ated upon holding a man in
life. It was not all magnetism, it was not all strength of purpose, it
was his whole being grappling, striving, compelling, till inch by inch he
gained a desperate victory.

In the morning the fight was over. In the morning Lucas Errol had turned,
reluctantly as it seemed to Anne, from the Gate of Death.

And while he lay sleeping quietly, the spring air, pure and life-giving,
blowing across his face, the man who had brought him back rose up from
his bedside, crept with a noiseless, swaying motion from the room, and
sank senseless on the further side of the door.

CHAPTER XV

THE KING'S DECREE

For three weeks after the operation Capper said nothing good or bad of
his patient's condition, and during those weeks he scarcely went beyond
the terrace. He moved about like a man absorbed, and it seemed to Anne
whenever they met that he looked at her without seeing her.

Nap was even closer in his attendance, and Tawny Hudson found himself
more than ever supplanted and ignored. For night and day he was at hand,
sleeping when and how he could, always alert at the briefest notice,
always ready with unfailing nerve and steady hand.

And Capper suffered him without the smallest remonstrance. He seemed to
take it for granted that Nap's powers were illimitable.

"That young man will kill himself," Dr. Randal said once. "He is living
at perpetual high pressure."

"Leave him alone," growled Capper. "He is the force that drives the
engine. The wheels won't go round without him."

And this seemed true; for the wheels went round very, very slowly in
those days. Lucas Errol came back to life, urged by a vitality not his
own, and the Shadow of Death still lingered in his eyes.

He did not suffer very greatly, and he slept as he had not slept for
years, but his progress was slow, sometimes imperceptible. The languor of
intense weakness hung like a leaden weight upon him. The old brave
cheeriness had given place to a certain curious wistfulness. He seemed
too weary for effort, content at all times to sleep the hours away.

Yet when Capper demanded effort he yielded without protest. He did his
best, and he smiled at each evidence of returning powers.

"I guess it's just an almighty success, doctor," he would say. "And
you've given me sleep into the bargain. It's blessed to be able to sleep.
I've a good many years of arrears to make up."

On the day that Capper and Nap set him on his feet for