been taught to make a special sign on the door when he
wished to speak to Loristan. He stood still outside the back
sitting-room and made it now. It was a low scratching sound--two
scratches and a soft tap. Lazarus opened the door and looked troubled.

"It is not yet time, sir," he said very low.

"I know," Marco answered. "But I must show something to my father."
Lazarus let him in, and Loristan turned round from his writing-table
questioningly.

Marco went forward and laid the sketch down before him.

"Look at it," he said. "I remember him well enough to draw that. I
thought of it all at once--that I could make a sort of picture. Do you
think it is like him?" Loristan examined it closely.

"It is very like him," he answered. "You have made me feel entirely
safe. Thanks, Comrade. It was a good idea."

There was relief in the grip he gave the boy's hand, and Marco turned
away with an exultant feeling. Just as he reached the door, Loristan
said to him:

"Make the most of this gift. It is a gift. And it is true your mind
has had good training. The more you draw, the better. Draw everything
you can."

Neither the street lamps, nor the noises, nor his thoughts kept Marco
awake when he went back to bed. But before he settled himself upon his
pillow he gave himself certain orders. He had both read, and heard
Loristan say, that the mind can control the body when people once find
out that it can do so. He had tried experiments himself, and had found
out some curious things. One was that if he told himself to remember a
certain thing at a certain time, he usually found that he DID remember
it. Something in his brain seemed to remind him. He had often tried
the experiment of telling himself to awaken at a particular hour, and
had awakened almost exactly at the moment by the clock.

"I will sleep until one o'clock," he said as he shut his eyes. "Then I
will awaken and feel quite fresh. I shall not be sleepy at all."

He slept as soundly as a boy can sleep. And at one o'clock exactly he
awakened, and found the street lamp still throwing its light through
the window. He knew it was one o'clock, because there was a cheap
little round clock on the table, and he could see the time. He was
quite fresh and not at all sleepy. His experiment had succeeded again.

He got up and dressed. Then he went down-stairs as noiselessly as
before. He carried his shoes in his hands, as he meant to put them on
only