THE EXPLOSION
But the sight of the wicked looking little gun in Dick's hand stopped
his rush. Mouthing his words, venomous hate in his eyes, he checked
himself.
"What do you want, you little devil?" he said, grittingly.
"Turn around!" said Dick, savagely. Somehow that wild rush that had
stopped just as the man's cruel arms were about to close about him had
aroused something in Dick that he had never felt before. For the first
time he knew what it meant to see red. He felt that he would like to
have Hallo down and beat him with his fists, with the butt of his
pistol--with anything, if it would only hurt his enemy enough!
Hallo tried to meet his eyes for a moment. Then he turned round, so that
his back was to Dick. The scout pressed the muzzle of the little
automatic, that, despite its tiny proportions, was still such a deadly
weapon, into the small of Hallo's back.
"Do you feel that?" he said. "And do you know that I can't miss when
you're so close to me? Don't think I am afraid to shoot because I tell
you right now, Mike Hallo, that I'll fire the first time you don't do
exactly as I say."
"You'll pay for this!" said Hallo, furiously. "This isn't America, with
its lynchings, where people can take the law into their own hands."
"You needn't sneer at America!" said Dick, with cold anger in his voice.
"You earned a good living there, and made a small fortune--and you stole
another! Now, then, step forward! Slowly--and go straight ahead until I
tell you to turn."
With a snarl Hallo obeyed. And Dick, as he went along behind him,
keeping the pistol in such a position that he could use it on the
instant, began to talk to him.
"You're a joke, Mike Hallo," he said, contemptuously. "The next time you
try to swindle someone, don't pick an American family. You thought you
were safe here, because we didn't have the money to hire big lawyers to
go after you, didn't you? You never expected to see me here in Semlin.
And when you did, you thought you'd fixed me by getting them to arrest
me!"
"I had nothing to do with that," protested Hallo. His blustering, savage
mood seemed to be passing, and he was disposed to cringe.
"Oh, no!" said Dick. "Of course not! You didn't want me to be driven out
of Semlin! You wanted me to stay here and get back the money you stole
from my father. You don't care anything about money, either, I suppose?
Oh, no! You don't care any more about money than you do about your right
hand! You wouldn't do anything to turn a dishonest penny except murder
and treason and robbery, would you?"
"Dick, I've always been friendly to you and your family," said Hallo,
tremulously. "I'm half an American. I tell you what I'll do. We'll let
bygones be bygones. I lost more than your family did in the failure,
back there in New York, of course. But I've done pretty well since I
came home here to Hungary."
"I should think so!" said Dick. "How much has the Austrian government
paid you for the spy's work you have done? Why, you even cheated your
government! You're not even a patriot!"
For the first time, seemingly, Hallo guessed that Dick might have
something to do with the enemies he really feared--the Servians with
whom he had been playing fast and loose for weeks.
"What do you mean by that?" he cried, turning half around in his
eagerness.
Dick jammed the pistol into his ribs to remind him of it.
"Go on! Keep your face turned away from me! I don't like the looks of
it!" he said, viciously.
"Do you know Stepan Dushan?" asked Hallo.
"You'd like to know, wouldn't you?" said Dick.
"See here, Dick, there's no use in your being angry at me any more.
Perhaps I was mistaken. I will tell you, in any case, what I will do. I
will overlook everything that you have done here in Semlin, and I will
arrange to have the police charge against you withdrawn. That is a very
serious matter, let me tell you. If I did not have a great deal of
influence with the big people here it would be quite impossible to
arrange it. And I will give you, besides, twenty-five thousand dollars!"
Dick laughed.
"Go on," he said. "Walk faster!"
"Thirty-five thousand--"
"If you offered a million, I would believe you just as easily," said
Dick. "I know you for just what you are, Mike Hallo! You're a low down
liar and cheat and swindler, and I wouldn't believe you under oath. If I
accepted your proposition, you'd never pay me a cent, and you'd do your
best to get me into prison here besides."
"No--no--I'm telling you the truth, Dick! I will do it, I swear it! Do
you think I have no gratitude? It is of the greatest possible importance
that I should be free at once to attend to some pressing business!"
"It isn't half so important as you think, Mike," said Dick, with a
laugh. "And you're attending to some very pressing business right now,
too. The most pressing business you ever had in your life is to keep
right on walking the way I tell you to and moving as fast as you can,
too."
"But, Dick, I tell you I shall be ruined if you make me go on! How can I
pay back the money you came for if I am ruined?"
"I don't know--and I'm not trying to guess riddles to-night. It seems to
agree with you pretty well to be ruined, though. You made a lot of money
out of being ruined in New York, didn't you?"
"Dick, I have known you since you were a baby! Your father was my best
friend--"
"Don't remind me of that!" said Dick, angrily. He had been a little
amused by Hallo's desperate pleading, but this reference to his father,
whom the man before him had treated so outrageously, revived his anger.
"The best chance you've got to get through right now is for me to forget
about how friendly you were with my father and how you began to cheat
him as soon as he was dead and couldn't watch you any longer!"
"Dick, I will make a last appeal! In the safe in my office there is
money--a great sum of money! You can have all of it--every florin! There
is much more there than you ever said I owed your mother! The
combination of the safe is written in the pocket book in my right hand
pocket. Take it out--go back and get the money. I will write out an
order for you to take it--I will write out an admission that I cheated
your family! Only, let me go before it is too late!"
"No--nothing doing! Straight ahead!"
Perhaps there was a certain note of finality in Dick's voice; perhaps
Hallo was just trying to think of some new temptation to put before him.
He was silent, at any rate and so, for a minute, was Dick. Dick was
really greatly amused by Hallo's pleadings. And now he could not resist
a dig. It was revenge, and he took it without delay.
"This ought to be a lesson to you, Mr. Hallo," he said. "I remember that
when I was a little bit of a chap you were always telling me
that--saying that this thing or that ought to be a lesson to me. Do you
remember?"
Hallo did not answer.
"You did, anyhow. Well, this ought to teach you that a business man
ought always to act so that people trust him. You haven't, you see.
People know you're a liar and a cheat, and so they don't believe you
even when you are telling the truth. You may have meant to do all the
things you've promised me to-night, but how could I take a chance on you
when I knew the truth about the way you've acted before? A reputation's
a good thing--I've always heard that, and now I know it."
Dick chuckled, but Hallo made no sound of any sort. Dick could imagine,
however, the workings of his mind, and he did not envy the helpless man
in front of him. Neither was he sorry for him. If Hallo was in a bad
way, he had himself to thank for it. Dick could respect him, in a way,
for his dealings with the Servians and the whole conduct of the man in
his relations with the Austrian authorities and the enemy. He might be a
good patriot. All the things he had done in connection with the sale of
supplies to the army and the attempts he had made to break up the
Servian system of espionage might be perfectly legitimate.
Even though Dick was heart and soul on the Servian side, he could
respect any sincerely patriotic Austrian or Hungarian. But he doubted
whether Hallo was capable of being either sincere or patriotic; he had
an idea that the man was a patriot simply because he saw a chance to
make money out of his patriotism.
"He is in a bad way, though," Dick thought. "They'll blame him for all
the things that have gone wrong, and if he has acted here the way he did
in New York, they'll believe that he did it deliberately too. They won't
give him the benefit of the doubt; they'll be sure he was a traitor,
instead of just a fool, and he will suffer for it too."
Dick was keeping his pistol carefully concealed. Whenever anyone came in
sight, to whom Hallo might have appealed for aid, he reminded him of the
existence of the pistol by tickling his ribs with it. But very few
people were abroad. It was late, and Dick was purposely choosing
unfrequented streets.
For more than the first time Dick was deeply grateful for his excellent
bump of locality, which his service with the Boy Scouts had done so much
to develop. It was comparatively easy for him to follow the course he
had planned, and he knew that with every step they were getting further
from the heart of Semlin and nearer the boathouse which was his
destination. There was every reason to suppose, too, that he would not
have to handle Hallo single-handed much longer. Behind him, when he
glanced back from time to time, the trail was plainly marked by the
little scatterings of corn.
"I'm glad it's night time," he reflected, with a grin. "In daylight
there would be birds after that corn, and it wouldn't serve as a trail
for very long. But it's good fun; it's like a paper chase, or hare and
hounds. Only this time the hare wants to be caught!"
Then he thought of Hallo, and decided that at least one of the hares
wasn't anxious to be caught at all.
"Still he doesn't know what I'm doing, I guess," thought Dick, "There's
no use in spoiling the pleasure of this little walk for him by telling
him, either. He'll know soon enough, if I have any luck."
They were in open country by this time, with very few houses in sight.
Suddenly Hallo broke out.
"Where are you taking me?" he cried, fearfully.
"Oh, you're beginning to recognize the route now, are you? Yes, we're
going back to the place you came away from in such a hurry not so very
long ago!"
"You were there!" said Hallo; suddenly, "I thought I knew your voice--in
the boathouse! That was you who came in the launch?"
"I don't have to answer," said Dick. "Hurry along! You slow up when you
talk. And your talk isn't interesting enough to make it worth while to
delay."
"I--"
Whatever Hallo meant to say was never finished. For suddenly the ground
shook, and there was a dreadful roar. A huge flash lit up the sky, and
behind them bedlam seemed to break loose. There was a succession of
reports, like repeated volleys of rifle fire, and sometimes a louder
roar.
"There goes the arsenal, so you can quit worrying," said Dick. "Even if
I let you go now, you couldn't prevent that, could you? Oh, I knew what
you were driving at, all the time!"