My experience, however, has made me perhaps unduly sensitive, and I determined, since I had undertaken this work, to make it represent Mr. Gillette’s remarkable and brilliant play as faithfully as I could, and I have done so. I have used my own words only in those slight changes necessitated by book presentation instead of production on the stage. I have entered into as few explanations as possible and have limited my own discussion of the characters, their motives, and their actions, to what was absolutely necessary to enable the reader to comprehend. On the stage much is left to the eye which has to be conveyed by words in a book, and this is my excuse for even those few digressions that appear. I have endeavoured to subordinate my own imagination to that of the accomplished playwright. I have played something of the part of the old Greek Chorus which explained the drama, and there has been a touch of the scene-painter’s art in my small contribution to the book. Otherwise, I have not felt at liberty to make any departure from the setting, properties, episodes, actions, or dialogue. Mine has been a very small share in this joint production. The story and the glory are Mr. Gillette’s, not mine. And I am cheerfully determined that as the author of the first, he shall have all of the second. Cyrus Townsend Brady. St. George’s Rectory, Kansas City, Mo., November, 1911. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS BOOK I WHAT HAPPENED AT EIGHT O’CLOCK I The Battery Passes 3 II A Commission from the President 18 III Orders to Captain Thorne 34 IV Miss Mitford’s Intervention 49 V The Unfaithful Servant 69 VI The Confidence of Edith Varney 86 BOOK II WHAT HAPPENED AT NINE O’CLOCK VII Wilfred Writes a Letter 105 VIII Edith Is Forced to Play the Game 133 IX The Shot That Killed 154 BOOK III WHAT HAPPENED AT TEN O’CLOCK X Caroline Mitford Writes a Despatch 173 XI Mr. Arrelsford Again Interposes 187 XII Thorne Takes Charge of the Telegraph 204 XIII The Tables Are Turned 217 XIV The Call of the Key 229 XV Love and Duty at the Touch 247 BOOK IV WHAT HAPPENED AT ELEVEN O’CLOCK XVI The Tumult in Human Hearts 261 XVII Wilfred Plays the Man 271 XVIII Captain Thorne Justifies Himself 292 XIX The Drumhead Court-Martial 301 XX The Last Reprieve 318 Afterword 330 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOOK I