THE MAN IN THE CELLAR.
"Yesterday night--so much has happened since then that it is difficult
to believe it was so short a time ago--yesterday night, after the
rioters had disbanded and gone home, I returned to my rooms in Adelphi
Terrace, and after I had had some supper, I stepped out on the balcony,
to smoke and to listen if all was quiet.
"As I re-entered my room, someone, concealed behind one of the heavy
curtains, seized me suddenly from behind, and as I turned angrily to
free myself and to see who was my assailant, another man stepped out
from behind the curtain on the other side of the window, and before I
could prevent him, clapped a handkerchief saturated with chloroform
over my nose and mouth.
"When I came to myself, I found myself sitting in a strange room in the
presence of the Dumpling.
"'Mr. Rissler,' he said, 'I am very sorry to have been compelled to
chloroform and to abduct you. Believe me, no harm is intended you.
That I should have an immediate interview at this point was imperative,
and to bring you here, in the way in which you have been brought, was
the safest, and quickest, and most convenient method. You might have
refused to come, or you might have frittered away invaluable time in
profitless discussions. And I, at least at the present juncture, have
no time to waste. You know that the revolution, of which I have already
spoken to you, has begun in earnest, and you know, no doubt, that
success has crowned our efforts to-day, and that London is practically
at our mercy.
"'My reason for sending for you is that I have something to show
you which will convince even you--difficult as you have been to
persuade--of the folly of refusing to make terms with us; something
that will induce you at last to throw in your lot with us, to become
one of us, and my acknowledged successor when I fall; something that
even you cannot deny is incontrovertible proof of our absolute and
complete success.
"'No, don't say anything at this point, please,' he interrupted,
holding up a repressing hand, for I was about to protest that nothing
he could say, or could show me, would have the slightest influence in
inducing me even to consider his proposition.
"'I know what you are going to say,' he went on. 'You are about to
repudiate me and all my work. But wait! Say nothing yet which you might
afterwards regret and wish to withdraw. God has marked you out for
this work as surely as He has marked me, and that God is behind us, is
working with us and for us, even you will admit when you see the proof
which I shall soon put before you. I have never despaired of winning
you, Rissler. Like Saul of Tarsus, you have fought against God and
against His prophets, but even as Saul was convinced and converted to
God's will by the sign which came to him on the road to Damascus, even
so will you be convinced and converted by the sign which I am about to
make known to you. As Saul hardened his heart before the coming of the
heavenly vision, even so have you hardened your heart against God's
will. But God can change your heart and open your eyes at a word, even
as He opened the eyes and changed the heart of Saul; and ere I die I
shall see you an acknowledged leader and hope of the armies of Labour
and of the Lord.'
"He walked over to a cupboard in a corner, and, to my astonishment,
took out a huge military cloak with an immense collar, and a
three-cornered hat like that worn by Napoleon.
"Drawing the cloak over his shoulders, and donning the hat, he stood
for some minutes, his huge head sunk between his shoulders till his
chin lay on his chest, his short legs straddled apart, and his hands
clasped behind him, deep in thought. Amused as I was by his ranting
and by the theatrical way in which he posed and dressed the part, his
likeness to the great Napoleon was so uncanny, so extraordinary, that,
in spite of myself, I was awed and impressed. Then, with the single
word 'Come,' he turned and went out, I following him.
"Coming to the front door of the house, he opened it cautiously and
looked out. We were in a narrow and shabby side street of what I judged
to be the East End of London. At the moment of our emergence not a
single soul was in sight. The Dumpling crossed the road and gave four
slow and deliberate knocks at a door.
"'Who is there?' said a voice inside.
"'God and Napoleon and the Dumpling strike with granite arm!' was the
reply, and the door was immediately opened, the Dumpling and I stepping
inside. We were in the narrow hall or passage of a small dwelling
house. The man who had admitted us closed the door, and then resumed
his chair, which was placed just inside the door. A newspaper which he
had been reading lay beside him on the floor, and two small paraffin
lamps burned--or, rather, smoked--beside him on another chair.
"'All quiet, doorkeeper?' asked the Dumpling.
"'All quiet, sir,' was the answer.
"Then the Dumpling took up one of the lamps.
"'This way, Rissler,' he said, walking along the passage, till he came
to a door leading to the basement or kitchen portion of the house.
Producing a bunch of keys from his pocket, he unlocked the door, and
when he and I had passed through, locked it carefully again.
"Passing down some stairs, we came to a stone-flagged passage, along
which we walked to another door, leading to a sort of underground
cellar. This door the Dumpling also unlocked, and, after we had
entered, re-locked; and as he did so, the dream-picture which I had
once seen in his eyes, the picture of the Dumpling, myself, and a third
and unknown man, standing together in an underground room, came back to
me, and I knew that the place I was now in was the place I had seen in
the tableau.
"Then the Dumpling touched a spring, and a hidden door flew open,
revealing a smaller inner room. A man, nonchalantly smoking a cigar,
was standing in a far corner, and as, obeying the Dumpling's signal, I
passed through the door and saw his face, I gave a short, sharp cry,
and fell back in incredulous horror.
"'My God!' I said. 'It is not possible! The King!'"
[Illustration: "I FELL BACK IN INCREDULOUS HORROR."]