There was a rap upon the principal door of the laboratory. Lord Malvin strode to it and opened it. The butler, a portly man on the morning of this day, but now seeming to have shrunk into his clothes, and to have lost much of his vitality, stood there.
Beside him was a gentleman in evening dress, with a keen clean-shaven face and grey hair which curled.
The gentleman stepped quickly into the laboratory. It was the Home Secretary.
He shook Lord Malvin by the hand, and his face was very troubled.
"You are quite right, my Lord," he said. "I may say that His Majesty is at one with you and with me in this matter. His Majesty is much disturbed."
Then Lord Malvin turned round to the other gentlemen.
"Come, my brethren," he said in a sad voice, "come and let us do what we have to do. The Bishop of West London was wiser than any of us when he said that God would never allow this thing to continue, and he was right."
Lord Malvin turned to the frightened servant.
"Go into the kitchens," he said, "or send one of the other men, and fetch a large hammer, such a hammer as you use for breaking up coal."
In a minute or two the butler returned, and handed a formidable implement with a wedge-shaped iron head on a long ash shank to Lord Malvin.