"
Beaut sat on the log beside Hartnet and watched him. The reading man
looked up and nodded nervously then slid along the log to the farther
end. Beaut laughed. He looked down at the town and then at the
frightened nervous book-reading man on the log. An inspiration came to
him.
"If you had the power, Mike, what would you do to Coal Creek?" he
asked.
The nervous man jumped and tears came into his eyes. He stood before
the log and spread out his hands. "I would go among men like Christ,"
he cried, pitching his voice forward like one addressing an audience.
"Poor and humble, I would go teaching them of love." Spreading out his
hands like one pronouncing a benediction he shouted, "Oh men of Coal
Creek, I would teach you love and the destruction of evil."
Beaut jumped up from the log and strode before the trembling figure.
He was strangely moved. Grasping the man he thrust him back upon the
log. His own voice rolled down the hillside in a great roaring laugh.
"Men of Coal Creek," he shouted, mimicking the earnestness of Hartnet,
"listen to the voice of McGregor. I hate you. I hate you because you
jeered at my father and at me and because you cheated my mother, Nance
McGregor. I hate you because you are weak and disorganised like
cattle. I would like to come among you teaching the power of force.
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