which there is no appeal. I have often heard of second sight--we have
many western Scots in Australia; but I have realised more of its true
inwardness in an instant of this afternoon than I did in the whole of my
life previously--a granite wall stretching up to the very heavens, so
high and so dark that the eye of God Himself cannot see beyond. Well, if
the Doom must come, it must. That is all."

The voice of Sir Nathaniel broke in, smooth and sweet and grave.

"Can there not be a fight for it? There can for most things."

"For most things, yes, but for the Doom, no. What a man can do I shall
do. There will be--must be--a fight. When and where and how I know not,
but a fight there will be. But, after all, what is a man in such a
case?"

"Adam, there are three of us." Salton looked at his old friend as he
spoke, and that old friend's eyes blazed.

"Ay, three of us," he said, and his voice rang.

There was again a pause, and Sir Nathaniel endeavoured to get back to
less emotional and more neutral ground.

"Tell us of the rest of the meeting. Remember we are all pledged to
this. It is a fight _a l'outrance_, and we can afford to throw away or
forgo no chance."

"We shall throw away or lose nothing that we can help. We fight to win,
and the stake is a life--perhaps more than one--we shall see." Then he