They Call Me Carpenter: A Tale of the Second ComingSinclair, Upton
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They Call Me Carpenter: A Tale of the Second Coming
Sinclair, Upton
Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Fiction; Jesus Christ -- Fiction
“You can tell all that to the magistrate in the morning,” said the
sergeant.
“What is the bail?” I demanded.
“You are prepared to put up bail?”
I answered that I was; and then for the first time Carpenter spoke.
“You mean you wish to pay money to secure my release? Let there be
no money paid for me.”
“Let me explain, Mr. Carpenter,” I pleaded. “You will accomplish
nothing by spending the night in a police cell. You will have no
opportunity to talk with the prisoners. They will keep you by
yourself.”
He answered, “My Father will be with me.” And gazing into the face
of the sergeant, he demanded, “Do you think you can build a cell to
which my Father cannot come?”
The officer was an old hand, with a fringe of grey hair around his
bald head, and no doubt he had been asked many queer questions in
his day. His response was to inquire the prisoner's name; and when
the prisoner kept haughty silence, he wrote down “John Doe
Carpenter,” and proceeded: “Where do you live?”
Said Carpenter: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have
nests, but he that espouses the cause of justice has no home in a
world of greed.”
So the sergeant wrote: “No address,” and nodded to a jailer, who
took the prophet by the arm and led him away through a steel-barred
door.
Abell and I went outside and joined the rest of the group. None of
us knew just what to do--with the exception of Everett, who sat on
the steps with his notebook, and made me repeat to him word for word
what Carpenter had said!
XLIX
Comrade Abell told us where the police-court was located, and we
agreed to be there at nine o'clock next morning. Then I parted from
the rest, and walked until I met a taxi and drove to my rooms.
I felt desolate and forlorn. Nothing in my old life had any interest
for me. This was the afternoon when I usually went to the Athletic
Club to box; but now I found myself wondering, what would Carpenter
say to such imitation fighting? I decided I would stay by myself for
a while, and take a walk and think things over. I had been
dissatisfied with my life for a long time; the glamor had begun to
wear off the excitement of youth, and I had begun to suspect that my
life was idle and vain. Now I knew that it was: and also I knew that
the world was a place of torment and woe.
I returned late in the afternoon, and a few minutes afterwards my
telephone rang, and I discovered that somebody else was dissatisfied
with life.
“Hello, Billy,” said the voice of T-S. “I see dat feller Carpenter
is in jail. Vy don't you bail him out?”
“He won't let me,” I said.
“Vell, maybe it might be a good ting to leave him in jail a veek,
till dis Brigade convention gits over.”
“Funny!” said I. “I had the same idea!”
“Listen,” continued the other, “I been feelin' awful bad because I
told dem fellers I didn't know him. D' you suppose he knows I said
dat, Billy?”
“Well,” said I, “he knew you were going to say it, so probably he
knows you said it.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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