_Initial Incident_: Young Mallorie is killed in action.
_Steps toward the Climax_: His body is taken home to Mallorie Abbey,
where masses are held over it. A Zeppelin appears, ready to discharge
bombs just over the chapel, when an aeroplane swoops noiselessly
down; the Zeppelin falls. The Germans are all killed. The aeronaut
descends. He accepts the invitation to stay awhile at Mallorie
Abbey and remains almost a week. Lieutenant Templar, as he calls
himself, occupies dead young Mallorie’s room and wears his clothes.
He plays tennis and behaves in general like a normal healthy young
Englishman, but that he has unusual powers is evinced by the words
of the visiting general officer, “How does he _know_?”
_The Climax_: Lady Maurya’s questions of the aeronaut terminate in
the answer, “Because in me is the strength,” etc., revealing his
supernatural character. He disappears.
PRESENTATION. The single incident becomes subdued, rather than
emphasized, by representing it as told to Vinton who, in turn, repeats
it to Ware and Abigail. Credulity is gained in assuming for each
narrator an implied or expressed belief,--“I said to her that I was
the most believing man since the Dark Ages.” And their faith acts
cumulatively to compel the reader’s acceptance. By rehearsing in New
England the story of English background and atmosphere, Miss Moseley
gains for it sharpness and, at the same time, a certain _nuance_. The
stormy night supposedly affects the hearers’ credulity, and through
them, once more, the reader’s.