Into each others" eyes they looked, and knew the moment of final conflict was drawn very near, at last. The moment which, in failure or success, should for long years, for decades, for centuries perhaps, determine whether the world and all its teeming millions were to be slave or free.
They spoke no word and took no oath of life-and-death fidelity, those men and women who now had been entrusted with the fate of the world. But in their eyes one read unshakable devotion to the Cause of Man, unswerving loyalty to the Great Ideal, and a calm, holy faith that would make light of death itself, could death but pave the way to victory!
CHAPTER x.x.x.
TRAPPED!
Brevard was the first to speak. "Gabriel," said he, "we have agreed that you must be the leader in this whole affair. The actual, personal leader. To begin with, you"re younger and physically stronger than any of us men. Your executive ability is, without any question whatever, far and away ahead of ours--for we are more in the a.n.a.lytical, compiling, organizing, preparing line. To cap all, your personality carries more, far more, with the ma.s.s of the comrades than any of ours. Your career, in the past, your conflict with Flint and Waldron, and your long imprisonment, have given you the necessary following. You, and you alone, must issue the final call, lead the last, supreme attack, and carry the old flag, the Crimson Banner of Brotherhood, to the topmost battlement of an annihilated Capitalism!"
Gabriel demurred, but they overruled him. So, presently, he consented; and pledged his life to it; and thrilled with pride and joy at thought of what now lay written in the Book of Fate, for him to read.
Catherine"s eyes shone with a strange light, as she looked upon him there, so modest yet so strong. And he, smiling a little as his gaze met hers, foresaw other things than war, and was glad. His heart sang within him, that memorable and wondrous night, up there in the hiding-place among the Great Smokies--there with Catherine and the other comrades--there planning the last great blow to strike away forever the shackles from the bleeding limbs of all the human race!
But serious and urgent things were to be thought of, and at once, for on the morrow Brevard was going down, disguised, to Louisville, in one of the two monoplanes, to attend a final secret meeting of the North-middle Section Committee. From this he would proceed to the refuge near Port Colborne, Ontario.
"Let us make that our meeting-place, one week from tonight," said Gabriel, "in case anything happens. Should we be detected, or should any accident befall, we must have some time and place to rally by. Is my suggestion taken?"
They all agreed, after some discussion.
"But," added Mrs. Grantham, "let"s hope we"re still secure here, for a while. It doesn"t seem possible they could find us _here_, in this broad mountain wilderness!"
Brevard, meanwhile, was spreading out diagrams and plans.
"The plant at Niagara," said he. "Gabriel, study this, now, as you never yet have studied anything! For on your intimate knowledge of these plans--which, by the way, have been obtained only at the cost of eight lives of our comrades, and through adventures which alone would make a wonderful book--depends everything. With all communications cut, and troops kept away, and our own people storming the works, you will yet fail, Gabriel, unless you know every building, every courtyard, wall and pa.s.sage, every door and window, almost, I might say. For the place is more than a manufacturing plant. It"s a fortress, a city in itself, a wonderful, gigantic center to the whole web of world-domination!
"So now, to the plans!"
For hours, while Gabriel took notes and listened keenly, asked questions and made minute memoranda, Brevard explained the situation at the great Air Trust works. The others looked on, listened, and from time to time made suggestions; but for the most part they kept silent, unwilling to disturb this most important work.
Carefully and with painstaking accuracy he showed Gabriel how the plant now embraced more than two square miles of territory around the Falls, all guarded by tremendous barricades mounting machine-guns and search-lights. On both sides of the river this huge monster had squatted, effectually shutting out all sight of the Falls and depriving the people of their birthright of beauty, at the same time that it had harnessed the vast waterpower to the task of enslaving the world.
"From the Grand Trunk steel arch bridge up to and including the former plant of the Niagara Falls Power Company," said Brevard, "you see the plant extends. And, on the Canadian side--or what was the Canadian, before "we" absorbed Canada--it stretches from the Ontario Power Company"s works to those of the Toronto-Niagara Power Company, including both. In addition to having absorbed these, it has taken over the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company, the Canadian Power Company and half a dozen others, and has, as you see, established its central offices and plant on Goat Island.
"Here Flint and Waldron have what may be called a citadel within a citadel--twelve acres of administration buildings, laboratories (in charge of your old friend Herzog, by the way!) and experimental works, including also the big steel chambers, vacuum-lined, where they are already storing their liquid oxygen to be turned into their pipe-lines and tank-cars. This Goat Island central plant will be the real kernel in the nut, Gabriel. Once _that_ is gone, you"ll have ripped the heart out of the beast, smashed the vital ganglia, and given the world the respite, the breathing-s.p.a.ce it must have, to free itself!"
"And if I don"t?" asked Gabriel. "If anything happens to upset our blockading tactics, or if our attacking forces are defeated or our aeroplanes shot down, what then?"
"Then," said Brevard, slowly, "then the world had better die than survive under the abominable slavery now impending. Already the pipe-lines have been laid to Buffalo, Cleveland, Albany and Scranton.
Already they"re under way to New York City itself, and to Cincinnati.
Already other plants have been projected for Chicago, Denver, San Francisco and New Orleans, to say nothing of half a dozen in the Old World. At this present moment, as we all sit here in this quiet room on this remote mountain-slope, the world"s air is being cornered! All the atmospheric nitrogen is planned for, by Flint and Waldron, to pa.s.s under their control--and with it, every crop that grows. All the oxygen will follow. They"re already having their domestic-service apparatus manufactured--their cold-pipe radiators, meters, evaporators and respirators. I tell you, comrades, this thing is close upon us, not as a theory, now, but as a terrible, an inconceivably ghastly reality!
"Even as we talk this thing over, those devils in human form are at work impoverishing the atmosphere, the very basis of all life. My oxymeter, today, showed a diminution of .047 per cent. in the amount of free oxygen in the air right on this mountain. And their plant is hardly running yet! Wait till they get it under full swing--wait till their pipe-lines and tanks and instruments and all their vast, infernal apparatus of exploitation and enslavement are in operation! Even in a week from now, or less, by the time you issue the call, Gabriel, you may see wretches gasping in vain for breath, in some dark alley of Niagara where the air is being drained!"
"Oh, devilish and infernal plot against the world!" said Gabriel, bitterly. "Yet in essence, after all, no different from the system of ten years ago, which kept food and shelter, light and fuel, under lock and key--and made the dollar the only key to fit the lock! Yet this seems worse, somehow; and though I die for it, my last supreme blow shall be against such unutterable, such murderous villainy! So then, comrades--"
He paused, suddenly, as Kate laid a hand on his arm.
"Hark! What"s that?" she whispered.
Outside, somewhere, a sound had made itself heard. Then on the porch, a loose board creaked.
Gabriel sprang to his feet. The others stood up and faced the door.
"In heaven"s name, what"s that outside?" demanded Craig.
On the instant, a heavy foot crashed through the panels of their door.
The door, burst open, flew back.
In the aperture, stood a man, in aviator"s dress, with another dimly visible behind him. Both these men held long, blue-nosed, oxygen-bullet-shooting revolvers levelled at the little group around the table.
"My G.o.d! Air Trust spies!" cried Grantham, pale as death.
"Hands up, you!" shouted the man in the doorway, with a wild triumph in his voice. "You"re caught, all of you! Not a move, you ---- ---- ----!
Hands up!"
CHAPTER x.x.xI.
ESCAPE!
Quick as thought, at sound of the imperative summons and sight of the levelled weapons, Gabriel swept up most of the papers and crammed them into the breast of his loose flannel shirt, then dashed the lamp to the floor, extinguishing it. The room grew dark, for now the fire had burned down to hardly more than glowing coals.
There was no panic; the men did not curse, neither did the women scream.
As though the tactic had already been agreed on, Craig tipped the table up, making a kind of barricade; and over it Grantham"s revolver, s.n.a.t.c.hed from his belt, spat viciously.
It all happened in a moment.
The foremost spy grunted, coughed and plunged forward. As he fell, he fired his terrible weapon.
The bullet--a small, thin metal sh.e.l.l, filled with a secret chemical and liquid oxygen--went wild. It struck the wall, some feet to the left of the fireplace, and instantly the wood burst into vivid flame. Flesh would crisp to nothing, solid stone would crumble, metal would gutter and run down, under that awful incandescence.
Again Grantham"s revolver barked, while Bevard tugged at his own, which had unaccountably got stuck in its holster. But this second shot missed.
And even as Grantham"s bullet snicked a long splinter from the door-jamb, the second spy fired.
Brevard"s choking cry died as the gushing flame enveloped him. He staggered, flung up both arms and fell stone dead, the life seared clean out of him, as a lamp sears a moth.
Gasping, blinded, the others scattered; and for the third time--while the room now glowed with this unquenchable blossoming of flame--Grantham shot.
The spy"s body burst into a sheaf of fire. Up past the lintel streamed the burning swirl. Mute and annihilated, his charred body dropped beside that of his mate.
The total time from challenge to complete victory had not exceeded ten seconds.