Yes, he would go now to the open country of the park, and there was a special significance to him in reaching it by tube.
For the tube represented to him all the horrors of buried, shut-in life...
He would ascend from its imprisonment free to the wide green and the trees that concealed the menace of the pressing houses.
The lift bore him swiftly and relentlessly downward.
The air was heavy and lifeless.
He stood at the extreme end of the platform, away from the mass of people.
On his left was the opening of the tunnel from which the train, snakelike, would presently emerge.
He felt the whole place to be subtly evil.
There was no one near him but a hunched-up lad sitting on a seat, sunk, it seemed, in a drunken stupor.
In the distance came the faint menacing roar of the train.
The lad rose from his seat and shuffled unsteadily to Hamer's side, where he stood on the edge of the platform peering into the tunnel.
Then - it happened so quickly as to be almost incredible - he lost his balance and fell...
A hundred thoughts rushed simultaneously to Hamer's brain.
He saw a huddled heap run over by a motor 'bus, and heard a hoarse voice saying:
"Dahn't yer blime yerself, guv'nor.
Yer couldn't 'a done nothin'."
And with that came the knowledge that this life could only be saved, if it were saved, by himself. There was no one else near, and the train was close...
It all passed through his mind with lightning rapidity.
He experienced a curious calm lucidity of thought.
He had one short second in which to decide, and he knew in that moment that his fear of Death was unabated.
He was horribly afraid. And then - was it not a forlorn hope? A useless throwing away of two lives?
To the terrified spectators at the other end of the platform there seemed no gap between the boy's fall and the man's jump after him - and then the train, rushing round the curve of the tunnel, powerless to pull up in time.
Swiftly Hamer caught up the lad in his arms.
No natural gallant impulse swayed him, his shivering flesh was but obeying the command of the alien spirit that called for sacrifice.
With a last effort he flung the lad forward onto the platform, falling himself...
Then suddenly his fear died.
The material world held him down no longer.
He was free of his shackles.
He fancied for a moment that he heard the joyous piping of Pan.
Then - nearer and louder - swallowing up all else - came the glad rushing of innumerable Wings... enveloping and encircling him...