If Roland retires from this guild, I retire also,
ashamed to keep company with men who uphold a trick worthy of a ruined
gambler."
"My dear Joseph," cried Ebearhard, springing up with a laugh, "you were
misnamed in your infancy. You should have been called Herod, practically
justifying a slaughter of us innocents."
"I stand by Benjamin," growled Gruesel, "the youngest and most capable
of our circle; the one who produced the money while all the rest of us
talked."
"You never talked till now, Joseph," said Ebearhard, still trying to
ease the situation with a laugh, "and what you say is not only
deplorably severe, but uttered, as I will show you, upon entirely
mistaken grounds. We did not, and do not, support Conrad Kurzbold in
what he said at first. Now you rate us as if we were no better than
thieves. Dishonest gamblers, you call us, and Lord knows what else, and
then you threaten withdrawal. I submit that your diatribe is quite
undeserved. We all condemn Kurzbold for censuring Roland's generosity to
the merchant, unanimously upholding Roland in that action, and have said
so plainly enough.
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