Simon Basset stood up; the men looked at him with wonder. His eyes glowed with strange fire. The lawyer eyed him keenly. "I should think from his face that the man was defending himself in the dock," he whispered to Colonel Lamson. "I'll tell ye what I'll do, then," shouted Simon Basset, "if ye won't none of ye take me up. I'll be damned if I believe that any rich man on the face of this earth is capable of givin' away every dollar he's got, for the fear of the Lord or the love of his fellow-men. I'll be damned if I believe, if the Lord Almighty spoke to him from on high, and told him to, he'd do it, an' I'm goin' to prove that I don't believe it. I'll tell ye all what I'll do. Lawyer Means is here, an' he can take it down in black an' white, if he wants to, an' I'll sign it reg'lar an' have it witnessed. If that young man there," he pointed at Jerome, "ever comes into any property, an' gives away every dollar of it, I'll give away one quarter of all I've got in the world to the poor of this town, an' I'll take my oath on it. "But there's more than that," continued Simon Basset. "I'll get a condition before I do it. I call on my fellow-townsman here--I won't say my fellow-Christian, 'cause he wouldn't think that much of a compliment--to do the same thing. If he'll do it, I will; if he won't, I won't." Simon Basset looked down at Doctor Prescott with malicious triumph. Everybody stared at the two men. "Why don't ye speak up, doctor--hey?" asked Simon Basset, finally. "Because I do not consider such an outrageous proposition worthy of consideration, Mr. Basset," returned the doctor, with a calm aside elevation of his clear profile, and not the slightest quickening of his even voice. "Then ye don't believe there's a man livin' capable of givin' away his all for the Lord an' His poor any more'n I do, an' I calculate you jedge so from the workin's of your own heart an' knowin' what you'd do in like case, jest like me," said Simon Basset. Doctor Prescott made a quick motion, and the color flashed over his thin face. "I made no such assertion," he said, hotly, for his temper at last was up over his icy bonds of will. "Looks so," said Simon Basset. "You have no right to make such a statement, sir," returned the doctor, and his lips seemed to cut the air like scissors. "What is it, then?" returned the other. "Are you afraid the young fellow will come into property, an' then you'll have to give up too much to the Lord?" The veins on Doctor Prescott's forehead swelled visibly as he looked at Simon Basset's hateful, bantering face. "There's another thing I'm willin' to promise," continued Simon Basset. "If that young feller comes into money, an' gives it away, I'll do more than give away a quarter of my property--I'll believe anything after that. I'll get religion. But--I won't agree to do that unless you back me up, doctor. That ought to induce you--the prospect of savin' a brand from the burnin'; an' if I ain't a brand, I dun'no' who is."