第95章

`Dad,' said Frankie, suddenly, 'let's go over and hear what that man's saying.' He pointed across the way to where - a little distance back from the main road, just round the corner of a side street - a group of people were standing encircling a large lantern fixed on the top of a pole about seven feet high, which was being held by one of the men.

A bright light was burning inside this lantern and on the pane of white, obscured glass which formed the sides, visible from where Owen and Frankie were standing, was written in bold plain letters that were readable even at that distance, the text:

`Be not deceived: God is not mocked!'

The man whose voice had attracted Frankie's attention was reading out a verse of a hymn:

`I heard the voice of Jesus say, Behold, I freely give, The living water, thirsty one, Stoop down and drink, and live.

I came to Jesus and I drank Of that life giving stream, My thirst was quenched, My soul revived, And now I live in Him.'

The individual who gave out this hymn was a tall, thin man whose clothes hung loosely on the angles of his round-shouldered, bony form.

His long, thin legs - about which the baggy trousers hung in ungraceful folds - were slightly knock-kneed, and terminated in large, fiat feet.His arms were very long even for such a tall man, and the huge, bony hands were gnarled and knotted.Regardless of the season, he had removed his bowler hat, revealing his forehead, which was high, flat and narrow.His nose was a large, fleshy, hawklike beak, and from the side of each nostril a deep indentation extended downwards until it disappeared in the drooping moustache that concealed his mouth when he was not speaking, but the vast extent of which was perceptible now as he opened it to call out the words of the hymn.

His chin was large and extraordinarily long: the eyes were pale blue, very small and close together, surmounted by spare, light-coloured, almost invisible eyebrows with a deep vertical cleft between them over the nose.His head - covered with thick, coarse brown hair - was very large, especially at the back; the ears were small and laid close to the head.If one were to make a full-face drawing of his cadaverous visage, it would be found that the outline resembled that of the lid of a coffin.

As Owen and Frankie drew near, the boy tugged at his father's hand and whispered: `Dad! that's the teacher at the Sunday School where I went that day with Charley and Elsie.'

Owen looked quickly and saw that it was Hunter.

As Hunter ceased reading out the words of the hymn, the little company of evangelists began to sing, accompanied by the strains of a small but peculiarly sweet-toned organ.A few persons in the crowd joined in, the words being familiar to them.During the singing their faces were a study, they all looked so profoundly solemn and miserable, as if they were a gang of condemned criminals waiting to be led forth to execution.The great number of the people standing around appeared to be listening more out of idle curiosity than anything else, and two well-dressed young men - evidently strangers and visitors to the town -amused themselves by making audible remarks about the texts on the lantern.There was also a shabbily dressed, semi-drunken man in a battered bowler hat who stood on the inner edge of the crowd, almost in the ring itself, with folded arms and an expression of scorn.He had a very thin, pale face with a large, high-bridged nose, and bore a striking resemblance to the First Duke of Wellington.

As the singing proceeded, the scornful expression faded from the visage of the Semi-drunk, and he not only joined in, but unfolded his arms and began waving them about as if he were conducting the music.

By the time the singing was over a considerable crowd had gathered, and then one of the evangelists, the same man who had given out the hymn, stepped into the middle of the ring.He had evidently been offended by the unseemly conduct of the two well-dressed young men, for after a preliminary glance round upon the crowd, he fixed his gaze upon the pair, and immediately launched out upon a long tirade against what he called `Infidelity'.Then, having heartily denounced all those who - as he put it - `refused' to believe, he proceeded to ridicule those half-and-half believers, who, while professing to believe the Bible, rejected the doctrine of Hell.That the existence of a place of eternal torture is taught in the Bible, he tried to prove by a long succession of texts.As he proceeded he became very excited, and the contemptuous laughter of the two unbelievers seemed to make him worse.He shouted and raved, literally foaming at the mouth and glaring in a frenzied manner around upon the faces of the crowd.

`There is a Hell!' he shouted.`And understand this clearly - "The wicked shall be turned into hell" - "He that believeth not shall be damned."'

`Well, then, you'll stand a very good chance of being damned also,'

exclaimed one of the two young men.