THE COUNCIL OF THE OLIGARCHY
Precisely as Rudolph had forecast, things came to pass. I arrived at
the palace of the Prince at half past six; at half past seven, my
ordinary suit was covered with a braided livery, and I accompanied
Rudolph to the council-chamber. We placed the table, chairs, pens,
ink, paper, etc., in order. Watching our opportunity, we drew aside a
heavy box in which grew a noble specimen of the _cactus grandiflorus_
in full bloom, the gorgeous flowers just opening with the sunset, and
filling the chamber with their delicious perfume. I crawled through
the opening; took off my liveried suit; handed it back to Rudolph; he
pushed the box into its place again; I inserted the hooks in their
staples, and the barricade was complete. With many whispered
injunctions and directions he left me. I heard him go out and lock
the door--not the door by which we had entered--and all was silence.
There was room, by doubling up my limbs, Turk-fashion, to sit down in
the inclosure. I waited. I thought of Estella. Rudolph had assured me
that she had not been disturbed. They were waiting for hunger to
compel her to eat the drugged food. Then I wondered whether we would
escape in safety. Then my thoughts dwelt on the words she had spoken
of me, and I remembered the pleased look upon her face when we met in
Rudolph's room, and my visions became very pleasant. Even the dead
silence and oppressive solitude of the two great rooms could not
still the rapid beatings of my heart. I forgot my mission and thought
only of Estella and the future.
I was recalled to earth and its duties by the unlocking of the
farther door. I heard Rudolph say, as if in answer to a question:
"Yes, my lord, I have personally examined the rooms and made sure
that there are no spies concealed anywhere."
"Let me see," said the Prince; "lift up the tapestry."
I could hear them moving about the council-chamber, apparently going
around the walls. Then I heard them advancing into the conservatory.
I shrank down still lower; they moved here and there among the
flowers, and even paused for a few moments before the mass of
flowering cacti.
"That _flagelliformis_," said the Prince, "looks sickly. The soil is
perhaps too rich. Tell the gardener to change the earth about it."
"I shall do so, my lord," said Rudolph; and to my great relief they
moved off. In a few minutes I heard them in the council-chamber. With
great caution I rose slowly. A screen of flowers had been cunningly
placed by Rudolph between the cacti and that apartment. At last,
half-stooping, I found an aperture in the rich mass of blossoms. The
Prince was talking to Rudolph. I had a good view of his person. He
was dressed in an evening suit. He was a large man, somewhat
corpulent; or, as Rudolph had said, bloated. He had a Hebraic cast of
countenance; his face seemed to be all angles. The brow was square
and prominent, projecting at the corners; the nose was quite high and
aquiline; the hair had the look of being dyed; a long, thick black
mustache covered his upper lip, but it could not quite conceal the
hard, cynical and sneering expression of his mouth; great bags of
flesh hung beneath the small, furtive eyes. Altogether the face
reminded me of the portraits of Napoleon the Third, who was thought
by many to have had little of Napoleon in him except the name.
There was about Prince Cabano that air of confidence and command
which usually accompanies great wealth or success of any kind.
Extraordinary power produces always the same type of countenance. You
see it in the high-nosed mummied kings of ancient Egypt. There is
about them an aristocratic _hauteur_ which even the shrinking of the
dry skin for four thousand years has not been able to quite subdue.
We feel like taking off our hats even to their parched hides. You see
it in the cross-legged monuments of the old crusaders, in the
venerable churches of Europe; a splendid breed of ferocious
barbarians they were, who struck ten blows for conquest and plunder
where they struck one for Christ. And you can see the same type of
countenance in the present rulers of the world--the great bankers,
the railroad presidents, the gigantic speculators, the uncrowned
monarchs of commerce, whose golden chariots drive recklessly over the
prostrate bodies of the people.
And then there is another class who are everywhere the aides and
ministers of these oppressors. You can tell them at a glance--large,
coarse, corpulent men; red-faced, brutal; decorated with vulgar
taste; loud-voiced, selfish, self-assertive; cringing sycophants to
all above them, slave-drivers of all below them. They are determined
to live on the best the world can afford, and they care nothing if
the miserable perish in clusters around their feet. The howls of
starvation will not lessen one iota their appetite or their
self-satisfaction. These constitute the great man's world. He
mistakes their cringings, posturings and compliments for the approval
of mankind. He does not perceive how shallow and temporary and worse
than useless is the life he leads; and he cannot see, beyond these
well-fed, corpulent scamps, the great hungry, unhappy millions who
are suffering from his misdeeds or his indifference.
While I was indulging in these reflections the members of the
government were arriving. They were accompanied by servants, black
and white, who, with many bows and flexures, relieved them of their
wraps and withdrew. The door was closed and locked. Rudolph stood
without on guard.
I could now rise to my feet with safety, for the council-chamber was
in a blaze of electric light, while the conservatory was but
partially illuminated.
The men were mostly middle-aged, or advanced in years. They were
generally large men, with finely developed brows--natural selection
had brought the great heads to the top of affairs. Some were cleancut
in feature, looking merely like successful business men; others, like
the Prince, showed signs of sensuality and dissipation, in the baggy,
haggard features. They were unquestionably an able assembly. There
were no orators among them; they possessed none of the arts of the
rostrum or the platform. They spoke sitting, in an awkward,
hesitating manner; but what they said was shrewd and always to the
point. They had no secretaries or reporters. They could trust no one
with their secrets. Their conclusions were conveyed by the
president--Prince Cabano--to one man, who at once communicated what
was needful to their greater agents, and these in turn to the lesser
agents; and so the streams of authority flowed, with lightninglike
speed, to the remotest parts of the so-called Republic; and many a
man was struck down, ruined, crushed, destroyed, who had little
suspicion that the soundless bolt which slew him came from that
faraway chamber.
The Prince welcomed each newcomer pleasantly, and assigned him to his
place. When all were seated he spoke:
"I have called you together, gentlemen," he said "because we have
very important business to transact. The evidences multiply that we
are probably on the eve of another outbreak of the restless
_canaille_; it may be upon a larger scale than any we have yet
encountered. The filthy wretches seem to grow more desperate every
year; otherwise they would not rush upon certain death, as they seem
disposed to do.
"I have two men in this house whom I thought it better that you
should see and hear face to face. The first is General Jacob Quincy,
commander of the forces which man our ten thousand air-ships, or
_Demons_, as they are popularly called. I think it is understood by
all of us that, in these men, and the deadly bombs of poisonous gas
with which their vessels are equipped, we must find our chief
dependence for safety and continued power. We must not forget that we
are outnumbered a thousand to one, and the world grows very restive
under our domination. If it were not for the _Demons_ and the
poison-bombs, I should fear the results of the coming contest--with
these, victory is certain.
"Quincy, on behalf of his men, demands another increase of pay. We
have already several times yielded to similar applications. We are
somewhat in the condition of ancient Rome, when the prætorians
murdered the emperor Pertinax, and sold the imperial crown to Didius
Julianus. These men hold the control of the continent in their hands.
Fortunately for us, they are not yet fully aware of their own power,
and are content to merely demand an increase of pay. We cannot
quarrel with them at this time, with a great insurrection pending. A
refusal might drive them over to the enemy. I mention these facts so
that, whatever demands General Quincy may make, however extravagant
they may be, you will express no dissatisfaction. When he is gone we
can talk over our plans for the future, and decide what course we
will take as to these troublesome men when the outbreak is over. I
shall have something to propose after he leaves us."
There was a general expression of approval around the table.
"There is another party here to-night," continued the Prince. "He is
a very shrewd and cunning spy; a member of our secret police service.
He goes by the name of Stephen Andrews in his intercourse with me.
What his real name may be I know not.
"You are aware we have had great trouble to ascertain anything
definitely about this new organization, and have succeeded but
indifferently. Their plans seem to be so well taken, and their
cunning so great, that all our attempts have come to naught. Many of
our spies have disappeared; the police cannot learn what becomes of
them; they are certainly dead, but none of their bodies are ever
found. It is supposed that they have been murdered, loaded with
weights and sunk in the river. This man Andrews has so far escaped.
He works as a mechanic--in fact, he really is such--in one of the
shops; and he is apparently the most violent and bitter of our
enemies. He will hold intercourse with no one but me, for he suspects
all the city police, and he comes here but seldom--not more than once
in two or three months--when I pay him liberally and assign him to
new work. The last task I gave him was to discover who are the
leaders of the miserable creatures in this new conspiracy. He has
found it very difficult to obtain any positive information upon this
point. The organization is very cunningly contrived. The Brotherhood
is made up in groups of ten. No one of the rank and file knows more
than nine other members associated with him. The leaders of these
groups of ten are selected by a higher power. These leaders are again
organized in groups of ten, under a leader again selected by a higher
power; but in this second group of ten no man knows his fellow's name
or face; they meet always masked. And so the scale rises. The highest
body of all is a group of one hundred, selected out of the whole
force by an executive committee. Andrews has at length, after years
of patient waiting and working, been selected as one of this upper
hundred. He is to be initiated to-morrow night. He came to me for
more money; for he feels he is placing himself in great danger in
going into the den of the chief conspirators. I told him that I
thought you would like to question him, and so he has returned again
to-night, disguised in the dress of a woman, and he is now in the
library awaiting your pleasure. I think we had better see him before
we hear what Quincy has to say. Shall I send for him?"
General assent being given, lie stepped to the door and told Rudolph
to bring up the woman he would find in the library. In a few moments
the door opened and a tall personage, dressed like a woman, with a
heavy veil over her face, entered. The Prince said:
"Lock the door and come forward."
The figure did so, advanced to the table and removed the bonnet and
veil, disclosing the dark, bronzed face of a workman--a keen, shrewd,
observant, watchful, strong face.