't say any more. We are only human, you and I; and
one failure does not minimize a long-continued success."

"You mean----"

"I mean that I know--I can't tell you how, but I _do_ know it--you have
never again tried that way out of your troubles. I think," said Iris,
"you have found the _real_ way out--at last."

Her words perplexed, even while they relieved him; and he sought the
meaning of them.

"The _real_ way, Mrs. Cheniston? I wonder what you mean by that?"

"I mean," she said very softly, "you must have found the way out of your
own troubles by the very act of pointing out the way to others. You have
brought Chloe Carstairs back to life--oh, I know it was through you that
the mystery was cleared up at last--and that alone must make you feel
that whatever mistake you may once have made you have atoned for it a
hundredfold. And"--for an instant Iris' voice shook--"what are you doing
now but atoning for that mistake--if further atonement were necessary?"

"You mean----"

"I mean that you are here, waiting for the Bedouins to attack us at any
moment, waiting to fight for us women, ready, if need be, to die on our
behalf." The words fell very softly on the quiet air. "And though I pray
that God will send us help so that no life may be sacrificed I
know"--Iris' eyes shone, and her voice rang suddenly like a clarion
call--"I know that I--that we are safer with you than with any other man
in the world...."

Carried away by her trust in him Anstice turned to her impulsively.

"Mrs. Cheniston, I can't thank you enough for those words. God knows I
would willingly, gladly die to shield you from any harm; and if help
should not come in time, and I should lose my life, well, please believe
two things--firstly, that since that dreadful night I have
never--failed--in that way again; and secondly, that to die in your
service"--so much he might surely say in this poignant hour--"would be a
death which any man might envy me."

She did not reply in words; but her eyes answered for her and for a
moment there was silence between them. Then, as though half afraid he
might have angered her by his last impetuous speech, Anstice spoke
abruptly in another tone.

"Odd, isn't it, how an action carried through in a moment may have such
tremendous consequences? I mean if I had stayed my hand long ago in that
Indian hut you and I would not be here now, faced with this
rather--difficult--situation. It makes one realize that one shoul