The Bars of Iron. Ethel M. Dell

II

       CHAPTER III

       CHAPTER IV

       CHAPTER V

       CHAPTER VI

       CHAPTER VII

       CHAPTER VIII

       CHAPTER IX

       EPILOGUE

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY BROTHER REGINALD WITH MY LOVE

       Table of Contents

      "He hath broken the gates of brass:

       And smitten the bars of iron in sunder."

       Psalm cvii., 16.

      "I saw heaven opened."

       Revelation xix., II.

PROLOGUE

       Table of Contents

      PART I

      THE GATES OF BRASS

      CHAPTER

      I. A JUG OF WATER

      II. CONCERNING FOOLS

      III. DISCIPLINE

      IV. THE MOTHER'S HELP

      V. LIFE ON A CHAIN

      VI. THE RACE

      VII. A FRIEND IN NEED

      VIII. A TALK BY THE FIRE

      IX. THE TICKET OF LEAVE

      X. SPORT

      XI. THE STAR OF HOPE

      XII. A PAIR OF GLOVES

      XIII. THE VISION

      XIV. A MAN'S CONFIDENCE

      XV. THE SCHEME

      XVI. THE WARNING

      XVII. THE PLACE OF TORMENT

      XVIII. HORNS AND HOOFS

      XIX. THE DAY OF TROUBLE

      XX. THE STRAIGHT TRUTH

      XXI. THE ENCHANTED LAND

      XXII. THE COMING OF A FRIEND

      XXIII. A FRIEND'S COUNSEL

      XXIV. THE PROMISE

      XXV. DROSS

      XXVI. SUBSTANCE

      XXVII. SHADOW

      XXVIII. THE EVESHAM DEVIL

      XXIX. A WATCH IN THE NIGHT

      XXX. THE CONFLICT

      XXXI. THE RETURN

      XXXII. THE DECISION

      XXXIII. THE LAST DEBT

      XXXIV. THE MESSAGE

      XXXV. THE DARK HOUR

      XXXVI. THE SUMMONS

      XXXVII. "LA GRANDE PASSION"

      XXXVIII. THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES

      PART II

      THE PLACE OF TORMENT

      I. DEAD SEA FRUIT

      II. THAT WHICH IS HOLY

      III. THE FIRST GUEST

      IV. THE PRISONER IN THE DUNGEON

      V. THE SWORD FALLS

      VI. THE MASK

      VII. THE GATES OF HELL

      VIII. A FRIEND IN NEED

      IX. THE GREAT GULF

      X. SANCTUARY

      XI. THE FALLING NIGHT

      XII. THE DREAM

      XIII. THE HAND OF THE SCULPTOR

      PART III

      THE OPEN HEAVEN

      I. THE VERDICT

      II. THE TIDE COMES BACK

      III. THE GAME

      IV. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

      V. THE DESERT ROAD

      VI. THE ENCOUNTER

      VII. THE PLACE OF REPENTANCE

      VIII. THE RELEASE OF THE PRISONER

      IX. HOLY GROUND

      EPILOGUE

      The Bars of Iron

PROLOGUE

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      "Fight? I'll fight you with pleasure, but I shall probably kill you if I do. Do you want to be killed?" Brief and contemptuous the question fell. The speaker was a mere lad. He could not have been more than nineteen. But he held himself with the superb British assurance that has its root in the British public school and which, once planted, in certain soils is wholly ineradicable.

      The man he faced was considerably his superior in height and build. He also was British, but he had none of the other's careless ease of bearing. He stood like an angry bull, with glaring, bloodshot eyes.

      He swore a terrific oath in answer to the scornful enquiry. "I'll break every bone in your body!" he vowed. "You little, sneering bantam, I'll smash your face in! I'll thrash you to a pulp!"

      The other threw up his head and laughed. He was sublimely unafraid. But his dark eyes shone red as he flung back the challenge. "All right, you drunken bully! Try!" he said.

      They stood in the garish light of a Queensland bar, surrounded by an eager, gaping crowd of farmers, boundary-riders, sheep-shearers, who had come down to this township on the coast on business or pleasure at the end of the shearing season.

      None of them knew how the young Englishman came to be among them. He seemed to have entered the drinking-saloon without any very definite object in view, unless he had been spurred thither by a spirit of adventure. And having entered, a boyish interest in the motley crowd, which was evidently new to him, had induced him to remain. He had sat in a corner, keenly observant but wholly unobtrusive, for the greater part of an hour, till in fact the attention of the great bully now confronting him had by some ill-chance been turned in his direction.

      The man was three parts drunk, and for some reason, not very comprehensible, he had chosen to resent the presence of this clean-limbed, clean-featured English lad. Possibly he recognized in him a type which for its very cleanness he abhorred. Possibly his sodden brain was stirred by an envy which the Colonials round him were powerless to excite. For he also