“No more is Peterson,” grinned the American; “at least not on that book. See here, Captain, it’s pretty clear what’s happening. In any country today you’ve got all sorts and conditions of people with more wind than brain. They just can’t stop talking, and as yet it’s not a criminal offence. Some of ’em believe what they say, like Spindle-shanks upstairs; some of ’em don’t. And if they don’t, it makes ’em worse: they start writing as well. You’ve got clever men, intellectual men—look at some of those guys in the first-class general lecturers—and they’re the worst of the lot. Then you’ve got another class—the men with the business brain, who think they’re getting the sticky end of it, and use the talkers to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them. And the chestnuts, who are the poor blamed decent workingmen, are promptly dropped in the ash-pit to keep ’em quiet. They all want something for nothing, and I guess it can’t be done. They all think they’re fooling one another, and what’s really going at the moment is that Peterson is fooling the whole bunch. He wants all the strings in his hands, and it looks to me as if he’d got ’em there. He’s got the money—and we know where he got it from; he’s got the organisation—all either red-hot revolutionaries, or intellectual windstorms, or calculating knaves. He’s amalgamated ’em, Captain; and the whole blamed lot, whatever they may think, are really working for him.”
Drummond, thoughtfully, lit a cigarette.
“Working towards a revolution in this country,” he remarked quietly.
“Sure thing,” answered the American. “And when he brings it off, I guess you won’t catch Peterson for dust. He’ll pocket the boodle, and the boobs will stew in their own juice. I guessed it in Paris; that book makes it a certainty. But it ain’t criminal. In a Court of Law he could swear it was an organisation for selling birdseed.”
For a while Drummond smoked in silence, while the two sleepers shifted uneasily in their chairs. It all seemed so simple in spite of the immensity of the scheme. Like most normal Englishmen, politics and labour disputes had left him cold in the past; but no one who ever glanced at a newspaper could be ignorant of the volcano that had been simmering just beneath the surface for years past.
“Not one in a hundred”—the American’s voice broke into his train of thought—“of the so-called revolutionary leaders in this country are disinterested, Captain. They’re out for Number One, and when they’ve talked the boys into bloody murder, and your existing social system is down-and-out, they’ll be the leaders in the new one. That’s what they’re playing for—power; and when they’ve got it, God help the men who gave it to ’em.”
Drummond nodded, and lit another cigarette. Odd things he had read recurred to him: trade unions refusing to allow discharged soldiers to join them; the reiterated threats of direct action. And to what end?
A passage in a part of the ledger evidently devoted to extracts from the speeches of the first-class general lecturers caught his eye:
“To me, the big fact of modern life is the war between classes. … People declare that the method of direct action inside a country will produce a revolution. I agree … it involves the creation of an army. …”
And beside the cutting was a note by Peterson in red ink:
“An excellent man! Send for protracted tour.”
The note of exclamation appealed to Hugh; he could see the writer’s tongue in his cheek as he put it in.
“It involves the creation of an army. …” The words of the intimidated rabbit came back to his mind. “The man of stupendous organising power, who has brought together and welded into one the hundreds of societies similar to mine, who before this have each, on their own, been feebly struggling towards the light. Now we are combined, and our strength is due to him.”
In other words, the army was on the road to completion, an army where ninety percent of the fighters—duped by the remaining ten—would struggle blindly towards a dim, half-understood goal, only to find out too late that the whip of Solomon had been exchanged for the scorpion of his son. …
“Why can’t they be made to understand, Mr. Green?” he cried bitterly. “The workingman—the decent fellow—”
The American thoughtfully picked his teeth.
“Has anyone tried to make ’em understand, Captain? I guess I’m no intellectual guy, but there was a French writer fellow—Victor Hugo—who wrote something that sure hit the nail on the head. I copied it out, for it seemed good to me.” From his pocketbook he produced a slip of paper. “ ‘The faults of women, children, servants, the weak, the indigent, and the ignorant are the fault of husbands, fathers, masters, the strong, the rich, and the learned.’ Wal!” he leaned back in his chair, “there you are. Their proper leaders have sure failed them, so they’re running after that bunch of cross-eyed skaters. And sitting here, watching ’em run, and laughing fit to beat the band, is your pal Peterson!”
It was at that moment that the telephone bell rang, and after a slight hesitation Hugh picked up the receiver.
“Very well,” he grunted, after listening for a while, “I will tell him.”
He replaced the receiver and turned to the American.
“Mr. Ditchling will be here for the meeting at two, and Peterson will be late,” he announced slowly.
“What’s Ditchling when he’s at home?” asked the other.
“One of the so-called leaders,” answered Hugh briefly, turning over the pages of the ledger. “Here’s his dossier, according to Peterson. ‘Ditchling, Charles. Good speaker; clever; unscrupulous. Requires big money; worth it. Drinks.’ ”
For a while they stared at the brief summary, and then the American burst into a guffaw of laughter.
“The mistake you’ve made, Captain, in this country is not giving Peterson a seat in your Cabinet. He’d have the whole caboose eating out of his hand; and if you paid him a few hundred thousand a year, he might run
