The Complete Four Just Men (92 page)

The fighting machines mounted, turned and came back. Standing on the floor below, Oberzohn heard the roar of their engines as they passed, and went incautiously to the roof, to discover that the guns of flying machines fire equally well from the tail. He was nearer to death then than he had ever been. One bullet hit the tip of his finger and sliced it off neatly. With a scream of pain he half fell, half staggered to safety, spluttering strange oaths in German.

The aeroplanes did not return. He waited until their noise had died away before he again ventured to the roof, to find the sky clear. Cuccini was dead, and it was characteristic of his three friends that they should make a thorough search of his pockets before they heaved the body over the parapet.

Oberzohn left the three on the roof, with strict instructions that they were to dive to cover at the first glint of white wings, and went down into his study. The death of Cuccini was in some ways a blessing. The man was full of suspicion; his heart was not in the fight, and the aeroplane gunner had merely anticipated the doctor’s own plan.

Cuccini was a Latin, who spoke English well and wrote it badly. He had a characteristic hand, which it amused Oberzohn to copy, for the doctor was skilful with his pen. All through the next three hours he wrote, breaking off his labours at intervals to visit the guard on the roof. At last he had finished, and Cuccini’s sprawling signature was affixed to the bottom of the third page. Oberzohn called down one of the men.

‘This is the statement of Cuccini which he left. Will you put your name to his signature?’

‘What is it?’ asked the man surlily.

‘It is a letter which the good Cuccini made – what generosity! In this he says that he alone was to blame for bringing you here, and nobody else. Also that he kept you by threats.’

‘And you?’ asked the man.

‘Also me,’ said Oberzohn, unabashed. ‘What does it matter? Cuccini is dead. May he not in his death save us all? Come, come, my good friend, you are a fool if you do not sign. After that, send down our friends that they may also sign.’

A reluctant signature was fixed, and the other men came one by one, and one by one signed their names, content to stand by the graft which the doctor indicated, exculpating themselves from all responsibility in the defence.

Dusk fell and night came blackly, with clouds sweeping up from the west and a chill rain falling. Gonsalez, moodily apart from his companions, watched the dark bulk of the house fade into the background with an ever-increasing misery. What these men did after did not matter – to them. A policeman had been killed, and they stood equally guilty of murder in the eyes of the law. They could now pile horror upon horror, for the worst had happened. His only hope was that they did not know the inevitability of their punishment.

No orders for attack had been given. The soldiers were standing by, and even the attack by the aeroplanes had been due to a misapprehension of orders. He had seen Cuccini’s body fall, and as soon as night came he determined to approach the house to discover if there was any other way in than the entrance by the front door.

The aeroplanes had done something more than sweep the roof with their guns. Late in the evening there arrived by special messenger telescopic photographs of the building, which the military commander and the police chief examined with interest.

Leon was watching the house when he saw a white beam of light shoot out and begin a circular sweep of the grounds. He expected this; the meaning of the connections in the wall was clear. He knew, too, how long that experiment would last. A quarter of an hour after the searchlight began its erratic survey of the ground, the lamp went out, the police having disconnected the current. But it was only for a little while, and in less than an hour the light was showing again.

‘He has power in the house – a dynamo and a gas engine,’ explained Gonsalez.

Poiccart had been to town and had returned with a long and heavy steel cylinder, which Leon and Manfred carried between them into the open and left. They were sniped vigorously from the roof, and although the firing was rather wild, the officer in charge of the operations forbade any further movement in daylight.

At midnight came the blessed Washington. They had been waiting for him with eagerness, for he, of all men, knew something that they did not know. Briefly, Leon described the snake-room and its contents. He was not absolutely certain of some of the species, but his description was near enough to give the snake expert an idea of the species.

‘Yes, sir, they’re all deadly,’ said Washington, shaking his head. ‘I guess there isn’t a thing there, bar the scorps, who wouldn’t put a grown man to sleep in five minutes – ten minutes at the most.’

They showed him the remains of the dead snake and he instantly recognized the kind, as the zoological expert had done in the afternoon.

‘That’s mamba. He’s nearly the deadliest of all. You didn’t see a fellow with a long bill-shaped head? You did? Well, that’s
fer-de-lance
, and he’s almost as bad. The little red fellows were corals . . . ’

Leon questioned him more closely.

‘No, sir, they don’t leap – that’s not their way. A tree snake will hang on to something overhead and get you as you pass, and they’ll swing from the floor, but their head’s got to touch the floor first. The poor little fellow that killed Gurther was scared, and when they’re scared they’ll lash up at you – I’ve known a man to be bitten in the throat by a snake that whipped up from the ground. But usually they’re satisfied to get your leg.’

Leon told him his plan.

‘I’ll come along with you,’ said Washington without hesitation.

But this offer neither of the three would accept. Leon had only wanted the expert’s opinion. There were scores of scientists in London, curators of museums and keepers of snakes, who could have told him everything there was to be known about the habits of the reptile in captivity. He needed somebody who had met the snake in his native environment.

An hour before daylight showed in the sky, there was a council of war, Leon put his scheme before the authorities, and the plan was approved. He did not wait for the necessary orders to be given, but, with Poiccart and Manfred, went to the place where they had left the cylinder, and, lifting it, made their slow way towards the house. In addition, Leon carried a light ladder and a small bag full of tools.

The rays of the searchlight were moving erratically, and for a long time did not come in their direction. Suddenly they found themselves in a circle of dazzling light and fell flat on their faces. The machine-gun spat viciously, the earth was churned up under the torrent of bullets, but none of the men was hit; and, more important, the cylinder was not touched.

Then suddenly, from every part of the ground, firing started. The target was the searchlight, and the shooting had not gone on for more than a minute before the light went out, so jerkily that it was obvious that one bullet at least had got home.

‘Now,’ said Manfred, and, lifting up the cylinder, they ran. Poiccart put his hand on the fence wire and was hurled back. The top wire was alive, but evidently the doctor’s dynamo was not capable of generating a current that would be fatal. Leon produced an insulated wire cutter and snipped off a six-foot length, earthing the broken ends of the wire. They were now under the shadow of the wall of the house, and out of danger so far as bullets were concerned.

Leon planted his ladder against the window under which they stopped, and in a second had broken the glass, turned the catch and sent up the sash. From his bag he produced a small diamond drill and began to work through the thick steel plate. It was a terribly arduous job, and after ten minutes’ labour he handed over the work to Manfred, who mounted in his place.

* * *

Whatever damage had been done to the searchlight had now been repaired, and its beam had concentrated on the spot where they had been last seen. This time no fusillade greeted its appearance, and Oberzohn was surprised and troubled by the inaction.

The light came into the sky, the walls grew grey and all objects sharply visible, when he saw the tank move out of the lane where it had been standing all the previous day, turn into the field, and slowly move towards the house. He set his teeth in a grin and, darting down the stairs, flung himself against the door of the girl’s room, and his agitation was such that for a time he could not find the keyhole of the two locks that held the door secure.

It opened with a crash, and he almost fell into the room in his eagerness. Mirabelle Leicester was standing by the bed, her face white as death. Yet her voice was steady, almost unconcerned, when she asked:‘What do you want?’

‘You!’ he hissed. ‘You, my fine little lady – you are for the snakes!’

He flung himself upon her, though she offered no resistance, threw her back on the bed and snapped a pair of rusty handcuffs on her wrists. Pulling her to her feet, he dragged her from the room and down the stairs. He had some difficulty in opening the door of the snake-room, for he had wedged it close. The door was pushed open at last: the radiators were no longer burning. He could not afford the power. But the room was stiflingly hot, and when he turned on the lights, and she saw the long line of boxes, her knees gave way under her, and she would have fallen had he not put his arm about her waist. Dragging a heavy chair to the centre of the room, he pushed her down into it.

‘Here you wait, my friend!’ he yelled. ‘You shall wait . . . but not long!’

On the wall there were three long straps which were used for fastening the boxes when it was necessary to travel with them. In a second one thong was about her and buckled tight to the back of the chair. The second he put under the seat and fastened across her knee.

‘Goodbye, gracious lady!’

The rumble of the tank came to him in that room. But he had work to do. There was no time to open the boxes. The glass fronts might easily be broken. He ran along the line, hitting the glass with the barrel of his Mauser. The girl, staring in horror, saw a green head come into view through one opening; saw a sinuous shape slide gently to the floor. And then he turned out the lights, the door was slammed, and she was left alone in the room of terror.

Oberzohn was no sooner in the passage than the first bomb exploded at the door. Splinters of wood flew past him, as he turned and raced up the stairs, feeling in his pocket as he went for the precious document which might yet clear him.

Boom
!

He had not locked the door of the snake-room; Leon had broken the hasp. Let them go in, if they wished. The front door was not down yet. From the landing above he listened over the balustrade. And then a greater explosion than ever shook the house, and after an interval of silence he heard somebody running along the passage and shake at the snake-room door.

Too late now! He grinned his joy, went up the last flight to the roof, to find his three men in a state of mutiny, the quelling of which was not left to him. The glitter of a bayonet came through the door opening, a khaki figure slipped on to the roof, finger on trigger.

‘Hands up, you!’ he said, in a raucous Cockney voice.

Four pairs of hands went upward.

Manfred followed the second soldier and caught the doctor by the arm.

‘I want you, my friend,’ he said, and Oberzohn went obediently down the stairs.

They had to pass Gurther’s room: the door was open, and Manfred pushed his prisoner inside, as Poiccart and Leon ran up the stairs.

‘The girl’s all right. The gas killed the snakes the moment they touched the floor, and Brother Washington is dealing with the live ones,’ said Leon rapidly.

He shut the door quickly. The doctor was alone for the first time in his life with the three men he hated and feared.

‘Oberzohn, this is the end,’ said Manfred.

That queer grimace that passed for a smile flitted across the puckered face of the doctor.

‘I think not, my friends,’ he said. ‘Here is a statement by Cuccini. I am but the innocent victim, as you will see. Cuccini has confessed to all and has implicated his friends. I would not resist – why should I? I am an honest, respectable man, and a citizen of a great and friendly country. Behold!’

He showed the paper. Manfred took it from his hand but did not read it.

‘Also, whatever happens, your lady loses her beautiful hill of gold.’ He found joy in this reflection. ‘For tomorrow is the last day – ’

‘Stand over there, Oberzohn,’ said Manfred, and pushed him against the wall. ‘You are judged. Though your confession may cheat the law, you will not cheat us.’

And then the doctor saw something and he screamed his fear. Leon Gonsalez was fixing a cigarette to the long black holder he had found in Gurther’s room.

‘You hold it thus,’ said Leon, ‘do you not?’ He dipped the cigarette down and pressed the small spring that was concealed in the black ebonite. ‘The holder is an insulated chamber that holds two small icy splinters – I found the mould in your laboratory, Herr Doktor. They drop into the cigarette, which is a metal one, and then . . . ’

He lifted it to his lips and blew. None saw the two tiny icicles fly. Only Oberzohn put his hand to his cheek with a strangled scream, glared for a second, and then went down like a heap of rags.

Leon met Inspector Meadows on his way up.

‘I’m afraid our friend has gone,’ he said. ‘He has cheated the hangman of ten pounds.’

‘Dead?’ said Meadows. ‘Suicide?’

‘It looks like a snake-bite to me,’ said Leon carelessly, as he went down to find Mirabelle Leicester, half laughing, half crying, whilst an earnest Elijah Washington was explaining to her the admirable domestic qualities of snakes.

‘There’s five thousand dollars’ worth dead,’ he said, in despair, ‘but there’s enough left to start a circus!’

Chapter 34

The death tube

Later Manfred explained to an interested police chief.

‘Oberzohn secured the poison by taking a snake and extracting his venom – a simple process: you have but to make him angry, and he will bite on anything. The doctor discovered a way of blending these venoms to bring out the most deadly qualities of them all – it sounds fantastic, and, from the scientists’ point of view, unlikely. But it is nevertheless the fact. The venom was slightly diluted with water and enough to kill a dozen people was poured into a tiny mould and frozen.’

‘Frozen?’ said the chief, in astonishment.

Manfred nodded.

‘There is no doubt about it,’ he said. ‘Snake venom does not lose its potency by being frozen, and this method of moulding their darts was a very sane one, from their point of view. It was only necessary for a microscopic portion of the splinter to pierce the flesh. Sufficient instantly melted to cause death, and if the victim rubbed the place where he had been struck, it was more certain that he would rub some of the venom, which had melted on his cheek, into the wound. Usually they died instantly. The cigarette holders that were carried by Gurther and the other assassin, Pfeiffer, were blowpipes, the cigarette a hollow metal fake. By the time they blew their little ice darts, it was in a half-molten condition and carried sufficient liquid poison to kill, even if the skin was only punctured. And, of course, all that did not enter the skin melted before there could be any examination by the police. That is why you never found darts such as the bush-men use, slithers of bamboo, thorns from trees. Oberzohn had the simplest method of dealing with all opposition: he sent out his snake-men to intercept them, and only once did they fail – when they aimed at Leon and caught that snake-proof man, Elijah Washington!’

‘What about Miss Leicester’s claim to the goldfields of Biskara?’

Manfred smiled.

‘The renewal has already been applied for and granted. Leon found at Heavytree Farm some blank sheets of note-paper signed with the girl’s name. He stole one during the aunt’s absence and filled up the blank with a formal request for renewal. I have just had a wire to say that the lease is extended.’

He and Poiccart had to walk the best part of the way to New Cross before they could find a taxicab. Leon had gone on with the girl. Poiccart was worried about something, and did not speak his mind until the providential cab appeared on the scene and they were trundling along the New Cross Road.

‘My dear George, I am a little troubled about Leon,’ he said at last. ‘It seems almost impossible to believe, but – ’

‘But what?’ asked Manfred good-humouredly, and knowing what was coming.

‘You don’t believe,’ said Poiccart in a hushed voice, as though he were discussing the advent of some world cataclysm – ‘you don’t believe that Leon is in love, do you?’

Manfred considered for a moment.

‘Such things happen, even to just men,’ he said, and Poiccart shook his head sadly.

‘I have never contemplated such an unhappy contingency,’ he said, and Manfred was laughing to himself all the way back to town.

THE END