Page:The council of seven.djvu/193

 George Hierons; and how, having taken the plunge with a full perception of all that it involved, he was ready to defend his action. For he now saw with a clearness greater than ever before, that the malign growth which was so rapidly eating its way to the core of the state must, no matter what the cost to the body politic, be at once cut out.

One thing, however, Endor decided to do. That was to tell Helen of the charge this man, Saul Hartz, had laid upon her good name. Such, indeed, was his real purpose in going to her at once. The impulse of his nature would not allow him a moment's rest until the woman he loved was rescued from the clutches of the monster of infamy whom she was loyally serving.

Without preface Endor told her what Saul Hartz had said.

"He says you are his mistress." As word by word her ear felt their whispered fall, the surge of emotion in his voice filled her with pain. Before the blow itself, however, not a nerve quivered. But her heart turned to ice.

"I felt like killing him. But these are not heroic days. Besides, such canaille are not worth it—if one has a work to do."

"Not worth it—no," she said at last, gently, and then, a woman: "Tell me, what led him, do you suppose, to say that?"

"Pure devilment. He knows you're leaving him, he understands your value, and to give you up to me, of