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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/37270-8.txt b/37270-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a85df65 --- /dev/null +++ b/37270-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9194 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The City in the Clouds, by C. Ranger Gull + +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 City in the Clouds + +Author: C. Ranger Gull + +Release Date: August 30, 2011 [EBook #37270] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + + + THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS + + BY C. RANGER GULL + + Author of "The Air Pirate" + + + + NEW YORK + HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY + + COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY + HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. + + PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY + THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY + RAHWAY. N. J. + + + + +TO + +SIR GRIFFITH BOYNTON, Bt. + + +MY DEAR BOYNTON, + +We have had some strange adventures together, though not as strange and +exciting as the ones treated of in this story. At any rate, accept it as +a souvenir of those gay days before the War, which now seem an age away. +Recall a Christmas dinner in the Villa Sanglier by the Belgian Sea, a +certain moonlit midnight in the Grand' Place of an ancient, famous city, +and above all, the stir and ardors of the Masked Ball at Vieux +Bruges.--Haec olim meminisse juvabit! + + YOURS, + C. R. G. + + + + +NOTE + +BY SIR THOMAS KIRBY, BT. + + +The details of this prologue to the astounding occurrences which it is +my privilege to chronicle, were supplied to me when my work was just +completed. + +It forms the starting point of the story, which travels straight +onwards. + + + + +THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +Under a gay awning of red and white which covered a portion of the +famous roof-garden of the Palacete Mendoza at Rio, reclined Gideon +Mendoza Morse, the richest man in Brazil, and--it was said--the third +richest man in the world. + +He lay in a silken hammock, smoking those little Brazilian cigarettes +which are made of fragrant black tobacco and wrapped in maize leaf. + +It was afternoon, the hour of the siesta. From where he lay the +millionaire could look down upon his marvelous gardens, which surrounded +the white palace he had built for himself, peerless in the whole of +South America. + +The trunks of great trees were draped with lianas bearing +brilliantly-colored flowers of every hue. There were lawns edged with +myrtle, mimosa, covered with the golden rain of their blossoms, immense +palms, lazily waving their fans in the breeze of the afternoon, and set +in the lawns were marble pools of clear water from the center of which +fountains sprang. There was a continual murmur of insects and flashes +of rainbow-colored light as the tiny, brilliant humming birds whirred +among the flowers. Great butterflies of blue, silver, and vermilion, +butterflies as large as bats, flapped languidly over the ivory ferns, +and the air was spicy and scented with vanilla. + +Beyond the gardens was the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, the most beautiful bay +in all the world, dominated by the great sugar-loaf mountain, the Pão de +Azucar, and studded with green islands. + +Gideon Morse took a pair of high-powered field-glasses from a table by +his side and focused them upon the harbor. + +A large white yacht, lying off Governador, swam into the circle, a +five-thousand-ton boat driven by turbines and oil fuel, the fastest and +largest private yacht in existence. + +Gideon Morse gave a little quiet, patient sigh, as if of relief. + +He was a man of sixty odd, with a thick thatch of white hair which came +down upon his wrinkled forehead in a peak. His face was tanned to the +color of an old saddle, his nose beaked like a hawk, and his mouth was a +mere lipless cut which might have been made by a knife. A strong jaw +completed an impression of abnormal quiet, and long enduring strength. +Indeed the whole face was a mask of immobility. Beneath heavy black +brows were eyes as dark as night, clear, but without expression. No one +looking at them could ever tell what were the thoughts behind. For the +rest, he was a man of medium height, thick-set, wiry, and agile. + +A brief sketch of Gideon Mendoza Morse's career must be given here. His +mother was a Spanish lady of good family, resident in Brazil; his father +an American gentleman of Old Virginia, who had settled there after the +war between North and South. Morse was born a native of Brazil. His +parents left him a moderate fortune which he proceeded to expand with +extraordinary rapidity and success. When the last Emperor, Dom Pedro +II., was deposed in 1889, Gideon Mendoza Morse was indeed a rich man, +and a prominent politician. + +He took a great part in establishing the Republic, though in his earlier +years he had leaned towards the Monarchy, and he shared in the immense +prosperity which followed the change. + +His was not a paper fortune. The fluctuations of stocks and shares could +hardly influence it. He owned immense coffee plantations in Para, and +was practically the monopolist of the sugar regions of Maranhao, but his +greatest revenues came from his immense holdings in gold, manganese, and +diamond mines. He had married a Spanish lady early in his career and was +now a widower with one daughter. + +She came up upon the roof-garden now, a tall slip of a girl with an +immense quantity of lustrous, dead-black hair, and a voice as clear as +an evening bell. + +"Father," she said in English--she had been at school at Eastbourne, and +had no trace of Spanish accent--"what is the exact hour that we sail?" + +Morse slipped out of the hammock and took her arm in his. + +"At ten to-night, Juanita," he replied, patting her hand. "Are you glad, +then?" + +"Glad! I cannot tell you how much." + +"To leave all this"--he waved his hand at what was probably the most +perfect prospect earth has to offer--"to leave all this for the fogs and +gloom of London?" + +"I don't mind the fogs, which, by the way, are tremendously exaggerated. +Of course I love Rio, father, but I long to be in London, the heart of +the world, where all the nicest people are and where a girl has freedom +such as she never has here." + +"Freedom!" he said. "Ah!"--and was about to continue when a native +Indian servant in a uniform of white linen with gold shoulder knots, +advanced towards them with a salver upon which were two calling cards. + +Morse took the cards. A slight gleam came into his eyes and passed, +leaving his face as impassive as before. + +"You must run away, darling," he said to Juanita. "I have to see some +gentlemen. Are all your preparations made?" + +"Everything. All the luggage has gone down to the harbor except just a +couple of hand-bags which my maid has." + +"Very well then, we will have an early meal and leave at dusk." + +The girl flitted away. Morse gave some directions to the servant, and, +shortly after, the rattle of a lift was heard from a little cupola in +one corner of the roof. + +Two men stepped out and came among the palms and flowers to the +millionaire. + +One was a thin, dried-up, elderly man with a white mustache--the Marquis +da Silva; his companion, powerful, black-bearded and yellow-faced, +obviously with a touch of the half-caste in him--Don Zorilla y Toro. + +"Pray be seated," said Morse, with a low bow, though he did not offer to +shake hands with either of them. "May I ask to what I owe the pleasure +of this visit?" + +"It is very simple, señor," said the marquis, "and you must have +expected a visit sooner or later." + +The old man, speaking in the pure Spanish of Castille, trembled a little +as he sat at a round table of red lima-wood encrusted with +mother-of-pearl. + +"We are, in short," said the burly Zorilla, "ambassadors." + +They were now all seated round the table, under the shade of a palm +whose great fans clicked against each other in the evening breeze which +began to blow from the cool heights of the sugar-loaf mountain. The face +of Gideon Morse was inscrutable as ever. It might have been a mask of +leather; but the old Spanish nobleman was obviously ill at ease, and the +bulging eyes of the well-dressed half-caste, with his diamond cuff links +and ring, spoke of suppressed and furious passion. + +In a moment tragedy had come into this paradise. + +"Yes, we are ambassadors," echoed the marquis with a certain eagerness. + +"A grand and full-sounding word," said Gideon Morse. "I may be permitted +to ask--from whom?" + +Quick as lightning Don Zorilla held out his hand over the table, opened +it, and closed it again. There was a little glint of light from his palm +as he did so. + +Morse leant back in his chair and smiled. Then he lit one of his pungent +cigarettes. + +"So! Are you playing with those toys still, gentlemen?" + +The marquis flushed. "Mendoza," he said, "this is idle trifling. You +must know very well--" + +"I know nothing, I want to know nothing." + +The marquis said two words in a low voice, and then the heads of the +three men drew very close together. For two or three minutes there was a +whispering like the rustle of the dry grasses of the Brazilian campos, +and then Morse drew back his chair with a harsh noise. + +"Enough!" he said. "You are madmen, dreamers! You come to me after all +these years, to ask me to be a party in destroying the peace and +prosperity our great country enjoys and has enjoyed for more than thirty +years. You ask me, twice President of the Republic which I helped to +make--" + +Zorilla lifted his hand and the great Brazilian diamonds in his rings +shot out baleful fires. + +"Enough, señor," he said in a thick voice. "That is your unalterable +decision?" + +Morse laughed contemptuously. "While Azucar stands," he said, "I stand +where I am, and nothing will change me." + +"You stand where you are, Mendoza," said the marquis with a new gravity +and dignity in his voice, "but I assure you it will not be for long. You +have two years to run, that's true. But at the end of them be sure, oh, +be very sure, that the end will come, and swiftly." + +Morse rose. + +"I will endeavor to put the remaining two years to good use," he said, +with grim and almost contemptuous mockery. + +"Do so, señor," said Zorilla, "but remember that in our forests the +traveler may press onward for days and weeks, and all the time in the +tree-tops, the silent jaguar is following, following, waiting--" + +"I have traveled a good deal in our forests in my youth, Don Zorilla. I +have even slain many jaguars." + +The three men looked at each other steadily and long, then the two +visitors bowed and turned to go. But, just as they were moving off +towards the lift dome, Zorilla turned back and held out a card to Don +Mendoza. It was an ordinary visiting card with a name engraved upon it. + +Morse took it, looked at the name, and then stood still and frozen in +his tracks. + +He did not move until the whirr of the bell and the clang of the gate +told him the roof-garden was his own again. + +Then he staggered to the table like a drunken man, sank into a chair and +bowed his head upon the gleaming pearl and crimson. + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +When my father died and left me his large fortune I also inherited that +very successful London newspaper, the _Evening Special_. I decided to +edit it myself. + +To be six-and-twenty, to live at high pressure, to go everywhere, see +everything, know everybody, and above all to have Power, this is success +in life. I would not have changed my position in London for the +Premiership. + +On the evening of Lady Brentford's dance, I dined alone in my Piccadilly +flat. There was nothing much doing in the way of politics and I had been +playing golf at Sandown the whole of the day. I hadn't seen the paper +until now, when Preston brought it in--the last edition--and I opened it +over my coffee. + +There were, and are, few things that I love better than the _Evening +Special_. I claim for it that it is the most up-to-date evening +newspaper in England, bright and readable from the word "go," and +singularly accurate in all its information. + +There was a long time yet before I need dress, and I sat by the balcony, +with the mellow noises of Piccadilly on an early summer's evening +pouring into the room, and read the rag through. + +On one of the last pages, where the society gossip and women's chat +appear, I saw something that interested me. Old Miss Easey, who writes +the society news, was one of my most valued contributors. With her +hooked nose, her beady black eyes and marvelous coffee-colored wig, she +went everywhere by right of birth, for she was connected with half the +peerage. Her news was accurate and real. She faked nothing, because she +got all her stuff from the inside, and this was known all over London. +She was well worth the thousand a year I paid her, and the daily column +signed "Vera" was an accepted fact in the life of London society. + +To-day the old girl had let herself go. It seemed--of course there had +been paragraphs in the papers for some days--that the great Brazilian +millionaire, Gideon Mendoza Morse, had exploded in society like a bomb. +He had taken a whole floor of the Ritz Hotel, and it was rumored that he +was going to buy an empty palace in Park Lane and astonish town. Every +one was saying that he had wealth beyond the dreams of avarice--which +is, of course, awful rot when you come to think of it, because there are +no bounds whatever to avarice. + +"Vera" was not expatiating upon the Brazil Nut's wealth, but upon his +only daughter. It was put in a veiled way, and that with well-bred +reticence for which we paid Miss Easey a thousand a year--no cheap gush, +thank you, in the _Evening Special_--that Miss Morse was a young girl of +such superlative loveliness that there was not a débutante to come +within a mile of her. I gathered, also, that the young lady's first very +public appearance was to be made to-night at the house of the +Marchioness of Brentford in Belgrave Square. + +The news certainly gave an additional interest to the prospect of the +evening, and I wondered what the girl was really like. + +I had motored up from Sandown and sat down to dinner as I was. Perhaps I +was rather tired, but as I sat by the window and dusk came over the +Green Park while all the lights of Piccadilly were lit, I sank into a +sort of doze, assisted by the deep, organ-like hum of the everlasting +traffic. + +Yes, I must really have fallen asleep, for I was certainly in the middle +of some wild and alluring adventure, when I woke with a start to find +all the lights in my dining-room turned on, Preston standing by the +door, and Pat Moore shaking me violently by the shoulder. + +"Confound you, don't do that!" I shouted, jumping up--Pat Moore was six +feet two in height, and the heaviest man in the Irish Guards. "Hallo, +what are you doing here?" + +"It's myself that has looked in for a drink," he said. "I thought we'd +go to the ball together." + +I was a little more awake by this time and saw that Pat was in full +evening kit, and very grand he looked. He was supposed to be the +handsomest man in London, on the large swaggering side, and certainly, +whether in uniform or mufti, he was a very splendid figure. +Nevertheless, he had no more idea of side than a spaniel dog, and he was +just about as kind and faithful as the sportsman's friend. He possessed +a certain downright honesty and common sense that endeared him to every +one, though his own mother would hardly have called him clever. At an +earlier period of our lives he had caned me a good deal at Eton, and it +was difficult to get out of his dear, stupid old head that he had not +some vague rights over me in that direction still. + +"Now, Tom," he said, pouring himself out a mighty drink--for his head +was cast-steel, "you go and make yourself look pretty and then come back +here, 'cos I have something to tell you." + +I went obediently away, bathed, shaved, was assisted by Preston into +evening clothes and returned to the dining-room about a quarter to ten. + +"What have you got to tell me, Pat?" + +He thought for a moment. I believe that he always had to summon his +words out of some cupboard in his brain--"Tom, I've seen the most +beautiful girl in the world." + +"Then leg it, Pat, hare away from temptation, or she'll have you!"--Pat +had ten thousand a year and had been a dead mark for all sorts of +schemes for the last two years. + +"Don't be a silly ass, Tom, you don't know what you're talking about. +This is serious." + +"I don't know who _you're_ talking about." + +He was heaving himself out of his chair to explain, when the door opened +and Preston announced "Lord Arthur Winstanley." + +"Hallo, what brings you here?" I said. + +"Thought I'd come in for a drink. Saw you were going to mother's +to-night, Tom, thought we might as well be going together. Hallo, Pat. +You coming along too?" + +"Thought of doin' so," said Captain Moore. + +Arthur threw himself into a chair--slim, clean shaved, with curly black +hair and dark blue eyes, his clean-cut, clever face alive with youth and +vitality. + +"Tom," he said to me, "to-night you are going to see the most beautiful +girl in the world." + +"Hallo!" Pat shouted, "you've seen her too?" + +"Seen her? Of course I have. Mother's giving the dance for her +to-night." + +Then I understood. + +"Oh, Miss Morse?" I said. + +"Jooaneeta!" said Pat in his rich, Irish voice. + +"Generally pronounced 'Whanita' soft--like tropic moonlight, my old +geranium," said Arthur. + +"Sure, your pronunciation won't do at all, at all." + +Pat twirled the end of his huge mustache, then he heaved a cushion. "You +and your talk!" he said. + +"Well, I've not seen her," I remarked, "but I'm quite willing to take +the word of two experts. Isn't it about time we went?" + +Winstanley produced a platinum watch no thicker than a half-crown from +the pocket of his white waistcoat. + +"Well, perhaps it might be," he said. "We can take up strategic +positions, and get there before the crush. Although I don't live at +home, I've got a snug little couple of rooms they keep for me, and +mother will see that--" + +He smiled to himself. + +"Now look here," I said, "fair does! You are already half-way up the +course with the fair Brazilian, but do let your pals have a chance. I +suppose all the world will be round her, but do see that Pat and I have +a small look in." + +"Of course I will. We've done too much hunting together, we three. I +tell you, Tom, you will be bowled clean over at the very sight of her. +There never was such a girl since Cleopatra was a flapper. Now, send old +Preston for a taxi and we'll get to cover side." + +It was about half-past ten as we entered the hospitable portals of +Brentford House in Belgrave Square. There was a tremendous crush; I +never remember seeing so many people at Lady Brentford's, for, though +everybody went to her parties, they were never overcrowded, owing to the +immense size of the famous old London House. + +Pat Moore and I kept close to Arthur, who, as a son of the house, knew +his way a great deal better than we did, and we soon found ourselves at +the top of the staircase and close to the alcove where Lady Brentford +and her daughter, Lady Joan Winstanley, were standing, while I saw the +bald head of the marquis, who was as innocent of hair as a new laid egg, +shining in the background. + +Dear Lady Brentford greeted Pat--who had formed a sort of battering-ram +for us on the staircase--with marked kindness. It was thought that she +saw in him a prospective husband for Arthur's sister. After greeting his +mother and asking a question, Arthur went off at once and my turn came. + +"My dear Sir Thomas, I am so glad to see you. Are you like all the other +young men in London to-night?" + +"I sincerely hope not," I told her, though I knew very well what she +meant. + +We were old friends, and she was not deceived for a moment. "I +understand you perfectly, you wicked boy." + +"Well then, Lady Brentford"--I lowered my voice--"has she come?" + +Her eyes gleamed. + +"Not yet, but I am expecting her every moment. Now, I am going to be +kind to you. You wait here, just a little behind me, and I'll introduce +you at once." + +I hope I looked as grateful as I felt, for I confess my curiosity was +greatly aroused, and besides it would be such a score over Pat and +Arthur. There's something in power after all! Had I been merely Tom +Kirby whose father had received a baronetcy for, say, soap, Lady +Brentford would not have been nearly as nice, even though Arthur and I +had been bosom friends at Oxford. But you see I was the _Evening +Special_ and that meant much, especially in a political house like this. + +I waited, and talked a little with Lord Brentford, that sterling, +old-fashioned member of more Cabinets than one would care to count. He +said "hum," and then "ha," and then "hum" again, which was the extent of +his conversation on every occasion except that of a specially good +dinner, when he added "ho." + +And then, I suppose it was about eleven o'clock, there was a stir and a +movement all down the grand staircase. Except that the band in the +ballroom did not burst into the strains of the National Anthem, it was +exactly like the arrival of royalty. Coming up the staircase was a +thick-set man of medium height with white hair, a brown face, and good +features, but of such immobility that they might have been carved in +sandstone. By his side, very simply dressed, and wearing no ornament but +one rope of great pearls, came Juanita Morse. + +If I live for a thousand years I shall never forget that first vision of +her. I have seen all the beauties of London, Paris and Rome, danced with +many of them, spoken at least to the majority, but never before or since +have I seen such luminous and compelling loveliness. It is almost +impossible for me to describe her, a presumption indeed, when so many +abler pens than mine have hymned her praises. The poets of two +Continents have lain their garlands of song at her little feet. She has +been the theme of innumerable articles in the Press, the heroine of a +dozen novels. And yet I must give some impression of her, I suppose. She +was slender and tall, though not too tall. Her hair, which must have +fallen to her feet and enveloped her like a cloud of night, was dead +black. But it was not the coarse, lifeless black of so many women of the +Latin race. It was as fine as spun silk, gleaming, vital and full of +electricity--a live thing of itself, so it seemed to me. Her father's +eyes were unpolished jet, but hers were of a deep blue-black, large, +lustrous, and of unfathomable depth. They were never the same for two +moments together and the light within them was forever new. But what's +the good of a catalogue--after all, it expresses very little. There was +not a feature of her face, not a line of her form that was not perfect, +and her smile was the last real enchantment left in the modern world.... + +In two minutes, I, I--Tom Kirby, was walking towards the ballroom with +her hand upon my arm. How all the women stared, nodded and whispered! +how all the men hated me! I caught sight of Pat and Arthur, and, lo! +their faces were as those who lie in wait, who grin like dogs and run +about the city--as I told them some hours afterwards. + +Thank heavens that all the vulgar modern dances were not only perishing +of their own inanity at that time, but had never been allowed in +Brentford House. The best band in town had begun a delightful waltz, and +we slipped into it together as if passing through curtains into +dreamland. + +I don't remember that we said very much to each other--certainly I was +not going to ask her how she liked London and so forth. She did not seem +the sort of girl to appreciate the farthing change of talk. + +But, somehow or other, we conversed with our eyes. I was as certain of +this as of the fact that I was dancing with her, and, long after, in a +situation and moment of the most deadly peril, she confessed it to me. + +Towards the end of the dance, when the flutes and violins glided into +the last movement, I said this--"Miss Morse, I know that I am doing the +most dreadful thing. All London wants to dance with you to-night, and I +have had the great privilege of being the very first. But could you, do +you think you possibly could, give me just one more dance later on in +the evening?" + +"Of course I will, Sir Thomas," she said, and her voice was as clear as +an evening bell. "I think you dance beautifully." + +We circled round the room for the last time and then I resigned her to +Lady Brentford, who was looking after the girl, with an eloquent look of +thanks. Immediately she became swallowed up by a regiment of black +coats, and I saw her no more for a time. + +I am extremely fond of dancing, but I sought out no other damsel now, +but went to a buffet and drank a long glass of iced hock-cup--as if that +was going to quench the fever within! Then I found my way to a lonely +spot in one of the conservatories and sat thinking hard. I will say +nothing as to the nature of my reverie--it may very easily be guessed. +But from time to time I concentrated all my powers in living over again +the divine moments of that dance. I was finally, irrevocably, +passionately in love. It seems the maddest thing to say for a +hard-headed, level-minded man of the world such as I was. I suppose I +had known her for just about quarter of an hour, and yet I knew that +there would never be any other woman for me and that when my days were +at an end her name would be the only one upon my lips. + +A little later on in the evening, before my second and final dance with +his daughter, I had the opportunity of a talk with Mr. Morse himself. I +say at once, and I am not letting myself be colored by what happened +afterwards and the intimate relations into which I was thrown with him, +I say at once that I found him charming. There was an immense force and +power about him, but this was not obtruded upon one, as I have known it +to be in the case of other extremely wealthy and successful men, both +English and American. This super-millionaire had all the graces of +speech and courtesy of manner of the Spanish great gentleman. And +curiously enough, he took to me. I was quite certain of that. Whether he +wanted to use me in any way--and nine-tenths of the people I met +generally did--I could not have said. At any rate I determined that if +he did I was very much at his disposal. + +We watched Miss Morse dancing with old Pat, who, for all his sixteen +stone, was as light as a cat on his feet. + +"Do you know who that is dancing with Juanita?" Morse asked simply. + +"Oh, yes. Captain Moore, Patrick Moore, of the Irish Guards. He is one +of my most intimate friends and one of the best fellows in the world." + +Then Morse said a curious thing, which I could not fathom just then. He +said it half to me and half to himself in a curiously, thoughtful way. + +"--A fine fellow to have with one in an emergency." + +Well, of course, I didn't like to tell him that dear old Pat, while he +had common sense enough to come indoors while it rained, had no mind--in +the real sense of that word--whatever. It did not occur to me for a +moment that Gideon Morse might have been speaking simply of Pat's +_physical_ qualities. + +Pat's face was marvelous to look upon. It was one great, glowing mass of +happiness. He did not take the least trouble to disguise his ecstasy, +and if ever a man showed he was in paradise, Pat Moore did then. It was +different when Juanita danced with Arthur. His handsome, clever face was +not in repose for a moment. It was sharpened by eagerness, and he talked +incessantly, provoking answering smiles and flashes from the girl's +wonderful eyes. My heart sank. I knew how Arthur Winstanley could talk +when he chose--as all England was to learn two or three years later when +he entered the House of Commons. + +"And that man?"--the low, resonant voice of Mr. Morse was again in my +ears, for I had been neglecting my duties to all the girls I knew, most +dreadfully, and remained with him for the space of three dances. + +"Oh, that's another friend of mine, Lord Arthur Winstanley. He is a son +of the house, the second son. Charles, the heir, is with his regiment in +India." + +Mr. Morse thanked me and soon afterwards two very great people indeed +came up, and I melted away. I went to my seat in the conservatory again. +I did not care how rude it was, how I was betraying Lady Brentford's +hospitality--being known as a dancing man and expected to dance--but I +was determined not to touch any other girl that night until Juanita +Morse and I had danced again together. + +It came and passed. Afterwards I slipped downstairs, got my hat and +overcoat and left the house, without, I think, being observed by any +one. + +The night air was fresh and sweet and I determined to walk before I +reached home, for my mind was in a whirl of sensation. I turned into the +great, dark cañon of Victoria Street, which was almost empty, and heard +my footsteps echoing up the cliff-like sides of the houses. I caught a +glimpse of the moon silvering the Campanile of Westminster Cathedral, +and when I reached the Abbey, it and the Houses of Parliament were +washed in soft and brilliant light. And yet, somehow, I could not think. +I could not survey, with my usual cool detachment, the situation which +had suddenly risen in my life. I remember that the predominant feeling +was a wish that I had never gone to Lady Brentford's, that I had never +seen or spoken to Juanita Morse. What was the use after all? She was as +much above my hopes as a Princess of the Royal House, and yet I knew +that without her I should never be really happy again. + +It was in a sort of desperation that I hurried up Parliament Street and +through Trafalgar Square, feeling that I was a fool and mad, wanting to +hide my shame in my own quiet rooms, where at any rate I should be +alone. + +I opened the door with my Yale key and ran lightly up the stairs to the +flat on the first floor which I occupied. As I went into the lounge hall +and took off my overcoat, Preston, whom I had not told to wait up for +me, came from the passage leading to the servants' quarters carrying a +tray. + +"I shan't want any supper, thank you, Preston," I said in surprise. + +"Thank you, sir, very good sir," he replied, "but his lordship and +Captain Moore are here and have just asked for something." + +My first emotion was one of unutterable surprise, and then I scowled and +felt inclined to swear. What on earth were those two doing here at this +time of night, just when I would have given almost anything to be left +alone? + +I hesitated for a moment and then walked into the smoking-room. + +Pat was seated in a lounge chair smoking a cigar. Arthur was pacing up +and down the carpet. Neither of them appeared to have been talking, and, +as I came in, they looked at me curiously, and I saw that their faces in +some subtle way were changed. + +They were my best friends, for years we had been accustomed to treat +each other's quarters and possessions as if they were our own, and yet +now I felt as if they were intruding strangers, though I tried hard to +be genial. + +"Hallo," I said in a voice that cracked upon the word, "didn't expect to +see you again. Anything special?" + +Preston was putting his tray of sandwiches and deviled biscuits on the +table, so we could not say much, but directly he had left the room old +Pat got up from his chair. He held out his hand, pointing at me with a +trembling finger. His face was purple. + +"You, you danced twice with her," he said. + +So that was it! I grew ice-cold in a moment. + +"I won't pretend to misunderstand to what you refer," I said, "but what +the devil is that to you?" + +"Pat, don't be a fool!" Arthur whipped out, though the look he gave me, +which he tried to disguise, was not a friendly one. + +"Fool is hardly the word," I said. "Kindly explain yourself, Moore, and +forget that you are my guest if you like--I don't mind." + +The huge man trembled. Then he turned away with a sort of snarl, +snatched his handkerchief from his cuff and mopped his face. + +I sat down and lit a cigarette. + +"Can you explain this, Arthur?" I asked. + +He sat down too, and began to tap with his shoe upon the carpet. + +"Oh, I don't know," he said sullenly. "You were the only man in the +room, Kirby, to whom she gave more than one dance." + +"That's as may be. I suppose you don't propose to expostulate with the +lady herself? And, by the way, I always thought that it wasn't exactly +form to discuss these things in the way you appear to have been doing." + +That got Arthur on the mark. His face grew very white and he sat +perfectly still. + +Then Pat heaved himself round. + +"She's not for you, at any rate," he said. "They will marry her to a +duke or one of the Princes." + +Suddenly the humor of all this struck me forcibly and I lay back in my +chair and burst into a peal of laughter. + +"That's quite likely," I said, "though I don't think, what I have seen +of Mr. Morse, that he is likely to have ambitions that way, and I am +quite certain that Miss Morse will marry the man she wants to marry and +no one else, whether he is a thoroughbred or hairy at the heels. I think +all this talk on your part--remember you began it, Pat--is perfectly +disgraceful, to say nothing of its utter childishness. As for your +saying that a young lady whom I have met for the first time to-night and +danced with twice, is not for me, it's a damnable piece of impertinence +that you should dare to insinuate that I look upon her in the way you +suggest." + +I jumped up from my seat and knew that I was dominating them all right. + +"Supposing what you say is true, I admit that my chance isn't worth two +penn'orth o' cold gin, though it's every bit as good, and probably +better, than yours, all things considered. You are certainly a fine +figure of a man." + +I was furious, mad, keen to provoke him to an outburst. The calculated +insult was patent enough. + +I thought he was about to go for me, and I stood ready, when "What about +me?" came in a dry crackling voice from Arthur. + +"Oh, I should put you and me about level," I said, "with the courtesy +title as a little extra weight. It is a pity you should be the second +son." + +"Damn you, Kirby!" he burst out, blazing with anger. + +I lifted up my hand and looked at both of them. + +"I came in here," I said, "to my own house and find my two best friends, +that I thought, waiting for me. A few hours ago I should have thought +such a scene as this utterly impossible. I will ask you both to remember +that it has not been provoked by me in any way, and that directly I came +in you turned on me in the most atrocious and ill-bred way. Of your idea +of the value of friendship I say nothing at all--it is obvious I must +say nothing about that. Now you have forced the pace I will say this. To +marry that young lady--I don't like to speak her name even--is about as +difficult as to dive in a cork jacket or keep a smelt in a net. But I +mean to try. I mean to use every ounce of weight I've got. I shall +almost certainly fail, but now you know." + +"Since you have said that," Pat broke in, "handicaps be damned! I'm a +starter for the same stakes, and it's hell for leather I'll ride, and +it's meself that says it, Tom." + +Arthur Winstanley spoke last. + +"I'm a fellow of a good many ambitions," he said quietly, "though I've +never bothered you chaps with them. Now they are all consolidated into +one." + +Then we all stood and looked at each other, the cards on the table, and +in the faces of the other two at least there was uneasiness and shame. + +Just at that moment a funny thing happened. Preston had brought in an +ice pail full of bottles of soda water. The heat of the night, or +something, caused one of the corks to break its confining wire and go +off with a startling report, while a fountain of foam drenched the +sandwiches. + +"Me kingdom for a drink!" said Pat. "Oh, the sweet, blessed, gurgling +sound!" and striding to the table he mixed a gargantuan peg. + +Arthur and I met behind Pat's back and he held out his hand to me, +biting his lower lip. + +"We've behaved abominably, old soul," he said. + +The big guardsman turned round and raised his glass on high. + +"Here's to the sweetest and most lovely lady in the world, bedad!" he +shouted, accentuating his Irish brogue. "May the best man win her, fair +fight, and no favors, and may the Queen of Heaven and all the saints +watch over the little darlint and guide her choice aright!" + +So all our midnight madness passed like a fleeting cloud. An +extraordinary accession of high spirits came to us as we pledged the +dark-haired maiden from Brazil. And it was Pat, dear old Pat, who welded +us together in a league of chivalry against which nothing was ever to +prevail. + +"Tom," he said, "Arthur--we are all like brothers, we always have been. +Let there be no change in that, now or ever. I have something to +propose." + +"Go on, Pat," said Arthur. + +"Sure then, since we all love the same lady, that ought to bind us more +together than anything else has ever done. But since we cannot all marry +her, let us agree, in the first place, that no outsider ever shall." + +"Hurrah!" said Arthur--I could see that he was fearfully +excited--throwing his glass into the fireplace with a crash. + +"I am with you, Pat!" I cried. "It's to be one of us three, and we are +in league against all the other men in London. And now the question +is--" + +"Hear my plan. This very night we'll draw lots as to which of us shall +have the first chance. The man who wins shall have the entire support of +the other two in every possible way. If she accepts him, then the fates +have spoken. If she doesn't, then the next man in the draw shall have +his chance, and the rejected suitor and the poor third man shall help +_him_ to the utmost of their ability. Is that clear?" + +He stopped and looked down at us from his great height with a smiling +and anxious face. + +Dear old Pat, I shall always love to think that the proposal came from +him, straight, clean and true, as he always was. + +"So be it," Arthur echoed solemnly. "The league shall begin this very +night. Do either of you chaps know any Spanish, by the way?" + +We shook our heads. + +"Well, I do," he continued, "and we'll form ourselves into a Santa +Hermandad--'The Holy Brotherhood'--it was the name of an old Spanish +Society of chivalry ever so many years ago." + +"Santa Hermandad!" Pat shouted, "and now to shake hands on it. I think +we'll not be needing to take an oath." + +Our three hands were clasped together in an instant and we knew that, +come what might, each would be true to that bond. + +"And now," I said, "to draw lots as to who shall be the first to try his +chance. How shall we settle it?" + +"There's no fairer way," said Arthur, "than the throw of a die. Have you +any poker dice, Tom?" + +"Yes, I have a couple of sets somewhere." + +"Very well then, we'll take a single one and the first man that throws +Queen is the winner." + +I found the dice and the leather cup and dropped a single one into it. +Poker dice, for the benefit of the uninitiate, have the Queen on one +side in blue, like the Queen in a pack of cards, the King in red and the +Knave in black. On two other faces, the nine and the ten. + +"Who will throw first?" said Pat. + +"You throw," I said. + +There was a rattle, and nine fell upon the table. I nodded to Arthur, +who picked up the little ivory square, waved the cup in the air, and +threw--an ace. + +My turn came. I threw an ace also, and Arthur and I looked at Pat with +sinking hearts. + +He threw a King. I don't want another five minutes like that again. We +threw and threw and threw and never once did the Queen turn up. At last +Arthur said: + +"Look here, you fellows, I can't stand this much longer, it's playing +the devil with my nerves. Let's have one more throw and if Her Majesty +doesn't turn up, let's decide it by values. Ace, highest, King, Queen +and so on. Tom, your turn." + +I took up the box, rattled the cube within it for a long time and then +dropped it flat upon the table. + +I had thrown Queen. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +About a fortnight after the memorable scene in my flat when the league +came into being, I was sitting in my editorial room at the offices of +the _Evening Special_. + +I had met Juanita once at a large dinner party and exchanged half a +dozen words with her--that was all. My head was full of plans, I was +trying to map out a social campaign that would give me the opportunity I +longed for, but as yet everything was tentative and incomplete. The +exciting business of journalism, the keeping of one's thumb upon the +public pulse, the directing of public thought into this or that channel, +was most welcome at a time like this, and I threw myself into it with +avidity. + +I had just returned from lunch, and the first editions of the paper were +successfully afloat, when Williams, my acting editor, and Miss Dewsbury, +my private secretary, came into my room. + +"Things are very quiet indeed," said Williams. + +"But the circulation is all right?" + +"Never better. Still, I am thinking of our reputation, Sir Thomas." + +I knew what he meant. We had never allowed the _Evening Special_--highly +successful as it was--to go on in a jog-trot fashion. We had a +tremendous reputation for great "stunts," genuine, exclusive pieces of +news, and now for weeks nothing particular had come our way. + +"That's all very well, Williams, but we cannot make bricks without +straw, and if everything is as stagnant as a duck pond, that's not our +fault." + +Miss Dewsbury broke in. She was a little woman of thirty with a large +head, fair hair drawn tightly from a rather prominent brow, and wore +tortoise-shell spectacles. She looked as if her clothes had been flung +at her and had stuck, but for all that Julia Dewsbury was the best +private secretary in London, true as steel, with an inordinate capacity +for work and an immense love for the paper. I think she liked me a +little too, and she was well worth the four hundred a year I paid her. + +"I," said Miss Dewsbury, "live at Richmond." + +Both Williams and I cocked our ears. Julia never wasted words, but she +liked to tell her story her own way, and it was best to let her do so. + +"Ah!" said Williams appreciatively. + +"And I believe," she went on, "that one of the biggest newspaper +stories, ever, is going to come from Richmond. It is something that will +go round the world, if I am not very much mistaken, and we've got to +have it first, Sir Thomas." + +Williams gave a low whistle, and I strained at the leash, so to speak. + +"I refer," Miss Dewsbury went on, "to the great wireless erections on +Richmond Hill." + +For a moment I felt disappointed. I didn't see how interest could be +revived in that matter and I said so. + +"Nearly a year ago," I remarked, "every paper in England was booming +with it. We did our share, I'm sure. No one could have protested more +vigorously, and it was the _Special_ that got all those questions asked +in Parliament. But surely, Miss Dewsbury, it's dead as mutton now. It's +an accepted fact and the public have got used to it." + +"There's nothing," said Williams, "more impossible than to reanimate a +dead bit of news. It's been tried over and over again and it's never +been a real success." + +Miss Dewsbury smiled, the smile that means "When you poor dear, silly +men have done talking, then you shall hear something." I saw that smile +and took courage again. + +"Suppose," said Miss Dewsbury, "that we just look up the facts as a +preliminary to what I have to say." + +She went to a side table on which was a dial with little ivory tablets, +each bearing a name--Sub-editor's room, Composing room, Mr. Williams, +Library, etc., and she pulled a little handle over the last disk, +immediately speaking into a telephone receiver above. + +"Facts relating to great wireless installment on Richmond Hill." + +A bell whirred and she came back to the table where we were sitting. In +twenty seconds--so perfect was our organization at the _Special_ +office--a youth entered with a portfolio containing a number of Press +cuttings, photographs, etc. + +Miss Dewsbury opened it. + +"A year ago," she said, "the real estate market was greatly interested +to learn that Flight, Jones & Rutley, the well-known agents, had secured +several acres of property on the top of Richmond Hill. The buyer's name +was not discovered, but an enormously wealthy syndicate was suggested. +At that time, opportunely chosen, many leases had fallen in. Others that +had some time still to run were bought at a greatly enhanced value, +while several portions of freehold property were also purchased at ten +times their worth. Houses immediately began to be demolished, immense +compensation was paid to those who hung out and refused to quit the +newly purchased area. Pressure, it is hinted, of a somewhat +unwarrantable kind, was also applied. The sum involved was enormous, but +every claim was cheerfully settled, with the result that this area of +several acres was entirely denuded of buildings and surrounded by a high +wall, in an incredibly short space of time." + +"The most beautiful view in England spoiled forever!" said Williams with +a sigh. + +Miss Dewsbury turned over a few leaves. + +"Of course you will both remember the agitation that went on, the +opposition of the local and County Councils, the rage of Societies for +preserving the ancient monuments and historic places of interest, etc., +etc. The newspapers, including ours, took up the matter vigorously. +Then, with a curious unanimity, all opposition began to die away. It is +quite certain that huge sums were spent in buying over the objectors, +though no actual proof was ever discovered. The matter was altogether +too delicate a thing and was far too skillfully worked. + +"Then the unknown purchaser began to build the three great towers now +approaching completion. An army of workmen was gathered together in a +new industrial city between Brentford and Hounslow. Fleets of ships +bearing steel girders and so forth arrived from America, together with a +hundred highly trained engineers, all of them Americans. It was given +out that the most powerful wireless station in the whole world was to be +constructed. Again much opposition, appeals to the Government, questions +to the Board of Trade and so forth. I remember that very much the same +sort of thing happened in Paris, when the Eiffel Tower was first +constructed. England's agitation was opposed by the scientific bodies of +the day, and there were other forces behind which brought pressure to +bear on the Government. That also is certain, though nothing has +actually transpired as yet in this regard. Now we've three monstrous +towers, _each of nearly two thousand feet in height_--twice the height +of the Eiffel--dominating London. Every day almost we, who live in +Richmond and the surrounding towns, see these monsters shooting up +higher into the air. Often half of them is veiled by clouds. The most +tremendous engineering feat in the history of the world is nearly +accomplished." + +Now all this was quite familiar to me and in common with many Londoners +I had begun to take a sort of lazy pride in the gaunt lattice-work of +steel which seemed climbing to heaven itself. All the same I saw no +great journalistic opportunity and I said so. + +"Let us consider a little," continued the imperturbable Julia. "These +towers are _not_ Government owned. They are the property of some +private syndicate. The secret has been kept with extraordinary success. +All the Marconi shareholders of the City, all the big financial +corporations, even foreign Governments, have been trying to get at the +root of the matter. Each and all have utterly failed. Yet our own +Government knows, and sooner or later a pronouncement will have to be +made. If we could anticipate this, then the interest of the public would +rise to fever heat again, and we should have a scoop of the first +magnitude." + +I saw that immediately, and so did Williams, but as it was obvious Miss +Dewsbury hadn't quite finished we just nodded and let her go on. + +"Now I have reason for thinking," she said, "and I am not speaking +lightly, Sir Thomas, that there's something behind this affair of a +totally unexpected and startling nature. Some day, no doubt, the towers +will be used for scientific purposes, but there's a deep mystery +surrounding everything, and one very different from what we might +suppose. I think we can penetrate it." + +"Splendid!" I cried, for I knew very well that Julia Dewsbury would not +say as much as she had unless there was certainty behind her words. "And +how do you propose to start work?" + +As I was looking at her she flushed, and I nearly fell off my chair. It +had never occurred to me that Miss Dewsbury could blush, in fact, that +she was human at all, I am afraid, and I wondered what on earth was the +matter. + +"May I make a little personal explanation, Sir Thomas?" she said. "I +live in a quiet street at the foot of Richmond Hill, where I occupy a +large and comfortable bed-sitting room in 'Balmoral,' Number 102, Acacia +Road. The house is kept by an excellent woman, who only takes in one +other lodger. You pay me a very handsome salary, Sir Thomas, and I might +be expected to live in a more commodious way--a flat in Kensington or +something like that. But I have other claims upon me. There are two +young sisters and a brother to be educated, and I am their sole support. +That's why I live in a small lodging house at Richmond, which, again, is +the reason that I have recently come into contact with some one who may +be of inestimable value to the paper." + +She blushed again, upon my soul she did, and I heard Williams gasp in +astonishment. I kicked him, under the table. + +"The other bed-sitting room at 'Balmoral' has recently been occupied by +a young man, perhaps I should rather say a youth, Mr. William Rolston. +He seemed very lonely and quite poor, and on discussing him with Mrs. +O'Hagan, my landlady, she informed me that she more than suspected that +he had at times to economize grievously in the matter of food. I myself +used to hear the click of a typewriter across the passage, sometimes +continuing till late at night, and from the frequency with which bulky +envelopes arrived for him by post, it was easy to deduce that he was an +unsuccessful author or journalist. This naturally excited my interest. +Mrs. O'Hagan has no idea that I am connected with the _Evening Special_, +she thinks I am typist in a city firm of hardware merchants. And when I +made my acquaintance with Mr. Rolston, as I did some time ago owing to +his back number Remington going wrong, I told him nothing but that I +myself was a typist and stenographer. I was enabled to put his machine +right and we became friends. Am I boring you, Sir Thomas, and Mr. +Williams?" she said suddenly, with a quick look at both of us. + +"On the contrary," I replied, "you are paying us a great compliment, +Miss Dewsbury, in allowing us to know something of your own private +affairs in order that you may explain how you propose to do the paper a +signal service." + +I can swear that the little woman's eyes grew bright behind her +tortoise-shell spectacles and she went on with renewed confidence of +manner. + +"I have been associated with journalism for eight years now," she said. +"During that time innumerable journalists have passed before me. In my +own way I have studied them all, and I believe I can detect the real +journalist almost as well as Mr. Williams can." + +"A good deal better, I should think," said the acting editor, +"considering the people I have trusted and the mistakes I have sometimes +made." + +"At any rate, I can say, with my whole heart, that Bill--I mean Mr. +Rolston--though he is only twenty-one and has never had a chance in his +life yet, has the makings in him of the most successful journalist of +the day. He will rise to the very top of the tree. But as we all know, +though great merit will come to the surface in time, chance is a great +element in retarding or accelerating the process. I think that Mr. +Rolston's chance has come now." + +"You mean?" I asked. + +"That this boy, utterly unknown, with hardly a left foot in Fleet Street +as yet, has had the acumen to see, right to his hand, one of the +greatest journalistic sensations of modern times. I refer to the three +towers on Richmond Hill. We have been for evening strolls together and +the boy has poured out his whole heart to me--as he might to a mother or +any older woman"--and here poor Julia blushed again, and I thought I saw +her lips quiver for a moment. + +"The day before yesterday he said to me: 'Miss Dewsbury, of course you +don't understand anything about journalism, but I'm on the track of the +very biggest thing you could possibly imagine. I have been lying low and +saying nothing. I'm hot on the scent.' He hinted at what it was, without +giving me very many details, though these were quite sufficient to show +me that he was making no idle boast. Then he said: 'But what use is it? +If I went with what I've got already to any of the papers, I might or +might not get to see some unimaginative news-editor who'd squash me into +a cocked hat in five minutes. That's the worst of being absolutely +unknown and without any pull. If only I could get to see a real editor +of one of the big papers, a man who would give me a patient hearing, a +man with imagination, I would engage to convince him in ten minutes and +my fortune would be made.'" + +She stopped, leant back in her chair and looked at me inquiringly. + +"Good heavens!" I cried. "Have him up _at once_. I am quite certain that +you could never have been deceived, Miss Dewsbury. You have not been +with me for four years without my knowing how valuable your intuition +is. Send him to me at once." + +Miss Dewsbury gave a dry, gratified chuckle. + +"I may have stretched things a little far in having too much confidence +in my position here," she said, "but I was determined to gamble on it, +and I've won. This morning, before I left for the office, I gave Mrs. +O'Hagan a little note for Bill--he has an unfortunate habit of lying in +bed in the morning. The note told him that by an odd coincidence, I +thought I might put him in the way of writing an article for the +_Evening Special_ and that he was to be in the café at the corner by +three o'clock, precisely." + +She looked at her wrist-watch. + +"It's five minutes to now. I will send for him at once." + +"Rolston, did you say the name was, Miss Dewsbury?" said Williams. + +"Yes,--Rolston. But the messenger can't mistake him. He's about five +feet two high, very slim, with an innocent, baby face, and very dark red +hair. Oh, and his ears stick out at the sides of his head almost at +right angles. Please say nothing about my part in the matter, as yet at +any rate," Miss Dewsbury asked as she went away, and some minutes +afterwards a page boy ushered in one of the most curious little figures +I have ever seen. + +Mr. Rolston was short, slim and well proportioned. He looked active as a +monkey and tough as whipcord. He was rather shabbily dressed in an old +blue suit. His face was childish only in contour and complexion, and for +the rest he could have sat as a model for Puck to any painter. There was +something impish and merry in his rather slanting eyes, and his button +of a mouth was capable of some very surprising contortions. His +round-shaped ears, like the ears of a mouse, stood out on each side of +his head and completed the elfish, sprite-like impression. + +"Sit down, Mr. Rolston," I said, pointing to a chair on the other side +of the table. + +The little man bowed very low and slid into the chair. I had an odd +impression that he would shortly produce a nut and begin to crack it +with his teeth. I could see that he was in a whirl of amazement and at +the same time horribly nervous, and I tried to put him at his ease. + +"I understand," I said, "that you are a journalist, Mr. Rolston." + +"Yes, Sir Thomas," he replied, in a cultivated voice, though with a +curious guttural note in it, and I marked that he knew my name. + +"I also understand--never mind how--that for some time past you have +been wishing to see the editor of a large London daily, to penetrate +right to the fountain head, so to speak. Well, here you are, I am the +editor of the _Evening Special_. What have you to propose to me?" + +I passed a box of cigarettes over the table towards him, but he shook +his head. + +"It's about the three great towers now approaching completion at +Richmond." + +"You have some special information?" + +"Some very startling information, indeed, Sir Thomas. An idea came to me +some months ago. I thought it worth while testing, and it's proved +trumps." + +"If you have anything in the nature of a scoop, Mr. Rolston, I need +hardly say that it will be very well worth your while. If, when I have +heard what you have to say, I cannot use your information, I will give +you my personal word that all you tell me shall be kept an entire +secret." + +"That's good enough for any one," he answered with a sudden grin. "Well, +sir, these towers will eventually lapse to the British Government as a +gift from the private individual who has erected them, but they will +remain his property and be used for his own purposes until his death. +And these purposes are not wireless telegraphy, or even scientific in +any shape or form. Indeed, wireless telegraphy is expressly forbidden." + +Well, at that I sat upright in my chair. Here was news indeed--if it +were true. + +"That's big stuff," I replied at once, "if you can substantiate it." + +"I think you will believe me when I have finished," he replied quietly. +"I have risked my life more than once to get at the facts. My father, +Sir Thomas, was a missionary in China. I was brought up to speak the +Chinese language as well as English. I am one of the very few Europeans +who do so fluently. Moreover, I kept it up till I was sixteen and came +to England, and I have never forgotten it. You have heard, I suppose, +that there's a gang of Chinese coolies at work on the towers, and some +of the Trade Unions have been making themselves nasty about it, and the +American labor?" + +"Yes, there was some agitation." + +"In addition to these coolies, there are many Chinese officials of a +much higher class, people who will remain when the towers are finished, +as they will be in an incredibly short space of time, for the work is +being carried on both by day and night. Speed, speed, speed! is the +order, and nothing in the world is allowed to stand in the way of it." + +"You interest me very much. Please continue." + +"Speaking Chinese as I do, being perfectly familiar with Chinese dress +and customs, it has not been difficult for me to disguise +myself--blacken my hair, assume a yellow complexion and so forth. + +"By this means I have penetrated to the very heart of the workings at +night, and," he blushed faintly, "I have listened to conversations of an +extraordinary character, lying on the roof of a certain office building +for hours. Details you shall have, and in plenty, but here is the sum of +my discoveries. There is no syndicate. There never was. The work, upon +which millions have been spent, has been, from the very first, designed +and originated by one individual, with the specialized help of the most +famous engineers of America." + +"And his motive?" I asked, and I don't mind saying that I was almost +trembling with excitement. + +"The dream of a genius, or the whim of a madman," Rolston answered in a +grave voice. "The world will call it one or the other without a doubt. +At any rate it's the product of a colossal imagination. For myself, I am +dead certain that there's some deeper and stranger motive beneath it +all, but that can rest for the present. Sir Thomas, between those three +great towers, two thousand feet up in the air, will very shortly come +into being a fantastic pleasure city like a dream of the Arabian Nights! +It will be unique in the history of the world, and already the +preparations are so far advanced that it will be completed with +extraordinary rapidity." + +"A pleasure city!" I gasped. "A Pleasure City in the Clouds!" + +"On two stages right up at the very summit, suspended by a system of +cantilevers of the most intricate modern construction and of toughened +steel. I understand that a triangle measuring in all four acres will +support a marvelous series of palaces, a Lhassa of the air!" + +"Why Lhassa, Mr. Rolston?" + +"Because," he replied, "it's to be a Forbidden City, which no one will +be allowed to penetrate or see. It is a marvelous conception only +possible to enormous wealth and the vision of a superman." + +I left my chair and began pacing up and down the room as the freakish +grandeur of the conception burst fully upon me. Towering over London, +dwarfing Saint Paul's to a child's toy, a City in the Clouds! + +I stopped suddenly, wheeled round and shouted: "But who, Mr. Rolston, is +the madman, genius or superman who has imagined this and actually +carried it out in sober twentieth-century England?" + +"That's the greatest secret of all," he said, looking round the room as +if frightened. + +Then he slid from his chair and was at my side in a moment. + +"It's a Mr. Gideon Mendoza Morse from Brazil," he whispered. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +Rolston's revelation, utterly unexpected, came to me with the suddenness +of a blow over the heart. For a few seconds I was incapable of +consecutive thought, though I don't think my face showed anything of it. + +The lad was watching me anxiously and I had to do something with him at +once. Fortunately, I thought of the obvious thing. + +"Leave me now, Mr. Rolston," I said. "Go to the room down the passage +marked 'Mr. Williams' on the door, and ask him to put you into a room by +yourself. Then please, as quickly as possible, write me out a newspaper +'story' setting out fully all the facts you have told me. Remember that +you've got to interest the public in the very first paragraph in what is +undoubtedly a most sensational piece of news." + +"How many words, sir?" he asked me--I liked that, it was professional. + +"A thousand. And when you've done that bring it straight in to me." + +He was out of the room in a minute and I sat down to think. + +In the first place I didn't doubt his story for a moment, there was +something transparently honest about the boy, and, unless I was very +much mistaken, there was great ability in him also. When there was time +for it I expected I should hear a breathless story of his adventures in +the search of this stuff. He had hinted that his life had been in +danger.... I began to think--hard. Assuming that was true, that Morse +had been seized with this extraordinary whim, how did I stand in the +matter? At a first view it appeared that I was rather badly snookered. +Morse, always assuming young Rolston was correct, had spent a huge +fortune in keeping his secret. Moreover, the Government was in it with +him. It would hardly be the way to recommend myself to Juanita's +father--whose good opinion I desired to gain more than that of any other +person in the world, save one--by giving his cherished secret to the +world in order to increase the prestige and circulation of the _Evening +Special_. + +If I did publish it, it was odds on that I never saw Juanita again. One +thing occurred to me with relief--it wasn't a case in which I _had_ to +publish, in the public interest. By suppressing news I was not failing +my duty as an editor, only losing a big scoop, though that was hard +enough. What was to be done? As I asked myself that question I confess +that for a brief moment--thank Heaven it did not last long--it occurred +to me that I was now in a position to put considerable pressure upon the +millionaire. I could hold out inducements.... + +Fortunately, I crushed all such ugly thoughts without much effort, and +then the real solution came. When I had questioned Rolston a little more +and was bedrock certain that he was right, I would see Morse at once and +tell him all I had learnt without reserve. I would present the thing to +him as one in which I claimed no personal interest, and my attitude +would be that I felt he ought to be warned. I would engage to publish +nothing without his wish, but he must look to it--if he wished to +preserve his secret--that other people were not upon the same track. +That could do me no harm whatever. It was the straight thing to do, and +at the same time it would certainly help me with him. I thought, and +think still, that this was a fair advantage to take. It is only a fool +who throws away a legitimate weapon in love or war. + +I rang up the Ritz Hotel and asked for Mr. Morse. There was some little +delay at the Hotel Bureau, and then I was switched on to the telephone +of the private apartments. + +"Who's that?" asked a cold, characterless voice. + +"Sir Thomas Kirby of the _Evening Special_ speaking. Who are you?" + +"Secretary to Mr. Morse"--now the voice was a little warmer. + +"Is Mr. Morse at home?" + +"I can see that he gets a message very shortly, Sir Thomas, if the +matter is of importance." + +"It is of very considerable importance or I shouldn't have troubled to +ring Mr. Morse up, especially as I shall be meeting him in a day or two +at a social engagement." + +"Wait a moment, please." + +I knew by this that I had struck lucky and that Morse was in the hotel, +and within a minute I heard his calm, resonant voice in my ear. + +"Good afternoon, Kirby. My secretary says you wanted to speak to me." + +"Thank you, I am most anxious to have a conversation." + +"Well, shall we hold the wire?" + +"I daren't discuss my business over the wire, Mr. Morse." + +There was a short silence and then: + +"Please forgive me, but you know how busy I am. Could you give me the +least indication of what you wish to talk to me about?" + +I had an inspiration. + +"Towers," I said in a low voice. + +A quiet "Ah!" came to me over the wire, and then: + +"I think I understand, Sir Thomas, you wish--?" + +"To tell you something that I feel sure you ought to know, in your own +interests." + +"Pass, _Friend_!" was the reply, followed by a little chuckle in which I +thought--I might have been mistaken--I detected a note of relief. + +"When shall we meet?" I asked. + +"Look here, Kirby," was the reply, "can you come here at eleven +to-night? I'll give orders that you are to be taken up to my rooms at +once. I can't guarantee that I shall be in at the moment. I also have +something of considerable importance on hand, but if you will wait--I'm +afraid I'm asking a great deal--I'll be certain to be with you sooner or +later. My daughter may be at home and, if she is, no doubt she'll give +you a cup of coffee or something while you wait. Do you think you can +manage this?" + +"I shall be delighted," I answered, trying to control my voice, and I +hardly heard the quiet "Good-by" that concluded our conversation. + +Well, I had done better for myself than I had hoped, and, so vain are +all of us, I felt a kind of satisfaction in having "played the game" and +at the same time won the trick. I did not reflect till afterwards that +if Morse had been some one else and not the father of Juanita, I should +not have hesitated for a moment to fill the _Special_ with scare +headlines. + +I sat down again in my chair, ordered a cup of tea, drank it with +splendid visions of a _tête-à-tête_ with Juanita that very night, and +was leaning back in my chair lost in a rosy dream when the door opened +and the odd little man with the red hair appeared at my side, holding +two or three sheets of typewritten copy. + +"The story, sir," he said. + +I took it from him mechanically, it would never be published now, in all +probability, but it would at least serve to show Morse how much I knew. +I began to read. + +At the end of the first paragraph I knew that the stuff was going to be +all right. At the end of the second and third I sat up in my chair and +abandoned my easy attitude. When I had read the whole of the thousand +words I knew that I had discovered one of the best journalistic brains +of the day! The boy could not only ferret out news, but he could +_write_! Every word fell with the right ring and chimed. He was terse, +but vivid as an Alpine sunset. He made one powerful word do the work of +ten. He suggested atmosphere by a semicolon, and there were fewer +adjectives in his stuff than one would have believed possible. There +were not four other men in Fleet Street who could have done as well. And +beyond this, beyond my pleasure at the discovery of a genius, the +article had a peculiar effect upon me. I felt that somehow or other the +matter was not going to die with my interview to-night at the Ritz +Hotel. The room in which I sat widened. There was a glimpse of far +horizons.... + +I folded the copy carefully and placed it in my breast pocket. + +"Mr. Rolston," I said, "I engage you from this moment as a member of my +regular staff. Your salary to begin with will be ten pounds a week, and +of course your expenses that you may incur in the course of your work. +Do you accept these terms?" + +Poor Bill Rolston! I mustn't give away the man who afterwards became my +most faithful friend and most daring companion in hours of frightful +peril, and a series of incredible adventures. Still, if he _did_ burst +into tears that's nothing against him, for I didn't realize till +sometime afterwards that he was half starved and at the very end of his +tether. + +He pulled himself together in a moment or two, took a cup of tea and let +me cross-question him. What he told me in the next half-hour I cannot +set down here. It will appear in its proper place, but it is enough to +say that in the whole of my experience I never listened to a more +mysterious and more enthralling recital. + +I think that from that moment I realized that my fate was to be in some +way linked with the three towers on Richmond Hill, and the sense of +excitement which had been with me all the afternoon, grew till it was +almost unbearable. + +"Now, first of all," I said, when he had told me everything, "you are +not to breathe a word of this to any human soul without my permission. +While you have been absent I have already been taking steps, the nature +of which I shall not tell you at present. Meanwhile, lock up everything +in your heart." + +I had a flash of foresight, well justified in the event. + +"I may want you at any moment," I told him, "and therefore, with your +permission, I'm going to put you up at my flat in Piccadilly, where you +will be well looked after and have everything you want. I'll telephone +through to my man, Preston, giving him full instructions, and you had +better take a taxi and get there at once. Preston will send a messenger +to your lodgings to bring up any clothes and so forth you may require." + +He blushed rosy red, and I wondered why, for his story had been told to +me in a crisp, man-of-the-world manner that made him seem far older than +he was. + +Then he shrugged his shoulders, put his hand in his trousers pocket and +pulled out--one penny. + +"All I have in the world," he said, with a rueful smile. + +I scribbled an order on the cashier and told him to cash it in the +office below, and, with a look of almost doglike fidelity and gratitude, +the little fellow moved towards the door. + +Just at that moment it opened and Julia Dewsbury came in. + +Rolston's jaw dropped and his eyes almost started out of his head in +amazement, and I saw a look come into my secretary's eyes that I should +have been glad to inspire in the eyes of one woman. + +"There, there," I said, "be off with you, both of you. Miss Dewsbury, +take Mr. Rolston, now a permanent member of the staff, into your own +room and tell him something about the ways of the office." + +For half an hour I walked up and down the editorial sanctum arranging my +thoughts, getting everything clear cut, and when that was done I +telephoned to Arthur Winstanley, asking him, if he had nothing +particular on, to dine with me. + +His reply was that he would be delighted, as he had nothing to do till +eleven o'clock, but that I must dine with him. "I have discovered a +delightful little restaurant," he said, "which isn't fashionable yet, +though it soon will be. Don't dress; and meet me at the Club at +half-past seven." + + * * * * * + +My dinner with Arthur can be related very shortly, for, while it has +distinct bearing upon the story, it was only remarkable for one +incident, though, Heaven knows, that was important enough. + +I met him at our Club in Saint James' and we walked together towards +Soho. + +"You are going to dine," said Arthur, "at 'L'Escargot d'Or'--The Golden +Snail. It's a new departure in Soho restaurants, and only a few of us +know of it yet. Soon all the world will be going there, for the cooking +is magnificent." + +"That's always the way with these Soho restaurants, they begin +wonderfully, are most beautifully select in their patrons, and then the +rush comes and everything is spoiled." + +"I know, the same will happen here no doubt, though lower Bohemia will +never penetrate because the prices are going to be kept up; and this +place will always equal one of the first-class restaurants in town. +Well, how goes it?" + +I knew what he meant and as we walked I told him, as in duty bound, all +there was to tell of the progress of my suit. + +"Met her once," I said, "had about two minutes' talk. There's just a +chance, I am not certain, that I may meet her to-night, and not in a +crowd--in which case you may be sure I shall make the very most of my +opportunities. If this doesn't come off, I don't see any other chance of +really getting to know her until September, at Sir Walter Stileman's, +and I have to thank you for that invitation, Arthur." + +He sighed. + +"It's a difficult house to get into," he said, "unless you are one of +the pukka shooting set, but I told old Sir Walter that, though you +weren't much good in October and that pheasants weren't in your line, +you were A1 at driven 'birds.'" + +"But I can't hit a driven partridge to save my life, unless by a +fluke!" + +"I know, Tom, I don't say that you'll be liked at all, but you won the +toss and by our bond we're bound to do all we can to give you your +opportunity. I need hardly say that my greatest hope in life is that +she'll have nothing whatever to say to you. And now let's change that +subject--it's confounded thin ice however you look at it--and enjoy our +little selves. I have been on the 'phone with Anatole, and we are going +to _dine_ to-night, my son, really _dine_!" + +The Golden Snail in a Soho side street presented no great front to the +world. There was a sign over a door, a dingy passage to be traversed, +until one came to another door, opened it and found oneself in a long, +lofty room shaped like a capital L. The long arm was the one at which +you entered, the other went round a rectangle. The place was very simply +decorated in black and white. Tables ran along each side, and the only +difference between it and a dozen other such places in the foreign +quarter of London was that the seats against the wall were not of red +plush but of dark green morocco leather. It was fairly full, of a mixed +company, but long-haired and impecunious Bohemia was conspicuously +absent. + +A table had been reserved for us at the other end opposite the door, so +that sitting there we could see in both directions. + +We started with little tiny oysters from Belon in Brittany--I don't +suppose there was another restaurant in London at that moment that was +serving them. The soup was asparagus cream soup of superlative +excellence, and then came a young guinea-fowl stuffed with mushrooms, +which was perfection itself. + +"How on earth do you find these places, Arthur?" I asked. + +"Well," he answered, "ever since I left Oxford I've been going about +London and Paris gathering information of all sorts. I've lived among +the queerest set of people in Europe. My father thinks I'm a waster, but +he doesn't know. My mother, angel that she is, understands me perfectly. +She knows that I've only postponed going into politics until I have had +more experience than the ordinary young man in my position gets. I +absolutely refused to be shoved into the House directly I had come down +with my degree, the Union, and all those sort of blushing honors thick +upon me. In a year or two you will see, Tom, and meanwhile here's the +Moulin à Vent." + +Anatole poured out that delightful but little known burgundy for us +himself, and it was a wine for the gods. + +"A little interval," said Arthur, "in which a cigarette is clearly +indicated, and then we are to have some slices of bear ham, stewed in +champagne, which I _rather_ think will please you." + +We sat and smoked, looking up the long room, when the swing doors at the +end opened and a man and a girl entered. They came down towards us, +obviously approaching a table reserved for them in the short arm of the +restaurant, and I noticed the man at once. + +For one thing he was in full evening dress, whereas the only other +diners who were in evening kit at all wore dinner jackets and black +ties. He was a tall man of about fifty with wavy, gray hair. His face +was clean shaved, and a little full. I thought I had never seen a +handsomer man, or one who moved with a grace and ease which were so +perfectly unconscious. The girl beside him was a pretty enough young +creature with a powdered face and reddened lips--nothing about her in +the least out of the ordinary. When he came opposite our table, his face +lighted up suddenly. He smiled at Arthur, and opened his mouth as if to +speak. + +Arthur looked him straight in the face with a calm and stony stare--I +never saw a more cruel or explicit cut. + +The man smiled again without the least bravado or embarrassment, gave an +almost imperceptible bow and passed on towards his table without any one +but ourselves having noticed what occurred. The whole affair was a +question of some five or six seconds. + +He sat down with his back to us. + +"Who is he?" I asked of Arthur. + +He hesitated for a moment and then he gave a little shudder of disgust. +I thought, also, that I saw a shade come upon his face. + +"No one you are ever likely to meet in life, Tom," he replied, "unless +you go to see him tried for murder at the Old Bailey some day. He is a +fellow called Mark Antony Midwinter." + +"A most distinguished looking man." + +"Yes, and I should say he stands out from even his own associates in a +preëminence of evil. Tom," he went on, with unusual gravity, "deep down +in the soul of every man there's some foul primal thing, some troglodyte +that, by the mercy of God, never awakes in most of us. But when it does +in some, and dominates them, then a man becomes a fiend, lost, hopeless, +irremediable. That man Midwinter is such an one. You could not find his +like in Europe. He walks among his fellows with a panther in his soul; +and the high imagination, the artistic power in him makes him doubly +dangerous. I could tell you details of his career which would make your +blood run cold--if it were worth while. It isn't. + +"But I perceive our bear's flesh stewed in Sillery is approaching. Let's +forget this intrusion." + +Well, we dined after the fashion of Sybaris, went to the Club for an +hour and smoked, and then Arthur returned to his chambers in Jermyn +Street to dress. I went back to mine, found from Preston that little Mr. +Rolston was safely in bed and fast asleep, changed into a dinner jacket +and walked the few yards to the Ritz Hotel, my heart beating high with +hope. + +I was shown up at once to the floor inhabited by the millionaire, and +knew, therefore, that I was expected. The man who conducted me knocked +at a door, opened it, and I entered. I found myself in a comfortable +room with writing tables and desks, telephone and a typewriter. A young +man of two or three and twenty was seated at one of the tables smoking a +cigarette. + +He jumped up at once. + +"Oh, Sir Thomas," he said, "Mr. Morse has not yet returned, and I think +it quite likely he may be some little time. But the Señora Balmaceda and +Miss Morse are in the drawing-room and perhaps you would like to--" + +"I shall be delighted," I said, cutting him short, but who on earth was +Señora Balmaceda? The chaperone, I supposed, confound it! + +The obliging young man led me through two or three very gorgeously +furnished rooms and at last into a large apartment brilliantly lit from +the roof, and with flowers everywhere. At one end was a little alcove. + +"I have brought Sir Thomas, Señora," he said, looking about the room, +but there was no one remotely resembling a Señora there. Nevertheless, +directly he spoke, some one stepped out of the conservatory from behind +a tropical shrub in a green tub, and came towards us. + +It was Juanita, and she was alone. The secretary withdrew and I advanced +to meet her. + +"How do you do, Sir Thomas," she said in her beautiful, bell-like voice. +"Father said you might be coming and I'm afraid he won't be in just yet. +And it's so tiresome, poor Auntie has gone to bed with a bad headache." + +"I'm very sorry, Miss Morse," I answered as we shook hands, "I must do +what I can to take her place," and then I looked at her perfectly +straight. + +Yes, I dared to look into those marvelous limpid eyes and I know she saw +the hunger in mine, for she took her hand away a little hurriedly. + +"What a charming room! Is that a little conservatory over there? It must +look out over the Green Park?" + +"Yes, it does," she replied almost in a whisper. + +"Then do let's sit there, Miss Morse." + +Was I acting in a play or what on earth gave me this sense of confidence +and strength? Heaven only knows, but I never faltered from the first +moment that I entered the room. Oh, the gods were with me that night! + +We went to the alcove without a further word, and she sat down upon a +couch. I have described her once, at Lady Brentford's ball, but at this +moment I am not going to attempt to describe her at all. + +For half a minute we said nothing and then I took her hand and pressed +it to my lips. + +"Juanita," I said, "there are mysterious currents and forces in this +world stronger than we are ourselves. This is the third time that I've +seen you, but no power on earth can prevent me from telling you--" + +She was looking at me with parted lips and eyes suffused with an angelic +tenderness and modesty. My voice broke in my throat with unutterable +joy. I was certain that she loved me. + +And then, just as I was about to say the sealing words--remember, I had +invoked the gods--there was the sound of a door opening sharply. + +I stiffened and rose to my feet. From where we sat we could survey the +whole, rich room. Through the open door--I must say there were several +doors in the room--came a tall man, _walking backwards_. + +He was in full evening dress with a camellia in his button-hole. + +He stepped back lightly with cat-like steps, his arms a little curved, +his fingers all extended. + +I saw his face. It was convulsed with the satanic fury of an old +Japanese mask. Line for line, it was just like that, and it was also the +face of the bland and smiling man I had seen two hours before at the +restaurant of The Golden Snail. + +I felt something warm and trembling at my side. Juanita was clinging to +me and I put my arm around her waist. Through the open door there now +came another figure. + +A quiet, resonant voice cut into the tense, horrible silence. + +"Quick, Mark Antony Midwinter--that's your door, quick--quick!" + +The big man paused for an instant and a hissing spitting noise came from +his mouth. + +There was a sharp crack and a great mirror on the wall shivered in +pieces. There was another, and then the big man turned and literally +bounded over the soft carpet, flung himself through the door and +disappeared. + +Gideon Mendoza Morse advanced into the drawing-room, smiling to himself +and looking down at a little steel-blue automatic in his hand. + +Then Juanita and I came out of the alcove, hand in hand, and he saw us. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +Gideon Morse still had the little steel-blue automatic pistol in his +hand. He was actually smiling and humming a little tune when he turned +and saw Juanita and myself coming out of the alcove. + +In a flash his hand dropped the pistol into the pocket of his dinner +jacket and his face changed. + +"Santa Maria!" he said in Spanish, and then, "Juanita, Sir Thomas +Kirby!" + +"You remember you gave me an appointment to-night, Mr. Morse," I +stammered. + +"Of course, of course, then--" + +He said no more, for with a little gasp Juanita sank into a heap upon +the floor. We had loosened hands directly the millionaire turned towards +us and I was too late to catch her. + +Morse was at her side in an instant. + +"The bell," he said curtly, and I ran to the side of the room and +pressed the button hard and long. + +Wow! but these money emperors of the world are well served! In a second, +so it seemed, the room was full of people. The young secretary, a couple +of maids, a dark foreign-looking man in a morning coat and a black tie +whom I took to be the valet, and finally a gigantic fellow in tweeds +with a battered face as big as a ham and arms which reached almost to +his knees. + +The maids were at the girl's side in a moment, applying restoratives. +Morse rose, just as another door opened and in sailed a stout elderly +lady in a black evening dress with a mantilla of black lace over her +abundant and ivory white hair. Morse said something to her in Spanish +and I wished I had been Arthur Winstanley to understand it. Then I felt +my arm taken and Morse drew me away. + +"It is nothing serious," he said, "just a little shock," and as he said +it he made a slight gesture with his head. + +It was enough. The secretary, the valet, and the huge, vulgar-looking +man in tweeds faded away in an instant, though not before I had seen the +latter spot the broken mirror, and a ferocious glint come into his eyes. +Nor did he look surprised. + +Juanita began to come to herself and she was tenderly carried away by +the women. Morse accompanied them and spoke in a rapid whisper to the +distinguished old lady, who, I knew, must be the Señora Balmaceda. + +The two of us were left alone, and for my part I sank down in an +adjacent chair quite exhausted in mind, if not in body, by the +happenings of the last ten minutes. Up to the present--I will say +nothing of the future--I had never lived so fast or so much in such a +short space of time; and you've got to get accustomed to that sort of +thing really to enjoy it! + +"I'm afraid your visit has been somewhat exciting," said my host, in his +musical, level voice. His eyes were as dark and inscrutable as ever, but +nevertheless, I saw that the man was badly moved. He took a slim, gold +cigarette case from his waistcoat pocket and his hand trembled. +Moreover, under the tan of his skin he was as white as a ghost--there +was a curious gray effect. + +I laughed. + +"I confess to having been a little startled. Your secretary brought me +in here and I was talking to Miss Morse in the conservatory when--" I +hesitated for a moment. + +He saved me the trouble of going on. + +"I guess," he said, "you and I had better have a little drink now," and +he went to the wall. + +I don't pretend to know how the service was managed--I suppose there was +a sergeant-major somewhere in the background who drilled the host of +personal and hotel attendances who ministered to the wants of Gideon +Morse. At any rate, this time no one entered but one of the hotel +footmen, and he brought the usual tray of cut-glass bottles, etc. + +Morse mixed us both a brandy and soda and I noticed two things. First, +his hand was steady again; secondly, the brandy was not decanted but +came out of a bottle, on which was the fleur-de-lys of ancient, royal +France, blown into the glass. + +There was a twinkle in his eye when he saw I had spotted that. + +"Yes," he said, "there are only three dozen bottles left, even in the +Ritz. They were found in a bricked-up cellar of the Tuileries," and he +tossed off his glass with relish. + +So did I--Cleopatra's pearls were not so expensive. + +"Now look here, Sir Thomas," Morse said, sitting down by me and drawing +up his chair, "you've seen something to-night of a very unfortunate +nature. You've seen it quite by accident. If news of it got about, if it +were even whispered through a certain section of London, then the very +gravest harm might result, not only to me but to many other persons +also." + +"My dear sir, I have seen nothing. I have heard nothing. You may place +implicit reliance upon that," and I held out my hand to him, which he +took in a firm grip. + +"Thank you, Sir Thomas," he replied simply. "It was a question," he +hesitated for the fraction of a second, and I knew he was lying, "it was +a question of impudent blackmail. I had expected something of the sort +and was prepared. You saw how the cowardly hound ran away." + +"Quite so, Mr. Morse. Of course a man in your position must be subject +to these things occasionally." + +"Ah, you see that," he said briskly, and I knew he was relieved. "You +are a man of the world, and you see that. Well, I am thankful for your +promise of silence. I am the more annoyed, though, that Juanita should +have been present at a scene which, though really burlesque, must have +seemed to her one of violence." + +I had my own opinion about the burlesque nature of the incident, but I +made haste to reassure him. + +"Of course," I said, "it must have been distressing for any lady, but it +was the suddenness that upset her, and I'm sure Miss Morse's nerves are +far too good for it to have any permanent effect." + +"Yes," he answered, and in his voice there was a caress, "I can explain +it all to Juanita, and the memory of this evening will soon go from +her." + +Again I had my own private opinion, which I forbore to state. +Personally, I had very little doubt but that Juanita would remember this +evening as long as the darling lived! It would not be my fault if she +didn't! But I saw that this was no moment to tell him that I loved her. +Perhaps, if we had been granted five minutes more in the conservatory +and I had said all I meant, and heard from her all I hoped, I should +have spoken then. As it was I could not, though in my own mind I was +certain she cared for me. + +We were silent for a few moments, and then Morse seemed to recall +himself from private thought. + +"I had nearly forgotten!" he said. "You specially wanted to see me +to-night, Sir Thomas, and you've very kindly waited in order to do so." + +Then I remembered the errand upon which I had come, and pulled myself +together mentally. I liked Morse. He was of tremendous importance to me, +and yet at the same time it behooved me to be wary. Already I was +certain that he was playing a game with me in the matter of Mark Antony +Midwinter, whose name I kept rigidly to myself. I must play my cards +carefully. + +Please understand me, I don't for a moment mean that I felt he was my +enemy, or inimical to me in any way. Far from it. I knew that he liked +me and wouldn't do me a bad turn if he could help it. At the same time I +was perfectly sure that if necessary he would use me like a pawn in a +mysterious game that I couldn't fathom, and I didn't mean to be used +like a pawn if I could help it. My hope and ambition was to serve him, +but I wanted a little reserve of power also, for reasons I need not +indicate. + +"Yes," I said, "I telephoned you." + +"And you mentioned a certain word which rather puzzled me." + +"I did. 'Towers' was the word." + +"I believe we are going to meet at The Towers at Cerne in Norfolk," said +Mr. Morse. "Sir Walter Stileman told me that you were to be of the +shooting party in September." + +At that I laughed frankly, really he was a little underestimating me. He +grinned and understood in a second. + +"Tell me, Sir Thomas, exactly what you _do_ mean," he said. + +"Well, you know I am a newspaper proprietor and editor." + +"Of the best written and most alive journal in London!" + +I bowed, and produced from an inside pocket Master Bill Rolston's +astonishing piece of copy. + +"An unknown journalist who was introduced to me to-day," I said, +"brought a piece of news which would be of absorbing interest to the +country if it were published and if it were true. Perhaps you would like +to read this." + +I handed him the typewritten copy and prepared to watch his face as he +read it, but he was too clever for that. He took it and perused it, +walking up and down the room, and I began to realize some of the +qualities which had made this man one of the powers of the world. + +More especially so when he came and sat down again, his face wreathed +in smiles, though I could have sworn fury lurked in the depths of his +black eyes. + +"Well, now," he said, "this is interesting, very interesting indeed. I +am going to be quite frank with you, Sir Thomas. There's an amount of +truth in this manuscript that would cause me colossal worry if it were +published at present. Another thing it would do would be to quite upset +a financial operation of considerable magnitude. Personally, I should +lose at the very least a couple of million sterling, though that +wouldn't make any appreciable difference to my fortune, but a lot of +other people would be ruined and for no possible benefit to any one in +the world except yourself and the _Evening Special_." + +"Thank you," I said, "that's just why I came. Of course nothing shall be +published, though I'm quite in the dark as to the nature of the whole +thing." + +"I call that generous, generous beyond belief, Sir Thomas, for I know +that it is the life of a newspaper to get hold of exclusive news. I +would offer you a large sum not to publish this story did I not know +that you would indignantly refuse it. I am a student of men, my young +friend, if I may be allowed to call you so, and even if you were a poor +man instead of being a rich one as ordinary wealth goes, I should never +make such a proposition." + +I glowed inwardly as he said it. It was a downright compliment, coming +from him under the circumstances, at which any one would have been +warmed to the heart. For here was a great man, a Napoleon of his day, +one who, if he chose, could upset dynasties and plunge nations into +war. Yet, as I knew quite well, Gideon Mendoza Morse wasn't a member of +the great financial groups who control and sway politics. In a sense he +was that rare thing, a pastoral millionaire. He owned vast tracts of +country populated by lowing steers for the food of the world. In the +remote mountains of Brazil brown Indians toiled to wrest precious metals +and jewels from the earth for his advantage. But from the feverish +plotting of international finance I knew him to stand aloof. + +"I very much appreciate your remarks," was what I told him, "and you may +rest assured that nothing shall transpire." + +"Thanks. But all the generosity mustn't be on your side. You shall have +your scoop, Sir Thomas, if you will wait a little while." + +"I am entirely at your service." + +"Very well then," he said, and his manner grew extraordinarily cordial, +"let's put a period to it! I hope that, from to-day, I and my daughter +are going to see a great deal of you--a great deal more of you than +hitherto. You know how we are"--he gave a little annoyed laugh--"run +after in London; and what a success Juanita has had over here. What I +hope to do is to form a little inner circle of friends, and you must be +one of them--if you will?" + +How my luck held! I thought. Here, offered freely and with open hands, +was the only thing I wanted. I am glad to think that I found a moment in +which to be sorry for Arthur and dear old Pat Moore. + +"It's awfully good of you," I stammered. + +He made a little impatient gesture with his hand. + +"Please don't talk nonsense," he said. "And now about the towers on +Richmond Hill. I have told you that I cannot explain fully until +September. I will tell you, though, that your clever little +journalist--what, by the way, did you say his name was?" + +"Rolston." + +"Of course--has ferreted out much that I wished to conceal, but he isn't +entirely upon the right track. I _am_, Kirby, at the bottom of the whole +thing, and I have spent goodness knows how much to keep that quiet." + +He lit another cigarette, leant back in his chair and laughed like a +boy. + +"I've bribed, and bribed, and bribed, I've managed to put pressure, +actually to put pressure upon the British Government. I've employed an +untold number of agents, in short I've exercised the whole of my +intellect, and the pressure of almost unlimited capital to keep my name +out of it. And now, you tell me, some little journalist has found out +one thing at least that I was determined to conceal until September +next! The plans of men and mice gang oft agley, Kirby! This little man +of yours must be a sort of genius. I hope there are no more people like +him prowling about Richmond Hill." + +I was quite certain that there was not another Bill Rolston anywhere, +and I amused Morse immensely by detailing the circumstances of the +little, red-haired man's arrival in Fleet Street. I never realized till +now how human and genial the great man could be, for he even expanded +sufficiently to offer to toss me a thousand pounds to nothing for the +services of Julia Dewsbury! + +I saw my way with Juanita becoming smoother and smoother every moment. + +It was growing late, nearly one o'clock, when Morse insisted on having +some bisque soup brought in. + +"I think we both want something really sustaining," he said. "Do you +begin and I'll just run up and see my sister-in-law, Señora Balmaceda, +and find out if Juanita is all right." + +He left the room, and, happy that all had gone so well, I sipped the +incomparable white essence, and gave myself up to dreams of the future. + +I was to see her often. In September, at Sir Walter Stileman's, Morse +was to take me into his fullest confidence. That could only mean one +thing. Within a little less than three months he would give his consent +to my marriage with his daughter. Another opportunity like this of +to-night, and Juanita and I would be betrothed. It would be delightful +to keep our secret until the shooting began. I would follow her through +the events of the season, watch her mood, hear her extolled on every +side, knowing all the time she was mine. A vision came to me of Cowes +week, the gardens of the R. Y. Squadron, Juanita on board of my own +yacht "Moonlight." + +I think I must have fallen asleep when I started into consciousness to +find myself staring into the great broken mirror over the mantelpiece +and to find that Mr. Morse had returned and was smiling down upon me. + +"She's all right, thank heavens," he said, "and has been asleep for a +long time. And now, as you seem sleepy too, I'll bid you good-night, +with a thousand thanks for your consideration." + +It was nearly two o'clock I noticed when I stepped out into the cool air +of Piccadilly and walked the few yards to my flat. I must have been +asleep for quite a long time, and dear old Morse had forborne to waken +me. + +I peculiarly remember my sense of well-being and happiness during that +short walk. I was in a glow of satisfaction. Everything had turned out +even better than I had expected. What did the scoop for the paper matter +after all? Nothing, in comparison with the more or less intimate +relations in which I now stood with Gideon Morse. I was to see Juanita +constantly. She was almost mine already, and fortune had been +marvelously on my side. Of course there would be obstacles, there was no +doubt of that. I was no real match for her. But the obstacles in the +future were as nothing to those that had been already surmounted. I +began to smile with conceit at the diplomatic way in which I had dealt +with the great financier; not for a single moment, as I put my key into +the latch, did I dream that I had been played with the utmost skill, +tied myself irrevocably to silence, and that horrible trouble and grim +peril even now walked unseen by my side. + +When I got into the smoking-room I found things just as usual. I had +hardly lit a last cigarette when the door opened and Preston entered. + +"Good heavens!" I said, "I never told you to wait up for me, Preston. +There was not the slightest need. You ought to have been in bed hours +ago." + +"So I was, Sir Thomas," he said looking at me in a surprised sort of +way, and I noticed for the first time that he was wearing a gray flannel +dressing-gown and slippers. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Until the telephone message came, Sir Thomas." + +"What telephone message?" + +"Why, yours, Sir Thomas." + +"I never telephoned. When do you mean?" + +"Not very long ago, Sir Thomas," he said, "I didn't take particular +notice of the time, somewhere between one o'clock and now." + +I was on the alert at once, though I could not have particularly said +why. + +"Are you quite sure that it was I who 'phoned?" + +"But, yes," he answered, "it was your voice, Sir Thomas. You said you +were speaking from the office." + +"From the _Evening Special_? I've not been there since late afternoon. +And when have I ever been there so late? There's never more than one +person there all night long until six in the morning. It's not a morning +paper as you know." + +Preston seemed more than ever bewildered as I flung this at him. + +"All I can say is, Sir Thomas," he said, "that I heard your voice +distinctly and you said you were at the office." + +"What did I say exactly?" + +"About the young gentleman, Sir Thomas, the young gentleman who has come +to stay for a time. Your instructions were that he should be wakened and +told to come to Fleet Street without the least delay. You also said a +taxicab would be waiting for him, by the time he was dressed, to drive +him down." + +"And he went?" + +"Certainly, Sir Thomas, he was in his clothes quicker than I ever see a +gentleman dress before, had a glass of milk and a biscuit, and the cab +was just coming as I went down with him and opened the front door." + +I rushed out of the room, down the corridor and into that which had been +placed at Rolston's disposal. It was as Preston said, the lad was gone. +The bed was tumbled as he had left it, but a portmanteau full of +clothes, some hair brushes and a tooth brush on the wash-stand remained. +Clearly Rolston believed he was obeying orders. + +Preston had followed me out of the smoking-room and stood at the door, a +picture of uneasy wonder. Let me say at once that Preston had been with +me for six years, and was under-butler at my father's house for I don't +know how many more. He is the most faithful and devoted creature on +earth and, what is more, as sharp as a needle. He, at any rate, had no +hand in this business. + +"There's something extraordinarily queer about this," I said. "I assure +you that I have never been near the telephone during the whole night. I +dined with Lord Arthur in Soho and the rest of the evening I have been +spending at the Ritz Hotel with Mr. Gideon Morse. You've been tricked, +Preston." + +"I'm extremely sorry, Sir Thomas," he was beginning when I cut him +short. + +"It's not in the least your fault, but are you certain the voice was +mine?" + +He frowned with the effort at recollection. + +"Well, Sir Thomas," he said, "if you hadn't told me what you have, I +believe I could almost have sworn to it. Of course, voices are altered +on the telephone, to some extent, but it's extraordinary how they do, in +the main, keep their individual character." + +He spoke the truth. I, who was using the telephone all day, entirely +agreed with him. + +"Well, Preston, it was a skillful imitation and not my voice at all." + +"If you will excuse me, Sir Thomas," he replied, "your voice is a very +distinctive one. It's not very easily mistaken by any one who has heard +your voice once or twice." + +"That only makes the thing the more mysterious." + +"The more easy, I should say, Sir Thomas. It must be far less difficult +to imitate an outstanding voice with marked peculiarities than an +ordinary one." + +He was right there, it hadn't occurred to me before. + +"But who in the office would dare to imitate my voice?" + +"That, of course, I could not say, Sir Thomas, but we've only the word +of the unknown person who rang me up that he was speaking from the +office. For all we know he might have been in the next flat." + +That again was a point and I noted it. + +"I'm not going to waste any time," I said. "I'll go down to the office +at once and see if I can find out anything." + +He helped me on with my coat and within five minutes of my entering I +was again in Piccadilly. + +Already the long ribbon of road was beginning to be faintly tinged with +gray. The dawn was not yet, but night was flitting away before his +coming. Save for an occasional policeman and the rumble of heavy carts +piled with sweet-smelling vegetables and flowers for Covent Garden, the +great street was empty. I passed the Ritz Hotel with a tender thought of +one who lay sleeping there, and hurried eastwards. I had nearly got to +the Circus when a taxi swung out of the Haymarket and I hailed the man. +He was tired and sleepy, had been waiting for hours at some club or +other, but I persuaded him, with much gold, to take me, and we buzzed +away toward the street of ink. + +Here was activity enough. The later editions of the morning papers were +being vomited out of holes in the earth by hundreds of thousands. +Windows were lighted up everywhere as I turned down a side street +leading to the river and came to my own offices. + +I unlocked the door with my pass key and almost immediately I was +confronted by Johns, the night-watchman, who flashed his torch in my +face and inquired my business. I was pleased to see the man alert and at +his post and asked who was in the building. + +"Only Mr. Benson, Sir Thomas; it's his week for night duty." + +I went up and very considerably surprised, not to say alarmed, young Mr. +Benson, who had the photograph of a lady propped up on a desk before him +and was obviously inditing an amorous epistle. + +I put him through the most searching possible cross-examination, until I +was quite sure that he had never telephoned to my flat. I knew him for a +truthful, conscientious fellow, without a glimpse of humor or the +slightest histrionic talent. Johns, called from below, was equally +emphatic. Certainly no taxi had arrived here during the last three +hours, nor had William Rolston come near the office. + +I returned to Piccadilly, utterly baffled and without a single ray of +light in my mind. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +On the morning of the fourteenth of September I met Captain Pat Moore +and Lord Arthur Winstanley at Liverpool Street station. We were all +three of us asked to Cerne as guests of that fine old sportsman, Sir +Walter Stileman. A special carriage was reserved for us and our servants +filled it with luncheon baskets and gun cases. + +It was almost exactly three months since my eventful night at the Ritz +with Gideon Morse, and the disappearance of little William Rolston. + +What had passed since that time I can set out fully in a very few words. +First of all the position in which I stood with regard to Juanita. It +was somewhat extraordinary, satisfactory, and yet unsatisfactory, +utterly tantalizing. Morse had kept his promise. I _had_ seen a great +deal of his daughter. At Henley, at Cowes--on board the millionaire's +wonderful yacht or on my own, in the sacred gardens of the R. Y. S., +where we met and met again. Yet these meetings were always in public. +Juanita was surrounded by men wherever she went. She was the reigning +beauty of her year. Her minutest doings were chronicled in the Society +papers with a wealth of detail that was astounding. I used to read the +stuff, including that of my own Miss Easey, with a sort of impotent +rage. Some of it was true, a lot of it was lies and surmise, but to me +it was all distasteful. Juanita lived in the full glare of the public +eye, and a royal princess could hardly have been more unapproachable. Of +course I used stratagems innumerable, and more than once she went +half-way to meet me, but the long desired _tête-à-tête_ never came to +pass. It was not only because of the troop of admirers that crowded +round her, of which I was only one, but there was an extraordinary +adroitness, "a hidden hand" at work somewhere, to keep us apart. I was +quite certain of this, yet I could not prove it, though even if I had it +would have been of little use. Old Señora Balmaceda, who overwhelmed me +with kindness and attention, was simply wonderful in her watch over +Juanita. + +As for Gideon Morse, he would talk to me by the hour--and his talk was +well worth listening to--but somehow or other he was always in the way +when I wanted to be alone with his daughter. Of course I sometimes +thought I was exaggerating, and that I was so hard hit that I saw things +in a jaundiced or prejudiced light. Yet certainly Juanita was often +alone for a short time with other men than I, notably with the young and +good-looking Duke of Perth, whom I hated as cordially as I knew how. + +Then, in August, I had a nasty knock. The Morses went off to Scotland +for the grouse shooting as guests of the Duke, and I wasn't asked, or +ever in the way of being asked if it comes to that, to join the "small +and select house-party" that the papers were so full of. I had to +content myself with pictures on the front page of the Illustrated +Weeklies depicting Juanita in a tweed skirt and a tam o' shanter, side +by side with Perth, wearing a fatuous smile and a gun. I had one crumb +of consolation only and that was, when saying good-by to Juanita, I felt +something small and hard in the palm of her hand. It was a little +tightly folded piece of paper and on it was one word, "Cerne." + +That of course helped a great deal. It was obvious what she meant. When +we met at Sir Walter Stileman's, then at last my opportunity would come. + +And now about the little journalist and his extraordinary disappearance. +I made every possible inquiry, engaging the most skilled agents and +sparing no money in the quest, but I found out nothing--absolutely +nothing. The red-headed lad with the prominent ears had vanished into +thin air, had flashed into my life for a moment and then gone out of it +with the completeness of an extinguished candle. He had been, he was no +more. Poor Miss Dewsbury, on whom the disappearance had a marked effect, +discussed the matter with me a dozen times. We broached theory after +theory only to reject them, and at last we ceased to talk about the +matter at all. I remember her words on the last time we talked of it. +They were prophetic, though I did not know it then. + +"All I can say is, Sir Thomas, that voices, not my own, whisper +constantly in my ear that the shadow of the three giant towers upon +Richmond Hill lies across your path." + +Poor thing, she was almost hysterical in those times, and I paid little +heed to her words. As for the scoop, no other paper had even hinted at +Rolston's revelation. I had faithfully kept my word to Morse, not +forgetting that he had promised to explain everything--in September. + +As the train swung out of Liverpool Street and Pat and Arthur were +ragging each other as to who should have the _Times_ first, I +experienced a sense of mental relief. Only a few hours now and the great +question of my life would be settled, once and for all. No more doubts, +no more uncertainties. + +During the last three months, Arthur and Pat had left me very much to +myself. They had behaved with the most perfect tact and kindness, +Arthur, as I have said, having obtained for me the invitation to Cerne. +Now, after we had traveled for a couple of hours and the luncheon +baskets had been opened, old Pat lit a cigar and looked across at me. +His big, brown face was grave, and he played with his mustache as if in +some embarrassment. + +He and Arthur glanced at each other, and I understood what was in their +minds. + +"Look here, you fellows," I said, "about the sacred Brotherhood--what is +it in Spanish?" + +"Santa Hermandad," said Arthur. + +"Well, you've kept your oath splendidly. I cannot thank you enough. I +have had the running all to myself--as far as you two are concerned, for +twelve weeks." + +"Yes, twelve weeks," Pat replied, with a sigh. "We've kept out of the +way, old fellow, and I tell you it's been hard!" + +Arthur nodded in corroboration, and somehow or other I felt myself a +cur. Since boyhood we three had been like brothers, and it was a hard +fate indeed that led us to center all our hopes upon something that +could belong to one alone. + +Despite what must have been their burning eagerness to know how things +stood, both of them were far too delicate-minded and well-bred to ask a +question. I knew it was up to me to satisfy them. + +"Without going into details," I said, "I'll tell you just how it is, how +I think it is, for I may be quite wrong, and presuming upon what doesn't +exist." + +I thought for a moment, and chose my words carefully. It was extremely +difficult to say what I had to say. + +"It comes to about this," I got out at last. "I've every reason to +believe that she likes me. There's nothing decisive, but I've been given +some hope. I very nearly put it to the test three months ago, but was +interrupted and never had the chance again. At Cerne I'm going to try, +finally. By hook or crook, in forty-eight hours, I'll have some news for +you. And if I get the sack, then let the next man go in and win if he +can, and I'll join the third in doing everything that lies in my power +to help him." + +"I am next," said Pat Moore, "not that I've the deuce of a chance. But I +think you've spoken like a damn good sort, Tom, and we thank you. Arthur +and I will do our best to keep every one else off the grass while you go +in and try your luck. Faith! I'll make love to the duenna with the white +hair meself and keep her out of the way, and Arthur here will consult +with Morse upon the expediency of investing his large capital, which he +hasn't got, in a Brazil-nut farm. Anyhow, Perth, who has been the +safety bet with all the tipsters, won't be there. He's such a rotten +shot that Sir Walter wouldn't dream of asking him. The bag has got to be +kept up. For three years now, only Sandringham has beat it and a duffer +at a drive would send the average down appallingly." + +"What about me?" I asked, with a sinking of the heart. + +"God forgive me," said Arthur, "I've lied about you to Sir Walter like +the secretary of a building society to a maiden lady with two thousand +pounds. He was astonished that he had never heard of your shooting--of +course, he knows all the shots of the day, and I had to tell him a fairy +story about your late lamented father who was a Puritan and would never +let his son join country house-parties because they played cards after +dinner." + +I smiled, on the wrong side of my mouth. My dear old governor had been +anything but a Puritan: I feared the scandal which would inevitably +ensue when I went out for the first big drive. + +"That's all right, Tom," said Arthur, "you'll simply have to sprain your +ankle, or I'll give you a good hack in the shin privately if you like. +Sir Walter has only to send a wire to get a first-class gun down. There +are at least a dozen men I know who would almost commit parricide for +the chance." + +After that, by general consent, the subject of the league was dropped. +We all knew where we were, and for the rest of the journey we talked of +ordinary things. + +It was a bright afternoon in early autumn when we stopped at the little +local station and got into a waiting motor-car, while our servants +collected our things and followed in the baggage lorry. For myself, I +felt in the highest spirits as we buzzed along the three miles to Cerne +Hall. There was a pleasant nip in the air; the vast landscape was yellow +gold, as acre after acre of stubble stretched towards the horizon. Gray +church towers embowered in trees broke the vast monotony, and I +surrendered myself to a happy dream of Juanita, while Arthur and Pat +talked shooting and marked covies that rose on either side as we whirred +by. + +When we arrived at Cerne Hall it was not yet tea-time, and everybody was +out. The butler showed us to our rooms, all close together in the south +wing of the fine old house, and I smoked a cigarette while Preston was +unpacking. + +"Everybody arrived yet, Preston?" I asked. + +"Not yet, Sir Thomas, so I understand. I and Captain Moore's man and his +lordship's was havin' a cherry brandy in the housekeeper's room just +now, and the bulk of the house-party will be arriving by the later +train, between tea and dinner, Sir Thomas." + +"And Mr. Morse?" + +"Only just before dinner, Sir Thomas; he always travels in a special +train." + +I saw by Preston's face that he considered this a snobbish and +ostentatious thing to do, and, in the case of an ordinary +multi-millionaire, I should certainly have agreed with him. But I +recalled facts that had come to my notice about the famous Brazilian, +and I wondered. There was the astounding scene at the Ritz, for +instance, and more than that. I had not been following up Juanita for +three months, in town, at Henley, and at Cowes, without noticing that +Mr. Gideon Morse seemed to have an unobtrusive but quite singular +entourage. + +More than once, for example, I had caught sight of a certain great +hulking man in tweeds, a professional Irish-American bruiser, if ever +there was one. + +Tea was in the hall of the great house. I was introduced to Sir Walter, +a delightful man, with a hooked nose, a tiny mustache, the remains of +gray hair, and a charming smile. Lady Stileman also made me most +welcome. Her hair was gray, but her figure was slight and upright as a +girl's, and many girls in the County must have envied her dainty +prettiness, and the charm of her lazy, musical voice. + +Circumstances paired me off with a vivacious young lady whose face I +seemed to know, whose surname I could not catch, but whom every one +called "Poppy." + +"I say," she said, after her third cup of tea and fourth egg sandwich, +"you're the _Evening Special_, aren't you?" + +I admitted it. + +"Well," she said, "I do think you might give me a show now and then. +Considering the press I generally get, I've never been quite able to +understand why the _Special_ leaves me out of it." + +I thought she must be an actress--and yet she hadn't quite that manner. +At any rate I said: + +"I'm awfully sorry, but you see I'm only editor, and I've nothing really +to do with the dramatic criticism. However, please say the word, and +I'll ginger up my man at once." + +"Dramatic criticism!" she said, her eyes wide with surprise. "Sir +Thomas, can it really be that you don't know who I am?" + +It was a little embarrassing. + +"Do you know, I know your face awfully well," I said, "though I'm quite +sure we've never met before or I should have remembered, and when Lady +Stileman introduced us just now all I caught was Poppy." + +She sighed--I should put her between nineteen and twenty in age--"Well, +for a London editor, you _are_ a fossil, though you don't look more than +about six-and-twenty. Why, Poppy Boynton!" + +Then, in a flash, I knew. This was the Hon. Poppy Boynton, Lord +Portesham's daughter, the flying girl, the leading lady aviator, who had +looped the loop over Mont Blanc and done all sorts of mad, extraordinary +things. + +"_Of course_, I know you, Miss Boynton! Only, I never expected to meet +you here. What a chance for an editor! Do tell me all your adventures." + +"Will you give me a column interview on the front page if I do?" + +"Of course I will. I'll write it myself." + +"And a large photograph?" + +"Half the back page if you like." + +"You're a dear," she said in a business-like voice. "On second +thoughts, I'll write the interview myself and give it you before we +leave here. And, meanwhile, I'll tell you an extraordinary flight of +mine only yesterday." + +I was in for it and there was no way out. Still, she was extremely +pretty and a celebrity in her way, so I settled myself to listen. + +"What did you do yesterday morning?" I asked. "Did you loop the loop +over Saint Paul's or something?" + +"Loop the loop!" she replied, with great contempt. "That's an infantile +stunt of the dark ages. No, I went for my usual morning fly before +breakfast and saw a marvel, and got cursed by a djinn out of the Arabian +Nights." + +This sounded fairly promising for a start, but as she went on I jerked +like a fish in a basket. + +"You know the great wireless towers on Richmond Hill?" + +"Of course. The highest erection in the world, isn't it, more than twice +the height of the Eiffel Tower? You can see the things from all parts of +London." + +"On a clear day," she nodded, "the rest of the time the top is quite +hidden by clouds. Now it struck me I'd go and have a look at them close +to. Our place, Norman Court, is only about fifteen miles farther up the +Thames. I started off in my little gnat-machine and rose to about +fifteen hundred feet at once, when I got into a bank of fleecy wet +cloud, fortunately not more than a hundred yards or so thick. It was +keeping all the sun from London about seven-thirty yesterday morning. +When I came out above, of course I wasn't sure of my direction, but as I +turned the machine a point or so I saw, standing up straight out of the +cloud at not more than six miles away, the tops of the towers. I headed +straight for them." + +She lit a cigarette and I noticed her face changed a little. There was +an introspective look in the eyes, a look of memory. + +"As I drew near, Sir Thomas, I saw what I think is the most marvelous +sight I have _ever_ seen. You people who crawl about on earth never do +see what _we_ see. I have flown over Mont Blanc and seen the dawn upon +the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa from that height, and I thought that was +the most heavenly thing ever seen by mortal eye. But yesterday morning I +beat that impression--yes!--right on the outskirts of London and only a +few hours ago! Down from below nobody can really see much of the towers. +You haven't seen much, for instance, have you?" + +"Only that they're now all linked together at the top by the most +intricate series of girders, on the suspension principle, I suppose. +There are a lot of sheds and things on this artificial space, or at +least it looks like it." + +"Sheds and things! Sir Thomas, I thought I saw the New Jerusalem +floating on the clouds! The morning sun poured down upon a vast, hanging +space of which you can have no conception, and rising up on every side +from snowy-white ramparts were towers and cupolas with gilded roofs +which blazed like gold. There were fantastic halls pierced with Oriental +windows, walls which glowed like jacinth and amethyst, and parapets of +pearl. + +"It was a city, a City in the Clouds, a place of enchantment floating +high, high up above the smoke and the din of London--serene, majestic, +and utterly lovely. I tell you"--here her voice dropped--"the vision +caught at my heart, and a great lump came into my throat. I'm pretty +hard-bitten, too! As I went past one side of the immense triangle--which +must occupy several acres--on which the city is built, I saw an inner +courtyard with what seemed like green lawns. I could swear there were +trees planted there and that a great fountain was playing like a stream +of liquid diamonds. + +"I was so startled, and almost frightened, that I ripped away for +several miles till, descending a little through the cloud-bank, I found +I was right over Tower Bridge. + +"But I swore I'd see that majestic city again, and I spiraled up and +turned. + +"There it was, many miles away now, a mere speck upon the billowing snow +of the cloud-bank, and as I raced towards it once more it grew and grew +into all its former loveliness. I adjusted my engines and went as slow +as I possibly could--perhaps you know that our modern aeroplanes, with +the new helicopter central screw, can glide at not much more than +fifteen miles an hour, for a short distance that is. Well, that's what I +did, and once more the place burst upon me in all its wonder. It's the +marvel of marvels, Sir Thomas; I haven't got words even to hint at it. I +could see details more clearly now, and I floated by among the ramparts +on one side, not a pistol shot away. And then, upon the top of a little +flat tower there appeared the most extraordinary figure. + +"It was a gigantic yellow-faced man in a long robe and wide sleeves, +and he threw his hands above his head and cursed me. Of course the noise +of the engine drowned all he said, but his face was simply fiendish. I +just caught one flash of it, and I never want to see anything like it +again." + +I sat spellbound in my chair while she told me this and again the sense +that I was being borne along, whither I knew not, by some irresistible +current of fate, possessed me to the exclusion of all else. + +"Why, you look quite tired and gray, Sir Thomas," said Miss Boynton. "I +do hope I haven't bored you." + +"Bored me! I was away up in the air with you, looking upon that +enchanted city. But why, what do you make of it, have you told any one?" + +"Only father and my sister, who said that it must have been an illusion +of the mist, a refraction of the air at high altitudes that transformed +the wireless instrument sheds to fairyland." + +She shrugged her shoulders and smiled. + +"As if I didn't know all about that!" she said. "Why, it wasn't much +more than two thousand feet up--a mere hop." + +I had to think very rapidly at this juncture. The news took one's breath +away. To begin with, one thing seemed perfectly clear. Gideon Morse had +purposely told me as little as he possibly could. Yet, upon reflection, +I found that he had told me no lies. He had admitted that he was at the +bottom of this colossal enterprise--was it some Earl's Court of the air, +the last word in amusement catering? It might well be so, though +somehow or other the thought annoyed me. Moreover, the capital outlay +must have been so vast that such a scheme could never pay interest upon +it. Then I recollected that in a few hours more I should have my +promised talk with Morse and he would explain everything as he had +promised. There was still a chance of a big scoop for the _Evening +Special_. + +"Look here, Miss Boynton," I said, "if you keep what you have seen a +secret for the next two days, and then let me publish an account of it, +my paper would gladly pay two hundred and fifty pounds for the story." + +Her eyes opened wide, like those of a child who has been promised a very +big box of chocolates indeed. + +"Can do," she said, holding out a pretty little hand which flying had in +no way roughened or distorted. I took it, and so the bargain was made. + +Soon afterwards more guests began to arrive, and the great hall was full +of laughing, chattering figures, among whom were several people that I +knew. However, I was in no mood for society or small talk and I retired +to my own room and sat dreaming before a comfortable fire until Preston +came in and told me it was time to dress. + +I was ashamed to ask him if the Morses had arrived, but I went +downstairs into a large yellow drawing-room half full of people, and +looked round eagerly. + +Lady Stileman was standing by one of the fireplaces talking to Miss +Boynton, and I went up to them. Apparently it was a wonderful year for +"birds," as partridges, and partridges alone, are called in Norfolk. +They had hatched out much later than usual, hence the waiting until the +middle of September, but covies were abnormally large and the young +birds already strong upon the wing. Fortunately Lady Stileman did all +the talking; I smiled, looked oracular and said "Quite so" at intervals. +My eye was on the drawing-room door which led out into the hall. Once, +twice, it opened, but only to admit strangers to me. The third time, +when I made sure I should see her for whom I sought, no one came in but +a footman in the dark green livery of the house. He carried a salver, +and on it was the orange-colored envelope of a telegram. + +With a word of excuse Lady Stileman opened it. She nodded to the man to +go and then turned to me and Poppy Boynton. + +"Such a disappointment," she said. "Mr. Morse and his wonderfully pretty +daughter were to have been here, as I think you know. Now he wires to +say that business of the utmost importance prevents either him or his +daughter coming. Fortunately," the good lady concluded, "he doesn't +shoot, so that won't throw the guns out. Walter would be furious if that +happened." + +Arthur and Pat Moore came into the room at that moment, and Arthur told +me, an hour or so afterwards, that I looked as if I had seen a ghost, +and that my face was white as paper. + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +I must now, in the progress of the story, give a brief account of what I +may call "The week of rumor," which immediately preceded my +disappearance and plunge into the unknown. + +I spent a miserable and agitated evening at Cerne Hall, and went early +to my room. Arthur and Pat joined me there an hour later and for some +time we talked over what the telegram from Morse might mean, until they +retired to their own rooms and I was left alone. + +I did not sleep a wink--indeed, I made no effort to go to bed, though I +took off my clothes and wrapped myself in a dressing-gown. The suspense +was almost unbearable, and, failing further news, I determined, at any +cost to the shooting plans of my host, to get myself recalled to London +by telegram. I felt sure that the whole of my life's happiness was at +stake. + +The next morning at nine o'clock, just as I was preparing to go down to +breakfast, a long wire was brought to me. It was in our own office +cipher, which I was trained to read without the key, and it was signed +by Julia Dewsbury. The gist of the message was that there were strange +rumors all over Fleet Street about the great towers at Richmond. An +enormous sensation was gathering like a thunder cloud in the world of +news and would shortly burst. Would I come to London at the earliest +possible moment? + +How I got out of Cerne Hall I hardly remember, but I did, to the blank +astonishment of my host; drove to the nearest station, caught a train +which got me to Norwich in half an hour and engaged the swiftest car in +the city to run me up to London at top speed. Just after lunch I burst +into the office of the _Evening Special_. + +Williams and Miss Dewsbury were expecting me. + +"It's big stuff," said the acting editor excitedly, "and we ought to be +in it first, considering that we've more definite information than I +expect any other paper possesses as yet, though it won't be the case for +very long." + +I sat down with hardly a word, and nodded to Miss Dewsbury. Her training +was wonderful. She had everything ready in order to acquaint me with the +facts in the shortest possible space of time. + +She spoke into the telephone and Miss Easey--"Vera" of our "Society +Gossip"--came in. + +"I have found out, Sir Thomas," she said, "that Mr. Gideon Morse has +canceled all social engagements whatever for himself and his daughter. +Miss Dewsbury tells me that it's not necessary now to say what these +were. I will, however, tell you that they extended until the New Year +and were of the utmost social importance." + +"Canceled, Miss Easey?" + +"Definitely and finally _canceled_, both by letter to the various hosts +and hostesses concerned, and by an intimation which is already sent to +all the London dailies, for publication to-morrow. The notice came up +to my room this morning from our own advertising office, for inclusion +in 'Society Notes'--as you know such intimations are printed as news and +paid for at a guinea a line." + +"Any reason given, Miss Easey?" + +"None whatever in the notices, which are brief almost to curtness. +However, I have been able to see one of the private letters which has +been received by my friends, Lord and Lady William Gatehouse, of Banks. +It is courteously worded, and explains that Mr. and Miss Morse are +definitely retiring from social life. It's signed by his secretary." + +The invaluable Julia nodded to Miss Easey. She pursed up her prim old +mouth, wished me good-morning and rustled away. + +"That's _that_!" said Julia, "now about the towers." + +"Yes, about the towers," I said, and my voice was very hoarse. + +"As my poor friend, Mr. Rolston, discovered," she said bravely, "these +monstrous blots upon London are certainly not for the purposes of +wireless telegraphy. There are half the journalists in London at +Richmond at the present moment, including two of our own reporters, and +it is said that on the immense platforms between the towers, a series of +extraordinary and luxurious buildings has been erected. It is widely +believed that Gideon Morse is out of his mind, and has retired to a sort +of unassailable, luxurious hermitage in the sky." + +There was a knock at the door and a sub-editor came in with a long +white strip just torn from the tape machine. I took it and read that the +"Central News Agencies" announces "crowds at base of towers surrounded +by a thirty-foot wall. Callers at principal gate are politely received +by Boss Mulligan, formerly well-known boxer, United States, now in the +service of Gideon M. Morse. Inquirers told that no statement can be +issued for publication. Later. Rumor in neighborhood says that towers +are entirely staffed by special Chinese servants, large company of which +arrived at Liverpool on Thursday last. Growing certainty that towers are +private enterprise of one man, Morse, the Brazilian multi-millionaire." + +A telephone bell on my table rang. I took it up. + +"Is that Sir Thomas? Charles Danvers speaking"--it was the voice of our +dapper young Parliamentary correspondent, the nephew of a prominent +under-secretary, and as smart as they make them. + +"Yes, where are you?" + +"House of Commons. Mr. Bloxhame, Member for Budmouth, is asking a +question in the House this afternoon about the Richmond Tower sensation. +The Secretary to the Board of Trade will reply. There's great interest +in the lobby. Special edition clearly indicated. Question will come on +about four." + +I sent every one away and thought for a quarter of an hour. Of course +all this absolved me of my promise to Morse. He had played with me, +fooled me absolutely and I had been like a babe in his astute hands. +Well, there was no time to think of my own private grievances. My +immediate duty was to make as good a show that afternoon and the next +day as any other paper. My hope was to beat all my rivals out of the +field. + +After all, there were nothing but rumors and surmise up to the present. +The news situation might change in a couple of hours, but at the present +moment I felt certain that I knew more about the affair than any other +man in Fleet Street. I set my teeth and resolved to let old Morse have +it in the neck. + +Within an hour or so we had an "Extra Edition" on the streets, and +during that hour I drew on my own private knowledge and dictated to Miss +Dewsbury, and a couple of other stenographers. Poppy Boynton's +experience was a godsend. I remembered her own vivid words of the night +before, and I printed them in the form of an interview which must have +satisfied even that delightful girl's hunger for advertisement. +Incidentally, I sent a man from the Corps of Commissionaires down to +Cerne in a fast motor-car, with notes for two hundred and fifty in an +envelope, and instructions to stop in Regent Street on his way and buy +the finest box of chocolates that London could produce--I remember the +bill came in a few days afterwards, and if you'll believe me, it was for +seventeen pounds ten! + +At four o'clock, while the question was being asked in the House of +Commons, and all the other evening papers were waiting the result for +their special editions, my "Extra Special" was rushing all over +London--the "Extra Special" containing the "First Authentic Description +of the City in the Clouds." + +"You really are wonderful, Sir Thomas," said Miss Dewsbury, removing her +tortoise-shell spectacles and touching her eyes with a somewhat dingy +handkerchief, "but where, oh, where is William Rolston?" + +"My dear girl," I replied, "from what I've seen of William Rolston, I'm +quite certain that he's alive and kicking. Not only that, but we shall +hear from him again very shortly." + +"You really think so, Sir Thomas?"--the eyes, hitherto concealed by the +spectacles, were really rather fascinating eyes after all. + +"I don't _think_ so, I know it. Look here, Miss Dewsbury"--for some +reason I couldn't resist the temptation of a confidence--"this thing, +this stunt hits me privately a great deal harder than you can have any +idea of. You said that the shadow of the towers was across my path, and +you were more right than you knew. Enough said. I think we've whacked +Fleet Street this afternoon. Well and good. There's a lot behind this +momentary sensation, which I shall never leave go of until it's +straightened out. This is between you and me, not for office +consumption, but," I put my hand upon her thin arm, "if I can help in +any way, you shall have your Bill Rolston." + +She turned her head away and walked to the window. Then she said an +astonishing thing. + +"If only I could help you to your Juanita!" + +"WHAT!" I shouted, "what on earth--" + +A page came in with a telegram. + +"Addressed to you, Sir Thomas," he said, "marked personal." + +I tore it open, it was from Pat Moore. + + "Extraordinary youth followed us out shooting, and came up at lunch + asking for you. Boy of about sixteen. Mysterious cove with the + assurance of Mephistopheles. Some question of fifty pounds was to + get from you on delivering letter. Gave him your address and he + departed for London." + +I couldn't make head or tail of Pat's wire, and I put it down on the +table for future consideration, when Williams hurried in with a pad of +paper. + +"Danvers just 'phoned through," he said, "and I've sent the message +downstairs for the stop press." + +I began to read. + +"Bloxhame interrogated Secretary to the Board of Trade, who replied it +was perfectly true that the towers were built to the order of Gideon +Morse and were his property. Morse has entered into an agreement with +the Government engaging not to use the towers for wireless telegraphy or +for any other purpose than a strictly private one, which appears to be +that he intends to live on the platforms on the top. At his death the +whole property will pass into possession of the Government, to be used +for wireless purposes, or for the principal aeroplane station between +England and the Continent. Aeroplanes, when the existing buildings are +removed, will be able to alight from the platforms in numbers. +Expenditure from first to last, Board of Trade estimates at seven +millions. Feeling of House at such a magnificent gift to the Nation, +which is bound to fall in within twenty years or so, friendly and +satisfactory. In answer to a question from Commander Crosman, M.P. for +Rodwell, President Board of Aerial Control announces that strict orders +have been issued that aeroplanes are not to circle round the towers or +in any way annoy present proprietor. The House is greatly amused and +interested at this romantic news." + +Williams departed to issue another "Extra Special," and I was once more +left alone. Obviously the secret was out, it was startling enough in all +conscience, and, as I thought, merely the whim of a madman. And yet +there were aspects of it which were inexplicable. There could be no +doubt whatever that Gideon Morse had flouted English society, which had +treated him with extreme kindness, in a way that it would never forget. +That surely was not the action of a sane man. If he had wanted to build +for himself a lordly "pleasure house" to which he might retire upon +occasions, a sane man would have arranged things very differently. +Certainly, and this was not without some bitter satisfaction to me, he +had ruined his daughter's chances of a brilliant marriage--for a long +time at any rate. I saw that secrecy had been necessary, though it had +been carried to an extreme degree; but why had he fooled me under the +guise of friendship? Surely he could have trusted my word. + +I was furious as I thought of the way I had been done. I was furious +also, and worse than furious, alarmed, when I thought of Juanita. Had +she been in the plot the whole time? Did she like being spirited away +from all that could make a young girl's life bright and happy? What +_was_ at the bottom of it all? + +The only thing to do was to try and keep ahead, or level, with my rival +contemporaries in the matter of news, and privately to wait on events, +and think the matter out definitely. For the next few days, weeks +perhaps, some of the acutest brains in England would be puzzled over +this problem, and if there was really anything more in it than the freak +of a colossal egotist, who thus, with a superb gesture, signified his +scorn of the world, then some light might come. + +Suddenly I felt ill, and collapsed. I gave a few instructions, left the +office and went home to Piccadilly, and to bed. + +It was about eight o'clock when Preston woke me. I had had a bath and +changed, and was wondering exactly what I should do for the rest of the +evening, when Preston came in and said that there was a boy who wished +to see me. He would neither give his name nor his business, but seemed +respectable. + +I remembered Pat's mysterious telegram, which till now I had quite +forgotten, and with a certain quickening of the pulses I ordered the boy +to be shown up. + +He came into the room with a scrape and a bow, a nice-looking lad of +sixteen, decently dressed in black. + +"Who are you and what do you want?" I said. + +He seemed a little nervous and his eyes were bright. + +"Are you Sir Thomas Kirby?" + +"Yes, what is it? By the way, haven't you been all the way to Norfolk to +find me?" + +"Yes, sir, it's my day off, but unfortunately I found you had left, sir, +so I came on here as fast as I could. A gentleman at Cerne Hall gave me +your address." + +"And how did you know I was at Cerne Hall?" + +"It's on the envelope, sir." + +"The envelope?" + +"Yes, sir, the one I was to deliver to you personally, and on no account +to let it get into the hands of any one else, even one of your servants, +sir, and"--he breathed a little fast--"and the lady said that you would +certainly give me fifty pounds, sir, if I did exactly as she ordered, +and never breathed a word to a single soul." + +In an instant I understood. The blood grew hot and raced into my veins +as I held out my hand, trembling with impatience, while the youth +performed a somewhat complicated operation of half undressing, +eventually producing a brown paper packet intricately tied with string, +from some inner recesses of his wardrobe. + +"Who are you?" I asked while he was unbuttoning. + +"James Smith, sir, one of the pages at the Ritz Hotel." + +I tore off the wrappers imposed upon the letter by this cautious youth. +There was a letter addressed to me in a fine Italian hand which I knew +from having seen it in one word only--"Cerne." + +Fortunately, I had plenty of money in the flat and there was no need to +give the excellent James Smith a check. + +He gasped with joy as he tucked away the crackling bits of paper. + +"And remember, not ever a word to any one, Smith." + +"On my honor, sir," he said, saluting. + +"And what will you do with it, Smith?" + +"Please, sir, I hope to pelmanize myself into an hotel manager," he +said, and I let him go at that. I only hope that he will succeed. + +I opened the letter. It ran as follows: + + "Farewell. I don't suppose we shall ever meet again. I am forced to + retire from the world--from love--from you. + + "I cannot explain, but fear walks with me night and day. Oh, my + love! if you could only save me, you would, I know, but it is + impossible and so farewell. Were I not sure that we shall not see + each other more I could not write as I have done and signed myself + here, + + "Your + "JUANITA." + +I put the letter carefully into the breast-pocket of my coat, and then, +for the first time in my life, I fainted dead away. + +Preston found me a few minutes later, got me right somehow, ascertained +that I had not eaten for many hours, scolded me like a father, and +poured turtle soup into me till I was alive again, alive and changed +from the man I had been a few hours ago. + + * * * * * + +The next day I satisfied myself that all was going well in the office, +and simply roamed about London. Already I think the dim purpose which +afterwards came to such extraordinary fruit was being born in my mind. I +wanted to be alone, taken quite out of my usual surroundings, and I +achieved this with considerable success. I rode in tube trains and heard +every one discussing Gideon Morse, and what was already known as the +"City in the Clouds." The papers announced that thousands of people were +encamped in Richmond Park gazing upwards, and seeing nothing because of +a cloud veil that hung around the top of the towers. It seemed the +proprietors of telescopes on tripods were doing a roaring trade at +threepence a look, but the gate in the grim, prison-like walls +surrounding the grounds at the foot of the tower, was never once opened +all day long. + +I began to realize that probably nothing new, nothing reliable that is, +would transpire at present. The sensation would go its usual way. There +would be songs and allusions in all the revues to-night. Punch would +have a cartoon, suggesting the City in the Clouds as a place of +banishment for its particular bugbear of the moment. Gossip papers would +be full of beautiful, untrue stories of a romantic nature about the girl +I loved, her name would be the subject of a million jokes by a million +vulgar people. Then, little by little, the excitement would die away. + +All this, as a trained journalist I foresaw easily enough, but knowing +what I knew--what probably I alone of all the teeming millions in London +knew--I was forming a resolve, which hourly grew stronger, that I would +never rest until I knew the worst. + +I found myself in Kensington. There was a motor-omnibus starting for +Whitechapel Road. I climbed on the top. + +"I sye," piped a little ragamuffin office boy to his friend, "why does +Jewanniter live in the clouds, Willum?" + +"Arsk me another." + +"'Cos she's a celebrated 'airess--see?" + +"What I say," said a meager-looking man with a bristling mustache which +unsuccessfully concealed his slack and feeble mouth, "is simply this. If +Mr. Morse chooses to live in a certain way of life and 'as the money to +carry it out, why not let him alone? Freedom for every individual is a +'progative of English life, and I expect Morse is fair furious with what +they're saying about him, for I have it on the best authority that a +copy of every edition of the _Evening Special_ goes up to him in the +tower lifts as soon as it is issued." + +Words, words, words! everywhere, silly, irresponsible chatter which I +heeded as little as a thrush heeds a shower of rain. + +Steadily, swiftly, certainly, my purpose grew. + +I got down in the Whitechapel Road, that wide and unlovely thoroughfare, +and, feeling hungry, went into a dingy little restaurant partitioned off +in boxes. The tablecloth was of stained oil skin, the guests the +seediest type of minor clerks, but I do remember that for ninepence I +had a little beefsteak and kidney pudding to myself which was as good as +anything I have ever eaten. As I went out I saw my neighbor of the +omnibus who had spoken so eloquently of freedom, walking by with a +little black bag, as in an aimless way I hailed a taxicab from the rank +opposite a London hospital and told the man to drive slowly westwards. + +He did so, and when we came to the Embankment a gleam of afternoon +sunshine began to enlighten what had been a leaden day. Thinking a brisk +walk from Black Friars to Westminster would help my thoughts, I +dismissed the cab and started. + +It was with an odd little thrill and flutter of the heart that far away +westwards, to the left of the Houses of Parliament, I saw three ghostly +lines, no thicker than lamp posts, it seemed, springing upwards from +nothingness. At Cleopatra's Needle, I felt the want of a cigarette and +stopped to light one. + +At the moment there were few people on the pavement, though the +unceasing traffic in the road roared by as usual. I lit the cigarette, +put my case back in my pocket, and was about to continue my stroll when +I heard some one padding up behind me with obvious purpose. + +I half turned, and there again I saw the man with the weak mouth and the +big mustache. + +It flashed upon me, for the first time, that I was being followed, had +been followed probably during the whole of my wanderings. + +As I said, there was nobody immediately about, so I turned to +rabbit-face and challenged him. + +"You're following me, my man, why? Out with it or I'll give you in +charge." + +"Yer can't," he said. "This is a free country, freedom is my 'progative +as well as yerself, Sir Thomas Kirby. I've done nothing to annoy yer, +have I?" + +I shrugged my shoulders. + +"But you have been following me." + +His manner changed at once. + +"Ever since you left Piccadilly, Sir Thomas, waiting my opportunity. I'm +a private inquiry agent by profession, though this job of shadowing you +has nothing to do with the office that employs me. I have a young friend +in my house who's turned up sudden and mysterious, a young friend I lost +sight of many weeks ago. He says you'll come to him at once if I could +only get you alone and be certain that no one saw me speak to you. His +instructions were to follow you about until such an opportunity as this +arose, and all the time I was to be certain that no one else was +following you. I have ascertained that all right." + +He put his head close to mine and I felt his hot breath upon my cheek. + +"It's Mr. William Rolston, Sir Thomas," he said. "I'm not in his +confidence, though I have long admired his abilities and predicted a +great future for him. He's come to me in distress and I am doing what I +can to 'elp 'im--this being a day when they've no job for me at the +office." + +"Good Lord! why didn't you speak to me this morning, if you've been +following me all day?" + +He shook his head. + +"Wouldn't have done. Mr. Rolston's instructions was different and he has +his reasons, though I'm not in his confidence. I've done it out of +admiration for his talents, and no doubt some day he'll be in a position +to pay me for my work." + +"Pay you, you idiot!" I could have taken him by the throat and shaken +the fool. "Mr. Rolston knows very well that he can command any money he +chooses. He's a member of my staff." + +We were now walking along together towards Westminster. + +"That's as may be," said my seedy friend, "but 'e 'adn't a brass +farthing this morning, and come to that, Sir Thomas, if you'd got into +another blinking taxi, you'd have snookered _me_!" + +"Where do you live?" I asked impatiently. + +"Not far from where you 'ad your lunch, Sir Thomas. 15, Imperial +Mansions, Royal Road, Stepney." + +"It's a magnificent address," I said, as I held out my stick for a cab. + +"It's a block o' workmen's buildings, reely," he replied gloomily, "and +in the thick of the Chinese quarter, which makes it none too savory. But +an Englishman's house is his castle and he has the 'progative to call it +what he likes." + +Back east we went again and in half an hour I was mounting interminable +stone steps to a door nearly at the top of "Imperial Mansions," which my +guide, who during our drive had introduced himself to me as Mr. Herbert +Sliddim, announced as his home. In a dingily furnished room, sitting on +a molting, plush sofa I saw the curious little man to whom I had so +taken months ago. He was shabby almost to beggary. His face was pale and +worn, which gave him an aspect of being much older than I had imagined +him. But his irrepressible ears stood out as of yore and his eyes were +not dimmed. + +"Hallo," I said, "glad to see you, Mr. Rolston, though you've neglected +us at the office for a long time. Your arrears of salary have been +mounting up." + +His hand was trembling as I gripped it. + +"Oh, Sir Thomas," he said, "do you really mean that I am still on the +staff?" + +"Of course you are, my dear boy." + +I turned to Mr. Sliddim. + +"Now I wonder," I said, "if I might have a little quiet conversation +with Mr. Rolston." + +"By all means," he replied. "I'll wait in the courtyard." + +"I shouldn't do that, Mr. Sliddim. Why not take a tour round?" + +I led him out of the room into the passage which served for hall, +pressed a couple of pounds into his hand and had the satisfaction of +seeing him leap away down the stairs like an antelope. + +"That's all right," said Rolston. "Now he'll go and get blotto, it's the +poor devil's failing. Still, he'll be happy." + +I sat down, passed my cigarette case to Rolston, and waited for him to +begin. + +He sort of came to attention. + +"I was rung up, Sir Thomas, at your flat--at least your valet was--and +told to come to the office of the _Evening Special_ at once." + +"I know, go on." + +"I dressed as quickly as I could, ran down the stairs and jumped into +the waiting cab. The door banged and we started off. The engines must +have been running, for we went away like a flash. There was some one +else sitting there. A hand clapped over my mouth and an arm round my +body. I couldn't move or speak. Then the thumb of the hand did something +to the big nerves behind my ear. It's an Oriental trick and I had just +realized it when something wet and sweet was pressed over my mouth and +nose, and I lost all consciousness. + +"When I woke up I found myself in a fair-sized room, lit by a skylight +high up in the roof. There was a bed, a table, a chair, and various +other conveniences, and I hadn't the slightest idea where I could be. My +head ached and I felt bruised all over, so I drank a glass of water, +crawled back into the bed and slept. When I woke again there was an +affable Chink sitting by my side, who spoke quite good English. + +"'You will,' he said, 'be kept here for some time in durance, yess. It's +an unfortunate necessity, yess.' + +"I heard on all sides familiar noises. I knew in a moment what had +happened. I had been brought back to the works at the base of the three +towers." + +"All this fits in very well with what I now know, Rolston. I'll tell you +everything in a minute, but I want to hear your story first." + +"Very good, Sir Thomas. For over three months I've been kept a prisoner +at Richmond. I wasn't badly treated. I had anything I liked to eat and +drink, any books to read--tobacco, a bath--everything but newspapers, +which were rigidly denied me. I wasn't kept entirely to my prison room. +I was allowed to go out and take exercise within the domain surrounded +by the great thirty-foot wall, though I was never let to roam about as I +wished. There was always a big Chinese coolie with a leaded cane +attending me, a man that only spoke a few words of English. + +"Now, Sir Thomas, please remember this. From first to last none of my +jailers knew that I understood Chinese. And none of them knew or +suspected that I had been among the workmen before, in order to get +materials for the scoop with which I came to you." + +I saw the value of that at once. + +"Good for you, Rolston; now please continue." + +"Well, Sir Thomas, I kept my eyes and ears very wide open and I learnt a +lot. Things were being prepared with a feverish activity of which the +people outside had not the slightest idea. I found that round the base +of the towers, in the miniature park inclosed by the high wall, there +were already magnificent vegetable gardens in active being. There were +huge conservatories which must have been set up when the towers were +only a few hundred feet high, now full of the rarest flowers and shrubs. +In my walks, I saw a miniature poultry farm, conducted on the most +up-to-date methods; there was a dairy, with four or five cows--already +this part of the huge inclosure was assuming a rural aspect. It must +have been planned and started nearly two years ago." + +"You asked questions, I suppose?" + +"Any amount, as innocently as I possibly could. I got very little out of +my captors in reply. Your Chinaman is the most secretive person in the +world. _But_, I heard them talking among themselves; and I was amazed at +the calculated organization which had been going on without cessation +from the beginning. + +"It all fitted in exactly with what I told you at the _Special_ office. +It was as though Mr. Morse was planning a little private world of his +own, which would be independent of everything outside." + +"And about the towers themselves?" + +"It will take me hours to tell you. In one quarter of the inclosure +there are great dynamo sheds--an electric installation inferior to +nothing else of its kind in the world. The great lifts which rise and +fall in the towers are electric. Heating, lighting, artificial daylight +for the conservatories--all are electric. + +"Where I was kept," he went on, "was nearly a quarter of a mile from the +engineering section, but I knew that it hummed with extraordinary +activity night and day. I discovered that structural buildings of light +steel were pouring in from America, that an army of decorators and +painters was at work; vans of priceless Oriental furniture and hangings +were arriving from all parts of the world, rare flowers and shrubs also. +Sir Thomas, it was as though the Universe was being searched for +wonders--all to be concentrated here. + +"This went on and on till I lost count of the days and lived in a sort +of dream, kindly treated enough, allowed to see many secret things, and +always with a sense that because this was so, I should never again +emerge into the real world." + +"I can understand that, Rolston. Every word you say interests me +extremely." + +"I'll come to the present, Sir Thomas. You can ask me any details that +you like afterwards. A few days ago everything was speeded up to +extraordinary pitch. Then, late one night, there was a great to-do, and +in the morning I learned that Mr. Morse and his family had arrived, and +that they were up at the top. I have found out since that this was the +fourteenth of September." + +"The fourteenth!" I cried. + +"Yes, Sir Thomas, the fourteenth. The next day, it was late in the +afternoon and the sun was setting, two Chinamen came into my room, tied +a handkerchief over my eyes and led me out. I was put into one of the +little electric railways--open cars which run all over the +inclosure--and taken to the base of the towers. + +"I don't know which tower it was, but I was led into a lift and a long, +slow ascent began. I knew that I was in one of the big carrying lifts +that take a long time to do the third of a mile up to the City, not one +of the quick-running elevators which leap upwards from stage to stage +for passengers and arrive at the top in a comparatively short space of +time. + +"When the lift stopped they took off the handkerchief and I found myself +in a great whitewashed barn of a place which was obviously a storeroom. +There were bales of stuff, huge boxes and barrels on every side. + +"The men who had brought me up were just rough Chinese workmen from Hong +Kong, but a door opened and a Chink of quite another sort came in and +took me by the arm. + +"You see, Sir Thomas," he explained, "to the ordinary Englishman one +Chinaman is just like another, but my experience in the East enables me +to distinguish at once. + +"The newcomer was of a very superior class, and he led me out of the +storeroom, across a swaying bridge of latticed steel to a little +rotunda. As we passed along, I had a glimpse of the whole of London, +far, far below. The Thames was like a piece of glittering string. +Everything else were simply patches of gray, green, and brown. + +"We went into the cupola and a tiny lift shot us up like a bullet until +it stopped with a clank and I knew that I was now upon the highest +platform of all. + +"But I could see nothing, for we simply turned down a long corridor +lighted by electricity and softly carpeted, which might have been the +corridor of one of the great hotels far down below in town. + +"My conductor, who wore pince-nez and a suit of dark blue alpaca and who +had a charming smile, stopped at a door, rapped, and pushed me in. + +"I found myself in a room of considerable size. It was a library. The +walls were covered with shelves of old oak, in which there were +innumerable books. A Turkey carpet, two or three writing-tables--and Mr. +Gideon Morse, whom I had never spoken to, but had seen driving in Hyde +Park, sat there smoking a cigar. + +"I might have been in the library of a country house, except for two +things. There were no windows to this large and gracious room. It was +lit from above, like a billiard-room--domed skylights in the roof. But +the light that came down was not a light like anything I had ever seen. +It lit up every detail of the magnificent and stately place, but it was +new--'the light that never was on earth or sea.' It was just that that +made me realize where I was--two thousand three hundred feet up in the +air, alone with Gideon Morse, who had snatched me out of life three +months before." + +"I know Mr. Morse, Rolston. What impression did he make on you?" + +"For a moment he stunned me, Sir Thomas. I knew I was in the presence of +a superman. All that I had heard about him, all the legends that +surrounded his name, the fact of this stupendous sky city in which I +was--the ease with which he had stretched out his hand and made me a +prisoner, all combined to produce awe and fear." + +"Yes, go on." + +"I saw two other things--I think I did. One was that the man's sanity is +trembling in the balance. The other that if ever a human being lives and +moves and has his being in deadly temporal fear, Gideon Mendoza Morse is +that man." + +The words rang out in that East-end room with prophetic force. It was as +though a brilliant light was snapped on to illumine a dark chamber in my +soul. + +"What did he say to you, Rolston?" + +"He was suavity and kindness itself. He said that he immensely regretted +the necessity for secluding me so long. 'But of course I shall make it +up to you. You're a young man, Mr. Rolston, only just commencing your +career. A little capital would doubtless assist that career, in which I +may say I have every belief. Shall we say that you leave Richmond this +afternoon with a solatium of five hundred pounds?' + +"'A thousand would suit me better,' I said. + +"He shrugged his shoulders, and suddenly smiled at me. + +"'Very well,' he said, 'let it be a thousand pounds.' + +"'Of course without prejudice, Mr. Morse.' + +"'Please explain yourself.' + +"'You've kidnaped me. You've also committed an offense against the law +of England--a criminal offense for which you will have to suffer. +Perhaps you don't realize that if you built your house miles further up, +if you managed to nearly reach the moon, British justice would reach you +at last.' + +"He shook his head sadly. + +"'To that point of view, I hardly agree, Mr. Rolston. I am quite unable +to purchase British justice, but I can put such obstacles in its way +that could--' + +"He suddenly stopped there, lit a little brown cigarette, came up and +patted me on the shoulder. + +"'Child,' he said, 'you are clever, you are original, I like you. But +have a sense of proportion, and remember that you have no choice in this +matter. I will give you the money you want on condition that you go away +and bring no action whatever against me. If not--' + +"'If not, sir?' + +"'Well, you will have to stay here, that's all. You won't be badly +treated. You can be librarian if you like, but you will never see the +outside world again.' + +"'May I have a few hours to consider, sir?' + +"'A month if you like,' he said, pressing a bell upon his table. + +"The same bland young Chinaman led me out of the library and down to the +storeroom in the lift. I was blindfolded, and descended to the ground. + +"There I met a man whom I had seen two or three times during the last +three days, a great seven-foot American with arms like a gorilla, a +thing called 'Boss Mulligan,' whom I had gathered from the conversation +of my Chinese friends, had now arrived to take charge of the whole +city--a sort of head policeman and guard. + +"'Sonny,' he said, 'I've had a 'phone down from the top in regard to +you. Now don't you be a short sport. You've been made a good offer. You +grip it and be like fat in lavender. My advice to you is to wind a smile +round your neck and depart with the dollars. I can see you're full of +pep and now you've got fortune before you. See that pavilion over +there?' + +"He pointed to where a little gaudily painted house nestled under one of +the great feet of the first tower. + +"'That's my mansion. You wander about for an hour or so and come there +and say you agree to the boss's terms--we'll take your word for it. Upon +the word "Yes," I'll hand you out at the gate and you can go to Paris +for a trip.' + +"'I'll think it over,' I said. + +"'Do so, and don't be a life-everlasting, twenty-four-hours-a-day, +dyed-in-the-wool damn fool.' + +"It was getting dusk. I was in a new part of the inclosed park. He let +me go without any watchful Chinese attendant at my heels, and I strolled +off with my head bent down as if deep in thought. + +"I'd got an hour, and I think I made the best use of it. I hurried along +under the shadow of the towers, past shrubberies, artificial lakes, +summer-houses and little inclosed rose-gardens until I was far away from +Mr. Mulligan. Here and there I passed a patient Chinese gardener or some +hurrying member of Morse's little army. But nobody stopped me or +interfered with me. For the first time since my captivity I was +perfectly free. + +"To cut a long story short, Sir Thomas, I came to a rectangle in the +great encircling wall, which at that point was thirty feet high. The +parapet at the top was obviously being repaired, for there was a ladder +right up, pails of mortar, bricklayers' tools, and a coil of rope for +binding scaffolding. I nipped up the ladder, carrying the rope after me, +fixed it at the top, slid down easily enough, and in a quarter of an +hour was in Richmond station. I didn't dare to go back to my old rooms +because I was sure there would be a secret hue and cry after me. I +thought of my old friend, Mr. Sliddim, traveled to Whitechapel with my +last pence, and here I am." + +"Still a member of my staff?" + +"If you please, Sir Thomas." + +"Ready for anything?" + +"Anything and everything." + +"Then come with me to Piccadilly--if they look for you there again we +shall be prepared." + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +I have to tell of a brief interlude before I got to work in earnest. + +The very day after the rediscovery of Rolston I fell ill. The strain had +been too much, a severe nervous attack was the result, and my vet. +ordered me to the quietest watering-place in Brittany that I could find. +I protested, but in vain. The big man told me what would happen if I +didn't go, so I went, _faute-de-mieux_, and took Rolston with me. + +I acquainted Arthur Winstanley and Pat Moore of my movements by letter, +and I engaged the seedy Mr. Sliddim to abide permanently in Richmond and +to forward me a full report of all he observed, and of all rumors, +connected with the City in the Clouds. When I had subscribed to a +press-cutting agency to send me everything that appeared in print +relating to Gideon Morse and his fantastic home, I felt I had done +everything possible until I should be restored to health. + +Of my month in Pont Aven I shall say nothing save that I lived on fine +Breton fare, walked ten miles a day, left Rolston--who proved the most +interesting and stimulating companion a man could have--to answer all my +letters, and went to bed at nine o'clock at night. + +Heartache, fear for Juanita, occasional fits of fury at my own inaction +and impotence? Yes, all these were with me at times. But I crushed them +down, forced myself to think as little as possible of her, in order that +when once restored to health and full command of my nerves, I might +begin the campaign I had planned. You must picture me therefore, one +afternoon at the end of October, arriving from Paris by the five o'clock +train, dispatching Rolston to Piccadilly with the luggage, and driving +myself to Captain Moore's quarters at Knightsbridge Barracks. + +I had summoned a meeting of our league, which we had so fancifully named +"Santa Hermandad"--a fact that was to have future consequences which +none of us ever dreamed of--by telegram from Paris. + +Pat and Arthur were awaiting me in the former's comfortable +sitting-room. A warm fire burned on the hearth as we sat down to tea and +anchovy toast. + +I had been in more or less frequent communication with both of them +during my sick leave, and when we began to discuss the situation we +dispensed with preliminaries. + +It was Pat who, so to speak, took the chair, leaning against an old +Welsh sideboard of oak, crowded with polo and shooting cups, shields for +swordsmanship and other trophies. + +"Now, you two," he said, "we know certain facts, and we have arrived at +certain conclusions. + +"First of all, as to the facts. Miss Morse is as good as engaged to Tom +here. Arthur and I are 'also ran.' Fact number one. Fact number two, she +has been suddenly and forcibly taken away from the world, and is in +great distress of mind. That so, brother leaguers?" + +We murmured assent. + +"Now for our deductions. Morse, divil take him! has some deadly +important reason for this fantastic, spectacular show of his. The public +see it as the fancy of a chap who's so much money he don't know what to +do with it, a fellow that's exhausted all sensation and is now trying +for a new one. Let 'em think so! But _we_ know--here in this room--a +long sight more than the general public knows. Tom and that young +fly-by-night, with the red hair and the stained-glass-window ears, he's +been cartin' about with him, have got behind the scenes." + +Pat's face hardened. + +"We alone are certain that the man Morse, for all his equanimity and the +mask he has presented to London during the season, has been living under +the influence of some dirty, cowardly fear or other!" + +Arthur interrupted. + +"Fear, if you like, Pat, but I don't think it is probably dirty, or even +cowardly. You forget Miss Morse." + +"Perhaps you're right. At any rate, if Gideon Morse is really menaced by +some great danger, what cleverer trick could he have played? To let the +world suppose that it's his whim and fancy to live like a rook at the +top of an elm tree, when all the time he's providing against the +possibility of annihilation, that's a stroke of genius." + +"Good for you, Pat," said Arthur with a wink to me, "you're on the track +of it." + +"Indeed, and I think I am," said the big guardsman simply, "and here's +the cunning of it, the supreme sense of self-preservation. If that man +Morse is in fear of his life, and in fear for his daughter's too, he +couldn't have invented a more perfect security than he has done. From +all we know, from all Tom has told us, no one can get at them now but an +archangel!" + +Then Arthur spoke. + +"For my part," he said, "as I'm vowed to the service, I'm going straight +to Brazil and I'm going to find out everything I can about the past life +of Gideon Morse. I speak Spanish as you know. I think I'm fairly +diplomatic, and in a little more than a couple of months I'll return +with big news, if I'm not very much mistaken. And there's always the +cable too. We are pledged to Tom, but beyond that we're united together +to save the little lady from evil or from harm. To-morrow I sail for +Rio." + +"And I," I said, "have already made my plans. To-morrow I disappear +absolutely from ordinary life. Only two people in London will know where +I am, and what I am doing--Preston, my servant in Piccadilly, and one +other whom I shall appoint at the offices of my paper. While Arthur is +gathering information which will be of the greatest use, I must be +working on the spot. I imagine there isn't much time to lose." + +"And what'll I do?" asked Pat Moore. + +"You, Pat, will stay here, lead your ordinary life, and hold yourself +ready for anything and everything when I call upon you. And as far as I +can see," I concluded, "there will be a very pressing necessity for your +help before much more water has flowed under Richmond Bridge." + +There was an end of talking; we were all in deadly earnest. We grasped +hands, arranged a system of communication, and then I and Arthur went +down the stone steps, across the parade ground, and said good-by at Hyde +Park corner. + +"You--?" he said. + +"You will see in the papers that Sir Thomas Kirby is gone for a voyage +round the world." + +"And as a matter of fact?" + +"I think I won't give you any details, old man. My plan is a very odd +one indeed. You wouldn't quite understand, and you'd think it +extraordinary--as indeed it is." + +"It can't be more fantastic than the whole bitter business," he said, +and his voice was full of pain. + +I saw, for the first time, that he had grown older in the last few +months. The boyishness in him which had been one of his charms, was +passing away definitely and forever. He was hard hit, as we all were, +and I reproached myself for my egotism. After all, if there was any hope +at all, I was the most fortunate. Arthur and staunch old Pat Moore were +giving up their time, their energies, to bring about a conclusion from +which I alone should benefit. + +We were crossing the Green Park as this was borne in upon me. It was a +dull, gray afternoon, rapidly deadening into evening. There seemed no +color anywhere. But when I thought of the faithful, uncomplaining, even +joyous adherence to our oath, when I understood for the first time how +these two friends of mine were laboring without hope of reward, then I +saw, as in a vision, the wonder and sacredness of unselfish love. + +"Arthur," I said, as we were about to part at Hyde Park corner, "God +forgive me, but I believe your love for her is greater than mine." + +"Don't say that, Tom. When we threw the dice, if the Queen had come to +me you would be doing what I am doing now, or what Pat is ready to do." + +Well, of course, that was true, but when we gripped hands and turned our +backs upon each other, I walked slowly towards my flat with a hanging +head. + +For one brief moment I had caught a glimpse of that love which Dante +speaks of--that love "which moves earth and all the stars"--and in the +presence of so high a thing I was bowed and humbled. + +Let me also be worthy of such company, was my prayer. + + * * * * * + +At ten o'clock the next morning I stood in my bedroom with Preston in +attendance. Preston's face, usually a well-bred mask which showed +nothing of his feelings, was gravely distressed. + +"Shall I do, Preston?" I asked. + +"Yes, Sir Thomas, you'll _do_," he said regretfully, "but I must say, +Sir Thomas, that--" + +"Shut up, Preston, you've said quite enough. Am I the real thing or +not?" + +"Certainly not, Sir Thomas," he said with spirit. "How could you be the +real thing? But I'm bound to say you _look_ it." + +"You mean that your experience of a small but prosperous suburban +public-house, visited principally by small tradespeople, leads you to +suppose that I might pass very well for the landlord of such a place?" + +"I am afraid it does, Sir Thomas," he replied with a gulp, as I surveyed +myself once more in the long mirror of my wardrobe door. + +I was about six feet high in my boots, fair, with a ruddy countenance +and somewhat fleshy face--not gross I believe, but generally built upon +a generous scale. + +That morning I had shaved off my mustache, had my hair arranged in a new +way--that is to say, with an oily curl draping over the forehead--and I +had very carefully penciled some minute crimson veins upon my nose. I +ought to say that I have done a good deal of amateur acting in my time +and am more or less familiar with the contents of the make-up box. + + [NOTE.--My master, Sir Thomas Kirby, has long been known as one of + the handsomest gentlemen in society. He has a full face certainly, + but entirely suited to his build and physical development. Of + course, when he shaved off a mustache that was a model of such + adornments, it did alter his appearance considerably.--HENRY + PRESTON.] + +Instead of the high collar of use and wont, I wore a low one, +permanently attached to what I believe is known as a "dicky"--that is to +say, a false shirt front which reaches but little lower than the opening +of the waistcoat. My tie was a made-up four-in-hand of crimson +satin--not too new, my suit of very serviceable check with large +side-pockets, purchased second-hand, together with other oddments, from +a shop in Covent Garden. I also wore a large and massive gold +watch-chain, and a diamond ring upon the little finger of my right hand. + +That was all, yet I swear not one of my friends would have known me, and +what was more important still, I was typical without having overdone it. +No one in London, meeting me in the street, would have turned to look +twice at me. You could not say I was really disguised--in the true +meaning of the word--and yet I was certainly entirely transformed, and +with my cropped hair, except for the "quiff" in front, I looked as +blatant and genial a bounder as ever served a pint of "sixes." + +Preston had left the room for a moment and now came back to say that Mr. +W. W. Power had arrived. + +W. W. Power was the youngest partner in a celebrated firm of solicitors, +Power, Davids and Power--a firm that has acted for my father and myself +for more years than I can remember. + +Under his somewhat effeminate exterior and a languid manner, young Power +is one of the sharpest and cleverest fellows I know, and, what's more, +one that can keep his mouth shut under any circumstances. + +I went into the dining-room, hoping to make him start. Not a bit of it. +He merely put up his eyeglass and said laconically: "You'll do, Sir +Thomas"--not more than two years ago he had been an under-graduate at +Cambridge! + +"You think so, Power?" + +He nodded and looked at his watch. + +"All right then, we'll be off," I said, and Preston called a taxi, on +which were piled a large brass-bound trunk and a shabby +portmanteau--also recent purchases, and with the name H. Thomas painted +boldly upon them. Preston's Christian name by the way is Henry and I had +borrowed it for the occasion. + +I got into the cab with a curious sensation that some one might be +looking on and discover me. Power seated himself by my side with no +indication of thought at all, and we rolled away westward. + +"Nothing remains," he said, "but to complete the documents of sale. +Everything is ready, and I have the money in notes in my pocket. The +solicitor of the retiring proprietor will be in attendance, and the +whole thing won't take more than twenty minutes. Newby, the present man, +will then step out and leave you in undisturbed possession." + +"Very good, Power, and thank you for your negotiations. Seven thousand +pounds seems a lot of money for a little hole like that." + +"It isn't really. You see the place is freehold and the house is free +also. It's not under the dominion of any brewer, and when your purpose +in being there is over, I'll guarantee to sell it again for the same +money, probably a few hundreds more. As an investment it's sound +enough." + +He relapsed into silence and we rattled through Hammersmith on our way +to Richmond. I was curious about this imperturbable young man, whom I +knew rather well. + +"Aren't you curious, Power," I said, "to know why I'm doing this +extraordinary, unprecedented thing? I can trust you absolutely I know, +but haven't you asked yourself what the deuce I'm up to?" + +He favored me with a pale smile. + +"My dear Sir Thomas," he replied, "if you only knew what extraordinary +things society people _do_ do, if you knew a tenth of what a solicitor +in my sort of practice knows, you wouldn't think there was anything +particularly strange in your little freak." + +Confound the cub! I could have punched him in the jaw. I knew his +assurance was all pose. Still it was admirable in its way and I burst +into hearty laughter. + +I had the satisfaction of seeing Master Power's cheeks faintly tinged +with pink! + +On the slope of the hill, at what one might describe as the back of the +high wall which inclosed the grounds at the foot of the three +towers--that is to say, it was exactly opposite the great central +entrance, and I suppose nearly quarter of a mile from it if one drew a +straight line from one to the other--was a crowded huddle of mean +streets. It was not in any sense a slum--nothing so picturesque--small, +drab, shabby, and respectable. In the center of this area was a +fair-sized, but old-fashioned, public-house, known as the "Golden Swan." +This was our destination, and in a few minutes more we had climbed the +hill and the taxi stood at rest before a side door. + +Opening it we entered, Power leading the way, and as we approached some +stairs I caught a glimpse of a little plush-furnished bar to the left, +where I could have sworn I saw the melancholy Sliddim in company with a +pewter pot. + +We waited for a moment or two in a long upstairs room. The walls were +covered with beasts, birds, and fishes, in glass cases, all of which +looked as if they ought to be decently buried. Upon one wall was an +immense engraving framed in boxwood of the execution of Mary, Queen of +Scots, and upon a huge mahogany sideboard which looked as if it had been +built to resist a cavalry charge, was a tray with hospitable bottles. + +Then the door opened and a dapper little man with side whiskers, the +vendor's solicitor, came in, accompanied by Mr. Newby, the retiring +landlord himself. + +Mr. Newby, dressed I was glad to notice, very much as myself, only the +diamond ring upon his finger was rather larger, was a short, fat man of +benevolent aspect, and I should say suffering from dropsy. We shook +hands heartily. + +"Thirty years have I been landlord here," wheezed Mr. Newby, "and now +it's time the 'ouse was in younger 'ands. Your respectability 'as been +vouched for, Mr. Thomas--I wouldn't sell to no low blackguard for twice +the money--and all I can say is, young feller, for you are a young +feller to me, you know--I 'ope you'll be as 'appy and prosperous in the +'Golden Swan' as Emanuel Newby 'ave been." + +I thought it was best to be a little awkward and bashful, so I said very +little while the lawyers fussed about with title deeds, and at last the +eventful moment came when one does that conjuring trick in which the +gentlemen of the law take such infantile delight. "Put your finger here, +yes, on this red seal and say...." + +When it was all done and Mr. Newby had stowed away seven thousand pounds +in bank-notes in a receptacle over his heart, we drank to the occasion +in some remarkably good champagne and then, with a sigh, the +ex-proprietor announced his intention of being off. + +"My luggage has preceded me," he said, "and I have nothing to do now but +retire, as I 'ave long planned, to the city of my birth." + +"And where may that be, Mr. Newby?" I asked politely. + +"The University City of Oxford," he replied, "which, if you've not known +intimate as I 'ave, you can never begin to understand. There's an +atmosphere there, Mr. Thomas, but Lord, you won't be interested!" and he +wheezed superior. + +The situation was not without humor. + +When he had gone, together with his solicitor, Power rang the bell. + +"As you wish me to manage everything for you," he said, "I have done so. +Your entire ignorance of the liquor trade will be compensated by the +knowledge and devotion of the assistant I have procured for you, after +many inquiries. His name is Whistlecraft, and he is an Honest Fool. He +won't rob you, though he'll probably diminish your profits greatly by +his stupidity--but as I understand, profit from the sale of drinks isn't +your object. He will obey orders implicitly, without even trying to +understand their reason, and in short you couldn't have a better man for +your purpose." + +When Whistlecraft appeared I perfectly agreed with Power. He was a +powerful fellow in shirt sleeves, aged about thirty-five, with arms that +could have felled an ox. Had he shaved within the last three days he +would have been clean shaved, and his hair was polished to a mirror-like +surface with suet--I caught him doing it one day. I never saw such calm +on any human face. It was the tranquillity of an entire absence of +intellect, a rich and perfect stupidity which nothing could penetrate, +nothing disturb. His eyes were dull as unclean pewter, without life or +speculation, and I knew at once that if I told him to go down into the +cellar, wait there till a hyena entered, strangle it, skin it, and bring +the pelt upstairs to me, he would depart upon his errand without a word! + +Power went away with the most conventional of handshakes--we might have +been parting in Pall Mall--and I was left alone, monarch of all I +surveyed. + +"What's the staff beside you, Whistlecraft?" I asked. + +"Mrs. Abbs, sir, cooks and sweeps up, sleeps out. Peter, the odd-job +boy, washes bottles and such, and that's all." + +"Then at closing time, you and I are left alone in the house?" + +"Yes, sir." + +There was a loud and impatient knocking from somewhere below. + +"I'd better go and serve, sir, hadn't I?" said Whistlecraft--I found +later his name was Stanley--and I let him go at that. + +I spent the next hour going over the premises from cellar to roof and +making many mental notes, for I had come here with a definite purpose, +and plans already made. + +It was an extraordinary situation to be in. I sat in a little private +room behind the bar and every now and again Stanley's idiot countenance +appeared, and I had to go behind the counter and be introduced to this +or that regular frequenter. I asked every one to have a drink, for the +good of the house, and trust I made a fair impression. They all seemed +quiet, respectable people enough, who knew each other well. + +In the evening I was greatly helped by Sliddim, who was now a seasoned +habitué of the "Golden Swan," and whom from the moment of my arrival +slipped into the position of Master of the Ceremonies, which saved me a +great deal of trouble. + +It will be remembered that all the time that I was in Brittany, Sliddim +had been employed in my interests at Richmond. Bill Rolston vouched +absolutely for the man's fidelity: had told me I could safely trust him +in any way. Accordingly, there was perhaps a little misgiving, I had +released him from his employment at the third-class detective agency +where he worked, and took him permanently into my service. I may say at +once, though he took no prominent part in the great events which +followed until the very end, he was of considerable use to me and kept +my secrets perfectly. + +At closing time that night, Mrs. Abbs, the cook, having spread a hot +supper in the private room behind the bar and left, I called the potman +in from his washing-up of glass and bade him share the meal. + +"Now I tell you what, Stanley," I said, when we had filled our pipes, +"in the tower inclosure there's a whole colony of Chinks, isn't there?" + +"Yes, sir; gardeners, stokers for the engines and such like. They say as +there isn't a white man among 'em, except only the boss, and he's an +Irishman." + +"They don't always live inside that wall?" I jerked my head towards a +window which looked out into my back yard, not a hundred feet away from +the towering precipice of brick which overshadowed the "Golden Swan," +and the surrounding houses. + +"Oh, not by no means. They comes out when their work's done in the +evenings, though they goes back to sleep and has to be in by a certain +time. They do say," and here something happened to Stanley's face which +I afterwards grew to recognize as a smile, "they do say as some of the +girls downtown are takin' up with 'em, seein' as they dress well, and +spend a lot of money." + +"I suppose they have somewhere where they go?" + +"It's mostly the 'Rising Sun' down by the station, I am told. The boss +there was a sailor and understands their ways. He's given them a room to +themselves." + +I was perfectly aware of all this, but I had a special motive for the +present conversation. + +"Now, it's come into my mind," I said, "that there's a lot of custom +going downtown that ought by rights to come to the 'Golden Swan,' seeing +that we are close at the gates, so to speak, and I mean to do what I +can to get hold of it. A Chink's money is as good as anybody else's, +Stanley, that's my way of looking at it." + +He chewed the cud of that idea for a minute or two and then it dawned in +the pudding of his mind. + +"Why, yes," he said, in the voice of one who had made a great discovery. + +"Now, there's that room upstairs," I went on, "I shall never use it. If +we could get some of these Chinks to drop in there of a night it would +be good business." + +"There's just one thing against it," said Stanley, "if you'll pardon my +speaking of it, sir. I'm willing to do everything in reason, and I'm not +afraid of work. But I don't see as 'ow I can attend to both the saloon +and the four-ale bars if I'm to be going upstairs slinging drinks to the +Chinks." + +"Of course you can't and I wasn't going to suggest it. We must get an +extra help--if we can get the Chinks to use the house. We might have a +barmaid." + +He shook his head. + +"It wouldn't work, sir; you'd have to get a new one every week. A young +woman can't resist a Chink and they'd marry off like--" + +Stanley was unable to think of a simile so he buried his face in his +pewter pot. + +Really things were going very well for me. + +"I believe you are right. Supposing I could get a young fellow who was +one of themselves and could speak their lingo. There are lots to be +picked up about the docks. I mean some quiet young Chink, who would +attend to his fellow-countrymen in the evening, and relieve you of a lot +of the washing-up and things of that sort during the day?" + +Mr. Stanley Whistlecraft was not so stupid as to miss the advantages of +such a proposal as this. + +"You've 'it on the very plan, sir," he said, "and especial if he could +wash up them thin glasses which the gentlemen in the saloon bar like to +'ave, it would be a great saving. I never could 'andle them things +properly. You put your fingers on 'em and they crack worse than eggs. +Pewters, I can polish with any man alive, pot mugs seldom break, as +likewise them thick reputed half-pints which will break a man's 'ed +open, as I've proved. But these Chinks are as 'andy as any girl, and I +think, sir, you've got 'old of an idea." + +"I'll see about it in the morning. I've got a pal that has a nice little +house in the Mile End Road, and I believe he could send me just the lad +I want. Well, now you can go to bed, Stanley. Everything locked up?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then I'll put out the lights." + +He bade me a gruff good-night and lurched heavily away. I heard him +ascending the stairs to his room at the back of the house and then I was +left alone. + +The first thing I did was to turn down the sleeves of my shirt and put +on my coat. It isn't etiquette to sup in your coat, I had gathered from +Mr. Whistlecraft's custom when he accepted my invitation. + +Then I unlocked a drawer in which was a box of cigars such as the +"Golden Swan" had never known, and stretching out my legs, stared into +the fire. + +I was doing the wildest, maddest thing, but so far all had gone well. I +was, as it were, a solitary swimmer in deep and dangerous waters, on the +threshold of experiences which I knew instinctively would transcend all +those of ordinary life. I was perfectly certain, something in my inmost +soul told me, that I was about to step into unknown perils, and to +contend with bizarre and sinister forces of which I had no means of +measuring the power or extent. + +I don't mind admitting that on that first night in the "Golden Swan," +fate weighed heavily on me and I thought I heard the muffled laughter of +malignant things. + +However, I was in for it now. I finished my cigar, went into the bar and +selected a certain bottle of whisky--the excellent Stanley had warned me +that this was the landlord's bottle and of a much more reputable quality +than that served to the landlord's guests. After a very moderate +"nightcap" I put on carpet slippers and went up to my room, which I had +chosen at the very top of the house. It was a large attic, just under +the roof, and in a few days I proposed to make it more habitable with +some new furniture and decoration. Meanwhile, I had chosen it because, +in one corner, some wooden steps went up to a trap-door which opened on +to the roof, where there was a flat space of some three yards square +among the chimneys. Just before going up to bed I turned up the collar +of my dressing-gown, ascended the ladder, pushed open the trap-door and +stepped out on to the leads. + +It was a still, moonlight night. Looking over the roofs of the houses I +could see the Thames winding like a silver ribbon far down below, a +scene of utter tranquillity and peace. + +Then I wheeled round to be confronted with the great black wall which +rose several yards above me, within a pistol shot of distance. + +But my eye traveled up beyond that and was caught in a colossal network +of steel, so bold, towering and gigantic in its nearness that it almost +made me reel. I stared up among the dark shadows and moonlit spaces till +my eye reached an altitude which I knew to be about the height of the +Golden Ball on the top of Saint Paul's Cathedral. + +There the vision checked. I could see a blur of low buildings, a web of +latticed galleries, and I knew that I was looking only up at the very +_first stage_ of the City in the Clouds, which must be lying bare to the +moon some sixteen hundred feet above. + +I could see no more. The first stage barred all further vision, though +that in itself seemed terrible in its height and majesty. So I closed my +eyes and imagined only those supreme heights where she must be sleeping. + +"Good-night, Juanita," I murmured, and then, as I descended into my room +the words of the Psalmist came to me and I said, "Oh, that I had the +wings of a dove!" + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +On the afternoon of the next day the potman summoned me from my private +room with the information that there was a young fellow from the Mile +End Road to see me. + +"Chinese?" I asked. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then it must be the lad come in answer to the telegram I sent to my +friend this morning. Show him in." + +In a few moments the applicant for the situation entered. He wore his +oily black hair fairly short, like most of the Chinamen employed at the +towers, and had no pigtail; he was dressed in European clothes. His high +cheek bones, with little slits of eyes above them, the stolid yellow +face and fine tapering fingers were typically Oriental as he glided in, +and his European clothes seemed to accentuate that air of Eastern +mystery that even the commonest Chinaman carries about with him. He +looked about five or six and twenty and wore a thick gold ring in each +ear which had had the effect of dragging them away from the head. + +I examined him carefully as to his qualities and he answered in better +English than most Chinamen attain to, though with the guttural, clicking +accent of his kind. + +"Take him and let him wash up a few of the glasses, Stanley, and ask him +a few questions if you like, and if you are satisfied with him I'll +engage him." + +In a quarter of an hour the Honest Fool returned to express himself +pleased with the young Asiatic's performances, and there and then I +engaged him, Stanley showing him the room in which he was to sleep. It +was quite late that night before I could be alone with the new +assistant, who, by the way, served in the saloon bar during the evening +and was spoken of with commendation by Mr. Carter, fish and green +grocer; Mr. Mogridge, our principal newsagent and tobacconist, and Mr. +Abrahams, dealer in anything, whose shop was labeled--really with great +propriety--"Antiques." + +These gentlemen were my most constant patrons and their word had weight, +and it was endorsed by Mr. Sliddim, who slipped in about nine and in the +position of a friend of the landlord, had been received into our best +circle. It was Mr. Mogridge, a wit, who, just before closing time, +christened Ah Sing, the name of the new potman, "Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling," +the name which he retained to the end of the chapter. I could hear my +clients laughing for the twentieth time as they went home and Mr. +Carter's rich bass: "Mogridge, I call that good. That's damned good, +Mogridge. _Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling!_ Ha, ha, ha, ha!" + +Ah Sing glided into my private room just as the upper portion of the +house began to tremble with the snores of the Honest Fool. He put his +fingers into his mouth and withdrew two pads of composition such as +dentists use, with a sigh of relief. Immediately the high cheek bones +and the narrowness of the eyes disappeared, though even then Bill +Rolston would have passed for a Chinaman at a glance, though when he +removed the quills from his nose and it ceased to be flat and distended, +the likeness was less apparent. + +"It's wonderful, Rolston," I said, shaking him warmly by the hand. "It +would deceive any one. Well, here we are and now we can begin." + +The lad was all fire and enthusiasm. He did me no end of good, for the +sordid environment, the appalling meals--principally of pork served in +great gobbets with quantities of onions--which Mrs. Abbs provided for +the H.F., herself and me, and above all the overpowering, incredible +structure at hand which seemed, in its strength and majesty, to laugh at +the ant-like activities of such an one as I, were beginning to depress +and to tinge my hours with the quality of a fantastic dream. + +But Rolston changed all that and we talked far on into the night, +planning, plotting, and arranging all the details of our campaign. + +"To-morrow," he said, "I'll paint the board to go over the side door, in +black and gilt Chinese lettering. As soon as it's done, we will make one +or two alterations to the upstairs room, buy a gas urn with constant hot +water and some special tea which I know where to get. When that's done, +I'll start the game by going down to the 'Rising Sun' and meeting the +Chinese there." + +"You are quite certain that you won't be discovered?" + +"I think it's in the last degree improbable. Certainly no one could find +me out owing to my speech. That I can assure you, Sir Thomas, and it's +nearly all the battle. So very, very few Europeans ever attain to good +colloquial Chinese that there would never be a doubt in any one but I +was what I seemed to be. I not only know the language, but I know how +these people think and most of their customs. As far as disguise goes, I +think it's good enough to deceive any one. When I was a prisoner within +the inclosure, the Chinese who saw me were for the most part coolies and +laborers, engaged upon the works. All these have now gone away forever +and there's only the regular, selected staff. Some of these of course +must have seen me as I was, but I don't think they will penetrate my +get-up. You see the whole shape of the face is altered to begin with, +and the coloring of hair and face has been done so well as to defy +detection. I certainly was afraid about my ears," and he grinned +ruefully, "but I saw the way out by having them pierced and these rings +put in. Most of the natives from the Province of Yün-Nan, where I come +from, wear these rings. The ones I have on at the present moment are +made of lead, and gilded. They have pulled my ears right out of their +ordinary shape." + +"Good Lord!" I cried, astounded at the length to which he had gone. +"You're torturing yourself for me." + +"Not a bit of it, Sir Thomas," he replied. "I--I rather like it!" + +"And you think you will be able to get us a Chinese clientèle?" + +"I am quite certain of it. First of all I don't suppose I shall get the +best class--I mean the upper and more confidential servants who ascend +the tower itself--for I understand there's a very rigid system of +grades. But little by little they will come also. It will take us weeks, +maybe months, but it will be done." + +"If it takes me half a lifetime I'll go through with it," I said +savagely. + +"My sentiments, also," he replied, lighting a cigarette. "By the way, I +hope you're not incommoded in any way by my--er--odor!" + +"Good Heaven! What do you mean?" + +"The Chinaman smells quite different to the European, though not +necessarily unpleasantly. It's taken me quite a lot of trouble to attain +the essential perfume!" + +He grinned impishly as he said it, and there certainly was a sort of +stale, camphory smell, now he mentioned it. + +"You're a great artist, Rolston, and I don't know what I should do +without you, oh, Mandarin from Yün-Nan!" + +"That's another point," he said quickly. "You wouldn't guess why I'm +supposed to come from Yün-Nan, where I actually did spend some years of +my childhood?" + +"Not in the least." + +"It's the principal opium producing Province in China," he replied, with +a quick look at me. "Now, Sir Thomas, I've let the cat out of the bag. +You see how I propose to attract the Chinese here, and get into their +confidence." + +A light flashed in upon me, and I took a long breath. + +"But it would never do," I said. "If we were to start an opium den in +that room upstairs, we should have the police in in a fortnight, and +then the game would be up entirely." + +He smiled superior. + +"There will never be a single pipe of opium smoked in the 'Golden +Swan,'" he said. "Of that I can assure you. That will be the very +strictest rule that I shall make, but I shall supply opium to the +customers, in varying quantities, and at intervals, according to the +need of each individual case. It is almost impossible to bribe a +Chinaman with money--the better sort, that is, the picked and chosen men +who will be around Mr. Morse himself. But opium is quite another thing, +and besides they won't know they're being bribed. I sat hours and hours +working this thing out and I'm confident it's the only way." + +When he said that I realized that he spoke the truth, but I confess that +the idea startled and alarmed me. + +"We shall be breaking the law, Rolston. We shall be risking heavy fines +and certain imprisonment if we're found out." + +"To that I would say two things, Sir Thomas. First of all, that no fine +matters; and secondly, that I shouldn't in the least mind doing six +months if necessary. This great game is worth more than that. But +secondly, and you may really put your mind at ease, we shall _not_ be +found out. I have worked the thing out to a hair's breadth and my system +is so complete that discovery is utterly impossible." + +"I oughtn't to let you risk it, though of course I shall share equally +if anything happens." + +He disregarded this entirely. + +"But the stuff," I said, "the opium itself, how will you get that?" + +"I have made my plans here also. I shall have to pay a price so enormous +that I'm afraid it will stagger you, Sir Thomas, but it's the only way +in which I can get hold of the right stuff. For what it is intrinsically +worth, about sixty pounds sterling, your east-end dealer will pay +four-hundred pounds, and make a big profit on it. I shall have to pay +nearly a thousand and I shall want double that money--two thousand +pounds." + +He stared at me in anxiety. + +"My dear Rolston," I said, "cheer up. My income is over twenty thousand +a year, and in normal times I don't spend a third of it. Buy all the +filth you want, and Heaven send that it does the trick!" + +"In two days," he said, "the 'Golden Swan' will house two cases of the +best 'red bricks' obtainable on the market anywhere, for it's as much by +the superior quality of what I shall supply, as well as the fact of +being able to supply it, that I depend. Of course, you'll get nearly all +the money back." + +"Confound it, no, that's going too far. We'll send all the abominable +profits to the Richmond Hospital anonymously." + +We talked until the fire was out and the gray wintry dawn began to steal +in through the dirty windows of the bar beyond, and when all our plans +were laid with meticulous care I went to bed but not to sleep, assailed +by a thousand doubts and fears. + +... In a week or two the upstairs room began to be frequented by +silent-footed yellow men, who came and went unobtrusively. Whenever any +of them chanced to meet me I was greeted with a profound obeisance which +was rather disconcerting at first, but my conversation was limited to a +mere greeting or farewell. Most of these men spoke pigeon English, but I +had little or nothing to say to them of set purpose. It had been +arranged between Rolston and myself that I was to be represented as a +good-natured fool, who mattered very little in any way. + +For his part, the pretended Ah Sing was up and down the stairs a dozen +times every evening. He was never once suspected, his influence and +importance in the lives of these aliens grew every day. But it was a +long business, a long and weary business, in which at first hardly any +progress towards our aim could be discerned. + +"It's no use being discouraged, Sir Thomas," Rolston would say, "we're +getting on famously." + +"And the opium?"--somehow I wasn't very keen on discussing that aspect +of the question. + +"I'm employing it most judiciously, selling it in very small quantities, +and of course not a grain is ever smoked or consumed in any way upon +these premises. That's thoroughly understood by every one, and you need +not have the slightest doubt but that the secret will be rigidly kept. +At present the men frequenting the house are nearly all of the upper +coolie class. That is to say, they are the gardeners, stokers of the +power house, sweepers, and so forth. But, quite recently a better class +of man has made his appearance. There's a young, semi-Europeanized +electrician who has been once or twice. Moreover, I have gained a great +point. I have become acquainted with Kwang-su, the keeper of the +inclosure gate." + +"That's certainly something," I replied, recalling the figure of the +gigantic Chinaman in question, which was familiar to most of the +residents beneath the wall. "He's a ferocious-looking brute." + +"At one time he was headsman of Yangtsun, and they say a most finished +expert with the sword," Rolston remarked with a grin. "All I know about +him is that he'd sell his soul for the black smoke, and regards me as a +most valuable addition to the neighborhood. In a fortnight or so, I am +pretty certain I shall be able to pass in and out of the grounds pretty +much as I like, and then a great move in our game will have been +accomplished. As an undoubted Chinaman and as a confidential purveyer of +opium, I shall soon have complete freedom below the towers." + +"But what about the great prizefighter, Mulligan?" + +"He has nothing to do with the park, as they call all the grounds around +the towers. Now that the building is finished his functions are up in +the air, and I gather that he lives on the third stage, just beneath the +City itself, as a sort of watch-dog. The Asiatics are entirely managed +by their own leaders, appointed by Morse himself." + +It was as Bill predicted. In a very short space of time he was away from +the "Golden Swan" as much as he was in it, and every day he gathered +more and more information about the tower and its mistress--information +which was carefully noted down in the silence of the night, so that no +detail should be forgotten. + +Of course the fact that my hotel had become a haunt of the yellow men +neither escaped the notice of the neighbors, nor of the police. The +former were easily dealt with, and especially my patrons. Mr. Mogridge, +having invented "Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling," was disposed to look upon the +"Chinks" with genial patronage, and his self-importance was gratified by +the low bows with which they always greeted him as they passed to their +club-room above. The lead of Mr. Mogridge was followed by others in the +saloon bar, and Sliddim tactfully kept everything running smoothly. As +for the police, they paid me one visit or two, were shown everything and +were perfectly satisfied that the house was being conducted with +propriety--as indeed it was. + +The yellow men neither gambled nor got drunk, that was perfectly +obvious. There was never a suspicion of opium from first to last, nor +was there a single instance of a brawl or a fight. Indeed the local +police-inspector, an excellent fellow with whom I had many a talk, +expressed himself as being both surprised and delighted at the way in +which I had the aliens in hand. + +Nearly two months had gone by, and I was curbing the raging fires of +impatience and longing as well as I could when two incidents occurred +which greatly precipitated action. + +Rolston came to me one day in a state of great excitement. + +At last, he said, he was beginning to become acquainted with some of the +actual officials of the towers--at last, quite separate from those who +worked below. They were interested, or beginning to be so, and he urged +me at once to open a smaller, inner room as a select meeting-place for +such of them as he could inveigle to the "Golden Swan." + +We did so at once, hanging the walls with a drapery of black worked with +golden dragons, which I bought in Regent Street, a Chinese lantern of +copper hanging from the ceiling, and around the wall we placed low +couches. Here, in twos and threes, but in slowly increasing numbers, a +different type of Oriental began to assemble, Ah Sing attending to all +their wants, ingratiating himself in every possible way, and keeping his +extremely useful ears wide open--very wide open indeed. + +It was now that tiny fragments of personal gossip--more precious to me +than rubies--began to filter through. I had established no communication +with the City in the Clouds as yet, but I seemed to hear the distant +murmur of voices through the void. + +One evening about eight o'clock I felt cramped and unutterably bored. I +felt that nothing could help me but a long walk and so, with a word to +the Honest Fool, Sliddim and Rolston, I took my hat and stick and +started out. + +It was a brilliant moonlight night, calm, still, and with a white frost +upon the ground, as I descended the terrace and made my way down to the +side of the river. Here and there I passed a few courting couples; the +hum of distant London and the rumbling of trains was like the ground +swell of a sea, but peace brooded over everything. The trees made black +shadows like Chinese ink upon silver, and, in the full moonlight it was +bright enough to read. + +When I had walked a mile or so, resisting a certain temptation as well +as I could, I stopped and turned at last. + +There, a mile away behind me, yet seeming as if it was within a stone's +throw, was the huge erection on the hill. Every detail of the lower +parts was clear and distinct as an architectural drawing, the intricate +lattice-work of enormous cantilevers and girders seemed etched on the +inside of a great opal bowl. I can give you no adequate description of +the immensity, the awe-inspiring, almost terror-inducing sense of +magnitude and majesty. I have stood beside the Pyramids at night, I have +crossed the Piazza of Saint Peter's at Rome under the rays of the +Italian moon, and I have drunk coffee at the base of the Eiffel Tower in +Paris, but not one of these experiences approached what I felt now as I +surveyed, in an ecstasy of mingled emotions, this monstrous thing that +brooded over London. + +The eye traveled up, onward and forever up until at length, not hidden +by clouds now but a faint blur of white, blue, gold, and tiny twinkling +lights, hung in the empyrean the far-off City of Desire. + +Could she hear the call of my heart? God knows it seemed loud and strong +enough to me! Might she not be, even at this moment, a lovelier Juliet, +leaning over some gilded gallery and wondering where I was? + +"Was ever a woman so high above her lover before?" I said, and laughed, +but my laughter was sadness, and my longing, pain unbearable. + +... There was a slight bend in the tow-path where I stood, caused by +some out-jutting trees, and from just below I suddenly heard a burst of +loud and brutal laughter, followed by a shrill cry. It recalled me from +dreamland at once and I hurried round the projection to come upon a +strange scene. Two flash young bullies with spotted handkerchiefs around +their throats and ash sticks in their hands were menacing a third person +whose back was to the river. They were sawing the air with their sticks +just in front of a thin, tall figure dressed in what seemed to be a sort +of long, buttoned black cassock descending to the feet, and wearing a +skull cap of black alpaca. Beneath the skull cap was a thin, ascetic +face, ghastly yellow in the moonlight. + +... One of the brutes lunged at the man I now saw to be a Chinese of +some consequence, lunged at him with a brutal laugh and filthy oath. The +Chinaman threw up his lean arms, cried out again in a thin, shrill +scream, stepped backwards, missed his footing and went souse into the +river. In a second the current caught him and began to whirl him away +over towards the Twickenham side. It was obvious that he could not swim +a stroke. There was a clatter of hob-nailed boots and bully number one +was legging it down the path like a hare. I had just time to give bully +number two a straight left on the nap which sent him down like a sack of +flour, before I got my coat off and dived in. + +Wow! but it was icy cold. For a moment the shock seemed to stop my +heart, and then it came right again and I struck out heartily. It didn't +take long to catch up with the gentleman in the cassock, who had come +up for the second time and apparently resigned himself to the worst. I +got hold of him, turned on my back and prepared for stern measures if he +should attempt to grip me. + +He didn't. He was the easiest johnny to rescue possible, and in another +five minutes I'd got him safely to the bank and scrambled up. + +There was nobody about, worse luck, and I started to pump the water out +of him as well as I could, and after a few minutes had the satisfaction +of seeing his face turn from blue-gray to something like its normal +yellow under the somewhat ghastly light of the moon. His teeth began to +chatter as I jerked him to his feet and furiously rubbed him up and +down. + +I tried to recall what I knew of pigeon English. + +"Bad man throw you in river. You velly lucky, man come by save you, +Johnny." + +I had the shock of my life. + +"I am indeed fortunate," came in a thin, reed-like voice, "I am indeed +fortunate in having found so brave a preserver. Honorable sir, from this +moment my life is yours." + +"Why, you speak perfect English," I said in amazement. + +"I have been resident in this country for some time, sir," he replied, +"as a student at King's College, until I undertook my present work." + +"Well," I said, "we'd better not stand here exchanging polite remarks +much longer. There is such a thing as pneumonia, which you would do well +to avoid. If you're strong enough, we'll hurry up to the terrace and +find my house, where we'll get you dry and warm. I'm the landlord of +the 'Golden Swan' Hotel." + +He was a polite fellow, this. He bowed profoundly, and then, as the +water dripped from his black and meager form, he said something rather +extraordinary. + +"I should never have thought it." + +I cursed myself. The excitement had made me return to the manner of +Piccadilly, and this shrewd observer had seen it in a moment. I said no +more, but took him by the arm and yanked him along for one of the +fastest miles he had ever done in his life. + +I took him to the side door of my pub. Fortunately Ah Sing was +descending the stairs to replenish an empty decanter with whisky--my +yellow gentlemen used to like it in their tea! I explained what had +happened in a few words and my shivering derelict was hurried upstairs +to my own bedroom. I don't know what Rolston did to him, though I heard +Sliddim--now quite the house cat--directed to run down into the kitchen +and confer with Mrs. Abbs. + +For my part, I sat in the room behind the bar, listening to the Honest +Fool talking with my patrons, and shed my clothes before a blazing fire. +A little hot rum, a change, and a dressing-gown, and I was myself again, +and smoking a pipe I fell into a sort of dream. + +It was a pleasant dream. I suppose the shock of the swim, the race up +the terrace to the "Swan," the rum and milk which followed had a +soporific, soothing effect. I wasn't exactly asleep, I was pleasantly +drowsed, and I had a sort of feeling that something was going to happen. +Just about closing time Rolston glided in--I never saw a European +before or since who could so perfectly imitate the ghost walk of the +yellow men. + +I looked to see that the door to the bar was shut. + +"Well, how's our friend?" I asked. + +"He's had a big shock, Sir Thomas, but he's all right now. I've rubbed +him all over with oil, fed him up with beef-tea and brandy and found him +dry clothes." + +"He's from the towers, of course?" + +As I said this, I saw Bill Rolston's face, beneath its yellow dye, was +blazing with excitement. + +"Sir Thomas," he said in a whisper, "this is Pu-Yi himself, Mr. Morse's +Chinese secretary, a man utterly different from the others we have seen +here yet. He's of the Mandarin class, the buttons on his robe are of red +coral. In this house, at this moment, we have one of the masters of the +Secret City." + +I gave a long, low whistle, which--I remember it so well--exactly +coincided with the raucous shout of the Honest Fool--"Time, gentlemen, +please!" + +A thought struck me. + +"The other Chinese in the large and small rooms, do they know this man +is here?" + +"No, Sir Thomas; I am more than glad to say I got him up to your own +room when both doors were closed." + +"What's he doing now?" + +"He's having a little sleep. I promised to call him in an hour or so, +when he wishes to pay you his respects." + +He listened for a moment. + +"The others are going downstairs," he said. "I must be there to see them +out, and I have one or two little transactions--" + +He felt in a villainous side pocket and I knew as well as possible what +it contained, and what would be handed to one or two of the moon-faced +gentlemen as they slipped out of the side door on their way home. + +Bill came back in some twenty minutes. + +"Now," he said, "I'm going upstairs to wake Pu-Yi and bring him down to +you. You must remember, Sir Thomas, that I am only a dirty little +servant. I am as far beneath a man like Pu-Yi as Sir Thomas Kirby is +above Stanley Whistlecraft, so I cannot be present at your interview. My +idea was that I should creep into the bar--Stanley will have had his +supper and gone to bed--and lie down on the floor with my ear to the +bottom of the door, then I can hear everything." + +"That's a good idea," I said, for I was beginning to realize what an +enormous lot might depend upon this interview. Then I thought of +something else. + +"Look here, Bill, you must remember this too. I fished the blighter out +of the Thames and no doubt he will be thankful in his overdone, Oriental +fashion. But to him, a man of the class you say he is, I shall be +nothing but a vulgar publican, and I don't see quite what's going to +come out of _that_!" + +He had slipped the gutta-percha pads out of his cheeks--an operation to +which I had grown quite accustomed--and I could see his face as it +really was. + +"That's occurred to me also," he replied, "but somehow or other I'm sure +the fates are on our side to-night." + +He arose, turned away for a moment, there was a click and a gasp, and he +was the little impassive Oriental again. He glided up to me, put his +yellow hand with the long, polished finger nails upon my shoulder, and +said in my ear: + +"Sir Thomas, he must see Her every day!" + +He vanished from the room almost as he spoke, and left me with blood on +fire. + +I was to see some one who might have spoken with Juanita that very day! +and I sat almost trembling with impatience, though issuing a dozen +warnings to myself to betray nothing, to keep every sense alert, so that +I might turn the interview to my own advantage. + +At last there was a knock on the door, Bill opened it and the slim +figure of the man I had rescued glided in. They had dried his clothes, +he even wore his little skull cap which had apparently stuck to his head +while he was in the water, and I had the opportunity of seeing him in +the light for the first time. + +Instead of the flat, Tartar nose, I saw one boldly aquiline, with large, +narrow nostrils. His eyes were almond shaped but lustrous and full of +fire. About the lips, which had no trace of sensuality but were +beautifully cut, there was a kind of serene pathos--I find it difficult +to describe in any other way. The whole face was noble in contour and in +expression, though the general impression it gave was one of unutterable +sadness. Dress him how you might, meet him where you would, there was +no possibility of mistaking Pu-Yi for anything but a gentleman of high +degree. + +The door closed and I rose from my seat and held out my hand. + +"Well," I said, "this is a bit of orlright, sir, and I'm glad to see you +so well recovered. To-morrow morning we'll have the law on them dirty +rascals that assaulted you." + +I put on the accent thickly--flashed my diamond ring at him, in +short--for this might well be a game of touch and go, and I had a deep +secret to preserve. + +He put his long, thin hand in mine, gripped it, and then suddenly turned +it over so that the backs of my fingers were uppermost. + +It was an odd thing to do and I wondered what it meant. + +"Oh, landlord of the Swan of Gold," he piped, in his curious, flute-like +voice, sorting out his words as he went on, "I owe you my unworthy life, +which is nothing in itself and which I don't value, save only for a +certain opportunity which remains to it, and is a private matter. But I +owe my life to your courage and strength and flowering kindness, and I +come to put myself in your hands." + +Really he was making a damn lot of fuss about nothing! + +"Look here," I said, "that's all right. You would have done as much for +me. Now let's sit down and have a peg and a chat. I can put you up for +the rest of the night, you know, and I shall be awfully glad to do it." + +He looked as if he was going to make more speeches, but I cut him +short. + +"As for putting your life in my hands," I said, "we don't talk like that +in England." + +He sat down and a faint smile came upon his tired lips. + +"And do the public-house keepers in England have hands such as yours +are?" he said gently. "Sir, your hands are white, they are also shaped +in a certain way, and your nails are not even in mourning for your +profession!" + +I cursed myself savagely as he mocked me. Bill had pointed out over and +over again that I oughtn't to use a nail brush too frequently--it wasn't +in the part--but I always forgot it. + +To hide my confusion I moved a little table towards him on which was a +box of excellent cigarettes. Unfortunately, also on the table was a +little pocket edition of Shakespeare with which I used to solace the +drab hours. + +He picked it up, opened it plump at "Romeo and Juliet"--the play which, +for reasons known to you, I most affected at the time--and looked up at +me with gentle eyes. + +"'Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona,'" he said. + +My brain was working like a mill. I could not make the fellow out. What +did he know, what did he suspect? Well, the best thing was to ask him +outright. + +"You mean?" + +He became distressed at once. + +"You speak harshly to me, O my preserver. I meant but that I knew at +once that you are not born in the position in which I see you. Perhaps +you will give me your kind leave to explain. In my native country I am +of high hereditary rank, though I am poor enough and occupy a somewhat +menial position here. My honorable name, honorable sir, is Pu-Yi, which +will convey nothing to you. During the rebellion of twenty years ago in +China, my ancestral house was destroyed and as a child I was rescued and +sent to Europe. For many years the peasants of my Province scraped their +little earnings together, and a sum sufficient to support me in my +studies was sent to me in Paris. I speak the French, Spanish and English +languages. I am a Bachelor of Science of the London University, and my +one hope and aim in life is, and has been, to acquire sufficient money +to return to the tombs of my ancestors on the banks of the +Yang-tse-kiang, there to live a quiet life, much resembling that of an +English country squire, until I also fade away into the unknown, and +become part of the Absolute." + +There was something perfectly charming about him. Since he spotted I +wasn't a second edition of the Honest Fool, since he had somehow or +other divined that I was an educated man, I felt drawn to him. You must +remember that for months now the only person I had had to talk to was +Bill Rolston. And all the time, he was so occupied in our tortuous +campaign that we only met late at night to report progress. + +For a moment I quite forgot what this new friend might mean to me, and +opened out to him without a thought of further advantage. + +I was a fool, no doubt. Afterwards, talking it all over with Pat Moore +and Arthur Winstanley, I saw that I ran a great risk. Anyhow, I +reciprocated Pu-Yi's confidence as well as I could. + +"I'm awfully glad we've met, even under such unfortunate circumstances. +You are quite right. I come of a different class from what the ordinary +frequenter of this hotel might suppose, but since you have discovered it +I beg you to keep it entirely to yourself. I also have had my +misfortunes. Perhaps I also am longing for some ultimate happiness or +triumph." + +Out of the box he took a cigarette, and his long, delicate fingers +played with it. + +"Brother," he said, "I understand, and I say again, now that I can say +it in a new voice, my life is yours." + +Then I began on my own account. + +"Tell me," I said, "of yourself. Many of your fellow-countrymen come +here--the lower orders--and they're all employed by the millionaire, +Gideon Morse, who seems to prefer the men of China to any other. You +also, Pu-Yi, are connected with this colossal mystery?" + +He didn't answer for a moment, but looked down at the glowing end of his +cigarette. + +"Yes," he replied, with some constraint, "I am in the service of the +honorable Mr. Gideon Mendoza Morse. I am, in fact, his private secretary +and through me his instructions are conveyed to the various heads of +departments." + +"You are fortunate. I suppose that before long you will be able to +fulfill your ambitions and retire to China?" + +With a quick glance at me he admitted that this was so. + +"And yet," I said thoughtfully, "it must be a very trying service, +despite that you live in Wonderland, in a City of Enchantment." + +Again I caught a swift regard and he leant forward in his chair. + +"Why do you say that?" he asked. + +I hazarded a bold shot. + +"Simply because the man is mad," I said. + +His bright eyes narrowed to glittering slits. + +"You quote gossip of the newspapers," he replied. + +"Do I? I happen to know more than the newspapers do." + +He rose to his feet, took two steps towards me, and looked down with a +twitching face. + +"Who _are_ you?" he said, and his whole frail frame trembled. + +I caught him firmly by the arm and stared into his face--God knows what +my own was like. + +"I am the one who has been waiting, the one who is waiting, to help--the +one who has come to save," I said, and my voice was not my own--it was +as if the words were put into my mouth by an outside power. + +He wrenched his arm away, gave a little cry, strode to the mantelpiece +and bent his head upon his arms. His whole body was shaken with +convulsive sobs. + +I stood in the middle of the room watching him, hardly daring to +breathe, feeling that my heart was swelling until it occupied the whole +of my body. + +At length he looked up. + +"Then I shall be of some use to Her after all," he said. "This is too +much honor. The Lily of White Jade--" + +He staggered back, his face working terribly, and fell in a huddled heap +upon the floor. I was just opening my mouth to call for Rolston when +there came a thunderous knocking upon the side door of the house. + +I ran into the dimly lit passage and as I did so Rolston flitted out of +the bar door and stood beside me. + +"I have heard everything," he whispered, "but what, what is this?" + +He pointed to the door, and as he did so there was again the thunder of +the knocker and the whirr of the electric bell. + +Hardly knowing what I did I shot back the bolts at top and bottom, +turned the heavy key in its lock and opened the door. + +Outside in the moonlight a figure was standing, a man in a heavy fur +coat, carrying a suitcase in his left hand. + +"What the devil--" I was beginning, when he pushed past me and came into +the hall. + +Then I saw, with a leap of all my pulses, that it was Lord Arthur +Winstanley. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +It was four o'clock in the morning. A bitter wind had risen and was +wailing around the "Golden Swan," interspersed with heavy storms of hail +which rattled on roof and windows. Outside the tempest shrieked and was +accompanied by a vast, humming, harp-like noise as it flung itself +against the lattice-work of the towers and vibrated over Richmond like a +chorus of giant Æolian harps. Arthur and I sat in the shabby +sitting-room, which had been the theater of so much emotion that night, +and stared at each other with troubled faces. + +There was a little pattering noise, and Bill Rolston came in, closing +the door carefully behind him. + +"He wants you to go up to him, Sir Thomas. You told me to use my own +discretion. Since we carried him up and I gave him the bromides, I +haven't left his bedside. I talked to him in his own language, but he +wouldn't say a word until I threw off every disguise and told him who I +really was and who you were also." + +"But, Rolston, you may have spoiled everything!" + +He shook his head. + +"You don't know what I know. Now that he's aware you are of his own +rank, and that I am your lieutenant, his life is absolutely your +forfeit. If you were to tell him to commit suicide he would do it at +once as the most natural thing in the world, to preserve his honor. He +is your man from this moment, Sir Thomas, just as I am." + +"Then I'll go up. Arthur, you don't mind?" + +"Mind! I thought I brought a bomb-shell into your house to-night, and so +I have too, but to find all this going on simply robs me of speech. +Meanwhile, if you will introduce me to this Asiatic gentleman who speaks +such excellent English, and whom, from repute I guess to be Mr. William +Rolston, I daresay we can amuse ourselves during the remainder of this +astonishing night. And," he continued, "if there is such a thing as a +ham upon the premises, some thick slices grilled upon this excellent +fire, and some cool ale in a pewter--" + +I left them to it and went upstairs to my chamber. It was lit with two +or three candles in silver holders--I had made the place quite habitable +by now--and lying on my bed, covered with an eiderdown, his eyes +feverish, his face flushed, lay the Mandarin. + +His eyes opened and he smiled. It was the first time I had seen the +delicate, melancholy lips light up in a real smile. + +"What's that for?" I said, as I sat down by the bedside. + +"You are so big, and strong, Prince," he replied, "and large and +confident; and your disguise fell from you as you came in and I saw you +as you were." + +I knelt beside the bed and my breath came thick and fast. + +"For God's sake don't play with me," I said, "not that you are doing +that. You have met Her--Miss Morse I mean, my Juanita?" + +"Prince, she has deigned to give me her confidence in some degree. I do +my work in the wonderful library that Mr. Morse has built. It's a great +hall, full of the rarest volumes; and there are long windows from which +one can look down upon London and gaze beyond the City to where the +wrinkled sea beats around the coast. And, day by day, in her loneliness, +the Fairest of Maidens has come to this high place and taken a book of +poems, sat in the embrasure, and stared down at the world below." + +He raised a thin hand and held it upright. It was so transparent that +the light of a candle behind turned it to blood red. + +"Let my presumptuous desires be forever silent," he chanted. "'East is +east and west is west,' and I erred gravely. But, worship is worship, +and worship is sacrifice." + +I could hardly speak, my voice was hoarse, his words had given me such a +picture of Juanita up there in the clouds. + +"Prince--" + +"I am not a Prince, I only have a very ordinary title. If you know +England, you understand what a baronet is." + +"I know England. Prince, your Princess is waiting for you and sighing +out her heart that you have not come to her." + +I leapt to my feet and swore a great oath that made the attic room +ring. + +"_You mean?_" I shouted. + +"Prince, the Lily of all the lilies, the Rose of all the roses, alone, +distraught, another Ophelia--no, say rather Juliet with her nurse--has +honored me with the story of her love. She never told me whom she longed +for, but I knew that it was some one down in the world." + +I staggered out a question. + +"It is my humble adoration for her which has sharpened all my wits," he +answered. "It seemed an accident--though the gods designed it without +doubt--that made you save my life to-night, but now I know you are the +lover of the Lily. And I am the servant--the happy messenger--of you +both." + +"You can take a letter from me to her?" + +"Indeed, yes." + +"My friend, tell me, tell me all about her. Is she happy?--no, I know +she cannot be that--but--" + +He lifted himself up in the bed, and there was something priest-like in +his attitude as he folded his thin hands upon his breast and spoke. + +"Two thousand feet above London there is a Palace of all delights. +Immeasurable wealth, the genius of great artists have been combined to +make a City of Enchantment. And in every garden with its plashing +fountains, in its halls of pictures and delights, upon its aerial +towers, down its gilded galleries, lurking at the banquet, mingling with +the music, great shapes of terror squeak and gibber like the ghosts +Shakespeare speaks of in ancient Rome." + +"Morse?" + +"There is a noble intellect overdone and dissolved in terror. In all +other respects sane as you or I, my savior and benefactor, Gideon Morse +is a maniac whose one sole idea is to preserve himself and his daughter +from some horror, some vengeance which surely cannot threaten him." + +Twice, thrice I strode the attic. + +Then at last I stopped. + +"Will you help me now, Pu-Yi, will you take a letter from me, will you +help me to meet Her, and soon?" + +He bowed his head for answer, and then, as he looked up again his face +was suffused with a sort of bright eagerness that touched me to the +heart. + +"I am yours," he said. + +"Then quickly, and soon, Pu-Yi, for you are only half informed. Gideon +Morse may be driven mad by fear, no doubt he is. But it is _not_ an +imaginary fear. It is a thing so sinister, so real and terrible, that I +cannot tell you of it now. I am too exhausted by the events of this +night. I will say only this, that within the last hour a faithful friend +of mine has returned from the other side of the world and brings me +ominous news." + + * * * * * + +I believe that Pu-Yi, whose movements were, of course, not restricted +like those of the lower officials, returned to the towers in the early +morning. As for me, I caught a workmen's train from Richmond station, +slunk in an early taxi to Piccadilly with Arthur Winstanley, and slipped +into lavender-clean sheets and silence till past noon, when Captain +Patrick Moore arrived to an early lunch. Dressed again in proper +clothes, with dear old Preston fussing about me with tears in his eyes, +I felt a thousand times more confident than before. Old Pat had to be +informed of everything, and as a preliminary I told him my whole story, +from the starting-point of the "Golden Swan." + +"And now," I said, "here's Arthur, who has traveled thousands of miles +and who has come back with information that fits in absolutely with +everything else. He gave me an epitome last night, under strange and +fantastic circumstances. Now then, Arthur, let's have it all clearly, +and then we shall know where we are." + +Arthur, whose face was white and strained, began at once. + +"I went straight to Rio," he said, "and of course I took care that I was +accredited to our Legation. As a matter of fact the Minister to the +Brazilian Government is my cousin. The news about the towers was all +over Brazil. Everybody there knows Gideon Mendoza Morse. He's been by a +long way the most picturesque figure in South America during the last +twenty years. He has been President of the Republic. Of course, I had +the freshest news. My mother had given a party to introduce Juanita to +London society. I had danced with her. I had talked to her father--I was +the young English society man who brought authentic news. I told all I +knew, and a good bit more, and I sucked in information like a +vacuum-cleaner. I learnt a tremendous lot as to the sources of Morse's +enormous wealth. I was glad to find that there were no allegations +against him of any trust methods, any financial tricks. He had got rich +like one of the old patriarchs, simply by shrewdness and long +accumulation and rising values. But I had to go a good deal farther back +than this, I had to dive into obscure politics of South America, and +then--it was almost like a punch on the jaw--I stumbled against the +Santa Hermandad." + +Pat Moore and I cried out simultaneously. + +"What on earth do you mean?" + +"Our League?" + +"It's sheer coincidence," he answered. "I hope it's not a bad omen. +During the time when the last Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, was reigning, +it was seen by all his supporters, both in Brazil and in Spain, that his +power was waning and a crash was sure to come. In order to preserve the +Principle of the Monarchy, a powerful Secret Society was started, under +the name of the Holy Brotherhood or Santa Hermandad. Gideon Morse, then +a young and very influential man, became a member of this Society. But, +after the Emperor was deposed, and a Republic declared, Morse threw in +his lot with the new régime. I have gathered that he did so out of pure +patriotism; he realized that a Republic was the best thing for his +country, and had no personal ax to grind whatever. He prospered +exceedingly. As you know he has, in his time, been President of the +Republica dos Estados Unidos de Brazil, and has contributed more to the +success of the country than any other man living." + +"Fascinatin' study, history," said Captain Moore, "for those that like +it. Personally, I am no bookworm; cut the cackle, Arthur, old bean, and +come to the 'osses." + +"Peace, fool!" said Arthur, "if you can't understand what I say, Tom +will explain to you later, though I'll be as short as I jolly-well can." + +He turned to me. + +"When this Secret Society failed, Tom--the Hermandad, I mean--it wasn't +dissolved. It was agreed by the Inner Circle that it was only suspended. +But as the years went by, nearly all the prominent members died, and the +Republic became an assured thing. But a few years ago the Society was +revived, not with any real hope of putting an Emperor on the throne +again but as a means to terrorism and blackmail. All the most lawless +elements of Spanish South America became affiliated into a new and +sinister confederation. You've heard of the power of the Camorra in +Italy--well, the Hermandad in Brazil is like that at the present time. +It has ramifications everywhere, the police are becoming powerless to +cope with it, and a secret reign of terror goes on at this hour. + +"These people have made a dead shot for Gideon Morse. He has defied them +for a long time, but their power has grown and grown. I understand that +two years ago the Hermandad fished out of obscurity an old Spanish +nobleman, the Marquis da Silva, who was one of the original, chivalrous +monarchists. He was about the only surviving member of the old +Fraternity, and they got him to produce its constitutions. He came upon +the scene some two years ago and Morse was given just that time to fall +in with the plans of the modern Society, or be assassinated together +with his daughter." + +He stopped, and it was dear old Pat Moore who shouted with +comprehension. + +"Why, now," he bellowed, "sure and I see it all. That's why he built the +Tower of Babel and went to live on the top, and drag his daughter with +him--so that these Sinn Feiners should not get at 'm." + +"Yes, Pat, you've seen through it at a glance," said Arthur, with a +private grin to me. + +Pat was tremendously bucked up at the thought that he had solved a +problem which had been puzzling both of us. + +"All the same," he said, "the place is too well guarded for any Spanish +murderer to get up. Besides, Tom here is makin' all his arrangements and +he'll have Miss Juanita out of it in no time." + +"The circumstances," Arthur went on calmly, "are perfectly well known to +a few people at the head of the Government in Brazil. I had a long and +intimate conversation with Don Francisco Torromé, Minister of Police to +the Republic. He told me that the Hermandad is intensely revengeful, +wicked, and unscrupulous. Moreover, it's rich; and money wouldn't be +allowed to stand in the way of getting at Morse. What is lacking is +energy. These people make the most complete and fiendish plans, they +dream the most fantastic and devilish dreams, and then they say +'Manana'--which means, 'It will do very well to-morrow'--and go to sleep +in the sun." + +"Then after all, Morse is in no danger!" I cried, immensely relieved. +"You said the danger was real, but you spoke figuratively." + +"Sorry, old chap, not a bit of it. There's some one on the track with +energy enough to pull the lid off the infernal regions if necessary. In +short, the Hermandad have engaged the services of an international +scoundrel of the highest intellectual powers, a man without remorse, an +artist in crime--I should say, and most Chiefs of Police in the kingdoms +of the world would agree with me--the most dangerous ruffian at large. +You've seen him, Tom, I pointed him out to you at a little Soho +restaurant where we dined once together. His name is Mark Antony +Midwinter, and _he traveled from Brazil, together with a friend, by the +same boat that I did_." + +"Then he must be in London now!" said Pat Moore, with the air of +announcing another great discovery. + +"But look here!" I cried. "I told you, before you sailed for South +America, I told you what I saw at the Ritz Hotel that night. It was the +very same man, Mark Antony Midwinter, as you call him, running like a +hare from old Morse, who was shooting fireworks round him with a smile +on his face. _That's_ not the man you think he is. He may be a devil, +but that night he was a devil of a funk." + +"Wait a bit, my son," said Arthur. "I have thought about that incident +rather carefully. Remember that Morse was given a certain time in which +to come in line and join the Hermandad. From what I have heard of the +punctilious, senile Marquis da Silva, he wouldn't have allowed the +campaign against Morse to be started a moment before the time of +immunity was up. Might not Midwinter at that time, quite ignorant that +the towers were being built as a refuge for Morse, have tried to go +behind his own employers and offer to betray them, and to drop the whole +business for a million or so? From what I know of the man's career I +should think it extremely probable." + +I whistled. Arthur seemed to have penetrated to the center of that +night's mystery. There was nothing more likely. I could imagine the +whole scene, the panther man laying his cards on the table and offering +to save Morse and Juanita from certain death--Morse, already half +maddened by what hung over him, chuckling in the knowledge that he had +built an impregnable refuge, dismissing the scoundrel with utter +firmness and contempt. + +"I believe you've hit it, Arthur," I said. "It fits in like the last bit +of a jig-saw puzzle." + +"I'm pretty sure myself, but even now you don't know all. Quite early in +his life, when Midwinter--he's the last of the Staffordshire Midwinters, +an ancient and famous family--was expelled from Harrow, he went out to +South America. Morse was at that time in the wilds of Goyaz, where he +was developing his mines. There was a futile attempt to kidnap the +child, Juanita, who was then about two years old, and Midwinter was in +it. The young gentleman, I understand, was caught. Morse was then, as +doubtless he is now, a man of a grim and terrible humor. He took young +Midwinter and treated him with every possible contemptuous indignity. +They say his head was shaved; he was birched like a schoolboy by Morse's +peons; he was branded, tarred and feathered, and turned contemptuously +adrift. The fellow came back to Europe, married a celebrated actress in +Paris, who is now dead, and has been, as I say, one of the most +successful uncaught members of the higher criminal circles that ever +was. He made an attempt at the Ritz, swallowing his hatred. It failed. +His employers in Brazil know nothing of it. He is here in London--as Pat +so wonderfully discovered--supplied with unlimited money, burning with a +hatred of which a decent man can have no conception, and confronted with +his last chance in the world." + +As he said this, Arthur got up, bit his lip savagely and left the room. + +It was about two-thirty in the afternoon. + +Though he closed the door after him, I heard voices in the corridor, and +the door reopened an inch or two as if some one was holding it before +coming in. + +"You are not well, my lord?" + +"Oh, I'm all right, Preston; just feeling a little faint, that's all. +Sorry to nearly have barged into you; I'll go and lie down for half an +hour." + +The door opened and Preston came in with a telegram. + +I opened it immediately and felt three or four flimsy sheets of +Government paper in my hand. + +The telegram was in the special cipher of the _Evening Special_, and was +from Rolston. + + * * * * * + +"The tower top is connected with Richmond telephone exchange by private +wire. I have been rung up and in long conversation with Pu-Yi. Early in +the evening you will receive a letter from certain lady. Owing to +certain complication of circumstances your attempt at storming the +tower and seeing lady must be carried out to-night. Our friend is making +all possible arrangements to this end and urgently begs you to be +prepared. He implicitly urges me to warn you the attempt is not without +grave danger. Please return to 'Swan' at once. There is much to be +arranged, and at lunch time two strange-looking customers were in the +bar whose appearance I didn't like at all. Also Sliddim thinks he +recognized one of them as an exceedingly dangerous person." + + * * * * * + +For to-night! At last the patient months of waiting were over and it had +all narrowed down to this. To-night I should win or lose all that made +life worth living; and the fast taxi that took me back to Richmond +within twenty minutes of receiving the telegram, carried a man singing. + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +The wind was getting up on Richmond Hill and masses of cloud were +scudding from the South and obscuring the light of the moon, when at +about half-past nine a small, well-appointed motor coupé drew up in +front of the great gate at the tower inclosure. + +The small closed-in car was painted dead black, the man who drove it was +in livery, and a professional-looking person in a fur coat stepped out +and pressed the electric button of a small door in the wall by the side +of the huge main gates. In his hand he had a little black bag. + +In a moment the door opened a few inches and a large, saffron-colored, +intelligent face could be seen in the aperture. + +"The doctor!" said the gentleman from the coupé. The door opened at once +to admit him. + +He turned and spoke to the chauffeur. + +"As I cannot tell you how long I shall be, Williams," he said, "you had +better go back to the surgery and wait there. I have no doubt I can +telephone when I require you." + +The man touched his cap and drove off, and the doctor found himself in a +vaulted passage, to the right of which was a brightly lit room. Standing +in the passage and bowing was a gigantic Chinaman, Kwang-su, the keeper +of the gate, in a quilted black robe lined with fur. The man bowed low, +and a second Chinaman came out of the room, a thin ascetic-looking +person. + +"Ah, Dr. Thomas!" he said, "we've been expecting you. I am secretary to +Mr. Morse. Perhaps you will come this way." + +He led the doctor down the passage, unlocked a further door and the two +men emerged into the grounds, proceeding down a wide, graveled road, +bordered by strips of lawn and lit at intervals with electric standards. +In the distance there were ranges of lit buildings with figures flitting +backwards and forwards before the orange oblongs of doors and windows. +In another quarter rose the lighted dome of the great Power House from +which the low hum of dynamos and the steady throb of engines could be +faintly heard in pauses of the gale. It was exactly like standing at +night in the center of some great exhibition grounds, save that straight +ahead, overshadowing everything and covering an immense area of ground, +were the bases of the three great towers, a nightmare of fantastic steel +tracery such as no man's eye had beheld before in the history of the +world. + +"So far, so good," said Pu-Yi with a sigh of relief. "That was +excellently managed, the motor-car was quite in keeping. Your wonderful +little friend who speaks my language so well is already in the compound +with some of the men. He will await here to take any orders that may be +necessary." + +I was trembling with excitement and could hardly reply. + +Here I was at last, passed into the Forbidden City with the greatest +ease. + +"We will walk slowly towards tower number three, which is the one we +shall ascend," said my companion, "and I will explain the situation to +you. On the tower top I have supreme authority, except for one man, and +that's the Irish-American, Boss Mulligan. This worthy is much addicted +to the use of hot and rebellious liquors, and is generally more or less +intoxicated about this time, though he is more alert and ferocious than +when sober. To-night I have taken the opportunity to put a little +something in his bottle, a little something from China, which will not +be detected, and which will by now have sent him into a profound, +drugged slumber. I then telephoned all down the tower to the lift men on +the various stages, and also to Kwang there, that a doctor was to be +expected and that I would come down to meet him and conduct him to Mr. +Morse." + +"Excellent!" I said, "and now--?" + +"Now we are going straight up to the very top. Every one will see us but +no one will think anything strange. Moreover, and this is a fact in our +favor, when Mulligan awakes no one will be able to tell him of the +incident even if they suspected anything, for few, if any, of the tower +men speak more than a few rudimentary words of English, and I am the +intermediary between them and their master. This was specially arranged +by Mr. Morse so that none of them could get into communication with +Europeans. The fact is greatly in our favor." + +I pressed my hand to a pocket over my heart, where lay a little note +which had been mysteriously conveyed to me early in the evening--a +little agitated note bidding me come at all costs--and passed on in +silence until we came under the gloomy shadows of the mighty girders +and columns which sprang up from an expanse of smooth concrete which +seemed to stretch as far as eye could reach. + +We changed our lift at each stage; and I could have wished that it was +day or the night was finer, for the experience is wonderful when one +undergoes it for the first time. + +"We shall ascend by one of the small rapid lifts built for four or five +persons only, and not the large and more cumbrous machines. Even so, you +must remember, Doctor"--he chuckled as he called me that--"we have +nearly half a mile to go." + +On and on we went, amid this lifeless forest of steel with its smooth +concrete and shining electric-lamps, until at last we approached a +small, illuminated pavilion, where two silent celestials awaited us. We +stepped into the lift, the door was closed, a bell rang and we began to +move upwards. I sat down on a plush-covered seat and didn't attempt to +look out of the frosted windows on either side until at length, after +what seemed an interminable time, we stopped with a little jerk. Pu-Yi +opened the door and led me down on to a platform. + +"We are now," he said, "on the first stage--just fifty feet higher than +the golden cross on the top of Saint Paul's. If you will come up this +slant--see! here's the next lift." + +I followed him along a steel platform for some twenty or thirty yards, +the wind whistling all around. On looking to the right I saw nothing but +a black void, at the bottom of which, far, far below, was the yellow +glow of Richmond town. On looking to the left I stopped for a moment +and stared, unable to believe my eyes. As I live, there was an immense +lake there, surrounded by rushes that sang and swished in the wind, with +a boat-house, and a little landing-stage! + +Then, with a clang of wings and a chorus of shrill quacks, a gaggle of +wild duck got up and sped away into the dark. + +"Yes," said Pu-Yi, "that's the lake. There are many variety of water +fowl fed there, who make it their home. On a quiet afternoon, walking +round the margin, or in a canoe, one can feel ten thousand miles away +from London. But that's nothing to what you will see if circumstances +permit." + +I have but a dim recollection of the second stage, which was only a +stage in the particular tower we were mounting, and did not extend +between the three as the lower and two upper ones did, forming the +immense plateaus of which the lake was one and the City in the clouds +itself another. + +It was when we had slowed down, and even in the dark lift, that I began +to have a curious sensation of an immense immeasurable height, and Pu-Yi +gave me a warning look as who would say, "Now, get ready, the adventure +really begins." + +We stopped, the door slid back and immediately we were in a blaze of +light. We were no longer out of doors. The lift had come up through the +floor of a large room. It was divided into two portions by polished +steel bars extending from ceiling to floor. A cat could not have +squeezed through. On our side, the lift side, the floor was covered +with matting but there was no furniture at all. Beyond the bars were a +Turkey carpet, several armchairs, a mahogany table with bottles, +siphons, newspapers, and a large, automatic pistol. An electric fire +burned cheerily in one corner and at right angles to it was a couch. +Upon this couch, purple-faced and snoring like a bull, lay Mulligan, +huge, relaxed, helpless. + +"Good heavens!" I whispered. "Gideon Morse is safe enough here." + +"In ten seconds," Pu-Yi whispered, "by pressing that bell button, +Mulligan could have the room full of armed guards, and as you see, this +steel fence is impassable without the key. There are only three keys, of +which I have one." + +He produced it as he spoke, inserting it in a gleaming, complicated +lock, slid back a portion of the steel-work, and we stepped into the +guard-room. + +"We are now," said my guide, "on the platform immediately under that on +which the City rests, and about a hundred feet below it. This platform +is entirely occupied by this guard-room, a range of store and dwelling +houses, the elaborate electric installation, power for which is supplied +from below, Turkish baths, a swimming bath, and so forth. Please follow +me." + +With a glance of repulsion at the drugged giant on the couch I went +after Pu-Yi, through a door on the opposite side of the room, and down a +long corridor with windows on one side and arched recesses on the other. +At the end of this we came out again into the open air, that is to say +that we were shielded by walls and buildings, walking as it were in a +sleeping town upon streets paved with wood blocks, while instead of the +vault of heaven above, about the height of a tallish church tower were +the great beams and girders which supported the City itself, and from +which, at regular intervals, hung arc lamps which threw a blue and +stilly radiance upon the streets and roofs of the buildings. + +It was colossal, amazing, this great colony in the sky. Now and then we +heard voices, the rattle of dice thrown upon a board, and the wailing +music of Chinese violins. Two or three times silent figures passed us +with a low bow, and without a glimmer of curiosity in their impassive +faces, until at length we came to a long row of lift doors, with an +inscription above each one, and in the center, dividing them into +sections, a large, vaulted stairway mounting upwards till it was lost to +sight. It was lined with white tiles like a subway in some great railway +terminus. + +Pu-Yi unlocked the door of a small lift. We got into it, it rushed up +for a few seconds and then we came out of a small white kiosk upon a +scene so wonderful, so enchanted that I forgot all else for a second, +caught hold of my conductor's thin arm and gave a cry of admiration and +wonder. A mass of clouds had just raced before the moon, leaving it free +to shed its light until another should envelop it. + +The pure radiance, unspoiled by smoke, mist, or the miasma which hangs +above the roofs of earthly cities, poured down in floods of light upon a +vast quadrangle of buildings, white as snow and with roofs that seemed +of gold. + +I had the impression of immensity, though magnified a dozen times, that +the great quadrangle of Christ Church, Oxford, or the court of Trinity, +Cambridge, give to one who sees them for the first time. But that +impression was only fleeting. These buildings seemed to obey no +architectural law. They were tossed up like foam in the upper air, +marvelous, fantastic, beautiful beyond words. + +We hurried along by the side of a great green lawn which might have been +a century growing, past bronze dragons supporting fountain basins, down +an arcade, where the broad leaves of palms clicked together and there +was a scent of roses, until we hurried through a little postern door and +up some steps and came out in what Pu-Yi whispered was the library. + +Wonder upon wonders! My brain reeled as we stepped out of the door in +the wall into a great Gothic room with groined roof of stone, an oriel +window at one end, and thousands upon thousands of books in the embayed +shelves of ancient oak. It was exactly like the library of some great +college or castle; one expected to see learned men in gowns and hoods +moving slowly from shelf to shelf, or writing at this or that table. + +"But, but," I stammered, "this might have been here for seven hundred +years!" and indeed there was all the deep scholastic charm and dignity +of one of the great libraries of the past. + +For answer he turned to me, and I saw that his thin hand clutched at his +heart. + +"It's all illusion," he whispered, "all cunning and wonderful illusion. +The walls of this place are not of ancient stone. They are plates of +toughened steel. The old oak was made yesterday at great expense. 'Tis +all a picture in a dream." + +I saw that he was powerfully affected for a moment, but for just that +moment I did not understand why. + +"But the books!" I cried, looking round me in amazement--"surely the +books--?" + +"Ah, yes," he sighed, "they are the collection of Mr. Gideon Morse, +which is second to very few in the world. They were all brought over +from Rio nearly two years ago. We cannot compete with the British +Museum, or some of the great American collectors in certain ways, but +there are treasures here--" + +We had by now walked half-way up the great hall. He stopped, went to +part of the wall covered with books, withdrew one, turned a little +handle which its absence revealed, and a whole section of the shelves +swung outwards. + +"In here, please," said Pu-Yi, "this is a little room where I sometimes +do secretarial work. At any rate it is hidden, and you will be quite +safe here while I go to the Señorita and tell her that you await her." + +The door clicked. I sat down on a low couch and waited. + +The experiences of the night had been so strange, the intense longing of +months seemed now so near fruition, that every artery in my body pulsed +and drummed, and it was only by a tremendous effort of will that I sat +down and forced myself to think. + +Here I was, at her own invitation, to rescue my love. As my mind began +to work I saw that I must be guided in my course of action by what she +told me. Juanita obviously thought that her father's aberration was a +form of madness without foundation. She did not know what I had +discovered. If she did she might realize that her father was possibly +not so mad as she imagined. For myself, after this space of time, I can +say that I was very seriously disturbed by Arthur Winstanley's +revelations in regard to the unspeakable Midwinter and the news that he +was now in England. Perhaps you will remember that in Bill Rolston's +telegram to me he hinted at some suspicious strangers having been seen +in the private bar of the "Golden Swan." One of them, I had ascertained, +answered to the description of Midwinter in every detail, and the two +men were seen by Sliddim to drive away through Richmond Park in a large, +private car. + +Certainly I must tell Juanita something of this and help her to warn her +father, perhaps.... + +And then I remembered the elaborate precautions of my ascent, the +literal impossibility of any stranger or strangers ever getting to where +I was, and I breathed again. + +The place--one couldn't call it a room--in which I sat, was simply a +little sexagonal nook or retreat, masked from the great library by its +great door of books. Three of the panels which went from the floor to +the vaulted ceiling were of dead black silk. The other three were of +Chinese embroidery, stiff, with raised gold, and gems, which I realized +must be from the choicest examples of their kind in the world. Still, I +wasn't interested in dragons of tarnished gold, with opal eyes, ivory +teeth, and scales of lapislazuli. I was getting restive when the black +panel, which was the back of the entrance door, swung towards me, and I +saw Juanita. + +She was dressed in black, a sort of tea-gown I suppose you'd call it, +though round her shoulders and falling on each side of her slim form was +a cloak of heavy sable. + +In her blue-black hair--oh, my dear, how true you were then to the +fashions of the south, and how true you are to-day--there was a glowing, +crimson rose. + +We stood and looked at each other, in this tiny room, for I suppose two +or three seconds. + +What Juanita felt she told me afterwards, and it isn't part of this +narrative. + +What I felt was awe, sheer, impersonal awe, as I realized that I had +surmounted incredible difficulties, endured ages of longing, plotting, +planning, and now stood alone in front of the most Beautiful Girl in the +World. + +I saw her as that. I remembered the night at Lady Brentford's when the +league was formed. + +And then, thank Heaven, for in another second everything might have been +quite spoiled, I remembered that she was just my Juanita, who had sent +for me, and I took her in my arms and, and.... + + * * * * * + +We sat hand in hand upon the odd little Chinese couch. + +"Now look here, darling," I said, "you've told me all about your +Governor. How he says that you must live up here in this extraordinary +place and never go into the world again. You think him mad, and yet, +d'you know, I don't." + +"But, my heart--?" + +"I've got to tell you, dearest, that he has more reason than you think." + +She shrugged her shoulders--it was about the most graceful thing I had +ever seen in my life. + +"But to tell me that I am to be a nun because, if I were to go back into +the world, my life wouldn't be worth a moment's purchase. _Caro!_ It is +madness! It cannot be anything else." + +I didn't quite know how to tell her, and I was considering, when she +went on: + +"It is getting dreadful. Father cannot sleep, he prowls about this +nightmare of a place all the night long." + +"Sweetheart," I said, "I've been making all sorts of inquiries and I've +found out that your Governor is really in serious danger of +assassination--or was until he built this place, to which I think the +devil could hardly penetrate without an invitation. Don't think your +father a coward. Remember what we saw that night in the Ritz Hotel, when +I was just about to tell you that I adored you. No, I'd lay long odds, +Juanita darling, that Mr. Morse is more afraid for you than for himself. +And there I'll back him up every time." + +She laughed, and her laughter was like water falling into water in +paradise! + +"I have you," she said; "I have father--what do I care?" + +"Quite so," I replied. "I think you take a very sensible view of it. The +obvious thing to do is to relieve your father by coming with me +to-night, while the coast is clear. Lady Brentford is in town. She will +be delighted to receive you. Once out of the place, we can be free +within an hour. To-morrow morning I can get a special license from the +Archbishop of Canterbury and we can be married. + +"Once that happens, I'll defy all the Santa Hermandads, and all the Mark +Antony Midwinters in the world, to hurt you. And as for Mr. Morse, we'll +protect him too, in a far more sensible way than--" + +I suppose I had been holding her rather tightly. At any rate she broke +away and stood up in the center of the little room. The brightness of +her face was clouded with thought. + +I had not risen and she stared down at me with great, smoldering eyes. + +"So it is true!" she said, nodding her head, "it is true, father and I +are in peril, after all! Names escaped you just now, I think I have +heard one of them before--" + +She passed her hand over her brow, like some one awaking from sleep, and +I watched her, fascinated. + +Oh, how lovely she was at that moment, my dear, my perfect dear! + +"But, _caro_, _of course_ I cannot run away with you and be married. _I +must_ stay with father, cannot you see that?" + +Well, of course I did, there were no two words about it. "Very well," I +answered, "Little Lady of my heart, I'll stick by the old chap too. I've +crept up here in a sort of underhand way, but not for underhand reasons. +After all, I've just as much right to love you as anybody else in this +world." + +I took her by her sweet hands and I laughed in her face. + +"I'm not the Duke of Perth," I said, "but, but, Juanita--?" + +There came a little knocking at the door. + +Juanita swirled round, flung up her arm--I saw her sweet face glowing +for an instant--and then she seemed to whirl away like an autumn leaf. + +The only thing I could possibly do was to light a cigarette. + +Juanita, having met me, having delivered her ultimatum, having turned me +into a jelly, flitted away quite oblivious of the fact that I was a +burglar, an intruder into what was probably the most guarded and secret +place in Europe at that moment. + +My heart sang high music, and that was well. But at the same time I +recognized that I was in the deuce of a mess and had planned out no +course of action at all. + +I prayed, almost audibly, for Pu-Yi. + +But nobody came. There I was in the sexagonal room, with the gold +dragons with their jeweled eyes leering at me. + +A dull anger welled up within me. On every side, mentally as well as +physically, I seemed baffled, hemmed in. I determined, at any risk to +myself, to get out into the library. I took two steps towards the door +through which Juanita had gone, when I heard a sharp snap just behind +me. + +I whipped round, clutching the only weapon I had--which was a brass +knuckle-duster in the side pocket of my coat, and then I stood +absolutely still. + +One of the dragon panels had rolled up like a theater curtain, and +standing in what appeared to be the end of a passage, was the great +brute Mulligan, with a Winchester rifle at his shoulder, covering me. + +As a man does in the presence of imminent danger, I swerved out of the +line of the deadly barrel. + +As I did so--click! A second panel disappeared, and I was confronted by +Gideon Morse, his hands in the pockets of his dinner jacket, his mouth +faintly smiling, his eyes inscrutable. + +Imagine it! let the picture appear to you of the fool, Thomas Kirby, +trapped like a rat! + +Once, twice I swallowed in my throat, and I swear it wasn't from fear +but only from an enormous, immeasurable disgust. + +I turned to Morse. + +"You've been listening," I said, "you and your servant here." + +"I have been listening, Sir Thomas Kirby, that's true. I have every +right to. When a man breaks into my house without my knowledge and makes +clandestine love to my daughter, he's not the person to accuse one of +eavesdropping. As for my servant there, you do me an injustice, which I +find harder to forgive than anything, when you suggest that I allowed +him to overhear what passed in this room just now. He was not at his +post until Juanita had been gone from here some seconds. Mulligan, you +can go now. Sir Thomas, please come with me into the library." + +There was something so magnetic about this strange and compelling +personality that I followed him without a word. + +"Then you knew," I asked in a husky voice, "you knew all the time?" + +He smiled. + +"Yes," he said, "I arranged a little comedy. The faithful Mulligan was +not drugged at all, and I did everything to facilitate your entrance." + +"Then that treacherous cur, Pu-Yi, was playing with me the whole time! +And yet I could have sworn that he was genuine. When I meet him--" + +"You will shake hands with him if you are a wise man. Pu-Yi was +absolutely genuine, but he, in common with my daughter, knew nothing of +the truth until you told it him. He had believed me a madman. Then he +understood not only the peril in which I was, and am, but also that of +my daughter. Do you think, Kirby, that I should have built these towers, +let imagination transcend itself, made myself the cynosure of Europe, +unless I was sure of what I was doing? Now, alas, you've told Juanita, +and brought terror into her life as well as mine." + +"Sir," I said, "her relief is greater than any fear. I'll answer for +that." + +I faced him fair and square. + +"God knows," I said, "I'm not worth a single glance of her sweet eyes, +but somehow or other she loves me, though she wouldn't fly with me when +I suggested it." + +"She has some decent feeling left," he answered, with a dry chuckle. +"Well, I overheard everything that passed in that little room and I +must say I rather appreciate the way in which you behaved. You are a +rapid thinker, Sir Thomas. What suggests itself to you as the next move +in our relations?" + +"Quite obvious, sir. You give your consent to my engagement with your +daughter. You please her, you bind me to your interests by hoops of +steel--though as a matter of fact I'm bound already--and you add a not +invaluable auxiliary to your staff." + +"Very well," he said, perfectly calmly, and held out his hand. "Now come +and have some supper and tell me all you know." + +Then that astonishing man thrust his arm through mine and led me down +the great library. + +"What a marvelous intellect that fellow Pu-Yi has," he said +confidentially. "He saw the situation in all its bearings, from all +sides at once, and made an instant decision. I'll tell you now, Kirby, +that he actually predicted every detail of what has just come to pass. +He told me that he owed you his life and was perfectly ready to die for +you, as of course for me and my daughter, but that it had occurred to +him that his living for all three of us might be by far the wisest +attitude to adopt under the circumstances. I quite agree with him." + +Then again came the little dry, strange chuckle. + +"But no more peddling poppy-juice to my Chinese, my boy. It plays the +devil with their nerves in the end!" + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +Morse and I sat at supper in a room which differed in no way from the +ordinary study of a country gentleman. Except for the very slightest +suggestion rather than sensation of vibration, which my host explained +was the drag of the City on the three great towers which perpetually +oscillated out of the perpendicular, and so insured the safety of the +vast elastic structure, there was nothing to indicate that we were two +thousand two hundred feet up in the air. + +Our meal was of the simplest, and during it I told Morse, without +reservation, all that I had heard from Arthur Winstanley. + +"He has the outline very correctly. I'll fill it in later. How long has +Lord Arthur been in London?" + +"About five days, I believe." + +"Time for many preparations to be made if they're going to strike +quickly," he said, more to himself than to me, drumming his fingers on +the tablecloth. + +Then he looked up. + +"And these two men who were seen to-day in the bar of your public +house?" + +"One, sir, was undoubtedly Midwinter. My very sharp-witted informant +describes the other man as a swarthy person of just over middle height +and apparently of great personal strength. He was bearded, sallow-faced, +and had somewhat the appearance of a half-caste." + +"Zorilla y Toro, as I expected," said Morse. "Zorilla the Bull, as he is +known in half the Republics of South America." + +"No doubt," I remarked, "a formidable pair of ruffians, but remember +that I saw you deal with one of them at any rate, that night at the Ritz +Hotel. The way he legged it out of the drawing-room wouldn't have +inspired me with any particular fear of him." + +Morse struck the table with his hand. + +"I wish I'd sent a bullet through his heart instead of playing fancy +fireworks round him. But I feared London and your colossal law and +order. It's perfectly true, he didn't influence me in the least on that +night. He came to sell his employers, to sell the Hermandad for a +hundred thousand pounds." + +"It would have been cheaper than this." I waved my hand to indicate the +expensive crow's-nest of my future father-in-law. + +Morse laughed. + +"It wouldn't have made the least difference," he said. "The man couldn't +hurt me at the time because he had to obey the orders of the villainous +Society at his back. The old Marquis da Silva, who is simply a tool in +their hands, insisted that I was not to be even interfered with in any +way until the two years of grace from my first warning were up. Though +their object was to get hold of half my fortune, and Midwinter's to +revenge himself personally upon me, the Society and he didn't dare do +anything until the moment struck. There were too many political issues +still involved. + +"That's why I made Mr. Mark Antony Midwinter dance out of the Ritz Hotel +on that night." + +"It's what Arthur Winstanley said." + +"That young man will go far. Now, Kirby, I think you understand +everything, and you've got to throw in your lot with Juanita and me, for +a time at any rate, and never say you didn't know what you were up +against." + +I took a glass of claret and lit a cigarette. + +"I understand the _facts_, as you say, but I don't understand you. +Allowing for all your natural and deep anxiety about Juanita, I simply +fail to understand why you regard this Midwinter and his companion or +companions with such apprehension. Surely you could have the man locked +up to-morrow, knowing what you know about him." + +Morse sighed, with a sort of gentle patience. + +"A few more facts," he said; "and do reflect that it's most improbable +that a man of my intelligence and resources should act as he has done +without being sure of what he was doing. In the first place, I've had +Midwinter watched by the most famous detectives in America, watched for +years. None of these people have ever been able quite to bowl him out--a +simile from your English game of cricket. But three of the most trusted +and acute agents have lost their lives during these investigations, and +lost them in a singularly unpleasant manner." + +He sighed again, this time wearily, and I saw that his face was old and +without interest or hope. + +"What on earth is the use," he went on, "of telling you all I know about +this man? Sir"--his voice began to rise, and a light came into the dark +depths of his eyes--"Sir, if I saw his corpse before me now, I wouldn't +believe him dead or his power for evil ended until I had hacked his head +from his shoulders with my own hand! You cannot, I say you simply cannot +realize or understand the fiendish ingenuity, persistence, and icy +cruelty of this being, for I will not insult our common humanity by +calling it a man. If Juanita ever gets into his hands--" + +His mouth, his whole face, was working, I thought he was going to have a +fit, and truth to tell, something icy began to congeal around my own +heart. + +"Calm yourself, sir," I said, as authoritatively as I could. "Juanita is +doubly safe now that I am here, and as for Midwinter, he'll never +approach us here. It's beyond the wit of mortal man, and, meanwhile, +I'll see that he's apprehended and removed from all power of doing harm. +I am only a young man, Mr. Morse, but I'm rather a power in the land. +You see I have an important newspaper at my back, and as for you, who +have already made the Government feed out of your hand in the matter of +these towers, you should have gone to the Home Secretary in the first +instance. At any rate, we'll go together, and believe me, we shall be +listened to." + +"I thank you, my dear boy," he replied with an effort, "but there is +such a thing as Fate, and Fate has whispered in my ear. I am not +naturally a superstitious man, but during a life spent in strange places +among strange people I have learnt to be very wary of a material +interpretation of life. But this I will say, whatever I feel about +myself, however my precautions might fail, I believe that my dear +daughter will win to safety in the end, that the power of evil will be +overcome, and that you will be her savior." + +I could have sworn, as he shook hands and bade me good-night, there was +a tear in the great man's eye, and I wondered how long it was since any +one had seen that in this master of millions and of men. + +A picturesque young Chinaman, a valet in flowing Oriental robes, who +spoke English with the most appalling cockney accent you ever heard in +your life, conducted me to a charming bedroom, provided me with +everything necessary, and in five minutes I fell into a deep, dreamless +sleep. + +A really full day, wasn't it? + + * * * * * + +When I woke up the next morning my room was flooded with sunshine from a +dome in the ceiling. + +Seated upon my bed, and balancing a cup of tea, was Master Bill Rolston. +His hair was restored to its natural red, his nose normal, and his high +cheek-bones were gone. On each side of his chubby face his transparent +ears stood out at right angles, and his button of a mouth was wreathed +in a genial smile. + +"Good old Pu-Yi came for me about two o'clock this morning, Sir Thomas, +and told me all that had happened. I say, sir, _what_ a man to have on +the staff of the _Evening Special_! _What_ an intellect!"--I seemed to +have heard that phrase before. "Why, we'd have him dictating to Cabinet +Ministers within a year!" + +I lay idly watching this brilliant and faithful boy; journalist once, I +reflected, journalist forever. There's no getting it out of the blood, +and here, if I'm not mistaken, when many of us have faded away from +Fleet Street forever, will be the biggest of us all. + +I was surprised to find that Bill was distinctly on the side of Gideon +Morse in his anticipation of evil. We argued it out while I was dressing +and I insisted that the City was impregnable. + +"To all ordinary appearance, to all ordinary efforts, yes. But I shall +never change my belief that there's nothing that human wit can invent +that human wit cannot circumvent." + +After breakfast, which I took alone, the servant led me to a great white +house standing among conservatories, which I learned was almost an exact +reproduction of the Palacete Mendoza, the residence of Gideon Morse at +Rio. And there, in her own charming sitting-room, fragrant with flowers +and stamped in a hundred ways with her personality, Juanita was waiting. +She was radiant. Happiness lay about her like sunbeams. I never saw any +one more changed than she was from the girl I had met the night before. + +"Come, dearest," she said, "and I'll show you some of our wonders. I +could not show you all of them in one day. Oh, Tom, isn't it all +splendid, couldn't you sing and shout for joy!" + +I helped her into a fur coat--for it was bitter cold outside, though the +wind of the night before had dropped--and was provided with one myself +as we left the house. Standing in the patio was a little two-seated +automobile, a tiny toy of a thing run from electric storage batteries, +which made no noise louder than the humming of a wasp. We got into this +and Juanita was like a child as she pulled the starting lever and we +rolled away. + +I have said I woke to find my bedroom full of sunlight, but, as we +glided down an arcade of conservatories, upon each side of the road, so +that the illusion of passing among a palm grove was almost complete, I +noticed that dark and angry clouds were gathering not far above our +heads, and it was through one single aperture that the sunlight poured. +The effect of this, when we ran through the tunneled archway and came +out into a great square, was curious. A third of the buildings which +towered up on every side were bathed in glory, the rest, gray, sullen, +and throwing shadows of sable upon the lawns, gravel sweeps, and parquet +flooring. We investigated a dozen marvels of which I shall not speak +here. The whole experience was a dream of luxury so wonderful, and so +fantastic also, that my readers must wait for William Rolston's book, +now nearing completion. It was impossible to believe that we were +actually walking, motoring, more than two thousand feet above London in +a little world of our own which bore no relation whatever to ordinary +human life. + +This was especially borne in upon me with overwhelming force when we had +ascended the steps of a tower and came out into a glass chamber on the +roof, where an old Chinese gentleman with tortoise-shell spectacles +showed us the great telescope which Morse had installed. Following the +shifting path of sunlight, I got a dim glimpse of the English Channel +over a far-flung champaign of fertile woods and downs, studded here and +there with toy towns the size of threepenny-pieces. Once, but only for a +moment, I made out the great towers of Canterbury Cathedral, but the sun +shifted and the vision passed. London itself, brought immediately to our +feet, was an astonishing sight, but as every one has seen the +photographs taken from aeroplanes I will not dilate upon it, though it +differed in many ways from these. + +Perhaps the most pleasing sight of all was that of Richmond Park, where +the winter Fair had just begun. We could see the roundabouts, the +swings, and so forth, with great clearness, and even, as the wind +freshened, catch a faint buzzing noise from the steam organs. Then a +captive balloon rose up, I suppose a thousand feet, and some quarter of +a mile away. With powerful field glasses we could see the big basket +crammed with adventurous trippers, till she was hauled down again to +make another ascent and add a few more pounds to the profits of her +proprietors. + +I was quite tired when we went back to the house to lunch. + +During the meal, which was long and elaborate, Morse showed a side of +his nature I had never before seen. He was not jovial or in high +spirits--distinctly not that--but he was strangely tender and human. I +realized the immense love he had for Juanita, and wondered how he could +ever bear to see her love me. But he was kindness itself--like a father, +to the interloper who had stormed his fortress, and I always like to +think of him as he was on that afternoon, full of anecdotes about his +youth, of Juanita's mother, of the old days in Brazil. It was my formal +whole-hearted reception into his life. Henceforth I was to be--he said +it once in well and delicately-chosen words--a son to him, who had never +had a son. + +In the afternoon I went back to my own quarters, which consisted of a +villa at the end of the Palace gardens, where I was lodged with Rolston, +and attended by various well-trained Chinamen. I had rarely seen a more +delightful bachelor dwelling. I took a cup of tea with Bill about four +o'clock. It was now quite dark, and the bitter wind was rising again, +but heavy curtains of tussore silk were pulled over the windows, a fire +of yew logs burned in the open hearth, and softly shaded electric lights +all combined to produce the coziest and most homelike effect it is +possible to imagine. + +It was then that a man came in to say that Mr. Pu-Yi begged the honor of +an audience. + +Bill vanished, and my thin, ascetic friend glided in, and at my +invitation sank into a chair by the fire. I don't think, in the whole +course of my life, I could recall a conversation which touched, +interested, and excited my admiration more than this, and I have met +every one "from Emperor to Clown." He apologized profoundly for his +seeming treachery. With a wealth of lucid self-analysis and the power +of presenting a clear statement which I have seldom heard equaled, he +showed how he was torn between his new-born debtorship to me, his +loyalty to Morse, for whom he professed a profound esteem, and--here he +hinted with extraordinary _finesse_--his mute adoration for Juanita. + +"It was, Sir Thomas, touch and go, of course. I was in the position of a +surgeon who has to risk everything upon one heroic stroke of the knife. +I did so, and behold, all the conflicting elements are reconciled. The +pieces of the puzzle have come together." + +"My friend," I said, "betray me twenty million times if you can bring me +such happiness as you have brought. Besides, it wasn't a betrayal, it +was a great brain leading a smaller one to its appointed goal." + +We talked a little more, he drank tea, he smoked, and, to my growing +discomfort, I found in him the same note of pessimism and apprehension +that Morse could not conceal, and Rolston himself had partially +revealed. + +"But I _won't_ believe that any harm can come to Miss Morse," I said, +almost angrily. + +The thin lips smiled. + +"That I never said, Sir Thomas. There are no indications of that. You +and your lady are in peril, but you will win through." + +"Confound it, man, your liver must be out of order. It seems to me that +captivity in this magnificent bird-cage has the same effect on every +one. I shall get Morse to come and hunt with me in the Shires. I've got +a nice little box in Gloucestershire, close to Chipping Norton, and by +Jove, Pu-Yi, I'll mount you and give you a run with the Heythrope. You +talk as if you actually knew something. As if you had information of a +calamity." + +"I hear it in the wind," he said strangely, and his voice was like a +withered leaf blown before the wind. Then he left me. + +I dined with Juanita and her father. Bill was asked too, and he kept my +girl, and sometimes even Mr. Morse, in fits of laughter with stories of +his short but erratic career, and especially a racy account of his +illicit opium-selling down below. + +"You see, sir," he said, "you brought it on yourself, by kidnaping me in +the first instance. I had to get my own back." + +Morse's face clouded over for a moment. + +"It was a disgraceful thing to do," he said. "I quite admit it, but had +the necessity arisen I'd have kidnaped George Robey or the Prince of +Wales," and from that moment always I seemed to see that a faint but +perceptible shadow was creeping over his spirits. + +We had a little music, in a charming room built for the purpose. Juanita +played upon the guitar and sang little Spanish love songs. Bill +"obliged" with a ditty which he said was a favorite of the revered +Charles Lamb, which seemed to consist entirely of the following lines: + + "Diddle-diddle-dumpling, my son John + Went to bed with his breeches on." + +I think that when Juanita said good-night to us all--and to me privately +in the passage--she went to bed quite happy and cheerful. + +About half-past ten Bill slipped off and I remained to smoke a final +cigar with Morse. + +"I'm low, Thomas," he said, "I'm very low to-night." + +I made him take a little whisky and potash--a thing he rarely did. + +"It's the unnatural life, sir, that you've condemned yourself to +recently. You come out of this and hunt with me in Gloucestershire and +I'll protect you as well as you're protected here, and you'll get as +right as rain." + +"You're very kind," he replied, "but--take care of her, Kirby, for God's +sake, take care of her. She'll have no one else in the world but you if +they get me or Pu-Yi." + +I was about to expostulate again when the door opened and Boss Mulligan +slouched in. + +"Been all round the City, governor, with the usual patrol. Everything +quiet, nothing unusual anywhere. All the servants have given in their +tallies and are safe in their quarters." + +Morse looked at me. + +"That's our system, Tom," he said. "At a certain hour all the servants +go to the lower stage, except those that may be urgently wanted. For +instance, there's a fellow in your house to valet you to-night. Juanita +has her little Spanish maid, and I think Pu-Yi keeps some one. Otherwise +we are all to ourselves up here. All the lift doors are locked on the +second stage and so is the central staircase. Mulligan here is on guard +all night in the room where you saw him." + +"An' watchin' ye from the ind of me eye, Sorr Thomas," said the genial +ruffian, "av ye'll belave ut." + +"You're a good actor, Mulligan," I said--it seemed about the only thing +I could say. + +"Sure, an' I am that," he said, "I am that, sorr, but I'm a bether doer. +An' av ye'd reely bin staling in--" + +His immense fist clenched itself and he shook it in my direction. + +"Mulligan, go back to the guard-room," said Morse, "you're drunk." + +The giant's face changed from ferocity into pained surprise. + +"But av course, sorr," he said, "it's me usual time, as your honor must +know. But begob, I'm efficient!" + +The mingled grin and glare on his countenance when Mr. Mulligan went +away left no doubt in my mind about that. + +A few minutes afterwards, certainly not drunk, and I hope efficient, I +left the Palacete Mendoza, and walked through the gardens to the villa. +Morse himself barred the door after me. + +It was bitter, aching cold and the wind was razor-keen. Gaunt wreaths of +mist were all around like a legion of ghosts, and I realized that the +clouds were descending upon us, and soon I should not be able to see a +yard before me, though the electric lamps that never went out all night, +over the whole City, glowed with a dim blueness here and there through +the fog. + +However, I found the villa all right, and my Chinese boy waiting in the +hall. He took my coat, saw that the fires in the sitting-room and the +adjoining bedroom were made up, and then I told him he might be off to +his quarters on the second stage, for which he seemed extremely +thankful. + +I don't suppose he had been gone more than a minute when the door of my +sitting-room opened and Rolston came in quickly. He was wearing a +dressing-gown and pyjamas and his hair was all rough like one recently +aroused from sleep. + +"What on earth's the matter?" I said. + +"I undressed," he said, "in my bedroom, which is just above yours as you +know, and fell asleep in my chair with all the lights on. I woke only a +short time ago, and before switching off the lamps I went to the window +to see what sort of a night it was." + +"Hellish, if you want to know." + +"The light streamed out upon a great curtain of mist, almost like the +projector lamp upon a screen of a kinema. Sir Thomas, as I stood there I +could swear that something big, black and oblong sank down from that +darkness above, passed through my zone of light and disappeared in the +blackness below." + +"What on earth do you mean, what sort of a thing?" + +He hesitated for a moment and then he said: + +"Almost like a group of statuary, though I only saw it for a mere +instant." + +He had obviously been half dreaming when he went to the window, his +eyes, even now, were heavy with sleep. + +"Simply and solely a trick of the wind upon the mist, and your own +figure interposing between the light and the window, and throwing a +momentary shade on the swaying white curtain outside. The mist's as +thick as linen and it changes every moment. You go to bed properly, and +sleep the sleep of the just." + +He didn't attempt to argue, but looked a little ashamed of himself for +obtruding for such a trivial reason. Ten minutes afterwards I was also +in bed and fast asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +I had ordered my Chinese boy to wake me at eight. In one corner of the +Grand Square was a beautifully fitted gymnasium with a swimming-bath +adjoining. I proposed three-quarters of an hour's vigorous exercise +before dressing. + +At it happens I generally wake more or less at the time I want to. This +morning, however, it was half-past eight. There was no sound of Chang +whatever. I got out of bed, put on a sweater, Norfolk jacket, flannel +trousers, and tennis shoes--I had sent for a portmanteau of clothes from +the "Golden Swan"--went across the hall and let myself out into the +gardens. + +Then I hesitated in amazement. A thick, heavy, impenetrable mist hid +everything from sight. It seemed as solid as wool. One literally had to +push one's way through it, and when I say that I couldn't see more than +a yard before my face, I mean it in the strict sense of the words. +Still, I remembered that I have a good sense of topography, and I was +quite confident that I could find my way to the central Square, where +there would be sure to be people about whom I could ask. + +From my front door there was a good hundred and twenty yards of wide +gravel path to the Palacete Mendoza. I sprinted up this in less than +twenty seconds I should say, and then warily turned into the palm-tree +grove--the great sheets of plated glass on either side of the way were +in place now, but I knew where I was because of the different quality of +the ground, which was here paved with wood blocks. Soon, a faint gray +mass to my right, the palace itself loomed up, but the blanket of mist +was too thick for me to discern windows or doors. One could see nothing +but the gray hint of mass. + +The curious thing was that one could hear nothing either. That had not +struck me as I did my sprint, but now it did, and most forcibly. Of +course there was no sound of wind--had there been any wind we should not +have been buried in the very heart of this fog--thicker and more sticky +than anything I had ever experienced in the Alps themselves. But there +were no sounds of occupation such as an extensive place like the City +might have been expected to produce at this hour, and in fact, as I +realized, _did_ produce, when I remembered yesterday. The place was +never noisy. It was a haunt of peace if ever there was one. But the +sound of gardeners and servants going about their daily toil, the +distant throbbing of an engine perhaps, a subdued voice giving an order, +the plashing of fountains, and the strains of music, all these were +utterly and entirely absent. It was as though the mist killed not only +vision but hearing also. I might have been on the top of Mont Blanc. + + "What little town by harbor or sea-shore + Is empty of its folk this pious morn?" + +I quoted to myself with a laugh, just as I entered the arched tunnel +wide enough for two coaches to be driven under it abreast, which I knew +led to Grand Square. + +I laughed, and then quite suddenly all laughter went out of me. I +couldn't explain it at the moment, but the mist, the loneliness, my +whole surroundings, seemed quite horrible. + +Surely something had passed me? I called out, and my voice seemed like +the bleating of a sheep. Of course, it was illusion. My nerves had +suddenly gone wrong. But, honestly, I felt that there was something +_nasty_ in the atmosphere, nasty from a psychic point of view I mean. +There are moments when the human soul turns sick and retches with +disgust, and I experienced such a moment now. I think it was exactly +then that I knew, though I wouldn't allow myself to believe it, that I +knew inwardly all was not well. I walked on and my india-rubber shoes +seemed to make a sly, unpleasant noise--it was the only one I heard even +now. + +I could see nothing, I was quite uncertain of where I was, so I turned +and walked straight to the right until, from the impact of the air upon +my face, I knew that I was within a yard or so of some building. This +was correct. My hand touched what seemed like stonework, and glancing up +I became aware that a building rose high above. + +I followed this along, keeping my hand on the stone, moving it round +projecting buttresses and going with great caution. This insect-like +progression seemed to be endless. I took out my watch, which I had +shoved into the breast pocket of my Norfolk jacket. It was nearly nine +o'clock, and not a single sound! + +A second or two afterwards I came to a balustrade, felt my way along it, +and found that I was at the foot of a broad flight of steps. There +seemed something vaguely familiar here, and as I ran up them I began to +be sure that I was at the library. I knew that Pu-Yi lived somewhere on +the premises and I felt all over the great iron-studded door until I +came to the small postern wicket through which one generally entered. +This was locked, but a bell-pull of wrought iron hung at the side and I +pulled at it lustily for a considerable time. + +It opened with a jerk and Pu-Yi stood there in his skull cap with the +coral button on the top and wrapped in a bear-skin robe. + +"Thank goodness I've found some one," I said. "I've lost my way. I was +going to the gymnasium, to exercise a little and then have a swim. My +boy didn't turn up so I came out by myself." + +"Come in, come in, Sir Thomas," he said, peering out at the white +curtain. "What a dreadful morning! I've been here some months now, but I +have never seen it so bad as this. I daresay it will blow off by nine +o'clock or so when the sun gets up." + +"It's nine o'clock now," I told him. + +He started violently. + +"Then my servant also is at fault," he said. "I ordered my coffee for +eight. I was reading far into the night and must have overslept myself. +This is very curious." + +"Do you know, I don't quite like it, Pu-Yi. I've come all the way from +the pavilion in the Palace gardens and haven't heard the least sound of +any sort whatever." + +We passed through a lobby and entered the great library, which was cold +and gray as a tomb. + +Pu-Yi snapped at a switch, then at another. Nothing happened. + +"The electric light is off!" he cried. "What an extraordinary thing!" + +"Mine wasn't," I said. "I got out of bed and dressed by it." + +He did not reply, but took down the speaking part of a telephone and +turned the handle of the box. In that gray light his thin face, with its +expression of strained attention, was one I shall not easily forget. + +He turned the handle again, angrily. Again an interval of silence. + +"The telephone is out of order," he said, and we looked at each other +with a question in our eyes. + +"Well, I'm confoundedly glad I've found you," I said. + +"We must look into this at once, Sir Thomas. I can find my way perfectly +well to one of the lifts at the other end of the Square. We must summon +assistance. One moment." He vanished for a minute and returned with +something cool and shining which he pressed into my hand. It was a +venomous ten-shot Colt automatic. "You never know," he whispered. + +We hurried across the great Square, passing by the central fountain +basins, though the fountains were not playing, which added to our +uneasiness. Everything was deathly still until we came to the little +lift pavilion. I half expected the thing to stick, but it glided down +easily enough. As if my companion read my thoughts he said: + +"All these small lifts are not electrical, but are worked by hydraulic +power, the station for which is in the City and not below on the earth." + +I shall never forget the extraordinary sight as we stepped from the +lift. The mist here was nothing like so thick as it was above. This was +owing to the fact that a hundred feet above our heads there was the +immense ceiling of steel plates and girders upon which the City rested. +As I said before, on all three sides this second service City was open +to the air, but not above. Consequently the mist moved in tall white +shapes like ghosts; it entirely surrounded one group of huts and left +another great vista of buildings plain to the eye. Here a gaudily +painted gable thrust itself out of the white sheet; there, through a +proscenium of clinging wool, one saw the gray interior of a +machine-room. A chill twilight brooded everywhere. There wasn't a single +lamp burning, and from one end to the other lay the desolation of utter +silence. + +I leant against the jamb of the lift door, and, despite the cold, the +sweat ran down my body in a stream. + +Pu-Yi raised a thin arm over his head and it seemed to clutch crookedly +at the somber panoply aloft. + +A high, thin wail came from his parted lips and went mournfully away +down the deserted streets and empty habitations. + +For myself, I had been so stunned that I couldn't think, but my +friend's despairing call seemed to jerk some cog-wheel within the brain +and start again the mechanism of thought. + +I gripped him by the shoulder. + +"There isn't a soul here," I rasped out. "What does it mean, what on +earth does it mean?" + +"There should be three hundred at least," he answered. + +I broke away at a run, flung open the first door I came to and peered +in. It was some sort of a sleeping-room, there were bunks and couches +all around the walls. Each one of them was empty. I had time to see +that, and also that a stand of short carbines and cutlasses was full of +weapons. + +Then I had to back out quickly for the late inmates had left an odorous +legacy behind them. + +Pu-Yi faced me. + +"That was one of the patrol rooms," he said. + +Then I remembered our coming two days ago. + +"Mulligan!" I cried. "Nobody could get here except through the +guard-room, nobody could leave here except through that, could they?" + +"Not unless they threw themselves from the side of the tower." + +"Well, it's quite impossible to believe that three hundred people have +committed suicide during the night without a sound being heard. Quick! +let's get to the bottom of this." + +Pu-Yi led. He didn't seem really to run, only to glide along the ghostly +streets and passages. But I had hard work to keep up with him, all the +same. My mouth felt as if it had been sucking a brass tap. The most +deadly fear clutched at my heart--that noiseless, pattering run through +the deserted town in the air, accompanied always by the mouthing, +gibbering ghosts of the mist, was appalling. + +We dashed down the last corridor and were brought up by a stout door. +Pu-Yi bent down to the handle, turned it gently, and--it opened. + +We tiptoed into that room. Directly I was over the threshold, the +spiritual odor of death, of violent death, came to me. + +A fire of logs was still burning redly upon the hearth. For the rest the +room was lit only by its skylight, through which filtered a dirty and +opaque illumination which was only sufficient to give every object a +shape of the sinister or bizarre. The red glow from the fire glistened +upon the polished screen of steel which divided the room into two +portions. And it also fell, redly, upon something else. + +This was the corpse of Mulligan. + +It was seated in a chair which had been pulled up to the screen with its +back towards it, as if in mockery and derision of its power to keep it. + +He had been strangled by a yard of catgut, twisted, tourniquet-fashion, +by a piece of stick at the back of the neck. The catgut had sunk far +into the flesh, reducing the neck to less than half its ordinary size, +and the great staring head hung down upon one shoulder. + +One of the logs in the grate fell with a crackle of sparks. For the +rest, dead silence. + +"They have come," Pu-Yi said simply. + +"But what has happened?" I whispered, my throat was so dry that the +sound was like the rustling of paper. + +"I shall know soon. I am going to find out. There is not a minute to +lose. Can you, dare you, wait here--" + +I nodded and he was out of the room in a flash. Upon the dead man's +table was the usual array of bottles and glasses. I took some brandy and +gulped it down and my brain cleared instantly. There was a little touch +of infinite pathos even in this hideous moment, for by the side of an +empty glass I saw a string of beads with a little metal crucifix. The +Irishman, a Roman Catholic of course, must have been saying his prayers +some time before he met his end. Somehow the thought comforted me and +gave me power to act. I found a knife, and cut the bonds that tied the +giant to the chair. I lowered him reverently to the floor and finally +severed the horrible ligature around his throat. An examination of the +steel door in the screen of bars showed that it was securely locked, but +the bunch of keys which the dead man usually carried upon a chain was no +longer there--the end of the chain dangled from his trousers pocket. + +While I was doing these things a most deadly apprehension was standing +specter-like by my side and plucking with wan fingers at my sleeve. What +had happened, what might even now be happening at the Palacete Mendoza? + +Pu-Yi whirled into the room. He made no noise, it was as though a dried +leaf had been blown in by the wind. His face was transformed. Every +outline was sharpened, and the color was changed until it bore the exact +resemblance to a mask of green bronze. In its frozen immobility it was +dead, yet awfully alive, and the eyes glittered like little crumbs of +diamond. + +"Well?" + +"I know how it has been done. It is very clever, very clever indeed. Let +me tell you that all the power cables connecting us with below have been +scientifically cut. We can neither telephone down to the Park nor can we +descend to it in one of the lifts. We are isolated up here in the +clouds." + +"But the men, the staff?" I gasped, and then I stepped back, staring +down at his hands. They were all foul and stained with blood. + +"Not far away," he said, "there is another body, that of my servant, a +youth from my own Province, whom I loved and whom I was educating. He +was alive five minutes ago. He had just time to sob out the truth and +his repentance." + +"Tell me quickly, Pu-Yi, time presses." + +"They caught him last night, so they must have been here then." + +"Who caught him?" + +"He never knew. They were masked, but there were two of them, and from +his description we know very well who they were. Sir Thomas, they +tortured him for a long time until he spoke, promising him freedom if he +did so. His story was disjointed, gasped out with his dying breath, but +I can put it together pretty well. + +"They made him give an order by telephone from the upper City that, +immediately, the staff were to leave here and descend to the ground and +await further orders, all but Mulligan, who was to remain at his post +until I came to him. This message was delivered in Chinese to the man at +the telephone exchange, and the poor boy was forced to counterfeit my +voice. He was blindfolded immediately afterwards, but he heard a man +speaking, and he said he could not have told the voice from that of Mr. +Morse." + +In a flash I saw the whole thing, in its devilish ingenuity, its +fiendish completeness. + +"Then we are absolutely alone, you, I, Mr. Rolston, Mr. Morse and his +daughter?" + +"And her maid," he answered quietly. + +"At the mercy of--" + +"That we have yet to prove. We must throw all emotion, all fear aside. +That's what we have to do now. It's diamond cut diamond. There's one +problem in my mind, and one only." + +"What's that, quick!" + +"I daresay that in an hour I could get down to the ground. Among the +intricate steel-work of this tower there's a tiny circular staircase of +open lattice-work, sufficient for the passage of one person only, and +even here, every three or four hundred feet the way is barred by locked +gates, though I have a master key to all of them. Shall I make the +attempt, and risk crashing off into space--for it is a mere +steeplejack's way--and summon assistance, which may well be another hour +in arriving, for the tower cables have been scientifically cut and no +one but an electrician could repair them? Or shall I rush with you to +defend the Palace?" + +"You leave the decision to me?" + +"It is in your hands, Prince." + +"Then, old chap, tumble down this accursed tower, hell for leather, and +rouse the pack. If I and Morse and Bill Rolston cannot account for these +cowardly assassins, then one more man won't make any difference." + +So I said, so I thought. I had no idea into what peril I was sending +him, though I have sometimes wondered if he knew. He took my hand, +kissed it, and beckoning me, we hurried through the silent under City +towards the lift. + +"You go up, Sir Thomas," he said, "and exercise the utmost care. Have +your pistol ready. The mist is as thick as ever, which is in your favor. +You can find your way now to the Palace, I am sure." + +"And you?" + +"I go off here," he said, pointing with his left arm down a long vista +to where, under a square arch, there was nothing to be seen at all but +swaying yellow-white. "One opens the gate in the railing and drops on to +the circular stairs," he said, "which cling to the outside of the +steel-work all the way down like a little train of ivy." + +"_Au revoir_, be as quick as you can." + +"Good-by," and I jumped into the elevator. + +Some two minutes afterwards, when I was creeping through the wool with +my pistol in my hand, alert for the slightest sound around me, I heard +the sharp crack of a rifle. It came from behind me. There was a +perceptible interval and then another crack, followed, I could have +sworn to it, by a thin wailing cry. + +Then utter silence fell once more upon the white and muffled City. + +As I ran I tried to steel myself, if that were as I suspected, the last +dying cry of Pu-Yi, not to think about it. The immediate moment, the +immediate future, these were everything. + +All the extraordinary precautions had failed. The assassins were here! +In what force? How had they come?--though that was useless to speculate +on. Two things only remained. I must warn Morse if it was not already +too late, must avenge him if it was. I resolutely put aside the thought +of Juanita--of any personal feeling which might mar my judgment and +unstring my nerves at this supreme and dreadful moment. + +I found myself, somehow or other, at the entrance to the tunneled +passage. Save for my own quick breathing there had not been a sound, and +the horrible curtain of the fog was as thick as ever. Should I at once +creep up to the Palace, or should I go back to the villa and find +Rolston? It was a nice question and the decision had to be +instantaneous. I decided that it would give me a tremendous advantage to +have him with me, and besides that, he himself must be warned of the +terror that lurked in the darkness of the cloud. + +I arrived without any mishap, pushed open the door and was crossing the +dark hall when my foot caught in some obstruction and I fell headlong. +There was no time to cry out, had I been startled enough to do so, +before something leapt upon my back with a soft yet heavy thud. A hand +slipped over my mouth and the round barrel of a pistol was pressed into +my neck. + +I lay helpless, thinking that it was all over, when the weight lifted, +the pistol was snatched away and I was hauled to my feet to +discover--Rolston. + +"Not a word," he whispered. "I set a trap in the hall, Sir Thomas. Thank +God you are alive!" + +"Thank God you are too. Bill, they've strangled Mulligan, killed another +Chinese by torture and I am very much afraid have shot Pu-Yi as he was +trying to get down to earth to summon help. + +"Every single member of the staff is down in the Park with orders to +stay there--false orders. The lifts are all put out of action beyond +possibility of being repaired for several hours. That's how things +stand. Now we must get to the Palace as quickly as we possibly can. God +knows what has happened or may be happening there." + +"This way, quick!" he said, when he had listened to me with strained +attention. + +He took my arm, hurried me into the back part of the house, opened a +door with a key and we entered a bedroom which I had not before seen. +The windows were shuttered and curtained but the electric light--which +never failed either my villa or the Palace during the whole of those +terrible hours--made every detail clear. Upon the bed, lying as if +asleep, was Juanita. Leaning over her was a tall, elderly, hard-featured +French woman with a typical Norman face. + +I staggered back into Bill Rolston's arms. + +"Good God!" I cried, and then, "She's not dead, tell me she's not dead!" + +Marie, the French maid, turned. + +"She's perfectly well, M'sieu, only she's had a fainting fit and I've +given her something to keep her quiet." + +She spoke in French. + +"Then how do you come here, what's happened?" + +"At some time in the night, M'sieu, I think it must have been between +two and three, the warning bell, which is always attached to my bed, +began to ring. I knew exactly what to do. It was part of Mr. Morse's +precautions, in which he had drilled us. When that bell rang, at +whatever time of day or night, I was to wake M'selle instantly, dress +her without a second's delay, and bring her out of the Palace by a +secret way. + +"I did so, and arrived in this room, where M'selle fainted. The door was +locked from the outside, and as I have strict orders never to exceed my +instructions by a hair's breadth, I have been waiting. + +"Not very long ago M'sieu here"--she pointed to Rolston--"hearing some +noise, unlocked the door and came in. To him I told what had happened." + +"Thank God," I said aloud, "that she's safe," and in my heart I paid a +tribute to the minutely detailed genius of Gideon Morse, who had at +least foiled the panthers on his track in one, and the greatest +particular. + +"Very well then. Now we must leave you here while we hurry to the Palace +to try and learn what has happened, and do what we can. You will not be +afraid?" + +"No, M'sieu," she replied simply. "There's an angel with us," and she +crossed herself devoutly. "And, moreover," from somewhere about her +waist she withdrew a long, keen knife, "I know what to do with this, +M'sieu, in the last resort." + +I went to the bed, I looked down at Juanita and kissed her gently on the +forehead. + +"Now then, Bill, come along," I said. + +Bill grinned. + +"By the private way," he said, pointing to the French woman, who was +removing a heavy Turkish rug which lay in front of the fireplace. There +was a click, and a portion of the floor fell down, disclosing some +steps, padded with felt. + +"This way, M'sieu," she whispered, "the passage is lit, but here's a +torch if you should need it, and here is the book." + +She handed me a little leather-bound book about the size of a railway +ticket. + +"What's this?" + +"Instructions in English and Chinese in regard to the secret room at the +other end. They are few and simple, but Mr. Morse had them printed so +that there could be no mistake if ever it became necessary to use the +place and its machinery." + +"He thinks of everything," said Bill, as we crept down into a fairly +wide passage, and the trap-door above rose once more into its place. + +The passage was fully a hundred and thirty or forty yards long and +straight as an arrow. As we approached the end, which I saw to be hidden +by a heavy curtain, I thought of the little leather covered book. +Motioning Rolston to stop I opened it and read the English portion. +There were about five or six pages, with one or two simple diagrams, and +I blessed the journalistic training that enabled me to see the purport +of the whole thing in a minute, though I gasped once more at the fertile +ingenuity of Gideon Morse. Gently putting aside the heavy curtain, we +entered a room of some size. The floor was heavily carpeted. Around two +of the walls were couches piled with blankets. Upon shelves above were +piles of stores--I saw boxes of biscuits, tins of condensed milk and +many bottles of wine. The place was quite fourteen feet high and at one +end four posts came down from the ceiling to the floor. They were +grooved and the grooves were lined with steel which was cogged to +receive a toothed wheel. Between the four posts, dropping some two feet +from the ceiling, was what looked like the lower part of a large cistern +or tank. This apparatus extended along the whole far end of the room, +which was not square but square-oblong in shape. Immediately opposite to +where we entered was an arrangement of levers, like the levers in a +railway signal-box, though smaller; above these, sprouting out of the +wall, were half a dozen vulcanite mouthpieces like black trumpets. Above +each one was a little ivory label. + +"What does it all mean?" Bill whispered. + +I held up my hand for silence, looking round the place, referring once +or twice to the little book, and making absolutely sure. As I was doing +so there was a sudden "pop," followed by the unmistakable gurgle of +champagne into a glass. + +It was the most uncanny thing I have ever heard, for it might have +happened at my elbow. Had it not been that a tiny electric signal-bulb +no bigger than a sixpence glowed out over one of the mouthpieces, I +should have been utterly unnerved. This mouthpiece was labeled "Mr. +Morse's study." + +"The dictograph," I whispered to Rolston, and he pressed my arm to show +he understood. + +I think I would have given a thousand pounds myself for some champagne +just then. We stood holding each other, frozen into an ecstasy of +listening. I almost thought that one of Bill's remarkable ears was +elongating itself until it coiled sinuously towards the wall, but this, +no doubt, was illusion. + +There came a voice, an urbane, and cultured voice, well modulated and +serene. + +It was all that, but as I heard it my blood seemed to turn to red +currant jelly and to circulate no more in my veins. If there was ever a +voice which was informed by some unnamable quality which came straight +from the red pit of hell, we heard that voice then. Hearing it, I knew +for the first time the meaning of those words: _The worm that dies not +and the fire that is not quenched_. + +"Whoever thought, Gideon Morse, that I should be breakfasting with you +to-day! To tell the truth I didn't myself. But as you know, I have +always been a great gambler and now, at the end of all the games of +chance that we have played together, I have turned up the final ace." + +Another voice--Heaven! it was Morse himself who answered. His voice +seemed almost amused. It was like coming out of a pitch dark room into +summer sunlight to hear it after that other. + +"Mark Antony Midwinter, you speak of triumph, but you were never nearer +your ultimate end than you are at this moment"--I could have sworn I +heard his dry chuckle and I moved nearer to the wall. + +"This cold pheasant is quite excellent. What is the use of trying to +bluff me? Your end has come and you know it. It isn't going to be a +pleasant end, I expect you guess that. We have tossed the dice for many +years, you and I. You've won over and over again. I had become an +outcast on the face of the earth, until Fate made me the agent of a +great vengeance." + +This time Morse laughed outright. + +"You offal-eating jackal!" he said. "Finish your stolen meal and get to +work. You, the agent of a great vengeance! when not long ago you slunk +into my London hotel and offered to sell your employers. I understand," +he went on in a curiously impersonal voice, "that you really are +supposed to be descended from a high English family. Even when I had you +tarred and feathered--do you remember that, Antony?--many years ago, I +still believed in your descent, though I own I didn't give it much of a +thought. Tell me, where exactly did the kitchen-maid come in?" + +Following upon Morse's words we heard the sound of footsteps and the +scraping of a chair. + +A new person had come into the room and Midwinter had risen to meet him. + +"Well?" + +The reply came in a deep bass voice. + +"Nothing is changed. There was one Chinaman, it must have been the +librarian of whom that guy we put through it, spoke--he came sliding +along and tried to get down by the cat's cradle outside the tower. I was +leaning out of that balcony window above, commanding every approach, and +I got him with my second shot." + +"Did he fall all the way down? That might startle them below." + +"No. He just crumpled up on the stairs, and after looking round, I've +come back here. There's a little wind beginning to get up and I +shouldn't wonder if in an hour or so this mist-blanket is all blown +away." + +"Half an hour is enough for what we have to do, Zorilla. Just go over to +Mr. Morse there and see if his lashings are secure--and then we must +think about getting off ourselves." + +It was as though Bill and I could see exactly what was happening in the +library--the heavy tread, an affirmative grunt, and then the smooth +hellish voice resuming: + +"You know you've got to die, Morse, and die painfully. Nothing can alter +that, but I'll let you off part of your agonies if you tell me at once +where your daughter is. It will only precipitate matters. We can easily +find her as you must know." + +"I don't like talking with you at all. You are both of you doomed beyond +power of redemption. You have overcome some of my precautions, by what +means I cannot tell. You've captured my person. You are about to wreak +your disgusting vengeance on it. For Heaven's sake do so. You know +nothing of this place you are in, or very little. Fools!" The voice rang +out like a trumpet. + +There was a murmured conference, the words of which we could not catch, +then Midwinter said: + +"We'll put you to the test a little, before Zorilla really +begins--operating. Adjoining this apartment I see there is your most +luxurious bathroom--the walls of onyx, the bath of solid silver. Well, +we'll take you and put you in that bath and turn on the water. I'll +stand over you, and with my hands on your shoulders, I'll plunge you an +inch or two beneath the surface, till you are so nearly drowned that you +taste all the bitterness of death. Then we'll have you up again and ask +you a few questions. Perhaps you may have to go back into the bath a +second time before Zorilla gets to the real work." + +No words of mine can describe the malignancy of that voice, no words of +mine can describe the shout of resolute, sardonic laughter which +answered it. + +Bill wanted to shout in answer, but I clapped my hand over his mouth +just in time, and I could almost see the frowning faces of the two +fiends as they advanced upon the bound man. + +... Steps overhead; the little bulb over the mouthpiece labeled "Mr. +Morse's study" goes out, and another lights up over the mouthpiece +labeled "Bathroom." There is a jarring as a tap is turned on and a rush +of water. + +"That'll do, Zorilla. Two feet is quite enough for our purpose"--the +voices are actually in the room now, much louder and clearer than +before. + +"You take the heels--steady, heavo!" and then a splash and a thud. We +heard some one vaulting lightly into the bath. + +"Now, Morse, I hold you up for a minute. I shall press you down under +the water until you are as near dead as a man can be. Have you anything +to say?" + +"Yes. Give me one moment." + +"Ten if you like." + +Then there came in a calm, penetrating voice, "Are you there?" + +I reached upward and smote with my clenched fist upon the outside of the +bath. I heard a muttered exclamation, a slight splash, and then Bill +Rolston pulled over a lever, and half the ceiling of our room sank +towards us with a noise like the winding-up of a clock. + +Midwinter was standing in one end of the bath, which hid him almost up +to his waist. His jaw dropped like the jaw of a dead man. Such baffled +hate and infinite malevolence stared out of his eyes that I gave a shout +of relief as Rolston lifted his arm and fired. + +He must have missed the fiend's head by a hair's breadth, no more. Quick +as lightning he fired again, but he was too late. Midwinter bounded out +of the bath like a tennis ball, felled Rolston with a back-arm blow as +he leapt, and fled down the passage. + +The loud thunder of the explosions in that underground place had not +died away before I had lifted Morse from under the water and dragged him +over the side of the bath. + +His face was very pale, but his eyes were open and he could speak. + +Truly the man was marvelous. + +"The other," he whispered, "the brute Zorilla! Juanita!" + +I understood one of the devils, desperate now, was still at large, and +even as I realized it, I saw a ghastly sight. + +There was a noise above. I bent my head backward and looked up through +the aperture in the ceiling. + +A man was crouching over it and I saw his face and neck--a big, +black-bearded face, with eyes like blazing coals, but _reversed_. His +eyes were where his mouth should have been, his nostrils were like two +pits, and for a forehead there was a grinning mouth full of gleaming +teeth. Any one who, when ill, has seen their nurse or attendant bending +over them from the back of the bed, will realize what I mean, though +they can never understand the horror of that demoniac and inverted mask. + +I was pretty quick on the target, but not quick enough. The thing +whipped away even as I fired, and there was a thunder of feet running. + +I think a sort of madness seized me, at any rate I was never in a +moment's doubt as to what to do. I shoved my pistol in my pocket, leapt +upon the edge of the bath, sprang upwards and caught the floor of the +room above with my hands. + +The rest was easy for any athlete in training. I pulled myself up, lay +panting for a second and then stood upon the tiled floor of the +bathroom. + +The door leading into the library was open. I dashed through to find the +place empty, rushed through the hall and out upon the steps of the main +entrance. And then, joy! A morning wind had begun and instead of a +white, impenetrable wall, a phantom army was retreating and, as if +pursuing those ghost-like sentinels, was the black, running figure of +Zorilla. + +I had a clear glimpse of him as he plunged into the tunnel leading to +Grand Square, and I was after him like a slipped greyhound. + +In Grand Square it was clearing up with a vengeance. There were gleams +of sunlight here and there and the mist had lifted for about twelve feet +above my head. + +I saw him bolt round the central fountain, hidden by an immense bronze +dragon for a moment, and then legging it for all he was worth towards +the way that led to the lifts for the second stage. + +The wood floor had dried with the lifting of the mist and I was doing +seven-foot strides. I was seeing red. There was a terrible cold fury at +the bottom of my heart, but in my mind there was a furious joy. With +every stride I gained on him--this powerful, thick-set, baboon-like man +from the forests of the Amazon. + +I gave a loud, exulting "View-halloo," and the black head turned for an +instant--he lost ten good yards by that. I whooped again. I meant to +kill, to rend him in pieces. And for the first time in my life I +realized the joy of primeval man: the lust of the hunt, red fang, red +claw, to tear, dominate and destroy. + +Oh, it was fine hunting! + +Damn him! He snapped himself into one of the little lifts when I was +within six yards of him. I saw his ugly face sink out of sight behind +the glass panels. I remembered that these small hydraulic lifts worked, +though the big ones below didn't. But I remembered something else ... +there was a stairway. + +I found it by instinct, a great broad stair with tiled walls like the +subway of some railway terminus. + +I didn't bother about the stairs. I leapt down--preserving my balance by +a miracle--six or seven at a time. Pounding out into the great empty +City at the foot, I swirled round and was just in time to see my +gentleman bolt out of his lift like a rabbit from its hole and run to +where I knew was the outside stairway which fell, in its corkscrew path, +barred by many gates, right down to safety and the normal world. + +It was the way by which dear old Pu-Yi had hoped to descend and raise +the alarm. It was the perilous eyrie upon which this same bull-like +assassin had picked him off like a sitting pigeon and boasted of it not +half an hour before. + +As he dodged and ran I fired at him, but never a bullet touched the +brute and I flung the Colt away with an oath. + +"Much better kill him with my own hands," I said in my mind, "much +better tear his head off, break him up--" + +I tell you this as it happened. For the moment I was a wild beast, in +pursuit of another, but still, I think, a super-beast. + +Well, never mind that. I saw him fumbling at a sort of fence, clearly +outlined against an immense space of morning sky, and thundered after +him--thundered, I say, because I was now running along an open steel +grating, which seemed to sway.... + +Then I vaulted over where Zorilla had vaulted, and my heart leapt into +my mouth as I fell--fell some eight feet on to a tiny platform, +protected from space by a rail not more than three feet high. + +I reeled, and caught hold of a stanchion and saved myself. Far, far +below, London--London in color was unrolling itself like a map--and +immediately below my feet, already a considerable distance down, was the +slithering black spider that I had sworn to kill. + +I could see him through the grid, and then I flung myself upon the +corkscrew ladder, grasping the rails with my hands until the skin was +burnt from them, disdaining the steps and spinning round and ever +downwards like a great top. + +As I went my head projected at right angles to my body. As I buzzed down +that sickening height I saw that Zorilla had stopped. I knew that he +had come to one of the steel gates, at which he was fumbling uselessly. + +Then, as I came to the last step before the little gate platform I saw +also, under the curve of the stair, a huddled figure, and I knew who +_that_ was, who that had been.... + +I threw myself at Zorilla with my knee in the small of his back. +Instantly I caught him round the throat with my fingers just on the big +veins behind the ear which supply the brain with blood, and my fingers +crushed the trachea until the whole supple throat seemed breaking under +the molding of my grip. + +I felt that I had got him. That if I could hold out for a minute he +would be dead, but I hadn't reckoned with the immense muscular force of +the body. + +I clung like the leopard on the buffalo, but he began to sway this way +and that. In front of us was the steel gate and the motionless figure of +Pu-Yi. We were struggling upon the steel grid, not much larger than a +tea table. A slight rail only three feet high defended us from the +void--a little thigh-high rail between us and a drop of near two +thousand feet. + +He lurched to the left, and I swung out into immensity, carried on his +back. I was sure it was the end, that I should be flung off into space, +when with one arm he gripped the gate, braced all his great strength and +slowly dragged us back into equilibrium. It seemed that the whole tower +trembled, vibrated in a horrible, metallic music. + +I pressed down my thumbs, I strained every sinew of my wrist and arm in +the strangle hold, and I felt the life pulsing out of him in steady +throbs. There was nothing else in the world now but myself and him and I +ground my teeth and clutched harder. + +In his death agony he lurched to the other side of our tiny foothold +space. This was where the circular stairway ended. He caught his foot, +so I was told afterwards, in the last stanchion of the stair, fell over +the rail with a low, sobbing groan, and then, weighted by me upon his +shoulders, began to slip, slip, slip, downwards. + +And I with him. + +I had conquered. I don't think that in that moment I had any feeling but +one of wild, fierce joy. He was going, I was going with him, but I never +thought of that, until my right ankle was clutched in a vice-like grip. +I felt the warm, heaving body below me rush away, tearing my grip from +its throat by its own dreadful impetus, and then, as I was snatched back +with a jar of every bone in my body, there was a shrill whistling of air +for a second as Zorilla went headlong to his doom, and I knew nothing +else. + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +Falling! Falling through deep waters, with a horrible sickening sense of +utter helplessness and desolation; nerves, heart, mind--very being +itself--awaited the crash of extinction. A slight jolt, a roaring of +great waters in the air, and a voice, dim, thin and far away! + +... In some mysterious way, the sense of sight was joined to that of +sound and hearing. I was surrounded by blackness shot with gleams of +baleful fire, shifting and changing until the black grew gray in furious +eddies, the gray changed into the light of day, and a far-off voice +became loud and insistent. + +It was thus that I came to myself after the horror on the edge of the +dizzy void. + +The first thing I saw was the face of Juanita. There were tears in her +eyes and her cheeks were brilliant. Then I heard, and even then with a +start, a voice that I had never thought to hear again--the gentle, +tripping accents of Pu-Yi. + +"He will do now, Señorita. The doctor said that he would awake from his +sleep with very little the matter except the shock--" + +"Juanita!" I cried, and her cool hand came down upon my forehead. + +"You are not to excite yourself, dearest," she said. + +For a moment or two I lay there in a waking swoon of puzzled but entire +bliss. Then I tried to move my position slightly upon the bed, for I was +lying upon a bed in a large and airy room, and groaned aloud. Every +muscle in my body seemed stretched as if upon the rack, and there was a +pain like a red-hot iron in one ankle. + +"It will hurt for a few hours," said Pu-Yi, "but you will shortly be +massaged, Sir Thomas, and then--" + +"You!" I cried, "but you are dead! Zorilla got you on the tower +before--before--" + +My mind leapt up into full activity. I was once more swaying upon the +edge of infinity with my fingers locked in the bull neck of the +assassin, and my voice died away into a whisper of horror. + +"He stunned me, that was all, Sir Thomas. His bullet glanced away from +my head. I came to myself just in time to see you struggling with him +and gripped you just as you were falling off into space. The spirits of +my ancestors were with me." + +"And he--Zorilla?" + +"Will never trouble us more. But you are not well enough yet to talk. +You are in my hands for the present." + +"Do exactly as Pu-Yi says, dear, and remember that all is well." + +"Your father?" I gasped--why hadn't I thought of Morse before? + +"All is well," she repeated in her low, musical voice, and as I lay +back, trembling once more upon the edge of unconsciousness, her face +left the circle of my vision. + +Two deft Chinese _masseurs_ came. I was placed in a hot bath impregnated +with some strong salts. I was kneaded and pummeled until I could hardly +repress cries of pain. I drank a cup of hot soup in which there must +have been some soporific, and sank into a deep, refreshing sleep. + +It had been late afternoon when I first came to myself. When I woke for +the second time, it was night. The room was brilliantly lit. Pu-Yi was +sitting by my bedside, quietly smoking a long, Chinese pipe, and, for my +part, though I was very stiff, I was in full possession of all my +faculties and knew that I had suffered no harm. + +I sat up in bed and held out my hand to the Chinaman. + +"Pu-Yi, I'm all right now. I owe my life to you!" And as I realized my +extraordinary deliverance in the very article of death, a sob burst from +me and I am not ashamed to say that my eyes filled with tears. My hand +is as strong as most men's, but I almost winced at the grip of those +fragile-looking, artistic fingers. + +"You did the same for me, my honorable friend," he said quietly, "and +now--" + +Before I knew what he would be at, he was feeling my pulse and listening +to my heart with his ear against my chest. + +At length he gave a sigh of relief. "We had a doctor to you," he said, +"and he told us that, in his opinion, you would be little the worse. I +am rejoiced that his opinion is confirmed." + +"Oh, I am all right now, and ready for anything." + +"You are sure, Sir Thomas? What you have been through may have given you +a shock which--" + +For answer, I held out my hand. It was as firm as a rock and did not +tremble. I heaved myself off the bed, took a cigarette from a box upon a +table, and began to smoke. + +"Now then, Pu-Yi, I am just as I was before. First of all, where am I?" + +"You are in the Palacete," he replied. "You were brought here at once." + +Then I knew that I was in Morse's dwelling house, copied exactly, as I +have said before, from the Palacete Mendoza at Rio. + +"Now tell me exactly what has happened, in as few words as possible." + +"I am only too anxious to do so, Sir Thomas. You were brought back here. +Immediately after, Rolston descended by means of the outside stair and +summoned the staff. They are all here now. The electric cables have been +repaired. Lifts, telephones, electric light, and all the other machinery +is in working order. The body of Zorilla has been brought up to the City +and placed with that of Mulligan and my own servant. This house is +strongly guarded by armed men, and the whole City is patrolled." + +"No one else was hurt?" + +"No one else at all, Sir Thomas." + +His face changed as he said this, and he looked me full in the eyes. + +Then, with a start, I understood. Every detail of the past came back in +a vivid, instantaneous picture. Again I saw the silver bath descending +from the ceiling and heard the loud explosion of Rolston's pistol. And +as that furious noise resounded in my mental ear, once more the +grinning, corpse-pale face of Mark Antony Midwinter passed close to mine +and I felt the very wind of his passage as he rushed by and disappeared +down the long underground corridor leading to the safety-room. + +"Midwinter!" I almost shouted. The face of the Chinaman had gone a dusky +gray--he told me afterwards that mine was white as linen. + +"Vanished," he said--"disappeared utterly. And he is the master-mind! +While Mark Antony Midwinter is alive, Mr. Morse, none of us, will know a +moment of safety or of ease." + +I could not quarrel with that. Zorilla was dead--a great gain--but no +one who had been through what I had and who knew the whole situation as +I knew it, could fail to appreciate the terrible seriousness of this +news. To you who read this record in peace and safety, this may seem a +wild or exaggerated statement, a product of over-strained nerves. But, +believe me, it was not so. I knew too much! The securest fortress in the +whole world had been already stormed. All the precautions that enormous +wealth and some of the subtlest brains alive could take had already +proved useless against the superhuman cunning, energy and ferocity of +this being who seemed, indeed, literally, more fiend than man. No! we +were no cowards, most of us, up there in the City of the Clouds, but we +might well quail still, to know that this fury was unchained. I know +that I sat down suddenly upon the bed with a groan of despair. + +"Gone! Vanished! Surely he must be either in the City or has escaped! If +he is in the City, I admit the danger is imminent. He must be utterly +desperate, and will stick at nothing. If he has managed to get down to +the earth, he is dangerous still, but we have a breathing space. Which +is it?" + +"We do not know, Sir Thomas. There is no trace of him anywhere, so far. +But, as I have said, we have more than a hundred men, armed and +patrolling the City. This house, at any rate, is secure for the moment. +A great search is being organized. The whole area is being mapped out +and it will be searched with such thoroughness before to-morrow's dawn +that a rat could not escape. My own theory is, and Mr. Morse agrees with +me, that Midwinter is still in the City. The most scrupulous inquiries +below seem to prove that he never descended from the tower, and you know +how minute and careful our organization is. And now that you are +yourself again, it is Mr. Morse's wish that we hold a conference and +settle exactly what is to be done. Do you think you are equal to it?" + +"Perfectly," I replied, and without another word Pu-Yi led the way out +of the room. + +I found Mr. Morse sitting in his library. He was pale, and seemed much +shaken. There were red rims round the keen, masterful eyes, but his +voice was strong and resolute, and I could see that, whatever his +opinion of his chances, he would fight till the end. + +I need not go into details of the private conversation we had for a +minute or two. His gratitude was pathetic, and I felt more drawn to him +than ever before. When at length Juanita, followed by little Rolston, +entered the room, all trace of his emotion had gone and we settled down +round the table as calm and business-like as a board of directors in a +bank. And yet, you know, no group of people in Europe stood in such +peril as we did then. Behind the long, silken curtains, the shutters +were of bullet-proof steel. The corridor outside, the gardens of the +house, swarmed with men armed to the teeth. It was dark in the sky, but +the City in the Clouds blazed everywhere with an artificial sunlight +from the great electric lamps. + +Two thousand feet up in the air we sat and spoke in quiet voices of the +horror that was past and the horror that threatened us. Far down below, +London was waking up to a night of pleasure. People were dressing for +dinners and the theater, thousands upon thousands of toilers had left +their work and were about to enjoy the hours of rest and recreation. And +not a soul, probably, among all those millions that crawled like ants at +our feet had the least suspicion of what was going on in our high place. +They were accustomed to the great towers now. The sensation of their +building was over and done, there were no more thrills. If they had only +known! + +I was not aware if strata of clouds hid us from the world below, as so +often happened; but if the night were clear I do remember thinking that +any one who cast their eyes up into the sky might well notice an unusual +brilliancy in the pleasure city of the millionaire, that mysterious +theater of the unknown, which dominated the greatest city in the world. + +... "Well, Tom," said Mr. Morse, "Pu-Yi tells me that you are now +acquainted with all the facts. The question we have to decide is, what +are we to do?" + +He turned to Juanita, and nodded. She left the room. + +"The situation, as I understand it," I replied, "is that Midwinter"--I +had a curious reluctance in pronouncing the name aloud--"is either +concealed here in the City or has made his escape. If he is here, we +shall know before to-morrow morning, shall we not?" + +"Precisely. I have spent the last hour in going over the plans of the +City with the chiefs of the staff. We have divided up the two stages +into small sections, and even while I am talking to you the search has +begun. The orders are to shoot at sight, to kill that man with less +compunction than one would kill a mad dog. If he is really here, he +cannot possibly escape." + +"Very well, then," I said, "let us turn our attention to the other +possibility. Assuming that he has got away, I think we may safely say +that the danger is very much lessened." + +"While we remain here in the City--yes," Morse agreed. + +"And you are determined to do that?" + +He took the cigar he had been smoking from his lips, and his hand shook +a little. "Think what you like of me," he said, "but remember that there +is Juanita. I say to you, Kirby, that if I never descend to the world +again alive, I must stay here until Mark Antony Midwinter is dead." + +Well, I had already made up my mind on this point. "I think you are +quite right," I told him. "Still, he will not make a second appearance +in the City. You can treble your precautions. He must be attacked down +in the world." + +Then a thought struck me for the first time. "But how," I said, "did he +and Zorilla ever come here in the first instance? Treachery among the +staff? It is the only explanation." + +Pu-Yi shook his head. "You may put that out of your mind, Sir Thomas," +he said. "That is my department. I know what you cannot know about my +chosen compatriots." + +"But the man isn't a specter! He's a devil incarnate, but there's +nothing supernatural about him." + +Then little Rolston spoke. "I've been down below all day," he said, "and +though I haven't discovered anything of Midwinter, I am certain of how +he and Zorilla got here." + +We all turned to him with startled faces. + +"Do you remember, Sir Thomas," he said, "that, shortly after your +arrival, when you were looking down upon London from one of the +galleries, there was a big fair in Richmond Park?" + +I remembered, and said so. + +"Among the other attractions, there was a captive balloon--" + +Morse brought his hand heavily down upon the table with a loud +exclamation in Spanish. + +"Yes, there was, but--but it was quite half a mile away and never came +up anything like our height here." + +"No," the boy answered, "not at that time. But do you remember how +during the fog last night I told you I had seen something, or thought I +had seen something, like a group of statuary falling before my bedroom +window?" + +Something seemed to snap in my mind. "Good heavens! And I thought it was +merely a trick of the mist! Nothing was discovered?" + +"No, but in view of what happened afterwards, I formed a theory. I put +it to the test this morning. I made a few inquiries as to the +proprietors of the captive balloon and the engine which wound it up and +down by means of a steel cable on a drum. I need not go into details at +the moment, but the whole apparatus did not leave Richmond Park when it +was supposed to do so. The wind was drifting in the right direction, the +balloon could be more or less controlled--certainly as to height. I have +learned that there was a telephone from the car down to the ground. +Desperate men, resolved to stick at nothing, might well have arranged +for the balloon to rise above the City--the cable was quite long enough +for that--and descend upon part of it by means of a parachute, or, if +not that, a hanging rope. More dangerous feats than that have been done +in the air and are upon record. It seems to me there is no doubt +whatever that this is the way the two men broke through all our +precautions." + +There was a long silence when he had spoken. Mendoza Morse leant back in +his chair with the perspiration glittering in little beads upon his +face, but he wore an aspect of relief. + +"You've sure got it, my friend," he said at length, "that was how the +trick was done! It was the one possibility which had never occurred to +me, and hence we were unprovided. Well, that relieves my mind to a +certain extent. We can take it that we are safe in the City, if +Midwinter has escaped. How are we to make an end of him?" + +"The difficulty is," I said, "that we are, so to speak, both literally +and actually above, or outside, the Law. If that were not so, if +ordinary methods could deal with this man, or could have dealt with the +Hermandad in the past, Mr. Morse would never have planned and built the +eighth wonder of the world. No word of what has happened in the last day +or two must get down to the public--isn't that so?" + +Morse nodded. "It goes without saying," he said. "We have our own law in +the City in the Clouds. At the present moment, there are three bodies +awaiting final disposal--and there won't be any inquest on them." + +"That," Rolston broke in, "was something I was waiting to hear. It's +important." + +He stopped, and looked at me with his usual modesty, as if waiting +permission to speak. I smiled at him, and he went on. + +"It is an absolute necessity," he said, "to enter into the psychology of +Midwinter. We may be sure that his purpose is as strong as ever. The +death of Zorilla, and his present failure, will not deter him in the +least, knowing what we know of him?" + +He looked inquiringly at Morse. + +"It won't turn him a hair's breadth," said the millionaire. "If he was +mad with blood-lust and hatred before, he must be ten times worse now." + +"So I thought, sir. He has lost his companion, as desperate and as +cunning as himself, but we can be quite certain that he is not without +resources. I think it safe to assume that he has practically an +unlimited supply of money. He must have other confederates, though +whether they are in his full confidence or not is a debatable question. +That, however, at the moment, is not of great importance. We have him in +London, let us suppose, for it is the safest place in the world for a +man to hide--in London, determined, and hungering for revenge. We have +no idea what his next scheme will be, and in all human probability he +hasn't planned either. He must be considerably shaken. He will know, +now, how tremendously strong our defenses are, and it will not escape a +man of his intelligence that they will now be greatly strengthened. It +will take him some time to gather his wits together and work out another +scheme. The only thing to do, it seems to me, is to force his hand." + +"And how?" Morse and I said, simultaneously. + +"We must trap him--not here at all, but down there, in London"--he made +a little gesture towards the floor with his hand, and as he did so, once +more the strange and eerie remembrance of where we were came over me, +lost for a time in the comfortable seclusion of a room that might have +been in Berkeley Square. + +"Here _we_, that is the Press, come in," said Rolston, smiling proudly +at me. + +I smiled inwardly at the grandiloquence of the tone, and yet, how true +it was!--this lad who, so short a time ago had got to see me by a trick, +was certainly the most brilliant modern journalist I had ever met. I +made him a little bow, and, delighted beyond measure, he continued. + +"Let it be put about," he said, "with plenty of detail, rumor, +contradiction of the rumor and so on--in fact we will get up a little +stunt about it--that Mr. Mendoza Morse has tired of his whim. For a +time, at any rate, he is going to make his reappearance in the world. If +necessary, announce Miss Juanita's engagement to Sir Thomas. Get all +London interested and excited again." + +Morse nodded, his face wrinkled with thought. "I think I see," he said, +"but go on." + +"When this is done, let us put ourselves in Midwinter's place. I believe +that he will have no suspicion of a trap. He will argue it in this way. +We are too much afraid of him to attack ourselves. Hitherto, all our +measures have been measures of defense and escape. It will hardly occur +to him that we have changed all our tactics. He will think that, with +the failure of his attempt, the bad failure, and the death of +Zorilla--which I have no doubt he will have discovered by now--we +imagine he will abandon all his attempts. He will say to himself that we +now believe ourselves safe and that his power is over, his initiative +broken, that he will never dare to go on with his campaign. Everything +seems in favor of it. I should say that it is a hundred to one that his +line of thought will be precisely as I have said." + +"By Jove, and I think so, too! Good for you, Rolston!" I shouted, seeing +where he was going. + +His boyish face was wreathed in smiles. "Thank you," he said. "Well, we +are to lay a trap, and it is on the details of that trap that everything +depends. I see, by to-day's _Times_, that Birmingham House in Berkeley +Square, is to let. The Duke is ordered a long cruise in the Pacific. Let +Mr. Morse immediately take the house and issue invitations for a great +ball to celebrate Miss Juanita's engagement. If that house and that ball +are not to Midwinter as a candle is to a moth, then my theory is +useless! Somehow or other he will be there, either before or actually on +the occasion. By some means or other he will get into the house." + +He stopped, and with a little apologetic look took out his cigarette +case and began to smoke. He really was wonderful. This was the lad, +airily ordering one of the richest men in the world to take the Duke of +Birmingham's great mansion, whose capital but a few short weeks ago was +one penny, bronze. I remember how he was forced to confess it to me, +even as I congratulated him. + +We talked on for another half-hour, or rather little Bill Rolston +talked, the rest of us only putting in a word now and then. He seemed to +have mapped out every detail of the new campaign, and we were content to +listen and admire. + +Of course I am not a person without original ideas, or unaccustomed to +organization--my career, such as it is, has proved that. But on that +night, at least, I could initiate nothing, and I was even glad when the +conference came to an end. Morse was much the same--he confessed it to +me as we left the room--and the truth is that we were both feeling the +results of the terrible shocks we had undergone. Rolston was younger and +fresher, and besides his peril had not been as great as mine or the +millionaire's. + +Pu-Yi vanished in his mysterious fashion, and Morse, Rolston and I went +to dinner. There was no question of dressing on such a night as this, +but, if you believe me, the meal was a merry one! + +It was Juanita's whim to have dinner served in a wonderful conservatory +built out on that side of the Palacete which looked upon the gardens +separating it from the eastern villa where Rolston and I were housed. +The place was yet another of the fantastic marvels conjured up by Morse +and his millions. It was an exact reproduction of a similar conservatory +at my host's house in Rio de Janeiro, and had been carried out at a +frightful cost by the greatest landscape gardener and the most +celebrated scenic artist in existence. + +We sat at a little table, surrounded by tall palm trees rising from +thick, tropical undergrowth, a gay striped awning was over our heads, +protecting us from what seemed brilliant sunshine. On every side was the +golden rain of mimosa, masses of deep crimson blossoms, and wax-like +magnolia flowers. From a marble pool of clear water sprang a little +fountain--a laughing rod of diamonds. In the distance, seen over a +marble balustrade, was the deep blue of the tropic sea dominated by the +great sugar-loaf mountain, the Pão de Azucar. + +It was an illusion, of course, but it was perfect. That sea, and the +gleaming mountain, which, from where we sat, seemed so real, was but a +cleverly painted cloth. The warm and scented air came to us through +concealed pipes, and down in the lower portion of the City, patient, +moon-faced Chinamen were at work to produce it. The sunlight, actually +as brilliant as real sunlight, was the result of a costly installation +of those marvelous and newly invented lamps which are used in the great +cinema studios. Only the trees and the flowers were real. + +Outside, it was a keen, cold night. We were perched on the top of gaunt, +steel towers, more than two thousand feet in the air, and yet, I swear +to you, all thought of our surroundings, and even of our peril, was +banished for a brief and laughing hour. Like the tired traveler in some +clearing of those lovely South American forests from which the wealth of +Morse had sprung, we had forgotten the patient jaguar that follows in +the tree-tops for a week of days to strike at last. + +I dwell upon this scene because it was another of those little +interludes, during my life in the City of the Clouds, which stand out in +such brilliant relief from the encircling horrors. + +Juanita was in the highest spirits. I had never seen her more lovely or +more animated. Morse himself, always a trifle grim, unbent to a +sardonic humor. He told us story after story of his early life, with +shrewd flashes of wit and wisdom, revealing the keen and mordaunt +intellect which had made him what he was. A wonderful pink champagne +from Austria, looted from the Imperial cellars during the war, and +priceless even then, poured new life into our veins--it was impossible +to believe in the tragedy of the last few hours, in the shadow of any +tragedy to come. + +We adjourned to the music-room after dinner, an apartment paneled in +cedar-wood and with a wagon roof, and Juanita played and sang to us for +a time. It was just ten o'clock when Rolston looked at his watch and +gave me a significant glance. I rose and said good-night, both Morse and +Juanita announcing their intention of going to bed. + +As we came to the outside door, Bill turned to me. + +"Hadn't you better go back to our house, Sir Thomas, and sleep? Remember +what you have been through." + +"Sleep? I couldn't sleep if I tried! I feel as fit and well as ever I +did--why?" + +"I've promised to meet Mr. Pu-Yi in the office of the chief of the +staff. Reports will be coming in of the search which has been going on +all the evening. I am anxious to see how far it has got, though of +course if Midwinter had been found, or any trace of him, we should have +been informed at once. And there is something else, also--" + +He stopped, and I made no inquiries. "Well, I'm with you," I said; for I +felt ready for anything that might come, in a state of absolute, +pleasant acquiescence in the present and the future. I hadn't a tremor +of fear or anxiety. + +One of those noiseless, toy, electric automobiles which I had already +seen when Juanita first showed me the City, was waiting. We got in, and +buzzed through the gardens, and down the tunnel which led to Grand +Square. As we went, I saw shadowy figures patrolling everywhere. The +whole place was alive with guards--my girl could sleep well this night! + +As we came out of the tunnel I motioned to Bill to go slowly, and he +pulled the lever, or whatever it was, that controlled the speed. In +almost complete silence we began to circle the huge inclosure, the tires +making no noise whatever upon the floor of wood blocks. + +The air was keen, cold, and wonderfully pure. There was not a cloud in +the heavens, and one looked up at a far-flung vault of black velvet +spangled with gold. Never had I seen the stars so clear and brilliant in +England, for the haze of smoke and the miasma of overbreathed air which +is the natural atmosphere of London lay two thousand feet below. The +Grand Square blazed with light. The buildings, with their spires, domes +and cupolas, stood out with extraordinary clearness against the +circumambient black of space. No outline was soft or blurred, everything +was vividly, fantastically real. A veritable scene from the old Arabian +Nights indeed! And something of the same thought must have come to my +companion, for he looked up and said: "I once saw an extraordinary +illustration by Willy Pogany of one of De Quincey's opium dreams--here +it is, only a thousand times more marvelous!" + +The fountain in the middle of the Square--a long distance away it +seemed as we slowly skirted the buildings--made a ghostly laughter as it +sprang from its dragon-supported basin of bronze. The gilded cupola of +the observatory shone with a wan radiance, higher than all else, and a +black triangle in the gold told me that the patient old Chinese +astronomer surveyed the heavens, lost in a waking dream of the Infinite, +probably loftily unconscious of all that had been going on in the magic +city at his feet. I envied that serene, Oriental philosopher, Juanita's +special friend and pet, who lived up there in his observatory, and, so I +was told, hardly ever descended for any purpose at all. He was as +inviolate a hermit as Saint Anthony. It was especially curious that I +should have cast my glance heavenwards and have thought of that ancient +sage at this moment. You will learn why afterwards. + +We stopped at one of the white kiosks, from the interior of which the +hydraulic lifts went down to the lower part of the City. It was in an +upper story of that that the chief of the staff had his office, and, +mounting a flight of steps, we entered, to find Pu-Yi sitting at a +roll-top desk, scrutinizing a handful of paper reports. + +"It is nearly over, Sir Thomas," he said, rising and placing chairs for +us. "Almost every inch of the City has been searched, and but little +remains to be done. There is not a single trace of the man, Midwinter." + +I own that to hear this was a great relief. We were all of us fired with +Rolston's plan of a trap down below in London. His theory seemed to be +correct. Midwinter had somehow escaped, and we should meet him in due +time--for I had never a doubt of that. Meanwhile, Juanita and her father +were safe. + +"It is only what I expected, though how on earth he managed to get away +remains to be seen!" + +"It will come to light in due course," Pu-Yi replied. "And now, Sir +Thomas, are you prepared to accompany me and Mr. Rolston? There are +certain things to be done, and I shall be glad to have you as a +witness." + +"Anything you like--but what is it?" + +"You must remember that the bodies of three dead men await disposal," he +replied. "What remains of Zorilla--he fell into the lake on the first +stage, though of course he was dead, strangled in mid-air, long before +the impact. Then there is Mulligan, who died in defense of the City; +finally Sen, the boy from my own province in China, of whose terrible +end you are aware." + +"What are you going to do?" I asked. + +"We must keep to our policy of secrecy and noninterference by the +outside world. The bodies must be destroyed, and by fire." + +I gave a little inward shudder, but I don't think he noticed it, and in +a minute more we were dropping to the lower City in a rapid lift. + +It was in a furnace-room that provided some of the hot air for the +conservatories on the stage above that I witnessed the ghastly and +unceremonious finish of the mortal parts of the Spaniard and the +Irishman, and it was cruel and sordid to a degree--or so it seemed to +me. The long bundle of sacking which contained that which had housed the +evil soul of Señor Don Zorilla y Toro--I resisted a bland invitation on +the part of a stoker in a blue jumper and a pleased smile to examine the +stiff horror--was slung through an iron door into a white and glowing +core of flame. There was a clang as the long, steel rods of the firemen +pushed it to, and I cannot say that I felt much regret, only a sort of +shuddering sickness and relief that the door was closed so swiftly. + +But it was different in the case of Mulligan. I blamed Morse in my +heart. The man had been strangled when saying his prayers. He was of the +millionaire's own religion, and there should have been a priest to +assist at these fiery obsequies of a faithful servant. I learned +afterwards, I am glad to say, that Morse had not been consulted, and +knew nothing about the actual disposal of the bodies until afterwards. +You see the shock came--Rolston felt it too--from the fact that these +bland and silent Asiatics were utterly without any emotion as they +performed their task. They were heathens, worshiping Heaven knows what +in their tortuous and secret souls. As poor Mulligan--they had put the +body in a coffin and it took eight struggling, sweating Orientals to +hoist and slide it into the furnace--vanished from my eyes, I put my +hands before my face and said such portions of the Protestant burial +service as I remembered, and they were very few. + +"They're nasty beasts, aren't they, Sir Thomas?" Rolston whispered, as +we fled the furnace room. "Soulless, just like machines!" + +We waited for Pu-Yi for a minute or two. + +"I thank you, Sir Thomas, and Mr. Rolston," he said in his calm, silky +voice. "It was as well that you saw the disposal of the dead, though it +is only a remote contingency that there will ever be inquiry. And now, +if you wish, I will send you up again. I, myself, must attend to the +obsequies of my compatriot." + +"Oh," I remarked, and I fear my tone was far from pleasant, "you propose +to be rather more ceremonious in the case of the lad, Sen?" + +For a single moment I saw that calm and gentle face disturbed. Something +looked out of it that was not good to see, but it was gone in a flash. +This was the first and last time that I had a shadow of disagreement +with the man whose life I had saved and who saved mine in return. It was +natural, I think--neither of us was to blame. "East is East and West is +West," and there are some points at least at which they can never meet. +Poor Pu-Yi! He had as fine an intellect as any man I ever met, and was a +great gentleman. I wish I could look upon him once more as I write this, +but, though I didn't know it, the sand in the glass was nearly out and +our hours together dwindling fast. + +We followed him through various twists and turns of the under City, +among the huts and storehouses, thronged with silent people--it was like +moving in the interior of a hive of bees--until, by means of an archway +and a closed door, we emerged in a sort of courtyard surrounded on three +sides by buildings. On the fourth was a rail, breast-high, and above and +around was open night. + +"We can't take his body to China," said our guide. "We must burn it +here, and only the ashes will rest in the village of his ancestors. But +it is well. Such cases are provided for in my religion." + +We then saw that in the center of the yard there was a low funeral pile, +apparently of wood. Two men in long, yellow gowns were pouring some +liquid over it. + +"If you will do me the honor to come this way," said Pu-Yi, and we +entered a long, bare room. In the center of this place there was a large +square box of painted wood, the lid of which was not yet in place. The +body of the dead man was sitting in the box, the hands clasped round the +knees. The nose, ears and mouth were filled with vermilion, which, to +our Western eyes, gave a horrible, grotesque appearance to the brown, +wrinkled mask of the face. Poor Sen's countenance was placid enough, but +it was not like that of even a dead man, a fantastic image, rather. + +A gong beat with a sudden hollow reverberation, and from another door a +file of mourners entered. + +At the far end of the room was a table upon which was a painted tablet. +"It bears," whispered Pu-Yi, "the name under which Sen enters +salvation." + +Two men swinging censers stood by the table, and two others, a little +nearer the corpse, held bronze bowls of water. First Pu-Yi, and then the +other mourners, dipped their hands in the water to purify them, and +then, producing paper packets of incense from their bosoms, they threw a +pinch into the censers with the right hand and bowed low to the table, +retiring backwards. It was all done with the precision of a drill and in +absolute silence, and for my part I found it no less ghastly and unreal +than the brutal scene in the furnace-room below. + +"Come out," I whispered to Rolston, and we reëntered the pure air, +walking to the rail at one side of the square. + +We leant over. Far, far below, so far that it was sensation rather than +vision, was a faint, full glow, the night lights of London, but of the +city itself nothing could be seen whatever. Even the burnished ribbon of +the Thames had disappeared, and no sound rose from the capital of the +world. There was a thin whispering round us as the night breezes blew +through steel stay and cantilever, a faint humming noise like that of +some gigantic Æolian harp. And once, as we bathed ourselves in the cool, +the immensity and the dark, there was a rush of whirring wings, and the +"honk-konk" of the wild duck from the great lake fifteen hundred feet +below, as they passed in wedge-shaped flight on some mysterious night +errand. We leant and gazed, filled with awe and solemnity, until a low, +wailing chant and the thin, piercing notes of single-wire-strung violins +made us turn to see the square box hoisted on the bier, a torch applied, +and a roaring spitting column of yellow flame towering up above the +buildings and throwing a ghastly light on a hundred round, mask-like +faces, indistinguishable one from the other by European eyes. + +As I read now, ten years afterwards, that scene among so many others +comes back to me with extraordinary vividness. And it seems to me as I +live my English life in honor, tranquillity, and happiness, that it was +all a monstrous dream. + +Surely--yes, I think I am safe in saying this--there will never again be +such a place of horror and fantasy as the City in the Clouds. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +I slept that night like a log, untroubled by dreams, and woke late the +next morning. It was then that, as the saying is, I got it in the neck. +"Wow!" I half-shouted, half-groaned, as I turned to meet the Chinese +valet with the morning cup of tea. My whole body seemed one bruise, my +joints turned to pith, and, what was worse than all, my brain--a pretty +active organ, take it all in all--seemed stuffed with wool. + +It was the reaction, only to be expected, as the Richmond doctor said to +me some three hours later. For the next two or three days I was to do +nothing at all, after my "bad fall," which was the way my state had been +explained to him. Whether he believed it or not, I cannot tell. It was +certainly odd that Mr. Mendoza Morse, whom he also attended, should be +in very much the same state of shock and semi-collapse. But he was a +discreet, clean-shaven gentleman, with a comfortable manner, and in the +seventh heaven at being admitted to the mysterious City in the Clouds, +his eyes everywhere as he was being conducted through its wonders to our +bedsides--so Rolston told me afterwards. At any rate, he was right. It +was certainly necessary to go slow for a few days, and fortunately, now +that the search was over and no trace of Midwinter discovered, we felt +we could do this. + +The preliminary arrangements for our final effort were left in Rolston's +hands, who descended with the doctor, and I did not rise till mid-day. + +I met Morse at lunch--_piano_, and distinctly under the weather from a +physical point of view. We neither of us talked of important matters, +but enjoyed a stroll round the City during a bright afternoon. At +tea-time we met Juanita, and I had a long and happy talk with her. She +knew, of course, that the search had proved satisfactory, and--as we had +all agreed together--I led her to think that all danger was now +practically over. Indeed, as far as Morse and she were concerned, I +believed it myself. I knew that there was yet a grim tussle ahead for +the rest of us, but that was all. I did not see her at dinner, but took +the meal alone in my own house. Rolston was still absent, and as I did +not want to talk to any one, failing Juanita, I was quite happy by +myself. + +About nine o'clock I was rung up on the telephone. Morse spoke. He said +he was now thoroughly rested, and was ready for a chat. If I hadn't seen +the treasures of the library yet, he and Pu-Yi would be pleased to show +them to me. And so, slipping on a coat over my evening clothes, and +taking a light cane in my hand, I started out for Grand Square. It was +again, I may mention here, a fine and calm night. + +My host and the Chinaman were waiting for me in the great, Gothic room, +and we inspected the treasures in some of the glass-fronted shelves. I +was surprised and delighted to find that my future father-in-law had a +real love for, and a considerable knowledge of, books. It was a side of +him I had not seen before. I had not connected him with the arts in any +way, which, when you come to think of it, was rather foolish. Certainly +he had the finest expert advice and help to be found in the whole world +in the building of the City in the Clouds. But I should have remembered +that the initial conception was his own and that many of the details +also came entirely from his brain. Certainly, in his way, Mendoza Morse +was a creative artist. + +My own collection of books at Stax, my place in Hertfordshire, is, of +course, well known, and always mentioned when English libraries are +under discussion. But Morse could boast treasures far beyond me. During +the last year or two I had been so busy in working up the _Evening +Special_ that I had quite neglected to follow the book sales, but I +learned now that some of the rarest treasures obtainable had been +quietly bought up on Morse's behalf. He had all the folios, and most of +the quartos, of Shakespeare, a fine edition of Spenser's "Faërie Queene" +with an inscription to Florio, the great Elizabethan scholar; there was +Boswell's own copy of Johnson's "Lives of the Poets," with a ponderous +Latin inscription in the sturdy old doctor's own hand, and many other +treasures as rare, though not perhaps of such popular and general +interest. + +Pu-Yi made us some marvelous tea in the Chinese fashion, with a sort of +ritual which was impressive as he moved about the table and waved his +long pale hands. It was of a faint, straw color, with neither sugar, +milk, or lemon, and he assured me that it came from the stores of the +Forbidden City in Pekin. Certainly, it was nasty enough for anything, +and I praised it as I had praised Morse's rose-colored champagne the +night before--but with less sincerity. + +I don't know if my friend had a touch of homesickness or not, but he +began to tell us of his home by the waters of the Yang-Tse-Kiang. His +precise and literary English rose and fell in that great room with a +singular charm, and though I don't think Morse listened much, he smoked +a cigar with great good-humor while Pu-Yi expounded his quaint, Eastern +philosophy. We did not refer to the grim scenes of the night before, but +something I said turned the conversation to the funeral customs of +China. + +"Indeed, Sir Thomas," said Pu-Yi, "the death of a man of my nation may +be said to be the most important act of his whole life. For then only +can his personal existence be properly considered to begin." + +This seemed a somewhat startling proposition, and I said so, but he +proceeded to explain. I shall not easily forget his little monologue, +every word of which I remember for a very sad and poignant reason. Well, +he knows all about it now, and I hope he is happy. + +"It is in this way," he said. "By death a man joins the great company of +ancestors who are, to us, people of almost more consequence than living +folk, and of much more individual distinction. It is then at last," he +continued, delicately sipping his tea, "that the individual receives +that recognition which was denied him in the flesh. Our ancestors are +given a dwelling of their own and devotedly reverenced. This, I know, +will seem strange to Western ears, but believe me, honorable sir, the +cult is anything but funereal. For the ancestral tombs are temples and +pleasure pavilions at the same time, consecrated not simply to rites and +ceremonies, but to family gatherings and general jollification." + +This was quite a new view to me, and certainly interesting. I said so, +and Pu-Yi smiled and bowed. + +"And the fortunate defunct," he went on, "if he is still half as +sentient as his dutiful descendants suppose, must feel that his earthly +life, like other approved comedies, has ended well!" + +His voice was sad, but there was a faint, malicious mockery in it also, +and as I looked at him with an answering smile to his own, I wondered +whether that keen and subtle brain really believed in the customs of his +land. That he would be studious and rigid in their outward observance, I +knew. + +I never met, as I have said before, a more courteous gentleman than +Pu-Yi. + +"Ever been in South Germany?" said Morse suddenly--he had evidently been +pursuing a train of his own thought while the Chinaman held forth. + +"Yes, Mr. Morse, why?" + +"Then in some of those quaint, old-fashioned towns you have seen the +storks nesting on the roofs of the houses?" + +I remembered that I had. + +"Well, I've got a pair of storks--they arrived this morning from +Germany--duck and drake, or should you say cock and hen?--at any rate, +I've a sort of idea of trying to domesticate them, and to that end have +had a nest constructed on the roof of this building, where they will be +sheltered by the parapet and be high up above the roof of the City. What +do you say to going to have a look at them and see if they're all +right?" + +Extraordinary man! He had always some odd or curious idea in his mind to +improve his artificial fairyland. Nothing loth, we left Pu-Yi and +ascended a winding staircase to the roof of the great building. Save for +the lantern in the center, it was flat and made a not unpleasant +promenade. The storks were at present in a cage, and could only be +distinguished as bundles of dirty feathers in a miscellaneous litter. I +thought my friend's chance of domesticating them was very small, but he +seemed to be immensely interested in the problem. + +When we had talked it over, he gave me a cigar and we began to promenade +the whole length of the roof. As I have said, the night was clear and +calm. Again the great stars globed themselves in heaven with an +incomparable glory unknown and unsuspected by those down below. The +silence was profound, the air like iced wine. + +From where we were, we had a bird's-eye view of the whole City. Grand +Square lay immediately at our feet, brilliantly illuminated as usual. +Not a living soul was to be seen; only the dragon-fountain glittered +with mysterious life. To the right, beyond the encircling buildings of +the Square, stood the Palacete Mendoza surrounded by its gardens, a +square, white, sleeping pile. I sent a mental greeting to Juanita. So +high was the roof on which we stood that only one of the towers or +cupolas rose much above us. It was the dome of the observatory, exactly +opposite on the other side of Grand Square. + +"There is some one who isn't much troubled by sub-lunary affairs," I +said, pointing over the _machicolade_. + +Morse nodded, and expelled a blue cloud of smoke. "I guess old Chang is +the most contented fellow on earth," he said. "He is Professor, you +know, Professor Chang, and an honorary M.A. of Oxford University. I had +him from the Imperial Chinese Observatory at Pekin, and I am told he is +on the track of a new comet, or something, which is to be called after +me when he has discovered it--thus conferring immortality upon yours +truly! + +"It is an odd temper of mind," he went on more seriously, "that can +spend a whole life in patient seclusion, peering into the unknown, and +what, after all, is the unknowable. Still, he is happy, and that is the +end of human endeavor." + +He sighed, and with renewed interest I stared out at the round dome. The +slit over the telescope was open, which showed that the astronomer was +at work. In the gilded half-circle of the cupola, it was exactly like a +cut in an orange. + +I was about to make a remark, when an extraordinary thing happened. + +Without any hint or warning, there was a loud, roaring sound, like that +of some engine blowing off steam. With a "whoosh," a great column of +fire, like golden rain, rose up out of the dark aperture in the dome, +towering hundreds of feet in the sky, like the veritable comet for which +old Chang was searching, and burst high in the empyrean with a dull +explosion, followed by a swarm of brilliant, blue-white stars. + +Some one inside the observatory had fired a gigantic rocket. + +Morse gave a shout of surprise. He had a fresh cigar in his hand, and, +unknowingly, he dropped it and mechanically bit the end of his thumb +instead. + +"What was that?" I cried, echoing his shout. + +He didn't answer, but grew very white as he stepped up to the parapet, +placed his hand upon the stone, and leant forward. + +I did the same, and for nearly a minute we stared at the white, circular +tower in silence. + +Nothing happened. There was the black slit in the gold, enigmatic and +undisturbed. + +"Some experiment," I stammered at length. "Professor Chang is at work +upon some problem." + +Morse shook his head. "Not he! I'll swear that old Chang would never be +letting off fireworks without consulting or warning Pu-Yi. Kirby, there +is some black business stirring! We must look into this. I don't like it +at all--hark!" + +He suddenly stopped speaking, and put his hand to his ear. His whole +face was strained in an ecstasy of listening, which cut deep gashes into +that stern, gnarled old countenance. + +I listened also, and with dread in my heart. Instinctively and without +any process of reasoning, I knew that in some way or other the horror +was upon us again. My lips went dry and I moistened them with the tip +of my tongue; and, without conscious thought, my hand stole round to my +pistol pocket and touched the cold and roughened stock of an automatic +Webley. + +Then I heard what Morse must have heard at first. + +The air all around us was vibrating, and swiftly the vibration became a +throb, a rhythmic beat, and then a low, menacing roar which grew louder +and louder every second. + +We had turned to each other, understanding at last, and the same word +was upon our lips when the thing came--it happened as rapidly as that. + +Skimming over the top of the distant Palacete like some huge night-hawk, +and with a noise like a machine gun, came a venomous-looking, +fast-flying monoplane. It swept down into Grand Square like a living +thing, just as the noise ceased suddenly and echoed into silence. It +alighted at one end and on the side of the fountain nearest the +observatory, ran over the smooth wood-blocks for a few yards, and +stopped. It was as though the hawk had pounced down upon its prey, and +every detail was distinct and clear in the brilliant light of the lamps +in the Square below. + +Both of us seemed frozen where we stood. I know, for my part, all power +of motion left me. A choking noise came from Morse's throat, and then we +heard a cry and from immediately below us came the figure of Pu-Yi, +hurrying down the library steps and running towards the aeroplane, which +was still a considerable distance from him. + +The next thing happened very quickly. A door at the foot of the +observatory tower opened, and out came what we both thought was the +figure of the astronomer. He was a tall, bent, old man, habitually +clothed in a padded, saffron-colored robe with a hood, something like +that of a monk. + +"Chang!" I said in a hoarse whisper, when Pu-Yi stopped short in his +tracks, lifted his arm, and there was the crack of a pistol. + +The figure beyond, which was hurrying towards the monoplane, swerved +aside. The robe of padded silk fell from it and disclosed a tall man in +dark, European clothes. He dodged and writhed like an eel as Pu-Yi +emptied his automatic at him, apparently without the least result. Then +I saw that he was at the side of the aeroplane, scrambling up into the +fuselage assisted by the pilot in leather hood and goggles. + +He was up the side of the boat-like structure in a second, and then, +with one leg thrown over the car he turned and took deliberate aim at +Pu-Yi. There was one crack, he waited for an instant to be sure, and saw +that it was enough. Then there was a chunk of machinery, two or three +loud explosions, a roar, and the wings of the venomous night-hawk moved +rapidly over the parquet, chased by a black shadow. It gathered speed, +lifted, tilted upwards, and, clearing the buildings at the far end of +the Square, hummed away into the night. + + * * * * * + +It was thus that Mark Antony Midwinter escaped from the City in the +Clouds. He had been there all the time. He had murdered poor old Chang +many hours before, and impersonated him with complete success. The food +of the recluse was brought to him by servants and placed in an outer +room so that he should never be disturbed during his calculations. He +had received it with his usual muttered acknowledgments through a little +_guichet_ in the wooden partition which separated the anteroom from the +telescope chamber itself. No one had ever thought of doubting that the +astronomer himself was there as usual. The whole thing was most +carefully planned beforehand with diabolic ingenuity and resource. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +It was just three weeks after the murder of Pu-Yi, and once more I sat +in my chambers in Piccadilly. The day had been cloudy, and now, late in +the afternoon, a heavy fog had descended upon the town through which +fell a cold and intermittent rain. + +Up there, in the City in the Clouds, perhaps the sun was pouring down +upon its spires and cupolas, but London, Piccadilly, was lowering and +sad. + +Lord Arthur Winstanley and Captain Pat Moore had just left me, both of +them glum and silent. It went to my heart not to take them into my full +confidence, but to do so was impossible. I had told them much of the +recent events in the City--I could not tell them everything, for they +would not have understood. Certainly I could have relied upon their +absolute discretion, but, in view of what was going to happen that very +night, I was compelled to keep my own counsel. They had not lived +through what I had recently. Their minds were not tuned, as mine was, to +the sublime disregard and aloofness from English law which obtained in +Morse's gigantic refuge. Certainly neither of them would have agreed to +what I proposed to do that night. + +Preston came quietly into the library. He pulled the curtains and made +up the fire. The face of Preston was grim and disapproving. He looked +much as he looked when--what ages ago it seemed!--I departed his +comfortable care to become the landlord of the "Golden Swan." + +"I'm not at home to any one, Preston," I said, "except to Mr. Sliddim, +who ought to be here in a few minutes. Of course, that doesn't apply to +Mr. Rolston." + +"Very good, Sir Thomas, thank you, Sir Thomas," said Preston, scowling +at the mention of the name. Poor fellow, he didn't in the least +understand why I should be receiving the furtive and melancholy Sliddim +so often, and should sit with him in conference for long hours! +Afterwards, when it was all over, I interrogated my faithful servant, +and the state of his mind during that period proved to have been +startling. + +This seems the place in which to explain exactly what had happened up to +date. + +When Midwinter had escaped, we found the corpse of poor old Professor +Chang, and the whole plan was revealed to us. Pu-Yi had been shot +through the heart. His death must have been instantaneous. For several +days Morse was in a terrible state of depression and remorse. He said +that there was a curse upon him, and it was with the greatest difficulty +that Rolston and I could bring him into a more reasonable frame of mind. +The long strain had worn down even that iron resolution, but, for +Juanita's sake, I knew that I must stand by him to the end. + +Accordingly, there was nothing else for it, Rolston and I took entire +charge of everything. I had never felt inclined to go back from the +very beginning. Now my resolution was firm to see it through to the end. + +Rolston pursued his own plans, and London very shortly knew that Gideon +Mendoza Morse and his lovely daughter were about to reappear in the +world. It gave my little, red-haired friend intense pleasure to organize +this mild press campaign from the office of the _Evening Special_. I +placed him in complete control, to the intense joy of Miss Dewsbury and +the disgust of the older members of the staff. Be that as it may, the +thing was done, and every one knew that Birmingham House had been taken +by the millionaire. + +It was then, having organized things as perfectly as I could at the +City, placing Kwang-Su, the gigantic gate-keeper of the ground +inclosure, in charge of the staff, that I myself descended into the +world as unobtrusively as possible. For a day or two I remained in +seclusion at the "Golden Swan," and during those two days saw no one but +the Honest Fool, Mrs. Abbs, my housekeeper, and--Sliddim, the private +inquiry agent. + +Personally, while I quite appreciated the fellow's skill in his own +dirty work, and while indeed I owed him a considerable debt in the +matter of Bill Rolston's first disappearance, I disliked him too much +ever to have thought of him as a help in the very serious affair on +which I was engaged. It was Rolston, as usual, who changed my mind. He +saw farther than I did. He realized the essential secrecy and fidelity +of the odd creature whom chance had unearthed from among the creeping +things of London, and in the end he became an integral part of the +plot. + +He was told, of course, no more than was necessary. He was not by any +means in our full confidence. But he was given a part to play, and +promised a reward, if he played it well, that would make him independent +for life. Let me say at once that he fulfilled his duty with admirable +skill, and, when he received his check from Mr. Morse, vanished forever +from our ken. I have no doubt that he is spying somewhere or other on +the globe at this moment, but I have no ambition to meet him again. + +Mr. Sliddim, considerably furbished up in personal appearance, was made +caretaker at Birmingham House in Berkeley Square. He had not been in +that responsible position for more than ten days when our fish began to +nibble at the bait. + +In a certain little public house by some mews at the back of Berkeley +Square, a little public house which Mr. Sliddim was instructed--and +needed no encouragement--to frequent, he was one day accosted by a tall, +middle-aged man with a full, handsome face and a head of curling, gray +hair. This man was dressed in a seedy, shabby-genteel style, and soon +became intimate with our lure. + +Certainly, to give him his due, Sliddim must have been a supreme actor +in his way. He did the honest, but intensely stupid caretaker to the +life. Mark Antony Midwinter was completely taken in and pumped our human +conduit for all he was worth, until he was put in possession of an +entirely fictitious set of circumstances, arranged with the greatest +care to suit my plans. + +I shall not easily forget the evening when Sliddim slunk into my +dining-room and described the scene which told us we had made absolutely +no mistake and that our fish was definitely hooked. It seems that the +good Sliddim had gradually succumbed to the repeated proffer of strong +waters on the part of "Mr. Smith," his new friend. He had bragged of his +position, only lamenting that some days hence it was to come to an end, +when, in the evening, Mr. Mendoza Morse, his daughter, and a staff of +servants were to enter the house simultaneously. Sliddim, the most +consistent whisky-nipper I have ever seen--and I had some curious +side-lights on that question when I was landlord of the "Golden +Swan"--was physically almost incapable of drunkenness, but he simulated +it so well in the little pub at the back of the Square that Mark Antony +Midwinter made no ado about taking the latchkey of Birmingham House area +door from his pocket and making a waxen impression of it. + +Rolston and I knew that we were "getting very hot," as the children say +when they are playing Hunt-the-Slipper, and another visit from Sliddim +confirmed it. The plan of our enemy was perfectly clear to our minds. He +would enter the house by means of the key an hour or two before Morse +and the servants were due, conceal himself within it, and do what he had +to do in the silent hours of the night. + +It was quite certain that he believed Morse now felt himself secure, and +no doubt Midwinter had arranged a plan for his escape from Berkeley +Square, when his vengeance was complete, as ingenious and thoroughgoing +as that prepared for his literal flight from the City in the Clouds. + +And now, on this very evening, I was to throw the dice in a desperate +game with this human tiger. + +"It is for to-night certain, sir," said Sliddim when he arrived. "I've +let him know that I am leaving the house for a couple of hours this +evening, between eight and ten, to see my old mother in Camden Town. At +eleven he supposes that the servants are arriving, and at midnight Mr. +and Miss Morse. A professional friend of mine is watching our gent very +carefully. He is at present staying at a small private hotel in Soho, +and I should think you had better come to the house about seven, on +foot, and directly you ring I'll let you in. I've promised to meet our +friend at the little public house in the mews at eight, for just one +drink--he wants to be certain that I am really out of the way--and I +should say that he would be inside Birmingham House within a quarter of +an hour afterwards." + +Rolston came in before the fellow went, and a few more details were +discussed, which brought the time up to about six o'clock. + +And then I had a most unpleasant and difficult few minutes. My faithful +little lieutenant defied me for the first time since I had known him. + +"I can't tell what time I shall be back," I said, "but I shall want you +to be at the end of the telephone wire--there are plenty of telephones +in Birmingham House." + +"But I am going too, Sir Thomas," he said quickly. + +I shook my head. "No," I said, "I must go through this alone." + +"But it's impossible! You must have some one to help you, Sir Thomas! It +is madness to meet that devil alone in an empty house. It's absolutely +unnecessary, too. I _must_ go with you. I owe him one for the blow he +gave me when he escaped from the Safety-room at the City, and, +besides--" + +"Bill Rolston," I said, "the essence of fidelity is to obey orders. I +owe more to you than I can possibly say! Without you, I dread to think +what might have happened to Miss Morse and her father. But on this +occasion I am adamant. You will be far more use to me waiting here, +ready to carry out any instructions that may come over the wire." + +"Please, Sir Thomas, if I ever _have_ done anything, as you say, let me +come with you to-night." + +His voice broke in a sob of entreaty, but I steeled myself and refused +him. + +I must say he took it very well when he saw that there was no further +chance of moving me. + +"Very well then, Sir Thomas," he said, "if it must be so, it must be. I +will be back here at seven, and wait all night if necessary." + +With that, his face clouded with gloom, he went away and I was left +alone. + +Doubtless you will have gathered my motive? It would have been criminal +to let Rolston, or any one else, have a share in this last adventure. To +put it in plain English, I determined, at whatever risk to myself, to +kill Mark Antony Midwinter. + +There was nothing else for it. The law could not be invoked. While he +lived, my girl's life would be in terrible danger. The man had to be +destroyed, as one would destroy a mad dog, and it was my duty, and mine +alone, to destroy him. If I came off worst in the encounter, well, Morse +still had skilled defenders. The risk, I knew, was considerable, but it +seemed that I held the winning cards, for within two hours Midwinter +would step into a trap. + +When I had killed him I had my own plans as to the disposal of the body. +It was arranged that a considerable number of Chinese servants from the +City should arrive at eleven. If I knew those bland, yellow ruffians, it +would not be a difficult thing to dispose of Midwinter's remains, either +on the spot or by conveyal to Richmond. Another alternative was that I +should shoot him in self-defense, as an ordinary burglar. Certainly the +law would come in here, but it would be justifiable homicide and be +merely a three days' sensation. I had to catch my hare first--the method +of cooking it could be left till afterwards. + +In a drawer in my writing-table were letters to various people, +including my solicitor and my two friends, Pat Moore and Arthur +Winstanley. There was a long one, also, to Juanita. Everything was +arranged and in order. I am not aware that I felt any fear or any +particular emotion, save one of deep, abiding purpose. Nothing would now +have turned me from what I proposed to do. I had spent long thought over +it and I was perfectly convinced that it was an act of justice, +irregular, dangerous to myself, but morally defendable by every canon of +equity and right. The man was a murderer over and over again. To-night +he would receive the honor of a private execution. That was all. + +When I left my chambers, with an automatic pistol, a case of sandwiches, +and a flask of whisky-and-water, the rain was descending in a torrent. +The street was empty and dismal, and Berkeley Square itself a desert. I +don't think I saw a single person, except one police-constable in +oilskins sheltering under an archway, till I arrived at Birmingham +House. The well-known façade of the mansion was blank and cheerless. All +the blinds were down; there was not a sign of occupation. I rang, the +door opened immediately, and I slipped in. + +"I must be off, Sir Thomas," said Sliddim. "If you go through the door +on the far side of the inner hall beyond the grand staircase, you will +find yourself in a short passage with a baize door at the farther end. +Push this open, and you will be in a small lobby. The door immediately +to your left is that of the butler's pantry. It commands the service +stairs and lift to the kitchen and servants' rooms. Standing in the +doorway you will see the head of any one coming up the stairs, and--" he +gave a sickly grin and something approaching a reptilian wink. Sliddim +was an unpleasant person, and I never liked him less than at that +moment. + +With another whisper he opened the door a few inches and writhed out. + +I was left alone in Birmingham House. + +It was the queerest possible sensation, and as I crossed the great inner +hall, with its tapestries and gleaming statuary, lit now by two single +electric bulbs, I don't deny that my heart was beating a good deal +faster than was pleasant. There is always something ghostly about an +empty house, more especially when it is fully furnished and ready for +occupation. The absence of all life is uncanny, and one seems to feel +that it is hidden, not absent, and that at any moment a door may open +and some enigmatic stranger be standing there with an unpleasant welcome +in his eyes. + +Well, I slunk through all the glories of the grand hall, passed down the +passage, and came out into the servants' quarters. The little lobby, the +floor of which was covered with cork matting, was well lit, and so were +the stairs. I peered over the rail, but could not see to the bottom; +but, standing in the door of the room called the butler's pantry, I saw +that I could put a bullet through the head of any one appearing, before +he could have the slightest inkling of my presence, before he could slew +round, even, to face me. + +The butler's pantry itself was a fair-sized, comfortable room, with a +carpet on the floor and a couple of worn, padded armchairs by the +fireplace. The walls were hung with photographs; on one side was a +business-like roll-top desk, and in a corner a large safe which +obviously contained the plate in daily use in the great household. I +knew that the bulk of the valuables were stored in a strong room in +Chancery Lane. + +Upon the table Mr. Sliddim had thoughtfully placed a heavy cut-glass +decanter half full of whisky, a siphon, and--_glasses_! The whisky was +all right, but did he expect me to hobnob with Antony Midwinter, to +speed the parting guest, as it were, with a stirrup-cup? It was +difficult to suspect him of such grim humor. + +I looked at my watch. There was still a good half-hour before Midwinter +and Sliddim were due to meet in the little public house behind the +Square. I saw that my pistol was handy, and sat down in one of the +armchairs by the fireside. A pipe of the incomparable "John Cotton" +would not be amiss, I thought, wondering if I should ever taste its +fragrance again, and for some minutes I sat and smoked, placidly enough. +Then, I suppose a quarter of an hour or so must have elapsed, I began to +fidget in my chair. + +The house was so terribly still! Still, but not quite silent! Time, that +was ticking away so rapidly, had a score of small voices. There was the +faint noise of taxicabs out in the Square, the drip of the rain, an +occasional stealthy creak from the furniture, the scurry of a mouse in +the wainscot; the more remote chambers of my brain began to fill with +riot, and once my nerves jerked like a hooked fish. + +And even now I do not think it was fear. Terror, perhaps--there is a +subtle distinction--but not craven fear. I think, perhaps, it was more +the sense of something coldly evil that might even now be approaching +through the fog and rain, a lost soul inspired with cunning, hatred, and +ferocity, whom I must meet in deadly contact within a short, but +unknown, space of time.... + +"This won't do at all!" I thought, and then my eye fell on Mr. Sliddim's +hospitable preparations. I got up, went round to the other side of the +table, put my pistol down upon it, and mixed a stiff peg. + +My back was now to the open door, and I was just lifting the glass to my +lips, eagerly enough, I am afraid, when, very softly, something +descended upon each of my shoulders. + +I had not heard a sound of any sort, save the gurgle of the aerated +water in the glass, but now a shriek like that of a frightened woman +rang out into the room, and it came from me. + +I was gripped horribly by the back of the throat, whirled round with +incredible speed and force, and flung heavily against the opposite wall, +falling sideways into an armchair, gasping for breath and my eyes +staring out of my head. + +Then I saw him. Mark Antony Midwinter was standing on the other side of +the table, smiling at me. He wore a fashionable morning coat and a silk +hat. Under his left arm was a gold-headed walking-cane, and he carried +his gloves in his left hand. In the right was the gleaming blue-black of +an automatic pistol, pointed at my heart. + +At that, I pulled myself together. In an instant I knew that I had +failed. The brute must already have been in the house when Sliddim +admitted me--he had outwitted all of us! + +"Ah!" he said, "Sir Thomas Kirby! You have crossed my path very many +times of late, Sir Thomas, and I have long wished to make your +acquaintance." + +His voice was suave and cultured. The rather full, clean-shaved face had +elements of fineness--many women would have called him a handsome man. +But in his dull and opaque eyes there was such a glare of cold +malignity, such unutterable cruelty and hate, that the whole room grew +like an ice-house in a moment; for it is not often that any man sees a +veritable fiend of hell looking out of the eyes of another. + +"You have come a little earlier than I expected," I managed to say, but +my voice rang cracked and thin. + +"It is a precaution that I frequently take, Sir Thomas, and one very +much justified in the present instance. To tell the truth, I had little +or no suspicion that I was walking into a trap--that much to you! But a +life of shocks"--here he laughed pleasantly, but the little steel disk +pointed at my heart never wavered a hair's breadth--"has taught me +always to have something in reserve. I see that I shall not have the +pleasure of settling accounts with Mr. Gideon Morse and his daughter +to-night. Well, that can wait. Meanwhile, I propose within a few seconds +to remove another obstacle from my path--do you think the mandarin, +Pu-Yi, will be waiting for you at the golden gates, Sir Thomas Kirby?" + +So this was the end! I braced myself to meet it. + +"How long?" I said. + +"I will count a hundred slowly," he answered. + +He began, and I stared dumbly at the pistol. I could not think--I could +not commend my soul to my Maker even. The function of thought was +entirely arrested. + +"Thirty ... thirty-one ... thirty-two!" + +And then I suddenly burst out laughing. + +My laughter, I know, was perfectly natural, full of genuine merriment. +Something had happened which seemed to me irresistibly comic. He stopped +and stared at me, his face changing ever so little. + +"May I ask," he said, "what tickled your sense of humor?" + +What had tickled my sense of humor was this. Stealing round from behind +him, right under his very nose, so to speak, but quite unseen, was an +arm which with infinite care and slowness was removing the heavy +cut-glass decanter from the table. It vanished. It reappeared in the air +behind him in a flashing diamond and amber circle. + +"Have some whisky, Mr. Midwinter," I said, as it descended with a crash +upon the side of his head. + +Without a sound he sank into a huddled heap out of my sight, hidden by +the table. + +"You little devil!" I said, staggering to my feet, for Bill Rolston +stood there, white-faced and grinning. "I had to come, Sir Thomas," he +said, "it wasn't any use." + +"Have you killed him, Bill?" + +We bent down and made an examination. Midwinter's face was dark and +suffused with blood, but his pulses were all right. + +"What a pity!" said Rolston. "Help me to get him on to that chair, Sir +Thomas, and we'll tie him up. If I had killed him, it would have been so +much simpler!" + +We dragged the unconscious man to the very armchair where I had sat +under the menace of his pistol, and, tearing the tablecloth into strips, +tied him securely. + +"Fortunately," said Bill, "I didn't break the decanter. The stopper +didn't even come out! You look pretty sick, Sir Thomas"--and indeed a +horrible feeling of nausea had come over me, and my hands were +shaking--"let's each have a drink and then I'll tell you what I think." + +We sat down on each side of the table, and I listened to him as if the +whole thing were some curious dream. For the second time I had been +snatched from the very brink of death, and though I suppose I ought to +have been getting used to it my only sensation was one of limpness and +collapse. + +"Can you do it?" my little friend said, pointing to the pistol between +us. + +I took it up, weighed it in my hand, half-pointed it at the stiff, +red-faced figure in the chair, and laid it down again. + +"No, I'm damned if I can!" I answered. And then--I must have been more +than half-dazed--I actually said: "You have a go, Bill." + +He looked at me in horror. + +"Murder him in cold blood! I should never know a moment's peace, Sir +Thomas!" + +"Well, you nearly did it in hot, and you've just been tempting me--" + +"Let us bring him to, if we can," he said, tactfully changing the +conversation and advancing upon our friend with the siphon of +soda-water. + +There was a grotesque horror about the whole of our adventure that +night. I laughed weakly as the soda hissed and the stream of aerated +water splashed over Midwinter's face. + +Before the final gurgle he awoke. His eyes opened without speculation. +Then his jaw dropped. For a moment his face was as vacant as a doll's, +and then it flared up into a snarl of realization and hatred, only, in +another instant, to settle down into a dead calm. + +"My turn now," I said. + +He knew the game was up. I will do him the justice to say he did not +flinch. + +"Very well, count a hundred," was his answer, and his eye fell to the +two pistols on the table--his own and mine. + +I shook my head. "I can't do it--I wish I could!" + +"You'll find it quite easy--I speak from experience," he replied, with a +desperate, evil grin. + +"No. I have talked the situation over with my friend. You are going to +die, that is very certain, but not by my hand now, and not, Mr. +Midwinter, by the hand of the English law." + +He was very quick. Even then he had an inkling of my meaning, for a +perceptible shadow fell over his face and his eyes narrowed to slits. + +"You mean?" + +"We are going to telephone to the City in the Clouds. People will come +from there and take you away--that will be easily managed. You will have +some form of trial, and then--execution." + +I never saw a change from red to white so sudden. That big face suddenly +became a hideous, sickly white, toneless and opaque like the belly of a +sole. + +"You won't deliver me to the Chinese?" he gasped. "You can't know them +as I do. They'd take a week killing me! They have horrible secrets--" + +His voice died away in a whimper, and if ever I saw a man in deadly +terror, it was that man then. + +But I hardened my heart. I remembered how Morse and Juanita had suffered +for two years at this man's hands. I remembered four murders, to my own +knowledge, and I shrugged my shoulders. + +"I can't help that. You have made your bed, and you must lie upon it." + +"But such a bed!" he murmured, and his head fell forward on his chest. + +His arms were bound at the elbow, but he could move the lower portion, +and he now brought his right hand to his face. + +"I'll telephone," said Bill, and went to the wall by the door where hung +the instrument. + +I sat gloomily watching the man in the chair. + +What was he doing? His jaw was moving up and down. He seemed biting at +his wrist. + +Suddenly there was a slight, tearing, ripping noise, followed by a jerk +backwards of his head and a deep intake of the breath. + +"What is he doing?" Rolston said, turning round with the receiver of the +telephone at his ear. + +Midwinter held out his arm. I saw that the braid round the cuff of his +morning coat was hanging in a little strip. + +"I told you I always had something in reserve," he said, showing all his +teeth as he grinned at me. "Always something up my sleeve--literally, in +this case. I have just swallowed a little capsule of prussic acid +which--" + +If you want to learn of how a man dies who has swallowed hydrocyanic +acid--the correct term, I believe--consult a medical dictionary. It is +not a pleasant thing to see in actual operation, but, thank heavens, it +is speedy! + +The sweat was pouring down my face when it was over, but Bill Rolston +had not turned a hair. + +"Put something over his face, Sir Thomas," he said, "and I'll get +through to Mr. Morse." + + + + +ENVOI + + +I take up my pen this evening, exactly ten years after I wrote the last +paragraph of the above narrative, to read of James Antony Midwinter, +dead like a poisoned rat in his chair, with a sort of amazement in my +mind. + +The whole story has been locked in a safe for ten long years, and that +blessed and happy time has made the wild adventures, the terrible +moments in the City in the Clouds, indeed seem things far off and long +ago. + +This afternoon I paid what will probably be my last visit to the strange +kingdom up there. + +I stood with my little son, Viscount Kirby, and my small daughter, Lady +Juanita, and my wife, the Countess of Stax, at a very solemn ceremony. + +In the presence of a Government official, a representative of His +Majesty--Colonel Patrick Moore, of the Irish Guards, A.D.C.--the +Cardinal Archbishop, and a few private friends, I watched the elmwood +shell, containing Gideon Mendoza Morse, placed in its marble tomb. + +It was his wish, to be buried there in his fantastic City, and no one +said him nay. Well, the body lies in its place, two hundred weeping +Chinamen are returning to the Flowery Land, wealthy beyond their utmost +hopes, and in a few months the City in the Clouds will dissolve and +disappear. + +The rich treasures are coming to Stax, my castle in Norfolk--such as +are not bequeathed, by Morse's munificence, to the museums of England +and the galleries at Brazil. + +Soon the immense plateau will be England's aerial terminus for the mail +ships from all parts of the world. + +While Gideon Morse lived it was impossible to publish the truth. It is +to appear now, at last, and I simply want to tie a few loose ends, and +to bring down the curtain, leaving nothing unexplained. + +First of all let me say that the general public knew nothing at all of +the horrors in which I was so intimately concerned. + +Juanita and I were married very quietly in Westminster Cathedral soon +after Midwinter went to his account. The enormous fortune that she +brought me, supplementing my own very considerable means, operated in +the natural way. Other journals were added to the _Evening Special_, and +we started a great campaign for the sweetening of ordinary life, and not +unsuccessfully, as every one knows. + +They made me a baron, and four years afterwards, Earl of Stax. As for my +father-in-law, he refused to budge from the City in the Clouds. + +I don't mean that he didn't make appearances in society, but he loved to +get back to his fantastic haven, from whence, like a magician, he +showered benefits upon London. + +Arthur Winstanley, as everybody knows, is Under-Secretary for India and +the most rising politician of our day. + +It is said that William Rolston, editor of the _Evening Special_, is +our most brilliant journalist, though the older school condemn him for +an excess of imagination. I saw the other day, in the old-fashioned +_Thunderer_, a slashing attack upon a series of articles which had +recently appeared upon China, and which the critic of the _Thunderer_ +conclusively proved to be written from an abysmal depth of ignorance. + +I don't often go to the office now, though I am still proprietor of the +paper, but when I do, and sit in the editorial room, I miss Julia +Dewsbury, best of all private secretaries since the beginning of the +world. + +Bill, however, assures me that she is all right, entirely taken up with +the children, and not in the least inclined to bully him in spite of her +eight years advantage in age. + +"To that woman," says Bill reverentially, "I owe everything." + +Let me wind up properly. + +Crouching behind a high wall on Richmond Hill is a modest hostelry still +known as the "Golden Swan." It is still my property, and pays me a +satisfactory dividend. It is run by a co-partnership, which I should say +is unique. + +The Honest Fool and my ex-valet, Mr. Preston, perform this feat +together, but, now that Morse is dead and the Chinese have all departed, +I fear they will lose a good deal of custom. This I gathered from Mr. +Mogridge, that pillar of the saloon bar, who happened to meet me by +chance in Fleet Street not long ago. + +"'Allo! Why, it's Mr. Thomas, late landlord of the 'Golden Swan'!" said +Mr. Mogridge. "'Aven't seen you for years. What are you doing now?" + +"Oh, I'm doing very well, thank you, Mr. Mogridge. And how is the old +'Swan'?" + +"Same as ever and no dropping off in the quality of the drinks. Still, I +fear it's going down. I'm afraid it will never be quite the same as it +was in the days of Ting-A-ling-A-ling," and here Mr. Mogridge placed his +hands upon his hips and roared with laughter at that ancient joke. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The City in the Clouds, by C. 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Ranger Gull + +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 City in the Clouds + +Author: C. Ranger Gull + +Release Date: August 30, 2011 [EBook #37270] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS</h1> + +<h2>BY C. RANGER GULL</h2> + +<h3>Author of "The Air Pirate"</h3> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/tpdeco.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY</p> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY<br /> +HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.</p> + +<p class="center">PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY<br /> +THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY<br /> +RAHWAY. N. J.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<blockquote> +<h3>TO<br /> +SIR GRIFFITH BOYNTON, <span class="smcap">Bt.</span></h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Boynton</span>,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">We have had some strange adventures together, though not as strange and +exciting as the ones treated of in this story. At any rate, accept it as +a souvenir of those gay days before the War, which now seem an age away. +Recall a Christmas dinner in the Villa Sanglier by the Belgian Sea, a +certain moonlit midnight in the Grand' Place of an ancient, famous city, +and above all, the stir and ardors of the Masked Ball at Vieux +Bruges.—Haec olim meminisse juvabit!</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Yours</span>,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">C. R. G.<br /></span> +</div></div> +</blockquote> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>NOTE<br /> +<span class="smcap">By Sir Thomas Kirby, Bt.</span></h3> + +<blockquote> +<p>The details of this prologue to the astounding occurrences which it is +my privilege to chronicle, were supplied to me when my work was just +completed.</p> + +<p>It forms the starting point of the story, which travels straight +onwards.</p></blockquote> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#PROLOGUE">PROLOGUE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_ONE">CHAPTER ONE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_TWO">CHAPTER TWO</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_THREE">CHAPTER THREE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_FOUR">CHAPTER FOUR</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_FIVE">CHAPTER FIVE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_SIX">CHAPTER SIX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_SEVEN">CHAPTER SEVEN</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_EIGHT">CHAPTER EIGHT</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_NINE">CHAPTER NINE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_TEN">CHAPTER TEN</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_ELEVEN">CHAPTER ELEVEN</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_TWELVE">CHAPTER TWELVE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_THIRTEEN">CHAPTER THIRTEEN</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_FOURTEEN">CHAPTER FOURTEEN</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_FIFTEEN">CHAPTER FIFTEEN</a><br /> +<a href="#ENVOI">ENVOI</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PROLOGUE" id="PROLOGUE"></a>PROLOGUE</h2> + + +<p>Under a gay awning of red and white which covered a portion of the +famous roof-garden of the Palacete Mendoza at Rio, reclined Gideon +Mendoza Morse, the richest man in Brazil, and—it was said—the third +richest man in the world.</p> + +<p>He lay in a silken hammock, smoking those little Brazilian cigarettes +which are made of fragrant black tobacco and wrapped in maize leaf.</p> + +<p>It was afternoon, the hour of the siesta. From where he lay the +millionaire could look down upon his marvelous gardens, which surrounded +the white palace he had built for himself, peerless in the whole of +South America.</p> + +<p>The trunks of great trees were draped with lianas bearing +brilliantly-colored flowers of every hue. There were lawns edged with +myrtle, mimosa, covered with the golden rain of their blossoms, immense +palms, lazily waving their fans in the breeze of the afternoon, and set +in the lawns were marble pools of clear water from the center of which +fountains sprang. There was a continual murmur of insects and flashes +of rainbow-colored light as the tiny, brilliant humming birds whirred +among the flowers. Great butterflies of blue, silver, and vermilion, +butterflies as large as bats, flapped languidly over the ivory ferns, +and the air was spicy and scented with vanilla.</p> + +<p>Beyond the gardens was the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, the most beautiful bay +in all the world, dominated by the great sugar-loaf mountain, the Pão de +Azucar, and studded with green islands.</p> + +<p>Gideon Morse took a pair of high-powered field-glasses from a table by +his side and focused them upon the harbor.</p> + +<p>A large white yacht, lying off Governador, swam into the circle, a +five-thousand-ton boat driven by turbines and oil fuel, the fastest and +largest private yacht in existence.</p> + +<p>Gideon Morse gave a little quiet, patient sigh, as if of relief.</p> + +<p>He was a man of sixty odd, with a thick thatch of white hair which came +down upon his wrinkled forehead in a peak. His face was tanned to the +color of an old saddle, his nose beaked like a hawk, and his mouth was a +mere lipless cut which might have been made by a knife. A strong jaw +completed an impression of abnormal quiet, and long enduring strength. +Indeed the whole face was a mask of immobility. Beneath heavy black +brows were eyes as dark as night, clear, but without expression. No one +looking at them could ever tell what were the thoughts behind. For the +rest, he was a man of medium height, thick-set, wiry, and agile.</p> + +<p>A brief sketch of Gideon Mendoza Morse's career must be given here. His +mother was a Spanish lady of good family, resident in Brazil; his father +an American gentleman of Old Virginia, who had settled there after the +war between North and South. Morse was born a native of Brazil. His +parents left him a moderate fortune which he proceeded to expand with +extraordinary rapidity and success. When the last Emperor, Dom Pedro +II., was deposed in 1889, Gideon Mendoza Morse was indeed a rich man, +and a prominent politician.</p> + +<p>He took a great part in establishing the Republic, though in his earlier +years he had leaned towards the Monarchy, and he shared in the immense +prosperity which followed the change.</p> + +<p>His was not a paper fortune. The fluctuations of stocks and shares could +hardly influence it. He owned immense coffee plantations in Para, and +was practically the monopolist of the sugar regions of Maranhao, but his +greatest revenues came from his immense holdings in gold, manganese, and +diamond mines. He had married a Spanish lady early in his career and was +now a widower with one daughter.</p> + +<p>She came up upon the roof-garden now, a tall slip of a girl with an +immense quantity of lustrous, dead-black hair, and a voice as clear as +an evening bell.</p> + +<p>"Father," she said in English—she had been at school at Eastbourne, and +had no trace of Spanish accent—"what is the exact hour that we sail?"</p> + +<p>Morse slipped out of the hammock and took her arm in his.</p> + +<p>"At ten to-night, Juanita," he replied, patting her hand. "Are you glad, +then?"</p> + +<p>"Glad! I cannot tell you how much."</p> + +<p>"To leave all this"—he waved his hand at what was probably the most +perfect prospect earth has to offer—"to leave all this for the fogs and +gloom of London?"</p> + +<p>"I don't mind the fogs, which, by the way, are tremendously exaggerated. +Of course I love Rio, father, but I long to be in London, the heart of +the world, where all the nicest people are and where a girl has freedom +such as she never has here."</p> + +<p>"Freedom!" he said. "Ah!"—and was about to continue when a native +Indian servant in a uniform of white linen with gold shoulder knots, +advanced towards them with a salver upon which were two calling cards.</p> + +<p>Morse took the cards. A slight gleam came into his eyes and passed, +leaving his face as impassive as before.</p> + +<p>"You must run away, darling," he said to Juanita. "I have to see some +gentlemen. Are all your preparations made?"</p> + +<p>"Everything. All the luggage has gone down to the harbor except just a +couple of hand-bags which my maid has."</p> + +<p>"Very well then, we will have an early meal and leave at dusk."</p> + +<p>The girl flitted away. Morse gave some directions to the servant, and, +shortly after, the rattle of a lift was heard from a little cupola in +one corner of the roof.</p> + +<p>Two men stepped out and came among the palms and flowers to the +millionaire.</p> + +<p>One was a thin, dried-up, elderly man with a white mustache—the Marquis +da Silva; his companion, powerful, black-bearded and yellow-faced, +obviously with a touch of the half-caste in him—Don Zorilla y Toro.</p> + +<p>"Pray be seated," said Morse, with a low bow, though he did not offer to +shake hands with either of them. "May I ask to what I owe the pleasure +of this visit?"</p> + +<p>"It is very simple, señor," said the marquis, "and you must have +expected a visit sooner or later."</p> + +<p>The old man, speaking in the pure Spanish of Castille, trembled a little +as he sat at a round table of red lima-wood encrusted with +mother-of-pearl.</p> + +<p>"We are, in short," said the burly Zorilla, "ambassadors."</p> + +<p>They were now all seated round the table, under the shade of a palm +whose great fans clicked against each other in the evening breeze which +began to blow from the cool heights of the sugar-loaf mountain. The face +of Gideon Morse was inscrutable as ever. It might have been a mask of +leather; but the old Spanish nobleman was obviously ill at ease, and the +bulging eyes of the well-dressed half-caste, with his diamond cuff links +and ring, spoke of suppressed and furious passion.</p> + +<p>In a moment tragedy had come into this paradise.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we are ambassadors," echoed the marquis with a certain eagerness.</p> + +<p>"A grand and full-sounding word," said Gideon Morse. "I may be permitted +to ask—from whom?"</p> + +<p>Quick as lightning Don Zorilla held out his hand over the table, opened +it, and closed it again. There was a little glint of light from his palm +as he did so.</p> + +<p>Morse leant back in his chair and smiled. Then he lit one of his pungent +cigarettes.</p> + +<p>"So! Are you playing with those toys still, gentlemen?"</p> + +<p>The marquis flushed. "Mendoza," he said, "this is idle trifling. You +must know very well—"</p> + +<p>"I know nothing, I want to know nothing."</p> + +<p>The marquis said two words in a low voice, and then the heads of the +three men drew very close together. For two or three minutes there was a +whispering like the rustle of the dry grasses of the Brazilian campos, +and then Morse drew back his chair with a harsh noise.</p> + +<p>"Enough!" he said. "You are madmen, dreamers! You come to me after all +these years, to ask me to be a party in destroying the peace and +prosperity our great country enjoys and has enjoyed for more than thirty +years. You ask me, twice President of the Republic which I helped to +make—"</p> + +<p>Zorilla lifted his hand and the great Brazilian diamonds in his rings +shot out baleful fires.</p> + +<p>"Enough, señor," he said in a thick voice. "That is your unalterable +decision?"</p> + +<p>Morse laughed contemptuously. "While Azucar stands," he said, "I stand +where I am, and nothing will change me."</p> + +<p>"You stand where you are, Mendoza," said the marquis with a new gravity +and dignity in his voice, "but I assure you it will not be for long. You +have two years to run, that's true. But at the end of them be sure, oh, +be very sure, that the end will come, and swiftly."</p> + +<p>Morse rose.</p> + +<p>"I will endeavor to put the remaining two years to good use," he said, +with grim and almost contemptuous mockery.</p> + +<p>"Do so, señor," said Zorilla, "but remember that in our forests the +traveler may press onward for days and weeks, and all the time in the +tree-tops, the silent jaguar is following, following, waiting—"</p> + +<p>"I have traveled a good deal in our forests in my youth, Don Zorilla. I +have even slain many jaguars."</p> + +<p>The three men looked at each other steadily and long, then the two +visitors bowed and turned to go. But, just as they were moving off +towards the lift dome, Zorilla turned back and held out a card to Don +Mendoza. It was an ordinary visiting card with a name engraved upon it.</p> + +<p>Morse took it, looked at the name, and then stood still and frozen in +his tracks.</p> + +<p>He did not move until the whirr of the bell and the clang of the gate +told him the roof-garden was his own again.</p> + +<p>Then he staggered to the table like a drunken man, sank into a chair and +bowed his head upon the gleaming pearl and crimson.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ONE" id="CHAPTER_ONE"></a>CHAPTER ONE</h2> + + +<p>When my father died and left me his large fortune I also inherited that +very successful London newspaper, the <i>Evening Special</i>. I decided to +edit it myself.</p> + +<p>To be six-and-twenty, to live at high pressure, to go everywhere, see +everything, know everybody, and above all to have Power, this is success +in life. I would not have changed my position in London for the +Premiership.</p> + +<p>On the evening of Lady Brentford's dance, I dined alone in my Piccadilly +flat. There was nothing much doing in the way of politics and I had been +playing golf at Sandown the whole of the day. I hadn't seen the paper +until now, when Preston brought it in—the last edition—and I opened it +over my coffee.</p> + +<p>There were, and are, few things that I love better than the <i>Evening +Special</i>. I claim for it that it is the most up-to-date evening +newspaper in England, bright and readable from the word "go," and +singularly accurate in all its information.</p> + +<p>There was a long time yet before I need dress, and I sat by the balcony, +with the mellow noises of Piccadilly on an early summer's evening +pouring into the room, and read the rag through.</p> + +<p>On one of the last pages, where the society gossip and women's chat +appear, I saw something that interested me. Old Miss Easey, who writes +the society news, was one of my most valued contributors. With her +hooked nose, her beady black eyes and marvelous coffee-colored wig, she +went everywhere by right of birth, for she was connected with half the +peerage. Her news was accurate and real. She faked nothing, because she +got all her stuff from the inside, and this was known all over London. +She was well worth the thousand a year I paid her, and the daily column +signed "Vera" was an accepted fact in the life of London society.</p> + +<p>To-day the old girl had let herself go. It seemed—of course there had +been paragraphs in the papers for some days—that the great Brazilian +millionaire, Gideon Mendoza Morse, had exploded in society like a bomb. +He had taken a whole floor of the Ritz Hotel, and it was rumored that he +was going to buy an empty palace in Park Lane and astonish town. Every +one was saying that he had wealth beyond the dreams of avarice—which +is, of course, awful rot when you come to think of it, because there are +no bounds whatever to avarice.</p> + +<p>"Vera" was not expatiating upon the Brazil Nut's wealth, but upon his +only daughter. It was put in a veiled way, and that with well-bred +reticence for which we paid Miss Easey a thousand a year—no cheap gush, +thank you, in the <i>Evening Special</i>—that Miss Morse was a young girl of +such superlative loveliness that there was not a débutante to come +within a mile of her. I gathered, also, that the young lady's first very +public appearance was to be made to-night at the house of the +Marchioness of Brentford in Belgrave Square.</p> + +<p>The news certainly gave an additional interest to the prospect of the +evening, and I wondered what the girl was really like.</p> + +<p>I had motored up from Sandown and sat down to dinner as I was. Perhaps I +was rather tired, but as I sat by the window and dusk came over the +Green Park while all the lights of Piccadilly were lit, I sank into a +sort of doze, assisted by the deep, organ-like hum of the everlasting +traffic.</p> + +<p>Yes, I must really have fallen asleep, for I was certainly in the middle +of some wild and alluring adventure, when I woke with a start to find +all the lights in my dining-room turned on, Preston standing by the +door, and Pat Moore shaking me violently by the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Confound you, don't do that!" I shouted, jumping up—Pat Moore was six +feet two in height, and the heaviest man in the Irish Guards. "Hallo, +what are you doing here?"</p> + +<p>"It's myself that has looked in for a drink," he said. "I thought we'd +go to the ball together."</p> + +<p>I was a little more awake by this time and saw that Pat was in full +evening kit, and very grand he looked. He was supposed to be the +handsomest man in London, on the large swaggering side, and certainly, +whether in uniform or mufti, he was a very splendid figure. +Nevertheless, he had no more idea of side than a spaniel dog, and he was +just about as kind and faithful as the sportsman's friend. He possessed +a certain downright honesty and common sense that endeared him to every +one, though his own mother would hardly have called him clever. At an +earlier period of our lives he had caned me a good deal at Eton, and it +was difficult to get out of his dear, stupid old head that he had not +some vague rights over me in that direction still.</p> + +<p>"Now, Tom," he said, pouring himself out a mighty drink—for his head +was cast-steel, "you go and make yourself look pretty and then come back +here, 'cos I have something to tell you."</p> + +<p>I went obediently away, bathed, shaved, was assisted by Preston into +evening clothes and returned to the dining-room about a quarter to ten.</p> + +<p>"What have you got to tell me, Pat?"</p> + +<p>He thought for a moment. I believe that he always had to summon his +words out of some cupboard in his brain—"Tom, I've seen the most +beautiful girl in the world."</p> + +<p>"Then leg it, Pat, hare away from temptation, or she'll have you!"—Pat +had ten thousand a year and had been a dead mark for all sorts of +schemes for the last two years.</p> + +<p>"Don't be a silly ass, Tom, you don't know what you're talking about. +This is serious."</p> + +<p>"I don't know who <i>you're</i> talking about."</p> + +<p>He was heaving himself out of his chair to explain, when the door opened +and Preston announced "Lord Arthur Winstanley."</p> + +<p>"Hallo, what brings you here?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Thought I'd come in for a drink. Saw you were going to mother's +to-night, Tom, thought we might as well be going together. Hallo, Pat. +You coming along too?"</p> + +<p>"Thought of doin' so," said Captain Moore.</p> + +<p>Arthur threw himself into a chair—slim, clean shaved, with curly black +hair and dark blue eyes, his clean-cut, clever face alive with youth and +vitality.</p> + +<p>"Tom," he said to me, "to-night you are going to see the most beautiful +girl in the world."</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" Pat shouted, "you've seen her too?"</p> + +<p>"Seen her? Of course I have. Mother's giving the dance for her +to-night."</p> + +<p>Then I understood.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss Morse?" I said.</p> + +<p>"Jooaneeta!" said Pat in his rich, Irish voice.</p> + +<p>"Generally pronounced 'Whanita' soft—like tropic moonlight, my old +geranium," said Arthur.</p> + +<p>"Sure, your pronunciation won't do at all, at all."</p> + +<p>Pat twirled the end of his huge mustache, then he heaved a cushion. "You +and your talk!" he said.</p> + +<p>"Well, I've not seen her," I remarked, "but I'm quite willing to take +the word of two experts. Isn't it about time we went?"</p> + +<p>Winstanley produced a platinum watch no thicker than a half-crown from +the pocket of his white waistcoat.</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps it might be," he said. "We can take up strategic +positions, and get there before the crush. Although I don't live at +home, I've got a snug little couple of rooms they keep for me, and +mother will see that—"</p> + +<p>He smiled to himself.</p> + +<p>"Now look here," I said, "fair does! You are already half-way up the +course with the fair Brazilian, but do let your pals have a chance. I +suppose all the world will be round her, but do see that Pat and I have +a small look in."</p> + +<p>"Of course I will. We've done too much hunting together, we three. I +tell you, Tom, you will be bowled clean over at the very sight of her. +There never was such a girl since Cleopatra was a flapper. Now, send old +Preston for a taxi and we'll get to cover side."</p> + +<p>It was about half-past ten as we entered the hospitable portals of +Brentford House in Belgrave Square. There was a tremendous crush; I +never remember seeing so many people at Lady Brentford's, for, though +everybody went to her parties, they were never overcrowded, owing to the +immense size of the famous old London House.</p> + +<p>Pat Moore and I kept close to Arthur, who, as a son of the house, knew +his way a great deal better than we did, and we soon found ourselves at +the top of the staircase and close to the alcove where Lady Brentford +and her daughter, Lady Joan Winstanley, were standing, while I saw the +bald head of the marquis, who was as innocent of hair as a new laid egg, +shining in the background.</p> + +<p>Dear Lady Brentford greeted Pat—who had formed a sort of battering-ram +for us on the staircase—with marked kindness. It was thought that she +saw in him a prospective husband for Arthur's sister. After greeting his +mother and asking a question, Arthur went off at once and my turn came.</p> + +<p>"My dear Sir Thomas, I am so glad to see you. Are you like all the other +young men in London to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I sincerely hope not," I told her, though I knew very well what she +meant.</p> + +<p>We were old friends, and she was not deceived for a moment. "I +understand you perfectly, you wicked boy."</p> + +<p>"Well then, Lady Brentford"—I lowered my voice—"has she come?"</p> + +<p>Her eyes gleamed.</p> + +<p>"Not yet, but I am expecting her every moment. Now, I am going to be +kind to you. You wait here, just a little behind me, and I'll introduce +you at once."</p> + +<p>I hope I looked as grateful as I felt, for I confess my curiosity was +greatly aroused, and besides it would be such a score over Pat and +Arthur. There's something in power after all! Had I been merely Tom +Kirby whose father had received a baronetcy for, say, soap, Lady +Brentford would not have been nearly as nice, even though Arthur and I +had been bosom friends at Oxford. But you see I was the <i>Evening +Special</i> and that meant much, especially in a political house like this.</p> + +<p>I waited, and talked a little with Lord Brentford, that sterling, +old-fashioned member of more Cabinets than one would care to count. He +said "hum," and then "ha," and then "hum" again, which was the extent of +his conversation on every occasion except that of a specially good +dinner, when he added "ho."</p> + +<p>And then, I suppose it was about eleven o'clock, there was a stir and a +movement all down the grand staircase. Except that the band in the +ballroom did not burst into the strains of the National Anthem, it was +exactly like the arrival of royalty. Coming up the staircase was a +thick-set man of medium height with white hair, a brown face, and good +features, but of such immobility that they might have been carved in +sandstone. By his side, very simply dressed, and wearing no ornament but +one rope of great pearls, came Juanita Morse.</p> + +<p>If I live for a thousand years I shall never forget that first vision of +her. I have seen all the beauties of London, Paris and Rome, danced with +many of them, spoken at least to the majority, but never before or since +have I seen such luminous and compelling loveliness. It is almost +impossible for me to describe her, a presumption indeed, when so many +abler pens than mine have hymned her praises. The poets of two +Continents have lain their garlands of song at her little feet. She has +been the theme of innumerable articles in the Press, the heroine of a +dozen novels. And yet I must give some impression of her, I suppose. She +was slender and tall, though not too tall. Her hair, which must have +fallen to her feet and enveloped her like a cloud of night, was dead +black. But it was not the coarse, lifeless black of so many women of the +Latin race. It was as fine as spun silk, gleaming, vital and full of +electricity—a live thing of itself, so it seemed to me. Her father's +eyes were unpolished jet, but hers were of a deep blue-black, large, +lustrous, and of unfathomable depth. They were never the same for two +moments together and the light within them was forever new. But what's +the good of a catalogue—after all, it expresses very little. There was +not a feature of her face, not a line of her form that was not perfect, +and her smile was the last real enchantment left in the modern world....</p> + +<p>In two minutes, I, I—Tom Kirby, was walking towards the ballroom with +her hand upon my arm. How all the women stared, nodded and whispered! +how all the men hated me! I caught sight of Pat and Arthur, and, lo! +their faces were as those who lie in wait, who grin like dogs and run +about the city—as I told them some hours afterwards.</p> + +<p>Thank heavens that all the vulgar modern dances were not only perishing +of their own inanity at that time, but had never been allowed in +Brentford House. The best band in town had begun a delightful waltz, and +we slipped into it together as if passing through curtains into +dreamland.</p> + +<p>I don't remember that we said very much to each other—certainly I was +not going to ask her how she liked London and so forth. She did not seem +the sort of girl to appreciate the farthing change of talk.</p> + +<p>But, somehow or other, we conversed with our eyes. I was as certain of +this as of the fact that I was dancing with her, and, long after, in a +situation and moment of the most deadly peril, she confessed it to me.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of the dance, when the flutes and violins glided into +the last movement, I said this—"Miss Morse, I know that I am doing the +most dreadful thing. All London wants to dance with you to-night, and I +have had the great privilege of being the very first. But could you, do +you think you possibly could, give me just one more dance later on in +the evening?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I will, Sir Thomas," she said, and her voice was as clear as +an evening bell. "I think you dance beautifully."</p> + +<p>We circled round the room for the last time and then I resigned her to +Lady Brentford, who was looking after the girl, with an eloquent look of +thanks. Immediately she became swallowed up by a regiment of black +coats, and I saw her no more for a time.</p> + +<p>I am extremely fond of dancing, but I sought out no other damsel now, +but went to a buffet and drank a long glass of iced hock-cup—as if that +was going to quench the fever within! Then I found my way to a lonely +spot in one of the conservatories and sat thinking hard. I will say +nothing as to the nature of my reverie—it may very easily be guessed. +But from time to time I concentrated all my powers in living over again +the divine moments of that dance. I was finally, irrevocably, +passionately in love. It seems the maddest thing to say for a +hard-headed, level-minded man of the world such as I was. I suppose I +had known her for just about quarter of an hour, and yet I knew that +there would never be any other woman for me and that when my days were +at an end her name would be the only one upon my lips.</p> + +<p>A little later on in the evening, before my second and final dance with +his daughter, I had the opportunity of a talk with Mr. Morse himself. I +say at once, and I am not letting myself be colored by what happened +afterwards and the intimate relations into which I was thrown with him, +I say at once that I found him charming. There was an immense force and +power about him, but this was not obtruded upon one, as I have known it +to be in the case of other extremely wealthy and successful men, both +English and American. This super-millionaire had all the graces of +speech and courtesy of manner of the Spanish great gentleman. And +curiously enough, he took to me. I was quite certain of that. Whether he +wanted to use me in any way—and nine-tenths of the people I met +generally did—I could not have said. At any rate I determined that if +he did I was very much at his disposal.</p> + +<p>We watched Miss Morse dancing with old Pat, who, for all his sixteen +stone, was as light as a cat on his feet.</p> + +<p>"Do you know who that is dancing with Juanita?" Morse asked simply.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Captain Moore, Patrick Moore, of the Irish Guards. He is one +of my most intimate friends and one of the best fellows in the world."</p> + +<p>Then Morse said a curious thing, which I could not fathom just then. He +said it half to me and half to himself in a curiously, thoughtful way.</p> + +<p>"—A fine fellow to have with one in an emergency."</p> + +<p>Well, of course, I didn't like to tell him that dear old Pat, while he +had common sense enough to come indoors while it rained, had no mind—in +the real sense of that word—whatever. It did not occur to me for a +moment that Gideon Morse might have been speaking simply of Pat's +<i>physical</i> qualities.</p> + +<p>Pat's face was marvelous to look upon. It was one great, glowing mass of +happiness. He did not take the least trouble to disguise his ecstasy, +and if ever a man showed he was in paradise, Pat Moore did then. It was +different when Juanita danced with Arthur. His handsome, clever face was +not in repose for a moment. It was sharpened by eagerness, and he talked +incessantly, provoking answering smiles and flashes from the girl's +wonderful eyes. My heart sank. I knew how Arthur Winstanley could talk +when he chose—as all England was to learn two or three years later when +he entered the House of Commons.</p> + +<p>"And that man?"—the low, resonant voice of Mr. Morse was again in my +ears, for I had been neglecting my duties to all the girls I knew, most +dreadfully, and remained with him for the space of three dances.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's another friend of mine, Lord Arthur Winstanley. He is a son +of the house, the second son. Charles, the heir, is with his regiment in +India."</p> + +<p>Mr. Morse thanked me and soon afterwards two very great people indeed +came up, and I melted away. I went to my seat in the conservatory again. +I did not care how rude it was, how I was betraying Lady Brentford's +hospitality—being known as a dancing man and expected to dance—but I +was determined not to touch any other girl that night until Juanita +Morse and I had danced again together.</p> + +<p>It came and passed. Afterwards I slipped downstairs, got my hat and +overcoat and left the house, without, I think, being observed by any +one.</p> + +<p>The night air was fresh and sweet and I determined to walk before I +reached home, for my mind was in a whirl of sensation. I turned into the +great, dark cañon of Victoria Street, which was almost empty, and heard +my footsteps echoing up the cliff-like sides of the houses. I caught a +glimpse of the moon silvering the Campanile of Westminster Cathedral, +and when I reached the Abbey, it and the Houses of Parliament were +washed in soft and brilliant light. And yet, somehow, I could not think. +I could not survey, with my usual cool detachment, the situation which +had suddenly risen in my life. I remember that the predominant feeling +was a wish that I had never gone to Lady Brentford's, that I had never +seen or spoken to Juanita Morse. What was the use after all? She was as +much above my hopes as a Princess of the Royal House, and yet I knew +that without her I should never be really happy again.</p> + +<p>It was in a sort of desperation that I hurried up Parliament Street and +through Trafalgar Square, feeling that I was a fool and mad, wanting to +hide my shame in my own quiet rooms, where at any rate I should be +alone.</p> + +<p>I opened the door with my Yale key and ran lightly up the stairs to the +flat on the first floor which I occupied. As I went into the lounge hall +and took off my overcoat, Preston, whom I had not told to wait up for +me, came from the passage leading to the servants' quarters carrying a +tray.</p> + +<p>"I shan't want any supper, thank you, Preston," I said in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir, very good sir," he replied, "but his lordship and +Captain Moore are here and have just asked for something."</p> + +<p>My first emotion was one of unutterable surprise, and then I scowled and +felt inclined to swear. What on earth were those two doing here at this +time of night, just when I would have given almost anything to be left +alone?</p> + +<p>I hesitated for a moment and then walked into the smoking-room.</p> + +<p>Pat was seated in a lounge chair smoking a cigar. Arthur was pacing up +and down the carpet. Neither of them appeared to have been talking, and, +as I came in, they looked at me curiously, and I saw that their faces in +some subtle way were changed.</p> + +<p>They were my best friends, for years we had been accustomed to treat +each other's quarters and possessions as if they were our own, and yet +now I felt as if they were intruding strangers, though I tried hard to +be genial.</p> + +<p>"Hallo," I said in a voice that cracked upon the word, "didn't expect to +see you again. Anything special?"</p> + +<p>Preston was putting his tray of sandwiches and deviled biscuits on the +table, so we could not say much, but directly he had left the room old +Pat got up from his chair. He held out his hand, pointing at me with a +trembling finger. His face was purple.</p> + +<p>"You, you danced twice with her," he said.</p> + +<p>So that was it! I grew ice-cold in a moment.</p> + +<p>"I won't pretend to misunderstand to what you refer," I said, "but what +the devil is that to you?"</p> + +<p>"Pat, don't be a fool!" Arthur whipped out, though the look he gave me, +which he tried to disguise, was not a friendly one.</p> + +<p>"Fool is hardly the word," I said. "Kindly explain yourself, Moore, and +forget that you are my guest if you like—I don't mind."</p> + +<p>The huge man trembled. Then he turned away with a sort of snarl, +snatched his handkerchief from his cuff and mopped his face.</p> + +<p>I sat down and lit a cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Can you explain this, Arthur?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He sat down too, and began to tap with his shoe upon the carpet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know," he said sullenly. "You were the only man in the +room, Kirby, to whom she gave more than one dance."</p> + +<p>"That's as may be. I suppose you don't propose to expostulate with the +lady herself? And, by the way, I always thought that it wasn't exactly +form to discuss these things in the way you appear to have been doing."</p> + +<p>That got Arthur on the mark. His face grew very white and he sat +perfectly still.</p> + +<p>Then Pat heaved himself round.</p> + +<p>"She's not for you, at any rate," he said. "They will marry her to a +duke or one of the Princes."</p> + +<p>Suddenly the humor of all this struck me forcibly and I lay back in my +chair and burst into a peal of laughter.</p> + +<p>"That's quite likely," I said, "though I don't think, what I have seen +of Mr. Morse, that he is likely to have ambitions that way, and I am +quite certain that Miss Morse will marry the man she wants to marry and +no one else, whether he is a thoroughbred or hairy at the heels. I think +all this talk on your part—remember you began it, Pat—is perfectly +disgraceful, to say nothing of its utter childishness. As for your +saying that a young lady whom I have met for the first time to-night and +danced with twice, is not for me, it's a damnable piece of impertinence +that you should dare to insinuate that I look upon her in the way you +suggest."</p> + +<p>I jumped up from my seat and knew that I was dominating them all right.</p> + +<p>"Supposing what you say is true, I admit that my chance isn't worth two +penn'orth o' cold gin, though it's every bit as good, and probably +better, than yours, all things considered. You are certainly a fine +figure of a man."</p> + +<p>I was furious, mad, keen to provoke him to an outburst. The calculated +insult was patent enough.</p> + +<p>I thought he was about to go for me, and I stood ready, when "What about +me?" came in a dry crackling voice from Arthur.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I should put you and me about level," I said, "with the courtesy +title as a little extra weight. It is a pity you should be the second +son."</p> + +<p>"Damn you, Kirby!" he burst out, blazing with anger.</p> + +<p>I lifted up my hand and looked at both of them.</p> + +<p>"I came in here," I said, "to my own house and find my two best friends, +that I thought, waiting for me. A few hours ago I should have thought +such a scene as this utterly impossible. I will ask you both to remember +that it has not been provoked by me in any way, and that directly I came +in you turned on me in the most atrocious and ill-bred way. Of your idea +of the value of friendship I say nothing at all—it is obvious I must +say nothing about that. Now you have forced the pace I will say this. To +marry that young lady—I don't like to speak her name even—is about as +difficult as to dive in a cork jacket or keep a smelt in a net. But I +mean to try. I mean to use every ounce of weight I've got. I shall +almost certainly fail, but now you know."</p> + +<p>"Since you have said that," Pat broke in, "handicaps be damned! I'm a +starter for the same stakes, and it's hell for leather I'll ride, and +it's meself that says it, Tom."</p> + +<p>Arthur Winstanley spoke last.</p> + +<p>"I'm a fellow of a good many ambitions," he said quietly, "though I've +never bothered you chaps with them. Now they are all consolidated into +one."</p> + +<p>Then we all stood and looked at each other, the cards on the table, and +in the faces of the other two at least there was uneasiness and shame.</p> + +<p>Just at that moment a funny thing happened. Preston had brought in an +ice pail full of bottles of soda water. The heat of the night, or +something, caused one of the corks to break its confining wire and go +off with a startling report, while a fountain of foam drenched the +sandwiches.</p> + +<p>"Me kingdom for a drink!" said Pat. "Oh, the sweet, blessed, gurgling +sound!" and striding to the table he mixed a gargantuan peg.</p> + +<p>Arthur and I met behind Pat's back and he held out his hand to me, +biting his lower lip.</p> + +<p>"We've behaved abominably, old soul," he said.</p> + +<p>The big guardsman turned round and raised his glass on high.</p> + +<p>"Here's to the sweetest and most lovely lady in the world, bedad!" he +shouted, accentuating his Irish brogue. "May the best man win her, fair +fight, and no favors, and may the Queen of Heaven and all the saints +watch over the little darlint and guide her choice aright!"</p> + +<p>So all our midnight madness passed like a fleeting cloud. An +extraordinary accession of high spirits came to us as we pledged the +dark-haired maiden from Brazil. And it was Pat, dear old Pat, who welded +us together in a league of chivalry against which nothing was ever to +prevail.</p> + +<p>"Tom," he said, "Arthur—we are all like brothers, we always have been. +Let there be no change in that, now or ever. I have something to +propose."</p> + +<p>"Go on, Pat," said Arthur.</p> + +<p>"Sure then, since we all love the same lady, that ought to bind us more +together than anything else has ever done. But since we cannot all marry +her, let us agree, in the first place, that no outsider ever shall."</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" said Arthur—I could see that he was fearfully +excited—throwing his glass into the fireplace with a crash.</p> + +<p>"I am with you, Pat!" I cried. "It's to be one of us three, and we are +in league against all the other men in London. And now the question +is—"</p> + +<p>"Hear my plan. This very night we'll draw lots as to which of us shall +have the first chance. The man who wins shall have the entire support of +the other two in every possible way. If she accepts him, then the fates +have spoken. If she doesn't, then the next man in the draw shall have +his chance, and the rejected suitor and the poor third man shall help +<i>him</i> to the utmost of their ability. Is that clear?"</p> + +<p>He stopped and looked down at us from his great height with a smiling +and anxious face.</p> + +<p>Dear old Pat, I shall always love to think that the proposal came from +him, straight, clean and true, as he always was.</p> + +<p>"So be it," Arthur echoed solemnly. "The league shall begin this very +night. Do either of you chaps know any Spanish, by the way?"</p> + +<p>We shook our heads.</p> + +<p>"Well, I do," he continued, "and we'll form ourselves into a Santa +Hermandad—'The Holy Brotherhood'—it was the name of an old Spanish +Society of chivalry ever so many years ago."</p> + +<p>"Santa Hermandad!" Pat shouted, "and now to shake hands on it. I think +we'll not be needing to take an oath."</p> + +<p>Our three hands were clasped together in an instant and we knew that, +come what might, each would be true to that bond.</p> + +<p>"And now," I said, "to draw lots as to who shall be the first to try his +chance. How shall we settle it?"</p> + +<p>"There's no fairer way," said Arthur, "than the throw of a die. Have you +any poker dice, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have a couple of sets somewhere."</p> + +<p>"Very well then, we'll take a single one and the first man that throws +Queen is the winner."</p> + +<p>I found the dice and the leather cup and dropped a single one into it. +Poker dice, for the benefit of the uninitiate, have the Queen on one +side in blue, like the Queen in a pack of cards, the King in red and the +Knave in black. On two other faces, the nine and the ten.</p> + +<p>"Who will throw first?" said Pat.</p> + +<p>"You throw," I said.</p> + +<p>There was a rattle, and nine fell upon the table. I nodded to Arthur, +who picked up the little ivory square, waved the cup in the air, and +threw—an ace.</p> + +<p>My turn came. I threw an ace also, and Arthur and I looked at Pat with +sinking hearts.</p> + +<p>He threw a King. I don't want another five minutes like that again. We +threw and threw and threw and never once did the Queen turn up. At last +Arthur said:</p> + +<p>"Look here, you fellows, I can't stand this much longer, it's playing +the devil with my nerves. Let's have one more throw and if Her Majesty +doesn't turn up, let's decide it by values. Ace, highest, King, Queen +and so on. Tom, your turn."</p> + +<p>I took up the box, rattled the cube within it for a long time and then +dropped it flat upon the table.</p> + +<p>I had thrown Queen.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWO" id="CHAPTER_TWO"></a>CHAPTER TWO</h2> + + +<p>About a fortnight after the memorable scene in my flat when the league +came into being, I was sitting in my editorial room at the offices of +the <i>Evening Special</i>.</p> + +<p>I had met Juanita once at a large dinner party and exchanged half a +dozen words with her—that was all. My head was full of plans, I was +trying to map out a social campaign that would give me the opportunity I +longed for, but as yet everything was tentative and incomplete. The +exciting business of journalism, the keeping of one's thumb upon the +public pulse, the directing of public thought into this or that channel, +was most welcome at a time like this, and I threw myself into it with +avidity.</p> + +<p>I had just returned from lunch, and the first editions of the paper were +successfully afloat, when Williams, my acting editor, and Miss Dewsbury, +my private secretary, came into my room.</p> + +<p>"Things are very quiet indeed," said Williams.</p> + +<p>"But the circulation is all right?"</p> + +<p>"Never better. Still, I am thinking of our reputation, Sir Thomas."</p> + +<p>I knew what he meant. We had never allowed the <i>Evening Special</i>—highly +successful as it was—to go on in a jog-trot fashion. We had a +tremendous reputation for great "stunts," genuine, exclusive pieces of +news, and now for weeks nothing particular had come our way.</p> + +<p>"That's all very well, Williams, but we cannot make bricks without +straw, and if everything is as stagnant as a duck pond, that's not our +fault."</p> + +<p>Miss Dewsbury broke in. She was a little woman of thirty with a large +head, fair hair drawn tightly from a rather prominent brow, and wore +tortoise-shell spectacles. She looked as if her clothes had been flung +at her and had stuck, but for all that Julia Dewsbury was the best +private secretary in London, true as steel, with an inordinate capacity +for work and an immense love for the paper. I think she liked me a +little too, and she was well worth the four hundred a year I paid her.</p> + +<p>"I," said Miss Dewsbury, "live at Richmond."</p> + +<p>Both Williams and I cocked our ears. Julia never wasted words, but she +liked to tell her story her own way, and it was best to let her do so.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Williams appreciatively.</p> + +<p>"And I believe," she went on, "that one of the biggest newspaper +stories, ever, is going to come from Richmond. It is something that will +go round the world, if I am not very much mistaken, and we've got to +have it first, Sir Thomas."</p> + +<p>Williams gave a low whistle, and I strained at the leash, so to speak.</p> + +<p>"I refer," Miss Dewsbury went on, "to the great wireless erections on +Richmond Hill."</p> + +<p>For a moment I felt disappointed. I didn't see how interest could be +revived in that matter and I said so.</p> + +<p>"Nearly a year ago," I remarked, "every paper in England was booming +with it. We did our share, I'm sure. No one could have protested more +vigorously, and it was the <i>Special</i> that got all those questions asked +in Parliament. But surely, Miss Dewsbury, it's dead as mutton now. It's +an accepted fact and the public have got used to it."</p> + +<p>"There's nothing," said Williams, "more impossible than to reanimate a +dead bit of news. It's been tried over and over again and it's never +been a real success."</p> + +<p>Miss Dewsbury smiled, the smile that means "When you poor dear, silly +men have done talking, then you shall hear something." I saw that smile +and took courage again.</p> + +<p>"Suppose," said Miss Dewsbury, "that we just look up the facts as a +preliminary to what I have to say."</p> + +<p>She went to a side table on which was a dial with little ivory tablets, +each bearing a name—Sub-editor's room, Composing room, Mr. Williams, +Library, etc., and she pulled a little handle over the last disk, +immediately speaking into a telephone receiver above.</p> + +<p>"Facts relating to great wireless installment on Richmond Hill."</p> + +<p>A bell whirred and she came back to the table where we were sitting. In +twenty seconds—so perfect was our organization at the <i>Special</i> +office—a youth entered with a portfolio containing a number of Press +cuttings, photographs, etc.</p> + +<p>Miss Dewsbury opened it.</p> + +<p>"A year ago," she said, "the real estate market was greatly interested +to learn that Flight, Jones & Rutley, the well-known agents, had secured +several acres of property on the top of Richmond Hill. The buyer's name +was not discovered, but an enormously wealthy syndicate was suggested. +At that time, opportunely chosen, many leases had fallen in. Others that +had some time still to run were bought at a greatly enhanced value, +while several portions of freehold property were also purchased at ten +times their worth. Houses immediately began to be demolished, immense +compensation was paid to those who hung out and refused to quit the +newly purchased area. Pressure, it is hinted, of a somewhat +unwarrantable kind, was also applied. The sum involved was enormous, but +every claim was cheerfully settled, with the result that this area of +several acres was entirely denuded of buildings and surrounded by a high +wall, in an incredibly short space of time."</p> + +<p>"The most beautiful view in England spoiled forever!" said Williams with +a sigh.</p> + +<p>Miss Dewsbury turned over a few leaves.</p> + +<p>"Of course you will both remember the agitation that went on, the +opposition of the local and County Councils, the rage of Societies for +preserving the ancient monuments and historic places of interest, etc., +etc. The newspapers, including ours, took up the matter vigorously. +Then, with a curious unanimity, all opposition began to die away. It is +quite certain that huge sums were spent in buying over the objectors, +though no actual proof was ever discovered. The matter was altogether +too delicate a thing and was far too skillfully worked.</p> + +<p>"Then the unknown purchaser began to build the three great towers now +approaching completion. An army of workmen was gathered together in a +new industrial city between Brentford and Hounslow. Fleets of ships +bearing steel girders and so forth arrived from America, together with a +hundred highly trained engineers, all of them Americans. It was given +out that the most powerful wireless station in the whole world was to be +constructed. Again much opposition, appeals to the Government, questions +to the Board of Trade and so forth. I remember that very much the same +sort of thing happened in Paris, when the Eiffel Tower was first +constructed. England's agitation was opposed by the scientific bodies of +the day, and there were other forces behind which brought pressure to +bear on the Government. That also is certain, though nothing has +actually transpired as yet in this regard. Now we've three monstrous +towers, <i>each of nearly two thousand feet in height</i>—twice the height +of the Eiffel—dominating London. Every day almost we, who live in +Richmond and the surrounding towns, see these monsters shooting up +higher into the air. Often half of them is veiled by clouds. The most +tremendous engineering feat in the history of the world is nearly +accomplished."</p> + +<p>Now all this was quite familiar to me and in common with many Londoners +I had begun to take a sort of lazy pride in the gaunt lattice-work of +steel which seemed climbing to heaven itself. All the same I saw no +great journalistic opportunity and I said so.</p> + +<p>"Let us consider a little," continued the imperturbable Julia. "These +towers are <i>not</i> Government owned. They are the property of some +private syndicate. The secret has been kept with extraordinary success. +All the Marconi shareholders of the City, all the big financial +corporations, even foreign Governments, have been trying to get at the +root of the matter. Each and all have utterly failed. Yet our own +Government knows, and sooner or later a pronouncement will have to be +made. If we could anticipate this, then the interest of the public would +rise to fever heat again, and we should have a scoop of the first +magnitude."</p> + +<p>I saw that immediately, and so did Williams, but as it was obvious Miss +Dewsbury hadn't quite finished we just nodded and let her go on.</p> + +<p>"Now I have reason for thinking," she said, "and I am not speaking +lightly, Sir Thomas, that there's something behind this affair of a +totally unexpected and startling nature. Some day, no doubt, the towers +will be used for scientific purposes, but there's a deep mystery +surrounding everything, and one very different from what we might +suppose. I think we can penetrate it."</p> + +<p>"Splendid!" I cried, for I knew very well that Julia Dewsbury would not +say as much as she had unless there was certainty behind her words. "And +how do you propose to start work?"</p> + +<p>As I was looking at her she flushed, and I nearly fell off my chair. It +had never occurred to me that Miss Dewsbury could blush, in fact, that +she was human at all, I am afraid, and I wondered what on earth was the +matter.</p> + +<p>"May I make a little personal explanation, Sir Thomas?" she said. "I +live in a quiet street at the foot of Richmond Hill, where I occupy a +large and comfortable bed-sitting room in 'Balmoral,' Number 102, Acacia +Road. The house is kept by an excellent woman, who only takes in one +other lodger. You pay me a very handsome salary, Sir Thomas, and I might +be expected to live in a more commodious way—a flat in Kensington or +something like that. But I have other claims upon me. There are two +young sisters and a brother to be educated, and I am their sole support. +That's why I live in a small lodging house at Richmond, which, again, is +the reason that I have recently come into contact with some one who may +be of inestimable value to the paper."</p> + +<p>She blushed again, upon my soul she did, and I heard Williams gasp in +astonishment. I kicked him, under the table.</p> + +<p>"The other bed-sitting room at 'Balmoral' has recently been occupied by +a young man, perhaps I should rather say a youth, Mr. William Rolston. +He seemed very lonely and quite poor, and on discussing him with Mrs. +O'Hagan, my landlady, she informed me that she more than suspected that +he had at times to economize grievously in the matter of food. I myself +used to hear the click of a typewriter across the passage, sometimes +continuing till late at night, and from the frequency with which bulky +envelopes arrived for him by post, it was easy to deduce that he was an +unsuccessful author or journalist. This naturally excited my interest. +Mrs. O'Hagan has no idea that I am connected with the <i>Evening Special</i>, +she thinks I am typist in a city firm of hardware merchants. And when I +made my acquaintance with Mr. Rolston, as I did some time ago owing to +his back number Remington going wrong, I told him nothing but that I +myself was a typist and stenographer. I was enabled to put his machine +right and we became friends. Am I boring you, Sir Thomas, and Mr. +Williams?" she said suddenly, with a quick look at both of us.</p> + +<p>"On the contrary," I replied, "you are paying us a great compliment, +Miss Dewsbury, in allowing us to know something of your own private +affairs in order that you may explain how you propose to do the paper a +signal service."</p> + +<p>I can swear that the little woman's eyes grew bright behind her +tortoise-shell spectacles and she went on with renewed confidence of +manner.</p> + +<p>"I have been associated with journalism for eight years now," she said. +"During that time innumerable journalists have passed before me. In my +own way I have studied them all, and I believe I can detect the real +journalist almost as well as Mr. Williams can."</p> + +<p>"A good deal better, I should think," said the acting editor, +"considering the people I have trusted and the mistakes I have sometimes +made."</p> + +<p>"At any rate, I can say, with my whole heart, that Bill—I mean Mr. +Rolston—though he is only twenty-one and has never had a chance in his +life yet, has the makings in him of the most successful journalist of +the day. He will rise to the very top of the tree. But as we all know, +though great merit will come to the surface in time, chance is a great +element in retarding or accelerating the process. I think that Mr. +Rolston's chance has come now."</p> + +<p>"You mean?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"That this boy, utterly unknown, with hardly a left foot in Fleet Street +as yet, has had the acumen to see, right to his hand, one of the +greatest journalistic sensations of modern times. I refer to the three +towers on Richmond Hill. We have been for evening strolls together and +the boy has poured out his whole heart to me—as he might to a mother or +any older woman"—and here poor Julia blushed again, and I thought I saw +her lips quiver for a moment.</p> + +<p>"The day before yesterday he said to me: 'Miss Dewsbury, of course you +don't understand anything about journalism, but I'm on the track of the +very biggest thing you could possibly imagine. I have been lying low and +saying nothing. I'm hot on the scent.' He hinted at what it was, without +giving me very many details, though these were quite sufficient to show +me that he was making no idle boast. Then he said: 'But what use is it? +If I went with what I've got already to any of the papers, I might or +might not get to see some unimaginative news-editor who'd squash me into +a cocked hat in five minutes. That's the worst of being absolutely +unknown and without any pull. If only I could get to see a real editor +of one of the big papers, a man who would give me a patient hearing, a +man with imagination, I would engage to convince him in ten minutes and +my fortune would be made.'"</p> + +<p>She stopped, leant back in her chair and looked at me inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" I cried. "Have him up <i>at once</i>. I am quite certain that +you could never have been deceived, Miss Dewsbury. You have not been +with me for four years without my knowing how valuable your intuition +is. Send him to me at once."</p> + +<p>Miss Dewsbury gave a dry, gratified chuckle.</p> + +<p>"I may have stretched things a little far in having too much confidence +in my position here," she said, "but I was determined to gamble on it, +and I've won. This morning, before I left for the office, I gave Mrs. +O'Hagan a little note for Bill—he has an unfortunate habit of lying in +bed in the morning. The note told him that by an odd coincidence, I +thought I might put him in the way of writing an article for the +<i>Evening Special</i> and that he was to be in the café at the corner by +three o'clock, precisely."</p> + +<p>She looked at her wrist-watch.</p> + +<p>"It's five minutes to now. I will send for him at once."</p> + +<p>"Rolston, did you say the name was, Miss Dewsbury?" said Williams.</p> + +<p>"Yes,—Rolston. But the messenger can't mistake him. He's about five +feet two high, very slim, with an innocent, baby face, and very dark red +hair. Oh, and his ears stick out at the sides of his head almost at +right angles. Please say nothing about my part in the matter, as yet at +any rate," Miss Dewsbury asked as she went away, and some minutes +afterwards a page boy ushered in one of the most curious little figures +I have ever seen.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rolston was short, slim and well proportioned. He looked active as a +monkey and tough as whipcord. He was rather shabbily dressed in an old +blue suit. His face was childish only in contour and complexion, and for +the rest he could have sat as a model for Puck to any painter. There was +something impish and merry in his rather slanting eyes, and his button +of a mouth was capable of some very surprising contortions. His +round-shaped ears, like the ears of a mouse, stood out on each side of +his head and completed the elfish, sprite-like impression.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Mr. Rolston," I said, pointing to a chair on the other side +of the table.</p> + +<p>The little man bowed very low and slid into the chair. I had an odd +impression that he would shortly produce a nut and begin to crack it +with his teeth. I could see that he was in a whirl of amazement and at +the same time horribly nervous, and I tried to put him at his ease.</p> + +<p>"I understand," I said, "that you are a journalist, Mr. Rolston."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sir Thomas," he replied, in a cultivated voice, though with a +curious guttural note in it, and I marked that he knew my name.</p> + +<p>"I also understand—never mind how—that for some time past you have +been wishing to see the editor of a large London daily, to penetrate +right to the fountain head, so to speak. Well, here you are, I am the +editor of the <i>Evening Special</i>. What have you to propose to me?"</p> + +<p>I passed a box of cigarettes over the table towards him, but he shook +his head.</p> + +<p>"It's about the three great towers now approaching completion at +Richmond."</p> + +<p>"You have some special information?"</p> + +<p>"Some very startling information, indeed, Sir Thomas. An idea came to me +some months ago. I thought it worth while testing, and it's proved +trumps."</p> + +<p>"If you have anything in the nature of a scoop, Mr. Rolston, I need +hardly say that it will be very well worth your while. If, when I have +heard what you have to say, I cannot use your information, I will give +you my personal word that all you tell me shall be kept an entire +secret."</p> + +<p>"That's good enough for any one," he answered with a sudden grin. "Well, +sir, these towers will eventually lapse to the British Government as a +gift from the private individual who has erected them, but they will +remain his property and be used for his own purposes until his death. +And these purposes are not wireless telegraphy, or even scientific in +any shape or form. Indeed, wireless telegraphy is expressly forbidden."</p> + +<p>Well, at that I sat upright in my chair. Here was news indeed—if it +were true.</p> + +<p>"That's big stuff," I replied at once, "if you can substantiate it."</p> + +<p>"I think you will believe me when I have finished," he replied quietly. +"I have risked my life more than once to get at the facts. My father, +Sir Thomas, was a missionary in China. I was brought up to speak the +Chinese language as well as English. I am one of the very few Europeans +who do so fluently. Moreover, I kept it up till I was sixteen and came +to England, and I have never forgotten it. You have heard, I suppose, +that there's a gang of Chinese coolies at work on the towers, and some +of the Trade Unions have been making themselves nasty about it, and the +American labor?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, there was some agitation."</p> + +<p>"In addition to these coolies, there are many Chinese officials of a +much higher class, people who will remain when the towers are finished, +as they will be in an incredibly short space of time, for the work is +being carried on both by day and night. Speed, speed, speed! is the +order, and nothing in the world is allowed to stand in the way of it."</p> + +<p>"You interest me very much. Please continue."</p> + +<p>"Speaking Chinese as I do, being perfectly familiar with Chinese dress +and customs, it has not been difficult for me to disguise +myself—blacken my hair, assume a yellow complexion and so forth.</p> + +<p>"By this means I have penetrated to the very heart of the workings at +night, and," he blushed faintly, "I have listened to conversations of an +extraordinary character, lying on the roof of a certain office building +for hours. Details you shall have, and in plenty, but here is the sum of +my discoveries. There is no syndicate. There never was. The work, upon +which millions have been spent, has been, from the very first, designed +and originated by one individual, with the specialized help of the most +famous engineers of America."</p> + +<p>"And his motive?" I asked, and I don't mind saying that I was almost +trembling with excitement.</p> + +<p>"The dream of a genius, or the whim of a madman," Rolston answered in a +grave voice. "The world will call it one or the other without a doubt. +At any rate it's the product of a colossal imagination. For myself, I am +dead certain that there's some deeper and stranger motive beneath it +all, but that can rest for the present. Sir Thomas, between those three +great towers, two thousand feet up in the air, will very shortly come +into being a fantastic pleasure city like a dream of the Arabian Nights! +It will be unique in the history of the world, and already the +preparations are so far advanced that it will be completed with +extraordinary rapidity."</p> + +<p>"A pleasure city!" I gasped. "A Pleasure City in the Clouds!"</p> + +<p>"On two stages right up at the very summit, suspended by a system of +cantilevers of the most intricate modern construction and of toughened +steel. I understand that a triangle measuring in all four acres will +support a marvelous series of palaces, a Lhassa of the air!"</p> + +<p>"Why Lhassa, Mr. Rolston?"</p> + +<p>"Because," he replied, "it's to be a Forbidden City, which no one will +be allowed to penetrate or see. It is a marvelous conception only +possible to enormous wealth and the vision of a superman."</p> + +<p>I left my chair and began pacing up and down the room as the freakish +grandeur of the conception burst fully upon me. Towering over London, +dwarfing Saint Paul's to a child's toy, a City in the Clouds!</p> + +<p>I stopped suddenly, wheeled round and shouted: "But who, Mr. Rolston, is +the madman, genius or superman who has imagined this and actually +carried it out in sober twentieth-century England?"</p> + +<p>"That's the greatest secret of all," he said, looking round the room as +if frightened.</p> + +<p>Then he slid from his chair and was at my side in a moment.</p> + +<p>"It's a Mr. Gideon Mendoza Morse from Brazil," he whispered.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THREE" id="CHAPTER_THREE"></a>CHAPTER THREE</h2> + + +<p>Rolston's revelation, utterly unexpected, came to me with the suddenness +of a blow over the heart. For a few seconds I was incapable of +consecutive thought, though I don't think my face showed anything of it.</p> + +<p>The lad was watching me anxiously and I had to do something with him at +once. Fortunately, I thought of the obvious thing.</p> + +<p>"Leave me now, Mr. Rolston," I said. "Go to the room down the passage +marked 'Mr. Williams' on the door, and ask him to put you into a room by +yourself. Then please, as quickly as possible, write me out a newspaper +'story' setting out fully all the facts you have told me. Remember that +you've got to interest the public in the very first paragraph in what is +undoubtedly a most sensational piece of news."</p> + +<p>"How many words, sir?" he asked me—I liked that, it was professional.</p> + +<p>"A thousand. And when you've done that bring it straight in to me."</p> + +<p>He was out of the room in a minute and I sat down to think.</p> + +<p>In the first place I didn't doubt his story for a moment, there was +something transparently honest about the boy, and, unless I was very +much mistaken, there was great ability in him also. When there was time +for it I expected I should hear a breathless story of his adventures in +the search of this stuff. He had hinted that his life had been in +danger.... I began to think—hard. Assuming that was true, that Morse +had been seized with this extraordinary whim, how did I stand in the +matter? At a first view it appeared that I was rather badly snookered. +Morse, always assuming young Rolston was correct, had spent a huge +fortune in keeping his secret. Moreover, the Government was in it with +him. It would hardly be the way to recommend myself to Juanita's +father—whose good opinion I desired to gain more than that of any other +person in the world, save one—by giving his cherished secret to the +world in order to increase the prestige and circulation of the <i>Evening +Special</i>.</p> + +<p>If I did publish it, it was odds on that I never saw Juanita again. One +thing occurred to me with relief—it wasn't a case in which I <i>had</i> to +publish, in the public interest. By suppressing news I was not failing +my duty as an editor, only losing a big scoop, though that was hard +enough. What was to be done? As I asked myself that question I confess +that for a brief moment—thank Heaven it did not last long—it occurred +to me that I was now in a position to put considerable pressure upon the +millionaire. I could hold out inducements....</p> + +<p>Fortunately, I crushed all such ugly thoughts without much effort, and +then the real solution came. When I had questioned Rolston a little more +and was bedrock certain that he was right, I would see Morse at once and +tell him all I had learnt without reserve. I would present the thing to +him as one in which I claimed no personal interest, and my attitude +would be that I felt he ought to be warned. I would engage to publish +nothing without his wish, but he must look to it—if he wished to +preserve his secret—that other people were not upon the same track. +That could do me no harm whatever. It was the straight thing to do, and +at the same time it would certainly help me with him. I thought, and +think still, that this was a fair advantage to take. It is only a fool +who throws away a legitimate weapon in love or war.</p> + +<p>I rang up the Ritz Hotel and asked for Mr. Morse. There was some little +delay at the Hotel Bureau, and then I was switched on to the telephone +of the private apartments.</p> + +<p>"Who's that?" asked a cold, characterless voice.</p> + +<p>"Sir Thomas Kirby of the <i>Evening Special</i> speaking. Who are you?"</p> + +<p>"Secretary to Mr. Morse"—now the voice was a little warmer.</p> + +<p>"Is Mr. Morse at home?"</p> + +<p>"I can see that he gets a message very shortly, Sir Thomas, if the +matter is of importance."</p> + +<p>"It is of very considerable importance or I shouldn't have troubled to +ring Mr. Morse up, especially as I shall be meeting him in a day or two +at a social engagement."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment, please."</p> + +<p>I knew by this that I had struck lucky and that Morse was in the hotel, +and within a minute I heard his calm, resonant voice in my ear.</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon, Kirby. My secretary says you wanted to speak to me."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I am most anxious to have a conversation."</p> + +<p>"Well, shall we hold the wire?"</p> + +<p>"I daren't discuss my business over the wire, Mr. Morse."</p> + +<p>There was a short silence and then:</p> + +<p>"Please forgive me, but you know how busy I am. Could you give me the +least indication of what you wish to talk to me about?"</p> + +<p>I had an inspiration.</p> + +<p>"Towers," I said in a low voice.</p> + +<p>A quiet "Ah!" came to me over the wire, and then:</p> + +<p>"I think I understand, Sir Thomas, you wish—?"</p> + +<p>"To tell you something that I feel sure you ought to know, in your own +interests."</p> + +<p>"Pass, <i>Friend</i>!" was the reply, followed by a little chuckle in which I +thought—I might have been mistaken—I detected a note of relief.</p> + +<p>"When shall we meet?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Kirby," was the reply, "can you come here at eleven +to-night? I'll give orders that you are to be taken up to my rooms at +once. I can't guarantee that I shall be in at the moment. I also have +something of considerable importance on hand, but if you will wait—I'm +afraid I'm asking a great deal—I'll be certain to be with you sooner or +later. My daughter may be at home and, if she is, no doubt she'll give +you a cup of coffee or something while you wait. Do you think you can +manage this?"</p> + +<p>"I shall be delighted," I answered, trying to control my voice, and I +hardly heard the quiet "Good-by" that concluded our conversation.</p> + +<p>Well, I had done better for myself than I had hoped, and, so vain are +all of us, I felt a kind of satisfaction in having "played the game" and +at the same time won the trick. I did not reflect till afterwards that +if Morse had been some one else and not the father of Juanita, I should +not have hesitated for a moment to fill the <i>Special</i> with scare +headlines.</p> + +<p>I sat down again in my chair, ordered a cup of tea, drank it with +splendid visions of a <i>tête-à-tête</i> with Juanita that very night, and +was leaning back in my chair lost in a rosy dream when the door opened +and the odd little man with the red hair appeared at my side, holding +two or three sheets of typewritten copy.</p> + +<p>"The story, sir," he said.</p> + +<p>I took it from him mechanically, it would never be published now, in all +probability, but it would at least serve to show Morse how much I knew. +I began to read.</p> + +<p>At the end of the first paragraph I knew that the stuff was going to be +all right. At the end of the second and third I sat up in my chair and +abandoned my easy attitude. When I had read the whole of the thousand +words I knew that I had discovered one of the best journalistic brains +of the day! The boy could not only ferret out news, but he could +<i>write</i>! Every word fell with the right ring and chimed. He was terse, +but vivid as an Alpine sunset. He made one powerful word do the work of +ten. He suggested atmosphere by a semicolon, and there were fewer +adjectives in his stuff than one would have believed possible. There +were not four other men in Fleet Street who could have done as well. And +beyond this, beyond my pleasure at the discovery of a genius, the +article had a peculiar effect upon me. I felt that somehow or other the +matter was not going to die with my interview to-night at the Ritz +Hotel. The room in which I sat widened. There was a glimpse of far +horizons....</p> + +<p>I folded the copy carefully and placed it in my breast pocket.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Rolston," I said, "I engage you from this moment as a member of my +regular staff. Your salary to begin with will be ten pounds a week, and +of course your expenses that you may incur in the course of your work. +Do you accept these terms?"</p> + +<p>Poor Bill Rolston! I mustn't give away the man who afterwards became my +most faithful friend and most daring companion in hours of frightful +peril, and a series of incredible adventures. Still, if he <i>did</i> burst +into tears that's nothing against him, for I didn't realize till +sometime afterwards that he was half starved and at the very end of his +tether.</p> + +<p>He pulled himself together in a moment or two, took a cup of tea and let +me cross-question him. What he told me in the next half-hour I cannot +set down here. It will appear in its proper place, but it is enough to +say that in the whole of my experience I never listened to a more +mysterious and more enthralling recital.</p> + +<p>I think that from that moment I realized that my fate was to be in some +way linked with the three towers on Richmond Hill, and the sense of +excitement which had been with me all the afternoon, grew till it was +almost unbearable.</p> + +<p>"Now, first of all," I said, when he had told me everything, "you are +not to breathe a word of this to any human soul without my permission. +While you have been absent I have already been taking steps, the nature +of which I shall not tell you at present. Meanwhile, lock up everything +in your heart."</p> + +<p>I had a flash of foresight, well justified in the event.</p> + +<p>"I may want you at any moment," I told him, "and therefore, with your +permission, I'm going to put you up at my flat in Piccadilly, where you +will be well looked after and have everything you want. I'll telephone +through to my man, Preston, giving him full instructions, and you had +better take a taxi and get there at once. Preston will send a messenger +to your lodgings to bring up any clothes and so forth you may require."</p> + +<p>He blushed rosy red, and I wondered why, for his story had been told to +me in a crisp, man-of-the-world manner that made him seem far older than +he was.</p> + +<p>Then he shrugged his shoulders, put his hand in his trousers pocket and +pulled out—one penny.</p> + +<p>"All I have in the world," he said, with a rueful smile.</p> + +<p>I scribbled an order on the cashier and told him to cash it in the +office below, and, with a look of almost doglike fidelity and gratitude, +the little fellow moved towards the door.</p> + +<p>Just at that moment it opened and Julia Dewsbury came in.</p> + +<p>Rolston's jaw dropped and his eyes almost started out of his head in +amazement, and I saw a look come into my secretary's eyes that I should +have been glad to inspire in the eyes of one woman.</p> + +<p>"There, there," I said, "be off with you, both of you. Miss Dewsbury, +take Mr. Rolston, now a permanent member of the staff, into your own +room and tell him something about the ways of the office."</p> + +<p>For half an hour I walked up and down the editorial sanctum arranging my +thoughts, getting everything clear cut, and when that was done I +telephoned to Arthur Winstanley, asking him, if he had nothing +particular on, to dine with me.</p> + +<p>His reply was that he would be delighted, as he had nothing to do till +eleven o'clock, but that I must dine with him. "I have discovered a +delightful little restaurant," he said, "which isn't fashionable yet, +though it soon will be. Don't dress; and meet me at the Club at +half-past seven."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>My dinner with Arthur can be related very shortly, for, while it has +distinct bearing upon the story, it was only remarkable for one +incident, though, Heaven knows, that was important enough.</p> + +<p>I met him at our Club in Saint James' and we walked together towards +Soho.</p> + +<p>"You are going to dine," said Arthur, "at 'L'Escargot d'Or'—The Golden +Snail. It's a new departure in Soho restaurants, and only a few of us +know of it yet. Soon all the world will be going there, for the cooking +is magnificent."</p> + +<p>"That's always the way with these Soho restaurants, they begin +wonderfully, are most beautifully select in their patrons, and then the +rush comes and everything is spoiled."</p> + +<p>"I know, the same will happen here no doubt, though lower Bohemia will +never penetrate because the prices are going to be kept up; and this +place will always equal one of the first-class restaurants in town. +Well, how goes it?"</p> + +<p>I knew what he meant and as we walked I told him, as in duty bound, all +there was to tell of the progress of my suit.</p> + +<p>"Met her once," I said, "had about two minutes' talk. There's just a +chance, I am not certain, that I may meet her to-night, and not in a +crowd—in which case you may be sure I shall make the very most of my +opportunities. If this doesn't come off, I don't see any other chance of +really getting to know her until September, at Sir Walter Stileman's, +and I have to thank you for that invitation, Arthur."</p> + +<p>He sighed.</p> + +<p>"It's a difficult house to get into," he said, "unless you are one of +the pukka shooting set, but I told old Sir Walter that, though you +weren't much good in October and that pheasants weren't in your line, +you were A1 at driven 'birds.'"</p> + +<p>"But I can't hit a driven partridge to save my life, unless by a +fluke!"</p> + +<p>"I know, Tom, I don't say that you'll be liked at all, but you won the +toss and by our bond we're bound to do all we can to give you your +opportunity. I need hardly say that my greatest hope in life is that +she'll have nothing whatever to say to you. And now let's change that +subject—it's confounded thin ice however you look at it—and enjoy our +little selves. I have been on the 'phone with Anatole, and we are going +to <i>dine</i> to-night, my son, really <i>dine</i>!"</p> + +<p>The Golden Snail in a Soho side street presented no great front to the +world. There was a sign over a door, a dingy passage to be traversed, +until one came to another door, opened it and found oneself in a long, +lofty room shaped like a capital L. The long arm was the one at which +you entered, the other went round a rectangle. The place was very simply +decorated in black and white. Tables ran along each side, and the only +difference between it and a dozen other such places in the foreign +quarter of London was that the seats against the wall were not of red +plush but of dark green morocco leather. It was fairly full, of a mixed +company, but long-haired and impecunious Bohemia was conspicuously +absent.</p> + +<p>A table had been reserved for us at the other end opposite the door, so +that sitting there we could see in both directions.</p> + +<p>We started with little tiny oysters from Belon in Brittany—I don't +suppose there was another restaurant in London at that moment that was +serving them. The soup was asparagus cream soup of superlative +excellence, and then came a young guinea-fowl stuffed with mushrooms, +which was perfection itself.</p> + +<p>"How on earth do you find these places, Arthur?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Well," he answered, "ever since I left Oxford I've been going about +London and Paris gathering information of all sorts. I've lived among +the queerest set of people in Europe. My father thinks I'm a waster, but +he doesn't know. My mother, angel that she is, understands me perfectly. +She knows that I've only postponed going into politics until I have had +more experience than the ordinary young man in my position gets. I +absolutely refused to be shoved into the House directly I had come down +with my degree, the Union, and all those sort of blushing honors thick +upon me. In a year or two you will see, Tom, and meanwhile here's the +Moulin à Vent."</p> + +<p>Anatole poured out that delightful but little known burgundy for us +himself, and it was a wine for the gods.</p> + +<p>"A little interval," said Arthur, "in which a cigarette is clearly +indicated, and then we are to have some slices of bear ham, stewed in +champagne, which I <i>rather</i> think will please you."</p> + +<p>We sat and smoked, looking up the long room, when the swing doors at the +end opened and a man and a girl entered. They came down towards us, +obviously approaching a table reserved for them in the short arm of the +restaurant, and I noticed the man at once.</p> + +<p>For one thing he was in full evening dress, whereas the only other +diners who were in evening kit at all wore dinner jackets and black +ties. He was a tall man of about fifty with wavy, gray hair. His face +was clean shaved, and a little full. I thought I had never seen a +handsomer man, or one who moved with a grace and ease which were so +perfectly unconscious. The girl beside him was a pretty enough young +creature with a powdered face and reddened lips—nothing about her in +the least out of the ordinary. When he came opposite our table, his face +lighted up suddenly. He smiled at Arthur, and opened his mouth as if to +speak.</p> + +<p>Arthur looked him straight in the face with a calm and stony stare—I +never saw a more cruel or explicit cut.</p> + +<p>The man smiled again without the least bravado or embarrassment, gave an +almost imperceptible bow and passed on towards his table without any one +but ourselves having noticed what occurred. The whole affair was a +question of some five or six seconds.</p> + +<p>He sat down with his back to us.</p> + +<p>"Who is he?" I asked of Arthur.</p> + +<p>He hesitated for a moment and then he gave a little shudder of disgust. +I thought, also, that I saw a shade come upon his face.</p> + +<p>"No one you are ever likely to meet in life, Tom," he replied, "unless +you go to see him tried for murder at the Old Bailey some day. He is a +fellow called Mark Antony Midwinter."</p> + +<p>"A most distinguished looking man."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I should say he stands out from even his own associates in a +preëminence of evil. Tom," he went on, with unusual gravity, "deep down +in the soul of every man there's some foul primal thing, some troglodyte +that, by the mercy of God, never awakes in most of us. But when it does +in some, and dominates them, then a man becomes a fiend, lost, hopeless, +irremediable. That man Midwinter is such an one. You could not find his +like in Europe. He walks among his fellows with a panther in his soul; +and the high imagination, the artistic power in him makes him doubly +dangerous. I could tell you details of his career which would make your +blood run cold—if it were worth while. It isn't.</p> + +<p>"But I perceive our bear's flesh stewed in Sillery is approaching. Let's +forget this intrusion."</p> + +<p>Well, we dined after the fashion of Sybaris, went to the Club for an +hour and smoked, and then Arthur returned to his chambers in Jermyn +Street to dress. I went back to mine, found from Preston that little Mr. +Rolston was safely in bed and fast asleep, changed into a dinner jacket +and walked the few yards to the Ritz Hotel, my heart beating high with +hope.</p> + +<p>I was shown up at once to the floor inhabited by the millionaire, and +knew, therefore, that I was expected. The man who conducted me knocked +at a door, opened it, and I entered. I found myself in a comfortable +room with writing tables and desks, telephone and a typewriter. A young +man of two or three and twenty was seated at one of the tables smoking a +cigarette.</p> + +<p>He jumped up at once.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sir Thomas," he said, "Mr. Morse has not yet returned, and I think +it quite likely he may be some little time. But the Señora Balmaceda and +Miss Morse are in the drawing-room and perhaps you would like to—"</p> + +<p>"I shall be delighted," I said, cutting him short, but who on earth was +Señora Balmaceda? The chaperone, I supposed, confound it!</p> + +<p>The obliging young man led me through two or three very gorgeously +furnished rooms and at last into a large apartment brilliantly lit from +the roof, and with flowers everywhere. At one end was a little alcove.</p> + +<p>"I have brought Sir Thomas, Señora," he said, looking about the room, +but there was no one remotely resembling a Señora there. Nevertheless, +directly he spoke, some one stepped out of the conservatory from behind +a tropical shrub in a green tub, and came towards us.</p> + +<p>It was Juanita, and she was alone. The secretary withdrew and I advanced +to meet her.</p> + +<p>"How do you do, Sir Thomas," she said in her beautiful, bell-like voice. +"Father said you might be coming and I'm afraid he won't be in just yet. +And it's so tiresome, poor Auntie has gone to bed with a bad headache."</p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry, Miss Morse," I answered as we shook hands, "I must do +what I can to take her place," and then I looked at her perfectly +straight.</p> + +<p>Yes, I dared to look into those marvelous limpid eyes and I know she saw +the hunger in mine, for she took her hand away a little hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"What a charming room! Is that a little conservatory over there? It must +look out over the Green Park?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it does," she replied almost in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"Then do let's sit there, Miss Morse."</p> + +<p>Was I acting in a play or what on earth gave me this sense of confidence +and strength? Heaven only knows, but I never faltered from the first +moment that I entered the room. Oh, the gods were with me that night!</p> + +<p>We went to the alcove without a further word, and she sat down upon a +couch. I have described her once, at Lady Brentford's ball, but at this +moment I am not going to attempt to describe her at all.</p> + +<p>For half a minute we said nothing and then I took her hand and pressed +it to my lips.</p> + +<p>"Juanita," I said, "there are mysterious currents and forces in this +world stronger than we are ourselves. This is the third time that I've +seen you, but no power on earth can prevent me from telling you—"</p> + +<p>She was looking at me with parted lips and eyes suffused with an angelic +tenderness and modesty. My voice broke in my throat with unutterable +joy. I was certain that she loved me.</p> + +<p>And then, just as I was about to say the sealing words—remember, I had +invoked the gods—there was the sound of a door opening sharply.</p> + +<p>I stiffened and rose to my feet. From where we sat we could survey the +whole, rich room. Through the open door—I must say there were several +doors in the room—came a tall man, <i>walking backwards</i>.</p> + +<p>He was in full evening dress with a camellia in his button-hole.</p> + +<p>He stepped back lightly with cat-like steps, his arms a little curved, +his fingers all extended.</p> + +<p>I saw his face. It was convulsed with the satanic fury of an old +Japanese mask. Line for line, it was just like that, and it was also the +face of the bland and smiling man I had seen two hours before at the +restaurant of The Golden Snail.</p> + +<p>I felt something warm and trembling at my side. Juanita was clinging to +me and I put my arm around her waist. Through the open door there now +came another figure.</p> + +<p>A quiet, resonant voice cut into the tense, horrible silence.</p> + +<p>"Quick, Mark Antony Midwinter—that's your door, quick—quick!"</p> + +<p>The big man paused for an instant and a hissing spitting noise came from +his mouth.</p> + +<p>There was a sharp crack and a great mirror on the wall shivered in +pieces. There was another, and then the big man turned and literally +bounded over the soft carpet, flung himself through the door and +disappeared.</p> + +<p>Gideon Mendoza Morse advanced into the drawing-room, smiling to himself +and looking down at a little steel-blue automatic in his hand.</p> + +<p>Then Juanita and I came out of the alcove, hand in hand, and he saw us.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOUR" id="CHAPTER_FOUR"></a>CHAPTER FOUR</h2> + + +<p>Gideon Morse still had the little steel-blue automatic pistol in his +hand. He was actually smiling and humming a little tune when he turned +and saw Juanita and myself coming out of the alcove.</p> + +<p>In a flash his hand dropped the pistol into the pocket of his dinner +jacket and his face changed.</p> + +<p>"Santa Maria!" he said in Spanish, and then, "Juanita, Sir Thomas +Kirby!"</p> + +<p>"You remember you gave me an appointment to-night, Mr. Morse," I +stammered.</p> + +<p>"Of course, of course, then—"</p> + +<p>He said no more, for with a little gasp Juanita sank into a heap upon +the floor. We had loosened hands directly the millionaire turned towards +us and I was too late to catch her.</p> + +<p>Morse was at her side in an instant.</p> + +<p>"The bell," he said curtly, and I ran to the side of the room and +pressed the button hard and long.</p> + +<p>Wow! but these money emperors of the world are well served! In a second, +so it seemed, the room was full of people. The young secretary, a couple +of maids, a dark foreign-looking man in a morning coat and a black tie +whom I took to be the valet, and finally a gigantic fellow in tweeds +with a battered face as big as a ham and arms which reached almost to +his knees.</p> + +<p>The maids were at the girl's side in a moment, applying restoratives. +Morse rose, just as another door opened and in sailed a stout elderly +lady in a black evening dress with a mantilla of black lace over her +abundant and ivory white hair. Morse said something to her in Spanish +and I wished I had been Arthur Winstanley to understand it. Then I felt +my arm taken and Morse drew me away.</p> + +<p>"It is nothing serious," he said, "just a little shock," and as he said +it he made a slight gesture with his head.</p> + +<p>It was enough. The secretary, the valet, and the huge, vulgar-looking +man in tweeds faded away in an instant, though not before I had seen the +latter spot the broken mirror, and a ferocious glint come into his eyes. +Nor did he look surprised.</p> + +<p>Juanita began to come to herself and she was tenderly carried away by +the women. Morse accompanied them and spoke in a rapid whisper to the +distinguished old lady, who, I knew, must be the Señora Balmaceda.</p> + +<p>The two of us were left alone, and for my part I sank down in an +adjacent chair quite exhausted in mind, if not in body, by the +happenings of the last ten minutes. Up to the present—I will say +nothing of the future—I had never lived so fast or so much in such a +short space of time; and you've got to get accustomed to that sort of +thing really to enjoy it!</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid your visit has been somewhat exciting," said my host, in his +musical, level voice. His eyes were as dark and inscrutable as ever, but +nevertheless, I saw that the man was badly moved. He took a slim, gold +cigarette case from his waistcoat pocket and his hand trembled. +Moreover, under the tan of his skin he was as white as a ghost—there +was a curious gray effect.</p> + +<p>I laughed.</p> + +<p>"I confess to having been a little startled. Your secretary brought me +in here and I was talking to Miss Morse in the conservatory when—" I +hesitated for a moment.</p> + +<p>He saved me the trouble of going on.</p> + +<p>"I guess," he said, "you and I had better have a little drink now," and +he went to the wall.</p> + +<p>I don't pretend to know how the service was managed—I suppose there was +a sergeant-major somewhere in the background who drilled the host of +personal and hotel attendances who ministered to the wants of Gideon +Morse. At any rate, this time no one entered but one of the hotel +footmen, and he brought the usual tray of cut-glass bottles, etc.</p> + +<p>Morse mixed us both a brandy and soda and I noticed two things. First, +his hand was steady again; secondly, the brandy was not decanted but +came out of a bottle, on which was the fleur-de-lys of ancient, royal +France, blown into the glass.</p> + +<p>There was a twinkle in his eye when he saw I had spotted that.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "there are only three dozen bottles left, even in the +Ritz. They were found in a bricked-up cellar of the Tuileries," and he +tossed off his glass with relish.</p> + +<p>So did I—Cleopatra's pearls were not so expensive.</p> + +<p>"Now look here, Sir Thomas," Morse said, sitting down by me and drawing +up his chair, "you've seen something to-night of a very unfortunate +nature. You've seen it quite by accident. If news of it got about, if it +were even whispered through a certain section of London, then the very +gravest harm might result, not only to me but to many other persons +also."</p> + +<p>"My dear sir, I have seen nothing. I have heard nothing. You may place +implicit reliance upon that," and I held out my hand to him, which he +took in a firm grip.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Sir Thomas," he replied simply. "It was a question," he +hesitated for the fraction of a second, and I knew he was lying, "it was +a question of impudent blackmail. I had expected something of the sort +and was prepared. You saw how the cowardly hound ran away."</p> + +<p>"Quite so, Mr. Morse. Of course a man in your position must be subject +to these things occasionally."</p> + +<p>"Ah, you see that," he said briskly, and I knew he was relieved. "You +are a man of the world, and you see that. Well, I am thankful for your +promise of silence. I am the more annoyed, though, that Juanita should +have been present at a scene which, though really burlesque, must have +seemed to her one of violence."</p> + +<p>I had my own opinion about the burlesque nature of the incident, but I +made haste to reassure him.</p> + +<p>"Of course," I said, "it must have been distressing for any lady, but it +was the suddenness that upset her, and I'm sure Miss Morse's nerves are +far too good for it to have any permanent effect."</p> + +<p>"Yes," he answered, and in his voice there was a caress, "I can explain +it all to Juanita, and the memory of this evening will soon go from +her."</p> + +<p>Again I had my own private opinion, which I forbore to state. +Personally, I had very little doubt but that Juanita would remember this +evening as long as the darling lived! It would not be my fault if she +didn't! But I saw that this was no moment to tell him that I loved her. +Perhaps, if we had been granted five minutes more in the conservatory +and I had said all I meant, and heard from her all I hoped, I should +have spoken then. As it was I could not, though in my own mind I was +certain she cared for me.</p> + +<p>We were silent for a few moments, and then Morse seemed to recall +himself from private thought.</p> + +<p>"I had nearly forgotten!" he said. "You specially wanted to see me +to-night, Sir Thomas, and you've very kindly waited in order to do so."</p> + +<p>Then I remembered the errand upon which I had come, and pulled myself +together mentally. I liked Morse. He was of tremendous importance to me, +and yet at the same time it behooved me to be wary. Already I was +certain that he was playing a game with me in the matter of Mark Antony +Midwinter, whose name I kept rigidly to myself. I must play my cards +carefully.</p> + +<p>Please understand me, I don't for a moment mean that I felt he was my +enemy, or inimical to me in any way. Far from it. I knew that he liked +me and wouldn't do me a bad turn if he could help it. At the same time I +was perfectly sure that if necessary he would use me like a pawn in a +mysterious game that I couldn't fathom, and I didn't mean to be used +like a pawn if I could help it. My hope and ambition was to serve him, +but I wanted a little reserve of power also, for reasons I need not +indicate.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "I telephoned you."</p> + +<p>"And you mentioned a certain word which rather puzzled me."</p> + +<p>"I did. 'Towers' was the word."</p> + +<p>"I believe we are going to meet at The Towers at Cerne in Norfolk," said +Mr. Morse. "Sir Walter Stileman told me that you were to be of the +shooting party in September."</p> + +<p>At that I laughed frankly, really he was a little underestimating me. He +grinned and understood in a second.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Sir Thomas, exactly what you <i>do</i> mean," he said.</p> + +<p>"Well, you know I am a newspaper proprietor and editor."</p> + +<p>"Of the best written and most alive journal in London!"</p> + +<p>I bowed, and produced from an inside pocket Master Bill Rolston's +astonishing piece of copy.</p> + +<p>"An unknown journalist who was introduced to me to-day," I said, +"brought a piece of news which would be of absorbing interest to the +country if it were published and if it were true. Perhaps you would like +to read this."</p> + +<p>I handed him the typewritten copy and prepared to watch his face as he +read it, but he was too clever for that. He took it and perused it, +walking up and down the room, and I began to realize some of the +qualities which had made this man one of the powers of the world.</p> + +<p>More especially so when he came and sat down again, his face wreathed +in smiles, though I could have sworn fury lurked in the depths of his +black eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, now," he said, "this is interesting, very interesting indeed. I +am going to be quite frank with you, Sir Thomas. There's an amount of +truth in this manuscript that would cause me colossal worry if it were +published at present. Another thing it would do would be to quite upset +a financial operation of considerable magnitude. Personally, I should +lose at the very least a couple of million sterling, though that +wouldn't make any appreciable difference to my fortune, but a lot of +other people would be ruined and for no possible benefit to any one in +the world except yourself and the <i>Evening Special</i>."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," I said, "that's just why I came. Of course nothing shall be +published, though I'm quite in the dark as to the nature of the whole +thing."</p> + +<p>"I call that generous, generous beyond belief, Sir Thomas, for I know +that it is the life of a newspaper to get hold of exclusive news. I +would offer you a large sum not to publish this story did I not know +that you would indignantly refuse it. I am a student of men, my young +friend, if I may be allowed to call you so, and even if you were a poor +man instead of being a rich one as ordinary wealth goes, I should never +make such a proposition."</p> + +<p>I glowed inwardly as he said it. It was a downright compliment, coming +from him under the circumstances, at which any one would have been +warmed to the heart. For here was a great man, a Napoleon of his day, +one who, if he chose, could upset dynasties and plunge nations into +war. Yet, as I knew quite well, Gideon Mendoza Morse wasn't a member of +the great financial groups who control and sway politics. In a sense he +was that rare thing, a pastoral millionaire. He owned vast tracts of +country populated by lowing steers for the food of the world. In the +remote mountains of Brazil brown Indians toiled to wrest precious metals +and jewels from the earth for his advantage. But from the feverish +plotting of international finance I knew him to stand aloof.</p> + +<p>"I very much appreciate your remarks," was what I told him, "and you may +rest assured that nothing shall transpire."</p> + +<p>"Thanks. But all the generosity mustn't be on your side. You shall have +your scoop, Sir Thomas, if you will wait a little while."</p> + +<p>"I am entirely at your service."</p> + +<p>"Very well then," he said, and his manner grew extraordinarily cordial, +"let's put a period to it! I hope that, from to-day, I and my daughter +are going to see a great deal of you—a great deal more of you than +hitherto. You know how we are"—he gave a little annoyed laugh—"run +after in London; and what a success Juanita has had over here. What I +hope to do is to form a little inner circle of friends, and you must be +one of them—if you will?"</p> + +<p>How my luck held! I thought. Here, offered freely and with open hands, +was the only thing I wanted. I am glad to think that I found a moment in +which to be sorry for Arthur and dear old Pat Moore.</p> + +<p>"It's awfully good of you," I stammered.</p> + +<p>He made a little impatient gesture with his hand.</p> + +<p>"Please don't talk nonsense," he said. "And now about the towers on +Richmond Hill. I have told you that I cannot explain fully until +September. I will tell you, though, that your clever little +journalist—what, by the way, did you say his name was?"</p> + +<p>"Rolston."</p> + +<p>"Of course—has ferreted out much that I wished to conceal, but he isn't +entirely upon the right track. I <i>am</i>, Kirby, at the bottom of the whole +thing, and I have spent goodness knows how much to keep that quiet."</p> + +<p>He lit another cigarette, leant back in his chair and laughed like a +boy.</p> + +<p>"I've bribed, and bribed, and bribed, I've managed to put pressure, +actually to put pressure upon the British Government. I've employed an +untold number of agents, in short I've exercised the whole of my +intellect, and the pressure of almost unlimited capital to keep my name +out of it. And now, you tell me, some little journalist has found out +one thing at least that I was determined to conceal until September +next! The plans of men and mice gang oft agley, Kirby! This little man +of yours must be a sort of genius. I hope there are no more people like +him prowling about Richmond Hill."</p> + +<p>I was quite certain that there was not another Bill Rolston anywhere, +and I amused Morse immensely by detailing the circumstances of the +little, red-haired man's arrival in Fleet Street. I never realized till +now how human and genial the great man could be, for he even expanded +sufficiently to offer to toss me a thousand pounds to nothing for the +services of Julia Dewsbury!</p> + +<p>I saw my way with Juanita becoming smoother and smoother every moment.</p> + +<p>It was growing late, nearly one o'clock, when Morse insisted on having +some bisque soup brought in.</p> + +<p>"I think we both want something really sustaining," he said. "Do you +begin and I'll just run up and see my sister-in-law, Señora Balmaceda, +and find out if Juanita is all right."</p> + +<p>He left the room, and, happy that all had gone so well, I sipped the +incomparable white essence, and gave myself up to dreams of the future.</p> + +<p>I was to see her often. In September, at Sir Walter Stileman's, Morse +was to take me into his fullest confidence. That could only mean one +thing. Within a little less than three months he would give his consent +to my marriage with his daughter. Another opportunity like this of +to-night, and Juanita and I would be betrothed. It would be delightful +to keep our secret until the shooting began. I would follow her through +the events of the season, watch her mood, hear her extolled on every +side, knowing all the time she was mine. A vision came to me of Cowes +week, the gardens of the R. Y. Squadron, Juanita on board of my own +yacht "Moonlight."</p> + +<p>I think I must have fallen asleep when I started into consciousness to +find myself staring into the great broken mirror over the mantelpiece +and to find that Mr. Morse had returned and was smiling down upon me.</p> + +<p>"She's all right, thank heavens," he said, "and has been asleep for a +long time. And now, as you seem sleepy too, I'll bid you good-night, +with a thousand thanks for your consideration."</p> + +<p>It was nearly two o'clock I noticed when I stepped out into the cool air +of Piccadilly and walked the few yards to my flat. I must have been +asleep for quite a long time, and dear old Morse had forborne to waken +me.</p> + +<p>I peculiarly remember my sense of well-being and happiness during that +short walk. I was in a glow of satisfaction. Everything had turned out +even better than I had expected. What did the scoop for the paper matter +after all? Nothing, in comparison with the more or less intimate +relations in which I now stood with Gideon Morse. I was to see Juanita +constantly. She was almost mine already, and fortune had been +marvelously on my side. Of course there would be obstacles, there was no +doubt of that. I was no real match for her. But the obstacles in the +future were as nothing to those that had been already surmounted. I +began to smile with conceit at the diplomatic way in which I had dealt +with the great financier; not for a single moment, as I put my key into +the latch, did I dream that I had been played with the utmost skill, +tied myself irrevocably to silence, and that horrible trouble and grim +peril even now walked unseen by my side.</p> + +<p>When I got into the smoking-room I found things just as usual. I had +hardly lit a last cigarette when the door opened and Preston entered.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" I said, "I never told you to wait up for me, Preston. +There was not the slightest need. You ought to have been in bed hours +ago."</p> + +<p>"So I was, Sir Thomas," he said looking at me in a surprised sort of +way, and I noticed for the first time that he was wearing a gray flannel +dressing-gown and slippers.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Until the telephone message came, Sir Thomas."</p> + +<p>"What telephone message?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yours, Sir Thomas."</p> + +<p>"I never telephoned. When do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Not very long ago, Sir Thomas," he said, "I didn't take particular +notice of the time, somewhere between one o'clock and now."</p> + +<p>I was on the alert at once, though I could not have particularly said +why.</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure that it was I who 'phoned?"</p> + +<p>"But, yes," he answered, "it was your voice, Sir Thomas. You said you +were speaking from the office."</p> + +<p>"From the <i>Evening Special</i>? I've not been there since late afternoon. +And when have I ever been there so late? There's never more than one +person there all night long until six in the morning. It's not a morning +paper as you know."</p> + +<p>Preston seemed more than ever bewildered as I flung this at him.</p> + +<p>"All I can say is, Sir Thomas," he said, "that I heard your voice +distinctly and you said you were at the office."</p> + +<p>"What did I say exactly?"</p> + +<p>"About the young gentleman, Sir Thomas, the young gentleman who has come +to stay for a time. Your instructions were that he should be wakened and +told to come to Fleet Street without the least delay. You also said a +taxicab would be waiting for him, by the time he was dressed, to drive +him down."</p> + +<p>"And he went?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Sir Thomas, he was in his clothes quicker than I ever see a +gentleman dress before, had a glass of milk and a biscuit, and the cab +was just coming as I went down with him and opened the front door."</p> + +<p>I rushed out of the room, down the corridor and into that which had been +placed at Rolston's disposal. It was as Preston said, the lad was gone. +The bed was tumbled as he had left it, but a portmanteau full of +clothes, some hair brushes and a tooth brush on the wash-stand remained. +Clearly Rolston believed he was obeying orders.</p> + +<p>Preston had followed me out of the smoking-room and stood at the door, a +picture of uneasy wonder. Let me say at once that Preston had been with +me for six years, and was under-butler at my father's house for I don't +know how many more. He is the most faithful and devoted creature on +earth and, what is more, as sharp as a needle. He, at any rate, had no +hand in this business.</p> + +<p>"There's something extraordinarily queer about this," I said. "I assure +you that I have never been near the telephone during the whole night. I +dined with Lord Arthur in Soho and the rest of the evening I have been +spending at the Ritz Hotel with Mr. Gideon Morse. You've been tricked, +Preston."</p> + +<p>"I'm extremely sorry, Sir Thomas," he was beginning when I cut him +short.</p> + +<p>"It's not in the least your fault, but are you certain the voice was +mine?"</p> + +<p>He frowned with the effort at recollection.</p> + +<p>"Well, Sir Thomas," he said, "if you hadn't told me what you have, I +believe I could almost have sworn to it. Of course, voices are altered +on the telephone, to some extent, but it's extraordinary how they do, in +the main, keep their individual character."</p> + +<p>He spoke the truth. I, who was using the telephone all day, entirely +agreed with him.</p> + +<p>"Well, Preston, it was a skillful imitation and not my voice at all."</p> + +<p>"If you will excuse me, Sir Thomas," he replied, "your voice is a very +distinctive one. It's not very easily mistaken by any one who has heard +your voice once or twice."</p> + +<p>"That only makes the thing the more mysterious."</p> + +<p>"The more easy, I should say, Sir Thomas. It must be far less difficult +to imitate an outstanding voice with marked peculiarities than an +ordinary one."</p> + +<p>He was right there, it hadn't occurred to me before.</p> + +<p>"But who in the office would dare to imitate my voice?"</p> + +<p>"That, of course, I could not say, Sir Thomas, but we've only the word +of the unknown person who rang me up that he was speaking from the +office. For all we know he might have been in the next flat."</p> + +<p>That again was a point and I noted it.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to waste any time," I said. "I'll go down to the office +at once and see if I can find out anything."</p> + +<p>He helped me on with my coat and within five minutes of my entering I +was again in Piccadilly.</p> + +<p>Already the long ribbon of road was beginning to be faintly tinged with +gray. The dawn was not yet, but night was flitting away before his +coming. Save for an occasional policeman and the rumble of heavy carts +piled with sweet-smelling vegetables and flowers for Covent Garden, the +great street was empty. I passed the Ritz Hotel with a tender thought of +one who lay sleeping there, and hurried eastwards. I had nearly got to +the Circus when a taxi swung out of the Haymarket and I hailed the man. +He was tired and sleepy, had been waiting for hours at some club or +other, but I persuaded him, with much gold, to take me, and we buzzed +away toward the street of ink.</p> + +<p>Here was activity enough. The later editions of the morning papers were +being vomited out of holes in the earth by hundreds of thousands. +Windows were lighted up everywhere as I turned down a side street +leading to the river and came to my own offices.</p> + +<p>I unlocked the door with my pass key and almost immediately I was +confronted by Johns, the night-watchman, who flashed his torch in my +face and inquired my business. I was pleased to see the man alert and at +his post and asked who was in the building.</p> + +<p>"Only Mr. Benson, Sir Thomas; it's his week for night duty."</p> + +<p>I went up and very considerably surprised, not to say alarmed, young Mr. +Benson, who had the photograph of a lady propped up on a desk before him +and was obviously inditing an amorous epistle.</p> + +<p>I put him through the most searching possible cross-examination, until I +was quite sure that he had never telephoned to my flat. I knew him for a +truthful, conscientious fellow, without a glimpse of humor or the +slightest histrionic talent. Johns, called from below, was equally +emphatic. Certainly no taxi had arrived here during the last three +hours, nor had William Rolston come near the office.</p> + +<p>I returned to Piccadilly, utterly baffled and without a single ray of +light in my mind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIVE" id="CHAPTER_FIVE"></a>CHAPTER FIVE</h2> + + +<p>On the morning of the fourteenth of September I met Captain Pat Moore +and Lord Arthur Winstanley at Liverpool Street station. We were all +three of us asked to Cerne as guests of that fine old sportsman, Sir +Walter Stileman. A special carriage was reserved for us and our servants +filled it with luncheon baskets and gun cases.</p> + +<p>It was almost exactly three months since my eventful night at the Ritz +with Gideon Morse, and the disappearance of little William Rolston.</p> + +<p>What had passed since that time I can set out fully in a very few words. +First of all the position in which I stood with regard to Juanita. It +was somewhat extraordinary, satisfactory, and yet unsatisfactory, +utterly tantalizing. Morse had kept his promise. I <i>had</i> seen a great +deal of his daughter. At Henley, at Cowes—on board the millionaire's +wonderful yacht or on my own, in the sacred gardens of the R. Y. S., +where we met and met again. Yet these meetings were always in public. +Juanita was surrounded by men wherever she went. She was the reigning +beauty of her year. Her minutest doings were chronicled in the Society +papers with a wealth of detail that was astounding. I used to read the +stuff, including that of my own Miss Easey, with a sort of impotent +rage. Some of it was true, a lot of it was lies and surmise, but to me +it was all distasteful. Juanita lived in the full glare of the public +eye, and a royal princess could hardly have been more unapproachable. Of +course I used stratagems innumerable, and more than once she went +half-way to meet me, but the long desired <i>tête-à-tête</i> never came to +pass. It was not only because of the troop of admirers that crowded +round her, of which I was only one, but there was an extraordinary +adroitness, "a hidden hand" at work somewhere, to keep us apart. I was +quite certain of this, yet I could not prove it, though even if I had it +would have been of little use. Old Señora Balmaceda, who overwhelmed me +with kindness and attention, was simply wonderful in her watch over +Juanita.</p> + +<p>As for Gideon Morse, he would talk to me by the hour—and his talk was +well worth listening to—but somehow or other he was always in the way +when I wanted to be alone with his daughter. Of course I sometimes +thought I was exaggerating, and that I was so hard hit that I saw things +in a jaundiced or prejudiced light. Yet certainly Juanita was often +alone for a short time with other men than I, notably with the young and +good-looking Duke of Perth, whom I hated as cordially as I knew how.</p> + +<p>Then, in August, I had a nasty knock. The Morses went off to Scotland +for the grouse shooting as guests of the Duke, and I wasn't asked, or +ever in the way of being asked if it comes to that, to join the "small +and select house-party" that the papers were so full of. I had to +content myself with pictures on the front page of the Illustrated +Weeklies depicting Juanita in a tweed skirt and a tam o' shanter, side +by side with Perth, wearing a fatuous smile and a gun. I had one crumb +of consolation only and that was, when saying good-by to Juanita, I felt +something small and hard in the palm of her hand. It was a little +tightly folded piece of paper and on it was one word, "Cerne."</p> + +<p>That of course helped a great deal. It was obvious what she meant. When +we met at Sir Walter Stileman's, then at last my opportunity would come.</p> + +<p>And now about the little journalist and his extraordinary disappearance. +I made every possible inquiry, engaging the most skilled agents and +sparing no money in the quest, but I found out nothing—absolutely +nothing. The red-headed lad with the prominent ears had vanished into +thin air, had flashed into my life for a moment and then gone out of it +with the completeness of an extinguished candle. He had been, he was no +more. Poor Miss Dewsbury, on whom the disappearance had a marked effect, +discussed the matter with me a dozen times. We broached theory after +theory only to reject them, and at last we ceased to talk about the +matter at all. I remember her words on the last time we talked of it. +They were prophetic, though I did not know it then.</p> + +<p>"All I can say is, Sir Thomas, that voices, not my own, whisper +constantly in my ear that the shadow of the three giant towers upon +Richmond Hill lies across your path."</p> + +<p>Poor thing, she was almost hysterical in those times, and I paid little +heed to her words. As for the scoop, no other paper had even hinted at +Rolston's revelation. I had faithfully kept my word to Morse, not +forgetting that he had promised to explain everything—in September.</p> + +<p>As the train swung out of Liverpool Street and Pat and Arthur were +ragging each other as to who should have the <i>Times</i> first, I +experienced a sense of mental relief. Only a few hours now and the great +question of my life would be settled, once and for all. No more doubts, +no more uncertainties.</p> + +<p>During the last three months, Arthur and Pat had left me very much to +myself. They had behaved with the most perfect tact and kindness, +Arthur, as I have said, having obtained for me the invitation to Cerne. +Now, after we had traveled for a couple of hours and the luncheon +baskets had been opened, old Pat lit a cigar and looked across at me. +His big, brown face was grave, and he played with his mustache as if in +some embarrassment.</p> + +<p>He and Arthur glanced at each other, and I understood what was in their +minds.</p> + +<p>"Look here, you fellows," I said, "about the sacred Brotherhood—what is +it in Spanish?"</p> + +<p>"Santa Hermandad," said Arthur.</p> + +<p>"Well, you've kept your oath splendidly. I cannot thank you enough. I +have had the running all to myself—as far as you two are concerned, for +twelve weeks."</p> + +<p>"Yes, twelve weeks," Pat replied, with a sigh. "We've kept out of the +way, old fellow, and I tell you it's been hard!"</p> + +<p>Arthur nodded in corroboration, and somehow or other I felt myself a +cur. Since boyhood we three had been like brothers, and it was a hard +fate indeed that led us to center all our hopes upon something that +could belong to one alone.</p> + +<p>Despite what must have been their burning eagerness to know how things +stood, both of them were far too delicate-minded and well-bred to ask a +question. I knew it was up to me to satisfy them.</p> + +<p>"Without going into details," I said, "I'll tell you just how it is, how +I think it is, for I may be quite wrong, and presuming upon what doesn't +exist."</p> + +<p>I thought for a moment, and chose my words carefully. It was extremely +difficult to say what I had to say.</p> + +<p>"It comes to about this," I got out at last. "I've every reason to +believe that she likes me. There's nothing decisive, but I've been given +some hope. I very nearly put it to the test three months ago, but was +interrupted and never had the chance again. At Cerne I'm going to try, +finally. By hook or crook, in forty-eight hours, I'll have some news for +you. And if I get the sack, then let the next man go in and win if he +can, and I'll join the third in doing everything that lies in my power +to help him."</p> + +<p>"I am next," said Pat Moore, "not that I've the deuce of a chance. But I +think you've spoken like a damn good sort, Tom, and we thank you. Arthur +and I will do our best to keep every one else off the grass while you go +in and try your luck. Faith! I'll make love to the duenna with the white +hair meself and keep her out of the way, and Arthur here will consult +with Morse upon the expediency of investing his large capital, which he +hasn't got, in a Brazil-nut farm. Anyhow, Perth, who has been the +safety bet with all the tipsters, won't be there. He's such a rotten +shot that Sir Walter wouldn't dream of asking him. The bag has got to be +kept up. For three years now, only Sandringham has beat it and a duffer +at a drive would send the average down appallingly."</p> + +<p>"What about me?" I asked, with a sinking of the heart.</p> + +<p>"God forgive me," said Arthur, "I've lied about you to Sir Walter like +the secretary of a building society to a maiden lady with two thousand +pounds. He was astonished that he had never heard of your shooting—of +course, he knows all the shots of the day, and I had to tell him a fairy +story about your late lamented father who was a Puritan and would never +let his son join country house-parties because they played cards after +dinner."</p> + +<p>I smiled, on the wrong side of my mouth. My dear old governor had been +anything but a Puritan: I feared the scandal which would inevitably +ensue when I went out for the first big drive.</p> + +<p>"That's all right, Tom," said Arthur, "you'll simply have to sprain your +ankle, or I'll give you a good hack in the shin privately if you like. +Sir Walter has only to send a wire to get a first-class gun down. There +are at least a dozen men I know who would almost commit parricide for +the chance."</p> + +<p>After that, by general consent, the subject of the league was dropped. +We all knew where we were, and for the rest of the journey we talked of +ordinary things.</p> + +<p>It was a bright afternoon in early autumn when we stopped at the little +local station and got into a waiting motor-car, while our servants +collected our things and followed in the baggage lorry. For myself, I +felt in the highest spirits as we buzzed along the three miles to Cerne +Hall. There was a pleasant nip in the air; the vast landscape was yellow +gold, as acre after acre of stubble stretched towards the horizon. Gray +church towers embowered in trees broke the vast monotony, and I +surrendered myself to a happy dream of Juanita, while Arthur and Pat +talked shooting and marked covies that rose on either side as we whirred +by.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at Cerne Hall it was not yet tea-time, and everybody was +out. The butler showed us to our rooms, all close together in the south +wing of the fine old house, and I smoked a cigarette while Preston was +unpacking.</p> + +<p>"Everybody arrived yet, Preston?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Not yet, Sir Thomas, so I understand. I and Captain Moore's man and his +lordship's was havin' a cherry brandy in the housekeeper's room just +now, and the bulk of the house-party will be arriving by the later +train, between tea and dinner, Sir Thomas."</p> + +<p>"And Mr. Morse?"</p> + +<p>"Only just before dinner, Sir Thomas; he always travels in a special +train."</p> + +<p>I saw by Preston's face that he considered this a snobbish and +ostentatious thing to do, and, in the case of an ordinary +multi-millionaire, I should certainly have agreed with him. But I +recalled facts that had come to my notice about the famous Brazilian, +and I wondered. There was the astounding scene at the Ritz, for +instance, and more than that. I had not been following up Juanita for +three months, in town, at Henley, and at Cowes, without noticing that +Mr. Gideon Morse seemed to have an unobtrusive but quite singular +entourage.</p> + +<p>More than once, for example, I had caught sight of a certain great +hulking man in tweeds, a professional Irish-American bruiser, if ever +there was one.</p> + +<p>Tea was in the hall of the great house. I was introduced to Sir Walter, +a delightful man, with a hooked nose, a tiny mustache, the remains of +gray hair, and a charming smile. Lady Stileman also made me most +welcome. Her hair was gray, but her figure was slight and upright as a +girl's, and many girls in the County must have envied her dainty +prettiness, and the charm of her lazy, musical voice.</p> + +<p>Circumstances paired me off with a vivacious young lady whose face I +seemed to know, whose surname I could not catch, but whom every one +called "Poppy."</p> + +<p>"I say," she said, after her third cup of tea and fourth egg sandwich, +"you're the <i>Evening Special</i>, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>I admitted it.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said, "I do think you might give me a show now and then. +Considering the press I generally get, I've never been quite able to +understand why the <i>Special</i> leaves me out of it."</p> + +<p>I thought she must be an actress—and yet she hadn't quite that manner. +At any rate I said:</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully sorry, but you see I'm only editor, and I've nothing really +to do with the dramatic criticism. However, please say the word, and +I'll ginger up my man at once."</p> + +<p>"Dramatic criticism!" she said, her eyes wide with surprise. "Sir +Thomas, can it really be that you don't know who I am?"</p> + +<p>It was a little embarrassing.</p> + +<p>"Do you know, I know your face awfully well," I said, "though I'm quite +sure we've never met before or I should have remembered, and when Lady +Stileman introduced us just now all I caught was Poppy."</p> + +<p>She sighed—I should put her between nineteen and twenty in age—"Well, +for a London editor, you <i>are</i> a fossil, though you don't look more than +about six-and-twenty. Why, Poppy Boynton!"</p> + +<p>Then, in a flash, I knew. This was the Hon. Poppy Boynton, Lord +Portesham's daughter, the flying girl, the leading lady aviator, who had +looped the loop over Mont Blanc and done all sorts of mad, extraordinary +things.</p> + +<p>"<i>Of course</i>, I know you, Miss Boynton! Only, I never expected to meet +you here. What a chance for an editor! Do tell me all your adventures."</p> + +<p>"Will you give me a column interview on the front page if I do?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I will. I'll write it myself."</p> + +<p>"And a large photograph?"</p> + +<p>"Half the back page if you like."</p> + +<p>"You're a dear," she said in a business-like voice. "On second +thoughts, I'll write the interview myself and give it you before we +leave here. And, meanwhile, I'll tell you an extraordinary flight of +mine only yesterday."</p> + +<p>I was in for it and there was no way out. Still, she was extremely +pretty and a celebrity in her way, so I settled myself to listen.</p> + +<p>"What did you do yesterday morning?" I asked. "Did you loop the loop +over Saint Paul's or something?"</p> + +<p>"Loop the loop!" she replied, with great contempt. "That's an infantile +stunt of the dark ages. No, I went for my usual morning fly before +breakfast and saw a marvel, and got cursed by a djinn out of the Arabian +Nights."</p> + +<p>This sounded fairly promising for a start, but as she went on I jerked +like a fish in a basket.</p> + +<p>"You know the great wireless towers on Richmond Hill?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. The highest erection in the world, isn't it, more than twice +the height of the Eiffel Tower? You can see the things from all parts of +London."</p> + +<p>"On a clear day," she nodded, "the rest of the time the top is quite +hidden by clouds. Now it struck me I'd go and have a look at them close +to. Our place, Norman Court, is only about fifteen miles farther up the +Thames. I started off in my little gnat-machine and rose to about +fifteen hundred feet at once, when I got into a bank of fleecy wet +cloud, fortunately not more than a hundred yards or so thick. It was +keeping all the sun from London about seven-thirty yesterday morning. +When I came out above, of course I wasn't sure of my direction, but as I +turned the machine a point or so I saw, standing up straight out of the +cloud at not more than six miles away, the tops of the towers. I headed +straight for them."</p> + +<p>She lit a cigarette and I noticed her face changed a little. There was +an introspective look in the eyes, a look of memory.</p> + +<p>"As I drew near, Sir Thomas, I saw what I think is the most marvelous +sight I have <i>ever</i> seen. You people who crawl about on earth never do +see what <i>we</i> see. I have flown over Mont Blanc and seen the dawn upon +the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa from that height, and I thought that was +the most heavenly thing ever seen by mortal eye. But yesterday morning I +beat that impression—yes!—right on the outskirts of London and only a +few hours ago! Down from below nobody can really see much of the towers. +You haven't seen much, for instance, have you?"</p> + +<p>"Only that they're now all linked together at the top by the most +intricate series of girders, on the suspension principle, I suppose. +There are a lot of sheds and things on this artificial space, or at +least it looks like it."</p> + +<p>"Sheds and things! Sir Thomas, I thought I saw the New Jerusalem +floating on the clouds! The morning sun poured down upon a vast, hanging +space of which you can have no conception, and rising up on every side +from snowy-white ramparts were towers and cupolas with gilded roofs +which blazed like gold. There were fantastic halls pierced with Oriental +windows, walls which glowed like jacinth and amethyst, and parapets of +pearl.</p> + +<p>"It was a city, a City in the Clouds, a place of enchantment floating +high, high up above the smoke and the din of London—serene, majestic, +and utterly lovely. I tell you"—here her voice dropped—"the vision +caught at my heart, and a great lump came into my throat. I'm pretty +hard-bitten, too! As I went past one side of the immense triangle—which +must occupy several acres—on which the city is built, I saw an inner +courtyard with what seemed like green lawns. I could swear there were +trees planted there and that a great fountain was playing like a stream +of liquid diamonds.</p> + +<p>"I was so startled, and almost frightened, that I ripped away for +several miles till, descending a little through the cloud-bank, I found +I was right over Tower Bridge.</p> + +<p>"But I swore I'd see that majestic city again, and I spiraled up and +turned.</p> + +<p>"There it was, many miles away now, a mere speck upon the billowing snow +of the cloud-bank, and as I raced towards it once more it grew and grew +into all its former loveliness. I adjusted my engines and went as slow +as I possibly could—perhaps you know that our modern aeroplanes, with +the new helicopter central screw, can glide at not much more than +fifteen miles an hour, for a short distance that is. Well, that's what I +did, and once more the place burst upon me in all its wonder. It's the +marvel of marvels, Sir Thomas; I haven't got words even to hint at it. I +could see details more clearly now, and I floated by among the ramparts +on one side, not a pistol shot away. And then, upon the top of a little +flat tower there appeared the most extraordinary figure.</p> + +<p>"It was a gigantic yellow-faced man in a long robe and wide sleeves, +and he threw his hands above his head and cursed me. Of course the noise +of the engine drowned all he said, but his face was simply fiendish. I +just caught one flash of it, and I never want to see anything like it +again."</p> + +<p>I sat spellbound in my chair while she told me this and again the sense +that I was being borne along, whither I knew not, by some irresistible +current of fate, possessed me to the exclusion of all else.</p> + +<p>"Why, you look quite tired and gray, Sir Thomas," said Miss Boynton. "I +do hope I haven't bored you."</p> + +<p>"Bored me! I was away up in the air with you, looking upon that +enchanted city. But why, what do you make of it, have you told any one?"</p> + +<p>"Only father and my sister, who said that it must have been an illusion +of the mist, a refraction of the air at high altitudes that transformed +the wireless instrument sheds to fairyland."</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders and smiled.</p> + +<p>"As if I didn't know all about that!" she said. "Why, it wasn't much +more than two thousand feet up—a mere hop."</p> + +<p>I had to think very rapidly at this juncture. The news took one's breath +away. To begin with, one thing seemed perfectly clear. Gideon Morse had +purposely told me as little as he possibly could. Yet, upon reflection, +I found that he had told me no lies. He had admitted that he was at the +bottom of this colossal enterprise—was it some Earl's Court of the air, +the last word in amusement catering? It might well be so, though +somehow or other the thought annoyed me. Moreover, the capital outlay +must have been so vast that such a scheme could never pay interest upon +it. Then I recollected that in a few hours more I should have my +promised talk with Morse and he would explain everything as he had +promised. There was still a chance of a big scoop for the <i>Evening +Special</i>.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Miss Boynton," I said, "if you keep what you have seen a +secret for the next two days, and then let me publish an account of it, +my paper would gladly pay two hundred and fifty pounds for the story."</p> + +<p>Her eyes opened wide, like those of a child who has been promised a very +big box of chocolates indeed.</p> + +<p>"Can do," she said, holding out a pretty little hand which flying had in +no way roughened or distorted. I took it, and so the bargain was made.</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards more guests began to arrive, and the great hall was full +of laughing, chattering figures, among whom were several people that I +knew. However, I was in no mood for society or small talk and I retired +to my own room and sat dreaming before a comfortable fire until Preston +came in and told me it was time to dress.</p> + +<p>I was ashamed to ask him if the Morses had arrived, but I went +downstairs into a large yellow drawing-room half full of people, and +looked round eagerly.</p> + +<p>Lady Stileman was standing by one of the fireplaces talking to Miss +Boynton, and I went up to them. Apparently it was a wonderful year for +"birds," as partridges, and partridges alone, are called in Norfolk. +They had hatched out much later than usual, hence the waiting until the +middle of September, but covies were abnormally large and the young +birds already strong upon the wing. Fortunately Lady Stileman did all +the talking; I smiled, looked oracular and said "Quite so" at intervals. +My eye was on the drawing-room door which led out into the hall. Once, +twice, it opened, but only to admit strangers to me. The third time, +when I made sure I should see her for whom I sought, no one came in but +a footman in the dark green livery of the house. He carried a salver, +and on it was the orange-colored envelope of a telegram.</p> + +<p>With a word of excuse Lady Stileman opened it. She nodded to the man to +go and then turned to me and Poppy Boynton.</p> + +<p>"Such a disappointment," she said. "Mr. Morse and his wonderfully pretty +daughter were to have been here, as I think you know. Now he wires to +say that business of the utmost importance prevents either him or his +daughter coming. Fortunately," the good lady concluded, "he doesn't +shoot, so that won't throw the guns out. Walter would be furious if that +happened."</p> + +<p>Arthur and Pat Moore came into the room at that moment, and Arthur told +me, an hour or so afterwards, that I looked as if I had seen a ghost, +and that my face was white as paper.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SIX" id="CHAPTER_SIX"></a>CHAPTER SIX</h2> + + +<p>I must now, in the progress of the story, give a brief account of what I +may call "The week of rumor," which immediately preceded my +disappearance and plunge into the unknown.</p> + +<p>I spent a miserable and agitated evening at Cerne Hall, and went early +to my room. Arthur and Pat joined me there an hour later and for some +time we talked over what the telegram from Morse might mean, until they +retired to their own rooms and I was left alone.</p> + +<p>I did not sleep a wink—indeed, I made no effort to go to bed, though I +took off my clothes and wrapped myself in a dressing-gown. The suspense +was almost unbearable, and, failing further news, I determined, at any +cost to the shooting plans of my host, to get myself recalled to London +by telegram. I felt sure that the whole of my life's happiness was at +stake.</p> + +<p>The next morning at nine o'clock, just as I was preparing to go down to +breakfast, a long wire was brought to me. It was in our own office +cipher, which I was trained to read without the key, and it was signed +by Julia Dewsbury. The gist of the message was that there were strange +rumors all over Fleet Street about the great towers at Richmond. An +enormous sensation was gathering like a thunder cloud in the world of +news and would shortly burst. Would I come to London at the earliest +possible moment?</p> + +<p>How I got out of Cerne Hall I hardly remember, but I did, to the blank +astonishment of my host; drove to the nearest station, caught a train +which got me to Norwich in half an hour and engaged the swiftest car in +the city to run me up to London at top speed. Just after lunch I burst +into the office of the <i>Evening Special</i>.</p> + +<p>Williams and Miss Dewsbury were expecting me.</p> + +<p>"It's big stuff," said the acting editor excitedly, "and we ought to be +in it first, considering that we've more definite information than I +expect any other paper possesses as yet, though it won't be the case for +very long."</p> + +<p>I sat down with hardly a word, and nodded to Miss Dewsbury. Her training +was wonderful. She had everything ready in order to acquaint me with the +facts in the shortest possible space of time.</p> + +<p>She spoke into the telephone and Miss Easey—"Vera" of our "Society +Gossip"—came in.</p> + +<p>"I have found out, Sir Thomas," she said, "that Mr. Gideon Morse has +canceled all social engagements whatever for himself and his daughter. +Miss Dewsbury tells me that it's not necessary now to say what these +were. I will, however, tell you that they extended until the New Year +and were of the utmost social importance."</p> + +<p>"Canceled, Miss Easey?"</p> + +<p>"Definitely and finally <i>canceled</i>, both by letter to the various hosts +and hostesses concerned, and by an intimation which is already sent to +all the London dailies, for publication to-morrow. The notice came up +to my room this morning from our own advertising office, for inclusion +in 'Society Notes'—as you know such intimations are printed as news and +paid for at a guinea a line."</p> + +<p>"Any reason given, Miss Easey?"</p> + +<p>"None whatever in the notices, which are brief almost to curtness. +However, I have been able to see one of the private letters which has +been received by my friends, Lord and Lady William Gatehouse, of Banks. +It is courteously worded, and explains that Mr. and Miss Morse are +definitely retiring from social life. It's signed by his secretary."</p> + +<p>The invaluable Julia nodded to Miss Easey. She pursed up her prim old +mouth, wished me good-morning and rustled away.</p> + +<p>"That's <i>that</i>!" said Julia, "now about the towers."</p> + +<p>"Yes, about the towers," I said, and my voice was very hoarse.</p> + +<p>"As my poor friend, Mr. Rolston, discovered," she said bravely, "these +monstrous blots upon London are certainly not for the purposes of +wireless telegraphy. There are half the journalists in London at +Richmond at the present moment, including two of our own reporters, and +it is said that on the immense platforms between the towers, a series of +extraordinary and luxurious buildings has been erected. It is widely +believed that Gideon Morse is out of his mind, and has retired to a sort +of unassailable, luxurious hermitage in the sky."</p> + +<p>There was a knock at the door and a sub-editor came in with a long +white strip just torn from the tape machine. I took it and read that the +"Central News Agencies" announces "crowds at base of towers surrounded +by a thirty-foot wall. Callers at principal gate are politely received +by Boss Mulligan, formerly well-known boxer, United States, now in the +service of Gideon M. Morse. Inquirers told that no statement can be +issued for publication. Later. Rumor in neighborhood says that towers +are entirely staffed by special Chinese servants, large company of which +arrived at Liverpool on Thursday last. Growing certainty that towers are +private enterprise of one man, Morse, the Brazilian multi-millionaire."</p> + +<p>A telephone bell on my table rang. I took it up.</p> + +<p>"Is that Sir Thomas? Charles Danvers speaking"—it was the voice of our +dapper young Parliamentary correspondent, the nephew of a prominent +under-secretary, and as smart as they make them.</p> + +<p>"Yes, where are you?"</p> + +<p>"House of Commons. Mr. Bloxhame, Member for Budmouth, is asking a +question in the House this afternoon about the Richmond Tower sensation. +The Secretary to the Board of Trade will reply. There's great interest +in the lobby. Special edition clearly indicated. Question will come on +about four."</p> + +<p>I sent every one away and thought for a quarter of an hour. Of course +all this absolved me of my promise to Morse. He had played with me, +fooled me absolutely and I had been like a babe in his astute hands. +Well, there was no time to think of my own private grievances. My +immediate duty was to make as good a show that afternoon and the next +day as any other paper. My hope was to beat all my rivals out of the +field.</p> + +<p>After all, there were nothing but rumors and surmise up to the present. +The news situation might change in a couple of hours, but at the present +moment I felt certain that I knew more about the affair than any other +man in Fleet Street. I set my teeth and resolved to let old Morse have +it in the neck.</p> + +<p>Within an hour or so we had an "Extra Edition" on the streets, and +during that hour I drew on my own private knowledge and dictated to Miss +Dewsbury, and a couple of other stenographers. Poppy Boynton's +experience was a godsend. I remembered her own vivid words of the night +before, and I printed them in the form of an interview which must have +satisfied even that delightful girl's hunger for advertisement. +Incidentally, I sent a man from the Corps of Commissionaires down to +Cerne in a fast motor-car, with notes for two hundred and fifty in an +envelope, and instructions to stop in Regent Street on his way and buy +the finest box of chocolates that London could produce—I remember the +bill came in a few days afterwards, and if you'll believe me, it was for +seventeen pounds ten!</p> + +<p>At four o'clock, while the question was being asked in the House of +Commons, and all the other evening papers were waiting the result for +their special editions, my "Extra Special" was rushing all over +London—the "Extra Special" containing the "First Authentic Description +of the City in the Clouds."</p> + +<p>"You really are wonderful, Sir Thomas," said Miss Dewsbury, removing her +tortoise-shell spectacles and touching her eyes with a somewhat dingy +handkerchief, "but where, oh, where is William Rolston?"</p> + +<p>"My dear girl," I replied, "from what I've seen of William Rolston, I'm +quite certain that he's alive and kicking. Not only that, but we shall +hear from him again very shortly."</p> + +<p>"You really think so, Sir Thomas?"—the eyes, hitherto concealed by the +spectacles, were really rather fascinating eyes after all.</p> + +<p>"I don't <i>think</i> so, I know it. Look here, Miss Dewsbury"—for some +reason I couldn't resist the temptation of a confidence—"this thing, +this stunt hits me privately a great deal harder than you can have any +idea of. You said that the shadow of the towers was across my path, and +you were more right than you knew. Enough said. I think we've whacked +Fleet Street this afternoon. Well and good. There's a lot behind this +momentary sensation, which I shall never leave go of until it's +straightened out. This is between you and me, not for office +consumption, but," I put my hand upon her thin arm, "if I can help in +any way, you shall have your Bill Rolston."</p> + +<p>She turned her head away and walked to the window. Then she said an +astonishing thing.</p> + +<p>"If only I could help you to your Juanita!"</p> + +<p>"WHAT!" I shouted, "what on earth—"</p> + +<p>A page came in with a telegram.</p> + +<p>"Addressed to you, Sir Thomas," he said, "marked personal."</p> + +<p>I tore it open, it was from Pat Moore.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Extraordinary youth followed us out shooting, and came up at lunch +asking for you. Boy of about sixteen. Mysterious cove with the +assurance of Mephistopheles. Some question of fifty pounds was to +get from you on delivering letter. Gave him your address and he +departed for London."</p></blockquote> + +<p>I couldn't make head or tail of Pat's wire, and I put it down on the +table for future consideration, when Williams hurried in with a pad of +paper.</p> + +<p>"Danvers just 'phoned through," he said, "and I've sent the message +downstairs for the stop press."</p> + +<p>I began to read.</p> + +<p>"Bloxhame interrogated Secretary to the Board of Trade, who replied it +was perfectly true that the towers were built to the order of Gideon +Morse and were his property. Morse has entered into an agreement with +the Government engaging not to use the towers for wireless telegraphy or +for any other purpose than a strictly private one, which appears to be +that he intends to live on the platforms on the top. At his death the +whole property will pass into possession of the Government, to be used +for wireless purposes, or for the principal aeroplane station between +England and the Continent. Aeroplanes, when the existing buildings are +removed, will be able to alight from the platforms in numbers. +Expenditure from first to last, Board of Trade estimates at seven +millions. Feeling of House at such a magnificent gift to the Nation, +which is bound to fall in within twenty years or so, friendly and +satisfactory. In answer to a question from Commander Crosman, M.P. for +Rodwell, President Board of Aerial Control announces that strict orders +have been issued that aeroplanes are not to circle round the towers or +in any way annoy present proprietor. The House is greatly amused and +interested at this romantic news."</p> + +<p>Williams departed to issue another "Extra Special," and I was once more +left alone. Obviously the secret was out, it was startling enough in all +conscience, and, as I thought, merely the whim of a madman. And yet +there were aspects of it which were inexplicable. There could be no +doubt whatever that Gideon Morse had flouted English society, which had +treated him with extreme kindness, in a way that it would never forget. +That surely was not the action of a sane man. If he had wanted to build +for himself a lordly "pleasure house" to which he might retire upon +occasions, a sane man would have arranged things very differently. +Certainly, and this was not without some bitter satisfaction to me, he +had ruined his daughter's chances of a brilliant marriage—for a long +time at any rate. I saw that secrecy had been necessary, though it had +been carried to an extreme degree; but why had he fooled me under the +guise of friendship? Surely he could have trusted my word.</p> + +<p>I was furious as I thought of the way I had been done. I was furious +also, and worse than furious, alarmed, when I thought of Juanita. Had +she been in the plot the whole time? Did she like being spirited away +from all that could make a young girl's life bright and happy? What +<i>was</i> at the bottom of it all?</p> + +<p>The only thing to do was to try and keep ahead, or level, with my rival +contemporaries in the matter of news, and privately to wait on events, +and think the matter out definitely. For the next few days, weeks +perhaps, some of the acutest brains in England would be puzzled over +this problem, and if there was really anything more in it than the freak +of a colossal egotist, who thus, with a superb gesture, signified his +scorn of the world, then some light might come.</p> + +<p>Suddenly I felt ill, and collapsed. I gave a few instructions, left the +office and went home to Piccadilly, and to bed.</p> + +<p>It was about eight o'clock when Preston woke me. I had had a bath and +changed, and was wondering exactly what I should do for the rest of the +evening, when Preston came in and said that there was a boy who wished +to see me. He would neither give his name nor his business, but seemed +respectable.</p> + +<p>I remembered Pat's mysterious telegram, which till now I had quite +forgotten, and with a certain quickening of the pulses I ordered the boy +to be shown up.</p> + +<p>He came into the room with a scrape and a bow, a nice-looking lad of +sixteen, decently dressed in black.</p> + +<p>"Who are you and what do you want?" I said.</p> + +<p>He seemed a little nervous and his eyes were bright.</p> + +<p>"Are you Sir Thomas Kirby?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, what is it? By the way, haven't you been all the way to Norfolk to +find me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, it's my day off, but unfortunately I found you had left, sir, +so I came on here as fast as I could. A gentleman at Cerne Hall gave me +your address."</p> + +<p>"And how did you know I was at Cerne Hall?"</p> + +<p>"It's on the envelope, sir."</p> + +<p>"The envelope?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, the one I was to deliver to you personally, and on no account +to let it get into the hands of any one else, even one of your servants, +sir, and"—he breathed a little fast—"and the lady said that you would +certainly give me fifty pounds, sir, if I did exactly as she ordered, +and never breathed a word to a single soul."</p> + +<p>In an instant I understood. The blood grew hot and raced into my veins +as I held out my hand, trembling with impatience, while the youth +performed a somewhat complicated operation of half undressing, +eventually producing a brown paper packet intricately tied with string, +from some inner recesses of his wardrobe.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" I asked while he was unbuttoning.</p> + +<p>"James Smith, sir, one of the pages at the Ritz Hotel."</p> + +<p>I tore off the wrappers imposed upon the letter by this cautious youth. +There was a letter addressed to me in a fine Italian hand which I knew +from having seen it in one word only—"Cerne."</p> + +<p>Fortunately, I had plenty of money in the flat and there was no need to +give the excellent James Smith a check.</p> + +<p>He gasped with joy as he tucked away the crackling bits of paper.</p> + +<p>"And remember, not ever a word to any one, Smith."</p> + +<p>"On my honor, sir," he said, saluting.</p> + +<p>"And what will you do with it, Smith?"</p> + +<p>"Please, sir, I hope to pelmanize myself into an hotel manager," he +said, and I let him go at that. I only hope that he will succeed.</p> + +<p>I opened the letter. It ran as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"Farewell. I don't suppose we shall ever meet again. I am forced to +retire from the world—from love—from you.</p> + +<p>"I cannot explain, but fear walks with me night and day. Oh, my +love! if you could only save me, you would, I know, but it is +impossible and so farewell. Were I not sure that we shall not see +each other more I could not write as I have done and signed myself +here,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Your,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"<span class="smcap">Juanita</span>."<br /></span> +</div></div> +</blockquote> + +<p>I put the letter carefully into the breast-pocket of my coat, and then, +for the first time in my life, I fainted dead away.</p> + +<p>Preston found me a few minutes later, got me right somehow, ascertained +that I had not eaten for many hours, scolded me like a father, and +poured turtle soup into me till I was alive again, alive and changed +from the man I had been a few hours ago.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The next day I satisfied myself that all was going well in the office, +and simply roamed about London. Already I think the dim purpose which +afterwards came to such extraordinary fruit was being born in my mind. I +wanted to be alone, taken quite out of my usual surroundings, and I +achieved this with considerable success. I rode in tube trains and heard +every one discussing Gideon Morse, and what was already known as the +"City in the Clouds." The papers announced that thousands of people were +encamped in Richmond Park gazing upwards, and seeing nothing because of +a cloud veil that hung around the top of the towers. It seemed the +proprietors of telescopes on tripods were doing a roaring trade at +threepence a look, but the gate in the grim, prison-like walls +surrounding the grounds at the foot of the tower, was never once opened +all day long.</p> + +<p>I began to realize that probably nothing new, nothing reliable that is, +would transpire at present. The sensation would go its usual way. There +would be songs and allusions in all the revues to-night. Punch would +have a cartoon, suggesting the City in the Clouds as a place of +banishment for its particular bugbear of the moment. Gossip papers would +be full of beautiful, untrue stories of a romantic nature about the girl +I loved, her name would be the subject of a million jokes by a million +vulgar people. Then, little by little, the excitement would die away.</p> + +<p>All this, as a trained journalist I foresaw easily enough, but knowing +what I knew—what probably I alone of all the teeming millions in London +knew—I was forming a resolve, which hourly grew stronger, that I would +never rest until I knew the worst.</p> + +<p>I found myself in Kensington. There was a motor-omnibus starting for +Whitechapel Road. I climbed on the top.</p> + +<p>"I sye," piped a little ragamuffin office boy to his friend, "why does +Jewanniter live in the clouds, Willum?"</p> + +<p>"Arsk me another."</p> + +<p>"'Cos she's a celebrated 'airess—see?"</p> + +<p>"What I say," said a meager-looking man with a bristling mustache which +unsuccessfully concealed his slack and feeble mouth, "is simply this. If +Mr. Morse chooses to live in a certain way of life and 'as the money to +carry it out, why not let him alone? Freedom for every individual is a +'progative of English life, and I expect Morse is fair furious with what +they're saying about him, for I have it on the best authority that a +copy of every edition of the <i>Evening Special</i> goes up to him in the +tower lifts as soon as it is issued."</p> + +<p>Words, words, words! everywhere, silly, irresponsible chatter which I +heeded as little as a thrush heeds a shower of rain.</p> + +<p>Steadily, swiftly, certainly, my purpose grew.</p> + +<p>I got down in the Whitechapel Road, that wide and unlovely thoroughfare, +and, feeling hungry, went into a dingy little restaurant partitioned off +in boxes. The tablecloth was of stained oil skin, the guests the +seediest type of minor clerks, but I do remember that for ninepence I +had a little beefsteak and kidney pudding to myself which was as good as +anything I have ever eaten. As I went out I saw my neighbor of the +omnibus who had spoken so eloquently of freedom, walking by with a +little black bag, as in an aimless way I hailed a taxicab from the rank +opposite a London hospital and told the man to drive slowly westwards.</p> + +<p>He did so, and when we came to the Embankment a gleam of afternoon +sunshine began to enlighten what had been a leaden day. Thinking a brisk +walk from Black Friars to Westminster would help my thoughts, I +dismissed the cab and started.</p> + +<p>It was with an odd little thrill and flutter of the heart that far away +westwards, to the left of the Houses of Parliament, I saw three ghostly +lines, no thicker than lamp posts, it seemed, springing upwards from +nothingness. At Cleopatra's Needle, I felt the want of a cigarette and +stopped to light one.</p> + +<p>At the moment there were few people on the pavement, though the +unceasing traffic in the road roared by as usual. I lit the cigarette, +put my case back in my pocket, and was about to continue my stroll when +I heard some one padding up behind me with obvious purpose.</p> + +<p>I half turned, and there again I saw the man with the weak mouth and the +big mustache.</p> + +<p>It flashed upon me, for the first time, that I was being followed, had +been followed probably during the whole of my wanderings.</p> + +<p>As I said, there was nobody immediately about, so I turned to +rabbit-face and challenged him.</p> + +<p>"You're following me, my man, why? Out with it or I'll give you in +charge."</p> + +<p>"Yer can't," he said. "This is a free country, freedom is my 'progative +as well as yerself, Sir Thomas Kirby. I've done nothing to annoy yer, +have I?"</p> + +<p>I shrugged my shoulders.</p> + +<p>"But you have been following me."</p> + +<p>His manner changed at once.</p> + +<p>"Ever since you left Piccadilly, Sir Thomas, waiting my opportunity. I'm +a private inquiry agent by profession, though this job of shadowing you +has nothing to do with the office that employs me. I have a young friend +in my house who's turned up sudden and mysterious, a young friend I lost +sight of many weeks ago. He says you'll come to him at once if I could +only get you alone and be certain that no one saw me speak to you. His +instructions were to follow you about until such an opportunity as this +arose, and all the time I was to be certain that no one else was +following you. I have ascertained that all right."</p> + +<p>He put his head close to mine and I felt his hot breath upon my cheek.</p> + +<p>"It's Mr. William Rolston, Sir Thomas," he said. "I'm not in his +confidence, though I have long admired his abilities and predicted a +great future for him. He's come to me in distress and I am doing what I +can to 'elp 'im—this being a day when they've no job for me at the +office."</p> + +<p>"Good Lord! why didn't you speak to me this morning, if you've been +following me all day?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't have done. Mr. Rolston's instructions was different and he has +his reasons, though I'm not in his confidence. I've done it out of +admiration for his talents, and no doubt some day he'll be in a position +to pay me for my work."</p> + +<p>"Pay you, you idiot!" I could have taken him by the throat and shaken +the fool. "Mr. Rolston knows very well that he can command any money he +chooses. He's a member of my staff."</p> + +<p>We were now walking along together towards Westminster.</p> + +<p>"That's as may be," said my seedy friend, "but 'e 'adn't a brass +farthing this morning, and come to that, Sir Thomas, if you'd got into +another blinking taxi, you'd have snookered <i>me</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Where do you live?" I asked impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Not far from where you 'ad your lunch, Sir Thomas. 15, Imperial +Mansions, Royal Road, Stepney."</p> + +<p>"It's a magnificent address," I said, as I held out my stick for a cab.</p> + +<p>"It's a block o' workmen's buildings, reely," he replied gloomily, "and +in the thick of the Chinese quarter, which makes it none too savory. But +an Englishman's house is his castle and he has the 'progative to call it +what he likes."</p> + +<p>Back east we went again and in half an hour I was mounting interminable +stone steps to a door nearly at the top of "Imperial Mansions," which my +guide, who during our drive had introduced himself to me as Mr. Herbert +Sliddim, announced as his home. In a dingily furnished room, sitting on +a molting, plush sofa I saw the curious little man to whom I had so +taken months ago. He was shabby almost to beggary. His face was pale and +worn, which gave him an aspect of being much older than I had imagined +him. But his irrepressible ears stood out as of yore and his eyes were +not dimmed.</p> + +<p>"Hallo," I said, "glad to see you, Mr. Rolston, though you've neglected +us at the office for a long time. Your arrears of salary have been +mounting up."</p> + +<p>His hand was trembling as I gripped it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sir Thomas," he said, "do you really mean that I am still on the +staff?"</p> + +<p>"Of course you are, my dear boy."</p> + +<p>I turned to Mr. Sliddim.</p> + +<p>"Now I wonder," I said, "if I might have a little quiet conversation +with Mr. Rolston."</p> + +<p>"By all means," he replied. "I'll wait in the courtyard."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't do that, Mr. Sliddim. Why not take a tour round?"</p> + +<p>I led him out of the room into the passage which served for hall, +pressed a couple of pounds into his hand and had the satisfaction of +seeing him leap away down the stairs like an antelope.</p> + +<p>"That's all right," said Rolston. "Now he'll go and get blotto, it's the +poor devil's failing. Still, he'll be happy."</p> + +<p>I sat down, passed my cigarette case to Rolston, and waited for him to +begin.</p> + +<p>He sort of came to attention.</p> + +<p>"I was rung up, Sir Thomas, at your flat—at least your valet was—and +told to come to the office of the <i>Evening Special</i> at once."</p> + +<p>"I know, go on."</p> + +<p>"I dressed as quickly as I could, ran down the stairs and jumped into +the waiting cab. The door banged and we started off. The engines must +have been running, for we went away like a flash. There was some one +else sitting there. A hand clapped over my mouth and an arm round my +body. I couldn't move or speak. Then the thumb of the hand did something +to the big nerves behind my ear. It's an Oriental trick and I had just +realized it when something wet and sweet was pressed over my mouth and +nose, and I lost all consciousness.</p> + +<p>"When I woke up I found myself in a fair-sized room, lit by a skylight +high up in the roof. There was a bed, a table, a chair, and various +other conveniences, and I hadn't the slightest idea where I could be. My +head ached and I felt bruised all over, so I drank a glass of water, +crawled back into the bed and slept. When I woke again there was an +affable Chink sitting by my side, who spoke quite good English.</p> + +<p>"'You will,' he said, 'be kept here for some time in durance, yess. It's +an unfortunate necessity, yess.'</p> + +<p>"I heard on all sides familiar noises. I knew in a moment what had +happened. I had been brought back to the works at the base of the three +towers."</p> + +<p>"All this fits in very well with what I now know, Rolston. I'll tell you +everything in a minute, but I want to hear your story first."</p> + +<p>"Very good, Sir Thomas. For over three months I've been kept a prisoner +at Richmond. I wasn't badly treated. I had anything I liked to eat and +drink, any books to read—tobacco, a bath—everything but newspapers, +which were rigidly denied me. I wasn't kept entirely to my prison room. +I was allowed to go out and take exercise within the domain surrounded +by the great thirty-foot wall, though I was never let to roam about as I +wished. There was always a big Chinese coolie with a leaded cane +attending me, a man that only spoke a few words of English.</p> + +<p>"Now, Sir Thomas, please remember this. From first to last none of my +jailers knew that I understood Chinese. And none of them knew or +suspected that I had been among the workmen before, in order to get +materials for the scoop with which I came to you."</p> + +<p>I saw the value of that at once.</p> + +<p>"Good for you, Rolston; now please continue."</p> + +<p>"Well, Sir Thomas, I kept my eyes and ears very wide open and I learnt a +lot. Things were being prepared with a feverish activity of which the +people outside had not the slightest idea. I found that round the base +of the towers, in the miniature park inclosed by the high wall, there +were already magnificent vegetable gardens in active being. There were +huge conservatories which must have been set up when the towers were +only a few hundred feet high, now full of the rarest flowers and shrubs. +In my walks, I saw a miniature poultry farm, conducted on the most +up-to-date methods; there was a dairy, with four or five cows—already +this part of the huge inclosure was assuming a rural aspect. It must +have been planned and started nearly two years ago."</p> + +<p>"You asked questions, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Any amount, as innocently as I possibly could. I got very little out of +my captors in reply. Your Chinaman is the most secretive person in the +world. <i>But</i>, I heard them talking among themselves; and I was amazed at +the calculated organization which had been going on without cessation +from the beginning.</p> + +<p>"It all fitted in exactly with what I told you at the <i>Special</i> office. +It was as though Mr. Morse was planning a little private world of his +own, which would be independent of everything outside."</p> + +<p>"And about the towers themselves?"</p> + +<p>"It will take me hours to tell you. In one quarter of the inclosure +there are great dynamo sheds—an electric installation inferior to +nothing else of its kind in the world. The great lifts which rise and +fall in the towers are electric. Heating, lighting, artificial daylight +for the conservatories—all are electric.</p> + +<p>"Where I was kept," he went on, "was nearly a quarter of a mile from the +engineering section, but I knew that it hummed with extraordinary +activity night and day. I discovered that structural buildings of light +steel were pouring in from America, that an army of decorators and +painters was at work; vans of priceless Oriental furniture and hangings +were arriving from all parts of the world, rare flowers and shrubs also. +Sir Thomas, it was as though the Universe was being searched for +wonders—all to be concentrated here.</p> + +<p>"This went on and on till I lost count of the days and lived in a sort +of dream, kindly treated enough, allowed to see many secret things, and +always with a sense that because this was so, I should never again +emerge into the real world."</p> + +<p>"I can understand that, Rolston. Every word you say interests me +extremely."</p> + +<p>"I'll come to the present, Sir Thomas. You can ask me any details that +you like afterwards. A few days ago everything was speeded up to +extraordinary pitch. Then, late one night, there was a great to-do, and +in the morning I learned that Mr. Morse and his family had arrived, and +that they were up at the top. I have found out since that this was the +fourteenth of September."</p> + +<p>"The fourteenth!" I cried.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sir Thomas, the fourteenth. The next day, it was late in the +afternoon and the sun was setting, two Chinamen came into my room, tied +a handkerchief over my eyes and led me out. I was put into one of the +little electric railways—open cars which run all over the +inclosure—and taken to the base of the towers.</p> + +<p>"I don't know which tower it was, but I was led into a lift and a long, +slow ascent began. I knew that I was in one of the big carrying lifts +that take a long time to do the third of a mile up to the City, not one +of the quick-running elevators which leap upwards from stage to stage +for passengers and arrive at the top in a comparatively short space of +time.</p> + +<p>"When the lift stopped they took off the handkerchief and I found myself +in a great whitewashed barn of a place which was obviously a storeroom. +There were bales of stuff, huge boxes and barrels on every side.</p> + +<p>"The men who had brought me up were just rough Chinese workmen from Hong +Kong, but a door opened and a Chink of quite another sort came in and +took me by the arm.</p> + +<p>"You see, Sir Thomas," he explained, "to the ordinary Englishman one +Chinaman is just like another, but my experience in the East enables me +to distinguish at once.</p> + +<p>"The newcomer was of a very superior class, and he led me out of the +storeroom, across a swaying bridge of latticed steel to a little +rotunda. As we passed along, I had a glimpse of the whole of London, +far, far below. The Thames was like a piece of glittering string. +Everything else were simply patches of gray, green, and brown.</p> + +<p>"We went into the cupola and a tiny lift shot us up like a bullet until +it stopped with a clank and I knew that I was now upon the highest +platform of all.</p> + +<p>"But I could see nothing, for we simply turned down a long corridor +lighted by electricity and softly carpeted, which might have been the +corridor of one of the great hotels far down below in town.</p> + +<p>"My conductor, who wore pince-nez and a suit of dark blue alpaca and who +had a charming smile, stopped at a door, rapped, and pushed me in.</p> + +<p>"I found myself in a room of considerable size. It was a library. The +walls were covered with shelves of old oak, in which there were +innumerable books. A Turkey carpet, two or three writing-tables—and Mr. +Gideon Morse, whom I had never spoken to, but had seen driving in Hyde +Park, sat there smoking a cigar.</p> + +<p>"I might have been in the library of a country house, except for two +things. There were no windows to this large and gracious room. It was +lit from above, like a billiard-room—domed skylights in the roof. But +the light that came down was not a light like anything I had ever seen. +It lit up every detail of the magnificent and stately place, but it was +new—'the light that never was on earth or sea.' It was just that that +made me realize where I was—two thousand three hundred feet up in the +air, alone with Gideon Morse, who had snatched me out of life three +months before."</p> + +<p>"I know Mr. Morse, Rolston. What impression did he make on you?"</p> + +<p>"For a moment he stunned me, Sir Thomas. I knew I was in the presence of +a superman. All that I had heard about him, all the legends that +surrounded his name, the fact of this stupendous sky city in which I +was—the ease with which he had stretched out his hand and made me a +prisoner, all combined to produce awe and fear."</p> + +<p>"Yes, go on."</p> + +<p>"I saw two other things—I think I did. One was that the man's sanity is +trembling in the balance. The other that if ever a human being lives and +moves and has his being in deadly temporal fear, Gideon Mendoza Morse is +that man."</p> + +<p>The words rang out in that East-end room with prophetic force. It was as +though a brilliant light was snapped on to illumine a dark chamber in my +soul.</p> + +<p>"What did he say to you, Rolston?"</p> + +<p>"He was suavity and kindness itself. He said that he immensely regretted +the necessity for secluding me so long. 'But of course I shall make it +up to you. You're a young man, Mr. Rolston, only just commencing your +career. A little capital would doubtless assist that career, in which I +may say I have every belief. Shall we say that you leave Richmond this +afternoon with a solatium of five hundred pounds?'</p> + +<p>"'A thousand would suit me better,' I said.</p> + +<p>"He shrugged his shoulders, and suddenly smiled at me.</p> + +<p>"'Very well,' he said, 'let it be a thousand pounds.'</p> + +<p>"'Of course without prejudice, Mr. Morse.'</p> + +<p>"'Please explain yourself.'</p> + +<p>"'You've kidnaped me. You've also committed an offense against the law +of England—a criminal offense for which you will have to suffer. +Perhaps you don't realize that if you built your house miles further up, +if you managed to nearly reach the moon, British justice would reach you +at last.'</p> + +<p>"He shook his head sadly.</p> + +<p>"'To that point of view, I hardly agree, Mr. Rolston. I am quite unable +to purchase British justice, but I can put such obstacles in its way +that could—'</p> + +<p>"He suddenly stopped there, lit a little brown cigarette, came up and +patted me on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"'Child,' he said, 'you are clever, you are original, I like you. But +have a sense of proportion, and remember that you have no choice in this +matter. I will give you the money you want on condition that you go away +and bring no action whatever against me. If not—'</p> + +<p>"'If not, sir?'</p> + +<p>"'Well, you will have to stay here, that's all. You won't be badly +treated. You can be librarian if you like, but you will never see the +outside world again.'</p> + +<p>"'May I have a few hours to consider, sir?'</p> + +<p>"'A month if you like,' he said, pressing a bell upon his table.</p> + +<p>"The same bland young Chinaman led me out of the library and down to the +storeroom in the lift. I was blindfolded, and descended to the ground.</p> + +<p>"There I met a man whom I had seen two or three times during the last +three days, a great seven-foot American with arms like a gorilla, a +thing called 'Boss Mulligan,' whom I had gathered from the conversation +of my Chinese friends, had now arrived to take charge of the whole +city—a sort of head policeman and guard.</p> + +<p>"'Sonny,' he said, 'I've had a 'phone down from the top in regard to +you. Now don't you be a short sport. You've been made a good offer. You +grip it and be like fat in lavender. My advice to you is to wind a smile +round your neck and depart with the dollars. I can see you're full of +pep and now you've got fortune before you. See that pavilion over +there?'</p> + +<p>"He pointed to where a little gaudily painted house nestled under one of +the great feet of the first tower.</p> + +<p>"'That's my mansion. You wander about for an hour or so and come there +and say you agree to the boss's terms—we'll take your word for it. Upon +the word "Yes," I'll hand you out at the gate and you can go to Paris +for a trip.'</p> + +<p>"'I'll think it over,' I said.</p> + +<p>"'Do so, and don't be a life-everlasting, twenty-four-hours-a-day, +dyed-in-the-wool damn fool.'</p> + +<p>"It was getting dusk. I was in a new part of the inclosed park. He let +me go without any watchful Chinese attendant at my heels, and I strolled +off with my head bent down as if deep in thought.</p> + +<p>"I'd got an hour, and I think I made the best use of it. I hurried along +under the shadow of the towers, past shrubberies, artificial lakes, +summer-houses and little inclosed rose-gardens until I was far away from +Mr. Mulligan. Here and there I passed a patient Chinese gardener or some +hurrying member of Morse's little army. But nobody stopped me or +interfered with me. For the first time since my captivity I was +perfectly free.</p> + +<p>"To cut a long story short, Sir Thomas, I came to a rectangle in the +great encircling wall, which at that point was thirty feet high. The +parapet at the top was obviously being repaired, for there was a ladder +right up, pails of mortar, bricklayers' tools, and a coil of rope for +binding scaffolding. I nipped up the ladder, carrying the rope after me, +fixed it at the top, slid down easily enough, and in a quarter of an +hour was in Richmond station. I didn't dare to go back to my old rooms +because I was sure there would be a secret hue and cry after me. I +thought of my old friend, Mr. Sliddim, traveled to Whitechapel with my +last pence, and here I am."</p> + +<p>"Still a member of my staff?"</p> + +<p>"If you please, Sir Thomas."</p> + +<p>"Ready for anything?"</p> + +<p>"Anything and everything."</p> + +<p>"Then come with me to Piccadilly—if they look for you there again we +shall be prepared."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_SEVEN" id="CHAPTER_SEVEN"></a>CHAPTER SEVEN</h2> + + +<p>I have to tell of a brief interlude before I got to work in earnest.</p> + +<p>The very day after the rediscovery of Rolston I fell ill. The strain had +been too much, a severe nervous attack was the result, and my vet. +ordered me to the quietest watering-place in Brittany that I could find. +I protested, but in vain. The big man told me what would happen if I +didn't go, so I went, <i>faute-de-mieux</i>, and took Rolston with me.</p> + +<p>I acquainted Arthur Winstanley and Pat Moore of my movements by letter, +and I engaged the seedy Mr. Sliddim to abide permanently in Richmond and +to forward me a full report of all he observed, and of all rumors, +connected with the City in the Clouds. When I had subscribed to a +press-cutting agency to send me everything that appeared in print +relating to Gideon Morse and his fantastic home, I felt I had done +everything possible until I should be restored to health.</p> + +<p>Of my month in Pont Aven I shall say nothing save that I lived on fine +Breton fare, walked ten miles a day, left Rolston—who proved the most +interesting and stimulating companion a man could have—to answer all my +letters, and went to bed at nine o'clock at night.</p> + +<p>Heartache, fear for Juanita, occasional fits of fury at my own inaction +and impotence? Yes, all these were with me at times. But I crushed them +down, forced myself to think as little as possible of her, in order that +when once restored to health and full command of my nerves, I might +begin the campaign I had planned. You must picture me therefore, one +afternoon at the end of October, arriving from Paris by the five o'clock +train, dispatching Rolston to Piccadilly with the luggage, and driving +myself to Captain Moore's quarters at Knightsbridge Barracks.</p> + +<p>I had summoned a meeting of our league, which we had so fancifully named +"Santa Hermandad"—a fact that was to have future consequences which +none of us ever dreamed of—by telegram from Paris.</p> + +<p>Pat and Arthur were awaiting me in the former's comfortable +sitting-room. A warm fire burned on the hearth as we sat down to tea and +anchovy toast.</p> + +<p>I had been in more or less frequent communication with both of them +during my sick leave, and when we began to discuss the situation we +dispensed with preliminaries.</p> + +<p>It was Pat who, so to speak, took the chair, leaning against an old +Welsh sideboard of oak, crowded with polo and shooting cups, shields for +swordsmanship and other trophies.</p> + +<p>"Now, you two," he said, "we know certain facts, and we have arrived at +certain conclusions.</p> + +<p>"First of all, as to the facts. Miss Morse is as good as engaged to Tom +here. Arthur and I are 'also ran.' Fact number one. Fact number two, she +has been suddenly and forcibly taken away from the world, and is in +great distress of mind. That so, brother leaguers?"</p> + +<p>We murmured assent.</p> + +<p>"Now for our deductions. Morse, divil take him! has some deadly +important reason for this fantastic, spectacular show of his. The public +see it as the fancy of a chap who's so much money he don't know what to +do with it, a fellow that's exhausted all sensation and is now trying +for a new one. Let 'em think so! But <i>we</i> know—here in this room—a +long sight more than the general public knows. Tom and that young +fly-by-night, with the red hair and the stained-glass-window ears, he's +been cartin' about with him, have got behind the scenes."</p> + +<p>Pat's face hardened.</p> + +<p>"We alone are certain that the man Morse, for all his equanimity and the +mask he has presented to London during the season, has been living under +the influence of some dirty, cowardly fear or other!"</p> + +<p>Arthur interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Fear, if you like, Pat, but I don't think it is probably dirty, or even +cowardly. You forget Miss Morse."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you're right. At any rate, if Gideon Morse is really menaced by +some great danger, what cleverer trick could he have played? To let the +world suppose that it's his whim and fancy to live like a rook at the +top of an elm tree, when all the time he's providing against the +possibility of annihilation, that's a stroke of genius."</p> + +<p>"Good for you, Pat," said Arthur with a wink to me, "you're on the track +of it."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, and I think I am," said the big guardsman simply, "and here's +the cunning of it, the supreme sense of self-preservation. If that man +Morse is in fear of his life, and in fear for his daughter's too, he +couldn't have invented a more perfect security than he has done. From +all we know, from all Tom has told us, no one can get at them now but an +archangel!"</p> + +<p>Then Arthur spoke.</p> + +<p>"For my part," he said, "as I'm vowed to the service, I'm going straight +to Brazil and I'm going to find out everything I can about the past life +of Gideon Morse. I speak Spanish as you know. I think I'm fairly +diplomatic, and in a little more than a couple of months I'll return +with big news, if I'm not very much mistaken. And there's always the +cable too. We are pledged to Tom, but beyond that we're united together +to save the little lady from evil or from harm. To-morrow I sail for +Rio."</p> + +<p>"And I," I said, "have already made my plans. To-morrow I disappear +absolutely from ordinary life. Only two people in London will know where +I am, and what I am doing—Preston, my servant in Piccadilly, and one +other whom I shall appoint at the offices of my paper. While Arthur is +gathering information which will be of the greatest use, I must be +working on the spot. I imagine there isn't much time to lose."</p> + +<p>"And what'll I do?" asked Pat Moore.</p> + +<p>"You, Pat, will stay here, lead your ordinary life, and hold yourself +ready for anything and everything when I call upon you. And as far as I +can see," I concluded, "there will be a very pressing necessity for your +help before much more water has flowed under Richmond Bridge."</p> + +<p>There was an end of talking; we were all in deadly earnest. We grasped +hands, arranged a system of communication, and then I and Arthur went +down the stone steps, across the parade ground, and said good-by at Hyde +Park corner.</p> + +<p>"You—?" he said.</p> + +<p>"You will see in the papers that Sir Thomas Kirby is gone for a voyage +round the world."</p> + +<p>"And as a matter of fact?"</p> + +<p>"I think I won't give you any details, old man. My plan is a very odd +one indeed. You wouldn't quite understand, and you'd think it +extraordinary—as indeed it is."</p> + +<p>"It can't be more fantastic than the whole bitter business," he said, +and his voice was full of pain.</p> + +<p>I saw, for the first time, that he had grown older in the last few +months. The boyishness in him which had been one of his charms, was +passing away definitely and forever. He was hard hit, as we all were, +and I reproached myself for my egotism. After all, if there was any hope +at all, I was the most fortunate. Arthur and staunch old Pat Moore were +giving up their time, their energies, to bring about a conclusion from +which I alone should benefit.</p> + +<p>We were crossing the Green Park as this was borne in upon me. It was a +dull, gray afternoon, rapidly deadening into evening. There seemed no +color anywhere. But when I thought of the faithful, uncomplaining, even +joyous adherence to our oath, when I understood for the first time how +these two friends of mine were laboring without hope of reward, then I +saw, as in a vision, the wonder and sacredness of unselfish love.</p> + +<p>"Arthur," I said, as we were about to part at Hyde Park corner, "God +forgive me, but I believe your love for her is greater than mine."</p> + +<p>"Don't say that, Tom. When we threw the dice, if the Queen had come to +me you would be doing what I am doing now, or what Pat is ready to do."</p> + +<p>Well, of course, that was true, but when we gripped hands and turned our +backs upon each other, I walked slowly towards my flat with a hanging +head.</p> + +<p>For one brief moment I had caught a glimpse of that love which Dante +speaks of—that love "which moves earth and all the stars"—and in the +presence of so high a thing I was bowed and humbled.</p> + +<p>Let me also be worthy of such company, was my prayer.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>At ten o'clock the next morning I stood in my bedroom with Preston in +attendance. Preston's face, usually a well-bred mask which showed +nothing of his feelings, was gravely distressed.</p> + +<p>"Shall I do, Preston?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sir Thomas, you'll <i>do</i>," he said regretfully, "but I must say, +Sir Thomas, that—"</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Preston, you've said quite enough. Am I the real thing or +not?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, Sir Thomas," he said with spirit. "How could you be the +real thing? But I'm bound to say you <i>look</i> it."</p> + +<p>"You mean that your experience of a small but prosperous suburban +public-house, visited principally by small tradespeople, leads you to +suppose that I might pass very well for the landlord of such a place?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid it does, Sir Thomas," he replied with a gulp, as I surveyed +myself once more in the long mirror of my wardrobe door.</p> + +<p>I was about six feet high in my boots, fair, with a ruddy countenance +and somewhat fleshy face—not gross I believe, but generally built upon +a generous scale.</p> + +<p>That morning I had shaved off my mustache, had my hair arranged in a new +way—that is to say, with an oily curl draping over the forehead—and I +had very carefully penciled some minute crimson veins upon my nose. I +ought to say that I have done a good deal of amateur acting in my time +and am more or less familiar with the contents of the make-up box.</p> + +<blockquote><p>[<span class="smcap">Note.</span>—My master, Sir Thomas Kirby, has long been known as one of +the handsomest gentlemen in society. He has a full face certainly, +but entirely suited to his build and physical development. Of +course, when he shaved off a mustache that was a model of such +adornments, it did alter his appearance considerably.—<span class="smcap">Henry +Preston.</span>]</p></blockquote> + +<p>Instead of the high collar of use and wont, I wore a low one, +permanently attached to what I believe is known as a "dicky"—that is to +say, a false shirt front which reaches but little lower than the opening +of the waistcoat. My tie was a made-up four-in-hand of crimson +satin—not too new, my suit of very serviceable check with large +side-pockets, purchased second-hand, together with other oddments, from +a shop in Covent Garden. I also wore a large and massive gold +watch-chain, and a diamond ring upon the little finger of my right hand.</p> + +<p>That was all, yet I swear not one of my friends would have known me, and +what was more important still, I was typical without having overdone it. +No one in London, meeting me in the street, would have turned to look +twice at me. You could not say I was really disguised—in the true +meaning of the word—and yet I was certainly entirely transformed, and +with my cropped hair, except for the "quiff" in front, I looked as +blatant and genial a bounder as ever served a pint of "sixes."</p> + +<p>Preston had left the room for a moment and now came back to say that Mr. +W. W. Power had arrived.</p> + +<p>W. W. Power was the youngest partner in a celebrated firm of solicitors, +Power, Davids and Power—a firm that has acted for my father and myself +for more years than I can remember.</p> + +<p>Under his somewhat effeminate exterior and a languid manner, young Power +is one of the sharpest and cleverest fellows I know, and, what's more, +one that can keep his mouth shut under any circumstances.</p> + +<p>I went into the dining-room, hoping to make him start. Not a bit of it. +He merely put up his eyeglass and said laconically: "You'll do, Sir +Thomas"—not more than two years ago he had been an under-graduate at +Cambridge!</p> + +<p>"You think so, Power?"</p> + +<p>He nodded and looked at his watch.</p> + +<p>"All right then, we'll be off," I said, and Preston called a taxi, on +which were piled a large brass-bound trunk and a shabby +portmanteau—also recent purchases, and with the name H. Thomas painted +boldly upon them. Preston's Christian name by the way is Henry and I had +borrowed it for the occasion.</p> + +<p>I got into the cab with a curious sensation that some one might be +looking on and discover me. Power seated himself by my side with no +indication of thought at all, and we rolled away westward.</p> + +<p>"Nothing remains," he said, "but to complete the documents of sale. +Everything is ready, and I have the money in notes in my pocket. The +solicitor of the retiring proprietor will be in attendance, and the +whole thing won't take more than twenty minutes. Newby, the present man, +will then step out and leave you in undisturbed possession."</p> + +<p>"Very good, Power, and thank you for your negotiations. Seven thousand +pounds seems a lot of money for a little hole like that."</p> + +<p>"It isn't really. You see the place is freehold and the house is free +also. It's not under the dominion of any brewer, and when your purpose +in being there is over, I'll guarantee to sell it again for the same +money, probably a few hundreds more. As an investment it's sound +enough."</p> + +<p>He relapsed into silence and we rattled through Hammersmith on our way +to Richmond. I was curious about this imperturbable young man, whom I +knew rather well.</p> + +<p>"Aren't you curious, Power," I said, "to know why I'm doing this +extraordinary, unprecedented thing? I can trust you absolutely I know, +but haven't you asked yourself what the deuce I'm up to?"</p> + +<p>He favored me with a pale smile.</p> + +<p>"My dear Sir Thomas," he replied, "if you only knew what extraordinary +things society people <i>do</i> do, if you knew a tenth of what a solicitor +in my sort of practice knows, you wouldn't think there was anything +particularly strange in your little freak."</p> + +<p>Confound the cub! I could have punched him in the jaw. I knew his +assurance was all pose. Still it was admirable in its way and I burst +into hearty laughter.</p> + +<p>I had the satisfaction of seeing Master Power's cheeks faintly tinged +with pink!</p> + +<p>On the slope of the hill, at what one might describe as the back of the +high wall which inclosed the grounds at the foot of the three +towers—that is to say, it was exactly opposite the great central +entrance, and I suppose nearly quarter of a mile from it if one drew a +straight line from one to the other—was a crowded huddle of mean +streets. It was not in any sense a slum—nothing so picturesque—small, +drab, shabby, and respectable. In the center of this area was a +fair-sized, but old-fashioned, public-house, known as the "Golden Swan." +This was our destination, and in a few minutes more we had climbed the +hill and the taxi stood at rest before a side door.</p> + +<p>Opening it we entered, Power leading the way, and as we approached some +stairs I caught a glimpse of a little plush-furnished bar to the left, +where I could have sworn I saw the melancholy Sliddim in company with a +pewter pot.</p> + +<p>We waited for a moment or two in a long upstairs room. The walls were +covered with beasts, birds, and fishes, in glass cases, all of which +looked as if they ought to be decently buried. Upon one wall was an +immense engraving framed in boxwood of the execution of Mary, Queen of +Scots, and upon a huge mahogany sideboard which looked as if it had been +built to resist a cavalry charge, was a tray with hospitable bottles.</p> + +<p>Then the door opened and a dapper little man with side whiskers, the +vendor's solicitor, came in, accompanied by Mr. Newby, the retiring +landlord himself.</p> + +<p>Mr. Newby, dressed I was glad to notice, very much as myself, only the +diamond ring upon his finger was rather larger, was a short, fat man of +benevolent aspect, and I should say suffering from dropsy. We shook +hands heartily.</p> + +<p>"Thirty years have I been landlord here," wheezed Mr. Newby, "and now +it's time the 'ouse was in younger 'ands. Your respectability 'as been +vouched for, Mr. Thomas—I wouldn't sell to no low blackguard for twice +the money—and all I can say is, young feller, for you are a young +feller to me, you know—I 'ope you'll be as 'appy and prosperous in the +'Golden Swan' as Emanuel Newby 'ave been."</p> + +<p>I thought it was best to be a little awkward and bashful, so I said very +little while the lawyers fussed about with title deeds, and at last the +eventful moment came when one does that conjuring trick in which the +gentlemen of the law take such infantile delight. "Put your finger here, +yes, on this red seal and say...."</p> + +<p>When it was all done and Mr. Newby had stowed away seven thousand pounds +in bank-notes in a receptacle over his heart, we drank to the occasion +in some remarkably good champagne and then, with a sigh, the +ex-proprietor announced his intention of being off.</p> + +<p>"My luggage has preceded me," he said, "and I have nothing to do now but +retire, as I 'ave long planned, to the city of my birth."</p> + +<p>"And where may that be, Mr. Newby?" I asked politely.</p> + +<p>"The University City of Oxford," he replied, "which, if you've not known +intimate as I 'ave, you can never begin to understand. There's an +atmosphere there, Mr. Thomas, but Lord, you won't be interested!" and he +wheezed superior.</p> + +<p>The situation was not without humor.</p> + +<p>When he had gone, together with his solicitor, Power rang the bell.</p> + +<p>"As you wish me to manage everything for you," he said, "I have done so. +Your entire ignorance of the liquor trade will be compensated by the +knowledge and devotion of the assistant I have procured for you, after +many inquiries. His name is Whistlecraft, and he is an Honest Fool. He +won't rob you, though he'll probably diminish your profits greatly by +his stupidity—but as I understand, profit from the sale of drinks isn't +your object. He will obey orders implicitly, without even trying to +understand their reason, and in short you couldn't have a better man for +your purpose."</p> + +<p>When Whistlecraft appeared I perfectly agreed with Power. He was a +powerful fellow in shirt sleeves, aged about thirty-five, with arms that +could have felled an ox. Had he shaved within the last three days he +would have been clean shaved, and his hair was polished to a mirror-like +surface with suet—I caught him doing it one day. I never saw such calm +on any human face. It was the tranquillity of an entire absence of +intellect, a rich and perfect stupidity which nothing could penetrate, +nothing disturb. His eyes were dull as unclean pewter, without life or +speculation, and I knew at once that if I told him to go down into the +cellar, wait there till a hyena entered, strangle it, skin it, and bring +the pelt upstairs to me, he would depart upon his errand without a word!</p> + +<p>Power went away with the most conventional of handshakes—we might have +been parting in Pall Mall—and I was left alone, monarch of all I +surveyed.</p> + +<p>"What's the staff beside you, Whistlecraft?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Abbs, sir, cooks and sweeps up, sleeps out. Peter, the odd-job +boy, washes bottles and such, and that's all."</p> + +<p>"Then at closing time, you and I are left alone in the house?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>There was a loud and impatient knocking from somewhere below.</p> + +<p>"I'd better go and serve, sir, hadn't I?" said Whistlecraft—I found +later his name was Stanley—and I let him go at that.</p> + +<p>I spent the next hour going over the premises from cellar to roof and +making many mental notes, for I had come here with a definite purpose, +and plans already made.</p> + +<p>It was an extraordinary situation to be in. I sat in a little private +room behind the bar and every now and again Stanley's idiot countenance +appeared, and I had to go behind the counter and be introduced to this +or that regular frequenter. I asked every one to have a drink, for the +good of the house, and trust I made a fair impression. They all seemed +quiet, respectable people enough, who knew each other well.</p> + +<p>In the evening I was greatly helped by Sliddim, who was now a seasoned +habitué of the "Golden Swan," and whom from the moment of my arrival +slipped into the position of Master of the Ceremonies, which saved me a +great deal of trouble.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that all the time that I was in Brittany, Sliddim +had been employed in my interests at Richmond. Bill Rolston vouched +absolutely for the man's fidelity: had told me I could safely trust him +in any way. Accordingly, there was perhaps a little misgiving, I had +released him from his employment at the third-class detective agency +where he worked, and took him permanently into my service. I may say at +once, though he took no prominent part in the great events which +followed until the very end, he was of considerable use to me and kept +my secrets perfectly.</p> + +<p>At closing time that night, Mrs. Abbs, the cook, having spread a hot +supper in the private room behind the bar and left, I called the potman +in from his washing-up of glass and bade him share the meal.</p> + +<p>"Now I tell you what, Stanley," I said, when we had filled our pipes, +"in the tower inclosure there's a whole colony of Chinks, isn't there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; gardeners, stokers for the engines and such like. They say as +there isn't a white man among 'em, except only the boss, and he's an +Irishman."</p> + +<p>"They don't always live inside that wall?" I jerked my head towards a +window which looked out into my back yard, not a hundred feet away from +the towering precipice of brick which overshadowed the "Golden Swan," +and the surrounding houses.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not by no means. They comes out when their work's done in the +evenings, though they goes back to sleep and has to be in by a certain +time. They do say," and here something happened to Stanley's face which +I afterwards grew to recognize as a smile, "they do say as some of the +girls downtown are takin' up with 'em, seein' as they dress well, and +spend a lot of money."</p> + +<p>"I suppose they have somewhere where they go?"</p> + +<p>"It's mostly the 'Rising Sun' down by the station, I am told. The boss +there was a sailor and understands their ways. He's given them a room to +themselves."</p> + +<p>I was perfectly aware of all this, but I had a special motive for the +present conversation.</p> + +<p>"Now, it's come into my mind," I said, "that there's a lot of custom +going downtown that ought by rights to come to the 'Golden Swan,' seeing +that we are close at the gates, so to speak, and I mean to do what I +can to get hold of it. A Chink's money is as good as anybody else's, +Stanley, that's my way of looking at it."</p> + +<p>He chewed the cud of that idea for a minute or two and then it dawned in +the pudding of his mind.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," he said, in the voice of one who had made a great discovery.</p> + +<p>"Now, there's that room upstairs," I went on, "I shall never use it. If +we could get some of these Chinks to drop in there of a night it would +be good business."</p> + +<p>"There's just one thing against it," said Stanley, "if you'll pardon my +speaking of it, sir. I'm willing to do everything in reason, and I'm not +afraid of work. But I don't see as 'ow I can attend to both the saloon +and the four-ale bars if I'm to be going upstairs slinging drinks to the +Chinks."</p> + +<p>"Of course you can't and I wasn't going to suggest it. We must get an +extra help—if we can get the Chinks to use the house. We might have a +barmaid."</p> + +<p>He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't work, sir; you'd have to get a new one every week. A young +woman can't resist a Chink and they'd marry off like—"</p> + +<p>Stanley was unable to think of a simile so he buried his face in his +pewter pot.</p> + +<p>Really things were going very well for me.</p> + +<p>"I believe you are right. Supposing I could get a young fellow who was +one of themselves and could speak their lingo. There are lots to be +picked up about the docks. I mean some quiet young Chink, who would +attend to his fellow-countrymen in the evening, and relieve you of a lot +of the washing-up and things of that sort during the day?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Stanley Whistlecraft was not so stupid as to miss the advantages of +such a proposal as this.</p> + +<p>"You've 'it on the very plan, sir," he said, "and especial if he could +wash up them thin glasses which the gentlemen in the saloon bar like to +'ave, it would be a great saving. I never could 'andle them things +properly. You put your fingers on 'em and they crack worse than eggs. +Pewters, I can polish with any man alive, pot mugs seldom break, as +likewise them thick reputed half-pints which will break a man's 'ed +open, as I've proved. But these Chinks are as 'andy as any girl, and I +think, sir, you've got 'old of an idea."</p> + +<p>"I'll see about it in the morning. I've got a pal that has a nice little +house in the Mile End Road, and I believe he could send me just the lad +I want. Well, now you can go to bed, Stanley. Everything locked up?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll put out the lights."</p> + +<p>He bade me a gruff good-night and lurched heavily away. I heard him +ascending the stairs to his room at the back of the house and then I was +left alone.</p> + +<p>The first thing I did was to turn down the sleeves of my shirt and put +on my coat. It isn't etiquette to sup in your coat, I had gathered from +Mr. Whistlecraft's custom when he accepted my invitation.</p> + +<p>Then I unlocked a drawer in which was a box of cigars such as the +"Golden Swan" had never known, and stretching out my legs, stared into +the fire.</p> + +<p>I was doing the wildest, maddest thing, but so far all had gone well. I +was, as it were, a solitary swimmer in deep and dangerous waters, on the +threshold of experiences which I knew instinctively would transcend all +those of ordinary life. I was perfectly certain, something in my inmost +soul told me, that I was about to step into unknown perils, and to +contend with bizarre and sinister forces of which I had no means of +measuring the power or extent.</p> + +<p>I don't mind admitting that on that first night in the "Golden Swan," +fate weighed heavily on me and I thought I heard the muffled laughter of +malignant things.</p> + +<p>However, I was in for it now. I finished my cigar, went into the bar and +selected a certain bottle of whisky—the excellent Stanley had warned me +that this was the landlord's bottle and of a much more reputable quality +than that served to the landlord's guests. After a very moderate +"nightcap" I put on carpet slippers and went up to my room, which I had +chosen at the very top of the house. It was a large attic, just under +the roof, and in a few days I proposed to make it more habitable with +some new furniture and decoration. Meanwhile, I had chosen it because, +in one corner, some wooden steps went up to a trap-door which opened on +to the roof, where there was a flat space of some three yards square +among the chimneys. Just before going up to bed I turned up the collar +of my dressing-gown, ascended the ladder, pushed open the trap-door and +stepped out on to the leads.</p> + +<p>It was a still, moonlight night. Looking over the roofs of the houses I +could see the Thames winding like a silver ribbon far down below, a +scene of utter tranquillity and peace.</p> + +<p>Then I wheeled round to be confronted with the great black wall which +rose several yards above me, within a pistol shot of distance.</p> + +<p>But my eye traveled up beyond that and was caught in a colossal network +of steel, so bold, towering and gigantic in its nearness that it almost +made me reel. I stared up among the dark shadows and moonlit spaces till +my eye reached an altitude which I knew to be about the height of the +Golden Ball on the top of Saint Paul's Cathedral.</p> + +<p>There the vision checked. I could see a blur of low buildings, a web of +latticed galleries, and I knew that I was looking only up at the very +<i>first stage</i> of the City in the Clouds, which must be lying bare to the +moon some sixteen hundred feet above.</p> + +<p>I could see no more. The first stage barred all further vision, though +that in itself seemed terrible in its height and majesty. So I closed my +eyes and imagined only those supreme heights where she must be sleeping.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Juanita," I murmured, and then, as I descended into my room +the words of the Psalmist came to me and I said, "Oh, that I had the +wings of a dove!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_EIGHT" id="CHAPTER_EIGHT"></a>CHAPTER EIGHT</h2> + + +<p>On the afternoon of the next day the potman summoned me from my private +room with the information that there was a young fellow from the Mile +End Road to see me.</p> + +<p>"Chinese?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then it must be the lad come in answer to the telegram I sent to my +friend this morning. Show him in."</p> + +<p>In a few moments the applicant for the situation entered. He wore his +oily black hair fairly short, like most of the Chinamen employed at the +towers, and had no pigtail; he was dressed in European clothes. His high +cheek bones, with little slits of eyes above them, the stolid yellow +face and fine tapering fingers were typically Oriental as he glided in, +and his European clothes seemed to accentuate that air of Eastern +mystery that even the commonest Chinaman carries about with him. He +looked about five or six and twenty and wore a thick gold ring in each +ear which had had the effect of dragging them away from the head.</p> + +<p>I examined him carefully as to his qualities and he answered in better +English than most Chinamen attain to, though with the guttural, clicking +accent of his kind.</p> + +<p>"Take him and let him wash up a few of the glasses, Stanley, and ask him +a few questions if you like, and if you are satisfied with him I'll +engage him."</p> + +<p>In a quarter of an hour the Honest Fool returned to express himself +pleased with the young Asiatic's performances, and there and then I +engaged him, Stanley showing him the room in which he was to sleep. It +was quite late that night before I could be alone with the new +assistant, who, by the way, served in the saloon bar during the evening +and was spoken of with commendation by Mr. Carter, fish and green +grocer; Mr. Mogridge, our principal newsagent and tobacconist, and Mr. +Abrahams, dealer in anything, whose shop was labeled—really with great +propriety—"Antiques."</p> + +<p>These gentlemen were my most constant patrons and their word had weight, +and it was endorsed by Mr. Sliddim, who slipped in about nine and in the +position of a friend of the landlord, had been received into our best +circle. It was Mr. Mogridge, a wit, who, just before closing time, +christened Ah Sing, the name of the new potman, "Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling," +the name which he retained to the end of the chapter. I could hear my +clients laughing for the twentieth time as they went home and Mr. +Carter's rich bass: "Mogridge, I call that good. That's damned good, +Mogridge. <i>Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling!</i> Ha, ha, ha, ha!"</p> + +<p>Ah Sing glided into my private room just as the upper portion of the +house began to tremble with the snores of the Honest Fool. He put his +fingers into his mouth and withdrew two pads of composition such as +dentists use, with a sigh of relief. Immediately the high cheek bones +and the narrowness of the eyes disappeared, though even then Bill +Rolston would have passed for a Chinaman at a glance, though when he +removed the quills from his nose and it ceased to be flat and distended, +the likeness was less apparent.</p> + +<p>"It's wonderful, Rolston," I said, shaking him warmly by the hand. "It +would deceive any one. Well, here we are and now we can begin."</p> + +<p>The lad was all fire and enthusiasm. He did me no end of good, for the +sordid environment, the appalling meals—principally of pork served in +great gobbets with quantities of onions—which Mrs. Abbs provided for +the H.F., herself and me, and above all the overpowering, incredible +structure at hand which seemed, in its strength and majesty, to laugh at +the ant-like activities of such an one as I, were beginning to depress +and to tinge my hours with the quality of a fantastic dream.</p> + +<p>But Rolston changed all that and we talked far on into the night, +planning, plotting, and arranging all the details of our campaign.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow," he said, "I'll paint the board to go over the side door, in +black and gilt Chinese lettering. As soon as it's done, we will make one +or two alterations to the upstairs room, buy a gas urn with constant hot +water and some special tea which I know where to get. When that's done, +I'll start the game by going down to the 'Rising Sun' and meeting the +Chinese there."</p> + +<p>"You are quite certain that you won't be discovered?"</p> + +<p>"I think it's in the last degree improbable. Certainly no one could find +me out owing to my speech. That I can assure you, Sir Thomas, and it's +nearly all the battle. So very, very few Europeans ever attain to good +colloquial Chinese that there would never be a doubt in any one but I +was what I seemed to be. I not only know the language, but I know how +these people think and most of their customs. As far as disguise goes, I +think it's good enough to deceive any one. When I was a prisoner within +the inclosure, the Chinese who saw me were for the most part coolies and +laborers, engaged upon the works. All these have now gone away forever +and there's only the regular, selected staff. Some of these of course +must have seen me as I was, but I don't think they will penetrate my +get-up. You see the whole shape of the face is altered to begin with, +and the coloring of hair and face has been done so well as to defy +detection. I certainly was afraid about my ears," and he grinned +ruefully, "but I saw the way out by having them pierced and these rings +put in. Most of the natives from the Province of Yün-Nan, where I come +from, wear these rings. The ones I have on at the present moment are +made of lead, and gilded. They have pulled my ears right out of their +ordinary shape."</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" I cried, astounded at the length to which he had gone. +"You're torturing yourself for me."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it, Sir Thomas," he replied. "I—I rather like it!"</p> + +<p>"And you think you will be able to get us a Chinese clientèle?"</p> + +<p>"I am quite certain of it. First of all I don't suppose I shall get the +best class—I mean the upper and more confidential servants who ascend +the tower itself—for I understand there's a very rigid system of +grades. But little by little they will come also. It will take us weeks, +maybe months, but it will be done."</p> + +<p>"If it takes me half a lifetime I'll go through with it," I said +savagely.</p> + +<p>"My sentiments, also," he replied, lighting a cigarette. "By the way, I +hope you're not incommoded in any way by my—er—odor!"</p> + +<p>"Good Heaven! What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"The Chinaman smells quite different to the European, though not +necessarily unpleasantly. It's taken me quite a lot of trouble to attain +the essential perfume!"</p> + +<p>He grinned impishly as he said it, and there certainly was a sort of +stale, camphory smell, now he mentioned it.</p> + +<p>"You're a great artist, Rolston, and I don't know what I should do +without you, oh, Mandarin from Yün-Nan!"</p> + +<p>"That's another point," he said quickly. "You wouldn't guess why I'm +supposed to come from Yün-Nan, where I actually did spend some years of +my childhood?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least."</p> + +<p>"It's the principal opium producing Province in China," he replied, with +a quick look at me. "Now, Sir Thomas, I've let the cat out of the bag. +You see how I propose to attract the Chinese here, and get into their +confidence."</p> + +<p>A light flashed in upon me, and I took a long breath.</p> + +<p>"But it would never do," I said. "If we were to start an opium den in +that room upstairs, we should have the police in in a fortnight, and +then the game would be up entirely."</p> + +<p>He smiled superior.</p> + +<p>"There will never be a single pipe of opium smoked in the 'Golden +Swan,'" he said. "Of that I can assure you. That will be the very +strictest rule that I shall make, but I shall supply opium to the +customers, in varying quantities, and at intervals, according to the +need of each individual case. It is almost impossible to bribe a +Chinaman with money—the better sort, that is, the picked and chosen men +who will be around Mr. Morse himself. But opium is quite another thing, +and besides they won't know they're being bribed. I sat hours and hours +working this thing out and I'm confident it's the only way."</p> + +<p>When he said that I realized that he spoke the truth, but I confess that +the idea startled and alarmed me.</p> + +<p>"We shall be breaking the law, Rolston. We shall be risking heavy fines +and certain imprisonment if we're found out."</p> + +<p>"To that I would say two things, Sir Thomas. First of all, that no fine +matters; and secondly, that I shouldn't in the least mind doing six +months if necessary. This great game is worth more than that. But +secondly, and you may really put your mind at ease, we shall <i>not</i> be +found out. I have worked the thing out to a hair's breadth and my system +is so complete that discovery is utterly impossible."</p> + +<p>"I oughtn't to let you risk it, though of course I shall share equally +if anything happens."</p> + +<p>He disregarded this entirely.</p> + +<p>"But the stuff," I said, "the opium itself, how will you get that?"</p> + +<p>"I have made my plans here also. I shall have to pay a price so enormous +that I'm afraid it will stagger you, Sir Thomas, but it's the only way +in which I can get hold of the right stuff. For what it is intrinsically +worth, about sixty pounds sterling, your east-end dealer will pay +four-hundred pounds, and make a big profit on it. I shall have to pay +nearly a thousand and I shall want double that money—two thousand +pounds."</p> + +<p>He stared at me in anxiety.</p> + +<p>"My dear Rolston," I said, "cheer up. My income is over twenty thousand +a year, and in normal times I don't spend a third of it. Buy all the +filth you want, and Heaven send that it does the trick!"</p> + +<p>"In two days," he said, "the 'Golden Swan' will house two cases of the +best 'red bricks' obtainable on the market anywhere, for it's as much by +the superior quality of what I shall supply, as well as the fact of +being able to supply it, that I depend. Of course, you'll get nearly all +the money back."</p> + +<p>"Confound it, no, that's going too far. We'll send all the abominable +profits to the Richmond Hospital anonymously."</p> + +<p>We talked until the fire was out and the gray wintry dawn began to steal +in through the dirty windows of the bar beyond, and when all our plans +were laid with meticulous care I went to bed but not to sleep, assailed +by a thousand doubts and fears.</p> + +<p>... In a week or two the upstairs room began to be frequented by +silent-footed yellow men, who came and went unobtrusively. Whenever any +of them chanced to meet me I was greeted with a profound obeisance which +was rather disconcerting at first, but my conversation was limited to a +mere greeting or farewell. Most of these men spoke pigeon English, but I +had little or nothing to say to them of set purpose. It had been +arranged between Rolston and myself that I was to be represented as a +good-natured fool, who mattered very little in any way.</p> + +<p>For his part, the pretended Ah Sing was up and down the stairs a dozen +times every evening. He was never once suspected, his influence and +importance in the lives of these aliens grew every day. But it was a +long business, a long and weary business, in which at first hardly any +progress towards our aim could be discerned.</p> + +<p>"It's no use being discouraged, Sir Thomas," Rolston would say, "we're +getting on famously."</p> + +<p>"And the opium?"—somehow I wasn't very keen on discussing that aspect +of the question.</p> + +<p>"I'm employing it most judiciously, selling it in very small quantities, +and of course not a grain is ever smoked or consumed in any way upon +these premises. That's thoroughly understood by every one, and you need +not have the slightest doubt but that the secret will be rigidly kept. +At present the men frequenting the house are nearly all of the upper +coolie class. That is to say, they are the gardeners, stokers of the +power house, sweepers, and so forth. But, quite recently a better class +of man has made his appearance. There's a young, semi-Europeanized +electrician who has been once or twice. Moreover, I have gained a great +point. I have become acquainted with Kwang-su, the keeper of the +inclosure gate."</p> + +<p>"That's certainly something," I replied, recalling the figure of the +gigantic Chinaman in question, which was familiar to most of the +residents beneath the wall. "He's a ferocious-looking brute."</p> + +<p>"At one time he was headsman of Yangtsun, and they say a most finished +expert with the sword," Rolston remarked with a grin. "All I know about +him is that he'd sell his soul for the black smoke, and regards me as a +most valuable addition to the neighborhood. In a fortnight or so, I am +pretty certain I shall be able to pass in and out of the grounds pretty +much as I like, and then a great move in our game will have been +accomplished. As an undoubted Chinaman and as a confidential purveyer of +opium, I shall soon have complete freedom below the towers."</p> + +<p>"But what about the great prizefighter, Mulligan?"</p> + +<p>"He has nothing to do with the park, as they call all the grounds around +the towers. Now that the building is finished his functions are up in +the air, and I gather that he lives on the third stage, just beneath the +City itself, as a sort of watch-dog. The Asiatics are entirely managed +by their own leaders, appointed by Morse himself."</p> + +<p>It was as Bill predicted. In a very short space of time he was away from +the "Golden Swan" as much as he was in it, and every day he gathered +more and more information about the tower and its mistress—information +which was carefully noted down in the silence of the night, so that no +detail should be forgotten.</p> + +<p>Of course the fact that my hotel had become a haunt of the yellow men +neither escaped the notice of the neighbors, nor of the police. The +former were easily dealt with, and especially my patrons. Mr. Mogridge, +having invented "Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling," was disposed to look upon the +"Chinks" with genial patronage, and his self-importance was gratified by +the low bows with which they always greeted him as they passed to their +club-room above. The lead of Mr. Mogridge was followed by others in the +saloon bar, and Sliddim tactfully kept everything running smoothly. As +for the police, they paid me one visit or two, were shown everything and +were perfectly satisfied that the house was being conducted with +propriety—as indeed it was.</p> + +<p>The yellow men neither gambled nor got drunk, that was perfectly +obvious. There was never a suspicion of opium from first to last, nor +was there a single instance of a brawl or a fight. Indeed the local +police-inspector, an excellent fellow with whom I had many a talk, +expressed himself as being both surprised and delighted at the way in +which I had the aliens in hand.</p> + +<p>Nearly two months had gone by, and I was curbing the raging fires of +impatience and longing as well as I could when two incidents occurred +which greatly precipitated action.</p> + +<p>Rolston came to me one day in a state of great excitement.</p> + +<p>At last, he said, he was beginning to become acquainted with some of the +actual officials of the towers—at last, quite separate from those who +worked below. They were interested, or beginning to be so, and he urged +me at once to open a smaller, inner room as a select meeting-place for +such of them as he could inveigle to the "Golden Swan."</p> + +<p>We did so at once, hanging the walls with a drapery of black worked with +golden dragons, which I bought in Regent Street, a Chinese lantern of +copper hanging from the ceiling, and around the wall we placed low +couches. Here, in twos and threes, but in slowly increasing numbers, a +different type of Oriental began to assemble, Ah Sing attending to all +their wants, ingratiating himself in every possible way, and keeping his +extremely useful ears wide open—very wide open indeed.</p> + +<p>It was now that tiny fragments of personal gossip—more precious to me +than rubies—began to filter through. I had established no communication +with the City in the Clouds as yet, but I seemed to hear the distant +murmur of voices through the void.</p> + +<p>One evening about eight o'clock I felt cramped and unutterably bored. I +felt that nothing could help me but a long walk and so, with a word to +the Honest Fool, Sliddim and Rolston, I took my hat and stick and +started out.</p> + +<p>It was a brilliant moonlight night, calm, still, and with a white frost +upon the ground, as I descended the terrace and made my way down to the +side of the river. Here and there I passed a few courting couples; the +hum of distant London and the rumbling of trains was like the ground +swell of a sea, but peace brooded over everything. The trees made black +shadows like Chinese ink upon silver, and, in the full moonlight it was +bright enough to read.</p> + +<p>When I had walked a mile or so, resisting a certain temptation as well +as I could, I stopped and turned at last.</p> + +<p>There, a mile away behind me, yet seeming as if it was within a stone's +throw, was the huge erection on the hill. Every detail of the lower +parts was clear and distinct as an architectural drawing, the intricate +lattice-work of enormous cantilevers and girders seemed etched on the +inside of a great opal bowl. I can give you no adequate description of +the immensity, the awe-inspiring, almost terror-inducing sense of +magnitude and majesty. I have stood beside the Pyramids at night, I have +crossed the Piazza of Saint Peter's at Rome under the rays of the +Italian moon, and I have drunk coffee at the base of the Eiffel Tower in +Paris, but not one of these experiences approached what I felt now as I +surveyed, in an ecstasy of mingled emotions, this monstrous thing that +brooded over London.</p> + +<p>The eye traveled up, onward and forever up until at length, not hidden +by clouds now but a faint blur of white, blue, gold, and tiny twinkling +lights, hung in the empyrean the far-off City of Desire.</p> + +<p>Could she hear the call of my heart? God knows it seemed loud and strong +enough to me! Might she not be, even at this moment, a lovelier Juliet, +leaning over some gilded gallery and wondering where I was?</p> + +<p>"Was ever a woman so high above her lover before?" I said, and laughed, +but my laughter was sadness, and my longing, pain unbearable.</p> + +<p>... There was a slight bend in the tow-path where I stood, caused by +some out-jutting trees, and from just below I suddenly heard a burst of +loud and brutal laughter, followed by a shrill cry. It recalled me from +dreamland at once and I hurried round the projection to come upon a +strange scene. Two flash young bullies with spotted handkerchiefs around +their throats and ash sticks in their hands were menacing a third person +whose back was to the river. They were sawing the air with their sticks +just in front of a thin, tall figure dressed in what seemed to be a sort +of long, buttoned black cassock descending to the feet, and wearing a +skull cap of black alpaca. Beneath the skull cap was a thin, ascetic +face, ghastly yellow in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>... One of the brutes lunged at the man I now saw to be a Chinese of +some consequence, lunged at him with a brutal laugh and filthy oath. The +Chinaman threw up his lean arms, cried out again in a thin, shrill +scream, stepped backwards, missed his footing and went souse into the +river. In a second the current caught him and began to whirl him away +over towards the Twickenham side. It was obvious that he could not swim +a stroke. There was a clatter of hob-nailed boots and bully number one +was legging it down the path like a hare. I had just time to give bully +number two a straight left on the nap which sent him down like a sack of +flour, before I got my coat off and dived in.</p> + +<p>Wow! but it was icy cold. For a moment the shock seemed to stop my +heart, and then it came right again and I struck out heartily. It didn't +take long to catch up with the gentleman in the cassock, who had come +up for the second time and apparently resigned himself to the worst. I +got hold of him, turned on my back and prepared for stern measures if he +should attempt to grip me.</p> + +<p>He didn't. He was the easiest johnny to rescue possible, and in another +five minutes I'd got him safely to the bank and scrambled up.</p> + +<p>There was nobody about, worse luck, and I started to pump the water out +of him as well as I could, and after a few minutes had the satisfaction +of seeing his face turn from blue-gray to something like its normal +yellow under the somewhat ghastly light of the moon. His teeth began to +chatter as I jerked him to his feet and furiously rubbed him up and +down.</p> + +<p>I tried to recall what I knew of pigeon English.</p> + +<p>"Bad man throw you in river. You velly lucky, man come by save you, +Johnny."</p> + +<p>I had the shock of my life.</p> + +<p>"I am indeed fortunate," came in a thin, reed-like voice, "I am indeed +fortunate in having found so brave a preserver. Honorable sir, from this +moment my life is yours."</p> + +<p>"Why, you speak perfect English," I said in amazement.</p> + +<p>"I have been resident in this country for some time, sir," he replied, +"as a student at King's College, until I undertook my present work."</p> + +<p>"Well," I said, "we'd better not stand here exchanging polite remarks +much longer. There is such a thing as pneumonia, which you would do well +to avoid. If you're strong enough, we'll hurry up to the terrace and +find my house, where we'll get you dry and warm. I'm the landlord of +the 'Golden Swan' Hotel."</p> + +<p>He was a polite fellow, this. He bowed profoundly, and then, as the +water dripped from his black and meager form, he said something rather +extraordinary.</p> + +<p>"I should never have thought it."</p> + +<p>I cursed myself. The excitement had made me return to the manner of +Piccadilly, and this shrewd observer had seen it in a moment. I said no +more, but took him by the arm and yanked him along for one of the +fastest miles he had ever done in his life.</p> + +<p>I took him to the side door of my pub. Fortunately Ah Sing was +descending the stairs to replenish an empty decanter with whisky—my +yellow gentlemen used to like it in their tea! I explained what had +happened in a few words and my shivering derelict was hurried upstairs +to my own bedroom. I don't know what Rolston did to him, though I heard +Sliddim—now quite the house cat—directed to run down into the kitchen +and confer with Mrs. Abbs.</p> + +<p>For my part, I sat in the room behind the bar, listening to the Honest +Fool talking with my patrons, and shed my clothes before a blazing fire. +A little hot rum, a change, and a dressing-gown, and I was myself again, +and smoking a pipe I fell into a sort of dream.</p> + +<p>It was a pleasant dream. I suppose the shock of the swim, the race up +the terrace to the "Swan," the rum and milk which followed had a +soporific, soothing effect. I wasn't exactly asleep, I was pleasantly +drowsed, and I had a sort of feeling that something was going to happen. +Just about closing time Rolston glided in—I never saw a European +before or since who could so perfectly imitate the ghost walk of the +yellow men.</p> + +<p>I looked to see that the door to the bar was shut.</p> + +<p>"Well, how's our friend?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"He's had a big shock, Sir Thomas, but he's all right now. I've rubbed +him all over with oil, fed him up with beef-tea and brandy and found him +dry clothes."</p> + +<p>"He's from the towers, of course?"</p> + +<p>As I said this, I saw Bill Rolston's face, beneath its yellow dye, was +blazing with excitement.</p> + +<p>"Sir Thomas," he said in a whisper, "this is Pu-Yi himself, Mr. Morse's +Chinese secretary, a man utterly different from the others we have seen +here yet. He's of the Mandarin class, the buttons on his robe are of red +coral. In this house, at this moment, we have one of the masters of the +Secret City."</p> + +<p>I gave a long, low whistle, which—I remember it so well—exactly +coincided with the raucous shout of the Honest Fool—"Time, gentlemen, +please!"</p> + +<p>A thought struck me.</p> + +<p>"The other Chinese in the large and small rooms, do they know this man +is here?"</p> + +<p>"No, Sir Thomas; I am more than glad to say I got him up to your own +room when both doors were closed."</p> + +<p>"What's he doing now?"</p> + +<p>"He's having a little sleep. I promised to call him in an hour or so, +when he wishes to pay you his respects."</p> + +<p>He listened for a moment.</p> + +<p>"The others are going downstairs," he said. "I must be there to see them +out, and I have one or two little transactions—"</p> + +<p>He felt in a villainous side pocket and I knew as well as possible what +it contained, and what would be handed to one or two of the moon-faced +gentlemen as they slipped out of the side door on their way home.</p> + +<p>Bill came back in some twenty minutes.</p> + +<p>"Now," he said, "I'm going upstairs to wake Pu-Yi and bring him down to +you. You must remember, Sir Thomas, that I am only a dirty little +servant. I am as far beneath a man like Pu-Yi as Sir Thomas Kirby is +above Stanley Whistlecraft, so I cannot be present at your interview. My +idea was that I should creep into the bar—Stanley will have had his +supper and gone to bed—and lie down on the floor with my ear to the +bottom of the door, then I can hear everything."</p> + +<p>"That's a good idea," I said, for I was beginning to realize what an +enormous lot might depend upon this interview. Then I thought of +something else.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Bill, you must remember this too. I fished the blighter out +of the Thames and no doubt he will be thankful in his overdone, Oriental +fashion. But to him, a man of the class you say he is, I shall be +nothing but a vulgar publican, and I don't see quite what's going to +come out of <i>that</i>!"</p> + +<p>He had slipped the gutta-percha pads out of his cheeks—an operation to +which I had grown quite accustomed—and I could see his face as it +really was.</p> + +<p>"That's occurred to me also," he replied, "but somehow or other I'm sure +the fates are on our side to-night."</p> + +<p>He arose, turned away for a moment, there was a click and a gasp, and he +was the little impassive Oriental again. He glided up to me, put his +yellow hand with the long, polished finger nails upon my shoulder, and +said in my ear:</p> + +<p>"Sir Thomas, he must see Her every day!"</p> + +<p>He vanished from the room almost as he spoke, and left me with blood on +fire.</p> + +<p>I was to see some one who might have spoken with Juanita that very day! +and I sat almost trembling with impatience, though issuing a dozen +warnings to myself to betray nothing, to keep every sense alert, so that +I might turn the interview to my own advantage.</p> + +<p>At last there was a knock on the door, Bill opened it and the slim +figure of the man I had rescued glided in. They had dried his clothes, +he even wore his little skull cap which had apparently stuck to his head +while he was in the water, and I had the opportunity of seeing him in +the light for the first time.</p> + +<p>Instead of the flat, Tartar nose, I saw one boldly aquiline, with large, +narrow nostrils. His eyes were almond shaped but lustrous and full of +fire. About the lips, which had no trace of sensuality but were +beautifully cut, there was a kind of serene pathos—I find it difficult +to describe in any other way. The whole face was noble in contour and in +expression, though the general impression it gave was one of unutterable +sadness. Dress him how you might, meet him where you would, there was +no possibility of mistaking Pu-Yi for anything but a gentleman of high +degree.</p> + +<p>The door closed and I rose from my seat and held out my hand.</p> + +<p>"Well," I said, "this is a bit of orlright, sir, and I'm glad to see you +so well recovered. To-morrow morning we'll have the law on them dirty +rascals that assaulted you."</p> + +<p>I put on the accent thickly—flashed my diamond ring at him, in +short—for this might well be a game of touch and go, and I had a deep +secret to preserve.</p> + +<p>He put his long, thin hand in mine, gripped it, and then suddenly turned +it over so that the backs of my fingers were uppermost.</p> + +<p>It was an odd thing to do and I wondered what it meant.</p> + +<p>"Oh, landlord of the Swan of Gold," he piped, in his curious, flute-like +voice, sorting out his words as he went on, "I owe you my unworthy life, +which is nothing in itself and which I don't value, save only for a +certain opportunity which remains to it, and is a private matter. But I +owe my life to your courage and strength and flowering kindness, and I +come to put myself in your hands."</p> + +<p>Really he was making a damn lot of fuss about nothing!</p> + +<p>"Look here," I said, "that's all right. You would have done as much for +me. Now let's sit down and have a peg and a chat. I can put you up for +the rest of the night, you know, and I shall be awfully glad to do it."</p> + +<p>He looked as if he was going to make more speeches, but I cut him +short.</p> + +<p>"As for putting your life in my hands," I said, "we don't talk like that +in England."</p> + +<p>He sat down and a faint smile came upon his tired lips.</p> + +<p>"And do the public-house keepers in England have hands such as yours +are?" he said gently. "Sir, your hands are white, they are also shaped +in a certain way, and your nails are not even in mourning for your +profession!"</p> + +<p>I cursed myself savagely as he mocked me. Bill had pointed out over and +over again that I oughtn't to use a nail brush too frequently—it wasn't +in the part—but I always forgot it.</p> + +<p>To hide my confusion I moved a little table towards him on which was a +box of excellent cigarettes. Unfortunately, also on the table was a +little pocket edition of Shakespeare with which I used to solace the +drab hours.</p> + +<p>He picked it up, opened it plump at "Romeo and Juliet"—the play which, +for reasons known to you, I most affected at the time—and looked up at +me with gentle eyes.</p> + +<p>"'Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona,'" he said.</p> + +<p>My brain was working like a mill. I could not make the fellow out. What +did he know, what did he suspect? Well, the best thing was to ask him +outright.</p> + +<p>"You mean?"</p> + +<p>He became distressed at once.</p> + +<p>"You speak harshly to me, O my preserver. I meant but that I knew at +once that you are not born in the position in which I see you. Perhaps +you will give me your kind leave to explain. In my native country I am +of high hereditary rank, though I am poor enough and occupy a somewhat +menial position here. My honorable name, honorable sir, is Pu-Yi, which +will convey nothing to you. During the rebellion of twenty years ago in +China, my ancestral house was destroyed and as a child I was rescued and +sent to Europe. For many years the peasants of my Province scraped their +little earnings together, and a sum sufficient to support me in my +studies was sent to me in Paris. I speak the French, Spanish and English +languages. I am a Bachelor of Science of the London University, and my +one hope and aim in life is, and has been, to acquire sufficient money +to return to the tombs of my ancestors on the banks of the +Yang-tse-kiang, there to live a quiet life, much resembling that of an +English country squire, until I also fade away into the unknown, and +become part of the Absolute."</p> + +<p>There was something perfectly charming about him. Since he spotted I +wasn't a second edition of the Honest Fool, since he had somehow or +other divined that I was an educated man, I felt drawn to him. You must +remember that for months now the only person I had had to talk to was +Bill Rolston. And all the time, he was so occupied in our tortuous +campaign that we only met late at night to report progress.</p> + +<p>For a moment I quite forgot what this new friend might mean to me, and +opened out to him without a thought of further advantage.</p> + +<p>I was a fool, no doubt. Afterwards, talking it all over with Pat Moore +and Arthur Winstanley, I saw that I ran a great risk. Anyhow, I +reciprocated Pu-Yi's confidence as well as I could.</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully glad we've met, even under such unfortunate circumstances. +You are quite right. I come of a different class from what the ordinary +frequenter of this hotel might suppose, but since you have discovered it +I beg you to keep it entirely to yourself. I also have had my +misfortunes. Perhaps I also am longing for some ultimate happiness or +triumph."</p> + +<p>Out of the box he took a cigarette, and his long, delicate fingers +played with it.</p> + +<p>"Brother," he said, "I understand, and I say again, now that I can say +it in a new voice, my life is yours."</p> + +<p>Then I began on my own account.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," I said, "of yourself. Many of your fellow-countrymen come +here—the lower orders—and they're all employed by the millionaire, +Gideon Morse, who seems to prefer the men of China to any other. You +also, Pu-Yi, are connected with this colossal mystery?"</p> + +<p>He didn't answer for a moment, but looked down at the glowing end of his +cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he replied, with some constraint, "I am in the service of the +honorable Mr. Gideon Mendoza Morse. I am, in fact, his private secretary +and through me his instructions are conveyed to the various heads of +departments."</p> + +<p>"You are fortunate. I suppose that before long you will be able to +fulfill your ambitions and retire to China?"</p> + +<p>With a quick glance at me he admitted that this was so.</p> + +<p>"And yet," I said thoughtfully, "it must be a very trying service, +despite that you live in Wonderland, in a City of Enchantment."</p> + +<p>Again I caught a swift regard and he leant forward in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Why do you say that?" he asked.</p> + +<p>I hazarded a bold shot.</p> + +<p>"Simply because the man is mad," I said.</p> + +<p>His bright eyes narrowed to glittering slits.</p> + +<p>"You quote gossip of the newspapers," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Do I? I happen to know more than the newspapers do."</p> + +<p>He rose to his feet, took two steps towards me, and looked down with a +twitching face.</p> + +<p>"Who <i>are</i> you?" he said, and his whole frail frame trembled.</p> + +<p>I caught him firmly by the arm and stared into his face—God knows what +my own was like.</p> + +<p>"I am the one who has been waiting, the one who is waiting, to help—the +one who has come to save," I said, and my voice was not my own—it was +as if the words were put into my mouth by an outside power.</p> + +<p>He wrenched his arm away, gave a little cry, strode to the mantelpiece +and bent his head upon his arms. His whole body was shaken with +convulsive sobs.</p> + +<p>I stood in the middle of the room watching him, hardly daring to +breathe, feeling that my heart was swelling until it occupied the whole +of my body.</p> + +<p>At length he looked up.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall be of some use to Her after all," he said. "This is too +much honor. The Lily of White Jade—"</p> + +<p>He staggered back, his face working terribly, and fell in a huddled heap +upon the floor. I was just opening my mouth to call for Rolston when +there came a thunderous knocking upon the side door of the house.</p> + +<p>I ran into the dimly lit passage and as I did so Rolston flitted out of +the bar door and stood beside me.</p> + +<p>"I have heard everything," he whispered, "but what, what is this?"</p> + +<p>He pointed to the door, and as he did so there was again the thunder of +the knocker and the whirr of the electric bell.</p> + +<p>Hardly knowing what I did I shot back the bolts at top and bottom, +turned the heavy key in its lock and opened the door.</p> + +<p>Outside in the moonlight a figure was standing, a man in a heavy fur +coat, carrying a suitcase in his left hand.</p> + +<p>"What the devil—" I was beginning, when he pushed past me and came into +the hall.</p> + +<p>Then I saw, with a leap of all my pulses, that it was Lord Arthur +Winstanley.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_NINE" id="CHAPTER_NINE"></a>CHAPTER NINE</h2> + + +<p>It was four o'clock in the morning. A bitter wind had risen and was +wailing around the "Golden Swan," interspersed with heavy storms of hail +which rattled on roof and windows. Outside the tempest shrieked and was +accompanied by a vast, humming, harp-like noise as it flung itself +against the lattice-work of the towers and vibrated over Richmond like a +chorus of giant Æolian harps. Arthur and I sat in the shabby +sitting-room, which had been the theater of so much emotion that night, +and stared at each other with troubled faces.</p> + +<p>There was a little pattering noise, and Bill Rolston came in, closing +the door carefully behind him.</p> + +<p>"He wants you to go up to him, Sir Thomas. You told me to use my own +discretion. Since we carried him up and I gave him the bromides, I +haven't left his bedside. I talked to him in his own language, but he +wouldn't say a word until I threw off every disguise and told him who I +really was and who you were also."</p> + +<p>"But, Rolston, you may have spoiled everything!"</p> + +<p>He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"You don't know what I know. Now that he's aware you are of his own +rank, and that I am your lieutenant, his life is absolutely your +forfeit. If you were to tell him to commit suicide he would do it at +once as the most natural thing in the world, to preserve his honor. He +is your man from this moment, Sir Thomas, just as I am."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll go up. Arthur, you don't mind?"</p> + +<p>"Mind! I thought I brought a bomb-shell into your house to-night, and so +I have too, but to find all this going on simply robs me of speech. +Meanwhile, if you will introduce me to this Asiatic gentleman who speaks +such excellent English, and whom, from repute I guess to be Mr. William +Rolston, I daresay we can amuse ourselves during the remainder of this +astonishing night. And," he continued, "if there is such a thing as a +ham upon the premises, some thick slices grilled upon this excellent +fire, and some cool ale in a pewter—"</p> + +<p>I left them to it and went upstairs to my chamber. It was lit with two +or three candles in silver holders—I had made the place quite habitable +by now—and lying on my bed, covered with an eiderdown, his eyes +feverish, his face flushed, lay the Mandarin.</p> + +<p>His eyes opened and he smiled. It was the first time I had seen the +delicate, melancholy lips light up in a real smile.</p> + +<p>"What's that for?" I said, as I sat down by the bedside.</p> + +<p>"You are so big, and strong, Prince," he replied, "and large and +confident; and your disguise fell from you as you came in and I saw you +as you were."</p> + +<p>I knelt beside the bed and my breath came thick and fast.</p> + +<p>"For God's sake don't play with me," I said, "not that you are doing +that. You have met Her—Miss Morse I mean, my Juanita?"</p> + +<p>"Prince, she has deigned to give me her confidence in some degree. I do +my work in the wonderful library that Mr. Morse has built. It's a great +hall, full of the rarest volumes; and there are long windows from which +one can look down upon London and gaze beyond the City to where the +wrinkled sea beats around the coast. And, day by day, in her loneliness, +the Fairest of Maidens has come to this high place and taken a book of +poems, sat in the embrasure, and stared down at the world below."</p> + +<p>He raised a thin hand and held it upright. It was so transparent that +the light of a candle behind turned it to blood red.</p> + +<p>"Let my presumptuous desires be forever silent," he chanted. "'East is +east and west is west,' and I erred gravely. But, worship is worship, +and worship is sacrifice."</p> + +<p>I could hardly speak, my voice was hoarse, his words had given me such a +picture of Juanita up there in the clouds.</p> + +<p>"Prince—"</p> + +<p>"I am not a Prince, I only have a very ordinary title. If you know +England, you understand what a baronet is."</p> + +<p>"I know England. Prince, your Princess is waiting for you and sighing +out her heart that you have not come to her."</p> + +<p>I leapt to my feet and swore a great oath that made the attic room +ring.</p> + +<p>"<i>You mean?</i>" I shouted.</p> + +<p>"Prince, the Lily of all the lilies, the Rose of all the roses, alone, +distraught, another Ophelia—no, say rather Juliet with her nurse—has +honored me with the story of her love. She never told me whom she longed +for, but I knew that it was some one down in the world."</p> + +<p>I staggered out a question.</p> + +<p>"It is my humble adoration for her which has sharpened all my wits," he +answered. "It seemed an accident—though the gods designed it without +doubt—that made you save my life to-night, but now I know you are the +lover of the Lily. And I am the servant—the happy messenger—of you +both."</p> + +<p>"You can take a letter from me to her?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, yes."</p> + +<p>"My friend, tell me, tell me all about her. Is she happy?—no, I know +she cannot be that—but—"</p> + +<p>He lifted himself up in the bed, and there was something priest-like in +his attitude as he folded his thin hands upon his breast and spoke.</p> + +<p>"Two thousand feet above London there is a Palace of all delights. +Immeasurable wealth, the genius of great artists have been combined to +make a City of Enchantment. And in every garden with its plashing +fountains, in its halls of pictures and delights, upon its aerial +towers, down its gilded galleries, lurking at the banquet, mingling with +the music, great shapes of terror squeak and gibber like the ghosts +Shakespeare speaks of in ancient Rome."</p> + +<p>"Morse?"</p> + +<p>"There is a noble intellect overdone and dissolved in terror. In all +other respects sane as you or I, my savior and benefactor, Gideon Morse +is a maniac whose one sole idea is to preserve himself and his daughter +from some horror, some vengeance which surely cannot threaten him."</p> + +<p>Twice, thrice I strode the attic.</p> + +<p>Then at last I stopped.</p> + +<p>"Will you help me now, Pu-Yi, will you take a letter from me, will you +help me to meet Her, and soon?"</p> + +<p>He bowed his head for answer, and then, as he looked up again his face +was suffused with a sort of bright eagerness that touched me to the +heart.</p> + +<p>"I am yours," he said.</p> + +<p>"Then quickly, and soon, Pu-Yi, for you are only half informed. Gideon +Morse may be driven mad by fear, no doubt he is. But it is <i>not</i> an +imaginary fear. It is a thing so sinister, so real and terrible, that I +cannot tell you of it now. I am too exhausted by the events of this +night. I will say only this, that within the last hour a faithful friend +of mine has returned from the other side of the world and brings me +ominous news."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I believe that Pu-Yi, whose movements were, of course, not restricted +like those of the lower officials, returned to the towers in the early +morning. As for me, I caught a workmen's train from Richmond station, +slunk in an early taxi to Piccadilly with Arthur Winstanley, and slipped +into lavender-clean sheets and silence till past noon, when Captain +Patrick Moore arrived to an early lunch. Dressed again in proper +clothes, with dear old Preston fussing about me with tears in his eyes, +I felt a thousand times more confident than before. Old Pat had to be +informed of everything, and as a preliminary I told him my whole story, +from the starting-point of the "Golden Swan."</p> + +<p>"And now," I said, "here's Arthur, who has traveled thousands of miles +and who has come back with information that fits in absolutely with +everything else. He gave me an epitome last night, under strange and +fantastic circumstances. Now then, Arthur, let's have it all clearly, +and then we shall know where we are."</p> + +<p>Arthur, whose face was white and strained, began at once.</p> + +<p>"I went straight to Rio," he said, "and of course I took care that I was +accredited to our Legation. As a matter of fact the Minister to the +Brazilian Government is my cousin. The news about the towers was all +over Brazil. Everybody there knows Gideon Mendoza Morse. He's been by a +long way the most picturesque figure in South America during the last +twenty years. He has been President of the Republic. Of course, I had +the freshest news. My mother had given a party to introduce Juanita to +London society. I had danced with her. I had talked to her father—I was +the young English society man who brought authentic news. I told all I +knew, and a good bit more, and I sucked in information like a +vacuum-cleaner. I learnt a tremendous lot as to the sources of Morse's +enormous wealth. I was glad to find that there were no allegations +against him of any trust methods, any financial tricks. He had got rich +like one of the old patriarchs, simply by shrewdness and long +accumulation and rising values. But I had to go a good deal farther back +than this, I had to dive into obscure politics of South America, and +then—it was almost like a punch on the jaw—I stumbled against the +Santa Hermandad."</p> + +<p>Pat Moore and I cried out simultaneously.</p> + +<p>"What on earth do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Our League?"</p> + +<p>"It's sheer coincidence," he answered. "I hope it's not a bad omen. +During the time when the last Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, was reigning, +it was seen by all his supporters, both in Brazil and in Spain, that his +power was waning and a crash was sure to come. In order to preserve the +Principle of the Monarchy, a powerful Secret Society was started, under +the name of the Holy Brotherhood or Santa Hermandad. Gideon Morse, then +a young and very influential man, became a member of this Society. But, +after the Emperor was deposed, and a Republic declared, Morse threw in +his lot with the new régime. I have gathered that he did so out of pure +patriotism; he realized that a Republic was the best thing for his +country, and had no personal ax to grind whatever. He prospered +exceedingly. As you know he has, in his time, been President of the +Republica dos Estados Unidos de Brazil, and has contributed more to the +success of the country than any other man living."</p> + +<p>"Fascinatin' study, history," said Captain Moore, "for those that like +it. Personally, I am no bookworm; cut the cackle, Arthur, old bean, and +come to the 'osses."</p> + +<p>"Peace, fool!" said Arthur, "if you can't understand what I say, Tom +will explain to you later, though I'll be as short as I jolly-well can."</p> + +<p>He turned to me.</p> + +<p>"When this Secret Society failed, Tom—the Hermandad, I mean—it wasn't +dissolved. It was agreed by the Inner Circle that it was only suspended. +But as the years went by, nearly all the prominent members died, and the +Republic became an assured thing. But a few years ago the Society was +revived, not with any real hope of putting an Emperor on the throne +again but as a means to terrorism and blackmail. All the most lawless +elements of Spanish South America became affiliated into a new and +sinister confederation. You've heard of the power of the Camorra in +Italy—well, the Hermandad in Brazil is like that at the present time. +It has ramifications everywhere, the police are becoming powerless to +cope with it, and a secret reign of terror goes on at this hour.</p> + +<p>"These people have made a dead shot for Gideon Morse. He has defied them +for a long time, but their power has grown and grown. I understand that +two years ago the Hermandad fished out of obscurity an old Spanish +nobleman, the Marquis da Silva, who was one of the original, chivalrous +monarchists. He was about the only surviving member of the old +Fraternity, and they got him to produce its constitutions. He came upon +the scene some two years ago and Morse was given just that time to fall +in with the plans of the modern Society, or be assassinated together +with his daughter."</p> + +<p>He stopped, and it was dear old Pat Moore who shouted with +comprehension.</p> + +<p>"Why, now," he bellowed, "sure and I see it all. That's why he built the +Tower of Babel and went to live on the top, and drag his daughter with +him—so that these Sinn Feiners should not get at 'm."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Pat, you've seen through it at a glance," said Arthur, with a +private grin to me.</p> + +<p>Pat was tremendously bucked up at the thought that he had solved a +problem which had been puzzling both of us.</p> + +<p>"All the same," he said, "the place is too well guarded for any Spanish +murderer to get up. Besides, Tom here is makin' all his arrangements and +he'll have Miss Juanita out of it in no time."</p> + +<p>"The circumstances," Arthur went on calmly, "are perfectly well known to +a few people at the head of the Government in Brazil. I had a long and +intimate conversation with Don Francisco Torromé, Minister of Police to +the Republic. He told me that the Hermandad is intensely revengeful, +wicked, and unscrupulous. Moreover, it's rich; and money wouldn't be +allowed to stand in the way of getting at Morse. What is lacking is +energy. These people make the most complete and fiendish plans, they +dream the most fantastic and devilish dreams, and then they say +'Manana'—which means, 'It will do very well to-morrow'—and go to sleep +in the sun."</p> + +<p>"Then after all, Morse is in no danger!" I cried, immensely relieved. +"You said the danger was real, but you spoke figuratively."</p> + +<p>"Sorry, old chap, not a bit of it. There's some one on the track with +energy enough to pull the lid off the infernal regions if necessary. In +short, the Hermandad have engaged the services of an international +scoundrel of the highest intellectual powers, a man without remorse, an +artist in crime—I should say, and most Chiefs of Police in the kingdoms +of the world would agree with me—the most dangerous ruffian at large. +You've seen him, Tom, I pointed him out to you at a little Soho +restaurant where we dined once together. His name is Mark Antony +Midwinter, and <i>he traveled from Brazil, together with a friend, by the +same boat that I did</i>."</p> + +<p>"Then he must be in London now!" said Pat Moore, with the air of +announcing another great discovery.</p> + +<p>"But look here!" I cried. "I told you, before you sailed for South +America, I told you what I saw at the Ritz Hotel that night. It was the +very same man, Mark Antony Midwinter, as you call him, running like a +hare from old Morse, who was shooting fireworks round him with a smile +on his face. <i>That's</i> not the man you think he is. He may be a devil, +but that night he was a devil of a funk."</p> + +<p>"Wait a bit, my son," said Arthur. "I have thought about that incident +rather carefully. Remember that Morse was given a certain time in which +to come in line and join the Hermandad. From what I have heard of the +punctilious, senile Marquis da Silva, he wouldn't have allowed the +campaign against Morse to be started a moment before the time of +immunity was up. Might not Midwinter at that time, quite ignorant that +the towers were being built as a refuge for Morse, have tried to go +behind his own employers and offer to betray them, and to drop the whole +business for a million or so? From what I know of the man's career I +should think it extremely probable."</p> + +<p>I whistled. Arthur seemed to have penetrated to the center of that +night's mystery. There was nothing more likely. I could imagine the +whole scene, the panther man laying his cards on the table and offering +to save Morse and Juanita from certain death—Morse, already half +maddened by what hung over him, chuckling in the knowledge that he had +built an impregnable refuge, dismissing the scoundrel with utter +firmness and contempt.</p> + +<p>"I believe you've hit it, Arthur," I said. "It fits in like the last bit +of a jig-saw puzzle."</p> + +<p>"I'm pretty sure myself, but even now you don't know all. Quite early in +his life, when Midwinter—he's the last of the Staffordshire Midwinters, +an ancient and famous family—was expelled from Harrow, he went out to +South America. Morse was at that time in the wilds of Goyaz, where he +was developing his mines. There was a futile attempt to kidnap the +child, Juanita, who was then about two years old, and Midwinter was in +it. The young gentleman, I understand, was caught. Morse was then, as +doubtless he is now, a man of a grim and terrible humor. He took young +Midwinter and treated him with every possible contemptuous indignity. +They say his head was shaved; he was birched like a schoolboy by Morse's +peons; he was branded, tarred and feathered, and turned contemptuously +adrift. The fellow came back to Europe, married a celebrated actress in +Paris, who is now dead, and has been, as I say, one of the most +successful uncaught members of the higher criminal circles that ever +was. He made an attempt at the Ritz, swallowing his hatred. It failed. +His employers in Brazil know nothing of it. He is here in London—as Pat +so wonderfully discovered—supplied with unlimited money, burning with a +hatred of which a decent man can have no conception, and confronted with +his last chance in the world."</p> + +<p>As he said this, Arthur got up, bit his lip savagely and left the room.</p> + +<p>It was about two-thirty in the afternoon.</p> + +<p>Though he closed the door after him, I heard voices in the corridor, and +the door reopened an inch or two as if some one was holding it before +coming in.</p> + +<p>"You are not well, my lord?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm all right, Preston; just feeling a little faint, that's all. +Sorry to nearly have barged into you; I'll go and lie down for half an +hour."</p> + +<p>The door opened and Preston came in with a telegram.</p> + +<p>I opened it immediately and felt three or four flimsy sheets of +Government paper in my hand.</p> + +<p>The telegram was in the special cipher of the <i>Evening Special</i>, and was +from Rolston.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"The tower top is connected with Richmond telephone exchange by private +wire. I have been rung up and in long conversation with Pu-Yi. Early in +the evening you will receive a letter from certain lady. Owing to +certain complication of circumstances your attempt at storming the +tower and seeing lady must be carried out to-night. Our friend is making +all possible arrangements to this end and urgently begs you to be +prepared. He implicitly urges me to warn you the attempt is not without +grave danger. Please return to 'Swan' at once. There is much to be +arranged, and at lunch time two strange-looking customers were in the +bar whose appearance I didn't like at all. Also Sliddim thinks he +recognized one of them as an exceedingly dangerous person."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>For to-night! At last the patient months of waiting were over and it had +all narrowed down to this. To-night I should win or lose all that made +life worth living; and the fast taxi that took me back to Richmond +within twenty minutes of receiving the telegram, carried a man singing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TEN" id="CHAPTER_TEN"></a>CHAPTER TEN</h2> + + +<p>The wind was getting up on Richmond Hill and masses of cloud were +scudding from the South and obscuring the light of the moon, when at +about half-past nine a small, well-appointed motor coupé drew up in +front of the great gate at the tower inclosure.</p> + +<p>The small closed-in car was painted dead black, the man who drove it was +in livery, and a professional-looking person in a fur coat stepped out +and pressed the electric button of a small door in the wall by the side +of the huge main gates. In his hand he had a little black bag.</p> + +<p>In a moment the door opened a few inches and a large, saffron-colored, +intelligent face could be seen in the aperture.</p> + +<p>"The doctor!" said the gentleman from the coupé. The door opened at once +to admit him.</p> + +<p>He turned and spoke to the chauffeur.</p> + +<p>"As I cannot tell you how long I shall be, Williams," he said, "you had +better go back to the surgery and wait there. I have no doubt I can +telephone when I require you."</p> + +<p>The man touched his cap and drove off, and the doctor found himself in a +vaulted passage, to the right of which was a brightly lit room. Standing +in the passage and bowing was a gigantic Chinaman, Kwang-su, the keeper +of the gate, in a quilted black robe lined with fur. The man bowed low, +and a second Chinaman came out of the room, a thin ascetic-looking +person.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Dr. Thomas!" he said, "we've been expecting you. I am secretary to +Mr. Morse. Perhaps you will come this way."</p> + +<p>He led the doctor down the passage, unlocked a further door and the two +men emerged into the grounds, proceeding down a wide, graveled road, +bordered by strips of lawn and lit at intervals with electric standards. +In the distance there were ranges of lit buildings with figures flitting +backwards and forwards before the orange oblongs of doors and windows. +In another quarter rose the lighted dome of the great Power House from +which the low hum of dynamos and the steady throb of engines could be +faintly heard in pauses of the gale. It was exactly like standing at +night in the center of some great exhibition grounds, save that straight +ahead, overshadowing everything and covering an immense area of ground, +were the bases of the three great towers, a nightmare of fantastic steel +tracery such as no man's eye had beheld before in the history of the +world.</p> + +<p>"So far, so good," said Pu-Yi with a sigh of relief. "That was +excellently managed, the motor-car was quite in keeping. Your wonderful +little friend who speaks my language so well is already in the compound +with some of the men. He will await here to take any orders that may be +necessary."</p> + +<p>I was trembling with excitement and could hardly reply.</p> + +<p>Here I was at last, passed into the Forbidden City with the greatest +ease.</p> + +<p>"We will walk slowly towards tower number three, which is the one we +shall ascend," said my companion, "and I will explain the situation to +you. On the tower top I have supreme authority, except for one man, and +that's the Irish-American, Boss Mulligan. This worthy is much addicted +to the use of hot and rebellious liquors, and is generally more or less +intoxicated about this time, though he is more alert and ferocious than +when sober. To-night I have taken the opportunity to put a little +something in his bottle, a little something from China, which will not +be detected, and which will by now have sent him into a profound, +drugged slumber. I then telephoned all down the tower to the lift men on +the various stages, and also to Kwang there, that a doctor was to be +expected and that I would come down to meet him and conduct him to Mr. +Morse."</p> + +<p>"Excellent!" I said, "and now—?"</p> + +<p>"Now we are going straight up to the very top. Every one will see us but +no one will think anything strange. Moreover, and this is a fact in our +favor, when Mulligan awakes no one will be able to tell him of the +incident even if they suspected anything, for few, if any, of the tower +men speak more than a few rudimentary words of English, and I am the +intermediary between them and their master. This was specially arranged +by Mr. Morse so that none of them could get into communication with +Europeans. The fact is greatly in our favor."</p> + +<p>I pressed my hand to a pocket over my heart, where lay a little note +which had been mysteriously conveyed to me early in the evening—a +little agitated note bidding me come at all costs—and passed on in +silence until we came under the gloomy shadows of the mighty girders +and columns which sprang up from an expanse of smooth concrete which +seemed to stretch as far as eye could reach.</p> + +<p>We changed our lift at each stage; and I could have wished that it was +day or the night was finer, for the experience is wonderful when one +undergoes it for the first time.</p> + +<p>"We shall ascend by one of the small rapid lifts built for four or five +persons only, and not the large and more cumbrous machines. Even so, you +must remember, Doctor"—he chuckled as he called me that—"we have +nearly half a mile to go."</p> + +<p>On and on we went, amid this lifeless forest of steel with its smooth +concrete and shining electric-lamps, until at last we approached a +small, illuminated pavilion, where two silent celestials awaited us. We +stepped into the lift, the door was closed, a bell rang and we began to +move upwards. I sat down on a plush-covered seat and didn't attempt to +look out of the frosted windows on either side until at length, after +what seemed an interminable time, we stopped with a little jerk. Pu-Yi +opened the door and led me down on to a platform.</p> + +<p>"We are now," he said, "on the first stage—just fifty feet higher than +the golden cross on the top of Saint Paul's. If you will come up this +slant—see! here's the next lift."</p> + +<p>I followed him along a steel platform for some twenty or thirty yards, +the wind whistling all around. On looking to the right I saw nothing but +a black void, at the bottom of which, far, far below, was the yellow +glow of Richmond town. On looking to the left I stopped for a moment +and stared, unable to believe my eyes. As I live, there was an immense +lake there, surrounded by rushes that sang and swished in the wind, with +a boat-house, and a little landing-stage!</p> + +<p>Then, with a clang of wings and a chorus of shrill quacks, a gaggle of +wild duck got up and sped away into the dark.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Pu-Yi, "that's the lake. There are many variety of water +fowl fed there, who make it their home. On a quiet afternoon, walking +round the margin, or in a canoe, one can feel ten thousand miles away +from London. But that's nothing to what you will see if circumstances +permit."</p> + +<p>I have but a dim recollection of the second stage, which was only a +stage in the particular tower we were mounting, and did not extend +between the three as the lower and two upper ones did, forming the +immense plateaus of which the lake was one and the City in the clouds +itself another.</p> + +<p>It was when we had slowed down, and even in the dark lift, that I began +to have a curious sensation of an immense immeasurable height, and Pu-Yi +gave me a warning look as who would say, "Now, get ready, the adventure +really begins."</p> + +<p>We stopped, the door slid back and immediately we were in a blaze of +light. We were no longer out of doors. The lift had come up through the +floor of a large room. It was divided into two portions by polished +steel bars extending from ceiling to floor. A cat could not have +squeezed through. On our side, the lift side, the floor was covered +with matting but there was no furniture at all. Beyond the bars were a +Turkey carpet, several armchairs, a mahogany table with bottles, +siphons, newspapers, and a large, automatic pistol. An electric fire +burned cheerily in one corner and at right angles to it was a couch. +Upon this couch, purple-faced and snoring like a bull, lay Mulligan, +huge, relaxed, helpless.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" I whispered. "Gideon Morse is safe enough here."</p> + +<p>"In ten seconds," Pu-Yi whispered, "by pressing that bell button, +Mulligan could have the room full of armed guards, and as you see, this +steel fence is impassable without the key. There are only three keys, of +which I have one."</p> + +<p>He produced it as he spoke, inserting it in a gleaming, complicated +lock, slid back a portion of the steel-work, and we stepped into the +guard-room.</p> + +<p>"We are now," said my guide, "on the platform immediately under that on +which the City rests, and about a hundred feet below it. This platform +is entirely occupied by this guard-room, a range of store and dwelling +houses, the elaborate electric installation, power for which is supplied +from below, Turkish baths, a swimming bath, and so forth. Please follow +me."</p> + +<p>With a glance of repulsion at the drugged giant on the couch I went +after Pu-Yi, through a door on the opposite side of the room, and down a +long corridor with windows on one side and arched recesses on the other. +At the end of this we came out again into the open air, that is to say +that we were shielded by walls and buildings, walking as it were in a +sleeping town upon streets paved with wood blocks, while instead of the +vault of heaven above, about the height of a tallish church tower were +the great beams and girders which supported the City itself, and from +which, at regular intervals, hung arc lamps which threw a blue and +stilly radiance upon the streets and roofs of the buildings.</p> + +<p>It was colossal, amazing, this great colony in the sky. Now and then we +heard voices, the rattle of dice thrown upon a board, and the wailing +music of Chinese violins. Two or three times silent figures passed us +with a low bow, and without a glimmer of curiosity in their impassive +faces, until at length we came to a long row of lift doors, with an +inscription above each one, and in the center, dividing them into +sections, a large, vaulted stairway mounting upwards till it was lost to +sight. It was lined with white tiles like a subway in some great railway +terminus.</p> + +<p>Pu-Yi unlocked the door of a small lift. We got into it, it rushed up +for a few seconds and then we came out of a small white kiosk upon a +scene so wonderful, so enchanted that I forgot all else for a second, +caught hold of my conductor's thin arm and gave a cry of admiration and +wonder. A mass of clouds had just raced before the moon, leaving it free +to shed its light until another should envelop it.</p> + +<p>The pure radiance, unspoiled by smoke, mist, or the miasma which hangs +above the roofs of earthly cities, poured down in floods of light upon a +vast quadrangle of buildings, white as snow and with roofs that seemed +of gold.</p> + +<p>I had the impression of immensity, though magnified a dozen times, that +the great quadrangle of Christ Church, Oxford, or the court of Trinity, +Cambridge, give to one who sees them for the first time. But that +impression was only fleeting. These buildings seemed to obey no +architectural law. They were tossed up like foam in the upper air, +marvelous, fantastic, beautiful beyond words.</p> + +<p>We hurried along by the side of a great green lawn which might have been +a century growing, past bronze dragons supporting fountain basins, down +an arcade, where the broad leaves of palms clicked together and there +was a scent of roses, until we hurried through a little postern door and +up some steps and came out in what Pu-Yi whispered was the library.</p> + +<p>Wonder upon wonders! My brain reeled as we stepped out of the door in +the wall into a great Gothic room with groined roof of stone, an oriel +window at one end, and thousands upon thousands of books in the embayed +shelves of ancient oak. It was exactly like the library of some great +college or castle; one expected to see learned men in gowns and hoods +moving slowly from shelf to shelf, or writing at this or that table.</p> + +<p>"But, but," I stammered, "this might have been here for seven hundred +years!" and indeed there was all the deep scholastic charm and dignity +of one of the great libraries of the past.</p> + +<p>For answer he turned to me, and I saw that his thin hand clutched at his +heart.</p> + +<p>"It's all illusion," he whispered, "all cunning and wonderful illusion. +The walls of this place are not of ancient stone. They are plates of +toughened steel. The old oak was made yesterday at great expense. 'Tis +all a picture in a dream."</p> + +<p>I saw that he was powerfully affected for a moment, but for just that +moment I did not understand why.</p> + +<p>"But the books!" I cried, looking round me in amazement—"surely the +books—?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes," he sighed, "they are the collection of Mr. Gideon Morse, +which is second to very few in the world. They were all brought over +from Rio nearly two years ago. We cannot compete with the British +Museum, or some of the great American collectors in certain ways, but +there are treasures here—"</p> + +<p>We had by now walked half-way up the great hall. He stopped, went to +part of the wall covered with books, withdrew one, turned a little +handle which its absence revealed, and a whole section of the shelves +swung outwards.</p> + +<p>"In here, please," said Pu-Yi, "this is a little room where I sometimes +do secretarial work. At any rate it is hidden, and you will be quite +safe here while I go to the Señorita and tell her that you await her."</p> + +<p>The door clicked. I sat down on a low couch and waited.</p> + +<p>The experiences of the night had been so strange, the intense longing of +months seemed now so near fruition, that every artery in my body pulsed +and drummed, and it was only by a tremendous effort of will that I sat +down and forced myself to think.</p> + +<p>Here I was, at her own invitation, to rescue my love. As my mind began +to work I saw that I must be guided in my course of action by what she +told me. Juanita obviously thought that her father's aberration was a +form of madness without foundation. She did not know what I had +discovered. If she did she might realize that her father was possibly +not so mad as she imagined. For myself, after this space of time, I can +say that I was very seriously disturbed by Arthur Winstanley's +revelations in regard to the unspeakable Midwinter and the news that he +was now in England. Perhaps you will remember that in Bill Rolston's +telegram to me he hinted at some suspicious strangers having been seen +in the private bar of the "Golden Swan." One of them, I had ascertained, +answered to the description of Midwinter in every detail, and the two +men were seen by Sliddim to drive away through Richmond Park in a large, +private car.</p> + +<p>Certainly I must tell Juanita something of this and help her to warn her +father, perhaps....</p> + +<p>And then I remembered the elaborate precautions of my ascent, the +literal impossibility of any stranger or strangers ever getting to where +I was, and I breathed again.</p> + +<p>The place—one couldn't call it a room—in which I sat, was simply a +little sexagonal nook or retreat, masked from the great library by its +great door of books. Three of the panels which went from the floor to +the vaulted ceiling were of dead black silk. The other three were of +Chinese embroidery, stiff, with raised gold, and gems, which I realized +must be from the choicest examples of their kind in the world. Still, I +wasn't interested in dragons of tarnished gold, with opal eyes, ivory +teeth, and scales of lapislazuli. I was getting restive when the black +panel, which was the back of the entrance door, swung towards me, and I +saw Juanita.</p> + +<p>She was dressed in black, a sort of tea-gown I suppose you'd call it, +though round her shoulders and falling on each side of her slim form was +a cloak of heavy sable.</p> + +<p>In her blue-black hair—oh, my dear, how true you were then to the +fashions of the south, and how true you are to-day—there was a glowing, +crimson rose.</p> + +<p>We stood and looked at each other, in this tiny room, for I suppose two +or three seconds.</p> + +<p>What Juanita felt she told me afterwards, and it isn't part of this +narrative.</p> + +<p>What I felt was awe, sheer, impersonal awe, as I realized that I had +surmounted incredible difficulties, endured ages of longing, plotting, +planning, and now stood alone in front of the most Beautiful Girl in the +World.</p> + +<p>I saw her as that. I remembered the night at Lady Brentford's when the +league was formed.</p> + +<p>And then, thank Heaven, for in another second everything might have been +quite spoiled, I remembered that she was just my Juanita, who had sent +for me, and I took her in my arms and, and....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>We sat hand in hand upon the odd little Chinese couch.</p> + +<p>"Now look here, darling," I said, "you've told me all about your +Governor. How he says that you must live up here in this extraordinary +place and never go into the world again. You think him mad, and yet, +d'you know, I don't."</p> + +<p>"But, my heart—?"</p> + +<p>"I've got to tell you, dearest, that he has more reason than you think."</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders—it was about the most graceful thing I had +ever seen in my life.</p> + +<p>"But to tell me that I am to be a nun because, if I were to go back into +the world, my life wouldn't be worth a moment's purchase. <i>Caro!</i> It is +madness! It cannot be anything else."</p> + +<p>I didn't quite know how to tell her, and I was considering, when she +went on:</p> + +<p>"It is getting dreadful. Father cannot sleep, he prowls about this +nightmare of a place all the night long."</p> + +<p>"Sweetheart," I said, "I've been making all sorts of inquiries and I've +found out that your Governor is really in serious danger of +assassination—or was until he built this place, to which I think the +devil could hardly penetrate without an invitation. Don't think your +father a coward. Remember what we saw that night in the Ritz Hotel, when +I was just about to tell you that I adored you. No, I'd lay long odds, +Juanita darling, that Mr. Morse is more afraid for you than for himself. +And there I'll back him up every time."</p> + +<p>She laughed, and her laughter was like water falling into water in +paradise!</p> + +<p>"I have you," she said; "I have father—what do I care?"</p> + +<p>"Quite so," I replied. "I think you take a very sensible view of it. The +obvious thing to do is to relieve your father by coming with me +to-night, while the coast is clear. Lady Brentford is in town. She will +be delighted to receive you. Once out of the place, we can be free +within an hour. To-morrow morning I can get a special license from the +Archbishop of Canterbury and we can be married.</p> + +<p>"Once that happens, I'll defy all the Santa Hermandads, and all the Mark +Antony Midwinters in the world, to hurt you. And as for Mr. Morse, we'll +protect him too, in a far more sensible way than—"</p> + +<p>I suppose I had been holding her rather tightly. At any rate she broke +away and stood up in the center of the little room. The brightness of +her face was clouded with thought.</p> + +<p>I had not risen and she stared down at me with great, smoldering eyes.</p> + +<p>"So it is true!" she said, nodding her head, "it is true, father and I +are in peril, after all! Names escaped you just now, I think I have +heard one of them before—"</p> + +<p>She passed her hand over her brow, like some one awaking from sleep, and +I watched her, fascinated.</p> + +<p>Oh, how lovely she was at that moment, my dear, my perfect dear!</p> + +<p>"But, <i>caro</i>, <i>of course</i> I cannot run away with you and be married. <i>I +must</i> stay with father, cannot you see that?"</p> + +<p>Well, of course I did, there were no two words about it. "Very well," I +answered, "Little Lady of my heart, I'll stick by the old chap too. I've +crept up here in a sort of underhand way, but not for underhand reasons. +After all, I've just as much right to love you as anybody else in this +world."</p> + +<p>I took her by her sweet hands and I laughed in her face.</p> + +<p>"I'm not the Duke of Perth," I said, "but, but, Juanita—?"</p> + +<p>There came a little knocking at the door.</p> + +<p>Juanita swirled round, flung up her arm—I saw her sweet face glowing +for an instant—and then she seemed to whirl away like an autumn leaf.</p> + +<p>The only thing I could possibly do was to light a cigarette.</p> + +<p>Juanita, having met me, having delivered her ultimatum, having turned me +into a jelly, flitted away quite oblivious of the fact that I was a +burglar, an intruder into what was probably the most guarded and secret +place in Europe at that moment.</p> + +<p>My heart sang high music, and that was well. But at the same time I +recognized that I was in the deuce of a mess and had planned out no +course of action at all.</p> + +<p>I prayed, almost audibly, for Pu-Yi.</p> + +<p>But nobody came. There I was in the sexagonal room, with the gold +dragons with their jeweled eyes leering at me.</p> + +<p>A dull anger welled up within me. On every side, mentally as well as +physically, I seemed baffled, hemmed in. I determined, at any risk to +myself, to get out into the library. I took two steps towards the door +through which Juanita had gone, when I heard a sharp snap just behind +me.</p> + +<p>I whipped round, clutching the only weapon I had—which was a brass +knuckle-duster in the side pocket of my coat, and then I stood +absolutely still.</p> + +<p>One of the dragon panels had rolled up like a theater curtain, and +standing in what appeared to be the end of a passage, was the great +brute Mulligan, with a Winchester rifle at his shoulder, covering me.</p> + +<p>As a man does in the presence of imminent danger, I swerved out of the +line of the deadly barrel.</p> + +<p>As I did so—click! A second panel disappeared, and I was confronted by +Gideon Morse, his hands in the pockets of his dinner jacket, his mouth +faintly smiling, his eyes inscrutable.</p> + +<p>Imagine it! let the picture appear to you of the fool, Thomas Kirby, +trapped like a rat!</p> + +<p>Once, twice I swallowed in my throat, and I swear it wasn't from fear +but only from an enormous, immeasurable disgust.</p> + +<p>I turned to Morse.</p> + +<p>"You've been listening," I said, "you and your servant here."</p> + +<p>"I have been listening, Sir Thomas Kirby, that's true. I have every +right to. When a man breaks into my house without my knowledge and makes +clandestine love to my daughter, he's not the person to accuse one of +eavesdropping. As for my servant there, you do me an injustice, which I +find harder to forgive than anything, when you suggest that I allowed +him to overhear what passed in this room just now. He was not at his +post until Juanita had been gone from here some seconds. Mulligan, you +can go now. Sir Thomas, please come with me into the library."</p> + +<p>There was something so magnetic about this strange and compelling +personality that I followed him without a word.</p> + +<p>"Then you knew," I asked in a husky voice, "you knew all the time?"</p> + +<p>He smiled.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "I arranged a little comedy. The faithful Mulligan was +not drugged at all, and I did everything to facilitate your entrance."</p> + +<p>"Then that treacherous cur, Pu-Yi, was playing with me the whole time! +And yet I could have sworn that he was genuine. When I meet him—"</p> + +<p>"You will shake hands with him if you are a wise man. Pu-Yi was +absolutely genuine, but he, in common with my daughter, knew nothing of +the truth until you told it him. He had believed me a madman. Then he +understood not only the peril in which I was, and am, but also that of +my daughter. Do you think, Kirby, that I should have built these towers, +let imagination transcend itself, made myself the cynosure of Europe, +unless I was sure of what I was doing? Now, alas, you've told Juanita, +and brought terror into her life as well as mine."</p> + +<p>"Sir," I said, "her relief is greater than any fear. I'll answer for +that."</p> + +<p>I faced him fair and square.</p> + +<p>"God knows," I said, "I'm not worth a single glance of her sweet eyes, +but somehow or other she loves me, though she wouldn't fly with me when +I suggested it."</p> + +<p>"She has some decent feeling left," he answered, with a dry chuckle. +"Well, I overheard everything that passed in that little room and I +must say I rather appreciate the way in which you behaved. You are a +rapid thinker, Sir Thomas. What suggests itself to you as the next move +in our relations?"</p> + +<p>"Quite obvious, sir. You give your consent to my engagement with your +daughter. You please her, you bind me to your interests by hoops of +steel—though as a matter of fact I'm bound already—and you add a not +invaluable auxiliary to your staff."</p> + +<p>"Very well," he said, perfectly calmly, and held out his hand. "Now come +and have some supper and tell me all you know."</p> + +<p>Then that astonishing man thrust his arm through mine and led me down +the great library.</p> + +<p>"What a marvelous intellect that fellow Pu-Yi has," he said +confidentially. "He saw the situation in all its bearings, from all +sides at once, and made an instant decision. I'll tell you now, Kirby, +that he actually predicted every detail of what has just come to pass. +He told me that he owed you his life and was perfectly ready to die for +you, as of course for me and my daughter, but that it had occurred to +him that his living for all three of us might be by far the wisest +attitude to adopt under the circumstances. I quite agree with him."</p> + +<p>Then again came the little dry, strange chuckle.</p> + +<p>"But no more peddling poppy-juice to my Chinese, my boy. It plays the +devil with their nerves in the end!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_ELEVEN" id="CHAPTER_ELEVEN"></a>CHAPTER ELEVEN</h2> + + +<p>Morse and I sat at supper in a room which differed in no way from the +ordinary study of a country gentleman. Except for the very slightest +suggestion rather than sensation of vibration, which my host explained +was the drag of the City on the three great towers which perpetually +oscillated out of the perpendicular, and so insured the safety of the +vast elastic structure, there was nothing to indicate that we were two +thousand two hundred feet up in the air.</p> + +<p>Our meal was of the simplest, and during it I told Morse, without +reservation, all that I had heard from Arthur Winstanley.</p> + +<p>"He has the outline very correctly. I'll fill it in later. How long has +Lord Arthur been in London?"</p> + +<p>"About five days, I believe."</p> + +<p>"Time for many preparations to be made if they're going to strike +quickly," he said, more to himself than to me, drumming his fingers on +the tablecloth.</p> + +<p>Then he looked up.</p> + +<p>"And these two men who were seen to-day in the bar of your public +house?"</p> + +<p>"One, sir, was undoubtedly Midwinter. My very sharp-witted informant +describes the other man as a swarthy person of just over middle height +and apparently of great personal strength. He was bearded, sallow-faced, +and had somewhat the appearance of a half-caste."</p> + +<p>"Zorilla y Toro, as I expected," said Morse. "Zorilla the Bull, as he is +known in half the Republics of South America."</p> + +<p>"No doubt," I remarked, "a formidable pair of ruffians, but remember +that I saw you deal with one of them at any rate, that night at the Ritz +Hotel. The way he legged it out of the drawing-room wouldn't have +inspired me with any particular fear of him."</p> + +<p>Morse struck the table with his hand.</p> + +<p>"I wish I'd sent a bullet through his heart instead of playing fancy +fireworks round him. But I feared London and your colossal law and +order. It's perfectly true, he didn't influence me in the least on that +night. He came to sell his employers, to sell the Hermandad for a +hundred thousand pounds."</p> + +<p>"It would have been cheaper than this." I waved my hand to indicate the +expensive crow's-nest of my future father-in-law.</p> + +<p>Morse laughed.</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't have made the least difference," he said. "The man couldn't +hurt me at the time because he had to obey the orders of the villainous +Society at his back. The old Marquis da Silva, who is simply a tool in +their hands, insisted that I was not to be even interfered with in any +way until the two years of grace from my first warning were up. Though +their object was to get hold of half my fortune, and Midwinter's to +revenge himself personally upon me, the Society and he didn't dare do +anything until the moment struck. There were too many political issues +still involved.</p> + +<p>"That's why I made Mr. Mark Antony Midwinter dance out of the Ritz Hotel +on that night."</p> + +<p>"It's what Arthur Winstanley said."</p> + +<p>"That young man will go far. Now, Kirby, I think you understand +everything, and you've got to throw in your lot with Juanita and me, for +a time at any rate, and never say you didn't know what you were up +against."</p> + +<p>I took a glass of claret and lit a cigarette.</p> + +<p>"I understand the <i>facts</i>, as you say, but I don't understand you. +Allowing for all your natural and deep anxiety about Juanita, I simply +fail to understand why you regard this Midwinter and his companion or +companions with such apprehension. Surely you could have the man locked +up to-morrow, knowing what you know about him."</p> + +<p>Morse sighed, with a sort of gentle patience.</p> + +<p>"A few more facts," he said; "and do reflect that it's most improbable +that a man of my intelligence and resources should act as he has done +without being sure of what he was doing. In the first place, I've had +Midwinter watched by the most famous detectives in America, watched for +years. None of these people have ever been able quite to bowl him out—a +simile from your English game of cricket. But three of the most trusted +and acute agents have lost their lives during these investigations, and +lost them in a singularly unpleasant manner."</p> + +<p>He sighed again, this time wearily, and I saw that his face was old and +without interest or hope.</p> + +<p>"What on earth is the use," he went on, "of telling you all I know about +this man? Sir"—his voice began to rise, and a light came into the dark +depths of his eyes—"Sir, if I saw his corpse before me now, I wouldn't +believe him dead or his power for evil ended until I had hacked his head +from his shoulders with my own hand! You cannot, I say you simply cannot +realize or understand the fiendish ingenuity, persistence, and icy +cruelty of this being, for I will not insult our common humanity by +calling it a man. If Juanita ever gets into his hands—"</p> + +<p>His mouth, his whole face, was working, I thought he was going to have a +fit, and truth to tell, something icy began to congeal around my own +heart.</p> + +<p>"Calm yourself, sir," I said, as authoritatively as I could. "Juanita is +doubly safe now that I am here, and as for Midwinter, he'll never +approach us here. It's beyond the wit of mortal man, and, meanwhile, +I'll see that he's apprehended and removed from all power of doing harm. +I am only a young man, Mr. Morse, but I'm rather a power in the land. +You see I have an important newspaper at my back, and as for you, who +have already made the Government feed out of your hand in the matter of +these towers, you should have gone to the Home Secretary in the first +instance. At any rate, we'll go together, and believe me, we shall be +listened to."</p> + +<p>"I thank you, my dear boy," he replied with an effort, "but there is +such a thing as Fate, and Fate has whispered in my ear. I am not +naturally a superstitious man, but during a life spent in strange places +among strange people I have learnt to be very wary of a material +interpretation of life. But this I will say, whatever I feel about +myself, however my precautions might fail, I believe that my dear +daughter will win to safety in the end, that the power of evil will be +overcome, and that you will be her savior."</p> + +<p>I could have sworn, as he shook hands and bade me good-night, there was +a tear in the great man's eye, and I wondered how long it was since any +one had seen that in this master of millions and of men.</p> + +<p>A picturesque young Chinaman, a valet in flowing Oriental robes, who +spoke English with the most appalling cockney accent you ever heard in +your life, conducted me to a charming bedroom, provided me with +everything necessary, and in five minutes I fell into a deep, dreamless +sleep.</p> + +<p>A really full day, wasn't it?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>When I woke up the next morning my room was flooded with sunshine from a +dome in the ceiling.</p> + +<p>Seated upon my bed, and balancing a cup of tea, was Master Bill Rolston. +His hair was restored to its natural red, his nose normal, and his high +cheek-bones were gone. On each side of his chubby face his transparent +ears stood out at right angles, and his button of a mouth was wreathed +in a genial smile.</p> + +<p>"Good old Pu-Yi came for me about two o'clock this morning, Sir Thomas, +and told me all that had happened. I say, sir, <i>what</i> a man to have on +the staff of the <i>Evening Special</i>! <i>What</i> an intellect!"—I seemed to +have heard that phrase before. "Why, we'd have him dictating to Cabinet +Ministers within a year!"</p> + +<p>I lay idly watching this brilliant and faithful boy; journalist once, I +reflected, journalist forever. There's no getting it out of the blood, +and here, if I'm not mistaken, when many of us have faded away from +Fleet Street forever, will be the biggest of us all.</p> + +<p>I was surprised to find that Bill was distinctly on the side of Gideon +Morse in his anticipation of evil. We argued it out while I was dressing +and I insisted that the City was impregnable.</p> + +<p>"To all ordinary appearance, to all ordinary efforts, yes. But I shall +never change my belief that there's nothing that human wit can invent +that human wit cannot circumvent."</p> + +<p>After breakfast, which I took alone, the servant led me to a great white +house standing among conservatories, which I learned was almost an exact +reproduction of the Palacete Mendoza, the residence of Gideon Morse at +Rio. And there, in her own charming sitting-room, fragrant with flowers +and stamped in a hundred ways with her personality, Juanita was waiting. +She was radiant. Happiness lay about her like sunbeams. I never saw any +one more changed than she was from the girl I had met the night before.</p> + +<p>"Come, dearest," she said, "and I'll show you some of our wonders. I +could not show you all of them in one day. Oh, Tom, isn't it all +splendid, couldn't you sing and shout for joy!"</p> + +<p>I helped her into a fur coat—for it was bitter cold outside, though the +wind of the night before had dropped—and was provided with one myself +as we left the house. Standing in the patio was a little two-seated +automobile, a tiny toy of a thing run from electric storage batteries, +which made no noise louder than the humming of a wasp. We got into this +and Juanita was like a child as she pulled the starting lever and we +rolled away.</p> + +<p>I have said I woke to find my bedroom full of sunlight, but, as we +glided down an arcade of conservatories, upon each side of the road, so +that the illusion of passing among a palm grove was almost complete, I +noticed that dark and angry clouds were gathering not far above our +heads, and it was through one single aperture that the sunlight poured. +The effect of this, when we ran through the tunneled archway and came +out into a great square, was curious. A third of the buildings which +towered up on every side were bathed in glory, the rest, gray, sullen, +and throwing shadows of sable upon the lawns, gravel sweeps, and parquet +flooring. We investigated a dozen marvels of which I shall not speak +here. The whole experience was a dream of luxury so wonderful, and so +fantastic also, that my readers must wait for William Rolston's book, +now nearing completion. It was impossible to believe that we were +actually walking, motoring, more than two thousand feet above London in +a little world of our own which bore no relation whatever to ordinary +human life.</p> + +<p>This was especially borne in upon me with overwhelming force when we had +ascended the steps of a tower and came out into a glass chamber on the +roof, where an old Chinese gentleman with tortoise-shell spectacles +showed us the great telescope which Morse had installed. Following the +shifting path of sunlight, I got a dim glimpse of the English Channel +over a far-flung champaign of fertile woods and downs, studded here and +there with toy towns the size of threepenny-pieces. Once, but only for a +moment, I made out the great towers of Canterbury Cathedral, but the sun +shifted and the vision passed. London itself, brought immediately to our +feet, was an astonishing sight, but as every one has seen the +photographs taken from aeroplanes I will not dilate upon it, though it +differed in many ways from these.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most pleasing sight of all was that of Richmond Park, where +the winter Fair had just begun. We could see the roundabouts, the +swings, and so forth, with great clearness, and even, as the wind +freshened, catch a faint buzzing noise from the steam organs. Then a +captive balloon rose up, I suppose a thousand feet, and some quarter of +a mile away. With powerful field glasses we could see the big basket +crammed with adventurous trippers, till she was hauled down again to +make another ascent and add a few more pounds to the profits of her +proprietors.</p> + +<p>I was quite tired when we went back to the house to lunch.</p> + +<p>During the meal, which was long and elaborate, Morse showed a side of +his nature I had never before seen. He was not jovial or in high +spirits—distinctly not that—but he was strangely tender and human. I +realized the immense love he had for Juanita, and wondered how he could +ever bear to see her love me. But he was kindness itself—like a father, +to the interloper who had stormed his fortress, and I always like to +think of him as he was on that afternoon, full of anecdotes about his +youth, of Juanita's mother, of the old days in Brazil. It was my formal +whole-hearted reception into his life. Henceforth I was to be—he said +it once in well and delicately-chosen words—a son to him, who had never +had a son.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon I went back to my own quarters, which consisted of a +villa at the end of the Palace gardens, where I was lodged with Rolston, +and attended by various well-trained Chinamen. I had rarely seen a more +delightful bachelor dwelling. I took a cup of tea with Bill about four +o'clock. It was now quite dark, and the bitter wind was rising again, +but heavy curtains of tussore silk were pulled over the windows, a fire +of yew logs burned in the open hearth, and softly shaded electric lights +all combined to produce the coziest and most homelike effect it is +possible to imagine.</p> + +<p>It was then that a man came in to say that Mr. Pu-Yi begged the honor of +an audience.</p> + +<p>Bill vanished, and my thin, ascetic friend glided in, and at my +invitation sank into a chair by the fire. I don't think, in the whole +course of my life, I could recall a conversation which touched, +interested, and excited my admiration more than this, and I have met +every one "from Emperor to Clown." He apologized profoundly for his +seeming treachery. With a wealth of lucid self-analysis and the power +of presenting a clear statement which I have seldom heard equaled, he +showed how he was torn between his new-born debtorship to me, his +loyalty to Morse, for whom he professed a profound esteem, and—here he +hinted with extraordinary <i>finesse</i>—his mute adoration for Juanita.</p> + +<p>"It was, Sir Thomas, touch and go, of course. I was in the position of a +surgeon who has to risk everything upon one heroic stroke of the knife. +I did so, and behold, all the conflicting elements are reconciled. The +pieces of the puzzle have come together."</p> + +<p>"My friend," I said, "betray me twenty million times if you can bring me +such happiness as you have brought. Besides, it wasn't a betrayal, it +was a great brain leading a smaller one to its appointed goal."</p> + +<p>We talked a little more, he drank tea, he smoked, and, to my growing +discomfort, I found in him the same note of pessimism and apprehension +that Morse could not conceal, and Rolston himself had partially +revealed.</p> + +<p>"But I <i>won't</i> believe that any harm can come to Miss Morse," I said, +almost angrily.</p> + +<p>The thin lips smiled.</p> + +<p>"That I never said, Sir Thomas. There are no indications of that. You +and your lady are in peril, but you will win through."</p> + +<p>"Confound it, man, your liver must be out of order. It seems to me that +captivity in this magnificent bird-cage has the same effect on every +one. I shall get Morse to come and hunt with me in the Shires. I've got +a nice little box in Gloucestershire, close to Chipping Norton, and by +Jove, Pu-Yi, I'll mount you and give you a run with the Heythrope. You +talk as if you actually knew something. As if you had information of a +calamity."</p> + +<p>"I hear it in the wind," he said strangely, and his voice was like a +withered leaf blown before the wind. Then he left me.</p> + +<p>I dined with Juanita and her father. Bill was asked too, and he kept my +girl, and sometimes even Mr. Morse, in fits of laughter with stories of +his short but erratic career, and especially a racy account of his +illicit opium-selling down below.</p> + +<p>"You see, sir," he said, "you brought it on yourself, by kidnaping me in +the first instance. I had to get my own back."</p> + +<p>Morse's face clouded over for a moment.</p> + +<p>"It was a disgraceful thing to do," he said. "I quite admit it, but had +the necessity arisen I'd have kidnaped George Robey or the Prince of +Wales," and from that moment always I seemed to see that a faint but +perceptible shadow was creeping over his spirits.</p> + +<p>We had a little music, in a charming room built for the purpose. Juanita +played upon the guitar and sang little Spanish love songs. Bill +"obliged" with a ditty which he said was a favorite of the revered +Charles Lamb, which seemed to consist entirely of the following lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Diddle-diddle-dumpling, my son John<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Went to bed with his breeches on."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I think that when Juanita said good-night to us all—and to me privately +in the passage—she went to bed quite happy and cheerful.</p> + +<p>About half-past ten Bill slipped off and I remained to smoke a final +cigar with Morse.</p> + +<p>"I'm low, Thomas," he said, "I'm very low to-night."</p> + +<p>I made him take a little whisky and potash—a thing he rarely did.</p> + +<p>"It's the unnatural life, sir, that you've condemned yourself to +recently. You come out of this and hunt with me in Gloucestershire and +I'll protect you as well as you're protected here, and you'll get as +right as rain."</p> + +<p>"You're very kind," he replied, "but—take care of her, Kirby, for God's +sake, take care of her. She'll have no one else in the world but you if +they get me or Pu-Yi."</p> + +<p>I was about to expostulate again when the door opened and Boss Mulligan +slouched in.</p> + +<p>"Been all round the City, governor, with the usual patrol. Everything +quiet, nothing unusual anywhere. All the servants have given in their +tallies and are safe in their quarters."</p> + +<p>Morse looked at me.</p> + +<p>"That's our system, Tom," he said. "At a certain hour all the servants +go to the lower stage, except those that may be urgently wanted. For +instance, there's a fellow in your house to valet you to-night. Juanita +has her little Spanish maid, and I think Pu-Yi keeps some one. Otherwise +we are all to ourselves up here. All the lift doors are locked on the +second stage and so is the central staircase. Mulligan here is on guard +all night in the room where you saw him."</p> + +<p>"An' watchin' ye from the ind of me eye, Sorr Thomas," said the genial +ruffian, "av ye'll belave ut."</p> + +<p>"You're a good actor, Mulligan," I said—it seemed about the only thing +I could say.</p> + +<p>"Sure, an' I am that," he said, "I am that, sorr, but I'm a bether doer. +An' av ye'd reely bin staling in—"</p> + +<p>His immense fist clenched itself and he shook it in my direction.</p> + +<p>"Mulligan, go back to the guard-room," said Morse, "you're drunk."</p> + +<p>The giant's face changed from ferocity into pained surprise.</p> + +<p>"But av course, sorr," he said, "it's me usual time, as your honor must +know. But begob, I'm efficient!"</p> + +<p>The mingled grin and glare on his countenance when Mr. Mulligan went +away left no doubt in my mind about that.</p> + +<p>A few minutes afterwards, certainly not drunk, and I hope efficient, I +left the Palacete Mendoza, and walked through the gardens to the villa. +Morse himself barred the door after me.</p> + +<p>It was bitter, aching cold and the wind was razor-keen. Gaunt wreaths of +mist were all around like a legion of ghosts, and I realized that the +clouds were descending upon us, and soon I should not be able to see a +yard before me, though the electric lamps that never went out all night, +over the whole City, glowed with a dim blueness here and there through +the fog.</p> + +<p>However, I found the villa all right, and my Chinese boy waiting in the +hall. He took my coat, saw that the fires in the sitting-room and the +adjoining bedroom were made up, and then I told him he might be off to +his quarters on the second stage, for which he seemed extremely +thankful.</p> + +<p>I don't suppose he had been gone more than a minute when the door of my +sitting-room opened and Rolston came in quickly. He was wearing a +dressing-gown and pyjamas and his hair was all rough like one recently +aroused from sleep.</p> + +<p>"What on earth's the matter?" I said.</p> + +<p>"I undressed," he said, "in my bedroom, which is just above yours as you +know, and fell asleep in my chair with all the lights on. I woke only a +short time ago, and before switching off the lamps I went to the window +to see what sort of a night it was."</p> + +<p>"Hellish, if you want to know."</p> + +<p>"The light streamed out upon a great curtain of mist, almost like the +projector lamp upon a screen of a kinema. Sir Thomas, as I stood there I +could swear that something big, black and oblong sank down from that +darkness above, passed through my zone of light and disappeared in the +blackness below."</p> + +<p>"What on earth do you mean, what sort of a thing?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated for a moment and then he said:</p> + +<p>"Almost like a group of statuary, though I only saw it for a mere +instant."</p> + +<p>He had obviously been half dreaming when he went to the window, his +eyes, even now, were heavy with sleep.</p> + +<p>"Simply and solely a trick of the wind upon the mist, and your own +figure interposing between the light and the window, and throwing a +momentary shade on the swaying white curtain outside. The mist's as +thick as linen and it changes every moment. You go to bed properly, and +sleep the sleep of the just."</p> + +<p>He didn't attempt to argue, but looked a little ashamed of himself for +obtruding for such a trivial reason. Ten minutes afterwards I was also +in bed and fast asleep.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_TWELVE" id="CHAPTER_TWELVE"></a>CHAPTER TWELVE</h2> + + +<p>I had ordered my Chinese boy to wake me at eight. In one corner of the +Grand Square was a beautifully fitted gymnasium with a swimming-bath +adjoining. I proposed three-quarters of an hour's vigorous exercise +before dressing.</p> + +<p>At it happens I generally wake more or less at the time I want to. This +morning, however, it was half-past eight. There was no sound of Chang +whatever. I got out of bed, put on a sweater, Norfolk jacket, flannel +trousers, and tennis shoes—I had sent for a portmanteau of clothes from +the "Golden Swan"—went across the hall and let myself out into the +gardens.</p> + +<p>Then I hesitated in amazement. A thick, heavy, impenetrable mist hid +everything from sight. It seemed as solid as wool. One literally had to +push one's way through it, and when I say that I couldn't see more than +a yard before my face, I mean it in the strict sense of the words. +Still, I remembered that I have a good sense of topography, and I was +quite confident that I could find my way to the central Square, where +there would be sure to be people about whom I could ask.</p> + +<p>From my front door there was a good hundred and twenty yards of wide +gravel path to the Palacete Mendoza. I sprinted up this in less than +twenty seconds I should say, and then warily turned into the palm-tree +grove—the great sheets of plated glass on either side of the way were +in place now, but I knew where I was because of the different quality of +the ground, which was here paved with wood blocks. Soon, a faint gray +mass to my right, the palace itself loomed up, but the blanket of mist +was too thick for me to discern windows or doors. One could see nothing +but the gray hint of mass.</p> + +<p>The curious thing was that one could hear nothing either. That had not +struck me as I did my sprint, but now it did, and most forcibly. Of +course there was no sound of wind—had there been any wind we should not +have been buried in the very heart of this fog—thicker and more sticky +than anything I had ever experienced in the Alps themselves. But there +were no sounds of occupation such as an extensive place like the City +might have been expected to produce at this hour, and in fact, as I +realized, <i>did</i> produce, when I remembered yesterday. The place was +never noisy. It was a haunt of peace if ever there was one. But the +sound of gardeners and servants going about their daily toil, the +distant throbbing of an engine perhaps, a subdued voice giving an order, +the plashing of fountains, and the strains of music, all these were +utterly and entirely absent. It was as though the mist killed not only +vision but hearing also. I might have been on the top of Mont Blanc.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"What little town by harbor or sea-shore<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Is empty of its folk this pious morn?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I quoted to myself with a laugh, just as I entered the arched tunnel +wide enough for two coaches to be driven under it abreast, which I knew +led to Grand Square.</p> + +<p>I laughed, and then quite suddenly all laughter went out of me. I +couldn't explain it at the moment, but the mist, the loneliness, my +whole surroundings, seemed quite horrible.</p> + +<p>Surely something had passed me? I called out, and my voice seemed like +the bleating of a sheep. Of course, it was illusion. My nerves had +suddenly gone wrong. But, honestly, I felt that there was something +<i>nasty</i> in the atmosphere, nasty from a psychic point of view I mean. +There are moments when the human soul turns sick and retches with +disgust, and I experienced such a moment now. I think it was exactly +then that I knew, though I wouldn't allow myself to believe it, that I +knew inwardly all was not well. I walked on and my india-rubber shoes +seemed to make a sly, unpleasant noise—it was the only one I heard even +now.</p> + +<p>I could see nothing, I was quite uncertain of where I was, so I turned +and walked straight to the right until, from the impact of the air upon +my face, I knew that I was within a yard or so of some building. This +was correct. My hand touched what seemed like stonework, and glancing up +I became aware that a building rose high above.</p> + +<p>I followed this along, keeping my hand on the stone, moving it round +projecting buttresses and going with great caution. This insect-like +progression seemed to be endless. I took out my watch, which I had +shoved into the breast pocket of my Norfolk jacket. It was nearly nine +o'clock, and not a single sound!</p> + +<p>A second or two afterwards I came to a balustrade, felt my way along it, +and found that I was at the foot of a broad flight of steps. There +seemed something vaguely familiar here, and as I ran up them I began to +be sure that I was at the library. I knew that Pu-Yi lived somewhere on +the premises and I felt all over the great iron-studded door until I +came to the small postern wicket through which one generally entered. +This was locked, but a bell-pull of wrought iron hung at the side and I +pulled at it lustily for a considerable time.</p> + +<p>It opened with a jerk and Pu-Yi stood there in his skull cap with the +coral button on the top and wrapped in a bear-skin robe.</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness I've found some one," I said. "I've lost my way. I was +going to the gymnasium, to exercise a little and then have a swim. My +boy didn't turn up so I came out by myself."</p> + +<p>"Come in, come in, Sir Thomas," he said, peering out at the white +curtain. "What a dreadful morning! I've been here some months now, but I +have never seen it so bad as this. I daresay it will blow off by nine +o'clock or so when the sun gets up."</p> + +<p>"It's nine o'clock now," I told him.</p> + +<p>He started violently.</p> + +<p>"Then my servant also is at fault," he said. "I ordered my coffee for +eight. I was reading far into the night and must have overslept myself. +This is very curious."</p> + +<p>"Do you know, I don't quite like it, Pu-Yi. I've come all the way from +the pavilion in the Palace gardens and haven't heard the least sound of +any sort whatever."</p> + +<p>We passed through a lobby and entered the great library, which was cold +and gray as a tomb.</p> + +<p>Pu-Yi snapped at a switch, then at another. Nothing happened.</p> + +<p>"The electric light is off!" he cried. "What an extraordinary thing!"</p> + +<p>"Mine wasn't," I said. "I got out of bed and dressed by it."</p> + +<p>He did not reply, but took down the speaking part of a telephone and +turned the handle of the box. In that gray light his thin face, with its +expression of strained attention, was one I shall not easily forget.</p> + +<p>He turned the handle again, angrily. Again an interval of silence.</p> + +<p>"The telephone is out of order," he said, and we looked at each other +with a question in our eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm confoundedly glad I've found you," I said.</p> + +<p>"We must look into this at once, Sir Thomas. I can find my way perfectly +well to one of the lifts at the other end of the Square. We must summon +assistance. One moment." He vanished for a minute and returned with +something cool and shining which he pressed into my hand. It was a +venomous ten-shot Colt automatic. "You never know," he whispered.</p> + +<p>We hurried across the great Square, passing by the central fountain +basins, though the fountains were not playing, which added to our +uneasiness. Everything was deathly still until we came to the little +lift pavilion. I half expected the thing to stick, but it glided down +easily enough. As if my companion read my thoughts he said:</p> + +<p>"All these small lifts are not electrical, but are worked by hydraulic +power, the station for which is in the City and not below on the earth."</p> + +<p>I shall never forget the extraordinary sight as we stepped from the +lift. The mist here was nothing like so thick as it was above. This was +owing to the fact that a hundred feet above our heads there was the +immense ceiling of steel plates and girders upon which the City rested. +As I said before, on all three sides this second service City was open +to the air, but not above. Consequently the mist moved in tall white +shapes like ghosts; it entirely surrounded one group of huts and left +another great vista of buildings plain to the eye. Here a gaudily +painted gable thrust itself out of the white sheet; there, through a +proscenium of clinging wool, one saw the gray interior of a +machine-room. A chill twilight brooded everywhere. There wasn't a single +lamp burning, and from one end to the other lay the desolation of utter +silence.</p> + +<p>I leant against the jamb of the lift door, and, despite the cold, the +sweat ran down my body in a stream.</p> + +<p>Pu-Yi raised a thin arm over his head and it seemed to clutch crookedly +at the somber panoply aloft.</p> + +<p>A high, thin wail came from his parted lips and went mournfully away +down the deserted streets and empty habitations.</p> + +<p>For myself, I had been so stunned that I couldn't think, but my +friend's despairing call seemed to jerk some cog-wheel within the brain +and start again the mechanism of thought.</p> + +<p>I gripped him by the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"There isn't a soul here," I rasped out. "What does it mean, what on +earth does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"There should be three hundred at least," he answered.</p> + +<p>I broke away at a run, flung open the first door I came to and peered +in. It was some sort of a sleeping-room, there were bunks and couches +all around the walls. Each one of them was empty. I had time to see +that, and also that a stand of short carbines and cutlasses was full of +weapons.</p> + +<p>Then I had to back out quickly for the late inmates had left an odorous +legacy behind them.</p> + +<p>Pu-Yi faced me.</p> + +<p>"That was one of the patrol rooms," he said.</p> + +<p>Then I remembered our coming two days ago.</p> + +<p>"Mulligan!" I cried. "Nobody could get here except through the +guard-room, nobody could leave here except through that, could they?"</p> + +<p>"Not unless they threw themselves from the side of the tower."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's quite impossible to believe that three hundred people have +committed suicide during the night without a sound being heard. Quick! +let's get to the bottom of this."</p> + +<p>Pu-Yi led. He didn't seem really to run, only to glide along the ghostly +streets and passages. But I had hard work to keep up with him, all the +same. My mouth felt as if it had been sucking a brass tap. The most +deadly fear clutched at my heart—that noiseless, pattering run through +the deserted town in the air, accompanied always by the mouthing, +gibbering ghosts of the mist, was appalling.</p> + +<p>We dashed down the last corridor and were brought up by a stout door. +Pu-Yi bent down to the handle, turned it gently, and—it opened.</p> + +<p>We tiptoed into that room. Directly I was over the threshold, the +spiritual odor of death, of violent death, came to me.</p> + +<p>A fire of logs was still burning redly upon the hearth. For the rest the +room was lit only by its skylight, through which filtered a dirty and +opaque illumination which was only sufficient to give every object a +shape of the sinister or bizarre. The red glow from the fire glistened +upon the polished screen of steel which divided the room into two +portions. And it also fell, redly, upon something else.</p> + +<p>This was the corpse of Mulligan.</p> + +<p>It was seated in a chair which had been pulled up to the screen with its +back towards it, as if in mockery and derision of its power to keep it.</p> + +<p>He had been strangled by a yard of catgut, twisted, tourniquet-fashion, +by a piece of stick at the back of the neck. The catgut had sunk far +into the flesh, reducing the neck to less than half its ordinary size, +and the great staring head hung down upon one shoulder.</p> + +<p>One of the logs in the grate fell with a crackle of sparks. For the +rest, dead silence.</p> + +<p>"They have come," Pu-Yi said simply.</p> + +<p>"But what has happened?" I whispered, my throat was so dry that the +sound was like the rustling of paper.</p> + +<p>"I shall know soon. I am going to find out. There is not a minute to +lose. Can you, dare you, wait here—"</p> + +<p>I nodded and he was out of the room in a flash. Upon the dead man's +table was the usual array of bottles and glasses. I took some brandy and +gulped it down and my brain cleared instantly. There was a little touch +of infinite pathos even in this hideous moment, for by the side of an +empty glass I saw a string of beads with a little metal crucifix. The +Irishman, a Roman Catholic of course, must have been saying his prayers +some time before he met his end. Somehow the thought comforted me and +gave me power to act. I found a knife, and cut the bonds that tied the +giant to the chair. I lowered him reverently to the floor and finally +severed the horrible ligature around his throat. An examination of the +steel door in the screen of bars showed that it was securely locked, but +the bunch of keys which the dead man usually carried upon a chain was no +longer there—the end of the chain dangled from his trousers pocket.</p> + +<p>While I was doing these things a most deadly apprehension was standing +specter-like by my side and plucking with wan fingers at my sleeve. What +had happened, what might even now be happening at the Palacete Mendoza?</p> + +<p>Pu-Yi whirled into the room. He made no noise, it was as though a dried +leaf had been blown in by the wind. His face was transformed. Every +outline was sharpened, and the color was changed until it bore the exact +resemblance to a mask of green bronze. In its frozen immobility it was +dead, yet awfully alive, and the eyes glittered like little crumbs of +diamond.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"I know how it has been done. It is very clever, very clever indeed. Let +me tell you that all the power cables connecting us with below have been +scientifically cut. We can neither telephone down to the Park nor can we +descend to it in one of the lifts. We are isolated up here in the +clouds."</p> + +<p>"But the men, the staff?" I gasped, and then I stepped back, staring +down at his hands. They were all foul and stained with blood.</p> + +<p>"Not far away," he said, "there is another body, that of my servant, a +youth from my own Province, whom I loved and whom I was educating. He +was alive five minutes ago. He had just time to sob out the truth and +his repentance."</p> + +<p>"Tell me quickly, Pu-Yi, time presses."</p> + +<p>"They caught him last night, so they must have been here then."</p> + +<p>"Who caught him?"</p> + +<p>"He never knew. They were masked, but there were two of them, and from +his description we know very well who they were. Sir Thomas, they +tortured him for a long time until he spoke, promising him freedom if he +did so. His story was disjointed, gasped out with his dying breath, but +I can put it together pretty well.</p> + +<p>"They made him give an order by telephone from the upper City that, +immediately, the staff were to leave here and descend to the ground and +await further orders, all but Mulligan, who was to remain at his post +until I came to him. This message was delivered in Chinese to the man at +the telephone exchange, and the poor boy was forced to counterfeit my +voice. He was blindfolded immediately afterwards, but he heard a man +speaking, and he said he could not have told the voice from that of Mr. +Morse."</p> + +<p>In a flash I saw the whole thing, in its devilish ingenuity, its +fiendish completeness.</p> + +<p>"Then we are absolutely alone, you, I, Mr. Rolston, Mr. Morse and his +daughter?"</p> + +<p>"And her maid," he answered quietly.</p> + +<p>"At the mercy of—"</p> + +<p>"That we have yet to prove. We must throw all emotion, all fear aside. +That's what we have to do now. It's diamond cut diamond. There's one +problem in my mind, and one only."</p> + +<p>"What's that, quick!"</p> + +<p>"I daresay that in an hour I could get down to the ground. Among the +intricate steel-work of this tower there's a tiny circular staircase of +open lattice-work, sufficient for the passage of one person only, and +even here, every three or four hundred feet the way is barred by locked +gates, though I have a master key to all of them. Shall I make the +attempt, and risk crashing off into space—for it is a mere +steeplejack's way—and summon assistance, which may well be another hour +in arriving, for the tower cables have been scientifically cut and no +one but an electrician could repair them? Or shall I rush with you to +defend the Palace?"</p> + +<p>"You leave the decision to me?"</p> + +<p>"It is in your hands, Prince."</p> + +<p>"Then, old chap, tumble down this accursed tower, hell for leather, and +rouse the pack. If I and Morse and Bill Rolston cannot account for these +cowardly assassins, then one more man won't make any difference."</p> + +<p>So I said, so I thought. I had no idea into what peril I was sending +him, though I have sometimes wondered if he knew. He took my hand, +kissed it, and beckoning me, we hurried through the silent under City +towards the lift.</p> + +<p>"You go up, Sir Thomas," he said, "and exercise the utmost care. Have +your pistol ready. The mist is as thick as ever, which is in your favor. +You can find your way now to the Palace, I am sure."</p> + +<p>"And you?"</p> + +<p>"I go off here," he said, pointing with his left arm down a long vista +to where, under a square arch, there was nothing to be seen at all but +swaying yellow-white. "One opens the gate in the railing and drops on to +the circular stairs," he said, "which cling to the outside of the +steel-work all the way down like a little train of ivy."</p> + +<p>"<i>Au revoir</i>, be as quick as you can."</p> + +<p>"Good-by," and I jumped into the elevator.</p> + +<p>Some two minutes afterwards, when I was creeping through the wool with +my pistol in my hand, alert for the slightest sound around me, I heard +the sharp crack of a rifle. It came from behind me. There was a +perceptible interval and then another crack, followed, I could have +sworn to it, by a thin wailing cry.</p> + +<p>Then utter silence fell once more upon the white and muffled City.</p> + +<p>As I ran I tried to steel myself, if that were as I suspected, the last +dying cry of Pu-Yi, not to think about it. The immediate moment, the +immediate future, these were everything.</p> + +<p>All the extraordinary precautions had failed. The assassins were here! +In what force? How had they come?—though that was useless to speculate +on. Two things only remained. I must warn Morse if it was not already +too late, must avenge him if it was. I resolutely put aside the thought +of Juanita—of any personal feeling which might mar my judgment and +unstring my nerves at this supreme and dreadful moment.</p> + +<p>I found myself, somehow or other, at the entrance to the tunneled +passage. Save for my own quick breathing there had not been a sound, and +the horrible curtain of the fog was as thick as ever. Should I at once +creep up to the Palace, or should I go back to the villa and find +Rolston? It was a nice question and the decision had to be +instantaneous. I decided that it would give me a tremendous advantage to +have him with me, and besides that, he himself must be warned of the +terror that lurked in the darkness of the cloud.</p> + +<p>I arrived without any mishap, pushed open the door and was crossing the +dark hall when my foot caught in some obstruction and I fell headlong. +There was no time to cry out, had I been startled enough to do so, +before something leapt upon my back with a soft yet heavy thud. A hand +slipped over my mouth and the round barrel of a pistol was pressed into +my neck.</p> + +<p>I lay helpless, thinking that it was all over, when the weight lifted, +the pistol was snatched away and I was hauled to my feet to +discover—Rolston.</p> + +<p>"Not a word," he whispered. "I set a trap in the hall, Sir Thomas. Thank +God you are alive!"</p> + +<p>"Thank God you are too. Bill, they've strangled Mulligan, killed another +Chinese by torture and I am very much afraid have shot Pu-Yi as he was +trying to get down to earth to summon help.</p> + +<p>"Every single member of the staff is down in the Park with orders to +stay there—false orders. The lifts are all put out of action beyond +possibility of being repaired for several hours. That's how things +stand. Now we must get to the Palace as quickly as we possibly can. God +knows what has happened or may be happening there."</p> + +<p>"This way, quick!" he said, when he had listened to me with strained +attention.</p> + +<p>He took my arm, hurried me into the back part of the house, opened a +door with a key and we entered a bedroom which I had not before seen. +The windows were shuttered and curtained but the electric light—which +never failed either my villa or the Palace during the whole of those +terrible hours—made every detail clear. Upon the bed, lying as if +asleep, was Juanita. Leaning over her was a tall, elderly, hard-featured +French woman with a typical Norman face.</p> + +<p>I staggered back into Bill Rolston's arms.</p> + +<p>"Good God!" I cried, and then, "She's not dead, tell me she's not dead!"</p> + +<p>Marie, the French maid, turned.</p> + +<p>"She's perfectly well, M'sieu, only she's had a fainting fit and I've +given her something to keep her quiet."</p> + +<p>She spoke in French.</p> + +<p>"Then how do you come here, what's happened?"</p> + +<p>"At some time in the night, M'sieu, I think it must have been between +two and three, the warning bell, which is always attached to my bed, +began to ring. I knew exactly what to do. It was part of Mr. Morse's +precautions, in which he had drilled us. When that bell rang, at +whatever time of day or night, I was to wake M'selle instantly, dress +her without a second's delay, and bring her out of the Palace by a +secret way.</p> + +<p>"I did so, and arrived in this room, where M'selle fainted. The door was +locked from the outside, and as I have strict orders never to exceed my +instructions by a hair's breadth, I have been waiting.</p> + +<p>"Not very long ago M'sieu here"—she pointed to Rolston—"hearing some +noise, unlocked the door and came in. To him I told what had happened."</p> + +<p>"Thank God," I said aloud, "that she's safe," and in my heart I paid a +tribute to the minutely detailed genius of Gideon Morse, who had at +least foiled the panthers on his track in one, and the greatest +particular.</p> + +<p>"Very well then. Now we must leave you here while we hurry to the Palace +to try and learn what has happened, and do what we can. You will not be +afraid?"</p> + +<p>"No, M'sieu," she replied simply. "There's an angel with us," and she +crossed herself devoutly. "And, moreover," from somewhere about her +waist she withdrew a long, keen knife, "I know what to do with this, +M'sieu, in the last resort."</p> + +<p>I went to the bed, I looked down at Juanita and kissed her gently on the +forehead.</p> + +<p>"Now then, Bill, come along," I said.</p> + +<p>Bill grinned.</p> + +<p>"By the private way," he said, pointing to the French woman, who was +removing a heavy Turkish rug which lay in front of the fireplace. There +was a click, and a portion of the floor fell down, disclosing some +steps, padded with felt.</p> + +<p>"This way, M'sieu," she whispered, "the passage is lit, but here's a +torch if you should need it, and here is the book."</p> + +<p>She handed me a little leather-bound book about the size of a railway +ticket.</p> + +<p>"What's this?"</p> + +<p>"Instructions in English and Chinese in regard to the secret room at the +other end. They are few and simple, but Mr. Morse had them printed so +that there could be no mistake if ever it became necessary to use the +place and its machinery."</p> + +<p>"He thinks of everything," said Bill, as we crept down into a fairly +wide passage, and the trap-door above rose once more into its place.</p> + +<p>The passage was fully a hundred and thirty or forty yards long and +straight as an arrow. As we approached the end, which I saw to be hidden +by a heavy curtain, I thought of the little leather covered book. +Motioning Rolston to stop I opened it and read the English portion. +There were about five or six pages, with one or two simple diagrams, and +I blessed the journalistic training that enabled me to see the purport +of the whole thing in a minute, though I gasped once more at the fertile +ingenuity of Gideon Morse. Gently putting aside the heavy curtain, we +entered a room of some size. The floor was heavily carpeted. Around two +of the walls were couches piled with blankets. Upon shelves above were +piles of stores—I saw boxes of biscuits, tins of condensed milk and +many bottles of wine. The place was quite fourteen feet high and at one +end four posts came down from the ceiling to the floor. They were +grooved and the grooves were lined with steel which was cogged to +receive a toothed wheel. Between the four posts, dropping some two feet +from the ceiling, was what looked like the lower part of a large cistern +or tank. This apparatus extended along the whole far end of the room, +which was not square but square-oblong in shape. Immediately opposite to +where we entered was an arrangement of levers, like the levers in a +railway signal-box, though smaller; above these, sprouting out of the +wall, were half a dozen vulcanite mouthpieces like black trumpets. Above +each one was a little ivory label.</p> + +<p>"What does it all mean?" Bill whispered.</p> + +<p>I held up my hand for silence, looking round the place, referring once +or twice to the little book, and making absolutely sure. As I was doing +so there was a sudden "pop," followed by the unmistakable gurgle of +champagne into a glass.</p> + +<p>It was the most uncanny thing I have ever heard, for it might have +happened at my elbow. Had it not been that a tiny electric signal-bulb +no bigger than a sixpence glowed out over one of the mouthpieces, I +should have been utterly unnerved. This mouthpiece was labeled "Mr. +Morse's study."</p> + +<p>"The dictograph," I whispered to Rolston, and he pressed my arm to show +he understood.</p> + +<p>I think I would have given a thousand pounds myself for some champagne +just then. We stood holding each other, frozen into an ecstasy of +listening. I almost thought that one of Bill's remarkable ears was +elongating itself until it coiled sinuously towards the wall, but this, +no doubt, was illusion.</p> + +<p>There came a voice, an urbane, and cultured voice, well modulated and +serene.</p> + +<p>It was all that, but as I heard it my blood seemed to turn to red +currant jelly and to circulate no more in my veins. If there was ever a +voice which was informed by some unnamable quality which came straight +from the red pit of hell, we heard that voice then. Hearing it, I knew +for the first time the meaning of those words: <i>The worm that dies not +and the fire that is not quenched</i>.</p> + +<p>"Whoever thought, Gideon Morse, that I should be breakfasting with you +to-day! To tell the truth I didn't myself. But as you know, I have +always been a great gambler and now, at the end of all the games of +chance that we have played together, I have turned up the final ace."</p> + +<p>Another voice—Heaven! it was Morse himself who answered. His voice +seemed almost amused. It was like coming out of a pitch dark room into +summer sunlight to hear it after that other.</p> + +<p>"Mark Antony Midwinter, you speak of triumph, but you were never nearer +your ultimate end than you are at this moment"—I could have sworn I +heard his dry chuckle and I moved nearer to the wall.</p> + +<p>"This cold pheasant is quite excellent. What is the use of trying to +bluff me? Your end has come and you know it. It isn't going to be a +pleasant end, I expect you guess that. We have tossed the dice for many +years, you and I. You've won over and over again. I had become an +outcast on the face of the earth, until Fate made me the agent of a +great vengeance."</p> + +<p>This time Morse laughed outright.</p> + +<p>"You offal-eating jackal!" he said. "Finish your stolen meal and get to +work. You, the agent of a great vengeance! when not long ago you slunk +into my London hotel and offered to sell your employers. I understand," +he went on in a curiously impersonal voice, "that you really are +supposed to be descended from a high English family. Even when I had you +tarred and feathered—do you remember that, Antony?—many years ago, I +still believed in your descent, though I own I didn't give it much of a +thought. Tell me, where exactly did the kitchen-maid come in?"</p> + +<p>Following upon Morse's words we heard the sound of footsteps and the +scraping of a chair.</p> + +<p>A new person had come into the room and Midwinter had risen to meet him.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>The reply came in a deep bass voice.</p> + +<p>"Nothing is changed. There was one Chinaman, it must have been the +librarian of whom that guy we put through it, spoke—he came sliding +along and tried to get down by the cat's cradle outside the tower. I was +leaning out of that balcony window above, commanding every approach, and +I got him with my second shot."</p> + +<p>"Did he fall all the way down? That might startle them below."</p> + +<p>"No. He just crumpled up on the stairs, and after looking round, I've +come back here. There's a little wind beginning to get up and I +shouldn't wonder if in an hour or so this mist-blanket is all blown +away."</p> + +<p>"Half an hour is enough for what we have to do, Zorilla. Just go over to +Mr. Morse there and see if his lashings are secure—and then we must +think about getting off ourselves."</p> + +<p>It was as though Bill and I could see exactly what was happening in the +library—the heavy tread, an affirmative grunt, and then the smooth +hellish voice resuming:</p> + +<p>"You know you've got to die, Morse, and die painfully. Nothing can alter +that, but I'll let you off part of your agonies if you tell me at once +where your daughter is. It will only precipitate matters. We can easily +find her as you must know."</p> + +<p>"I don't like talking with you at all. You are both of you doomed beyond +power of redemption. You have overcome some of my precautions, by what +means I cannot tell. You've captured my person. You are about to wreak +your disgusting vengeance on it. For Heaven's sake do so. You know +nothing of this place you are in, or very little. Fools!" The voice rang +out like a trumpet.</p> + +<p>There was a murmured conference, the words of which we could not catch, +then Midwinter said:</p> + +<p>"We'll put you to the test a little, before Zorilla really +begins—operating. Adjoining this apartment I see there is your most +luxurious bathroom—the walls of onyx, the bath of solid silver. Well, +we'll take you and put you in that bath and turn on the water. I'll +stand over you, and with my hands on your shoulders, I'll plunge you an +inch or two beneath the surface, till you are so nearly drowned that you +taste all the bitterness of death. Then we'll have you up again and ask +you a few questions. Perhaps you may have to go back into the bath a +second time before Zorilla gets to the real work."</p> + +<p>No words of mine can describe the malignancy of that voice, no words of +mine can describe the shout of resolute, sardonic laughter which +answered it.</p> + +<p>Bill wanted to shout in answer, but I clapped my hand over his mouth +just in time, and I could almost see the frowning faces of the two +fiends as they advanced upon the bound man.</p> + +<p>... Steps overhead; the little bulb over the mouthpiece labeled "Mr. +Morse's study" goes out, and another lights up over the mouthpiece +labeled "Bathroom." There is a jarring as a tap is turned on and a rush +of water.</p> + +<p>"That'll do, Zorilla. Two feet is quite enough for our purpose"—the +voices are actually in the room now, much louder and clearer than +before.</p> + +<p>"You take the heels—steady, heavo!" and then a splash and a thud. We +heard some one vaulting lightly into the bath.</p> + +<p>"Now, Morse, I hold you up for a minute. I shall press you down under +the water until you are as near dead as a man can be. Have you anything +to say?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Give me one moment."</p> + +<p>"Ten if you like."</p> + +<p>Then there came in a calm, penetrating voice, "Are you there?"</p> + +<p>I reached upward and smote with my clenched fist upon the outside of the +bath. I heard a muttered exclamation, a slight splash, and then Bill +Rolston pulled over a lever, and half the ceiling of our room sank +towards us with a noise like the winding-up of a clock.</p> + +<p>Midwinter was standing in one end of the bath, which hid him almost up +to his waist. His jaw dropped like the jaw of a dead man. Such baffled +hate and infinite malevolence stared out of his eyes that I gave a shout +of relief as Rolston lifted his arm and fired.</p> + +<p>He must have missed the fiend's head by a hair's breadth, no more. Quick +as lightning he fired again, but he was too late. Midwinter bounded out +of the bath like a tennis ball, felled Rolston with a back-arm blow as +he leapt, and fled down the passage.</p> + +<p>The loud thunder of the explosions in that underground place had not +died away before I had lifted Morse from under the water and dragged him +over the side of the bath.</p> + +<p>His face was very pale, but his eyes were open and he could speak.</p> + +<p>Truly the man was marvelous.</p> + +<p>"The other," he whispered, "the brute Zorilla! Juanita!"</p> + +<p>I understood one of the devils, desperate now, was still at large, and +even as I realized it, I saw a ghastly sight.</p> + +<p>There was a noise above. I bent my head backward and looked up through +the aperture in the ceiling.</p> + +<p>A man was crouching over it and I saw his face and neck—a big, +black-bearded face, with eyes like blazing coals, but <i>reversed</i>. His +eyes were where his mouth should have been, his nostrils were like two +pits, and for a forehead there was a grinning mouth full of gleaming +teeth. Any one who, when ill, has seen their nurse or attendant bending +over them from the back of the bed, will realize what I mean, though +they can never understand the horror of that demoniac and inverted mask.</p> + +<p>I was pretty quick on the target, but not quick enough. The thing +whipped away even as I fired, and there was a thunder of feet running.</p> + +<p>I think a sort of madness seized me, at any rate I was never in a +moment's doubt as to what to do. I shoved my pistol in my pocket, leapt +upon the edge of the bath, sprang upwards and caught the floor of the +room above with my hands.</p> + +<p>The rest was easy for any athlete in training. I pulled myself up, lay +panting for a second and then stood upon the tiled floor of the +bathroom.</p> + +<p>The door leading into the library was open. I dashed through to find the +place empty, rushed through the hall and out upon the steps of the main +entrance. And then, joy! A morning wind had begun and instead of a +white, impenetrable wall, a phantom army was retreating and, as if +pursuing those ghost-like sentinels, was the black, running figure of +Zorilla.</p> + +<p>I had a clear glimpse of him as he plunged into the tunnel leading to +Grand Square, and I was after him like a slipped greyhound.</p> + +<p>In Grand Square it was clearing up with a vengeance. There were gleams +of sunlight here and there and the mist had lifted for about twelve feet +above my head.</p> + +<p>I saw him bolt round the central fountain, hidden by an immense bronze +dragon for a moment, and then legging it for all he was worth towards +the way that led to the lifts for the second stage.</p> + +<p>The wood floor had dried with the lifting of the mist and I was doing +seven-foot strides. I was seeing red. There was a terrible cold fury at +the bottom of my heart, but in my mind there was a furious joy. With +every stride I gained on him—this powerful, thick-set, baboon-like man +from the forests of the Amazon.</p> + +<p>I gave a loud, exulting "View-halloo," and the black head turned for an +instant—he lost ten good yards by that. I whooped again. I meant to +kill, to rend him in pieces. And for the first time in my life I +realized the joy of primeval man: the lust of the hunt, red fang, red +claw, to tear, dominate and destroy.</p> + +<p>Oh, it was fine hunting!</p> + +<p>Damn him! He snapped himself into one of the little lifts when I was +within six yards of him. I saw his ugly face sink out of sight behind +the glass panels. I remembered that these small hydraulic lifts worked, +though the big ones below didn't. But I remembered something else ... +there was a stairway.</p> + +<p>I found it by instinct, a great broad stair with tiled walls like the +subway of some railway terminus.</p> + +<p>I didn't bother about the stairs. I leapt down—preserving my balance by +a miracle—six or seven at a time. Pounding out into the great empty +City at the foot, I swirled round and was just in time to see my +gentleman bolt out of his lift like a rabbit from its hole and run to +where I knew was the outside stairway which fell, in its corkscrew path, +barred by many gates, right down to safety and the normal world.</p> + +<p>It was the way by which dear old Pu-Yi had hoped to descend and raise +the alarm. It was the perilous eyrie upon which this same bull-like +assassin had picked him off like a sitting pigeon and boasted of it not +half an hour before.</p> + +<p>As he dodged and ran I fired at him, but never a bullet touched the +brute and I flung the Colt away with an oath.</p> + +<p>"Much better kill him with my own hands," I said in my mind, "much +better tear his head off, break him up—"</p> + +<p>I tell you this as it happened. For the moment I was a wild beast, in +pursuit of another, but still, I think, a super-beast.</p> + +<p>Well, never mind that. I saw him fumbling at a sort of fence, clearly +outlined against an immense space of morning sky, and thundered after +him—thundered, I say, because I was now running along an open steel +grating, which seemed to sway....</p> + +<p>Then I vaulted over where Zorilla had vaulted, and my heart leapt into +my mouth as I fell—fell some eight feet on to a tiny platform, +protected from space by a rail not more than three feet high.</p> + +<p>I reeled, and caught hold of a stanchion and saved myself. Far, far +below, London—London in color was unrolling itself like a map—and +immediately below my feet, already a considerable distance down, was the +slithering black spider that I had sworn to kill.</p> + +<p>I could see him through the grid, and then I flung myself upon the +corkscrew ladder, grasping the rails with my hands until the skin was +burnt from them, disdaining the steps and spinning round and ever +downwards like a great top.</p> + +<p>As I went my head projected at right angles to my body. As I buzzed down +that sickening height I saw that Zorilla had stopped. I knew that he +had come to one of the steel gates, at which he was fumbling uselessly.</p> + +<p>Then, as I came to the last step before the little gate platform I saw +also, under the curve of the stair, a huddled figure, and I knew who +<i>that</i> was, who that had been....</p> + +<p>I threw myself at Zorilla with my knee in the small of his back. +Instantly I caught him round the throat with my fingers just on the big +veins behind the ear which supply the brain with blood, and my fingers +crushed the trachea until the whole supple throat seemed breaking under +the molding of my grip.</p> + +<p>I felt that I had got him. That if I could hold out for a minute he +would be dead, but I hadn't reckoned with the immense muscular force of +the body.</p> + +<p>I clung like the leopard on the buffalo, but he began to sway this way +and that. In front of us was the steel gate and the motionless figure of +Pu-Yi. We were struggling upon the steel grid, not much larger than a +tea table. A slight rail only three feet high defended us from the +void—a little thigh-high rail between us and a drop of near two +thousand feet.</p> + +<p>He lurched to the left, and I swung out into immensity, carried on his +back. I was sure it was the end, that I should be flung off into space, +when with one arm he gripped the gate, braced all his great strength and +slowly dragged us back into equilibrium. It seemed that the whole tower +trembled, vibrated in a horrible, metallic music.</p> + +<p>I pressed down my thumbs, I strained every sinew of my wrist and arm in +the strangle hold, and I felt the life pulsing out of him in steady +throbs. There was nothing else in the world now but myself and him and I +ground my teeth and clutched harder.</p> + +<p>In his death agony he lurched to the other side of our tiny foothold +space. This was where the circular stairway ended. He caught his foot, +so I was told afterwards, in the last stanchion of the stair, fell over +the rail with a low, sobbing groan, and then, weighted by me upon his +shoulders, began to slip, slip, slip, downwards.</p> + +<p>And I with him.</p> + +<p>I had conquered. I don't think that in that moment I had any feeling but +one of wild, fierce joy. He was going, I was going with him, but I never +thought of that, until my right ankle was clutched in a vice-like grip. +I felt the warm, heaving body below me rush away, tearing my grip from +its throat by its own dreadful impetus, and then, as I was snatched back +with a jar of every bone in my body, there was a shrill whistling of air +for a second as Zorilla went headlong to his doom, and I knew nothing +else.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN" id="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN"></a>CHAPTER THIRTEEN</h2> + + +<p>Falling! Falling through deep waters, with a horrible sickening sense of +utter helplessness and desolation; nerves, heart, mind—very being +itself—awaited the crash of extinction. A slight jolt, a roaring of +great waters in the air, and a voice, dim, thin and far away!</p> + +<p>... In some mysterious way, the sense of sight was joined to that of +sound and hearing. I was surrounded by blackness shot with gleams of +baleful fire, shifting and changing until the black grew gray in furious +eddies, the gray changed into the light of day, and a far-off voice +became loud and insistent.</p> + +<p>It was thus that I came to myself after the horror on the edge of the +dizzy void.</p> + +<p>The first thing I saw was the face of Juanita. There were tears in her +eyes and her cheeks were brilliant. Then I heard, and even then with a +start, a voice that I had never thought to hear again—the gentle, +tripping accents of Pu-Yi.</p> + +<p>"He will do now, Señorita. The doctor said that he would awake from his +sleep with very little the matter except the shock—"</p> + +<p>"Juanita!" I cried, and her cool hand came down upon my forehead.</p> + +<p>"You are not to excite yourself, dearest," she said.</p> + +<p>For a moment or two I lay there in a waking swoon of puzzled but entire +bliss. Then I tried to move my position slightly upon the bed, for I was +lying upon a bed in a large and airy room, and groaned aloud. Every +muscle in my body seemed stretched as if upon the rack, and there was a +pain like a red-hot iron in one ankle.</p> + +<p>"It will hurt for a few hours," said Pu-Yi, "but you will shortly be +massaged, Sir Thomas, and then—"</p> + +<p>"You!" I cried, "but you are dead! Zorilla got you on the tower +before—before—"</p> + +<p>My mind leapt up into full activity. I was once more swaying upon the +edge of infinity with my fingers locked in the bull neck of the +assassin, and my voice died away into a whisper of horror.</p> + +<p>"He stunned me, that was all, Sir Thomas. His bullet glanced away from +my head. I came to myself just in time to see you struggling with him +and gripped you just as you were falling off into space. The spirits of +my ancestors were with me."</p> + +<p>"And he—Zorilla?"</p> + +<p>"Will never trouble us more. But you are not well enough yet to talk. +You are in my hands for the present."</p> + +<p>"Do exactly as Pu-Yi says, dear, and remember that all is well."</p> + +<p>"Your father?" I gasped—why hadn't I thought of Morse before?</p> + +<p>"All is well," she repeated in her low, musical voice, and as I lay +back, trembling once more upon the edge of unconsciousness, her face +left the circle of my vision.</p> + +<p>Two deft Chinese <i>masseurs</i> came. I was placed in a hot bath impregnated +with some strong salts. I was kneaded and pummeled until I could hardly +repress cries of pain. I drank a cup of hot soup in which there must +have been some soporific, and sank into a deep, refreshing sleep.</p> + +<p>It had been late afternoon when I first came to myself. When I woke for +the second time, it was night. The room was brilliantly lit. Pu-Yi was +sitting by my bedside, quietly smoking a long, Chinese pipe, and, for my +part, though I was very stiff, I was in full possession of all my +faculties and knew that I had suffered no harm.</p> + +<p>I sat up in bed and held out my hand to the Chinaman.</p> + +<p>"Pu-Yi, I'm all right now. I owe my life to you!" And as I realized my +extraordinary deliverance in the very article of death, a sob burst from +me and I am not ashamed to say that my eyes filled with tears. My hand +is as strong as most men's, but I almost winced at the grip of those +fragile-looking, artistic fingers.</p> + +<p>"You did the same for me, my honorable friend," he said quietly, "and +now—"</p> + +<p>Before I knew what he would be at, he was feeling my pulse and listening +to my heart with his ear against my chest.</p> + +<p>At length he gave a sigh of relief. "We had a doctor to you," he said, +"and he told us that, in his opinion, you would be little the worse. I +am rejoiced that his opinion is confirmed."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am all right now, and ready for anything."</p> + +<p>"You are sure, Sir Thomas? What you have been through may have given you +a shock which—"</p> + +<p>For answer, I held out my hand. It was as firm as a rock and did not +tremble. I heaved myself off the bed, took a cigarette from a box upon a +table, and began to smoke.</p> + +<p>"Now then, Pu-Yi, I am just as I was before. First of all, where am I?"</p> + +<p>"You are in the Palacete," he replied. "You were brought here at once."</p> + +<p>Then I knew that I was in Morse's dwelling house, copied exactly, as I +have said before, from the Palacete Mendoza at Rio.</p> + +<p>"Now tell me exactly what has happened, in as few words as possible."</p> + +<p>"I am only too anxious to do so, Sir Thomas. You were brought back here. +Immediately after, Rolston descended by means of the outside stair and +summoned the staff. They are all here now. The electric cables have been +repaired. Lifts, telephones, electric light, and all the other machinery +is in working order. The body of Zorilla has been brought up to the City +and placed with that of Mulligan and my own servant. This house is +strongly guarded by armed men, and the whole City is patrolled."</p> + +<p>"No one else was hurt?"</p> + +<p>"No one else at all, Sir Thomas."</p> + +<p>His face changed as he said this, and he looked me full in the eyes.</p> + +<p>Then, with a start, I understood. Every detail of the past came back in +a vivid, instantaneous picture. Again I saw the silver bath descending +from the ceiling and heard the loud explosion of Rolston's pistol. And +as that furious noise resounded in my mental ear, once more the +grinning, corpse-pale face of Mark Antony Midwinter passed close to mine +and I felt the very wind of his passage as he rushed by and disappeared +down the long underground corridor leading to the safety-room.</p> + +<p>"Midwinter!" I almost shouted. The face of the Chinaman had gone a dusky +gray—he told me afterwards that mine was white as linen.</p> + +<p>"Vanished," he said—"disappeared utterly. And he is the master-mind! +While Mark Antony Midwinter is alive, Mr. Morse, none of us, will know a +moment of safety or of ease."</p> + +<p>I could not quarrel with that. Zorilla was dead—a great gain—but no +one who had been through what I had and who knew the whole situation as +I knew it, could fail to appreciate the terrible seriousness of this +news. To you who read this record in peace and safety, this may seem a +wild or exaggerated statement, a product of over-strained nerves. But, +believe me, it was not so. I knew too much! The securest fortress in the +whole world had been already stormed. All the precautions that enormous +wealth and some of the subtlest brains alive could take had already +proved useless against the superhuman cunning, energy and ferocity of +this being who seemed, indeed, literally, more fiend than man. No! we +were no cowards, most of us, up there in the City of the Clouds, but we +might well quail still, to know that this fury was unchained. I know +that I sat down suddenly upon the bed with a groan of despair.</p> + +<p>"Gone! Vanished! Surely he must be either in the City or has escaped! If +he is in the City, I admit the danger is imminent. He must be utterly +desperate, and will stick at nothing. If he has managed to get down to +the earth, he is dangerous still, but we have a breathing space. Which +is it?"</p> + +<p>"We do not know, Sir Thomas. There is no trace of him anywhere, so far. +But, as I have said, we have more than a hundred men, armed and +patrolling the City. This house, at any rate, is secure for the moment. +A great search is being organized. The whole area is being mapped out +and it will be searched with such thoroughness before to-morrow's dawn +that a rat could not escape. My own theory is, and Mr. Morse agrees with +me, that Midwinter is still in the City. The most scrupulous inquiries +below seem to prove that he never descended from the tower, and you know +how minute and careful our organization is. And now that you are +yourself again, it is Mr. Morse's wish that we hold a conference and +settle exactly what is to be done. Do you think you are equal to it?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly," I replied, and without another word Pu-Yi led the way out +of the room.</p> + +<p>I found Mr. Morse sitting in his library. He was pale, and seemed much +shaken. There were red rims round the keen, masterful eyes, but his +voice was strong and resolute, and I could see that, whatever his +opinion of his chances, he would fight till the end.</p> + +<p>I need not go into details of the private conversation we had for a +minute or two. His gratitude was pathetic, and I felt more drawn to him +than ever before. When at length Juanita, followed by little Rolston, +entered the room, all trace of his emotion had gone and we settled down +round the table as calm and business-like as a board of directors in a +bank. And yet, you know, no group of people in Europe stood in such +peril as we did then. Behind the long, silken curtains, the shutters +were of bullet-proof steel. The corridor outside, the gardens of the +house, swarmed with men armed to the teeth. It was dark in the sky, but +the City in the Clouds blazed everywhere with an artificial sunlight +from the great electric lamps.</p> + +<p>Two thousand feet up in the air we sat and spoke in quiet voices of the +horror that was past and the horror that threatened us. Far down below, +London was waking up to a night of pleasure. People were dressing for +dinners and the theater, thousands upon thousands of toilers had left +their work and were about to enjoy the hours of rest and recreation. And +not a soul, probably, among all those millions that crawled like ants at +our feet had the least suspicion of what was going on in our high place. +They were accustomed to the great towers now. The sensation of their +building was over and done, there were no more thrills. If they had only +known!</p> + +<p>I was not aware if strata of clouds hid us from the world below, as so +often happened; but if the night were clear I do remember thinking that +any one who cast their eyes up into the sky might well notice an unusual +brilliancy in the pleasure city of the millionaire, that mysterious +theater of the unknown, which dominated the greatest city in the world.</p> + +<p>... "Well, Tom," said Mr. Morse, "Pu-Yi tells me that you are now +acquainted with all the facts. The question we have to decide is, what +are we to do?"</p> + +<p>He turned to Juanita, and nodded. She left the room.</p> + +<p>"The situation, as I understand it," I replied, "is that Midwinter"—I +had a curious reluctance in pronouncing the name aloud—"is either +concealed here in the City or has made his escape. If he is here, we +shall know before to-morrow morning, shall we not?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely. I have spent the last hour in going over the plans of the +City with the chiefs of the staff. We have divided up the two stages +into small sections, and even while I am talking to you the search has +begun. The orders are to shoot at sight, to kill that man with less +compunction than one would kill a mad dog. If he is really here, he +cannot possibly escape."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then," I said, "let us turn our attention to the other +possibility. Assuming that he has got away, I think we may safely say +that the danger is very much lessened."</p> + +<p>"While we remain here in the City—yes," Morse agreed.</p> + +<p>"And you are determined to do that?"</p> + +<p>He took the cigar he had been smoking from his lips, and his hand shook +a little. "Think what you like of me," he said, "but remember that there +is Juanita. I say to you, Kirby, that if I never descend to the world +again alive, I must stay here until Mark Antony Midwinter is dead."</p> + +<p>Well, I had already made up my mind on this point. "I think you are +quite right," I told him. "Still, he will not make a second appearance +in the City. You can treble your precautions. He must be attacked down +in the world."</p> + +<p>Then a thought struck me for the first time. "But how," I said, "did he +and Zorilla ever come here in the first instance? Treachery among the +staff? It is the only explanation."</p> + +<p>Pu-Yi shook his head. "You may put that out of your mind, Sir Thomas," +he said. "That is my department. I know what you cannot know about my +chosen compatriots."</p> + +<p>"But the man isn't a specter! He's a devil incarnate, but there's +nothing supernatural about him."</p> + +<p>Then little Rolston spoke. "I've been down below all day," he said, "and +though I haven't discovered anything of Midwinter, I am certain of how +he and Zorilla got here."</p> + +<p>We all turned to him with startled faces.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember, Sir Thomas," he said, "that, shortly after your +arrival, when you were looking down upon London from one of the +galleries, there was a big fair in Richmond Park?"</p> + +<p>I remembered, and said so.</p> + +<p>"Among the other attractions, there was a captive balloon—"</p> + +<p>Morse brought his hand heavily down upon the table with a loud +exclamation in Spanish.</p> + +<p>"Yes, there was, but—but it was quite half a mile away and never came +up anything like our height here."</p> + +<p>"No," the boy answered, "not at that time. But do you remember how +during the fog last night I told you I had seen something, or thought I +had seen something, like a group of statuary falling before my bedroom +window?"</p> + +<p>Something seemed to snap in my mind. "Good heavens! And I thought it was +merely a trick of the mist! Nothing was discovered?"</p> + +<p>"No, but in view of what happened afterwards, I formed a theory. I put +it to the test this morning. I made a few inquiries as to the +proprietors of the captive balloon and the engine which wound it up and +down by means of a steel cable on a drum. I need not go into details at +the moment, but the whole apparatus did not leave Richmond Park when it +was supposed to do so. The wind was drifting in the right direction, the +balloon could be more or less controlled—certainly as to height. I have +learned that there was a telephone from the car down to the ground. +Desperate men, resolved to stick at nothing, might well have arranged +for the balloon to rise above the City—the cable was quite long enough +for that—and descend upon part of it by means of a parachute, or, if +not that, a hanging rope. More dangerous feats than that have been done +in the air and are upon record. It seems to me there is no doubt +whatever that this is the way the two men broke through all our +precautions."</p> + +<p>There was a long silence when he had spoken. Mendoza Morse leant back in +his chair with the perspiration glittering in little beads upon his +face, but he wore an aspect of relief.</p> + +<p>"You've sure got it, my friend," he said at length, "that was how the +trick was done! It was the one possibility which had never occurred to +me, and hence we were unprovided. Well, that relieves my mind to a +certain extent. We can take it that we are safe in the City, if +Midwinter has escaped. How are we to make an end of him?"</p> + +<p>"The difficulty is," I said, "that we are, so to speak, both literally +and actually above, or outside, the Law. If that were not so, if +ordinary methods could deal with this man, or could have dealt with the +Hermandad in the past, Mr. Morse would never have planned and built the +eighth wonder of the world. No word of what has happened in the last day +or two must get down to the public—isn't that so?"</p> + +<p>Morse nodded. "It goes without saying," he said. "We have our own law in +the City in the Clouds. At the present moment, there are three bodies +awaiting final disposal—and there won't be any inquest on them."</p> + +<p>"That," Rolston broke in, "was something I was waiting to hear. It's +important."</p> + +<p>He stopped, and looked at me with his usual modesty, as if waiting +permission to speak. I smiled at him, and he went on.</p> + +<p>"It is an absolute necessity," he said, "to enter into the psychology of +Midwinter. We may be sure that his purpose is as strong as ever. The +death of Zorilla, and his present failure, will not deter him in the +least, knowing what we know of him?"</p> + +<p>He looked inquiringly at Morse.</p> + +<p>"It won't turn him a hair's breadth," said the millionaire. "If he was +mad with blood-lust and hatred before, he must be ten times worse now."</p> + +<p>"So I thought, sir. He has lost his companion, as desperate and as +cunning as himself, but we can be quite certain that he is not without +resources. I think it safe to assume that he has practically an +unlimited supply of money. He must have other confederates, though +whether they are in his full confidence or not is a debatable question. +That, however, at the moment, is not of great importance. We have him in +London, let us suppose, for it is the safest place in the world for a +man to hide—in London, determined, and hungering for revenge. We have +no idea what his next scheme will be, and in all human probability he +hasn't planned either. He must be considerably shaken. He will know, +now, how tremendously strong our defenses are, and it will not escape a +man of his intelligence that they will now be greatly strengthened. It +will take him some time to gather his wits together and work out another +scheme. The only thing to do, it seems to me, is to force his hand."</p> + +<p>"And how?" Morse and I said, simultaneously.</p> + +<p>"We must trap him—not here at all, but down there, in London"—he made +a little gesture towards the floor with his hand, and as he did so, once +more the strange and eerie remembrance of where we were came over me, +lost for a time in the comfortable seclusion of a room that might have +been in Berkeley Square.</p> + +<p>"Here <i>we</i>, that is the Press, come in," said Rolston, smiling proudly +at me.</p> + +<p>I smiled inwardly at the grandiloquence of the tone, and yet, how true +it was!—this lad who, so short a time ago had got to see me by a trick, +was certainly the most brilliant modern journalist I had ever met. I +made him a little bow, and, delighted beyond measure, he continued.</p> + +<p>"Let it be put about," he said, "with plenty of detail, rumor, +contradiction of the rumor and so on—in fact we will get up a little +stunt about it—that Mr. Mendoza Morse has tired of his whim. For a +time, at any rate, he is going to make his reappearance in the world. If +necessary, announce Miss Juanita's engagement to Sir Thomas. Get all +London interested and excited again."</p> + +<p>Morse nodded, his face wrinkled with thought. "I think I see," he said, +"but go on."</p> + +<p>"When this is done, let us put ourselves in Midwinter's place. I believe +that he will have no suspicion of a trap. He will argue it in this way. +We are too much afraid of him to attack ourselves. Hitherto, all our +measures have been measures of defense and escape. It will hardly occur +to him that we have changed all our tactics. He will think that, with +the failure of his attempt, the bad failure, and the death of +Zorilla—which I have no doubt he will have discovered by now—we +imagine he will abandon all his attempts. He will say to himself that we +now believe ourselves safe and that his power is over, his initiative +broken, that he will never dare to go on with his campaign. Everything +seems in favor of it. I should say that it is a hundred to one that his +line of thought will be precisely as I have said."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, and I think so, too! Good for you, Rolston!" I shouted, seeing +where he was going.</p> + +<p>His boyish face was wreathed in smiles. "Thank you," he said. "Well, we +are to lay a trap, and it is on the details of that trap that everything +depends. I see, by to-day's <i>Times</i>, that Birmingham House in Berkeley +Square, is to let. The Duke is ordered a long cruise in the Pacific. Let +Mr. Morse immediately take the house and issue invitations for a great +ball to celebrate Miss Juanita's engagement. If that house and that ball +are not to Midwinter as a candle is to a moth, then my theory is +useless! Somehow or other he will be there, either before or actually on +the occasion. By some means or other he will get into the house."</p> + +<p>He stopped, and with a little apologetic look took out his cigarette +case and began to smoke. He really was wonderful. This was the lad, +airily ordering one of the richest men in the world to take the Duke of +Birmingham's great mansion, whose capital but a few short weeks ago was +one penny, bronze. I remember how he was forced to confess it to me, +even as I congratulated him.</p> + +<p>We talked on for another half-hour, or rather little Bill Rolston +talked, the rest of us only putting in a word now and then. He seemed to +have mapped out every detail of the new campaign, and we were content to +listen and admire.</p> + +<p>Of course I am not a person without original ideas, or unaccustomed to +organization—my career, such as it is, has proved that. But on that +night, at least, I could initiate nothing, and I was even glad when the +conference came to an end. Morse was much the same—he confessed it to +me as we left the room—and the truth is that we were both feeling the +results of the terrible shocks we had undergone. Rolston was younger and +fresher, and besides his peril had not been as great as mine or the +millionaire's.</p> + +<p>Pu-Yi vanished in his mysterious fashion, and Morse, Rolston and I went +to dinner. There was no question of dressing on such a night as this, +but, if you believe me, the meal was a merry one!</p> + +<p>It was Juanita's whim to have dinner served in a wonderful conservatory +built out on that side of the Palacete which looked upon the gardens +separating it from the eastern villa where Rolston and I were housed. +The place was yet another of the fantastic marvels conjured up by Morse +and his millions. It was an exact reproduction of a similar conservatory +at my host's house in Rio de Janeiro, and had been carried out at a +frightful cost by the greatest landscape gardener and the most +celebrated scenic artist in existence.</p> + +<p>We sat at a little table, surrounded by tall palm trees rising from +thick, tropical undergrowth, a gay striped awning was over our heads, +protecting us from what seemed brilliant sunshine. On every side was the +golden rain of mimosa, masses of deep crimson blossoms, and wax-like +magnolia flowers. From a marble pool of clear water sprang a little +fountain—a laughing rod of diamonds. In the distance, seen over a +marble balustrade, was the deep blue of the tropic sea dominated by the +great sugar-loaf mountain, the Pão de Azucar.</p> + +<p>It was an illusion, of course, but it was perfect. That sea, and the +gleaming mountain, which, from where we sat, seemed so real, was but a +cleverly painted cloth. The warm and scented air came to us through +concealed pipes, and down in the lower portion of the City, patient, +moon-faced Chinamen were at work to produce it. The sunlight, actually +as brilliant as real sunlight, was the result of a costly installation +of those marvelous and newly invented lamps which are used in the great +cinema studios. Only the trees and the flowers were real.</p> + +<p>Outside, it was a keen, cold night. We were perched on the top of gaunt, +steel towers, more than two thousand feet in the air, and yet, I swear +to you, all thought of our surroundings, and even of our peril, was +banished for a brief and laughing hour. Like the tired traveler in some +clearing of those lovely South American forests from which the wealth of +Morse had sprung, we had forgotten the patient jaguar that follows in +the tree-tops for a week of days to strike at last.</p> + +<p>I dwell upon this scene because it was another of those little +interludes, during my life in the City of the Clouds, which stand out in +such brilliant relief from the encircling horrors.</p> + +<p>Juanita was in the highest spirits. I had never seen her more lovely or +more animated. Morse himself, always a trifle grim, unbent to a +sardonic humor. He told us story after story of his early life, with +shrewd flashes of wit and wisdom, revealing the keen and mordaunt +intellect which had made him what he was. A wonderful pink champagne +from Austria, looted from the Imperial cellars during the war, and +priceless even then, poured new life into our veins—it was impossible +to believe in the tragedy of the last few hours, in the shadow of any +tragedy to come.</p> + +<p>We adjourned to the music-room after dinner, an apartment paneled in +cedar-wood and with a wagon roof, and Juanita played and sang to us for +a time. It was just ten o'clock when Rolston looked at his watch and +gave me a significant glance. I rose and said good-night, both Morse and +Juanita announcing their intention of going to bed.</p> + +<p>As we came to the outside door, Bill turned to me.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better go back to our house, Sir Thomas, and sleep? Remember +what you have been through."</p> + +<p>"Sleep? I couldn't sleep if I tried! I feel as fit and well as ever I +did—why?"</p> + +<p>"I've promised to meet Mr. Pu-Yi in the office of the chief of the +staff. Reports will be coming in of the search which has been going on +all the evening. I am anxious to see how far it has got, though of +course if Midwinter had been found, or any trace of him, we should have +been informed at once. And there is something else, also—"</p> + +<p>He stopped, and I made no inquiries. "Well, I'm with you," I said; for I +felt ready for anything that might come, in a state of absolute, +pleasant acquiescence in the present and the future. I hadn't a tremor +of fear or anxiety.</p> + +<p>One of those noiseless, toy, electric automobiles which I had already +seen when Juanita first showed me the City, was waiting. We got in, and +buzzed through the gardens, and down the tunnel which led to Grand +Square. As we went, I saw shadowy figures patrolling everywhere. The +whole place was alive with guards—my girl could sleep well this night!</p> + +<p>As we came out of the tunnel I motioned to Bill to go slowly, and he +pulled the lever, or whatever it was, that controlled the speed. In +almost complete silence we began to circle the huge inclosure, the tires +making no noise whatever upon the floor of wood blocks.</p> + +<p>The air was keen, cold, and wonderfully pure. There was not a cloud in +the heavens, and one looked up at a far-flung vault of black velvet +spangled with gold. Never had I seen the stars so clear and brilliant in +England, for the haze of smoke and the miasma of overbreathed air which +is the natural atmosphere of London lay two thousand feet below. The +Grand Square blazed with light. The buildings, with their spires, domes +and cupolas, stood out with extraordinary clearness against the +circumambient black of space. No outline was soft or blurred, everything +was vividly, fantastically real. A veritable scene from the old Arabian +Nights indeed! And something of the same thought must have come to my +companion, for he looked up and said: "I once saw an extraordinary +illustration by Willy Pogany of one of De Quincey's opium dreams—here +it is, only a thousand times more marvelous!"</p> + +<p>The fountain in the middle of the Square—a long distance away it +seemed as we slowly skirted the buildings—made a ghostly laughter as it +sprang from its dragon-supported basin of bronze. The gilded cupola of +the observatory shone with a wan radiance, higher than all else, and a +black triangle in the gold told me that the patient old Chinese +astronomer surveyed the heavens, lost in a waking dream of the Infinite, +probably loftily unconscious of all that had been going on in the magic +city at his feet. I envied that serene, Oriental philosopher, Juanita's +special friend and pet, who lived up there in his observatory, and, so I +was told, hardly ever descended for any purpose at all. He was as +inviolate a hermit as Saint Anthony. It was especially curious that I +should have cast my glance heavenwards and have thought of that ancient +sage at this moment. You will learn why afterwards.</p> + +<p>We stopped at one of the white kiosks, from the interior of which the +hydraulic lifts went down to the lower part of the City. It was in an +upper story of that that the chief of the staff had his office, and, +mounting a flight of steps, we entered, to find Pu-Yi sitting at a +roll-top desk, scrutinizing a handful of paper reports.</p> + +<p>"It is nearly over, Sir Thomas," he said, rising and placing chairs for +us. "Almost every inch of the City has been searched, and but little +remains to be done. There is not a single trace of the man, Midwinter."</p> + +<p>I own that to hear this was a great relief. We were all of us fired with +Rolston's plan of a trap down below in London. His theory seemed to be +correct. Midwinter had somehow escaped, and we should meet him in due +time—for I had never a doubt of that. Meanwhile, Juanita and her father +were safe.</p> + +<p>"It is only what I expected, though how on earth he managed to get away +remains to be seen!"</p> + +<p>"It will come to light in due course," Pu-Yi replied. "And now, Sir +Thomas, are you prepared to accompany me and Mr. Rolston? There are +certain things to be done, and I shall be glad to have you as a +witness."</p> + +<p>"Anything you like—but what is it?"</p> + +<p>"You must remember that the bodies of three dead men await disposal," he +replied. "What remains of Zorilla—he fell into the lake on the first +stage, though of course he was dead, strangled in mid-air, long before +the impact. Then there is Mulligan, who died in defense of the City; +finally Sen, the boy from my own province in China, of whose terrible +end you are aware."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"We must keep to our policy of secrecy and noninterference by the +outside world. The bodies must be destroyed, and by fire."</p> + +<p>I gave a little inward shudder, but I don't think he noticed it, and in +a minute more we were dropping to the lower City in a rapid lift.</p> + +<p>It was in a furnace-room that provided some of the hot air for the +conservatories on the stage above that I witnessed the ghastly and +unceremonious finish of the mortal parts of the Spaniard and the +Irishman, and it was cruel and sordid to a degree—or so it seemed to +me. The long bundle of sacking which contained that which had housed the +evil soul of Señor Don Zorilla y Toro—I resisted a bland invitation on +the part of a stoker in a blue jumper and a pleased smile to examine the +stiff horror—was slung through an iron door into a white and glowing +core of flame. There was a clang as the long, steel rods of the firemen +pushed it to, and I cannot say that I felt much regret, only a sort of +shuddering sickness and relief that the door was closed so swiftly.</p> + +<p>But it was different in the case of Mulligan. I blamed Morse in my +heart. The man had been strangled when saying his prayers. He was of the +millionaire's own religion, and there should have been a priest to +assist at these fiery obsequies of a faithful servant. I learned +afterwards, I am glad to say, that Morse had not been consulted, and +knew nothing about the actual disposal of the bodies until afterwards. +You see the shock came—Rolston felt it too—from the fact that these +bland and silent Asiatics were utterly without any emotion as they +performed their task. They were heathens, worshiping Heaven knows what +in their tortuous and secret souls. As poor Mulligan—they had put the +body in a coffin and it took eight struggling, sweating Orientals to +hoist and slide it into the furnace—vanished from my eyes, I put my +hands before my face and said such portions of the Protestant burial +service as I remembered, and they were very few.</p> + +<p>"They're nasty beasts, aren't they, Sir Thomas?" Rolston whispered, as +we fled the furnace room. "Soulless, just like machines!"</p> + +<p>We waited for Pu-Yi for a minute or two.</p> + +<p>"I thank you, Sir Thomas, and Mr. Rolston," he said in his calm, silky +voice. "It was as well that you saw the disposal of the dead, though it +is only a remote contingency that there will ever be inquiry. And now, +if you wish, I will send you up again. I, myself, must attend to the +obsequies of my compatriot."</p> + +<p>"Oh," I remarked, and I fear my tone was far from pleasant, "you propose +to be rather more ceremonious in the case of the lad, Sen?"</p> + +<p>For a single moment I saw that calm and gentle face disturbed. Something +looked out of it that was not good to see, but it was gone in a flash. +This was the first and last time that I had a shadow of disagreement +with the man whose life I had saved and who saved mine in return. It was +natural, I think—neither of us was to blame. "East is East and West is +West," and there are some points at least at which they can never meet. +Poor Pu-Yi! He had as fine an intellect as any man I ever met, and was a +great gentleman. I wish I could look upon him once more as I write this, +but, though I didn't know it, the sand in the glass was nearly out and +our hours together dwindling fast.</p> + +<p>We followed him through various twists and turns of the under City, +among the huts and storehouses, thronged with silent people—it was like +moving in the interior of a hive of bees—until, by means of an archway +and a closed door, we emerged in a sort of courtyard surrounded on three +sides by buildings. On the fourth was a rail, breast-high, and above and +around was open night.</p> + +<p>"We can't take his body to China," said our guide. "We must burn it +here, and only the ashes will rest in the village of his ancestors. But +it is well. Such cases are provided for in my religion."</p> + +<p>We then saw that in the center of the yard there was a low funeral pile, +apparently of wood. Two men in long, yellow gowns were pouring some +liquid over it.</p> + +<p>"If you will do me the honor to come this way," said Pu-Yi, and we +entered a long, bare room. In the center of this place there was a large +square box of painted wood, the lid of which was not yet in place. The +body of the dead man was sitting in the box, the hands clasped round the +knees. The nose, ears and mouth were filled with vermilion, which, to +our Western eyes, gave a horrible, grotesque appearance to the brown, +wrinkled mask of the face. Poor Sen's countenance was placid enough, but +it was not like that of even a dead man, a fantastic image, rather.</p> + +<p>A gong beat with a sudden hollow reverberation, and from another door a +file of mourners entered.</p> + +<p>At the far end of the room was a table upon which was a painted tablet. +"It bears," whispered Pu-Yi, "the name under which Sen enters +salvation."</p> + +<p>Two men swinging censers stood by the table, and two others, a little +nearer the corpse, held bronze bowls of water. First Pu-Yi, and then the +other mourners, dipped their hands in the water to purify them, and +then, producing paper packets of incense from their bosoms, they threw a +pinch into the censers with the right hand and bowed low to the table, +retiring backwards. It was all done with the precision of a drill and in +absolute silence, and for my part I found it no less ghastly and unreal +than the brutal scene in the furnace-room below.</p> + +<p>"Come out," I whispered to Rolston, and we reëntered the pure air, +walking to the rail at one side of the square.</p> + +<p>We leant over. Far, far below, so far that it was sensation rather than +vision, was a faint, full glow, the night lights of London, but of the +city itself nothing could be seen whatever. Even the burnished ribbon of +the Thames had disappeared, and no sound rose from the capital of the +world. There was a thin whispering round us as the night breezes blew +through steel stay and cantilever, a faint humming noise like that of +some gigantic Æolian harp. And once, as we bathed ourselves in the cool, +the immensity and the dark, there was a rush of whirring wings, and the +"honk-konk" of the wild duck from the great lake fifteen hundred feet +below, as they passed in wedge-shaped flight on some mysterious night +errand. We leant and gazed, filled with awe and solemnity, until a low, +wailing chant and the thin, piercing notes of single-wire-strung violins +made us turn to see the square box hoisted on the bier, a torch applied, +and a roaring spitting column of yellow flame towering up above the +buildings and throwing a ghastly light on a hundred round, mask-like +faces, indistinguishable one from the other by European eyes.</p> + +<p>As I read now, ten years afterwards, that scene among so many others +comes back to me with extraordinary vividness. And it seems to me as I +live my English life in honor, tranquillity, and happiness, that it was +all a monstrous dream.</p> + +<p>Surely—yes, I think I am safe in saying this—there will never again be +such a place of horror and fantasy as the City in the Clouds.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FOURTEEN"></a>CHAPTER FOURTEEN</h2> + + +<p>I slept that night like a log, untroubled by dreams, and woke late the +next morning. It was then that, as the saying is, I got it in the neck. +"Wow!" I half-shouted, half-groaned, as I turned to meet the Chinese +valet with the morning cup of tea. My whole body seemed one bruise, my +joints turned to pith, and, what was worse than all, my brain—a pretty +active organ, take it all in all—seemed stuffed with wool.</p> + +<p>It was the reaction, only to be expected, as the Richmond doctor said to +me some three hours later. For the next two or three days I was to do +nothing at all, after my "bad fall," which was the way my state had been +explained to him. Whether he believed it or not, I cannot tell. It was +certainly odd that Mr. Mendoza Morse, whom he also attended, should be +in very much the same state of shock and semi-collapse. But he was a +discreet, clean-shaven gentleman, with a comfortable manner, and in the +seventh heaven at being admitted to the mysterious City in the Clouds, +his eyes everywhere as he was being conducted through its wonders to our +bedsides—so Rolston told me afterwards. At any rate, he was right. It +was certainly necessary to go slow for a few days, and fortunately, now +that the search was over and no trace of Midwinter discovered, we felt +we could do this.</p> + +<p>The preliminary arrangements for our final effort were left in Rolston's +hands, who descended with the doctor, and I did not rise till mid-day.</p> + +<p>I met Morse at lunch—<i>piano</i>, and distinctly under the weather from a +physical point of view. We neither of us talked of important matters, +but enjoyed a stroll round the City during a bright afternoon. At +tea-time we met Juanita, and I had a long and happy talk with her. She +knew, of course, that the search had proved satisfactory, and—as we had +all agreed together—I led her to think that all danger was now +practically over. Indeed, as far as Morse and she were concerned, I +believed it myself. I knew that there was yet a grim tussle ahead for +the rest of us, but that was all. I did not see her at dinner, but took +the meal alone in my own house. Rolston was still absent, and as I did +not want to talk to any one, failing Juanita, I was quite happy by +myself.</p> + +<p>About nine o'clock I was rung up on the telephone. Morse spoke. He said +he was now thoroughly rested, and was ready for a chat. If I hadn't seen +the treasures of the library yet, he and Pu-Yi would be pleased to show +them to me. And so, slipping on a coat over my evening clothes, and +taking a light cane in my hand, I started out for Grand Square. It was +again, I may mention here, a fine and calm night.</p> + +<p>My host and the Chinaman were waiting for me in the great, Gothic room, +and we inspected the treasures in some of the glass-fronted shelves. I +was surprised and delighted to find that my future father-in-law had a +real love for, and a considerable knowledge of, books. It was a side of +him I had not seen before. I had not connected him with the arts in any +way, which, when you come to think of it, was rather foolish. Certainly +he had the finest expert advice and help to be found in the whole world +in the building of the City in the Clouds. But I should have remembered +that the initial conception was his own and that many of the details +also came entirely from his brain. Certainly, in his way, Mendoza Morse +was a creative artist.</p> + +<p>My own collection of books at Stax, my place in Hertfordshire, is, of +course, well known, and always mentioned when English libraries are +under discussion. But Morse could boast treasures far beyond me. During +the last year or two I had been so busy in working up the <i>Evening +Special</i> that I had quite neglected to follow the book sales, but I +learned now that some of the rarest treasures obtainable had been +quietly bought up on Morse's behalf. He had all the folios, and most of +the quartos, of Shakespeare, a fine edition of Spenser's "Faërie Queene" +with an inscription to Florio, the great Elizabethan scholar; there was +Boswell's own copy of Johnson's "Lives of the Poets," with a ponderous +Latin inscription in the sturdy old doctor's own hand, and many other +treasures as rare, though not perhaps of such popular and general +interest.</p> + +<p>Pu-Yi made us some marvelous tea in the Chinese fashion, with a sort of +ritual which was impressive as he moved about the table and waved his +long pale hands. It was of a faint, straw color, with neither sugar, +milk, or lemon, and he assured me that it came from the stores of the +Forbidden City in Pekin. Certainly, it was nasty enough for anything, +and I praised it as I had praised Morse's rose-colored champagne the +night before—but with less sincerity.</p> + +<p>I don't know if my friend had a touch of homesickness or not, but he +began to tell us of his home by the waters of the Yang-Tse-Kiang. His +precise and literary English rose and fell in that great room with a +singular charm, and though I don't think Morse listened much, he smoked +a cigar with great good-humor while Pu-Yi expounded his quaint, Eastern +philosophy. We did not refer to the grim scenes of the night before, but +something I said turned the conversation to the funeral customs of +China.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, Sir Thomas," said Pu-Yi, "the death of a man of my nation may +be said to be the most important act of his whole life. For then only +can his personal existence be properly considered to begin."</p> + +<p>This seemed a somewhat startling proposition, and I said so, but he +proceeded to explain. I shall not easily forget his little monologue, +every word of which I remember for a very sad and poignant reason. Well, +he knows all about it now, and I hope he is happy.</p> + +<p>"It is in this way," he said. "By death a man joins the great company of +ancestors who are, to us, people of almost more consequence than living +folk, and of much more individual distinction. It is then at last," he +continued, delicately sipping his tea, "that the individual receives +that recognition which was denied him in the flesh. Our ancestors are +given a dwelling of their own and devotedly reverenced. This, I know, +will seem strange to Western ears, but believe me, honorable sir, the +cult is anything but funereal. For the ancestral tombs are temples and +pleasure pavilions at the same time, consecrated not simply to rites and +ceremonies, but to family gatherings and general jollification."</p> + +<p>This was quite a new view to me, and certainly interesting. I said so, +and Pu-Yi smiled and bowed.</p> + +<p>"And the fortunate defunct," he went on, "if he is still half as +sentient as his dutiful descendants suppose, must feel that his earthly +life, like other approved comedies, has ended well!"</p> + +<p>His voice was sad, but there was a faint, malicious mockery in it also, +and as I looked at him with an answering smile to his own, I wondered +whether that keen and subtle brain really believed in the customs of his +land. That he would be studious and rigid in their outward observance, I +knew.</p> + +<p>I never met, as I have said before, a more courteous gentleman than +Pu-Yi.</p> + +<p>"Ever been in South Germany?" said Morse suddenly—he had evidently been +pursuing a train of his own thought while the Chinaman held forth.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Morse, why?"</p> + +<p>"Then in some of those quaint, old-fashioned towns you have seen the +storks nesting on the roofs of the houses?"</p> + +<p>I remembered that I had.</p> + +<p>"Well, I've got a pair of storks—they arrived this morning from +Germany—duck and drake, or should you say cock and hen?—at any rate, +I've a sort of idea of trying to domesticate them, and to that end have +had a nest constructed on the roof of this building, where they will be +sheltered by the parapet and be high up above the roof of the City. What +do you say to going to have a look at them and see if they're all +right?"</p> + +<p>Extraordinary man! He had always some odd or curious idea in his mind to +improve his artificial fairyland. Nothing loth, we left Pu-Yi and +ascended a winding staircase to the roof of the great building. Save for +the lantern in the center, it was flat and made a not unpleasant +promenade. The storks were at present in a cage, and could only be +distinguished as bundles of dirty feathers in a miscellaneous litter. I +thought my friend's chance of domesticating them was very small, but he +seemed to be immensely interested in the problem.</p> + +<p>When we had talked it over, he gave me a cigar and we began to promenade +the whole length of the roof. As I have said, the night was clear and +calm. Again the great stars globed themselves in heaven with an +incomparable glory unknown and unsuspected by those down below. The +silence was profound, the air like iced wine.</p> + +<p>From where we were, we had a bird's-eye view of the whole City. Grand +Square lay immediately at our feet, brilliantly illuminated as usual. +Not a living soul was to be seen; only the dragon-fountain glittered +with mysterious life. To the right, beyond the encircling buildings of +the Square, stood the Palacete Mendoza surrounded by its gardens, a +square, white, sleeping pile. I sent a mental greeting to Juanita. So +high was the roof on which we stood that only one of the towers or +cupolas rose much above us. It was the dome of the observatory, exactly +opposite on the other side of Grand Square.</p> + +<p>"There is some one who isn't much troubled by sub-lunary affairs," I +said, pointing over the <i>machicolade</i>.</p> + +<p>Morse nodded, and expelled a blue cloud of smoke. "I guess old Chang is +the most contented fellow on earth," he said. "He is Professor, you +know, Professor Chang, and an honorary M.A. of Oxford University. I had +him from the Imperial Chinese Observatory at Pekin, and I am told he is +on the track of a new comet, or something, which is to be called after +me when he has discovered it—thus conferring immortality upon yours +truly!</p> + +<p>"It is an odd temper of mind," he went on more seriously, "that can +spend a whole life in patient seclusion, peering into the unknown, and +what, after all, is the unknowable. Still, he is happy, and that is the +end of human endeavor."</p> + +<p>He sighed, and with renewed interest I stared out at the round dome. The +slit over the telescope was open, which showed that the astronomer was +at work. In the gilded half-circle of the cupola, it was exactly like a +cut in an orange.</p> + +<p>I was about to make a remark, when an extraordinary thing happened.</p> + +<p>Without any hint or warning, there was a loud, roaring sound, like that +of some engine blowing off steam. With a "whoosh," a great column of +fire, like golden rain, rose up out of the dark aperture in the dome, +towering hundreds of feet in the sky, like the veritable comet for which +old Chang was searching, and burst high in the empyrean with a dull +explosion, followed by a swarm of brilliant, blue-white stars.</p> + +<p>Some one inside the observatory had fired a gigantic rocket.</p> + +<p>Morse gave a shout of surprise. He had a fresh cigar in his hand, and, +unknowingly, he dropped it and mechanically bit the end of his thumb +instead.</p> + +<p>"What was that?" I cried, echoing his shout.</p> + +<p>He didn't answer, but grew very white as he stepped up to the parapet, +placed his hand upon the stone, and leant forward.</p> + +<p>I did the same, and for nearly a minute we stared at the white, circular +tower in silence.</p> + +<p>Nothing happened. There was the black slit in the gold, enigmatic and +undisturbed.</p> + +<p>"Some experiment," I stammered at length. "Professor Chang is at work +upon some problem."</p> + +<p>Morse shook his head. "Not he! I'll swear that old Chang would never be +letting off fireworks without consulting or warning Pu-Yi. Kirby, there +is some black business stirring! We must look into this. I don't like it +at all—hark!"</p> + +<p>He suddenly stopped speaking, and put his hand to his ear. His whole +face was strained in an ecstasy of listening, which cut deep gashes into +that stern, gnarled old countenance.</p> + +<p>I listened also, and with dread in my heart. Instinctively and without +any process of reasoning, I knew that in some way or other the horror +was upon us again. My lips went dry and I moistened them with the tip +of my tongue; and, without conscious thought, my hand stole round to my +pistol pocket and touched the cold and roughened stock of an automatic +Webley.</p> + +<p>Then I heard what Morse must have heard at first.</p> + +<p>The air all around us was vibrating, and swiftly the vibration became a +throb, a rhythmic beat, and then a low, menacing roar which grew louder +and louder every second.</p> + +<p>We had turned to each other, understanding at last, and the same word +was upon our lips when the thing came—it happened as rapidly as that.</p> + +<p>Skimming over the top of the distant Palacete like some huge night-hawk, +and with a noise like a machine gun, came a venomous-looking, +fast-flying monoplane. It swept down into Grand Square like a living +thing, just as the noise ceased suddenly and echoed into silence. It +alighted at one end and on the side of the fountain nearest the +observatory, ran over the smooth wood-blocks for a few yards, and +stopped. It was as though the hawk had pounced down upon its prey, and +every detail was distinct and clear in the brilliant light of the lamps +in the Square below.</p> + +<p>Both of us seemed frozen where we stood. I know, for my part, all power +of motion left me. A choking noise came from Morse's throat, and then we +heard a cry and from immediately below us came the figure of Pu-Yi, +hurrying down the library steps and running towards the aeroplane, which +was still a considerable distance from him.</p> + +<p>The next thing happened very quickly. A door at the foot of the +observatory tower opened, and out came what we both thought was the +figure of the astronomer. He was a tall, bent, old man, habitually +clothed in a padded, saffron-colored robe with a hood, something like +that of a monk.</p> + +<p>"Chang!" I said in a hoarse whisper, when Pu-Yi stopped short in his +tracks, lifted his arm, and there was the crack of a pistol.</p> + +<p>The figure beyond, which was hurrying towards the monoplane, swerved +aside. The robe of padded silk fell from it and disclosed a tall man in +dark, European clothes. He dodged and writhed like an eel as Pu-Yi +emptied his automatic at him, apparently without the least result. Then +I saw that he was at the side of the aeroplane, scrambling up into the +fuselage assisted by the pilot in leather hood and goggles.</p> + +<p>He was up the side of the boat-like structure in a second, and then, +with one leg thrown over the car he turned and took deliberate aim at +Pu-Yi. There was one crack, he waited for an instant to be sure, and saw +that it was enough. Then there was a chunk of machinery, two or three +loud explosions, a roar, and the wings of the venomous night-hawk moved +rapidly over the parquet, chased by a black shadow. It gathered speed, +lifted, tilted upwards, and, clearing the buildings at the far end of +the Square, hummed away into the night.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It was thus that Mark Antony Midwinter escaped from the City in the +Clouds. He had been there all the time. He had murdered poor old Chang +many hours before, and impersonated him with complete success. The food +of the recluse was brought to him by servants and placed in an outer +room so that he should never be disturbed during his calculations. He +had received it with his usual muttered acknowledgments through a little +<i>guichet</i> in the wooden partition which separated the anteroom from the +telescope chamber itself. No one had ever thought of doubting that the +astronomer himself was there as usual. The whole thing was most +carefully planned beforehand with diabolic ingenuity and resource.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN" id="CHAPTER_FIFTEEN"></a>CHAPTER FIFTEEN</h2> + + +<p>It was just three weeks after the murder of Pu-Yi, and once more I sat +in my chambers in Piccadilly. The day had been cloudy, and now, late in +the afternoon, a heavy fog had descended upon the town through which +fell a cold and intermittent rain.</p> + +<p>Up there, in the City in the Clouds, perhaps the sun was pouring down +upon its spires and cupolas, but London, Piccadilly, was lowering and +sad.</p> + +<p>Lord Arthur Winstanley and Captain Pat Moore had just left me, both of +them glum and silent. It went to my heart not to take them into my full +confidence, but to do so was impossible. I had told them much of the +recent events in the City—I could not tell them everything, for they +would not have understood. Certainly I could have relied upon their +absolute discretion, but, in view of what was going to happen that very +night, I was compelled to keep my own counsel. They had not lived +through what I had recently. Their minds were not tuned, as mine was, to +the sublime disregard and aloofness from English law which obtained in +Morse's gigantic refuge. Certainly neither of them would have agreed to +what I proposed to do that night.</p> + +<p>Preston came quietly into the library. He pulled the curtains and made +up the fire. The face of Preston was grim and disapproving. He looked +much as he looked when—what ages ago it seemed!—I departed his +comfortable care to become the landlord of the "Golden Swan."</p> + +<p>"I'm not at home to any one, Preston," I said, "except to Mr. Sliddim, +who ought to be here in a few minutes. Of course, that doesn't apply to +Mr. Rolston."</p> + +<p>"Very good, Sir Thomas, thank you, Sir Thomas," said Preston, scowling +at the mention of the name. Poor fellow, he didn't in the least +understand why I should be receiving the furtive and melancholy Sliddim +so often, and should sit with him in conference for long hours! +Afterwards, when it was all over, I interrogated my faithful servant, +and the state of his mind during that period proved to have been +startling.</p> + +<p>This seems the place in which to explain exactly what had happened up to +date.</p> + +<p>When Midwinter had escaped, we found the corpse of poor old Professor +Chang, and the whole plan was revealed to us. Pu-Yi had been shot +through the heart. His death must have been instantaneous. For several +days Morse was in a terrible state of depression and remorse. He said +that there was a curse upon him, and it was with the greatest difficulty +that Rolston and I could bring him into a more reasonable frame of mind. +The long strain had worn down even that iron resolution, but, for +Juanita's sake, I knew that I must stand by him to the end.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, there was nothing else for it, Rolston and I took entire +charge of everything. I had never felt inclined to go back from the +very beginning. Now my resolution was firm to see it through to the end.</p> + +<p>Rolston pursued his own plans, and London very shortly knew that Gideon +Mendoza Morse and his lovely daughter were about to reappear in the +world. It gave my little, red-haired friend intense pleasure to organize +this mild press campaign from the office of the <i>Evening Special</i>. I +placed him in complete control, to the intense joy of Miss Dewsbury and +the disgust of the older members of the staff. Be that as it may, the +thing was done, and every one knew that Birmingham House had been taken +by the millionaire.</p> + +<p>It was then, having organized things as perfectly as I could at the +City, placing Kwang-Su, the gigantic gate-keeper of the ground +inclosure, in charge of the staff, that I myself descended into the +world as unobtrusively as possible. For a day or two I remained in +seclusion at the "Golden Swan," and during those two days saw no one but +the Honest Fool, Mrs. Abbs, my housekeeper, and—Sliddim, the private +inquiry agent.</p> + +<p>Personally, while I quite appreciated the fellow's skill in his own +dirty work, and while indeed I owed him a considerable debt in the +matter of Bill Rolston's first disappearance, I disliked him too much +ever to have thought of him as a help in the very serious affair on +which I was engaged. It was Rolston, as usual, who changed my mind. He +saw farther than I did. He realized the essential secrecy and fidelity +of the odd creature whom chance had unearthed from among the creeping +things of London, and in the end he became an integral part of the +plot.</p> + +<p>He was told, of course, no more than was necessary. He was not by any +means in our full confidence. But he was given a part to play, and +promised a reward, if he played it well, that would make him independent +for life. Let me say at once that he fulfilled his duty with admirable +skill, and, when he received his check from Mr. Morse, vanished forever +from our ken. I have no doubt that he is spying somewhere or other on +the globe at this moment, but I have no ambition to meet him again.</p> + +<p>Mr. Sliddim, considerably furbished up in personal appearance, was made +caretaker at Birmingham House in Berkeley Square. He had not been in +that responsible position for more than ten days when our fish began to +nibble at the bait.</p> + +<p>In a certain little public house by some mews at the back of Berkeley +Square, a little public house which Mr. Sliddim was instructed—and +needed no encouragement—to frequent, he was one day accosted by a tall, +middle-aged man with a full, handsome face and a head of curling, gray +hair. This man was dressed in a seedy, shabby-genteel style, and soon +became intimate with our lure.</p> + +<p>Certainly, to give him his due, Sliddim must have been a supreme actor +in his way. He did the honest, but intensely stupid caretaker to the +life. Mark Antony Midwinter was completely taken in and pumped our human +conduit for all he was worth, until he was put in possession of an +entirely fictitious set of circumstances, arranged with the greatest +care to suit my plans.</p> + +<p>I shall not easily forget the evening when Sliddim slunk into my +dining-room and described the scene which told us we had made absolutely +no mistake and that our fish was definitely hooked. It seems that the +good Sliddim had gradually succumbed to the repeated proffer of strong +waters on the part of "Mr. Smith," his new friend. He had bragged of his +position, only lamenting that some days hence it was to come to an end, +when, in the evening, Mr. Mendoza Morse, his daughter, and a staff of +servants were to enter the house simultaneously. Sliddim, the most +consistent whisky-nipper I have ever seen—and I had some curious +side-lights on that question when I was landlord of the "Golden +Swan"—was physically almost incapable of drunkenness, but he simulated +it so well in the little pub at the back of the Square that Mark Antony +Midwinter made no ado about taking the latchkey of Birmingham House area +door from his pocket and making a waxen impression of it.</p> + +<p>Rolston and I knew that we were "getting very hot," as the children say +when they are playing Hunt-the-Slipper, and another visit from Sliddim +confirmed it. The plan of our enemy was perfectly clear to our minds. He +would enter the house by means of the key an hour or two before Morse +and the servants were due, conceal himself within it, and do what he had +to do in the silent hours of the night.</p> + +<p>It was quite certain that he believed Morse now felt himself secure, and +no doubt Midwinter had arranged a plan for his escape from Berkeley +Square, when his vengeance was complete, as ingenious and thoroughgoing +as that prepared for his literal flight from the City in the Clouds.</p> + +<p>And now, on this very evening, I was to throw the dice in a desperate +game with this human tiger.</p> + +<p>"It is for to-night certain, sir," said Sliddim when he arrived. "I've +let him know that I am leaving the house for a couple of hours this +evening, between eight and ten, to see my old mother in Camden Town. At +eleven he supposes that the servants are arriving, and at midnight Mr. +and Miss Morse. A professional friend of mine is watching our gent very +carefully. He is at present staying at a small private hotel in Soho, +and I should think you had better come to the house about seven, on +foot, and directly you ring I'll let you in. I've promised to meet our +friend at the little public house in the mews at eight, for just one +drink—he wants to be certain that I am really out of the way—and I +should say that he would be inside Birmingham House within a quarter of +an hour afterwards."</p> + +<p>Rolston came in before the fellow went, and a few more details were +discussed, which brought the time up to about six o'clock.</p> + +<p>And then I had a most unpleasant and difficult few minutes. My faithful +little lieutenant defied me for the first time since I had known him.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell what time I shall be back," I said, "but I shall want you +to be at the end of the telephone wire—there are plenty of telephones +in Birmingham House."</p> + +<p>"But I am going too, Sir Thomas," he said quickly.</p> + +<p>I shook my head. "No," I said, "I must go through this alone."</p> + +<p>"But it's impossible! You must have some one to help you, Sir Thomas! It +is madness to meet that devil alone in an empty house. It's absolutely +unnecessary, too. I <i>must</i> go with you. I owe him one for the blow he +gave me when he escaped from the Safety-room at the City, and, +besides—"</p> + +<p>"Bill Rolston," I said, "the essence of fidelity is to obey orders. I +owe more to you than I can possibly say! Without you, I dread to think +what might have happened to Miss Morse and her father. But on this +occasion I am adamant. You will be far more use to me waiting here, +ready to carry out any instructions that may come over the wire."</p> + +<p>"Please, Sir Thomas, if I ever <i>have</i> done anything, as you say, let me +come with you to-night."</p> + +<p>His voice broke in a sob of entreaty, but I steeled myself and refused +him.</p> + +<p>I must say he took it very well when he saw that there was no further +chance of moving me.</p> + +<p>"Very well then, Sir Thomas," he said, "if it must be so, it must be. I +will be back here at seven, and wait all night if necessary."</p> + +<p>With that, his face clouded with gloom, he went away and I was left +alone.</p> + +<p>Doubtless you will have gathered my motive? It would have been criminal +to let Rolston, or any one else, have a share in this last adventure. To +put it in plain English, I determined, at whatever risk to myself, to +kill Mark Antony Midwinter.</p> + +<p>There was nothing else for it. The law could not be invoked. While he +lived, my girl's life would be in terrible danger. The man had to be +destroyed, as one would destroy a mad dog, and it was my duty, and mine +alone, to destroy him. If I came off worst in the encounter, well, Morse +still had skilled defenders. The risk, I knew, was considerable, but it +seemed that I held the winning cards, for within two hours Midwinter +would step into a trap.</p> + +<p>When I had killed him I had my own plans as to the disposal of the body. +It was arranged that a considerable number of Chinese servants from the +City should arrive at eleven. If I knew those bland, yellow ruffians, it +would not be a difficult thing to dispose of Midwinter's remains, either +on the spot or by conveyal to Richmond. Another alternative was that I +should shoot him in self-defense, as an ordinary burglar. Certainly the +law would come in here, but it would be justifiable homicide and be +merely a three days' sensation. I had to catch my hare first—the method +of cooking it could be left till afterwards.</p> + +<p>In a drawer in my writing-table were letters to various people, +including my solicitor and my two friends, Pat Moore and Arthur +Winstanley. There was a long one, also, to Juanita. Everything was +arranged and in order. I am not aware that I felt any fear or any +particular emotion, save one of deep, abiding purpose. Nothing would now +have turned me from what I proposed to do. I had spent long thought over +it and I was perfectly convinced that it was an act of justice, +irregular, dangerous to myself, but morally defendable by every canon of +equity and right. The man was a murderer over and over again. To-night +he would receive the honor of a private execution. That was all.</p> + +<p>When I left my chambers, with an automatic pistol, a case of sandwiches, +and a flask of whisky-and-water, the rain was descending in a torrent. +The street was empty and dismal, and Berkeley Square itself a desert. I +don't think I saw a single person, except one police-constable in +oilskins sheltering under an archway, till I arrived at Birmingham +House. The well-known façade of the mansion was blank and cheerless. All +the blinds were down; there was not a sign of occupation. I rang, the +door opened immediately, and I slipped in.</p> + +<p>"I must be off, Sir Thomas," said Sliddim. "If you go through the door +on the far side of the inner hall beyond the grand staircase, you will +find yourself in a short passage with a baize door at the farther end. +Push this open, and you will be in a small lobby. The door immediately +to your left is that of the butler's pantry. It commands the service +stairs and lift to the kitchen and servants' rooms. Standing in the +doorway you will see the head of any one coming up the stairs, and—" he +gave a sickly grin and something approaching a reptilian wink. Sliddim +was an unpleasant person, and I never liked him less than at that +moment.</p> + +<p>With another whisper he opened the door a few inches and writhed out.</p> + +<p>I was left alone in Birmingham House.</p> + +<p>It was the queerest possible sensation, and as I crossed the great inner +hall, with its tapestries and gleaming statuary, lit now by two single +electric bulbs, I don't deny that my heart was beating a good deal +faster than was pleasant. There is always something ghostly about an +empty house, more especially when it is fully furnished and ready for +occupation. The absence of all life is uncanny, and one seems to feel +that it is hidden, not absent, and that at any moment a door may open +and some enigmatic stranger be standing there with an unpleasant welcome +in his eyes.</p> + +<p>Well, I slunk through all the glories of the grand hall, passed down the +passage, and came out into the servants' quarters. The little lobby, the +floor of which was covered with cork matting, was well lit, and so were +the stairs. I peered over the rail, but could not see to the bottom; +but, standing in the door of the room called the butler's pantry, I saw +that I could put a bullet through the head of any one appearing, before +he could have the slightest inkling of my presence, before he could slew +round, even, to face me.</p> + +<p>The butler's pantry itself was a fair-sized, comfortable room, with a +carpet on the floor and a couple of worn, padded armchairs by the +fireplace. The walls were hung with photographs; on one side was a +business-like roll-top desk, and in a corner a large safe which +obviously contained the plate in daily use in the great household. I +knew that the bulk of the valuables were stored in a strong room in +Chancery Lane.</p> + +<p>Upon the table Mr. Sliddim had thoughtfully placed a heavy cut-glass +decanter half full of whisky, a siphon, and—<i>glasses</i>! The whisky was +all right, but did he expect me to hobnob with Antony Midwinter, to +speed the parting guest, as it were, with a stirrup-cup? It was +difficult to suspect him of such grim humor.</p> + +<p>I looked at my watch. There was still a good half-hour before Midwinter +and Sliddim were due to meet in the little public house behind the +Square. I saw that my pistol was handy, and sat down in one of the +armchairs by the fireside. A pipe of the incomparable "John Cotton" +would not be amiss, I thought, wondering if I should ever taste its +fragrance again, and for some minutes I sat and smoked, placidly enough. +Then, I suppose a quarter of an hour or so must have elapsed, I began to +fidget in my chair.</p> + +<p>The house was so terribly still! Still, but not quite silent! Time, that +was ticking away so rapidly, had a score of small voices. There was the +faint noise of taxicabs out in the Square, the drip of the rain, an +occasional stealthy creak from the furniture, the scurry of a mouse in +the wainscot; the more remote chambers of my brain began to fill with +riot, and once my nerves jerked like a hooked fish.</p> + +<p>And even now I do not think it was fear. Terror, perhaps—there is a +subtle distinction—but not craven fear. I think, perhaps, it was more +the sense of something coldly evil that might even now be approaching +through the fog and rain, a lost soul inspired with cunning, hatred, and +ferocity, whom I must meet in deadly contact within a short, but +unknown, space of time....</p> + +<p>"This won't do at all!" I thought, and then my eye fell on Mr. Sliddim's +hospitable preparations. I got up, went round to the other side of the +table, put my pistol down upon it, and mixed a stiff peg.</p> + +<p>My back was now to the open door, and I was just lifting the glass to my +lips, eagerly enough, I am afraid, when, very softly, something +descended upon each of my shoulders.</p> + +<p>I had not heard a sound of any sort, save the gurgle of the aerated +water in the glass, but now a shriek like that of a frightened woman +rang out into the room, and it came from me.</p> + +<p>I was gripped horribly by the back of the throat, whirled round with +incredible speed and force, and flung heavily against the opposite wall, +falling sideways into an armchair, gasping for breath and my eyes +staring out of my head.</p> + +<p>Then I saw him. Mark Antony Midwinter was standing on the other side of +the table, smiling at me. He wore a fashionable morning coat and a silk +hat. Under his left arm was a gold-headed walking-cane, and he carried +his gloves in his left hand. In the right was the gleaming blue-black of +an automatic pistol, pointed at my heart.</p> + +<p>At that, I pulled myself together. In an instant I knew that I had +failed. The brute must already have been in the house when Sliddim +admitted me—he had outwitted all of us!</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he said, "Sir Thomas Kirby! You have crossed my path very many +times of late, Sir Thomas, and I have long wished to make your +acquaintance."</p> + +<p>His voice was suave and cultured. The rather full, clean-shaved face had +elements of fineness—many women would have called him a handsome man. +But in his dull and opaque eyes there was such a glare of cold +malignity, such unutterable cruelty and hate, that the whole room grew +like an ice-house in a moment; for it is not often that any man sees a +veritable fiend of hell looking out of the eyes of another.</p> + +<p>"You have come a little earlier than I expected," I managed to say, but +my voice rang cracked and thin.</p> + +<p>"It is a precaution that I frequently take, Sir Thomas, and one very +much justified in the present instance. To tell the truth, I had little +or no suspicion that I was walking into a trap—that much to you! But a +life of shocks"—here he laughed pleasantly, but the little steel disk +pointed at my heart never wavered a hair's breadth—"has taught me +always to have something in reserve. I see that I shall not have the +pleasure of settling accounts with Mr. Gideon Morse and his daughter +to-night. Well, that can wait. Meanwhile, I propose within a few seconds +to remove another obstacle from my path—do you think the mandarin, +Pu-Yi, will be waiting for you at the golden gates, Sir Thomas Kirby?"</p> + +<p>So this was the end! I braced myself to meet it.</p> + +<p>"How long?" I said.</p> + +<p>"I will count a hundred slowly," he answered.</p> + +<p>He began, and I stared dumbly at the pistol. I could not think—I could +not commend my soul to my Maker even. The function of thought was +entirely arrested.</p> + +<p>"Thirty ... thirty-one ... thirty-two!"</p> + +<p>And then I suddenly burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>My laughter, I know, was perfectly natural, full of genuine merriment. +Something had happened which seemed to me irresistibly comic. He stopped +and stared at me, his face changing ever so little.</p> + +<p>"May I ask," he said, "what tickled your sense of humor?"</p> + +<p>What had tickled my sense of humor was this. Stealing round from behind +him, right under his very nose, so to speak, but quite unseen, was an +arm which with infinite care and slowness was removing the heavy +cut-glass decanter from the table. It vanished. It reappeared in the air +behind him in a flashing diamond and amber circle.</p> + +<p>"Have some whisky, Mr. Midwinter," I said, as it descended with a crash +upon the side of his head.</p> + +<p>Without a sound he sank into a huddled heap out of my sight, hidden by +the table.</p> + +<p>"You little devil!" I said, staggering to my feet, for Bill Rolston +stood there, white-faced and grinning. "I had to come, Sir Thomas," he +said, "it wasn't any use."</p> + +<p>"Have you killed him, Bill?"</p> + +<p>We bent down and made an examination. Midwinter's face was dark and +suffused with blood, but his pulses were all right.</p> + +<p>"What a pity!" said Rolston. "Help me to get him on to that chair, Sir +Thomas, and we'll tie him up. If I had killed him, it would have been so +much simpler!"</p> + +<p>We dragged the unconscious man to the very armchair where I had sat +under the menace of his pistol, and, tearing the tablecloth into strips, +tied him securely.</p> + +<p>"Fortunately," said Bill, "I didn't break the decanter. The stopper +didn't even come out! You look pretty sick, Sir Thomas"—and indeed a +horrible feeling of nausea had come over me, and my hands were +shaking—"let's each have a drink and then I'll tell you what I think."</p> + +<p>We sat down on each side of the table, and I listened to him as if the +whole thing were some curious dream. For the second time I had been +snatched from the very brink of death, and though I suppose I ought to +have been getting used to it my only sensation was one of limpness and +collapse.</p> + +<p>"Can you do it?" my little friend said, pointing to the pistol between +us.</p> + +<p>I took it up, weighed it in my hand, half-pointed it at the stiff, +red-faced figure in the chair, and laid it down again.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm damned if I can!" I answered. And then—I must have been more +than half-dazed—I actually said: "You have a go, Bill."</p> + +<p>He looked at me in horror.</p> + +<p>"Murder him in cold blood! I should never know a moment's peace, Sir +Thomas!"</p> + +<p>"Well, you nearly did it in hot, and you've just been tempting me—"</p> + +<p>"Let us bring him to, if we can," he said, tactfully changing the +conversation and advancing upon our friend with the siphon of +soda-water.</p> + +<p>There was a grotesque horror about the whole of our adventure that +night. I laughed weakly as the soda hissed and the stream of aerated +water splashed over Midwinter's face.</p> + +<p>Before the final gurgle he awoke. His eyes opened without speculation. +Then his jaw dropped. For a moment his face was as vacant as a doll's, +and then it flared up into a snarl of realization and hatred, only, in +another instant, to settle down into a dead calm.</p> + +<p>"My turn now," I said.</p> + +<p>He knew the game was up. I will do him the justice to say he did not +flinch.</p> + +<p>"Very well, count a hundred," was his answer, and his eye fell to the +two pistols on the table—his own and mine.</p> + +<p>I shook my head. "I can't do it—I wish I could!"</p> + +<p>"You'll find it quite easy—I speak from experience," he replied, with a +desperate, evil grin.</p> + +<p>"No. I have talked the situation over with my friend. You are going to +die, that is very certain, but not by my hand now, and not, Mr. +Midwinter, by the hand of the English law."</p> + +<p>He was very quick. Even then he had an inkling of my meaning, for a +perceptible shadow fell over his face and his eyes narrowed to slits.</p> + +<p>"You mean?"</p> + +<p>"We are going to telephone to the City in the Clouds. People will come +from there and take you away—that will be easily managed. You will have +some form of trial, and then—execution."</p> + +<p>I never saw a change from red to white so sudden. That big face suddenly +became a hideous, sickly white, toneless and opaque like the belly of a +sole.</p> + +<p>"You won't deliver me to the Chinese?" he gasped. "You can't know them +as I do. They'd take a week killing me! They have horrible secrets—"</p> + +<p>His voice died away in a whimper, and if ever I saw a man in deadly +terror, it was that man then.</p> + +<p>But I hardened my heart. I remembered how Morse and Juanita had suffered +for two years at this man's hands. I remembered four murders, to my own +knowledge, and I shrugged my shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I can't help that. You have made your bed, and you must lie upon it."</p> + +<p>"But such a bed!" he murmured, and his head fell forward on his chest.</p> + +<p>His arms were bound at the elbow, but he could move the lower portion, +and he now brought his right hand to his face.</p> + +<p>"I'll telephone," said Bill, and went to the wall by the door where hung +the instrument.</p> + +<p>I sat gloomily watching the man in the chair.</p> + +<p>What was he doing? His jaw was moving up and down. He seemed biting at +his wrist.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a slight, tearing, ripping noise, followed by a jerk +backwards of his head and a deep intake of the breath.</p> + +<p>"What is he doing?" Rolston said, turning round with the receiver of the +telephone at his ear.</p> + +<p>Midwinter held out his arm. I saw that the braid round the cuff of his +morning coat was hanging in a little strip.</p> + +<p>"I told you I always had something in reserve," he said, showing all his +teeth as he grinned at me. "Always something up my sleeve—literally, in +this case. I have just swallowed a little capsule of prussic acid +which—"</p> + +<p>If you want to learn of how a man dies who has swallowed hydrocyanic +acid—the correct term, I believe—consult a medical dictionary. It is +not a pleasant thing to see in actual operation, but, thank heavens, it +is speedy!</p> + +<p>The sweat was pouring down my face when it was over, but Bill Rolston +had not turned a hair.</p> + +<p>"Put something over his face, Sir Thomas," he said, "and I'll get +through to Mr. Morse."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ENVOI" id="ENVOI"></a>ENVOI</h2> + + +<p>I take up my pen this evening, exactly ten years after I wrote the last +paragraph of the above narrative, to read of James Antony Midwinter, +dead like a poisoned rat in his chair, with a sort of amazement in my +mind.</p> + +<p>The whole story has been locked in a safe for ten long years, and that +blessed and happy time has made the wild adventures, the terrible +moments in the City in the Clouds, indeed seem things far off and long +ago.</p> + +<p>This afternoon I paid what will probably be my last visit to the strange +kingdom up there.</p> + +<p>I stood with my little son, Viscount Kirby, and my small daughter, Lady +Juanita, and my wife, the Countess of Stax, at a very solemn ceremony.</p> + +<p>In the presence of a Government official, a representative of His +Majesty—Colonel Patrick Moore, of the Irish Guards, A.D.C.—the +Cardinal Archbishop, and a few private friends, I watched the elmwood +shell, containing Gideon Mendoza Morse, placed in its marble tomb.</p> + +<p>It was his wish, to be buried there in his fantastic City, and no one +said him nay. Well, the body lies in its place, two hundred weeping +Chinamen are returning to the Flowery Land, wealthy beyond their utmost +hopes, and in a few months the City in the Clouds will dissolve and +disappear.</p> + +<p>The rich treasures are coming to Stax, my castle in Norfolk—such as +are not bequeathed, by Morse's munificence, to the museums of England +and the galleries at Brazil.</p> + +<p>Soon the immense plateau will be England's aerial terminus for the mail +ships from all parts of the world.</p> + +<p>While Gideon Morse lived it was impossible to publish the truth. It is +to appear now, at last, and I simply want to tie a few loose ends, and +to bring down the curtain, leaving nothing unexplained.</p> + +<p>First of all let me say that the general public knew nothing at all of +the horrors in which I was so intimately concerned.</p> + +<p>Juanita and I were married very quietly in Westminster Cathedral soon +after Midwinter went to his account. The enormous fortune that she +brought me, supplementing my own very considerable means, operated in +the natural way. Other journals were added to the <i>Evening Special</i>, and +we started a great campaign for the sweetening of ordinary life, and not +unsuccessfully, as every one knows.</p> + +<p>They made me a baron, and four years afterwards, Earl of Stax. As for my +father-in-law, he refused to budge from the City in the Clouds.</p> + +<p>I don't mean that he didn't make appearances in society, but he loved to +get back to his fantastic haven, from whence, like a magician, he +showered benefits upon London.</p> + +<p>Arthur Winstanley, as everybody knows, is Under-Secretary for India and +the most rising politician of our day.</p> + +<p>It is said that William Rolston, editor of the <i>Evening Special</i>, is +our most brilliant journalist, though the older school condemn him for +an excess of imagination. I saw the other day, in the old-fashioned +<i>Thunderer</i>, a slashing attack upon a series of articles which had +recently appeared upon China, and which the critic of the <i>Thunderer</i> +conclusively proved to be written from an abysmal depth of ignorance.</p> + +<p>I don't often go to the office now, though I am still proprietor of the +paper, but when I do, and sit in the editorial room, I miss Julia +Dewsbury, best of all private secretaries since the beginning of the +world.</p> + +<p>Bill, however, assures me that she is all right, entirely taken up with +the children, and not in the least inclined to bully him in spite of her +eight years advantage in age.</p> + +<p>"To that woman," says Bill reverentially, "I owe everything."</p> + +<p>Let me wind up properly.</p> + +<p>Crouching behind a high wall on Richmond Hill is a modest hostelry still +known as the "Golden Swan." It is still my property, and pays me a +satisfactory dividend. It is run by a co-partnership, which I should say +is unique.</p> + +<p>The Honest Fool and my ex-valet, Mr. Preston, perform this feat +together, but, now that Morse is dead and the Chinese have all departed, +I fear they will lose a good deal of custom. This I gathered from Mr. +Mogridge, that pillar of the saloon bar, who happened to meet me by +chance in Fleet Street not long ago.</p> + +<p>"'Allo! Why, it's Mr. Thomas, late landlord of the 'Golden Swan'!" said +Mr. Mogridge. "'Aven't seen you for years. What are you doing now?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm doing very well, thank you, Mr. Mogridge. And how is the old +'Swan'?"</p> + +<p>"Same as ever and no dropping off in the quality of the drinks. Still, I +fear it's going down. I'm afraid it will never be quite the same as it +was in the days of Ting-A-ling-A-ling," and here Mr. Mogridge placed his +hands upon his hips and roared with laughter at that ancient joke.</p> + + +<h4>THE END</h4> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The City in the Clouds, by C. Ranger Gull + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS *** + +***** This file should be named 37270-h.htm or 37270-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/2/7/37270/ + +Produced by Mark C. 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Ranger Gull + +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 City in the Clouds + +Author: C. Ranger Gull + +Release Date: August 30, 2011 [EBook #37270] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + + + THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS + + BY C. RANGER GULL + + Author of "The Air Pirate" + + + + NEW YORK + HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY + + COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY + HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. + + PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY + THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY + RAHWAY. N. J. + + + + +TO + +SIR GRIFFITH BOYNTON, Bt. + + +MY DEAR BOYNTON, + +We have had some strange adventures together, though not as strange and +exciting as the ones treated of in this story. At any rate, accept it as +a souvenir of those gay days before the War, which now seem an age away. +Recall a Christmas dinner in the Villa Sanglier by the Belgian Sea, a +certain moonlit midnight in the Grand' Place of an ancient, famous city, +and above all, the stir and ardors of the Masked Ball at Vieux +Bruges.--Haec olim meminisse juvabit! + + YOURS, + C. R. G. + + + + +NOTE + +BY SIR THOMAS KIRBY, BT. + + +The details of this prologue to the astounding occurrences which it is +my privilege to chronicle, were supplied to me when my work was just +completed. + +It forms the starting point of the story, which travels straight +onwards. + + + + +THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +Under a gay awning of red and white which covered a portion of the +famous roof-garden of the Palacete Mendoza at Rio, reclined Gideon +Mendoza Morse, the richest man in Brazil, and--it was said--the third +richest man in the world. + +He lay in a silken hammock, smoking those little Brazilian cigarettes +which are made of fragrant black tobacco and wrapped in maize leaf. + +It was afternoon, the hour of the siesta. From where he lay the +millionaire could look down upon his marvelous gardens, which surrounded +the white palace he had built for himself, peerless in the whole of +South America. + +The trunks of great trees were draped with lianas bearing +brilliantly-colored flowers of every hue. There were lawns edged with +myrtle, mimosa, covered with the golden rain of their blossoms, immense +palms, lazily waving their fans in the breeze of the afternoon, and set +in the lawns were marble pools of clear water from the center of which +fountains sprang. There was a continual murmur of insects and flashes +of rainbow-colored light as the tiny, brilliant humming birds whirred +among the flowers. Great butterflies of blue, silver, and vermilion, +butterflies as large as bats, flapped languidly over the ivory ferns, +and the air was spicy and scented with vanilla. + +Beyond the gardens was the Bay of Rio de Janeiro, the most beautiful bay +in all the world, dominated by the great sugar-loaf mountain, the Pao de +Azucar, and studded with green islands. + +Gideon Morse took a pair of high-powered field-glasses from a table by +his side and focused them upon the harbor. + +A large white yacht, lying off Governador, swam into the circle, a +five-thousand-ton boat driven by turbines and oil fuel, the fastest and +largest private yacht in existence. + +Gideon Morse gave a little quiet, patient sigh, as if of relief. + +He was a man of sixty odd, with a thick thatch of white hair which came +down upon his wrinkled forehead in a peak. His face was tanned to the +color of an old saddle, his nose beaked like a hawk, and his mouth was a +mere lipless cut which might have been made by a knife. A strong jaw +completed an impression of abnormal quiet, and long enduring strength. +Indeed the whole face was a mask of immobility. Beneath heavy black +brows were eyes as dark as night, clear, but without expression. No one +looking at them could ever tell what were the thoughts behind. For the +rest, he was a man of medium height, thick-set, wiry, and agile. + +A brief sketch of Gideon Mendoza Morse's career must be given here. His +mother was a Spanish lady of good family, resident in Brazil; his father +an American gentleman of Old Virginia, who had settled there after the +war between North and South. Morse was born a native of Brazil. His +parents left him a moderate fortune which he proceeded to expand with +extraordinary rapidity and success. When the last Emperor, Dom Pedro +II., was deposed in 1889, Gideon Mendoza Morse was indeed a rich man, +and a prominent politician. + +He took a great part in establishing the Republic, though in his earlier +years he had leaned towards the Monarchy, and he shared in the immense +prosperity which followed the change. + +His was not a paper fortune. The fluctuations of stocks and shares could +hardly influence it. He owned immense coffee plantations in Para, and +was practically the monopolist of the sugar regions of Maranhao, but his +greatest revenues came from his immense holdings in gold, manganese, and +diamond mines. He had married a Spanish lady early in his career and was +now a widower with one daughter. + +She came up upon the roof-garden now, a tall slip of a girl with an +immense quantity of lustrous, dead-black hair, and a voice as clear as +an evening bell. + +"Father," she said in English--she had been at school at Eastbourne, and +had no trace of Spanish accent--"what is the exact hour that we sail?" + +Morse slipped out of the hammock and took her arm in his. + +"At ten to-night, Juanita," he replied, patting her hand. "Are you glad, +then?" + +"Glad! I cannot tell you how much." + +"To leave all this"--he waved his hand at what was probably the most +perfect prospect earth has to offer--"to leave all this for the fogs and +gloom of London?" + +"I don't mind the fogs, which, by the way, are tremendously exaggerated. +Of course I love Rio, father, but I long to be in London, the heart of +the world, where all the nicest people are and where a girl has freedom +such as she never has here." + +"Freedom!" he said. "Ah!"--and was about to continue when a native +Indian servant in a uniform of white linen with gold shoulder knots, +advanced towards them with a salver upon which were two calling cards. + +Morse took the cards. A slight gleam came into his eyes and passed, +leaving his face as impassive as before. + +"You must run away, darling," he said to Juanita. "I have to see some +gentlemen. Are all your preparations made?" + +"Everything. All the luggage has gone down to the harbor except just a +couple of hand-bags which my maid has." + +"Very well then, we will have an early meal and leave at dusk." + +The girl flitted away. Morse gave some directions to the servant, and, +shortly after, the rattle of a lift was heard from a little cupola in +one corner of the roof. + +Two men stepped out and came among the palms and flowers to the +millionaire. + +One was a thin, dried-up, elderly man with a white mustache--the Marquis +da Silva; his companion, powerful, black-bearded and yellow-faced, +obviously with a touch of the half-caste in him--Don Zorilla y Toro. + +"Pray be seated," said Morse, with a low bow, though he did not offer to +shake hands with either of them. "May I ask to what I owe the pleasure +of this visit?" + +"It is very simple, senor," said the marquis, "and you must have +expected a visit sooner or later." + +The old man, speaking in the pure Spanish of Castille, trembled a little +as he sat at a round table of red lima-wood encrusted with +mother-of-pearl. + +"We are, in short," said the burly Zorilla, "ambassadors." + +They were now all seated round the table, under the shade of a palm +whose great fans clicked against each other in the evening breeze which +began to blow from the cool heights of the sugar-loaf mountain. The face +of Gideon Morse was inscrutable as ever. It might have been a mask of +leather; but the old Spanish nobleman was obviously ill at ease, and the +bulging eyes of the well-dressed half-caste, with his diamond cuff links +and ring, spoke of suppressed and furious passion. + +In a moment tragedy had come into this paradise. + +"Yes, we are ambassadors," echoed the marquis with a certain eagerness. + +"A grand and full-sounding word," said Gideon Morse. "I may be permitted +to ask--from whom?" + +Quick as lightning Don Zorilla held out his hand over the table, opened +it, and closed it again. There was a little glint of light from his palm +as he did so. + +Morse leant back in his chair and smiled. Then he lit one of his pungent +cigarettes. + +"So! Are you playing with those toys still, gentlemen?" + +The marquis flushed. "Mendoza," he said, "this is idle trifling. You +must know very well--" + +"I know nothing, I want to know nothing." + +The marquis said two words in a low voice, and then the heads of the +three men drew very close together. For two or three minutes there was a +whispering like the rustle of the dry grasses of the Brazilian campos, +and then Morse drew back his chair with a harsh noise. + +"Enough!" he said. "You are madmen, dreamers! You come to me after all +these years, to ask me to be a party in destroying the peace and +prosperity our great country enjoys and has enjoyed for more than thirty +years. You ask me, twice President of the Republic which I helped to +make--" + +Zorilla lifted his hand and the great Brazilian diamonds in his rings +shot out baleful fires. + +"Enough, senor," he said in a thick voice. "That is your unalterable +decision?" + +Morse laughed contemptuously. "While Azucar stands," he said, "I stand +where I am, and nothing will change me." + +"You stand where you are, Mendoza," said the marquis with a new gravity +and dignity in his voice, "but I assure you it will not be for long. You +have two years to run, that's true. But at the end of them be sure, oh, +be very sure, that the end will come, and swiftly." + +Morse rose. + +"I will endeavor to put the remaining two years to good use," he said, +with grim and almost contemptuous mockery. + +"Do so, senor," said Zorilla, "but remember that in our forests the +traveler may press onward for days and weeks, and all the time in the +tree-tops, the silent jaguar is following, following, waiting--" + +"I have traveled a good deal in our forests in my youth, Don Zorilla. I +have even slain many jaguars." + +The three men looked at each other steadily and long, then the two +visitors bowed and turned to go. But, just as they were moving off +towards the lift dome, Zorilla turned back and held out a card to Don +Mendoza. It was an ordinary visiting card with a name engraved upon it. + +Morse took it, looked at the name, and then stood still and frozen in +his tracks. + +He did not move until the whirr of the bell and the clang of the gate +told him the roof-garden was his own again. + +Then he staggered to the table like a drunken man, sank into a chair and +bowed his head upon the gleaming pearl and crimson. + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +When my father died and left me his large fortune I also inherited that +very successful London newspaper, the _Evening Special_. I decided to +edit it myself. + +To be six-and-twenty, to live at high pressure, to go everywhere, see +everything, know everybody, and above all to have Power, this is success +in life. I would not have changed my position in London for the +Premiership. + +On the evening of Lady Brentford's dance, I dined alone in my Piccadilly +flat. There was nothing much doing in the way of politics and I had been +playing golf at Sandown the whole of the day. I hadn't seen the paper +until now, when Preston brought it in--the last edition--and I opened it +over my coffee. + +There were, and are, few things that I love better than the _Evening +Special_. I claim for it that it is the most up-to-date evening +newspaper in England, bright and readable from the word "go," and +singularly accurate in all its information. + +There was a long time yet before I need dress, and I sat by the balcony, +with the mellow noises of Piccadilly on an early summer's evening +pouring into the room, and read the rag through. + +On one of the last pages, where the society gossip and women's chat +appear, I saw something that interested me. Old Miss Easey, who writes +the society news, was one of my most valued contributors. With her +hooked nose, her beady black eyes and marvelous coffee-colored wig, she +went everywhere by right of birth, for she was connected with half the +peerage. Her news was accurate and real. She faked nothing, because she +got all her stuff from the inside, and this was known all over London. +She was well worth the thousand a year I paid her, and the daily column +signed "Vera" was an accepted fact in the life of London society. + +To-day the old girl had let herself go. It seemed--of course there had +been paragraphs in the papers for some days--that the great Brazilian +millionaire, Gideon Mendoza Morse, had exploded in society like a bomb. +He had taken a whole floor of the Ritz Hotel, and it was rumored that he +was going to buy an empty palace in Park Lane and astonish town. Every +one was saying that he had wealth beyond the dreams of avarice--which +is, of course, awful rot when you come to think of it, because there are +no bounds whatever to avarice. + +"Vera" was not expatiating upon the Brazil Nut's wealth, but upon his +only daughter. It was put in a veiled way, and that with well-bred +reticence for which we paid Miss Easey a thousand a year--no cheap gush, +thank you, in the _Evening Special_--that Miss Morse was a young girl of +such superlative loveliness that there was not a debutante to come +within a mile of her. I gathered, also, that the young lady's first very +public appearance was to be made to-night at the house of the +Marchioness of Brentford in Belgrave Square. + +The news certainly gave an additional interest to the prospect of the +evening, and I wondered what the girl was really like. + +I had motored up from Sandown and sat down to dinner as I was. Perhaps I +was rather tired, but as I sat by the window and dusk came over the +Green Park while all the lights of Piccadilly were lit, I sank into a +sort of doze, assisted by the deep, organ-like hum of the everlasting +traffic. + +Yes, I must really have fallen asleep, for I was certainly in the middle +of some wild and alluring adventure, when I woke with a start to find +all the lights in my dining-room turned on, Preston standing by the +door, and Pat Moore shaking me violently by the shoulder. + +"Confound you, don't do that!" I shouted, jumping up--Pat Moore was six +feet two in height, and the heaviest man in the Irish Guards. "Hallo, +what are you doing here?" + +"It's myself that has looked in for a drink," he said. "I thought we'd +go to the ball together." + +I was a little more awake by this time and saw that Pat was in full +evening kit, and very grand he looked. He was supposed to be the +handsomest man in London, on the large swaggering side, and certainly, +whether in uniform or mufti, he was a very splendid figure. +Nevertheless, he had no more idea of side than a spaniel dog, and he was +just about as kind and faithful as the sportsman's friend. He possessed +a certain downright honesty and common sense that endeared him to every +one, though his own mother would hardly have called him clever. At an +earlier period of our lives he had caned me a good deal at Eton, and it +was difficult to get out of his dear, stupid old head that he had not +some vague rights over me in that direction still. + +"Now, Tom," he said, pouring himself out a mighty drink--for his head +was cast-steel, "you go and make yourself look pretty and then come back +here, 'cos I have something to tell you." + +I went obediently away, bathed, shaved, was assisted by Preston into +evening clothes and returned to the dining-room about a quarter to ten. + +"What have you got to tell me, Pat?" + +He thought for a moment. I believe that he always had to summon his +words out of some cupboard in his brain--"Tom, I've seen the most +beautiful girl in the world." + +"Then leg it, Pat, hare away from temptation, or she'll have you!"--Pat +had ten thousand a year and had been a dead mark for all sorts of +schemes for the last two years. + +"Don't be a silly ass, Tom, you don't know what you're talking about. +This is serious." + +"I don't know who _you're_ talking about." + +He was heaving himself out of his chair to explain, when the door opened +and Preston announced "Lord Arthur Winstanley." + +"Hallo, what brings you here?" I said. + +"Thought I'd come in for a drink. Saw you were going to mother's +to-night, Tom, thought we might as well be going together. Hallo, Pat. +You coming along too?" + +"Thought of doin' so," said Captain Moore. + +Arthur threw himself into a chair--slim, clean shaved, with curly black +hair and dark blue eyes, his clean-cut, clever face alive with youth and +vitality. + +"Tom," he said to me, "to-night you are going to see the most beautiful +girl in the world." + +"Hallo!" Pat shouted, "you've seen her too?" + +"Seen her? Of course I have. Mother's giving the dance for her +to-night." + +Then I understood. + +"Oh, Miss Morse?" I said. + +"Jooaneeta!" said Pat in his rich, Irish voice. + +"Generally pronounced 'Whanita' soft--like tropic moonlight, my old +geranium," said Arthur. + +"Sure, your pronunciation won't do at all, at all." + +Pat twirled the end of his huge mustache, then he heaved a cushion. "You +and your talk!" he said. + +"Well, I've not seen her," I remarked, "but I'm quite willing to take +the word of two experts. Isn't it about time we went?" + +Winstanley produced a platinum watch no thicker than a half-crown from +the pocket of his white waistcoat. + +"Well, perhaps it might be," he said. "We can take up strategic +positions, and get there before the crush. Although I don't live at +home, I've got a snug little couple of rooms they keep for me, and +mother will see that--" + +He smiled to himself. + +"Now look here," I said, "fair does! You are already half-way up the +course with the fair Brazilian, but do let your pals have a chance. I +suppose all the world will be round her, but do see that Pat and I have +a small look in." + +"Of course I will. We've done too much hunting together, we three. I +tell you, Tom, you will be bowled clean over at the very sight of her. +There never was such a girl since Cleopatra was a flapper. Now, send old +Preston for a taxi and we'll get to cover side." + +It was about half-past ten as we entered the hospitable portals of +Brentford House in Belgrave Square. There was a tremendous crush; I +never remember seeing so many people at Lady Brentford's, for, though +everybody went to her parties, they were never overcrowded, owing to the +immense size of the famous old London House. + +Pat Moore and I kept close to Arthur, who, as a son of the house, knew +his way a great deal better than we did, and we soon found ourselves at +the top of the staircase and close to the alcove where Lady Brentford +and her daughter, Lady Joan Winstanley, were standing, while I saw the +bald head of the marquis, who was as innocent of hair as a new laid egg, +shining in the background. + +Dear Lady Brentford greeted Pat--who had formed a sort of battering-ram +for us on the staircase--with marked kindness. It was thought that she +saw in him a prospective husband for Arthur's sister. After greeting his +mother and asking a question, Arthur went off at once and my turn came. + +"My dear Sir Thomas, I am so glad to see you. Are you like all the other +young men in London to-night?" + +"I sincerely hope not," I told her, though I knew very well what she +meant. + +We were old friends, and she was not deceived for a moment. "I +understand you perfectly, you wicked boy." + +"Well then, Lady Brentford"--I lowered my voice--"has she come?" + +Her eyes gleamed. + +"Not yet, but I am expecting her every moment. Now, I am going to be +kind to you. You wait here, just a little behind me, and I'll introduce +you at once." + +I hope I looked as grateful as I felt, for I confess my curiosity was +greatly aroused, and besides it would be such a score over Pat and +Arthur. There's something in power after all! Had I been merely Tom +Kirby whose father had received a baronetcy for, say, soap, Lady +Brentford would not have been nearly as nice, even though Arthur and I +had been bosom friends at Oxford. But you see I was the _Evening +Special_ and that meant much, especially in a political house like this. + +I waited, and talked a little with Lord Brentford, that sterling, +old-fashioned member of more Cabinets than one would care to count. He +said "hum," and then "ha," and then "hum" again, which was the extent of +his conversation on every occasion except that of a specially good +dinner, when he added "ho." + +And then, I suppose it was about eleven o'clock, there was a stir and a +movement all down the grand staircase. Except that the band in the +ballroom did not burst into the strains of the National Anthem, it was +exactly like the arrival of royalty. Coming up the staircase was a +thick-set man of medium height with white hair, a brown face, and good +features, but of such immobility that they might have been carved in +sandstone. By his side, very simply dressed, and wearing no ornament but +one rope of great pearls, came Juanita Morse. + +If I live for a thousand years I shall never forget that first vision of +her. I have seen all the beauties of London, Paris and Rome, danced with +many of them, spoken at least to the majority, but never before or since +have I seen such luminous and compelling loveliness. It is almost +impossible for me to describe her, a presumption indeed, when so many +abler pens than mine have hymned her praises. The poets of two +Continents have lain their garlands of song at her little feet. She has +been the theme of innumerable articles in the Press, the heroine of a +dozen novels. And yet I must give some impression of her, I suppose. She +was slender and tall, though not too tall. Her hair, which must have +fallen to her feet and enveloped her like a cloud of night, was dead +black. But it was not the coarse, lifeless black of so many women of the +Latin race. It was as fine as spun silk, gleaming, vital and full of +electricity--a live thing of itself, so it seemed to me. Her father's +eyes were unpolished jet, but hers were of a deep blue-black, large, +lustrous, and of unfathomable depth. They were never the same for two +moments together and the light within them was forever new. But what's +the good of a catalogue--after all, it expresses very little. There was +not a feature of her face, not a line of her form that was not perfect, +and her smile was the last real enchantment left in the modern world.... + +In two minutes, I, I--Tom Kirby, was walking towards the ballroom with +her hand upon my arm. How all the women stared, nodded and whispered! +how all the men hated me! I caught sight of Pat and Arthur, and, lo! +their faces were as those who lie in wait, who grin like dogs and run +about the city--as I told them some hours afterwards. + +Thank heavens that all the vulgar modern dances were not only perishing +of their own inanity at that time, but had never been allowed in +Brentford House. The best band in town had begun a delightful waltz, and +we slipped into it together as if passing through curtains into +dreamland. + +I don't remember that we said very much to each other--certainly I was +not going to ask her how she liked London and so forth. She did not seem +the sort of girl to appreciate the farthing change of talk. + +But, somehow or other, we conversed with our eyes. I was as certain of +this as of the fact that I was dancing with her, and, long after, in a +situation and moment of the most deadly peril, she confessed it to me. + +Towards the end of the dance, when the flutes and violins glided into +the last movement, I said this--"Miss Morse, I know that I am doing the +most dreadful thing. All London wants to dance with you to-night, and I +have had the great privilege of being the very first. But could you, do +you think you possibly could, give me just one more dance later on in +the evening?" + +"Of course I will, Sir Thomas," she said, and her voice was as clear as +an evening bell. "I think you dance beautifully." + +We circled round the room for the last time and then I resigned her to +Lady Brentford, who was looking after the girl, with an eloquent look of +thanks. Immediately she became swallowed up by a regiment of black +coats, and I saw her no more for a time. + +I am extremely fond of dancing, but I sought out no other damsel now, +but went to a buffet and drank a long glass of iced hock-cup--as if that +was going to quench the fever within! Then I found my way to a lonely +spot in one of the conservatories and sat thinking hard. I will say +nothing as to the nature of my reverie--it may very easily be guessed. +But from time to time I concentrated all my powers in living over again +the divine moments of that dance. I was finally, irrevocably, +passionately in love. It seems the maddest thing to say for a +hard-headed, level-minded man of the world such as I was. I suppose I +had known her for just about quarter of an hour, and yet I knew that +there would never be any other woman for me and that when my days were +at an end her name would be the only one upon my lips. + +A little later on in the evening, before my second and final dance with +his daughter, I had the opportunity of a talk with Mr. Morse himself. I +say at once, and I am not letting myself be colored by what happened +afterwards and the intimate relations into which I was thrown with him, +I say at once that I found him charming. There was an immense force and +power about him, but this was not obtruded upon one, as I have known it +to be in the case of other extremely wealthy and successful men, both +English and American. This super-millionaire had all the graces of +speech and courtesy of manner of the Spanish great gentleman. And +curiously enough, he took to me. I was quite certain of that. Whether he +wanted to use me in any way--and nine-tenths of the people I met +generally did--I could not have said. At any rate I determined that if +he did I was very much at his disposal. + +We watched Miss Morse dancing with old Pat, who, for all his sixteen +stone, was as light as a cat on his feet. + +"Do you know who that is dancing with Juanita?" Morse asked simply. + +"Oh, yes. Captain Moore, Patrick Moore, of the Irish Guards. He is one +of my most intimate friends and one of the best fellows in the world." + +Then Morse said a curious thing, which I could not fathom just then. He +said it half to me and half to himself in a curiously, thoughtful way. + +"--A fine fellow to have with one in an emergency." + +Well, of course, I didn't like to tell him that dear old Pat, while he +had common sense enough to come indoors while it rained, had no mind--in +the real sense of that word--whatever. It did not occur to me for a +moment that Gideon Morse might have been speaking simply of Pat's +_physical_ qualities. + +Pat's face was marvelous to look upon. It was one great, glowing mass of +happiness. He did not take the least trouble to disguise his ecstasy, +and if ever a man showed he was in paradise, Pat Moore did then. It was +different when Juanita danced with Arthur. His handsome, clever face was +not in repose for a moment. It was sharpened by eagerness, and he talked +incessantly, provoking answering smiles and flashes from the girl's +wonderful eyes. My heart sank. I knew how Arthur Winstanley could talk +when he chose--as all England was to learn two or three years later when +he entered the House of Commons. + +"And that man?"--the low, resonant voice of Mr. Morse was again in my +ears, for I had been neglecting my duties to all the girls I knew, most +dreadfully, and remained with him for the space of three dances. + +"Oh, that's another friend of mine, Lord Arthur Winstanley. He is a son +of the house, the second son. Charles, the heir, is with his regiment in +India." + +Mr. Morse thanked me and soon afterwards two very great people indeed +came up, and I melted away. I went to my seat in the conservatory again. +I did not care how rude it was, how I was betraying Lady Brentford's +hospitality--being known as a dancing man and expected to dance--but I +was determined not to touch any other girl that night until Juanita +Morse and I had danced again together. + +It came and passed. Afterwards I slipped downstairs, got my hat and +overcoat and left the house, without, I think, being observed by any +one. + +The night air was fresh and sweet and I determined to walk before I +reached home, for my mind was in a whirl of sensation. I turned into the +great, dark canyon of Victoria Street, which was almost empty, and heard +my footsteps echoing up the cliff-like sides of the houses. I caught a +glimpse of the moon silvering the Campanile of Westminster Cathedral, +and when I reached the Abbey, it and the Houses of Parliament were +washed in soft and brilliant light. And yet, somehow, I could not think. +I could not survey, with my usual cool detachment, the situation which +had suddenly risen in my life. I remember that the predominant feeling +was a wish that I had never gone to Lady Brentford's, that I had never +seen or spoken to Juanita Morse. What was the use after all? She was as +much above my hopes as a Princess of the Royal House, and yet I knew +that without her I should never be really happy again. + +It was in a sort of desperation that I hurried up Parliament Street and +through Trafalgar Square, feeling that I was a fool and mad, wanting to +hide my shame in my own quiet rooms, where at any rate I should be +alone. + +I opened the door with my Yale key and ran lightly up the stairs to the +flat on the first floor which I occupied. As I went into the lounge hall +and took off my overcoat, Preston, whom I had not told to wait up for +me, came from the passage leading to the servants' quarters carrying a +tray. + +"I shan't want any supper, thank you, Preston," I said in surprise. + +"Thank you, sir, very good sir," he replied, "but his lordship and +Captain Moore are here and have just asked for something." + +My first emotion was one of unutterable surprise, and then I scowled and +felt inclined to swear. What on earth were those two doing here at this +time of night, just when I would have given almost anything to be left +alone? + +I hesitated for a moment and then walked into the smoking-room. + +Pat was seated in a lounge chair smoking a cigar. Arthur was pacing up +and down the carpet. Neither of them appeared to have been talking, and, +as I came in, they looked at me curiously, and I saw that their faces in +some subtle way were changed. + +They were my best friends, for years we had been accustomed to treat +each other's quarters and possessions as if they were our own, and yet +now I felt as if they were intruding strangers, though I tried hard to +be genial. + +"Hallo," I said in a voice that cracked upon the word, "didn't expect to +see you again. Anything special?" + +Preston was putting his tray of sandwiches and deviled biscuits on the +table, so we could not say much, but directly he had left the room old +Pat got up from his chair. He held out his hand, pointing at me with a +trembling finger. His face was purple. + +"You, you danced twice with her," he said. + +So that was it! I grew ice-cold in a moment. + +"I won't pretend to misunderstand to what you refer," I said, "but what +the devil is that to you?" + +"Pat, don't be a fool!" Arthur whipped out, though the look he gave me, +which he tried to disguise, was not a friendly one. + +"Fool is hardly the word," I said. "Kindly explain yourself, Moore, and +forget that you are my guest if you like--I don't mind." + +The huge man trembled. Then he turned away with a sort of snarl, +snatched his handkerchief from his cuff and mopped his face. + +I sat down and lit a cigarette. + +"Can you explain this, Arthur?" I asked. + +He sat down too, and began to tap with his shoe upon the carpet. + +"Oh, I don't know," he said sullenly. "You were the only man in the +room, Kirby, to whom she gave more than one dance." + +"That's as may be. I suppose you don't propose to expostulate with the +lady herself? And, by the way, I always thought that it wasn't exactly +form to discuss these things in the way you appear to have been doing." + +That got Arthur on the mark. His face grew very white and he sat +perfectly still. + +Then Pat heaved himself round. + +"She's not for you, at any rate," he said. "They will marry her to a +duke or one of the Princes." + +Suddenly the humor of all this struck me forcibly and I lay back in my +chair and burst into a peal of laughter. + +"That's quite likely," I said, "though I don't think, what I have seen +of Mr. Morse, that he is likely to have ambitions that way, and I am +quite certain that Miss Morse will marry the man she wants to marry and +no one else, whether he is a thoroughbred or hairy at the heels. I think +all this talk on your part--remember you began it, Pat--is perfectly +disgraceful, to say nothing of its utter childishness. As for your +saying that a young lady whom I have met for the first time to-night and +danced with twice, is not for me, it's a damnable piece of impertinence +that you should dare to insinuate that I look upon her in the way you +suggest." + +I jumped up from my seat and knew that I was dominating them all right. + +"Supposing what you say is true, I admit that my chance isn't worth two +penn'orth o' cold gin, though it's every bit as good, and probably +better, than yours, all things considered. You are certainly a fine +figure of a man." + +I was furious, mad, keen to provoke him to an outburst. The calculated +insult was patent enough. + +I thought he was about to go for me, and I stood ready, when "What about +me?" came in a dry crackling voice from Arthur. + +"Oh, I should put you and me about level," I said, "with the courtesy +title as a little extra weight. It is a pity you should be the second +son." + +"Damn you, Kirby!" he burst out, blazing with anger. + +I lifted up my hand and looked at both of them. + +"I came in here," I said, "to my own house and find my two best friends, +that I thought, waiting for me. A few hours ago I should have thought +such a scene as this utterly impossible. I will ask you both to remember +that it has not been provoked by me in any way, and that directly I came +in you turned on me in the most atrocious and ill-bred way. Of your idea +of the value of friendship I say nothing at all--it is obvious I must +say nothing about that. Now you have forced the pace I will say this. To +marry that young lady--I don't like to speak her name even--is about as +difficult as to dive in a cork jacket or keep a smelt in a net. But I +mean to try. I mean to use every ounce of weight I've got. I shall +almost certainly fail, but now you know." + +"Since you have said that," Pat broke in, "handicaps be damned! I'm a +starter for the same stakes, and it's hell for leather I'll ride, and +it's meself that says it, Tom." + +Arthur Winstanley spoke last. + +"I'm a fellow of a good many ambitions," he said quietly, "though I've +never bothered you chaps with them. Now they are all consolidated into +one." + +Then we all stood and looked at each other, the cards on the table, and +in the faces of the other two at least there was uneasiness and shame. + +Just at that moment a funny thing happened. Preston had brought in an +ice pail full of bottles of soda water. The heat of the night, or +something, caused one of the corks to break its confining wire and go +off with a startling report, while a fountain of foam drenched the +sandwiches. + +"Me kingdom for a drink!" said Pat. "Oh, the sweet, blessed, gurgling +sound!" and striding to the table he mixed a gargantuan peg. + +Arthur and I met behind Pat's back and he held out his hand to me, +biting his lower lip. + +"We've behaved abominably, old soul," he said. + +The big guardsman turned round and raised his glass on high. + +"Here's to the sweetest and most lovely lady in the world, bedad!" he +shouted, accentuating his Irish brogue. "May the best man win her, fair +fight, and no favors, and may the Queen of Heaven and all the saints +watch over the little darlint and guide her choice aright!" + +So all our midnight madness passed like a fleeting cloud. An +extraordinary accession of high spirits came to us as we pledged the +dark-haired maiden from Brazil. And it was Pat, dear old Pat, who welded +us together in a league of chivalry against which nothing was ever to +prevail. + +"Tom," he said, "Arthur--we are all like brothers, we always have been. +Let there be no change in that, now or ever. I have something to +propose." + +"Go on, Pat," said Arthur. + +"Sure then, since we all love the same lady, that ought to bind us more +together than anything else has ever done. But since we cannot all marry +her, let us agree, in the first place, that no outsider ever shall." + +"Hurrah!" said Arthur--I could see that he was fearfully +excited--throwing his glass into the fireplace with a crash. + +"I am with you, Pat!" I cried. "It's to be one of us three, and we are +in league against all the other men in London. And now the question +is--" + +"Hear my plan. This very night we'll draw lots as to which of us shall +have the first chance. The man who wins shall have the entire support of +the other two in every possible way. If she accepts him, then the fates +have spoken. If she doesn't, then the next man in the draw shall have +his chance, and the rejected suitor and the poor third man shall help +_him_ to the utmost of their ability. Is that clear?" + +He stopped and looked down at us from his great height with a smiling +and anxious face. + +Dear old Pat, I shall always love to think that the proposal came from +him, straight, clean and true, as he always was. + +"So be it," Arthur echoed solemnly. "The league shall begin this very +night. Do either of you chaps know any Spanish, by the way?" + +We shook our heads. + +"Well, I do," he continued, "and we'll form ourselves into a Santa +Hermandad--'The Holy Brotherhood'--it was the name of an old Spanish +Society of chivalry ever so many years ago." + +"Santa Hermandad!" Pat shouted, "and now to shake hands on it. I think +we'll not be needing to take an oath." + +Our three hands were clasped together in an instant and we knew that, +come what might, each would be true to that bond. + +"And now," I said, "to draw lots as to who shall be the first to try his +chance. How shall we settle it?" + +"There's no fairer way," said Arthur, "than the throw of a die. Have you +any poker dice, Tom?" + +"Yes, I have a couple of sets somewhere." + +"Very well then, we'll take a single one and the first man that throws +Queen is the winner." + +I found the dice and the leather cup and dropped a single one into it. +Poker dice, for the benefit of the uninitiate, have the Queen on one +side in blue, like the Queen in a pack of cards, the King in red and the +Knave in black. On two other faces, the nine and the ten. + +"Who will throw first?" said Pat. + +"You throw," I said. + +There was a rattle, and nine fell upon the table. I nodded to Arthur, +who picked up the little ivory square, waved the cup in the air, and +threw--an ace. + +My turn came. I threw an ace also, and Arthur and I looked at Pat with +sinking hearts. + +He threw a King. I don't want another five minutes like that again. We +threw and threw and threw and never once did the Queen turn up. At last +Arthur said: + +"Look here, you fellows, I can't stand this much longer, it's playing +the devil with my nerves. Let's have one more throw and if Her Majesty +doesn't turn up, let's decide it by values. Ace, highest, King, Queen +and so on. Tom, your turn." + +I took up the box, rattled the cube within it for a long time and then +dropped it flat upon the table. + +I had thrown Queen. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +About a fortnight after the memorable scene in my flat when the league +came into being, I was sitting in my editorial room at the offices of +the _Evening Special_. + +I had met Juanita once at a large dinner party and exchanged half a +dozen words with her--that was all. My head was full of plans, I was +trying to map out a social campaign that would give me the opportunity I +longed for, but as yet everything was tentative and incomplete. The +exciting business of journalism, the keeping of one's thumb upon the +public pulse, the directing of public thought into this or that channel, +was most welcome at a time like this, and I threw myself into it with +avidity. + +I had just returned from lunch, and the first editions of the paper were +successfully afloat, when Williams, my acting editor, and Miss Dewsbury, +my private secretary, came into my room. + +"Things are very quiet indeed," said Williams. + +"But the circulation is all right?" + +"Never better. Still, I am thinking of our reputation, Sir Thomas." + +I knew what he meant. We had never allowed the _Evening Special_--highly +successful as it was--to go on in a jog-trot fashion. We had a +tremendous reputation for great "stunts," genuine, exclusive pieces of +news, and now for weeks nothing particular had come our way. + +"That's all very well, Williams, but we cannot make bricks without +straw, and if everything is as stagnant as a duck pond, that's not our +fault." + +Miss Dewsbury broke in. She was a little woman of thirty with a large +head, fair hair drawn tightly from a rather prominent brow, and wore +tortoise-shell spectacles. She looked as if her clothes had been flung +at her and had stuck, but for all that Julia Dewsbury was the best +private secretary in London, true as steel, with an inordinate capacity +for work and an immense love for the paper. I think she liked me a +little too, and she was well worth the four hundred a year I paid her. + +"I," said Miss Dewsbury, "live at Richmond." + +Both Williams and I cocked our ears. Julia never wasted words, but she +liked to tell her story her own way, and it was best to let her do so. + +"Ah!" said Williams appreciatively. + +"And I believe," she went on, "that one of the biggest newspaper +stories, ever, is going to come from Richmond. It is something that will +go round the world, if I am not very much mistaken, and we've got to +have it first, Sir Thomas." + +Williams gave a low whistle, and I strained at the leash, so to speak. + +"I refer," Miss Dewsbury went on, "to the great wireless erections on +Richmond Hill." + +For a moment I felt disappointed. I didn't see how interest could be +revived in that matter and I said so. + +"Nearly a year ago," I remarked, "every paper in England was booming +with it. We did our share, I'm sure. No one could have protested more +vigorously, and it was the _Special_ that got all those questions asked +in Parliament. But surely, Miss Dewsbury, it's dead as mutton now. It's +an accepted fact and the public have got used to it." + +"There's nothing," said Williams, "more impossible than to reanimate a +dead bit of news. It's been tried over and over again and it's never +been a real success." + +Miss Dewsbury smiled, the smile that means "When you poor dear, silly +men have done talking, then you shall hear something." I saw that smile +and took courage again. + +"Suppose," said Miss Dewsbury, "that we just look up the facts as a +preliminary to what I have to say." + +She went to a side table on which was a dial with little ivory tablets, +each bearing a name--Sub-editor's room, Composing room, Mr. Williams, +Library, etc., and she pulled a little handle over the last disk, +immediately speaking into a telephone receiver above. + +"Facts relating to great wireless installment on Richmond Hill." + +A bell whirred and she came back to the table where we were sitting. In +twenty seconds--so perfect was our organization at the _Special_ +office--a youth entered with a portfolio containing a number of Press +cuttings, photographs, etc. + +Miss Dewsbury opened it. + +"A year ago," she said, "the real estate market was greatly interested +to learn that Flight, Jones & Rutley, the well-known agents, had secured +several acres of property on the top of Richmond Hill. The buyer's name +was not discovered, but an enormously wealthy syndicate was suggested. +At that time, opportunely chosen, many leases had fallen in. Others that +had some time still to run were bought at a greatly enhanced value, +while several portions of freehold property were also purchased at ten +times their worth. Houses immediately began to be demolished, immense +compensation was paid to those who hung out and refused to quit the +newly purchased area. Pressure, it is hinted, of a somewhat +unwarrantable kind, was also applied. The sum involved was enormous, but +every claim was cheerfully settled, with the result that this area of +several acres was entirely denuded of buildings and surrounded by a high +wall, in an incredibly short space of time." + +"The most beautiful view in England spoiled forever!" said Williams with +a sigh. + +Miss Dewsbury turned over a few leaves. + +"Of course you will both remember the agitation that went on, the +opposition of the local and County Councils, the rage of Societies for +preserving the ancient monuments and historic places of interest, etc., +etc. The newspapers, including ours, took up the matter vigorously. +Then, with a curious unanimity, all opposition began to die away. It is +quite certain that huge sums were spent in buying over the objectors, +though no actual proof was ever discovered. The matter was altogether +too delicate a thing and was far too skillfully worked. + +"Then the unknown purchaser began to build the three great towers now +approaching completion. An army of workmen was gathered together in a +new industrial city between Brentford and Hounslow. Fleets of ships +bearing steel girders and so forth arrived from America, together with a +hundred highly trained engineers, all of them Americans. It was given +out that the most powerful wireless station in the whole world was to be +constructed. Again much opposition, appeals to the Government, questions +to the Board of Trade and so forth. I remember that very much the same +sort of thing happened in Paris, when the Eiffel Tower was first +constructed. England's agitation was opposed by the scientific bodies of +the day, and there were other forces behind which brought pressure to +bear on the Government. That also is certain, though nothing has +actually transpired as yet in this regard. Now we've three monstrous +towers, _each of nearly two thousand feet in height_--twice the height +of the Eiffel--dominating London. Every day almost we, who live in +Richmond and the surrounding towns, see these monsters shooting up +higher into the air. Often half of them is veiled by clouds. The most +tremendous engineering feat in the history of the world is nearly +accomplished." + +Now all this was quite familiar to me and in common with many Londoners +I had begun to take a sort of lazy pride in the gaunt lattice-work of +steel which seemed climbing to heaven itself. All the same I saw no +great journalistic opportunity and I said so. + +"Let us consider a little," continued the imperturbable Julia. "These +towers are _not_ Government owned. They are the property of some +private syndicate. The secret has been kept with extraordinary success. +All the Marconi shareholders of the City, all the big financial +corporations, even foreign Governments, have been trying to get at the +root of the matter. Each and all have utterly failed. Yet our own +Government knows, and sooner or later a pronouncement will have to be +made. If we could anticipate this, then the interest of the public would +rise to fever heat again, and we should have a scoop of the first +magnitude." + +I saw that immediately, and so did Williams, but as it was obvious Miss +Dewsbury hadn't quite finished we just nodded and let her go on. + +"Now I have reason for thinking," she said, "and I am not speaking +lightly, Sir Thomas, that there's something behind this affair of a +totally unexpected and startling nature. Some day, no doubt, the towers +will be used for scientific purposes, but there's a deep mystery +surrounding everything, and one very different from what we might +suppose. I think we can penetrate it." + +"Splendid!" I cried, for I knew very well that Julia Dewsbury would not +say as much as she had unless there was certainty behind her words. "And +how do you propose to start work?" + +As I was looking at her she flushed, and I nearly fell off my chair. It +had never occurred to me that Miss Dewsbury could blush, in fact, that +she was human at all, I am afraid, and I wondered what on earth was the +matter. + +"May I make a little personal explanation, Sir Thomas?" she said. "I +live in a quiet street at the foot of Richmond Hill, where I occupy a +large and comfortable bed-sitting room in 'Balmoral,' Number 102, Acacia +Road. The house is kept by an excellent woman, who only takes in one +other lodger. You pay me a very handsome salary, Sir Thomas, and I might +be expected to live in a more commodious way--a flat in Kensington or +something like that. But I have other claims upon me. There are two +young sisters and a brother to be educated, and I am their sole support. +That's why I live in a small lodging house at Richmond, which, again, is +the reason that I have recently come into contact with some one who may +be of inestimable value to the paper." + +She blushed again, upon my soul she did, and I heard Williams gasp in +astonishment. I kicked him, under the table. + +"The other bed-sitting room at 'Balmoral' has recently been occupied by +a young man, perhaps I should rather say a youth, Mr. William Rolston. +He seemed very lonely and quite poor, and on discussing him with Mrs. +O'Hagan, my landlady, she informed me that she more than suspected that +he had at times to economize grievously in the matter of food. I myself +used to hear the click of a typewriter across the passage, sometimes +continuing till late at night, and from the frequency with which bulky +envelopes arrived for him by post, it was easy to deduce that he was an +unsuccessful author or journalist. This naturally excited my interest. +Mrs. O'Hagan has no idea that I am connected with the _Evening Special_, +she thinks I am typist in a city firm of hardware merchants. And when I +made my acquaintance with Mr. Rolston, as I did some time ago owing to +his back number Remington going wrong, I told him nothing but that I +myself was a typist and stenographer. I was enabled to put his machine +right and we became friends. Am I boring you, Sir Thomas, and Mr. +Williams?" she said suddenly, with a quick look at both of us. + +"On the contrary," I replied, "you are paying us a great compliment, +Miss Dewsbury, in allowing us to know something of your own private +affairs in order that you may explain how you propose to do the paper a +signal service." + +I can swear that the little woman's eyes grew bright behind her +tortoise-shell spectacles and she went on with renewed confidence of +manner. + +"I have been associated with journalism for eight years now," she said. +"During that time innumerable journalists have passed before me. In my +own way I have studied them all, and I believe I can detect the real +journalist almost as well as Mr. Williams can." + +"A good deal better, I should think," said the acting editor, +"considering the people I have trusted and the mistakes I have sometimes +made." + +"At any rate, I can say, with my whole heart, that Bill--I mean Mr. +Rolston--though he is only twenty-one and has never had a chance in his +life yet, has the makings in him of the most successful journalist of +the day. He will rise to the very top of the tree. But as we all know, +though great merit will come to the surface in time, chance is a great +element in retarding or accelerating the process. I think that Mr. +Rolston's chance has come now." + +"You mean?" I asked. + +"That this boy, utterly unknown, with hardly a left foot in Fleet Street +as yet, has had the acumen to see, right to his hand, one of the +greatest journalistic sensations of modern times. I refer to the three +towers on Richmond Hill. We have been for evening strolls together and +the boy has poured out his whole heart to me--as he might to a mother or +any older woman"--and here poor Julia blushed again, and I thought I saw +her lips quiver for a moment. + +"The day before yesterday he said to me: 'Miss Dewsbury, of course you +don't understand anything about journalism, but I'm on the track of the +very biggest thing you could possibly imagine. I have been lying low and +saying nothing. I'm hot on the scent.' He hinted at what it was, without +giving me very many details, though these were quite sufficient to show +me that he was making no idle boast. Then he said: 'But what use is it? +If I went with what I've got already to any of the papers, I might or +might not get to see some unimaginative news-editor who'd squash me into +a cocked hat in five minutes. That's the worst of being absolutely +unknown and without any pull. If only I could get to see a real editor +of one of the big papers, a man who would give me a patient hearing, a +man with imagination, I would engage to convince him in ten minutes and +my fortune would be made.'" + +She stopped, leant back in her chair and looked at me inquiringly. + +"Good heavens!" I cried. "Have him up _at once_. I am quite certain that +you could never have been deceived, Miss Dewsbury. You have not been +with me for four years without my knowing how valuable your intuition +is. Send him to me at once." + +Miss Dewsbury gave a dry, gratified chuckle. + +"I may have stretched things a little far in having too much confidence +in my position here," she said, "but I was determined to gamble on it, +and I've won. This morning, before I left for the office, I gave Mrs. +O'Hagan a little note for Bill--he has an unfortunate habit of lying in +bed in the morning. The note told him that by an odd coincidence, I +thought I might put him in the way of writing an article for the +_Evening Special_ and that he was to be in the cafe at the corner by +three o'clock, precisely." + +She looked at her wrist-watch. + +"It's five minutes to now. I will send for him at once." + +"Rolston, did you say the name was, Miss Dewsbury?" said Williams. + +"Yes,--Rolston. But the messenger can't mistake him. He's about five +feet two high, very slim, with an innocent, baby face, and very dark red +hair. Oh, and his ears stick out at the sides of his head almost at +right angles. Please say nothing about my part in the matter, as yet at +any rate," Miss Dewsbury asked as she went away, and some minutes +afterwards a page boy ushered in one of the most curious little figures +I have ever seen. + +Mr. Rolston was short, slim and well proportioned. He looked active as a +monkey and tough as whipcord. He was rather shabbily dressed in an old +blue suit. His face was childish only in contour and complexion, and for +the rest he could have sat as a model for Puck to any painter. There was +something impish and merry in his rather slanting eyes, and his button +of a mouth was capable of some very surprising contortions. His +round-shaped ears, like the ears of a mouse, stood out on each side of +his head and completed the elfish, sprite-like impression. + +"Sit down, Mr. Rolston," I said, pointing to a chair on the other side +of the table. + +The little man bowed very low and slid into the chair. I had an odd +impression that he would shortly produce a nut and begin to crack it +with his teeth. I could see that he was in a whirl of amazement and at +the same time horribly nervous, and I tried to put him at his ease. + +"I understand," I said, "that you are a journalist, Mr. Rolston." + +"Yes, Sir Thomas," he replied, in a cultivated voice, though with a +curious guttural note in it, and I marked that he knew my name. + +"I also understand--never mind how--that for some time past you have +been wishing to see the editor of a large London daily, to penetrate +right to the fountain head, so to speak. Well, here you are, I am the +editor of the _Evening Special_. What have you to propose to me?" + +I passed a box of cigarettes over the table towards him, but he shook +his head. + +"It's about the three great towers now approaching completion at +Richmond." + +"You have some special information?" + +"Some very startling information, indeed, Sir Thomas. An idea came to me +some months ago. I thought it worth while testing, and it's proved +trumps." + +"If you have anything in the nature of a scoop, Mr. Rolston, I need +hardly say that it will be very well worth your while. If, when I have +heard what you have to say, I cannot use your information, I will give +you my personal word that all you tell me shall be kept an entire +secret." + +"That's good enough for any one," he answered with a sudden grin. "Well, +sir, these towers will eventually lapse to the British Government as a +gift from the private individual who has erected them, but they will +remain his property and be used for his own purposes until his death. +And these purposes are not wireless telegraphy, or even scientific in +any shape or form. Indeed, wireless telegraphy is expressly forbidden." + +Well, at that I sat upright in my chair. Here was news indeed--if it +were true. + +"That's big stuff," I replied at once, "if you can substantiate it." + +"I think you will believe me when I have finished," he replied quietly. +"I have risked my life more than once to get at the facts. My father, +Sir Thomas, was a missionary in China. I was brought up to speak the +Chinese language as well as English. I am one of the very few Europeans +who do so fluently. Moreover, I kept it up till I was sixteen and came +to England, and I have never forgotten it. You have heard, I suppose, +that there's a gang of Chinese coolies at work on the towers, and some +of the Trade Unions have been making themselves nasty about it, and the +American labor?" + +"Yes, there was some agitation." + +"In addition to these coolies, there are many Chinese officials of a +much higher class, people who will remain when the towers are finished, +as they will be in an incredibly short space of time, for the work is +being carried on both by day and night. Speed, speed, speed! is the +order, and nothing in the world is allowed to stand in the way of it." + +"You interest me very much. Please continue." + +"Speaking Chinese as I do, being perfectly familiar with Chinese dress +and customs, it has not been difficult for me to disguise +myself--blacken my hair, assume a yellow complexion and so forth. + +"By this means I have penetrated to the very heart of the workings at +night, and," he blushed faintly, "I have listened to conversations of an +extraordinary character, lying on the roof of a certain office building +for hours. Details you shall have, and in plenty, but here is the sum of +my discoveries. There is no syndicate. There never was. The work, upon +which millions have been spent, has been, from the very first, designed +and originated by one individual, with the specialized help of the most +famous engineers of America." + +"And his motive?" I asked, and I don't mind saying that I was almost +trembling with excitement. + +"The dream of a genius, or the whim of a madman," Rolston answered in a +grave voice. "The world will call it one or the other without a doubt. +At any rate it's the product of a colossal imagination. For myself, I am +dead certain that there's some deeper and stranger motive beneath it +all, but that can rest for the present. Sir Thomas, between those three +great towers, two thousand feet up in the air, will very shortly come +into being a fantastic pleasure city like a dream of the Arabian Nights! +It will be unique in the history of the world, and already the +preparations are so far advanced that it will be completed with +extraordinary rapidity." + +"A pleasure city!" I gasped. "A Pleasure City in the Clouds!" + +"On two stages right up at the very summit, suspended by a system of +cantilevers of the most intricate modern construction and of toughened +steel. I understand that a triangle measuring in all four acres will +support a marvelous series of palaces, a Lhassa of the air!" + +"Why Lhassa, Mr. Rolston?" + +"Because," he replied, "it's to be a Forbidden City, which no one will +be allowed to penetrate or see. It is a marvelous conception only +possible to enormous wealth and the vision of a superman." + +I left my chair and began pacing up and down the room as the freakish +grandeur of the conception burst fully upon me. Towering over London, +dwarfing Saint Paul's to a child's toy, a City in the Clouds! + +I stopped suddenly, wheeled round and shouted: "But who, Mr. Rolston, is +the madman, genius or superman who has imagined this and actually +carried it out in sober twentieth-century England?" + +"That's the greatest secret of all," he said, looking round the room as +if frightened. + +Then he slid from his chair and was at my side in a moment. + +"It's a Mr. Gideon Mendoza Morse from Brazil," he whispered. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +Rolston's revelation, utterly unexpected, came to me with the suddenness +of a blow over the heart. For a few seconds I was incapable of +consecutive thought, though I don't think my face showed anything of it. + +The lad was watching me anxiously and I had to do something with him at +once. Fortunately, I thought of the obvious thing. + +"Leave me now, Mr. Rolston," I said. "Go to the room down the passage +marked 'Mr. Williams' on the door, and ask him to put you into a room by +yourself. Then please, as quickly as possible, write me out a newspaper +'story' setting out fully all the facts you have told me. Remember that +you've got to interest the public in the very first paragraph in what is +undoubtedly a most sensational piece of news." + +"How many words, sir?" he asked me--I liked that, it was professional. + +"A thousand. And when you've done that bring it straight in to me." + +He was out of the room in a minute and I sat down to think. + +In the first place I didn't doubt his story for a moment, there was +something transparently honest about the boy, and, unless I was very +much mistaken, there was great ability in him also. When there was time +for it I expected I should hear a breathless story of his adventures in +the search of this stuff. He had hinted that his life had been in +danger.... I began to think--hard. Assuming that was true, that Morse +had been seized with this extraordinary whim, how did I stand in the +matter? At a first view it appeared that I was rather badly snookered. +Morse, always assuming young Rolston was correct, had spent a huge +fortune in keeping his secret. Moreover, the Government was in it with +him. It would hardly be the way to recommend myself to Juanita's +father--whose good opinion I desired to gain more than that of any other +person in the world, save one--by giving his cherished secret to the +world in order to increase the prestige and circulation of the _Evening +Special_. + +If I did publish it, it was odds on that I never saw Juanita again. One +thing occurred to me with relief--it wasn't a case in which I _had_ to +publish, in the public interest. By suppressing news I was not failing +my duty as an editor, only losing a big scoop, though that was hard +enough. What was to be done? As I asked myself that question I confess +that for a brief moment--thank Heaven it did not last long--it occurred +to me that I was now in a position to put considerable pressure upon the +millionaire. I could hold out inducements.... + +Fortunately, I crushed all such ugly thoughts without much effort, and +then the real solution came. When I had questioned Rolston a little more +and was bedrock certain that he was right, I would see Morse at once and +tell him all I had learnt without reserve. I would present the thing to +him as one in which I claimed no personal interest, and my attitude +would be that I felt he ought to be warned. I would engage to publish +nothing without his wish, but he must look to it--if he wished to +preserve his secret--that other people were not upon the same track. +That could do me no harm whatever. It was the straight thing to do, and +at the same time it would certainly help me with him. I thought, and +think still, that this was a fair advantage to take. It is only a fool +who throws away a legitimate weapon in love or war. + +I rang up the Ritz Hotel and asked for Mr. Morse. There was some little +delay at the Hotel Bureau, and then I was switched on to the telephone +of the private apartments. + +"Who's that?" asked a cold, characterless voice. + +"Sir Thomas Kirby of the _Evening Special_ speaking. Who are you?" + +"Secretary to Mr. Morse"--now the voice was a little warmer. + +"Is Mr. Morse at home?" + +"I can see that he gets a message very shortly, Sir Thomas, if the +matter is of importance." + +"It is of very considerable importance or I shouldn't have troubled to +ring Mr. Morse up, especially as I shall be meeting him in a day or two +at a social engagement." + +"Wait a moment, please." + +I knew by this that I had struck lucky and that Morse was in the hotel, +and within a minute I heard his calm, resonant voice in my ear. + +"Good afternoon, Kirby. My secretary says you wanted to speak to me." + +"Thank you, I am most anxious to have a conversation." + +"Well, shall we hold the wire?" + +"I daren't discuss my business over the wire, Mr. Morse." + +There was a short silence and then: + +"Please forgive me, but you know how busy I am. Could you give me the +least indication of what you wish to talk to me about?" + +I had an inspiration. + +"Towers," I said in a low voice. + +A quiet "Ah!" came to me over the wire, and then: + +"I think I understand, Sir Thomas, you wish--?" + +"To tell you something that I feel sure you ought to know, in your own +interests." + +"Pass, _Friend_!" was the reply, followed by a little chuckle in which I +thought--I might have been mistaken--I detected a note of relief. + +"When shall we meet?" I asked. + +"Look here, Kirby," was the reply, "can you come here at eleven +to-night? I'll give orders that you are to be taken up to my rooms at +once. I can't guarantee that I shall be in at the moment. I also have +something of considerable importance on hand, but if you will wait--I'm +afraid I'm asking a great deal--I'll be certain to be with you sooner or +later. My daughter may be at home and, if she is, no doubt she'll give +you a cup of coffee or something while you wait. Do you think you can +manage this?" + +"I shall be delighted," I answered, trying to control my voice, and I +hardly heard the quiet "Good-by" that concluded our conversation. + +Well, I had done better for myself than I had hoped, and, so vain are +all of us, I felt a kind of satisfaction in having "played the game" and +at the same time won the trick. I did not reflect till afterwards that +if Morse had been some one else and not the father of Juanita, I should +not have hesitated for a moment to fill the _Special_ with scare +headlines. + +I sat down again in my chair, ordered a cup of tea, drank it with +splendid visions of a _tete-a-tete_ with Juanita that very night, and +was leaning back in my chair lost in a rosy dream when the door opened +and the odd little man with the red hair appeared at my side, holding +two or three sheets of typewritten copy. + +"The story, sir," he said. + +I took it from him mechanically, it would never be published now, in all +probability, but it would at least serve to show Morse how much I knew. +I began to read. + +At the end of the first paragraph I knew that the stuff was going to be +all right. At the end of the second and third I sat up in my chair and +abandoned my easy attitude. When I had read the whole of the thousand +words I knew that I had discovered one of the best journalistic brains +of the day! The boy could not only ferret out news, but he could +_write_! Every word fell with the right ring and chimed. He was terse, +but vivid as an Alpine sunset. He made one powerful word do the work of +ten. He suggested atmosphere by a semicolon, and there were fewer +adjectives in his stuff than one would have believed possible. There +were not four other men in Fleet Street who could have done as well. And +beyond this, beyond my pleasure at the discovery of a genius, the +article had a peculiar effect upon me. I felt that somehow or other the +matter was not going to die with my interview to-night at the Ritz +Hotel. The room in which I sat widened. There was a glimpse of far +horizons.... + +I folded the copy carefully and placed it in my breast pocket. + +"Mr. Rolston," I said, "I engage you from this moment as a member of my +regular staff. Your salary to begin with will be ten pounds a week, and +of course your expenses that you may incur in the course of your work. +Do you accept these terms?" + +Poor Bill Rolston! I mustn't give away the man who afterwards became my +most faithful friend and most daring companion in hours of frightful +peril, and a series of incredible adventures. Still, if he _did_ burst +into tears that's nothing against him, for I didn't realize till +sometime afterwards that he was half starved and at the very end of his +tether. + +He pulled himself together in a moment or two, took a cup of tea and let +me cross-question him. What he told me in the next half-hour I cannot +set down here. It will appear in its proper place, but it is enough to +say that in the whole of my experience I never listened to a more +mysterious and more enthralling recital. + +I think that from that moment I realized that my fate was to be in some +way linked with the three towers on Richmond Hill, and the sense of +excitement which had been with me all the afternoon, grew till it was +almost unbearable. + +"Now, first of all," I said, when he had told me everything, "you are +not to breathe a word of this to any human soul without my permission. +While you have been absent I have already been taking steps, the nature +of which I shall not tell you at present. Meanwhile, lock up everything +in your heart." + +I had a flash of foresight, well justified in the event. + +"I may want you at any moment," I told him, "and therefore, with your +permission, I'm going to put you up at my flat in Piccadilly, where you +will be well looked after and have everything you want. I'll telephone +through to my man, Preston, giving him full instructions, and you had +better take a taxi and get there at once. Preston will send a messenger +to your lodgings to bring up any clothes and so forth you may require." + +He blushed rosy red, and I wondered why, for his story had been told to +me in a crisp, man-of-the-world manner that made him seem far older than +he was. + +Then he shrugged his shoulders, put his hand in his trousers pocket and +pulled out--one penny. + +"All I have in the world," he said, with a rueful smile. + +I scribbled an order on the cashier and told him to cash it in the +office below, and, with a look of almost doglike fidelity and gratitude, +the little fellow moved towards the door. + +Just at that moment it opened and Julia Dewsbury came in. + +Rolston's jaw dropped and his eyes almost started out of his head in +amazement, and I saw a look come into my secretary's eyes that I should +have been glad to inspire in the eyes of one woman. + +"There, there," I said, "be off with you, both of you. Miss Dewsbury, +take Mr. Rolston, now a permanent member of the staff, into your own +room and tell him something about the ways of the office." + +For half an hour I walked up and down the editorial sanctum arranging my +thoughts, getting everything clear cut, and when that was done I +telephoned to Arthur Winstanley, asking him, if he had nothing +particular on, to dine with me. + +His reply was that he would be delighted, as he had nothing to do till +eleven o'clock, but that I must dine with him. "I have discovered a +delightful little restaurant," he said, "which isn't fashionable yet, +though it soon will be. Don't dress; and meet me at the Club at +half-past seven." + + * * * * * + +My dinner with Arthur can be related very shortly, for, while it has +distinct bearing upon the story, it was only remarkable for one +incident, though, Heaven knows, that was important enough. + +I met him at our Club in Saint James' and we walked together towards +Soho. + +"You are going to dine," said Arthur, "at 'L'Escargot d'Or'--The Golden +Snail. It's a new departure in Soho restaurants, and only a few of us +know of it yet. Soon all the world will be going there, for the cooking +is magnificent." + +"That's always the way with these Soho restaurants, they begin +wonderfully, are most beautifully select in their patrons, and then the +rush comes and everything is spoiled." + +"I know, the same will happen here no doubt, though lower Bohemia will +never penetrate because the prices are going to be kept up; and this +place will always equal one of the first-class restaurants in town. +Well, how goes it?" + +I knew what he meant and as we walked I told him, as in duty bound, all +there was to tell of the progress of my suit. + +"Met her once," I said, "had about two minutes' talk. There's just a +chance, I am not certain, that I may meet her to-night, and not in a +crowd--in which case you may be sure I shall make the very most of my +opportunities. If this doesn't come off, I don't see any other chance of +really getting to know her until September, at Sir Walter Stileman's, +and I have to thank you for that invitation, Arthur." + +He sighed. + +"It's a difficult house to get into," he said, "unless you are one of +the pukka shooting set, but I told old Sir Walter that, though you +weren't much good in October and that pheasants weren't in your line, +you were A1 at driven 'birds.'" + +"But I can't hit a driven partridge to save my life, unless by a +fluke!" + +"I know, Tom, I don't say that you'll be liked at all, but you won the +toss and by our bond we're bound to do all we can to give you your +opportunity. I need hardly say that my greatest hope in life is that +she'll have nothing whatever to say to you. And now let's change that +subject--it's confounded thin ice however you look at it--and enjoy our +little selves. I have been on the 'phone with Anatole, and we are going +to _dine_ to-night, my son, really _dine_!" + +The Golden Snail in a Soho side street presented no great front to the +world. There was a sign over a door, a dingy passage to be traversed, +until one came to another door, opened it and found oneself in a long, +lofty room shaped like a capital L. The long arm was the one at which +you entered, the other went round a rectangle. The place was very simply +decorated in black and white. Tables ran along each side, and the only +difference between it and a dozen other such places in the foreign +quarter of London was that the seats against the wall were not of red +plush but of dark green morocco leather. It was fairly full, of a mixed +company, but long-haired and impecunious Bohemia was conspicuously +absent. + +A table had been reserved for us at the other end opposite the door, so +that sitting there we could see in both directions. + +We started with little tiny oysters from Belon in Brittany--I don't +suppose there was another restaurant in London at that moment that was +serving them. The soup was asparagus cream soup of superlative +excellence, and then came a young guinea-fowl stuffed with mushrooms, +which was perfection itself. + +"How on earth do you find these places, Arthur?" I asked. + +"Well," he answered, "ever since I left Oxford I've been going about +London and Paris gathering information of all sorts. I've lived among +the queerest set of people in Europe. My father thinks I'm a waster, but +he doesn't know. My mother, angel that she is, understands me perfectly. +She knows that I've only postponed going into politics until I have had +more experience than the ordinary young man in my position gets. I +absolutely refused to be shoved into the House directly I had come down +with my degree, the Union, and all those sort of blushing honors thick +upon me. In a year or two you will see, Tom, and meanwhile here's the +Moulin a Vent." + +Anatole poured out that delightful but little known burgundy for us +himself, and it was a wine for the gods. + +"A little interval," said Arthur, "in which a cigarette is clearly +indicated, and then we are to have some slices of bear ham, stewed in +champagne, which I _rather_ think will please you." + +We sat and smoked, looking up the long room, when the swing doors at the +end opened and a man and a girl entered. They came down towards us, +obviously approaching a table reserved for them in the short arm of the +restaurant, and I noticed the man at once. + +For one thing he was in full evening dress, whereas the only other +diners who were in evening kit at all wore dinner jackets and black +ties. He was a tall man of about fifty with wavy, gray hair. His face +was clean shaved, and a little full. I thought I had never seen a +handsomer man, or one who moved with a grace and ease which were so +perfectly unconscious. The girl beside him was a pretty enough young +creature with a powdered face and reddened lips--nothing about her in +the least out of the ordinary. When he came opposite our table, his face +lighted up suddenly. He smiled at Arthur, and opened his mouth as if to +speak. + +Arthur looked him straight in the face with a calm and stony stare--I +never saw a more cruel or explicit cut. + +The man smiled again without the least bravado or embarrassment, gave an +almost imperceptible bow and passed on towards his table without any one +but ourselves having noticed what occurred. The whole affair was a +question of some five or six seconds. + +He sat down with his back to us. + +"Who is he?" I asked of Arthur. + +He hesitated for a moment and then he gave a little shudder of disgust. +I thought, also, that I saw a shade come upon his face. + +"No one you are ever likely to meet in life, Tom," he replied, "unless +you go to see him tried for murder at the Old Bailey some day. He is a +fellow called Mark Antony Midwinter." + +"A most distinguished looking man." + +"Yes, and I should say he stands out from even his own associates in a +preeminence of evil. Tom," he went on, with unusual gravity, "deep down +in the soul of every man there's some foul primal thing, some troglodyte +that, by the mercy of God, never awakes in most of us. But when it does +in some, and dominates them, then a man becomes a fiend, lost, hopeless, +irremediable. That man Midwinter is such an one. You could not find his +like in Europe. He walks among his fellows with a panther in his soul; +and the high imagination, the artistic power in him makes him doubly +dangerous. I could tell you details of his career which would make your +blood run cold--if it were worth while. It isn't. + +"But I perceive our bear's flesh stewed in Sillery is approaching. Let's +forget this intrusion." + +Well, we dined after the fashion of Sybaris, went to the Club for an +hour and smoked, and then Arthur returned to his chambers in Jermyn +Street to dress. I went back to mine, found from Preston that little Mr. +Rolston was safely in bed and fast asleep, changed into a dinner jacket +and walked the few yards to the Ritz Hotel, my heart beating high with +hope. + +I was shown up at once to the floor inhabited by the millionaire, and +knew, therefore, that I was expected. The man who conducted me knocked +at a door, opened it, and I entered. I found myself in a comfortable +room with writing tables and desks, telephone and a typewriter. A young +man of two or three and twenty was seated at one of the tables smoking a +cigarette. + +He jumped up at once. + +"Oh, Sir Thomas," he said, "Mr. Morse has not yet returned, and I think +it quite likely he may be some little time. But the Senora Balmaceda and +Miss Morse are in the drawing-room and perhaps you would like to--" + +"I shall be delighted," I said, cutting him short, but who on earth was +Senora Balmaceda? The chaperone, I supposed, confound it! + +The obliging young man led me through two or three very gorgeously +furnished rooms and at last into a large apartment brilliantly lit from +the roof, and with flowers everywhere. At one end was a little alcove. + +"I have brought Sir Thomas, Senora," he said, looking about the room, +but there was no one remotely resembling a Senora there. Nevertheless, +directly he spoke, some one stepped out of the conservatory from behind +a tropical shrub in a green tub, and came towards us. + +It was Juanita, and she was alone. The secretary withdrew and I advanced +to meet her. + +"How do you do, Sir Thomas," she said in her beautiful, bell-like voice. +"Father said you might be coming and I'm afraid he won't be in just yet. +And it's so tiresome, poor Auntie has gone to bed with a bad headache." + +"I'm very sorry, Miss Morse," I answered as we shook hands, "I must do +what I can to take her place," and then I looked at her perfectly +straight. + +Yes, I dared to look into those marvelous limpid eyes and I know she saw +the hunger in mine, for she took her hand away a little hurriedly. + +"What a charming room! Is that a little conservatory over there? It must +look out over the Green Park?" + +"Yes, it does," she replied almost in a whisper. + +"Then do let's sit there, Miss Morse." + +Was I acting in a play or what on earth gave me this sense of confidence +and strength? Heaven only knows, but I never faltered from the first +moment that I entered the room. Oh, the gods were with me that night! + +We went to the alcove without a further word, and she sat down upon a +couch. I have described her once, at Lady Brentford's ball, but at this +moment I am not going to attempt to describe her at all. + +For half a minute we said nothing and then I took her hand and pressed +it to my lips. + +"Juanita," I said, "there are mysterious currents and forces in this +world stronger than we are ourselves. This is the third time that I've +seen you, but no power on earth can prevent me from telling you--" + +She was looking at me with parted lips and eyes suffused with an angelic +tenderness and modesty. My voice broke in my throat with unutterable +joy. I was certain that she loved me. + +And then, just as I was about to say the sealing words--remember, I had +invoked the gods--there was the sound of a door opening sharply. + +I stiffened and rose to my feet. From where we sat we could survey the +whole, rich room. Through the open door--I must say there were several +doors in the room--came a tall man, _walking backwards_. + +He was in full evening dress with a camellia in his button-hole. + +He stepped back lightly with cat-like steps, his arms a little curved, +his fingers all extended. + +I saw his face. It was convulsed with the satanic fury of an old +Japanese mask. Line for line, it was just like that, and it was also the +face of the bland and smiling man I had seen two hours before at the +restaurant of The Golden Snail. + +I felt something warm and trembling at my side. Juanita was clinging to +me and I put my arm around her waist. Through the open door there now +came another figure. + +A quiet, resonant voice cut into the tense, horrible silence. + +"Quick, Mark Antony Midwinter--that's your door, quick--quick!" + +The big man paused for an instant and a hissing spitting noise came from +his mouth. + +There was a sharp crack and a great mirror on the wall shivered in +pieces. There was another, and then the big man turned and literally +bounded over the soft carpet, flung himself through the door and +disappeared. + +Gideon Mendoza Morse advanced into the drawing-room, smiling to himself +and looking down at a little steel-blue automatic in his hand. + +Then Juanita and I came out of the alcove, hand in hand, and he saw us. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +Gideon Morse still had the little steel-blue automatic pistol in his +hand. He was actually smiling and humming a little tune when he turned +and saw Juanita and myself coming out of the alcove. + +In a flash his hand dropped the pistol into the pocket of his dinner +jacket and his face changed. + +"Santa Maria!" he said in Spanish, and then, "Juanita, Sir Thomas +Kirby!" + +"You remember you gave me an appointment to-night, Mr. Morse," I +stammered. + +"Of course, of course, then--" + +He said no more, for with a little gasp Juanita sank into a heap upon +the floor. We had loosened hands directly the millionaire turned towards +us and I was too late to catch her. + +Morse was at her side in an instant. + +"The bell," he said curtly, and I ran to the side of the room and +pressed the button hard and long. + +Wow! but these money emperors of the world are well served! In a second, +so it seemed, the room was full of people. The young secretary, a couple +of maids, a dark foreign-looking man in a morning coat and a black tie +whom I took to be the valet, and finally a gigantic fellow in tweeds +with a battered face as big as a ham and arms which reached almost to +his knees. + +The maids were at the girl's side in a moment, applying restoratives. +Morse rose, just as another door opened and in sailed a stout elderly +lady in a black evening dress with a mantilla of black lace over her +abundant and ivory white hair. Morse said something to her in Spanish +and I wished I had been Arthur Winstanley to understand it. Then I felt +my arm taken and Morse drew me away. + +"It is nothing serious," he said, "just a little shock," and as he said +it he made a slight gesture with his head. + +It was enough. The secretary, the valet, and the huge, vulgar-looking +man in tweeds faded away in an instant, though not before I had seen the +latter spot the broken mirror, and a ferocious glint come into his eyes. +Nor did he look surprised. + +Juanita began to come to herself and she was tenderly carried away by +the women. Morse accompanied them and spoke in a rapid whisper to the +distinguished old lady, who, I knew, must be the Senora Balmaceda. + +The two of us were left alone, and for my part I sank down in an +adjacent chair quite exhausted in mind, if not in body, by the +happenings of the last ten minutes. Up to the present--I will say +nothing of the future--I had never lived so fast or so much in such a +short space of time; and you've got to get accustomed to that sort of +thing really to enjoy it! + +"I'm afraid your visit has been somewhat exciting," said my host, in his +musical, level voice. His eyes were as dark and inscrutable as ever, but +nevertheless, I saw that the man was badly moved. He took a slim, gold +cigarette case from his waistcoat pocket and his hand trembled. +Moreover, under the tan of his skin he was as white as a ghost--there +was a curious gray effect. + +I laughed. + +"I confess to having been a little startled. Your secretary brought me +in here and I was talking to Miss Morse in the conservatory when--" I +hesitated for a moment. + +He saved me the trouble of going on. + +"I guess," he said, "you and I had better have a little drink now," and +he went to the wall. + +I don't pretend to know how the service was managed--I suppose there was +a sergeant-major somewhere in the background who drilled the host of +personal and hotel attendances who ministered to the wants of Gideon +Morse. At any rate, this time no one entered but one of the hotel +footmen, and he brought the usual tray of cut-glass bottles, etc. + +Morse mixed us both a brandy and soda and I noticed two things. First, +his hand was steady again; secondly, the brandy was not decanted but +came out of a bottle, on which was the fleur-de-lys of ancient, royal +France, blown into the glass. + +There was a twinkle in his eye when he saw I had spotted that. + +"Yes," he said, "there are only three dozen bottles left, even in the +Ritz. They were found in a bricked-up cellar of the Tuileries," and he +tossed off his glass with relish. + +So did I--Cleopatra's pearls were not so expensive. + +"Now look here, Sir Thomas," Morse said, sitting down by me and drawing +up his chair, "you've seen something to-night of a very unfortunate +nature. You've seen it quite by accident. If news of it got about, if it +were even whispered through a certain section of London, then the very +gravest harm might result, not only to me but to many other persons +also." + +"My dear sir, I have seen nothing. I have heard nothing. You may place +implicit reliance upon that," and I held out my hand to him, which he +took in a firm grip. + +"Thank you, Sir Thomas," he replied simply. "It was a question," he +hesitated for the fraction of a second, and I knew he was lying, "it was +a question of impudent blackmail. I had expected something of the sort +and was prepared. You saw how the cowardly hound ran away." + +"Quite so, Mr. Morse. Of course a man in your position must be subject +to these things occasionally." + +"Ah, you see that," he said briskly, and I knew he was relieved. "You +are a man of the world, and you see that. Well, I am thankful for your +promise of silence. I am the more annoyed, though, that Juanita should +have been present at a scene which, though really burlesque, must have +seemed to her one of violence." + +I had my own opinion about the burlesque nature of the incident, but I +made haste to reassure him. + +"Of course," I said, "it must have been distressing for any lady, but it +was the suddenness that upset her, and I'm sure Miss Morse's nerves are +far too good for it to have any permanent effect." + +"Yes," he answered, and in his voice there was a caress, "I can explain +it all to Juanita, and the memory of this evening will soon go from +her." + +Again I had my own private opinion, which I forbore to state. +Personally, I had very little doubt but that Juanita would remember this +evening as long as the darling lived! It would not be my fault if she +didn't! But I saw that this was no moment to tell him that I loved her. +Perhaps, if we had been granted five minutes more in the conservatory +and I had said all I meant, and heard from her all I hoped, I should +have spoken then. As it was I could not, though in my own mind I was +certain she cared for me. + +We were silent for a few moments, and then Morse seemed to recall +himself from private thought. + +"I had nearly forgotten!" he said. "You specially wanted to see me +to-night, Sir Thomas, and you've very kindly waited in order to do so." + +Then I remembered the errand upon which I had come, and pulled myself +together mentally. I liked Morse. He was of tremendous importance to me, +and yet at the same time it behooved me to be wary. Already I was +certain that he was playing a game with me in the matter of Mark Antony +Midwinter, whose name I kept rigidly to myself. I must play my cards +carefully. + +Please understand me, I don't for a moment mean that I felt he was my +enemy, or inimical to me in any way. Far from it. I knew that he liked +me and wouldn't do me a bad turn if he could help it. At the same time I +was perfectly sure that if necessary he would use me like a pawn in a +mysterious game that I couldn't fathom, and I didn't mean to be used +like a pawn if I could help it. My hope and ambition was to serve him, +but I wanted a little reserve of power also, for reasons I need not +indicate. + +"Yes," I said, "I telephoned you." + +"And you mentioned a certain word which rather puzzled me." + +"I did. 'Towers' was the word." + +"I believe we are going to meet at The Towers at Cerne in Norfolk," said +Mr. Morse. "Sir Walter Stileman told me that you were to be of the +shooting party in September." + +At that I laughed frankly, really he was a little underestimating me. He +grinned and understood in a second. + +"Tell me, Sir Thomas, exactly what you _do_ mean," he said. + +"Well, you know I am a newspaper proprietor and editor." + +"Of the best written and most alive journal in London!" + +I bowed, and produced from an inside pocket Master Bill Rolston's +astonishing piece of copy. + +"An unknown journalist who was introduced to me to-day," I said, +"brought a piece of news which would be of absorbing interest to the +country if it were published and if it were true. Perhaps you would like +to read this." + +I handed him the typewritten copy and prepared to watch his face as he +read it, but he was too clever for that. He took it and perused it, +walking up and down the room, and I began to realize some of the +qualities which had made this man one of the powers of the world. + +More especially so when he came and sat down again, his face wreathed +in smiles, though I could have sworn fury lurked in the depths of his +black eyes. + +"Well, now," he said, "this is interesting, very interesting indeed. I +am going to be quite frank with you, Sir Thomas. There's an amount of +truth in this manuscript that would cause me colossal worry if it were +published at present. Another thing it would do would be to quite upset +a financial operation of considerable magnitude. Personally, I should +lose at the very least a couple of million sterling, though that +wouldn't make any appreciable difference to my fortune, but a lot of +other people would be ruined and for no possible benefit to any one in +the world except yourself and the _Evening Special_." + +"Thank you," I said, "that's just why I came. Of course nothing shall be +published, though I'm quite in the dark as to the nature of the whole +thing." + +"I call that generous, generous beyond belief, Sir Thomas, for I know +that it is the life of a newspaper to get hold of exclusive news. I +would offer you a large sum not to publish this story did I not know +that you would indignantly refuse it. I am a student of men, my young +friend, if I may be allowed to call you so, and even if you were a poor +man instead of being a rich one as ordinary wealth goes, I should never +make such a proposition." + +I glowed inwardly as he said it. It was a downright compliment, coming +from him under the circumstances, at which any one would have been +warmed to the heart. For here was a great man, a Napoleon of his day, +one who, if he chose, could upset dynasties and plunge nations into +war. Yet, as I knew quite well, Gideon Mendoza Morse wasn't a member of +the great financial groups who control and sway politics. In a sense he +was that rare thing, a pastoral millionaire. He owned vast tracts of +country populated by lowing steers for the food of the world. In the +remote mountains of Brazil brown Indians toiled to wrest precious metals +and jewels from the earth for his advantage. But from the feverish +plotting of international finance I knew him to stand aloof. + +"I very much appreciate your remarks," was what I told him, "and you may +rest assured that nothing shall transpire." + +"Thanks. But all the generosity mustn't be on your side. You shall have +your scoop, Sir Thomas, if you will wait a little while." + +"I am entirely at your service." + +"Very well then," he said, and his manner grew extraordinarily cordial, +"let's put a period to it! I hope that, from to-day, I and my daughter +are going to see a great deal of you--a great deal more of you than +hitherto. You know how we are"--he gave a little annoyed laugh--"run +after in London; and what a success Juanita has had over here. What I +hope to do is to form a little inner circle of friends, and you must be +one of them--if you will?" + +How my luck held! I thought. Here, offered freely and with open hands, +was the only thing I wanted. I am glad to think that I found a moment in +which to be sorry for Arthur and dear old Pat Moore. + +"It's awfully good of you," I stammered. + +He made a little impatient gesture with his hand. + +"Please don't talk nonsense," he said. "And now about the towers on +Richmond Hill. I have told you that I cannot explain fully until +September. I will tell you, though, that your clever little +journalist--what, by the way, did you say his name was?" + +"Rolston." + +"Of course--has ferreted out much that I wished to conceal, but he isn't +entirely upon the right track. I _am_, Kirby, at the bottom of the whole +thing, and I have spent goodness knows how much to keep that quiet." + +He lit another cigarette, leant back in his chair and laughed like a +boy. + +"I've bribed, and bribed, and bribed, I've managed to put pressure, +actually to put pressure upon the British Government. I've employed an +untold number of agents, in short I've exercised the whole of my +intellect, and the pressure of almost unlimited capital to keep my name +out of it. And now, you tell me, some little journalist has found out +one thing at least that I was determined to conceal until September +next! The plans of men and mice gang oft agley, Kirby! This little man +of yours must be a sort of genius. I hope there are no more people like +him prowling about Richmond Hill." + +I was quite certain that there was not another Bill Rolston anywhere, +and I amused Morse immensely by detailing the circumstances of the +little, red-haired man's arrival in Fleet Street. I never realized till +now how human and genial the great man could be, for he even expanded +sufficiently to offer to toss me a thousand pounds to nothing for the +services of Julia Dewsbury! + +I saw my way with Juanita becoming smoother and smoother every moment. + +It was growing late, nearly one o'clock, when Morse insisted on having +some bisque soup brought in. + +"I think we both want something really sustaining," he said. "Do you +begin and I'll just run up and see my sister-in-law, Senora Balmaceda, +and find out if Juanita is all right." + +He left the room, and, happy that all had gone so well, I sipped the +incomparable white essence, and gave myself up to dreams of the future. + +I was to see her often. In September, at Sir Walter Stileman's, Morse +was to take me into his fullest confidence. That could only mean one +thing. Within a little less than three months he would give his consent +to my marriage with his daughter. Another opportunity like this of +to-night, and Juanita and I would be betrothed. It would be delightful +to keep our secret until the shooting began. I would follow her through +the events of the season, watch her mood, hear her extolled on every +side, knowing all the time she was mine. A vision came to me of Cowes +week, the gardens of the R. Y. Squadron, Juanita on board of my own +yacht "Moonlight." + +I think I must have fallen asleep when I started into consciousness to +find myself staring into the great broken mirror over the mantelpiece +and to find that Mr. Morse had returned and was smiling down upon me. + +"She's all right, thank heavens," he said, "and has been asleep for a +long time. And now, as you seem sleepy too, I'll bid you good-night, +with a thousand thanks for your consideration." + +It was nearly two o'clock I noticed when I stepped out into the cool air +of Piccadilly and walked the few yards to my flat. I must have been +asleep for quite a long time, and dear old Morse had forborne to waken +me. + +I peculiarly remember my sense of well-being and happiness during that +short walk. I was in a glow of satisfaction. Everything had turned out +even better than I had expected. What did the scoop for the paper matter +after all? Nothing, in comparison with the more or less intimate +relations in which I now stood with Gideon Morse. I was to see Juanita +constantly. She was almost mine already, and fortune had been +marvelously on my side. Of course there would be obstacles, there was no +doubt of that. I was no real match for her. But the obstacles in the +future were as nothing to those that had been already surmounted. I +began to smile with conceit at the diplomatic way in which I had dealt +with the great financier; not for a single moment, as I put my key into +the latch, did I dream that I had been played with the utmost skill, +tied myself irrevocably to silence, and that horrible trouble and grim +peril even now walked unseen by my side. + +When I got into the smoking-room I found things just as usual. I had +hardly lit a last cigarette when the door opened and Preston entered. + +"Good heavens!" I said, "I never told you to wait up for me, Preston. +There was not the slightest need. You ought to have been in bed hours +ago." + +"So I was, Sir Thomas," he said looking at me in a surprised sort of +way, and I noticed for the first time that he was wearing a gray flannel +dressing-gown and slippers. + +"What do you mean?" + +"Until the telephone message came, Sir Thomas." + +"What telephone message?" + +"Why, yours, Sir Thomas." + +"I never telephoned. When do you mean?" + +"Not very long ago, Sir Thomas," he said, "I didn't take particular +notice of the time, somewhere between one o'clock and now." + +I was on the alert at once, though I could not have particularly said +why. + +"Are you quite sure that it was I who 'phoned?" + +"But, yes," he answered, "it was your voice, Sir Thomas. You said you +were speaking from the office." + +"From the _Evening Special_? I've not been there since late afternoon. +And when have I ever been there so late? There's never more than one +person there all night long until six in the morning. It's not a morning +paper as you know." + +Preston seemed more than ever bewildered as I flung this at him. + +"All I can say is, Sir Thomas," he said, "that I heard your voice +distinctly and you said you were at the office." + +"What did I say exactly?" + +"About the young gentleman, Sir Thomas, the young gentleman who has come +to stay for a time. Your instructions were that he should be wakened and +told to come to Fleet Street without the least delay. You also said a +taxicab would be waiting for him, by the time he was dressed, to drive +him down." + +"And he went?" + +"Certainly, Sir Thomas, he was in his clothes quicker than I ever see a +gentleman dress before, had a glass of milk and a biscuit, and the cab +was just coming as I went down with him and opened the front door." + +I rushed out of the room, down the corridor and into that which had been +placed at Rolston's disposal. It was as Preston said, the lad was gone. +The bed was tumbled as he had left it, but a portmanteau full of +clothes, some hair brushes and a tooth brush on the wash-stand remained. +Clearly Rolston believed he was obeying orders. + +Preston had followed me out of the smoking-room and stood at the door, a +picture of uneasy wonder. Let me say at once that Preston had been with +me for six years, and was under-butler at my father's house for I don't +know how many more. He is the most faithful and devoted creature on +earth and, what is more, as sharp as a needle. He, at any rate, had no +hand in this business. + +"There's something extraordinarily queer about this," I said. "I assure +you that I have never been near the telephone during the whole night. I +dined with Lord Arthur in Soho and the rest of the evening I have been +spending at the Ritz Hotel with Mr. Gideon Morse. You've been tricked, +Preston." + +"I'm extremely sorry, Sir Thomas," he was beginning when I cut him +short. + +"It's not in the least your fault, but are you certain the voice was +mine?" + +He frowned with the effort at recollection. + +"Well, Sir Thomas," he said, "if you hadn't told me what you have, I +believe I could almost have sworn to it. Of course, voices are altered +on the telephone, to some extent, but it's extraordinary how they do, in +the main, keep their individual character." + +He spoke the truth. I, who was using the telephone all day, entirely +agreed with him. + +"Well, Preston, it was a skillful imitation and not my voice at all." + +"If you will excuse me, Sir Thomas," he replied, "your voice is a very +distinctive one. It's not very easily mistaken by any one who has heard +your voice once or twice." + +"That only makes the thing the more mysterious." + +"The more easy, I should say, Sir Thomas. It must be far less difficult +to imitate an outstanding voice with marked peculiarities than an +ordinary one." + +He was right there, it hadn't occurred to me before. + +"But who in the office would dare to imitate my voice?" + +"That, of course, I could not say, Sir Thomas, but we've only the word +of the unknown person who rang me up that he was speaking from the +office. For all we know he might have been in the next flat." + +That again was a point and I noted it. + +"I'm not going to waste any time," I said. "I'll go down to the office +at once and see if I can find out anything." + +He helped me on with my coat and within five minutes of my entering I +was again in Piccadilly. + +Already the long ribbon of road was beginning to be faintly tinged with +gray. The dawn was not yet, but night was flitting away before his +coming. Save for an occasional policeman and the rumble of heavy carts +piled with sweet-smelling vegetables and flowers for Covent Garden, the +great street was empty. I passed the Ritz Hotel with a tender thought of +one who lay sleeping there, and hurried eastwards. I had nearly got to +the Circus when a taxi swung out of the Haymarket and I hailed the man. +He was tired and sleepy, had been waiting for hours at some club or +other, but I persuaded him, with much gold, to take me, and we buzzed +away toward the street of ink. + +Here was activity enough. The later editions of the morning papers were +being vomited out of holes in the earth by hundreds of thousands. +Windows were lighted up everywhere as I turned down a side street +leading to the river and came to my own offices. + +I unlocked the door with my pass key and almost immediately I was +confronted by Johns, the night-watchman, who flashed his torch in my +face and inquired my business. I was pleased to see the man alert and at +his post and asked who was in the building. + +"Only Mr. Benson, Sir Thomas; it's his week for night duty." + +I went up and very considerably surprised, not to say alarmed, young Mr. +Benson, who had the photograph of a lady propped up on a desk before him +and was obviously inditing an amorous epistle. + +I put him through the most searching possible cross-examination, until I +was quite sure that he had never telephoned to my flat. I knew him for a +truthful, conscientious fellow, without a glimpse of humor or the +slightest histrionic talent. Johns, called from below, was equally +emphatic. Certainly no taxi had arrived here during the last three +hours, nor had William Rolston come near the office. + +I returned to Piccadilly, utterly baffled and without a single ray of +light in my mind. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +On the morning of the fourteenth of September I met Captain Pat Moore +and Lord Arthur Winstanley at Liverpool Street station. We were all +three of us asked to Cerne as guests of that fine old sportsman, Sir +Walter Stileman. A special carriage was reserved for us and our servants +filled it with luncheon baskets and gun cases. + +It was almost exactly three months since my eventful night at the Ritz +with Gideon Morse, and the disappearance of little William Rolston. + +What had passed since that time I can set out fully in a very few words. +First of all the position in which I stood with regard to Juanita. It +was somewhat extraordinary, satisfactory, and yet unsatisfactory, +utterly tantalizing. Morse had kept his promise. I _had_ seen a great +deal of his daughter. At Henley, at Cowes--on board the millionaire's +wonderful yacht or on my own, in the sacred gardens of the R. Y. S., +where we met and met again. Yet these meetings were always in public. +Juanita was surrounded by men wherever she went. She was the reigning +beauty of her year. Her minutest doings were chronicled in the Society +papers with a wealth of detail that was astounding. I used to read the +stuff, including that of my own Miss Easey, with a sort of impotent +rage. Some of it was true, a lot of it was lies and surmise, but to me +it was all distasteful. Juanita lived in the full glare of the public +eye, and a royal princess could hardly have been more unapproachable. Of +course I used stratagems innumerable, and more than once she went +half-way to meet me, but the long desired _tete-a-tete_ never came to +pass. It was not only because of the troop of admirers that crowded +round her, of which I was only one, but there was an extraordinary +adroitness, "a hidden hand" at work somewhere, to keep us apart. I was +quite certain of this, yet I could not prove it, though even if I had it +would have been of little use. Old Senora Balmaceda, who overwhelmed me +with kindness and attention, was simply wonderful in her watch over +Juanita. + +As for Gideon Morse, he would talk to me by the hour--and his talk was +well worth listening to--but somehow or other he was always in the way +when I wanted to be alone with his daughter. Of course I sometimes +thought I was exaggerating, and that I was so hard hit that I saw things +in a jaundiced or prejudiced light. Yet certainly Juanita was often +alone for a short time with other men than I, notably with the young and +good-looking Duke of Perth, whom I hated as cordially as I knew how. + +Then, in August, I had a nasty knock. The Morses went off to Scotland +for the grouse shooting as guests of the Duke, and I wasn't asked, or +ever in the way of being asked if it comes to that, to join the "small +and select house-party" that the papers were so full of. I had to +content myself with pictures on the front page of the Illustrated +Weeklies depicting Juanita in a tweed skirt and a tam o' shanter, side +by side with Perth, wearing a fatuous smile and a gun. I had one crumb +of consolation only and that was, when saying good-by to Juanita, I felt +something small and hard in the palm of her hand. It was a little +tightly folded piece of paper and on it was one word, "Cerne." + +That of course helped a great deal. It was obvious what she meant. When +we met at Sir Walter Stileman's, then at last my opportunity would come. + +And now about the little journalist and his extraordinary disappearance. +I made every possible inquiry, engaging the most skilled agents and +sparing no money in the quest, but I found out nothing--absolutely +nothing. The red-headed lad with the prominent ears had vanished into +thin air, had flashed into my life for a moment and then gone out of it +with the completeness of an extinguished candle. He had been, he was no +more. Poor Miss Dewsbury, on whom the disappearance had a marked effect, +discussed the matter with me a dozen times. We broached theory after +theory only to reject them, and at last we ceased to talk about the +matter at all. I remember her words on the last time we talked of it. +They were prophetic, though I did not know it then. + +"All I can say is, Sir Thomas, that voices, not my own, whisper +constantly in my ear that the shadow of the three giant towers upon +Richmond Hill lies across your path." + +Poor thing, she was almost hysterical in those times, and I paid little +heed to her words. As for the scoop, no other paper had even hinted at +Rolston's revelation. I had faithfully kept my word to Morse, not +forgetting that he had promised to explain everything--in September. + +As the train swung out of Liverpool Street and Pat and Arthur were +ragging each other as to who should have the _Times_ first, I +experienced a sense of mental relief. Only a few hours now and the great +question of my life would be settled, once and for all. No more doubts, +no more uncertainties. + +During the last three months, Arthur and Pat had left me very much to +myself. They had behaved with the most perfect tact and kindness, +Arthur, as I have said, having obtained for me the invitation to Cerne. +Now, after we had traveled for a couple of hours and the luncheon +baskets had been opened, old Pat lit a cigar and looked across at me. +His big, brown face was grave, and he played with his mustache as if in +some embarrassment. + +He and Arthur glanced at each other, and I understood what was in their +minds. + +"Look here, you fellows," I said, "about the sacred Brotherhood--what is +it in Spanish?" + +"Santa Hermandad," said Arthur. + +"Well, you've kept your oath splendidly. I cannot thank you enough. I +have had the running all to myself--as far as you two are concerned, for +twelve weeks." + +"Yes, twelve weeks," Pat replied, with a sigh. "We've kept out of the +way, old fellow, and I tell you it's been hard!" + +Arthur nodded in corroboration, and somehow or other I felt myself a +cur. Since boyhood we three had been like brothers, and it was a hard +fate indeed that led us to center all our hopes upon something that +could belong to one alone. + +Despite what must have been their burning eagerness to know how things +stood, both of them were far too delicate-minded and well-bred to ask a +question. I knew it was up to me to satisfy them. + +"Without going into details," I said, "I'll tell you just how it is, how +I think it is, for I may be quite wrong, and presuming upon what doesn't +exist." + +I thought for a moment, and chose my words carefully. It was extremely +difficult to say what I had to say. + +"It comes to about this," I got out at last. "I've every reason to +believe that she likes me. There's nothing decisive, but I've been given +some hope. I very nearly put it to the test three months ago, but was +interrupted and never had the chance again. At Cerne I'm going to try, +finally. By hook or crook, in forty-eight hours, I'll have some news for +you. And if I get the sack, then let the next man go in and win if he +can, and I'll join the third in doing everything that lies in my power +to help him." + +"I am next," said Pat Moore, "not that I've the deuce of a chance. But I +think you've spoken like a damn good sort, Tom, and we thank you. Arthur +and I will do our best to keep every one else off the grass while you go +in and try your luck. Faith! I'll make love to the duenna with the white +hair meself and keep her out of the way, and Arthur here will consult +with Morse upon the expediency of investing his large capital, which he +hasn't got, in a Brazil-nut farm. Anyhow, Perth, who has been the +safety bet with all the tipsters, won't be there. He's such a rotten +shot that Sir Walter wouldn't dream of asking him. The bag has got to be +kept up. For three years now, only Sandringham has beat it and a duffer +at a drive would send the average down appallingly." + +"What about me?" I asked, with a sinking of the heart. + +"God forgive me," said Arthur, "I've lied about you to Sir Walter like +the secretary of a building society to a maiden lady with two thousand +pounds. He was astonished that he had never heard of your shooting--of +course, he knows all the shots of the day, and I had to tell him a fairy +story about your late lamented father who was a Puritan and would never +let his son join country house-parties because they played cards after +dinner." + +I smiled, on the wrong side of my mouth. My dear old governor had been +anything but a Puritan: I feared the scandal which would inevitably +ensue when I went out for the first big drive. + +"That's all right, Tom," said Arthur, "you'll simply have to sprain your +ankle, or I'll give you a good hack in the shin privately if you like. +Sir Walter has only to send a wire to get a first-class gun down. There +are at least a dozen men I know who would almost commit parricide for +the chance." + +After that, by general consent, the subject of the league was dropped. +We all knew where we were, and for the rest of the journey we talked of +ordinary things. + +It was a bright afternoon in early autumn when we stopped at the little +local station and got into a waiting motor-car, while our servants +collected our things and followed in the baggage lorry. For myself, I +felt in the highest spirits as we buzzed along the three miles to Cerne +Hall. There was a pleasant nip in the air; the vast landscape was yellow +gold, as acre after acre of stubble stretched towards the horizon. Gray +church towers embowered in trees broke the vast monotony, and I +surrendered myself to a happy dream of Juanita, while Arthur and Pat +talked shooting and marked covies that rose on either side as we whirred +by. + +When we arrived at Cerne Hall it was not yet tea-time, and everybody was +out. The butler showed us to our rooms, all close together in the south +wing of the fine old house, and I smoked a cigarette while Preston was +unpacking. + +"Everybody arrived yet, Preston?" I asked. + +"Not yet, Sir Thomas, so I understand. I and Captain Moore's man and his +lordship's was havin' a cherry brandy in the housekeeper's room just +now, and the bulk of the house-party will be arriving by the later +train, between tea and dinner, Sir Thomas." + +"And Mr. Morse?" + +"Only just before dinner, Sir Thomas; he always travels in a special +train." + +I saw by Preston's face that he considered this a snobbish and +ostentatious thing to do, and, in the case of an ordinary +multi-millionaire, I should certainly have agreed with him. But I +recalled facts that had come to my notice about the famous Brazilian, +and I wondered. There was the astounding scene at the Ritz, for +instance, and more than that. I had not been following up Juanita for +three months, in town, at Henley, and at Cowes, without noticing that +Mr. Gideon Morse seemed to have an unobtrusive but quite singular +entourage. + +More than once, for example, I had caught sight of a certain great +hulking man in tweeds, a professional Irish-American bruiser, if ever +there was one. + +Tea was in the hall of the great house. I was introduced to Sir Walter, +a delightful man, with a hooked nose, a tiny mustache, the remains of +gray hair, and a charming smile. Lady Stileman also made me most +welcome. Her hair was gray, but her figure was slight and upright as a +girl's, and many girls in the County must have envied her dainty +prettiness, and the charm of her lazy, musical voice. + +Circumstances paired me off with a vivacious young lady whose face I +seemed to know, whose surname I could not catch, but whom every one +called "Poppy." + +"I say," she said, after her third cup of tea and fourth egg sandwich, +"you're the _Evening Special_, aren't you?" + +I admitted it. + +"Well," she said, "I do think you might give me a show now and then. +Considering the press I generally get, I've never been quite able to +understand why the _Special_ leaves me out of it." + +I thought she must be an actress--and yet she hadn't quite that manner. +At any rate I said: + +"I'm awfully sorry, but you see I'm only editor, and I've nothing really +to do with the dramatic criticism. However, please say the word, and +I'll ginger up my man at once." + +"Dramatic criticism!" she said, her eyes wide with surprise. "Sir +Thomas, can it really be that you don't know who I am?" + +It was a little embarrassing. + +"Do you know, I know your face awfully well," I said, "though I'm quite +sure we've never met before or I should have remembered, and when Lady +Stileman introduced us just now all I caught was Poppy." + +She sighed--I should put her between nineteen and twenty in age--"Well, +for a London editor, you _are_ a fossil, though you don't look more than +about six-and-twenty. Why, Poppy Boynton!" + +Then, in a flash, I knew. This was the Hon. Poppy Boynton, Lord +Portesham's daughter, the flying girl, the leading lady aviator, who had +looped the loop over Mont Blanc and done all sorts of mad, extraordinary +things. + +"_Of course_, I know you, Miss Boynton! Only, I never expected to meet +you here. What a chance for an editor! Do tell me all your adventures." + +"Will you give me a column interview on the front page if I do?" + +"Of course I will. I'll write it myself." + +"And a large photograph?" + +"Half the back page if you like." + +"You're a dear," she said in a business-like voice. "On second +thoughts, I'll write the interview myself and give it you before we +leave here. And, meanwhile, I'll tell you an extraordinary flight of +mine only yesterday." + +I was in for it and there was no way out. Still, she was extremely +pretty and a celebrity in her way, so I settled myself to listen. + +"What did you do yesterday morning?" I asked. "Did you loop the loop +over Saint Paul's or something?" + +"Loop the loop!" she replied, with great contempt. "That's an infantile +stunt of the dark ages. No, I went for my usual morning fly before +breakfast and saw a marvel, and got cursed by a djinn out of the Arabian +Nights." + +This sounded fairly promising for a start, but as she went on I jerked +like a fish in a basket. + +"You know the great wireless towers on Richmond Hill?" + +"Of course. The highest erection in the world, isn't it, more than twice +the height of the Eiffel Tower? You can see the things from all parts of +London." + +"On a clear day," she nodded, "the rest of the time the top is quite +hidden by clouds. Now it struck me I'd go and have a look at them close +to. Our place, Norman Court, is only about fifteen miles farther up the +Thames. I started off in my little gnat-machine and rose to about +fifteen hundred feet at once, when I got into a bank of fleecy wet +cloud, fortunately not more than a hundred yards or so thick. It was +keeping all the sun from London about seven-thirty yesterday morning. +When I came out above, of course I wasn't sure of my direction, but as I +turned the machine a point or so I saw, standing up straight out of the +cloud at not more than six miles away, the tops of the towers. I headed +straight for them." + +She lit a cigarette and I noticed her face changed a little. There was +an introspective look in the eyes, a look of memory. + +"As I drew near, Sir Thomas, I saw what I think is the most marvelous +sight I have _ever_ seen. You people who crawl about on earth never do +see what _we_ see. I have flown over Mont Blanc and seen the dawn upon +the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa from that height, and I thought that was +the most heavenly thing ever seen by mortal eye. But yesterday morning I +beat that impression--yes!--right on the outskirts of London and only a +few hours ago! Down from below nobody can really see much of the towers. +You haven't seen much, for instance, have you?" + +"Only that they're now all linked together at the top by the most +intricate series of girders, on the suspension principle, I suppose. +There are a lot of sheds and things on this artificial space, or at +least it looks like it." + +"Sheds and things! Sir Thomas, I thought I saw the New Jerusalem +floating on the clouds! The morning sun poured down upon a vast, hanging +space of which you can have no conception, and rising up on every side +from snowy-white ramparts were towers and cupolas with gilded roofs +which blazed like gold. There were fantastic halls pierced with Oriental +windows, walls which glowed like jacinth and amethyst, and parapets of +pearl. + +"It was a city, a City in the Clouds, a place of enchantment floating +high, high up above the smoke and the din of London--serene, majestic, +and utterly lovely. I tell you"--here her voice dropped--"the vision +caught at my heart, and a great lump came into my throat. I'm pretty +hard-bitten, too! As I went past one side of the immense triangle--which +must occupy several acres--on which the city is built, I saw an inner +courtyard with what seemed like green lawns. I could swear there were +trees planted there and that a great fountain was playing like a stream +of liquid diamonds. + +"I was so startled, and almost frightened, that I ripped away for +several miles till, descending a little through the cloud-bank, I found +I was right over Tower Bridge. + +"But I swore I'd see that majestic city again, and I spiraled up and +turned. + +"There it was, many miles away now, a mere speck upon the billowing snow +of the cloud-bank, and as I raced towards it once more it grew and grew +into all its former loveliness. I adjusted my engines and went as slow +as I possibly could--perhaps you know that our modern aeroplanes, with +the new helicopter central screw, can glide at not much more than +fifteen miles an hour, for a short distance that is. Well, that's what I +did, and once more the place burst upon me in all its wonder. It's the +marvel of marvels, Sir Thomas; I haven't got words even to hint at it. I +could see details more clearly now, and I floated by among the ramparts +on one side, not a pistol shot away. And then, upon the top of a little +flat tower there appeared the most extraordinary figure. + +"It was a gigantic yellow-faced man in a long robe and wide sleeves, +and he threw his hands above his head and cursed me. Of course the noise +of the engine drowned all he said, but his face was simply fiendish. I +just caught one flash of it, and I never want to see anything like it +again." + +I sat spellbound in my chair while she told me this and again the sense +that I was being borne along, whither I knew not, by some irresistible +current of fate, possessed me to the exclusion of all else. + +"Why, you look quite tired and gray, Sir Thomas," said Miss Boynton. "I +do hope I haven't bored you." + +"Bored me! I was away up in the air with you, looking upon that +enchanted city. But why, what do you make of it, have you told any one?" + +"Only father and my sister, who said that it must have been an illusion +of the mist, a refraction of the air at high altitudes that transformed +the wireless instrument sheds to fairyland." + +She shrugged her shoulders and smiled. + +"As if I didn't know all about that!" she said. "Why, it wasn't much +more than two thousand feet up--a mere hop." + +I had to think very rapidly at this juncture. The news took one's breath +away. To begin with, one thing seemed perfectly clear. Gideon Morse had +purposely told me as little as he possibly could. Yet, upon reflection, +I found that he had told me no lies. He had admitted that he was at the +bottom of this colossal enterprise--was it some Earl's Court of the air, +the last word in amusement catering? It might well be so, though +somehow or other the thought annoyed me. Moreover, the capital outlay +must have been so vast that such a scheme could never pay interest upon +it. Then I recollected that in a few hours more I should have my +promised talk with Morse and he would explain everything as he had +promised. There was still a chance of a big scoop for the _Evening +Special_. + +"Look here, Miss Boynton," I said, "if you keep what you have seen a +secret for the next two days, and then let me publish an account of it, +my paper would gladly pay two hundred and fifty pounds for the story." + +Her eyes opened wide, like those of a child who has been promised a very +big box of chocolates indeed. + +"Can do," she said, holding out a pretty little hand which flying had in +no way roughened or distorted. I took it, and so the bargain was made. + +Soon afterwards more guests began to arrive, and the great hall was full +of laughing, chattering figures, among whom were several people that I +knew. However, I was in no mood for society or small talk and I retired +to my own room and sat dreaming before a comfortable fire until Preston +came in and told me it was time to dress. + +I was ashamed to ask him if the Morses had arrived, but I went +downstairs into a large yellow drawing-room half full of people, and +looked round eagerly. + +Lady Stileman was standing by one of the fireplaces talking to Miss +Boynton, and I went up to them. Apparently it was a wonderful year for +"birds," as partridges, and partridges alone, are called in Norfolk. +They had hatched out much later than usual, hence the waiting until the +middle of September, but covies were abnormally large and the young +birds already strong upon the wing. Fortunately Lady Stileman did all +the talking; I smiled, looked oracular and said "Quite so" at intervals. +My eye was on the drawing-room door which led out into the hall. Once, +twice, it opened, but only to admit strangers to me. The third time, +when I made sure I should see her for whom I sought, no one came in but +a footman in the dark green livery of the house. He carried a salver, +and on it was the orange-colored envelope of a telegram. + +With a word of excuse Lady Stileman opened it. She nodded to the man to +go and then turned to me and Poppy Boynton. + +"Such a disappointment," she said. "Mr. Morse and his wonderfully pretty +daughter were to have been here, as I think you know. Now he wires to +say that business of the utmost importance prevents either him or his +daughter coming. Fortunately," the good lady concluded, "he doesn't +shoot, so that won't throw the guns out. Walter would be furious if that +happened." + +Arthur and Pat Moore came into the room at that moment, and Arthur told +me, an hour or so afterwards, that I looked as if I had seen a ghost, +and that my face was white as paper. + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +I must now, in the progress of the story, give a brief account of what I +may call "The week of rumor," which immediately preceded my +disappearance and plunge into the unknown. + +I spent a miserable and agitated evening at Cerne Hall, and went early +to my room. Arthur and Pat joined me there an hour later and for some +time we talked over what the telegram from Morse might mean, until they +retired to their own rooms and I was left alone. + +I did not sleep a wink--indeed, I made no effort to go to bed, though I +took off my clothes and wrapped myself in a dressing-gown. The suspense +was almost unbearable, and, failing further news, I determined, at any +cost to the shooting plans of my host, to get myself recalled to London +by telegram. I felt sure that the whole of my life's happiness was at +stake. + +The next morning at nine o'clock, just as I was preparing to go down to +breakfast, a long wire was brought to me. It was in our own office +cipher, which I was trained to read without the key, and it was signed +by Julia Dewsbury. The gist of the message was that there were strange +rumors all over Fleet Street about the great towers at Richmond. An +enormous sensation was gathering like a thunder cloud in the world of +news and would shortly burst. Would I come to London at the earliest +possible moment? + +How I got out of Cerne Hall I hardly remember, but I did, to the blank +astonishment of my host; drove to the nearest station, caught a train +which got me to Norwich in half an hour and engaged the swiftest car in +the city to run me up to London at top speed. Just after lunch I burst +into the office of the _Evening Special_. + +Williams and Miss Dewsbury were expecting me. + +"It's big stuff," said the acting editor excitedly, "and we ought to be +in it first, considering that we've more definite information than I +expect any other paper possesses as yet, though it won't be the case for +very long." + +I sat down with hardly a word, and nodded to Miss Dewsbury. Her training +was wonderful. She had everything ready in order to acquaint me with the +facts in the shortest possible space of time. + +She spoke into the telephone and Miss Easey--"Vera" of our "Society +Gossip"--came in. + +"I have found out, Sir Thomas," she said, "that Mr. Gideon Morse has +canceled all social engagements whatever for himself and his daughter. +Miss Dewsbury tells me that it's not necessary now to say what these +were. I will, however, tell you that they extended until the New Year +and were of the utmost social importance." + +"Canceled, Miss Easey?" + +"Definitely and finally _canceled_, both by letter to the various hosts +and hostesses concerned, and by an intimation which is already sent to +all the London dailies, for publication to-morrow. The notice came up +to my room this morning from our own advertising office, for inclusion +in 'Society Notes'--as you know such intimations are printed as news and +paid for at a guinea a line." + +"Any reason given, Miss Easey?" + +"None whatever in the notices, which are brief almost to curtness. +However, I have been able to see one of the private letters which has +been received by my friends, Lord and Lady William Gatehouse, of Banks. +It is courteously worded, and explains that Mr. and Miss Morse are +definitely retiring from social life. It's signed by his secretary." + +The invaluable Julia nodded to Miss Easey. She pursed up her prim old +mouth, wished me good-morning and rustled away. + +"That's _that_!" said Julia, "now about the towers." + +"Yes, about the towers," I said, and my voice was very hoarse. + +"As my poor friend, Mr. Rolston, discovered," she said bravely, "these +monstrous blots upon London are certainly not for the purposes of +wireless telegraphy. There are half the journalists in London at +Richmond at the present moment, including two of our own reporters, and +it is said that on the immense platforms between the towers, a series of +extraordinary and luxurious buildings has been erected. It is widely +believed that Gideon Morse is out of his mind, and has retired to a sort +of unassailable, luxurious hermitage in the sky." + +There was a knock at the door and a sub-editor came in with a long +white strip just torn from the tape machine. I took it and read that the +"Central News Agencies" announces "crowds at base of towers surrounded +by a thirty-foot wall. Callers at principal gate are politely received +by Boss Mulligan, formerly well-known boxer, United States, now in the +service of Gideon M. Morse. Inquirers told that no statement can be +issued for publication. Later. Rumor in neighborhood says that towers +are entirely staffed by special Chinese servants, large company of which +arrived at Liverpool on Thursday last. Growing certainty that towers are +private enterprise of one man, Morse, the Brazilian multi-millionaire." + +A telephone bell on my table rang. I took it up. + +"Is that Sir Thomas? Charles Danvers speaking"--it was the voice of our +dapper young Parliamentary correspondent, the nephew of a prominent +under-secretary, and as smart as they make them. + +"Yes, where are you?" + +"House of Commons. Mr. Bloxhame, Member for Budmouth, is asking a +question in the House this afternoon about the Richmond Tower sensation. +The Secretary to the Board of Trade will reply. There's great interest +in the lobby. Special edition clearly indicated. Question will come on +about four." + +I sent every one away and thought for a quarter of an hour. Of course +all this absolved me of my promise to Morse. He had played with me, +fooled me absolutely and I had been like a babe in his astute hands. +Well, there was no time to think of my own private grievances. My +immediate duty was to make as good a show that afternoon and the next +day as any other paper. My hope was to beat all my rivals out of the +field. + +After all, there were nothing but rumors and surmise up to the present. +The news situation might change in a couple of hours, but at the present +moment I felt certain that I knew more about the affair than any other +man in Fleet Street. I set my teeth and resolved to let old Morse have +it in the neck. + +Within an hour or so we had an "Extra Edition" on the streets, and +during that hour I drew on my own private knowledge and dictated to Miss +Dewsbury, and a couple of other stenographers. Poppy Boynton's +experience was a godsend. I remembered her own vivid words of the night +before, and I printed them in the form of an interview which must have +satisfied even that delightful girl's hunger for advertisement. +Incidentally, I sent a man from the Corps of Commissionaires down to +Cerne in a fast motor-car, with notes for two hundred and fifty in an +envelope, and instructions to stop in Regent Street on his way and buy +the finest box of chocolates that London could produce--I remember the +bill came in a few days afterwards, and if you'll believe me, it was for +seventeen pounds ten! + +At four o'clock, while the question was being asked in the House of +Commons, and all the other evening papers were waiting the result for +their special editions, my "Extra Special" was rushing all over +London--the "Extra Special" containing the "First Authentic Description +of the City in the Clouds." + +"You really are wonderful, Sir Thomas," said Miss Dewsbury, removing her +tortoise-shell spectacles and touching her eyes with a somewhat dingy +handkerchief, "but where, oh, where is William Rolston?" + +"My dear girl," I replied, "from what I've seen of William Rolston, I'm +quite certain that he's alive and kicking. Not only that, but we shall +hear from him again very shortly." + +"You really think so, Sir Thomas?"--the eyes, hitherto concealed by the +spectacles, were really rather fascinating eyes after all. + +"I don't _think_ so, I know it. Look here, Miss Dewsbury"--for some +reason I couldn't resist the temptation of a confidence--"this thing, +this stunt hits me privately a great deal harder than you can have any +idea of. You said that the shadow of the towers was across my path, and +you were more right than you knew. Enough said. I think we've whacked +Fleet Street this afternoon. Well and good. There's a lot behind this +momentary sensation, which I shall never leave go of until it's +straightened out. This is between you and me, not for office +consumption, but," I put my hand upon her thin arm, "if I can help in +any way, you shall have your Bill Rolston." + +She turned her head away and walked to the window. Then she said an +astonishing thing. + +"If only I could help you to your Juanita!" + +"WHAT!" I shouted, "what on earth--" + +A page came in with a telegram. + +"Addressed to you, Sir Thomas," he said, "marked personal." + +I tore it open, it was from Pat Moore. + + "Extraordinary youth followed us out shooting, and came up at lunch + asking for you. Boy of about sixteen. Mysterious cove with the + assurance of Mephistopheles. Some question of fifty pounds was to + get from you on delivering letter. Gave him your address and he + departed for London." + +I couldn't make head or tail of Pat's wire, and I put it down on the +table for future consideration, when Williams hurried in with a pad of +paper. + +"Danvers just 'phoned through," he said, "and I've sent the message +downstairs for the stop press." + +I began to read. + +"Bloxhame interrogated Secretary to the Board of Trade, who replied it +was perfectly true that the towers were built to the order of Gideon +Morse and were his property. Morse has entered into an agreement with +the Government engaging not to use the towers for wireless telegraphy or +for any other purpose than a strictly private one, which appears to be +that he intends to live on the platforms on the top. At his death the +whole property will pass into possession of the Government, to be used +for wireless purposes, or for the principal aeroplane station between +England and the Continent. Aeroplanes, when the existing buildings are +removed, will be able to alight from the platforms in numbers. +Expenditure from first to last, Board of Trade estimates at seven +millions. Feeling of House at such a magnificent gift to the Nation, +which is bound to fall in within twenty years or so, friendly and +satisfactory. In answer to a question from Commander Crosman, M.P. for +Rodwell, President Board of Aerial Control announces that strict orders +have been issued that aeroplanes are not to circle round the towers or +in any way annoy present proprietor. The House is greatly amused and +interested at this romantic news." + +Williams departed to issue another "Extra Special," and I was once more +left alone. Obviously the secret was out, it was startling enough in all +conscience, and, as I thought, merely the whim of a madman. And yet +there were aspects of it which were inexplicable. There could be no +doubt whatever that Gideon Morse had flouted English society, which had +treated him with extreme kindness, in a way that it would never forget. +That surely was not the action of a sane man. If he had wanted to build +for himself a lordly "pleasure house" to which he might retire upon +occasions, a sane man would have arranged things very differently. +Certainly, and this was not without some bitter satisfaction to me, he +had ruined his daughter's chances of a brilliant marriage--for a long +time at any rate. I saw that secrecy had been necessary, though it had +been carried to an extreme degree; but why had he fooled me under the +guise of friendship? Surely he could have trusted my word. + +I was furious as I thought of the way I had been done. I was furious +also, and worse than furious, alarmed, when I thought of Juanita. Had +she been in the plot the whole time? Did she like being spirited away +from all that could make a young girl's life bright and happy? What +_was_ at the bottom of it all? + +The only thing to do was to try and keep ahead, or level, with my rival +contemporaries in the matter of news, and privately to wait on events, +and think the matter out definitely. For the next few days, weeks +perhaps, some of the acutest brains in England would be puzzled over +this problem, and if there was really anything more in it than the freak +of a colossal egotist, who thus, with a superb gesture, signified his +scorn of the world, then some light might come. + +Suddenly I felt ill, and collapsed. I gave a few instructions, left the +office and went home to Piccadilly, and to bed. + +It was about eight o'clock when Preston woke me. I had had a bath and +changed, and was wondering exactly what I should do for the rest of the +evening, when Preston came in and said that there was a boy who wished +to see me. He would neither give his name nor his business, but seemed +respectable. + +I remembered Pat's mysterious telegram, which till now I had quite +forgotten, and with a certain quickening of the pulses I ordered the boy +to be shown up. + +He came into the room with a scrape and a bow, a nice-looking lad of +sixteen, decently dressed in black. + +"Who are you and what do you want?" I said. + +He seemed a little nervous and his eyes were bright. + +"Are you Sir Thomas Kirby?" + +"Yes, what is it? By the way, haven't you been all the way to Norfolk to +find me?" + +"Yes, sir, it's my day off, but unfortunately I found you had left, sir, +so I came on here as fast as I could. A gentleman at Cerne Hall gave me +your address." + +"And how did you know I was at Cerne Hall?" + +"It's on the envelope, sir." + +"The envelope?" + +"Yes, sir, the one I was to deliver to you personally, and on no account +to let it get into the hands of any one else, even one of your servants, +sir, and"--he breathed a little fast--"and the lady said that you would +certainly give me fifty pounds, sir, if I did exactly as she ordered, +and never breathed a word to a single soul." + +In an instant I understood. The blood grew hot and raced into my veins +as I held out my hand, trembling with impatience, while the youth +performed a somewhat complicated operation of half undressing, +eventually producing a brown paper packet intricately tied with string, +from some inner recesses of his wardrobe. + +"Who are you?" I asked while he was unbuttoning. + +"James Smith, sir, one of the pages at the Ritz Hotel." + +I tore off the wrappers imposed upon the letter by this cautious youth. +There was a letter addressed to me in a fine Italian hand which I knew +from having seen it in one word only--"Cerne." + +Fortunately, I had plenty of money in the flat and there was no need to +give the excellent James Smith a check. + +He gasped with joy as he tucked away the crackling bits of paper. + +"And remember, not ever a word to any one, Smith." + +"On my honor, sir," he said, saluting. + +"And what will you do with it, Smith?" + +"Please, sir, I hope to pelmanize myself into an hotel manager," he +said, and I let him go at that. I only hope that he will succeed. + +I opened the letter. It ran as follows: + + "Farewell. I don't suppose we shall ever meet again. I am forced to + retire from the world--from love--from you. + + "I cannot explain, but fear walks with me night and day. Oh, my + love! if you could only save me, you would, I know, but it is + impossible and so farewell. Were I not sure that we shall not see + each other more I could not write as I have done and signed myself + here, + + "Your + "JUANITA." + +I put the letter carefully into the breast-pocket of my coat, and then, +for the first time in my life, I fainted dead away. + +Preston found me a few minutes later, got me right somehow, ascertained +that I had not eaten for many hours, scolded me like a father, and +poured turtle soup into me till I was alive again, alive and changed +from the man I had been a few hours ago. + + * * * * * + +The next day I satisfied myself that all was going well in the office, +and simply roamed about London. Already I think the dim purpose which +afterwards came to such extraordinary fruit was being born in my mind. I +wanted to be alone, taken quite out of my usual surroundings, and I +achieved this with considerable success. I rode in tube trains and heard +every one discussing Gideon Morse, and what was already known as the +"City in the Clouds." The papers announced that thousands of people were +encamped in Richmond Park gazing upwards, and seeing nothing because of +a cloud veil that hung around the top of the towers. It seemed the +proprietors of telescopes on tripods were doing a roaring trade at +threepence a look, but the gate in the grim, prison-like walls +surrounding the grounds at the foot of the tower, was never once opened +all day long. + +I began to realize that probably nothing new, nothing reliable that is, +would transpire at present. The sensation would go its usual way. There +would be songs and allusions in all the revues to-night. Punch would +have a cartoon, suggesting the City in the Clouds as a place of +banishment for its particular bugbear of the moment. Gossip papers would +be full of beautiful, untrue stories of a romantic nature about the girl +I loved, her name would be the subject of a million jokes by a million +vulgar people. Then, little by little, the excitement would die away. + +All this, as a trained journalist I foresaw easily enough, but knowing +what I knew--what probably I alone of all the teeming millions in London +knew--I was forming a resolve, which hourly grew stronger, that I would +never rest until I knew the worst. + +I found myself in Kensington. There was a motor-omnibus starting for +Whitechapel Road. I climbed on the top. + +"I sye," piped a little ragamuffin office boy to his friend, "why does +Jewanniter live in the clouds, Willum?" + +"Arsk me another." + +"'Cos she's a celebrated 'airess--see?" + +"What I say," said a meager-looking man with a bristling mustache which +unsuccessfully concealed his slack and feeble mouth, "is simply this. If +Mr. Morse chooses to live in a certain way of life and 'as the money to +carry it out, why not let him alone? Freedom for every individual is a +'progative of English life, and I expect Morse is fair furious with what +they're saying about him, for I have it on the best authority that a +copy of every edition of the _Evening Special_ goes up to him in the +tower lifts as soon as it is issued." + +Words, words, words! everywhere, silly, irresponsible chatter which I +heeded as little as a thrush heeds a shower of rain. + +Steadily, swiftly, certainly, my purpose grew. + +I got down in the Whitechapel Road, that wide and unlovely thoroughfare, +and, feeling hungry, went into a dingy little restaurant partitioned off +in boxes. The tablecloth was of stained oil skin, the guests the +seediest type of minor clerks, but I do remember that for ninepence I +had a little beefsteak and kidney pudding to myself which was as good as +anything I have ever eaten. As I went out I saw my neighbor of the +omnibus who had spoken so eloquently of freedom, walking by with a +little black bag, as in an aimless way I hailed a taxicab from the rank +opposite a London hospital and told the man to drive slowly westwards. + +He did so, and when we came to the Embankment a gleam of afternoon +sunshine began to enlighten what had been a leaden day. Thinking a brisk +walk from Black Friars to Westminster would help my thoughts, I +dismissed the cab and started. + +It was with an odd little thrill and flutter of the heart that far away +westwards, to the left of the Houses of Parliament, I saw three ghostly +lines, no thicker than lamp posts, it seemed, springing upwards from +nothingness. At Cleopatra's Needle, I felt the want of a cigarette and +stopped to light one. + +At the moment there were few people on the pavement, though the +unceasing traffic in the road roared by as usual. I lit the cigarette, +put my case back in my pocket, and was about to continue my stroll when +I heard some one padding up behind me with obvious purpose. + +I half turned, and there again I saw the man with the weak mouth and the +big mustache. + +It flashed upon me, for the first time, that I was being followed, had +been followed probably during the whole of my wanderings. + +As I said, there was nobody immediately about, so I turned to +rabbit-face and challenged him. + +"You're following me, my man, why? Out with it or I'll give you in +charge." + +"Yer can't," he said. "This is a free country, freedom is my 'progative +as well as yerself, Sir Thomas Kirby. I've done nothing to annoy yer, +have I?" + +I shrugged my shoulders. + +"But you have been following me." + +His manner changed at once. + +"Ever since you left Piccadilly, Sir Thomas, waiting my opportunity. I'm +a private inquiry agent by profession, though this job of shadowing you +has nothing to do with the office that employs me. I have a young friend +in my house who's turned up sudden and mysterious, a young friend I lost +sight of many weeks ago. He says you'll come to him at once if I could +only get you alone and be certain that no one saw me speak to you. His +instructions were to follow you about until such an opportunity as this +arose, and all the time I was to be certain that no one else was +following you. I have ascertained that all right." + +He put his head close to mine and I felt his hot breath upon my cheek. + +"It's Mr. William Rolston, Sir Thomas," he said. "I'm not in his +confidence, though I have long admired his abilities and predicted a +great future for him. He's come to me in distress and I am doing what I +can to 'elp 'im--this being a day when they've no job for me at the +office." + +"Good Lord! why didn't you speak to me this morning, if you've been +following me all day?" + +He shook his head. + +"Wouldn't have done. Mr. Rolston's instructions was different and he has +his reasons, though I'm not in his confidence. I've done it out of +admiration for his talents, and no doubt some day he'll be in a position +to pay me for my work." + +"Pay you, you idiot!" I could have taken him by the throat and shaken +the fool. "Mr. Rolston knows very well that he can command any money he +chooses. He's a member of my staff." + +We were now walking along together towards Westminster. + +"That's as may be," said my seedy friend, "but 'e 'adn't a brass +farthing this morning, and come to that, Sir Thomas, if you'd got into +another blinking taxi, you'd have snookered _me_!" + +"Where do you live?" I asked impatiently. + +"Not far from where you 'ad your lunch, Sir Thomas. 15, Imperial +Mansions, Royal Road, Stepney." + +"It's a magnificent address," I said, as I held out my stick for a cab. + +"It's a block o' workmen's buildings, reely," he replied gloomily, "and +in the thick of the Chinese quarter, which makes it none too savory. But +an Englishman's house is his castle and he has the 'progative to call it +what he likes." + +Back east we went again and in half an hour I was mounting interminable +stone steps to a door nearly at the top of "Imperial Mansions," which my +guide, who during our drive had introduced himself to me as Mr. Herbert +Sliddim, announced as his home. In a dingily furnished room, sitting on +a molting, plush sofa I saw the curious little man to whom I had so +taken months ago. He was shabby almost to beggary. His face was pale and +worn, which gave him an aspect of being much older than I had imagined +him. But his irrepressible ears stood out as of yore and his eyes were +not dimmed. + +"Hallo," I said, "glad to see you, Mr. Rolston, though you've neglected +us at the office for a long time. Your arrears of salary have been +mounting up." + +His hand was trembling as I gripped it. + +"Oh, Sir Thomas," he said, "do you really mean that I am still on the +staff?" + +"Of course you are, my dear boy." + +I turned to Mr. Sliddim. + +"Now I wonder," I said, "if I might have a little quiet conversation +with Mr. Rolston." + +"By all means," he replied. "I'll wait in the courtyard." + +"I shouldn't do that, Mr. Sliddim. Why not take a tour round?" + +I led him out of the room into the passage which served for hall, +pressed a couple of pounds into his hand and had the satisfaction of +seeing him leap away down the stairs like an antelope. + +"That's all right," said Rolston. "Now he'll go and get blotto, it's the +poor devil's failing. Still, he'll be happy." + +I sat down, passed my cigarette case to Rolston, and waited for him to +begin. + +He sort of came to attention. + +"I was rung up, Sir Thomas, at your flat--at least your valet was--and +told to come to the office of the _Evening Special_ at once." + +"I know, go on." + +"I dressed as quickly as I could, ran down the stairs and jumped into +the waiting cab. The door banged and we started off. The engines must +have been running, for we went away like a flash. There was some one +else sitting there. A hand clapped over my mouth and an arm round my +body. I couldn't move or speak. Then the thumb of the hand did something +to the big nerves behind my ear. It's an Oriental trick and I had just +realized it when something wet and sweet was pressed over my mouth and +nose, and I lost all consciousness. + +"When I woke up I found myself in a fair-sized room, lit by a skylight +high up in the roof. There was a bed, a table, a chair, and various +other conveniences, and I hadn't the slightest idea where I could be. My +head ached and I felt bruised all over, so I drank a glass of water, +crawled back into the bed and slept. When I woke again there was an +affable Chink sitting by my side, who spoke quite good English. + +"'You will,' he said, 'be kept here for some time in durance, yess. It's +an unfortunate necessity, yess.' + +"I heard on all sides familiar noises. I knew in a moment what had +happened. I had been brought back to the works at the base of the three +towers." + +"All this fits in very well with what I now know, Rolston. I'll tell you +everything in a minute, but I want to hear your story first." + +"Very good, Sir Thomas. For over three months I've been kept a prisoner +at Richmond. I wasn't badly treated. I had anything I liked to eat and +drink, any books to read--tobacco, a bath--everything but newspapers, +which were rigidly denied me. I wasn't kept entirely to my prison room. +I was allowed to go out and take exercise within the domain surrounded +by the great thirty-foot wall, though I was never let to roam about as I +wished. There was always a big Chinese coolie with a leaded cane +attending me, a man that only spoke a few words of English. + +"Now, Sir Thomas, please remember this. From first to last none of my +jailers knew that I understood Chinese. And none of them knew or +suspected that I had been among the workmen before, in order to get +materials for the scoop with which I came to you." + +I saw the value of that at once. + +"Good for you, Rolston; now please continue." + +"Well, Sir Thomas, I kept my eyes and ears very wide open and I learnt a +lot. Things were being prepared with a feverish activity of which the +people outside had not the slightest idea. I found that round the base +of the towers, in the miniature park inclosed by the high wall, there +were already magnificent vegetable gardens in active being. There were +huge conservatories which must have been set up when the towers were +only a few hundred feet high, now full of the rarest flowers and shrubs. +In my walks, I saw a miniature poultry farm, conducted on the most +up-to-date methods; there was a dairy, with four or five cows--already +this part of the huge inclosure was assuming a rural aspect. It must +have been planned and started nearly two years ago." + +"You asked questions, I suppose?" + +"Any amount, as innocently as I possibly could. I got very little out of +my captors in reply. Your Chinaman is the most secretive person in the +world. _But_, I heard them talking among themselves; and I was amazed at +the calculated organization which had been going on without cessation +from the beginning. + +"It all fitted in exactly with what I told you at the _Special_ office. +It was as though Mr. Morse was planning a little private world of his +own, which would be independent of everything outside." + +"And about the towers themselves?" + +"It will take me hours to tell you. In one quarter of the inclosure +there are great dynamo sheds--an electric installation inferior to +nothing else of its kind in the world. The great lifts which rise and +fall in the towers are electric. Heating, lighting, artificial daylight +for the conservatories--all are electric. + +"Where I was kept," he went on, "was nearly a quarter of a mile from the +engineering section, but I knew that it hummed with extraordinary +activity night and day. I discovered that structural buildings of light +steel were pouring in from America, that an army of decorators and +painters was at work; vans of priceless Oriental furniture and hangings +were arriving from all parts of the world, rare flowers and shrubs also. +Sir Thomas, it was as though the Universe was being searched for +wonders--all to be concentrated here. + +"This went on and on till I lost count of the days and lived in a sort +of dream, kindly treated enough, allowed to see many secret things, and +always with a sense that because this was so, I should never again +emerge into the real world." + +"I can understand that, Rolston. Every word you say interests me +extremely." + +"I'll come to the present, Sir Thomas. You can ask me any details that +you like afterwards. A few days ago everything was speeded up to +extraordinary pitch. Then, late one night, there was a great to-do, and +in the morning I learned that Mr. Morse and his family had arrived, and +that they were up at the top. I have found out since that this was the +fourteenth of September." + +"The fourteenth!" I cried. + +"Yes, Sir Thomas, the fourteenth. The next day, it was late in the +afternoon and the sun was setting, two Chinamen came into my room, tied +a handkerchief over my eyes and led me out. I was put into one of the +little electric railways--open cars which run all over the +inclosure--and taken to the base of the towers. + +"I don't know which tower it was, but I was led into a lift and a long, +slow ascent began. I knew that I was in one of the big carrying lifts +that take a long time to do the third of a mile up to the City, not one +of the quick-running elevators which leap upwards from stage to stage +for passengers and arrive at the top in a comparatively short space of +time. + +"When the lift stopped they took off the handkerchief and I found myself +in a great whitewashed barn of a place which was obviously a storeroom. +There were bales of stuff, huge boxes and barrels on every side. + +"The men who had brought me up were just rough Chinese workmen from Hong +Kong, but a door opened and a Chink of quite another sort came in and +took me by the arm. + +"You see, Sir Thomas," he explained, "to the ordinary Englishman one +Chinaman is just like another, but my experience in the East enables me +to distinguish at once. + +"The newcomer was of a very superior class, and he led me out of the +storeroom, across a swaying bridge of latticed steel to a little +rotunda. As we passed along, I had a glimpse of the whole of London, +far, far below. The Thames was like a piece of glittering string. +Everything else were simply patches of gray, green, and brown. + +"We went into the cupola and a tiny lift shot us up like a bullet until +it stopped with a clank and I knew that I was now upon the highest +platform of all. + +"But I could see nothing, for we simply turned down a long corridor +lighted by electricity and softly carpeted, which might have been the +corridor of one of the great hotels far down below in town. + +"My conductor, who wore pince-nez and a suit of dark blue alpaca and who +had a charming smile, stopped at a door, rapped, and pushed me in. + +"I found myself in a room of considerable size. It was a library. The +walls were covered with shelves of old oak, in which there were +innumerable books. A Turkey carpet, two or three writing-tables--and Mr. +Gideon Morse, whom I had never spoken to, but had seen driving in Hyde +Park, sat there smoking a cigar. + +"I might have been in the library of a country house, except for two +things. There were no windows to this large and gracious room. It was +lit from above, like a billiard-room--domed skylights in the roof. But +the light that came down was not a light like anything I had ever seen. +It lit up every detail of the magnificent and stately place, but it was +new--'the light that never was on earth or sea.' It was just that that +made me realize where I was--two thousand three hundred feet up in the +air, alone with Gideon Morse, who had snatched me out of life three +months before." + +"I know Mr. Morse, Rolston. What impression did he make on you?" + +"For a moment he stunned me, Sir Thomas. I knew I was in the presence of +a superman. All that I had heard about him, all the legends that +surrounded his name, the fact of this stupendous sky city in which I +was--the ease with which he had stretched out his hand and made me a +prisoner, all combined to produce awe and fear." + +"Yes, go on." + +"I saw two other things--I think I did. One was that the man's sanity is +trembling in the balance. The other that if ever a human being lives and +moves and has his being in deadly temporal fear, Gideon Mendoza Morse is +that man." + +The words rang out in that East-end room with prophetic force. It was as +though a brilliant light was snapped on to illumine a dark chamber in my +soul. + +"What did he say to you, Rolston?" + +"He was suavity and kindness itself. He said that he immensely regretted +the necessity for secluding me so long. 'But of course I shall make it +up to you. You're a young man, Mr. Rolston, only just commencing your +career. A little capital would doubtless assist that career, in which I +may say I have every belief. Shall we say that you leave Richmond this +afternoon with a solatium of five hundred pounds?' + +"'A thousand would suit me better,' I said. + +"He shrugged his shoulders, and suddenly smiled at me. + +"'Very well,' he said, 'let it be a thousand pounds.' + +"'Of course without prejudice, Mr. Morse.' + +"'Please explain yourself.' + +"'You've kidnaped me. You've also committed an offense against the law +of England--a criminal offense for which you will have to suffer. +Perhaps you don't realize that if you built your house miles further up, +if you managed to nearly reach the moon, British justice would reach you +at last.' + +"He shook his head sadly. + +"'To that point of view, I hardly agree, Mr. Rolston. I am quite unable +to purchase British justice, but I can put such obstacles in its way +that could--' + +"He suddenly stopped there, lit a little brown cigarette, came up and +patted me on the shoulder. + +"'Child,' he said, 'you are clever, you are original, I like you. But +have a sense of proportion, and remember that you have no choice in this +matter. I will give you the money you want on condition that you go away +and bring no action whatever against me. If not--' + +"'If not, sir?' + +"'Well, you will have to stay here, that's all. You won't be badly +treated. You can be librarian if you like, but you will never see the +outside world again.' + +"'May I have a few hours to consider, sir?' + +"'A month if you like,' he said, pressing a bell upon his table. + +"The same bland young Chinaman led me out of the library and down to the +storeroom in the lift. I was blindfolded, and descended to the ground. + +"There I met a man whom I had seen two or three times during the last +three days, a great seven-foot American with arms like a gorilla, a +thing called 'Boss Mulligan,' whom I had gathered from the conversation +of my Chinese friends, had now arrived to take charge of the whole +city--a sort of head policeman and guard. + +"'Sonny,' he said, 'I've had a 'phone down from the top in regard to +you. Now don't you be a short sport. You've been made a good offer. You +grip it and be like fat in lavender. My advice to you is to wind a smile +round your neck and depart with the dollars. I can see you're full of +pep and now you've got fortune before you. See that pavilion over +there?' + +"He pointed to where a little gaudily painted house nestled under one of +the great feet of the first tower. + +"'That's my mansion. You wander about for an hour or so and come there +and say you agree to the boss's terms--we'll take your word for it. Upon +the word "Yes," I'll hand you out at the gate and you can go to Paris +for a trip.' + +"'I'll think it over,' I said. + +"'Do so, and don't be a life-everlasting, twenty-four-hours-a-day, +dyed-in-the-wool damn fool.' + +"It was getting dusk. I was in a new part of the inclosed park. He let +me go without any watchful Chinese attendant at my heels, and I strolled +off with my head bent down as if deep in thought. + +"I'd got an hour, and I think I made the best use of it. I hurried along +under the shadow of the towers, past shrubberies, artificial lakes, +summer-houses and little inclosed rose-gardens until I was far away from +Mr. Mulligan. Here and there I passed a patient Chinese gardener or some +hurrying member of Morse's little army. But nobody stopped me or +interfered with me. For the first time since my captivity I was +perfectly free. + +"To cut a long story short, Sir Thomas, I came to a rectangle in the +great encircling wall, which at that point was thirty feet high. The +parapet at the top was obviously being repaired, for there was a ladder +right up, pails of mortar, bricklayers' tools, and a coil of rope for +binding scaffolding. I nipped up the ladder, carrying the rope after me, +fixed it at the top, slid down easily enough, and in a quarter of an +hour was in Richmond station. I didn't dare to go back to my old rooms +because I was sure there would be a secret hue and cry after me. I +thought of my old friend, Mr. Sliddim, traveled to Whitechapel with my +last pence, and here I am." + +"Still a member of my staff?" + +"If you please, Sir Thomas." + +"Ready for anything?" + +"Anything and everything." + +"Then come with me to Piccadilly--if they look for you there again we +shall be prepared." + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +I have to tell of a brief interlude before I got to work in earnest. + +The very day after the rediscovery of Rolston I fell ill. The strain had +been too much, a severe nervous attack was the result, and my vet. +ordered me to the quietest watering-place in Brittany that I could find. +I protested, but in vain. The big man told me what would happen if I +didn't go, so I went, _faute-de-mieux_, and took Rolston with me. + +I acquainted Arthur Winstanley and Pat Moore of my movements by letter, +and I engaged the seedy Mr. Sliddim to abide permanently in Richmond and +to forward me a full report of all he observed, and of all rumors, +connected with the City in the Clouds. When I had subscribed to a +press-cutting agency to send me everything that appeared in print +relating to Gideon Morse and his fantastic home, I felt I had done +everything possible until I should be restored to health. + +Of my month in Pont Aven I shall say nothing save that I lived on fine +Breton fare, walked ten miles a day, left Rolston--who proved the most +interesting and stimulating companion a man could have--to answer all my +letters, and went to bed at nine o'clock at night. + +Heartache, fear for Juanita, occasional fits of fury at my own inaction +and impotence? Yes, all these were with me at times. But I crushed them +down, forced myself to think as little as possible of her, in order that +when once restored to health and full command of my nerves, I might +begin the campaign I had planned. You must picture me therefore, one +afternoon at the end of October, arriving from Paris by the five o'clock +train, dispatching Rolston to Piccadilly with the luggage, and driving +myself to Captain Moore's quarters at Knightsbridge Barracks. + +I had summoned a meeting of our league, which we had so fancifully named +"Santa Hermandad"--a fact that was to have future consequences which +none of us ever dreamed of--by telegram from Paris. + +Pat and Arthur were awaiting me in the former's comfortable +sitting-room. A warm fire burned on the hearth as we sat down to tea and +anchovy toast. + +I had been in more or less frequent communication with both of them +during my sick leave, and when we began to discuss the situation we +dispensed with preliminaries. + +It was Pat who, so to speak, took the chair, leaning against an old +Welsh sideboard of oak, crowded with polo and shooting cups, shields for +swordsmanship and other trophies. + +"Now, you two," he said, "we know certain facts, and we have arrived at +certain conclusions. + +"First of all, as to the facts. Miss Morse is as good as engaged to Tom +here. Arthur and I are 'also ran.' Fact number one. Fact number two, she +has been suddenly and forcibly taken away from the world, and is in +great distress of mind. That so, brother leaguers?" + +We murmured assent. + +"Now for our deductions. Morse, divil take him! has some deadly +important reason for this fantastic, spectacular show of his. The public +see it as the fancy of a chap who's so much money he don't know what to +do with it, a fellow that's exhausted all sensation and is now trying +for a new one. Let 'em think so! But _we_ know--here in this room--a +long sight more than the general public knows. Tom and that young +fly-by-night, with the red hair and the stained-glass-window ears, he's +been cartin' about with him, have got behind the scenes." + +Pat's face hardened. + +"We alone are certain that the man Morse, for all his equanimity and the +mask he has presented to London during the season, has been living under +the influence of some dirty, cowardly fear or other!" + +Arthur interrupted. + +"Fear, if you like, Pat, but I don't think it is probably dirty, or even +cowardly. You forget Miss Morse." + +"Perhaps you're right. At any rate, if Gideon Morse is really menaced by +some great danger, what cleverer trick could he have played? To let the +world suppose that it's his whim and fancy to live like a rook at the +top of an elm tree, when all the time he's providing against the +possibility of annihilation, that's a stroke of genius." + +"Good for you, Pat," said Arthur with a wink to me, "you're on the track +of it." + +"Indeed, and I think I am," said the big guardsman simply, "and here's +the cunning of it, the supreme sense of self-preservation. If that man +Morse is in fear of his life, and in fear for his daughter's too, he +couldn't have invented a more perfect security than he has done. From +all we know, from all Tom has told us, no one can get at them now but an +archangel!" + +Then Arthur spoke. + +"For my part," he said, "as I'm vowed to the service, I'm going straight +to Brazil and I'm going to find out everything I can about the past life +of Gideon Morse. I speak Spanish as you know. I think I'm fairly +diplomatic, and in a little more than a couple of months I'll return +with big news, if I'm not very much mistaken. And there's always the +cable too. We are pledged to Tom, but beyond that we're united together +to save the little lady from evil or from harm. To-morrow I sail for +Rio." + +"And I," I said, "have already made my plans. To-morrow I disappear +absolutely from ordinary life. Only two people in London will know where +I am, and what I am doing--Preston, my servant in Piccadilly, and one +other whom I shall appoint at the offices of my paper. While Arthur is +gathering information which will be of the greatest use, I must be +working on the spot. I imagine there isn't much time to lose." + +"And what'll I do?" asked Pat Moore. + +"You, Pat, will stay here, lead your ordinary life, and hold yourself +ready for anything and everything when I call upon you. And as far as I +can see," I concluded, "there will be a very pressing necessity for your +help before much more water has flowed under Richmond Bridge." + +There was an end of talking; we were all in deadly earnest. We grasped +hands, arranged a system of communication, and then I and Arthur went +down the stone steps, across the parade ground, and said good-by at Hyde +Park corner. + +"You--?" he said. + +"You will see in the papers that Sir Thomas Kirby is gone for a voyage +round the world." + +"And as a matter of fact?" + +"I think I won't give you any details, old man. My plan is a very odd +one indeed. You wouldn't quite understand, and you'd think it +extraordinary--as indeed it is." + +"It can't be more fantastic than the whole bitter business," he said, +and his voice was full of pain. + +I saw, for the first time, that he had grown older in the last few +months. The boyishness in him which had been one of his charms, was +passing away definitely and forever. He was hard hit, as we all were, +and I reproached myself for my egotism. After all, if there was any hope +at all, I was the most fortunate. Arthur and staunch old Pat Moore were +giving up their time, their energies, to bring about a conclusion from +which I alone should benefit. + +We were crossing the Green Park as this was borne in upon me. It was a +dull, gray afternoon, rapidly deadening into evening. There seemed no +color anywhere. But when I thought of the faithful, uncomplaining, even +joyous adherence to our oath, when I understood for the first time how +these two friends of mine were laboring without hope of reward, then I +saw, as in a vision, the wonder and sacredness of unselfish love. + +"Arthur," I said, as we were about to part at Hyde Park corner, "God +forgive me, but I believe your love for her is greater than mine." + +"Don't say that, Tom. When we threw the dice, if the Queen had come to +me you would be doing what I am doing now, or what Pat is ready to do." + +Well, of course, that was true, but when we gripped hands and turned our +backs upon each other, I walked slowly towards my flat with a hanging +head. + +For one brief moment I had caught a glimpse of that love which Dante +speaks of--that love "which moves earth and all the stars"--and in the +presence of so high a thing I was bowed and humbled. + +Let me also be worthy of such company, was my prayer. + + * * * * * + +At ten o'clock the next morning I stood in my bedroom with Preston in +attendance. Preston's face, usually a well-bred mask which showed +nothing of his feelings, was gravely distressed. + +"Shall I do, Preston?" I asked. + +"Yes, Sir Thomas, you'll _do_," he said regretfully, "but I must say, +Sir Thomas, that--" + +"Shut up, Preston, you've said quite enough. Am I the real thing or +not?" + +"Certainly not, Sir Thomas," he said with spirit. "How could you be the +real thing? But I'm bound to say you _look_ it." + +"You mean that your experience of a small but prosperous suburban +public-house, visited principally by small tradespeople, leads you to +suppose that I might pass very well for the landlord of such a place?" + +"I am afraid it does, Sir Thomas," he replied with a gulp, as I surveyed +myself once more in the long mirror of my wardrobe door. + +I was about six feet high in my boots, fair, with a ruddy countenance +and somewhat fleshy face--not gross I believe, but generally built upon +a generous scale. + +That morning I had shaved off my mustache, had my hair arranged in a new +way--that is to say, with an oily curl draping over the forehead--and I +had very carefully penciled some minute crimson veins upon my nose. I +ought to say that I have done a good deal of amateur acting in my time +and am more or less familiar with the contents of the make-up box. + + [NOTE.--My master, Sir Thomas Kirby, has long been known as one of + the handsomest gentlemen in society. He has a full face certainly, + but entirely suited to his build and physical development. Of + course, when he shaved off a mustache that was a model of such + adornments, it did alter his appearance considerably.--HENRY + PRESTON.] + +Instead of the high collar of use and wont, I wore a low one, +permanently attached to what I believe is known as a "dicky"--that is to +say, a false shirt front which reaches but little lower than the opening +of the waistcoat. My tie was a made-up four-in-hand of crimson +satin--not too new, my suit of very serviceable check with large +side-pockets, purchased second-hand, together with other oddments, from +a shop in Covent Garden. I also wore a large and massive gold +watch-chain, and a diamond ring upon the little finger of my right hand. + +That was all, yet I swear not one of my friends would have known me, and +what was more important still, I was typical without having overdone it. +No one in London, meeting me in the street, would have turned to look +twice at me. You could not say I was really disguised--in the true +meaning of the word--and yet I was certainly entirely transformed, and +with my cropped hair, except for the "quiff" in front, I looked as +blatant and genial a bounder as ever served a pint of "sixes." + +Preston had left the room for a moment and now came back to say that Mr. +W. W. Power had arrived. + +W. W. Power was the youngest partner in a celebrated firm of solicitors, +Power, Davids and Power--a firm that has acted for my father and myself +for more years than I can remember. + +Under his somewhat effeminate exterior and a languid manner, young Power +is one of the sharpest and cleverest fellows I know, and, what's more, +one that can keep his mouth shut under any circumstances. + +I went into the dining-room, hoping to make him start. Not a bit of it. +He merely put up his eyeglass and said laconically: "You'll do, Sir +Thomas"--not more than two years ago he had been an under-graduate at +Cambridge! + +"You think so, Power?" + +He nodded and looked at his watch. + +"All right then, we'll be off," I said, and Preston called a taxi, on +which were piled a large brass-bound trunk and a shabby +portmanteau--also recent purchases, and with the name H. Thomas painted +boldly upon them. Preston's Christian name by the way is Henry and I had +borrowed it for the occasion. + +I got into the cab with a curious sensation that some one might be +looking on and discover me. Power seated himself by my side with no +indication of thought at all, and we rolled away westward. + +"Nothing remains," he said, "but to complete the documents of sale. +Everything is ready, and I have the money in notes in my pocket. The +solicitor of the retiring proprietor will be in attendance, and the +whole thing won't take more than twenty minutes. Newby, the present man, +will then step out and leave you in undisturbed possession." + +"Very good, Power, and thank you for your negotiations. Seven thousand +pounds seems a lot of money for a little hole like that." + +"It isn't really. You see the place is freehold and the house is free +also. It's not under the dominion of any brewer, and when your purpose +in being there is over, I'll guarantee to sell it again for the same +money, probably a few hundreds more. As an investment it's sound +enough." + +He relapsed into silence and we rattled through Hammersmith on our way +to Richmond. I was curious about this imperturbable young man, whom I +knew rather well. + +"Aren't you curious, Power," I said, "to know why I'm doing this +extraordinary, unprecedented thing? I can trust you absolutely I know, +but haven't you asked yourself what the deuce I'm up to?" + +He favored me with a pale smile. + +"My dear Sir Thomas," he replied, "if you only knew what extraordinary +things society people _do_ do, if you knew a tenth of what a solicitor +in my sort of practice knows, you wouldn't think there was anything +particularly strange in your little freak." + +Confound the cub! I could have punched him in the jaw. I knew his +assurance was all pose. Still it was admirable in its way and I burst +into hearty laughter. + +I had the satisfaction of seeing Master Power's cheeks faintly tinged +with pink! + +On the slope of the hill, at what one might describe as the back of the +high wall which inclosed the grounds at the foot of the three +towers--that is to say, it was exactly opposite the great central +entrance, and I suppose nearly quarter of a mile from it if one drew a +straight line from one to the other--was a crowded huddle of mean +streets. It was not in any sense a slum--nothing so picturesque--small, +drab, shabby, and respectable. In the center of this area was a +fair-sized, but old-fashioned, public-house, known as the "Golden Swan." +This was our destination, and in a few minutes more we had climbed the +hill and the taxi stood at rest before a side door. + +Opening it we entered, Power leading the way, and as we approached some +stairs I caught a glimpse of a little plush-furnished bar to the left, +where I could have sworn I saw the melancholy Sliddim in company with a +pewter pot. + +We waited for a moment or two in a long upstairs room. The walls were +covered with beasts, birds, and fishes, in glass cases, all of which +looked as if they ought to be decently buried. Upon one wall was an +immense engraving framed in boxwood of the execution of Mary, Queen of +Scots, and upon a huge mahogany sideboard which looked as if it had been +built to resist a cavalry charge, was a tray with hospitable bottles. + +Then the door opened and a dapper little man with side whiskers, the +vendor's solicitor, came in, accompanied by Mr. Newby, the retiring +landlord himself. + +Mr. Newby, dressed I was glad to notice, very much as myself, only the +diamond ring upon his finger was rather larger, was a short, fat man of +benevolent aspect, and I should say suffering from dropsy. We shook +hands heartily. + +"Thirty years have I been landlord here," wheezed Mr. Newby, "and now +it's time the 'ouse was in younger 'ands. Your respectability 'as been +vouched for, Mr. Thomas--I wouldn't sell to no low blackguard for twice +the money--and all I can say is, young feller, for you are a young +feller to me, you know--I 'ope you'll be as 'appy and prosperous in the +'Golden Swan' as Emanuel Newby 'ave been." + +I thought it was best to be a little awkward and bashful, so I said very +little while the lawyers fussed about with title deeds, and at last the +eventful moment came when one does that conjuring trick in which the +gentlemen of the law take such infantile delight. "Put your finger here, +yes, on this red seal and say...." + +When it was all done and Mr. Newby had stowed away seven thousand pounds +in bank-notes in a receptacle over his heart, we drank to the occasion +in some remarkably good champagne and then, with a sigh, the +ex-proprietor announced his intention of being off. + +"My luggage has preceded me," he said, "and I have nothing to do now but +retire, as I 'ave long planned, to the city of my birth." + +"And where may that be, Mr. Newby?" I asked politely. + +"The University City of Oxford," he replied, "which, if you've not known +intimate as I 'ave, you can never begin to understand. There's an +atmosphere there, Mr. Thomas, but Lord, you won't be interested!" and he +wheezed superior. + +The situation was not without humor. + +When he had gone, together with his solicitor, Power rang the bell. + +"As you wish me to manage everything for you," he said, "I have done so. +Your entire ignorance of the liquor trade will be compensated by the +knowledge and devotion of the assistant I have procured for you, after +many inquiries. His name is Whistlecraft, and he is an Honest Fool. He +won't rob you, though he'll probably diminish your profits greatly by +his stupidity--but as I understand, profit from the sale of drinks isn't +your object. He will obey orders implicitly, without even trying to +understand their reason, and in short you couldn't have a better man for +your purpose." + +When Whistlecraft appeared I perfectly agreed with Power. He was a +powerful fellow in shirt sleeves, aged about thirty-five, with arms that +could have felled an ox. Had he shaved within the last three days he +would have been clean shaved, and his hair was polished to a mirror-like +surface with suet--I caught him doing it one day. I never saw such calm +on any human face. It was the tranquillity of an entire absence of +intellect, a rich and perfect stupidity which nothing could penetrate, +nothing disturb. His eyes were dull as unclean pewter, without life or +speculation, and I knew at once that if I told him to go down into the +cellar, wait there till a hyena entered, strangle it, skin it, and bring +the pelt upstairs to me, he would depart upon his errand without a word! + +Power went away with the most conventional of handshakes--we might have +been parting in Pall Mall--and I was left alone, monarch of all I +surveyed. + +"What's the staff beside you, Whistlecraft?" I asked. + +"Mrs. Abbs, sir, cooks and sweeps up, sleeps out. Peter, the odd-job +boy, washes bottles and such, and that's all." + +"Then at closing time, you and I are left alone in the house?" + +"Yes, sir." + +There was a loud and impatient knocking from somewhere below. + +"I'd better go and serve, sir, hadn't I?" said Whistlecraft--I found +later his name was Stanley--and I let him go at that. + +I spent the next hour going over the premises from cellar to roof and +making many mental notes, for I had come here with a definite purpose, +and plans already made. + +It was an extraordinary situation to be in. I sat in a little private +room behind the bar and every now and again Stanley's idiot countenance +appeared, and I had to go behind the counter and be introduced to this +or that regular frequenter. I asked every one to have a drink, for the +good of the house, and trust I made a fair impression. They all seemed +quiet, respectable people enough, who knew each other well. + +In the evening I was greatly helped by Sliddim, who was now a seasoned +habitue of the "Golden Swan," and whom from the moment of my arrival +slipped into the position of Master of the Ceremonies, which saved me a +great deal of trouble. + +It will be remembered that all the time that I was in Brittany, Sliddim +had been employed in my interests at Richmond. Bill Rolston vouched +absolutely for the man's fidelity: had told me I could safely trust him +in any way. Accordingly, there was perhaps a little misgiving, I had +released him from his employment at the third-class detective agency +where he worked, and took him permanently into my service. I may say at +once, though he took no prominent part in the great events which +followed until the very end, he was of considerable use to me and kept +my secrets perfectly. + +At closing time that night, Mrs. Abbs, the cook, having spread a hot +supper in the private room behind the bar and left, I called the potman +in from his washing-up of glass and bade him share the meal. + +"Now I tell you what, Stanley," I said, when we had filled our pipes, +"in the tower inclosure there's a whole colony of Chinks, isn't there?" + +"Yes, sir; gardeners, stokers for the engines and such like. They say as +there isn't a white man among 'em, except only the boss, and he's an +Irishman." + +"They don't always live inside that wall?" I jerked my head towards a +window which looked out into my back yard, not a hundred feet away from +the towering precipice of brick which overshadowed the "Golden Swan," +and the surrounding houses. + +"Oh, not by no means. They comes out when their work's done in the +evenings, though they goes back to sleep and has to be in by a certain +time. They do say," and here something happened to Stanley's face which +I afterwards grew to recognize as a smile, "they do say as some of the +girls downtown are takin' up with 'em, seein' as they dress well, and +spend a lot of money." + +"I suppose they have somewhere where they go?" + +"It's mostly the 'Rising Sun' down by the station, I am told. The boss +there was a sailor and understands their ways. He's given them a room to +themselves." + +I was perfectly aware of all this, but I had a special motive for the +present conversation. + +"Now, it's come into my mind," I said, "that there's a lot of custom +going downtown that ought by rights to come to the 'Golden Swan,' seeing +that we are close at the gates, so to speak, and I mean to do what I +can to get hold of it. A Chink's money is as good as anybody else's, +Stanley, that's my way of looking at it." + +He chewed the cud of that idea for a minute or two and then it dawned in +the pudding of his mind. + +"Why, yes," he said, in the voice of one who had made a great discovery. + +"Now, there's that room upstairs," I went on, "I shall never use it. If +we could get some of these Chinks to drop in there of a night it would +be good business." + +"There's just one thing against it," said Stanley, "if you'll pardon my +speaking of it, sir. I'm willing to do everything in reason, and I'm not +afraid of work. But I don't see as 'ow I can attend to both the saloon +and the four-ale bars if I'm to be going upstairs slinging drinks to the +Chinks." + +"Of course you can't and I wasn't going to suggest it. We must get an +extra help--if we can get the Chinks to use the house. We might have a +barmaid." + +He shook his head. + +"It wouldn't work, sir; you'd have to get a new one every week. A young +woman can't resist a Chink and they'd marry off like--" + +Stanley was unable to think of a simile so he buried his face in his +pewter pot. + +Really things were going very well for me. + +"I believe you are right. Supposing I could get a young fellow who was +one of themselves and could speak their lingo. There are lots to be +picked up about the docks. I mean some quiet young Chink, who would +attend to his fellow-countrymen in the evening, and relieve you of a lot +of the washing-up and things of that sort during the day?" + +Mr. Stanley Whistlecraft was not so stupid as to miss the advantages of +such a proposal as this. + +"You've 'it on the very plan, sir," he said, "and especial if he could +wash up them thin glasses which the gentlemen in the saloon bar like to +'ave, it would be a great saving. I never could 'andle them things +properly. You put your fingers on 'em and they crack worse than eggs. +Pewters, I can polish with any man alive, pot mugs seldom break, as +likewise them thick reputed half-pints which will break a man's 'ed +open, as I've proved. But these Chinks are as 'andy as any girl, and I +think, sir, you've got 'old of an idea." + +"I'll see about it in the morning. I've got a pal that has a nice little +house in the Mile End Road, and I believe he could send me just the lad +I want. Well, now you can go to bed, Stanley. Everything locked up?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then I'll put out the lights." + +He bade me a gruff good-night and lurched heavily away. I heard him +ascending the stairs to his room at the back of the house and then I was +left alone. + +The first thing I did was to turn down the sleeves of my shirt and put +on my coat. It isn't etiquette to sup in your coat, I had gathered from +Mr. Whistlecraft's custom when he accepted my invitation. + +Then I unlocked a drawer in which was a box of cigars such as the +"Golden Swan" had never known, and stretching out my legs, stared into +the fire. + +I was doing the wildest, maddest thing, but so far all had gone well. I +was, as it were, a solitary swimmer in deep and dangerous waters, on the +threshold of experiences which I knew instinctively would transcend all +those of ordinary life. I was perfectly certain, something in my inmost +soul told me, that I was about to step into unknown perils, and to +contend with bizarre and sinister forces of which I had no means of +measuring the power or extent. + +I don't mind admitting that on that first night in the "Golden Swan," +fate weighed heavily on me and I thought I heard the muffled laughter of +malignant things. + +However, I was in for it now. I finished my cigar, went into the bar and +selected a certain bottle of whisky--the excellent Stanley had warned me +that this was the landlord's bottle and of a much more reputable quality +than that served to the landlord's guests. After a very moderate +"nightcap" I put on carpet slippers and went up to my room, which I had +chosen at the very top of the house. It was a large attic, just under +the roof, and in a few days I proposed to make it more habitable with +some new furniture and decoration. Meanwhile, I had chosen it because, +in one corner, some wooden steps went up to a trap-door which opened on +to the roof, where there was a flat space of some three yards square +among the chimneys. Just before going up to bed I turned up the collar +of my dressing-gown, ascended the ladder, pushed open the trap-door and +stepped out on to the leads. + +It was a still, moonlight night. Looking over the roofs of the houses I +could see the Thames winding like a silver ribbon far down below, a +scene of utter tranquillity and peace. + +Then I wheeled round to be confronted with the great black wall which +rose several yards above me, within a pistol shot of distance. + +But my eye traveled up beyond that and was caught in a colossal network +of steel, so bold, towering and gigantic in its nearness that it almost +made me reel. I stared up among the dark shadows and moonlit spaces till +my eye reached an altitude which I knew to be about the height of the +Golden Ball on the top of Saint Paul's Cathedral. + +There the vision checked. I could see a blur of low buildings, a web of +latticed galleries, and I knew that I was looking only up at the very +_first stage_ of the City in the Clouds, which must be lying bare to the +moon some sixteen hundred feet above. + +I could see no more. The first stage barred all further vision, though +that in itself seemed terrible in its height and majesty. So I closed my +eyes and imagined only those supreme heights where she must be sleeping. + +"Good-night, Juanita," I murmured, and then, as I descended into my room +the words of the Psalmist came to me and I said, "Oh, that I had the +wings of a dove!" + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +On the afternoon of the next day the potman summoned me from my private +room with the information that there was a young fellow from the Mile +End Road to see me. + +"Chinese?" I asked. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then it must be the lad come in answer to the telegram I sent to my +friend this morning. Show him in." + +In a few moments the applicant for the situation entered. He wore his +oily black hair fairly short, like most of the Chinamen employed at the +towers, and had no pigtail; he was dressed in European clothes. His high +cheek bones, with little slits of eyes above them, the stolid yellow +face and fine tapering fingers were typically Oriental as he glided in, +and his European clothes seemed to accentuate that air of Eastern +mystery that even the commonest Chinaman carries about with him. He +looked about five or six and twenty and wore a thick gold ring in each +ear which had had the effect of dragging them away from the head. + +I examined him carefully as to his qualities and he answered in better +English than most Chinamen attain to, though with the guttural, clicking +accent of his kind. + +"Take him and let him wash up a few of the glasses, Stanley, and ask him +a few questions if you like, and if you are satisfied with him I'll +engage him." + +In a quarter of an hour the Honest Fool returned to express himself +pleased with the young Asiatic's performances, and there and then I +engaged him, Stanley showing him the room in which he was to sleep. It +was quite late that night before I could be alone with the new +assistant, who, by the way, served in the saloon bar during the evening +and was spoken of with commendation by Mr. Carter, fish and green +grocer; Mr. Mogridge, our principal newsagent and tobacconist, and Mr. +Abrahams, dealer in anything, whose shop was labeled--really with great +propriety--"Antiques." + +These gentlemen were my most constant patrons and their word had weight, +and it was endorsed by Mr. Sliddim, who slipped in about nine and in the +position of a friend of the landlord, had been received into our best +circle. It was Mr. Mogridge, a wit, who, just before closing time, +christened Ah Sing, the name of the new potman, "Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling," +the name which he retained to the end of the chapter. I could hear my +clients laughing for the twentieth time as they went home and Mr. +Carter's rich bass: "Mogridge, I call that good. That's damned good, +Mogridge. _Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling!_ Ha, ha, ha, ha!" + +Ah Sing glided into my private room just as the upper portion of the +house began to tremble with the snores of the Honest Fool. He put his +fingers into his mouth and withdrew two pads of composition such as +dentists use, with a sigh of relief. Immediately the high cheek bones +and the narrowness of the eyes disappeared, though even then Bill +Rolston would have passed for a Chinaman at a glance, though when he +removed the quills from his nose and it ceased to be flat and distended, +the likeness was less apparent. + +"It's wonderful, Rolston," I said, shaking him warmly by the hand. "It +would deceive any one. Well, here we are and now we can begin." + +The lad was all fire and enthusiasm. He did me no end of good, for the +sordid environment, the appalling meals--principally of pork served in +great gobbets with quantities of onions--which Mrs. Abbs provided for +the H.F., herself and me, and above all the overpowering, incredible +structure at hand which seemed, in its strength and majesty, to laugh at +the ant-like activities of such an one as I, were beginning to depress +and to tinge my hours with the quality of a fantastic dream. + +But Rolston changed all that and we talked far on into the night, +planning, plotting, and arranging all the details of our campaign. + +"To-morrow," he said, "I'll paint the board to go over the side door, in +black and gilt Chinese lettering. As soon as it's done, we will make one +or two alterations to the upstairs room, buy a gas urn with constant hot +water and some special tea which I know where to get. When that's done, +I'll start the game by going down to the 'Rising Sun' and meeting the +Chinese there." + +"You are quite certain that you won't be discovered?" + +"I think it's in the last degree improbable. Certainly no one could find +me out owing to my speech. That I can assure you, Sir Thomas, and it's +nearly all the battle. So very, very few Europeans ever attain to good +colloquial Chinese that there would never be a doubt in any one but I +was what I seemed to be. I not only know the language, but I know how +these people think and most of their customs. As far as disguise goes, I +think it's good enough to deceive any one. When I was a prisoner within +the inclosure, the Chinese who saw me were for the most part coolies and +laborers, engaged upon the works. All these have now gone away forever +and there's only the regular, selected staff. Some of these of course +must have seen me as I was, but I don't think they will penetrate my +get-up. You see the whole shape of the face is altered to begin with, +and the coloring of hair and face has been done so well as to defy +detection. I certainly was afraid about my ears," and he grinned +ruefully, "but I saw the way out by having them pierced and these rings +put in. Most of the natives from the Province of Yuen-Nan, where I come +from, wear these rings. The ones I have on at the present moment are +made of lead, and gilded. They have pulled my ears right out of their +ordinary shape." + +"Good Lord!" I cried, astounded at the length to which he had gone. +"You're torturing yourself for me." + +"Not a bit of it, Sir Thomas," he replied. "I--I rather like it!" + +"And you think you will be able to get us a Chinese clientele?" + +"I am quite certain of it. First of all I don't suppose I shall get the +best class--I mean the upper and more confidential servants who ascend +the tower itself--for I understand there's a very rigid system of +grades. But little by little they will come also. It will take us weeks, +maybe months, but it will be done." + +"If it takes me half a lifetime I'll go through with it," I said +savagely. + +"My sentiments, also," he replied, lighting a cigarette. "By the way, I +hope you're not incommoded in any way by my--er--odor!" + +"Good Heaven! What do you mean?" + +"The Chinaman smells quite different to the European, though not +necessarily unpleasantly. It's taken me quite a lot of trouble to attain +the essential perfume!" + +He grinned impishly as he said it, and there certainly was a sort of +stale, camphory smell, now he mentioned it. + +"You're a great artist, Rolston, and I don't know what I should do +without you, oh, Mandarin from Yuen-Nan!" + +"That's another point," he said quickly. "You wouldn't guess why I'm +supposed to come from Yuen-Nan, where I actually did spend some years of +my childhood?" + +"Not in the least." + +"It's the principal opium producing Province in China," he replied, with +a quick look at me. "Now, Sir Thomas, I've let the cat out of the bag. +You see how I propose to attract the Chinese here, and get into their +confidence." + +A light flashed in upon me, and I took a long breath. + +"But it would never do," I said. "If we were to start an opium den in +that room upstairs, we should have the police in in a fortnight, and +then the game would be up entirely." + +He smiled superior. + +"There will never be a single pipe of opium smoked in the 'Golden +Swan,'" he said. "Of that I can assure you. That will be the very +strictest rule that I shall make, but I shall supply opium to the +customers, in varying quantities, and at intervals, according to the +need of each individual case. It is almost impossible to bribe a +Chinaman with money--the better sort, that is, the picked and chosen men +who will be around Mr. Morse himself. But opium is quite another thing, +and besides they won't know they're being bribed. I sat hours and hours +working this thing out and I'm confident it's the only way." + +When he said that I realized that he spoke the truth, but I confess that +the idea startled and alarmed me. + +"We shall be breaking the law, Rolston. We shall be risking heavy fines +and certain imprisonment if we're found out." + +"To that I would say two things, Sir Thomas. First of all, that no fine +matters; and secondly, that I shouldn't in the least mind doing six +months if necessary. This great game is worth more than that. But +secondly, and you may really put your mind at ease, we shall _not_ be +found out. I have worked the thing out to a hair's breadth and my system +is so complete that discovery is utterly impossible." + +"I oughtn't to let you risk it, though of course I shall share equally +if anything happens." + +He disregarded this entirely. + +"But the stuff," I said, "the opium itself, how will you get that?" + +"I have made my plans here also. I shall have to pay a price so enormous +that I'm afraid it will stagger you, Sir Thomas, but it's the only way +in which I can get hold of the right stuff. For what it is intrinsically +worth, about sixty pounds sterling, your east-end dealer will pay +four-hundred pounds, and make a big profit on it. I shall have to pay +nearly a thousand and I shall want double that money--two thousand +pounds." + +He stared at me in anxiety. + +"My dear Rolston," I said, "cheer up. My income is over twenty thousand +a year, and in normal times I don't spend a third of it. Buy all the +filth you want, and Heaven send that it does the trick!" + +"In two days," he said, "the 'Golden Swan' will house two cases of the +best 'red bricks' obtainable on the market anywhere, for it's as much by +the superior quality of what I shall supply, as well as the fact of +being able to supply it, that I depend. Of course, you'll get nearly all +the money back." + +"Confound it, no, that's going too far. We'll send all the abominable +profits to the Richmond Hospital anonymously." + +We talked until the fire was out and the gray wintry dawn began to steal +in through the dirty windows of the bar beyond, and when all our plans +were laid with meticulous care I went to bed but not to sleep, assailed +by a thousand doubts and fears. + +... In a week or two the upstairs room began to be frequented by +silent-footed yellow men, who came and went unobtrusively. Whenever any +of them chanced to meet me I was greeted with a profound obeisance which +was rather disconcerting at first, but my conversation was limited to a +mere greeting or farewell. Most of these men spoke pigeon English, but I +had little or nothing to say to them of set purpose. It had been +arranged between Rolston and myself that I was to be represented as a +good-natured fool, who mattered very little in any way. + +For his part, the pretended Ah Sing was up and down the stairs a dozen +times every evening. He was never once suspected, his influence and +importance in the lives of these aliens grew every day. But it was a +long business, a long and weary business, in which at first hardly any +progress towards our aim could be discerned. + +"It's no use being discouraged, Sir Thomas," Rolston would say, "we're +getting on famously." + +"And the opium?"--somehow I wasn't very keen on discussing that aspect +of the question. + +"I'm employing it most judiciously, selling it in very small quantities, +and of course not a grain is ever smoked or consumed in any way upon +these premises. That's thoroughly understood by every one, and you need +not have the slightest doubt but that the secret will be rigidly kept. +At present the men frequenting the house are nearly all of the upper +coolie class. That is to say, they are the gardeners, stokers of the +power house, sweepers, and so forth. But, quite recently a better class +of man has made his appearance. There's a young, semi-Europeanized +electrician who has been once or twice. Moreover, I have gained a great +point. I have become acquainted with Kwang-su, the keeper of the +inclosure gate." + +"That's certainly something," I replied, recalling the figure of the +gigantic Chinaman in question, which was familiar to most of the +residents beneath the wall. "He's a ferocious-looking brute." + +"At one time he was headsman of Yangtsun, and they say a most finished +expert with the sword," Rolston remarked with a grin. "All I know about +him is that he'd sell his soul for the black smoke, and regards me as a +most valuable addition to the neighborhood. In a fortnight or so, I am +pretty certain I shall be able to pass in and out of the grounds pretty +much as I like, and then a great move in our game will have been +accomplished. As an undoubted Chinaman and as a confidential purveyer of +opium, I shall soon have complete freedom below the towers." + +"But what about the great prizefighter, Mulligan?" + +"He has nothing to do with the park, as they call all the grounds around +the towers. Now that the building is finished his functions are up in +the air, and I gather that he lives on the third stage, just beneath the +City itself, as a sort of watch-dog. The Asiatics are entirely managed +by their own leaders, appointed by Morse himself." + +It was as Bill predicted. In a very short space of time he was away from +the "Golden Swan" as much as he was in it, and every day he gathered +more and more information about the tower and its mistress--information +which was carefully noted down in the silence of the night, so that no +detail should be forgotten. + +Of course the fact that my hotel had become a haunt of the yellow men +neither escaped the notice of the neighbors, nor of the police. The +former were easily dealt with, and especially my patrons. Mr. Mogridge, +having invented "Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling," was disposed to look upon the +"Chinks" with genial patronage, and his self-importance was gratified by +the low bows with which they always greeted him as they passed to their +club-room above. The lead of Mr. Mogridge was followed by others in the +saloon bar, and Sliddim tactfully kept everything running smoothly. As +for the police, they paid me one visit or two, were shown everything and +were perfectly satisfied that the house was being conducted with +propriety--as indeed it was. + +The yellow men neither gambled nor got drunk, that was perfectly +obvious. There was never a suspicion of opium from first to last, nor +was there a single instance of a brawl or a fight. Indeed the local +police-inspector, an excellent fellow with whom I had many a talk, +expressed himself as being both surprised and delighted at the way in +which I had the aliens in hand. + +Nearly two months had gone by, and I was curbing the raging fires of +impatience and longing as well as I could when two incidents occurred +which greatly precipitated action. + +Rolston came to me one day in a state of great excitement. + +At last, he said, he was beginning to become acquainted with some of the +actual officials of the towers--at last, quite separate from those who +worked below. They were interested, or beginning to be so, and he urged +me at once to open a smaller, inner room as a select meeting-place for +such of them as he could inveigle to the "Golden Swan." + +We did so at once, hanging the walls with a drapery of black worked with +golden dragons, which I bought in Regent Street, a Chinese lantern of +copper hanging from the ceiling, and around the wall we placed low +couches. Here, in twos and threes, but in slowly increasing numbers, a +different type of Oriental began to assemble, Ah Sing attending to all +their wants, ingratiating himself in every possible way, and keeping his +extremely useful ears wide open--very wide open indeed. + +It was now that tiny fragments of personal gossip--more precious to me +than rubies--began to filter through. I had established no communication +with the City in the Clouds as yet, but I seemed to hear the distant +murmur of voices through the void. + +One evening about eight o'clock I felt cramped and unutterably bored. I +felt that nothing could help me but a long walk and so, with a word to +the Honest Fool, Sliddim and Rolston, I took my hat and stick and +started out. + +It was a brilliant moonlight night, calm, still, and with a white frost +upon the ground, as I descended the terrace and made my way down to the +side of the river. Here and there I passed a few courting couples; the +hum of distant London and the rumbling of trains was like the ground +swell of a sea, but peace brooded over everything. The trees made black +shadows like Chinese ink upon silver, and, in the full moonlight it was +bright enough to read. + +When I had walked a mile or so, resisting a certain temptation as well +as I could, I stopped and turned at last. + +There, a mile away behind me, yet seeming as if it was within a stone's +throw, was the huge erection on the hill. Every detail of the lower +parts was clear and distinct as an architectural drawing, the intricate +lattice-work of enormous cantilevers and girders seemed etched on the +inside of a great opal bowl. I can give you no adequate description of +the immensity, the awe-inspiring, almost terror-inducing sense of +magnitude and majesty. I have stood beside the Pyramids at night, I have +crossed the Piazza of Saint Peter's at Rome under the rays of the +Italian moon, and I have drunk coffee at the base of the Eiffel Tower in +Paris, but not one of these experiences approached what I felt now as I +surveyed, in an ecstasy of mingled emotions, this monstrous thing that +brooded over London. + +The eye traveled up, onward and forever up until at length, not hidden +by clouds now but a faint blur of white, blue, gold, and tiny twinkling +lights, hung in the empyrean the far-off City of Desire. + +Could she hear the call of my heart? God knows it seemed loud and strong +enough to me! Might she not be, even at this moment, a lovelier Juliet, +leaning over some gilded gallery and wondering where I was? + +"Was ever a woman so high above her lover before?" I said, and laughed, +but my laughter was sadness, and my longing, pain unbearable. + +... There was a slight bend in the tow-path where I stood, caused by +some out-jutting trees, and from just below I suddenly heard a burst of +loud and brutal laughter, followed by a shrill cry. It recalled me from +dreamland at once and I hurried round the projection to come upon a +strange scene. Two flash young bullies with spotted handkerchiefs around +their throats and ash sticks in their hands were menacing a third person +whose back was to the river. They were sawing the air with their sticks +just in front of a thin, tall figure dressed in what seemed to be a sort +of long, buttoned black cassock descending to the feet, and wearing a +skull cap of black alpaca. Beneath the skull cap was a thin, ascetic +face, ghastly yellow in the moonlight. + +... One of the brutes lunged at the man I now saw to be a Chinese of +some consequence, lunged at him with a brutal laugh and filthy oath. The +Chinaman threw up his lean arms, cried out again in a thin, shrill +scream, stepped backwards, missed his footing and went souse into the +river. In a second the current caught him and began to whirl him away +over towards the Twickenham side. It was obvious that he could not swim +a stroke. There was a clatter of hob-nailed boots and bully number one +was legging it down the path like a hare. I had just time to give bully +number two a straight left on the nap which sent him down like a sack of +flour, before I got my coat off and dived in. + +Wow! but it was icy cold. For a moment the shock seemed to stop my +heart, and then it came right again and I struck out heartily. It didn't +take long to catch up with the gentleman in the cassock, who had come +up for the second time and apparently resigned himself to the worst. I +got hold of him, turned on my back and prepared for stern measures if he +should attempt to grip me. + +He didn't. He was the easiest johnny to rescue possible, and in another +five minutes I'd got him safely to the bank and scrambled up. + +There was nobody about, worse luck, and I started to pump the water out +of him as well as I could, and after a few minutes had the satisfaction +of seeing his face turn from blue-gray to something like its normal +yellow under the somewhat ghastly light of the moon. His teeth began to +chatter as I jerked him to his feet and furiously rubbed him up and +down. + +I tried to recall what I knew of pigeon English. + +"Bad man throw you in river. You velly lucky, man come by save you, +Johnny." + +I had the shock of my life. + +"I am indeed fortunate," came in a thin, reed-like voice, "I am indeed +fortunate in having found so brave a preserver. Honorable sir, from this +moment my life is yours." + +"Why, you speak perfect English," I said in amazement. + +"I have been resident in this country for some time, sir," he replied, +"as a student at King's College, until I undertook my present work." + +"Well," I said, "we'd better not stand here exchanging polite remarks +much longer. There is such a thing as pneumonia, which you would do well +to avoid. If you're strong enough, we'll hurry up to the terrace and +find my house, where we'll get you dry and warm. I'm the landlord of +the 'Golden Swan' Hotel." + +He was a polite fellow, this. He bowed profoundly, and then, as the +water dripped from his black and meager form, he said something rather +extraordinary. + +"I should never have thought it." + +I cursed myself. The excitement had made me return to the manner of +Piccadilly, and this shrewd observer had seen it in a moment. I said no +more, but took him by the arm and yanked him along for one of the +fastest miles he had ever done in his life. + +I took him to the side door of my pub. Fortunately Ah Sing was +descending the stairs to replenish an empty decanter with whisky--my +yellow gentlemen used to like it in their tea! I explained what had +happened in a few words and my shivering derelict was hurried upstairs +to my own bedroom. I don't know what Rolston did to him, though I heard +Sliddim--now quite the house cat--directed to run down into the kitchen +and confer with Mrs. Abbs. + +For my part, I sat in the room behind the bar, listening to the Honest +Fool talking with my patrons, and shed my clothes before a blazing fire. +A little hot rum, a change, and a dressing-gown, and I was myself again, +and smoking a pipe I fell into a sort of dream. + +It was a pleasant dream. I suppose the shock of the swim, the race up +the terrace to the "Swan," the rum and milk which followed had a +soporific, soothing effect. I wasn't exactly asleep, I was pleasantly +drowsed, and I had a sort of feeling that something was going to happen. +Just about closing time Rolston glided in--I never saw a European +before or since who could so perfectly imitate the ghost walk of the +yellow men. + +I looked to see that the door to the bar was shut. + +"Well, how's our friend?" I asked. + +"He's had a big shock, Sir Thomas, but he's all right now. I've rubbed +him all over with oil, fed him up with beef-tea and brandy and found him +dry clothes." + +"He's from the towers, of course?" + +As I said this, I saw Bill Rolston's face, beneath its yellow dye, was +blazing with excitement. + +"Sir Thomas," he said in a whisper, "this is Pu-Yi himself, Mr. Morse's +Chinese secretary, a man utterly different from the others we have seen +here yet. He's of the Mandarin class, the buttons on his robe are of red +coral. In this house, at this moment, we have one of the masters of the +Secret City." + +I gave a long, low whistle, which--I remember it so well--exactly +coincided with the raucous shout of the Honest Fool--"Time, gentlemen, +please!" + +A thought struck me. + +"The other Chinese in the large and small rooms, do they know this man +is here?" + +"No, Sir Thomas; I am more than glad to say I got him up to your own +room when both doors were closed." + +"What's he doing now?" + +"He's having a little sleep. I promised to call him in an hour or so, +when he wishes to pay you his respects." + +He listened for a moment. + +"The others are going downstairs," he said. "I must be there to see them +out, and I have one or two little transactions--" + +He felt in a villainous side pocket and I knew as well as possible what +it contained, and what would be handed to one or two of the moon-faced +gentlemen as they slipped out of the side door on their way home. + +Bill came back in some twenty minutes. + +"Now," he said, "I'm going upstairs to wake Pu-Yi and bring him down to +you. You must remember, Sir Thomas, that I am only a dirty little +servant. I am as far beneath a man like Pu-Yi as Sir Thomas Kirby is +above Stanley Whistlecraft, so I cannot be present at your interview. My +idea was that I should creep into the bar--Stanley will have had his +supper and gone to bed--and lie down on the floor with my ear to the +bottom of the door, then I can hear everything." + +"That's a good idea," I said, for I was beginning to realize what an +enormous lot might depend upon this interview. Then I thought of +something else. + +"Look here, Bill, you must remember this too. I fished the blighter out +of the Thames and no doubt he will be thankful in his overdone, Oriental +fashion. But to him, a man of the class you say he is, I shall be +nothing but a vulgar publican, and I don't see quite what's going to +come out of _that_!" + +He had slipped the gutta-percha pads out of his cheeks--an operation to +which I had grown quite accustomed--and I could see his face as it +really was. + +"That's occurred to me also," he replied, "but somehow or other I'm sure +the fates are on our side to-night." + +He arose, turned away for a moment, there was a click and a gasp, and he +was the little impassive Oriental again. He glided up to me, put his +yellow hand with the long, polished finger nails upon my shoulder, and +said in my ear: + +"Sir Thomas, he must see Her every day!" + +He vanished from the room almost as he spoke, and left me with blood on +fire. + +I was to see some one who might have spoken with Juanita that very day! +and I sat almost trembling with impatience, though issuing a dozen +warnings to myself to betray nothing, to keep every sense alert, so that +I might turn the interview to my own advantage. + +At last there was a knock on the door, Bill opened it and the slim +figure of the man I had rescued glided in. They had dried his clothes, +he even wore his little skull cap which had apparently stuck to his head +while he was in the water, and I had the opportunity of seeing him in +the light for the first time. + +Instead of the flat, Tartar nose, I saw one boldly aquiline, with large, +narrow nostrils. His eyes were almond shaped but lustrous and full of +fire. About the lips, which had no trace of sensuality but were +beautifully cut, there was a kind of serene pathos--I find it difficult +to describe in any other way. The whole face was noble in contour and in +expression, though the general impression it gave was one of unutterable +sadness. Dress him how you might, meet him where you would, there was +no possibility of mistaking Pu-Yi for anything but a gentleman of high +degree. + +The door closed and I rose from my seat and held out my hand. + +"Well," I said, "this is a bit of orlright, sir, and I'm glad to see you +so well recovered. To-morrow morning we'll have the law on them dirty +rascals that assaulted you." + +I put on the accent thickly--flashed my diamond ring at him, in +short--for this might well be a game of touch and go, and I had a deep +secret to preserve. + +He put his long, thin hand in mine, gripped it, and then suddenly turned +it over so that the backs of my fingers were uppermost. + +It was an odd thing to do and I wondered what it meant. + +"Oh, landlord of the Swan of Gold," he piped, in his curious, flute-like +voice, sorting out his words as he went on, "I owe you my unworthy life, +which is nothing in itself and which I don't value, save only for a +certain opportunity which remains to it, and is a private matter. But I +owe my life to your courage and strength and flowering kindness, and I +come to put myself in your hands." + +Really he was making a damn lot of fuss about nothing! + +"Look here," I said, "that's all right. You would have done as much for +me. Now let's sit down and have a peg and a chat. I can put you up for +the rest of the night, you know, and I shall be awfully glad to do it." + +He looked as if he was going to make more speeches, but I cut him +short. + +"As for putting your life in my hands," I said, "we don't talk like that +in England." + +He sat down and a faint smile came upon his tired lips. + +"And do the public-house keepers in England have hands such as yours +are?" he said gently. "Sir, your hands are white, they are also shaped +in a certain way, and your nails are not even in mourning for your +profession!" + +I cursed myself savagely as he mocked me. Bill had pointed out over and +over again that I oughtn't to use a nail brush too frequently--it wasn't +in the part--but I always forgot it. + +To hide my confusion I moved a little table towards him on which was a +box of excellent cigarettes. Unfortunately, also on the table was a +little pocket edition of Shakespeare with which I used to solace the +drab hours. + +He picked it up, opened it plump at "Romeo and Juliet"--the play which, +for reasons known to you, I most affected at the time--and looked up at +me with gentle eyes. + +"'Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona,'" he said. + +My brain was working like a mill. I could not make the fellow out. What +did he know, what did he suspect? Well, the best thing was to ask him +outright. + +"You mean?" + +He became distressed at once. + +"You speak harshly to me, O my preserver. I meant but that I knew at +once that you are not born in the position in which I see you. Perhaps +you will give me your kind leave to explain. In my native country I am +of high hereditary rank, though I am poor enough and occupy a somewhat +menial position here. My honorable name, honorable sir, is Pu-Yi, which +will convey nothing to you. During the rebellion of twenty years ago in +China, my ancestral house was destroyed and as a child I was rescued and +sent to Europe. For many years the peasants of my Province scraped their +little earnings together, and a sum sufficient to support me in my +studies was sent to me in Paris. I speak the French, Spanish and English +languages. I am a Bachelor of Science of the London University, and my +one hope and aim in life is, and has been, to acquire sufficient money +to return to the tombs of my ancestors on the banks of the +Yang-tse-kiang, there to live a quiet life, much resembling that of an +English country squire, until I also fade away into the unknown, and +become part of the Absolute." + +There was something perfectly charming about him. Since he spotted I +wasn't a second edition of the Honest Fool, since he had somehow or +other divined that I was an educated man, I felt drawn to him. You must +remember that for months now the only person I had had to talk to was +Bill Rolston. And all the time, he was so occupied in our tortuous +campaign that we only met late at night to report progress. + +For a moment I quite forgot what this new friend might mean to me, and +opened out to him without a thought of further advantage. + +I was a fool, no doubt. Afterwards, talking it all over with Pat Moore +and Arthur Winstanley, I saw that I ran a great risk. Anyhow, I +reciprocated Pu-Yi's confidence as well as I could. + +"I'm awfully glad we've met, even under such unfortunate circumstances. +You are quite right. I come of a different class from what the ordinary +frequenter of this hotel might suppose, but since you have discovered it +I beg you to keep it entirely to yourself. I also have had my +misfortunes. Perhaps I also am longing for some ultimate happiness or +triumph." + +Out of the box he took a cigarette, and his long, delicate fingers +played with it. + +"Brother," he said, "I understand, and I say again, now that I can say +it in a new voice, my life is yours." + +Then I began on my own account. + +"Tell me," I said, "of yourself. Many of your fellow-countrymen come +here--the lower orders--and they're all employed by the millionaire, +Gideon Morse, who seems to prefer the men of China to any other. You +also, Pu-Yi, are connected with this colossal mystery?" + +He didn't answer for a moment, but looked down at the glowing end of his +cigarette. + +"Yes," he replied, with some constraint, "I am in the service of the +honorable Mr. Gideon Mendoza Morse. I am, in fact, his private secretary +and through me his instructions are conveyed to the various heads of +departments." + +"You are fortunate. I suppose that before long you will be able to +fulfill your ambitions and retire to China?" + +With a quick glance at me he admitted that this was so. + +"And yet," I said thoughtfully, "it must be a very trying service, +despite that you live in Wonderland, in a City of Enchantment." + +Again I caught a swift regard and he leant forward in his chair. + +"Why do you say that?" he asked. + +I hazarded a bold shot. + +"Simply because the man is mad," I said. + +His bright eyes narrowed to glittering slits. + +"You quote gossip of the newspapers," he replied. + +"Do I? I happen to know more than the newspapers do." + +He rose to his feet, took two steps towards me, and looked down with a +twitching face. + +"Who _are_ you?" he said, and his whole frail frame trembled. + +I caught him firmly by the arm and stared into his face--God knows what +my own was like. + +"I am the one who has been waiting, the one who is waiting, to help--the +one who has come to save," I said, and my voice was not my own--it was +as if the words were put into my mouth by an outside power. + +He wrenched his arm away, gave a little cry, strode to the mantelpiece +and bent his head upon his arms. His whole body was shaken with +convulsive sobs. + +I stood in the middle of the room watching him, hardly daring to +breathe, feeling that my heart was swelling until it occupied the whole +of my body. + +At length he looked up. + +"Then I shall be of some use to Her after all," he said. "This is too +much honor. The Lily of White Jade--" + +He staggered back, his face working terribly, and fell in a huddled heap +upon the floor. I was just opening my mouth to call for Rolston when +there came a thunderous knocking upon the side door of the house. + +I ran into the dimly lit passage and as I did so Rolston flitted out of +the bar door and stood beside me. + +"I have heard everything," he whispered, "but what, what is this?" + +He pointed to the door, and as he did so there was again the thunder of +the knocker and the whirr of the electric bell. + +Hardly knowing what I did I shot back the bolts at top and bottom, +turned the heavy key in its lock and opened the door. + +Outside in the moonlight a figure was standing, a man in a heavy fur +coat, carrying a suitcase in his left hand. + +"What the devil--" I was beginning, when he pushed past me and came into +the hall. + +Then I saw, with a leap of all my pulses, that it was Lord Arthur +Winstanley. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +It was four o'clock in the morning. A bitter wind had risen and was +wailing around the "Golden Swan," interspersed with heavy storms of hail +which rattled on roof and windows. Outside the tempest shrieked and was +accompanied by a vast, humming, harp-like noise as it flung itself +against the lattice-work of the towers and vibrated over Richmond like a +chorus of giant AEolian harps. Arthur and I sat in the shabby +sitting-room, which had been the theater of so much emotion that night, +and stared at each other with troubled faces. + +There was a little pattering noise, and Bill Rolston came in, closing +the door carefully behind him. + +"He wants you to go up to him, Sir Thomas. You told me to use my own +discretion. Since we carried him up and I gave him the bromides, I +haven't left his bedside. I talked to him in his own language, but he +wouldn't say a word until I threw off every disguise and told him who I +really was and who you were also." + +"But, Rolston, you may have spoiled everything!" + +He shook his head. + +"You don't know what I know. Now that he's aware you are of his own +rank, and that I am your lieutenant, his life is absolutely your +forfeit. If you were to tell him to commit suicide he would do it at +once as the most natural thing in the world, to preserve his honor. He +is your man from this moment, Sir Thomas, just as I am." + +"Then I'll go up. Arthur, you don't mind?" + +"Mind! I thought I brought a bomb-shell into your house to-night, and so +I have too, but to find all this going on simply robs me of speech. +Meanwhile, if you will introduce me to this Asiatic gentleman who speaks +such excellent English, and whom, from repute I guess to be Mr. William +Rolston, I daresay we can amuse ourselves during the remainder of this +astonishing night. And," he continued, "if there is such a thing as a +ham upon the premises, some thick slices grilled upon this excellent +fire, and some cool ale in a pewter--" + +I left them to it and went upstairs to my chamber. It was lit with two +or three candles in silver holders--I had made the place quite habitable +by now--and lying on my bed, covered with an eiderdown, his eyes +feverish, his face flushed, lay the Mandarin. + +His eyes opened and he smiled. It was the first time I had seen the +delicate, melancholy lips light up in a real smile. + +"What's that for?" I said, as I sat down by the bedside. + +"You are so big, and strong, Prince," he replied, "and large and +confident; and your disguise fell from you as you came in and I saw you +as you were." + +I knelt beside the bed and my breath came thick and fast. + +"For God's sake don't play with me," I said, "not that you are doing +that. You have met Her--Miss Morse I mean, my Juanita?" + +"Prince, she has deigned to give me her confidence in some degree. I do +my work in the wonderful library that Mr. Morse has built. It's a great +hall, full of the rarest volumes; and there are long windows from which +one can look down upon London and gaze beyond the City to where the +wrinkled sea beats around the coast. And, day by day, in her loneliness, +the Fairest of Maidens has come to this high place and taken a book of +poems, sat in the embrasure, and stared down at the world below." + +He raised a thin hand and held it upright. It was so transparent that +the light of a candle behind turned it to blood red. + +"Let my presumptuous desires be forever silent," he chanted. "'East is +east and west is west,' and I erred gravely. But, worship is worship, +and worship is sacrifice." + +I could hardly speak, my voice was hoarse, his words had given me such a +picture of Juanita up there in the clouds. + +"Prince--" + +"I am not a Prince, I only have a very ordinary title. If you know +England, you understand what a baronet is." + +"I know England. Prince, your Princess is waiting for you and sighing +out her heart that you have not come to her." + +I leapt to my feet and swore a great oath that made the attic room +ring. + +"_You mean?_" I shouted. + +"Prince, the Lily of all the lilies, the Rose of all the roses, alone, +distraught, another Ophelia--no, say rather Juliet with her nurse--has +honored me with the story of her love. She never told me whom she longed +for, but I knew that it was some one down in the world." + +I staggered out a question. + +"It is my humble adoration for her which has sharpened all my wits," he +answered. "It seemed an accident--though the gods designed it without +doubt--that made you save my life to-night, but now I know you are the +lover of the Lily. And I am the servant--the happy messenger--of you +both." + +"You can take a letter from me to her?" + +"Indeed, yes." + +"My friend, tell me, tell me all about her. Is she happy?--no, I know +she cannot be that--but--" + +He lifted himself up in the bed, and there was something priest-like in +his attitude as he folded his thin hands upon his breast and spoke. + +"Two thousand feet above London there is a Palace of all delights. +Immeasurable wealth, the genius of great artists have been combined to +make a City of Enchantment. And in every garden with its plashing +fountains, in its halls of pictures and delights, upon its aerial +towers, down its gilded galleries, lurking at the banquet, mingling with +the music, great shapes of terror squeak and gibber like the ghosts +Shakespeare speaks of in ancient Rome." + +"Morse?" + +"There is a noble intellect overdone and dissolved in terror. In all +other respects sane as you or I, my savior and benefactor, Gideon Morse +is a maniac whose one sole idea is to preserve himself and his daughter +from some horror, some vengeance which surely cannot threaten him." + +Twice, thrice I strode the attic. + +Then at last I stopped. + +"Will you help me now, Pu-Yi, will you take a letter from me, will you +help me to meet Her, and soon?" + +He bowed his head for answer, and then, as he looked up again his face +was suffused with a sort of bright eagerness that touched me to the +heart. + +"I am yours," he said. + +"Then quickly, and soon, Pu-Yi, for you are only half informed. Gideon +Morse may be driven mad by fear, no doubt he is. But it is _not_ an +imaginary fear. It is a thing so sinister, so real and terrible, that I +cannot tell you of it now. I am too exhausted by the events of this +night. I will say only this, that within the last hour a faithful friend +of mine has returned from the other side of the world and brings me +ominous news." + + * * * * * + +I believe that Pu-Yi, whose movements were, of course, not restricted +like those of the lower officials, returned to the towers in the early +morning. As for me, I caught a workmen's train from Richmond station, +slunk in an early taxi to Piccadilly with Arthur Winstanley, and slipped +into lavender-clean sheets and silence till past noon, when Captain +Patrick Moore arrived to an early lunch. Dressed again in proper +clothes, with dear old Preston fussing about me with tears in his eyes, +I felt a thousand times more confident than before. Old Pat had to be +informed of everything, and as a preliminary I told him my whole story, +from the starting-point of the "Golden Swan." + +"And now," I said, "here's Arthur, who has traveled thousands of miles +and who has come back with information that fits in absolutely with +everything else. He gave me an epitome last night, under strange and +fantastic circumstances. Now then, Arthur, let's have it all clearly, +and then we shall know where we are." + +Arthur, whose face was white and strained, began at once. + +"I went straight to Rio," he said, "and of course I took care that I was +accredited to our Legation. As a matter of fact the Minister to the +Brazilian Government is my cousin. The news about the towers was all +over Brazil. Everybody there knows Gideon Mendoza Morse. He's been by a +long way the most picturesque figure in South America during the last +twenty years. He has been President of the Republic. Of course, I had +the freshest news. My mother had given a party to introduce Juanita to +London society. I had danced with her. I had talked to her father--I was +the young English society man who brought authentic news. I told all I +knew, and a good bit more, and I sucked in information like a +vacuum-cleaner. I learnt a tremendous lot as to the sources of Morse's +enormous wealth. I was glad to find that there were no allegations +against him of any trust methods, any financial tricks. He had got rich +like one of the old patriarchs, simply by shrewdness and long +accumulation and rising values. But I had to go a good deal farther back +than this, I had to dive into obscure politics of South America, and +then--it was almost like a punch on the jaw--I stumbled against the +Santa Hermandad." + +Pat Moore and I cried out simultaneously. + +"What on earth do you mean?" + +"Our League?" + +"It's sheer coincidence," he answered. "I hope it's not a bad omen. +During the time when the last Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, was reigning, +it was seen by all his supporters, both in Brazil and in Spain, that his +power was waning and a crash was sure to come. In order to preserve the +Principle of the Monarchy, a powerful Secret Society was started, under +the name of the Holy Brotherhood or Santa Hermandad. Gideon Morse, then +a young and very influential man, became a member of this Society. But, +after the Emperor was deposed, and a Republic declared, Morse threw in +his lot with the new regime. I have gathered that he did so out of pure +patriotism; he realized that a Republic was the best thing for his +country, and had no personal ax to grind whatever. He prospered +exceedingly. As you know he has, in his time, been President of the +Republica dos Estados Unidos de Brazil, and has contributed more to the +success of the country than any other man living." + +"Fascinatin' study, history," said Captain Moore, "for those that like +it. Personally, I am no bookworm; cut the cackle, Arthur, old bean, and +come to the 'osses." + +"Peace, fool!" said Arthur, "if you can't understand what I say, Tom +will explain to you later, though I'll be as short as I jolly-well can." + +He turned to me. + +"When this Secret Society failed, Tom--the Hermandad, I mean--it wasn't +dissolved. It was agreed by the Inner Circle that it was only suspended. +But as the years went by, nearly all the prominent members died, and the +Republic became an assured thing. But a few years ago the Society was +revived, not with any real hope of putting an Emperor on the throne +again but as a means to terrorism and blackmail. All the most lawless +elements of Spanish South America became affiliated into a new and +sinister confederation. You've heard of the power of the Camorra in +Italy--well, the Hermandad in Brazil is like that at the present time. +It has ramifications everywhere, the police are becoming powerless to +cope with it, and a secret reign of terror goes on at this hour. + +"These people have made a dead shot for Gideon Morse. He has defied them +for a long time, but their power has grown and grown. I understand that +two years ago the Hermandad fished out of obscurity an old Spanish +nobleman, the Marquis da Silva, who was one of the original, chivalrous +monarchists. He was about the only surviving member of the old +Fraternity, and they got him to produce its constitutions. He came upon +the scene some two years ago and Morse was given just that time to fall +in with the plans of the modern Society, or be assassinated together +with his daughter." + +He stopped, and it was dear old Pat Moore who shouted with +comprehension. + +"Why, now," he bellowed, "sure and I see it all. That's why he built the +Tower of Babel and went to live on the top, and drag his daughter with +him--so that these Sinn Feiners should not get at 'm." + +"Yes, Pat, you've seen through it at a glance," said Arthur, with a +private grin to me. + +Pat was tremendously bucked up at the thought that he had solved a +problem which had been puzzling both of us. + +"All the same," he said, "the place is too well guarded for any Spanish +murderer to get up. Besides, Tom here is makin' all his arrangements and +he'll have Miss Juanita out of it in no time." + +"The circumstances," Arthur went on calmly, "are perfectly well known to +a few people at the head of the Government in Brazil. I had a long and +intimate conversation with Don Francisco Torrome, Minister of Police to +the Republic. He told me that the Hermandad is intensely revengeful, +wicked, and unscrupulous. Moreover, it's rich; and money wouldn't be +allowed to stand in the way of getting at Morse. What is lacking is +energy. These people make the most complete and fiendish plans, they +dream the most fantastic and devilish dreams, and then they say +'Manana'--which means, 'It will do very well to-morrow'--and go to sleep +in the sun." + +"Then after all, Morse is in no danger!" I cried, immensely relieved. +"You said the danger was real, but you spoke figuratively." + +"Sorry, old chap, not a bit of it. There's some one on the track with +energy enough to pull the lid off the infernal regions if necessary. In +short, the Hermandad have engaged the services of an international +scoundrel of the highest intellectual powers, a man without remorse, an +artist in crime--I should say, and most Chiefs of Police in the kingdoms +of the world would agree with me--the most dangerous ruffian at large. +You've seen him, Tom, I pointed him out to you at a little Soho +restaurant where we dined once together. His name is Mark Antony +Midwinter, and _he traveled from Brazil, together with a friend, by the +same boat that I did_." + +"Then he must be in London now!" said Pat Moore, with the air of +announcing another great discovery. + +"But look here!" I cried. "I told you, before you sailed for South +America, I told you what I saw at the Ritz Hotel that night. It was the +very same man, Mark Antony Midwinter, as you call him, running like a +hare from old Morse, who was shooting fireworks round him with a smile +on his face. _That's_ not the man you think he is. He may be a devil, +but that night he was a devil of a funk." + +"Wait a bit, my son," said Arthur. "I have thought about that incident +rather carefully. Remember that Morse was given a certain time in which +to come in line and join the Hermandad. From what I have heard of the +punctilious, senile Marquis da Silva, he wouldn't have allowed the +campaign against Morse to be started a moment before the time of +immunity was up. Might not Midwinter at that time, quite ignorant that +the towers were being built as a refuge for Morse, have tried to go +behind his own employers and offer to betray them, and to drop the whole +business for a million or so? From what I know of the man's career I +should think it extremely probable." + +I whistled. Arthur seemed to have penetrated to the center of that +night's mystery. There was nothing more likely. I could imagine the +whole scene, the panther man laying his cards on the table and offering +to save Morse and Juanita from certain death--Morse, already half +maddened by what hung over him, chuckling in the knowledge that he had +built an impregnable refuge, dismissing the scoundrel with utter +firmness and contempt. + +"I believe you've hit it, Arthur," I said. "It fits in like the last bit +of a jig-saw puzzle." + +"I'm pretty sure myself, but even now you don't know all. Quite early in +his life, when Midwinter--he's the last of the Staffordshire Midwinters, +an ancient and famous family--was expelled from Harrow, he went out to +South America. Morse was at that time in the wilds of Goyaz, where he +was developing his mines. There was a futile attempt to kidnap the +child, Juanita, who was then about two years old, and Midwinter was in +it. The young gentleman, I understand, was caught. Morse was then, as +doubtless he is now, a man of a grim and terrible humor. He took young +Midwinter and treated him with every possible contemptuous indignity. +They say his head was shaved; he was birched like a schoolboy by Morse's +peons; he was branded, tarred and feathered, and turned contemptuously +adrift. The fellow came back to Europe, married a celebrated actress in +Paris, who is now dead, and has been, as I say, one of the most +successful uncaught members of the higher criminal circles that ever +was. He made an attempt at the Ritz, swallowing his hatred. It failed. +His employers in Brazil know nothing of it. He is here in London--as Pat +so wonderfully discovered--supplied with unlimited money, burning with a +hatred of which a decent man can have no conception, and confronted with +his last chance in the world." + +As he said this, Arthur got up, bit his lip savagely and left the room. + +It was about two-thirty in the afternoon. + +Though he closed the door after him, I heard voices in the corridor, and +the door reopened an inch or two as if some one was holding it before +coming in. + +"You are not well, my lord?" + +"Oh, I'm all right, Preston; just feeling a little faint, that's all. +Sorry to nearly have barged into you; I'll go and lie down for half an +hour." + +The door opened and Preston came in with a telegram. + +I opened it immediately and felt three or four flimsy sheets of +Government paper in my hand. + +The telegram was in the special cipher of the _Evening Special_, and was +from Rolston. + + * * * * * + +"The tower top is connected with Richmond telephone exchange by private +wire. I have been rung up and in long conversation with Pu-Yi. Early in +the evening you will receive a letter from certain lady. Owing to +certain complication of circumstances your attempt at storming the +tower and seeing lady must be carried out to-night. Our friend is making +all possible arrangements to this end and urgently begs you to be +prepared. He implicitly urges me to warn you the attempt is not without +grave danger. Please return to 'Swan' at once. There is much to be +arranged, and at lunch time two strange-looking customers were in the +bar whose appearance I didn't like at all. Also Sliddim thinks he +recognized one of them as an exceedingly dangerous person." + + * * * * * + +For to-night! At last the patient months of waiting were over and it had +all narrowed down to this. To-night I should win or lose all that made +life worth living; and the fast taxi that took me back to Richmond +within twenty minutes of receiving the telegram, carried a man singing. + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +The wind was getting up on Richmond Hill and masses of cloud were +scudding from the South and obscuring the light of the moon, when at +about half-past nine a small, well-appointed motor coupe drew up in +front of the great gate at the tower inclosure. + +The small closed-in car was painted dead black, the man who drove it was +in livery, and a professional-looking person in a fur coat stepped out +and pressed the electric button of a small door in the wall by the side +of the huge main gates. In his hand he had a little black bag. + +In a moment the door opened a few inches and a large, saffron-colored, +intelligent face could be seen in the aperture. + +"The doctor!" said the gentleman from the coupe. The door opened at once +to admit him. + +He turned and spoke to the chauffeur. + +"As I cannot tell you how long I shall be, Williams," he said, "you had +better go back to the surgery and wait there. I have no doubt I can +telephone when I require you." + +The man touched his cap and drove off, and the doctor found himself in a +vaulted passage, to the right of which was a brightly lit room. Standing +in the passage and bowing was a gigantic Chinaman, Kwang-su, the keeper +of the gate, in a quilted black robe lined with fur. The man bowed low, +and a second Chinaman came out of the room, a thin ascetic-looking +person. + +"Ah, Dr. Thomas!" he said, "we've been expecting you. I am secretary to +Mr. Morse. Perhaps you will come this way." + +He led the doctor down the passage, unlocked a further door and the two +men emerged into the grounds, proceeding down a wide, graveled road, +bordered by strips of lawn and lit at intervals with electric standards. +In the distance there were ranges of lit buildings with figures flitting +backwards and forwards before the orange oblongs of doors and windows. +In another quarter rose the lighted dome of the great Power House from +which the low hum of dynamos and the steady throb of engines could be +faintly heard in pauses of the gale. It was exactly like standing at +night in the center of some great exhibition grounds, save that straight +ahead, overshadowing everything and covering an immense area of ground, +were the bases of the three great towers, a nightmare of fantastic steel +tracery such as no man's eye had beheld before in the history of the +world. + +"So far, so good," said Pu-Yi with a sigh of relief. "That was +excellently managed, the motor-car was quite in keeping. Your wonderful +little friend who speaks my language so well is already in the compound +with some of the men. He will await here to take any orders that may be +necessary." + +I was trembling with excitement and could hardly reply. + +Here I was at last, passed into the Forbidden City with the greatest +ease. + +"We will walk slowly towards tower number three, which is the one we +shall ascend," said my companion, "and I will explain the situation to +you. On the tower top I have supreme authority, except for one man, and +that's the Irish-American, Boss Mulligan. This worthy is much addicted +to the use of hot and rebellious liquors, and is generally more or less +intoxicated about this time, though he is more alert and ferocious than +when sober. To-night I have taken the opportunity to put a little +something in his bottle, a little something from China, which will not +be detected, and which will by now have sent him into a profound, +drugged slumber. I then telephoned all down the tower to the lift men on +the various stages, and also to Kwang there, that a doctor was to be +expected and that I would come down to meet him and conduct him to Mr. +Morse." + +"Excellent!" I said, "and now--?" + +"Now we are going straight up to the very top. Every one will see us but +no one will think anything strange. Moreover, and this is a fact in our +favor, when Mulligan awakes no one will be able to tell him of the +incident even if they suspected anything, for few, if any, of the tower +men speak more than a few rudimentary words of English, and I am the +intermediary between them and their master. This was specially arranged +by Mr. Morse so that none of them could get into communication with +Europeans. The fact is greatly in our favor." + +I pressed my hand to a pocket over my heart, where lay a little note +which had been mysteriously conveyed to me early in the evening--a +little agitated note bidding me come at all costs--and passed on in +silence until we came under the gloomy shadows of the mighty girders +and columns which sprang up from an expanse of smooth concrete which +seemed to stretch as far as eye could reach. + +We changed our lift at each stage; and I could have wished that it was +day or the night was finer, for the experience is wonderful when one +undergoes it for the first time. + +"We shall ascend by one of the small rapid lifts built for four or five +persons only, and not the large and more cumbrous machines. Even so, you +must remember, Doctor"--he chuckled as he called me that--"we have +nearly half a mile to go." + +On and on we went, amid this lifeless forest of steel with its smooth +concrete and shining electric-lamps, until at last we approached a +small, illuminated pavilion, where two silent celestials awaited us. We +stepped into the lift, the door was closed, a bell rang and we began to +move upwards. I sat down on a plush-covered seat and didn't attempt to +look out of the frosted windows on either side until at length, after +what seemed an interminable time, we stopped with a little jerk. Pu-Yi +opened the door and led me down on to a platform. + +"We are now," he said, "on the first stage--just fifty feet higher than +the golden cross on the top of Saint Paul's. If you will come up this +slant--see! here's the next lift." + +I followed him along a steel platform for some twenty or thirty yards, +the wind whistling all around. On looking to the right I saw nothing but +a black void, at the bottom of which, far, far below, was the yellow +glow of Richmond town. On looking to the left I stopped for a moment +and stared, unable to believe my eyes. As I live, there was an immense +lake there, surrounded by rushes that sang and swished in the wind, with +a boat-house, and a little landing-stage! + +Then, with a clang of wings and a chorus of shrill quacks, a gaggle of +wild duck got up and sped away into the dark. + +"Yes," said Pu-Yi, "that's the lake. There are many variety of water +fowl fed there, who make it their home. On a quiet afternoon, walking +round the margin, or in a canoe, one can feel ten thousand miles away +from London. But that's nothing to what you will see if circumstances +permit." + +I have but a dim recollection of the second stage, which was only a +stage in the particular tower we were mounting, and did not extend +between the three as the lower and two upper ones did, forming the +immense plateaus of which the lake was one and the City in the clouds +itself another. + +It was when we had slowed down, and even in the dark lift, that I began +to have a curious sensation of an immense immeasurable height, and Pu-Yi +gave me a warning look as who would say, "Now, get ready, the adventure +really begins." + +We stopped, the door slid back and immediately we were in a blaze of +light. We were no longer out of doors. The lift had come up through the +floor of a large room. It was divided into two portions by polished +steel bars extending from ceiling to floor. A cat could not have +squeezed through. On our side, the lift side, the floor was covered +with matting but there was no furniture at all. Beyond the bars were a +Turkey carpet, several armchairs, a mahogany table with bottles, +siphons, newspapers, and a large, automatic pistol. An electric fire +burned cheerily in one corner and at right angles to it was a couch. +Upon this couch, purple-faced and snoring like a bull, lay Mulligan, +huge, relaxed, helpless. + +"Good heavens!" I whispered. "Gideon Morse is safe enough here." + +"In ten seconds," Pu-Yi whispered, "by pressing that bell button, +Mulligan could have the room full of armed guards, and as you see, this +steel fence is impassable without the key. There are only three keys, of +which I have one." + +He produced it as he spoke, inserting it in a gleaming, complicated +lock, slid back a portion of the steel-work, and we stepped into the +guard-room. + +"We are now," said my guide, "on the platform immediately under that on +which the City rests, and about a hundred feet below it. This platform +is entirely occupied by this guard-room, a range of store and dwelling +houses, the elaborate electric installation, power for which is supplied +from below, Turkish baths, a swimming bath, and so forth. Please follow +me." + +With a glance of repulsion at the drugged giant on the couch I went +after Pu-Yi, through a door on the opposite side of the room, and down a +long corridor with windows on one side and arched recesses on the other. +At the end of this we came out again into the open air, that is to say +that we were shielded by walls and buildings, walking as it were in a +sleeping town upon streets paved with wood blocks, while instead of the +vault of heaven above, about the height of a tallish church tower were +the great beams and girders which supported the City itself, and from +which, at regular intervals, hung arc lamps which threw a blue and +stilly radiance upon the streets and roofs of the buildings. + +It was colossal, amazing, this great colony in the sky. Now and then we +heard voices, the rattle of dice thrown upon a board, and the wailing +music of Chinese violins. Two or three times silent figures passed us +with a low bow, and without a glimmer of curiosity in their impassive +faces, until at length we came to a long row of lift doors, with an +inscription above each one, and in the center, dividing them into +sections, a large, vaulted stairway mounting upwards till it was lost to +sight. It was lined with white tiles like a subway in some great railway +terminus. + +Pu-Yi unlocked the door of a small lift. We got into it, it rushed up +for a few seconds and then we came out of a small white kiosk upon a +scene so wonderful, so enchanted that I forgot all else for a second, +caught hold of my conductor's thin arm and gave a cry of admiration and +wonder. A mass of clouds had just raced before the moon, leaving it free +to shed its light until another should envelop it. + +The pure radiance, unspoiled by smoke, mist, or the miasma which hangs +above the roofs of earthly cities, poured down in floods of light upon a +vast quadrangle of buildings, white as snow and with roofs that seemed +of gold. + +I had the impression of immensity, though magnified a dozen times, that +the great quadrangle of Christ Church, Oxford, or the court of Trinity, +Cambridge, give to one who sees them for the first time. But that +impression was only fleeting. These buildings seemed to obey no +architectural law. They were tossed up like foam in the upper air, +marvelous, fantastic, beautiful beyond words. + +We hurried along by the side of a great green lawn which might have been +a century growing, past bronze dragons supporting fountain basins, down +an arcade, where the broad leaves of palms clicked together and there +was a scent of roses, until we hurried through a little postern door and +up some steps and came out in what Pu-Yi whispered was the library. + +Wonder upon wonders! My brain reeled as we stepped out of the door in +the wall into a great Gothic room with groined roof of stone, an oriel +window at one end, and thousands upon thousands of books in the embayed +shelves of ancient oak. It was exactly like the library of some great +college or castle; one expected to see learned men in gowns and hoods +moving slowly from shelf to shelf, or writing at this or that table. + +"But, but," I stammered, "this might have been here for seven hundred +years!" and indeed there was all the deep scholastic charm and dignity +of one of the great libraries of the past. + +For answer he turned to me, and I saw that his thin hand clutched at his +heart. + +"It's all illusion," he whispered, "all cunning and wonderful illusion. +The walls of this place are not of ancient stone. They are plates of +toughened steel. The old oak was made yesterday at great expense. 'Tis +all a picture in a dream." + +I saw that he was powerfully affected for a moment, but for just that +moment I did not understand why. + +"But the books!" I cried, looking round me in amazement--"surely the +books--?" + +"Ah, yes," he sighed, "they are the collection of Mr. Gideon Morse, +which is second to very few in the world. They were all brought over +from Rio nearly two years ago. We cannot compete with the British +Museum, or some of the great American collectors in certain ways, but +there are treasures here--" + +We had by now walked half-way up the great hall. He stopped, went to +part of the wall covered with books, withdrew one, turned a little +handle which its absence revealed, and a whole section of the shelves +swung outwards. + +"In here, please," said Pu-Yi, "this is a little room where I sometimes +do secretarial work. At any rate it is hidden, and you will be quite +safe here while I go to the Senorita and tell her that you await her." + +The door clicked. I sat down on a low couch and waited. + +The experiences of the night had been so strange, the intense longing of +months seemed now so near fruition, that every artery in my body pulsed +and drummed, and it was only by a tremendous effort of will that I sat +down and forced myself to think. + +Here I was, at her own invitation, to rescue my love. As my mind began +to work I saw that I must be guided in my course of action by what she +told me. Juanita obviously thought that her father's aberration was a +form of madness without foundation. She did not know what I had +discovered. If she did she might realize that her father was possibly +not so mad as she imagined. For myself, after this space of time, I can +say that I was very seriously disturbed by Arthur Winstanley's +revelations in regard to the unspeakable Midwinter and the news that he +was now in England. Perhaps you will remember that in Bill Rolston's +telegram to me he hinted at some suspicious strangers having been seen +in the private bar of the "Golden Swan." One of them, I had ascertained, +answered to the description of Midwinter in every detail, and the two +men were seen by Sliddim to drive away through Richmond Park in a large, +private car. + +Certainly I must tell Juanita something of this and help her to warn her +father, perhaps.... + +And then I remembered the elaborate precautions of my ascent, the +literal impossibility of any stranger or strangers ever getting to where +I was, and I breathed again. + +The place--one couldn't call it a room--in which I sat, was simply a +little sexagonal nook or retreat, masked from the great library by its +great door of books. Three of the panels which went from the floor to +the vaulted ceiling were of dead black silk. The other three were of +Chinese embroidery, stiff, with raised gold, and gems, which I realized +must be from the choicest examples of their kind in the world. Still, I +wasn't interested in dragons of tarnished gold, with opal eyes, ivory +teeth, and scales of lapislazuli. I was getting restive when the black +panel, which was the back of the entrance door, swung towards me, and I +saw Juanita. + +She was dressed in black, a sort of tea-gown I suppose you'd call it, +though round her shoulders and falling on each side of her slim form was +a cloak of heavy sable. + +In her blue-black hair--oh, my dear, how true you were then to the +fashions of the south, and how true you are to-day--there was a glowing, +crimson rose. + +We stood and looked at each other, in this tiny room, for I suppose two +or three seconds. + +What Juanita felt she told me afterwards, and it isn't part of this +narrative. + +What I felt was awe, sheer, impersonal awe, as I realized that I had +surmounted incredible difficulties, endured ages of longing, plotting, +planning, and now stood alone in front of the most Beautiful Girl in the +World. + +I saw her as that. I remembered the night at Lady Brentford's when the +league was formed. + +And then, thank Heaven, for in another second everything might have been +quite spoiled, I remembered that she was just my Juanita, who had sent +for me, and I took her in my arms and, and.... + + * * * * * + +We sat hand in hand upon the odd little Chinese couch. + +"Now look here, darling," I said, "you've told me all about your +Governor. How he says that you must live up here in this extraordinary +place and never go into the world again. You think him mad, and yet, +d'you know, I don't." + +"But, my heart--?" + +"I've got to tell you, dearest, that he has more reason than you think." + +She shrugged her shoulders--it was about the most graceful thing I had +ever seen in my life. + +"But to tell me that I am to be a nun because, if I were to go back into +the world, my life wouldn't be worth a moment's purchase. _Caro!_ It is +madness! It cannot be anything else." + +I didn't quite know how to tell her, and I was considering, when she +went on: + +"It is getting dreadful. Father cannot sleep, he prowls about this +nightmare of a place all the night long." + +"Sweetheart," I said, "I've been making all sorts of inquiries and I've +found out that your Governor is really in serious danger of +assassination--or was until he built this place, to which I think the +devil could hardly penetrate without an invitation. Don't think your +father a coward. Remember what we saw that night in the Ritz Hotel, when +I was just about to tell you that I adored you. No, I'd lay long odds, +Juanita darling, that Mr. Morse is more afraid for you than for himself. +And there I'll back him up every time." + +She laughed, and her laughter was like water falling into water in +paradise! + +"I have you," she said; "I have father--what do I care?" + +"Quite so," I replied. "I think you take a very sensible view of it. The +obvious thing to do is to relieve your father by coming with me +to-night, while the coast is clear. Lady Brentford is in town. She will +be delighted to receive you. Once out of the place, we can be free +within an hour. To-morrow morning I can get a special license from the +Archbishop of Canterbury and we can be married. + +"Once that happens, I'll defy all the Santa Hermandads, and all the Mark +Antony Midwinters in the world, to hurt you. And as for Mr. Morse, we'll +protect him too, in a far more sensible way than--" + +I suppose I had been holding her rather tightly. At any rate she broke +away and stood up in the center of the little room. The brightness of +her face was clouded with thought. + +I had not risen and she stared down at me with great, smoldering eyes. + +"So it is true!" she said, nodding her head, "it is true, father and I +are in peril, after all! Names escaped you just now, I think I have +heard one of them before--" + +She passed her hand over her brow, like some one awaking from sleep, and +I watched her, fascinated. + +Oh, how lovely she was at that moment, my dear, my perfect dear! + +"But, _caro_, _of course_ I cannot run away with you and be married. _I +must_ stay with father, cannot you see that?" + +Well, of course I did, there were no two words about it. "Very well," I +answered, "Little Lady of my heart, I'll stick by the old chap too. I've +crept up here in a sort of underhand way, but not for underhand reasons. +After all, I've just as much right to love you as anybody else in this +world." + +I took her by her sweet hands and I laughed in her face. + +"I'm not the Duke of Perth," I said, "but, but, Juanita--?" + +There came a little knocking at the door. + +Juanita swirled round, flung up her arm--I saw her sweet face glowing +for an instant--and then she seemed to whirl away like an autumn leaf. + +The only thing I could possibly do was to light a cigarette. + +Juanita, having met me, having delivered her ultimatum, having turned me +into a jelly, flitted away quite oblivious of the fact that I was a +burglar, an intruder into what was probably the most guarded and secret +place in Europe at that moment. + +My heart sang high music, and that was well. But at the same time I +recognized that I was in the deuce of a mess and had planned out no +course of action at all. + +I prayed, almost audibly, for Pu-Yi. + +But nobody came. There I was in the sexagonal room, with the gold +dragons with their jeweled eyes leering at me. + +A dull anger welled up within me. On every side, mentally as well as +physically, I seemed baffled, hemmed in. I determined, at any risk to +myself, to get out into the library. I took two steps towards the door +through which Juanita had gone, when I heard a sharp snap just behind +me. + +I whipped round, clutching the only weapon I had--which was a brass +knuckle-duster in the side pocket of my coat, and then I stood +absolutely still. + +One of the dragon panels had rolled up like a theater curtain, and +standing in what appeared to be the end of a passage, was the great +brute Mulligan, with a Winchester rifle at his shoulder, covering me. + +As a man does in the presence of imminent danger, I swerved out of the +line of the deadly barrel. + +As I did so--click! A second panel disappeared, and I was confronted by +Gideon Morse, his hands in the pockets of his dinner jacket, his mouth +faintly smiling, his eyes inscrutable. + +Imagine it! let the picture appear to you of the fool, Thomas Kirby, +trapped like a rat! + +Once, twice I swallowed in my throat, and I swear it wasn't from fear +but only from an enormous, immeasurable disgust. + +I turned to Morse. + +"You've been listening," I said, "you and your servant here." + +"I have been listening, Sir Thomas Kirby, that's true. I have every +right to. When a man breaks into my house without my knowledge and makes +clandestine love to my daughter, he's not the person to accuse one of +eavesdropping. As for my servant there, you do me an injustice, which I +find harder to forgive than anything, when you suggest that I allowed +him to overhear what passed in this room just now. He was not at his +post until Juanita had been gone from here some seconds. Mulligan, you +can go now. Sir Thomas, please come with me into the library." + +There was something so magnetic about this strange and compelling +personality that I followed him without a word. + +"Then you knew," I asked in a husky voice, "you knew all the time?" + +He smiled. + +"Yes," he said, "I arranged a little comedy. The faithful Mulligan was +not drugged at all, and I did everything to facilitate your entrance." + +"Then that treacherous cur, Pu-Yi, was playing with me the whole time! +And yet I could have sworn that he was genuine. When I meet him--" + +"You will shake hands with him if you are a wise man. Pu-Yi was +absolutely genuine, but he, in common with my daughter, knew nothing of +the truth until you told it him. He had believed me a madman. Then he +understood not only the peril in which I was, and am, but also that of +my daughter. Do you think, Kirby, that I should have built these towers, +let imagination transcend itself, made myself the cynosure of Europe, +unless I was sure of what I was doing? Now, alas, you've told Juanita, +and brought terror into her life as well as mine." + +"Sir," I said, "her relief is greater than any fear. I'll answer for +that." + +I faced him fair and square. + +"God knows," I said, "I'm not worth a single glance of her sweet eyes, +but somehow or other she loves me, though she wouldn't fly with me when +I suggested it." + +"She has some decent feeling left," he answered, with a dry chuckle. +"Well, I overheard everything that passed in that little room and I +must say I rather appreciate the way in which you behaved. You are a +rapid thinker, Sir Thomas. What suggests itself to you as the next move +in our relations?" + +"Quite obvious, sir. You give your consent to my engagement with your +daughter. You please her, you bind me to your interests by hoops of +steel--though as a matter of fact I'm bound already--and you add a not +invaluable auxiliary to your staff." + +"Very well," he said, perfectly calmly, and held out his hand. "Now come +and have some supper and tell me all you know." + +Then that astonishing man thrust his arm through mine and led me down +the great library. + +"What a marvelous intellect that fellow Pu-Yi has," he said +confidentially. "He saw the situation in all its bearings, from all +sides at once, and made an instant decision. I'll tell you now, Kirby, +that he actually predicted every detail of what has just come to pass. +He told me that he owed you his life and was perfectly ready to die for +you, as of course for me and my daughter, but that it had occurred to +him that his living for all three of us might be by far the wisest +attitude to adopt under the circumstances. I quite agree with him." + +Then again came the little dry, strange chuckle. + +"But no more peddling poppy-juice to my Chinese, my boy. It plays the +devil with their nerves in the end!" + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +Morse and I sat at supper in a room which differed in no way from the +ordinary study of a country gentleman. Except for the very slightest +suggestion rather than sensation of vibration, which my host explained +was the drag of the City on the three great towers which perpetually +oscillated out of the perpendicular, and so insured the safety of the +vast elastic structure, there was nothing to indicate that we were two +thousand two hundred feet up in the air. + +Our meal was of the simplest, and during it I told Morse, without +reservation, all that I had heard from Arthur Winstanley. + +"He has the outline very correctly. I'll fill it in later. How long has +Lord Arthur been in London?" + +"About five days, I believe." + +"Time for many preparations to be made if they're going to strike +quickly," he said, more to himself than to me, drumming his fingers on +the tablecloth. + +Then he looked up. + +"And these two men who were seen to-day in the bar of your public +house?" + +"One, sir, was undoubtedly Midwinter. My very sharp-witted informant +describes the other man as a swarthy person of just over middle height +and apparently of great personal strength. He was bearded, sallow-faced, +and had somewhat the appearance of a half-caste." + +"Zorilla y Toro, as I expected," said Morse. "Zorilla the Bull, as he is +known in half the Republics of South America." + +"No doubt," I remarked, "a formidable pair of ruffians, but remember +that I saw you deal with one of them at any rate, that night at the Ritz +Hotel. The way he legged it out of the drawing-room wouldn't have +inspired me with any particular fear of him." + +Morse struck the table with his hand. + +"I wish I'd sent a bullet through his heart instead of playing fancy +fireworks round him. But I feared London and your colossal law and +order. It's perfectly true, he didn't influence me in the least on that +night. He came to sell his employers, to sell the Hermandad for a +hundred thousand pounds." + +"It would have been cheaper than this." I waved my hand to indicate the +expensive crow's-nest of my future father-in-law. + +Morse laughed. + +"It wouldn't have made the least difference," he said. "The man couldn't +hurt me at the time because he had to obey the orders of the villainous +Society at his back. The old Marquis da Silva, who is simply a tool in +their hands, insisted that I was not to be even interfered with in any +way until the two years of grace from my first warning were up. Though +their object was to get hold of half my fortune, and Midwinter's to +revenge himself personally upon me, the Society and he didn't dare do +anything until the moment struck. There were too many political issues +still involved. + +"That's why I made Mr. Mark Antony Midwinter dance out of the Ritz Hotel +on that night." + +"It's what Arthur Winstanley said." + +"That young man will go far. Now, Kirby, I think you understand +everything, and you've got to throw in your lot with Juanita and me, for +a time at any rate, and never say you didn't know what you were up +against." + +I took a glass of claret and lit a cigarette. + +"I understand the _facts_, as you say, but I don't understand you. +Allowing for all your natural and deep anxiety about Juanita, I simply +fail to understand why you regard this Midwinter and his companion or +companions with such apprehension. Surely you could have the man locked +up to-morrow, knowing what you know about him." + +Morse sighed, with a sort of gentle patience. + +"A few more facts," he said; "and do reflect that it's most improbable +that a man of my intelligence and resources should act as he has done +without being sure of what he was doing. In the first place, I've had +Midwinter watched by the most famous detectives in America, watched for +years. None of these people have ever been able quite to bowl him out--a +simile from your English game of cricket. But three of the most trusted +and acute agents have lost their lives during these investigations, and +lost them in a singularly unpleasant manner." + +He sighed again, this time wearily, and I saw that his face was old and +without interest or hope. + +"What on earth is the use," he went on, "of telling you all I know about +this man? Sir"--his voice began to rise, and a light came into the dark +depths of his eyes--"Sir, if I saw his corpse before me now, I wouldn't +believe him dead or his power for evil ended until I had hacked his head +from his shoulders with my own hand! You cannot, I say you simply cannot +realize or understand the fiendish ingenuity, persistence, and icy +cruelty of this being, for I will not insult our common humanity by +calling it a man. If Juanita ever gets into his hands--" + +His mouth, his whole face, was working, I thought he was going to have a +fit, and truth to tell, something icy began to congeal around my own +heart. + +"Calm yourself, sir," I said, as authoritatively as I could. "Juanita is +doubly safe now that I am here, and as for Midwinter, he'll never +approach us here. It's beyond the wit of mortal man, and, meanwhile, +I'll see that he's apprehended and removed from all power of doing harm. +I am only a young man, Mr. Morse, but I'm rather a power in the land. +You see I have an important newspaper at my back, and as for you, who +have already made the Government feed out of your hand in the matter of +these towers, you should have gone to the Home Secretary in the first +instance. At any rate, we'll go together, and believe me, we shall be +listened to." + +"I thank you, my dear boy," he replied with an effort, "but there is +such a thing as Fate, and Fate has whispered in my ear. I am not +naturally a superstitious man, but during a life spent in strange places +among strange people I have learnt to be very wary of a material +interpretation of life. But this I will say, whatever I feel about +myself, however my precautions might fail, I believe that my dear +daughter will win to safety in the end, that the power of evil will be +overcome, and that you will be her savior." + +I could have sworn, as he shook hands and bade me good-night, there was +a tear in the great man's eye, and I wondered how long it was since any +one had seen that in this master of millions and of men. + +A picturesque young Chinaman, a valet in flowing Oriental robes, who +spoke English with the most appalling cockney accent you ever heard in +your life, conducted me to a charming bedroom, provided me with +everything necessary, and in five minutes I fell into a deep, dreamless +sleep. + +A really full day, wasn't it? + + * * * * * + +When I woke up the next morning my room was flooded with sunshine from a +dome in the ceiling. + +Seated upon my bed, and balancing a cup of tea, was Master Bill Rolston. +His hair was restored to its natural red, his nose normal, and his high +cheek-bones were gone. On each side of his chubby face his transparent +ears stood out at right angles, and his button of a mouth was wreathed +in a genial smile. + +"Good old Pu-Yi came for me about two o'clock this morning, Sir Thomas, +and told me all that had happened. I say, sir, _what_ a man to have on +the staff of the _Evening Special_! _What_ an intellect!"--I seemed to +have heard that phrase before. "Why, we'd have him dictating to Cabinet +Ministers within a year!" + +I lay idly watching this brilliant and faithful boy; journalist once, I +reflected, journalist forever. There's no getting it out of the blood, +and here, if I'm not mistaken, when many of us have faded away from +Fleet Street forever, will be the biggest of us all. + +I was surprised to find that Bill was distinctly on the side of Gideon +Morse in his anticipation of evil. We argued it out while I was dressing +and I insisted that the City was impregnable. + +"To all ordinary appearance, to all ordinary efforts, yes. But I shall +never change my belief that there's nothing that human wit can invent +that human wit cannot circumvent." + +After breakfast, which I took alone, the servant led me to a great white +house standing among conservatories, which I learned was almost an exact +reproduction of the Palacete Mendoza, the residence of Gideon Morse at +Rio. And there, in her own charming sitting-room, fragrant with flowers +and stamped in a hundred ways with her personality, Juanita was waiting. +She was radiant. Happiness lay about her like sunbeams. I never saw any +one more changed than she was from the girl I had met the night before. + +"Come, dearest," she said, "and I'll show you some of our wonders. I +could not show you all of them in one day. Oh, Tom, isn't it all +splendid, couldn't you sing and shout for joy!" + +I helped her into a fur coat--for it was bitter cold outside, though the +wind of the night before had dropped--and was provided with one myself +as we left the house. Standing in the patio was a little two-seated +automobile, a tiny toy of a thing run from electric storage batteries, +which made no noise louder than the humming of a wasp. We got into this +and Juanita was like a child as she pulled the starting lever and we +rolled away. + +I have said I woke to find my bedroom full of sunlight, but, as we +glided down an arcade of conservatories, upon each side of the road, so +that the illusion of passing among a palm grove was almost complete, I +noticed that dark and angry clouds were gathering not far above our +heads, and it was through one single aperture that the sunlight poured. +The effect of this, when we ran through the tunneled archway and came +out into a great square, was curious. A third of the buildings which +towered up on every side were bathed in glory, the rest, gray, sullen, +and throwing shadows of sable upon the lawns, gravel sweeps, and parquet +flooring. We investigated a dozen marvels of which I shall not speak +here. The whole experience was a dream of luxury so wonderful, and so +fantastic also, that my readers must wait for William Rolston's book, +now nearing completion. It was impossible to believe that we were +actually walking, motoring, more than two thousand feet above London in +a little world of our own which bore no relation whatever to ordinary +human life. + +This was especially borne in upon me with overwhelming force when we had +ascended the steps of a tower and came out into a glass chamber on the +roof, where an old Chinese gentleman with tortoise-shell spectacles +showed us the great telescope which Morse had installed. Following the +shifting path of sunlight, I got a dim glimpse of the English Channel +over a far-flung champaign of fertile woods and downs, studded here and +there with toy towns the size of threepenny-pieces. Once, but only for a +moment, I made out the great towers of Canterbury Cathedral, but the sun +shifted and the vision passed. London itself, brought immediately to our +feet, was an astonishing sight, but as every one has seen the +photographs taken from aeroplanes I will not dilate upon it, though it +differed in many ways from these. + +Perhaps the most pleasing sight of all was that of Richmond Park, where +the winter Fair had just begun. We could see the roundabouts, the +swings, and so forth, with great clearness, and even, as the wind +freshened, catch a faint buzzing noise from the steam organs. Then a +captive balloon rose up, I suppose a thousand feet, and some quarter of +a mile away. With powerful field glasses we could see the big basket +crammed with adventurous trippers, till she was hauled down again to +make another ascent and add a few more pounds to the profits of her +proprietors. + +I was quite tired when we went back to the house to lunch. + +During the meal, which was long and elaborate, Morse showed a side of +his nature I had never before seen. He was not jovial or in high +spirits--distinctly not that--but he was strangely tender and human. I +realized the immense love he had for Juanita, and wondered how he could +ever bear to see her love me. But he was kindness itself--like a father, +to the interloper who had stormed his fortress, and I always like to +think of him as he was on that afternoon, full of anecdotes about his +youth, of Juanita's mother, of the old days in Brazil. It was my formal +whole-hearted reception into his life. Henceforth I was to be--he said +it once in well and delicately-chosen words--a son to him, who had never +had a son. + +In the afternoon I went back to my own quarters, which consisted of a +villa at the end of the Palace gardens, where I was lodged with Rolston, +and attended by various well-trained Chinamen. I had rarely seen a more +delightful bachelor dwelling. I took a cup of tea with Bill about four +o'clock. It was now quite dark, and the bitter wind was rising again, +but heavy curtains of tussore silk were pulled over the windows, a fire +of yew logs burned in the open hearth, and softly shaded electric lights +all combined to produce the coziest and most homelike effect it is +possible to imagine. + +It was then that a man came in to say that Mr. Pu-Yi begged the honor of +an audience. + +Bill vanished, and my thin, ascetic friend glided in, and at my +invitation sank into a chair by the fire. I don't think, in the whole +course of my life, I could recall a conversation which touched, +interested, and excited my admiration more than this, and I have met +every one "from Emperor to Clown." He apologized profoundly for his +seeming treachery. With a wealth of lucid self-analysis and the power +of presenting a clear statement which I have seldom heard equaled, he +showed how he was torn between his new-born debtorship to me, his +loyalty to Morse, for whom he professed a profound esteem, and--here he +hinted with extraordinary _finesse_--his mute adoration for Juanita. + +"It was, Sir Thomas, touch and go, of course. I was in the position of a +surgeon who has to risk everything upon one heroic stroke of the knife. +I did so, and behold, all the conflicting elements are reconciled. The +pieces of the puzzle have come together." + +"My friend," I said, "betray me twenty million times if you can bring me +such happiness as you have brought. Besides, it wasn't a betrayal, it +was a great brain leading a smaller one to its appointed goal." + +We talked a little more, he drank tea, he smoked, and, to my growing +discomfort, I found in him the same note of pessimism and apprehension +that Morse could not conceal, and Rolston himself had partially +revealed. + +"But I _won't_ believe that any harm can come to Miss Morse," I said, +almost angrily. + +The thin lips smiled. + +"That I never said, Sir Thomas. There are no indications of that. You +and your lady are in peril, but you will win through." + +"Confound it, man, your liver must be out of order. It seems to me that +captivity in this magnificent bird-cage has the same effect on every +one. I shall get Morse to come and hunt with me in the Shires. I've got +a nice little box in Gloucestershire, close to Chipping Norton, and by +Jove, Pu-Yi, I'll mount you and give you a run with the Heythrope. You +talk as if you actually knew something. As if you had information of a +calamity." + +"I hear it in the wind," he said strangely, and his voice was like a +withered leaf blown before the wind. Then he left me. + +I dined with Juanita and her father. Bill was asked too, and he kept my +girl, and sometimes even Mr. Morse, in fits of laughter with stories of +his short but erratic career, and especially a racy account of his +illicit opium-selling down below. + +"You see, sir," he said, "you brought it on yourself, by kidnaping me in +the first instance. I had to get my own back." + +Morse's face clouded over for a moment. + +"It was a disgraceful thing to do," he said. "I quite admit it, but had +the necessity arisen I'd have kidnaped George Robey or the Prince of +Wales," and from that moment always I seemed to see that a faint but +perceptible shadow was creeping over his spirits. + +We had a little music, in a charming room built for the purpose. Juanita +played upon the guitar and sang little Spanish love songs. Bill +"obliged" with a ditty which he said was a favorite of the revered +Charles Lamb, which seemed to consist entirely of the following lines: + + "Diddle-diddle-dumpling, my son John + Went to bed with his breeches on." + +I think that when Juanita said good-night to us all--and to me privately +in the passage--she went to bed quite happy and cheerful. + +About half-past ten Bill slipped off and I remained to smoke a final +cigar with Morse. + +"I'm low, Thomas," he said, "I'm very low to-night." + +I made him take a little whisky and potash--a thing he rarely did. + +"It's the unnatural life, sir, that you've condemned yourself to +recently. You come out of this and hunt with me in Gloucestershire and +I'll protect you as well as you're protected here, and you'll get as +right as rain." + +"You're very kind," he replied, "but--take care of her, Kirby, for God's +sake, take care of her. She'll have no one else in the world but you if +they get me or Pu-Yi." + +I was about to expostulate again when the door opened and Boss Mulligan +slouched in. + +"Been all round the City, governor, with the usual patrol. Everything +quiet, nothing unusual anywhere. All the servants have given in their +tallies and are safe in their quarters." + +Morse looked at me. + +"That's our system, Tom," he said. "At a certain hour all the servants +go to the lower stage, except those that may be urgently wanted. For +instance, there's a fellow in your house to valet you to-night. Juanita +has her little Spanish maid, and I think Pu-Yi keeps some one. Otherwise +we are all to ourselves up here. All the lift doors are locked on the +second stage and so is the central staircase. Mulligan here is on guard +all night in the room where you saw him." + +"An' watchin' ye from the ind of me eye, Sorr Thomas," said the genial +ruffian, "av ye'll belave ut." + +"You're a good actor, Mulligan," I said--it seemed about the only thing +I could say. + +"Sure, an' I am that," he said, "I am that, sorr, but I'm a bether doer. +An' av ye'd reely bin staling in--" + +His immense fist clenched itself and he shook it in my direction. + +"Mulligan, go back to the guard-room," said Morse, "you're drunk." + +The giant's face changed from ferocity into pained surprise. + +"But av course, sorr," he said, "it's me usual time, as your honor must +know. But begob, I'm efficient!" + +The mingled grin and glare on his countenance when Mr. Mulligan went +away left no doubt in my mind about that. + +A few minutes afterwards, certainly not drunk, and I hope efficient, I +left the Palacete Mendoza, and walked through the gardens to the villa. +Morse himself barred the door after me. + +It was bitter, aching cold and the wind was razor-keen. Gaunt wreaths of +mist were all around like a legion of ghosts, and I realized that the +clouds were descending upon us, and soon I should not be able to see a +yard before me, though the electric lamps that never went out all night, +over the whole City, glowed with a dim blueness here and there through +the fog. + +However, I found the villa all right, and my Chinese boy waiting in the +hall. He took my coat, saw that the fires in the sitting-room and the +adjoining bedroom were made up, and then I told him he might be off to +his quarters on the second stage, for which he seemed extremely +thankful. + +I don't suppose he had been gone more than a minute when the door of my +sitting-room opened and Rolston came in quickly. He was wearing a +dressing-gown and pyjamas and his hair was all rough like one recently +aroused from sleep. + +"What on earth's the matter?" I said. + +"I undressed," he said, "in my bedroom, which is just above yours as you +know, and fell asleep in my chair with all the lights on. I woke only a +short time ago, and before switching off the lamps I went to the window +to see what sort of a night it was." + +"Hellish, if you want to know." + +"The light streamed out upon a great curtain of mist, almost like the +projector lamp upon a screen of a kinema. Sir Thomas, as I stood there I +could swear that something big, black and oblong sank down from that +darkness above, passed through my zone of light and disappeared in the +blackness below." + +"What on earth do you mean, what sort of a thing?" + +He hesitated for a moment and then he said: + +"Almost like a group of statuary, though I only saw it for a mere +instant." + +He had obviously been half dreaming when he went to the window, his +eyes, even now, were heavy with sleep. + +"Simply and solely a trick of the wind upon the mist, and your own +figure interposing between the light and the window, and throwing a +momentary shade on the swaying white curtain outside. The mist's as +thick as linen and it changes every moment. You go to bed properly, and +sleep the sleep of the just." + +He didn't attempt to argue, but looked a little ashamed of himself for +obtruding for such a trivial reason. Ten minutes afterwards I was also +in bed and fast asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +I had ordered my Chinese boy to wake me at eight. In one corner of the +Grand Square was a beautifully fitted gymnasium with a swimming-bath +adjoining. I proposed three-quarters of an hour's vigorous exercise +before dressing. + +At it happens I generally wake more or less at the time I want to. This +morning, however, it was half-past eight. There was no sound of Chang +whatever. I got out of bed, put on a sweater, Norfolk jacket, flannel +trousers, and tennis shoes--I had sent for a portmanteau of clothes from +the "Golden Swan"--went across the hall and let myself out into the +gardens. + +Then I hesitated in amazement. A thick, heavy, impenetrable mist hid +everything from sight. It seemed as solid as wool. One literally had to +push one's way through it, and when I say that I couldn't see more than +a yard before my face, I mean it in the strict sense of the words. +Still, I remembered that I have a good sense of topography, and I was +quite confident that I could find my way to the central Square, where +there would be sure to be people about whom I could ask. + +From my front door there was a good hundred and twenty yards of wide +gravel path to the Palacete Mendoza. I sprinted up this in less than +twenty seconds I should say, and then warily turned into the palm-tree +grove--the great sheets of plated glass on either side of the way were +in place now, but I knew where I was because of the different quality of +the ground, which was here paved with wood blocks. Soon, a faint gray +mass to my right, the palace itself loomed up, but the blanket of mist +was too thick for me to discern windows or doors. One could see nothing +but the gray hint of mass. + +The curious thing was that one could hear nothing either. That had not +struck me as I did my sprint, but now it did, and most forcibly. Of +course there was no sound of wind--had there been any wind we should not +have been buried in the very heart of this fog--thicker and more sticky +than anything I had ever experienced in the Alps themselves. But there +were no sounds of occupation such as an extensive place like the City +might have been expected to produce at this hour, and in fact, as I +realized, _did_ produce, when I remembered yesterday. The place was +never noisy. It was a haunt of peace if ever there was one. But the +sound of gardeners and servants going about their daily toil, the +distant throbbing of an engine perhaps, a subdued voice giving an order, +the plashing of fountains, and the strains of music, all these were +utterly and entirely absent. It was as though the mist killed not only +vision but hearing also. I might have been on the top of Mont Blanc. + + "What little town by harbor or sea-shore + Is empty of its folk this pious morn?" + +I quoted to myself with a laugh, just as I entered the arched tunnel +wide enough for two coaches to be driven under it abreast, which I knew +led to Grand Square. + +I laughed, and then quite suddenly all laughter went out of me. I +couldn't explain it at the moment, but the mist, the loneliness, my +whole surroundings, seemed quite horrible. + +Surely something had passed me? I called out, and my voice seemed like +the bleating of a sheep. Of course, it was illusion. My nerves had +suddenly gone wrong. But, honestly, I felt that there was something +_nasty_ in the atmosphere, nasty from a psychic point of view I mean. +There are moments when the human soul turns sick and retches with +disgust, and I experienced such a moment now. I think it was exactly +then that I knew, though I wouldn't allow myself to believe it, that I +knew inwardly all was not well. I walked on and my india-rubber shoes +seemed to make a sly, unpleasant noise--it was the only one I heard even +now. + +I could see nothing, I was quite uncertain of where I was, so I turned +and walked straight to the right until, from the impact of the air upon +my face, I knew that I was within a yard or so of some building. This +was correct. My hand touched what seemed like stonework, and glancing up +I became aware that a building rose high above. + +I followed this along, keeping my hand on the stone, moving it round +projecting buttresses and going with great caution. This insect-like +progression seemed to be endless. I took out my watch, which I had +shoved into the breast pocket of my Norfolk jacket. It was nearly nine +o'clock, and not a single sound! + +A second or two afterwards I came to a balustrade, felt my way along it, +and found that I was at the foot of a broad flight of steps. There +seemed something vaguely familiar here, and as I ran up them I began to +be sure that I was at the library. I knew that Pu-Yi lived somewhere on +the premises and I felt all over the great iron-studded door until I +came to the small postern wicket through which one generally entered. +This was locked, but a bell-pull of wrought iron hung at the side and I +pulled at it lustily for a considerable time. + +It opened with a jerk and Pu-Yi stood there in his skull cap with the +coral button on the top and wrapped in a bear-skin robe. + +"Thank goodness I've found some one," I said. "I've lost my way. I was +going to the gymnasium, to exercise a little and then have a swim. My +boy didn't turn up so I came out by myself." + +"Come in, come in, Sir Thomas," he said, peering out at the white +curtain. "What a dreadful morning! I've been here some months now, but I +have never seen it so bad as this. I daresay it will blow off by nine +o'clock or so when the sun gets up." + +"It's nine o'clock now," I told him. + +He started violently. + +"Then my servant also is at fault," he said. "I ordered my coffee for +eight. I was reading far into the night and must have overslept myself. +This is very curious." + +"Do you know, I don't quite like it, Pu-Yi. I've come all the way from +the pavilion in the Palace gardens and haven't heard the least sound of +any sort whatever." + +We passed through a lobby and entered the great library, which was cold +and gray as a tomb. + +Pu-Yi snapped at a switch, then at another. Nothing happened. + +"The electric light is off!" he cried. "What an extraordinary thing!" + +"Mine wasn't," I said. "I got out of bed and dressed by it." + +He did not reply, but took down the speaking part of a telephone and +turned the handle of the box. In that gray light his thin face, with its +expression of strained attention, was one I shall not easily forget. + +He turned the handle again, angrily. Again an interval of silence. + +"The telephone is out of order," he said, and we looked at each other +with a question in our eyes. + +"Well, I'm confoundedly glad I've found you," I said. + +"We must look into this at once, Sir Thomas. I can find my way perfectly +well to one of the lifts at the other end of the Square. We must summon +assistance. One moment." He vanished for a minute and returned with +something cool and shining which he pressed into my hand. It was a +venomous ten-shot Colt automatic. "You never know," he whispered. + +We hurried across the great Square, passing by the central fountain +basins, though the fountains were not playing, which added to our +uneasiness. Everything was deathly still until we came to the little +lift pavilion. I half expected the thing to stick, but it glided down +easily enough. As if my companion read my thoughts he said: + +"All these small lifts are not electrical, but are worked by hydraulic +power, the station for which is in the City and not below on the earth." + +I shall never forget the extraordinary sight as we stepped from the +lift. The mist here was nothing like so thick as it was above. This was +owing to the fact that a hundred feet above our heads there was the +immense ceiling of steel plates and girders upon which the City rested. +As I said before, on all three sides this second service City was open +to the air, but not above. Consequently the mist moved in tall white +shapes like ghosts; it entirely surrounded one group of huts and left +another great vista of buildings plain to the eye. Here a gaudily +painted gable thrust itself out of the white sheet; there, through a +proscenium of clinging wool, one saw the gray interior of a +machine-room. A chill twilight brooded everywhere. There wasn't a single +lamp burning, and from one end to the other lay the desolation of utter +silence. + +I leant against the jamb of the lift door, and, despite the cold, the +sweat ran down my body in a stream. + +Pu-Yi raised a thin arm over his head and it seemed to clutch crookedly +at the somber panoply aloft. + +A high, thin wail came from his parted lips and went mournfully away +down the deserted streets and empty habitations. + +For myself, I had been so stunned that I couldn't think, but my +friend's despairing call seemed to jerk some cog-wheel within the brain +and start again the mechanism of thought. + +I gripped him by the shoulder. + +"There isn't a soul here," I rasped out. "What does it mean, what on +earth does it mean?" + +"There should be three hundred at least," he answered. + +I broke away at a run, flung open the first door I came to and peered +in. It was some sort of a sleeping-room, there were bunks and couches +all around the walls. Each one of them was empty. I had time to see +that, and also that a stand of short carbines and cutlasses was full of +weapons. + +Then I had to back out quickly for the late inmates had left an odorous +legacy behind them. + +Pu-Yi faced me. + +"That was one of the patrol rooms," he said. + +Then I remembered our coming two days ago. + +"Mulligan!" I cried. "Nobody could get here except through the +guard-room, nobody could leave here except through that, could they?" + +"Not unless they threw themselves from the side of the tower." + +"Well, it's quite impossible to believe that three hundred people have +committed suicide during the night without a sound being heard. Quick! +let's get to the bottom of this." + +Pu-Yi led. He didn't seem really to run, only to glide along the ghostly +streets and passages. But I had hard work to keep up with him, all the +same. My mouth felt as if it had been sucking a brass tap. The most +deadly fear clutched at my heart--that noiseless, pattering run through +the deserted town in the air, accompanied always by the mouthing, +gibbering ghosts of the mist, was appalling. + +We dashed down the last corridor and were brought up by a stout door. +Pu-Yi bent down to the handle, turned it gently, and--it opened. + +We tiptoed into that room. Directly I was over the threshold, the +spiritual odor of death, of violent death, came to me. + +A fire of logs was still burning redly upon the hearth. For the rest the +room was lit only by its skylight, through which filtered a dirty and +opaque illumination which was only sufficient to give every object a +shape of the sinister or bizarre. The red glow from the fire glistened +upon the polished screen of steel which divided the room into two +portions. And it also fell, redly, upon something else. + +This was the corpse of Mulligan. + +It was seated in a chair which had been pulled up to the screen with its +back towards it, as if in mockery and derision of its power to keep it. + +He had been strangled by a yard of catgut, twisted, tourniquet-fashion, +by a piece of stick at the back of the neck. The catgut had sunk far +into the flesh, reducing the neck to less than half its ordinary size, +and the great staring head hung down upon one shoulder. + +One of the logs in the grate fell with a crackle of sparks. For the +rest, dead silence. + +"They have come," Pu-Yi said simply. + +"But what has happened?" I whispered, my throat was so dry that the +sound was like the rustling of paper. + +"I shall know soon. I am going to find out. There is not a minute to +lose. Can you, dare you, wait here--" + +I nodded and he was out of the room in a flash. Upon the dead man's +table was the usual array of bottles and glasses. I took some brandy and +gulped it down and my brain cleared instantly. There was a little touch +of infinite pathos even in this hideous moment, for by the side of an +empty glass I saw a string of beads with a little metal crucifix. The +Irishman, a Roman Catholic of course, must have been saying his prayers +some time before he met his end. Somehow the thought comforted me and +gave me power to act. I found a knife, and cut the bonds that tied the +giant to the chair. I lowered him reverently to the floor and finally +severed the horrible ligature around his throat. An examination of the +steel door in the screen of bars showed that it was securely locked, but +the bunch of keys which the dead man usually carried upon a chain was no +longer there--the end of the chain dangled from his trousers pocket. + +While I was doing these things a most deadly apprehension was standing +specter-like by my side and plucking with wan fingers at my sleeve. What +had happened, what might even now be happening at the Palacete Mendoza? + +Pu-Yi whirled into the room. He made no noise, it was as though a dried +leaf had been blown in by the wind. His face was transformed. Every +outline was sharpened, and the color was changed until it bore the exact +resemblance to a mask of green bronze. In its frozen immobility it was +dead, yet awfully alive, and the eyes glittered like little crumbs of +diamond. + +"Well?" + +"I know how it has been done. It is very clever, very clever indeed. Let +me tell you that all the power cables connecting us with below have been +scientifically cut. We can neither telephone down to the Park nor can we +descend to it in one of the lifts. We are isolated up here in the +clouds." + +"But the men, the staff?" I gasped, and then I stepped back, staring +down at his hands. They were all foul and stained with blood. + +"Not far away," he said, "there is another body, that of my servant, a +youth from my own Province, whom I loved and whom I was educating. He +was alive five minutes ago. He had just time to sob out the truth and +his repentance." + +"Tell me quickly, Pu-Yi, time presses." + +"They caught him last night, so they must have been here then." + +"Who caught him?" + +"He never knew. They were masked, but there were two of them, and from +his description we know very well who they were. Sir Thomas, they +tortured him for a long time until he spoke, promising him freedom if he +did so. His story was disjointed, gasped out with his dying breath, but +I can put it together pretty well. + +"They made him give an order by telephone from the upper City that, +immediately, the staff were to leave here and descend to the ground and +await further orders, all but Mulligan, who was to remain at his post +until I came to him. This message was delivered in Chinese to the man at +the telephone exchange, and the poor boy was forced to counterfeit my +voice. He was blindfolded immediately afterwards, but he heard a man +speaking, and he said he could not have told the voice from that of Mr. +Morse." + +In a flash I saw the whole thing, in its devilish ingenuity, its +fiendish completeness. + +"Then we are absolutely alone, you, I, Mr. Rolston, Mr. Morse and his +daughter?" + +"And her maid," he answered quietly. + +"At the mercy of--" + +"That we have yet to prove. We must throw all emotion, all fear aside. +That's what we have to do now. It's diamond cut diamond. There's one +problem in my mind, and one only." + +"What's that, quick!" + +"I daresay that in an hour I could get down to the ground. Among the +intricate steel-work of this tower there's a tiny circular staircase of +open lattice-work, sufficient for the passage of one person only, and +even here, every three or four hundred feet the way is barred by locked +gates, though I have a master key to all of them. Shall I make the +attempt, and risk crashing off into space--for it is a mere +steeplejack's way--and summon assistance, which may well be another hour +in arriving, for the tower cables have been scientifically cut and no +one but an electrician could repair them? Or shall I rush with you to +defend the Palace?" + +"You leave the decision to me?" + +"It is in your hands, Prince." + +"Then, old chap, tumble down this accursed tower, hell for leather, and +rouse the pack. If I and Morse and Bill Rolston cannot account for these +cowardly assassins, then one more man won't make any difference." + +So I said, so I thought. I had no idea into what peril I was sending +him, though I have sometimes wondered if he knew. He took my hand, +kissed it, and beckoning me, we hurried through the silent under City +towards the lift. + +"You go up, Sir Thomas," he said, "and exercise the utmost care. Have +your pistol ready. The mist is as thick as ever, which is in your favor. +You can find your way now to the Palace, I am sure." + +"And you?" + +"I go off here," he said, pointing with his left arm down a long vista +to where, under a square arch, there was nothing to be seen at all but +swaying yellow-white. "One opens the gate in the railing and drops on to +the circular stairs," he said, "which cling to the outside of the +steel-work all the way down like a little train of ivy." + +"_Au revoir_, be as quick as you can." + +"Good-by," and I jumped into the elevator. + +Some two minutes afterwards, when I was creeping through the wool with +my pistol in my hand, alert for the slightest sound around me, I heard +the sharp crack of a rifle. It came from behind me. There was a +perceptible interval and then another crack, followed, I could have +sworn to it, by a thin wailing cry. + +Then utter silence fell once more upon the white and muffled City. + +As I ran I tried to steel myself, if that were as I suspected, the last +dying cry of Pu-Yi, not to think about it. The immediate moment, the +immediate future, these were everything. + +All the extraordinary precautions had failed. The assassins were here! +In what force? How had they come?--though that was useless to speculate +on. Two things only remained. I must warn Morse if it was not already +too late, must avenge him if it was. I resolutely put aside the thought +of Juanita--of any personal feeling which might mar my judgment and +unstring my nerves at this supreme and dreadful moment. + +I found myself, somehow or other, at the entrance to the tunneled +passage. Save for my own quick breathing there had not been a sound, and +the horrible curtain of the fog was as thick as ever. Should I at once +creep up to the Palace, or should I go back to the villa and find +Rolston? It was a nice question and the decision had to be +instantaneous. I decided that it would give me a tremendous advantage to +have him with me, and besides that, he himself must be warned of the +terror that lurked in the darkness of the cloud. + +I arrived without any mishap, pushed open the door and was crossing the +dark hall when my foot caught in some obstruction and I fell headlong. +There was no time to cry out, had I been startled enough to do so, +before something leapt upon my back with a soft yet heavy thud. A hand +slipped over my mouth and the round barrel of a pistol was pressed into +my neck. + +I lay helpless, thinking that it was all over, when the weight lifted, +the pistol was snatched away and I was hauled to my feet to +discover--Rolston. + +"Not a word," he whispered. "I set a trap in the hall, Sir Thomas. Thank +God you are alive!" + +"Thank God you are too. Bill, they've strangled Mulligan, killed another +Chinese by torture and I am very much afraid have shot Pu-Yi as he was +trying to get down to earth to summon help. + +"Every single member of the staff is down in the Park with orders to +stay there--false orders. The lifts are all put out of action beyond +possibility of being repaired for several hours. That's how things +stand. Now we must get to the Palace as quickly as we possibly can. God +knows what has happened or may be happening there." + +"This way, quick!" he said, when he had listened to me with strained +attention. + +He took my arm, hurried me into the back part of the house, opened a +door with a key and we entered a bedroom which I had not before seen. +The windows were shuttered and curtained but the electric light--which +never failed either my villa or the Palace during the whole of those +terrible hours--made every detail clear. Upon the bed, lying as if +asleep, was Juanita. Leaning over her was a tall, elderly, hard-featured +French woman with a typical Norman face. + +I staggered back into Bill Rolston's arms. + +"Good God!" I cried, and then, "She's not dead, tell me she's not dead!" + +Marie, the French maid, turned. + +"She's perfectly well, M'sieu, only she's had a fainting fit and I've +given her something to keep her quiet." + +She spoke in French. + +"Then how do you come here, what's happened?" + +"At some time in the night, M'sieu, I think it must have been between +two and three, the warning bell, which is always attached to my bed, +began to ring. I knew exactly what to do. It was part of Mr. Morse's +precautions, in which he had drilled us. When that bell rang, at +whatever time of day or night, I was to wake M'selle instantly, dress +her without a second's delay, and bring her out of the Palace by a +secret way. + +"I did so, and arrived in this room, where M'selle fainted. The door was +locked from the outside, and as I have strict orders never to exceed my +instructions by a hair's breadth, I have been waiting. + +"Not very long ago M'sieu here"--she pointed to Rolston--"hearing some +noise, unlocked the door and came in. To him I told what had happened." + +"Thank God," I said aloud, "that she's safe," and in my heart I paid a +tribute to the minutely detailed genius of Gideon Morse, who had at +least foiled the panthers on his track in one, and the greatest +particular. + +"Very well then. Now we must leave you here while we hurry to the Palace +to try and learn what has happened, and do what we can. You will not be +afraid?" + +"No, M'sieu," she replied simply. "There's an angel with us," and she +crossed herself devoutly. "And, moreover," from somewhere about her +waist she withdrew a long, keen knife, "I know what to do with this, +M'sieu, in the last resort." + +I went to the bed, I looked down at Juanita and kissed her gently on the +forehead. + +"Now then, Bill, come along," I said. + +Bill grinned. + +"By the private way," he said, pointing to the French woman, who was +removing a heavy Turkish rug which lay in front of the fireplace. There +was a click, and a portion of the floor fell down, disclosing some +steps, padded with felt. + +"This way, M'sieu," she whispered, "the passage is lit, but here's a +torch if you should need it, and here is the book." + +She handed me a little leather-bound book about the size of a railway +ticket. + +"What's this?" + +"Instructions in English and Chinese in regard to the secret room at the +other end. They are few and simple, but Mr. Morse had them printed so +that there could be no mistake if ever it became necessary to use the +place and its machinery." + +"He thinks of everything," said Bill, as we crept down into a fairly +wide passage, and the trap-door above rose once more into its place. + +The passage was fully a hundred and thirty or forty yards long and +straight as an arrow. As we approached the end, which I saw to be hidden +by a heavy curtain, I thought of the little leather covered book. +Motioning Rolston to stop I opened it and read the English portion. +There were about five or six pages, with one or two simple diagrams, and +I blessed the journalistic training that enabled me to see the purport +of the whole thing in a minute, though I gasped once more at the fertile +ingenuity of Gideon Morse. Gently putting aside the heavy curtain, we +entered a room of some size. The floor was heavily carpeted. Around two +of the walls were couches piled with blankets. Upon shelves above were +piles of stores--I saw boxes of biscuits, tins of condensed milk and +many bottles of wine. The place was quite fourteen feet high and at one +end four posts came down from the ceiling to the floor. They were +grooved and the grooves were lined with steel which was cogged to +receive a toothed wheel. Between the four posts, dropping some two feet +from the ceiling, was what looked like the lower part of a large cistern +or tank. This apparatus extended along the whole far end of the room, +which was not square but square-oblong in shape. Immediately opposite to +where we entered was an arrangement of levers, like the levers in a +railway signal-box, though smaller; above these, sprouting out of the +wall, were half a dozen vulcanite mouthpieces like black trumpets. Above +each one was a little ivory label. + +"What does it all mean?" Bill whispered. + +I held up my hand for silence, looking round the place, referring once +or twice to the little book, and making absolutely sure. As I was doing +so there was a sudden "pop," followed by the unmistakable gurgle of +champagne into a glass. + +It was the most uncanny thing I have ever heard, for it might have +happened at my elbow. Had it not been that a tiny electric signal-bulb +no bigger than a sixpence glowed out over one of the mouthpieces, I +should have been utterly unnerved. This mouthpiece was labeled "Mr. +Morse's study." + +"The dictograph," I whispered to Rolston, and he pressed my arm to show +he understood. + +I think I would have given a thousand pounds myself for some champagne +just then. We stood holding each other, frozen into an ecstasy of +listening. I almost thought that one of Bill's remarkable ears was +elongating itself until it coiled sinuously towards the wall, but this, +no doubt, was illusion. + +There came a voice, an urbane, and cultured voice, well modulated and +serene. + +It was all that, but as I heard it my blood seemed to turn to red +currant jelly and to circulate no more in my veins. If there was ever a +voice which was informed by some unnamable quality which came straight +from the red pit of hell, we heard that voice then. Hearing it, I knew +for the first time the meaning of those words: _The worm that dies not +and the fire that is not quenched_. + +"Whoever thought, Gideon Morse, that I should be breakfasting with you +to-day! To tell the truth I didn't myself. But as you know, I have +always been a great gambler and now, at the end of all the games of +chance that we have played together, I have turned up the final ace." + +Another voice--Heaven! it was Morse himself who answered. His voice +seemed almost amused. It was like coming out of a pitch dark room into +summer sunlight to hear it after that other. + +"Mark Antony Midwinter, you speak of triumph, but you were never nearer +your ultimate end than you are at this moment"--I could have sworn I +heard his dry chuckle and I moved nearer to the wall. + +"This cold pheasant is quite excellent. What is the use of trying to +bluff me? Your end has come and you know it. It isn't going to be a +pleasant end, I expect you guess that. We have tossed the dice for many +years, you and I. You've won over and over again. I had become an +outcast on the face of the earth, until Fate made me the agent of a +great vengeance." + +This time Morse laughed outright. + +"You offal-eating jackal!" he said. "Finish your stolen meal and get to +work. You, the agent of a great vengeance! when not long ago you slunk +into my London hotel and offered to sell your employers. I understand," +he went on in a curiously impersonal voice, "that you really are +supposed to be descended from a high English family. Even when I had you +tarred and feathered--do you remember that, Antony?--many years ago, I +still believed in your descent, though I own I didn't give it much of a +thought. Tell me, where exactly did the kitchen-maid come in?" + +Following upon Morse's words we heard the sound of footsteps and the +scraping of a chair. + +A new person had come into the room and Midwinter had risen to meet him. + +"Well?" + +The reply came in a deep bass voice. + +"Nothing is changed. There was one Chinaman, it must have been the +librarian of whom that guy we put through it, spoke--he came sliding +along and tried to get down by the cat's cradle outside the tower. I was +leaning out of that balcony window above, commanding every approach, and +I got him with my second shot." + +"Did he fall all the way down? That might startle them below." + +"No. He just crumpled up on the stairs, and after looking round, I've +come back here. There's a little wind beginning to get up and I +shouldn't wonder if in an hour or so this mist-blanket is all blown +away." + +"Half an hour is enough for what we have to do, Zorilla. Just go over to +Mr. Morse there and see if his lashings are secure--and then we must +think about getting off ourselves." + +It was as though Bill and I could see exactly what was happening in the +library--the heavy tread, an affirmative grunt, and then the smooth +hellish voice resuming: + +"You know you've got to die, Morse, and die painfully. Nothing can alter +that, but I'll let you off part of your agonies if you tell me at once +where your daughter is. It will only precipitate matters. We can easily +find her as you must know." + +"I don't like talking with you at all. You are both of you doomed beyond +power of redemption. You have overcome some of my precautions, by what +means I cannot tell. You've captured my person. You are about to wreak +your disgusting vengeance on it. For Heaven's sake do so. You know +nothing of this place you are in, or very little. Fools!" The voice rang +out like a trumpet. + +There was a murmured conference, the words of which we could not catch, +then Midwinter said: + +"We'll put you to the test a little, before Zorilla really +begins--operating. Adjoining this apartment I see there is your most +luxurious bathroom--the walls of onyx, the bath of solid silver. Well, +we'll take you and put you in that bath and turn on the water. I'll +stand over you, and with my hands on your shoulders, I'll plunge you an +inch or two beneath the surface, till you are so nearly drowned that you +taste all the bitterness of death. Then we'll have you up again and ask +you a few questions. Perhaps you may have to go back into the bath a +second time before Zorilla gets to the real work." + +No words of mine can describe the malignancy of that voice, no words of +mine can describe the shout of resolute, sardonic laughter which +answered it. + +Bill wanted to shout in answer, but I clapped my hand over his mouth +just in time, and I could almost see the frowning faces of the two +fiends as they advanced upon the bound man. + +... Steps overhead; the little bulb over the mouthpiece labeled "Mr. +Morse's study" goes out, and another lights up over the mouthpiece +labeled "Bathroom." There is a jarring as a tap is turned on and a rush +of water. + +"That'll do, Zorilla. Two feet is quite enough for our purpose"--the +voices are actually in the room now, much louder and clearer than +before. + +"You take the heels--steady, heavo!" and then a splash and a thud. We +heard some one vaulting lightly into the bath. + +"Now, Morse, I hold you up for a minute. I shall press you down under +the water until you are as near dead as a man can be. Have you anything +to say?" + +"Yes. Give me one moment." + +"Ten if you like." + +Then there came in a calm, penetrating voice, "Are you there?" + +I reached upward and smote with my clenched fist upon the outside of the +bath. I heard a muttered exclamation, a slight splash, and then Bill +Rolston pulled over a lever, and half the ceiling of our room sank +towards us with a noise like the winding-up of a clock. + +Midwinter was standing in one end of the bath, which hid him almost up +to his waist. His jaw dropped like the jaw of a dead man. Such baffled +hate and infinite malevolence stared out of his eyes that I gave a shout +of relief as Rolston lifted his arm and fired. + +He must have missed the fiend's head by a hair's breadth, no more. Quick +as lightning he fired again, but he was too late. Midwinter bounded out +of the bath like a tennis ball, felled Rolston with a back-arm blow as +he leapt, and fled down the passage. + +The loud thunder of the explosions in that underground place had not +died away before I had lifted Morse from under the water and dragged him +over the side of the bath. + +His face was very pale, but his eyes were open and he could speak. + +Truly the man was marvelous. + +"The other," he whispered, "the brute Zorilla! Juanita!" + +I understood one of the devils, desperate now, was still at large, and +even as I realized it, I saw a ghastly sight. + +There was a noise above. I bent my head backward and looked up through +the aperture in the ceiling. + +A man was crouching over it and I saw his face and neck--a big, +black-bearded face, with eyes like blazing coals, but _reversed_. His +eyes were where his mouth should have been, his nostrils were like two +pits, and for a forehead there was a grinning mouth full of gleaming +teeth. Any one who, when ill, has seen their nurse or attendant bending +over them from the back of the bed, will realize what I mean, though +they can never understand the horror of that demoniac and inverted mask. + +I was pretty quick on the target, but not quick enough. The thing +whipped away even as I fired, and there was a thunder of feet running. + +I think a sort of madness seized me, at any rate I was never in a +moment's doubt as to what to do. I shoved my pistol in my pocket, leapt +upon the edge of the bath, sprang upwards and caught the floor of the +room above with my hands. + +The rest was easy for any athlete in training. I pulled myself up, lay +panting for a second and then stood upon the tiled floor of the +bathroom. + +The door leading into the library was open. I dashed through to find the +place empty, rushed through the hall and out upon the steps of the main +entrance. And then, joy! A morning wind had begun and instead of a +white, impenetrable wall, a phantom army was retreating and, as if +pursuing those ghost-like sentinels, was the black, running figure of +Zorilla. + +I had a clear glimpse of him as he plunged into the tunnel leading to +Grand Square, and I was after him like a slipped greyhound. + +In Grand Square it was clearing up with a vengeance. There were gleams +of sunlight here and there and the mist had lifted for about twelve feet +above my head. + +I saw him bolt round the central fountain, hidden by an immense bronze +dragon for a moment, and then legging it for all he was worth towards +the way that led to the lifts for the second stage. + +The wood floor had dried with the lifting of the mist and I was doing +seven-foot strides. I was seeing red. There was a terrible cold fury at +the bottom of my heart, but in my mind there was a furious joy. With +every stride I gained on him--this powerful, thick-set, baboon-like man +from the forests of the Amazon. + +I gave a loud, exulting "View-halloo," and the black head turned for an +instant--he lost ten good yards by that. I whooped again. I meant to +kill, to rend him in pieces. And for the first time in my life I +realized the joy of primeval man: the lust of the hunt, red fang, red +claw, to tear, dominate and destroy. + +Oh, it was fine hunting! + +Damn him! He snapped himself into one of the little lifts when I was +within six yards of him. I saw his ugly face sink out of sight behind +the glass panels. I remembered that these small hydraulic lifts worked, +though the big ones below didn't. But I remembered something else ... +there was a stairway. + +I found it by instinct, a great broad stair with tiled walls like the +subway of some railway terminus. + +I didn't bother about the stairs. I leapt down--preserving my balance by +a miracle--six or seven at a time. Pounding out into the great empty +City at the foot, I swirled round and was just in time to see my +gentleman bolt out of his lift like a rabbit from its hole and run to +where I knew was the outside stairway which fell, in its corkscrew path, +barred by many gates, right down to safety and the normal world. + +It was the way by which dear old Pu-Yi had hoped to descend and raise +the alarm. It was the perilous eyrie upon which this same bull-like +assassin had picked him off like a sitting pigeon and boasted of it not +half an hour before. + +As he dodged and ran I fired at him, but never a bullet touched the +brute and I flung the Colt away with an oath. + +"Much better kill him with my own hands," I said in my mind, "much +better tear his head off, break him up--" + +I tell you this as it happened. For the moment I was a wild beast, in +pursuit of another, but still, I think, a super-beast. + +Well, never mind that. I saw him fumbling at a sort of fence, clearly +outlined against an immense space of morning sky, and thundered after +him--thundered, I say, because I was now running along an open steel +grating, which seemed to sway.... + +Then I vaulted over where Zorilla had vaulted, and my heart leapt into +my mouth as I fell--fell some eight feet on to a tiny platform, +protected from space by a rail not more than three feet high. + +I reeled, and caught hold of a stanchion and saved myself. Far, far +below, London--London in color was unrolling itself like a map--and +immediately below my feet, already a considerable distance down, was the +slithering black spider that I had sworn to kill. + +I could see him through the grid, and then I flung myself upon the +corkscrew ladder, grasping the rails with my hands until the skin was +burnt from them, disdaining the steps and spinning round and ever +downwards like a great top. + +As I went my head projected at right angles to my body. As I buzzed down +that sickening height I saw that Zorilla had stopped. I knew that he +had come to one of the steel gates, at which he was fumbling uselessly. + +Then, as I came to the last step before the little gate platform I saw +also, under the curve of the stair, a huddled figure, and I knew who +_that_ was, who that had been.... + +I threw myself at Zorilla with my knee in the small of his back. +Instantly I caught him round the throat with my fingers just on the big +veins behind the ear which supply the brain with blood, and my fingers +crushed the trachea until the whole supple throat seemed breaking under +the molding of my grip. + +I felt that I had got him. That if I could hold out for a minute he +would be dead, but I hadn't reckoned with the immense muscular force of +the body. + +I clung like the leopard on the buffalo, but he began to sway this way +and that. In front of us was the steel gate and the motionless figure of +Pu-Yi. We were struggling upon the steel grid, not much larger than a +tea table. A slight rail only three feet high defended us from the +void--a little thigh-high rail between us and a drop of near two +thousand feet. + +He lurched to the left, and I swung out into immensity, carried on his +back. I was sure it was the end, that I should be flung off into space, +when with one arm he gripped the gate, braced all his great strength and +slowly dragged us back into equilibrium. It seemed that the whole tower +trembled, vibrated in a horrible, metallic music. + +I pressed down my thumbs, I strained every sinew of my wrist and arm in +the strangle hold, and I felt the life pulsing out of him in steady +throbs. There was nothing else in the world now but myself and him and I +ground my teeth and clutched harder. + +In his death agony he lurched to the other side of our tiny foothold +space. This was where the circular stairway ended. He caught his foot, +so I was told afterwards, in the last stanchion of the stair, fell over +the rail with a low, sobbing groan, and then, weighted by me upon his +shoulders, began to slip, slip, slip, downwards. + +And I with him. + +I had conquered. I don't think that in that moment I had any feeling but +one of wild, fierce joy. He was going, I was going with him, but I never +thought of that, until my right ankle was clutched in a vice-like grip. +I felt the warm, heaving body below me rush away, tearing my grip from +its throat by its own dreadful impetus, and then, as I was snatched back +with a jar of every bone in my body, there was a shrill whistling of air +for a second as Zorilla went headlong to his doom, and I knew nothing +else. + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +Falling! Falling through deep waters, with a horrible sickening sense of +utter helplessness and desolation; nerves, heart, mind--very being +itself--awaited the crash of extinction. A slight jolt, a roaring of +great waters in the air, and a voice, dim, thin and far away! + +... In some mysterious way, the sense of sight was joined to that of +sound and hearing. I was surrounded by blackness shot with gleams of +baleful fire, shifting and changing until the black grew gray in furious +eddies, the gray changed into the light of day, and a far-off voice +became loud and insistent. + +It was thus that I came to myself after the horror on the edge of the +dizzy void. + +The first thing I saw was the face of Juanita. There were tears in her +eyes and her cheeks were brilliant. Then I heard, and even then with a +start, a voice that I had never thought to hear again--the gentle, +tripping accents of Pu-Yi. + +"He will do now, Senorita. The doctor said that he would awake from his +sleep with very little the matter except the shock--" + +"Juanita!" I cried, and her cool hand came down upon my forehead. + +"You are not to excite yourself, dearest," she said. + +For a moment or two I lay there in a waking swoon of puzzled but entire +bliss. Then I tried to move my position slightly upon the bed, for I was +lying upon a bed in a large and airy room, and groaned aloud. Every +muscle in my body seemed stretched as if upon the rack, and there was a +pain like a red-hot iron in one ankle. + +"It will hurt for a few hours," said Pu-Yi, "but you will shortly be +massaged, Sir Thomas, and then--" + +"You!" I cried, "but you are dead! Zorilla got you on the tower +before--before--" + +My mind leapt up into full activity. I was once more swaying upon the +edge of infinity with my fingers locked in the bull neck of the +assassin, and my voice died away into a whisper of horror. + +"He stunned me, that was all, Sir Thomas. His bullet glanced away from +my head. I came to myself just in time to see you struggling with him +and gripped you just as you were falling off into space. The spirits of +my ancestors were with me." + +"And he--Zorilla?" + +"Will never trouble us more. But you are not well enough yet to talk. +You are in my hands for the present." + +"Do exactly as Pu-Yi says, dear, and remember that all is well." + +"Your father?" I gasped--why hadn't I thought of Morse before? + +"All is well," she repeated in her low, musical voice, and as I lay +back, trembling once more upon the edge of unconsciousness, her face +left the circle of my vision. + +Two deft Chinese _masseurs_ came. I was placed in a hot bath impregnated +with some strong salts. I was kneaded and pummeled until I could hardly +repress cries of pain. I drank a cup of hot soup in which there must +have been some soporific, and sank into a deep, refreshing sleep. + +It had been late afternoon when I first came to myself. When I woke for +the second time, it was night. The room was brilliantly lit. Pu-Yi was +sitting by my bedside, quietly smoking a long, Chinese pipe, and, for my +part, though I was very stiff, I was in full possession of all my +faculties and knew that I had suffered no harm. + +I sat up in bed and held out my hand to the Chinaman. + +"Pu-Yi, I'm all right now. I owe my life to you!" And as I realized my +extraordinary deliverance in the very article of death, a sob burst from +me and I am not ashamed to say that my eyes filled with tears. My hand +is as strong as most men's, but I almost winced at the grip of those +fragile-looking, artistic fingers. + +"You did the same for me, my honorable friend," he said quietly, "and +now--" + +Before I knew what he would be at, he was feeling my pulse and listening +to my heart with his ear against my chest. + +At length he gave a sigh of relief. "We had a doctor to you," he said, +"and he told us that, in his opinion, you would be little the worse. I +am rejoiced that his opinion is confirmed." + +"Oh, I am all right now, and ready for anything." + +"You are sure, Sir Thomas? What you have been through may have given you +a shock which--" + +For answer, I held out my hand. It was as firm as a rock and did not +tremble. I heaved myself off the bed, took a cigarette from a box upon a +table, and began to smoke. + +"Now then, Pu-Yi, I am just as I was before. First of all, where am I?" + +"You are in the Palacete," he replied. "You were brought here at once." + +Then I knew that I was in Morse's dwelling house, copied exactly, as I +have said before, from the Palacete Mendoza at Rio. + +"Now tell me exactly what has happened, in as few words as possible." + +"I am only too anxious to do so, Sir Thomas. You were brought back here. +Immediately after, Rolston descended by means of the outside stair and +summoned the staff. They are all here now. The electric cables have been +repaired. Lifts, telephones, electric light, and all the other machinery +is in working order. The body of Zorilla has been brought up to the City +and placed with that of Mulligan and my own servant. This house is +strongly guarded by armed men, and the whole City is patrolled." + +"No one else was hurt?" + +"No one else at all, Sir Thomas." + +His face changed as he said this, and he looked me full in the eyes. + +Then, with a start, I understood. Every detail of the past came back in +a vivid, instantaneous picture. Again I saw the silver bath descending +from the ceiling and heard the loud explosion of Rolston's pistol. And +as that furious noise resounded in my mental ear, once more the +grinning, corpse-pale face of Mark Antony Midwinter passed close to mine +and I felt the very wind of his passage as he rushed by and disappeared +down the long underground corridor leading to the safety-room. + +"Midwinter!" I almost shouted. The face of the Chinaman had gone a dusky +gray--he told me afterwards that mine was white as linen. + +"Vanished," he said--"disappeared utterly. And he is the master-mind! +While Mark Antony Midwinter is alive, Mr. Morse, none of us, will know a +moment of safety or of ease." + +I could not quarrel with that. Zorilla was dead--a great gain--but no +one who had been through what I had and who knew the whole situation as +I knew it, could fail to appreciate the terrible seriousness of this +news. To you who read this record in peace and safety, this may seem a +wild or exaggerated statement, a product of over-strained nerves. But, +believe me, it was not so. I knew too much! The securest fortress in the +whole world had been already stormed. All the precautions that enormous +wealth and some of the subtlest brains alive could take had already +proved useless against the superhuman cunning, energy and ferocity of +this being who seemed, indeed, literally, more fiend than man. No! we +were no cowards, most of us, up there in the City of the Clouds, but we +might well quail still, to know that this fury was unchained. I know +that I sat down suddenly upon the bed with a groan of despair. + +"Gone! Vanished! Surely he must be either in the City or has escaped! If +he is in the City, I admit the danger is imminent. He must be utterly +desperate, and will stick at nothing. If he has managed to get down to +the earth, he is dangerous still, but we have a breathing space. Which +is it?" + +"We do not know, Sir Thomas. There is no trace of him anywhere, so far. +But, as I have said, we have more than a hundred men, armed and +patrolling the City. This house, at any rate, is secure for the moment. +A great search is being organized. The whole area is being mapped out +and it will be searched with such thoroughness before to-morrow's dawn +that a rat could not escape. My own theory is, and Mr. Morse agrees with +me, that Midwinter is still in the City. The most scrupulous inquiries +below seem to prove that he never descended from the tower, and you know +how minute and careful our organization is. And now that you are +yourself again, it is Mr. Morse's wish that we hold a conference and +settle exactly what is to be done. Do you think you are equal to it?" + +"Perfectly," I replied, and without another word Pu-Yi led the way out +of the room. + +I found Mr. Morse sitting in his library. He was pale, and seemed much +shaken. There were red rims round the keen, masterful eyes, but his +voice was strong and resolute, and I could see that, whatever his +opinion of his chances, he would fight till the end. + +I need not go into details of the private conversation we had for a +minute or two. His gratitude was pathetic, and I felt more drawn to him +than ever before. When at length Juanita, followed by little Rolston, +entered the room, all trace of his emotion had gone and we settled down +round the table as calm and business-like as a board of directors in a +bank. And yet, you know, no group of people in Europe stood in such +peril as we did then. Behind the long, silken curtains, the shutters +were of bullet-proof steel. The corridor outside, the gardens of the +house, swarmed with men armed to the teeth. It was dark in the sky, but +the City in the Clouds blazed everywhere with an artificial sunlight +from the great electric lamps. + +Two thousand feet up in the air we sat and spoke in quiet voices of the +horror that was past and the horror that threatened us. Far down below, +London was waking up to a night of pleasure. People were dressing for +dinners and the theater, thousands upon thousands of toilers had left +their work and were about to enjoy the hours of rest and recreation. And +not a soul, probably, among all those millions that crawled like ants at +our feet had the least suspicion of what was going on in our high place. +They were accustomed to the great towers now. The sensation of their +building was over and done, there were no more thrills. If they had only +known! + +I was not aware if strata of clouds hid us from the world below, as so +often happened; but if the night were clear I do remember thinking that +any one who cast their eyes up into the sky might well notice an unusual +brilliancy in the pleasure city of the millionaire, that mysterious +theater of the unknown, which dominated the greatest city in the world. + +... "Well, Tom," said Mr. Morse, "Pu-Yi tells me that you are now +acquainted with all the facts. The question we have to decide is, what +are we to do?" + +He turned to Juanita, and nodded. She left the room. + +"The situation, as I understand it," I replied, "is that Midwinter"--I +had a curious reluctance in pronouncing the name aloud--"is either +concealed here in the City or has made his escape. If he is here, we +shall know before to-morrow morning, shall we not?" + +"Precisely. I have spent the last hour in going over the plans of the +City with the chiefs of the staff. We have divided up the two stages +into small sections, and even while I am talking to you the search has +begun. The orders are to shoot at sight, to kill that man with less +compunction than one would kill a mad dog. If he is really here, he +cannot possibly escape." + +"Very well, then," I said, "let us turn our attention to the other +possibility. Assuming that he has got away, I think we may safely say +that the danger is very much lessened." + +"While we remain here in the City--yes," Morse agreed. + +"And you are determined to do that?" + +He took the cigar he had been smoking from his lips, and his hand shook +a little. "Think what you like of me," he said, "but remember that there +is Juanita. I say to you, Kirby, that if I never descend to the world +again alive, I must stay here until Mark Antony Midwinter is dead." + +Well, I had already made up my mind on this point. "I think you are +quite right," I told him. "Still, he will not make a second appearance +in the City. You can treble your precautions. He must be attacked down +in the world." + +Then a thought struck me for the first time. "But how," I said, "did he +and Zorilla ever come here in the first instance? Treachery among the +staff? It is the only explanation." + +Pu-Yi shook his head. "You may put that out of your mind, Sir Thomas," +he said. "That is my department. I know what you cannot know about my +chosen compatriots." + +"But the man isn't a specter! He's a devil incarnate, but there's +nothing supernatural about him." + +Then little Rolston spoke. "I've been down below all day," he said, "and +though I haven't discovered anything of Midwinter, I am certain of how +he and Zorilla got here." + +We all turned to him with startled faces. + +"Do you remember, Sir Thomas," he said, "that, shortly after your +arrival, when you were looking down upon London from one of the +galleries, there was a big fair in Richmond Park?" + +I remembered, and said so. + +"Among the other attractions, there was a captive balloon--" + +Morse brought his hand heavily down upon the table with a loud +exclamation in Spanish. + +"Yes, there was, but--but it was quite half a mile away and never came +up anything like our height here." + +"No," the boy answered, "not at that time. But do you remember how +during the fog last night I told you I had seen something, or thought I +had seen something, like a group of statuary falling before my bedroom +window?" + +Something seemed to snap in my mind. "Good heavens! And I thought it was +merely a trick of the mist! Nothing was discovered?" + +"No, but in view of what happened afterwards, I formed a theory. I put +it to the test this morning. I made a few inquiries as to the +proprietors of the captive balloon and the engine which wound it up and +down by means of a steel cable on a drum. I need not go into details at +the moment, but the whole apparatus did not leave Richmond Park when it +was supposed to do so. The wind was drifting in the right direction, the +balloon could be more or less controlled--certainly as to height. I have +learned that there was a telephone from the car down to the ground. +Desperate men, resolved to stick at nothing, might well have arranged +for the balloon to rise above the City--the cable was quite long enough +for that--and descend upon part of it by means of a parachute, or, if +not that, a hanging rope. More dangerous feats than that have been done +in the air and are upon record. It seems to me there is no doubt +whatever that this is the way the two men broke through all our +precautions." + +There was a long silence when he had spoken. Mendoza Morse leant back in +his chair with the perspiration glittering in little beads upon his +face, but he wore an aspect of relief. + +"You've sure got it, my friend," he said at length, "that was how the +trick was done! It was the one possibility which had never occurred to +me, and hence we were unprovided. Well, that relieves my mind to a +certain extent. We can take it that we are safe in the City, if +Midwinter has escaped. How are we to make an end of him?" + +"The difficulty is," I said, "that we are, so to speak, both literally +and actually above, or outside, the Law. If that were not so, if +ordinary methods could deal with this man, or could have dealt with the +Hermandad in the past, Mr. Morse would never have planned and built the +eighth wonder of the world. No word of what has happened in the last day +or two must get down to the public--isn't that so?" + +Morse nodded. "It goes without saying," he said. "We have our own law in +the City in the Clouds. At the present moment, there are three bodies +awaiting final disposal--and there won't be any inquest on them." + +"That," Rolston broke in, "was something I was waiting to hear. It's +important." + +He stopped, and looked at me with his usual modesty, as if waiting +permission to speak. I smiled at him, and he went on. + +"It is an absolute necessity," he said, "to enter into the psychology of +Midwinter. We may be sure that his purpose is as strong as ever. The +death of Zorilla, and his present failure, will not deter him in the +least, knowing what we know of him?" + +He looked inquiringly at Morse. + +"It won't turn him a hair's breadth," said the millionaire. "If he was +mad with blood-lust and hatred before, he must be ten times worse now." + +"So I thought, sir. He has lost his companion, as desperate and as +cunning as himself, but we can be quite certain that he is not without +resources. I think it safe to assume that he has practically an +unlimited supply of money. He must have other confederates, though +whether they are in his full confidence or not is a debatable question. +That, however, at the moment, is not of great importance. We have him in +London, let us suppose, for it is the safest place in the world for a +man to hide--in London, determined, and hungering for revenge. We have +no idea what his next scheme will be, and in all human probability he +hasn't planned either. He must be considerably shaken. He will know, +now, how tremendously strong our defenses are, and it will not escape a +man of his intelligence that they will now be greatly strengthened. It +will take him some time to gather his wits together and work out another +scheme. The only thing to do, it seems to me, is to force his hand." + +"And how?" Morse and I said, simultaneously. + +"We must trap him--not here at all, but down there, in London"--he made +a little gesture towards the floor with his hand, and as he did so, once +more the strange and eerie remembrance of where we were came over me, +lost for a time in the comfortable seclusion of a room that might have +been in Berkeley Square. + +"Here _we_, that is the Press, come in," said Rolston, smiling proudly +at me. + +I smiled inwardly at the grandiloquence of the tone, and yet, how true +it was!--this lad who, so short a time ago had got to see me by a trick, +was certainly the most brilliant modern journalist I had ever met. I +made him a little bow, and, delighted beyond measure, he continued. + +"Let it be put about," he said, "with plenty of detail, rumor, +contradiction of the rumor and so on--in fact we will get up a little +stunt about it--that Mr. Mendoza Morse has tired of his whim. For a +time, at any rate, he is going to make his reappearance in the world. If +necessary, announce Miss Juanita's engagement to Sir Thomas. Get all +London interested and excited again." + +Morse nodded, his face wrinkled with thought. "I think I see," he said, +"but go on." + +"When this is done, let us put ourselves in Midwinter's place. I believe +that he will have no suspicion of a trap. He will argue it in this way. +We are too much afraid of him to attack ourselves. Hitherto, all our +measures have been measures of defense and escape. It will hardly occur +to him that we have changed all our tactics. He will think that, with +the failure of his attempt, the bad failure, and the death of +Zorilla--which I have no doubt he will have discovered by now--we +imagine he will abandon all his attempts. He will say to himself that we +now believe ourselves safe and that his power is over, his initiative +broken, that he will never dare to go on with his campaign. Everything +seems in favor of it. I should say that it is a hundred to one that his +line of thought will be precisely as I have said." + +"By Jove, and I think so, too! Good for you, Rolston!" I shouted, seeing +where he was going. + +His boyish face was wreathed in smiles. "Thank you," he said. "Well, we +are to lay a trap, and it is on the details of that trap that everything +depends. I see, by to-day's _Times_, that Birmingham House in Berkeley +Square, is to let. The Duke is ordered a long cruise in the Pacific. Let +Mr. Morse immediately take the house and issue invitations for a great +ball to celebrate Miss Juanita's engagement. If that house and that ball +are not to Midwinter as a candle is to a moth, then my theory is +useless! Somehow or other he will be there, either before or actually on +the occasion. By some means or other he will get into the house." + +He stopped, and with a little apologetic look took out his cigarette +case and began to smoke. He really was wonderful. This was the lad, +airily ordering one of the richest men in the world to take the Duke of +Birmingham's great mansion, whose capital but a few short weeks ago was +one penny, bronze. I remember how he was forced to confess it to me, +even as I congratulated him. + +We talked on for another half-hour, or rather little Bill Rolston +talked, the rest of us only putting in a word now and then. He seemed to +have mapped out every detail of the new campaign, and we were content to +listen and admire. + +Of course I am not a person without original ideas, or unaccustomed to +organization--my career, such as it is, has proved that. But on that +night, at least, I could initiate nothing, and I was even glad when the +conference came to an end. Morse was much the same--he confessed it to +me as we left the room--and the truth is that we were both feeling the +results of the terrible shocks we had undergone. Rolston was younger and +fresher, and besides his peril had not been as great as mine or the +millionaire's. + +Pu-Yi vanished in his mysterious fashion, and Morse, Rolston and I went +to dinner. There was no question of dressing on such a night as this, +but, if you believe me, the meal was a merry one! + +It was Juanita's whim to have dinner served in a wonderful conservatory +built out on that side of the Palacete which looked upon the gardens +separating it from the eastern villa where Rolston and I were housed. +The place was yet another of the fantastic marvels conjured up by Morse +and his millions. It was an exact reproduction of a similar conservatory +at my host's house in Rio de Janeiro, and had been carried out at a +frightful cost by the greatest landscape gardener and the most +celebrated scenic artist in existence. + +We sat at a little table, surrounded by tall palm trees rising from +thick, tropical undergrowth, a gay striped awning was over our heads, +protecting us from what seemed brilliant sunshine. On every side was the +golden rain of mimosa, masses of deep crimson blossoms, and wax-like +magnolia flowers. From a marble pool of clear water sprang a little +fountain--a laughing rod of diamonds. In the distance, seen over a +marble balustrade, was the deep blue of the tropic sea dominated by the +great sugar-loaf mountain, the Pao de Azucar. + +It was an illusion, of course, but it was perfect. That sea, and the +gleaming mountain, which, from where we sat, seemed so real, was but a +cleverly painted cloth. The warm and scented air came to us through +concealed pipes, and down in the lower portion of the City, patient, +moon-faced Chinamen were at work to produce it. The sunlight, actually +as brilliant as real sunlight, was the result of a costly installation +of those marvelous and newly invented lamps which are used in the great +cinema studios. Only the trees and the flowers were real. + +Outside, it was a keen, cold night. We were perched on the top of gaunt, +steel towers, more than two thousand feet in the air, and yet, I swear +to you, all thought of our surroundings, and even of our peril, was +banished for a brief and laughing hour. Like the tired traveler in some +clearing of those lovely South American forests from which the wealth of +Morse had sprung, we had forgotten the patient jaguar that follows in +the tree-tops for a week of days to strike at last. + +I dwell upon this scene because it was another of those little +interludes, during my life in the City of the Clouds, which stand out in +such brilliant relief from the encircling horrors. + +Juanita was in the highest spirits. I had never seen her more lovely or +more animated. Morse himself, always a trifle grim, unbent to a +sardonic humor. He told us story after story of his early life, with +shrewd flashes of wit and wisdom, revealing the keen and mordaunt +intellect which had made him what he was. A wonderful pink champagne +from Austria, looted from the Imperial cellars during the war, and +priceless even then, poured new life into our veins--it was impossible +to believe in the tragedy of the last few hours, in the shadow of any +tragedy to come. + +We adjourned to the music-room after dinner, an apartment paneled in +cedar-wood and with a wagon roof, and Juanita played and sang to us for +a time. It was just ten o'clock when Rolston looked at his watch and +gave me a significant glance. I rose and said good-night, both Morse and +Juanita announcing their intention of going to bed. + +As we came to the outside door, Bill turned to me. + +"Hadn't you better go back to our house, Sir Thomas, and sleep? Remember +what you have been through." + +"Sleep? I couldn't sleep if I tried! I feel as fit and well as ever I +did--why?" + +"I've promised to meet Mr. Pu-Yi in the office of the chief of the +staff. Reports will be coming in of the search which has been going on +all the evening. I am anxious to see how far it has got, though of +course if Midwinter had been found, or any trace of him, we should have +been informed at once. And there is something else, also--" + +He stopped, and I made no inquiries. "Well, I'm with you," I said; for I +felt ready for anything that might come, in a state of absolute, +pleasant acquiescence in the present and the future. I hadn't a tremor +of fear or anxiety. + +One of those noiseless, toy, electric automobiles which I had already +seen when Juanita first showed me the City, was waiting. We got in, and +buzzed through the gardens, and down the tunnel which led to Grand +Square. As we went, I saw shadowy figures patrolling everywhere. The +whole place was alive with guards--my girl could sleep well this night! + +As we came out of the tunnel I motioned to Bill to go slowly, and he +pulled the lever, or whatever it was, that controlled the speed. In +almost complete silence we began to circle the huge inclosure, the tires +making no noise whatever upon the floor of wood blocks. + +The air was keen, cold, and wonderfully pure. There was not a cloud in +the heavens, and one looked up at a far-flung vault of black velvet +spangled with gold. Never had I seen the stars so clear and brilliant in +England, for the haze of smoke and the miasma of overbreathed air which +is the natural atmosphere of London lay two thousand feet below. The +Grand Square blazed with light. The buildings, with their spires, domes +and cupolas, stood out with extraordinary clearness against the +circumambient black of space. No outline was soft or blurred, everything +was vividly, fantastically real. A veritable scene from the old Arabian +Nights indeed! And something of the same thought must have come to my +companion, for he looked up and said: "I once saw an extraordinary +illustration by Willy Pogany of one of De Quincey's opium dreams--here +it is, only a thousand times more marvelous!" + +The fountain in the middle of the Square--a long distance away it +seemed as we slowly skirted the buildings--made a ghostly laughter as it +sprang from its dragon-supported basin of bronze. The gilded cupola of +the observatory shone with a wan radiance, higher than all else, and a +black triangle in the gold told me that the patient old Chinese +astronomer surveyed the heavens, lost in a waking dream of the Infinite, +probably loftily unconscious of all that had been going on in the magic +city at his feet. I envied that serene, Oriental philosopher, Juanita's +special friend and pet, who lived up there in his observatory, and, so I +was told, hardly ever descended for any purpose at all. He was as +inviolate a hermit as Saint Anthony. It was especially curious that I +should have cast my glance heavenwards and have thought of that ancient +sage at this moment. You will learn why afterwards. + +We stopped at one of the white kiosks, from the interior of which the +hydraulic lifts went down to the lower part of the City. It was in an +upper story of that that the chief of the staff had his office, and, +mounting a flight of steps, we entered, to find Pu-Yi sitting at a +roll-top desk, scrutinizing a handful of paper reports. + +"It is nearly over, Sir Thomas," he said, rising and placing chairs for +us. "Almost every inch of the City has been searched, and but little +remains to be done. There is not a single trace of the man, Midwinter." + +I own that to hear this was a great relief. We were all of us fired with +Rolston's plan of a trap down below in London. His theory seemed to be +correct. Midwinter had somehow escaped, and we should meet him in due +time--for I had never a doubt of that. Meanwhile, Juanita and her father +were safe. + +"It is only what I expected, though how on earth he managed to get away +remains to be seen!" + +"It will come to light in due course," Pu-Yi replied. "And now, Sir +Thomas, are you prepared to accompany me and Mr. Rolston? There are +certain things to be done, and I shall be glad to have you as a +witness." + +"Anything you like--but what is it?" + +"You must remember that the bodies of three dead men await disposal," he +replied. "What remains of Zorilla--he fell into the lake on the first +stage, though of course he was dead, strangled in mid-air, long before +the impact. Then there is Mulligan, who died in defense of the City; +finally Sen, the boy from my own province in China, of whose terrible +end you are aware." + +"What are you going to do?" I asked. + +"We must keep to our policy of secrecy and noninterference by the +outside world. The bodies must be destroyed, and by fire." + +I gave a little inward shudder, but I don't think he noticed it, and in +a minute more we were dropping to the lower City in a rapid lift. + +It was in a furnace-room that provided some of the hot air for the +conservatories on the stage above that I witnessed the ghastly and +unceremonious finish of the mortal parts of the Spaniard and the +Irishman, and it was cruel and sordid to a degree--or so it seemed to +me. The long bundle of sacking which contained that which had housed the +evil soul of Senor Don Zorilla y Toro--I resisted a bland invitation on +the part of a stoker in a blue jumper and a pleased smile to examine the +stiff horror--was slung through an iron door into a white and glowing +core of flame. There was a clang as the long, steel rods of the firemen +pushed it to, and I cannot say that I felt much regret, only a sort of +shuddering sickness and relief that the door was closed so swiftly. + +But it was different in the case of Mulligan. I blamed Morse in my +heart. The man had been strangled when saying his prayers. He was of the +millionaire's own religion, and there should have been a priest to +assist at these fiery obsequies of a faithful servant. I learned +afterwards, I am glad to say, that Morse had not been consulted, and +knew nothing about the actual disposal of the bodies until afterwards. +You see the shock came--Rolston felt it too--from the fact that these +bland and silent Asiatics were utterly without any emotion as they +performed their task. They were heathens, worshiping Heaven knows what +in their tortuous and secret souls. As poor Mulligan--they had put the +body in a coffin and it took eight struggling, sweating Orientals to +hoist and slide it into the furnace--vanished from my eyes, I put my +hands before my face and said such portions of the Protestant burial +service as I remembered, and they were very few. + +"They're nasty beasts, aren't they, Sir Thomas?" Rolston whispered, as +we fled the furnace room. "Soulless, just like machines!" + +We waited for Pu-Yi for a minute or two. + +"I thank you, Sir Thomas, and Mr. Rolston," he said in his calm, silky +voice. "It was as well that you saw the disposal of the dead, though it +is only a remote contingency that there will ever be inquiry. And now, +if you wish, I will send you up again. I, myself, must attend to the +obsequies of my compatriot." + +"Oh," I remarked, and I fear my tone was far from pleasant, "you propose +to be rather more ceremonious in the case of the lad, Sen?" + +For a single moment I saw that calm and gentle face disturbed. Something +looked out of it that was not good to see, but it was gone in a flash. +This was the first and last time that I had a shadow of disagreement +with the man whose life I had saved and who saved mine in return. It was +natural, I think--neither of us was to blame. "East is East and West is +West," and there are some points at least at which they can never meet. +Poor Pu-Yi! He had as fine an intellect as any man I ever met, and was a +great gentleman. I wish I could look upon him once more as I write this, +but, though I didn't know it, the sand in the glass was nearly out and +our hours together dwindling fast. + +We followed him through various twists and turns of the under City, +among the huts and storehouses, thronged with silent people--it was like +moving in the interior of a hive of bees--until, by means of an archway +and a closed door, we emerged in a sort of courtyard surrounded on three +sides by buildings. On the fourth was a rail, breast-high, and above and +around was open night. + +"We can't take his body to China," said our guide. "We must burn it +here, and only the ashes will rest in the village of his ancestors. But +it is well. Such cases are provided for in my religion." + +We then saw that in the center of the yard there was a low funeral pile, +apparently of wood. Two men in long, yellow gowns were pouring some +liquid over it. + +"If you will do me the honor to come this way," said Pu-Yi, and we +entered a long, bare room. In the center of this place there was a large +square box of painted wood, the lid of which was not yet in place. The +body of the dead man was sitting in the box, the hands clasped round the +knees. The nose, ears and mouth were filled with vermilion, which, to +our Western eyes, gave a horrible, grotesque appearance to the brown, +wrinkled mask of the face. Poor Sen's countenance was placid enough, but +it was not like that of even a dead man, a fantastic image, rather. + +A gong beat with a sudden hollow reverberation, and from another door a +file of mourners entered. + +At the far end of the room was a table upon which was a painted tablet. +"It bears," whispered Pu-Yi, "the name under which Sen enters +salvation." + +Two men swinging censers stood by the table, and two others, a little +nearer the corpse, held bronze bowls of water. First Pu-Yi, and then the +other mourners, dipped their hands in the water to purify them, and +then, producing paper packets of incense from their bosoms, they threw a +pinch into the censers with the right hand and bowed low to the table, +retiring backwards. It was all done with the precision of a drill and in +absolute silence, and for my part I found it no less ghastly and unreal +than the brutal scene in the furnace-room below. + +"Come out," I whispered to Rolston, and we reentered the pure air, +walking to the rail at one side of the square. + +We leant over. Far, far below, so far that it was sensation rather than +vision, was a faint, full glow, the night lights of London, but of the +city itself nothing could be seen whatever. Even the burnished ribbon of +the Thames had disappeared, and no sound rose from the capital of the +world. There was a thin whispering round us as the night breezes blew +through steel stay and cantilever, a faint humming noise like that of +some gigantic AEolian harp. And once, as we bathed ourselves in the cool, +the immensity and the dark, there was a rush of whirring wings, and the +"honk-konk" of the wild duck from the great lake fifteen hundred feet +below, as they passed in wedge-shaped flight on some mysterious night +errand. We leant and gazed, filled with awe and solemnity, until a low, +wailing chant and the thin, piercing notes of single-wire-strung violins +made us turn to see the square box hoisted on the bier, a torch applied, +and a roaring spitting column of yellow flame towering up above the +buildings and throwing a ghastly light on a hundred round, mask-like +faces, indistinguishable one from the other by European eyes. + +As I read now, ten years afterwards, that scene among so many others +comes back to me with extraordinary vividness. And it seems to me as I +live my English life in honor, tranquillity, and happiness, that it was +all a monstrous dream. + +Surely--yes, I think I am safe in saying this--there will never again be +such a place of horror and fantasy as the City in the Clouds. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +I slept that night like a log, untroubled by dreams, and woke late the +next morning. It was then that, as the saying is, I got it in the neck. +"Wow!" I half-shouted, half-groaned, as I turned to meet the Chinese +valet with the morning cup of tea. My whole body seemed one bruise, my +joints turned to pith, and, what was worse than all, my brain--a pretty +active organ, take it all in all--seemed stuffed with wool. + +It was the reaction, only to be expected, as the Richmond doctor said to +me some three hours later. For the next two or three days I was to do +nothing at all, after my "bad fall," which was the way my state had been +explained to him. Whether he believed it or not, I cannot tell. It was +certainly odd that Mr. Mendoza Morse, whom he also attended, should be +in very much the same state of shock and semi-collapse. But he was a +discreet, clean-shaven gentleman, with a comfortable manner, and in the +seventh heaven at being admitted to the mysterious City in the Clouds, +his eyes everywhere as he was being conducted through its wonders to our +bedsides--so Rolston told me afterwards. At any rate, he was right. It +was certainly necessary to go slow for a few days, and fortunately, now +that the search was over and no trace of Midwinter discovered, we felt +we could do this. + +The preliminary arrangements for our final effort were left in Rolston's +hands, who descended with the doctor, and I did not rise till mid-day. + +I met Morse at lunch--_piano_, and distinctly under the weather from a +physical point of view. We neither of us talked of important matters, +but enjoyed a stroll round the City during a bright afternoon. At +tea-time we met Juanita, and I had a long and happy talk with her. She +knew, of course, that the search had proved satisfactory, and--as we had +all agreed together--I led her to think that all danger was now +practically over. Indeed, as far as Morse and she were concerned, I +believed it myself. I knew that there was yet a grim tussle ahead for +the rest of us, but that was all. I did not see her at dinner, but took +the meal alone in my own house. Rolston was still absent, and as I did +not want to talk to any one, failing Juanita, I was quite happy by +myself. + +About nine o'clock I was rung up on the telephone. Morse spoke. He said +he was now thoroughly rested, and was ready for a chat. If I hadn't seen +the treasures of the library yet, he and Pu-Yi would be pleased to show +them to me. And so, slipping on a coat over my evening clothes, and +taking a light cane in my hand, I started out for Grand Square. It was +again, I may mention here, a fine and calm night. + +My host and the Chinaman were waiting for me in the great, Gothic room, +and we inspected the treasures in some of the glass-fronted shelves. I +was surprised and delighted to find that my future father-in-law had a +real love for, and a considerable knowledge of, books. It was a side of +him I had not seen before. I had not connected him with the arts in any +way, which, when you come to think of it, was rather foolish. Certainly +he had the finest expert advice and help to be found in the whole world +in the building of the City in the Clouds. But I should have remembered +that the initial conception was his own and that many of the details +also came entirely from his brain. Certainly, in his way, Mendoza Morse +was a creative artist. + +My own collection of books at Stax, my place in Hertfordshire, is, of +course, well known, and always mentioned when English libraries are +under discussion. But Morse could boast treasures far beyond me. During +the last year or two I had been so busy in working up the _Evening +Special_ that I had quite neglected to follow the book sales, but I +learned now that some of the rarest treasures obtainable had been +quietly bought up on Morse's behalf. He had all the folios, and most of +the quartos, of Shakespeare, a fine edition of Spenser's "Faerie Queene" +with an inscription to Florio, the great Elizabethan scholar; there was +Boswell's own copy of Johnson's "Lives of the Poets," with a ponderous +Latin inscription in the sturdy old doctor's own hand, and many other +treasures as rare, though not perhaps of such popular and general +interest. + +Pu-Yi made us some marvelous tea in the Chinese fashion, with a sort of +ritual which was impressive as he moved about the table and waved his +long pale hands. It was of a faint, straw color, with neither sugar, +milk, or lemon, and he assured me that it came from the stores of the +Forbidden City in Pekin. Certainly, it was nasty enough for anything, +and I praised it as I had praised Morse's rose-colored champagne the +night before--but with less sincerity. + +I don't know if my friend had a touch of homesickness or not, but he +began to tell us of his home by the waters of the Yang-Tse-Kiang. His +precise and literary English rose and fell in that great room with a +singular charm, and though I don't think Morse listened much, he smoked +a cigar with great good-humor while Pu-Yi expounded his quaint, Eastern +philosophy. We did not refer to the grim scenes of the night before, but +something I said turned the conversation to the funeral customs of +China. + +"Indeed, Sir Thomas," said Pu-Yi, "the death of a man of my nation may +be said to be the most important act of his whole life. For then only +can his personal existence be properly considered to begin." + +This seemed a somewhat startling proposition, and I said so, but he +proceeded to explain. I shall not easily forget his little monologue, +every word of which I remember for a very sad and poignant reason. Well, +he knows all about it now, and I hope he is happy. + +"It is in this way," he said. "By death a man joins the great company of +ancestors who are, to us, people of almost more consequence than living +folk, and of much more individual distinction. It is then at last," he +continued, delicately sipping his tea, "that the individual receives +that recognition which was denied him in the flesh. Our ancestors are +given a dwelling of their own and devotedly reverenced. This, I know, +will seem strange to Western ears, but believe me, honorable sir, the +cult is anything but funereal. For the ancestral tombs are temples and +pleasure pavilions at the same time, consecrated not simply to rites and +ceremonies, but to family gatherings and general jollification." + +This was quite a new view to me, and certainly interesting. I said so, +and Pu-Yi smiled and bowed. + +"And the fortunate defunct," he went on, "if he is still half as +sentient as his dutiful descendants suppose, must feel that his earthly +life, like other approved comedies, has ended well!" + +His voice was sad, but there was a faint, malicious mockery in it also, +and as I looked at him with an answering smile to his own, I wondered +whether that keen and subtle brain really believed in the customs of his +land. That he would be studious and rigid in their outward observance, I +knew. + +I never met, as I have said before, a more courteous gentleman than +Pu-Yi. + +"Ever been in South Germany?" said Morse suddenly--he had evidently been +pursuing a train of his own thought while the Chinaman held forth. + +"Yes, Mr. Morse, why?" + +"Then in some of those quaint, old-fashioned towns you have seen the +storks nesting on the roofs of the houses?" + +I remembered that I had. + +"Well, I've got a pair of storks--they arrived this morning from +Germany--duck and drake, or should you say cock and hen?--at any rate, +I've a sort of idea of trying to domesticate them, and to that end have +had a nest constructed on the roof of this building, where they will be +sheltered by the parapet and be high up above the roof of the City. What +do you say to going to have a look at them and see if they're all +right?" + +Extraordinary man! He had always some odd or curious idea in his mind to +improve his artificial fairyland. Nothing loth, we left Pu-Yi and +ascended a winding staircase to the roof of the great building. Save for +the lantern in the center, it was flat and made a not unpleasant +promenade. The storks were at present in a cage, and could only be +distinguished as bundles of dirty feathers in a miscellaneous litter. I +thought my friend's chance of domesticating them was very small, but he +seemed to be immensely interested in the problem. + +When we had talked it over, he gave me a cigar and we began to promenade +the whole length of the roof. As I have said, the night was clear and +calm. Again the great stars globed themselves in heaven with an +incomparable glory unknown and unsuspected by those down below. The +silence was profound, the air like iced wine. + +From where we were, we had a bird's-eye view of the whole City. Grand +Square lay immediately at our feet, brilliantly illuminated as usual. +Not a living soul was to be seen; only the dragon-fountain glittered +with mysterious life. To the right, beyond the encircling buildings of +the Square, stood the Palacete Mendoza surrounded by its gardens, a +square, white, sleeping pile. I sent a mental greeting to Juanita. So +high was the roof on which we stood that only one of the towers or +cupolas rose much above us. It was the dome of the observatory, exactly +opposite on the other side of Grand Square. + +"There is some one who isn't much troubled by sub-lunary affairs," I +said, pointing over the _machicolade_. + +Morse nodded, and expelled a blue cloud of smoke. "I guess old Chang is +the most contented fellow on earth," he said. "He is Professor, you +know, Professor Chang, and an honorary M.A. of Oxford University. I had +him from the Imperial Chinese Observatory at Pekin, and I am told he is +on the track of a new comet, or something, which is to be called after +me when he has discovered it--thus conferring immortality upon yours +truly! + +"It is an odd temper of mind," he went on more seriously, "that can +spend a whole life in patient seclusion, peering into the unknown, and +what, after all, is the unknowable. Still, he is happy, and that is the +end of human endeavor." + +He sighed, and with renewed interest I stared out at the round dome. The +slit over the telescope was open, which showed that the astronomer was +at work. In the gilded half-circle of the cupola, it was exactly like a +cut in an orange. + +I was about to make a remark, when an extraordinary thing happened. + +Without any hint or warning, there was a loud, roaring sound, like that +of some engine blowing off steam. With a "whoosh," a great column of +fire, like golden rain, rose up out of the dark aperture in the dome, +towering hundreds of feet in the sky, like the veritable comet for which +old Chang was searching, and burst high in the empyrean with a dull +explosion, followed by a swarm of brilliant, blue-white stars. + +Some one inside the observatory had fired a gigantic rocket. + +Morse gave a shout of surprise. He had a fresh cigar in his hand, and, +unknowingly, he dropped it and mechanically bit the end of his thumb +instead. + +"What was that?" I cried, echoing his shout. + +He didn't answer, but grew very white as he stepped up to the parapet, +placed his hand upon the stone, and leant forward. + +I did the same, and for nearly a minute we stared at the white, circular +tower in silence. + +Nothing happened. There was the black slit in the gold, enigmatic and +undisturbed. + +"Some experiment," I stammered at length. "Professor Chang is at work +upon some problem." + +Morse shook his head. "Not he! I'll swear that old Chang would never be +letting off fireworks without consulting or warning Pu-Yi. Kirby, there +is some black business stirring! We must look into this. I don't like it +at all--hark!" + +He suddenly stopped speaking, and put his hand to his ear. His whole +face was strained in an ecstasy of listening, which cut deep gashes into +that stern, gnarled old countenance. + +I listened also, and with dread in my heart. Instinctively and without +any process of reasoning, I knew that in some way or other the horror +was upon us again. My lips went dry and I moistened them with the tip +of my tongue; and, without conscious thought, my hand stole round to my +pistol pocket and touched the cold and roughened stock of an automatic +Webley. + +Then I heard what Morse must have heard at first. + +The air all around us was vibrating, and swiftly the vibration became a +throb, a rhythmic beat, and then a low, menacing roar which grew louder +and louder every second. + +We had turned to each other, understanding at last, and the same word +was upon our lips when the thing came--it happened as rapidly as that. + +Skimming over the top of the distant Palacete like some huge night-hawk, +and with a noise like a machine gun, came a venomous-looking, +fast-flying monoplane. It swept down into Grand Square like a living +thing, just as the noise ceased suddenly and echoed into silence. It +alighted at one end and on the side of the fountain nearest the +observatory, ran over the smooth wood-blocks for a few yards, and +stopped. It was as though the hawk had pounced down upon its prey, and +every detail was distinct and clear in the brilliant light of the lamps +in the Square below. + +Both of us seemed frozen where we stood. I know, for my part, all power +of motion left me. A choking noise came from Morse's throat, and then we +heard a cry and from immediately below us came the figure of Pu-Yi, +hurrying down the library steps and running towards the aeroplane, which +was still a considerable distance from him. + +The next thing happened very quickly. A door at the foot of the +observatory tower opened, and out came what we both thought was the +figure of the astronomer. He was a tall, bent, old man, habitually +clothed in a padded, saffron-colored robe with a hood, something like +that of a monk. + +"Chang!" I said in a hoarse whisper, when Pu-Yi stopped short in his +tracks, lifted his arm, and there was the crack of a pistol. + +The figure beyond, which was hurrying towards the monoplane, swerved +aside. The robe of padded silk fell from it and disclosed a tall man in +dark, European clothes. He dodged and writhed like an eel as Pu-Yi +emptied his automatic at him, apparently without the least result. Then +I saw that he was at the side of the aeroplane, scrambling up into the +fuselage assisted by the pilot in leather hood and goggles. + +He was up the side of the boat-like structure in a second, and then, +with one leg thrown over the car he turned and took deliberate aim at +Pu-Yi. There was one crack, he waited for an instant to be sure, and saw +that it was enough. Then there was a chunk of machinery, two or three +loud explosions, a roar, and the wings of the venomous night-hawk moved +rapidly over the parquet, chased by a black shadow. It gathered speed, +lifted, tilted upwards, and, clearing the buildings at the far end of +the Square, hummed away into the night. + + * * * * * + +It was thus that Mark Antony Midwinter escaped from the City in the +Clouds. He had been there all the time. He had murdered poor old Chang +many hours before, and impersonated him with complete success. The food +of the recluse was brought to him by servants and placed in an outer +room so that he should never be disturbed during his calculations. He +had received it with his usual muttered acknowledgments through a little +_guichet_ in the wooden partition which separated the anteroom from the +telescope chamber itself. No one had ever thought of doubting that the +astronomer himself was there as usual. The whole thing was most +carefully planned beforehand with diabolic ingenuity and resource. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +It was just three weeks after the murder of Pu-Yi, and once more I sat +in my chambers in Piccadilly. The day had been cloudy, and now, late in +the afternoon, a heavy fog had descended upon the town through which +fell a cold and intermittent rain. + +Up there, in the City in the Clouds, perhaps the sun was pouring down +upon its spires and cupolas, but London, Piccadilly, was lowering and +sad. + +Lord Arthur Winstanley and Captain Pat Moore had just left me, both of +them glum and silent. It went to my heart not to take them into my full +confidence, but to do so was impossible. I had told them much of the +recent events in the City--I could not tell them everything, for they +would not have understood. Certainly I could have relied upon their +absolute discretion, but, in view of what was going to happen that very +night, I was compelled to keep my own counsel. They had not lived +through what I had recently. Their minds were not tuned, as mine was, to +the sublime disregard and aloofness from English law which obtained in +Morse's gigantic refuge. Certainly neither of them would have agreed to +what I proposed to do that night. + +Preston came quietly into the library. He pulled the curtains and made +up the fire. The face of Preston was grim and disapproving. He looked +much as he looked when--what ages ago it seemed!--I departed his +comfortable care to become the landlord of the "Golden Swan." + +"I'm not at home to any one, Preston," I said, "except to Mr. Sliddim, +who ought to be here in a few minutes. Of course, that doesn't apply to +Mr. Rolston." + +"Very good, Sir Thomas, thank you, Sir Thomas," said Preston, scowling +at the mention of the name. Poor fellow, he didn't in the least +understand why I should be receiving the furtive and melancholy Sliddim +so often, and should sit with him in conference for long hours! +Afterwards, when it was all over, I interrogated my faithful servant, +and the state of his mind during that period proved to have been +startling. + +This seems the place in which to explain exactly what had happened up to +date. + +When Midwinter had escaped, we found the corpse of poor old Professor +Chang, and the whole plan was revealed to us. Pu-Yi had been shot +through the heart. His death must have been instantaneous. For several +days Morse was in a terrible state of depression and remorse. He said +that there was a curse upon him, and it was with the greatest difficulty +that Rolston and I could bring him into a more reasonable frame of mind. +The long strain had worn down even that iron resolution, but, for +Juanita's sake, I knew that I must stand by him to the end. + +Accordingly, there was nothing else for it, Rolston and I took entire +charge of everything. I had never felt inclined to go back from the +very beginning. Now my resolution was firm to see it through to the end. + +Rolston pursued his own plans, and London very shortly knew that Gideon +Mendoza Morse and his lovely daughter were about to reappear in the +world. It gave my little, red-haired friend intense pleasure to organize +this mild press campaign from the office of the _Evening Special_. I +placed him in complete control, to the intense joy of Miss Dewsbury and +the disgust of the older members of the staff. Be that as it may, the +thing was done, and every one knew that Birmingham House had been taken +by the millionaire. + +It was then, having organized things as perfectly as I could at the +City, placing Kwang-Su, the gigantic gate-keeper of the ground +inclosure, in charge of the staff, that I myself descended into the +world as unobtrusively as possible. For a day or two I remained in +seclusion at the "Golden Swan," and during those two days saw no one but +the Honest Fool, Mrs. Abbs, my housekeeper, and--Sliddim, the private +inquiry agent. + +Personally, while I quite appreciated the fellow's skill in his own +dirty work, and while indeed I owed him a considerable debt in the +matter of Bill Rolston's first disappearance, I disliked him too much +ever to have thought of him as a help in the very serious affair on +which I was engaged. It was Rolston, as usual, who changed my mind. He +saw farther than I did. He realized the essential secrecy and fidelity +of the odd creature whom chance had unearthed from among the creeping +things of London, and in the end he became an integral part of the +plot. + +He was told, of course, no more than was necessary. He was not by any +means in our full confidence. But he was given a part to play, and +promised a reward, if he played it well, that would make him independent +for life. Let me say at once that he fulfilled his duty with admirable +skill, and, when he received his check from Mr. Morse, vanished forever +from our ken. I have no doubt that he is spying somewhere or other on +the globe at this moment, but I have no ambition to meet him again. + +Mr. Sliddim, considerably furbished up in personal appearance, was made +caretaker at Birmingham House in Berkeley Square. He had not been in +that responsible position for more than ten days when our fish began to +nibble at the bait. + +In a certain little public house by some mews at the back of Berkeley +Square, a little public house which Mr. Sliddim was instructed--and +needed no encouragement--to frequent, he was one day accosted by a tall, +middle-aged man with a full, handsome face and a head of curling, gray +hair. This man was dressed in a seedy, shabby-genteel style, and soon +became intimate with our lure. + +Certainly, to give him his due, Sliddim must have been a supreme actor +in his way. He did the honest, but intensely stupid caretaker to the +life. Mark Antony Midwinter was completely taken in and pumped our human +conduit for all he was worth, until he was put in possession of an +entirely fictitious set of circumstances, arranged with the greatest +care to suit my plans. + +I shall not easily forget the evening when Sliddim slunk into my +dining-room and described the scene which told us we had made absolutely +no mistake and that our fish was definitely hooked. It seems that the +good Sliddim had gradually succumbed to the repeated proffer of strong +waters on the part of "Mr. Smith," his new friend. He had bragged of his +position, only lamenting that some days hence it was to come to an end, +when, in the evening, Mr. Mendoza Morse, his daughter, and a staff of +servants were to enter the house simultaneously. Sliddim, the most +consistent whisky-nipper I have ever seen--and I had some curious +side-lights on that question when I was landlord of the "Golden +Swan"--was physically almost incapable of drunkenness, but he simulated +it so well in the little pub at the back of the Square that Mark Antony +Midwinter made no ado about taking the latchkey of Birmingham House area +door from his pocket and making a waxen impression of it. + +Rolston and I knew that we were "getting very hot," as the children say +when they are playing Hunt-the-Slipper, and another visit from Sliddim +confirmed it. The plan of our enemy was perfectly clear to our minds. He +would enter the house by means of the key an hour or two before Morse +and the servants were due, conceal himself within it, and do what he had +to do in the silent hours of the night. + +It was quite certain that he believed Morse now felt himself secure, and +no doubt Midwinter had arranged a plan for his escape from Berkeley +Square, when his vengeance was complete, as ingenious and thoroughgoing +as that prepared for his literal flight from the City in the Clouds. + +And now, on this very evening, I was to throw the dice in a desperate +game with this human tiger. + +"It is for to-night certain, sir," said Sliddim when he arrived. "I've +let him know that I am leaving the house for a couple of hours this +evening, between eight and ten, to see my old mother in Camden Town. At +eleven he supposes that the servants are arriving, and at midnight Mr. +and Miss Morse. A professional friend of mine is watching our gent very +carefully. He is at present staying at a small private hotel in Soho, +and I should think you had better come to the house about seven, on +foot, and directly you ring I'll let you in. I've promised to meet our +friend at the little public house in the mews at eight, for just one +drink--he wants to be certain that I am really out of the way--and I +should say that he would be inside Birmingham House within a quarter of +an hour afterwards." + +Rolston came in before the fellow went, and a few more details were +discussed, which brought the time up to about six o'clock. + +And then I had a most unpleasant and difficult few minutes. My faithful +little lieutenant defied me for the first time since I had known him. + +"I can't tell what time I shall be back," I said, "but I shall want you +to be at the end of the telephone wire--there are plenty of telephones +in Birmingham House." + +"But I am going too, Sir Thomas," he said quickly. + +I shook my head. "No," I said, "I must go through this alone." + +"But it's impossible! You must have some one to help you, Sir Thomas! It +is madness to meet that devil alone in an empty house. It's absolutely +unnecessary, too. I _must_ go with you. I owe him one for the blow he +gave me when he escaped from the Safety-room at the City, and, +besides--" + +"Bill Rolston," I said, "the essence of fidelity is to obey orders. I +owe more to you than I can possibly say! Without you, I dread to think +what might have happened to Miss Morse and her father. But on this +occasion I am adamant. You will be far more use to me waiting here, +ready to carry out any instructions that may come over the wire." + +"Please, Sir Thomas, if I ever _have_ done anything, as you say, let me +come with you to-night." + +His voice broke in a sob of entreaty, but I steeled myself and refused +him. + +I must say he took it very well when he saw that there was no further +chance of moving me. + +"Very well then, Sir Thomas," he said, "if it must be so, it must be. I +will be back here at seven, and wait all night if necessary." + +With that, his face clouded with gloom, he went away and I was left +alone. + +Doubtless you will have gathered my motive? It would have been criminal +to let Rolston, or any one else, have a share in this last adventure. To +put it in plain English, I determined, at whatever risk to myself, to +kill Mark Antony Midwinter. + +There was nothing else for it. The law could not be invoked. While he +lived, my girl's life would be in terrible danger. The man had to be +destroyed, as one would destroy a mad dog, and it was my duty, and mine +alone, to destroy him. If I came off worst in the encounter, well, Morse +still had skilled defenders. The risk, I knew, was considerable, but it +seemed that I held the winning cards, for within two hours Midwinter +would step into a trap. + +When I had killed him I had my own plans as to the disposal of the body. +It was arranged that a considerable number of Chinese servants from the +City should arrive at eleven. If I knew those bland, yellow ruffians, it +would not be a difficult thing to dispose of Midwinter's remains, either +on the spot or by conveyal to Richmond. Another alternative was that I +should shoot him in self-defense, as an ordinary burglar. Certainly the +law would come in here, but it would be justifiable homicide and be +merely a three days' sensation. I had to catch my hare first--the method +of cooking it could be left till afterwards. + +In a drawer in my writing-table were letters to various people, +including my solicitor and my two friends, Pat Moore and Arthur +Winstanley. There was a long one, also, to Juanita. Everything was +arranged and in order. I am not aware that I felt any fear or any +particular emotion, save one of deep, abiding purpose. Nothing would now +have turned me from what I proposed to do. I had spent long thought over +it and I was perfectly convinced that it was an act of justice, +irregular, dangerous to myself, but morally defendable by every canon of +equity and right. The man was a murderer over and over again. To-night +he would receive the honor of a private execution. That was all. + +When I left my chambers, with an automatic pistol, a case of sandwiches, +and a flask of whisky-and-water, the rain was descending in a torrent. +The street was empty and dismal, and Berkeley Square itself a desert. I +don't think I saw a single person, except one police-constable in +oilskins sheltering under an archway, till I arrived at Birmingham +House. The well-known facade of the mansion was blank and cheerless. All +the blinds were down; there was not a sign of occupation. I rang, the +door opened immediately, and I slipped in. + +"I must be off, Sir Thomas," said Sliddim. "If you go through the door +on the far side of the inner hall beyond the grand staircase, you will +find yourself in a short passage with a baize door at the farther end. +Push this open, and you will be in a small lobby. The door immediately +to your left is that of the butler's pantry. It commands the service +stairs and lift to the kitchen and servants' rooms. Standing in the +doorway you will see the head of any one coming up the stairs, and--" he +gave a sickly grin and something approaching a reptilian wink. Sliddim +was an unpleasant person, and I never liked him less than at that +moment. + +With another whisper he opened the door a few inches and writhed out. + +I was left alone in Birmingham House. + +It was the queerest possible sensation, and as I crossed the great inner +hall, with its tapestries and gleaming statuary, lit now by two single +electric bulbs, I don't deny that my heart was beating a good deal +faster than was pleasant. There is always something ghostly about an +empty house, more especially when it is fully furnished and ready for +occupation. The absence of all life is uncanny, and one seems to feel +that it is hidden, not absent, and that at any moment a door may open +and some enigmatic stranger be standing there with an unpleasant welcome +in his eyes. + +Well, I slunk through all the glories of the grand hall, passed down the +passage, and came out into the servants' quarters. The little lobby, the +floor of which was covered with cork matting, was well lit, and so were +the stairs. I peered over the rail, but could not see to the bottom; +but, standing in the door of the room called the butler's pantry, I saw +that I could put a bullet through the head of any one appearing, before +he could have the slightest inkling of my presence, before he could slew +round, even, to face me. + +The butler's pantry itself was a fair-sized, comfortable room, with a +carpet on the floor and a couple of worn, padded armchairs by the +fireplace. The walls were hung with photographs; on one side was a +business-like roll-top desk, and in a corner a large safe which +obviously contained the plate in daily use in the great household. I +knew that the bulk of the valuables were stored in a strong room in +Chancery Lane. + +Upon the table Mr. Sliddim had thoughtfully placed a heavy cut-glass +decanter half full of whisky, a siphon, and--_glasses_! The whisky was +all right, but did he expect me to hobnob with Antony Midwinter, to +speed the parting guest, as it were, with a stirrup-cup? It was +difficult to suspect him of such grim humor. + +I looked at my watch. There was still a good half-hour before Midwinter +and Sliddim were due to meet in the little public house behind the +Square. I saw that my pistol was handy, and sat down in one of the +armchairs by the fireside. A pipe of the incomparable "John Cotton" +would not be amiss, I thought, wondering if I should ever taste its +fragrance again, and for some minutes I sat and smoked, placidly enough. +Then, I suppose a quarter of an hour or so must have elapsed, I began to +fidget in my chair. + +The house was so terribly still! Still, but not quite silent! Time, that +was ticking away so rapidly, had a score of small voices. There was the +faint noise of taxicabs out in the Square, the drip of the rain, an +occasional stealthy creak from the furniture, the scurry of a mouse in +the wainscot; the more remote chambers of my brain began to fill with +riot, and once my nerves jerked like a hooked fish. + +And even now I do not think it was fear. Terror, perhaps--there is a +subtle distinction--but not craven fear. I think, perhaps, it was more +the sense of something coldly evil that might even now be approaching +through the fog and rain, a lost soul inspired with cunning, hatred, and +ferocity, whom I must meet in deadly contact within a short, but +unknown, space of time.... + +"This won't do at all!" I thought, and then my eye fell on Mr. Sliddim's +hospitable preparations. I got up, went round to the other side of the +table, put my pistol down upon it, and mixed a stiff peg. + +My back was now to the open door, and I was just lifting the glass to my +lips, eagerly enough, I am afraid, when, very softly, something +descended upon each of my shoulders. + +I had not heard a sound of any sort, save the gurgle of the aerated +water in the glass, but now a shriek like that of a frightened woman +rang out into the room, and it came from me. + +I was gripped horribly by the back of the throat, whirled round with +incredible speed and force, and flung heavily against the opposite wall, +falling sideways into an armchair, gasping for breath and my eyes +staring out of my head. + +Then I saw him. Mark Antony Midwinter was standing on the other side of +the table, smiling at me. He wore a fashionable morning coat and a silk +hat. Under his left arm was a gold-headed walking-cane, and he carried +his gloves in his left hand. In the right was the gleaming blue-black of +an automatic pistol, pointed at my heart. + +At that, I pulled myself together. In an instant I knew that I had +failed. The brute must already have been in the house when Sliddim +admitted me--he had outwitted all of us! + +"Ah!" he said, "Sir Thomas Kirby! You have crossed my path very many +times of late, Sir Thomas, and I have long wished to make your +acquaintance." + +His voice was suave and cultured. The rather full, clean-shaved face had +elements of fineness--many women would have called him a handsome man. +But in his dull and opaque eyes there was such a glare of cold +malignity, such unutterable cruelty and hate, that the whole room grew +like an ice-house in a moment; for it is not often that any man sees a +veritable fiend of hell looking out of the eyes of another. + +"You have come a little earlier than I expected," I managed to say, but +my voice rang cracked and thin. + +"It is a precaution that I frequently take, Sir Thomas, and one very +much justified in the present instance. To tell the truth, I had little +or no suspicion that I was walking into a trap--that much to you! But a +life of shocks"--here he laughed pleasantly, but the little steel disk +pointed at my heart never wavered a hair's breadth--"has taught me +always to have something in reserve. I see that I shall not have the +pleasure of settling accounts with Mr. Gideon Morse and his daughter +to-night. Well, that can wait. Meanwhile, I propose within a few seconds +to remove another obstacle from my path--do you think the mandarin, +Pu-Yi, will be waiting for you at the golden gates, Sir Thomas Kirby?" + +So this was the end! I braced myself to meet it. + +"How long?" I said. + +"I will count a hundred slowly," he answered. + +He began, and I stared dumbly at the pistol. I could not think--I could +not commend my soul to my Maker even. The function of thought was +entirely arrested. + +"Thirty ... thirty-one ... thirty-two!" + +And then I suddenly burst out laughing. + +My laughter, I know, was perfectly natural, full of genuine merriment. +Something had happened which seemed to me irresistibly comic. He stopped +and stared at me, his face changing ever so little. + +"May I ask," he said, "what tickled your sense of humor?" + +What had tickled my sense of humor was this. Stealing round from behind +him, right under his very nose, so to speak, but quite unseen, was an +arm which with infinite care and slowness was removing the heavy +cut-glass decanter from the table. It vanished. It reappeared in the air +behind him in a flashing diamond and amber circle. + +"Have some whisky, Mr. Midwinter," I said, as it descended with a crash +upon the side of his head. + +Without a sound he sank into a huddled heap out of my sight, hidden by +the table. + +"You little devil!" I said, staggering to my feet, for Bill Rolston +stood there, white-faced and grinning. "I had to come, Sir Thomas," he +said, "it wasn't any use." + +"Have you killed him, Bill?" + +We bent down and made an examination. Midwinter's face was dark and +suffused with blood, but his pulses were all right. + +"What a pity!" said Rolston. "Help me to get him on to that chair, Sir +Thomas, and we'll tie him up. If I had killed him, it would have been so +much simpler!" + +We dragged the unconscious man to the very armchair where I had sat +under the menace of his pistol, and, tearing the tablecloth into strips, +tied him securely. + +"Fortunately," said Bill, "I didn't break the decanter. The stopper +didn't even come out! You look pretty sick, Sir Thomas"--and indeed a +horrible feeling of nausea had come over me, and my hands were +shaking--"let's each have a drink and then I'll tell you what I think." + +We sat down on each side of the table, and I listened to him as if the +whole thing were some curious dream. For the second time I had been +snatched from the very brink of death, and though I suppose I ought to +have been getting used to it my only sensation was one of limpness and +collapse. + +"Can you do it?" my little friend said, pointing to the pistol between +us. + +I took it up, weighed it in my hand, half-pointed it at the stiff, +red-faced figure in the chair, and laid it down again. + +"No, I'm damned if I can!" I answered. And then--I must have been more +than half-dazed--I actually said: "You have a go, Bill." + +He looked at me in horror. + +"Murder him in cold blood! I should never know a moment's peace, Sir +Thomas!" + +"Well, you nearly did it in hot, and you've just been tempting me--" + +"Let us bring him to, if we can," he said, tactfully changing the +conversation and advancing upon our friend with the siphon of +soda-water. + +There was a grotesque horror about the whole of our adventure that +night. I laughed weakly as the soda hissed and the stream of aerated +water splashed over Midwinter's face. + +Before the final gurgle he awoke. His eyes opened without speculation. +Then his jaw dropped. For a moment his face was as vacant as a doll's, +and then it flared up into a snarl of realization and hatred, only, in +another instant, to settle down into a dead calm. + +"My turn now," I said. + +He knew the game was up. I will do him the justice to say he did not +flinch. + +"Very well, count a hundred," was his answer, and his eye fell to the +two pistols on the table--his own and mine. + +I shook my head. "I can't do it--I wish I could!" + +"You'll find it quite easy--I speak from experience," he replied, with a +desperate, evil grin. + +"No. I have talked the situation over with my friend. You are going to +die, that is very certain, but not by my hand now, and not, Mr. +Midwinter, by the hand of the English law." + +He was very quick. Even then he had an inkling of my meaning, for a +perceptible shadow fell over his face and his eyes narrowed to slits. + +"You mean?" + +"We are going to telephone to the City in the Clouds. People will come +from there and take you away--that will be easily managed. You will have +some form of trial, and then--execution." + +I never saw a change from red to white so sudden. That big face suddenly +became a hideous, sickly white, toneless and opaque like the belly of a +sole. + +"You won't deliver me to the Chinese?" he gasped. "You can't know them +as I do. They'd take a week killing me! They have horrible secrets--" + +His voice died away in a whimper, and if ever I saw a man in deadly +terror, it was that man then. + +But I hardened my heart. I remembered how Morse and Juanita had suffered +for two years at this man's hands. I remembered four murders, to my own +knowledge, and I shrugged my shoulders. + +"I can't help that. You have made your bed, and you must lie upon it." + +"But such a bed!" he murmured, and his head fell forward on his chest. + +His arms were bound at the elbow, but he could move the lower portion, +and he now brought his right hand to his face. + +"I'll telephone," said Bill, and went to the wall by the door where hung +the instrument. + +I sat gloomily watching the man in the chair. + +What was he doing? His jaw was moving up and down. He seemed biting at +his wrist. + +Suddenly there was a slight, tearing, ripping noise, followed by a jerk +backwards of his head and a deep intake of the breath. + +"What is he doing?" Rolston said, turning round with the receiver of the +telephone at his ear. + +Midwinter held out his arm. I saw that the braid round the cuff of his +morning coat was hanging in a little strip. + +"I told you I always had something in reserve," he said, showing all his +teeth as he grinned at me. "Always something up my sleeve--literally, in +this case. I have just swallowed a little capsule of prussic acid +which--" + +If you want to learn of how a man dies who has swallowed hydrocyanic +acid--the correct term, I believe--consult a medical dictionary. It is +not a pleasant thing to see in actual operation, but, thank heavens, it +is speedy! + +The sweat was pouring down my face when it was over, but Bill Rolston +had not turned a hair. + +"Put something over his face, Sir Thomas," he said, "and I'll get +through to Mr. Morse." + + + + +ENVOI + + +I take up my pen this evening, exactly ten years after I wrote the last +paragraph of the above narrative, to read of James Antony Midwinter, +dead like a poisoned rat in his chair, with a sort of amazement in my +mind. + +The whole story has been locked in a safe for ten long years, and that +blessed and happy time has made the wild adventures, the terrible +moments in the City in the Clouds, indeed seem things far off and long +ago. + +This afternoon I paid what will probably be my last visit to the strange +kingdom up there. + +I stood with my little son, Viscount Kirby, and my small daughter, Lady +Juanita, and my wife, the Countess of Stax, at a very solemn ceremony. + +In the presence of a Government official, a representative of His +Majesty--Colonel Patrick Moore, of the Irish Guards, A.D.C.--the +Cardinal Archbishop, and a few private friends, I watched the elmwood +shell, containing Gideon Mendoza Morse, placed in its marble tomb. + +It was his wish, to be buried there in his fantastic City, and no one +said him nay. Well, the body lies in its place, two hundred weeping +Chinamen are returning to the Flowery Land, wealthy beyond their utmost +hopes, and in a few months the City in the Clouds will dissolve and +disappear. + +The rich treasures are coming to Stax, my castle in Norfolk--such as +are not bequeathed, by Morse's munificence, to the museums of England +and the galleries at Brazil. + +Soon the immense plateau will be England's aerial terminus for the mail +ships from all parts of the world. + +While Gideon Morse lived it was impossible to publish the truth. It is +to appear now, at last, and I simply want to tie a few loose ends, and +to bring down the curtain, leaving nothing unexplained. + +First of all let me say that the general public knew nothing at all of +the horrors in which I was so intimately concerned. + +Juanita and I were married very quietly in Westminster Cathedral soon +after Midwinter went to his account. The enormous fortune that she +brought me, supplementing my own very considerable means, operated in +the natural way. Other journals were added to the _Evening Special_, and +we started a great campaign for the sweetening of ordinary life, and not +unsuccessfully, as every one knows. + +They made me a baron, and four years afterwards, Earl of Stax. As for my +father-in-law, he refused to budge from the City in the Clouds. + +I don't mean that he didn't make appearances in society, but he loved to +get back to his fantastic haven, from whence, like a magician, he +showered benefits upon London. + +Arthur Winstanley, as everybody knows, is Under-Secretary for India and +the most rising politician of our day. + +It is said that William Rolston, editor of the _Evening Special_, is +our most brilliant journalist, though the older school condemn him for +an excess of imagination. I saw the other day, in the old-fashioned +_Thunderer_, a slashing attack upon a series of articles which had +recently appeared upon China, and which the critic of the _Thunderer_ +conclusively proved to be written from an abysmal depth of ignorance. + +I don't often go to the office now, though I am still proprietor of the +paper, but when I do, and sit in the editorial room, I miss Julia +Dewsbury, best of all private secretaries since the beginning of the +world. + +Bill, however, assures me that she is all right, entirely taken up with +the children, and not in the least inclined to bully him in spite of her +eight years advantage in age. + +"To that woman," says Bill reverentially, "I owe everything." + +Let me wind up properly. + +Crouching behind a high wall on Richmond Hill is a modest hostelry still +known as the "Golden Swan." It is still my property, and pays me a +satisfactory dividend. It is run by a co-partnership, which I should say +is unique. + +The Honest Fool and my ex-valet, Mr. Preston, perform this feat +together, but, now that Morse is dead and the Chinese have all departed, +I fear they will lose a good deal of custom. This I gathered from Mr. +Mogridge, that pillar of the saloon bar, who happened to meet me by +chance in Fleet Street not long ago. + +"'Allo! Why, it's Mr. Thomas, late landlord of the 'Golden Swan'!" said +Mr. Mogridge. "'Aven't seen you for years. What are you doing now?" + +"Oh, I'm doing very well, thank you, Mr. Mogridge. And how is the old +'Swan'?" + +"Same as ever and no dropping off in the quality of the drinks. Still, I +fear it's going down. I'm afraid it will never be quite the same as it +was in the days of Ting-A-ling-A-ling," and here Mr. Mogridge placed his +hands upon his hips and roared with laughter at that ancient joke. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The City in the Clouds, by C. 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