“That seems quite clear. I wonder if you would mind if I kept this letter?” He placed it carefully in his pocketbook without waiting for an answer, and then continued more quietly.
“I shall be glad if you will send me details of any other shady transactions by Gaunt, and I will see that they are made use of at once. Now I think we have finished, and I expect you will be glad to get back to the City. Take another cigar.”
“You will not allow my name to appear?” Weiss said uneasily.
“My dear sir, I am a gentleman, and—but you can trust me. Good-day, and thanks.”
When Weiss had gone the Baron sent out for the evening papers, and once more settled himself in comfort before the fire, but as he read a frown came to his face, and he uttered an imprecation.
The same advertisement again stared him in the face, and it was natural that the public should take an interest in the spending of such large sums of money, even if the wrongs of the natives of the Congo failed to interest the “man in the street.” Moreover, it was becoming realized that Gaunt was deeply in earnest and had deliberately started to fight the powerful clique in Brussels. The millionaire’s well-known character naturally increased the interest, and there could be no doubt that the agitation would soon extend so that its suppression would become an increasingly difficult task.
In great staring letters there was an announcement that Gaunt was to address a men’s meeting at the Royal Albert Hall.
“And the man will fill the building,” the Baron muttered uneasily.
It was no small thing for which he was fighting. It must be remembered that he and his friends received a large income, which would cease immediately, should the reform be forced upon them. Just as soon as the natives were given justice, the rubber would cease to come, at any rate until the country had had time to recover itself from years of merciless persecution. There were thousands of Belgians whose livelihood depended upon the continuation of the present régime, and in the event of its ceasing, Belgium would swarm with those men, most of them undesirables whose morals were utterly ruined by the lives they had led in the Congo.
And they had been going along so smoothly until the intervention of Gaunt. The death of King Leopold had promised to give them an indefinite prolongation of their reign, for his successor was a man of amiable character, who lived a clean life, and they could shelter themselves beneath his name. The great desire of Europe would be to give King Albert an opportunity of showing what he could do, for it was not realized that he possessed but titular power. The late King had been an absolute monarch, and his conduct had almost driven the people to seek a Republic; so that it was necessary for King Albert to tread warily, and become the most constitutional of sovereigns.