“What are they?” asked the Director of Police cautiously.
“To tell what they are is to tell part of my story. You must first promise blindly, and afterwards keep your promise faithfully.”
“Those are rather unusual terms, Miss Baxter,” said the Chief; “but I accede to them, the more willingly as we have found that all the gold is still in the Treasury, as you said it was.”
“Very well, then, the first favour is that I shall not be called to give testimony when an inquest is held on the body of Professor Carl Seigfried.”
“You amaze me!” cried the Director; “how did you know he was dead? I had news of it only a moment before I left my office.”
“I was with him when he died,” said Jennie simply, which statement drew forth an exclamation of surprise from both the Princess and the Director. “My next request is that you destroy utterly a machine which stands on a table near the centre of the Professor’s room. Perhaps the instrument is already disabled—I believe it is—but, nevertheless, I shall not rest content until you have seen that every vestige of it is made away with, because the study of what is left of it may enable some other scientist to put it in working order again. I entreat you to attend to this matter yourself. I will go with you, if you wish me to, and point out the instrument in case it has been moved from its position.”
“The room is sealed,” said the Director, “and nothing will be touched until I arrive there. What is the nature of this instrument?”
“It is of a nature so deadly and destructive that, if it got into the hands of an anarchist, he could, alone, lay the city of Vienna in ruins.”
“Good heavens!” cried the horrified official, whose bane was the anarchist, and Jennie, in mentioning this particular type of criminal, had builded better than she knew. If she had told him that the Professor’s invention might enable Austria to conquer all the surrounding nations, there is every chance that the machine would have been carefully preserved.
“The explosion in the Treasury vaults,” continued Jennie, “was accidentally caused by this instrument, although the machine at the moment was in a garret half a mile away. You saw the terrible effect of that explosion; imagine, then, the destruction it would cause in the hands of one of those anarchists who are so reckless of consequences.”