"You seem reluctant. Well, perhaps it is natural, in your present
ignorance. This is no vulgar criminal organisation that I have,
understand. I have taken certain measures to provide myself with the
necessary tools in the shape of money, and so forth, but my aims are
larger than you suspect--perhaps larger than you can understand. And
I work with a means more wonderful than you have experience of. For
instance, here is to-day's work. You know about the lost Naval Code, of
course--it is what you came about. That document is now lying in the
desk you stood by in the room where we spoke of paste grain book covers
and the like. It was there then at your elbow. It will be sold for many
thousands of pounds by to-morrow, and all the puny watchings and
dodgings that have been devised cannot prevent it. The money will go to
aid me in the attainment of the power of which you may have a part, if
you wish. The means of attaining this I scruple no more about than you
did to-day about the story of the bookbindings." He bowed with a slight
smile and went on.
"Come now, Mr. Brett, put aside your bourgeois prejudices and join me.
Your friend Plummer is coming gladly, I feel sure, and he will be
useful, too. And from what I have seen from Mr. Martin Hewitt, I have
no doubt I can make it right with him. If I can't it will be very bad
for him, I can assure you; you have heard and seen something of my
powers, and I need say no more. But Hewitt is a man of sense, and will
come in, of course, and you had better come with your friends. I want
one or two superior men. Mason--you know about Jacob Mason, of
course--Mason was a fool, and he was lost--inevitably. The others"--he
made a gesture of contempt--"they are mere vulgar tools. They will have
their rewards if they are faithful, of course; if not--well, you
remember Denson in the Samuel diamond business? He was _not_ faithful,
and there was an end of him. I may tell you that Denson was made an
example, for one was needed. I assigned him a certain operation, and,
having brought it to success, he endeavoured to embezzle--did
embezzle--the proceeds. He was made a conspicuous example, in a most
conspicuous public place, to impress the others. They didn't know _him_,
but they knew well enough what the Red Triangle meant! Ah, my excellent
recruit--for so I count you already--there is more in that little sign
than you can imagine! It is more than a sign--it is an implement of very
potent power; and you shall learn its whole secret in that little form
of initiation I spoke of. See now, a present example. Telfer, the
Admiralty clerk, gave up that document at my mere spoken word. He will
deny it to his dying day, and he will be ruined for the act; but he gave
me the paper himself, at my mere order. If he were one of my own--if he
had passed through the initiation I offer you, I would have protected
him; as it is, he must take his punishment, and though it is only I who
will benefit, he will still deny the fact! Ha! Mr. Brett, do you begin
to perceive that I do not boast when I tell of powers beyond your
understanding?"
Truly I was amazed, though I could not half understand. The
circumstances of the loss of the Admiralty code had been so
inexplicable, and now these incredible suggestions of the prime
actor in the matter were more mysterious still.
"Ha! you are amazed," he went on, "but if you will come further into my
counsels I will amaze you more. What are you now? A drudge of a
journalist, and if ever you make a thousand a year to feed yourself with
you will be lucky. Come to me and you shall be a man of power. There is
a place beyond the sea where I may be king, and you a viceroy. Don't
think I am raving! It is true enough that I am an enthusiast, but I have
power, power to do anything I please, I tell you! What are the greatest
powers among men on this earth? Some will say the pen, or the sword, or
love, or what not. Men of the world will say, money and lies; and they
will be very nearly right. Money and lies will move continents, but I
have one greater power still--the very apex of the triangle! That power
I revealed to Jacob Mason. He thought to betray it, and it killed him.
That power I will reveal to you, if you will accept the alternative I
offer."
"The alternative?"
"Yes, the alternative, for an alternative it is, of course. If you will
go through the form of initiation, I shall keep you here a little till I
can trust you--which will be very soon. But if not--well, Mr. Brett, I
wish to be as friendly as you please, but having been at the trouble of
catching you, and having got you here safely, you who know so much now,
you who could be so dangerous if you ever got away--eh? Well, you know
my methods, and you have seen them exemplified, and you will
understand."
There was no anger in his voice as he uttered this threat, nor even, I
thought, in his eyes. But what there was was worse.
"But I'm sure you will not make things unpleasant," he concluded. "You
will go through the little form I have arranged, if only for curiosity.
Just think over it for a moment, while I go to close my little office."
He took the lamp and turned away, but as he reached the angle of the
passage, there came a sound that checked his steps. I could hear a noise
of feet and hurried voices, and then suddenly arose a shout in a voice
which seemed to be Plummer's. "Here!" it cried. "Help! This way, Hewitt!
Brett!"
I shouted back at the top of my voice, wondering where Plummer was, and
what it might all mean. And with that Mayes turned, and I saw that he
was about to make for the door I had entered by. I resolved he should
not pass me if I could prevent it, and I sprang up and seized my chair
in my left hand, shouting aloud for help as I did so.
Mayes came with a bound, and flung his lighted lamp full at my head. It
struck the chair and smashed to a thousand pieces, and in that instant
of time Mayes was on me. Plainly he had no weapon, or he would have used
it; but I was at disadvantage enough, with my right wrist chained to the
wall. I clung with all my might, and endeavoured to swing my enemy round
against the wall in order that I might clasp my hands about him, and I
shouted my loudest as I did it. But the chair and the broken glass
hampered me, and Mayes was desperate. The agony in my right wrist was
unbearable, and just as I was conscious of a rush of approaching feet a
heavy blow took me full in the face, and I felt Mayes rush over me while
I fell and hung from the wrist.
I had a stunned sense of lights and voices and general confusion, and
then I remembered nothing.