The Night of the Victorian Plot – Part 2

Welcome to America

Chapter 2

The Evolution of Doctor Loveless

Wishing to keep their meeting as low-key as possible Colonel Richmond escorted James and Artemus from the Whitehouse library, through the passageway to the President's office where Ulysses S Grant rose from behind his desk to greet his guests.

"I'm glad to meet you at last," he told them, taking each of their hands in turn in a two-handed handshake. He indicated that they should both be seated and then leaned back on his desk and, taking a cigar from the nearby humidor, offered them one. They declined so he bit one end off his and lit the other before taking a few sturdy puffs on it to get it going. Then, after blowing a smoke ring into the air he looked at the two Englishmen and asked, "Has the Colonel told you anything yet?"

"No," James replied. "All we know is that we were ordered by our superior at the Foreign Office, Lionel Carruthers, to travel to your country to take up an assignment for your Treasury Department. We assumed it was something to do with counterfeiting as I understand that is their remit as regards investigations."

"You are very astute, Mr West, however the Treasury Department has a far wider oversight than that. In fact it houses the Secret Agents of the United States whose task it is to undertake any assignment to do with the safety of myself and the Government of this fine country and to root out any threat to that safety."

James and Artemus looked at each other meaningfully. The whole thing sounded like it was right up their street.

The President caught their silent communication.

"I am aware of the secret assignments you undertake for the British Government," he said, taking another puff on his cigar. "That was one of the reasons why I asked for your assistance."

"What is the other reason?" Artemus asked.

"Because you have come up against Herr Mikkel Lieblosen in the past," Colonel Richmond interposed.

"Herr Lieblosen?" James said.

"Yes," Grant replied. "Only these days he is calling himself Doctor Miguelito Loveless."

"So he made his way to America when he left England; we wondered what had happened to him," Artemus said. "And he has taken on a title and changed his name to a Spanish version of it; how enterprising."

"Lieblosen holds a doctorate in Physics and Chemistry, he just never bothered to use the title of Doctor before but it serves his purposes now. As to the name, he claims to have Mexican ancestry. His German grandfather married the daughter of a Mexican General as far as we have been able to discover."

"I suppose it would be ridiculous to ask if you're sure this is the same man," Artemus said.

"Oh it's him all right," Richmond answered. "We identified him from a photograph we obtained from the University of Stuttgart in Germany which is where he studied for his doctorate."

"You still haven't told us how Doctor Loveless came to your attention," James said. "What crime has he committed?"

"He turned up in a small town in New Mexico called Nueva Atenas and not long afterward a band of, for want of a better word, cut-throats arrived and camped on the outskirts. Groups of these men periodically make visits to the town and harass the citizens, so much so that many of them have left from fear."

"You think there is a connection between Loveless and these men?" Artemus asked.

General Grant looked him straight in the eye. "I'm absolutely certain of it, but as to his motive, well there you have me completely baffled." He threw his hands in the air. "What do you make of it, Colonel?"

"That's what we need you gentlemen to find out," Richmond said, looking at James and Artemus. "I'm sending you to the town and I want you to find out what's behind all this and put a stop to it."

"We're at your service, Colonel Richmond," James answered for them both while Artemus nodded in agreement.

"I've booked you into a hotel in town," Richmond said. "There's a conveyance outside to take you there. I'll have someone fetch you tomorrow morning."

James and Artemus nodded to the two men and gave each other a look that was filled with knowledge the Colonel and the President didn't comprehend. They looked at the two agents shrewdly as they watched them leave the way they had come in.

As soon as they were in the carriage taking them to their hotel Artemus said one word to his friend.

"Gough's Peak!"

It was the name of a small, bleak town in the north of England where a few years back a hard-faced stranger had arrived and booked a room at the local inn, followed by a vicious band of ne'er-do-wells who camped in the surrounding countryside. They had used intimidation to force the people to either leave or bend to their way of running things. The ringleader turned out to be none other than the stranger whose name was Mick Trayne. One of the residents had been brave enough to talk to the local police but their small force had proved ineffectual against a vicious band of men armed with knives and clubs. The two secret Government agents had been sent undercover to put a stop to things. They found out that, although Trayne had let it be known that he was intent on taking revenge on the townspeople and the town itself because of a wrong done to him in the past, his actual motive was to rob the town's bank.*

"Do you think Loveless has the same thing in mind?" James asked.

"I'm keeping an open mind for the moment but the situation in Nuervo Atenas does sound similar," Artemus replied.

James nodded, his mouth becoming a grim line. They had not emerged totally unscathed from their confrontation with Trayne all those years ago. And now they had to go up against Lieblosen or Loveless as he was calling himself and as far as they knew he was every bit as dangerous as the Yorkshire man had been.

They spent the rest of the afternoon drinking tea, with Artemis bemoaning the lack of decent biscuits for dunking. He didn't have time for the things called cookies that people kept trying to force on him and he was even less impressed when he was presented with a scone with his dinner and was informed that that was a biscuit.

"Everyone's gone stark-staring mad," Artemus growled as they retired to their room. This time there were twin beds and he sighed with pleasure as he plonked himself down on one of them. "It will be a lot cooler without having to share a bed with you," he announced.

"I'll try not to be too insulted by that," James replied. "Anyway, tonight I'm going to remove the long johns and unpack a pair of pyjamas," he added.

"Well mine have seen me half way across the Atlantic and they'll do for tonight," Artemus responded.

James shook his head and left to use the men's bathroom which was next door. The US Government was certainly treating them better in Washington than they had in New York.

He returned twenty minutes later, still rubbing the inside of his ear dry with the corner of a towel. "How far do you think it is to this Nueva Atenas?" he asked.

"According to the map I brought with me from England it's about fifteen hundred miles."

"FIFTEEN HUNDRED MILES!" James shouted in surprise, thrusting the towel to the floor for good measure. "I sincerely hope The President doesn't expect us to cover that distance on horseback."

"I suspect they'll put us on another train," his partner pointed out. "There's only one thing that bothers me."

"What's that?"

"Where will we find enough tea and biscuits for a journey of that length?"

"Hmm…" said James, and they both got into bed with the problem weighing heavily on their minds.

The following morning followed the same pattern as the previous one, though breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with bacon and hash browns and the coffee was not quite so bitter. Either that or they were getting used to it.

"Are we returning to the White House?" James asked the Colonel on his arrival.

"No, I'm taking you both out to the railyard," Richmond told them. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes, our luggage is in the hotel lobby. It only needs for you to pay our bill and we can depart straight away.

Colonel Richmond having taken care of this request the three men entered the carriage that was at the front of the hotel and, as soon as the luggage was stowed on the back, they set off for their destination.

The two Englishmen exchanged a small smile. They had guessed correctly that their journey to New Mexico would be undertaken by train. But the carriage didn't stop in front of the railroad station as they had expected. They had already learned that the term was 'railroad' rather than 'railway' as in England. Instead, they were conveyed to the actual yard where trains were stored when out of service.

The two men looked quizzically at the Colonel but he simply indicated that they should leave the carriage. Once on the ground he led them over to a locomotive engine with a typical cow-catcher on the front. It was painted in forest green and on an iron plate affixed to the tender was written "Traveller".

To be continued

*Yes this is the plot of TNOT Cut-Throats, with subtle, (or not so subtle), differences. Well done if you noticed that Nueva Atenas or New Athens is the name of the town in that episode.