So Hugh repeated: "'The wages of sin is death; but the gift of G.o.d is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration]

CHAPTER IV.

_RESCUED: AN ALLEGORY._

Another Sunday came round, and the brothers and sisters again claimed Agnes's promise to continue the story of the "Wordless" pages. They had several times in the week asked if she could do so then; but she had always answered. "Wait till Sunday."

"Now Agnes," said John, "let us have the rest of that dream."

"I did describe to you all that dream," answered Agnes. "What I have to tell you to-day is another dream--a new page as it were; not black, but red."

"I thought it was to be a continuation," said Alice.

"Yes, it is; but you will not let me begin."

"Oh! yes we will," said Minnie. "Now then. Agnes."

Red--Blood.

Again I dreamed, and found myself in the same cavern where I had before been such a terrified spectator. Should I be able to see the dismal end of those miserable boys? I asked myself. At first the darkness seemed impenetrable, and as there was no sound to break the stillness, I feared that already the fierce beast had devoured those whom he had captured.

But hark! was not that a sobbing sigh from some one?

Again it met my ear, and I thought I could distinguish Alwin's voice, saying in a low, pleading tone:

"Edred, I am sure I read something in the Guide-book about the King's Son, who lives in that Palace we saw over the Hills there, being willing to rescue travellers, if they were in distress."

"Hush!" said Edred, in a frightened voice, "the fiend will hear you, and will spring upon us if he thinks we are meditating escape--however futile it may be," he added bitterly.

"He is half asleep over there," answered Alwin in a low tone; "see how he rests, and his eyes are shut. Oh, Edred, our position is so dreadful that it is worth a desperate effort to get free."

"No effort is of any avail," said Edred hopelessly. "If you only look at yonder monster, with his awful name shining on his forehead, you will know that he will never let us enter the King's Palace; he told us just now that his wages are death, and that we shall _not_ escape."

"I know," said Alwin, "but all the same I have read enough of the Guide-book to believe there is some way of deliverance; do, Edred, try to recall what it was."

"I never read it," said Edred, "and to consult it now, when we are in this dire distress, seems like mocking the King who ordered it to be written."

He sighed heavily, and as I grew accustomed to the darkness, I could faintly perceive the two boys crouching down in a corner, watching the evil beast, never taking their wearied eyes from him for a moment.

Alwin seemed unable to let go his last hope, and began again imploringly, "Edred, I _know_ it said if people got into these caverns they were to call to the King; do let us try."

"Call and wake the monster?" asked Edred, mockingly. "Besides, who could hear?"

"I shall try," whispered Alwin, "for I feel I shall soon have no strength left."

Edred made a gesture as if to reply, when the enemy roused himself suddenly, and before either of them had time to speak or move, he had sprung across the cavern. I saw the two boys disappear beneath his awful form.

A fearful cry rent the air, a cry of agony, but a cry too which seemed to expect an answer.

The fiend grappled with them both, and gave them blow after blow. Still spell-bound I watched, feeling myself turned to stone with horror.

But what did I hear? Surely above the cruel strokes which resounded on the bodies of these captive boys, surely above their cries for help, and moans of anguish, I heard another sound--a sound of rescue, coming nearer and nearer?

Did the evil creature hear it too? Did he not strike the faster, that there might be no deliverance; that the deliverance might be too late?

A strange light approached along one of the pa.s.sages, and all at once One entered the cavern, and dealt a swift blow at the fiend, which made him relax his hold, only to tighten it more painfully. "I have come to deliver those that are appointed to die," said a voice of heavenly sweetness; but the fiend turned on Him with blows, fiercer and deadlier than those he had given the boys, and there ensued such a terrible combat that my very heart failed me.

By-and-by I found that the fiend seemed to grow weaker and weaker, and the Deliverer, though wounded and bleeding, was a Conqueror. The evil creature at last sank down in the mire, motionless, his grasp loosened from the poor boys, and the Conqueror came up to them and raised them from the ground.

Alwin had just sufficient strength left to clasp the feet of his Deliverer with a cry of love, but Edred neither spoke nor moved.

"Edred," said the tender voice, "I have fought, and he who held thee is conquered; wilt thou come with Me?"

Edred groaned.

"Thou wilt not stay here, Edred?" again said the loving tone reproachfully.

"I am not worthy," moaned Edred, "I disobeyed----"

"Nay, nay, thou art not worthy; but I have loved thee, and have done it all for thee. Edred, wilt thou refuse?"

Then I heard a broken cry of grateful acquiescence, and the two lost, hopeless boys were clasped to that bosom of love.

And Alwin whispered, "Thou hast been wounded in the sore fight, for I can feel Thy blood flowing upon me!"

"That was the price at which I rescued thee," answered the Deliverer, "and thou shalt find when we come into the Light that the Blood of the King's Son worketh marvels for thee."

"Art Thou the King's Son?" asked Edred as they moved forward from this cavern of Death.

"Didst thou not know?" answered his Deliverer with a radiant smile, "no one else is 'Mighty to save.'"

When Agnes ceased the relation of her dream, she turned over the leaves of her Bible which lay on her knee, her brothers and sisters waiting to see if there were any more of the story.

At last she looked up, and said earnestly, "You all like allegories, but they can only teach one side of a truth at once, and the Lord Jesus has done so much more than anything I can say for us. I have not told you half that Red page means, but you can seek it out for yourselves, dears.

Think of all the love which brought Him down to redeem us, and what it cost Him, and let the Red page of the 'Wordless Book' impress this upon your hearts, never to be forgotten, 'Without shedding of blood is no remission;' 'G.o.d commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet _sinners_. Christ died for us.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration]