The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

tant that these notions were subjective, that he was only looking at ordinary men, one of whom was old, another nervous, another short-sighted. The sense of an unnatu

he would find something-say a tree-that was more or less than a tree, a tree possessed by a spirit; and that if he went east to the end of the world he would find something else that was not wholly itself-a

p in the discussion of an actual and immediate plot. The waiter downstairs had spoken quite correctly when he said that they were talking about bombs and kings. Only three days afterwards the Czar was to meet the President of the

piercing and practical than either his moral revulsion or his social responsibility. Very simply, he had no fear to spare for the French President or the Czar; he had begun to fear for himself. Most of the talkers took little heed of him, debating now with their faces closer together, and almost uniformly grave, save when for an instant the smile of the Secretary

e had hardly the shred of a doubt that in some silent and extraordinary way Sunday had found out that he was a spy. He looked over t

great promise. He had promised never to do the very thing that he now felt himself almost in the act of doing. He had promised not to jump over that balcony and speak to that policeman. He took his cold hand off the cold stone balustrade. His soul swayed in a vertigo of moral indecision. He had only to snap the thread of a rash vow made to a villainous society, and all his life could be as open and sunny as the square beneat

ly without having, somehow or somewhere, set open his iron trap. Either by anonymous poison or sudden street accident, by hypnotism or by fire from hell, Sunday could certainly strike him. If he defied the man he was probably dead, either struck stiff there in his chair or long afterwards as by an innocent ailment. If he called in

ht have called Sunday the super-man. If any such creature be conceivable, he looked, indeed, somewhat like it, with his earth-shaking abstraction, as of a stone statue walking. He might have been called something above man, with his large plans, which were too obvious to b

jected murder over half a raw tomato and three quarters of a glass of tepid water. The old Professor had such slops as suggested a sickening second childhood. And even in this President Sunday preserved his curious predominance of mere mass. For he ate like twent

er it wouldn't be better for me to do it with a knife. Most of the best things have been brought off w

It is as perfect a symbol of us as is incense of the prayers of the Christians. It expands; it only destroys because it broadens; even so, thought only destroys because it broadens. A man's brain is a bomb," he cried

led the Marquis. "I want to do a lot of beastly thin

thing," said Dr. Bull with his sphinx-l

s staring at the cei

heart," he said, "that

r silence, and then

ke the blow. I take it we should all agree with the original notion of a bomb. As to the

st shadow. President Sunday had risen to h

, quiet voice, "let us go into a private roo

last, the pistol was at his head. On the pavement before he could hear t

e corps of gentlemen turned into fancy constables, or of the old eccentric who lived in the dark room. But he did feel himself as the ambassador of all these common and kindly people in the street, who every day marched into battle to the music of the barrel-organ. And this high pride in being human had lifted him unaccountably to an infinite height above the monstrous men around him. For an instant, at least, he looked down upon all their sprawling eccentricities from the starry pinnacle of the commonplace. He felt towards them all that

ort et Chreti

-world obligations, so could he. This very pride in keeping his word was that he was keeping it to miscreants. It was his last triumph over these lunatics to go down into their dark room and die for something that they could not even

rain and body throbbing with romantic rhythm. The President led them down an irregular side stair, such as might be used by servants, and

e irreconcilable, who seemed bur

ing almost impenetrable. "You zay you nod 'ide. You zay you show himselves. It

the foreigner's incoherent sa

king nonsense on that balcony they will not care where we go afterwards. If we had come here first,

d I slay zare oppressors. I care not for these games of

and then you get up and smite their oppressors. So that's all right. And now may I ask you to control your beautiful sentiments,

g in his brown beard about gombromise. No one except Syme seemed to have any notion of the blow that was about to fall. As

aiters upstairs (long inured to our levities) might hear some new seriousness in my voice. Comrades, we were discussing plans and naming places. I propose, before saying anything

seats, for the next words, though not loud, had a liv

said at this meeting. Not one tiny detail more about

all moved feverishly in their seats, except Syme. He sat stiff in his, with his hand in his pocket, and on the handle of his l

ent on s

m. Strangers overhearing us matters nothing. They assume that we are joking. But what would matter, even unto death, is th

reamed out sudde

e cried, leaping

rge flat hand on the table l

this room. There is a traitor at this ta

his seat, his finger

ident. "He is that hairy humbug ov

Even the Professor made an effort to rise. But Syme saw little of the scene, for he was blinded wit