Part 8 (1/2)
Had he fallen asleep?
Still he sat upon the lichen-covered boulder, still the grey curtain of the mist hid all the mountain world.
Yet what was that sound--that deep, ringing voice which sounded in his ears, falling from some distant height, falling through the air like an arrow?
A voice! A voice! And these were the words it chanted--
”Rise up, Joseph, and come to me! Fear not, for G.o.d is with you! Come to me, that the things that are appointed may be done!”
The great voice rolled through the mist like a cathedral bell.
Cold and trembling, Joseph rose to his feet. One hand rested against the granite rock to support him as he answered, in a loud cry of terror--
”Who are you? What is this? Are you the man Lluellyn? I cannot come. I know not where to come. I am too weak to move. I am frightened.”
Again the organ voice came pealing through the gloom.
”Joseph, Joseph, rise up and come! Come and fear not, for the power of the Holy Ghost broods upon the mountains.”
Joseph stood for a moment trembling, and swaying from side to side. Then he was conscious of the most extraordinary sensation of his life.
Through the mist, invisible, impalpable, a great current of FORCE seemed flowing to him and around him.
It poured into every fibre of his being, body, mind, and soul alike. It was not a delusion. It was wonderfully, marvellously real. Each second he grew stronger, power returned to his tired limbs, the weariness left his brain. He called out aloud--
”Teacher, I am coming to you!” And, with the swinging, easy step of a man in perfect health, together with the ease and certainty of a practised mountaineer, he began to climb upward through the mist.
It was as though he was floating on air, buoyant as a bird is. On and on he went, and all the while the invisible electric force poured into him and gave him strength and power.
Suddenly thin yellow beams of suns.h.i.+ne began to penetrate and irradiate the thick white blanket of mist. Stronger and stronger they grew, throwing a thousand prismatic colors on the thinning vapor, until at last Joseph emerged into full and glorious day.
This is what he saw.
The actual top of the mountain was only two or three yards above him, and formed a little rock-strewn plateau some twenty or thirty yards square--now bathed in vivid suns.h.i.+ne.
Against a cairn of boulders in the exact centre of the s.p.a.ce a tall man was standing.
Both his arms were stretched out rigidly towards Joseph, the _fingers of each hand outspread and pointing to him_, as he emerged from the fog-belt with the suns.h.i.+ne. The man, who wore a long black cloak, was well over six feet high, and very thin. His face was pale, but the strong, rugged features gave it an impression of immense vitality and force.
Joseph stopped in sudden amazement at the sight of this strange figure up in the clouds. He suddenly remembered a picture he had seen showing Dante standing upon a great crag, and looking down into the abyss of the Inferno.
Lluellyn Lys looks like that--exactly like that, Joseph thought.
He went straight up to the Teacher. As he did so, Lluellyn's arms suddenly collapsed and fell loosely to his sides. His eyes, which had been fixed steadily upon Joseph, closed with a simultaneous movement, and he leant back against the cairn as if utterly exhausted.
But this was only for a moment. As Joseph came up to him he roused himself, and his face lit up with welcome. The Teacher's smile was singularly winning and sweet--it was just like Mary's smile, Joseph thought--but it was also a very sad smile.
”Brother,” Lluellyn said, ”the peace of G.o.d be with you. May you be full of the Holy Ghost, that you may better accomplish those high things for which the Father has destined you, and for which He has brought you here.”