"So help us God!" repeated Leonard.

Thus in the home of their ancestors, in the presence of their Maker, and
of the pictured dead who had gone before them, did Thomas and Leonard
Outram devote their lives to this great purpose. Perhaps, as one of them
had said, the thing was childish, but if so, at the least it was solemn
and touching. Their cause seemed hopeless indeed; but if faith can move
mountains, much more can honest endeavour attain its ends. In that hour
they felt this. Yes, they believed that the end would be attained by one
of them, though they guessed little what struggles lay between them
and the Star they hoped to gain, or how strangely they should be borne
thither.

On the morrow they went to London and waited there a while, but no word
came from Jane Beach, and for good or ill the chains of the oath that he
had taken riveted themselves around Leonard Outram's neck.

Within three months of this night the brothers were nearing the shores
of Africa, the land of the Children of the Mist.



CHAPTER III

AFTER SEVEN YEARS

"What is the time, Leonard?"

"Eleven o'clock, Tom."