Burton sipped his brandy. “Any suggestion he was abducted?”
“None, but neither did he have any reason to take off of his own accord.”
Trounce added, “We know that Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Nurse Nightingale were seized by the two Indian chaps, while Galton and Darwin were taken by Burke and Hare—who also made an unsuccessful play for Brunel. Who abducted Charles Babbage, Samuel Gooch, and possibly this Lister chap, we don’t know—but whichever way we look at it, it appears that two opposing groups of kidnappers are at work.”
There came a knock at the door and the housekeeper poked her head in.
“Mother Angell,” Burton said. “What happened to the clothes I was wearing when I had the accident?”
“I believe the hospital burned them, sir.”
“And the contents of my pockets?”
“Here.” His housekeeper crossed to one of the desks, took a small tray from it, and handed it to him. She turned and stalked out of the room, muttering, “Right in front of his bloomin’ eyes, it was. Up and down the stairs like a blessed yo-yo and half the time for nothing.”
“Formidable woman, hey?” Slaughter murmured.
“She is,” Burton agreed. “Ah ha!” He picked something from the dish and held it up.
“A tiepin?” Trounce asked.
“Burke downed you with a very queer-looking pistol. It fired spines coated with some sort of venom. They knocked you out in an instant. I received one in the gut but for some reason it had no effect. I’ve been wondering why. This is the answer. It was in my waistcoat pocket and the spine hit it.” He stretched his arm forward and the two detectives saw the pin was topped with a small round disk of gold. There was a tiny dent in the middle of it. “I took it from Oliphant’s cabin on the Orpheus.”
“May I?” Trounce asked, reaching out.
Burton passed the pin over and the detective peered closely at the two letter-like inscriptions engraved into the metal.
“Ho! Well I never!” he said. “This is from the place Darwin mentioned—the League of Enochians Gentlemen’s Club. I’ve been investigating it. These two symbols appear on all its literature.”
“Do they, indeed?” Burton exclaimed. “So both Oliphant and Galton are members.”
Trounce handed the file over. “Here, I brought you the report. You’ll learn more about the club by reading it than from me trying to sum it up. One thing worth noting, though, is that it’s only since March, when the founder died and a gentleman named Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy became its president, that the clubhouse closed its doors and became a ‘by invite only’ affair.”
“March?” Burton mused. “Just when Oliphant joined and his behaviour took a turn for the worse. It appears we have a focus, at last. Trounce, I want you to keep a round-the-clock watch on the place. Record all the comings and goings. See if you can identify anyone who visits it.”
“I’ll rope in Spearing,” Trounce replied. “He might be the youngest detective on the Force but he’s as sharp as they come. We’ll do it in shifts. Incidentally—” He hesitated.
“What is it?”
“I can’t be certain, but since I started asking questions about the Enochians, I’ve had the conviction I’m being followed.”
Burton raised an eyebrow. He thought a moment then asked, “Do you carry a weapon?”
“Not usually.”
“It’s time you did. In fact, I recommend that all of us keep a gun handy.”
The Scotland Yard men nodded. Burton addressed Slaughter. “Your line of inquiry has been fruitful, so keep up with it. Stay focused on engineers and medical personnel. There’s a common thread to all this.”
“Which is?” Slaughter asked.
“Eugenics—a science that Galton developed. It strikes me that Burke’s weapon might be a product of it, which suggests there’s work being done in that illegal field. It would require medical knowledge and machinery.”
“I see. Rightio, sir.”
“Gentlemen, I’m likely to be out of commission for a few days longer. I rely on you to be my eyes and ears.”
“You can count on us, Sir Richard,” Slaughter said.
With that, the policemen departed and Burton settled down to read Trounce’s report. The detective’s handwriting looked like a spool of unravelling thread, undulating across the pages in a regular, quick, and fluid motion.
“Efficient mind,” Burton mused.
He read the first paragraph, blinked, and read it again.
The League of Enochians Gentlemen’s Club. Registered, 2nd January 1841. Occupied Mildew Street building the following day. Club originated in meetings held at The Hog in the Pound public house, Oxford Street. Same place where Edward Oxford had worked as a pot-boy.
“Edward Oxford!” Burton cried out. “The bloody Assassination again!”
He moved on to the next paragraph.
Current membership estimated at approximately 150.
Club founder: Henry de La Poer Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford (replaced as president upon his death by Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy). Born 26th April 1811. Inherited title in 1826, along with Curraghmore Estate in County Waterford, Ireland. Gambler, drunkard, prankster. Notorious. Nicknamed “The Mad Marquess.” January 1837, moved to England and purchased Darkening Towers Estate on the outskirts of Waterford Village. (No connection with the Irish county. Vanity? Fancied himself as marquess of an English estate?) Occupied the manor from 28th February ’37.
“And yet another coincidence, Trounce,” Burton muttered to himself. “The start of the Great Amnesia.”
Beresford killed in a horse-riding accident on the 29th of March, this year (1859). The marquessate passed to his brother, John.
The rest of the page was blank. Burton gazed at it for a moment, dwelling on the dates, then turned to the next sheet. It was Henry Beresford’s criminal record: a long list of minor affrays, vandalism, drunken pranks, violent behaviour toward women, and petty thefts. The most recent of them dated from February 1837.
On the next sheet, Trounce had written:
Visited Darkening Towers, Monday 19th September 1859. Interviewed John Beresford. He claims his brother was a harmless eccentric and showed me a significant (because of its strangeness) entry in Henry Beresford’s diary. Copied below, misspellings and other errors intact:
20th June 1837.
I must declare today quite the most astonishing, for this afternoon whilst I was out ryding, I was crossing the estate on my way back to the stables when my horse did shye, and upon looking down I beheld a man prone upon the ground, apparently in a dead faint, and garbed in a most outlandish costume of shimmering white. So taken aback was I that I gave a cry, and had to look and look again to be sure the vision was not some strange hellucination. When finally I concluded that it weren’t, I dismounted to examin the figure more close, but as I did so, I glanced back at my horse for the briefest of moments, it being nervous, and upon returning my attention to the sward I found that no figure was upon it and the grass were un-bent, giving not the slytest indication that a thing had disturbed it.
Instantly, I douted my senses, and askt of meself wether I had seen the thing at all or was, p’raps, the victim of some trick of the light or, far worse, of some failure of the brain. The more I considered the question, the more afeared I become, specially so ’cause the impression the vision had made was fayding with un-natural rapidty, as if I were un-able to prop’ly imprint a memry of it on my mind. Indeed, I was overcome by a strange confusion, being muddled in intent, the world around me all of a sudden appearing un-familiar, as if I had been engaged in some activity and then un-expectedly snatcht away from it and robbed of my powers of recollection.