by Ashton, Hugh
I did so, and remarked, “ I am not familiar with weapons of this type, but it seems to me that this barrel is wider–I believe the term is ‘ of larger calibre’–than that usually employed in air-guns.”
“ Indeed it is. It is of the calibre usually associated with revolvers. And here,” as his hands reached for a small box lying on his workbench, “ are the bullets intended for it.”
I opened the box, to reveal about fifty leaden bullets lying in a cushion of cotton wool. Though, as I say, I am not overly familiar with firearms, my observations allowed me to deduce that these were replicas of such bullets as are typically used in pistols. Naturally, there were no cartridges.
“ You see now the beauty of this,” continued the hideous little gnome beside me, patting the stock of the gun affectionately. “ An almost silent weapon, whose bullets will expand on impact, and the sound of whose report will remain unheard, even in the midst of the most crowded metropolis.”
I was horrified by the diabolical simplicity of this device. “ Who is the intended target of this weapon ? ” I asked.
“ That, my dear sir, is not my concern,” he told me. “ It is enough for me to do my work well and receive payment for it. But before I receive my payment for my labours—and I trust that you have the money with you—I wish you to try my craftsmanship for yourself.”
It was true that concealed in my breast pocket was a large envelope which Colonel Moran had presented to me in London, telling me that it was filled with Bank of England notes to be presented to von Herder on receipt of the “ machinery”. He had mentioned nothing, however, regarding the testing of the apparatus. How could he have done so, I asked myself, given that I knew nothing of its nature.
“ I have no skill at these matters,” I protested.
“ Never mind, I am sure that the colonel will be pleased to hear from your own lips that his money has not been wasted. Come.” He stood, handing the gun and the box of bullets to me, and made his way to a small door in the rear of the workshop. He opened it, and ushered me through into the back garden of his house. Some fifty yards away stood a small artist’s easel, on which was a paper target some three feet in diameter.
I could claim almost no skill with firearms, and I had no experience whatsoever with a rifle such as the one which was now in my hands. However, it seemed pointless for me to resist the invitation.
“ How do I operate this ? ” I asked. The answer proved to be complex and surprisingly strenuous, involving levers and springs to pump up the air pressure in the chamber, which would then be released to propel the bullet towards its target. I lifted the weapon to my shoulder and steadied my aim as I squinted over the sights towards the square of paper with the black circle in its centre. Gently, I squeezed the trigger, prepared for the kick of the butt against my shoulder as I fired. Instinctively, I closed my eyes against the noise of the explosion, but there was no such sound. A peculiar mechanical sound with virtually no recoil was the result.
“ Did you hit it ? ” von Herder asked me excitedly.
“ I cannot tell from here. I will examine the target.” I walked the length of the garden, and was amazed to see that my shot had not only hit the target, but was close to the centre. I reported the result to the blind mechanic, who merely nodded in approval.
“ So now that you know that it works, I receive my money, yes ? ”
“ First you must show me once again how to assemble and disassemble this mechanism. I hardly feel that I can travel back to England carrying this in its present state.”
I had been impressed by the ingenious nature of the weapon, and the workmanship with which it had been produced. I was struck with further admiration for the twisted ingenuity of the little gnome when we returned to the workshop, and von Herder revealed to me the secret methods by which it could be taken to pieces and put back together again. In its disassembled state, the smaller pieces fitted neatly into a small hand case, specially prepared with compartments for each component of the machine. The barrel and the air cylinder underneath it were disguised as the shaft of a rolled umbrella.
Despite myself, I was impressed by these thorough preparations for the transportation of this infernal machine, and I complimented the German on his attention to detail. I handed over the envelope to him.
“ Of course,” he smiled, “ I can count these pieces of paper with my fingers, but I am unable to tell if they are genuine Bank of England notes. You will forgive me, I am sure, if I call my assistant to verify that the colonel is indeed a man of his word.”
“ That would seem to be a natural precaution.”
His fingers moved to an electric button on his workbench, which he pressed. About two minutes later, the door through which I had first entered opened, and a young lady entered.
“ Helga, my dear,” he said to her in German. “ This young gentleman from England has been good enough to provide me with certain pieces of paper here in this envelope. Would you be kind enough to examine them and tell me what they are ? ”
The young woman, whom I could now perceived to be of considerable beauty, conforming to the German type, took the envelope and extracted the banknotes. She examined them with the air of an expert familiar with such matters, running the edge of her nail over the engraving, slightly wetting her finger and rubbing it over part of the cashier’s signature, and holding the paper to the light to examine watermark.
At one point in the proceedings, her eyes met mine, and there was a look of what appeared to be pity in them. She said nothing to me, but merely reported, “ All twenty of these Bank of England notes for fifty English pounds each appear to be genuine, Father.”
“ Very good, my dear. Maybe you can offer this young Englishman some refreshment before you send him on his way ? ” He turned towards me. “ Good day to you, sir,” he added in English. “ I have already forgotten your name, if ever I knew it, that is, and I pray that you will do me the same courtesy.” He extended his hand, and I shook it, though with a certain distaste based on what I now knew of this man and his foul trade.
“ Come,” invited his daughter. “ May I offer you some coffee before you depart ? ” I accepted gladly, and left this diabolical workshop, which had filled me with horror since I discovered the purpose of the machinery which I had collected, meanwhile grasping the same machinery in its disguise of an innocent case and an umbrella.
You may call me a coward and a hypocrite for my actions. I must repeat that I am opposed to the use of violence in my operations, and yet here I was holding a device whose only purpose was the murder of other human beings. But I ask you to consider the fact that should I fail to execute the commission which had been entrusted to me, I myself would certainly fall victim to the wrath of Professor Moriarty. Even in my relatively short acquaintance with his organisation, I knew of three deaths within the group which could be laid at his door: two of those who had decided to carry out operations on their own account, and one of whom was reportedly a police spy. By throwing in my lot with the professor, I had committed myself, and I no longer possessed free will as regards the actions I performed.
I was led into what I took to be a drawing-room, rather over-furnished in the German style, and my fair guide rang the bell to give orders for coffee and cakes to the servant who appeared. While we were waiting for the refreshments to be brought, she spoke to me.
“ You seem to me to be a good man,” she told me. “ Why are you involved in this dreadful business ? ”
“ You know what your father is doing, then ? ” I asked her in return.
“ Of course I know, and I am powerless to stop him. How could I ever report my own father to the police ? Ever since he was forced to leave England on account of the scandal, he has been unable to find any work for his hands other than the kind of work he has just sold to you.”
“ If it is any consolation to you,” I told her, “ this here is not for my own use. I am merely the messenger who fetches and carries, not the man for whose use this is inte
nded.” I said this in German, unsure of whether I had expressed my meaning clearly, but her posture seemed to relax a little, indicating that I had probably conveyed successfully what I wished to impart. The coffee arrived, together with some small cakes, and we ate and drank in near silence. At length I rose to go.
“ Many thanks for your hospitality,” I told her. “ I agree with you, that this is a dreadful business in which I find myself, but believe me, I have little or no choice in the matter.” I looked into her eyes, and what I saw there impelled me to take her in my arms and draw her towards me. “ Helga,” I said to her, using the name by which I had heard her father address her. “ We do not know each other, and we may never see each other again in this life. Believe me, though, I will never forget you.” With these words, I kissed her on the lips, and she responded to my caresses.
“ Enough ! ” she told me at length, pushing me away. “ As you say, we will never see each other again, and this is mere foolishness.” I released her from my grasp with some reluctance, and stepped away.
“ If you change your mind, Helga, and decide that you wish to meet me again, I am sure that your father can let you know how you may make contact with me. As for me, I shall respect your wishes, and not force my company on you further. Rest assured that it will be a long time, if ever, before I forget you.”
So saying, I left her, and made my way to the railway station, to return to England at the earliest possible opportunity. My time on the trains and the boat carrying me back home were spent in reflection, of the strange perverted genius of von Herder, and the powerful attraction which his daughter had exerted on me.
I delivered the deadly weapon to Colonel Moran, who professed himself delighted with my work. His satisfaction showed itself later in an unmarked envelope, containing a considerable sum of money, which appeared through my letterbox one morning about a week later.
For some time after this little adventure I scanned the newspapers, searching for details of a death which appeared to have been caused by a revolver, but where no weapon had been found, and the sound of the fatal shot had not been reported.[5] However, there were no such reports, and my conscience remained relatively clear.
z
John Clay speaks 3: The acid
Following the adventure in Germany that I have just described, it appeared that I had achieved some sort of measure of respectability in the eyes of Professor Moriarty and those who executed his orders.
One day, I was sent for by Colonel Moran, using the usual methods of communication as I described earlier. As always, I found myself to be more than a little afraid of this large, powerful, and I have no doubt, violent man as I stood before him.
“ Sit down, sit down,” he invited me, gesturing to the chair that stood on the opposite side of the table to which he was standing. “ There’s no need for you to look so worried, you know. We are very pleased with the work you’ve been doing. There’s another little job for you which is a bit different from what you’ve been doing up to now. The professor told me a little about your doings at Oxford. Have you kept your hand in with that sort of thing ? ”
“ By ‘ that sort of thing’, you mean— ? ”
“ Oh, for God’s sake, man. What do you think I mean ? I’m talking about the production of documents. Forgery, if you want it in plain simple English.”
“ I think my skills are as good as they ever were. After all, I have been using them to create messages from masters to servants for some time now, which have allowed houses to remain empty when they should have been occupied. I flatter myself that given several pages of a person’s handwriting—whether they be a man or a woman—I am able to compose at least a small message which would deceive even the writer him or herself.”
“ Excellent, I’m glad to hear that. The task to which I wish to assign you will bring more definite and larger rewards than the little notes you’ve been writing to decoy the servants away from the houses. We feel that you can help us produce IOUs which will bring in considerable sums of money.” He proceeded to explain the scheme, which involved a number of confederates who would frequent gaming clubs and insert themselves into games where wealthy but inexperienced gamblers were taking part. Since such gamblers often imbibed heavily before commencing their games, often they had little or no memory of the previous evening when they awoke following the nights debauch. The plan was that the member of Moriarty’s organisation who had taken part in the game would come up to the hapless gambler a few days afterwards, presenting an IOU in his own writing. If the victim protested his innocence, the gang member would then threaten to expose him as a man who was unwilling to pay his debts of honour. “ It cannot fail,” chuckled Moran. “ After all, we will not be asking for large sums of money, but it will be enough to make the enterprise worthwhile, I can assure you. Naturally, you will share in the proceeds at the usual rate, and there will be plenty to go around.”
I have to admit that the enterprise appealed to me. The victims would be those who could afford their losses, and they were of the class that had humiliated me in my early life. There was something very pleasing in the prospect of turning their own concepts of honour against them in this way.
“ How do you propose that I obtain samples of their handwriting in order to produce the IOUs ? ” I asked.
“ We have our methods,” he informed me. “ Believe me, there are many servants who will be willing to provide suitable specimens for your analysis. We already have thirty targets in our sights.”
The first of these (I do not propose to name names here—they are not really relevant to the story, but suffice it to say that they are all well-known names in politics and in society, and not one of them could in any way be described as being poor—was the second son of a famous peer of the realm who held a position in the Cabinet of the day. His valet had provided me, through a number of intermediaries, with letters that he had written and subsequently discarded. His hand was of the large illiterate variety affected by so many of our aristocratic “ leaders”, and was surprisingly easy to imitate.
I received a request in the usual coded form to produce a document promising to pay one “ Henry Morton” the sum of £500. Naturally, I had no idea of the true identity of the debtor, nor the circumstances under which the debt was supposed to have been acquired. I produced the IOU as requested, and delivered it, through the medium of a post office box which had been rented for the occasion. Two days later, I found £50 in sovereigns delivered in a small package to my door. Moran sent for me the next day.
“ You have done very well,” he said, smiling his tiger-like smile. “ Apparently our friend claimed to have no recollection of writing the IOU, but was convinced that it was indeed he who had written it. He blamed it, as we had expected, on the brandy and port that he had been drinking before and during the game. We will have another such opportunity for you within the week. In the meantime, we see a further opportunity for your talents in the form of bank cheques. There is a little more risk involved—though not for you, of course—but the pickings could be infinitely richer. After all, we have only a limited number of rich fools available to us, and only a certain number of clubs in which we can operate before we are spotted and from which we will be banned if our little game becomes apparent.”
“ This is definitely of interest. Can you give me a few more details ? ”
“ Certainly. We have a number of our people working in different banks throughout the City. We have arranged with them that when certain large corporations and enterprises draw on their accounts using cheques, these checks will not be cancelled the usual way through stamps or tearing off the corner as is usually the case, but will be sent on to us. Your job will be to use certain chemicals with which you will be provided, to erase the original payee and the amount payable, and to rewrite the cheque using the details which will be provided to you. The cheque will then be presented at a bank in a different part of the country. We anticipate that this will be a profitable business for us.”
“ Is that possible ? ” I asked. “ I was under the impression that erasing the writing on a cheque would cause the ink of the printed check form itself to be destroyed, showing that the cheque had been altered.”
“ You obviously underestimate the resources available to the professor. Thanks to his contacts in parts of Europe—regions in which I am glad that I will never have to set foot—he has been supplied with a small quantity of miraculous fluid which can erase the writing from cheques while leaving the underlying paper and the printing on it untouched[6]. We have been warned, though, that this fluid possesses highly corrosive properties. The scientist who supplied us strongly recommends the use of gloves when using it, and also to avoid inhalation of the fumes. I note that you are a sensible man and will regard these precautions with the respect that they deserve.”
“ When do you want me to start on this ? ”
“ The cheques will start to arrive in your box within the week,” he told me. “ As to the fluid itself, it is here.” From his overcoat pocket the extracted a small wooden box. “ Within this box, surrounded by cotton padding, lies a small bottle containing the mixture. You will be the first in this country to use it. We cannot necessarily expect success at the first attempt, but of course, we do not expect a large number of failures.” So saying, he passed the box to me, and I stowed it safely away in an inside pocket. “ I do trust that you will remember the precautions I have told you,” were his words to me on parting.
As you can imagine, I was intrigued by the thought of this seemingly magical chemical which could produce large sums of wealth, seemingly out of thin air. I waited impatiently for the first of the checks to arrive in my box. As Moran had told me, it was less than a week before the message containing the cheque was in my hands, together with the instructions as to how I was to change it.