m above on the just and the unjust alike; M. Poincare's
carburettor gets out of order just as often as the Kaiser's. The Gods
have thrown up their job, and handed it over to the Fates. It is true
that Apollo, who is a well-behaved person, takes out his chariot
every morning; that may satisfy the poets and the astronomers, but it
distresses the moralist. How satisfactory it would be if the
resistance of the air were relative to the virtues of the airman, and
if Archimedes' principle did not apply to pirates!"

"O'Grady," observed Colonel Parker, "you know the words of the psalm:
'As for the ungodly, it is not so with them; but they are like the
chaff which the wind scattereth away from the face of the earth.'"

"Yes, colonel; but supposing you, a good man, and I, a sinner, were
suddenly hit by a bomb----"

"But, doctor," Aurelle interrupted, "this science of yours is after
all only an act of faith."

"How so, my boy? It is obvious that there are laws in this world. If
I press the trigger of this revolver, the bullet will fly out, and
if General Webb is given an Army Corps, General Bramble will have a
bilious attack."

"Quite so, doctor; you observe a few series linked together, and you
conclude that the world is governed by laws. But the most important
facts--life, thought, love--elude your observations. You may perhaps
be sure that the sun is going to rise to-morrow morning, but you
don't know what Colonel Parker is going to say next minute. Yet you
assert that the colonel is a machine; that is because your religion
tells you to."

"So does every one else's religion," said the doctor. "Only yesterday
I read in the Bishop of Broadfield's message: 'The prayers for rain
cannot take place this week, as the barometer is too high.'"

Far away over the plain, in the direction of Amiens, the
star-sprinkled sky began to flicker with tiny, flashing points of
light.

"Here they come," said Aurelle.

"They'll be ten minutes yet," said the doctor. They resumed their
walk.

"O'Grady," Colonel Parker put in, "you're getting more crazy every
day. You claim, if I comprehend your foolish ideas aright, that a
scientist can foretell rain better than an Anglican bishop. What a
magnificent paradox! Meteorology and medicine are far less solid
sciences than theology. _You_ say that the universe is governed by
laws, don't you? Nothing is less certain. It is true that chance
seems to have established a relative balance in the tiny