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226 staggered across the shattered street, from holes and crannies in the ruins fierce women fled from their work of pillage, cursing him.

At first he could not find his house, for the tears blinded him, but he felt along the wall and reached the door. A lantern burned in the concierge’s lodge and the old man lay dead beside it. Faint with fright he leaned a moment on his rifle, then, snatching the lantern, sprang up the stairs. He tried to call, but his tongue hardly moved. On the second floor he saw plaster on the stairway, and on the third the floor was torn and the concierge lay in a pool of blood across the landing. The next floor was his, theirs. The door hung from its hinges, the walls gaped. He crept in and sank down by the bed, and there two arms were flung around his neck, and a tear-stained face sought his own.

“Sylvia!”

“O Jack! Jack! Jack!”

From the tumbled pillow beside them a child wailed.

“They brought it; it is mine,” she sobbed.

“Ours,” he whispered, with his arms around them both.

Then from the stairs below came Braith’s anxious voice.

“Trent! Is all well?”