“Well, then, you’ll stand a very good chance of being damned also,” exclaimed one of the two young men.
“’Ow do you make it out?” demanded the preacher, wiping the froth from his lips and the perspiration from his forehead with his handkerchief.
“Why, because you don’t believe the Bible yourselves.”
Nimrod and the other evangelists laughed, and looked pityingly at the young man.
“Ah, my dear brother,” said Misery. “That’s your delusion. I thank God I do believe it, every word!”
“Amen,” fervently ejaculated Slyme and several of the other disciples.
“Oh no, you don’t,” replied the other. “And I can prove you don’t.”
“Prove it, then,” said Nimrod.
“Read out the 17th and 18th verses of the XVIth chapter of Mark,” said the disturber of the meeting. The crowd began to close in on the centre, the better to hear the dispute. Misery, standing close to the lantern, found the verse mentioned and read aloud as follows:
“And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”