“I fancy they’re going to ask you to draw up a petition,” said Ashcott.

“Me!” Dick turned on him in a sudden blaze of anger.  “I’ll see ’em damned first!” he said.

Ashcott shrugged his shoulders.  “It’s your affair.  You’re the only man who has any influence with ’em.  I’m sick of trying to keep the peace.”

Dick checked his indignation.  “Poor devils!  They certainly have some cause for grievance, but I’m not going to draw up their ultimatum for them.  I’ve no objection to speaking to Yardley or any other man on their behalf, but I’m hanged if I’ll be regarded as their representative.  They’ll make a strike-leader of me next.”

“Well, they’re simmering,” Ashcott said, as he prepared to depart.  “They’ll boil over before long.  If they don’t find a responsible representative they’ll probably run amuck and get up to mischief.”

“Oh, man, stop croaking!” Dick said with weary irritation and went away down the hill.

He took the cliff-path though the night was dark with storm-clouds.  Somehow, instinctively, his feet led him thither.  There were no nightingales singing now, and the gorse had long since faded in the fierce heat of summer.  The sea lay leaden far below him, barely visible in the dimness.  And there was no star in the sky.

Heavily he tramped over the ground where Juliet had lingered on that night of magic in the spring, and as he went, he told himself that he had lost her.  Whatever the outcome of to-day’s happenings, she would never be the same to him again.  She had passed out of his reach.  Her own world had claimed her again and there could be no return.  He recalled the regret in her eyes at parting.  Surely—­most surely—­she had known that that was the end.  For her the midsummer madness was over, burnt away like the glory of the gorse-bushes about him.  With a conviction that was beyond all reason he knew that they had come to a parting of the ways.

And there was no bond between them, no chain but that which his love had forged.  She had pleaded to retain her freedom, and now with bitter intuition he knew wherefore.  She had always realized that to which he in his madness had been persistently blind.  She had known that there were obstacles insurmountable between them and the happy consummation of their love.  She had faced the fact that the glory would depart.

Again he felt the clinging of her arms as he had felt it only that afternoon.  Again against his lips there rose her quivering whisper, “Just for to-day, Dick!  Just for to-day!” Yes, she had known even then.  Even then for her the glory had begun to fade.

He clenched his hands in sudden fierce rebellion.  It was unbearable.  He would not endure it.  This stroke of destiny—­he would fight it with all the strength of his manhood.  He would overthrow this nameless barrier that had arisen between them.  He would sacrifice all—­all he had—­to reach her.  Somehow—­whatever the struggle might cost—­he would clasp her again, would hold her against all the world.