Then the Guest sighed a little. “They are my old friends,” he murmured, “my dear old friends! I could not leave them out in the cold. I am not responsible for what they do. Only I must my old affection prove.” So he sighed again and turned softly to his bed. But as he turned the Master stood before him and took him by the throat. “Traitor!” he cried. “You would betray the innocent. Already your soul is stained with my sleeping children's blood.” And with his hands he choked the false Guest to death. Then he shot the bolt of the side door, and barred the window, and called the servants, and made ready to defend the house. Great was the fighting that night. In the morning, when the robbers were driven off, the false Guest was buried, outside the garden, in an unmarked grave. February 2, 1918. JUSTICE OF THE ELEMENTS So the Criminal with a Crown came to the end of his resources. He had told his last lie, but not even his servants would believe it. He had made his last threat, but no living soul feared it. He had put forth his last stroke of violence and cruelty, but it fell short. When he saw his own image reflected in the eyes of men, and knew what he had done to the world and what had come of his evil design, he was afraid, and cried, “Let the Earth swallow me!” And the Earth opened, and swallowed him. But so great was the harm that he had wrought upon the Earth, and so deeply had he drenched it with blood, that it could not contain him. So the Earth opened again, and spewed him forth. Then he cried, “Let the Sea hide me!” And the waves rolled over his head. But the Sea, whereon he had wrought iniquity, and filled the depths thereof with the bones of the innocent, could not endure him and threw him up on the shore as refuse. Then he cried, “Let the Air carry me away!” And the strong winds blew, and lifted him up so that he felt exalted. But the pure Air, wherein he had let loose the vultures of hate, dropping death upon helpless women and harmless babes, found the burden and the stench of him intolerable, and let him fall. And as he was falling he cried, “Let the Fire give me a refuge!” So the Fire, wherewith he had consumed the homes of men, rejoiced; and the flames which he had compelled to do his will in wickedness leaped up as he drew near. “Welcome, old master!” roared the Fire. “Be my slave!” Then he perceived that there was no hope for him in the justice of the elements. And he said, “I will seek mercy of Him against whom I have most offended.” So he fled to the foot of the Great White Throne. And as he kneeled there, broken and abased, the world was silent, waiting for the sentence of the Judge of All. August, 1918. ASHES OF VENGEANCE Dun was a hard little city, proud and harsh; but impregnable because it was built upon a high rock. The host of the Visigoths had besieged it for months in vain. Then came a fugitive from the city, at midnight, to the tent of Alaric, the Chief of the besiegers.