The Witness

Witness, The

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Title: The Witness
Author: Grace Livingston Hill Lutz
Release Date: August 9, 2005 [EBook #16502]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE WITNESS
A NOVEL
BY GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL LUTZ
AUTHOR OF A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS, ETC.
NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS

Published by Arrangement with Harper & Brothers
Made in the United States of America
THE WITNESS
Copyright, 1917, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of
America
TO MY MOTHER MARCIA MACDONALD LIVINGSTON
WHOSE HELPFUL CRITICISM AND LOVING
ENCOURAGEMENT HAVE BEEN WITH ME THROUGH THE
YEARS

_"He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself."_ --I
JOHN 5:10

THE WITNESS
CHAPTER I
Like a sudden cloudburst the dormitory had gone into a frenzy of sound.
Doors slammed, feet trampled, hoarse voices reverberated, heavy
bodies flung themselves along the corridor, the very electrics trembled
with the cataclysm. One moment all was quiet with a contented
after-dinner-peace-before-study hours; the next it was as if all the
forces of the earth had broken forth.
Paul Courtland stepped to his door and threw it back.
"Come on, Court, see the fun!" called the football half-back, who was
slopping along with two dripping fire-buckets of water.
"What's doing?"

"Swearing-match! Going to make Little Stevie cuss! Better get in on it.
Some fight! Tennelly sent 'Whisk' for a whole basket of superannuated
cackle-berries"--he motioned back to a freshman bearing a basket of
ancient eggs--"we're going to blindfold Steve and put oysters down his
back, and then finish up with the fire-hose. Oh, the seven plagues of
Egypt aren't in it with what we're going to do; and when we get done if
Little Stevie don't let out a string of good, honest cuss-words like a man
then I'll eat my hat. Little Stevie's got good stuff in him if it can only be
brought out. We're a-going to bring it out. Then we're going to
celebrate by taking him over to the theater and making him see 'The
Scarlet Woman.' It'll be a little old miracle, all right, if he has any of his
whining Puritanical ideas left in him after we get through with him.
Come on! Get on the job!"
Drifting along with the surging tide of students, Courtland sauntered
down the corridor to the door at the extreme end where roomed the
victim.
He rather liked Stephen Marshall. There was good stuff in him; all the
fellows recognized that. Only he was woefully unsophisticated,
abnormally innocent, frankly religious, and a little too openly white in
his life. It seemed a rebuke to the other fellows, unconscious though it
might be. He felt with the rest that the fellow needed a lesson.
Especially since the bald way in which he had dared to stand up for the
old-fashioned view of miracles in biblical-lit. class that morning. Of
course an ignorance like that wouldn't go down, and it was best he
should learn it at once and get to be a good fellow without loss of time.
A little gentle rubbing off of the "mamma's-good-little-boy" veneering
would do him good. He wasn't sure but with such a course Marshall
might even be eligible for the frat. that year. He sauntered along with
his hands in his pockets; a handsome, capable, powerful figure; not
taking any part in the preparations, but mildly interested in the plans.
His presence lent enthusiasm to the gathering. He was high in authority.
A star athlete, an A student, president of his fraternity, having made the
Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year, and now in his senior year being
chairman of the student exec. There would be no trouble with the
authorities of the college if Court was along to give countenance.

Courtland stood opposite the end door when it was unceremoniously
thrust open and the hilarious mob rushed in. From his position with his
back against the wall he could see Stephen lift his fine head from his
book and rise to greet them. There was surprise and a smile of welcome
on his face. Courtland thought it almost a pity to reward such
open-heartedness as they were about to do; but such things were
necessary in the making of men. He watched developments with
interest.
A couple of belated participants in the fray arrived breathlessly,