after hour, while they
believed themselves unobserved--?"

"And what do you know? What have you learned?" There was a strange
faintness in the tone of her voice.

"Everything. Only yesterday we touched the key-stone of their scheme.
To-night--this very night--they have planned an escape. They will attend
as usual in the Place; they will fool us as they have fooled us before;
and then, when the house is quiet--when the Six are at rest, exhausted
by prayer and meditation--they will accomplish their vile work. They
will plunder the Treasury of the Unseen!"

"Oh no! No!" With a swift movement she turned to him.

He looked at her for an instant, of silence, and then again the
unpleasant, excited laugh escaped him.

"You are right," he cried, suddenly. "What you say is right. There will
be no plunder. The Treasury of the Unseen will remain inviolate!"

As he paused she made no sound; but her eyes rested upon his, fascinated
by their feverish brightness; and in the midst of her silent regard he
spoke again, bending forward until his lips approached her ear.

"They have laid their plans," he whispered, with a sudden and savage
exultation, "but we also have laid ours. And even we cannot reckon upon
the consequences. The spiritual enthusiast is not easy to hold in check,
once he has been aroused!"

Enid stared at him, the pupils of her eyes dilated, her lips pale.

"You mean--? You mean--?" she stammered; then her fear found voice.
"What do you mean?" she demanded, in sharp, alarmed tones.

Bale-Corphew met her question, steadily.

"I mean," he said, with fierce vindictiveness, "that at the Gathering
to-night he will be publicly denounced!"

He made the declaration slowly, and each word fell with overwhelming
weight upon his companion's understanding. As in the bewildered mazes of
a nightmare she saw the crowded chapel, the fanatical, unstable faces of
the congregation, the six Arch-Mystics--outraged, incensed, unrelenting;
and in their midst the Prophet, tall and grave and masterful, as she had
seen him a hundred times. One man facing a sea of ungoverned emotion! At
the vision her heart swelled suddenly and her soul sickened. With a
gesture, almost as passionate as his own, she turned upon Bale-Corphew.

"You would denounce him before the People?" she said, incredulously.
"You would trap him? One man against a hundred! Oh, it would be
cowardly! Cruel!"

Bale-Corphew's face flamed to a deeper red.

"Cowardly? Co