you will obey any order given you?"
"Straightway."
"Take this firearm and load it."
"What am I to do with it?"
"Cock it."
The stranger set the hammer, and the click of it going on full cock was plainly heard in the deep stillness.
"Clap the muzzle to your temple," ordered the president, and the suppliant obeyed without hesitating.
The silence deepened over all; the lamps seemed to fade, and the bystanders had no more breath than ghosts.
"Fire!" exclaimed the president.
The hammer fell and the flint emitted sparks in the pan; but it was only the powder there which took fire and no report followed its ephemeral flame.
An outcry of admiration burst from nearly every breast, and the president instinctively held out his hand toward the novice.
But two tests were not enough for some doubters who called out: "The dagger!"
"Since you require it, bring the dagger," said the presiding officer.
"It is useless," interrupted the stranger, shaking his head disdainfully.
"What do you mean?" asked several voices.
"Useless," repeated the new-comer, in a voice rising above all the others, "for you are wasting precious time. I know all your secrets, and these childish proofs are unworthy the head of sensible beings. That man was not murdered; the stuff I drank was wine hid in a pouch on his chest; the bullet and powder I loaded the trick-pistol with fell into a hollow in the stock when the weapon was cocked. Take back the sham arm, only good to frighten cowards. Rise, you lying corpse; you cannot frighten the strong-minded."
A terrible roar shook the hall.
"To know our mysteries, you must be an initiate or a spy," said the president.
"Who are you?" demanded three hundred voices together, as a score of swords shone in the grip of the nearest and were lowered by the regular movement of trained soldiers toward the intruder's bosom.
Calm and smiling, he lifted his head, wound round with the sacred fillet, and replied:
"I am the Man for the Time."
Before his lordly gaze the blades lowered unevenly as they on whom it fell obeyed promptly or tried to resist the influence.
"You have made a rash speech," said the president, "but it may have been spoken without your knowing its gravity."
"I have replied as I was bound," said the other, shaking his head and smiling.
"Whence come you, then?" questioned the chief.
"From the quarter whence cometh the Light," was the response.
"That is the East, and we are informed that you come from Sweden."
"I may have passed through there from the Orient," said the stranger.
"Still we know you not. A second time, who are you?"
"I will tell you in a while, since you pretend not to know me; but, meantime, I will tell you who you are."
The spectres shuddered and their swords clanked as they shifted them from the left to the right hands again to point them at his breast.
"To begin with you," said the stranger, pointing to the chief, "one who fancies himself a god and is but a forerunner—the representative of the Swedish Circles—I will name you, though I need not name the others. Swedenborg, have not the angels, who speak familiarly with you, revealed that the Man you expect was on the way?"
"True, they told me so," answered the principal, parting his shroud the better to look out.
This act, against the rule and habit during the rites, displayed the venerable countenance and snowy beard of an old man of eighty.
"And on your left," continued the stranger, "sits the representative of Great Britain, the chief of the Scottish Rites. I salute your lordship. If the blood of your forefathers runs in your veins, England may hope not to have the Light die out."
The swords dropped, for anger was yielding to surprise.
"So this is you, captain?" went on the stranger to the last leader on the president's left; "in what port have you left your handsome cruiser, which you love like a lass. The Providence is a gallant frigate, and the name brings good luck to America."
"Now for your turn, Prophet of Zurich," he said to the man on the right of the chief. "Look me in the face, since you have carried the science of Physiognomy to divination, and tell me if you do not read my mission in the lines of my face?"
The person addressed recoiled a step.
"As for you, descendant of Pelagius, for a second time the Moors must be driven out of Spain. It would be an easy matter if the Castilians have not lost the sword of the Cid."
Mute and motionless dwelt the fifth chief: the voice seemed to have turned him to stone.
"Have you nothing to say to me?" inquired the sixth delegate, anticipating the denouncer who seemed to forget him.
"Yea, to you I have to say what the Son of the Great Architect said to Judas, and I will speak it in a while."
So replied the traveler, fastening on him one of those glances which pierced to the heart.
The hearer became whiter than his shroud, while a murmur ran round the gathering, wishful to call the accused one to account.
"You forget the delegate of France," observed the chief.
"He is not among you—as you well know, for there is his vacant place," haughtily made answer the stranger. "Bear in mind that such tricks make them smile who can see in the dark; who act in spite of the elements, and live though Death menaces them."
"You are a young man to speak thus with the authority of a divinity," resumed the principal. "Reflect, yourself—impudence only stuns the ignorant or the irresolute."
"You are all irresolute," retorted the stranger, with a smile of supreme scorn, "or you would have acted against me. You are ignorant, since you do not know me, while I know ye all. With boldness alone I succeed against you, but boldness would be vain against one with irresistible power."
"Inform us with a proof of this power," said the Swedenborg.
"What brings ye together?"
"The Supreme Council."
"Not without intention," went on the visitant, "have you come from all quarters, to gather in the sanctuary of the Terrible Faith."
"Surely not," replied the Swede; "we come to hail the person who has founded a mystic empire in the Orient, uniting the two hemispheres in a commonalty of beliefs, and joining the hands of human brotherhood."
"Would
