is
power was more secure. Alec knew that he would resume the attack at the
first opportunity, and he knew also that he had not the means to
withstand a foe who was astute and capable. His only chance was to get
back to the coast, return to England, and try again to interest the
government in the undertaking; if they still refused help he determined
to go out once more himself, taking this time Maxim guns and men capable
of handling them. He knew that his departure would seem like flight, but
he could not help that. He was obliged to go. His wound prevented him
from walking, but he caused himself to be carried; and, firing his
caravan with his own indomitable spirit, he reached the coast by forced
marches.

His brief visit to England was already drawing to its close, and, in
less than a month now, he proposed to set out for Africa once more. This
time he meant to finish the work. If only his life were spared, he would
crush for ever the infamous trade which turned a paradise into a
wilderness.

Alec stopped speaking as they entered the cathedral close, and they
paused for a moment to look at the stately pile. The trim lawns that
surrounded it, in a manner enhanced its serene majesty. They entered the
nave. There was a vast and solemn stillness. And there was something
subtly impressive in the naked space; it uplifted the heart, and one
felt a kind of scorn for all that was mean and low. The soaring of the
Gothic columns, with their straight simplicity, raised the thoughts to a
nobler standard. And, though that place had been given for three hundred
years to colder rites, the atmosphere of an earlier, more splendid faith
seemed still to cling to it. A vague odour of a spectral incense hung
about the pillars, a sweet, sad smell, and the shadows of ghostly
priests in vestments of gold, and with embroidered copes, wound in a
long procession through the empty aisles.

Lucy was glad that they had come there, and the restful grandeur of the
place fitted in with the emotions that had filled her mind during the
walk from Blackstable. Her spirit was enlarged, and she felt that her
own small worries were petty. The consciousness came to her that the man
with whom she had been speaking was making history, and she was
fascinated by the fulness of his life and the greatness of his
undertakings. Her eyes were dazzled with the torrid African sun which
had shone through his words, and she felt the horror of the primeval
forest and th