NOREEN CARDINEGH APPEARS AFTER MIDNIGHT IN THE BILLIARD-ROOM OF THE IMPERIAL--AN INEFFABLE REMEMBRANCE 200 SIXTEENTH CHAPTER CERTAIN CIVILIANS SIT TIGHT WITH KUROKI, WHILE THE BLOOD-FLOWER PUTS FORTH HER BRIGHT LITTLE BUDS 211 SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER FEENEY AND FINACUNE ARE PRIVILEGED TO “READ THE FIERY GOSPEL WRIT IN BURNISHED ROWS OF STEEL.” 222 EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER BINGLEY BREAKS AWAY FROM THE CAMP OF THE CIVILIANS TO WATCH “THE LEAN-LOCKED RANKS GO ROARING DOWN TO DIE.” 232 NINETEENTH CHAPTER NOREEN CARDINEGH, ENTERING A JAPANESE HOUSE AT EVENTIDE, IS CONFRONTED BY THE VISIBLE THOUGHT-FORM OF HER LOVER 243 TWENTIETH CHAPTER ROUTLEDGE IS SEEN BY NOREEN CARDINEGH AT AN EXCITING MOMENT IN WHICH SHE DARE NOT CALL HIS NAME 255 TWENTY-FIRST CHAPTER ROUTLEDGE, BROODING UPON THE MIGHTY SPECTACLE OF A JAPANESE BIVOUAC, TRACES A WORLD-WAR TO THE LEAK IN ONE MAN’S BRAIN 266 TWENTY-SECOND CHAPTER ROUTLEDGE STRIKES A CONTRAST BETWEEN THE JAPANESE EMPEROR AND THE JAPANESE FIGHTING-MAN, WHILE OKU CHARGES INTO A BLIZZARD OF STEEL 277 TWENTY-THIRD CHAPTER ROUTLEDGE ENCOUNTERS THE “HORSE-KILLER” ON THE FIELD OF LIAOYANG, AND THEY RACE FOR THE UNCENSORED CABLE AT SHANHAIKWAN 285 TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER THE GREAT FRIEZE COAT AND THE WOMAN JOURNEY DOWN THE COAST TOGETHER, AND CROSS INDIA TO THE LEPER VALLEY 303 Routledge Rides Alone PROLOGUE IN CHEER STREET, LONDON Jerry Cardinegh, dean of the British word-painters of war, was just home from China, where he had caught the Allies in the act of relieving Peking. It had been a goodly and enticing service, both to watch and to portray, calling out much of glorious color and tension and peril, and not enough slaughter to chill the world’s appreciation. Cardinegh sat by the fire in his little house in Cheer Street, London, and was ministered to by his daughter, Noreen, a heavenly dispensation which the old campaigner believed he had earned. A dinner together, just the two, truly a feast after lean months crossing the mountains of separation. Then whiskey, glasses, soda, pipes, tobacco, papers of the afternoon--all served by the dearest of hands. The gray, hard veteran lived, indeed, the maiden filling his eyes.