asked.

The nervous man jumped and tears came into his eyes. He stood before
the log and spread out his hands. "I would go among men like Christ,"
he cried, pitching his voice forward like one addressing an audience.
"Poor and humble, I would go teaching them of love." Spreading out his
hands like one pronouncing a benediction he shouted, "Oh men of Coal
Creek, I would teach you love and the destruction of evil."

Beaut jumped up from the log and strode before the trembling figure.
He was strangely moved. Grasping the man he thrust him back upon the
log. His own voice rolled down the hillside in a great roaring laugh.
"Men of Coal Creek," he shouted, mimicking the earnestness of Hartnet,
"listen to the voice of McGregor. I hate you. I hate you because you
jeered at my father and at me and because you cheated my mother, Nance
McGregor. I hate you because you are weak and disorganised like
cattle. I would like to come among you teaching the power of force. I
would like to slay you one by one, not with weapons but with my naked
fists. If they have made you work like rats buried in a hole they are
right. It is man's right to do what he can. Get up and fight. Fight
and I'll get on the other side and you can fight me. I'll help drive
you back into your holes."

Beaut ceased speaking and jumping over the logs ran down the road.
Among the first of the miner's houses he stopped and laughed
awkwardly. "I am cracked also," he thought, "shouting at emptiness on
a hillside." He went on in a reflective mood, wondering what power had
taken hold of him. "I would like a fight--a fight against odds," he
thought. "I will stir things up when I am a lawyer in the city."