The Scarlet Band

"Why would anybody need to try to take down the House like that?" yet another man said. "Its members have sinned a boatload of genuine sins. What point to inventing more in the hope that they'll provoke people against the sect?"

"Such questions as those are not so easily solved by detection," Helms replied. "Any remarks I offer are speculative, and based solely on my understanding, such as it is, of human nature. First, the Preacher and his faith continue to attract large numbers of new devotees nearly half a century after he founded the House. His sect, as you rightly term it, is not only a religious force in Atlantis but also a political and an economic force. Those representing other such forces--I name no names--would naturally be concerned about his growing influence in affairs. And a trumped-up killing--or, more likely, a series of them--allows the opposing forces to choose their timing and their presentation of the case against the House, which any possible natural incidents would not. Some of you will perhaps grasp exactly what I mean: those whose papers have been loudest in the cry against the Preacher."

Several reporters looked uncomfortable; one or two might even have looked guilty. One of those who seemed most uncomfortable asked, "If all these charges against the House of Universal Devotion are false, why would Inspector La Strada have brought you over from London? Wasn't he contributing to his own undoing?"

"Why? I'll tell you why, by Jove!" That was the good doctor, not the detective. "Because he underestimated Mr. Athelstan Helms, that's why! He thought Helms would see what he wanted him to see, and damn all else. He thought Helms would give his seal of approval, you might say, to whatever he wanted to do to the House of Universal Devotion. He thought Helms would make it all ... What's the word the sheenies use?"

"Kosher?" Helms suggested, murmuring, "Under the circumstances, an infelicitous analogy."

Dr. Walton ignored the aside. "Kosher!" he echoed triumphantly. "That's it. He thought Helms' seal of approval would make it all kosher! But he reckoned without my friend's--my particular friend's--brilliance, he did. Athelstan Helms doesn't let the wool get pulled over his eyes. Athelstan Helms doesn't see what other blokes want him to see or mean for him to see. Athelstan Helms, by God, sees what's there!"

Athelstan Helms saw the reporters staring at him as if he were an extinct honker somehow magically restored to life--as if he were a specimen rather than a man. He coughed modestly. "The good doctor does me too much honor, I fear. In this case, I count myself uncommonly fortunate."

"Well, what if you are?" a reporter shouted at him, face and voice full of fury. "What if you are, God damn you? What have you just gone and done to Atlantis? Do you count us uncommonly fortunate on account of it? You've gone and given that bearded maniac of a Preacher free rein for the rest of his worthless life!"

Another man stood up and yelled, "Hold your blasphemous tongue! God speaks through the Preacher, not through the likes of you!"

Someone else punched the Preacher's partisan in the nose. In an instant, fresh pandemonium filled the lecture hall. "I think perhaps we should make our exit now," the detective said.

"Brilliant deduction, Helms!" Walton said, and they did.

* * * *

Boarding the Crown of India for the return voyage came as a distinct relief to Helms and Walton. Behind them, the United States of Atlantis heaved with political passions more French, or even Spanish, than British. The Atlantean authorities also refused to pay the sizable fee La Strada had promised them, and laughed at the signed contract Dr. Walton displayed. Under the circumstances, that was perhaps understandable, but it did not contribute to Walton's regard for the republic they were quitting.

"A bloody good job you insisted on return tickets paid in advance," he told Helms. "Otherwise they'd boot us off the pier and let us swim home--and take pot shots at us whilst we were in the water, too."

"I shouldn't wonder," Helms said. "Well, let's repair to our cabin. If the ocean was rough coming here, it's unlikely to be smoother now."

Walton sighed. "True enough. I have a tolerably strong stomach, but even so.... Where have they put us?"

Helms looked at his ticket. "Suite 27, it says. Well, that sounds moderately promising, anyhow."

When they opened the door to Suite 27, however, they found it already occupied by two strikingly attractive young women, one a blonde, the other a brunette. "Oh, dear," Walton said. "Let me summon a steward. There must be some sort of mistake."

The young women shook their heads, curls swinging in unison. "You are Mr. Helms and Dr. Walton, aren't you?" the golden-haired one said.

"Yes, of course they are," the brunette said. "I'm Polly, and she's Kate," she added, as if that explained everything.

Seeing that perhaps it didn't, Kate said, "We're staying in Suite 27, too, you see. The Preacher made sure we would."