Part 8 (1/2)
”Father and the man Hans Rozelaar have been at work here nearly all day,” she whispered, when at last they halted before the long deal table upon which stood Drost's chemical apparatus.
Kennedy's shrewd eyes were quick to notice what was in progress in secret.
With some curiosity he took up a tube of tin about a foot long and four inches in diameter. On examining it he saw that through the centre was a second tin tube of about an inch in diameter. Holding it as a telescope towards the light he could see through the inner tubes and noticed that near one end of it a small steel catch was protruding.
Further and minute examination revealed that to the catch could be attached a time-fuse already concealed between the inner and outer tubes.
”This is evidently some ingenious form of hand grenade,” whispered Kennedy. ”It's all ready for filling. But why, I wonder, should a tube run through the middle in this way?”
He was pondering with it in his hand, when his gaze suddenly fell upon something else which was lying close to the spot where he found the tin tube.
It was a thin ash walking-stick. On Kennedy taking it up it presented a peculiar feature, for as he grasped it there sounded a sharp metallic click. Then, to his surprise, he discovered that he had inadvertently released a spring in the handle, this in turn releasing four small steel points half-way down the stick.
”Curious!” he whispered to his well-beloved, for Drost was sleeping below entirely unconscious of the intruders in his secret laboratory.
”What connection can the stick have with the grenade--if not for the purpose of throwing?”
He therefore placed the inner tube over the little k.n.o.b of the stick, and found that it just fitted, so that with plenty of play it slid down as far as the projecting points which, after striking the little steel catch which would be connected with the fuse, allowed it to pa.s.s over freely and leave the stick.
”Ah! I've got it!” he whispered excitedly. ”The grenade can be carried in the pocket with perfect safety, until when required it is placed over the handle of the stick and whirled off. As it pa.s.ses the projections on the stick the time-fuse is set for so many seconds, and the grenade automatically becomes a live one. A very pretty contrivance indeed!-- very pretty!” he added with a grin. ”This, I must admit, does considerable credit to Ortmann, Drost and Company.”
Ella, who had been standing by, holding the electric torch, stood in wonder at the discovery. Truly, some of her father's inventions had been diabolical ones.
Kennedy saw that the ash-stick had been finished and was in working order. All was complete, indeed, save the filling of the deadly grenade, the attaching of the fuse, and the painting of the bright tin.
For fully five minutes the air-pilot stood in silence, deeply pondering.
Then, as a sudden idea occurred to him, he said quickly:
”I must take this stick, Ella. I'll be back again by four o'clock, and will leave it just outside the front door. You take it in, and replace it exactly as we found it.”
He lost no time. In five minutes he had crept from that dark house of mystery and death, and, carrying the stick, returned across Hammersmith Bridge.
At ten minutes to four he was back again in Barnes and had left the suspicious-looking ash-stick against the front door, afterwards going to his rooms to s.n.a.t.c.h a few hours' sleep.
Next day happened to be Sunday, but at noon on Monday Mr Merton Mansfield, one of the most active members of the Cabinet, as well as one of the most popular of Cabinet Ministers, presided at the unveiling of a number of captured German guns which had been drawn up in Hyde Park in order that the public might be afforded an opportunity of seeing the trophies of war in Flanders won by British pertinacity and pluck.
Accompanying Merton Mansfield, the people's idol, the man in whom Great Britain trusted to see that all was well, and who was, at the same time, hated and feared by the Germans, were several other members of the Cabinet.
The crowd outside the wire fence, within which stood the shrouded guns, was a large one, for some patriotic speeches were expected. Ella and Kennedy were among the spectators eagerly watching the movements of a thin-faced, well-dressed, middle-aged man, who wore an overcoat, in the left-hand pocket of which was something rather bulky, and who carried in his hand an ash-stick.
The man's name was Hans Rozelaar, known to his friends by the English name of Rose. By the fellow's movements it was plain that he was quite unsuspicious of the presence of the daughter of his fellow-conspirator, Theodore Drost.
Gradually he had worked himself through the crowd until he stood in the front row behind the wire which fenced off the guns with the Cabinet Ministers and their friends, and within ten yards or so of where stood Mr Merton Mansfield.
Kennedy was beside Ella some distance away, watching breathlessly. It had been his first impulse to go to Scotland Yard and reveal what they had discovered, but after due consideration he saw that the best punishment for the conspirators was the one he had devised.
But if it failed? What if that most deadly grenade was exploded in the group of Great Britain's leaders--the men who were working night and day, and working with all their might and intelligence, to crush the Hun effectively, even though so slowly.
A roar of applause rose from the crowd as Merton Mansfield removed his hat preparatory to speaking. The short, stout, round-faced Cabinet Minister who, in the days of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's Premiers.h.i.+p, had been so unpopular with the working-cla.s.s, yet who had now come to the forefront as the saviour of our dear old England, smiled with pleasure at his hearty reception.
The little group of England's greatest men, Cabinet Ministers and well-known politicians, with a sprinkling of men in khaki, cl.u.s.tered round him, as he commenced to address the a.s.sembly, to descant upon the heroic efforts of ”French's contemptible little Army,” of their great exploits, of their amazing achievements, and the staggering organisation of Lord Kitchener.