Six shrouded figures stepped out from the crowd.
Said the Grand Imperial Kleagle: “Possess
yourselves of the body of this guilty wretch!”
And to the ex-servicemen: “Yield up this
varlet to the High Secret Court-martial of the Klan,
which alone has power to punish such as he.”
What the bewildered members of the Brigade made of
all this hocus-pocus I had no idea. Afterwards,
when the adventure was over, I asked Mary, “Where
in the world did you get that stuff?” And she
told me how she had once acted in a children’s
comedy, in which there was an old magician who spent
his time putting spells on people. She had had
to witness his incantations eight or ten times a week
for nearly a year, so of course the phrases had got
fixed in her memory, and they had served just as well
to impress these grown-up children.
Or perhaps the ex-servicemen thought this might be
a further plan of those who had employed them.
Whatever they thought, it was obvious that they were
hopelessly outnumbered. There could be nothing
for a mob to do but yield to a Super-mob; and they
yielded. Those who were in front of Carpenter
stepped back, and the Loyal High Inexorable Guardians
and the Grand Holy Seneschals took Carpenter by the
arms and led him away. Apparently they were going
to overlook the rest of us; but Old Joe and Lynch
and myself took Abell and Moneta by the shoulders
and shoved them along, past the ex-service men and
into the midst of the “Klansmen.”
There was no need to consider dignity after that.
We hustled Carpenter to the nearest of the busses,
and put him in; the Grand Imperial Kleagle followed,
and the rest of us clambered in after her. Sitting
up beside the driver, watching the scene, was T-S,
beaming with delight; he got me by the hand and wrung
it. I could not speak, my teeth were literally
chattering with excitement. Carpenter, sitting
in the seat behind us, must have realized by now the
meaning of this scandalous adventure; but he said not
a word, and the white-gowned Klansmen piled in behind
him, and the siren shrieked out into the night, and
the bus backed to the corner, and turned and sped
off; and all the way to Eternal City, T-S and I and
Old Joe slapped one another on the back and roared
with laughter, and the rest of the Klansmen roared
with laughter—all save the Grand Imperial
Kleagle, who sat by Carpenter’s side, and was
discovered to be weeping.
T-S and I had exchanged a few whispered words, and
decided that we would take Carpenter to his place,
which was a few miles in the country from Eternal
City. He would be as safe there as anywhere I
could think of. When we had got to the studios,
we discharged our Klansmen, and arranged to send Old
Joe to his home, and the three disciples to a hotel
for the night; then I invited Carpenter to step into
T-S’s car. He had not spoken a word, and
all he said now was, “I wish to be alone.”
