whole chapel, and the
Precursor, who all along had been crouching at the foot of the throne,
turned quickly and anxiously towards his master.

But the Prophet reassured him by a gesture. It seemed that he was
exalted by some emotion, lifted above his surroundings by some invisible
power.

"Put yourselves in this boy's place!" he cried. "Was there ever a
position so intensely human? The thing he had striven for--the thing he
needed inordinately--had been wrenched from him by a band of people who,
in his eyes, were either fools or knaves. What would you have done in
his position? What would have been your impulse? What your instinct? If
I know anything of human nature, it would have been the same as
his--precisely, accurately the same as his!

"He had known for years of this sect to which his master belonged; and
for years he had held it in contempt. In his normal, youthful eyes, the
idea of a creed that denied the high, simple theory of Christianity, and
awaited the coming of a mythical Prophet was a subject for healthy
scorn. And now suddenly it was forced upon his understanding that this
anaemic sect--this mystical, anticipated Prophet--were his rivals--the
despoilers of his private intimate hopes.

"Such a knowledge has power to work a miracle; and in one single night
it changed this boy into a man. Embittered, hopeless, stranded,
inspiration came to him. He conceived the tremendous idea of entering
upon a new fight--a second quest of the great inheritance. He conceived
the idea; and standing, as it were, upon a different plane of life, he
saw--"

But the Prophet got no further. With a gesture of violent excitement,
Bale-Corphew rose; at the same instant the Precursor sprang to his feet
and stood in a defensive attitude before the Throne.

The whole scene was enacted in a second. Enid, grasping its full
meaning, turned very white and dropped back into her seat, while the
whole congregation strained forward in unanimous amazement and
curiosity.

And then, for the first time, the hot, angry glance of Bale-Corphew met
that of the Prophet. He glared at him for one moment in speechless rage,
then he turned to the people.

"Mystics!" he cried, in a choked voice. "In accordance with a solemn
duty, I--I proclaim this man to be--"

But before he could proceed the Precursor interrupted.

"People! Mystics!" he cried, raising his penetrating voice. "Is this
right? Is this permissible?"

A murmur rose from the chap