different parts of the city. I had, of course, heard much of the terrible âreversingâ bombsâthose bombs which, containing a tube of acid plugged by wadding, required no fuse, and only needed to be inverted to be set going to explode in a few minutes. The loaves containing these bombs would form an effectual âblind,â and they were to be distributed, probably in broad daylight, in the most natural manner possible, in a bakerâs cart. A man would be waiting near the scene of each contemplated explosion. He would be given a loaf taken from the inverted batch. He would take itâperhaps wrapped in paper, but still inverted, and apparently the most innocent object possibleâto the spot selected, deposit it, right side upâwhich would reverse the inner tube and set up the actionâin some quiet corner, behind a door or what not, and make his own escape, while the explosion tore down walls andâif the experiment were luckyâscattered the flesh and bones of unsuspecting people.
The infernal loaves were made and kept reversed, to begin with, in order to stand more firmly, andâif observedâmore naturally, when turned over to explode. Even if a child picked up the loaf and carried it off, that child at least would be blown to atoms, which at any rate would have been something for the conspirators to congratulate themselves upon. The spring-mattress, of course, was to ease the jolting to the bombs, and obviate any random jerking loose of the acid, which might have had the deplorable result of sacrificing the valuable life of the conspirator who drove the cart. The other loaves, too, with no explosive contents, had their use. The two long ones, which fitted across the inside of the cart, would be jammed across so as to hold the bombs in the centre, and the others would be used to pack the batch on the other sides and prevent any dangerous slipping about. The thing seemed pretty plain, except that as yet I had no idea of how Hewitt learned anything of the business.
I brought the four-wheeler up to the door of the stable and we thrust the man into it, and Hewitt locked the stable door with its proper key. Then we drove off to Tottenham Court Road police-station, and, by Hewittâs order, straight into the yard.
In less than ten minutes from our departure from the stable our prisoner was finally secured, and Hewitt was deep in consultation with police officials. Messengers were sent and telegrams despatched, and presently Hewitt came to me with information.
âThe name of the helpless Frenchman the police found this morning,â he said, âappears to be Gerardâat least I am almost certain of it. Among the papers found on the prisonerâwhose full name doesnât appear, but who seems to be spoken of as Luigi (he is Italian)âamong the papers, I say, is a sort of notice convening a meeting for this evening to decide as to the âfinal punishmentâ to be awarded the âtraitor Gérard, now in charge of comrade Pingard.â
âThe place of meeting is not mentioned, but it seems more than probable that it will be at the Bakunin Club, not five minutesâ walk from this place. The police have all these places under quiet observation, of course, and that is the club at which apparently important Anarchist meetings have been held lately. It is the only club that has never been raided as yet, and, it would seem, the only one they would feel at all safe in using for anything important.
âMoreover, Luigi just now simply declined to open his mouth when asked where the meeting was to be, and said nothing when the names of several other places were suggested, but suddenly found his tongue at the mention of the Bakunin Club, and denied vehemently that the meeting was to be thereâit was the only thing he uttered. So that it seems pretty safe to assume that it is to be there. Now, of course, the matterâs very serious. Men have been
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