by Robert Reed
Frank nodded . Though he had no heart for the job, he quickened
his steps and overtook Festini .
Tillizini watched them . He saw them strolling aimlessly along,
and turn into the street he had indicated . The waiting car on the other
side of the road entered the street and then stopped; the road was up,
and beyond half-way down there was no thoroughfare . The chauf-
feur looked round anxiously . He had to back out and make a detour
by the way of the lower end of Regent Street and Piccadilly . He had
another alternative, which was to wait . He looked undecided . He
was assisted in his decision as to what he should do by the gesture
of a policeman, who ordered him back to the main street .
Very slowly the car backed out . It was a minute or two before
he could bring the long Napier into the stream of traffic moving up
towards Piccadilly Circus . There was a block here, and another wait
ensued .
Tillizini had posted himself where he could watch every move-
ment . He saw the look of anxiety on the chauffeur’s face . The oppor-
tunity he had been waiting for for the last two hours now presented
itself. He threaded his way through the block of traffic and passed
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the car . He took something from his pocket and, bending over the
rear wheel, pressed down his hand upon it . A broad strip of rubber
with a steel clamp at either end .
Deftly he fixed it over the wheel. In its centre an arrow head pro-
jected . It had been carefully prepared and only the expert, interested
in the accessories of cars, would have thought it unusual .
With one glance to see that his work had been well done, he
slipped through the traffic, and gained the other side of the road. He
walked a little way down Regent Street, from thence he saw the two
men talking . Festini was walking back . He had missed the car and
had understood why it had failed to follow him .
Tillizini saw him take a hurried farewell of Frank and walk
quickly up the street . The professor smiled . It appealed to him, this
spectacle of Festini and his car playing hide-and-seek with one an-
other .
He did not attempt to rejoin Frank, instead he called a cab, which
came reluctantly, for this man in working clothes did not inspire
confidence, and drove straight to Scotland Yard.
That night every police station in England received a notification,
and in the early hours of the morning, policemen on foot, cyclists
and mounted men were searching the wet roads for the track of a
motor car which displayed an arrow at regular intervals .
CHAPTER XV
THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER
From her window Marjorie could see the broad and sluggish
river . When the fog did not veil every object from sight, she caught a
glimpse of big ships passing up and down; fussy little tugs drawing
strings of lighters, brown-sailed barges that went with stately leisure
to the sea . In the foreground was marshland, uncultivated .
The sluggish river, for such it was at a distance of a quarter of a
mile, was the River Thames; the marshland was that unlovely stretch
of swamp on its north bank, between Southend and Barking .
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By putting her face close to the window she could see a small,
low-roofed building, tarred and weatherproof, from which men in
white overalls came and went .
The house she was in was an old one, as houses go . It was built of
brick; the rooms were lofty and cold and a little damp .
Even in the room which had been allotted to her use, the paper
had peeled off the wall in great pieces, and not even the fire, which
the hard-faced Italian woman who attended her kept fed, dispelled
the chilly dreariness of the apartment .
She had been brought here by night from the house on the cliff .
She had lain down to sleep after supper in her Kentish prison and
had awakened to find herself lying in the room she now tenanted.
The knowledge that they must have drugged her food filled her
with panic .
The day following her arrival she had refused to eat or drink, and
now it was not until the Italian woman had partaken from the dishes
she supplied, before Marjorie’s eyes, that the girl consented to touch
the food .
Fortunately, she numbered amongst her accomplishments a
working knowledge of Italian . Of late she had polished up her ac-
quaintance with the language . Frank’s work mainly lay in Italy, and
she had seen the necessity for becoming proficient.
But she received no satisfactory reply to any of her inquiries . She
had not seen Festini since that day on the cliff, though she had heard
his voice often enough .
She guessed rather than knew that in the little low-roofed house
near by, was being prepared that terrible culture which was to bring
England to her knees in submission .
Everything that Festini could do to relieve the monotony of her
life, he had done .
She was plentifully supplied with books and papers, and to serve
her table he had secured a perfect Italian cook .
The only man she had spoken to was a tall giant of a man, whom
she had seen on the cliff with Festini .
He answered her questions gruffly, and in monosyllables.
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He had merely come into the room, she gathered, to see to the
security of the bars which had been fixed outside the window. She
was ill with anxiety; she dare not give her imagination its rein .
It was Frank she thought of—Frank, whom she knew would be
distracted with grief; and at night she alternately wept and prayed
for the strength and sanctuary of his arms .
It was on the third day following her abduction . She was sitting
trying to read by the window, when the click of the lock brought her
to her feet .
She heard the voice of Festini outside, and in a moment he had
come into the room, locking the door behind him .
They stood confronting one another . She had walked swiftly to
the centre of the room, and placed the table between them .
“Well?” he said, with his pleasant smile, “I hope you have every-
thing you want .”
She made no reply at once . Then—
“I want my freedom,” she said .
“That,” he said, with a little bow, “I am sorry I cannot grant you .
It is necessary for my health and security that you should stay a little
longer . Afterwards, I hope to make you the wife of one of the richest
men in Europe .”
“That will never be,” she said, steadily . “I would sooner be the
first victim of the plague you threaten, than endure that humiliation.”
He winced at the words .
“It is no humiliation,” he said, a little haughtily . “In my veins
runs the best blood of Italy . It is an honour to be the chosen bride of
Festini .”
She was amazed at the unexpected vanity of the man .
She had never regarded him, even at the most friendly
period of
their relationship, as more than a rather good-looking, well-man-
nered member of the middle classes . That he should esteem his birth
as being sufficient to make him superior to censure was a strange
point of view .
She looked at him, in spite of herself, with an added interest .
“I ask you to be my wife,” he said .
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He emphasized the words .
“You ought to realize that, in addition to doing you an honour, I
am also acting with great magnanimity . You are here alone,” he said,
“entirely and absolutely at my mercy . You are surrounded by men
and women who would question no act of mine, however barbarous
it might seem to you . Do you understand?”
She understood too well .
She was safe unless she made quasi-friendly relationships impos-
sible . She had need to temporize .
He may have guessed what was passing in her mind .
“Understand,” he said, “there is no escape from here, except as
my wife . I will be patient without you . I have been patient with
you,” he went on . “To-morrow a priest will marry us according to
the rights of my Church .”
“To-morrow!” she gasped .
“To-morrow,” he said, a little mockingly . “It is rather soon, is it
not? And you have no trousseau!”
He waved the objection away .
“That is a detail which can either be arranged or can be overrid-
den .”
He made no attempt to touch her .
“May I sit down?” he asked .
She nodded, and he drew a chair forward to the table and seated
himself .
“I think I ought to take you a little into my confidence,” he said,
in his pleasant, matter-of-fact manner . “It is necessary to expedite
matters . Your friend—how do you pronounce his name—Mansing-
ham?—was picked up by a fishing smack. I think he swam out to
sea and picked up the smack, but it is immaterial . He is alive, and, I
have reason to believe, talkative .”
He saw the look of hope spring up in her face, and smiled .
“The fact that he will be able to identify me with this act of ab-
duction,” he went on, “embarrasses me, but, fortunately, our scheme
is so far advanced that there is no longer any necessity for me to
disguise my association with the ‘Red Hand .’”
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“The only thing which is a trifle annoying is that I must stay in
this deadly place a few more days . All the work that is to be done my
agents can do . But for your presence here it would be an impossible
situation . Not for all the gold in England could I rusticate by the
banks of the Thames—alone .”
His dazzling smile bewildered the girl . He had a trick of discuss-
ing the most outrageous propositions with a serious and convincing
air. It was all superficial, but then his superficiality bit deeper into
him than into most men .
At heart she knew him to be a cold-blooded and remorseless man,
who would stop at nothing to gain his ends . It was only that the ve-
neer of civilization was thicker, that the brute within him did not lie
so close to the surface, which distinguished him from his comrades .
But the streak of cruelty was there, as he showed .
“By the way,” he said, “I met Mr . Gallinford the other day, and
condoled with him upon your disappearance .”
“You brute!” she flamed. “How dare you mock me!”
“I like you when you are like that,” he said, admiringly . “You
almost tempt me to continue to tell how ill and worn he looks .”
He laughed, but there was no note of merriment in the sound .
“A singularly thick-headed man! Had he been an Italian he would
have known by my face, by the change in my eyes when your name
was mentioned, that it was I”—he pointed to himself—“who had
robbed him . But then these Englishmen are so phlegmatic! They
soon forget . You must not worry very much about your Frank,” he
said, as he rose to go . “In a year or two he will have married some
comfortable Englishwoman, and have settled down to a life made up
with shooting pheasants and discussing defective drainage .”
She was incapable of reply .
He went out of the room and locked the door behind him, leaving
her alone, with her head on her arms—weeping from very anger .
He found Il Bue in the room below with two men who had just
come in from the laboratory he had arranged in the wooden shed .
“Well?” he asked, moodily, as he flung himself into a chair at the
head of the table . “What are the developments?”
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“Signor,” said one of the men, “everything is ready . We have
secured perfect cultures, even more perfect than those dispatched to
the Bacteriological Institution .” Festini nodded .
“To-morrow I shall receive the Government’s reply . I have asked
them to advertise that reply in the columns of a newspaper .”
“And what will it be?” asked Il Bue, his eyes fixed upon Festini’s
face .
Festini shrugged .
“Who knows?” he said . “I think at the eleventh hour they will
agree to my terms .”
One of the assistants in white was a thick-set man with a sour,
bad-tempered face . He took no part in the subsequent discussion on
the methods to be adopted for the distribution of the plague .
Festini had made elaborate precautions and had issued exhaustive
literature for distribution amongst the members of the “Red Hand .”
He was sincere in his desire that the agents of his organization
should escape the consequences of their own villainy .
When the discussion was finished, the surly man jerked his head
round to Festini . He was sitting on his right hand, his elbows on the
table, his big, fleshy hands clasped.
“What about this woman, Signor Festini?” he asked .
The young man looked at him steadily .
“‘This woman’?” he repeated, softly, “I do not know who you
mean .”
The stout man jerked his head upwards . He was the kind of man
who moved in jerks .
“She who is upstairs,” he said .
Festini got up very slowly from the table .
“You will understand, Gregorio,” he said, in his honeyed tones,
“that you will never refer to that lady in such a way . Indeed,” he
said, carefully, “you will never refer to her at all .”
“There are no secrets from the brethren,” grumbled the man . “We
all want to know what is the plan with regard to her .” Without a
word Festini’s hand leapt out; his quick, strong fingers caught the
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other by the throat; with a sidelong twist he forced the man’s head
back over the table .
Festini was a strong man despite his frail physique .
“You dog!” he hissed in the man’s purple face . “Must I answer
to you for all I do?” The man struggled to recover his balance, but a
Festini hesitated, then he released his grip, and the man staggered
up to his feet .
“Remember this,” said the Count . “Remember it all your life,
Gregorio . It may serve you well one day—the recollection .” The
man was livid and shaking .
“I’m sorry, Signor,” he said, humbly; “it was thoughtless . I did
not intend to offend your Excellency .”
With a curt nod Festini dismissed him .
“And understand,” he said, “that I will not spare any man who
speaks slightingly or lightly of the lady who is to be the Countess
Festini . There is my plan, if you wish to know it . That is enough—
too much, perhaps—certainly enough . I give you my best —you
must give me obedience and faith . That is all I ask .”
He was in no mood of tolerance .
George Mansingham had arrived in England, and by this time
Tillizini knew what he had already guessed . London was unsafe for
Festini, and he was the type of man who scorned any disguise .
He must fret away his time in this God-forsaken spot; the fulfil-
ment of his plans demanded it .
He stopped in the house long enough to don the white overall
which had distinguished his companions, and went into the long
wooden shed, Il Bue and the two men joining him at the entrance of
the hut .
The only light came through a big skylight . House and shed had
formed part of a boat-builder’s establishment, long since bankrupt
and fallen into decay . It suited his purpose admirably . It was far
enough away from the high road to obtain seclusion . He had a
plausible excuse for the presence of his men . The premises were
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ostensibly part of the properties of a little company he had formed
some time before for the manufacture of synthetic rubber .
There is something about synthetic rubber and its manufacturers
and inventors which keep an amused public at bay .
The shed was divided into two parts. In the first there were a
number of test tubes, retorts and scientific apparatus upon a large
bench .
The entrance to the second room was obtained through a stout
door, which was fastened by two padlocks .
These the big man unfastened . Before he opened the door he
pulled up from his chin an antiseptic mask, which he brought over
