“We can’t tolerate what disgusts, even if its qualities be excellent.  In exposing myself to you, sir, I should certainly be insuring my rejection.  But what you cannot see, what you can only imagine, will not make you refuse me.”

The Master pondered a moment, then nodded and asked: 

“Is it so very bad, sir?”

“It’s a thing of horror, incredible, awful, unreal!  In the hospital at Rouen, they called me ‘The Kaiser’s Masterpiece.’  Some of the most hardened surgeons couldn’t look at me, or dress my—­wound, let us call it—­without a shudder.  Ordinary men would find me intolerable, if they could see me.

“Unmasked, I bear no resemblance whatever to a man, but rather to some ghastly, drug-inspired dream or nightmare of an Oriental Dante.  The fact that I have sacrificed my human appearance in the Great Cause cannot overcome the shrinking aversion that normal men would feel, if they could see me.  I say only this, that my mutilation is indescribable.  As the officer and gentleman I know you to be, you won’t ask me to expose this horror!”

CHAPTER IV

THE MASKED RECRUIT

A little silence lengthened, while the strange aviator continued to peer out with strangely shining eyes through the holes of his mask.  The effect of that human intelligence, sheltered in there behind that expressionless celluloid, whose frail thinness they all knew covered unspeakable frightfulness, became uncanny.

Some of the men eased the tension by blowing ribbons of smoke or by relighting tobacco that had gone out while the stranger had been talking.  Others shifted, a bit uneasily.  Voices began to mutter, pro and con.  The Master suddenly knocked again, for silence.

“I am going to accept this man,” said he, sharply.  “You notice I do not put this to a vote, or consult you about it.  Nor shall I, in anything.  The prime condition of this whole undertaking, as I was saying when Captain Alden here arrived, is unquestioning obedience to my authority.

“No one who is unwilling to swear that, need go any further.  You must have confidence in my plans, my judgment.  And you must be willing to obey.  It is all very autocratic, I know, but the expedition cannot proceed on any other basis.

“You are to go where I will, act as I command, and only regain your liberty when the undertaking is at an end.  I shall not order any man to go anywhere, or do anything, that I would not do myself.  On this you can rely.

“In case of my death, the authority falls on Major Bohannan.  He is today the only man who knows my plans, and with whom I have had any discussion.  If we both are killed, then you can elect your own leader.  But so long as either of us lives, you have no authority and no redress.  I hope that’s perfectly understood.  Does any man wish to withdraw?”

Not one budged.  All stood to their decision, hard as rock.