:26:06
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
:26:16
Amenl
:26:23
''Thou shalt not have strange gods
before me!'' So it is written.
:26:28
Yet you worship the dark gods
of superstition and falsehood
:26:32
like so many benighted savages!
:26:35
You whisper of a man long dead,
a man whom you call Redbeard!
:26:41
You credit him with supernatural
powers, powers of life and death!
:26:45
Redbeard, indeed!
:26:47
Sir John Mohune
was an officer of the Crown
:26:50
who betrayed his sacred trust,
traduced his king
:26:53
and sold his honour
for a diamond of great price!
:26:57
He died in Hollisbrooke, a madman,
:27:00
balked of the enjoyment
of his ill-gotten treasure.
:27:03
And now, in death,
it is not to be believed
:27:07
that such a man would be suffered
to defy the divine law
:27:11
and dishonour the resting places
of our Christian dead!
:27:15
- Amen!
- Amen, Parson.
:27:18
But if it weren't Redbeard,
who killed Cracky Jones last winter?
:27:24
And now...
:27:26
Nat Greening.
Who took him?
:27:28
Silence, Granny Clarke, and you,
Ratsey, that should know better.
:27:32
When l urged...
:27:34
that a search be made for Nathaniel
Greening, two days missing,
:27:37
l was told that a search
was useless,
:27:40
that he was last seen
in the churchyard, after sundown,
:27:43
and so must have met a monstrous
fate at Redbeard's hands.
:27:48
l say to you that
this is blasphemy!
:27:52
And l say to you that if you
persist in these heathen beliefs,
:27:57
you mock God in His own house