there beside him.

"And when the evening came, he went back to his chapel. Many were absent,
but the elders sat in their places, and his wife also was there. And the
light shone on the empty benches. And when the time came he opened the old
book of the Jews; and he turned the leaves and read:--'If thou forbear to
deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be
slain; if thou sayest, 'Behold we knew it not!' Doth not he that pondereth
the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth he not know it?'

"And he said, 'This morning we considered the evils this land is suffering
under at the hands of men whose aim is the attainment of wealth and power.
Tonight we shall look at our own share in the matter. I think we shall
realise that with us, and not with the men we have lifted up on high, lies
the condemnation.' Then his wife rose and went out, and others followed
her; and the little man's voice rolled among the empty benches; but he
spoke on.

"And when the service was over he went out. No elder came to the porch to
greet him; but as he stood there one, he saw not whom, slipped a leaflet
into his hand. He held it up, and read in the lamplight what was written
on it in pencil. He crushed it up in his hand, as a man crushes that which
has run a poisonous sting into him; then he dropped it on the earth as a
man drops that he would forget. A fine drizzly rain was falling, and he
walked up the street with his arms folded behind him, and his head bent.
The people walked up the other side; and it seemed to him he was alone.
But I walked behind him."

"And then," asked Peter, seeing that the stranger was silent, "what
happened to him after that?"