fficult. I have spread the people
out as much as I can. It's the best chance, but next week will be a
black one."

They pored over the figures for a time. Outside, the streets were
almost as silent as death. Suddenly the door was thrown open, and they
both looked up hastily. Selingman stood there, but Selingman
transformed. All the colour seemed to have left his cheeks; his eyes
were burning with a steely fire. He closed the door behind him and he
shivered where he stood. Maraton sprang to his feet.

"What, in God's name, has happened, man?" he cried. "Quick!"

Selingman came a little further into the room. He raised his hands
above his head; his voice was thick with horror.

"I have betrayed you!" he moaned. "I have betrayed the people!"

He stood there, still trembling. Maraton poured him out wine, but he
swept it away.

"No more of those things for me!" he continued. "Listen to my tale. If
there is a God, may he hear me! By every line I have written, by every
world of fancy into which I have been led, by every particle of what
nations have called my genius, I swear that I speak the truth!"

"I believe you," Maraton said. "Go on. Tell me quickly."

"I trusted Maxendorf," Selingman proceeded, his voice shaking, "trusted
and loved him as a brother. I have been his tool and his dupe!"

Maraton felt himself suddenly at the edge of the world. He leaned over
and looked into the abyss called hell. For a moment he shivered; then
he set his teeth.

"Go on," he repeated.

"Maxendorf and I have spoken many times of the future of this country.
The dream which he outlined for you, he has spoken of to me with
glittering eyes, with heaving chest, with trembling voice. It was his
scheme that I should take you to him. You, too, believed as I did.
To-night I visited him. I stepped in upon the one weak moment of his
life. He needed a confidant. He was bursting with joy and triumph. He
showed me his heart; he showed me the great and terrible hatred which
burns there for England and everything English. The people's man, he
calls himself! He is for the people of his own country and his own
country only! You and I have been the tools of his crafty schemes.
This country, if he possesses it, he will occupy as a conqueror. He
will set his heel upon it. He will demand the greatest indemnity of all
times. And every penny of it will flow into his beloved land. We
thought that the dawn had come, we poor, miserable and deluded victims