"My own affair was simple enough. Observe how it succeeded. Now give me the details."
"You shall have them. Doubtless you remember the fact that I was paying my first visit to Lord Beckingdale"s new house. I had stayed at his old residence before it was burnt down, but had never been there since the restoration. That will be sufficient to account for my ignorance of its general plan. On the night of which I am speaking, I was located, as you will recollect, in the South Wing. Where Beckingdale"s own quarters were I have no idea, and, as you may suppose, since then I have had no opportunity of finding out. I forget whether I mentioned the fact to you that I had brought a new man down with me. Poor old Simmons no longer felt equal to his work, and in consequence I had been compelled to engage a new man--a thing I hate doing. The fresh importation, however, seemed a very quiet and respectable fellow, and he had just completed his first month"s service with me, when my visit to Aldershot was arranged. On the evening in question I was tired, and dismissed him as quickly as possible. I don"t think my head had been upon the pillow for more than five minutes before I was fast asleep. How long I slept I have no idea, I only know that I suddenly awoke to find my servant standing beside my bed, looking as if he himself had been hastily aroused from sleep.
""What is it?" I asked as soon as I was able to say anything. "What brings you here at this hour of the night?"
""A message from his Lordship, sir," the man replied in a low voice.
"His servant called me up to come and tell you that his Lordship would be glad if you would go to him as soon as possible in his study. A messenger has arrived from London with most serious intelligence. The other gentlemen have been roused, and his Lordship begs that you will not lose a moment in joining them. He would ask you to be as quiet as possible, in order that the ladies may not be alarmed."
""Have you any idea what the news is?" I enquired, as I got out of bed, for I thought it was just possible that Beckingdale"s servant might have said something to him when giving him the message.
""No, sir," he replied; "I have no notion, except that it is very serious. His Lordship"s man, sir, went so far as to say that all London is in an uproar."
"Without more ado I sprang from my bed and commenced dressing. In a very few minutes I was sufficiently presentable to proceed on my errand.
""Where did you say Lord Beckingdale is?" I asked, as we prepared to leave the room.
""In his study, sir," the man replied. "If you will allow me I will take you to him."
"Bidding him step quietly so that the rest of the household should not be disturbed, I followed him from the room, and down the pa.s.sage in the direction of the hall. A faint glimmer of light illumined the pa.s.sage, so that we were able to make our way along it without the a.s.sistance of a lamp or candle. Having reached the gallery, my man did not descend by the stairs to the hall below, but branched off down a side pa.s.sage into a portion of the house I had not yet penetrated. Having pa.s.sed along another corridor, we approached a door before which he paused. Still with the utmost respect, he opened it very quietly, and bowed as if for me to enter. Never for a moment suspecting such a thing as treachery, I did so, and, a moment later, had received a blow on the head, and was lying upon the floor, insensible. I can leave you, Manderville, to estimate the daring of the trick that had been played upon me. I have no doubt that it was with the deliberate intention of taking part in it that that wretched valet had entered my service. Little did I think, when I congratulated myself upon having secured him, that he was ultimately to bring about my ruin."
"But do you mean to tell me that, while we were all asleep, the very man whom I had seen watching the house from the plantation, and against whom I had warned Beckingdale, had entered it and taken possession of one of the rooms, in order to kidnap his most important guest?"
"I do mean it," he replied. "Improbable, impossible, though it may appear, it was certainly the case."
"And what happened to you afterwards? Remember the house was guarded by the police, and that, as soon as your disappearance was made known, the country for miles around was scoured in search of you."
"It was not of the least use, for I did not leave the place until two days later," he replied. "As a matter of fact, for more than forty-eight hours I lay concealed, wishing myself dead, between the roof and the ceiling of that quaint old summer-house on the little knoll at the further end of the lake. How they got me there I cannot say, but that I was there and was prevented from making my presence known, even though my friends searched the room below for me, is as true as I am talking to you now. Then, when the search must have lost some of its energy, I was brought down in the dead of the night, carried through the wood, and placed in a conveyance of some sort, which immediately drove away with me. Shortly before daybreak we arrived at a house standing a good distance back from the road. From what I could see of it, it was a ramshackle old place, but the man who owned it, or at any rate the individual who came out to meet us, seemed to be on familiar terms with my guards. He helped them to escort me into the house, and, if I am not mistaken, he himself locked the door of the small room in which I was to be confined for the next twenty hours. At the end of that time, still powerless to help myself, I was once more brought downstairs and placed in the cart. Again we drove off, and, for six hours, I suffered every imaginable torture. My hands and feet were tightly bound, and my mouth was secured so that I could not utter a cry for help. The cords used lacerated my wrists and ankles, while my head ached from the violence of the blow it had received on the night of my abduction. At last the cart stopped, and one of the men sprang out. A voice asked a question in Italian, then there was the sound of some one moving away, after which not a word was spoken for upwards of half-an-hour. At the end of that time the man who had absented himself returned and said in English, "It is all right." An interval of whispering followed, and then I was lifted out and placed upon the ground.
""Not a word as you value your life," said a voice, which I recognised as belonging to Count Reiffenburg. "If you speak, you"re a dead man."
"Another man took his place beside me and we entered a small field, crossed it, and then pa.s.sed through a thick pine wood, which in its turn led up to some sandhills, whence we could see the moonlit waters of the Bay. A fishing-boat was being put out, and towards it my captors hurried me. Where the place was or whither they were taking me, I could not imagine, nor did I dare to offer any expostulation. I merely took my seat in the boat and waited to see what would happen. A quarter of an hour or so later, under the influence of a steady breeze, we were outside the Bay, making for the open sea. As the sun was in the act of rising, we saw a steamer heading in our direction. It proved to be this vessel, and when we were alongside, I was immediately transferred to her, Reiffenburg returning to the sh.o.r.e. You must picture for yourself my surprise at finding Woller and Castellan aboard her. Now you know my story. If any one had told me a month ago that I should figure in such an affair, I should not have believed them."
"Another ill.u.s.tration of the old saying that the unexpected always happens," I replied.
"If we are fortunate enough to see our friends again, we shall have some extraordinary stories to tell," said the Commander-in-Chief. "The question is, however, shall we ever see them again?"
"That remains to be proved," I answered. "We must put our wits to work to see what can be done."
The words had scarcely left my lips, before young Reiffenburg appeared upon the scene and abruptly informed us that our promenade was at an end, and that it behoved us to return to our cabins, in order that our companions, who had just finished their meal, might take our places. We followed his instructions, and made our way slowly to the saloon below, half hoping that we should have a chance of exchanging a few words with our friends. They were not there, however, having been ordered to their cabins so that we should not meet. There was nothing for it, therefore, but to bid each other good-night, and to retire to our respective state-rooms with as good grace as possible.
Next morning, after breakfast, we were allowed on deck again for an hour, also after luncheon, and again in the evening. During the progress of the latter meal I was struck by the expression on the Commander-in-Chief"s face. It was as if he were suffering from a severe attack of suppressed excitement. He fidgeted uneasily in his seat, and seemed to experience great difficulty in eating the food set before him.
This excitement found vent while we were in the companion ladder on our way to the deck above. Half-way up he took me by the arm and said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper--
"My G.o.d! Manderville, quite by chance to-day, I have discovered the most diabolical plot ever hatched by mortal man."
"Then be careful," I returned, "that they do not suspect you of knowing it. Wait until we are safely out of ear-shot before you say anything to me on the subject."
When we reached the deck we found the sentry on guard as usual. We accordingly walked aft, and had paced the p.o.o.p two or three times before I would permit the Commander-in-Chief to unfold his tale. Then leaning upon the taffrail, and looking at the white streak of our wake, I asked him what he had discovered.
"The most villainous plot, imaginable," he replied. "You will remember that Reiffenburg left the saloon before we had finished luncheon this afternoon, and that I was the first to go up on deck. You will also recall the fact that the fellow with the rifle kept close to us while we were on deck, so that it was impossible for me to tell you what I had heard. On reaching the top of the companion, I found Reiffenburg and the dark man who acts as steward, and yet who seems to be on such familiar terms with them, in close conversation beside the door."
"What were they talking about?"
"Even now I can only hazard a conjecture," he answered. "What I heard Reiffenburg say was this, word for word: "_Fully wound up she will run for an hour. Then will come the explosion. Sixty minutes exactly after it has been placed in the stokehole, it will blow the bottom out, and she will go down like a stone._" On hearing this the other paused for a moment, then he said:
""When do you think it will be?"
""_The day after to-morrow_," Reiffenburg replied. "_If all goes well, and she keeps to the arrangement, she should be in sight._" When he had said this he strolled away towards the p.o.o.p ladder, while the other took up his position, with his rifle, alongside the mizzen-mast, preparatory to our coming on deck."
CHAPTER X
For some minutes after the Commander-in-Chief had finished speaking, I stood staring down at the white whirl of water below me, wrapt in what I might term, for want of a better simile, an overwhelming bewilderment of terror. There could be no doubt that the construction he had placed upon what he had heard was a correct one. Yet it seemed beyond belief, as I reviewed it in my mind, that there could exist men in the world, so base, so callous, as to even contemplate putting such a scheme into execution. And yet, what other construction could we place upon it?
"Are you quite sure that you have told it to me exactly as you heard it?" I said, trying to speak calmly. "As you are aware, the mere subst.i.tution of one word for another, or the change of a sentence, might make all the difference."
"Oh no," he said, "I am absolutely certain that I have repeated the conversation word for word as I heard it. In fact, I should be prepared to stake my life upon it."
"Very well. Now let us look at the matter from every point of view. You say that Reiffenburg a.s.serted that a certain something, when fully wound up, would run for an hour. Is that not so?"
The Commander-in-Chief nodded.
"In that case," I continued, "we may believe ourselves to be right if we describe that something as a clock-work machine. We may also be sure that if the explosion to which he referred is to take place, it will be when the machine has run for the allotted time. In other words, it is an anarchist bomb, of superior construction and capable of being set, like an alarum clock, to go off at a given time. The mere fact that it is to be placed in the stoke-hole, shows that it is to be used on board a steamer, and it is scarcely likely to be on any other than this boat.
Putting all these things together, we arrive at this conclusion: The day after to-morrow another vessel is due to join us. Our captors and the crew of this boat will leave her and go aboard the new-comer, having previously set the machine going, and----"
"And we shall be left locked in our cabins to drown like rats in a trap!" said my companion in an awed whisper.
"That, I take it, is the idea," I answered slowly.
"My G.o.d! Manderville, how can you speak so quietly. Don"t you realise what an awful position we are placed in?"
"I realize it perfectly," I answered. "I am trying to think what we can do to save ourselves."
The situation was so terrible that for a few moments I stood looking across the waste of water, seeing nothing but a man locked in his cabin, knowing that the ship was sinking, and battling vainly for life. "The day after to-morrow! The day after to-morrow!" The words rang in my brain like the tolling of a funeral knell.
"Surely there must be a way out of it if we can only find it," I said--"some manner in which we can thwart these murderous ruffians. Let us put our wits to work with all speed, and see whether or not we can find a loophole of escape."
"I have been doing that all the afternoon," the Commander-in-Chief replied, "but so far without any success. If we are locked in our cabins, I don"t see how it will be possible for us to do anything. A mouse confined in a trap, when a servant-girl plunges it into a bucket of water, is not more helpless than we shall be."
"Come, come, old friend," I said, "you must not give way like that."
"I don"t think any man can accuse me of cowardice," he replied, "but I must confess that when I think of what may happen the day after to-morrow, my courage fails me."
"But it"s not going to happen," I answered. "Make up your mind to that.
As I said just now, there must be a way out of it, and we"ve got to find it. In the meantime, we must endeavour, if possible, to let the others know the position of affairs, though how that"s to be managed, I must confess I don"t quite see. It is not possible to approach their cabins, and, according to the new arrangement, we are not allowed to come into personal contact with them."