Sam watched him quietly thinking of
the exhibition as something detached and apart from the business of the
meeting. He remembered a question that had come into his head when he was
a schoolboy and had got his first peep into a school history. There had
been a picture of Indians at the war dance and he had wondered why they
danced before rather than after battle. Now his mind answered the
question.
"If they had not danced before they might never have got the chance," he
thought, and smiled to himself.
"I call upon you men here to stick to the old colours," roared the
colonel, turning and making a direct attack upon Sam. "Do not let this
ungrateful upstart, this son of a drunken village housepainter, that I
picked up from among the cabbages of South Water Street, win you away from
your loyalty to the old leader. Do not let him steal by trickery what we
have won only by years of effort."
The colonel, leaning on the table, glared about the room. Sam felt
relieved and glad of the direct attack.
"It justifies what I am going to do," he thought.
When Colonel Tom had finished Sam gave a careless glance at the old man's
red face and trembling fingers. He had no doubt that the outburst of
eloquence had fallen upon deaf ears and without comment put Webster's
motion to the vote.
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