Part 22 (2/2)
Mazie did not need to be told that.
”But it is not that of which I wish to speak.” The Russian took a step nearer. Mazie, feeling his hot breath on her cheek, shrank back. ”Your friend, as I say, has been troubling us a great deal, and in this he has been misled, sadly misled. He does not understand our high and lofty purpose; our desire to free all mankind from the bonds of organized society. If he knew he would act far differently. Of course, you cannot explain all this to him, but you can write him a note, just a little note. You will write it now, in just another moment. First, I will tell you what to say. Say to him that you are in great trouble and danger.
Say that you may be killed, or worse things may happen to you, unless he does precisely as you tell him to do. Say that he is to leave a certain package, about which he knows well enough, at the Pendergast Hotel, to be given to M. Kriskie. Say that he is, after that, to leave Chicago at once and is not to return for sixty days.
”See?” He attempted another smile. ”It is little that we ask of you; little that we ask of him--virtually nothing.”
Mazie's heart was beating wildly. So that was the game? She was to be a decoy. She knew nothing of Johnny's actions, but knew they were for the good of his country. How could she ask him to abandon them for her sake?
As her eyes roamed about the room they fell upon the little j.a.p girl. In her face Mazie read black rage for the Russian, and a deep compa.s.sion for herself.
”Come,” said the Russian; ”we are wasting time. Is it not so? You must write. You should begin now. So, it will be better for all.”
For answer, Mazie took the paper in her white, delicate fingers and tore it across twice. Then she threw it on the floor.
Quickly the man's att.i.tude changed to wild rage.
”So!” he roared. ”You will not write? You will not? We shall see!”
He seized her arm and gripped it until the blood rushed from her face, and she was obliged to bite her lips to suppress a scream.
”So!” he raged. ”We shall see what happens to young women like you.
First, we will kill your young friend, Johnny Thompson; then what good will your refusal have done? After that, we shall see what will happen to you. We Radicals will win by fair means or foul. What does it matter what means we take, so long as the point has been won?”
Roughly he pulled her from the chair and flung her from him.
Then the little j.a.panese girl was dragged to the chair. A j.a.panese man, whom Mazie had not before noticed, came forward. From his words and gestures Mazie concluded that he was going through, in the j.a.panese language, the same program which the Russian had just finished.
The results were apparently the same, for at the close the girl threw the paper cm the floor and stamped upon it. At that the Russian's rage knew no bounds. With an imprecation, he sprang at the j.a.panese girl. As Mazie looked on in speechless horror, she fancied she caught the gleam of a knife in the girl's hand.
But at that instant the attention of all was drawn to a man, who, after peering through some form of a periscope for a moment, had uttered a surprised exclamation. Instantly the j.a.panese man sprang to a strangely built rifle which lay against the wall. This he fitted into a frame beside the periscope and thrust its long barrel apparently through the ceiling of the compartment and into the water above. Adjusting a lever here, and another there, he appeared to sight through a hollow tube that ran along the barrel.
”Now,” said the Russian, a cruel gleam in his eye, ”we shall kill your two friends whom you so blindly refused to protect. Providence has thrown them within our power. They are on the bridge at this moment. The rifle, you see, protrudes quite through the water. Our friend's aim is true.”
The j.a.panese girl, seeming to grasp the import of this, sprang at her fellow countryman. But she was too late. There came the report of two explosions in quick succession. Through the periscope, Mazie caught a glimpse of two bodies falling on the bridge. Then she closed her eyes.
Her senses reeled.
This lasted but a moment. Then her eyes were on the little j.a.p girl.
She had dropped to the floor, as if crushed; but there was a dark gleam of unutterable hate in her eyes. She was looking at the j.a.panese man, who, after firing the rifle, had turned and was going through a door into a rear compartment.
Like a flash, the j.a.p girl sprang after him. With a cry that died on her lips, Mazie followed, and as she entered the compartment slamming the heavy metal door, she threw down the iron clamps which held it.
They were now two to one, but that one was a man. However, there was no call for effort on her part. Like a tigress the j.a.panese girl, Cio-Cio-San, sprang at the man of her own country.
”You traitor!” she gasped. ”You have betrayed me, your fellow-countryman, and murdered my friend!” and she drove her dagger into his breast to the hilt.
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