In his hand he held a copy of the last edition of _The Sentinel_, and
now he spread the paper across the desk before the clergyman’s eye. The
same old headline was there, "HELD TO ANSWER," but in the center of the
page was a frame or box which contained a half-tone, a smear, and a
short column of black-face type, both words and figures.
Hampstead saw at a glance that it was a printed copy of his Bertillon
record. The smear was his thumb print; the picture was his picture, a
half-tone of the bald, unretouched photograph of himself which had been
made for the Gallery of Rogues, and across the bottom of the picture was
a suggestive space, in which was printed: "No.——?" The inference sought
to be conveyed was clear. So great was the sense of pain which
Hampstead felt that it was reflected in the glance he turned upon the
Elder, a glance that came as near to an appeal for pity as any that had
yet been in the clergyman’s eye. But it met no response from the stern
old Puritan.
"Be seated!" the minister said, a trifle sadly.
"I can say what I’ve got to say better if I stand," replied the Elder
tersely. "Of course you’ll resign!"
A look of intense surprise crossed the face of Hampstead.
"Resign what?" he asked, with raised brows.
"Why, the pulpit of All People’s!"
The minister stared in amazement. Burbeck also stared, but in
impatience, during an interval of silence in which Hampstead had full
opportunity to weigh again the manner of his visitor and appraise its
meaning.
"No," the young man replied within a minute, firmly but almost without
inflection, "I shall not resign."
"Then," declared Burbeck aggressively, "the pulpit of All People’s will
be declared vacant." The Elder’s chin was raised, and implacable
resolution was photographed upon his features.
Again Hampstead paused, and weighed and sounded the really sterling
character of this honest old man, whose pride was as inflexible and
undeviating as the rule of his moral life. He saw him not as a
fanatical vengeance, but as a father. He thought of Rollie, of the
man’s pride in his son, and of what a crushing blow it would be to him
to know the plight in which that son really stood to-day. It brought to
him the memory of something he had read somewhere: "The more you do for
a man, the easier it is to love him and to forgive him." His feeling
now was not of resentment, but of sympathy. He felt very sorry for the
Elder and for the position in which he stood.
"Why, Brother Burbeck," he reproached softly, "All People’s would not do
that. You would not let them do that. When you have stopped to think,
you would not let me resign even. If I am convicted by a jury, I should
have to resign; but a jury would not convict, I think. Besides, many
things can happen before that. My accuser, who knows I am innocent,
might relent. It is even more conceivable that a condition might arise
under which the thief could speak out, and I should be vindicated."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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