“How did the crowd take it?”
“I think they were most impressed by the apparent fact that a white man was breaking one of the rules of the overlords and getting away with it.
I didn’t try to tell them much. I took as my text, The Disciple is coming!’ and embroidered it with a lot of glittering generalities. I told them to be good boys and girls and not to be afraid, for the Disciple was coming to feed the hungry and heal the sick and console the bereaved.”
“H-m-m-m. Now that you’ve started making promises, we had better get set to deliver.”
“I was coming to that. Chief, I think that we had better set up a branch church in Denver right away.”
“We’ve hardly got the personnel yet to start branching out.”
“Are you sure? I don’t like to set my opinion up against yours, but I don’t see how we can gain many recruits unless we go where the recruits are. They’re all set for it now; you may be sure that every white man in Denver is talking about the old beezer in the halo — in a halo, mind you! — who preached in the market place and the Asiatics didn’t dare stop him. We’ll pack ’em in!”
“Well…maybe you’re right — ”
I think I am. Admitting that you can’t spare the regular personnel from the Citadel, here’s how we can work it; I’ll go down to the city with Alec, locate a building that we can turn into a temple and start holding services. We can get along with the power units in the staffs at first, and Scheer can follow along and rebuild the interior of the temple and set up a proper unit in the altar. Once things are rolling I can turn the routine over to Alec. He’ll be the local priest for Denver.”
The others had drifted in one by one while Ardmore and Thomas were talking. Ardmore turned now to Alec Howe.
“How about it, Alec? Do you think you can make a noise like a priest, preach ’em sermons, organize charities, and that sort of thing?”
The mountain guide was slow to answer. “I think, Major, that I would rather stay on the job I have now. ”
“It won’t be so hard,” Ardmore reassured him. “Thomas or I can write your sermons for you. The rest of it would consist largely in keeping your mouth shut and your eyes open, and in shooing likely prospects up here to be enlisted.”
“It’s not the sermons, Major. I can preach a sermon — I used to be a lay preacher in my youth. It’s just that I can’t reconcile this false religion with my conscience. I know you are working toward a worthy purpose and I’ve agreed to serve, but I’d rather stay in the kitchen.”
Ardmore considered his words before replying. “Alec,” he said at length, in a grave voice, “I think I can appreciate your viewpoint. I wouldn’t want to ask any man to do anything against his own conscience. As a matter of fact, we would not have adopted the cloak of a religion had we seen any other practical way to fight for the United States. Does your faith forbid you to fight for your country?”
“No, it does not.”
“Most of your work as a priest of this church would be to help the helpless. Doesn’t that fit into your creed?”
“Naturally it does. That is exactly why I cannot do it in the name of a false God.”
“But is it a false God? Do you believe that God cares very much what name you call Him as long as the work you perform is acceptable to Him?
Now mind you,” he added hastily, “I don’t say that this so-called temple we have erected here is necessarily a House of the Lord, but isn’t the worship of God a matter of how you feel in your heart rather than the verbal forms and the ceremonials used?”
“That’s true, Major, every word you’ve said is gospel — but I just don’t feel right about it.”
Ardmore could see that Calhoun had been listening to this discussion with poorly concealed impatience. He decided to terminate it. “Alec, I want you to go now and think this over by yourself. Come see me tomorrow. If you can’t reconcile this work to your conscience, I’ll give you an unprejudiced discharge as a conscientious objector. It won’t even be necessary for you to serve in the kitchen.”