To all of you. I give it to you,
and myself I give to you. And as God wills to-night, I will live for you,
or I will die."
He ended. He found the light of his present exaltation reflected in the
face of the girl. Their eyes met; her eyes were swimming with tears of
enthusiasm.
"I knew," she whispered. "Oh! Father of the World--_Sire_! I knew you
would say these things...."
"I have said what I could," he answered lamely and grasped and clung to
her outstretched hands.
CHAPTER XXIV
WHILE THE AEROPLANES WERE COMING
The man in yellow was beside them. Neither had noted his coming. He was
saying that the south-west wards were marching. "I never expected it so
soon," he cried. "They have done wonders. You must send them a word to
help them on their way."
Graham stared at him absent-mindedly. Then with a start he returned to
his previous preoccupation about the flying stages.
"Yes," he said. "That is good, that is good." He weighed a message. "Tell
them;--well done South West."
He turned his eyes to Helen Wotton again. His face expressed his struggle
between conflicting ideas. "We must capture the flying stages," he
explained. "Unless we can do that they will land negroes. At all costs we
must prevent that."
He felt even as he spoke that this was not what had been in his mind
before the interruption. He saw a touch of surprise in her eyes. She
seemed about to speak and a shrill bell drowned her voice.
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