"The world has gone mad," said MacIan, "and it has gone mad about
Us. The world takes the trouble to make a big mistake about every
little mistake made by the Church. That is why they have turned
ten counties to a madhouse; that is why crowds of kindly people
are poured into this filthy melting-pot. Now is the judgement of
this world. The Prince of this World is judged, and he is judged
exactly because he is judging. There is at last one simple
solution to the quarrel between the ball and the cross----"

Turnbull for the first time started.

"The ball and----" he repeated.

"What is the matter with you?" asked MacIan.

"I had a dream," said Turnbull, thickly and obscurely, "in which
I saw the cross struck crooked and the ball secure----"

"I had a dream," said MacIan, "in which I saw the cross erect and
the ball invisible. They were both dreams from hell. There must
be some round earth to plant the cross upon. But here is the
awful difference--that the round world will not consent even to
continue round. The astronomers are always telling us that it is
shaped like an orange, or like an egg, or like a German sausage.
They beat the old world about like a bladder and thump it into a
thousand shapeless shapes. Turnbull, we cannot trust the ball to
be always a ball; we cannot trust reason to be reasonable. In the
end the great terrestrial globe will go quite lop-sided, and only
the cross will stand upright."