The Night of the Victorian Plot – Part 2

Welcome to America

Chapter 13

The Antidote

The phial was only two inches long so the two men were able to lift it between them and in their panic tried to fend off the cat with it. Brunhilde simply clamped her sharp little teeth onto the cork and pulled at it, in an attempt to disarm them.

"Let go, you stupid cat!" Artie yelled.

Brunhilde's gaze was firmly on the phial and Jim realised that if the cork gave way at that moment then the phial would flip over backward and the contents would be lost.

"Hold on tight!" he told Artie. "I'm going to try something."

Artie nodded and Jim left him holding the phial and ran off to the side in an effort to distract the cat. Artie couldn't lift the phial on his own so he let it drop down and balanced it on the floor. The cat, still attached to the cork by her teeth, turned her head to look at Jim and as she did so she pulled the cork out and the phial began to fall sideways. Jim ran toward Artie and caught the top end of the container as it came down. It was heavy enough for him to have to exert quite a lot of force but he was physically fit and he just about managed it.

Never having had a cork at her mercy before, Brunhilde was intent on killing it now that she had it captive. This involved quite a bit of chasing it around the floor thus leaving the two agents free to carry out the next part of Jim's plan. He and Artie lowered the phial carefully to the carpet. Some of the precious antidote poured out but there was plenty still inside the container as it narrowed where the opening was.

Artie put his arm inside the phial and lifted some of the liquid out in his cupped hand. He put it to his mouth and drank it. Jim did the same and then they continued to do this until they realised that Brunhilde was heading in their direction again.

"Quick!" Artie said, "get underneath the bed!"

The bed was a mere 12 inches away and they ran as fast as they could but Brunhilde was quicker. She snagged Artie's left leg with her paw and clawed at him.

"Aaarrgh!" Artie shouted. "Jim!"

Jim looked back out from under the bed and saw Brunhilde swatting at Artie with her claws. He was about to go out and help him when he felt something strange happening. He felt like his head and stomach were both about to explode and he had tingling pains in his arms and legs. The next moment he was back to his normal size and the space under the bed had become tight.

Artie had undergone the same transformation and it scared the cat so much she squealed loudly and leapt into the air before running to hide under the bed with Jim. Artie was now completely naked but lying on his front, something he was grateful for, considering he was being mauled by a feline just before.

Artie," Jim said, "do you want me to throw you something to cover yourself with?"

"No, it's fine," Artie replied standing up. "I suspect our clothing is hanging in the wardrobe over there. Anyway, it won't be the first time you've seen me like this."

Artie walked over to the wardrobe and gave a satisfied "aha" when he found his outfit hanging there along with Jim's, even their underwear. He started to get dressed. "Do you want me to pass your clothes to you?" he asked his partner.

When Jim didn't answer straight away he looked over at him. He was still under the bed where he had been stroking Brunhilde but his hand had stilled and he was frowning in thought.

"Jim?"

"When did I see you naked, Artie?" he asked.

Artie smiled. "It was when you persuaded me to go with you to that Turkish bath and I had the mishap with the towel. Don't you remember?"

"Of course I do," Jim said, smiling. "And it looks like you do too now."

Artie cocked his head to one side, looking puzzled, and then he realised what Jim was talking about. "I got my memory back," he said, laughing. "It must have been the jolt to my brain caused by it changing back to its correct size."

Jim smiled at him and started to crawl out from under the bed, bringing Brunhilde with him. He held her in a strategic position and said, "pass me my clothes please, Artie."

Brunhilde had been through a lot and it was still the middle of the night so she was grateful when Jim deposited her on the comfortable bed and she settled down for a good long sleep; none of those catnaps for her.

Jim found that the lockpick was still secreted under his lapel so they used it on the bedroom door lock and then trod their way silently up the steps to the ground floor and found the stairs leading to the bedrooms. Hopefully everyone would be fast asleep.

That turned out to be a vain hope as one of the henchmen appeared at the top of the stairs and Jim, with a nod to Artie, ran up to tackle him. They met halfway. It was the larger of Loveless' men, the one with the beard, but he was no match for Jim's backstreet style of fighting and was soon laid out cold at the bottom of the stairs.

Jim straightened out his hair and went looking for Loveless while Artie searched for Antoinette.

Jim found Loveless in the first bedroom he came to. He walked over to him where he was lying asleep in bed and placed his hand over his mouth. This had the double effect of waking him up and preventing him from crying out and so alerting everyone as to what was happening.

"Shhhh!" Jim whispered. I'm going to take my hand away and I want you to get dressed and then we'll leave here together. If you make a noise I will kill you," he finished, showing him the knife he had pulled out from where it was hidden in his collar.

Loveless swallowed nervously and nodded to show he understood. Because he was more than willing to kill James West, he assumed that Jim was not bluffing when he threatened to return the favour. He was wrong – mostly.

"Come on," Jim said, taking his hand from Loveless' mouth and pulling back the bedclothes.

"Mr West," Loveless said.

"No talking!" Jim growled.

"I just want to tell you how much I admire you for having escaped Brunhilde and gotten hold of the antidote. I thoroughly underestimated you."

Jim frowned. "You should be getting used to it by now," he said.

Artie checked the other bedrooms and came up empty-handed. There was no sign of Antoinette and none of the beds looked as if they had been slept in. Artie went back to join Jim.

"There's no sign of Antoinette," he said.

Loveless smiled at them. "I sent her away after dinner," he said. "I had no further use of her sewing skills and I intended to follow her in the morning once I had packed up everything and handed back the keys. I would have taken you with me and kept you as pets until I thought of some way of killing you that is worthy of you."

"It sounds like he's telling the truth, Jim," Artie said.

Jim nodded. Antoinette doesn't really matter," he said. "The president is only interested in Loveless, though I would like to see her pay for helping him."

"Before we leave there is something I'd like to do," Artie said. "I shan't be long."

While looking for Antoinette Artie had found a room that was fitted out as a laboratory. Presumably that was where Loveless had manufactured the bomb he used on the toy railway. He was intrigued to know what else he would find.

There was a glass cabinet with containers on the shelves. Artie opened them one by one and found small balls of different colours inside them. He thought that, knowing Loveless, they were probably smoke bombs or knock-out bombs. He took a few of each and put them in his pockets. He would analyse them when he got the chance and try to reverse engineer them. There was also a mechanism that he and Jim had discussed earlier, that allowed a small pistol to be secreted up the sleeve to be drawn at the flick of a wrist. There was the appropriate derringer to go with it. He took off his jacket and fitted it to his own arm thinking that Jim would be impressed when he demonstrated it.

All of this only took a few minutes and he had soon caught up with his partner who had placed Loveless on Nightfall's back and was about to jump up behind him. He had brought Ariadne round from the stables as well and Artie got on her back and followed Jim.

Together they rode away from the house and headed back to the Traveller with Artie giving directions. They went through Gerhard Flats and Artie dropped off the keys to the house at the land office, telling them that they shouldn't go out there until they were contacted by the Secret Service to tell them it was safe to do so. The last he saw of the man behind the counter he was standing with his mouth wide open as Artie waved him good-bye.

To be continued