the triumph of either heaven or
hell.
"EASTERN CONVENTION DISPERSED.
PEACE, NOT WAR.
UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD ESTABLISHED.
FELSENBURGH IN LONDON TO-NIGHT."
* * * * *
III
It was not until nearly two hours later that Percy was standing at the
house beyond the Junction.
He bad argued, expostulated, threatened, but the officials were like
men possessed. Half of them had disappeared in the rush to the City, for
it had leaked out, in spite of the Government's precautions, that Paul's
House, known once as St. Paul's Cathedral, was to be the scene of
Felsenburgh's reception. The others seemed demented; one man on the
platform had dropped dead from nervous exhaustion, but no one appeared
to care; and the body lay huddled beneath a seat. Again and again Percy
had been swept away by a rush, as he struggled from platform to platform
in his search for a car that would take him to Croydon. It seemed that
there was none to be had, and the useless carriages collected like
drift-wood between the platforms, as others whirled up from the country
bringing loads of frantic, delirious men, who vanished like smoke from
the white rubber-boards. The platforms were continually crowded, and as
continually emptied, and it was not until half-an-hour before midnight
that the block began to move outwards again.
Well, he was here at last, dishevelled, hatless and exhausted, looking
up at the dark windows.
He scarcely knew what he thought of the whole matter. War, of course,
was terrible. And such a war as this would have been too terrible for
the imagination to visualise; but to the priest's mind there were other
things even worse. What of universal peace--peace, that is to say,
established by others than Christ's method? Or was God behind even this?
The questions were hopeless.
Felsenburgh--it was he then who had done this thing--this thing
undoubtedly greater than any secular event hitherto known in
civilisation. What manner of man was he? What was his character, his
motive, his method? How would he use his success?... So the points flew
before him like a stream of sparks, each, it might be, harmless; each,
equally, capable of setting a world on fire. Meanwhile here was an old
woman who desired to be reconciled with God before she died....
* * * * *
He touched the button again, three or four times, and waited. Then a
light sprang out overhead, and he knew that he was heard.
"I was sent for," he exclaimed to the be
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