CHAPTER XIV

SHADOWS Ern was not called up after all. The trap-door through which men had peered aghast into the fires of hell, closed suddenly as it had opened. Only the clang of the stokers working in the darkness under the earth could still be heard day and night at their infernal busyness by any who paused and laid ear to the ground. England and the world breathed again. "Touch and go," said Mr. Trupp, who felt like a man coming to the surface after a deep plunge. "Dress rehearsal," said the Colonel. "It'll never be so nea…