Nap’s thin lips twitched, but with no impulse to ridicule.  He rearranged the pillows with his usual dexterous rapidity, then deliberately laid his hand upon the lined forehead and stood so in utter silence, staring unblinking straight before him.

For many seconds Lucas also lay passive.  His eyelids drooped heavily, but he would not suffer them to close.  He was yet watching, watching narrowly, the flame that still smouldered and might blaze afresh at any moment.

“Give it up, Boney!” he said at last.  “I’ll go with you to the ends of the earth sooner than let you do this thing, and you’ll find me a very considerable encumbrance.  Do you honestly believe yourself capable of shunting me at will?”

“I honestly believe you’ll kill yourself if you don’t rest,” Nap said.

He looked down suddenly into the tired eyes.  The fierce glare had gone utterly out of his own.  His very pose had altered.

“Then I shall die in a good cause,” Lucas murmured, with the ghost of a smile.  “You needn’t say any more, Boney.  I guess I shall rest now.”

“Because you think you’ve beaten me,” Nap said curtly.

“Guess it’s your victory, dear fellow, not mine,” Lucas answered very gently.

A gleam that was not a smile crossed the harsh face, softening but not gladdening.  “It’s a mighty hollow one anyway.  And I’m not going for nothing—­not even to please you.”

“Anything—­to the half of my kingdom,” Lucas said.

Nap sat down on the edge of the bed.  The madness had passed, or he had thrust it back out of sight in the darkest recesses of his soul.  He laid a hand upon his brother’s arm and felt it speculatively.

“No sinew, no flesh, and scarcely any blood!” he said.  “And yet”—­his mouth twisted a little—­“my master!  Luke, you’re a genius!”

“Oh, shucks, Boney!  What’s brute strength anyway?”

“Not much,” Nap admitted.  “But you—­you haven’t the force of a day-old puppy.  Maybe, when I’m out of the way fighting my devils in the desert, you’ll give Capper a free hand, and let him make of you what you were always intended to be—­a human masterpiece.  There won’t be any obstacles when I’m out of the way.”

Lucas’s hand felt for and closed upon his.  “If that’s your condition, it’s a bargain,” he said simply.

“And you’ll put up a fight for it, eh, Luke?  You’re rather apt to slack when I’m not by.”  Was there a hint of wistfulness in the words?  It almost seemed so.

A very tender look came into the elder man’s eyes.  “With God’s help, Boney,” he said, “I’ll pull through.”

Nap rose as if that ended the interview.  Yet, rising, he still gripped the weak hand of the man who was his master.

A moment he stood, then suddenly bent very low and touched it with his forehead.

“I leave to-night,” he said, and turning went very quickly and noiselessly from the room.