The Bomb Makers Part 8

"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 Premiership, 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.

"Here, before you, you have some small souvenirs--some small idea of the weapons which the unscrupulous fiends who are our enemies are using against our gallant troops. They, unfortunately, are not gallant soldiers, these Huns in modern clothing--they are pirates with the skull and crossbones borne upon the helmets of their crack regiments. Yet we shall win--I tell you that we shall win, be the time long or short, be the sacrifice great or small--we shall win because Right, Truth, and G.o.d's justice are with us! And I will here give you a message from the Prime Minister--who would have been here, if it were not for the fact that he is at this moment having audience of His Majesty the King."

A great roar of applause greeted this announcement, when, suddenly, a loud explosion sounded, startling everyone and causing women to scream.

The lovers, who had kept their eyes upon the man in the overcoat, saw a red flash, and saw him reel and fall to earth with his face blown away.

They had seen how he had placed the grenade over his ash-stick, and how, a second later, he had sharply slung it across from right to left, intending the deadly bomb to land at Mr Merton Mansfield's feet.

Instead, with its fuse set by the little points of steel protruding from the stick, it had, nevertheless, failed to pa.s.s from the stick, because of the small piece of thin wire which Seymour Kennedy had driven through just above the ferrule, on that night when he had afterwards left the stick at old Drost's front door. His quick intelligence had shown him that the empty grenade had already been tried upon the stick, and that when filled, and the fuse attached, it certainly would not be tested again.

Hans Rozelaar had slung the grenade just as old Theodore Drost had instructed him, but it had remained fast at the end of the stick, and ere he could release it, it had exploded, blowing both his hands off and his features out of all recognition, though, very fortunately, injuring no one else.

"Come, darling. We have surely seen enough!" whispered Seymour Kennedy softly to Ella, as they watched the great sensation caused by the self-destruction of the conspirator, and the hurry of the police towards the dead man. "The Ministers will very soon discover for themselves how narrowly they have escaped."

And as they both turned away, Ella, looking fondly into her lover's face, remarked in a low voice: "Yes, indeed, Seymour. They certainly owe their safety to you!"

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE EXPLOSIVE NEEDLE.

"Then you suspect that another plot is in progress, Ella?"

"I feel confident of it. The Count is furious at the failure of the conspiracy against Mr Merton Mansfield. He came to see father last night. I did not gather much, as I had to get away to the theatre, but I overheard him suggest that some other method should be tried," replied Ella Drost.

She was sitting in the dainty little drawing-room of the flat in Stamfordham Mansions, chatting with her airman lover.

"Of course," he said. "Ortmann and your father were well aware that Merton Mansfield is still the strongest man in the whole Government, a marvellous organiser, and the really great man upon whom Britain has pinned her faith."

"They mean to work some evil upon him," the girl said apprehensively.

"I'm quite certain of it! Cannot we warn him?"

"I did so. I wrote to him, urging him to take precautions, and declaring that a plot was in progress," said Kennedy. "I suppose his secretary had the letter and probably held it back in order not to disturb him. Secretaries have a habit of doing that."

Ella, whose cigarette he had just lit, blew a cloud of blue smoke from her lips, and replied:

"Well, if that's the case then it is exceedingly wrong. The greatest care should be taken of those who are leading us to victory. Ah!

dearest," she added with a sigh, "you do not know how bitter I feel when I reflect that my own father is a German and, moreover, a most deadly enemy."

"I know, darling, I know," the man responded. "That's the worst of it.

To expose the organiser of these conspirators would be to send your own father to prison--perhaps to an ignominious end."

"Yes. All we can do is to watch closely and thwart their devilish designs, as far as we are able," the girl said.

"Unfortunately, I'll have to go back to the air-station to-night, but I'll try to come up again for the week-end."

Disappointment overspread the girl's face, but a second later she declared:

"In that case I shall go and stay with father over at Barnes, and endeavour to discover what is intended."