The Complete Four Just Men Read Online Free Page A

information as will lead to the apprehension and conviction of the author of these anonymous letters.
    So unusual was such an announcement, remembering that anonymous and threatening letters are usually to be found daily in the letter-bags of every statesman and diplomat, that the Daily Megaphone immediately instituted inquiries as to the cause for this unusual departure.
    A representative of this newspaper called at the residence of Sir Philip Ramon, who very courteously consented to be seen.
    ‘It is quite an unusual step to take,’ said the great Foreign Secretary, in answer to our representative’s question, ‘but it has been taken with the full concurrence of my colleagues of the Cabinet. We have reasons to believe there is something behind the threats, and I might say that the matter has been in the hands of the police for some weeks past.
    ‘Here is one of the letters,’ and Sir Philip produced a sheet of foreign notepaper from a portfolio, and was good enough to allow our representative to make a copy.
    It was undated, and beyond the fact that the handwriting was of the flourishing effeminate variety that is characteristic of the Latin races, it was written in good English.
    It ran.
    Your Excellency –
    The Bill that you are about to pass into law is an unjust one . . . It is calculated to hand over to a corrupt and vengeful Government men who now in England find an asylum from the persecutions of despots and tyrants. We know that in England opinion is divided upon the merits of your Bill, and that upon your strength, and your strength alone, depends the passing into law of the Aliens Political Offences Bill.
    Therefore it grieves us to warn you that unless your Government withdraws this Bill, it will be necessary to remove you, and not alone you, but any other person who undertakes to carry into law this unjust measure.
    (Signed) Four Just Men
    ‘The Bill referred to,’ Sir Philip resumed, ‘is of course the Aliens Extradition (Political Offences) Bill, which, had it not been for the tactics of the Opposition, might have passed quietly into law last session.’
    Sir Philip went on to explain that the Bill was called into being by the insecurity of the succession in Spain.
    ‘It is imperative that neither England nor any other country should harbour propagandists who, from the security of these, or other shores, should set Europe ablaze. Coincident with the passage of this measure similar Acts or proclamations have been made in every country in Europe. In fact, they are all in existence, having been arranged to come into law simultaneously with ours, last session.’
    ‘Why do you attach importance to these letters?’ asked the Daily Megaphone representative.
    ‘Because we are assured, both by our own police and the continental police, that the writers are men who are in deadly earnest. The ‘Four Just Men’, as they sign themselves, are known collectively in almost every country under the sun. Who they are individually we should all very much like to know. Rightly or wrongly, they consider that justice as meted out here on earth is inadequate, and have set themselves about correcting the law. They were the people who assassinated General Trelovitch, the leader of the Servian Regicides: they hanged the French Army Contractor, Conrad, in the Place de la Concorde – with a hundred policemen within call. They shot Hermon le Blois, the poet-philosopher, in his study for corrupting the youth of the world with his reasoning.’
    The Foreign Secretary then handed to our representative a list of the crimes committed by this extraordinary quartet.
    Our readers will recollect the circumstance of each murder, and it will be remembered that until today – so closely have the police of the various nationalities kept the secret of the Four Men – no one crime has been connected with the other; and certainly none of the circumstances which, had they been published, would have assuredly revealed the existence of