Samuel rushed away into the darkness. But he couldn't stay away—he could not bring himself to believe that he was separated from St. Matthew's forever. He turned and came back to the church, and stood gazing at it, choking with his sobs.
Then, as he waited, he saw an automobile draw up in front of the side entrance, and saw Mr. Wygant step out and enter. The sight was like a blow in the face to him. There was the proud rich man, defiant and unpunished, seated in the place of authority; while Samuel, the Seeker, was turned out of the door!
A blaze of rebellion flamed up in him. No, no—they should not cast him off! He would fight them—he would fight to the very end. The church was not their church—it was the church of God! And he had a right to belong to it—and to speak the truth in it, too!
And so, just after the vestry had got settled to the consideration of the architect's sketch for the new Nurse's Home, there came a loud knock upon the door, and Samuel entered, wild-eyed and breathless.
“Gentlemen!” he cried. “I demand a hearing!”
Dr. Vince sprang to his feet in terror. “Samuel Prescott!” he exclaimed.
“I have been ordered out of the church!” proclaimed Samuel. “And I will not submit to it! I have spoken the truth, and I will not permit the evil-doers in St. Matthew's to silence me!”
Mr. Hickman had sprung up. “Boy,” he commanded, “leave this room!”
“I will not leave the room!” shouted Samuel. “I demand a hearing from the vestry of this church. I have a right to a hearing! I have spoken the truth, and nothing but the truth!”
“What is the boy talking about?” demanded another of the vestrymen. This was Mr. Hamerton, a young lawyer, whose pleasant face Samuel had often noticed. And Samuel, seeing curiosity and interest in his look, sprang toward him.
“Don't let them turn me out without a hearing!” he cried.
“Boy!” exclaimed Mr. Hickman, “I command you to leave this room.”
“You corrupted the city council!” shrilled Samuel. “You bribed it to beat the water bill! It's true, and you know it's true, and you don't dare to deny it!”
Mr. Hickman was purple in the face with rage. “It's a preposterous lie!” he roared.
“I have talked with one of the men who got the money!” cried Samuel. “There was two thousand dollars paid to ten of the supervisors.”
“Who is this man?” cried the other furiously.
“I won't tell his name,” said Samuel. “He told me in confidence.”
“Aha!” laughed the other. “I knew as much! It is a vile slander!”
“It is true!” protested Samuel. “Dr. Vince, you know that I am telling the truth. What reason would I have for making it up?”
“I have told you, Samuel,” exclaimed Dr. Vince, “that I would have nothing to do with this matter.”
“I will take any member of this vestry to talk with that man!” declared the boy. “Anybody can find out about these things if he wants to. Why, Mr. Wygant told me himself that he had paid money to Slattery to get franchises!”
And then Mr. Wygant came into the controversy. “WHAT!” he shouted.
“Why, of course you did!” cried Samuel in amazement. “Didn't you tell me this very afternoon?”
“I told you nothing of the sort!” declared the man.
“You told me everybody did it—that there was no way to help doing it. You called it the competition of capital!”
“I submit that this is an outrage!” exclaimed Mr. Hickman. “Leave this room, sir!”
“The poor people in this town are suffering and dying!” cried Samuel. “And they are being robbed and oppressed. And are these things to go on forever?”
“Samuel, this is no place to discuss the question!” broke in Dr. Vince.
“But why not, sir? The guilty men are high in the councils of this church. They hold the church up to disgrace before all the world. And this is the church of Christ, sir!”
“But yours is not the way to go about it, boy!” exclaimed Mr. Hamerton—who was alarmed because Samuel kept looking at him.
“Why not?” cried Samuel. “Did not Christ drive out the money-changers from the temple with whips?”
This was an uncomfortable saying. There was a pause after it, as if everyone were willing to let his neighbor speak first.
“Are we not taught to follow Christ's example, Dr. Vince?” asked the boy.
“Hardly in that sense, Samuel,” said the terrified doctor. “Christ was God. And we can hardly be expected—”
“Ah, that is a subterfuge!” broke in Samuel, passionately. “You say that Christ was God, and so you excuse yourself from doing what He tells you to! But I don't believe that He was God in any such sense as that. He was a man, like you and............