k of despairing
encouragement from the Council, got upon his feet.

"I have to ask your Majesty," he said very resolutely, "that we may now
be allowed to proceed to the business for which we have been called
together."

"At a given signal----" went on the King.

"I must protest, your Majesty."

It was quite useless.

"At a given signal--I will give you your signal, Mr. Prime Minister,
when you may throw your bomb; yes, for I have seen you preparing it!--at
a given signal when the King and his Parliament were assembled together
in one place, some of our forces would mingle with the crowd; others
emerging from places of concealment would form into ranks and advance
from various quarters upon Westminster. Then, before any one was aware,
we would cable our declaration of war, rush the House, seize the heads
of the Government, carry them off to the topmost story of the clock
tower, garrison it from basement to roof, and there, with the King and
his whole Cabinet in our hands, stand siege till the rest of the nation
sued for peace."

Once more the Prime Minister endeavored to interpose; he was borne down.

"They could not blow us up," went on the King, "without blowing our
prisoners up also; they could not starve us out, for the King and his
Cabinet would perforce have to share our privations. We should have in
our possession not only the whole personnel of the Government, but that
supreme symbol and safeguard of the popular will which crowns their
constitutional edifice. And, gentlemen, you may think me as mad as you
like--you may arrest me, you may take me to the police-station, you may
rob me of all the evidence of conspiracy I have against you, and you may
call me Jack--jack-of-all-trades, master of none--Jack, plain Jack----"

The Prime Minister and Council sprang to their feet. Consternation was
upon the faces of all.

"But nothing! nothing!" he went on, "no power on earth--except it were a
whole army of steeplejacks----"

At that word the flow of his eloquence ceased; his mouth remained open
but no sound came from it. Suddenly his staring eyes puckered and
closed, wincing as from a blow; and his face flushed to a fiery red,
then paled.

He gave a short cry, threw out an arm feebly; wavered, toppled, crumpled
like a thing without bone, and fell back into his chair.

"My God!" muttered the Prime Minister. "Oh, great Heaven!"

Some one, more nimble of wit than the rest, dashed out of the room to
seek aid.