"Look at America--I'm half an American myself, sir, so I've a right to
say it--where a man may become a millionaire by crushing out everybody
else and appropriating the gifts of nature which God meant for humanity!
But America is a Christian country, too, and its richest men build, of
their abundance, churches in which to glorify the giving of the widow's
mite! Is the man to be silenced who warns the world that such sordid
and squalid materialism is swallowing up religion, morality, and truth?
Such a man may be the very soul of a country, yet what do we do with
him? We hang him or stone him or crucify him--that's what we do with
him, sir."
Gordon, who had been walking up and down the room and talking in an
intense and poignant voice, stopped suddenly and said--
"General, did you ever reflect upon the way in which Jesus Christ was
brought to His death?"
"Good gracious, man, what has that subject to do with this?" said the
General.
"A good deal, I think, sir. Did you ever ask yourself who it was that
betrayed Jesus?"
"Judas Iscariot, I suppose."
"No, sir, Judas was only the catspaw--scorned through all the ages and
burnt in a million effigies, but nearly as innocent of the death of his
Master as you or I. The real betrayer was the High Priest of the Jews.
He was the head of the bad system which Christ came to wipe out, and he
saw that if he did not destroy Jesus, Jesus would destroy him. What did
he do? He went to the Governor, the Consul-General of the Roman
Occupation, and said, 'This man is setting himself up against Caesar.
If you let him go you are not Caesar's friend.'"
"Well?"
"That's what the High Priest of Islam is doing in Egypt now. As I was
going into the Agency yesterday I met the Grand Cadi coming out. You
know what he is, sir--the most fanatical supporter of the old dark
ways--slavery, divorce, polygamy, all the refuse of bad Mohammedanism."
"Well, well?"
"Well, my father told me the Grand Cadi had said, 'If you let Ishmael
Ameer go on it will be death to the rule of England in Egypt.'"
"And what does it all come to?"
"It comes to this, sir--that if the Chancellor of El Azhar has told me
the truth--_if_, I say _if_--when we take Ishmael Ameer and shut him up
in prison for life with nothing but a desert around him, we shall be
doing something that bears an ugly resemblance to what the Romans did in
Palestine."
Then the General, who had not once taken his eyes off Gordon, rose in
visible agitation and said--
"Gordon Lord, you astonish me! If what you say means anything it means
that this man Ishmael is not only preaching sedition but is justified in
doing so. That's what you mean! Am I wrong?"
In his excitement he spoke so rapidly that he stammered, and Helena
cried, "Father!"
"Leave me alone, Helena. I'm calm, but when a man talks of ... When you
talk of conquest you mean England in Egypt--yes, you do--and you refuse
to see that we have to hold high the honour of our country and to
protect our dominions in the East."