White Fire

it sat in the water, a narrow band of gleaming white sand and tufted cocoa-palms, like an Island woman's girdle. A smooth, dark, ruffled mirror of lagoon; and fart

d the elder o

h sun. There was a glow in it which did not come from the sun, a mighty determination which did not come from mer

," said the

w was set so grimly that it looked aggressive. His lips were tightly closed. His eyes were unnaturally wide at the

s and spears, and swung them restlessly. Behind, on the smooth reflexive swell of the lagoon, a white boat, just pushed off from the shore, rod

He bared his white head and said softly, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit," an

linching and

. The men in the boat watched intently, and then listened an

ng to martyr pitch, ready to endure to the utmost. The islanders retreated foot by foot; the white men followed steadily. The

r, and the passing of The Gate was to him but the entrance to a larger life. He spoke to them in words he thought they might understand. For a moment the two m

he younger man's face broke; the strings had bee

all field at home. He burst through them in spite of blows and cuts. He was close up to the wild eddy under which his old friend lay when a well-flung club caught him deftly in the neck and brought him down in a heap. The brown men danced m

he could lie in a chair on the verandah of the distant missi

here who ministered to him like angels. To them he wa

eemed to him that not one sound inch of flesh was left him. When he tried to think, all the little blood that was left

and twisted faces, their white teeth, their gleaming eyes, and the whirl of their brandished weapons. After that all was blurred, and broke off into sudden darkness. He

were great, but no word of complaint ever passed his lips. If he had permitted himself any such, it wou

acquiesced, as he had done in everything they suggested, but in this matter with evident reluctance. He thought it unlikely he would ever retur

, and in due course he was lying in a deck chair carefully swat

ought for his leader till he could fight no longer, and had fallen at last wounded to death across his dead body,-it had all preceded him. The very sailors were proud

very weak. How could he turn his sick soul insid

ad he not died with the brave old man out there on the shore of the creek behind the rocks? Why had his nerve given way at that supreme moment? Why had this bi

f it. He believed he could still be of service when once he got over the effects of his present fall. Should he not rather bury the dead past, with God as only mourner, and start afresh?-to fail once more when the strain came

ts. He sought impressions at first hand. He cultivated

very much like to know just how you felt, and what you thought

ended not, and said slowly, "I felt like the devil and I thought of the devil," and not another word would h

for one more sight of him in the flesh. How could he break their hearts by telling them what a broken reed their trusted one had proved? They rejoiced over him

is mind that the past should be past. He would go out again. He would take his stand in the fore

n since he leaped out of the white boat on to the shore of the Dark Isl

ossessed him once again after giving him up for good. It

s they had wished. He had quietly declined to be fêted and lionised. They considered he carried his modesty to too great an extreme. They would have made capital out of him and kindled fresh enthus

nd by dint of persistent importunity prevailed on him at last to appear at a public meeting.

was in for more than he had expected. But he

any requests for it!-but they wanted to see him with their eyes and hear him with their ears, and the younger folk were to remember all their lives that they had done so. And so, without going into details with him, the leaders of the variou

oked almost as fey as he had done when he leaped out of the white boat that morning on the

abinet Minister. As he welcomed the hero of the h

a drowning man, and that hand the one only hope of safety. Then he san

d confront him was half so appalling to him as that great well-dressed crowd of enthusiastic men and women and children, gathered to do him honou

wing periods, and the audience was as still as a flower-garden on a summer afternoon. In the young man's soul there was a great stillness

faces, all turned on him in eulogy of what he had not d

with lustrous points in them; the sweet oval of the lower part of the face; the firm little chin and slightly parted lips, emphasising the old inquiring look which he knew so well: it was a face any man might remember with gratitude for the mere sight of it. It was the face he had at once longed for the sight of and feared to meet, since ever the thought of coming home had been sugg

o him in his speech, the flower-garden in fr

ntment of its own high officers. There are some of us who, as we grow older, and perhaps wiser, regret more and more that any differences should remain among the followers of Christ. We would fain see t

age should be chosen for so onerous and so honourable a post is a matter of great satisfaction to us all. Mr. Blair, as all the world knows, has proved his fitness in a time of grievous danger and perplexity.-a time which I do not hesitate to say would have tried the nerve of any man to breaking-point, under a strain which might have broken any ordinary man, and small blame to him. But here"-and he laid his hand upon young Blair's shoulder-"we have the one man who did not break down, and it is this man whom we would rejoice to recognise as the first bishop of the Outer Islands. I am authorised to request Mr. Bla

hose thousands of eyes burnt into his soul. The words he had listened to pierced him like two-edged swords. Silence was no longer possi

nce, the young man got up and stood an

set. "A man of indomi

fire. "He has seen strange an

efore he found his voice. "He has

t corner, and a thrill in it which found its way to every heart. And, of all that great assembly, the only face he saw with any distinctness was the face of the girl in the third r

e at last, and said, "My friends, the words I have just been li

ery eye was upon him. He saw only the cal

y down my life in it. I have been told that I am a man of courage and endurance ... of tried nerve ... of unflinching fidelity. There was a time when I too believed this of myself." He spoke very slowly and with a solemn impressive

ultaneous chill. The face of the girl in the third row remained steadfastly calm. If anything, it seem

to be told-that it might lie between myself and God-that I might be permitted by Him to work out my redemption on the field of my failure, ch

wn among them. I burst through-and I know no more. They tell me my body was found on top of his. It may be so. How it got there I do not know. What I do know is-that at that supreme moment, when I believed myself to be strong, I found myself weak. When I believed myself ready for a martyr's death, I tried to escape by shameful flight. I was weighed and found wanting, and the remembrance of it has seared my heart like molten iron, night and day, since ever I came to myself. Whether we should have won through if I had remained firm, God only knows. But-I flinched and fled. It

forfeit to

th emotion; the dark eyes were swimming. She glanced restlessly about to see what was going to happen; she looked like springing up herself with flaming words. But another did

men," he cried, in a voice that rang like a trumpet, "that in doing what he has done here this evening our friend has proved himself a man among men. He has said that a hundred savage deaths appear to him less terrible than the confession he has just made. And it is a true saying. Ask your own hearts. I could prove to you that

r, and the young man gripped it with a new light

man's hand, the old one

is the man we want for the wor

s to tens of thousands who dwelt there, and was held in reverence wherever the English language was spoken. That great au

an fell to his knees beside his chair a