"But by that time all those who got the telegrams had come north," said Lillian, quite excited; "they all went up by the early train."
"Yes, and the police, with Freddy, followed, delaying action until such time as they thought they could collar the whole gang. By jove, they just came in time. Freddy was a fool to tell you that I was in The Grange."
"He was not quite certain, and only thought so because the wrecked aeroplanes were found in the field near the house. Oh, Dan," Lillian put her arms round her lover's neck, "Mr. Laurance told me how thankful he was when he saw you running along the road and knew that you had escaped."
"He might have been thankful also that I caused him and the body of police to halt," said Dan, quickly; "if they had not, everyone would have been blown up. As it was, I very nearly got smashed by the falling sticks and stones and what not. There must have been tons of dynamite in the cellars of The Grange."
"Who do you think put it there, Dan?"
"Queen Beelzebub, of course. She said that she had made everything ready against possible discovery, and warned poor Mrs. Jarsell that she would have to commit a last crime. Crime, by Jove. Why the best day's work the woman ever did was to blow up that gang of devils." "I suppose Mrs. Jarsell did blow up the house, Dan?"
"Of course she did. Her heart softened for some reason, and she pushed me out of danger. Then she must have gone straight down to the cellar, and set a light to the stored dynamite. The explosion happened so quickly after I was free that I am sure she acted in that way. It was certainly efficacious, for not one of the blackguards, either men or women, remained alive to be hanged."
"Well, that was a good thing," said Miss Moon, with a shudder; "you know that their relatives would have been disgraced." Dan nodded. "Quite so, and the names have never become public. This person and that person and the other person disappeared from various neighborhoods and from various family circles. But, when the relatives read about the explosion in Hillshire and Freddy's brilliant account of that infernal society, they made a pretty good guess as to what had happened to the disappearing party. Very few people gave information to the police that their relatives or friends had disappeared. Tenson was rather annoyed, as he wanted to make a big fuss over the matter."
"I don't see what bigger fuss could have been made, Dan. Why, the papers were filled with nothing else for weeks."
"All the same, Tenson wanted the names of those who belonged to the gang, and people declined to gives names of those who had disappeared from their midst. We know that Curberry belonged to the gang, and Penn; also Mrs. Jarsell, Vincent, and Queen Beelzebub. But only one or two other names came to light in print."