am not to go home
again. I did not mean to go home for a long while in any case, if at
all."

He drew his pocket-book from his breast, and took from it the four white
feathers. These he laid before him on the table.

"You have kept them?" exclaimed Sutch.

"Indeed, I treasure them," said Harry, quietly. "That seems strange to
you. To you they are the symbols of my disgrace. To me they are much
more. They are my opportunities of retrieving it." He looked about the
room, separated three of the feathers, pushed them forward a little on
the tablecloth, and then leaned across toward Sutch.

"What if I could compel Trench, Castleton, and Willoughby to take back
from me, each in his turn, the feather he sent? I do not say that it is
likely. I do not say even that it is possible. But there is a chance
that it may be possible, and I must wait upon that chance. There will be
few men leading active lives as these three do who will not at some
moment stand in great peril and great need. To be in readiness for that
moment is from now my career. All three are in Egypt. I leave for Egypt
to-morrow."

Upon the face of Lieutenant Sutch there came a look of great and
unexpected happiness. Here was an issue of which he had never thought;
and it was the only issue, as he knew for certain, once he was aware of
it. This student of human nature disregarded without a scruple the
prudence and the calculation proper to the character which he assumed.
The obstacles in Harry Feversham's way, the possibility that at the last
moment he might shrink again, the improbability that three such
opportunities would occur--these matters he overlooked. His eyes already
shone with pride; the three feathers for him were already taken back.
The prudence was on Harry Feversham's side.

"There are endless difficulties," he said. "Just to cite one: I am a
civilian, these three are soldiers, surrounded by soldiers; so much the
less opportunity therefore for a civilian."

"But it is not necessary that the three men should be themselves in
peril," objected Sutch, "for you to convince them that the fault is
retrieved."

"Oh, no. There may be other ways," agreed Feversham. "The plan came
suddenly into my mind, indeed at the moment when Ethne bade me take up
the feathers, and added the fourth. I was on the point of tearing them
across when this way out of it sprang clearly up in my mind. But I have
thought it over since during these last weeks while I sat lis