Produced by Suzanne Shell, Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
AUTHOR OF "The Way of an Eagle," "The Knave of Diamonds," "The Rocks of Valpre," Etc.
Published by Arrangements with G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 1915
The Way of an Eagle The Knave of Diamonds The Rocks of Valpré The Swindler The Keeper of the Door Bars of Iron Rosa Mundi The Obstacle Race Tetherstones The Passerby and Other Stories The Hundredth Chance The Safety Curtain Greatheart The Lamp in the Desert The Tidal Wave The Top of the World The Odds and Other Stories Charles Rex The Unknown Quantity A Man Under Authority
This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press, New York Made in the United States of America
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF ONE WHO WAITS BEYOND THE DOOR FOR THOSE HE LOVES
"And the keepers before the door kept the prison."
"A deep below the deep And a height beyond the height! Our hearing is not hearing, And our seeing is not sight."
VII. THE WILDERNESS OF NASTY POSSIBILITIES 340
XII. A LETTER FROM AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE 390
"You should never use a word you can't define," observed Nick, from the depths of the hammock in which his meagre person reposed at length.
She made a face at him, and gave the hammock a vicious twitch which caused him to rock with some violence for several seconds. As he was wont pathetically to remark, everyone bullied him because he was small and possessed only one arm, having shed the other by inadvertence somewhere on the borders of the Indian Empire.
Certainly Olga--his half-brother's eldest child--treated him with scant respect, though she never allowed anyone else to be other than polite to him in her hearing. But then she and Nick had been pals from the beginning of things, and this surely entitled her to a certain licence in her dealings with him. Nick, too, was such a darling; he never minded anything.
Having duly punished him for snubbing her, she returned with serenity to the work upon her lap.
"You see," she remarked thoughtfully, "the worst of it is he really is a bit of a genius. And one can't sit on genius--with comfort. It sort of flames out where you least expect it."