But I must have an ally if my nerves were to hold out, and my mind turned at once to Tommy's friend Chapman. I thought with comfort of the bluff5 independence of the Labour member. So that night at the House I hunted him out in the smoking-room.
He had been having a row with the young bloods of my party that afternoon and received me ungraciously.
"I'm about sick of you fellows," he growled6. (I shall not attempt to reproduce Chapman's accent. He spoke7 rich Yorkshire with a touch of the drawl of the western dales.) "They went and spoiled the best speech, though I say it as shouldn't, which this old place has heard for a twelvemonth. I've been workin' for days at it in the Library. I was tellin' them how much more bread cost under Protection, and the Jew Hilderstein started a laugh because I said kilometres for kilogrammes. It was just a slip o' the tongue, for I had it right in my notes, and besides there furrin' words don't matter a curse. Then that young lord as sits for East Claygate gets up and goes out as I was gettin' into my peroration8, and he drops his topper and knocks off old Higgins's spectacles, and all the idiots laughed. After that I gave it them hot and strong, and got called to order. And then Wattles, him as used to be as good a socialist9 as me, replied for the Government and his blamed Board and said that the Board thought this and the Board thought that, and was damned if the Board would stir its stumps10. Well I mind the day when I was hanging on to the Board's coat-tails in Hyde Park to keep it from talking treason."
It took me a long time to get Chapman settled down and anchored to a drink.
"I want you," I said, "to tell me about Routh—you know the fellow I mean—the ex-union-Leader."
At that he fairly blazed up.
"There you are, you Tories," he shouted, causing a pale Liberal member on the next sofa to make a hurried exit. "You can't fight fair. You hate the unions, and you rake up any rotten old prejudice to discredit11 them. You can find out about Routh for yourself, for I'm damned if I help you."
I saw I could do nothing with Chapman unless I made a clean breast of it, so for the second time that day I told the whole story.
I couldn't have wished for a better audience. He got wildly excited before I was half through with it. No doubt of the correctness of my evidence ever entered his head, for, like most of his party, he hated anarchism worse than capitalism12, and the notion of a highly capitalised, highly scientific, highly undemocratic anarchism fairly revolted his soul. Besides, he adored Tommy Deloraine. Routh, he told me, had been a young engineer of a superior type, with a job in a big shop at Sheffield. He had professed13 advanced political views, and, although he had strictly14 no business to be there, had taken a large part in Trade union work, and was treasurer15 of one big branch. Chapman had met him often at conferences and on platforms, and had been impressed by the fertility and ingenuity16 of his mind and the boldness of his purpose. He was the leader of the left wing of the movement, and had that gift of half-scientific, half-philosophic jargon17 which is dear at all times to the hearts of the half-baked. A seat in Parliament had been repeatedly offered him, but he had always declined; wisely, Chapman thought, for he judged him the type which is more effective behind the scenes.
But with all his ability he had not been popular. "He was a cold-blooded, sneering18 devil," as Chapman put it, "a sort of Parnell. He tyrannised over his followers19, and he was the rudest brute20 I ever met."
Then followed the catastrophe21, in which it became apparent that he had speculated with the funds of his union and had lost a large sum. Chapman, however, was suspicious of these losses, and was inclined to suspect that he had the money all the time in a safe place. A year or two earlier the unions, greatly to the disgust of old-fashioned folk, had been given certain extra-legal privileges, and this man Routh had been one of the chief advocates of the unions' claims. Now he had the cool effrontery22 to turn the tables on them and use those very privileges to justify23 his action and escape prosecution24.
There was nothing to be done. Some of the fellows, said Chapman, swore to wring25 his neck, but he did not give them the chance. He had disappeared from England, and was generally believed to be living in some foreign capital.
"What I would give to be even with the swine!" cried my friend, clenching26 and unclenching his big fist. "But we're up against no small thing in Josiah Routh. There isn't a crime on earth he'd stick at, and he's as clever as the old Devil, his master."
"If that's how you feel, I can trust you to back me up," I said. "And the first thing I want you to do is to come and stay at my flat. God knows what may happen next, and two men are better than one. I tell you frankly27, I'm nervous, and I would like to have you with me."
Chapman had no objection. I accompanied him to his Bloomsbury lodgings28, where he packed a bag, and we returned to the Down Street flat. The sight of his burly figure and sagacious face was a relief to me in the mysterious darkness where I now found myself walking.
Thus begun my housekeeping with Chapman—one of the queerest episodes in my life. He was the best fellow in the world, but I found that I had misjudged his character. To see him in the House, you would have thought him a piece of granite29, with his Yorkshire bluntness and hard, downright, north-country sense. He had all that somewhere inside him, but he was also as romantic as a boy. The new situation delighted him. He was quite clear that it was another case of the strife30 between Capital and Labour—Tommy and I standing31 for Labour, though he used to refer to Tommy in public as a "gilded32 popinjay," and only a month before had described me in the House as a "viperous33 lackey34 of Capitalism." It was the best kind of strife, in which you had not to meet your adversary35 with long-winded speeches but might any moment get a chance to pummel him with your fists.
He made me ache with laughter. The spying business used to rouse him to fury. I don't think he was tracked as I was, but he chose to fancy he was, and was guilty of assault and battery on one butcher's boy, two cabbies, and a gentleman who turned out to be a bookmaker's assistant. This side of him got to be an infernal nuisance, and I had many rows with him. Among other things, he chose to suspect my man Waters of treachery—Waters, who was the son of a gardener at home, and hadn't wits enough to put up an umbrella when it rained.
"You're not taking this business rightly," he maintained one night. "What's the good of waiting for these devils to down you? Let's go out and down them." And he announced his intention, from which no words of mine could dissuade36 him, of keeping watch on Mr. Andrew Lumley at the Albany.
His resolution led to a complete disregard of his Parliamentary duties. Deputations of constituents37 waited for him in vain. Of course he never got a sight of Lumley. All that happened was that he was very nearly given in charge more than once for molesting38 peaceable citizens in the neighbourhood of Piccadilly and Regent Street.
One night, on my way home from the Temple, I saw in the bills of the evening papers the announcement of the arrest of a Labour Member. It was Chapman, sure enough. At first, I feared that he had got himself into serious trouble, and was much relieved to find him in the flat in a state of blazing anger. It seemed that he had found somebody whom he thought was Lumley, for he only knew him from my descriptions. The man was in a shop in Jermyn Street, with a car waiting outside, and Chapman had—politely, as he swore—asked the chauffeur39 his master's name. The chauffeur had replied abusively, upon which Chapman had hauled him from the driver's seat and shaken him till his teeth rattled40. The owner came out, and Chapman was arrested and taken off to the nearest police-court. He had been compelled to apologise and had been fined five pounds and costs.
By the mercy of Heaven, the chauffeur's master was a money-lender of evil repute, so the affair did Chapman no harm. But I was forced to talk to him seriously. I knew it was no use explaining that for him to spy on the Power-House was like an elephant stalking a gazelle. The only way was to appeal to his incurable41 romanticism.
"Don't you see," I told him, "that you are playing Lumley's game? He will trap you sooner or later into some escapade which will land you in jail, and where will I be then? That is what he and his friends are out for. We have got to meet cunning with cunning, and lie low till we get our chance."
He allowed himself to be convinced, and handed over to me the pistol he had bought, which had been the terror of my life.
"All right," he said, "I'll keep quiet. But you promise to let me into the big scrap42 when it comes off."
I promised. Chapman's notion of the grand finale was a Homeric combat in which he would get his fill of fisticuffs.
He was an anxiety, but all the same he was an enormous comfort. His imperturbable43 cheerfulness and his racy talk were the tonics44 I wanted. He had plenty of wisdom, too. My nerves were getting bad those days, and, whereas I had rarely touched the things before, I now found myself smoking cigarettes from morning till night. I am pretty abstemious45, as you know, but I discovered, to my horror, that I was drinking far too many whiskeys-and-sodas. Chapman knocked me off all that and got me back to a pipe and a modest nightcap.
He did more, for he undertook to put me in training. His notion was that we should win in the end by superior muscles. He was a square, thick-set fellow, who had been a good middle-weight boxer46. I could box a bit myself, but I improved mightily47 under his tuition. We got some gloves, and used to hammer each other for half an hour every morning. Then might have been seen the shameful48 spectacle of a rising barrister with a swollen49 lip and a black eye arguing in court, and proceeding50 of an evening to his country's legislature, where he was confronted from the opposite benches by the sight of a Leader of the People in the same vulgar condition.
In those days I wanted all the relief I could get, for it was a beastly time. I knew I was in grave danger, so I made my will and went through the other doleful performances consequent on the expectation of a speedy decease. You see, I had nothing to grip on, no clear job to tackle, only to wait on the off-chance, with an atmosphere of suspicion thickening around me. The spying went on—there was no mistake about that—but I soon ceased to mind it, though I did my best to give my watchers little satisfaction. There was a hint of bullying51 about the spying. It is disconcerting at night to have a man bump against you and look you greedily in the face.
I did not go again to Scotland Yard, but one night I ran across Macgillivray in the club.
He had something of profound interest to tell me. I had asked about the phrase, the "Power-House." Well, he had come across it in the letter of a German friend, a private letter, in which the writer gave the results of his inquiries52 into a curious affair which a year before had excited Europe.
I have forgotten the details, but it had something to do with the Slav States of Austria and an Italian Students' union, and it threatened at one time to be dangerous. Macgillivray's correspondent said that in some documents which were seized he found constant allusion53 to a thing called the Krafthaus, evidently the headquarters-staff of the plot. And this same word, Krafthaus, had appeared elsewhere—in a sonnet54 of a poet-anarchist who shot himself in the slums of Antwerp, in the last ravings of more than one criminal, in the extraordinary testament55 of Professor M——, of Jena, who, at the age of thirty-seven, took his life after writing a strange, mystical message to his fellow citizens.
Macgillivray's correspondent concluded by saying that, in his opinion, if this Krafthaus could be found, the key would be discovered to the most dangerous secret organisation56 in the world. He added that he had some reason to believe that the motive57 power of the concern was English.
"Macgillivray," I said, "you have known me for some time, and I fancy you think me a sober and discreet58 person. Well, I believe I am on the edge of discovering the secret of your Krafthaus. I want you to promise me that if in the next week I send you an urgent message you will act on it, however fantastic it seems. I can't tell you more. I ask you to take me on trust, and believe that for anything I do I have tremendous reasons."
He knit his shaggy grey eyebrows59 and looked curiously60 at me. "Yes, I'll go bail61 for your sanity62. It's a good deal to promise, but if you make an appeal to me I will see that it is met."
Next day I had news from Felix. Tuke and the man called Saronov had been identified. If you are making inquiries about anybody it is fairly easy to find those who are seeking for the same person, and the Russian police, in tracking Tommy and Pitt-Heron, had easily come on the two gentlemen who were following the same trail. The two had gone by Samarkand, evidently intending to strike into the hills by a shorter route than the main road from Bokhara. The frontier posts had been warned, and the stalkers had become the stalked.
That was one solid achievement, at any rate. I had saved Pitt-Heron from the worst danger, for first I had sent him Tommy, and now I had put the police on guard against his enemies. I had not the slightest doubt that enemies they were. Charles knew too much, and Tuke was the man appointed to reason with him, to bring him back, if possible; or, if not—— As Chapman had said, the ex-union leader was not the man to stick at trifles.
It was a broiling63 June, the London season was at its height, and I had never been so busy in the Courts before. But that crowded and garish64 world was little more than a dream to me. I went through my daily tasks, dined out, went to the play, had consultations65, talked to my fellows, but all the while I had the feeling that I was watching somebody else perform the same functions. I believe I did my work well, and I know I was twice complimented by the Court of Appeal.
But my real interests were far away. Always I saw two men in the hot glens of the Oxus, with the fine dust of the loess rising in yellow clouds behind them. One of these men had a drawn66 and anxious face, and both rode hard. They passed by the closes of apricot and cherry and the green, watered gardens, and soon the Oxus ceased to flow wide among rushes and water-lilies and became a turbid67 hill-stream. By-and-by the roadside changed, and the horses of the travellers trod on mountain turf, crushing the irises68 and marigolds and thyme. I could feel the free air blowing from the roof of the world, and see far ahead the snowy saddle of the pass which led to India.
Far behind the riders I saw two others, and they chose a different way, now over waterless plateaux, now in rugged69 nullahs. They rode the faster and their route was the shorter. Sooner or later they must catch up the first riders, and I knew, though how I could not tell, that death would attend the meeting.
I, and only I, sitting in London, four thousand miles away, could prevent disaster. The dream haunted me at night, and often, walking in the Strand70 or sitting at a dinner-table, I have found my eyes fixed71 clearly on the shining upland with the thin white mountains at the back of it, and the four dots, which were men, hurrying fast on their business.
One night I met Lumley. It was at a big political dinner given by the chief of my party in the House of Lords—fifty or sixty guests, and a blaze of stars and decorations. I sat near the bottom of the table, and he was near the top, sitting between a famous General and an ex-Viceroy of India. I asked my right-hand neighbour who he was, but he could not tell me. The same question to my left-hand neighbour brought an answer:
"It is old Lumley. Have you never met him? He doesn't go out much, but he gives a man's dinner now and then which are the best in London. No. He's not a politician, though he favours our side, and I expect has given a lot to our funds. I can't think why they don't make him a Peer. He's enormously rich and very generous, and the most learned old fellow in Britain. My Chief"—my neighbour was an Under-Secretary—"knows him, and told me once that if you wanted any out-of-the-way bit of knowledge you could get it by asking Lumley. I expect he pulls the strings72 more than anybody living. But he scarcely ever goes out, and it's a feather in our host's cap to have got him to-night. You never see his name in the papers, either. He probably pays the Press to keep him out, like some of those millionaire fellows in America."
I watched him through dinner. He was the centre of the talk at his end of the table. I could see the blue ribbon bulging73 out on Lord Morecambe's breast as he leaned forward to question him. He was wearing some foreign orders, including the Legion of Honour, and I could hear in the pause of conversation echoes of his soft, rich voice. I could see him beaming through his glasses on his neighbours, and now and then he would take them off and look mildly at a speaker. I wondered why nobody realised, as I did, what was in his light wild eyes.
The dinner, I believe, was excellent and the company was good, but down at my end I could eat little, and I did not want to talk. Here in this pleasant room, with servants moving softly about and a mellow74 light on the silver from the shaded candles, I felt the man was buttressed75 and defended beyond my reach. A kind of despairing hatred76 gripped me when I looked his way. For I was always conscious of that other picture—the Asian desert, Pitt-Heron's hunted face, and the grim figure of Tuke on his trail. That, and the great secret wheels of what was too inhuman77 to be called crime moving throughout the globe under this man's hand.
There was a party afterwards, but I did not stay. No more did Lumley, and for a second I brushed against him in the hall at the foot of the big staircase.
He smiled on me affectionately.
"Have you been dining here? I did not notice you."
"You had better things to think of," I said. "By the way, you gave me good advice some weeks ago. It may interest you to hear that I have taken it."
"I am so glad," he said softly. "You are a very discreet young man."
But his eyes told me that he knew I lied.
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1
clinched
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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pugnacity
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| n.好斗，好战 | |
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bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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6
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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7
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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peroration
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| n.（演说等之）结论 | |
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socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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12
capitalism
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| n.资本主义 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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jargon
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| n.术语，行话 | |
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18
sneering
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| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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21
catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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effrontery
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| n.厚颜无耻 | |
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23
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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24
prosecution
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| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
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wring
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| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
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26
clenching
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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27
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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30
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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viperous
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| adj.有毒的，阴险的 | |
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lackey
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| n.侍从；跟班 | |
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adversary
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| adj.敌手，对手 | |
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dissuade
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| v.劝阻，阻止 | |
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constituents
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| n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素 | |
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molesting
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| v.骚扰( molest的现在分词 )；干扰；调戏；猥亵 | |
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39
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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40
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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41
incurable
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| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
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42
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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43
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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44
tonics
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| n.滋补品( tonic的名词复数 )；主音；奎宁水；浊音 | |
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45
abstemious
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| adj.有节制的，节俭的 | |
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46
boxer
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| n.制箱者，拳击手 | |
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47
mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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48
shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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49
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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50
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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51
bullying
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| v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈 | |
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52
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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53
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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54
sonnet
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| n.十四行诗 | |
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55
testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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56
organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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57
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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58
discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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59
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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bail
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| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
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sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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broiling
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| adj.酷热的，炽热的，似烧的v.（用火）烤（焙、炙等）( broil的现在分词 )；使卷入争吵；使混乱；被烤（或炙） | |
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garish
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| adj.华丽而俗气的，华而不实的 | |
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consultations
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| n.磋商（会议）( consultation的名词复数 )；商讨会；协商会；查找 | |
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66
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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turbid
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| adj.混浊的，泥水的，浓的 | |
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irises
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| n.虹( iris的名词复数 )；虹膜；虹彩；鸢尾（花） | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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bulging
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| 膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱 | |
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mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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buttressed
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| v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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