“I challenge it.”
Dr. Strong, who had been hopefully awaiting some such opening, was on his feet again.
“You have had your say!” cried Professor Gray, menacing him with a shaking hand. “These people don’t want to hear you. They understand your motives. You can’t run this meeting.”
The gesture was a signal. The raw-boned accompanist, whose secondary function was that of bouncer, made a quick advance from the rear, reached for the unsuspicious Health Master—and recoiled from the impact of Mr. Thomas Clyde’s solid shoulder so sharply that only the side wall checked his subsidence.
“Better stay out of harm’s way, my friend,” suggested Clyde amiably.
Immediately the hall was in an uproar. The more timid of the women were making for the exits, when a high, shrill voice, calling for order strenuously, quelled the racket, and a very fat man waddled down the middle aisle, to be greeted by cries of “Here’s the Mayor.” Several excited volunteers explained the situation to him from as many different points of view, while Professor Graham Gray bellowed his appeal from the platform.
“All I want is fair play. They’re trying to break up my meeting.”
“Not at all,” returned Dr. Strong’s calm voice. “I’m more than anxious to have it continue.”
With a happy inspiration, Mr. Clyde jumped up on his bench.
“I move Mayor Allen take the chair!” he shouted. “Professor Gray says that he courts fair investigation. Let’s give it to him, in order.”