Part 3 (2/2)
The man glanced at Preacher, as if expecting another interruption. Preacher clenched his teeth to keep from saying anything. He'd not give Eleazar the satisfaction. He had to trust that the village men were not fools. Let them listen and recognize lies.
”You are familiar, I'm sure, with the story of Lazarus? Raised from the dead by the Holy Son, Christ Jesus?”
”I can a.s.sure you we are,” the mayor said.
”Mr. Dobbs mentioned that my name seems odd. It is my family name, and it has a meaning that is indeed biblical. It's another form of Lazarus. My ancestor was that poor man, raised from the dead, taught the art of resurrection by Christ Jesus himself.”
”No,” Preacher said, rising. ”I'm sorry, gentlemen. I can't countenance this.To say this stranger is descended from Lazarus is one thing. Even to say he can raise the dead is merely preposterous. To claim that Jesus taught his ancestor the skill? That is blasphemy.”
The others had to know that. They took their faith more seriously than he. All of them, as much as it pained him to admit it.Yet not one even looked his way.They kept their gazes averted, and when he saw that, he knew that they recognized the blasphemy. And they chose to ignore it.
”Is it not . . . possible?” Doc Adams said.
Preacher turned to stare at him.The doctor? He was the most educated among them.The one who made his living following the natural science of the world.Who knew that dead was dead.
”It can happen, can't it, Doc?” Dobbs asked. ”I mean, I've heard of things like that.”
Doc Adams nodded. ”And I've seen it.A man on the dissection table at the university. We cut into him, and he started awake.”
”Because he wasn't dead,” Preacher said.
Mayor Browning turned to him. ”Are you saying that the doctor who p.r.o.nounced him so was wrong?”
”Yes, that is exactly-”
”I am surprised you would be the one arguing most vehemently, Benjamin,” Eleazar said in his soft voice. ”A man of faith ought to believe in miracles. In the mercy of G.o.d.” He paused and looked Preacher in the eye. ”Unless you are not such a man of faith.”
Preacher blanched. He was certain the barb was thrown wild, that Eleazar did not truly see into his heart, and yet, with his reaction, he confirmed it.And in Eleazar's response, a faint smile, Preacher knew he was lost.
”Our preacher is a good man,” Doc Adams said. ”If he is skeptical, it's because he . . .”The doctor seemed to struggle for a way to put it.
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