said; 'I will bring it.'

Sagan rose from his place as Unziar returned with a naked sword in his
hand. The Count took it and laid it on the table before him.

Then standing he addressed the court.

'Gentlemen of the Guard,--I must thank you in the first place for the
admirable patience with which you have listened to the details of the
abominable crime with which the prisoner, John Rallywood, is charged.
His guilt has been proved up to the hilt by Lieutenant Unziar's
evidence, but in addition to that the accused was not ashamed to convict
himself out of his own mouth. The sentence upon a traitor as upon a
mutinous soldier is unalterable. It is death! No doubt, gentlemen, we
are unanimously agreed upon that, and the formality of the ballot is all
that is left.'

The ballot-box stood upon a side-table at the upper end of the room, and
beside it a basket with a number of ivory balls, some black, some white.
The officers went up in rotation and each with his back to the company
placed a ball of the colour he chose in the ballot-box.

The haggard daylight was fading slowly as the men left their chairs and
returned to them in silence.

Rallywood waited, not in suspense indeed, but with the full sense that
his fate was being legally recorded by a jury of his fellows. It is at
such a moment as this that a man goes back to his belief in God. If
there is no God, to what end anything? Those who say there is no God say
the world is a sad and very evil place. If their creed were universally
accepted, the last state of humanity would be worse than the first, and
earth degenerate into a hopeless and helpless hell.

'Six black balls, one white,' announced Major Ulm.

The prisoner's gray frank eyes flashed out at Unziar, but the Maasaun's
rigid face gave no sign.

Then Count Sagan, secure of his enemy, let himself go. He lifted the
sword from the table, and casting one more glance at the prisoner, he
placed the gleaming point upon the floor, bending the delicate blade,
and stamping upon it midway with his booted heel. There was a shallow
ring as the steel broke, then a clash of metal as the Count flung the
hilt upon the point, as if the touch contaminated him.

'John Rallywood, this court has found you guilty and condemned you to
die! And I, Count Simon of Sagan, colonel-in-chief of the Guard of
Maasau, now pronounce upon you the sentence of death. Trusted by the
Guard, you chose to betray them! Where is the oath of fealty by