Part 2 (1/2)

The Adventure of the Radical Candidate

Youthat 40 hp car for all she orth over the crispback at first over ; then driving with a vague eye, just wide enough awake to keep on the highway For I was thinking desperately of what I had found in Scudder's pocket-book

The little man had told me a pack of lies All his yarns about the Balkans and the Jew-Anarchists and the Foreign Office Conference were eyewash, and so was Karolides And yet not quite, as you shall hear I had staked everything on my belief in his story, and had been let down; here was his book tellingonce-bitten-twice-shy, I believed it absolutely

Why, I don't know It rang desperately true, and the first yarn, if you understand me, had been in a queer way true also in spirit The fifteenth day of June was going to be a day of destiny, a bigger destiny than the killing of a Dago It was so big that I didn't bla to play a lone hand That, I was pretty clear, was his intention He had toldwas so i that he, the man who had found it out, wanted it all for himself I didn't blareedy about

The whole story was in the notes - with gaps, you understand, which he would have filled up from his memory He stuck down his authorities, too, and had an odd trick of giving the a balance, which stood for the reliability of each stage in the yarn The four names he had printed were authorities, and there was a ot five out of a possible five; and another fellow, Aot three The bare bones of the tale were all that was in the book - these, and one queer phrase which occurred half a dozen times inside brackets '(Thirty-nine steps)' was the phrase; and at its last tih tide 1017 p I learned was that it was no question of preventing a war That was coed, said Scudder, ever since February 1912 Karolides was going to be the occasion He was booked all right, and was to hand in his checks on June 14th, teeks and four days froathered fro on earth could prevent that His talk of Epirote guards that would skin their own grand was that this as going to cohty surprise to Britain Karolides' death would set the Balkans by the ears, and then Vienna would chip in with an ultih words But Berlin would play the peacemaker, and pour oil on the waters, till suddenly she would find a good cause for a quarrel, pick it up, and in five hours let fly at us That was the idea, and a pretty good one too Honey and fair speeches, and then a stroke in the dark While ere talking about the goodwill and good intentions of Gered withfor every battleshi+p

But all this depended upon the third thing, which was due to happen on June 15th I would never have grasped this if I hadn't once happened toback fros One was that, in spite of all the nonsense talked in Parlia alliance between France and Britain, and that the two General Staffs met every now and then, and made plans for joint action in case of war Well, in June a very great sas co less than a statement of the disposition of the British Ho like that; anyhow, it was so uncommonly important

But on the 15th day of June there were to be others in London - others, at whouess Scudder was content to call them collectively the 'Black Stone' They represented not our Allies, but our deadly foes; and the information, destined for France, was to be diverted to their pockets And it was to be used, reuns and swift torpedoes, suddenly in the darkness of a su in a back rooarden This was the story that hulen to glen

My first impulse had been to write a letter to the Prime Minister, but a little reflection convinced me that that would be useless Who would believe n, some token in proof, and Heaven knehat that could be Above all, I ot riper, and that was going to be no light job with the police of the British Isles in full cry aftersilently and swiftly on my trail

I had no very clear purpose in my journey, but I steered east by the sun, for I remembered froion of coalpits and industrial towns Presently I was down froh of a river For side a park wall, and in a break of the trees I saw a great castle I swung through little old thatched villages, and over peaceful lowland strea with hawthorn and yellow laburnum The land was so deep in peace that I could scarcely believe that soht my life; ay, and that in a htiest of luck, these round country faces would be pinched and staring, and lish fields

About e, and had a mind to stop and eat Half-way doas the Post Office, and on the steps of it stood the postram When they saw me they wakened up, and the policeman advanced with raised hand, and cried on h to obey Then it flashed upon me that the wire had to do with , and were united in desiring to see h for thees through which I ht pass I released the brakes just in time As it was, the policeot my left in his eye

I saw that main roads were no place for me, and turned into the byways It wasn't an easy job without aon to a far in a duck-pond or a stable- yard, and I couldn't afford that kind of delay I began to see what an ass I had been to steal the car The big green brute would be the safest kind of clue to me over the breadth of Scotland If I left it and took to my feet, it would be discovered in an hour or two and I would get no start in the race

The iet to the loneliest roads These I soon found when I struck up a tributary of the big river, and got into a glen with steep hills all about me, and a corkscrew road at the end which clia bad track and finally struck a big double-line railway Away below me I saw another broadish valley, and it occurred to ht find so in, and I was furiously hungry, for I had eaten nothing since breakfast except a couple of buns I had bought from a baker's cart just then I heard a noise in the sky, and lo and behold there was that infernal aeroplane, flying low, about a dozentowards me

I had the sense to remember that on a bare moor I was at the aeroplane's et to the leafy cover of the valley Down the hill I went like blue lightning, screwing my head round, whenever I dared, to watch that daes, and dipping to the deep-cut glen of a stream Then came a bit of thick here I slackened speed

Suddenly on my left I heard the hoot of another car, and realized to ate-posts through which a private road debouched on the highway My horn gave an agonized roar, but it was too late I clapped on reat, and there beforeathwart my course In a second there would have been the deuce of a wreck I did the only thing possible, and ran slap into the hedge on the right, trusting to find so soft beyond

But there I was e like butter, and then gave a sickening plunge forward I saas co, leapt on the seat and would have juot me in the chest, lifted me up and held me, while a ton or two of expensive metal slipped below hty smash fifty feet to the bed of the streao I subsided first on the hedge, and then very gently on a bower of nettles As I scrambled to my feet a hand took me by the arm, and a sympathetic and badly scared voice askedat a tall younghis soul and whinnying apologies For lad than otherwise This was one way of getting rid of the car

'My blame, Sir,' I answered him 'It's lucky that I did not add homicide to ht have been the end of my life'

He plucked out a watch and studied it 'You're the right sort of fellow,' he said 'I can spare a quarter of an hour, and my house is twoin bed Where's your kit, by the way? Is it in the burn along with the car?'

'It's ina toothbrush 'I'ht'

'A Colonial,' he cried 'By Gad, you're the veryfor Are you by any blessed chance a Free Trader?'

'I aiest notion of what he meant

He patted my shoulder and hurried me into his car Threebox set a pine-trees, and he usheredhalf a dozen of his suits before s I selected a loose blue serge, which differed arments, and borrowed a linen collar Then he haled -room, where the remnants of a meal stood on the table, and announced that I had just five minutes to feed 'You can take a snack in your pocket, and we'll have supper e get back I've got to be at the Masonic Hall at eight o'clock, or ent will comb my hair'

I had a cup of coffee and so

'You find me in the deuce of a mess, Mr - by-the-by, you haven't told me your name Twisdon? Any relation of old Tommy Twisdon of the Sixtieth? No? Well, you see I'm Liberal Candidate for this part of the world, and I had a ht at Brattleburn - that's ot the Colonial ex-Preht, and had the thing treround-baited This afternoon I had a wire froot influenza at Blackpool, and here a o on for forty, and, though I've been racking , I siood chap and help me You're a Free Trader and can tell our people what a wash-out Protection is in the Colonies All you fellows have the gift of the gab - I wish to Heaven I had it I'll be for evermore in your debt'

I had very few notions about Free Trade one way or the other, but I saw no other chance to get what I wanted My young gentleman was far too absorbed in his own difficulties to think how odd it was to ask a stranger who had just uinea car to address afor him on the spur of the moment But my necessities did not allow me to contemplate oddnesses or to pick and choose ood as a speaker, but I'll tell them a bit about Australia'

At es slipped from his shoulders, and he was rapturous in his thanks He lentcoat - and never troubled to ask why I had started on aan ulster - and, as we slipped down the dusty roads, poured into my ears the simple facts of his history He was an orphan, and his uncle had brought hiotten the uncle's name, but he was in the Cabinet, and you can read his speeches in the papers He had gone round the world after leaving Ca short of a job, his uncle had advised politics I gathered that he had no preference in parties 'Good chaps in both,' he said cheerfully, 'and plenty of blighters, too I's' But if he was lukewars He found out I knew a bit about horses, and jaay about the Derby entries; and he was full of plans for iether, a very clean, decent, callow young h a little too policenalled us to stop, and flashed their lanterns on us

'Beg pardon, Sir Harry,' said one 'We've got instructions to look out for a car, and the description's no unlike yours'

'Right-o,' said my host, while I thanked Providence for the devious ways I had been brought to safety After that he spoke nospeech His lips kept an to prepareto sayI knee had drawn up outside a door in a street, and were being welcoentlemen with rosettes The hall had about five hundred in it, wo men The chairman, a weaselly minister with a reddish nose, lamented Cruave ht' There were two policemen at the door, and I hoped they took note of that testi like it He didn't begin to kno to talk He had about a bushel of notes froo of theed stutter Every now and then he rehtened his back, and gave it off like Henry Irving, and the nextover his papers It was therot, too He talked about the 'German menace', and said it was all a Tory invention to cheat the poor of their rights and keep back the great flood of social reforhed the Tories to scorn He was all for reducing our Navy as a proof of our good faith, and then sending Ger her to do the same or ould knock her into a cocked hat He said that, but for the Tories, Germany and Britain would be felloorkers in peace and reforiddy lot Scudder's friends cared for peace and reform

Yet in a queer way I liked the speech You could see the niceness of the chap shi+ning out behind the muck hich he had been spoon-fed Also it took a load off htn't be much of an orator, but I was a thousand per cent better than Sir Harry

I didn't get on so badly when it came to my turn I si there should be no Australian there - all about its labour party and eration and universal service I doubt if I remembered to mention Free Trade, but I said there were no Tories in Australia, only Labour and Liberals That fetched a cheer, and I woke thelorious business I thought could be made out of the Eether I fancy I was rather a success The h, and when he proposed a vote of thanks, spoke of Sir Harry's speech as 'statesent'

When ere in the car again ot his job over 'A ripping speech, Twisdon,' he said 'Now, you're co home with me I'm all alone, and if you'll stop a day or two I'll show you so'

We had a hot supper - and I wanted it pretty badly - and then drank grog in a big cheery sht the time had come for me to put my cards on the table I saw by this man's eye that he was the kind you can trust

'Listen, Sir Harry,' I said 'I've soood fellow, and I'et that poisonous rubbish you talked tonight?'

His face fell 'Was it as bad as that?' he asked ruefully 'It did sound rather thin I got most of it out of the PROGRESSIVE MAGAZINE and pa o to ith us?'

'Ask that question in six weeks and it won't need an answer,' I said 'If you'll giveto tell you a story'

I can see yet that bright room with the deers' heads and the old prints on the walls, Sir Harry standing restlessly on the stone curb of the hearth, andI see tocarefully the reliability of my tale It was the first time I had ever told anyone the exact truth, so far as I understood it, and it didin my own mind I blinked no detail He heard all about Scudder, and the s in Galloway Presently he got very excited and walked up and down the hearth-rug

'So you see,' I concluded, 'you have got here in your house the man that is wanted for the Portland Place ive et very far There'll be an accident, and I'll have a knife in my ribs an hour or so after arrest Nevertheless, it's your duty, as a law-abiding citizen Perhaps in a month's time you'll be sorry, but you have no cause to think of that'

He was looking at ht steady eyes 'What was your job in Rhodesia, Mr Hannay?' he asked

'Mining engineer,' I said 'I'veof it'

'Not a profession that weakens the nerves, is it?'

I laughed 'Oh, as to that, -knife from a stand on the wall, and did the old Mashona trick of tossing it and catching it in my lips That wants a pretty steady heart