“Well, then, who the devil told me not to take him?”

“Did you get such orders?”

“I did.”

“When?”

“Just now, and I got more than that.”

“What did you get?”

“I heard a voice—where it came from I don’t see, but my hearing is good—and this is what it said—I will look about me and see that I am not knocked down after I tell what I heard.”

“Go on, and tell what you heard.”

“Faith, and I will tell every word of it. I heard—as you finished telling me to take him back—I heard a voice say: ‘The doors will not close behind—’”