“So one million pounds was the stake this benefactor of humanity was playing for,” sneered Drummond. “One million pounds, as the mere price of a nation’s life-blood.... But at any rate he had the merit of playing big, whereas the rest of you scum, and the other beauties so ably catalogued in that book, messed about at his beck and call for packets of bull’s-eyes. Perhaps you laboured under the delusion that you were fooling him, but the whole lot of you are so damned crooked that you probably thought of nothing but your own filthy skins.
“Listen to me.” Hugh Drummond’s voice took on a deep, commanding ring, and against their will the four men looked at the broad, powerful soldier, whose sincerity shone clear in his face. “Not by revolutions and direct action will you make this island of ours right—though I am fully aware that that is the last thing you would wish to see happen. But with your brains, and for your own unscrupulous ends, you gull the working-man into believing it. And he, because you can talk with your tongues in your cheeks, is led away. He believes you will give him Utopia; whereas, in reality, you are leading him to hell. And you know it. Evolution is our only chance—not revolution; but you, and others like you, stand to gain more by the latter....”
His hand dropped to his side, and he grinned.
“Quite a break for me,” he remarked. “I’m getting hoarse. I’m now going to hand you four over to the boys. There’s an admirable, but somewhat muddy pond outside, and I’m sure you’d like to look for newts. If any of you want to summon me for assault and battery, my name is Drummond—Captain Drummond, of Half Moon Street. But I warn you that that book will be handed into Scotland Yard to-night. Out with ’em, boys, and give ’em hell....
“And now, Carl Peterson,” he remarked, as the door closed behind the last of the struggling prophets of a new world, “it’s time that you and I settled our little account, isn’t it?”
The master-criminal rose and stood facing him. Apparently he had completely recovered himself; the hand with which he lit his cigar was as steady as a rock.
“I congratulate you, Captain Drummond,” he remarked suavely. “I confess I have no idea how you managed to escape from the somewhat cramped position I left you in last night, or how you have managed to install your own men in this house. But I have even less idea how you discovered about Hocking and the other two.”
Hugh laughed shortly.
“Another time, when you disguise yourself as the Comte de Guy, remember one thing, Carl. For effective concealment it is necessary to change other things besides your face and figure. You must change your mannerisms and unconscious little tricks. No—I won’t tell you what it is that gave you away. You can ponder over it in prison.”
“So you mean to hand me over to the police, do you?” said Peterson slowly.