re the odds against him?"

"Steep," was the laconical rejoinder.

Cranbourne hesitated a bare second.

"Accept their terms," said he.

"In favour?"

"Of course in favour."

Nugent Cassis shook him by the sleeve.

"I am heartily opposed to their acceptance. It is absurd to suppose
that Barraclough is unequal to the task we have set him."

"Against?" queried Mr. Torrington.

"Emphatically against."

When it came to Almont's turn to vote his distress of mind was
pathetic. He stood alternatively on one leg and the other. He spoke
of "Jolly old public school traditions." He "doubted if the dear old
sportsman could endure the idea of being protected at such a cost."

"No, damn it all," he concluded. "Why should we split the prize?"

"We can't juggle with men's lives," urged Cranbourne.

"It's insanity to wilt at the last moment," said Cassis.

Up went Lord Almont's hand.

"I vote against," he said.

Rather piteously Cranbourne appealed to his chief. As Chairman of the
board Hilbert Torrington's vote counted as two.

"It rests with you, sir," he said.

The old man nodded and a queer smile played round the corners of his
mouth--the smile of a pranky schoolboy.

"But surely," he said. "No one will doubt the course I shall take.
One must always stand by one's colours. I accept the hazard Against."
He moved a pace or two forward and bowed to Van Diest. "Good-evening,
Gentlemen."

Until this moment no one had been conscious of Isabel's presence in the
room. She had been a silent agonised spectator, controlled by the
belief that the value of persons would eventually be proved higher than
the value of things. But the cold blooded refusal to protect her lover
at the price of a few paltry millions, appalled her beyond bearing.
She ceased to be a pretty child with a shock of curly hair and was
transformed into a veritable fury.

"You beasts, you brutes, you torturers!" she cried. "You'd let them
kill him without lifting a hand--you--you, ohh!"

Van Diest and the American moved toward the door, but she barred the
way.

"Pick up that telephone. You shall have your price."

"I can't think you command it," said Hipps.

"Can't you? Then listen. If you stop them--call off the men that are
after him, you shall be told the map reference of the place where he
found the radium."

There was a startled murmur from the company.

"He may have failed to get the concession. If that were so you'd have