--another moment and
it will be over; and yet the watcher cannot interfere. The supernatural
thus lay, perfect and alive, but immeasurably tiny; the huge forces were
in motion, the world was heaving up, and Percy could do nothing but
stare and frown. Yet, as has been said, there was no shadow on his
faith; the fly he knew was greater than the engine from the superiority
of its order of life; if it were crushed, life would not be the final
sufferer; so much he knew, but how it was so, he did not know.

As the two sat there, again came a step and a tap; and a servant's face
looked in.

"His Lordship is come, Eminence," he said.

The Cardinal rose painfully, supporting himself by the table. Then he
paused, seeming to remember something, and fumbled in his pocket.

"See that, father," he said, and pushed a small silver disc towards the
priest. "No; when I am gone."

Percy closed the door and came back, taking up the little round object.

It was a coin, fresh from the mint. On one side was the familiar wreath
with the word "fivepence" in the midst, with its Esperanto equivalent
beneath, and on the other the profile of a man, with an inscription.
Percy turned it to read:

"JULIAN FELSENBURGH, LA PREZIDANTE DE UROPO."

III

It was at ten o'clock on the following morning that the Cardinals were
summoned to the Pope's presence to hear the allocution.

Percy, from his seat among the Consultors, watched them come in, men of
every nation and temperament and age--the Italians all together,
gesticulating, and flashing teeth; the Anglo-Saxons steady-faced and
serious; an old French Cardinal leaning on his stick, walking with the
English Benedictine. It was one of the great plain stately rooms of
which the Vatican now chiefly consisted, seated length wise like a
chapel. At the lower end, traversed by the gangway, were the seats of
the Consultors; at the upper end, the dais with the papal throne. Three
or four benches with desks before them, standing out beyond the
Consultors' seats, were reserved for the arrivals of the day before
--prelates and priests who had poured into Rome from every European
country on the announcement of the amazing news.

Percy had not an idea as to what would be said. It was scarcely possible
that nothing but platitudes would be uttered, yet what else could be
said in view of the complete doubtfulness of the situation? All that was
known even this morning was that the Presidentship of Europe