Against the Brotherhood Read Online Free Page A

times.
    “Very good, but you will need a hat, dear boy. Something that once was rakish, but alas, now only hints at the glories of the past.” He chuckled without humor and selected a curly-brimmed beaver that was no longer in fashion which he held as he gave me a watch-chain and-fob, but with no watch. “You will be able to complain that you were forced to sell your watch in order to continue to pay for your lodging. You might also say that you have had to part with other treasures.”
    “Very well,” I said, fixing the fob in the waistcoat.
    “Now, the eyepatch. Choose which eye you are willing to lose. And remember which one it is to be. It won’t do to have you changing sides.” He gave a slight huff of sardonic laughter. “Put your patch in place.” He watched while I covered my green right eye, for it has a more definite color and might be identified more easily than the blue, then gave me the hat. “What a very depressing demeanor you present. A man nearly at his limit. You will want to put your hands in the dustbin, to get grit under your nails before you venture out. And rub the excess on your sleeve. Just what is needed.” He gave me a bottle of pressed glass. “And this will be the crowning touch.”
    Curious, I lifted the stopper and made a face at the overwhelming scent of alcohol and lavender that rose from it.
    “My dear Guthrie, we haven’t time, or inclination, to give you the stench of a man who has gone long without access to soap and water. But we can disguise your lack of it, and this will accomplish our purpose very well.”
    “Do you think so?” I asked, beginning to feel anxious. I winced as I applied some of the terrible stuff to my face.
    “I do. Now pay attention. Your name is August Jeffries. That is close enough to Guthrie so that it should not trip you up. You have only two pounds left to your name; be sure you bemoan that fact. Say that you have had to leave your wife and children behind in whatever city and country you have chosen to come from, and that you are desperate to make enough to bring them to London. Be careful to remember the names of your fictitious wife and children, set them firmly in your mind, for be sure that these men will, and they will, use such information to test you. If you fail, they will treat you with utmost ferocity.”
    “I will be careful; I will use the names of my sister’s children,” I said.
    “That would not be wise,” Mycroft Holmes said with a sharpness that caused me some anxiety. “If any mishap should befall you, you do not wish these men to have any means to cause trouble to those close to you, as they would if they could discover your sister’s children.”
    I was taken aback. “Surely you do not mean they would go to such lengths?” It seemed the height of savagery.
    “It is precisely what I mean, and I hope you will hold such thoughts in the forefront of your mind. We are not dealing with anything less than those bent on destruction. This band of men has been known to butcher whole families for no greater reason than that one of its members offered an insult to a man in the Brotherhood.” He regarded me steadily with his somber gray eyes and let the import of his observation sink in.
    “I will not forget,” I told him, and looked toward the backstairs of the flat. “I suppose I should use the tradesmen’s entrance.”
    “Of course,” said Mycroft Holmes. “And when you return tomorrow evening, come by way of the livery stable at the end of the block. Use the connecting alleys to get here, for you may be followed and watched. Do not suppose that your story will be accepted at face value, or that you will be trusted because you appear in dire straits. These people are such consummate liars that they suspect the same mendacity from all those they meet. They will be at pains to test you. You will have to gain their support, enough that they are convinced they may entrust you with one of their—ah—enterprises, and we