“It is! That man is lying to these ignorant people! He’s telling them a vile untruth! Let me go, Jim–––”
“Better keep cool,” whispered Brisson, leaning over. “We’re all in dutch already.”
Palla said to him excitedly: “I’m afraid to stand up and speak, but I’m going to! I’d be a coward to sit here and let that man deceive these poor people–––”
“Listen to Bromberg!” motioned Ilse, her blue eyes frosty and her cheeks deeply flushed.
The orator had come down into the aisle. Every venomous word he was uttering now he directed straight at the quartette.
“Russia is showing us the way,” he said in his growling voice. “Russia makes no distinctions but takes them all by the throat and wrings their necks––aristocrats, bourgeoisie, cadets, officers, land owners, intellectuals––all the vermin, all the parasites! And that is the law, I tell you! The unfit perish! The strong inherit the earth!–––”
Palla sprang to her feet: “Liar!” she said hotly. “Did not Christ Himself tell us that the meek shall inherit the earth!”
“Christ?” thundered Bromberg. “Have you come here to insult us with legends and fairy-tales about a god?”
“Who mentioned God?” retorted Palla in a clear voice. “Unless we ourselves are gods there is none! But Christ did live! And He was as much a god as we are. And no more. But He was wiser! And what He told us is the truth! And I shall not sit silent while any man or woman teaches robbery and murder. That’s what you mean when you say that the law of the stronger is the only law! If it is, then the poor and ignorant are where they belong–––”