The book showed that Loge had been employed as an expert operator, in the pay of a certain radical organization, to pull off dynamiting jobs in various parts of the country.This was his account book with the organization.He had done his work and taken his pay as methodically as a plumber might.And he had been paid well.Cleggett guessed that Loge was not particularly interested in the work in its relationship to the revolutionary cause; it was the money to be made in this way, and not any particular sympathy with his employers, which attracted Loge, so Cleggett divined.Cleggett was astonished at the number of jobs which Loge had engineered.The book threw light on mysterious explosions which had occurred throughout a period of five years.
But it was the third manuscript book which displayed the real Logan Black.
This was also in cipher.Dr.Farnsworth and Cleggett had translated but a few lines of it when they perceived that it was a diary.With a vanity almost inconceivable to those who have not reflected upon the criminal nature, Loge had written here the tale of his own life, for his own reading.He had written it in loving detail.It was, in fact, the book in which he looked when he wished to admire himself.
"It is odd," said Cleggett, "that so clever a man should write down his own story in this way.""This book," said Farnsworth, "would be a boon to a psychologist interested in criminology.You say it is odd.But with a certain type of criminal, it is almost usual.The human soul is full of strange impulses.One of the strangest is towards just this sort of record.Cunning, and the vanity which destroys cunning, often exist side by side.The criminal of a certain type almost worships himself; he is profoundly impressed with his own cleverness.He is a braggart; he swaggers; he defeats himself.A strange idiocy mingles with his cleverness.""Even people who are not criminals do just that sort of thing," saidLady Agatha."Look at Samuel Pepys.He was one of the most timid of beings.And he valued his place in the world mightily.But he wrote down the story of his own disgrace in his diary--it had to come out of him! And then, timid and cautious as he was, he did not destroy the book! He let it get out of his possession."It was an evil, a monstrous personality which leered out of Logan Black's diary.Boastful of his own iniquity, swaggering in his wickedness, fatuous with self-love, he recounted his deeds with gusto and with particularity.They did not read a quarter of this terrible autobiography at the time, but they read enough to see the man in the process of building up a criminal organization of his own, with ramifications of the most surprising nature.
"This man," said Dr.Farnsworth, with a shudder, "actually has the ambition to be the head of nothing less than a crime trust.""It seems to be something more than an ambition," said Cleggett."It seems to be almost an accomplished fact.""Ugh!" said Lady Agatha, with a gesture of disgust, "he's like a great horrid spider spinning webs!"Interested in anarchy only on its practical side, as the paid dynamiter of the inner circle of radicals, Logan Black in his diary jeered at and mocked the cause he served.And more than that, the man seemed to take a perverted pleasure in attaching to himself young enthusiasts of the radical type, eager to follow him as the disinterested leader of a group of Reds, and then betraying them into the most sordid sort of crime.Cleggett found--and could imagine the grimace of malevolent satisfaction with which it had been written--this note:
Heinrich is about ready to leave off talking his cant of universal brotherhood, and make a little easy money in the way I have shown him.It will be interesting to see what happens in side of Heinrich when he realizes he is not an idealist, but a criminal.Will he stick to me on the new lay?But those Germans are so sentimental --he may commit suicide.
Cleggett recalled the manhandling Heinrich had received.A little farther along he came upon this entry: The Italian-American boy is a find.Jones and Giuseppe! Puritan father, Italian mother--and he worships me! It will be a test for my personal magnetism, the handling of Gieseppe Jones will.He hates a thief worse than the devil hates holy water.If I could make him steal for me, I would know that I could do anything.
"That's our young poet in the forecastle!" said Cleggett."I wonder if Loge still held him." And then as the memory of the boy's ravings came to him he mused: "Yes--he held the boy! That is what the fellow meant in his delirium.Do you remember that he kept saying: 'I'm a revolutionist, not a crook!'? And yet he continued to obey Loge!""Is it not strange," said Lady Agatha, "that the man should take such pride in working ruin?"All three were silent for a space.And then they looked at each other with a shiver.The sense of the strong and sinister personality of Logan Black struck on their spirits like a bleak wind.
Cleggett was the first to recover himself.
"God willing," he said solemnly, "I will bring that man to justice personally!"Just then two bells struck.It had taken them more time than they had realized to make even a partial examination of the contents of the box.Cleggett, when the bell sounded, looked at his watch to see what time it was--he was still a little unfamiliar with the nautical system.
"He will go to any length to get this back into his possession," said Cleggett, as he dumped the heap of incriminating evidence back into the box and began to nail the boards on again.
"Any length," echoed the Doctor.
Pat upon the thought came the sound of taxicabs without.They went on deck and saw a sinister procession rolling by.It consisted of three machines, and there were three men in each cab.Loge and Pierre were in the foremost one.None of the company vouchsafed so much as a glancein the direction of the Jasper B.as the cabs whirled past towards Morris's.It was undoubtedly a reinforcement of gunmen.
"Ah!" said Cleggett, pointing to them."The real battle is about to begin!They are making ready for the attack!"
