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The Reverend Blackman went back to his pulpit. He lifted his hands. He told the people that they sat and mocked him, that he could do nothing for them and that he would end the meeting that night.

The congregation sat in shocked silence at this extreme step. The minister dismissed them; they arose and filed queerly out into the night.

Abner left the church oppressed by the general feeling of coming evil. He peered ahead and saw Tug and Mary Lou walk out of the church into outer darkness. To the youth's fevered imagination this seemed a sort of symbol, and he wished from the bottom of his heart that Tug had gone to the mourners' bench when the preacher had asked him.