"
A grim look came into Ingolby's face. "I'd like to be master-boss of life
and death, holder of the sword and balances, the Sultan, here just for
one week. I'd change some things. I'd gag some people that are doing
terrible harm. It's a real bad business. The scratch-your-face period is
over, and we're in the cut-your-throat epoch."
Rockwell nodded assent, opened the paper again, and pointed to a column.
"I expect you haven't seen that. To my mind, in the present state of
things, it's dynamite."
Ingolby read the column hastily. It was the report of a sermon delivered
the evening before by the Rev. Reuben Tripple, the evangelical minister
of Lebanon. It was a paean of the Scriptures accompanied by a crazy
charge that the Roman Church forbade the reading of the Bible. It had a
tirade also about the Scarlet Woman and Popish idolatry.
Ingolby made a savage gesture. "The insatiable Christian beast!" he
growled in anger. "There's no telling what this may do. You know what
those fellows are over in Manitou. The place is full of them going to the
woods, besides the toughs at the mills and in the taverns. They're not
psalm-singing, and they don't keep the Ten Commandments, but they're
savagely fanatical, and--"
"And there's the funeral of an Orangeman tomorrow.
Pages:
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150