“I hate him because he is a sham!” Carter shouted. “He would not dare appear in a city like New York or Washington before the thinking power of the nation. He knows—”

At that moment Carter was interrupted again by the Associated Press editor. “An important news item from New York, Mr. Carter.”

“All right. Go ahead.”

“‘Jesus is here.’”

“Hold on. What’s that?”

“I’m reading off the telegraph, Mr. Carter.”

“All right. Go on.”

“‘Jesus is here! The most unprecedented event in the history of the world for the last two thousand years has occurred! At the conference of all the ministers and religious workers now being held in New York, suddenly there appeared the same person who created such a series of sensations in Raymond a week ago. There is no question whatever that it is Jesus. All the ministers present accept absolutely his claims and do not doubt his person.’ There is a full list of well-known names here, Mr. Carter. Shall I give them?”

“No. Never mind about the rest.” Carter turned to Barnes. “Could you catch that?”

“Yes. Jesus has appeared in New York and he is accepted as such.”

“By the ministers. But not by the people generally.”

“But all New York will pay him honor.”

“As long as he does not preach against the money god. Then they will crucify him. How long do you think Wall Street would listen to him, to say nothing of obeying his teaching?”

Barnes did not reply to this.

After a while Carter continued, “Oh, well. I haven’t changed my mind. It’s not the first time the world has been fooled. I may have to go to New York in a few days. If I do, I’ll—”

“What?”

“I don’t know,” Carter spoke sullenly. “But if I get a chance, I’ll expose the sham.”

“Mr. Carter,” Barnes said gently. “Why do you hate him? I wish I knew how to tell you what a new quality of life I have had ever since I began to love him.”

For reply, Carter turned his back on Barnes, and Barnes went out of the office. On his way down to the reporters’ room, he stopped in to see the telegraph editor.

Normally, the Associated Press man in the Gazette office was impervious to anything. News of all kinds from all over the world came to him, the first man of the fifty thousand in Raymond to receive it. Wars, murders, scandals, elections to office, assassinations of kings and presidents, upheavals in politics, floods, earthquakes, fires, world disasters of every sort—all this flowed into the little room to the telegraph editor, and he clicked it off on his typewriter, piling it up for the news editor to choose from.