Page:Lynch Williams--The girl and the game.djvu/325

 Bible. The watchers had softly descended the stairs. As they silently hurried toward the scene of the desecration, the vandal leaned over with his candle and set fire to the pile. As they sprang in upon him the flame burst up and flared full upon the face of their brilliant lawyer, who raised his hand and said: "But the funny thing about this is that I have a keener moral sense than any of you. Do I make myself clear?"

The watchers stood aghast. Even now they did not believe him to be the one they were after. "Worry over the affair," they whispered to one another, nodding nervously.

He heard them. "What rot," said he; "or, as the pulpit has it, 'Rats.' I am a moral being, a free agent."

"Oh, this is too much—impossible!" groaned a good, gray old elder, breaking down.

"A perfectly natural mistake on your part," the smiling young lawyer replied, with condescending glibness. "I thought it was impossible myself—I wondered if I