Page:The War on the Webfoot Saloon.djvu/6

 Grant at Cold Harbor, the Leaguers prepared to fight it out along that line if it took all summer.

At the outset the ladies contented themselves with an occasional reconnaissance in force. An harassing action here, a flank attack there, probing the defenses. Almost daily the Crusaders visited the Webfoot, demanded entrance, were refused and moved meekly off. But throughout the city tension was mounting. Even Moffett himself was not fatuous enough to believe that he was going to escape so easily, and he might be seen, now and again, peering nervously out at his swinging doors. On the thirty-first of March the ladies suddenly changed tactics. Having applied for admission and been turned away, they ranged themselves in a line in front of the saloon and began to pray and sing. A large crowd collected almost immediately. Moffett shortly appeared, wearing his spectacles and an expression of mock dignity, and carrying a Bible from which he proceeded to read passages "selected with express reference to the occasion, being such detached portions of the Holy Writ which, when taken disconnectedly, are the most offensive and improper." The ladies sang louder. Moffett shouted. In thus wise the duel continued until four o'clock, when the Leaguers withdrew. During a short lull in the proceedings one of them, tears in her eyes, asked Moffett why he persisted in acting so. He replied stoutly that he was an educated man; that he attended to his own business and urged others to do the same; that his tormentors were hypocrites; and that he stood as fair in the books Up There as any one.

The lady who had inquired had not done so out of idle curiosity, and that night the question was much discussed in the meeting at the church. There were a few who felt that the Webfoot's proprietor was an incorrigible and should henceforth be ignored. But the majority took the position that he should be granted no special dispensation, and there were even those who argued that his excitable and erratic behaviour was caused by an uneasy conscience, and was thus a sign that he was not damned beyond Salvation.