CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE MAN IN THE CELLAR.
"Yesterdaynight—so much has happened since then that it is difficult to believe it was so short a time ago—yesterday night, after the rioters had disbanded and gone home, I returned to my rooms in Adelphi Terrace, and after I had had some supper, I stepped out on the balcony, to smoke and to listen if all was quiet.
"As I re-entered my room, someone, concealed behind one of the heavy curtains, seized me suddenly from behind, and as I turned angrily to free myself and to see who was my assailant, another man stepped out from behind the curtain on the other side of the window, and before I could prevent him, clapped a handkerchief saturated with chloroform over my nose and mouth.
"When I came to myself, I found myself sitting in a strange room in the presence of the Dumpling.
"'Mr. Rissler,' he said, 'I am very sorry to have been compelled to chloroform andto abduct you. Believe me, no harm is intended you. That I should have an immediate interview at this point was imperative, and to bring you here, in the way in which you have been brought, was the safest, and quickest, and most convenient method. You might have refused to come, or you might have frittered away invaluable time in profitless discussions. And I, at least at the present juncture, have no time to waste. You know that the revolution, of which I have already spoken to you, has begun in earnest, and you know, no doubt, that success has crowned our efforts to-day, and that London is practically at our mercy.
"'My reason for sending for you is that I have something to show you which will convince even you—difficult as you have been to persuade—of the folly of refusing to make terms with us; something that will induce you at last to throw in your lot with us, to become one of us, and my acknowledged successor when I fall; something that even you cannot deny is incontrovertible proof of our absolute and complete success.
"'No, don't say anything at this point, please,' he interrupted, holding up a repressing hand, for I was about to protestthat nothing he could say, or could show me, would have the slightest influence in inducing me even to consider his proposition.
"'I know what you are going to say,' he went on. 'You are about to repudiate me and all my work. But wait! Say nothing yet which you might afterwards regret and wish to withdraw. God has marked you out for this work as surely as He has marked me, and that God is behind us, is working with us and for us, even you will admit when you see the proof which I shall soon put before you. I have never despaired of winning you, Rissler. Like Saul of Tarsus, you have fought against God and against His prophets, but even as Saul was convinced and converted to God's will by the sign which came to him on the road to Damascus, even so will you be convinced and converted by the sign which I am about to make known to you. As Saul hardened his heart before the coming of the heavenly vision, even so have you hardened your heart against God's will. But God can change your heart and open your eyes at a word, even as He opened the eyes and changed the heart of Saul; and ere I die I shall see you an acknowledged leader and hopeof the armies of Labour and of the Lord.'
"He walked over to a cupboard in a corner, and, to my astonishment, took out a huge military cloak with an immense collar, and a three-cornered hat like that worn by Napoleon.
"Drawing the cloak over his shoulders, and donning the hat, he stood for some minutes, his huge head sunk between his shoulders till his chin lay on his chest, his short legs straddled apart, and his hands clasped behind him, deep in thought. Amused as I was by his ranting and by the theatrical way in which he posed and dressed the part, his likeness to the great Napoleon was so uncanny, so extraordinary, that, in spite of myself, I was awed and impressed. Then, with the single word 'Come,' he turned and went out, I following him.
"Coming to the front door of the house, he opened it cautiously and looked out. We were in a narrow and shabby side street of what I judged to be the East End of London. At the moment of our emergence not a single soul was in sight. The Dumpling crossed the road and gave four slow and deliberate knocks at a door.
"'Who is there?' said a voice inside.
"'God and Napoleon and the Dumpling strike with granite arm!' was the reply, and the door was immediately opened, the Dumpling and I stepping inside. We were in the narrow hall or passage of a small dwelling house. The man who had admitted us closed the door, and then resumed his chair, which was placed just inside the door. A newspaper which he had been reading lay beside him on the floor, and two small paraffin lamps burned—or, rather, smoked—beside him on another chair.
"'All quiet, doorkeeper?' asked the Dumpling.
"'All quiet, sir,' was the answer.
"Then the Dumpling took up one of the lamps.
"'This way, Rissler,' he said, walking along the passage, till he came to a door leading to the basement or kitchen portion of the house. Producing a bunch of keys from his pocket, he unlocked the door, and when he and I had passed through, locked it carefully again.
"Passing down some stairs, we came to a stone-flagged passage, along which we walked to another door, leading to a sort ofunderground cellar. This door the Dumpling also unlocked, and, after we had entered, re-locked; and as he did so, the dream-picture which I had once seen in his eyes, the picture of the Dumpling, myself, and a third and unknown man, standing together in an underground room, came back to me, and I knew that the place I was now in was the place I had seen in the tableau.
"Then the Dumpling touched a spring, and a hidden door flew open, revealing a smaller inner room. A man, nonchalantly smoking a cigar, was standing in a far corner, and as, obeying the Dumpling's signal, I passed through the door and saw his face, I gave a short, sharp cry, and fell back in incredulous horror.
"'My God!' I said. 'It is not possible! The King!'"
"I FELL BACK IN INCREDULOUS HORROR."