urred and confused and dreamlike. Only the girl's nearness
seemed real--the touch of her little body against his as she sat beside
him.

"Aura," he whispered. "Aura."

She put her face down to his. "Yes, Jack," she answered gently.

"It's very bad--there--don't you think?"

She did not answer.

"I was just thinking," he went on; he spoke slowly, almost in a whisper.
"Maybe--you know--we won't come through this." He paused; his thoughts
somehow seemed too big to put into words. But he knew he was very happy.

"I was just thinking, Aura, that if we shouldn't come through I just
wanted you to know----" Again he stopped. From far away he heard the
shrill, rhythmic cry of many voices shouting in unison. He listened, and
then it all came back. The battle--his friends there fighting--they
needed him. He let go of the girl's hand and sat up, brushing back his
moist hair.

"Listen, Aura. Hear them shouting; I mustn't stay here." He tried,
weakly, to get upon his feet, but the girl's arm about his waist held
him down.

"Wait," she said. Surprised by the tenseness of her tone, he relaxed.

The cry grew louder, rolling up from a thousand voices and echoing back
and forth across the amphitheater. The Very Young Man wondered vaguely
what it could mean. He looked into Aura's face. Her lips were smiling
now.

"What is it, Aura?" he whispered.

The girl impulsively put her arms about him and held him close.

"But we are coming through, my friend Jack. We are coming through." The
Very Young Man looked wonderingly into her eyes. "Don't you hear? That
cry--the cry of fear and despair. It means--life to us; and no more
death--to them."

The Chemist's voice came out of the distance shouting: "They're running
away. It's over; thank God it's over!"

Then the Very Young Man knew, and life opened up before him again.
"Life," he whispered to himself. "Life and love and happiness."

CHAPTER XXXVII

A COMBAT OF TITANS

In a few minutes the amphitheater was entirely clear, save for the dead
and maimed little figures lying scattered about; but it was nearly an
hour more before the fugitives were ready to resume their journey.

The attack had come so suddenly, and had demanded such immediate and
continuous action that none of the men, with the exception of the Very
Young Man, had had time to realize how desperate was the situation in
which they had fallen. With the almost equally abrupt cessation of the
struggle there c