"Why should you? You are surrounded by reliable men. I do not think even the White Knight can pierce through your gang of Terror Boys." "But the White Knight is uncanny." Gunzi sneered. "The White Knight is human. He baffled me for a short time at Aszod, but in the end I got on his track. Give me a week or two longer and I shall bring him to you, and the next time... I hope the Council will take your advice, Comrade Szamuelly, and hang him anyway, right man or not." A spasm of rage convulsed his face. "God! to think we had the White Knight in our hands and let him go!" * * * * * * Hidden in a small copse some hundred yards distant from the track, two men waited for the Death Train, which was due to thunder toward them at any moment. From where they were they could just see the red light which sent out its warning ray from between the iron parallels, and behind which lay a felled tree. "Why the red light, Geoffrey, why the warning? Would it not be better to let the Death Train crash into the obstruction, and so send it, Szamuelly, and all his hangmen to Hell together?" "I wish I dared, Arnold, but I am afraid to take the risk. The time-table is at the best of times irregular. Supposing instead of the Death Train it were another we wrecked? Suppose an unexpected express were to come the other way? No, no, Arnold! I must rely upon this," and he fondly patted the rifle which was stretched out in front of him, significantly turned in the direction of the barricade. "Do you think you will get the opportunity--that your courage will not fail you at the last moment?" The White Knight laughed softly: "Would you hesitate to kill a rat, Arnold? To me the life of Szamuelly is less than that of the meanest rodent. As for the rest, I can only hope that he will not suspect the truth and cringe into the farthest corner of the coach." "Will not your constant warnings prepare him for all eventualities? Tell me, Geoffrey, would not a swift, silent blow be just as feasible? I do not understand the reason of your repeated messages to him." "When should I ever get an opportunity for the swift blow? He is surrounded night and day. From the very first he has had his men under an Army discipline, and set guards. No prince threatened by anarchists has ever been better protected. No, Arnold, do not think I play for melodramatic effect. "No will however strong, no courage however deep, is proof in the long run against the insidious prickings of fear. Threats, if sustained long enough, are like the dripping of water on the hardest rock, the succession of footsteps upon the toughest stone.