ace. Haven't ye
wits enough about ye to take it and be thankful?"

"I will not turn my back." Caius reiterated his defiance.

"And ye'll stroike out with yer fist at whatever comes to harm ye? Will
ye hit in the face of the frost and the wind if ye're left here to
perish by cold, with your clothes wet as they are? or perhaps ye'll come
to blows with the quicksand if half a dozen of us should throw ye in
there."

"There are not half a dozen of you," he replied scornfully.

"Come and see." O'Shea did not offer to touch him, but he began to walk
towards the opening in the dune, and dragged Caius after him by mere
force of words. "Come and see for yourself. What are ye afraid of, man?
Come! if ye want to look death in the face, come and see what it is
ye've got to look at."

Caius followed reluctantly, keeping his own distance. O'Shea passed the
shivering pony, and went into the opening of the dune, which was now all
in shadow because of the black cloud in the sky. Inside was a small
valley. Its sand-banks might have been made of bleached bones, they
looked so gray and dead. Just within the opening was an unexpected
sight--a row of hooded and muffled figures stood upright in the sand.
There was something appalling in the sight to Caius. Each man was placed
at exactly the same distance from his fellow; they seemed to stand with
heads bowed, and hands clasped in front of their breasts; faces and
hands, like their forms, were hooded and muffled. Caius did not think,
or analyze his emotion. No doubt the regular file of the men, suggesting
discipline which has such terrible force for weal or woe, and their
attitudes, suggesting motives and thoughts of which he could form not
the faintest explanation, were the two elements which made the scene
fearful to him.

O'Shea stopped a few paces from the nearest figure, and Caius stopped a
few paces nearer the opening of the dune.

"Ye see these men?" said O'Shea.

Caius did not answer.

O'Shea raised his voice:

"I say before them what I have said, that if ye'll swear here before
heaven, as a man of honour, that ye'll walk from here to the loighthouse
on The Cloud--which ye shall find in the straight loine of the
beach--without once turning yer head or looking behoind ye, neither man
nor beast nor devil shall do ye any hurt, and yer properties shall be
returned to ye when a cart can be got to take them. Will ye swear?"

Caius made no answer. He was looking intently. As soon