Fiction > Book editions > New York, 1885 - Dynamiter

lo PROLOGUE.
"Nor shall we. These are the hands; but
here — here, sir, is the head," cried Somerset.
' ' Enough ; it is decreed. We shall hunt dowTi
this miscreant in the sealskin coat."
"Suppose that we agreed," retorted Chal-
loner, " you have no plan, no knowledge ; you
know not where to seek for a beginning."
"Challoner!" cried Somerset, "is it possi-
ble that you hold the doctrine of Free Will %
And are you devoid of any tincture of philoso-
phy, that you should harp on such exploded
fallacies ? Chance, the blind Madonna of the
Pagan, rules this terrestrial bustle ; and in
Chance I place my sole reliance. Chance has
brought us three together ; when we next sepa-
rate and go forth our several ways. Chance will
continually drag before our careless eyes a
thousand eloquent clues, not to this mystery
only, but to the countless mysteries by which
we live surrounded. Then comes the part of
the man of the world, of the detective born and
bred. This clue, which the whole town beholds
without comprehension, swift as a cat, he leaps
upon it, makes it his, follows it with craft and
passion, and from one trifling circumstance
divines a world."
"Just so," said Challoner; "and I am
delighted that you should recognize these vir-
tues in yourself. But in the meanwhile, dear
boy, I own myself incapable of joining. I was