andministers of these oppressors. You can tell them at a glance--large,coarse, corpulent men; red-faced, brutal; decorated with vulgartaste; loud-voiced, selfish, self-assertive; cringing sycophants toall above them, slave-drivers of all below them. They are determinedto live on the best the world can afford, and they care nothing ifthe miserable perish in clusters around their feet. The howls ofstarvation will not lessen one iota their appetite or theirself-satisfaction. These constitute the great man's world. Hemistakes their cringings, posturings and compliments for the approvalof mankind. He does not perceive how shallow and temporary and worsethan useless is the life he leads; and he cannot see, beyond thesewell-fed, corpulent scamps, the great hungry, unhappy millions whoare suffering from his misdeeds or his indifference.
While I was indulging in these reflections the members of thegovernment were arriving. They were accompanied by servants, blackand white, who, with many bows and flexures, relieved them of theirwraps and withdrew. The door was closed and locked. Rudolph stoodwithout on guard.
I could now rise to my feet with safety, for the council-chamber wasin a blaze of electric light, while the conservatory was butpartially illuminated.
The men were mostly middle-aged, or advanced in years. They weregenerally large men, with finely developed brows--natural selectionhad brought the great heads to the top of affairs. Some were cleancutin feature, looking merely like successful business men; others, likethe Prince, showed signs of sensuality and dissipation, in the baggy,haggard features. They were unquestionably an able assembly. Therewere no orators among them; they possessed none of the arts of therostrum or the platform. They spoke sitting, in an awkward,hesitating manner; but what they said was shrewd and always to thepoint. They had no secretaries or reporters. They could trust no onewith their secrets. Their conclusions were conveyed by thepresident--Prince Cabano--to one man, who at once communicated whatwas needful to their greater agents, and these in turn to the lesseragents; and so the streams of authority flowed, with lightninglikespeed, to the remotest parts of the so-called Republic; and many aman was struck down, ruined, crushed, destroyed, who had littlesuspicion that the soundless bolt which slew him came from thatfaraway chamber.
The Prince welcomed each newcomer pleasantly, and assigned him to hisplace. When all were seated he spoke:
"I have called you together, gentlemen," he said "because we havevery important business to transact. The evidences multiply that weare probably on the eve of another outbreak of the restless_canaille_; it may be upon a larger scale than any we have yetencountered. The filthy wretches seem to grow more desperate everyyear; otherwise they would not rush upon certain death, as they seemdisposed to do.
"I have two men in this house whom I thought it better that youshould see and hear face to face. The first is General Jacob Quincy,commander of the forces which man our ten thousand air-ships, or_Demons_, as they are popularly called. I think it is understood byall of us that, in these men, and the deadly bombs of poisonous gaswith which their vessels are equipped, we must find our chiefdependence for safety and continued power. We must not forget that weare outnumbered a thousand to one, and the world grows very restiveunder our domination. If it were not for the _Demons_ and thepoison-bombs, I should fear the results of the coming contest--withthese, victory is certain.
"Quincy, on behalf of his men, demands another increase of pay. Wehave already several times yielded to similar applications. We aresomewhat in the condition of ancient Rome, when the praetoriansmurdered the emperor Pertinax, and sold the imperial crown to DidiusJulianus. These men hold the control of the continent in their hands.Fortunately for us, they are not yet fully aware of their own power,and are content to merely demand an increase of pay. We cannotquarrel with them at this time, with a great insurrection pending. Arefusal might drive them over to the enemy. I mention these facts sothat, whatever demands General Quincy may make, however extravagantthey may be, you will express no dissatisfaction. When he is gone wecan talk over our plans for the future, and decide what course wewill take as to these troublesome men when the outbreak is over. Ishall have something to propose after he leaves us."
There was a general expression of approval around the table.
"There is another party here to-night," continued the Prince. "He isa very shrewd and cunning spy; a member of our secret police service.He goes by the name of Stephen Andrews in his intercourse with me.What his real name may be I know not.
"You are aware we have had great trouble to ascertain anythingdefinitely about this new organization, and have succeeded butindifferently. Their plans seem to be so well taken, and theircunning so great, that all our attempts have come to naught. Many ofour spies have disappeared; the police cannot learn what becomes ofthem; they are certainly dead, but none of their bodies are everfound. It is supposed that they have been murdered, loaded withweights and sunk in the river. This man Andrews has so far escaped.He works as a mechanic--in fact, he really is such--in one of theshops; and he is apparently the most violent and bitter of ourenemies. He will hold intercourse with no one but me, for he suspectsall the city police, and he comes here but seldom--not more than oncein two or three months--when I pay him liberally and assign him tonew work. The last task I gave him was to discover who are theleaders of the miserable creatures in this new conspiracy. He hasfound it very difficult to obtain any positive information upon thispoint. The organization is very cunningly contrived. The Brotherhoodis made up in groups of ten. No one of the rank and file knows morethan nine other members associated with him. The leaders of thesegroups of ten are selected by a higher power. These leaders are againorganized in groups of ten, under a leader again selected by a higherpower; but in this second group of ten no man knows his fellow's nameor face; they meet always masked. And so the scale rises. The highestbody of all is a group of one hundred, selected out of the wholeforce by an executive committee. Andrews has at length, after yearsof patient waiting and working, been selected as one of this upperhundred. He is to be initiated to-morrow night. He came to me formore money; for he feels he is placing himself in great danger ingoing into the den of the chief conspirators. I told him that Ithought you would like to question him, and so he has returned againto-night, disguised in the dress of a woman, and he is now in thelibrary awaiting your pleasure. I think we had better see him beforewe hear what Quincy has to say. Shall I send for him?"
General assent being given, lie stepped to the door and told Rudolphto bring up the woman he would find in the library. In a few momentsthe door opened and a tall personage, dressed like a woman, with aheavy veil over her face, entered. The Prince said:
"Lock the door and come forward."
The figure did so, advanced to the table and removed the bonnet andveil, disclosing the dark, bronzed face of a workman--a keen, shrewd,observant, watchful, strong face.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SPY'S STORY
"Andrews," said the Prince, "tell these gentlemen what you have foundout about the extent of this organization and the personality of itsleaders?"
"My lord," replied the man, "I can speak only by hearsay--fromwhispers which I have heard in a thousand places, and by piecingtogether scraps of information which I have gathered in a great manyways. I do not yet speak positively. After to-morrow night I hope tobe able to tell you everything."
"I understand the difficulties you have to contend with," replied thePrince; "and these gentlemen will not hold you to a strictaccountability for the correctness of what you have gathered in thatway."
"You can have no idea," said Andrews, "of the difficulty of obtaininginformation. It is a terrible organization. I do not think thatanything like it has every existed before on the earth. One year agothere were fifteen of us engaged in this work; I am the only one leftalive to-night."
His face grew paler as he spoke, and there was a visible start andsensation about the council board.
"This organization," he continued, "is called '_The Br
otherhood ofDestruction_.' It extends all over Europe and America, and numbers, Iam told, _one hundred million members_."
"Can that be possible?" asked one gentleman, in astonishment.
"I believe it to be true," said Andrews, solemnly. "Nearly everyworkman of good character and sober habits in New York belongs to it;and so it is in all our great cities; while the blacks of the Southare members of it to a man. Their former masters have kept them in astate of savagery, instead of civilizing and elevating them; and theresult is they are as barbarous and bloodthirsty as their ancestorswere when brought from Africa, and fit subjects for such a terribleorganization."
"What has caused such a vast movement?" asked another gentleman.
"The universal misery and wretchedness of the working classes, in thecities, on the