“Then cheer up,” said Sedlitz. “If one or the other is not interfering with you, anything else is easily remedied.”
“I am not so sure of that,” rejoined Simkins; and then he sat down and told his friend just what was troubling him.
“Ah,” said Sedlitz, “that accounts for it. There has been an unkempt ruffian marching up and down watching this house. They are on your track, Simkins, my boy, and when they discover that you are a reporter, and therefore necessarily a traitor, you will be nabbed some dark night.”
“Well, that’s encouraging,” said Simkins, with his head in his hands.
“Are these Anarchists brave men, and would they risk their lives in any undertaking?” asked Sedlitz.
“Oh, I don’t know. They talk enough, but I don’t know what they would do. They are quite capable, though, of tripping me up in a dark lane.”
“Look here,” said Sedlitz, “suppose you let me try a plan. Let me give them a lecture on the Chemistry of Anarchy. It’s a fascinating subject.”
“What good would that do?”
“Oh, wait till you have heard the lecture. If I don’t make the hair of some of them stand on end, they are braver men than I take them to be. We have a large room in Clement’s Inn, where we students meet to try experiments and smoke tobacco. It is half club, and half a lecture- room. Now, I propose to get those Anarchists in there, lock the doors, and tell them something about dynamite and other explosives. You give out that I am an Anarchist from America. Tell them that the doors will be locked to prevent police interference, and that there will be a barrel of beer. You can introduce me as a man from America, where they know as much about Anarchism in ten minutes as they do here in ten years. Tell them that I have spent my life in the study of explosives. I will have to make-up a little, but you know that I am a very good amateur actor, and I don’t think there will be any trouble about that. At the last you must tell them that you have an appointment and will leave me to amuse them for a couple of hours.”
“But I don’t see what good it is all going to do, though I am desperate,” said Simkins, “and willing to try anything. I have thought some of firing a bomb off myself at an Anarchist meeting.”