CHAPTER IV.
THE HOUSE ON CLAPHAM COMMON.
Twenty minutes' walk took Arnold and Colston to the door of thetenement-house in which the former had lived since his fast-dwindlingstore of money had convinced him of the necessity of bringing hisexpenses down to the lowest possible limit if he wished to keep upthe struggle with fate very much longer.
As they mounted the dirty, evil-smelling staircase, Colston said--
"Phew! Verily you are a hero of science if you have brought yourselfto live in a hole like this for a couple of years rather than give upyour dream, and grow fat on the loaves and fishes ofconventionality."
"This is a palace compared with some of the rookeries about here,"replied Arnold, with a laugh. "The march of progress seems to haveleft this half of London behind as hopeless. Ten years ago there werea good many thousands of highly respectable mediocrities living onthis side of the river, but now I am told that the glory has departedfrom the very best of its localities, and given them up to variousdegrees of squalor. Vice, poverty, and misery seem to gravitatenaturally southward in London. I don't know why, but they do. Well,here is the door of my humble den."
As he spoke he put the key in the lock, and opened the door, biddinghis companion enter as he did so.
Arnold's anxiety was soon relieved by finding the precious modeluntouched in its resting-place, and it was at once brought out.Colston was delighted beyond his powers of expression with themarvellous ingenuity with which the miracle of mechanical skill wascontrived and put together; and when Arnold, after showing andexplaining to him all the various parts of the mechanism and theexternal structure, at length set the engine working, and theair-ship rose gracefully from the floor and began to sail round theroom in the wide circle to which it was confined by its mooring-line,he stared at it for several minutes in wondering silence, followingit round and round with his eyes, and then he said in a voice fromwhich he vainly strove to banish the signs of the emotion thatpossessed him--
"It is the last miracle of science! With a few such ships as that onecould conquer the world in a month!"
"Yes, that would not be a very difficult task, seeing that neither anarmy nor a fleet could exist for twelve hours with two or three ofthem hovering above it," replied Arnold.
The trial over, Arnold set to work and took the model partly topieces for packing up; and while he was putting it away in the oldsea-chest, Colston counted out ten sovereigns and laid them on thetable. Hearing the clink of the gold, Arnold looked up and said--
"What is that for? A sovereign will be quite enough to get me out ofmy present scrape, and then if we come to any terms to-night it willbe time enough to talk about payment."
"The Brotherhood does not do business in that way," was the reply."At present your only connection with it is a commercial one, and tenpounds is a very moderate fee for the privilege of inspecting such aninvention as this. Anyhow, that is what I am ordered to hand over toyou in payment for your trouble now and to-night, so you must acceptit as it is given--as a matter of business."
"Very well," said Arnold, closing and locking the chest as he spoke,"if you think it worth ten pounds, the money will not come amiss tome. Now, if you will remain and guard the household gods for aminute, I will go and pay my rent and get a cab."
Half an hour later his few but priceless possessions were loaded on afour-wheeler and Arnold had bidden farewell for ever to the dingyroom in which he had passed so many hours of toil and dreaming,suffering and disappointment. Before lunch time they were safelybestowed in a couple of rooms which Colston had engaged for him inthe same building in which his own rooms were.
In the afternoon, among other purchases, a more convenient case wasbought for the model, and in this it was packed with the plans andpapers which explained its construction, ready for the eveningjourney.
The two friends dined together at six in Colston's rooms, and atseven sharp his servant announced that the cab was at the door.Within ten minutes they were bowling along the Embankment towardsWestminster Bridge in a luxuriously appointed hansom of the newesttype, with the precious case lying across their knees.
"This is a comfortable cab," said Arnold, when they had gone ahundred yards or so. "By the way, how does the man know where to go?I didn't hear you give him any directions."
"None were necessary," was the reply. "This cab, like a good manyothers in London, belongs to the Brotherhood, and the man who isdriving is one of the Outer Circle. Our Jehus are the most usefulspies that we have. Many is the secret of the enemy that we havelearnt from, and many is the secret police agent who has been drivento his rendezvous by a Terrorist who has heard every word that hasbeen spoken on the journey."
"How on earth is that managed?"
"Every one of the cabs is fitted with a telephonic arrangementcommunicating with the roof. The driver has only to button the wireof the transmitter up inside his coat so that the transmitter itselflies near to his ear, and he can hear even a whisper inside the cab.
"The man who is driving us, for instance, has a sort of retainer fromthe Russian Embassy to be on hand at certain hours on certain nightsin the week. Our cabs are all better horsed, better appointed, andbetter driven than any others in London, and, consequently, they arefavourites, especially among the young attaches, and are nearlyalways employed by them on their secret missions or love affairs,which, by the way, are very often the same thing. Our own Jehu has ajob on to-night, from which we expect some results that will mystifythe enemy not a little. We got our first suspicions of Ainsworth froma few incautious words that he spoke in one of our cabs."
"It's a splendid system, I should think, for discovering themovements of your enemies," said Arnold, not without an uncomfortablereflection on the fact that he was himself now completely in thepower of this terrible organisation, which had keen eyes and readyhands in every capital of the civilised world. "But how do you guardagainst treachery? It is well known that all the Governments ofEurope are spending money like water to unearth this mystery of theTerror. Surely all your men cannot be incorruptible."
"Practically they are so. The very mystery which enshrouds all ouractions makes them so. We have had a few traitors, of course; but asnone of them has ever survived his treachery by twenty-four hours, abribe has lost its attraction for the rest."
In such conversation as this the time was passed, while the cabcrossed the river and made its way rapidly and easily alongKennington Road and Clapham Road to Clapham Common. At length itturned into the drive of one of those solid abodes of pretentiousrespectability which front the Common, and pulled up before a bigstucco portico.
"Here we are!" exclaimed Colston, as the doors of the cabautomatically opened. He got out first, and Arnold handed the case tohim, and then followed him.
Without a word the driver turned his horse into the road again anddrove off towards town, and as they ascended the steps the front dooropened, and they went in, Colston saying as they did so--
"Is Mr. Smith at home?"
"Yes, sir; you are expected, I believe. Will you step into thedrawing-room?" replied the clean-shaven and immaculately respectableman-servant, in evening dress, who had opened the door for them.
They were shown into a handsomely furnished room lit with electriclight. As soon as the footman had closed the door behind him, Colstonsaid--
"Well, now, here you are in the conspirators' den, in the veryheadquarters of those Terrorists for whom Europe is being ransackedconstantly without the slightest success. I have often wondered whatthe rigid respectability of Clapham Common would think if it knew thetrue character of this harmless-looking house. I hardly think anearthquake in Clapham Road would produce much more sensation thansuch a discovery would.
"And now," he continued, his tone becoming suddenly much moreserious, "in a few minutes you will be in the presence of the InnerCircle of the Terrorists, that is to say, of those who practicallyhold the fate of Europe in their hands. You know pretty clearly whatthey want with you. If you have thoug
ht better of the business thatwe have discussed you are still at perfect liberty to retire from it,on giving your word of honour not to disclose anything that I havesaid to you."
"I have not the slightest intention of doing anything of the sort,"replied Arnold. "You know the conditions on which I came here. Ishall put them before your Council, and if they are accepted yourBrotherhood will, within their limits, have no more faithful adherentthan I. If not, the business will simply come to an end as far as Iam concerned, and your secret will be as safe with me as though I hadtaken the oath of membership."
"Well said!" replied Colston, "and just what I expected you to say.Now listen to me for a minute. Whatever you may see or hear for thenext few minutes say nothing till you are asked to speak. I will sayall that is necessary at first. Ask no questions, but trust toanything that may seem strange being explained in due course--as itwill be. A single indiscretion on your part might raise suspicionswhich would be as dangerous as they would be unfounded. When you areasked to speak do so without the slightest fear, and speak your mindas openly as you have done to me."
"You need have no fear for me," replied Arnold. "I think I amsensible enough to be prudent, and I am quite sure that I amdesperate enough to be fearless. Little worse can happen to me thanthe fate that I was contemplating last night."
As he ceased speaking there was a knock at the door. It opened andthe footman reappeared, saying in the most commonplace fashion--
"Mr. Smith will be happy to see you now, gentlemen. Will you kindlywalk this way?"
They followed him out into the hall, and then, somewhat to Arnold'ssurprise, down the stairs at the back, which apparently led to thebasement of the house.
The footman preceded them to the basement floor and halted before adoor in a little passage that looked like the entrance to a coalcellar. On this he knocked in peculiar fashion with the knuckles ofone hand, while with the other he pressed the button of an electricbell concealed under the paper on the wall. The bell sounded faintlyas though some distance off, and as it rang the footman said abruptlyto Colston--
"Das Wort ist Freiheit."
Arnold knew German enough to know that this meant "The word is'Freedom,'" but why it should have been spoken in a foreign languagemystified him not a little.
While he was thinking about this the door opened, as if by a releasedspring, and he saw before him a long, narrow passage, lit by fourelectric arcs, and closed at the other end by a door, guarded by asentry armed with a magazine rifle.
He followed Colston down the passage, and when within a dozen feet ofthe sentry, he brought his rifle to the "ready," and the followingstrange dialogue ensued between him and Colston--
"Quien va?"
"Zwei Freunde der Bruderschaft."
"Por la libertad?"
"Fuer Freiheit ueber alles!"
"Pass, friends."
The rifle grounded as the words were spoken, and the sentry steppedback to the wall of the passage.
At the same moment another bell rang beyond the door, and then thedoor itself opened as the other had done.
They passed through, and it closed instantly behind them, leavingthem in total darkness.
Colston caught Arnold by the arm, and drew him towards him, saying ashe did so--
"What do you think of our system of passwords?"
"Pretty hard to get through unless one knew them, I should think. Whythe different languages?"
"To make assurance doubly sure every member of the Inner Circle mustbe conversant with four European languages. On these the changes arerung, and even I did not know what the two languages were to beto-night before I entered the house, and if I had asked for 'Mr.Brown' instead of 'Mr. Smith,' we should never have got beyond thedrawing-room.
"When the footman told me in German that the word was 'Freedom,' Iknew that I should have to answer the challenge of the sentry inGerman. I did not know that he would challenge in Spanish, and if Ihad not understood him, or had replied in any other language butGerman, he would have shot us both down without saying another word,and no one would ever have known what had become of us. You will beexempt from this condition, because you will always come with me. Iam, in fact, responsible for you."
"H'm, there doesn't seem much chance of any one getting through onfalse pretences," replied Arnold, with an irrepressible shudder. "Hasany one ever tried?"
"Yes, once. The two gentlemen whose disappearance made the famous'Clapham Mystery' of about twelve months ago. They were two of thesmartest detectives in the French service, and the only two men whoever guessed the true nature of this house. They are buried under thefloor on which you are standing at this moment."
The words were spoken with a cruel inflexible coldness, which struckArnold like a blast of frozen air. He shivered, and was about toreply when Colston caught him by the arm again, and said hurriedly--
"H'st! We are going in. Remember what I said, and don't speak againtill some one asks you to do so."
As he spoke a door opened in the wall of the dark chamber in whichthey had been standing for the last few minutes, and a flood of softlight flowed in upon their dazzled eyes. At the same moment a man'svoice said from the room beyond in Russian--
"Who stands there?"
"Maurice Colston and the Master of the Air," replied Colston in thesame language.
"You are welcome," was the reply, and then Colston, taking Arnold bythe arm, led him into the room.