that in
silence."

Berselius sat with his eyes fixed on the carpet; he seemed abstracted and
scarcely listening. He knew perfectly well that Adams was acquainted with
the affair at the Silent Pools, but the subject had never been mentioned
between them, nor was it now.

"That missionary I met on the return home at Leopoldsville," went on
Adams, "he was a Baptist, a man, not a religion-machine. He gave me
details from years of experience that turned my heart in me. With my own
eyes I saw enough----"

Berselius held up his hand.

"Let us not speak of what we know," said he. "The thing is there--has been
there for years--can you destroy the past?"

"No; but one can improve the future." Adams got up and paced the floor.
"Now, now as I am talking to you, that villainy is going on; it is like
knowing that a murder is slowly being committed in the next house and that
one has no power to interfere. When I look at the streets full of people
amusing themselves; when I see the _cafes_ crammed, and the rich driving
in their carriages; the churches filled with worshippers worshipping a God
who serenely sits in heaven without stretching a hand to help His poor,
benighted creatures--when I see all this and contrast it with what I have
seen, I could worship _that_!"

He stopped, and pointed to the great gorilla shot years ago in German West
Africa by Berselius. "That was a being at least sincere. Whatever
brutalities he committed in his life, he did not talk sentiment and
religion and humanitarianism as he pulled his victims to pieces, and he
did not pull his victims to pieces for the sake of gold. He was an honest
devil, a far higher thing than a dishonest man."

Again Berselius held up his hand.

"What would you do?"

"Do? I'd break that infernal machine which calls itself a State, and I'd
guillotine the ruffian that invented it. I cannot do that, but I can at
least protest."

Berselius, who had helped to make the machine, and who knew better than
most men its strength, shook his head sadly.

"Do what you will," said he. "If you need money my funds are at your
disposal, but you cannot destroy the past."

Adams, who knew nothing of Berselius's dream-obsession, could not
understand the full meaning of these words.

But he had received permission to act, and the promise of that financial
support without which individual action would be of no avail.

He determined to act; he determined to spare neither Berselius's mone