The Russian was shaking his head with a fatalistic expression. The
unhappy woman had not taken the death-leap of her own accord. Someone
had intensified her desperation, someone had pushed her. . . . The
horsemen! The four horsemen of the Apocalypse! . . . Already they were
in the saddle! Already they were beginning their merciless gallop of
destruction!

The blind forces of evil were about to be let loose throughout the
world.

The agony of humanity, under the brutal sweep of the four horsemen, was
already begun!




PART II



CHAPTER I

WHAT DON MARCELO ENVIED


Upon being convinced that war really was inevitable, the elder Desnoyers
was filled with amazement. Humanity had gone crazy. Was it possible that
war could happen in these days of so many railroads, so many merchant
marines, so many inventions, so much activity developed above and below