d there's a tremendous
loyalty in them, not only to him but to the Brotherhood."

"How can you read them and not be loyal, too!"

Rose considered why she could. Was it because the Brotherhood seemed, in
her latest acquaintance with it, to have all the seeds of the old
conditions that made a world of hate? If it had been the pure bond it
promised to be, could even her father's sins have quenched the flame in
her? Then she remembered one night when, in her father's absence, some
one had spoken like a poet and created, in shining imagery, a new world.
She had seen it, the new world, hanging like a crystal in the rejoicing
sky.

"One night Ivan Gorof spoke," she began.

Electra's brows came together.

"He was the man that died."

"How did you know?"

"Peter told me."

"Yes. Well, there was a time when Ivan Gorof was like a flame. He was
more moved than any one. He was a student,--and so enthusiastic, so
believing,--I can't tell you! Afterwards he changed. That came suddenly.
But this night he spoke about the Brotherhood as he wanted it to be. He
said it could be a chain of hands round the earth, of people who wanted
to do justice and show mercy. The old oppressors killed, he said. The
Brotherhood must not kill. It can put to death,--but justly."

"What did he mean by justly?"

"Ah, that I don't know. I don't believe he knew, that night. He was like
a man seeing a vision. But if such a thing could grow and grow, he said,
that would be the kingdom of God. It would begin with the poor. Then
some day a king would join it, and there would be rejoicing and wonder
because some would think the king was mad and others would know it meant
a great step upward. And they would all choose law, not liberty as the
Brotherhood sees it. And then, he said, there would be a new heaven and
a new earth, and it wouldn't be possible for oppressors to live, because
everybody would love love and be afraid of hate. But it would all come
through men who hated injustice more when they did it than when it was
done to them."

"But that," said Electra, in no great interest, "is only Christianity."

"Is it? I don't know about that. I thought it was Ivan Gorof."

"What did he say?"

"My father?"

"The chief."

"It was reported to him, and I believe he said it was visionary. He
probably smiled a little. He said there would be no peace without the
sword. And afterwards Ivan told him to his face--I heard him--that it
would come by the swo