“Then let us vow to do the work before us well,” said Michael, “that there may be no more.”
“You don’t understand,” said Stephen. “If we rescue my sister and her guardian, and you take them away from here, your fight is ended. But mine is just begun.”
Michael wrestled with his own emotions, then came up and put a hand on the troubled man’s shoulder.
“You’ve made a good beginning, my friend. You’ve looked the Devil in the eye.”
Purceville met his penetrating gaze, puzzled that these simple words should mean so much. And in that moment this stranger was so like Mary---the way he spoke, the way he knew him so well.....
“Stephen. Every man chooses his own time to stop running. And it’s only when you turn, that you find out what you have inside you. I cannot lie, and say it will be easy, or that you will triumph simply because your cause is just. The truth is that it’s much harder to be a good man than a bad one, to do what’s right, than to be selfish and afraid. I’ve fought the Devil, in my way, for thirty years, and come to no reward. On the contrary, my life has been a constant struggle.
“And tonight," he went on, “I face the battle of my life. Nothing else matters, in all the world. And so help me, Stephen, I’m terrified. I speak of faith, and yet I do not feel it. Getting Mary safely away is everything. Everything. If I fail, or injure her in the attempt, my own life is less than meaningless. My life must end.....”
Then it was he who stiffened in defiance. “But God or no God, I will have her out. With all my soul I swear it. She will be freed.”
Stephen studied him, both stirred and bewildered. “Who are you?”
Michael, too, hesitated at the truth. It could forge a bond between them, or destroy everything.