CHAPTER XIV EXASPERATION OF MR. TEAL James Mattock read the second proclamation of the Alpha Triangle in his morning paper. It was headed in the flamboyant fashion of the first, but it was much less circumlocutory. Its comparative brevity lent it a force which had been lacking in its predecessor--a force which gained much from the incidents which had come between the two, and which was emphasised by the account of the Battle of Billingsgate and the subsequent escape of the thirteen prisoners, a scoop that occupied the place of honour next to the manifesto itself. SECOND MANIFESTO _by the Lord of the Alpha Triangle, in Council, to the Parliament and People of the United Kingdom._ WHEREBY it is announced as follows: Seeing that Our first Manifesto has been ignored, We find it necessary to increase the arguments we have already advanced, why it will be advisable for the Government to accede to Our Terms. And this We do according to this Warning: That, until Our receipt of official notification of the Government's acceptance of the aforementioned and previously detailed Terms, We shall destroy the undernamed Objects of Public Property, at intervals of two days from the date hereof, in the order given below. The New Underground Junction at Piccadilly Circus. The Albert Hall. The National Gallery and the Nelson Monument. The British Museum. St. Paul's Cathedral. The Houses of Parliament. Concurrently with this Campaign, Our already initiated Policy of Terrorism will be continued and augmented. GIVEN by Our Hand this Day, (Signed) Followed, in the facsimile which was blazoned across the front page of the _Mercury_, the sign of the Alpha Triangle. Mattock read the whole epistle through a second time. Not that it interested him--he already knew it by heart--but because for the first time he had been struck by an almost insignificant detail of the layout. Searching in his wallet for the clipping of the first manifesto, he compared the two, and the confirmation of his idea made him sit very still for some time. When he reached the Cockspur Street office that morning, he found that Raegenssen had not arrived, and the police were in possession. Shortly afterwards, Inspector Teal himself entered, and promptly buttonholed the ex-convict. "The last time your boss was in was yesterday, wasn't it?" he drawled. "Yes." "What business did he do that day?" Mattock looked at the detective. "I've no right to talk about my employer's business," he said. "No-o?" Teal's voice was silky. "But we want to know all about it--we're just buzzing with interest, in fact--and you look most like the man who's going to tell us." "I'm sorry about that." "What did Raegenssen do yesterday?" "Rotten weather, isn't it?" said Mattock absently, and turned the papers on his desk. Teal shifted his chewing-gum with a deliberate clamp of his jaws. "Did he go to the bank by any chance?"