Barnes stopped suddenly and stared past Mr. Maxwell at the figure of Carter standing in the doorway. He had his suitcase in his hand and bore all the marks of hasty travel.

“I came in on the number five train and haven’t been home. Very glad to see you, Mr. Maxwell. And you, Barnes. Can you both come up to my office a few minutes?”

Something in Carter’s look made the hearts of Maxwell and Barnes beat quickly. Without a word they both followed the editor upstairs.

When they were in the room, Carter gravely shut the door, went over to his desk and sat down there, and for a few moments, he seemed to be going over a scene that made him entirely forgetful of anyone and everything else. Then he turned his face toward Maxwell and Barnes, and they saw tears running over Jasper Carter’s face.

“I want you to know, you two, that I’ve surrendered. I can’t tell you all, but I’m conquered. He is my Lord and my God. Mr. Maxwell, I want to make my public confession, and be baptized and join the church next Sunday. I can hardly wait. I want all Raymond to know that I’m saved.”

Maxwell and Barnes both went to him and took his hands. They were so moved they could not speak.

Maxwell’s trembling lips at last managed to murmur, “My Lord, I thank Thee for this miracle.”

Barnes cried like a child. He held Carter’s hand in each of his while he exclaimed, when he was able to control his voice, “I knew it would come to you, Mr. Carter. I had a feeling all the time that you couldn’t stand out against him. What a great thing for you and the Gazette.”

“Yes. No one, not even myself, knows how great it will be. I know it must mean some very radical changes. I must see Norman as soon as possible. I’ve hated him so long, I am eager to get to work loving him as soon as I can. Jesus touched me. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. I never knew what life was before. It is the mightiest thing ever happened to me. I wonder, Mr. Maxwell, if you wouldn’t offer a prayer right here. Thank God.”

They all kneeled. It was the first time a prayer had ever been offered up in that room. When Mr. Maxwell was through, Carter, as he knelt, said just like a child, “Barnes, won’t you pray?”

Barnes was so moved, it was some moments before he could command his voice. When he had offered an earnest prayer, there was another pause, and then Jasper Carter offered a prayer of thanksgiving, so simple and yet so profound in its revelation of a spiritual life which had, at the touch of Jesus, been awakened, that Maxwell and Barnes listened in awed emotion.