THE HOUSE DESOLATE
The echo of the shot which had struck down Sir Augustus Kirwan had
hardly died away when two of the police inspectors, accompanied by Eric
Black, rushed into one of the open doorways of the court. Their feet
could be heard thundering up the rickety, wooden stairs of the old
house, as Joseph and Sir Thomas Ducaine knelt, horror-struck, by the
side of the dead man, while the others crowded round in uncontrollable
dismay.
Joseph himself seemed absolutely stunned for a moment. And it was Sir
Thomas's firm and capable hands which were moving rapidly over Sir
Augustus' chest, endeavoring to test the movement of the heart.
The young Duke of Dover was talking rapidly and in an undertone with the
police inspector, and pointing upwards to the black, unglazed
window-hole from which the smoke of the shot was still eddying out.
The whole series of events had occurred in a mere flash of time, with an
astonishing swiftness which seemed to outstrip or to numb the lightning
operations of thought itself.
There they stood in a group, stiffened and frozen into momentary
immobility. The tall figure of Joseph bent over the empty shell which
lay upon the ground; the others clustered round, with wan faces of
horror. The peer had his right hand upon the shoulder of the inspector
and his left extended to the black and silent orifice above. And still
the thunder of the feet of Eric Black and his companions could be heard
as they raced upwards towards the room of the assassin.
Then suddenly, as if the noise of the shot, which now must have been
fired for at least thirty-five or forty seconds, had awakened a sleeping
population, a murmur arose like the murmur of a hive of bees suddenly
disturbed.
It arose, grew louder and louder, resolved itself into tumultuous and
divided voices, and then, from every doorway, the foul, mocking, and
unclean denizens of the worst slum in London came pouring, trotting, and
slouching out of their lairs.
The air was immediately filled with a horrid clamor, and to the keen,
attentive ears of, at any rate, the Duke and the policeman, there seemed
something ungenuine in the sound--that is to say, it was not the
instinctive product of real surprise, but as though the people who had
suddenly appeared out of what had seemed silence and desolation were
well aware that this was going to happen.
Of this Joseph and Sir Thomas Ducaine, who were lifting the portly body
of the great financier, saw and understood nothing at all.
Just as Joseph and Sir Thomas, assisted by the others, were supporting
the limp figure in their arms, the remaining inspector lifted his
whistle to his lips and blew a loud and piercing call.
At the sound, the horrid crowd which surrounded the little group of
death suddenly grew silent. They knew that ominous summons very well; it
was in their blood to know it, for to many of them it had been a note of
doom.
The silence continued for a very short time, and was only broken in one
significant and instinctive way.
A tall, thin man, with a face which was a sheer wedge of sin and bestial
impulse, suddenly pressed to the front of the crowd, where his eyes fell
upon Joseph.
The inspector heard him say, in a quick, vibrating voice to some one at
his side whom the inspector could not see--
"The wrong bloke!"
The whistle had its effect, and in a space of time which would have
suggested to any one who had thought of it that the police arrangements
for guarding the distinguished company which had ventured into these
dark places were more complete than that company itself had any idea of,
several uniformed constables came hurrying into the court.
The crowd of slum-dwellers melted away as a small piece of ice in the
sun, and, save that the doors and low windows of the surrounding houses
were now thronged with interested faces, the group in the middle of the
place was free of interruption.
Three stalwart constables lifted up the body and bore it away. Joseph
and the rest of his friends filed in a horror-struck procession.
The Teacher's head was bowed. His thin, white hands were clasped in
front of him, and the tears were rolling down his cheeks.
Hampson was at his side, and as he looked up at his old comrade once
more he was thrilled to the very marrow, even as he had been thrilled on
that strange eventful afternoon when the two great beams of wood had
fallen from on high and struck down Joseph Bethune in the form of a
cross.
For what Hampson now saw in his quick, imaginative brain, accustomed as
it was to constant artistic images of the past, when Jesus walked in
Jerusalem, was now the tall, bowed figure of the Saviour with wrists
bound in front of Him, moving towards the shameful death which was to
save and regenerate mankind.
Another scene in the Via Dolorosa!
It was now the middle of the afternoon. With magic celerity, even in
that poverty-stricken district, carriages were found, and an ambulance
brought from an adjacent police-station.
Then, through the crowded streets of the East, the long and busy
thoroughfares of Fleet Street and the Strand, into the wide and spacious
district where the rich dwell, the sad procession took its way.
And of all the crowds of busy humans that moved and ran about their
business, no one suspected what these vehicles might mean. They passed
through the busiest centres of the Modern Babylon without an indication
or word of the true import of their passage.
Only Eric Black, who had come back disheartened with the two
police-officers from a hurried yet interminable search among the huge
and fetid warrens of the murder-hole, was speeding towards the office of
the _Evening Wire_--the afternoon edition of the great daily--his heart
full of pity and terror, while yet his keen journalistic brain was
weaving burning words and sentences with which to announce what had
happened to London.
The _cortège_ arrived at last at the great house in Berkeley Square.
The day, which had begun brightly enough, was as if the elements in
London were sympathetic to the tragedy in which one of her foremost
citizens had perished. They were now beginning to throw a heavy and
thunderous gloom over the City.
Swiftly, while the frightened and white-faced servants stood speechless
in the hall, the body of Sir Augustus Kirwan was borne into the library,
and the family physician sent for at once. One of the police inspectors
remained in the house; the other hurried off to Scotland Yard to give
his version of the affair, though by now all the district in which the
murder had occurred was being thoroughly searched, and guarded on all
sides by special police, who had been summoned by telephone from various
parts of the metropolis.
Marjorie Kirwan was away upon a short visit to some friends. Lady Kirwan
was, fortunately, out when the body of her husband was brought into the
house.
In a very few minutes the doctor arrived, and after a brief
examination, announced what all present knew only too well--that the
baronet had been shot through the heart, and that the death had been
painless and instantaneous.
The blinds in front of the house were all pulled down, and the butler
was interrogated as to the whereabouts of Lady Kirwan by The Duke and
Sir Thomas Ducaine.
"I'm sure I have no idea, my lord and Sir Thomas," said the faithful old
fellow, with the tears rolling down his cheeks, "where my lady has gone.
I know that she went out shortly after lunch, on foot. She said that she
did not wish for the motor-brougham or a carriage. Sometimes of an
afternoon my lady likes to go out on foot, for the sake of a little
exercise; and the day being fine, it must have tempted her."
"Her maid will know, perhaps," Sir Thomas replied.
"I'm afraid not, sir," the butler answered, "for I know that Mrs.
Summers has my lady's permission to visit her relatives at Camberwell
this afternoon."
"Then," Sir Thomas replied, "where is Miss Lys?"
"I can answer that," Joseph replied sadly. "She is working up in
Bloomsbury, at the house of the Brotherhood."
"She must be sent for at once," Sir Thomas answered. "Indeed, in a few
minutes, I will go for Mary myself, and break this terrible news to her.
It will be a frightful blow to my poor girl; but she is so strong and
self-reliant that she will be invaluable to receive Lady Kirwan when
she returns, and to break this awful news, as only a woman, and such a
woman as Mary is, could possibly do."
For a moment the young man's face lit up with love and tenderness, even
in the presence of death, as he thought of the sweet and noble lady who
had already given some of the best years of her life to the healing of
sorrow, and who alone, in this great crisis, cost her what it might,
could be depended upon to help the widow through the dark hours that lay
before.
Now it happened that Lady Kirwan had indeed not gone very far. A few
streets away from Berkeley Square there was a quiet little shop which
was kept by a society of ladies who had interested themselves in the
revival of fine lace manufacture in England. Girls were being taught all
over the country to produce gossamer fabrics as beautiful as anything
made in the hamlets around Ghent and Brussels or in the Beguinage at
Bruges. Lady Kirwan was a patroness of the movement, and on this
afternoon she had walked round to discuss the question of profit-sharing
with the lady who was in charge of the establishment.
Lady Kirwan liked to carry her own latchkey when she went out on little
excursions of this sort, when there was no groom to run up the steps and
open the front door. She had taken her key with her on this afternoon,
and after doing the business for which she had set out, returned
homewards in a peculiarly happy state of mind, which even the heavy
atmosphere and lowering approach of thunder failed to disturb.
The lace business was going well, and the poor girls all over the
country would have a substantial bonus added to their earnings. And
other more important things contributed to the kindly woman's sense of
goodwill. Mary's engagement to Sir Thomas Ducaine was in itself a cause
for immense congratulation. Despite all Mary's stupid ways--as Lady
Kirwan was accustomed to call them--in spite of all the wasted years in
the hospital, the girl had, nevertheless, captured one of the most
eligible young men in London, and her wedding would be one of the
greatest events in the modern history of the family of Lys. Marjorie
also seemed to be more than a little attracted by the young Duke of
Dover. He was a peer of very ancient lineage, upright, an honorable
gentleman, and very well liked in society. That he was not rich made no
difference whatever. The Kirwans' own enormous wealth would be lavished
at the disposal of the young couple. And, finally, at a great political
reception a few nights ago, the Prime Minister had taken Lady Kirwan
into supper, and had told her, without any possibility of mistake, that
in a week or two more the great services of Sir Augustus to the
Government, and the financial weight exerted at a critical moment, which
had forced a foreign Power to modify its demands, were to receive high
recognition, and that the baronetcy was to be exchanged for the rank of
viscount.
As Lady Kirwan, smiling and stately, ascended the steps of her house in
Berkeley Square, and took from her reticule the tiny Bramah key which
unlocked the massive portal, she felt she had not a care in the world,
and was a woman blessed indeed.
"We must get rid of this Joseph fellow now," she thought, as she
inserted the key. "He has played his part well enough in bringing Mary
and Thomas together; but I don't think it will be advisable, even though
he is a fashionable pet at present, to have very much to do with him. I
never cared very much for the man, and it is awkward to have him about
the house. One can always send him a cheque now and then for his good
works!"
The door swung open, and she entered the hall. At the moment there was
nobody there--a fact which she noted for a future word of remonstrance,
as a footman was always supposed to sit there at all times. But from the
farther end of the hall, from the library, the door of which was a
little ajar, her quick ear detected a murmur of voices in the silence.
She took a step or two forward, when suddenly Sir Thomas Ducaine came
striding quickly and softly out of the library, the door closing quietly
behind him.
"Ah, Tom, my dear boy!" Lady Kirwan said. "So you are all back, then? I
do hope you're not fatigued by those terrible places that you've all
been to see. Horrible it must have been? Don't forget that you are
dining with us to-night. Mary has promised to leave her nonsense up at
Bloomsbury and be home in time, so we shall have a pleasant family
dinner. Where is Augustus? Is he in the library?"
Then Lady Kirwan noticed something strange in the young man's face. The
color had all ebbed from it; it was white with a horrid, ghastly
whiteness, that absolutely colorless white one sees on the under side of
a turbot or a sole.
"Good gracious!" she said, with slightly faltering voice. "Are you ill,
Tom? Why, what is the matter? Has anything happened?"
The young man's brain was whirling. Lady Kirwan's sudden and unexpected
appearance had driven all his plans and self-control to the winds. He
shook with fear and agitation. He tried to speak twice, but the words
rattled in his mouth with a hollow sound.
The current of fear ran from him to the tall and gracious dame who stood
before him, and flashed backwards and forwards between the two like a
shuttle--in the loom of Fate.
"What is it?" she said, in a high-pitched voice. "Tell me at once!"
As she spoke the hall suddenly became filled with silent
servants--servants whose faces were covered with tears, and who stood
trembling around the vast, luxurious place.
The dame's eyes swept round in one swift survey. Then, suddenly, she
drew herself to her full height.
"Where is Augustus?" she said in a low, vibrating voice that thrilled
the heart of every person there with pain. "Where is my husband?"
"Sir Augustus, my dear Lady Kirwan," Sir Thomas began to gasp, with
tears running down his cheeks--"Sir Augustus is very ill; but----"
He got no further, Lady Kirwan began to move quickly, as if some dread
instinct had told her the truth, towards the library door.
"No, no, dear Lady Kirwan," Sir Thomas said--"don't go!"
She brushed him aside as if he had been a straw in her path, and the
terrified group of people saw her burst upon the great white-painted
door which led to the chamber of death.
There was a silence, an agonized silence of several seconds, and then
what all expected and waited for came.
A terrible cry of anguish pealed out into the house, a cry so wild and
despairing that the very walls seemed to shudder in fearful sympathy.
A cry, repeated thrice, and then a choking gurgle, which in its turn
gave way to a deep contralto voice of menace.
Inside the library Lady Kirwan reeled by the long table upon which the
still form of the man she loved lay hushed for ever in death. One arm
was thrown around the rigid, waxen face, the left was outstretched with
accusing finger, and pointing at Joseph the evangelist.
"It is you!" the terrible voice pealed out. "It is you, false prophet,
liar, murderer, who have brought a good man to his end! It was you who
killed my dear, dear nephew Lluellyn upon the hills of our race! It is
you--who have come into a happy household with lying wiles and sneers
and signs and tokens of your master Satan, whom you serve--who have
murdered my beloved! May the curse of God rest upon you! May you wither
and die and go to your own place and your own master--you, who have
killed my dear one!"
Then there was a momentary silence, once more the high despairing wail
of a mind distraught, a low, shuddering sigh, and a heavy thud, as Lady
Kirwan fell upon the floor in a deep and merciful swoon.
As Sir Thomas, who had hitherto stood motionless in the middle of the
hall, turned and went swiftly back into the library, the Teacher came
out with bowed head, and passed silently to the front door. No one
assisted him as he opened it and disappeared.
How he arrived at the old house in Bloomsbury, Joseph never knew.
Whether on foot, or whether in some vehicle, he was unable to say, on
thinking over the events afterwards. Nor did any one see him enter the
house. The mystery was never solved.
With bowed head, he mounted the stairs towards the long common-room
where his friends and disciples were wont to gather together.
Opening the door, he entered. By a dying fire, with a white, strained
face, stood Hampson, who had only accompanied the funeral carriage up to
a certain point in its progress towards Berkeley Square, and, urged by
some inexplicable impulse, had descended from his carriage during a
block in the traffic, and made straight for the headquarters of the
Brotherhood.
As Joseph entered, the little journalist gave a great sigh of relief.
"At last," he said--"at last!"
"My friend, and my more than brother," the Teacher answered, in a voice
broken with emotion, "where is our dear sister--where is Mary?"
"The Lord came to Mary," Hampson answered in a deep and awe-stricken
voice, "and she has obeyed His command. I came here, knowing that the
brethren were all out upon their business, save only our dear Mary, who
was waiting for two poor women who were to come and be relieved. As I
entered the square I saw the women coming away with glad, bright
faces--they were women I had known in the past, and whom I myself had
recommended to Mary. I entered the house, and I found our sister in the
room upon the right-hand side of the hall. I was about to greet her, and
hoped to be able to break the terrible news to her, when I saw that her
face was raised, her eyes were closed, her hands were clasped before
her, as if in prayer. She seemed to be listening, and I waited. Suddenly
her eyes opened, her hands fell, and she came back to the world, seeing
me standing before her."
"Brother," she said, and her face was like the face of an angel,
"brother, there is one who needs me, needs my help and comfort in the
hour of tribulation and sorrow. God has sent a message to me, and I go
to her."
"With that she left the room and went swiftly away."
"Without doubt," Joseph answered, "God has summoned her to bring
consolation to the widow."
Hampson began a series of eager inquiries as to what had occurred in
Berkeley Square, as to what would happen, and what action would be
taken--a string of excited questions running one into the other, which
showed how terribly the good fellow was unstrung.
The Teacher checked the rapid flow of words with a single gesture.
"Brother," he said, "do you stay here and rest, and say no word to any
man of what has happened. For me, there yet remains something to be
done. I know not what; but this I do know--once more the message of the
Holy Spirit is about to come to me, and I am to receive directions from
on High."
Hampson watched the Teacher as he slowly left the room. At the door
Joseph turned and smiled faintly at his old and valued friend; and as he
did so, the journalist saw, with the old inexpressible thrill that light
upon the countenance which only came at the supreme moments when
Heavenly direction was vouchsafed to Joseph.
* * * * *
Upon her wrist Mimi Addington wore a little jewelled watch set in a thin
bracelet of aluminium studded with rubies.
She lifted her wrist almost to her eyes to mark the time. It was as
though the power of eyesight was obscured.
Lord Ballina was walking, almost trotting, rapidly up and down the
room--one has seen a captive wolf thus in its cage.
Andrew Levison sat upon the couch, his head supported upon his hands,
one foot stretched a little in front of him, and the boot tapping with
ceaseless, regular movement upon the heavy Persian rug.
"William is waiting at the garden gate to bring in the paper directly it
arrives," Mimi Addington said.
No one answered her. Lord Ballina went up and down the room. Andrew
Levison's foot, in its polished boot, went tap, tap, tap, as if it were
part of a machine.
Then they heard it--the hoarse, raucous cry--"Evenin' Special! Slum
Tragedy! 'Orrid Murder!" The words penetrated with a singular
distinctness into the tent-like Eastern room, with all its warmth and
perfume.
Three sharp cries of relief and excitement were simultaneously uttered
as the three people stood up in a horrid _tableau vivant_ of fear and
expectation.
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty seconds. "Oh, why does he not come?" And then
the door opens quietly, and a discreet manservant brings in a folded
pink paper upon a silver tray.
Mimi tears it open as the man withdraws, with a low and almost animal
snarl of triumph. Her eyes blaze out like emeralds. The beautiful red
lips are parted; hot breath pants out between them. Then she turns
suddenly white as linen. The paper falls from her hands, the life fades
from her face and eyes, the strength of movement from her limbs, and she
giggles feebly, as one bereft of reason.
Lord Ballina snatches up the paper, scans it with rapid eyes, and then
turns to Levison.
"They have killed the wrong man!" he says, with a terrible oath.
"They've murdered Sir Augustus Kirwan, and Joseph has gone free!"
Levison staggered towards him, leant on him, and read the shocking news
for himself.
Lord Ballina began to weep noisily, like a frightened girl.
"It's all up with us," he said; "it's all up with us! This is the end of
all of it, the hand of God is in it; we're done--lost, lost! There is no
forgiveness!"
Even as he said this the hangings which covered the noiseless outside
door were parted suddenly. Joseph himself stood there with one hand
raised above his head, and said unto them--
"Peace be unto you all in this household! Peace be unto you!"
The words, spoken in the Teacher's deep and musical voice, rang out in
the tented room like a trumpet.
The three conspirators were struck by them as if by some terrible
crushing physical force.
With dilated eyes and faces, which were scarcely human in their terror,
they crouched before the terrible apparition.
In that moment all remembrance of what they had just learnt from the
newspaper was blotted from their minds; they only thought that here was
one veritably risen from the dead, or come in spirit to denounce them.
The woman was the first to succumb. With a low, whimpering moan she
fell in a tumbled heap upon the floor. Neither the Jew nor the younger
man moved a finger to help her. They crouched trembling against the
opposite wall, and stared at the tall figure of the man they had tried
to murder.
Joseph stood looking upon them. His face was no index whatever to his
thoughts. In whatever spirit he had come they could define nothing of it
from his face, though the words which he had uttered as he appeared from
behind the hangings rang in their ears with a deep and ironical mockery
as if the bell of doom was tolling for them.
Once more Joseph raised his hands.
"Peace be unto you," he said again, as if blessing them. And then he
asked very gravely and calmly: "Why are you afraid of me?"
Again there was silence, until at last Levison, the Jew, with a
tremendous and heroic effort of self-control, pulled himself a little
together and essayed to speak.
"Do not prolong this scene, sir," he said, in a cracked, dry voice,
which seemed to come from a vast distance. "Have your men in at once and
take us away. It will be better so. You have won the game, and we must
pay the penalty. I suppose you have captured the men who made the
attempt upon your life, and"--here Levison remembered, with an added
throb of horror, how another had suffered in place of his intended
victim--"and who, unfortunately, killed another person in mistake for
you. So be it. We are ready to go."
The sound of the Jew's voice speaking thus, and calm with all the
hideous calmness of defeat and utter despair, had roused Lord Ballina's
sinking consciousness. As Levison concluded, the young man fell upon his
knees and almost crawled to the feet of the Master.
"It's all lies," he gasped--"it's all lies, sir! I don't know what he is
talking about, with his murders and things. I know nothing whatever
about it all. I wasn't in it. I assure you I'd nothing whatever to do
with it. It was he who did it all."
The livid young wretch extended a shaking hand of cowardly accusation,
and pointed it at his whilom friend.
Joseph looked down to the creature at his feet with a blazing scorn in
his eyes, and as he did so the Jew, who was still leaning upon the
opposite wall, as if too physically weak to move, broke in upon the end
of Lord Ballina's quavering exculpation.
"It's quite true, sir," he said to Joseph, though even in the hour of
his own agony the man's bitter contempt for the coward crept into his
voice and chilled it. "It is perfectly true, this young--er--gentleman,
Lord Ballina, knew nothing of the matters of which you speak. Nor can he
be connected with them in any way."
"Friend," said Joseph, very calmly, lifting his eyes from the thing that
crouched upon the floor below him--"friend, of what matters have I
spoken?"
Levison looked steadily at him. A puzzled expression crossed his
terror-stricken face for a moment, and then left it as before.
"Why quibble about words," he said, "at such a time as this? I beg you,
sir, to call in your detectives, and have me taken away at once. I, and
I only, am responsible for the attempt upon your life."
Here there came a sudden and even more dramatic interruption than
before. From the heap of shimmering draperies upon the floor by the
couch, which covered the swooning body of the actress, a head suddenly
protruded. It was like the head of a serpent coming slowly into view,
with flashing eyes of enmity and hate.
Mimi Addington rose with a slow and sinuous movement, a movement which,
if she could have reproduced it in ordinary life, and showed it upon the
stage, would, perhaps, have lifted her to the rank of the greatest
tragedy actress of this or any other era.
The movement was irresistible, like the slow, gliding erection of a
serpent. The head oscillated a little in front of the body, with a
curiously reptilian movement. The eyes were fixed in their steady and
unflinching glare of hate.
Levison stared, trembling, at the sudden and hideous apparition. All the
beauty had faded from the face. It was as the face of one lost and
doomed, the face of some malignant spirit from the very depths of
despair.
Then a hollow, hissing voice filled the place.
"They are both wrong," said the voice; "they are both wrong. It was I
who did this thing. I myself and no other. Whatever you may be, man or
spirit, I care not. It was I who set the men on to kill you, and the
death that you were to die was all too easy for you. I hate you with a
hatred for which there are no words. I would that I could inflict upon
you a death lasting many days of torture, and do it with my hands. And
then I would dance upon your grave. I hate you as woman never hated man
before. Before all the world you spurned me and showed me as I am. You
made me a laughing-stock to London, and a shame in the eyes of all men."
Her lifted hand was extended towards the Teacher.
Spellbound, unable to move or think, Levison saw that the silken feet,
from which the little bronze shoes had fallen, were gradually and
imperceptibly moving with the apparent immobility of the trained dancer
towards the tall figure by the door.
The awful voice went on, and into it, even in that moment of horrid
tragedy which at the beginning had given it some dignity, a note of
indescribable coarseness and vulgarity began to creep.
And all the time the Jew saw the little feet, in their stockings of pale
blue silk, were moving nearer and nearer. Then, suddenly, she leapt at
Joseph with a swift bound, like the bound of a panther, and without a
single sound.
She struck once, twice, thrice; but as the Jew watched he saw with an
awe and wonder more heart-stirring, more terrible than even the first
agony of terror, that she struck at least a foot away from the figure of
the Teacher--that is to say, her blows did not reach within more than a
foot of the grave, bearded man who stood regarding her. It was as though
Joseph was surrounded by some invisible aura, some unseen protection,
which rendered him invulnerable to all material attack. At the third
stroke the woman's arm fell to her side. She looked in a puzzled,
childlike way at the figure before her. The hate seemed to have suddenly
been wiped from her face, as a sponge wipes a chalk mark from a slate.
The light in her eyes was extinguished, they became dull and glassy; and
in a feeble, childlike fashion she brushed past the Teacher, now
unimpeded by any obstacle, and passed through the draperies into the
corridor beyond. They heard her laughing, in a mad and meaningless
merriment--the laughter of one whose brain is finally dissolved and
gone, and who will never more take part in the strife and councils of
men and women.
The laughter grew quieter as the mad woman wandered away down the
corridor.
Joseph stooped down to where Lord Ballina still crouched upon the floor.
He placed both hands beneath the young man's arms and lifted him to his
feet. He held him in front of him for a moment or two, and looked
steadily into his eyes. Then, bending forward, he kissed him on the
forehead.
"Brother," he said, "go, and sin no more."
The Jew heard the uncertain footsteps of the young viscount as he also
left the tented room--heard them tap, tap as they crossed those spaces
of the tiled floor of the hall which were not covered with rugs, and
then a moment afterwards the clang of the hall door.
Joseph and Andrew Levison were left alone.
The Jew exercised his self-control in a still greater measure than
before.
"And now, sir," he said, "since those two others have gone, and you have
before you the real criminal, do with me as you will. I should like to
ask you one thing, however, and that is this: I should like it to be
thoroughly understood at the trial that I, and I only, am responsible
for what has occurred. I am the murderer of Sir Augustus Kirwan, and
should have been your murderer far more really and truly than the
assassin whom I bribed to actually commit the deed. I was the
controlling brain and the instigator of the whole thing. Therefore I
hope that, guilty as my instrument may be, it will be recognized by
everybody concerned that he is not guilty to such an extent as I am
guilty. It would be an additional misery to me, though I don't put it
only on those grounds, if my creature also were to suffer the extreme
penalty of the law. And now I am quite ready."
Joseph turned, as Levison thought, to summon the police officers whom he
supposed had accompanied him.
Instead of doing that, Joseph closed the door and pulled the hangings
over it.
"Why did you seek to murder me?" he asked, in calm and gentle tones.
Levison began to tremble.
"It will seem incredible to you, sir," he said, in a low voice, "but you
stood in my way. You were destroying my business as a theatrical
manager, and you had very greatly angered my leading lady, the woman who
tried to kill you again just now."
Then, suddenly, the whirling brain of the theatrical manager remembered
the significance of what he had seen when Mimi Addington had dashed at
the Teacher with hate and murder in her eye.
"Who are you!" he said, terror mastering him once more. "Who are you
that Mimi could not reach you? Who are you? And how, now I come to think
of it, how could you be here so soon? What can it all mean? Who are
you?"
"Like you," the Teacher answered, "I am a son of God. For me as for you,
Christ Jesus died upon the Cross. You ask me questions, I will answer
them. There is no reason why I should not answer them. When I came to
this house I had no idea whom I should see, save only that here I should
find those who had plotted against my life. I was brought here by a
Power stronger than any human power. I was brought here by the hand of
God Who--blessed be His name!--orders my way and directs my path. And as
for your accomplice, the poor man who would have struck me down, and who
has slain one of the great ones of this earth, and one who might have
been a witness to the truth of God and the love of mankind, I know that
he will not be found. He has not been discovered, nor will he ever be by
human agency. He will pay the penalty for what he has done, as all must
pay the penalty for evil deeds, in sorrow and remorse. It may be that he
will not repent, and will not be forgiven. Of that I cannot speak,
because no knowledge has been vouchsafed to me. It may be, and I pray to
the Holy Trinity that it shall be so--that he will repent and be
forgiven, because he knew not what he did."
"But you know, sir," Levison answered--"you know who has been behind it
all. Take me swiftly, and do what has to be done. I beg and implore you
to delay no longer. I can make no defence, nor shall I try to do so. Who
you are, and what power is given to you, I don't know, nor can I
understand. But this one thing I know--that I am guilty, and am prepared
to pay the penalty for what I have done. I will go with you from this
sin-stricken house!"
"Yes," Joseph answered, "my brother, you will go with me, but not as you
think, to the hands of human law. It is not God's will that you should
suffer for what you have done at the hands of human justice. His will
towards you is very different, and I am come to be the humble instrument
of it. You will come with me, as you say; but you will come with me to
my own house, there to make your repentance before Almighty God, meekly
kneeling upon your knees, and asking for forgiveness for your great sin
and for grace to live a new life in the future, henceforth serving Him
and bearing the weight of the Cross which He bore for you so long ago,
until at last, in His good will and time, you may be gathered up and
join the blessed company of those saved by Christ's precious blood."
The deep, grave words roused the long dormant religious instinct in the
heart of the worldly financier who stood broken and abject before him.
The Jew remembered the days of his youth, when he also had prayed to the
Lord of Hosts and the God of Israel in the synagogue of his parents. In
one swift burst of remembrance the times came back to him when he had
bound the phylacteries upon his forehead, and heard the priests of
Israel reading from the Holy Book of the Law. He saw in a sudden riot of
memory the solemn hours of Passover, tasted the forgotten savor of days
of fasting, performed the holy ablutions of his faith. And now he heard
from the lips of the man whom he had tried to murder, news of that other
religion which he had scorned and derided all his life, and yet which
was but the fulfilment of the prophecies of his own. One had come to him
preaching the Messiah Whom he had spurned--the Jew Who was both God and
Man, and Whose Agony had saved the world.
Levison bowed his head in his hands and wept.
"And you," he said, between his sobs, "if indeed God can forgive me for
the evil that I have done, how can you forgive me? I have never spoken
to you, yet I hated you because you had come into my theatre and
disturbed my life and taken the profits of my business away from me. But
you have not done to me a tithe of the evil I would have done to you.
You came to me, knowing well my evil life and that I pandered to the
passions of the low and the debased. You did what I now see the Lord
commanded you to do. But I----How can you forgive me, Master?"
"Brother," Joseph answered, "it is a very little thing for me to
forgive you. It is nothing, and is no merit in me. I have no anger
towards you in my heart. What you did you did, and it was a sin for
which you must answer to the Almighty. But I am well aware that you
walked in darkness, and had not seen the Light. If our beloved Master
Jesus could forgive the men who nailed Him to the Cross, should not His
humble and unworthy follower forgive what you have done? Brother, I
forgive you with all my heart. Accept my forgiveness and my love, and
come with me, that you may learn more of Him who is above the thrones
and principalities and powers of this earth; of Him who is not only
justice, but mercy and tenderness inexpressible; of Him to Whom all men
are equal, Who loveth all men."
They passed out of the scented room and into the silent hall, where no
servants or others were about. Together they left that house, to which
neither were ever to return; that house in which so many and strange
things had been done, and which now seemed as a house of the dead.
A carriage was waiting at the garden gate. The two men entered it and it
rolled swiftly away down the hill towards London.
It was now quite dark.
The oppression of the thunder seemed to have passed away, and the air
was fresh and cool as they drove through the roaring, lighted streets of
the great Babylon towards the Brothers' house in Bloomsbury. Once or
twice, as the carriage halted in a block of traffic, Levison saw the
newspaper boys holding the startling contents sheets before them, and
the tragic headlines met his eye. At such times he shuddered like a leaf
in the wind, and the tears of remorse and agony rolled down his cheeks
unregarded, splashing upon his ringed hands.
Then Joseph would lean towards him and speak quietly in his ear.
"Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I
will set him up because he hath known My name. He shall call upon Me,
and I will hear him; yea, I am with him in trouble; I will deliver him
and bring him to honor. With long life will I satisfy him, and show him
My salvation."
They came at last to the house of the Brothers, but as the carriage
turned into the square, there was a sudden roar from many hundreds of
voices. An enormous crowd had collected before the house, stirred to the
depths by the news of the terrible tragedy which had occurred in the
afternoon.
Almost immediately that the carriage began to move among the crowd, some
electric wave of feeling seemed to pass over every one, and they all
knew that the Teacher was among them.
Then, from every voice rose up a great chorus of joy and thanksgiving. A
crashing harmony of praise rent the very air, and caused the people in
far distant squares and thoroughfares to turn their heads and listen in
amaze.
The Master had returned, safe and unharmed--the Master whose name and
power were already thrilling the metropolis as it was never thrilled
before; the God-guided Teacher who was bringing new light into the
lives of thousands, building a great dam against the threatening tides
of sin, evil and death.
With great difficulty the carriage made its way to the spacious door,
which was immediately flung open, showing the lighted hall and the
Brothers, with Hampson, the journalist, among them, standing there to
welcome the man that they revered and loved.
Together Levison and the Master entered. But ere the door was closed
Joseph turned and raised his hand. In a moment a dead silence fell over
the crowd.
"Brethren," the deep voice thrilled, "I will be with you in a moment,
for I have somewhat to say to you."
Then the door closed.
Joseph took the trembling creature by his side into a little warm and
lighted room.
"Brother," he said, "the hour of your repentance is at hand. Kneel and
pray to the Man of Sorrows, and if no words come to you, call upon Him
by name, and He will come--Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!"
Then, turning, he went out to the crowd.