"How, indeed!" murmured Ralph, with a sigh, as he let the letter fall on his table.
For a moment or two he stared straight in front of him, then, half aloud, he murmured:
"A month only! G.o.d help me to make good use of the thirty days! If I can but wake up some of the people of this land to the real position of affairs, I shall be only too thankful."
For a few moment"s longer he sat on, deep in thought. Then suddenly he started sharply, grew alert in every sense, and sounded a summons for his messenger boy. When the lad appeared, he asked:
"Do you know if Mr. Bullen is on the premises?"
"Yus, sur, he is!"
"Ask him to step this way, at once, please!"
George Bullen, was a keen, up-to-date young journalist, a man of thirty-two only, but with a fine record as regarded his profession. A close personal friendship existed between his chief and himself, for he had been wholly won to G.o.d through Ralph"s efforts.
In a few words Ralph explained to the younger man, the changes that were near at hand. Then continuing:
"But while you and I, George, represent "The Courier," we will make it all the power for G.o.d and for humanity that lies in our power. Though I am not sure that we can do much with _humanity_, now. The strong delusion has got such an almost universal grip upon the race, that they will gladly, eagerly swallow all the lie of the Arch-liar, the Anti-christ. In the old days, before the translation of the church, the Bible spoke of "the whole world lieth in the arms of the Wicked One," and that is truer than ever now. Well, George, _we_ must do all _we_ can.
"But now to the chief thing for which I sent for you. The new temple at Jerusalem is to be opened on the tenth. I want you to go, to represent the "Courier." What I am especially anxious for you to do, is to note everything that will show the true _inwardness_ of things, so that the little time left to us, on the dear old paper, shall be a time of holy witness for G.o.d.
"Your knowledge of the East, your acquaintance with Yiddish, and Syrian and Hebrew, the very swarthiness of your skin, and blackness of your hair, dear boy, may all serve you in good stead. For, if you feel led to it, I should suggest that you adopt that Syrian costume I once saw you in. This course would have many advantages, for while you could the more readily mix with the people, and obtain _entree_ often where you otherwise could not, your ident.i.ty as representative of "The Courier," would not be made known.
"I am not sure, George, but that if you presented yourself as our representative, that all kinds of obstacles might not be put in the way of your obtaining information, or, more likely, in transmitting it.
You might even be quietly put out of the way. Spare no expense, dear boy, where other men spend five pounds, spend a hundred, if it will serve us better."
For a time the two men held deep consultation. Then when they gripped hands in parting, each commended the other to G.o.d.
George Bullen started for the East next afternoon. His stock of Eastern garments was full and varied, and not one Eastern in a million would have known him from a Syrian native.
CHAPTER VII.
"THE MARK OF THE BEAST."
George Bullen was no stranger to Jerusalem, yet it was a strange Jerusalem that met his sight as he entered it by the Jaffa gate. For interest, picturesqueness, even amus.e.m.e.nt, there is no time so rich as at early morning, at the Jaffa gate.
Bullen had been perfectly familiar, in the old days (eight years ago) with the scene, but there were differences this morning. The long strings of donkeys and camels, laden to within the proverbial "last straw" and led by foul-smelling, unkempt Bedouins were there, as usual, in spite of the fact that railways now ran in every direction. Eastern women, robed in their loose blue cotton wrapper garments--sleeping, as well as day attire--were there in galore, only now all of them walked unveiled, whereas, in the old days, most of them were veiled.
Pilgrims from every land were pouring into the city. The cafes were crowded. The aroma of strong black coffee was often _fortunately_, stronger than the less pleasant odours of the insanitary streets.
Early as it was, the money changers were doing a stirring trade.
Water-carriers moved about with their monotonous cry of "_moyeh_,"
supplemented, in some cases, by the same word in English--"_Water_."
Market garden produce, the finest in the world, and now proving how literally Palestine, under the fertilizing power of the "_latter_ rain," had become "a fruitful garden," was piled everywhere about at the sides of the streets. Cauliflowers thirty-six inches around, with every other vegetable equally fine, melons, lemons, oranges, grapes, tomatoes, asparagus, onions, leeks, lettuce, water-cress, even garlic, all were here, with turbaned dealers sitting cross-legged among the produce.
Early as it was, crowds of American, English, and Continental tourists were abroad, their gleaming white drill attire and tobies and helmets, conspicuous among the grander colour of the natives.
But George Bullen had seen all this many times before, his eyes now took but little note of the streets and their contents, except that he noted the fact under the new order of things, since the Jews had come into possession of the city, that there was scarce a Moslem of any kind to be seen, and that most of the tumble-down, smaller houses, of a few years back, had been pulled down, and that the streets in consequence had been considerably widened. Hundreds of new houses of bungalow type, had taken the places of those pulled down. Most of these were built on the "Frazzi" system, or else after the fashion known as reinforced concrete.
All these changes were note-worthy, and full of meaning, but George Bullen"s eyes and attention were almost wholly absorbed by the Temple that crowned Mount Moriah. He had not, of course, seen that wonderful painting on Vellum which Rabbi Cohen had shown Ralph Bastin. It is true he had seen photographs and sketches reproduced in the English ill.u.s.trated papers. But none of these had prepared him for the actual.
Robed in his Syrian garb, and looking for all the world like the "real article," he pa.s.sed through the cosmopolitan crowd always making his way upwards to where the marble and gold of the wonderful Temple reared itself.
Arrived outside the great main gates, he stood awed at the wonder and magnificence of all that he saw. The whole structure was complete.
Not a pole or plank of scaffolding was left standing, no litter or rubbish heaps were to be seen; every approach, every yard of the enclosure was beautifully swept. A few officials, in a remarkable uniform moved here and there about the great enclosure.
For two hours George Bullen moved slowly round the Temple, making long pauses at intervals, and taking in every item of the wondrous architecture and still more wondrous ornamentation. When he finally left the Mount, and took his way down the wide, steep decline--the whole of this wide road was composed of marble blocks, reminding him of the Roman Appian way--his mind was in a whirl, his head ached with the glare of the sun on the gold, and with the deep concentration of his sight upon so much colour and glitter. Again and again he paused, and looked upwards and backwards, he had a difficulty in tearing himself away. But he had much to do, and could not afford to linger.
It was the day before the official opening of the Temple. Jerusalem was thronged--inside and outside, for Jerusalem, (according to Zechariah ii. 4) was "inhabited as a town _without walls_." The environs, and the suburbs had spread in every direction. For the first time in the history of the world, the hills, Gareb and Goath, _outside_ Jerusalem, had, a few years before this, been covered with villas, bungalows, hotels, etc., absolutely fulfilling Jeremiah x.x.xi. 38-40.
Lucien Apleon"s Palace, which had been built concurrently with the Temple, and which, in its way, was almost as gorgeous a building, was filled with the ten Kings of the Confederacy, and their suites.
Soldiers of every one of the ten nationalities--though all wearing one uniform, save that the "facings" were different to denote the land to which they belonged--were everywhere to be seen.
Itinerant venders moved about among the throngs bawling their chief ware--"Programs for the Temple, to-morrow." George Bullen bought one of the Programs.
It was an amazing production, and as blasphemous as it was amazing. It was most sumptuously got up, printed in a style unknown to the days of even the end of the first decade of the 20th century.
But before he began to read the order of the events, or even to note the marks of sumptuousness of the appearance of the program, his attention was arrested by a bold, curious hieroglyphic which headed the program. This figuring was in richest purple and gold, and bore this form:
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mark of the Beast]
For a long time he puzzled over the sign. Then, suddenly a memory returned to him. One night when Ralph Bastin had been speaking to him about the Anti-Christ he had said:
"Here is a curious thing, George! I have just read in the Revelation, thirteen, eighteen, that The Number of the Beast--the Anti-christ--is THE Number of MAN; and his number is 666." Now this number, _in the Greek_, is made up of two characters which stand for the name of Christ, with a third character, the figure of a crooked serpent put between them--the name of G.o.d"s Christ, the Messiah, turned into a devil sacrament (i. e. oath of fidelity.)
"Ralph would have shown me the sign, I know," Bullen mused, "but that at the very moment we were talking together, there came that scare of fire in the stereo room, and we both rushed away. But now I know that this sign on the program is the "Mark of the Beast," and that it _signifies the oath of Fidelity to Anti-christ_."
He caught his breath sharply, as he murmured:
"So it has begun! He has begun to show his hand!"
Then he let his eyes take in the contents of the program.
Beneath the Hieroglyphic was the greeting:
"TO ALL THE WORLD!
APLEON, EMPEROR, by the election of MAN.
Commands the following events in connection with the Dedication and opening of the Temple at Jerusalem.
4-30 p. m. 9th Sept., year 1 of Apleon.