The Doomsman

original text have been corrected in this version. A list of these errors is found at the end of this book. "CONSTANS AND NIGHT WERE DOWN." See p. 28 CONTENTS PAGE I. The Vermilion Feather 1 II. The Night of the Terror 14 III. The New World 19 IV. The Man on Horseback 25 V. The Rat's-Hole 32 VI. Troy Town 41 VII. The Bread of Affliction 50 VIII. In the Shadow of Doom 58 IX. The Keys of Power 67 X. The Message 83 XI. The Sisters 93 XII. The Hedge of Arrows 106 XIII. Gods in Exile 120 XIV. Arcadia House 136 XV. A Man and a Maid 150 XVI. As in a Looking-Glass 162 XVII. The Awakening 173 XVIII. A Prophet of Evil 181 XIX. In Quinton Edge's Garden 188 XX. The Silver Whistle Blows 199 XXI. Oxenford's Daughter 209 XXII. Yet Three Days 223 XXIII. The Red Light in the North 231 XXIV. The Eve of the Third Day 238 XXV. Entr'acte 242 XXVI. The Song of the Sword 250 XXVII. Doomsday 266 XXVIII. In the Fulness of Time 274 XXIX. Death and Life 281 XXX. The Star in the East 290 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "CONSTANS AND NIGHT WERE DOWN" Frontispiece Facing Page "OUT LEAPED QUINTON EDGE'S SWORD" 48 "CONSTANS LOOKED ABOUT HIM IN WONDERMENT" 64 "THE BLOWS RAINED DOWN UPON HIS FACE" 76 "THEY PARTED WITHOUT FURTHER SPEAKING" 90 "AN INSTANT LATER THE BOWSTRING TWANGED" 118 "SHE STOOD MUTE AND WIDE-EYED BEFORE HIM" 156 "OF DOOM SHALL WE REQUIRE IT" 220 THE DOOMSMAN I THE VERMILION FEATHER A beach of yellow sand and a stranded log upon which sat a boy looking steadfastly out upon the shining waters. It was a delicious morning in early May, and the sun was at his back, its warm rays falling upon him with affectionate caress. But the lad was plainly oblivious of his immediate surroundings; in spirit he had followed the leading of his eyes a league or more to the westward, where a mass of indefinable shadow bulked hugely upon the horizon line. Indefinable, in that it was neither forest nor mountain nor yet an atmospheric illusion produced by the presence of watery vapor. It did not change in density as does the true cloud; for all of its mistiness of outline there was an impression of solidity about its deeper shadows, something that the wind could…