d feel the pressure of each finger growing
firmer in its power, while a certain eloquence possessed him in defiance
of his apprehensions.

"Our cause is at stake to-night," he declared, "yours and mine! We must
win, you and I! It is our destiny!"

"You and I!" repeated Marta. "Why you and I?"

It seemed very strange to be thinking of any two persons when hundreds
of thousands were awaiting the signal for the death prepared by him. He
mistook the character of her thought in the obsession of his egoism.

"What do lives mean?" he cried with a sudden desperation, his grip of
her shoulders tightening. "It is the law of nature for man to fight.
Unless he fights he goes to seed. One trouble with our army is that it
was soft from the want of war. It is the law of nature for the fittest
to survive! Other sons will be born to take the place of those who die
to-night. There will be all the more room for those who live. Victory
will create new opportunities. What is a million out of the billions on
the face of the earth? Those who lead alone count--those who dwell in
the atmosphere of the peaks, as we do!" The pressure of his strong hands
in the unconscious emphasis of his passion became painful; but she did
not protest or try to draw away, thinking of his hold in no personal
sense but as a part of his self-revelation. "All--all is at stake
there!" he continued, staring toward the range. "It's the Rubicon! I
have put my career on to-night's cast! Victory means that the world will
be at our feet--honor, position, power greater than that of any other
two human beings! Do you realize what that means--the honor and the
power that will be ours? I shall have directed the greatest army the
world has ever known to victory!"

"And defeat means--what does defeat mean?" she asked narrowly, calmly;
and the pointed question released her shoulders from the vise.

What had been a shadow in his thoughts became a live monster, striking
him with the force of a blow. He forgot Marta. Yes, what would defeat
mean to _him_? Sheer human nature broke through the bonds of mental
discipline weakened by sleepless nights. Convulsively his head dropped
as he covered his face.

"Defeat! Fail! That I should fail!" he moaned.

Then it was that she saw him in the reality of his littleness, which
she had divined; this would-be conqueror. She saw him as his intimates
often see the great man without his front of Jove. Don't we know that
Napoleon had moments