CHAPTER XXV.\
THE HOUR
1
That last dash to Felsenweir is memorable down to the smallest details—because of how it ended. I can remember—most poignantly of all—Marusa’s white face. In the passionate anger and indignation of her first discovery, she had been blind to all the consequences of her action.
Now she knew.
I held her hand very tightly as she sat between Lonergan and myself in the big police car. But I don’t think she was even aware of my presence.
Max drove, a police official beside him.
News of the gun was somewhat disquieting. At a point considerably below the Devil’s Elbow, tackle had parted and the carriage was badly jammed. Reinforcements of axmen and new tackle were already on the way.
It was close on one o’clock when we swung around the hairpin bend and saw the gleam of arms.
At which moment, Lonergan spoke dully.
“Don’t take any advice I give from now on,” he said. “I think… Anubis has taken control!”
“Great heavens!”
Max sprang down to the road. We all got out.
“Are you sure, old man?”
“No. It’s maybe imagination. The strain of expecting—that is kind of heavy.”
Max and I exchanged glances of silent understanding.
We must not lose sight of Lonergan for a moment.…
Forty arrests had been made in Baden-Baden alone, of persons wearing the Anubis disk. But I could not help wondering if any of the armed men lining Felsenweir woods concealed similar amulets—under heavy wrist-watch bands, for example.
Was the gun crew reliable?
Acting contrary to definite orders, six men had lost their lives already. They had penetrated to the woods.…
No more would go that way. A sort of dumb terror brooded over the roads and few words were spoken.
We made a complete inspection of the several groups surrounding the place, returning at a few minutes before two o’clock to the point from which we had set out.
Three planes had gone up, before Max could get the order cancelled. They had all crashed at points so far untraceable. I think the energy wave must have formed a death trap of some sort.
Clearly visible as I knew we must be to the watchers in Felsenweir, I wondered what methods of attack Anubis controlled and when he would put them into operation. At two o’clock came news of the gun. They expected to have it placed by three!
A suspicion that Anubis, in the circumstances, would loose death on the world before the hour arranged, I presently dismissed—realizing that to do so must result in serious havoc amongst his chosen ranks.
At half-past two, reports came from many widely separated points of a great flight of “bats” crossing the forest!
What did this mean? New arrivals? Or the garrison, an unknown quantity, deserting?
“Do you think,” Marusa whispered, “that…”
“Yes, darling,” I said in a very low voice. “I don’t believe she would—go, and leave you.”
Fifteen minutes before dawn the gun opened fire.
We heard the shell whining over our very heads—the distant report… a dull explosion.
Marusa threw herself into my arms, crushed her hands to her ears, and then slipped gently down—insensible.
“It is best for her,” Max whispered. “Lay her here on the cushions—I will look after her.”
A hoarse murmur, coming from thousands of throats, and swelling from miles around, rose eerily out of the darkness.… A second shell whined over the forest. It did not explode.
Premonitory flushes showed in the sky.
It was the third shell that scored… or was the cataclysm due to something else? To some unforeseen flaw in the monstrous power plant controlled by Anubis?—to Mme. Yburg?
At the time of writing, I don’t know. I wonder if I ever shall?
Even as we listened, breathlessly, to the shriek of its passing, came a blinding green light… brighter than tropical lightning—bright as the brightest sunshine! It illuminated the Black Forest for hundreds of miles, as later reports proved.
A veritable earthquake shook the land. I felt the road heave beneath me—I heard a blast of sound such as no explosion imaginable could have produced.…
The concussion was unendurable. I lost consciousness… nor was I alone.
Rending and tearing of massive rocks in motion, of falling trees, awakened me—the sky was an angry red dome.
The crag of Felsenweir had become a veritable volcano! The huge castle was in flames! …
But the world was saved.
THE END