The Haunting of Toby Jugg (35 page)

‘They will be moderate to start with, but as is always the case when the Left gets into the saddle, the masses expect a Silver Age—if not a Golden one—to dawn before very long. That gives the
extremists a rod with which to beat the moderates. They will never be able to raise enough money by ordinary means to propitiate the Labour electorate, by carrying out all the Socialist conceptions; but it can be taken from those who have it.

‘The wiser men will realise that it is suicidal to seize a large part of the wealth, which for generations has financed the nation’s commerce and industry, and fritter it away in unproductive channels; but they will be forced to it. They will introduce some form of Capital Levy. And then, my dear Toby, what of your fine fortune?’

‘That would be killing the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs,’ I said, ‘because if they do, it is inevitable that they will skim the top off the cream. Say they introduce legislation to collect a hundred million, the great bulk of that would come from people like myself who might be paying anything up to nineteen-and-sixpence in the pound in taxes already. That means that the following year there would be the equivalent number of nineteen-and-six-pences less to go into the exchequer. And not for one year only, but for good. It is far worse than anticipating taxes; it is destroying the source from which they come. We couldn’t continue to pay on what we no longer had; so they would have to introduce new taxation affecting the lower-income groups to make up the deficit. It would be a crazy policy, even from their own point of view, because sooner or later the masses themselves would be left holding the baby.’

‘Of course,’ Helmuth agreed. ‘But political extremists are never statesmen, otherwise they would not be extremist. Such people allow their hatred of the rich to dominate every other consideration. And it would be done in gradual stages. That is the insidious part about it. As you say, they will go for the big fish first; and if you are forced to realise only half your holdings to pay up, very few people are going to think that you have been hardly done by.

‘No one will squeal until some of their own savings are seized to pay the dole. You are right too about the drop in income and surtax receipts having to be made up from somewhere, but there is a limit to what can be got by normal means; so with each successive Budget the level at which the thrifty will be robbed of their savings will go down and down, until even the little man
with his few hundreds tucked away in the Post Office will find himself caught.’

He paused for a moment, then went on: ‘As for yourself, having paid the first time will not exonerate you from having to pay up the second, third and fourth. So, my poor friend, I fear you will find your rosy dream of being able to spend twenty thousand a year of your capital turning out to be moonshine, long before you are my age. It won’t be there any longer for you to realise.’

It was a black future that he conjured up, but I had to admit to myself that his grim prognostications were based on a perfectly possible and logical sequence of events. For a bit we remained silent, then I said:

‘Well, if you are right, I’ll be in a pretty mess. But I suppose the State will take care of cripples?’

‘Oh yes,’ he smiled cynically. ‘You’ll get your keep in an institution and a pound a week. You might do quite a lot better, though, if you are prepared to follow my advice. All I have been endeavouring to show you is, that if you decide to play a lone hand your millions may be reduced to hundreds by the time you are forty.’

‘Do you think, then, that by becoming one of the Brotherhood I could save them?’

‘No, Toby; I don’t think that. But I am confident that whatever loss of fortune may overtake anyone else—and even themselves, individually, as far as the possession of shares, property and bank-balances go—the member of the Brotherhood will continue to enjoy comparative affluence, and even luxury to such a degree as it is obtainable, in a world where all but a very few will live on a miserable pittance as little cogs in the machinery of a vast slave State.’

‘How would they manage to do that?’ I enquired.

‘There must always be rulers,’ he said quietly; ‘and we shall be the rulers of the Britain of tomorrow. The bulk of the upper classes are bound to be submerged, because they have no unity. But we shall survive, because we are bound together by an indissoluble bond, pledged to help one another to the limit, and holding all our assets in common. We already have men in all sorts of key positions, both here and abroad. Our level of intelligence
is far higher than that of any ordinary group of professional politicians, and we have resources that such people do not possess. The attainment of power in all its forms is the object of our association, and that having been our special study ever since our foundation you may rest assured that you will be shown how to attain it too—if you decide to join us.’

‘I don’t quite understand,’ I said. ‘One can study all sorts of subjects, a knowledge of which is valuable for attaining one’s ends; but I shouldn’t have thought that there could be any royal road to attaining power, as such.’

‘Oh yes, there is,’ he smiled, as he stood up, ‘and at our next chat I will tell you something about it. But I must go now, as I have some letters to write. In the meantime, you might think over what I have said.’

I did think it over, and the whole thing’s extremely intriguing; but I am far from certain that I would care to become involved in this Secret Society of his.

Of course, when he said that about my whole fortune not being too big a price to pay for membership, he could not have been speaking seriously. All the same it sounds as if from anyone as rich as myself they would expect the hell of a big cheque.

If Helmuth is right in his contention that when the Socialists do get in, after a time, the extremists will dominate the moderates, and introduce a series of Capital Levies which will eventually swallow up all private investments, great and small, it would certainly be worth my while to go into this thing as a form of insurance—even if they did stick me for a hundred thousand pounds. Plenty of people used to pay that much in my grandfather’s day for a title, and I shouldn’t miss it.

But the thing that I don’t like about it is this pooling of interests business. That is all very well in its way, but they might want me to do all sorts of things that I should not care about. Helmuth more or less inferred that in exchange for their help one became subject to some form of control by them. If that is the case, I would rather stand on my own feet and keep my freedom.

As I have decided to continue this journal, I may as well record a rather revealing conversation that I had with Sally this morning.

Some reference had been made to my weekend visitors, and I
asked her if she did not think Julia one of the loveliest people she had ever seen.

‘I didn’t think her all that,’ she replied. ‘I suppose when she was young she must have been rather a poppet. But that’s the worst of these Mediterranean types; they always age early.’

‘Oh, come!’ I protested. ‘You talk as though she was middle-aged already.’

She shrugged. ‘Well, it all depends on what you call middle-aged. I bet she’ll never see thirty again.’

‘She won’t,’ I agreed. ‘But that’s just the point, she doesn’t look it.’

‘Not to a man perhaps. Any woman who has enough money to dress a shade eccentrically, and go to a first-class beauty specialist for regular treatments, can pull the wool over a man’s eyes about her age; but she can’t deceive her own sex.’

I resisted the temptation to tell Sally that, however much money she had, no beauty specialist would ever succeed in turning her into a real lovely, and that I very much doubted if she would ever acquire the clothes sense to become even tolerably smart. But as I was thinking on those lines, she added with a laugh:

‘Anyone could see that you think your aunt is tops. I suppose she sold you the idea that she is in the Mona Lisa class when you were in your cradle, and you have never got over it.’

I feel sure that normally Sally is not given to making catty remarks; so it was easy to guess which way the wind is blowing. Julia and Helmuth are such very old friends, that the gallantry with which he always treats her is accepted as a habit by all who know them. But Sally would not realise that, and seeing them together has made her jealous.

I knew she admired Helmuth, but evidently the handsome doctor has made a deeper impression on her than I realised. She was probably hoping that he would ask her to dine with him again over the weekend; and Julia being here put her nose completely out of joint.

Actually it is over a week now since the only occasion on which Helmuth asked her to dine. As he has not repeated the invitation it looks as if he found her too unsophisticated for his taste, and is not going to bother with her further.

On the other hand, his having turned the battery of his charm on her just for one evening and since treated her only with friendly politeness is well calculated to keep her guessing, and so predispose her to go half-way to meet him should he choose to make another move. He is up to all those tricks, and that may be the game he is playing.

I hope not, for if he does make a real set at her it is a sure thing that she will get the raw end of the deal. Of course, now that Helmuth and I are good friends again, I have nothing to lose if they do have an affair and she falls completely under his spell; but I can’t help having a sort of protective feeling about her. God knows, I couldn’t protect anyone from anything, as things are, but Helmuth has never made any secret to me of his attitude towards women, and I would hate to think of Sally becoming the plaything of a cynical roué.

Thursday, 11th June

I am profoundly disturbed. That is putting it mildly. I had another long talk with Helmuth yesterday evening and he told me a lot more about the Weylands Brotherhood. In view of the importance of this conversation I shall strive for the utmost accuracy in recording it.

As soon as he had settled himself comfortably in front of the fire, I said: ‘Last night you were saying that there is a royal road to acquiring power. I’d be terribly interested to hear about it.’

‘So you’ve thought things over and are inclined to regard my proposition favourably, eh?’

As I was curious to learn more, I saw no point in denying that, so I let it pass, and he went on:

‘I am glad for both our sakes; and if what I said last night intrigued you, I am sure that what I have to say now will intrigue you to an infinitely greater degree. Power is the thing that men have craved more than any other, all through the ages. Now tell me, what would you say were the four most powerful forces in the world?’

I thought for a moment, then said: ‘Faith, Love, Hunger and Money.’

‘Wrong,’ he declared. ‘They are the Elements—Air, Earth, Fire and Water. If you can control those you can do anything.’

I nodded. ‘I suppose Science is gradually succeeding in that. Gas and electricity are forms of fire; we harness rivers and the tides; and the Back-room boys of the R.A.F. are tackling the problem of dispersing fog.’

‘Oh, Science plods along,’ his tone was faintly contemptuous, ‘but all those types of control require elaborate machinery to operate them. I was referring to the control of the elements by the human will.’

He saw my puzzled look, and added: ‘For example, Jesus Christ
walked
upon the water.’

Never before had I heard him mention Christ’s name except in connection with some sneer; and I said in surprise: ‘But I thought you didn’t believe in Him?’

‘As a God, I don’t,’ came the quick reply, ‘but there is no reason to doubt that he was an historic Personage, and that he had “power”. However, there are innumerable other examples of the sort of thing I mean. There are well-authenticated accounts of Indian Fakirs who have mastered the art of levitation; that is, defeating gravity by remaining suspended in mid-air. The witchdoctors of the North American Indians could walk on red-hot embers without burning the soles of their feet. The juju-men of Africa can bring rain when it suits their purpose.’

‘Do you seriously mean that the members of the Brotherhood can perform such extraordinary feats?’

‘Some of us can. But each feat requires long and exhausting training, and after all, what point is there in devoting years to learning such tricks? They are really rather childish, and have no practical value except to impress the vulgar; and we are not interested in attempting to attract the multitude. Most of us prefer to devote our energies to more subtle tasks, and use the special powers that we acquire in support of our worldly activities. If you think for a moment what that means, in conjunction with brains, wealth and influence, you will be able to appreciate, far better than you could yesterday, that not only will the Brotherhood survive the general destruction of the upper classes in this country, but eventually dominate it.’

‘All this is so staggering,’ I murmured, ‘that you must forgive me if I haven’t quite gripped it yet. Accepting what you say about the Brotherhood’s powers to perform miracles, I still don’t see how they can be applied to further your ends in modern political and commercial life.’

‘Don’t you!’ he laughed. ‘Then I’ll give you a few examples. You have already stumbled on the fringe of the matter yourself by using hypnotism to impose your will on people. You didn’t get far with Taffy, but for an amateur you were amazingly successful with Deb. Properly trained you could use it with considerable effect on many of your future business associates. The trained will can also read thoughts, and confer good or bad health on the operator’s friends or enemies. It can——’

‘Could both my mental state and the injury to my spine be cured?’ I interrupted. ‘That is, if I become a member of the Brotherhood?’

He nodded. ‘The first would be simple. That was what I meant when I promised that if the attacks occurred again I would help you to fight them. You need have no further worries on that score. Your spine presents a more difficult problem, because it is a physical injury. If a man has a limb shot off, no power, however great, can enable him to grow another in its place. But the will can perform incredible feats of healing; and I am reasonably confident that within a few months we could enable you to walk again.’