"The Lord's work cannot be hindered for your earthly passion. If Buli knew that you wished to take his child from him, he would not protect our missionaries, and the good seed would be sown in barren ground. But we can speak of these things later, Brother Johnson. The first thing to do is to rescue the maiden from the consequences of her foolish flight, I will question Finland. And you?" "I am going up to London by the mid-day train to see Captain Shackel." "Why not write or telegraph?" suggested Korah. "I think it best to be on the spot myself, brother." The missionary nodded and rose to leave the room. At the door he paused and looked at Johnson keenly from under his shaggy brows. "Brother," said he in a deep and solemn voice, "your feet are straying from the narrow path. You love this maiden entrusted to your care, and weary after the pearls." "No, no, I do not. What do I want with the pearls?" "Brother," Brand shook a menacing finger, "it is known that you owe money. With those pearls you would pay the price of your follies." "How do you know that I owe money?" asked Johnson, pale to the lips. "Your handmaiden found a letter swept aside. It was from a tailor, requesting from you payment of eighty pounds due to him. What have you to do with the vanity of dyed garments from Bozrah?" "My private affairs are my own, Mr. Brand," cried Johnson, with spirit. "I allow no man to discuss them in my presence." "Brother, brother, your feet go downwards to the pit. A wastrel, a lover of vanities, how can you be the pastor of our Bethesda? Take heed lest you stumble, for soon the eyes of all shall be open to your iniquity." As the missionary departed, he cast a look over his shoulder, and saw the unhappy minister sink back in his chair with a look of pain. But Brand, in his Pharisaical uprightness, had no pity for the man or for his position. "As he has sown, so shall he reap," muttered he, and dismissed the matter from his mind. He quite forgot that other text, "Bear ye one another's burdens;" yet had he remembered, he would have misapplied it, as he did all other sayings of the Christ whom he professed to follow. In the meantime he searched for Finland, and found him on the stone jetty, smoking and jesting with some fishermen. When Brand appeared, the young sailor turned his back on him, for he had no love for a half-baked missionary. But Korah, who had the pertinacity of a fanatic, was not to be put off so easily. "John Finland, come with me. I have need of you." "Need'll have to be your master then," sneered Jack. "I've more to do than gavort round with psalm-singing critters." Brand seized the young man's shoulders with a grasp like a pair of pincers. "It is about Bithiah," he said, sourly. "I don't know any girl of that name." "She was Tera, when in the bonds of sin." "Tera!" Jack led the missionary aside, and looked at him with a frown on his handsome face. "And what may you have to say about Tera, Mister Missionary?"