second article convinced its readers that all the lamp +companies in the world could not keep up with the abnormal demand for +lamps, stoves, and oil-cookers, that the ridiculous proposal of the +League would involve, if it were not providentially ordained that it was +foredoomed to grotesque failure by the dead weight of its own fatuous +ineptitude. + +In practice the two single firms of Ripplestone of Birmingham, and +Schuyler of Cleveland, U.S.A., at once put on the market a varied stock +that filled every requirement. There was no waiting. As _The Tocsin_ +bitterly remarked, it soon became apparent that the demand had been +foreseen and "treacherously provided against during the past two years." + +The third _Tocsin_ article on the situation dealt statistically with the +oil trade of the world. It necessarily fell rather flat, because _The +Tocsin_ Special Commissioner entered upon the task with the joyous +conviction that the world's output would not be sufficient for the +demand, the world's oil ships not numerous enough to transport it. As he +dipped into the figures, however, he made the humiliating discovery that +the increased demand would do little more than ruffle the surface of the +oil market. The Baku oil fields could supply it without inconvenience; +the United States could do it by contract at a ten per cent. advance; +the newly-discovered wells of Nova Scotia alone would be equal to the +demand if they diverted all their produce across the Atlantic. + +He threw down his pen in despair, and then picked it up again to +substitute invective for statistics. Before his eyes the motor-tanks of +the Anglo-Pennsylvanian Oil Company, of London and Philadelphia, and the +Anglo-Caucasian Oil Company, of London and Baku, were going on their +daily rounds. It was still a matter for wonder how well equipped the +sudden call had found those two great controlling oil companies. It was +yet to be learned that for their elaborate designations there might be +substituted the simple name "Unity League." + +It was submitting _The Tocsin_ young man to rather a cruel handicap to +send him to the British Museum Reading Room for a few hours with +instructions to prove impossible what Salt and Hampden had been +straining every nerve for two years to make inevitable. + +Three articles exhausted his proof that a successful coal boycott under +modern conditions was utterly impossible. + +He went out into the city and the suburbs, interviewing coal merchants +and coal agents with the object of drawing a harrowing picture of the +gloom and depression that had fallen upon these unfortunate creatures at +the hands of their own class League. + +He found them all bearing up well under the prospect, but much too busy +to give him more than a few minutes of their time. Every one of them had +been appointed an oil agent to the League firms, and League members were +ordering their oil through them, just as heretofore they had ordered +coal. It was very easy, profitable work for them; they had nothing to do +but to transmit the orders to the League firms and the fast +business-like motor-tanks distributed the oil. But half of the coal +carters were now under notice to leave, and there were indications that +work was very scarce. Each motor-tank displaced twenty men and twenty +horses. Already, it was said, thousands of horses had been sent out to +grass from London alone. + +Externally, as far as the Capital was concerned at all events, things +were going on very much the same as before, when the struggle was a +fortnight old. Elsewhere signs were not lacking. The Government had +received disquieting reports from its agents here and there, but so far +it was meeting the situation by refusing to acknowledge that it existed. +A march of the Staffordshire miners had been averted by the men's +leaders being privately assured that it would embarrass the Government's +plans. The march had been deferred under protest; so far the +organisation answered to the wheel. But the Midlands were clamorously +demanding exceptional relief for the exceptional conditions. Monmouth +had seen a little rioting, and in Glamorgan the bands of incendiaries +called "Beaconmen," who set fire to the accumulations of coal stacked at +the collieries, had already begun their work. Cardiff was feeling the +effect of having a third of its export trade in coal suddenly lopped +off, and Newport, Swansea, Kirkcaldy, Blyth, Hull, Sunderland, Glasgow, +and the Tyne ports were all in the same position. Most of the railways +had found it necessary to dispense with their entire supernumerary +staff, and most of the railway workshops had been put on short time. In +London alone, between four and five thousand out-of-work gas employes +were drawing Government pay. + +About the third week in August the Premier, Mr Tubes, and the Chancellor +of the Exchequer had a long private conference. As a result Mr Strummery +called an Emergency Council. It was a thin, acrimonious gathering. Some +one brought the tidings that seven more companies in South London were +substituting Diesel oil engines for steam. He had all the dreary +developments statistically worked out on paper. Nobody wanted to hear +them, but he poured them out into the unwilling ears, down to the climax +that it represented two hundred and forty-seven fewer men required at +the pits. + +It served as a text, however, for Mr Chadwing to hang his proposal on. +After a month of inaction, the Government was at length prepared to go +to the length of admitting that abnormal conditions prevailed. Oil had +thrown a quarter of a million of their people out of employment. Let oil +keep them. He proposed to retaliate with a 50 per cent. tax on imported +oil, to come into operation under Emergency Procedure on the 1st of +September. + +There were men present to whom the suggestion of taxing a raw article, +necessary to a great proportion of the poor, was frankly odious. They +were prepared to attack the proposal as a breach of faith. A few words +from Mr Strummery, scarcely more than whispered, explained the necessity +for the tax and the menace of the situation. + +Those who had not been following events closely, paled to learn the +truth. + +The Treasury was living from hand to mouth, for the City had ceased to +take up its Bills. Unless "something happened" before the New Year +dawned, it would have to admit its inability to continue the Unemployed +Grant. Already a quarter of a million men and their dependents, in +addition to the normal average upon which the estimates were based, had +been suddenly thrown upon the resources of the Department. If Mr Tubes's +forecast proved correct, double that number would be on their hands +within another month. The development of half a million starving men who +had been taught to look to the Government for everything, looking and +finding nothing, could be left to each individual imagination. + +The Oil Tax came into operation on the 1st of September. Under the plea +of becoming more "business-like," a great many of the Parliamentary +safeguards had been swept away, and such procedure was easy. All grades +of petroleum had already advanced a few pence the gallon under the +increased demand, and the poorer users had expressed their indignation. +When they found, one day, that the price had suddenly leapt to half as +much again, their wrath was unbounded. It was in vain for Ministers to +explain that the measure was directed against their enemies. They knew +that it fell on _them_, and demanded in varying degrees of politeness to +be told why some luxury of the pampered, leisured classes had not been +chosen instead. The reason was plain to those who studied Blue Books. So +highly taxed was every luxury now that the least fraction added to its +burden resulted in an actually decreased revenue from that source. + +But if the mere tax and increase had impressed the poor unfavourably, a +circumstance soon came to light that enraged them. + +In spite of the tax the members of the Unity League were still being +supplied with oil at the old prices, and they were assured that they +would continue to be supplied without advance, even if the tax were +doubled! + +The poor, ever suspicious of the doings of those of their own class when +set high in authority, at once leapt to the conclusion that they were +being made the victims of a double game. It was nothing to them that the +Anglo-Pennsylvanian and the Anglo-Caucasian companies were now trading +at a loss; it was common knowledge that their richer League neighbours +had not had the price of their oil increased, and they knew all too well +that they themselves had. With the lack of balanced reasoning that had +formerly been one of the Government's best weapons, they at once +concluded that they alone were paying the tax, and the unparalleled +injustice of it sowed a crop of bitterness in their hearts. + +If that was the net result at home, the foreign effect of the policy was +not a whit more satisfactory. Studland, the Consul-General at Odessa, +one of the most capable men in the Service, cabled a despatch full of +temperate and solemn warning the moment he heard of the step. It was too +late then, if, indeed, his words would have been regarded. Russia +replied by promptly trebling her existing tax on imported coal, and at +the same time gave Germany rebate terms that practically made it a tax +on _English_ coal. It was said that Russia had only been waiting for a +favourable opportunity, and was more anxious to develop her own new coal +fields in the Donetz basin than to import at all. As far as the Treasury +was concerned, the oil tax yielded little more than was absorbed by the +thirty thousand extra men thrown out of work by Russia's action. The +Government had given a rook for a bishop. + +A little time ago the Cabinet had been prepared to greet winter as a +friend. Without quite possessing the ingenuousness of their amiable +Comrade Bilch, they had thought cynically of the pampered aristocrats +shivering in Mayfair drawing-rooms, of the comfort-loving middle classes +sitting before their desolate suburban hearths, of blue-faced men +setting out breakfastless for freezing offices, and of pallid women +weeping as they tried to warm the hands of little children, as they put +them in their icy beds. + +And now? All their cynical sympathy had apparently been in vain. There +were not going to be any cold breakfasts, freezing offices, or shivering +women and children. Warming stoves and radiators raised the temperature +of a room much quicker than a fire did, and kept it equable without any +attention. Oil cookers took the place of the too often erratic kitchen +range. Mrs Strummery innocently threw the Premier into a frenzy one +morning by dilating on the advantages of a "Britonette" stove which she +had been shown by a Tottenham Court Road ironmonger. The despised, +helpless "classes" were going on very comfortably. They were going on +even gaily; "Oil Scrambles" constituted a new and popular form of +entertainment for long evenings; from Wimbledon came the information +that "Candle Cinderellas" would have a tremendous rage during the +approaching season; and in Cheapside and the Strand the penny hawkers +were minting money with the novel and diverting "Coal Sack Puzzle." + +But the winter was approaching, though no longer as a friend. If England +should say to-morrow what Lancashire was saying that day, there were +portents of stirring times in the air. Already Northumberland, Durham, +and Yorkshire were muttering in their various uncouth dialects, and +Lanark was subscribing to disquieting sentiments in its own barbarous +tongue. Derbyshire was becoming uneasy, Staffordshire was scarcely +answering to the wheel, and Nottingham was in revolt against what it +considered to be the too compliant attitude of the Representation +Committee. The rioting in Monmouth was only restrained from becoming +serious in its proportions by the repeated assurances from Westminster +that the end was in sight; and the "Beaconmen" of Glamorgan were openly +boasting that before long they would "light such a candle" that the +ashes would fall upon London like a Vesuvian cloud. + +Still nearer home was the disturbing spectacle of the railway-men thrown +out of work, the coal carters, the stablemen, the gasworkers, the canal +boatmen, the general labourers, the tool-makers, the wheel-wrights, the +chimney sweepers, the brushmakers. The sequence of dependence could be +traced, detail by detail, through every page of the trade directory. + +They had all been taught to clamour to the Government in every +emergency, and this administration they regarded as peculiarly their +own. It was not a case of Frankenstein's Monster getting out of hand; +this Monster had created its Frankenstein, and could dissolve him if he +proved obstinate. All that Frankenstein had ventured to do so far had +been to reduce the Unemployed Grant to three quarters of its normal rate +"in view of the unprecedented conditions of labour," and where two or +more unemployed were members of one family, to make a further small +deduction. The action had not been well received. "In view of the +unprecedented conditions of labour" the unemployed had looked for more +rather than for less. When the rate was fixed they had been given to +understand that it represented the minimum on which an out-of-work man +could be decently asked to live. Why, then, had their own party reduced +it? Funds? Tax some luxury! + +Even the Government assurance, an ingenious adaptation of truth by the +light of Mr Chadwing's figures, that they "did not anticipate having to +impose the reduced grant for many more weeks, but at the same time +counselled economy in every working-class home," did not restore mutual +good feeling. The general rejoinder was that the Government had "better +not," and the reference to economy was stigmatised as gratuitously +inept. + +In the meantime the situation was reacting unfavourably upon Mr +Strummery and the chief officers of State, not only in Parliament but +even in the Cabinet itself. Consultations between the Premier and half a +dozen of his most trusted Ministers were of daily occurrence. One day, +towards the end of September, Mr Strummery privately intimated to all +the "safe" members of the Council that it was necessary to meet to +consider what further steps to take. + +The meeting was a "packed" one in that the Tirrels, the Browns, and the +Bilches of the party were not invited and knew nothing of it. There was +no reason why Mr Strummery should not call together a section of his +followers if he wished, and discuss policy with them, but at the moment +it was dangerous, because the conclave was just strong enough to be able +to impose its will upon Parliament, and yet individually it was composed +of weak men. It was dangerous because half a dozen weak men, rendered +desperate by the situation into which they were being inevitably driven, +had resolved to act upon heroic lines. As Balzac had remarked, "There is +nothing more horrible than the rebellion of a sheep," but the horrible +consequences generally fall upon its own head in the end. + +Mr Chadwing's statement informed the despondent gathering that on the +existing lines it would be necessary to suspend the wholesale operation +of the relief fund about the middle of December. By reducing the grant +in varying degrees it would be possible to carry on for perhaps three +months beyond that date, but to reach the furthest limit the individual +relief would have become so insignificant that it would only result in +an actual crisis being precipitated earlier than would be the case if +they went on as they were doing. + +That was all that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had to say. The +uninitiated men looked at one another in mute enquiry. There was +something in the air. What was coming? + +The Premier rose to explain. He admitted that they had underrated the +danger of the situation at first. Measures that might have sufficed then +were useless now. Oil was the pivot of the whole question. The oil tax +had not realised expectations. To raise the tax would only alienate the +affections of their own people without reaching the heart of the matter. +They had already taken one bite at a cherry. + +He paused and looked round, an indifferent swimmer forced by giant +circumstance to face his Niagara. + +He proposed as a measure of national emergency to prohibit the +importation of oil altogether. + +There was a gasp of surprise; a moment of stupefaction. Strange things +were again being done in the name of Liberty. + +Mr Tubes's voice, enumerating the results and advantages of the step, +recalled their wandering thoughts. There was little need for the +recital; the effect of so unexpected a _coup_ leapt to the mind at once. + +The Leaguers must either burn coal or starve. The home oil deposits had +long ceased to be worked. Wood under modern conditions was +impracticable; peat was equally debarred, and neither could meet a +sudden emergency in sufficient quantity; electricity meant coal, and was +far from universal. The League movement must collapse within a week. + +There were other points, all in favour of the course. Although it might +slightly inconvenience many working-class homes it would not take their +money as a heavier tax would, and it must convince all that the end was +well in sight. It would induce the poor to use more coal, more gas, in +itself a step towards that desired end. It would teach Russia a sharp +lesson, and Russia's sins were the freshest in their minds. + +All were convinced, and all against their will. There was something +sinister in the proposal; the thought of it fell like a shadow across +the room. + +"It is not a course I would recommend or even assent to as a general +thing," said Mr Strummery. "But we are fighting for the existence of our +party, for the lives of thousands of our people. It is no exaggeration. +Think of the awful misery that must sweep the country in the coming +winter if the League holds out. If we do not break the wicked power of +those two men, there is no picture of national calamity to be found in +the past that can realise the worst." + +"It is their game," said Mr Tubes bitterly. "The cowards are striking at +the women and children through the men." + +He ignored the fact that his party had struck the first blow, and had +had the word "War!" figuratively nailed to the staff of their red banner +for years. In war one usually strikes some one, and on the whole it is +perhaps less reprehensible to strike women and children through men than +_vice versa_. But it was an acceptable sentiment on the face of it, and +it sounded all right at the moment. + +"Moreover," added the Premier, "there will be this danger in the +situation: that blinded by passions and desperate through misery, the +people may fail to realise who are the real causes of their plight." + +Yes, there was that possibility to be faced by thoughtful Socialistic +Ministers. The people are not very subtle in their reasoning. The most +pressing fact of their existence would be that the Government, which had +promised to keep them from starvation in return for their votes, had had +their votes and was allowing them to starve. + +"I think that we must all agree to the necessity of the step," said one +of the minor men, "though our feelings are all against it." + +"Quite so," admitted Mr Strummery. "Let us hope that being a sharp +remedy it will only need to be a short one." + +Surprise was the essence of the _coup_, and the "business-like" +procedure of Parliament permitted this when the Government was backed by +a large automatic majority. The expeditious passing of the measure was a +foregone conclusion, yet a few shrewd warning voices were raised against +it even among the stalwarts. The regular opposition voted against it as +a matter of course. The most moderate section of the Labour Party and +the extreme Socialists, who both elected to sit on the opposition side +of the House, refrained from voting, and a few Ministers, who were +distracted between their private opinions and their party duty, were +diplomatically engaged elsewhere. + +The Bill first received the attention of the House on the 25th of +September, the day after the Premier had called his informal meeting. It +became law on the 28th, and three days later, the 1st of October, Great +Britain was absolutely "closed" against the introduction of mineral +burning oils on any terms. + +The country received the measure with mixed feelings, but on the whole +with the admission that it would be effective and with an expression of +dislike. The coal mining districts hailed it with enthusiasm, and the +same reception was accorded it among the affected industries, but +outside these it was nowhere popular, and in certain working-class +quarters it evoked the bitterest hostility. It was felt even by those +who stood to gain much by the overthrow of the League that their +instincts rebelled against the means; possibly the underlying feeling +was distrust of the exercise of power so despotic. It was admitted that +the League's action with respect to coal stood on a different plane. Any +member could at once resign; it was questionable if one could not use +coal and still remain a member. Certainly no coercion was used. But in +the matter of oil a necessary commodity was absolutely ruled out, and, +whether he wished or nor, every one must obey. By the 8th of October the +retail price of petroleum of an average quality was 2s. 9d. the gallon, +and the price was rising as the end of the stock came in sight. + +One curious circumstance excited remark. The Unity League members were +still being supplied at the original price. The League was keeping its +word gallantly to the end. The Government had calculated that the two +interested companies might have a reserve that would last a week. The +average stock which the consumer might be supposed to have in hand would +carry them on for a further five days, and the economy which they would +doubtless practise might hold off the climax for five more. The 17th of +October came to be confidently mentioned in Government circles as the +date of the Unity League's surrender. + +It might have been merely coincidence, but on the 17th of October Mr +Strummery chose to entertain a few of his colleagues to dinner in the +House. + +In spite of the host's inevitable jug of boiling water, an air of genial +humour, almost of gaiety, pervaded the board. Mr Tubes was +entertainingly reminiscent; Chadwing succeeded in throwing off the +weight of the Treasury; Comrade Stubb, fresh from the soil, proved to +have a dry humour of his own; and Cecil Brown, who was always socially +welcome, made a joke which almost surprised the Premier into a smile. + +Mr Tubes was in the middle of a sentence when Cecil Brown, with his face +turned towards the door, laid his hand upon the speaker's arm. + +"A minute, Tubes," he said. "There is something unusual going on out +there." + +"Perhaps it is----" began Chadwing, and stopped. The same thought had +occurred to at least three of them. Perhaps they were coming to tell +them that Hampden had accepted his defeat. Whatever it might be, a dozen +members who had entered the room in a confused medley were making their +way towards the Premier's table. A man who seemed to concentrate their +attention was in their midst; some were apparently trying to hold him +back, while others urged him on. While yet some distance off he broke +away from them all, and running forward, reached the table first. + +It was Comrade Bilch, so dishevelled, red, and heated, that it did not +occur to any one to doubt that he was drunk. For a second he stood +looking at them stupidly, and then he suddenly opened his mouth and +poured out so appalling a string of vile and nauseating abuse that men +who were near drew aside. + +"Why, in Heaven's name, don't you take him away?" exclaimed Cecil Brown, +appealing to those who formed the group beyond the table. + +They would have done so, but Comrade Bilch raised his hand as though to +enjoin attention for a moment. A change seemed to have come over him +even in that brief passage of time. He walked up to the table and leaned +heavily upon it with both fists, while his breath came in throbs, and +the colour played about his face like the reflection of a raging fire. +When he spoke it was without a single oath; all his uncleanness had +dropped away from him as though he recognised its threadbare poverty in +the face of the colossal news he brought. + +"Gentlemen," he said, leaning forward and breathing very hard, "you +would have it, and you have got your way. You've made oil contraband, +and not a drop can be landed in Great Britain now. It can't be brought, +but it can be used when it is here, and the Unity League that you have +done it all to starve has got two hundred million gallons safely stowed +away at Hanwood! Yes, while our people will have to grope and freeze +through the winter, _they_ are quite comfortably provided for, and you, +whether you leave the bar on or whether you take it off, you have made +us the laughing-stock of Europe!" + +An awed silence fell on the group. Not the most shadowy suspicion of +such a miscarriage had ever stirred the most cautious. All their qualms +had been in the direction of swallowing the unpalatable measure, not of +doubting its efficacy. They seemed to be the puny antagonists of some +almost superhuman power that not only brushed their most elaborate plans +aside, but actually led them on to pave the way to their own undoing. + +Mr Tubes was the first to speak. "It can't be true," he whispered. "It +is impossible." + +"Oh, everything's impossible with you, especially when it's happened," +retorted Mr Bilch contemptuously. "Pity you didn't live when there were +real miracles about." + +"But the time?" protested some one. "How could they do it in the time?" + +"Time!" said Mr Bilch, "what more do you want? They've had two years, +and they've used two years. If those----" He stopped suddenly, jerked +his head twice with a curious motion, and fell to the ground in a fit. + +There were plenty of good friends to look after him without troubling +the Ministerial group. The dinner-party broke up in the face of so +inauspicious a series of events, and before another hour had passed the +story of the gigantic fiasco had reached every club in London, and was +being cabled to every capital in Christendom. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE DARK WINTER + + +The autumn of 1918 had proved unusually mild. It was said that many of +the migratory birds delayed their exodus for weeks beyond their normal +times, and in sheltered gardens and hedgerows in the south of England +flowers and fruit were making an untimely show; but about midday on the +24th of November it began to grow dark, and, without any indication of +fog, it grew darker, until the greater part of England and Wales was +plunged into a nocturnal gloom. As there was a marked fall in the +temperature, men looked up to the clouds and predicted snow, but they +were wrong. Had it snowed it might have been the White Winter of 1918, +for that night the frost began, and the 24th of November had already +become an ill-omened date to usher in a frost. It did not belie its +character. The next day broke clear but bitter, and those who read +newspapers learned with curious interest that during the night the +seven-tailed comet of 1744 had been observed by several astronomers, to +the great confusion of their science, for its appearance was premature +by a round hundred thousand years. The phenomenon afterwards grew into a +portent to the vulgar mind, for that was the beginning of the great +frost that lasted seven weeks without an intermission. + +Outside certain limits, life was proceeding very much as before. The +condition of the upper classes was not materially different from what it +had been before the policy of retaliation had been declared. The +Personal Property Tax had not been proceeded with, and the Minimum Wage +Bill had been dropped for the time. There were diplomatic explanations; +the real reason was that the Cabinet was too sharply divided over the +expediency of anything in those days to make the passing of important +measures practicable. While none had the courage to go to an extreme +either in aggression or in conciliation, there was a multitude of +counsel vehemently wrangling over the wisdom of little concessions and +little aggressions. + +In London the great increase in the number of unemployed began to be +observable in the early autumn. The obsolete "marches of unemployed" +were revived, but, as might have been foreseen, except among the poor +themselves, they met with no financial encouragement. Even the poor were +becoming careful of their pence. They saw what the winter must mean, for +every one knew of a score of deserving cases around his own door, and it +was commonly reported that the Government contemplated reducing the +Unemployed Grant to two-thirds its normal basis before the year was out. +That was the Cabinet's idea for "breaking it gently." So, meeting with +no response in the suburbs, the City, or the West End, the processions +groaned occasionally, broke a few windows, enhanced the bitter feeling +existing against their class by frightening more than a few ladies, and +were finally kept in check by the special constabulary raised in the +suburbs, the City, and the West End. Finding so little profit for their +exertions, they abandoned their indiscriminate peregrinations, and took +to demonstrating before St Stephen's and to hooting outside the houses +of Cabinet Ministers until the processions and meetings were disallowed. + +There was no public charity that winter, either organised or +spontaneous, for the benefit of the working-class poor. The conditions +of labour would have warranted a Mansion House Fund being opened in +September, but no one suggested it, and no one would have contributed to +it. Abroad it was generally recognised that England was involved in +civil war to which it behoved them to act as neutrals. The Socialists in +Belgium collected and despatched the sum of L327, 14s. 6d. for the +relief of their "persecuted confraternity in England," but as the pomp +and circumstances attending the inauguration of the Fund had led their +persecuted confraternity in England to expect at least a quarter of a +million sterling, some intemperate remarks greeted the consummation of +the effort, and it was not repeated. + +To those who did not look very deeply into the situation it appeared +that a long, hard winter must operate against the interests of the +League. Their opponents would burn more coal. The Government, indeed, +issued an appeal asking them to do so, and thus to relieve the tension +in the provinces. The response was not promising. The Government was, in +effect, told to mind its own business, and particularly that detail of +its business which consisted in the guarantee of a full and undocked +living wage to every worker in or out of work. The contention so far had +been that with the surfeit, coal would be so cheap that even the poorest +could burn it unstintingly. But soon a new and rather terrible +development grew out of the complex situation. Coal became dear, not +only dear in the ordinary sense of the word--winter prices--but very, +very dear. The simple truth was that a disorganised industry always +moves on abnormal lines, and coal was a routed, a shattered, industry. + +There was no oil to be had by any but members of the League; in some +places there was no gas to be had, for many of the small gas companies, +and some of the large ones, had found it impossible to continue amidst +the dislocation of their trade, and the cheapest coal was being retailed +in the streets of London at two shillings the hundred-weight. The +Government had left oil contraband after the discovery of the League's +secret store down the quiet country lane, for they recognised that to +remove the embargo immediately would kill them with ridicule. They +promised themselves that the freedom of commerce should be restored at +the first convenient opportunity. In the meanwhile they decided to do as +they had done in other matters: they bravely ignored the fact that the +League members were any better off than any one else, and declined to +believe the evidence that any store existed. + +That was the state of affairs before the winter set in, and in London +alone. The Capital was feeling some of the remoter effects of the blow, +but from the provinces, from the actual battle-fields, there came grim +stories. Northumberland, which had been loth to accept the Eight Hours +Bill, now traced the whole of the trouble to that head, and declared +that the only hope was for the Government to make a complete surrender +to the Unity League, on the one condition that it restored a normal +demand for coal both at home and abroad. Durham, on the contrary, held +that it was necessary for the Government to crush or wear out the +League. In both counties there had been fierce conflict between the +rival factions, and blood had been freely shed. After a single day's +rioting at Newcastle and Gateshead seventeen dead bodies had been +collected by the ambulances. + +The "Beaconmen" in Glamorgan were setting fire to the pits themselves in +a spirit of fanaticism. In one instance a fire had spread beyond the +intended limits, and an explosion, in which three score of their +unfortunate fellow-workmen perished, had been the net result. The +Midlands were the least disturbed, and even there Walsall had seen a +mass meeting at which thirty thousand colliers and other affected +workmen had called insistently with threats upon the Government, in +pathetic ignorance of the Treasury's plight, to purchase the nation's +coal pits at once, and resume full time at all of them, as the only +means of averting a national calamity. + +And all this had been taking place in the mild autumn, while the +Government was still paying out sufficient relief funds to ensure that +actual starvation should not touch any one, long before it had been +driven to take the country into its confidence. The spectre of cold and +hunger had not yet been raised to goad the men to madness; so far they +regarded existence at least as assured, and the question that was +stirring them to rebellion was not the fundamental one of the "right to +live," but the almost academic issue of the right to live apart from the +natural vicissitudes of life. + +The Government had other troubles on hand. The two principal causes for +anxiety among these, if not actually of their own hatching, had +certainly sprung from a common stock. + +The Parliament sitting at College Green deemed the moment opportune for +issuing a Declaration of Independence and proclaiming a republic. Three +years before, all Irishmen had been withdrawn from the British army and +navy on the receipt of Dublin's firmly-worded note to the effect that +since the granting of extended Home Rule, Irishmen came within the +sphere of the Foreign Enlistment Act. These men formed the nucleus of a +very useful army with which Ireland thought it would be practicable to +hold out in the interior until foreign intervention came to its aid. +Possibly England thought so too, for Mr Strummery's Ministry contented +itself with issuing what its members described as a firm and dignified +protest. Closely examined, it was discoverable that the dignified +portion was a lengthy recapitulation of ancient history; the firm +portion a record of Dublin's demands since Home Rule had been conceded, +while the essential part of the communication informed the new republic +that its actions were not what his Majesty's Ministers had expected of +it, and that they would certainly reserve the right of taking the matter +in hand at some future time more suitable to themselves. + +The other harassment was that Leicester lay at the mercy of an epidemic +of small-pox which threatened to become historic in the annals of the +scourge. In the second month the average daily number of deaths had +risen to 120, and there was no sign of a decrease. In the autumn it was +hoped that the winter would kill the disease; in the winter it was +anticipated that it would die out naturally under the influence of the +spring sunshine. The situation affected Mr Chadwing more closely than +any of his colleagues, for Leicester had the honour of returning the +Chancellor of the Exchequer as one of its members. Under normal +conditions Mr Chadwing made a practice of visiting his constituency and +addressing a meeting every few weeks, but during the six months that the +epidemic raged he found himself unable to leave London. His attitude was +perfectly consistent, in spite of the hard things that some of his +supporters said of him in his absence: like the majority of his +constituents, he had a Conscientious Objection to vaccination, but he +also had an even stronger conscientious objection to encountering +small-pox infection. + +The 24th of November ushered in a new phase of the strife. It marked the +beginning of the Dark Winter. Early in December the newspapers began to +draw comparisons between the weather then prevailing and the hard +winters on record. At that date it was noticeable how many +rustic-looking vagrants were to be seen walking aimlessly about the +streets of London. The unemployed from the country were beginning to +flock in for the mere sense of warmth. The British Museum, St. Paul's +Cathedral, the free libraries, and other places where it was possible to +escape from the dreadful rigour of the streets, were crowded by day. At +night long _queues_ of miserable creatures haunted the grids of +restaurants, the sheltered sides of theatres, the windows of printing +houses, and any spot where a little warmth exhaled. On the nights of the +4th, the 5th, and the 6th of December the thermometer on Primrose Hill +registered 3 deg. below zero. On the 7th pheasants were observed feeding +among the pigeons in the main street of Highgate, and from that time +onwards wild birds of the rarer kinds were no unusual sight in the +London parks and about the public buildings. In the country it was +remarked that the small birds had begun to disappear, and the curious +might read any morning of frozen goldfinches being picked up in +Camberwell, larks about Victoria Park, and starlings, robins, +blackbirds, and such like fry everywhere. By this time dairymen had +discovered that it was impossible to deliver milk unless they carried a +brazier of live charcoal on their cart or hand-truck. Local +correspondents in the provinces had ceased to report ordinary cases of +death from cold and exposure; there were cases in the streets of London +every night. + +Early in December Sir John Hampden was approached unofficially by a few +members of Parliament, including one or two of minor official rank, to +learn his "terms." The suggestions were tentative on both sides, and +nothing was stated definitely. But out of the circumlocution it might be +inferred that he expressed his willingness to rescind the boycott, and +to devote five million pounds to public relief at once, in return for +certain modifications of the franchise and an immediate dissolution. +Nothing came of the movement, and during the first week of December the +Government sent round to the post-offices and to all the Crown tax +collectors notices that the licences ordinarily falling due on the 1st +of January must be taken out on or before the 15th of the current month, +and the King's Taxes similarly collected in advance. The League did not +make any open comment on this departure, but every member merely ignored +it, and when the 16th of December was reached, it devolved upon the +officers of the Crown to enforce the payment by legal process. In the +language of another age, the Government was faced by five million +"Passive Resisters." It soon became apparent that instead of getting in +the taxes a fortnight before their time, the greater part of the revenue +from that source would be delayed at least a month later than usual. + +On the 20th of December one million and three-quarters State-supported +unemployed of various grades presented themselves at the appointed +trades unions committee rooms, workhouse offices, employment bureaux, +Treasury depots, from which the Fund was administered, to receive their +weekly "wage." As they passed in they were confronted by a formal notice +to the effect that the disbursement was then reduced to half its usual +amount. As they passed out they came upon another formal notice to the +effect that after the following week the Grant would be "temporarily +suspended." Possibly that also embodied an idea of "breaking it gently." + +The cry of surprise, rage, and terrified foreboding that rose from every +town and village of the land when the direful news was at length +understood, can never be described. Its echoes were destined to roll +through the pages of English history for many a generation. The +immediate result was that rioting broke out in practically all parts of +the country except the purely agricultural. The people who had been +promised a perpetual life of milk and honey had "murmured" when they +were offered bread and water. Now there seemed every prospect of the +water reaching them as ice, and the bread-board being empty, and their +"murmuring" took a sharper edge. In some places there were absolute +stampedes of reason. In justice it has to be remembered that by this +time the most pitiless winter of modern times had been heaping misery on +misery for a month, that the chance of finding work or relief was +recognised to be the forlornest hope, and that very, very few had a +reserve of any kind. + +The indiscriminate disturbances of the 20th of December were easily +suppressed. A people that has been free for generations loses the gift +for successful rioting in the face of armed discipline, even of the most +inadequate strength. But for constitutional purposes the body of one +dragooned rioter in England was worth more than a whole "Vladimir's +battue" east of the Baltic. + +On the 27th of December the certified unemployed drew their diminished +pittance for the last time. They left the buildings in many places with +the significant threat that they would return that day week, and if +there was nothing for them would "warm their hands" there at the least. +There was renewed rioting that day also. The forces of law and order had +been strengthened; the rioters appeared to have been better organised. +In one or two towns the rioting began to approach the Continental level. +Bolton was said to have proved itself far from amateurish, and Nuneaton +was spoken of as being distinctly promising. At the end of that day +public buildings had to be requisitioned in several places to lay out +the spoils of victory and defeat. + +Two days later every newspaper contained an "open letter" from Sir John +Hampden to the Government, in which he unconditionally offered them, on +behalf of the Unity League and in the name of humanity, sufficient funds +to pay the half grant for four weeks longer. It was a humane offer, but +its proper name was strategy. It embarrassed the Government to decide +whether to accept or decline. It embarrassed them if they accepted, and +if they declined it embarrassed them most of all. They declined; or, to +be precise, they ignored the offer. + +By this time England might be said to be under famine. London, in its +ice-bound straits, began curiously to assume the appearance of a +mediaeval city. By night one might meet grotesquely clad bands of +revellers returning from some ice carnival (for the Thames had long been +frozen from the Tower to Gravesend) by the light of lanterns and torches +which they carried. None but those who had nothing to lose ventured out +into the streets at night except by companies. Thieves and bludgeoners +lurked in every archway, and arrests were seldom made; beggars +importuned with every wile and in every tone, and new fantastic creeds +and extravagant new parties sent out their perfervid disciples to +proclaim Utopias at every corner. + +To add to the terror of the night there suddenly sprang into prominence +the bands of "Running Madmen" who swept through the streets like fallen +leaves in an autumn gale. Barefooted, gaunt, and wildly dressed in rags, +they broke upon the astonished wayfarer's sight, and passed out again +into the gloom before he could ask himself what strange manner of men +they were. Never alone, seldom exceeding a score in any band, they ran +keenly as though with some purposeful end in view, for the most part +silently, but now and then startling the quiet night with an +inarticulate wail or a cry of woe or lamentation, but they turned from +street to street in aimless intricacy, and sought no definite goal. They +were never seen by day, and whence they came or where they had their +homes none could say, but the steady increase in the number of their +bands showed that they were undoubtedly the victims of a contagious +mania such as those that have appeared in the past from time to time. + +Almost as ragged and unkempt was the army that by day marched under the +standard of Brother Ambrose towards the sinless New Jerusalem. Reading +the abundant signs all round with an inspired and fatalistic eye, +Ambrose uncompromisingly announced that all the portents of the +Millennium were now fulfilled, and that the reign of temporal power on +earth was at an end. Each day his eloquence mounted to a wilder flight, +each day he dreamed new dreams and saw fresh visions, and promised to +his followers more definitely the spoil of victory, and parcelled out +the smiling, fruitful land. Drawn by every human passion, recruits +poured into his ranks, and when he marched in tattered state to mark the +boundaries of the impending Golden City, the Legions of the Chosen +rolled not in their thousands, but in their tens of thousands, singing +hymns and interspersing ribaldry. + +A very different spectacle was afforded by the bands of the Gilded Youth +which by day patrolled the approaches to houses of the better class, +wherever smoke had been seen issuing from the chimneys, and by night +with equal order and thoroughness turned out the public gas lamps in the +streets, until many of the authorities at last gave up the lighting of +the lamps as a useless formality. + +It was impossible for the occupants of a house that had incurred their +enmity to have them removed by force, or to maintain an attitude of +unconcern in the face of their demonstration, yet everything they did +came under the term of "Peaceful Picketing" within the provisions of the +Act, and an attempt to fix responsibility upon the Unity League for the +high-handed action of its agents in a few cases where the Gilded Youth +had gone beyond their powers, failed ignominiously through the precedent +afforded by the final settlement of the celebrated Tawe Valley Case. + +In the provinces the rioters were burning coal, burning coal-pits, +smashing machinery and destroying property indiscriminately, blind to +the fact that some of the immediate effects were falling on their +fellow-workmen, and that most of the ultimate effects would fall upon +themselves. In London and elsewhere the bands of the Gilded Youth were +going quietly and systematically about their daily work, "peacefully" +terrorising house-holders into submission, and carefully turning out the +public lamps at night as soon as they were lit. To the reflective mind +it was rather a dreadful power that the time had called into being: an +educated mob that "rioted peacefully" and did nothing at all that was +detrimental to its own interest. + +Each morning people assured one another that so unparalleled a frost +could last no longer, but each night the air seemed to be whetted to a +keener edge, and each day there came fresh evidences of its power. Early +in January it was computed that all the small birds that had not taken +refuge in towns were dead, partly through the cold itself, but equally +by starvation, for the ground yielded them nothing, and the trees and +shrubs upon which they had been able to rely for food in former winters +had long since perished. There were none but insignificant hollies to be +seen in English gardens for the next generation, and in exposed +situations forest trees and even oaks were split down to the ground. + +All this time there was very little destructive rioting going on in +London on any organised scale, but every night breadths of wood pavement +were torn up by the homeless vagrants, who were now allowed to herd +where they could, and great fires set burning at which the police warmed +themselves and mingled supinely with the crowd. By day the police went +in pairs, by night they patrolled in companies of five. For the +emergency of serious rioting the military were always kept in readiness; +against the more ordinary depredations on private property the owners +were practically left to defend themselves. In those dark weeks watch +duty became one of the regular occupations among the staff of every +London business, and short shrift was given to intruders. Inquests went +like marriages in busy churches at Easter-tide--in batches, and the +morning cart that picked up the frozen dead had only one compartment. + +The time was past when the effects of the vast disorganisation could be +localised. Every trade and profession, every trivial and obscure +calling, and every insignificant little offshoot of that great trunk +called Commerce was involved in depression; it was not too much to say +that every individual in the land was feeling some ill effect. Frantic +legislation had begun it ten years before; the coal war had brought it +to a climax, and the grip of the long, hard winter had pressed like a +hostile hand upon the land. + +It had resolved itself into a war of endurance. Coal was no longer the +pivot; it was money, immediate money with which to buy bread at the +bakers' shops, where they carried on their trade with the shutters up +and loaded weapons laid out in the upper rooms. + +Not the least curious feature of the struggle was the marked +disinclination of the starving populace to pillage or bloodshed. +Doubtless they saw that whatever they might individually profit by a +reign of terror, their cause and party had nothing to gain from it. Such +an outburst must inevitably react unfavourably upon the Government of +the day, and it was _their_ party then in power. But they had not the +mob instinct in them; they were not composed of the ordinary mob +element. In the bulk they were neither criminals nor hooligans, but +matter-of-fact, disillusionised working men, and the instincts of their +class have ever been steady and law-abiding. In Cheapside a gang of +professional thieves blew out the iron shutter of a jeweller's shop with +dynamite, and securing a valuable haul of jewellery in the momentary +confusion, sought to hide themselves among the mob. Far from entering +into their aspirations, the mob promptly conveyed them to the nearest +police station, and returned to the owner the valuable articles that had +been scattered about the street. The climax of the incident was reached +by half a dozen of the most stalwart unemployed gladly accepting a few +shillings each to guard the broken window until the shutter was +repaired. + +At the collieries, the mills, the workshops, and the seats of labour +there were outrages against property, but away from the immediate +centres there was neither cupidity nor resentment. Whenever disturbances +of the kind took place they were invariably in pursuit of food or +warmth. The men were dispirited, and by this time they regarded their +cause as lost. Their leaders, in and out of Parliament, were classed +either as incompetent generals in a war, or as traitors who had misled +the people. The people only asked them now to make the terms of +surrender so that they might live; and they did not hesitate to declare +roundly that the old times when they had had to look after themselves +more, and had not been body and soul at the disposal of semi-political +Unions, were preferable on the whole. + +The position of the Cabinet was daily growing more critical. Its chiefs +were execrated and insulted whenever they were seen. All the approaches +to the House were held by military guards, and the members reached its +gates singly, and almost by stealth. Every day placards, written and +printed, were found displayed in public places, calling on the +Government that had no money to let in one that had. "You thought more +of your position than of our needs when Hampden offered us help," ran +one that Mr Strummery found nailed to his front door. "You have always +thought more of your positions than of our needs. You have used our +needs to raise yourselves to those positions. Now, since you no longer +represent the wishes of the People, give way to others." + +The delay of the Government in throwing up an utterly untenable position +was inexplicable to most people. Many said that the reason was that +Hampden refused to take office under the existing franchise, and no one +but Hampden could form an administration in that crisis that could hope +to live for a day. Whatever the reason might be, it was obvious that the +Government was drifting towards a national tragedy that would be +stupendous, for in less than a month's time, it was agreed on all hands, +the daily tale of starved and famished dead would have reached its +thousands. + +Still the Government hung on, backed in sullen submission by its +automatic majority. Changes in the Cabinet were of almost daily record, +but the half dozen men of prominence remained. Cecil Brown was the last +of the old minor men to be dropped. A dog trainer, who had taken up +politics, succeeded him. "It is too late now," Cecil Brown was reported +to have said when he learned who was to be his successor. "They want +bread, not circuses!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE INCIDENT OF THE 13TH OF JANUARY + + +"I do not altogether like it," said A. + +"Do you prefer to leave things as they are, then?" demanded B. + +A. went over and stood by the window, looking moodily out. + +"It is merely a necessity," said C. + +"The necessity of a necessity," suggested D. happily. + +"Perhaps you are not aware," said B., addressing himself to the man +standing at the window, "that the suggestion of arresting Salt did not +come from us in the first case." + +"Is that so?" replied A., coming back into the room. "I certainly +assumed that it did." + +"On the contrary," explained B., "it was Inspector Moeletter who +reported to his superiors that he had succeeded in identifying the +mysterious man who was seen with Leslie Garnet, the artist, about the +time of his death. He would have got his warrant in the ordinary way, +only in view of the remarkable position that Salt occupies just now, +Stafford very naturally communicated with us." + +"The only point that troubles us," remarked C. reflectively, "is that +none of us can persuade himself in the remotest degree that Salt killed +Garnet." + +"I certainty require to have the evidence before I can subscribe to +that," said B. "The man who is daily killing hundreds----" + +"Ah, that is the difference," commented D. + +"Where are the Monmouth colliers now?" asked C., after a pause. + +"Newbury, this morning," replied D. "Reading, to-night." + +"And the Midland lot?" + +"Towcester, I think." + +"If Hampden formally asks for protection for the oil store at Hanwood, +after the miners' threat to burn it, what are you going to do?" asked A. + +"I should suggest telling him to go and boil himself in it, since he has +got it there," replied C. + +"There will be no need to tell him anything but the bare fact, and that +is that with twenty-five thousand turbulent colliers pouring into London +and adding to the disaffected element already here, we cannot spare a +single man," replied B. + +"I quite agree with that," remarked D., drawing attention to his +freshly-scarred cheek. "I had a tribute of the mob's affection as I came +in this morning." + +"That's your popularity," said C. "Your photograph is so much about that +no one has any difficulty in recognising you. How do you get on in that +way, B.?" + +"I?" exclaimed B. with a startled look. "Oh, I always drive with the +blinds down now." + +"Are any extra military coming in before Friday?" asked A. + +"Yes, the Lancers from Hounslow. They come into the empty Albany Street +Barracks to-night. Then I think that there are to be some extra infantry +in Whitehall, from Aldershot. Cadman is seeing to all that." + +"But you know that the Lancers are being drawn from Hounslow?" asked C. +with a meaning laugh. + +"Yes, I know that," admitted B. "Why do you laugh, C.?" + +C.'s only reply was to laugh again. + +"I will tell you why he laughs," volunteered D. "He laughs, B., because +the Lancers withdrawn from Hounslow to Regent's Park, Salt under arrest +at Stafford, and the Monmouth colliers coming along the Bath road and +passing within a mile or two of Hanwood, represent the three angles of a +very acute triangle." + +"There is still Hampden," muttered B. + +"Yes; what is going to happen to Hampden?" asked C., with a trace of his +mordant amusement. + +A., who was walking about the room aimlessly, stopped and faced the +others. + +"I'll tell you what," he exclaimed emphatically. "I said just now that I +didn't like the idea of smuggling Salt away like this, and, although it +may be advisable, I don't. But I wish to God that we had openly arrested +the pair of them as traitors, and burned their diabolical store before +every one's eyes three months ago." + +"Ah," said D. thoughtfully, "it was too early then. Now it's too late." + +"It may be too late to have its full effect," flashed out B., "but it +won't be too late to make them suffer a bit along with our own people." + +"Provided that the oil is burned," said D. + +"Provided that no protection can be sent," remarked C. + +"Provided that Salt is arrested," added A. + +There was a knock at the door. It explained the attitude of the four men +in the room and their scattered conversation. They had been awaiting +some one. + +He came into the room and saluted, a powerfully-built man with "uniform" +branded on every limb, although he wore plain clothes then. + +"Detective-Inspector Moeletter?" said B. + +"Yes, sir," said the inspector, and stood at attention. + +"You have the warrant?" continued B. + +Moeletter produced it, and passed it in for inspection. It was made out +on the preceding day, signed by the Stipendiary Magistrate of Stafford, +and it connected George Salt with Leslie Garnet by the link of Murder. + +"When you applied for this warrant," said B., looking hard at the +inspector, "you considered that you had sufficient evidence to support +it?" + +Moeletter looked puzzled for a moment, as though the question was one +that he did not quite follow in that form. For a moment he seemed to be +on the verge of making an explanation; then he thought better of it, and +simply replied: "Yes, sir." + +"At all events," continued B. hastily, "you have enough evidence to +justify a remand? What are the points?" + +"We have abundant evidence that Salt was in the neighbourhood about the +time of the tragedy; that fact can scarcely be contested. Coming nearer, +an old man, who had been hedging until the storm drove him under a high +bank, saw a gentleman enter Garnet's cottage about half-past five. +Without any leading he described this man accurately as Salt, and picked +out his photograph from among a dozen others. About an hour later, two +boys, who were bird-nesting near Stourton Hill church, heard a shot. +They looked through the hedge into the graveyard and saw one man lying +apparently dead on the ground, and another bending over him as though he +might be going through his pockets. Being frightened, they ran away and +told no one of it for some time, as boys would. Of course, sir, that's +more than six months ago now, but the description they give tallies, and +I think that we may claim a strong presumption of identity taking into +consideration the established time of Salt's arrival at Thornley." + +"That is all?" said B. + +"As regards identity," replied the inspector. "On general grounds we +shall show that for some time before his death Garnet had been selling +shares and securities which he held, and that although he lived frugally +no money was found in the remains of his house or on his person, and no +trace of a banking account or other investment can be discovered. Then +we allege that 'George Salt' is not the man's right name, although we +have not been able to follow that up yet. He is generally understood to +have been a sailor recently, and the revolver found beside the body was +of a naval pattern. I should add that the medical evidence at the +inquest was to the effect that the wound might have been self-inflicted, +but that the angle was unusual." + +B. returned the warrant to the inspector. + +"That will at least ensure a remand for a week for you to continue your +investigations?" + +"I think so, sir." + +"Without bail?" + +"If it is opposed." + +"We oppose it, then. Did you bring any one down with you?" + +Inspector Moeletter had not done so. He had not been able to anticipate +what amended instructions he might receive in London, so he had thought +it as well to come alone. + +"For political reasons it is desirable that nothing should be known +publicly of the arrest until you have your prisoner safely at Stafford," +said B. "At present he is motoring in the southern counties. I have +information that he will leave Farnham this afternoon between three and +half-past and proceed direct to Guildford. Is there any reason why you +should not arrest him between the two places?" + +Inspector Moeletter knew of none. + +"It will be preferable to doing so in either town from our point of +view," continued B., "and it is not known whether he intends leaving +Guildford to-night." + +The inspector took out an innocent-looking pocket-book, whose elastic +band was a veritable hangman's noose, and noted the facts. + +"Is a description of the motor-car available?" he enquired. + +B. picked up a sheet of paper. "It is a large car, a 30 H.P. Daimler, +with a covered body, and painted in two shades of green," he read from +the paper. "The number is L.N. 7246." + +"I would suggest bringing him straight on in the car," said Moeletter. +"It would obviate the publicity of railway travelling." + +B. nodded. "There is another thing," he said. "It is absolutely +necessary to avoid the London termini. They are all watched +systematically by agents of the League--spies who call themselves +patriots. You will take the 7.30 train with your prisoner, but you will +join it at Willesden. I will have it stopped for you." + +"I shall need a man who can drive the motor to go down with me," the +detective reminded him. + +B. struck a bell. "Send Sergeant Tolkeith in," he said to the attendant. + +Sergeant Tolkeith was apparently being kept ready in the next room, to +be slipped at the fall of the flag, so to speak. He came in very +smartly. + +"You will remain with Inspector Moeletter while he is in London, and +make all the necessary arrangements for him," instructed B. "I suppose +that there are men at Scotland Yard available now who can drive every +kind of motor?" + +Sergeant Tolkeith hazarded the opinion that there were men at Scotland +Yard at that moment who could drive--he looked round the room in search +of some strange or Titanic vehicle to which the prowess of Scotland Yard +would be equal--"Well, Anything." + +"A man who knows the roads," continued B. "Though, for that matter, it's +a simple enough route--the Portsmouth road all the way to Kingston, and +then across to Willesden. You had better avoid Guildford, by the way, +coming back. Now, what other assistance will you require?" + +"How many are there likely to be in the car, sir?" + +"No one but Salt, I am informed. He has been touring alone for a week +past, at all events." + +"In that case, sir, we had better take a couple of men from Guildford +and drive towards Farnham. We can wait at a suitable place in the road +and make the arrest. Then when the irons are on I shall need no one +beyond the driver I take with me. The two local men--you'll want Mr +Salt's _chauffeur_ detained for a few hours, I suppose, sir?" + +"Yes, certainly; until you are well on your way. And any one else who +may happen to be in the car. I will give you authority covering that." + +"The two local men can take him, or them, back to Guildford--it will be +dark by the time they get there--for detention while enquiries are being +made. Then if a plain-clothes man meets me at Willesden we can go on, +and our driver can take the car on to Scotland Yard." + +"You see no difficulty throughout?" said B. anxiously. The inspector +assured him that all seemed plain sailing. It was not his place to +foresee difficulties in B.'s plans. + +"Then I shall expect you to report to me from Stafford about 10.30 +to-night that everything is satisfactory. Let me impress on you as a +last word the need of care and _unconcern_ in this case. It must be +successfully carried out, and to do that there must be no fuss or +publicity." + +"Sergeant," said Detective-Inspector Moeletter, when they were outside, +"between ourselves, can you tell me this: why they think it necessary to +have three mute gentlemen looking on while we arrange a matter of this +sort?" + +"Between ourselves, sir," replied Sergeant Tolkeith, looking cautiously +around, "it's my belief that it's come to this: that they are all +half-afraid of themselves and can't trust one another." + +"D.," remarked C., as they left together a few minutes later, "does +anything strike you about B.?" + +"It strikes me that he looks rather like an undertaker's man when he is +dressed up," replied D. + +"Does it not strike you that he is _afraid_?" + +"Oh," admitted D., stroking his wounded cheek, "that's quite possible. +So am I, for that matter." + +"So may we all be in a way," said C.; "but it is different with him. I +believe that he is in a _blue funk_. He's fey, and he's got Salt on the +brain. Just remember that I venture on this prophecy: if Salt through +any cause does not happen to get arrested, B. will throw up the sponge." + + * * * * * + +The office of the Unity League in Trafalgar Chambers was little more +than an empty hive now. The headquarters of the operations had been +transferred to the colony at Hanwood, and most of the staff had +followed. With the declaration of the coal war, an entirely different +set of conditions had come into force. The old offices had practically +become a clearing house for everything connected with the League, and +the high tide of active interest swept on elsewhere. + +Miss Lisle remained, a person of some consequence, but in her heart she +sighed from time to time for a sphere of action "down another little +lane." + +On the afternoon of the 13th of January she returned to the office about +half-past three, and going to the instrument room unlocked the +telescribe receiver-box and proceeded to sort the dozen communications +which it contained--the accumulation of an hour--before passing them on +to be dealt with. Most fell into clearly-defined departments at a +glance. It was not until she reached the last, the earliest sent, that +she read it through, but as she read that her whole half-listless, +mechanical manner changed. With the first line apathy fell from her like +a cloak; before she had finished, every limb and feature conveyed a +sense of tingling excitement. In frantic haste she dragged the special +writing materials across the table towards her, dashed off a sprawling, +"Stop Mr Salt at any cost.--LISLE," and flashed it off to the League +agency at Farnham. + +A couple of minutes must pass before she could get any reply. She picked +up the cause of her excitement, and for the second time read the message +it contained: + +"If you want to keep your Mr Salt from being arrested on a charge of +murder, warn him that Inspector Moeletter from Stafford will be waiting +for him on the road between Farnham and Guildford at three o'clock this +afternoon with a warrant. No one believes in it, but he will be taken on +in his motor to Willesden, and on to Stafford by the 7.30, and kept out +of the way for a week while things have time to happen at Hanwood. There +will be just enough evidence to get a remand, as there was to get a +warrant. This is from a friend, who may remind you of it later and prove +who he is by this sign." + +The letter finished with a rough drawing of a gallows and a broken rope. +It was written in a cramped, feigned hand and addressed to Sir John +Hampden. It might have been lying in the box for an hour. + +The telescribe bell gave its single note. Irene opened the box in +feverish dread. An exclamation of despair broke from her lips as some +words on the paper stood out in the intensity of their significance even +before she took the letter from the box. + +This was what Farnham replied: + +"Hope nothing is the matter. Mr Salt left here quite half an hour ago, +in his motor, for Guildford. He will stay there the night, or proceed to +Hanwood according to the time he is occupied. Please let me know if +there is any trouble." + +Half an hour! There was not the remotest chance of intercepting him. +Already, under ordinary circumstances, he would be in the outskirts of +Guildford. It only remained to verify the worst. She wrote a brief +message asking Mr Salt if he would kindly communicate with her +immediately on his arrival, and despatched it to the agency at +Guildford. If there was no reply to that request during the next +half-hour she would accept the arrest as an established fact. And there +being nothing apparently to do for the next half-hour, Miss Lisle, very +much to the surprise of ninety-nine out of her hundred friends could +they have seen her, went down on her knees in the midst of a roomful of +the latest achievements of science and began to pray that a miracle +might happen. + + * * * * * + +"I suppose that I may smoke?" said Salt. He was sitting handcuffed in +his own motor-car, charged with murder, and formally cautioned that +anything he should say might be used as evidence against him. It was +scarcely a necessary warning in his case; with the exception of an +equally formal protest against the arrest, he had not opened his lips +until now. He and Moeletter had sat silently facing one another in the +comfortably-appointed, roomy car, Salt with his face to the driver and +leaning back in his easy seat with outward unconcern, the detective +braced to a more alert attitude and with his knees almost touching those +of his prisoner. For a mile or more--for perhaps seven or eight minutes +by time, for the new driver was cautious with the yet unknown car--they +had proceeded thus. + +Yet Salt was very far from being unconcerned as he leaned back +negligently among the cushions. He was thinking keenly, and with the +settled, tranquil gaze that betrayed nothing, watching alertly the miles +of dreary high-road that stretched along the Hog's Back before them. He +had long foreseen the possibility of arrest, and he had taken certain +precautions; but to safeguard himself effectually he would have had to +abandon the more important part of his work, and the risk he ran was the +smaller evil of the two. But he had not anticipated this charge. Some +legal jugglery with "conspiracy" had been in his mind. + +"I suppose that I may smoke?" Half a mile ahead a solitary wayfarer was +approaching. Salt might have noted him, but there was nothing remarkable +in his appearance except that pedestrians--or vehicles either, for that +matter--were rare along the Hog's Back on that bitter winter afternoon. + +"Why, certainly, sir; in your own car, surely," replied the inspector +agreeably. He was there to do his duty, and he had done it, even down to +the detail of satisfying himself by search that his prisoner carried no +weapon. Beyond that there was no reason to be churlish, especially as +every one had to admit that there was no telling what might have +happened in a week's or a month's time. "Can I help you in any way?" + +"Thank you, I will manage," replied Salt, and in spite of his manacles +he succeeded without much difficulty in taking out his cigarette-case +and a match-box. He lit a cigarette, blew out the match, and then looked +hesitatingly round the rather elegant car, at the rich velvety carpet on +the floor, at the half-burned vesta in his hand. Then with easy +unconcern he lowered the window by his side and leaned forward towards +it. + +It was a perfectly natural action, but Inspector Moeletter owed at least +one step in his promotion to a habit of always being on his guard +against natural-seeming actions of that kind. His left foot quickly and +imperceptibly slid across the carpet, so that if Salt made any +ill-judged attempt to leave the car he must inevitably come to grief +across that rigid barrier; with a ready eye Moeletter noted afresh the +handle of the door, the size of the window frame, and every kindred +detail. His hands lay in unostentatious readiness by his side, and he +felt no apprehension. + +But Salt had not the faintest intention of attempting any sensational +act. He dropped the match leisurely from between his fingers, cast a +glance up to the sky, where the lowering clouds had long been +threatening snow, and then drew in his head. But in some way, either +from his position, a jolt of the car, or a touch against the sash, as he +did so his cap was jerked off, and, despite a quick but clumsy attempt +to catch it in his fettered hands, it was whirled away behind in their +eddying wake. + +"Please stop," he said, turning to Moeletter. "I am afraid that I shall +find it too cold without." + +The detective was not pleased, but there was nothing in the mishap that +he could take objection to. Further, he had no wish to make his prisoner +in any way noticeable during the latter part of their journey. "Pull up, +Murphy," he called through the tube by his shoulder, and with a grinding +that set its owner's teeth on edge, the car came to a standstill in two +lengths. + +Moeletter had intended that the driver should recover the cap, but he +was saved the trouble. The solitary pedestrian had happened to be on the +spot at the moment of the incident, and he was standing by the open +window almost as soon as the car stopped. Forgetful of his indignity, +Salt stretched out a manacled hand and received his property. "Thank +you," he said with a pleasant smile. "I am much obliged." + +"Go on," said Moeletter, through the tube. + +"I think that I had better get used to these--'darbies' is the +professional name, is it not, Inspector?--to these 'darbies' before I +look out again," remarked Salt good-humouredly. + + * * * * * + +The telescribe bell announced another message. It found Irene sitting at +the table in the instrument room with ordnance maps around her and the +index book of the League's most trusted agents lying open on the shelf. +She just glanced at the clock as she jumped up. It was 4.15, exactly the +last minute of the half-hour that she had fixed as the limit of +uncertainty. The message might even yet be from Salt. But it was not; it +was this instead: + +"Fear Mr Salt has been arrested. He is in his motor-car, handcuffed, +proceeding towards Guildford, in charge of man who has appearance of +belonging to police force. Driver is not Mr Salt's man. Mr S. made opp. +for me to see sit., but said nothing. Passed just W. of Puttenham 3.55. +Roads good, but snow beginning. Car trav only 10-12 m. hour. Shall +remain here on chance being use. Don't hesitate." + +A hall-formed plan was already floating in the space between Miss +Lisle's adventurous brain and the maps. The Puttenham message +crystallised it. There was now something to go on. The route she knew +already; the times and mileages also lay beneath her hand. The scheme +had a hundred faults, and only one thing to recommend it--that it might +succeed. For ten minutes she flung herself into the details of the maps, +jotting down a time, a distance, here and there a detail of the road. +"Puttenham" might remain at his box till dawn, but all the work, all the +chance, was forward--before the car. At the end of ten minutes Irene +picked up the accumulation of her labours and rang up the telephone +exchange. + + * * * * * + +"What is it, Murphy?" demanded the inspector through the tube, as the +car came to a dead stop. "Something else in the way?" + +"I can't quite make it out, sir," was the reply. "We're just outside the +long railway arch, and there seems to be something on fire towards the +other end. Terrible lot of smoke coming through." + +"Can't we run up to it?" + +"This is an unusually long bridge--fifty or sixty yards, I should say. I +hardly like to take you on into that smoke, sir." + +"Oh, very well. Jump down and see what it is. Only be as sharp as you +can." + +It was now pitch dark, and a driving, biting storm of snow and hail was +blowing across their path from the east. When the constable-_chauffeur_ +had learned sufficient of the car to give him confidence, the storm had +swept down, and their progress had been scarcely any faster. There had +been delays, too. By Ripley a heavy farm waggon had broken down almost +before their eyes, and it had been ten minutes before a spare chain +horse could be obtained to drag it to the roadside. Further on some men +felling a tree in a coppice had clumsily allowed it to fall across the +road, and another ten minutes elapsed before it was cut in two and +rolled aside. Fortunately they were not pressed for time. Fortunately, +also, the driver knew the way, for few people were afoot to face that +dreadful stream of snow and ice with the lashing wind and the numbing +cold. Two, two or three, or perhaps four men had chanced to be at hand +when the car stopped, making their way towards the bridge, but the +wreathing snow soon cut them off. Occasionally, when the wind and drift +hung for a moment, a figure or two showed dimly and gigantic in the murk +of the tunnel. Nothing of the fire could be seen, but the smoke +continued to pour out, and the mingled odour of burned and unburned oil +filled the car. + +In a few minutes the driver returned. When he had left his seat +Moeletter had leaned forward, and with a gruff word of half apology had +laid a hand upon the rug across Salt's knees, so that he held, or at +least controlled, the connecting links of the handcuffs, while at the +same time his other hand had dropped quietly down to his hip-pocket. He +now lowered the window on the further side, still keeping his left hand +on the rug. + +"Oil cart ablaze, sir," gasped the driver, between paroxysms of +coughing. "Road simply running fire, and the fumes awful." His face was +almost completely protected beneath cap, goggles, and a storm shade that +fell from the cap over the shoulders and buttoned across the mouth, but +no covering had seemed effectual against the suffocating reek of the +burning oil. The fire had melted the snow off his clothes, and he stood +by the door with a bar of darkness just falling across his face, and the +electric light through the lowered window blazing upon his gleaming +leathers, his gauntlets and puttee leggings, and the cumbrous numbered +badge that the regulations then imposed. + +"It will be some time before the road is passable?" asked Moeletter with +a frown. + +"Oh, hours perhaps," was the sputtering reply. "Would suggest going by +Molesey Bridge, sir. Best way now." + +"Is it much out?" + +"The turning is half a mile back. From there it is no further than this +way." + +"And you know the way perfectly?" + +The driver nodded. "Perfectly, sir." + +"Very well; go on. We have plenty of time yet, but you might get a few +more miles out of her, if you think you can." + +The driver jumped up to his seat, the horn gave its bull-like note of +warning, and gliding round the car began to head back towards Esher with +the open common on either side and the pelting wind behind. It slackened +for a moment at the fork in the high-road, turned to the right, and then +began to draw away northward with an increased speed that showed the +driver to be capable of rising to his instructions. + +"It is fortunate that the inspector is not a motoring man," thought Salt +to himself with an inward smile. "This is very much too good." But the +inspector only noticed that with the increased speed the car seemed to +run more smoothly, and even then he had no means of judging what the +increase had become. The man whose car it was knew that a very different +explanation than mere speed lay behind the sudden change that made the +motion now sheer luxury. He knew with absolute conviction what had +happened, and he would have known without any further evidence that the +driver who now had his hand upon the wheel was a thousand miles ahead of +constable-_chauffeur_ Murphy in motor-craft. + +It was not the first suggestion of some friendly influence at work that +had stirred his mind. The incident of the stranded waggon across the +road by Ripley was little in itself. Even when they were a second time +delayed by the fallen tree a few miles further on nothing but an +unreasoning hope could have called it more than coincidence. But with +the third episode a matured plan began to loom through the meaningless +delays. Oil was here, and where there was oil in England at that day the +hand of the Unity League might be traced not far away. In his mind's eye +Salt ran over half a dozen miles of the Portsmouth road. As far as he +could remember, if it was _intended_ to block the road there was +scarcely a more suitable spot than the long railway bridge to be found +between Esher and Kingston, and, followed the thought, if it was +intended to force Moeletter to accept the bridge at Molesey, no point in +all the high-road south of the fork would have served. + +The three accidents had taken place each at the exact point where it +would best serve its purpose. + +Salt did not even glance at the driver when he returned from the fire. +He leaned back in his seat in simple enjoyment, and Inspector Moeletter +thought from his appearance that he was going to sleep. + +There was little to be gained by looking out, apart from the policy of +unconcern. The huge white motor-car that was waiting in the cross-road +by Esher station had its head-lights masked, and in the snow-storm and +the night it could not have been seen ten yards away. The driver of the +green car sounded his horn for the road as he swept by, and ten seconds +later the white car glided out from its place of concealment like a +ghostly mastodon, and, baring its dazzling lamps, began to thrash along +the road in the other's wake. + +What would be their route when they had crossed the bridge? That was +Salt's constant thought now, not because he was troubled by the chances, +but because it was the next point in the unknown plan that would serve +to guide him. He had not long to wait under the dexterous pilotage of +the unknown hand outside. The flat, straight road became a tortuous +village street, the lights of the Molesey shops and inns splashed in +splintering blurs across the streaming windows, an iron bridge shook and +rumbled beneath their wheels, and they were in Middlesex. + +The horn brayed out a continuous warning note, the car swung off to the +left, and Salt, with his eyes closed, knew exactly what had been +arranged. + +But there was yet Inspector Moeletter to be reckoned with. He was +ignorant of the roads, but he had a well-developed gift of location, and +the abrupt turn to the left when he had seen what appeared to be a broad +high-road leading straight on from Molesey Bridge, gave him a moment's +thought. He turned to the speaking-tube. + +"Are you sure that this is right, Murphy?" he asked sharply. "Kingston +must lie away on the right." + +"We go through Hampton this way, sir, and into the Kingston road at +Twickenham," came the chattering reply in a half-frozen voice. "It is +just as near, and we don't meet the wind." + +It was quite true, although the inspector might not know it, but the +ready explanation seemed to satisfy him. Another circumstance would have +set his mind at rest. At Hampton the route took them equally to the +right. Salt did not know the road intimately, but he knew that if his +surmise was correct, they must very soon draw away to the left again. +What would happen then? For three or four miles they would run between +hedges and encounter nothing more urban than a scattered hamlet. +Twickenham they would never see that night. Inspector Moeletter was far +from being unsophisticated, and his suspicion had already once, +apparently, been touched. How would the race end? + +The car slowed down for a moment, but so smoothly that it was almost +imperceptible, and with a clanging bell an electric tram swung into +their vision and out again. Salt was taking note of every trifle in this +enthralling game. Why, he asked himself, had so expert a driver +slackened speed with plenty of room to pass? He saw a possible +explanation. They had been meeting and overtaking trams at intervals all +the way from Molesey Bridge. In another minute they would have left the +high-road and the tram route, and the driver wished to hide the fact +from Moeletter as long as possible. He had therefore _waited_ to meet +this tram so that the inspector might unconsciously carry in his mind +the evidence of their presence to the last possible point. + +They were no longer on the high-road; they had glided off somewhere +without a warning note or any indication of speed or motion to betray +the turn they had taken. The houses were becoming sparser, fields +intervened, with here and there a strung-out colony of cottages. Soon +even the scattered buildings ceased, or appeared so rarely that they +only dotted long stretches of country lanes, and at every yard they +trembled on the verge of detection. Nothing but the glare of light +inside the vehicle and the storm and darkness beyond could have hid for +a moment from even the least suspicious of men the fact that they were +no longer travelling even the most secluded of suburban high-roads. And +now, as if aware that the deception could not be maintained much longer, +the driver began to increase the speed at every open stretch. Again +nothing but his inspired skill and the perfectly-balanced excellence of +the car could disguise the fact that they flew along the level road; +while among the narrow winding lanes they rushed at a headlong pace, +shooting down declines and breasting little hills without a pause. The +horn boomed its warning every second, and from behind came the answering +note of the long white motor. It had crept nearer and nearer since they +left the high-road, and its brilliant head-lights now lit up the way as +far as the pilot car. Little chance for Moeletter to convoy his prisoner +out of those deserted lanes whatever happened now! + +What means, what desperate means, he might have taken in a gallant +attempt to retrieve the position if he had suspected treachery just a +minute before he did, one may speculate but never know. + +As it was, the uneasy instinct that everything was not right awoke too +late for him to make the stand. It was less than ten minutes after +meeting the last tram that he peered out into the night doubtfully, but +in those ten minutes the green car had all but won its journey's end. + +"Murphy," he cried imperiously, with his mouth to the tube and a +startled eye on Salt, "tell me immediately where we are." + +"A minute, sir," came the hasty answer, as the driver bent forward to +verify some landmark. "This brake---- + +"Stop this instant!" roared the inspector, rising to his feet in rage +and with a terrible foreboding. + +There was a muffled rattle as they shot over a snow-laden bridge, a +curious sense of passing into a new atmosphere, and then with easy +precision the car drew round and stopped dead before the open double +doors of its own house. No one spoke for a moment. There was another +muffled roar outside, the sound of heavy iron doors clashing together, +and the great white car reproduced their curve and drew up by their +side. + +From the driver's seat of the green car the Hon. Bruce Wycombe, son and +heir of old Viscount Chiltern and the most skilful motorist in Europe, +climbed painfully down, and, pulling off his head-gear, opened the door +of the car with a bow that would have been more graceful if he had been +less frozen. + +"Welcome to Hanwood after your long journey, Inspector Moeletter!" he +exclaimed most affably. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE MUSIC AND THE DANCE + + +Along the great west road, ten thousand Monmouth colliers were streaming +towards London, in every stage of famine and discomfort. What they +intended to do when they reached the Capital they had no clearer idea +than had the fifteen thousand Midlanders at Barnet. All they knew was +that they were starving at home, and they could be no worse off in +London. Also in London there was to be found the Government, the +Government that had betrayed them. + +The conception of the march had been wild, the execution was lamentable. +The leaders might have taken Napoleon's descent on Moscow as their +model. Ten hand-carts exhausted their commissariat. They were to live on +the land they passed through; but the land was agricultural and poor, +the populace regarded the Monmouth colliers as foreigners, and the +response was scanty. Only one circumstance saved the march from becoming +a tragedy of hundreds instead of merely, as it was, a tragedy of scores. + +The men were being fed from London. By whom, and why, not even their +leaders knew, but each night a railway truck full of provisions was +awaiting their arrival at a station on their route, and each day the +men's leader-in-chief was informed where the next supply would be. It +influenced them to continue their journey pacifically when they must +otherwise, sooner or later, have abandoned all restraint and marched +through anarchy. It enabled them to reach London. It added another +element to the Government's distraction in their day of reckoning. It +was a Detail. + +But at Windsor there were no provisions waiting. No one knew why. The +station authorities had nothing to suggest. After a week's regular +supply the leaders had come to expect their daily truck-load, had come +to rely implicitly upon it, and had made no other arrangements. They +conferred together anxiously; it was all there was for them to do. +Windsor was not sympathetic towards them. They had not expected it to +be, but they had expected to be independent of Windsor's friendship. Two +thousand special constables escorted them in and shepherded them +assiduously. Otherwise there might have been disturbances, for a Castle +guard comprised the extent of Windsor's military resources then. As it +was, the miners reached the Royal Borough hungry, and left it famished. +A rumour spread along the ranks as they set out that an unfortunate +mistake had been made, but that supplies would be awaiting them in Hyde +Park. + +If that was a detail, as it might well have been, it was not wholly +successful. The men were hungry and dispirited, but London was not their +immediate goal. For weeks they had been telling the vacillating Cabinet +what ought to be done with the oil at Hanwood, and as they set out they +had boasted to their brothers across the Rhymney that before they +returned they would show them how to fire a beacon that would singe the +hair of five million Leaguers. Midway between Windsor and London they +proceeded to turn off from the highway under the direction of their +leaders, and debouching from the narrow lanes on to the fields beyond, +they began to advance across the country in a straggling, far-flung +wave. + +On the previous day both the Home Office and the War Office had received +applications for protection from the Company at Hanwood, backed by +evidence which left no possible doubt that the Monmouth unemployed +contemplated an organised attack on the oil store. The two departments +replied distantly, that in view of the existing conditions within the +Metropolis and the forces at their disposal, it was impossible to +despatch either troops or constabulary to protect private property in +isolated districts. Hanwood acknowledged these replies, and gave notice +with equal punctilio that they would take the best means within their +power for safeguarding their interests, and at the same time formally +notified the Government that they held them responsible, through their +failure to carry out the obligations of their office, for all the +developments that the situation might lead to--an exchange of civilities +which in private life is sometimes attained much more simply by two +disputants consigning each other to the society of the Prince of +Darkness in four words. + +Whatever there might be behind the intimation, there was little to +indicate it at dusk that afternoon. The stranger or the native passing +along Miss Lisle's secluded lane would have noticed only two +circumstances to suggest anything unusual in the air. + +A few hundred feet above the trees within the wall, a box-kite was +straining at its rope in the rising gale. From the basket car a man +watched every movement of the countryside through his field-glasses, and +conversed from time to time through a telephone with the kite section +down below. A second wire ran from the field telephone to a room of the +offices where Salt was engaged with half a dozen of the chiefs of the +Council of the League. Sir John Hampden was not present. He was +remaining in London to afford the Government every facility for +negotiating a settlement whenever they might desire it. + +In the lane, a group of men with tickets in their hats were loitering +about the bridge. They comprised a Peaceful Picket within the meaning of +the Act. They had been there since daybreak, and so far no one had shown +any wish to dispute their position. + +The war-kite and the picket in the lane were the "eyes" of the opposing +belligerents. + +The League had nothing to gain by submitting the issue to the +arbitrament of lead and fire. No one had anything to gain by it, but +after a bout at fisticuffs a defeated child will sometimes pick up a +dangerous stone and fling it. The League had accepted the challenge of +those who marched beneath the red banner for war on constitutional +lines. Some of those who marched beneath the red banner were now +disposed to try the effect of beating their ploughshares into swords, +and however much the League might have preferred them to keep to their +bargain, the most effective retort was to turn their own pacific sickles +into bayonets. + +In the staff room Salt was addressing his associates--half military, +half political--who now represented the innermost Council of the League. +Some of them had been members of former Ministries, others soldiers who +had worn the insignia of generals, but they rendered to this unknown man +among them an unquestioning allegiance, because of what he had already +done, because he inspired them with absolute reliance in what he would +yet succeed in doing, and, not least, because he had the air that fitted +the position. + +"More than two years ago," he was saying, "the first draft of the +formation and operations of the League contained a section much to the +following effect: + +"'It is an essential feature of the plan that the League should work on +constitutional lines from beginning to end and in contemplation of +bringing about the desired reforms without firing a solitary shot or +violating a single law. + +"'Nevertheless, it is inevitable that when the position becomes acute +civil disorders will arise out of the involved situation, and +demonstrations of the affected people will threaten the Government of +the day on the one hand and the proposed League on the other. + +"'In these circumstances it will be prudent to contemplate, as a last +phase of the struggle, an organised military attack on the property of +the League, masked under the form of a popular riot, but instigated or +connived at by responsible authorities. I propose, therefore, to +establish the League stores in a position naturally suited for defence, +and to adopt such further precautions as will render them secure against +ordinary attack.' + +"We have now reached that closing phase of the struggle," continued +Salt. "On the evidence of this report from Sir John Hampden we may +assume that within twenty-four hours our aggressive work will be over. +Will our opponents, in the language of the street, 'go quietly'?" + +"It has fallen to my lot to read the Riot Act on three occasions," said +one of the company, "and I have seen disturbances in Ireland; but I have +never before known an unorganised mob to surround a position completely +and then to sit down to wait for night." + +"Lieutenant Vivash wishes to speak to Mr Salt personally," said a +subordinate, appearing at the door. + +Salt stepped into the ante-room, and spoke through the telephone. + +"Yes, Vivash," he said to the man in the kite a quarter of a mile away. +"What is it?" + +"Two general service wagons with bridge-making tackle have just been +brought up, and are waiting in Welland Wood," reported Vivash. "There is +a movement among the colliers over Barfold Rise. With them are about two +hundred men carrying rifles. They are not in uniform, but they _march_." + +Salt turned to another instrument and jerked the switch rapidly from +plate to plate as he distributed his orders. + +"Captain Norris, strengthen the Territorials at the outer wire North." + +"Send up two star rockets to recall the motor-cycle scouts." + +"Tell Disturnal to have the searchlights in immediate readiness." + +"Fire brigade, full strength, turn out with chemical engine, and stand +under earthwork cover at central tank." + +He turned again to the kite telephone to ask Vivash a detail. There was +no response. + +"Get on with Lieutenant Vivash as soon as you can, and let me know at +once," he said to the one who was in charge, as he returned to the staff +room. + +In less than a minute the operator was at the door again. + +"I am afraid there is something the matter, sir," he explained. "I can +get no reply either from Lieutenant Vivash or from the kite section." + +"Ring up the despatch room. Let some one go at once to Mr Moore and +return here with report." + +"Yes, sir." He turned to go. "Here _is_ Mr Moore," he exclaimed, +standing aside from the door. + +They all read some disaster in his face as he entered. + +"I am deeply sorry to say that Lieutenant Vivash has been shot." + +"Is he seriously hurt?" asked some one. + +"He is dead. He was shot through the head by a marksman in Welland +Wood." + +Salt broke the shocked silence. + +"We have lost a brave comrade," he said simply. "Come, General Trench, +let us visit the walls." + +It was dark when they returned. Salt passed through the room, calling to +his side the man with whom he had been most closely associated at +Hanwood, and traversing some passages led the way up a winding staircase +into the lantern of the tower. Here, under the direction of an +ex-officer of Royal Engineers, two powerful searchlights were playing on +every inch of doubtful ground that lay within their radius beyond the +entanglement that marked the outer line of the defences. + +Nothing had been seen; not a solitary invader had yet shown himself +within the zone of light. The officer in charge was explaining a +technical detail of the land when, without the faintest warning, a +fulgent blaze of light suddenly ran along the edge of a coppice half a +mile away, and a noise like the crackling of a hundred new-lit fires +drifted on the wind. With the echo, a thick hedge to the east and a wood +lying on the west joined in the vicious challenge. A few bullets +splashed harmlessly against the steel shield that ingeniously protected +the lantern. + +The searchlights oscillated uncertainly from sky to earth under the +shock of the surprise, and then settled down to stream unwinkingly into +the eyes of the enemy, while in the double darkness the defenders hugged +the earth behind the wire and began to reply with cool deliberation to +the opening volleys. + +There was a knock upon the door of the little lantern room, and a +telescribe message was placed before Salt. It bore a sign showing that +it had come over the private system which the League maintained between +Hanwood and the head office. He read it through twice, and for almost +the first time since he had left his youth behind, he stood in absolute +indecision. + +"It is necessary for me to go at once to London," he said, turning to +his companion, when he had made an irrevocable choice. "You will take +command in my absence, Evelyn, under the guidance of the Council." + +"May I venture to remind you, sir, that we are completely surrounded?" +said Orr-Evelyn through his blank surprise. + +"I have not overlooked it. You will----" + +There was a sullen roar away in the north, a mile behind the coppice +that had first spoken. Something whistled overhead, not unmelodiously, +and away to the south a shell burst harmlessly among the ridges of a +ploughed field. The nearer searchlight elevated its angle a fraction and +centred upon a cloud of smoke that hung for a moment until the gale +whirled it to disintegration. The army, like the navy, had reverted to +black powder. It was Economy; and as it was not intended ever to go to +war again, it scarcely mattered. + +"Marsham will engage that gun from both platforms D and E. Make every +effort to silence it with the least delay; it is the only real menace +there is. Hold the entanglement, but not at too heavy a cost. If it +should be carried----Come to my room." + +"You have considered the possible effect of your withdrawal at this +moment, Salt?" said Orr-Evelyn in a low voice, as they hastened together +along the passages. + +"I can leave the outcome in your hands with absolute reliance," replied +Salt. "If Hanwood is successfully held until to-morrow, it will devolve +upon Sir John Hampden to dictate terms to the Government. The end is +safely in sight independent of my personality.... My reputation----!" He +dismissed that phase with a shrug. + +He threw open the door of his private office. A shallow mahogany case, +about a foot square, locked and sealed, was sunk into the opposite wall. +Salt knocked off the wax and opened the case with a key which he took +off the ring and gave to Orr-Evelyn as he spoke. Inside the case were a +dozen rows of little ivory studs, each engraved with a red number. +Fastened to the inside of the lid was a scale map of the land lying +between the outer wall and the wire fence. Every stud had its +corresponding number, surrounded by a crimson circle, indicated on the +plan. + +"If the entanglement should be carried you will take no further risk," +continued Salt. "Captain Ford will give you the general indication of +the attack from the lantern. There are two men detailed to each block of +mines who will signal you the exact moment for firing each mine. Those +are the numbered indicators above the box. Good-bye." + +He paused at the door; time was more than life to him, but he had an +ordered thought for everything. + +"If you hear no more of me, and what might be imagined really troubles +you, Evelyn, you can make use of this," he remarked, and laid the +telescript he had received upon a table. + +It was not the time for words, written or spoken, beyond those of the +sheerest necessity. Half an hour passed before Orr-Evelyn had an +opportunity of glancing through the letter that had called Salt from his +post. When he had finished it he took it down, and read it aloud to the +headquarter staff amidst the profoundest silence, in passionate +vindication of his friend and leader. This was what they heard: + + "UNITY LEAGUE, TRAFALGAR CHAMBERS. + + "The building is surrounded by mob. Seaton Street, Pantile + Passage, and Pall Mall and the Haymarket, as far as I can see, + densely packed with frantic men. All others in building had + left earlier. _I shall remain._ Wires cut, and fear that you + may not receive this, as other telescribe messages for help + unanswered. Mob howling continuously for Sir John Hampden and + Mr Salt; dare not look out again, stoned. Shall delay advance, + doors and stairs, as long as possible, and burn all important + League books and papers last resource. + + "Good-bye all, my dear friends. + + "IRENE LISLE." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE "FINIS" MESSAGE + + +The storm had not decreased its violence when, three minutes later, Salt +stood unperceived on the broad coping outside an upper storey of the +tower, and, sinking forward into the teeth of the gale, was borne +upwards with rigid wings as a kite ascends. + +In accordance with his instructions the two searchlights had turned +their beams steadily earthward for the time, and in the absolute +blackness of the upper air he could pass over the firing lines of +friends and foes in comparative safety. As he rose higher and higher +before turning to scud before the wind, he saw, as on a plan, the whole +field of operations, just distinguishable in its masses of grey and +black, with the points of interest revealing themselves by an occasional +flash. Immediately beneath him, beneath him at first, but every second +drawing away to the south-west as he drifted in the gale he breasted, +lay Hanwood, with its three outer lines of defence. From above it seemed +as though a very bright needle was every now and then thrust out from +the walls into the dark night and drawn back again. On each of the +platforms D and E two 4.7-inch quick-firing guns appeared to be rocking +slightly in the wind. By all the indication there was of smoke or noise, +or even flame, the gunners might have been standing idly behind their +shields; but over the steep scarp of the little hill, a mile and a half +away, shells were being planted every ten yards or so, with the +methodical regularity of a farmer dropping potatoes along a furrow. + +Salt might not have quite expected that there would be the necessity to +fire those guns when, a year before, he had obtained for Hanwood its +complement of the finest artillery that the world produced, but when the +necessity did arise, there was no need for the League gunners to use +black powder. + +When he had reached the height he required, simply leaning against the +wind, Salt moved a pinion slightly and bore heavily towards the right. +It was the supreme moment for the trial of skill, as the long flight +that followed it was the trial of endurance. If his nerve had failed, if +a limb had lost its tension for the fraction of a second, his brain +reeled amidst that tearing fury of the element, or a single ring or +swivel not answered to its work, he would have been crumpled up +hopelessly, beyond the chance of recovery, and flung headlong to the +earth. As it was, the wind swept him round in a great half circle, but +it was the wind his servant, not his master, and he turned its lusty +violence to serve his ends. He caught a passing glimpse of the coppice +whence the attack had first been opened; he saw beneath him the line of +guns ensconced behind the hill, one already overturned and centred in +confusion; and then the sweeping arc reached its limit, and he came, as +it seemed, to anchor in mid-air, with the earth slipping away beneath +him as the banks glide past a smoothly-moving train, and a thousand +weights and forces dragging at his aching arms. + +He had nothing to do but to maintain a perfect balance among the +conflicting cross winds that shot in from above and below, and from +north and south, and to point his course towards the glow in the sky +that marked the Capital. A dozen words could express it, but it required +the skill of the practised wingman, the highest development of every +virile quality, and the spur of a necessity not less than life and +death, to dignify the attempt above the foolhardy. Whether beyond all +that the accomplishment lay within the bounds of human endurance was a +further step. It would at that time have been impossible to pronounce +either way with any authority, for not only had the attempt never been +made, but nothing approaching the attempt had been made. A breeze that +ran five miles an hour was considered enough for any purpose; to take to +the air when the anemometer indicated fifteen miles an hour was not +allowed at the practice grounds, and the record in this direction lay +with an expert who had accomplished a straight flight in a wind that +travelled a little less than thirty miles an hour. The storm on the +night of the 15th of January tore across the face of the land with a +general velocity of fifty or sixty miles an hour, rising at times even +higher. + +Under the racking agony of every straining tendon and the heady pressure +of the wind, a sense of mundane unreality began to settle upon the +flier. He saw the earth and its landmarks being drawn smoothly and +swiftly from beneath him with the detachment of a half-conscious dream. +He saw--for he remembered afterwards--the Thames lying before him like a +whip flicked carelessly across the plain. A town loomed up, black and +inchoate, on his right, developed into streets and terraces, and slid +away into the past. It was Richmond. The river, never far away, now +slipped beneath him at right angles, reappeared to hold a parallel +course upon his left, and flung a horse-shoe coil two miles ahead. A +colony of strange shining roofs and domes next challenged recognition. +They were the conservatories at Kew, looking little more than garden +frames, and they were scarcely lost to view before he was over the +winding line of Brentford's quaint old High Street, now, as it appeared, +packed with a dense, moving crowd. The irresistible pounding of the gale +was edging the glow of London further and further to his right. +Instinctively he threw more weight into the lighter scale, and slowly +and certainly the point of his destination swung round before his face +again. + +Thenceforward it was all town. Gunnersbury became Chiswick, Chiswick +merged into Hammersmith, Kensington succeeded, in ceaseless waves of +houses that ran north and south, and long vistas of roofs that stretched +east and west. It was a kaleidoscope of contrasts. Scenes of saturnalian +gaiety, where ant-like beings danced in mad abandonment round fires that +blocked the road, or seemed to gyrate by companies in meaningless +confusion, bounded districts plunged into an unnatural gloom and +solitude, where for street after street neither the footstep of a +wayfarer nor the light of a public lamp broke the uncanny spell. +Immediately beyond, by the glare of the flambeaux which they carried, an +orderly concourse might be marching eastward, and fringing on their +route a garish gutter mart, where busy costermongers drove their roaring +trade and frugal housewives did their marketing with less outward +concern than if the crisis in the State had been a crisis in the price +of butter. + +The multitudinous sounds beat on his ears through the plunging gale like +a babel of revelry heard between the intermittent swinging of an +unlatched door. The sights in their grotesque perspective began to melt +together lazily. The upper air grew very cold. The weights hung heavier +every mile, the contending forces pulled more resistlessly. Strange +fancies began to assail him as the brain shrank beneath the strain; +doubts and despairs to gather round like dark birds of the night with +hopeless foreboding in the dull measure of their funereal wings. In that +moment mind and body almost failed to contend against the crushing odds; +nothing but his unconquerable heart flogged on his dying limbs. + +It was scarcely more than half an hour after she had written her +despairing message that from her post at the head of the broad stone +staircase Irene Lisle heard a noise in the garret storey above that sent +her flying back to her stronghold. It was the last point from which she +had expected an attack. Through the keyhole of the door behind which she +had taken refuge, she saw a strangely outlined figure groping his way +cumbrously down the stairs, and then, without a word or cry, but with a +face whiter than the paper that had summoned him, she threw open the +door to admit Salt. + +He walked heavily along the corridor and turned into his own room, while +she relocked the door and followed him. There was mute enquiry in her +eyes, but she did not speak. + +A powerful oil-stove stood upon the hearth-stone, throwing its beams +across the room. He stood over it while the beaded ice melted from his +hair and fell hissing on the iron. He opened his mouth, and the sound of +his voice was like the thin piping of a reed. She caught a word, and +began to unbuckle the frozen straps of his gear. When he was free he +tried to raise his hand to a pocket of his coat, but the effort was +beyond the power of the cramped limb. Irene interpreted the action, and, +finding there a flask, filled the cup and held it to his lips. + +She got a blue, half-frozen smile of thanks over the edge of the cup. +"Ah," he said, beginning to find his voice again, and stamping about the +room, "we owe Wynchley Slocombe a monument, you and I, Miss Lisle. Now +you must write a telescript for me, please; for I cannot." + +"If you will remain here, where it is warmer, I will bring the +materials," she suggested. + +He thanked her and allowed her to go, watching her with thoughtful eyes +that were coming back to life. She paused a moment at the top of the +stairs to listen down the shaft, and then sped quickly through the smoke +to the instrument room on the floor beneath. + +Salt glanced round the office. On and about his desk all the books and +papers that might be turned to a hostile purpose had been stacked in +readiness, and by them stood the can of oil that was to ensure their +complete destruction. He stepped up to the window and looked out +cautiously. Every pane of glass was broken--every pane of glass in +Trafalgar Chambers was broken, for that matter--but it was not easy for +an unprepared mob to force an entrance. When the Unity League had taken +over the whole block of building in its expansion many alterations had +been carried out, and among these had been to fix railings that sprang +from the street and formed an arch, not only over the basement, but over +the ground floor windows also. If the shutters on the windows had been +closed in time, the assailants would have been baffled at another point, +but the shutters had been overlooked, and the mob, after lighting great +fires in the street, was now flinging the blazing billets through the +lower windows. + +In a very brief minute Irene was back again with the telescribe +accessories. She seated herself at a table, dipped her pen into the ink, +and looked up without a word. + + "TRAFALGAR CHAMBERS. + + "6.25 P.M.," dictated Salt. "Most of the miners drawn off and + passing through Brentford. Over Barfold Rise half battery of + 18-pounders, one out of action. In Spring Coppice and Welland + Wood about four companies regulars each. Reconnoitre third + position assuming same proportion. Act." + +He stood considering whether there was anything more to add usefully. +The sound of Irene's agate pen tapping persistently against the table +caught his ear. + +"You are not very much afraid?" he asked with kindly reassurance in his +voice as he looked at her hand. + +"No, not now," she replied; but as she wrote she had to still the +violent trembling of her right hand with the left. + + "All going well here. Send messenger Hampden with report + immediately after engagement," he concluded. + +"I will try to sign it myself." He succeeded in sprawling a recognisable +"George Salt" across the paper, and after it wrote "Finis," which +happened to be the pass-word for the day. + +"Your message came through; this may possibly do the same," he remarked. +He turned off the radiator as orderly as though he had reached the close +of a working day, and they went out together, locking the doors behind +them. + +"They were attacking Hanwood when you left?" she asked with the tensest +interest. They had sent off the telescript, and it seemed to Irene that +they had reached the end of things. + +"Yes," he replied. "But all the same," he added, as a fresh outburst of +cries rose from the street, and the light through the shattered window +attracted a renewed fusillade of missiles, "I think that we have kept +our promise to let you be in the thick of it." + +She shook her head with the very faintest smile. "That seems a very long +time ago. But you, how could _you_ come? When I sent I never thought ... +I never dreamed----" + +"It was possible to leave," he said. "My work is done. Yes," in reply to +her startled glance, "it has all happened!" + +"You mean----?" she asked eagerly. + +He took a paper from his pocket-book. It was, as she saw immediately, a +telescript from Sir John Hampden. It had reached him at Hanwood an hour +before he left. + + "I have this afternoon received a deputation of Ministerialists + who have the adherence of a majority in the House without + taking the Opposition into account," she read. "The + Parliamentary Representation Committees throughout the country + are frantically insisting upon members accepting _any terms_, + if we will give an undertaking that the normal balance of trade + and labour shall be restored at once. The Cabinet is going to + pieces every hour, and the situation can no longer either be + faced or ignored by the Government. There will be a great scene + in the House to-night. The deputation will see me again + to-morrow morning with a formal decision. I have confidential + assurances that a complete acceptance is a foregone conclusion. + The arrival of the Midland colliers to-night, if not of those + from Monmouth, will precipitate matters." + +Tears she could not hold back stood in her eyes as she returned to him +the paper. "Then it has not been in vain," she said softly. + +"No," he replied. "Nothing has been in vain." + +They stood silently for a minute, looking back over life. So might two +shipwrecked passengers have stood on a frail raft waiting for the end, +resigned but not unhopeful of a larger destiny beyond, while the +elements boiled and roared around them. + +"It was very weak of me to send that message," said Irene presently; +"the message that brought you. I suppose," she added, "that it _was_ the +message that brought you?" + +"Yes, thank God!" he replied. + +"And if it had been impossible for you to come? If it had been an +utterly critical moment in every way, what would you have done?" + +He laughed a little, quietly, as he looked at her. "The question did not +arise, fortunately," he replied. + +"No," she admitted; "only I felt a little curious to know, now that +everything is over. It _is_, isn't it? There is nothing to be done?" + +"Oh yes," he replied with indomitable cheerfulness. "There is always +something to be done." + +"A chance?" she whispered incredulously. "A chance of escape, you mean?" + +"It is possible," he said. "At least, I will go and hear what they have +to say." + +"No! no!" she cried out, as a dreadful scene rose to her imagination. +"You cannot understand. Don't you hear that?... They would kill you." + +"I do not suppose that I shall find myself popular," he said with a +smile, "but I will take care. You--I think you must stay here." + +"Cannot I come with you?" she pleaded. "See, I am armed." + +He took the tiny weapon that she drew from her dress and looked at it +with gentle amusement. It was a pretty thing of ivory and nickeled +steel, an elaborate toy. He pressed the action and shook out the +half-dozen tiny loaded caps--they were little more than that--upon his +palm. + +"I would rather that you did not use this upon a mob," he said, +reloading it. "It would only exasperate, without disabling. As for +stopping a rush--why, I doubt if one of these would stop a determined +rabbit. You have better weapons than this." + +"I suppose you are right. Only it gave me a little confidence. Then you +shall keep it for a memento, if you will." + +"No; it might hold off a single assailant, I suppose. I should value +this much more, if I might have it." He touched a silk tie that she had +about her neck, as he spoke; it was one that she had often worn. She +held up her head for him to disengage it. + +"Some day," he said, lingering a little over the simple operation, "you +will understand many things, Irene." + +"I think that I understand everything now," she replied with a brave +glance. "Everything that is worth understanding." + +He placed the folded tie in an inner pocket, and went down the stone +steps without another word. The well was thick with smoke, but the fire +had not yet spread beyond the lower rooms. Half-way down he encountered +a barricade of light office furniture which the girl had flung across +the stairs and drenched with oil. It was no obstacle in itself, but at +the touch of a match it would have sprung into a conflagration that +would have held the wildest mob at bay for a few precious moments. He +picked his way through it, descended the remaining stairs, and unlocked +the outer door. Beyond this was an iron curtain that had been lowered. A +little door in it opened directly on to the half-dozen steps that led +down to Seaton Street. + +Salt looked through a crevice of the iron curtain, and listened long +enough to learn that there was no one on the upper steps; for the upper +steps, indeed, commanded no view of the windows, and the windows were +the centres of all interest. Satisfied on this point, he quietly +unlocked the door and stepped out. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +STOBALT OF SALAVEIRA + + +To the majority of those who thronged Seaton Street the effect of Salt's +sudden--instantaneous, as it seemed--and unexpected appearance was to +endow it with a dramatic, almost an uncanny, value. The front rows, +especially those standing about the steps, fell back, and the further +rows pressed forward. And because an undisciplined mob stricken by acute +surprise must express its emotion outwardly--by silence if it has +hitherto been noisy, and by exclamation if it has been silent--the +shouts and turmoil in the street instantly dwindled away to nothing, +like a breath of vapour passing from a window pane. + +Salt raised his hand, and he had the tribute of unstirring silence, the +silence for the moment of blank astonishment. + +"My friends and enemies," he said, in a voice that had learned +self-possession from the same school that Demosthenes had practised in, +"you have been calling me for some time. In a few minutes I must listen +to whatever you have to say, but first there is another matter that we +must arrange. I take it for granted that when you began your spirited +demonstration here you had no idea that there was a lady in the +building. Not being accustomed to the sterner side of politics, so +formidable a display rather disconcerted her, and not knowing the +invariable chivalry of English working men, she hesitated to come out +before. Now, as it is dark, and the streets of London are not what they +once were, I want half a dozen good stout fellows to see the lady safely +to her home." + +"Be damned!" growled a voice among the mass. "What do you take us for?" + +"Men," retorted Salt incisively; "or there would be no use in asking +you." + +"Yes, men, but famished, desperate, werewolf men," cried a poor, gaunt +creature clad in grotesque rags, who stood near. "Men who have seen +_our_ women starve and sink before our eyes; men who have watched _our_ +children dying by a slower, crooler death than fire. An eye for an eye, +tyrant! Your League has struck at _our_ women folk through us." + +"Then strike at ours through us!" cried Salt, stilling with the measured +passion of his voice the rising murmurs of assent. "I am here to offer +you a substitute. Do you think that no woman will mourn for me?" He sent +his voice ringing over their heads like a prophetic knell. "The cause +that must stoop to take the life of a defenceless woman is lost for +ever." + +As long as he could offer them surprises he could hold the mere mob in +check, but there was among the crowd an element that was not of the +crowd, a chosen sprinkling who were superior to the swaying passions of +the moment. + +"Not good enough," said a decently-dressed, comfortable-looking man, who +had little that was famished, desperate, or wolfish in his appearance. +"You're both there, and there you shall both stay, by God! Eh, +comrades?" He spoke decisively, and made a movement as though he would +head a rush towards the steps. + +Salt dropped one hand upon the iron door with a laugh that sounded more +menacing than most men's threats. + +"Not so fast, Rorke," he said contemptuously; "you grasp too much. Even +in your unpleasant business you can practise moderation. I am here, but +there is no reason on earth why I should stay. Scarcely more than half +an hour ago I was at Hanwood--where, by the way, your friends are being +rather badly crumpled up--and you are all quite helpless to prevent me +going again." + +They guessed the means; they saw the unanswerable strength of his +position, and recognised their own impotence. "Who are you, any way?" +came a dozen voices. + +"I am called George Salt: possibly you have heard the name before. Come, +men," he cried impatiently, "what have you to think twice about? Surely +it is worth while to let a harmless girl escape to make certain of that +terrible person Salt." + +There was a strangled scream in the vestibule behind. Unable to bear the +suspense any longer, Irene had crept down the stairs in time to hear the +last few sentences. For a minute she had stood transfixed at the horror +of the position she realised; then, half-frenzied, she flung herself +against Salt's arm and tried to beat her way past to face the mob. + +"You shall not!" she cried distractedly. "I will not be saved at that +price. I shall throw myself out of the window, into the fire, anywhere. +Yes, I'm desperate, but I know what I am saying. Come back, and let us +wait together; die together, if it is to be, but I don't go alone." + +The crowd began to surge restlessly about in waves of excited motion. +The interruption, in effect, had been the worst thing that could have +happened. There were in the throng many who beneath their seething +passion could appreciate the nobility of Salt's self-sacrifice; many who +in the midst of their sullen enmity were wrung with admiration for +Irene's heroic spirit, but the contagion to press forward dominated all. +Salt had irretrievably lost his hold upon their reason, and with that +hold he saw the last straw of his most forlorn hope floating away. In +another minute he must either retreat into the burning building where he +might at any time find the stairs impassable with smoke, or remain to be +overwhelmed by a savage rush and beaten to the ground. + +"Men," cried Irene desperately, "listen before you do something that +will for ever make to-day shameful in the history of our country. Do you +know whom you wish to kill? He is the greatest Englishman----" + +There were angry cries from firebrands scattered here and there among +the crowd, and a movement from behind, where the new contingents +hurrying down the side streets pressed most heavily, flung the nearest +rows upon the lower steps. Salt's revolver, which he had not shown +before, drove them back again and gave him a moment's grace. + +"Quick!" he cried. "My offer still holds good." + +One man shouldered his way through to the front, and, seeing him, Salt +allowed him to come on. He walked up the steps deliberately, with a face +sad rather than revengeful, and they spoke together hurriedly under the +shadow of the large-bore revolver. + +"If it can be done yet, I'll be one of the posse to see to the young +lady," said the volunteer. "I have no mind to wait for the other job +that's coming." + +"Take care of her; get her back into the hall," replied Salt. "Gently, +very gently, friend." + +Two more volunteers had their feet upon the steps, one, a butcher, +reeking of the stalls, the other sleek and smug-faced, with the +appearance of a prosperous artisan. + +"I'll pick my men," cried Salt sharply, and his steady weapon emphasised +his choice, one man passing on through the iron doorway, the other +turning sharp from the insistent barrel to push his way back into the +crowd with a bitter imprecation. + +It was too much to hope that the position could be maintained. The +impatient mob had only been held off momentarily from its purpose as a +pack of wolves can be stayed by the fleeing traveller who throws from +his sleigh article after article to entice their curiosity. Salt had +nothing more to offer them. His life was already a hostage to the honour +of those whom he had allowed to pass. Others were pressing on to him +with vengeance-laden cries. The terrible irresistible forward surge of a +soulless mob, when individuality is merged into the dull brutishness of +a trampling herd, was launched. + +"Capt'n Stobalt!" cried a lusty voice at his shoulder. + +Salt turned instinctively. A man in sailor's dress, with the guns and +star of his grade upon his sleeve, had climbed along the arch of the +railings with a sailor's resourcefulness, and had reached his ear. Salt +remembered him quite well, but he did not speak a word. + +"Ah, sir, I thought that warn't no other voice in the world, although +the smoke befogged my eyes a bit. Keep back, you gutter rats!" he roared +above every other sound, rising up in his commanding position and +balancing himself by a stanchion of the gate; "d'ye think you know who +you're standing up before, you toggle-chested galley-sharks! Salt? Aye, +he's _salt_ enough! 'Tis Capt'n Stobalt of the old _Ulysses_. +_Stobalt of Salaveira!_" + +Three years before, the moment would have found Salt cold, as cold as +ice, and as unresponsive, but he had learned many things since then, and +sacrificed his pride and reticence on many altars. + +He saw before him a phalanx of humanity startled into one common +expression of awe and incredulity; he saw the hostile wave that was to +overwhelm him spend itself in a sharp recoil. By a miracle the fierce +lust of triumphant savagery had died out of the starved, pathetic faces +now turned eagerly to him; by a miracle the gathering roar for vengeance +had sunk into an expectant hush, broken by nothing but the whispered +repetition of his name on ten thousand lips. He saw in a flash a hundred +details of the magic of that name; he knew that if ever in his life he +must throw restraint and moderation to the winds and paint his role in +broad and lurid colours, that moment had arrived, and at the call he +took his destiny between his hands. + +They saw him toss his weapon through the railings into the space +beneath, marked him come to the edge of the step and stand with folded +arms defenceless there before them, and the very whispers died away in +breathless anticipation. + +"Yes," he cried with a passionate vehemence that held their breath and +stirred their hearts, "I am Stobalt of Salaveira, the man who brought +you victory when you were trembling in despair. I saved England for you +then, but that was when men loved their country, and did not think it a +disgraceful thing to draw a sword and die for her. What is that to you +to-day, you who have been taught to forget what glory means; and what is +England to you to-day, you whose leaders have sold her splendour for a +higher wage?" + +"No! No!" cried a thousand voices, frantic to appease the man for whose +blood they had been howling scarcely a minute before. "You shall be our +leader! We will follow you to death! Stobalt of Salaveira! Stobalt for +ever! Stobalt of Salaveira! Stobalt and England!" + +The frenzied roar of welcome, the waving hands, the hats flung high, the +mingled cries caught from lip to lip went rolling up the street, +kindling by a name and an imperishable memory other streets and other +crowds into a tumult of mad enthusiasm. Along Pall Mall, through +Trafalgar Square, into the Strand and Whitehall, north by Regent Street +and the Haymarket to Piccadilly, running east and west, splitting north +and south, twisting and leaping from group to group and mouth to mouth, +ran the strange but stirring cry, carrying wonder and concern on its +wing, but always passing with a cheer. + +Seven years had passed since the day of Salaveira, and the memory of it +was still enough to stir a crowd to madness. For there had been no +Salaveiras since to dim its splendour. Seven years ago the name of +Salaveira had brought pallor to the cheek, and the thought of what was +happening there stole like an icy cramp round the heart of every +Englishman. The nation had grown accustomed to accept defeat on land +with the comfortable assurance that nothing could avert a final victory. +Its pride was in its navy: invincible!... + +The war that came had been of no one's seeking, but it came, and the +nation called upon its navy to sweep the presumptuous enemy from off the +seas. Then came a pause: a rumour, doubted, disbelieved, but growing +stronger every hour. The English fleets, not so well placed as they +might have been, "owing to political reasons that made mobilisation +inadvisable while there was still a chance of peace being maintained," +were unable to effect a junction immediately, and were falling back +before the united power of the New Alliance. Hour after hour, day after +day, night after night, crowds stood hopefully, doubtfully, +incredulously, in front of the newspaper office windows, waiting for the +news that never came. The fleets had not yet combined. The truth first +leaked, then blazed: they were unable to combine! Desperately placed on +the outer line they were falling back, ever falling back into a more +appalling isolation. A coaling station had been abandoned just where its +presence proved to have been vital; a few battleships had been dropped +from the programme, and the loss of their weight in the chain just +proved fatal. + +Men did not linger much at Fleet Street windows then; they slunk to and +fro singly a hundred times a day, read behind the empty bulletins with +poignant intuition, and turned silently away. In the mourning Capital +they led nightmare lives from which they could only awake to a more +definite despair, and the first word of the hurrying newsboy's raucous +shout sent a sickening wave of dread to every heart. There was +everything to fear, and nothing at all to hope. Could peace be made--not +a glorious, but a decent, living peace? Was--was even London safe? Kind +friends abroad threw back the answers in the fewest, crudest words. +England would have to sue for peace on bended knees and bringing heavy +tribute in her hands. London lay helpless at the mercy of the foe to +seize at any moment when it suited him. + +All this time Commander Stobalt, in command of the _Ulysses_ by the +vicissitudes of unexpected war and separated from his squadron on +detached service, was supposed to be in Cura Bay, a thousand miles away +from Salaveira, flung there with the destroyers _Limpet_ and _Dabfish_ +by the mere backwash of the triumphant allied fleet. According to the +rules of naval warfare he _ought_ to have been a thousand miles away; +according to the report of the allies' scouts he _was_ a thousand miles +away. But miraculously one foggy night the _Ulysses_ loomed spectrally +through the shifting mist that drifted uncertainly from off the land and +rammed the first leviathan that crossed her path, while the two +destroyers torpedoed her next neighbour. Then, before leviathans 3 and 4 +had begun to learn from each other what the matter was, the _Ulysses_ +was between them, sprinkling their decks and tops with small shell, and +perforating their water-line and vital parts with large shell from a +range closer than that at which any engagement had been fought out since +the day when the Treasury had begun to implore the Admiralty to impress +upon her admirals what a battleship really cost before they sent her +into action. For the _Ulysses_ had everything to gain and nothing but +herself to lose, and when morning broke over Salaveira's untidy bay, she +had gained everything, and lost so little that even the New Alliance +took no pride in mentioning it in the cross account. + +It was, of course, as every naval expert could have demonstrated on the +war-game board, an impossible thing to do. Steam, searchlights, wireless +telegraphy, quick-firing guns, and a hundred other innovations had +effaced the man; and the spirit of the Elizabethan age was at a +discount. What Drake would have done, or Hawkins, what would have been a +sweet and pleasing adventure to Sir Richard Grenville, or another Santa +Cruz to Blake, would have been in their heirs unmitigated suicide by the +verdict of any orthodox court martial. Largely imbued with the +Elizabethan spirit--the genius of ensuring everything that was possible, +and then throwing into the scale a splendid belief in much that seemed +impossible--Stobalt succeeded in doing what perhaps no one else would +have succeeded in doing, merely because perhaps no one else would have +tried. + +"Stobalt of Salaveira! Come down and lead us!" The wild enthusiasm, the +strange unusual cries, went echoing to the sky and reverberating down +every street and byway. Behind barred doors men listened to the shout, +and wondered; crouching in alleys, tramping the road with no further +hope in life, beggars and out-casts heard the name and dimly associated +it with something pleasant in the past. It met the force of special +constables hastening from the west; it fell on the ears of Mr Strummery, +driving by unfrequented ways towards the House. "Stobalt and England! +Stobalt for us! Stobalt and the Navy!" It was like another Salaveira +night with Stobalt there among them--the man who was too modest to be +feted, the man whose very features were unknown at home, Stobalt of +Salaveira! + +Imagine it. Measure by the fading but not yet quite forgotten memory of +another time of direful humiliation and despair what Salaveira must have +been. They had passed a week of fervent exaltation, a week of calm +assurance, a week of rather tremulous hope, and for the last quarter a +long dumb misery that conveyed no other sense of time in later years +than that of formless night. They were waiting for the stroke of doom. +Then at midnight came the sudden tumult from afar, sounding to those who +listened in painful silence strangely unlike the note of defeat, the +frantic, mingled shouts, the tearing feet in the road beneath, the wild +bells pealing out, the guns and rockets to add to the delirium of the +night, and the incredible burden of the intoxicating news: "Great +Victory! Salaveira Relieved!! Utter Annihilation of the Blockading +Fleet!!!" + +The Philosopher might withdraw to solitude and moralise; the Friend of +Humanity stand aside, pained that his countrymen should possess so much +human nature, but to the great primitive emotional heart of the +community the choice lay between going out and shouting and staying in +and going mad. Never before in history had there been a victory that so +irresistibly carried the nation off its feet. To the populace it had +seemed from beginning to end to contain just those qualities of +daredevilry and fortuitous ease that appeal to the imagination. They +were quite mistaken; the conception had been desperate, but beyond that +the details of the relief of Salaveira had been as methodical, as +painstaking, and as far-seeing as those which had marked the civil +campaign now drawing to a close. + +That was why a famished, starving mob remembered Salaveira. They would +have stoned a duke or burned a bishop with very little compunction, but +Stobalt ranked among their immortals. They did not even seem to question +the mystery of Salt's identity. As the flames began to lap out of the +lower windows of Trafalgar Chambers, and it became evident that their +work there was done, a stalwart bodyguard ranged themselves about his +person and headed the procession. Hurriedly committing Irene to the +loyal sailor's charge, Stobalt resigned himself good-humouredly to his +position until he could seize an opportunity discreetly to withdraw. + +Not without some form of orderliness the great concourse marched into +the broader streets. Stobalt had no idea of their destination; possibly +there was no preconcerted plan, but--as such things happen--a single +voice raised in a pause gave the note. It did not fall on barren ground, +and the next minute the countless trampling feet moved to a brisker +step, and the new cry went rolling ominously ahead to add another terror +to the shadowy phantasmagoria of the ill-lit streets. + +"To Westminster! Down with the Government! To Westminster!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE BARGAIN OF FAMINE + + +Sir John Hampden had not to wait until the morning to meet the +deputation of Ministerialists again. Late the same evening a few men, +arriving together, presented themselves at one of the barricades that +closed the Mayfair street, and were at once admitted. Many of the +residential west-end districts which were not thoroughfares for general +traffic were stockaded in those days and maintained their street guard. +The local officials protested, the inhabitants replied by instancing a +few of the cases where an emergency had found the authorities powerless +to extend protection, and there the matter ended. It was scarcely worth +while stamping out a spark when they stood upon a volcano. + +Sir John received the members in the library--a disspirited handful of +men who had written their chapter of history and were now compelled to +pass on the book to other scribes, as every party must. Only this party +had thought that it was to be the exception. + +"Events are moving faster than the clock," apologised Cecil Brown, with +a rather dreary smile. He was present as the representative of that body +in the House which was not indisposed to be courteous and even +conciliatory in attitude towards an opponent, while it yielded nothing +of its principles: a standpoint unintelligible to most of the rank and +file of the party. "Doubtless we are not unexpected, Sir John Hampden?" + +"Comrade," corrected a member who was made of sterner metal. They were +there to deliver up their rifles, but this stalwart soldier of Equality +clung tenaciously to an empty cartridge case. + +"I am no less desirous than yourselves of coming to a settlement," +replied Sir John. "If there is still any matter of detail----?" + +The plenipotentiaries exchanged glances of some embarrassment. + +"Have you not heard?" asked Mr Soans, whose voice was the voice of the +dockyard labourers. + +"I can scarcely say until I know what you refer to," was the plausible +reply. "I have found that all communication has been cut during the last +few hours." He lightly indicated the instruments against the wall. + +They all looked towards Cecil Brown, the matter being rather an +unpleasant one. + +"The fact is, the House has been invaded by a tumultuous rabble. They +overcame all resistance by the mere force of numbers, and"--he could not +think of a less ominous phrase at the moment--"well, simply turned us +out.... Quite Cromwellian proceedings. We left them passing very large +and comprehensive resolutions," he concluded. + +"Your people!" said the uncompromising man accusingly. + +"Scarcely," protested Hampden with a smile. "The ends may be the ends of +Esau, but the means----" + +"Not our people; they couldn't possibly be ours to come and turn on us +like that." + +"Suppose we say, without defining them further," said Sir John, "that +they were simply"--he paused for a second to burn the thrust gently home +with a little caustic silence--"simply The People." + +Mr Vossit made a gesture of impatience towards his colleague. + +"Whether Queen Anne, died of gout or apoplexy isn't very material now," +he said with a touch of bitterness. "We are here to conduct the +funeral." + +"I wish to meet you in every possible way I can," interposed Hampden, +"but I must point out to you that at so short a notice I am deprived of +the counsel of any of my associates. I had hoped that by the time of the +meeting to-morrow morning----" + +"Is that necessary if the Memorandum is accepted by the Government?" + +"Without discussion?" + +Mr Vossit shrugged his shoulders. "As far as I am concerned, Sir John. +The concession of a word or two, or a phrase here and there, can make no +difference. It is our Sedan, and the heavier you make the terms, the +more there will be for us to remember it by." + +"I am content," subscribed Mr Guppling. "We have been surprised and +routed, not by the legitimate tactics of party strife, but by methods +undistinguishable from those of civil war." + +Hampden's glance was raised mechanically to an inscribed panel that hung +upon the wall in easy view, where it formed a curious decoration. The +ground colour was dull black, and on it in white lettering was set forth +a trenchant sentiment selected from the public utterances of every +prominent member of the Government and labelled with his name. It was a +vindication and a spur that he had kept before his eyes through the +years of ceaseless preparation, for in each extract one word was picked +out in the startling contrast of an almost blinding crimson, and that +one word was WAR. Even Sir John's enemies, those who called Salt a +machine of blood and iron, admitted him to be a kindly gentleman, and +his glance had been involuntary, for he had no desire to emphasise +defeat upon the vanquished. The thing was done, however, and following +the look every man who sat there met his own flamboyant challenge from +the past; for all, without exception, had thrown down the gauntlet once +in no uncertain form. War--but that had meant them waging war against +another when it was quite convenient for them to do so, not another +waging war against themselves out of season. War--but certainly not war +that turned them out of office, only war that turned their opponents out +of office. + +The rather strained silence was broken by the sound of footsteps +approaching from the hall. + +"We are still short of the Home Secretary and Comrade Tirrel," explained +Mr Chadwing to the master of the house. "We divided forces. They were +driving I understand. Perhaps----" + +It was. They came in slowly, for the Home Secretary faltered in his gait +and had a hunted look, while Tirrel led him by the arm. Both carried +traces of disorder, even of conflict. + +"Oh yes; they held us up," said Tirrel with a savage laugh, as his +colleagues gathered round. "He was recognised in Piccadilly by a crowd +of those ungrateful dogs from the pits. I shouted to the cabman to drive +through them at a gallop, but the cur jumped off his seat howling that +he was their friend. I was just able to get the reins; we bumped a bit, +but didn't upset, fortunately. I left the cab at the corner of the +street, here." He turned his back on the Home Secretary, who sat huddled +in a chair, and, facing the others, made a quick gesture indicating that +Mr Tubes was unwell and had better be left alone. + +"I brought him here, Sir John," he said, crossing over to the baronet +and speaking in a half-whisper, "because I really did not know where +else to take him. For some reason he appears to be almost execrated just +now. His house in Kilburn will be marked and watched, I am afraid. And +in that respect I daresay we are all in the same boat." + +"He appears to be ill," said Hampden, rising. "I will----" + +"Please don't," interrupted Tirrel decisively. "Any kind of attention +distresses him, I find. It is a collapse. He has been shaken for some +time past, and the attack to-night was the climax. His nerve is +completely gone." + +"As far as his safety is concerned," suggested the host with an +expression of compassion, "I think that we can ensure that here against +any irregular force. And certainly it would be the last place in which +they would think of looking for him. For the night, at least, you had +better leave him in our charge." + +"Thank you," said Tirrel; "it is very good of you. I will. Of course," +he added, as he turned away, "we shall have to assume his acquiescence +to any arrangement we may reach. Unofficially I can guarantee it." + +They seated themselves round the large table, Sir John and his private +secretary occupying one end, the plenipotentiaries ranging around the +other three sides. As they took their places Mr Drugget and another +member were announced. They did not appear to have been expected, but +they found seats among their colleagues. The Home Secretary sat apart, +cowering in an easy-chair, and stretching out his hands timorously from +time to time to meet the radiant heat of the great oil stove. + +The composition of the meeting was not quite the same as that of the +deputation which had paved the way to it earlier in the day. It was more +official, for the action of the deputation had forced the hand of the +Cabinet--to the relief of the majority of that body, it was whispered. +But there was one notable Minister absent. + +"I represent the Premier," announced Mr Drugget, rising. "If his +attendance in person can be dispensed with, he begged to be excused." + +"I offer no objection," replied Hampden. "If in the exceptional +circumstances the Prime Minister should desire to see me privately, I +will meet him elsewhere." + +"The Premier is indisposed, I regret to say." + +"In that case I would wait upon him at his own house, should he desire +it," proffered Sir John. + +"I will convey to him your offer," replied Mr Drugget. "In the meantime +I am authorised to subscribe Mr Strummery's acquiescence to the terms, +subject to one modification." + +"One word first, please," interposed Sir John. "I must repeat what I had +already said before you arrived. I am unable just now to consult my +colleagues, in concert with whom the Memorandum was drafted. If it is +necessary to refer back on any important detail----" + +Mr Tubes half rose from his chair with a pitiable look of terror in his +eyes and gave a low cry as a turbulent murmur from some distant street +reached his ears. + +"It's all right, comrade," said Cecil Brown reassuringly. "You're safe +enough here, Jim." + +"Aye, aye," whispered Tubes fearfully; "but did you hear that +shout?--'To the lamp-post!' They fling it at me from every crowd. It +haunts me. That is what I--I--yes, that is what I fear." + +"No good arguing," muttered Tirrel across the table. "Leave him to +himself; there's nothing else to be done just now." + +"I can at least express the Premier's views" resumed Mr Drugget. "He +would prefer the Bill for Amending the Franchise to be brought forward +as a private Bill by a member of the Opposition rather than make it a +Government measure. The Government would grant special facilities, and +not oppose it. The Premier would advise a dissolution immediately the +Bill passed." + +There was a knock at the library door. The secretary attended to it with +easy discretion, and for a minute was engaged in conversation with some +one beyond. + +Sir John looked at Mr Drugget in some amazement, and most of the members +of his own party regarded their leader's proxy with blank surprise. + +"I was hardly prepared for so fundamental an objection being raised at +this hour," said the baronet. "It amounts, of course, to bringing an +alternative proposal forward." + +"The result would be the same; I submit that it is scarcely more than a +matter of detail." + +"Then why press it?" + +Mr Drugget's expression seemed to convey the suggestion that he had no +personal wishes at all in the matter, but felt obliged to make the best +case he could for his chief. + +"The Premier not unnaturally desires that the real authors of so +retrogressive and tyrannical an Act should be saddled with the nominal +as well as the actual responsibility," he replied. "Possibly he fears +that in some remote future the circumstances will be forgotten, and his +name be handed down as that of a traitor." + +The private secretary took the opportunity of the sympathetic murmur +which this attitude evoked to exchange a sentence with Sir John. Then he +turned to the door and beckoned to the man who stood outside. + +"I must ask your indulgence towards a short interruption, gentlemen," +said Hampden, as a cyclist, in grey uniform, entered and handed him a +despatch. "It is possible that some of my friends may even now be on +their way to join me." + +They all regarded the messenger with a momentary curious interest; all +except two among them. Over Mr Drugget and the comrade who had arrived +with him the incident seemed to exercise an absorbing fascination. After +a single, it almost seemed a startled, glance at the soldier-cyclist, +their eyes met in a mutual impulse, and then instantly turned again to +fix on Hampden's face half-stealthily, but as tensely as though they +would tear the secret from behind his unemotional expression. + +"It's all very well, Drugget--in justice," anxiously murmured Mr Vossit +across the table, "but, as things are, we've got to be quick, and accept +considerably less than justice. For Heaven's sake, don't prolong the +agony, after to-day's experience." + +"If you hang on to that," warned Mr Guppling, "you will only end in +putting off till to-morrow not a whit better terms than you can make +to-night." + +"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," muttered Mr Drugget impatiently, not +withdrawing his fascinated gaze. + +In the silence of the room they again heard the crescive ululation of +the street, distant still, but sounding louder than before to their +strained imagination, and terrible in its suggestion of overwhelming, +unappeasable menace. Mr Tubes started uneasily in his chair. + +"Will _that_ wait?" demanded Mr Guppling with some passion. + +"A very little time longer; your coming here to-night has thrown us +out," pleaded Mr Drugget's companion, in a more conciliatory whisper. +"To-morrow morning, a few hours, an hour--perhaps even----" + +The messenger had been dismissed without an answer. Looking up with +sudden directness, Hampden caught one man's eyes fixed on him with a +furtive intensity that betrayed his hopes and fears. + +"The attack on Hanwood has completely failed," quietly announced Sir +John, holding the startled gaze relentlessly. "The guns have been +captured and brought in. The troops have been surrounded, disarmed, and +dispersed, with the exception of those of the higher rank who are +detained. There have, unfortunately, been casualties on both sides." + +"I--I--I--Why do you address yourself to me, Sir John?" stammered the +disconcerted man, turning very white, and exhibiting every painful sign +of guilt and apprehension. + +"Are we to understand that your property at Hanwood has been attacked by +an armed force of regulars?" asked one with sincere incredulity, as +Hampden remained silent. + +"It is unhappily true." + +"And defended by an evidently superior force of armed men, unlawfully +assembled there," retorted a militant comrade defiantly. + +"In view of the strained position to which the circumstances must give +rise, I will take the responsibility of withdrawing the Premier's one +objection to the Memorandum as it stands," announced Mr Drugget with dry +lips. + +"In that case I will ask Mr Lloyd to read the terms of the agreement +formally before we append our signatures," said Hampden, without +offering any further comment. + +A printed copy of the Articles was passed to each delegate; on the table +before Sir John lay the engrossed form in duplicate. From one of these +the secretary proceeded to read the terms of the agreement, which was +frankly recognised on both sides as the death-warrant of socialistic +ascendency in England. + +From the Government the League required only one thing: the immediate +passing of "A Bill to amend the Qualifications of Voters in +Parliamentary Elections," to be followed by a dissolution and its +inevitable consequence, a general election. But of the result of that +election no one need cherish any illusions, for it would be decided +according to the new qualification; and shorn of its parliamentary +phraseology, the new Act was to sweep away the existing adult suffrage, +and, broadly, substitute for it a L10 occupation qualification, with, +still worse, a plurality of voting power in multiples of L10, according +to the rateable value of the premises occupied. It was wholly immoral +according to the democratic tendency of the preceding age, but it was +wholly necessary according to the situation which had resulted from it. + +A genial Autocrat, Professor, and Poet has set forth in one of his +works, for the sake of the warning it conveys, the story of a little boy +who, on coming into the possession of a nice silver watch, and examining +it closely, discovered among the works "a confounded little _hair_ +entangled round the balance-wheel." Of course his first care was to +remove this palpable obstruction, with the result that the watch +accomplished the work of twenty-four hours in an insignificant fraction +of a second, and then refused to have anything more to do with practical +chronometry. On coming into possession of their new toy the Socialists +had discovered many "confounded little _hairs_" wrapped away among the +works of that elaborate piece of machinery, the English Constitution, +all obviously impeding its free working. Recklessly, even gaily, they +had pulled them out one after another, cut them across the middle and +left pieces hanging if they could not find the ends, dragged out lengths +anyhow. For a time the effect had been dazzlingly pyro-technical when +seen from below. The Constitution had gone very, very, very fast; it had +covered centuries in a few years; and as it went it got faster. But +unfortunately it had stopped suddenly. And every one saw that while it +remained in the hands of its nominal masters it would never go again. + +Had the times been less critical some other means of effecting the same +end might have been found. But although it was scarcely more than +whispered yet, for four hours England had been involved in actual, +deadly, civil war; and water once spilled is hard to gather up. Under +ordinary circumstances the expedient of disenfranchising a party would +have proved unpopular even with the bitterest among that party's +enemies. As it was, it was simply accepted as the necessary +counterstroke to their own policy of aggression. + +"If the 'most business-like Government of modern times' can instance a +single business where eleven shareholders to the amount of a sovereign +apiece can come in and outvote ten shareholders who have each a stake of +a thousand pounds in the concern, and then proceed to wreck it," was a +remark typical of the view people took, "then--why, then the record of +the Government will lose its distinction as an absolutely unique blend +of fatuous imbecility and ramping injustice, that's all." + +So there was to be a general election very soon in which the issue would +lie between the League party and the shattered, shipwrecked +Administration that had no leaders, no coherence, and scarcely a name to +rally to. It was estimated that Labour of one complexion or another +might hold between thirty and forty seats, if the working classes cared +to support representatives after the Payment of Members Act had been +repealed. It was computed that in more than four hundred constituencies +League candidates would be returned unopposed. There could be no denying +that our countrymen of 1918 (_circa_) lived through an interesting +period of their country's history. The League party would go to the poll +with no pledges, and their policy for the present was summed up in the +single phrase, "As in 1905." It was to be the cleanest of slates. + +"How soon can the Bill become law under the most expeditious handling?" +Hampden had asked of those who formed the earlier deputation, and the +answer had been, "Three days!" Solely from the "business" point of view +it was magnificent, and it was certainly convenient as matters stood. In +three more days a general election could be in full swing, waged, in the +emergency, on the existing register supplemented by the books of the +local authorities and the voters' receipts for rates or taxes. In a +single day it could be over. Within a week England would have +experienced a change in her affairs as far-reaching as the Conquest or +the Restoration. + +Mr Lloyd, to return to Sir John Hampden's library, read the first +article to the breathless assembly. It had been tacitly agreed that the +time had come when the conditions must be accepted without discussion; +but when the fateful clause was finished a deep groan, not in empty +hostile demonstration, but irresistibly torn from the unfeigned depths +of their emotion, escaped many of the Ministers. Boabdil el Chico's +sigh, when he reached the point where the towers and minarets of Granada +were lost to him for ever, was not more sincere or heart-racked. Even +Sir John could not have claimed that he felt unmoved. + +The secretary read on. The League entered into certain undertakings. It +guaranteed that the normal conditions of the home coal trade should be +restored, and the men called back to the pits by an immediate order for +ten million tons. Temporary relief work of various kinds would be +instituted at once to meet the distress. The Unemployed Grant would be +reopened for nine weeks to carry over the winter; for three weeks fully, +for three weeks at the rate of two-thirds, and for the last period +reduced to one-third. The colliers in London would be carried back to +their own districts as fast as the railways could get out the trains. + +There were many other points of detail, and they all had a common +aim--the obliteration of the immediate past and the restoration of that +public confidence which in a country possessing natural resources is the +foundation stone of national prosperity. Already there were facts for +the present and portents for the future. Men of influence and position, +who had been driven out of England by the terrible atmosphere of +political squalor cast over an Empire by a Government that had learned +to think municipally, were even now beginning to return; and that most +responsive seismograph which faithfully reflected every change in the +world's condition for good or ill predicted better times. In other +words, consols had risen in three months from 54-1/2 to 68 and the bulk +of the buying was said to be for investment. + +"If it is not trenching on the forbidden ground, I should like to ask +for an assurance on one point," said a member with a dash of acrimony. +The secretary had finished his task, and then for perhaps ten seconds +they had sat in silence, speculating half unconsciously upon the future, +as each dimly saw it, that lay beyond the momentous step they were about +to take. "I refer to the question of coal export. It is, of course, a +more important outlet than the domestic home consumption. Is the League +in a position to guarantee that the taxation will be rescinded without +delay?" + +"I think it would be a very unwarrantable presumption for us to assume +that any one outside the governments of the countries interested +possesses that influence, and that it would be a very undesirable, a +very undiplomatic, proceeding to hint at the possibility of any such +concession in the document I have before me," replied Sir John suavely. +"Beyond that, I would add that it will be manifestly to the interest of +the next government to restore the bulk of foreign trade to a normal +level; and that should the League party find itself in office, it will +certainly make representations through the usual channels." + +"Quite like old times," said Mr Soans dryly. "I suppose that we shall +have to be content with that. Let us hope that it will prove a true +saying that those who hide can find." + +He picked up a pen as he finished speaking, signed the paper that had +been passed to him first by reason of his position at the table, and +thrust it vehemently from him to his neighbour. Mr Chadwing held up his +pen to the light to make sure that it contained no obstruction on so +important an occasion, signed his name with clerkly precision, and then +carefully wiped his pen on the lining of his coat. Cecil Brown looked +down with the faint smile that covered his saddest moments as he added +the slender strokes of his signature, and Tirrel dashed off the +ink-laden characters of his with tightened lips and a sombre frown. +Consciously or unconsciously every man betrayed some touch of character +in that act. Mr Vossit made a wry grimace as he passed the paper on; and +Mr Guppling, with an eye on a possible line in Fame's calendar, snapped +his traitorous pen in two and cast the pieces dramatically to the +ground. + +When the last signature had been written, some of the members stood up +to take their leave at once, but Hampden and Tirrel made a simultaneous +motion to detain them. The master of the house gave way to his guest. + +"I am not up to cry over spilled milk," said Tirrel with his customary +bluntness. "What is done, is done. We shall carry out the terms, Sir +John Hampden, and you and your party will be in office in a week. But +you are not merely taking over the administration of a constitution: you +are taking over a defeated country. I ask you, as the head of your party +and the future Premier, to do one thing, and I ask it entirely on my own +initiative, and without the suggestion or even the knowledge of my +friends or colleagues. Let your first act be to publish a general +amnesty. It does not touch me.... But there have been things on both +sides. You may perhaps know my views; I would have crushed your League +by strong means when it was possible if I had had my way. None the less, +there is not the most shadowy charge that could hang over me to-day, and +for that reason it is permissible for me to put in this petition. The +nation is shattered, torn, helpless. Do not look too closely into the +past ... pacify." + +"The question has not arisen between my associates and myself, but I do +not imagine that we should hold conflicting views, and I may say that +for my part I enter cordially into the spirit of the suggestion," +replied Hampden frankly. "Anything irregular that could come within the +meaning of political action in its widest sense I should be favourable +towards making the object of a general pardon.... While we are together, +I will go a step further, and on this point I have the expressed +agreement of my friends. You, sir, have assumed without any reserve that +our party will be returned to office. I accept that assumption. You have +also compared our work to the pacification of a conquered nation. That +also may be largely admitted. We shall be less a political party +returned to power by the even chances of a keenly-fought election, and +checked by an alert opposition, than a social autocracy imposing our +wishes--as we believe for the public good--on the country. For twenty +years, as I forecast the future, there will be no effective opposition. +Yet a great deal of our work will have reference to the class whom the +opposition would represent, the class upon whose wise and statesmanlike +pacification the tranquillity, and largely the prosperity, of the +country, will depend." + +Some few began to catch the drift of Hampden's meaning, and those who +did all glanced instinctively towards Cecil Brown. + +"You have used, and I have accepted, the comparison of a conquered +nation," continued Sir John. "When a country has been forcibly occupied +the work of pacification is one of the first taken in hand by a prudent +conqueror. There is usually a Board or Committee of Conciliation, and in +that body are to be found some of the foremost of those who resisted +invasion while resistance seemed availing.... It would be analogous to +that, in my opinion, if a supporter of the present Government was +offered and accepted a position in the next. There would be no +suggestion--there would be no possibility--of his being in accord with +the Cabinet in its general policy. He would be there as an expert to +render service to both parties in the work of healing the scars of +conflict. If the proposal appears to be exceptional and the position +untenable at first sight, it is only because the prosaic parliamentary +machinery of normal times has by a miracle been preserved into times +that are abnormal." + +There was an infection of low laughter, amused, sardonic, some +good-natured and a little ill-natured, and a few cries of "Cecil Brown!" +in a subdued key. + +"The moment seemed a favourable one for laying the proposal before the +members of the Government," went on Hampden, unmoved, "though, of +course, I do not expect an answer now. On the assumption that we are +returned to power, it is our intention to create a new department to +exist as long as the conditions require it, and certainly as long as the +next Parliament. Its work will be largely conciliation, and it will deal +with the disorganisation of labour. In the same confidential spirit with +which you have spoken of the future without reserve, I may say that +should I be called upon to form a Ministry, I shall--and I have the +definite acquiescence of my colleagues--offer the Presidentship of the +Board to Mr Cecil Brown ... the office of Parliamentary Secretary to Mr +Tirrel." + +If Hampden had wished to surprise, he certainly succeeded. The open +laugh that greeted the first name was cut off as suddenly and completely +as the light is cut off when the gas-tap is turned, by the gasp that the +second name evoked. To many among them the offer had been the merest +party move; Cecil Brown's name a foregone conclusion. The addition of +Tirrel, whose rather brilliant qualities and quite fantastic sense of +honour they were prone to lose sight of behind his vehement +battle-front, was stupefying. + +It was Tirrel who was the first to break the silence of astonishment on +this occasion, not even waiting, with characteristic impetuousness, for +his chief-designate to offer an opinion. + +"You say that you do not want an answer now, Sir John, but you may have +it, as far as I am concerned," he cried, with the defiant air that +marked his controversial passages. "From any other man of your party the +proposal would have been an insult; from you it is an amiable mistake. +_You_ do not think that you can buy us with the bribe of office, but you +think that there is no further party work for us to do: that Socialism +in England to-day is dead. I tell you, Sir John Hampden, with the +absolute conviction of an inspired truth, that it will triumph yet. You +will not see it; I may not see it, but it is more likely that the hand +of Time itself should fail than that the ideals to which we cling should +cease to draw men on. We, who are the earliest pioneers of that +untrodden path, have made many mistakes; we are paying for them now; but +we have learned. Some of our mistakes have brought want and suffering to +thousands of your class, but for hundreds of years your mistakes have +been bringing starvation and misery to millions of our class. From your +presence we go down again into the weary years of bondage, to work +silently and unmarked among those depths of human misery from which our +charter springs. I warn you, Sir John Hampden--for I know that the +warning will be dead and forgotten before the year is out--that our +reign will come again; and when the star of a new and purified Socialism +arises once more on a prepared and receptive world the very forces of +nature would not be strong enough to arrest its triumphant course." + +"Hear! hear!" said Mr Vossit perfunctorily, as he looked round +solicitously for his hat. "Well, I suppose we may as well be going." + +Cecil Brown recalled his wistful smile from the contemplation of a +future chequered with many scenes of light and shade. + +"I thank you, Sir John," he replied with a look of friendly +understanding, "but I also must go down with my own party." + +"I hope that the decision in neither case will be irrevocable," said +Hampden with regret, but as he spoke he knew that the hope was vain. + +They had already begun to file out of the room, with a touch here and +there of that air of constraint that the party had never been quite able +to shake off on ceremonial occasions. They left Mr Tubes cowering before +the stove, and raising his head nervously from time to time to listen to +the noises of the street. + +Mr Guppling, determined that his claims should not escape the eye of +Fame, paused at the door. + +"When we leave this room, John Hampden," he proclaimed in a loud and +impressive voice, and throwing out his hand with an appropriate gesture, +"we leave Liberty behind us, bound, gagged, and helpless, on the floor!" + +"Very true, Mr Guppling," replied Sir John good-humouredly. "We will +devote our first efforts to releasing her." + +Mr Guppling smiled a bitter, cutting smile, and left the shaft to +rankle. It was not until he was out in the street that a sense of the +possible ambiguity of his unfortunate remark overwhelmed him with +disgust. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +"POOR ENGLAND." + + +With the account of the signing of the dissolution terms, and a brief +reference to the sweeping victory of the League party--already +foreshadowed, indeed, to the point of the inevitable--the unknown +chronicler, whose version of the Social War this narrative has followed, +brings his annals to a close. That war being finished, and by the +repudiation of their Socialistic mentors on the part of a large section +of the working classes, finished by more than a mere paper treaty, the +worthy scribe announces with praiseworthy restraint that there is no +more to be said. + +"These men," he declares, in the quaint and archaic language of the +past,--and he might surely have added "these women" also--"came not +reluctantly, but in no wise ambitiously, out of the business of their +own private lives to serve their country as they deemed; and that being +accomplished to a successful end, would have returned, nothing loth, to +more obscure affairs, having sought no personal gain beyond that which +grew from public security, an equitable burden of citizenship, and a +recovered pride among the nations. Albeit some must needs remain to +carry on the work." + +Even the not unimportant detail of who remained to carry on the work, +and in what capacities, is not recorded, but the distribution of rewards +and penalties, on the lines of strict poetic justice, may be safely left +to the individual reader's sympathies, with the definite assurance that +everything happened exactly as he would have it. At the length of three +times as much space as would have sufficed to dispose of these points +once and for all, this superexact historian goes on to set out his +reasons for not doing so. He claims, in short, that his object was to +portray the course of the social war, not to recount the adventures of +mere individuals; and with the suggestion of a wink between his pen and +paper that may raise a doubt whether he, on his side, might not be +endowed with the power of casting a critical eye upon other periods than +his own, he indulges in a little pleasantry at the expense of writers +who, under the pretext of developing their hero's character, begin with +his parent's childhood, and continue to the time of his grandchildren's +youth. For himself, he asserts that nothing apart from the course of the +social war, its rise and progress, has been allowed to intrude, and that +ended, and their work accomplished, its champions are rather heroically +treated, very much as the Arabian magician's army was disposed of until +it was required again, and to all intents and purposes turned into stone +just where they stood. + +But from other sources it is possible to glean a little here and there +of the course of subsequent events. To this patchwork record the +_Minneapolis Journal_ contributes a cartoon laden with the American +satirist's invariable wealth of detail. + +A very emaciated John Bull, stretched on his bed, is just struggling +back to consciousness and life. On a table by his side stands a bottle +labelled "Hampden's U. L. Mixture," to which he owes recovery. On the +walls one sees various maps which depict a remarkably Little England +indeed. Some sagacious economist, in search of a strip of canvas with +which to hold together a broken model of a black man, has torn off the +greater part of South Africa for the purpose. Over India a spider has +been left to spin a web so that scarcely any of the Empire is now to be +seen. Upper Egypt is lost behind a squab of ink which an irresponsible +urchin has mischievously taken the opportunity to fling. Every colony +and possession shows signs of some ill-usage. + +"Say, John," "Uncle Sam," who has looked in, is represented as saying, +"you've had a bad touch of the 'sleeping sickness.' You'd better take +things easy for a spell to recuperate. I'll keep an eye on your house +while you go to the seashore." + +That was to be England's proud destiny for the next few years--to take +things easy and recuperate! There is nothing else for the pale and +shaken convalescent to do; but the man who has delighted in his strength +feels his heart and soul rebel against the necessity. Fortunate for +England that she had good friends in that direful hour. The United +States, sinking those small rivalries over which cousins may strive even +noisily at times in amiable contention, stretched a hand across the +waters and astonished Europe by the message, "Who strikes England +wantonly, strikes me": a sentiment driven home by the diplomatic hint +that for the time being the Monroe Doctrine was suspended west of Suez. + +France--France who had been so chivalrously true to her own ally in that +stricken giant's day of incredible humiliation--looked across The Sleeve +with troubled, anxious eyes, and whispered words of sympathy and hope. +Gently, very tactfully, she offered friendship with both hands, without +a tinge of the patronage or protection that she could extend; and by the +living example of her own tempestuous past and gallant recovery from +every blow, pointed the way to power and self-respect. + +Japan, whose treaty had been thrown unceremoniously back to her many +years before, now drew near again with the cheerful smile that is so +mild in peace, so terrible in war. Prefacing that her own enviable +position was entirely due to the enlightened virtues of her emperor, she +now proposed another compact on broad and generous lines, by which +England--a "high contracting Power," as she was still magnanimously +described--was spared the most fruitful cause for anxiety in the East. + +"You didn't mind allying with us when you were at the head of the +nations," said Japan. "We come to you--now. Besides, all very good +business for us in the end. You build up again all right, no time." + +Japan's authority to speak on the subject of "building up" was not to be +disputed. The nations had forgotten the time, scarcely a quarter of a +century before, when they had been amused by "Little Japan's" +progressive ambitions. And when Japan had taken over the "awakening" +arrangements of a sister-nation on terms that gave her fifty million +potential warriors to draw upon and train (warriors whom one of +England's most revered generals had characterised as "Easily led; easily +fed; fearless of death"), non-amusement in some quarters gave way to +positive trepidation. + +The sympathetic nations spoke together, and agreed that something must +be done to give "Poor England" another chance; as, in the world of +commerce, friendly rivals will often gather round the man who has fallen +on evil days to set him on his feet again. + +So England was to have a fair field and liberty to work out her own +salvation. But she was not to wake up and find that it had all been a +hideous dream. Egypt had been put back to the time of the Khalifa. India +had lost sixty years of pacification and progress. Ireland was a +republic, at least in name, and depending largely on Commemoration +Issues of postage stamps for a revenue. South Africa was for the South +Africans. There were many other interesting items, but these were, as it +might be expressed to a nation of shopkeepers, the leading lines. + +If the worst abroad was bad enough, there was one encouraging feature at +home. With the election of the new government industries began to +revive, trade to improve, the money market to throw off its depression, +and the natural demand for labour to increase: not gradually, but +instantly, phenomenally. It was as though a dam across some great river +had been removed, and with the impetus every sluggish little tributary +was quickened and drawn on in new and sparkling animation. It was not +necessary to argue upon it from a party point of view; it was a concrete +fact that every one admitted. There was only one explanation, and it met +the eye at every turn. Capital reappeared, and money began to circulate +freely again. Why? There was security. + +It was not the Millennium; it was the year 19--, and a "capitalistic" +government was in office; but the "masses" discovered that they were +certainly not worse off than before. Working men now wore, it is true, a +little less of the air of being so many presidents of South American +republics when they walked about the streets; but that style had never +really suited them, and they soon got out of it. The men who had come +into power were not of the class who oppress. The strife of the past was +being forgotten; its lessons were remembered. What was good and +practical of Socialistic legislation was retained. So it came about that +the vanquished gained more by defeat than they would have done by +victory. + +It was undeniable that, in common with mankind at large, they still from +time to time experienced pain, sickness, disappointment, hardship, and +general adversity. Those who were employed by gentlemen were treated as +gentlemen treat their work-people; those who were so unfortunate as to +be in the service of employers who had no claim to that title continued +to be treated as cads and despots treat their employes. Those among them +who were gentlemen themselves extended a courteous spirit towards their +masters, and those among them who were the reverse continued to act +towards employers and the world around as churls and blusterers act, and +so the compensating balance of nature was more or less harmoniously +preserved. + +And what of the future? Will the nation that was so sharply taught dread +the fire like the burned child, or return to the flame as the scorched +moth does? Alas, the memory of a people is short, even as the wisdom of +a proverb is conflictingly two-edged. + +Or, if the warning fades and the necessity grows large again, will there +be found another Stobalt to respond to the call? "For those whom Heaven +afflicts there is a chance," contributes the Sage of another land; "but +they who persistently work out their own undoing are indeed hopeless." + +Or may it be that the faith of Tirrel will be justified, and that in the +process of time there will emerge from man's ceaseless groping after +perfection a new wisdom, under whose yet undreamt-of scheme and +dispensation all men will be content and reconciled? + +The philosopher shakes his head weightily and remains silent--thereby +adding to his reputation. The prophets prophesy; the old men dream +dreams and the young men see visions, and the dispassionate speculate. +On all sides there is a multitude of the counsel in which, as we must +believe, lies wisdom. + +It is an interesting situation, and as it can only be definitely settled +beyond the dim vista of future centuries, the pity is that we shall +never know. + + +THE END. + + + + +NELSON LIBRARY + +_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME._ + + + 1. The Marriage of William Ashe. + 2. The Intrusions of Peggy. + 3. The Fortune of Christina M'Nab. + 4. The Battle of the Strong. + 5. Robert Elsmere. + 6. No. 5 John Street. + 7. Quisante. + 8. Incomparable Bellairs. + 9. History of David Grieve. + 10. The King's Mirror. + 11. John Charity. + 12. Clementina. + 13. If Youth but Knew. + 14. The American Prisoner. + 15. His Grace. + 16. The Hosts of the Lord. + 17. The God in the Car. + 18. The Lady of the Barge. + 19. The Odd Women. + 20. Matthew Austin. + 21. The Translation of a Savage. + 22. The Octopus. + 23. White Fang. + 24. The Princess Passes. + 25. Sir John Constantine. + 26. The Man from America. + 27. A Lame Dog's Diary. + 28. The Recipe for Diamonds. + 29. Woodside Farm. + 30. Monsieur Beaucaire, and The Beautiful Lady. + 31. The Pit. + 32. An Adventurer of the North. + 33. The Wages of Sin. + 34. Lady Audley's Secret. + 35. Eight Days. + 36. Owd Bob. + 37. The Duenna of a Genius. + 38. His Honor and a Lady. + 39. Marcella. + 40. Selah Harrison. + 41. The House with the Green Shutters. + 42. Mrs Galer's Business. + 43. Old Gorgon Graham. + 44. Major Vigoureux. + 45. The Gateless Barrier. + 46. Kipps. + 47. Moonfleet. + 48. Springtime. + 49. French Nan. + 50. The Food of the Gods. + 51. Raffles. + 52. Cynthia's Way. + 53. Clarissa Furiosa. + 54. Love and Mr Lewisham. + 55. The Lonely Lady of Grosvenor Square. + 56. Thompson's Progress. + 57. The Primrose Path. + 58. Lady Rose's Daughter. + 59. Romance. + 60. The War of the Carolinas. + 61. Katharine Frensham. + 62. The Professor on the Case. + 63. Love and the Soul-Hunters. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Secret of the League, by Ernest Bramah + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET OF THE LEAGUE *** + +***** This file should be named 34522.txt or 34522.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/5/2/34522/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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