bird. She waited in horrible suspense.

'But it is true,' he said, very quietly.

Lucy did not answer. She stared at him with terrified eyes. Her brain
reeled, and she feared that she was going to faint. She had to put forth
all her strength to drive back the enveloping night that seemed to crowd
upon her.

'It is true,' he repeated.

She gave a gasp of pain.

'I don't understand. Oh, my dearest, don't treat me as a child. Have
mercy on me. You must be serious now. Ifs a matter of life and death to
both of us.'

'I'm perfectly serious.'

A frightful coldness appeared to seize her, and the tips of her fingers
were strangely numbed.

'You knew that you were sending George into a death-trap? You knew that
he could not escape alive?'

'Except by a miracle.'

'And you don't believe in miracles?'

Alec made no answer. She looked at him with increasing horror. Her eyes
were staring wildly. She repeated the question.

'And you don't believe in miracles?'

'No.'

She was seized with all manner of conflicting emotions. They seemed to
wage a tumultuous battle in the depths of her heart. She was filled with
horror and dismay, bitter anger, remorse for her callous indifference to
George's death; and at the same time she felt an overwhelming love for
Alec. And how could she love him now?

'Oh, it can't be true,' she cried.
'It's infamous. Oh, Alec, Alec, Alec... O God, what shall I do.'

Alec held himself upright. He set his teeth, and his heavy jaw seemed
squarer than ever. There was a great sternness in his voice.

'I tell you that whatever I did was inevitable.'

Lucy flushed at the sound of his voice, and anger and sudden hatred took
the place of all other feelings.

'Then if that's true, the rest must be true. Why don't you acknowledge
as well that you sacrificed my brother's life in order to save your
own?'

But the mood passed quickly, and in a moment she was seized with dismay.

'Oh, it's awful. I can't realise it.' She turned to him with a desperate
appeal. 'Haven't you anything to say at all? You know how much I loved
my brother. You know how much it meant to me that he should live to wipe
out all memory of my father's crime. All the future was centred upon
him. You can't have sacrificed him callously.'

Alec hesitated for an instant.

'I think I might tell you this,' he said. 'We were entrapped by the
Arabs, and our only chance of escape entailed the death of one of us.'

'So you chose my