“Not one man, but all men—­give them only a leader to speak the desire of their hearts.”

He shook his head, and for a time there was silence.

He looked up suddenly, and their eyes met.  “I have not your faith,” he said, “I have not your youth.  I am here with power that mocks me.  No—­let me speak.  I want to do—­not right—­I have not the strength for that—­but something rather right than wrong.  It will bring no millennium, but I am resolved now, that I will rule.  What you have said has awakened me...  You are right.  Ostrog must know his place.  And I will learn—....  One thing I promise you.  This Labour slavery shall end.”

“And you will rule?”

“Yes.  Provided—.  There is one thing.”

“Yes?”

“That you will help me.”

“I—­a girl!”

“Yes.  Does it not occur to you I am absolutely alone?”

She started and for an instant her eyes had pity.  “Need you ask whether I will help you?” she said.

There came a tense silence, and then the beating of a clock striking the hour.  Graham rose.

“Even now,” he said, “Ostrog will be waiting.”  He hesitated, facing her.  “When I have asked him certain questions—.  There is much I do not know.  It may be, that I will go to see with my own eyes the things of which you have spoken.  And when I return—?”

“I shall know of your going and coming.  I will wait for you here again.”

They regarded one another steadfastly, questioningly, and then he turned from her towards the Wind-Vane office.

CHAPTER XIX

OSTROG’S POINT OF VIEW

Graham found Ostrog waiting to give a formal account of his day’s stewardship.  On previous occasions he had passed over this ceremony as speedily as possible, in order to resume his aerial experiences, but now he began to ask quick short questions.  He was very anxious to take up his empire forthwith.  Ostrog brought flattering reports of the development of affairs abroad.  In Paris and Berlin, Graham perceived that he was saying, there had been trouble, not organised resistance indeed, but insubordinate proceedings.  “After all these years,” said Ostrog, when Graham pressed enquiries; “the Commune has lifted its head again.  That is the real nature of the struggle, to be explicit.”  But order had been restored in these cities.  Graham, the more deliberately judicial for the stirring emotions he felt, asked if there had been any fighting.  “A little,” said Ostrog.  “In one quarter only.  But the Senegalese division of our African agricultural police—­the Consolidated African Companies have a very well drilled police—­was ready, and so were the aeroplanes.  We expected a little trouble in the continental cities, and in America.  But things are very quiet in America.  They are satisfied with the overthrow of the Council.  For the time.”

“Why should you expect trouble?” asked Graham abruptly.