TO
“MY BEST FRIENDS”
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | Across the Space | [ 3] |
| II. | Headlines | [ 17] |
| III. | No Anaesthetic | [ 31] |
| IV. | Nobody to Say a Prayer | [ 48] |
| V. | Plain as a Pikestaff | [ 63] |
| VI. | High Lights | [ 80] |
| VII. | Rather a Big Thing | [ 99] |
| VIII. | Spendthrifts | [ 117] |
| IX. | “Burn, Fire, Burn!” | [ 134] |
| X. | A Shifting of Honours | [ 153] |
| XI. | A Long April Night | [ 174] |
| XII. | Everybody Plots | [ 192] |
| XIII. | A Great Gash | [ 212] |
| XIV. | Something to Remember | [ 233] |
| XV. | Quicksilver in a Tube | [ 255] |
| XVI. | The Altar of His Purpose | [ 276] |
| XVII. | No Other Way | [ 291] |
| XVIII. | At Four in the Morning | [ 307] |
| XIX. | A Scarlet Feather | [ 328] |
| XX. | A Happy Warrior | [ 341] |
| XXI. | A Peal of Bells | [ 354] |
| XXII. | In His Name | [ 370] |
| XXIII. | The Town Was Empty Before | [ 376] |
RED AND BLACK
RED AND BLACK
CHAPTER I
ACROSS THE SPACE
THEIR first sight of each other—Red and Black—was across the space which stretches between pulpit and pew. It’s sometimes a wide space, and impassable; again, it’s not far, and the lines of communication are always open. In this case, neither of them knew, as yet, just what the distance was.
Black—Robert McPherson Black—if you want his full name, had been a bit nervous in the vestry where he put on his gown. He had been preaching only five years, and that in a Southern country parish, when a visiting committee of impressive looking men had come to listen to him—had come again—and once more—and then had startled him with a call to the big suburban town and the fine old, ivy-grown church generally known as the “Stone Church.”
“But, gentlemen,” he had said, swinging about quickly in his study chair when Mr. Lockhart, the chairman of the committee, had asked him if he would consider a call—“I’m—I’m—why, I’m not good enough for you!”
The committee had smiled—it was quite a remarkable committee, and had a sense of humour. At least Samuel Lockhart had, and one other of the five who were waiting upon Mr. Black in his study after the evening service.