"Hallo!" said Stangate. "What's the matter?"

The man stood impassive and silent, with something indescribably
menacing in his fixed, unwinking stare.

The flying officer grew angry.

"Hallo! Are you deaf?" he cried. "How long do you mean to have us stuck
here?"

The man stood silent. There was something devilish in his appearance.

"I'll complain of you, my lad," said Billy, in a quivering voice. "This
won't stop here, I can promise you."

"Look here!" cried the officer. "We have ladies here and you are
alarming them. Why are we stuck here? Has the machinery gone wrong?"

"You are here," said the man, "because I have put a wedge against the
hawser above you."

"You fouled the line! How dared you do such a thing! What right have you
to frighten the women and put us all to this inconvenience? Take that
wedge out this instant, or it will be the worse for you."

The man was silent.

"Do you hear what I say? Why the devil don't you answer? Is this a joke
or what? We've had about enough of it, I tell you."

Mary MacLean had gripped her lover by the arm in agony of sudden panic.

"Oh, Tom!" she cried. "Look at his eyes--look at his horrible eyes! The
man is a maniac."

The workman stirred suddenly into sinister life. His dark face broke
into writhing lines of passion, and his fierce eyes glowed like embers,
while he shook one long arm in the air.

"Behold," he cried, "those who are mad to the children of this world are
in very truth the Lord's anointed and the dwellers in the inner temple.
Lo, I am one who is prepared to testify even to the uttermost, for of a
verity the day has now come when the humble will be exalted and the
wicked will be cut off in their sins!"

"Mother! Mother!" cried the little boy, in terror.

"There, there! It's all right, Jack," said the buxom woman, and then, in
a burst of womanly wrath, "What d'you want to make the child cry for?
You're a pretty man, you are!"

"Better he should cry now than in the outer darkness. Let him seek
safety while there is yet time."

The officer measured the gap with a practised eye. It was a good eight
feet across, and the fellow could push him over before he could steady
himself. It would be a desperate thing to attempt. He tried soothing
words once more.

"See here, my lad, you've carried this joke too far. Why should you wish
to injure us? Just shin up and get that wedge out, and we will agree to
say no more about it."

Another rending sn