rom one of us four--is
dangerous--is exceedingly dangerous. No," he said, with a brief smile,
"as far as I am myself concerned, I have carried my life in my hands too
often to think much about that. And you, gentlemen, considering the
obligations you have accepted, I take it that the question of possible
harm to yourselves is not likely to interfere with your obedience to the
commands of the Council."

"As for me," said Reitzei, eagerly and nervously, "I tell you this, I
should like to have something exciting now--I do not care what. I am
tired of this work in London; it is slow, regular, like the ticking of a
clock. I am for something to stir the blood a little. I say that I am
ready for anything."

"As for me," said Beratinsky, curtly, "no one has ever yet called me a
coward."

Brand said nothing; but he perceived that this was something unusually
serious, and almost unconsciously he closed his right hand that he might
feel the clasp of Natalie's ring. There was no need to appeal to his
oaths of allegiance.

Lind proceeded, in a graver fashion,

"Yes, I confess that personally I am for avoiding violence, for
proceeding according to law. But then the Council would say, perhaps,
'Are there not injuries for which the law gives no redress? Are there
not those who are beyond the power of the law? And we, who have given
our lives to the redressing of wrongs, to the protection of the poor, to
the establishment of the right, are we to stand by and see the moral
sense of the community outraged by those in high places, and say no
word, and lift no hand?'"

He took up a book that was lying on the table, and opened it at a marked
page.

"Yes," he said, "there are occasions on which a man may justly take the
law into his own hands; may break the law, and go beyond it, and punish
those whom the law has failed to punish; and the moral sense of the
world will say, 'Well done!' Did you ever happen to read, Mr. Brand, the
letter written by Madame von Maderspach?"

Brand started at the mention of the name: it recalled the first evening
on which he had seen Natalie. What strange things had happened since
then! He answered that he did not know of Madame von Maderspach's
letter.

"By chance I came across it to-day," said Lind, looking at the book.
"Listen: 'I was torn from the arms of my husband, from the circle of my
children, from the hallowed sanctuary of my home, charged with no
offence, allowed no hearing, arraigned befor