CHAPTER VII.
THE DAUGHTER OF NATAS.
Supper was over about eleven, and then the party adjourned to thedrawing-room, where for an hour or so Arnold sat and listened to suchmusic and singing as he had never heard in his life before. The songsseemed to be in every language in Europe, and he did not understandanything like half of them, so far, at least, as the words wereconcerned.
They were, however, so far removed from the average drawing-roommedley of twaddle and rattle that the music interpreted the wordsinto its own universal language, and made them almost superfluous.
For the most part they were sad and passionate, and once or twice,especially when Radna Michaelis was singing, Arnold saw tears well upinto the eyes of the women, and the brows of the men contract andtheir hands clench with sudden passion at the recollection of someterrible scene or story that was recalled by the song.
At last, close on midnight, the President rose from his seat andasked Natasha to sing the "Hymn of Freedom." She acknowledged therequest with an inclination of her head, and then as Radna sat downto the piano, and she took her place beside it, all the rest rose totheir feet like worshippers in a church.
The prelude was rather longer than usual, and as Radna played itArnold heard running through it, as it were, echoes of all thepatriotic songs of Europe from "Scots Wha Hae" and "The Shan vanVoght" to the forbidden Polish National Hymn and the Swiss Republicansong, which is known in England as "God Save the Queen." The preludeended with a few bars of the "Marseillaise," and then Natasha began.
It was a marvellous performance. As the air changed from nation tonation the singer changed the language, and at the end of each versethe others took up the strain in perfect harmony, till it soundedlike a chorus of the nations in miniature, each language coming inits turn until the last verse was reached.
Then there was silence for a moment, and then the opening chords ofthe "Marseillaise" rang out from the piano, slow and stately atfirst, and then quickening like the tread of an army going intobattle.
Suddenly Natasha's voice soared up, as it were, out of the music, anda moment later the Song of the Revolution rolled forth in a flood oftriumphant melody, above which Natasha's pure contralto thrilledsweet and strong, till to Arnold's intoxicated senses it seemed likethe voice of some angel singing from the sky in the ears of men, andit was not until the hymn had been ended for some moments that he wasrecalled to earth by the President saying to him--
"Some day, perhaps, you will be floating in the clouds, and you willhear that hymn rising from the throats of millions gathered togetherfrom the ends of the earth, and when you hear that you will know thatour work is done, and that there is peace on earth at last."
"I hope so," replied the engineer quietly, "and, what is more, Ibelieve that some day I shall hear it."
"I believe so too," suddenly interrupted Radna, turning round on herseat at the piano, "but there will be many a battle-song sung to theaccompaniment of battle-music before that happens. I wish"--
"That all Russia were a haystack, and that you were beside it with alighted torch," said Natasha, half in jest and half in earnest.
"Yes, truly!" replied Radna, turning round and dashing fiercely intothe "Marseillaise" again.
"I have no doubt of it. But, come, it is after midnight, and we haveto get back to Cheyne Walk. The princess will think we have beenarrested or something equally dreadful. Ah, Mr. Colston, we have acouple of seats to spare in the brougham. Will you and our Admiral ofthe Air condescend to accept a lift as far as Chelsea?"
"The condescension is in the offer, Natasha," replied Colston,flushing with pleasure and glancing towards Radna the while. Radnaanswered with an almost imperceptible sign of consent, and Colstonwent on: "If it were in an utterly opposite direction"--
"You would not be asked to come, sir. So don't try to pay complimentsat the expense of common sense," laughed Natasha before he couldfinish. "If you do you shall sit beside me instead of Radna all theway."
There was a general smile at this retort, for Colston's avoweddevotion to Radna and the terrible circumstances out of which it hadsprung was one of the romances of the Circle.
As for Arnold, he could scarcely believe his ears when he heard thathe was to ride from Clapham Common to Chelsea sitting beside thisradiantly beautiful girl, behind whose innocence and gaiety there laythe shadow of her mysterious and terrible parentage.
Lovely and gentle as she seemed, he knew even now how awful a powershe held in the slender little hand whose nervous clasp he couldstill feel upon his own, and this knowledge seemed to raise aninvisible yet impassable barrier between him and the possibility oflooking upon her as under other circumstances it would have beennatural for a man to look upon so fair a woman.
Natasha's brougham was so far an improvement on those of the presentday that it had two equally comfortable seats, and on these the fourwere cosily seated a few minutes after the party broke up. To Arnold,and, doubtless, to Colston also, the miles flew past at an unheard-ofspeed; but for all that, long before the carriage stopped at thehouse in Cheyne Walk, he had come to the conviction that, for good orevil, he was now bound to the Brotherhood by far stronger ties thanany social or political opinions could have formed.
After they had said good-night at the door, and received aninvitation to lunch for the next day to talk over the journey toRussia, he and Colston decided to walk to the Savoy, for it was aclear moonlit night, and each had a good deal to say to the other,which could be better and more safely said in the open air than in acab. So they lit their cigars, buttoned up their coats, and startedoff eastward along the Embankment to Vauxhall.
"Well, my friend, tell me how you have enjoyed your evening, and whatyou think of the company," said Colston, by way of opening theconversation.
"Until supper I had a very pleasant time of it. I enjoyed thebusiness part of the proceedings intensely, as any other mechanicalenthusiast would have done, I suppose. But I frankly confess thatafter that my mind is in a state of complete chaos, in the midst ofwhich only one figure stands out at all distinctly."
"And that figure is?"
"Natasha. Tell me--who is she?"
"I know no more as to her true identity than you do, or else I wouldanswer you with pleasure."
"What! Do you mean to say"--
"I mean to say just what I have said. Not only do I not know who sheis, but I do not believe that more than two or three members of theCircle, at the outside, know any more than I do. Those are, probably,Nicholas Roburoff, the President of the Executive, and his wife, andRadna Michaelis."
"Then, if Radna knows, how comes it that you do not know? You mustforgive me if I am presuming on a too short acquaintance; but itcertainly struck me to-night that you had very few secrets from eachother."
"There is no presumption about it, my dear fellow," replied Colston,with a laugh. "It is no secret that Radna and I are lovers, and thatshe will be my wife when I have earned her."
"Now you have raised my curiosity again," interrupted Arnold, in aninquiring tone.
"And will very soon satisfy it. You saw that horrible picture in theCouncil-chamber? Yes. Well, I will tell you the whole story of thatsome day when we have more time; but for the present it will beenough for me to tell you that I have sworn not to ask Radna to comewith me to the altar while a single person who was concerned in thatnameless crime remains alive.
"There were five persons responsible for it to begin with--thegovernor of the prison, the prefect of police for the district, aspy, who informed against her, and the two soldiers who executed theinfernal sentence. It happened nearly three years ago, and there aretwo of them alive still--the governor and the prefect of police.
"Of course the Brotherhood would have removed them long ago had itdecided to do so; but I got the circumstances laid before Natas, bythe help of Natasha, and received permission to execute the sentencesmyself. So far I have killed three with my own hand, and the othertwo have not much longer to live.
"The
governor has been transferred to Siberia, and will probably bethe last that I shall reach. The prefect is now in command of theRussian secret police in London, and unless an accident happens hewill never leave England."
Colston spoke in a cold, passionless, merciless tone, just as alawyer might speak of a criminal condemned to die by the ordinaryprocess of the law, and as Arnold heard him he shuddered. But at thesame time the picture in the Council-chamber came up before hismental vision, and he was forced to confess that men who could so farforget their manhood as to lash a helpless woman up to a triangle andflog her till her flesh was cut to ribbons, were no longer men butwild beasts, whose very existence was a crime. So he merely said--
"They were justly slain. Now tell me more about Natasha."
"There is very little more that I can tell you, I'm afraid. All Iknow is that the Brotherhood of the Terror is the conception andcreation of a single man, and that that man is Natas, the father ofNatasha, as she is known to us. His orders come to us either directlyin writing through Natasha, or indirectly through him you have heardspoken of as the Chief."
"Oh, then the Chief is not Natas?"
"No, we have all of us seen him. In fact, when he is in London healways presides at the Circle meetings. You would hardly believe it,but he is an English nobleman, and Secretary to the English Embassyat Petersburg."
"Then he is Lord Alanmere, and an old college friend of mine!"exclaimed Arnold. "I saw his name in the paper the night before last.It was mentioned in the account of the murder"--
"We don't call those murders, my friend," drily interrupted Colston;"we call them what they really are--executions."
"I beg your pardon; I was using the phraseology of the newspaper.What was his crime?"
"I don't know. But the fact that the Chief was there when he died isquite enough for me. Well, as I was saying, the Chief, as we callhim, is the visible and supreme head of the Brotherhood so far as weare concerned. We know that Natas exists, and that he and the Chiefadmit no one save Natasha to their councils.
"They control the treasury absolutely, and apart from thecontributions of those of the members who can afford to make them,they appear to provide the whole of the funds. Of course, LordAlanmere, as you know, is enormously wealthy, and probably Natas isalso rich. At any rate, there is never any want of money where thework of the Brotherhood is concerned.
"The estimates are given to Natasha when the Chief is not present,and at the next meeting she brings the money in English gold andnotes, or in foreign currency as may be required, and that is all weknow about the finances.
"Perhaps I ought to tell you that there is also a very considerablemystery about the Chief himself. When he presides at the Councilmeetings he displays a perfectly marvellous knowledge of both themembers and the working of the Brotherhood.
"It would seem that nothing, however trifling, is hidden from him;and yet when any of us happen to meet him, as we often do, inSociety, he treats us all as the most perfect strangers, unless wehave been regularly introduced to him as ordinary acquaintances. Eventhen he seems utterly ignorant of his connection with theBrotherhood.
"The first time I met him outside the Circle was at a ball at theRussian Embassy. I went and spoke to him, giving the sign of theInner Circle as I did so. To my utter amazement, he stared at mewithout a sign of recognition, and calmly informed me, in the usualway, that I had the advantage of him.
"Of course I apologised, and he accepted the apology with perfectgood humour, but as an utter stranger would have done. A little laterNatasha came in with the Princess Ornovski, whom you are going toRussia with, and who is there one of the most trusted agents of thePetersburg police. I told her what had happened.
"She looked at me for a moment rather curiously with those wonderfuleyes of hers; then she laughed softly, and said, 'Come, I will setthat at rest by introducing you; but mind, not a word about politicsor those horrible secret societies, as you value my good opinion.'
"I understood from this that there was something behind which couldnot be explained there, where every other one you danced with mightbe a spy, and I was introduced to his Lordship, and we became verygood friends in the ordinary social way; but I failed to gather theslightest hint from his conversation that he even knew of theexistence of the Brotherhood.
"When we left I drove home with Natasha and the Princess to supper,and on the way Natasha told me that his Lordship found it necessaryto lead two entirely distinct lives, and that he adhered so rigidlyto this rule that he never broke it even with her. Since then I havebeen most careful to respect what, after all, is a very wise, if notan absolutely necessary, precaution on his part."
"And, now," said Arnold, speaking in a tone that betrayed not alittle hesitation and embarrassment, "if you can do so, answer me onemore question, and do so as shortly and directly as you can. IsNatasha in love with, or betrothed to, any member of the Brotherhoodas far as you know?"
Colston stopped and looked at him with a laugh in his eyes. Then heput his hand on his shoulder and said--
"As I thought, and feared! You have not escaped the common lot of allheart-whole men upon whom those terrible eyes of hers have looked.The Angel of the Revolution, as we call her among ourselves, ispeerless among the daughters of men. What more natural, then, thatall the sons of men should fall speedy victims to her fatal charms?So far as I know, every man who has ever seen her is more or less inlove with her--and mostly more!
"As for the rest, I am as much in the dark as you are, save for thefact that I know, on the authority of Radna, that she is notbetrothed to any one, and, so far as _she_ knows, still in theblissful state of maiden fancy-freedom."
"Thank God for that!" said Arnold, with an audible sigh of relief.Then he went on in somewhat hurried confusion, "But there, of course,you think me a presumptuous ass, and so I am; wherefore"--
"There is no need for you to talk nonsense, my dear fellow. Therenever can be presumption in an honest man's love, no matter howexalted the object of it may be. Besides, are you not now the centralhope of the Revolution, and is not yours the hand that shall hurldestruction on its enemies?
"As for Natasha, peerless and all as she is, has not the poet of theages said of just such as her--
She's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd; She is a woman: therefore to be won?
"And who, too, has a better chance of winning her than you will havewhen you are commanding the aerial fleet of the Brotherhood, and,like a very Jove, hurling your destroying bolts from the clouds, anddeciding the hazard of war when the nations of Europe are locked inthe death-struggle? Why, you see such a prospect makes even mepoetical.
"Seriously, though, you must not consider the distance between youtoo great. Remember that you are a very different person now to whatyou were a couple of days ago. Without any offence, I may say thatyou were then nameless, while now you have the chance of making aname that will go down to all time as that of the solver of thegreatest problem of this or any other age.
"Added to this, remember that Natasha, after all, is a woman, and,more than that, a woman devoted heart and soul to a great cause, inwhich great deeds are soon to be done. Great deeds are still theshortest way to a woman's heart, and that is the way you must take ifyou are to hope for success."
"I will!" simply replied Arnold, and the tone in which the two wordswere said convinced Colston that he meant all that they implied toits fullest extent.
The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror Page 8
