tered with a sheaf of proof galleys.

"Did you see that tall gentleman pass out, Charley?" he asked. "Did he
go down stairs, or into one of the other offices?"

"Tall gennelman, sir? There aint bin no one come along this way, sir,
nobody couldn't pass my little hutch wivout me a seein' on 'em. I
ain't been out no wheres, an' I knows no one aint come by--least ways,
not this way, not past my place."

"If any tall gentleman does come up, Charley, show him in to me, at
once please."

Ralph had had time, during Charley's extended answer, to recover
himself from the amaze that the boy's first sentence has produced in
him.

"That's all, Charley!" he added, turning to his desk.

The boy gave him a curious, puzzled look, lingered for the fraction of
a second, then slowly turned and left the office.

When the door had closed behind him, Ralph, who had _felt_ all that had
passed in that moment of the boy's hesitancy, though he had purposely
refrained from looking up, lifted his head and glanced around him.

"If I did not know better," he murmured, "I should suppose that the
whole incident was but a dream, or hallucination."

A perplexed look filled his face, as he continued:

"What does it all mean?"

Again, in a flash, the memory of that Judas sermon swept back over him,
and the startling statement recurred to him "Somewhere, even as I have
preached of him, and as you have listened, there is, I believe, a young
man of noble stature, exceedingly attractive, wealthy, fascinating,
bewitching in fact, since 'all the world will wonder after him'--yes,
somewhere in the world, perhaps in this very city where we are now
gathered, is the young man who, presently, when our Lord has come, when
the Church, and the Holy Spirit are gone, will manifest himself as the
Anti-christ."

Coming back at this particular moment, Ralph asked himself: "Is Lucien
Apleon the Anti-christ?"

He paused an instant, then, as a sudden startling sense of assurance of
the fact swept into his soul he cried:

"He is! I have seen the Anti-christ!"

For nearly an hour he sat on his chair, his mind wrapped in deep
thought, and occasionally referring to a book of prophecy which Tom
Hammond had evidently deeply studied.

At the end of the hour, he bowed his head upon his hands, and held
silent communion with God, seeking wisdom to write and speak and live
the Truth.

CHAPTER III.

"TO THE WORLD, THE FLESH, AND THE DEVIL"

The next day