torm remarked to himself: "The tempest of the children
must have spent itself by this. Now is the time to show them who is
master here." Whereupon he rose up, pounded the table with his
fist, and thundered: "Stop! What's the meaning of all this
racketing? I'm going now, and you must go, too, so that I may put
out the lights and lock up."

Some of them actually did get up, for they had all gone to Storm's
school, and knew that when their teacher rapped on the table it
meant that everybody had to mind. Yet the majority stoically kept
their seats.

"The schoolmaster forgets that now we are grown men," said one;
"but he still seems to think we should run just because he happens
to rap on the table!" said another.

They went right on talking about their wanting to hear some new
speakers, and which ones they should call in. They were already
quarrelling among themselves as to whether it should be the
Waldenstromites or colporteurs from the National Evangelical
Union.

The schoolmaster stood staring at the assemblage as if he were
looking at some weird monstrosity. For up to that time he had seen
only the child in each individual face. But now all the round baby
cheeks, the soft baby curls, and the mild baby eyes had vanished,
and he saw only a gathering of adults, with hard, set faces; he
felt that over such as these he had no control. He did not even
know what to say to them.

The tumult continued, growing louder and louder. The schoolmaster
kept still and let them rage. Bullet Gunner, Ljung Bjoern, and
Krister Larsson led the attack. Hoek Matts, who was the innocent
cause of all the trouble, rose to his feet time and again and
begged them to be quiet, but no one listened to him.

Once again the schoolmaster glanced down at the parson, who was
still quietly musing, the same gleam in his eyes, which were fixed
on the schoolmaster.

"He's probably thinking of that evening four years ago when I told
him I would build a mission," thought Storm. "He was right, too.
Everything has turned out just as he said it would: heresy, revolt,
and division. Perhaps we might have escaped all this if I hadn't
been so bent upon building my Zion."

The instant this became clear to the schoolmaster, his head went
up and his backbone straightened. He drew from his pocket a small
key of polished steel. It was the key to Zion! He held it toward
the light so that it could be seen from all parts of the hall.

"Now I'm going to lay this k