Part 10 (1/2)
”Idiot!” said the friend. ”Do not bother that man. He is a bad one to molest.”
”Who is he?” asked the newsboy.
”Don't you know? That is General John Acre, head of the government secret police.”
The pair stared after John Acre until he was lost in the darkness.
The hawk-nosed man walked rapidly, as if he had urgent business. He kept wary eyes on each dark alleythat he pa.s.sed, however. His manner was that of a man who had many enemies.
Such pedestrians as were encountered stepped hastily aside after one glance at that grim, beaked countenance.
In New York, it was winter. Here, in Chile, it was summer. The night was quite hot. Almost every one abroad at this late hour wore white garments.
John Acre, however, wore only dull black. His hat was black, also. He was clad thus in order to offer as inconspicuous a target as possible in the night.
Men who would cheerfully have killed John Acre were legion. The head of the government police had sent many plotters to prison. He was the terror of radicals and political schemers.
Half a dozen times, John Acre twisted and turned in his progress. He glanced back often, making certain no one was following him.
He turned at last into a narrow street which was as black as the interior of a mine. Entirely by the sense of touch, he found a low door. He stepped through.
Once inside, John Acre demonstrated that he was in familiar surroundings. He did not strike a light.
Instead, he felt his way through intense blackness.
He found a row of nails driven in the wall. On each nail hung a bundle of cloth. John Acre lifted off the handiest of these.
South American Indians and cowboys have a garment which they call a poncho. It resembles a blanket, with a hole in the middle for the head. The object which John Acre lifted off the nail was a poncho, but it also had an additional hood of cloth sewn in the middle. This was perforated with eye holes.
John Acre donned the garment. It concealed him from head to foot. Then he entered an adjacent room, struck a match, and applied it to a native candle made of llama tallow.
The room in which he stood was rather large. John Acre was not tall, but his head almost touched the ceiling. Walls were windowless. There was only the one door, and it was heavy.
A bench of rough boards ran entirely around the room. John Acre sat down on the bench and waited. He was a grotesque figure in his hooded poncho.
Two men came in. They both looked at John Acre's swathed figure and smiled derisively.
”Regular Hallowe'en stuff,” chuckled one.
The speaker was an ordinary-looking fellow, being of average size, with a plain but not unpleasant face.
One thing about his attire made him stand out, however. This was the profusion in which yellow gold appeared upon his person.
Each b.u.t.ton on his suit was gold-at least gold-colored. His watch chain, rings and stickpin were gold.
He seemed to have a mania for the metal.
The second man was short and fat. He had a face which resembled that of a rabbit, minus the long ears.
He was whistling softly as they entered the room. The whistling appeared to be an unconscious habit.
He whistled almost continuously, except when talking or eating. His tunes were always pitched so low as to be inaudible at a distance of more than a few feet.Both men were Americans. Neither wore a mask.
”What is this Hallowe'en?” asked John Acre.
”An old American custom,” smiled the man who liked gold.
John Acre shrugged. ”This is no joking matter. You two men reported that you narrowly escaped a landslide caused by a strange earthquake. That was six weeks ago.”
”Sure-and it d.a.m.ned near finished Missus Galligan's boy, Dido,” said the man who affected gold ornamentation.
”You and Whistler Wheeler saw two men flee the vicinity of the weird quake-two men named Velvet and Biff? That right?”
”Whistler” Wheeler nodded, still whistling.
John Acre eyed the two men. He knew them very well. He supposed they knew his ident.i.ty also, although they had not called his name. They should have recognized his voice.
”Dido” Galligan and Whistler Wheeler were two American engineers in charge of one of the greatest nitrate plants in South America.
”How are things going at your workings?” John Acre asked them. ”Anything suspicious?”
”Nothing to report,” said Dido Galligan, polis.h.i.+ng one of his gold b.u.t.tons. ”I been keeping a close lookout for them two birds, Velvet and Biff. No sign of 'em.”
John Acre considered this in silence.
”Velvet and Biff are the only men we have spotted as belonging to the Little White Brother's organization,” he said. ”Now they have vanished. You men had better put on the poncho masks. The others will soon be coming.”
”T' h.e.l.l with the masks!” snorted Dido Galligan. ”We don't care who knows we're attending this meeting.”
John Acre nodded slowly as if in approval. ”You are brave men. I wish I could make the same statement about the others to come.”
”They are scared of the Little White Brother?” questioned Dido Galligan.
”Very scared,” John Acre agreed. ”They are even afraid to let it be known that they oppose his sinister power.”
WITHIN the course of the next half hour, something over a dozen men entered the room. Each fellow wore one of the poncho masks. They kept apart from each other. None spoke to his neighbor.
The manner of each man showed that he feared his fellows.
John Acre had been keeping a count. His att.i.tude as he stood up indicated that the expected number was now present. He spoke in excellent Spanish, his choice of words showing that he was a man of no little education.
”You gentlemen know why we are here,” he declared.One of the cowled a.s.semblage stood erect.
”I have been away to Europe on a business trip,” he explained. ”I am somewhat out of touch with the situation. In fact, I do not know the exact purpose of this meeting.”
”You are present to hear my report on certain secret investigations,” John Acre said. ”As you all know, in recent weeks there has been an epidemic of earthquakes in Chile. These quakes all have one very strange thing in common. Each has resulted in the death of a wealthy owner of nitrate property.
”It is this which I have been investigating. Now, here is my report.”