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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crack of Doom, by Robert Cromie
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Crack of Doom
+
+Author: Robert Cromie
+
+Release Date: September 8, 2008 [EBook #26563]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRACK OF DOOM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+            THE CRACK OF DOOM
+
+
+                   BY
+
+              ROBERT CROMIE
+ _Author of "A Plunge into Space," etc._
+
+
+            _SECOND EDITION_
+
+
+                 LONDON
+            DIGBY, LONG & CO.
+ 18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.
+                  1895
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The rough notes from which this narrative has been constructed were
+given to me by the man who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have
+altered the names of the principals, and I hereby pass on the assurance
+which I have received, that the originals of such as are left alive can
+be found if their discovery be thought desirable. This alteration of
+names, the piecing together of somewhat disconnected and sometimes
+nearly indecipherable memoranda, and the reduction of the mass to
+consecutive form, are all that has been required of me or would have
+been permitted to me. The expedition to Labrador mentioned by the
+narrator has not returned, nor has it ever been definitely traced. He
+does not undertake to prove that it ever set out. But he avers that all
+which is hereafter set down is truly told, and he leaves it to mankind
+to accept the warning which it has fallen to him to convey, or await the
+proof of its sincerity which he believes the end of the century will
+produce.
+
+                                                        ROBERT CROMIE.
+
+BELFAST, _May, 1895_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAP.                                  PAGE
+
+     I. THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!             1
+
+    II. A STRANGE EXPERIMENT               10
+
+   III. "IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE"           21
+
+    IV. GEORGE DELANY--DECEASED            32
+
+     V. THE MURDER CLUB                    41
+
+    VI. A TELEPATHIC TELEGRAM              51
+
+   VII. GUILTY!                            62
+
+  VIII. THE WOKING MYSTERY                 72
+
+    IX. CUI BONO?                          81
+
+     X. FORCE--A REMEDY                    93
+
+    XI. MORITURI TE SALUTANT              104
+
+   XII. "NO DEATH--SAVE IN LIFE"          111
+
+  XIII. MISS METFORD'S PLAN               123
+
+   XIV. ROCKINGHAM TO THE SHARKS          133
+
+    XV. "IF NOT TOO LATE"                 146
+
+   XVI. £5000 TO DETAIN THE SHIP          160
+
+  XVII. "THIS EARTH SHALL DIE"            174
+
+ XVIII. THE FLIGHT                        184
+
+   XIX. THE CATASTROPHE                   197
+
+    XX. CONCLUSION                        208
+
+
+
+
+THE CRACK OF DOOM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!
+
+
+"The Universe is a mistake!"
+
+Thus spake Herbert Brande, a passenger on the _Majestic_, making for
+Queenstown Harbour, one evening early in the past year. Foolish as the
+words may seem, they were partly influential in leading to my terrible
+association with him, and all that is described in this book.
+
+Brande was standing beside me on the starboard side of the vessel. We
+had been discussing a current astronomical essay, as we watched the hazy
+blue line of the Irish coast rise on the horizon. This conversation was
+interrupted by Brande, who said, impatiently:
+
+"Why tell us of stars distant so far from this insignificant little
+world of ours--so insignificant that even its own inhabitants speak
+disrespectfully of it--that it would take hundreds of years to telegraph
+to some of them, thousands to others, and millions to the rest? Why
+limit oneself to a mere million of years for a dramatic illustration,
+when there is a star in space distant so far from us that if a telegram
+left the earth for it this very night, and maintained for ever its
+initial velocity, it would never reach that star?"
+
+He said this without any apparent effort after rhetorical effect; but
+the suddenness with which he had presented a very obvious truism in a
+fresh light to me made the conception of the vastness of space
+absolutely oppressive. In the hope of changing the subject I replied:
+
+"Nothing is gained by dwelling on these scientific speculations. The
+mind is only bewildered. The Universe is inexplicable."
+
+"The Universe!" he exclaimed. "That is easily explained. The Universe is
+a mistake!"
+
+"The greatest mistake of the century, I suppose," I added, somewhat
+annoyed, for I thought Brande was laughing at me.
+
+"Say, of Time, and I agree with you," he replied, careless of my
+astonishment.
+
+I did not answer him for some moments.
+
+This man Brande was young in years, but middle-aged in the expression of
+his pale, intellectual face, and old--if age be synonymous with
+knowledge--in his ideas. His knowledge, indeed, was so exhaustive that
+the scientific pleasantries to which he was prone could always be
+justified, dialectically at least, by him when he was contradicted.
+Those who knew him well did not argue with him. I was always stumbling
+into intellectual pitfalls, for I had only known him since the steamer
+left New York.
+
+As to myself, there is little to be told. My history prior to my
+acquaintance with Brande was commonplace. I was merely an active,
+athletic Englishman, Arthur Marcel by name. I had studied medicine, and
+was a doctor in all but the degree. This certificate had been dispensed
+with owing to an unexpected legacy, on receipt of which I determined to
+devote it to the furtherance of my own amusement. In the pursuit of this
+object, I had visited many lands and had become familiar with most of
+the beaten tracks of travel. I was returning to England after an absence
+of three years spent in aimless roaming. My age was thirty-one years,
+and my salient characteristic at the time was to hold fast by anything
+that interested me, until my humour changed. Brande's conversational
+vagaries had amused me on the voyage. His extraordinary comment on the
+Universe decided me to cement our shipboard acquaintance before reaching
+port.
+
+"That explanation of yours," I said, lighting a fresh cigar, and
+returning to a subject which I had so recently tried to shelve, "isn't
+it rather vague?"
+
+"For the present it must serve," he answered absently.
+
+To force him into admitting that his phrase was only a thoughtless
+exclamation, or induce him to defend it, I said:
+
+"It does not serve any reasonable purpose. It adds nothing to knowledge.
+As it stands, it is neither academic nor practical."
+
+Brande looked at me earnestly for a moment, and then said gravely:
+
+"The academic value of the explanation will be shown to you if you will
+join a society I have founded; and its practicalness will soon be made
+plain whether you join or not."
+
+"What do you call this club of yours?" I asked.
+
+"We do not call it a club. We call it a Society--the _Cui Bono_
+Society," he answered coldly.
+
+"I like the name," I returned. "It is suggestive. It may mean
+anything--or nothing."
+
+"You will learn later that the Society means something; a good deal, in
+fact."
+
+This was said in the dry, unemotional tone which I afterwards found was
+the only sign of displeasure Brande ever permitted himself to show. His
+arrangements for going on shore at Queenstown had been made early in the
+day, but he left me to look for his sister, of whom I had seen very
+little on the voyage. The weather had been rough, and as she was not a
+good sailor, I had only had a rare glimpse of a very dark and handsome
+girl, whose society possessed for me a strange attraction, although we
+were then almost strangers. Indeed, I regretted keenly, as the time of
+our separation approached, having registered my luggage (consisting
+largely of curios and mementoes of my travels, of which I was very
+careful) for Liverpool. My own time was valueless, and it would have
+been more agreeable to me to continue the journey with the Brandes, no
+matter where they went.
+
+There was a choppy sea on when we reached the entrance to the harbour,
+so the _Majestic_ steamed in between the Carlisle and Camden forts, and
+on to the man-of-war roads, where the tender met us. By this time,
+Brande and his sister were ready to go on shore; but as there was a
+heavy mail to be transhipped, we had still an hour at our disposal. For
+some time we paced the deck, exchanging commonplaces on the voyage and
+confidences as to our future plans. It was almost dark, but not dark
+enough to prevent us from seeing those wonderfully green hills which
+landlock the harbour. To me the verdant woods and hills were delightful
+after the brown plains and interminable prairies on which I had spent
+many months. As the lights of Queenstown began to speck the slowly
+gathering gloom, Miss Brande asked me to point out Rostellan Castle. It
+could not be seen from the vessel, but the familiar legend was easily
+recalled, and this led us to talk about Irish tradition with its weird
+romance and never failing pathos. This interested her. Freed now from
+the lassitude of sea-sickness, the girl became more fascinating to me
+every moment. Everything she said was worth listening to, apart from the
+charming manner in which it was said.
+
+To declare that she was an extremely pretty girl would not convey the
+strange, almost unearthly, beauty of her face--as intellectual as her
+brother's--and of the charm of her slight but exquisitely moulded
+figure. In her dark eyes there was a sympathy, a compassion, that was
+new to me. It thrilled me with an emotion different from anything that
+my frankly happy, but hitherto wholly selfish life had known. There was
+only one note in her conversation which jarred upon me. She was apt to
+drift into the extraordinary views of life and death which were
+interesting when formulated by her eccentric brother, but pained me
+coming from her lips. In spite of this, the purpose I had contemplated
+of joining Brande's Society--evoked as it had been by his own whimsical
+observation--now took definite form. I would join that Society. It would
+be the best way of keeping near to Natalie Brande.
+
+Her brother returned to us to say that the tender was about to leave the
+ship. He had left us for half an hour. I did not notice his absence
+until he himself announced it. As we shook hands, I said to him:
+
+"I have been thinking about that Society of yours. I mean to join it."
+
+"I am very glad," he replied. "You will find it a new sensation, quite
+outside the beaten track, which you know so well."
+
+There was a shade of half-kindly contempt in his voice, which missed me
+at the moment. I answered gaily, knowing that he would not be offended
+by what was said in jest:
+
+"I am sure I shall. If all the members are as mad as yourself, it will
+be the most interesting experience outside Bedlam that any man could
+wish for."
+
+I had a foretaste of that interest soon.
+
+As Miss Brande was walking to the gangway, a lamp shone full upon her
+gypsy face. The blue-black hair, the dark eyes, and a deep red rose she
+wore in her bonnet, seemed to me an exquisite arrangement of harmonious
+colour. And the thought flashed into my mind very vividly, however
+trivial it may seem here, when written down in cold words: "The queen of
+women, and the queen of flowers." That is not precisely how my thought
+ran, but I cannot describe it better. The finer subtleties of the brain
+do not bear well the daylight of language.
+
+Brande drew her back and whispered to her. Then the sweet face, now
+slightly flushed, was turned to me again.
+
+"Oh, thank you for that pretty thought," she said with a pleasant smile.
+"You are too flattering. The 'queen of flowers' is very true, but the
+'queen of women!' Oh, no!" She made a graceful gesture of dissent, and
+passed down the gangway.
+
+As the tender disappeared into the darkness, a tiny scrap of lace waved,
+and I knew vaguely that she was thinking of me. But how she read my
+thought so exactly I could not tell.
+
+That knowledge it has been my fate to gain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A STRANGE EXPERIMENT.
+
+
+Soon after my arrival in London, I called on Brande, at the address he
+had given me in Brook Street. He received me with the pleasant
+affability which a man of the world easily assumes, and his apology for
+being unable to pass the evening with me in his own house was a model of
+social style. The difficulty in the way was practically an
+impossibility. His Society had a meeting on that evening, and it was
+imperative that he should be present.
+
+"Why not come yourself?" he said. "It is what we might call a guest
+night. That is, visitors, if friends of members, are admitted, and as
+this privilege may not be again accorded to outsiders, you ought to come
+before you decide finally to join us. I must go now, but Natalie" (he
+did not say "Miss Brande") "will entertain you and bring you to the
+hall. It is very near--in Hanover Square."
+
+"I shall be very glad indeed to bring Miss Brande to the hall," I
+answered, changing the sentence in order to correct Brande's too
+patronising phrase.
+
+"The same thing in different words, is it not? If you prefer it that
+way, please have it so." His imperturbability was unaffected.
+
+Miss Brande here entered the room. Her brother, with a word of renewed
+apology, left us, and presently I saw him cross the street and hail a
+passing hansom.
+
+"You must not blame him for running off," Miss Brande said. "He has much
+to think of, and the Society depends almost wholly on himself."
+
+I stammered out that I did not blame him at all, and indeed my
+disclaimer was absolutely true. Brande could not have pleased me better
+than he had done by relieving us of his company.
+
+Miss Brande made tea, which I pretended to enjoy in the hope of pleasing
+her. Over this we talked more like old and well proven friends than mere
+acquaintances of ten days' standing. Just once or twice the mysterious
+chord which marred the girl's charming conversation was touched. She
+immediately changed the subject on observing my distress. I say
+distress, for a weaker word would not fittingly describe the emotion I
+felt whenever she blundered into the pseudo-scientific nonsense which
+was her brother's favourite affectation. At least, it seemed nonsense to
+me. I could not well foresee then that the theses which appeared to be
+mere theoretical absurdities, would ever be proven--as they have
+been--very terrible realities. On subjects of ordinary educational
+interest my hostess displayed such full knowledge of the question and
+ease in dealing with it, that I listened, fascinated, as long as she
+chose to continue speaking. It was a novel and delightful experience to
+hear a girl as handsome as a pictorial masterpiece, and dressed like a
+court beauty, discourse with the knowledge, and in the language, of the
+oldest philosopher. But this was only one of the many surprising
+combinations in her complex personality. My noviciate was still in its
+first stage.
+
+The time to set out for the meeting arrived all too soon for my
+inclination. We decided to walk, the evening being fine and not too
+warm, and the distance only a ten minutes' stroll. At a street crossing,
+we met a crowd unusually large for that neighbourhood. Miss Brande
+again surprised me. She was watching the crowd seething and swarming
+past. Her dark eyes followed the people with a strange wondering,
+pitying look which I did not understand. Her face, exquisite in its
+expression at all times, was now absolutely transformed, beatified.
+Brande had often spoken to me of mesmerism, clairvoyance, and similar
+subjects, and it occurred to me that he had used his sister as a medium,
+a clairvoyante. Her brain was not, therefore, under normal control. I
+determined instantly to tell him on the first opportunity that if he did
+not wish to see the girl permanently injured, he would have to curtail
+his hypnotic influence.
+
+"It is rather a stirring sight," I said so sharply to Miss Brande that
+she started. I meant to startle her, but did not succeed as far as I
+wished.
+
+"It is a very terrible sight," she answered.
+
+"Oh, there is no danger," I said hastily, and drew her hand over my arm.
+
+"Danger! I was not thinking of danger."
+
+As she did not remove her hand, I did not infringe the silence which
+followed this, until a break in the traffic allowed us to cross the
+street. Then I said:
+
+"May I ask what you were thinking of just now, Miss Brande?"
+
+"Of the people--their lives--their work--their misery!"
+
+"I assure you many are very happy," I replied. "You take a morbid view.
+Misery is not the rule. I am sure the majority are happy."
+
+"What difference does that make?" the girl said with a sigh. "What is
+the end of it all--the meaning of it all? Their happiness! _Cui Bono?_"
+
+We walked on in silence, while I turned over in my mind what she had
+said. I could come to no conclusion upon it save that my dislike for her
+enigmatic aberrations was becoming more intense as my liking for the
+girl herself increased. To change the current of her thoughts and my
+own, I asked her abruptly:
+
+"Are you a member of the _Cui Bono_ Society?"
+
+"I! Oh, no. Women are not allowed to join--for the present."
+
+"I am delighted to hear it," I said heartily, "and I hope the rule will
+continue in force."
+
+She looked at me in surprise. "Why should you mind? You are joining
+yourself."
+
+"That is different. I don't approve of ladies mixing themselves up in
+these curious and perhaps questionable societies."
+
+My remark amused her. Her eyes sparkled with simple fun. The change in
+her manner was very agreeable to me.
+
+"I might have expected that." To my extreme satisfaction she now looked
+almost mischievous. "Herbert told me you were a little--"
+
+"A little what?"
+
+"Well, a little--you won't be vexed? That is right. He said a
+little--mediæval."
+
+This abated my appreciation of her sense of humour, and I maintained a
+dignified reticence, which unhappily she regarded as mere sullenness,
+until we reached the Society's room.
+
+The place was well filled, and the company, in spite of the
+extravagantly modern costumes of the younger women, which I cannot
+describe better than by saying that there was little difference in it
+from that of ordinary male attire, was quite conventional in so far as
+the interchange of ordinary courtesies went. When, however, any member
+of the Society mingled with a group of visitors, the conversation was
+soon turned into a new channel. Secrets of science, which I had been
+accustomed to look upon as undiscoverable, were bandied about like the
+merest commonplaces of education. The absurdity of individuality and the
+subjectivity of the emotions were alike insisted on without notice of
+the paradox, which to me appeared extreme. The Associates were
+altruistic for the sake of altruism, not for the sake of its
+beneficiaries. They were not pantheists, for they saw neither universal
+good nor God, but rather evil in all things--themselves included. Their
+talk, however, was brilliant, and, with allowance for its jarring
+sentiments, it possessed something of the indefinable charm which
+followed Brande. My reflections on this identity of interest were
+interrupted by the man himself. After a word of welcome he said:
+
+"Let me show you our great experiment; that which touches the high-water
+mark of scientific achievement in the history of humanity. It is not
+much in itself, but it is the pioneer of many marvels."
+
+He brought me to a metal stand, on which a small instrument constructed
+of some white metal was placed. A large number of wires were connected
+with various portions of it, and these wires passed into the side-wall
+of the building.
+
+In appearance, this marvel of micrology, so far as the eye-piece and
+upper portions went, was like an ordinary microscope, but its magnifying
+power was to me unbelievable. It magnified the object under examination
+many thousand times more than the most powerful microscope in the world.
+
+I looked through the upper lens, and saw a small globe suspended in the
+middle of a tiny chamber filled with soft blue light, or transparent
+material. Circling round this globe four other spheres revolved in
+orbits, some almost circular, some elliptical, some parabolic. As I
+looked, Brande touched a key, and the little globules began to fly more
+rapidly round their primary, and make wider sweeps in their revolutions.
+Another key was pressed, and the revolving spheres slowed down and drew
+closer until I could scarcely distinguish any movement. The globules
+seemed to form a solid ball.
+
+"Attend now!" Brande exclaimed.
+
+He tapped the first key sharply. A little grey cloud obscured the blue
+light. When it cleared away, the revolving globes had disappeared.
+
+"What do you think of it?" he asked carelessly.
+
+"What is it? What does it mean? Is it the solar system or some other
+system illustrated in miniature? I am sorry for the misadventure."
+
+"You are partly correct," Brande replied. "It is an illustration of a
+planetary system, though a small one. But there was no misadventure. I
+caused the somewhat dangerous result you witnessed, the wreckage not
+merely of the molecule of marsh gas you were examining--which any
+educated chemist might do as easily as I--but the wreckage of its
+constituent atoms. This is a scientific victory which dwarfs the work of
+Helmholtz, Avogadro, or Mendelejeff. The immortal Dalton himself" (the
+word "immortal" was spoken with a sneer) "might rise from his grave to
+witness it."
+
+"Atoms--molecules! What are you talking about?" I asked, bewildered.
+
+"You were looking on at the death of a molecule--a molecule of marsh
+gas, as I have already said. It was caused by a process which I would
+describe to you if I could reduce my own life work--and that of every
+scientific amateur who has preceded me since the world began--into half
+a dozen sentences. As that would be difficult, I must ask you to accept
+my personal assurance that you witnessed a fact, not a fiction of my
+imagination."
+
+"And your instrument is so perfect that it not only renders molecules
+and atoms but their diffusion visible? It is a microscopic
+impossibility. At least it is amazing."
+
+"Pshaw!" Brande exclaimed impatiently. "My instrument does certainly
+magnify to a marvellous extent, but not by the old device of the simple
+microscope, which merely focussed a large area of light rays into a
+small one. So crude a process could never show an atom to the human eye.
+I add much to that. I restore to the rays themselves the luminosity
+which they lost in their passage through our atmosphere. I give them
+back all their visual properties, and turn them with their full etheric
+blaze on the object under examination. Great as that achievement is, I
+deny that it is amazing. It may amaze a Papuan to see his eyelash
+magnified to the size of a wire, or an uneducated Englishman to see a
+cheese-mite magnified to the size of a midge. It should not amaze you
+to see a simple process a little further developed."
+
+"Where does the danger you spoke of come in?" I asked with a pretence of
+interest. Candidly, I did not believe a single word that Brande had
+said.
+
+"If you will consult a common text-book on the physics of the ether," he
+replied, "you will find that one grain of matter contains sufficient
+energy, if etherised, to raise a hundred thousand tons nearly two miles.
+In face of such potentiality it is not wise to wreck incautiously even
+the atoms of a molecule."
+
+"And the limits to this description of scientific experiment? Where are
+they?"
+
+"There are no limits," Brande said decisively. "No man can say to
+science 'thus far and no farther.' No man ever has been able to do so.
+No man ever shall!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+"IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE."
+
+
+Amongst the letters lying on my breakfast-table a few days after the
+meeting was one addressed in an unfamiliar hand. The writing was bold,
+and formed like a man's. There was a faint trace of a perfume about the
+envelope which I remembered. I opened it first.
+
+It was, as I expected, from Miss Brande. Her brother had gone to their
+country place on the southern coast. She and her friend, Edith Metford,
+were going that day. Their luggage was already at the station. Would I
+send on what I required for a short visit, and meet them at eleven
+o'clock on the bridge over the Serpentine? It was enough for me. I
+packed a large portmanteau hastily, sent it to Charing Cross, and spent
+the time at my disposal in the park, which was close to my hotel.
+
+Although the invitation I had received gave me pleasure, I could not
+altogether remove from my mind a vague sense of disquietude concerning
+Herbert Brande and his Society. The advanced opinions I had heard, if
+extreme, were not altogether alarming. But the mysterious way in which
+Brande himself had spoken about the Society, and the still more
+mysterious air which some of the members assumed when directly
+questioned as to its object, suggested much. Might it not be a
+revolutionary party engaged in a grave intrigue--a branch of some
+foreign body whose purpose was so dangerous that ordinary disguises were
+not considered sufficiently secure? Might they not have adopted the
+jargon and pretended to the opinions of scientific faddists as a cloak
+for designs more sinister and sincere? The experiment I witnessed might
+be almost a miracle or merely a trick. Thinking it over thus, I could
+come to no final opinion, and when I asked myself aloud, "What are you
+afraid of?" I could not answer my own question. But I thought I would
+defer joining the Society pending further information.
+
+A few minutes before eleven, I walked towards the bridge over the
+Serpentine. No ladies appeared to be on it. There were only a couple of
+smartly dressed youths there, one smoking a cigarette. I sauntered about
+until one of the lads, the one who was not smoking, looked up and
+beckoned to me. I approached leisurely, for it struck me that the boy
+would have shown better breeding if he had come toward me, considering
+my seniority.
+
+"I am sorry I did not notice you sooner. Why did you not come on when
+you saw us?" the smallest and slimmest youth called to me.
+
+"In the name of--Miss--Miss--" I stammered.
+
+"Brande; you haven't forgotten my name, I hope," Natalie Brande said
+coolly. "This is my friend, Edith Metford. Metford, this is Arthur
+Marcel."
+
+"How do you do, Marcel? I am glad to meet you; I have heard 'favourable
+mention' of you from the Brandes," the second figure in knickerbockers
+said pleasantly.
+
+"How do you do, sir--madam--I mean--Miss--" I blundered, and then in
+despair I asked Miss Brande, "Is this a tableau vivant? What is the
+meaning of these disguises?" My embarrassment was so great that my
+discourteous question may be pardoned.
+
+"Our dress! Surely you have seen women rationally dressed before!" Miss
+Brande answered complacently, while the other girl watched my
+astonishment with evident amusement.
+
+This second girl, Edith Metford, was a frank, handsome young woman, but
+unlike the spirituelle beauty of Natalie Brande. She was perceptibly
+taller than her friend, and of fuller figure. In consequence, she
+looked, in my opinion, to even less advantage in her eccentric costume,
+or rational dress, than did Miss Brande.
+
+"Rationally dressed! Oh, yes. I know the divided skirt, but--"
+
+Miss Metford interrupted me. "Do you call the divided skirt atrocity
+rational dress?" she asked pointedly.
+
+"Upon my honour I do not," I answered.
+
+These girls were too advanced in their ideas of dress for me. Nor did I
+feel at all at my ease during this conversation, which did not, however,
+appear to embarrass them. I proposed hastily to get a cab, but they
+demurred. It was such a lovely day, they preferred to walk, part of the
+way at least. I pointed out that there might be drawbacks to this
+amendment of my proposal.
+
+"What drawbacks?" Miss Metford asked.
+
+"For instance, isn't it probable we shall all be arrested by the
+police?" I replied.
+
+"Rubbish! We are not in Russia," both exclaimed.
+
+"Which is lucky for you," I reflected, as we commenced what was to me a
+most disagreeable walk. I got them into a cab sooner than they wished.
+At the railway station I did not offer to procure their tickets. To do
+so, I felt, would only give offence. Critical glances followed us as we
+went to our carriage. Londoners are becoming accustomed to varieties, if
+not vagaries, in ladies' costumes, but the dress of my friends was
+evidently a little out of the common even for them. Miss Metford was
+just turning the handle of a carriage door, when I interposed, saying,
+"This is a smoking compartment."
+
+"So I see. I am going to smoke--if you don't object?"
+
+"I don't suppose it would make any difference if I did," I said, with
+unconscious asperity, for indeed this excess of free manners was jarring
+upon me. The line dividing it from vulgarity was becoming so thin I was
+losing sight of the divisor. Yet no one, even the most fastidious,
+could associate vulgarity with Natalie Brande. There remained an air of
+unassumed sincerity about herself and all her actions, including even
+her dress, which absolutely excluded her from hostile criticism. I could
+not, however, extend that lenient judgment to Miss Metford. The girls
+spoke and acted--as they had dressed themselves--very much alike. Only,
+what seemed to me in the one a natural eccentricity, seemed in the other
+an unnatural affectation.
+
+I saw the guard passing, and, calling him over, gave him half-a-crown to
+have the compartment labelled, "Engaged."
+
+Miss Brande, who had been looking out of the window, absently asked my
+reason for this precaution. I replied that I wanted the compartment
+reserved for ourselves. I certainly did not want any staring and
+otherwise offensive fellow-passengers.
+
+"We don't want all the seats," she persisted.
+
+"No," I admitted. "We don't want the extra seats. But I thought you
+might like the privacy."
+
+"The desire for privacy is an archaic emotion," Miss Metford remarked
+sententiously, as she struck a match.
+
+"Besides, it is so selfish. We may be crowding others," Miss Brande said
+quietly.
+
+I was glad she did not smoke.
+
+"I don't want that now," I said to a porter who was hurrying up with a
+label. To the girls I remarked a little snappishly, "Of course you are
+quite right. You must excuse my ignorance."
+
+"No, it is not ignorance," Miss Brande demurred. "You have been away so
+much. You have hardly been in England, you told me, for years, and--"
+
+"And progress has been marching in my absence," I interrupted.
+
+"So it seems," Miss Metford remarked so significantly that I really
+could not help retorting with as much emphasis, compatible with
+politeness, as I could command:
+
+"You see I am therefore unable to appreciate the New Woman, of whom I
+have heard so much since I came home."
+
+"The conventional New Woman is a grandmotherly old fossil," Miss Metford
+said quietly.
+
+This disposed of me. I leant back in my seat, and was rigidly silent.
+
+Miles of green fields stippled with daisies and bordered with long
+lines of white and red hawthorn hedges flew past. The smell of new-mown
+hay filled the carriage with its sweet perfume, redolent of old
+associations. My long absence dwindled to a short holiday. The world's
+wide highways were far off. I was back in the English fields. My slight
+annoyance passed away. I fell into a pleasant day-dream, which was
+broken by a soft voice, every undulation of which I already knew by
+heart.
+
+"I am afraid you think us very advanced," it murmured.
+
+"Very," I agreed, "but I look to you to bring even me up to date."
+
+"Oh, yes, we mean to do that, but we must proceed very gradually."
+
+"You have made an excellent start," I put in.
+
+"Otherwise you would only be shocked."
+
+"It is quite possible." I said this with so much conviction that the two
+burst out laughing at me. I could not think of anything more to add, and
+I felt relieved when, with a warning shriek, the train dashed into a
+tunnel. By the time we had emerged again into the sunlight and the
+solitude of the open landscape I had ready an impromptu which I had
+been working at in the darkness. I looked straight at Miss Metford and
+said:
+
+"After all, it is very pleasant to travel with girls like you."
+
+"Thank you!"
+
+"You did not show any hysterical fear of my kissing you in the tunnel."
+
+"Why the deuce would you do that?" Miss Metford replied with great
+composure, as she blew a smoke ring.
+
+When we reached our destination I braced myself for another disagreeable
+minute or two. For if the great Londoners thought us quaint, surely the
+little country station idlers would swear we were demented. We crossed
+the platform so quickly that the wonderment we created soon passed. Our
+luggage was looked after by a servant, to whose care I confided it with
+a very brief description. The loss of an item of it did not seem to me
+of as much importance as our own immediate departure.
+
+Brande met us at his hall door. His house was a pleasant one, covered
+with flowering creeping plants, and surrounded by miniature forests. In
+front there was a lake four hundred yards in width. Close-shaven lawns
+bordered it. They were artificial products, no doubt, but they were
+artificial successes--undulating, earth-scented, fresh rolled every
+morning. Here there was an isolated shrub, there a thick bank of
+rhododendrons. And the buds, bursting into floral carnival, promised
+fine contrasts when their full splendour was come. The lake wavelets
+tinkled musically on a pebbly beach.
+
+Our host could not entertain us in person. He was busy. The plea was
+evidently sincere, notwithstanding that the business of a country
+gentleman--which he now seemed to be--is something less exacting than
+busy people's leisure. After a short rest, and an admirably-served
+lunch, we were dismissed to the woods for our better amusement.
+
+Thereafter followed for me a strangely peaceful, idyllic day--all save
+its ending. Looking back on it, I know that the sun which set that
+evening went down on the last of my happiness. But it all seems trivial
+now.
+
+My companions were accomplished botanists, and here, for the first time,
+I found myself on common ground with both. We discussed every familiar
+wild flower as eagerly as if we had been professed field naturalists. In
+walking or climbing my assistance was neither requisitioned nor
+required. I did not offer, therefore, what must have been unwelcome when
+it was superfluous.
+
+We rested at last under the shade of a big beech, for the afternoon sun
+was rather oppressive. It was a pleasant spot to while away an hour. A
+purling brook went babbling by, singing to itself as it journeyed to the
+sea. Insects droned about in busy flight. There was a perfume of
+honeysuckle wafted to us on the summer wind, which stirred the
+beech-tree and rustled its young leaves lazily, so that the sunlight
+peeped through the green lattice-work and shone on the faces of these
+two handsome girls, stretched in graceful postures on the cool sward
+below--their white teeth sparkling in its brilliance, while their soft
+laughter made music for me. In the fulness of my heart, I said aloud:
+
+"It is a good thing to be alive."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+GEORGE DELANY--DECEASED.
+
+
+"It is a good thing to be alive," Natalie Brande repeated slowly,
+gazing, as it were, far off through her half-closed eyelids. Then
+turning to me and looking at me full, wide-eyed, she asked: "A good
+thing for how many?"
+
+"For all; for everything that is alive."
+
+"Faugh! For few things that are alive. For hardly anything. You say it
+is a good thing to be alive. How often have you said that in your life?"
+
+"All my life through," I answered stoutly. My constitution was a good
+one, and I had lived healthily, if hardily. I voiced the superfluous
+vitality of a well nourished body.
+
+"Then you do not know what it is to feel for others."
+
+There was a scream in the underwood near us. It ended in a short,
+choking squeak. The girl paled, but she went on with outward calm.
+
+"That hawk or cat feels as you do. I wonder what that young rabbit
+thinks of life's problem?"
+
+"But we are neither hawks nor cats, nor even young rabbits," I answered
+warmly. "We can not bear the burthens of the whole animal world. Our own
+are sufficient for us."
+
+"You are right. They are more than sufficient."
+
+I had made a false move, and so tried to recover my lost ground. She
+would not permit me. The conversation which had run in pleasant channels
+for two happy hours was ended. Thenceforth, in spite of my obstructive
+efforts, subjects were introduced which could not be conversed on but
+must be discussed. On every one Miss Brande took the part of the weak
+against the strong, oblivious of every consideration of policy and even
+ethics, careful only that she championed the weak because of their
+weakness. Miss Metford abetted her in this, and went further in their
+joint revolt against common sense. Miss Brande was argumentative,
+pleading. Miss Metford was defiant. Between the two I fared ill.
+
+Of course the Woman question was soon introduced, and in this I made the
+best defence of time-honoured customs of which I was capable. But my
+outworks fell down as promptly before the voices of these young women as
+did the walls of Jericho before the blast of a ram's horn. Nothing that
+I had cherished was left to me. Woman no longer wanted man's protection.
+("Enslavement" they called it.) Why should she, when in the evolution of
+society there was not now, or presently would not be, anything from
+which to protect her? ("Competing slaveowners" was what they said.) When
+you wish to behold protectors you must postulate dangers. The first are
+valueless save as a preventive of the second. Both evils will be
+conveniently dispensed with. All this was new to me, most of my thinking
+life having been passed in distant lands, where the science of ethics is
+codified into a simple statute--the will of the strongest.
+
+When my dialectical humiliation was within one point of completion, Miss
+Metford came to my rescue. For some time she had looked on at my
+discomfiture with a good-natured neutrality, and when I was
+metaphorically in my last ditch, she arose, stretched her shapely
+figure, flicked some clinging grass blades from her suit, and declared
+it was time to return. Brande was a man of science, but as such he was
+still amenable to punctuality in the matter of dinner.
+
+On the way back I was discreetly silent. When we reached the house I
+went to look for Herbert Brande. He was engaged in his study, and I
+could not intrude upon him there. To do so would be to infringe the only
+rigid rule in his household. Nor had I an opportunity of speaking to him
+alone until after dinner, when I induced him to take a turn with me
+round the lake. I smoked strong cigars, and made one of these my excuse.
+
+The sun was setting when we started, and as we walked slowly the
+twilight shadows were deepening fast by the time we reached the further
+shore. Brande was in high spirits. Some new scientific experiment, I
+assumed, had come off successfully. He was beside himself. His
+conversation was volcanic. Now it rumbled and roared with suppressed
+fires. Anon, it burst forth in scintillating flashes and shot out
+streams of quickening wit. I have been his auditor in the three great
+epochs of his life, but I do not think that anything that I have
+recollected of his utterances equals the bold impromptus, the masterly
+handling of his favourite subject, the Universe, which fell from him on
+that evening. I could not answer him. I could not even follow him, much
+less suppress him. But I had come forth with a specific object in view,
+and I would not be gainsaid. And so, as my business had to be done
+better that it should be done quickly. Taking advantage of a pause which
+he made, literally for breath, I commenced abruptly:
+
+"I want to speak to you about your sister."
+
+He turned on me surprised. Then his look changed to one of such complete
+contempt, and withal his bearing suggested so plainly that he knew
+beforehand what I was going to say, that I blurted out defiantly, and
+without stopping to choose my words:
+
+"I think it an infernal shame that you, her brother, should allow her to
+masquerade about with this good-natured but eccentric Metford girl--I
+should say Miss Metford."
+
+"Why so?" he asked coldly.
+
+"Because it is absurd; and because it isn't decent."
+
+"My dear Abraham," Brande said quietly, "or is your period so recent as
+that of Isaac or Jacob? My sister pleases herself in these matters, and
+has every right to do so."
+
+"She has not. You are her brother."
+
+"Very well, I am her brother. She has no right to think for herself; no
+right to live save by my permission. Then I graciously permit her to
+think, and I allow her to live."
+
+"You'll be sorry for this nonsense sooner or later--and don't say I
+didn't warn you." The absolute futility of my last clause struck me
+painfully at the moment, but I could not think of any way to better it.
+It was hard to reason with such a man, one who denied the fundamental
+principles of family life. I was thinking over what to say next, when
+Brande stopped and put his hand, in a kindly way, upon my shoulder.
+
+"My good fellow," he said, "what does it matter? What do the actions of
+my sister signify more than the actions of any other man's sister? And
+what about the Society? Have you made up your mind about joining?"
+
+"I have. I made it up twice to-day," I answered. "I made it up in the
+morning that I would see yourself and your Society to the devil before I
+would join it. Excuse my bluntness; but you are so extremely candid
+yourself you will not mind."
+
+"Certainly, I do not mind bluntness. Rudeness is superfluous."
+
+"And I made it up this evening," I said, a little less aggressively,
+"that I would join it if the devil himself were already in it, as I half
+suspect he is."
+
+"I like that," Brande said gravely. "That is the spirit I want in the
+man who joins me."
+
+To which I replied: "What under the sun is the object of this Society of
+yours?"
+
+"Proximately to complete our investigations--already far advanced--into
+the origin of the Universe."
+
+"And ultimately?"
+
+"I cannot tell you now. You will not know that until you join us."
+
+"And if your ultimate object does not suit me, I can withdraw?"
+
+"No, it would then be too late."
+
+"How so? I am not morally bound by an oath which I swear without full
+knowledge of its consequences and responsibilities."
+
+"Oath! The oath you swear! You swear no oath. Do you fancy you are
+joining a society of Rechabites or Carmelites, or mediæval rubbish of
+that kind. Don't keep so painstakingly behind the age."
+
+I thought for a moment over what this mysterious man had said, over the
+hidden dangers in which his mad chimeras might involve the most innocent
+accomplice. Then I thought of that dark-eyed, sweet-voiced, young girl,
+as she lay on the green grass under the beech-tree in the wood and
+out-argued me on every point. Very suddenly, and, perhaps, in a manner
+somewhat grandiose, I answered him:
+
+"I will join your Society for my own purpose, and I will quit it when I
+choose."
+
+"You have every right," Brande said carelessly. "Many have done the same
+before you."
+
+"Can you introduce me to any one who has done so?" I asked, with an
+eagerness that could not be dissembled.
+
+"I am afraid I can not."
+
+"Or give me an address?"
+
+"Oh yes, that is simple." He turned over a note-book until he found a
+blank page. Then he drew the pencil from its loop, put the point to his
+lips, and paused. He was standing with his back to the failing light, so
+I could not see the expression of his mobile face. When he paused, I
+knew that no ordinary doubt beset him. He stood thus for nearly a
+minute. While he waited, I watched a pair of swans flit ghost-like over
+the silken surface of the lake. Between us and a dark bank of wood the
+lights of the house flamed red. The melancholy even-song of a blackbird
+wailed out from a shrubbery beside us. Then Herbert Brande wrote in his
+note-book, and tearing out the page, he handed it to me, saying: "That
+is the address of the last man who quitted us."
+
+The light was now so dim I had to hold the paper close to my eyes in
+order to read the lines. They were these--
+
+    GEORGE DELANY,
+      Near Saint Anne's Chapel,
+            Woking Cemetery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE MURDER CLUB.
+
+
+"Delany was the last man who quitted us--you see I use your expression
+again. I like it," Brande said quietly, watching me as he spoke.
+
+I stood staring at the slip of paper which I held in my hand for some
+moments before I could reply. When my voice came back, I asked hoarsely:
+
+"Did this man, Delany, die suddenly after quitting the Society?"
+
+"He died immediately. The second event was contemporaneous with the
+first."
+
+"And in consequence of it?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Have all the members who retired from your list been equally
+short-lived?"
+
+"Without any exception whatever."
+
+"Then your Society, after all your high-flown talk about it, is only a
+vulgar murder club," I said bitterly.
+
+"Wrong in fact, and impertinent in its expression. It is not a murder
+club, and--well, you are the first to discover its vulgarity."
+
+"I call things by their plain names. You may call your Society what you
+please. As to my joining it in face of what you have told me--"
+
+"Which is more than was ever told to any man before he joined--to any
+man living or dead. And more, you need not join it yet unless you still
+wish to do so. I presume what I have said will prevent you."
+
+"On the contrary, if I had any doubt, or if there was any possibility of
+my wavering before this interview, there is none now. I join at once."
+
+He would have taken my hand, but that I could not permit. I left him
+without another word, or any form of salute, and returned to the house.
+I did not appear again in the domestic circle that evening, for I had
+enough upon my mind without further burdening myself with social
+pretences.
+
+I sat in my room and tried once more to consider my position. It was
+this: for the sake of a girl whom I had only met some score of times;
+who sometimes acted, talked, dressed after a fashion suggestive of
+insanity; who had glorious dark eyes, a perfect figure, and an
+exquisitely beautiful face--but I interrupt myself. For the sake of this
+girl, and for the manifestly impossible purpose of protecting her from
+herself as well as others, I had surrendered myself to the probable
+vengeance of a band of cut-throats if I betrayed them, and to the
+certain vengeance of the law if I did not. Brande, notwithstanding his
+constant scepticism, was scrupulously truthful. His statement of fact
+must be relied upon. His opinions were another matter. As nothing
+practical resulted from my reflections, I came to the conclusion that I
+had got into a pretty mess for the sake of a handsome face. I regretted
+this result, but was glad of the cause of it. On this I went to bed.
+
+Next morning I was early astir, for I must see Natalie Brande without
+delay, and I felt sure she would be no sluggard on that splendid summer
+day. I tried the lawn between the house and the lake shore. I did not
+find her there. I found her friend Miss Metford. The girl was sauntering
+about, swinging a walking-cane carelessly. She was still rationally
+dressed, but I observed with relief that the rational part of her
+costume was more in the nature of the divided skirt than the plain
+knickerbockers of the previous day. She accosted me cheerfully by my
+surname, and not to be outdone by her, I said coolly:
+
+"How d'ye do, Metford?"
+
+"Very well, thanks. I suppose you expected Natalie? You see you have
+only me."
+
+"Delighted," I was commencing with a forced smile, when she stopped me.
+
+"You look it. But that can't be helped. Natalie saw you going out, and
+sent me to meet you. I am to look after you for an hour or so. You join
+the Society this evening, I hear. You must be very pleased--and
+flattered."
+
+I could not assent to this, and so remained silent. The girl chattered
+on in her own outspoken manner, which, now that I was growing accustomed
+to it, I did not find as unpleasant as at first. One thing was evident
+to me. She had no idea of the villainous nature of Brande's Society. She
+could not have spoken so carelessly if she shared my knowledge of it.
+While she talked to me, I wondered if it was fair to her--a likeable
+girl, in spite of her undesirable affectations of advanced opinion,
+emancipation or whatever she called it--was it fair to allow her to
+associate with a band of murderers, and not so much as whisper a word of
+warning? No doubt, I myself was associating with the band; but I was not
+in ignorance of the responsibility thereby incurred.
+
+"Miss Metford," I said, without heeding whether I interrupted her, "are
+you in the secret of this Society?"
+
+"I? Not at present. I shall be later on."
+
+I stopped and faced her with so serious an expression that she listened
+to me attentively.
+
+"If you will take my earnest advice--and I beg you not to neglect
+it--you will have nothing to do with it or any one belonging to it."
+
+"Not even Brande--I mean Natalie? Is she dangerous?"
+
+I disregarded her mischief and continued: "If you can get Miss Brande
+away from her brother and his acquaintances," (I had nearly said
+accomplices,) "and keep her away, you would be doing the best and
+kindest thing you ever did in your life."
+
+Miss Metford was evidently impressed by my seriousness, but, as she
+herself said very truly, it was unlikely that she would be able to
+interfere in the way I suggested. Besides, my mysterious warning was
+altogether too vague to be of any use as a guide for her own action,
+much less that of her friend. I dared not speak plainer. I could only
+repeat, in the most emphatic words, my anxiety that she would think
+carefully over what I had said. I then pretended to recollect an
+engagement with Brande, for I was in such low spirits I had really
+little taste for any company.
+
+She was disappointed, and said so in her usual straightforward way. It
+was not in the power of any gloomy prophecy to oppress her long. The
+serious look which my words had brought on her face passed quickly, and
+it was in her natural manner that she bade me good-morning, saying:
+
+"It is rather a bore, for I looked forward to a pleasant hour or two
+taking you about."
+
+I postponed my breakfast for want of appetite, and, as Brande's house
+was the best example of Liberty Hall I had ever met with, I offered no
+apology for my absence during the entire day when I rejoined my host and
+hostess in the evening. The interval I spent in the woods, thinking
+much and deciding nothing.
+
+After dinner, Brande introduced me to a man whom he called Edward Grey.
+Natalie conducted me to the room in which they were engaged. From the
+mass of correspondence in which this man Grey was absorbed, and the
+litter of papers about him, it was evident that he must have been in the
+house long before I made his acquaintance.
+
+Grey handed me a book, which I found to be a register of the names of
+the members of Brande's Society, and pointed out the place for my
+signature.
+
+When I had written my name on the list I said to Brande: "Now that I
+have nominated myself, I suppose you'll second me?"
+
+"It is not necessary," he answered; "you are already a member. Your
+remark to Miss Metford this morning made you one of us. You advised her,
+you recollect, to beware of us."
+
+"That girl!" I exclaimed, horrified. "Then she is one of your spies? Is
+it possible?"
+
+"No, she is not one of our spies. We have none, and she knew nothing of
+the purpose for which she was used."
+
+"Then I beg to say that you have made a d--d shameful use of her."
+
+In the passion of the moment I forgot my manners to my host, and formed
+the resolution to denounce the Society to the police the moment I
+returned to London. Brande was not offended by my violence. There was
+not a trace of anger in his voice as he said:
+
+"Miss Metford's information was telepathically conveyed to my sister."
+
+"Then it was your sister--"
+
+"My sister knows as little as the other. In turn, I received the
+information telepathically from her, without the knowledge of either. I
+was just telling Grey of it when you came into the room."
+
+"And," said Grey, "your intention to go straight from this house to
+Scotland Yard, there to denounce us to the police, has been
+telepathically received by myself."
+
+"My God!" I cried, "has a man no longer the right to his own thoughts?"
+
+Grey went on without noticing my exclamation: "Any overt or covert
+action on your part, toward carrying out your intention, will be
+telepathically conveyed to us, and our executive--" He shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+"I know," I said, "Woking Cemetery, near Saint Anne's Chapel. You have
+ground there."
+
+"Yes, we have to dispense with--"
+
+"Say murder."
+
+"Dispense with," Grey repeated sharply, "any member whose loyalty is
+questionable. This is not our wish; it is our necessity. It is the only
+means by which we can secure the absolute immunity of the Society
+pending the achievement of its object. To dispense with any living man
+we have only to will that he shall die."
+
+"And now that I am a member, may I ask what is this object, the secret
+of which you guard with such fiendish zeal?" I demanded angrily.
+
+"The restoration of a local etheric tumour to its original formation."
+
+"I am already weary of this jargon from Brande," I interrupted. "What do
+you mean?"
+
+"We mean to attempt the reduction of the solar system to its elemental
+ether."
+
+"And you will accomplish this triviality by means of Huxley's comet, I
+suppose?"
+
+I could scarcely control my indignation. This fooling, as I thought it,
+struck me as insulting. Neither Brande nor Grey appeared to notice my
+keen resentment. Grey answered me in a quiet, serious tone.
+
+"We shall attempt it by destroying the earth. We may fail in the
+complete achievement of our design, but in any case we shall at least be
+certain of reducing this planet to the ether of which it is composed."
+
+"Of course, of course," I agreed derisively. "You will at least make
+sure of that. You have found out how to do it too, I have no doubt?"
+
+"Yes," said Grey, "we have found out."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A TELEPATHIC TELEGRAM.
+
+
+I left the room and hurried outside without any positive plan for my
+movements. My brain was in such a whirl I could form no connected train
+of thought. These men, whose conversation was a jargon fitting only for
+lunatics, had proved that they could read my mind with the ease of a
+telegraph operator taking a message off a wire. That they, further,
+possessed marvellous, if not miraculous powers, over occult natural
+forces could hardly be doubted. The net in which I had voluntarily
+entangled myself was closing around me. An irresistible impulse to
+fly--to desert Natalie and save myself--came over me. I put this aside
+presently. It was both unworthy and unwise. For whither should I fly?
+The ends of the earth would not be far enough to save me, the depths of
+the sea would not be deep enough to hide me from those who killed by
+willing that their victim should die.
+
+On the other hand, if my senses had only been hocussed, and Messrs.
+Brande and Grey were nothing better than clever tricksters, the park
+gate was far enough, and the nearest policeman force enough, to save me
+from their vengeance. But the girl--Natalie! She was clairvoyante. They
+practised upon her. My diagnosis of the strange seeing-without-sight
+expression of her eyes was then correct. And it was clear to me that
+whatsoever or whomsoever Brande and Grey believed or disbelieved in,
+they certainly believed in themselves. They might be relied on to spare
+nothing and no one in their project, however ridiculous or mad their
+purpose might be. What then availed my paltry protection when the girl
+herself was a willing victim, and the men omnipotent? Nevertheless, if I
+failed eventually to serve her, I could at least do my best.
+
+It was clear that I must stand by Natalie Brande.
+
+While I was thus reflecting, the following conversation took place
+between Brande and Grey. I found a note of it in a diary which Brande
+kept desultorily. He wrote this up so irregularly no continuous
+information can be gleaned from it as to his life. How the diary came
+into my hands will be seen later. The memorandum is written thus:--
+
+_Grey_--Our new member? Why did you introduce him? You say he cannot
+help with money. It is plain he cannot help with brains.
+
+_Brande_--He interests Natalie. He is what the uneducated call
+good-natured. He enjoys doing unselfish things, unaware that it is for
+the selfish sake of the agreeable sensation thereby secured. Besides, I
+like him myself. He amuses me. To make him a member was the only safe
+way of keeping him so much about us. But Natalie is the main reason. I
+am afraid of her wavering in spite of my hypnotic influence. In a girl
+of her intensely emotional nature the sentiment of hopeless love will
+create profound melancholy. Dominated by that she is safe. It seems
+cruel at first sight. It is not really so. It is not cruel to reconcile
+her to a fate she cannot escape. It is merciful. For the rest, what does
+it matter? It will be all the same in--
+
+_Grey_--This day six months.
+
+_Brande_--I believe I shivered. Heredity has much to answer for.
+
+That is the whole of the entry. I did not read the words until the hand
+that wrote them was dust.
+
+Natalie professed some disappointment when I announced my immediate
+return to town. I was obliged to manufacture an excuse for such a hasty
+departure, and so fell back on an old engagement which I had truly
+overlooked, and which really called me away. But it would have called
+long enough without an answer if it had not been for Brande himself, his
+friend Grey, and their insanities. My mind was fixed on one salient
+issue: how to get Natalie Brande out of her brother's evil influence.
+This would be better compassed when I myself was outside the scope of
+his extraordinary influence. And so I went without delay.
+
+For some time after my return to London, I went about visiting old
+haunts and friends. I soon tired of this. The haunts had lost their
+interest. The friends were changed, or I was changed. I could not resume
+the friendships which had been interrupted. The chain of connection had
+been broken and the links would not weld easily. So, after some futile
+efforts to return to the circle I had long deserted, I desisted and
+accepted my exclusion with serenity. I am not sure that I desired the
+old relationships re-established. And as my long absence had prevented
+any fresh shoots of friendship being grafted, I found myself alone in
+London. I need say no more.
+
+One evening I was walking through the streets in a despondent mood, as
+had become my habit. By chance I read the name of a street into which I
+had turned to avoid a more crowded thoroughfare. It was that in which
+Miss Metford lived. I knew that she had returned to town, for she had
+briefly acquainted me with the fact on a postcard written some days
+previously.
+
+Here was a chance of distraction. This girl's spontaneous gaiety, which
+I found at first displeasing, was what I wanted to help me to shake off
+the gloomy incubus of thought oppressing me. It was hardly within the
+proprieties to call upon her at such an hour, but it could not matter
+very much, when the girl's own ideas were so unconventional. She had
+independent means, and lived apart from her family in order to be rid of
+domestic limitations. She had told me that she carried a
+latch-key--indeed she had shown it to me with a flourish of triumph--and
+that she delighted in free manners. Free manners, she was careful to
+add, did not mean bad manners. To my mind the terms were synonymous.
+When opposite her number I decided to call, and, having knocked at the
+door, was told that Miss Metford was at home.
+
+"Hallo, Marcel! Glad to see you," she called out, somewhat stridently
+for my taste. Her dress was rather mannish, as usual. In lieu of her
+out-door tunic she wore a smoking-jacket. When I entered she was sitting
+in an arm-chair, with her feet on a music-stool. She arose so hastily
+that the music-stool was overturned, and allowed to lie where it fell.
+
+"What is the matter?" she asked, concerned. "Have you seen a ghost?"
+
+"I think I have seen many ghosts of late," I said, "and they have not
+been good company. I was passing your door, and I have come in for
+comfort."
+
+She crossed the room and poured out some whisky from a decanter which
+was standing on a side-board. Then she opened a bottle of soda-water
+with a facility which suggested practice. I was relieved to think that
+it was not Natalie who was my hostess. Handing me the glass, she said
+peremptorily:
+
+"Drink that. That is right. Give me the glass. Now smoke. Do I allow
+smoking here? Pah! I smoke here myself."
+
+I lit a cigar and sat down beside her. The clouds began to lift from my
+brain and float off in the blue smoke wreaths. We talked on ordinary
+topics without my once noticing how deftly they had been introduced by
+Miss Metford. I never thought of the flight of time until a chime from a
+tiny clock on the mantelpiece--an exquisite sample of the tasteful
+furniture of the whole room--warned me that my visit had lasted two
+hours. I arose reluctantly.
+
+She rallied me on my ingratitude. I had come in a sorry plight. I was
+now restored. She was no longer useful, therefore I left her. And so on,
+till I said with a solemnity no doubt lugubrious:
+
+"I am most grateful, Miss Metford. I cannot tell you how grateful I am.
+You would not understand--"
+
+"Oh, please leave my poor understanding alone, and tell me what has
+happened to you. I should like to hear it. And what is more, I like
+you." She said this so carelessly, I did not feel embarrassed. "Now,
+then, the whole story, please." Saying which, she sat down again.
+
+"Do you really know nothing more of Brande's Society than you admitted
+when I last spoke to you about it?" I asked, without taking the chair
+she pushed over to me.
+
+"This is all I know," she answered, in the rhyming voice of a young
+pupil declaiming a piece of a little understood and less cared for
+recitation. "The society has very interesting evenings. Brande shows one
+beautiful experiments, which, I daresay, would be amazingly instructive
+if one were inclined that way, which I am not. The men are mostly
+long-haired creatures with spectacles. Some of them are rather
+good-looking. All are wholly mad. And my friend--I mean the only girl I
+could ever stand as a friend--Natalie Brande, is crazy about them."
+
+"Nothing more than that?"
+
+"Nothing more."
+
+The clock now struck the hour of nine, the warning chime for which had
+startled me.
+
+"Is there anything more than that?" Miss Metford asked with some
+impatience.
+
+I thought for a moment. Unless my own senses had deceived me that
+evening in Brande's house, I ran a great risk of sharing George Delany's
+fate if I remained where I was much longer. And suppose I told her all
+I knew, would not that bring the same danger upon her too? So I had to
+answer:
+
+"I cannot tell you. I am a member now."
+
+"Then you must know more than any mere outsider like myself. I suppose
+it would not be fair to ask you. Anyhow, you will come back and see me
+soon. By the way, what is your address?"
+
+I gave her my address. She wrote it down on a silver-cased tablet, and
+remarked:
+
+"That will be all right. I'll look you up some evening."
+
+As I drove to my hotel, I felt that the mesmeric trick, or whatever
+artifice had been practised upon me by Brande and Grey, had now assumed
+its true proportion. I laughed at my fears, and was thankful that I had
+not described them to the strong-minded young woman to whose kindly
+society I owed so much. What an idiot she would have thought me!
+
+A servant met me in the hall.
+
+"Telegram, sir. Just arrived at this moment."
+
+I took the telegram, and went upstairs with it unopened in my hand. A
+strange fear overcame me. I dared not open the envelope. I knew
+beforehand who the sender was, and what the drift of the message would
+be. I was right. It was from Brande.
+
+    "I beg you to be more cautious. Your discussion with Miss M. this
+    evening might have been disastrous. I thought all was over at nine
+    o'clock.
+
+                                                             "BRANDE."
+
+I sat down stupefied. When my senses returned, I looked at the table
+where I had thrown the telegram. It was not there, nor in the room. I
+rang for the man who had given it to me, and he came immediately.
+
+"About that telegram you gave me just now, Phillips--"
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," the man interrupted, "I did not give you any
+telegram this evening."
+
+"I mean when you spoke to me in the hall."
+
+"Yes, sir. I said 'good-night,' but you took no notice. Excuse me, sir,
+I thought you looked strange."
+
+"Oh, I was thinking of something else. And I remember now, it was
+Johnson who gave me the telegram."
+
+"Johnson left yesterday, sir."
+
+"Then it was yesterday I was thinking of. You may go, Phillips."
+
+So Brande's telepathic power was objective as well as subjective. My own
+brain, unaccustomed to be impressed by another mind "otherwise than
+through the recognised channels of sense," had supplied the likeliest
+authority for its message. The message was duly delivered, but the
+telegram was a delusion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+GUILTY!
+
+
+As to protecting Natalie Brande from her brother and the fanatics with
+whom he associated, it was now plain that I was powerless. And what
+guarantee had I that she herself was unaware of his nefarious purpose;
+that she did not sympathise with it? This last thought flashed upon me
+one day, and the sting of pain that followed it was so intolerable, I
+determined instantly to prove its falsity or truth.
+
+I telegraphed to Brande that I was running down to spend a day or two
+with him, and followed my message without waiting for a reply. I have
+still a very distinct recollection of that journey, notwithstanding much
+that might well have blotted it from my memory. Every mile sped over
+seemed to mark one more barrier passed on my way to some strange fate;
+every moment which brought me nearer this incomprehensible girl with
+her magical eyes was an epoch of impossibility against my ever
+voluntarily turning back. And now that it is all over, I am glad that I
+went on steadfastly to the end.
+
+Brande received me with the easy affability of a man to whom good
+breeding had ceased to be a habit, and had become an instinct. Only once
+did anything pass between us bearing on the extraordinary relationship
+which he had established with me--the relation of victor and victim, I
+considered it. We had been left together for a few moments, and I said
+as soon as the others were out of hearing distance:
+
+"I got your message."
+
+"I know you did," he replied. That was all. There was an awkward pause.
+It must be broken somehow. Any way out of the difficulty was better than
+to continue in it.
+
+"Have you seen this?" I asked, handing Brande a copy of a novel which I
+had picked up at a railway bookstall. When I say that it was new and
+popular, it will be understood that it was indecent.
+
+He looked at the title, and said indifferently: "Yes, I have seen it,
+and in order to appreciate this class of fiction fairly, I have even
+tried to read it. Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because I thought it would be in your line. It is very advanced." I
+said this to gain time.
+
+"Advanced--advanced? I am afraid I do not comprehend. What do you mean
+by 'advanced'? And how could it be in my line. I presume you mean by
+that, on my plane of thought?"
+
+"By 'advanced,' I mean up-to-date. What do you mean by it?"
+
+"If I used the word at all, I should mean educated, evolved. Is this
+evolved? Is it even educated? It is not always grammatical. It has no
+style. In motive, it ante-dates Boccaccio."
+
+"You disapprove of it."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Then you approve it, notwithstanding your immediate condemnation?"
+
+"By no means. I neither approve nor disapprove. It only represents a
+phase of humanity--the deliberate purpose of securing money or notoriety
+to the individual, regardless of the welfare of the community. There is
+nothing to admire in that. It would be invidious to blame it when the
+whole social scheme is equally wrong and contemptible. By the way, what
+interest do you think the wares of any literary pander, of either sex,
+could possess for me, a student--even if a mistaken one--of science?"
+
+"I did not think the book would possess the slightest interest for you,
+and I suppose you are already aware of that?"
+
+"Ah no! My telepathic power is reserved for more serious purposes. Its
+exercise costs me too much to expend it on trifles. In consequence I do
+not know why you mentioned the book."
+
+To this I answered candidly, "I mentioned it in order to get myself out
+of a conversational difficulty--without much success."
+
+Natalie was reserved with me at first. She devoted herself unnecessarily
+to a boy named Halley who was staying with them. Grey had gone to
+London. His place was taken by a Mr. Rockingham, whom I did not like.
+There was something sinister in his expression, and he rarely spoke save
+to say something cynical, and in consequence disagreeable. He had "seen
+life," that is, everything deleterious to and destructive of it. His
+connection with Brande was clearly a rebound, the rebound of disgust.
+There was nothing creditable to him in that. My first impression of him
+was thus unfavourable. My last recollection of him is a fitting item in
+the nightmare which contains it.
+
+The youth Halley would have interested me under ordinary circumstances.
+His face was as handsome and refined as that of a pretty girl. His
+figure, too, was slight and his voice effeminate. But there my own
+advantage, as I deemed it, over him ceased. Intellectually, he was a
+pupil of Brande's who did his master credit. Having made this discovery
+I did not pursue it. My mind was fixed too fast upon a definite issue to
+be more than temporarily interested in the epigrams of a peachy-cheeked
+man of science.
+
+The afternoon was well advanced before I had an opportunity of speaking
+to Natalie. When it came, I did not stop to puzzle over a choice of
+phrases.
+
+"I wish to speak to you alone on a subject of extreme importance to me,"
+I said hurriedly. "Will you come with me to the sea-shore? Your time, I
+know, is fully occupied. I would not ask this if my happiness did not
+depend upon it."
+
+The philosopher looked on me with grave, kind eyes. But the woman's
+heart within her sent the red blood flaming to her cheeks. It was then
+given to me to fathom the lowest depth of boorish stupidity I had ever
+sounded.
+
+"I don't mean that," I cried, "I would not dare--"
+
+The blush on her cheek burnt deeper as she tossed her head proudly back,
+and said straight out, without any show of fence or shadow of
+concealment:
+
+"It was my mistake. I am glad to know that I did you an injustice. You
+are my friend, are you not?"
+
+"I believe I have the right to claim that title," I answered.
+
+"Then what you ask is granted. Come." She put her hand boldly into mine.
+I grasped the slender fingers, saying:
+
+"Yes, Natalie, some day I will prove to you that I am your friend."
+
+"The proof is unnecessary," she replied, in a low sad voice.
+
+We started for the sea. Not a word was spoken on the way. Nor did our
+eyes meet. We were in a strange position. It was this: the man who had
+vowed he was the woman's friend--who did not intend to shirk the proof
+of his promise, and never did gainsay it--meant to ask the woman,
+before the day was over, to clear herself of knowingly associating with
+a gang of scientific murderers. The woman had vaguely divined his
+purpose, and could not clear herself.
+
+When we arrived at the shore we occupied ourselves inconsequently. We
+hunted little fishes until Natalie's dainty boots were dripping. We
+examined quaint denizens of the shallow water until her gloves were
+spoilt. We sprang from rock to rock and evaded the onrush of the foaming
+waves. We made aqueducts for inter-communication between deep pools. We
+basked in the sunshine, and listened to the deep moan of the sounding
+sea, and the solemn murmur of the shells. We drank in the deep breath of
+the ocean, and for a brief space we were like happy children.
+
+The end came soon to this ephemeral happiness. It was only one of those
+bright coins snatched from the niggard hand of Time which must always be
+paid back with usurious charges. We paid with cruel interest.
+
+Standing on a flat rock side by side, I nerved myself to ask this girl
+the same question I had asked her friend, Edith Metford, how much she
+knew of the extraordinary and preposterous Society--as I still tried to
+consider it--which Herbert Brande had founded. She looked so frank, so
+refined, so kind, I hardly dared to put my brutal question to an
+innocent girl, whom I had seen wince at the suffering of a maimed bird,
+and pale to the lips at the death-cry of a rabbit. This time there was
+no possibility of untoward consequence in the question save to
+myself--for surely the girl was safe from her own brother. And I myself
+preferred to risk the consequences rather than endure longer the thought
+that she belonged voluntarily to a vile murder club. Yet the question
+would not come. A simple thing brought it out. Natalie, after looking
+seaward silently for some minutes, said simply:
+
+"How long are we to stand here, I wonder?"
+
+"Until you answer this question. How much do you know about your
+brother's Society, which I have joined to my own intense regret?"
+
+"I am sorry you regret having joined," she replied gravely.
+
+"You would not be sorry," said I, "if you knew as much about it as I
+do," forgetting that I had still no answer to my question, and that the
+extent of her knowledge was unknown to me.
+
+"I believe I do know as much as you." There was a tremor in her voice
+and an anxious pleading look in her eyes. This look maddened me. Why
+should she plead to me unless she was guilty? I stamped my foot upon the
+rock without noticing that in so doing I kicked our whole collection of
+shells into the water.
+
+There was something more to ask, but I stood silent and sullen. The
+woods above the beach were choral with bird-voices. They were hateful to
+me. The sea song of the tumbling waves was hideous. I cursed the yellow
+sunset light glaring on their snowy crests. A tiny hand was laid upon my
+arm. I writhed under its deadly if delicious touch. But I could not put
+it away, nor keep from turning to the sweet face beside me, to mark once
+more its mute appeal--now more than mere appeal; it was supplication
+that was in her eyes. Her red lips were parted as though they voiced an
+unspoken prayer. At last a prayer did pass from them to me.
+
+"Do not judge me until you know me better. Do not hate me without cause.
+I am not wicked, as you think. I--I--I am trying to do what I think is
+right. At least, I am not selfish or cruel. Trust me yet a little
+while."
+
+I looked at her one moment, and then with a sob I clasped her in my
+arms, and cried aloud:
+
+"My God! to name murder and that angel face in one breath! Child, you
+have been befooled. You know nothing."
+
+For a second she lingered in my embrace. Then she gently put away my
+arms, and looking up at me, said fearlessly but sorrowfully:
+
+"I cannot lie--even for your love. I know _all_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE WOKING MYSTERY.
+
+
+She knew all. Then she was a murderess--or in sympathy with murderers.
+My arms fell from her. I drew back shuddering. I dared not look in her
+lying eyes, which cried pity when her base heart knew no mercy. Surely
+now I had solved the maddening puzzle which the character of this girl
+had, so far, presented to me. Yet the true solution was as far from me
+as ever. Indeed, I could not well have been further from it than at that
+moment.
+
+As we walked back, Natalie made two or three unsuccessful attempts to
+lure me out of the silence which was certainly more eloquent on my part
+than any words I could have used. Once she commenced:
+
+"It is hard to explain--"
+
+I interrupted her harshly. "No explanation is possible."
+
+On that she put her handkerchief to her eyes, and a half-suppressed sob
+shook her slight figure. Her grief distracted me. But what could I say
+to assuage it?
+
+At the hall door I stopped and said, "Good-bye."
+
+"Are you not coming in?"
+
+There was a directness and emphasis in the question which did not escape
+me.
+
+"I?" The horror in my own voice surprised myself, and assuredly did not
+pass without her notice.
+
+"Very well; good-bye. We are not exactly slaves of convention here, but
+you are too far advanced in that direction even for me. This is your
+second startling departure from us. I trust you will spare me the
+humiliation entailed by the condescension of your further acquaintance."
+
+"Give me an hour!" I exclaimed aghast. "You do not make allowance for
+the enigma in which everything is wrapped up. I said I was your friend
+when I thought you of good report. Give me an hour--only an hour--to say
+whether I will stand by my promise, now that you yourself have claimed
+that your report is not good but evil. For that is really what you have
+protested. Do I ask too much? or is your generosity more limited even
+than my own?"
+
+"Ah, no! I would not have you think that. Take an hour, or a year--an
+hour only if you care for my happiness."
+
+"Agreed," said I. "I will take the hour. Discretion can have the year."
+
+So I left her. I could not go indoors. A roof would smother me. Give me
+the open lawns, the leafy woods, the breath of the summer wind. Away,
+then, to the silence of the coming night. For an hour leave me to my
+thoughts. Her unworthiness was now more than suspected. It was admitted.
+My misery was complete. But I would not part with her; I could not.
+Innocent or guilty, she was mine. I must suffer with her or for her. The
+resolution by which I have abided was formed as I wandered lonely
+through the woods.
+
+When I reached my room that night I found a note from Brande. To receive
+a letter from a man in whose house I was a guest did not surprise me. I
+was past that stage. There was nothing mysterious in the letter, save
+its conclusion. It was simply an invitation to a public meeting of the
+Society, which was to be held on that day week in the hall in Hanover
+Square, and the special feature in the letter--seeing that it did not
+vanish like the telegram, but remained an ordinary sheet of paper--lay
+in its concluding sentence. This urged me to allow nothing to prevent my
+attendance. "You will perhaps understand thereafter that we are neither
+political plotters nor lunatics, as you have thought."
+
+Thought! The man's mysterious power was becoming wearisome. It was too
+much for me. I wished that I had never seen his face.
+
+As I lay sleepless in my bed, I recommenced that interminable
+introspection which, heretofore, had been so barren of result. It was
+easy to swear to myself that I would stand by Natalie Brande, that I
+would never desert her. But how should my action be directed in order
+that by its conduct I might prevail upon the girl herself to surrender
+her evil associates? I knew that she regarded me with affection. And I
+knew also that she would not leave her brother for my sake. Did she
+sympathise with his nefarious schemes, or was she decoyed into them like
+myself?
+
+Decoyed! That was it!
+
+I sprang from the bed, beside myself with delight. Now I had not merely
+a loophole of escape from all these miseries; I had a royal highway.
+Fool, idiot, blind mole that I was, not to perceive sooner that easy
+solution of the problem! No wonder that she was wounded by my unworthy
+doubts. And she had tried to explain, but I would not listen! I threw
+myself back and commenced to weave all manner of pleasant fancies round
+the salvation of this girl from her brother's baneful influence, and the
+annihilation of his Society, despite its occult powers, by mine own
+valour. The reaction was too great. Instead of constructing marvellous
+counterplots, I fell sound asleep.
+
+Next day I found Natalie in a pleasant morning-room to which I was
+directed. She wore her most extreme--and, in consequence, most
+exasperating--rational costume. When I entered the room she pushed a
+chair towards me, in a way that suggested Miss Metford's worst manner,
+and lit a cigarette, for the express purpose, I felt, of annoying me.
+
+"I have come," I said somewhat shamefacedly, "to explain."
+
+"And apologise?"
+
+"Yes, to apologise. I made a hideous mistake. I have suffered for it as
+much as you could wish."
+
+"Wish you to suffer!" She flung away her cigarette. Her dark eyes opened
+wide in unassumed surprise. And that curious light of pity, which I had
+so often wondered at, came into them. "I am very sorry if you have
+suffered," she said, with convincing earnestness.
+
+"How could I doubt you? Senseless fool that I was to suppose for one
+moment that you approved of what you could not choose but know--"
+
+At this her face clouded.
+
+"I am afraid you are still in error. What opinion have you formed which
+alters your estimate of me?"
+
+"The only opinion possible: that you have unwillingly learned the secret
+of your brother's Society; but, like myself--you see no way to--to--"
+
+"To what purpose?"
+
+"To destroy it."
+
+"I am not likely to attempt that."
+
+"No, it would be impossible, and the effort would cost your life."
+
+"That is not my reason." She arose and stood facing me. "I do not like
+to lose your esteem. You know already that I will not lie to retain it.
+I approve of the Society's purpose."
+
+"And its actions?"
+
+"They are inevitable. Therefore I approve also of its actions. I shall
+not ask you to remain now, for I see that you are again horrified; as is
+natural, considering your knowledge--or, pardon me for saying so, your
+want of knowledge. I shall be glad to see you after the lecture to which
+you are invited. You will know a little more then; not all, perhaps, but
+enough to shake your time-dishonoured theories of life--and death."
+
+I bowed, and left the room without a word. It was true, then, that she
+was mad like the others, or worse than mad--a thousand times worse! I
+said farewell to Brande, as his guest, for the last time. Thenceforward
+I would meet him as his enemy--his secret enemy as far as I could
+preserve my secrecy with such a man; his open enemy when the proper time
+should come.
+
+In the railway carriage I turned over some letters and papers which I
+found in my pockets, not with deliberate intention, but to while away
+the time. One scrap startled me. It was the sheet on which Brande had
+written the Woking address, and on reading it over once more, a thought
+occurred to me which I acted on as soon as possible. I could go to
+Woking and find out something about the man Delany. So long as my
+inquiries were kept within the limits of the strictest discretion,
+neither Brande nor any of his executive could blame me for seeking
+convincing evidence of the secret power they claimed.
+
+On my arrival in London, I drove immediately to the London Necropolis
+Company's station and caught the funeral train which runs to Brookwood
+cemetery. With Saint Anne's Chapel as my base, I made short excursions
+hither and thither, and stood before a tombstone erected to the memory
+of George Delany, late of the Criminal Investigation Department,
+Scotland Yard. This was a clue which I could follow, so I hurried back
+to town and called on the superintendent of the department.
+
+Yes, I was told, Delany had belonged to the department. He had been a
+very successful officer in ferreting out foreign Anarchists and
+evil-doers. His last movement was to join a Society of harmless cranks
+who met in Hanover Square. No importance was attached to this in the
+department. It could not have been done in the way of business, although
+Delany pretended that it was. He had dropped dead in the street as he
+was leaving his cab to enter the office with information which must have
+appeared to him important--to judge from the cabman's evidence as to his
+intense excitement and repeated directions for faster driving. There was
+an inquest and a post-mortem, but "death from natural causes" was the
+verdict. That was all. It was enough for me.
+
+I had now sufficient evidence, and was finally convinced that the
+Society was as dangerous as it was demented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CUI BONO?
+
+
+When I arrived at the Society's rooms on the evening for which I had an
+invitation, I found them pleasantly lighted. The various scientific
+diagrams and instruments had been removed, and comfortable arm-chairs
+were arranged so that a free passage was available, not merely to each
+row, but to each chair. The place was full when I entered, and soon
+afterwards the door was closed and locked. Natalie Brande and Edith
+Metford were seated beside each other. An empty chair was on Miss
+Metford's right. She saw me standing at the door and nodded toward the
+empty seat which she had reserved for me. When I reached it she made a
+movement as if to forestall me and leave me the middle chair. I
+deprecated this by a look which was intentionally so severe that she
+described it later as a malignant scowl.
+
+I could not at the moment seat myself voluntarily beside Natalie Brande
+with the exact and final knowledge which I had learnt at Scotland Yard
+only one week old. I could not do it just then, although I did not mean
+to draw back from what I had undertaken--to stand by her, innocent or
+guilty. But I must have time to become accustomed to the sensation which
+followed this knowledge. Miss Metford's fugitive attempts at
+conversation pending the commencement of the lecture were disagreeable
+to me.
+
+There was a little stir on the platform. The chairman, in a few words,
+announced Herbert Brande. "This is the first public lecture," he said,
+"which has been given since the formation of the Society, and in
+consequence of the fact that a number of people not scientifically
+educated are present, the lecturer will avoid the more esoteric phases
+of his subject, which would otherwise present themselves in his
+treatment of it, and confine himself to the commonplaces of scientific
+insight. The title of the lecture is identical with that of our
+Society--_Cui Bono?_"
+
+Brande came forward unostentatiously and placed a roll of paper on the
+reading-desk. I have copied the extracts which follow from this
+manuscript. The whole essay, indeed, remains with me intact, but it is
+too long--and it would be immaterial--to reproduce it all in this
+narrative. I cannot hope either to reproduce the weird impressiveness of
+the lecturer's personality, his hold over his audience, or my own
+emotions in listening to this man--whom I had proved, not only from his
+own confession, but by the strongest collateral evidence, to be a
+callous and relentless murderer--to hear him glide with sonorous voice
+and graceful gesture from point to point in his logical and terrible
+indictment of suffering!--the futility of it, both in itself and that by
+which it was administered! No one could know Brande without finding
+interest, if not pleasure, in his many chance expressions full of
+curious and mysterious thought. I had often listened to his
+extemporaneous brain pictures, as the reader knows, but I had never
+before heard him deliberately formulate a planned-out system of thought.
+And such a system! This is the gospel according to Brande.
+
+"In the verbiage of primitive optimism a misleading limitation is placed
+on the significance of the word Nature and its inflections. And the
+misconception of the meaning of an important word is as certain to lead
+to an inaccurate concept as is the misstatement of a premise to precede
+a false conclusion. For instance, in the aphorism, variously rendered,
+'what is natural is right,' there is an excellent illustration of the
+misapplication of the word 'natural.' If the saying means that what is
+natural is just and wise, it might as well run 'what is natural is
+wrong,' injustice and unwisdom being as natural, _i.e._, a part of
+Nature, as justice and wisdom. Morbidity and immorality are as natural
+as health and purity. Not more so, but not less so. That 'Nature is made
+better by no mean but Nature makes that mean,' is true enough. It is
+inevitably true. The question remains, in making that mean, has she
+really made anything that tends toward the final achievement of
+universal happiness? I say she has not.
+
+"The misuse of a word, it may be argued, could not prove a serious
+obstacle to the growth of knowledge, and might be even interesting to
+the student of etymology. But behind the misuse of the word 'natural'
+there is a serious confusion of thought which must be clarified before
+the mass of human intelligence can arrive at a just appreciation of the
+verities which surround human existence, and explain it. To this end it
+is necessary to get rid of the archaic idea of Nature as a paternal,
+providential, and beneficent protector, a successor to the 'special
+providence,' and to know the true Nature, bond-slave as she is of her
+own eternal persistence of force; that sole primary principle of which
+all other principles are only correlatives; of which the existence of
+matter is but a cognisable evidence.
+
+"The optimist notion, therefore, that Nature is an all-wise designer, in
+whose work order, system, wisdom, and beauty are prominent, does not
+fare well when placed under the microscope of scientific research.
+
+"Order?
+
+"There is no order in Nature. Her armies are but seething mobs of
+rioters, destroying everything they can lay hands on.
+
+"System?
+
+"She has no system, unless it be a _reductio ad absurdum_, which only
+blunders on the right way after fruitlessly trying every other
+conceivable path. She is not wise. She never fills a pail but she spills
+a hogshead. All her works are not beautiful. She never makes a
+masterpiece but she smashes a million 'wasters' without a care. The
+theory of evolution--her gospel--reeks with ruffianism, nature-patented
+and promoted. The whole scheme of the universe, all material existence
+as it is popularly known, is founded upon and begotten of a system of
+everlasting suffering as hideous as the fantastic nightmares of
+religious maniacs. The Spanish Inquisitors have been regarded as the
+most unnatural monsters who ever disgraced the history of mankind. Yet
+the atrocities of the Inquisitors, like the battlefields of Napoleon and
+other heroes, were not only natural, but they have their prototypes in
+every cubic inch of stagnant water, or ounce of diseased tissue. And
+stagnant water is as natural as sterilised water; and diseased tissue is
+as natural as healthy tissue. Wholesale murder is Nature's first law.
+She creates only to kill, and applies the rule as remorselessly to the
+units in a star-drift as to the tadpoles in a horse-pond.
+
+"It seems a far cry from a star-drift to a horse-pond. It is so in
+distance and magnitude. It is not in the matter of constituents. In
+ultimate composition they are identical. The great nebula in Andromeda
+is an aggregation of atoms, and so is the river Thames. The only
+difference between them is the difference in the arrangement and
+incidence of these atoms and in the molecular motion of which they are
+the first but not the final cause. In a pint of Thames water, we know
+that there is bound up a latent force beside which steam and
+electricity are powerless in comparison. To release that force it is
+only necessary to apply the sympathetic key; just as the heated point of
+a needle will explode a mine of gunpowder and lay a city in ashes. That
+force is asleep. The atoms which could give it reality are at rest, or,
+at least, in a condition of _quasi_-rest. But in the stupendous mass of
+incandescent gas which constitutes the nebula of Andromeda, every atom
+is madly seeking rest and finding none; whirling in raging haste,
+battling with every other atom in its field of motion, impinging upon
+others and influencing them, being impinged upon and influenced by them.
+That awful cauldron exemplifies admirably the method of progress
+stimulated by suffering. It is the embryo of a new Sun and his planets.
+After many million years of molecular agony, when his season of fission
+had come, he will rend huge fragments from his mass and hurl them
+helpless into space, there to grow into his satellites. In their turn
+they may reproduce themselves in like manner before their true planetary
+life begins, in which they shall revolve around their parent as solid
+spheres. Follow them further and learn how beneficent Nature deals with
+them.
+
+"After the lapse of time-periods which man may calculate in figures, but
+of which his finite mind cannot form even a true symbolic conception,
+the outer skin of the planet cools--rests. Internal troubles prevail for
+longer periods still; and these, in their unsupportable agony, bend and
+burst the solid strata overlying; vomit fire through their self-made
+blow-holes, rear mountains from the depths of the sea, then dash them in
+pieces.
+
+"Time strides on austere.
+
+"The globe still cools. Life appears upon it. Then begins anew the old
+strife, but under conditions far more dreadful, for though it be founded
+on atomic consciousness, the central consciousness of the heterogeneous
+aggregation of atoms becomes immeasurably more sentient and susceptible
+with every step it takes from homogenesis. This internecine war must
+continue while any creature great or small shall remain alive upon the
+world that bore it.
+
+"By slow degrees the mighty milestones in the protoplasmic march are
+passed. Plants and animals are now busy, murdering and devouring each
+other--the strong everywhere destroying the weak. New types appear. Old
+types disappear. Types possessing the greatest capacity for murder
+progress most rapidly, and those with the least recede and determine.
+The neolithic man succeeds the palæolithic man, and sharpens the stone
+axe. Then to increase their power for destruction, men find it better to
+hunt in packs. Communities appear. Soon each community discovers that
+its own advantage is furthered by confining its killing, in the main, to
+the members of neighbouring communities. Nations early make the same
+discovery. And at last, as with ourselves, there is established a race
+with conscience enough to know that it is vile, and intelligence enough
+to know that it is insignificant.[1] But what profits this? In the
+fulness of its time the race shall die. Man will go down into the pit,
+and all his thoughts will perish. The uneasy consciousness which, in
+this obscure corner, has for a brief space broken the silence of the
+Universe, will be at rest. Matter will know itself no longer. Life and
+death and love, stronger than death, will be as though they never had
+been. Nor will anything that _is_ be better or be worse for all that
+the labour, genius, devotion, and suffering of man have striven through
+countless generations to effect.
+
+    [1] From this sentence to the end of the paragraph Brande draws
+    freely, for the purpose of his own argument, on Mr. Balfour's
+    "Naturalism and Ethics."--_Ed._
+
+"The roaring loom of Time weaves on. The globe cools out. Life
+mercifully ceases from upon its surface. The atmosphere and water
+disappear. It rests. It is dead.
+
+"But for its vicarious service in influencing more youthful planets
+within its reach, that dead world might as well be loosed at once from
+its gravitation cable and be turned adrift into space. Its time has not
+yet come. It will not come until the great central sun of the system to
+which it belongs has passed laboriously through all his stages of
+stellar life and died out also. Then when that dead sun, according to
+the impact theory, blunders across the path of another sun, dead and
+blind like himself, its time will come. The result of that impact will
+be a new star nebula, with all its weary history before it; a history of
+suffering, in which a million years will not be long enough to write a
+single page.
+
+"Here we have a scientific parallel to the hell of superstition which
+may account for the instinctive origin of the smoking flax and the fire
+which shall never be quenched. We know that the atoms of which the
+human body is built up are atoms of matter. It follows that every atom
+in every living body will be present in some form at that final impact
+in which the solar system will be ended in a blazing whirlwind which
+will melt the earth with its fervent heat. There is not a molecule or
+cell in any creature alive this day which will not in its ultimate
+constituents endure the long agony, lasting countless æons of centuries,
+wherein the solid mass of this great globe will be represented by a rush
+of incandescent gas, stupendous in itself, but trivial in comparison
+with the hurricane of flame in which it will be swallowed up and lost.
+
+"And when from that hell a new star emerges, and new planets in their
+season are born of him, and he and they repeat, as they must repeat, the
+ceaseless, changeless, remorseless story of the universe, every atom in
+this earth will take its place, and fill again functions identical with
+those which it, or its fellow, fills now. Life will reappear, develop,
+determine, to be renewed again as before. And so on for ever.
+
+"Nature has known no rest. From the beginning--which never was--she has
+been building up only to tear down again. She has been fabricating
+pretty toys and trinkets, that cost her many a thousand years to forge,
+only to break them in pieces for her sport. With infinite painstaking
+she has manufactured man only to torture him with mean miseries in the
+embryonic stages of his race, and in his higher development to madden
+him with intellectual puzzles. Thus it will be unto the end--which never
+shall be. For there is neither beginning nor end to her unvarying
+cycles. Whether the secular optimist be successful or unsuccessful in
+realising his paltry span of terrestrial paradise, whether the pæans he
+sings about it are prophetic dithyrambs or misleading myths, no
+Christian man need fear for his own immortality. That is well assured.
+In some form he will surely be raised from the dead. In some shape he
+will live again. But, _Cui bono_?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FORCE--A REMEDY.
+
+
+"Get me out of this, I am stifled--ill," Miss Metford said, in a low
+voice to me.
+
+As we were hurrying from the room, Brande and his sister, who had joined
+him, met us. The fire had died out of his eyes. His voice had returned
+to its ordinary key. His demeanour was imperturbable, sphinx-like. I
+murmured some words about the eloquence of the lecture, but interrupted
+myself when I observed his complete indifference to my remarks, and
+said,
+
+"Neither praise nor blame seems to affect you, Brande."
+
+"Certainly not," he answered calmly. "You forget that there is nothing
+deserving of either praise or blame."
+
+I knew I could not argue with him, so we passed on. Outside, I offered
+to find a cab for Miss Metford, and to my surprise she allowed me to do
+so. Her self-assertive manner was visibly modified. She made no pretence
+of resenting this slight attention, as was usual with her in similar
+cases. Indeed, she asked me to accompany her as far as our ways lay
+together. But I felt that my society at the time could hardly prove
+enlivening. I excused myself by saying candidly that I wished to be
+alone.
+
+My own company soon became unendurable. In despair I turned into a music
+hall. The contrast between my mental excitement and the inanities of the
+stage was too acute, so this resource speedily failed me. Then I betook
+myself to the streets again. Here I remembered a letter Brande had put
+into my hand as I left the hall. It was short, and the tone was even
+more peremptory than his usual arrogance. It directed me to meet the
+members of the Society at Charing Cross station at two o'clock on the
+following day. No information was given, save that we were all going on
+a long journey; that I must set my affairs in such order that my absence
+would not cause any trouble, and the letter ended, "Our experiments are
+now complete. Our plans are matured. Do not fail to attend."
+
+"Fail to attend!" I muttered. "If I am not the most abject coward on the
+earth I will attend--with every available policeman in London." The
+pent-up wrath and impotence of many days found voice at last. "Yes,
+Brande," I shouted aloud, "I will attend, and you shall be sorry for
+having invited me."
+
+"But I will not be sorry," said Natalie Brande, touching my arm.
+
+"You here!" I exclaimed, in great surprise, for it was fully an hour
+since I left the hall, and my movements had been at haphazard since
+then.
+
+"Yes, I have followed you for your own sake. Are you really going to
+draw back now?"
+
+"I must."
+
+"Then I must go on alone."
+
+"You will not go on alone. You will remain, and your friends shall go on
+without you--go to prison without you, I mean."
+
+"Poor boy," she said softly, to herself. "I wonder if I would have
+thought as I think now if I had known him sooner? I suppose I should
+have been as other women, and their fools' paradise would have been
+mine--for a little while."
+
+The absolute hopelessness in her voice pierced my heart. I pleaded
+passionately with her to give up her brother and all the maniacs who
+followed him. For the time I forgot utterly that the girl, by her own
+confession, was already with them in sympathy as well as in deed.
+
+She said to me: "I cannot hold back now. And you? You know you are
+powerless to interfere. If you will not come with me, I must go alone.
+But you may remain. I have prevailed on Herbert and Grey to permit
+that."
+
+"Never," I answered. "Where you go, I go."
+
+"It is not really necessary. In the end it will make no difference. And
+remember, you still think me guilty."
+
+"Even so, I am going with you--guilty."
+
+Now this seemed to me a very ordinary speech, for who would have held
+back, thinking her innocent? But Natalie stopped suddenly, and, looking
+me in the face, said, almost with a sob:
+
+"Arthur, I sometimes wish I had known you sooner. I might have been
+different." She was silent for a moment. Then she said piteously to me:
+"You will not fail me to-morrow?"
+
+"No, I will not fail you to-morrow," I answered.
+
+She pressed my hand gratefully, and left me without any explanation as
+to her movements in the meantime.
+
+I hurried to my hotel to set my affairs in order before joining Brande's
+expedition. The time was short for this. Fortunately there was not much
+to do. By midnight I had my arrangements nearly complete. At the time,
+the greater part of my money was lying at call in a London bank. This I
+determined to draw in gold the next day. I also had at my banker's some
+scrip, and I knew I could raise money on that. My personal effects and
+the mementos of my travels, which lay about my rooms in great confusion,
+must remain where they were. As to the few friends who still remained to
+me, I did not write to them. I could not well describe a project of
+which I knew nothing, save that it was being carried out by dangerous
+lunatics, or, at least, by men who were dangerous, whether their madness
+was real or assumed. Nor could I think of any reasonable excuse for
+leaving England after so long an absence without a personal visit to
+them. It was best, then, to disappear without a word. Having finished my
+dispositions, I changed my coat for a dressing-gown and sat down by the
+window, which I threw open, for the summer night was warm. I sat long,
+and did not leave my chair until the morning sun was shining on my face.
+
+When I got to Charing Cross next day, a group of fifty or sixty people
+were standing apart from the general crowd and conversing with
+animation. Almost the whole strength of the Society was assembled to see
+a few of us off, I thought. In fact, they were all going. About a dozen
+women were in the party, and they were dressed in the most extravagant
+rational costumes. Edith Metford was amongst them. I drew her aside, and
+apologised for not having called to wish her farewell; but she stopped
+me.
+
+"Oh, it's all right; I am going too. Don't look so frightened."
+
+This was more than I could tolerate. She was far too good a girl to be
+allowed to walk blindfold into the pit I had digged for myself with full
+knowledge. I said imperatively:
+
+"Miss Metford, you shall not go. I warned you more than once--and warned
+you, I firmly believe, at the risk of my life--against these people. You
+have disregarded the advice which it may yet cost me dear to have given
+you."
+
+"To tell you the truth," she said candidly, "I would not go an inch if
+it were not for yourself. I can't trust you with them. You'd get into
+mischief. I don't mean with Natalie Brande, but the others; I don't like
+them. So I am coming to look after you."
+
+"Then I shall speak to Brande."
+
+"That would be useless. I joined the Society this morning."
+
+This she said seriously, and without anything of the spirit of bravado
+which was one of her faults. That ended our dispute. We exchanged a
+meaning look as our party took their seats. There was now, at any rate,
+one human being in the Society to whom I could speak my mind.
+
+We travelled by special train. Our ultimate destination was a fishing
+village on the southern coast, near Brande's residence. Here we found a
+steam yacht of about a thousand tons lying in the harbour with steam up.
+
+The vessel was a beautiful model. Her lines promised great speed, but
+the comfort of her passengers had been no less considered by her builder
+when he gave her so much beam and so high a freeboard. The ship's
+furniture was the finest I had ever seen, and I had crossed every great
+ocean in the world. The library, especially, was more suggestive of a
+room in the British Museum than the batch of books usually carried at
+sea. But I have no mind to enter on a detailed description of a
+beautiful pleasure ship while my story waits. I only mention the general
+condition of the vessel in evidence of the fact which now struck me for
+the first time--Brande must have unlimited money. His mode of life in
+London and in the country, notwithstanding his pleasant house, was in
+the simplest style. From the moment we entered his special train at
+Charing Cross, he flung money about him with wanton recklessness.
+
+As we made our way through the crowd which was hanging about the quay,
+an unpleasant incident occurred. Miss Brande, with Halley and
+Rockingham, became separated from Miss Metford and myself and went on in
+front of us. We five had formed a sub-section of the main body, and were
+keeping to ourselves when the unavoidable separation took place. A
+slight scream in front caused Miss Metford and myself to hurry forward.
+We found the others surrounded by a gang of drunken sailors, who had
+stopped them. A red-bearded giant, frenzied with drink, had seized
+Natalie in his arms. His abettor, a swarthy Italian, had drawn his
+knife, and menaced Halley and Rockingham. The rest of the band looked
+on, and cheered their chiefs. Halley was white to the lips; Rockingham
+was perfectly calm, or, perhaps, indifferent. He called for a policeman.
+Neither interfered. I did not blame Rockingham; he was a man of the
+world, so nothing manly could be expected of him. But Halley's cowardice
+disgusted me.
+
+I rushed forward and caught the Italian from behind, for his knife was
+dangerous. Seizing him by the collar and waist, I swung him twice, and
+then flung him from me with all my strength. He spun round two or three
+times, and then collided with a stack of timber. His head struck a beam,
+and he fell in his tracks without a word. The red-haired giant instantly
+released Natalie and put up his hands. The man's attitude showed that he
+knew nothing of defence. I swept his guard aside, and struck him
+violently on the neck close to the ear. I was a trained boxer; but I had
+never before struck a blow in earnest, or in such earnest, and I hardly
+knew my own strength. The man went down with a grunt like a pole-axed
+ox, and lay where he fell. To a drunken sailor lad, who seemed anxious
+to be included in this matter, I dealt a stinging smack on the face
+with my open hand that satisfied him straightway. The others did not
+molest me. Turning from the crowd, I found Edith Metford looking at me
+with blazing eyes.
+
+"Superb! Marcel, I am proud of you!" she cried.
+
+"Oh! Edith, how can you say that?" Natalie Brande exclaimed, still
+trembling. "Such dreadful violence! The poor men knew no better."
+
+"Poor fiddlesticks! It is well for you that Marcel is a man of violence.
+He's worth a dozen sheep like--"
+
+"Like whom, Miss Metford?" Rockingham asked, glaring at her so viciously
+that I interposed with a hasty entreaty that all should hurry to the
+ship. I did not trust the man.
+
+Miss Metford was not so easily suppressed. She said leisurely, "I meant
+to say like you, and this over-nervous but otherwise admirable boy. If
+you think 'sheep' derogatory, pray make it 'goats.'"
+
+I hurried them on board. Brande welcomed us at the gangway. The vessel
+was his own, so he was as much at home on the ship as in his country
+house. I had an important letter to write, and very little time for the
+task. It was not finished a moment too soon, for the moment the last
+passenger and the last bale of luggage was on board, the captain's
+telegraph rang from the bridge, and the _Esmeralda_ steamed out to sea.
+My letter, however, was safe on shore. The land was low down upon the
+horizon before the long summer twilight deepened slowly into night. Then
+one by one the shadowy cliffs grew dim, dark, and disappeared. We saw no
+more of England until after many days of gradually culminating horror.
+The very night which was our first at sea did not pass without a strange
+adventure, which happened, indeed, by an innocent oversight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MORITURI TE SALUTANT.
+
+
+We had been sitting on deck chairs smoking and talking for a couple of
+hours after the late dinner, which was served as soon as the vessel was
+well out to sea, when Brande came on deck. He was hailed with
+enthusiasm. This did not move him, or even interest him. I was careful
+not to join in the acclamations produced by his presence. He noticed
+this, and lightly called me recalcitrant. I admitted the justice of the
+epithet, and begged him to consider it one which would always apply to
+me with equal force. He laughed at this, and contrasted my gloomy fears
+with the excellent arrangements which he had made for my comfort. I
+asked him what had become of Grey. I thought it strange that this man
+should be amongst the absentees.
+
+"Oh, Grey! He goes to Labrador."
+
+"To Labrador! What takes him to Labrador?"
+
+"The same purpose which takes us to the Arafura Sea," Brande answered,
+and passed on.
+
+Presently there was a slight stir amongst the people, and the word was
+passed round that Brande was about to undertake some interesting
+experiment for the amusement of his guests. I hurried aft along with
+some other men with whom I had been talking, and found Miss Brande and
+Miss Metford standing hand in hand. Natalie's face was very white, and
+the only time I ever saw real fear upon it was at that moment. I thought
+the incident on the quay had unnerved her more than was apparent at the
+time, and that she was still upset by it. She beckoned to me, and when I
+came to her she seized my hand. She was trembling so much her words were
+hardly articulate. Miss Metford was concerned for her companion's
+nervousness; but otherwise indifferent; while Natalie stood holding our
+hands in hers like a frightened child awaiting the firing of a cannon.
+
+"He's going to let off something, a rocket, I suppose," Miss Metford
+said to me. "Natalie seems to think he means to sink the ship."
+
+"He does not mean to do so. He might, if an accident occurred."
+
+"Is he going to fire a mine?" I asked.
+
+"No, he is going to etherize a drop of water." Natalie said this so
+seriously, we had no thought of laughter, incongruous as the cause of
+her fears might seem.
+
+At that moment Brande addressed us from the top of the deckhouse, and
+explained that, in order to illustrate on a large scale the most recent
+discovery in natural science, he was about to disintegrate a drop of
+water, at present encased in a hollow glass ball about the size of a
+pea, which he held between his thumb and forefinger. An electric light
+was turned upon him so that we could all see the thing quite plainly. He
+explained that there was a division in the ball; one portion of it
+containing the drop of water, and the other the agent by which, when the
+dividing wall was eaten through by its action, the atoms of the water
+would be resolved into the ultimate ether of which they were composed.
+As the disintegrating agent was powerless in salt water, we might all
+feel assured that no great catastrophe would ensue.
+
+Before throwing the glass ball overboard, a careful search for the
+lights of ships was made from east to west, and north to south.
+
+There was not a light to be seen anywhere. Brande threw the ball over
+the side. We were going under easy steam at the time, but the moment he
+left the deckhouse "full speed ahead" was rung from the bridge, and the
+_Esmeralda_ showed us her pace. She literally tore through the water
+when the engines were got full on.
+
+Before we had gone a hundred yards a great cry arose. A little fleet of
+French fishing-boats with no lights up had been lying very close to us
+on the starboard bow. There they were, boatfuls of men, who waved
+careless adieus to us as we dashed past.
+
+Brande was moved for a moment. Then he shrugged his shoulders and
+muttered, "It can't be helped now." We all felt that these simple words
+might mean much. To test their full portent I went over to him, Natalie
+still holding my hand with trembling fingers.
+
+"Can't you do anything for them?" I asked.
+
+"You mean, go back and sink this ship to keep them company?"
+
+"No; but warn them to fly."
+
+"It would be useless. In this breeze they could not sail a hundred
+yards in the time allowed, and three miles is the nearest point of
+safety. I could not say definitely, as this is the first time I have
+ever tried an experiment so tremendous; but I believe that if we even
+slowed to half speed, it would be dangerous, and if we stopped, the
+_Esmeralda_ would go to the bottom to-night, as certainly as the sun
+will rise to-morrow."
+
+Natalie moaned in anguish on hearing this. I said to her sternly:
+
+"I thought you approved of all these actions?"
+
+"This serves no purpose. These men may not even have a painless death,
+and the reality is more awful than I thought."
+
+Every face was turned to that point in the darkness toward which the
+foaming wake of the _Esmeralda_ stretched back. Not a word more was
+spoken until Brande, who was standing, watch in hand, beside the light
+from the deckhouse, came aft and said:
+
+"You will see the explosion in ten seconds."
+
+He could not have spoken more indifferently if the catastrophe he had
+planned was only the firing of a penny squib.
+
+Then the sea behind us burst into a flame, followed by the sound of an
+explosion so frightful that we were almost stunned by it. A huge mass
+of water, torn up in a solid block, was hurled into the air, and there
+it broke into a hundred roaring cataracts. These, in the brilliant
+search light from the ship which was now turned upon them full, fell
+like cataracts of liquid silver into the seething cauldron of water that
+raged below. The instant the explosion was over, our engines were
+reversed, and the _Esmeralda_ went full speed astern. The waves were
+still rolling in tumultuous breakers when we got back. We might as well
+have gone on.
+
+The French fishing fleet had disappeared.
+
+I could not help saying to Brande before we turned in:
+
+"You expect us, I suppose, to believe that the explosion was really
+caused by a drop of water?"
+
+"Etherized," he interrupted. "Certainly I do. You don't believe it--on
+what grounds?"
+
+"That it is unbelievable."
+
+"Pshaw! You deny a fact because you do not understand it. Ignorance is
+not evidence."
+
+"I say it is impossible."
+
+"You do not wish to believe it possible. Wishes are not proofs."
+
+Without pursuing the argument, I said to him:
+
+"It is fortunate that the accident took place at sea. There will be no
+inquests."
+
+"Oh! I am sorry for the accident. As for the men, they might have had a
+worse fate. It is better than living in life-long misery as they do.
+Besides, both they and the fishes that will eat them will soon be
+numbered amongst the things that have been."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"NO DEATH--SAVE IN LIFE."
+
+
+For some days afterwards our voyage was uneventful, and the usual
+shipboard amusements were requisitioned to while away the tedious hours.
+The French fishing fleet was never mentioned. We got through the Bay
+with very little knocking about, and passed the Rock without calling. I
+was not disappointed, for there was slight inducement for going ashore,
+oppressed as I was with the ever-present incubus of dread. At intervals
+this feeling became less acute, but only to return, strengthened by its
+short absences. After a time my danger sense became blunted. The nervous
+system became torpid under continuous stress, and refused to pass on the
+sensations with sufficient intensity to the brain; or the weary brain
+was asleep at its post and did not heed the warnings. I could think no
+more.
+
+And this reminds me of something which I must tell about young Halley.
+For several days after the voyage began, the boy avoided me. I knew his
+reason for doing this. I myself did not blame him for his want of
+physical courage, but I was glad that he himself was ashamed of it.
+
+Halley came to me one morning and said:
+
+"I wish to speak to you, Marcel. I _must_ speak to you. It is about that
+miserable episode on the evening we left England. I acted like a cad.
+Therefore I must be a cad. I only want to tell you that I despise myself
+as much as you can. And that I envy you. I never thought that I should
+envy a man simply because he had no nervous system."
+
+"Who is this man without a nervous system of whom you speak?" I asked
+coldly. I was not sorry that I had an opportunity of reading him a
+lesson which might be placed opposite the many indignities which had
+been put upon me, in the form mainly of shoulder shrugs, brow
+elevations, and the like.
+
+"You, of course. I mean no offence--you are magnificent. I am honest in
+saying that I admire you. I wish I was like you in height, weight,
+muscle--and absence of nervous system."
+
+"You would keep your own brain, I suppose?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, I would keep that."
+
+"And I will keep my own nervous system," I replied. "And the difference
+between mine and yours is this: that whereas my own danger sense is, or
+was, as keen as your own, I have my reserve of nerve force--or had
+it--which might be relied on to tide me over a sudden emergency. This
+reserve you have expended on your brain. There are two kinds of cowards;
+the selfish coward who cares for no interest save his own; the unselfish
+coward who cares nothing for himself, but who cannot face a danger
+because he dare not. And there are two kinds of brave men; the nerveless
+man you spoke of, who simply faces danger because he does not appreciate
+it, and the man who faces danger because, although he fears it he dares
+it. I have no difficulty in placing you in this list."
+
+"You place me--"
+
+"A coward because you cannot help it. You are merely out of harmony with
+your environment. You ought to bring a supply of 'environment' about
+with you, seeing that you cannot manufacture it off-hand like myself. I
+wish to be alone. Good-day."
+
+"Before I go, Marcel, I will say this." There were tears in his eyes.
+"These people do not really know you, with all their telepathic power.
+You are not--not--"
+
+"Not as great a fool as they think. Thank you. I mean to prove that to
+them some day."
+
+With that I turned away from him, although I felt that he would have
+gladly stayed longer with me.
+
+While the _Esmeralda_ was sweeping over the long swells of the
+Mediterranean, I heard Brande lecture for the second time. It was a
+fitting interlude between his first and third addresses. I might
+classify them thus--the first, critical; the second, constructive; the
+third, executive. His third speech was the last he made in the world.
+
+We were assembled in the saloon. It would have been pleasanter on the
+upper deck, owing to the heat, but the speaker could not then have been
+easily heard in the noise of the wind and waves. I could scarcely
+believe that it was Brande who arose to speak, so changed was his
+expression. The frank scepticism, which had only recently degenerated
+into a cynicism, still tempered with a half kindly air of easy
+superiority, was gone. In its place there was a look of concentrated
+and relentless purpose which dominated the man himself and all who saw
+him. He began in forcible and direct sentences, with only a faintly
+reminiscent eloquence which was part of himself, and from which he could
+not without a conscious effort have freed his style. But the whole
+bearing of the man had little trace in it of the dilettante academician
+whom we all remembered.
+
+"When I last addressed this Society," he began, "I laboured under a
+difficulty in arriving at ultimate truth which was of my own
+manufacture. I presupposed, as you will remember, the indestructibility
+of the atom, and, in logical consequence I was bound to admit the
+conservation of suffering, the eternity of misery. But on that evening
+many of my audience were untaught in the rudiments of ultimate thought,
+and some were still sceptical of the _bona fides_ of our purpose, and
+our power to achieve its object. To them, in their then ineptitude, what
+I shall say now would have been unintelligible. For in the same way that
+the waves of light or sound exceeding a certain maximum can not be
+transferred to the brain by dull eyes and ears, my thought pulsations
+would have escaped those auditors by virtue of their own
+irresponsiveness. To-night I am free from the limitation which I then
+suffered, because there are none around me now who have not sufficient
+knowledge to grasp what I shall present.
+
+"You remember that I traced for you the story of evolution in its
+journey from the atom to the star. And I showed you that the hypothesis
+of the indestructibility of the atom was simply a creed of cruelty writ
+large. I now proceed on the lines of true science to show you how that
+hypothesis is false; that as the atom _is_ destructible--as you have
+seen by our experiments (the last of which resulted in a climax not
+intended by me)--the whole scheme of what is called creation falls to
+pieces. As the atom was the first etheric blunder, so the material
+Universe is the grand etheric mistake.
+
+"In considering the marvellous and miserable succession of errors
+resulting from the meretricious atomic remedy adopted by the ether to
+cure its local sores, it must first be said of the ether itself that
+there is too much of it. Space is not sufficient for it. Thus, the
+particles of ether--those imponderable entities which vibrate through a
+block of marble or a disc of hammered steel with only a dulled, not an
+annihilated motion, are by their own tumultuous plenty packed closer
+together than they wish. I say wish, for if all material consciousness
+and sentiency be founded on atomic consciousness, then in its turn
+atomic consciousness is founded upon, and dependent on, etheric
+consciousness. These particles of ether, therefore, when too closely
+impinged upon by their neighbours, resent the impact, and in doing so
+initiate etheric whirlwinds, from whose vast perturbances stupendous
+drifts set out. In their gigantic power these avalanches crush the
+particles which impede them, force the resisting medium out of its
+normal stage, destroy the homogeneity of its constituents, and mass them
+into individualistic communities whose vibrations play with greater
+freedom when they synchronise. The homogeneous etheric tendencies recede
+and finally determine.
+
+"Behold a miracle! An atom is born!
+
+"By a similar process--which I may liken to that of putting off an evil
+day which some time must be endured--the atoms group themselves into
+molecules. In their turn the molecules go forth to war, capturing or
+being captured; the vibrations of the slaves always being forced to
+synchronise with those of their conquerors. The nucleus of the gas of a
+primal metal is now complete, and the foundation of a solar
+system--paltry molecule of the Universe as it is--is laid. Thereafter,
+the rest is easily followed. It is described in your school books, and
+must not occupy me now.
+
+"But one word I will interpolate which may serve to explain a curious
+and interesting human belief. You are aware of how, in times past, men
+of absolutely no scientific insight held firmly to the idea that an
+elixir of life and a philosopher's stone might be discovered, and that
+these two objects were nearly always pursued contemporaneously. That is
+to my mind an extraordinary example of the force of atomic
+consciousness. The idea itself was absolutely correct; but the men who
+followed it had slight knowledge of its unity, and none whatever of its
+proper pursuit. They would have worked on their special lines to
+eternity before advancing a single step toward their object. And this
+because they did not know what life was, and death was, and what the
+metals ultimately signified which they, blind fools, so unsuccessfully
+tried to transmute. But we know more than they. We have climbed no doubt
+in the footholds they have carved, and we have gained the summit they
+only saw in the mirage of hope. For we know that there is no life, no
+death, no metals, no matter, no emotions, no thoughts; but that all
+that we call by these names is only the ether in various conditions.
+Life! I could live as long as this earth will submit to human existence
+if I had studied that paltry problem. Metals! The ship in which you sail
+was bought with gold manufactured in my crucibles.
+
+"The unintelligent--or I should say the grossly ignorant--have long held
+over the heads of the pioneers of science these two great charges: No
+man has ever yet transmuted a metal; no man has ever yet proved the
+connecting link between organic and inorganic life. I say _life_, for I
+take it that this company admits that a slab of granite is as much alive
+as any man or woman I see before me. But I have manufactured gold, and I
+could have manufactured protoplasm if I had devoted my life to that
+object. My studies have been almost wholly on the inorganic plane. Hence
+the 'philosopher's stone' came in my way, but not the 'elixir of life.'
+The molecules of protoplasm are only a little more complex than the
+molecules of hydrogen or nitrogen or iron or coal. You may fuse iron,
+vaporise water, intermix the gases; but the molecules of all change
+little in such metamorphosis. And you may slay twenty thousand men at
+Waterloo or Sedan, or ten thousand generations may be numbered with the
+dust, and not an ounce of protoplasm lies dead. All molecules are merely
+arrangements of atoms made under different degrees of pressure and of
+different ages. And all atoms are constructed of identical
+constituents--the ether, as I have said. Therefore the ether, which was
+from the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, which is the same
+yesterday, to-day, and for ever, is the origin of force, of matter, of
+life.
+
+"_It is alive!_
+
+"Its starry children are so many that the sands of the sea-shore may not
+be used as a similitude for their multitude; and they extend so far that
+distance may not be named in relation to them. They are so high above us
+and so deep below us that there is neither height nor depth in them.
+There is neither east nor west in them, nor north and south in them. Nor
+is there beginning or end to them. Time drops his scythe and stands
+appalled before that dreadful host. Number applies not to its eternal
+multitudes. Distance is lost in boundless space. And from all the stars
+that stud the caverns of the Universe, there swells this awful chorus:
+Failure! failure and futility! And the ether is to blame!
+
+"Heterogeneous suffering is more acute than homogeneous, because the
+agony is intensified by being localised; because the comfort of the
+comfortable is purchasable only by the multiplied misery of the
+miserable; because aristocratic leisure requires that the poor should be
+always with it. There is, therefore, no gladness without its
+overbalancing sorrow. There is no good without intenser evil. There is
+no death save in life.
+
+"Back, then, from this ill-balanced and unfair long-suffering, this
+insufficient existence. Back to Nirvana--the ether! And I will lead the
+way.
+
+"The agent I will employ has cost me all life to discover. It will
+release the vast stores of etheric energy locked up in the huge atomic
+warehouse of this planet. I shall remedy the grand mistake only to a
+degree which it would be preposterous to call even microscopic; but when
+I have done what I can, I am blameless for the rest. In due season the
+whole blunder will be cured by the same means that I shall use, and all
+the hideous experiment will be over, and everlasting rest or
+_quasi_-rest will supersede the magnificent failure of material
+existence. This earth, at least, and, I am encouraged to hope, the whole
+solar system, will by my instrumentality be restored to the ether from
+which it never should have emerged. Once before, in the history of our
+system, an effort similar to mine was made, unhappily without success.
+
+"This time we shall not fail!"
+
+A low murmur rose from the audience as the lecturer concluded, and a
+hushed whisper asked:
+
+"Where was that other effort made?"
+
+Brande faced round momentarily, and said quietly but distinctly:
+
+"On the planet which was where the Asteroids are now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+MISS METFORD'S PLAN.
+
+
+We coaled at Port Said like any ordinary steamer. Although I had more
+than once made the Red Sea voyage, I had never before taken the
+slightest interest in the coaling of the vessel on which I was a
+passenger. This time everything was different. That which interested me
+before seemed trivial now. And that which had before seemed trivial was
+now absorbing. I watched the coaling--commonplace as the spectacle
+was--with vivid curiosity. The red lights, the sooty demons at work,
+every bag of coals they carried, and all the coal dust clouds they
+created, were fitting episodes in a voyage such as ours. We took an
+enormous quantity of coal on board. I remained up most of the night in a
+frame of mind which I thought none might envy. I myself would have made
+light of it had I known what was still in store for the _Esmeralda_ and
+her company. It was nearly morning when I turned in. When I awoke we
+were nearing the Red Sea.
+
+On deck, the conversation of our party was always eccentric, but this
+must be said for it: there was sometimes a scintillating brilliance in
+it that almost blinded one to its extreme absurdity. The show of high
+spirits which was very general was, in the main, unaffected. For the
+rest it was plainly assumed. But those who assumed their parts did so
+with a histrionic power which was all the more surprising when it is
+remembered that the origin of their excellent playing was centred in
+their own fears. I preserved a neutral attitude. I did not venture on
+any overt act of insubordination. That would have only meant my
+destruction, without any counter-balancing advantage in the way of
+baulking an enterprise in which I was a most unwilling participator. And
+to pretend what I did not feel was a task which I had neither stomach to
+undertake nor ability to carry out successfully. In consequence I kept
+my own counsel--and that of Edith Metford.
+
+Brande was the most easily approached maniac I had ever met. His
+affability continued absolutely consistent. I took advantage of this to
+say to him on a convenient opportunity: "Why did you bring these people
+with you? They must all be useless, and many of them little better than
+a nuisance!"
+
+"Marcel, you are improving. Have you attained the telepathic power? You
+have read my mind." This was said with a pleasant smile.
+
+"I can not read your mind," I answered; "I only diagnose."
+
+"Your diagnosis is correct. I answer you in a sentence. They are all
+sympathetic, and human sympathy is necessary to me until my purpose is
+fulfilled."
+
+"You do not look to me for any measure of this sympathy, I trust?"
+
+"I do not. You are antipathetic."
+
+"I am."
+
+"But necessary, all the same."
+
+"So be it, until the proper time shall come."
+
+"It will never come," Brande said firmly.
+
+"We shall see," I replied as firmly as himself.
+
+Next evening as we were steaming down the blue waters--deep blue they
+always seemed to me--of the Red Sea, I was sitting on the foredeck
+smoking and trying to think. I did not notice how the time passed. What
+seemed to me an hour at most, must have been three or four. With the
+exception of the men of the crew who were on duty, I was alone, for the
+heat was intense, and most of our people were lying in their cabins
+prostrated in spite of the wind-sails which were spread from every port
+to catch the breeze. My meditations were as usual gloomy and despondent.
+They were interrupted by Miss Metford. She joined me so noiselessly that
+I was not aware of her presence until she laid her hand on my arm. I
+started at her touch, but she whispered a sharp warning, so full of
+suppressed emotion that I instantly recovered a semblance of unconcern.
+
+The girl was very white and nervous. This contrast from her usual
+equanimity was disquieting. She clung to me hysterically as she gasped:
+
+"Marcel, it is a mercy I have found you alone, and that there is one
+sane man in this shipful of lunatics."
+
+"I am afraid you are not altogether right," I said, as I placed a seat
+for her close to mine. "I can hardly be sane when I am a voluntary
+passenger on board this vessel."
+
+"Do you really think they mean what they say?" she asked hurriedly,
+without noticing my remark.
+
+"I really think they have discovered the secret of extraordinary natural
+forces, so powerful and so terrible that no one can say what they may or
+may not accomplish. And that is the reason I begged you not to come on
+this voyage."
+
+"What was the good of asking me not to come without giving me some
+reason?"
+
+"Had I done so, they might have killed you as they have done others
+before."
+
+"You might have chanced that, seeing that it will probably end that
+way."
+
+"And they would certainly have killed me."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+I wondered at the sudden intensity of the girl's sharp gasp when I said
+this, and marvelled too, how she, who had always been so mannish,
+nestled close to me and allowed her head to sink down on my shoulder. I
+pitied the strong-willed, self-reliant nature which had given way under
+some strain of which I had yet to be told. So I stooped and touched her
+cheek with my lips in a friendly way, at which she looked up to me with
+half-closed eyes, and whispered in a voice strangely soft and womanish
+for her:
+
+"If they must kill us, I wish they would kill us now."
+
+I stroked her soft cheek gently, and urged a less hopeless view. "Even
+if the worst come, we may as well live as long as we can."
+
+Whereupon to my surprise she, having shot one quick glance into my eyes,
+put my arm away and drew her chair apart from mine. Her head was turned
+away from me, but I could not but notice that her bosom rose and fell
+swiftly. Presently she faced round again, lit a cigarette, put her hands
+in the pocket of her jacket, and her feet on another chair, and said
+indifferently:
+
+"You are right. Even if the worst must come, we may as well live as long
+as we can."
+
+This sudden change in her manner surprised me. I knew I had no art in
+dealing with women, so I let it pass without comment, and looked out at
+the glassy sea.
+
+After some minutes of silence, the girl spoke to me again.
+
+"Do you know anything of the actual plans of these maniacs?"
+
+"No. I only know their preposterous purpose."
+
+"Well, I know how it is to be done. Natalie was restless last night--you
+know that we share the same cabin--and she raved a bit. I kept her in
+her berth by sheer force, but I allowed her to talk."
+
+This was serious. I drew my chair close to Miss Metford's and whispered,
+"For heaven's sake, speak low." Then I remembered Brande's power, and
+wrung my hands in helpless impotence. "You forget Brande. At this moment
+he is taking down every word we say."
+
+"He's doing nothing of the sort."
+
+"But you forget--"
+
+"I don't forget. By accident I put morphia in the tonic he takes, and he
+is now past telepathy for some hours at least. He's sound asleep. I
+suppose if I had not done it by accident he would have known what I was
+doing, and so have refused the medicine. Anyhow, accident or no
+accident, I have done it."
+
+"Thank God!" I cried.
+
+"And this precious disintegrating agent! They haven't it with them, it
+seems. To manufacture it in sufficient quantity would be impossible in
+any civilised country without fear of detection or interruption. Brande
+has the prescription, formula--what do you call it?--and if you could
+get the paper and--"
+
+"Throw it overboard!"
+
+"Rubbish! They would work it all out again."
+
+"What then?" I whispered.
+
+"Steal the paper and--wouldn't it do to put in an extra _x_ or _y_, or
+stick a couple of additional figures into any suitable vacancy? Don't
+you think they'd go on with the scheme and--"
+
+"And?"
+
+"And make a mess of it!"
+
+"Miss Metford," I said, rising from my chair, "I mean Metford, I know
+you like to be addressed as a man--or used to like it."
+
+"Yes, I used to," she assented coldly.
+
+"I am going to take you in my arms and kiss you."
+
+"I'm hanged if you are!" she exclaimed, so sharply that I was suddenly
+abashed. My intended familiarity and its expression appeared grotesque,
+although a few minutes before she was so friendly. But I could not waste
+precious time in studying a girl's caprices, so I asked at once:
+
+"How can I get this paper?"
+
+"I said _steal_ it, if you recollect." Her voice was now hard, almost
+harsh. "You can get it in Brande's cabin, if you are neither afraid nor
+jealous."
+
+"I am not much afraid, and I will try it. What do you mean by jealous?"
+
+"I mean, would you, to save Natalie Brande--for they will certainly
+succeed in blowing themselves up, if nobody else--consent to her
+marrying another man, say that young lunatic Halley, who is always
+dangling after her when you are not?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, after some thought. For Halley's attentions to
+Natalie had been so marked, the plainly inconsequent mention of him in
+this matter did not strike me. "If that is necessary to save her, of
+course I would consent to it. Why do you ask? In my place you would do
+the same."
+
+"No. I'd see the ship and all its precious passengers at the bottom of
+the sea first."
+
+"Ah! but you are not a man."
+
+"Right! and what's more, I'm glad of it." Then looking down at the
+rational part of her costume, she added sharply, "I sha'n't wear these
+things again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ROCKINGHAM TO THE SHARKS.
+
+
+At one o'clock in the morning I arose, dressed hurriedly, drew on a pair
+of felt slippers, and put a revolver in my pocket. It was then time to
+put Edith Metford's proposal to the proof, and she would be waiting for
+me on deck to hear whether I had succeeded in it. We had parted a couple
+of hours before on somewhat chilling terms. I had agreed to follow her
+suggestion, but I could not trouble my tired brain by guesses at the
+cause of her moods.
+
+It was very dark. There was only enough light to enable me to find my
+way along the corridor, off which the state-rooms occupied by Brande and
+his immediate lieutenants opened. All the sleepers were restless from
+the terrible heat. As I stole along, a muffled word, a sigh, or a
+movement in the berths, made me pause at every step with a beating
+heart. Having listened till all was quiet, I moved on again noiselessly.
+I was almost at the end of the corridor. So intent had I been on
+preserving perfect silence, it did not sooner occur to me that I was
+searching for any special door. I had forgotten Brande's number!
+
+I could no more think of it than one can recall the name of a
+half-forgotten acquaintance suddenly encountered in the street. It might
+have been fourteen, or forty-one; or a hundred and fifty. Every number
+was as likely as it was unlikely. I tried vainly to concentrate my mind.
+The result was nothing. The missing number gave no clue. To enter the
+wrong room in that ship at that hour meant death for me. Of that I was
+certain. To leave the right room unentered gave away my first chance in
+the unequal battle with Brande. Then, as I knew that my first chance
+would probably be my last, if not availed of, I turned to the nearest
+door and quietly tried the handle. The door was not locked. I entered
+the state-room.
+
+"What do you want?" It was Halley's voice that came from the berth.
+
+"Pardon me," I whispered, "a mistake. The heat, you know. Went on deck,
+and have blundered into your room."
+
+"Oh, all right. Who are you?"
+
+"Brande."
+
+"Good-night. You did not blunder far;" this sleepily.
+
+I went out and closed the door quietly. I had gained something. I was
+within one door of my destination, for I knew that Halley was berthed
+between Rockingham and Brande. But I did not know on which side Brande's
+room was, and I dared not ask. I tried the next door going forward. It
+opened like the other. I went in.
+
+"Hallo there!" This time no sleepy or careless man challenged me. It was
+Rockingham's voice.
+
+"May I not enter my own room?" I whispered.
+
+"This is not your room. You are?" Rockingham sprang up in his berth, but
+before he could leave it I was upon him.
+
+"I am Arthur Marcel. And this iron ring which I press against your left
+ear is the muzzle of my revolver. Speak, move, breathe above your
+natural breath and your brains go through that porthole. Now, loose your
+hold of my arm and come with me."
+
+"You fool!" hissed Rockingham. "You dare not fire. You know you dare
+not."
+
+He was about to call out, but my left hand closed on his throat, and a
+gurgling gasp was all that issued from him.
+
+I laid down the revolver and turned the ear of the strangling man close
+to my mouth. I had little time to think; but thought flies fast when
+such deadly peril menaces the thinker as that which I must face if I
+failed to make terms with the man who was in my power. I knew that
+notwithstanding his intensely disagreeable nature, if he gave his
+promise either by spoken word or equivalent sign, I could depend upon
+him. There were no liars in Brande's Society. But the word I could not
+trust him to say. I must have his sign. I whispered:
+
+"You know I do not wish to kill you. I shall never have another happy
+day if you force me to it. I have no choice. You must yield or die. If
+you will yield and stand by me rather than against me in what shall
+follow, choose life by taking your right hand from my wrist and touching
+my left shoulder. I will not hurt you meanwhile. If you choose death,
+touch me with your left."
+
+The sweat stood on my forehead in big beads as I waited for his choice.
+It was soon made. He unlocked his left hand and placed it firmly on my
+right shoulder.
+
+He had chosen death.
+
+So the man was only a physical coward--or perhaps he had only made a
+choice of alternatives.
+
+I said slowly and in great agony, "May God have mercy on your soul--and
+mine!" on which the muscles in my left arm stiffened. The big biceps--an
+heirloom of my athletic days--thickened up, and I turned my eyes away
+from the dying face, half hidden by the darkness. His struggles were
+very terrible, but with my weight upon his lower limbs, and my grasp
+upon his windpipe, that death-throe was as silent as it was horrible.
+The end came slowly. I could not bear the horror of it longer. I must
+finish it and be done with it. I put my right arm under the man's
+shoulders and raised the upper part of his body from the berth. Then a
+desperate wrench with my left arm, and there was a dull crack like the
+snapping of a dry stick. It was over. Rockingham's neck was broken.
+
+I wiped away the bloody froth that oozed from the gaping mouth, and
+tried to compose decently the contorted figure. I covered the face.
+Then I started on my last mission, for now I knew the door. I had
+bought the knowledge dearly, and I meant to use it for my own purpose,
+careless of what violence might be necessary to accomplish my end.
+
+When I entered Brande's state-room I found the electric light full on.
+He was seated at a writing-table with his head resting on his arms,
+which hung crossways over the desk. The sleeper breathed so deeply it
+was evident that the effect of the morphia was still strong upon him.
+One hand clutched a folded parchment. His fingers clasped it
+nervelessly, and I had only to force them open one by one in order to
+withdraw the manuscript. As I did this, he moaned and moved in his
+chair. I had no fear of his awaking. My hand shook as I unfolded the
+parchment which I unconsciously handled as carefully as though the thing
+itself were as deadly as the destruction which might be wrought by its
+direction.
+
+To me the whole document was a mass of unintelligible formulæ. My rusty
+university education could make nothing of it. But I could not waste
+time in trying to solve the puzzle, for I did not know what moment some
+other visitor might arrive to see how Brande fared. I first examined
+with a pocket microscope the ink of the manuscript, and then making a
+scratch with Brande's pen on a page of my note-book, I compared the two.
+The colours were identical. It was the same ink.
+
+In several places where a narrow space had been left vacant, I put 1 in
+front of the figures which followed. I had no reason for making this
+particular alteration, save that the figure 1 is more easily forged than
+any other, and the forgery is consequently more difficult to detect. My
+additions, when the ink was dry, could only have been discovered by one
+who was informed that the document had been tampered with. It was
+probable that a drawer which stood open with the keys in the lock was
+the place where Brande kept this paper; where he would look for it on
+awaking. I locked it in the drawer and put the keys into his pocket.
+
+There was something still to do with the sleeping man, whose brain
+compassed such marvellous powers. His telepathic faculty must be
+destroyed. I must keep him seriously ill, without killing him. As long
+as he remained alive his friends would never question his calculations,
+and the fiasco which was possible under any circumstances would then be
+assured. I had with me an Eastern drug, which I had bought from an
+Indian fakir once in Murzapoor. The man was an impostor, whose tricks
+did not impose on me. But the drug, however he came by it, was reliable.
+It was a poison which produced a mild form of cerebritis that dulled but
+did not deaden the mental powers. It acted almost identically whether
+administered sub-cutaneously or, of course in a larger dose, internally.
+I brought it home with the intention of giving it to a friend who was
+interested in vivisection. I did not think that I myself should be the
+first and last to experiment with it. It served my purpose well.
+
+The moment I pricked his skin, Brande moved in his seat. My hand was on
+his throat. He nestled his head down again upon his arms, and drew a
+deep breath. Had he moved again that breath would have been his last. I
+had been so wrought upon by what I had already done that night, I would
+have taken his life without the slightest hesitation, if the sacrifice
+seemed necessary.
+
+When my operation was over, I left the room and moved silently along the
+corridor till I came to the ladder leading to the deck. Edith Metford
+was waiting for me as we had arranged. She was shivering in spite of the
+awful heat.
+
+"Have you done it?" she whispered.
+
+"I have," I answered, without saying how much I had done. "Now you must
+retire--and rest easy. The formula won't work. I have put both it and
+Brande himself out of gear."
+
+"Thank God!" she gasped, and then a sudden faintness came over her. It
+passed quickly, and as soon as she was sufficiently restored, I begged
+her to go below. She pleaded that she could not sleep, and asked me to
+remain with her upon the deck. "It would be absurd to suppose that
+either of us could sleep this night," she very truly said. On which I
+was obliged to tell her plainly that she must go below. I had more to
+do.
+
+"Can I help?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"No. If you could, I would ask you, for you are a brave girl. I have
+something now to get through which is not woman's work."
+
+"Your work is my work," she answered. "What is it?"
+
+"I have to lower a body overboard without anyone observing me."
+
+There was no time for discussion, so I told her at once, knowing that
+she would not give way otherwise. She started at my words, but said
+firmly:
+
+"How will you do that unobserved by the 'watch'? Go down and bring up
+your--bring it up. I will keep the men employed." She went forward, and
+I turned again to the companion.
+
+When I got back to Rockingham's cabin I took a sheet of paper and wrote,
+"Heat--Mad!" making no attempt to imitate his writing. I simply scrawled
+the words with a rough pen in the hope that they would pass as a message
+from a man who was hysterical when he wrote them. Then I turned to the
+berth and took up the body. It was not a pleasant thing to do. But it
+must be done.
+
+I was a long time reaching the deck, for the arms and legs swung to and
+fro, and I had to move cautiously lest they should knock against the
+woodwork I had to pass. I got it safely up and hurried aft with it.
+Edith, I knew, would contrive to keep the men on watch engaged until I
+had disposed of my burden. I picked up a coil of rope and made it fast
+to the dead man's neck. Taking one turn of the rope round a boat-davit,
+I pushed the thing over the rail. I intended to let go the rope the
+moment the weight attached to it was safely in the sea, and so lowered
+away silently, paying out the line without excessive strain owing to the
+support of the davit round which I had wound it. I had not to wait so
+long as that, for just as the body was dangling over the foaming wake of
+the steamer, a little streak of moonlight shot out from behind a bank of
+cloud and lighted the vessel with a sudden gleam. I was startled by
+this, and held on, fearing that some watching eye might see my curious
+movements. For a minute I leaned over the rail and watched the track of
+the steamer as though I had come on deck for the air. There was a quick
+rush near the vessel's quarter. Something dark leaped out of the water,
+and there was a sharp snap--a crunch. The lower limbs were gone in the
+jaws of a shark. I let go the rope in horror, and the body dropped
+splashing into that hideous fishing-ground. Sick to death I turned
+away.
+
+"Get below quickly," Edith Metford said in my ear. "They heard the
+splash, slight as it was, and are coming this way." Her warning was
+nearly a sob.
+
+We hurried down the companion as fast as we dared, and listened to the
+comments of the watch above. They were soon satisfied that nothing of
+importance had occurred, and resumed their stations.
+
+Before we parted on that horrible night, Edith said in a trembling
+voice, "You have done your work like a brave man."
+
+"Say rather, like a forger and murderer," I answered.
+
+"No," she maintained. "Many men before you have done much worse in a
+good cause. You are not a forger. You are a diplomat. You are not a
+murderer. You are a hero."
+
+But I, being new to this work of slaughter and deception, could only
+deprecate her sympathy and draw away. I felt that my very presence near
+her was pollution. I was unclean, and I told her that I was so.
+Whereupon, without hesitation, she put her arms round my neck, and said
+clinging closely to me:
+
+"You are not unclean--you are free from guilt. And--Arthur--I will kiss
+you now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+"IF NOT TOO LATE!"
+
+
+When I came on deck next morning the coast of Arabia was rising, a thin
+thread of hazy blue between the leaden grey of the sea and the soft grey
+of the sky. The morning was cloudy, and the blazing sunlight was veiled
+in atmospheric gauze. I had hardly put my foot on deck when Natalie
+Brande ran to meet me. I hung back guiltily.
+
+"I thought you would never come. There is dreadful news!" she cried.
+
+I muttered some incoherent words, to which she did not attend, but went
+on hurriedly:
+
+"Rockingham has thrown himself overboard in a hysterical fit, brought on
+by the heat. The sailors heard the splash--"
+
+"I know they did." This escaped me unawares, and I instantly
+prevaricated, "I have been told about that."
+
+"Do you know that Herbert is ill?"
+
+I could have conscientiously answered this question affirmatively also.
+Her sudden sympathy for human misadventure jarred upon me, as it had
+done once before, when I thought of the ostensible object of the cruise.
+I said harshly:
+
+"Then Rockingham is at rest, and your brother is on the road to it." It
+was a brutal speech. It had a very different effect to that which I
+intended.
+
+"True," she said. "But think of the awful consequences if, now that
+Rockingham is gone, Herbert should be seriously ill."
+
+"I do think of it," I said stiffly. Indeed, I could hardly keep from
+adding that I had provided for it.
+
+"You must come to him at once. I have faith in you." This gave me a
+twinge. "I have no faith in Percival" (the ship's doctor).
+
+"You are nursing your brother?" I said with assumed carelessness.
+
+"Of course."
+
+"What is Percival giving him?"
+
+She described the treatment, and as this was exactly what I myself would
+have prescribed to put my own previous interference right, I promised to
+come at once, saying:
+
+"It is quite evident that Percival does not understand the case."
+
+"That is exactly what I thought," Natalie agreed, leading me to Brande's
+cabin. I found his vitality lower than I expected, and he was very
+impatient. The whole purpose of his life was at stake, dependent on his
+preserving a healthy body, on which, in turn, a vigorous mind depends.
+
+"How soon can you get me up?" he asked sharply, when my pretended
+examination was over.
+
+"I should say a month at most."
+
+"That would be too long," he cried. "You must do it in less."
+
+"It does not depend on me--"
+
+"It does depend on you. I know life itself. You know the paltry science
+of organic life. I have had no time for such trivial study. Get me well
+within three days, or--"
+
+"I am attending."
+
+"By the hold over my sister's imagination which I have gained, I will
+kill her on the fourth morning from now."
+
+"You will--_not_."
+
+"I tell you I will," Brande shrieked, starting up in his berth. "I could
+do it now."
+
+"You could--_not_."
+
+"Man, do you know what you are saying? You to bandy words with me! A
+clod-brained fool to dare a man of science! Man of science forsooth!
+Your men of science are to me as brain-benumbed, as brain-bereft, as
+that fly which I crush--thus!"
+
+The buzzing insect was indeed dead. But I was something more than a fly.
+At last I was on a fair field with this scientific magician or madman.
+And on a fair field I was not afraid of him.
+
+"You are agitating yourself unnecessarily and injuriously," I said in my
+best professional manner. "And if you persist in doing so you will make
+my one month three."
+
+In a voice of undisguised scorn, Brande exclaimed, without noticing my
+interruption:
+
+"Bearded by a creature whose little mind is to me like the open page of
+a book to read when the humour seizes me." Then with a fierce glance at
+me he cried:
+
+"I have read your mind before. I can read it now."
+
+"You can--_not_."
+
+He threw himself back in his berth and strove to concentrate his mind.
+For nearly five minutes he lay quite still, and then he said gently:
+
+"You are right. Have you, then, a higher power than I?"
+
+"No; a lower!"
+
+"A lower! What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that I have merely paralysed your brain--that for many months to
+come it will not be restored to its normal power--that it will never
+reach its normal power again unless I choose."
+
+"Then all is lost--lost--lost!" he wailed out. "The end is as far off,
+and the journey as long, and the way as hard, as if I had never striven.
+And the tribute of human tears will be exacted to the uttermost. My life
+has been in vain!"
+
+The absolute agony in his voice, the note of almost superhuman suffering
+and despair, was so intense, that, without thinking of what it was this
+man was grieving over, I found myself saying soothingly:
+
+"No, no! Nothing is lost. It is only your own overstrained nervous
+system which sends these fantastic nightmares to your brain. I will soon
+make you all right if you will listen to reason."
+
+He turned to me with the most appealing look which I had ever seen in
+human eyes save once before--when Natalie pleaded with me.
+
+"I had forgotten," he said, "the issue now lies in your hands. Choose
+rightly. Choose mercy."
+
+"I will," I answered shortly, for his request brought me back with a
+jerk to his motive.
+
+"Then you will get me well as soon as your skill can do it?"
+
+"I will keep you in your present condition until I have your most solemn
+assurance that you will neither go farther yourself nor instigate others
+to go farther with this preposterous scheme of yours."
+
+"Bah!" Brande ejaculated contemptuously, and lay back with a sudden
+content. "My brain is certainly out of order, else I should not have
+forgotten--until your words recalled it--the Labrador expedition."
+
+"The Labrador expedition?"
+
+"Yes. On the day we sailed for the Arafura Sea, Grey started with
+another party for Labrador. If we fail to act before the 31st December,
+in the year 1900, he will proceed. And the end of the century will be
+the date of the end of the earth. I will signal to him now."
+
+His face changed suddenly. For a moment I thought he was dead. Then the
+dreadful fact came home to me. He was telegraphing telepathically to
+Grey. So the murder that was upon my soul had been done in vain. Then
+another life must be taken. Better a double crime than one resultless
+tragedy. I was spared this.
+
+Brande opened his eyes wearily, and sighed as if fatigued. The effort,
+short as it was, must have been intense. He was prostrated. His voice
+was low, almost a whisper, as he said:
+
+"You have succeeded beyond belief. I cannot even signal him, much less
+exchange ideas." With that he turned his face from me, and instantly
+fell into a deep sleep.
+
+I left the cabin and went on deck. As usual, it was fairly sprinkled
+over with the passengers, but owing to the strong head-wind caused by
+the speed of the steamer, there was a little nook in the bow where there
+was no one to trouble me with unwelcome company.
+
+I sat down on an arm of the starboard anchor and tried to think. The
+game which seemed so nearly won had all to be played over again from the
+first move. If I had killed Brande--which surely would have been
+justifiable--the other expedition would go on from where he left off.
+And how should I find them? And who would believe my story when I got
+back to England?
+
+Brande must go on. His attempt to wreck the earth, even if the power he
+claimed were not overrated, would fail. For if the compounds of a common
+explosive must be so nicely balanced as they require to be, surely the
+addition of the figures which I had made in his formula would upset the
+balance of constituents in an agent so delicate, though so powerful, as
+that which he had invented. When the master failed, it was more than
+probable that the pupil would distrust the invention, and return to
+London for fresh experiments. Then a clean sweep must be made of the
+whole party. Meantime, it was plain that Brande must be allowed the
+opportunity of failing. And this it would be my hazardous duty to
+superintend.
+
+I returned to Brande's cabin with my mind made up. He was awake, and
+looked at me eagerly, but waited for me to speak. Our conversation was
+brief, for I had little sympathy with my patient, and the only anxiety I
+experienced about his health was the hope that he would not die until
+he had served my purpose.
+
+"I have decided to get you up," I said curtly.
+
+"You have decided well," he answered, with equal coldness.
+
+That was the whole interview--on which so much depended.
+
+After this I did not speak to Brande on any subject but that of his
+symptoms, and before long he was able to come on deck. The month I spoke
+of as the duration of his illness was an intentional exaggeration on my
+part.
+
+Rockingham was forgotten with a suddenness and completeness that was
+almost ghastly. The Society claimed to have improved the old maxim to
+speak nothing of the dead save what is good. Of the dead they spoke not
+at all. It is a callous creed, but in this instance it pleased me well.
+
+We did not touch at Aden, and I was glad of it. The few attractions of
+the place, the diving boys and the like, may be a relief in ordinary sea
+voyages, but I was too much absorbed in my experiment on Brande to bear
+with patience any delay which served to postpone the crisis of my
+scheme. I had treated him well, so far as his bodily health went, but I
+deliberately continued to tamper with his brain, so that any return of
+his telepathic power was thus prevented. Indeed, Brande himself was not
+anxious for such return. The power was always exercised at an extreme
+nervous strain, and it was now, he said, unnecessary to his purpose.
+
+In consequence of this determination, I modified the already minute
+doses of the drug I was giving him. This soon told with advantage on his
+health. His physical improvement partly restored his confidence in me,
+so that he followed my instructions faithfully. He evidently recognised
+that he was in my power; that if I did not choose to restore him fully
+no other man could.
+
+Of the ship's officers, Anderson, who was in command, and Percival, the
+doctor, were men of some individuality. The captain was a good sailor
+and an excellent man of business. In the first capacity, he was firm,
+exacting, and scrupulously conscientious. In the second, his conscience
+was more elastic when he saw his way clear to his own advantage. He had
+certain rigid rules of conduct which he prided himself on observing to
+the letter, without for a moment suspecting that their _raison d'etre_
+lay in his own interests. His commercial morality only required him to
+keep within the law. His final contract with myself was, I admit,
+faithfully carried out, but the terms of it would not have discredited
+the most predatory business man in London town.
+
+Percival was the opposite pole of such a character. He was a clever man,
+who might have risen in his profession but for his easy-going indolence.
+I spent many an hour in his cabin. He was a sportsman and a skilled
+_raconteur_. His anecdotes helped to while the weary time away. He
+exaggerated persistently, but this did not disturb me. Besides, if in
+his narratives he lengthened out the hunt a dozen miles and increased
+the weight of the fish to an impossible figure, made the brace a dozen
+and the ten-ton boat a man-of-war, it was not because he was
+deliberately untruthful. He looked back on his feats through the
+telescope of a strongly magnifying memory. It was more agreeable to me
+to hear him boast his prowess than have him inquire after the health and
+treatment of my patient Brande. On this matter he was naturally very
+curious, and I very reticent.
+
+That Brande did not entirely trust me was evident from his confusion
+when I surprised him once reading his formula. His anxiety to convince
+me that it was only a commonplace memorandum was almost ludicrous. I was
+glad to see him anxious about that document. The more carefully he
+preserved it, and the more faithfully he adhered to its conditions, the
+better for my experiment. A sense of security followed this incident. It
+did not last long. It ended that evening.
+
+After a day of almost unendurable heat, I went on deck for a breath of
+air. We were well out in the Indian Ocean, and soundings were being
+attempted by some of our naturalists. I sat alone and watched the sun
+sink down into the glassy ocean on which our rushing vessel was the only
+thing that moved. As the darkness of that hot, still night gathered,
+weird gleams of phosphorus broke from the steamer's bows and streamed
+away behind us in long lines of flashing spangles. Where the swell
+caused by the passage of the ship rose in curling waves, these, as they
+splashed into mimic breakers, burst into showers of flamboyant light.
+The water from the discharge-pipe poured down in a cascade, that shone
+like silver. Every turn of the screw dashed a thousand flashes on either
+side, and the heaving of the lead was like the flight of a meteor, as it
+plunged with a luminous trail far down into the dark unfathomable depths
+below.
+
+My name was spoken softly. Natalie Brande stood beside me. The spell was
+complete. The unearthly glamour of the magical scene had been compassed
+by her. She had called it forth and could disperse it by an effort of
+her will. I wrenched my mind free from the foolish phantasmagoria.
+
+"I have good news," Natalie said in a low voice. Her tones were soft,
+musical; her manner caressing. Happiness was in her whole bearing,
+tenderness in her eyes. Dread oppressed me. "Herbert is now well again."
+
+"He has been well for some time," I said, my heart beating fast.
+
+"He is not thoroughly restored even yet. But this evening he was able to
+receive a message from me by the thought waves. He thinks you are
+plotting injury to him. His brain is not yet sufficiently strong to show
+how foolish this fugitive fancy is. Perhaps you would go to him. He is
+troubling himself over this. You can set his mind at rest."
+
+"I can--and will--if I am not too late," I answered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+£5000 TO DETAIN THE SHIP.
+
+
+Brande was asleep when I entered his cabin. His writing-table was
+covered with scraps of paper on which he had been scribbling. My name
+was on every scrap, preceded or followed by an unfinished sentence,
+thus: "Marcel is thinking-- When I was ill, Marcel thought-- Marcel
+means to--" All these I gathered up carefully and put in my pocket. Then
+I inoculated him with as strong a solution of the drug I was using on
+him as was compatible with the safety of his life. Immediate danger
+being thus averted, I determined to run no similar risk again.
+
+For many days after this our voyage was monotonous. The deadly secret
+shared by Edith Metford and myself drew us gradually nearer to each
+other as time passed. She understood me, or, at least, gave me the
+impression that she understood me. Little by little that capricious mood
+which I have heretofore described changed into one of enduring
+sympathy. With one trivial exception, this lasted until the end. But for
+her help my mind would hardly have stood the strain of events which were
+now at hand, whose livid shadows were projected in the rising fire of
+Brande's relentless eyes.
+
+Brande appeared to lose interest gradually in his ship's company. He
+became daily more and more absorbed in his own thoughts. Natalie was
+ever gentle, even tender. But I chafed at the impalpable barrier which
+was always between us. Sometimes I thought that she would willingly have
+ranged herself on my side. Some hidden power held her back. As to the
+others, I began to like the boy Halley. He was lovable, if not athletic.
+His devotion to Natalie, which never waned, did not now trouble me. It
+was only a friendship, and I welcomed it. Had it been anything more, it
+was not likely that he would have prevailed against the will of a man
+who had done murder for his mistress. We steamed through the Malay
+Archipelago, steering north, south, east, west, as if at haphazard,
+until only the navigating officers and the director of the Society knew
+how our course lay. We were searching for an island about the bearings
+of which, it transpired, some mistake had been made. I do not know
+whether the great laureate ever sailed these seas. But I know that his
+glorious islands of flowers and islands of fruit, with all their
+luscious imagery, were here eclipsed by our own islands of foliage. The
+long lagoons, the deep blue bays, the glittering parti-coloured fish
+that swam in visible shoals deep down amidst the submerged coral groves
+over which we passed, the rich-toned sea-weeds and brilliant anemones,
+the yellow strands and the steep cliffs, the riotous foliage that swept
+down from the sky to the blue of the sea; all these natural beauties
+seemed to cry to me with living voices--to me bound on a cruise of
+universal death.
+
+After a long spell of apparently aimless but glorious steaming, a small
+island was sighted on our port bow. The _Esmeralda_ was steered directly
+for it, and we dropped anchor in a deep natural harbour on its southern
+shore. Preparations for landing had been going on during the day, and
+everything was ready for quitting the ship.
+
+It was here that my first opportunity for making use of the gold I had
+brought with me occurred. Anderson was called up by Brande, who made
+him a short complimentary speech, and finished it by ordering his
+officer to return to England, where further instructions would be given
+him. This order was received in respectful silence. Captain Anderson had
+been too liberally treated to demur if the _Esmeralda_ had been ordered
+to the South Pole.
+
+Brande went below for a few minutes, and as soon as he had disappeared I
+went forward to Anderson and hailed him nervously, for there was not a
+moment to spare.
+
+"Anderson," I said hurriedly, "you must have noticed that Mr. Brande is
+an eccentric--"
+
+"Pardon me, sir; it is not my business to comment upon my owner."
+
+"I did not ask you to comment upon him, sir," I said sharply. "It is I
+who shall comment upon him, and it is for you to say whether you will
+undertake to earn my money by waiting in this harbour till I am ready to
+sail back with you to England."
+
+"Have you anything more to say, sir?" Anderson asked stiffly.
+
+"I presume I have said enough."
+
+"If you have nothing more to say I must ask you to leave the bridge,
+and if it were not that you are leaving the ship this moment, I would
+caution you not to be impertinent to me again."
+
+He blew his whistle, and a steward ran forward.
+
+"Johnson, see Mr. Marcel's luggage over the side at once." To me he said
+shortly: "Quit my ship, sir."
+
+This trivial show of temper, which, indeed, had been provoked by my own
+hasty speech, turned my impatience into fury.
+
+"Before I quit your ship," I said, with emphasis, "I will tell you how
+you yourself will quit it. You will do so between two policemen if you
+land in England, and between two marines if you think of keeping on the
+high seas. Before we started, I sent a detailed statement of this ship,
+the nature of this nefarious voyage, and the names of the passengers--or
+as many as I knew--to a friend who will put it in proper hands if
+anything befalls me. Go back without me and explain the loss of that
+French fishing fleet which was sunk the very night we sailed. It is an
+awkward coincidence to be explained by a man who returns from an unknown
+voyage having lost his entire list of passengers. You cannot be aware
+of what this man Brande intends, or you would at least stand by us as
+long as your own safety permitted. In any case you cannot safely return
+without us."
+
+Anderson, after reflecting for a moment, apologised for his peremptory
+words, and agreed to stand by night and day, with fires banked, until I,
+and all whom I could prevail upon to return with me, got back to his
+vessel. There was no danger of his running short of coal. A ship that
+was practically an ocean liner in coal ballast would be a considerable
+time in burning out her own cargo. But he insisted on a large money
+payment in advance. I had foolishly mentioned that I had a little over
+£5000 in gold. This he claimed on the plea that "in duty to himself"--a
+favourite phrase of his--he could not accept less. But I think his sense
+of duty was limited only by the fact that I had hardly another penny in
+the world. Under the circumstances he might have waived all
+remuneration. As he was firm, and as I had no time to haggle, I agreed
+to give him the money. Our bargain was only completed when Brande
+returned to the deck.
+
+It was strange that on an island like that on which we were landing
+there should be a regular army of natives waiting to assist us with our
+baggage, and the saddled horses which were in readiness were out of
+place in a primeval wilderness. An Englishman came forward, and,
+saluting Brande, said all was ready for the start to the hills. This
+explained the puzzle. An advance agent had made everything comfortable.
+For Brande, his sister, and Miss Metford the best appointed horses were
+selected. I, as physician to the chief, had one. The main body had to
+make the journey on foot, which they did by very easy stages, owing to
+the heat and the primitive track which formed the only road. Their
+journey was not very long--perhaps ten miles in a direct line.
+
+Mounted as we were, it was often necessary to stoop to escape the dense
+masses of parasitic growth which hung in green festoons from every
+branch of the trees on either side. Under this thick shade all the
+riotous vegetation of the tropics had fought for life and struggled for
+light and air till the wealth of their luxuriant death had carpeted the
+underwood with a thick deposit of steaming foliage. As we ascended the
+height, every mile in distance brought changes in the botanical
+growths, which might have passed unnoticed by the ordinary observer or
+ignorant pioneer. All were noted and commented on by Brande, whose eye
+was still as keen as his brain had once been brilliant. His usual staid
+demeanour changed suddenly. He romped ahead of us like a schoolboy out
+for a holiday. Unlike a schoolboy, however, he was always seeking new
+items of knowledge and conveying them to us with unaffected pleasure. He
+was more like a master who had found new ground and new material for his
+class. Natalie gave herself up like him to this enjoyment of the moment.
+Edith Metford and I partly caught the glamour of their infectious
+good-humour. But with both of us it was tempered by the knowledge of
+what was in store.
+
+When we arrived at our destination we dismounted, at Brande's request,
+and tied our horses to convenient branches. He went forward, and,
+pushing aside the underwood with both hands, motioned to us to follow
+him till he stopped on a ledge of rock which overtopped a hollow in the
+mountain. The gorge below was the most beautiful glade I ever looked
+upon.
+
+It was a paradise of foliage. Here and there a fallen tree had formed a
+picturesque bridge over the mountain stream which meandered through it.
+Far down below there was a waterfall, where gorgeous tree-ferns rose in
+natural bowers, while others further still leant over the lotus-covered
+stream, their giant leaves trailing in the slow-moving current. Tangled
+masses of bracken rioted in wild abundance over a velvety green sod,
+overshadowed by waving magnolias. Through the trees bright-plumaged
+birds were flitting from branch to branch in songless flight, flashing
+their brilliant colours through the sunny leaves. In places the water
+splashed over moss-grown rocks into deep pools. Every drifting spray of
+cloud threw over the dell a new light, deepening the shadows under the
+great ferns.
+
+It was here in this glorious fairyland; here upon this island, where
+before us no white foot had ever trod; whose nameless people represented
+the simplest types of human existence, that Herbert Brande was to put
+his devilish experiment to the proof. I marvelled that he should have
+selected so fair a spot for so terrible a purpose. But the papers which
+I found later amongst the man's effects on the _Esmeralda_ explain much
+that was then incomprehensible to me.
+
+Our camp was quickly formed, and our life was outwardly as happy as if
+we had been an ordinary company of tourists. I say outwardly, because,
+while we walked and climbed and collected specimens of botanical or
+geological interest, there remained that latent dread which always
+followed us, and dominated the most frivolous of our people, on all of
+whom a new solemnity had fallen. For myself, the fact that the hour of
+trial for my own experiment was daily drawing closer and more
+inevitable, was sufficient to account for my constant and extreme
+anxiety.
+
+Brande joined none of our excursions. He was always at work in his
+improvised laboratory. The boxes of material which had been brought from
+the ship nearly filled it from floor to roof, and from the speed with
+which these were emptied, it was evident that their contents had been
+systematised before shipment. In place of the varied collection of
+substances there grew up within the room a cone of compound matter in
+which all were blended. This cone was smaller, Brande admitted, than
+what he had intended. The supply of subordinate fulminates, though
+several times greater than what was required, proved to be considerably
+short. But as he had allowed himself a large margin--everything being
+on a scale far exceeding the minimum which his calculations had pointed
+to as sufficient--this deficiency did not cause him more than a
+temporary annoyance. So he worked on.
+
+When we had been three weeks on the island I found the suspense greater
+than I could bear. The crisis was at hand, and my heart failed me. I
+determined to make a last appeal to Natalie, to fly with me to the ship.
+Edith Metford would accompany us. The rest might take the risk to which
+they had consented.
+
+I found Natalie standing on the high rock whence the most lovely view of
+the dell could be obtained, and as I approached her silently she was not
+aware of my presence until I laid my hand on her shoulder.
+
+"Natalie," I said wistfully, for the girl's eyes were full of tears, "do
+you mind if I withdraw now from this enterprise, in which I cannot be of
+the slightest use, and of which I most heartily disapprove?"
+
+"The Society would not allow you to withdraw. You cannot do so without
+its permission, and hope to live within a thousand miles of it," she
+answered gravely.
+
+"I should not care to live within ten thousand miles of it. I should try
+to get and keep the earth's diameter between myself and it."
+
+She looked up with an expression of such pain that my heart smote me.
+"How about me? I cannot live without you now," she said softly.
+
+"Don't live without me. Come with me. Get rid of this infamous
+association of lunatics, whose object they themselves cannot really
+appreciate, and whose means are murder--"
+
+But there she stopped me. "My brother could find me out at the uttermost
+ends of the earth if I forsook him, and you know I do not mean to
+forsake him. For yourself--do not try to desert. It would make no
+difference. Do not believe that any consideration would cause me
+willingly to give you a moment's pain, or that I should shrink from
+sacrificing myself to save you." With one of her small white hands she
+gently pressed my head towards her. Her lips touched my forehead, and
+she whispered: "Do not leave me. It will soon be over now. I--I--need
+you."
+
+As I was returning dejected after my fruitless appeal to Natalie, I met
+Edith Metford, to whom I had unhappily mentioned my proposal for an
+escape.
+
+"Is it arranged? When do we start?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"It is not arranged, and we do not start," I answered in despair.
+
+"You told me you would go with her or without her," she cried
+passionately. "It is shameful--unmanly."
+
+"It is certainly both if I really said what you tell me. I was not
+myself at the moment, and my tongue must have slandered me. I stay to
+the end. But you will go. Captain Anderson will receive you--"
+
+"How am I to be certain of that?"
+
+"I paid him for your passage, and have his receipt."
+
+"And you really think I would go and leave--leave--"
+
+"Natalie? I think you would be perfectly justified."
+
+At this the girl stamped her foot passionately on the ground and burst
+into tears. Nor would she permit any of the slight caresses I offered.
+I thought her old caprices were returning. She flung my arm rudely from
+her and left me bewildered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"THIS EARTH SHALL DIE."
+
+
+My memory does not serve me well in the scenes which immediately
+preceded the closing of the drama in which Brande was chief actor. It is
+doubtless the transcendental interest of the final situation which
+blunts my recollection of what occurred shortly before it. I did not
+abate one jot of my determination to fight my venture out unflinching,
+but my actions were probably more automatic than reasoned, as the time
+of our last encounter approached. On the whole, the fight had been a
+fair one. Brande had used his advantage over me for his own purpose as
+long as it remained with him. I used the advantage as soon as it passed
+to me for mine. The conditions had thus been equalised when, for the
+third and last time, I was to hear him address his Society.
+
+This time the man was weak in health. His vitality was ebbing fast, but
+his marvellous inspiration was strong within him, and, supported by it,
+he battled manfully with the disease which I had manufactured for him.
+His lecture-room was the fairy glen; his canopy the heavens.
+
+I cannot give the substance of this address, or any portion of it,
+verbatim as on former occasions, for I have not the manuscript. I doubt
+if Brande wrote out his last speech. Methodical as were his habits it is
+probable that his final words were not premeditated. They burst from him
+in a delirium that could hardly have been studied. His fine frenzy could
+not well have originated from considered sentences, although his
+language, regarded as mere oratory, was magnificent. It was appalling in
+the light through which I read it.
+
+He stood alone upon the rock which overtopped the dell. We arranged
+ourselves in such groups as suited our inclinations, upon some rising
+ground below. The great trees waved overhead, low murmuring. The
+waterfall splashed drearily. Below, not a whisper was exchanged. Above,
+the man poured out his triumphant death-song in sonorous periods.
+Below, great fear was upon all. Above, the madman exulted wildly.
+
+At first his voice was weak. As he went on it gained strength and depth.
+He alluded to his first address, in which he had hinted that the
+material Universe was not quite a success; to his second, in which he
+had boldly declared it was an absolute failure. This, his third
+declaration, was to tell us that the remedy as far as he, a mortal man,
+could apply it, was ready. The end was at hand. That night should see
+the consummation of his life-work. To-morrow's sun would rise--if it
+rose at all--on the earth restored to space.
+
+A shiver passed perceptibly over the people, prepared as they were for
+this long foreseen announcement. Edith Metford, who stood by me on my
+left, slipped her hand into mine and pressed my fingers hard. Natalie
+Brande, on my right, did not move. Her eyes were dilated and fixed on
+the speaker. The old clairvoyante look was on her face. Her dark pupils
+were blinded save to their inward light. She was either unconscious or
+only partly conscious. Now that the hour had come, they who had believed
+their courage secure felt it wither. They, the people with us, begged
+for a little longer time to brace themselves for the great crisis--the
+plunge into an eternity from which there would be no resurrection,
+neither of matter nor of mind.
+
+Brande heeded them not.
+
+"This night," said he, with culminating enthusiasm, "the cloud-capped
+towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, shall dissolve. To
+this great globe itself--this paltry speck of less account in space than
+a dew-drop in an ocean--and all its sorrow and pain, its trials and
+temptations, all the pathos and bathos of our tragic human farce, the
+end is near. The way has been hard, and the journey overlong, and the
+burden often beyond man's strength. But that long-drawn sorrow now shall
+cease. The tears will be wiped away. The burden will fall from weary
+shoulders. For the fulness of time has come. This earth shall die! And
+death is peace.
+
+"I stand," he cried out in a strident voice, raising his arm aloft, "I
+may say, with one foot on sea and one on land, for I hold the elemental
+secret of them both. And I swear by the living god--Science
+incarnate--that the suffering of the centuries is over, that for this
+earth and all that it contains, from this night and for ever, _Time
+will be no more!_"
+
+A great cry rose from the people. "Give us another day--only another
+day!"
+
+But Brande made answer: "It is now too late."
+
+"Too late!" the people wailed.
+
+"Yes, too late. I warned you long ago. Are you not yet ready? In two
+hours the disintegrating agent will enter on its work. No human power
+could stop it now. Not if every particle of the material I have
+compounded were separated and scattered to the winds. Before I set my
+foot upon this rock I applied the key which will release its inherent
+energy. I myself am powerless."
+
+"Powerless," sobbed the auditors.
+
+"Powerless! And if I had ten thousand times the power which I have
+called forth from the universal element, I would use it towards the
+issue I have forecast."
+
+Thereupon he turned away. Doom sounded in his words. The hand of Death
+laid clammy fingers on us. Edith Metford's strength failed at last. It
+had been sorely tested. She sank into my arms.
+
+"Courage, true heart, our time has come," I whispered. "We start for the
+steamer at once. The horses are ready." My arrangements had been already
+made. My plan had been as carefully matured as any ever made by Brande
+himself.
+
+"How many horses?"
+
+"Three. One for you; another for Natalie; the third for myself. The rest
+must accept the fate they have selected."
+
+The girl shuddered as she said, "But your interference with the formula?
+You are sure it will destroy the effect?"
+
+"I am certain that the particular result on which Brande calculates will
+not take place. But short of that, he has still enough explosive matter
+stored to cause an earthquake. We are not safe within a radius of fifty
+miles. It will be a race against time."
+
+"Natalie will not come."
+
+"Not voluntarily. You must think of some plan. Your brain is quick. We
+have not a moment to lose. Ah, there she is! Speak to her."
+
+Natalie was crossing the open ground which led from the glen to Brande's
+laboratory. She did not observe us till Edith called to her. Then she
+approached hastily and embraced her friend with visible emotion. Even to
+me she offered her cheek without reserve.
+
+"Natalie," I said quickly, "there are three horses saddled and waiting
+in the palm grove. The _Esmeralda_ is still lying in the harbour where
+we landed. You will come with us. Indeed, you have no choice. You must
+come if I have to carry you to your horse and tie you to the saddle. You
+will not force me to put that indignity upon you. To the horses, then!
+Come!"
+
+For answer she called her brother loudly by his name. Brande immediately
+appeared at the door of his laboratory, and when he perceived from whom
+the call had come he joined us.
+
+"Herbert," said Natalie, "our friend is deserting us. He must still
+cling to the thought that your purpose may fail, and he expects to
+escape on horseback from the fate of the earth. Reason with him yet a
+little further."
+
+"There is no time to reason," I interrupted. "The horses are ready. This
+girl (pointing as I spoke to Edith Metford) takes one, I another, and
+you the third--whether your brother agrees or not."
+
+"Surely you have not lost your reason? Have you forgotten the drop of
+water in the English Channel?" Brande said quietly.
+
+"Brande," I answered, "the sooner you induce your sister to come with me
+the better; and the sooner you induce these maniac friends of yours to
+clear out the better, for your enterprise will fail."
+
+"It is as certain as the law of gravitation. With my own hand I mixed
+the ingredients according to the formula."
+
+"And," said I, "with my own hand I altered your formula."
+
+Had Brande's heart stopped beating, his face could not have become more
+distorted and livid. He moved close to me, and, glaring into my eyes,
+hissed out:
+
+"You altered my formula?"
+
+"I did," I answered recklessly. "I multiplied your figures by ten where
+they struck me as insufficient."
+
+"When?"
+
+I strode closer still to him and looked him straight in the eyes while I
+spoke.
+
+"That night in the Red Sea, when Edith Metford, by accident, mixed
+morphia in your medicine. The night I injected a subtle poison, which I
+picked up in India once, into your blood while you slept, thereby
+baffling some of the functions of your extraordinary brain. The night
+when in your sleep you stirred once, and had you stirred twice, I would
+have killed you, then and there, as ruthlessly as you would kill mankind
+now. The night I did kill your lieutenant, Rockingham, and throw his
+body overboard to the sharks."
+
+Brande did not speak for a moment. Then he said in a gentle,
+uncomplaining voice:
+
+"So it now devolves on Grey. The end will be the same. The Labrador
+expedition will succeed where I have failed." To Natalie: "You had
+better go. There will only be an explosion. The island will probably
+disappear. That will be all."
+
+"Do you remain?" she asked.
+
+"Yes. I perish with my failure."
+
+"Then I perish with you. And you, Marcel, save yourself--you coward!"
+
+I started as if struck in the face. Then I said to Edith: "Be careful to
+keep to the track. Take the bay horse. I saddled him for myself, but you
+can ride him safely. Lose no time, and ride hard for the coast."
+
+"Arthur Marcel," she answered, so softly that the others did not hear,
+"your work in the world is not yet over. There is the Labrador
+expedition. Just now, when my strength failed, you whispered 'courage.'
+Be true to yourself! Half an hour is gone."
+
+At length some glimmer of human feeling awoke in Brande. He said in a
+low, abstracted voice: "My life fittingly ends now. To keep you,
+Natalie, would only be a vulgar murder." The old will power seemed to
+come back to him. He looked into the girl's eyes, and said slowly and
+sternly: "Go! I command it."
+
+Without another word he turned away from us. When he had disappeared
+into the laboratory, Natalie sighed, and said dreamily:
+
+"I am ready. Let us go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE FLIGHT.
+
+
+I led the girls hurriedly to the horses. When they were mounted on the
+ponies, I gave the bridle-reins of the bay horse--whose size and
+strength were necessary for my extra weight--to Edith Metford, and asked
+her to wait for me until I announced Brande's probable failure to the
+people, and advised a _sauve qui peut_.
+
+Hard upon my warning there followed a strange metamorphosis in the
+crowd, who, after the passing weakness at the lecture, had fallen back
+into stoical indifference, or it may have been despair. The possibility
+of escape galvanized them into the desire for life. Cries of distress,
+and prayers for help, filled the air. Men and women rushed about like
+frightened sheep without concert or any sensible effort to escape,
+wasting in futile scrambles the short time remaining to them. For
+another half hour had now passed, and in sixty minutes the earthquake
+would take place.
+
+"Follow us!" I shouted, as with my companions I rode slowly through the
+camp. "Keep the track to the sea. I shall have the steamer's boats ready
+for all who may reach the shore alive."
+
+"The horses! Seize the horses!" rose in a loud shout, and the mob flung
+themselves upon us, as though three animals could carry all.
+
+When I saw the rush, I called out: "Sit firm, Natalie; I am going to
+strike your horse." Saying which I struck the pony a sharp blow with my
+riding-whip crossways on the flank. It bounded like a deer, and then
+dashed forward down the rough pathway.
+
+"Now you, Edith!" I struck her pony in the same way; but it only reared
+and nearly threw her. It could not get away. Already hands were upon
+both bridle-reins. There was no help for it. I pulled out my revolver
+and fired once, twice, and thrice--for I missed the second shot--and
+then the maddened animal sprang forward, released from the hands that
+held it.
+
+It was now time to look to myself. I was in the midst of a dozen maniacs
+mad with fear. I kicked in my spurs desperately, and the bay lashed out
+his hind feet. One hoof struck young Halley on the forehead. He fell
+back dead, his skull in fragments. But the others refused to break the
+circle. Then I emptied my weapon on them, and my horse plunged through
+the opening, followed by despairing execrations. The moment I was clear,
+I returned my revolver to its case, and settled myself in the saddle,
+for, borne out of the proper path as I had been, there was a stiff bank
+to leap before I could regain the track to the shore. Owing to the
+darkness the horse refused to leap, and I nearly fell over his head.
+With a little scrambling I managed to get back into my seat, and then
+trotted along the bank for a hundred yards. At this point the bank
+disappeared, and there was nothing between me now and the open track to
+the sea.
+
+Once upon the path, I put the bay to a gallop, and very soon overtook a
+man and a woman hurrying on. They were running hand in hand, the man a
+little in front dragging his companion on by force. It was plain to me
+that the woman could not hold out much longer. The man, Claude Lureau,
+hailed me as I passed.
+
+"Help us, Marcel. Don't ride away from us."
+
+"I cannot save both," I answered, pulling up.
+
+"Then save Mademoiselle Véret. I'll take my chance."
+
+This blunt speech moved me, the more especially as the man was French. I
+could not allow him to point the way of duty to me--an Englishman.
+
+"Assist her up, then. Now, Mademoiselle, put your arms round me and hold
+hard for your life. Lureau, you may hold my stirrup if you agree to
+loose it when you tire."
+
+"I will do so," he promised.
+
+Hampered thus, I but slowly gained on Natalie and Edith, whose ponies
+had galloped a mile before they could be stopped.
+
+"Forward, forward!" I shouted when within hail. "Don't wait for me. Ride
+on at top speed. Lash your ponies with the bridle-reins."
+
+We were all moving on now at an easy canter, for I could not go fast so
+long as Lureau held my stirrup, and the girls in front did not seem
+anxious to leave me far behind. Besides, the tangled underwood and
+overhanging creepers rendered hard riding both difficult and dangerous.
+The ponies were hard held, but notwithstanding this my horse fell back
+gradually in the race, and the hammering of the hoofs in front grew
+fainter. The breath of the runner at my stirrup came in great sobs. He
+was suffocating, but he struggled on a little longer. Then he threw up
+his hand and gasped:
+
+"I am done. Go on, Marcel. You deserve to escape. Don't desert the
+girl."
+
+"May God desert me if I do," I answered. "And do you keep on as long as
+you can. You may reach the shore after all."
+
+"Go on--save her!" he gasped, and then from sheer exhaustion fell
+forward on his face.
+
+"Sit still, Mademoiselle," I cried, pulling the French girl's arms round
+me in time to prevent her from throwing herself purposely from the
+horse. Then I drove in my spurs hard, and, being now released from
+Lureau's grasp, I overtook the ponies.
+
+For five minutes we all rode on abreast. And then the darkness began to
+break, and a strange dawn glimmered over the tree-tops, although the
+hour of midnight was still to come. A wild, red light, like that of a
+fiery sunset in a hazy summer evening, spread over the night sky. The
+quivering stars grew pale. Constellation after constellation, they were
+blotted out until the whole arc of heaven was a dull red glare. The
+horses were dismayed by this strange phenomenon, and dashed the froth
+from their foaming muzzles as they galloped now without stress of spur
+at their best speed. Birds that could not sing found voice, and
+chattered and shrieked as they dashed from tree to tree in aimless
+flight. Enormous bats hurtled in the air, blinded by the unusual light.
+From the dense undergrowth strange denizens of the woods, disturbed in
+their nightly prowl, leaped forth and scurried squealing between the
+galloping hoofs, reckless of anything save their own fear. Everything
+that was alive upon the island was in motion, and fear was the motor of
+them all.
+
+So far, we saw no natives. Their absence did not surprise me, for I had
+no time for thought. It was explained later.
+
+Edith Metford's pony soon became unmanageable in its fright. I unbuckled
+one spur and gave it to her, directing her to hold it in her hand, for
+of course she could not strap it to her boot, and drive it into the
+animal when he swerved. She took the spur, and as her pony, in one of
+his side leaps, nearly bounded off the path, she struck him hard on the
+ribs. He bolted and flew on far ahead of us.
+
+The light grew stronger.
+
+But that the rays were red, it would now have been as bright as day. We
+were chasing our shadows, so the light must be directly behind us.
+Mademoiselle Véret first noticed this, and drew my attention to it. I
+looked back, and my heart sank at the sight. In the terror it inspired,
+I regretted having burthened myself with the girl I had sworn to save.
+
+The island was on fire!
+
+"It is the end of the world," Mademoiselle Véret said with a shudder.
+She clung closer to me. I could feel her warm breath upon my cheek. The
+unmanly regret, which for a moment had touched me, passed.
+
+The ponies now seemed to find out that their safety lay in galloping
+straight on, rather than in scared leaps from side to side. They
+stretched themselves like race horses, and gave my bay, with his double
+burthen, a strong lead. The pace became terrible considering the nature
+of the ground we covered.
+
+At last the harbour came in view. But my horse, I knew, could not last
+another mile, and the shore was still distant two or three. I spurred
+him hard and drew nearly level with the ponies, so that my voice could
+be heard by both their riders.
+
+"Ride on," I shouted, "and hail the steamer, so that there may be no
+delay when I come up. This horse is blown, and will not stand the pace.
+I am going to ease him. You will go on board at once, and send the boat
+back for us." Then I eased the bay, but in spite of this I immediately
+overtook Edith Metford, who had pulled up.
+
+My reproaches she cut short by saying, "If that horse does the distance
+at all it will be by getting a lead all the way. And I am going to give
+it to him." So we started together.
+
+Natalie was waiting for us a little further on. I spoke to her, but she
+did not answer. From the moment that Brande had commanded her to
+accompany us, her manner had remained absolutely passive. What I
+ordered, she obeyed. That was all. Instead of being alarmed by the
+horrors of the ride, she did not seem to be even interested. I had not
+leisure, however, to reflect on this. For the first time in the whole
+race she spoke to us.
+
+"Would it not be better if Edith rode on?" she said. "I can take her
+place. It seems useless to sacrifice her. It does not matter to me. I
+cannot now be afraid."
+
+"I am afraid; but I remain," Edith said resolutely.
+
+The ground under us began to heave. Whole acres of it swayed disjointed.
+We were galloping on oscillating fragments, which trembled beneath us
+like floating logs under boys at play. To jump these cracks--sometimes
+an upward bank, sometimes a deep drop, in addition to the width of the
+seam, had to be taken--pumped out the failing horses, and the hope that
+was left to us disappeared utterly.
+
+The glare of the red light behind waxed fiercer still, and a low
+rumbling as of distant thunder began to mutter round us. The air became
+difficult to breathe. It was no longer air, but a mephitic stench that
+choked us with disgusting fumes. Then a great shock shook the land, and
+right in front of us a seam opened that must have been fully fifteen
+feet in width. Natalie was the first to see it. She observed it too late
+to stop.
+
+In the same mechanical way as she had acted before, she settled herself
+in the saddle, struck the pony with her hand, and raced him at the
+chasm. He cleared it with little to spare. Edith's took it next with
+less. Then my turn came. Before I could shake up my tired horse,
+Mademoiselle Véret said quickly:
+
+"Monsieur has done enough. He will now permit me to alight. This time
+the horse cannot jump over with both."
+
+"He shall jump over with both, Mademoiselle, or he shall jump in," I
+answered. "Don't look down when we are crossing."
+
+The horse just got over, but he came to his knees, and we fell forward
+over his shoulder. The girl's head struck full on a slab of rock, and a
+faint moan was all that told me she was alive as I arose half stunned to
+my feet. My first thought was for the horse, for on him all depended. He
+was uninjured, apparently, but hardly able to stand from the shock and
+the stress of fatigue.
+
+Edith Metford had dismounted and caught him; she was holding the bridle
+in her left hand, and winced as if in pain when I accidentally brushed
+against her right shoulder. I tied the horse to a young palm, and
+begged the girl to ride on. She obeyed me reluctantly. Natalie had to
+assist her to remount, so she must have been injured. When I saw her
+safely in her saddle, I ran back to Mademoiselle Véret.
+
+The chasm was fast widening. From either side great fragments were
+breaking off and falling in with a roar of loose rocks crashing
+together, till far down the sound was dulled into a hollow boom. This
+ended in low guttural, which growled up from an abysmal depth.
+Mademoiselle Véret, or her dead body, lay now on the very edge of the
+seam, and I had to harden my heart before I could bring myself to
+venture close to it. But I had given my word, and there were no
+conditions in the promise when I made it.
+
+I was spared the ordeal. Just as I stepped forward, the slab of rock on
+which the girl lay broke off in front of me, and, tipping up, overturned
+itself into the chasm. Far below I could see the shimmer of the girl's
+dress as her body went plunging down into that awful pit. And
+remembering her generous courage and offer of self-sacrifice, I felt
+tears rise in my eyes. But there was no time for tears.
+
+I leaped on the bay, and got him into something approaching a gallop,
+shouting at the others to keep on, for they were now returning. When I
+came up with them, Edith Metford said with a shiver:
+
+"The girl?"
+
+"Is at the bottom of the pit. Ride on."
+
+We gained the shore at last; and our presence there produced the
+explanation of the absence of the natives on the pathway to the sea.
+They were there before us. Lying prostrate on the beach in hundreds,
+they raised their bodies partly from the sands, like a resurrection of
+the already dead, and there then rang out upon the night air a sound
+such as my ears had never before heard in my life, such as, I pray God,
+they may never listen to again. I do not know what that dreadful
+death-wail meant in words, only that it touched the lowest depths of
+human horror. All along the beach that fearful chorus of the damned
+wailed forth, and echoed back from rock and cliff. The cry for mercy
+could not be mistaken--the supplication blended with despair. They were
+praying to us--their evil spirits, for this wrong had been wrought them
+by our advent, if not by ourselves.
+
+I cannot dwell upon the scene. I could not describe it. I would not if I
+could.
+
+The steamer was still in her berth; her head was pointed seawards. Loud
+orders rang over the water. The roar of the chain running out through
+the hawse-hole and the heavy splash could not be mistaken. Anderson had
+slipped his cable. Then the chime of the telegraph on the bridge was
+followed almost instantly by the first smashing stroke of the propeller.
+
+The _Esmeralda_ was under weigh!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE CATASTROPHE.
+
+
+The _Esmeralda_ was putting out to sea when I thought of a last
+expedient to draw the attention of her captain. Filling my revolver with
+cartridges which I had loose in my pockets, I fired all the chambers as
+fast as I could snap the trigger.
+
+My signals were heard, and Anderson proved true to his bargain. He
+immediately reversed his engines, and, when he had backed in as close as
+he thought safe, sent a boat ashore for us. We got into it without any
+obstruction from the cowering natives, who only shrank from us in
+horror, now that their prayers had failed to move us. The moment our
+boat was made fast to the steamer's davit ropes and we were pulled out
+of the water, "full speed ahead" was rung from the bridge. We were
+raised to the deck while the vessel was getting up speed.
+
+I crawled up the ladder to the bridge feebly, for I was becoming stiff
+from the bruises of the fall from my horse. Anderson received me coldly,
+and listened indifferently to my thanks. An agreement such as ours
+hardly prepared me for his loyalty.
+
+"Oh, as to that," he interrupted, "when I make a bargain my word is my
+bond. On this occasion I am inclined to think the indenture will be a
+final one."
+
+His bargain was a hard one, but, having made it, he abided faithfully by
+its conditions. He was honest, therefore, in his own way.
+
+"How far can you get out in fifteen minutes?" I asked.
+
+"We may make six or seven knots. But what is the good of that? There
+will be an earthquake on that island on a liberal scale--on such a scale
+that this ship would have very little chance in the wave that will
+follow us if we were fifty miles at sea."
+
+"You have taken every precaution, of course--"
+
+Anderson here looked at me contemptuously, and, with an air of sarcastic
+admiration, he said:
+
+"You have guessed it at the first try. That is precisely what I have
+done."
+
+"Pshaw! don't take offence at trifles at a time like this," I said
+testily. "If you knew as much about that earthquake as I do, you would
+be in no humour for bandying phrases."
+
+"Might I ask how much you do know about it? You could not have foreseen
+the trouble more clearly if you had made it yourself."
+
+"I did not make it myself, but I know the means which the man who did
+employed, and but for me that earthquake would have wrecked this earth."
+
+Anderson made no direct answer to this, but he said earnestly:
+
+"You will now go below, sir. You are done up. Roberts will take you to
+the doctor."
+
+"I am not done up, and I mean to see it out," I retorted doggedly. My
+nervous system was completely unhinged, and a fit of stupid obstinacy
+came on me which rendered any interference with my actions intolerable.
+
+"Then you cannot see it out upon my bridge," Anderson said. The
+determined tone in which he spoke only added to my impotent wrath.
+
+"Very well, I will return to the deck, and if any of your men should
+attempt to interfere with me he will do so at his peril." With that, I
+slung my revolver round so as to have it ready to my hand. I was beside
+myself. My conduct was already bad enough, but I made it worse before I
+left the bridge.
+
+"And if you, Anderson, disobey my orders--my orders, do you hear?--an
+explosion such as took place in the middle of the English channel shall
+take place in the middle of this ship."
+
+"For God's sake leave the bridge. I want my wits about me, and I have no
+intention of earning another exhibition of your devilries."
+
+"Then be careful not to trouble me again." Thus after having passed
+through much danger with a spirit not unbecoming--as I hope--an English
+gentleman, I acted, when the worst was passed, like a peevish schoolboy.
+I am ashamed of my conduct in this small matter, and trust it will pass
+without much notice in the narrative of events of greater moment.
+
+On deck, Natalie Brande, Edith Metford, and Percival were standing
+together, their eyes fixed on the island. Edith's face was deathly
+white, even in the ruddy glow which was now over land and sea. When I
+saw her pallor, my evil temper passed away.
+
+"It would be impossible for you to be quite well," I said to her
+anxiously; "but has anything happened since I left you? You are very
+pale."
+
+"Oh no," she answered, "I'm all right; a little faint after that ride. I
+shall be better soon."
+
+Natalie turned her weird eyes on me and said in the hollow voice we had
+heard once before--when she spoke to us on the island--"That is her way
+of telling you that your horse broke her right arm when she caught him
+for you. She held him, you remember, with her left hand. The doctor has
+set the limb. She will not suffer long."
+
+"Heaven help us, this awful night," Edith cried. "How do you know that,
+Natalie?"
+
+"I know much now, but I shall know more soon." After this she would not
+speak again.
+
+With every pound of steam on that the _Esmeralda's_ boilers would bear
+without bursting, we were now plunging through the great rollers of the
+Arafura Sea. Everything had indeed been done to put the vessel in trim.
+She was cleared for action, so to speak. And a gallant fight she made
+when the issue was knit. When the hour of midnight must be near at
+hand, I looked at my watch. It was one minute to twelve o'clock.
+
+Thirty seconds more!
+
+The stupendous corona of flame which hung over the island was pierced by
+long lines of smoke that stretched far above the glare and clutched with
+sooty fingers at the stars, now fitfully coming back to view at our
+distance. The rumbling of internal thunder waxed louder.
+
+Fifteen seconds now!
+
+Fearful peals rent the atmosphere. Vast tongues of flame protruded
+heavenward. The elements must be melting in that fervent heat. The
+blazing bowels of the earth were pouring forth.
+
+Twelve, midnight!
+
+A reverberation thundered out which shook the solid earth, and a roaring
+hell-breath of flame and smoke belched up so awful in its dread
+magnificence that every man who saw it and lived to tell his story might
+justly have claimed to have seen perdition. In that hurricane of
+incandescent matter the island was blotted out for ever from the map of
+this world.
+
+Notwithstanding the speed of the _Esmeralda_ she was a sloth when
+compared with the speed of the wave from such an earthquake. From the
+glare of the illumination to perfect darkness the contrast was sudden
+and extreme. But the blackness of the ocean was soon whitened by the
+snowy plumes of the avalanche of water which was now racing us, far
+astern as yet, but gaining fast. I, who had no business about the ship
+requiring my presence in any special part, decided to wait on deck and
+lash myself to the forward, which would be practically the lee-side of a
+deckhouse. Edith Metford we prevailed on to go below, that she might not
+run the risk of further injury to her fractured arm. As she left us she
+whispered to me, "So Natalie will be with you at the end, and I--" a sob
+stopped her. And it came into my mind at that moment that this girl had
+acted very nobly, and that I had hardly appreciated her and all that she
+had done for me.
+
+Natalie refused to leave the deck. I lashed her securely beside me.
+Together we awaited the end. When the roar of the following wave came
+close, so close that the voices of the officers of the ship could be no
+longer heard, Natalie spoke. The hollow sound was no longer in her
+voice. Her own soft sweet tones had come back.
+
+"Arthur," she asked, "is this the end?"
+
+"I fear it is," I answered, speaking close to her ear so that she might
+hear.
+
+"Then we have little time, and I have something which I must say, which
+you must promise me to remember when--when--I am no longer with you."
+
+"You will be always with me while we live. I think I deserve that at
+last."
+
+"Yes, you deserve that and more. I will be with you while I live, but
+that will not be for long."
+
+I was about to interrupt her when she put her soft little hand upon my
+lips and said:
+
+"Listen, there is very little time. It is all a mistake. I mean Herbert
+was wrong. He might as well have let me have my earthly span of
+happiness or folly--call it what you will."
+
+"You see that now--thank God!"
+
+"Yes, but I see it too late, I did not know it until--until I was dead.
+Hush!" Again I tried to interrupt her, for I thought her mind was
+wandering. "I died psychically with Herbert. That was when we first saw
+the light on the island. Since then I have lived mechanically, but it
+has only been life in so low a form that I do not now know what has
+happened between that time and this. And I could not now speak as I am
+speaking save by a will power which is costing me very dear. But it is
+the only voice you could hear. I do not therefore count the cost. My
+brother's brain so far overmatched my own that it first absorbed and
+finally destroyed my mental vitality. This influence removed, I am a
+rudderless ship at sea--bound to perish."
+
+"May his torments endure for ever. May the nethermost pit of hell
+receive him!" I said with a groan of agony.
+
+But Natalie said: "Hush! I might have lingered on a little longer, but I
+chose to concentrate the vital force which would have lasted me a few
+more senile years into the minutes necessary for this message from me to
+you--a message I could not have given you if he were not dead. And I am
+dying so that you may hear it. Dying! My God! I am already dead."
+
+She seemed to struggle against some force that battled with her, and the
+roar of many waters was louder around us before she was able to speak
+again.
+
+"Bend lower, Arthur; my strength is failing, and I have not yet said
+that for which I am here. Lower still.
+
+"I said it is all a mistake--a hideous mistake. Existence as we know it
+is ephemeral. Suffering is ephemeral. There is nothing everlasting but
+love. There is nothing eternal but mind. Your mind is mine. Your love is
+mine. Your human life may belong to whomsoever you will it. It ought to
+belong to that brave girl below. I do not grudge it to her, for I have
+_you_. We two shall be together through the ages--for ever and for ever.
+Heart of my heart, you have striven manfully and well, and if you did
+not altogether succeed in saving my flesh from premature corruption, be
+satisfied in that you have my soul. Ah!"
+
+She pressed her hands to her head as if in dreadful pain. When she spoke
+again her voice came in short gasps.
+
+"My brain is reeling. I do not know what I am saying," she cried,
+distraught. "I do not know whether I am saying what is true or only what
+I imagine to be true. I know nothing but this. I was mesmerised. I have
+been so for two years. But for that I would have been happy in your
+love--for I was a woman before this hideous influence benumbed me. They
+told me it was only a fool's paradise that I missed. But I only know
+that I have missed it. Missed it--and the darkness of death is upon me."
+
+She ceased to speak. A shudder convulsed her, and then her head sank
+gently on my shoulder.
+
+At that moment the great wave broke over the vessel, whirling her
+helpless like a cork on the ripples of a mill pond; lashing her with
+mighty strokes; sweeping in giant cataracts from stern to stem;
+smashing, tearing everything; deluging her with hissing torrents;
+crushing her with avalanches of raging foam. Then the ocean tornado
+passed on and left the _Esmeralda_ behind, with half the crew disabled
+and many lost, her decks a mass of wreckage, her masts gone. The
+crippled ship barely floated. When the last torrent of spray passed, and
+I was able to look to Natalie, her head had drooped down on her breast.
+I raised her face gently and looked into her wide open eyes.
+
+She was dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+Taking up my girl's body in my arms, I stumbled over the
+wreck-encumbered deck, and bore it to the state-room she had occupied on
+the outward voyage. Percival was too busy attending to wounded sailors
+to be interrupted. His services, I knew, were useless now, but I wanted
+him to refute or corroborate a conviction which my own medical knowledge
+had forced upon me. The thought was so repellent, I clung to any hope
+which might lead to its dispersion. I waited alone with my dead.
+
+Percival came after an hour, which seemed to me an eternity. He
+stammered out some incoherent words of sympathy as soon as he looked in
+my face. But this was not the purpose for which I had detached him from
+his pressing duties elsewhere. I made a gesture towards the dead girl.
+He attended to it immediately. I watched closely and took care that the
+light should be on his face, so that I might read his eyes rather than
+listen to his words.
+
+"She has fainted!" he exclaimed, as he approached the rigid figure. I
+said nothing until he turned and faced me. Then I read his eyes. He said
+slowly: "You are aware, Marcel, that--that she is dead?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"That she has been dead--several hours?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"But let me think. It was only an hour--"
+
+"No; do not think," I interrupted. "There are things in this voyage
+which will not bear to be thought of. I thank you for coming so soon.
+You will forgive me for troubling you when you have so much to do
+elsewhere. And now leave us alone. I mean, leave me alone."
+
+He pressed my hand, and went away without a word. I am that man's
+friend.
+
+They buried her at sea.
+
+I was happily unconscious at the time, and so was spared that scene.
+Edith Metford, weak and suffering as she was, went through it all. She
+has told me nothing about it, save that it was done. More than that I
+could not bear. And I have borne much.
+
+The voyage home was a dreary episode. There is little more to tell, and
+it must be told quickly. Percival was kind, but it distressed me to find
+that he now plainly regarded me as weak-minded from the stress of my
+trouble. Once, in the extremity of my misery, I began a relation of my
+adventures to him, for I wanted his help. The look upon his face was
+enough for me. I did not make the same mistake again.
+
+To Anderson I made amends for my extravagant display of temper. He
+received me more kindly than I expected. I no longer thought of the
+money that had passed between us. And, to do him tardy justice, I do not
+think he thought of it either. At least he did not offer any of it back.
+His scruples, I presume, were conscientious. Indeed, I was no longer
+worth a man's enmity. Sympathy was now the only indignity that could be
+put upon me. And Anderson did not trespass in that direction. My misery
+was, I thought, complete. One note must still be struck in that long
+discord of despair.
+
+We were steaming along the southern coast of Java. For many hours the
+rugged cliffs and giant rocks which fence the island against the
+onslaught of the Indian Ocean had passed before us as in review, and
+we--Edith Metford and I--sat on the deck silently, with many thoughts in
+common, but without the interchange of a spoken word. The stern,
+forbidding aspect of that iron coast increased the gloom which had
+settled on my brain. Its ramparts of lonely sea-drenched crags depressed
+me below the mental zero that was now habitual with me. The sun went
+down in a red glare, which moved me not. The short twilight passed
+quickly, but I noticed nothing. Then night came. The restless sea
+disappeared in darkness. The grand march past of the silent stars began.
+But I neither knew nor cared.
+
+A soft whisper stirred me.
+
+"Arthur, for God's sake rouse yourself! You are brooding a great deal
+too much. It will destroy you."
+
+Listlessly I put my hand in hers, and clasped her fingers gently.
+
+"Bear with me!" I pleaded.
+
+"I will bear with you for ever. But you must fight on. You have not won
+yet."
+
+"No, nor ever shall. I have fought my last fight. The victory may go to
+whosoever desires it."
+
+On this she wept. I could not bear that she should suffer from my
+misery, and so, guarding carefully her injured arm, I drew her close to
+me. And then, out of the darkness of the night, far over the solitude of
+the sea, there came to us the sound of a voice. That voice was a woman's
+wail. The girl beside me shuddered and drew back. I did not ask her if
+she had heard. I knew she had heard.
+
+We arose and stood apart without any explanation. From that moment a
+caress would have been a sacrilege. I did not hear that weird sound
+again, nor aught else for an hour or more save the bursting of the
+breakers on the crags of Java.
+
+I kept no record of the commonplaces of our voyage thereafter. It only
+remains for me to say that I arrived in England broken in health and
+bankrupt in fortune. Brande left no money. His formula for the
+transmutation of metals is unintelligible to me. I can make no use of
+it.
+
+Edith Metford remains my friend. To part utterly after what we have
+undergone together is beyond our strength. But between us there is a
+nameless shadow, reminiscent of that awful night in the Arafura Sea,
+when death came very near to us. And in my ears there is always the echo
+of that voice which I heard by the shores of Java when the misty
+borderland between life and death seemed clear.
+
+My story is told. I cannot prove its truth, for there is much in it to
+which I am the only living witness. I cannot prove whether Herbert
+Brande was a scientific magician possessed of _all_ the powers he
+claimed, or merely a mad physicist in charge of a new and terrible
+explosive; nor whether Edward Grey ever started for Labrador. The
+burthen of the proof of this last must be borne by others--unless it be
+left to Grey himself to show whether my evidence is false or true. If
+it be left to him, a few years will decide the issue.
+
+I am content to wait.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+LONDON: DIGBY, LONG AND CO., PUBLISHERS, 18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET
+STREET, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+ROBERT CROMIE'S BOOKS
+
+_OPINIONS OF THE PRESS_
+
+
+A PLUNGE INTO SPACE
+
+WITH PREFACE BY JULES VERNE
+
+_Times._--The story is written with considerable liveliness, the
+scientific jargon is sufficiently perplexing, and the characters are
+sketched with some humour.
+
+_Chronicle._--A strange, weird, mysterious story that holds the reader
+spell-bound, from the first page to the last.
+
+_Athenæum._--Mr. Cromie's Utopia is charming, and the quasi-scientific
+detail of the expedition is given with so much integrity that we hardly
+wonder at the marvellous results accomplished.
+
+_Truth._--A very clever description of a flight through space to Mars
+... the book is extremely interesting and suggestive; especially,
+perhaps, where it attacks the theories of Mr. George and "Looking
+Backwards."
+
+_Court Journal._--Mr. Robert Cromie's remarkably clever and entertaining
+volume is told with much of the vivid fancy of a Jules Verne--with
+remarkable picturesqueness, and the experiences of mortals in Mars are
+described with considerable humour.
+
+_Review of Reviews._--An unquestionably interesting story. The
+adventures of the hero and his friends are in no small degree thrilling.
+
+_Glasgow Herald._--The imagination is brilliant, the scientific details
+are skilfully worked in, the dialogues and descriptions are lively and
+interesting, and the pictures of Martian life and scenery are
+remarkable--a decidedly clever book.
+
+
+FOR ENGLAND'S SAKE
+
+_Academy._--There is not a dull page in the story.
+
+_Army and Navy Gazette._--A capital little story of military life, full
+of bright word-painting.
+
+_Literary World._--This exciting chapter in the history of the future is
+written with a great deal of enthusiasm, and a great deal of common
+sense to boot.
+
+_Irish Times._--The plot is well conceived, and the interest throughout
+is well maintained.
+
+_Belfast Northern Whig._--The author displays much constructive and
+descriptive power. He is most felicitous in his word pictures of
+scenery, and imparts a fascinating dash to his military scenes.
+
+_Belfast Morning News._--Deeply interesting without being sensational,
+this charming story of love and war is sure to appeal with force to a
+large circle of readers.
+
+_Liverpool Daily Post._--A well-told story of life and love in troublous
+times in India.
+
+
+IN SOUTHERN SEAS
+
+WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH W. R. RINGLAND.
+
+_Athenæum._--A bright, compact, and highly readable narrative, full of
+incidents, and illustrated with clever little vignettes.
+
+_Newcastle Chronicle._--A really charming book--deeply interesting, and
+full of capital drawings.
+
+_Scotsman._--A very well-written narrative of a trip, and as such, about
+as good as it could be.
+
+_Spectator._--A pleasant little book of travel.
+
+_Leeds Mercury._--The author relies on vivid description, pointed and
+racy pictures, and lively and striking incident for interest.
+
+_Saturday Review._--Brightly written, and yet more brightly illustrated.
+
+
+_The foregoing Books may be had through_ DIGBY, LONG & CO., 18 BOUVERIE
+STREET, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+_MAY 1895_
+
+SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
+
+DIGBY, LONG & CO.'S
+
+NEW NOVELS, STORIES, Etc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_IN ONE VOLUME_, Price 6s.
+
+NEW NOVEL BY DR ARABELLA KENEALY.
+
+ THE HONOURABLE MRS SPOOR. By the Author of "Some Men are such
+   Gentlemen," "Dr Janet of Harley Street," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth,
+   6_s._                                                    [_Just out._
+
+NEW NOVEL BY ANNIE THOMAS (Mrs PENDER CUDLIP).
+
+ FALSE PRETENCES. By the Author of "Allerton Towers," "That Other
+   Woman," "Kate Valliant," "A Girl's Folly," etc., etc. Crown 8vo,
+   cloth, 6_s._                                       [_Second Edition._
+
+    The _WORLD_ says:--"Miss Annie Thomas has rarely drawn a character
+    so cleverly as that of the false and scheming Mrs Colraine."
+
+NEW NOVEL BY DR ARABELLA KENEALY.
+
+ SOME MEN ARE SUCH GENTLEMEN. By the Author of "Dr Janet of Harley
+   Street," "Molly and Her Man-o'-War," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+   With a Frontispiece.                                [_Fifth Edition._
+
+    The _ACADEMY_ says:--"We take up a book by Miss Arabella Kenealy
+    confidently expecting to be amused, and in her latest work we are
+    not disappointed. The story is so brightly written that our interest
+    is never allowed to flag. The heroine, Lois Clinton, is sweet and
+    womanly.... The tale is told with spirit and vivacity, and shows no
+    little skill in its descriptive passages."
+
+    The _PALL MALL GAZETTE_ says:--"A book to be read breathlessly from
+    beginning to end. It is decidedly original ... its vivid interest.
+    The picture of the girl is admirably drawn. The style is bright and
+    easy."
+
+    _TRUTH_ says:--"Its heroine is at once original and charming."
+
+NEW NOVEL BY DORA RUSSELL.
+
+ THE OTHER BOND. By the Author of "A Hidden Chain," "A Country
+   Sweetheart," "The Drift of Fate," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+                                                       [_Third Edition._
+
+    The _ATHENÆUM_ on Miss Russell's Works, says:--"Miss Russell writes
+    easily and well, and she has the gift of making her characters
+    describe themselves by their dialogue, which is bright and natural."
+
+NEW NOVEL BY L. T. MEADE.
+
+ A LIFE FOR A LOVE. By the Author of "The Medicine Lady," "A Soldier of
+   Fortune," "In an Iron Grip," etc., etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._ With
+   a Frontispiece by Hal Hurst.              [_Third Edition. Just out._
+
+    The _DAILY TELEGRAPH_ says:--"This thrilling tale. The plot is
+    worked out with remarkable ingenuity. The book abounds in clever and
+    graphic characterisation."
+
+NEW NOVEL BY FLORENCE MARRYAT.
+
+ THE BEAUTIFUL SOUL. By the Author of "A Fatal Silence," "There is no
+   Death," etc., etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._         [_Fourth Edition._
+
+    The _GUARDIAN_ says:--"We read the book with real pleasure and
+    interest.... In Felecia Hetherington, Miss Marryat has drawn a
+    really fine character, and has given her what she claims for her in
+    the title, a beautiful soul."
+
+    The _WORLD_ says:--"An entertaining and animated story.... One of
+    the most lovable women to whom novel readers have been introduced."
+
+ UNE CULOTTE: An Impossible Story of Modern Oxford. By "TIVOLI," Author
+   of "A Defender of the Faith." With Illustrations by A. W. COOPER.
+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._                            [_Second Edition._
+
+    The _DAILY CHRONICLE_ says:--"The book is full of funny things. The
+    story is a screaming farce, and will furnish plenty of amusement."
+
+ THE VENGEANCE OF MEDEA. By EDITH GRAY WHEELWRIGHT. Crown 8vo, cloth,
+   6_s._
+
+    The _WESTERN DAILY MERCURY_ says:--"Miss Wheelwright has introduced
+    several delightful characters, and produced a work which will add to
+    her reputation. The dialogue is especially well written."
+
+ A RUINED LIFE. By EMILY ST CLAIR. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+
+    The _BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE_ says:--"A powerful story developed with
+    considerable dramatic skill and remarkable fervour."
+
+ THE WESTOVERS. By ALGERNON RIDGEWAY. Author of "Westover's Ward,"
+   "Diana Fontaine," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+
+    The _GLASGOW HERALD_ says:--"'The Westovers' is a clever book."
+
+ THE FLAMING SWORD. Being an Account of the Extraordinary Adventures
+   and Discoveries of Dr PERCIVAL in the Wilds of Africa. Written by
+   Himself. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+
+    The _SPEAKER_ says:--"Mr Rider Haggard himself has not imagined more
+    wonderful things than those which befell Dr Percival and his
+    friends."
+
+    The _LITERARY WORLD_ says:--"Out-Haggards Haggard."
+
+ IN DUE SEASON. By AGNES GOLDWIN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+
+    The _ACADEMY_ says:--"Her novel is well written, it flows easily,
+    its situations are natural, its men and women are real."
+
+ HIS LAST AMOUR. By MONOPOLE. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+
+    The _GLASGOW HERALD_ says:--"The story is unfolded with considerable
+    skill, and the interest of the reader is not allowed to flag."
+
+ AN UNKNOWN POWER. By CHARLES E. R. BELLAIRS. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+
+    The _BELFAST NORTHERN WHIG_ says:--"From start to finish the
+    reader's attention is never allowed to flag. The characters are
+    drawn with considerable fidelity to life. The plot is original, and
+    its developments well worked out."
+
+NEW NOVEL BY GERTRUDE L. WARREN.
+
+ THE MYSTERY OF HAZELGROVE. By GERTRUDE L. WARREN. Crown 8vo, cloth,
+   6_s._                                                    [_Just out._
+
+NEW NOVEL BY ALICE MAUD MEADOWS.
+
+ WHEN THE HEART IS YOUNG. By the Author of "The Romance of a Madhouse,"
+   etc. Crown 8vo, cloth. 6_s._                       [_Fourth Edition._
+
+A NEW AUSTRALIAN NOVEL.
+
+ RECOGNITION. A Mystery of the Coming Colony. By SYDNEY H. WRIGHT.
+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._                                   [_Shortly._
+
+A NEW SPORTING STORY.
+
+ WITH THE BANKSHIRE HOUNDS. By M. F. H. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+                                                            [_Just out._
+
+ SOME PASSAGES IN PLANTAGENET PAUL'S LIFE. By HIMSELF. Crown 8vo,
+   cloth, 6_s._                                             [_Just out._
+
+ DRIFTING. By MARSTON MOORE. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._        [_Just out._
+
+ CONEYCREEK. By M. LAWSON. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._          [_Just out._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_IN THREE VOLUMES_, Price 31s. 6d.
+
+BY DORA RUSSELL.
+
+ A HIDDEN CHAIN. By the Author of "Footprints in the Snow," "The Other
+   Bond," etc., etc. In Three Volumes, crown 8vo, cloth, 31_s._ 6_d._
+                                                      [_Second Edition._
+
+BY JEAN MIDDLEMASS.
+
+ THE MYSTERY OF CLEMENT DUNRAVEN. By the Author of "A Girl in a
+   Thousand," etc. In Three Volumes, crown 8vo, cloth, 31_s._ 6_d._
+                                                      [_Second Edition._
+
+BY PERCY ROSS.
+
+ THE ECCENTRICS. By the Author of "A Comedy without Laughter," "A
+   Misguidit Lassie," "A Professor of Alchemy," etc. In Three Volumes,
+   crown 8vo, cloth, 31_s._ 6_d._
+
+BY GILBERTA M. F. LYON.
+
+ ABSENT YET PRESENT. By the Author of "For Good or Evil." In Three
+   Volumes, crown 8vo, cloth, 31_s._ 6_d._
+
+BY MADELINE CRICHTON.
+
+ LIKE A SISTER. In Three Volumes, crown 8vo, cloth, 31_s._ 6_d._
+                                                      [_Second Edition._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_IN ONE VOLUME_, Price 3s. 6d.
+
+NEW BOOK BY THE AUTHOR OF "A PLUNGE INTO SPACE."
+
+ THE CRACK OF DOOM. By ROBERT CROMIE, Author of "For England's Sake,"
+   etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+   [***] The first Large Edition was exhausted before publication.
+                      SECOND EDITION now ready.
+
+ HER LOVING SLAVE. By HUME NISBET, author of "The Jolly Roger," "Bail
+   Up," etc., etc. In Handsome Pictorial Binding, with Illustrations by
+   the Author. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._           [_Third Edition._
+
+ HIS EGYPTIAN WIFE. By HILTON HILL. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ With
+   Frontispiece.
+
+   [***] Published simultaneously in London and New York.
+
+ A SON OF NOAH. By MARY ANDERSON, author of "Othello's Occupation."
+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._                       [_Fifth Edition._
+
+ THE LAST CRUISE OF THE TEAL. By LEIGH RAY. In handsome pictorial
+   binding. Illustrated throughout. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._
+                                                      [_Second Edition._
+
+    The _NATIONAL OBSERVER_ says:--"It is long since we have lighted on
+    so good a story of adventure."
+
+ HIS TROUBLESOME SISTER. By EVA TRAVERS EVERED POOLE, Author of many
+   Popular Stories. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _BIRMINGHAM POST_ says:--"An interesting and well-constructed
+    story. The characters are strongly drawn, the plot is well devised,
+    and those who commence the book will be sure to finish it."
+
+ THE BOW AND THE SWORD. A Romance. By E. C. ADAMS, M.A. With 16
+   full-page drawings by MATTHEW STRETCH. Crown 8vo, pictorial cloth,
+   3_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _MORNING POST_ says:--"The author reconstructs cleverly the life
+    of one of the most cultivated nations of antiquity, and describes
+    both wars and pageants with picturesque vigour. The illustrations
+    are well executed."
+
+ THE MAID OF HAVODWEN. By JOHN FERRARS. Author of "Claud Brennan."
+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _DUNDEE ADVERTISER_ says:--"A charming story of Welsh life and
+    character.... Deeply interesting.... Of unusual attractiveness."
+
+ PATHS THAT CROSS. By MARK TREHERN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _DAILY TELEGRAPH_ says:--"Cleverly sketched characters. The book
+    is enlivened throughout with innumerable light touches of quaint and
+    spontaneous humour."
+
+ A TALE OF TWO CURATES. By Rev. JAMES COPNER, M.A. Crown 8vo, cloth,
+   3_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _DUNDEE ADVERTISER_ says:--"Simply but graphically narrated."
+
+ THE WRONG OF FATE. By LILLIAS LOBENHOFFER, Author of "Bairnie," etc.
+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _LONDON STAR_ says:--"A well-written and clever novel, excellent
+    studies of Scotch character."
+
+    The _SCOTSMAN_ says:--"Shows considerable power."
+
+ STUDIES IN MINIATURE. By A TITULAR VICAR. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._
+   6_d._
+
+    The _MANCHESTER COURIER_ says:--"Brightly and cleverly written."
+
+    The _BELFAST NEWS LETTER_ says:--"Very readable, characters
+    admirably drawn."
+
+ SPUNYARN. By N. J. PRESTON. Crown 8vo, pictorial cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._
+                                                            [_Just out._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_IN ONE VOLUME_, Price 2s. 6d.
+
+ LOST! £100 REWARD. By MIRIAM YOUNG, Author of "The Girl Musician."
+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _WEEKLY SUN_ says:--"The interest is well sustained throughout,
+    and the incidents are most graphically described."
+
+ CLENCHED ANTAGONISMS. By LEWIS IRAM. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _SATURDAY REVIEW_ says:--"'Clenched Antagonisms' is a powerful
+    and ghastly narrative of the triumph of force over virtue. The book
+    gives a striking illustration of the barbarous incongruities that
+    still exist in the midst of an advanced civilisation."
+
+ FOR MARJORY'S SAKE: A Story of South Australian Country Life. By Mrs
+   JOHN WATERHOUSE. In handsome cloth binding, with Illustrations.
+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 2_s._ 6_d._
+
+    _The LITERARY WORLD_ says:--"A delightful little volume, fresh and
+    dainty, and with the pure, free air of Australian country parts
+    blowing through it ... gracefully told ... the writing is graceful
+    and easy."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_IN ONE VOLUME, PAPER COVER_, Price 1s.
+
+ A STOCK EXCHANGE ROMANCE. By BRACEBRIDGE HEMYNG, Author of "The
+   Stockbroker's Wife," "Called to the Bar," etc., etc. Edited by
+   GEORGE GREGORY. Crown 8vo, picture cover, 1_s._ (TENTH THOUSAND.)
+
+ OUR DISCORDANT LIFE. By ADAM D'HÉRISTAL. Crown 8vo, picture cover,
+   1_s._
+
+ A POLICE SERGEANT'S SECRET. By KILSYTH STELLIER, Author of "Taken by
+   Force." Crown 8vo, picture cover, 1_s._ (FIFTH THOUSAND.)
+
+ IRISH STEW. By JAMES J. MORAN, Author of "A Deformed Idol," "The
+   Dunferry Risin'," "Runs in the Blood," etc. Crown 8vo, lithographed
+   cover, price 1_s._
+
+    The _WEEKLY SUN_ says:--"MR MORAN is the 'Barrie' of Ireland.... In
+    a remote district in the west of Ireland he has created an Irish
+    Thrums."
+
+ LA LECSINSKA. A Powerful and Clever Novel. By HARRIET BUCKLEY. Crown
+   8vo, paper cover, 1_s._                                  [_Just out._
+
+ THAT OTHER FELLOW. An Original and Absorbing Novel. By Mrs LOUISA LE
+   BAILLY. Crown 8vo, paper cover, 1_s._                    [_Just out._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DIGBY'S POPULAR NOVEL SERIES.
+
+ _In Handsome Cloth Binding, Gold Lettered, Cr. 8vo, 320 pp.
+ Price 2s. 6d. each, or in Picture Boards, Price 2s. each._
+
+     BY JEAN MIDDLEMASS.     |     BY DR. A. KENEALY.
+ THE MYSTERY OF CLEMENT      | Dr JANET OF HARLEY STREET. By
+   DUNRAVEN. By the Author   |   the Author of "Molly and
+   of "A Girl in a           |   her Man-o'-War," etc.
+   Thousand," etc. (SECOND   |   (SEVENTH EDITION.) With
+   EDITION.)                 |   Portrait.
+                             |
+      BY DORA RUSSELL.       |       BY HUME NISBET.
+ A HIDDEN CHAIN. By the      | THE JOLLY ROGER. By the
+   Author of "Footprints in  |   Author of "Bail Up," etc.
+   the Snow," etc. (SECOND   |   With Illustrations by the
+   EDITION.)                 |   Author. (FIFTH EDITION.)
+
+    NOTE.--Other Works in the same Series in due course.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MISCELLANEOUS.
+
+ A HISTORY OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY FROM ITS INCEPTION TO THE
+   PRESENT TIME. By G. A. SEKON. Revised by F. G. SAUNDERS, Chairman of
+   the Great Western Railway. Demy 8vo, 390 pages, cloth, 7_s._ 6_d._
+   With numerous Illustrations.
+
+   [***] _Illustrated Prospectus, post free._         [_Second Edition._
+
+    The _TIMES_, April 12th, 1895.--"Mr Sekon's volume is full of
+    interest, and constitutes an important chapter in the history of
+    railway development in England."
+
+    The _STANDARD_ (Leader), April 4th, 1895.--"An excellent addition to
+    the literature of our iron roads."
+
+    The _DAILY TELEGRAPH_, April 13th, 1895.--"Mr G. A. Sekon has
+    performed a service to the public. His book is full of interest, and
+    is evidently the result of a great deal of painstaking inquiry....
+    His book is made all the more valuable by several pictures of
+    engines, collisions, the Saltash Bridge, the Old Bath Station and
+    the Box Tunnel; and it will be welcomed by all interested in the
+    history and extraordinary expansion of our iron roadways."
+
+ THREE EMPRESSES. Josephine, Marie-Louise, Eugénie. By CAROLINE GEARY,
+   Author of "In Other Lands," etc. With portraits. Cr. 8vo, cloth,
+   6_s._ (SECOND EDIT.)
+
+    The _PALL MALL GAZETTE_ says:--"This charming book.... Gracefully
+    and graphically written, the story of each Empress is clearly and
+    fully told.... This delightful book."
+
+ WINTER AND SUMMER EXCURSIONS IN CANADA. By C. L. JOHNSTONE, Author of
+   "Historical Families of Dumfriesshire," etc. With Illustrations.
+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+
+    The _DAILY NEWS_ says:--"Not for a long while have we read a book of
+    its class which deserves so much confidence. Intending settlers
+    would do well to study Mr Johnstone's book."
+
+ THE AUTHOR'S MANUAL. By PERCY RUSSELL. With Prefatory Remarks by Mr
+   GLADSTONE. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ net. (EIGHTH AND CHEAPER
+   EDITION.) With portrait.
+
+    The _WESTMINSTER REVIEW_ says:--"... Mr Russell's book is a very
+    complete manual and guide for journalist and author. It is not a
+    merely practical work--it is literary and appreciative of literature
+    in its best sense; ... we have little else but praise for the
+    volume."
+
+ A GUIDE TO BRITISH AND AMERICAN NOVELS. From the Earliest Period to
+   the end of 1894. By PERCY RUSSELL, Author of "The Author's Manual,"
+   etc. Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 3_s._ 6_d._ net. (SECOND EDITION
+   CAREFULLY REVISED.)
+
+    The _SPECTATOR_ says:--"Mr Russell's familiarity with every form of
+    novel is amazing, and his summaries of plots and comments thereon
+    are as brief and lucid as they are various."
+
+ SIXTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE AS AN IRISH LANDLORD. Memoirs of JOHN
+   HAMILTON, D.L. of St Ernan's, Donegal. Edited, with Introduction, by
+   the Rev. H. C. WHITE, late Chaplain, Paris. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+   With Portrait.
+
+    The _TIMES_ says:--"Much valuable light on the real history of
+    Ireland, and of the Irish agrarian question in the present century
+    is thrown by a very interesting volume entitled 'Sixty Years'
+    Experience as an Irish Landlord.'... This very instructive volume."
+
+ NIGH ON SIXTY YEARS AT SEA. By ROBERT WOOLWARD ("Old Woolward"). Crown
+   8vo, cloth, 6_s._ With Portrait. (SECOND EDITION.)
+
+    The _TIMES_ says:--"Very entertaining reading. Captain Woolward
+    writes sensibly and straightforwardly, and tells his story with the
+    frankness of an old salt. He has a keen sense of humour, and his
+    stories are endless and very entertaining."
+
+ WHOSE FAULT? The Story of a Trial at _Nisi Prius_. By ELLIS J. DAVIS,
+   Barrister-at-Law. In handsome pictorial binding. Crown 8vo, cloth,
+   3_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _TIMES_ says:--"An ingenious attempt to convey to the lay mind
+    an accurate and complete idea of the origin and progress and all the
+    essential circumstances of an ordinary action at law. The idea is
+    certainly a good one, and is executed in very entertaining
+    fashion.... Mr Davis's instructive little book."
+
+ BORODIN AND LISZT. I.--Life and Works of a Russian Composer.
+   II.--Liszt, as sketched in the Letters of Borodin. By ALFRED HABETS.
+   Translated with a Preface by ROSA NEWMARCH. With Portraits and
+   Fac-similes.                                             [_Just out._
+
+ FRAGMENTS FROM VICTOR HUGO'S LEGENDS AND LYRICS. By CECILIA ELIZABETH
+   MEETKERKE. Crown 8vo, cloth, 7_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _WORLD_ says:--"The most admirable rendering of French poetry
+    into English that has come to our knowledge since Father Prout's
+    translation of 'La Chant du Cosaque.'"
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF "SONG FAVOURS."
+
+ MINUTIÆ. By CHARLES WILLIAM DALMON. Royal 16mo, cloth elegant, price
+   2_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _ACADEMY_ says:--"His song has a rare and sweet note. The little
+    book has colour and fragrance, and is none the less welcome because
+    the fragrance is delicate, evanescent; the colours of white and
+    silver grey and lavender, rather than brilliant and exuberant.... Mr
+    Dalmon's genuine artistry. In his sonnets he shows a deft touch,
+    particularly in the fine one, 'Ecce Ancilla Domini.' Yet, after all,
+    it is in the lyrics that he is most individual.... Let him take
+    heart, for surely the song that he has to sing is worth singing."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[***] _A complete Catalogue of Novels, Travels, Biographies, Poems,
+etc., with a critical or descriptive notice of each, free by post on
+application._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ LONDON: DIGBY, LONG & CO., PUBLISHERS,
+ _18 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, E.C._
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+    Inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised. [***] has been used
+    to represent an inverted asterism.
+
+    Based on the text in the Preface and the concluding lines of the
+    last chapter, the date in the sentence:
+
+        "If we fail to act before the 31st December, in the year 2000,
+        he will proceed." (p. 151)
+
+    has been amended to the year 1900, bearing in mind the story takes
+    place towards the end of the 19th century.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crack of Doom, by Robert Cromie
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRACK OF DOOM ***
+
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+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Crack of Doom, by Robert Cromie
+    </title>
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crack of Doom, by Robert Cromie
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Crack of Doom
+
+Author: Robert Cromie
+
+Release Date: September 8, 2008 [EBook #26563]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRACK OF DOOM ***
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+
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+
+
+<h1><big>THE CRACK OF DOOM</big></h1>
+
+<h2><span class="ft0">BY</span><br />
+ROBERT CROMIE</h2>
+<p class="p2"><i>Author of "A Plunge into Space," etc.</i></p>
+
+<p class="p2"><i>SECOND EDITION</i></p>
+
+<p class="p3">LONDON<br />
+<big>DIGBY, LONG &amp; CO.</big><br />
+<small>18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.</small><br />
+<small>1895</small></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> rough notes from which this narrative has
+been constructed were given to me by the man
+who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have
+altered the names of the principals, and I hereby
+pass on the assurance which I have received, that
+the originals of such as are left alive can be found
+if their discovery be thought desirable. This
+alteration of names, the piecing together of somewhat
+disconnected and sometimes nearly indecipherable
+memoranda, and the reduction of the
+mass to consecutive form, are all that has been
+required of me or would have been permitted to
+me. The expedition to Labrador mentioned by
+the narrator has not returned, nor has it ever been
+definitely traced. He does not undertake to prove
+that it ever set out. But he avers that all which is
+hereafter set down is truly told, and he leaves it
+to mankind to accept the warning which it has
+fallen to him to convey, or await the proof of its
+sincerity which he believes the end of the century
+will produce.</p>
+
+<p class="p4">ROBERT CROMIE.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Belfast</span>, <i>May, 1895</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td class="td2"><small>CHAP.</small></td><td class="td2" colspan="2"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">I.</td><td class="td1">THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">II.</td><td class="td1">A STRANGE EXPERIMENT</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">III.</td><td class="td1">"IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE"</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">IV.</td><td class="td1">GEORGE DELANY&mdash;DECEASED</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">V.</td><td class="td1">THE MURDER CLUB</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">VI.</td><td class="td1">A TELEPATHIC TELEGRAM</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">VII.</td><td class="td1">GUILTY!</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">VIII.</td><td class="td1">THE WOKING MYSTERY</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">IX.</td><td class="td1">CUI BONO?</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">X.</td><td class="td1">FORCE&mdash;A REMEDY</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XI.</td><td class="td1">MORITURI TE SALUTANT</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XII.</td><td class="td1">"NO DEATH&mdash;SAVE IN LIFE"</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XIII.</td><td class="td1">MISS METFORD'S PLAN</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XIV.</td><td class="td1">ROCKINGHAM TO THE SHARKS</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XV.</td><td class="td1">"IF NOT TOO LATE"</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XVI.</td><td class="td1">&pound;5000 TO DETAIN THE SHIP</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XVII.</td><td class="td1">"THIS EARTH SHALL DIE"</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XVIII.</td><td class="td1">THE FLIGHT</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XIX.</td><td class="td1">THE CATASTROPHE</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">XX.</td><td class="td1">CONCLUSION</td><td class="td2"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+<h1>THE CRACK OF DOOM</h1>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<small>THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!</small></h2>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">The</span> Universe is a mistake!"</p>
+
+<p>Thus spake Herbert Brande, a passenger on the
+<i>Majestic</i>, making for Queenstown Harbour, one
+evening early in the past year. Foolish as the
+words may seem, they were partly influential in
+leading to my terrible association with him, and all
+that is described in this book.</p>
+
+<p>Brande was standing beside me on the starboard
+side of the vessel. We had been discussing
+a current astronomical essay, as we watched
+the hazy blue line of the Irish coast rise on the
+horizon. This conversation was interrupted by
+Brande, who said, impatiently:</p>
+
+<p>"Why tell us of stars distant so far from this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+insignificant little world of ours&mdash;so insignificant
+that even its own inhabitants speak disrespectfully
+of it&mdash;that it would take hundreds of years
+to telegraph to some of them, thousands to others,
+and millions to the rest? Why limit oneself to
+a mere million of years for a dramatic illustration,
+when there is a star in space distant so far
+from us that if a telegram left the earth for it
+this very night, and maintained for ever its initial
+velocity, it would never reach that star?"</p>
+
+<p>He said this without any apparent effort after
+rhetorical effect; but the suddenness with which he
+had presented a very obvious truism in a fresh
+light to me made the conception of the vastness
+of space absolutely oppressive. In the hope of
+changing the subject I replied:</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing is gained by dwelling on these scientific
+speculations. The mind is only bewildered.
+The Universe is inexplicable."</p>
+
+<p>"The Universe!" he exclaimed. "That is easily
+explained. The Universe is a mistake!"</p>
+
+<p>"The greatest mistake of the century, I suppose,"
+I added, somewhat annoyed, for I thought
+Brande was laughing at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Say, of Time, and I agree with you," he
+replied, careless of my astonishment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I did not answer him for some moments.</p>
+
+<p>This man Brande was young in years, but
+middle-aged in the expression of his pale, intellectual
+face, and old&mdash;if age be synonymous with
+knowledge&mdash;in his ideas. His knowledge, indeed,
+was so exhaustive that the scientific pleasantries
+to which he was prone could always be justified,
+dialectically at least, by him when he was
+contradicted. Those who knew him well did not
+argue with him. I was always stumbling into
+intellectual pitfalls, for I had only known him
+since the steamer left New York.</p>
+
+<p>As to myself, there is little to be told. My
+history prior to my acquaintance with Brande
+was commonplace. I was merely an active,
+athletic Englishman, Arthur Marcel by name. I
+had studied medicine, and was a doctor in all but
+the degree. This certificate had been dispensed
+with owing to an unexpected legacy, on receipt
+of which I determined to devote it to the furtherance
+of my own amusement. In the pursuit
+of this object, I had visited many lands and had
+become familiar with most of the beaten tracks
+of travel. I was returning to England after an
+absence of three years spent in aimless roaming.
+My age was thirty-one years, and my salient<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+characteristic at the time was to hold fast by
+anything that interested me, until my humour
+changed. Brande's conversational vagaries had
+amused me on the voyage. His extraordinary
+comment on the Universe decided me to cement
+our shipboard acquaintance before reaching port.</p>
+
+<p>"That explanation of yours," I said, lighting
+a fresh cigar, and returning to a subject which
+I had so recently tried to shelve, "isn't it
+rather vague?"</p>
+
+<p>"For the present it must serve," he answered
+absently.</p>
+
+<p>To force him into admitting that his phrase
+was only a thoughtless exclamation, or induce him
+to defend it, I said:</p>
+
+<p>"It does not serve any reasonable purpose. It
+adds nothing to knowledge. As it stands, it is
+neither academic nor practical."</p>
+
+<p>Brande looked at me earnestly for a moment,
+and then said gravely:</p>
+
+<p>"The academic value of the explanation will
+be shown to you if you will join a society I have
+founded; and its practicalness will soon be made
+plain whether you join or not."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you call this club of yours?" I
+asked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We do not call it a club. We call it a Society&mdash;the
+<i>Cui Bono</i> Society," he answered coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"I like the name," I returned. "It is
+suggestive. It may mean anything&mdash;or nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"You will learn later that the Society means
+something; a good deal, in fact."</p>
+
+<p>This was said in the dry, unemotional tone
+which I afterwards found was the only sign of
+displeasure Brande ever permitted himself to show.
+His arrangements for going on shore at Queenstown
+had been made early in the day, but he left
+me to look for his sister, of whom I had seen
+very little on the voyage. The weather had been
+rough, and as she was not a good sailor, I had
+only had a rare glimpse of a very dark and handsome
+girl, whose society possessed for me a
+strange attraction, although we were then almost
+strangers. Indeed, I regretted keenly, as the
+time of our separation approached, having registered
+my luggage (consisting largely of curios
+and mementoes of my travels, of which I was
+very careful) for Liverpool. My own time was
+valueless, and it would have been more agreeable
+to me to continue the journey with the Brandes,
+no matter where they went.</p>
+
+<p>There was a choppy sea on when we reached<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+the entrance to the harbour, so the <i>Majestic</i>
+steamed in between the Carlisle and Camden forts,
+and on to the man-of-war roads, where the tender
+met us. By this time, Brande and his sister were
+ready to go on shore; but as there was a heavy
+mail to be transhipped, we had still an hour at
+our disposal. For some time we paced the deck,
+exchanging commonplaces on the voyage and
+confidences as to our future plans. It was almost
+dark, but not dark enough to prevent us from
+seeing those wonderfully green hills which landlock
+the harbour. To me the verdant woods and
+hills were delightful after the brown plains and
+interminable prairies on which I had spent many
+months. As the lights of Queenstown began to
+speck the slowly gathering gloom, Miss Brande
+asked me to point out Rostellan Castle. It could
+not be seen from the vessel, but the familiar
+legend was easily recalled, and this led us to talk
+about Irish tradition with its weird romance and
+never failing pathos. This interested her. Freed
+now from the lassitude of sea-sickness, the girl
+became more fascinating to me every moment.
+Everything she said was worth listening to, apart
+from the charming manner in which it was said.</p>
+
+<p>To declare that she was an extremely pretty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+girl would not convey the strange, almost unearthly,
+beauty of her face&mdash;as intellectual as
+her brother's&mdash;and of the charm of her slight but
+exquisitely moulded figure. In her dark eyes
+there was a sympathy, a compassion, that was
+new to me. It thrilled me with an emotion
+different from anything that my frankly happy,
+but hitherto wholly selfish life had known. There
+was only one note in her conversation which jarred
+upon me. She was apt to drift into the extraordinary
+views of life and death which were
+interesting when formulated by her eccentric
+brother, but pained me coming from her lips.
+In spite of this, the purpose I had contemplated
+of joining Brande's Society&mdash;evoked as it had
+been by his own whimsical observation&mdash;now took
+definite form. I would join that Society. It
+would be the best way of keeping near to Natalie
+Brande.</p>
+
+<p>Her brother returned to us to say that the
+tender was about to leave the ship. He had left
+us for half an hour. I did not notice his absence
+until he himself announced it. As we shook
+hands, I said to him:</p>
+
+<p>"I have been thinking about that Society of
+yours. I mean to join it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad," he replied. "You will find
+it a new sensation, quite outside the beaten track,
+which you know so well."</p>
+
+<p>There was a shade of half-kindly contempt
+in his voice, which missed me at the moment.
+I answered gaily, knowing that he would not
+be offended by what was said in jest:</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I shall. If all the members are
+as mad as yourself, it will be the most interesting
+experience outside Bedlam that any
+man could wish for."</p>
+
+<p>I had a foretaste of that interest soon.</p>
+
+<p>As Miss Brande was walking to the gangway,
+a lamp shone full upon her gypsy face.
+The blue-black hair, the dark eyes, and a deep
+red rose she wore in her bonnet, seemed to me
+an exquisite arrangement of harmonious colour.
+And the thought flashed into my mind very
+vividly, however trivial it may seem here, when
+written down in cold words: "The queen of
+women, and the queen of flowers." That is not
+precisely how my thought ran, but I cannot
+describe it better. The finer subtleties of the
+brain do not bear well the daylight of
+language.</p>
+
+<p>Brande drew her back and whispered to her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+Then the sweet face, now slightly flushed, was
+turned to me again.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you for that pretty thought," she
+said with a pleasant smile. "You are too
+flattering. The 'queen of flowers' is very true,
+but the 'queen of women!' Oh, no!" She made
+a graceful gesture of dissent, and passed down
+the gangway.</p>
+
+<p>As the tender disappeared into the darkness,
+a tiny scrap of lace waved, and I knew
+vaguely that she was thinking of me. But how
+she read my thought so exactly I could not tell.</p>
+
+<p>That knowledge it has been my fate to gain.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<small>A STRANGE EXPERIMENT.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Soon</span> after my arrival in London, I called on
+Brande, at the address he had given me in Brook
+Street. He received me with the pleasant
+affability which a man of the world easily
+assumes, and his apology for being unable to
+pass the evening with me in his own house was
+a model of social style. The difficulty in the
+way was practically an impossibility. His
+Society had a meeting on that evening, and it
+was imperative that he should be present.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not come yourself?" he said. "It is
+what we might call a guest night. That is,
+visitors, if friends of members, are admitted,
+and as this privilege may not be again accorded
+to outsiders, you ought to come before you decide
+finally to join us. I must go now, but Natalie"
+(he did not say "Miss Brande") "will entertain
+you and bring you to the hall. It is very near&mdash;in
+Hanover Square."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I shall be very glad indeed to bring Miss
+Brande to the hall," I answered, changing the
+sentence in order to correct Brande's too patronising
+phrase.</p>
+
+<p>"The same thing in different words, is it
+not? If you prefer it that way, please have
+it so." His imperturbability was unaffected.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Brande here entered the room. Her brother,
+with a word of renewed apology, left us, and
+presently I saw him cross the street and hail
+a passing hansom.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not blame him for running off,"
+Miss Brande said. "He has much to think of,
+and the Society depends almost wholly on himself."</p>
+
+<p>I stammered out that I did not blame him
+at all, and indeed my disclaimer was absolutely
+true. Brande could not have pleased me better
+than he had done by relieving us of his company.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Brande made tea, which I pretended to
+enjoy in the hope of pleasing her. Over this
+we talked more like old and well proven friends
+than mere acquaintances of ten days' standing.
+Just once or twice the mysterious chord which
+marred the girl's charming conversation was
+touched. She immediately changed the subject<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+on observing my distress. I say distress, for a
+weaker word would not fittingly describe the
+emotion I felt whenever she blundered into the
+pseudo-scientific nonsense which was her brother's
+favourite affectation. At least, it seemed nonsense
+to me. I could not well foresee then that
+the theses which appeared to be mere theoretical
+absurdities, would ever be proven&mdash;as they
+have been&mdash;very terrible realities. On subjects
+of ordinary educational interest my hostess displayed
+such full knowledge of the question
+and ease in dealing with it, that I listened, fascinated,
+as long as she chose to continue speaking.
+It was a novel and delightful experience to hear
+a girl as handsome as a pictorial masterpiece,
+and dressed like a court beauty, discourse with
+the knowledge, and in the language, of the
+oldest philosopher. But this was only one of
+the many surprising combinations in her complex
+personality. My noviciate was still in its first
+stage.</p>
+
+<p>The time to set out for the meeting arrived
+all too soon for my inclination. We decided to
+walk, the evening being fine and not too warm,
+and the distance only a ten minutes' stroll. At
+a street crossing, we met a crowd unusually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+large for that neighbourhood. Miss Brande
+again surprised me. She was watching the
+crowd seething and swarming past. Her dark
+eyes followed the people with a strange wondering,
+pitying look which I did not understand.
+Her face, exquisite in its expression at all times,
+was now absolutely transformed, beatified.
+Brande had often spoken to me of mesmerism,
+clairvoyance, and similar subjects, and it occurred
+to me that he had used his sister as a medium,
+a clairvoyante. Her brain was not, therefore,
+under normal control. I determined instantly
+to tell him on the first opportunity that if he
+did not wish to see the girl permanently injured,
+he would have to curtail his hypnotic
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather a stirring sight," I said so sharply
+to Miss Brande that she started. I meant to
+startle her, but did not succeed as far as I
+wished.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a very terrible sight," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there is no danger," I said hastily, and
+drew her hand over my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Danger! I was not thinking of danger."</p>
+
+<p>As she did not remove her hand, I did not
+infringe the silence which followed this, until<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+a break in the traffic allowed us to cross the
+street. Then I said:</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask what you were thinking of just
+now, Miss Brande?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of the people&mdash;their lives&mdash;their work&mdash;their
+misery!"</p>
+
+<p>"I assure you many are very happy," I replied.
+"You take a morbid view. Misery is
+not the rule. I am sure the majority are
+happy."</p>
+
+<p>"What difference does that make?" the girl
+said with a sigh. "What is the end of it
+all&mdash;the meaning of it all? Their happiness!
+<i>Cui Bono?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>We walked on in silence, while I turned over
+in my mind what she had said. I could come to
+no conclusion upon it save that my dislike for her
+enigmatic aberrations was becoming more intense
+as my liking for the girl herself increased. To
+change the current of her thoughts and my own,
+I asked her abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"Are you a member of the <i>Cui Bono</i> Society?"</p>
+
+<p>"I! Oh, no. Women are not allowed to
+join&mdash;for the present."</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted to hear it," I said heartily,
+"and I hope the rule will continue in force."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She looked at me in surprise. "Why should
+you mind? You are joining yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"That is different. I don't approve of ladies
+mixing themselves up in these curious and perhaps
+questionable societies."</p>
+
+<p>My remark amused her. Her eyes sparkled
+with simple fun. The change in her manner was
+very agreeable to me.</p>
+
+<p>"I might have expected that." To my extreme
+satisfaction she now looked almost mischievous.
+"Herbert told me you were a little&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A little what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, a little&mdash;you won't be vexed? That
+is right. He said a little&mdash;medi&aelig;val."</p>
+
+<p>This abated my appreciation of her sense of
+humour, and I maintained a dignified reticence,
+which unhappily she regarded as mere sullenness,
+until we reached the Society's room.</p>
+
+<p>The place was well filled, and the company,
+in spite of the extravagantly modern costumes
+of the younger women, which I cannot describe
+better than by saying that there was little difference
+in it from that of ordinary male attire,
+was quite conventional in so far as the interchange
+of ordinary courtesies went. When, however,
+any member of the Society mingled with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+a group of visitors, the conversation was soon
+turned into a new channel. Secrets of science,
+which I had been accustomed to look upon as
+undiscoverable, were bandied about like the
+merest commonplaces of education. The absurdity
+of individuality and the subjectivity of
+the emotions were alike insisted on without
+notice of the paradox, which to me appeared extreme.
+The Associates were altruistic for the
+sake of altruism, not for the sake of its beneficiaries.
+They were not pantheists, for they
+saw neither universal good nor God, but rather
+evil in all things&mdash;themselves included. Their
+talk, however, was brilliant, and, with allowance
+for its jarring sentiments, it possessed something
+of the indefinable charm which followed Brande.
+My reflections on this identity of interest were
+interrupted by the man himself. After a word
+of welcome he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Let me show you our great experiment; that
+which touches the high-water mark of scientific
+achievement in the history of humanity. It is
+not much in itself, but it is the pioneer of many
+marvels."</p>
+
+<p>He brought me to a metal stand, on which a
+small instrument constructed of some white metal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+was placed. A large number of wires were connected
+with various portions of it, and these
+wires passed into the side-wall of the building.</p>
+
+<p>In appearance, this marvel of micrology, so
+far as the eye-piece and upper portions went,
+was like an ordinary microscope, but its magnifying
+power was to me unbelievable. It magnified
+the object under examination many thousand
+times more than the most powerful microscope
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>I looked through the upper lens, and saw a
+small globe suspended in the middle of a tiny
+chamber filled with soft blue light, or transparent
+material. Circling round this globe four other
+spheres revolved in orbits, some almost circular,
+some elliptical, some parabolic. As I looked,
+Brande touched a key, and the little globules
+began to fly more rapidly round their primary,
+and make wider sweeps in their revolutions.
+Another key was pressed, and the revolving
+spheres slowed down and drew closer until I
+could scarcely distinguish any movement. The
+globules seemed to form a solid ball.</p>
+
+<p>"Attend now!" Brande exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>He tapped the first key sharply. A little grey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+cloud obscured the blue light. When it cleared
+away, the revolving globes had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of it?" he asked carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it? What does it mean? Is it the
+solar system or some other system illustrated
+in miniature? I am sorry for the misadventure."</p>
+
+<p>"You are partly correct," Brande replied. "It
+is an illustration of a planetary system, though a
+small one. But there was no misadventure. I
+caused the somewhat dangerous result you witnessed,
+the wreckage not merely of the molecule
+of marsh gas you were examining&mdash;which any
+educated chemist might do as easily as I&mdash;but
+the wreckage of its constituent atoms. This is
+a scientific victory which dwarfs the work of
+Helmholtz, Avogadro, or Mendelejeff. The immortal
+Dalton himself" (the word "immortal" was
+spoken with a sneer) "might rise from his grave
+to witness it."</p>
+
+<p>"Atoms&mdash;molecules! What are you talking
+about?" I asked, bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>"You were looking on at the death of a molecule&mdash;a
+molecule of marsh gas, as I have already
+said. It was caused by a process which I would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+describe to you if I could reduce my own life
+work&mdash;and that of every scientific amateur who
+has preceded me since the world began&mdash;into
+half a dozen sentences. As that would be difficult,
+I must ask you to accept my personal assurance
+that you witnessed a fact, not a fiction of my
+imagination."</p>
+
+<p>"And your instrument is so perfect that it not
+only renders molecules and atoms but their diffusion
+visible? It is a microscopic impossibility.
+At least it is amazing."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw!" Brande exclaimed impatiently. "My
+instrument does certainly magnify to a marvellous
+extent, but not by the old device of the simple
+microscope, which merely focussed a large area
+of light rays into a small one. So crude a process
+could never show an atom to the human eye.
+I add much to that. I restore to the rays themselves
+the luminosity which they lost in their
+passage through our atmosphere. I give them
+back all their visual properties, and turn them
+with their full etheric blaze on the object under
+examination. Great as that achievement is, I
+deny that it is amazing. It may amaze a Papuan
+to see his eyelash magnified to the size of a wire,
+or an uneducated Englishman to see a cheese-mite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+magnified to the size of a midge. It should
+not amaze you to see a simple process a little
+further developed."</p>
+
+<p>"Where does the danger you spoke of come
+in?" I asked with a pretence of interest. Candidly,
+I did not believe a single word that Brande
+had said.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will consult a common text-book on the
+physics of the ether," he replied, "you will find
+that one grain of matter contains sufficient energy,
+if etherised, to raise a hundred thousand tons
+nearly two miles. In face of such potentiality
+it is not wise to wreck incautiously even the
+atoms of a molecule."</p>
+
+<p>"And the limits to this description of scientific
+experiment? Where are they?"</p>
+
+<p>"There are no limits," Brande said decisively.
+"No man can say to science 'thus far and no
+farther.' No man ever has been able to do so.
+No man ever shall!"</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<small>"IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE."</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Amongst</span> the letters lying on my breakfast-table a
+few days after the meeting was one addressed in
+an unfamiliar hand. The writing was bold, and
+formed like a man's. There was a faint trace of a
+perfume about the envelope which I remembered.
+I opened it first.</p>
+
+<p>It was, as I expected, from Miss Brande. Her
+brother had gone to their country place on the
+southern coast. She and her friend, Edith Metford,
+were going that day. Their luggage was already
+at the station. Would I send on what I required
+for a short visit, and meet them at eleven o'clock
+on the bridge over the Serpentine? It was
+enough for me. I packed a large portmanteau
+hastily, sent it to Charing Cross, and spent the
+time at my disposal in the park, which was close
+to my hotel.</p>
+
+<p>Although the invitation I had received gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+me pleasure, I could not altogether remove from
+my mind a vague sense of disquietude concerning
+Herbert Brande and his Society. The
+advanced opinions I had heard, if extreme, were
+not altogether alarming. But the mysterious
+way in which Brande himself had spoken
+about the Society, and the still more mysterious
+air which some of the members assumed
+when directly questioned as to its object, suggested
+much. Might it not be a revolutionary
+party engaged in a grave intrigue&mdash;a
+branch of some foreign body whose purpose
+was so dangerous that ordinary disguises were
+not considered sufficiently secure? Might they
+not have adopted the jargon and pretended to
+the opinions of scientific faddists as a cloak for
+designs more sinister and sincere? The experiment
+I witnessed might be almost a miracle or
+merely a trick. Thinking it over thus, I could
+come to no final opinion, and when I asked myself
+aloud, "What are you afraid of?" I could not
+answer my own question. But I thought I would
+defer joining the Society pending further information.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes before eleven, I walked towards
+the bridge over the Serpentine. No ladies appeared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+to be on it. There were only a couple
+of smartly dressed youths there, one smoking a
+cigarette. I sauntered about until one of the
+lads, the one who was not smoking, looked up
+and beckoned to me. I approached leisurely, for
+it struck me that the boy would have shown
+better breeding if he had come toward me, considering
+my seniority.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry I did not notice you sooner. Why
+did you not come on when you saw us?" the
+smallest and slimmest youth called to me.</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of&mdash;Miss&mdash;Miss&mdash;" I stammered.</p>
+
+<p>"Brande; you haven't forgotten my name, I
+hope," Natalie Brande said coolly. "This is my
+friend, Edith Metford. Metford, this is Arthur
+Marcel."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do, Marcel? I am glad to meet
+you; I have heard 'favourable mention' of you
+from the Brandes," the second figure in knickerbockers
+said pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you do, sir&mdash;madam&mdash;I mean&mdash;Miss&mdash;" I
+blundered, and then in despair I asked
+Miss Brande, "Is this a tableau vivant? What
+is the meaning of these disguises?" My embarrassment
+was so great that my discourteous
+question may be pardoned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Our dress! Surely you have seen women
+rationally dressed before!" Miss Brande answered
+complacently, while the other girl watched my
+astonishment with evident amusement.</p>
+
+<p>This second girl, Edith Metford, was a frank,
+handsome young woman, but unlike the spirituelle
+beauty of Natalie Brande. She was perceptibly
+taller than her friend, and of fuller
+figure. In consequence, she looked, in my opinion,
+to even less advantage in her eccentric costume, or
+rational dress, than did Miss Brande.</p>
+
+<p>"Rationally dressed! Oh, yes. I know the
+divided skirt, but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Metford interrupted me. "Do you call
+the divided skirt atrocity rational dress?" she
+asked pointedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my honour I do not," I answered.</p>
+
+<p>These girls were too advanced in their
+ideas of dress for me. Nor did I feel
+at all at my ease during this conversation,
+which did not, however, appear to embarrass
+them. I proposed hastily to get a cab, but
+they demurred. It was such a lovely day, they
+preferred to walk, part of the way at least. I
+pointed out that there might be drawbacks to
+this amendment of my proposal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What drawbacks?" Miss Metford asked.</p>
+
+<p>"For instance, isn't it probable we shall all be
+arrested by the police?" I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish! We are not in Russia," both exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"Which is lucky for you," I reflected, as we
+commenced what was to me a most disagreeable
+walk. I got them into a cab sooner than they
+wished. At the railway station I did not offer
+to procure their tickets. To do so, I felt, would
+only give offence. Critical glances followed us
+as we went to our carriage. Londoners are becoming
+accustomed to varieties, if not vagaries, in
+ladies' costumes, but the dress of my friends was
+evidently a little out of the common even for
+them. Miss Metford was just turning the handle
+of a carriage door, when I interposed, saying,
+"This is a smoking compartment."</p>
+
+<p>"So I see. I am going to smoke&mdash;if you
+don't object?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose it would make any difference
+if I did," I said, with unconscious asperity, for
+indeed this excess of free manners was jarring
+upon me. The line dividing it from vulgarity
+was becoming so thin I was losing sight of the
+divisor. Yet no one, even the most fastidious,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+could associate vulgarity with Natalie Brande.
+There remained an air of unassumed sincerity
+about herself and all her actions, including even
+her dress, which absolutely excluded her from
+hostile criticism. I could not, however, extend
+that lenient judgment to Miss Metford. The
+girls spoke and acted&mdash;as they had dressed themselves&mdash;very
+much alike. Only, what seemed
+to me in the one a natural eccentricity, seemed
+in the other an unnatural affectation.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the guard passing, and, calling him over,
+gave him half-a-crown to have the compartment
+labelled, "Engaged."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Brande, who had been looking out of the
+window, absently asked my reason for this precaution.
+I replied that I wanted the compartment
+reserved for ourselves. I certainly did
+not want any staring and otherwise offensive
+fellow-passengers.</p>
+
+<p>"We don't want all the seats," she persisted.</p>
+
+<p>"No," I admitted. "We don't want the extra
+seats. But I thought you might like the
+privacy."</p>
+
+<p>"The desire for privacy is an archaic emotion,"
+Miss Metford remarked sententiously, as she
+struck a match.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Besides, it is so selfish. We may be crowding
+others," Miss Brande said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>I was glad she did not smoke.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want that now," I said to a porter
+who was hurrying up with a label. To the girls
+I remarked a little snappishly, "Of course you
+are quite right. You must excuse my ignorance."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is not ignorance," Miss Brande demurred.
+"You have been away so much. You
+have hardly been in England, you told me, for
+years, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And progress has been marching in my absence,"
+I interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"So it seems," Miss Metford remarked so significantly
+that I really could not help retorting
+with as much emphasis, compatible with politeness,
+as I could command:</p>
+
+<p>"You see I am therefore unable to appreciate
+the New Woman, of whom I have heard so much
+since I came home."</p>
+
+<p>"The conventional New Woman is a grandmotherly
+old fossil," Miss Metford said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>This disposed of me. I leant back in my seat,
+and was rigidly silent.</p>
+
+<p>Miles of green fields stippled with daisies and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+bordered with long lines of white and red hawthorn
+hedges flew past. The smell of new-mown
+hay filled the carriage with its sweet perfume,
+redolent of old associations. My long absence
+dwindled to a short holiday. The world's wide
+highways were far off. I was back in the English
+fields. My slight annoyance passed away. I fell
+into a pleasant day-dream, which was broken by a
+soft voice, every undulation of which I already
+knew by heart.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you think us very advanced," it
+murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"Very," I agreed, "but I look to you to bring
+even me up to date."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, we mean to do that, but we must proceed
+very gradually."</p>
+
+<p>"You have made an excellent start," I put
+in.</p>
+
+<p>"Otherwise you would only be shocked."</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite possible." I said this with so much
+conviction that the two burst out laughing at me.
+I could not think of anything more to add, and I
+felt relieved when, with a warning shriek, the
+train dashed into a tunnel. By the time we had
+emerged again into the sunlight and the solitude
+of the open landscape I had ready an impromptu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+which I had been working at in the darkness. I
+looked straight at Miss Metford and said:</p>
+
+<p>"After all, it is very pleasant to travel with
+girls like you."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you!"</p>
+
+<p>"You did not show any hysterical fear of my
+kissing you in the tunnel."</p>
+
+<p>"Why the deuce would you do that?" Miss
+Metford replied with great composure, as she blew
+a smoke ring.</p>
+
+<p>When we reached our destination I braced myself
+for another disagreeable minute or two. For
+if the great Londoners thought us quaint, surely
+the little country station idlers would swear we
+were demented. We crossed the platform so
+quickly that the wonderment we created soon
+passed. Our luggage was looked after by a
+servant, to whose care I confided it with a very
+brief description. The loss of an item of it did
+not seem to me of as much importance as our own
+immediate departure.</p>
+
+<p>Brande met us at his hall door. His house was
+a pleasant one, covered with flowering creeping
+plants, and surrounded by miniature forests. In
+front there was a lake four hundred yards in
+width. Close-shaven lawns bordered it. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+were artificial products, no doubt, but they were
+artificial successes&mdash;undulating, earth-scented, fresh
+rolled every morning. Here there was an isolated
+shrub, there a thick bank of rhododendrons. And
+the buds, bursting into floral carnival, promised
+fine contrasts when their full splendour was come.
+The lake wavelets tinkled musically on a pebbly
+beach.</p>
+
+<p>Our host could not entertain us in person. He
+was busy. The plea was evidently sincere, notwithstanding
+that the business of a country
+gentleman&mdash;which he now seemed to be&mdash;is something
+less exacting than busy people's leisure.
+After a short rest, and an admirably-served
+lunch, we were dismissed to the woods for our
+better amusement.</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter followed for me a strangely peaceful,
+idyllic day&mdash;all save its ending. Looking back
+on it, I know that the sun which set that evening
+went down on the last of my happiness. But it
+all seems trivial now.</p>
+
+<p>My companions were accomplished botanists,
+and here, for the first time, I found myself on
+common ground with both. We discussed every
+familiar wild flower as eagerly as if we had been
+professed field naturalists. In walking or climbing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+my assistance was neither requisitioned nor required.
+I did not offer, therefore, what must
+have been unwelcome when it was superfluous.</p>
+
+<p>We rested at last under the shade of a big
+beech, for the afternoon sun was rather oppressive.
+It was a pleasant spot to while away an
+hour. A purling brook went babbling by, singing
+to itself as it journeyed to the sea. Insects droned
+about in busy flight. There was a perfume of
+honeysuckle wafted to us on the summer wind,
+which stirred the beech-tree and rustled its young
+leaves lazily, so that the sunlight peeped through
+the green lattice-work and shone on the faces of
+these two handsome girls, stretched in graceful
+postures on the cool sward below&mdash;their white
+teeth sparkling in its brilliance, while their soft
+laughter made music for me. In the fulness of
+my heart, I said aloud:</p>
+
+<p>"It is a good thing to be alive."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<small>GEORGE DELANY&mdash;DECEASED.</small></h2>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">It</span> is a good thing to be alive," Natalie Brande
+repeated slowly, gazing, as it were, far off through
+her half-closed eyelids. Then turning to me
+and looking at me full, wide-eyed, she asked:
+"A good thing for how many?"</p>
+
+<p>"For all; for everything that is alive."</p>
+
+<p>"Faugh! For few things that are alive. For
+hardly anything. You say it is a good thing
+to be alive. How often have you said that in
+your life?"</p>
+
+<p>"All my life through," I answered stoutly.
+My constitution was a good one, and I had lived
+healthily, if hardily. I voiced the superfluous
+vitality of a well nourished body.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do not know what it is to feel
+for others."</p>
+
+<p>There was a scream in the underwood near
+us. It ended in a short, choking squeak. The
+girl paled, but she went on with outward calm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That hawk or cat feels as you do. I wonder
+what that young rabbit thinks of life's problem?"</p>
+
+<p>"But we are neither hawks nor cats, nor even
+young rabbits," I answered warmly. "We can
+not bear the burthens of the whole animal world.
+Our own are sufficient for us."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right. They are more than sufficient."</p>
+
+<p>I had made a false move, and so tried to recover
+my lost ground. She would not permit me.
+The conversation which had run in pleasant
+channels for two happy hours was ended.
+Thenceforth, in spite of my obstructive efforts,
+subjects were introduced which could not be
+conversed on but must be discussed. On every
+one Miss Brande took the part of the weak against
+the strong, oblivious of every consideration of
+policy and even ethics, careful only that she
+championed the weak because of their weakness.
+Miss Metford abetted her in this, and went
+further in their joint revolt against common
+sense. Miss Brande was argumentative, pleading.
+Miss Metford was defiant. Between the two I
+fared ill.</p>
+
+<p>Of course the Woman question was soon introduced,
+and in this I made the best defence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+of time-honoured customs of which I was capable.
+But my outworks fell down as promptly before
+the voices of these young women as did the
+walls of Jericho before the blast of a ram's horn.
+Nothing that I had cherished was left to me.
+Woman no longer wanted man's protection.
+("Enslavement" they called it.) Why should she,
+when in the evolution of society there was not
+now, or presently would not be, anything from
+which to protect her? ("Competing slaveowners"
+was what they said.) When you wish to behold
+protectors you must postulate dangers. The
+first are valueless save as a preventive of the
+second. Both evils will be conveniently dispensed
+with. All this was new to me, most of my
+thinking life having been passed in distant
+lands, where the science of ethics is codified into
+a simple statute&mdash;the will of the strongest.</p>
+
+<p>When my dialectical humiliation was within
+one point of completion, Miss Metford came to
+my rescue. For some time she had looked on at
+my discomfiture with a good-natured neutrality,
+and when I was metaphorically in my last ditch,
+she arose, stretched her shapely figure, flicked
+some clinging grass blades from her suit, and
+declared it was time to return. Brande was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+man of science, but as such he was still amenable
+to punctuality in the matter of dinner.</p>
+
+<p>On the way back I was discreetly silent.
+When we reached the house I went to look for
+Herbert Brande. He was engaged in his study,
+and I could not intrude upon him there. To do
+so would be to infringe the only rigid rule in
+his household. Nor had I an opportunity of
+speaking to him alone until after dinner, when I
+induced him to take a turn with me round the
+lake. I smoked strong cigars, and made one of
+these my excuse.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was setting when we started, and as
+we walked slowly the twilight shadows were
+deepening fast by the time we reached the further
+shore. Brande was in high spirits. Some new
+scientific experiment, I assumed, had come off
+successfully. He was beside himself. His conversation
+was volcanic. Now it rumbled and
+roared with suppressed fires. Anon, it burst forth
+in scintillating flashes and shot out streams of
+quickening wit. I have been his auditor in the
+three great epochs of his life, but I do not think
+that anything that I have recollected of his
+utterances equals the bold impromptus, the masterly
+handling of his favourite subject, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+Universe, which fell from him on that evening.
+I could not answer him. I could not even follow
+him, much less suppress him. But I had come
+forth with a specific object in view, and I would
+not be gainsaid. And so, as my business had
+to be done better that it should be done quickly.
+Taking advantage of a pause which he made,
+literally for breath, I commenced abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>"I want to speak to you about your sister."</p>
+
+<p>He turned on me surprised. Then his look
+changed to one of such complete contempt, and
+withal his bearing suggested so plainly that he
+knew beforehand what I was going to say, that
+I blurted out defiantly, and without stopping to
+choose my words:</p>
+
+<p>"I think it an infernal shame that you, her
+brother, should allow her to masquerade about
+with this good-natured but eccentric Metford girl&mdash;I
+should say Miss Metford."</p>
+
+<p>"Why so?" he asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because it is absurd; and because it isn't
+decent."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Abraham," Brande said quietly, "or
+is your period so recent as that of Isaac or Jacob?
+My sister pleases herself in these matters, and
+has every right to do so."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She has not. You are her brother."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I am her brother. She has no
+right to think for herself; no right to live save
+by my permission. Then I graciously permit her
+to think, and I allow her to live."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be sorry for this nonsense sooner or
+later&mdash;and don't say I didn't warn you." The
+absolute futility of my last clause struck me
+painfully at the moment, but I could not think
+of any way to better it. It was hard to reason
+with such a man, one who denied the fundamental
+principles of family life. I was thinking over
+what to say next, when Brande stopped and put
+his hand, in a kindly way, upon my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"My good fellow," he said, "what does it
+matter? What do the actions of my sister
+signify more than the actions of any other
+man's sister? And what about the Society?
+Have you made up your mind about joining?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have. I made it up twice to-day," I answered.
+"I made it up in the morning that I
+would see yourself and your Society to the
+devil before I would join it. Excuse my bluntness;
+but you are so extremely candid yourself
+you will not mind."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, I do not mind bluntness. Rudeness
+is superfluous."</p>
+
+<p>"And I made it up this evening," I said, a
+little less aggressively, "that I would join it if
+the devil himself were already in it, as I half
+suspect he is."</p>
+
+<p>"I like that," Brande said gravely. "That is
+the spirit I want in the man who joins
+me."</p>
+
+<p>To which I replied: "What under the sun is
+the object of this Society of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Proximately to complete our investigations&mdash;already
+far advanced&mdash;into the origin of the
+Universe."</p>
+
+<p>"And ultimately?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you now. You will not know
+that until you join us."</p>
+
+<p>"And if your ultimate object does not suit
+me, I can withdraw?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, it would then be too late."</p>
+
+<p>"How so? I am not morally bound by an
+oath which I swear without full knowledge of
+its consequences and responsibilities."</p>
+
+<p>"Oath! The oath you swear! You swear no
+oath. Do you fancy you are joining a society
+of Rechabites or Carmelites, or medi&aelig;val rubbish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+of that kind. Don't keep so painstakingly behind
+the age."</p>
+
+<p>I thought for a moment over what this mysterious
+man had said, over the hidden dangers
+in which his mad chimeras might involve the
+most innocent accomplice. Then I thought of
+that dark-eyed, sweet-voiced, young girl, as
+she lay on the green grass under the beech-tree
+in the wood and out-argued me on every
+point. Very suddenly, and, perhaps, in a manner
+somewhat grandiose, I answered him:</p>
+
+<p>"I will join your Society for my own purpose,
+and I will quit it when I choose."</p>
+
+<p>"You have every right," Brande said carelessly.
+"Many have done the same before
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you introduce me to any one who has
+done so?" I asked, with an eagerness that could
+not be dissembled.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I can not."</p>
+
+<p>"Or give me an address?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, that is simple." He turned over a
+note-book until he found a blank page. Then
+he drew the pencil from its loop, put the point
+to his lips, and paused. He was standing with
+his back to the failing light, so I could not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+see the expression of his mobile face. When
+he paused, I knew that no ordinary doubt beset
+him. He stood thus for nearly a minute.
+While he waited, I watched a pair of swans
+flit ghost-like over the silken surface of the
+lake. Between us and a dark bank of wood
+the lights of the house flamed red. The melancholy
+even-song of a blackbird wailed out from
+a shrubbery beside us. Then Herbert Brande
+wrote in his note-book, and tearing out the
+page, he handed it to me, saying: "That is
+the address of the last man who quitted us."</p>
+
+<p>The light was now so dim I had to hold
+the paper close to my eyes in order to read
+the lines. They were these&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="bk1"><span class="smcap">George Delany</span>,<br />
+<span class="sp1">Near Saint Anne's Chapel,</span><br />
+<span class="sp2">Woking Cemetery.</span></div>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<small>THE MURDER CLUB.</small></h2>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Delany</span> was the last man who quitted us&mdash;you
+see I use your expression again. I like it," Brande
+said quietly, watching me as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>I stood staring at the slip of paper which I
+held in my hand for some moments before I could
+reply. When my voice came back, I asked
+hoarsely:</p>
+
+<p>"Did this man, Delany, die suddenly after
+quitting the Society?"</p>
+
+<p>"He died immediately. The second event
+was contemporaneous with the first."</p>
+
+<p>"And in consequence of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Have all the members who retired from your
+list been equally short-lived?"</p>
+
+<p>"Without any exception whatever."</p>
+
+<p>"Then your Society, after all your high-flown
+talk about it, is only a vulgar murder club,"
+I said bitterly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Wrong in fact, and impertinent in its expression.
+It is not a murder club, and&mdash;well,
+you are the first to discover its vulgarity."</p>
+
+<p>"I call things by their plain names. You
+may call your Society what you please. As to
+my joining it in face of what you have told
+me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Which is more than was ever told to any
+man before he joined&mdash;to any man living or
+dead. And more, you need not join it yet unless
+you still wish to do so. I presume what I
+have said will prevent you."</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary, if I had any doubt, or if
+there was any possibility of my wavering before
+this interview, there is none now. I join at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>He would have taken my hand, but that I
+could not permit. I left him without another
+word, or any form of salute, and returned to the
+house. I did not appear again in the domestic
+circle that evening, for I had enough upon my
+mind without further burdening myself with
+social pretences.</p>
+
+<p>I sat in my room and tried once more to
+consider my position. It was this: for the sake
+of a girl whom I had only met some score of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+times; who sometimes acted, talked, dressed after
+a fashion suggestive of insanity; who had glorious
+dark eyes, a perfect figure, and an exquisitely
+beautiful face&mdash;but I interrupt myself. For the
+sake of this girl, and for the manifestly impossible
+purpose of protecting her from herself as
+well as others, I had surrendered myself to the
+probable vengeance of a band of cut-throats
+if I betrayed them, and to the certain vengeance
+of the law if I did not. Brande,
+notwithstanding his constant scepticism, was
+scrupulously truthful. His statement of fact
+must be relied upon. His opinions were another
+matter. As nothing practical resulted
+from my reflections, I came to the conclusion
+that I had got into a pretty mess for the sake
+of a handsome face. I regretted this result,
+but was glad of the cause of it. On this I
+went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning I was early astir, for I must
+see Natalie Brande without delay, and I felt
+sure she would be no sluggard on that splendid
+summer day. I tried the lawn between the
+house and the lake shore. I did not find her
+there. I found her friend Miss Metford. The
+girl was sauntering about, swinging a walking-cane<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+carelessly. She was still rationally dressed,
+but I observed with relief that the rational
+part of her costume was more in the nature of
+the divided skirt than the plain knickerbockers
+of the previous day. She accosted me cheerfully
+by my surname, and not to be outdone by her, I
+said coolly:</p>
+
+<p>"How d'ye do, Metford?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, thanks. I suppose you expected
+Natalie? You see you have only me."</p>
+
+<p>"Delighted," I was commencing with a forced
+smile, when she stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>"You look it. But that can't be helped.
+Natalie saw you going out, and sent me to meet
+you. I am to look after you for an hour or
+so. You join the Society this evening, I hear.
+You must be very pleased&mdash;and flattered."</p>
+
+<p>I could not assent to this, and so remained
+silent. The girl chattered on in her own outspoken
+manner, which, now that I was growing
+accustomed to it, I did not find as unpleasant
+as at first. One thing was evident to me. She
+had no idea of the villainous nature of
+Brande's Society. She could not have spoken
+so carelessly if she shared my knowledge of it.
+While she talked to me, I wondered if it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+fair to her&mdash;a likeable girl, in spite of her undesirable
+affectations of advanced opinion, emancipation
+or whatever she called it&mdash;was it fair
+to allow her to associate with a band of murderers,
+and not so much as whisper a word of warning?
+No doubt, I myself was associating with the
+band; but I was not in ignorance of the responsibility
+thereby incurred.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Metford," I said, without heeding whether
+I interrupted her, "are you in the secret of this
+Society?"</p>
+
+<p>"I? Not at present. I shall be later on."</p>
+
+<p>I stopped and faced her with so serious an
+expression that she listened to me attentively.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will take my earnest advice&mdash;and I beg
+you not to neglect it&mdash;you will have nothing to
+do with it or any one belonging to it."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even Brande&mdash;I mean Natalie? Is she
+dangerous?"</p>
+
+<p>I disregarded her mischief and continued:
+"If you can get Miss Brande away from her
+brother and his acquaintances," (I had nearly
+said accomplices,) "and keep her away, you would
+be doing the best and kindest thing you ever
+did in your life."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Metford was evidently impressed by my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+seriousness, but, as she herself said very truly,
+it was unlikely that she would be able to interfere
+in the way I suggested. Besides, my mysterious
+warning was altogether too vague to be of any
+use as a guide for her own action, much less
+that of her friend. I dared not speak plainer.
+I could only repeat, in the most emphatic words,
+my anxiety that she would think carefully over
+what I had said. I then pretended to recollect
+an engagement with Brande, for I was in such
+low spirits I had really little taste for any company.</p>
+
+<p>She was disappointed, and said so in her usual
+straightforward way. It was not in the power of
+any gloomy prophecy to oppress her long. The
+serious look which my words had brought on
+her face passed quickly, and it was in her natural
+manner that she bade me good-morning, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"It is rather a bore, for I looked forward to
+a pleasant hour or two taking you about."</p>
+
+<p>I postponed my breakfast for want of appetite,
+and, as Brande's house was the best example
+of Liberty Hall I had ever met with, I offered
+no apology for my absence during the entire
+day when I rejoined my host and hostess in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+the evening. The interval I spent in the woods,
+thinking much and deciding nothing.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner, Brande introduced me to a man
+whom he called Edward Grey. Natalie conducted
+me to the room in which they were
+engaged. From the mass of correspondence
+in which this man Grey was absorbed, and the
+litter of papers about him, it was evident that
+he must have been in the house long before I
+made his acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>Grey handed me a book, which I found to
+be a register of the names of the members of
+Brande's Society, and pointed out the place for
+my signature.</p>
+
+<p>When I had written my name on the list I
+said to Brande: "Now that I have nominated
+myself, I suppose you'll second me?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not necessary," he answered; "you are
+already a member. Your remark to Miss Metford
+this morning made you one of us. You advised
+her, you recollect, to beware of us."</p>
+
+<p>"That girl!" I exclaimed, horrified. "Then
+she is one of your spies? Is it possible?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, she is not one of our spies. We have
+none, and she knew nothing of the purpose for
+which she was used."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then I beg to say that you have made a
+d&mdash;d shameful use of her."</p>
+
+<p>In the passion of the moment I forgot my
+manners to my host, and formed the resolution
+to denounce the Society to the police the moment
+I returned to London. Brande was not offended
+by my violence. There was not a trace of anger
+in his voice as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Metford's information was telepathically
+conveyed to my sister."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it was your sister&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My sister knows as little as the other. In
+turn, I received the information telepathically from
+her, without the knowledge of either. I was just
+telling Grey of it when you came into the room."</p>
+
+<p>"And," said Grey, "your intention to go
+straight from this house to Scotland Yard, there
+to denounce us to the police, has been telepathically
+received by myself."</p>
+
+<p>"My God!" I cried, "has a man no longer
+the right to his own thoughts?"</p>
+
+<p>Grey went on without noticing my exclamation:
+"Any overt or covert action on your
+part, toward carrying out your intention, will
+be telepathically conveyed to us, and our executive&mdash;"
+He shrugged his shoulders.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I know," I said, "Woking Cemetery, near
+Saint Anne's Chapel. You have ground there."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, we have to dispense with&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Say murder."</p>
+
+<p>"Dispense with," Grey repeated sharply, "any
+member whose loyalty is questionable. This
+is not our wish; it is our necessity. It is the
+only means by which we can secure the absolute
+immunity of the Society pending the achievement
+of its object. To dispense with any living
+man we have only to will that he shall die."</p>
+
+<p>"And now that I am a member, may I ask
+what is this object, the secret of which you
+guard with such fiendish zeal?" I demanded
+angrily.</p>
+
+<p>"The restoration of a local etheric tumour to
+its original formation."</p>
+
+<p>"I am already weary of this jargon from
+Brande," I interrupted. "What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"We mean to attempt the reduction of the
+solar system to its elemental ether."</p>
+
+<p>"And you will accomplish this triviality by
+means of Huxley's comet, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>I could scarcely control my indignation. This
+fooling, as I thought it, struck me as insulting.
+Neither Brande nor Grey appeared to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+notice my keen resentment. Grey answered me
+in a quiet, serious tone.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall attempt it by destroying the
+earth. We may fail in the complete achievement
+of our design, but in any case we shall
+at least be certain of reducing this planet to
+the ether of which it is composed."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course," I agreed derisively.
+"You will at least make sure of that. You
+have found out how to do it too, I have no
+doubt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Grey, "we have found out."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<small>A TELEPATHIC TELEGRAM.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I left</span> the room and hurried outside without any
+positive plan for my movements. My brain was
+in such a whirl I could form no connected train of
+thought. These men, whose conversation was a
+jargon fitting only for lunatics, had proved that
+they could read my mind with the ease of a
+telegraph operator taking a message off a wire.
+That they, further, possessed marvellous, if not
+miraculous powers, over occult natural forces
+could hardly be doubted. The net in which I
+had voluntarily entangled myself was closing
+around me. An irresistible impulse to fly&mdash;to
+desert Natalie and save myself&mdash;came over me.
+I put this aside presently. It was both unworthy
+and unwise. For whither should I fly? The
+ends of the earth would not be far enough to
+save me, the depths of the sea would not be deep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+enough to hide me from those who killed by
+willing that their victim should die.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, if my senses had only been
+hocussed, and Messrs. Brande and Grey were
+nothing better than clever tricksters, the park
+gate was far enough, and the nearest policeman
+force enough, to save me from their vengeance.
+But the girl&mdash;Natalie! She was clairvoyante.
+They practised upon her. My diagnosis of the
+strange seeing-without-sight expression of her
+eyes was then correct. And it was clear to me
+that whatsoever or whomsoever Brande and Grey
+believed or disbelieved in, they certainly believed
+in themselves. They might be relied on to spare
+nothing and no one in their project, however
+ridiculous or mad their purpose might be. What
+then availed my paltry protection when the girl
+herself was a willing victim, and the men omnipotent?
+Nevertheless, if I failed eventually to
+serve her, I could at least do my best.</p>
+
+<p>It was clear that I must stand by Natalie
+Brande.</p>
+
+<p>While I was thus reflecting, the following conversation
+took place between Brande and Grey.
+I found a note of it in a diary which Brande
+kept desultorily. He wrote this up so irregularly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+no continuous information can be gleaned from it
+as to his life. How the diary came into my hands
+will be seen later. The memorandum is written
+thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Grey</i>&mdash;Our new member? Why did you introduce
+him? You say he cannot help with
+money. It is plain he cannot help with brains.</p>
+
+<p><i>Brande</i>&mdash;He interests Natalie. He is what the
+uneducated call good-natured. He enjoys doing
+unselfish things, unaware that it is for the selfish
+sake of the agreeable sensation thereby secured.
+Besides, I like him myself. He amuses me. To
+make him a member was the only safe way of
+keeping him so much about us. But Natalie is
+the main reason. I am afraid of her wavering in
+spite of my hypnotic influence. In a girl of her
+intensely emotional nature the sentiment of hopeless
+love will create profound melancholy. Dominated
+by that she is safe. It seems cruel at first
+sight. It is not really so. It is not cruel to
+reconcile her to a fate she cannot escape. It is
+merciful. For the rest, what does it matter? It
+will be all the same in&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><i>Grey</i>&mdash;This day six months.</p>
+
+<p><i>Brande</i>&mdash;I believe I shivered. Heredity has
+much to answer for.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That is the whole of the entry. I did not read
+the words until the hand that wrote them was
+dust.</p>
+
+<p>Natalie professed some disappointment when I
+announced my immediate return to town. I
+was obliged to manufacture an excuse for such
+a hasty departure, and so fell back on an old
+engagement which I had truly overlooked, and
+which really called me away. But it would
+have called long enough without an answer if
+it had not been for Brande himself, his friend
+Grey, and their insanities. My mind was fixed
+on one salient issue: how to get Natalie Brande
+out of her brother's evil influence. This would
+be better compassed when I myself was outside
+the scope of his extraordinary influence. And so
+I went without delay.</p>
+
+<p>For some time after my return to London, I
+went about visiting old haunts and friends. I
+soon tired of this. The haunts had lost their
+interest. The friends were changed, or I was
+changed. I could not resume the friendships
+which had been interrupted. The chain of connection
+had been broken and the links would
+not weld easily. So, after some futile efforts to
+return to the circle I had long deserted, I desisted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+and accepted my exclusion with serenity. I am
+not sure that I desired the old relationships re-established.
+And as my long absence had prevented
+any fresh shoots of friendship being grafted,
+I found myself alone in London. I need say no
+more.</p>
+
+<p>One evening I was walking through the streets
+in a despondent mood, as had become my habit.
+By chance I read the name of a street into which
+I had turned to avoid a more crowded thoroughfare.
+It was that in which Miss Metford lived. I
+knew that she had returned to town, for she
+had briefly acquainted me with the fact on a postcard
+written some days previously.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a chance of distraction. This girl's
+spontaneous gaiety, which I found at first displeasing,
+was what I wanted to help me to shake
+off the gloomy incubus of thought oppressing me.
+It was hardly within the proprieties to call upon
+her at such an hour, but it could not matter very
+much, when the girl's own ideas were so unconventional.
+She had independent means, and lived
+apart from her family in order to be rid of
+domestic limitations. She had told me that she
+carried a latch-key&mdash;indeed she had shown it to
+me with a flourish of triumph&mdash;and that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+delighted in free manners. Free manners, she
+was careful to add, did not mean bad manners.
+To my mind the terms were synonymous. When
+opposite her number I decided to call, and, having
+knocked at the door, was told that Miss Metford
+was at home.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo, Marcel! Glad to see you," she called
+out, somewhat stridently for my taste. Her
+dress was rather mannish, as usual. In lieu of
+her out-door tunic she wore a smoking-jacket.
+When I entered she was sitting in an arm-chair,
+with her feet on a music-stool. She arose so
+hastily that the music-stool was overturned, and
+allowed to lie where it fell.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" she asked, concerned.
+"Have you seen a ghost?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think I have seen many ghosts of late," I said,
+"and they have not been good company. I was
+passing your door, and I have come in for comfort."</p>
+
+<p>She crossed the room and poured out some
+whisky from a decanter which was standing on a
+side-board. Then she opened a bottle of soda-water
+with a facility which suggested practice. I
+was relieved to think that it was not Natalie who
+was my hostess. Handing me the glass, she said
+peremptorily:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Drink that. That is right. Give me the glass.
+Now smoke. Do I allow smoking here? Pah!
+I smoke here myself."</p>
+
+<p>I lit a cigar and sat down beside her. The
+clouds began to lift from my brain and float off
+in the blue smoke wreaths. We talked on ordinary
+topics without my once noticing how deftly they
+had been introduced by Miss Metford. I never
+thought of the flight of time until a chime from
+a tiny clock on the mantelpiece&mdash;an exquisite
+sample of the tasteful furniture of the whole room&mdash;warned
+me that my visit had lasted two hours.
+I arose reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>She rallied me on my ingratitude. I had come
+in a sorry plight. I was now restored. She was
+no longer useful, therefore I left her. And so on,
+till I said with a solemnity no doubt lugubrious:</p>
+
+<p>"I am most grateful, Miss Metford. I cannot
+tell you how grateful I am. You would not
+understand&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please leave my poor understanding alone,
+and tell me what has happened to you. I should
+like to hear it. And what is more, I like you."
+She said this so carelessly, I did not feel embarrassed.
+"Now, then, the whole story, please."
+Saying which, she sat down again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Do you really know nothing more of Brande's
+Society than you admitted when I last spoke to
+you about it?" I asked, without taking the chair
+she pushed over to me.</p>
+
+<p>"This is all I know," she answered, in the
+rhyming voice of a young pupil declaiming a piece
+of a little understood and less cared for recitation.
+"The society has very interesting evenings.
+Brande shows one beautiful experiments, which,
+I daresay, would be amazingly instructive if one
+were inclined that way, which I am not. The
+men are mostly long-haired creatures with spectacles.
+Some of them are rather good-looking.
+All are wholly mad. And my friend&mdash;I mean the
+only girl I could ever stand as a friend&mdash;Natalie
+Brande, is crazy about them."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing more than that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing more."</p>
+
+<p>The clock now struck the hour of nine, the
+warning chime for which had startled me.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything more than that?" Miss
+Metford asked with some impatience.</p>
+
+<p>I thought for a moment. Unless my own senses
+had deceived me that evening in Brande's house,
+I ran a great risk of sharing George Delany's fate
+if I remained where I was much longer. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+suppose I told her all I knew, would not that
+bring the same danger upon her too? So I had to
+answer:</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you. I am a member now."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must know more than any mere
+outsider like myself. I suppose it would not be
+fair to ask you. Anyhow, you will come back
+and see me soon. By the way, what is your
+address?"</p>
+
+<p>I gave her my address. She wrote it down on a
+silver-cased tablet, and remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"That will be all right. I'll look you up some
+evening."</p>
+
+<p>As I drove to my hotel, I felt that the mesmeric
+trick, or whatever artifice had been practised upon
+me by Brande and Grey, had now assumed its
+true proportion. I laughed at my fears, and was
+thankful that I had not described them to the
+strong-minded young woman to whose kindly
+society I owed so much. What an idiot she would
+have thought me!</p>
+
+<p>A servant met me in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"Telegram, sir. Just arrived at this moment."</p>
+
+<p>I took the telegram, and went upstairs with it
+unopened in my hand. A strange fear overcame
+me. I dared not open the envelope. I knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+beforehand who the sender was, and what the
+drift of the message would be. I was right. It
+was from Brande.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"I beg you to be more cautious. Your discussion
+with Miss M. this evening might have been
+disastrous. I thought all was over at nine o'clock.</p>
+<p class="p4">"<span class="smcap">Brande</span>."</p></div>
+
+<p>I sat down stupefied. When my senses returned,
+I looked at the table where I had thrown the telegram.
+It was not there, nor in the room. I rang
+for the man who had given it to me, and he came
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p>"About that telegram you gave me just now,
+Phillips&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon, sir," the man interrupted,
+"I did not give you any telegram this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean when you spoke to me in the hall."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I said 'good-night,' but you took no
+notice. Excuse me, sir, I thought you looked
+strange."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I was thinking of something else. And I
+remember now, it was Johnson who gave me the
+telegram."</p>
+
+<p>"Johnson left yesterday, sir."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then it was yesterday I was thinking of. You
+may go, Phillips."</p>
+
+<p>So Brande's telepathic power was objective as
+well as subjective. My own brain, unaccustomed
+to be impressed by another mind "otherwise than
+through the recognised channels of sense," had
+supplied the likeliest authority for its message.
+The message was duly delivered, but the telegram
+was a delusion.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+<small>GUILTY!</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">As</span> to protecting Natalie Brande from her brother
+and the fanatics with whom he associated, it
+was now plain that I was powerless. And what
+guarantee had I that she herself was unaware
+of his nefarious purpose; that she did not
+sympathise with it? This last thought flashed
+upon me one day, and the sting of pain that
+followed it was so intolerable, I determined instantly
+to prove its falsity or truth.</p>
+
+<p>I telegraphed to Brande that I was running
+down to spend a day or two with him, and
+followed my message without waiting for a reply.
+I have still a very distinct recollection of that
+journey, notwithstanding much that might well
+have blotted it from my memory. Every mile
+sped over seemed to mark one more barrier
+passed on my way to some strange fate; every
+moment which brought me nearer this incomprehensible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+girl with her magical eyes was an
+epoch of impossibility against my ever voluntarily
+turning back. And now that it is all over, I
+am glad that I went on steadfastly to the
+end.</p>
+
+<p>Brande received me with the easy affability
+of a man to whom good breeding had ceased to
+be a habit, and had become an instinct. Only
+once did anything pass between us bearing on
+the extraordinary relationship which he had
+established with me&mdash;the relation of victor and
+victim, I considered it. We had been left together
+for a few moments, and I said as soon as
+the others were out of hearing distance:</p>
+
+<p>"I got your message."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you did," he replied. That was all.
+There was an awkward pause. It must be broken
+somehow. Any way out of the difficulty was
+better than to continue in it.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen this?" I asked, handing Brande
+a copy of a novel which I had picked up at a
+railway bookstall. When I say that it was new
+and popular, it will be understood that it was
+indecent.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the title, and said indifferently:
+"Yes, I have seen it, and in order to appreciate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+this class of fiction fairly, I have even tried to
+read it. Why do you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I thought it would be in your line.
+It is very advanced." I said this to gain time.</p>
+
+<p>"Advanced&mdash;advanced? I am afraid I do not
+comprehend. What do you mean by 'advanced'?
+And how could it be in my line. I presume you
+mean by that, on my plane of thought?"</p>
+
+<p>"By 'advanced,' I mean up-to-date. What
+do you mean by it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I used the word at all, I should mean
+educated, evolved. Is this evolved? Is it even
+educated? It is not always grammatical. It has
+no style. In motive, it ante-dates Boccaccio."</p>
+
+<p>"You disapprove of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you approve it, notwithstanding your
+immediate condemnation?"</p>
+
+<p>"By no means. I neither approve nor disapprove.
+It only represents a phase of humanity&mdash;the
+deliberate purpose of securing money
+or notoriety to the individual, regardless of the
+welfare of the community. There is nothing to
+admire in that. It would be invidious to blame
+it when the whole social scheme is equally wrong
+and contemptible. By the way, what interest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+do you think the wares of any literary pander,
+of either sex, could possess for me, a student&mdash;even
+if a mistaken one&mdash;of science?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not think the book would possess the
+slightest interest for you, and I suppose you are
+already aware of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah no! My telepathic power is reserved
+for more serious purposes. Its exercise costs me
+too much to expend it on trifles. In consequence
+I do not know why you mentioned the book."</p>
+
+<p>To this I answered candidly, "I mentioned it
+in order to get myself out of a conversational
+difficulty&mdash;without much success."</p>
+
+<p>Natalie was reserved with me at first. She
+devoted herself unnecessarily to a boy named
+Halley who was staying with them. Grey had
+gone to London. His place was taken by a Mr.
+Rockingham, whom I did not like. There was
+something sinister in his expression, and he rarely
+spoke save to say something cynical, and in consequence
+disagreeable. He had "seen life," that is,
+everything deleterious to and destructive of it.
+His connection with Brande was clearly a rebound,
+the rebound of disgust. There was nothing creditable
+to him in that. My first impression of him
+was thus unfavourable. My last recollection of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+him is a fitting item in the nightmare which
+contains it.</p>
+
+<p>The youth Halley would have interested me
+under ordinary circumstances. His face was as
+handsome and refined as that of a pretty girl.
+His figure, too, was slight and his voice effeminate.
+But there my own advantage, as I deemed it,
+over him ceased. Intellectually, he was a pupil
+of Brande's who did his master credit. Having
+made this discovery I did not pursue it. My mind
+was fixed too fast upon a definite issue to be more
+than temporarily interested in the epigrams of
+a peachy-cheeked man of science.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon was well advanced before I had
+an opportunity of speaking to Natalie. When
+it came, I did not stop to puzzle over a choice
+of phrases.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to speak to you alone on a subject of
+extreme importance to me," I said hurriedly.
+"Will you come with me to the sea-shore? Your
+time, I know, is fully occupied. I would not
+ask this if my happiness did not depend
+upon it."</p>
+
+<p>The philosopher looked on me with grave, kind
+eyes. But the woman's heart within her sent
+the red blood flaming to her cheeks. It was then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+given to me to fathom the lowest depth of boorish
+stupidity I had ever sounded.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mean that," I cried, "I would not
+dare&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The blush on her cheek burnt deeper as she
+tossed her head proudly back, and said straight
+out, without any show of fence or shadow of
+concealment:</p>
+
+<p>"It was my mistake. I am glad to know that
+I did you an injustice. You are my friend, are
+you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I have the right to claim that title,"
+I answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what you ask is granted. Come." She
+put her hand boldly into mine. I grasped the
+slender fingers, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Natalie, some day I will prove to you
+that I am your friend."</p>
+
+<p>"The proof is unnecessary," she replied, in a
+low sad voice.</p>
+
+<p>We started for the sea. Not a word was spoken
+on the way. Nor did our eyes meet. We were
+in a strange position. It was this: the man who
+had vowed he was the woman's friend&mdash;who did
+not intend to shirk the proof of his promise, and
+never did gainsay it&mdash;meant to ask the woman,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+before the day was over, to clear herself of
+knowingly associating with a gang of scientific
+murderers. The woman had vaguely divined his
+purpose, and could not clear herself.</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived at the shore we occupied
+ourselves inconsequently. We hunted little fishes
+until Natalie's dainty boots were dripping. We
+examined quaint denizens of the shallow water
+until her gloves were spoilt. We sprang from
+rock to rock and evaded the onrush of the foaming
+waves. We made aqueducts for inter-communication
+between deep pools. We basked in the
+sunshine, and listened to the deep moan of the
+sounding sea, and the solemn murmur of the
+shells. We drank in the deep breath of the
+ocean, and for a brief space we were like happy
+children.</p>
+
+<p>The end came soon to this ephemeral happiness.
+It was only one of those bright coins snatched
+from the niggard hand of Time which must
+always be paid back with usurious charges. We
+paid with cruel interest.</p>
+
+<p>Standing on a flat rock side by side, I nerved
+myself to ask this girl the same question I had
+asked her friend, Edith Metford, how much she
+knew of the extraordinary and preposterous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+Society&mdash;as I still tried to consider it&mdash;which
+Herbert Brande had founded. She looked so
+frank, so refined, so kind, I hardly dared to put
+my brutal question to an innocent girl, whom I
+had seen wince at the suffering of a maimed
+bird, and pale to the lips at the death-cry of a
+rabbit. This time there was no possibility of
+untoward consequence in the question save to
+myself&mdash;for surely the girl was safe from her own
+brother. And I myself preferred to risk the consequences
+rather than endure longer the thought
+that she belonged voluntarily to a vile murder
+club. Yet the question would not come. A
+simple thing brought it out. Natalie, after looking
+seaward silently for some minutes, said
+simply:</p>
+
+<p>"How long are we to stand here, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Until you answer this question. How much
+do you know about your brother's Society, which
+I have joined to my own intense regret?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry you regret having joined," she
+replied gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"You would not be sorry," said I, "if you knew
+as much about it as I do," forgetting that I had
+still no answer to my question, and that the
+extent of her knowledge was unknown to me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I believe I do know as much as you." There
+was a tremor in her voice and an anxious pleading
+look in her eyes. This look maddened me.
+Why should she plead to me unless she was guilty?
+I stamped my foot upon the rock without noticing
+that in so doing I kicked our whole collection
+of shells into the water.</p>
+
+<p>There was something more to ask, but I stood
+silent and sullen. The woods above the beach
+were choral with bird-voices. They were hateful
+to me. The sea song of the tumbling waves was
+hideous. I cursed the yellow sunset light glaring
+on their snowy crests. A tiny hand was laid
+upon my arm. I writhed under its deadly if
+delicious touch. But I could not put it away, nor
+keep from turning to the sweet face beside me,
+to mark once more its mute appeal&mdash;now more
+than mere appeal; it was supplication that was in
+her eyes. Her red lips were parted as though
+they voiced an unspoken prayer. At last a prayer
+did pass from them to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Do not judge me until you know me better.
+Do not hate me without cause. I am not wicked,
+as you think. I&mdash;I&mdash;I am trying to do what I
+think is right. At least, I am not selfish or cruel.
+Trust me yet a little while."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I looked at her one moment, and then with a
+sob I clasped her in my arms, and cried aloud:</p>
+
+<p>"My God! to name murder and that angel face
+in one breath! Child, you have been befooled.
+You know nothing."</p>
+
+<p>For a second she lingered in my embrace. Then
+she gently put away my arms, and looking up at
+me, said fearlessly but sorrowfully:</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot lie&mdash;even for your love. I know <i>all</i>."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
+<small>THE WOKING MYSTERY.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">She</span> knew all. Then she was a murderess&mdash;or in
+sympathy with murderers. My arms fell from
+her. I drew back shuddering. I dared not look
+in her lying eyes, which cried pity when her base
+heart knew no mercy. Surely now I had solved
+the maddening puzzle which the character of this
+girl had, so far, presented to me. Yet the true
+solution was as far from me as ever. Indeed, I
+could not well have been further from it than at
+that moment.</p>
+
+<p>As we walked back, Natalie made two or three
+unsuccessful attempts to lure me out of the silence
+which was certainly more eloquent on my part
+than any words I could have used. Once she
+commenced:</p>
+
+<p>"It is hard to explain&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I interrupted her harshly. "No explanation is
+possible."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On that she put her handkerchief to her eyes,
+and a half-suppressed sob shook her slight figure.
+Her grief distracted me. But what could I say to
+assuage it?</p>
+
+<p>At the hall door I stopped and said, "Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not coming in?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a directness and emphasis in the
+question which did not escape me.</p>
+
+<p>"I?" The horror in my own voice surprised
+myself, and assuredly did not pass without her
+notice.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well; good-bye. We are not exactly
+slaves of convention here, but you are too far
+advanced in that direction even for me. This is
+your second startling departure from us. I trust
+you will spare me the humiliation entailed by the
+condescension of your further acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"Give me an hour!" I exclaimed aghast. "You
+do not make allowance for the enigma in which
+everything is wrapped up. I said I was your
+friend when I thought you of good report. Give
+me an hour&mdash;only an hour&mdash;to say whether I will
+stand by my promise, now that you yourself have
+claimed that your report is not good but evil. For
+that is really what you have protested. Do I ask<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+too much? or is your generosity more limited even
+than my own?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, no! I would not have you think that.
+Take an hour, or a year&mdash;an hour only if you
+care for my happiness."</p>
+
+<p>"Agreed," said I. "I will take the hour. Discretion
+can have the year."</p>
+
+<p>So I left her. I could not go indoors. A roof
+would smother me. Give me the open lawns, the
+leafy woods, the breath of the summer wind.
+Away, then, to the silence of the coming night.
+For an hour leave me to my thoughts. Her unworthiness
+was now more than suspected. It was
+admitted. My misery was complete. But I would
+not part with her; I could not. Innocent or guilty,
+she was mine. I must suffer with her or for her.
+The resolution by which I have abided was formed
+as I wandered lonely through the woods.</p>
+
+<p>When I reached my room that night I found a
+note from Brande. To receive a letter from a
+man in whose house I was a guest did not surprise
+me. I was past that stage. There was nothing
+mysterious in the letter, save its conclusion. It
+was simply an invitation to a public meeting of
+the Society, which was to be held on that day
+week in the hall in Hanover Square, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+special feature in the letter&mdash;seeing that it did
+not vanish like the telegram, but remained an
+ordinary sheet of paper&mdash;lay in its concluding
+sentence. This urged me to allow nothing to
+prevent my attendance. "You will perhaps understand
+thereafter that we are neither political
+plotters nor lunatics, as you have thought."</p>
+
+<p>Thought! The man's mysterious power was
+becoming wearisome. It was too much for me.
+I wished that I had never seen his face.</p>
+
+<p>As I lay sleepless in my bed, I recommenced
+that interminable introspection which, heretofore,
+had been so barren of result. It was easy to
+swear to myself that I would stand by Natalie
+Brande, that I would never desert her. But how
+should my action be directed in order that by its
+conduct I might prevail upon the girl herself to
+surrender her evil associates? I knew that she
+regarded me with affection. And I knew also that
+she would not leave her brother for my sake. Did
+she sympathise with his nefarious schemes, or
+was she decoyed into them like myself?</p>
+
+<p>Decoyed! That was it!</p>
+
+<p>I sprang from the bed, beside myself with
+delight. Now I had not merely a loophole of
+escape from all these miseries; I had a royal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+highway. Fool, idiot, blind mole that I was,
+not to perceive sooner that easy solution of the
+problem! No wonder that she was wounded by
+my unworthy doubts. And she had tried to explain,
+but I would not listen! I threw myself
+back and commenced to weave all manner of pleasant
+fancies round the salvation of this girl from
+her brother's baneful influence, and the annihilation
+of his Society, despite its occult powers, by
+mine own valour. The reaction was too great.
+Instead of constructing marvellous counterplots, I
+fell sound asleep.</p>
+
+<p>Next day I found Natalie in a pleasant morning-room
+to which I was directed. She wore her
+most extreme&mdash;and, in consequence, most exasperating&mdash;rational
+costume. When I entered the
+room she pushed a chair towards me, in a way
+that suggested Miss Metford's worst manner, and
+lit a cigarette, for the express purpose, I felt, of
+annoying me.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come," I said somewhat shamefacedly,
+"to explain."</p>
+
+<p>"And apologise?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, to apologise. I made a hideous mistake.
+I have suffered for it as much as you
+could wish."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Wish you to suffer!" She flung away her
+cigarette. Her dark eyes opened wide in unassumed
+surprise. And that curious light of
+pity, which I had so often wondered at, came into
+them. "I am very sorry if you have suffered,"
+she said, with convincing earnestness.</p>
+
+<p>"How could I doubt you? Senseless fool that
+I was to suppose for one moment that you approved
+of what you could not choose but know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At this her face clouded.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you are still in error. What
+opinion have you formed which alters your estimate
+of me?"</p>
+
+<p>"The only opinion possible: that you have
+unwillingly learned the secret of your brother's
+Society; but, like myself&mdash;you see no way to&mdash;to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"To what purpose?"</p>
+
+<p>"To destroy it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not likely to attempt that."</p>
+
+<p>"No, it would be impossible, and the effort
+would cost your life."</p>
+
+<p>"That is not my reason." She arose and stood
+facing me. "I do not like to lose your esteem.
+You know already that I will not lie to retain it.
+I approve of the Society's purpose."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And its actions?"</p>
+
+<p>"They are inevitable. Therefore I approve
+also of its actions. I shall not ask you to remain
+now, for I see that you are again horrified; as is
+natural, considering your knowledge&mdash;or, pardon
+me for saying so, your want of knowledge. I
+shall be glad to see you after the lecture to
+which you are invited. You will know a little
+more then; not all, perhaps, but enough to
+shake your time-dishonoured theories of life&mdash;and
+death."</p>
+
+<p>I bowed, and left the room without a word.
+It was true, then, that she was mad like the
+others, or worse than mad&mdash;a thousand times
+worse! I said farewell to Brande, as his guest,
+for the last time. Thenceforward I would meet
+him as his enemy&mdash;his secret enemy as far as I
+could preserve my secrecy with such a man; his
+open enemy when the proper time should come.</p>
+
+<p>In the railway carriage I turned over some
+letters and papers which I found in my pockets,
+not with deliberate intention, but to while away
+the time. One scrap startled me. It was the
+sheet on which Brande had written the Woking
+address, and on reading it over once more, a
+thought occurred to me which I acted on as soon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+as possible. I could go to Woking and find out
+something about the man Delany. So long as
+my inquiries were kept within the limits of
+the strictest discretion, neither Brande nor
+any of his executive could blame me for seeking
+convincing evidence of the secret power
+they claimed.</p>
+
+<p>On my arrival in London, I drove immediately
+to the London Necropolis Company's station and
+caught the funeral train which runs to Brookwood
+cemetery. With Saint Anne's Chapel as
+my base, I made short excursions hither and
+thither, and stood before a tombstone erected
+to the memory of George Delany, late of the
+Criminal Investigation Department, Scotland
+Yard. This was a clue which I could follow,
+so I hurried back to town and called on the
+superintendent of the department.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, I was told, Delany had belonged to the
+department. He had been a very successful
+officer in ferreting out foreign Anarchists and
+evil-doers. His last movement was to join a
+Society of harmless cranks who met in Hanover
+Square. No importance was attached to this in
+the department. It could not have been done in
+the way of business, although Delany pretended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+that it was. He had dropped dead in the street
+as he was leaving his cab to enter the office with
+information which must have appeared to him
+important&mdash;to judge from the cabman's evidence
+as to his intense excitement and repeated directions
+for faster driving. There was an inquest
+and a post-mortem, but "death from natural
+causes" was the verdict. That was all. It was
+enough for me.</p>
+
+<p>I had now sufficient evidence, and was finally
+convinced that the Society was as dangerous as
+it was demented.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.<br />
+<small>CUI BONO?</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I arrived at the Society's rooms on the evening
+for which I had an invitation, I found them
+pleasantly lighted. The various scientific diagrams
+and instruments had been removed, and comfortable
+arm-chairs were arranged so that a free
+passage was available, not merely to each row, but
+to each chair. The place was full when I entered,
+and soon afterwards the door was closed and locked.
+Natalie Brande and Edith Metford were seated beside
+each other. An empty chair was on Miss
+Metford's right. She saw me standing at the door
+and nodded toward the empty seat which she had
+reserved for me. When I reached it she made a
+movement as if to forestall me and leave me the
+middle chair. I deprecated this by a look which
+was intentionally so severe that she described it
+later as a malignant scowl.</p>
+
+<p>I could not at the moment seat myself voluntarily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+beside Natalie Brande with the exact and
+final knowledge which I had learnt at Scotland
+Yard only one week old. I could not do it just
+then, although I did not mean to draw back from
+what I had undertaken&mdash;to stand by her, innocent
+or guilty. But I must have time to become accustomed
+to the sensation which followed this
+knowledge. Miss Metford's fugitive attempts at
+conversation pending the commencement of the
+lecture were disagreeable to me.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little stir on the platform. The
+chairman, in a few words, announced Herbert
+Brande. "This is the first public lecture," he said,
+"which has been given since the formation of the
+Society, and in consequence of the fact that a
+number of people not scientifically educated are
+present, the lecturer will avoid the more esoteric
+phases of his subject, which would otherwise present
+themselves in his treatment of it, and confine
+himself to the commonplaces of scientific insight.
+The title of the lecture is identical with that of our
+Society&mdash;<i>Cui Bono?</i>"</p>
+
+<p>Brande came forward unostentatiously and
+placed a roll of paper on the reading-desk. I have
+copied the extracts which follow from this manuscript.
+The whole essay, indeed, remains with me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+intact, but it is too long&mdash;and it would be immaterial&mdash;to
+reproduce it all in this narrative. I
+cannot hope either to reproduce the weird impressiveness
+of the lecturer's personality, his hold over
+his audience, or my own emotions in listening to
+this man&mdash;whom I had proved, not only from his
+own confession, but by the strongest collateral
+evidence, to be a callous and relentless murderer&mdash;to
+hear him glide with sonorous voice and graceful
+gesture from point to point in his logical and
+terrible indictment of suffering!&mdash;the futility of it,
+both in itself and that by which it was administered!
+No one could know Brande without
+finding interest, if not pleasure, in his many chance
+expressions full of curious and mysterious thought.
+I had often listened to his extemporaneous brain
+pictures, as the reader knows, but I had never
+before heard him deliberately formulate a planned-out
+system of thought. And such a system! This
+is the gospel according to Brande.</p>
+
+<p>"In the verbiage of primitive optimism a misleading
+limitation is placed on the significance of
+the word Nature and its inflections. And the misconception
+of the meaning of an important word is
+as certain to lead to an inaccurate concept as is the
+misstatement of a premise to precede a false conclusion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+For instance, in the aphorism, variously
+rendered, 'what is natural is right,' there is an
+excellent illustration of the misapplication of the
+word 'natural.' If the saying means that what is
+natural is just and wise, it might as well run
+'what is natural is wrong,' injustice and unwisdom
+being as natural, <i>i.e.</i>, a part of Nature, as justice
+and wisdom. Morbidity and immorality are as
+natural as health and purity. Not more so, but
+not less so. That 'Nature is made better by no
+mean but Nature makes that mean,' is true enough.
+It is inevitably true. The question remains, in
+making that mean, has she really made anything
+that tends toward the final achievement of
+universal happiness? I say she has not.</p>
+
+<p>"The misuse of a word, it may be argued, could
+not prove a serious obstacle to the growth of
+knowledge, and might be even interesting to the
+student of etymology. But behind the misuse of
+the word 'natural' there is a serious confusion of
+thought which must be clarified before the mass of
+human intelligence can arrive at a just appreciation
+of the verities which surround human existence,
+and explain it. To this end it is necessary
+to get rid of the archaic idea of Nature as a
+paternal, providential, and beneficent protector, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+successor to the 'special providence,' and to know
+the true Nature, bond-slave as she is of her own
+eternal persistence of force; that sole primary
+principle of which all other principles are only
+correlatives; of which the existence of matter is
+but a cognisable evidence.</p>
+
+<p>"The optimist notion, therefore, that Nature is an
+all-wise designer, in whose work order, system,
+wisdom, and beauty are prominent, does not fare
+well when placed under the microscope of scientific
+research.</p>
+
+<p>"Order?</p>
+
+<p>"There is no order in Nature. Her armies are
+but seething mobs of rioters, destroying everything
+they can lay hands on.</p>
+
+<p>"System?</p>
+
+<p>"She has no system, unless it be a <i>reductio ad
+absurdum</i>, which only blunders on the right way
+after fruitlessly trying every other conceivable
+path. She is not wise. She never fills a pail but
+she spills a hogshead. All her works are not
+beautiful. She never makes a masterpiece but she
+smashes a million 'wasters' without a care. The
+theory of evolution&mdash;her gospel&mdash;reeks with
+ruffianism, nature-patented and promoted. The
+whole scheme of the universe, all material existence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+as it is popularly known, is founded upon and
+begotten of a system of everlasting suffering as
+hideous as the fantastic nightmares of religious
+maniacs. The Spanish Inquisitors have been regarded
+as the most unnatural monsters who ever
+disgraced the history of mankind. Yet the atrocities
+of the Inquisitors, like the battlefields of
+Napoleon and other heroes, were not only natural,
+but they have their prototypes in every cubic
+inch of stagnant water, or ounce of diseased tissue.
+And stagnant water is as natural as sterilised
+water; and diseased tissue is as natural as healthy
+tissue. Wholesale murder is Nature's first law.
+She creates only to kill, and applies the rule as
+remorselessly to the units in a star-drift as to the
+tadpoles in a horse-pond.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems a far cry from a star-drift to a horse-pond.
+It is so in distance and magnitude. It is
+not in the matter of constituents. In ultimate
+composition they are identical. The great nebula
+in Andromeda is an aggregation of atoms, and so
+is the river Thames. The only difference between
+them is the difference in the arrangement and
+incidence of these atoms and in the molecular
+motion of which they are the first but not the final
+cause. In a pint of Thames water, we know that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+there is bound up a latent force beside which
+steam and electricity are powerless in comparison.
+To release that force it is only necessary to apply
+the sympathetic key; just as the heated point of
+a needle will explode a mine of gunpowder and lay
+a city in ashes. That force is asleep. The atoms
+which could give it reality are at rest, or, at least,
+in a condition of <i>quasi</i>-rest. But in the stupendous
+mass of incandescent gas which constitutes the
+nebula of Andromeda, every atom is madly seeking
+rest and finding none; whirling in raging haste,
+battling with every other atom in its field of
+motion, impinging upon others and influencing
+them, being impinged upon and influenced by
+them. That awful cauldron exemplifies admirably
+the method of progress stimulated by suffering. It
+is the embryo of a new Sun and his planets.
+After many million years of molecular agony, when
+his season of fission had come, he will rend huge
+fragments from his mass and hurl them helpless
+into space, there to grow into his satellites. In
+their turn they may reproduce themselves in like
+manner before their true planetary life begins, in
+which they shall revolve around their parent as
+solid spheres. Follow them further and learn how
+beneficent Nature deals with them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"After the lapse of time-periods which man
+may calculate in figures, but of which his finite
+mind cannot form even a true symbolic conception,
+the outer skin of the planet cools&mdash;rests.
+Internal troubles prevail for longer periods still;
+and these, in their unsupportable agony, bend
+and burst the solid strata overlying; vomit fire
+through their self-made blow-holes, rear mountains
+from the depths of the sea, then dash them
+in pieces.</p>
+
+<p>"Time strides on austere.</p>
+
+<p>"The globe still cools. Life appears upon it.
+Then begins anew the old strife, but under conditions
+far more dreadful, for though it be founded
+on atomic consciousness, the central consciousness
+of the heterogeneous aggregation of atoms becomes
+immeasurably more sentient and susceptible with
+every step it takes from homogenesis. This
+internecine war must continue while any creature
+great or small shall remain alive upon the world
+that bore it.</p>
+
+<p>"By slow degrees the mighty milestones in the
+protoplasmic march are passed. Plants and animals
+are now busy, murdering and devouring
+each other&mdash;the strong everywhere destroying
+the weak. New types appear. Old types disappear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+Types possessing the greatest capacity
+for murder progress most rapidly, and those
+with the least recede and determine. The neolithic
+man succeeds the pal&aelig;olithic man, and
+sharpens the stone axe. Then to increase their
+power for destruction, men find it better to hunt
+in packs. Communities appear. Soon each community
+discovers that its own advantage is
+furthered by confining its killing, in the main,
+to the members of neighbouring communities.
+Nations early make the same discovery. And at
+last, as with ourselves, there is established a race
+with conscience enough to know that it is vile,
+and intelligence enough to know that it is insignificant.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+But what profits this? In the
+fulness of its time the race shall die. Man will
+go down into the pit, and all his thoughts will
+perish. The uneasy consciousness which, in
+this obscure corner, has for a brief space broken
+the silence of the Universe, will be at rest. Matter
+will know itself no longer. Life and death and
+love, stronger than death, will be as though they
+never had been. Nor will anything that <i>is</i> be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+better or be worse for all that the labour, genius,
+devotion, and suffering of man have striven
+through countless generations to effect.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> From this sentence to the end of the paragraph Brande
+draws freely, for the purpose of his own argument, on Mr.
+Balfour's "Naturalism and Ethics."&mdash;<i>Ed.</i></p></div>
+
+<p>"The roaring loom of Time weaves on. The
+globe cools out. Life mercifully ceases from upon
+its surface. The atmosphere and water disappear.
+It rests. It is dead.</p>
+
+<p>"But for its vicarious service in influencing
+more youthful planets within its reach, that dead
+world might as well be loosed at once from its
+gravitation cable and be turned adrift into space.
+Its time has not yet come. It will not come
+until the great central sun of the system to which
+it belongs has passed laboriously through all
+his stages of stellar life and died out also. Then
+when that dead sun, according to the impact
+theory, blunders across the path of another sun,
+dead and blind like himself, its time will come.
+The result of that impact will be a new star
+nebula, with all its weary history before it; a
+history of suffering, in which a million years
+will not be long enough to write a single page.</p>
+
+<p>"Here we have a scientific parallel to the hell
+of superstition which may account for the instinctive
+origin of the smoking flax and the
+fire which shall never be quenched. We know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+that the atoms of which the human body is built
+up are atoms of matter. It follows that every
+atom in every living body will be present in
+some form at that final impact in which the solar
+system will be ended in a blazing whirlwind which
+will melt the earth with its fervent heat. There
+is not a molecule or cell in any creature alive this
+day which will not in its ultimate constituents
+endure the long agony, lasting countless &aelig;ons of
+centuries, wherein the solid mass of this great
+globe will be represented by a rush of incandescent
+gas, stupendous in itself, but trivial in comparison
+with the hurricane of flame in which it
+will be swallowed up and lost.</p>
+
+<p>"And when from that hell a new star emerges,
+and new planets in their season are born of him,
+and he and they repeat, as they must repeat, the
+ceaseless, changeless, remorseless story of the
+universe, every atom in this earth will take its
+place, and fill again functions identical with those
+which it, or its fellow, fills now. Life will
+reappear, develop, determine, to be renewed again
+as before. And so on for ever.</p>
+
+<p>"Nature has known no rest. From the beginning&mdash;which
+never was&mdash;she has been building
+up only to tear down again. She has been fabricating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+pretty toys and trinkets, that cost her many
+a thousand years to forge, only to break them in
+pieces for her sport. With infinite painstaking
+she has manufactured man only to torture him
+with mean miseries in the embryonic stages of his
+race, and in his higher development to madden
+him with intellectual puzzles. Thus it will be
+unto the end&mdash;which never shall be. For there is
+neither beginning nor end to her unvarying cycles.
+Whether the secular optimist be successful or unsuccessful
+in realising his paltry span of terrestrial
+paradise, whether the p&aelig;ans he sings about it are
+prophetic dithyrambs or misleading myths, no
+Christian man need fear for his own immortality.
+That is well assured. In some form he will surely
+be raised from the dead. In some shape he will
+live again. But, <i>Cui bono</i>?"</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER X.<br />
+<small>FORCE&mdash;A REMEDY.</small></h2>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Get</span> me out of this, I am stifled&mdash;ill," Miss
+Metford said, in a low voice to me.</p>
+
+<p>As we were hurrying from the room, Brande
+and his sister, who had joined him, met us.
+The fire had died out of his eyes. His voice
+had returned to its ordinary key. His demeanour
+was imperturbable, sphinx-like. I murmured some
+words about the eloquence of the lecture, but
+interrupted myself when I observed his complete
+indifference to my remarks, and said,</p>
+
+<p>"Neither praise nor blame seems to affect you,
+Brande."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not," he answered calmly. "You
+forget that there is nothing deserving of either
+praise or blame."</p>
+
+<p>I knew I could not argue with him, so we
+passed on. Outside, I offered to find a cab for
+Miss Metford, and to my surprise she allowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+me to do so. Her self-assertive manner was
+visibly modified. She made no pretence of resenting
+this slight attention, as was usual with
+her in similar cases. Indeed, she asked me to
+accompany her as far as our ways lay together.
+But I felt that my society at the time could
+hardly prove enlivening. I excused myself by
+saying candidly that I wished to be alone.</p>
+
+<p>My own company soon became unendurable.
+In despair I turned into a music hall. The
+contrast between my mental excitement and the
+inanities of the stage was too acute, so this
+resource speedily failed me. Then I betook
+myself to the streets again. Here I remembered
+a letter Brande had put into my hand
+as I left the hall. It was short, and the tone
+was even more peremptory than his usual
+arrogance. It directed me to meet the members
+of the Society at Charing Cross station at two
+o'clock on the following day. No information
+was given, save that we were all going on a
+long journey; that I must set my affairs in
+such order that my absence would not cause
+any trouble, and the letter ended, "Our experiments
+are now complete. Our plans are
+matured. Do not fail to attend."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Fail to attend!" I muttered. "If I am
+not the most abject coward on the earth I
+will attend&mdash;with every available policeman in
+London." The pent-up wrath and impotence
+of many days found voice at last. "Yes,
+Brande," I shouted aloud, "I will attend, and
+you shall be sorry for having invited me."</p>
+
+<p>"But I will not be sorry," said Natalie
+Brande, touching my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"You here!" I exclaimed, in great surprise,
+for it was fully an hour since I left the hall,
+and my movements had been at haphazard
+since then.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have followed you for your own
+sake. Are you really going to draw back now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must go on alone."</p>
+
+<p>"You will not go on alone. You will remain,
+and your friends shall go on without you&mdash;go
+to prison without you, I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor boy," she said softly, to herself. "I
+wonder if I would have thought as I think
+now if I had known him sooner? I suppose
+I should have been as other women, and their
+fools' paradise would have been mine&mdash;for a
+little while."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The absolute hopelessness in her voice pierced
+my heart. I pleaded passionately with her to
+give up her brother and all the maniacs who
+followed him. For the time I forgot utterly
+that the girl, by her own confession, was
+already with them in sympathy as well as in
+deed.</p>
+
+<p>She said to me: "I cannot hold back now.
+And you? You know you are powerless to
+interfere. If you will not come with me, I
+must go alone. But you may remain. I have
+prevailed on Herbert and Grey to permit that."</p>
+
+<p>"Never," I answered. "Where you go, I go."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not really necessary. In the end it will
+make no difference. And remember, you still
+think me guilty."</p>
+
+<p>"Even so, I am going with you&mdash;guilty."</p>
+
+<p>Now this seemed to me a very ordinary speech,
+for who would have held back, thinking her innocent?
+But Natalie stopped suddenly, and, looking
+me in the face, said, almost with a sob:</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur, I sometimes wish I had known you
+sooner. I might have been different." She was
+silent for a moment. Then she said piteously to
+me: "You will not fail me to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I will not fail you to-morrow," I answered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She pressed my hand gratefully, and left me
+without any explanation as to her movements in
+the meantime.</p>
+
+<p>I hurried to my hotel to set my affairs in order
+before joining Brande's expedition. The time was
+short for this. Fortunately there was not much
+to do. By midnight I had my arrangements
+nearly complete. At the time, the greater part of
+my money was lying at call in a London bank.
+This I determined to draw in gold the next day.
+I also had at my banker's some scrip, and I knew
+I could raise money on that. My personal effects
+and the mementos of my travels, which lay about
+my rooms in great confusion, must remain where
+they were. As to the few friends who still remained
+to me, I did not write to them. I could
+not well describe a project of which I knew
+nothing, save that it was being carried out
+by dangerous lunatics, or, at least, by men who
+were dangerous, whether their madness was real
+or assumed. Nor could I think of any reasonable
+excuse for leaving England after so long an
+absence without a personal visit to them. It was
+best, then, to disappear without a word. Having
+finished my dispositions, I changed my coat for a
+dressing-gown and sat down by the window, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+I threw open, for the summer night was warm. I
+sat long, and did not leave my chair until the
+morning sun was shining on my face.</p>
+
+<p>When I got to Charing Cross next day, a group
+of fifty or sixty people were standing apart from
+the general crowd and conversing with animation.
+Almost the whole strength of the Society was
+assembled to see a few of us off, I thought. In
+fact, they were all going. About a dozen women
+were in the party, and they were dressed in the
+most extravagant rational costumes. Edith Metford
+was amongst them. I drew her aside, and
+apologised for not having called to wish her farewell;
+but she stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's all right; I am going too. Don't look
+so frightened."</p>
+
+<p>This was more than I could tolerate. She was
+far too good a girl to be allowed to walk blindfold
+into the pit I had digged for myself with full
+knowledge. I said imperatively:</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Metford, you shall not go. I warned you
+more than once&mdash;and warned you, I firmly believe,
+at the risk of my life&mdash;against these people. You
+have disregarded the advice which it may yet
+cost me dear to have given you."</p>
+
+<p>"To tell you the truth," she said candidly, "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+would not go an inch if it were not for yourself.
+I can't trust you with them. You'd get into mischief.
+I don't mean with Natalie Brande, but the
+others; I don't like them. So I am coming to
+look after you."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I shall speak to Brande."</p>
+
+<p>"That would be useless. I joined the Society
+this morning."</p>
+
+<p>This she said seriously, and without anything
+of the spirit of bravado which was one of her
+faults. That ended our dispute. We exchanged a
+meaning look as our party took their seats. There
+was now, at any rate, one human being in the
+Society to whom I could speak my mind.</p>
+
+<p>We travelled by special train. Our ultimate
+destination was a fishing village on the southern
+coast, near Brande's residence. Here we found a
+steam yacht of about a thousand tons lying in the
+harbour with steam up.</p>
+
+<p>The vessel was a beautiful model. Her lines
+promised great speed, but the comfort of her passengers
+had been no less considered by her builder
+when he gave her so much beam and so high
+a freeboard. The ship's furniture was the finest
+I had ever seen, and I had crossed every great
+ocean in the world. The library, especially, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+more suggestive of a room in the British Museum
+than the batch of books usually carried at sea.
+But I have no mind to enter on a detailed description
+of a beautiful pleasure ship while my
+story waits. I only mention the general condition
+of the vessel in evidence of the fact which
+now struck me for the first time&mdash;Brande must
+have unlimited money. His mode of life in
+London and in the country, notwithstanding his
+pleasant house, was in the simplest style. From
+the moment we entered his special train at
+Charing Cross, he flung money about him with
+wanton recklessness.</p>
+
+<p>As we made our way through the crowd which
+was hanging about the quay, an unpleasant incident
+occurred. Miss Brande, with Halley and
+Rockingham, became separated from Miss Metford
+and myself and went on in front of us. We
+five had formed a sub-section of the main body,
+and were keeping to ourselves when the unavoidable
+separation took place. A slight scream in
+front caused Miss Metford and myself to hurry
+forward. We found the others surrounded by a
+gang of drunken sailors, who had stopped them.
+A red-bearded giant, frenzied with drink, had
+seized Natalie in his arms. His abettor, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+swarthy Italian, had drawn his knife, and menaced
+Halley and Rockingham. The rest of the
+band looked on, and cheered their chiefs. Halley
+was white to the lips; Rockingham was perfectly
+calm, or, perhaps, indifferent. He called for a
+policeman. Neither interfered. I did not blame
+Rockingham; he was a man of the world, so
+nothing manly could be expected of him. But
+Halley's cowardice disgusted me.</p>
+
+<p>I rushed forward and caught the Italian from
+behind, for his knife was dangerous. Seizing
+him by the collar and waist, I swung him twice,
+and then flung him from me with all my strength.
+He spun round two or three times, and then
+collided with a stack of timber. His head struck
+a beam, and he fell in his tracks without a word.
+The red-haired giant instantly released Natalie
+and put up his hands. The man's attitude
+showed that he knew nothing of defence. I
+swept his guard aside, and struck him violently
+on the neck close to the ear. I was a trained
+boxer; but I had never before struck a blow in
+earnest, or in such earnest, and I hardly knew
+my own strength. The man went down with a
+grunt like a pole-axed ox, and lay where he fell.
+To a drunken sailor lad, who seemed anxious to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+be included in this matter, I dealt a stinging
+smack on the face with my open hand that satisfied
+him straightway. The others did not molest
+me. Turning from the crowd, I found Edith
+Metford looking at me with blazing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Superb! Marcel, I am proud of you!" she
+cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Edith, how can you say that?" Natalie
+Brande exclaimed, still trembling. "Such dreadful
+violence! The poor men knew no better."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fiddlesticks! It is well for you that
+Marcel is a man of violence. He's worth a dozen
+sheep like&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Like whom, Miss Metford?" Rockingham
+asked, glaring at her so viciously that I interposed
+with a hasty entreaty that all should
+hurry to the ship. I did not trust the man.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Metford was not so easily suppressed.
+She said leisurely, "I meant to say like you, and
+this over-nervous but otherwise admirable boy.
+If you think 'sheep' derogatory, pray make it
+'goats.'"</p>
+
+<p>I hurried them on board. Brande welcomed
+us at the gangway. The vessel was his own, so
+he was as much at home on the ship as in his
+country house. I had an important letter to write,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+and very little time for the task. It was not
+finished a moment too soon, for the moment the
+last passenger and the last bale of luggage was
+on board, the captain's telegraph rang from the
+bridge, and the <i>Esmeralda</i> steamed out to sea.
+My letter, however, was safe on shore. The land
+was low down upon the horizon before the long
+summer twilight deepened slowly into night.
+Then one by one the shadowy cliffs grew dim,
+dark, and disappeared. We saw no more of
+England until after many days of gradually culminating
+horror. The very night which was our
+first at sea did not pass without a strange adventure,
+which happened, indeed, by an innocent
+oversight.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.<br />
+<small>MORITURI TE SALUTANT.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> had been sitting on deck chairs smoking
+and talking for a couple of hours after the late
+dinner, which was served as soon as the vessel
+was well out to sea, when Brande came on
+deck. He was hailed with enthusiasm. This
+did not move him, or even interest him. I was
+careful not to join in the acclamations produced
+by his presence. He noticed this, and lightly
+called me recalcitrant. I admitted the justice
+of the epithet, and begged him to consider it
+one which would always apply to me with
+equal force. He laughed at this, and contrasted
+my gloomy fears with the excellent arrangements
+which he had made for my comfort. I
+asked him what had become of Grey. I thought
+it strange that this man should be amongst
+the absentees.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Grey! He goes to Labrador."</p>
+
+<p>"To Labrador! What takes him to Labrador?"</p>
+
+<p>"The same purpose which takes us to the
+Arafura Sea," Brande answered, and passed on.</p>
+
+<p>Presently there was a slight stir amongst the
+people, and the word was passed round that
+Brande was about to undertake some interesting
+experiment for the amusement of his guests.
+I hurried aft along with some other men with
+whom I had been talking, and found Miss
+Brande and Miss Metford standing hand in hand.
+Natalie's face was very white, and the only time
+I ever saw real fear upon it was at that
+moment. I thought the incident on the quay
+had unnerved her more than was apparent at
+the time, and that she was still upset by it.
+She beckoned to me, and when I came to her
+she seized my hand. She was trembling so much
+her words were hardly articulate. Miss Metford
+was concerned for her companion's nervousness;
+but otherwise indifferent; while Natalie stood
+holding our hands in hers like a frightened
+child awaiting the firing of a cannon.</p>
+
+<p>"He's going to let off something, a rocket,
+I suppose," Miss Metford said to me. "Natalie
+seems to think he means to sink the ship."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"He does not mean to do so. He might, if
+an accident occurred."</p>
+
+<p>"Is he going to fire a mine?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, he is going to etherize a drop of water."
+Natalie said this so seriously, we had no thought
+of laughter, incongruous as the cause of her
+fears might seem.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Brande addressed us from
+the top of the deckhouse, and explained that,
+in order to illustrate on a large scale the most
+recent discovery in natural science, he was about
+to disintegrate a drop of water, at present encased
+in a hollow glass ball about the size of a pea,
+which he held between his thumb and forefinger.
+An electric light was turned upon him
+so that we could all see the thing quite plainly.
+He explained that there was a division in the
+ball; one portion of it containing the drop of
+water, and the other the agent by which, when
+the dividing wall was eaten through by its
+action, the atoms of the water would be resolved
+into the ultimate ether of which they
+were composed. As the disintegrating agent was
+powerless in salt water, we might all feel assured
+that no great catastrophe would ensue.</p>
+
+<p>Before throwing the glass ball overboard, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+careful search for the lights of ships was made
+from east to west, and north to south.</p>
+
+<p>There was not a light to be seen anywhere.
+Brande threw the ball over the side. We were
+going under easy steam at the time, but the
+moment he left the deckhouse "full speed ahead"
+was rung from the bridge, and the <i>Esmeralda</i>
+showed us her pace. She literally tore through
+the water when the engines were got full on.</p>
+
+<p>Before we had gone a hundred yards a great
+cry arose. A little fleet of French fishing-boats
+with no lights up had been lying very close to
+us on the starboard bow. There they were,
+boatfuls of men, who waved careless adieus to
+us as we dashed past.</p>
+
+<p>Brande was moved for a moment. Then he
+shrugged his shoulders and muttered, "It can't be
+helped now." We all felt that these simple words
+might mean much. To test their full portent I
+went over to him, Natalie still holding my hand
+with trembling fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you do anything for them?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean, go back and sink this ship to keep
+them company?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but warn them to fly."</p>
+
+<p>"It would be useless. In this breeze they could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+not sail a hundred yards in the time allowed, and
+three miles is the nearest point of safety. I could
+not say definitely, as this is the first time I have
+ever tried an experiment so tremendous; but I
+believe that if we even slowed to half speed, it
+would be dangerous, and if we stopped, the
+<i>Esmeralda</i> would go to the bottom to-night, as
+certainly as the sun will rise to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Natalie moaned in anguish on hearing this. I
+said to her sternly:</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you approved of all these actions?"</p>
+
+<p>"This serves no purpose. These men may not
+even have a painless death, and the reality is more
+awful than I thought."</p>
+
+<p>Every face was turned to that point in the darkness
+toward which the foaming wake of the
+<i>Esmeralda</i> stretched back. Not a word more was
+spoken until Brande, who was standing, watch in
+hand, beside the light from the deckhouse, came
+aft and said:</p>
+
+<p>"You will see the explosion in ten seconds."</p>
+
+<p>He could not have spoken more indifferently if
+the catastrophe he had planned was only the firing
+of a penny squib.</p>
+
+<p>Then the sea behind us burst into a flame,
+followed by the sound of an explosion so frightful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+that we were almost stunned by it. A huge mass
+of water, torn up in a solid block, was hurled into
+the air, and there it broke into a hundred roaring
+cataracts. These, in the brilliant search light from
+the ship which was now turned upon them full, fell
+like cataracts of liquid silver into the seething
+cauldron of water that raged below. The instant
+the explosion was over, our engines were reversed,
+and the <i>Esmeralda</i> went full speed astern. The
+waves were still rolling in tumultuous breakers
+when we got back. We might as well have gone
+on.</p>
+
+<p>The French fishing fleet had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>I could not help saying to Brande before we
+turned in:</p>
+
+<p>"You expect us, I suppose, to believe that the
+explosion was really caused by a drop of water?"</p>
+
+<p>"Etherized," he interrupted. "Certainly I do.
+You don't believe it&mdash;on what grounds?"</p>
+
+<p>"That it is unbelievable."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! You deny a fact because you do not
+understand it. Ignorance is not evidence."</p>
+
+<p>"I say it is impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not wish to believe it possible. Wishes
+are not proofs."</p>
+
+<p>Without pursuing the argument, I said to him:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is fortunate that the accident took place at
+sea. There will be no inquests."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I am sorry for the accident. As for the
+men, they might have had a worse fate. It is
+better than living in life-long misery as they do.
+Besides, both they and the fishes that will eat
+them will soon be numbered amongst the things
+that have been."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.<br />
+<small>"NO DEATH&mdash;SAVE IN LIFE."</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">For</span> some days afterwards our voyage was uneventful,
+and the usual shipboard amusements
+were requisitioned to while away the tedious
+hours. The French fishing fleet was never mentioned.
+We got through the Bay with very little
+knocking about, and passed the Rock without
+calling. I was not disappointed, for there was
+slight inducement for going ashore, oppressed as I
+was with the ever-present incubus of dread. At
+intervals this feeling became less acute, but only
+to return, strengthened by its short absences.
+After a time my danger sense became blunted.
+The nervous system became torpid under continuous
+stress, and refused to pass on the sensations
+with sufficient intensity to the brain; or the
+weary brain was asleep at its post and did not
+heed the warnings. I could think no more.</p>
+
+<p>And this reminds me of something which I must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+tell about young Halley. For several days after
+the voyage began, the boy avoided me. I knew
+his reason for doing this. I myself did not blame
+him for his want of physical courage, but I was
+glad that he himself was ashamed of it.</p>
+
+<p>Halley came to me one morning and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to speak to you, Marcel. I <i>must</i>
+speak to you. It is about that miserable episode
+on the evening we left England. I acted like a
+cad. Therefore I must be a cad. I only want to
+tell you that I despise myself as much as you can.
+And that I envy you. I never thought that I
+should envy a man simply because he had no
+nervous system."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is this man without a nervous system of
+whom you speak?" I asked coldly. I was not
+sorry that I had an opportunity of reading him a
+lesson which might be placed opposite the many
+indignities which had been put upon me, in the
+form mainly of shoulder shrugs, brow elevations,
+and the like.</p>
+
+<p>"You, of course. I mean no offence&mdash;you are
+magnificent. I am honest in saying that I admire
+you. I wish I was like you in height, weight,
+muscle&mdash;and absence of nervous system."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You would keep your own brain, I suppose?"
+I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I would keep that."</p>
+
+<p>"And I will keep my own nervous system," I
+replied. "And the difference between mine and
+yours is this: that whereas my own danger sense
+is, or was, as keen as your own, I have my reserve
+of nerve force&mdash;or had it&mdash;which might be relied
+on to tide me over a sudden emergency. This
+reserve you have expended on your brain. There
+are two kinds of cowards; the selfish coward who
+cares for no interest save his own; the unselfish
+coward who cares nothing for himself, but who
+cannot face a danger because he dare not. And
+there are two kinds of brave men; the nerveless
+man you spoke of, who simply faces danger because
+he does not appreciate it, and the man who
+faces danger because, although he fears it he dares
+it. I have no difficulty in placing you in this list."</p>
+
+<p>"You place me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"A coward because you cannot help it. You
+are merely out of harmony with your environment.
+You ought to bring a supply of 'environment'
+about with you, seeing that you cannot
+manufacture it off-hand like myself. I wish to
+be alone. Good-day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Before I go, Marcel, I will say this." There
+were tears in his eyes. "These people do not
+really know you, with all their telepathic power.
+You are not&mdash;not&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not as great a fool as they think. Thank you.
+I mean to prove that to them some day."</p>
+
+<p>With that I turned away from him, although I
+felt that he would have gladly stayed longer with
+me.</p>
+
+<p>While the <i>Esmeralda</i> was sweeping over the
+long swells of the Mediterranean, I heard Brande
+lecture for the second time. It was a fitting
+interlude between his first and third addresses.
+I might classify them thus&mdash;the first, critical;
+the second, constructive; the third, executive.
+His third speech was the last he made in the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>We were assembled in the saloon. It would
+have been pleasanter on the upper deck, owing to
+the heat, but the speaker could not then have
+been easily heard in the noise of the wind and
+waves. I could scarcely believe that it was
+Brande who arose to speak, so changed was his
+expression. The frank scepticism, which had only
+recently degenerated into a cynicism, still tempered
+with a half kindly air of easy superiority, was gone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+In its place there was a look of concentrated and
+relentless purpose which dominated the man himself
+and all who saw him. He began in forcible
+and direct sentences, with only a faintly reminiscent
+eloquence which was part of himself, and
+from which he could not without a conscious
+effort have freed his style. But the whole bearing
+of the man had little trace in it of the dilettante
+academician whom we all remembered.</p>
+
+<p>"When I last addressed this Society," he began,
+"I laboured under a difficulty in arriving at
+ultimate truth which was of my own manufacture.
+I presupposed, as you will remember, the indestructibility
+of the atom, and, in logical consequence
+I was bound to admit the conservation of
+suffering, the eternity of misery. But on that
+evening many of my audience were untaught in
+the rudiments of ultimate thought, and some were
+still sceptical of the <i>bona fides</i> of our purpose, and
+our power to achieve its object. To them, in their
+then ineptitude, what I shall say now would have
+been unintelligible. For in the same way that the
+waves of light or sound exceeding a certain
+maximum can not be transferred to the brain by
+dull eyes and ears, my thought pulsations would
+have escaped those auditors by virtue of their own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+irresponsiveness. To-night I am free from the
+limitation which I then suffered, because there are
+none around me now who have not sufficient
+knowledge to grasp what I shall present.</p>
+
+<p>"You remember that I traced for you the story
+of evolution in its journey from the atom to the
+star. And I showed you that the hypothesis of
+the indestructibility of the atom was simply a
+creed of cruelty writ large. I now proceed on the
+lines of true science to show you how that
+hypothesis is false; that as the atom <i>is</i> destructible&mdash;as
+you have seen by our experiments (the
+last of which resulted in a climax not intended by
+me)&mdash;the whole scheme of what is called creation
+falls to pieces. As the atom was the first etheric
+blunder, so the material Universe is the grand
+etheric mistake.</p>
+
+<p>"In considering the marvellous and miserable
+succession of errors resulting from the meretricious
+atomic remedy adopted by the ether to cure its
+local sores, it must first be said of the ether itself
+that there is too much of it. Space is not sufficient
+for it. Thus, the particles of ether&mdash;those imponderable
+entities which vibrate through a block
+of marble or a disc of hammered steel with only a
+dulled, not an annihilated motion, are by their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+own tumultuous plenty packed closer together
+than they wish. I say wish, for if all material
+consciousness and sentiency be founded on atomic
+consciousness, then in its turn atomic consciousness
+is founded upon, and dependent on, etheric consciousness.
+These particles of ether, therefore,
+when too closely impinged upon by their neighbours,
+resent the impact, and in doing so initiate
+etheric whirlwinds, from whose vast perturbances
+stupendous drifts set out. In their gigantic power
+these avalanches crush the particles which impede
+them, force the resisting medium out of its normal
+stage, destroy the homogeneity of its constituents,
+and mass them into individualistic communities
+whose vibrations play with greater freedom when
+they synchronise. The homogeneous etheric
+tendencies recede and finally determine.</p>
+
+<p>"Behold a miracle! An atom is born!</p>
+
+<p>"By a similar process&mdash;which I may liken to
+that of putting off an evil day which some time
+must be endured&mdash;the atoms group themselves into
+molecules. In their turn the molecules go forth to
+war, capturing or being captured; the vibrations
+of the slaves always being forced to synchronise
+with those of their conquerors. The nucleus of
+the gas of a primal metal is now complete, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+foundation of a solar system&mdash;paltry molecule of
+the Universe as it is&mdash;is laid. Thereafter, the rest
+is easily followed. It is described in your school
+books, and must not occupy me now.</p>
+
+<p>"But one word I will interpolate which may
+serve to explain a curious and interesting human
+belief. You are aware of how, in times past, men
+of absolutely no scientific insight held firmly to
+the idea that an elixir of life and a philosopher's
+stone might be discovered, and that these two
+objects were nearly always pursued contemporaneously.
+That is to my mind an extraordinary
+example of the force of atomic consciousness.
+The idea itself was absolutely correct; but the
+men who followed it had slight knowledge of its
+unity, and none whatever of its proper pursuit.
+They would have worked on their special lines to
+eternity before advancing a single step toward
+their object. And this because they did not know
+what life was, and death was, and what the metals
+ultimately signified which they, blind fools, so
+unsuccessfully tried to transmute. But we know
+more than they. We have climbed no doubt in the
+footholds they have carved, and we have gained
+the summit they only saw in the mirage of hope.
+For we know that there is no life, no death, no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+metals, no matter, no emotions, no thoughts; but
+that all that we call by these names is only the
+ether in various conditions. Life! I could live
+as long as this earth will submit to human existence
+if I had studied that paltry problem.
+Metals! The ship in which you sail was bought
+with gold manufactured in my crucibles.</p>
+
+<p>"The unintelligent&mdash;or I should say the grossly
+ignorant&mdash;have long held over the heads of the
+pioneers of science these two great charges: No
+man has ever yet transmuted a metal; no man has
+ever yet proved the connecting link between
+organic and inorganic life. I say <i>life</i>, for I take
+it that this company admits that a slab of granite
+is as much alive as any man or woman I see
+before me. But I have manufactured gold, and I
+could have manufactured protoplasm if I had
+devoted my life to that object. My studies have
+been almost wholly on the inorganic plane. Hence
+the 'philosopher's stone' came in my way, but
+not the 'elixir of life.' The molecules of protoplasm
+are only a little more complex than the
+molecules of hydrogen or nitrogen or iron or coal.
+You may fuse iron, vaporise water, intermix the
+gases; but the molecules of all change little in
+such metamorphosis. And you may slay twenty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+thousand men at Waterloo or Sedan, or ten
+thousand generations may be numbered with the
+dust, and not an ounce of protoplasm lies dead.
+All molecules are merely arrangements of atoms
+made under different degrees of pressure and of
+different ages. And all atoms are constructed of
+identical constituents&mdash;the ether, as I have said.
+Therefore the ether, which was from the beginning,
+is now, and ever shall be, which is the
+same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, is the origin
+of force, of matter, of life.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>It is alive!</i></p>
+
+<p>"Its starry children are so many that the sands
+of the sea-shore may not be used as a similitude for
+their multitude; and they extend so far that distance
+may not be named in relation to them.
+They are so high above us and so deep below us
+that there is neither height nor depth in them.
+There is neither east nor west in them, nor north
+and south in them. Nor is there beginning
+or end to them. Time drops his scythe and
+stands appalled before that dreadful host. Number
+applies not to its eternal multitudes. Distance
+is lost in boundless space. And from all the stars
+that stud the caverns of the Universe, there swells<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+this awful chorus: Failure! failure and futility!
+And the ether is to blame!</p>
+
+<p>"Heterogeneous suffering is more acute than
+homogeneous, because the agony is intensified by
+being localised; because the comfort of the comfortable
+is purchasable only by the multiplied
+misery of the miserable; because aristocratic
+leisure requires that the poor should be always
+with it. There is, therefore, no gladness without
+its overbalancing sorrow. There is no good without
+intenser evil. There is no death save in life.</p>
+
+<p>"Back, then, from this ill-balanced and unfair
+long-suffering, this insufficient existence. Back
+to Nirvana&mdash;the ether! And I will lead the
+way.</p>
+
+<p>"The agent I will employ has cost me all life to
+discover. It will release the vast stores of etheric
+energy locked up in the huge atomic warehouse
+of this planet. I shall remedy the grand mistake
+only to a degree which it would be preposterous to
+call even microscopic; but when I have done what
+I can, I am blameless for the rest. In due season
+the whole blunder will be cured by the same
+means that I shall use, and all the hideous experiment
+will be over, and everlasting rest or <i>quasi</i>-rest
+will supersede the magnificent failure of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+material existence. This earth, at least, and, I
+am encouraged to hope, the whole solar system,
+will by my instrumentality be restored to the
+ether from which it never should have emerged.
+Once before, in the history of our system, an
+effort similar to mine was made, unhappily without
+success.</p>
+
+<p>"This time we shall not fail!"</p>
+
+<p>A low murmur rose from the audience as the
+lecturer concluded, and a hushed whisper asked:</p>
+
+<p>"Where was that other effort made?"</p>
+
+<p>Brande faced round momentarily, and said
+quietly but distinctly:</p>
+
+<p>"On the planet which was where the Asteroids
+are now."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
+<small>MISS METFORD'S PLAN.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> coaled at Port Said like any ordinary
+steamer. Although I had more than once made
+the Red Sea voyage, I had never before taken
+the slightest interest in the coaling of the vessel
+on which I was a passenger. This time everything
+was different. That which interested me
+before seemed trivial now. And that which
+had before seemed trivial was now absorbing.
+I watched the coaling&mdash;commonplace as the spectacle
+was&mdash;with vivid curiosity. The red lights,
+the sooty demons at work, every bag of coals
+they carried, and all the coal dust clouds they
+created, were fitting episodes in a voyage such
+as ours. We took an enormous quantity of coal
+on board. I remained up most of the night in
+a frame of mind which I thought none might
+envy. I myself would have made light of it
+had I known what was still in store for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+<i>Esmeralda</i> and her company. It was nearly
+morning when I turned in. When I awoke we
+were nearing the Red Sea.</p>
+
+<p>On deck, the conversation of our party was
+always eccentric, but this must be said for it:
+there was sometimes a scintillating brilliance in
+it that almost blinded one to its extreme
+absurdity. The show of high spirits which was
+very general was, in the main, unaffected. For
+the rest it was plainly assumed. But those who
+assumed their parts did so with a histrionic
+power which was all the more surprising when
+it is remembered that the origin of their excellent
+playing was centred in their own fears. I
+preserved a neutral attitude. I did not venture
+on any overt act of insubordination.
+That would have only meant my destruction,
+without any counter-balancing advantage in
+the way of baulking an enterprise in which I
+was a most unwilling participator. And to
+pretend what I did not feel was a task which
+I had neither stomach to undertake nor ability
+to carry out successfully. In consequence I kept
+my own counsel&mdash;and that of Edith Metford.</p>
+
+<p>Brande was the most easily approached maniac
+I had ever met. His affability continued<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+absolutely consistent. I took advantage of this
+to say to him on a convenient opportunity:
+"Why did you bring these people with you?
+They must all be useless, and many of them
+little better than a nuisance!"</p>
+
+<p>"Marcel, you are improving. Have you
+attained the telepathic power? You have read
+my mind." This was said with a pleasant
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"I can not read your mind," I answered; "I
+only diagnose."</p>
+
+<p>"Your diagnosis is correct. I answer you in
+a sentence. They are all sympathetic, and
+human sympathy is necessary to me until my
+purpose is fulfilled."</p>
+
+<p>"You do not look to me for any measure of
+this sympathy, I trust?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not. You are antipathetic."</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>"But necessary, all the same."</p>
+
+<p>"So be it, until the proper time shall come."</p>
+
+<p>"It will never come," Brande said firmly.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see," I replied as firmly as himself.</p>
+
+<p>Next evening as we were steaming down the
+blue waters&mdash;deep blue they always seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+to me&mdash;of the Red Sea, I was sitting on the
+foredeck smoking and trying to think. I did
+not notice how the time passed. What seemed
+to me an hour at most, must have been three
+or four. With the exception of the men of
+the crew who were on duty, I was alone, for
+the heat was intense, and most of our people
+were lying in their cabins prostrated in spite
+of the wind-sails which were spread from every
+port to catch the breeze. My meditations were
+as usual gloomy and despondent. They were
+interrupted by Miss Metford. She joined me
+so noiselessly that I was not aware of her presence
+until she laid her hand on my arm. I started
+at her touch, but she whispered a sharp warning,
+so full of suppressed emotion that I instantly
+recovered a semblance of unconcern.</p>
+
+<p>The girl was very white and nervous. This
+contrast from her usual equanimity was disquieting.
+She clung to me hysterically as she
+gasped:</p>
+
+<p>"Marcel, it is a mercy I have found you alone,
+and that there is one sane man in this shipful
+of lunatics."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you are not altogether right," I
+said, as I placed a seat for her close to mine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+"I can hardly be sane when I am a voluntary
+passenger on board this vessel."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really think they mean what they
+say?" she asked hurriedly, without noticing my
+remark.</p>
+
+<p>"I really think they have discovered the secret
+of extraordinary natural forces, so powerful and
+so terrible that no one can say what they may
+or may not accomplish. And that is the reason
+I begged you not to come on this voyage."</p>
+
+<p>"What was the good of asking me not to
+come without giving me some reason?"</p>
+
+<p>"Had I done so, they might have killed you
+as they have done others before."</p>
+
+<p>"You might have chanced that, seeing that
+it will probably end that way."</p>
+
+<p>"And they would certainly have killed me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>I wondered at the sudden intensity of the girl's
+sharp gasp when I said this, and marvelled too,
+how she, who had always been so mannish, nestled
+close to me and allowed her head to sink down
+on my shoulder. I pitied the strong-willed,
+self-reliant nature which had given way under
+some strain of which I had yet to be told. So
+I stooped and touched her cheek with my lips<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+in a friendly way, at which she looked up to me
+with half-closed eyes, and whispered in a voice
+strangely soft and womanish for her:</p>
+
+<p>"If they must kill us, I wish they would kill
+us now."</p>
+
+<p>I stroked her soft cheek gently, and urged a
+less hopeless view. "Even if the worst come,
+we may as well live as long as we can."</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon to my surprise she, having shot
+one quick glance into my eyes, put my arm away
+and drew her chair apart from mine. Her head
+was turned away from me, but I could not but
+notice that her bosom rose and fell swiftly.
+Presently she faced round again, lit a cigarette,
+put her hands in the pocket of her jacket, and
+her feet on another chair, and said indifferently:</p>
+
+<p>"You are right. Even if the worst must come,
+we may as well live as long as we can."</p>
+
+<p>This sudden change in her manner surprised
+me. I knew I had no art in dealing with women,
+so I let it pass without comment, and looked out
+at the glassy sea.</p>
+
+<p>After some minutes of silence, the girl spoke
+to me again.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know anything of the actual plans
+of these maniacs?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No. I only know their preposterous purpose."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I know how it is to be done. Natalie
+was restless last night&mdash;you know that we share
+the same cabin&mdash;and she raved a bit. I kept her
+in her berth by sheer force, but I allowed her
+to talk."</p>
+
+<p>This was serious. I drew my chair close to
+Miss Metford's and whispered, "For heaven's
+sake, speak low." Then I remembered Brande's
+power, and wrung my hands in helpless impotence.
+"You forget Brande. At this moment he is taking
+down every word we say."</p>
+
+<p>"He's doing nothing of the sort."</p>
+
+<p>"But you forget&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't forget. By accident I put morphia in
+the tonic he takes, and he is now past telepathy
+for some hours at least. He's sound asleep. I
+suppose if I had not done it by accident he
+would have known what I was doing, and so
+have refused the medicine. Anyhow, accident or
+no accident, I have done it."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God!" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"And this precious disintegrating agent! They
+haven't it with them, it seems. To manufacture
+it in sufficient quantity would be impossible in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+any civilised country without fear of detection
+or interruption. Brande has the prescription,
+formula&mdash;what do you call it?&mdash;and if you could
+get the paper and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Throw it overboard!"</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish! They would work it all out
+again."</p>
+
+<p>"What then?" I whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"Steal the paper and&mdash;wouldn't it do to put
+in an extra <i>x</i> or <i>y</i>, or stick a couple of additional
+figures into any suitable vacancy? Don't you
+think they'd go on with the scheme and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And?"</p>
+
+<p>"And make a mess of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Metford," I said, rising from my chair,
+"I mean Metford, I know you like to be addressed
+as a man&mdash;or used to like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I used to," she assented coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am going to take you in my arms and kiss
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm hanged if you are!" she exclaimed, so
+sharply that I was suddenly abashed. My intended
+familiarity and its expression appeared
+grotesque, although a few minutes before she was
+so friendly. But I could not waste precious time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+in studying a girl's caprices, so I asked at
+once:</p>
+
+<p>"How can I get this paper?"</p>
+
+<p>"I said <i>steal</i> it, if you recollect." Her voice
+was now hard, almost harsh. "You can get it
+in Brande's cabin, if you are neither afraid nor
+jealous."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not much afraid, and I will try it. What
+do you mean by jealous?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean, would you, to save Natalie Brande&mdash;for
+they will certainly succeed in blowing themselves
+up, if nobody else&mdash;consent to her marrying
+another man, say that young lunatic Halley,
+who is always dangling after her when you are
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I answered, after some thought. For
+Halley's attentions to Natalie had been so marked,
+the plainly inconsequent mention of him in this
+matter did not strike me. "If that is necessary
+to save her, of course I would consent to it.
+Why do you ask? In my place you would do
+the same."</p>
+
+<p>"No. I'd see the ship and all its precious
+passengers at the bottom of the sea first."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but you are not a man."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Right! and what's more, I'm glad of it."
+Then looking down at the rational part of her
+costume, she added sharply, "I sha'n't wear these
+things again."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
+<small>ROCKINGHAM TO THE SHARKS.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">At</span> one o'clock in the morning I arose, dressed
+hurriedly, drew on a pair of felt slippers, and
+put a revolver in my pocket. It was then time
+to put Edith Metford's proposal to the proof, and
+she would be waiting for me on deck to hear
+whether I had succeeded in it. We had parted
+a couple of hours before on somewhat chilling
+terms. I had agreed to follow her suggestion,
+but I could not trouble my tired brain by guesses
+at the cause of her moods.</p>
+
+<p>It was very dark. There was only enough
+light to enable me to find my way along the
+corridor, off which the state-rooms occupied by
+Brande and his immediate lieutenants opened.
+All the sleepers were restless from the terrible
+heat. As I stole along, a muffled word, a sigh, or
+a movement in the berths, made me pause at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+every step with a beating heart. Having listened
+till all was quiet, I moved on again noiselessly.
+I was almost at the end of the corridor. So intent
+had I been on preserving perfect silence, it
+did not sooner occur to me that I was searching
+for any special door. I had forgotten Brande's
+number!</p>
+
+<p>I could no more think of it than one can recall
+the name of a half-forgotten acquaintance suddenly
+encountered in the street. It might have
+been fourteen, or forty-one; or a hundred and
+fifty. Every number was as likely as it was unlikely.
+I tried vainly to concentrate my mind.
+The result was nothing. The missing number
+gave no clue. To enter the wrong room in that
+ship at that hour meant death for me. Of that
+I was certain. To leave the right room unentered
+gave away my first chance in the unequal battle
+with Brande. Then, as I knew that my first
+chance would probably be my last, if not availed
+of, I turned to the nearest door and quietly tried
+the handle. The door was not locked. I entered
+the state-room.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want?" It was Halley's voice
+that came from the berth.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me," I whispered, "a mistake. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+heat, you know. Went on deck, and have blundered
+into your room."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right. Who are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Brande."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night. You did not blunder far;" this
+sleepily.</p>
+
+<p>I went out and closed the door quietly. I had
+gained something. I was within one door of my
+destination, for I knew that Halley was berthed
+between Rockingham and Brande. But I did not
+know on which side Brande's room was, and I
+dared not ask. I tried the next door going
+forward. It opened like the other. I went in.</p>
+
+<p>"Hallo there!" This time no sleepy or careless
+man challenged me. It was Rockingham's
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"May I not enter my own room?" I whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"This is not your room. You are?" Rockingham
+sprang up in his berth, but before he could
+leave it I was upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"I am Arthur Marcel. And this iron ring
+which I press against your left ear is the muzzle
+of my revolver. Speak, move, breathe above your
+natural breath and your brains go through that
+porthole. Now, loose your hold of my arm and
+come with me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You fool!" hissed Rockingham. "You dare not
+fire. You know you dare not."</p>
+
+<p>He was about to call out, but my left hand
+closed on his throat, and a gurgling gasp was all
+that issued from him.</p>
+
+<p>I laid down the revolver and turned the ear of
+the strangling man close to my mouth. I had
+little time to think; but thought flies fast when
+such deadly peril menaces the thinker as that
+which I must face if I failed to make terms with
+the man who was in my power. I knew that notwithstanding
+his intensely disagreeable nature,
+if he gave his promise either by spoken word or
+equivalent sign, I could depend upon him. There
+were no liars in Brande's Society. But the word I
+could not trust him to say. I must have his sign.
+I whispered:</p>
+
+<p>"You know I do not wish to kill you. I shall
+never have another happy day if you force me to
+it. I have no choice. You must yield or die. If
+you will yield and stand by me rather than against
+me in what shall follow, choose life by taking your
+right hand from my wrist and touching my left
+shoulder. I will not hurt you meanwhile. If you
+choose death, touch me with your left."</p>
+
+<p>The sweat stood on my forehead in big beads as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+I waited for his choice. It was soon made. He
+unlocked his left hand and placed it firmly on my
+right shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>He had chosen death.</p>
+
+<p>So the man was only a physical coward&mdash;or
+perhaps he had only made a choice of alternatives.</p>
+
+<p>I said slowly and in great agony, "May God
+have mercy on your soul&mdash;and mine!" on which
+the muscles in my left arm stiffened. The big
+biceps&mdash;an heirloom of my athletic days&mdash;thickened
+up, and I turned my eyes away from the dying
+face, half hidden by the darkness. His struggles
+were very terrible, but with my weight upon his
+lower limbs, and my grasp upon his windpipe, that
+death-throe was as silent as it was horrible. The
+end came slowly. I could not bear the horror of
+it longer. I must finish it and be done with it.
+I put my right arm under the man's shoulders and
+raised the upper part of his body from the berth.
+Then a desperate wrench with my left arm, and
+there was a dull crack like the snapping of a
+dry stick. It was over. Rockingham's neck
+was broken.</p>
+
+<p>I wiped away the bloody froth that oozed from
+the gaping mouth, and tried to compose decently
+the contorted figure. I covered the face. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+I started on my last mission, for now I knew the
+door. I had bought the knowledge dearly, and
+I meant to use it for my own purpose, careless of
+what violence might be necessary to accomplish
+my end.</p>
+
+<p>When I entered Brande's state-room I found the
+electric light full on. He was seated at a writing-table
+with his head resting on his arms, which
+hung crossways over the desk. The sleeper
+breathed so deeply it was evident that the effect
+of the morphia was still strong upon him. One
+hand clutched a folded parchment. His fingers
+clasped it nervelessly, and I had only to force them
+open one by one in order to withdraw the manuscript.
+As I did this, he moaned and moved in his
+chair. I had no fear of his awaking. My hand
+shook as I unfolded the parchment which I unconsciously
+handled as carefully as though the
+thing itself were as deadly as the destruction
+which might be wrought by its direction.</p>
+
+<p>To me the whole document was a mass of
+unintelligible formul&aelig;. My rusty university
+education could make nothing of it. But I could
+not waste time in trying to solve the puzzle,
+for I did not know what moment some other
+visitor might arrive to see how Brande fared.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+I first examined with a pocket microscope the
+ink of the manuscript, and then making a scratch
+with Brande's pen on a page of my note-book,
+I compared the two. The colours were identical.
+It was the same ink.</p>
+
+<p>In several places where a narrow space had
+been left vacant, I put 1 in front of the figures
+which followed. I had no reason for making
+this particular alteration, save that the figure 1
+is more easily forged than any other, and the
+forgery is consequently more difficult to detect.
+My additions, when the ink was dry, could only
+have been discovered by one who was informed
+that the document had been tampered with.
+It was probable that a drawer which stood open
+with the keys in the lock was the place where
+Brande kept this paper; where he would look
+for it on awaking. I locked it in the drawer
+and put the keys into his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>There was something still to do with the sleeping
+man, whose brain compassed such marvellous
+powers. His telepathic faculty must be destroyed.
+I must keep him seriously ill, without killing
+him. As long as he remained alive his friends
+would never question his calculations, and the
+fiasco which was possible under any circumstances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+would then be assured. I had with me an
+Eastern drug, which I had bought from an
+Indian fakir once in Murzapoor. The man was
+an impostor, whose tricks did not impose on
+me. But the drug, however he came by it, was
+reliable. It was a poison which produced a
+mild form of cerebritis that dulled but did not
+deaden the mental powers. It acted almost
+identically whether administered sub-cutaneously
+or, of course in a larger dose, internally. I
+brought it home with the intention of giving
+it to a friend who was interested in vivisection.
+I did not think that I myself should be the
+first and last to experiment with it. It served
+my purpose well.</p>
+
+<p>The moment I pricked his skin, Brande moved
+in his seat. My hand was on his throat. He
+nestled his head down again upon his arms, and
+drew a deep breath. Had he moved again that
+breath would have been his last. I had been
+so wrought upon by what I had already done
+that night, I would have taken his life without
+the slightest hesitation, if the sacrifice seemed
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>When my operation was over, I left the room
+and moved silently along the corridor till I came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+to the ladder leading to the deck. Edith Metford
+was waiting for me as we had arranged. She
+was shivering in spite of the awful heat.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you done it?" she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>"I have," I answered, without saying how
+much I had done. "Now you must retire&mdash;and
+rest easy. The formula won't work. I
+have put both it and Brande himself out of
+gear."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank God!" she gasped, and then a sudden
+faintness came over her. It passed quickly,
+and as soon as she was sufficiently restored, I
+begged her to go below. She pleaded that she
+could not sleep, and asked me to remain with
+her upon the deck. "It would be absurd to
+suppose that either of us could sleep this night,"
+she very truly said. On which I was obliged
+to tell her plainly that she must go below. I
+had more to do.</p>
+
+<p>"Can I help?" she asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"No. If you could, I would ask you, for you
+are a brave girl. I have something now to get
+through which is not woman's work."</p>
+
+<p>"Your work is my work," she answered. "What
+is it?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I have to lower a body overboard without
+anyone observing me."</p>
+
+<p>There was no time for discussion, so I told her
+at once, knowing that she would not give way
+otherwise. She started at my words, but said
+firmly:</p>
+
+<p>"How will you do that unobserved by the
+'watch'? Go down and bring up your&mdash;bring
+it up. I will keep the men employed." She
+went forward, and I turned again to the companion.</p>
+
+<p>When I got back to Rockingham's cabin I took
+a sheet of paper and wrote, "Heat&mdash;Mad!" making
+no attempt to imitate his writing. I simply
+scrawled the words with a rough pen in the hope
+that they would pass as a message from a man
+who was hysterical when he wrote them. Then
+I turned to the berth and took up the body. It
+was not a pleasant thing to do. But it must be
+done.</p>
+
+<p>I was a long time reaching the deck, for the
+arms and legs swung to and fro, and I had to
+move cautiously lest they should knock against
+the woodwork I had to pass. I got it safely up
+and hurried aft with it. Edith, I knew, would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+contrive to keep the men on watch engaged until
+I had disposed of my burden. I picked up a coil
+of rope and made it fast to the dead man's neck.
+Taking one turn of the rope round a boat-davit, I
+pushed the thing over the rail. I intended to let
+go the rope the moment the weight attached to it
+was safely in the sea, and so lowered away
+silently, paying out the line without excessive
+strain owing to the support of the davit round
+which I had wound it. I had not to wait so long
+as that, for just as the body was dangling over
+the foaming wake of the steamer, a little streak
+of moonlight shot out from behind a bank of
+cloud and lighted the vessel with a sudden gleam.
+I was startled by this, and held on, fearing that
+some watching eye might see my curious movements.
+For a minute I leaned over the rail and
+watched the track of the steamer as though I had
+come on deck for the air. There was a quick
+rush near the vessel's quarter. Something dark
+leaped out of the water, and there was a sharp
+snap&mdash;a crunch. The lower limbs were gone in
+the jaws of a shark. I let go the rope in horror,
+and the body dropped splashing into that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+hideous fishing-ground. Sick to death I turned
+away.</p>
+
+<p>"Get below quickly," Edith Metford said in my
+ear. "They heard the splash, slight as it was,
+and are coming this way." Her warning was
+nearly a sob.</p>
+
+<p>We hurried down the companion as fast as
+we dared, and listened to the comments of the
+watch above. They were soon satisfied that nothing
+of importance had occurred, and resumed
+their stations.</p>
+
+<p>Before we parted on that horrible night, Edith
+said in a trembling voice, "You have done your
+work like a brave man."</p>
+
+<p>"Say rather, like a forger and murderer," I
+answered.</p>
+
+<p>"No," she maintained. "Many men before you
+have done much worse in a good cause. You are
+not a forger. You are a diplomat. You are not a
+murderer. You are a hero."</p>
+
+<p>But I, being new to this work of slaughter and
+deception, could only deprecate her sympathy and
+draw away. I felt that my very presence near
+her was pollution. I was unclean, and I told her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+that I was so. Whereupon, without hesitation,
+she put her arms round my neck, and said clinging
+closely to me:</p>
+
+<p>"You are not unclean&mdash;you are free from guilt.
+And&mdash;Arthur&mdash;I will kiss you now."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV.<br />
+<small>"IF NOT TOO LATE!"</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I came on deck next morning the coast of
+Arabia was rising, a thin thread of hazy blue between
+the leaden grey of the sea and the soft grey
+of the sky. The morning was cloudy, and the
+blazing sunlight was veiled in atmospheric gauze.
+I had hardly put my foot on deck when Natalie
+Brande ran to meet me. I hung back guiltily.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you would never come. There is
+dreadful news!" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>I muttered some incoherent words, to which
+she did not attend, but went on hurriedly:</p>
+
+<p>"Rockingham has thrown himself overboard in
+a hysterical fit, brought on by the heat. The
+sailors heard the splash&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I know they did." This escaped me unawares,
+and I instantly prevaricated, "I have been told
+about that."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know that Herbert is ill?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I could have conscientiously answered this
+question affirmatively also. Her sudden sympathy
+for human misadventure jarred upon me,
+as it had done once before, when I thought of the
+ostensible object of the cruise. I said harshly:</p>
+
+<p>"Then Rockingham is at rest, and your brother
+is on the road to it." It was a brutal speech. It
+had a very different effect to that which I intended.</p>
+
+<p>"True," she said. "But think of the awful
+consequences if, now that Rockingham is gone,
+Herbert should be seriously ill."</p>
+
+<p>"I do think of it," I said stiffly. Indeed, I
+could hardly keep from adding that I had provided
+for it.</p>
+
+<p>"You must come to him at once. I have
+faith in you." This gave me a twinge. "I
+have no faith in Percival" (the ship's doctor).</p>
+
+<p>"You are nursing your brother?" I said with
+assumed carelessness.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course."</p>
+
+<p>"What is Percival giving him?"</p>
+
+<p>She described the treatment, and as this was
+exactly what I myself would have prescribed to
+put my own previous interference right, I promised
+to come at once, saying:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is quite evident that Percival does not
+understand the case."</p>
+
+<p>"That is exactly what I thought," Natalie
+agreed, leading me to Brande's cabin. I found
+his vitality lower than I expected, and he was
+very impatient. The whole purpose of his life
+was at stake, dependent on his preserving a
+healthy body, on which, in turn, a vigorous mind
+depends.</p>
+
+<p>"How soon can you get me up?" he asked
+sharply, when my pretended examination was over.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say a month at most."</p>
+
+<p>"That would be too long," he cried. "You
+must do it in less."</p>
+
+<p>"It does not depend on me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It does depend on you. I know life itself.
+You know the paltry science of organic life.
+I have had no time for such trivial study.
+Get me well within three days, or&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am attending."</p>
+
+<p>"By the hold over my sister's imagination
+which I have gained, I will kill her on the
+fourth morning from now."</p>
+
+<p>"You will&mdash;<i>not</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I will," Brande shrieked, starting
+up in his berth. "I could do it now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You could&mdash;<i>not</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Man, do you know what you are saying?
+You to bandy words with me! A clod-brained
+fool to dare a man of science! Man of science
+forsooth! Your men of science are to me as
+brain-benumbed, as brain-bereft, as that fly which
+I crush&mdash;thus!"</p>
+
+<p>The buzzing insect was indeed dead. But I
+was something more than a fly. At last I was on
+a fair field with this scientific magician or madman.
+And on a fair field I was not afraid of
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"You are agitating yourself unnecessarily and
+injuriously," I said in my best professional manner.
+"And if you persist in doing so you will
+make my one month three."</p>
+
+<p>In a voice of undisguised scorn, Brande exclaimed,
+without noticing my interruption:</p>
+
+<p>"Bearded by a creature whose little mind is to
+me like the open page of a book to read when the
+humour seizes me." Then with a fierce glance at
+me he cried:</p>
+
+<p>"I have read your mind before. I can read it
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"You can&mdash;<i>not</i>."</p>
+
+<p>He threw himself back in his berth and strove<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+to concentrate his mind. For nearly five minutes
+he lay quite still, and then he said gently:</p>
+
+<p>"You are right. Have you, then, a higher
+power than I?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; a lower!"</p>
+
+<p>"A lower! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that I have merely paralysed your
+brain&mdash;that for many months to come it will not
+be restored to its normal power&mdash;that it will
+never reach its normal power again unless I
+choose."</p>
+
+<p>"Then all is lost&mdash;lost&mdash;lost!" he wailed out.
+"The end is as far off, and the journey as long,
+and the way as hard, as if I had never striven.
+And the tribute of human tears will be exacted
+to the uttermost. My life has been in vain!"</p>
+
+<p>The absolute agony in his voice, the note of
+almost superhuman suffering and despair, was so
+intense, that, without thinking of what it was
+this man was grieving over, I found myself saying
+soothingly:</p>
+
+<p>"No, no! Nothing is lost. It is only your
+own overstrained nervous system which sends
+these fantastic nightmares to your brain. I will
+soon make you all right if you will listen to
+reason."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He turned to me with the most appealing look
+which I had ever seen in human eyes save once
+before&mdash;when Natalie pleaded with me.</p>
+
+<p>"I had forgotten," he said, "the issue now lies
+in your hands. Choose rightly. Choose mercy."</p>
+
+<p>"I will," I answered shortly, for his request
+brought me back with a jerk to his motive.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will get me well as soon as your
+skill can do it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will keep you in your present condition
+until I have your most solemn assurance that
+you will neither go farther yourself nor instigate
+others to go farther with this preposterous scheme
+of yours."</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" Brande ejaculated contemptuously, and
+lay back with a sudden content. "My brain is
+certainly out of order, else I should not have
+forgotten&mdash;until your words recalled it&mdash;the Labrador
+expedition."</p>
+
+<p>"The Labrador expedition?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. On the day we sailed for the Arafura
+Sea, Grey started with another party for Labrador.
+If we fail to act before the 31st December, in the
+year 1900, he will proceed. And the end of the
+century will be the date of the end of the earth.
+I will signal to him now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>His face changed suddenly. For a moment I
+thought he was dead. Then the dreadful fact
+came home to me. He was telegraphing telepathically
+to Grey. So the murder that was
+upon my soul had been done in vain. Then
+another life must be taken. Better a double
+crime than one resultless tragedy. I was spared
+this.</p>
+
+<p>Brande opened his eyes wearily, and sighed
+as if fatigued. The effort, short as it was, must
+have been intense. He was prostrated. His
+voice was low, almost a whisper, as he said:</p>
+
+<p>"You have succeeded beyond belief. I cannot
+even signal him, much less exchange ideas." With
+that he turned his face from me, and instantly
+fell into a deep sleep.</p>
+
+<p>I left the cabin and went on deck. As usual,
+it was fairly sprinkled over with the passengers,
+but owing to the strong head-wind caused by the
+speed of the steamer, there was a little nook in
+the bow where there was no one to trouble me
+with unwelcome company.</p>
+
+<p>I sat down on an arm of the starboard anchor
+and tried to think. The game which seemed so
+nearly won had all to be played over again from
+the first move. If I had killed Brande&mdash;which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+surely would have been justifiable&mdash;the other
+expedition would go on from where he left off.
+And how should I find them? And who would
+believe my story when I got back to England?</p>
+
+<p>Brande must go on. His attempt to wreck
+the earth, even if the power he claimed were
+not overrated, would fail. For if the compounds
+of a common explosive must be so nicely balanced
+as they require to be, surely the addition of the
+figures which I had made in his formula would
+upset the balance of constituents in an agent so
+delicate, though so powerful, as that which he
+had invented. When the master failed, it was
+more than probable that the pupil would distrust
+the invention, and return to London for
+fresh experiments. Then a clean sweep must be
+made of the whole party. Meantime, it was plain
+that Brande must be allowed the opportunity
+of failing. And this it would be my hazardous
+duty to superintend.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to Brande's cabin with my mind
+made up. He was awake, and looked at me
+eagerly, but waited for me to speak. Our conversation
+was brief, for I had little sympathy
+with my patient, and the only anxiety I experienced
+about his health was the hope that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+would not die until he had served my purpose.</p>
+
+<p>"I have decided to get you up," I said
+curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"You have decided well," he answered, with
+equal coldness.</p>
+
+<p>That was the whole interview&mdash;on which so
+much depended.</p>
+
+<p>After this I did not speak to Brande on any
+subject but that of his symptoms, and before long
+he was able to come on deck. The month I spoke
+of as the duration of his illness was an intentional
+exaggeration on my part.</p>
+
+<p>Rockingham was forgotten with a suddenness
+and completeness that was almost ghastly. The
+Society claimed to have improved the old maxim
+to speak nothing of the dead save what is good.
+Of the dead they spoke not at all. It is a
+callous creed, but in this instance it pleased me
+well.</p>
+
+<p>We did not touch at Aden, and I was glad of
+it. The few attractions of the place, the diving
+boys and the like, may be a relief in ordinary
+sea voyages, but I was too much absorbed in my
+experiment on Brande to bear with patience any
+delay which served to postpone the crisis of my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+scheme. I had treated him well, so far as his
+bodily health went, but I deliberately continued
+to tamper with his brain, so that any return of
+his telepathic power was thus prevented. Indeed,
+Brande himself was not anxious for such return.
+The power was always exercised at an extreme
+nervous strain, and it was now, he said, unnecessary
+to his purpose.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of this determination, I modified
+the already minute doses of the drug I was
+giving him. This soon told with advantage on
+his health. His physical improvement partly
+restored his confidence in me, so that he followed
+my instructions faithfully. He evidently recognised
+that he was in my power; that if I did
+not choose to restore him fully no other man
+could.</p>
+
+<p>Of the ship's officers, Anderson, who was in
+command, and Percival, the doctor, were men of
+some individuality. The captain was a good
+sailor and an excellent man of business. In the
+first capacity, he was firm, exacting, and scrupulously
+conscientious. In the second, his conscience
+was more elastic when he saw his way clear to
+his own advantage. He had certain rigid rules
+of conduct which he prided himself on observing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+to the letter, without for a moment suspecting
+that their <i>raison d'etre</i> lay in his own interests.
+His commercial morality only required him to
+keep within the law. His final contract with
+myself was, I admit, faithfully carried out, but
+the terms of it would not have discredited the
+most predatory business man in London town.</p>
+
+<p>Percival was the opposite pole of such a character.
+He was a clever man, who might have
+risen in his profession but for his easy-going
+indolence. I spent many an hour in his cabin.
+He was a sportsman and a skilled <i>raconteur</i>. His
+anecdotes helped to while the weary time away.
+He exaggerated persistently, but this did not
+disturb me. Besides, if in his narratives he
+lengthened out the hunt a dozen miles and increased
+the weight of the fish to an impossible
+figure, made the brace a dozen and the ten-ton
+boat a man-of-war, it was not because he was
+deliberately untruthful. He looked back on his
+feats through the telescope of a strongly magnifying
+memory. It was more agreeable to me
+to hear him boast his prowess than have him
+inquire after the health and treatment of my
+patient Brande. On this matter he was naturally
+very curious, and I very reticent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That Brande did not entirely trust me was evident
+from his confusion when I surprised him
+once reading his formula. His anxiety to convince
+me that it was only a commonplace memorandum
+was almost ludicrous. I was glad to see
+him anxious about that document. The more
+carefully he preserved it, and the more faithfully
+he adhered to its conditions, the better for my
+experiment. A sense of security followed this
+incident. It did not last long. It ended that
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>After a day of almost unendurable heat, I
+went on deck for a breath of air. We were
+well out in the Indian Ocean, and soundings
+were being attempted by some of our naturalists.
+I sat alone and watched the sun sink
+down into the glassy ocean on which our rushing
+vessel was the only thing that moved. As the
+darkness of that hot, still night gathered, weird
+gleams of phosphorus broke from the steamer's
+bows and streamed away behind us in long
+lines of flashing spangles. Where the swell
+caused by the passage of the ship rose in curling
+waves, these, as they splashed into mimic
+breakers, burst into showers of flamboyant light.
+The water from the discharge-pipe poured down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+in a cascade, that shone like silver. Every turn
+of the screw dashed a thousand flashes on either
+side, and the heaving of the lead was like the
+flight of a meteor, as it plunged with a luminous
+trail far down into the dark unfathomable depths
+below.</p>
+
+<p>My name was spoken softly. Natalie Brande
+stood beside me. The spell was complete. The
+unearthly glamour of the magical scene had
+been compassed by her. She had called it forth
+and could disperse it by an effort of her will.
+I wrenched my mind free from the foolish
+phantasmagoria.</p>
+
+<p>"I have good news," Natalie said in a low
+voice. Her tones were soft, musical; her manner
+caressing. Happiness was in her whole bearing,
+tenderness in her eyes. Dread oppressed me.
+"Herbert is now well again."</p>
+
+<p>"He has been well for some time," I said,
+my heart beating fast.</p>
+
+<p>"He is not thoroughly restored even yet. But
+this evening he was able to receive a message
+from me by the thought waves. He thinks you
+are plotting injury to him. His brain is not yet
+sufficiently strong to show how foolish this fugitive
+fancy is. Perhaps you would go to him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+He is troubling himself over this. You can set
+his mind at rest."</p>
+
+<p>"I can&mdash;and will&mdash;if I am not too late," I
+answered.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
+<small>&pound;5000 TO DETAIN THE SHIP.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Brande</span> was asleep when I entered his cabin.
+His writing-table was covered with scraps of paper
+on which he had been scribbling. My name was
+on every scrap, preceded or followed by an unfinished
+sentence, thus: "Marcel is thinking&mdash; When
+I was ill, Marcel thought&mdash; Marcel means
+to&mdash;" All these I gathered up carefully and put
+in my pocket. Then I inoculated him with as
+strong a solution of the drug I was using on him
+as was compatible with the safety of his life.
+Immediate danger being thus averted, I determined
+to run no similar risk again.</p>
+
+<p>For many days after this our voyage was monotonous.
+The deadly secret shared by Edith Metford
+and myself drew us gradually nearer to each
+other as time passed. She understood me, or, at
+least, gave me the impression that she understood
+me. Little by little that capricious mood which I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+have heretofore described changed into one of enduring
+sympathy. With one trivial exception,
+this lasted until the end. But for her help my
+mind would hardly have stood the strain of events
+which were now at hand, whose livid shadows
+were projected in the rising fire of Brande's relentless
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Brande appeared to lose interest gradually in
+his ship's company. He became daily more and
+more absorbed in his own thoughts. Natalie was
+ever gentle, even tender. But I chafed at the
+impalpable barrier which was always between us.
+Sometimes I thought that she would willingly
+have ranged herself on my side. Some hidden
+power held her back. As to the others, I began to
+like the boy Halley. He was lovable, if not
+athletic. His devotion to Natalie, which never
+waned, did not now trouble me. It was only a
+friendship, and I welcomed it. Had it been anything
+more, it was not likely that he would have
+prevailed against the will of a man who had done
+murder for his mistress. We steamed through the
+Malay Archipelago, steering north, south, east,
+west, as if at haphazard, until only the navigating
+officers and the director of the Society knew how
+our course lay. We were searching for an island<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+about the bearings of which, it transpired, some
+mistake had been made. I do not know whether
+the great laureate ever sailed these seas. But I
+know that his glorious islands of flowers and
+islands of fruit, with all their luscious imagery,
+were here eclipsed by our own islands of foliage.
+The long lagoons, the deep blue bays, the glittering
+parti-coloured fish that swam in visible shoals
+deep down amidst the submerged coral groves
+over which we passed, the rich-toned sea-weeds
+and brilliant anemones, the yellow strands and
+the steep cliffs, the riotous foliage that swept down
+from the sky to the blue of the sea; all these
+natural beauties seemed to cry to me with living
+voices&mdash;to me bound on a cruise of universal
+death.</p>
+
+<p>After a long spell of apparently aimless but
+glorious steaming, a small island was sighted on
+our port bow. The <i>Esmeralda</i> was steered
+directly for it, and we dropped anchor in a deep
+natural harbour on its southern shore. Preparations
+for landing had been going on during the
+day, and everything was ready for quitting the
+ship.</p>
+
+<p>It was here that my first opportunity for making
+use of the gold I had brought with me occurred.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+Anderson was called up by Brande, who made him
+a short complimentary speech, and finished it by
+ordering his officer to return to England, where
+further instructions would be given him. This
+order was received in respectful silence. Captain
+Anderson had been too liberally treated to demur
+if the <i>Esmeralda</i> had been ordered to the South
+Pole.</p>
+
+<p>Brande went below for a few minutes, and as
+soon as he had disappeared I went forward to
+Anderson and hailed him nervously, for there
+was not a moment to spare.</p>
+
+<p>"Anderson," I said hurriedly, "you must have
+noticed that Mr. Brande is an eccentric&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me, sir; it is not my business to
+comment upon my owner."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not ask you to comment upon him,
+sir," I said sharply. "It is I who shall comment
+upon him, and it is for you to say whether
+you will undertake to earn my money by waiting
+in this harbour till I am ready to sail back
+with you to England."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you anything more to say, sir?" Anderson
+asked stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"I presume I have said enough."</p>
+
+<p>"If you have nothing more to say I must ask<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+you to leave the bridge, and if it were not that
+you are leaving the ship this moment, I would
+caution you not to be impertinent to me again."</p>
+
+<p>He blew his whistle, and a steward ran forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Johnson, see Mr. Marcel's luggage over the
+side at once." To me he said shortly: "Quit
+my ship, sir."</p>
+
+<p>This trivial show of temper, which, indeed,
+had been provoked by my own hasty speech,
+turned my impatience into fury.</p>
+
+<p>"Before I quit your ship," I said, with emphasis,
+"I will tell you how you yourself will quit
+it. You will do so between two policemen if
+you land in England, and between two marines
+if you think of keeping on the high seas. Before
+we started, I sent a detailed statement of this
+ship, the nature of this nefarious voyage, and
+the names of the passengers&mdash;or as many as I
+knew&mdash;to a friend who will put it in proper
+hands if anything befalls me. Go back without
+me and explain the loss of that French fishing
+fleet which was sunk the very night we sailed.
+It is an awkward coincidence to be explained
+by a man who returns from an unknown voyage
+having lost his entire list of passengers. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+cannot be aware of what this man Brande intends,
+or you would at least stand by us as long
+as your own safety permitted. In any case you
+cannot safely return without us."</p>
+
+<p>Anderson, after reflecting for a moment, apologised
+for his peremptory words, and agreed to stand
+by night and day, with fires banked, until I, and
+all whom I could prevail upon to return with
+me, got back to his vessel. There was no danger
+of his running short of coal. A ship that was
+practically an ocean liner in coal ballast would
+be a considerable time in burning out her own
+cargo. But he insisted on a large money payment
+in advance. I had foolishly mentioned
+that I had a little over &pound;5000 in gold. This
+he claimed on the plea that "in duty to himself"&mdash;a
+favourite phrase of his&mdash;he could not accept
+less. But I think his sense of duty was limited
+only by the fact that I had hardly another
+penny in the world. Under the circumstances
+he might have waived all remuneration. As
+he was firm, and as I had no time to haggle,
+I agreed to give him the money. Our bargain
+was only completed when Brande returned to
+the deck.</p>
+
+<p>It was strange that on an island like that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+on which we were landing there should be a
+regular army of natives waiting to assist us
+with our baggage, and the saddled horses which
+were in readiness were out of place in a primeval
+wilderness. An Englishman came forward, and,
+saluting Brande, said all was ready for the start
+to the hills. This explained the puzzle. An
+advance agent had made everything comfortable.
+For Brande, his sister, and Miss Metford the
+best appointed horses were selected. I, as
+physician to the chief, had one. The main body
+had to make the journey on foot, which they
+did by very easy stages, owing to the heat and
+the primitive track which formed the only road.
+Their journey was not very long&mdash;perhaps ten
+miles in a direct line.</p>
+
+<p>Mounted as we were, it was often necessary
+to stoop to escape the dense masses of parasitic
+growth which hung in green festoons from every
+branch of the trees on either side. Under this
+thick shade all the riotous vegetation of the
+tropics had fought for life and struggled for light
+and air till the wealth of their luxuriant death
+had carpeted the underwood with a thick deposit
+of steaming foliage. As we ascended the
+height, every mile in distance brought changes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+in the botanical growths, which might have passed
+unnoticed by the ordinary observer or ignorant
+pioneer. All were noted and commented on by
+Brande, whose eye was still as keen as his brain
+had once been brilliant. His usual staid demeanour
+changed suddenly. He romped ahead of us
+like a schoolboy out for a holiday. Unlike a
+schoolboy, however, he was always seeking new
+items of knowledge and conveying them to us
+with unaffected pleasure. He was more like a
+master who had found new ground and new
+material for his class. Natalie gave herself up
+like him to this enjoyment of the moment. Edith
+Metford and I partly caught the glamour of their
+infectious good-humour. But with both of us
+it was tempered by the knowledge of what was
+in store.</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived at our destination we dismounted,
+at Brande's request, and tied our horses
+to convenient branches. He went forward, and,
+pushing aside the underwood with both hands,
+motioned to us to follow him till he stopped on a
+ledge of rock which overtopped a hollow in the
+mountain. The gorge below was the most beautiful
+glade I ever looked upon.</p>
+
+<p>It was a paradise of foliage. Here and there a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+fallen tree had formed a picturesque bridge over
+the mountain stream which meandered through it.
+Far down below there was a waterfall, where
+gorgeous tree-ferns rose in natural bowers, while
+others further still leant over the lotus-covered
+stream, their giant leaves trailing in the slow-moving
+current. Tangled masses of bracken
+rioted in wild abundance over a velvety green sod,
+overshadowed by waving magnolias. Through the
+trees bright-plumaged birds were flitting from
+branch to branch in songless flight, flashing their
+brilliant colours through the sunny leaves. In
+places the water splashed over moss-grown rocks
+into deep pools. Every drifting spray of cloud
+threw over the dell a new light, deepening the
+shadows under the great ferns.</p>
+
+<p>It was here in this glorious fairyland; here upon
+this island, where before us no white foot had
+ever trod; whose nameless people represented the
+simplest types of human existence, that Herbert
+Brande was to put his devilish experiment to the
+proof. I marvelled that he should have selected so
+fair a spot for so terrible a purpose. But the
+papers which I found later amongst the man's
+effects on the <i>Esmeralda</i> explain much that was
+then incomprehensible to me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Our camp was quickly formed, and our life was
+outwardly as happy as if we had been an ordinary
+company of tourists. I say outwardly, because,
+while we walked and climbed and collected specimens
+of botanical or geological interest, there
+remained that latent dread which always followed
+us, and dominated the most frivolous of our people,
+on all of whom a new solemnity had fallen. For
+myself, the fact that the hour of trial for my own
+experiment was daily drawing closer and more
+inevitable, was sufficient to account for my constant
+and extreme anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Brande joined none of our excursions. He was
+always at work in his improvised laboratory. The
+boxes of material which had been brought from
+the ship nearly filled it from floor to roof, and
+from the speed with which these were emptied, it
+was evident that their contents had been systematised
+before shipment. In place of the varied
+collection of substances there grew up within the
+room a cone of compound matter in which all were
+blended. This cone was smaller, Brande admitted,
+than what he had intended. The supply of subordinate
+fulminates, though several times greater
+than what was required, proved to be considerably
+short. But as he had allowed himself a large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+margin&mdash;everything being on a scale far exceeding
+the minimum which his calculations had pointed
+to as sufficient&mdash;this deficiency did not cause him
+more than a temporary annoyance. So he worked
+on.</p>
+
+<p>When we had been three weeks on the island I
+found the suspense greater than I could bear. The
+crisis was at hand, and my heart failed me. I
+determined to make a last appeal to Natalie, to fly
+with me to the ship. Edith Metford would accompany
+us. The rest might take the risk to which
+they had consented.</p>
+
+<p>I found Natalie standing on the high rock
+whence the most lovely view of the dell could be
+obtained, and as I approached her silently she was
+not aware of my presence until I laid my hand
+on her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Natalie," I said wistfully, for the girl's eyes
+were full of tears, "do you mind if I withdraw
+now from this enterprise, in which I cannot be
+of the slightest use, and of which I most heartily
+disapprove?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Society would not allow you to withdraw.
+You cannot do so without its permission,
+and hope to live within a thousand miles of
+it," she answered gravely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I should not care to live within ten thousand
+miles of it. I should try to get and keep the
+earth's diameter between myself and it."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up with an expression of such pain
+that my heart smote me. "How about me?
+I cannot live without you now," she said
+softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't live without me. Come with me. Get
+rid of this infamous association of lunatics, whose
+object they themselves cannot really appreciate,
+and whose means are murder&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But there she stopped me. "My brother could
+find me out at the uttermost ends of the earth if
+I forsook him, and you know I do not mean to
+forsake him. For yourself&mdash;do not try to desert.
+It would make no difference. Do not believe
+that any consideration would cause me willingly
+to give you a moment's pain, or that I should
+shrink from sacrificing myself to save you."
+With one of her small white hands she gently
+pressed my head towards her. Her lips touched
+my forehead, and she whispered: "Do not leave
+me. It will soon be over now. I&mdash;I&mdash;need
+you."</p>
+
+<p>As I was returning dejected after my fruitless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+appeal to Natalie, I met Edith Metford, to whom
+I had unhappily mentioned my proposal for an
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it arranged? When do we start?" she
+asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not arranged, and we do not start," I
+answered in despair.</p>
+
+<p>"You told me you would go with her or without
+her," she cried passionately. "It is shameful&mdash;unmanly."</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly both if I really said what you
+tell me. I was not myself at the moment, and
+my tongue must have slandered me. I stay to the
+end. But you will go. Captain Anderson will
+receive you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"How am I to be certain of that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I paid him for your passage, and have his
+receipt."</p>
+
+<p>"And you really think I would go and leave&mdash;leave&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Natalie? I think you would be perfectly
+justified."</p>
+
+<p>At this the girl stamped her foot passionately
+on the ground and burst into tears. Nor would
+she permit any of the slight caresses I offered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+I thought her old caprices were returning. She
+flung my arm rudely from her and left me bewildered.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
+<small>"THIS EARTH SHALL DIE."</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My</span> memory does not serve me well in the scenes
+which immediately preceded the closing of the
+drama in which Brande was chief actor. It is
+doubtless the transcendental interest of the final
+situation which blunts my recollection of what
+occurred shortly before it. I did not abate one
+jot of my determination to fight my venture
+out unflinching, but my actions were probably
+more automatic than reasoned, as the time of
+our last encounter approached. On the whole,
+the fight had been a fair one. Brande had used
+his advantage over me for his own purpose as
+long as it remained with him. I used the advantage
+as soon as it passed to me for mine.
+The conditions had thus been equalised when,
+for the third and last time, I was to hear him
+address his Society.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This time the man was weak in health. His
+vitality was ebbing fast, but his marvellous inspiration
+was strong within him, and, supported
+by it, he battled manfully with the disease
+which I had manufactured for him. His lecture-room
+was the fairy glen; his canopy the
+heavens.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot give the substance of this address,
+or any portion of it, verbatim as on former
+occasions, for I have not the manuscript. I doubt
+if Brande wrote out his last speech. Methodical
+as were his habits it is probable that his final
+words were not premeditated. They burst from
+him in a delirium that could hardly have been
+studied. His fine frenzy could not well have
+originated from considered sentences, although
+his language, regarded as mere oratory, was
+magnificent. It was appalling in the light
+through which I read it.</p>
+
+<p>He stood alone upon the rock which overtopped
+the dell. We arranged ourselves in such groups
+as suited our inclinations, upon some rising
+ground below. The great trees waved overhead,
+low murmuring. The waterfall splashed drearily.
+Below, not a whisper was exchanged. Above,
+the man poured out his triumphant death-song<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+in sonorous periods. Below, great fear was upon
+all. Above, the madman exulted wildly.</p>
+
+<p>At first his voice was weak. As he went on
+it gained strength and depth. He alluded to
+his first address, in which he had hinted that
+the material Universe was not quite a success;
+to his second, in which he had boldly declared
+it was an absolute failure. This, his third declaration,
+was to tell us that the remedy as
+far as he, a mortal man, could apply it, was
+ready. The end was at hand. That night should
+see the consummation of his life-work. To-morrow's
+sun would rise&mdash;if it rose at all&mdash;on
+the earth restored to space.</p>
+
+<p>A shiver passed perceptibly over the people,
+prepared as they were for this long foreseen
+announcement. Edith Metford, who stood by
+me on my left, slipped her hand into mine and
+pressed my fingers hard. Natalie Brande, on my
+right, did not move. Her eyes were dilated
+and fixed on the speaker. The old clairvoyante
+look was on her face. Her dark pupils were
+blinded save to their inward light. She was
+either unconscious or only partly conscious. Now
+that the hour had come, they who had believed
+their courage secure felt it wither. They, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+people with us, begged for a little longer time
+to brace themselves for the great crisis&mdash;the
+plunge into an eternity from which there would
+be no resurrection, neither of matter nor of mind.</p>
+
+<p>Brande heeded them not.</p>
+
+<p>"This night," said he, with culminating enthusiasm,
+"the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous
+palaces, the solemn temples, shall dissolve. To
+this great globe itself&mdash;this paltry speck of less
+account in space than a dew-drop in an ocean&mdash;and
+all its sorrow and pain, its trials and temptations,
+all the pathos and bathos of our tragic
+human farce, the end is near. The way has been
+hard, and the journey overlong, and the burden
+often beyond man's strength. But that long-drawn
+sorrow now shall cease. The tears will be
+wiped away. The burden will fall from weary
+shoulders. For the fulness of time has come.
+This earth shall die! And death is peace.</p>
+
+<p>"I stand," he cried out in a strident voice, raising
+his arm aloft, "I may say, with one foot on
+sea and one on land, for I hold the elemental
+secret of them both. And I swear by the living
+god&mdash;Science incarnate&mdash;that the suffering of the
+centuries is over, that for this earth and all that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+it contains, from this night and for ever, <i>Time
+will be no more!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>A great cry rose from the people. "Give us
+another day&mdash;only another day!"</p>
+
+<p>But Brande made answer: "It is now too
+late."</p>
+
+<p>"Too late!" the people wailed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, too late. I warned you long ago. Are
+you not yet ready? In two hours the disintegrating
+agent will enter on its work. No human
+power could stop it now. Not if every particle
+of the material I have compounded were separated
+and scattered to the winds. Before I set my foot
+upon this rock I applied the key which will
+release its inherent energy. I myself am powerless."</p>
+
+<p>"Powerless," sobbed the auditors.</p>
+
+<p>"Powerless! And if I had ten thousand times
+the power which I have called forth from the
+universal element, I would use it towards the issue
+I have forecast."</p>
+
+<p>Thereupon he turned away. Doom sounded in
+his words. The hand of Death laid clammy
+fingers on us. Edith Metford's strength failed at
+last. It had been sorely tested. She sank into
+my arms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Courage, true heart, our time has come," I
+whispered. "We start for the steamer at once.
+The horses are ready." My arrangements had
+been already made. My plan had been as
+carefully matured as any ever made by Brande
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>"How many horses?"</p>
+
+<p>"Three. One for you; another for Natalie;
+the third for myself. The rest must accept the
+fate they have selected."</p>
+
+<p>The girl shuddered as she said, "But your interference
+with the formula? You are sure it will
+destroy the effect?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am certain that the particular result on
+which Brande calculates will not take place. But
+short of that, he has still enough explosive matter
+stored to cause an earthquake. We are not safe
+within a radius of fifty miles. It will be a race
+against time."</p>
+
+<p>"Natalie will not come."</p>
+
+<p>"Not voluntarily. You must think of some
+plan. Your brain is quick. We have not a
+moment to lose. Ah, there she is! Speak to
+her."</p>
+
+<p>Natalie was crossing the open ground which
+led from the glen to Brande's laboratory. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+did not observe us till Edith called to her. Then
+she approached hastily and embraced her friend
+with visible emotion. Even to me she offered her
+cheek without reserve.</p>
+
+<p>"Natalie," I said quickly, "there are three horses
+saddled and waiting in the palm grove. The
+<i>Esmeralda</i> is still lying in the harbour where we
+landed. You will come with us. Indeed, you
+have no choice. You must come if I have to
+carry you to your horse and tie you to the saddle.
+You will not force me to put that indignity upon
+you. To the horses, then! Come!"</p>
+
+<p>For answer she called her brother loudly by his
+name. Brande immediately appeared at the door
+of his laboratory, and when he perceived from
+whom the call had come he joined us.</p>
+
+<p>"Herbert," said Natalie, "our friend is deserting
+us. He must still cling to the thought that your
+purpose may fail, and he expects to escape on
+horseback from the fate of the earth. Reason with
+him yet a little further."</p>
+
+<p>"There is no time to reason," I interrupted.
+"The horses are ready. This girl (pointing as I
+spoke to Edith Metford) takes one, I another, and
+you the third&mdash;whether your brother agrees or
+not."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Surely you have not lost your reason? Have
+you forgotten the drop of water in the English
+Channel?" Brande said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Brande," I answered, "the sooner you induce
+your sister to come with me the better; and the
+sooner you induce these maniac friends of yours
+to clear out the better, for your enterprise will
+fail."</p>
+
+<p>"It is as certain as the law of gravitation. With
+my own hand I mixed the ingredients according to
+the formula."</p>
+
+<p>"And," said I, "with my own hand I altered
+your formula."</p>
+
+<p>Had Brande's heart stopped beating, his face
+could not have become more distorted and livid.
+He moved close to me, and, glaring into my eyes,
+hissed out:</p>
+
+<p>"You altered my formula?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did," I answered recklessly. "I multiplied
+your figures by ten where they struck me as insufficient."</p>
+
+<p>"When?"</p>
+
+<p>I strode closer still to him and looked him
+straight in the eyes while I spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"That night in the Red Sea, when Edith Metford,
+by accident, mixed morphia in your medicine.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+The night I injected a subtle poison, which I
+picked up in India once, into your blood while
+you slept, thereby baffling some of the functions
+of your extraordinary brain. The night when in
+your sleep you stirred once, and had you stirred
+twice, I would have killed you, then and there, as
+ruthlessly as you would kill mankind now. The
+night I did kill your lieutenant, Rockingham, and
+throw his body overboard to the sharks."</p>
+
+<p>Brande did not speak for a moment. Then he
+said in a gentle, uncomplaining voice:</p>
+
+<p>"So it now devolves on Grey. The end will be
+the same. The Labrador expedition will succeed
+where I have failed." To Natalie: "You had
+better go. There will only be an explosion. The
+island will probably disappear. That will be
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remain?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I perish with my failure."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I perish with you. And you, Marcel,
+save yourself&mdash;you coward!"</p>
+
+<p>I started as if struck in the face. Then I said
+to Edith: "Be careful to keep to the track.
+Take the bay horse. I saddled him for myself,
+but you can ride him safely. Lose no time,
+and ride hard for the coast."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Arthur Marcel," she answered, so softly that
+the others did not hear, "your work in the
+world is not yet over. There is the Labrador
+expedition. Just now, when my strength failed,
+you whispered 'courage.' Be true to yourself!
+Half an hour is gone."</p>
+
+<p>At length some glimmer of human feeling
+awoke in Brande. He said in a low, abstracted
+voice: "My life fittingly ends now. To keep you,
+Natalie, would only be a vulgar murder." The
+old will power seemed to come back to him. He
+looked into the girl's eyes, and said slowly and
+sternly: "Go! I command it."</p>
+
+<p>Without another word he turned away from
+us. When he had disappeared into the laboratory,
+Natalie sighed, and said dreamily:</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready. Let us go."</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
+<small>THE FLIGHT.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">I led</span> the girls hurriedly to the horses. When
+they were mounted on the ponies, I gave the
+bridle-reins of the bay horse&mdash;whose size and
+strength were necessary for my extra weight&mdash;to
+Edith Metford, and asked her to wait for
+me until I announced Brande's probable failure
+to the people, and advised a <i>sauve qui peut</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Hard upon my warning there followed a strange
+metamorphosis in the crowd, who, after the passing
+weakness at the lecture, had fallen back into
+stoical indifference, or it may have been despair.
+The possibility of escape galvanized them into
+the desire for life. Cries of distress, and prayers
+for help, filled the air. Men and women rushed
+about like frightened sheep without concert or
+any sensible effort to escape, wasting in futile
+scrambles the short time remaining to them. For<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+another half hour had now passed, and in sixty
+minutes the earthquake would take place.</p>
+
+<p>"Follow us!" I shouted, as with my companions
+I rode slowly through the camp. "Keep the
+track to the sea. I shall have the steamer's
+boats ready for all who may reach the shore
+alive."</p>
+
+<p>"The horses! Seize the horses!" rose in a
+loud shout, and the mob flung themselves upon
+us, as though three animals could carry all.</p>
+
+<p>When I saw the rush, I called out: "Sit firm,
+Natalie; I am going to strike your horse." Saying
+which I struck the pony a sharp blow with my
+riding-whip crossways on the flank. It bounded
+like a deer, and then dashed forward down the
+rough pathway.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you, Edith!" I struck her pony in the
+same way; but it only reared and nearly threw
+her. It could not get away. Already hands were
+upon both bridle-reins. There was no help for
+it. I pulled out my revolver and fired once, twice,
+and thrice&mdash;for I missed the second shot&mdash;and
+then the maddened animal sprang forward, released
+from the hands that held it.</p>
+
+<p>It was now time to look to myself. I was
+in the midst of a dozen maniacs mad with fear.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+I kicked in my spurs desperately, and the bay
+lashed out his hind feet. One hoof struck young
+Halley on the forehead. He fell back dead, his
+skull in fragments. But the others refused to
+break the circle. Then I emptied my weapon
+on them, and my horse plunged through the
+opening, followed by despairing execrations. The
+moment I was clear, I returned my revolver to
+its case, and settled myself in the saddle, for,
+borne out of the proper path as I had been, there
+was a stiff bank to leap before I could regain
+the track to the shore. Owing to the darkness
+the horse refused to leap, and I nearly fell over
+his head. With a little scrambling I managed
+to get back into my seat, and then trotted along
+the bank for a hundred yards. At this point
+the bank disappeared, and there was nothing between
+me now and the open track to the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Once upon the path, I put the bay to a gallop,
+and very soon overtook a man and a woman
+hurrying on. They were running hand in hand,
+the man a little in front dragging his companion
+on by force. It was plain to me that the woman
+could not hold out much longer. The man, Claude
+Lureau, hailed me as I passed.</p>
+
+<p>"Help us, Marcel. Don't ride away from us."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I cannot save both," I answered, pulling up.</p>
+
+<p>"Then save Mademoiselle V&eacute;ret. I'll take my
+chance."</p>
+
+<p>This blunt speech moved me, the more especially
+as the man was French. I could not allow
+him to point the way of duty to me&mdash;an Englishman.</p>
+
+<p>"Assist her up, then. Now, Mademoiselle, put
+your arms round me and hold hard for your
+life. Lureau, you may hold my stirrup if you
+agree to loose it when you tire."</p>
+
+<p>"I will do so," he promised.</p>
+
+<p>Hampered thus, I but slowly gained on Natalie
+and Edith, whose ponies had galloped a mile before
+they could be stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Forward, forward!" I shouted when within
+hail. "Don't wait for me. Ride on at top speed.
+Lash your ponies with the bridle-reins."</p>
+
+<p>We were all moving on now at an easy canter,
+for I could not go fast so long as Lureau held
+my stirrup, and the girls in front did not seem
+anxious to leave me far behind. Besides, the
+tangled underwood and overhanging creepers
+rendered hard riding both difficult and dangerous.
+The ponies were hard held, but notwithstanding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+this my horse fell back gradually in
+the race, and the hammering of the hoofs in
+front grew fainter. The breath of the runner
+at my stirrup came in great sobs. He was
+suffocating, but he struggled on a little longer.
+Then he threw up his hand and gasped:</p>
+
+<p>"I am done. Go on, Marcel. You deserve to
+escape. Don't desert the girl."</p>
+
+<p>"May God desert me if I do," I answered.
+"And do you keep on as long as you can. You
+may reach the shore after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Go on&mdash;save her!" he gasped, and then from
+sheer exhaustion fell forward on his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit still, Mademoiselle," I cried, pulling the
+French girl's arms round me in time to prevent
+her from throwing herself purposely from the
+horse. Then I drove in my spurs hard, and,
+being now released from Lureau's grasp, I overtook
+the ponies.</p>
+
+<p>For five minutes we all rode on abreast. And
+then the darkness began to break, and a strange
+dawn glimmered over the tree-tops, although the
+hour of midnight was still to come. A wild,
+red light, like that of a fiery sunset in a hazy
+summer evening, spread over the night sky. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+quivering stars grew pale. Constellation after
+constellation, they were blotted out until the
+whole arc of heaven was a dull red glare. The
+horses were dismayed by this strange phenomenon,
+and dashed the froth from their foaming muzzles
+as they galloped now without stress of spur at
+their best speed. Birds that could not sing
+found voice, and chattered and shrieked as they
+dashed from tree to tree in aimless flight.
+Enormous bats hurtled in the air, blinded by
+the unusual light. From the dense undergrowth
+strange denizens of the woods, disturbed in their
+nightly prowl, leaped forth and scurried squealing
+between the galloping hoofs, reckless of
+anything save their own fear. Everything that
+was alive upon the island was in motion, and
+fear was the motor of them all.</p>
+
+<p>So far, we saw no natives. Their absence did
+not surprise me, for I had no time for thought.
+It was explained later.</p>
+
+<p>Edith Metford's pony soon became unmanageable
+in its fright. I unbuckled one spur and
+gave it to her, directing her to hold it in her
+hand, for of course she could not strap it to her
+boot, and drive it into the animal when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+swerved. She took the spur, and as her pony,
+in one of his side leaps, nearly bounded off the
+path, she struck him hard on the ribs. He bolted
+and flew on far ahead of us.</p>
+
+<p>The light grew stronger.</p>
+
+<p>But that the rays were red, it would now have
+been as bright as day. We were chasing our
+shadows, so the light must be directly behind
+us. Mademoiselle V&eacute;ret first noticed this, and
+drew my attention to it. I looked back, and
+my heart sank at the sight. In the terror it
+inspired, I regretted having burthened myself
+with the girl I had sworn to save.</p>
+
+<p>The island was on fire!</p>
+
+<p>"It is the end of the world," Mademoiselle V&eacute;ret
+said with a shudder. She clung closer to me.
+I could feel her warm breath upon my cheek.
+The unmanly regret, which for a moment had
+touched me, passed.</p>
+
+<p>The ponies now seemed to find out that their
+safety lay in galloping straight on, rather than
+in scared leaps from side to side. They stretched
+themselves like race horses, and gave my bay,
+with his double burthen, a strong lead. The
+pace became terrible considering the nature of
+the ground we covered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At last the harbour came in view. But my
+horse, I knew, could not last another mile, and
+the shore was still distant two or three. I spurred
+him hard and drew nearly level with the ponies,
+so that my voice could be heard by both their
+riders.</p>
+
+<p>"Ride on," I shouted, "and hail the steamer,
+so that there may be no delay when I come
+up. This horse is blown, and will not stand
+the pace. I am going to ease him. You will
+go on board at once, and send the boat back
+for us." Then I eased the bay, but in spite of
+this I immediately overtook Edith Metford, who
+had pulled up.</p>
+
+<p>My reproaches she cut short by saying, "If
+that horse does the distance at all it will be by
+getting a lead all the way. And I am going
+to give it to him." So we started together.</p>
+
+<p>Natalie was waiting for us a little further on.
+I spoke to her, but she did not answer. From
+the moment that Brande had commanded her
+to accompany us, her manner had remained
+absolutely passive. What I ordered, she obeyed.
+That was all. Instead of being alarmed by the
+horrors of the ride, she did not seem to be even
+interested. I had not leisure, however, to reflect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+on this. For the first time in the whole race
+she spoke to us.</p>
+
+<p>"Would it not be better if Edith rode on?"
+she said. "I can take her place. It seems useless
+to sacrifice her. It does not matter to me. I
+cannot now be afraid."</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid; but I remain," Edith said resolutely.</p>
+
+<p>The ground under us began to heave. Whole
+acres of it swayed disjointed. We were galloping
+on oscillating fragments, which trembled beneath
+us like floating logs under boys at play. To
+jump these cracks&mdash;sometimes an upward bank,
+sometimes a deep drop, in addition to the width
+of the seam, had to be taken&mdash;pumped out the
+failing horses, and the hope that was left to us
+disappeared utterly.</p>
+
+<p>The glare of the red light behind waxed fiercer
+still, and a low rumbling as of distant thunder
+began to mutter round us. The air became difficult
+to breathe. It was no longer air, but a
+mephitic stench that choked us with disgusting
+fumes. Then a great shock shook the land, and
+right in front of us a seam opened that must
+have been fully fifteen feet in width. Natalie
+was the first to see it. She observed it too late
+to stop.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the same mechanical way as she had acted
+before, she settled herself in the saddle, struck the
+pony with her hand, and raced him at the chasm.
+He cleared it with little to spare. Edith's took it
+next with less. Then my turn came. Before I
+could shake up my tired horse, Mademoiselle V&eacute;ret
+said quickly:</p>
+
+<p>"Monsieur has done enough. He will now permit
+me to alight. This time the horse cannot
+jump over with both."</p>
+
+<p>"He shall jump over with both, Mademoiselle, or
+he shall jump in," I answered. "Don't look down
+when we are crossing."</p>
+
+<p>The horse just got over, but he came to his
+knees, and we fell forward over his shoulder. The
+girl's head struck full on a slab of rock, and a faint
+moan was all that told me she was alive as I arose
+half stunned to my feet. My first thought was for
+the horse, for on him all depended. He was uninjured,
+apparently, but hardly able to stand from
+the shock and the stress of fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>Edith Metford had dismounted and caught him;
+she was holding the bridle in her left hand, and
+winced as if in pain when I accidentally brushed
+against her right shoulder. I tied the horse to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+young palm, and begged the girl to ride on. She
+obeyed me reluctantly. Natalie had to assist her
+to remount, so she must have been injured. When
+I saw her safely in her saddle, I ran back to Mademoiselle
+V&eacute;ret.</p>
+
+<p>The chasm was fast widening. From either side
+great fragments were breaking off and falling in
+with a roar of loose rocks crashing together, till
+far down the sound was dulled into a hollow boom.
+This ended in low guttural, which growled up from
+an abysmal depth. Mademoiselle V&eacute;ret, or her
+dead body, lay now on the very edge of the seam,
+and I had to harden my heart before I could bring
+myself to venture close to it. But I had given
+my word, and there were no conditions in the
+promise when I made it.</p>
+
+<p>I was spared the ordeal. Just as I stepped
+forward, the slab of rock on which the girl lay
+broke off in front of me, and, tipping up, overturned
+itself into the chasm. Far below I could
+see the shimmer of the girl's dress as her body
+went plunging down into that awful pit. And
+remembering her generous courage and offer of
+self-sacrifice, I felt tears rise in my eyes. But
+there was no time for tears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I leaped on the bay, and got him into something
+approaching a gallop, shouting at the others
+to keep on, for they were now returning. When
+I came up with them, Edith Metford said with a
+shiver:</p>
+
+<p>"The girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is at the bottom of the pit. Ride on."</p>
+
+<p>We gained the shore at last; and our presence
+there produced the explanation of the absence of
+the natives on the pathway to the sea. They were
+there before us. Lying prostrate on the beach in
+hundreds, they raised their bodies partly from the
+sands, like a resurrection of the already dead, and
+there then rang out upon the night air a sound
+such as my ears had never before heard in my
+life, such as, I pray God, they may never listen
+to again. I do not know what that dreadful
+death-wail meant in words, only that it touched
+the lowest depths of human horror. All along the
+beach that fearful chorus of the damned wailed
+forth, and echoed back from rock and cliff. The
+cry for mercy could not be mistaken&mdash;the supplication
+blended with despair. They were praying
+to us&mdash;their evil spirits, for this wrong had been
+wrought them by our advent, if not by ourselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I cannot dwell upon the scene. I could not describe
+it. I would not if I could.</p>
+
+<p>The steamer was still in her berth; her head
+was pointed seawards. Loud orders rang over the
+water. The roar of the chain running out through
+the hawse-hole and the heavy splash could not be
+mistaken. Anderson had slipped his cable. Then
+the chime of the telegraph on the bridge was
+followed almost instantly by the first smashing
+stroke of the propeller.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Esmeralda</i> was under weigh!</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
+<small>THE CATASTROPHE.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> <i>Esmeralda</i> was putting out to sea when I
+thought of a last expedient to draw the attention
+of her captain. Filling my revolver with
+cartridges which I had loose in my pockets, I
+fired all the chambers as fast as I could snap the
+trigger.</p>
+
+<p>My signals were heard, and Anderson proved
+true to his bargain. He immediately reversed
+his engines, and, when he had backed in as close
+as he thought safe, sent a boat ashore for us.
+We got into it without any obstruction from the
+cowering natives, who only shrank from us in
+horror, now that their prayers had failed to move
+us. The moment our boat was made fast to the
+steamer's davit ropes and we were pulled out
+of the water, "full speed ahead" was rung from
+the bridge. We were raised to the deck while
+the vessel was getting up speed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I crawled up the ladder to the bridge feebly,
+for I was becoming stiff from the bruises of the
+fall from my horse. Anderson received me coldly,
+and listened indifferently to my thanks. An
+agreement such as ours hardly prepared me for
+his loyalty.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, as to that," he interrupted, "when I make
+a bargain my word is my bond. On this occasion
+I am inclined to think the indenture will
+be a final one."</p>
+
+<p>His bargain was a hard one, but, having made
+it, he abided faithfully by its conditions. He
+was honest, therefore, in his own way.</p>
+
+<p>"How far can you get out in fifteen minutes?"
+I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"We may make six or seven knots. But what
+is the good of that? There will be an earthquake
+on that island on a liberal scale&mdash;on such a scale
+that this ship would have very little chance in
+the wave that will follow us if we were fifty
+miles at sea."</p>
+
+<p>"You have taken every precaution, of course&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Anderson here looked at me contemptuously,
+and, with an air of sarcastic admiration, he
+said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You have guessed it at the first try. That
+is precisely what I have done."</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! don't take offence at trifles at a time
+like this," I said testily. "If you knew as
+much about that earthquake as I do, you would
+be in no humour for bandying phrases."</p>
+
+<p>"Might I ask how much you do know about
+it? You could not have foreseen the trouble more
+clearly if you had made it yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not make it myself, but I know the
+means which the man who did employed, and
+but for me that earthquake would have wrecked
+this earth."</p>
+
+<p>Anderson made no direct answer to this, but
+he said earnestly:</p>
+
+<p>"You will now go below, sir. You are done up.
+Roberts will take you to the doctor."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not done up, and I mean to see it out,"
+I retorted doggedly. My nervous system was
+completely unhinged, and a fit of stupid obstinacy
+came on me which rendered any interference with
+my actions intolerable.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you cannot see it out upon my bridge,"
+Anderson said. The determined tone in which
+he spoke only added to my impotent wrath.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I will return to the deck, and if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+any of your men should attempt to interfere with
+me he will do so at his peril." With that, I
+slung my revolver round so as to have it ready
+to my hand. I was beside myself. My conduct
+was already bad enough, but I made it worse
+before I left the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>"And if you, Anderson, disobey my orders&mdash;my
+orders, do you hear?&mdash;an explosion such
+as took place in the middle of the English
+channel shall take place in the middle of this
+ship."</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake leave the bridge. I want my
+wits about me, and I have no intention of earning
+another exhibition of your devilries."</p>
+
+<p>"Then be careful not to trouble me again."
+Thus after having passed through much danger
+with a spirit not unbecoming&mdash;as I hope&mdash;an
+English gentleman, I acted, when the worst was
+passed, like a peevish schoolboy. I am ashamed
+of my conduct in this small matter, and trust it
+will pass without much notice in the narrative
+of events of greater moment.</p>
+
+<p>On deck, Natalie Brande, Edith Metford, and
+Percival were standing together, their eyes fixed
+on the island. Edith's face was deathly white,
+even in the ruddy glow which was now over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+land and sea. When I saw her pallor, my evil
+temper passed away.</p>
+
+<p>"It would be impossible for you to be quite
+well," I said to her anxiously; "but has anything
+happened since I left you? You are very pale."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh no," she answered, "I'm all right; a little
+faint after that ride. I shall be better soon."</p>
+
+<p>Natalie turned her weird eyes on me and said
+in the hollow voice we had heard once before&mdash;when
+she spoke to us on the island&mdash;"That is
+her way of telling you that your horse broke
+her right arm when she caught him for you.
+She held him, you remember, with her left hand.
+The doctor has set the limb. She will not suffer
+long."</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven help us, this awful night," Edith
+cried. "How do you know that, Natalie?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know much now, but I shall know more
+soon." After this she would not speak again.</p>
+
+<p>With every pound of steam on that the
+<i>Esmeralda's</i> boilers would bear without bursting,
+we were now plunging through the great rollers
+of the Arafura Sea. Everything had indeed been
+done to put the vessel in trim. She was cleared
+for action, so to speak. And a gallant fight she
+made when the issue was knit. When the hour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+of midnight must be near at hand, I looked at
+my watch. It was one minute to twelve o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty seconds more!</p>
+
+<p>The stupendous corona of flame which hung
+over the island was pierced by long lines of smoke
+that stretched far above the glare and clutched
+with sooty fingers at the stars, now fitfully coming
+back to view at our distance. The rumbling of
+internal thunder waxed louder.</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen seconds now!</p>
+
+<p>Fearful peals rent the atmosphere. Vast
+tongues of flame protruded heavenward. The
+elements must be melting in that fervent heat.
+The blazing bowels of the earth were pouring
+forth.</p>
+
+<p>Twelve, midnight!</p>
+
+<p>A reverberation thundered out which shook
+the solid earth, and a roaring hell-breath of flame
+and smoke belched up so awful in its dread
+magnificence that every man who saw it and
+lived to tell his story might justly have claimed
+to have seen perdition. In that hurricane of incandescent
+matter the island was blotted out for
+ever from the map of this world.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the speed of the <i>Esmeralda</i>
+she was a sloth when compared with the speed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+of the wave from such an earthquake. From
+the glare of the illumination to perfect darkness
+the contrast was sudden and extreme. But the
+blackness of the ocean was soon whitened by
+the snowy plumes of the avalanche of water
+which was now racing us, far astern as yet, but
+gaining fast. I, who had no business about
+the ship requiring my presence in any special
+part, decided to wait on deck and lash myself
+to the forward, which would be practically the
+lee-side of a deckhouse. Edith Metford we
+prevailed on to go below, that she might not
+run the risk of further injury to her fractured
+arm. As she left us she whispered to me, "So
+Natalie will be with you at the end, and I&mdash;"
+a sob stopped her. And it came into my mind
+at that moment that this girl had acted very
+nobly, and that I had hardly appreciated her
+and all that she had done for me.</p>
+
+<p>Natalie refused to leave the deck. I lashed her
+securely beside me. Together we awaited the end.
+When the roar of the following wave came close,
+so close that the voices of the officers of the ship
+could be no longer heard, Natalie spoke. The
+hollow sound was no longer in her voice. Her own
+soft sweet tones had come back.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Arthur," she asked, "is this the end?"</p>
+
+<p>"I fear it is," I answered, speaking close to her
+ear so that she might hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we have little time, and I have something
+which I must say, which you must promise me to
+remember when&mdash;when&mdash;I am no longer with you."</p>
+
+<p>"You will be always with me while we live. I
+think I deserve that at last."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you deserve that and more. I will be
+with you while I live, but that will not be for
+long."</p>
+
+<p>I was about to interrupt her when she put her
+soft little hand upon my lips and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Listen, there is very little time. It is all a
+mistake. I mean Herbert was wrong. He might
+as well have let me have my earthly span of
+happiness or folly&mdash;call it what you will."</p>
+
+<p>"You see that now&mdash;thank God!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but I see it too late, I did not know it until&mdash;until
+I was dead. Hush!" Again I tried to
+interrupt her, for I thought her mind was wandering.
+"I died psychically with Herbert. That was
+when we first saw the light on the island. Since
+then I have lived mechanically, but it has only
+been life in so low a form that I do not now know
+what has happened between that time and this.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+And I could not now speak as I am speaking save
+by a will power which is costing me very dear.
+But it is the only voice you could hear. I do not
+therefore count the cost. My brother's brain so far
+overmatched my own that it first absorbed and
+finally destroyed my mental vitality. This influence
+removed, I am a rudderless ship at sea&mdash;bound to
+perish."</p>
+
+<p>"May his torments endure for ever. May the
+nethermost pit of hell receive him!" I said with a
+groan of agony.</p>
+
+<p>But Natalie said: "Hush! I might have
+lingered on a little longer, but I chose to concentrate
+the vital force which would have lasted
+me a few more senile years into the minutes
+necessary for this message from me to you&mdash;a
+message I could not have given you if he were not
+dead. And I am dying so that you may hear it.
+Dying! My God! I am already dead."</p>
+
+<p>She seemed to struggle against some force that
+battled with her, and the roar of many waters was
+louder around us before she was able to speak
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Bend lower, Arthur; my strength is failing,
+and I have not yet said that for which I am here.
+Lower still.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I said it is all a mistake&mdash;a hideous mistake.
+Existence as we know it is ephemeral. Suffering
+is ephemeral. There is nothing everlasting but
+love. There is nothing eternal but mind. Your
+mind is mine. Your love is mine. Your human
+life may belong to whomsoever you will it. It
+ought to belong to that brave girl below. I do
+not grudge it to her, for I have <i>you</i>. We two
+shall be together through the ages&mdash;for ever and
+for ever. Heart of my heart, you have striven
+manfully and well, and if you did not altogether
+succeed in saving my flesh from premature corruption,
+be satisfied in that you have my soul.
+Ah!"</p>
+
+<p>She pressed her hands to her head as if in
+dreadful pain. When she spoke again her voice
+came in short gasps.</p>
+
+<p>"My brain is reeling. I do not know what I
+am saying," she cried, distraught. "I do not know
+whether I am saying what is true or only what
+I imagine to be true. I know nothing but this.
+I was mesmerised. I have been so for two years.
+But for that I would have been happy in your
+love&mdash;for I was a woman before this hideous
+influence benumbed me. They told me it was
+only a fool's paradise that I missed. But I only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+know that I have missed it. Missed it&mdash;and the
+darkness of death is upon me."</p>
+
+<p>She ceased to speak. A shudder convulsed her,
+and then her head sank gently on my shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment the great wave broke over the
+vessel, whirling her helpless like a cork on the
+ripples of a mill pond; lashing her with mighty
+strokes; sweeping in giant cataracts from stern to
+stem; smashing, tearing everything; deluging her
+with hissing torrents; crushing her with avalanches
+of raging foam. Then the ocean tornado passed
+on and left the <i>Esmeralda</i> behind, with half the
+crew disabled and many lost, her decks a mass of
+wreckage, her masts gone. The crippled ship
+barely floated. When the last torrent of spray
+passed, and I was able to look to Natalie, her head
+had drooped down on her breast. I raised her face
+gently and looked into her wide open eyes.</p>
+
+<p>She was dead.</p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX.<br />
+<small>CONCLUSION.</small></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Taking</span> up my girl's body in my arms, I stumbled
+over the wreck-encumbered deck, and bore it to
+the state-room she had occupied on the outward
+voyage. Percival was too busy attending to
+wounded sailors to be interrupted. His services, I
+knew, were useless now, but I wanted him to refute
+or corroborate a conviction which my own
+medical knowledge had forced upon me. The
+thought was so repellent, I clung to any hope
+which might lead to its dispersion. I waited alone
+with my dead.</p>
+
+<p>Percival came after an hour, which seemed to me
+an eternity. He stammered out some incoherent
+words of sympathy as soon as he looked in my
+face. But this was not the purpose for which I
+had detached him from his pressing duties elsewhere.
+I made a gesture towards the dead girl.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+He attended to it immediately. I watched closely
+and took care that the light should be on his face,
+so that I might read his eyes rather than listen to
+his words.</p>
+
+<p>"She has fainted!" he exclaimed, as he approached
+the rigid figure. I said nothing until
+he turned and faced me. Then I read his eyes.
+He said slowly: "You are aware, Marcel, that&mdash;that
+she is dead?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>"That she has been dead&mdash;several hours?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am."</p>
+
+<p>"But let me think. It was only an hour&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No; do not think," I interrupted. "There are
+things in this voyage which will not bear to be
+thought of. I thank you for coming so soon.
+You will forgive me for troubling you when you
+have so much to do elsewhere. And now leave us
+alone. I mean, leave me alone."</p>
+
+<p>He pressed my hand, and went away without a
+word. I am that man's friend.</p>
+
+<p>They buried her at sea.</p>
+
+<p>I was happily unconscious at the time, and so
+was spared that scene. Edith Metford, weak and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+suffering as she was, went through it all. She has
+told me nothing about it, save that it was done.
+More than that I could not bear. And I have
+borne much.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage home was a dreary episode. There
+is little more to tell, and it must be told quickly.
+Percival was kind, but it distressed me to find that
+he now plainly regarded me as weak-minded from
+the stress of my trouble. Once, in the extremity
+of my misery, I began a relation of my adventures
+to him, for I wanted his help. The look upon his
+face was enough for me. I did not make the same
+mistake again.</p>
+
+<p>To Anderson I made amends for my extravagant
+display of temper. He received me more
+kindly than I expected. I no longer thought of
+the money that had passed between us. And, to
+do him tardy justice, I do not think he thought of
+it either. At least he did not offer any of it back.
+His scruples, I presume, were conscientious. Indeed,
+I was no longer worth a man's enmity.
+Sympathy was now the only indignity that could
+be put upon me. And Anderson did not trespass
+in that direction. My misery was, I thought, complete.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+One note must still be struck in that long
+discord of despair.</p>
+
+<p>We were steaming along the southern coast of
+Java. For many hours the rugged cliffs and giant
+rocks which fence the island against the onslaught
+of the Indian Ocean had passed before us as in
+review, and we&mdash;Edith Metford and I&mdash;sat on the
+deck silently, with many thoughts in common, but
+without the interchange of a spoken word. The
+stern, forbidding aspect of that iron coast increased
+the gloom which had settled on my brain.
+Its ramparts of lonely sea-drenched crags depressed
+me below the mental zero that was now
+habitual with me. The sun went down in a red
+glare, which moved me not. The short twilight
+passed quickly, but I noticed nothing. Then
+night came. The restless sea disappeared in
+darkness. The grand march past of the
+silent stars began. But I neither knew nor
+cared.</p>
+
+<p>A soft whisper stirred me.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur, for God's sake rouse yourself! You
+are brooding a great deal too much. It will
+destroy you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Listlessly I put my hand in hers, and clasped
+her fingers gently.</p>
+
+<p>"Bear with me!" I pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>"I will bear with you for ever. But you must
+fight on. You have not won yet."</p>
+
+<p>"No, nor ever shall. I have fought my last
+fight. The victory may go to whosoever desires
+it."</p>
+
+<p>On this she wept. I could not bear that she should
+suffer from my misery, and so, guarding carefully
+her injured arm, I drew her close to me. And then,
+out of the darkness of the night, far over the solitude
+of the sea, there came to us the sound of a voice.
+That voice was a woman's wail. The girl beside
+me shuddered and drew back. I did not
+ask her if she had heard. I knew she had
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>We arose and stood apart without any explanation.
+From that moment a caress would have
+been a sacrilege. I did not hear that weird sound
+again, nor aught else for an hour or more save
+the bursting of the breakers on the crags of
+Java.</p>
+
+<p>I kept no record of the commonplaces of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+voyage thereafter. It only remains for me to say
+that I arrived in England broken in health and
+bankrupt in fortune. Brande left no money.
+His formula for the transmutation of metals
+is unintelligible to me. I can make no use
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>Edith Metford remains my friend. To part
+utterly after what we have undergone together is
+beyond our strength. But between us there is a
+nameless shadow, reminiscent of that awful night
+in the Arafura Sea, when death came very near to
+us. And in my ears there is always the echo of
+that voice which I heard by the shores of Java
+when the misty borderland between life and death
+seemed clear.</p>
+
+<p>My story is told. I cannot prove its truth, for
+there is much in it to which I am the only living
+witness. I cannot prove whether Herbert Brande
+was a scientific magician possessed of <i>all</i> the
+powers he claimed, or merely a mad physicist in
+charge of a new and terrible explosive; nor
+whether Edward Grey ever started for Labrador.
+The burthen of the proof of this last must be
+borne by others&mdash;unless it be left to Grey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+himself to show whether my evidence is false or
+true. If it be left to him, a few years will decide
+the issue.</p>
+
+<p>I am content to wait.</p>
+
+<p class="p5">THE END.</p>
+
+<p class="p6"><small>LONDON: DIGBY, LONG AND CO., PUBLISHERS, 18 BOUVERIE STREET,
+FLEET STREET, E.C.</small></p>
+
+<hr />
+<p class="center"><span class="ft1"><big>ROBERT CROMIE'S BOOKS</big></span></p>
+
+<p class="p5"><i>OPINIONS OF THE PRESS</i></p>
+
+<p class="p6"><span class="ft1">A PLUNGE INTO SPACE</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">With Preface by Jules Verne</span></p>
+
+<p class="p7"><i>Times.</i>&mdash;The story is written with considerable liveliness, the scientific
+jargon is sufficiently perplexing, and the characters are sketched with
+some humour.</p>
+
+<p><i>Chronicle.</i>&mdash;A strange, weird, mysterious story that holds the reader
+spell-bound, from the first page to the last.</p>
+
+<p><i>Athen&aelig;um.</i>&mdash;Mr. Cromie's Utopia is charming, and the quasi-scientific
+detail of the expedition is given with so much integrity that we hardly
+wonder at the marvellous results accomplished.</p>
+
+<p><i>Truth.</i>&mdash;A very clever description of a flight through space to Mars ... the
+book is extremely interesting and suggestive; especially,
+perhaps, where it attacks the theories of Mr. George and "Looking
+Backwards."</p>
+
+<p><i>Court Journal.</i>&mdash;Mr. Robert Cromie's remarkably clever and entertaining
+volume is told with much of the vivid fancy of a Jules Verne&mdash;with
+remarkable picturesqueness, and the experiences of mortals in Mars
+are described with considerable humour.</p>
+
+<p><i>Review of Reviews.</i>&mdash;An unquestionably interesting story. The
+adventures of the hero and his friends are in no small degree thrilling.</p>
+
+<p><i>Glasgow Herald.</i>&mdash;The imagination is brilliant, the scientific details
+are skilfully worked in, the dialogues and descriptions are lively and
+interesting, and the pictures of Martian life and scenery are remarkable&mdash;a
+decidedly clever book.</p>
+
+<p class="p6"><span class="ft1">FOR ENGLAND'S SAKE</span></p>
+
+<p class="p7"><i>Academy.</i>&mdash;There is not a dull page in the story.</p>
+
+<p><i>Army and Navy Gazette.</i>&mdash;A capital little story of military life, full
+of bright word-painting.</p>
+
+<p><i>Literary World.</i>&mdash;This exciting chapter in the history of the future
+is written with a great deal of enthusiasm, and a great deal of common
+sense to boot.</p>
+
+<p><i>Irish Times.</i>&mdash;The plot is well conceived, and the interest throughout
+is well maintained.</p>
+
+<p><i>Belfast Northern Whig.</i>&mdash;The author displays much constructive and
+descriptive power. He is most felicitous in his word pictures of scenery,
+and imparts a fascinating dash to his military scenes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Belfast Morning News.</i>&mdash;Deeply interesting without being sensational,
+this charming story of love and war is sure to appeal with force
+to a large circle of readers.</p>
+
+<p><i>Liverpool Daily Post.</i>&mdash;A well-told story of life and love in troublous
+times in India.</p>
+
+<p class="p6"><span class="ft1">IN SOUTHERN SEAS</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Written in Collaboration With W. R. Ringland.</span></p>
+
+<p class="p7"><i>Athen&aelig;um.</i>&mdash;A bright, compact, and highly readable narrative, full
+of incidents, and illustrated with clever little vignettes.</p>
+
+<p><i>Newcastle Chronicle.</i>&mdash;A really charming book&mdash;deeply interesting,
+and full of capital drawings.</p>
+
+<p><i>Scotsman.</i>&mdash;A very well-written narrative of a trip, and as such, about
+as good as it could be.</p>
+
+<p><i>Spectator.</i>&mdash;A pleasant little book of travel.</p>
+
+<p><i>Leeds Mercury.</i>&mdash;The author relies on vivid description, pointed and
+racy pictures, and lively and striking incident for interest.</p>
+
+<p><i>Saturday Review.</i>&mdash;Brightly written, and yet more brightly illustrated.</p>
+
+<p class="p5"><i>The foregoing Books may be had through</i> <span class="smcap">Digby, Long &amp; Co., 18 Bouverie
+Street, Fleet Street, London, E.C.</span></p>
+
+<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ad_1" id="Page_ad_1">{1}</a></span></p>
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="td2"><i><big>MAY 1895</big></i></p>
+
+<p class="ft1"><b><span class="u">SUPPLEMENTARY LIST</span></b></p>
+
+<p class="p3"><span class="ft1"><big>DIGBY, LONG &amp; CO.'S<br />
+NEW NOVELS, STORIES, Etc.</big></span></p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="ad1"><big><i>IN ONE VOLUME</i>, Price <b>6s.</b></big></p>
+<p class="ad1">NEW NOVEL BY DR ARABELLA KENEALY.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Honourable Mrs Spoor.</big></b> By the Author of
+"Some Men are such Gentlemen," "Dr Janet of
+Harley Street," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1">NEW NOVEL BY ANNIE THOMAS (Mrs <span class="smcap">Pender Cudlip</span>).</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>False Pretences.</big></b> By the Author of "Allerton
+Towers," "That Other Woman," "Kate Valliant,"
+"A Girl's Folly," etc., etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Second Edition.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>WORLD</i> says:&mdash;"Miss Annie Thomas has rarely drawn a character so
+cleverly as that of the false and scheming Mrs Colraine."</p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1">NEW NOVEL BY DR ARABELLA KENEALY.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Some Men are such Gentlemen.</big></b> By the Author
+of "Dr Janet of Harley Street," "Molly and Her
+Man-o'-War," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i> With a
+Frontispiece.</p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Fifth Edition.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>ACADEMY</i> says:&mdash;"We take up a book by Miss Arabella Kenealy confidently
+expecting to be amused, and in her latest work we are not disappointed.
+The story is so brightly written that our interest is never allowed to flag. The
+heroine, Lois Clinton, is sweet and womanly.... The tale is told with spirit and
+vivacity, and shows no little skill in its descriptive passages."</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>PALL MALL GAZETTE</i> says:&mdash;"A book to be read breathlessly from
+beginning to end. It is decidedly original ... its vivid interest. The picture of
+the girl is admirably drawn. The style is bright and easy."</p>
+
+<p class="ad3"><i>TRUTH</i> says:&mdash;"Its heroine is at once original and charming."</p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1">NEW NOVEL BY DORA RUSSELL.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Other Bond.</big></b> By the Author of "A Hidden
+Chain," "A Country Sweetheart," "The Drift of
+Fate," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Third Edition.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>ATHEN&AElig;UM</i> on Miss Russell's Works, says:&mdash;"Miss Russell writes easily
+and well, and she has the gift of making her characters describe themselves by
+their dialogue, which is bright and natural."</p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1">NEW NOVEL BY L. T. MEADE.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>A Life for a Love.</big></b> By the Author of "The Medicine
+Lady," "A Soldier of Fortune," "In an Iron Grip,"
+etc., etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i> With a Frontispiece
+by Hal Hurst.</p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Third Edition. Just out.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>DAILY TELEGRAPH</i> says:&mdash;"This thrilling tale. The plot is worked
+out with remarkable ingenuity. The book abounds in clever and graphic
+characterisation."</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ad_2" id="Page_ad_2">{2}</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ad1">NEW NOVEL BY FLORENCE MARRYAT.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Beautiful Soul.</big></b> By the Author of "A Fatal
+Silence," "There is no Death," etc., etc. Crown 8vo,
+cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Fourth Edition.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>GUARDIAN</i> says:&mdash;"We read the book with real pleasure and interest....
+In Felecia Hetherington, Miss Marryat has drawn a really fine character,
+and has given her what she claims for her in the title, a beautiful soul."</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>WORLD</i> says:&mdash;"An entertaining and animated story.... One of the
+most lovable women to whom novel readers have been introduced."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Une Culotte:</big></b> An Impossible Story of Modern
+Oxford. By "<span class="smcap">Tivoli</span>," Author of "A Defender
+of the Faith." With Illustrations by A. W. <span class="smcap">Cooper</span>.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Second Edition.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>DAILY CHRONICLE</i> says:&mdash;"The book is full of funny things. The
+story is a screaming farce, and will furnish plenty of amusement."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Vengeance of Medea.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Edith Gray
+Wheelwright</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>WESTERN DAILY MERCURY</i> says:&mdash;"Miss Wheelwright has introduced
+several delightful characters, and produced a work which will add to her
+reputation. The dialogue is especially well written."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>A Ruined Life.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Emily St Clair</span>. Crown 8vo,
+cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE</i> says:&mdash;"A powerful story developed with
+considerable dramatic skill and remarkable fervour."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Westovers.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Algernon Ridgeway.</span> Author
+of "Westover's Ward," "Diana Fontaine," etc.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>GLASGOW HERALD</i> says:&mdash;"'The Westovers' is a clever book."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Flaming Sword.</big></b> Being an Account of the
+Extraordinary Adventures and Discoveries of Dr
+<span class="smcap">Percival</span> in the Wilds of Africa. Written by Himself.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>SPEAKER</i> says:&mdash;"Mr Rider Haggard himself has not imagined more
+wonderful things than those which befell Dr Percival and his friends."</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>LITERARY WORLD</i> says:&mdash;"Out-Haggards Haggard."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>In Due Season.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Agnes Goldwin</span>. Crown 8vo,
+cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>ACADEMY</i> says:&mdash;"Her novel is well written, it flows easily, its situations
+are natural, its men and women are real."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>His Last Amour.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Monopole</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>GLASGOW HERALD</i> says:&mdash;"The story is unfolded with considerable
+skill, and the interest of the reader is not allowed to flag."</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ad_3" id="Page_ad_3">{3}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>An Unknown Power.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Charles E. R. Bellairs</span>.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>BELFAST NORTHERN WHIG</i> says:&mdash;"From start to finish the
+reader's attention is never allowed to flag. The characters are drawn with considerable
+fidelity to life. The plot is original, and its developments well worked
+out."</p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1">NEW NOVEL BY GERTRUDE L. WARREN.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Mystery of Hazelgrove.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Gertrude L.
+Warren</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1">NEW NOVEL BY ALICE MAUD MEADOWS.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>When the Heart is Young.</big></b> By the Author of
+"The Romance of a Madhouse," etc. Crown 8vo,
+cloth. 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Fourth Edition.</i></p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1">A NEW AUSTRALIAN NOVEL.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Recognition.</big></b> A Mystery of the Coming Colony. By
+<span class="smcap">Sydney H. Wright</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Shortly.</i></p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1">A NEW SPORTING STORY.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>With the Bankshire Hounds.</big></b> By M. F. H.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Some Passages in Plantagenet Paul's Life.</big></b>
+By <span class="smcap">Himself</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Drifting.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Marston Moore</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Coneycreek.</big></b> By M. <span class="smcap">Lawson</span>. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="ad1"><big><i>IN THREE VOLUMES</i>, Price <b>31s. 6d.</b></big></p>
+
+<p class="ad1"><span class="smcap">By</span> DORA RUSSELL.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>A Hidden Chain.</big></b> By the Author of "Footprints in
+the Snow," "The Other Bond," etc., etc. In Three
+Volumes, crown 8vo, cloth, 31<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Second Edition.</i></p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1"><span class="smcap">By</span> JEAN MIDDLEMASS.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Mystery of Clement Dunraven.</big></b> By the
+Author of "A Girl in a Thousand," etc. In Three
+Volumes, crown 8vo, cloth, 31<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Second Edition.</i></p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1"><span class="smcap">By</span> PERCY ROSS.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Eccentrics.</big></b> By the Author of "A Comedy
+without Laughter," "A Misguidit Lassie," "A Professor
+of Alchemy," etc. In Three Volumes, crown
+8vo, cloth, 31<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ad_4" id="Page_ad_4">{4}</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ad1"><span class="smcap">By</span> GILBERTA M. F. LYON.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Absent Yet Present.</big></b> By the Author of "For Good
+or Evil." In Three Volumes, crown 8vo, cloth, 31<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1"><span class="smcap">By</span> MADELINE CRICHTON.</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Like a Sister.</big></b> In Three Volumes, crown 8vo, cloth,
+31<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Second Edition.</i></p></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="ad1"><big><i>IN ONE VOLUME</i>, Price <b>3s. 6d.</b></big></p>
+
+<p class="ad1"><span class="smcap">NEW BOOK by the AUTHOR of "A PLUNGE INTO SPACE."</span></p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Crack of Doom.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Robert Cromie</span>, Author
+of "For England's Sake," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth,
+3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small><sup>*</sup><sub>*</sub><sup>*</sup> The first Large Edition was exhausted before publication.<br />
+<span class="smcap">Second Edition</span> now ready.</small></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Her Loving Slave.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Hume Nisbet</span>, author of "The
+Jolly Roger," "Bail Up," etc., etc. In Handsome
+Pictorial Binding, with Illustrations by the Author.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Third Edition.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>His Egyptian Wife.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Hilton Hill</span>. Crown 8vo,
+cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> With Frontispiece.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><small><sup>*</sup><sub>*</sub><sup>*</sup> Published simultaneously in London and New York.</small></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>A Son of Noah.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Mary Anderson</span>, author of
+"Othello's Occupation." Crown 8vo, cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Fifth Edition.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Last Cruise of the Teal.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Leigh Ray</span>.
+In handsome pictorial binding. Illustrated throughout.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Second Edition.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>NATIONAL OBSERVER</i> says:&mdash;"It is long since we have lighted on so
+good a story of adventure."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>His Troublesome Sister.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Eva Travers Evered
+Poole</span>, Author of many Popular Stories. Crown 8vo,
+cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>BIRMINGHAM POST</i> says:&mdash;"An interesting and well-constructed story.
+The characters are strongly drawn, the plot is well devised, and those who commence
+the book will be sure to finish it."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Bow and the Sword.</big></b> A Romance. By E. C.
+<span class="smcap">Adams</span>, M.A. With 16 full-page drawings by <span class="smcap">Matthew
+Stretch</span>. Crown 8vo, pictorial cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>MORNING POST</i> says:&mdash;"The author reconstructs cleverly the life of one
+of the most cultivated nations of antiquity, and describes both wars and pageants
+with picturesque vigour. The illustrations are well executed."</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ad_5" id="Page_ad_5">{5}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Maid of Havodwen.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">John Ferrars</span>.
+Author of "Claud Brennan." Crown 8vo, cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>DUNDEE ADVERTISER</i> says:&mdash;"A charming story of Welsh life and
+character.... Deeply interesting.... Of unusual attractiveness."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Paths that Cross.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Mark Trehern</span>. Crown 8vo,
+cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>DAILY TELEGRAPH</i> says:&mdash;"Cleverly sketched characters. The book
+is enlivened throughout with innumerable light touches of quaint and spontaneous
+humour."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>A Tale of Two Curates.</big></b> By Rev. <span class="smcap">James Copner</span>,
+M.A. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>DUNDEE ADVERTISER</i> says:&mdash;"Simply but graphically narrated."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Wrong of Fate.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Lillias Lobenhoffer</span>,
+Author of "Bairnie," etc. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>LONDON STAR</i> says:&mdash;"A well-written and clever novel, excellent
+studies of Scotch character."</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>SCOTSMAN</i> says:&mdash;"Shows considerable power."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Studies in Miniature.</big></b> By A <span class="smcap">Titular Vicar</span>.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>MANCHESTER COURIER</i> says:&mdash;"Brightly and cleverly written."</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>BELFAST NEWS LETTER</i> says:&mdash;"Very readable, characters admirably
+drawn."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Spunyarn.</big></b> By N. J. <span class="smcap">Preston</span>. Crown 8vo, pictorial
+cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="ad1"><big><i>IN ONE VOLUME</i>, Price <b>2s. 6d.</b></big></p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Lost! &pound;100 Reward.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Miriam Young</span>, Author
+of "The Girl Musician." Crown 8vo, cloth, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>WEEKLY SUN</i> says:&mdash;"The interest is well sustained throughout, and
+the incidents are most graphically described."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Clenched Antagonisms.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Lewis Iram</span>. Crown
+8vo, cloth, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>SATURDAY REVIEW</i> says:&mdash;"'Clenched Antagonisms' is a powerful
+and ghastly narrative of the triumph of force over virtue. The book gives a striking
+illustration of the barbarous incongruities that still exist in the midst of an advanced
+civilisation."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>For Marjory's Sake</big></b>: A Story of South Australian
+Country Life. By Mrs <span class="smcap">John Waterhouse</span>. In
+handsome cloth binding, with Illustrations. Crown
+8vo, cloth, 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3"><i>The LITERARY WORLD</i> says:&mdash;"A delightful little volume, fresh and dainty,
+and with the pure, free air of Australian country parts blowing through it ... gracefully
+told ... the writing is graceful and easy."</p></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ad_6" id="Page_ad_6">{6}</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ad1"><big><i>IN ONE VOLUME, PAPER COVER</i>, Price <b>1s.</b></big></p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>A Stock Exchange Romance.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Bracebridge
+Hemyng</span>, Author of "The Stockbroker's Wife," "Called
+to the Bar," etc., etc. Edited by <span class="smcap">George Gregory</span>.
+Crown 8vo, picture cover, 1<i>s.</i> (<span class="smcap">Tenth Thousand.</span>)</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Our Discordant Life.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Adam D'H&eacute;ristal</span>.
+Crown 8vo, picture cover, 1<i>s.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>A Police Sergeant's Secret.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Kilsyth Stellier</span>,
+Author of "Taken by Force." Crown 8vo, picture
+cover, 1<i>s.</i> (<span class="smcap">Fifth Thousand</span>.)</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Irish Stew.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">James J. Moran</span>, Author of "A
+Deformed Idol," "The Dunferry Risin'," "Runs in
+the Blood," etc. Crown 8vo, lithographed cover,
+price 1<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>WEEKLY SUN</i> says:&mdash;"<span class="smcap">Mr Moran</span> is the 'Barrie' of Ireland.... In a
+remote district in the west of Ireland he has created an Irish Thrums."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>La Lecsinska.</big></b> A Powerful and Clever Novel. By
+<span class="smcap">Harriet Buckley</span>. Crown 8vo, paper cover, 1<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>That Other Fellow.</big></b> An Original and Absorbing
+Novel. By Mrs <span class="smcap">Louisa Le Bailly</span>. Crown 8vo,
+paper cover, 1<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="ft1">DIGBY'S POPULAR NOVEL SERIES.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>In Handsome Cloth Binding, Gold Lettered, Cr. 8vo, 320 pp.<br />
+Price 2s. 6d. each, or in Picture Boards, Price <b>2s.</b> each.</i></p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+
+<tr><td class="td3"><div class="bk2"><p class="center"><b>BY JEAN MIDDLEMASS.</b></p>
+<p class="ad2">THE MYSTERY OF CLEMENT
+DUNRAVEN. By
+the Author of "A Girl in a
+Thousand," etc. (<span class="smcap">Second
+Edition.</span>)</p></div></td>
+
+<td class="td4"><div class="bk2"><p class="center"><b>BY DR. A. KENEALY.</b></p>
+<p class="ad2">Dr JANET OF HARLEY
+STREET. By the Author
+of "Molly and her Man-o'-War,"
+etc. (<span class="smcap">Seventh Edition.</span>)
+With Portrait.</p></div></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="td3"><div class="bk2"><p class="center"><b>BY DORA RUSSELL.</b></p>
+<p class="ad2">A HIDDEN CHAIN. By
+the Author of "Footprints in
+the Snow," etc. (<span class="smcap">Second
+Edition.</span>)</p></div></td>
+
+<td class="td4"><div class="bk2"><p class="center"><b>BY HUME NISBET.</b></p>
+<p class="ad2">THE JOLLY ROGER. By
+the Author of "Bail Up," etc.
+With Illustrations by the
+Author. (<span class="smcap">Fifth Edition.</span>)</p></div></td></tr>
+
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Note.</span>&mdash;Other Works in the same Series in due course.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ad_7" id="Page_ad_7">{7}</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="ft1"><b>MISCELLANEOUS.</b></span></p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>A History of the Great Western Railway
+from Its Inception to the Present Time.</big></b>
+By <span class="smcap">G. A. Sekon</span>. Revised by <span class="smcap">F. G. Saunders</span>,
+Chairman of the Great Western Railway. Demy 8vo,
+390 pages, cloth, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> With numerous Illustrations.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><sup>*</sup><sub>*</sub><sup>*</sup> <i>Illustrated Prospectus, post free.</i> [<i>Second Edition.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>TIMES</i>, April 12th, 1895.&mdash;"Mr Sekon's volume is full of interest, and
+constitutes an important chapter in the history of railway development in
+England."</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>STANDARD</i> (Leader), April 4th, 1895.&mdash;"An excellent addition to the
+literature of our iron roads."</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>DAILY TELEGRAPH</i>, April 13th, 1895.&mdash;"Mr G. A. Sekon has performed
+a service to the public. His book is full of interest, and is evidently the
+result of a great deal of painstaking inquiry.... His book is made all the
+more valuable by several pictures of engines, collisions, the Saltash Bridge, the
+Old Bath Station and the Box Tunnel; and it will be welcomed by all interested
+in the history and extraordinary expansion of our iron roadways."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Three Empresses.</big></b> Josephine, Marie-Louise, Eug&eacute;nie.
+By <span class="smcap">Caroline Geary</span>, Author of "In Other Lands,"
+etc. With portraits. Cr. 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i> (<span class="smcap">Second Edit.</span>)</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>PALL MALL GAZETTE</i> says:&mdash;"This charming book.... Gracefully
+and graphically written, the story of each Empress is clearly and fully told.... This
+delightful book."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Winter and Summer Excursions in Canada.</big></b>
+By C. L. <span class="smcap">Johnstone</span>, Author of "Historical Families
+of Dumfriesshire," etc. With Illustrations. Crown
+8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>DAILY NEWS</i> says:&mdash;"Not for a long while have we read a book of its
+class which deserves so much confidence. Intending settlers would do well to
+study Mr Johnstone's book."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>The Author's Manual.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Percy Russell</span>. With
+Prefatory Remarks by Mr <span class="smcap">Gladstone</span>. Crown 8vo,
+cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net. (<span class="smcap">Eighth and Cheaper Edition.</span>)
+With portrait.</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>WESTMINSTER REVIEW</i> says:&mdash;"... Mr Russell's book is a very
+complete manual and guide for journalist and author. It is not a merely
+practical work&mdash;it is literary and appreciative of literature in its best sense; ... we
+have little else but praise for the volume."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>A Guide to British and American Novels.</big></b>
+From the Earliest Period to the end of 1894. By
+<span class="smcap">Percy Russell</span>, Author of "The Author's Manual,"
+etc. Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net. (<span class="smcap">Second
+Edition carefully revised.</span>)</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>SPECTATOR</i> says:&mdash;"Mr Russell's familiarity with every form of novel
+is amazing, and his summaries of plots and comments thereon are as brief and
+lucid as they are various."</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ad_8" id="Page_ad_8">{8}</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Sixty Years' Experience as an Irish Landlord.</big></b>
+Memoirs of <span class="smcap">John Hamilton</span>, D.L. of St Ernan's,
+Donegal. Edited, with Introduction, by the Rev. H.
+C. <span class="smcap">White</span>, late Chaplain, Paris. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i>
+With Portrait.</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>TIMES</i> says:&mdash;"Much valuable light on the real history of Ireland, and of
+the Irish agrarian question in the present century is thrown by a very interesting
+volume entitled 'Sixty Years' Experience as an Irish Landlord.'... This very
+instructive volume."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Nigh on Sixty Years at Sea.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Robert Woolward</span>
+("Old Woolward"). Crown 8vo, cloth, 6<i>s.</i>
+With Portrait. (<span class="smcap">Second Edition.</span>)</p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>TIMES</i> says:&mdash;"Very entertaining reading. Captain Woolward writes
+sensibly and straightforwardly, and tells his story with the frankness of an old salt.
+He has a keen sense of humour, and his stories are endless and very entertaining."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Whose Fault?</big></b> The Story of a Trial at <i>Nisi Prius</i>.
+By <span class="smcap">Ellis J. Davis</span>, Barrister-at-Law. In handsome
+pictorial binding. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>TIMES</i> says:&mdash;"An ingenious attempt to convey to the lay mind an accurate
+and complete idea of the origin and progress and all the essential circumstances
+of an ordinary action at law. The idea is certainly a good one, and is executed in
+very entertaining fashion.... Mr Davis's instructive little book."</p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Borodin and Liszt.</big></b> I.&mdash;Life and Works of a Russian
+Composer. II.&mdash;Liszt, as sketched in the Letters of
+Borodin. By <span class="smcap">Alfred Habets</span>. Translated with
+a Preface by <span class="smcap">Rosa Newmarch</span>. With Portraits and
+Fac-similes.</p>
+
+<p class="td2">[<i>Just out.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Fragments from Victor Hugo's Legends and
+Lyrics.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Cecilia Elizabeth Meetkerke</span>.
+Crown 8vo, cloth, 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>WORLD</i> says:&mdash;"The most admirable rendering of French poetry into
+English that has come to our knowledge since Father Prout's translation of 'La
+Chant du Cosaque.'"</p></div>
+
+<p class="ad1">BY THE AUTHOR OF "SONG FAVOURS."</p>
+
+<div class="bk2"><p class="ad2"><b><big>Minuti&aelig;.</big></b> By <span class="smcap">Charles William Dalmon</span>. Royal
+16mo, cloth elegant, price 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<p class="ad3">The <i>ACADEMY</i> says:&mdash;"His song has a rare and sweet note. The little book
+has colour and fragrance, and is none the less welcome because the fragrance is
+delicate, evanescent; the colours of white and silver grey and lavender, rather
+than brilliant and exuberant.... Mr Dalmon's genuine artistry. In his sonnets
+he shows a deft touch, particularly in the fine one, 'Ecce Ancilla Domini.' Yet,
+after all, it is in the lyrics that he is most individual.... Let him take heart, for
+surely the song that he has to sing is worth singing."</p></div>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="ad3"><big><sup>*</sup><sub>*</sub><sup>*</sup> <i>A complete Catalogue of Novels, Travels, Biographies,
+Poems, etc., with a critical or descriptive notice of each, free
+by post on application.</i></big></p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p class="center"><b>London: DIGBY, LONG &amp; CO., Publishers,</b><br />
+<i>18 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, E.C.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="trn"><p><b>Transcriber's Note:</b><br />
+Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+Inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised.
+Based on the text in the Preface and the concluding lines of the
+last chapter, the date in the sentence:</p>
+
+<p class="sp1"><small>"If we fail to act before the 31st December, in the year 2000,
+he will proceed." (p. <a href="#Page_151">151</a>)</small></p>
+
+<p>has been amended to the year 1900, bearing in mind the story takes
+place towards the end of the 19th century.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crack of Doom, by Robert Cromie
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRACK OF DOOM ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crack of Doom, by Robert Cromie
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Crack of Doom
+
+Author: Robert Cromie
+
+Release Date: September 8, 2008 [EBook #26563]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRACK OF DOOM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Stephen Blundell and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+            THE CRACK OF DOOM
+
+
+                   BY
+
+              ROBERT CROMIE
+ _Author of "A Plunge into Space," etc._
+
+
+            _SECOND EDITION_
+
+
+                 LONDON
+            DIGBY, LONG & CO.
+ 18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET STREET, E.C.
+                  1895
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The rough notes from which this narrative has been constructed were
+given to me by the man who tells the story. For obvious reasons I have
+altered the names of the principals, and I hereby pass on the assurance
+which I have received, that the originals of such as are left alive can
+be found if their discovery be thought desirable. This alteration of
+names, the piecing together of somewhat disconnected and sometimes
+nearly indecipherable memoranda, and the reduction of the mass to
+consecutive form, are all that has been required of me or would have
+been permitted to me. The expedition to Labrador mentioned by the
+narrator has not returned, nor has it ever been definitely traced. He
+does not undertake to prove that it ever set out. But he avers that all
+which is hereafter set down is truly told, and he leaves it to mankind
+to accept the warning which it has fallen to him to convey, or await the
+proof of its sincerity which he believes the end of the century will
+produce.
+
+                                                        ROBERT CROMIE.
+
+BELFAST, _May, 1895_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAP.                                  PAGE
+
+     I. THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!             1
+
+    II. A STRANGE EXPERIMENT               10
+
+   III. "IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE"           21
+
+    IV. GEORGE DELANY--DECEASED            32
+
+     V. THE MURDER CLUB                    41
+
+    VI. A TELEPATHIC TELEGRAM              51
+
+   VII. GUILTY!                            62
+
+  VIII. THE WOKING MYSTERY                 72
+
+    IX. CUI BONO?                          81
+
+     X. FORCE--A REMEDY                    93
+
+    XI. MORITURI TE SALUTANT              104
+
+   XII. "NO DEATH--SAVE IN LIFE"          111
+
+  XIII. MISS METFORD'S PLAN               123
+
+   XIV. ROCKINGHAM TO THE SHARKS          133
+
+    XV. "IF NOT TOO LATE"                 146
+
+   XVI. L5000 TO DETAIN THE SHIP          160
+
+  XVII. "THIS EARTH SHALL DIE"            174
+
+ XVIII. THE FLIGHT                        184
+
+   XIX. THE CATASTROPHE                   197
+
+    XX. CONCLUSION                        208
+
+
+
+
+THE CRACK OF DOOM
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE UNIVERSE A MISTAKE!
+
+
+"The Universe is a mistake!"
+
+Thus spake Herbert Brande, a passenger on the _Majestic_, making for
+Queenstown Harbour, one evening early in the past year. Foolish as the
+words may seem, they were partly influential in leading to my terrible
+association with him, and all that is described in this book.
+
+Brande was standing beside me on the starboard side of the vessel. We
+had been discussing a current astronomical essay, as we watched the hazy
+blue line of the Irish coast rise on the horizon. This conversation was
+interrupted by Brande, who said, impatiently:
+
+"Why tell us of stars distant so far from this insignificant little
+world of ours--so insignificant that even its own inhabitants speak
+disrespectfully of it--that it would take hundreds of years to telegraph
+to some of them, thousands to others, and millions to the rest? Why
+limit oneself to a mere million of years for a dramatic illustration,
+when there is a star in space distant so far from us that if a telegram
+left the earth for it this very night, and maintained for ever its
+initial velocity, it would never reach that star?"
+
+He said this without any apparent effort after rhetorical effect; but
+the suddenness with which he had presented a very obvious truism in a
+fresh light to me made the conception of the vastness of space
+absolutely oppressive. In the hope of changing the subject I replied:
+
+"Nothing is gained by dwelling on these scientific speculations. The
+mind is only bewildered. The Universe is inexplicable."
+
+"The Universe!" he exclaimed. "That is easily explained. The Universe is
+a mistake!"
+
+"The greatest mistake of the century, I suppose," I added, somewhat
+annoyed, for I thought Brande was laughing at me.
+
+"Say, of Time, and I agree with you," he replied, careless of my
+astonishment.
+
+I did not answer him for some moments.
+
+This man Brande was young in years, but middle-aged in the expression of
+his pale, intellectual face, and old--if age be synonymous with
+knowledge--in his ideas. His knowledge, indeed, was so exhaustive that
+the scientific pleasantries to which he was prone could always be
+justified, dialectically at least, by him when he was contradicted.
+Those who knew him well did not argue with him. I was always stumbling
+into intellectual pitfalls, for I had only known him since the steamer
+left New York.
+
+As to myself, there is little to be told. My history prior to my
+acquaintance with Brande was commonplace. I was merely an active,
+athletic Englishman, Arthur Marcel by name. I had studied medicine, and
+was a doctor in all but the degree. This certificate had been dispensed
+with owing to an unexpected legacy, on receipt of which I determined to
+devote it to the furtherance of my own amusement. In the pursuit of this
+object, I had visited many lands and had become familiar with most of
+the beaten tracks of travel. I was returning to England after an absence
+of three years spent in aimless roaming. My age was thirty-one years,
+and my salient characteristic at the time was to hold fast by anything
+that interested me, until my humour changed. Brande's conversational
+vagaries had amused me on the voyage. His extraordinary comment on the
+Universe decided me to cement our shipboard acquaintance before reaching
+port.
+
+"That explanation of yours," I said, lighting a fresh cigar, and
+returning to a subject which I had so recently tried to shelve, "isn't
+it rather vague?"
+
+"For the present it must serve," he answered absently.
+
+To force him into admitting that his phrase was only a thoughtless
+exclamation, or induce him to defend it, I said:
+
+"It does not serve any reasonable purpose. It adds nothing to knowledge.
+As it stands, it is neither academic nor practical."
+
+Brande looked at me earnestly for a moment, and then said gravely:
+
+"The academic value of the explanation will be shown to you if you will
+join a society I have founded; and its practicalness will soon be made
+plain whether you join or not."
+
+"What do you call this club of yours?" I asked.
+
+"We do not call it a club. We call it a Society--the _Cui Bono_
+Society," he answered coldly.
+
+"I like the name," I returned. "It is suggestive. It may mean
+anything--or nothing."
+
+"You will learn later that the Society means something; a good deal, in
+fact."
+
+This was said in the dry, unemotional tone which I afterwards found was
+the only sign of displeasure Brande ever permitted himself to show. His
+arrangements for going on shore at Queenstown had been made early in the
+day, but he left me to look for his sister, of whom I had seen very
+little on the voyage. The weather had been rough, and as she was not a
+good sailor, I had only had a rare glimpse of a very dark and handsome
+girl, whose society possessed for me a strange attraction, although we
+were then almost strangers. Indeed, I regretted keenly, as the time of
+our separation approached, having registered my luggage (consisting
+largely of curios and mementoes of my travels, of which I was very
+careful) for Liverpool. My own time was valueless, and it would have
+been more agreeable to me to continue the journey with the Brandes, no
+matter where they went.
+
+There was a choppy sea on when we reached the entrance to the harbour,
+so the _Majestic_ steamed in between the Carlisle and Camden forts, and
+on to the man-of-war roads, where the tender met us. By this time,
+Brande and his sister were ready to go on shore; but as there was a
+heavy mail to be transhipped, we had still an hour at our disposal. For
+some time we paced the deck, exchanging commonplaces on the voyage and
+confidences as to our future plans. It was almost dark, but not dark
+enough to prevent us from seeing those wonderfully green hills which
+landlock the harbour. To me the verdant woods and hills were delightful
+after the brown plains and interminable prairies on which I had spent
+many months. As the lights of Queenstown began to speck the slowly
+gathering gloom, Miss Brande asked me to point out Rostellan Castle. It
+could not be seen from the vessel, but the familiar legend was easily
+recalled, and this led us to talk about Irish tradition with its weird
+romance and never failing pathos. This interested her. Freed now from
+the lassitude of sea-sickness, the girl became more fascinating to me
+every moment. Everything she said was worth listening to, apart from the
+charming manner in which it was said.
+
+To declare that she was an extremely pretty girl would not convey the
+strange, almost unearthly, beauty of her face--as intellectual as her
+brother's--and of the charm of her slight but exquisitely moulded
+figure. In her dark eyes there was a sympathy, a compassion, that was
+new to me. It thrilled me with an emotion different from anything that
+my frankly happy, but hitherto wholly selfish life had known. There was
+only one note in her conversation which jarred upon me. She was apt to
+drift into the extraordinary views of life and death which were
+interesting when formulated by her eccentric brother, but pained me
+coming from her lips. In spite of this, the purpose I had contemplated
+of joining Brande's Society--evoked as it had been by his own whimsical
+observation--now took definite form. I would join that Society. It would
+be the best way of keeping near to Natalie Brande.
+
+Her brother returned to us to say that the tender was about to leave the
+ship. He had left us for half an hour. I did not notice his absence
+until he himself announced it. As we shook hands, I said to him:
+
+"I have been thinking about that Society of yours. I mean to join it."
+
+"I am very glad," he replied. "You will find it a new sensation, quite
+outside the beaten track, which you know so well."
+
+There was a shade of half-kindly contempt in his voice, which missed me
+at the moment. I answered gaily, knowing that he would not be offended
+by what was said in jest:
+
+"I am sure I shall. If all the members are as mad as yourself, it will
+be the most interesting experience outside Bedlam that any man could
+wish for."
+
+I had a foretaste of that interest soon.
+
+As Miss Brande was walking to the gangway, a lamp shone full upon her
+gypsy face. The blue-black hair, the dark eyes, and a deep red rose she
+wore in her bonnet, seemed to me an exquisite arrangement of harmonious
+colour. And the thought flashed into my mind very vividly, however
+trivial it may seem here, when written down in cold words: "The queen of
+women, and the queen of flowers." That is not precisely how my thought
+ran, but I cannot describe it better. The finer subtleties of the brain
+do not bear well the daylight of language.
+
+Brande drew her back and whispered to her. Then the sweet face, now
+slightly flushed, was turned to me again.
+
+"Oh, thank you for that pretty thought," she said with a pleasant smile.
+"You are too flattering. The 'queen of flowers' is very true, but the
+'queen of women!' Oh, no!" She made a graceful gesture of dissent, and
+passed down the gangway.
+
+As the tender disappeared into the darkness, a tiny scrap of lace waved,
+and I knew vaguely that she was thinking of me. But how she read my
+thought so exactly I could not tell.
+
+That knowledge it has been my fate to gain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A STRANGE EXPERIMENT.
+
+
+Soon after my arrival in London, I called on Brande, at the address he
+had given me in Brook Street. He received me with the pleasant
+affability which a man of the world easily assumes, and his apology for
+being unable to pass the evening with me in his own house was a model of
+social style. The difficulty in the way was practically an
+impossibility. His Society had a meeting on that evening, and it was
+imperative that he should be present.
+
+"Why not come yourself?" he said. "It is what we might call a guest
+night. That is, visitors, if friends of members, are admitted, and as
+this privilege may not be again accorded to outsiders, you ought to come
+before you decide finally to join us. I must go now, but Natalie" (he
+did not say "Miss Brande") "will entertain you and bring you to the
+hall. It is very near--in Hanover Square."
+
+"I shall be very glad indeed to bring Miss Brande to the hall," I
+answered, changing the sentence in order to correct Brande's too
+patronising phrase.
+
+"The same thing in different words, is it not? If you prefer it that
+way, please have it so." His imperturbability was unaffected.
+
+Miss Brande here entered the room. Her brother, with a word of renewed
+apology, left us, and presently I saw him cross the street and hail a
+passing hansom.
+
+"You must not blame him for running off," Miss Brande said. "He has much
+to think of, and the Society depends almost wholly on himself."
+
+I stammered out that I did not blame him at all, and indeed my
+disclaimer was absolutely true. Brande could not have pleased me better
+than he had done by relieving us of his company.
+
+Miss Brande made tea, which I pretended to enjoy in the hope of pleasing
+her. Over this we talked more like old and well proven friends than mere
+acquaintances of ten days' standing. Just once or twice the mysterious
+chord which marred the girl's charming conversation was touched. She
+immediately changed the subject on observing my distress. I say
+distress, for a weaker word would not fittingly describe the emotion I
+felt whenever she blundered into the pseudo-scientific nonsense which
+was her brother's favourite affectation. At least, it seemed nonsense to
+me. I could not well foresee then that the theses which appeared to be
+mere theoretical absurdities, would ever be proven--as they have
+been--very terrible realities. On subjects of ordinary educational
+interest my hostess displayed such full knowledge of the question and
+ease in dealing with it, that I listened, fascinated, as long as she
+chose to continue speaking. It was a novel and delightful experience to
+hear a girl as handsome as a pictorial masterpiece, and dressed like a
+court beauty, discourse with the knowledge, and in the language, of the
+oldest philosopher. But this was only one of the many surprising
+combinations in her complex personality. My noviciate was still in its
+first stage.
+
+The time to set out for the meeting arrived all too soon for my
+inclination. We decided to walk, the evening being fine and not too
+warm, and the distance only a ten minutes' stroll. At a street crossing,
+we met a crowd unusually large for that neighbourhood. Miss Brande
+again surprised me. She was watching the crowd seething and swarming
+past. Her dark eyes followed the people with a strange wondering,
+pitying look which I did not understand. Her face, exquisite in its
+expression at all times, was now absolutely transformed, beatified.
+Brande had often spoken to me of mesmerism, clairvoyance, and similar
+subjects, and it occurred to me that he had used his sister as a medium,
+a clairvoyante. Her brain was not, therefore, under normal control. I
+determined instantly to tell him on the first opportunity that if he did
+not wish to see the girl permanently injured, he would have to curtail
+his hypnotic influence.
+
+"It is rather a stirring sight," I said so sharply to Miss Brande that
+she started. I meant to startle her, but did not succeed as far as I
+wished.
+
+"It is a very terrible sight," she answered.
+
+"Oh, there is no danger," I said hastily, and drew her hand over my arm.
+
+"Danger! I was not thinking of danger."
+
+As she did not remove her hand, I did not infringe the silence which
+followed this, until a break in the traffic allowed us to cross the
+street. Then I said:
+
+"May I ask what you were thinking of just now, Miss Brande?"
+
+"Of the people--their lives--their work--their misery!"
+
+"I assure you many are very happy," I replied. "You take a morbid view.
+Misery is not the rule. I am sure the majority are happy."
+
+"What difference does that make?" the girl said with a sigh. "What is
+the end of it all--the meaning of it all? Their happiness! _Cui Bono?_"
+
+We walked on in silence, while I turned over in my mind what she had
+said. I could come to no conclusion upon it save that my dislike for her
+enigmatic aberrations was becoming more intense as my liking for the
+girl herself increased. To change the current of her thoughts and my
+own, I asked her abruptly:
+
+"Are you a member of the _Cui Bono_ Society?"
+
+"I! Oh, no. Women are not allowed to join--for the present."
+
+"I am delighted to hear it," I said heartily, "and I hope the rule will
+continue in force."
+
+She looked at me in surprise. "Why should you mind? You are joining
+yourself."
+
+"That is different. I don't approve of ladies mixing themselves up in
+these curious and perhaps questionable societies."
+
+My remark amused her. Her eyes sparkled with simple fun. The change in
+her manner was very agreeable to me.
+
+"I might have expected that." To my extreme satisfaction she now looked
+almost mischievous. "Herbert told me you were a little--"
+
+"A little what?"
+
+"Well, a little--you won't be vexed? That is right. He said a
+little--mediaeval."
+
+This abated my appreciation of her sense of humour, and I maintained a
+dignified reticence, which unhappily she regarded as mere sullenness,
+until we reached the Society's room.
+
+The place was well filled, and the company, in spite of the
+extravagantly modern costumes of the younger women, which I cannot
+describe better than by saying that there was little difference in it
+from that of ordinary male attire, was quite conventional in so far as
+the interchange of ordinary courtesies went. When, however, any member
+of the Society mingled with a group of visitors, the conversation was
+soon turned into a new channel. Secrets of science, which I had been
+accustomed to look upon as undiscoverable, were bandied about like the
+merest commonplaces of education. The absurdity of individuality and the
+subjectivity of the emotions were alike insisted on without notice of
+the paradox, which to me appeared extreme. The Associates were
+altruistic for the sake of altruism, not for the sake of its
+beneficiaries. They were not pantheists, for they saw neither universal
+good nor God, but rather evil in all things--themselves included. Their
+talk, however, was brilliant, and, with allowance for its jarring
+sentiments, it possessed something of the indefinable charm which
+followed Brande. My reflections on this identity of interest were
+interrupted by the man himself. After a word of welcome he said:
+
+"Let me show you our great experiment; that which touches the high-water
+mark of scientific achievement in the history of humanity. It is not
+much in itself, but it is the pioneer of many marvels."
+
+He brought me to a metal stand, on which a small instrument constructed
+of some white metal was placed. A large number of wires were connected
+with various portions of it, and these wires passed into the side-wall
+of the building.
+
+In appearance, this marvel of micrology, so far as the eye-piece and
+upper portions went, was like an ordinary microscope, but its magnifying
+power was to me unbelievable. It magnified the object under examination
+many thousand times more than the most powerful microscope in the world.
+
+I looked through the upper lens, and saw a small globe suspended in the
+middle of a tiny chamber filled with soft blue light, or transparent
+material. Circling round this globe four other spheres revolved in
+orbits, some almost circular, some elliptical, some parabolic. As I
+looked, Brande touched a key, and the little globules began to fly more
+rapidly round their primary, and make wider sweeps in their revolutions.
+Another key was pressed, and the revolving spheres slowed down and drew
+closer until I could scarcely distinguish any movement. The globules
+seemed to form a solid ball.
+
+"Attend now!" Brande exclaimed.
+
+He tapped the first key sharply. A little grey cloud obscured the blue
+light. When it cleared away, the revolving globes had disappeared.
+
+"What do you think of it?" he asked carelessly.
+
+"What is it? What does it mean? Is it the solar system or some other
+system illustrated in miniature? I am sorry for the misadventure."
+
+"You are partly correct," Brande replied. "It is an illustration of a
+planetary system, though a small one. But there was no misadventure. I
+caused the somewhat dangerous result you witnessed, the wreckage not
+merely of the molecule of marsh gas you were examining--which any
+educated chemist might do as easily as I--but the wreckage of its
+constituent atoms. This is a scientific victory which dwarfs the work of
+Helmholtz, Avogadro, or Mendelejeff. The immortal Dalton himself" (the
+word "immortal" was spoken with a sneer) "might rise from his grave to
+witness it."
+
+"Atoms--molecules! What are you talking about?" I asked, bewildered.
+
+"You were looking on at the death of a molecule--a molecule of marsh
+gas, as I have already said. It was caused by a process which I would
+describe to you if I could reduce my own life work--and that of every
+scientific amateur who has preceded me since the world began--into half
+a dozen sentences. As that would be difficult, I must ask you to accept
+my personal assurance that you witnessed a fact, not a fiction of my
+imagination."
+
+"And your instrument is so perfect that it not only renders molecules
+and atoms but their diffusion visible? It is a microscopic
+impossibility. At least it is amazing."
+
+"Pshaw!" Brande exclaimed impatiently. "My instrument does certainly
+magnify to a marvellous extent, but not by the old device of the simple
+microscope, which merely focussed a large area of light rays into a
+small one. So crude a process could never show an atom to the human eye.
+I add much to that. I restore to the rays themselves the luminosity
+which they lost in their passage through our atmosphere. I give them
+back all their visual properties, and turn them with their full etheric
+blaze on the object under examination. Great as that achievement is, I
+deny that it is amazing. It may amaze a Papuan to see his eyelash
+magnified to the size of a wire, or an uneducated Englishman to see a
+cheese-mite magnified to the size of a midge. It should not amaze you
+to see a simple process a little further developed."
+
+"Where does the danger you spoke of come in?" I asked with a pretence of
+interest. Candidly, I did not believe a single word that Brande had
+said.
+
+"If you will consult a common text-book on the physics of the ether," he
+replied, "you will find that one grain of matter contains sufficient
+energy, if etherised, to raise a hundred thousand tons nearly two miles.
+In face of such potentiality it is not wise to wreck incautiously even
+the atoms of a molecule."
+
+"And the limits to this description of scientific experiment? Where are
+they?"
+
+"There are no limits," Brande said decisively. "No man can say to
+science 'thus far and no farther.' No man ever has been able to do so.
+No man ever shall!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+"IT IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE."
+
+
+Amongst the letters lying on my breakfast-table a few days after the
+meeting was one addressed in an unfamiliar hand. The writing was bold,
+and formed like a man's. There was a faint trace of a perfume about the
+envelope which I remembered. I opened it first.
+
+It was, as I expected, from Miss Brande. Her brother had gone to their
+country place on the southern coast. She and her friend, Edith Metford,
+were going that day. Their luggage was already at the station. Would I
+send on what I required for a short visit, and meet them at eleven
+o'clock on the bridge over the Serpentine? It was enough for me. I
+packed a large portmanteau hastily, sent it to Charing Cross, and spent
+the time at my disposal in the park, which was close to my hotel.
+
+Although the invitation I had received gave me pleasure, I could not
+altogether remove from my mind a vague sense of disquietude concerning
+Herbert Brande and his Society. The advanced opinions I had heard, if
+extreme, were not altogether alarming. But the mysterious way in which
+Brande himself had spoken about the Society, and the still more
+mysterious air which some of the members assumed when directly
+questioned as to its object, suggested much. Might it not be a
+revolutionary party engaged in a grave intrigue--a branch of some
+foreign body whose purpose was so dangerous that ordinary disguises were
+not considered sufficiently secure? Might they not have adopted the
+jargon and pretended to the opinions of scientific faddists as a cloak
+for designs more sinister and sincere? The experiment I witnessed might
+be almost a miracle or merely a trick. Thinking it over thus, I could
+come to no final opinion, and when I asked myself aloud, "What are you
+afraid of?" I could not answer my own question. But I thought I would
+defer joining the Society pending further information.
+
+A few minutes before eleven, I walked towards the bridge over the
+Serpentine. No ladies appeared to be on it. There were only a couple of
+smartly dressed youths there, one smoking a cigarette. I sauntered about
+until one of the lads, the one who was not smoking, looked up and
+beckoned to me. I approached leisurely, for it struck me that the boy
+would have shown better breeding if he had come toward me, considering
+my seniority.
+
+"I am sorry I did not notice you sooner. Why did you not come on when
+you saw us?" the smallest and slimmest youth called to me.
+
+"In the name of--Miss--Miss--" I stammered.
+
+"Brande; you haven't forgotten my name, I hope," Natalie Brande said
+coolly. "This is my friend, Edith Metford. Metford, this is Arthur
+Marcel."
+
+"How do you do, Marcel? I am glad to meet you; I have heard 'favourable
+mention' of you from the Brandes," the second figure in knickerbockers
+said pleasantly.
+
+"How do you do, sir--madam--I mean--Miss--" I blundered, and then in
+despair I asked Miss Brande, "Is this a tableau vivant? What is the
+meaning of these disguises?" My embarrassment was so great that my
+discourteous question may be pardoned.
+
+"Our dress! Surely you have seen women rationally dressed before!" Miss
+Brande answered complacently, while the other girl watched my
+astonishment with evident amusement.
+
+This second girl, Edith Metford, was a frank, handsome young woman, but
+unlike the spirituelle beauty of Natalie Brande. She was perceptibly
+taller than her friend, and of fuller figure. In consequence, she
+looked, in my opinion, to even less advantage in her eccentric costume,
+or rational dress, than did Miss Brande.
+
+"Rationally dressed! Oh, yes. I know the divided skirt, but--"
+
+Miss Metford interrupted me. "Do you call the divided skirt atrocity
+rational dress?" she asked pointedly.
+
+"Upon my honour I do not," I answered.
+
+These girls were too advanced in their ideas of dress for me. Nor did I
+feel at all at my ease during this conversation, which did not, however,
+appear to embarrass them. I proposed hastily to get a cab, but they
+demurred. It was such a lovely day, they preferred to walk, part of the
+way at least. I pointed out that there might be drawbacks to this
+amendment of my proposal.
+
+"What drawbacks?" Miss Metford asked.
+
+"For instance, isn't it probable we shall all be arrested by the
+police?" I replied.
+
+"Rubbish! We are not in Russia," both exclaimed.
+
+"Which is lucky for you," I reflected, as we commenced what was to me a
+most disagreeable walk. I got them into a cab sooner than they wished.
+At the railway station I did not offer to procure their tickets. To do
+so, I felt, would only give offence. Critical glances followed us as we
+went to our carriage. Londoners are becoming accustomed to varieties, if
+not vagaries, in ladies' costumes, but the dress of my friends was
+evidently a little out of the common even for them. Miss Metford was
+just turning the handle of a carriage door, when I interposed, saying,
+"This is a smoking compartment."
+
+"So I see. I am going to smoke--if you don't object?"
+
+"I don't suppose it would make any difference if I did," I said, with
+unconscious asperity, for indeed this excess of free manners was jarring
+upon me. The line dividing it from vulgarity was becoming so thin I was
+losing sight of the divisor. Yet no one, even the most fastidious,
+could associate vulgarity with Natalie Brande. There remained an air of
+unassumed sincerity about herself and all her actions, including even
+her dress, which absolutely excluded her from hostile criticism. I could
+not, however, extend that lenient judgment to Miss Metford. The girls
+spoke and acted--as they had dressed themselves--very much alike. Only,
+what seemed to me in the one a natural eccentricity, seemed in the other
+an unnatural affectation.
+
+I saw the guard passing, and, calling him over, gave him half-a-crown to
+have the compartment labelled, "Engaged."
+
+Miss Brande, who had been looking out of the window, absently asked my
+reason for this precaution. I replied that I wanted the compartment
+reserved for ourselves. I certainly did not want any staring and
+otherwise offensive fellow-passengers.
+
+"We don't want all the seats," she persisted.
+
+"No," I admitted. "We don't want the extra seats. But I thought you
+might like the privacy."
+
+"The desire for privacy is an archaic emotion," Miss Metford remarked
+sententiously, as she struck a match.
+
+"Besides, it is so selfish. We may be crowding others," Miss Brande said
+quietly.
+
+I was glad she did not smoke.
+
+"I don't want that now," I said to a porter who was hurrying up with a
+label. To the girls I remarked a little snappishly, "Of course you are
+quite right. You must excuse my ignorance."
+
+"No, it is not ignorance," Miss Brande demurred. "You have been away so
+much. You have hardly been in England, you told me, for years, and--"
+
+"And progress has been marching in my absence," I interrupted.
+
+"So it seems," Miss Metford remarked so significantly that I really
+could not help retorting with as much emphasis, compatible with
+politeness, as I could command:
+
+"You see I am therefore unable to appreciate the New Woman, of whom I
+have heard so much since I came home."
+
+"The conventional New Woman is a grandmotherly old fossil," Miss Metford
+said quietly.
+
+This disposed of me. I leant back in my seat, and was rigidly silent.
+
+Miles of green fields stippled with daisies and bordered with long
+lines of white and red hawthorn hedges flew past. The smell of new-mown
+hay filled the carriage with its sweet perfume, redolent of old
+associations. My long absence dwindled to a short holiday. The world's
+wide highways were far off. I was back in the English fields. My slight
+annoyance passed away. I fell into a pleasant day-dream, which was
+broken by a soft voice, every undulation of which I already knew by
+heart.
+
+"I am afraid you think us very advanced," it murmured.
+
+"Very," I agreed, "but I look to you to bring even me up to date."
+
+"Oh, yes, we mean to do that, but we must proceed very gradually."
+
+"You have made an excellent start," I put in.
+
+"Otherwise you would only be shocked."
+
+"It is quite possible." I said this with so much conviction that the two
+burst out laughing at me. I could not think of anything more to add, and
+I felt relieved when, with a warning shriek, the train dashed into a
+tunnel. By the time we had emerged again into the sunlight and the
+solitude of the open landscape I had ready an impromptu which I had
+been working at in the darkness. I looked straight at Miss Metford and
+said:
+
+"After all, it is very pleasant to travel with girls like you."
+
+"Thank you!"
+
+"You did not show any hysterical fear of my kissing you in the tunnel."
+
+"Why the deuce would you do that?" Miss Metford replied with great
+composure, as she blew a smoke ring.
+
+When we reached our destination I braced myself for another disagreeable
+minute or two. For if the great Londoners thought us quaint, surely the
+little country station idlers would swear we were demented. We crossed
+the platform so quickly that the wonderment we created soon passed. Our
+luggage was looked after by a servant, to whose care I confided it with
+a very brief description. The loss of an item of it did not seem to me
+of as much importance as our own immediate departure.
+
+Brande met us at his hall door. His house was a pleasant one, covered
+with flowering creeping plants, and surrounded by miniature forests. In
+front there was a lake four hundred yards in width. Close-shaven lawns
+bordered it. They were artificial products, no doubt, but they were
+artificial successes--undulating, earth-scented, fresh rolled every
+morning. Here there was an isolated shrub, there a thick bank of
+rhododendrons. And the buds, bursting into floral carnival, promised
+fine contrasts when their full splendour was come. The lake wavelets
+tinkled musically on a pebbly beach.
+
+Our host could not entertain us in person. He was busy. The plea was
+evidently sincere, notwithstanding that the business of a country
+gentleman--which he now seemed to be--is something less exacting than
+busy people's leisure. After a short rest, and an admirably-served
+lunch, we were dismissed to the woods for our better amusement.
+
+Thereafter followed for me a strangely peaceful, idyllic day--all save
+its ending. Looking back on it, I know that the sun which set that
+evening went down on the last of my happiness. But it all seems trivial
+now.
+
+My companions were accomplished botanists, and here, for the first time,
+I found myself on common ground with both. We discussed every familiar
+wild flower as eagerly as if we had been professed field naturalists. In
+walking or climbing my assistance was neither requisitioned nor
+required. I did not offer, therefore, what must have been unwelcome when
+it was superfluous.
+
+We rested at last under the shade of a big beech, for the afternoon sun
+was rather oppressive. It was a pleasant spot to while away an hour. A
+purling brook went babbling by, singing to itself as it journeyed to the
+sea. Insects droned about in busy flight. There was a perfume of
+honeysuckle wafted to us on the summer wind, which stirred the
+beech-tree and rustled its young leaves lazily, so that the sunlight
+peeped through the green lattice-work and shone on the faces of these
+two handsome girls, stretched in graceful postures on the cool sward
+below--their white teeth sparkling in its brilliance, while their soft
+laughter made music for me. In the fulness of my heart, I said aloud:
+
+"It is a good thing to be alive."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+GEORGE DELANY--DECEASED.
+
+
+"It is a good thing to be alive," Natalie Brande repeated slowly,
+gazing, as it were, far off through her half-closed eyelids. Then
+turning to me and looking at me full, wide-eyed, she asked: "A good
+thing for how many?"
+
+"For all; for everything that is alive."
+
+"Faugh! For few things that are alive. For hardly anything. You say it
+is a good thing to be alive. How often have you said that in your life?"
+
+"All my life through," I answered stoutly. My constitution was a good
+one, and I had lived healthily, if hardily. I voiced the superfluous
+vitality of a well nourished body.
+
+"Then you do not know what it is to feel for others."
+
+There was a scream in the underwood near us. It ended in a short,
+choking squeak. The girl paled, but she went on with outward calm.
+
+"That hawk or cat feels as you do. I wonder what that young rabbit
+thinks of life's problem?"
+
+"But we are neither hawks nor cats, nor even young rabbits," I answered
+warmly. "We can not bear the burthens of the whole animal world. Our own
+are sufficient for us."
+
+"You are right. They are more than sufficient."
+
+I had made a false move, and so tried to recover my lost ground. She
+would not permit me. The conversation which had run in pleasant channels
+for two happy hours was ended. Thenceforth, in spite of my obstructive
+efforts, subjects were introduced which could not be conversed on but
+must be discussed. On every one Miss Brande took the part of the weak
+against the strong, oblivious of every consideration of policy and even
+ethics, careful only that she championed the weak because of their
+weakness. Miss Metford abetted her in this, and went further in their
+joint revolt against common sense. Miss Brande was argumentative,
+pleading. Miss Metford was defiant. Between the two I fared ill.
+
+Of course the Woman question was soon introduced, and in this I made the
+best defence of time-honoured customs of which I was capable. But my
+outworks fell down as promptly before the voices of these young women as
+did the walls of Jericho before the blast of a ram's horn. Nothing that
+I had cherished was left to me. Woman no longer wanted man's protection.
+("Enslavement" they called it.) Why should she, when in the evolution of
+society there was not now, or presently would not be, anything from
+which to protect her? ("Competing slaveowners" was what they said.) When
+you wish to behold protectors you must postulate dangers. The first are
+valueless save as a preventive of the second. Both evils will be
+conveniently dispensed with. All this was new to me, most of my thinking
+life having been passed in distant lands, where the science of ethics is
+codified into a simple statute--the will of the strongest.
+
+When my dialectical humiliation was within one point of completion, Miss
+Metford came to my rescue. For some time she had looked on at my
+discomfiture with a good-natured neutrality, and when I was
+metaphorically in my last ditch, she arose, stretched her shapely
+figure, flicked some clinging grass blades from her suit, and declared
+it was time to return. Brande was a man of science, but as such he was
+still amenable to punctuality in the matter of dinner.
+
+On the way back I was discreetly silent. When we reached the house I
+went to look for Herbert Brande. He was engaged in his study, and I
+could not intrude upon him there. To do so would be to infringe the only
+rigid rule in his household. Nor had I an opportunity of speaking to him
+alone until after dinner, when I induced him to take a turn with me
+round the lake. I smoked strong cigars, and made one of these my excuse.
+
+The sun was setting when we started, and as we walked slowly the
+twilight shadows were deepening fast by the time we reached the further
+shore. Brande was in high spirits. Some new scientific experiment, I
+assumed, had come off successfully. He was beside himself. His
+conversation was volcanic. Now it rumbled and roared with suppressed
+fires. Anon, it burst forth in scintillating flashes and shot out
+streams of quickening wit. I have been his auditor in the three great
+epochs of his life, but I do not think that anything that I have
+recollected of his utterances equals the bold impromptus, the masterly
+handling of his favourite subject, the Universe, which fell from him on
+that evening. I could not answer him. I could not even follow him, much
+less suppress him. But I had come forth with a specific object in view,
+and I would not be gainsaid. And so, as my business had to be done
+better that it should be done quickly. Taking advantage of a pause which
+he made, literally for breath, I commenced abruptly:
+
+"I want to speak to you about your sister."
+
+He turned on me surprised. Then his look changed to one of such complete
+contempt, and withal his bearing suggested so plainly that he knew
+beforehand what I was going to say, that I blurted out defiantly, and
+without stopping to choose my words:
+
+"I think it an infernal shame that you, her brother, should allow her to
+masquerade about with this good-natured but eccentric Metford girl--I
+should say Miss Metford."
+
+"Why so?" he asked coldly.
+
+"Because it is absurd; and because it isn't decent."
+
+"My dear Abraham," Brande said quietly, "or is your period so recent as
+that of Isaac or Jacob? My sister pleases herself in these matters, and
+has every right to do so."
+
+"She has not. You are her brother."
+
+"Very well, I am her brother. She has no right to think for herself; no
+right to live save by my permission. Then I graciously permit her to
+think, and I allow her to live."
+
+"You'll be sorry for this nonsense sooner or later--and don't say I
+didn't warn you." The absolute futility of my last clause struck me
+painfully at the moment, but I could not think of any way to better it.
+It was hard to reason with such a man, one who denied the fundamental
+principles of family life. I was thinking over what to say next, when
+Brande stopped and put his hand, in a kindly way, upon my shoulder.
+
+"My good fellow," he said, "what does it matter? What do the actions of
+my sister signify more than the actions of any other man's sister? And
+what about the Society? Have you made up your mind about joining?"
+
+"I have. I made it up twice to-day," I answered. "I made it up in the
+morning that I would see yourself and your Society to the devil before I
+would join it. Excuse my bluntness; but you are so extremely candid
+yourself you will not mind."
+
+"Certainly, I do not mind bluntness. Rudeness is superfluous."
+
+"And I made it up this evening," I said, a little less aggressively,
+"that I would join it if the devil himself were already in it, as I half
+suspect he is."
+
+"I like that," Brande said gravely. "That is the spirit I want in the
+man who joins me."
+
+To which I replied: "What under the sun is the object of this Society of
+yours?"
+
+"Proximately to complete our investigations--already far advanced--into
+the origin of the Universe."
+
+"And ultimately?"
+
+"I cannot tell you now. You will not know that until you join us."
+
+"And if your ultimate object does not suit me, I can withdraw?"
+
+"No, it would then be too late."
+
+"How so? I am not morally bound by an oath which I swear without full
+knowledge of its consequences and responsibilities."
+
+"Oath! The oath you swear! You swear no oath. Do you fancy you are
+joining a society of Rechabites or Carmelites, or mediaeval rubbish of
+that kind. Don't keep so painstakingly behind the age."
+
+I thought for a moment over what this mysterious man had said, over the
+hidden dangers in which his mad chimeras might involve the most innocent
+accomplice. Then I thought of that dark-eyed, sweet-voiced, young girl,
+as she lay on the green grass under the beech-tree in the wood and
+out-argued me on every point. Very suddenly, and, perhaps, in a manner
+somewhat grandiose, I answered him:
+
+"I will join your Society for my own purpose, and I will quit it when I
+choose."
+
+"You have every right," Brande said carelessly. "Many have done the same
+before you."
+
+"Can you introduce me to any one who has done so?" I asked, with an
+eagerness that could not be dissembled.
+
+"I am afraid I can not."
+
+"Or give me an address?"
+
+"Oh yes, that is simple." He turned over a note-book until he found a
+blank page. Then he drew the pencil from its loop, put the point to his
+lips, and paused. He was standing with his back to the failing light, so
+I could not see the expression of his mobile face. When he paused, I
+knew that no ordinary doubt beset him. He stood thus for nearly a
+minute. While he waited, I watched a pair of swans flit ghost-like over
+the silken surface of the lake. Between us and a dark bank of wood the
+lights of the house flamed red. The melancholy even-song of a blackbird
+wailed out from a shrubbery beside us. Then Herbert Brande wrote in his
+note-book, and tearing out the page, he handed it to me, saying: "That
+is the address of the last man who quitted us."
+
+The light was now so dim I had to hold the paper close to my eyes in
+order to read the lines. They were these--
+
+    GEORGE DELANY,
+      Near Saint Anne's Chapel,
+            Woking Cemetery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE MURDER CLUB.
+
+
+"Delany was the last man who quitted us--you see I use your expression
+again. I like it," Brande said quietly, watching me as he spoke.
+
+I stood staring at the slip of paper which I held in my hand for some
+moments before I could reply. When my voice came back, I asked hoarsely:
+
+"Did this man, Delany, die suddenly after quitting the Society?"
+
+"He died immediately. The second event was contemporaneous with the
+first."
+
+"And in consequence of it?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Have all the members who retired from your list been equally
+short-lived?"
+
+"Without any exception whatever."
+
+"Then your Society, after all your high-flown talk about it, is only a
+vulgar murder club," I said bitterly.
+
+"Wrong in fact, and impertinent in its expression. It is not a murder
+club, and--well, you are the first to discover its vulgarity."
+
+"I call things by their plain names. You may call your Society what you
+please. As to my joining it in face of what you have told me--"
+
+"Which is more than was ever told to any man before he joined--to any
+man living or dead. And more, you need not join it yet unless you still
+wish to do so. I presume what I have said will prevent you."
+
+"On the contrary, if I had any doubt, or if there was any possibility of
+my wavering before this interview, there is none now. I join at once."
+
+He would have taken my hand, but that I could not permit. I left him
+without another word, or any form of salute, and returned to the house.
+I did not appear again in the domestic circle that evening, for I had
+enough upon my mind without further burdening myself with social
+pretences.
+
+I sat in my room and tried once more to consider my position. It was
+this: for the sake of a girl whom I had only met some score of times;
+who sometimes acted, talked, dressed after a fashion suggestive of
+insanity; who had glorious dark eyes, a perfect figure, and an
+exquisitely beautiful face--but I interrupt myself. For the sake of this
+girl, and for the manifestly impossible purpose of protecting her from
+herself as well as others, I had surrendered myself to the probable
+vengeance of a band of cut-throats if I betrayed them, and to the
+certain vengeance of the law if I did not. Brande, notwithstanding his
+constant scepticism, was scrupulously truthful. His statement of fact
+must be relied upon. His opinions were another matter. As nothing
+practical resulted from my reflections, I came to the conclusion that I
+had got into a pretty mess for the sake of a handsome face. I regretted
+this result, but was glad of the cause of it. On this I went to bed.
+
+Next morning I was early astir, for I must see Natalie Brande without
+delay, and I felt sure she would be no sluggard on that splendid summer
+day. I tried the lawn between the house and the lake shore. I did not
+find her there. I found her friend Miss Metford. The girl was sauntering
+about, swinging a walking-cane carelessly. She was still rationally
+dressed, but I observed with relief that the rational part of her
+costume was more in the nature of the divided skirt than the plain
+knickerbockers of the previous day. She accosted me cheerfully by my
+surname, and not to be outdone by her, I said coolly:
+
+"How d'ye do, Metford?"
+
+"Very well, thanks. I suppose you expected Natalie? You see you have
+only me."
+
+"Delighted," I was commencing with a forced smile, when she stopped me.
+
+"You look it. But that can't be helped. Natalie saw you going out, and
+sent me to meet you. I am to look after you for an hour or so. You join
+the Society this evening, I hear. You must be very pleased--and
+flattered."
+
+I could not assent to this, and so remained silent. The girl chattered
+on in her own outspoken manner, which, now that I was growing accustomed
+to it, I did not find as unpleasant as at first. One thing was evident
+to me. She had no idea of the villainous nature of Brande's Society. She
+could not have spoken so carelessly if she shared my knowledge of it.
+While she talked to me, I wondered if it was fair to her--a likeable
+girl, in spite of her undesirable affectations of advanced opinion,
+emancipation or whatever she called it--was it fair to allow her to
+associate with a band of murderers, and not so much as whisper a word of
+warning? No doubt, I myself was associating with the band; but I was not
+in ignorance of the responsibility thereby incurred.
+
+"Miss Metford," I said, without heeding whether I interrupted her, "are
+you in the secret of this Society?"
+
+"I? Not at present. I shall be later on."
+
+I stopped and faced her with so serious an expression that she listened
+to me attentively.
+
+"If you will take my earnest advice--and I beg you not to neglect
+it--you will have nothing to do with it or any one belonging to it."
+
+"Not even Brande--I mean Natalie? Is she dangerous?"
+
+I disregarded her mischief and continued: "If you can get Miss Brande
+away from her brother and his acquaintances," (I had nearly said
+accomplices,) "and keep her away, you would be doing the best and
+kindest thing you ever did in your life."
+
+Miss Metford was evidently impressed by my seriousness, but, as she
+herself said very truly, it was unlikely that she would be able to
+interfere in the way I suggested. Besides, my mysterious warning was
+altogether too vague to be of any use as a guide for her own action,
+much less that of her friend. I dared not speak plainer. I could only
+repeat, in the most emphatic words, my anxiety that she would think
+carefully over what I had said. I then pretended to recollect an
+engagement with Brande, for I was in such low spirits I had really
+little taste for any company.
+
+She was disappointed, and said so in her usual straightforward way. It
+was not in the power of any gloomy prophecy to oppress her long. The
+serious look which my words had brought on her face passed quickly, and
+it was in her natural manner that she bade me good-morning, saying:
+
+"It is rather a bore, for I looked forward to a pleasant hour or two
+taking you about."
+
+I postponed my breakfast for want of appetite, and, as Brande's house
+was the best example of Liberty Hall I had ever met with, I offered no
+apology for my absence during the entire day when I rejoined my host and
+hostess in the evening. The interval I spent in the woods, thinking
+much and deciding nothing.
+
+After dinner, Brande introduced me to a man whom he called Edward Grey.
+Natalie conducted me to the room in which they were engaged. From the
+mass of correspondence in which this man Grey was absorbed, and the
+litter of papers about him, it was evident that he must have been in the
+house long before I made his acquaintance.
+
+Grey handed me a book, which I found to be a register of the names of
+the members of Brande's Society, and pointed out the place for my
+signature.
+
+When I had written my name on the list I said to Brande: "Now that I
+have nominated myself, I suppose you'll second me?"
+
+"It is not necessary," he answered; "you are already a member. Your
+remark to Miss Metford this morning made you one of us. You advised her,
+you recollect, to beware of us."
+
+"That girl!" I exclaimed, horrified. "Then she is one of your spies? Is
+it possible?"
+
+"No, she is not one of our spies. We have none, and she knew nothing of
+the purpose for which she was used."
+
+"Then I beg to say that you have made a d--d shameful use of her."
+
+In the passion of the moment I forgot my manners to my host, and formed
+the resolution to denounce the Society to the police the moment I
+returned to London. Brande was not offended by my violence. There was
+not a trace of anger in his voice as he said:
+
+"Miss Metford's information was telepathically conveyed to my sister."
+
+"Then it was your sister--"
+
+"My sister knows as little as the other. In turn, I received the
+information telepathically from her, without the knowledge of either. I
+was just telling Grey of it when you came into the room."
+
+"And," said Grey, "your intention to go straight from this house to
+Scotland Yard, there to denounce us to the police, has been
+telepathically received by myself."
+
+"My God!" I cried, "has a man no longer the right to his own thoughts?"
+
+Grey went on without noticing my exclamation: "Any overt or covert
+action on your part, toward carrying out your intention, will be
+telepathically conveyed to us, and our executive--" He shrugged his
+shoulders.
+
+"I know," I said, "Woking Cemetery, near Saint Anne's Chapel. You have
+ground there."
+
+"Yes, we have to dispense with--"
+
+"Say murder."
+
+"Dispense with," Grey repeated sharply, "any member whose loyalty is
+questionable. This is not our wish; it is our necessity. It is the only
+means by which we can secure the absolute immunity of the Society
+pending the achievement of its object. To dispense with any living man
+we have only to will that he shall die."
+
+"And now that I am a member, may I ask what is this object, the secret
+of which you guard with such fiendish zeal?" I demanded angrily.
+
+"The restoration of a local etheric tumour to its original formation."
+
+"I am already weary of this jargon from Brande," I interrupted. "What do
+you mean?"
+
+"We mean to attempt the reduction of the solar system to its elemental
+ether."
+
+"And you will accomplish this triviality by means of Huxley's comet, I
+suppose?"
+
+I could scarcely control my indignation. This fooling, as I thought it,
+struck me as insulting. Neither Brande nor Grey appeared to notice my
+keen resentment. Grey answered me in a quiet, serious tone.
+
+"We shall attempt it by destroying the earth. We may fail in the
+complete achievement of our design, but in any case we shall at least be
+certain of reducing this planet to the ether of which it is composed."
+
+"Of course, of course," I agreed derisively. "You will at least make
+sure of that. You have found out how to do it too, I have no doubt?"
+
+"Yes," said Grey, "we have found out."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+A TELEPATHIC TELEGRAM.
+
+
+I left the room and hurried outside without any positive plan for my
+movements. My brain was in such a whirl I could form no connected train
+of thought. These men, whose conversation was a jargon fitting only for
+lunatics, had proved that they could read my mind with the ease of a
+telegraph operator taking a message off a wire. That they, further,
+possessed marvellous, if not miraculous powers, over occult natural
+forces could hardly be doubted. The net in which I had voluntarily
+entangled myself was closing around me. An irresistible impulse to
+fly--to desert Natalie and save myself--came over me. I put this aside
+presently. It was both unworthy and unwise. For whither should I fly?
+The ends of the earth would not be far enough to save me, the depths of
+the sea would not be deep enough to hide me from those who killed by
+willing that their victim should die.
+
+On the other hand, if my senses had only been hocussed, and Messrs.
+Brande and Grey were nothing better than clever tricksters, the park
+gate was far enough, and the nearest policeman force enough, to save me
+from their vengeance. But the girl--Natalie! She was clairvoyante. They
+practised upon her. My diagnosis of the strange seeing-without-sight
+expression of her eyes was then correct. And it was clear to me that
+whatsoever or whomsoever Brande and Grey believed or disbelieved in,
+they certainly believed in themselves. They might be relied on to spare
+nothing and no one in their project, however ridiculous or mad their
+purpose might be. What then availed my paltry protection when the girl
+herself was a willing victim, and the men omnipotent? Nevertheless, if I
+failed eventually to serve her, I could at least do my best.
+
+It was clear that I must stand by Natalie Brande.
+
+While I was thus reflecting, the following conversation took place
+between Brande and Grey. I found a note of it in a diary which Brande
+kept desultorily. He wrote this up so irregularly no continuous
+information can be gleaned from it as to his life. How the diary came
+into my hands will be seen later. The memorandum is written thus:--
+
+_Grey_--Our new member? Why did you introduce him? You say he cannot
+help with money. It is plain he cannot help with brains.
+
+_Brande_--He interests Natalie. He is what the uneducated call
+good-natured. He enjoys doing unselfish things, unaware that it is for
+the selfish sake of the agreeable sensation thereby secured. Besides, I
+like him myself. He amuses me. To make him a member was the only safe
+way of keeping him so much about us. But Natalie is the main reason. I
+am afraid of her wavering in spite of my hypnotic influence. In a girl
+of her intensely emotional nature the sentiment of hopeless love will
+create profound melancholy. Dominated by that she is safe. It seems
+cruel at first sight. It is not really so. It is not cruel to reconcile
+her to a fate she cannot escape. It is merciful. For the rest, what does
+it matter? It will be all the same in--
+
+_Grey_--This day six months.
+
+_Brande_--I believe I shivered. Heredity has much to answer for.
+
+That is the whole of the entry. I did not read the words until the hand
+that wrote them was dust.
+
+Natalie professed some disappointment when I announced my immediate
+return to town. I was obliged to manufacture an excuse for such a hasty
+departure, and so fell back on an old engagement which I had truly
+overlooked, and which really called me away. But it would have called
+long enough without an answer if it had not been for Brande himself, his
+friend Grey, and their insanities. My mind was fixed on one salient
+issue: how to get Natalie Brande out of her brother's evil influence.
+This would be better compassed when I myself was outside the scope of
+his extraordinary influence. And so I went without delay.
+
+For some time after my return to London, I went about visiting old
+haunts and friends. I soon tired of this. The haunts had lost their
+interest. The friends were changed, or I was changed. I could not resume
+the friendships which had been interrupted. The chain of connection had
+been broken and the links would not weld easily. So, after some futile
+efforts to return to the circle I had long deserted, I desisted and
+accepted my exclusion with serenity. I am not sure that I desired the
+old relationships re-established. And as my long absence had prevented
+any fresh shoots of friendship being grafted, I found myself alone in
+London. I need say no more.
+
+One evening I was walking through the streets in a despondent mood, as
+had become my habit. By chance I read the name of a street into which I
+had turned to avoid a more crowded thoroughfare. It was that in which
+Miss Metford lived. I knew that she had returned to town, for she had
+briefly acquainted me with the fact on a postcard written some days
+previously.
+
+Here was a chance of distraction. This girl's spontaneous gaiety, which
+I found at first displeasing, was what I wanted to help me to shake off
+the gloomy incubus of thought oppressing me. It was hardly within the
+proprieties to call upon her at such an hour, but it could not matter
+very much, when the girl's own ideas were so unconventional. She had
+independent means, and lived apart from her family in order to be rid of
+domestic limitations. She had told me that she carried a
+latch-key--indeed she had shown it to me with a flourish of triumph--and
+that she delighted in free manners. Free manners, she was careful to
+add, did not mean bad manners. To my mind the terms were synonymous.
+When opposite her number I decided to call, and, having knocked at the
+door, was told that Miss Metford was at home.
+
+"Hallo, Marcel! Glad to see you," she called out, somewhat stridently
+for my taste. Her dress was rather mannish, as usual. In lieu of her
+out-door tunic she wore a smoking-jacket. When I entered she was sitting
+in an arm-chair, with her feet on a music-stool. She arose so hastily
+that the music-stool was overturned, and allowed to lie where it fell.
+
+"What is the matter?" she asked, concerned. "Have you seen a ghost?"
+
+"I think I have seen many ghosts of late," I said, "and they have not
+been good company. I was passing your door, and I have come in for
+comfort."
+
+She crossed the room and poured out some whisky from a decanter which
+was standing on a side-board. Then she opened a bottle of soda-water
+with a facility which suggested practice. I was relieved to think that
+it was not Natalie who was my hostess. Handing me the glass, she said
+peremptorily:
+
+"Drink that. That is right. Give me the glass. Now smoke. Do I allow
+smoking here? Pah! I smoke here myself."
+
+I lit a cigar and sat down beside her. The clouds began to lift from my
+brain and float off in the blue smoke wreaths. We talked on ordinary
+topics without my once noticing how deftly they had been introduced by
+Miss Metford. I never thought of the flight of time until a chime from a
+tiny clock on the mantelpiece--an exquisite sample of the tasteful
+furniture of the whole room--warned me that my visit had lasted two
+hours. I arose reluctantly.
+
+She rallied me on my ingratitude. I had come in a sorry plight. I was
+now restored. She was no longer useful, therefore I left her. And so on,
+till I said with a solemnity no doubt lugubrious:
+
+"I am most grateful, Miss Metford. I cannot tell you how grateful I am.
+You would not understand--"
+
+"Oh, please leave my poor understanding alone, and tell me what has
+happened to you. I should like to hear it. And what is more, I like
+you." She said this so carelessly, I did not feel embarrassed. "Now,
+then, the whole story, please." Saying which, she sat down again.
+
+"Do you really know nothing more of Brande's Society than you admitted
+when I last spoke to you about it?" I asked, without taking the chair
+she pushed over to me.
+
+"This is all I know," she answered, in the rhyming voice of a young
+pupil declaiming a piece of a little understood and less cared for
+recitation. "The society has very interesting evenings. Brande shows one
+beautiful experiments, which, I daresay, would be amazingly instructive
+if one were inclined that way, which I am not. The men are mostly
+long-haired creatures with spectacles. Some of them are rather
+good-looking. All are wholly mad. And my friend--I mean the only girl I
+could ever stand as a friend--Natalie Brande, is crazy about them."
+
+"Nothing more than that?"
+
+"Nothing more."
+
+The clock now struck the hour of nine, the warning chime for which had
+startled me.
+
+"Is there anything more than that?" Miss Metford asked with some
+impatience.
+
+I thought for a moment. Unless my own senses had deceived me that
+evening in Brande's house, I ran a great risk of sharing George Delany's
+fate if I remained where I was much longer. And suppose I told her all
+I knew, would not that bring the same danger upon her too? So I had to
+answer:
+
+"I cannot tell you. I am a member now."
+
+"Then you must know more than any mere outsider like myself. I suppose
+it would not be fair to ask you. Anyhow, you will come back and see me
+soon. By the way, what is your address?"
+
+I gave her my address. She wrote it down on a silver-cased tablet, and
+remarked:
+
+"That will be all right. I'll look you up some evening."
+
+As I drove to my hotel, I felt that the mesmeric trick, or whatever
+artifice had been practised upon me by Brande and Grey, had now assumed
+its true proportion. I laughed at my fears, and was thankful that I had
+not described them to the strong-minded young woman to whose kindly
+society I owed so much. What an idiot she would have thought me!
+
+A servant met me in the hall.
+
+"Telegram, sir. Just arrived at this moment."
+
+I took the telegram, and went upstairs with it unopened in my hand. A
+strange fear overcame me. I dared not open the envelope. I knew
+beforehand who the sender was, and what the drift of the message would
+be. I was right. It was from Brande.
+
+    "I beg you to be more cautious. Your discussion with Miss M. this
+    evening might have been disastrous. I thought all was over at nine
+    o'clock.
+
+                                                             "BRANDE."
+
+I sat down stupefied. When my senses returned, I looked at the table
+where I had thrown the telegram. It was not there, nor in the room. I
+rang for the man who had given it to me, and he came immediately.
+
+"About that telegram you gave me just now, Phillips--"
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," the man interrupted, "I did not give you any
+telegram this evening."
+
+"I mean when you spoke to me in the hall."
+
+"Yes, sir. I said 'good-night,' but you took no notice. Excuse me, sir,
+I thought you looked strange."
+
+"Oh, I was thinking of something else. And I remember now, it was
+Johnson who gave me the telegram."
+
+"Johnson left yesterday, sir."
+
+"Then it was yesterday I was thinking of. You may go, Phillips."
+
+So Brande's telepathic power was objective as well as subjective. My own
+brain, unaccustomed to be impressed by another mind "otherwise than
+through the recognised channels of sense," had supplied the likeliest
+authority for its message. The message was duly delivered, but the
+telegram was a delusion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+GUILTY!
+
+
+As to protecting Natalie Brande from her brother and the fanatics with
+whom he associated, it was now plain that I was powerless. And what
+guarantee had I that she herself was unaware of his nefarious purpose;
+that she did not sympathise with it? This last thought flashed upon me
+one day, and the sting of pain that followed it was so intolerable, I
+determined instantly to prove its falsity or truth.
+
+I telegraphed to Brande that I was running down to spend a day or two
+with him, and followed my message without waiting for a reply. I have
+still a very distinct recollection of that journey, notwithstanding much
+that might well have blotted it from my memory. Every mile sped over
+seemed to mark one more barrier passed on my way to some strange fate;
+every moment which brought me nearer this incomprehensible girl with
+her magical eyes was an epoch of impossibility against my ever
+voluntarily turning back. And now that it is all over, I am glad that I
+went on steadfastly to the end.
+
+Brande received me with the easy affability of a man to whom good
+breeding had ceased to be a habit, and had become an instinct. Only once
+did anything pass between us bearing on the extraordinary relationship
+which he had established with me--the relation of victor and victim, I
+considered it. We had been left together for a few moments, and I said
+as soon as the others were out of hearing distance:
+
+"I got your message."
+
+"I know you did," he replied. That was all. There was an awkward pause.
+It must be broken somehow. Any way out of the difficulty was better than
+to continue in it.
+
+"Have you seen this?" I asked, handing Brande a copy of a novel which I
+had picked up at a railway bookstall. When I say that it was new and
+popular, it will be understood that it was indecent.
+
+He looked at the title, and said indifferently: "Yes, I have seen it,
+and in order to appreciate this class of fiction fairly, I have even
+tried to read it. Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because I thought it would be in your line. It is very advanced." I
+said this to gain time.
+
+"Advanced--advanced? I am afraid I do not comprehend. What do you mean
+by 'advanced'? And how could it be in my line. I presume you mean by
+that, on my plane of thought?"
+
+"By 'advanced,' I mean up-to-date. What do you mean by it?"
+
+"If I used the word at all, I should mean educated, evolved. Is this
+evolved? Is it even educated? It is not always grammatical. It has no
+style. In motive, it ante-dates Boccaccio."
+
+"You disapprove of it."
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Then you approve it, notwithstanding your immediate condemnation?"
+
+"By no means. I neither approve nor disapprove. It only represents a
+phase of humanity--the deliberate purpose of securing money or notoriety
+to the individual, regardless of the welfare of the community. There is
+nothing to admire in that. It would be invidious to blame it when the
+whole social scheme is equally wrong and contemptible. By the way, what
+interest do you think the wares of any literary pander, of either sex,
+could possess for me, a student--even if a mistaken one--of science?"
+
+"I did not think the book would possess the slightest interest for you,
+and I suppose you are already aware of that?"
+
+"Ah no! My telepathic power is reserved for more serious purposes. Its
+exercise costs me too much to expend it on trifles. In consequence I do
+not know why you mentioned the book."
+
+To this I answered candidly, "I mentioned it in order to get myself out
+of a conversational difficulty--without much success."
+
+Natalie was reserved with me at first. She devoted herself unnecessarily
+to a boy named Halley who was staying with them. Grey had gone to
+London. His place was taken by a Mr. Rockingham, whom I did not like.
+There was something sinister in his expression, and he rarely spoke save
+to say something cynical, and in consequence disagreeable. He had "seen
+life," that is, everything deleterious to and destructive of it. His
+connection with Brande was clearly a rebound, the rebound of disgust.
+There was nothing creditable to him in that. My first impression of him
+was thus unfavourable. My last recollection of him is a fitting item in
+the nightmare which contains it.
+
+The youth Halley would have interested me under ordinary circumstances.
+His face was as handsome and refined as that of a pretty girl. His
+figure, too, was slight and his voice effeminate. But there my own
+advantage, as I deemed it, over him ceased. Intellectually, he was a
+pupil of Brande's who did his master credit. Having made this discovery
+I did not pursue it. My mind was fixed too fast upon a definite issue to
+be more than temporarily interested in the epigrams of a peachy-cheeked
+man of science.
+
+The afternoon was well advanced before I had an opportunity of speaking
+to Natalie. When it came, I did not stop to puzzle over a choice of
+phrases.
+
+"I wish to speak to you alone on a subject of extreme importance to me,"
+I said hurriedly. "Will you come with me to the sea-shore? Your time, I
+know, is fully occupied. I would not ask this if my happiness did not
+depend upon it."
+
+The philosopher looked on me with grave, kind eyes. But the woman's
+heart within her sent the red blood flaming to her cheeks. It was then
+given to me to fathom the lowest depth of boorish stupidity I had ever
+sounded.
+
+"I don't mean that," I cried, "I would not dare--"
+
+The blush on her cheek burnt deeper as she tossed her head proudly back,
+and said straight out, without any show of fence or shadow of
+concealment:
+
+"It was my mistake. I am glad to know that I did you an injustice. You
+are my friend, are you not?"
+
+"I believe I have the right to claim that title," I answered.
+
+"Then what you ask is granted. Come." She put her hand boldly into mine.
+I grasped the slender fingers, saying:
+
+"Yes, Natalie, some day I will prove to you that I am your friend."
+
+"The proof is unnecessary," she replied, in a low sad voice.
+
+We started for the sea. Not a word was spoken on the way. Nor did our
+eyes meet. We were in a strange position. It was this: the man who had
+vowed he was the woman's friend--who did not intend to shirk the proof
+of his promise, and never did gainsay it--meant to ask the woman,
+before the day was over, to clear herself of knowingly associating with
+a gang of scientific murderers. The woman had vaguely divined his
+purpose, and could not clear herself.
+
+When we arrived at the shore we occupied ourselves inconsequently. We
+hunted little fishes until Natalie's dainty boots were dripping. We
+examined quaint denizens of the shallow water until her gloves were
+spoilt. We sprang from rock to rock and evaded the onrush of the foaming
+waves. We made aqueducts for inter-communication between deep pools. We
+basked in the sunshine, and listened to the deep moan of the sounding
+sea, and the solemn murmur of the shells. We drank in the deep breath of
+the ocean, and for a brief space we were like happy children.
+
+The end came soon to this ephemeral happiness. It was only one of those
+bright coins snatched from the niggard hand of Time which must always be
+paid back with usurious charges. We paid with cruel interest.
+
+Standing on a flat rock side by side, I nerved myself to ask this girl
+the same question I had asked her friend, Edith Metford, how much she
+knew of the extraordinary and preposterous Society--as I still tried to
+consider it--which Herbert Brande had founded. She looked so frank, so
+refined, so kind, I hardly dared to put my brutal question to an
+innocent girl, whom I had seen wince at the suffering of a maimed bird,
+and pale to the lips at the death-cry of a rabbit. This time there was
+no possibility of untoward consequence in the question save to
+myself--for surely the girl was safe from her own brother. And I myself
+preferred to risk the consequences rather than endure longer the thought
+that she belonged voluntarily to a vile murder club. Yet the question
+would not come. A simple thing brought it out. Natalie, after looking
+seaward silently for some minutes, said simply:
+
+"How long are we to stand here, I wonder?"
+
+"Until you answer this question. How much do you know about your
+brother's Society, which I have joined to my own intense regret?"
+
+"I am sorry you regret having joined," she replied gravely.
+
+"You would not be sorry," said I, "if you knew as much about it as I
+do," forgetting that I had still no answer to my question, and that the
+extent of her knowledge was unknown to me.
+
+"I believe I do know as much as you." There was a tremor in her voice
+and an anxious pleading look in her eyes. This look maddened me. Why
+should she plead to me unless she was guilty? I stamped my foot upon the
+rock without noticing that in so doing I kicked our whole collection of
+shells into the water.
+
+There was something more to ask, but I stood silent and sullen. The
+woods above the beach were choral with bird-voices. They were hateful to
+me. The sea song of the tumbling waves was hideous. I cursed the yellow
+sunset light glaring on their snowy crests. A tiny hand was laid upon my
+arm. I writhed under its deadly if delicious touch. But I could not put
+it away, nor keep from turning to the sweet face beside me, to mark once
+more its mute appeal--now more than mere appeal; it was supplication
+that was in her eyes. Her red lips were parted as though they voiced an
+unspoken prayer. At last a prayer did pass from them to me.
+
+"Do not judge me until you know me better. Do not hate me without cause.
+I am not wicked, as you think. I--I--I am trying to do what I think is
+right. At least, I am not selfish or cruel. Trust me yet a little
+while."
+
+I looked at her one moment, and then with a sob I clasped her in my
+arms, and cried aloud:
+
+"My God! to name murder and that angel face in one breath! Child, you
+have been befooled. You know nothing."
+
+For a second she lingered in my embrace. Then she gently put away my
+arms, and looking up at me, said fearlessly but sorrowfully:
+
+"I cannot lie--even for your love. I know _all_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE WOKING MYSTERY.
+
+
+She knew all. Then she was a murderess--or in sympathy with murderers.
+My arms fell from her. I drew back shuddering. I dared not look in her
+lying eyes, which cried pity when her base heart knew no mercy. Surely
+now I had solved the maddening puzzle which the character of this girl
+had, so far, presented to me. Yet the true solution was as far from me
+as ever. Indeed, I could not well have been further from it than at that
+moment.
+
+As we walked back, Natalie made two or three unsuccessful attempts to
+lure me out of the silence which was certainly more eloquent on my part
+than any words I could have used. Once she commenced:
+
+"It is hard to explain--"
+
+I interrupted her harshly. "No explanation is possible."
+
+On that she put her handkerchief to her eyes, and a half-suppressed sob
+shook her slight figure. Her grief distracted me. But what could I say
+to assuage it?
+
+At the hall door I stopped and said, "Good-bye."
+
+"Are you not coming in?"
+
+There was a directness and emphasis in the question which did not escape
+me.
+
+"I?" The horror in my own voice surprised myself, and assuredly did not
+pass without her notice.
+
+"Very well; good-bye. We are not exactly slaves of convention here, but
+you are too far advanced in that direction even for me. This is your
+second startling departure from us. I trust you will spare me the
+humiliation entailed by the condescension of your further acquaintance."
+
+"Give me an hour!" I exclaimed aghast. "You do not make allowance for
+the enigma in which everything is wrapped up. I said I was your friend
+when I thought you of good report. Give me an hour--only an hour--to say
+whether I will stand by my promise, now that you yourself have claimed
+that your report is not good but evil. For that is really what you have
+protested. Do I ask too much? or is your generosity more limited even
+than my own?"
+
+"Ah, no! I would not have you think that. Take an hour, or a year--an
+hour only if you care for my happiness."
+
+"Agreed," said I. "I will take the hour. Discretion can have the year."
+
+So I left her. I could not go indoors. A roof would smother me. Give me
+the open lawns, the leafy woods, the breath of the summer wind. Away,
+then, to the silence of the coming night. For an hour leave me to my
+thoughts. Her unworthiness was now more than suspected. It was admitted.
+My misery was complete. But I would not part with her; I could not.
+Innocent or guilty, she was mine. I must suffer with her or for her. The
+resolution by which I have abided was formed as I wandered lonely
+through the woods.
+
+When I reached my room that night I found a note from Brande. To receive
+a letter from a man in whose house I was a guest did not surprise me. I
+was past that stage. There was nothing mysterious in the letter, save
+its conclusion. It was simply an invitation to a public meeting of the
+Society, which was to be held on that day week in the hall in Hanover
+Square, and the special feature in the letter--seeing that it did not
+vanish like the telegram, but remained an ordinary sheet of paper--lay
+in its concluding sentence. This urged me to allow nothing to prevent my
+attendance. "You will perhaps understand thereafter that we are neither
+political plotters nor lunatics, as you have thought."
+
+Thought! The man's mysterious power was becoming wearisome. It was too
+much for me. I wished that I had never seen his face.
+
+As I lay sleepless in my bed, I recommenced that interminable
+introspection which, heretofore, had been so barren of result. It was
+easy to swear to myself that I would stand by Natalie Brande, that I
+would never desert her. But how should my action be directed in order
+that by its conduct I might prevail upon the girl herself to surrender
+her evil associates? I knew that she regarded me with affection. And I
+knew also that she would not leave her brother for my sake. Did she
+sympathise with his nefarious schemes, or was she decoyed into them like
+myself?
+
+Decoyed! That was it!
+
+I sprang from the bed, beside myself with delight. Now I had not merely
+a loophole of escape from all these miseries; I had a royal highway.
+Fool, idiot, blind mole that I was, not to perceive sooner that easy
+solution of the problem! No wonder that she was wounded by my unworthy
+doubts. And she had tried to explain, but I would not listen! I threw
+myself back and commenced to weave all manner of pleasant fancies round
+the salvation of this girl from her brother's baneful influence, and the
+annihilation of his Society, despite its occult powers, by mine own
+valour. The reaction was too great. Instead of constructing marvellous
+counterplots, I fell sound asleep.
+
+Next day I found Natalie in a pleasant morning-room to which I was
+directed. She wore her most extreme--and, in consequence, most
+exasperating--rational costume. When I entered the room she pushed a
+chair towards me, in a way that suggested Miss Metford's worst manner,
+and lit a cigarette, for the express purpose, I felt, of annoying me.
+
+"I have come," I said somewhat shamefacedly, "to explain."
+
+"And apologise?"
+
+"Yes, to apologise. I made a hideous mistake. I have suffered for it as
+much as you could wish."
+
+"Wish you to suffer!" She flung away her cigarette. Her dark eyes opened
+wide in unassumed surprise. And that curious light of pity, which I had
+so often wondered at, came into them. "I am very sorry if you have
+suffered," she said, with convincing earnestness.
+
+"How could I doubt you? Senseless fool that I was to suppose for one
+moment that you approved of what you could not choose but know--"
+
+At this her face clouded.
+
+"I am afraid you are still in error. What opinion have you formed which
+alters your estimate of me?"
+
+"The only opinion possible: that you have unwillingly learned the secret
+of your brother's Society; but, like myself--you see no way to--to--"
+
+"To what purpose?"
+
+"To destroy it."
+
+"I am not likely to attempt that."
+
+"No, it would be impossible, and the effort would cost your life."
+
+"That is not my reason." She arose and stood facing me. "I do not like
+to lose your esteem. You know already that I will not lie to retain it.
+I approve of the Society's purpose."
+
+"And its actions?"
+
+"They are inevitable. Therefore I approve also of its actions. I shall
+not ask you to remain now, for I see that you are again horrified; as is
+natural, considering your knowledge--or, pardon me for saying so, your
+want of knowledge. I shall be glad to see you after the lecture to which
+you are invited. You will know a little more then; not all, perhaps, but
+enough to shake your time-dishonoured theories of life--and death."
+
+I bowed, and left the room without a word. It was true, then, that she
+was mad like the others, or worse than mad--a thousand times worse! I
+said farewell to Brande, as his guest, for the last time. Thenceforward
+I would meet him as his enemy--his secret enemy as far as I could
+preserve my secrecy with such a man; his open enemy when the proper time
+should come.
+
+In the railway carriage I turned over some letters and papers which I
+found in my pockets, not with deliberate intention, but to while away
+the time. One scrap startled me. It was the sheet on which Brande had
+written the Woking address, and on reading it over once more, a thought
+occurred to me which I acted on as soon as possible. I could go to
+Woking and find out something about the man Delany. So long as my
+inquiries were kept within the limits of the strictest discretion,
+neither Brande nor any of his executive could blame me for seeking
+convincing evidence of the secret power they claimed.
+
+On my arrival in London, I drove immediately to the London Necropolis
+Company's station and caught the funeral train which runs to Brookwood
+cemetery. With Saint Anne's Chapel as my base, I made short excursions
+hither and thither, and stood before a tombstone erected to the memory
+of George Delany, late of the Criminal Investigation Department,
+Scotland Yard. This was a clue which I could follow, so I hurried back
+to town and called on the superintendent of the department.
+
+Yes, I was told, Delany had belonged to the department. He had been a
+very successful officer in ferreting out foreign Anarchists and
+evil-doers. His last movement was to join a Society of harmless cranks
+who met in Hanover Square. No importance was attached to this in the
+department. It could not have been done in the way of business, although
+Delany pretended that it was. He had dropped dead in the street as he
+was leaving his cab to enter the office with information which must have
+appeared to him important--to judge from the cabman's evidence as to his
+intense excitement and repeated directions for faster driving. There was
+an inquest and a post-mortem, but "death from natural causes" was the
+verdict. That was all. It was enough for me.
+
+I had now sufficient evidence, and was finally convinced that the
+Society was as dangerous as it was demented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CUI BONO?
+
+
+When I arrived at the Society's rooms on the evening for which I had an
+invitation, I found them pleasantly lighted. The various scientific
+diagrams and instruments had been removed, and comfortable arm-chairs
+were arranged so that a free passage was available, not merely to each
+row, but to each chair. The place was full when I entered, and soon
+afterwards the door was closed and locked. Natalie Brande and Edith
+Metford were seated beside each other. An empty chair was on Miss
+Metford's right. She saw me standing at the door and nodded toward the
+empty seat which she had reserved for me. When I reached it she made a
+movement as if to forestall me and leave me the middle chair. I
+deprecated this by a look which was intentionally so severe that she
+described it later as a malignant scowl.
+
+I could not at the moment seat myself voluntarily beside Natalie Brande
+with the exact and final knowledge which I had learnt at Scotland Yard
+only one week old. I could not do it just then, although I did not mean
+to draw back from what I had undertaken--to stand by her, innocent or
+guilty. But I must have time to become accustomed to the sensation which
+followed this knowledge. Miss Metford's fugitive attempts at
+conversation pending the commencement of the lecture were disagreeable
+to me.
+
+There was a little stir on the platform. The chairman, in a few words,
+announced Herbert Brande. "This is the first public lecture," he said,
+"which has been given since the formation of the Society, and in
+consequence of the fact that a number of people not scientifically
+educated are present, the lecturer will avoid the more esoteric phases
+of his subject, which would otherwise present themselves in his
+treatment of it, and confine himself to the commonplaces of scientific
+insight. The title of the lecture is identical with that of our
+Society--_Cui Bono?_"
+
+Brande came forward unostentatiously and placed a roll of paper on the
+reading-desk. I have copied the extracts which follow from this
+manuscript. The whole essay, indeed, remains with me intact, but it is
+too long--and it would be immaterial--to reproduce it all in this
+narrative. I cannot hope either to reproduce the weird impressiveness of
+the lecturer's personality, his hold over his audience, or my own
+emotions in listening to this man--whom I had proved, not only from his
+own confession, but by the strongest collateral evidence, to be a
+callous and relentless murderer--to hear him glide with sonorous voice
+and graceful gesture from point to point in his logical and terrible
+indictment of suffering!--the futility of it, both in itself and that by
+which it was administered! No one could know Brande without finding
+interest, if not pleasure, in his many chance expressions full of
+curious and mysterious thought. I had often listened to his
+extemporaneous brain pictures, as the reader knows, but I had never
+before heard him deliberately formulate a planned-out system of thought.
+And such a system! This is the gospel according to Brande.
+
+"In the verbiage of primitive optimism a misleading limitation is placed
+on the significance of the word Nature and its inflections. And the
+misconception of the meaning of an important word is as certain to lead
+to an inaccurate concept as is the misstatement of a premise to precede
+a false conclusion. For instance, in the aphorism, variously rendered,
+'what is natural is right,' there is an excellent illustration of the
+misapplication of the word 'natural.' If the saying means that what is
+natural is just and wise, it might as well run 'what is natural is
+wrong,' injustice and unwisdom being as natural, _i.e._, a part of
+Nature, as justice and wisdom. Morbidity and immorality are as natural
+as health and purity. Not more so, but not less so. That 'Nature is made
+better by no mean but Nature makes that mean,' is true enough. It is
+inevitably true. The question remains, in making that mean, has she
+really made anything that tends toward the final achievement of
+universal happiness? I say she has not.
+
+"The misuse of a word, it may be argued, could not prove a serious
+obstacle to the growth of knowledge, and might be even interesting to
+the student of etymology. But behind the misuse of the word 'natural'
+there is a serious confusion of thought which must be clarified before
+the mass of human intelligence can arrive at a just appreciation of the
+verities which surround human existence, and explain it. To this end it
+is necessary to get rid of the archaic idea of Nature as a paternal,
+providential, and beneficent protector, a successor to the 'special
+providence,' and to know the true Nature, bond-slave as she is of her
+own eternal persistence of force; that sole primary principle of which
+all other principles are only correlatives; of which the existence of
+matter is but a cognisable evidence.
+
+"The optimist notion, therefore, that Nature is an all-wise designer, in
+whose work order, system, wisdom, and beauty are prominent, does not
+fare well when placed under the microscope of scientific research.
+
+"Order?
+
+"There is no order in Nature. Her armies are but seething mobs of
+rioters, destroying everything they can lay hands on.
+
+"System?
+
+"She has no system, unless it be a _reductio ad absurdum_, which only
+blunders on the right way after fruitlessly trying every other
+conceivable path. She is not wise. She never fills a pail but she spills
+a hogshead. All her works are not beautiful. She never makes a
+masterpiece but she smashes a million 'wasters' without a care. The
+theory of evolution--her gospel--reeks with ruffianism, nature-patented
+and promoted. The whole scheme of the universe, all material existence
+as it is popularly known, is founded upon and begotten of a system of
+everlasting suffering as hideous as the fantastic nightmares of
+religious maniacs. The Spanish Inquisitors have been regarded as the
+most unnatural monsters who ever disgraced the history of mankind. Yet
+the atrocities of the Inquisitors, like the battlefields of Napoleon and
+other heroes, were not only natural, but they have their prototypes in
+every cubic inch of stagnant water, or ounce of diseased tissue. And
+stagnant water is as natural as sterilised water; and diseased tissue is
+as natural as healthy tissue. Wholesale murder is Nature's first law.
+She creates only to kill, and applies the rule as remorselessly to the
+units in a star-drift as to the tadpoles in a horse-pond.
+
+"It seems a far cry from a star-drift to a horse-pond. It is so in
+distance and magnitude. It is not in the matter of constituents. In
+ultimate composition they are identical. The great nebula in Andromeda
+is an aggregation of atoms, and so is the river Thames. The only
+difference between them is the difference in the arrangement and
+incidence of these atoms and in the molecular motion of which they are
+the first but not the final cause. In a pint of Thames water, we know
+that there is bound up a latent force beside which steam and
+electricity are powerless in comparison. To release that force it is
+only necessary to apply the sympathetic key; just as the heated point of
+a needle will explode a mine of gunpowder and lay a city in ashes. That
+force is asleep. The atoms which could give it reality are at rest, or,
+at least, in a condition of _quasi_-rest. But in the stupendous mass of
+incandescent gas which constitutes the nebula of Andromeda, every atom
+is madly seeking rest and finding none; whirling in raging haste,
+battling with every other atom in its field of motion, impinging upon
+others and influencing them, being impinged upon and influenced by them.
+That awful cauldron exemplifies admirably the method of progress
+stimulated by suffering. It is the embryo of a new Sun and his planets.
+After many million years of molecular agony, when his season of fission
+had come, he will rend huge fragments from his mass and hurl them
+helpless into space, there to grow into his satellites. In their turn
+they may reproduce themselves in like manner before their true planetary
+life begins, in which they shall revolve around their parent as solid
+spheres. Follow them further and learn how beneficent Nature deals with
+them.
+
+"After the lapse of time-periods which man may calculate in figures, but
+of which his finite mind cannot form even a true symbolic conception,
+the outer skin of the planet cools--rests. Internal troubles prevail for
+longer periods still; and these, in their unsupportable agony, bend and
+burst the solid strata overlying; vomit fire through their self-made
+blow-holes, rear mountains from the depths of the sea, then dash them in
+pieces.
+
+"Time strides on austere.
+
+"The globe still cools. Life appears upon it. Then begins anew the old
+strife, but under conditions far more dreadful, for though it be founded
+on atomic consciousness, the central consciousness of the heterogeneous
+aggregation of atoms becomes immeasurably more sentient and susceptible
+with every step it takes from homogenesis. This internecine war must
+continue while any creature great or small shall remain alive upon the
+world that bore it.
+
+"By slow degrees the mighty milestones in the protoplasmic march are
+passed. Plants and animals are now busy, murdering and devouring each
+other--the strong everywhere destroying the weak. New types appear. Old
+types disappear. Types possessing the greatest capacity for murder
+progress most rapidly, and those with the least recede and determine.
+The neolithic man succeeds the palaeolithic man, and sharpens the stone
+axe. Then to increase their power for destruction, men find it better to
+hunt in packs. Communities appear. Soon each community discovers that
+its own advantage is furthered by confining its killing, in the main, to
+the members of neighbouring communities. Nations early make the same
+discovery. And at last, as with ourselves, there is established a race
+with conscience enough to know that it is vile, and intelligence enough
+to know that it is insignificant.[1] But what profits this? In the
+fulness of its time the race shall die. Man will go down into the pit,
+and all his thoughts will perish. The uneasy consciousness which, in
+this obscure corner, has for a brief space broken the silence of the
+Universe, will be at rest. Matter will know itself no longer. Life and
+death and love, stronger than death, will be as though they never had
+been. Nor will anything that _is_ be better or be worse for all that
+the labour, genius, devotion, and suffering of man have striven through
+countless generations to effect.
+
+    [1] From this sentence to the end of the paragraph Brande draws
+    freely, for the purpose of his own argument, on Mr. Balfour's
+    "Naturalism and Ethics."--_Ed._
+
+"The roaring loom of Time weaves on. The globe cools out. Life
+mercifully ceases from upon its surface. The atmosphere and water
+disappear. It rests. It is dead.
+
+"But for its vicarious service in influencing more youthful planets
+within its reach, that dead world might as well be loosed at once from
+its gravitation cable and be turned adrift into space. Its time has not
+yet come. It will not come until the great central sun of the system to
+which it belongs has passed laboriously through all his stages of
+stellar life and died out also. Then when that dead sun, according to
+the impact theory, blunders across the path of another sun, dead and
+blind like himself, its time will come. The result of that impact will
+be a new star nebula, with all its weary history before it; a history of
+suffering, in which a million years will not be long enough to write a
+single page.
+
+"Here we have a scientific parallel to the hell of superstition which
+may account for the instinctive origin of the smoking flax and the fire
+which shall never be quenched. We know that the atoms of which the
+human body is built up are atoms of matter. It follows that every atom
+in every living body will be present in some form at that final impact
+in which the solar system will be ended in a blazing whirlwind which
+will melt the earth with its fervent heat. There is not a molecule or
+cell in any creature alive this day which will not in its ultimate
+constituents endure the long agony, lasting countless aeons of centuries,
+wherein the solid mass of this great globe will be represented by a rush
+of incandescent gas, stupendous in itself, but trivial in comparison
+with the hurricane of flame in which it will be swallowed up and lost.
+
+"And when from that hell a new star emerges, and new planets in their
+season are born of him, and he and they repeat, as they must repeat, the
+ceaseless, changeless, remorseless story of the universe, every atom in
+this earth will take its place, and fill again functions identical with
+those which it, or its fellow, fills now. Life will reappear, develop,
+determine, to be renewed again as before. And so on for ever.
+
+"Nature has known no rest. From the beginning--which never was--she has
+been building up only to tear down again. She has been fabricating
+pretty toys and trinkets, that cost her many a thousand years to forge,
+only to break them in pieces for her sport. With infinite painstaking
+she has manufactured man only to torture him with mean miseries in the
+embryonic stages of his race, and in his higher development to madden
+him with intellectual puzzles. Thus it will be unto the end--which never
+shall be. For there is neither beginning nor end to her unvarying
+cycles. Whether the secular optimist be successful or unsuccessful in
+realising his paltry span of terrestrial paradise, whether the paeans he
+sings about it are prophetic dithyrambs or misleading myths, no
+Christian man need fear for his own immortality. That is well assured.
+In some form he will surely be raised from the dead. In some shape he
+will live again. But, _Cui bono_?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FORCE--A REMEDY.
+
+
+"Get me out of this, I am stifled--ill," Miss Metford said, in a low
+voice to me.
+
+As we were hurrying from the room, Brande and his sister, who had joined
+him, met us. The fire had died out of his eyes. His voice had returned
+to its ordinary key. His demeanour was imperturbable, sphinx-like. I
+murmured some words about the eloquence of the lecture, but interrupted
+myself when I observed his complete indifference to my remarks, and
+said,
+
+"Neither praise nor blame seems to affect you, Brande."
+
+"Certainly not," he answered calmly. "You forget that there is nothing
+deserving of either praise or blame."
+
+I knew I could not argue with him, so we passed on. Outside, I offered
+to find a cab for Miss Metford, and to my surprise she allowed me to do
+so. Her self-assertive manner was visibly modified. She made no pretence
+of resenting this slight attention, as was usual with her in similar
+cases. Indeed, she asked me to accompany her as far as our ways lay
+together. But I felt that my society at the time could hardly prove
+enlivening. I excused myself by saying candidly that I wished to be
+alone.
+
+My own company soon became unendurable. In despair I turned into a music
+hall. The contrast between my mental excitement and the inanities of the
+stage was too acute, so this resource speedily failed me. Then I betook
+myself to the streets again. Here I remembered a letter Brande had put
+into my hand as I left the hall. It was short, and the tone was even
+more peremptory than his usual arrogance. It directed me to meet the
+members of the Society at Charing Cross station at two o'clock on the
+following day. No information was given, save that we were all going on
+a long journey; that I must set my affairs in such order that my absence
+would not cause any trouble, and the letter ended, "Our experiments are
+now complete. Our plans are matured. Do not fail to attend."
+
+"Fail to attend!" I muttered. "If I am not the most abject coward on the
+earth I will attend--with every available policeman in London." The
+pent-up wrath and impotence of many days found voice at last. "Yes,
+Brande," I shouted aloud, "I will attend, and you shall be sorry for
+having invited me."
+
+"But I will not be sorry," said Natalie Brande, touching my arm.
+
+"You here!" I exclaimed, in great surprise, for it was fully an hour
+since I left the hall, and my movements had been at haphazard since
+then.
+
+"Yes, I have followed you for your own sake. Are you really going to
+draw back now?"
+
+"I must."
+
+"Then I must go on alone."
+
+"You will not go on alone. You will remain, and your friends shall go on
+without you--go to prison without you, I mean."
+
+"Poor boy," she said softly, to herself. "I wonder if I would have
+thought as I think now if I had known him sooner? I suppose I should
+have been as other women, and their fools' paradise would have been
+mine--for a little while."
+
+The absolute hopelessness in her voice pierced my heart. I pleaded
+passionately with her to give up her brother and all the maniacs who
+followed him. For the time I forgot utterly that the girl, by her own
+confession, was already with them in sympathy as well as in deed.
+
+She said to me: "I cannot hold back now. And you? You know you are
+powerless to interfere. If you will not come with me, I must go alone.
+But you may remain. I have prevailed on Herbert and Grey to permit
+that."
+
+"Never," I answered. "Where you go, I go."
+
+"It is not really necessary. In the end it will make no difference. And
+remember, you still think me guilty."
+
+"Even so, I am going with you--guilty."
+
+Now this seemed to me a very ordinary speech, for who would have held
+back, thinking her innocent? But Natalie stopped suddenly, and, looking
+me in the face, said, almost with a sob:
+
+"Arthur, I sometimes wish I had known you sooner. I might have been
+different." She was silent for a moment. Then she said piteously to me:
+"You will not fail me to-morrow?"
+
+"No, I will not fail you to-morrow," I answered.
+
+She pressed my hand gratefully, and left me without any explanation as
+to her movements in the meantime.
+
+I hurried to my hotel to set my affairs in order before joining Brande's
+expedition. The time was short for this. Fortunately there was not much
+to do. By midnight I had my arrangements nearly complete. At the time,
+the greater part of my money was lying at call in a London bank. This I
+determined to draw in gold the next day. I also had at my banker's some
+scrip, and I knew I could raise money on that. My personal effects and
+the mementos of my travels, which lay about my rooms in great confusion,
+must remain where they were. As to the few friends who still remained to
+me, I did not write to them. I could not well describe a project of
+which I knew nothing, save that it was being carried out by dangerous
+lunatics, or, at least, by men who were dangerous, whether their madness
+was real or assumed. Nor could I think of any reasonable excuse for
+leaving England after so long an absence without a personal visit to
+them. It was best, then, to disappear without a word. Having finished my
+dispositions, I changed my coat for a dressing-gown and sat down by the
+window, which I threw open, for the summer night was warm. I sat long,
+and did not leave my chair until the morning sun was shining on my face.
+
+When I got to Charing Cross next day, a group of fifty or sixty people
+were standing apart from the general crowd and conversing with
+animation. Almost the whole strength of the Society was assembled to see
+a few of us off, I thought. In fact, they were all going. About a dozen
+women were in the party, and they were dressed in the most extravagant
+rational costumes. Edith Metford was amongst them. I drew her aside, and
+apologised for not having called to wish her farewell; but she stopped
+me.
+
+"Oh, it's all right; I am going too. Don't look so frightened."
+
+This was more than I could tolerate. She was far too good a girl to be
+allowed to walk blindfold into the pit I had digged for myself with full
+knowledge. I said imperatively:
+
+"Miss Metford, you shall not go. I warned you more than once--and warned
+you, I firmly believe, at the risk of my life--against these people. You
+have disregarded the advice which it may yet cost me dear to have given
+you."
+
+"To tell you the truth," she said candidly, "I would not go an inch if
+it were not for yourself. I can't trust you with them. You'd get into
+mischief. I don't mean with Natalie Brande, but the others; I don't like
+them. So I am coming to look after you."
+
+"Then I shall speak to Brande."
+
+"That would be useless. I joined the Society this morning."
+
+This she said seriously, and without anything of the spirit of bravado
+which was one of her faults. That ended our dispute. We exchanged a
+meaning look as our party took their seats. There was now, at any rate,
+one human being in the Society to whom I could speak my mind.
+
+We travelled by special train. Our ultimate destination was a fishing
+village on the southern coast, near Brande's residence. Here we found a
+steam yacht of about a thousand tons lying in the harbour with steam up.
+
+The vessel was a beautiful model. Her lines promised great speed, but
+the comfort of her passengers had been no less considered by her builder
+when he gave her so much beam and so high a freeboard. The ship's
+furniture was the finest I had ever seen, and I had crossed every great
+ocean in the world. The library, especially, was more suggestive of a
+room in the British Museum than the batch of books usually carried at
+sea. But I have no mind to enter on a detailed description of a
+beautiful pleasure ship while my story waits. I only mention the general
+condition of the vessel in evidence of the fact which now struck me for
+the first time--Brande must have unlimited money. His mode of life in
+London and in the country, notwithstanding his pleasant house, was in
+the simplest style. From the moment we entered his special train at
+Charing Cross, he flung money about him with wanton recklessness.
+
+As we made our way through the crowd which was hanging about the quay,
+an unpleasant incident occurred. Miss Brande, with Halley and
+Rockingham, became separated from Miss Metford and myself and went on in
+front of us. We five had formed a sub-section of the main body, and were
+keeping to ourselves when the unavoidable separation took place. A
+slight scream in front caused Miss Metford and myself to hurry forward.
+We found the others surrounded by a gang of drunken sailors, who had
+stopped them. A red-bearded giant, frenzied with drink, had seized
+Natalie in his arms. His abettor, a swarthy Italian, had drawn his
+knife, and menaced Halley and Rockingham. The rest of the band looked
+on, and cheered their chiefs. Halley was white to the lips; Rockingham
+was perfectly calm, or, perhaps, indifferent. He called for a policeman.
+Neither interfered. I did not blame Rockingham; he was a man of the
+world, so nothing manly could be expected of him. But Halley's cowardice
+disgusted me.
+
+I rushed forward and caught the Italian from behind, for his knife was
+dangerous. Seizing him by the collar and waist, I swung him twice, and
+then flung him from me with all my strength. He spun round two or three
+times, and then collided with a stack of timber. His head struck a beam,
+and he fell in his tracks without a word. The red-haired giant instantly
+released Natalie and put up his hands. The man's attitude showed that he
+knew nothing of defence. I swept his guard aside, and struck him
+violently on the neck close to the ear. I was a trained boxer; but I had
+never before struck a blow in earnest, or in such earnest, and I hardly
+knew my own strength. The man went down with a grunt like a pole-axed
+ox, and lay where he fell. To a drunken sailor lad, who seemed anxious
+to be included in this matter, I dealt a stinging smack on the face
+with my open hand that satisfied him straightway. The others did not
+molest me. Turning from the crowd, I found Edith Metford looking at me
+with blazing eyes.
+
+"Superb! Marcel, I am proud of you!" she cried.
+
+"Oh! Edith, how can you say that?" Natalie Brande exclaimed, still
+trembling. "Such dreadful violence! The poor men knew no better."
+
+"Poor fiddlesticks! It is well for you that Marcel is a man of violence.
+He's worth a dozen sheep like--"
+
+"Like whom, Miss Metford?" Rockingham asked, glaring at her so viciously
+that I interposed with a hasty entreaty that all should hurry to the
+ship. I did not trust the man.
+
+Miss Metford was not so easily suppressed. She said leisurely, "I meant
+to say like you, and this over-nervous but otherwise admirable boy. If
+you think 'sheep' derogatory, pray make it 'goats.'"
+
+I hurried them on board. Brande welcomed us at the gangway. The vessel
+was his own, so he was as much at home on the ship as in his country
+house. I had an important letter to write, and very little time for the
+task. It was not finished a moment too soon, for the moment the last
+passenger and the last bale of luggage was on board, the captain's
+telegraph rang from the bridge, and the _Esmeralda_ steamed out to sea.
+My letter, however, was safe on shore. The land was low down upon the
+horizon before the long summer twilight deepened slowly into night. Then
+one by one the shadowy cliffs grew dim, dark, and disappeared. We saw no
+more of England until after many days of gradually culminating horror.
+The very night which was our first at sea did not pass without a strange
+adventure, which happened, indeed, by an innocent oversight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+MORITURI TE SALUTANT.
+
+
+We had been sitting on deck chairs smoking and talking for a couple of
+hours after the late dinner, which was served as soon as the vessel was
+well out to sea, when Brande came on deck. He was hailed with
+enthusiasm. This did not move him, or even interest him. I was careful
+not to join in the acclamations produced by his presence. He noticed
+this, and lightly called me recalcitrant. I admitted the justice of the
+epithet, and begged him to consider it one which would always apply to
+me with equal force. He laughed at this, and contrasted my gloomy fears
+with the excellent arrangements which he had made for my comfort. I
+asked him what had become of Grey. I thought it strange that this man
+should be amongst the absentees.
+
+"Oh, Grey! He goes to Labrador."
+
+"To Labrador! What takes him to Labrador?"
+
+"The same purpose which takes us to the Arafura Sea," Brande answered,
+and passed on.
+
+Presently there was a slight stir amongst the people, and the word was
+passed round that Brande was about to undertake some interesting
+experiment for the amusement of his guests. I hurried aft along with
+some other men with whom I had been talking, and found Miss Brande and
+Miss Metford standing hand in hand. Natalie's face was very white, and
+the only time I ever saw real fear upon it was at that moment. I thought
+the incident on the quay had unnerved her more than was apparent at the
+time, and that she was still upset by it. She beckoned to me, and when I
+came to her she seized my hand. She was trembling so much her words were
+hardly articulate. Miss Metford was concerned for her companion's
+nervousness; but otherwise indifferent; while Natalie stood holding our
+hands in hers like a frightened child awaiting the firing of a cannon.
+
+"He's going to let off something, a rocket, I suppose," Miss Metford
+said to me. "Natalie seems to think he means to sink the ship."
+
+"He does not mean to do so. He might, if an accident occurred."
+
+"Is he going to fire a mine?" I asked.
+
+"No, he is going to etherize a drop of water." Natalie said this so
+seriously, we had no thought of laughter, incongruous as the cause of
+her fears might seem.
+
+At that moment Brande addressed us from the top of the deckhouse, and
+explained that, in order to illustrate on a large scale the most recent
+discovery in natural science, he was about to disintegrate a drop of
+water, at present encased in a hollow glass ball about the size of a
+pea, which he held between his thumb and forefinger. An electric light
+was turned upon him so that we could all see the thing quite plainly. He
+explained that there was a division in the ball; one portion of it
+containing the drop of water, and the other the agent by which, when the
+dividing wall was eaten through by its action, the atoms of the water
+would be resolved into the ultimate ether of which they were composed.
+As the disintegrating agent was powerless in salt water, we might all
+feel assured that no great catastrophe would ensue.
+
+Before throwing the glass ball overboard, a careful search for the
+lights of ships was made from east to west, and north to south.
+
+There was not a light to be seen anywhere. Brande threw the ball over
+the side. We were going under easy steam at the time, but the moment he
+left the deckhouse "full speed ahead" was rung from the bridge, and the
+_Esmeralda_ showed us her pace. She literally tore through the water
+when the engines were got full on.
+
+Before we had gone a hundred yards a great cry arose. A little fleet of
+French fishing-boats with no lights up had been lying very close to us
+on the starboard bow. There they were, boatfuls of men, who waved
+careless adieus to us as we dashed past.
+
+Brande was moved for a moment. Then he shrugged his shoulders and
+muttered, "It can't be helped now." We all felt that these simple words
+might mean much. To test their full portent I went over to him, Natalie
+still holding my hand with trembling fingers.
+
+"Can't you do anything for them?" I asked.
+
+"You mean, go back and sink this ship to keep them company?"
+
+"No; but warn them to fly."
+
+"It would be useless. In this breeze they could not sail a hundred
+yards in the time allowed, and three miles is the nearest point of
+safety. I could not say definitely, as this is the first time I have
+ever tried an experiment so tremendous; but I believe that if we even
+slowed to half speed, it would be dangerous, and if we stopped, the
+_Esmeralda_ would go to the bottom to-night, as certainly as the sun
+will rise to-morrow."
+
+Natalie moaned in anguish on hearing this. I said to her sternly:
+
+"I thought you approved of all these actions?"
+
+"This serves no purpose. These men may not even have a painless death,
+and the reality is more awful than I thought."
+
+Every face was turned to that point in the darkness toward which the
+foaming wake of the _Esmeralda_ stretched back. Not a word more was
+spoken until Brande, who was standing, watch in hand, beside the light
+from the deckhouse, came aft and said:
+
+"You will see the explosion in ten seconds."
+
+He could not have spoken more indifferently if the catastrophe he had
+planned was only the firing of a penny squib.
+
+Then the sea behind us burst into a flame, followed by the sound of an
+explosion so frightful that we were almost stunned by it. A huge mass
+of water, torn up in a solid block, was hurled into the air, and there
+it broke into a hundred roaring cataracts. These, in the brilliant
+search light from the ship which was now turned upon them full, fell
+like cataracts of liquid silver into the seething cauldron of water that
+raged below. The instant the explosion was over, our engines were
+reversed, and the _Esmeralda_ went full speed astern. The waves were
+still rolling in tumultuous breakers when we got back. We might as well
+have gone on.
+
+The French fishing fleet had disappeared.
+
+I could not help saying to Brande before we turned in:
+
+"You expect us, I suppose, to believe that the explosion was really
+caused by a drop of water?"
+
+"Etherized," he interrupted. "Certainly I do. You don't believe it--on
+what grounds?"
+
+"That it is unbelievable."
+
+"Pshaw! You deny a fact because you do not understand it. Ignorance is
+not evidence."
+
+"I say it is impossible."
+
+"You do not wish to believe it possible. Wishes are not proofs."
+
+Without pursuing the argument, I said to him:
+
+"It is fortunate that the accident took place at sea. There will be no
+inquests."
+
+"Oh! I am sorry for the accident. As for the men, they might have had a
+worse fate. It is better than living in life-long misery as they do.
+Besides, both they and the fishes that will eat them will soon be
+numbered amongst the things that have been."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"NO DEATH--SAVE IN LIFE."
+
+
+For some days afterwards our voyage was uneventful, and the usual
+shipboard amusements were requisitioned to while away the tedious hours.
+The French fishing fleet was never mentioned. We got through the Bay
+with very little knocking about, and passed the Rock without calling. I
+was not disappointed, for there was slight inducement for going ashore,
+oppressed as I was with the ever-present incubus of dread. At intervals
+this feeling became less acute, but only to return, strengthened by its
+short absences. After a time my danger sense became blunted. The nervous
+system became torpid under continuous stress, and refused to pass on the
+sensations with sufficient intensity to the brain; or the weary brain
+was asleep at its post and did not heed the warnings. I could think no
+more.
+
+And this reminds me of something which I must tell about young Halley.
+For several days after the voyage began, the boy avoided me. I knew his
+reason for doing this. I myself did not blame him for his want of
+physical courage, but I was glad that he himself was ashamed of it.
+
+Halley came to me one morning and said:
+
+"I wish to speak to you, Marcel. I _must_ speak to you. It is about that
+miserable episode on the evening we left England. I acted like a cad.
+Therefore I must be a cad. I only want to tell you that I despise myself
+as much as you can. And that I envy you. I never thought that I should
+envy a man simply because he had no nervous system."
+
+"Who is this man without a nervous system of whom you speak?" I asked
+coldly. I was not sorry that I had an opportunity of reading him a
+lesson which might be placed opposite the many indignities which had
+been put upon me, in the form mainly of shoulder shrugs, brow
+elevations, and the like.
+
+"You, of course. I mean no offence--you are magnificent. I am honest in
+saying that I admire you. I wish I was like you in height, weight,
+muscle--and absence of nervous system."
+
+"You would keep your own brain, I suppose?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, I would keep that."
+
+"And I will keep my own nervous system," I replied. "And the difference
+between mine and yours is this: that whereas my own danger sense is, or
+was, as keen as your own, I have my reserve of nerve force--or had
+it--which might be relied on to tide me over a sudden emergency. This
+reserve you have expended on your brain. There are two kinds of cowards;
+the selfish coward who cares for no interest save his own; the unselfish
+coward who cares nothing for himself, but who cannot face a danger
+because he dare not. And there are two kinds of brave men; the nerveless
+man you spoke of, who simply faces danger because he does not appreciate
+it, and the man who faces danger because, although he fears it he dares
+it. I have no difficulty in placing you in this list."
+
+"You place me--"
+
+"A coward because you cannot help it. You are merely out of harmony with
+your environment. You ought to bring a supply of 'environment' about
+with you, seeing that you cannot manufacture it off-hand like myself. I
+wish to be alone. Good-day."
+
+"Before I go, Marcel, I will say this." There were tears in his eyes.
+"These people do not really know you, with all their telepathic power.
+You are not--not--"
+
+"Not as great a fool as they think. Thank you. I mean to prove that to
+them some day."
+
+With that I turned away from him, although I felt that he would have
+gladly stayed longer with me.
+
+While the _Esmeralda_ was sweeping over the long swells of the
+Mediterranean, I heard Brande lecture for the second time. It was a
+fitting interlude between his first and third addresses. I might
+classify them thus--the first, critical; the second, constructive; the
+third, executive. His third speech was the last he made in the world.
+
+We were assembled in the saloon. It would have been pleasanter on the
+upper deck, owing to the heat, but the speaker could not then have been
+easily heard in the noise of the wind and waves. I could scarcely
+believe that it was Brande who arose to speak, so changed was his
+expression. The frank scepticism, which had only recently degenerated
+into a cynicism, still tempered with a half kindly air of easy
+superiority, was gone. In its place there was a look of concentrated
+and relentless purpose which dominated the man himself and all who saw
+him. He began in forcible and direct sentences, with only a faintly
+reminiscent eloquence which was part of himself, and from which he could
+not without a conscious effort have freed his style. But the whole
+bearing of the man had little trace in it of the dilettante academician
+whom we all remembered.
+
+"When I last addressed this Society," he began, "I laboured under a
+difficulty in arriving at ultimate truth which was of my own
+manufacture. I presupposed, as you will remember, the indestructibility
+of the atom, and, in logical consequence I was bound to admit the
+conservation of suffering, the eternity of misery. But on that evening
+many of my audience were untaught in the rudiments of ultimate thought,
+and some were still sceptical of the _bona fides_ of our purpose, and
+our power to achieve its object. To them, in their then ineptitude, what
+I shall say now would have been unintelligible. For in the same way that
+the waves of light or sound exceeding a certain maximum can not be
+transferred to the brain by dull eyes and ears, my thought pulsations
+would have escaped those auditors by virtue of their own
+irresponsiveness. To-night I am free from the limitation which I then
+suffered, because there are none around me now who have not sufficient
+knowledge to grasp what I shall present.
+
+"You remember that I traced for you the story of evolution in its
+journey from the atom to the star. And I showed you that the hypothesis
+of the indestructibility of the atom was simply a creed of cruelty writ
+large. I now proceed on the lines of true science to show you how that
+hypothesis is false; that as the atom _is_ destructible--as you have
+seen by our experiments (the last of which resulted in a climax not
+intended by me)--the whole scheme of what is called creation falls to
+pieces. As the atom was the first etheric blunder, so the material
+Universe is the grand etheric mistake.
+
+"In considering the marvellous and miserable succession of errors
+resulting from the meretricious atomic remedy adopted by the ether to
+cure its local sores, it must first be said of the ether itself that
+there is too much of it. Space is not sufficient for it. Thus, the
+particles of ether--those imponderable entities which vibrate through a
+block of marble or a disc of hammered steel with only a dulled, not an
+annihilated motion, are by their own tumultuous plenty packed closer
+together than they wish. I say wish, for if all material consciousness
+and sentiency be founded on atomic consciousness, then in its turn
+atomic consciousness is founded upon, and dependent on, etheric
+consciousness. These particles of ether, therefore, when too closely
+impinged upon by their neighbours, resent the impact, and in doing so
+initiate etheric whirlwinds, from whose vast perturbances stupendous
+drifts set out. In their gigantic power these avalanches crush the
+particles which impede them, force the resisting medium out of its
+normal stage, destroy the homogeneity of its constituents, and mass them
+into individualistic communities whose vibrations play with greater
+freedom when they synchronise. The homogeneous etheric tendencies recede
+and finally determine.
+
+"Behold a miracle! An atom is born!
+
+"By a similar process--which I may liken to that of putting off an evil
+day which some time must be endured--the atoms group themselves into
+molecules. In their turn the molecules go forth to war, capturing or
+being captured; the vibrations of the slaves always being forced to
+synchronise with those of their conquerors. The nucleus of the gas of a
+primal metal is now complete, and the foundation of a solar
+system--paltry molecule of the Universe as it is--is laid. Thereafter,
+the rest is easily followed. It is described in your school books, and
+must not occupy me now.
+
+"But one word I will interpolate which may serve to explain a curious
+and interesting human belief. You are aware of how, in times past, men
+of absolutely no scientific insight held firmly to the idea that an
+elixir of life and a philosopher's stone might be discovered, and that
+these two objects were nearly always pursued contemporaneously. That is
+to my mind an extraordinary example of the force of atomic
+consciousness. The idea itself was absolutely correct; but the men who
+followed it had slight knowledge of its unity, and none whatever of its
+proper pursuit. They would have worked on their special lines to
+eternity before advancing a single step toward their object. And this
+because they did not know what life was, and death was, and what the
+metals ultimately signified which they, blind fools, so unsuccessfully
+tried to transmute. But we know more than they. We have climbed no doubt
+in the footholds they have carved, and we have gained the summit they
+only saw in the mirage of hope. For we know that there is no life, no
+death, no metals, no matter, no emotions, no thoughts; but that all
+that we call by these names is only the ether in various conditions.
+Life! I could live as long as this earth will submit to human existence
+if I had studied that paltry problem. Metals! The ship in which you sail
+was bought with gold manufactured in my crucibles.
+
+"The unintelligent--or I should say the grossly ignorant--have long held
+over the heads of the pioneers of science these two great charges: No
+man has ever yet transmuted a metal; no man has ever yet proved the
+connecting link between organic and inorganic life. I say _life_, for I
+take it that this company admits that a slab of granite is as much alive
+as any man or woman I see before me. But I have manufactured gold, and I
+could have manufactured protoplasm if I had devoted my life to that
+object. My studies have been almost wholly on the inorganic plane. Hence
+the 'philosopher's stone' came in my way, but not the 'elixir of life.'
+The molecules of protoplasm are only a little more complex than the
+molecules of hydrogen or nitrogen or iron or coal. You may fuse iron,
+vaporise water, intermix the gases; but the molecules of all change
+little in such metamorphosis. And you may slay twenty thousand men at
+Waterloo or Sedan, or ten thousand generations may be numbered with the
+dust, and not an ounce of protoplasm lies dead. All molecules are merely
+arrangements of atoms made under different degrees of pressure and of
+different ages. And all atoms are constructed of identical
+constituents--the ether, as I have said. Therefore the ether, which was
+from the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, which is the same
+yesterday, to-day, and for ever, is the origin of force, of matter, of
+life.
+
+"_It is alive!_
+
+"Its starry children are so many that the sands of the sea-shore may not
+be used as a similitude for their multitude; and they extend so far that
+distance may not be named in relation to them. They are so high above us
+and so deep below us that there is neither height nor depth in them.
+There is neither east nor west in them, nor north and south in them. Nor
+is there beginning or end to them. Time drops his scythe and stands
+appalled before that dreadful host. Number applies not to its eternal
+multitudes. Distance is lost in boundless space. And from all the stars
+that stud the caverns of the Universe, there swells this awful chorus:
+Failure! failure and futility! And the ether is to blame!
+
+"Heterogeneous suffering is more acute than homogeneous, because the
+agony is intensified by being localised; because the comfort of the
+comfortable is purchasable only by the multiplied misery of the
+miserable; because aristocratic leisure requires that the poor should be
+always with it. There is, therefore, no gladness without its
+overbalancing sorrow. There is no good without intenser evil. There is
+no death save in life.
+
+"Back, then, from this ill-balanced and unfair long-suffering, this
+insufficient existence. Back to Nirvana--the ether! And I will lead the
+way.
+
+"The agent I will employ has cost me all life to discover. It will
+release the vast stores of etheric energy locked up in the huge atomic
+warehouse of this planet. I shall remedy the grand mistake only to a
+degree which it would be preposterous to call even microscopic; but when
+I have done what I can, I am blameless for the rest. In due season the
+whole blunder will be cured by the same means that I shall use, and all
+the hideous experiment will be over, and everlasting rest or
+_quasi_-rest will supersede the magnificent failure of material
+existence. This earth, at least, and, I am encouraged to hope, the whole
+solar system, will by my instrumentality be restored to the ether from
+which it never should have emerged. Once before, in the history of our
+system, an effort similar to mine was made, unhappily without success.
+
+"This time we shall not fail!"
+
+A low murmur rose from the audience as the lecturer concluded, and a
+hushed whisper asked:
+
+"Where was that other effort made?"
+
+Brande faced round momentarily, and said quietly but distinctly:
+
+"On the planet which was where the Asteroids are now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+MISS METFORD'S PLAN.
+
+
+We coaled at Port Said like any ordinary steamer. Although I had more
+than once made the Red Sea voyage, I had never before taken the
+slightest interest in the coaling of the vessel on which I was a
+passenger. This time everything was different. That which interested me
+before seemed trivial now. And that which had before seemed trivial was
+now absorbing. I watched the coaling--commonplace as the spectacle
+was--with vivid curiosity. The red lights, the sooty demons at work,
+every bag of coals they carried, and all the coal dust clouds they
+created, were fitting episodes in a voyage such as ours. We took an
+enormous quantity of coal on board. I remained up most of the night in a
+frame of mind which I thought none might envy. I myself would have made
+light of it had I known what was still in store for the _Esmeralda_ and
+her company. It was nearly morning when I turned in. When I awoke we
+were nearing the Red Sea.
+
+On deck, the conversation of our party was always eccentric, but this
+must be said for it: there was sometimes a scintillating brilliance in
+it that almost blinded one to its extreme absurdity. The show of high
+spirits which was very general was, in the main, unaffected. For the
+rest it was plainly assumed. But those who assumed their parts did so
+with a histrionic power which was all the more surprising when it is
+remembered that the origin of their excellent playing was centred in
+their own fears. I preserved a neutral attitude. I did not venture on
+any overt act of insubordination. That would have only meant my
+destruction, without any counter-balancing advantage in the way of
+baulking an enterprise in which I was a most unwilling participator. And
+to pretend what I did not feel was a task which I had neither stomach to
+undertake nor ability to carry out successfully. In consequence I kept
+my own counsel--and that of Edith Metford.
+
+Brande was the most easily approached maniac I had ever met. His
+affability continued absolutely consistent. I took advantage of this to
+say to him on a convenient opportunity: "Why did you bring these people
+with you? They must all be useless, and many of them little better than
+a nuisance!"
+
+"Marcel, you are improving. Have you attained the telepathic power? You
+have read my mind." This was said with a pleasant smile.
+
+"I can not read your mind," I answered; "I only diagnose."
+
+"Your diagnosis is correct. I answer you in a sentence. They are all
+sympathetic, and human sympathy is necessary to me until my purpose is
+fulfilled."
+
+"You do not look to me for any measure of this sympathy, I trust?"
+
+"I do not. You are antipathetic."
+
+"I am."
+
+"But necessary, all the same."
+
+"So be it, until the proper time shall come."
+
+"It will never come," Brande said firmly.
+
+"We shall see," I replied as firmly as himself.
+
+Next evening as we were steaming down the blue waters--deep blue they
+always seemed to me--of the Red Sea, I was sitting on the foredeck
+smoking and trying to think. I did not notice how the time passed. What
+seemed to me an hour at most, must have been three or four. With the
+exception of the men of the crew who were on duty, I was alone, for the
+heat was intense, and most of our people were lying in their cabins
+prostrated in spite of the wind-sails which were spread from every port
+to catch the breeze. My meditations were as usual gloomy and despondent.
+They were interrupted by Miss Metford. She joined me so noiselessly that
+I was not aware of her presence until she laid her hand on my arm. I
+started at her touch, but she whispered a sharp warning, so full of
+suppressed emotion that I instantly recovered a semblance of unconcern.
+
+The girl was very white and nervous. This contrast from her usual
+equanimity was disquieting. She clung to me hysterically as she gasped:
+
+"Marcel, it is a mercy I have found you alone, and that there is one
+sane man in this shipful of lunatics."
+
+"I am afraid you are not altogether right," I said, as I placed a seat
+for her close to mine. "I can hardly be sane when I am a voluntary
+passenger on board this vessel."
+
+"Do you really think they mean what they say?" she asked hurriedly,
+without noticing my remark.
+
+"I really think they have discovered the secret of extraordinary natural
+forces, so powerful and so terrible that no one can say what they may or
+may not accomplish. And that is the reason I begged you not to come on
+this voyage."
+
+"What was the good of asking me not to come without giving me some
+reason?"
+
+"Had I done so, they might have killed you as they have done others
+before."
+
+"You might have chanced that, seeing that it will probably end that
+way."
+
+"And they would certainly have killed me."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+I wondered at the sudden intensity of the girl's sharp gasp when I said
+this, and marvelled too, how she, who had always been so mannish,
+nestled close to me and allowed her head to sink down on my shoulder. I
+pitied the strong-willed, self-reliant nature which had given way under
+some strain of which I had yet to be told. So I stooped and touched her
+cheek with my lips in a friendly way, at which she looked up to me with
+half-closed eyes, and whispered in a voice strangely soft and womanish
+for her:
+
+"If they must kill us, I wish they would kill us now."
+
+I stroked her soft cheek gently, and urged a less hopeless view. "Even
+if the worst come, we may as well live as long as we can."
+
+Whereupon to my surprise she, having shot one quick glance into my eyes,
+put my arm away and drew her chair apart from mine. Her head was turned
+away from me, but I could not but notice that her bosom rose and fell
+swiftly. Presently she faced round again, lit a cigarette, put her hands
+in the pocket of her jacket, and her feet on another chair, and said
+indifferently:
+
+"You are right. Even if the worst must come, we may as well live as long
+as we can."
+
+This sudden change in her manner surprised me. I knew I had no art in
+dealing with women, so I let it pass without comment, and looked out at
+the glassy sea.
+
+After some minutes of silence, the girl spoke to me again.
+
+"Do you know anything of the actual plans of these maniacs?"
+
+"No. I only know their preposterous purpose."
+
+"Well, I know how it is to be done. Natalie was restless last night--you
+know that we share the same cabin--and she raved a bit. I kept her in
+her berth by sheer force, but I allowed her to talk."
+
+This was serious. I drew my chair close to Miss Metford's and whispered,
+"For heaven's sake, speak low." Then I remembered Brande's power, and
+wrung my hands in helpless impotence. "You forget Brande. At this moment
+he is taking down every word we say."
+
+"He's doing nothing of the sort."
+
+"But you forget--"
+
+"I don't forget. By accident I put morphia in the tonic he takes, and he
+is now past telepathy for some hours at least. He's sound asleep. I
+suppose if I had not done it by accident he would have known what I was
+doing, and so have refused the medicine. Anyhow, accident or no
+accident, I have done it."
+
+"Thank God!" I cried.
+
+"And this precious disintegrating agent! They haven't it with them, it
+seems. To manufacture it in sufficient quantity would be impossible in
+any civilised country without fear of detection or interruption. Brande
+has the prescription, formula--what do you call it?--and if you could
+get the paper and--"
+
+"Throw it overboard!"
+
+"Rubbish! They would work it all out again."
+
+"What then?" I whispered.
+
+"Steal the paper and--wouldn't it do to put in an extra _x_ or _y_, or
+stick a couple of additional figures into any suitable vacancy? Don't
+you think they'd go on with the scheme and--"
+
+"And?"
+
+"And make a mess of it!"
+
+"Miss Metford," I said, rising from my chair, "I mean Metford, I know
+you like to be addressed as a man--or used to like it."
+
+"Yes, I used to," she assented coldly.
+
+"I am going to take you in my arms and kiss you."
+
+"I'm hanged if you are!" she exclaimed, so sharply that I was suddenly
+abashed. My intended familiarity and its expression appeared grotesque,
+although a few minutes before she was so friendly. But I could not waste
+precious time in studying a girl's caprices, so I asked at once:
+
+"How can I get this paper?"
+
+"I said _steal_ it, if you recollect." Her voice was now hard, almost
+harsh. "You can get it in Brande's cabin, if you are neither afraid nor
+jealous."
+
+"I am not much afraid, and I will try it. What do you mean by jealous?"
+
+"I mean, would you, to save Natalie Brande--for they will certainly
+succeed in blowing themselves up, if nobody else--consent to her
+marrying another man, say that young lunatic Halley, who is always
+dangling after her when you are not?"
+
+"Yes," I answered, after some thought. For Halley's attentions to
+Natalie had been so marked, the plainly inconsequent mention of him in
+this matter did not strike me. "If that is necessary to save her, of
+course I would consent to it. Why do you ask? In my place you would do
+the same."
+
+"No. I'd see the ship and all its precious passengers at the bottom of
+the sea first."
+
+"Ah! but you are not a man."
+
+"Right! and what's more, I'm glad of it." Then looking down at the
+rational part of her costume, she added sharply, "I sha'n't wear these
+things again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ROCKINGHAM TO THE SHARKS.
+
+
+At one o'clock in the morning I arose, dressed hurriedly, drew on a pair
+of felt slippers, and put a revolver in my pocket. It was then time to
+put Edith Metford's proposal to the proof, and she would be waiting for
+me on deck to hear whether I had succeeded in it. We had parted a couple
+of hours before on somewhat chilling terms. I had agreed to follow her
+suggestion, but I could not trouble my tired brain by guesses at the
+cause of her moods.
+
+It was very dark. There was only enough light to enable me to find my
+way along the corridor, off which the state-rooms occupied by Brande and
+his immediate lieutenants opened. All the sleepers were restless from
+the terrible heat. As I stole along, a muffled word, a sigh, or a
+movement in the berths, made me pause at every step with a beating
+heart. Having listened till all was quiet, I moved on again noiselessly.
+I was almost at the end of the corridor. So intent had I been on
+preserving perfect silence, it did not sooner occur to me that I was
+searching for any special door. I had forgotten Brande's number!
+
+I could no more think of it than one can recall the name of a
+half-forgotten acquaintance suddenly encountered in the street. It might
+have been fourteen, or forty-one; or a hundred and fifty. Every number
+was as likely as it was unlikely. I tried vainly to concentrate my mind.
+The result was nothing. The missing number gave no clue. To enter the
+wrong room in that ship at that hour meant death for me. Of that I was
+certain. To leave the right room unentered gave away my first chance in
+the unequal battle with Brande. Then, as I knew that my first chance
+would probably be my last, if not availed of, I turned to the nearest
+door and quietly tried the handle. The door was not locked. I entered
+the state-room.
+
+"What do you want?" It was Halley's voice that came from the berth.
+
+"Pardon me," I whispered, "a mistake. The heat, you know. Went on deck,
+and have blundered into your room."
+
+"Oh, all right. Who are you?"
+
+"Brande."
+
+"Good-night. You did not blunder far;" this sleepily.
+
+I went out and closed the door quietly. I had gained something. I was
+within one door of my destination, for I knew that Halley was berthed
+between Rockingham and Brande. But I did not know on which side Brande's
+room was, and I dared not ask. I tried the next door going forward. It
+opened like the other. I went in.
+
+"Hallo there!" This time no sleepy or careless man challenged me. It was
+Rockingham's voice.
+
+"May I not enter my own room?" I whispered.
+
+"This is not your room. You are?" Rockingham sprang up in his berth, but
+before he could leave it I was upon him.
+
+"I am Arthur Marcel. And this iron ring which I press against your left
+ear is the muzzle of my revolver. Speak, move, breathe above your
+natural breath and your brains go through that porthole. Now, loose your
+hold of my arm and come with me."
+
+"You fool!" hissed Rockingham. "You dare not fire. You know you dare
+not."
+
+He was about to call out, but my left hand closed on his throat, and a
+gurgling gasp was all that issued from him.
+
+I laid down the revolver and turned the ear of the strangling man close
+to my mouth. I had little time to think; but thought flies fast when
+such deadly peril menaces the thinker as that which I must face if I
+failed to make terms with the man who was in my power. I knew that
+notwithstanding his intensely disagreeable nature, if he gave his
+promise either by spoken word or equivalent sign, I could depend upon
+him. There were no liars in Brande's Society. But the word I could not
+trust him to say. I must have his sign. I whispered:
+
+"You know I do not wish to kill you. I shall never have another happy
+day if you force me to it. I have no choice. You must yield or die. If
+you will yield and stand by me rather than against me in what shall
+follow, choose life by taking your right hand from my wrist and touching
+my left shoulder. I will not hurt you meanwhile. If you choose death,
+touch me with your left."
+
+The sweat stood on my forehead in big beads as I waited for his choice.
+It was soon made. He unlocked his left hand and placed it firmly on my
+right shoulder.
+
+He had chosen death.
+
+So the man was only a physical coward--or perhaps he had only made a
+choice of alternatives.
+
+I said slowly and in great agony, "May God have mercy on your soul--and
+mine!" on which the muscles in my left arm stiffened. The big biceps--an
+heirloom of my athletic days--thickened up, and I turned my eyes away
+from the dying face, half hidden by the darkness. His struggles were
+very terrible, but with my weight upon his lower limbs, and my grasp
+upon his windpipe, that death-throe was as silent as it was horrible.
+The end came slowly. I could not bear the horror of it longer. I must
+finish it and be done with it. I put my right arm under the man's
+shoulders and raised the upper part of his body from the berth. Then a
+desperate wrench with my left arm, and there was a dull crack like the
+snapping of a dry stick. It was over. Rockingham's neck was broken.
+
+I wiped away the bloody froth that oozed from the gaping mouth, and
+tried to compose decently the contorted figure. I covered the face.
+Then I started on my last mission, for now I knew the door. I had
+bought the knowledge dearly, and I meant to use it for my own purpose,
+careless of what violence might be necessary to accomplish my end.
+
+When I entered Brande's state-room I found the electric light full on.
+He was seated at a writing-table with his head resting on his arms,
+which hung crossways over the desk. The sleeper breathed so deeply it
+was evident that the effect of the morphia was still strong upon him.
+One hand clutched a folded parchment. His fingers clasped it
+nervelessly, and I had only to force them open one by one in order to
+withdraw the manuscript. As I did this, he moaned and moved in his
+chair. I had no fear of his awaking. My hand shook as I unfolded the
+parchment which I unconsciously handled as carefully as though the thing
+itself were as deadly as the destruction which might be wrought by its
+direction.
+
+To me the whole document was a mass of unintelligible formulae. My rusty
+university education could make nothing of it. But I could not waste
+time in trying to solve the puzzle, for I did not know what moment some
+other visitor might arrive to see how Brande fared. I first examined
+with a pocket microscope the ink of the manuscript, and then making a
+scratch with Brande's pen on a page of my note-book, I compared the two.
+The colours were identical. It was the same ink.
+
+In several places where a narrow space had been left vacant, I put 1 in
+front of the figures which followed. I had no reason for making this
+particular alteration, save that the figure 1 is more easily forged than
+any other, and the forgery is consequently more difficult to detect. My
+additions, when the ink was dry, could only have been discovered by one
+who was informed that the document had been tampered with. It was
+probable that a drawer which stood open with the keys in the lock was
+the place where Brande kept this paper; where he would look for it on
+awaking. I locked it in the drawer and put the keys into his pocket.
+
+There was something still to do with the sleeping man, whose brain
+compassed such marvellous powers. His telepathic faculty must be
+destroyed. I must keep him seriously ill, without killing him. As long
+as he remained alive his friends would never question his calculations,
+and the fiasco which was possible under any circumstances would then be
+assured. I had with me an Eastern drug, which I had bought from an
+Indian fakir once in Murzapoor. The man was an impostor, whose tricks
+did not impose on me. But the drug, however he came by it, was reliable.
+It was a poison which produced a mild form of cerebritis that dulled but
+did not deaden the mental powers. It acted almost identically whether
+administered sub-cutaneously or, of course in a larger dose, internally.
+I brought it home with the intention of giving it to a friend who was
+interested in vivisection. I did not think that I myself should be the
+first and last to experiment with it. It served my purpose well.
+
+The moment I pricked his skin, Brande moved in his seat. My hand was on
+his throat. He nestled his head down again upon his arms, and drew a
+deep breath. Had he moved again that breath would have been his last. I
+had been so wrought upon by what I had already done that night, I would
+have taken his life without the slightest hesitation, if the sacrifice
+seemed necessary.
+
+When my operation was over, I left the room and moved silently along the
+corridor till I came to the ladder leading to the deck. Edith Metford
+was waiting for me as we had arranged. She was shivering in spite of the
+awful heat.
+
+"Have you done it?" she whispered.
+
+"I have," I answered, without saying how much I had done. "Now you must
+retire--and rest easy. The formula won't work. I have put both it and
+Brande himself out of gear."
+
+"Thank God!" she gasped, and then a sudden faintness came over her. It
+passed quickly, and as soon as she was sufficiently restored, I begged
+her to go below. She pleaded that she could not sleep, and asked me to
+remain with her upon the deck. "It would be absurd to suppose that
+either of us could sleep this night," she very truly said. On which I
+was obliged to tell her plainly that she must go below. I had more to
+do.
+
+"Can I help?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"No. If you could, I would ask you, for you are a brave girl. I have
+something now to get through which is not woman's work."
+
+"Your work is my work," she answered. "What is it?"
+
+"I have to lower a body overboard without anyone observing me."
+
+There was no time for discussion, so I told her at once, knowing that
+she would not give way otherwise. She started at my words, but said
+firmly:
+
+"How will you do that unobserved by the 'watch'? Go down and bring up
+your--bring it up. I will keep the men employed." She went forward, and
+I turned again to the companion.
+
+When I got back to Rockingham's cabin I took a sheet of paper and wrote,
+"Heat--Mad!" making no attempt to imitate his writing. I simply scrawled
+the words with a rough pen in the hope that they would pass as a message
+from a man who was hysterical when he wrote them. Then I turned to the
+berth and took up the body. It was not a pleasant thing to do. But it
+must be done.
+
+I was a long time reaching the deck, for the arms and legs swung to and
+fro, and I had to move cautiously lest they should knock against the
+woodwork I had to pass. I got it safely up and hurried aft with it.
+Edith, I knew, would contrive to keep the men on watch engaged until I
+had disposed of my burden. I picked up a coil of rope and made it fast
+to the dead man's neck. Taking one turn of the rope round a boat-davit,
+I pushed the thing over the rail. I intended to let go the rope the
+moment the weight attached to it was safely in the sea, and so lowered
+away silently, paying out the line without excessive strain owing to the
+support of the davit round which I had wound it. I had not to wait so
+long as that, for just as the body was dangling over the foaming wake of
+the steamer, a little streak of moonlight shot out from behind a bank of
+cloud and lighted the vessel with a sudden gleam. I was startled by
+this, and held on, fearing that some watching eye might see my curious
+movements. For a minute I leaned over the rail and watched the track of
+the steamer as though I had come on deck for the air. There was a quick
+rush near the vessel's quarter. Something dark leaped out of the water,
+and there was a sharp snap--a crunch. The lower limbs were gone in the
+jaws of a shark. I let go the rope in horror, and the body dropped
+splashing into that hideous fishing-ground. Sick to death I turned
+away.
+
+"Get below quickly," Edith Metford said in my ear. "They heard the
+splash, slight as it was, and are coming this way." Her warning was
+nearly a sob.
+
+We hurried down the companion as fast as we dared, and listened to the
+comments of the watch above. They were soon satisfied that nothing of
+importance had occurred, and resumed their stations.
+
+Before we parted on that horrible night, Edith said in a trembling
+voice, "You have done your work like a brave man."
+
+"Say rather, like a forger and murderer," I answered.
+
+"No," she maintained. "Many men before you have done much worse in a
+good cause. You are not a forger. You are a diplomat. You are not a
+murderer. You are a hero."
+
+But I, being new to this work of slaughter and deception, could only
+deprecate her sympathy and draw away. I felt that my very presence near
+her was pollution. I was unclean, and I told her that I was so.
+Whereupon, without hesitation, she put her arms round my neck, and said
+clinging closely to me:
+
+"You are not unclean--you are free from guilt. And--Arthur--I will kiss
+you now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+"IF NOT TOO LATE!"
+
+
+When I came on deck next morning the coast of Arabia was rising, a thin
+thread of hazy blue between the leaden grey of the sea and the soft grey
+of the sky. The morning was cloudy, and the blazing sunlight was veiled
+in atmospheric gauze. I had hardly put my foot on deck when Natalie
+Brande ran to meet me. I hung back guiltily.
+
+"I thought you would never come. There is dreadful news!" she cried.
+
+I muttered some incoherent words, to which she did not attend, but went
+on hurriedly:
+
+"Rockingham has thrown himself overboard in a hysterical fit, brought on
+by the heat. The sailors heard the splash--"
+
+"I know they did." This escaped me unawares, and I instantly
+prevaricated, "I have been told about that."
+
+"Do you know that Herbert is ill?"
+
+I could have conscientiously answered this question affirmatively also.
+Her sudden sympathy for human misadventure jarred upon me, as it had
+done once before, when I thought of the ostensible object of the cruise.
+I said harshly:
+
+"Then Rockingham is at rest, and your brother is on the road to it." It
+was a brutal speech. It had a very different effect to that which I
+intended.
+
+"True," she said. "But think of the awful consequences if, now that
+Rockingham is gone, Herbert should be seriously ill."
+
+"I do think of it," I said stiffly. Indeed, I could hardly keep from
+adding that I had provided for it.
+
+"You must come to him at once. I have faith in you." This gave me a
+twinge. "I have no faith in Percival" (the ship's doctor).
+
+"You are nursing your brother?" I said with assumed carelessness.
+
+"Of course."
+
+"What is Percival giving him?"
+
+She described the treatment, and as this was exactly what I myself would
+have prescribed to put my own previous interference right, I promised to
+come at once, saying:
+
+"It is quite evident that Percival does not understand the case."
+
+"That is exactly what I thought," Natalie agreed, leading me to Brande's
+cabin. I found his vitality lower than I expected, and he was very
+impatient. The whole purpose of his life was at stake, dependent on his
+preserving a healthy body, on which, in turn, a vigorous mind depends.
+
+"How soon can you get me up?" he asked sharply, when my pretended
+examination was over.
+
+"I should say a month at most."
+
+"That would be too long," he cried. "You must do it in less."
+
+"It does not depend on me--"
+
+"It does depend on you. I know life itself. You know the paltry science
+of organic life. I have had no time for such trivial study. Get me well
+within three days, or--"
+
+"I am attending."
+
+"By the hold over my sister's imagination which I have gained, I will
+kill her on the fourth morning from now."
+
+"You will--_not_."
+
+"I tell you I will," Brande shrieked, starting up in his berth. "I could
+do it now."
+
+"You could--_not_."
+
+"Man, do you know what you are saying? You to bandy words with me! A
+clod-brained fool to dare a man of science! Man of science forsooth!
+Your men of science are to me as brain-benumbed, as brain-bereft, as
+that fly which I crush--thus!"
+
+The buzzing insect was indeed dead. But I was something more than a fly.
+At last I was on a fair field with this scientific magician or madman.
+And on a fair field I was not afraid of him.
+
+"You are agitating yourself unnecessarily and injuriously," I said in my
+best professional manner. "And if you persist in doing so you will make
+my one month three."
+
+In a voice of undisguised scorn, Brande exclaimed, without noticing my
+interruption:
+
+"Bearded by a creature whose little mind is to me like the open page of
+a book to read when the humour seizes me." Then with a fierce glance at
+me he cried:
+
+"I have read your mind before. I can read it now."
+
+"You can--_not_."
+
+He threw himself back in his berth and strove to concentrate his mind.
+For nearly five minutes he lay quite still, and then he said gently:
+
+"You are right. Have you, then, a higher power than I?"
+
+"No; a lower!"
+
+"A lower! What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that I have merely paralysed your brain--that for many months to
+come it will not be restored to its normal power--that it will never
+reach its normal power again unless I choose."
+
+"Then all is lost--lost--lost!" he wailed out. "The end is as far off,
+and the journey as long, and the way as hard, as if I had never striven.
+And the tribute of human tears will be exacted to the uttermost. My life
+has been in vain!"
+
+The absolute agony in his voice, the note of almost superhuman suffering
+and despair, was so intense, that, without thinking of what it was this
+man was grieving over, I found myself saying soothingly:
+
+"No, no! Nothing is lost. It is only your own overstrained nervous
+system which sends these fantastic nightmares to your brain. I will soon
+make you all right if you will listen to reason."
+
+He turned to me with the most appealing look which I had ever seen in
+human eyes save once before--when Natalie pleaded with me.
+
+"I had forgotten," he said, "the issue now lies in your hands. Choose
+rightly. Choose mercy."
+
+"I will," I answered shortly, for his request brought me back with a
+jerk to his motive.
+
+"Then you will get me well as soon as your skill can do it?"
+
+"I will keep you in your present condition until I have your most solemn
+assurance that you will neither go farther yourself nor instigate others
+to go farther with this preposterous scheme of yours."
+
+"Bah!" Brande ejaculated contemptuously, and lay back with a sudden
+content. "My brain is certainly out of order, else I should not have
+forgotten--until your words recalled it--the Labrador expedition."
+
+"The Labrador expedition?"
+
+"Yes. On the day we sailed for the Arafura Sea, Grey started with
+another party for Labrador. If we fail to act before the 31st December,
+in the year 1900, he will proceed. And the end of the century will be
+the date of the end of the earth. I will signal to him now."
+
+His face changed suddenly. For a moment I thought he was dead. Then the
+dreadful fact came home to me. He was telegraphing telepathically to
+Grey. So the murder that was upon my soul had been done in vain. Then
+another life must be taken. Better a double crime than one resultless
+tragedy. I was spared this.
+
+Brande opened his eyes wearily, and sighed as if fatigued. The effort,
+short as it was, must have been intense. He was prostrated. His voice
+was low, almost a whisper, as he said:
+
+"You have succeeded beyond belief. I cannot even signal him, much less
+exchange ideas." With that he turned his face from me, and instantly
+fell into a deep sleep.
+
+I left the cabin and went on deck. As usual, it was fairly sprinkled
+over with the passengers, but owing to the strong head-wind caused by
+the speed of the steamer, there was a little nook in the bow where there
+was no one to trouble me with unwelcome company.
+
+I sat down on an arm of the starboard anchor and tried to think. The
+game which seemed so nearly won had all to be played over again from the
+first move. If I had killed Brande--which surely would have been
+justifiable--the other expedition would go on from where he left off.
+And how should I find them? And who would believe my story when I got
+back to England?
+
+Brande must go on. His attempt to wreck the earth, even if the power he
+claimed were not overrated, would fail. For if the compounds of a common
+explosive must be so nicely balanced as they require to be, surely the
+addition of the figures which I had made in his formula would upset the
+balance of constituents in an agent so delicate, though so powerful, as
+that which he had invented. When the master failed, it was more than
+probable that the pupil would distrust the invention, and return to
+London for fresh experiments. Then a clean sweep must be made of the
+whole party. Meantime, it was plain that Brande must be allowed the
+opportunity of failing. And this it would be my hazardous duty to
+superintend.
+
+I returned to Brande's cabin with my mind made up. He was awake, and
+looked at me eagerly, but waited for me to speak. Our conversation was
+brief, for I had little sympathy with my patient, and the only anxiety I
+experienced about his health was the hope that he would not die until
+he had served my purpose.
+
+"I have decided to get you up," I said curtly.
+
+"You have decided well," he answered, with equal coldness.
+
+That was the whole interview--on which so much depended.
+
+After this I did not speak to Brande on any subject but that of his
+symptoms, and before long he was able to come on deck. The month I spoke
+of as the duration of his illness was an intentional exaggeration on my
+part.
+
+Rockingham was forgotten with a suddenness and completeness that was
+almost ghastly. The Society claimed to have improved the old maxim to
+speak nothing of the dead save what is good. Of the dead they spoke not
+at all. It is a callous creed, but in this instance it pleased me well.
+
+We did not touch at Aden, and I was glad of it. The few attractions of
+the place, the diving boys and the like, may be a relief in ordinary sea
+voyages, but I was too much absorbed in my experiment on Brande to bear
+with patience any delay which served to postpone the crisis of my
+scheme. I had treated him well, so far as his bodily health went, but I
+deliberately continued to tamper with his brain, so that any return of
+his telepathic power was thus prevented. Indeed, Brande himself was not
+anxious for such return. The power was always exercised at an extreme
+nervous strain, and it was now, he said, unnecessary to his purpose.
+
+In consequence of this determination, I modified the already minute
+doses of the drug I was giving him. This soon told with advantage on his
+health. His physical improvement partly restored his confidence in me,
+so that he followed my instructions faithfully. He evidently recognised
+that he was in my power; that if I did not choose to restore him fully
+no other man could.
+
+Of the ship's officers, Anderson, who was in command, and Percival, the
+doctor, were men of some individuality. The captain was a good sailor
+and an excellent man of business. In the first capacity, he was firm,
+exacting, and scrupulously conscientious. In the second, his conscience
+was more elastic when he saw his way clear to his own advantage. He had
+certain rigid rules of conduct which he prided himself on observing to
+the letter, without for a moment suspecting that their _raison d'etre_
+lay in his own interests. His commercial morality only required him to
+keep within the law. His final contract with myself was, I admit,
+faithfully carried out, but the terms of it would not have discredited
+the most predatory business man in London town.
+
+Percival was the opposite pole of such a character. He was a clever man,
+who might have risen in his profession but for his easy-going indolence.
+I spent many an hour in his cabin. He was a sportsman and a skilled
+_raconteur_. His anecdotes helped to while the weary time away. He
+exaggerated persistently, but this did not disturb me. Besides, if in
+his narratives he lengthened out the hunt a dozen miles and increased
+the weight of the fish to an impossible figure, made the brace a dozen
+and the ten-ton boat a man-of-war, it was not because he was
+deliberately untruthful. He looked back on his feats through the
+telescope of a strongly magnifying memory. It was more agreeable to me
+to hear him boast his prowess than have him inquire after the health and
+treatment of my patient Brande. On this matter he was naturally very
+curious, and I very reticent.
+
+That Brande did not entirely trust me was evident from his confusion
+when I surprised him once reading his formula. His anxiety to convince
+me that it was only a commonplace memorandum was almost ludicrous. I was
+glad to see him anxious about that document. The more carefully he
+preserved it, and the more faithfully he adhered to its conditions, the
+better for my experiment. A sense of security followed this incident. It
+did not last long. It ended that evening.
+
+After a day of almost unendurable heat, I went on deck for a breath of
+air. We were well out in the Indian Ocean, and soundings were being
+attempted by some of our naturalists. I sat alone and watched the sun
+sink down into the glassy ocean on which our rushing vessel was the only
+thing that moved. As the darkness of that hot, still night gathered,
+weird gleams of phosphorus broke from the steamer's bows and streamed
+away behind us in long lines of flashing spangles. Where the swell
+caused by the passage of the ship rose in curling waves, these, as they
+splashed into mimic breakers, burst into showers of flamboyant light.
+The water from the discharge-pipe poured down in a cascade, that shone
+like silver. Every turn of the screw dashed a thousand flashes on either
+side, and the heaving of the lead was like the flight of a meteor, as it
+plunged with a luminous trail far down into the dark unfathomable depths
+below.
+
+My name was spoken softly. Natalie Brande stood beside me. The spell was
+complete. The unearthly glamour of the magical scene had been compassed
+by her. She had called it forth and could disperse it by an effort of
+her will. I wrenched my mind free from the foolish phantasmagoria.
+
+"I have good news," Natalie said in a low voice. Her tones were soft,
+musical; her manner caressing. Happiness was in her whole bearing,
+tenderness in her eyes. Dread oppressed me. "Herbert is now well again."
+
+"He has been well for some time," I said, my heart beating fast.
+
+"He is not thoroughly restored even yet. But this evening he was able to
+receive a message from me by the thought waves. He thinks you are
+plotting injury to him. His brain is not yet sufficiently strong to show
+how foolish this fugitive fancy is. Perhaps you would go to him. He is
+troubling himself over this. You can set his mind at rest."
+
+"I can--and will--if I am not too late," I answered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+L5000 TO DETAIN THE SHIP.
+
+
+Brande was asleep when I entered his cabin. His writing-table was
+covered with scraps of paper on which he had been scribbling. My name
+was on every scrap, preceded or followed by an unfinished sentence,
+thus: "Marcel is thinking-- When I was ill, Marcel thought-- Marcel
+means to--" All these I gathered up carefully and put in my pocket. Then
+I inoculated him with as strong a solution of the drug I was using on
+him as was compatible with the safety of his life. Immediate danger
+being thus averted, I determined to run no similar risk again.
+
+For many days after this our voyage was monotonous. The deadly secret
+shared by Edith Metford and myself drew us gradually nearer to each
+other as time passed. She understood me, or, at least, gave me the
+impression that she understood me. Little by little that capricious mood
+which I have heretofore described changed into one of enduring
+sympathy. With one trivial exception, this lasted until the end. But for
+her help my mind would hardly have stood the strain of events which were
+now at hand, whose livid shadows were projected in the rising fire of
+Brande's relentless eyes.
+
+Brande appeared to lose interest gradually in his ship's company. He
+became daily more and more absorbed in his own thoughts. Natalie was
+ever gentle, even tender. But I chafed at the impalpable barrier which
+was always between us. Sometimes I thought that she would willingly have
+ranged herself on my side. Some hidden power held her back. As to the
+others, I began to like the boy Halley. He was lovable, if not athletic.
+His devotion to Natalie, which never waned, did not now trouble me. It
+was only a friendship, and I welcomed it. Had it been anything more, it
+was not likely that he would have prevailed against the will of a man
+who had done murder for his mistress. We steamed through the Malay
+Archipelago, steering north, south, east, west, as if at haphazard,
+until only the navigating officers and the director of the Society knew
+how our course lay. We were searching for an island about the bearings
+of which, it transpired, some mistake had been made. I do not know
+whether the great laureate ever sailed these seas. But I know that his
+glorious islands of flowers and islands of fruit, with all their
+luscious imagery, were here eclipsed by our own islands of foliage. The
+long lagoons, the deep blue bays, the glittering parti-coloured fish
+that swam in visible shoals deep down amidst the submerged coral groves
+over which we passed, the rich-toned sea-weeds and brilliant anemones,
+the yellow strands and the steep cliffs, the riotous foliage that swept
+down from the sky to the blue of the sea; all these natural beauties
+seemed to cry to me with living voices--to me bound on a cruise of
+universal death.
+
+After a long spell of apparently aimless but glorious steaming, a small
+island was sighted on our port bow. The _Esmeralda_ was steered directly
+for it, and we dropped anchor in a deep natural harbour on its southern
+shore. Preparations for landing had been going on during the day, and
+everything was ready for quitting the ship.
+
+It was here that my first opportunity for making use of the gold I had
+brought with me occurred. Anderson was called up by Brande, who made
+him a short complimentary speech, and finished it by ordering his
+officer to return to England, where further instructions would be given
+him. This order was received in respectful silence. Captain Anderson had
+been too liberally treated to demur if the _Esmeralda_ had been ordered
+to the South Pole.
+
+Brande went below for a few minutes, and as soon as he had disappeared I
+went forward to Anderson and hailed him nervously, for there was not a
+moment to spare.
+
+"Anderson," I said hurriedly, "you must have noticed that Mr. Brande is
+an eccentric--"
+
+"Pardon me, sir; it is not my business to comment upon my owner."
+
+"I did not ask you to comment upon him, sir," I said sharply. "It is I
+who shall comment upon him, and it is for you to say whether you will
+undertake to earn my money by waiting in this harbour till I am ready to
+sail back with you to England."
+
+"Have you anything more to say, sir?" Anderson asked stiffly.
+
+"I presume I have said enough."
+
+"If you have nothing more to say I must ask you to leave the bridge,
+and if it were not that you are leaving the ship this moment, I would
+caution you not to be impertinent to me again."
+
+He blew his whistle, and a steward ran forward.
+
+"Johnson, see Mr. Marcel's luggage over the side at once." To me he said
+shortly: "Quit my ship, sir."
+
+This trivial show of temper, which, indeed, had been provoked by my own
+hasty speech, turned my impatience into fury.
+
+"Before I quit your ship," I said, with emphasis, "I will tell you how
+you yourself will quit it. You will do so between two policemen if you
+land in England, and between two marines if you think of keeping on the
+high seas. Before we started, I sent a detailed statement of this ship,
+the nature of this nefarious voyage, and the names of the passengers--or
+as many as I knew--to a friend who will put it in proper hands if
+anything befalls me. Go back without me and explain the loss of that
+French fishing fleet which was sunk the very night we sailed. It is an
+awkward coincidence to be explained by a man who returns from an unknown
+voyage having lost his entire list of passengers. You cannot be aware
+of what this man Brande intends, or you would at least stand by us as
+long as your own safety permitted. In any case you cannot safely return
+without us."
+
+Anderson, after reflecting for a moment, apologised for his peremptory
+words, and agreed to stand by night and day, with fires banked, until I,
+and all whom I could prevail upon to return with me, got back to his
+vessel. There was no danger of his running short of coal. A ship that
+was practically an ocean liner in coal ballast would be a considerable
+time in burning out her own cargo. But he insisted on a large money
+payment in advance. I had foolishly mentioned that I had a little over
+L5000 in gold. This he claimed on the plea that "in duty to himself"--a
+favourite phrase of his--he could not accept less. But I think his sense
+of duty was limited only by the fact that I had hardly another penny in
+the world. Under the circumstances he might have waived all
+remuneration. As he was firm, and as I had no time to haggle, I agreed
+to give him the money. Our bargain was only completed when Brande
+returned to the deck.
+
+It was strange that on an island like that on which we were landing
+there should be a regular army of natives waiting to assist us with our
+baggage, and the saddled horses which were in readiness were out of
+place in a primeval wilderness. An Englishman came forward, and,
+saluting Brande, said all was ready for the start to the hills. This
+explained the puzzle. An advance agent had made everything comfortable.
+For Brande, his sister, and Miss Metford the best appointed horses were
+selected. I, as physician to the chief, had one. The main body had to
+make the journey on foot, which they did by very easy stages, owing to
+the heat and the primitive track which formed the only road. Their
+journey was not very long--perhaps ten miles in a direct line.
+
+Mounted as we were, it was often necessary to stoop to escape the dense
+masses of parasitic growth which hung in green festoons from every
+branch of the trees on either side. Under this thick shade all the
+riotous vegetation of the tropics had fought for life and struggled for
+light and air till the wealth of their luxuriant death had carpeted the
+underwood with a thick deposit of steaming foliage. As we ascended the
+height, every mile in distance brought changes in the botanical
+growths, which might have passed unnoticed by the ordinary observer or
+ignorant pioneer. All were noted and commented on by Brande, whose eye
+was still as keen as his brain had once been brilliant. His usual staid
+demeanour changed suddenly. He romped ahead of us like a schoolboy out
+for a holiday. Unlike a schoolboy, however, he was always seeking new
+items of knowledge and conveying them to us with unaffected pleasure. He
+was more like a master who had found new ground and new material for his
+class. Natalie gave herself up like him to this enjoyment of the moment.
+Edith Metford and I partly caught the glamour of their infectious
+good-humour. But with both of us it was tempered by the knowledge of
+what was in store.
+
+When we arrived at our destination we dismounted, at Brande's request,
+and tied our horses to convenient branches. He went forward, and,
+pushing aside the underwood with both hands, motioned to us to follow
+him till he stopped on a ledge of rock which overtopped a hollow in the
+mountain. The gorge below was the most beautiful glade I ever looked
+upon.
+
+It was a paradise of foliage. Here and there a fallen tree had formed a
+picturesque bridge over the mountain stream which meandered through it.
+Far down below there was a waterfall, where gorgeous tree-ferns rose in
+natural bowers, while others further still leant over the lotus-covered
+stream, their giant leaves trailing in the slow-moving current. Tangled
+masses of bracken rioted in wild abundance over a velvety green sod,
+overshadowed by waving magnolias. Through the trees bright-plumaged
+birds were flitting from branch to branch in songless flight, flashing
+their brilliant colours through the sunny leaves. In places the water
+splashed over moss-grown rocks into deep pools. Every drifting spray of
+cloud threw over the dell a new light, deepening the shadows under the
+great ferns.
+
+It was here in this glorious fairyland; here upon this island, where
+before us no white foot had ever trod; whose nameless people represented
+the simplest types of human existence, that Herbert Brande was to put
+his devilish experiment to the proof. I marvelled that he should have
+selected so fair a spot for so terrible a purpose. But the papers which
+I found later amongst the man's effects on the _Esmeralda_ explain much
+that was then incomprehensible to me.
+
+Our camp was quickly formed, and our life was outwardly as happy as if
+we had been an ordinary company of tourists. I say outwardly, because,
+while we walked and climbed and collected specimens of botanical or
+geological interest, there remained that latent dread which always
+followed us, and dominated the most frivolous of our people, on all of
+whom a new solemnity had fallen. For myself, the fact that the hour of
+trial for my own experiment was daily drawing closer and more
+inevitable, was sufficient to account for my constant and extreme
+anxiety.
+
+Brande joined none of our excursions. He was always at work in his
+improvised laboratory. The boxes of material which had been brought from
+the ship nearly filled it from floor to roof, and from the speed with
+which these were emptied, it was evident that their contents had been
+systematised before shipment. In place of the varied collection of
+substances there grew up within the room a cone of compound matter in
+which all were blended. This cone was smaller, Brande admitted, than
+what he had intended. The supply of subordinate fulminates, though
+several times greater than what was required, proved to be considerably
+short. But as he had allowed himself a large margin--everything being
+on a scale far exceeding the minimum which his calculations had pointed
+to as sufficient--this deficiency did not cause him more than a
+temporary annoyance. So he worked on.
+
+When we had been three weeks on the island I found the suspense greater
+than I could bear. The crisis was at hand, and my heart failed me. I
+determined to make a last appeal to Natalie, to fly with me to the ship.
+Edith Metford would accompany us. The rest might take the risk to which
+they had consented.
+
+I found Natalie standing on the high rock whence the most lovely view of
+the dell could be obtained, and as I approached her silently she was not
+aware of my presence until I laid my hand on her shoulder.
+
+"Natalie," I said wistfully, for the girl's eyes were full of tears, "do
+you mind if I withdraw now from this enterprise, in which I cannot be of
+the slightest use, and of which I most heartily disapprove?"
+
+"The Society would not allow you to withdraw. You cannot do so without
+its permission, and hope to live within a thousand miles of it," she
+answered gravely.
+
+"I should not care to live within ten thousand miles of it. I should try
+to get and keep the earth's diameter between myself and it."
+
+She looked up with an expression of such pain that my heart smote me.
+"How about me? I cannot live without you now," she said softly.
+
+"Don't live without me. Come with me. Get rid of this infamous
+association of lunatics, whose object they themselves cannot really
+appreciate, and whose means are murder--"
+
+But there she stopped me. "My brother could find me out at the uttermost
+ends of the earth if I forsook him, and you know I do not mean to
+forsake him. For yourself--do not try to desert. It would make no
+difference. Do not believe that any consideration would cause me
+willingly to give you a moment's pain, or that I should shrink from
+sacrificing myself to save you." With one of her small white hands she
+gently pressed my head towards her. Her lips touched my forehead, and
+she whispered: "Do not leave me. It will soon be over now. I--I--need
+you."
+
+As I was returning dejected after my fruitless appeal to Natalie, I met
+Edith Metford, to whom I had unhappily mentioned my proposal for an
+escape.
+
+"Is it arranged? When do we start?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"It is not arranged, and we do not start," I answered in despair.
+
+"You told me you would go with her or without her," she cried
+passionately. "It is shameful--unmanly."
+
+"It is certainly both if I really said what you tell me. I was not
+myself at the moment, and my tongue must have slandered me. I stay to
+the end. But you will go. Captain Anderson will receive you--"
+
+"How am I to be certain of that?"
+
+"I paid him for your passage, and have his receipt."
+
+"And you really think I would go and leave--leave--"
+
+"Natalie? I think you would be perfectly justified."
+
+At this the girl stamped her foot passionately on the ground and burst
+into tears. Nor would she permit any of the slight caresses I offered.
+I thought her old caprices were returning. She flung my arm rudely from
+her and left me bewildered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+"THIS EARTH SHALL DIE."
+
+
+My memory does not serve me well in the scenes which immediately
+preceded the closing of the drama in which Brande was chief actor. It is
+doubtless the transcendental interest of the final situation which
+blunts my recollection of what occurred shortly before it. I did not
+abate one jot of my determination to fight my venture out unflinching,
+but my actions were probably more automatic than reasoned, as the time
+of our last encounter approached. On the whole, the fight had been a
+fair one. Brande had used his advantage over me for his own purpose as
+long as it remained with him. I used the advantage as soon as it passed
+to me for mine. The conditions had thus been equalised when, for the
+third and last time, I was to hear him address his Society.
+
+This time the man was weak in health. His vitality was ebbing fast, but
+his marvellous inspiration was strong within him, and, supported by it,
+he battled manfully with the disease which I had manufactured for him.
+His lecture-room was the fairy glen; his canopy the heavens.
+
+I cannot give the substance of this address, or any portion of it,
+verbatim as on former occasions, for I have not the manuscript. I doubt
+if Brande wrote out his last speech. Methodical as were his habits it is
+probable that his final words were not premeditated. They burst from him
+in a delirium that could hardly have been studied. His fine frenzy could
+not well have originated from considered sentences, although his
+language, regarded as mere oratory, was magnificent. It was appalling in
+the light through which I read it.
+
+He stood alone upon the rock which overtopped the dell. We arranged
+ourselves in such groups as suited our inclinations, upon some rising
+ground below. The great trees waved overhead, low murmuring. The
+waterfall splashed drearily. Below, not a whisper was exchanged. Above,
+the man poured out his triumphant death-song in sonorous periods.
+Below, great fear was upon all. Above, the madman exulted wildly.
+
+At first his voice was weak. As he went on it gained strength and depth.
+He alluded to his first address, in which he had hinted that the
+material Universe was not quite a success; to his second, in which he
+had boldly declared it was an absolute failure. This, his third
+declaration, was to tell us that the remedy as far as he, a mortal man,
+could apply it, was ready. The end was at hand. That night should see
+the consummation of his life-work. To-morrow's sun would rise--if it
+rose at all--on the earth restored to space.
+
+A shiver passed perceptibly over the people, prepared as they were for
+this long foreseen announcement. Edith Metford, who stood by me on my
+left, slipped her hand into mine and pressed my fingers hard. Natalie
+Brande, on my right, did not move. Her eyes were dilated and fixed on
+the speaker. The old clairvoyante look was on her face. Her dark pupils
+were blinded save to their inward light. She was either unconscious or
+only partly conscious. Now that the hour had come, they who had believed
+their courage secure felt it wither. They, the people with us, begged
+for a little longer time to brace themselves for the great crisis--the
+plunge into an eternity from which there would be no resurrection,
+neither of matter nor of mind.
+
+Brande heeded them not.
+
+"This night," said he, with culminating enthusiasm, "the cloud-capped
+towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, shall dissolve. To
+this great globe itself--this paltry speck of less account in space than
+a dew-drop in an ocean--and all its sorrow and pain, its trials and
+temptations, all the pathos and bathos of our tragic human farce, the
+end is near. The way has been hard, and the journey overlong, and the
+burden often beyond man's strength. But that long-drawn sorrow now shall
+cease. The tears will be wiped away. The burden will fall from weary
+shoulders. For the fulness of time has come. This earth shall die! And
+death is peace.
+
+"I stand," he cried out in a strident voice, raising his arm aloft, "I
+may say, with one foot on sea and one on land, for I hold the elemental
+secret of them both. And I swear by the living god--Science
+incarnate--that the suffering of the centuries is over, that for this
+earth and all that it contains, from this night and for ever, _Time
+will be no more!_"
+
+A great cry rose from the people. "Give us another day--only another
+day!"
+
+But Brande made answer: "It is now too late."
+
+"Too late!" the people wailed.
+
+"Yes, too late. I warned you long ago. Are you not yet ready? In two
+hours the disintegrating agent will enter on its work. No human power
+could stop it now. Not if every particle of the material I have
+compounded were separated and scattered to the winds. Before I set my
+foot upon this rock I applied the key which will release its inherent
+energy. I myself am powerless."
+
+"Powerless," sobbed the auditors.
+
+"Powerless! And if I had ten thousand times the power which I have
+called forth from the universal element, I would use it towards the
+issue I have forecast."
+
+Thereupon he turned away. Doom sounded in his words. The hand of Death
+laid clammy fingers on us. Edith Metford's strength failed at last. It
+had been sorely tested. She sank into my arms.
+
+"Courage, true heart, our time has come," I whispered. "We start for the
+steamer at once. The horses are ready." My arrangements had been already
+made. My plan had been as carefully matured as any ever made by Brande
+himself.
+
+"How many horses?"
+
+"Three. One for you; another for Natalie; the third for myself. The rest
+must accept the fate they have selected."
+
+The girl shuddered as she said, "But your interference with the formula?
+You are sure it will destroy the effect?"
+
+"I am certain that the particular result on which Brande calculates will
+not take place. But short of that, he has still enough explosive matter
+stored to cause an earthquake. We are not safe within a radius of fifty
+miles. It will be a race against time."
+
+"Natalie will not come."
+
+"Not voluntarily. You must think of some plan. Your brain is quick. We
+have not a moment to lose. Ah, there she is! Speak to her."
+
+Natalie was crossing the open ground which led from the glen to Brande's
+laboratory. She did not observe us till Edith called to her. Then she
+approached hastily and embraced her friend with visible emotion. Even to
+me she offered her cheek without reserve.
+
+"Natalie," I said quickly, "there are three horses saddled and waiting
+in the palm grove. The _Esmeralda_ is still lying in the harbour where
+we landed. You will come with us. Indeed, you have no choice. You must
+come if I have to carry you to your horse and tie you to the saddle. You
+will not force me to put that indignity upon you. To the horses, then!
+Come!"
+
+For answer she called her brother loudly by his name. Brande immediately
+appeared at the door of his laboratory, and when he perceived from whom
+the call had come he joined us.
+
+"Herbert," said Natalie, "our friend is deserting us. He must still
+cling to the thought that your purpose may fail, and he expects to
+escape on horseback from the fate of the earth. Reason with him yet a
+little further."
+
+"There is no time to reason," I interrupted. "The horses are ready. This
+girl (pointing as I spoke to Edith Metford) takes one, I another, and
+you the third--whether your brother agrees or not."
+
+"Surely you have not lost your reason? Have you forgotten the drop of
+water in the English Channel?" Brande said quietly.
+
+"Brande," I answered, "the sooner you induce your sister to come with me
+the better; and the sooner you induce these maniac friends of yours to
+clear out the better, for your enterprise will fail."
+
+"It is as certain as the law of gravitation. With my own hand I mixed
+the ingredients according to the formula."
+
+"And," said I, "with my own hand I altered your formula."
+
+Had Brande's heart stopped beating, his face could not have become more
+distorted and livid. He moved close to me, and, glaring into my eyes,
+hissed out:
+
+"You altered my formula?"
+
+"I did," I answered recklessly. "I multiplied your figures by ten where
+they struck me as insufficient."
+
+"When?"
+
+I strode closer still to him and looked him straight in the eyes while I
+spoke.
+
+"That night in the Red Sea, when Edith Metford, by accident, mixed
+morphia in your medicine. The night I injected a subtle poison, which I
+picked up in India once, into your blood while you slept, thereby
+baffling some of the functions of your extraordinary brain. The night
+when in your sleep you stirred once, and had you stirred twice, I would
+have killed you, then and there, as ruthlessly as you would kill mankind
+now. The night I did kill your lieutenant, Rockingham, and throw his
+body overboard to the sharks."
+
+Brande did not speak for a moment. Then he said in a gentle,
+uncomplaining voice:
+
+"So it now devolves on Grey. The end will be the same. The Labrador
+expedition will succeed where I have failed." To Natalie: "You had
+better go. There will only be an explosion. The island will probably
+disappear. That will be all."
+
+"Do you remain?" she asked.
+
+"Yes. I perish with my failure."
+
+"Then I perish with you. And you, Marcel, save yourself--you coward!"
+
+I started as if struck in the face. Then I said to Edith: "Be careful to
+keep to the track. Take the bay horse. I saddled him for myself, but you
+can ride him safely. Lose no time, and ride hard for the coast."
+
+"Arthur Marcel," she answered, so softly that the others did not hear,
+"your work in the world is not yet over. There is the Labrador
+expedition. Just now, when my strength failed, you whispered 'courage.'
+Be true to yourself! Half an hour is gone."
+
+At length some glimmer of human feeling awoke in Brande. He said in a
+low, abstracted voice: "My life fittingly ends now. To keep you,
+Natalie, would only be a vulgar murder." The old will power seemed to
+come back to him. He looked into the girl's eyes, and said slowly and
+sternly: "Go! I command it."
+
+Without another word he turned away from us. When he had disappeared
+into the laboratory, Natalie sighed, and said dreamily:
+
+"I am ready. Let us go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE FLIGHT.
+
+
+I led the girls hurriedly to the horses. When they were mounted on the
+ponies, I gave the bridle-reins of the bay horse--whose size and
+strength were necessary for my extra weight--to Edith Metford, and asked
+her to wait for me until I announced Brande's probable failure to the
+people, and advised a _sauve qui peut_.
+
+Hard upon my warning there followed a strange metamorphosis in the
+crowd, who, after the passing weakness at the lecture, had fallen back
+into stoical indifference, or it may have been despair. The possibility
+of escape galvanized them into the desire for life. Cries of distress,
+and prayers for help, filled the air. Men and women rushed about like
+frightened sheep without concert or any sensible effort to escape,
+wasting in futile scrambles the short time remaining to them. For
+another half hour had now passed, and in sixty minutes the earthquake
+would take place.
+
+"Follow us!" I shouted, as with my companions I rode slowly through the
+camp. "Keep the track to the sea. I shall have the steamer's boats ready
+for all who may reach the shore alive."
+
+"The horses! Seize the horses!" rose in a loud shout, and the mob flung
+themselves upon us, as though three animals could carry all.
+
+When I saw the rush, I called out: "Sit firm, Natalie; I am going to
+strike your horse." Saying which I struck the pony a sharp blow with my
+riding-whip crossways on the flank. It bounded like a deer, and then
+dashed forward down the rough pathway.
+
+"Now you, Edith!" I struck her pony in the same way; but it only reared
+and nearly threw her. It could not get away. Already hands were upon
+both bridle-reins. There was no help for it. I pulled out my revolver
+and fired once, twice, and thrice--for I missed the second shot--and
+then the maddened animal sprang forward, released from the hands that
+held it.
+
+It was now time to look to myself. I was in the midst of a dozen maniacs
+mad with fear. I kicked in my spurs desperately, and the bay lashed out
+his hind feet. One hoof struck young Halley on the forehead. He fell
+back dead, his skull in fragments. But the others refused to break the
+circle. Then I emptied my weapon on them, and my horse plunged through
+the opening, followed by despairing execrations. The moment I was clear,
+I returned my revolver to its case, and settled myself in the saddle,
+for, borne out of the proper path as I had been, there was a stiff bank
+to leap before I could regain the track to the shore. Owing to the
+darkness the horse refused to leap, and I nearly fell over his head.
+With a little scrambling I managed to get back into my seat, and then
+trotted along the bank for a hundred yards. At this point the bank
+disappeared, and there was nothing between me now and the open track to
+the sea.
+
+Once upon the path, I put the bay to a gallop, and very soon overtook a
+man and a woman hurrying on. They were running hand in hand, the man a
+little in front dragging his companion on by force. It was plain to me
+that the woman could not hold out much longer. The man, Claude Lureau,
+hailed me as I passed.
+
+"Help us, Marcel. Don't ride away from us."
+
+"I cannot save both," I answered, pulling up.
+
+"Then save Mademoiselle Veret. I'll take my chance."
+
+This blunt speech moved me, the more especially as the man was French. I
+could not allow him to point the way of duty to me--an Englishman.
+
+"Assist her up, then. Now, Mademoiselle, put your arms round me and hold
+hard for your life. Lureau, you may hold my stirrup if you agree to
+loose it when you tire."
+
+"I will do so," he promised.
+
+Hampered thus, I but slowly gained on Natalie and Edith, whose ponies
+had galloped a mile before they could be stopped.
+
+"Forward, forward!" I shouted when within hail. "Don't wait for me. Ride
+on at top speed. Lash your ponies with the bridle-reins."
+
+We were all moving on now at an easy canter, for I could not go fast so
+long as Lureau held my stirrup, and the girls in front did not seem
+anxious to leave me far behind. Besides, the tangled underwood and
+overhanging creepers rendered hard riding both difficult and dangerous.
+The ponies were hard held, but notwithstanding this my horse fell back
+gradually in the race, and the hammering of the hoofs in front grew
+fainter. The breath of the runner at my stirrup came in great sobs. He
+was suffocating, but he struggled on a little longer. Then he threw up
+his hand and gasped:
+
+"I am done. Go on, Marcel. You deserve to escape. Don't desert the
+girl."
+
+"May God desert me if I do," I answered. "And do you keep on as long as
+you can. You may reach the shore after all."
+
+"Go on--save her!" he gasped, and then from sheer exhaustion fell
+forward on his face.
+
+"Sit still, Mademoiselle," I cried, pulling the French girl's arms round
+me in time to prevent her from throwing herself purposely from the
+horse. Then I drove in my spurs hard, and, being now released from
+Lureau's grasp, I overtook the ponies.
+
+For five minutes we all rode on abreast. And then the darkness began to
+break, and a strange dawn glimmered over the tree-tops, although the
+hour of midnight was still to come. A wild, red light, like that of a
+fiery sunset in a hazy summer evening, spread over the night sky. The
+quivering stars grew pale. Constellation after constellation, they were
+blotted out until the whole arc of heaven was a dull red glare. The
+horses were dismayed by this strange phenomenon, and dashed the froth
+from their foaming muzzles as they galloped now without stress of spur
+at their best speed. Birds that could not sing found voice, and
+chattered and shrieked as they dashed from tree to tree in aimless
+flight. Enormous bats hurtled in the air, blinded by the unusual light.
+From the dense undergrowth strange denizens of the woods, disturbed in
+their nightly prowl, leaped forth and scurried squealing between the
+galloping hoofs, reckless of anything save their own fear. Everything
+that was alive upon the island was in motion, and fear was the motor of
+them all.
+
+So far, we saw no natives. Their absence did not surprise me, for I had
+no time for thought. It was explained later.
+
+Edith Metford's pony soon became unmanageable in its fright. I unbuckled
+one spur and gave it to her, directing her to hold it in her hand, for
+of course she could not strap it to her boot, and drive it into the
+animal when he swerved. She took the spur, and as her pony, in one of
+his side leaps, nearly bounded off the path, she struck him hard on the
+ribs. He bolted and flew on far ahead of us.
+
+The light grew stronger.
+
+But that the rays were red, it would now have been as bright as day. We
+were chasing our shadows, so the light must be directly behind us.
+Mademoiselle Veret first noticed this, and drew my attention to it. I
+looked back, and my heart sank at the sight. In the terror it inspired,
+I regretted having burthened myself with the girl I had sworn to save.
+
+The island was on fire!
+
+"It is the end of the world," Mademoiselle Veret said with a shudder.
+She clung closer to me. I could feel her warm breath upon my cheek. The
+unmanly regret, which for a moment had touched me, passed.
+
+The ponies now seemed to find out that their safety lay in galloping
+straight on, rather than in scared leaps from side to side. They
+stretched themselves like race horses, and gave my bay, with his double
+burthen, a strong lead. The pace became terrible considering the nature
+of the ground we covered.
+
+At last the harbour came in view. But my horse, I knew, could not last
+another mile, and the shore was still distant two or three. I spurred
+him hard and drew nearly level with the ponies, so that my voice could
+be heard by both their riders.
+
+"Ride on," I shouted, "and hail the steamer, so that there may be no
+delay when I come up. This horse is blown, and will not stand the pace.
+I am going to ease him. You will go on board at once, and send the boat
+back for us." Then I eased the bay, but in spite of this I immediately
+overtook Edith Metford, who had pulled up.
+
+My reproaches she cut short by saying, "If that horse does the distance
+at all it will be by getting a lead all the way. And I am going to give
+it to him." So we started together.
+
+Natalie was waiting for us a little further on. I spoke to her, but she
+did not answer. From the moment that Brande had commanded her to
+accompany us, her manner had remained absolutely passive. What I
+ordered, she obeyed. That was all. Instead of being alarmed by the
+horrors of the ride, she did not seem to be even interested. I had not
+leisure, however, to reflect on this. For the first time in the whole
+race she spoke to us.
+
+"Would it not be better if Edith rode on?" she said. "I can take her
+place. It seems useless to sacrifice her. It does not matter to me. I
+cannot now be afraid."
+
+"I am afraid; but I remain," Edith said resolutely.
+
+The ground under us began to heave. Whole acres of it swayed disjointed.
+We were galloping on oscillating fragments, which trembled beneath us
+like floating logs under boys at play. To jump these cracks--sometimes
+an upward bank, sometimes a deep drop, in addition to the width of the
+seam, had to be taken--pumped out the failing horses, and the hope that
+was left to us disappeared utterly.
+
+The glare of the red light behind waxed fiercer still, and a low
+rumbling as of distant thunder began to mutter round us. The air became
+difficult to breathe. It was no longer air, but a mephitic stench that
+choked us with disgusting fumes. Then a great shock shook the land, and
+right in front of us a seam opened that must have been fully fifteen
+feet in width. Natalie was the first to see it. She observed it too late
+to stop.
+
+In the same mechanical way as she had acted before, she settled herself
+in the saddle, struck the pony with her hand, and raced him at the
+chasm. He cleared it with little to spare. Edith's took it next with
+less. Then my turn came. Before I could shake up my tired horse,
+Mademoiselle Veret said quickly:
+
+"Monsieur has done enough. He will now permit me to alight. This time
+the horse cannot jump over with both."
+
+"He shall jump over with both, Mademoiselle, or he shall jump in," I
+answered. "Don't look down when we are crossing."
+
+The horse just got over, but he came to his knees, and we fell forward
+over his shoulder. The girl's head struck full on a slab of rock, and a
+faint moan was all that told me she was alive as I arose half stunned to
+my feet. My first thought was for the horse, for on him all depended. He
+was uninjured, apparently, but hardly able to stand from the shock and
+the stress of fatigue.
+
+Edith Metford had dismounted and caught him; she was holding the bridle
+in her left hand, and winced as if in pain when I accidentally brushed
+against her right shoulder. I tied the horse to a young palm, and
+begged the girl to ride on. She obeyed me reluctantly. Natalie had to
+assist her to remount, so she must have been injured. When I saw her
+safely in her saddle, I ran back to Mademoiselle Veret.
+
+The chasm was fast widening. From either side great fragments were
+breaking off and falling in with a roar of loose rocks crashing
+together, till far down the sound was dulled into a hollow boom. This
+ended in low guttural, which growled up from an abysmal depth.
+Mademoiselle Veret, or her dead body, lay now on the very edge of the
+seam, and I had to harden my heart before I could bring myself to
+venture close to it. But I had given my word, and there were no
+conditions in the promise when I made it.
+
+I was spared the ordeal. Just as I stepped forward, the slab of rock on
+which the girl lay broke off in front of me, and, tipping up, overturned
+itself into the chasm. Far below I could see the shimmer of the girl's
+dress as her body went plunging down into that awful pit. And
+remembering her generous courage and offer of self-sacrifice, I felt
+tears rise in my eyes. But there was no time for tears.
+
+I leaped on the bay, and got him into something approaching a gallop,
+shouting at the others to keep on, for they were now returning. When I
+came up with them, Edith Metford said with a shiver:
+
+"The girl?"
+
+"Is at the bottom of the pit. Ride on."
+
+We gained the shore at last; and our presence there produced the
+explanation of the absence of the natives on the pathway to the sea.
+They were there before us. Lying prostrate on the beach in hundreds,
+they raised their bodies partly from the sands, like a resurrection of
+the already dead, and there then rang out upon the night air a sound
+such as my ears had never before heard in my life, such as, I pray God,
+they may never listen to again. I do not know what that dreadful
+death-wail meant in words, only that it touched the lowest depths of
+human horror. All along the beach that fearful chorus of the damned
+wailed forth, and echoed back from rock and cliff. The cry for mercy
+could not be mistaken--the supplication blended with despair. They were
+praying to us--their evil spirits, for this wrong had been wrought them
+by our advent, if not by ourselves.
+
+I cannot dwell upon the scene. I could not describe it. I would not if I
+could.
+
+The steamer was still in her berth; her head was pointed seawards. Loud
+orders rang over the water. The roar of the chain running out through
+the hawse-hole and the heavy splash could not be mistaken. Anderson had
+slipped his cable. Then the chime of the telegraph on the bridge was
+followed almost instantly by the first smashing stroke of the propeller.
+
+The _Esmeralda_ was under weigh!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE CATASTROPHE.
+
+
+The _Esmeralda_ was putting out to sea when I thought of a last
+expedient to draw the attention of her captain. Filling my revolver with
+cartridges which I had loose in my pockets, I fired all the chambers as
+fast as I could snap the trigger.
+
+My signals were heard, and Anderson proved true to his bargain. He
+immediately reversed his engines, and, when he had backed in as close as
+he thought safe, sent a boat ashore for us. We got into it without any
+obstruction from the cowering natives, who only shrank from us in
+horror, now that their prayers had failed to move us. The moment our
+boat was made fast to the steamer's davit ropes and we were pulled out
+of the water, "full speed ahead" was rung from the bridge. We were
+raised to the deck while the vessel was getting up speed.
+
+I crawled up the ladder to the bridge feebly, for I was becoming stiff
+from the bruises of the fall from my horse. Anderson received me coldly,
+and listened indifferently to my thanks. An agreement such as ours
+hardly prepared me for his loyalty.
+
+"Oh, as to that," he interrupted, "when I make a bargain my word is my
+bond. On this occasion I am inclined to think the indenture will be a
+final one."
+
+His bargain was a hard one, but, having made it, he abided faithfully by
+its conditions. He was honest, therefore, in his own way.
+
+"How far can you get out in fifteen minutes?" I asked.
+
+"We may make six or seven knots. But what is the good of that? There
+will be an earthquake on that island on a liberal scale--on such a scale
+that this ship would have very little chance in the wave that will
+follow us if we were fifty miles at sea."
+
+"You have taken every precaution, of course--"
+
+Anderson here looked at me contemptuously, and, with an air of sarcastic
+admiration, he said:
+
+"You have guessed it at the first try. That is precisely what I have
+done."
+
+"Pshaw! don't take offence at trifles at a time like this," I said
+testily. "If you knew as much about that earthquake as I do, you would
+be in no humour for bandying phrases."
+
+"Might I ask how much you do know about it? You could not have foreseen
+the trouble more clearly if you had made it yourself."
+
+"I did not make it myself, but I know the means which the man who did
+employed, and but for me that earthquake would have wrecked this earth."
+
+Anderson made no direct answer to this, but he said earnestly:
+
+"You will now go below, sir. You are done up. Roberts will take you to
+the doctor."
+
+"I am not done up, and I mean to see it out," I retorted doggedly. My
+nervous system was completely unhinged, and a fit of stupid obstinacy
+came on me which rendered any interference with my actions intolerable.
+
+"Then you cannot see it out upon my bridge," Anderson said. The
+determined tone in which he spoke only added to my impotent wrath.
+
+"Very well, I will return to the deck, and if any of your men should
+attempt to interfere with me he will do so at his peril." With that, I
+slung my revolver round so as to have it ready to my hand. I was beside
+myself. My conduct was already bad enough, but I made it worse before I
+left the bridge.
+
+"And if you, Anderson, disobey my orders--my orders, do you hear?--an
+explosion such as took place in the middle of the English channel shall
+take place in the middle of this ship."
+
+"For God's sake leave the bridge. I want my wits about me, and I have no
+intention of earning another exhibition of your devilries."
+
+"Then be careful not to trouble me again." Thus after having passed
+through much danger with a spirit not unbecoming--as I hope--an English
+gentleman, I acted, when the worst was passed, like a peevish schoolboy.
+I am ashamed of my conduct in this small matter, and trust it will pass
+without much notice in the narrative of events of greater moment.
+
+On deck, Natalie Brande, Edith Metford, and Percival were standing
+together, their eyes fixed on the island. Edith's face was deathly
+white, even in the ruddy glow which was now over land and sea. When I
+saw her pallor, my evil temper passed away.
+
+"It would be impossible for you to be quite well," I said to her
+anxiously; "but has anything happened since I left you? You are very
+pale."
+
+"Oh no," she answered, "I'm all right; a little faint after that ride. I
+shall be better soon."
+
+Natalie turned her weird eyes on me and said in the hollow voice we had
+heard once before--when she spoke to us on the island--"That is her way
+of telling you that your horse broke her right arm when she caught him
+for you. She held him, you remember, with her left hand. The doctor has
+set the limb. She will not suffer long."
+
+"Heaven help us, this awful night," Edith cried. "How do you know that,
+Natalie?"
+
+"I know much now, but I shall know more soon." After this she would not
+speak again.
+
+With every pound of steam on that the _Esmeralda's_ boilers would bear
+without bursting, we were now plunging through the great rollers of the
+Arafura Sea. Everything had indeed been done to put the vessel in trim.
+She was cleared for action, so to speak. And a gallant fight she made
+when the issue was knit. When the hour of midnight must be near at
+hand, I looked at my watch. It was one minute to twelve o'clock.
+
+Thirty seconds more!
+
+The stupendous corona of flame which hung over the island was pierced by
+long lines of smoke that stretched far above the glare and clutched with
+sooty fingers at the stars, now fitfully coming back to view at our
+distance. The rumbling of internal thunder waxed louder.
+
+Fifteen seconds now!
+
+Fearful peals rent the atmosphere. Vast tongues of flame protruded
+heavenward. The elements must be melting in that fervent heat. The
+blazing bowels of the earth were pouring forth.
+
+Twelve, midnight!
+
+A reverberation thundered out which shook the solid earth, and a roaring
+hell-breath of flame and smoke belched up so awful in its dread
+magnificence that every man who saw it and lived to tell his story might
+justly have claimed to have seen perdition. In that hurricane of
+incandescent matter the island was blotted out for ever from the map of
+this world.
+
+Notwithstanding the speed of the _Esmeralda_ she was a sloth when
+compared with the speed of the wave from such an earthquake. From the
+glare of the illumination to perfect darkness the contrast was sudden
+and extreme. But the blackness of the ocean was soon whitened by the
+snowy plumes of the avalanche of water which was now racing us, far
+astern as yet, but gaining fast. I, who had no business about the ship
+requiring my presence in any special part, decided to wait on deck and
+lash myself to the forward, which would be practically the lee-side of a
+deckhouse. Edith Metford we prevailed on to go below, that she might not
+run the risk of further injury to her fractured arm. As she left us she
+whispered to me, "So Natalie will be with you at the end, and I--" a sob
+stopped her. And it came into my mind at that moment that this girl had
+acted very nobly, and that I had hardly appreciated her and all that she
+had done for me.
+
+Natalie refused to leave the deck. I lashed her securely beside me.
+Together we awaited the end. When the roar of the following wave came
+close, so close that the voices of the officers of the ship could be no
+longer heard, Natalie spoke. The hollow sound was no longer in her
+voice. Her own soft sweet tones had come back.
+
+"Arthur," she asked, "is this the end?"
+
+"I fear it is," I answered, speaking close to her ear so that she might
+hear.
+
+"Then we have little time, and I have something which I must say, which
+you must promise me to remember when--when--I am no longer with you."
+
+"You will be always with me while we live. I think I deserve that at
+last."
+
+"Yes, you deserve that and more. I will be with you while I live, but
+that will not be for long."
+
+I was about to interrupt her when she put her soft little hand upon my
+lips and said:
+
+"Listen, there is very little time. It is all a mistake. I mean Herbert
+was wrong. He might as well have let me have my earthly span of
+happiness or folly--call it what you will."
+
+"You see that now--thank God!"
+
+"Yes, but I see it too late, I did not know it until--until I was dead.
+Hush!" Again I tried to interrupt her, for I thought her mind was
+wandering. "I died psychically with Herbert. That was when we first saw
+the light on the island. Since then I have lived mechanically, but it
+has only been life in so low a form that I do not now know what has
+happened between that time and this. And I could not now speak as I am
+speaking save by a will power which is costing me very dear. But it is
+the only voice you could hear. I do not therefore count the cost. My
+brother's brain so far overmatched my own that it first absorbed and
+finally destroyed my mental vitality. This influence removed, I am a
+rudderless ship at sea--bound to perish."
+
+"May his torments endure for ever. May the nethermost pit of hell
+receive him!" I said with a groan of agony.
+
+But Natalie said: "Hush! I might have lingered on a little longer, but I
+chose to concentrate the vital force which would have lasted me a few
+more senile years into the minutes necessary for this message from me to
+you--a message I could not have given you if he were not dead. And I am
+dying so that you may hear it. Dying! My God! I am already dead."
+
+She seemed to struggle against some force that battled with her, and the
+roar of many waters was louder around us before she was able to speak
+again.
+
+"Bend lower, Arthur; my strength is failing, and I have not yet said
+that for which I am here. Lower still.
+
+"I said it is all a mistake--a hideous mistake. Existence as we know it
+is ephemeral. Suffering is ephemeral. There is nothing everlasting but
+love. There is nothing eternal but mind. Your mind is mine. Your love is
+mine. Your human life may belong to whomsoever you will it. It ought to
+belong to that brave girl below. I do not grudge it to her, for I have
+_you_. We two shall be together through the ages--for ever and for ever.
+Heart of my heart, you have striven manfully and well, and if you did
+not altogether succeed in saving my flesh from premature corruption, be
+satisfied in that you have my soul. Ah!"
+
+She pressed her hands to her head as if in dreadful pain. When she spoke
+again her voice came in short gasps.
+
+"My brain is reeling. I do not know what I am saying," she cried,
+distraught. "I do not know whether I am saying what is true or only what
+I imagine to be true. I know nothing but this. I was mesmerised. I have
+been so for two years. But for that I would have been happy in your
+love--for I was a woman before this hideous influence benumbed me. They
+told me it was only a fool's paradise that I missed. But I only know
+that I have missed it. Missed it--and the darkness of death is upon me."
+
+She ceased to speak. A shudder convulsed her, and then her head sank
+gently on my shoulder.
+
+At that moment the great wave broke over the vessel, whirling her
+helpless like a cork on the ripples of a mill pond; lashing her with
+mighty strokes; sweeping in giant cataracts from stern to stem;
+smashing, tearing everything; deluging her with hissing torrents;
+crushing her with avalanches of raging foam. Then the ocean tornado
+passed on and left the _Esmeralda_ behind, with half the crew disabled
+and many lost, her decks a mass of wreckage, her masts gone. The
+crippled ship barely floated. When the last torrent of spray passed, and
+I was able to look to Natalie, her head had drooped down on her breast.
+I raised her face gently and looked into her wide open eyes.
+
+She was dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+Taking up my girl's body in my arms, I stumbled over the
+wreck-encumbered deck, and bore it to the state-room she had occupied on
+the outward voyage. Percival was too busy attending to wounded sailors
+to be interrupted. His services, I knew, were useless now, but I wanted
+him to refute or corroborate a conviction which my own medical knowledge
+had forced upon me. The thought was so repellent, I clung to any hope
+which might lead to its dispersion. I waited alone with my dead.
+
+Percival came after an hour, which seemed to me an eternity. He
+stammered out some incoherent words of sympathy as soon as he looked in
+my face. But this was not the purpose for which I had detached him from
+his pressing duties elsewhere. I made a gesture towards the dead girl.
+He attended to it immediately. I watched closely and took care that the
+light should be on his face, so that I might read his eyes rather than
+listen to his words.
+
+"She has fainted!" he exclaimed, as he approached the rigid figure. I
+said nothing until he turned and faced me. Then I read his eyes. He said
+slowly: "You are aware, Marcel, that--that she is dead?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"That she has been dead--several hours?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"But let me think. It was only an hour--"
+
+"No; do not think," I interrupted. "There are things in this voyage
+which will not bear to be thought of. I thank you for coming so soon.
+You will forgive me for troubling you when you have so much to do
+elsewhere. And now leave us alone. I mean, leave me alone."
+
+He pressed my hand, and went away without a word. I am that man's
+friend.
+
+They buried her at sea.
+
+I was happily unconscious at the time, and so was spared that scene.
+Edith Metford, weak and suffering as she was, went through it all. She
+has told me nothing about it, save that it was done. More than that I
+could not bear. And I have borne much.
+
+The voyage home was a dreary episode. There is little more to tell, and
+it must be told quickly. Percival was kind, but it distressed me to find
+that he now plainly regarded me as weak-minded from the stress of my
+trouble. Once, in the extremity of my misery, I began a relation of my
+adventures to him, for I wanted his help. The look upon his face was
+enough for me. I did not make the same mistake again.
+
+To Anderson I made amends for my extravagant display of temper. He
+received me more kindly than I expected. I no longer thought of the
+money that had passed between us. And, to do him tardy justice, I do not
+think he thought of it either. At least he did not offer any of it back.
+His scruples, I presume, were conscientious. Indeed, I was no longer
+worth a man's enmity. Sympathy was now the only indignity that could be
+put upon me. And Anderson did not trespass in that direction. My misery
+was, I thought, complete. One note must still be struck in that long
+discord of despair.
+
+We were steaming along the southern coast of Java. For many hours the
+rugged cliffs and giant rocks which fence the island against the
+onslaught of the Indian Ocean had passed before us as in review, and
+we--Edith Metford and I--sat on the deck silently, with many thoughts in
+common, but without the interchange of a spoken word. The stern,
+forbidding aspect of that iron coast increased the gloom which had
+settled on my brain. Its ramparts of lonely sea-drenched crags depressed
+me below the mental zero that was now habitual with me. The sun went
+down in a red glare, which moved me not. The short twilight passed
+quickly, but I noticed nothing. Then night came. The restless sea
+disappeared in darkness. The grand march past of the silent stars began.
+But I neither knew nor cared.
+
+A soft whisper stirred me.
+
+"Arthur, for God's sake rouse yourself! You are brooding a great deal
+too much. It will destroy you."
+
+Listlessly I put my hand in hers, and clasped her fingers gently.
+
+"Bear with me!" I pleaded.
+
+"I will bear with you for ever. But you must fight on. You have not won
+yet."
+
+"No, nor ever shall. I have fought my last fight. The victory may go to
+whosoever desires it."
+
+On this she wept. I could not bear that she should suffer from my
+misery, and so, guarding carefully her injured arm, I drew her close to
+me. And then, out of the darkness of the night, far over the solitude of
+the sea, there came to us the sound of a voice. That voice was a woman's
+wail. The girl beside me shuddered and drew back. I did not ask her if
+she had heard. I knew she had heard.
+
+We arose and stood apart without any explanation. From that moment a
+caress would have been a sacrilege. I did not hear that weird sound
+again, nor aught else for an hour or more save the bursting of the
+breakers on the crags of Java.
+
+I kept no record of the commonplaces of our voyage thereafter. It only
+remains for me to say that I arrived in England broken in health and
+bankrupt in fortune. Brande left no money. His formula for the
+transmutation of metals is unintelligible to me. I can make no use of
+it.
+
+Edith Metford remains my friend. To part utterly after what we have
+undergone together is beyond our strength. But between us there is a
+nameless shadow, reminiscent of that awful night in the Arafura Sea,
+when death came very near to us. And in my ears there is always the echo
+of that voice which I heard by the shores of Java when the misty
+borderland between life and death seemed clear.
+
+My story is told. I cannot prove its truth, for there is much in it to
+which I am the only living witness. I cannot prove whether Herbert
+Brande was a scientific magician possessed of _all_ the powers he
+claimed, or merely a mad physicist in charge of a new and terrible
+explosive; nor whether Edward Grey ever started for Labrador. The
+burthen of the proof of this last must be borne by others--unless it be
+left to Grey himself to show whether my evidence is false or true. If
+it be left to him, a few years will decide the issue.
+
+I am content to wait.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+LONDON: DIGBY, LONG AND CO., PUBLISHERS, 18 BOUVERIE STREET, FLEET
+STREET, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+ROBERT CROMIE'S BOOKS
+
+_OPINIONS OF THE PRESS_
+
+
+A PLUNGE INTO SPACE
+
+WITH PREFACE BY JULES VERNE
+
+_Times._--The story is written with considerable liveliness, the
+scientific jargon is sufficiently perplexing, and the characters are
+sketched with some humour.
+
+_Chronicle._--A strange, weird, mysterious story that holds the reader
+spell-bound, from the first page to the last.
+
+_Athenaeum._--Mr. Cromie's Utopia is charming, and the quasi-scientific
+detail of the expedition is given with so much integrity that we hardly
+wonder at the marvellous results accomplished.
+
+_Truth._--A very clever description of a flight through space to Mars
+... the book is extremely interesting and suggestive; especially,
+perhaps, where it attacks the theories of Mr. George and "Looking
+Backwards."
+
+_Court Journal._--Mr. Robert Cromie's remarkably clever and entertaining
+volume is told with much of the vivid fancy of a Jules Verne--with
+remarkable picturesqueness, and the experiences of mortals in Mars are
+described with considerable humour.
+
+_Review of Reviews._--An unquestionably interesting story. The
+adventures of the hero and his friends are in no small degree thrilling.
+
+_Glasgow Herald._--The imagination is brilliant, the scientific details
+are skilfully worked in, the dialogues and descriptions are lively and
+interesting, and the pictures of Martian life and scenery are
+remarkable--a decidedly clever book.
+
+
+FOR ENGLAND'S SAKE
+
+_Academy._--There is not a dull page in the story.
+
+_Army and Navy Gazette._--A capital little story of military life, full
+of bright word-painting.
+
+_Literary World._--This exciting chapter in the history of the future is
+written with a great deal of enthusiasm, and a great deal of common
+sense to boot.
+
+_Irish Times._--The plot is well conceived, and the interest throughout
+is well maintained.
+
+_Belfast Northern Whig._--The author displays much constructive and
+descriptive power. He is most felicitous in his word pictures of
+scenery, and imparts a fascinating dash to his military scenes.
+
+_Belfast Morning News._--Deeply interesting without being sensational,
+this charming story of love and war is sure to appeal with force to a
+large circle of readers.
+
+_Liverpool Daily Post._--A well-told story of life and love in troublous
+times in India.
+
+
+IN SOUTHERN SEAS
+
+WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH W. R. RINGLAND.
+
+_Athenaeum._--A bright, compact, and highly readable narrative, full of
+incidents, and illustrated with clever little vignettes.
+
+_Newcastle Chronicle._--A really charming book--deeply interesting, and
+full of capital drawings.
+
+_Scotsman._--A very well-written narrative of a trip, and as such, about
+as good as it could be.
+
+_Spectator._--A pleasant little book of travel.
+
+_Leeds Mercury._--The author relies on vivid description, pointed and
+racy pictures, and lively and striking incident for interest.
+
+_Saturday Review._--Brightly written, and yet more brightly illustrated.
+
+
+_The foregoing Books may be had through_ DIGBY, LONG & CO., 18 BOUVERIE
+STREET, FLEET STREET, LONDON, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+_MAY 1895_
+
+SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
+
+DIGBY, LONG & CO.'S
+
+NEW NOVELS, STORIES, Etc.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_IN ONE VOLUME_, Price 6s.
+
+NEW NOVEL BY DR ARABELLA KENEALY.
+
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+   6_s._                                                    [_Just out._
+
+NEW NOVEL BY ANNIE THOMAS (Mrs PENDER CUDLIP).
+
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+
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+
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+
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+   With a Frontispiece.                                [_Fifth Edition._
+
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+    little skill in its descriptive passages."
+
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+    The picture of the girl is admirably drawn. The style is bright and
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+
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+
+NEW NOVEL BY DORA RUSSELL.
+
+ THE OTHER BOND. By the Author of "A Hidden Chain," "A Country
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+                                                       [_Third Edition._
+
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+    easily and well, and she has the gift of making her characters
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+
+NEW NOVEL BY L. T. MEADE.
+
+ A LIFE FOR A LOVE. By the Author of "The Medicine Lady," "A Soldier of
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+   a Frontispiece by Hal Hurst.              [_Third Edition. Just out._
+
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+
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+
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+    the most lovable women to whom novel readers have been introduced."
+
+ UNE CULOTTE: An Impossible Story of Modern Oxford. By "TIVOLI," Author
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+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._                            [_Second Edition._
+
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+
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+   6_s._
+
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+
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+
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+   Himself. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+   6_s._                                                    [_Just out._
+
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+
+ WHEN THE HEART IS YOUNG. By the Author of "The Romance of a Madhouse,"
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+
+A NEW AUSTRALIAN NOVEL.
+
+ RECOGNITION. A Mystery of the Coming Colony. By SYDNEY H. WRIGHT.
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+
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+     BY JEAN MIDDLEMASS.     |     BY DR. A. KENEALY.
+ THE MYSTERY OF CLEMENT      | Dr JANET OF HARLEY STREET. By
+   DUNRAVEN. By the Author   |   the Author of "Molly and
+   of "A Girl in a           |   her Man-o'-War," etc.
+   Thousand," etc. (SECOND   |   (SEVENTH EDITION.) With
+   EDITION.)                 |   Portrait.
+                             |
+      BY DORA RUSSELL.       |       BY HUME NISBET.
+ A HIDDEN CHAIN. By the      | THE JOLLY ROGER. By the
+   Author of "Footprints in  |   Author of "Bail Up," etc.
+   the Snow," etc. (SECOND   |   With Illustrations by the
+   EDITION.)                 |   Author. (FIFTH EDITION.)
+
+    NOTE.--Other Works in the same Series in due course.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MISCELLANEOUS.
+
+ A HISTORY OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY FROM ITS INCEPTION TO THE
+   PRESENT TIME. By G. A. SEKON. Revised by F. G. SAUNDERS, Chairman of
+   the Great Western Railway. Demy 8vo, 390 pages, cloth, 7_s._ 6_d._
+   With numerous Illustrations.
+
+   [***] _Illustrated Prospectus, post free._         [_Second Edition._
+
+    The _TIMES_, April 12th, 1895.--"Mr Sekon's volume is full of
+    interest, and constitutes an important chapter in the history of
+    railway development in England."
+
+    The _STANDARD_ (Leader), April 4th, 1895.--"An excellent addition to
+    the literature of our iron roads."
+
+    The _DAILY TELEGRAPH_, April 13th, 1895.--"Mr G. A. Sekon has
+    performed a service to the public. His book is full of interest, and
+    is evidently the result of a great deal of painstaking inquiry....
+    His book is made all the more valuable by several pictures of
+    engines, collisions, the Saltash Bridge, the Old Bath Station and
+    the Box Tunnel; and it will be welcomed by all interested in the
+    history and extraordinary expansion of our iron roadways."
+
+ THREE EMPRESSES. Josephine, Marie-Louise, Eugenie. By CAROLINE GEARY,
+   Author of "In Other Lands," etc. With portraits. Cr. 8vo, cloth,
+   6_s._ (SECOND EDIT.)
+
+    The _PALL MALL GAZETTE_ says:--"This charming book.... Gracefully
+    and graphically written, the story of each Empress is clearly and
+    fully told.... This delightful book."
+
+ WINTER AND SUMMER EXCURSIONS IN CANADA. By C. L. JOHNSTONE, Author of
+   "Historical Families of Dumfriesshire," etc. With Illustrations.
+   Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+
+    The _DAILY NEWS_ says:--"Not for a long while have we read a book of
+    its class which deserves so much confidence. Intending settlers
+    would do well to study Mr Johnstone's book."
+
+ THE AUTHOR'S MANUAL. By PERCY RUSSELL. With Prefatory Remarks by Mr
+   GLADSTONE. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ net. (EIGHTH AND CHEAPER
+   EDITION.) With portrait.
+
+    The _WESTMINSTER REVIEW_ says:--"... Mr Russell's book is a very
+    complete manual and guide for journalist and author. It is not a
+    merely practical work--it is literary and appreciative of literature
+    in its best sense; ... we have little else but praise for the
+    volume."
+
+ A GUIDE TO BRITISH AND AMERICAN NOVELS. From the Earliest Period to
+   the end of 1894. By PERCY RUSSELL, Author of "The Author's Manual,"
+   etc. Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 3_s._ 6_d._ net. (SECOND EDITION
+   CAREFULLY REVISED.)
+
+    The _SPECTATOR_ says:--"Mr Russell's familiarity with every form of
+    novel is amazing, and his summaries of plots and comments thereon
+    are as brief and lucid as they are various."
+
+ SIXTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE AS AN IRISH LANDLORD. Memoirs of JOHN
+   HAMILTON, D.L. of St Ernan's, Donegal. Edited, with Introduction, by
+   the Rev. H. C. WHITE, late Chaplain, Paris. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6_s._
+   With Portrait.
+
+    The _TIMES_ says:--"Much valuable light on the real history of
+    Ireland, and of the Irish agrarian question in the present century
+    is thrown by a very interesting volume entitled 'Sixty Years'
+    Experience as an Irish Landlord.'... This very instructive volume."
+
+ NIGH ON SIXTY YEARS AT SEA. By ROBERT WOOLWARD ("Old Woolward"). Crown
+   8vo, cloth, 6_s._ With Portrait. (SECOND EDITION.)
+
+    The _TIMES_ says:--"Very entertaining reading. Captain Woolward
+    writes sensibly and straightforwardly, and tells his story with the
+    frankness of an old salt. He has a keen sense of humour, and his
+    stories are endless and very entertaining."
+
+ WHOSE FAULT? The Story of a Trial at _Nisi Prius_. By ELLIS J. DAVIS,
+   Barrister-at-Law. In handsome pictorial binding. Crown 8vo, cloth,
+   3_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _TIMES_ says:--"An ingenious attempt to convey to the lay mind
+    an accurate and complete idea of the origin and progress and all the
+    essential circumstances of an ordinary action at law. The idea is
+    certainly a good one, and is executed in very entertaining
+    fashion.... Mr Davis's instructive little book."
+
+ BORODIN AND LISZT. I.--Life and Works of a Russian Composer.
+   II.--Liszt, as sketched in the Letters of Borodin. By ALFRED HABETS.
+   Translated with a Preface by ROSA NEWMARCH. With Portraits and
+   Fac-similes.                                             [_Just out._
+
+ FRAGMENTS FROM VICTOR HUGO'S LEGENDS AND LYRICS. By CECILIA ELIZABETH
+   MEETKERKE. Crown 8vo, cloth, 7_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _WORLD_ says:--"The most admirable rendering of French poetry
+    into English that has come to our knowledge since Father Prout's
+    translation of 'La Chant du Cosaque.'"
+
+BY THE AUTHOR OF "SONG FAVOURS."
+
+ MINUTIAE. By CHARLES WILLIAM DALMON. Royal 16mo, cloth elegant, price
+   2_s._ 6_d._
+
+    The _ACADEMY_ says:--"His song has a rare and sweet note. The little
+    book has colour and fragrance, and is none the less welcome because
+    the fragrance is delicate, evanescent; the colours of white and
+    silver grey and lavender, rather than brilliant and exuberant.... Mr
+    Dalmon's genuine artistry. In his sonnets he shows a deft touch,
+    particularly in the fine one, 'Ecce Ancilla Domini.' Yet, after all,
+    it is in the lyrics that he is most individual.... Let him take
+    heart, for surely the song that he has to sing is worth singing."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[***] _A complete Catalogue of Novels, Travels, Biographies, Poems,
+etc., with a critical or descriptive notice of each, free by post on
+application._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+ LONDON: DIGBY, LONG & CO., PUBLISHERS,
+ _18 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, E.C._
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
+    Inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised. [***] has been used
+    to represent an inverted asterism.
+
+    Based on the text in the Preface and the concluding lines of the
+    last chapter, the date in the sentence:
+
+        "If we fail to act before the 31st December, in the year 2000,
+        he will proceed." (p. 151)
+
+    has been amended to the year 1900, bearing in mind the story takes
+    place towards the end of the 19th century.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crack of Doom, by Robert Cromie
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