l all follow me when I drive out of town in the morning," declared
Mr. Bangs. "And what that king pin, name o' Britt, is building that
palace over there for is beyond my guess."

"Expects to grab off the girl of the Vaniman case," said the aide, who
had put himself in the way of hearing all the local gossip.

Mr. Bangs lighted a fresh cigar. "Say, I'd like to find out whether this
stir here is a go-upper proposition. I'd join the party and go up, too,
if I thought I could locate that cashier and find out where he hid that
mess of gold."

"Try the ouija board," giggled the aide.

However, in his desperate desire for information in general Mr. Bangs
proceeded to try something which suited better his practical turn of
mind.

He hailed Prophet Elias, who had appeared in the open door of Usial
Britt's shop. The gloom of the autumn evening was deepened by vapor
which came drifting from the lowlands after the night air had chilled
the moisture evoked by the sun from the soil. The open door set a patch
of radiance on the dun robe of the dusk. The light spread upon the
vapor, was diffused in it, furnished an aura of soft glow in the center
of which stood the robed figure.

Deputy Bangs's first hail, when Elias opened the door and stood
revealed, was contemptuously brusque; he used the tone he commonly
employed toward his charges in prison; he perceived at first only the
queer old chap, the dusty plodder of the highways, the man of cracked
wits. Bangs spoke as an officer, peremptorily: "Say, you! Come over
here. I want to talk with you!"

The Prophet made no move, either with his feet or his tongue. In the
haze that lay between him and Bangs, the man of the robe seemed to tower
and to take on a mystic dignity which had been lacking in the candid
light of day. After the silence had continued for some time Bangs spoke
again. His new manner showed that his eyes had been reprimanding his
tongue. "Excuse me! I didn't mean to sound short. But would you kindly
step across here? Or"--the eyes certainly had shamed the tongue and had
humbled it--"or I'll come over there, if you'd rather have it that way."

The Prophet strode along the misty path of light and stood in the middle
of the road. "Talk--but I must ask you to talk to the point and in few
words. I have no time to waste on gossip."

"All right! Few words it is! What's the matter with this town all of a
sudden?"

"Ask Pharaoh. The kingdom is his."

"I don't get you!"