Chapter 6
THE CLUESBlood-red placards, hoarse newsboys, overwhelming headlines, and
column after column of leaded type told the world next day how near
the Four had been to capture. Men in the train leant forward, their
newspapers on their knees, and explained what they would have done
had they been in the editor of the Megaphone's position.
People stopped talking about wars and famines and droughts and
street accidents and parliaments and ordinary everyday murders and
the German Emperor, in order to concentrate their minds upon the
topic of the hour. Would the Four Just Men carry out their promise
and slay the Secretary for Foreign Affairs on the morrow?
Nothing else was spoken about. Here was a murder threatened a
month ago, and, unless something unforeseen happened, to be
c
