I, too, seemed to hear his voice in the words, and it was as if speaking from his grave.
I looked at Aristides, and read compassion in his dear face; but the face of Cyril remained severe and judicial. He said: “Then, if what you say is true, you cannot think it a hardship if we remove your burden for the time you remain with us. I have consulted with the National and Regional as well as the Communal authorities, and we cannot let you continue to live in the manner you are living here. You must pay your way.”
“I shall be only too glad to do that,” Mr. Thrall returned, more cheerfully. “We have not a great deal of cash in hand, but I can give you my check on London or Paris or New York.”
“In Altruria,” Cyril returned, “we have no use for money. You must _pay_ your way as soon as your present provision from your yacht is exhausted.”
Mr. Thrall turned a dazed look on the young lord, who suggested: “I don't think we follow you. How can Mr. Thrall pay his way except with money?”
“He must pay with _work_. As soon as you come upon the neighbors here for the necessities of life you must all work. To-morrow or the next day or next week at the furthest you must go to work, or you must starve.”
Then he came out with that text of Scripture which had been so efficient with the crew of the _Little Sally_: “For even when we were with you this we commanded you, that if any would not work neither should he eat.”
Lord Moors seemed very interested, and not so much surprised as I had expected. “Yes, I have often thought of that passage and of its susceptibility to a simpler interpretation than we usually give it. But--”
“There is but one interpretation of which it is susceptible,” Cyril interrupted. “The apostle gives that interpretation when he prefaces the text with the words, 'For yourselves know how you ought to follow us; for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but _wrought with travail_ night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.' The whole economy of Altruria is founded on these passages.”
“But, my dear sir,” the young lord reasoned, “you surely do not wrench the text from some such meaning as that if a man has money, he may pay his way without working?”