CHAPTER XVI.FRANK AND JACK.
“What are you talking about?” asked Jack, in a puzzled way. “Frank, has anything gone wrong with your brain?”
“I think not,” smiled Merry quietly.
“But you have acted so strangely! This is not the first time you have spoken of the metal ball, the blood-red star——”
“Which you saw fall before me, and which I have here.”
Frank took the crimson star from his pocket and placed it on the table before them.
“It is the sign of death!” he said. “It came from the Black Brothers, from whose hands I was saved this night. There are seven of the brothers, and there are seven points to the star.”
Diamond gave himself a shake.
“Come, come, Merriwell!” he exclaimed. “What sort of rot is this? Excuse me for using the word ‘rot,’ but no other word seems appropriate. It is like a chapter from a sensational story. You haven’t been reading French detective novels till they have turned your brain, have you?”
“Nothing of the sort, Diamond,” replied Frank calmly. “I know it seems most remarkable, and I do not wonder you think it crazy nonsense. I remember that I thought Edmond Laforce insane.”
“Who is Edmond Laforce?”
“He is, or was, the Duke of Benoit du Sault.”
“But he is dead.”
“Yes, murdered in his bed by the Black Brothers!”
“Nonsense! He died in a perfectly natural manner, of heart failure.”
“All men die of heart failure, but there was a cause for the death of Edmond Laforce. A star exactly like this one before us had fallen into his hands, and he was doomed to death. He knew it. He knew his time was limited to ten days.”
“Why was this?”
“Because he was doing everything in his power to save Dreyfus from Devil’s Island. Because, through his work, he had become dangerous to the existence of the Anti-Dreyfus League.”
“The Anti-Dreyfus League? Is there such an organization?”
“Yes.”
“Is it the same as the Black Brothers?”
“No. The Black Brothers are simply the executioners of the great and powerful league, which contains some of the wealthiest and most influential men in France. The league is sworn to hold poor Dreyfus on his prison island. I have learned that not all the members of the league are aware, that there is a band of assassins connected with the organization. The league is like a secret order. A man may join it, and yet he may never be initiated into its deeper mysteries. He may join it by simply pledging himself to use all ‘honorable’ means to keep Dreyfus on that island. That is the first degree. There are other degrees, and only the right ones to take them are advanced. When a man takes the highest degree, he pledges himself, in case of necessity, to commit murder to perpetuate the imprisonment of Dreyfus. When he has taken this degree, he knows all about the Black Brothers, but those who have never advanced beyond the lower degrees know nothing of the connection of the league with the seven assassins. They furnish money to be used in the work of ‘honorably’ keeping Dreyfus on the island, and are quite unaware that much of that money goes to pay the assassins in black.”
Jack Diamond listened with increasing astonishment.
“And do you mean to tell me that such things can be here in France?” he cried.
“Are such things so very strange? You must not forget that it was here the Commune existed. It was here the bloodiest revolution of history took place. These streets have run red with human blood!”
“But it seems so calm, so peaceful now! There seems no hint of anything wrong.”
“The calm is all on the surface. The French people are peculiar. At any moment the storm may break forth. The men who seem so calm and happy at one moment, in another instant may turn to wrangling, raging, bloodthirsty demons. You cannot measure a Frenchman by the standard of an American. They are different, the same as an American differs from an Englishman.”
“But how did you learn so much about this league?”
“Since the day the red star fell before me, I have been doing my best to hunt down the Black Brothers, and gradually I have learned the things just told you.”
“But this star, Merry, is——”
“The sign the Black Brothers give one who has been doomed to die by the death council of the league.”
“And you are one?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the Duke of Benoit du Sault gave me the metal ball, which he said contained something that might help prove the innocence of Dreyfus.”
“When did he give you this?”
“The very night of his death. I met him in the Place de l’Opera. He had been seized by strange pains in his heart, and I assisted him to a seat by a table before the Café de la Paix. Those pains alarmed him. It was the tenth day after he had received the red star. He thought he might be dying, and, finding I was an American and in full sympathy with Dreyfus, he entrusted me with the metal ball, pledging me to secrecy, and making me promise to defend it with my life, till a person with the proper signal called for it. My promise of silence has caused me to keep still, and has given you an opportunity to say I did not trust you.”
Diamond had been intensely interested all along, but now he was athrob with excitement.
“But you are telling me now!” he exclaimed. “The metal ball—where is it?”
“Gone.”
“Gone?”
“Yes. I am released from my pledge.”
“You delivered it into the proper hands?”
“No.”
“What then?”
“The Black Brothers took it from me.”
“Then they obtained the precious secret that was to liberate Dreyfus?”
“Nothing of the sort.”
“They did not?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I fancied the secret would become theirs till I saw the chief of the seven open the ball before me, as I stood bound and helpless, with my back against that stone pillar.”
“What did it contain?”
“Nothing.”
Jack fell back in his chair.
“It was——”
“Empty,” nodded Frank.
After a little the Virginian eagerly asked:
“How was that? Explain it!”
“I cannot. All I know is that the hollow metal ball which had caused me so much trouble was perfectly empty. The Black Brothers were infuriated at the discovery, and my death was set to occur at once. They drew their swords and were ready to run them through my body when the first blow fell on the door at the head of the stairs and the officers demanded admittance.”
Jack was silent, thinking of the wonderful things he had heard.
“I have no doubt but the story seems almost beyond belief,” said Frank; “but you came with Mr. Noname and found me in the cellar. You know I did not tie myself to that post. Here is the red star, which is the sign of death. The metal ball I cannot show you, as that has passed beyond my possession.”
“Good heavens! What are you going to do, Frank? Why don’t you get out of Paris and out of France?”
A grim look came to Merry’s face.
“Do you advise me to run away?” he asked. “Would that be manly?”
“Manly! Merciful goodness! do you think you can defend your life against the powerful Anti-Dreyfus League and its tools, the Black Brothers? This Dreyfus affair is nothing to you.”
“You are wrong!”
“How?”
“It is something to every man who loves liberty and justice!”
“But you cannot be willing to sacrifice your life in the cause. It is not required of you. There are others who may do that.”
“The existence of the league is well known; before I leave France I am going to try to show that the seven assassins in black are connected with the league. If I can do that, it may be that the league will go to pieces, for the decent ones in the lower degrees, who know nothing of its connection with murderers, may withdraw and denounce it.”
“And, in the meantime, you may follow other victims of the Black Brothers! It is horrible to think of! But the papers said the Duke of Benoit du Sault died a natural death.”
“Because they did not know any better. He was murdered!”
“How?”
“That is yet a mystery. I have thought much about it. I remember that he told me of an encounter with a bold woman of the streets. When he repulsed her, she struck him with a pin, inflicting a wound on his left wrist. That was bleeding when he was attacked by the pains. I remember that, from his manner, it seemed that the pains shot up his arm.”
“Then you think the wound on his wrist may have——Oh, pshaw! That must be nonsense, Frank! That could not have killed him. Those pains were brought on by the excitement of the encounter with the woman. His heart had been wrong all along, and it failed him that night.”
“Still,” said Frank Merriwell, “you must admit it is most singular that that night was the tenth one after he received a star exactly like this blood-red one I hold in my hand.”
Diamond was more deeply impressed than he wished to acknowledge. He did not wish to believe that Merry, his friend, had been selected as a victim by the dreaded Black Brothers.
He had been with Frank when the red star fell on Merry’s plate one day at a queer little restaurant, where they were taking lunch. At the time he observed the remarkable change that came over his friend, who, having been gay and light-hearted, suddenly grew sober and stern. Jack thought about this now. He thought of other things which had seemed so mysterious to him, and he did not wonder at Merry’s strange acts. Still, it was most remarkable that Frank, a stranger and a foreigner, had been drawn into the affair.
Jack’s sympathy was with the unfortunate prisoner of Devil’s Island, believing Dreyfus had been unfairly and unjustly condemned, but, hot-blooded though he was, he felt certain he would have a care not to permit himself to become involved as Frank had been. But Diamond was not one to reproach a friend, or to desert him in the hour of trouble. He was ready to stand by Frank through any peril.
That Frank was in great peril he could no longer doubt. That Frank had been condemned to die by the Anti-Dreyfus League was apparent. Jack’s soul rebelled at the thought that such a thing could be in a city like Paris. And it was terrible to fancy that Merry might come to his end as had the Duke of Benoit du Sault, without a single mark being left on his body to tell how his death had been accomplished.
Jack leaned across the table and spoke earnestly.
“Why should you stay here in Paris, Frank, and wait for those murderous wretches to accomplish their dastardly work? Why don’t you get out? There is nothing to keep us here. In fact, I am beginning to feel that I have seen enough of this place.”
“And it was only yesterday,” retorted Frank, with a smile, “that you said you could live a year in Paris without getting tired.”
“Did I say that?”
“Sure.”
“Well, I’ve changed my mind. If you were fighting an enemy like Harris or Brattle, it would be different. By the way, where is Brattle?”
“You tell.”
“He has disappeared.”
“Completely.”
“Perhaps he is connected with the very ones who are doing their best to snuff you out.”
“Not likely. They would not trust him.”
“And yet he may have aided to throw suspicion on you.”
“It is possible, but does not seem probable.”
Frank Merriwell sipped his lemonade, which had been served, seeming cool and unconcerned, as if deadly danger had never visited him in all his life. The black-face comedians had retired, and there was a sudden burst of applause, as a popular chanteuse appeared. She began to sing, and the young Americans resumed their conversation.
“I do not feel like running away now,” said Merry grimly.
“You know the old saying,” muttered Jack: “‘He who fights and runs away,’ etc.”
“I know, but there is no reason why I should run. I can do the anti-Dreyfus men no harm now.”
“Perhaps they do not know that. Your sympathy is with Dreyfus?”
“Yes. I believe he was unjustly condemned. I believe everything points to Esterhazy as the guilty man.”
“But thebordereau, the paper which convicted him——”
“Was forged by Esterhazy, I firmly believe. Of late, everything has tended to prove that. There was no real reason why Dreyfus should have acted as a traitor. It could not have been from anger or disappointment, as he had the finest prospects of an excellent military career.”
“And Esterhazy——”
“Always an adventurer and a soldier of fortune, always begging money from the money-lenders, always extravagant and dissolute, there were many reasons why he might have been guilty. Letters of his, which he cannot deny, and in which he abused France unmercifully, have been found. Those letters are in the possession of the friends of Dreyfus, and will be used at the proper time.”
“But it has been claimed that Dreyfus was dissolute, that he was a gambler, and an associate of the low and vicious.”
“It has been claimed, but it has not been proven. Instead, in many instances, it has been shown conclusively that such charges against him were utterly false. It has been shown that others by the name of Dreyfus have been confounded with him. I do not suppose he was a man without faults, but those faults and failings make his unjust and cruel condemnation none the less horrible.”
“You feel strongly about this, Frank.”
“I do! I confess it. And I feel more strongly now than ever before. I feel like going into this thing deeply, but it now seems that I have done everything in my power, and that has proved to be—nothing!”
“Have you other reasons to believe Dreyfus innocent?”
“Yes. It has been shown that he was not even aware of some of the secrets given away in the forged papers. He had not been placed in position to acquire the knowledge contained in those papers. The dastards who sought his ruin incorporated in the papers what they thought he knew, but they were wrong.”
“This being the case, how is it possible to hold him longer on Devil’s Island without a fair and open trial?”
“In America or England it would not be possible. In France it is different. He is a Jew, and you see the powerful feeling that has been aroused against the Jews. He was condemned by the army, and it is a firmly entrenched belief in this country that the army can do no wrong. To give him another trial now, at which he might be able to clear himself fully, would be to confess that there was a possible doubt in the matter. That, it is said, would throw discredit on the army. If he were to be shown innocent, it might bring on a revolution.”
“And so they are going to let an innocent man rot on Devil’s Island rather than give him justice and confess that a terrible wrong has been done?”
“You must remember that it is ‘for the honor of France!’”
“It is the dishonor of France!” exclaimed Diamond hotly. “It means the eternal disgrace of France!”
“The day must come when the whole truth will be known.”
In this speech Frank was prophetic. The day did come when the whole wretched conspiracy came to light, and the unfortunate Dreyfus was publicly proclaimed innocent.
“So much the worse for France if Dreyfus dies on that island.”
“You are getting warm over it, Jack,” laughed Merry.
“A trifle,” confessed the Virginian. “Who wouldn’t?”
“It is enough to warm up almost anybody,” agreed Frank. “I think you begin to understand how I feel. And you must see why I guarded that ball with my very life.”
“But that contained nothing.”
“When it was opened it contained nothing. I believe there was a time when it contained a paper that would have aided in proving Dreyfus innocent.”
There was a low, musical laugh near at hand, and a voice spoke in French, saying:
“Messieurs, you are so eager, so earnest! I wonder what it can be you talk of so animatedly? It cannot be of Mademoiselle Held, for you have scarcely glanced toward the stage. Yet I’ll wager I can read the truth in your faces and tell you your very thoughts.”
A woman, slender, supple, graceful, attired in airy evening-dress, with a mask hiding the upper part of her face, stood beside the table. Without being invited, she sat down there.