tt and Halliday the lawyer, the man with
a tragic history who had been as one buried for weeks past, who had
vanished from their calculations. It was their old champion, Ingolby.
Slowly a hush came over the vast assembly as, apparently guided by
his friends on the platform, he was given a seat on the right of the
Chairman's table.

A strange sensation, partly pleasure, partly resentment, passed through
the crowd. Why did Ingolby come to remind them of better days gone--of
his own rashness, of what they had lost through that rashness? Why
had he come? They could not say and do all that they wanted with him
present. It was like having a row in the presence of a corpse. He had
been a hero to all in Lebanon, but he was not in the picture now. His
day was done. It was no place for him. Yet it was a pleasant omen that
the sun broke clear and shining over the platform as Ingolby took
his seat. Presently in the silence he half-turned his head, murmured
something to the Chairman, and then got to his feet, stretching out a
hand towards the crowd.

For one moment there was silence, a little awestricken, a little
painful, and then as from one man a great cheer went up. For a moment
they had thought him inconsiderate to come among them in this crisis,
for he was no longer of their scheme of things, and must be counted out,
a beaten, battered, blind bankrupt. Yet the sight of him on his feet
was too much for them. Blind he might be, but there was the personality
which had conquered them in the past brave, adroit, reckless, renowned.
None of them, or very few of them, had seen him since that night at
Barbazon's Tavern, yet in spite of his tragedy there seemed little
change in him. There was the same quirk at the corner of the mouth, the
same humour in the strong face, not so ruddy now; and strangely enough
the eyes were neither guarded by spectacles, nor were they shrunken,
glazed, or diseased, so far as could be seen.

Stretching out a hand, Ingolby gave a crisp laugh and said: "So there's
been trouble since I've been gone, has there?" The corner of his mouth
quirked, his eyelids drooped in the old quizzical way, and the crowd
laughed in spite of themselves. What a spirit he had to take it all that
way!

"Got a little deeper in the mire, have you, boys?" he added. "They tell
me the town's a frost just now, but it seems nice and warm here in the
sun. Yes, boys, it's nice and warm here among you all--the same good old
crowd that's