"Well, you see, Mr. Halliday, I could not get power for a good one. The sole way in which I could obtain my ends was to appeal to people's self-love. I read of those Italian societies, and the way in which they terrorized the world. Whatever the members of those societies want they get, because they work by blackmail, by threats, by the knife, and with poison. I always wished to found a society of that sort, but I noticed how frequently things went wrong because the members of various societies got mixed up with women, or drank too much, or gave themselves away in a moment of profligacy."
"Ah," Dan smoked calmly, "now I understand why your rules were so stringent."
"You speak of them in a past tense," said Miss Armour curiously. "Well," Dan pressed down the tobacco in his pipe, "the society is done for; it's gastados, used up, busted, and all the rest of it. Well?"
"Well," echoed the woman, passing over his remark with a sneer. "I wished to collect a body of men and women who were to live like saints and use all the power such self-denial gave them to gain all they wanted for themselves."
"A devilishly clever scheme." "But not original, like my tortures," Queen Beelzebub assured him. "In Australia--Sydney, New South Wales--I fancy there are societies who have the same rules. They call such an organization there a 'Push!' I think." Dan nodded. "I have heard of such things."
"Well, then--to make a long story short, as I want to go to bed, and can't enjoy your delightful society much longer--I intended to work on those lines. Years and years ago Mrs. Jarsell was a favorite pupil of mine. We parted and she married a man with money. He died," Miss Armour laughed, "in fact, since he treated Eliza badly, I got rid of him."
"Oh, so that is the hold you have on her."
"Quite so. I met her again and got rid of the husband. He left her his money and I came to live with Eliza as a companion. For a time we went into London society, and I soon managed to get a few people together by appealing to their egotism. Some kicked at my ideas--others did not, and in the end I collected quite a large number. Then I made Eliza take this house, as it struck me that aeroplanes might be utilized for criminal purposes. I don't say that when this idea struck me aeroplanes were so good as they are now, but I believed that aviation would improve, and that the air would be conquered. Chance brought Vincent into my life. He became a member of the Society of Flies, and manufactured the machines. He also taught me how to handle them----"
"I am bound to say that he had an excellent pupil," put in Dan politely. "Thank you," Miss Armour smiled and nodded. "I fancy I am pretty good. But you see that by using an aeroplane I was able to get up and down to London without people knowing. I was, so to speak, in two places at once, by travelling fast, and so could prove an alibi easily."
"Then Durwin?"