18 FOR THE FLAG

engineer did not intend to despoil his charge. If indeed
his secret escaped him, Thomas Roch should have all the
gain when he recovered his reason.

Thus did Simon Hart, or rather Gaydon, live for
fifteen months with the lunatic, observing, watching, even
questioning, without gaining any information. The more
he heard the inventor talk of his discovery, the more was
he convinced of its extraordinary importance, and he
dreaded above all things that the partial derangement of
the faculties of his charge might develop into complete
insanity, or that.a fatal crisis might carry away his secret
with his life.

Such was Simon Hart’s situation, such was the mission to
which he had sacrificed himself in the interest of his country,
However, the patient’s physical health did not suffer,
thanks to his vigorous constitution. The nervous vitality
of his temperament enabled him to resist all these de-
structive causes. Of medium height, with a massive head,
a well-developed forehead, well-shaped skull, grey hair,
eyes haggard at times, but bright, fixed, impcrious when
his dominant thought flashed from them, a thick moustache
under a nose with readily-heaving nostrils,a mouth with
tight lips as though closed upon a secret, a thoughful
countenance, the attitude of a man who had striven long,
and was determined still to strive—such was the inventor,
Thomas Roch, confined in one of the buildings of Healthful
House, not conscious perhaps of this sequestration, and in
the charge of Simon Hart the engineer, known as Gaydon
the keeper.