,
boundless, utter, simple, limitless, staggering, appalling them.

Its consummation? That was another thing--a thing that in the presence
of such faith as this brought human pity, sympathy and sorrow to its
full, brought dread and terror. Faith such as this they had never
conceived; faith such as this, if it was to prove a shattered thing, was
for its exponent to drink the very dregs of misery and despair--and
yet, rising above that possibility, flinging grim challenge at their
doubts, stood this very faith, mighty in itself, perfect in its
confidence, heroic in its agony, that all might gaze upon from a common
standpoint and know--as faith.

No whispering breeze stirred the young leaves in the trees; in the
stillness of the afternoon came only the heavy, pulsing throb of
Nature's breathing. One hundred, two, three hundred, they moved along,
slow, sinuous, troubled, their eyes straight before them or upon the
ground at their feet--only the children looked with frightened, startled
eyes into their parents' faces, and clung the closer.

Out upon the wagon track they debouched and spread in a long, thin line
beneath the maples on either side of the Flopper--and waited.

--X--

THE MIRACLE

There was utter silence now--the tread of shuffling feet was gone--no
man moved--it seemed as though no man _breathed_--they stood as carven
things, inanimate, men, women and children strained forward, their faces
drawn, tense and rigid. In the very air, around them, everywhere,
imprisoning them, clutching like an icy hand at the heart, something
unseen, a dread, intangible presence weighed them down and lay heavy
upon them. What was to come? What drear tragedy was to be enacted? What
awful mockery was to fall upon this maimed and mutilated creature within
whose deformed and pitiful body there too was a human soul?

From the cottage door across the lawn came two figures--a girl in
simple, clinging white, her head bowed, the sun itself seeming to caress
the dark brown wealth of hair upon her head, changing it to glinting
strands of burnished copper; and beside her walked the Patriarch, his
hand resting lightly upon her arm, a wondrous figure of a man, majestic,
simple, grand, his silvered-hair bared to the sun, his face illumined.

"There he is, mister!" whispered young Holmes hoarsely. "There he is! Go
on, mister, go on--see what he can do for you!"

There came a sound that was like a great, gasping intake of breath, a