t into victory; the captain and lieutenant of the
ever-famous _Ithuriel_.

Never before had there been such a gathering of all sorts and conditions
of men on one spot of earth; but as the hours went on and dwindled into
minutes, all differences of rank and position became things of the past.
In the presence of that awful Shape which was now flaming across the
heavens, all men and women were equal, since by midnight all might be
reduced at the same instant to the same dust and ashes. The ghastly
orange-green glare shone down alike on the upturned face of monarch and
statesman, soldier and peasant, millionaire and pauper, the good and the
bad, the noble and the base, and tinged every face with its own ghastly
hue.

Five minutes to twelve!

There was a shaking of hands, but no words were spoken. Norah Castellan
stooped and kissed her wounded lover's brow, and then stood up and
clasped her hands behind her. Lennard went to one of the tables and
Auriole to the other.

Lennard had honestly kept the unspoken pact that had been made between
them in the observatory at Whernside. Neither word nor look of love had
passed his lips or lightened his eyes; and even now, as he stood beside
her, looking at her face, beautiful still even in that ghastly light,
his glance was as steady as if he had been looking through the eye-piece
of his telescope.

Auriole had her right forefinger already resting on a little white
button, ready at a touch to send the kindling spark into the mighty mass
of explosives which lay buried at the bottom of what had been the Great
Lever pit. Lennard also had his right forefinger on another button, but
his left hand was in his coat pocket and the other forefinger was on the
trigger of a loaded and cocked revolver. There were several other
revolvers in men's pockets--men who had sworn that their nearest and
dearest should be spared the last tortures of the death-agony of
humanity.

The chronometers began to tick off the seconds of the last minute. The
wings of the comet spread out vaster and vaster and its now flaming
nucleus blazed brighter and brighter. A low, vague wailing sound seemed
to be running through the multitudes which thronged the semicircle of
moors. It was the first and perhaps the last utterance of the agony of
unendurable suspense.

At the thirtieth second Lennard looked up and said in a quiet,
passionless tone:

"Ready!"

At the same moment he saw, as millions of others thought the