Whenever
he strove to do so he had a curious sensation as if he were trying
to press against an invisible person who met him with a force of
opposition impossible to overcome. The minister was not an
athletic man, yet he had considerable strength. He squared his
elbows, set his mouth hard, and strove to push his way through into
the room. The opposition which he met was as sternly and mutely
terrible as the rocky fastness of a mountain in his way.
For a half hour John Dunn, doubting, raging, overwhelmed with
spiritual agony as to the state of his own soul rather than fear,
strove to enter that southwest chamber. He was simply powerless
against this uncanny obstacle. Finally a great horror as of evil
itself came over him. He was a nervous man and very young. He
fairly fled to his own chamber and locked himself in like a terror-
stricken girl.
The next morning he went to Miss Gill and told her frankly what had
happened, and begged her to say nothing about it lest he should
have injured the cause by the betrayal of such weakness, for he
actually had come to believe that there was something wrong with
the room.
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