lded the full power of
democracy. Then once more he looked forward to the morrow. Oh! if it
could but end in death!... _Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur!_ ...

It was no good; it was cowardly to think in this fashion. After all, God
was God--He takes up the isles as a very little thing.

Percy took out his office book, found Prime and St. Sylvester, signed
himself with the cross, and began to pray. A minute later the two
chaplains slipped in once more, and sat down; and all was silent, save
for that throb of the screw, and the strange whispering rush of air
outside.

III

It was about nineteen o'clock that the ruddy English conductor looked in
at the doorway, waking Percy from his doze.

"Dinner will be served in half-an-hour, gentlemen," he said (speaking
Esperanto, as the rule was on international cars). "We do not stop at
Turin to-night."

He shut the door and went out, and the sound of closing doors came down
the corridor as he made the same announcement to each compartment.

There were no passengers to descend at Turin, then, reflected Percy; and
no doubt a wireless message had been received that there were none to
come on board either. That was good news: it would give him more time in
London. It might even enable Cardinal Steinmann to catch an earlier
volor from Paris to Berlin; but he was not sure bow they ran. It was a
pity that the German had not been able to catch the thirteen o'clock
from Rome to Berlin direct. So he calculated, in a kind of superficial
insensibility.

He stood up presently to stretch himself. Then he passed out and along
the corridor to the lavatory to wash his hands.

He became fascinated by the view as he stood before the basin at the
rear of the car, for even now they were passing over Turin. It was a
blur of light, vivid and beautiful, that shone beneath him in the midst
of this gulf of darkness, sweeping away southwards into the gloom as the
car sped on towards the Alps. How little, he thought, seemed this great
city seen from above; and yet, how mighty it was! It was from that
glimmer, already five miles behind, that Italy was controlled; in one of
these dolls' houses of which he had caught but a glimpse, men sat in
council over souls and bodies, and abolished God, and smiled at His
Church. And God allowed it all, and made no sign. It was there that
Felsenburgh bad been, a month or two ago--Felsenburgh, his double! And
again the mental sword tore and stabbed at hi