BOOK II
THE ENCOUNTER

BOOK III
THE VICTORY


Persons who do not like tiresome prologues, need not read this one. It
is essential only to the situation, not to the story.



PROLOGUE

"You must give me a moment," said the old man, leaning back.

Percy resettled himself in his chair and waited, chin on hand.

It was a very silent room in which the three men sat, furnished with the
extreme common sense of the period. It had neither window nor door; for
it was now sixty years since the world, recognising that space is not
confined to the surface of the globe, had begun to burrow in earnest.
Old Mr. Templeton's house stood some forty feet below the level of the
Thames embankment, in what was considered a somewhat commodious
position, for he had only a hundred yards to walk before he reached the
station of the Second Central Motor-circle, and a quarter of a mile to
the volor-station at Blackfriars. He was over ninety years old, however,
and seldom left his house now. The room itself was lined throughout with
the delicate green jade-enamel prescribed by the Board of Health, and