Hopalong ducked
instinctively.
"--Stop! Stop before it is too late, before death takes you in the
wallow of your sins! Repent and gain salvation--"
Hopalong felt relieved, but his face retained its expression of
childlike innocence even after he realized that he was not being
personally addressed; and he glanced around. It took him ninety-seven
seconds to see everything there was to be seen, and his eyes were drawn
irresistibly back to the stranger's kerchief. "Awful! Awful thing for
a drinking man to wear, or run up against unexpectedly!" he muttered,
blinking. "Worse than snakes," he added thoughtfully.
"Look ahere, you--" began the owner of the offensive decoration, if it
might be called such, but the evangelist drowned his voice in another
flight of eloquence.
"--_Peace_! _Peace_ is the message of the Lord to His children," roared
the voice from the upturned soap box, and when the speaker turned and
looked in the direction of the two men-with-a-difference he found them
sitting up very straight and apparently drinking in his words with great
relish; whereupon he felt that he was making gratifying progress toward
the salvation of their spotted souls. He was very glad, indeed, that he
had been so grievously misinformed about the personal attributes of one
Hopalong Cassidy,--glad and thankful.
"Death cometh as a thief in the night," the voice went on.
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