never rest on anyone, because of an unpremeditated accident.
Oh, Jim! Cannot you look at it reasonably?"

"I looked at it reasonably--after a while--until yesterday," said Jim
Airth. "At first, of course, all was blank, ghastly despair. Oh, Myra,
let me tell you! I have never been able to tell anyone. Go back to the
couch; I can't let you kneel here. Sit down over there, and let me tell
you."

Lady Ingleby rose at once and returned to her seat; then sat
listening--her yearning eyes fixed upon his bowed head. He had
momentarily forgotten what the events of that night had cost her; so also
had she. Her only thought was of his pain.

Jim Airth began to speak, in low, hurried tones; haunted with a horror of
reminiscence.

"I can see it now. The little stuffy tent; the hidden light. I was
already sickening for fever, working with a temperature of 102. I hadn't
slept for two nights, and my head felt as if it were two large eyes, and
those eyes, both bruises. I knew I ought to knock under and give the job
to another man; but Ingleby and I had worked it all out together, and I
was dead keen on it. It was a place where no big guns could go; but our
little arrangement which you could carry in one hand, would do better and
surer work, than half a dozen big guns.

"There was a long wait after Ingleby and the other fellow--it was
Ingram--started. Cathcart, left behind with me, was in and out of the
tent; but he couldn't stay still two minutes; he was afraid of missing
the rush. So I was alone when the signal came. We found afterwards that
Ingram had crawled out of the tunnel, and gone to take a message to the
nearest ambush. Ingleby was left alone. He signalled: 'Placed,' as
agreed. I took it to be 'Fire!' and acted instantly. The moment I had
done it, I realised my mistake. But that same instant came the roar, and
the hot silent night was turned to pandemonium. I dashed out of the tent,
shouting for Ingleby. Good God! It was like hell! The yelling swearing
Tommies, making up for the long enforced silence and inaction; the hordes
of dark devilish faces, leering in their fury, and jeering at our
discomfiture; for inside their outer wall, was a rampart of double the
strength, and we were no nearer taking Targai.

"Afterwards--if I hadn't owned up at once to my mistake, nobody would
have known how the thing had happened. Even then, they tried to persuade
me the wrong signal had been given; but I knew better. And on the spot,
it