"SCOUNDRELS AND CO."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11059, 10 May 1899, Page 3

"SCOUNDRELS AND CO."

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.]

BY COULBON KEHNAHAN. A'tlior of " Captain Shannon," " A Book of Strango Sins," "A Dead Man's Diary," etc., etc.

[COPYRIGHT.] CHAPTER XXIV. I remejibeb that as the lamp fell, a lickii; tongue of fire ran— a monkey runin; up a rope—along the drapery, and that Wore I had time to get out from under the taile, almost before the gaping face of Sticker had disappeared from the hole overbad, the entire roof was one sheet of flame. I carnt afterwards from Number Two that h( had had the house re-tiled before he and Hibbock hud set about constructing the serot chamber. The intelligent British w.rkman to whom the task was entrusted hal made a heavy additional charge in the bil for what he called weather-proofing the n»f by a method of his own inventing, ufin which he greatly plumed himself. In tlr matter of keeping rain out, this system of weather-proofing gave Hall every satisfaction, but, viewed from another standpoint, it caused him considerable uneasilies, for he had recently discovered that the mitt-rial used to wad the interstices between tfe tiles was a kind of skein oakum, which, bong saturated with tar, was highly inflam- , mible. Like every wise man, Number Two ; liiil a holy horror of fire, and he at once j tickled to substitute an asbestos prepara- > liui for the oakum. The abeslos had : ton procured, and the work of substitution conmcnral, when the unexpected advent of ! tin conspirators, and their instalment at : Hath Cottage, put a stop to a work which i tie fates had decreed should never be : flushed, for within three minutes from the i filling of the lamp, the upper part of Heath Ciitage was a royal roaring furnace. \ " Warm work, that!" gasped Number! Tvo breathlessly, when he, Hubbock, the , SJent Councillor, the fellow with the in- i gtiwing nail, and myself—roughing and I ctoking, and not all unsigned,— our- ' sdves outside. " Warm for the bobbies, ! tui, pour devils. The man on the roof was ' in the thick of the (ire, and must be a cinder ■ Ik now. J think the other chap hurt him- ; self when he fell; anyhow, he isn't here, and never will be. We'd belter be off. and ; by separate ways. The neighbours will be ! here in no time. But we must, settle some j place of meeting first. Where shall it he, | and when? I know. Tomorrow morning a! twelve, by the bookstall at St. Pancras' Station. I'll secure a carriage to ourselves by the Southend train, and we can talk things over going down. No one will no- i tiie us there, and if they do,' they'll only . (link we are a bean-feast party.' So wo art, for we're going to give some of them 'buns' before we've done with them—aren't wi'.' Now I'm off, and you'd better do the sane." i As the other four struck across the field, I nude for the high road. I had snatched up my bat when leaving the collage, and as . there was nothing in my dress to attract I atkntinn, and i had no reason to believe j I lot I was known personally to, or wanted ' bj, the police, 1 thought my safest plan wmlfl be In go boldly ahead. After I had walked a mile, or so, I met a blick-bearded man dressed as if for bicycl- , in,; and wearing a cloth cap. ' "Cm yuu tell me," lie said politely, "vhieh is si he shortest way to it house called Heath Collage, in 1 he occupation of i .Mr. Hall," " No," I replied, " I can't." "Then you are a stranger in this neighbourhood'.'" he said. Tin a stranger to you," I said curtly, resenting his impiisitiveness. " 1 see. Then when you said just now j that you couldn't tell me my way to Heath i Cottage, von meant that you didn't want j to':" "If wit like." I answered. "Take it j cither way. It's nunc of your business." ! "Oh \es, ,l is," was his off hand reply "I happen in be a police officer, you see end I shall have to trouble ymi to rcturi w:"!l me 'is fur as Taiboniiigh." Then he burst into a laugh. ."Don't up set vmrrelf, Xiimb-r Si veil I rnlv wanlei to snli..fv myself iV til— disguise" was al right, and it certainly seems In he so, since you didn't recognise your chief and la host." " You took me by surprise," I said, feel ing and looking rather foolish, " and gavi me a bit of a fright into the bargain, recognise yon now easily enough. But ti meet you coming in this direction and in ; disguise was enough to deceive anyone How on earth did you manage it in tin time'.' You haven't been into the cottage again, surely?" " Easiest thing in the world, my dear fellow," he said lightly. " My motto is " Always be prepared for an emergency.' Wher you saw me last, some twenty minutes ago, I was wearing a pepper-and-salt coat and trousers. Mat my clothes arc all made with two sides to them. There's nothing unusual about this emit., is there, except thai it is buttoned close, as all my coats arc. But il you turn it outside out, it would be peppet and salt again instead of blue serge. I always wear stockings instead of socks, and the arrangement of my own by which I can change trousers into knickerbockers a simple, and works so well, that I think ol patenting it one uay. The beard and the cap i carry in my pocket, so I made a dress-ini'-room of the first secluded place I came to, and hero 1 am, very much at your service. "Now look here, Number Seven," he went or, changing his tone abruptly. " I slipped across the fields to intercept you bcca'jM I want a word with you. This council if getting a ghastly farce. You and I and Hubbnek can work together all right, but the other two are simply deadheads. Perhaps it's my fault. 1 begin to realise 'hat I was mistaken in thinking I could handle the team as Number One did. That mini was a positive genius. His organising power was marvellous, six of us worked together under him like oarsmen in a boat There was no waste effort. He used the whole of us, and put out his men when he had any little scheme on, like a captain placing his team in the cricket field. Now everything's changed. One or two of us bring the brains and do the work, and the refit just look an and take no risk nor part in tilt business except sharing the profits. . ft s not like the same thing it used to be. You weren't a member of the syndicate ill those days. Then it was a power in the world. Then, things were planned and carried out on a big scale. No; one was a gent is and worked the six of its, for what we were worth, so that we were all like so many wheels in one big perfectly acting machine. Now we are just a gang of vulgar criminals, with nothing m common between us either in mind or methods except that we sliaie the plunder alike. The syndicate has gone to pieces since the chief's death. I thojghl I i could step into his slices, anl take it up and carry it on from the point he left it at; but I've found out my mistake by -now, and I can see no good and a precious lot of danger in our hanging together any longer. " But I'm going to make just one more attempt to carry a big scheme through, upon the lines the chief used to go upon, si that each member of 'the council bear bis part If it fails, I shall chuck it. and retire from the syndicate altogether. You and I and liuDbock could run tue show better without i the other two than with them, and there'd ! be only three instead of five to share the | profits." I fancy you'll see your way to i join lis, and to throw those two fools over. | That's ab I have to say to you, and I'm I going now. But think it over, and if you ] feet inclined to stand in with us, put a ' flower of some sort in your button-hole tomorrow," CHAPTER XXV. I did think it over, with the result that when I sauntered up to the bookstall at St. Pancras on the following morning, the button-hole of my tweed jacket was made gay by a sprig of red geranium. Number Two looked approvingly at it a3 he gave me " Good morning,',' and Huddock's little eyes leered meaningly at mine as he complimented me obsequiously "on the lovely flower" I was wearing. A handsome tip to the guard having secured il first-class carriage to ourselves, Number Two came to me point as soon as the train was beginning to move out of the sta"My friends," ho said, "I have been through the accounts to-day, and I'm to say there is a big fulling oft" in ratal*-

tions. Tho loss of that £5000 may have done us harm in the way of shaking public confidence, but on the other hand if we had succeeded in our attempt upon Lord Cranthorpe's house, or if I had not failed in my Jubilee Scheme, or Hubbock in his Ishmael Club programme, I believe that our finances would have been as flourishing as ever. But we haven't mucji time to spare this morning, and the immediate question before us is, ' How are we to retrieve our position?' One bi" blow at the authorities will turn the tide in our favour again and bring the coin in. But this time we mustn't fail, and it seems to me that the only way to ensure success is to back more horses than one. L have a plan for bringing olf four different events on the same evening. One or more may fall through, but if we have four running, we are bound to get home with at least one. If we should be so lucky as to bring off two or three, or. as is possible, the entire four, whv. we shall have all the more I reason to congratulate ourselves, for every 1 extra score will mean extra coin in the wav : lof subscriptions. Hut if only one out of the lot proves a winner, we shall at least feel, ■ ana shall make the public feel, that we have ! done something for our money. Here's my i ; scheme. 1 have enough dynamite still in i liana to effect four big explosions. There is j enough really for twice that number, but I , , want the explosion to be the sort of thing to set all London rattling, and I propose to , double the nanitv ol the stuff. The next question is.' What sliaa we blow up?' Well, : my idea is that we have a go at New Scotland, Yard and three of the prisons, Holloway, Newgate, and Pentonvnie. 1 propose doing the business in this way. The infernal, machines will be rather heavy, and not at i ; nil convenient things to cart about London; I | so 1 vote that we engage a private brougham ! ! for the evening. One of us will have to be : driver, and each ot the otoer four will have to be ahMveraue for an infernal machine, and for placing it where it can do the great erf amount of damage to the building which lias iieen assigned to him. I'll take New Scotland Yard myself, as the n'nst I dangerous, and you can settle it among your- | selves who shall be driver and who shall take 1 the other places. The driver will pick the 1 four of us up at points we can settle on, and when we are all aboard he will drive to Holloway, dropping the first man with the lmx of Ilolloway's Pills, bv which I mean the infernal machine, at the most convenient spot, and picking him no again after the thing has been placed and the fuse | ignited, l'y that means the dynamiter can | get clean away from the neighbourhood I some time before the explosion occurs. Then | we. drive on to I'enlonville to do ditto there. i Thence to Newgate, and after that to Scotland Yard. There will be no cabmen to come forward with evidence about their fares and where they got in and out. I think the risks will be fairly distributed. Perhaps the driver's got the best of it, as j lie hasn't got to place and light the. ma- ' chines; but on the other hand be must un- j dertake to procure the cab, and unless be | can contrive to steal it, there is always the I chance of the police getting wind of the j way the thing has been done, in which case | his identity will be the due they'll have to ' work upon, and he will be the first man j they'll look for. Well, arc von 'on' for my • scheme or olf? Please yourselves. Hub- i bock's with me, 1 know, but what do you J other three say?" | The other three assenting, Number Two ! went on: "That's all right. Now the next , question is not, 'Who killed Cock Kobin?' j but, "Who'll drive the cab? 1 I'd rather it were one of you three, for 1 want Hubbock to undertake Hollowav Prison. He knows it well. Too well, don't you, Htiiibock— the inside as we!! as the out. Can you , drive, Number Four?" I " I'd rather not, unless I must," was the : reply. • I " I don't suppose it will be a case nf | 'needs must,' though it will be 'the devil , driving.'" laughed Number Two. I What about you, Number Six? Can you 1 handle the ribbons?" i " No. 1 can't- drive at all," responded the I councillor addressed. j "H'iii! Your education's being neglected. : How about you. Number Seven?" 1 "I'll drive," I implied promptly: "I'm quite at home at it, and I know London well." , "Capital. That will do, then. Now to I vit!' i lie other pit iiminarics." j The iic!..i', of these "oilier preliminaries" : ! may l>" sp .r, t| tV- 1-: d :\ 'Voe-e (lie train ' ! readied Snotlirnd t ve"vl oi-'.,; was- settled—.the day, or rathe night, for the series of ( explosions fixed, and the time and place of | meeting. | I It was Hearing eleven o'clock as, with all' my villainous crew aboard, I whipped up : the horse as we approached the grey walls of Holloway Prison. My instructions were j 1 to pass the main entrance at a slow trot, : 1 and to pull up sharp when I heard Number Two tap twice at the carriage window. : Outside the big gates a man was standing. I His attitude was that of a lounger, but the queer way in which he looked up and down ] the road every now and then belied the ini (Intent air lie had assumed, and as wc I trundled towards him he started, took a step I forward, and then, as if recollecting him- ; self, stopped short, and stood stiff and still i like a well-trained pointer at sight of a bird. I felt that the man's eyes were upon me and upon the carriage, and raised my whip to lash (lie horses. He saw the action and snapped out the word " Now," like an officer giving the. word of command, and the next instant we were level with the gates, which had already begun to tremble. Jerking my left rein violently, I switched the | horses round at right angles, whipping them | up mercilessly meanwhile, and dashed into the prison yard at a gallop. As the ponderous gates swung to behind us, Hall, followed by nubbock, leapt out, but almost as their feet touched ground tho black shadows on either side swarmed sud- ! denly into men, who had seined and secured the four conspirators before the echoing | clang of the closing gates had died away. The psychological moment for which I had waited so —too —had come. "What does this mean, Number Seven?" hissed the now handcuffed Number Two as I got down from the box. "It means," I said, " that I have been a spy upon yon all along, and that I told tho governor of the gaol why we were coming here to-night, and arranged with him that the waving of my whip should bo the signal for the gates to open." "My God!" he said quietly, "and I mistook you for a gentleman." The case has not come on for trial yet, as the police are completing their investigations and their chain of evidence. They tell me that what I know against the conspirators is but dust in the balance compared to the calendar of crime of which the syndicate has been guilty, and that, in effecting the arrest of Number Two, I have been instrumental in bringing to justice one of tho greatest criminals of modern times. All the same, I do not feel very proud of my share in the matter. [THE END.]