Who it was that wanted Carpenter
dragged out of his hiding-place, we could not be sure, but we knew
who it was that wanted him to stay hidden! I called up my uncle
Timothy, and explained the situation. It wasn't worth while for him
to waste his breath scolding, I was going to stand by my prophet. If
he wanted to put an end to the scandal, let him do what he could to
see that the prophet was let alone.
"But, Billy, what can I do?" he cried. "It's a matter of the law."
I answered: "Fudge! You know perfectly well there's no magistrate or
judge in this city that won't do what he's told, if the right people
tell him. What I want you to do is to get busy with de Wiggs and
Westerly and Carson, and the rest of the big gang, and persuade them
that there's nothing to be gained by dragging Carpenter out of his
hiding-place."
What did they want anyway? I argued. They wanted the agitation
stopped. Well, we had stopped it, and without any bloodshed. If they
dragged the prophet out from concealment, and into a police court,
they would only have more excitement, more tumult, ending nobody
could tell how.
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