Part 9 (2/2)

You call yourselves Christians and we will put you on your trial first.

I will put the world on its trial, and myself of yesterday. [_To a_ Boy.] Run out, Johneen, keep a watch, and tell us when the train is coming. Sabina, that rope; we will set these gentlemen on those barrels.

[Tinkers _take hold of them_.

_Colonel Lawley._ Keep your hands off me, you drunken scoundrel!

[_Strikes at_ CHARLIE WARD, _but_ Tinkers _seize his arms behind_.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Tie all their hands behind them.

_Mr. Dowler._ We'd better give in, there's no saying how many more of them there are.

_Mr. Algie._ I'll be quiet, the odds are too great against us.

_Mr. Green._ The police will soon be here; we may as well stay quietly.

_Paddy c.o.c.kfight._ Here, give it to me, I'll put a good twist in it.

Don't be afraid, sir, it's not about your neck I'm putting it----. There now, sit quiet and easy, and you won't feel it at all.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Are all their hands tied? Now then, heave them up on to the barrels.

[_Slight scuffle, during which all are put on the barrels in a semicircle._

_Paul Ruttledge._ Ah! yes, you are on my barrels now; last time I saw you, you were on your own dunghill. Let me see, is there anyone here who can write?

_Charlie Ward._ n.o.body.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Never mind, you can keep count on your fingers. The rest must sit down and behave themselves as befits a court. They say they are living like Christians. Let us see.

_Thomas Ruttledge._ Oh, Paul, don't make such a fool of yourself.

_Paul Ruttledge._ The point is not wisdom or folly, but the Christian life.

_Mr. Dowler._ Don't answer him, Thomas. Let us preserve our dignity.

_Mr. Algie._ Yes, let us keep a dignified att.i.tude--we won't answer these ruffians at all.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Respect the court! [_Turns to Colonel Lawley._] You have served your Queen and country in the field, and now you are a colonel of militia.

_Colonel Lawley._ Well, what is there to be ashamed of in that? Answer me that, now.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Yet there is an old saying about turning the other cheek, an old saying, a saying so impossible that the world has never been able to get it out of its mind. You have helped to enlist men for the army, I think? Some of them have fought in the late war, and you have even sent some of your own militia there.

_Colonel Lawley._ If I did I'm proud of it.

_Paul Ruttledge._ Did they think it was a just war?

_Colonel Lawley._ That was not their business. They had taken the Queen's pay. They would have disgraced themselves if they had not gone.

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