ning of what the
song of the trio meant. Then, with a roar like ten thousand lions,
they shouted:

"Kill them! Murder them!"

The priest raised his hand, the bugler sounded "Silence." The old hush
fell upon the people, instantly, and the priest, with a triumphant note
ringing in his voice, and with an equally triumphant smile on his face,
cried:

"We have anticipated the action of such rebels as these, and have
prepared for them. Outside there has been already set up an
automatically-locked scaffold--"

With a wave of his hand towards our trio, he cried; "To the block with
them, unless they instantly worship."

Pointing with his long index finger to the three Protesters, he
shouted: "Kneel!"

For answer they drew themselves upright, and with a ringing gladness
began to sing:

"Crown Jesus Lord of all!"

Instantly they were seized, and hurried out of one of the side
entrances. With the utmost difficulty a way was cleared for the
passage of the priests and the three victims--the bugler going ahead
sounding sharp notes of warning on his instrument.

They reached the front of the cathedral, at last. The whole of the
space in the front, at the sides, and far away into "The Fan" was
packed with a seething, excited mass of human life.

Twenty feet high, a light but strong scaffold had been rapidly, and
practically silently, erected--the whole structure having all its
separate parts fitted with automatic lockings. The scaffold stood just
_out_side the railings that fenced the cathedral from the "Fan."

On the platform of the scaffold was a conical-shaped block, enamelled
in a brilliant red. A huge fellow, leaning on the handle of a
wide-bladed gleaming axe, stood by the side of the block.

The trio of _Protestants_ were taken up the steps of the scaffold. Two
priests accompanied them. The chief of the two priests, he who had led
the chant in the cathedral, held up before the trio a silver figure of
Apleon, about eighteen inches long, and, (amid the intense silence all
around, his words were distinctly heard) cried: "Will you worship God?"

"We _do_ worship God--but we will not worship either the Anti-christ,
Anti-God, or his image!"

It was Ralph who, in ringing fearless tones, replied, the other two
responding with:

"Amen! Amen! to our God who sitteth on The Throne, and to the Lamb, for
ever!"

A savage roar swept upwards from the maddened mass below.

Ralph was told to bow his head upon