“But, Miss Stark,” persisted the chairman, “he’s a copperhead, he’s a defamer of the President and the country, he deserves no consideration, either from us or from you.”
“Yes,” added one in the crowd, “and he’s a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, and they plot treason and murder.”
Then Bannister found his voice for the first time in many minutes.
“That’s a lie,” he said. “I’m not a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle. I plot nothing. What I think, I say. What I do, I’m not ashamed of. What you cowards can do to me, I’m not afraid of.”
Sarah Jane Stark turned on him savagely.
“You shut up!” she commanded. “I’m doing the talking for this delegation.”
Then again she addressed the chairman of the meeting.
“You ought to know,” she said, “that I’m no copperhead. I detest ’em. You ought to know that with two brothers and a nephew in the Union armies I have some sympathy with the soldiers. And if I ever loved a man in my life I love Abe Lincoln. But there’s nothing I love quite so much as I do fair play. And [this isn’t fair play].”
