The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare. Гилберт Кит Честертон

election, they all sprang to their feet, and the fiery groups moved and mixed in the room. Syme found himself, somehow or other, face to face with Gregory, who still regarded him with a stare of stunned hatred. They were silent for many minutes.

      "You are a devil!" said Gregory at last.

      "And you are a gentleman," said Syme with gravity.

      "It was you that entrapped me," began Gregory, shaking from head to foot, "entrapped me into—"

      "Talk sense," said Syme shortly. "Into what sort of devils' parliament have you entrapped me, if it comes to that? You made me swear before I made you. Perhaps we are both doing what we think right. But what we think right is so damned different that there can be nothing between us in the way of concession. There is nothing possible ​between us but honour and death," and he pulled the great cloak about his shoulders and picked up the flask from the table.

      "The boat is quite ready," said Mr. Buttons, bustling up. "Be good enough to step this way."

      With a gesture that revealed the shop-walker, he led Syme down a short, iron-bound passage, the still agonised Gregory following feverishly at their heels. At the end of the passage was a door, which Buttons opened sharply, showing a sudden blue and silver picture of the moonlit river, that looked like a scene in a theatre. Close to the opening lay a dark, dwarfish steam-launch, like a baby dragon with one red eye.

      Almost in the act of stepping on board, Gabriel Syme turned to the gaping Gregory.

      "You have kept your word," he said gently, with his face in shadow. "You are a man of honour, and I thank you. You have kept it even down to a small particular. There was one special thing you promised me at the beginning of the affair, and ​which you have certainly given me by the end of it."

      "What do you mean?" cried the chaotic Gregory. "What did I promise you?"

      "A very entertaining evening," said Syme, and he made a military salute with the sword-stick as the steamboat slid away.