4i6 



The Review of Reviews. 



October 1, 1906. 



Verrall ! His handsome face shown clear and fine 

 in tlie green pallor of the comet. 



I ceased to hear the quarrel that was raising the 

 voices of Mitchell and Lord Redcar. This new fact 

 sent them spinning into the background. Young 

 Verrall ! 



It was my own purpose coming to meet me half- 

 way. 



There was to be a fight here ; it seemed certain to 

 come to a scuffle, and here we were 



What was I to do ? I thought very rapidly. 

 Unless my memory cheats me, I acted with swift 

 decision. My hand tightened on my revolver, and 

 then I remembered it was unloaded. I had thought 

 my course out in an instant. I turned round and 

 pushed my way out uf the angry crowed that was 

 now surging back toward the motor-car. 



It would be quiet and out of sight, I thought, 

 among the dump heaps acriiss the road, ami there 

 I might load unobserved. 



A big young man, striding forward with his fists 

 clenched, halted for one second at the sight of me. 



■'What!" said he. "Ain't afraid of thmi. are 

 >ou?" 



I glanced over m} sho.ulder and back at him, was 

 near showing him mv pistol, and the e.vpression 

 changed in his eyes. He hung perplexed at me. 

 Then with a grunt he went on. 



I heard the voices growing loud and sharp behind 

 me. 



I hesitated, half turned toward the dispute, then 

 set off running toward the heaps. Some instinct 

 told me not to be detected loading. I was cool 

 enough, therefore, to think of the aftermath of the 

 thing I meant to do. 



I looked back again toward the swaving discus- 

 sion — ^or was it a fight now? — and then I dropped 

 into a hollow, knelt among the weeds, and loaded 

 with eager, trembling fingers. I loaded one cham- 

 ber, got up and went back a dozen paces, thought of 

 possibilities, vacillated, returned, and loaded all the 

 other chambers. I did it slowly because I felt a 

 little clumsv, and at the end came a moment of in- 

 spection. Had I forgotten anything? And then, 

 for a few seconds, I crouched before I rose, resist- 

 ing the first gust of reaction against my impulse. I 

 took thought, and for a moment that great green- 

 white meteor overhead swam back into mv con- 

 scious mind. For the first time then. I linked it 

 clearly with all the fierce violence that had crept 

 into human life. I joined up that with what I 

 meant to do. I was going to shoot voung Verrall 

 under the benediction of that green glare, as it were. 



But about Nettie? 



I found it impossible to think out that obvious 

 complication. 



I came up over the heap again, and w.ilked slowlv 

 back toward the wrangle. 



Of course I had to kill him 1 



Now I would have vou believe I did not want to 



murder young Verrall at all at that particular time. 

 I had not pictured such circumstances as these, I 

 had never thought of him in connection w'ith Lord 

 Redcar and our black industrial world. He was 

 in that distant other world of Checkshill, the world 

 of parks and gardens, of warm sunlit emotions and. 

 Xettie. His appearance here was disconcerting. I 

 was taken bv surprise. I was too tired and hungry 

 to think clearly, and the hard implication of our 

 antagonism prevailed with me. In the tumult of my 

 past emotions I had thought constantly of conflicts, 

 confrontations, deeds of violence, and now the 

 memory of these things took possession of me as 

 though they were irrevocable resolutions. 



There was a sharp e.xclamation, the shriek of a 

 woman, and the crowd came surging back. The 

 fight had begun. 



Lord Redcar. I believe, had jumped down from 

 his car and felled Mitchell, and men were already 

 running out to his assistance from the colliery gates. 



I had some difficulty in shoving through the 

 crowd ; I can still remember very vividlv being 

 jammed at one time between two big men so that 

 mv amis were pinne^i to mv sides, but all the other 

 details are gone out of my mind until I found myself 

 almost violently projected forward into the " scrap." 



I blundered against the corner of the motor-car, 

 and came round it face to face with young Verrall, 

 who was descending from the back compartment. 

 His face was touched with orange from the auto- 

 mobile's big lamps, which conflicted with the 

 shadows of the comet light, and distorted him oddly. 

 That effect lasted but an instant, but it put me out. 

 Then he came a step forward, and the ruddy lights 

 and the queemess vanished. 



I don't think he recognised me, but he perceived 

 immediately that I meant attacking. He struck out 

 at once at me a haphazard blow, and touched me on 

 the cheek. 



Instinctively I let go of the pistol, snatched my 

 right hand out of my pocket and brought it up in a 

 belated parry, and then let out with my left full on 

 his chest. 



It sent him staggering, and as he went back I saw 

 recognition mingle with the astonishment on his 

 face. 



" You know me, you swine," I cried, and hit again. 



Then I was spinning sideways, half stunned, with 

 a huge lump of a fist under my jaw. I had an im- 

 pression of Lord Redcar as a great, furn- bulk, 

 tow-ering like some Homeric hero above the fray. I 

 went down before him : it made him seem to rush 

 up : and he ignored me further. His big, flat voice 

 counselled young Verrall : 



" Cut, Teddy ! It won't do. The picketa's got 

 i'on bahs." 



Feet swaved about me, and some hob-nailed miner 

 kicked mv ankle and went stumbling. There were 

 shouts and curses, and then ever\"thing had swept 

 past me. I rol'ed over on mv face, and beheld the 



