“Good old Israel Laeng lives there—­two wives, one old, one young—­eleven children.  The Kingdom of Heaven is open to him!” And from a second he heard the sound of an organ, and from still a third there came the laughter and chatter of several feminine voices, and again Obadiah reached out and prodded Nathaniel in the ribs.  There was one great, gloomy, long-built place which they passed, without a ray of light to give it life, and the councilor said, “Three widows there, Nat,—­fight like cats and dogs.  Poor Job killed himself.”  They avoided the more thickly populated part of the settlement and encountered few people, which seemed to please the councilor.  Once they overtook and passed a group of women clad in short skirts and loose waists and with their hair hanging in braids down their backs.  For a third time Obadiah nudged Captain Plum.

“It is the king’s pleasure that all women wear skirts that come just below the knees,” he whispered.  “Some of them won’t do it and he’s wondering how to punish them.  To-morrow there’s going to be two public whippings.  One of the victims is a man who said that if he was a woman he’d die before he put on knee skirts.  After he’s whipped he is going to be made to wear ’em.  By Urim and Thummin, isn’t that choice, Nat?”

He shivered with quiet laughter and dived into a great block of darkness where there seemed to be no houses, keeping close beside Nathaniel.  Soon they came to the edge of a grove and deep among the trees Captain Plum caught a glimpse of a lighted window.  Obadiah Price now began to exhibit unusual caution.  He approached the light slowly, pausing every few steps to peer guardedly about him, and when they had come very near to the window he pulled his companion behind a thick clump of shrubbery.  Nathaniel could hear the old man’s subdued chuckle and he bent his head to catch what he was about to whisper to him.

“You must make no noise, Nat,” he warned.  “This is the castle of our priest, king and prophet—­James Jesse Strang.  I am going to show you what you have never seen before and what you will never look upon again.  I have sworn upon the Two Books and I will keep my oath.  And then—­you will answer the question I asked you back there.”

He crept out into the darkness of the trees and Nathaniel followed, his heart throbbing with excitement, every sense alert, and one hand resting on the butt of his pistol.  He felt that he was nearing the climax of his day’s adventure and now, in the last moment of it, his old caution reasserted itself.  He knew that he was among a dangerous people, men who, according to the laws of his country, were criminals in more ways than one.  He had seen much of their work along the coasts and he had heard of more of it.  He knew that this gloom and sullen quiet of St. James hid cut-throats and pirates and thieves.  Still there was nothing ahead to alarm him.  The old man dodged the gleams of the lighted window and slunk around to the end of the great house.  Here, several feet above his head, was another window, small and veiled with the foliage wall.  With the assurance of one who had been there before the councilor mounted some object under the window, lifted himself until his chin was on a level with the glass, and peered within.  He was there but an instant and then fell back, chuckling and rubbing his hands.