he had
just then seen
The red flags fly from the city gates--where his eagles of bronze had
been."

At times, when McCalloway wore that cryptic expression, Boone burned
with an eager curiosity to have the curtain lifted for him, and to be
able to see just what life had once spelled for this extraordinary man.
Now the veteran was speaking again with a carefully intoned voice:

"I would have you defend your life, aggressively and fully, but your
honour no less jealously. I am no psychologist, but I have read that
almost every man has some spot on his sanity that is like a blind spot
on his eye. Into your blood, distilled through generations, came a
spirit that made a veritable religion of vengeance. You have sought to
modify that and to become an apostle of progress. Apparently you have
succeeded."

He paused and cleared his throat, and Boone once more prompted him with
an interrogative repetition:

"Apparently, sir?"

"Yes, apparently--because one hour of passion might blacken your future
into ruin; char it into destruction. In God's name make no such mistake.
If Saul Fulton seeks your life, as you suggest, he should pay for his
plotting, and pay in full. But if, by the subconscious workings of that
old hatred, you are placing the blame on Saul because Saul is the man
that instinct seeks a pretext to kill, then let me implore you to search
your soul before you act."

Boone made no response, but over the clear intelligence of his pleasing
features went the cloud of that unforgettable thing that had been with
him from childhood. It was the same cloud that had settled there when he
had made shrill interruption in the courtroom where Asa Gregory's life
was being sworn away.

Into McCalloway's voice leaped a fiery quality.

"You have come too far to fail, Boone," he declared. "I need make no
protestations of loyalty to you. You know what your success means to me,
but I know the price a man pays who has tasted ruin. I would save you
from that if my counsel can avert it."

The young man came close and looked into the eyes that had guided him.

"If I ever make a mistake like that," he said, "it will not be because I
have lacked warnings."

* * * * *

On the night when Larry Masters had sat until dawn by an unreplenished
fire, the physical resistance of his body had ebbed to feebleness. Under
the quenching chill of despair his pulse-beat had become as sluggish as