Whither Thou Goest Part 38

On the evening of the day on which he returned to Madrid, he met Moreno and Violet Hargrave at the journalist's modest lodgings, by appointment.

Moreno, who was always fond of indulging in humorous jokes, would have liked to apologise to the wealthy Contraras for receiving him in such humble surroundings, with some caustic allusion to the time when all men would be equal.

But he forbore. Contraras was too serious a person to indulge in humour himself, or tolerate it in others. Besides, Moreno had special reasons for ingratiating himself with his Chief, whom he privately stigmatised as a "silly old visionary," and whose chances against the organised forces of law and order he was not prepared to back.

Contraras was very gracious to his two subordinates. Whatever his defects, he had the true note of Spanish courtesy.

He turned first to Violet Hargrave. "I have just come from London, where I met our dear friend Jaques. He inquired most tenderly after you, and sent through me his kindest remembrances."

Violet looked very pleased. If there was a tender spot in her heart, it was for the old moneylender, who had been a father to her. She flushed a little; quite a soft light came into her eyes.

"That was very sweet of him. He really has a heart of gold, dear old Juan," she said softly.

Moreno looked at her curiously. He had not got to the bottom of her yet. A hardened adventuress, pure and simple--that was how he had first judged her. But her kindly mention of Jaques, "an old shark of the first water," as the young journalist cla.s.sed him in his own mind, revealed something that he had not credited her with. Had she, after all, a capacity for emotion, did she possess any real womanly instincts?

Contraras next addressed himself to Moreno.

"I also met in London our comrade Lucue, the man who introduced you to the brotherhood."

"Ah, what a great man!" cried Moreno, with the fervour of a new and enthusiastic recruit. "The only man, in my opinion, who would ever be worthy to wear your mantle, if ever it should drop from your shoulders.

May that day be far distant!" he added piously.

Contraras, ever pleased with a little judicious flattery, became more amiable than ever. The glance he bent upon the young journalist was almost a benevolent one.

"Lucue speaks very highly of you, and I have always had the greatest confidence in his judgment. He tells me, and, as he did not say it in confidence, I can repeat it, you expressed your opinion that we made a mistake in allowing Valerie to undertake the great _coup_. You added that if you had been entrusted with it, you would have brought it off."

The question was a supreme test of Moreno's modesty, but he was not taken aback. He turned the situation lightly, and with his usual a.s.surance.

"I am certain I should have done," he said composedly.

Contraras frowned a little. He had been very fond of Valerie Delmonte; he rather resented any criticism of her.

"Why are you so sure, comrade Moreno? Valerie was very clever, very subtle. Are you more so?"

The young man looked at his chief calmly. "I daresay she was much more clever, much more subtle than I am, but she lacked my nerve."

"Ah, there is something in that," agreed the older man. "A woman may have the brains of a man, I agree, that is to say, an exceptional woman, but come to a crucial moment, and the brain will be dominated by the nerves. It is the penalty of the s.e.x."

The Chief ruminated over these remarks a few seconds before he spoke again.

"Well, Moreno, I am going to give you a chance to prove your mettle.

You know the next item on our programme is the removal of Guy Rossett."

Moreno nodded. He had shot a side glance at Violet Hargrave, but she had betrayed no sign of emotion. And yet, in the flat at Mount Street, she had alluded to the project in a spirit of exultation.

"It was the first item on the programme, and was shelved in favour of the later one. What do you mean precisely by the term `removal'?"

Contraras shrugged his shoulders. "That I have not yet quite decided upon. The first thing is to get hold of him."

"That is quite easy," said Moreno in his usual quiet way.

Contraras looked at him sharply. "You speak very confidently, Moreno.

You appreciate the difficulties in the way? To get him either out of the Emba.s.sy or his flat will be a tough job. He is well guarded, you may depend."

"I appreciate all the difficulties, Contraras. To get him out of the Emba.s.sy is well nigh impossible. To get him out of the flat is the easier job of the two. Well, I will undertake to bring him to any place you like."

"Your methods?" queried Contraras, in the same sharp tone.

Moreno bowed with great courtesy to his t.i.tular Chief.

"Pardon me for declining to answer that question at present. I am a very new member of the brotherhood, I have my spurs to win, I have to justify your confidence in me, or I should rather say the confidence of Lucue, for you know next to nothing of me. I want to show you that I am a little more clever, a little more subtle than perhaps you imagine.

When I deliver him to you, I will possibly explain my methods, not before."

"You will undertake to deliver him to us?" questioned Contraras, still speaking a little doubtfully. He was, however, very much impressed by the young man's confident manner.

"On any day, at any hour you like to name," was the rea.s.suring reply.

"I will settle the details later on," said Contraras, his voice betraying a note of agitation. "Anyway, I depute you and Violet Hargrave to see that this thing is carried out."

Moreno looked at the woman. "You will be my a.s.sistant in this?" he asked.

Her voice was very low. "Of course, if the Chief wishes it."

Contraras spoke in his most authoritative tones. "You have no choice.

You took a solemn oath to obey the orders of the Chiefs of the organisation. As your Chief, I call upon you to do this."

Violet Hargrave bowed her head submissively. She remembered there was a terrible penalty attached to hesitation or disobedience. She also recalled the fate of Valerie Delmonte, and her face went white.

Moreno thought to himself, "Infernal old scoundrel, he doesn't care whom he sacrifices. And in the meanwhile he is living in luxury, and getting us poor devils to run all the risk."

Aloud he said: "And what will you do with Guy Rossett when I deliver him to you?"

Contraras reflected before he spoke. "As I told you just now, I have not quite made up my mind." He paused, and struck an imposing att.i.tude.

"You know, Moreno, it has always been my policy to strike at the head and heart of this effete system. The humbler members, mere tools of their superiors--well, I would be inclined to show them mercy."

"I know that has always been your generous inclination," replied Moreno, masking his loathing of this fanatical creature. "Well, I should say Rossett was quite a tool, very poor game."

"I am inclined to agree with you. Still, he is active and dangerous, and a menace to the Cause. He knows too much about many of us."

"Quite true, quite true," said Moreno. He had an object in humouring this venerable visionary. He wanted to know what was at the back of his mind, what dark scheme he was working out in his subtle brain!

Contraras spoke in a meditative voice. "These Englishmen are strange people; they have a great respect for their word."

"It is one of their peculiarities," admitted Moreno drily.

"If he would take a solemn oath to resign his post, and withdraw himself from any further opposition to the brotherhood, I think I would accept that, and let him go free."

"And that, I am afraid, is just the thing you will never induce an Englishman to do," said Moreno bluntly. "I know the type too well.

Better death than dishonour, all that sort of thing, you know. It's in their blood."