"You must be very careful to keep to the street until you reach the
country," the professor went on. "If you should make a misstep and
wreck a block of houses the disaster would be irretrievable."
"I will strike matches and light my way until I get well into the
hills," said I.
"Just what I should have suggested," said he. "Good-by, Mr. Munn. Fail
not to return with the exchequer as soon as the king of Baigol has
secured the Bolla. Meantime I shall hope to get the car in readiness to
speed our departure."
We struck hands as men will when confronted by an issue of life and
death. Then I stepped into the street, bent over the imperial
exchequer, and wrenched it from its foundations.
It was a well-constructed building, and, although its contents jingled
like a rattle box when I took it under my arm, it did not give way in
any part.
Striking a match on the roof of the exchequer, I lighted my way down the
street, picking my steps with care and caution.
*CHAPTER XVI.*
*HOW ILL-LUCK OVERTOOK ME.*
Good fortune fared forth with me from the royal city and remained
steadfastly at my right hand as long as the matches lasted; but when the
last one had flickered out and left me in impenetrable gloom, my
troubles began.
I was well into the rough country when the lights failed, threading a
road bordered by hills that in some places were shoulder high. About
the first thing I did was to blunder off the trail; in trying to regain
it I stumbled over a five-foot mountain and went down all of a heap.
Had I fallen on the exchequer I should have smashed it into a cocked
hat--a result only narrowly averted. Regaining my feet and smothering
some good strong language that rose instinctively to my lips, I essayed
once more to find the Baigol road.
I had my trouble for my pains, and, after an hour spent in fruitless
blundering, I sat down on a cliff, propped up the exchequer on the side
of a canon and nursed my barked shins until day began flashing from the
reflectors.
As I sat there waiting for the light my brain was filled with evil
thoughts which I recall with contrition and chronicle with regret. I
knew the exchequer must contain the king's wealth--golden pieces of
eight of a rare fineness unknown to the mints of Terra.
I was not of a mind to return the gold after allowing the king of Baigol
to take his Bolla. Why not stow the treasure away about my clothes and
rely upon my native tact and discretion to get me to the steel car in
spite of the grasping monarch of Baigadd?
I was much wrought up over the way I had lost the loot taken from the
plutocrats. In my mind's eye I could see those four bulging
handkerchiefs waxing and waning about the castle, and I had hoped they
would fall to the surface of Mercury along with the car, so that I might
still be able to secure them.
In this I was disappointed. Once the Mercurial atmosphere was struck
the loot and the revolver had fallen away from the castle like so many
pieces of lead.
The wallets, undoubtedly, had been incinerated by the sun's rays,
together with the banknotes that were in them. I imagined that the
intense heat had exploded the cartridges in the six-shooter and had
warped and twisted the firearm until it was no longer serviceable.
The other plunder also, even if found, could not by any possibility be
utilized by me or any one else.
All this had made me savagely eager to recoup my finances. And as I sat
brooding on the cliff I asked myself why I should not do this at the
expense of the Baigadd exchequer.
I did not arouse myself at the first reflected flash of day. Although I
had decided to appropriate the contents of Gaddbai's coffers, I was
casting about for a suitable method that would gain my end with the
least inconvenience.
A maudlin chuckle from near at hand brought me abruptly out of my
reflections. I turned, and there, on a neighboring elevation, stood
Gilhooly, balancing the exchequer on the broad of his hand.
I was brought up staring. What could the motive power of the B.&B.
Interplanetary be doing there, at that time? His absence must have
interfered sadly with the train schedule. Certainly the officers of the
system, would not have countenanced this neglect of duty, had they known
of it.
Then it flashed over me that Gilhooly had run away. He had tired of
racing up and down the V-shaped groove with a string of toy cars and had
taken French leave of the system.
The fire of insanity was still in his eyes, and he retreated step by
step as I advanced upon him.
"Look here, Gilhooly," said I in my most persuasive tones, "that
building you have in your hands is the imperial exchequer. Put it down,
there's a good fellow. Don't juggle with it in that way. Suppose you
were to drop it!"
Gilhooly had begun shaking it up and down as though it were one of those
cast-iron banks in which children sometimes deposit their coppers The
jingle of the exchequer's contents appeared to please him.
"If you want this road you have got to bid up for it," said he. "I'm
not so young that I don't know a good thing when I've got it in my
grip."
"That road has gone into the hands of a receiver," I returned, humoring
his fancy, "and I'm the receiver. Give it here, Gilhooly."
"I was not consulted when the receiver was appointed," he answered. "I
have rights in the matter and those rights must be protected. It's a
deal framed up to beat the pool. My, how it rattles!" and he shook the
exchequer again.
I was at my wits' end. I knew that tact was far and away more effective
than violence when dealing with a crazed person.
"Put it down for a moment, Gilhooly," I wheedled, "and come over to the
directors' meeting."
"Who are the directors?" he asked suspiciously.
"Well, there are only two. I'm one, you know, and you're the other."
He exploded a laugh, tossed the exchequer in the air like a strong man
playing with a cannon ball, and then caught it deftly as it came down.
"I'm the boy to juggle with railroads!" he boasted. "Ask any one in the
Street and they'll tell you."
"Look out!" I gasped, "or you'll drop it."
"Not I!" he mumbled. "I never yet wrecked a railroad."
"Where did you come from, Gilhooly?" I asked, seeking to get him into
conversation while I edged closer to him by degrees.
"From distant parts," he replied. "I've been the whole thing for a big
transcontinental line that I'm adding to the Gilhooly System." He
chuckled craftily. "They thought they had me, but I got out from under
with the rolling stock. I've hid the cars in a gully, and my next move
will be to steal the right of way. I'm the big railroad man of the
country. Just ask anybody who knows what's what in transportation
circles and they'll tell you the same thing."
I had arrived within a few feet of him, and suddenly I leaped forward.
But he was wary and sprang aside, the exchequer jingling sharply.
"No, you don't," said he. "You're trying to serve a subpoena on me and
I'm too foxy for you. Get out of here or I'll have you thrown
downstairs."
"Come over to the directors' meeting, Gilhooly," I urged, turning and
walking away from him. "You've got to look after your interests, you
know."
But the vagaries of a shattered mind are hard to deal with. Gilhooly
laughed at me, sat down on a rock and took the exchequer on his knees.
He was wary, and never for an instant permitted me to lose his eyes.
"You can't fool me," he cried, "so you'd better take the next train for
home. I hold a majority of the stock, and after I've watered it a
little I'll have enough to buy another line. It's easy being a railroad
magnate when you know how. Clear out, you annoy me."
"Gilhooly," said I, with a gentleness I was far from feeling, "don't you
want to know something about Popham?"
"Don't know him," snarled Gilhooly, "but if he's trying to break into
this railroad game, just tell him that I control the whole bag of tricks
and that it's not worth his while."
Hugging the exchequer in his arms, he rocked back and forth and began to
sing.
"Well," said I, starting away again, "if you don't want to attend this
directors' meeting I'll have to look after it myself."
He made no reply but kept on hugging the exchequer, rocking back and
forth, and timing his monotonous croon to the rattle of treasure in the
king's strong rooms.
Warily as I could, I circled about, creeping on all fours and screening
myself by the little hills and ridges. My design was to come up on
Gilhooly from behind and snatch the exchequer away from him.
But he heard me. Before I had come within a dozen feet of him, he
stopped his singing, leaped to his feet, and whirled around. The next
moment he had placed himself at a safe distance.
"I'm too many for you," he shouted. "Go away, or I'll call the police."
I was in a sweat for fear some of King Gaddbai's soldiers would locate
us and develop their zetbais. One flash of that violet fire would do
the business for both Gilhooly and me, and the professor's cherished
plans would go by the board. Besides, I had plans of my own, and it
seemed as though Gilhooly was destined to make a mess of everything.
"Oh, come, now," I cried, in a bit of a temper. "That won't do you any
good, Gilhooly. It doesn't belong to you, and you haven't any right to
keep it."
"Don't we ever keep anything that don't belong to us?" he asked
sarcastically. "I'm not that sort of a fellow, for I keep everything in
the railroad line that I can get my hands on."
Logic and reason were utterly dead in his mind. Whims he had, but they
were but fancies of the moment. As I stood there looking at him, I
wondered how the people of Baigadd had ever managed to keep him hauling
their trains as long as they had.
"Good-by," he called suddenly, taking the exchequer under his arm. "I
think I'll go to the office and----"
Just then I made a dash at him. With a mocking laugh he whirled about
and raced off across the hills, myself in hot pursuit.
Gilhooly's course intersected the Baigol highway and he turned into it,
roaring defiantly as he sped along. Suddenly he stumbled and fell, and
a cry of dismay escaped me.
He had fallen squarely on the exchequer and wrecked it completely!
Kyzicks--yellow coins the size of a gold dollar and worth five times as
much--rolled, everywhere about the road, diverging from a heap that lay
revealed by the collapsed walls of the building. Flinging forward, I
went to my knees and began plunging my hands into the pile.
I believe that just then I was as daft as Gilhooly himself. In those
days the glimmer of gold always had a demoralizing effect on me.
As I raked my outspread fingers through the yellow pile I brought up a
round, jet-black stone the size of my fist. I regarded it as a bit of
chaff in the bin of wealth and hurled it from me down the road. With a
loud yell, Gilhooly leaped after it.
Then I became aware of a weird and inexplicable feeling that laid itself
like an axe at the root of my professional instinct. What right had I
to all this treasure? It belonged to the king of Baigall; he was an
unworthy creature, perhaps, but still it belonged to him. What had I
been about to do? My heart sickened and I sprang up, spurned the
kyzicks with my heel and turned my back.
That was my awakening. In one instant the iron of repentance had
pierced my soul. The past rolled its turgid waters in front of me. I
shivered and drew back from that wave of evil, covering my eyes to blot
it from my sight.
How should I atone for the days that had been? Could I do it by an
unflinching rectitude in the days there were to be? Conscience was
belaboring me with telling blows. I had not been on intimate terms with
my conscience for many years, and to have it thus suddenly overmaster me
and drive me into reformation was a mystery beyond my power to explain.
While I stood there consumed with regret and hoping against hope for the
future, a voice hailed me from down the road.
"Did you say your name was Munn?"
Could that calm, contained voice have come from Emmet Gilhooly? I
looked in his direction and found him leaning against a jutting spur of
rocks, his right hand clutching convulsively the black stone I had flung
from me.
The crazed light had vanished from his eyes. An expression of wonder was
on his face, but it was a rational wonder developed by an awakening as
abrupt and complete as mine had been.
"You have it right, Mr. Gilhooly," I answered, the extreme mildness of
my voice surprising me. "My full name is James Peter Munn and----"
"You are the thief who just came into the castle and relieved myself and
my friends of their valuables?"
Gilhooly's normal condition had come back to him at the point where it
had been dropped. I was not slow in reasoning how this might be.
"I was a thief in the letter and spirit less than ten minutes back," I
humbly answered, "but now, sir, I have turned a leaf. I promise you
that the rest of the book shall read better than what has gone before."
Gilhooly passed his left hand across his forehead.
"Where--where am I?" he faltered.
"In the kingdom of Baigadd," I returned, "some distance out of the royal
city."
"Baigadd? Royal city? You talk strangely, Mr. Munn. Where is the
castle? Where are Meigs, Markham, and Popham? And Professor Quinn?
Are we";--he started forward and looked wildly around--"still in the
castle? But no, that can't be. You just said we were somewhere else.
I beg your pardon, Mr. Munn. I am confused and hardly know what I am
saying."
I began an explanation, going patiently into every detail, and when I
finally finished Gilhooly knew as much about our situation as I did.
For some time Gilhooly walked up and down the road, passing and
repassing the heap of gold. At last he paused beside it.
"We should return this treasure to its owner, Mr. Munn," said he, and he
dropped the black stone on the yellow pile. "From what you tell me,
this is a strange planet and strangely peopled. Yet there is
superstition here as well as in our native orb--as these wonder tales
about the Bolla will bear evidence."
"I think with you, sir," said I. "The Bolla is simply a fetish and its
miraculous powers are purely imaginary."
"That is the sensible way to look at it. Suppose we load our pockets
with the gold and start back with it to the city from whence it was
taken?"
I assented and suggested using our coats as improvised bags for the
easier transportation of the king's wealth, and we stripped to our shirt
sleeves and set about our work. In half an hour we had collected all
the scattered treasure, had bound it up in our coats and had started
back.
Gilhooly preserved a pensive silence. His thoughts were far away and he
seemed entirely oblivious of the fact that I was trudging along at his
side. It was only when we turned an angle in the road and came face to
face with Quinn, Meigs, Markham, and Popham that Gilhooly showed any
interest in our present situation.
*CHAPTER XVII.*
*A CHANGE OF HEART.*
The meeting between Gilhooly and his brother exiles was most affecting.
In the general joy at finding the ex-railway magnate restored to reason
the matter of the imperial exchequer was temporarily lost sight of.
And I think the man who rejoiced most over Gilhooly's returned sanity
was Quinn. The professor's beady little eyes were fairly glowing as he
caught and clung to Gilhooly's hand after the others had expressed their
pleasure and tendered congratulations.
"This is a glad day for me, Mr. Gilhooly!" exclaimed the professor. "I
had taken myself very much to task on account of your clouded mind."
"Your reproach of yourself was well merited," spoke up Meigs, who always
had a venomous shaft in his quiver for Quinn. "Small thanks to you that
our friend is himself again."
"Gently, Mr. Meigs, gently," came from Gilhooly. "I do not find
Professor Quinn in the wrong in any particular."
Popham, Meigs, and Markham regarded Gilhooly with open-mouthed amaze. I
think the professor also was startled; I know at least that I was.
"Do you mean to say, Mr. Gilhooly," cried Meigs, "that you can overlook
Quinn's criminal folly in casting us adrift in the unknown?"
"I cannot only overlook it," was the quiet response, "but I can forgive
it. Almost I am of the opinion that it was justifiable."
"Faugh!" rasped Meigs. "You have not recovered your reason after all or
you would not talk that way."
"Let us not engage in useless disputes, gentlemen," put in the
professor. "There is another affair to engage us. It was thought,"
Quinn went on, with an expressive look at me, "that Mr. Gilhooly had
fled the realm and taken the imperial exchequer with him."
"It was I who took the exchequer," said I, "and it is I who hope to
return it to the king."
"What about the Bolla?" queried Quinn, giving me a sharp look.
"It is here," said I, touching the makeshift bundle I was carrying under
my arm. "At least," I added, "there is a strange looking black stone
among the gold coins and I suppose it must be King Golbai's palladium."
"We were sent forth to look for Mr. Gilhooly and the stolen treasure,"
remarked the professor. "Olox and his Gaddbaizets are likewise on the
road, but we have been able to leave them pretty well in the rear."
"What was thought of my absence?" I asked.
"Very little, Mr. Munn. Every officer of the state seemed united in
fixing the blame upon Mr. Gilhooly. Since he was known to be mentally
unsound, no crime could be attached to his act."
"I shall tell the truth of it," I declared.
"And be condemned to death by zet," said the professor, gazing at me
fixedly.
"Let the king believe what he will," said Gilhooly. "I should rather
have it so since it means so much to Mr. Munn."
"Why did you not keep on to the other kingdom with the Bolla?" inquired
Quinn of me.
"Because I didn't think I should be doing the right thing," I replied.
"Ah! And why this sudden change in your sentiments, Mr. Munn?"
"I can't explain it, professor."
"I believe it is a theory of yours that one thief has the right to take
from another what does not belong to either of them."
"Two wrongs do not make a right."
"Indeed! The change in your sentiments is most sudden--and remarkable.
Will you please untie the sleeves of your coat and allow me to have a
look at that black stone?"