"As we went across the ground that morning through a fire like nothing I had ever imagined, a man wavered in front of me. I felt it clean through me. I knew fear had come. I shouted and cheered--but the wavering was spreading; I knew that too. So I shot him through the heart from behind at point-blank range as I had trained myself to do--in that eternity ago--before the war. The counter attack was successful." "Great Heavens, Jerry!" I muttered, "who did you shoot?" though I knew the answer already. "The man I shot was Jack Delawnay. Whether at the time I was actively conscious of it, I cannot say. Certainly my training enabled me to act before any glimmering of the aftermath came into my mind. _This_ is the aftermath." I shuddered at the utter hopelessness of his tone, though the full result of his action had not dawned on me yet; my mind was dazed. "But surely Jack was no coward," I said at length. "He was not; but on that particular morning he gave out. He had reached the limit of his endurance." "The Colonel's letter," I reminded him; "it praised the lad." "Lies," he answered wearily, "all lies, engineered by me. Not because I am ashamed of what I did, but for the lad's sake, and hers, and the old people. I loved the boy, as you know, but he failed, and _there was no other way_. And where the fiend himself is gloating over it is that he knows it was the only time Jack did fail. If only I hadn't been so beat the night before; if only his words had reached my brain before it was too late. If only ... I think," he added, after a pause, "I think I shall go mad. Sometimes I wish I could." "And what of Pat?" I asked, at length breaking the silence. The hands grasping the bed tightened, and grew white. "I said 'Good-bye' to her before your eyes, ten minutes ago. I shall never see her again." "But, Great Heavens, Jerry!" I cried, "you can't give her up like that. She idolises the ground you walk on, she worships you, and she need never know. You were only doing your duty after all." "Stop!" he cried, and his voice was a command. "As you love me, old friend, don't tempt me. For three weeks those arguments have been flooding everything else from my mind. Do you remember at Henley, when she said, 'He might have answered to your voice?' Winkle, it's true, Jack might have. And I killed him. Just think if I married her, and she did find out. Her brother's murderer--in her eyes. The man who has wrecked her home, and broken her father and mother. It's inconceivable, it's hideous. Ah! don't you see how utterly final it all is? She may have been right; and if she was, then I, who loved her better than the world, have murdered her brother, and broken the old people's hearts for the sake of a theory. The fact that my theory has been put into practice, at the expense of everything I have to live for, is full of humour, isn't it?" And his laugh was wild. "Steady, Jerry," I said sternly. "What do you mean to do?"