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diff --git a/41132-0.txt b/41132-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec2b94b --- /dev/null +++ b/41132-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3739 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41132 *** + +The Bomb-Makers +Being some Curious Records concerning the Craft and Cunning of Theodore +Drost, an enemy alien in London, together with certain Revelations +regarding his daughter Ella. +By William Le Queux +Published by Jarrolds, London. + +The Bombmakers, by William Le Queux. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +THE BOMBMAKERS, BY WILLIAM LE QUEUX. + +CHAPTER ONE. + +THE DEVIL'S DICE. + +"Do get rid of the girl! Can't you see that she's highly dangerous!" +whispered the tall, rather overdressed man as he glanced furtively +across the small square shop set with little tables, dingy in the haze +of tobacco-smoke. It was an obscure, old-fashioned little restaurant in +one of London's numerous byways--a resort of Germans, naturalised and +otherwise, "the enemy in our midst," as the papers called them. + +"I will. I quite agree. My girl may know just a little too much--if we +are not very careful." + +"Ah! she knows far too much already, Drost, thanks to your ridiculous +indiscretions," growled the dark-eyed man beneath his breath. "They +will land you before a military court-martial--if you are not careful!" + +"Well, I hardly think so. I'm always most careful--most silent and +discreet," and he grinned evilly. + +"True, you are a good Prussian--that I know; but remember that Ella has, +unfortunately for us, very many friends, and she may talk--women's talk, +you know. We--you and I--are treading very thin ice. She is, I +consider, far too friendly with that young fellow Kennedy. It's +dangerous--distinctly dangerous to us--and I really wonder that you +allow it--you, a patriotic Prussian!" + +And, drawing heavily at his strong cigar, he paused and examined its +white ash. + +"Allow it?" echoed the elder man. "How, in the name of Fate, can I +prevent it? Suggest some means to end their acquaintanceship, and I am +only too ready to hear it." + +The man who spoke, the grey-haired Dutch pastor, father of Ella Drost, +the smartly-dressed girl who was seated chatting and laughing merrily +with two rather ill-dressed men in the farther corner of the little +smoke-dried place, grunted deeply. To the world of London he posed as a +Dutchman. He was a man with a curiously triangular face, a big square +forehead, with tight-drawn skin and scanty hair, and broad heavy +features which tapered down to a narrow chin that ended in a pointed, +grey, and rather scraggy beard. + +Theodore Drost was about fifty-five, a keen, active man whose +countenance, upon critical examination, would have been found to be +curiously refined, intelligent, and well preserved. Yet he was shabbily +dressed, his long black clerical coat shiny with wear, in contrast with +the way in which his daughter--in her fine furs and clothes of the +latest mode--was attired. But the father, in all grades of life, is +usually shabby, while his daughter--whatever be her profession--looks +smart, be it the smartness of Walworth or that of Worth. + +As his friend, Ernst Ortmann, had whispered those warning words he had +glanced across at her, and noting how gaily she was laughing with her +two male friends, a cigarette between her pretty lips, he frowned. + +Then he looked over to the man who had thus urged discretion. + +The pair were seated at a table, upon which was a red-bordered cloth, +whereon stood two half-emptied "bocks" of that light beer so dear to the +Teuton palate. They called it "Danish beer," not to offend English +customers. + +The girl whose smiles they were watching was distinctly pretty. She was +about twenty-two, with a sweet, eminently English-looking face, fair and +quite in contrast with the decidedly foreign, beetle-browed features of +the two leering loafers with whom she sat laughing. + +Theodore Drost, to do him justice, was devoted to his daughter, who, +because of her childish aptitude, had become a dancer on the lowest +level of the variety stage, a touring company which visited fifth-rate +towns. Yet, owing to her discovered talent, she had at last graduated +through the hard school of the Lancashire "halls," to what is known as +the "syndicate halls" of London. + +From a demure child-dancer at an obscure music-hall in the outer +suburbs, she had become a noted revue artiste, a splendid dancer, who +commanded the services of her own press-agent, who in turn commanded +half-a-dozen lines in most of the London morning papers, both her +prestige and increased salary following in consequence. The British +public so little suspect the insidious influence of the press-agent in +the formation of modern genius. The press-agent has, in the past, made +many a mediocre fool into a Birthday Baronet, or a "paid-for Knight," +and more than one has been employed in the service of a Cabinet +Minister. Oh what sheep we are, and how easily we are led astray! + +On that wintry night, Ella Drost--known to the theatre-going public as +Stella Steele, the great revue artiste whose picture postcards were +everywhere--sat in that stuffy, dingy little restaurant in Soho, sipping +a glass of its pseudo-Danish lager, and laughing with the two +unpresentable men before her. + +Outside the unpretentious little place was written up the single word +"Restaurant." Its proprietor a big, full-blooded, fair-bearded son of +the Fatherland, had kept it for twenty years, and it had been the +evening rendezvous of working-class Germans--waiters, bakers, clerks, +coiffeurs, jewellers, and such-like. + +Here one could still revel in Teuton delicacies, beer brewed in Hamburg, +but declared to be "Danish," the succulent German liver sausage, the +sausage of Frankfort--boiled in pairs of course--the palatable +sauerkraut with the black sour bread of the Fatherland to match. + +"I wish you could get rid of Kennedy," said Ortmann, as he again, in +confidence, bent across the table towards Ella's father. "I believe +she's in collusion with him." + +"No," laughed the elder man, "I can't believe that. Ella is too good a +daughter of the Fatherland." He was one of Germany's chief agents in +England, and had much money in secret at his command. + +Ortmann screwed up his eyes and pursed his lips. He was a shrewd, +clever man, and very difficult to deceive. + +"Money is at stake, my dear Drost," he whispered very slowly--"big +money. But there is love also. And I believe--nay, I'm sure--that +Kennedy loves her." + +"Bah! utterly ridiculous!" cried her father. "I don't believe that for +a single moment. She's only fooling him, as she has fooled all the +others." + +"All right. But I've watched. You have not," was the cold reply. + +From time to time the attractive Ella, on her part, glanced across at +her father, who was whispering with his overdressed companion, and, to +the keen observer, it would have been apparent that she was only smoking +and gossiping with that pair of low-bred foreigners for distinct +purposes of her own. + +The truth was that, with her woman's instinct, feminine cleverness and +ingenuity, she, being filled with the enthusiasm of affection for her +aviator-lover, was playing a fiercely desperate part as a staunch and +patriotic daughter of Great Britain. + +The hour was late. She had hurried from the theatre in a taxi, the +carmine still about her pretty lips, her eyes still darkened beneath, +and the greasepaint only roughly rubbed off. The great gold and white +theatre near Leicester Square, where, clad in transparencies, she was +"leading lady" in that most popular revue "Half a Moment!" had been +packed to suffocation, as indeed it was nightly. Officers and men home +on leave from the battle-front all made a point of seeing the pretty, +sweet-faced Stella Steele, who danced with such artistic movement, and +who sang those catchy patriotic songs of hers, the stirring choruses of +which even reached the ears of the Bosches in their trenches. And in +many a British dug-out in Flanders there was hung a programme of the +revue, or a picture postcard of the seductive Stella. + +There were, perhaps, other Stella Steeles on the stage, for the name +was, after all, not an uncommon one, but this star of the whole Steele +family had arisen from the theatrical firmament since the war. She, the +laughing girl who, that night, sat in that obscure, smoke-laden little +den of aliens in Soho, was earning annually more than the "pooled" +salary of a British Cabinet Minister. + +That Stella was a born artiste all agreed--even her agent, that fat +cigar-smoking Hebrew cynic who regarded all stage women as mere cattle +out of whom he extracted commissions. To-day nobody can earn unusual +emoluments in any profession without real merit assisted by a capable +agent. + +Stella Steele was believed by all to be thoroughly British. Nobody had +ever suspected that her real name was Drost, nor that her bespectacled +and pious father had been born in Stuttgart, and had afterwards become +naturalised as a Dutchman before coming to England. The +cigarette-smoking male portion of the khaki-clad crowd who so loudly +applauded her every night had no idea that their idol had been born in +Berlin. Isaac Temple, the mild-mannered press-agent whom she employed, +had always presented her, both to press and public, and sent those +artistic photographs of hers to the Sunday illustrated papers, as +daughter of a London barrister who had died suddenly, leaving her +penniless. Thus had the suspicious connection with Drost been always +carefully suppressed, and Ella lived very quietly in her pretty flat in +Stamfordham Mansions, situate just off the High Street in Kensington. + +Her father--her English mother, whom she had adored, being long ago +dead--lived a quiet, secluded life in one of those rather large houses +which may be found on the south side of the Thames between Putney and +Richmond. Pastor Drost had, it was believed by the Dutch colony in +London, been a missionary for some years in Sumatra, and, on more than +one occasion, he had lectured upon the native life of that island. +Therefore he had many friends among Dutch merchants and others, who all +regarded him as a perfectly honest and even pious, if rather eccentric, +man. + +At times he wore big round horn-rimmed glasses which grossly magnified +his eyes, giving him a strange goggled appearance. The world, however, +never knew that Pastor Drost's only daughter was that versatile dancer +who, dressed in next-to-nothing, nightly charmed those huge enthusiastic +audiences in the popular revue, "Half a Moment!" + +Until three months after the outbreak of war Ella had regarded her +father's idiosyncrasies with some amusement, dismissing them as the +outcome of a mind absorbed in chemical experiment, for though none save +herself was aware of it, the long attic beneath the roof of her father's +house--the door of which Theodore Drost always kept securely locked--was +fitted as a great chemical laboratory, where he, as a professor of +chemistry, was constantly experimenting. + +After the outbreak of war, by reason of a conversation she one day +overheard between her father and his mysterious visitor, Ernst Ortmann, +her suspicions had become aroused. Strange suspicions they indeed were. +But in order to obtain confirmation of them, she had become more +attached to her father, and had visited him far more frequently than +before, busying herself in his domestic affairs, and sometimes assisting +the old widow, Mrs Pennington, who acted as his single servant. + +Two years prior to the war, happening upon that house, which was to be +sold cheap, Ella had purchased it, ready furnished as it was, and given +it as a present to her father as a place in which he might spend his old +age in comfort. But until that night when she had overheard the curious +conversation--which she had afterwards disclosed in confidence to her +lover, Lieutenant Seymour Kennedy, Flight-Commander of the Naval Air +Service--she had never dreamed that her father, the good and pious +Dutchman who had once been a missionary, was an enemy alien, whose plans +were maturing in order to assist a great and desperate conspiracy +organised by the secret service of the German Fatherland. + +On a certain well-remembered November evening she had revealed to +Kennedy the truth, and they had both made a firm compact with each +other. The plotter was her father, it was true. But she was a daughter +of Great Britain, and it was for her to combat any wily and evil plot +which might be formed against the land which had given birth to her +adored mother. + +She loved Seymour Kennedy. A hundred men had smiled upon her, bent over +her little hand, written to her, sent her flowers and presents, and +declared to her their undying affection. It is ever so. The popular +actress always attracts both fools and fortunes. But Ella, level-headed +girl as she was, loved only Seymour, and had accepted the real, +whole-hearted and honest kisses which he had imprinted upon her lips. +Seymour Kennedy was a gentleman before being an officer, which could +not, alas! be said of all the men in the services in war-time. + +Ella Drost was no fool, her dead mother had always instilled into her +mind that, though born of a German father, yet she was British, an +argument which, if discussed legally, would have been upset, because, +having, unfortunately, been born in Berlin, she was certainly a subject +of the German octopus. At the time of her birth her father had occupied +a very important position among professors--half the men in the +Fatherland were professors of something or other--yet Drost had been +professor of chemistry at the Imperial Arsenal at Spandau--that great +impregnable fortress in which the French war indemnity of 1870 had been +locked up as the war-chest of golden French louis. + +How strange it was! And yet it was not altogether strange. Ella, whose +heart--the heart of a true British girl trained at her mother's knee-- +had discovered a curious "something" and, aided by her British airman +lover, was determined to carry on her observations, at all hazards, to +the point of ascertaining the real truth. + +England was at war at the battle-front--and she, a mere girl, was at war +with the enemy in its midst. + +Three-quarters of an hour later Ella--whose comfortable car was waiting +outside the dingy little place--had driven her father home, but on the +way she expressed her decision to stay with him, as it was late and her +French maid, Mariette, had no doubt gone to bed. + +As they stood in her father's large, well-furnished dining-room, Ella +drew some lemonade from a siphon and then, declaring that she was +sleepy, said she would retire. + +"All right, my dear," replied the old man. "All right. You'll find +your room quite ready for you. I always order that it shall be kept +ready for you. Let's see! You were here a week ago--so the bed will +not be damp." + +The girl bent and imprinted a dutiful kiss upon her father's white brow, +but, next instant, set her teeth, and in her blue eyes--though he did +not see it--there showed a distinct light of suspicion. + +Then she switched on the light on the stairs, loosened her furs, and +ascended to the well-furnished room that was always regarded as hers. + +The room in which Ella found herself was large, with a fine double +wardrobe, a long cheval-glass, and a handsome mahogany dressing-table. +The curtains and upholstery were in pale-blue damask, while the thick +plush carpet was of a darker shade. + +Instead of retiring, Ella at once lit the gas-stove, glanced at her +wristlet-watch, the face of which was set round with diamonds, and then +flung herself into a deep armchair to think, dozing off at last, tired +out by the exertion of her dancing. + +The striking of the little gilt clock upon the mantelshelf presently +aroused her, and, rising, she switched off the light and, creeping upon +tiptoe, slowly opened her bedroom door and listened attentively. + +Somewhere she could hear the sound of men's voices. One she recognised +as her father's. + +"That's Nystrom again! That infernal hell-fiend!" she whispered +breathlessly to herself. + +Then, removing her smart shoes and her jingling bangles, she crept +stealthily forth along the soft carpet of the corridor, and with great +care ascended the stairs to the floor above, which was occupied by that +long room, the door of which was always kept locked--the room in which +her father conducted his constant experiments. + +From the ray of light she saw that the door was ajar. Within, the two +men were talking in low deep tones in German. + +She could hear a hard sound, as of metal being filed down, and more than +once distinguished the clinking of glass, as though her father was +engaged in some experiment with his test-tubes and other scientific +paraphernalia which she had seen arranged so methodically upon the two +long deal tables. + +"What has Ortmann told you?" asked Theodore Drost's midnight visitor, +while his daughter stood back within the long cupboard on the landing, +listening. + +"He says that all is in order. We have a friend awaiting us." + +"And the payment--eh?" asked the man Nystrom, a German who had been +naturalised as a Swede, and now lived in London as a neutral. As a +professor of chemistry he had been well-known in Stockholm and, being a +bosom friend of the Dutch pastor's, the pair often delighted in dabbling +together in their favourite science. + +"I shall meet Ernst on Friday night. If we are successful, he will pay +two thousand pounds--to be equally divided between us." + +"Good," grunted the other. "We shall be successful, never fear--that is +if Ortmann has arranged things at his end. _Himmel_! what a shock it +will be--eh, my friend?--worse than the Zeppelins!" + +Theodore Drost laughed gleefully, while his daughter, daring to creep +forward again, peered through the crack of the door and saw the pair +bending over what looked like a square steel despatch-box standing upon +the table amid all the scientific apparatus. + +The box, about eighteen inches long, a foot wide, and six inches deep, +was khaki-covered, and, though she was not aware of it at the time, it +was of the exact type used in the Government offices. + +Fridtjof Nystrom, a tall, dark-haired man, with a red, blotchy face, +rather narrow-eyed and round-shouldered, was adjusting something within +the box, while old Drost, who had discarded his shabby black pastor's +coat and now wore a dark-brown jacket, took up a small glass retort +beneath which the blue flame of a spirit-lamp had been burning, and from +it he poured a few drops of some bright red liquid into a tiny tube of +very thin glass. Then, taking a small blow-pipe, he blew the flame upon +the tube until he had melted the glass and sealed it hermetically. + +The blotchy-faced man watched this latter operation with great interest, +saying: + +"Have a care now, my dear Theodore. The least mishap, and not a piece +of either of us would remain to tell the story." + +"_Ja_! Leave that to me," answered Ella's father. "We do not, I agree, +desire a repetition of the disaster which happened last week." + +Ella, hearing those words, stood aghast. + +A week before all London had been mystified and horrified by a most +remarkable explosion which had occurred one night in a house in one of +the outer suburbs, whereby the place had been set on fire and utterly +demolished. Whoever were present in the house had been blown to atoms, +for no trace of the occupants, or of what had caused the disaster, had +been discovered. At first it was believed to have been caused by an +incendiary bomb dropped from the air, but expert evidence quickly +established the fact that something within the house had exploded. + +Was it possible that her father and his dastardly companions possessed +knowledge of what had actually occurred there? + +Suddenly, Drost having handed the tiny sealed tube to Nystrom, the +latter proceeded to place it in position within the box, using most +infinite care. Then her father turned upon his heel, and came forward +to the door behind which his daughter was standing. + +In a second Ella had shrunk back noiselessly into the cupboard, which +the old man passed in the darkness, and descended the stairs. + +He had passed the door of Ella's room when, having gained the bottom of +the stairs, he paused and whistled softly. In a few seconds Nystrom +came forth. + +"Come, Fridtjof," he urged in a low whisper. "Let us drink to the +success of our expedition to-night, and the victory of our dear +Fatherland," an invitation which his visitor at once accepted. + +Ella heard the two men descend, making but little noise, and a moment +later she crept into the long, well-lit laboratory where, upon the +table, stood the big official-looking despatch-box. + +A second's glance was sufficient to reveal the truth even to her, a +woman unversed as she was in such things. It was a most +ingeniously-constructed infernal machine which would detonate the +quantity of high-explosive which she saw had been placed within. + +Though her father had taken the greatest precaution to conceal from his +daughter the exact line of his chemical experiments, yet, if the truth +be told, Ella and her lover had watched carefully, and Kennedy--who had +shared his well-beloved's suspicions--had ascertained, without doubt, +that Drost and Nystrom had been engaged in that long, low room beneath +the roof, in treating toluene with nitric and sulphuric acid for several +days under heat thus producing tri-nitro-toluene--or trotul--that modern +high-explosive, of terrible force, which was rapidly superseding picric +acid as a base for shell-fillers. + +At a glance Ella saw that the square steel bomb, fashioned like an +official despatch-box, was filled with this highly dangerous explosive, +and that the thin glass tube which, when broken, would explode it, had +already been placed in position. Such a bomb, on exploding in a +confined space, must work the most terrible havoc. + +In those few seconds the girl verified the suspicion which Kennedy had +entertained. Some desperate outrage was to be committed. That was +quite certain. + +A bomb from a Zeppelin could not cause greater injury to life and +property than that ingeniously contrived machine, the delicately +constructed fuse of which, fashioned on the lathe by her father's own +hands, could be arranged to detonate at any given time. + +A second's pause, and then the girl, beneath her breath, took a deep +oath of vengeance against the ruler of that hated land wherein she had +been born. + +"Thank Heaven that I am English!" she whispered to herself. "And I will +live--and die, if necessary--as an English girl should." + +With those words upon her lips she crept away from the laboratory, down +the stairs to her room, and, swiftly putting on her fur coat, she went +into the basement, from which she let herself out noiselessly, and then +hurried through the night, in the direction of Hammersmith Bridge. + +On gaining the bridge, she saw the red rear-light of a motor-car, and +knew that it was Kennedy's. He had drawn up against the kerb, and had +been consuming cigarettes waiting in impatience for a long time. + +"Well, darling?" he asked, as they met. "I got your message from the +theatre to-night. What is in progress?" + +"Something desperate," was her quick reply. "Let's get into the car and +I'll explain." + +Both entered the comfortable little coupe, and then Ella explained in +detail to her flying-man lover all that she had discovered. + +The keen-faced, clean-shaven young officer in uniform who, before he had +gone in for aviation duties, had graduated at Osborne, and afterwards +been at sea and risen from "snotty" to lieutenant, sat beside her, +listening intently. + +"Just as we thought, darling," he remarked. "For me, loving you so +dearly, it is a terrible thing to know that your father is such a deadly +and ingenious enemy of ours as he is. Truly the German plotters are in +our midst in every walk of life, from high society down to the scum of +the East End. The brutes are out to win the war by any underhand, +subtle, and brutal means in their power. But we have discovered one +line of their enemy intentions and, with your aid, dearest, we will +follow it up and, without exposing your father and bringing disgrace +upon you, we'll set out to combat them every time." + +"Agreed, dear," declared the girl with patriotic enthusiasm. "I have +told you all along of my suspicions. To-night they are verified. +Father, and that devilish scoundrel, Nystrom, mean mischief--for payment +too--one thousand pounds each!" + +"The infernal brutes!" exclaimed the man at her side. "At least it is +to you, dear, that this discovery is due. I had no idea what you were +after when you sent me that wire to-night." + +"I suspected, and my suspicions have proved correct," said the girl. +"Shall we wait here and follow them? They must cross the river if they +intend to go into London to-night--as no doubt they do." + +"Yes. They believe you to be soundly asleep, I suppose?" + +"I locked my door, and have the key in my pocket," replied his +well-beloved with a light laugh. + +And she, putting her ready lips to his, sat with him in the car at the +foot of the long suspension-bridge, waiting for any person to cross. + +They remained there for perhaps half-an-hour, ever eager and watchful. +Several taxis passed, but otherwise all was quiet in the night. Now and +then across the sky fell the big beams of searchlights seeking enemy +aircraft, and these they were watching, when, suddenly, a powerful, +dark-painted car approached. + +"Look!" cried Ella. "Why, that's that fellow Benyon's car--he's a +friend of Dad's!" + +Next moment it flashed past, and beneath the dim light at the head of +the bridge they both caught a glimpse of two men within, one of whom was +undoubtedly Theodore Drost. + +"Quick!" cried Ella. "Let's follow them! Fortunately you have to-night +another car, unknown to them!" + +In an instant Seymour Kennedy had started his engine, and slowly he drew +out across the bridge, speeding after the retreating car over the river, +along Bridge Road to Hammersmith Broadway and through Brook Green, in a +direction due north. + +Through the London streets it was not difficult at that hour to follow +the red tail-light of the car in which Drost sat with his bosom friend +George Benyon, a mysterious person who seemed to be an adventurer, and +who lived somewhere in York or its vicinity. + +"I wonder if they are going up to York?" Ella asked, as she sat in the +deep seat of the coupe at her lover's side. + +"We'll see. If they get on to the North Road we shall at once know +their intentions," was her lover's reply. + +Half-an-hour later the pseudo-Dutch pastor and his companion, driven by +rather a reckless young fellow, were on the main Great North Road, and +Kennedy, possessing a lighter and superior car, had no misgivings as to +overtaking them whenever he wished. + +On through the night they went, passing Barnet, Hatfield, Hitchin, the +cross-roads at Wansford, and up the crooked pebbled streets of Stamford, +until in the grey of morning they descended into Grantham, with its tall +spire and quaint old Angel and Crown Hotel. + +It was there that Drost and his companion breakfasted, while Ella and +her lover waited and watched. + +Some devilish plot of a high-explosive nature was in progress, but of +its true import they were in utter ignorance. Yet their two British +hearts beat quickly in unison, and both were determined to frustrate the +outrage, even at the sacrifice of their own lives. + +At three o'clock in the afternoon Drost and Benyon drew up at the +Station Hotel at York, and there took lunch, while Ella and her lover +ate a very hurried and much-needed meal in the railway-buffet in the big +station adjoining. + +Then, after they had watched the departure of the big mud-spattered car +which contained the two conspirators, they were very quickly upon the +road again after them. + +Out of the quiet old streets of York city, past the Minster, they turned +eastward upon that well-kept highway which led towards the North Sea +Coast. + +An hour's run brought them to the pleasant town which I must not, with +the alarming provisions of the Defence of the Realm Act before me, +indicate with any other initial save that of J--. + +The town of J--, built upon a deep and pretty bay forming a natural +harbour with its breakwater and pier, was, in the pre-war days, a +popular resort of the summer girl with her transparent blouses and her +pretty bathing costumes, but since hostilities, it was a place believed +to be within the danger zone. + +As they descended, by the long, winding road, into the town, they could +see, in the bay, a big grey four-funnelled first-class cruiser lying at +anchor, the grey smoke curling lazily from her striped funnels--resting +there no doubt after many weeks of patrol duty in the vicinity of the +Kiel Canal. + +Indeed, as they went along the High Street, they saw a number of +clear-eyed liberty men--bluejackets--bearing upon their caps the name +H.M.S. _Oakham_. + +The car containing Ella's father and his companion pulled up at the +Palace Hotel, a big imposing place, high on the cliff, therefore +Kennedy, much satisfied that he had thus been able to follow the car for +over two hundred miles, went on some little distance to the next +available hotel. + +This latter place, like the Palace, afforded a fine view of the bay, and +as they stood at a window of the palm-lined lounge, they could see that +upon the cruiser lights were already appearing. + +Kennedy called the waiter for a drink, and carelessly asked what was in +progress. + +"The ship--the _Oakham_--came in the day before yesterday, sir," the man +replied. "There's a party on board this evening, they say--our Mayor +and corporation, and all the rest." + +Ella exchanged glances with her lover. She recollected that +khaki-covered despatch-box. Had her father brought with him that +terrible death-dealing machine which he and Nystrom had constructed with +such accursed ingenuity? + +The hotel was deserted, as east coast hotels within the danger zone +usually were in those war days, remaining open only for the occasional +traveller and for the continuity of its licence. The great revue star +had sent a telegram to her manager, asking that her understudy should +play that night, and the devoted pair now stood side by side watching +how, in the rapidly falling night, the twinkling electric lights on +board the fine British cruiser became more clearly marked against the +grey background of stormy sea and sky. + +"I wonder what their game can really be?" remarked the young +flying-officer reflectively as, alone with Ella, his strong arm crept +slowly around her neat waist. + +From where they stood they were afforded a wide view of the broad road +which led from the town down to the landing-stage, from which the +cruiser's steam pinnace and picket-boat were speeding to and fro between +ship and shore. A dozen or so smart motor-cars had descended the road, +conveying the guests of the captain and officers who, after their long +and unrelaxing vigil in the North Sea, certainly deserved a little +recreation. Then, as the twilight deepened and the stars began to shine +out over the bay, it was seen that the procession of guests had at last +ended. + +"I think, Ella, that we might, perhaps, go down to the landing-stage," +said Kennedy at last--"if you are not too tired, dear." + +"Tired? Why, of course not," she laughed, and after he had helped her +on with her coat, they both went out, passing down to the harbour by +another road. + +For fully an hour they idled about in the darkness, watching the swift +brass-funnelled pinnace which, so spick and span, and commanded by a +smart lad fresh from Osborne, was making the journey regularly between +ship and quay. Away in the darkness the lights on the cruiser's +quarter-deck reflected into the sea, while ever and anon the high-up +masthead signal-lamp winked in Morse code to the coastguard station five +miles distant across the bay. + +While they were watching, the pinnace came in again, whereupon the smart +figure of a naval officer in his topcoat appeared within the zone of +light, and descended the steps, shouting in an interrogative tone: + +"_Oakham_?" + +"Ay, ay, sir!" came a cheery voice from the pinnace. + +"Look!" gasped Ella, clinging to her lover's arm. "Why--it's Benyon-- +dressed as a naval lieutenant! He's going on board, and he's carrying +that despatch-box with him!" + +Indeed, he had handed the heavy box to one of the men, and was at that +moment stepping into the pinnace. + +"Off to the ship--as quick as you can!" they heard him order, while, +next moment, the boat was cast loose and the propeller began to revolve. + +"We haven't a second to lose!" whispered Kennedy who, as soon as the +pinnace was around the pier-head, called out "Boat!" In an instant +half-a-dozen men, noticing that he was a naval officer, were eagerly +crowding around him. + +"I want to follow that pinnace--quick!" he said. "Three men--and you +can sail out there. The wind's just right." + +In a few moments a boat came alongside the steps, and into it the pair +stepped, with three hardy North Sea boatmen. + +Quickly sail was set and, favoured by a fresh breeze, the boat slowly +heeled over and began to skim across the dark waters. + +Already the light on the pinnace showed far away, it having nearly +reached the ship. Therefore Kennedy, in his eagerness, stirred the +three men to greater effort, so that by rowing and sailing by turns, +they gradually grew nearer the long, dark war-vessel, while Ella sat +clasping her well-beloved's hand in the darkness, and whispering +excitedly with him. + +Those were, indeed, moments of greatest tension, away upon that dark +wintry sea beyond the harbour, that wide bay which, on account of its +unusual depth and exposed position, was never considered a very safe +anchorage. + +Their progress seemed at a snail's pace, as it always seems upon the sea +at night. They watched the pinnace draw up, and they knew that the man, +Benyon, who, though German-born, had lived in London the greater part of +his life--was on board carrying that terrible instrument of death that +had been cleverly prepared in such official guise. + +At last--after an age it seemed--the boat swung in beside the lighted +gangway against the pinnace, and Kennedy, stepping nimbly up, said to +the sentry on board: + +"Let nobody pass up or down, except this lady." Then, seeing the +officer on duty, he asked if a lieutenant had arrived on board with a +despatch-box. + +"Yes. I've sent him down to the captain," was the reply. + +"Take me to the captain at once, please," Kennedy said in a calm voice. +"There's no time to lose. There's treachery on board!" + +In a second the officer was on the alert and ran down the stern gangway +which led direct to the captain's comfortable cabin, with its +easy-chairs covered with bright chintzes like the small drawing-room of +a country house. + +Kennedy followed with Ella, but the captain was not there. The sentry +said he was in the ward-room, therefore the pair waited till he came +forward eagerly. + +"Well," asked the grey-haired captain with some surprise, seeing an +officer and a lady. "What is it?" + +"Have you received any despatches to-night, sir?" Kennedy inquired. + +"No. What despatches?" asked the captain. + +Then, in a few brief words, Kennedy explained how he had watched a man +in naval uniform come off in the pinnace, carrying a heavy despatch-box. +The man had passed the sentry and been directed below by the officer on +duty. But he had never arrived at the captain's cabin. + +The "owner," as the captain of a cruiser is often called by his brother +officers, was instantly on the alert. The alarm was given, and the ship +was at once thoroughly searched, especially the ammunition stores, +where, in the flat close to the torpedoes on the port side, the deadly +box was discovered. The guests knew nothing of this activity on the +lower deck, but the two men who found the box heard a curious ticking +within, and without a second's delay brought it up and heaved it +overboard. + +Then again the boatswain piped, and every man, as he stood at his post, +was informed that a spy who had attempted to blow up the ship was still +on board. Indeed, as "Number One," otherwise the first lieutenant, was +addressing them a great column of water rose from an explosion deep +below the surface, and much of it fell heavily on deck. + +Another thorough search was made into every corner of the vessel, +whereupon the stranger in uniform was at last discovered in one of the +stokeholds. Two stokers rushed across to seize him, but with a quick +movement he felled both with an iron bar. Then he ran up the ladder +with the agility of a cat, and sped right into the arms of Ella and +Kennedy. + +"Curse you--I was too late!" he shrieked in fierce anger, on recognising +them, and then seeing all retreat cut off, he suddenly sprang over the +side of the vessel, intending, no doubt, to swim ashore. + +At once the pinnace went after him, but in the darkness he could not be +discovered, though the searchlights began to slowly sweep the dark +swirling waters. + +That he met a well-deserved fate, however, was proved by the fact that +at dawn next day his body was picked up on the other side of the bay. +Yet long before, Theodore Drost, suspecting that something was amiss by +his fellow spy's non-return, had left by train for London. + +Seymour Kennedy was next day called to the Admiralty and thanked for his +keen vigilance, but he only smiled and kept a profound secret the active +part played by his particular friend, the popular actress--Miss Stella +Steele. + +CHAPTER TWO. + +THE GREAT TUNNEL PLOT. + +"There! Is it not a very neat little toy, my dear Ernst?" asked +Theodore Drost, speaking in German, dressed in his usual funereal black +of a Dutch pastor, as everyone believed him to be. + +Ernst Ortmann, the man addressed, screwed up his eyes, a habit of his, +and eagerly examined the heavy walking-stick which his friend had handed +to him. + +It was a thick bamboo-stump, dark-brown and well-polished, bearing a +heavy iron ferrule. + +The root-end, which formed the bulgy knob, the wily old German had +unscrewed, revealing in a cavity a small cylinder of brass. This +Ortmann took out and, in turn, unscrewed it, disclosing a curious +arrangement of cog-wheels--a kind of clockwork within. + +"You see that as long as the stick is carried upright the clock does not +work," Drost explained. "But,"--and taking it from his friend's hand he +held it in a horizontal position--"but as soon as it is laid upon the +ground, the mechanical contrivance commences to work. See!" + +And the man Ortmann--known as Horton since the outbreak of war--gazed +upon it and saw the cog-wheels slowly revolving. + +"By Jove!" he gasped. "Yes. Now I see. What a devilish invention it +is! It can be put to so many uses!" + +"Exactly, my dear friend," laughed the supposed Dutch pastor, crossing +the secret room in the roof of his house at Barnes. + +It was afternoon, and the sunlight streaming through the skylight fell +upon the place wherein the bomb-makers worked in secret. The room +contained several deal tables whereon stood many bottles containing +explosive compounds, glass retorts, test-tubes, and glass apothecaries' +scales, with all sorts of other apparatus used in the delicate work of +manufacturing and mixing high-explosives. + +"You see," Drost went on to explain, as he indicated a large mortar of +marble. "I have been treating phenol with nitric acid and have obtained +the nitrate called trinitrophenol. I shall fill this case with it, and +then we shall have an unsuspicious-looking weapon which will eventually +prove most useful to us--for it can be carried in perfect safety, only +it must not be laid down." + +Ortmann laughed. He saw that his friend's inventive mind had produced +an ingenious, if devilish, contrivance. He had placed death in that +innocent-looking walking-stick--certain death to any person unconscious +of the peril. + +Indeed, as Ortmann watched, his friend carefully filled the cavity in +the brass cylinder with the explosive substance, and placed within a +very strong detonator which he connected with the clockwork, winding it +to the full. He then rescrewed the cap upon the fatal cylinder, +replacing it in the walking-stick and readjusting the knob, which closed +so perfectly that only close inspection would reveal anything abnormal +in the stick. + +"The other stuff is there already, I suppose?" + +"I took it down there the night before last in four petrol-tins." + +"The new stuff?" + +"Yes. It is a picric acid derivative, and its relative force is twice +as great as that of gun-cotton," was the reply of the grey-haired man. +He spoke with knowledge and authority, for had he not been one of the +keenest explosive experts in the German arsenal at Spandau before he had +assumed the role of the Dutch pastor in England? + +"It will create some surprise there," remarked Ortmann, with an evil +grin upon his sardonic countenance. "Your girl knows nothing, I hope?" + +"Absolutely nothing. I have arranged to carry out our plans as soon as +possible, to-morrow night, or the night after. Bohlen and Tragheim are +both assisting." + +"Excellent! I congratulate you, my dear Drost, upon your clever +contrivance. Truly, you are a good son of the Fatherland, and I will +see that you receive your due and proper reward when our brave brothers +have landed upon English soil." + +"You are the eyes and brains of Germany in England," declared Drost to +his friend. "I am only the servant. You are the organiser. Yours is +the Mysterious Hand which controls, and controls so well, the thousands +of our fellow-Teutons, all of whom are ready for their allotted task +when the Day of Invasion comes." + +"I fear you flatter me," laughed Mr Horton, whom none suspected to be +anything else than a patriotic Englishman. + +"I do not flatter you. I only admire your courage and ingenuity," was +the quiet reply. + +And then the two alien enemies, standing in that long, low-ceilinged +laboratory, containing as it did sufficient high-explosives to blow up +the whole of Hammersmith and Barnes, bent over the long deal table upon +which stood a long glass retort containing some bright yellow crystals +that were cooling. + +Theodore Drost, being one of Germany's foremost scientists, had been +sent to England before the war, just as a number of others had been +sent, as an advance guard of the Kaiser's Army which the German General +Staff intended should eventually raid Great Britain. Truly, the +foresight, patience, and thoroughness of the Hun had been astounding. +The whole world's history contained nothing equal to the amazing craft +and cunning displayed by those who were responsible for Germany's Secret +Service--that service known to its agents under the designation of +"Number Seventy, Berlin." + +It was fortunate that there was hardly a person in the whole of London +who knew of the relationship between Stella Steele, the clever revue +artiste, whose songs were the rage of all London and whose photographs +were in all the shop-windows, and the venerable Dutch pastor. With his +usual craft, Drost, knowing how thoroughly English was his daughter, had +always posed to her as a great admirer of England and English ways. To +judge by his protestations, he was a hater of the Kaiser and all his +Satanic works. + +If, however, Ella--to give Stella her baptismal name--could have looked +into that long, low attic, which her father always kept so securely +locked, she would have been struck by the evil gloating of both men. + +Ortmann--whom she always held in suspicion--had conceived the plot a +month ago--a foul and dastardly plot--and old Drost, as his paid +catspaw, was about to put it into execution forthwith. + +Next night, just about half-past ten, Stella Steele gay, laughing, with +one portion of her lithe body clothed in the smartest of ultra costumes +by a famous French _couturiere_, the remainder of her figure either +silk-encased or undraped, bounded off the stage of the popular theatre +near Leicester Square, and fell into the arms of her grey-haired +dresser. + +It was Saturday night, and the "house," packed to suffocation, were +roaring applause. + +"Lights up!" shouted the stage-manager, and Stella, holding her breath +and patting her hair, staggered against the scenery, half-fainting with +exhaustion, and then, with a fierce effort, tripped merrily upon the +stage and smilingly bowed to her appreciative and enthusiastic audience. + +The men in khaki, officers and "Tommies," roared for an encore. The +revue had "caught on," and Stella Steele was the rage of London. +Because she spoke and sang in French just as easily as she did in +English, her new song, in what was really a very inane but tuneful +revue--an up-to-date variation of musical comedy--had already been +adopted in France as one of the marching songs of the French army. + +From paper-seller to Peer, from drayman to Duke: in the houses of +Peckham and Park Lane, in Walworth and in Wick, the world hummed, sang, +or drummed out upon pianos and pianolas that catchy chorus which ran: + + Dans la tranchee... + La voila, la joli' tranche: + Tranchi, trancho, tranchons le Boche; + La voila, la joli' tranche aux Boches, + La voila, la joli' tranche! + +As she came off, a boy handed her a note which she tore open and, +glancing at it, placed her hand upon her chest as though to stay the +wild beating of her heart. + +"Say yes," was her brief reply to the lad, who a moment later +disappeared. + +She walked to her dressing-room and, flinging herself into the chair, +sat staring at herself in the glass, much to the wonder of the +grey-haired woman who dressed her. + +"I'm not at all well," she said to the woman at last. "Go and tell Mr +Farquhar that I can't go on again to-night. Miss Lambert must take my +place in the last scene." + +"Are you really ill, miss?" asked the woman eagerly. + +"Yes. I've felt unwell all day, and the heat to-night has upset me. If +I went on again I should faint on the stage. Go and tell Mr Farquhar +at once." + +The woman obeyed, whereupon Stella Steele commenced to divest herself +rapidly of the rich and daring gown. Her one desire was to get away +from the theatre as soon as possible. + +Mr Farquhar, the stage-manager, came to the door to express regret at +her illness, and within a few minutes Miss Lambert, the understudy, was +dressing to go on and fulfil her place in the final scene. + +Her car took her home to the pretty flat in Stamfordham Mansions, just +off Kensington High Street, where she lived alone with Mariette her +French maid, and there, in her dainty little drawing-room, she sat +silent, almost statuesque, for fully five minutes. + +"Is it possible?" she gasped. "Is it really possible that such a +dastardly plot is being carried out!" she murmured in agitation. + +Her little white hands clenched themselves, and her pretty mouth grew +hard. She was sweet and charming, without any stage affectations. Yet, +when she set herself to combat the evil designs of her enemy-father she +was not a person to be trifled with--as these records of her adventures +will certainly show. + +"I wonder if Seymour can have been misled?" she went on, rising from her +chair as she spoke aloud to herself. "And yet," she added, "he is +always so level-headed!" + +Mariette--a slim, dark-eyed girl--entered with a glass tube of +solidified eau-de-Cologne which she rubbed upon her mistress's brow, and +then Ella passed into her own room and quickly dismissed the girl for +the night. + +As soon as Mariette had gone she flung off her dress and took another +from her wardrobe, a rough brown tweed golfing-suit, and put on a +close-fitting cloth hat to match. Then, getting into a thick +blanket-coat, she pulled on her gloves and, taking up a small leather +blouse-case, went out, closing the door noiselessly after her. + +At nine o'clock on the following evening Ella Drost descended in the +lift from the second floor of the Victoria Hotel, in Sheffield, and, +wearing her blanket-coat, went to the station platform and bought a +ticket to Chesterfield--the town with the crooked spire. + +Half-an-hour later she walked out into the station yard where she found +her lover, the good-looking Flight-Commander, awaiting her in a big grey +car. He no longer wore uniform, but was in blue serge with a thick +brown overcoat. + +"By Jove, Ella!" he exclaimed in welcome, as he grasped her hand. "I'm +jolly glad you've come up here! There's a lot going on. You were +perfectly correct when you first hinted at it. I've been watching +patiently for the past month. Hop in; we've no time to lose." + +Next second, Ella was in the seat beside her lover, and the powerful car +moved off down the Arkwright Road, a high-road running due eastward, +till they joined another well-kept highway which, in the pale light, +showed wide and open with its many lines of telegraphs--the road to +Clowne. + +On through the falling darkness they travelled through Elmton and up the +hill to Bolsover, where they suddenly turned off to the left and, +passing down some dark, narrow lanes, with which Kennedy was evidently +familiar, they at last pulled up at the corner of a thick wood. + +"Now," he said, speaking almost for the first time, and in a low voice, +"we'll have to be very careful indeed." + +He had shut off his engine and switched off his lamps. + +"We ought to make quite certain to-night that we are not mistaken," she +said. + +"That is my intention," was her lover's reply, and then she flung off +her coat and crossed the stile, entering the wood after him. He had a +pocket flash-lamp, and ever and anon threw its rays directly upon the +ground so that they could see the path. The latter was an intricate +one, for twice they came to cross-paths, and in both cases Kennedy +selected one without hesitation. + +At last, however, they began to move down the hill more cautiously, +conversing in low whispers, and showing no light until they at last +found themselves in the grounds attached to a large, low-built country +house, lying in the valley. + +"Ortmann is living here as Mr Horton," Kennedy whispered. "They told +me in the village that he took the house furnished about three months +ago, from a Major Jackson, who is at the front." + +"But why is he living down here--in a house like this?" she asked. + +"That's just what we want to discover. Many Germans have country houses +in England for some mysterious and unknown reason." + +Kennedy, glancing at his luminous wrist-watch, noted that it was nearly +two o'clock in the morning. From where they stood at the edge of the +wood the house was plainly visible, silhouetted on the other side of a +wide lawn. + +No light showed in any of the windows, and to all appearances the +inmates were asleep. + +As the pair stood whispering, a big Airedale suddenly bounded forth, +barking angrily as a preliminary to attacking them. + +It was an exciting moment. But in that instant Ella recognised the bark +as that of her father's dog. + +"Jack!" she said, in a low voice of reproof. "Be quiet, and come here." + +In a moment the dog, which Drost had evidently lent to his friend +Ortmann as watch-dog, bounded towards his mistress and licked her hand. + +It was evident that the occupiers of the lonely place did not desire +intruders. + +Fearing lest the barking of "Jack" might have alarmed the inmates, they +remained silent for a full quarter-of-an-hour, and then again creeping +beneath the shadows of the hedges and trees, they managed to cross the +lawn and the gravelled path, until they stood together beneath the front +of the house. + +"Listen!" gasped Kennedy, grasping the girl's arm. "Do you hear +anything?" + +"Yes--a kind of muffled crackling noise." + +"That's a wireless spark!" her lover declared. "So they have wireless +here!" + +Creeping along, they passed the main entrance and gained the other side +of the house where, quite plainly, there could be heard the whir of a +dynamo supplying the current. + +But though Kennedy's keen eyes searched for aerial wires, he could +discover none in that dim light, the moon having now disappeared +entirely. So he concluded that they were so constructed that they could +be raised at night and lowered and concealed at daybreak, or perhaps +even disguised as a portion of wire fencing. + +"As the wireless is working--sending information to the enemy without a +doubt--then our friend Ortmann is most probably at home," whispered the +flying-man. "As the motor is still running it will drown any noise, and +we might get inside without being heard. Are you ready to risk it?" + +"With you, dear, I'll risk anything that may be for my country's +benefit," she declared. Then he pressed her soft hand in his, stooping +till his lips met hers. + +As they stood there in that single blissful moment, there came the sound +of a train suddenly emerging from a long tunnel in the side of the hill +in the near vicinity, and with the light of the furnace glaring in the +darkness it sped away eastward. Its sound showed it to be a goods +train--one of the many which, laden with munitions from the Midlands, +went nightly towards the coast on their way to the British front. + +Only then did they realise that the railway-line ran along the end of +the grounds, and that the mouth of the great G--Tunnel was only five +hundred yards or so from where they stood. Kennedy took from his pocket +a small jemmy in two pieces, which he screwed together, and then began +to examine each of the French windows which led on to the lawn. All +were closed, with their heavy wooden shutters secured. + +The shutters of one, however, though closed, had, he saw by the aid of +his flash-lamp, not been fastened. The dog, Jack, following his +mistress, was sniffing and assisting in the investigation. + +Examining the long window minutely, they saw that it had been closed +hurriedly and, hence, scarcely latched. The room, too, was in darkness. + +Suddenly, just as Kennedy was about to make an attempt to enter, the +electric light was switched on within the room, and the pair had only +time to slip round the corner of the house, when the French window +opened, and four men stepped forth upon the lawn, conversing in whispers +as they walked on tiptoe together across the gravel on to the grass. + +"I wonder what's up!" whispered Kennedy to Ella. "Let us follow and +see." + +This they did, keeping always in the dark shadows, and retracing their +footsteps to the edge of the wood close to where the railway ran. + +As they watched they saw that, having crossed the lawn, the four men +entered a meadow adjoining, and they then recognised the figures of +Drost and Ortmann with two strangers. They all walked straight to the +corner where stood an old cow-shed, and into this they all four +disappeared. + +For a full half-hour they remained there, Kennedy and his well-beloved +crouching beneath a bush in wonder at what there could be in the +cow-shed to detain them so long. + +The shed was at the base of a high wooded hill. Away, at some distance +on the left, the railway-line entered the great tunnel which pierced the +hill, and through it ran one of the most important railways from the +Midlands to the East Coast. + +The reason of their long absence in that tumbledown cow-shed was +certainly mysterious. The lovers strained their ears to listen, but no +sound reached them. + +"Very curious!" whispered Kennedy. "What, I wonder, should detain them +so long? There is some further mystery here, without a doubt. +Something of interest is in progress." + +Suddenly, all four men emerged from the shed laughing and chatting in +subdued tones. Drost was carrying his hat in his hand. + +They passed within ten yards of the lovers, and as they went by they +overheard Drost say in German: "To-morrow night at 11:30 a heavy +munition train will come through the tunnel. Then we shall see!" + +And at his words his three companions laughed merrily as they walked +back to the house. + +Kennedy and the popular revue artiste--the girl whose name was as a +household word, and whose songs were sung everywhere--crouched in +silence watching the men until they had disappeared through that long +French window opening on to the lawn. + +Then, when they were alone, Kennedy said in a low voice: + +"There's more going on here, Ella, than we at first anticipated--much +more! I wonder what secret that old shed contains--eh?" + +"Let's investigate!" the girl beside him suggested eagerly. + +Five minutes later they emerged from the shadow, and hurrying quickly +across the grass, entered the old tumbledown shed, whereupon Kennedy +switched on his electric torch, when there became revealed a wide hole +in the ground, which sloped away steeply in the darkness. + +"Hulloa! Why, here's a tunnel!" exclaimed Kennedy in surprise. +"They've been down there, evidently! I wonder where it leads to?" + +Then, as they both glanced around, they saw a thin, twisted electric +cable containing two wires which led from a cigar-box on the ground in a +corner away down into the tunnel. Kennedy lifted the lid of the box, +and within found an electric tapping-key with ebonite base and two small +dry cells for the supply of the current. + +"Now what can this mean, I wonder? Some devil's work here, without a +doubt!" he said. "Let us ascertain." + +Together the pair carefully descended into the narrow tunnel that had +been driven into the side of the hill, evidently by expert hands, for +its roof had been shored up along the whole length with trees cut from +the wood. Away along the narrow passage they groped, finding it so low +that they were compelled to bend and creep forward in uncomfortable +positions until they came to a sudden turn. + +Whoever had constructed it had also succeeded--as was afterwards found-- +in cleverly disguising the great heap of earth excavated. He had also +probably misread his bearings, for at one point the subterranean gallery +went away at right angles for about fifty yards, until there--where the +atmosphere was heavy and oppressive because of lack of ventilation-- +stood several petrol-tins. To one of them the end of the cable leading +from the unsuspicious cow-shed had been attached. + +As they stood staring at the petrol-tins a sudden roar slowly +approaching sounded directly overhead--a heavy rumble of wheels. Then +it died away again. + +"Hark!" gasped Ella. "Isn't that a train? Why, we are directly under +the railway-line running through the tunnel." + +"Yes, dear. A touch upon that key up in the shed and we should be blown +out of recognition, and the tunnel, one of the most important on the +line of railway communication running east and west across England, +would be blocked for months." + +"That is what those devils intend!" Ella declared. "How can we +frustrate them?" + +Seymour Kennedy reflected for a few seconds, holding his torch so that +its rays fell upon those innocent-looking petrol-tins at the end of the +cunningly contrived sap. Then he took up one of them and carrying it +said: + +"Let's get back, dear. We know the truth now." + +"It is evident that they intend to blow in the tunnel from below," +declared Ella, as they crept back along the narrow gallery. + +"Without a doubt," was her lover's reply. "Mr Horton, as he is known, +took the house with but one object--namely, to cut the railway-line to +the coast--the line over which so much war material for the front goes +nightly. Truly, the Hun leaves nothing to chance." + +"And my father is actually assisting in this dastardly work?" + +"I'm afraid he is, darling. But so long as we remain wary and watchful, +I hope we may be able to combat the evil activities of these assassins." + +"I'm ready to help you always, as you know," was the girl's ready reply. +"But it grieves me that father is so completely German in his actions." + +"It is but natural, Ella. He is a German. If he were English, and +lived secretly in Germany, he would act as an Englishman. All enemy +aliens should have been interned long ago." + +Ever and anon, on their way back to the opening, they both stumbled upon +the wire, while Seymour, carrying the petrol-tin, evidently filled with +some heavy explosive, followed his well-beloved, who held the torch. + +At last they emerged from the close atmosphere of the long, tortuous +gallery that had been secretly driven to a point exactly beneath the +railway-line in the very heart of the hill, and once again stood upright +in the shed. Their clothes were muddy, and their hands and faces were +besmeared with mud. + +At last Kennedy put down the square heavy tin, the cap of which he very +carefully unscrewed, and then examined it by aid of his torch, smelling +it critically. + +Taking from his pocket a strong clasp-knife he went back into the tunnel +again for about fifty yards. With a swift cut he severed the lead which +led away to the concealed tins of explosive, and bringing it back with +him to the shed, took the severed end, unravelled the silk insulation of +both wires, bared them by scraping them thoroughly with his knife, and +with expert hand attached them to a detonator which he had taken from +the tins concealed at the end of the gallery. + +Having done this he put the detonator into the opening of the petrol-tin +which, with its wire lead, he afterwards carefully concealed behind a +heap of straw in the corner. He had taken care to replace the cable +leading from the cigar-box exactly as he had found it, therefore, to the +eye, it looked as though nothing had been touched. The cable ran into +the underground passage, it was true, but it returned back again into +the cow-shed, and into the tin of high-explosive. + +Kennedy, who knew something of mining, had noticed that half-way along +the working a quantity of earth had been left for the purpose of tamping +the gallery, in order that the force of the explosion should go upward, +and not come back along the subterranean passage. Before the Kaiser's +secret agents exploded the mine they would, no doubt, fill up the +gallery at that point before completing the electric circuit. + +It was evident that on that night the four men had made a final +inspection before exploding the mine. + +Therefore, quite confident in what they had achieved, Ella and her lover +crept back, and away through the wood to where they had left the car. + +At six o'clock on the following morning, the Victoria Hotel in Sheffield +being always open, Ella entered alone, and ascended to her room. + +Next evening at half-past seven she met her lover again in the Ecclesall +Road, and he drove her out in the car away through Eckington and Clowne, +to the wood from which they had watched on the previous night. + +The weather was muggy and overcast, with low, heavy clouds precursory of +a thunderstorm. + +There was plenty of time. The attempt would probably be made at +half-past eleven when the munition train passed through, it being +intended to explode the whole train as well as the mine in the heart of +the tunnel, so as to produce a terrific upheaval by which the tunnel +would be blocked for, perhaps, a mile. + +Arrived at the edge of the wood, in sight of the lawn and house beyond, +soon after ten o'clock, the lovers sat together upon a fallen tree +conversing in whispers, and awaiting the result of the counterplot. + +They were, however, in ignorance of what was transpiring within the +house. + +Truth to tell, Ortmann and Drost were at that moment in one of the +servants' bedrooms upstairs, which had been cleared out, and where, upon +a long table, stood a complete wireless set both for receiving and +transmission. + +"That fellow Kennedy is _here_!--and with my girl Ella!" gasped old +Drost, who had just come into the room. "I've been across to the wood. +They're actually here!" + +"_Kennedy here_!" exclaimed Ortmann, his face pale in an instant. "How +could he possibly know?" + +"Well, he's here! What shall we do?" + +Ortmann stood for a few moments reflecting deeply. + +Slowly an evil, sinister grin overspread his countenance. + +"Your girl," he said in German, in a deep voice. "She is your daughter. +You wish to protect her--eh?" + +"No, she's English. We are Germans." + +"Excellent. I knew that you were a good Prussian. Then I may act--eh?" + +"Entirely as you wish. We must get rid of these watch-dogs," snarled +the old man in a venomous voice. + +Ortmann, without further word, descended the stairs and entered the +dining-room wherein sat two men, Germans, naturalised as British +subjects, by name Bohlen and Tragheim. + +To the first-named he gave certain and definite instructions, these +being at once carried out. + +Kennedy and Ella, both, of course, quite unconscious that their presence +had been discovered by the wily Drost, saw a tall man, a stranger, +carrying a thick stick, cross the lawn to the gate which gave entrance +to the wood, and watched how he remained there for about ten minutes, +while presently there emerged a second figure, who crossed to the +cow-shed wherein the electric tapping-key remained concealed. + +Kennedy glanced at his wrist-watch. + +The munition train was almost due to enter the tunnel, therefore the +stranger Tragheim, one of Ortmann's poor, miserable dupes, had been sent +forward to depress the key as soon as he heard the second bell ring in +the signal-box at the exit of the tunnel--all the signal bells being +distinctly heard in the night from the door of the shed. + +The ringing of that second bell would announce that the train was +passing over the exact point in the line under which the mine had been +laid. + +The man Bohlen, seeing his companion come out, moved away from the gate +across the lawn back to the house, whereupon Kennedy crept up to the +spot where the German had been standing, and whence they could obtain a +good view of the shed from which the dastardly attempt was to be made. + +Beside the gate they found a walking-stick--a thick one made of bamboo. + +"That fellow has forgotten his stick," remarked Kennedy, taking it up, +all unconscious of the peril. + +From one of the darkened windows of the house Ortmann was watching his +action, and chuckled. + +Of a sudden, however, a fierce blood-red flash lit up the whole +country-side, and with a deafening roar, the shed was hurled high into +the air, together with the shattered remains of the man who had pressed +the key. + +Instead of exploding the mine under the railway tunnel, as was intended, +he had exploded the tinful of picric acid derivative which Kennedy had +concealed beneath the straw! + +Then, a few seconds later, the heavy train laden with munitions for the +British front emerged from the tunnel in safety, its driver all +unconscious of the desperate attempt that had been made by the enemy in +our midst. + +Kennedy, having witnessed the consummation of his well-laid plan to blow +up any conspirator who touched the key, cast the walking-stick to the +ground and, taking Ella's arm, retraced his steps through the woods. + +But they had not gone far ere a second explosion, a sharp concussion +which they felt about them, came from somewhere behind them. + +"Funny!" he remarked to his well-beloved. "I wonder what that second +noise was, dearest?" + +"I wonder," said Ella, and they both hurried back to their car. + +CHAPTER THREE. + +THE HYDE PARK PLOT. + +Two men sat in a big, handsome dining-room in one of the finest houses +in Park Lane. One was Theodore Drost, dressed in his usual garb of a +Dutch pastor. A look of satisfaction overspread his features as he +raised his glass of choice Chateau Larose. + +Opposite him at the well-laid luncheon table sat his friend, Ernst +Ortmann, alias Horton, alias Harberton, the super-spy whose hand was--if +the truth be told--"The Hidden Hand" upon which the newspapers were ever +commenting--that secret and subtle influence of Germany in our midst in +war-time. + +Count Ernst von Ortmann was a very shrewd and elusive person. For a +number of years he had been a trusted official in the entourage of the +Kaiser, and having lived his early life in England, being educated at +Oxford, he was now entrusted with the delicate task of directing the +advance guard of the German army in this country. + +Two years before the war Mr Henry Harberton, a wealthy, middle-aged +English merchant from Buenos Ayres, had suddenly arisen in the social +firmament in the West End, had given smart dinners, and, as an eligible +bachelor, had been smiled upon by many mothers with marriageable +daughters. His luncheon-parties at the Savoy, the Ritz, and the Carlton +were usually chronicled in the newspapers; he was financially interested +in a popular revue at a certain West End theatre, and the rumour that he +was immensely wealthy was confirmed when he purchased a fine house +half-way up Park Lane--a house from which, quite unsuspected, radiated +the myriad ramifications of Germany's spy system. + +With Henry Harberton, whose father, it was said, had amassed a huge +fortune in Argentina in the early days, and which he had inherited, +money was of no account. The fine London mansion was sombre and +impressive in its decoration. There was nothing flamboyant or +out-of-place, nothing that jarred upon the senses: a quiet, calm, and +restful residence, the double windows of which shut out the sound of the +motor-'buses and taxis of that busy thoroughfare where dwelt London's +commercial princes. Surely that fine house was in strange contrast to +the obscure eight-roomed one in a long, drab terrace in Park Road, +Wandsworth Common, where dwelt the same mysterious person in very humble +and even economical circumstances as Mr Horton, a retired tradesman +from the New Cross Road. + +As Ortmann sat in that big dining-room in Park Lane, a plainly decorated +apartment with dead white walls in the Adams style, and a few choice +family portraits, his friend, Drost, with his strange triangular face, +his square forehead and pointed grey beard, presented a picture of the +true type of Dutch pastor, in his rather seedy clerical coat and his +round horn-rimmed spectacles. + +The pair had been discussing certain schemes to the detriment of the +English: schemes which, in the main, depended upon the crafty old +Drost's expert knowledge of high-explosives. + +"Ah! my dear Count!" exclaimed the wily old professor of chemistry in +German, as he replaced his glass upon the table. "How marvellously +clever is our Emperor! How he befooled and bamboozled these silly sheep +of English. Listen to this!" and from his pocket-book he drew a large +newspaper cutting--two columns of a London daily newspaper dated +Wednesday, October 28, 1908. + +"What is that?" inquired the Kaiser's arch-spy, his eyebrows narrowing. + +"The interview given by the Emperor to a British peer in order to throw +dust into the eyes of our enemies against whom we were rapidly +preparing. Listen to the Emperor's clever reassurances in order to gain +time." Then, readjusting his big round spectacles, he glanced down the +columns and read in English the following sentences that had fallen from +the Kaiser's lips: "You English are mad, mad, mad as English hares. +What has come over you that you are so completely given over to +suspicions unworthy of a great nation? What more can I do than I have +done? My heart is set upon peace, and it is one of my dearest wishes to +live on the best of terms with England. Have I ever been false to my +word? Falsehood and prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions +ought to speak for themselves, but you listen not to them, but to those +who misinterpret and distort them. This is a personal insult, which I +feel and resent!" + +Drost replaced the cutting upon the table, and both men burst into +hilarious laughter. + +"Really, in the light of present events, those printed words must cause +our dear friends, the English, considerable chagrin," declared Ortmann. + +"Yes. They now see how cleverly we have tricked them," said Drost with +a grin. "That interview gave us an increased six years for preparation. +Truly, our Emperor is great. He is invincible!" + +And both men raised their tall Bohemian glasses in honour of the +Arch-Murderer of Europe. + +That little incident at table was significant of the feelings and +intentions of the conspirators. + +"Your girl Ella is still very active, and that fellow Kennedy seems +ever-watchful," Ortmann remarked presently in a decidedly apprehensive +tone. "I know, of course, that your daughter would do nothing to harm +you personally; but remember that Kennedy is a British naval officer, +and that he might--from patriotic motives--well--" + +"Kill his prospective father-in-law--eh?" chimed in the Dutch pastor, +with a light laugh. + +The Count hesitated for a second. Then he said: + +"Well, perhaps not exactly kill you, but he might make things decidedly +unpleasant for us both, if he got hold of anything tangible." + +"Bah! Rest assured that he'll never get hold of anything," declared +Drost. "I've had him out to Barnes to dinner once or twice lately, but +he's quite in the dark." + +"Are you absolutely certain that he knows nothing of what is in progress +in your laboratory upstairs!" queried Ortmann. "Are you absolutely +certain that Ella has told him nothing?" + +"Quite--because she herself knows nothing." + +"If she knows nothing, then why are we both watched so closely by +Kennedy?" asked Ortmann dubiously. + +"Bah! Your fancy--mere fancy!" declared the professor of chemistry. "I +know you've been unduly suspicious for a long time, but I tell you that +Ella and her lover are far too much absorbed in their own affairs to +trouble about our business." Ortmann shrugged his shoulders. He did +not tell his friend Drost the true extent of his knowledge, for it was +one of his main principles never to confide serious truths to anybody. +By that principle he had risen in his Emperor's service to the high and +responsible position he now occupied--the director of The Hidden Hand. + +As such, he commanded the services of many persons of both sexes in the +United Kingdom. Some were persons who, having accepted German money or +German favours in the pre-war days, were now called upon to dance as +puppets of Germany while the Kaiser played the tune. Many of them, +subjects of neutral countries, had been perfectly friendly to us, but +since the war the relentless thumbscrew of blackmail had been placed +upon them by Ernst von Ortmann, and they were compelled to do his +bidding and act against the interests of Great Britain. + +Over the heads of most of them, men and women--especially the latter-- +the wily Ortmann and his well-organised staff held documentary evidence +of such a damning character that, if handed to the proper quarter, would +either have caused their arrest and punishment, or, in the case of the +fair sex, cause their social ostracism. Hence Ortmann held his often +unwilling agents together with an iron hand which was both unscrupulous +and drastic. Woe betide either man or woman who, having accepted +Germany's good-will and favours before the war, now dared to refuse to +do her dirty work. + +Truly, the Hidden Hand was that of the "mailed-fist" covered with +velvet, full of double cunning and irresistible influence in quite +unsuspected quarters. + +Old Theodore Drost was but a pawn in Germany's dastardly attack upon +England, but a very valuable one, from his intimate knowledge of +explosives. Moreover, as an inventor of death-dealing devices, he +certainly had no equal in Europe. + +In order to discuss in secret a daring and terrible plot, the pair had +lunched in company at Park Lane. + +At that same hour, on that same day, Flight-Commander Seymour Kennedy, +in his naval uniform with the "pilot's wings," was on leave from a +certain air-station on the South-East coast, and was seated opposite +Ella Drost in the Cafe Royal, in Regent Street, discussing a lobster +salad _tete-a-tete_. + +It was one of the favourite luncheon places of Drost's daughter. + +The revue in which she had been appearing and in which, by the way, +Ortmann was financially interested in secret, had finished its season, +and the theatre had closed its doors for the summer. Consequently Ella +had taken a tiny riverside cottage near Shepperton-on-Thames, though she +still kept open her pretty flat in Stamfordham Mansions, her faithful +French maid, Mariette, being in charge. + +"You seem worried, darling," Kennedy whispered, as he bent across the +table to her. "What's the matter?" + +"I've already told you." + +"But you really don't take it seriously, do you?" asked the well-known +air-pilot. "Surely it's only a mere suspicion." + +"It is fortunate that I succeeded in obtaining for you an impression of +the key of the laboratory," was the girl's reply. + +"Yes. It was. Your father never dreams that we know all that is in +progress there. It's a real good stunt of yours to keep in with him, +and stay at Barnes sometimes." + +"Well, I've told you what I ascertained the night before last. Ortmann +was there with the others. There's a big _coup_ intended--a dastardly +blow, as I have explained." + +And in the girl's eyes there showed a hard, serious expression, as she +drew a long breath. It was quite plain to her lover that she was full +of nervous apprehension, and that what she had related to him was a +fact. + +Another deeply-laid plot was afoot, but one so subtle and so daring that +Kennedy, with his cheerful optimism and his high spirits, could not yet +fully realise its nature. + +Ella had, an hour before, told him a very remarkable story. + +At first, so extraordinary and improbable had it sounded, that he had +been inclined to pooh-pooh the whole affair, but now, amid the clatter +and bustle of that cosmopolitan restaurant, the same to-day as in the +mid-Victorian days, he began to realise that the impression left upon +his well-beloved, by the knowledge she had obtained, had been a +distinctly sinister one. + +"Well, dearest," he said, again leaning across the little +_table-a-deux_, "I'll go into the matter at once if you wish it, and +we'll watch and wait." + +"Yes, do, Seymour," exclaimed the girl anxiously. "I'll help you. +There is a deeply-laid plot in progress. Of that I'm quite certain-- +more especially because Ortmann came to see dad yesterday morning and +went to see him again to-day." + +"You overheard some of their conversation--eh?" + +"I did," was her open response. "And for that reason I am so full of +fear." + +At nine o'clock that same night, in accordance with an appointment, Ella +Drost stood upon the whitewashed kerb in Belgrave Square, at the corner +of West Halkin Street. + +Darkness had already fallen. The London streets were gloomy because of +the lighting order, and hardly a light showed from any house in the +Square. + +For fully ten minutes she waited until, at last, from out of Belgrave +Place, a car came slowly along, and pulled up at the spot where she +stood. + +In a moment Ella had mounted beside her lover who, next second, moved +off in the direction of Knightsbridge. + +"It's rather fortunate that we've met here, darling," were his first +words. "Since we were together this afternoon I have been followed +continuously. Had I called at Stamfordham Mansions, Ortmann would have +had his suspicions confirmed. But I've successfully eluded them, and +here we are." + +"I know--I feel sure that Ortmann suspects us. Why does he live as Mr +Horton over at Wandsworth Common?" + +"Because he is so infernally clever," laughed the air-pilot, in his +cheery, nonchalant way. + +Neither of them knew, up to that moment, anything more of Mr Henry +Harberton, of Park Lane, save reading in the papers of his social +distinction. Neither Kennedy nor his charming well-beloved had dreamed +that Ortmann, alias Horton, patriotic Britannia-rule-the-Waves +Englishman, was identical with that meteoric planet in the social +firmament of London, Mr Henry Harberton, whose wealth was such that +even in war-time he could give two-guinea-a-head luncheons to his +friends at one or other of the half-dozen or so London restaurants which +cater for such clients. + +Seymour Kennedy was driving the car swiftly, but Ella, nestling beside +him, took no heed of the direction in which they were travelling. The +night-wind blew cold and he, solicitous of her welfare, bent over and +with his left hand drew up the collar of her Burberry. + +They were leaving London ere she became aware of it, travelling +westward, branching at Hounslow upon the old road to Bath, the road of +Dick Turpin's exploits in the good old days of cocked-hats, +powder-and-patches, and three-bottle men. + +Passing through Slough, they crossed the river at Maidenhead and again +at Henley, keeping on the ever ascending high-road over the Chilterns, +to Nettlebed, until they ran rapidly down past Gould's Grove through +Benson, and past Shillingford where, a short distance beyond, he pulled +up and, opening a gate, placed the car in a meadow grey with mist. + +Afterwards the pair, leaving the high-road, turned into a path which led +through the fields down to the river. Reaching it at a point not far +from Day's Lock, they halted. + +Before them, between the pathway and the river's brink, there showed a +lighted window obscured by a yellow holland blind, the window of a +corrugated iron bungalow of some river enthusiast, the room being +apparently lit by a paraffin lamp. + +Carefully, and treading upon tiptoe, they crept forward without a sound, +and, approaching the square, inartistic window, halted and strained +their ears to listen to the conversation in progress within. + +Words in German were being spoken. Ella listened, and recognised her +father's voice. Ortmann was speaking, too, while other voices of +strangers also sounded. + +What Seymour overheard through the thin wood-and-iron wall of the +riverside bungalow quickly convinced him that Ella's suspicions were +only too well founded. A desperate conspiracy to commit outrage was +certainly being formed--a plot as daring and as subtle as any ever +formed by the Nihilists in Russia, or the Mafia in Italy. + +The Germans, _par excellence_ the scientists of Europe, were out to win +the war by frightfulness, just as thousands of years ago the Chinese won +their wars by assuming horrible disguises and pulling ugly faces to +bring bad luck upon their superstitious enemies. The Great War Lord of +Germany, in order to save his throne and substantiate his title of +All-Highest, had set loose his sorry dogs of depravity, degeneracy, and +desolation. And he had planted in our island a clever and unscrupulous +crew, headed by Ortmann, whose mission was, if possible, to wreck the +Ship of State of Great Britain. + +The air-pilot listened to the conversation in amazement. He realised +then how Ella had exercised a shrewder watchfulness than he had ever +done, although he had believed himself so clever. + +Therefore, when she whispered, "Let's get away, dear, or we may be +discovered," he obeyed her, and crawled off over the strip of gravel to +the grass, after which both made their way back to the footpath. + +"Well?" asked the popular actress, as they strode along hand in hand to +where they had left the car. "What's your opinion now--eh? Haven't you +been convinced?" + +"Yes, darling. I can now see quite plainly that there is a plot on foot +which, if we are patriots, you and I, we must scotch, at all hazards." + +"I agree entirely, Seymour," was the girl's instant reply. "I tried to +warn you a month ago, but you were not convinced. To-day you are +convinced--are you not? I am acting only for my dear dead mother's +country, for, strictly speaking, being the daughter of a German, I am an +alien enemy." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +About two o'clock one morning, about a week later, the dark figure of a +man in a shabby serge suit and golf-cap, treading noiselessly in +rubber-shoes, crossed Hammersmith Bridge in the direction of Barnes and, +passing along that wide open thoroughfare, paused for a moment outside +the house of the Dutch pastor, Mr Drost. Then, finding himself +unobserved, he slipped into the front garden and, bending, concealed +himself in some bushes. + +He had waited there for ten minutes or so, watching the dark, silent +house, when, slowly and noiselessly, the front door opened, and next +moment Kennedy and Ella were face to face. The latter wore a pretty +pale-blue dressing-gown, for she had just risen from bed, she having +spent the last two days at her father's house. + +With a warning finger upon her lips, and with a small flash-lamp in her +hand, she led her lover up three flights of stairs to the door of that +locked room, which she silently opened with her duplicate key. + +"Father and the man Hans Rozelaar have been at work here nearly all +day," she whispered, when at last they halted before the long deal table +upon which stood Drost's chemical apparatus. + +Kennedy's shrewd eyes were quick to notice what was in progress in +secret. + +With some curiosity he took up a tube of tin about a foot long and four +inches in diameter. On examining it he saw that through the centre was +a second tin tube of about an inch in diameter. Holding it as a +telescope towards the light he could see through the inner tubes and +noticed that near one end of it a small steel catch was protruding. +Further and minute examination revealed that to the catch could be +attached a time-fuse already concealed between the inner and outer +tubes. + +"This is evidently some ingenious form of hand grenade," whispered +Kennedy. "It's all ready for filling. But why, I wonder, should a tube +run through the middle in this way?" + +He was pondering with it in his hand, when his gaze suddenly fell upon +something else which was lying close to the spot where he found the tin +tube. + +It was a thin ash walking-stick. On Kennedy taking it up it presented a +peculiar feature, for as he grasped it there sounded a sharp metallic +click. Then, to his surprise, he discovered that he had inadvertently +released a spring in the handle, this in turn releasing four small steel +points half-way down the stick. + +"Curious!" he whispered to his well-beloved, for Drost was sleeping +below entirely unconscious of the intruders in his secret laboratory. +"What connection can the stick have with the grenade--if not for the +purpose of throwing?" + +He therefore placed the inner tube over the little knob of the stick, +and found that it just fitted, so that with plenty of play it slid down +as far as the projecting points which, after striking the little steel +catch which would be connected with the fuse, allowed it to pass over +freely and leave the stick. + +"Ah! I've got it!" he whispered excitedly. "The grenade can be carried +in the pocket with perfect safety, until when required it is placed over +the handle of the stick and whirled off. As it passes the projections +on the stick the time-fuse is set for so many seconds, and the grenade +automatically becomes a live one. A very pretty contrivance indeed!-- +very pretty!" he added with a grin. "This, I must admit, does +considerable credit to Ortmann, Drost and Company." + +Ella, who had been standing by, holding the electric torch, stood in +wonder at the discovery. Truly, some of her father's inventions had +been diabolical ones. + +Kennedy saw that the ash-stick had been finished and was in working +order. All was complete, indeed, save the filling of the deadly +grenade, the attaching of the fuse, and the painting of the bright tin. + +For fully five minutes the air-pilot stood in silence, deeply pondering. + +Then, as a sudden idea occurred to him, he said quickly: + +"I must take this stick, Ella. I'll be back again by four o'clock, and +will leave it just outside the front door. You take it in, and replace +it exactly as we found it." + +He lost no time. In five minutes he had crept from that dark house of +mystery and death, and, carrying the stick, returned across Hammersmith +Bridge. + +At ten minutes to four he was back again in Barnes and had left the +suspicious-looking ash-stick against the front door, afterwards going to +his rooms to snatch a few hours' sleep. + +Next day happened to be Sunday, but at noon on Monday Mr Merton +Mansfield, one of the most active members of the Cabinet, as well as one +of the most popular of Cabinet Ministers, presided at the unveiling of a +number of captured German guns which had been drawn up in Hyde Park in +order that the public might be afforded an opportunity of seeing the +trophies of war in Flanders won by British pertinacity and pluck. + +Accompanying Merton Mansfield, the people's idol, the man in whom Great +Britain trusted to see that all was well, and who was, at the same time, +hated and feared by the Germans, were several other members of the +Cabinet. + +The crowd outside the wire fence, within which stood the shrouded guns, +was a large one, for some patriotic speeches were expected. Ella and +Kennedy were among the spectators eagerly watching the movements of a +thin-faced, well-dressed, middle-aged man, who wore an overcoat, in the +left-hand pocket of which was something rather bulky, and who carried in +his hand an ash-stick. + +The man's name was Hans Rozelaar, known to his friends by the English +name of Rose. By the fellow's movements it was plain that he was quite +unsuspicious of the presence of the daughter of his fellow-conspirator, +Theodore Drost. + +Gradually he had worked himself through the crowd until he stood in the +front row behind the wire which fenced off the guns with the Cabinet +Ministers and their friends, and within ten yards or so of where stood +Mr Merton Mansfield. + +Kennedy was beside Ella some distance away, watching breathlessly. It +had been his first impulse to go to Scotland Yard and reveal what they +had discovered, but after due consideration he saw that the best +punishment for the conspirators was the one he had devised. + +But if it failed? What if that most deadly grenade was exploded in the +group of Great Britain's leaders--the men who were working night and +day, and working with all their might and intelligence, to crush the Hun +effectively, even though so slowly. + +A roar of applause rose from the crowd as Merton Mansfield removed his +hat preparatory to speaking. The short, stout, round-faced Cabinet +Minister who, in the days of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Premiership, +had been so unpopular with the working-class, yet who had now come to +the forefront as the saviour of our dear old England, smiled with +pleasure at his hearty reception. + +The little group of England's greatest men, Cabinet Ministers and +well-known politicians, with a sprinkling of men in khaki, clustered +round him, as he commenced to address the assembly, to descant upon the +heroic efforts of "French's contemptible little Army," of their great +exploits, of their amazing achievements, and the staggering organisation +of Lord Kitchener. + +"Here, before you, you have some small souvenirs--some small idea of the +weapons which the unscrupulous fiends who are our enemies are using +against our gallant troops. They, unfortunately, are not gallant +soldiers, these Huns in modern clothing--they are pirates with the skull +and crossbones borne upon the helmets of their crack regiments. Yet we +shall win--I tell you that we shall win, be the time long or short, be +the sacrifice great or small--we shall win because Right, Truth, and +God's justice are with us! And I will here give you a message from the +Prime Minister--who would have been here, if it were not for the fact +that he is at this moment having audience of His Majesty the King." + +A great roar of applause greeted this announcement, when, suddenly, a +loud explosion sounded, startling everyone and causing women to scream. + +The lovers, who had kept their eyes upon the man in the overcoat, saw a +red flash, and saw him reel and fall to earth with his face blown away. + +They had seen how he had placed the grenade over his ash-stick, and how, +a second later, he had sharply slung it across from right to left, +intending the deadly bomb to land at Mr Merton Mansfield's feet. + +Instead, with its fuse set by the little points of steel protruding from +the stick, it had, nevertheless, failed to pass from the stick, because +of the small piece of thin wire which Seymour Kennedy had driven through +just above the ferrule, on that night when he had afterwards left the +stick at old Drost's front door. His quick intelligence had shown him +that the empty grenade had already been tried upon the stick, and that +when filled, and the fuse attached, it certainly would not be tested +again. + +Hans Rozelaar had slung the grenade just as old Theodore Drost had +instructed him, but it had remained fast at the end of the stick, and +ere he could release it, it had exploded, blowing both his hands off and +his features out of all recognition, though, very fortunately, injuring +no one else. + +"Come, darling. We have surely seen enough!" whispered Seymour Kennedy +softly to Ella, as they watched the great sensation caused by the +self-destruction of the conspirator, and the hurry of the police towards +the dead man. "The Ministers will very soon discover for themselves how +narrowly they have escaped." + +And as they both turned away, Ella, looking fondly into her lover's +face, remarked in a low voice: "Yes, indeed, Seymour. They certainly +owe their safety to you!" + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +THE EXPLOSIVE NEEDLE. + +"Then you suspect that another plot is in progress, Ella?" + +"I feel confident of it. The Count is furious at the failure of the +conspiracy against Mr Merton Mansfield. He came to see father last +night. I did not gather much, as I had to get away to the theatre, but +I overheard him suggest that some other method should be tried," replied +Ella Drost. + +She was sitting in the dainty little drawing-room of the flat in +Stamfordham Mansions, chatting with her airman lover. + +"Of course," he said. "Ortmann and your father were well aware that +Merton Mansfield is still the strongest man in the whole Government, a +marvellous organiser, and the really great man upon whom Britain has +pinned her faith." + +"They mean to work some evil upon him," the girl said apprehensively. +"I'm quite certain of it! Cannot we warn him?" + +"I did so. I wrote to him, urging him to take precautions, and +declaring that a plot was in progress," said Kennedy. "I suppose his +secretary had the letter and probably held it back in order not to +disturb him. Secretaries have a habit of doing that." + +Ella, whose cigarette he had just lit, blew a cloud of blue smoke from +her lips, and replied: + +"Well, if that's the case then it is exceedingly wrong. The greatest +care should be taken of those who are leading us to victory. Ah! +dearest," she added with a sigh, "you do not know how bitter I feel when +I reflect that my own father is a German and, moreover, a most deadly +enemy." + +"I know, darling, I know," the man responded. "That's the worst of it. +To expose the organiser of these conspirators would be to send your own +father to prison--perhaps to an ignominious end." + +"Yes. All we can do is to watch closely and thwart their devilish +designs, as far as we are able," the girl said. + +"Unfortunately, I'll have to go back to the air-station to-night, but +I'll try to come up again for the week-end." + +Disappointment overspread the girl's face, but a second later she +declared: + +"In that case I shall go and stay with father over at Barnes, and +endeavour to discover what is intended." + +Therefore, that night, after her work at the theatre, she went to +Theodore Drost's house at Barnes, instead of returning to the flat at +Kensington. As she always kept her room there and her visits seemed to +delight old Drost, she was always able to keep in touch with Kennedy and +so help to frustrate the evil machinations of her father. + +As the days passed she became more than ever confident that another +deep-laid plot was in progress. Nor was she mistaken, for, truth to +tell, Ortmann was having many long interviews with his clever catspaw, +the man who posed as the plain and pious pastor of the Dutch Church, old +Theodore Drost. + +An incident occurred about a week later which showed the trend of +events. The old pastor called one day at that modest, dreary little +house close by Wandsworth Common, where Count Ernst von Ortmann, the man +who secretly directed the agents of Germany in England, lived as plain +Mr Horton whenever he grew tired of his beautiful house in Park Lane. +Leading, by the fact of his occupation a dual existence, it was +necessary for his nefarious purposes that he should frequently disappear +into South London, away from the fashionable friends who knew him as Mr +Henry Harberton. + +The pair were seated together that evening, smoking and discussing the +cause of the failure of Rozelaar and the reason of his death by his own +bomb. + +"Ah! my dear Theodore," exclaimed the Count, in German, throwing himself +back in the old wicker armchair in that cheaply furnished room. "Your +machine was too elaborate." + +"No, you are mistaken, it was simplicity itself," Drost declared. + +"Could anybody have tampered with it, do you think?" + +"Certainly not. Nobody knew--nobody saw it except ourselves and +Rozelaar," Drost said. + +"And we very nearly blew ourselves up with it during the test. Do you +remember?" laughed Ortmann. + +"Remember! I rather think I do. It was, indeed, a narrow escape. We +won't repeat it. I'll be more careful, I promise you!" Drost assured +his paymaster. "Yet I cannot guess how Rozelaar lost his life." + +"Well, we need not trouble. His was not exactly a precious life, +Theodore, was it? The fellow knew a little too much, so, for us, it is +perhaps best that the accident should have happened." + +"It is not the first time that fatal accidents have happened to those +who, having served Germany, are of no further use," remarked Drost +grimly. + +And at his remark the crafty Count--the man who directed the German +octopus in Britain--smiled, but remained silent. + +Though Ella, still at Barnes, kept both eyes and ears open during the +day--compelled, of course, to go to the theatre each evening--yet she +could discover no solid fact which might lead her to find out what was +in progress. + +The Count came very often over to Barnes, and on two or three occasions +was accompanied by a fair-haired young man whose real name was +Schrieber, but who had changed it to Sommer, and declared himself to be +a Swiss. Indeed, he had forged papers just as old Drost possessed. The +fabrication of identification-papers--with photographs attached--became +quite an industry in Germany after war had broken out, while many +American passports were purchased from American "crooks" and fresh +photographs cleverly superimposed. + +One afternoon the young man Schrieber called, remained talking alone +with Drost for about ten minutes, and then left. Presently the old man +entered the drawing-room wherein his daughter was seated writing a +letter. In his hand he carried a china vase about fourteen inches high, +the dark-blue ornamentation being very similar to a "willow-pattern" +plate. It was shaped something like a Greek amphora, and quite of +ordinary quality. + +"Ella, dear," said her father, handing her the vase, "I wish you could +get one exactly like this. You'll be able to get it quite easily at one +of the big stores in the West End. A friend of mine has a pair, and has +broken one." + +"Certainly, dad," was the girl's reply. "I'm going out this afternoon, +and I'll take it with me." That afternoon Ella Drost went to several +shops until at last, at one in Oxford Street, she found the exact +replica. They were in pairs, and she was compelled to buy both. Later +on she took them to Barnes, but before doing so she called in at her own +flat and there left the superfluous vase. + +Old Drost seemed highly delighted at securing the exact replica of the +broken ornament. + +"Excellent!" he said. "Excellent! Really, my dear child, I thought +that you would have had to get it made. And making things in war-time +is such a very long process." + +"I had a little trouble, but I at last got a clue to where they had been +bought, and there, sure enough, they had one pair still in stock." + +"Excellent! Excellent!" he grunted, and he carried off both the pattern +vase and its companion to his little den where he usually did his +writing. + +That same evening, while the taxi was at the door to take Ella to the +theatre, the Count called. + +"Ah! Fraulein!" he cried, as he entered the dining-room where Ella +stood ready dressed in her smart coat and hat, as became one who had +been so successful in her profession and drew such a handsome salary, +much to the envy of her less fortunate fellow-artistes. "Why--you're +quite a stranger--always away at the theatre whenever I call. I took +some friends from the club to see you the night before last. That new +waltz-song of yours is really most delightful--so catchy," he added, +speaking in German. + +"Do you like it?" asked the bright, athletic girl who led such a strange +semi-Bohemian life, and was yet filled with constant suspicion +concerning her father. "At first I did not like singing it, because I +objected to some of the lines. But I see now that everyone seems +attracted by it." + +"No, Fraulein Ella!" exclaimed the Count, with his exquisite courtesy. +"The public are not attracted by the song, but by your own _chic_ and +charm." + +"Now, really, Count," exclaimed Ella, "this is too bad of you! If one +of my stall-admirers had said so I would forgive him. But, surely, you +know me too well to think that I care for flattery from you. I have +been too long on the stage, I assure you. To me applause is merely part +of the show. I expect it, and smile and bow when the house claps. It +does not fill me with the least personal pride, I assure you. When I +first went on the stage it certainly did. But to-day, after being all +these years before the public--" + +"All these years!" echoed Ortmann, interrupting her. "Why, you are not +much more than twenty now, Ella!" + +"And think, I've already been twelve years on the stage--a life hard +enough, I can tell you!" + +"Yes, I know," remarked the Count. "But you'll forget all about your +friend Commander Kennedy some day, I expect, and marry a wealthy man." + +Ella's eyebrows contracted for a few seconds. + +"Well--perhaps," she said. "But I may yet marry Mr Kennedy, you know!" + +Count Ernst Ortmann smiled--a hard evil expression upon his heavy lips. +He held Seymour Kennedy in distinct suspicion. + +Indeed, when Ella had gone and he was standing with old Drost in the +dining-room, he remarked: + +"I still entertain very grave suspicions regarding that fellow Kennedy. +Couldn't you keep Ella away from him? Could not we part them somehow? +While they are in love a distinct danger exists. He may learn something +at any moment. My information is that he is particularly shrewd at +investigations, and he may suspect. If so, then the game might very +easily be up." + +"Bah! Do not anticipate any such _contretemps_. He knows nothing--take +that from me. We have nothing whatever to fear in that direction," +Drost assured him. "If I thought so I should very soon take steps to +part them." + +"How would you accomplish that?" + +Theodore Drost's narrow face--broad at the brow and narrow at the chin-- +puckered in a smile. + +"It would not be at all difficult," he said, with a mysterious +expression. "I have something upstairs which would very soon effect our +purpose and leave no trace--if it were necessary." + +"But it _is_ necessary," the Count declared. + +"One day it may be," Drost said. "But not yet." + +"Your girl is in love with him, and I suppose you think it a pity to-- +well, to spoil their romance, even in face of all that Germany has at +stake!" remarked the Count, with an undisguised sneer. "Ah, my dear +Drost! you pose as a Dutch pastor, but do you not remember our German +motto: _Der beste prediger ist der Zeit_?" (Time is the best preacher.) + +"Yes, yes," replied the old man with the scraggy beard. "But please +rely upon my wits. My eyes are open, and I assure you there is nothing +whatever at present to fear." + +"Very well, Drost," Answered the Count. "I submit to your wider +knowledge. But now that the girl has gone, we may as well go upstairs-- +eh? You've, of course, seen in to-night's paper that Merton Mansfield +is to address the munition-makers in the Midlands in a fortnight's +time." + +Old Drost again smiled mysteriously, and said: + +"I knew that quite a fortnight ago. Schrieber has been north. He +returned only last Tuesday." + +"Did you send him north?" + +"I did. He went upon a mission. As you know, I am generally well ahead +with any plans I make." + +"Plans! What are they? Really, my dear Theodore, you are a perfect +marvel of clever inventiveness!" + +Ella's father shrugged his shoulders, and in his deep guttural German +replied: + +"I am only doing my duty as a good loyal son of our own Fatherland." + +"Well spoken," declared the Count. "There is a good and just reward +awaiting you after the war, never fear! Our Emperor does not forget +services rendered. Let us go upstairs--eh? I am anxious to learn what +you suggest." + +The pair ascended the stairs to the carefully locked room in the roof, +that long, well-equipped laboratory wherein Theodore Drost spent so many +hours daily experimenting in the latest discovered high-explosives. +After Drost had switched on the light he carefully closed the door, and +then, crossing to a long deal cupboard where hung several cotton +overalls to protect his clothes against the splash of acids, he took out +his military gas-masks--those hideous devices with rubber mouth-pieces +and mica eye-holes, as used by our men at the front. + +"It is always best to take precautions," Drost said, as he handed his +companion and taskmaster a helmet. "You may find it a little stifling +at first, but it is most necessary." + +Both put on the masks, after which Drost handed the Count a pair of +rubber gloves. These Ortmann put on, watching Drost, who did the same. + +"It is a good job, Count, that we are alone in the house, otherwise I +could do no work. The gas is heavy, and any escaping from here will +fall to the basement. One fourteen-thousandth part in air, and the +result must be fatal. There is no known antidote. Ah!" he laughed, +"these poor, too-confiding English little dream of our latter-day +discoveries--scientific discoveries by which we hold all the honours in +the game of war." + +"Very well," grunted the Count. "Let us hope that our science is better +than that of our enemies. But I confess that to-day I have doubts. +These British have made most wonderful strides--the most amazing +progress in their munitions and devices." + +While he spoke old Drost was, with expert hand, mixing certain +compounds, grey and bright-green crystals, which he pounded in a mortar. +Then, carefully weighing with his apothecary's scales several grammes +of a fine white powder, he added it and, while the Count, still wearing +his ugly mask, watched, mixed a measured quantity of water and placed +the whole into a big glass retort which was already in a holder warmed +by the pale-blue flame of a spirit-lamp. + +Suddenly Drost made a gesture to his companion, and while the liquid in +the retort was bubbling, he attached to the narrow end of the retort an +arrangement of bent glass tube, and proceeded to distil the liquid he +had produced. + +This product, which fell drop by drop into a long test-tube, was of a +bright-blue colour. Drop by drop fell that fatal liquid--fatal because +it gave off a poison-gas against which no human being could exist for +more than five seconds. + +"This," exclaimed Drost, his voice muffled by his mask, "is the most +fatal of any gas that chemical science has yet discovered. It does not +merely asphyxiate and leave bad symptoms afterwards, but it kills +outright in a few seconds. It is absolutely deadly." + +The room had by that time become filled by a curious orange-coloured +vapour--bright-orange--which to Ortmann's eyes was an extraordinary +phenomenon. Had he not worn the protective mask he would have been +instantly overwhelmed by an odour closely resembling that of cloves--a +terribly fatal perfume, which would sweep away men like moths passing +through the flame of a candle. + +"Well, my dear Drost," said the Count, "I know you will never rest until +you've devised a means of carrying out our plans for the downfall of +Merton Mansfield, and certainly you seem to have adopted some measure-- +deadly though it may be--which is quite in accord with your ingenuity." +He also spoke in a low, stifled voice from within his ugly mask. + +Drost nodded, and then into the marble mortar, in which he had mixed his +devilish compounds, he poured something from a long blue glass-stoppered +bottle, whereupon the place instantly became filled with volumes of grey +smoke which, when it cleared, left the atmosphere perfectly clear--so +clear, indeed, that both men removed their masks, sniffing, however, at +the faint odour of cloves still remaining. + +Afterwards the old chemist took from the cupboard a small cardboard box +which, on opening, contained, carefully packed in cotton wool, a short, +stout, but hollow needle. Attached to it at one end was a small steel +box about two inches broad and the same high. The box was perforated at +intervals. + +"This is the little contrivance of which I spoke," said Drost gleefully, +as he gazed upon it in admiration. "The explosive needle, when filled, +and this little chamber, also properly charged, cannot fail to act." + +"I take it, my dear friend, that it will be automatic--eh?" remarked the +Count, examining it with interest. + +Old Drost smiled, nodded, and replaced his precious contrivance in its +box, after which both men left the laboratory, Drost carefully locking +the door before descending the stairs to follow his companion. + +Both of them took a taxi to the fine house in Park Lane where Ortmann +assumed the _role_ of society man. At ten o'clock a visitor was ushered +in, and proved to be the young man whose real name was Schrieber. +Apparently he had just returned from a journey, and had come straight +from the station in order to make some secret report to Ortmann. + +When the three were closeted together the young German, who passed as a +Swiss, produced from his pocket three small photographs showing the +interior of a room taken from different angles, but always showing the +fireplace. + +"Excellent!" declared Drost, as he examined all three prints beneath the +strong light. "You have done splendidly." + +"Yes, all is in readiness. I have made friends with the maids, and when +I return I shall be welcomed. No breath of suspicion will be aroused. +We have now but to wait our time." + +And the three conspirators--men who were working so secretly, yet with +such dastardly intent in the enemy's cause--laughed as they helped +themselves to cigars from the big silver box. + +Nearly three weeks passed when, one day while Seymour Kennedy was +sitting in Ella's pretty little drawing-room, he accidentally noticed +the artistic blue-and-white vase, and remarking how unusual was the +shape, his beloved related how it had come into her possession. + +Kennedy reflected for a few seconds, his brows knit in deep thought. + +"Curious that your father desired to match a vase like this! With what +object, I wonder?" + +"He told me that he wanted it for a friend." + +"H'm! I wonder why his friend was so eager to match it?" was the +air-pilot's remark. "And, again, why did he send you to buy it, when +his friend could surely have done so?" + +Ella was silent. That question had never occurred to her. + +"I wonder if your father is making some fresh experiment? Have you been +to the laboratory lately?" he inquired. + +"No, dear." + +"A secret visit there might be worth while," he suggested. "Meanwhile, +the question of this vase excites my curiosity considerably. I can't +help thinking that Ortmann is at the bottom of some other vile trickery. +Their failure to kill Merton Mansfield has, no doubt, made them all the +more determined to deal an effective _coup_." + +Some five days later it was announced in the London papers that Mr +Merton Mansfield, the man in whom Great Britain placed her principal +trust in securing victory, would, on the following Thursday, address a +mass meeting of the munition workers in the great Midland town of G--. +The object of the meeting was to urge greater enthusiasm in the +prosecution of the war, and to induce the workers, in the national +cause, to forego their holidays and thus keep up the output of heavy +shells and high-explosives. + +Seymour Kennedy, who was in the mess at the time, read the paragraph, +and then sat pondering. + +Next day he induced his commanding officer to give him leave, and he was +soon in London making active inquiries. He found that Mr Merton +Mansfield had been compelled to decline the invitation of Lord +Heatherdale, and had arranged to stay the night at the Central Station +Hotel at G--, as he would have to return to London by the first train +next morning. + +Mr Merton Mansfield was an extremely busy man. No member of the +Cabinet held greater responsibility upon his shoulders, and certainly no +man held higher and stronger views of British patriotism. Any words +from his lips were listened to eagerly, and carefully weighed, not only +here, but in neutral countries also. Hence, at this great meeting he +was expected to reveal one or two matters of paramount interest, and +also make a further declaration of British policy. + +On the Tuesday night--two days before the meeting--Flight-Commander +Kennedy slept at the Central Hotel in G--and next morning returned to +London. + +Next night--or rather at early morning--Ella silently opened the front +door of her father's house at Barnes, and her lover slipped in +noiselessly, the pair afterwards ascending to the secret laboratory +which his well-beloved opened with her duplicate key. Without much +difficulty they opened the cupboard and examined the contents of the +small cardboard box--discovering the curious-looking needle attached to +the little perforated steel box. + +"This place smells of cloves--doesn't it?" whispered Seymour. + +"Yes, darling. I've smelt the same smell for some days. Father said he +had upset a bottle of oil of cloves." + +"This is certainly a most curious apparatus!" Kennedy whispered, +holding the needle in his hand. "See, this box is not a bomb. It is +perforated to allow some perfume--or, more likely, a poison-gas--to +escape. The needle is certainly an explosive one!" + +Further search revealed a small clockwork movement not much larger than +that of a good-sized watch, together with a small bag of bird's sand. + +Having made a thorough search, they replaced things exactly as they had +found them, and then Kennedy crept forth again into the broad +thoroughfare called Castelnau. + +"Those devils mean mischief again!" he muttered to himself as he hurried +across Hammersmith Bridge. "That explosive needle is, I can quite see, +a most diabolical invention. Drost surely has the inventive brains of +Satan himself!" + +At that same hour the young man Schrieber was seated with Ortmann in +Park Lane, listening to certain instructions, until at last he rose to +go. + +"And, remember--trust in nobody!" Ortmann urged. "If you perform this +service successfully, our Fatherland will owe you a very deep debt of +gratitude--one which I will personally see shall not be forgotten." + +At midday on Thursday Kennedy and Ella left St Pancras station for G--, +arriving there three hours later, and taking rooms at the Central Hotel. + +As soon as Ella entered hers, she was astonished to see upon the +mantelshelf a pair of the same blue-and-white vases as those her father +had asked her to match! + +When, ten minutes later, she rejoined Kennedy in the lounge, she told +him of her discovery. + +"Yes," was his reply. "They are the same in all the rooms--one of the +fads of the proprietor. But," he added, "you must not be seen here. We +don't know who is coming from London by the next train." + +For that reason Ella retired to her room and did not leave it for some +hours, not indeed till her lover came to tell her that all was clear. + +By that time Mr Merton Mansfield had arrived, eaten a frugal dinner, +and had gone to the meeting. + +"That young man Schrieber has arrived also," Kennedy told her. "He's +never seen me, so he suspects nothing. He has also gone to the meeting, +therefore we can go down and have something to eat." + +That night at eleven o'clock Mr Merton Mansfield returned, was cheered +loudly by a huge crowd gathered outside the hotel, and waited below +chatting for nearly half-an-hour before he retired to his room. + +The room was numbered 146--the best room of a suite on the first floor-- +and to this room the young German, the catspaw of Ortmann, had gone +about a quarter past eleven, gaining admission through the private +sitting-room next door. + +On entering he, quick as lightning, took down one of the vases from the +mantelshelf and replaced it by another exactly similar which he drew +from beneath the light coat thrown over his arm. Then, carrying the +vase with him concealed by his coat, he slipped quickly out again +unobserved, not, however, before he had poured into the other vase some +bird-sand so as to make them both of equal weight when the maid came to +dust them on the morrow. The conspirators left nothing to chance. + +In that innocent-looking vase he had brought was one of the most +diabolical contrivances ever invented by man's brain. To the explosive +needle the tiny clock had been attached and set to strike at half-past +two, an hour when the whole hotel would be wrapped in slumber. The +effect of striking would be to explode the needle and thus break a thin +glass tube of a certain liquid and set over a piece of sponge saturated +by a second liquid. The mixing of the two liquids would produce that +terribly deadly poison-gas which, escaping through the perforation, must +cause almost instant death to any person sleeping in the room. + +Truly, it was a most diabolical death-trap. + +Ten minutes later Mr Merton Mansfield, quite unsuspicious, entered the +room and retired to bed, an example followed by the assassin Schrieber, +who had a room on the same corridor a little distance away. + +At nine o'clock next morning Seymour Kennedy, bright and spruce in his +uniform, descended to the hall and inquired of the head-porter if Mr +Merton Mansfield had left. + +"Mr Mansfield is an early bird, sir. He went away to London by the +6:47 train." + +The air-pilot turned upon his heel with a sigh of relief. + +Two hours later, however, while seated in the lounge with Ella, prior to +returning to London, Kennedy noticed that there was much whispering +among the staff. Of the porter he inquired the reason. + +"Well, sir," the man replied, "it seems that a maid on the first floor, +on going into one of the rooms this morning, found a visitor dead in +bed--Mr Sommer, a Swiss gentleman who arrived last night. The place +smells strongly of cloves, and the poor girl has also been taken very +ill, for the fumes in the place nearly asphyxiated her." + +Seymour again returned to Ella and told her what had occurred. + +"But how did you manage it?" she asked in a low whisper. + +"Well, after watching Schrieber put the vase in the room, I entered +after him and replaced it by the vase you had bought, afterwards taking +the one with the explosive needle to Schrieber's room and carrying away +the superfluous one. The man must have glanced at the pair of vases on +his mantelshelf before sleeping, but he, of course, never dreamed that +he was gazing upon the infernal contrivance that he had placed in the +Minister's room with his own hand." + +"I see," exclaimed Ella. "And, surely, he richly deserved his fate!" + +The deadly contrivance was found when the room was searched, but the +police of G--still regard the affair as a complete and inexplicable +mystery. + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +THE BRASS TRIANGLE. + +A bank of dense fog hung over the Thames early on that December morning. +The bell of St Paul's Church, at Hammersmith, had struck two o'clock +when across the long suspension-bridge a tall man in a black waterproof +coat and black plush hat walked with a swing, smoking a cigarette, and +passed hurriedly out into the straight broad thoroughfare of Castelnau. + +For some distance he proceeded, then suddenly he slackened pace, glanced +at the luminous watch upon his wrist, and, a few moments later, halted +against some railings, and, looking across the road, waited patiently +opposite the house occupied by the pious Dutch pastor, the Reverend +Theodore Drost. + +The house was in darkness, and there was not a sound in the street save +the barking of a dog at the rear of a house in the vicinity. + +In patience, Flight-Commander Kennedy, for it was he, waited watchfully. +He remained for a full quarter of an hour, ever and anon glancing at +his watch, until, of a sudden, the front door opposite was opened +noiselessly, and he saw the gleam of a flash-lamp. + +In a moment he had crossed the road and, ascending the steps, met his +well-beloved. As he met her, he thought how strange it all seemed, what +a romance it was. Here was this charming girl, whom the world only knew +as a celebrated revue artiste, helping him to frustrate the criminal +plans of her German father. + +Ella, standing at the door, whispered: + +"Hush!" + +And without a word Seymour Kennedy, treading tiptoe, slipped within. + +The house was familiar to him. He grasped the soft white hand of his +well-beloved and, raising it to his lips, kissed it in homage. She was +wearing a dainty purple and yellow kimono, her little feet thrust into +red morocco Turkish slippers, which were noiseless, and, as she ascended +the thickly-carpeted stairs, he followed her without uttering a word. + +Up they went, to the top floor. The door which faced them at the head +of the stairs she unlocked with a key, and after they were both inside +she closed the door and then switched on the light. + +The big chemical laboratory, which her father had established in secret +in that long attic, presented the same scene as it had when he had +visited it before at the invitation of his well-beloved. With such +constant demands upon his inventive powers, it was necessary that the +Prussian ex-professor should have the place fitted up with all the +latest scientific appliances. + +"Well, Seymour!" the girl exclaimed at last. "Here you are! What do +you think of these?" And, crossing to a side table, she indicated two +well-worn attache-cases in brown leather, each about sixteen inches by +eight, and three inches deep. + +One of them she opened, revealing a curious mechanism within, part of +which was the movement of a cheap American clock. Her tall, +good-looking companion, who was a skilled mechanic, examined both these +innocent-looking little cases with keen interest, and then exclaimed: + +"Ah! I quite understand now! These are no doubt to be used in +conjunction with explosives. They run for half an hour only, and then +electrical contact is made into the explosive compound." + +"Exactly. See there, that row of tins of lubricating-oil. They are +already filled with the high-explosive and in readiness." + +Kennedy bent and then saw, ranged below a bench on the opposite side of +the laboratory, six tins of a certain well-known thick lubricating-oil +used by motorists. + +"There is sufficient there, dear, to blow up the whole of Barnes," she +declared. "Evidently this latest outrage is intended to be a serious +one." + +"Ah!" sighed Kennedy. "It is a thousand pities, Ella, that your father +is doing all this dastardly secret work for the enemy. Happily you, +though his daughter, are taking measures to thwart his plans." + +"I am doing only what is my duty, dear," replied the girl in the kimono; +"and with your aid I hope to upset this latest plot of Ortmann and his +friends." + +"Have you seen Ortmann lately?" her lover asked. + +"No. He has been away somewhere in Holland--conferring with the German +Secret Service, without a doubt. I heard father say yesterday, however, +that he had returned to Park Lane." + +"Returned, in order to distribute more German money, I suppose?" + +"Probably. He must have spent many hundreds of thousands of pounds in +the German cause both before the war and after it," replied the girl. + +The pair stood in the laboratory for some time examining some of the +apparatus which old Drost, now sleeping below, had during that day been +using for the manufacture of the explosive contained in those +innocent-looking oil-cans. + +Kennedy realised, by the delicacy of the apparatus, how well versed the +grey-haired old Prussian was in explosives, and on again examining the +attache-cases with their mechanical contents, saw the cleverness with +which the plot, whatever its object, had been conceived. + +What was intended? There was no doubt a conspiracy afoot to destroy +some public building, or perhaps an important bridge or railway +junction. + +This he pointed out to Ella, who, in reply, said: + +"Yes. I shall remain here and watch. I shall close up my flat, and +send my maid on a holiday, so as to have excuse to remain here at home." + +"Right-ho! darling. You can always get at me on the telephone. You +remain here and watch at this end, while I will keep an eye on Ortmann-- +at least, as far as my flying duties will allow me." + +Thus it was arranged, and the pair, treading noiselessly, closed the +door and, relocking it, crept softly down the stairs. In the dark hall +Seymour took his well-beloved in his strong arms and there held her, +kissing her passionately upon the brow. Then he whispered: + +"Good-night, my darling. Be careful that you are not detected +watching." + +A moment later he had slipped out of the door and was gone. + +Hardly had the door closed when Ella was startled by a movement on the +landing at the head of the stairs--a sound like a footstep. There was a +loose board there, and it had creaked! Some one was moving. + +"Who's there?" she asked in apprehension. + +There was no reply. + +"Some one is up there," she cried. "Who is it?" + +Yet again there was no response. + +In the house there was the old servant and her father. Much puzzled at +the noise, which she had heard quite distinctly, she crept back up the +dark stairs and, finding no one, softly entered her father's room, to +discover him asleep and breathing heavily. Then she ascended to the +servant's room, but old Mrs Pennington was asleep. + +When she regained her own cosy room, which was, as always, in readiness +for her, even though she now usually lived in the flat in Stamfordham +Mansions, over in Kensington, she stood before the long mirror and +realised how pale she was. + +That movement in the darkness had unnerved her. Some person had most +certainly trodden upon that loose board, which she and her lover had +been so careful to avoid. + +"I wonder!" she whispered to herself. "Can there have been somebody +watching us?" + +If that were so, then her father and the chief of spies, the man +Ortmann, would be on their guard. So, in order to satisfy herself, she +took her electric torch and made a complete examination of the house, +until she came to the small back sitting-room on the ground floor. +There she found the blind drawn up and the window open. + +The discovery startled her. The person, whoever it could have been, +must have slipped past her in the darkness and, descending the stairs, +escaped by the way that entrance had been gained. + +Was it a burglar? Was it some one desirous of knowing the secrets of +that upstairs laboratory? Or was it some person set to watch her +movements? + +She switched on the electric light, which revealed that the room was a +small one, with well-filled bookshelves and a roll-top writing-table set +against the open window. + +Upon the carpet something glistened, and, stooping, she picked it up. +It was a woman's curb chain-bracelet, the thin safety-chain of which was +broken. + +Could the intruder have been a woman? Had the bracelet fallen from her +wrist in her hurried flight? Or had it fallen from the pocket of a +burglar who had secured it with some booty from a house in the vicinity? + +Ella looked out into the small garden, but the intruder had vanished. +Therefore she closed the window, to find that the catch had been broken +by the mysterious visitor, and then returned again to her room, where +she once more examined the bracelet beneath the light. + +"It may give us some clue," she remarked to herself. "Yet it is of very +ordinary pattern, and bears no mark of identification." + +Next day, without telling her father of her midnight discovery, she met +Seymour Kennedy by appointment at the theatre, showed him what she had +found, and related the whole story. + +"Strange!" he exclaimed. "Extraordinary! It must have been a burglar!" + +"Or a woman?" + +"But why should a woman break into your house?" + +"In order to watch me. Perhaps Ortmann or my father may have +suspicions," replied the actress, arranging her hair before the big +mirror. + +"I hope not, Ella. They are both the most daring and the most +unscrupulous men in London." + +"And it is for us to outwit them in secret, dear," she replied, turning +to him with a smile of sweet affection. + +In the days that followed, the mystery of the intruder became further +increased by Ella making another discovery. In the garden, upon a +thorn-bush against the wall, Mrs Pennington found a large piece of +cream silk which had apparently formed part of the sleeve of a woman's +blouse. She brought it to Ella, saying: + +"I've found this in the garden, miss. It looks as if some lady got +entangled in the bush, and left part of 'er blouse behind--don't it? I +wonder who's been in our garden?" + +Ella took it and, expressing little surprise, suggested that it might +have been blown into the bush by the wind. + +It, however, at once confirmed her suspicion that the midnight visitor +had been a woman. + +While Ella sang and danced nightly at the theatre, and afterwards drove +home to Castelnau, to that house where upstairs was stored all that +high-explosive, Seymour Kennedy maintained a watchful vigilance upon +Ernst von Ortmann, the chief of enemy spies, and kept that unceasing +watch over him, not only at the house at Wandsworth, but also at the +magnificent mansion in Park Lane. + +To von Ortmann's frequent dinner-parties in the West End came the crafty +and grave-faced old Drost, who there met other men of mysterious +antecedents, adventurers who posed as Swiss, American, or Dutch, for +that house was the headquarters of enemy activity in Great Britain, and +from it extended many extraordinary and unexpected ramifications. + +That some great and desperate outrage was intended in the near future +Kennedy was confident, as all the apparatus was ready. But of Drost's +intentions he could discover nothing, neither could Ella. + +One cold night, while loitering in the darkness beside the railings of +the Park, Kennedy saw Ortmann emerge from the big portico of his house +and walk to Hyde Park Corner, where he hailed a taxi and drove down +Grosvenor Gardens. Within a few moments Kennedy was in another taxi +closely following. + +They crossed Westminster Bridge and turned to the right, in the +direction of Vauxhall. Then, on arriving at Clapham Junction station, +Kennedy, discerning Ortmann's destination to be the house in Park Road, +Wandsworth Common, where at times he lived as the humble Mr Horton, the +retired tradesman, he dismissed his taxi and walked the remainder of the +distance. + +When he arrived before the house, he saw a light in Horton's room, and +hardly had he halted opposite ere the figure of a man in a black +overcoat and soft felt hat came along and ascended the steps to the +door. + +It was the so-called Dutch pastor, Theodore Drost. + +The latter had not been admitted more than five minutes when another +visitor, a short, thick-set bearded man, having the appearance of a +workman, probably an engineer, passed by, hesitated, looked at the house +inquiringly, and then went up the steps and rang the bell. + +He also quickly gained admission, and therefore it seemed plain that a +conference was being held there that night. + +The bearded man was a complete stranger, hence Kennedy resolved to +follow him when he reappeared, and try to establish his identity. Being +known to Drost and Ortmann, it was always both difficult and dangerous +for him to follow either too closely. But with a stranger it was +different. + +Before twenty-four hours had passed, the Flight-Commander had +ascertained a number of interesting facts. The bearded man was known as +Arthur Cole, and was an electrician employed at one of the County +Council power-stations. He lived in Tenison Street, close to Waterloo +Station, and was a widower. + +Next day, on making further inquiry of shops in the vicinity, a woman +who kept a newspaper-shop exclaimed: + +"I may be mistaken, sir, but I don't believe much in that there Mr +Cole." + +"Why?" asked Kennedy quickly. + +"Well, 'e's lived 'ere some years, you know, and before the war I used +to order for 'im a German newspaper--the Berliner-Something." + +"The _Berliner-Tageblatt_ it was, I expect." + +"Yes. That's the paper, sir," said the woman. "'E used to be very fond +of it, till I couldn't get it any more." + +"Then he may be German?" + +The woman bent over the narrow counter of her small establishment and +whispered: + +"I'm quite certain 'e is, sir." + +That night Seymour saw his well-beloved in the theatre between the acts, +and told her the result of his inquiries. Then he returned to his vigil +and watched the dingy house in Tenison Street, one of those drab London +streets in which the sun never seems to shine. + +For three nights Kennedy remained upon constant vigil. On the fourth +night, just as Ella was throwing off her stage dress at the conclusion +of the show, she received a telegram which said: "Gone north. Return +soon. Wait." + +It was unsigned, but she knew its sender. + +Four days she waited in eager expectation of receiving news. On the +fifth night, just before she left for the theatre, Ortmann arrived to +visit her father. She greeted him merrily, but quickly escaped from +that detestable atmosphere of conspiracy, at the same time remembering +that mysterious female intruder. + +Who could she have been? + +In the meantime Seymour Kennedy, who had obtained a few days' leave, had +been living at the Central Hotel in that busy Lancashire town which must +here be known as G--. To that town he had followed the man Cole and had +constantly watched his movements. Cole had taken up his quarters at a +modest temperance hotel quite close to the Central, which was the big +railway terminus, and had been daily active, and had made several +journeys to places in the immediate manufacturing outskirts of G--. + +At last he packed his modest Gladstone bag and returned to London, +Kennedy, in an old tweed suit, travelling by the same train. + +On their arrival Kennedy took a taxi direct from Euston to the theatre. + +When Ella had sent her dresser out of the room upon an errand, he +hurriedly related what had occurred. + +The man Cole had, he explained, met in G--a thin-faced, dark-haired +young woman, apparently of his own social standing, a young woman of the +working-class, who wore a brass war-badge in the shape of a triangle. +The pair had been in each other's company constantly, and had been twice +out to a manufacturing centre about six miles away, a place known as +Rivertown. + +Briefly he related what he had observed and what he had discovered. +Then he went out while she dressed, eventually driving with her to a +snug little restaurant off Oxford Street, where they supped together. + +"Do you know, Ella," he asked in a low voice, as they sat in a corner, +"now that we've established the fact that the man Cole has visited your +father, and also that he is undoubtedly implicated in the forthcoming +plot, can it be that this young woman whom he met in G--is the same who +entered your father's house on the night of my visit there?" + +"I wonder!" she exclaimed. "Why should she go there?" + +"Out of curiosity, perhaps. Who knows? She's evidently on friendly +terms with this electrician. Cole, who, if my information is correct, +is no Englishman at all--but a German!" + +Ella reflected deeply. Then she answered: + +"Perhaps both the man and woman came there for the purpose either of +robbery--or--" + +"No. They were probably suspicious of your father's manner, and came to +examine the house." + +"But if they did not trust my father surely they would not be in active +association with him, as you say they are," the girl argued. + +"True. But they might, nevertheless, have had their curiosity aroused." + +"And by so doing they may have seen us," she declared apprehensively. +"I hope not." + +"And even if they did, they surely would not recognise us again," he +exclaimed. "But," he added, "no time must be lost. You must take +another brief holiday from the theatre, and see what we can do." + +"Very well," was the dancer's reply. "I'll see Mr Pettigrew to-morrow, +and get a rest. It will give my understudy a chance." + +Over a fortnight went by. + +It was half-past five o'clock on a cold January evening when a trainful +of merry-faced girl munition workers stood at the Central Station at G-- +ready to start out to Rivertown to work on the night shift in those huge +roaring factories where the big shells were being made. + +Each girl wore a serviceable raincoat and close-fitting little hat, each +carried a small leather attache-case with her comb, mirror, and other +little feminine toilet requisites, and each wore upon her blouse the +brass triangle which denoted that she was a worker on munitions. + +Peering out from the window of one of those dingy third-class +compartments was a young girl in a rather faded felt hat and a cheap +navy-blue coat, while upon the platform, apparently taking notice of +nobody, stood a tallish young man in a brown overcoat. The +munition-girl was Ella Drost, and the man her lover, Seymour Kennedy. + +As the train at last moved out across the long bridge over the river, +the pair exchanged glances, and then Ella, with her brass triangle on +her blouse, sat back in the crowded carriage in thought, her little +attache-case upon her knees, listening to the merry chat of her +fellow-workers. + +Arrived at the station, she followed the crowd of workers to the huge +newly-erected factory close by, a great hive of industry where, through +night and day, Sunday and weekday, over eight thousand women made big +shells for the guns at the front. + +At the entrance-gate each girl passed singly beneath the keen eyes of +door-keepers and detectives, for no intruder was allowed within, it +being as difficult for strangers to gain admission there as to enter the +presence of the Prime Minister at Downing Street. + +The shifts were changing, and the day-workers were going off. Hence +there was considerable bustle, and many of those lathes drilling and +turning the great steel projectiles were, for the moment, still. + +Presently the night-workers began to troop in, each in her pale-brown +overall with a Dutch cap, around the edge of which was either a red or +blue band denoting the status of the worker, while the forewomen were +distinctive in their dark-blue overalls. + +Some of the girls had exchanged their skirts for brown linen trousers. +Those were the girls working the travelling cranes which, moving up and +down the whole length of the factory, carried the shells from one lathe +to another as they passed through the many processes between drilling +and varnishing. Ella was among these latter, and certainly nobody who +met her in her Dutch cap with its blue band, her linen overall jacket +with its waistband, and her trousers, stained in places with oil, would +have ever recognised her as the star of London revue. + +Lithely she mounted the straight steep iron ladder up to her lofty perch +on the crane, and, seating herself, she touched the switch and began to +move along the elevated rails over the heads of the busy workers below. + +The transfer of a shell from one lathe to another was accomplished with +marvellous ease and swiftness. A girl below her lifted her hand as +signal, whereupon Ella advanced over her, and let down a huge pair of +steel grips which the lathe-worker placed upon the shell, at the same +time releasing it from the lathe. Again she raised her hand, and the +shell was lifted a few yards above her head and lowered to the next +machine, where the worker there placed it in position, and then released +it to undergo its next phase of manufacture. + +Such was Ella's work. In the fortnight she had been there she had +become quite expert in the transfer of the huge shells, and, further, +she had become much interested in her new life and its unusual +surroundings In that great place the motive force of all was +electricity. All those whirring lathes, drills, hammers, saws, cutting +and polishing machines, cranes, everything in that factory, as well as +the two other great factories in the near vicinity, were driven from the +great electrical power-station close by. + +Now and then, as the night hours passed, though within all was bright +and busy as day, Ella would give a glance at the woman working the crane +opposite hers, a thin-faced, dark-haired young woman, who was none other +than the mysterious friend of the man Cole, and whom she held in great +suspicion. + +While Ella worked within the factory in order to keep a watchful eye, +Seymour Kennedy watched with equal shrewdness outside. + +The days went past, but nothing suspicious occurred until one night +Cole, who was again living at the temperance hotel, joined the +munition-workers' train, being followed by Ella, who found that he had +been engaged as an electrician in the power-house. + +Next day he met the thin-faced young woman, who was known to her +fellow-workers as Kate Dexter, and they spent several hours together, at +lunch and afterwards at a picture-house. But, friends as they were, +when they left the Central Station they took care never to travel in the +same carriage. So, to their fellow-workers, they were strangers. + +One afternoon, at half-past two, Kennedy, who was at the Central Hotel, +called at Ella's lodgings and explained how he had seen her father +walking in the street with Cole. + +"I afterwards followed them," he added, "and eventually found that your +father is at the Grand Hotel." + +"Then mischief is certainly intended," declared the girl, her cheeks +turning pale. + +"No doubt. They mean to execute the plot without any further delay. +That's my opinion. It will require all our watchfulness and resource if +we are to be successful." + +"Why not warn the police?" suggested the girl. + +"And, by doing so, you would most certainly send your father to a long +term of penal servitude," was her lover's reply. "No. We must prevent +it, and for your own sake allow your father a loophole for escape, +though he certainly deserves none." + +Ella had once travelled in the same train as the woman Dexter, but the +latter had not recognised her; nevertheless, from inquiries Kennedy had +made in London, it seemed that a month before the woman had been living +in London, and was a close friend of Cole's. She had only recently gone +north to work on munitions, and had, like Ella, been instructed in the +working of the electrical cranes. + +For three days Theodore Drost remained at the Grand Hotel, where he had +several interviews with the electrician Cole, and while Ella kept out of +the way by day and went to the works at night, her lover very cleverly +managed to maintain a strict watch. + +More than once Ella had contrived to pass the door of the great +power-station with its humming dynamos which gave movement to that huge +mass of machinery in the three factories turning out munitions, and had +seen the man Cole in his blue dungarees busily oiling the machinery. + +Once she had watched him using thick machine-oil from cans exactly +similar to those she had seen stored beneath the table in her father's +laboratory. + +Night after night Ella, working there aloft in her crane, waited and +wondered. Indeed, she never knew from hour to hour whether the +carefully laid plans of the conspirators might not result in some +disastrous explosion, in which she herself might be a victim. + +But Kennedy reassured her that he was keeping an ever-watchful vigil, +and she trusted him implicitly. As a matter of fact, one of the London +detectives watching the place was a friend of his, and, without telling +him the exact object of his visit, he was able to gain entrance to the +works. + +Naturally the detective became curious, but Kennedy, who usually wore an +old tweed suit and a seedy cap, promised to reveal all to him +afterwards. + +About half-past one, on a wet morning, Ella had just stopped her crane +when, at the entrance end of the building, she caught a glimpse of some +one beckoning to her. It was her well-beloved. In a few moments she +had clambered down, and, hurrying through the factory, joined him +outside. + +"Did you travel with that woman Dexter to-night?" he inquired eagerly in +a low whisper as they stood in the darkness. + +"Yes." + +"Did she carry her attache-case?" + +"Yes. She always does." + +"She did not have it when she went home yesterday morning, for she left +it here--the case which your father prepared," he said. "She brought +the second of the cases with her to-night." + +"Then both are here!" exclaimed Ella in excitement. + +"Both are now in the power-house. I saw her hand over the second one to +Cole only a quarter of an hour ago. Let us watch." + +Then the pair crept on beneath the dark shadows through the rain to the +great square building of red-brick which, constructed six months before, +contained some of the finest and most up-to-date electrical plant in all +the world. + +At last they gained the door, which stood slightly ajar. The other +mechanics were all away in the canteen having their early morning meal, +and the man Cole, outwardly an honest-looking workman, remained there in +charge. + +Together they watched the man's movements. + +Presently he came to the door, opened it, and looked eagerly out. In +the meantime, however, Kennedy and his companion had slipped round the +corner, and were therefore out of view. Then, returning within, Cole +went to a cupboard, and as they watched from their previous point of +vantage they saw him unlock it, displaying the two little leather +attache-cases within. + +Close to the huge main dynamo in the centre of the building there stood +on the concrete floor six cans of lubricating-oil which, it was proved +afterwards, were usually kept at that spot, and therefore were in no way +conspicuous. + +Swiftly the man Cole drew a coil of fine wire from the cupboard, the +ends being joined to the two attache-cases--so that if the mechanism of +one failed, the other would act--and with quick, nimble fingers he +joined the wire to that already attached to the six inoffensive-looking +cans of "oil." + +The preparations did not occupy more than a minute. Then, seizing a can +of petrol, he placed it beside the cans of high-explosive, in order to +add fire to the explosion. + +Afterwards, with a final look at the wires, and putting his head into +the cupboard, where he listened to make certain that the clockwork +mechanism was in motion, he glanced at the big clock above. Then, in +fear lest he should be caught there, he ran wildly out into the darkness +ere they were aware of his intention. + +"Quick!" shouted Kennedy. "Rush and break those wires, Ella! I'll +watch him!" + +Without a second's hesitation, the girl dashed into the power-house and +frantically tore the wires from the cupboard and from the fastenings to +the deadly attache-cases, and--as it was afterwards proved--only just in +time to save herself, the building, and its mass of machinery from total +destruction. + +Meanwhile, Kennedy had overtaken the man Cole, and closed desperately +with him, both of them rolling into the mud. + +Just as Ella was running towards them a pistol-shot rang out. + +The fellow had drawn a revolver and in desperation had tried to shoot +his captor, but instead, in Kennedy's strong grip, his hand was turned +towards himself, and the bullet had struck his own face, entering his +brain. + +In a few seconds the man Cole lay there dead. + +Was it any wonder that the Press made no mention of the affair? + +CHAPTER SIX. + +THE SILENT DEATH. + +In the yellow sunshine of a bright and cloudless autumn afternoon, Ella +Drost descended from her motor-cycle at a remote spot where four roads +crossed at a place called Pittsgate, about a mile and a half out from +Goudhurst, in Kent, having travelled from London by way of Tunbridge +Wells. + +In leather cap, leggings, mackintosh, and leather belt she presented a +charming type of the healthy English sports-girl. Indeed, in that very +garb one could buy picture postcards of her all over the kingdom, those +who purchased them little dreaming that Stella Steele, who had for so +many nights been applauded by the khaki crowds in the theatre, where she +merrily danced in the revue "Half a Moment!" was the daughter of old +Theodore Drost, the sworn enemy of Great Britain, the man who had for so +long succeeded in misleading the alien authorities into the belief that +he was a pious pastor of the Dutch Church. + +Certainly the man who posed as an ex-missionary from Sumatra, and who +wore the shabby, broad-brimmed clerical hat and horn-rimmed glasses, had +never once been suspected of treasonable acts, save by his daughter Ella +and Seymour Kennedy. + +It was to meet Kennedy that Ella had motored down from London that day. +The roads were rather bad, and both machine and rider were splashed with +mud. Yet for that she cared nothing. Her mind was too full of the +investigations upon which they were engaged. + +She took out a large scale map, unfolded it, and studied it carefully, +apparently tracing a route with her finger. Then glancing at her +wristlet-watch, she looked eagerly down the long, straight road upon her +left--the road which led up from Eastbourne, through Mayfield and +Wadhurst. + +Nobody was in sight, therefore she consoled herself with a cigarette +which she took from her case, and again studied her map until, at last, +she suddenly heard the pop-pop-pop of a motor-cycle approaching and saw +Seymour, his body bent over the handles, coming up the hill at a +rattling pace. + +In a few minutes he had pulled up, and, taking her in his arms, kissed +her fondly, expressing regret if he were late. + +"Eastbourne is further off than I expected, darling," he added. "Well?" +he asked eagerly. + +"Nothing particular has happened since we parted on Thursday," replied +the girl. "Father has been several times to see Mr Horton in +Wandsworth, and last night dined with Mr Harberton in Park Lane." + +"Ah! What would the public think if they knew that Count Ernst von +Ortmann, who pulls the fingers of the Hidden Hand in our midst, Henry +Harberton of Park Lane, and Mr Horton of Wandsworth, were one and the +same person, eh?" exclaimed the man, who, though not in uniform, +revealed his profession by his bearing. + +"One day it will be known, dear," said the girl. "And then there will +be an end to my father. The Count will believe that my father has +betrayed him." + +"Why do you anticipate that?" + +"Because only the night before last, when Ortmann called, I overheard +him remark to my father that he was the only person who knew his secret, +and warning him against any indiscretion, and of the fate which Germany +would most certainly meet out to him if any _contretemps_ occurred." + +"Yes," remarked the air-pilot reflectively. "I suppose that if the +authorities really did arrest the inoffensive and popular Mr Harberton, +the latter would, no doubt, revenge himself most bitterly upon your +father." + +"Of that I'm perfectly certain, dear. Often I am tempted to relinquish +my efforts to combat the evil they try to work against England, and yet +the English are my own people--and also yours." + +"You're a thorough brick, Ella. There's not a girl in all the kingdom +who has run greater risks than your dear self, or been more devoted to +the British cause. Why, a dozen times you've walked fearlessly into +danger, when you might have been blown to atoms by their infernal +bombs." + +"No, no," she laughed. "Don't discuss it here. I've only done what any +other girl in my place would have done. Come," she added. "Let's get +on and carry out the plan we arranged." + +"Right-ho!" he replied. "That's the road," he added, pointing straight +before him. "According to the map, there's a wood a little way up, +where the road forks. We take the left road, skirt another wood past a +farm called Danemore, then over a brook, and it's the first house we +come to on the right--with another wood close behind it." + +"Very well," answered the girl. "You'll have a breakdown close to the +house--eh?" + +"That's the arrangement," he laughed, and next minute he was running +beside his machine, and was soon away, followed by his mud-bespattered +well-beloved. + +Off they both sped, first down a steep slope, and then gradually +mounting through a thick wood where the brown leaves were floating down +upon the chilly wind. They passed the farm Kennedy had indicated, +crossed the brook by a bumpy, moss-grown bridge, and suddenly the man +threw up his hand as a signal that he was pulling-up, and, slowing down, +alighted, while his engine gave forth a report like a pistol-shot. + +Ella, too, dismounted, and saw they were before a good-sized, well-kept +farmhouse, which stood a short distance back from the road, surrounded +by long red-brick outbuildings. + +The report had brought out an old farm-hand--a white-bearded old fellow, +who was scanning them inquisitively. + +Both Ella and her lover were engaged in intently examining the latter's +machine, looking very grave, and exchanging exclamations of despair. +Kennedy opened a bag of tools and, with a cigarette in his mouth, +commenced an imaginary repair, with one eye upon the adjacent house. +This lasted for about a quarter-of-an-hour. In the meantime a woman, +evidently the farmer's wife, had come out to view the strangers, and had +returned indoors. + +"I think it's now about time we might go in," the air-pilot whispered to +his companion, whereupon both of them entered the gate and passed up the +rutty drive to the house. + +"I wonder if you could lend me a heavy hammer?" asked the motor-cyclist +in distress of the pleasant, middle-aged woman who opened the door. + +"Why, certainly, sir. Would the coal-hammer do?" she asked. + +"Fine!" was the man's reply. "I'm so sorry to trouble you, but I've +broken down, and I'm on my way to London." + +"I'm very sorry, sir," exclaimed the woman, who fetched a heavy hammer +from her kitchen. "Would the young lady care to come in and wait?" + +"Oh, thanks. It's awfully good of you," said Ella. "The fact is I am a +little fagged, and if I may sit down I shall be so grateful." + +"Certainly, miss. Just come in both of you for a moment," and she led +the way into a homely well-furnished room with a great open hearth where +big logs were burning with a pleasant smell of smouldering beech. + +"What a comfortable room you have here!" Kennedy remarked, looking at +the thick Turkey carpet upon the floor, and the carved writing-table in +the window. + +"Yes, sir. This is a model dairy-farm. It belongs to Mr +Anderson-James, who lives in Tunbridge Wells, and who comes here for +week-ends sometimes, and for the shooting. I expect him here to-night. +My husband farms for him, and I look after the place as housekeeper." + +"A model farm!" exclaimed Ella. "Oh! I'd so much like to see it. I +wonder if your husband would allow me?" + +"He'd be most delighted, miss." + +"Stevenson is my name, and this is my friend Mr Kershaw," Ella said, +introducing herself. + +"My name is Dennis," replied the comely farmer's wife with a pleasant +smile. "This is called Furze Down Farm, and Mr Anderson-James is a +solicitor in Tunbridge Wells. So now you know all about us," and the +woman, in her big white apron, laughed merrily. + +Kennedy and the girl exchanged glances. + +"Well," he said, "I'll go out and try to put the machine right. It +won't take very long, I hope. If I can't--well, we must go back by +train. Where's the nearest station, Mrs Dennis?" + +"Well--Paddock Wood is about two miles," was her reply. "If you can't +get your motor right my husband will put it into a cart and drive you +over there. It's the direct line to London." + +"Thanks so much," he said, and went out, leaving Ella to rest in the +cosy, well-furnished room which the solicitor from Tunbridge Wells +occupied occasionally through the week-ends. + +"Mr Anderson-James keeps this place as a hobby. He's retired from +practice," the woman went on, "and he likes to come here for fresh air. +When you've rested I'll show you round the houses--if you're interested +in a dairy-farm." + +"I'm most interested," declared the girl. "I don't want to rest. I'd +rather see the farm, if it is quite convenient to you to show it to me." + +"Oh, quite, miss," was the woman's prompt response. She came from +Devonshire, as Ella had quickly detected, and was an artist in +butter-making, the use of the mechanical-separator, and the management +of poultry. + +The pair went out at once and, passing by clean asphalt paths, went to +the range of model cowhouses, each scrupulously clean and well-kept. +Then to the piggeries, the great poultry farm away in the meadows, and, +lastly, into the white-tiled dairy itself, where four maids in white +smocks and caps were busy with butter, milk, and cream. + +Ranged along one side of the great dairy were about thirty +galvanised-iron chums of milk, ready for transport, and Ella, noting +them, asked their destination. + +"Oh! They go each night to the training-camp at B--. They go out in +two lots, one at midnight, and one at two o'clock in the morning." + +"Oh, so you supply the camp with milk, do you?" + +"Yes. Before the war all our milk went up to London Bridge by train +each night, but now we supply the two camps. There are fifty thousand +men in training there, they say. Isn't it splendid!" added the woman, +the fire of patriotism in her eyes. "There's no lack of pluck in the +dear old country." + +"No, Mrs Dennis. All of us are trying to do our bit," Ella said. +"Does the Army Service Corps fetch the milk?" + +"No, miss. They used to, but for nearly six weeks we've sent it in +waggons ourselves. The camp at B--is ten miles from here, so it comes +rather hard on the horses. It used to go in motor-lorries. Old Thomas, +the man bending down over there," and she pointed across the farm-yard, +"he drives the waggon out at twelve, and Jim Jennings--who only comes of +an evening--does the late delivery." + +"But the road is rather difficult from here to the camp, isn't it?" +asked the girl, as though endeavouring to recollect. + +"Yes. That's just it. They have to go right round by Shipborne to +avoid the steep hill." + +Five minutes later they were in the comfortable farm-house again, and, +after a further chat, Ella went forth to see how her companion was +progressing. + +The repair had been concluded--thanks to the coal-hammer! Ella took it +back, thanked the affable Mrs Dennis, and, five minutes later, the pair +were on their way to London, perfectly satisfied with the result of +their investigations. + +On that same evening, while Kennedy and Ella were having a light dinner +together at the Piccadilly Grill before she went to the theatre, the +elusive Ortmann called upon old Theodore Drost at the dark house at +Castelnau, on the Surrey side of Hammersmith Bridge. He came in a taxi, +and accompanying him was a grey-haired, tall, and rather lean man, who +carried a heavy deal box with leather handle. + +Drost welcomed them, and all three ascended at once to that long attic, +the secret workshop of the maker of bombs. The man who posed as a pious +Dutch missionary switched on the light, disclosing upon the table a +number of small globes of thin glass which, at first, looked like +electric light bulbs. They, however, had no metal base, the glass being +narrowed at the end into a small open tube. Thus the air had not been +exhausted. + +"This is our friend, Doctor Meins," exclaimed Ortmann, introducing his +companion, who, a few minutes later, unlocked the box and brought out a +large brass microscope of the latest pattern, which he screwed together +and set up at the further end of the table. + +Meanwhile from another table at the end of the long apartment old Drost, +with a smile of satisfaction upon his face, carried over very carefully +a wooden stand in which stood a number of small sealed glass tubes, most +of which contained what looked like colourless gelatine. + +"We want to be quite certain that the cultures are sufficiently +virulent," remarked Ortmann. "That is why I have brought Professor +Meins, who, as you know, is one of our most prominent bacteriologists, +though he is, of course, naturalised as a good Englishman, and is in +general practice in Hampstead under an English name." + +The German professor, smiling, took up one of the hermetically sealed +tubes, broke it, and from it quickly prepared a glass microscope-slide, +not, however, before all three had put on rubber gloves and assumed what +looked very much like gas-helmets, giving the three conspirators a most +weird appearance. Then, while the Professor was engaged in focussing +his microscope, Drost, his voice suddenly muffled behind the goggle-eyed +mask, exhibited to Ortmann one of the glass bombs already prepared for +use. + +It was about the size of a fifty-candle-power electric bulb, and its +tube having been closed by melting the glass, it appeared filled with a +pale-yellow vapour. + +"That dropped anywhere in a town would infect an enormous area," Drost +explained. "The glass is so thin that it would pulverise by the small +and almost noiseless force with which it would explode." + +"It could be dropped by hand--eh?" asked Ortmann. "And nobody would be +the wiser." + +"No, if dropped by hand it would, no doubt, infect the person who +dropped it. The best way will be to drop it from a car." + +"At night?" + +"No. In daylight--in a crowded street. It would then be more +efficacious--death resulting within five days to everyone infected." + +"Terrible!" exclaimed the Kaiser's secret agent--the man of treble +personality. + +"Yes. But it is according to instructions. See here!" and he took up +what appeared to be a small bag of indiarubber--like a child's air-ball +that had been deflated. "This acts exactly the same when filled, only +the case is soluble. One minute after touching water or, indeed, any +liquid, it dissolves, and thus releases the germs!" + +"_Gott_!" gasped Ortmann. "You are, indeed, a dealer in bottled death, +my dear Theodore. Truly, you've been inventing some appalling things +for our dear friends here--eh?" + +The man with the scraggy beard, who was a skilled German scientist, +though he posed as a Dutch pastor, smiled evilly, while at that moment +the man Meins, who had his eye upon the microscope, beckoned both of +them forward to look. + +Ortmann obeyed, and placing his eye upon the tiny lens, saw in the +brightly reflected light colonies of the most deadly bacilli yet +discovered by German science--the germs of a certain hitherto unknown +disease, against which there was no known remedy. The fifth day after +infection of the human system death inevitably resulted. + +"All quite healthy!" declared the great bacteriologist from behind his +mask. "What would our friends think if they knew the means by which +they came into this country--eh?" + +Drost laughed, and, crossing to a cupboard, took out a fine +Ribston-pippin apple. This he cut through with his pen-knife, revealing +inside, where the core had been removed, one of the tiny tubes secreted. + +"They came like this from our friends in a certain neutral country," he +laughed. + +From tube after tube Meins took and examined specimens, finding all the +cultures virulent except one, which he placed aside. + +Then, turning to Drost, he gave his opinion that their condition was +excellent. + +"But be careful--most scrupulously careful of yourself, and of whoever +lives here with you--your family and servants. The bacteria are so +easily carried in the air, now that we have opened the tubes." + +"Never fear," replied the muffled voice of Ella's father. "I shall be +extremely careful. But what is your opinion regarding this?" he added, +showing the professor one of the tiny bags of the soluble substance. + +Meins examined it closely. Obtaining permission, he cut out a tiny +piece with scissors and placed it beneath his powerful microscope. + +Presently he pronounced it excellent. + +"I see that it is impervious. If it is soluble, as you say, then you +certainly need have no fear of failure," he said, with a benign smile. +Then he set to work to reseal the tubes he had opened, while Drost, with +a kind of syringe, sprayed the room with some powerful germ-destroyer. + +Ten minutes later the pair had descended the stairs, while old Drost had +switched off the light and locked the door of the secret laboratory +wherein reposed the germs of a terrible disease known only to the +enemies of Great Britain--a fatal malady which Germany intended to sow +broadcast over the length and breadth of our land. + +For an hour they all three sat discussing the diabolical plot which +would disseminate death over a great area of the United Kingdom, for +Germany had many friends prepared to sacrifice their own lives for the +Fatherland, and it was intended that those glass and rubber bombs should +be dropped in all quarters to produce an epidemic of disease such as the +world had never before experienced. + +Old Theodore Drost, installed in his comfortable dining-room again, +opened a long bottle of Berncastler "Doctor"--a genuine bottle, be it +said, for few who have sipped the "Doctor" wine of late have taken the +genuine wine, so many fabrications did Germany make for us before the +war. + +"But I warn you to be excessively careful," the professor said to Drost. +"Your daughter comes here sometimes, does she not? Do be careful of +her. Place powerful disinfectants here--all over the house--in every +room," he urged; "although I have plugged the tubes with cotton wool +properly treated to prevent the escape of the infection into the air, +yet one never knows." + +"Ella is not often here," her father replied. "She is still playing in +`Half a Moment!'; besides, she is rehearsing a new revue. So she, +happily, has no time to come and see me." + +"But, for your own safety, and your servant's, do be careful," Meins +urged. "To tell you the honest truth, I almost fear to remove my mask-- +even now." + +"But there's surely no danger down here?" asked Drost eagerly. + +"There is always danger with such a terribly infectious malady. It is +fifty times more fatal than double pneumonia. It attacks the lungs so +rapidly that no remedy has any chance. Professor Steinwitz, of Stettin, +discovered it." + +"And is there no remedy?" + +"None whatsoever. Its course is rapid--a poisoning of the whole +pulmonary system, and it's even more contagious than small-pox." + +Then they removed their masks and drank to "The Day" in their German +wine. + +Six nights later Stella Steele had feigned illness--a strain while on +her motor-cycle, and her understudy was taking her part in "Half a +Moment!" much to the disappointment of the men in khaki, who had seated +themselves in the stalls to applaud her. Among the men on leave many +had had her portrait upon a postcard--together with a programme in +three-colour print--in their dug-outs in Flanders, for Stella Steele was +"the rage" in the Army, and among the subalterns any who had ever met +her, or who had "known her people," were at once objects of interest. + +In the darkness on a road with trees on either side--the road which runs +from Tonbridge to Shipborne, and passes between Deene Park and Frith +Wood--stood Kennedy and Ella. They had ridden down from London earlier +in the evening and placed their motorcycles inside a gate which led into +the forest on the left side of the road. + +They waited in silence, their ears strained, but neither uttered a word. +Kennedy had showed his well-beloved the time. It was half-past one in +the morning. + +Of a sudden, a motor-car came up the hill, a closed car, which passed +them swiftly, and then, about a quarter-of-a-mile further on, came to a +halt. Presently they heard footsteps in the darkness and in their +direction there walked three men. The moon was shining fitfully through +the clouds, therefore they were just able to distinguish them. The trio +were whispering, and two of them were carrying good-sized kit-bags. + +They came to the gate where, inside, Ella and Kennedy had hidden their +cycles, and there halted. + +That they were smoking Kennedy and his companion knew by the slight +odour of tobacco that reached them. For a full quarter-of-an-hour they +remained there, chatting in low whispers. + +"I wonder who they are?" asked Ella, bending to her lover's ear. + +"Who knows?" replied the air-pilot. "At any rate, we'll have a good +view from here. You were not mistaken as to the spot?" + +"No. I heard it discussed last night," was the girl's reply. + +Then, a moment later, there was a low sound of wheels and horses' hoofs +climbing the hill from the open common into that stretch of road +darkened by the overhanging trees. Ella peered forth and saw a dim oil +lamp approaching, while the jingling of the harness sounded plain as the +horses strained at their traces. + +Onward they came, until when close to the gate where the three men lay +in waiting, one of the latter flashed a bright light into the face of +the old man who was driving the waggon, and shouted: + +"Stop! _Stop_!" + +The driver pulled up in surprise, dazzled by the light, but the next +second another man had flung into his face a mixture of cayenne pepper +and chemicals by which, in an instant, he had become blinded and +stupefied, falling back into his seat inert and helpless. + +Then Ella and Kennedy, creeping up unnoticed by the three in their +excitement, saw that they had mounted into the waggon, which was loaded +with milk-churns--the waggon driven nightly from Furze Down Farm to the +great camp at B--, carrying the milk for the morning. + +Upon these chums the three set swiftly to work, opening each, dropping +in one of those soluble bombs, and closing them. The bombs they took +from the two kit-bags they had carried from the car. + +They were engaged in carrying out one of the most dastardly plots ever +conceived by Drost and his friends--infecting the milk supply of the +great training-camp! + +Kennedy was itching to get at them and prevent them, but he saw that, by +knowledge gained, he would be in a position to act more effectively than +if he suddenly alarmed them. Therefore the pair stood by until they had +finished their hideous work of filling each chum with the most deadly +and infectious malady known to medical science. + +Presently, when they had finished, the old driver, still insensible, was +lifted from his seat, carried into the wood, and there left, while one +of the conspirators--who they could now see was dressed as a farm-hand, +and would no doubt pose as a new labourer from Furze Down--took his +place and drove on as though nothing had happened, leaving the other two +to make their way back to the car. + +When the red rear-light of the waggon was receding, Kennedy and Ella +followed it, for it did not proceed at much more than walking pace. + +They walked along in silence till they saw the two men re-enter the car, +leaving their companion to deliver the milk at the camp. Evidently a +fourth man had been waiting in the car for, as soon as they were in, the +man who drove turned the car, which went back in the direction it had +come, evidently intending to meet the second waggon, which was due to +come up an hour afterwards. No doubt the same programme would be +repeated, and the fourth man would drive the second car to the adjacent +camp. + +As soon, however, as the car had got clear away, Kennedy and his +well-beloved ran to their motorcycles, mounted them, and in a short time +had passed in front of the milk-waggon ere it could get down into +Shipborne village. + +Putting their motors against a fence, they waited until the waggon came +up, when Kennedy stepped into the road, and flashing an electric lamp on +to the driver's face, at the same time fired a revolver point-blank at +him. + +This gave the fellow such a sudden and unexpected scare that he leaped +down from the waggon and, next moment, had disappeared into the +darkness, while Ella rushed to the horses' heads and stopped them. + +"That's all right!" laughed Kennedy. "Have you got your thick gloves +on?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"Well, be careful that not a drop of milk goes over your hands or feet. +There's lots of time to pitch it all out on the roadway." + +Then climbing into the waggon the pair, by a pre-arranged plan, began to +open the chums and turn their contents out of the waggon until the whole +wet roadway was white with milk, which soaked into the ground and ran +into the gutters and down the drains: for, fortunately, being near +Shipborne, the footpaths on either side were drained, and by that any +chance of infection later would, they knew, be minimised. + +Each chum they turned upon its side until not a drain of milk remained +within, and then, leading the horses to graze on the grass at the +roadside, the pair sped swiftly back along the road in the direction the +car had taken. + +About five miles away they found the conspirators' car upon the side of +the road without any occupant. They were waiting for the second waggon. + +Without ado, Kennedy mounted into it, started it, and drew it out into +the middle of the road, which at that point was upon a steep gradient. + +Then, taking a piece of blind-cord from his pocket, he swiftly tied up +the steering-wheel and, jumping out, started the car down the hill. + +Away it flew at furious speed, gathering impetus as it went. For a few +moments they could hear it roaring along until, suddenly, there was a +terrific crash. + +"That's upset their plans, I know," he laughed to Ella. + +"We'll go and investigate in a moment, and watch the fun." + +This they did later on, finding the car turned turtle at the bottom of +the hill, with three men standing around it in dismay. + +Kennedy inquired what had happened, but neither would say much. + +Yet, while they stood there, the second milk-laden waggon approached, +passed, and went onward, its sleepy driver taking no notice of the five +people at the roadside. + +For half-an-hour Kennedy and Ella remained there in pretence of +endeavouring to right the car, until they knew that the waggon, with its +contents, was well out of harm's way. + +Then they remounted and returned to London, having, by their ingenious +investigations and patient watching, saved the lives of thousands of +Great Britain's gallant boys in khaki. + +Two days later Theodore Drost was taken suddenly ill with symptoms which +puzzled his local doctor at Barnes. He spoke to Ortmann over the +telephone, but the latter dared not risk a visit to Castelnau. Ella +also heard from her father over the telephone when, that night, she +returned to Stamfordham Mansions at the end of the "show." She, knowing +all she did, regarded a visit there as too dangerous, but rang up +Kennedy at his air-station and guardedly informed him of the situation. + +Five days later Theodore Drost lay dead of a malady to which the +bespectacled doctor at Barnes gave a name upon his certificate, but of +which he was really as ignorant as his own chauffeur. + +But the curious part of the affair was that while Drost lay dead in the +house, and the night before his burial, a mysterious fire broke out +which gutted the place, a fact which no doubt must have been a great +mystery to Ortmann and his friends. + +The Metropolitan Fire Brigade still entertain very grave suspicions that +it was due to an incendiary because of its fierceness; yet who, they ask +themselves, could have had any evil design upon the property of the poor +dead Dutch pastor? + +The End. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bomb-Makers, by William Le Queux + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41132 *** |