The War Terror. Arthur B. Reeve

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СКАЧАТЬ confess that I could not help thinking that there was no doubt that to a certain type of mind the reasoning might appeal most strongly.

      "And you would do it in war time, too?" asked Kennedy quickly.

      She was ready with an answer. "King George of Greece was killed at the head of his troops. Remember Nazim Pasha, too. Such people are easily reached in time of peace and in time of war, also, by sympathizers on their own side. That's it, you see—we have followers of all nationalities."

      She stopped, her burst of enthusiasm spent. A moment later she leaned forward, her clean-cut profile showing her more earnest than before. "But, oh, Professor Kennedy," she added, "it is working itself out to be more terrible than war itself!"

      "Have any of the plans been carried out yet?" asked Craig, I thought a little superciliously, for there had certainly been no such wholesale assassination yet as she had hinted at.

      She seemed to catch her breath. "Yes," she murmured, then checked herself as if in fear of saying too much. "That is, I—I think so."

      I wondered if she were concealing something, perhaps had already had a hand in some such enterprise and it had frightened her.

      Kennedy leaned forward, observing the girl's discomfiture. "Miss Lowe," he said, catching her eye and holding it almost hypnotically, "why have you come to see me?"

      The question, pointblank, seemed to startle her. Evidently she had thought to tell only as little as necessary, and in her own way. She gave a little nervous laugh, as if to pass it off. But Kennedy's eyes conquered.

      "Oh, can't you understand yet?" she exclaimed, rising passionately and throwing out her arms in appeal. "I was carried away with my hatred of war. I hate it yet. But now—the sudden realization of what this compact all means has—well, caused something in me to—to snap. I don't care what oath I have taken. Oh, Professor Kennedy, you—you must save him!"

      I looked up at her quickly. What did she mean? At first she had come to be saved herself. "You must save him!" she implored.

      Our door buzzer sounded.

      She gazed about with a hunted look, as if she felt that some one had even now pursued her and found out.

      "What shall I do?" she whispered. "Where shall I go?"

      "Quick—in here. No one will know," urged Kennedy, opening the door to his room. He paused for an instant, hurriedly. "Tell me—have you and this other woman met the Baron yet? How far has it gone?"

      The look she gave him was peculiar. I could not fathom what was going on in her mind. But there was no hesitation about her answer. "Yes," she replied, "I—we have met him. He is to come back to New York from Washington to-day—this afternoon—to arrange a private loan of five million dollars with some bankers secretly. We were to see him to-night—a quiet dinner, after an automobile ride up the Hudson—"

      "Both of you?" interrupted Craig.

      "Yes—that—that other woman and myself," she repeated, with a peculiar catch in her voice. "To-night was the time fixed in the drawing for the—"

      The word stuck in her throat. Kennedy understood. "Yes, yes," he encouraged, "but who is the other woman?"

      Before she could reply, the buzzer had sounded again and she had retreated from the door. Quickly Kennedy closed it and opened the outside door.

      It was our old friend Burke of the Secret Service.

      Without a word of greeting, a hasty glance seemed to assure him that Kennedy and I were alone. He closed the door himself, and, instead of sitting down, came close to Craig.

      "Kennedy," he blurted out in a tone of suppressed excitement, "can I trust you to keep a big secret?"

      Craig looked at him reproachfully, but said nothing.

      "I beg your pardon—a thousand times," hastened Burke. "I was so excited, I wasn't thinking—"

      "Once is enough, Burke," laughed Kennedy, his good nature restored at

       Burke's crestfallen appearance.

      "Well, you see," went on the Secret Service man, "this thing is so very important that—well, I forgot."

      He sat down and hitched his chair close to us, as he went on in a lowered, almost awestruck tone.

      "Kennedy," he whispered, "I'm on the trail, I think, of something growing out of these terrible conditions in Europe that will tax the best in the Secret Service. Think of it, man. There's an organization, right here in this city, a sort of assassin's club, as it were, aimed at all the powerful men the world over. Why, the most refined and intellectual reformers have joined with the most red-handed anarchists and—"

      "Sh! not so loud," cautioned Craig. "I think I have one of them in the next room. Have they done anything yet to the Baron?"

      It was Burke's turn now to look from one to the other of us in unfeigned surprise that we should already know something of his secret.

      "The Baron?" he repeated, lowering his voice. "What Baron?"

      It was evident that Burke knew nothing, at least of this new plot which Miss Lowe had indicated. Kennedy beckoned him over to the window furthest from the door to his own room.

      "What have you discovered?" he asked, forestalling Burke in the questioning. "What has happened?"

      "You haven't heard, then?" replied Burke.

      Kennedy nodded negatively.

      "Fortescue, the American inventor of fortescite, the new explosive, died very strangely this morning."

      "Yes," encouraged Kennedy, as Burke came to a full stop to observe the effect of the information.

      "Most incomprehensible, too," he pursued. "No cause, apparently. But it might have been overlooked, perhaps, except for one thing. It wasn't known generally, but Fortescue had just perfected a successful electro-magnetic gun—powderless, smokeless, flashless, noiseless and of tremendous power. To-morrow he was to have signed the contract to sell it to England. This morning he is found dead and the final plans of the gun are gone!"

      Kennedy and Burke were standing mutely looking at each other.

      "Who is in the next room?" whispered Burke hoarsely, recollecting

       Kennedy's caution of silence.

      Kennedy did not reply immediately. He was evidently much excited by

       Burke's news of the wonderful electro-magnetic gun.

      "Burke," he exclaimed suddenly, "let's join forces. I think we are both on the trail of a world-wide conspiracy—a sort of murder syndicate to wipe out war!"

      Burke's only reply was a low whistle that involuntarily escaped him as he reached over and grasped Craig's hand, which to him represented the sealing of the compact.

      As for me, I could not restrain a mental shudder at the power that their first murder had evidently placed in the hands of the anarchists, СКАЧАТЬ