I do not know whether he or Sayer actually meant me to be incarcerated during all that day and night, while the meeting went forward so famously. Probably they had had it in mind when they played the vindictive little prank, and had been ashamed, when in better senses, to come back and release me. Certainly Sayer, who sat close to the door, turned pale when he saw me now. I went slowly to the front of the room. My eyes pained me and I was nauseated. But I had ceased to tremble and was calm with a fury that checked all nervousness. "The Jew who instigated this protest is here to back it up," I said slowly. "He is here to appeal to the 'real Anglo-Saxon fair play.'" I could feel in the air the antagonism which I must down. I knew, as never before, how bitter and insensate was the prejudice which I must conquer by fifteen minutes of quiet words. What I said doesn't count: I hardly remember most of it, anyhow. Before me, as I talked, the faces swam away into a dim and meaningless strip. I was not talking to these raw, swankering college boys. I was talking to something beyond--to something that was infinitely brighter and more glorious than I had ever known before. I was talking to something beyond all earth--to Someone.... And I was appealing, was summoning, calling Him down to my aid. I was speaking His words, in the spirit of His ancient fighting prophets. I was fighting His fight. The calm frenzy in my heart was of His instillation. For years I had sought Him. For years I had shunned Him, knowing my need of Him. For all the days of my life I had borne the fierce justice of His words as a lonely burden--and now, now.... "And I shall fight and fight," I cried, "in the name of God--the God that is over all of us, of whatever race, creed or color--for the things that are fair and right and just. I shall have justice for a little East Side Jewish freshman as you shall have it, too." Then suddenly, as if blinded by the refulgence of what I saw, my eyes began to water and grow dim. I stood there, tense, and did not mind the pain that was in them. But I could speak no more. And slowly the men rose and went out, quietly, strangely--looking back sometimes to where I stood--not comprehending everything, I suppose, but moved beyond all common approbation. They had been conquered. Braley remained alone with me in the deserted hall. I looked at him across a row of seats and began to laugh. "You didn't even say a word to them about that rotten trick we played on you," he said, shamefacedly, his glib manners gone. "I didn't have to," I replied. "Besides, I forgot." "Well--er--thanks! You could have had us expelled!" But the pain and dizziness were beyond standing now. I tore off my hat, so that he had a glimpse of the long, sullen cut over my eye. "Look out!" he cried, leaping up on the platform, to hold me--for I was falling to the floor. I remember laughing again, long but weakly. "I didn't have to! I didn't have to!"