What happens after that, a
particular section of Scotland Yard knows too well and laughs at.
A conspirator detests ridicule. More men have been stabbed with
Lucrezia Borgia daggers and dropped into the Thames for laughing
at Head Centres and Triangles than for betraying secrets; for this
is human nature.
The Third Three conspired over whiskey cocktails and a clean sheet
of note-paper against the British Empire and all that lay therein.
This work is very like what men without discernment call politics
before a general election. You pick out and discuss, in the
company of congenial friends, all the weak points in your
opponents' organisation, and unconsciously dwell upon and
exaggerate all their mishaps, till it seems to you a miracle that
the hated party holds together for an hour.
"Our principle is not so much active demonstration - that we leave
to others - as passive embarrassment, to weaken and unnerve," said
the first man. "Wherever an organisation is crippled, wherever
confusion is thrown into any branch of any department, we gain a
step for those who take on the work; we are but the forerunners."
He was a German enthusiast, and editor of a newspaper, from whose
leading articles he quoted frequently.
Pages:
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75