ver here."

Maraton glanced at his companion curiously.

"Mine was an immense responsibility," he said. "Granted that I had the
power, do you think that I had the right to stir up a civil war here in
the face of the help I was promised for our people?"

David Ross sighed.

"I don't know," he confessed. "I only know that many years ago, Peter
Dale, when he was a young man, spoke as though the word of truth were
burning in his heart. He was for a revolution. He would be content
with nothing less. And Borden was like that, and Graveling, and others
whom you don't know. And then the people gave them their mandate,
knocked a bit of money together, and sent them to Parliament. There,
somehow or other, they seemed to fall into the easier ways. They worked
stolidly and honestly, no doubt, but something had gone, something we've
all missed, something that by this time might have helped. When they
told me--it was Aaron who came and told me--rode his bicycle like a
madman, all the way from Soho. 'Maraton is come!' he shouted. Then it
seemed to me that freedom was here; no more compromises, but battle--the
naked sword, battle with the wrongs of generations to requite. Is the
sword sheathed?"

Maraton passed his arm through his companion's.

"It is not sheathed," he declared, "nor while I have life will it be
sheathed. If I have chosen the quieter methods, it is because for the
present I have come to believe that they are the best. Six hundred
thousand people in Lancashire are going to start life next Monday with
an increase of between fifteen and twenty per cent to their weekly wage.
Isn't that something to the good? And then, in a few weeks, every forge
and furnace in Sheffield will be cold until the men's demands are
granted there. And when that is over, we go for every industry, one by
one, throughout the country. Before a year is past, I reckon that many
millions will have passed from the pockets of the middle classes into
the pockets of the labouring man. I am going to set that stream running
faster and faster, and then I am going to begin all over again. With
prosperity, the labouring classes will gain strength. You will have
more time for thought, for education, for self-knowledge. And as they
gain strength, once more we raise our hands. Do they seem slow to you,
our methods, David Ross? Believe me, they did to me. Yet in my heart I
know that I have chosen the right."

The man drew a little sigh. There may have been