The blood-tax

Front matter

Class TZ^

Book lI, E5E BX

Gopyiight})”.

Chapter II

That same evening, having washed off the dust of the journey, Millar was presenting himself to his employer, who proved to be a tall, grey-haired, decorouslooking personage, with a slight, badly-masked nervousness of manner, for which at first sight there seemed to be no adequate reason.

The apartment in which Herr Eisner received his newly engaged director was as decorous as himself, and also as obviously well-to-do, bearing upon its heavily-carved furniture, its plainly but expensively papered walls, its thick, soberly-tinted carpets, the unmistakable seal of wealth tempered by self-restraint.

It was some minutes before Millar could come to any conclusion with himself regarding the man beside whom his lot was to be cast for a full twelve-month. The first impression, indeed, had not been unfavourable, yet certain peculiarities of manner seemed to demand an explanation.

You have a long journey behind you,^^ began Herr Eisner, smiling rather suddenly, and becoming grave again with the same abruptness. ^^That is to say when one considers the speed of our express trains, it seems almost absurd to speak of long journeys; those are things of the past. But perhaps you are nevertheless tired ? he asked, with a return of what looked like anxiety.

Then — Millar having disclaimed any such sensations —

^^Ah, yes, the English power of resistance — such strength ! such vitality ! Truly, it awakens the wonder of the world. That is to say^^ — he hurriedly corrected himself — ^Vhen not applied to illegal ends.’^

As he sharply cleared his throat his eyes went instinctively to the newspaper at his elbow, which he had laid down on Millar’s entrance, and on whose open page the young Englishman could catch the heading of the ^^Pumped-out Lion” article, with which he was already so disagreeably familiar.

I think I have him now,” was Millar’s reflection after a few more minutes of desultory conversation. ^^It’s the dislike to commit himself to any positive assertion which puts him in such a hurry to modify his statements — a sort of degenerated prudence, acquired by too strict a course of business habits, no doubt. Anxiety not to say anything that he may be called upon to stand to later on — that’s the root of the nervousness. But not a bad sort, all the same. Xow, at this moment, I can plainly see that his honest German soul is hovering between the desire to make me feel welcome in a strange land, and deep-seated disapproval of the grasping and piratical race to which I belong, and which his favourite ^daily’ has just been holding up to his condemnation.”

shall be very curious for your opinion of the manufactory,” began Herr Eisner, after a prolonged scrutiny of his well-made boots. According to our standards there are few faults to find ; but I am well aware that this is a branch of trade in which you have

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outstripped us/^ He smiled this time openly, as though glad to have found a perfectly safe compliment to pay. That is why I have decided for the English methods. And the sooner the changes can be carried through the better; several large orders are waiting — the largest quite lately received is from the War Office.^^

^^The War Office asked Millar, becoming more attentive. What do they want bicycles for ?

^^Eor the autumn manoeuvres, which are to be on an exceptionally large scale this year, and during which more extensive experiments are to made with cyclemen scouts.”

^^Ah! More experiments? Keally your government does not go to sleep, whatever may be said of others !”

The laugh that went with the words was so unmistakably tinged with bitterness that Herr Elsner^s decorous face showed a mild perplexity.

^^So we shall be working for the army ? That gives me a quite new interest in my task, and a new zest; for I can truly say that my admiration of your magnificent army dates back to my childhood. To be quite frank — it was the chance of studying the military question at head-quarters which decided me to close with your offer. But you need not be afraid,” added Millar, thinking to see an additional shade of anxiety on his employer’s face; ^^my work shall not suffer because of my private passions. Although I confess that rifles and cannons appear to me just now the most interesting articles of manufactory, be sure that nevertheless the bicycle shall come first. And

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if in my leisure hours I choose to regale myself with the sight of your splendid uniforms, I presume that your patriotism can only take it as a compliment/^ He looked straight at Herr Eisner, expecting to meet unqualified approval, but was astonished to read a mixture of emotions, seemingly struggling for the upperhand. That the appeal to patriotism had not fallen flat was to be clearly seen by the flush which had invaded the long, clean-shaven face, as well as the newly-lit spark in the pale grey eyes, and yet the thin-lipped mouth was jerking undecidedly, almost disapprovingly.

Our army — ah, yes, who would not be proud of that? The most magnificent in Europe — ^you say truly. Xo one grudges to our soldiers the recognition they deserve, but is that a reason for withholding from other classes the meed they work for surely as hard as do our soldiers? Cannot the man with a black coat to his back be as good a patriot as the one in uniform, and is it not hard upon him to see the uniform always preferred? That is to say^^ — and Herr Eisner pulled himself up with a visible jerk — our gracious Emperor is the same to all his subjects, of course, though himself a soldier; it is the public only that seems inclined to make invidious distinctions — that is to say, at moments and on certain occasions/^

Yes, I know that the army is the spoilt child of the empire,” said Millar, with true British directness making straight for his object ; but I confess that it would give me great pleasure to make a nearer acquaintance with a few of those spoilt children. Do

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you know, Herr Eisner, I have been wondering whether you will be able to procure me any introductions to military circles ? With so large a garrison as Mannstadt possesses I presume you have various officers on your visiting list ?

Over Herr Eisner’s face, out of which the patriotic flush had scarcely died, there abruptly came a certain prim stiffening of all the features.

^^Not at all; we have no military names on our visiting list. In a place like Mannstadt you will readily understand that there is room for various circles of society, and that the very difference in their ingredients tends to keep each to itself. The gentlemen of the army have their own interests, their own pursuits, their own habits, and we have ours; therefore, though I can introduce you to many most honourably-placed business friends, I cannot take you into any officer’s house.”

This time the badly suppressed soreness of tone, in which a little half-pathetic wistfulness seemed to be mixed, could not escape the listener’s attention, and had the effect of setting him pondering.

When, a few minutes later, he rose to leave, the hour for next da/s inspection of the manufactory had been flxed.

There is the clever young engineer whom I have lately engaged,” said Eisner, rising likewise. That is to say I take him to be clever, though his manner verges on the impertinent. When you have spoken to him you will tell me whether he will do for fltting up the new machinery. I have appointed him to meet us to-morrow,”

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He stopped short, hut instead of grasping the hand which Millar had instinctively extended, stood for a moment frowning at the floor and apparently engaged in some sharp mental conflict.

If you are not too tired, perhaps you will allow me to present you to my wife?^^ was the phrase which broke the silence, showing that the instinct of hospitality had triumphed over that of caution.

Along a well carpeted passage Millar followed his host to a sumptuously furnished boudoir, in which a big, fair-haired woman, who ten years ago had probably been something quite out of the common in the Walkure style of beauty, shyly and pompously received him. Her hair was still beautiful, as also were her full red lips, but Walkiires, if they consult their vanity, should never drink beer, and the redundancy of outline here clearly showed that too many Viertels had been indulged in. ^^An over-grown, over-fed child,^^ was Millar’s verdict at the conclusion of a conversation whose naive warmth of interest — Frau Eisner seemed chiefly anxious to know whether he had had enough to eat on the journey — ^both amused and a little touched him. Then she is not the pianoplayer,” he added in his mind.

Even while closeted with Eisner in the distant business-room the sound of piano-chbrds had come faintly to his ear. It had met him^ more distinctly in the corridor, hut instead! o£ ooming ’to *lan en'd with the opening of the door, as he. hM expected, those chords, sad and soft, continued' to penetrate in monotonous repetition from some apartment alongside, where in the pauses of conversation the conscientious one — '

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two — threes of the invisible practise! were plainly audible. Sounds like the accompaniment of a song/^ thought Millar, to whom the melody seemed not quite unfamiliar.

Towards midday on the following day the inspection of the manufactory was over, and Millar, having settled all necessary preliminaries with Herr Eisner, who had now hurried home to his midday meal, found himself standing in the big, unbeautiful workyard, in the company of Gustav Hort, that same young engineer whom the manufacturer had committed himself so far as to pronounce clever. It had not been without an additional word of warning that Eisner had left his new director tete-a'-Ute with this young man.

Very much inclined to be forward, you know; the sort of person that requires a good deal of keeping in his place, and with some extremely dangerous opinions,^^ and this time there had actually been no modification added.

The person thus described did not at first sight appear to bear out this unfavourable verdict. A tall, dark-haired young man, younger obviously than Millar himself, with a singularly wide forehead, broad and somewhat prominent cheek-bones, a sharply pointed chin, whose sharpness was accentuated by the stubbly black beard that outlined the face, a pair of fine dark eyes looking out somewhat morosely from under straight eyebrows — such was the appearance which Millar’s new acquaintance presented. Striking he undoubtedly was, and would have been strikingly handsome but for the ill-humour iii the eyes and a

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certain want of straightness in the carriage of the well-built figure. Neither did he impress Millar as unsympathetic, although his first words seemed to bear out at least one side of Herr Eisner’s opinion of him.

So we are to work together, it seems,” he remarked, without waiting for the other’s address, and without taking his hands out of his great-coat pockets, into which he had deeply thrust them. It is to be hoped that we shall get on.”

That will depend principally upon yourself,” said Millar, somewhat distantly, mindful of Herr Eisner’s warning. But the unabashed engineer began to smile visibly under his beard.

I know what you are thinking of ; shall I tell you ? At this moment you are saying to yourself : ^ The

impudence of the animal ! It isn’t together we are to work, it is one above the other, and I, of course, on the top.’ Have I guessed it ? Since you’re an Englishman I suppose you will tell me the truth.”

What makes you suppose that my nation cannot fib when they find it convenient ?”

^^Ah, I don’t say they cannot, only that it costs them a greater effort, and that, consequently, the bribe offered requires to be larger. I am calculating the proportion of chances, that is all.”

And where have you gathered your extremely flattering opinions of my country, if I may ask ? ”

I haven’t gathered them, I have drawn my conclusions.”

From what?”

From your national institutions, your laws, your

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customs. Xot that I approve of them unconditionally, but among a mass of pernicious institutions they seem to me the least pernicious. Over there, at least, an individual may feel that he is an individual, while here — he shrugged his shoulders and threw a sharp glance around him, as though suddenly remembering that inconvenient listeners might be near.

What do you think of your new master ? he enquired, by way, obviously, of changing the subject.

Eeally, I don’t see — began Millar in a fresh accent of astonishment.

What business I have to feel any curiosity on the subject, or what business either you or I have to have any opinion at all of the man who pays us both; it’s his money that regards us, and not his character, that’s what you were nearly saying, was it not ? And yet that does not sound quite British. Over there you are allowed to have a private opinion, are you not ? ”

Yes, but over there we have a way of keeping it to ourselves.”

I understand. That is snub number two ; before it comes to number three it will be as well to explain ourselves. Since we are to work together it would certainly simplify matters if we completely understood each other’s point of view. Mine is very simple : It is my technical knowledge that I have farmed out to Herr Eisner for the present, not my private views, and so long as I give him the best I have in that line I cannot acknowledge other obligations towards him, just as little as I can acknowledge your social superiority to myself. For the work we have to do you require my skill quite as much as I require Herr

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Eisner’s money ; we each contribute a necessary ingredient to the result, therefore in my opinion we all stand equal. If you reflect upon this for a moment you will understand that our intercourse can only be pleasant if conducted on terms of perfect equality. On these terms I am perfectly ready to be of service to you in any way in which a native may serve a stranger, but only on these terms. It stands with you to close with them or to reject them.”

His gloomy eyes lit up as he said it, and something in the squareness of the look by which he felt himself challenged, weighed down the balance in Millar’s mind in favour of this new and somewhat startling acquaintance.

I will close with them,” he said, frankly putting out his hand. This morning’s inspection has shown me that you are the man I need ; nor do I require to make any violent effort to accept your friendship on the terms you offer it, since I have been taught from childhood that work is at least as respectable as money.”

That will do,” said Hort, curtly, placing his hand for one moment in that of Millar. You are a stranger here; you will tell me if I can aid you in anything.”

There is one thing that perhaps you can help me in. I have already applied to Herr Eisner, but it seems he can do nothing. I absolutely require some introductions to military men; perhaps you can procure me these ? ”

Military men ! ” The accent in which Hort repeated the words was one almost of consternation,

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while his dark eyes grew, in an instant, threateningly big. ^^What do you require to know of military men ?

He looked so tragical as he said it that Millar nearly laughed.

I have a plan. It would take too long to explain now. But, to be brief, I, as well as others of my countrymen, have reached the conclusion that universal conscription is the only salvation for our land. I am anxious to study the subject, and Germany is the best place for doing so : that is one of the reasons why I am here. But for this I require to get into touch with members of your splendid, your truly model army. Therefore I ask you: Can you help me here ?

Before he had done speaking, Hort had taken two steps away, agitated steps, which he immediately retraced, standing still again before Millar with a face angrily convulsed.

^^What! you — youT he said, moderating his voice with evident difficulty; ^^you, who belong to a freeborn people, would bring this curse down upon a freeborn land? You would lay the blood-tax upon your own shoulders? Has the spirit of slavery spread so far as that ? But you donT know what you are talking about. My army ! Ha, ha ! What a joke ! Wait till I tell you — ^but one cannot talk here.^^ And again he threw that half rebellious, half fearful glance around him. If you want this conversation to continue you must come to my lodgings : but perhaps you have heard more than you want to/^

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On the contrary, I want to hear a great deal more.”

Two minutes later an address had been put down in Millar’s note-book and an appointment made. As he walked back to his hotel he could not help wondering what Herr Eisner would say to this so inexplicably sudden intimacy with the very man whom he had been warned against. Undoubtedly the engineer’s views of life were not quite normal, but for this very reason they piqued Millar’s curiosity. A German not proud of his army ! It seemed almost an anomaly. What could the man have to say against it ? He must hear without delay, since it was of primary importance to look at the subject from as many different points of view as possible.

Chapter III

That afternoon^ after a tramway journey, followed by a tramp through half-deserted streets, Millar found himself at the door of about the dreariest sort of human residence he had ever known — a house, built obviously experimentally on the very outskirts of the town, destined to form part of a future street, whose lines were yet chiefly marked by plankings. In a by no means splendid isolation it now stood, having found no mate as yet, presenting, to the right and to the left, two windowless brick walls, with the mortar crumbling off the cheaply stuccoed front, and spots of damp already soaking up from the foundation, somewhat like a person who has grown prematurely old before having attained his rightful position in life. On either side tracts of building ground, on which no one built, and broken only by a few mounds of bricks now buried in snow ; on the plankings, largely printed advertisements, which no one ever read, and whose paper rags fluttered limply in the wind. Nothing more depressing could well be imagined than this missed experiment of an enterprising builder seen thus through the winter dusk.

On the third storey Hort was already standing in an open doorway.

I saw you coming ; our traffic isnH so dense out here as to make it difficult to pick out an acquaint-

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ance/^ and he smiled sharply and bitterly. If you do me the honour — the pleasure/^ he corrected himself — of visiting me again, I should not advise you to come after dusk without a good revolver in your pocket. Why, my own apartment is not unlike a den of thieves, is it ?

^^Xot very unlike,^^ mused Millar, as he looked about him at the dingy walls, whose bareness was relieved only by untidy looking pipe-racks and by a pair of crossed fencing rapiers — remnants of student days, no doubt — at the smoked ceiling, the badly painted deal floor, the huge bed-sofa, on which the cheap ginger-coloured stuff had burst at one place, allowing the horsehair stuffing to creep out.

It was on the ginger-coloured sofa that Millar was invited to take place, while Hort, having selected a cigar for his guest, proceeded to kindle a longstemmed pipe for himself. So complete was the silence in which the next few minutes passed that the meeting seemed to bear the character of a smoking concert rather than that of a projected discussion. Even when Hort spoke at last it was not to refer to the subject of the morning’s talk.

^^I forget,” he remarked, re-adjusting his meerschaum, did you tell me or not whether you had seen Frau Eisner ? ”

Yes ; I was presented to her.”

And to no one else? ”

Is there anyone else ? ”

^^Then you did not see Praulein Thekla?” asked Hort, with a rather keen side glance, which escaped

Millar’s attention only because he was busy with his cigar.

^^Xo, but perhaps I heard her. There certainly was someone practising music alongside. She is the daughter^ I suppose ? ”

The only daughter/’ said Hort, briefly^ and again lapsed into silence.

Having waited another minute, Millar decided for direct action.

I, too, have an answer to claim. I asked you this morning whether you could introduce me to any officers; and, although the subject seems to touch you very nearly, you have not said either ^yes,’ or ^no.’ ”

Awaking from deep thought with a movement whose abruptness resembled a start, Hort, without speaking at once, got up from his place, and, going to the door, seemed to be assuring himself that the passage was clear.

^^Yes, it is true that the subject touches me very nearly/’ he said, as he slowly returned. ^^You will scarcely believe what a shock you gave me in talking of conscription this morning. You, an Englishman, making yourself into an advocate for that hateful military yoke ! Explain that to me, if you can ! ”

Explain to me, rather, how it comes, that you, a German, should be an adversary of that system whose results have placed your country so high among the nations.”

I am not a German !” said Hort, with a gesture that was almost violent.

^^Xot a German? What then?”

^^A man born by chance in Germany, and whom

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this mere accident cannot identify with its hateful institutions, the most hateful of which is that mob of uniformed policemen under whose pressure we groan/^

Then as Millar sat looking at him with something very like consternation on his face : —

^^You are astonished, I see, and I am a little astonished myself. I do not generally give myself away quite so easily — ^never to a German ; but you are not a German, and I am a man who goes by impressions ; now your face gives me the impression that my confidence will not be misused.^^

^^That it will certainly not be ; but

^^But you cannot help wondering what sort of a person you are talking to. I will tell you the worst at once ; or rather, tell me first what you exactly understand by an anarchist

^^An anarchist? — well, we know them mostly by hearsay as yet ; but by an anarchist I fancy I understand principally a thrower of bombs and firer off of pistols at royal heads.^^

" I thought so. It is the terrorists that have earned us that reputation. I have nothing to do with those illogical hot-heads. Can violence be fought with violence? Why, exactly the elimination of violence is the very root of our theories. It not in the bombs that salvation lies. But if to disapprove from the bottom of one^s heart of the present constitution of society, to spend each leisure hour in studying the means for wiping away the present unhappy order and substituting another happier one, is to be an

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anarchist, then you have an anarchist before you, and one who would not object to dying for his cause.^^

He had not sat down again, and now stood still in front of his visitor, who continued to gaze up, fascinated and perplexed, into his dark, eager face.

I can read disapproval in your eyes — ^that was to be expected. To begin with you are an Englishman, that is, a comparatively free individual, as ideas of freedom nowadays stand. In the second place you are well situated; that is to say, you belong to that class which profits by present arrangements. Why should you want any change ? It would not profit to you, only to people of whose existence you are, of course, aware, but whom you have only looked at through the medium of dry statistics or perhaps of emotional newspaper articles, — never close at hand, never as man to man. You have subscribed to charities, of course, and given coins to beggars, and I feel certain that you have never illtreated any of the workmen in your manufactories. But what do you know of their intimate existence? Of the private miseries of those same men and women whose blistered hands gain your substantial meals first and their piece of dry bread afterwards ? Have you been into their homes ? Have you lain upon their beds, to prove their hardness ? I have ! Have you turned your stomach with the nauseous food they live upon ? I have ! I have ! Have you held your nose at the smells they move among? If you had done all these things, or only half of them, you would not wonder at so many bombs being thrown and so many pistols fired off, you would wonder rather at there being so few; you would ask yourself

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with astonishment whence one-half of humanity — what do I say? — whence nine-tenths of humanity takes the ass-like docility, the imbecile patience to submit to the tyranny of the one-tenth/^

With a sharply drawn breath he broke off, and, moving towards the table, began to grope about blindly for the matches, for within the last few minutes the dusk had turned almost to darkness. Millar, moved in spite of himself by the penetration of the tone and mechanically following the gestures of the other, could see how the hand which struck the match and put the flame to a tin petroleum lamp, jerked with excitement. A minute passed before the badly trimmed wick would burn, and during which neither of the men spoke.

God forbid that I should declare ever3d;hing to be as it should be,^^ observed Millar after that pause.

Our present order of things has its flaws — its deep flaws — I admit it, though nothing proves that any better order is possible. But what puzzles me is your spite against the army; the army, surely, is not responsible for the miseries of the poor

The army is the instrument of the government, is it not ? its most tangible, its most efficacious instrument ; no government feels quite safe except behind a hedge of bayonets ; and since I disapprove of the very existence of a government I naturally disapprove of its instruments, and would disapprove, even if the cost of those smart tunics and glittering helmets did not come out of the pockets of the hungering people.^^ ^^And yet you must have passed through the army yourself?”

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I had not passed through it, it is possible that I might hate it less/^ said Hort, with a simplicity that verged on the grim. ^^You know something of my views now; perhaps you can imagine what it means, with these views, to have to put on a uniform and become not an individual but a unit in a mass, to have to move my arms and legs, not when I want to move them, but at the bellowed-out command of some rednosed sergeant, whom in ordinary life I would never dream of shaking hands with — ^my inferior in education, in breeding, in everything that ought to count, yet in uniform my superior, or rather the arbitrary sovereign before whose tipsy gaze I am expected to quail. And this is what we all have to submit to, with rage in our hearts or no, it makes no difference, — it^s one of the charms of the system that private feelings do not count.’^

Millar was silent, lost in deep reflection. All this was so totally new to him as to be disconcerting. Whatever might be thought of conscription on the other side of the channel, he had expected to hear but one voice on this side. But, though troubled he was not shaken. The source from which the objection came was one which his law-abiding British soul could not accept as legitimate.

At any rate, it is clear that I have come to the wrong address so far as the military introductions are concerned,^^ he remarked presently, with a laugh which was intended to give a lighter turn to the talk. ^^Eeally, it seems that I have no luck in this matter.”

I don’t know about that,” said Hort, taking place again after an uneasy walk about the room, and

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slowly fingering his burnt-out pipe. I have promised to help you if I could, and although I disapprove of the object, I am accustomed to keep my promises. I cannot take you into any military family, but I can do something else — I can procure you an invitation.”