But all were shouting at me, and the fanatic spirit of hate that Sanson had evoked seemed to have recoiled and turned on him to his destruction.
Suddenly the approaching spans stood still. They remained motionless, each end some three feet from me. Then, slowly, they began to recede.
“Jump, Arnold!” I heard David scream above the uproar.
I saw the plan to isolate me there, where none could reach me, helpless in the mid-Temple. I gathered Esther high in my arms, stepped back, and sprang; I felt myself falling. Still clutching Esther with one hand, I groped in blindness with the other. I struck the edge of the span. Hands held me; hands pulled Esther free; I stood among our friends, and behind us already the Guard was beaten backward.
I saw the tattered outlaws’ figures everywhere. Only around Sanson were the Guard still potent. He saw the situation; he knew his power was crumbling as Lembken’s had crumbled; and, pushing his bodyguard aside, strode forward and held up his hand for silence. Even then—so great was his power—at the gesture, all motion in the Temple ceased; I saw arrested Ray rods, not yet discharged, held stiffly, limbs halted in air, necks craned toward the speaker and immobile.
“Choose, then!” Sanson called in words that rang like a trumpet’s blast. “It is your supreme moment. Will you have your Messiah or will you have my gift—immortality?”
“Give us God!” screamed the woman’s voice; and then a thousand and ten thousand answered him:
“Give us God!”
“The God of Bonham!”
“Our fathers’ God, Whom we denied.”