The Crack of Doom

see I use your expression again. I like it,"

ld in my hand for some moments before I could r

, die suddenly after

second event was contemp

onsequenc

tain

retired from your list b

y exception

igh-flown talk about it, is only a v

ession. It is not a murder club, and-well,

call your Society what you please. As to my

y man living or dead. And more, you need not join it yet unless you

re was any possibility of my wavering before th

ny form of salute, and returned to the house. I did not appear again in the domestic circle tha

or the sake of this girl, and for the manifestly impossible purpose of protecting her from herself as well as others, I had surrendered myself to the probable vengeance of a band of cut-throats if I betrayed them, and to the certain vengeance of the law if I did not. Brande, notwithstanding his constant scepticism, was

I did not find her there. I found her friend Miss Metford. The girl was sauntering about, swinging a walking-cane carelessly. She was still rationally dressed, but I observed with relief that the ration

ye do,

ose you expected Natalie?

encing with a forced sm

ent me to meet you. I am to look after you for an hour or so. You join t

us nature of Brande's Society. She could not have spoken so carelessly if she shared my knowledge of it. While she talked to me, I wondered if it was fair to her-a likeable girl, in spite of her undesirable affectations of advanced opinion, emancipation

ding whether I interrupted her, "ar

esent. I shal

o serious an expression that s

g you not to neglect it-you will have nothin

I mean Natalie? I

her brother and his acquaintances," (I had nearly said accomplices,) "and keep h

s warning was altogether too vague to be of any use as a guide for her own action, much less that of her friend. I dared not speak plainer. I could only repeat, in the most emphatic words, m

f any gloomy prophecy to oppress her long. The serious look which my words had brought on her

ooked forward to a pleasant h

Hall I had ever met with, I offered no apology for my absence during the entire day when I rejoined my

which they were engaged. From the mass of correspondence in which this man Grey was absorbed, and the litter

ister of the names of the members of Brande's So

said to Brande: "Now that I have nomina

mber. Your remark to Miss Metford this morning made you o

rrified. "Then she is one of

have none, and she knew nothing of

at you have made a d-

on to denounce the Society to the police the moment I returned to London. Brande was

tion was telepathically

was you

information telepathically from her, without the knowledge of e

this house to Scotland Yard, there to denounce us to t

a man no longer the ri

tion on your part, toward carrying out your intention, will be telepa

metery, near Saint Anne's Ch

ave to dis

mur

t is our necessity. It is the only means by which we can secure the absolute immunity of the Society pendi

s this object, the secret of which you guard

ocal etheric tumour to

jargon from Brande," I int

duction of the solar syste

his triviality by means of

it, struck me as insulting. Neither Brande nor Grey appeared to no

lete achievement of our design, but in any case we shall at least be

"You will at least make sure of that. You hav

Grey, "we ha