“What, sir, you do not believe that he is a sorcerer and a soothsayer?” cried Jake.
“I have not satisfied myself that he is either,” replied Wesley. “More than once since I saw how much evil was following on his predictions I have felt sure that he was an agent of our Arch-enemy, but later I have not felt quite so confident in my judgment. No, friend, I shall not judge him. He is in the hands of God.”
“And I agree with Mr. Wesley,” said the miller.
Jake Pullsford, with his hands clasped behind him and his head craned forward, was about to speak, when Hal Holmes entered the room. He was excited.
“Have you seen it?” he cried before he had greeted anyone. “Have you seen it—the vision of his trance at the Mill—the tide sliding away as it hath never done before within the memory of man?—the discovery of the bare hollow basin of the sea? Have you been within sight of the Dog's Teeth?”
“We—Mr. Hartwell and I—have not been out of doors for six hours; but we are going now,” said Wesley. “We have seen some of the wonders that have happened; we would fain witness all.”
“Oh, sir,” said the blacksmith, “this one is the first that I have seen, and seeing it has made me think that we were too hasty in condemning poor Dick Pritchard. We need your guidance, sir. Do you hold that a man may have the gift of prophecy in this Dispensation, without being a sorcerer, and the agent of the Fiend?”
“Alas! 'tis not I that can be your guide in such a matter,” said Wesley. “You must join with me in seeking for guidance from above. Let us go forth and see what is this new wonder.”
“'Tis the vision of his trance—I saw it with these eyes as I passed along the high ground above the Dog's Teeth Reef—the reef was well-nigh bare and naked,” said Hal. “Who is there of us that could tell what the bottom of the sea looked like? We knew what the simple slopes of the beach were—the spaces where the tide was wont to ebb and flow over are known to all; but who before since the world began saw those secret hidden deeps where the lobsters lurk and crabs half the size of a man's body—I saw them with these eyes a while agone—and the little runnels—a thousand of them, I believe, racing through channels in the slime as if they were afraid to be left behind when the sea was ebbing out of sight—and the sun turned all into the colour of blood! What does it all mean, Mr. Wesley—I do not mean the man's trance-dream, but the thing itself that hath come to pass?”
“We shall go forth and be witnesses of all,” said Wesley.