Her lips twitched bitterly. There was a faint note of pleasure in
his voice. Evidently he was pleased to get rid of her! "I will go
at once," she said.
Terhune guided her to the door, and when he came back Apor was with
him.
"Shall I light up now? The window is well covered," asked Terhune.
"Yes, yes. I am tired of the gloom."
When the candle was alight Apor turned to Wenzel.
"My only hope was that you would be here, though how I even guessed
that you might be I do not know. Telepathy, no doubt. How did you
get here? There is not a single train running."
"Walked here," Wenzel grunted.
Apor whistled in surprise, and gazed at his leader with admiration in
his eyes. "It must have been a hard walk, Wenzel. For myself, I
confiscated a motor-car and left it in the woods three miles away.
Wenzel, if ever your help is needed, it is now, at once. The Devil's
let loose.
"Just after three to-day the news came through to the Council that a
counter-revolution had broken out in Bira. There was an uproar.
Szamuelly said that if the Soviet were to reign supreme all
counter-movements must be squashed. For three hours he pleaded for a
free hand to take his Death Train to Bira to settle the revolution
his own way, but there were some there who hesitated at the idea. In
the end he won. I left at once and searched Budapest for you or
Terhune. I found no trace, and something prompted me to try here.
"Wenzel, some time to-night the Death Train will leave Budapest for
Bira. If it ever gets there, God help the poor devils! Szamuelly is
a fiend incarnate. Something must be done to stop him arriving. If
we can but delay him twenty-four--or even twelve--hours one of us
might get there in the meantime, break the movement up, and get the
ringleaders of it to flee for their lives."
Wenzel nodded his head. "You are right, Apor. How many miles is it
to Bira from here?"
"Seventy."
"Good! Then give Arnold your car. Arnold, you must go at once to
Bira. Fortunately only to-day I bought a map. Here it is. Drive
like Hell! You ought to be there at the very most in six hours. In
the meantime somehow or other we must delay the Death Train."
"But how?" It was Apor who put the question.
Wenzel shrugged his shoulders. An eloquent answer! There followed a
silence while each of the three men racked their brains in an effort
to elucidate the problem. The minutes ticked by. Then, suddenly,
Wenzel turned to Apor:
"The line which runs in the valley the other side of the hill--is
that the direction to Bira?" There was hope in his voice.
Apor nodded. "Yes!" he said, but his expression was puzzled.
Noticing it Wenzel laughed slightly. "Our course is clear, Apor, but
we must hurry. You and I have work to do. While Arnold hurries to
Bira we will go down into the valley. There are plenty of tall trees
there."
"Well?" Still Apor did not understand.
"Don't you see?" explained Wenzel impatiently. "Arnold has a saw.
We will fell one of the trees and drag it across the lines. It will
be apt to stop any train which comes along; the quicker it is
travelling the better havoc there will be."
There dawned in Apor's eyes a smile of triumph which slowly travelled
down to his mouth. "What a wreck! If there arc not a few dead Lenin
Boys afterwards----" Suddenly he snarled: "The murderous brutes! I
hope to God it may kill every one of them and smash the Death Train
to pieces!"
Wenzel smiled cruelly. "Maybe it will, Apor. Maybe it will. Now
go, you, Arnold, to the car, and on to Bira, and you, Apor, bring me
that saw."
He chuckled as his two followers rapidly made their exit from the
room. Then he blew out the candle, and moving to the window drew
aside the overcoat which covered it and gazed into the night. There
was no compunction in his heart for what he was about to do--in fact,
it was not of Szamuelly and the Death Train of which he thought, but
Gonnard, the murderer of Elizabeth's cousin.
"And afterwards," he whispered to himself--"afterwards.... Take
heed, Comrade Gonnard, the White Knight is on your track. May you
sleep well to-night! You have not many more nights left."
_CHAPTER IX_
The darkness of the woods was overpowering. When Wenzel ventured
out, followed by Terhune and Apor, he wondered how they were all
going to find their separate ways, but when he mentioned this to Apor
the Hungarian laughed.
"Do not worry. I shall be able to guide you to the valley. As for
Terhune," he turned to Arnold, "keep that star immediately above that
distant pine--the one over there on the peak--always in the same
position, and you will find yourself right on the road. Then walk to
your left until you come to the car. Keep straight on for two miles,
when you will arrive at cross-roads, take the right-hand road, and
after that--well, follow the map, and remember to take care of the
petrol. It will only just be sufficient, I am afraid."
They saw Terhune stumbling through the trees, hands outstretched to
warn him of impeding obstacles, before they continued their own way.
After he had been following Apor for a short distance, it appeared to
Wenzel that the pseudo-Communist found his way with uncanny ease.
When he said so Apor laughed. "You forget, Wenzel, I was born in
these parts, and in my younger days there were no automobiles. We
had to horseback everywhere, and so became accustomed to making our
way about in the dark."
Soon they reached the summit. "The valley is before us," Apor
announced.
"How the Devil can you tell? Gad! it looks to me as black as the
nether regions. You must have cat's eyes."
Apor laughed. "A result of upbringing. I cannot really see, so that
it is probably instinct which enables me to move about so easily."
He led the way, Wenzel following close on his heels, and for some
minutes they proceeded downward into the valley. Then Apor stopped.
"Can you hear anything?" he asked, in a puzzled voice.
Wenzel listened acutely, but caught no sound other than the slight
movement of trees, the rustle of scuttling animals, and the grumbling
chirrup of disturbed birds.
"What kind of a noise do you mean?"