Page:Tales of the Unexpected (1924).djvu/160

 the endless war contrivances that had been invented and had fallen into abeyance during the long peace. There were all sorts of these things that people were routing out and furbishing up; infernal things, silly things; things that had never been tried; big engines, terrible explosives, great guns. You know the silly way of these ingenious sort of men who make these things; they turn 'em out as beavers build darns, and with no more sense of the rivers they're going to divert and the lands they're going to flood!

'As we went down the winding stepway to our hotel again in the twilight I foresaw it all: I saw how clearly and inevitably things were driving for war in Gresham's silly, violent hands, and I had some inkling of what war was bound to be under these new conditions. And even then, though I knew it was drawing near the limit of my opportunity, I could find no will to go back.'

He sighed.

'That was my last chance.

'We did not go into the city until the sky was full of stars, so we walked out upon the high terrace, to and fro, and—she counselled me to go back.

'"My dearest," she said, and her sweet face looked up to me, 'this is Death. This life you lead is Death. Go back to them, go back to your duty "

'She began to weep, saying between her sobs, and clinging to my arm as she said it, "Go back—go back.' 'Then suddenly she fell mute, and glancing down at her face, I read in an instant the thing she had thought to do. It was one of those moments when one sees.

'"No!" I said.

'"No?" she asked, in surprise, and I think a little fearful at the answer to her thought.

'"Nothing," I said, "shall send me back. Nothing! I have chosen. Love, I have chosen, and the world