“I have often wondered just how far you could carry on a campaign of hatred and untruths without reaping a fearful penalty. We have been breeding intolerance in America for years. All over our country, in the south and in the west, men are at the present time carrying on a campaign against the teaching of science. They are inflaming the minds of simple people in what they call a great crusade. In the end you cannot breed intolerance and hatred without some time having to reap the full penalty. Warren paid the price of that campaign of misrepresentation. It has happened before. Intolerance—breeding hatred—and then in an unbalanced mind flaming out in violence.
“I began to wonder if perhaps I had not found the type who would commit such a crime, and also the motive. When you told me of the faint cross cut into the head of the dead man, I knew that we were dealing with an unbalanced mind.”
He paused and lighted a fresh cigar; then added:
“And the night the minister came here I began to wonder if he might be the man. This afternoon I was sure of it.”
At our questioning glances he informed us as to what had made him suspicious. He reminded us that the minister had broken out in a rather wild attack upon what he said was the fact that evolution was responsible for people not going to church. Then he added that when the clergyman had expressed his opinion that Warren's discoveries could not be given to the world, he had been corrected by Carter's statement that Mr. Warren's assistant was coming to finish the book.
He remarked that only the fact he was suspicious of the man, perhaps caused him to notice the look which passed over his face when he made his statement regarding Patton. It was a look of consternation and of hatred. From that moment he had begun to have his suspicions regarding the minister. One other thing convinced him they were true.
The chief had been following Bartley's story with the closest attention. In part, I believed that he was not sure Bartley's reasoning was correct. I could see the puzzled look sweep across his face, and once or twice he shook his head as if he did not agree. It was his voice which asked:
“What was the other thing?”
“Pelt and I were in the minister's study this afternoon. I made my call at a time I knew he was out. I had seen him go down the lake in his boat. There was nothing very much out of the way in his study—that is, on first glance. His books were mostly controversial theological works, and a good many of them were attacks upon evolution. But in a bookcase which had a glass door covered by cloth I found something else. To start with, the books in the case were a weird mixture. There were a great many books upon flagellation—the worst sort of books. Then there were a number dealing with the celebrated Girard case. That was a famous case of sadism under the guise of religion. Also there were the five pamphlets which covered the Lepworth school matter.”
There came a short expression from Ranville. As the rest of us looked blankly at the two men, Bartley enlightened us.