"I shall
withstand the shock of you!"
The net of name and form hardened, grew more iron and closer meshed.
Each _I_ contracted, made its carapace thicker. Each _I_ bestrode,
like Apollyon, the path of the other.
"Why should I undertake to defend myself?" said Ian. "I do not
undertake to do so! So at least I shall escape the hypocrite! It is in
the nature of man to put down other kings and be king himself!"
"Aye so? The prime difficulty in that is that the others, too, are
immortal." Glenfernie rising, his great frame seemed to fill the
little room. "Sooner may the Kelpie's Pool sink into the earth than I
forego to give again to you what you have given! What is now all my
wish? It is to seem to you, here and hereafter, the avenger of blood
and fraud! Remember me so!"
He stood looking at the sometime friend with a dark and working face.
Then, abruptly turning, he went away. The door of the small room
closed behind him. Ian heard the bolt driven.
The night went leadenly by. At last he slept, and was waked by
trumpets blowing. He saw through the window that it was at faintest
dawn. Much later the door opened and a man brought him a poor
breakfast. Rullock questioned him, but could gain nothing beyond the
statement that to-day at latest the "rebels" would be wiped from the
face of the earth. When he was gone Ian climbed to the small window
that, even were it open and unguarded, was yet too small for his body
to pass.
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