ching doom in the ears of a world round which from east to west
and from west again to east the battledrums might any day be sounding
and the roar of artillery thundering its answering echo.

But a somewhat different aspect was given to these reflections by a
letter which he found waiting for him in the library at Whernside House.
It ran thus:

"SIR,--You will not, I suppose, have forgotten a certain incident
which happened towards the end of June 1907 in the Bay of Clifden,
Connemara. You won that little swimming race by a yard or so, and
since then it appears to me that, although you may not be aware of
it, you and I have been running a race of a very different sort,
although possibly for the same prize.

"You will understand what prize I mean, and by this time you ought
to know that I have the power of taking it by force, if I cannot
win it in the ordinary way of sport or battle. I am in command of
the only really irresistible force in the world. I created that
force, and, by doing so, made the invasion of England and the
present war possible. I have done so because I hate England, and
desire to release my own country from her tyranny and oppression;
but I can love as well as I can hate, and whether you understood it
or not, I, who had never loved a woman before, loved Auriole
Parmenter from the moment that you and I lifted her out of the
water, and she smiled on us, and thanked us for saving her life.

"Before we parted that day I could see love in your eyes when you
looked at her, if you could not see it in mine. You are her
father's private astronomer, and until lately you have lived in
almost daily intercourse with her, in which, of course, you have
had a great advantage over myself, who have not from that time till
now been blessed by even the sight of her.

"But during that time it seems that you have discovered a comet,
which is to run into the earth and destroy all human life, unless
you prevent it. I know this because I know of the challenge you
gave to the German Emperor in Canterbury. I know also of what you
have been doing in Bolton. You are turning a coal pit into a
cannon, with which you believe that you can blow this comet into
thin air or gas before it meets the earth, and you threatened His
Majesty that if the war was not stopped the human ra