I attended that night a meeting of the anarchists, and detailed
accurately the story of our escape from France. I knew we had been
watched, and so skipped no detail. I reported that I had taken Simard
directly to my compatriot's flat; to Eugene Valmont, the man who had
given me employment, and who had promised to do what he could for
Simard, beginning by trying to break him of the absinthe habit, as he
was now a physical wreck through over-indulgence in that stimulant.
It was curious to note the discussion which took place a few nights
afterwards regarding the failure of the picric bomb. Scientists among
us said that the bomb had been made too long; that a chemical reaction
had taken place which destroyed its power. A few superstitious ones
saw a miracle in what had happened, and they forthwith left our
organisation. Then again, things were made easier by the fact that the
man who constructed the bomb, evidently terror-stricken at what he had
done, disappeared the day before the procession, and has never since
been heard of. The majority of the anarchists believed he had made a
bogus bomb, and had fled to escape their vengeance rather than to
evade the justice of the law.
Simard will need no purgatory in the next world.
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