"My dear fellow," objected the Reverend Archibald in gentle
protest, "you evidently do not understand the situation at all. I
feel I should be most untrue to my trust if I were to endanger in
any way the life-long labor of my predecessor. You must be able to
see that for yourself. It would destroy utterly my usefulness
here. They'd send me away. I couldn't go on with the work, I have
to think what is for the best."

"There is some justice in what you say," admitted the stranger, "if
you persist in looking on this thing as a business proposition.
But it seems to my confessedly untrained mind that you missed the
point. 'Trust in the Lord,' saith the prophet. In fact, certain
rivals in your own field hold the doctrine you expound, and you
consider them wrong. 'To do evil that good may come' I seem to
recognize as a tenet of the Church of the Jesuits."

"I protest. I really do protest," objected the clergyman,
scandalized.

"All right," agreed Ned Trent, with good-natured contempt. "That
is not the point. Do you refuse?"

"Can't you see?" begged the other. "I'm sure you are reasonable
enough to take the case on its broader side."

"You refuse?" insisted Ned Trent.

"It is not always easy to walk straightly before the Lord, and my
way is not always clear before me, but----"