by Sax Rohmer
“We had it in this morning,” continued Sheard. “Two thousand men.”
“Eh?” grunted Rohscheimer hoarsely.
“Two thousand men,” repeated Sheard. “Each of them received notes to the value of a hundred dollars on the morning after the mill closed down, and a card, ‘With the compliments of Séverac Bablon.’”
“Forty thousand pounds!” shouted the millionaire. “I don’t believe it!”
“It’s confirmed by Reuter to-night.”
“Then the man’s a madman!” pronounced Rohscheimer conclusively.
“Pity he doesn’t have a cut at London!” came Denby’s voice.
“Is it?” growled the previous speaker. “Don’t you believe it! A maniac like that would mean ruination for business if he was allowed to get away with it!”
“Ah, well!” yawned Sheard, standing up and glancing at his watch, “you may be right. Anyway, I’ve got a report to put in. I’m off!”
“Me, too!” said the financier thickly. “Come on, Haredale. We’re overdue at Park Lane! It’s time we were on view in Park Lane, Adeler!”
The tide of our narrative setting in that direction, it will be well if we, too, look in at the Rohscheimer establishment. We shall find ourselves in brilliant company.
Julius’s harshest critics were forced to concede that the house in Park Lane was a focus of all smart society. Yet smart society felt oddly ill at ease in the salon of Mrs. Julius Rohscheimer. Nobody knew whether the man to whom he might be talking at the moment were endeavouring to arrange a mortgage with Rohscheimer; whether the man’s wife had fallen in arrears with her interest — to the imminent peril of the family necklace; or whether the man had simply dropped in because others of his set did so, and because, being invited, he chanced to have nothing better to do.
These things did not add to the gaiety of the entertainments, but of their brilliancy there could be no possible doubt.
Jewish society was well represented, and neither at Streeter’s nor elsewhere could a finer display of diamonds be viewed than upon one of Mrs. Rohscheimer’s nights. The lady had enjoyed some reputation as a hostess before the demise of her first husband had led her to seek consolation in the arms (and in the cheque-book) of the financier. So the house in Park Lane was visited by the smartest people — to the mutual satisfaction of host and hostess.
“Where’s the Dook?” inquired the former, peering over a gilded balustrade at the throng below. They had entered, unseen, by a private stair.
“I understand,” replied Haredale, “that the Duke is unfortunately indisposed.”
“Never turns up!” growled Rohscheimer.
“Never likely to!” was Haredale’s mental comment; but, his situation being a delicate one, he diplomatically replied, “We have certainly been unfortunate in that respect.”
Haredale — one of the best-known men in town — worked as few men work to bring the right people to the house in Park Lane (and to save his commission). This arrangement led Mr. Rohscheimer to rejoice exceedingly over his growing social circle, and made Haredale so ashamed of himself that, so he declared to an intimate friend, he had not looked in a mirror for nine months, but relied implicitly upon the good taste of his man.
“Come up and give me your opinion of the new waistcoats,” said Rohscheimer. “I don’t fancy my luck in ’em, personally.”
Following the financier to his dressing-room, Haredale, as a smart maid stood aside to let them pass, felt the girl’s hand slip a note into his own. Glancing at it, behind Rohscheimer’s back, he read: “Keep him away as much as ever you can.”
“She has spotted him!” he muttered; and, in his sympathy with the difficulties of poor Mrs. Rohscheimer’s position, he forgot, temporarily, the difficulties of his own.
“By the way,” said Rohscheimer, “did you bring along that late edition with the details of the Runek Mill business?”
“Yes,” said Haredale, producing it from his overcoat pocket.
“Just read it out, will you?” continued the other, “while I have a rub down.”
Haredale nodded, and, lighting a cigarette, sank into a deep arm-chair and read the following paragraph:
“A FAIRY GODMOTHER IN ONTARIO
“(From our Toronto Correspondent)
“The identity of the philanthropist who indemnified the ex-employees of the Runek Mill still remains a mystery. Beyond the fact that his name, real or assumed, is Séverac Bablon, nothing whatever is known regarding him. The business was recently acquired by J. J. Oppner, who will be remembered for his late gigantic operation on Wall Street, and the whole of the working staff received immediate notice to quit. No reason is assigned for this wholesale dismissal. But each of the 2,000 men thus suddenly thrown out of employment received at his home, in a plain envelope, stamped with the Three Rivers postmark, the sum of one hundred dollars, and a typed slip bearing the name, ‘Séverac Bablon.’ Mr. Oppner had been approached, but is very reticent upon the subject. There is a rumour circulating here to the effect that he himself is the donor. But I have been unable to obtain confirmation of this.”
“It wouldn’t be Oppner,” spluttered Rohscheimer, appearing, towel in hand. “He’s not such a fool! Sounds like one of these ‘Yellow’ fables to me.”
Haredale shrugged his shoulders, dropping the paper on the rug.
“A man at once wealthy and generous is an improbable, but not an impossible, being,” he said.
Rohscheimer stared, dully. There were times when he suspected Haredale of being studiously rude to him. He preserved a gloomy silence throughout the rest of the period occupied by his toilet, and in silence descended to the ballroom.
The throng was considerable, and the warmth oppressive at what time Mrs. Rohscheimer’s ball was in full swing. Scarcely anyone was dancing, but the walls were well lined, and the crush about the doors suggestive of a cup tie.
“Who’s that tall chap with the white hair?” inquired Rohscheimer from the palmy corner to which Haredale discreetly had conveyed him.
“That is the Comte de Noeue,” replied his informant; “a distinguished member of the French diplomatic corps.”
“We’re getting on!” chuckled the millionaire. “He’s a good man to have, isn’t he Haredale?”
“Highly respectable!” said the latter dryly.
“We don’t seem to get the dooks, and so on?”
“The older nobility is highly conservative!” explained Haredale evasively. “But Mrs. Rohscheimer is a recognised leader of the smart set.”
Rohscheimer swayed his massive head in bear-like discontent.
“I don’t get the hang of this smart set business,” he complained. “Aren’t the dooks and earls and so on in the smart set?”
“Not strictly so!” answered Haredale, helping himself to brandy-and-soda.
This social conundrum was too much for the millionaire, and he lapsed into heavy silence, to be presently broken with the remark:
“All the Johnnies holding the wall up are alike, Haredale! It’s funny I don’t know any of ’em! You see them in the sixpenny monthlies, with the girl they’re going to marry in the opposite column. Give me their names, will you — starting with the one this end?”
Haredale, intending, good-humouredly, to comply, glanced around the spacious room — only to realise that he, too, was unacquainted with the possibly distinguished company of muralites.
“I rather fancy,” he said, “a lot of the people you mean are Discoveries — of Mrs. Rohscheimer’s, you know — writers and painters and so forth.”
“No, no!” complained the host. “I know all that lot — and they all know me! I mean the nice-looking fellows round the wall! I haven’t been introduced, Haredale. They’ve come in since this waltz started.”
Haredale looked again, and his slightly bored expression gave place to one of curiosity.
CHAPTER II
“THIRTY MEN WHO WERE ALL ALIKE”
The room was so inconveniently crowded that dan
cing was a mere farce, only kept up by the loyal support of Mrs. Rohscheimer’s compatriots. The bulk of the company crowded around in intermingling groups, to the accompaniment of ceaseless shuffling and murmuring which all but drowned the strains of the celebrated orchestra. But lining the wall around was a rank of immaculately groomed gentlemen who seemed to assume a closer formation as Haredale, from behind the palms, observed them.
In two particulars this rank excited his curiosity.
The individuals comprising it were, as Rohscheimer had pointed out, remarkably alike, being all of a conventional Army type; and they were unobtrusively entering, one behind the other, and methodically taking up their places around the room!
Even as he watched, the last man entered, and the big double doors were closed behind him!
“What’s this, Haredale?” came a hoarse whisper from Rohscheimer. “Where are these Johnnies comin’ from? Does Mrs. R. know they’re here?”
“Couldn’t say,” was the reply. “But it would be a simple matter for a number of impostors to gain access to the house whilst dancing was in progress, provided they came in small parties and looked the part.”
“Impostors!” growled Rohscheimer uneasily. “Don’t you think they’ve been invited, then?”
“Well, who shut those doors?” muttered Haredale, leaning across the little table the better to observe what was going forward.
“You don’t mean — —” began Rohscheimer, and broke off, as the orchestra dashed through the coda of the waltz and ceased.
For stark amazement froze the words upon his tongue.
Coincident with the last pair of dancers performing their final gyration and the hum of voices assuming a louder tone, each of the men standing around the walls produced a brace of revolvers and covered the particular group nearest to him!
The conversational hum rose to a momentary roar, and ceased abruptly. The horns of taxi-cabs passing below could be plainly heard, and the drone and rattle of motor-buses. Men who had done good work in other emergencies looked down the gleaming barrels, back to the crowds of women — and had no inspiration, but merely wondered. Nobody moved. Nobody fainted.
“Held up!” came, in pronounced Kansas, from somewhere amongst the crush.
“Quick!” whispered Haredale. “We’re overlooked! Through the conservatory, and — —”
“Pardon me!”
Rohscheimer and Haredale turned, together, and each found himself looking directly into the little ring of a revolver’s muzzle. A tall, slim figure in faultless evening dress stood behind them, half in the shadows. This mysterious stranger had jet black hair, and wore a black silk half-mask.
The melodramatic absurdity of the thing came home strongly to Haredale. But its harsh reality was equally obvious.
“Perhaps,” continued the masked speaker, in a low, refined voice, and with a faint, elusive accent, “you will oblige me, Mr. Rohscheimer, by stepping forward so that your guests can see you? Sir Richard Haredale — may I trouble you?”
Rohscheimer, his heavy features slightly pale, rose unsteadily. Haredale, after a rapid glance about him, rose also, with tightened lips; and the trio moved forward into full view of the assembled company.
“The gentlemen surrounding you,” said the man in the mask, slightly raising his voice, “are all sworn to the Cause which I represent. You would, perhaps, term them anarchists!”
An audible shudder passed through the assemblage.
“They are desperate men,” he continued, “indifferent to death, and would, without compunction, shoot down everyone present — if I merely raised my hand! Each of them is a social pariah, with a price upon his head. Let no man think this is a jest! Any movement made without my permission will be instantly fatal.”
Dzing! went the bell of a bus below. Grr-r-r! went the motor in re-starting. OO-oo! OO-oo! came from the horn of a taxi-cab. And around the wall stood the silent rank with the raised revolvers.
“I shall call upon those gentlemen whom I consider most philanthropic,” resumed the musical voice, “to subscribe to my Cause! Mr. Rohscheimer, your host, will head the list with a diamond stud, valued at one thousand guineas, and two rings, representing, together, three thousand pounds! Place them on that pedestal, Mr. Rohscheimer!”
“I won’t do it!” cried the financier, in rising cadence. “I defy you! I — —”
“Cut it!” snapped Haredale roughly. “Don’t be such a cad as to expose women — —” He had caught sight of a pretty, pale face in the throng, that made the idea of these mysterious robbers opening fire doubly, trebly horrible. “It goes against the grain, but hand them over. We can do nothing — yet!”
“Thank you, Sir Richard!” said the masked spokesman, and waved aside the hand with which Haredale proffered his own signet ring. “I have not called upon you, sir! Mr. Hohsmann, your daughters would feel affronted did you not give them an opportunity of appearing upon the subscription list! The necklace and the aigrette will do! I shall post, of course, a formal receipt to Hamilton Place!”
And so the incredible comedy proceeded — until thousands of pounds’ worth of jewellery lay upon the pedestal at the foot of a bronze statuette of Pandora!
“The list is closed!” called the spokesman. “Doors!”
Open came the doors at his command, and revealed to those who could see outside, a double rank of evening-dress bandits.
“The company,” he resumed, “will pass out in single file to the white drawing-room. Mr. Rohscheimer — will you lead the way?”
In sullen submission out went Rohscheimer, and after him his guests — or, rather, his wife’s guests — until that whole brilliant company was packed into the small white room. Someone had thoughtfully closed the shutters of the windows giving on Park Lane, and securely screwed them; so that, when the last straggler had entered, and the door was shut, they were in a trap!
“Listen, everybody!” came Haredale’s voice. “Keep cool! You fellows by the door — get your shoulders to it!”
At his words, the men standing nearest to the door turned to execute these instructions, and were confronted by the following type-written notice pinned upon the white panels: —
“A detailed subscription list will appear in the leading papers to-morrow, and it will doubtless relieve and gratify subscribers to learn that the revolvers were not loaded!”
There was little delay after that. Within sixty seconds the door was open; within three minutes the wires were humming with the astounding news.
Tom Sheard, his work completed, was about to leave the Gleaner office, when —
“Sheard!” shouted the news editor from an upper landing. “Amazing business at Rohscheimer’s in Park Lane! Robbery! Brigands! Terrific! Off you go! Taxi!”
And off went Sheard without delay.
He entered Park Lane, to find that part of the thoroughfare adjacent to the financier’s house packed with vehicles of all sorts and sizes. Women in full dress, pressmen, policemen, loafers, were pouring out and rushing in to Mr. Rohscheimer’s residence! Never before was such a scene witnessed at that hour of the night in Park Lane.
As he passed under the awning, pressing his way towards the steps, he encountered an excited young gentleman who wore a closed opera hat, but was evidently ignorant of his interesting appearance. This young gentleman he chanced to know, and having rectified the irregularity in his toilet, from him he secured some splendid copy.
“You see, I just dropped in to take a look round, and as I strolled up a mob of jokers jumped out of a cab just in front of me, and we all crawled in together, sort of thing. I happened to notice a footman going upstairs and two of the jokers I spoke about behind him. They were laughing, and so forth, and he was just on the first landing, when they nabbed him from behind — positive fact! — and threw the chap down on his face! I’m thinking it’s a poor kind of joke when the other two fellows jolly well nobble me! Before I know what’s up, I’m pushed into an anteroom or somewhere, and I hear these chaps bang
ing the front door and running upstairs! I should have sung out like steam, only they’d handcuffed me wrong way round and tied a beastly cork arrangement in my mouth!
“Just before I burst a blood-vessel it occurred to me that I might as well keep quiet; so I sat on the floor listening; but I didn’t hear anything for what seemed like an hour! Then there was a mob of fellows came downstairs — and the door opened. They seemed to slip out in twos and threes from what I could gather, and by the time they’d nearly all gone a perfect pandemonium broke out, upstairs and down!
“The servants — who’d all been locked in the cellar — got out first. Then Haredale came bounding downstairs, and, luckily for me, heard me kicking at the door. Then everybody was rushing about! Rohscheimer was bawling in the telephone! Some other chap was rushing for a doctor — for Adeler, who got knocked on the head in the library. Now here’s the wretched police arresting everybody who looks as though he’d been in the Army! That’s all the beastly description anyone can give! They suspected Dick Langley the minute they saw him, because he’s got a military appearance! And I shouldn’t be surprised to hear that they’d arrested every fellow in the Guards’ Club!
“Here’s the thing, though: they’ve all got clean away! With about forty thousand pounds’ worth of jewellery! It’s a preposterous sort of thing, isn’t it?”
Sheard agreed that it was the most preposterous sort of thing imaginable; and, leaving his excited acquaintance, he set out to seek further particulars. But very few were forthcoming.
As to the manner in which the clique had obtained admission, that called for little explanation. They had simply presented themselves, armed with invitations, singly and in small parties, whilst dancing was in progress, and in a house open to such mixed society had been admitted without arousing suspicion. There was little that was obscure or inexplicable in the coup; it was an amazing display of force majeure, an act of stark audacity. It pointed to the existence in London of a hitherto unsuspected genius. Such was Sheard’s opinion.
From an American guest, who had kept perfectly cool during the “hold-up,” and had quietly taken stock of the robbers, he learnt that, exclusive of the spokesman, they numbered exactly thirty; were much of a similar build, being well-set-up men of military bearing; and, most extraordinary circumstance, were facially all alike!