Hallowell was staring at him.
"I don't understand you," said the reporter. "You have no heart. You are
as bad as this Monsieur X, and between you you hold a city in your
power--one way or the other!"
"Well, I rather like being a little god," remarked Darrow.
Hallowell started once more to plead, but Darrow cut him short.
"You are thinking of the present," he said. "I am thinking of the future.
It's a good thing for people to find out that there's something bigger
than they are, or than anything they can make. That fact is the basis of
the idea of a God. These are getting to be a godless people." He turned on
Hallowell, his sleepy eyes lighting up. "I should be very sorry if I had
not intellect enough and imagination enough to see what this may mean to
my fellow people; and I should despise myself if I should let an
unrestrained compassion lose to four million people the rare opportunity
vouchsafed them."
He spoke very solemnly. Hallowell looked at him puzzled.
"Besides," said Darrow whimsically, "I like to devil Eldridge."
He dove into the subway. Hallowell gazed after him.
"There goes either a great man or a crazy fool," he remarked to an English
sparrow. He turned over rapidly the papers Darrow had found on the mayor's
desk, and smiled grimly. "Of all the barefaced, bald-headed steals!" he
said.
Darrow soon mounted once more the elevator of the Atlas Building.
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