“In Rome she visited another great studio, and there she saw a duplicate of the Milan pillar, and was told again, ‘Oh, that is a pillar for the future Temple at Jerusalem.’
“In another place, where the most wonderful brass-work in the world is turned out, she saw two magnificent gates; and, on inquiring where they were destined to be hung, received the same reply, ‘In the future Temple at Jerusalem.’ What does it all mean, Tom?” he added.
“That is what I want to find out, to be perfectly sure of, Ralph. My intelligent Jew, of whom I told you, declares that the Messiah is coming. We, as Christians—nominal Christians, I mean, of course,—same as you and I, Ralph, don’t profess anything more——”
Bastin searched his friend’s face with a sudden keenness, but did not interrupt him by asking him what he meant.
“As nominal Christians,” Tom Hammond went on, “we believe the Christ has already come. But the question has been aroused in my mind of late (suggested by certain things that I have not time to go into now), does the Bible teach that Christ is coming again, and are all these strange movings among the Jews and in the politics of the world so many signs and——”
There came an interruption at that moment. The tape was telling of the assassination of a Continental crowned head. Both men became journalists, pure and simple, in an instant.
CHAPTER XIV.
MAJOR H—— ON “THE COMING!”
Tom Hammond was riding westwards in the Tube. It was the morning after the events narrated in the last chapter. He had just bought from a book-stall a volume of extracts from essays on art in all its branches. He sat back in the comfortable seat of the car dipping into the book. Suddenly an extract arrested his attention.
It was evidently a description of the Crucifixion, but—most tantalizing—the head of this page was torn, he could find out nothing about the authorship. But the extract interested him:—