The Black Gang

by Sapper

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  In which Things Happen at Maybrick Hall

  Had the Italian come up five minutes sooner – a minute even – all would have been well. As it was, at the very moment when Drummond’s crashing blow took him on the point of the jaw with mathematical precision, another mathematical law began to operate elsewhere – the law of gravity. Something fell from a ceiling on to a table in the room below that ceiling, even as in days gone by an apple descended into the eye of the discoverer of that law.

  The two men seated in the room below the ceiling in question failed to notice it at first. They were not interested in mathematics but they were interested in their conversation. One was the red-headed man of whom Phyllis had spoken: the other was a nondescript type of individual who looked like an ordinary middle-class professional man.

  “Our organisation has, of course, grown immensely,” he was saying. “Our Socialist Sunday Schools, as you may know, were started twenty-five years ago. A very small beginning, my friend, but the result now would stagger you. And wishy-washy stuff was taught to start with too; now I think even you would be satisfied.”

  Something splashed on the table beside him, but he took no notice.

  “Blasphemy, of course – or rather what the Bourgeois call blasphemy – is instilled at once. We teach them to fear no God; we drive into them each week that the so-called God is merely a weapon of the Capitalist class to keep them quiet, and that if it had not that effect they would see what a machine-gun could do. And, Yulowski, it is having its effect. Get at the children has always been my motto – for they are the next generation. They can be moulded like plastic clay; their parents, so often, are set in a groove. We preach class hatred – and nothing but class hatred. We give them songs to sing – songs with a real catchy tune. There’s one very good one in which the chorus goes:

  “‘Come, workers, sing a rebel song, a song of love and hate,

  Of love unto the lowly and of hatred to the great.’”

  He paused to let the full effect of the sublime stanza sink in, and again something splashed on to the table.

  Yulowski nodded his head indifferently.

  “I admit its value, my friend,” he remarked in a curious husky whisper. “And in your country I suppose you must go slowly. I fear my inclinations lead towards something more rapid and – er – drastic. Sooner or later the Bourgeois must be exterminated all the world over. On that we are agreed. Why not make it sooner as we did in Russia? The best treatment for any of the Capitalist class is a bayonet in the stomach and a rifle butt on the head.”

  He smiled reminiscently, a thin, cruel smile, and once again there came an unheeded splash.

  “I have heard it said,” remarked the other man, with the faintest hesitation, “that you yourself were responsible in Russia for a good many of them.”

  The smile grew more pronounced and cruel.

  “It was I, my friend, who battered out the brains of two members of the Arch Tyrant’s family. Yes, I – I who sit here.” His voice rose to a sort of throaty shout and his eyes gleamed. “You can guess who I mean, can’t you?”

  “Two girls,” muttered the other, recoiling a little in spite of himself.

  “Two–” The foul epithet went unuttered; Yulowski was staring fascinated at the table. “Holy Mother! what’s that?”

  His companion swung round, and every vestige of colour left his face. On the table was a big red pool, and even as he watched it there came another splash and a big drop fell into it.

  “Blood!” he stammered, and his lips were shaking. “It’s blood.” And then he heard the Russian’s voice, low and tense.

  “Look at the ceiling, man; look at the ceiling.”

  He stared upwards and gave a little cry of horror. Slowly spreading over the white plaster was a great crimson stain, whilst from a crack in the middle the steady drip fell on to the table.

  It was Yulowski who recovered himself first; he was more used to such sights than his companion.

  “There’s been murder done,” he shouted hoarsely, and dashed out of the room. Doors were flung open, and half a dozen men rushed up the stairs after him. There was no doubt which the room was, and headed by Yulowski they crowded in – only to stop and stare at what lay on the floor.

  “It’s the Greek,” muttered one of them. “He was guarding the girl. And someone has severed the main artery in his arm.”

  With one accord they dashed across the passage to the room where Phyllis had been. In a second the door was broken in, and they saw the unconscious Italian lying on the bed.

  “The Black Gang,” muttered someone fearfully, and Yulowski cursed him for a cowardly swine. And it was his hoarse voice that Drummond heard shouting for the power to be switched on, as he turned and darted across the lawn.

  Completely ignorant of what had taken place, he was just as ignorant of what was meant by switching on the power. His one thought now was to get away with Phyllis. A start meant everything, and at the best he couldn’t hope for a long one. With his arm through hers he urged her forward, while behind him he heard a confused shouting which gradually died away under the peremptory orders of someone who seemed to be in command. And almost subconsciously he noticed that the thudding noise had ceased; only the faint humming of the engine broke the silence.

  Suddenly in front of him he saw the fence which had caused him to wonder earlier in the evening. It was just the same in this part as it had been in the other, but he wasn’t concerned with speculations about it now. The only thing he was thankful for was that it was easy to get through.

  He was not five feet from it, when it happened – the amazing and at that moment inexplicable thing. For months after he used to wake in the night and lie sweating with horror at the nearness of the escape. For it would have been Phyllis who would have gone through first; it would have been Phyllis, who – But it did happen – just in time.

  He saw a dark shape dart across the open towards the fence, an animal carrying something in its mouth. It reached the fence, and the next instant it bounded an incredible height in the air, only to fall backwards on to the ground and lie motionless almost at Drummond’s feet. It was so utterly unexpected that he paused instinctively and stared at it. It was a fox, and the fowl it had been carrying lay a yard away. It lay there rigid and motionless, and completely bewildered he bent and touched it, only to draw back his hand as if he’d been stung. A sharp stabbing pain shot up his arm, as if he’d had an electric shock – and suddenly he understood, and with a cry of fear he dragged Phyllis back just in time.

  The brain moves rapidly at times; the inherent connection of things takes place in a flash. And the words he had used to the Italian, “E pericoloso sporgersi,” took him back to Switzerland, where the phrase is written on every railway carriage. And in Switzerland, you may see those heavy steel pylons with curved pointed hooks to prevent people climbing up, and red bands painted with the words Danger de mort. Live wires there are at the top, carried on insulators – even as the fence wires were carried through insulators in the uprights.

  Danger de mort. And the fox had been electrocuted. That was what the man had meant by shouting for the power to be switched on. And as he stood there still clutching Phyllis’ arm, and shaken for the moment out of his usual calm, there came from the direction of the house, the deep-throated baying of a big hound.

  “What is it, Hugh?” said Phyllis in an agonised whisper.

  With terrified eyes she was staring at the body of the fox, stiff and rigid in death, and with its jaws parted in a hideous snarl. And again there came from the direction of the house a deep-throated bay.

  Then suddenly she realised that her husband was speaking – quietly, insistently. Only too well did he know the danger: only too well did he know that never before in his life had the situation been so tight. But no sign of it showed on his fac
e: not a trace of indecision appeared in his voice. The position was desperate, the remedy must be desperate too.

  “We can’t climb through the fence, dear,” he was saying calmly. “You see they’ve switched an electric current through the wires, and if you touch one you’ll be electrocuted. Also they seem to have turned an unpleasant little animal into the garden, so we can’t stay here. At least – you can’t. So I’m going to throw you over the top.”

  In an agony of fear she clung to him for a moment: then as she saw his quiet, set face she pulled herself together and smiled. There was no time for argument now: there was no time for anything except instant action. And being a thoroughbred, she was not going to hinder him by any weakness on her part. Of fear for herself she felt no trace: her faith and trust in her husband was absolute. And so she stood there silently waiting while he measured height and distance with his eye.

  Of his ability to get her over he felt no doubt: but when a mistake means death to the woman he loves a man does not take risks.

  “Come, dear,” he said after a moment’s pause. “Put your knees close up to your chin, and try to keep like a ball until you feel yourself falling.”

  She doubled herself up and he picked her up. One hand held both her feet – the other gripped the waistband at the back of her skirt. Once he lifted her above his head to the full extent of his arms to free his muscles: then he took a little run and threw her up and forward with all his strength. And she cleared the top strand by two feet…

  She landed unhurt in some bushes, and when she had scrambled to her feet she realised he was speaking again – imperatively, urgently.

  “Get the gang, darling: somehow or other get the gang. I’ll try and get you a good start. But – hurry.”

  The next instant he had disappeared into the undergrowth, and only just in time. A huge hound running mute had dashed into the clearing where a second or two before they had been standing, and was cautiously approaching the dead fox. She stared at it fascinated, and then with a little cry of terror she pulled herself together and ran. She had forgotten the fence that was between them: for the moment she had forgotten everything except this huge brute that looked the size of a calf. And the hound, seeing the flutter of her dress, forgot things too. A dead fox could wait, a living human was better fun by far. He bounded forward: gave one agonised roar as he hit the fence, and turning a complete somersault lay still. And as Phyllis stumbled blindly on, she suddenly heard Hugh’s cheerful voice from the darkness behind her, apparently addressing the world at large.

  “Roll up! roll up! roll up! one fox: one Pomeranian: one fowl. No charge for admittance. Visitors are requested not to touch the exhibits.”

  And then loud and clear the hoot of an owl thrice repeated. It was a message for her, she knew – not a senseless piece of bravado: a message to tell her that he was all right. But the call at the end was the urgent call of the gang, and though he was safe at the moment she knew there was no time to be lost. And, with a little prayer that she would choose the right direction, she broke into the steady run of the girl who beagles when she goes beagling, and doesn’t sit on the top of a hill and watch. Hugh had never let her down yet: it was her turn now.

  To what extent it was her turn, perhaps it was as well that she did not realise. Even Drummond, hidden in the undergrowth just by the clearing where lay the body of the hound, was ignorant of the nature of the odds against him. He had not the slightest idea how many men there were in the house – and while it remained dark he didn’t much care. In the dark he felt confident of dealing with any number, or at any rate of eluding them. It was the thing of all others that his soul loved – that grim fighting at night, when a man looks like a trunk of a tree, and the trunk of a tree looks like a man. It was in that that he was unequalled – superb: and the inmates of Maybrick Hall would have been well advised to have stayed their hands till the light came. Then the position, in military parlance, could have been taken without loss. An unarmed man is helpless when he can be seen.

  But since the inmates were ignorant of what they were up against, they somewhat foolishly decided on instant action. They came streaming across in a body in the track of the dead hound, and by so doing they played straight into the hands of the man who crouched in the shadows close by them. He listened for one moment to the babel of tongues of every nationality, and decided that a little more English might adjust the average. So without a sound he faded away from his hiding-place, and emerged from the undergrowth ten yards nearer the house. Then with his collar turned up, and his shoulders hunched together, he joined the group. And a man-eating tiger in their midst would have been a safer addition to the party.

  Certain it is that the next quarter of an hour proved a period of such terror for the inmates of Maybrick Hall that at the end of that time they reassembled at the house and flatly refused to budge, despite the threats and curses of the red-headed Russian. For Drummond had heard the original orders – to form a line of beaters and shoot on sight – and had smiled gently to himself in the darkness. There is always an element of humour in stalking the stalkers, and when the line formed up at intervals of two or three yards the quarry was behind it. Moreover the quarry was angry, with the cold, steady rage of a powerful man who realises exactly what he is up against. Shoot on sight was the order, and Drummond accepted the terms.

  Slowly the line of shadowy men moved forward through the undergrowth, and creeping behind them came the man they were out to kill. And gradually he edged nearer and nearer to the wire fence, until he was following the outside man of the line. He saw him pause for a moment peering round a bush, with his revolver ready in his hand. And then the terror started. The beater next to the victim had a fleeting vision of a huge black object springing through the darkness: a muttered curse and a gurgle – and a dreadful strangled scream. And the outside beater was no more. He had been hurled against the live-wire fence as if he was a child – and the exhibits had been increased by one.

  With a hoarse cry of fear the man who had been next to him turned and ran towards the house, only to find himself seized from behind with a grip of iron. It was Franz, and as he stared into the face of the man whom he knew to be drowned he gave a squawk like a trapped rabbit. But there was nothing ghostly about the hands round his neck, and as he felt himself being rushed towards the fence of death he began to struggle furiously. But Drummond was mad at the moment, and though Franz was a powerful man he might have saved himself the trouble. A terrific blow hit him on the face, and with a grunt he fell back against the fence. The exhibits were increased by two, and through the darkness rang a cheerful laugh, followed by the hooting of an owl.

  And now the line was broken, and men were crashing about in all directions shouting hoarsely. Experts of the Red Terror they might be – butcherers of women and children whose sole fault lay in the fact that they washed: that night they found themselves up against a terror far worse than even their victims had ever experienced. For they, poor wretches, knew what was coming: the men who ran shouting through the undergrowth did not. Here, there, and everywhere they heard the hooting of an owl: they formed into bunches of twos and threes for protection, they blazed away with compressed-air revolvers at harmless rhododendron bushes, and sometimes at their own pals. And every now and then a great black figure would leap silently out of the darkness on to some straggler: there would be a bellow of fear and pain – followed by an ominous silence, which was broken a second or two later by the hooting of an owl twenty yards away.

  Occasionally they saw him – a dim, fleeting shadow, and once four of them fired at him simultaneously. But luck was with him, and though two holes were drilled in his coat Drummond was not hit himself. His quiet laugh came suddenly from behind them, and even as they swung round cursing, one of them collapsed choking with a bullet through his chest. It was the first time he had used his first victim’s revolver, but the target was too tempting to be let off. And
at last they could stand it no longer. They had no idea how many men they were up against, and a complete panic set in. With one accord they rushed for the house, and a mocking peal of laughter followed them as they ran. For Drummond had gambled on that, and he had won. In the position of knowing that every man was his enemy, he had been at an advantage over the others, who were never sure who was a friend. For a while he listened to the flood of lurid blasphemy which came from the open windows of the room into which they had crowded: then he dodged along the bushes and looked in. For a moment he was sorely tempted to fire: in fact he went so far as to draw a bead on the red-headed Russian, who was gesticulating furiously. Then his hand dropped to his side: shooting into the brown was not his idea of the game. And at the same moment, the lights were switched off in the room: it had evidently struck someone inside that the position was a trifle insecure. The talking ceased abruptly, and with a faint grin on his face Drummond swung round and vanished into the deepest part of the undergrowth. It was necessary to do some thinking.

  He had got the start he wanted for Phyllis, which was all to the good, but he was as far as ever himself from getting out. There was still the fence to be negotiated if he was to escape, and common sense told him that there wasn’t the remotest chance of the current having been switched off. And incidentally it didn’t much matter whether it had been or not, since the only way of finding out for certain was to touch one of the wires – a thing he had not the faintest intention of doing. He could still hear the steady thrumming of the engine, and so the fence was out of the question.

  Delving into memories of the past, when he had sat at the feet of the stinks master at his school, he tried to remember some of the gems of wisdom, anent electricity, which had fallen from his lips. But since his sole occupation during such lectures had been the surreptitious manufacture of sulphuretted hydrogen from a retort concealed below his desk, he finally gave up the attempt in despair. One thing was certain; the fence must be continuous. From knowledge gained from the sparking plugs of his car, he knew that a break in the circuit was fatal. Therefore, there could be no break in the fence which encircled the house. And if that was so – how about the drive? How did the drive pass through the fence? There must be a break there, or something capable of forming a break. A motor-car will not go over an eight-foot fence, and he had seen the wheel tracks of a car quite clearly on the drive earlier in the evening.