unaccountably the axis. A text, irrelevant enough, and yet curiously
insistent, came floating up out of the darkness of his memory. This also
a Council had said:

"It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people."




CHAPTER VIII

THE ROOF SPACES


As the fans in the circular aperture of the inner room rotated and
permitted glimpses of the night, dim sounds drifted in thereby. And
Graham, standing underneath, was startled by the sound of a voice.

He peered up and saw in the intervals of the rotation, dark and dim, the
face and shoulders of a man regarding him. Then a dark hand was extended,
the swift vane struck it, swung round and beat on with a little brownish
patch on the edge of its thin blade, and something began to fall
therefrom upon the floor, dripping silently.

Graham looked down, and there were spots of blood at his feet. He looked
up again in a strange excitement. The figure had gone.

He remained motionless--his every sense intent upon the flickering patch
of darkness. He became aware of some faint, remote, dark specks floating
lightly through the outer air. They came down towards him, fitfully,