THE DAY; OR, THE PASSING OF A THRONE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15915, 12 May 1915, Page 11

THE DAY; OR, THE PASSING OF A THRONE.

BY FRED M. WHITE,

Author 01! "The Nether Millstone." "The Corner House." " Tho. Slave of Silence.' " Craven Fortune." " The Scales of Justice." etc.. etc.

(COPYRIGHT.)

CRAPTKR XXVII.-(Continued.)

I She readied Osteud a few days later j i:> ■-onipany with two or three hundred | unhappy Belgian.*, and with these she I minded freely. She was loud in her I sympathy and lavish with her money. j There was no one more indignant than herself and no more bitter against the Kaiser. She was especially tender and considerate'towards the most ragged and destitute of the refugees, and it was she who expressed a determination to find a home for them. She picked out about twenty altogether, and mentioned her plan to the captain of the boat, Could he manage at Folkestone to get a special carriage reserved for these poor creatures? The beautiful woman with the sympathetic eyes fairly won the heart of the captain. It was therefore somewhat later in the day that Lady Loxton stood on the platform at Victoria distributing little slips of paper amongst her ragged regiment. No doubt the police would see them to their destinations, where they would find board and lodging waiting for them for the next few days. It was an interesting picture, and touched the hearts of the spectators when they learnt what was going on. Lady Loxton was known to one or two people there, and she appeared almost embarrassed by the compliments showered upon her dainty head. But the sniiie on her 'ips changed curiously as she entered her car and was driven away towards the flat in Medhurst Gardens.

The faithful Alonzo was there waiting for her, but she declined to say any. tiling till she had dined. "I roust have a decent meal first,".she said. " Why is it that the Germans are such groSs feeders ? It seems ages since 1 had a daintily-cooked dish." She turned to her correspondence eagerly. There were several letters in envelopes bearing the imprint of her inWiiational society for the alleviaton of distress amongst children, and even-one of these contained vital information." On the face of them they were no more than reports from the various branch secretaries, but the cypher was plain enough to practised eyes, and Lady Loxton smiled proudly as she thought of her own clever invention. There were other letters too in envelopes which had been boldly forged and bore the magic letters O.H.M.S. across the top. It was part of Ladv Loxton's creed that nothing succeeds like audacity, and she had found this to be a trump card all her life. "So far so good," she said. "Everything is going exceedingly well. If you will pass me those cigarettes I will talk to you." "Was it all right in Berlin Alonzo asked.

"My dear friend, nothing could have been better. I was in a position to do von Rupert a service, and in return he helped me all ho could. I copied the plans on tracing paper, and they are at present wrapped up in a cardboard box apparently as nothing more dreadful than a few cigarettes. They are actually in that cigarette box on the table there, It will amuse you for the next few hours to take those plans and reproduce them on a larger scale." "What are these plans?" Alonzo asked. "Stupid! Why the plans of London's water supplv, of course. What else /did I go to Berlin for ?" Alonzo pulled thoughtfully at his cigarette.

" It will be a deuce of a business," ho said.

" Yes, and will mean a fortune to us. My trusted colleague, if this thing is a success then we shall be independent for many a long day to come." "Ah, in your case that means about a year." Alonzo grinned. "I am not saying it isn't a great idea, because it is. But wo shall want at least a score of resolute men ready to do what they are asked implicitly and no questions. Perhaps you will tell me where these fellows are coming from.; I don't believe there are three spies in London to-day except ourselves. Somebody has been giving the game away, for there has been a regular clear out the last day or two. There is no fuss and no bother men have just vanished. I wanted four or five units this morning, and I called my numbers over the telephone. I did not get a reply from a single one of them, I tell you I don't like it, Marie. Anyway we can do nothing without an efficient corps of assistance." Lady Loxton smiled behind her cigarette.

"The difficulty you speak of does not exist," she said. " All the same I must confess that it looked like an insuperable obstacle at one time. Then I had a happy inspiration. I was waiting for my boat at Ostend watching the refugees struggling to get away. It came to me like a flash. There were hundreds of Oe»man spies all round, men in various disguises and most of them with some English and a good knowledge of London. I went back to Brussels and saw Reincart. I told him I must have a score of hifi best men at once, and that they must leave on the next boat disguised as Belgian refugees. They were to take their tip from me and do implicitly what thev were told. In return for that I engaged to find them board and lodtrinc here, and Beingart gave me their official numbers. They are all comfortably housed by this time, with instructions to lie low and watoh the personal column in the Times cverv day. I need not tell you any more for the moment, for yon know now that we have nil the men wo, want ready to our hand ready to got the signal."

Alonzo wa.s warm in his approval. "That is tjood," ho said. "Very good indeed. The way in which you grasn your opportunities is marvellous. And now, if yon don't mind, T will take those innocent-looking cigarettes awav and get out the plans on a proper scale. It is

now eight o'clock, and with any luck 1 shall be finished by midnight. Then I will come round again, and we will go into details."

He put the little cardboard box in his overcoat pocket and sauntered lazily along in the direction of his rooms. He met more than one acquaintance ho know with whom be discussed music and the drama, anything but the war, whioh lacerated his tender heart to such an oxtent that he was moved to tears. He did not know when he was going to give ! another concert, no one seemed to be in I a mood for music, just now. It was all cleverly done, but in reality there was no music in Alonzo's mind just then. He was thinking what foola these English were and how easily any tale of distress blunteded their suspicions. In no other country in the world could these nameless refugees drift into a land in the casual way in which they were doing now. Alonzo smiled grimly to himself to think how easily Lady Loxton had thrown dust into tho eyes oi' the authorities.

It was a great coup these two were planning, and one only possible to an unscrupulous and daring mind. It sounded stupendous enough, but in reality it was not so difficult as it seemed. Properly organised the attack could take placo in four or five different centres at the same time, and the skilful handling of explosives would be responsible for the rest. And behind it all was an enormous reward, by far the greatest that had ever been paid since Moses rent his spies into Canaan to report on the Promised Land. For if this thing could be carried through then Berlin would have reached out an arm and dealt London a blow far heavier and more stunning than tho efforts of a dozen Zeppelins. As Alonzo worked there in his room with the door locked carefully behind him he began to realise how comparatively easy the plan was. None knew better than he how the mains and reservoirs supplying London were guarded, and that one sentry at several- vital points was doing the work of a dozen men. And moreover Alonzo knew perfectly well that these were no raw recruits that the head centre at Brussels had placed under Lady Loxton's instructions. They were bold and resolute men, who know that their pay was in proportion to the service*) they rendered and who were in a general way ready to commit any crime for money. And they knew more than this, they knew that they could expect no help in case of detection, and that their fate would bo a blank wall in front of a rifle- in the early morning. It' was close on midnight before Alonzo finished his task. He was not fond of documents or plans of any kind, he had !ieen many a brilliant spy come to hopeless grief through a careless handling of documents. He had made five duplicate copiei, or rather five sections, for theso would have to bo passed on when the campaign reached its final stage. For tho moment these would be handed over to Lady Loxton, and if they wore found in her possession so much tho worse for her. Alonzo was no coward, but he breathed freely to find himself safely under Lady Loxton's roof.

fIIABTER XXVIII. CUT OFF. Tho two conspirators bent eagerly over the plans that Alonzo proceeded to lay on the dining-room table. There was no chance of interruption, for the servants had retired long before, but all the same Lady Loxton had taken the precaution of darkening the dining-room windows and turning the light out in the hall. She was ready now to give her whole attention to the business in hand. " I think I have mastered the whole of the details now," Alonzo said. "Now, look here. Here is a section showing the New River system from the head reservoirs down to the mains. As far as I can see here is the weak spot; where my pencil point is. Of course I shall have to ascertain how the place is guarded, and if I am right in my surmise half a dozen resolute men with the requisite amount of dynamite can do the trick. And our men won't even have to carry that stuff about with them. According to the instructions of this section of the plan of the mine is

already there, in fact it has been there for years. I could find it in the day-time quite easily, Exactly the eame remark applies to tho Lea reservoirs, also all those along the Thames Valley, including the great watershed at Kingston. In everv case the mince aro already laid. And all thist timo the authorities here have been asleep. It looks to mo as if we have a very simple thing on here. Only it will take a little time, it must not bo runhed. I will try and get over the whole ground to-morrow, or at any rate a section or two of it, and come back here in the evening and report progress. Directly that is done \v c can begin to drill our various squads. I should say about four men each to a squad. And here I see the first difficulty. We must have thcee men to ourselves in some place where we can talk freely without the chance of being overheard. You can't do that in tho various lodging-houses you have got for those chaps, and you can't bring them here without attracting attention. But you know th.it."

Lady Loxlon smiled confidently. " The point has not escaped my attention," she said. "But as each section is working independently there is no reason why the night after to-morrow J should not have some of them here. Suppose they come along to call upon me, say, about tea-time merely to express their gratitude for what 1 have done for them. I could do no less than give them some tea, you know. 1 leave it to you to put an advertisement in the Times the day after to-morrow merely asking numbers one, two, three, anil four to call round on Wednesday at five o'clock. The units will bo looking out for their instructions, so that the mysterious advertisement will be no puzzle to them. ' For the moment at any rate there was no more to be said or clone. It was a busy day that followed for Alonzo, and he was tired enough when he dropped into Lady Loxton's flat for one of her dainty little dinners and a glass of champagne, but he had the air of a man who had not been wasting his time. He stretched out his long legs presently and puffed luxuriously at his cigarette. "I have done the whole lot," he explained. '' It was not easy in one or two instances, for most of the main points were guarded. Still, so far as I can ascertain, this sentry-go has grown very slack and in no case are there more than two sentinels. Our fellows ought not to have the slightest trouble." "Did you locate the mines?" Lady Loxton asked.

i "Oh, yes I did that too. As a matter of fact it was the easiest part of my task, for in 110 case did I find the wires within two hundred yards of the point to bo attacked. With the aid of a few sketches our little army will bo able to attack quite successfully. And I have tot forgotten that little advertisement in the Times. 1 cannot for the life of me understand why it is that those pereonels are allowed to continue in the daily papers. Conceive the authorities shutting an eye to such a thing in Berlin for instance." Lady Loxton laughed merrily. " There is no need for us to worry ah< 11 it," she said. "Those said columns have helped us many a time, and never better than at the present moment, iuu v. ill drop in to-morrow afternoon, of curse. I must introduce my good friend to our refugees." Shortly before five the following afternoon four timid-looking and haggard men, presented themselves to th hul.-portcr at Medhurst Gardens, and humbly besought him in broken English to convey their lespects to Lady Loxton and beseech hor to be good enough to see them. They explained that they were refugees who tut for Lady Loxton's great kindness would at the present moment be destitute wanderers in the streets of London. The polioe had kindly shown them the way, which was indeed the fact, and the socalled refugees grinned at the thought of it as they followed the porter into the lift.

It was all a great nuisance, of course, tiid Ladj Lea ton shrugged her shoulders as the porter delivered the message. t»he had not expected anything like this, ut she had not the heart to disappoint the poor men, and the porter was told to admit them. He was quite affected himself by the outburst of gratitude that he could not help overhearing.

(To be continued on Saturday next,)