But they reckoned without their man, Basterga with all his faults was brave; and he had failed in too many schemes to resign this one lightly.
"Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae," he murmured; and he had ventured, he had passed the gates, he was here.
Here, with his eyes open to the peril, and open to the necessity of immediate action if the slender thread by which all hung were not to snap untimely.
Blondel! He lived by Blondel.

And Blondel--why had he left the bridge in that strange fashion?
Abruptly, desperately, as if something had befallen him.

Why?
He must learn, and that quickly..