inst well-known men, and how easy to allow the women to escape
by the help of falsehood. Exors, the lawyer, would say at once that
we did not even attempt to carry out the law; and Barnes, lunatic as
he pretended to be, would be very hard to manage. My mind misgave me
as I thought of all these obstructions, and I felt that I could so
willingly deposit myself at once, and then depart without waiting
for my year of probation. But it was necessary that I should show a
determined front to old Graybody, and make him feel that I at any
rate was determined to remain firm to my purpose. "Mr Crasweller will
give you no such trouble as you suggest," said I.

"Perhaps he has come round."

"He is a gentleman whom we have both known intimately for many years,
and he has always been a friend to the Fixed Period. I believe that
he is so still, although there is some little hitch as to the exact
time at which he should be deposited."

"Just twelve months, he says."

"Of course," I replied, "the difference would be sure to be that of
one year. He seems to think that there are only nine years between
him and me."

"Ten, Mr President; ten. I know the time well."

"I had always thought so; but I should be willing to abandon a year
if I could make things run smooth by doing so. But all that is a
detail with which up here we need not, perhaps, concern ourselves."

"Only the time is getting very short, Mr President, and my old woman
will break down altogether if she's told that she's to live another
year all alone. Crasweller won't be a bit readier next year than he
is this; and of course if he is let off, you must let off Barnes and
Tallowax. And there are a lot of old women about who are beginning
to tell terrible lies about their ages. Do think of it all, Mr
President."

I never thought of anything else, so full was my mind of the subject.
When I woke in the morning, before I could face the light of day, it
was necessary that I should fortify myself with Columbus and Galileo.
I began to fancy, as the danger became nearer and still nearer, that
neither of those great men had been surrounded by obstructions such
as encompassed me. To plough on across the waves, and either to be
drowned or succeed; to tell a new truth about the heavens, and either
to perish or become great for ever!--either was within the compass
of a man who had only his own life to risk. My life,--how willingly
could I run any risk, did but the question arise of r