But that's their little way." "You have special work for me ?" said Linforth quietly enough, though his heart was beating quickly in his breast.

An answer came which still quickened its beatings.
"Work that you alone can do," Ralston replied gravely.

But he was a man who had learned to hope for little, and to expect discouragements as his daily bread, and he added: "That is, if you can do it." Linforth did not answer at once.

He was leaning with his elbows on the parapet, and he raised a hand to the side of his face, that side on which Ralston stood.

And so he remained, shutting himself in with his thoughts, and trying to think soberly.