“Mad!”
“So mad that we are having to arrange for him to be taken care of.”
“But surely such a man as Brandon could hardly be deceived by one of that caliber! He gave chapter and verse. He said that John Smith was a great clairvoyant, who had more windows open in his soul than other people.”
“Didn’t it strike you as a fantastic statement?”
“Why should it? I haven’t seen the poem, and he has; I don’t know John Smith and he does. Why should it strike one as a fantastic statement?”
“No, of course, you couldn’t be expected to know that John Smith is as mad as a hatter. But Brandon should know that as well as I do.”
“He says the man’s inspired—Gottbetrunken was the word he used.”
“The man is a blasphemer and an atheist, and a pro-German to boot. And, as I say, steps are being taken to put him in a place of safety. We shall need your help, Whymper; there’ll be a magistrates’ order for you to sign presently. But the distressing thing is that such a mind as Gervase Brandon’s should be susceptible to the man’s claptrap. The only explanation that occurs to one is that the poor dear fellow’s brain is going.”
“Well, I can only say that there seemed no trace of it this afternoon. I’ll admit that I thought him a little exalted, a little more the seer and the visionary than one quite liked to see him. But after all he must have walked pretty close with God. If a man gives up all the fair and easy things of life to storm the beaches of Gallipoli, it is not unlikely that a corner of the prophet’s mantle may be found for him—even if one agrees that it is a rather uncomfortable vestment.”
“There may be something in what you say.” The vicar shook a sad, unconvinced head. “But we have to deal with the thing as it exists. We have to look the facts in the face.”