"Well, go ahead, Monty," he said. "Let's hear what you're driving
at. What a gab you've got to be sure!"

Monty waved his hand - a magnificent and silencing gesture.

"I have alluded to these matters," he continued, "merely in order
to show you that the greater share of danger and discomfort in
this expedition falls to my lot. Having reminded you of this,
Trent, I refer to the concluding sentence of your last speech. The
words indicated, as I understood them, some doubt of our ability to
see this thing through."

He paused, peering over to where Trent was sitting with grim,
immovable face, listening with little show of interest. He drew a
long, deep breath and moved over nearer to the doorway. His manner
was suddenly changed.

"Scarlett Trent," he cried, "Scarlett Trent, listen to me! You are
young and I am old! To you this may be one adventure amongst many
- it is my last. I've craved for such a chance as this ever since
I set foot in this cursed land. It's come late enough, too late
almost for me, but I'm going through with it while there's breath
in my body. Swear to me now that you will not back out! Do you
hear, Trent? Swear!"

Trent looked curiously at his companion, vastly interested in this
sudden outburst, in the firmness of his tone and the tightening of
the weak mouth. After all, then, the old chap had some grit in him.
To Trent, who had known him for years as a broken-down hanger-on of