re we spoke of paste grain book covers
and the like. It was there then at your elbow. It will be sold for many
thousands of pounds by to-morrow, and all the puny watchings and
dodgings that have been devised cannot prevent it. The money will go to
aid me in the attainment of the power of which you may have a part, if
you wish. The means of attaining this I scruple no more about than you
did to-day about the story of the bookbindings." He bowed with a slight
smile and went on.

"Come now, Mr. Brett, put aside your bourgeois prejudices and join me.
Your friend Plummer is coming gladly, I feel sure, and he will be
useful, too. And from what I have seen from Mr. Martin Hewitt, I have
no doubt I can make it right with him. If I can't it will be very bad
for him, I can assure you; you have heard and seen something of my
powers, and I need say no more. But Hewitt is a man of sense, and will
come in, of course, and you had better come with your friends. I want
one or two superior men. Mason--you know about Jacob Mason, of
course--Mason was a fool, and he was lost--inevitably. The others"--he
made a gesture of contempt--"they are mere vulgar tools. They will have
their rewards if they are faithful, of course; if not--well, you
remember Denson in the Samuel diamond business? He was _not_ faithful,
and there was an end of him. I may tell you that Denson was made an
example, for one was needed. I assigned him a certain operation, and,
having brought it to success, he endeavoured to embezzle--did
embezzle--the proceeds. He was made a conspicuous example, in a most
conspicuous public place, to impress the others. They didn't know _him_,
but they knew well enough what the Red Triangle meant! Ah, my excellent
recruit--for so I count you already--there is more in that little sign
than you can imagine! It is more than a sign--it is an implement of very
potent power; and you shall learn its whole secret in that little form
of initiation I spoke of. See now, a present example. Telfer, the
Admiralty clerk, gave up that document at my mere spoken word. He will
deny it to his dying day, and he will be ruined for the act; but he gave
me the paper himself, at my mere order. If he were one of my own--if he
had passed through the initiation I offer you, I would have protected
him; as it is, he must take his punishment, and though it is only I who
will benefit, he will still deny the fact! Ha! Mr. Brett, do you begin
to perceive that I do not boas