eak. I want to do--not right--I have not the strength
for that--but something rather right than wrong. It will bring no
millennium, but I am resolved now that I will rule. What you have said
has awakened me.... You are right. Ostrog must know his place. And I
will learn--.... One thing I promise you. This Labour slavery shall
end."

"And you will rule?"

"Yes. Provided--. There is one thing."

"Yes?"

"That you will help me."

"I!--a girl!"

"Yes. Does it not occur to you I am absolutely alone?"

She started and for an instant her eyes had pity. "Need you ask whether
I will help you?" she said.

She stood before him, beautiful, worshipful, and her enthusiasm and the
greatness of their theme was like a great gulf fixed between them. To
touch her, to clasp her hand, was a thing beyond hope. "Then I will rule
indeed," he said slowly. "I will rule-" He paused. "With you."

There came a tense silence, and then the beating a clock striking the
hour. She made him no answer. Graham rose.

"Even now," he said, "Ostrog will be waiting." He hesitated, facing her.
"When I have asked him certain questions--. There is much I do not know.
It may be, that I will go to see with my own eyes the things of which
you have spoken. And when I return--?"

"I shall know of your going and coming. I will wait for you here again."

He stood for a moment regarding her.

"I knew," she said, and stopped.

He waited, but she said no more. They regarded one another steadfastly,
questioningly, and then he turned from her towards the Wind Vane office.

CHAPTER XIX. OSTROG'S POINT OF VIEW

Graham found Ostrog waiting to give a formal account of his day's
stewardship. On previous occasions he had passed over this ceremony as
speedily as possible, in order to resume his aerial experiences, but now
he began to ask quick short questions. He was very anxious to take
up his empire forthwith. Ostrog brought flattering reports of the
development of affairs abroad. In Paris and Berlin, Graham perceived
that he was saying, there had been trouble, not organised resistance
indeed, but insubordinate proceedings. "After all these years," said
Ostrog, when Graham pressed enquiries, "the Commune has lifted its head
again. That is the real nature of the struggle, to be explicit." But
order had been restored in these cities. Graham, the more deliberately
judicial for the stirring emotions he felt, asked if there had been
any fighting. "A little," s