Page:Arminell, a social romance (1896).djvu/74

66 Soft they usually were, and dreamy, but now, all at once they kindled into vehement life.

"I tell you, Tubb, the Lord hath spoken. The last days are at hand. I read my Bible and I read my newspaper, and I know that the aristocracy are a scandal and a burden to the country. Now the long-suffering of heaven will not tarry. It has been revealed to me that they are doomed to destruction."

"Revealed to you!"

"Yes, to me, an unworthy creature, as none know better than myself, full of errors and faults and blindness—and yet—to me. I was wrestling in spirit near the water's edge, thinking of these things, when, suddenly, I heard a voice from heaven calling me."

"How—by name? Did it call you Cap'n?"

Saltren hesitated. "I can't mind just now whether it said, Saltren, Saltren! or whether it said Mister, or whether Cap'n, or Stephen. I daresay I shall remember by-and-by when I come to turn it over in my mind. But all has come on me so freshly, so suddenly, that I am still dazed with the revelations."

"Go on," said Tubb, shaking his head dubiously.

"And when I looked up, I saw a book come flying down to me out of heaven, and I held up my hands to receive it, but it went by me into the water hard by where I was."

"Somebody chucked it at you," exclaimed the practical Tubb.

"I tell you, it came down out of heaven," said Saltren, impatiently. "You have no faith. I saw the book, and before I could lay hold of it, it went under the raft—I mean, it went down, down in the water, and I beheld it no more."

"What sort of a book was it?"

"I saw it but for a moment, as it floated with the back upwards, before it disappeared. There was a head on it