The most absurd tales were now told, said Mr. Gridley, of the miracles of healing wrought by this person—­told, moreover, by persons of intelligence whom in ordinary matters one would not hesitate to trust.  There had even been a story started, which was widely believed, that he had raised the dead; moreover, many of those who had been deluded into believing themselves healed, looked forward confidently to his own resurrection.

Mr. Gridley ventured the opinion that we should be thankful to the daily press which now disseminates the news of such things promptly, instead of allowing it to travel slowly by word of mouth, as it did in less advanced times—­a process in which a little truth becomes very shortly a mighty untruth.  Even between Denver and Omaha he had observed that the wonder-tales of this person grew apace, thus proving the inaccuracy of the human mind as a reporter of fact.  Without the check of an unemotional daily press Mr. Gridley suspected that the poor creature’s performances would have been magnified by credulous gossip until he became the founder of a new religion—­a thing especially to be dreaded in a day when the people were crazed for any new thing—­as Paul found them in Athens.

Mr. Gridley mentioned further that the person had suffered from what the alienists called “morbid delusions of grandeur”—­believing, indeed, that but One other in the universe was greater than himself; that he would sit at the right hand of Power to judge all the world.  His most puerile pretension, however, was that he meant to live, even if the work required a thousand years, until such time as he could save all persons into heaven, so that hell need have no occupants.

But this distressing tale did not move old Allan Delcher to reconsider his perverse decision, though there had been ample time for reparation.  Placidly he dropped off one day, a little while after he had cautioned Clytie to keep the house ready for Bernal’s coming; and to have always on hand one of those fig layer-cakes of which he was so fond, since as likely as not he would ask for this the first thing, just as he used to do.  It must seem homelike to him when he did come.

Having betrayed the trust reposed in him by an unsuspecting grandson, it seemed fitting that he should fall asleep over that very psalm wherein David describeth the corruption of the natural man.

CHAPTER III

HOW EDOM WAS FAVOURED OF GOD AND MAMMON

In the years gone, the village of Edom had matured, even as little boys wax to manhood.  Time was when all but two trains daily sped by it so fast that from their windows its name over the station door was naught but a blur.  Now all was changed.  Many trains stopped, and people of the city mien descended from or entered smart traps, yellow depot-wagons or immaculate victorias, drawn by short-tailed, sophisticated steeds managed by liveried persons whose scraped faces were at once impassive and alert.