nk the man has come by a just fall," said John. "God will never use
him again, having brought him to shame."

"Must hev been a wrong un certingly," said the man over the fire.

When John Storm awoke in his cubicle next morning he saw his way clearer.
He would deliver himself up to the warrant that was issued for his
arrest, and go through with it to the end. Then he would return to Glory
a free man, and God would find work for him even yet, after this awful
lesson to his presumption and pride.

"That feller as was took ter the awspital is dead," said somebody in the
kitchen, and then there was the crinkling of a newspaper.

"Is 'e?" said another. "The best thing the Father can do is to 'ook it
then. Cause why? Whether 'e done it or not they'll fix it on ter 'im,
doncher know!"

John's head spun round and round. He remembered what Brother Andrew had
said of Charlie Wilkes, and his heart, so warm a moment ago, felt
benumbed as by frost. Nevertheless, at nine o'clock he was going westward
in the Underground. People looked at him when he stepped into the
carriage. He thought everybody knew him, and that the world was only
playing with him as a cat plays with a mouse. The compartment was full of
young clerks smoking pipes and reading newspapers.

"Most extraordinary!" said one of them. "The fellow has disappeared as
absolutely as if he had been carried up into a cloud."

"Why extraordinary?" said another in a thin voice. This one was not
smoking, and he had the startled eyes of the enthusiast. "Elijah was
taken up to heaven in the body, wasn't he? And why not Father Storm?"

"What?" cried the first, taking his pipe out of his mouth.

"Some people believe that," said the thin voice timidly.

"Oh, you want a dose of medicine, you do," said the first speaker,
shaking out his ash and looking round with a knowing air. The young men
got out in the City; John went on to Westminster Bridge.

It was terrible. Why could he not take advantage of the popular
superstition and disappear indeed, taking Glory with him! But no, no, no!

Through all the torment of his soul his religion had remained the same,
and now it rose up before him like a pillar of cloud and fire. He would
do as he had intended, whatever the consequences, and if he was charged
with crimes he had not committed, if he was accused of the offences of
his followers, he would make no defence; if need be he would allow
himself to be convicted, and being innocent in