f your incendiary malice you cast his
life--" her voice fell in a tortured sob--"the life ... he so bravely
fought for there in the hills ... and after it you toss my heart."

The financier moved a step forward and his lips opened, but the doctor
laid a hand on his arm. "You must leave her, sir," he said quietly, but
finally. "She is in no condition to stand more of this."

"How can I leave her like this?" remonstrated Hamilton and once more the
physician raised his hand. "In such a case the doctor must be
obeyed--unless--" his own voice hardened--"you are anxious to add even
worse results to today's work."

Hamilton Burton turned. "Do what you can," he said. "I will send Paul."
So he left the place, passing between the employees of the bankrupt firm
of Edwardes and Edwardes in the anterooms.

At his elbow followed young Bristoll, but when they had reached the
ground floor the secretary halted his chief with an impetuous touch on
the arm.

"It's no use, sir--we separate here," he said passionately. "I must give
you my resignation, at once."

At another time such an announcement would have been greeted by this
imperious master with swift acceptance and quiet irony. This day he had
smitten his enemies and they had withered before his power. Results had
differed in no respect from the outlines of his preparations and yet so
poignantly personal had been the recoil that he found himself, when his
brain needed its most alert resourcefulness, inwardly admitting a new
and strange sense of uncertainty--almost of uneasiness.

Once before for a weak moment he had felt that flagging of
confidence--when Mary had left his house, but he had swiftly conquered
it. He would as summarily conquer its repetition. His nerves were not
such uncontrolled agents as to be shaken by the wild folly and accidents
that grew out of weaker natures. All battlefields leave black scars and
pictures which are not pretty pictures. To pause and surrender to
brooding over these details is to clip one's wings and dull one's
talons. He forced a smile.

"As you please, Carl," he said. "Though I had made the mistake of
counting on your loyalty as dependable."

The young man answered with an effort.

"It's a hard thing to do. I haven't just worked for the salary. I have
made a hero of you, and been very proud of even my small part in your
career. It was as though I were a staff officer to a Man of Destiny."

"And now," the voice was bitingly satirical