"I'm glad to hear you look upon it in that light," he said approvingly, "for, to tell the truth, if I thought the millennium was coming to-night I'd be real scared, although I've lived better than most young men of my age do; but, some way, the millennium isn't the sort of thing I seem to hanker after very much. I suppose, though, people as good as you would like nothing so well as to see it begin at once."
Trenholme looked down at the sheet of paper before him, and absently made marks upon it with his pen. He was thinking of the spiritual condition of a soul which had no ardent desire for the advent of its Lord, but it was not of the young man he was thinking.
"Of course," the latter continued, "I didn't suppose myself there was anything in it—at least"—candidly—"I didn't in the day-time; but when I found he'd gone out in the dark, and thought of all the times I'd heard him praying—" he broke off. "He's real good. I'm a better fellow for having lived with him so long, but I wish to goodness I'd never caught him."
The word "caught," so expressive of the American's relation to the wanderer, roused Trenholme's attention, and he asked now with interest, "May I inquire why you did take possession of him and bring him here?"
"Well, as to that, I don't know that I'd like to tell," said the young man, frankly. "Since I've lived with him I've seen my reasons to be none of the best." He fidgeted now, rising, cap in hand. "I ought to go and look after him," he said, "if I only knew where to go."
It struck Trenholme that Harkness had an idea where to go, and that his questioning was really a prelude to its announcement. "Where do you think he has gone?"
"Well, if you ask me what I think, Principal—but, mind, I haven't a word of proof of it—I think he's gone up the mountain, and that he's not gone there alone."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that I think drunken Job's wife, and old McNider, and some more of the Second Advent folks, will go with him, expecting to be caught up."
"Impossible!" cried Trenholme, vehemently. Then more soberly, "Even if they had such wild intentions, the weather would, of course, put a stop to it."