THE SECOND TRIAL BY FIRE When this momentous discussion was finished, as usual Owen preached before the king, expounding the Scriptures and taking for his subject the duty of faith.

As he went back to his hut he saw that the snake which John had killed had been set upon a pole in that part of the Great Place which served as a market, and that hundreds of natives were gathered beneath it gesticulating and talking excitedly.
"See the work of Hokosa," he thought to himself.

"Moses set up a serpent to save the people; yonder wizard sets up one to destroy them." That evening Owen had no heart for his labours, for his mind was heavy at the prospect of the trial which lay before him.

Not that he cared for his own life, for of this he scarcely thought; it was the prospects of his cause which troubled him.

It seemed much to expect that Heaven again should throw over him the mantle of its especial protection, and yet if it did not do so there was an end of his mission among the People of Fire.