CHAPTER XXXI
JOHN CASTELLAN'S THREAT
Lennard's first feelings after the receipt of Mr Parmenter's cablegram,and the casting of the vast mass of metal which was to form the body ofthe great cannon, were those of doubt and hesitation, mingled, possibly,with that sense of semi-irresponsibility which will for a time overcomethe most highly-disciplined mind when some great task has been completedfor the time being.
For a full month nothing could be done to the cannon, since it wouldtake quite that time for the metal to cool. Everything else had beendone or made ready. The huge projectile which was to wing its way intoSpace to do battle for the life of humanity was completed. The boringand rifling tools were finished, and all the materials for the drivingand the bursting charges were ready at hand for putting into their finalform when the work of loading up began. There was literally nothing moreto be done. All that human labour, skill and foresight could achieve forthe present had been accomplished.
Dearly would he have loved to go south and join the ranks of thefighters; but a higher sense of duty than personal courage forbade that.He was the only man who could perform the task he had undertaken, and achance bullet fragment of a shell to say nothing of the hundred minorchances of the battlefield, might make the doing of that workimpossible.
No, his time would come in the awful moment when the fate of humanitywould hang in the balance, and his place alike of honour and of dutywas now in the equatorial room of the observatory at Whernside, watchingthrough every waking hour of his life the movements of the Invader, thathe might note the slightest deviation from its course, or the mosttrifling change in its velocity. For on such seemingly small matters asthese depended, not only the fate of the world, but of the only womanwho could make the world at least worth living in for him--and so hewent to Whernside by the morning train after a long day's talk with TomBowcock over things in general.
"Yo' may be sure that everything will be all right, Mr Lennard," saidTom, as they shook hands on the platform. "I'll take t' temperatures,top, bottom and middle, every night and morning and post them to yo',and if there's any change that we don't expect, I'll wire yo' at once;and now I've a great favour to ask you, Mr Lennard. I haven't asked itbefore because there's been too much work to do--"
"You needn't ask it, Tom," laughed Lennard, as he returned his grip,"but I'm not going to invite you to Whernside just yet, for two reasons.In the first place, I can't trust that metal to anyone else but you forat least a week; and in the second place, when I do send you aninvitation from Mr Parmenter I shall not only be able to show you thecomet a bit brighter than it is just now, but something else that youmay have thought about or read about but never seen yet, and I am goingto give you an experience that no man born in England has ever had--butI'm not going to spoil sport by telling you now."
"Yo've thought it all out afore me, Mr Lennard, as yo' always doeverything," replied Tom. "I'm not much given to compliments, as yo'know, but yo're a wonderful man, and if yo've got something to show me,it's bound to be wonderful too, and if it's anything as wonderful as t'lies I've b'n telling those newspaper chaps about t' cannon, I reckonit'll make me open my eyes as wide as they've ever been, for sure.Good-bye."
During the journey to Settle, Lennard began to debate once more withhimself a question which had troubled him considerably since he hadreceived Mr Parmenter's cablegram. Should he publish his calculations tothe world at once, give the exact position of the Invader at a givenmoment in a given part of the sky, and so turn every telescope in thecivilised world upon it--or should he wait until some astronomer madethe independent discovery which must come within a short time now?
There were reasons both for and against. To do so might perhaps stop thewar, and that would, at first sight, be conferring a great blessing uponhumanity; but, on the other hand, it might have the very reverse effectupon the millions of men whose blood was now inflamed with the lust ofbattle. Again it was one thing to convince the rulers of the nations andthe scientists of the world that the coming catastrophe was inevitable;but to convince the people who made up those nations would be a verydifferent matter.
The end of the world had been predicted hundreds of times already,mostly by charlatans, who made a good living out of it, but sometimes bythe most august authorities. He had read his history, and he had notforgotten the awful conditions in which the people of Europe fell duringthe last months of the year 1000, when the Infallible Church hadsolemnly proclaimed that at twelve o'clock on the night of the 31st ofDecember Satan, chained for a thousand years, would be let loose; thaton the morning of the 1st of January 1001 the order of Nature would bereversed, the sun would rise in the west and the reign of Anti-Christbegin. Then the remnants of the European nations had gradually awakenedto the fact that Holy Church was wrong, since nothing happened save theresults of the madness which her prophesies had produced.
But the catastrophe of which he would have to be the prophet would beworse even than this, and, moreover, as far as human science could tell,it was a mathematical certainty. There would be no miracle, nothing ofthe supernatural about it--it would happen just as certainly as theearth would revolve on its axis; and yet how many millions of theearth's inhabitants would believe it until with their own eyes they sawthe approaching Fate?
In time of peace perhaps he might have obtained a hearing, but who wouldpause amidst the rush of the armed battalions to listen to him? Howcould the calm voice of Science make itself heard among the clash andclangour of war? The German Emperor had already laughed in his face, andaccepted his challenge with contemptuous incredulity. No doubt his staffand all his officers would do the same. What possibility then wouldthere be to convince the millions who were fighting blindly under theirorders? No; it was hopeless. The war must go on. He could only hope thatthe Aerial Fleet which Mr Parmenter was bringing across the Atlanticwould turn the tide of battle in favour of the defenders of Britain.
But there was another matter to be considered. Thanks to the controlpossessed by the Parmenter Syndicate over the Atlantic cables and theaerograph system of the world, he was kept daily, sometimes hourly,acquainted with everything that was happening. He knew that the Easternforces of Russia were concentrating upon India in the hope that thedisasters in England and the destruction of the Fleet would realise theold Muscovite dream of detaching the natives from their loyalty to theBritish Crown and so making the work of conquest easy. In the Far East,Japan was recovering from the exhaustion consequent upon her costlyvictories over Russia, and had formed an ominous alliance with China.
On the other hand Italy, England's sole remaining ally in Europe, hadblockaded the French Mediterranean ports, and while the French legionswere being drawn northward to the conquest of Britain, the Italianarmies had seized the Alpine passes and were preparing an invasion whichshould avenge the humiliations which Italy had suffered under the firstNapoleon.
In a word, everything pointed to universal war. Only the United Statespreserved an inscrutable silence, which had been broken only by fourwords: "Hands off our commerce." And to these the Leagued Nations hadlistened, if rather by compulsion than respect.
Who was he, then, that he should, as it were, sound the trump ofapproaching doom in the ears of a world round which from east to westand from west again to east the battledrums might any day be soundingand the roar of artillery thundering its answering echo.
But a somewhat different aspect was given to these reflections by aletter which he found waiting for him in the library at Whernside House.It ran thus:
"SIR,--You will not, I suppose, have forgotten a certain incident which happened towards the end of June 1907 in the Bay of Clifden, Connemara. You won that little swimming race by a yard or so, and since then it appears to me that, although you may not be aware of it, you and I have been running a race of a very different sort, although possibly for the same prize.
"You will understand what prize I mean, and by this time you ought to know that I have the po
wer of taking it by force, if I cannot win it in the ordinary way of sport or battle. I am in command of the only really irresistible force in the world. I created that force, and, by doing so, made the invasion of England and the present war possible. I have done so because I hate England, and desire to release my own country from her tyranny and oppression; but I can love as well as I can hate, and whether you understood it or not, I, who had never loved a woman before, loved Auriole Parmenter from the moment that you and I lifted her out of the water, and she smiled on us, and thanked us for saving her life.
"Before we parted that day I could see love in your eyes when you looked at her, if you could not see it in mine. You are her father's private astronomer, and until lately you have lived in almost daily intercourse with her, in which, of course, you have had a great advantage over myself, who have not from that time till now been blessed by even the sight of her.
"But during that time it seems that you have discovered a comet, which is to run into the earth and destroy all human life, unless you prevent it. I know this because I know of the challenge you gave to the German Emperor in Canterbury. I know also of what you have been doing in Bolton. You are turning a coal pit into a cannon, with which you believe that you can blow this comet into thin air or gas before it meets the earth, and you threatened His Majesty that if the war was not stopped the human race should be destroyed.
"That, if you will pardon the expression, was a piece of bluff. You love Miss Parmenter perhaps as much as, though not possibly more than, I do, and therefore you would certainly not destroy the world as long as she was alive in it. You would be more or less than man if you did, and I don't believe you are either, and therefore I think you will understand the proposition I am going to make to you.
"Granted hypothesis that the world will come to an end by means of this comet on a certain day, and granted also that you are able to save it with this cannon of yours, I write now to tell you that, whether the war stops or not in obedience to your threat, I will not allow you to save the world unless Miss Parmenter consents to marry me within two months from now. If she does, the war shall stop, or at anyrate I will allow the British forces to conquer the whole of Europe on the sole condition of giving independence to Ireland. They cannot win without my fleet of _Flying Fishes_, and if I turn that fleet against them they will not only be defeated but annihilated. In other words, with the sole exception of my own country, I offer England the conquest of Europe in exchange for the hand of one woman.
"In the other alternative, that is to say, if Miss Parmenter, her father and yourself do not consent to this proposal, I will not allow you to save the world. I can destroy your cannon works at Bolton as easily as I destroyed the forts at Portsmouth and Dover, and as easily as I can and will kill you, and wreck your observatory. When I have done this I will take possession of Miss Parmenter by force, and then your comet can come along and destroy the world as soon as it likes.
"I shall expect a definite answer to this letter, signed by Mr Parmenter and yourself, within seven days. If you address your letter to Mr James Summers, 28a Carlos Street, Sheerness, it will reach me; but I must warn you that any attempt to discover why it will reach me from that address will be punished by the bombardment and destruction of the town.
"I hope you will see the reasonableness and moderation of my conditions, and remain, yours faithfully, "JOHN CASTELLAN."