strongly passionate temperament, when the heart is
stirred beyond all reason. And the giant listened to it, silent and
attentive. What thoughts the story inspired in the listener it would
have been impossible to say. His face was calm. There was no sign of
any enthralled attention. There was no light in his eyes beyond the
kindliness that ever seemed to shine there. And at its conclusion
Jim's underlying feeling, that almost subconscious thought which
hitherto had found expression only in bitter feeling and the uncertain
activities of his mind, broke out into raving.

"It's a curse that's on me, Peter!" he cried. "I tell you it's a
curse! I've never had a chance. Everything from the start has been
broken just when its completion was almost achieved. When I look
back I can see it written all along the path I've trodden, in the
ruins I've left behind me. Why, why, I ask, am I chosen for such
persecution? What have I done to deserve it? I've played the game.
I've worked. God knows how I've worked. And everything I've done has
come to nothing, and not because I've always made mistakes, or
committed foolishnesses. Every smash has been brought about by
influences that could not have been humanly foreseen. I'm cursed.
Cursed by an evil fate it is beyond my power to fight. God? It
almost makes one question. Is there a God? A good God who permits
such a fate to pursue a man? Is there an all-powerful God, ruling and
guiding every human action? Is there? Is there a God, a merciful,
loving God watching over us, such as kiddies are taught to believe
in? Is there?"

"Yes."

Peter's answer so readily, so firmly spoken was arresting.

"Yes, Jim. There's a God," he went on, without any display. "There's a
great big God--just such a God as you and I have knelt to when we were
bits of kiddies. Maybe He's so big that our poor, weak brains can't
understand Him. But He's there, right up above us, and for every poor
mean atom we call 'man' He's set out a trail to walk on. It's called
the One-way Trail. And the One-way Trail is just the trail of Life.
It's chock full of pitfalls and stumbling-blocks, that make us cuss
like mad. But it's good for us to walk over it. There are no turnings
or by-paths, and no turning back. And, maybe, when we get to the end
something will have been achieved in His scheme of things that our
silly brains can't grasp. Yes, there is a God, Jim, and you're just
hitting the trail He's set for you."

But Jim was