ing evidence--burn it--burn it--whether or
no it would help or hinder, it must be burnt!

Then again he recurred to the other side; told himself that his
instinct was no more than a ludicrous sentimentality; he must be guided
by reason, not impulse. Then he glanced at the impulse again. Then the
two sides rushed together, locked in conflict. He moaned a little, and
lay back in his chair.

* * * * *

The bright sunlight outside had faded to a mellow evening atmosphere
before he moved again; and the fire had died to one dull core of
incandescence.

As he stirred, he became aware that bells were pealing outside; a
melodious roar filled the air. Somewhere behind the house five brazen
voices, shouting all together, bellowed the exultation of the city over
the great minister's fall.

He was weary and stiff as he stood up; but the fever had left his brain;
and the decision had been made. He relaxed his fingers and laid the
bundle softly down on the table from which he had snatched it a couple
of hours before.

They would be here soon, he knew; he wondered they had not come already.

Leaving his papers there, he went out, taking the key with him, and
locking the door after him. He called up one of his men, telling him he
would be ready for supper immediately in the parlour downstairs, and
that any visitors who came for him were to be admitted at once.

Then he passed into his bedroom to wash and change his clothes.

* * * * *

Half an hour later he came upstairs again.

He had supped alone, listening and watching the window as he ate; but no
sign had come of any arrival. He had dressed with particular care,
intending to be found at his ease when the searchers did arrive; there
must be no sign of panic or anxiety. He had told his man as he rose
from table, to say to any that came for him that they were expected, and
to bring them immediately upstairs.

He unlocked the door of his private room, and went in. All was as he had
left it; the floor between the window and table was white with ordered
heaps of papers; the bundle on the table itself glimmered where he had
laid it.

The fire had sunk to a spark. He tenderly lifted off the masses of black
sheets that crackled as he touched them; it had not occurred to him
before that these evidences of even a harmless destruction had better be
removed; and he slid them carefully on to a broad sheet of paper, fold