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one of them horns was a dispensation, an' five of 'em's gone. The flight of the childern of Egypt, the sack of Jerusalem by the Romans, the reign of the Emperor Napoleon who was the Anti-Christ mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Now, multiplyin' these by nine hunderd an' ninety-nine gives you the limit of Time, an' that ends on the sixteenth of next October. Then Saint John says, 'The heavens shall roll up like a scroll an' pass away; an' there shall be a new heaven an' a new earth. An' Satan shall be chained for a thousan' years, an' after that the Lamb o' God shall come down to—"

In the midst of this dithyramb a shudder ran through Abner, and he pointed, gasping, "Oh, Mr. Meredith, Look! Look!"

The old Squire looked. A meteor had flamed suddenly against the lemon-coloured west. It moved with deliberate brilliance across the sky and faded.

The old mystic looked at the burning sign without an extra heart beat. Christ Himself, walking down the sky along the lanes of light, would not have disturbed the rhythm of his thought, so many times had he imagined exactly such a scene. He turned to the boy.

"That's a sign from God, Abner," he said solemnly. "It's a sign to me an' you who b'lieve in Him and who trust His Holy Word. Jest a few more short months an' all this will pass away."

He made an awkward gesture over the blue-and-orange evening, and then the mules, impelled by the coming night, suddenly trotted down the hill with the wagon and men into the chill and gloom of the valley below them.