All of the Forty act with similar coolness.

Men of action are not as a usual thing great talkers; so it is with the
members of this committee. They waive much that would be deemed
essential by less resolute and active men. How the several annihilations
are to be effected is a matter left for each man to decide for himself.
He will have to carry out any plan he devises, and it is considered as
the best policy to let his method be known to no one else. This is the
surest way of avoiding a possible miscarriage of the plan.

The failure of one of the forty men will not then involve the remaining
thirty-nine. Every contingency is weighed. The chance of one or more of
the men going insane because of the frightful secret, is taken into
account and the idea that each man shall decide the details of the
course he is to pursue is adopted.

"I am glad that we parted without formality," Nettinger declares to the
group of committeemen who are his companions on a train that leaves
Chicago for the South.

"It would have unnerved us to speak of our meeting as '_the last_'" says
another of the group. "I have faced danger in my life, but I regard this
as the most astounding departure that has ever been made in the
interests of humanity."

"The future of the Republic is at stake," observes a third. "How will it
all end?"

This is the question that is uppermost in the minds of all.

"There is no time left to weigh the effects of defeat," Nettinger
asserts. "Each of us has but one thing to do, and to do this
successfully he has pledged his life. No man can do more."

The eleven disciples, as they separated after the crucifixion, each to
pursue a separate course, inaugurated the preaching of a great and
potential religion, and their work is the most momentous in history. So
it may prove that this Nineteenth Century aggregation of men united for
the purpose of benefiting their fellowmen, is of tantamount influence on
the human race.

From acting as component parts in a body that exists as a mo