by Unknown
* * * * *
Dick was on the edge of this silent battle. He sensed it. Bracinghimself against a bureau, while the mob surged past him, he tried topierce the gloom, to reinforce with his perceptions what his instincttold him. A soldier, crazed with fear, came leaping at him, bayonetleveled. He thrust with a grunt. Dick avoided the glancing steel by ahand's breadth, and, as the impetus of the man's attack carried himforward, caught him beneath the chin with a stiff right-hand jolt thatsent him sprawling.
From below the cries broke out again, with renewed violence: "They'vegot the President! Get them! Get them! Close all doors and windows!"
But a door went crashing down somewhere, to the tune of savage yells.The mob was pouring down the stairs. It was growing less packed above.Dick heard Stopford's voice calling his name.
"Here, sir" he shouted back, and the two men collided.
"For God's sake do what you can, Rennell!" shouted the Colonel."They've got the President downstairs. They had him in this very room,in the thick of it all. I heard him cry out, as if under a gag. Theyput one of those damned cloths over him. God, Rennell, I'm goingcrazy!"
The upper floor of the White House was almost empty now. Dick thrusthimself into the crowd that still jammed the stairs. He reached theground floor. It was lighter here, but a glance showed him that it wasimpossible to attempt to restore any semblance of order. The big EastRoom was jammed with a fighting, cursing throng. Dick stumbled overthe bodies of those who had fallen in the press, or had been shotdown. Outside the mob was thickening, swarming through the grounds andscreeching like madmen.
* * * * *
Nothing that could be done! Dick found himself caught once more in thehuman torrent. Presently he was wedged up against a broken window. Heprecipitated himself through the frame, dropped to the ground, stoppedfor an instant to catch breath.
The yelling mob was congregated about the main entrance of the WhiteHouse, and on this side the grounds were comparatively empty. As Dickstopped, trying desperately to form some plan of action, he heardfootsteps and low voices near him. Then two men came toward him,followed by three or four others.
The men--but, though the light was faint, Dick realized instantly thatthey were wearing invisible garments. He could see nothing of them; hecould see through where they seemed to be--the trees, the buildings ofthe streets. Yet they were at his elbow. And they saw him. He heardone of them leap, and sprang aside as the butt of a pistol descendedthrough the air and dropped where his head had been.
Yet no hand had seemed to hold it. It had been a pistol, reversed, andflashing downward, to be arrested in mid-air six inches from his face.But the men were not wholly invisible. Nearly six feet above theground, three or four pairs of eyes were staring malevolently intoDick's. Only the eyes were there.
The two foremost men were breathing heavily. They were carryingsomething. Grotesquely through a rent in the invisible garment Dicksaw a patch of trouser. He heard a muffled sigh. President Hargreaves,in the hands of his abductors!
Dick's actions were reflex. As the pistol hung beside his face, hesnatched at it, wrested it away, struck with it, and heard a curse andfelt the yielding impact of bone and flesh. He had missed the head butstruck the shoulder. Next moment hands gripped the weapon, and adesperate struggle began.
* * * * *
It was torn from Dick's grasp. He struck out at random, and his fistcollided with the chin of a substantial flesh and blood human being.Invisible arms grasped him. He fought free. The pistol slashed hisface sidewise, the sight ripping a strip of flesh from the cheek. Hewas surrounded, he was being beaten down, though he was fightinggamely.
"Kill the swine! Shoot! Shoot!" Dick heard one of his assailantsmuttering.
Out of the void appeared the blue muzzle of another automatic, with asilencer on it. Dick ducked as a flame spurted from it. He felt thebullet stir his hair. He grasped at the hand that held it, and missed.Then he was held fast, and the muzzle swung implacably toward his headagain. Helpless, he watched it describe that arc of death. It was onlylater that he wondered why he had fought all the while in silence,instead of crying for help.
But of a sudden the pistol was dashed aside. A woman's voice spokeperemptorily, in some language Dick did not understand. And he saw hereyes among the eyes that glared at him. Dark eyes that he knew, evenif the voice had not revealed her identity. The eyes and voice ofFredegonde Valmy!
Dick cried her name. He put forth all his strength in a finalstruggle. Suddenly he felt a stunning impact on the back of the head.He slipped, reeled, threw out his hands, and sank down unconscious onthe grass at the side of the path.
CHAPTER IV - The Invisible Ambassador
Fredegonde Valmy implicated in the conspiracy! That was the firstthought that flashed into Dick's mind as he recovered consciousness.He might have suspected it! But the idea that the girl he loved wasbound up with the murderous gang that was attacking the veryfoundations of civilization chilled him to the soul.
Dick had been picked up a few minutes after he had been struck down,identified by Colonel Stopford as he was about to be removed to ahospital, and carried into the White House. Order had been restored bythe arrival of a detachment of troops from Fort Myers, the severedcables located and mended, and by midnight the interior of thePresidential home had been made habitable again.
President Hargreaves was gone--kidnapped despite the utmost efforts toprotect him; and it was impossible to conceal that fact from theworld. But the wheels of government still revolved. All night anemergency council sat in the White House, and, deciding that in a timeof such grave danger heroic means must be adopted, with the consent ofsuch of the Congressional leaders as could be summoned, a Council ofDefence was organized.
The whole country east of the Mississippi was placed under martiallaw. The fleet and army were put on a war footing. Flights ofairplanes were assembled at numerous points along the easternseaboard. To this Council Donald was attached as head of Intelligencefor the Eastern Division. Yet all this availed little unless thelocation of the Invisible Empire could be ascertained, and, despitetelegraphic reports that came in hourly, alleging to have discoveredits headquarters, nothing had been achieved in this direction.
* * * * *
The garment taken from the slain soldier had been examined by ahalf-dozen of the leading chemists of the East. Pending the arrivalfrom New York of the celebrated Professor Hosmeyer, it was depositedunder military guard in a dark closet. The result was unfortunate. Thegarment exhibited to the assembled scientists was a mere bifurcatedsilken bag.
The gas with which it had been impregnated, though it had been heavyenough to adhere to the fabric for hours, had also been volatileenough to have disappeared completely, leaving a residue which wasidentified as a magnesium isotope.
Equally spectacular had been the disappearance of MademoiselleFredegonde Valmy. A cable from the Slovakian Ambassador had arrived afew hours later, denying her authenticity. And with her disappearancecame the discovery that she had been at the head of an espionagesystem with ramifications in every state department, and in everystatesman's home.
Three days passed with no sign from the enemy. The Council sat allday. In the executive offices of the White House Dick toiledceaselessly, planning, receiving reports, organizing the flights ofairplanes at strategic points throughout his district. From time totime he would be summoned to the Council. At night he threw himselfupon a cot in his office and slept a sleep broken by the constantarrival of messengers. And still there was no clue to the location ofthe headquarters of the marauders.
But in those three days there had been no sign of them. Hope hadsucceeded despair; in the rebound of confidence the populace wasbeginning to ridicule the nation-wide precautions against what werecoming to be considered merely a gang of super-criminals. It was evenwhispered that President Hargreaves had not been kidnapped at all. TheFreemen's Party accused the Government of a plot to subvert popularliberties.
* * * * *
Dick received
a summons on the third evening. Utterly worn out withhis work, he pulled himself together and made his way into the BlueRoom, where the Council was assembled. Vice-president Tomlinson, anelderly man, was in the chair. A non-entity, pushed into a post it hadbeen thought he would adorn innocuously, he had been overwhelmed byhis succession to the chief office of State.
Tomlinson did not like Dick, or any of the hustling younger officerswho, unlike himself, realized the real significance of the danger thatoverhung the country. He sat pompously in his leather chair, regardingDick as he entered in obedience to the summons.
"Well, Captain Rennell, what have you to report to us this evening?"he inquired, as Dick saluted and stood to attention at the table.
"We're improving our concentrations, Mr. Vice-president. We've eightflights of seaplanes scouring the coast in the hope of locating thestronghold of the Invisible Emperor. We've--"
"I'm sick and tired of that title," shouted Tomlinson. He sprang tohis feet, his face flushed with anger. His nerves had broken under thecontinuous strain. "I'll give you my opinion, Captain Rennell," hesaid. "And that is that this so-called Invisible Emperor is a myth.
"A gang of thieves has invented a paint that renders theminconspicuous, has created a panic, and is taking advantage of it toterrorize the country. The whole business is poppycock, in my opinion,and the sooner this bubble bursts the better. Well, sir, what have youto say to that?"
"Have you ever seen any of these men in their invisible clothing, if Imay ask, Mr. Vice-president?" inquired Dick, trying to keep down hisanger. His nerves, too, were badly frazzled.
"No, sir, I have not, but my opinion is that this story is grosslyexaggerated, and that the persons responsible are the reporters of oursensational press!" thundered Tomlinson.
* * * * *
He looked about him, a weak man proud of having asserted hisauthority. Somebody laughed.
Tomlinson glared at Dick, his rubicund visage purpling. But it was notDick who had laughed. Nor any one at the council table.
That laugh had come from the wall beside the door. Again it brokeforth, high-pitched, cold, derisive. All heads turned as if uponpivots to see who had uttered it.
"Good God!" exclaimed Secretary Norris, of the War Department, andslumped in his chair.
Five feet eight inches from the floor a pair of grey eyes looked atthe Council members out of emptiness. Grey eyes, a man's eyes, cool,contemptuous, and filled with authority, with a contemptuous sense ofsuperiority that left every man there dumb.
Dick was the first to recover himself. He stepped forward, not towhere the invisible man was standing, but to a point between him andthe door.
That cold laugh broke forth again. "Gentlemen, I am an ambassador frommy sovereign, who chooses to be known as the Invisible Emperor," camethe words. "As such, I claim immunity. Not that I greatly care, shouldyou wish to violate the laws of nations and put me to death. But,believe me, in such case the retribution will be a terrible one."
Suddenly the envoy peeled off the gas-impregnated garments thatcovered him. He stood before the Council, a fair-haired young man,clad in the same fashion of trim black uniform as the bayonettedsoldier had worn upstairs three nights before.
He bowed disdainfully, and it was Tomlinson who shouted:
"Arrest that man! I know his face! I've seen it in the papers. He'sVon Kettler, the murderer who escaped from jail in an invisible suit."
"Oh, come, Mr. Vice-president," laughed Von Kettler, "are you surethis isn't all very much exaggerated?"
Tomlinson sank back in his chair, his ruddy face covered with sweat.Dick stared at Von Kettler. A suspicion was forming in his mind. Hehad seen eyes like those before, dark instead of grey, and yet withthe same look of pride and breeding in them; the look of the face,too, impossible to mistake--he knew!
Fredegonde Valmy was Von Kettler's sister!
* * * * *
"Well, gentlemen, am I to receive the courtesies of an ambassador?"inquired Van Kettler, advancing.
"You shall have the privileges of the gallows rope!" shoutedTomlinson. "Arrest that man at once, Captain Rennell!"
"Pardon me, Mr. Vice-president," suggested the Secretary for the Navyblandly, "but perhaps it would be more desirable to hear what he hasto say."
"Immunity for thieves, robbers, murderers!"
"Might I suggest," said Von Kettler suavely, "that, since the UnitedStates has honored my master by placing itself upon a war footing, ithas accorded him the rights of a belligerent?"
"We'll hear you, Mr. Von Kettler," said the Secretary of State,glancing along the table. Three or four nodded, two shook their heads:Tomlinson only glared speechlessly at the intruder. Von Kettleradvanced to the table and laid a paper upon it.
"You recognize that signature, gentlemen?" he asked.
At the bottom of the paper Dick saw scrawled the bold and unmistakablesignature of President Hargreaves.
"An order signed by the President of your country," purred VonKettler, "ordering your military forces replaced upon a peace footing,and the acceptance of our conditions. They are not onerous, and willnot interfere with the daily life of the country. Merely a littlechange in that outworn document, the Constitution. My master rulesAmerica henceforward."
Somebody laughed: another laughed: but it was the Secretary of Statewho did the fine thing. He took up the paper bearing what purported tobe President Hargreaves's signature, and tore it in two.
"The people of this country are her rulers," he said, "not an old mandragooned into signing a proclamation while in captivity--if indeedthat is President Hargreaves's signature."
* * * * *
There came a sudden burst of applause. Von Kettler's face became themask of a savage beast. He shook his fist furiously.
"You call my master a forger?" he shouted. "You yourselves repudiateyour own Constitution, which places the control of army and navy inthe hands of your President? You refuse to honor his signature?"
"Listen to me, Mr. Von Kettler!" The voice of the Secretary of Statecut like a steel edge. "You totally mistake the temper of the peopleof this country. We don't surrender, even to worthy adversaries, muchless to a gang of common thieves, murderers, and criminals likeyourselves. You have been accorded the privilege you sought, that ofan envoy, and that was straining the point. Show yourself here againafter two minutes have elapsed, and you'll go to the gallows--forkeeps."
"Dogs!" shouted Von Kettler, beside himself with fury. "Your doom isupon you even at this moment. I have but to wave my arm, andWashington shall be destroyed, and with her a score of other cities. Itell you you are at our mercy. Thousands of lives shall pay for thisinsult to my master. I warn you, such a catastrophe is coming as shallshow you the Invisible Emperor does not threaten in vain!"
With complete nonchalance the Secretary of State took out his watch."One minute and fifteen seconds remaining. Captain Rennell," he said."At the expiration of that time, put Mr. Von Kettler under arrest. Iadvise you to go back to your master quickly, Mr. Von Kettler," headded, "and tell him that we'll have no dealings with him, now orever."
* * * * *
For a moment longer Von Kettler stood glaring; then, with a laugh ofderision and a gesture of the hands he vanished from view. And, thoughthey might have expected that denouement, the members of the Councilleaped to their feet, staring incredulously at the place where he hadbeen. Nothing of Von Kettler was visible, not even the eyes, and theresounded not the slightest footfall.
Dick sprang forward to the door, but his outstretched arms encounteredonly emptiness. In spite of the Secretary of State's instructions, hewas almost minded to apprehend the man. If he could get him!
The corridor was empty. A guard of soldiers was at the entrance, butthey did not block the entrance. Even now Von Kettler might be passingthem! Why didn't his feet sound upon the floor? How could a bulky manglide so smoothly?
Perhaps because Dick was undecided what to do, Von Kettler escapedhim. By the time he reached the guards he knew he had esca
ped.Suddenly there came an unexpected denouement. Somewhere on the WhiteHouse lawn a guard challenged, fired. The snap of one of the silencedautomatics answered him.
When Dick and the guards reached the spot, the man was lying in acrumpled heap.
"An airplane," he gasped. "Invisible airplane. I--bumped into it.Men--in it. The damned dogs!"
He died. Dick stared around him. There was no sign of any airplane onthe lawn, nothing but the tents of the guards, white in the moonlight,and the grim array of anti-aircraft guns that Dick had placed there.
But behind the White House, in hastily constructed hangars, were ahalf-dozen of the latest pursuit airships--beautiful slim hulls,heavily armored, with armored turrets containing each a quick-firerwith the new armor-piercing bullets. One of these ships, Dick's own,was kept perpetually warmed and ready to take the air.
* * * * *
Dick raced across the lawn, yelled to the startled guard in charge.The mechanics came running from their quarters. Almost by the timeDick reached it the ship was ready.
He twirled the helicopter starter, and she roared and zoomed, takingan angle of a hundred and twenty-five degrees upward off a runway oftwenty yards. Into the air she soared, into the moonlight, up like anarrow for five hundred feet.
Dick pulled the soaring lever, and she hung there, buzzing like a beeas her helicopters, counteracting the pull of gravity, held hercomparatively stable. He scanned the air all about him.
Washington lay below, her myriad lights gleaming. Immediately beneathhim Dick saw the guns and the tents of the soldiers, and the littlegroup that was removing the body of the murdered soldier on astretcher. But there were no signs of any hostile craft.