Page:The council of seven.djvu/319

 "Surely," said Helen, "that control can only be acquired by invoking the spirit of Right."

"True. And our Society, odd as the fact may seem to the uninitiate, exists for that very purpose."

Helen's face showed a frank incredulity. "You would have one believe," she said, with a thrill of horror in her voice, "that people are murdered secretly in the name of the Most High?"

"Murder is a harsh word. But as you say," Hierons went on in a stern, solemn tone, "the Society's every act is dictated by the aim it has in view. 'God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.'"

"To me," said Helen with a little gasp of horror, "that sounds very like blasphemy."

"No, no!" said Hierons. "Consider the problem the world has now to face. It is all very well to say that faith will move mountains, but when Good is being done inevitably to death by the massed forces of Evil, it is for those of us who dare to believe that the world may yet be saved for mankind to use to the best of our skill what weapons the stronger power may have left us."

"Or to put it in another way," said Helen, who was following a singular argument closely, "believing as your Society does that this earth of ours is now ruled by the spirit of Evil, in order to restore the balance of power it is necessary in the most literal fashion to break the Sixth Commandment."

"Yes," said Hierons. "But only in the last resort.