Whatever they did there was ruin for them in the end. All this Pierre
conned slowly in his mind, until he was cold. Then he looked up and
saw that the lamp had burned out and that the wood in the fireplace
was consumed to a few red embers.
He replenished the fire, and when the yellow flames began to mount he
made his resolution and walked slowly up and down the floor with it.
For he knew that he must go to meet McGurk.
The very thought of the man sent the old chill through his blood, yet
he must go and face him and end the thing.
It came over him with a pang that he was very young; that life was
barely a taste in his mouth, whether bitter or sweet he could not
tell. He picked a flaming stick from the fire and went before a little
round mirror on the wall.
Back at him stared the face of a boy. He had seen so much of the
grim six in the last day that the contrast startled him. They were
men, hardened to life and filled with knowledge of it. They were books
written full. But he? He was a blank page with a scribbled word here
and there.
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