than
the fact that this intensely practical young man had sought the other
and protected him so long.

"Your friend is in the habit of wandering, is he not?" asked Trenholme,
guardedly.

"Can't say that he is since he came here, Principal. He's just like a
child, coming in when it's dark. I've never"--he spoke with zeal--"I've
never known that good old gentleman out as late as this, and it's
stormy."

"Did you come here under the idea that I knew anything about him?"

"Well, no, I can't say that I did; but I reckoned you knew your Bible
pretty well, and that you were the nearest neighbour of mine that did."
There was an attempt at nervous pleasantry in this, perhaps to hide real
earnestness.

Trenholme frowned. "I don't understand you."

"Well, 'twould be strange if you did, come to think of it; but I'm
mighty uneasy about that old man, and I've come to ask you what the
Bible really does say about the Lord's coming. Whether he's crazed or
not, that old man believes that He's coming to-night. He's been telling
the folks all day that they ought to go out with joy to meet Him. I
never thought of him budging from the house till some _manifestation_
occurred, which I thought _wouldn't_ occur, but when I found just now he
was gone, it struck me all of a heap that he was gone out with that
idea. I do assure you"--he spoke earnestly--"that's what he's after at
this very time. He's gone out to meet Him, and I came to ask
you--well--what sort of a place he'd be likely to choose. He knows his
Bible right off, that old gentleman does; he's got his notions out of
it, whether they're right or wrong."

Trenholme stared at him. It was some time before the young man's ideas
made their way into his mind. Then he wondered if his apparent
earnestness could possibly be real.

"Your application is an extraordinary one," he said stiffly.

Harkness was too sensitive not to perceive the direction the doubt had
taken. "It may be extraordinary, but I do assure you it's genuine."

As he grew to believe in the youth's sincerity, Trenholme thought he
perceived that, although he had asked what would be the probable
direction of the enthusiast's wanderings, the dentist was really
stricken with doubt as to whether the prediction might not possibly be
correct, and longed chiefly to know Trenholme's mind on that important
matter.

"This crazy fellow is astray in his interpretation of Scripture," he
said, "if he believes that it teaches th