me,
and even though Zara's brother Ivan, and others of his kind, fanatics
all, in their nihilistic tendencies, wild beasts in their blood lusts,
fiends in their methods, as they were--whatever they might threaten,
seemed small indeed to me, in that moment of ecstasy. For it was a
moment of ecstasy; the word "moment" being measured by the rule of
space, limitless and unconfined.

Zara did not know who and what I was, save only that I was a man, and
her lover. Beyond that, her imagination had not travelled, and her
desires had not sought.

She did not understand that I was at the head of a great fraternity,
organized and established by myself, and that I had under my control,
if not obedient to my direct command, several hundred individuals
within the limit of that city, who would serve me instantly, and who
would fight to the death for me if there were need.

It was to be regretted that I had gone to the home of the Princess Zara
to keep my appointment that day, with so little thought of the dangers
I might have to encounter before I should leave it again. It would have
been so easy to arrange for adequate protection, and to have had at
that very moment, when I was gazing through the lace curtained window,
assistance ready at hand in the shape of men prepared to answer to any
signal I might have agreed upon. A word dropped to O'Malley at his
cafe, a sign made to big Tom Coyle, a note in cipher to Canfield, an
indication to anyone of my trusted lieutenants, would have placed about
me at that very moment, an environment of protection adequate to cope
with any difficulty that might arise.

But I had not foreseen the present circumstance sufficiently to be
prepared for it in that manner.

Zara and I were practically alone in that great house, save for the
servants it contained; and they were not to be counted upon in any
case, no matter what form individual effort against us might take.

I was conscious, too, while we stood there so silently together, of the
new responsibility I had taken upon myself during the love scene that
had just passed; and I was suddenly aware of the danger which
threatened my beloved, through me.

I did not realize it until that instant. I had thought, selfishly
enough, only of what she had said about my own peril. I had remembered
only that I was the object of a planned assassination, because some one
whom I had not discovered at the time, had overheard the interview in
the garden to which