RED LIGHT IN THE NORTH 231

XXIV. THE EVE OF THE THIRD DAY 238

XXV. ENTR'ACTE 242

XXVI. THE SONG OF THE SWORD 250

XXVII. DOOMSDAY 266

XXVIII. IN THE FULNESS OF TIME 274

XXIX. DEATH AND LIFE 281

XXX. THE STAR IN THE EAST 290

ILLUSTRATIONS

"CONSTANS AND NIGHT WERE DOWN" _Frontispiece_

"OUT LEAPED QUINTON EDGE'S SWORD" _Facing p._ 48

"CONSTANS LOOKED ABOUT HIM IN WONDERMENT" " 64

"THE BLOWS RAINED DOWN UPON HIS FACE" " 76

"THEY PARTED WITHOUT FURTHER SPEAKING" " 90

"AN INSTANT LATER THE BOWSTRING TWANGED" " 118

"SHE STOOD MUTE AND WIDE-EYED BEFORE HIM" " 156

"OF DOOM SHALL WE REQUIRE IT" " 220

* * * * *

THE DOOMSMAN

I

THE VERMILION FEATHER

A beach of yellow sand and a stranded log upon which sat a boy looking
steadfastly out upon the shining waters.

It was a delicious morning in early May, and the sun was at his back,
its warm rays falling upon him with affectionate caress. But the lad was
plainly oblivious of his immediate surroundings; in spirit he had
followed the leading of his eyes a league or more to the westward, where
a mass of indefinable shadow bulked hugely upon the horizon line.
Indefinable, in that it was neither forest nor mountain nor yet an
atmospheric illusion produced by the presence of watery vapor. It did
not change in density as does the true cloud; for all of its mistiness
of outline there was an impression of solidity about its deeper shadows,
something that the wind could not lift nor the light pierce. A mystery,
and the boy devoured it with his eyes, his head bent forward and his
shoulders held tensely.

The place was a rocky point of land jutting forth into a reef-strewn
tideway. The forest came down close to the strip of beach, but there was
comparatively little underwood, and the grass, growing up to the very
roots of the trees, gave to the glade an appearance almost parklike.
There was no house in sight, not even the thin, blue curl of a smoking
hearth to proclaim the neighborhood of man. Yet the sign of human
handicraft was not wholly wanting; through the tree trunks, at perhaps a
hundred yards away, appeared the line of a timber stockade--enormous
palisades, composed of twelve-foot ash and