Grey Face/Chapter 37

ARRANGED that we should all meet here for supper to-night," said Sir Provost Hope, "for a very particular reason. I had not anticipated the pleasure of the announcement which you had to make to me, Carey." He glanced at the latter. "But nothing has pleased me better for many years than this understanding between you two."

Jasmine looked swiftly aside at Muir Torrington, who was smiling with a sort of grim geniality; and for all that self-control upon which she prided herself she could not check a sudden heightening of colour, which lent a new beauty to her charming face.

"Those obstacles," Sir Provost continued, "which at one time threatened to come between you have at last been cleared away. Their origin is the thing which we meet to-night to discuss. All of us are concerned. I have to-day received definite instructions"—he paused for a moment, meeting the enquiring glance of Torrington, but almost immediately went on—"to place you in possession of the full facts, all three of you. This, for your protection, and also for another purpose."

Jasmine and Carey seated themselves upon a settee as Sir Provost crossed the dimly lighted library and unlocked an oak bureau. Muir Torrington, feet widely apart, stood before the fireplace watching him. Sir Provost returned to his chair by the table, carrying a bulky manuscript bound in a loose wrapper. Re-seating himself, he adjusted his glasses, looked for a moment from face to face, and then:

"What I have to say," he began, "is extraordinarily difficult of comprehension by any one unfamiliar with a certain line of study pursued by myself for many years. Here and now I bind you all to secrecy. The information is for your ears alone. Indeed, by the outside world I should be judged a madman if I were known to subscribe to such beliefs as are necessary to an understanding of these matters."

He tapped the manuscript with his fingers.

"All of us here, however, have had substantial evidence of the powers possessed by the writer of this book—probably the most extraordinary work which has seen the light during this present civilization. It was written by the man we know as Trepniak."

"Ah!" Torrington muttered, and began to move restlessly from foot to foot.

Jasmine glanced quickly at Carey, who squeezed her hand in silent reassurance.

"You," Sir Provost continued, turning to him, "informed me this evening that Inspector Whiteleaf, who is officially in charge of the case, has succeeded in tracing the source of a part, at least, of Trepniak's seemingly inexhaustible funds. This is a place near the Russian frontier of Persia and within easy access of the Caspian Sea. I must compliment Scotland Yard very highly. In a comparatively short time they have gathered evidence which I myself should have judged to be unobtainable by the means at their disposal. Their information, so far as it goes, is accurate, and the exact spot for which they are seeking is an abandoned monastery five miles from Meshed, in Khorassan.

"I say without hesitation that the present financial chaos of the world is due, in no small part, to the work which for some years past has been carried on in this monastery. In brief, synthetic gold and silver are manufactured there at little more than the cost of the labour involved."

Torrington whistled softly, thrust his hands in his pockets, and began to walk up and down. Jasmine and Carey remained silent.

"This," Sir Provost continued, "amounts to successful defiance of the higher law; in other words, the world is not yet ready for synthetic gold and silver. The existing financial system would be utterly destroyed if the process in operation at Meshed should ever be made public. It will not be made public, however. Transmutation has been performed with varying success many times in the past, but the secret has died with each of its several discoverers-because the day had not come for the world to know.

"That day draws very near us now, however, when a new standard will be set up and the word 'gold' will lose its magic."

"By Gad!' cried Torrington excitedly, "the diamond—the diamond! It's a synthetic diamond!"

His sudden outburst had startled everybody; but:

"You are wrong," Sir Provost replied quietly, "it is not a synthetic diamond, it is a natural diamond artificially enlarged."

"What!" Carey exclaimed. "I never heard of such a thing!"

"Doubtless," Sir Provost said, turning slightly in his direction. "You are about to hear a number of other things which will be equally new to you."

Care} was silent, and:

"One for you, my lad!" cried Torrington. "An artificially enlarged diamond! Gad! That's wonderful."

"Very wonderful," Sir Provost agreed. "Trepniak, I understand, has been at work for some years endeavouring to perfect this process. As in the case of transmutation, it is not new, nor has it now been performed for the first time in history. For instance, Cagliostro performed it, although modern historians do not credit the fact. He was equally successful with emeralds and rubies, and it is upon Cagliostro's formula that Trepniak has been working—hitherto, with poor success."

"It's miraculous!" Torrington exclaimed, a note almost of reverente in his voice. "The hand of Providence is unmistakable throughout. But the cost of such experiments must have been staggering if diamonds of any size were used."

"I have reason to suppose," Sir Provost replied, "that some, at least, of the diamonds employed in these ravenously expensive experiments were stolen."

Carey looked up with a start.

"I was right! 'Grey Face' was responsible for the Hatton Garden robbery?"

"Probably," was the answer, "and for many another which has not come in the way of Scotland Yard. You see, his facilities were enormous. Few human minds could hide their secrets from him. The truth buried in a man's brain—the truth about himself, his motives, his private life—is rarely known even to his most intimate friends. It is a mystery which he takes with him to the grave. For Trepniak, there are few brains in the world which are not open books. I hope and believe that we four gathered here in this room, to-night at least, are immune from that searching ray which he has the power to direct upon the brain of any human being who interests him."

Jasmine's hand groped for and found that of Carey, and unknown to herself, she clutched it tightly.

"In the past," the speaker went on, "we may all have suffered this form of examination. I should not dare to say that I have not suffered it myself, or that your brain, Torrington, has not lain upon the dissecting table of this master psychologist. Possessing this power, a power which no man is entitled to wield, he could laugh at strong rooms and mock at the law. Take your own case, Carey." He turned in the latter's direction. "Your secret report, intended for the eye of the Commissioner alone, was delivered, not to Scotland Yard, but to"

"Trepniak's house in Park Lane!" Torrington shouted excitedly. "Of course it was! Don't you see, Carey?"

Carey nodded slowly and:

"I begin to see many things," he replied.

"The papers entrusted to Lord Brankforth," Sir Provost continued, "the despatch which Ewart Stephens was bringing to Downing Street, the diamonds which some man, whose name I forget, was on his way to deliver to a firm in Hatton Garden: these things were diverted in just the same way, and ultimately reached the same place."

Following a brief silence of stupefaction:

"It is perfectly clear to me," Torrington cried, "that this all points to some higher development of hypnotism. So much granted, I can see that the victims in the power of the hypnotist would forget their actions as he willed them to do. But one thing I cannot see. How did he hypnotize a man walking along the street? How did he hypnotize a man on a cross-Channel steamer? And lastly, how the devil—excuse me. Miss Hope!—but how the dickens did he hypnotize Carey, here, seated at his own table in his own room?"

Sir Provost smiled slightly at Torrington's violence.

"Your questions strike near to the heart of the matter," he replied quietly. "He was assisted by a device which belongs to a troubled future, to a future when civilization is apparently doomed to destroy itself. In short, he accomplished these things by means of what may be briefly described as a hypnotizing machine.

"The secret of this system, which no man has employed for three thousand years, belonged to a certain branch of a world-wide society or fraternity to whom few of the forces of Nature are unknown. He himself had been a member of this brotherhood, had risen high by virtue of his brilliant intellect; and then, grasping at this instrument of supreme power, he disappeared, believing that its possession protected him from just retribution."

He paused for a moment, but no one interrupted his strange story, and he went on:

"There is an Egyptian ritual of which it has been written-I quote from memory—that 'to read two pages enables you to enchant the heavens, the earth, the abyss, the mountains and the sea; you shall know what the birds of the sky and the crawling things are saying. And when the second page is read, if you are in the world of ghosts, you will grow again in the shape you were on earth.'

"Whilst the instrument of power which Trepniak had stolen did not endow him quite so richly, nevertheless it certainly enabled him to see what was hidden from the human eye, to know what was locked in any man's brain; to control, if not the heavens and the earth, at any rate the movements of his fellow men, and this without their knowledge. I would add that Trepniak's powers do not belong to the realm of ' magic' Indeed, magic is merely a term which has been given to premature discoveries of the past. The miracle of yesterday is the scientific fact of to-day, and on some distant to-morrow every man will be vested with powers at least as great as those possessed by the Egyptian priests with whom Moses contended."

"But I still don't understand," said Jasmine, in a very hushed voice, "how he does these things; how people come under his influence, I mean."

"I can never hope to make you understand in detail," her father replied, "but the general principle can be illustrated by means of a magnet and a number of needles. His magnet is a gigantic beryl, a natural phenomenon such as has not occurred for thousands of years, and which possesses active properties of a kind becoming familiar to modern science. Objects placed in contact with this beryl, under certain conditions, remain for a long time afterward en rapport with it. Your little ebony figure, Carey, was one such object. Thus it is only necessary for Trepniak to cause some trinket to be placed amongst the possessions of any one whom he considers of interest, and that person literally becomes his slave, whom he can call up at any hour of the day or night, provided the selected object remain within reach of the subject's vision. Distance is no barrier; and such points of contact are probably spread throughout the world; are to be found on the desks of a hundred diplomats, in the sanctums of the kings of finance. Many a minister unwittingly has accepted one with his portfolio of office. Consider—I ask you—consider the magnitude of this man's power." Throughout a long minute only the ticking of the library clock might be heard; then:

"How did this amazing information come into your possession, sir?" Carey asked; "and"—he pointed—"how did you obtain the manuscript, there, which you say was written by Trepniak?"

Sir Provost, running his fingers through his thick grey hair, turned slowly to the speaker.

"There are three wise men in the world to-day," he replied, "as there were when the Founder of Christianity was born. The youngest of these, who, despite his youth, could recompose from memory, if he wished, the lost books of Euclid, or could tell you when the Sphinx was carved and for what purpose, recently left it in my care."