The Book of All-Power Part 33

"Boolba has told his story," said Malinkoff significantly. "By this time you are not only enemies of the Revolution, but you are accredited agents of capitalistic Governments. You have been sent here by your President to stir up the bourgeois to cast down the Government, because of British investments. Mr. Bim will be described as a secret service agent who has been employed to a.s.sa.s.sinate either Trotsky or Lenin. If you could only tap the official wireless," said Malinkoff, "you would learn that a serious counter-revolutionary plot has been discovered, and that American financiers are deeply involved. Unless, of course,"

corrected Malinkoff, "America happens to be in favour in Petrograd, in which case it will be English financiers."

Malcolm laughed.

"Then we are an international incident?" he said.

"You are an 'international incident,'" agreed Malinkoff gravely.

Cherry Bim, sitting on the step, smoking a long cigar, a box of which Petroff had given him as a parting present--looked up, blowing out a blue cloud.

"A secret service agent?" he said. "That's a sort of fly cop, isn't it?"

"That's about it, Cherry," replied Malcolm.

"And do you think they'll call me a fly cop?" said the interested Cherry.

Malinkoff nodded, and the gun-man chewed on his cigar.

"Time brings its revenges, don't it?" he said. "Never, oh never, did I think that I should be took for a fellow from the Central Office! It only shows you that if a guy continues on the broad path that leadeth to destruction, and only goes enough, he'll find Mrs. Nemesis--I think that's the name of the dame."

Malinkoff strolled to the edge of the wood and came back hurriedly.

"The aeroplane is returning," he said, "and is accompanied by another."

This time neither machine took the direct route. They were sweeping the country methodically from side to side, and Malinkoff particularly noticed that they circled about a smaller wood two miles away and seemed loth to leave it.

"What colour is the top of this car?" he asked, and Bim climbed up.

"White," he said. "Is there time to put on a little of this 'camelflage'

I've heard so much about?"

The party set to work in haste to tear down small branches of trees and sc.r.a.ps of bushes, and heap them on to the top of the car. Cherry Bim, who had the instinct of deception, superintending the actual masking of the roof, and as the sun was now setting detected a new danger.

"Let all the windows down," said Cherry. "Put a coat over the gla.s.s screen and sit on anything that shines."

They heard the roar of the aeroplane coming nearer and crouched against the trunk of a tree. Suddenly there was a deafening explosion which stunned the girl and threw her against Malcolm. She half-rose to run but he pulled her down.

"What was it?" she whispered.

"A small bomb," said Malcolm. "It is an old trick of airmen when they are searching woods for concealed bodies of infantry. Somebody is bound to run out and give the others away."

Cherry Bim, fondling his long Colt, was looking glumly at the cloud of smoke which was billowing forth from the place where the bomb had dropped. Round and round circled the aeroplane, but presently, as if satisfied with its scrutiny, it made off, and the drone of the engine grew fainter and fainter.

"War's h.e.l.l," said Cherry, wiping his pallid face with a hand that shook.

"I can't quite understand it," said Malinkoff. "Even supposing that Boolba has told his story, there seems to be a special reason for this urgent search. They would, of course, have communicated----"

He fell silent.

"Has Boolba any special reasons, other than those we know?" he asked.

Malcolm remembered the "Book of All-Power" and nodded.

"Have you something of Kensky's?" asked Malinkoff quickly. "Not that infernal book?"

He looked so anxious that Malcolm laughed.

"Yes, I have that infernal book. As a matter of fact, it is the infernal book of the Grand d.u.c.h.ess now."

"Mine?" she said in surprise.

"Kensky's last words to me were that this book should become your property," said Malcolm, and she shivered.

"All my life seems to have been a.s.sociated with the search for that dreadful book," she said. "I wonder if it is one of Kensky's own binding. You know," she went on, "that Israel Kensky bound books for a hobby? He bound six for me, and they were most beautifully decorated."

"He was a rich man, was he not?" asked Malcolm.

She shook her head.

"He was penniless when he died," she said quietly. "Every store of his was confiscated and his money was seized by order of the new Government.

I once asked him definitely why he did not turn to his 'Book of All-Power' for help. He told me the time had not yet come."

"May I see the book?"

Malcolm took the volume with its canvas cover from his pocket, and the girl looked at it seriously.

"Do you know, I have half a mind to throw it into the fire?" she said, pointing to the smouldering wood where the bomb had fallen. "There seems something sinister, something ominous about its possession that fills me with terror."

She looked at it for a moment musingly, then handed it back to Malcolm.

"Poor Israel!" she said softly, "and poor Russia!"

They waited until darkness fell before they moved on. Malinkoff had an idea that there was a crossroad before the town was reached, and progress was slow in consequence, because he was afraid of pa.s.sing it.

He was determined now not to go through the village, which lay directly ahead. The fact that the aeroplane had been able to procure a recruit, pointed to the existence of a camp of considerable dimensions in the neighbourhood and he was anxious to keep away from armed authority.

It was a tense hour they spent--tense for all except Cherry Bim, who had improvised a cushion on the baggage carrier at the back of the car, and had affixed himself so that he could doze without falling off. The side road did not appear, and Malinkoff grew more and more apprehensive.

There were no lights ahead, as there should be if he were approaching the village. Once he thought he saw dark figures crouching close to the ground as the car pa.s.sed, but put this down to nerves. Five hundred yards beyond, he discovered that his eyes had not deceived him. A red light appeared in the centre of the road, and against the skyline--for they were ascending a little incline at the moment--a number of dark figures sprang into view.

The chauffeur brought the car to a halt with a jerk, only just in time, for his lamps jarred against the pole which had been placed across the road.

Malcolm had drawn his revolver, but the odds were too heavy, besides which, in bringing his car to a standstill, the driver had shut off his engine and the last hope of bunking through had disappeared.

A man carrying a red lamp came to the side of the car, and flashed the light of a torch over the occupants.

"One, two, three, four," he counted. "There should be five."

He peered at them separately.

"This is the aristocrat general, this is the American revolutionary, this is the woman. There is also a criminal. Did any man jump out?" he asked somebody in the darkness, and there was a chorus of "No!"