ns would
then be a paradise of peaceful industry, and he who had the power, if
any man had, to turn that hell into the paradise that it might be,
had just told her that he loved her, and would create that paradise
for her sake.

Could he do it? Was not this marvellous creation of his genius, that
was bearing her in mid-air over land and sea, as woman had never
travelled before, a sufficient earnest of his power? Truly it was.
And to be won by such a man was no mean destiny, even for her, the
daughter of Natas, and the peerless Angel of the Revolution.

Situated as they were, it would of course have been impossible, even
if it had been in any way desirable, for Arnold and Natasha to have
kept their compact secret from their fellow-travellers, who were at
the same time their most intimate friends.

There was not, however, the remotest reason for attempting to do so.
Although with regard to the rest of the world the members of the
Brotherhood were necessarily obliged to live lives of constant
dissimulation, among themselves they had no secrets from each other.

Thus, for instance, it was perfectly well known that Tremayne, during
those periods of his double life in which he acted as Chief of the
Inner Circle, regarded the daughter of Natas with feelings much
warmer than those of friendship or brotherhood in a common cause, and
until Arnold and his wonderful creation appeared on the scene, he was
looked upon as the man who, if any man could, would some day win the
heart of their idolised Angel.

Of the other love that was the passion of his other life, no one save
Natasha, and perhaps Natas himself, knew anything; and even if they
had known, they would not have considered it possible for any other
woman to have held a man's heart against the peerless charms of
Natasha. In fact they would have looked upon such rivalry as mere
presumption that it was not at all necessary for their incomparable
young Queen of the Terror to take into serious account.

In Arnold, however, they saw a worthy rival even to the Chief
himself, for there was a sort of halo of romance, even in their eyes,
about this serious, quiet-spoken young genius, who had come suddenly
forth from the unknown obscurity of his past life to arm the
Brotherhood with a power which revolutionised their tactics and
virtually placed the world at their mercy. In a few months he had
become alike their hero and their supreme hope, so far as all active
operations went;