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 Global Global
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edition
Global
System
Architecture

Strategy and Product Development for Complex Systems

For these Global Editions, the editorial team at Pearson has
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with the best possible learning tools. This Global Edition

System Architecture
preserves the cutting-edge approach and pedagogy of the
original, but also features alterations, customization, and
adaptation from the North American version.

Selva
Cameron
Crawley
This is a special edition of an established
title widely used by colleges and universities Strategy and Product Development
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outside the United States and Canada. If you
for Complex Systems
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or Canada, you should be aware that it has Edward Crawley   Bruce Cameron   Daniel Selva
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Publisher or Author.

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SyStem Architecture
Strategy and Product Development
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Edward Crawley Bruce Cameron Daniel Selva

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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ISBN 10: 1-292-11084-8

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Printed in Slovakia by Neografia
 Contents
CoNTeNTS 3

Foreword 7
Preface 9
Acknowledgments 11
About the Authors 12

Part 1 System thinking 15

chapter 1 introduction to System Architecture 16
Architecture of complex Systems 16
the Advantages of Good Architecture 16
Learning Objectives 19
Organization of the text 20
References 21

chapter 2 System thinking 22

2.1 introduction 22
2.2 Systems and emergence 22
2.3 task 1: identify the System, its Form, and its Function 27
2.4 task 2: identify entities of a System, their Form, and their Function 31
2.5 task 3: identify the relationships among the entities 40
2.6 task 4: emergence 42
2.7 Summary 47
References 48

chapter 3 thinking about complex Systems 49

3.1 introduction 49
3.2 complexity in Systems 49
3.3 Decomposition of Systems 53
3.4 Special Logical relationships 57
3.5 reasoning through complex Systems 58
3.6 Architecture representation tools: SysmL and OPm 59
3.7 Summary 62
References 64

Part 2 analysis of System architecture 65

chapter 4 Form 67
4.1 introduction 67
4.2 Form in Architecture 67
4.3 Analysis of Form in Architecture 72
4.4 Analysis of Formal relationships in Architecture 77
4.5 Formal context 89
4.6 Form in Software Systems 91
4 CoNTeNTS

4.7 Summary 96
References 96

chapter 5 Function 97
5.1 introduction 97
5.2 Function in Architecture 97
5.3 Analysis of external Function and Value 103
5.4 Analysis of internal Function 108
5.5 Analysis of Functional interactions and Functional Architecture 112
5.6 Secondary Value-related external and internal
Functions 122
5.7 Summary 123
References 123

chapter 6 System Architecture 124

6.1 introduction 124
6.2 System Architecture: Form and Function 125
6.3 Non-idealities, Supporting Layers, and interfaces in System Architecture 135
6.4 Operational Behavior 139
6.5 reasoning about Architecture using representations 143
6.6 Summary 150
References 150

chapter 7 Solution-Neutral Function and concepts 151

7.1 introduction 151
7.2 identifying the Solution-Neutral Function 154
7.3 concept 156
7.4 integrated concepts 166
7.5 concepts of Operations and Services 171
7.6 Summary 172
References 173

chapter 8 From concept to Architecture 174

8.1 introduction 174
8.2 Developing the Level 1 Architecture 176
8.3 Developing the Level 2 Architecture 180
8.4 home Data Network Architecture at Level 2 184
8.5 modularizing the System at Level 1 187
8.6 Summary 189
References 190

Part 3 Creating System architecture 191

chapter 9 the role of the Architect 192
9.1 introduction 192
 CoNTeNTS 5

9.2 Ambiguity and the role of the Architect 192

9.3 the Product Development Process 198
9.4 Summary 206
References 210

chapter 10 upstream and Downstream influences on System

Architecture 211
10.1 introduction 211
10.2 upstream influence: corporate Strategy 212
10.3 upstream influence: marketing 215
10.4 upstream influence: regulation
and Pseudo-regulatory influences 218
10.5 upstream influence: technology infusion 220
10.6 Downstream influence: implementation—coding, manufacturing,
and Supply chain management 221
10.7 Downstream influence: Operations 224
10.8 Downstream influence: Design for X 226
10.9 Downstream influence: Product and System
evolution, and Product Families 228
10.10 the Product case: Architecture Business case Decision (ABcD) 231
10.11 Summary 235
References 238

chapter 11 translating Needs into Goals 240

11.1 introduction 240
11.2 identifying Beneficiaries and Stakeholders 241
11.3 characterizing Needs 250
11.4 interpreting Needs as Goals 258
11.5 Prioritizing Goals 264
11.6 Summary 267
References 273

chapter 12 Applying creativity to Generating a concept 276

12.1 introduction 276
12.2 Applying creativity to concept 277
12.3 Develop the concepts 282
12.4 expand the concepts and Develop
the concept Fragments 283
12.5 evolve and refine the integrated concepts 288
12.6 Select a Few integrated concepts for Further Development 291
12.7 Summary 293
References 298

chapter 13 Decomposition as a tool for managing complexity 300

13.1 introduction 300
6 CoNTeNTS

13.2 understanding complexity 300

13.3 managing complexity 309
13.4 Summary 317
References 322

Part 4 architecture as Decisions 323

chapter 14 System Architecture as a Decision-making
Process 325
14.1 introduction 325
14.2 Formulating the Apollo Architecture Decision
Problem 326
14.3 Decisions and Decision Support 331
14.4 Four main tasks of Decision Support Systems 333
14.5 Basic Decision Support tools 334
14.6 Decision Support for System Architecture 340
14.7 Summary 342
References 342
chapter 15 reasoning about Architectural tradespaces 345
15.1 introduction 345
15.2 tradespace Basics 346
15.3 the Pareto Frontier 348
15.4 Structure of the tradespace 355
15.5 Sensitivity Analysis 359
15.6 Organizing Architectural Decisions 364
15.7 Summary 370
References 371
chapter 16 Formulating and Solving System Architecture Optimization
Problems 373
16.1 introduction 373
16.2 Formulating a System Architecture Optimization
Problem 375
16.3 NeOSS example: An earth Observing Satellite
System for NASA 377
16.4 Patterns in System Architecting Decisions 379
16.5 Formulating a Large-scale System Architecture
Problem 403
16.6 Solving System Architecture Optimization Problems 408
16.7 Summary 416
References 416

Appendices 420
Chapter Problems 435
Index 462
 Foreword
CoNTeNTS 7

Norman R. Augustine
A particularly promising trend that has been taking place in healthcare is the marriage of biomed-
ical research with engineering practices. A friend of mine, an engineer, recently described to me
a meeting that took place at one of America’s most prestigious universities between the faculties
of the engineering department and the cardiology department exploring just such opportunities.
Having decided to focus on constructing a practicable mechanical human heart, the head of car-
diology began his presentation with a description of the properties of the human heart. Almost
immediately an engineer interrupted, asking “Does it have to be in your chest? Could it be, say, in
your thigh where it would be easier to reach?” No one in the room had ever considered that pos-
sibility. Nonetheless, the presentation continued. Soon another interruption occurred; this time it
was another engineer asking, “Instead of just one heart could you have three or four small hearts
integrated in a distributed system?” No one had thought of that either.
System Architecture, so insightfully presented in this book by three of the field’s most highly
regarded leaders, is about asking—and—answering just such questions. In my own career I have
encountered system architecture questions in fields ranging from engineering to business to gov-
ernment. When established practices of the field of system architecture are applied, far superior
outcomes seem to result.
Applying such practices has not always been the case. Early in my career I recall asking
various of my colleagues who were working “together” on a guided missile program why they
had chosen a particular design approach for their specific element of the product. One replied,
“Because it is the lowest weight.” Another assured me that his part would have the lowest radar
cross-section. Still another answered because her component would be less costly. And yet
another had focused on minimizing volume. And so it went.
What was missing? The answer is a system architect.
This shortcoming is too often encountered, usually in more subtle ways. Consider the case of
the Near-Sonic Transport aircraft that was in the early stages of development a few years ago. A
marketing survey had indicated that airline passengers want to get to their destinations faster. To
an aerodynamicist (my own early field), if one wishes to avoid the penalties of supersonic flight,
that translates into more closely approaching Mach One, creeping up on the drag curve into a
regime wherein fuel consumption abruptly increases. This was, in fact, the underlying concept
of the Near-Sonic Transport.
But when viewed from a system architecture perspective, the appropriate question is not how
to fly faster; rather, it is how to minimize the time to get from one’s home, to the airport, check-in,
pass through security, board the aircraft, fly, collect baggage and travel to one’s final destination.
Placed in this context, an even more fundamental question arises: “How much will a passenger
pay to save five or ten minutes of flying time?” The answer turns out to be, “not much”—and the
Near-Sonic Transport aircraft thus met its early, and deserved, demise. There are clearly better

Norman R. Augustine has served in industry as chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation, in government as
Under Secretary of the Army, in academia as a member of the engineering faculty of Princeton University and as a trustee
of MIT, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins and as a regent of the University System of Maryland’s 12 institutions.
8 ForeworD

opportunities in which to invest if one’s objective is to help passengers reach their destinations
more rapidly. The failing in this case was to not recognize that one was dealing with a problem of
system architecture . . . not simply a problem of aerodynamics and aircraft design.
My own definition of a “system” evolved over years of experience. It is “two or more ele-
ments that interact with one another.” The authors of this book wisely add that the resultant
functionality must exceed the sum of functionalities of the individual elements. Thus simple in
concept, the complexity of most real-world systems is enormous. In fact, the equation describ-
ing the number of possible states a system of several elements (that interact in the simplest of all
manners) has been aptly named, “The Monster!” And when a system includes humans, as many
systems do, the challenge of system architecting becomes all the more immense due to the pres-
ence of unpredictability. But these are the kind of systems that one encounters, and are the kind
of systems that the authors show how to deconstruct and address.
One such system that I had the occasion to analyze concerned provisioning the (human
occupied) U.S. station at the Earth’s South Pole. Setting the specific objective of the evaluation
in itself required care . . . as is often the case. Was it to minimize expected cost? Or to minimize
worst-case cost in the face of uncertainty, say, due to weather? Or perhaps to minimize “regret”—
that is, when supplies are not delivered at all? Or . . .?
In the case of this particular system there are a number of elements that must interface
with one-another: cargo ships, ice breakers, aircraft of various types, ice piers for off-loading,
storage facilities, traverse vehicles, communications . . . and, underlying all decisions, was the
ever-present danger of single-point failure modes creeping into the architecture.
In the business world one of the more complex problems faced in my career was whether—
and how—all or major parts of seventeen different companies could be combined to create the
Lockheed Martin Corporation. Each of the “elements” had its strengths and its weaknesses; each
involved large numbers of humans, each with their own goals, capabilities, and limitations; and
critical to the decision, the whole had to have significantly greater functionality than the sum of
the parts. If the latter were not the case, there would be no reason to pay the financial premium
that is implicit in most mergers and acquisitions.
Sadly, in engaging complex questions of this type there is no simple mathematical formula
that will reveal the “right” answer. However, the discipline of systems thinking proves to be an
invaluable tool in assessing exposure, opportunities, parametric sensitivities, and more. In the
above case, most people judge that the answer came out “right”—which, incidentally, contrasts
with nearly 80 percent of similar undertakings.
One of the authors of this book and I, along with a group of colleagues, had the occasion to
propose to the President of the United States a human spaceflight plan for America for the next
few decades. In this instance perhaps the most difficult challenge was to define a useful mission,
as opposed to the (non-trivial) task of defining an appropriate hardware configuration. Fortunately,
such issues are amenable to solution through system thinking.
As the authors point out in the material that follows, the process of establishing the archi-
tecture of systems is both a science and an art. But, as is so elegantly portrayed herein, there is
a Darwinian phenomenon wherein systems embodying the mistakes of the past do not survive;
whereas those that embody sound architectures generally do survive—and even prosper.
That, of course, is what architecting complex systems is all about.
 Preface9
CoNTeNTS

We wrote this book to capture a powerful idea. The idea of the “architecture of a system” is
growing in recognition. It appears in diverse fields including the architecture of a power grid or
the architecture of a mobile payment system. It connotes the DNA of the system, and the basis
for competitive advantage. There are over 100,000 professionals with the title system architect
today, and many more practicing the role of the architect under different titles.
Powerful ideas often have nebulous boundaries. We observed that many of our co-workers,
clients, students had a shared recognition of system architecture issues, but used the term in very
different scopes. The term is often used to differentiate between existing systems, as in “the
architecture of these two mountain bikes is different.”
What exactly constitutes the architecture of a system is often a subject of great debate. In
some fields, the term is used for a singular decision that differentiates two types of systems at
a high level, as in “packet-switched architecture” vs. “circuit-switched architecture.” In other
fields, the term is used to describe a whole implementation, save for some smaller details, as in
“our software as a service architecture.”
Our goal was to capture the power of the idea of architecture, and to sharpen the boundaries.
Much of the power of idea originates with the potential to trade among several architectures
early, to look downstream and identify which constraints and opportunities will be central to
value. It isn’t possible to trade among early ideas if the architecture encompasses all details, nor
is it a meaningful exercise if important drivers of value are missing.
We wrote this book to build on the idea that the architect is a specialist, not a generalist, as
proposed by Eberhardt Rechtin. Our intent is to showcase the analysis and methodologies of sys-
tem architecture, and to develop the ‘science’ of system architecture. This text is less prescriptive
in places than the discipline of product design, as the systems tackled are more complex. Where
the product development community has a stronger focus on design, our focus centers more on
emergence—the magic of functions coming together to produce a coherent whole.
We’ve imbued this book with our past experience. We’ve been fortunate to be involved in the
early development of a number of complex systems in communications, transportation, mobile
advertising, finance, robotics, and medical devices, ranging in complexity from farm equipment
to the International Space Station.
Additionally, we have included case studies from the experience of other system architects,
in disciplines ranging from hybrid cars to commercial aircraft. Our intent was that this book can
only advance system architecture if it works from challenges faced by system architects today.
We wrote this book for two core audiences—professional architects and engineering
students. System architecture as an idea grew out of practitioners’ wisdom and attempts to codify
the challenges of developing new architecture. One core audience is senior professionals who
are faced with architectural decisions. The field encompasses a variety of professionals in senior
technical and managerial roles in technical industries—software, electronics, industrial goods,
aerospace, automotive, and consumer goods.
This book is also focused on engineering students as a core audience. This text grew out of
the graduate course we have taught at MIT for the past 15 years, where we’ve been fortunate
to educate many leaders in the private sector and government. The lens of architecture helps us
understand how a system operates today, but moreover, we believe that it is a necessary compe-
tency to learn in the management of technical organizations.
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This page intentionally left blank
 acknowledgments
CoNTeNTS 11

We’d like to thank the many people that made this book possible. First and foremost, our thanks
to Bill Simmons, Vic Tang, Steve Imrich, Carlos Gorbea, and Peter Davison who contributed
sections from their expertise, and who all provided comments on early drafts. We’re indebted to
Norm Augustine, who in addition to contributing the foreword, shaped our thinking on the topic.
Our reviewers Chris Magee, Warren Seering, Eun Suk Suh, Carlos Morales, Michael Yukish,
and Ernst Fricke helped us deliver crisp messages and helped identify where we had missed key
ideas. We also received a number of anonymous reviews, whose feedback improved the book.
Dov Dori has been an invaluable partner as the developer of the OPM.
Pat Hale supported the development of the curriculum at MIT, and provided feedback on an
early draft. The 63 students of the MIT System Design and Management Class of 2011 reviewed
each chapter in detail and provided mountains of suggestions. In particular, our thanks to Erik
Garcia, Marwan Hussein, Allen Donnelly, Greg Wilmer, Matt Strother, David Petrucci, Suzanne
Livingstone, Michael Livingstone, and Kevin Somerville. Ellen Finnie Duranceau at MIT
Libraries helped us choose a publisher wisely.
Our graduate students over the years have helped shape the book’s content – much of their
work appears here in one form or another. In addition to those mentioned above, we’d like to
thank Morgan Dwyer, Marc Sanchez, Jonathan Battat, Ben Koo, Andreas Hein, and Ryan Boas.
We would like to thank Eun Suk Suh for his contributions to the Global Edition as well.
The staff at Pearson made our book a reality—Holly Stark, Rose Kernan, Erin Ault, Scott
Disanno, and Bram van Kempen. Thanks for all your hard work.
Finally, to our wives Ana, Tess, and Karen, thanks for your patience as we labored on week-
ends and during vacations, enduring the risk that this project become a “forever book.”
Edward Crawley Bruce Cameron Daniel Selva
Cambridge, MA
about the authors

Edward F. Crawley
Edward Crawley is the President of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech)
in Moscow, Russia, and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at
MIT. He received an S.B. and an S.M. in Aeronautics and Astronautics and an Sc.D. in aerospace
structures, all from MIT.
From 1996 to 2003, he was head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at
MIT. He has served as founding co-director of an international collaboration on the reform of
engineering education and was the lead author of Rethinking Engineering Education: The CDIO
Approach. From 2003 to 2006, he was the Executive Director of the Cambridge-MIT Institute,
a joint venture with Cambridge University funded by the British government and industry; the
Institute’s mission was to understand and generalize how universities can act effectively as
engines of innovation and economic growth.
Dr. Crawley has founded a number of companies. ACX, a product development and manu-
facturing firm; BioScale, a company that develops biomolecular detectors; Dataxu, a company
in Internet advertising placement; and Ekotrope, a company that supplies energy portfolio analy-
sis to businesses. From 2003 to 2012, he served on the Board of Directors of Orbital Sciences
Corporation (ORB).
Professor Crawley is a Fellow of the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics) and Royal Aeronautical Society (UK) and a member of the Royal Swedish Acad-
emy of Engineering Science, the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), the Chinese Academy of
Engineering, and the National Academy of Engineering (US).

Bruce G. Cameron
Bruce Cameron is the founder of Technology Strategy Partners (TSP), a consulting firm, and the
Director of the System Architecture Lab at MIT. Dr. Cameron received his undergraduate degree
from the University of Toronto, and graduate degrees from MIT.
As a Partner at TSP, Dr. Cameron consults on system architecture, product development,
technology strategy, and investment evaluation. He has worked with more than 60 Fortune 500
firms in high tech, aerospace, transportation, and consumer goods, including BP, Dell, Nokia,
Caterpillar, AMGEN, Verizon, and NASA.
Dr. Cameron teaches system architecture and technology strategy at the Sloan School of
Management and in the School of Engineering at MIT. Previously at MIT, Dr. Cameron ran the
MIT Commonality Study, which comprised over 30 firms spanning 8 years.
Previously, Dr. Cameron worked in high tech and banking, where he built advanced ana-
lytics for managing complex development programs. Earlier in his career, he was a system
engineer at MDA Space Systems, and has built hardware currently in orbit. He is a past board
member of the University of Toronto.
 ABouT THe AuTHorS 13

Daniel Selva
Daniel Selva is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell. He
has degrees in electrical engineering and aeronautical engineering from Polytechnic University
of Catalonia (UPC), Supaero, and MIT.
Professor Selva’s research focuses on applications of system architecture, knowledge
engineering, and machine learning tools to early design activities. His work has been applied
to the NASA Earth Science Decadal Survey, the Iridium GeoScan Program, and the NASA
Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), where he developed architectural analysis
in support of system architects and executives. He is the recipient of Best Paper and Hottest
Article awards.
Between 2004 and 2008, he worked for Arianespace in Kourou, French Guiana, as a mem-
ber of the Ariane 5 Launch team, specializing in the On Board Data Handling, and Guidance,
Navigation and Control. He has previously worked for Cambrian Innovation in the development
of novel bioelectromechanical systems for use on orbit, and at Hewlett Packard on the monitoring
of banking networks. He is a member of the Board of Advisors for NuOrion Partners, a wealth
management firm.
This page intentionally left blank
 Part 1
System Thinking

Part 1: System Thinking focuses on the opportunities presented in system architecture, namely, the
opportunity to articulate the key decisions that define a system and to choose an architecture to
match complex challenges.
Chapter 1: Introduction to System Architecture presents the idea of architecture with exam-
ples, identifies good architecture, and outlines the book. Chapter 2: System Thinking assembles
the ideas necessary for system analysis. Chapter 3: Thinking about Complex Systems identifies the
constituent modes of thinking we will use to analyze system architecture.
 Chapter 1
Introduction to System Architecture

Architecture of Complex Systems

In June 1962, NASA made the decision to use a dedicated capsule to descend to the surface of the
Moon from lunar orbit, rather than to descend to the surface with the Command/Service Module
used to bring astronauts to lunar orbit. This decision implied that the dedicated capsule, later named
the Lunar Module, would have to rendezvous in lunar orbit with their ride home and support a crew
transfer between vehicles.
This decision was made in the first year of the Apollo program, seven years before the ma-
neuver would be executed in lunar orbit. It was made before the majority of program staff was
hired and before the design contracts were awarded. Yet the decision was formative; it eliminated
many possible designs and gave the design teams a starting point. It guided the work of hundreds
of thousands of engineers and an investment that in 1968 exceeded 4% of federal outlays.
We conceive, design, implement, and operate complex and sometimes unprecedented sys-
tems. The largest container ship today carries 18,000 containers, up from 480 containers in 1950.
[1], [2] Cars built today routinely have 70 processors scattered through the vehicle, connected
by as many as five separate buses running at 1 Mbit/s [3]—a far cry from early electronics buses
used to communicate fuel injection at a mere 160 bit/s. Oil platforms costing $200 to 800 million
[4] are developed and produced almost routinely; 39 were delivered between 2003 and 2009. [5]
These systems are not merely large and complex. They are sometimes configurable for each
customer and are often very costly to deliver. Customers of consumer products expect unprec-
edented levels of customization and configurability. For example, BMW calculated that it offered
1.5 billion potential configurations to its customers in 2004. [6] Some complex systems are very
costly to deliver. Norm Augustine points out that the unit cost of a fighter aircraft rose exponen-
tially from 1910 through 1980, predicting that in 2053 the entire U.S. defense budget would pro-
cure exactly one aircraft. [7] Interestingly, Augustine’s prediction has held up well for 30 years: In
2010 an F-22 raptor cost $160 million, or $350 million if the development costs are included. [8]

The Advantages of Good Architecture

Do these complex systems meet stakeholder needs and deliver value? Do they integrate easily,
evolve flexibly, and operate simply and reliably?
Well architected systems do!
 Chapter1 • IntroduCtIontoSyStemarChIteCture    17

Figure 1.1 Complexsystems:theheavy-liftshipmVBlue Marlin transporting

the36,000metrictondrillingplatformSSVVictoria. (Source: dockwise/rex
Features/associatedpress)

The simplest notion of architecture we will use is that architecture is an abstract descrip-
tion of the entities of a system and the relationship between those entities. In systems built by
humans, this architecture can be represented as a set of decisions.
The premise of this text is that our systems are more likely to be successful if we are careful
about identifying and making the decisions that establish the architecture of a system. This text is
an attempt to encode experience and analysis about early system decisions and to recognize that
these choices share common themes. Over the past 30 years, analysis and computational effort
have opened a broad tradespace of options, and in many areas, that tradespace grew faster than
our ability to understand it. The field of system architecture grew out of practitioners’ attempts
to capture expert wisdom from past designs and to structure a broader understanding of potential
future designs.
The market context in which our products and systems compete does not offer any comfort.
Consider Boeing’s decision to “bet the company” on the development of the 787 aircraft and the
associated composite technology. Boeing is half of a global duopoly for large passenger aircraft,
yet in its core business, rather than spreading risk across many small programs, the firm turns
on a single product’s emergent success or failure. The global market for mobile devices is larger
and more competitive still. Although it can be argued that the product risk is more diversified
(that is, an individual product development investment is a smaller fraction of firm revenues) in
the mobile sector, witness the declines of former giants BlackBerry and Ericsson. To capture
market share, systems must innovate on the product offering, incorporate novel technologies,
and address multiple markets. To compete on tight margins, they must be designed to optimize
manufacturing cost, delivered through multi-tiered supply chains. We will argue that good archi-
tectural decisions made by firms can create competitive advantage in difficult markets, but bad
decisions can hobble large developments from the outset.
18 part1 • SyStemthInkIng

Every system built by humans has an architecture. Products such as mobile phone software,
cars, and semiconductor capital equipment are defined by a few key decisions that are made
early in each program’s lifecycle. For example, early decisions in automotive development, such
as the mounting of the engine, drive a host of downstream decisions. Choosing to mount an
engine transversely in a car has implications for the modularization of the engine, gearbox, and
drivetrain, as well as for the suspension and the passenger compartment. The architecture of a
system conveys a great deal about how the product is organized.
In the design of complex systems, many of these early architectural decisions are made
without full knowledge of the system’s eventual scope. These early decisions have enormous
impact on the eventual design. They constrain the envelope of performance, they restrict poten-
tial manufacturing sites, they make it possible or impossible for suppliers to capture after-market
revenue share, and so forth. As an example of gathering downstream information for upstream
consumption, the width of John Deere’s crop sprayers is constrained to be less than the column
separation at the manufacturing site. In this case the width constraint is obvious to the develop-
ment team and was not uncertain or hidden, but it is one of the main variables in the productivity
equation for a crop sprayer.
The central assertion of this text is that these early decisions can be analyzed and treated.
Despite uncertainty around scope, even without knowing the detailed design of components, the
architecture of the system merits scrutiny. Architecting a system is a soft process, a composite
of science and art; we harbor no fantasies that this can or should be a linear process that results
in an optimal solution. Rather, we wrote this text to bring together what we’ve learned about the
core ideas and practices that compose system architecture. Our central assertion is that structured
creativity is better than unstructured creativity.
This focus on decisions enables system architects to directly trade the choices for each
decision, rather than the underlying designs they represent, thus encouraging broader concept
evaluation. At the same time, this decision language enables system architects to order decisions
according to their leverage on the system performance, in recognition that system architectures
are rarely chosen in one fell swoop; rather, they are iteratively defined by a series of choices.
The failed National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) is an exemplar
of architectural decisions handicapping a system. NPOESS1 was created in 1994 from the merger
of two existing operational weather satellite programs, one civilian (weather prediction) and one
military (weather and cloud cover imagery). The rationale for the merger was not ill-founded; these
two systems collecting related data presented a $1.3 billion cost consolidation opportunity. [9]
Early in the merged program, a decision was made to include the superset of instruments capability
from both historical programs. For example, the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Image Radiometer Suite)
instrument was expected to combine the capabilities of three historical instruments.
The assumption underlying the program was that the functional complexity of the merged pro-
gram would scale linearly with the sum of the two historical programs. This might have held, had
the program derived needs and concepts from the heritage instruments. However, a second decision
to list new functions independent of the system concept trapped the architectural performance in an

1
The prevalence of challenges with government programs cited here reflects a bias: We have more information about
government programs than about private programs. Our intent is to learn from the challenges, not to comment on public
vs. private.
 Chapter1 • IntroduCtIontoSyStemarChIteCture    19

unreachable corner of its envelope. For example, the VIIRS instrument was to accomplish the tasks
of three instruments with less mass and volume than a single historical instrument.
A series of early architectural decisions placed NPOESS on a long and troubled devel-
opment path, attempting to create detailed designs that ignored fundamental system tensions.
Further, a failure to appoint a system architect responsible for managing these trades during
the early years of the program foreshadowed challenges to come. The program was canceled in
2010, $8.5 billion over the original $6.5 billion estimate. [10]
This text is not a formula or a manual for product development. Success is not assured.
Experience suggests that getting the architecture wrong will sink the ship but that getting it “right”
merely creates a platform on which the execution of the product can either flourish or flounder.
There are many aspects of this text that are applicable to all systems, whether built by humans,
evolved by society, or naturally evolved. The analysis of architecture can be applied to built or evolved
systems. For example, brain researchers are trying to unfold the architecture of the brain, urban plan-
ners deal with the architecture of cities, and political and other social scientists strive to understand the
architecture of government and society. But we will focus predominantly on built systems.

Learning Objectives
This is a text on how to think, not what to think. Our intent is to help the reader develop a way to
think about and create system architecture, not to provide a set of procedures. Experience suggests
that the best architects have a remarkably common understanding of architecture and its methods,
but the content they work with and the context in which they work vary widely.
This text aims to help system architects to structure and lead the early, conceptual phases of
the system development process, and to support the process throughout its development, deploy-
ment, operation, and evolution.
To these ends, this text provides guidance to help architects:
• Use system thinking in a product context and a system context
• Analyze and critique the architecture of existing systems
• Identify architectural decisions, and differentiate between architectural
and non-architectural decisions
• Create the architecture of new or improved systems, and produce the deliverables
of the architect
• Place the architecture in the context of value and competitive advantage for the
product and the firm
• Drive the ambiguity from the upstream process by defining the context and
boundaries of the system, interpreting needs, setting goals, and defining the
externally delivered functions
• Create the concept for the system, consisting of internal function and form, while
thinking holistically and out of the box when necessary
• Manage the evolution of system complexity and provide for future uncertainty so that
goals are met and functions are delivered, while the system remains comprehensible
to all during its design, implementation, operation, and evolution
• Challenge and critically evaluate current modes of architecting
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aid the law: and in the same thought he stood confounded at his
own baseness. The loyalty might all be on one side, yet—
“Better see Florio yourself,” he answered. “You can judge. He lives
up in the next cove.”
The stranger argued long, and surrendered reluctantly.
“Well,” he sighed, “I s’pose that’s right, if you’re so stubborn to it. I’ll
go see him.”
He slouched away, and plunged among the bushes. Miles, climbing
toward the house, paused halfway on the slope, to look down
thoughtfully at the shore. Seldom had he encountered so many
persons there in one day; never so many problems. Life, like the
fiddle-heads, seemed to unfold into complexities. The river sparkled
through chinks in the grove, and dazzled broadly across a distant
gap, where the path swung bare to the headland. It was the one
pass to Alward’s. But the stranger did not darken it, either going or
coming.
“He’ll wait down there,” thought Miles, “then come lying back, and
say he can’t find Tony. Spying! And I couldn’t tell him!”
He could not, the fact was adamant—not even to save the hostage
in the other camp.
 CHAPTER IX
THE RUNNING BROOK

Some weeks later, at dusk on a calm evening, Miles and his sole
companion sat outdoors for the first time that year. A little bench—
Tony’s handiwork—girdled the hackmatack, so that while leaning
against the same trunk, each saw a different quarter of the valley,
and talked over the shoulder lazily, facing two cardinal points, with
thoughts as far asunder. The time was neither spring nor summer,
but that rare Arcadian interval, too brief for a season, too elusive for
even a transition, and yet in the calendar of sense marked off as
plain as a festival. The night fell neither warm nor cool; a tempered
fragrance of blossoms drew down, without stir of air, from the
orchard over the hill; lower field and shore, river and farthest ridge,
lay confounded in blackness under the stars, land and water parted
only by faint zigzag margins, where the last edge of daylight lined
some inlet or hooked about a promontory.
“Them days,” continued Ella in a distant monotone, “the Injuns
camped in back of ar house at Sweet Water. Old Lewie Neptune, he
was chieft. An’ nights he got drunk, he’d pitch ’em outdoor, so’s all
hands would come beg for in. Midnight an’ bitter cold, sometimes,
women-fo’ks an’ youngsters, they rout us out o’ bed. Big Mary,
Æneas Moon an’ his brother Peter, an’ Lolas an’ Francises an’
Socabasins,—whol’ slews of ’em, all wropped an’ huddledt up in
blankets, scairt, an’ sayin’ they’d be killed. I see the kitchen floor
covered with ’em, many the time, sleepin’ curled round the stove—
Who’s that?”
A flurry of footsteps came up out of the dark; some one raced by
them toward the house.
“We’re out here,” called Miles, rising. “What’s wanted?”
“Oh!” The runner stopped, and returned panting. “I’ve come. You
told me to.”
“Anna!” he cried joyfully.
She stood for an instant motionless, breathing hard; gave a little
failure of a laugh; then spoke quickly, in a voice meant to be calm.
“I stood them as long as I could. Now you must tell me where to go.
Those men! While my father stayed himself, I had somebody; but
now he’s—they’re both against me.” She broke off, as though stifled.
“I’ll never go back; I won’t, I won’t!”
Ella suddenly moved between them.
“Come in the house,” she ordered coldly. “Can’t see ye. If the’ ’s
trouble, we’ll take a light to it, first thing.”
They went in together to the front room. Miles lighted the candle
(which, since Tony’s day, replaced the lamp) and over the trembling
leaf-point of flame saw the girl’s head start into radiance like a
vision. She stood before them with a half-shy, half-defiant
composure; but her eyes and her brown cheeks told another story, a
pulse throbbed in her bare throat, and under the thin blue cloth her
breathing fluttered deeply.
“He tried to beat me,” she said, with the same quiet scorn. “Me,
after all the time I was—”
Ella had stood watching with eyes puckered skeptically, and round
face set in lines of no compromise. But now, without warning, she
flung both her stout arms round the refugee.
“Wild Injuns!” she fumed. “What was I tellin’ ye? You’re all alike, you
men-fo’ks. There, there, poor thing!” Awkward and motherly, she
stroked the girl’s bright hair, scolding and consoling in a breath.
“There, there, nubbin, you’re all of a quiver—all on a string. Worse ’n
old Neptune, they are!—Miles, I left my knittin’ somewheres by that
tree. Jest you hyper out an’ find it.”
Needles and all, it lay on the table before them, but Miles obeyed.
He paced back and forth under the stars, watching the lighted
window. He should be sorry for her, ran his thought. But his one
clear emotion was nothing of the kind; buoyantly, against reason
and through suspense, rioted the conviction that all was well. When
the voices ceased within, he entered, and found the two women
sitting like friends agreed. They smiled at him rather uncertainly.
“Well,” exclaimed the elder, whipping a handkerchief out of sight.
“That’s settled, anyhow. She’ll stay here with us till she finds
somewheres better.”
“But I forgot,” the girl objected. “All my things are there.”
“I’ll get them,” offered Miles.
“You’d look well,” the servant retorted grimly. “I’ll go my own self.
Incidental, I’ll see that pair o’ shoats. And they won’t ask me to set
and come again, either!”
“But,” said the girl, “they’ll come after me.”
“Let ’em!” cried Ella, with sudden extravagance. “I’ll set ’em down so
hard they—they can comb their hair with their spinal columes! Let
’em come.”
For that night no one accepted the challenge; and next morning Ella
promptly descended on Alward’s, to return in ferocious triumph,
bearing a little armful of spoils.
“There’s your clothes!” she cried with the voice of Deborah. “A haley
old mess that house is already, without ye! What did I say to ’em?
Never you mind. They know more ’n they did. The fear o’ the Lord’s
the beginnin’ o’ wisdom. I said what was vouched to me that hour. I
bit a piece out o’ the roof!”
At all events she had determined the situation, and from now
forward there were three in the house. It seemed incredible. Miles
passed the first days in a dream, a revolution of thoughts and
habits. To have this shining guest come and go upon the stairs, or sit
at table like a mortal, or read beside the window on rainy
afternoons, or move at night overhead in Tony’s chamber, not only
threw all indoor routine into the bright confusion of drama, but
changed the very air upon the hills, the light on the waters. The
valley was visited, like the plains of Mamre.
And even when this earliest wonder passed, and they began to live
as though always under the same roof, he could not find the old
bearings. The change had scattered, tossed, and revived his
faculties, as haymakers pitch a mouldy windrow abroad in the sun.
By an odd transfer, she who rightfully should radiate all that was
new and strange, had slipped at once into customary life,
established, familiar, like a thing of childhood; and when they walked
the shore, dug in the garden side by side, or tended lamps in the
early evening, it was she who always had belonged there: all other
things—trees he had seen grow, rocks he knew in every line and
fissure, paths he could follow running in the dark—had altered as
after long absence or some new gift of sight.
It was a happy, incomprehensible time; none the less happy,
although he felt somehow that vague elements were weaving into
danger, that an unknown thread guided them in a maze. Perhaps it
was only that their delight would keep no even level, but daily
mounted; perhaps that in their simplest talk, when their friendship
seemed the oldest, there fell a silence, a chance word, a shock of
difference or agreement, a flash of bygone things, to show how
unerringly their lines converged, across what gulfs.
One afternoon, when summer had glowed and ripened, they
revisited Kilmarnock Brook. Alders flanked the bend through a long
meadow, mapping it distantly as a curved wall of darker green, and
losing it, to near approach, in a cool, low wood where grassy
clearings wound so intricately that a stranger (unless he made the
one plunge through tangle) might wander among leaves, see the
oozy light quivering over them from below, and hear the invisible
water sing like a stream of Tantalus. But Anna and Miles knew all
these interlocked recesses, and, threading them in and out, had
reached their own secret place,—an alder closet, where a tiny
crescent of lawn curved round a pool. On a bank which ran smoothly
into brown water, they sat a little apart, in shadow. Above them
sunlight dappled the leaves, and day-flies danced in brief ecstasy;
below, with a delicate breath of steeping earth and roots and
brookmint, the water stole away silently, to take up its tinkling
narrative round the next bend.
For a long time neither had spoken. Suddenly Miles laughed.
“Ophelia!”
She was looking past her open book, considering the pool.
“You needn’t call names,” she replied, without rousing. “Besides, I
don’t know what you mean.”
“‘Read on this book!’” he scoffed. “The old chucklehead knew! No
girl would ever read in one.”
“A lot you know about them!” She laughed at him, with a sidelong
glance, but quickly returned to her contemplation. “I was thinking.”
“What?”
She shook her head. A leaf-pattern of shadows and golden flame
settled once more upon it, trembling.
“The river-drivers,” she answered at last. “I was only thinking about
the river-drivers.”
Following her glance, he tried, as he had so often tried in the last
weeks, to see with her eyes. The peace of the pool beside them, like
all peace in Nature, was an illusion. Minnows steered over the brown
sand, or whipped their magnified shadows, blurred and globular,
through sunny patches under the farther bank; even where the
water lay most dark and thick, weeds tugged slowly at the tether;
and over the surface her “river-drivers,” snapping and kicking
between wind and water, floated erratically down an imperceptible
current.
“About those?” he asked incredulously. “What, those beetles?”
“Yes.” Her eyes danced with that look of hers which he had never
seen in any other person,—a look both grave and whimsical. “Yes,
they’re only beetles. See, though: they scoot here and there, but
always head upstream. They can’t have any reason to, and it’s so
much easier going down. And still they’re stubborn, and fight along.
I wonder—I think they must have an Idea.”
“You’re a funny girl!” he laughed. Yet as he watched, the darting
insects began to appear not wholly insensate.
“Now the fish down there,” she continued, as though to herself,
“they nose about their business. And the day-flies—with them it’s all
dancing,—just eat, drink, and be merry. But the river-drivers—see
that one, floating on the blade of grass, all tired out; and there he
goes again, up and up, and all the time carried below. They’re like—
like people. They’re betwixt and between, like us. And it may be no
use. But they must. Their Idea. And the stream flows down and
down, and sweeps everything—”
Her words were quiet as the brook beyond.
“A parable,” said Miles.
His voice rose no higher; for both were suddenly a little awed, as
though their spirits had caught some rushing echo of that broader
flood, the irrevocable and universal. And now some influence as
wide, something neither gradual nor swift, closed about them
powerfully. They had leaned forward, shoulder to shoulder, over the
brown pool; but at this mystical, blind accession, each felt the other
tremble and draw back.
A kingfisher chattered angrily, away in the upper reaches. It was the
recurring silence, however, that alarmed. Of all their silences, this
seemed as it were the end, the turning, and the explication. But still
it endured, throbbing with a perilous energy.
Slowly, in a kind of sleep-waking effort, the girl got upon her feet.
“Come,” she said. Her face, in the alder shadows, was very pale. A
shiver of light from the brook played golden about her throat, like
the reflected glow of buttercups in the children’s game.
“Come,” she repeated. “We can’t—we must get home.”
Moved by the helplessness of that command, he followed. They
crossed the sunset pastures almost without word or look, like
pilgrims crossing the Debatable Ground. And when they had climbed
the last hill, and come racing steeply down toward the river and the
house, she went straight to the shelter of Ella’s kitchen.
He did not see her alone again till that evening. Meanwhile he had
walked the shore, raging at himself for what had passed, put almost
beside his reason at thought of what might come. After blindness, it
was an aching sight that disclosed how their friendship—so
wholesome, firm, and precious—could change at a breath, and in
the most tranquil moment of security could totter above unknown
deeps. Was he then worse than Tony, and their house no better than
the drunkard’s? This girl had fled to him; she had taken his
promises, was here upon his honor; and now, because he had
willfully drifted down a pleasant way, they had reached such a pass
that—He closed the thought with a groan. By some detestable trick,
he foresaw, their very speech could no longer be free and honest.
She made no offer, that evening, to go down with him to the lamps;
and he was rather glad of the fact than sorry at its cause. To walk
alone from tower to tower, through the cool firs and cedars, proved
a respite. Yet when he faced the hill to return, trepidation seized him
afresh. He climbed toward the house, vexed and wondering; and for
the second time in all his memory, was afraid to enter.
She sat behind the candle-flame, a great book flattened wide on the
table, and her head bent over it as for dear life. All the brightness in
the room had gathered in this corner, and at first he dared not go
near. But it was now or never with his play-acting; and so, choosing
a book at random, he sat down opposite her resolutely, to begin the
pretense that all things remained as before.
Ella had gone to bed with the birds. Except the two readers, all the
world might have been asleep. Their breathing, and the tick of a
death watch in the wall, made the only sounds in house or valley.
For all the window stood open, the little blade of light between them
reared without wavering. This silence at full stretch, this
preposterous calmness at close range, were alike unreal and
unbearable. His book appeared to be “The Polar and Tropical
Worlds,” a treasury of boyhood; but the pictures swam in a blur—
icebergs, gorillas, the open coffin on Spitzbergen, the march of land-
crabs through a palm-grove, all an empty jumble. Sometimes his
eyesight escaped the page; but then perhaps he found her looking
up, by the same chance; caught for an instant, as her eyes dropped,
the last of a pitiful, appealing light; and plunged into his book again,
like a desperate man hunting a text of divination.
He might thus have turned a hundred pages, and she none at all,
when the contest ended. There came a stir, a little broken sound,
abrupt and choking, which tugged at his heart more than words.
“Oh,” she sobbed, “where can I go next?” and dropped head upon
arms, across the open volume.
As though a musket were shot off in the room, his chair had struck
the floor. He circled the table and caught her up, in a gust that sent
the candle-light reeling.
“Oh, what a wretched girl!” she cried, her voice stifled in his jacket.
All the inevitable drift of their summer, the whole multitude of their
hidden motives, shone clear before and about them,—a wide,
manifold peace in the tumult, like a field of daisies seen by lightning.
 CHAPTER X
TONY PASSES

The birds, after a dawning chorus of vehement, almost theatric joy,

made their first short flights from cover to cover among the elms.
The rim of eastern hills had grown incandescent, till like a coal of fire
snapping a tight cord, the sun burned through the horizon, and
drove thin vapors slowly across the river. They rolled back, parting
for a phantom Exodus. The breath of the sea mingled sharply with
cool fresh-water smells alongshore, and in the fields with the fairy
spice of dying strawberry leaves. It was that bright weather which
comes once in a man’s life; and Miles, his boots soaked in dew,
spattered to the knee with white and yellow petals, came wading
home through tall grass.
Ella was rattling about her stove, alone in the kitchen.
“Don’t track that gurry in here,” she commanded, glancing sourly.
“What’s the odds,” he laughed, “a morning like this? It’s all clean.”
She turned on him sharply, but in the same instant checking her
reply, gave him a suspicious, discountenancing stare.
“Leapin’ the fields, hey?” She slammed the iron door with something
like a grunt.
Miles sat down on the doorstep, as if to clean his boots, but in reality
to give his thoughts a breathing-space, survey the new kingdoms
which they had coursed, and take the height and depth of their
discovery. Not over the hills, or past the dazzling limit of the bay, but
here in these four walls lived his happiness. The old plans, long
disregarded and summer-fallow, now lay entirely barren. He had
meant to go away, to run about in the world, and for no purpose,
except to seek in new combinations what he might all the time have
left buried here. Here in this house the past grief, the present
transport, alike had found their man. And what greed could harry
more out of life? Nowhere else, here; in wonder he turned to look
indoors upon that homely and amazing theatre.
Instead, he saw Ella standing over him in the doorway. The
strangeness of her look at once laid hold of him; for the round,
freckled face was no longer whimsical, but sad, earnest, even a little
pale.
She was the first to speak.
“Don’t you be mad,” she began. “Don’t be mad with me, will ye, for
what I’m goin’ to say?”
“Why, Ella,” he laughed, “of course not. What’s the matter?”
“Lots.” She nodded, grave and threatening. “Lots the matter. I be’n a
foolish, cross-eyed old woman: that’s the first. Set up for a smart
contriver, and ’ain’t the brains o’ Larrabee’s calf. Oh, meddlin’ with
people! It’s dangerous, I tell ye, Miles, it’s dangerous! Ye mean well,
all along, and stir things round so clever (ye think), and then some
mornin’ wake up to see you’ve upsot all—hurrah’s nest, everything
on top, an’ nothin’ to hand!”
She made a clumsy, derisive gesture, and spoke on, hurriedly, a
tinge of red rising in her cheeks.
“Funny I’d use that sailor-talk I learnt from him. But there! Might’s
well say it: he was in my mind.” She looked away from Miles, and
down upon the river, where the topsails of a schooner, slate gray,
glided above the fir-points. “When ain’t he there? Though I guess
you never heard me talk o’ him before. Ben Constantine, that was—
Seems no more’n last week I see his tops’ls go down same as hers
now. And I never—I ain’t ever spoke of it sence. That’s how I know.
And that’s how I say it’s dangerous.”
Her eyes returned to him wearily, and yet with such depth and fire
as he had not known they could contain.
“What did I promise?” she cried, in reproach. “What else did I
promise your gran’father, that last day, but jest to take his place and
see you steered the course? And look at me, how I let all slide, so
long—because you and me and Anna has lived happy here! ’Tain’t a
world to be happy in, but to git ahead. And the Lord forgive me for
sayin’ that, if it should be a lie!”
He could only stare at her, astounded by this flame from ashes, this
grief, perplexity, and passionate conviction.
“So you must go. When I see that light to your eyes this mornin’,
and on your face—Oh, I know it still, these many years—Come, go,
before she ’pears to be somethin’ dropped down out the skies right
beside ye! But anyhow, ’fore that poor child thinks the same o’ you.
If ye don’t, what’s ahead for her? Oh, it takes me to know what!”
Miles held up a restraining hand.
“Too late, Ella,” he declared soberly. “She seems that already, and—I
told her.”
The woman dropped her arms as in defeat.
“Be good to us all!” she groaned. “It’s my fault.”
“I couldn’t help it,” he began weakly.
“Help it!” she snapped, with an instant change of temper. “I should
hope not! Help human natur’? Who are you, to talk that way?
Gunpowder’s gunpowder: it goes bang in the best settin’-room or
out in the street. But this time ’twas my fault.”
“No,” said a voice behind them, “it was mine.”
They turned like conspirators taken in the fact, and with a mixed
dismay; for the girl stood by the kitchen table, not only tranquil as a
judge, but white as a victim. Her bearing was unchanged, her voice
level; she had never seemed more beautiful, more necessary; and
yet the very friendship in her eyes struck him like a blow.
“The other door was open,” she said, with the same mortal
calmness. “At first I didn’t know you meant me. It’s my fault, Ella.
But it’s easy to set right. I’ll go this morning.”
They both cried out against her.
“Go! Hark the nonsense!” Ella tried cheerfully to bluster. “We was
jest talkin’! Go where?”
“It doesn’t matter where,” she answered steadily. “The main thing is
to go. I did wrong to stay at all, but—I didn’t understand.”
With a face as pale as her own, Miles stood grasping the door frame.
He had been raised above the world, to see the lighted prospect of
felicity; and now his pinnacle was knocked from under.
“Anna,” he ventured, moving heavily across the threshold. “Anna,
don’t—”
“I didn’t understand.” Her lips trembled slightly, but she met him still
with that intolerable friendliness. “The less we say now, the—the
better every way.”
All three stood at a loss, without speaking. There seemed no outlet
to their distress. The fire fluttering in the stove mocked them with
small, pleasant, household sounds.
Other sounds went unheeded. They heard a runner come pounding
down the hill, saw him flash past the window, and might never have
turned to look, had he not bounded in headlong at the door. Tony,
his black hair tousled as by a gale, his face fire-red and shining with
sweat, caught breath enough to laugh. The brown butt of a pistol
stuck out from the flap of his shirt.
“Miles, old mate, I need you!” he panted. They had not met since
the quarrel, yet here he stood, catching up their old relation as
handily as though he had but stepped outdoors a moment ago. “Run
up to Alward’s and fetch the boat, will you? I’m in a mess.” Catching
sight of the two women, he nodded cheerfully. “Hallo! No time for
shore manners. I’m in a mess. Come outside a jiffy.”
Miles followed him into the sunlight. Below the step Tony turned his
back upon the door, and spoke in a rapid undertone.
“I must get across that river. Savee?” His breath still came hard, his
face shone bright, like that of a man inspired by danger; and he
watched the hill above, with little side glances, cool and shrewd.
“Abe’s done it this time—killed a man. On the spree. Poor ass named
Furfey. Finish!”
In the same breath his indifference vanished. He looked Miles square
in the eye, full force.
“We’ve had our ins and outs,” he urged, “but you can’t think I’m up
to that, now! Can you?”
It was impossible to deny the man’s earnestness.
“All right, then,” he cried heartily. “If you believe me, I don’t care!
But they won’t! That teamster found it, and Abe’s got away clear.
Half Kilmarnock’s hanging about Alward’s; other half out chasing me,
pitchfork and blunderbuss. Get the boat, will you? I doubled and
slipped ’em, up there in the woods—”
In the act of nodding toward the hill, he paused and listened.
“Oh, did I, though?” he drawled satirically; then laughing like a
schoolboy, he shook his fist at the landscape, whirled about, and
darted into the house.
A squad of men bobbed into sight above the crest, and came
running heavily down. The first was Old-Hab; the last—fat, cautious,
and far behind—was Quinn the postmaster. They swarmed about
Miles at the door, all seven or eight, like men who had their fill of
running; but their eyes were sharpened, their tongues loosed, with
the excitement of a lifetime; and their firearms, though of a quaint
variety, were solid and efficacious.
Of the many questions, Old-Hab’s rose loudest.
“Where’s the murd’rer?” he shouted, grounding a “Zulu” fowling-
piece. “Which way’d he run, Mile?”
“What murderer?” said Miles, giving Tony all benefits.
“Why,” began Habakkuk, “the black man with the teeth—this Ital—”
But his followers sent up a roar.
“There he goes! There he goes!”
The whole posse swept on down the hill. Below, halfway to the
evergreens, Tony was racing in full view. He cleared the rough
hillside in flying bounds, nimble as a goat. By slipping through the
house he had gained such a screen for his start, that now, with fifty
yards to spare, he dove headfirst into the cedars, and disappeared.
Habakkuk’s men plunged after—Miles among the foremost—and,
lashing each other with springy branches as they fought through,
swung up river along the shore. The sailor thundered across the
gully bridge, clattered over the quarter-deck, and passed at once out
of earshot. Running their hardest, they caught neither sight nor
sound. Then suddenly, from the shore below, a man hallooed. The
roar of a gun shattered the early morning stillness, echoed along
rocks and river. Miles and the others breasted the lower bushes on
the headland, in time to see, against the white side of the stunted
obelisk ahead, a flying figure spring up, wrench open the door, slip
through, and slam it shut.
Round the next bend they nearly fell over a man stooping in the
path. He rose—a young giant with a shock of sun-bleached hair, who
grinned foolishly at Habakkuk.
“Nigh winged ’im, pa,” he chuckled. “Thought I hed, but don’t see no
blood.”
“Ye brimston’ w’elp!” cried his father bitterly. “Who wants to see
any?”
“W’elp, hey?” retorted Lazy-Hab, serene as an ox. “Who else was a-
watchin’ the shore? He woulden’ ’a’ run inland. Stood to reason.” He
blew the smoke from his gun-barrel, and added proudly: “All is,
’twas me doubled ’im. We got ’im now, tighter ’n pitch.”
As they drew near, no sound came from the little tower. The sailor
had gained, at least, the high advantage of being neither heard nor
seen. Halting, the men waited in uneasy silence,—so uneasy, that
they began to scatter behind firs and boulders. Old-Hab stood in the
open, negligently, but with a face more weazened than ever.
“Inside there!” he called, in a doubtful tone. “The’ ’s been fogo
enough, fer one mornin’. Master fogo. Better come out and make it
no worse. We don’t hanker fer no more shootin’.”
“More you’ll get, if you try to rush me.” Tony’s voice rang hollow
within the walls. “I’m better at it, too, than that young red-headed
savage, there.” He paused. “I tell you. There’s just one way out o’
this nonsense. Send Miles Bissant in here. I can trust him. We’ll
splice things up. Fair play, now, and flag o’ truce, mind you! Him
alone, or I’ll—”
“That’s fair,” said Miles, and stepped forward.
Old-Hab clutched his arm.
“It’s a trick!” he whispered. “Don’t ye go, Mile. It’s a trick! He might
—ye may git hurt—”
“Somebody may, anyhow,” Miles answered, pulling free. “Keep your
men back.” He walked to the foot of the lighthouse, and called,
“Here you are, Tony.”
The door swung barely enough to let him squeeze through, and
slammed at once. In the gloom, he heard the lock click, and Tony
laugh quietly.
“Lucky I forgot to give up my key! Got yours with you?”
Miles fumbled in his pockets. “No,” he answered.
“Good boy! Great!” The sailor swore joyfully under his breath. “They
haven’t caught me yet! Come topside where I can see you.”
They climbed the stairs, and, blinking at the sudden daylight glare in
the lamp-room, sat face to face on opposite edges of the trap-door.
Tony laid his pistol at his thigh, leaned back against a coil of rope,
and swung his feet comfortably in the lower darkness.
“It’s bad pidgin,” he said, frowning. “Bad. Only some revenue skunk,
but then! What business has a dead man to look so beastly
respectable, all at once? Damn it!” Heaving his shoulders, he
laughed scornfully. “Abe was getting ready to sell me out. The price,
I fancy, was where they disagreed.”
He spat down the stairway, in disgust.
“Funny,” he continued after a pause; “you’re the only person would
believe me. It’s just Abe’s word against mine, and he’s got clear. If
they catch me—Humph! Finish!” He patted the coil of rope, and
dropped head on shoulder, in a shocking pantomime. “But you’re the
one I expected to founder on, not Abe. Ever since you sighted old
Quong that night—you remember? The Chinaman: he bought for
me. And yet here you sit, the one man to believe me!”—He leaned
across, clapped Miles on the shoulder, and shook him gently. His face
lighted, very grave and simple. “Lied to you so much, I don’t—
Anyhow, God bless you, old Sober-sides!”
He leaned back again, laughed as though ashamed, and swung his
feet vigorously.
“Opium was our game,” he said. “Tidy consignment stowed across
the river. If I could once get over, and see Graves, the rest is all
greased ways. I’d have made it, too, but that young red-head” (he
raised a tattered shirt-sleeve) “nearly blew my arm off. We’ve seen
enough of that. But we’ll see worse, unless you do what I ask you.
They’re fools, but no cowards; that’s what I figure on—Just one way;
do it, and all’s right and tight, every man Jack, safe and sound. Will
you?”
“What is it?” said Miles. “I came up here to make terms.”
“So you did,” laughed Florio. “And here’s mine. You slip down, quiet
as you can; unlock the door, quiet as you can; leave the key in the
lock, and wait on the stairs till I signal you to come topside again. I
promise not to lay a finger on one of ’em. Solemn!” Seeing Miles
hesitate, he scrambled to his feet briskly. “Take or leave it, that’s my
ultimatum. They’ve got me in a clove hitch. Lies with you, now, to
fetch us all out alive.”
Slowly, far from satisfied, Miles swung down through the floor. He
had already sunk into the darkness, when Tony called,—
“Steady a bit.”
He saw the man’s head and shoulder, sharp in the lighted square
above; saw a great arm thrust down; and felt his own hand gripped
with a surprising warmth.
“About that girl,” growled Tony. “I hope you know that she’s a
wonder. You made me damned mad, because—Well, I’m getting old,
maybe. I really did—She did fetch me. You that’s young! Tell her
that, some day.”
He let go, and drew back out of sight. Miles, in astonishment,
groped his way down to the door. A few light, scurrying sounds came
from above; the turning key squeaked faintly; then all the hollow
shaft was filled with silence.
He saw neither purpose nor sense in their agreement, which, the
longer he waited, the less he liked. Tony’s afterthought, moreover,
stuck oddly in his memory, like words at parting. He had begun to
wonder what signal the sailor would give, when, sudden and
deafening in that confinement, a pistol-shot rang overhead.
 CHAPTER XI
THE RISK

He took the stairs at a bound, stumbling in the dark. Below, while he

mounted, an uproar broke out. “Come ahead! No! I told ye! Wait,
hol’ on! What, leave him? Stave ’er in!” Through it sounded another
voice, clear as the ring of good metal in a brawl. “Afraid!” It was
Anna, crying indignantly, “And you sent him! Grown men, afraid?
Then I will without you!”
Next moment—catching his breath like a diver, at thought of what he
was about to see—he surged up through the bright square. He met
an equal shock of relief and bewilderment. A pair of boots lay on the
floor; white layers of smoke drew thinly past the gleaming brass-
work of the lamp; but except for these and the smell of gunpowder,
the room was empty. The sailor—it seemed at first glance—had
vanished like a goblin. But though the stair shook with hurried
trampling, Miles heard above it a sharp, jerky, sawing noise, cut
short just as a bight of rope, rasping double round a beam, uncoiled
and flew single out at the open window. Tony was gone, then, in no
flash of fire; but why had he shot off his pistol?
Before Miles could find the answer, a scuffle rose at the stair-head.
“Leave go! Let me go!” cried Anna furiously.
“No, ye don’t! Me first!” And Old-Hab swarmed up through the
opening. Whatever he expected to encounter, his face was white
with anything but fear. “You!” he exclaimed, lowering his gun. “You!
Where’s—Thank God, ’t any rate!”
Behind him the girl’s head rose, gleaming first in the sun, then—as
she found Miles—with an inward and more vital splendor. They did
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