Long Hunt (9781101559208) Read Online Free

spread of classic Christian institutional learning in an academic environment, the other a much more roughly hewn, self-educated devotee of the kind of fiery revivalism associated with camp and brush arbor meetings. One brother an “old light churchman,” the other a “new light man.”
    There was little doubt in Potts’s mind that this was the latter Bledsoe, the new light revivalist, who had just come in. Potts struggled to remember his name. Abner, he thought. Yes, Abner Bledsoe. And his brother, the academic—his name was Eben Bledsoe.
    â€œI want you out of this place,” Dixon commanded Abner.
    Abner Bledsoe’s crimson face twisted into a snarl and for a few seconds he looked very dangerous. His bodyguards stepped up, but he abruptly waved them back, seeming to think better of escalating the confrontation to a physical level.
    â€œDixon, I’ll leave you and your den of perdition happily if I may but tell your patrons here of a great meeting soon to happen that can provide a pathway to a better life for them . . . and for you, too, if you’ll have it.”
    Dixon huffed and snorted, then said, “Well and good, preacher, have your say. No preaching, though! Just announce your meeting and be gone. Ain’t going to help you none. My people here ain’t your churchgoing type.”
    Bledsoe stepped over to a bench that sat against a wall and climbed onto it. “Friends!” he said in a voice meant to pierce the thickest alcoholic murk, “there will be”—he paused, counting on his fingers—“four days hence from this night, a great outpouring of the power of God in the broad meadow nearby Edohi Station. I shall preach the word of truth to all who come, and shall also share the story of Molly Reese, late of the city of London, whose life was given back to her through the power and mercy of God after she fell victim to one who misused her sorely, leaving her with the very tongue cut out of her head! And hear this, friends: Molly Reese herself will be there, in the flesh, so that you may better understand her tale!”
    A drunk man hollered, “Going to be mighty hard for her to tell that tale with no tongue in her head!” Several laughed.
    Bledsoe pointed at the man. “True enough, sir! You shall hear her story from my lips, my tongue, reading from the narrative written by Molly herself, recounting her sufferings, her rescue, and ultimate salvation through the power of our Lord! And you shall see her with your own eyes!”
    â€œI done read all that Molly Reese jabber on a broadside over in Charleston,” said a man whom few would have identified, by appearance, as a likely literate. “No reason to hear you spew it all over again!”
    Indeed, the story of London-born Molly Reese was widely known and had been published frequently on broadsides and in newspapers both British and American. Preachers often recounted paraphrased versions of the Molly Reese saga from pulpits, particularly on the American frontier, where tales of redemption and apparent supernatural intervention were popular. There was even an ongoing stage dramatization of the bloody tale in Boston, a play much discussed for its remarkably believable and graphic depiction of the gore involved in severing a human tongue. “How did they do that?” was the question most frequently asked, post-performance, by those who attended the play.
    Potts personally had heard Molly Reese’s story on three occasions, all proclaimed from pulpits. At mention of her name by the loud preacher, the details of her grim adventure began to spill through his mind.
    Those of a religious bent almost invariably saw the experiences of Molly Reese as evidence of the power of divine intervention to save those in distress and danger. Some found in her story specific evidence of protective angelic activity. Less spiritual souls simply believed the woman was just unusually