she put
her hand into Thornton's while saying to Orville: "I can not go there
with you--not upward. I must enter the valley with him." She moved
away, her hand still in Thornton's. Orville watched them go, only
wondering why he had no regrets.

"Michael," he said, "I loved her on earth. Why am I unmoved to see her
leave me?"

[Illustration: "But when their feet touched the road, they turned and
looked their terror."]

But Michael answered, "It is not strange in The Land of the Dead.
There are stranger partings here; but all of them are like
yours--tearless for those who see the Cross."

Thornton and Marion by this time had entered the valley road and were
on the other side of the rock gateway. But when their feet touched the
road they turned and looked their terror. Suddenly they recoiled and
struck viciously at each other. Then they parted. With the wide road
between them they went down into the valley and the haze together.

Orville read the words on the rock gateway, for now they stood out so
that he could see plainly, and they were: "THE ROAD WITHOUT ENDING."
"Michael," he said, "what does it mean?"

Michael answered, "She could not see the Cross here, who would not see
it on earth. It repelled him, who so often had repelled it in life."

III.

Neither Orville nor Callovan was at all moved by the tragedy each had
witnessed. Orville's love for Marion was as if it had never existed.
The friendship of both for Thornton did not in the slightest assert
itself. They felt moved to sorrow, but the overpowering sense of
another feeling--a feeling of victory for some Great Friend or
Cause--left the vague sorrow forgotten in an instant. Both men knew
that Thornton and Marion had passed out of their ken forever, and in
the future would be to them as if they had not been. All three made
haste to go toward the road which led up to the Flaming Cross. Then
upon Orville's shoulders he felt a heavy burden, but still heavier was
one which was bending Callovan down. Michael alone stood straight,
without a weight upon him.

"It will be hard to climb to the Cross with these burdens, Michael,"
said Orville.

"Yes, sir, it will," said Michael, "but you must carry them. You
brought them here. They are the burdens of your wealth. They will
hamper you; but you saw the Cross, and in the end all will be well."

"Then these burdens, Michael, are our riches?" asked both Orville and
Callovan in the same breath.

"They are your r