The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

him. He was beside the table with a bound, and a noise in his throat like a wild beast. He caught up

ity of a curate. "Don't you see it's not necessary? Don't you

t he could not fire either,

t, it's a lonely, intellectual duel, my head against yours. I'm a policeman deprived of the help of the police. You, my poor fellow, are an anarchist deprived of the help of that law and organisation which is so essential to anarchy. The one so

y down, still staring at Sym

t if, after all this, you were to break your word, God

d Syme sternly, "nor will you br

ary gait; but one little man, with a black beard and glasses-a man somewhat of the ty

said, "I suppose thi

down and muttered the name of Sym

l enough guarded to make it hard for an

black beard was, however, still cont

you represent?"

," said Syme, laughing; "I should

do you

am a Sabbatarian. I have been specially sent here

the faces of the group. Evidently the awful President, whose name was Sunday

papers after a pause, "I suppose we'd

nd," said Syme with severe bene

ely accidental dilemmas. Little was to be hoped from them. He could not himself betray Syme, partly from honour, but partly also because, if he betrayed him and for some reason failed to destroy him, the Syme who escaped would be a Syme freed from all obligation o

anarchists, which was already dis

steam-tug is waiting on the river already.

nds, the little man with the papers

, under happier circumstances, ought to have killed everybody on the pier. As you also know, his death was as self-denying as his life, for he died through his faith in a hygienic mixture of chalk and water as a substitute for milk, which beverage he regarded as barbaric, and as involving cruelty to the cow. Cruelty, or anything approaching to cruelty, revolted him always. But it is not to acclaim his virtues that we are met, but for a harder task.

rd in church. Then a large old man, with a long and venerable white bea

y be elected Thursday," and

second?" aske

velvet coat and po

" said the chairman, "I will call on

s to make a softened and ambiguous speech, such as would leave on the detective's mind the impression that the anarchist brotherhood was a very mild affair after all. He believed in his own literary power, his capacity for suggesting fine shades and picking perfect words. He thought that with

loper's Half-Holiday and the Sporting Times. They never learn about anarchists from anarchists. We have no chance of denying the mountainous slanders which are heaped upon our heads from one end of Europe to another. The man who has always heard that we are walking plagues has never heard our reply. I know that he will not hear it tonight, though my passion were to rend the roof. For it is deep, deep under the earth that the persecuted are permitted to assemble, as the Christians assembled in the Catacombs. But if, by some incredible accident, there were here

growing fainter, and at the last word it stopped suddenly. In the abrup

not m

e) unattractive. But only the eye of a friendship as deep and delicate as mine can perceive the deep foundation of solid meekness which lies at the base of him, too deep even for himself to see. I r

Mr. Witherspoon wit

arly Christians were merciful. Yet this did not prevent their

ed Witherspo

anxious to know why nobody eats him (laughter). In our society, a

Witherspoon, "d

or which I should pursue were I chosen as the representative of that body. Superbly careless of the slanders that represent us as assassins and e

rehead. The silence was sudden and awkward, but the chairm

se the election o

nd muttered in his thick beard. By the sheer rush of routine, however, the motion would have been put and carried.

Chairman,

ly understood oratory. Having said these first formal words in a moderated tone and with a brief

ls with weapons and bar that door with death lest anyone should come and hear Comrade Gregory saying to us, 'Be good, and you will be happy,' 'Honesty is the best policy,' and 'Virtue is its own reward'? There was not a word in Comrade Gregory's address to which a curate

d so much the worse for society. We are the enemies of society, for society is the enemy of humanity, its oldest and its most pitiless enemy (hear, h

ce idiotic with astonishment. Now in the pause his lips of clay

nable hy

frightful eyes with his own pale

uncil of Anarchy infected with a maudlin mercy (hear, hear). This is no time for ceremonial politeness, neither is it a time for ceremonial modesty. I set myself against Comrade Gregory as I would set myself against all the Governments of Europe, because the anarchist who has given himself to anarchy has forgotten modesty as much as he has forgotte

were now distorted with grins of anticipation or cloven with delighted cries. At the moment when he announced himself as ready to stand for the post of Thursday, a roar of

cried, at the top of a voice th

han the roar of the room came the voice of Syme

are the enemies of religion, to the judge who says these men are the enemies of law, to the fat parliamentarian who says these men are the enemies of order

e it had ceased Witherspoon had jumped to his fe

t, that Comrade Syme be

ied Gregory, with frantic face

irman clove his spee

s observed on the back bench to be slowly rising to his feet. Gregory had been screaming for some time past; now the

nnot be elec

without sound; then slowly the blood began to crawl back into his dead face.

h the American beard was again upon his feet,

d the election

put first," said Mr. Buttons, the

n is that Co

rung to his feet, pa

cried out, "I a

said Mr. W

l it a counsel, for I can give you no reason for it. I will call it a command. Call it a mad command, but act upon it. Strike, but hear me! Kill me, but obey me! Do not elect this man." T

Gregory c

pped, and one anarchis

nd another anarchist added in a heav

"it is nothing to me whether you detest me as a tyrant or detest me as a slave. If you will not take my comm

rman after a painful pause, "thi

silence. Then Gregory fell back in his seat, a pale wreck of a man, and

yme be elected to the post of T

s afterwards Mr. Gabriel Syme, of the Secret Police Service, was elected t

ed and irrevocable, and Syme had received the paper proving his election, they all sprang to their feet, and the fiery groups moved and mixed in the room.

vil!" said Gr

entleman," said

began Gregory, shaking from he

Perhaps we are both doing what we think right. But what we think right is so damned different that there can be nothing between us in the way of concess

d Mr. Buttons, bustling up. "B

at their heels. At the end of the passage was a door, which Buttons opened sharply, showing a sudden blue and silver picture of the moonli

ng on board, Gabriel Syme t

I thank you. You have kept it even down to a small particular. There was one special thing you p

d the chaotic Gregory. "

, and he made a military salute with the