, the Knave! The Master is betrayed." His voice
was hoarse and a thin foam dropped from his ugly shouting mouth. He
yelled an unspeakable horror that the Black Police had done in Paris,
and so passed shrieking, "Ostrog the Knave!"

For a moment Graham stood still, for it had come upon him again that
these things were a dream. He looked up at the great cliff of buildings
on either side, vanishing into blue haze at last above the lights, and
down to the roaring tiers of platforms, and the shouting, running people
who were gesticulating past. "The Master is betrayed!" they cried. "The
Master is betrayed!"

Suddenly the situation shaped itself in his mind real and urgent. His
heart began to beat fast and strong.

"It has come," he said. "I might have known. The hour has come."

He thought swiftly. "What am I to do?"

"Go back to the Council House," said Asano.

"Why should I not appeal--? The people are here."

"You will lose time. They will doubt if it is you. But they will mass
about the Council House. There you will find their leaders. Your
strength is there with them."

"Suppose this is only a rumour?"

"It sounds true," said Asano.

"Let us have the facts," said Graham.

Asano shrugged his shoulders. "We had better get towards the Council
House," he cried. "That is where they will swarm. Even now the ruins may
be impassable."

Graham regarded him doubtfully and followed him.

They went up the stepped platforms to the swiftest one, and there Asano
accosted a labourer. The answers to his questions were in the thick,
vulgar speech.

"What did he say?" asked Graham.

"He knows little, but he told me that the Black Police would have
arrived here before the people knew--had not someone in the Wind-Vane
Offices Learnt. He said a girl."

"A girl? Not?"

"He said a girl--he did not know who she was. Who came out from the
Council House crying aloud, and told the men at work among the ruins."

And then another thing was shouted, something that turned an aimless
tumult into determinate movements, it came like a wind along the street.
"To your Wards, to your Wards. Every man get arms. Every man to his
Ward!"

CHAPTER XXII. THE STRUGGLE IN THE COUNCIL HOUSE

As Asano and Graham hurried along to the ruins about the Council House,
they saw everywhere the excitement of the people rising. "To your Wards
To your Wards!" Everywhere men and women in blue were hurrying from
unknown subterranean employments, up