“By Heaven!” and he brought his fist down on the table with a crash, “the man may be a lunatic; but he is the greatest genius the world ever saw—or he is the devil incarnate.”
And somebody laughed softly in the room.
The publisher looked up with a start, and saw Simmonds standing before him:
“Did you laugh, Simmonds?”
“No, sir!” replied the clerk with a surprised look.
“Who laughed then?”
“There is no one here but ourselves, sir—and I didn’t laugh.”
“Did you hear nothing?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“Strange!” and Brown began to feel chill again.
“What time is it?” he asked with an effort.
“It is half-past six, sir.”
“So late as that? You may go, Simmonds. Leave me the keys. I will be here for some time. Good evening.”
“Mad as a coot,” muttered Simmonds to himself; “must break the news to M’ria to-night. Oh, Lor’!” and his eyes were very wet as he went out into the Strand, and got into a blue omnibus.
When he was gone, Brown turned to the fire, poker in hand. To his surprise he saw that the black paper was still there, burning red hot, and the wax of the seals was still intact—the seals themselves shining like orange glow-lights. He beat at the paper with the poker; but instead of crumbling to ashes it yielded passively to the stroke, and came back to its original shape. Then a fury came on Brown. He raked at the fire, threw more coals over the paper, and blew at the flames with his bellows until they roared up the chimney; but still the coppery glare of the packet-cover never turned to the grey of ashes. Finally, he could endure it no longer, and, putting the manuscript into the safe, turned off the electric light, and stole out of his office like a thief.
II. THE RED TRIDENT
When Beggarman, Bowles & Co., of Providence Passage, Lombard Street, called at eleven o’clock on the morning following De Bac’s visit, their representative was not a little surprised to find the firm’s bills met in hard cash, and Simmonds paid him with a radiant face. When the affair was settled, the clerk leaned back in his chair, saying half-aloud to himself, “By George! I am glad after all M’ria did not keep our appointment in the Camden Road last night.” Then his face began to darken, “Wonder where she could have been, though?” his thoughts ran on; “half sorry I introduced her to Wilkes last Sunday at Victoria Park. Wilkes ain’t half the man I am though,” and he tried to look at himself in the window-pane, “but he has two pound ten a week—Lord! There’s the guv’nor ringing.” He hurried into Brown’s room, received a brief order, and was about to go back when the publisher spoke again.
“Simmonds!”
“Sir.”
“If M. De Bac calls, show him in at once.”
“Sir,” and the clerk went out.
Left to himself, Brown tried to go on with the manuscript; but was not able to do so. He was impatient for the coming of De Bac, and kept watching the hands of the clock as they slowly travelled towards twelve. When he came to the office in the morning Brown had looked with a nervous fear in the fireplace, half expecting to find the black paper still there; and it was a considerable relief to his mind to find it was not. He could do nothing, not even open the envelopes of the letters that lay on his table. He made an effort to find occupation in the morning’s paper. It was full of some absurd correspondence on a trivial subject, and he wondered at the thousands of fools who could waste time in writing and in reading yards of print on the theme of “Whether women should wear neckties.” The ticking of the clock irritated him. He flung the paper aside, just as the door opened and Simmonds came in. For a moment Brown thought he had come to announce De Bac’s arrival; but no—Simmonds simply placed a square envelope on the table before Brown.
“Pass-book from Bransom’s, sir, just come in”; and he went out.
Brown took it up mechanically, and opened the envelope. A type-written letter fell out with the pass-book. He ran his eyes over it with astonishment. It was briefly to inform him that M. De Bac had paid into Brown’s account yesterday afternoon the sum of five thousand pounds, and that, adjusting overdrafts, the balance at his credit was four thousand seven hundred and twenty pounds thirteen shillings and three pence. Brown rubbed his eyes. Then he hurriedly glanced at the pass-book. The figures tallied—there was no error, no mistake. He pricked himself with his penknife to see if he was awake, and finally shouted to Simmonds:
“Read this letter aloud to me, Simmonds,” he said.
Simmonds’ eyes opened, but he did as he was bidden, and there was no mistake about the account.
“Anything else, sir?” asked Simmonds when he had finished.
“No—nothing,” and Brown was once more alone. He sat staring at the figures before him in silence, almost mesmerizing himself with the intentness of his gaze.
“My God!” he burst out at last, in absolute wonder.
“Who is your God, Brown?” answered a deep voice.
“I—I—M. De Bac! How did you come?”
“I did not drop down the chimney,” said De Bac with a grin; “your clerk announced me in the ordinary way, but you were so absorbed you did not hear. So I took the liberty of sitting in this chair, and awaiting your return to earthly matters. You were dreaming, Brown—by the way, who is your God?” he repeated with a low laugh.
“I—I do not understand, sir.”
“Possibly not, possibly not. I wouldn’t bother about the matter. Ah! I see Bransom’s have sent you your pass-book! Sit down, Brown. I hate to see a man fidgeting about—I paid in that amount yesterday on a second thought. It is enough—eh?”
Brown’s jackal eyes contracted. Perhaps he could get more out of De Bac? But a look at the strong impassive face before him frightened him.
“More than enough, sir,” he stammered; and then, with a rush, “I am grateful—anything I can do for you?”
“Oh! I know, I know, Brown—by the way, you do not object to smoke?”
“Certainly not. I do not smoke myself.”
“In Battersea, eh?” And De Bac, pulling out a silver cheroot case, held it out to Brown. But the publisher declined.
“Money wouldn’t buy a smoke like that in England,” remarked De Bac, “but as you will. I wouldn’t smoke if I were you. Such abstinence looks respectable and means nothing.” He put a cigar between his lips, and pointed his forefinger at the end. To Brown’s amazement an orange-flame licked out from under the fingernail, and vanished like a flash of lightning; but the cigar was alight, and its fragrant odour filled the room. It reached even Simmonds, who sniffed at it like a buck scenting the morning air. “By George!” he exclaimed in wonder, “what baccy!”
M. De Bac settled himself comfortably in his chair, and spoke with the cigar between his teeth. “Now you have recovered a little from your surprise, Brown, I may as well tell you that I never carry matches. This little scientific discovery I have made is very convenient, is it not?”
“I have never seen anything like it.”
“There are a good many things you have not seen, Brown—but to work. Take a pencil and paper and note down what I say. You can tell me when I have done if you agree or not.”
Brown did as he was told, and De Bac spoke slowly and carefully.
“The money I have given you is absolutely your own on the following terms. You will publish the manuscript I left you, enlarge your business, and work as you have hitherto worked—as a ‘sweater.’ You may speculate as much as you like. You will not lose. You need not avoid the publication of religious books, but you must never give in charity secretly. I do not object to a big cheque for a public object, and your name in all the papers. It will be well for you to hound down the vicious. Never give them a chance to recover themselves. You will be a legislator. Strongly uphold all those measures which, under a moral cloak, will do harm to mankind. I do not mention them. I do not seek to hamper you with detailed instructions. Work on these general li
nes, and you will do what I want. A word more. It will be advisable whenever you have a chance to call public attention to a great evil which is also a vice. Thousands who have never heard of it before will hear of it then—and human nature is very frail. You have noted all this down?”
“I have. You are a strange man, M. De Bac.”
M. De Bac frowned, and Brown began to tremble.
“I do not permit you to make observations about me, Mr. Brown.”
“I beg your pardon, sir.”
“Do not do so again. Will you agree to all this? I promise you unexampled prosperity for ten years. At the end of that time I shall want you elsewhere. And you must agree to take a journey with me.”
“A long one, sir?” Brown’s voice was just a shade satirical.
M. De Bac smiled oddly. “No—in your case I promise a quick passage. These are all the conditions I attach to my gift of six thousand pounds to you.”
Brown’s amazement did not blind him to the fact of the advantage he had, as he thought, over his visitor. The six thousand pounds were already his, and he had given no promise. With a sudden boldness he spoke out.
“And if I decline?”
“You will return me my money, and my book, and I will go elsewhere.”
“The manuscript, yes—but if I refuse to give back the money?”
“Ha! ha! ha!” M. De Bac’s mirthless laugh chilled Brown to the bone. “Very good, Brown—but you won’t refuse. Sign that like a good fellow,” and he flung a piece of paper towards Brown, who saw that it was a promissory note, drawn up in his name, agreeing to pay M. De Bac the sum of six thousand pounds on demand.
“I shall do no such thing,” said Brown stoutly.
M. De Bac made no answer, but calmly touched the bell. In a half-minute Simmonds appeared.
“Be good enough to witness Mr. Brown’s signature to that document,” said De Bac to him, and then fixed his gaze on Brown. There was a moment of hesitation and then—the publisher signed his name, and Simmonds did likewise as a witness. When the latter had gone, De Bac carefully put the paper by in a letter-case he drew from his vest pocket.
“Your scientific people would call this an exhibition of odic force, Brown—eh?”
Brown made no answer. He was shaking in every limb, and great pearls of sweat rolled down his forehead.
“You see, Brown,” continued De Bac, “after all you are a free agent. Either agree to my terms and keep the money, or say you will not, pay me back, receive your note-of-hand, and I go elsewhere with my book. Come—time is precious.”
And from Brown’s lips there hissed a low “I agree.”
“Then that is settled,” and De Bac rose from his chair. “There is a little thing more—stretch out your arm like a good fellow—the right arm.”
Brown did so; and De Bac placed his forefinger on his wrist, just between what palmists call “the lines of life.” The touch was as that of a red-hot iron, and with a quick cry Brown drew back his hand and looked at it. On his wrist was a small red trident, as cleanly marked as if it had been tattooed into the skin. The pain was but momentary; and, as he looked at the mark, he heard De Bac say, “Adieu once more, Brown. I will find my way out—don’t trouble to rise.” Brown heard him wish Simmonds an affable “Good-day,” and he was gone.
III. THE MARK OF THE BEAST
It was early in the spring that Brown published The Yellow Dragon—as the collection of tales left with him by De Bac was called—and the success of the book surpassed his wildest expectations. It became the rage. There were the strangest rumours afloat as to its authorship, for no one knew De Bac, and the name of the writer was supposed to be an assumed one. It was written by a clergyman; it was penned by a schoolgirl; it had employed the leisure of a distinguished statesman during his retirement; it was the work of an ex-crowned head. These, and such-like statements, were poured forth one day to be contradicted the next. Wherever the book was noticed it was either with the most extravagant praise or the bitterest rancour. But friend and foe were alike united on one thing—that of ascribing to its unknown author a princely genius. The greatest of the reviews, after pouring on The Yellow Dragon the vials of its wrath, concluded with these words of unwilling praise: “There is not a sentence of this book which should ever have been written, still less published; but we do not hesitate to say that, having been written and given to the world, there is hardly a line of this terrible work which will not become immortal—to the misery of mankind.”
Be this as it may, the book sold in tens of thousands, and Brown’s fortune was assured. In ten years a man may do many things; but during the ten years that followed the publication of The Yellow Dragon, Brown did so many things that he astonished “the City,” and it takes not a little to do that. It was not alone the marvellous growth of his business—although that advanced by leaps and bounds until it overshadowed all others—it was his wonderful luck on the Stock Exchange. Whatever he touched turned to gold. He was looked upon as the Napoleon of finance. His connection with The Yellow Dragon was forgotten when his connection with the yellow sovereign was remembered. He had a palace in Berkshire; another huge pile owned by him overlooked Hyde Park. He was a county member and a cabinet-minister. He had refused a peerage and built a church. Could ambition want more? He had clean forgotten De Bac. From him he had heard no word, received no sign, and he looked upon him as dead. At first, when his eyes fell on the red trident on his wrist, he was wont to shudder all over; but as years went on he became accustomed to the mark, and thought no more of it than if it had been a mole. In personal appearance he was but little changed, except that his hair was thin and grey, and there was a bald patch on the top of his head. His wife had died four years ago, and he was now contemplating another marriage—a marriage that would ally him with a family dating from the Confessor.
Such was John Brown, when we meet him again ten years after De Bac’s visit, seated at a large writing-table in his luxurious office. A clerk standing beside him was cutting open the envelopes of the morning’s post, and placing the letters one by one before his master. It is our friend Simmonds—still a young man, but bent and old beyond his years, and still on “thirty bob” a week. And the history of Simmonds will show how Brown carried out De Bac’s instructions.
When The Yellow Dragon came out and business began to expand, Simmonds, having increased work, was ambitious enough to expect a rise in his salary, and addressed his chief on the subject. He was put off with a promise, and on the strength of that promise Simmonds, being no wiser than many of his fellows, married M’ria; and husband and wife managed to exist somehow with the help of the mother-in-law. Then the mother-in-law died, and there was only the bare thirty shillings a week on which to live, to dress, to pay Simmonds’ way daily to the City and back, and to feed more than two mouths—for Simmonds was amongst the blessed who have their quivers full. Still the expected increase of pay did not come. Other men came into the business and passed over Simmonds. Brown said they had special qualifications. They had; and John Brown knew Simmonds better than he knew himself. The other men were paid for doing things Simmonds could not have done to save his life; but he was more than useful in his way. A hundred times it was in the mind of the wretched clerk to resign his post and seek to better himself elsewhere. But he had given hostages to fortune. There was M’ria and her children, and M‘ria set her face resolutely against risk. They had no reserve upon which to fall back, and it was an option between partial and total starvation. So “Sim,” as M’ria called him, held on and battled with the wolf at the door, the wolf gaining inch by inch. Then illness came, and debt, and then—temptation. “Sim” fell, as many a better man than he has fallen.
Brown found it out, and saw his opportunity to behave generously, and make his generosity pay. He got a written confession of his guilt from Simmonds, and retained him in his service forever on thirty shillings a week. And Simmonds’ life became such as made him envy the lot of a Russian serf, of a Siberian exile, of a negro
in the old days of the sugar plantations. He became a slave, a living machine who ground out his daily hours of work; he became mean and sordid in soul, as one does become when hope is extinct. Such was Simmonds as he cut open the envelopes of Brown’s letters, and the great man, reading them quickly, endorsed them with terse remarks in blue pencil, for subsequent disposal by his secretary. A sudden exclamation from the clerk, and Brown looked up.
“What is it?” he asked sharply.
“Only this, sir,” and Simmonds held before Brown’s eyes a jet black envelope; and as he gazed at it, his mind travelled back ten years, to that day when he stood on the brink of public infamy and ruin, and De Bac saved him. For a moment everything faded before Brown’s eyes, and he saw himself in a dingy room, with the gaunt figure of the author of The Yellow Dragon, and the maker of his fortune, before him.
“Shall I open it, sir?” Simmonds’ voice reached him as from a far distance, and Brown roused himself with an effort.
“No,” he said, “give it to me, and go for the present.”
When the bent figure of the clerk had passed out of the room, Brown looked at the envelope carefully. It bore a penny stamp and the impress of the postmark was not legible. The superscription was in white ink and it was addressed to Mr. John Brown. The “Mr.” on the letter irritated Brown, for he was now The Right Hon’ble John Brown, and was punctilious on that score. He was so annoyed that at first he thought of casting the letter unopened into the waste-paper basket beside him, but changed his mind, and tore open the cover. A note-card discovered itself. The contents were brief and to the point:
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