Storyteller.

White Ribbon, Volume 27, Issue 319, 18 January 1922, Page 14

Storyteller.

TIIK I.AM WEAPON.

(Continued.) CHAPTER XVI I “\e know that by (his iTaft we liave our wealth. So that not only in thi-. our craft in danger to In* set at nought, luit also that the temple of tla* great toMkles- I liana should he despised, and her magnifW'eiioe should be destroyed, whom all the world worshippeth! “And when the |H'ople Iteard tin's** sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is IHaiiaT* And the Sorts of Fear mocked at the Child, a* he .stood in the market plain, for an infuriated mob. three thousand strong:, wax howling: at five young people who were standing on the steps of the statue of a great man who had once stood out against the savagery of the w’orld on behalf of the slave. "If you would but listen to our Message!" shouted the Captain in a voice of thunder. "Damn your Message! Get out, traitors! Who pays you? Down with the lot! Why aren’t you in the tiring line? Aye, let him have it!" and a % volley of mud was flung at the group. The idea took Are. Of course, that was the thing to do. Mud. refuse, eggs, came flying. A rotten one crashed into Little One's face. Bottom Dog leaped forward. "All right.” gasped Little One. "Don’t do anything!” "Duck ’em in the river!" shouted a voice. A man pushed up the steps and dragged at the Princess’s arm. "Don’t strike him!" she exclaimed, seeing the madness in Bottom Deg’s face. He pushed the man hack into the crowd, and pushed the girl behind him. "Give him a bit of the front!" shouted a man, "same as our lads have had," and he aimed a handful of stones with skilled accuracy. Bottom Dog put one hand before his face, and held out the other for support. "Hold on to me," said the Mother, putting her arms about him "For shame!” screamed a woman’s voice. “Yes— drop it!" shouted a man. The

police came pushing their way slowly through the crowd. "Enemlea! Spies! Cow’ards!” clamoured the voices. A man leaped to the steps and held out a leaflet. "Love your enemies! I say, Curse them! An eye fof an eye is good enough for its.” He pitched the bundle into the melee, and a wild scramble on sued. "Oh!” screamed Little One. "Don’t hurt that Child!" anti she struggled to push past the man, that she might save the Child. "Take that, you hypocrite! What do you care for children?” cried a woman, as she crashed her flat into Little One’s face. When the girl recovered herself, she found the Child’s hand in hers. "Look! There is a Child amongst them! It’s abominable!" cried a young factory girl hysterically. "Hush!" breathed a young man at her side. "Yon’s no Child!" "Come! You’d better clear out before there is more mischief done!” said the Chief Constable, as he and half a dozen men shouldered their way to the steps. But a sudden hush fell upon the raging mob a pause of startled fear. "O. Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" cried the Child. ‘Thou that killest the prophets and stones; them that are sent unto thee! How often would I h;:v< gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, but ye would not! Behold! Your house is left unto you desolate!” It was necessary that every eye should see him and every ear hear. "He’s an angel!*’ cried a little boy, held up in safety in his father’s arms. "An angel, Daddy! Let me go to him”’ "Nonsense, kid!” said his father. Yet he looked in consternation towards the steps. The Child was not there. An amazed, uncertain temper swept over the crowd. "It’s a shame!” cried the woman who had first cried it. "Let them speak. Let us hear what it is they want to say." "Comer’ said the officer, peremptorily. "You’ll do no good here —only rouse their tempers worse! You’d better come along to the police station—you’ll lie safest there?’

It was just at that moment that the attention of the mob was turned to a violent hooting of a motor car, which insisted on the righ* of way. "Straight in amongst them, Morrison,” ordered a woman, as she rose up in the car. "I guessed there would be the devil to pay”’ The huge car attacked the crowd with a resistless might, and with cries and curses the people pushed back in all directions. Who dared to come into a crow’d like that? "It’s Tower!" ran from lip to lip. What did this mean? "Cowards! Cowards!” she shot forth to left and right of her as the car made its way right to the steps of the statue. "Why aren’t you protecting these people?” cried Lady Power stormily to the Chief Constable. "We are doing our best,” he began. "Nonsense! Is that man injured?” and she* pointed to Bottom Dog, who was leaning his face down against the Mother’s shoulder. "We are taking them to the police station, my lady; they will be safest tnere.” "Nonsense!” she repeated. "They will be safest with me. Come, ♦veryone of you. Into the car —there is room enough!" "If you could take this man, madam!” said the Mother earnestly. "He is really hurt.” “And we are all too dreadfully filthy!" said Little One. whimsically/ She was a woe begone figure enough, W’ith her egg-bespattered fade and clothes, and a red bruise burning on her chee*. "Why de>es everybody talk nonsense? ’ said the lady, irately. "Come, let us get away from these lunatics—they make me ill”’ Very carefully they helped Bottom Dog in first, and the others followed, ashamed to seat themselves in such a car. A murmur ran in and out among the o row’d. Lady Power was taking them to the Cjustie. Had they blundered? The car hooted threateningly, and the crowd, which had closed In. was rolled backwards once more. "Boor’ yelled a few determined spirits. "Shut up?’ said their neighbours. (To be Continued.)