The Angel of the Revolution | Page 9

about six months ago?"
"Yes, of course I do. Hermit and all as I was, I could hardly help
hearing about that, considering what a noise it made. But I thought that
was cleared up. Didn't one of that gang of garotters that was broken up
in South London a couple of months later confess to strangling him in
the statement that he made before he was executed?"
"Yes, and his widow is now getting ten shillings a week for life on
account of that confession. Birkett no more killed Ainsworth than you
did; but he had killed two or three others, and so the confession didn't
do him very much harm.
"No; Ainsworth met his death in quite another way. He accepted from
the Russian secret police bureau in London a bribe of £250 down and
the promise of another £250 if he succeeded in manufacturing enough
evidence against a member of our Outer Circle to get him extradited to
Russia on a trumped-up charge of murder.

"The Inner Circle learnt of this from one of our spies in the Russian
London police, and ---, well, Ainsworth was found dead with the mark
of the Terror upon his forehead before he had time to put his treachery
into action. He was executed by two of the Brotherhood, who are
members of the Metropolitan police force, and who were afterwards
complimented by the magistrate for the intelligent efforts they had
made in bringing the murderers to justice."
Colston told the dark story in the most careless of tones between the
puffs of his after-breakfast cigarette. Arnold stifled his horror as well as
he was able, but he could not help saying, when his host had done--
"This Brotherhood of yours is well named the Terror; but was not that
rather a murder than an execution?"
"By no means," replied Colston, a trifle coldly. "Society hangs or
beheads a man who kills another. Ainsworth knew as well as we did
that if the man he tried to betray by false evidence had once set foot in
Russia, the torments of a hundred deaths would have been his before he
had been allowed to die.
"He betrayed his office and his faith to his English masters in order to
commit this vile crime, and so he was killed as a murderous and
treacherous reptile that was not fit to live. We of the Terror are not
lawyers, and so we make no distinctions between deliberate plotting for
money to kill and the act of killing itself. Our law is closer akin to
justice than the hairsplitting fraud that is tolerated by Society."
Either from emotional or logical reasons Arnold made no reply to this
reasoning, and, seeing he remained silent, Colston resumed his ordinary
nonchalant, good-humoured tone, and went on --
"But come, that will be horrors enough for to-day. We have other
business in hand, and we may as well get to it at once. About this
wonderful invention of yours. Of course I believe all you have told me
about it, but you must remember that I am only an agent, and that I am
inexorably bound by certain rules, in accordance with which I must act.

"Now, to be perfectly plain with you, and in order that we may
thoroughly understand each other before either of us commits himself
to anything, I must tell you that I want to see this model flying ship of
yours in order to be able to report on it to-night to the Executive of the
Inner Circle, to whom I shall also want to introduce you. If you will not
allow me to do that say so at once, and, for the present at least, our
negotiations must come to a sudden stop."
"Go on," said Arnold quietly; "so far I consent. For the rest I would
rather hear you to the end."
"Very well. Then if the Executive approve of the invention, you will be
asked to join the Inner Circle at once, and to devote yourself body and
soul to the Society and the accomplishment of the objects that will be
explained to you. If you refuse there will be an end of the matter, and
you will simply be asked to give your word of honour to reveal nothing
that you have seen or heard, and then allowed to depart in peace.
"If, on the other hand, you consent, in consideration of the immense
importance of your secret -- which there is no need to disguise from
you -- to the Brotherhood, the usual condition of passing through the
Outer Circle will be dispensed with, and you will be trusted as
absolutely as we shall expect you to trust us.
"Whatever funds you then require to manufacture an airship on the plan