ill a symbol
of the fight that was being waged. Now and then above the turmoil, in
the dimness that lay between the lighted streets and the crowning
darkness of night, went sudden flashes like sheet-lightning in storm;
and at the stroke horses plunged, and youths screamed, facetiously
imitating the voice of women. It was the work of photographers,
securing, from some point of vantage overhead, flashlight records for
the delectation of the music halls. Again and again, with pistol-like
report, the monstrous dose was administered, the night took it at a
gulp, and the rabble responded with noise and shoutings.

The genial voice of a mounted policeman working his way through the
crowd sounded humanly above the din.

"I'm coming! I'm coming! I'm coming! I'm coming!" There was a touch of
humor in the cry; for it was like the voice of a showman advertising his
wares to a pack of holiday-makers anxious to buy; and wherever he went
pleasantness reigned, and an element of good temper and considerateness
mingled itself with the crowd.

"Oh! I'm coming! I'm coming! I'm coming!" Away he went on his
disciplined errand of mercy, a man of kindliness, good counsel, and
understanding, carrying out his orders in as human a way as was
possible.

"Now then! Now then! Now then! I'm coming. Oh, I'm coming!"

The roaring multitude swallowed him; his cry grew faint, merged in the
general din.

By the gradual compression and movement of the multitude toward some
fancied center the King had been borne a good many hundred yards from
his original point. Presently he found himself in a large open space,
with its low-railed inclosure guarded by police. Here the crowd was
denser than ever and its sway harder to withstand. A woman's form was
driven sharply against him. To avoid elbowing her off he offered the
shelter of his arm; and she, finding herself up against something not
immediately repellent, stayed to breathe. He saw the sweat pour from her
skin, and as she panted in his arms she had the rank scent of a creature
when it is hunted. Yet in her face there was no fear at all, only the
white strain of physical exhaustion nearing its last point.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"The police; are they treating you properly?"

"I have nothing to complain of," she said.

"Won't you go home? You must see it is no use."

She turned away as though she had not heard him, and threw herself once
more against the barrier she was