The Bars of Iron   By: Ethel M. Dell (1881-1939)

By Ethel M. Dell

1916

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY BROTHER REGINALD WITH MY LOVE

"He hath broken the gates of brass: And smitten the bars of iron in sunder." Psalm cvii., 16.

"I saw heaven opened." Revelation xix., II.

PROLOGUE

PART I

THE GATES OP BRASS

CHAPTER

I. A JUG OF WATER

II. CONCERNING FOOLS

III. DISCIPLINE

IV. THE MOTHER'S HELP

V. LIFE ON A CHAIN

VI. THE RACE

VII. A FRIEND IN NEED

VIII. A TALK BY THE FIRE

IX. THE TICKET OF LEAVE

X. SPORT

XI. THE STAR OF HOPE

XII. A PAIR OF GLOVES

XIII. THE VISION

XIV. A MAN'S CONFIDENCE

XV. THE SCHEME

XVI. THE WARNING

XVII. THE PLACE OF TORMENT

XVIII. HORNS AND HOOFS

XIX. THE DAY OF TROUBLE

XX. THE STRAIGHT TRUTH

XXI. THE ENCHANTED LAND

XXII. THE COMING OF A FRIEND

XXIII. A FRIEND'S COUNSEL

XXIV. THE PROMISE

XXV. DROSS

XXVI. SUBSTANCE

XXVII. SHADOW

XXVIII. THE EVESHAM DEVIL

XXIX. A WATCH IN THE NIGHT

XXX. THE CONFLICT

XXXI. THE RETURN

XXXII. THE DECISION

XXXIII. THE LAST DEBT

XXXIV. THE MESSAGE

XXXV. THE DARK HOUR

XXXVI. THE SUMMONS

XXXVII. "LA GRANDE PASSION"

XXXVIII. THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES

PART II

THE PLACE OF TORMENT

I. DEAD SEA FRUIT

II. THAT WHICH IS HOLY

III. THE FIRST GUEST

IV. THE PRISONER IN THE DUNGEON

V. THE SWORD FALLS

VI. THE MASK

VII. THE GATES OF HELL

VIII. A FRIEND IN NEED

IX. THE GREAT GULF

X. SANCTUARY

XI. THE FALLING NIGHT

XII. THE DREAM

XIII. THE HAND OF THE SCULPTOR

PART III

THE OPEN HEAVEN

I. THE VERDICT

II. THE TIDE COMES BACK

III. THE GAME

IV. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

V. THE DESERT ROAD

VI. THE ENCOUNTER

VII. THE PLACE OF REPENTANCE

VIII. THE RELEASE OP THE PRISONER

IX. HOLY GROUND

EPILOGUE

The Bars of Iron

PROLOGUE

"Fight? I'll fight you with pleasure, but I shall probably kill you if I do. Do you want to be killed?" Brief and contemptuous the question fell. The speaker was a mere lad. He could not have been more than nineteen. But he held himself with the superb British assurance that has its root in the British public school and which, once planted, in certain soils is wholly ineradicable.

The man he faced was considerably his superior in height and build. He also was British, but he had none of the other's careless ease of bearing. He stood like an angry bull, with glaring, bloodshot eyes.

He swore a terrific oath in answer to the scornful enquiry. "I'll break every bone in your body!" he vowed. "You little, sneering bantam, I'll smash your face in! I'll thrash you to a pulp!"

The other threw up his head and laughed. He was sublimely unafraid. But his dark eyes shone red as he flung back the challenge. "All right, you drunken bully! Try!" he said.

They stood in the garish light of a Queensland bar, surrounded by an eager, gaping crowd of farmers, boundary riders, sheep shearers, who had come down to this township on the coast on business or pleasure at the end of the shearing season.

None of them knew how the young Englishman came to be among them. He seemed to have entered the drinking saloon without any very definite object in view, unless he had been spurred thither by a spirit of adventure. And having entered, a boyish interest in the motley crowd, which was evidently new to him, had induced him to remain. He had sat in a corner, keenly observant but wholly unobtrusive, for the greater part of an hour, till in fact the attention of the great bully now confronting him had by some ill chance been turned in his direction.