Page:The council of seven.djvu/189

 "There lies your skill," a hoarse voice broke in. It was that of John Endor. With lustrous eyes and a face inhuman in its pallor he was following each word of the argument with intensity. "All of us here can only regard it as devilish."

"Yes—devilish," said Lien Weng, in his soft and gentle voice. "But even sheer wickedness sometimes overreaches itself. That simple act of omission, in the peculiar circumstances of the case, was vile. Yet already it has had a recoil. The Society of the Friends of Peace owes to that foul blow the presence here this evening of John Endor." The President bowed gravely to the politician. "He will prove a source of infinite strength to our counsels. We welcome such a man with open arms."

A look of disgust flashed from the eyes of Saul Hartz. "A man is not to be envied," he said, "who mixes himself up with a thing of this kind. If Mr. Endor is the man I take him to be," Hartz looked Endor steadily in the face, "he is going to regret very bitterly his association with you and your fellow anarchists and murderers."

"Time alone can prove," said Lien Weng impassively, "whether John Endor will have anything to regret in his whole-hearted devotion to the cause of peace. Meanwhile his presence here cannot fail to give weight to the deliberations of the Council of Seven."

"And if I may say so," interposed George Hierons,