He closed his eyes to shut out the picture and again the fight began for the mastery of life.
A voice whispered:
"Unless you are a coward, grasp the power that is yours by divine right of nature. Why should you walk while pigmies ride? Why should you lag behind the age in this fierce struggle for supremacy? The woman who sits before you is yours if you only dare to tear her from the man who holds her by the fiction of dying customs!"
He felt his heart throb as another voice within cried:
"Yet why should I, an heir to immortality, whose will can shape a world, why should I live a beast of prey with my hand against every man?"
The answer was the memory of dirty finger nails closing on his throat while a mob of howling fools surged over his body and cursed him for trying to save them from themselves. Again he heard a woman's voice as she held his head close, whispering:
"I've something to say to you, Jim!"
His lips tightened with sudden decision. The golden gates of the forbidden land swung open and his soul entered.
CHAPTER XIV