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For a moment he saw nothing but the jagged corner of a wall, hard and clear against the sky. Then in the
shadow he perceived the interior of a room and recognised with a start the green and white decorations of his
former prison. And coming quickly across this opened room and up to the very verge of the cliff of the ruins
came a little white clad figure followed by two other smaller seeming figures in black and yellow. He heard
the man beside him exclaim "Ostrog," and turned to ask a question. But he never did, because of the startled
exclamation of another of those who were with him and a lank finger suddenly pointing. He looked, and
behold! the monoplane that had been rising from the flying stage when last he had looked in that direction,
was driving towards them. The swift steady flight was still novel enough to hold his attention.
Nearer it came, growing rapidly larger and larger, until it had swept over the further edge of the ruins and into
view of the dense multitudes below. It drooped across the space and rose and passed overhead, rising to clear
the mass of the Council House, a filmy translucent shape with the solitary aeronaut peering down through its
ribs. It vanished beyond the skyline of the ruins.
Graham transferred his attention to Ostrog. He was signalling with his hands, and his attendants were busy
breaking down the wall beside him. In another moment the monoplane came into view again, a little thing far
CHAPTER XXII 128
away, coming round in a wide curve and going slower.
Then suddenly the man in yellow shouted: "What are they doing? What are the people doing? Why is Ostrog
left there? Why is he not captured? They will lift him--the monoplane will lift him! Ah!"
The exclamation was echoed by a shout from the ruins. The rattling sound of the green weapons drifted across
the intervening gulf to Graham, and, looking down, he saw a number of black and yellow uniforms running
along one of the galleries that lay open to the air below the promontory upon which Ostrog stood. They fired
as they ran at men unseen, and then emerged a number of pale blue figures in pursuit. These minute fighting
figures had the oddest effect; they seemed as they ran like little model soldiers in a toy. This queer appearance
of a house cut open gave that struggle amidst furniture and passages a quality of unreality. It was perhaps two
hundred yards away from him, and very nearly fifty above the heads in the ruins below. The black and yellow
men ran into an open archway, and turned and fired a volley. One of the blue pursuers striding forward close
to the edge, flung up his arms, staggered sideways, seemed to Graham's sense to hang over the edge for
several seconds, and fell headlong down. Graham saw him strike a projecting corner, fly out, head over heels,
head over heels, and vanish behind the red arm of the building machine.
And then a shadow came between Graham and the sun. He looked up and the sky was clear, but he knew the
little monoplane had passed. Ostrog had vanished. The man in yellow thrust before him, zealous and
perspiring, pointing and blatant.
"They are grounding!" cried the man in yellow. "They are grounding. Tell the people to fire at him. Tell them
to fire at him!"
Graham could not understand. He heard loud voices repeating these enigmatical orders.
Suddenly he saw the prow of the monoplane come gliding over the edge of the ruins and stop with a jerk. In a
moment Graham understood that the thing had grounded in order that Ostrog might escape by it. He saw a
blue haze climbing out of the gulf, perceived that the people below him were now firing up at the projecting
stem.
A man beside him cheered hoarsely, and he saw that the blue rebels had gained the archway that had been
contested by the men in black and yellow a moment before, and were running in a continual stream along the
open passage.
And suddenly the monoplane slipped over the edge of the Council House and fell like a diving swallow. It
dropped, tilting at an angle of forty-five degrees, so steeply that it seemed to Graham, it seemed perhaps to
most of those below, that it could not possibly rise again.
It fell so closely past him that he could see Ostrog clutching the guides of the seat, with his grey hair
streaming; see the white-faced aeronaut wrenching over the lever that turned the machine upward. He heard
the apprehensive vague cry of innumerable men below.
Graham clutched the railing before him and gasped. The second seemed an age. The lower vane of the
monoplane passed within an ace of touching the people, who yelled and screamed and trampled one another
below.
And then it rose.
For a moment it looked as if it could not possibly clear the opposite cliff, and then that it could not possibly
clear the wind-wheel that rotated beyond.
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And behold! it was clear and soaring, still heeling sideways, upward, upward into the wind-swept sky.
The suspense of the moment gave place to a fury of exasperation as the swarming people realised that Ostrog
had escaped them. With belated activity they renewed their fire, until the rattling wove into a roar, until the
whole area became dim and blue and the air pungent with the thin smoke of their weapons.
Too late! The flying machine dwindled smaller and smaller, and curved about and swept gracefully downward
to the flying stage from which it had so lately risen. Ostrog had escaped.
For a while a confused babblement arose from the ruins, and then the universal attention came back to
Graham, perched high among the scaffolding. He saw the faces of the people turned towards him, heard their
shouts at his rescue. From the throat of the ways came the song of the revolt spreading like a breeze across
that swaying sea of men.
The little group of men about him shouted congratulations on his escape. The man in yellow was close to him,
with a set face and shining eyes. And the song was rising, louder and louder; tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp.
Slowly the realisation came of the full meaning of these things to him, the perception of the swift change in
his position. Ostrog, who had stood beside him whenever he had faced that shouting multitude before, was
beyond there--the antagonist. There was no one to rule for him any longer. Even the people about him, the
leaders and organisers of the multitude, looked to see what he would do, looked to him to act, awaited his
orders. He was king indeed. His puppet reign was at an end.
He was very intent to do the thing that was expected of him. His nerves and muscles were quivering, his mind
was perhaps a little confused, but he felt neither fear nor anger. His hand that had been trodden upon throbbed
and was hot. He was a little nervous about his bearing. He knew he was not afraid, but he was anxious not to
seem afraid. In his former life he had often been more excited in playing games of skill. He was desirous of
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