by J. T. Edson
Sent away from the line of fire, Belle was brought to a halt by colliding with the passage wall. In spite of being caught unawares by the sergeant’s action, she had managed to twist herself and let her left shoulder take the impact. Furthermore, her head was lowered and she was not too badly dazzled by the red glare when the pistol went off. Glancing around as she heard the lead driving into Molloy, she saw him going down and knew he had sacrificed his life to save her. Fury filled her and, gripping the handle of the parasol more tightly, she thrust herself forward.
For all Belle’s anger, she was not acting in a blind and reckless rage. Rather she was planning her movements with the swift, clear thinking precision which had kept her alive in many a desperate and dangerous situation. One of the factors she was taking into consideration was the disadvantage of every short barreled, large caliber weapon like the shot pistol when fired. The extremely heavy recoil made it difficult to control. So she felt sure that the rolling dive she was commencing would take her into a range at which the potent weapon she was carrying could be brought into action before Fourmies was able to take aim at her.
Seeing what the Rebel Spy was doing, fear drove the artist to respond with alacrity. Making a desperate effort, controlled the shot pistol as it rose to the thrust of the recoil and began to turn its barrels downwards.
Even as Belle was coming to her knees and realizing she had underestimated Fourmies’s ability to cope with the weapon’s recoil, she was already swinging the parasol’s handle. Doing so caused it to display its secondary—primary, in fact, under the circumstances—function. The motion caused a short steel rod ending in a ball to emerge from where it was telescoped into the powerful coil spring which followed it from the handle. On the other occasions when she had employed the spring-loaded billy, it had proved effective and she knew her life depended upon it continuing to do so.
Having come into view at that moment, the Remittance Kid and Ballinger brought up their Webleys. Once again, they fired almost simultaneously and produced equally fatal results.
With the steel ball at the tip of the billy whipping around under the added impulsion of the spring to catch and knock aside the barrels of the shot pistol, Belle saw the bullets striking the artist. One entered just below his right eye and the other, sent by the Kid, punctured a hole .476 of an inch in diameter through the center of his forehead. Both shattered their way out of the back of his skull.
Although Fourmies was sent reeling and killed instantly, Belle would have shared his fate if she had not delivered the blow with her billy. Fired by an involuntary muscular spasm at the moment of its wielder’s death, the shot pistol’s barrels were deflected and the second charge flew into the wooden floor of the passage. Dazzled by the muzzle blast and momentarily deafened by the bellow of the discharge, she neither saw nor heard the artist as he fell.
‘Are you all right, Belle?’ the Kid asked in a concerned voice, hurrying forward and gently raising the girl to her feet.
‘Y … Yes, he missed me!’ the Rebel Spy replied, after shaking her head and blinking until her vision cleared and her ears stopped ringing. Looking down she went on, ‘Damn it. I wanted him alive!’
‘We would have preferred it too, dear girl,’ the Kid answered. ‘But we didn’t have any choice. He wanted you dead!’
‘I could have …’ Belle began, then stiffened as she realized her reaction was being caused by the narrow escape she had had. ‘I’m sorry, Rem.’
‘Think nothing of it, old thing,’ the Kid replied.
‘Is he …?’ Belle inquired, looking to where Ballinger was standing alongside Molloy’s body.
‘Yes,’ the lieutenant said quietly and bitterly.
‘He pushed me aside and went on to try and tackle Fourmies,’ Belle explained, half to herself.
‘That’d be Rory’s way all right,’ Bellinger declared, thinking how he might have been lying on the floor instead of the sergeant if they had not met the Rebel Spy and the Englishman. On learning of the “priest’s” visit, they would have come to investigate and as senior officer, he would have been in the lead. ‘He was all man and a damned good detective.’
‘I’m going to avenge him!’ Belle promised, ramming the telescoping sections of the billy into the parasol’s handle with an almost symbolic gesture.
‘You’ll have my help to do it,’ the Remittance Kid stated.
‘And mine,’ Ballinger seconded, hearing voices and footsteps as members of the hospital staff came to investigate the disturbance. ‘Let’s take a look at young Gorr-Kauphin, but I think we’re too late to save him.’
Nine – Tinville Might Know the Answer
‘If only I’d been carrying a gun …!’ Belle Boyd began bitterly, after having paced restlessly around the small office on the ground floor of the Streeterville Municipal Hospital for a few minutes.
‘The sergeant would have done exactly the same thing,’ Captain Patrick Reeder interrupted gently and with none of his usual laconic levity. ‘To his way of thinking, the situation was too dangerous for a woman to be involved.’
‘I know,’ the Rebel Spy sighed. ‘But it’s the second time a man has been killed for thinking the same thing.’ 29
Out of consideration for the kind of work upon which Belle and the Remittance Kid were engaged, Lieutenant Edward Ballinger had changed his mind about taking them into Room Twelve to see whether Raoul Fourmies had killed Colin Gorr-Kauphin. To have done so would have meant that their official status could not have been concealed from the members of the hospital staff who were already approaching. Instead, he had claimed they were innocent by-standers who had been on their way to visit a friend. Although the porter had known this was untrue, he had supported the story by stating he had let them in because they could not come at the regulation visiting period. To make the deception appear genuine, Belle had given the impression of being very distressed and the Kid once more employed his Irish accent. Ballinger had sent them to wait in the office, ostensibly to obtain their statements as witnesses.
Before the Kid could ask when the first occasion had occurred, the door opened and Ballinger walked in. He was carrying a fur hat, a brightly colored cloth sash with a knife in a decorated and fringed leather sheath attached to it, and a pair of heelless rawhide boots with calf length legs.
‘Have either of you seen anything like these before?’ the lieutenant inquired, closing the door and crossing to lay the articles on the desk.
‘They’re an Indian-made belt, sheath and moccasins, as you already know,’ Belle replied, ‘But I’m afraid I couldn’t even start to guess at from which tribe they originated and I’ve never seen a hat like that.’
‘How about you, Captain Reeder?’ Ballinger asked.
‘I can’t claim to be an authority, or any such rot, of course,’ the Kid warned, picking up the hat and examining it. ‘But I’ve seen something like this, as well as the belt and moccasins, worn by French Canadians and the Metis in particular.’
‘Metis?’ Ballinger queried.
‘It’s a corruption of the French word, metissage 30 which means—or so I’m told, miscegenation,’ 31 the Kid explained, sounding more ashamed than pleased that he was able to display such erudition. ‘In Canada, “Metis” is the name given to people of mixed French and Indian birth.’
‘Then that’s what the two we killed could be,’ Ballinger said thoughtfully. ‘From the look of their necks, neither had been used to having his shirt collar buttoned and the state of their feet showed that they’d never worn anything with harder soles than these moccasins. They were even darker than just well tanned and their faces had a sort of Indian look. Their hair was shoulder long, too, but one was brown and the other reddish and every Indian I’ve seen, which isn’t many, always had black hair. Was Fourmies a French Canadian?’
‘Parisian,’ the Kid supplied, impressed by the thoroughness with which the lieutenant had carried out the examination of the men killed in the entrance hall. ‘As far as I know, he’s never e
ven been to Canada.’
‘He hasn’t,’ Belle confirmed. ‘Unless Tinville lied to me. With the exception of Father Devlin, this is the first visit to the New World for all of them.’
‘I reckon we’d better finish that talk we were having,’ Ballinger stated, looking from the girl to the Englishman and back again, then indicating the chairs they had occupied before the return of Sergeant Molloy. ‘What’s going on?’
‘You know the purpose behind the free entertainment this evening, don’t you?’ the Kid suggested, after they were all seated.
‘From what I heard, it was fund raising for helping Irish Republicans,’ Ballinger replied. He considered the way in which the Englishman had worded the question was a tribute to his ability as a police officer and not an accusation of complicity in the affair. His gaze went to the Rebel Spy as he continued, ‘As I know the way Phineas Branigan and his buckoes go about taking collections, I thought it’d be as well if I was on hand in case they started doing it at the theater. Thing I don’t get, Colonel Boyd, is why you became involved and did what you did.’
‘Because it is imperative that the United States shouldn’t be proven to be involved in supplying the means for a confrontation, or a civil war, between two parts of the British Isles,’ Belle replied. ‘Which, no matter what your personal sentiments might be, is Ireland’s status under law.’
‘I still don’t understand,’ Ballinger admitted frankly. ‘Shall I explain, Rem,’ Belle asked, ‘or will you?’
‘You, if you wish, dear girl,’ the Kid authorized, almost disinterestedly if his tone was any guide to his true emotions; not that either the girl or the detective believed this was so.
‘Do you remember the findings of what has become known as the Alabama Arbitration Tribunal, lieutenant?’ Belle inquired, after giving a swift résumé of the discussion she had had with the Englishman in her room at the Carrick Hotel.
‘Sure,’ Bellinger admitted and darted a frosty grin at the Englishman. ‘They were real popular, particularly in this part of town, when the report of them was given in the newspapers.’ 32
‘I can imagine they would be,’ the Kid answered, showing not the slightest animosity. ‘My aunt, the Dowager Duchess of Brockley, was something less than enthusiastic when she heard. In fact, she had to be forcibly restrained from going and horse-whipping every member of the jolly old Tribunal,’
‘The point is,’ Belle continued, seeing that the detective was amused by the response to his comment, ‘ever since that award was made, Congress—or most of it—has been aware of the need to tread very warily where anything that might be regarded as an infringement of British interests is concerned. And that is how collecting money for arms to be employed in an uprising against British rule in Ireland could be-in fact almost certainly would be construed by the British Government,’
‘There’re some who might say you haven’t picked the best way of avoiding that,’ Ballinger pointed out. ‘From what I saw of it, the money in the trunk was pretty well all marked by the fire and could be easy to identify,’
‘Which is why I set off the fire,’ Belle replied. ‘If the money was to be used for the purchase of arms and ammunition, the kind of dealer they will have to go to won’t be willing to accept coins which are so marked and easily traceable,’
‘There has to be more to whatever Miss Gorr-Kauphin and Father Devlin are up to than just that,’ the lieutenant protested. ‘Unless Fourmies was double-crossing them and came without their knowledge, they’ve proved they’re willing to have her brother killed to prevent him from talking out of turn. And just having it proved that some guns have been sent to Ireland from over here doesn’t strike me as being enough cause for another international committee to be set up. I should reckon that doing it’d cost plenty.’
‘It did,’ the Kid confirmed.
‘And even if one is set up,’ Ballinger went on, directing the words mainly at Belle. ‘It’s not certain that the U.S. of A. would lose out this time.’
‘I wouldn’t want to count on winning,’ the Rebel Spy warned. ‘The Tribunal found for the U.S.A. in Seventy-Two, but there’s been a noticeable anti-American feeling growing in Europe of late.’
‘I’m afraid that’s true, old boy,’ the Kid confirmed, ‘And, while it’s not the British Government’s doing, I’ll admit there are some Members of Parliament who won’t hesitate to try and exploit it.’
‘From what you told me, Captain Reeder,’ Ballinger said, sounding almost casual ‘You’re a member of the British Secret Service—’
‘Well actually, old chap, I haven’t told you any such thing,’ the Kid corrected, guessing what was coming. ‘But, like your General Washington, I can’t tell a lie. I am.’
‘Then there’re some who might say it would be your duty to let them send the arms and make sure you could prove they’d come from over here,’ Ballinger went on, unknowingly expressing the doubts formerly felt by the Rebel Spy. ‘No offence to you personally, mind, but I’d say there are some in your Government who could see it that way. England might be just about the richest and most powerful country in the world, 33 but fifteen and a half million—pounds, don’t you call them?—isn’t a sum of money to be lost without looking for a way to get it back.’
‘There are some might say that the way in which Phineas Branigan and his buckoes make collections for the support of the Irish Republicans shouldn’t be any of your concern, if it comes to that,’ the Kid countered.
‘I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks when folk are being hurt to …!’ Ballinger began heatedly, then the words trailed away as he realized he was giving an answer which might not apply only to his motives for being willing to intervene.
‘And that’s how I see it,’ the Kid declared. ‘As I told Belle earlier, I’m more concerned with the people on both sides who will suffer than the possibility of Britain making money, or political capital, out of such a situation.’
‘You didn’t say that in so many words,’ the Rebel Spy objected. ‘But I knew it was what you meant?
‘Like I said, no offence,’ the detective continued, satisfied by the confirmation of his belief that the Englishman had spoken with genuine sincerity. Holding out his right hand in evidence of his good will, he went on, ‘Is it all right if I drop the “Captain”?’
‘Well actually one is only supposed to reach first name terms after an acquaintance of no less than twenty-eight years, seven months, three weeks and five days, give or take a minute or two, Ed? the Kid replied, returning to his laconic speech and exchanging a strong hand-shake with Ballinger. ‘But, at the risk of making the foundations of the Empire shudder, I suppose we could make an exception. Try either “Pat”, or “Rem”.’
‘“Rem”?’ Ballinger repeated, wondering how the word supplied a sobriquet.
‘It’s short for the Remittance Kid,’ Belle explained, delighted by the way in which the conversation was progressing. She was aware that the affair was far from over and appreciated how advantageous it would be if she could obtain the whole-hearted support of both men, with them working on amicable terms. ‘That means his family pay him to stay as far away as possible from them. And, as he will insist on wearing that horrible false nose, I can’t say I blame them.’
‘Anyway, Ed, as you pointed out, this whole affair may cut far deeper than appears on the surface,’ the Kid remarked, so blandly that he might not have heard the Rebel Spy’s comment. Although his voice retained its lazy drawl, there was now a deadly serious undertone which was apparent to both members of his small audience. ‘I don’t know if General Handiman and your people have noticed it, Belle, but over the past few years we’ve become increasingly aware of a pattern behind the strife and civic disturbances that have been formented all over Europe, Asia and even down in Australia. Costly industrial disputes, international incidents which could have and, in some cases, even did result in open war have happened. Behind the majority of them has been a strong suggestion of an anarchist influence.’<
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‘It’s been commented upon,’ the girl admitted. ‘In fact, there’s a strong rumor of a plot to assassinate Grown Prince Rudolph of Bosgravnia while he’s down in Texas on a hunting trip.’
‘I hope your people are taking the threat seriously,’ the Kid stated.
‘They are,’ Belle replied. ‘In fact, if it hadn’t been for this business, I would have been going back down there. As it is, the General has made other arrangements for the Crown Prince’s protection.’ 34
‘He’ll most likely ask Captain Fog to look after things,’ Ballinger suggested prophetically, although he considered they were straying from the subject in which he was most interested. ‘There aren’t enough anarchists around to make all that much trouble.’
‘They aren’t in sufficient numbers to overthrow the government or rulers of even a small country by force as yet, I’ll grant you, Ed,’ Belle conceded. ‘But they’re waging a continuous campaign against different nations’ finances, economy and, as far as possible, established traditions and way of life. It’s calculated to weaken the structure of each’s society until there is a collapse which will enable them to take over the reins of government.’
‘That’s the reason behind the kind of entertainment and literature their kind put out,’ the Kid elaborated. ‘Thank the Lord that so far they haven’t the means to inflict it upon more than a small proportion of the population at one time. If they ever get something which will let them reach the majority, democratic freedom will be in deadly peril because they’ll exploit it every way they can. They won’t rest until their kind dominate the whole of the world. And they won’t care how many innocent people they cause to be killed, or how much misery, suffering and ruin they create while they’re trying to bring it about.’
‘That’s true,’ Belle seconded, seeing that the lieutenant was as impressed as she had been by the vehemence with which the Englishman had spoken. ‘Now what we have to decide is how to deal with their latest business.’