The man's face now was that of a seer and a visionary; the firm
lines were set and rigid as those of an image carved in stone--the
statue of heart-whole devotion, with the self-imposed task
beckoning sternly to follow, there where lurked danger and death.
"The way, I think, in which we could best succeed would be this,"
he resumed after a while, sitting now on the edge of the table and
directly facing his four friends. The light from the lamp which
stood upon the table behind him fell full upon those four glowing
faces fixed eagerly upon him, but he himself was in shadow, a
massive silhouette broadly cut out against the light-coloured map
on the wall beyond.
"I remain here, of course, until Sunday," he said, "and will
closely watch my opportunity, when I can with the greatest amount
of safety enter the Temple building and take possession of the
child. I shall, of course choose the moment when the Simons are
actually on the move, with their successors probably coming in at
about the same time. God alone knows," he added earnestly, "how I
shall contrive to get possession of the child; at the moment I am
just as much in the dark about that as you are."
He paused a moment, and suddenly his grave face seemed flooded
with sunshine, a kind of lazy merriment danced in his eyes,
effacing all trace of solemnity within them.
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