"Dost thou believe?" he asked.
"Will Christ accept me, coming because I must?"
"It is not laid down how we shall baptize in the thirst of a famine," Nathan said, "yet He who sees fit to deny water never yet hath denied grace."
But the Christian's hand extended over the kneeling man was caught in a grip steadied with intense emotion. The unknown had seized him.
But for his feeling that this interruption was necessary to the welfare of another soul, the Christian would not have paused in his ministry.
The phantom straightened himself with a superb reinvestment of manhood.
"Thou, son of the Maccabee, Philadelphus!" he exclaimed to the kneeling man.
The Ephesian's arms sank.
"Who art thou that knoweth me?" he asked in a dead voice.
"I am all that plague and sin hath left of thy servant Aquila," the phantom declared.