He tried a little gamble in "May wheat" with a Winnipeg bucket-shop,
plunging what was to him the important sum of twenty dollars. Luck was
with him full-tide. From the moment he bought, May wheat shot upwards,
and in a few days he had closed the deal with fifty dollars to his
credit.
That evening he wandered around the city with money jingling in his
trouser-pockets. He bought himself a good seat at a music-hall, and at
the bar boldly ordered cocktails with weird names of which the contents
were wonderful mysteries to him.
On his way home to his hotel about midnight, a flaming placard outside a
tin-roofed chapel caught his eye and stopped him for a moment. The
wording was crudely sensational:
THE WICKED FLOURISH!
BUT FOR HOW LONG?
A LIFETIME OF EASE FOR AN ETERNITY OF HELL-FIRE!
DO YOU CHOOSE HELL?
MAKE YOUR CHOICE TO-NIGHT!
The meeting inside the chapel was in full swing. A roar of voices raised
in a marching hymn swept out to the deserted street. Dean's lips curved
contemptuously for a moment. Then the whim came to him to finish his
night's amusement by a sarcastic enjoyment of the revivalist service. He
would go inside and watch other people making fools of themselves.
He entered the swinging doors of the chapel into a room hot with the
odour of packed humanity, and found a place for himself at the rear.
Presently the hymn ended on a shout of triumph and a deep, solemn
"Amen.
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