THE LANDLOPER

THE ROMANCE OF A MAN ON FOOT

By Holman Day

1915

THE LANDLOPER

I

IN THE DUST OF THE LONG HIGHWAY

The man who called himself Walker Farr plodded down the dusty stretchesof a country road. 

He moved leisurely. He neither slouched like a vagabond nor did he swingwith a stride which indicated that he had aim in life or destination inmind. When he came under arching elms he plucked his worn cap from hishead and stuffed it into a coat pocket which already bulged bulkilyagainst his flank. He gazed to right and left upon the glories of asun-bathed June morning and strolled bareheaded along the aisle of atemple of the great Out-of-Doors. 

He was young and stalwart and sunburnt. 

A big, gray automobile squawked curt warning behind him and then sweptpast and on its way, kicking dust upon him from its whirring wheels. 

He gave the car only an indifferent glance, but, as he walked on, hewas conscious that out of the blur of impressions the memory of a girl'sprofile lingered. 

A farmer-man who had come to the end of a row in a field near thehighway fence leaned on his hoe-handle and squinted against the sunat the face of the passer-by. Then the farmer shifted his gaze to thestranger's clothing and scowled. The face was the countenance of a manwho was somebody; the clothing was the road-worn garb of a vagrant. 

"Here, you!" called the farmer. 

"I hear you, " said the man who called himself Walker Farr, smiling andputting subtle insolence into the smile. 

"Do you want a job?"

"No, sir. "

"Have you got a job?"

"Yes, sir. "

"What is it?"

"Chopping down well-holes that have been turned inside out by acyclone. "

The man in the highway flashed a wonderful smile at the farmer andpassed on. The farmer blinked and then he scowled more savagely. Heclimbed the fence and followed, carrying his hoe. 

"Look here, you! There ain't no such business. "

"Send for me next time you have a well turned wrong side out and I'llprove it. "

"You're a tramp. "

Farr sauntered on. 

"You're a tramp, and here's what we are doing to tramps in this countyright now!"

Beyond them in the highway men were delving with shovels and hackingwith mattocks. The men wore blue drilling overalls, obtrusively new, andtheir faces were pasty pale. 

"We have taken 'em out of jail and put 'em doing honest work, " said thefarmer. He pointed to guards who were marching to and fro with riflesin the hook of their arms. "Here's where you belong. I'm a constable ofthis town. I arrest you. "

The young man halted. His smile became provokingly compassionate as hestared down at the nickel badge the farmer was tapping. 

"So you represent the law, do you?" inquired Farr. 

"I do. "

"It's too bad you don't know more about the law, then. I have neithersolicited alms, trespassed on private property, begged food, norcommitted crime in your little kingdom, my good and great three-tailedbashaw. Here is a coin to clear the law. " He exhibited a silver piece. "I am sorry I cannot remain here and help you mend your ways--they seemto need it!"

He went on past the sullen gang of pick and shovel, treading the middleof the broad turnpike. 

"Ain't that a tramp?" asked one of the guards. 

"I don't know what he is, " confessed the farmer. 

The man who called himself Farr turned a corner and came upon the sameautomobile which had overtaken and passed him, contemptuously kickingits dust over him, a few minutes before he arrived at the farmer'sfence. 

A rear tire was flat and a young man who was smartly attired in graywas smacking gloved hands together and cursing the lumps of ajail-bird-built road and the guilty negligence of a garage-man who hadforgotten to put a lift-jack back into the kit. Two women stood besidethe car and looked upon the young man's helplessness. 

"Enter tortoise, second scene of the ancient drama, 'The Tortoise andthe Hare, '" Walter Farr informed himself. 

His amused brown eyes noted the young man was obviously flabby. 

"Here, you! Help me prop up this axle, " commanded the charioteer. 

"You do not need help, " suggested Farr. "You need somebody who can dothe whole job. "

The glance he gave the young man, up and down, conveyed his fullmeaning. 

"Well, I must say that's saucy talk from a hobo, " declared one of thewomen. 

"Mother!" warned the third member of the party. 

Farr turned his cynical gaze from the older woman to the younger--fromthe bleached hair and rouged lips to a fresh, pure, and vividloveliness. He saw her profile once more. 

"No one has remembered to say 'please' yet, " the girl informed him, meeting his gaze. "I say it, sir!"

He bowed and went straight to the roadside and picked up a bit of plankon which his searching eyes rested. 

He gave it into the gloved hands of the car's owner, he slipped off hisown sun-faded coat and rolled the sleeves of his flannel shirt abovehis elbows, and then, with shoulder thrusting up; and arms straining, he heaved the car high enough so that the flabby gentleman could set theprop under the axle. And when the gentleman began to dust his gloves andto search for spots on his gray immaculateness, Farr dug tools from thebox and proceeded to the work of replacing the tire. 

The girl stood near him and regarded him with interest. He looked upwhen he had the opportunity and found her eyes studying him. She wasentirely frank in her gaze. There was nothing in her eyes except theearnestness of a scrutiny which was satisfying curiosity. 

When the work was done the owner offered money. 

Farr refused with curt decisiveness. 

"Well, have a drink?" invited the debtor. 

"I do not use liquor. "

The autoist emptied his cigar-case into his hand and offered the cigarsto Farr, who had just tugged on his coat. 

"I do not smoke, sir. "

It was not declination with humility; the manner of the man of the roadcontained a hint that anybody who drank or smoked was no better than heshould be. The girl studied him with renewed interest. 

"Don't stand there and try to put anything over on me, " advised the manin gray, showing resentment. "What can I do for you?"

"You might thank the man, Richard, " declared the girl, tartly. Sheturned to Farr. 

"He seems to have forgotten 'thank you' as he forgot 'please. ' May Imake amends? We thank you!"

"And now I am in your debt, " said the rover. He bowed and walked on. 

When the car passed him the girl turned and gave him a long look. Hewaved his hand. The dust-cloud closed in between them. 

"Kat Kilgour! That's a tramp! I'm amazed!" said the elder woman, observing the look and the salute. 

"Yes, this world is full of surprises, " agreed the girl, sweetly. 

"But your own eyes told you that he was a tramp. "

"There isn't any doubt of it, is there, if you used your eyes?" demandedtheir escort. 

"We'll consider that the eyes have it--and let the matter drop, " saidthe girl--and her tone was not sweet. 

The man of the keen brown eyes and the faded garb fared on. 

He plucked a rose from a wayside bush and carried the flower in hishand. 

"Your sister just passed this way, " he informed the rose in whimsicalfashion. "I don't suppose you and I will ever catch up with her. I govery slowly, but you may journey along with me. "

II

A HOME-MADE KNIGHT-ERRANT

The wayfarer who called himself Farr came down the long hill and turnedthe corner of the highway where the alders crowded to the banks of thenarrow brook; they whispered to one another as the breeze flutteredtheir leaves. He drank there, bending and scooping the water in hispalm. He bathed the rose and stroked its wilted petals. 

"Too bad, little one!" he said. "The long road is a killing proposition, and I'm afraid I had no business inviting you to go with me. Your sistermust be a long way ahead of us. "

The rocks were cool where the alders cast shade, and he sat there fora little while, watching the drift of tiny flotsam down the eddyingcurrent and observing the skipper-bugs skating over the still shallowson their spraddled legs. 

There was a pleasant hush all about. The bubbling ecstasy of a bobolinkfloated above the grasses of a meadow, and near at hand a wren hoppedabout in the alders and chirped dozy notes. Peace and restfulnessbrooded. The man at the brook leaned low and thrust his head into thewater and then rose and shook the drops from his thick thatch of brownhair. He did it with a sort of canine wriggle and smiled at the thoughtwhich came to him. 

"A stray dog!" he muttered. "Of as much account--and he'd better forgetthe sister of the rose. Here's a good place to put imagination tosleep--here's a place where all is asleep. "

He went on around the curtain of the alders. 

There was a big old-fashioned house near at hand. Its walls wereweather-worn, its yard was not tidy. The faded curtains at the windowshung crookedly. The glass of the panes was dirty. The entire aspect ofthe place indicated that there was no woman's hand to make it home. Itwas commonplace and uninteresting. 

But the front door was flung open suddenly with a screech of rustyhinges. 

Then came backing out of the doorway a very old man--a bent andwrinkled old man with long white hair which trailed down from under abroad-brimmed hat. He was dragging a coffin, single-handed. The freeend of the solemn box bumped down the wooden steps with a hollow clatterthat suggested emptiness. There was a woodpile at one side of the yard. The old man tugged the casket over the litter of chips and dropped theend. He wrenched an ax from its cleft in a chopping-block and caved inthe top of the coffin with the first blow. 

The man Farr, observing from the road, saw that the casket was empty. The old man continued to bash and batter. 

The wayfarer, before the destruction was begun, had time to note thatthe coffin was a remarkably fine specimen of cabinet-maker's work. Therewere various sorts of wood inlaid with care, and the fretwork alongits sides had been jig-sawed with much pains spent in detail, and thepilasters were turned with art. But the old man battered at all thisexcellence with savageness. It was evident that he was not merelyproviding kindling-wood--he was expending fury. 

It was an affair that demanded undivided attention from the observer inthe road; but a man came around the corner of the house just then andFarr promptly gave over his interest in the aged chopper. 

The new arrival was clothed cap-a-pie in armor. 

He stood quietly at a little distance and gazed from under his vizor onthe energetic old man at the woodpile. 

Farr noted that the armor was obviously home-made. The helmet, thoughburnished and adorned with a horse's tail, had the unmistakable outlinesof a copper kettle. The cuirass could not disguise its obligation tocertain parts of an air-tight stove. But the ensemble was peculiarlystriking and the man in the road took a quick glance around at the NewEngland landscape in order to assure himself that he was still where hesupposed he was. 

Farr went to the fence and folded his arms on the top. 

The old man, resting a moment, seemed to feel that intent regard frombehind and, without turning his body, hooked his narrow and bony chinover his shoulder and swapped a long stare with the stranger. 

"Well, " inquired the venerable chopper, "what is on thy mind, sir?" Histone was sour. 

"Seeing that the question is direct and remembering that age deservesthe truth, I'll say that I was thinking that this seems to be an ideallocation for a private lunatic-asylum, and that guests are allowed toenjoy themselves. "

"I will have thee to understand that I have sat for thirty long years atthe head of the Friends' meeting in this town and never has it been saidthat my wits are cracked. Furthermore, this is none of thy affair. Moveon. "

Farr merely shifted his feet and took an easier pose at the fence. 

"Feeling as I do, it will not trouble me much to come over there andtake a chop or two at thee, " warned the old man. 

"I didn't know that Quakers ever allowed their feelings to get so highlyspiced. "

"Along with thee, tramp!"

"You see, my dear sir, " drawled the man in the road, "I am out in searchof peace of mind. If I should go on my way without understanding whatthis means my itching curiosity would never allow me another goodnight's sleep. A word from you to soothe curiosity, and then I go!"

"Thee has seen me knocking into pieces a coffin. Is there anythingstrange in seeing me knock into pieces a coffin I have made with my ownhands?"

"No, sir. That is quite within your rights. But why? From what little Isaw of it it seemed to me to be a mighty fine piece of work. "

"It was, " stated the old man, a bit mollified. "Walnut with bird's-eyemaple inlaid. "

"May I ask if it was made for anybody who died lately?"

"I made it for myself--I have had it by me for twenty years! Seeing thatthee must stick thy nose into my business!" His tone was pettish andhe stooped down and began to toss splinters and broken boards upon thewoodpile. 

"Then I suppose it was--er--sort of out of date, " suggested Farr, blandly. 

"I see thee is minded to tease me--the world is full of fools. " Hestraightened as best he could, propping hands on his hips, and dividedangry gaze between the man at the fence and the armored figure. "I amnot going to die--I have decided to stay alive. I have a fool on myhands. "

"Father, I think thee had better choose thy words a bit better in thepresence of a stranger, " advised the man in armor. 

"Can't thee see that he is a fool?" demanded the old man. 

"I don't think I want to venture an opinion, sir. I'll simply say thatyour son's choice of a summer suit seems a little peculiar. But, ofcourse, every man to his liking!"

The old man walked down to the fence. He was crooked at the waist andhis legs were hooked with the curves of age, but he strode along withbrisk vigor. His gaze was as sharp as a gimlet, though the puckered lidswere cocked over his eyes with the effect of little tents whose flapswere partly closed. He put his face close to Farr's. 

"Thee is as cheeky as a crow and as prying as a magpie and I ventureto say thee is a roving scamp. But I may as well talk to thee as toanybody. "

With armor rattling and squeaking, the son started toward them. 

"I do not care to have thee talk about me, father, " he warned. 

Farr noted that the son had eyes as keen and as gray as those of theelder. The armored citizen was sturdy and of middle age and the faceunder the vizor revealed intelligence and self-possession. 

The father paid no heed to the son. 

"Has thee traveled around the world much?"

"Yes, sir. "

"Thee has met many men?"

"Many and of all sorts and conditions. "

"Then I want to ask thee what thee thinks of the good wit of a man whodeclares that he will go forth into the world, faring here and there, to try to do good to all men, to try to settle the troubles between men, free of all price?"

Farr turned gaze from the father to the earnest countenance of the son, and then stared again into the searching eyes of the old man. Prolongedand embarrassed silence followed. 

"Thy looks speak louder than words, " declared the father. "Thy eyes sayit--he is a fool. "

"It may be as well not to say so with thy tongue, " advised the son. "Imight not be as patient with a stranger as I am with my father. He iswholly practical, without imagination, and so I excuse him. "

"I offer no comments, " said Walker Farr with a frank smile which won ananswering flicker from the face under the vizor. "I do not understand. "

"I would not expect a vagabond to understand anything or to be braveenough to say what he thinks, " piped the father. He turned on his son. "Here's a scalawag of a tramp. Go along with him and be another such. "

"I may be a peripatetic philosopher, for all you know, " said Farr, teasingly. "There are knights in fustian as well as knights in armor. "

"I think thee is of more account than thy clothing indicates, " statedthe son, regarding the stranger keenly. "And thee carries a rose in thyhand. Little things tell much. "

Farr put the flower into his pocket. "Don't fool yourself about me, " hesaid, roughly. 

"Thy speech has betrayed thee, " insisted the other. 

"I have met crib-crackers who were college men--and pocket dictionariesare cheap. And so good day to you, gentlemen. "

"Wait one moment!" appealed the man in armor. His face softened when heapproached his father. 

"We have talked much and there is no more to say to each other now. I have served here patiently many years. If I leave thee for a littlewhile there is old Ben to wait and tend. And I will come back after Ihave done my duty. "

"I will stay alive so that I can bail thee out of prison, " his fatherinformed him, sourly. "Go on, thou fool; learn thy lesson! The world isall right as it is; it will cuff the ears of meddlers. But go on!"

"I would rather thee would show another spirit at parting--but have itthy way, " returned the son, with Quaker repression of all emotions. Hecame forth from the gate. 

"I am going thy road, " he informed Farr, "because all ways are alike tome. I would be pleased to talk with one who has journeyed. Thee may havegood counsel for me. May I walk with thee?"

The wayfarer opened his mouth and closed it suddenly on a half-spokenand indignant refusal of this honor. He pursed his lips and his thickbrows drew together in a frown. Then, as if in spite of himself, hebegan to smile. 

"I will be no burden to thee, " pleaded the home-made knight. "I have hadmy armor for a long time and have practised walking in it. "

"But why the tin suit?" expostulated Farr. 

"I will explain as we walk. "

"Well, come along!" blurted the wayfarer. "Nothing more can happen tome, anyway. "

"So thee has found one of thy own kind to follow about in the world?"inquired the father, tauntingly. "Feathers on the head and rattles inthe hand! Cockahoops and fiddle-de-lorums! Thee'll be back soon with thyfolly cured after I have bailed thee from the calaboose! Then thee'llstick to thy forge and be sensible!"

Farr noted a small shop by the roadside as they started off. 

"My father is a good man, but practical--wholly practical, " said his newcomrade of the ways. "From my good mother I derive imagination. My lifehas not been happy here. But work has helped. "

He pointed to the shop. Over the main door a faded, weather-worn signadvertised "Eastup Chick & Son, Blacksmiths. " On the gable was a newersign heralding "Jared Chick & Father, Inventors. "

"I am Jared Chick, my friend. "

He talked slowly, pausing to pick words, phrasing with the carefulnessof the man of method, talking as those persons talk who have read manybooks and use their tongue but seldom. Farr found much quaintness in thesolemn man's discourse. 

"My father put my name on the sign when I was young, and it pleased me. I put his name on the other sign when he was old and it did not pleasehim, though I have insisted that he must share in all credit which comesto me. But my father does not possess imagination. I am sorry he losthis temper to-day and broke up his coffin. Not that I approved of havingit in the house all these years, but he was very proud of it. He madeit soon after my mother died. I think, now that he has destroyed it, hewill live many years longer. He is very strong-minded. "

"I'm glad to have my suspicions confirmed, " said Farr. 

"He was extremely angry when his eldest brother died at eighty. Hestood over him in the last moments and made us all very uncomfortableby telling Uncle Joachim that there was no need of his dying--that if hewould only show a little Chick spunk he could stay alive just as wellas not and would not go fushing out just when he was most needed in theFriends' meeting. "

"Considering that the old fellow was eighty and probably felt likequitting, seems as if your father was rubbing it in just a little. "

"Perhaps he was a mite harsh, but there is another side of it. Therewere only three of us left of the Friends' society to go to the oldmeeting-house on First Day so that it might not be said that after onehundred years we had allowed the society of the fathers to perish inour town. Thee may have noted that my father and I still use the plainlanguage, keeping up the ways of the founders. My father sat at the headof the meeting, my Uncle Joachim was next to him on the facing seat. Iam the only worshiper. I am not fitted to be a minister. My father, whenJoachim died, had no one with whom to exchange the hand-shake at the endof the meeting. "

"And now he's losing his congregation?"

"Yes, my friend, and so my father blames me for going, just as he blamedUncle Joachim for dying. He has the meeting much at heart. "

"What will he do for a crowd after you go away?"

"He will continue to sit at the head of the meeting, sir. "

There was silence between them for some time. The blacksmith clanked onhis way sturdily. 

"He will still sit at the head of the meeting! Only a little fire isleft there, sir, but he will not allow it to go out as long as he isalive to blow the bellows of devotion. "

"Look here, Brother Chick, " demanded Farr. "I don't want to be prying orimpertinent, but what's your idea?"

"I'm not ashamed of anything I'm going to do. Even though it is a verystrange plan, as the world would look at it, I'm not ashamed of it. Avery few words will tell you: I'm going out among men and spread thegospel of mercy and forbearance, teach the lessons of peace, urge men toforgive instead of fight--showing them that courts of law are more oftenthe devil's playground than the abode of real justice. I have workedhard, I have read many books, I have stored information in my mind, Ihave laid up money enough. You behold my armor--I have wrought at itpatiently for a long time. "

"Expect to have 'em throw things at you?"

But the blacksmith, replying, gave no sign that he resented this brusquehumor. 

"It is well known that it is hard to attract the attention of the worldfrom its own affairs. For instance, if I had stood in the yard to-day, dressed as a plain man, thee would have passed on thy way--providingfather had been chopping up kindling-wood instead of a coffin. If I hadstopped thee and started to explain my views thee would have paid littleattention to me. Isn't that so?"

"It's so. "

"Well, then, thee have my theory and know my plan and have noted how ithas worked, " said Mr. Chick. 

"I don't want to discourage you in a good thing, but how long do youthink a policeman would let you stand on a street corner?"

"I shall find places where I can deliver my message without offending. "

"There's another point--a rather delicate point to consider, BrotherChick. There are plenty of persons who are a bit dull when they areexamining a man's motives, but who think they are almighty smart indetecting a man's mental failings; when somebody does anything theywouldn't do they say he's crazy. "

The blacksmith turned his serene face and smiled at Farr. 

"I appeal to thy good judgment, sir. Would thee, after talking with me, even if I do wear iron outside my wool garments, send me to an asylum?"

"No, " acknowledged Farr, "I don't believe I would send you to anasylum. "

"Thank thee! I believe thee can speak quite generally for the averageman. "

"But the armor scheme--it's a little risky, Friend Chick. "

"But it has been the trade-mark of unselfishness ever since the days ofthe Crusaders, " declared Mr. Chick. "Why shouldn't its significancebe revived in these modern times? At any rate, " he added, with Yankeeshrewdness, "it's necessary to give the world quite a jump these daysbefore it will stop, look, and listen. "

"Some advertising concern will make you an offer that will pull you intocamp your second day out, if you're not careful. You've certainly got agood idea of the business. "

"I am sincere. I am not trifling. I have pondered on this for a longtime. I shall be misjudged--but I shall not be afraid!"

III

KNIGHT-ERRANTRY TESTED

The two marched on, side by side, and Walker Farr, piecing in his mind, from the scraps he had heard, the entire history of the Chick family, indulged the whim of Jared and forgot for a moment the grotesque figurepresented by his companion. 

"No, I am not afraid!" repeated the new apostle of world harmony. 

But it became promptly apparent that Mr. Chick could not communicate hisintrepidity to other creatures. 

Around the bend of the road came a sleepy horse, stubbing his hoofs intothe dust, dragging a wagon in which rode a farmer and his wife. 

The horse became wide awake at sight of Mr. Chick. 

With head up, eyes goggling, nostrils dilating, and mane erect, theanimal stopped short on straddled legs. Then he snorted, whirled, tookthe wagon around in a circle on two wheels in spite of the farmer'sendeavors, and made off in the opposite direction, the driver pullinghard on the reins, hands above his head, elbows akimbo. 

"It occurs to me, Friend Chick, " said his companion, after the outfithad disappeared, "that in planning this pilgrimage of yours you havefailed to take everything into account. If that farmer-man and hiswife pile into the ditch and break their necks, then all your generalmediating in other quarters will hardly make up for the damage you havecaused right here. "

"The world is full of problems, " sighed the man in armor. "There seemsto be a hitch to about everything!"

After a few moments the farmer came pelting into sight on foot. 

"What in the name of bald-headed Nicodemus do you call yourself, andwhat are you trying to do?" he shouted. "It's only by luck and chanceand because the webbin's held that me and my wife ain't laying stiff andstark in the ditch. "

"I am sorry, " said friend Chick with dignity. 

"Get a hoss used to bicycles, flying-machines, red whizzers and bluedevils, and then along comes something else that ain't laid down in theback of the Old Farmer's Almanick! You there, the one that ain't crazy, what's this thing you're teaming round?" the farmer demanded, addressingFarr. 

"In this case I am not my brother's keeper, " stated the young man. 

"Well, where is his keeper, then? He needs one. " He walked around Chickand rudely rapped his whip-butt on the breastplate. "If I wasn'tafraid of spraining a toe I'd boot you from here to hackenny, you oldtwo-legged cook-stove!"

"If there has been damage done, I'll pay for it. "

"There isn't any damage and I'm not looking for anybody's money. Butthere _will_ be damage unless you get out of this highway. If you're insight when I drive my hoss past here again I'll lick you, even if I haveto use blasting-powder and a can-opener to get you out of that suit. "

Jared Chick went apart into the bushes and Farr accompanied him. 

"This is a rather vulgar and discouraging adventure for high ideals torun into so soon, " averred the younger man. 

"I am not discouraged. "

"I'm afraid you'll be even more greatly misunderstood. "

"I don't expect silly old horses to understand me. My appeal is to men. "

Farr sniffed scornfully. "You'd better let men alone, " he advised. 

"The world needs pure unselfishness, " insisted Chick. 

"The purer it is the more it is misunderstood. I have tested the matter. I know. "

"Then you yourself would not go forth into the world and do good to men, without calculation and without price?"

"I don't think I would, " declared Farr, dryly. "And I am so littleinterested in the matter that I think you'll have to excuse me fromfurther talk about it. You have just had one illustration in a crude wayof how the world misunderstands anything that's out of the ordinary. "

"Have you any advice to give me?"

"Not a word. I'm not even able to give myself sensible counsel. Good dayto you!"

"Then you do not care for my company longer on the way?"

"I do not. Excuse my bluntness, but these are parlous times forwayfarers and I cannot afford to have a tin can tied to me as I goabout. "

"And you are absolutely selfish?" called Chick. 

"I think so, " replied Farr from the highway, getting into his stride. "When I see you again I expect you'll be wondering why you ever werealtruistic. That will be the case, providing you wear that armor anylonger. "

Jared Chick from behind his bush called, appealingly, "But I fear Ishall never see thee again and I have some questions to ask of thee!"

"Oh, I promise to look you up somewhere in the world. If you keep onwearing that suit it will be easy to find you. "

The man in armor leaned against a tree and pondered. 

"A strange young man, and callous and selfish. But there is trulysomething under his shell. I would relish putting some questions tohim. "

Then Jared Chick plunked an ash staff from a pile of hoop-poles left bya chopper and went on his way along shaded woodland paths, avoidingthe main highroad. He decided that it would be better to go by theroundabout way and show himself on the streets of town instead of on arural turnpike where countrified horses did not take kindly to a realknight-errant. 

"It was a good place back there for sleeping, " reflected Walker Farr, remembering the brook, singing over the stones, the whispering alders, the old-fashioned house, and the somnolent landscape. "That man who hasbeen living there until the day of his emigration has certainly beenasleep for a long time and is sleeping soundly now; he is having awonderful dream. The nightmare will begin shortly and he will wake up. "

After a time Farr came into a village, a hamlet of small houses whichtoed the crack of a single street. It was near the hour of noon and fromthe open windows of kitchens drifted scents of the dinners which thewomen were preparing. All the men of the place seemed to be afield; onlywomen were in sight here and there at back doors, pinning freshly washedgarments on lines, beating dust from rugs, or, seen through the windows, were bustling about the forenoon tasks set for patient household slavesin gingham. 

At one back door, his back comfortably set against a foldedclothes-reel, was a greasily fat tramp, gobbling a hand-out lunch whicha housewife had given to him. 

Under a little hill where the road dipped at the edge of the hamlet heresounded clink of steel on rock, suggesting that men labored there withtrowel and drill. There was complaining creaking of cordage--the arm ofa derrick sliced a slow arc across the blue sky of June. 

The fat tramp held up his empty plate and whined a request and the handof a woman emerged from a close-by window and placed something in thedish. 

Farr slowed his steps and looked at the tramp, and a woman in a yardnear by stared over the top of a sheet which she was pinning on the lineand scowled at the new arrival. 

"I wonder if I'm considered as the Damon of that Pythias?" Farr askedhimself, smiling into her frown. "But Damon is nomad spelled backward! Iwish I dared to ask her for a piece of that pie cooling on the sill. "

Just then, over the clink of metal under the hill, above wail ofstraining pulley, rose the screech of a man in agony, the raucous malesquall whose timbre is more hideous than the death-cry of swine. 

Then came a man running from the valley under the hill. 

"It's your husband, Mrs. Jose, " he panted, turning in at the house wherethe fat tramp ate with his back against the clothes-reel. "You bettergo! I'll telephone for a doctor. "

She ran, white-faced, gasping cries. Other women ran. The spirit ofhelpfulness and curiosity to know what had happened set wings on theheels of the little community. The messenger telephoned and followedthem. 

The fat tramp set down his plate and glanced to right and left and allabout. Then he shuffled into the deserted house and after a brief stayhastened out with his pockets crammed and bearing garments in his arms;he scuttled away with sagging trot across the fields. 

Farr saw him go and did not pursue. 

"Yonder goes the spirit of the age, " he told himself, with sardonictwisting of his lips. "When Opportunity knocks, knock Opportunitydown. Embrace Opportunity, but be sure it's with the strangle hold. Thedirectors of a robbed railroad make a more dignified getaway thanthat porcine pedestrian is making--but it's the same as far as thestockholders are concerned. "

He went on slowly toward the hollow under the hill. 

The procession met him--a limp man, moaning, borne in the arms of hissweating mates, women trotting alongside and crossing the road, to andfro, like frightened hens--clucking sympathy. 

Farr found a half-finished stone bridge under the hill. A paunchy bosswith underset jaw and overhanging upper lip was profanely urging hishelpers back to their jobs. 

"Fifteen minutes before knock-off time--fifteen minutes! You can't helpthat man by standing around and doing his grunting for him. Get busy!"

The men lifted their tools slowly and sullenly. 

"It's hell what can happen when you're fifteen days behind on acontract, with county commissioners waiting and anxious to grab off apenalty, " declared the boss, to nobody in particular. "One man bunged, and four to lug him home, and the rest of the crew taking a sympatheticvacation!"

Farr, sauntering, swung off the highway down the lane leading to thetemporary bridge. 

"Here, you long-horned steer, want a job?" called the contractor fromhis rostrum on the granite block. 

"No, my Sussex shote, I do not!"

"Damnation! You dare to call me names, you hobo?"

"Yes, " returned Farr, quite simply. 

"Well, quit it. I need men here. You're husky. Two dollars a day, evenif you're not a regular mason. "

"No. "

He drawled both the affirmative and the negative and there was somethingsubtly insolent in his tone--something that aroused more ire than acruder retort would have accomplished. He turned his back on the cursingman and went on down to the bridge. He waited there for a time andwatched the drift of foam on the fretted waters. The steady burbling ofthe stream made him oblivious to other sounds and he did not hear thetwo men approach. They leaped on him and seized him. One of his captorswas the paunchy man, and his hands were heavy and his fingers grippedviciously. 

"No wonder you wouldn't work! You're making your living in an easierway. "

"What is the occasion of this effusive welcome to your city?" askedFarr. 

The man who held one of the captive's arms was panting. He had run attop speed from the house to which he and his mates had borne the injuredman. 

"You thief! You sneak! Eat a man's grub, his hard-earned grub, and stealwhen his wife's back is turned!"

"Of all dirty work this job is the worst, " declared the big man. 

"She gave you all you could stuff into yourself, you loafer. Youransacked when her back was turned. You even stole her husband's Sundaysuit. Where is it?"

"I saw a fat tramp running away into the woods, " returned Farr, quietly. "He was carrying articles in his arms. "

"You're the only tramp in sight around here, " insisted the contractor. "Where did you hide the plunder?"

"She said she fed a tramp. She left him at the back door. You're thesneak, " indorsed the panting emissary. 

"If you will take me back to the house you may get some new light on theaffair, " suggested their captive. "You need not drag me there. I'll gowith much pleasure. "

The mistress of the despoiled home, red of eyes, hurrying from her sinkwith a cold compress in her trembling hands, viewed Farr from her backdoor. 

"That isn't the man. I never saw him before. Oh, he is in awful pain. Why doesn't that doctor get here? But there doesn't seem to be anythingbroken. He took my pocketbook, too, with two dollars and twenty-sevencents in it. And it's every cent of money we've got by us. And it may beweeks before he can go to work again. Troubles don't come singly. Thatmis'able, fat, greasy thief! After I had fed him--even gave him pie!"

"As I told you, gentlemen, it was a fat tramp. I saw him run away intothe woods. "

"If you call yourself a man why didn't you chase him?" inquired thecontractor, with disgust. 

"I took no interest in his affairs--no interest whatever, " stated Farr, with languid tone. 

"You don't care much what happens to anybody else, you hog!"

"My interest in other persons is very limited. "

"You'll stand by and see one of your kind run away with the property ofpoor folks, will you? You meet him later and get your whack?" asked thebig man. 

"No, " said Farr, mildly. He directed compelling gaze into the eyes ofhis detractor. "And you do not think so yourself. "

"Perhaps not. But you're worse. You have just said it. You're a selfishrenegade!"

"Peculiarly selfish, hard, and unfeeling. "

"And wouldn't turn your hand over to do a good turn for anybody?"

"I don't think so. "

"I'll tell you what I think _I'll_ do--I'll detail four of my men toride you out of this town on a rail. "

"I wouldn't call them off their jobs if I were you! I overheard you saythat you are short of time and men. By the way, you offered me a job. I'll take it. "

The contractor blinked and hesitated. 

"If after a half-day you find I'm not worth the money I'll pass on andyou'll have a half-day's work free. "

"Get on to the job, then. "

Through the open door Farr could see the woman of the house wringingcloths at the sink. 

He stepped to the door and addressed her. "Madame, will you take aboarder? I'm going to do your husband's work on the job yonder. I willpay liberally. In your present difficulties the money may help. I'll besmall trouble. "

"We need the money terribly, " she said, after pondering. "Yes, I willtake you. In the face you do not look like a tramp!"

"I thank you, " said Farr. "If you will give me some food in my handsI'll take myself out of your way. "

That afternoon Jared Chick came over the hill where the trowels clinkedand the great derrick complained with its pulleys. He carried his armoron his back. 

He stopped and watched for some time his former companion of the road, who was sweating over his man's toil. 

"May I have sixty seconds off to speak with that man yonder?" Farr askedthe contractor. "It partly concerns your business. "

The big man nodded surly assent. 

"Thee sees I have taken off the armor for a time. I will wear it in thecity where horses and people are not so silly. What is thee doing here?"

"I have no time to talk about myself, Friend Chick. I want to ask you ifyou are still of the same mind about your mission?"

"I am. "

"Then throw down that hardware and come to work on this job. A man hasbeen hurt here--his wife is in need. Earn some money and give it tothem. "

"But my mission concerns the world--the wide world. "

"Real selfishness's chief excuse! Here's something ready to your hand. Will you do it?"

"But thee told me thee would not go forth and do good!"

"No matter about me. I am not a professional knight-errant! Will you dothis?"

"Ten seconds more!" warned the boss. 

"I cannot change my plans so suddenly, " protested Chick. 

"A knight-errant should not have plans! My time is up and I have work. Good-by, Friend Chick!"

The young man went back to his task and the Quaker passed on, mutteringreaffirmation of his own high aims. 

"And how could I expect a vagrant to understand?" he asked himself. 

The vagrant toiled two weeks at his heavy task and when the man Jose wasabout again the volunteer slipped away without farewell. 

He left on the table of his under-the-eaves bedroom in the Jose houseall the pay he received for his work, to the last penny. 

"He wasn't what he seemed to be, " ran the burden of Mrs. Jose's variousdisquisitions on this strange guest. "He ate his vittles and asked noquestions, and was out from underfoot, and was always willing to set upwith my husband and give me a snippet of rest and a wink of sleep; andhe read out of little books all the time--he had 'em stuffed into hispockets. And there needn't anybody tell _me_! He left all his pay on thetable, every cent of it, and stole away without waiting for no thanksfrom nobody!"

IV

FARR, THE FAT TRAMP, AND A SUIT OF CLOTHES

On a balmy forenoon a jovial-appearing old gentleman went jogging outof the mill city of Marion and along a country road in his two-wheeledchaise. He sat erect and he was tall above the average of men, and hewas very neat in his attire. 

"I wish, " he mused, "that the men who could really appreciate agood outfit of clothing and could use the same properly were not soinfernally touchy. As it is, cranky human nature drives me out on anexpedition like this--and I'm afraid I am just as cranky as the rest of'em, otherwise I wouldn't be doing this!"

The old gentleman hummed a song under his breath and slapped his reinsagainst the flanks of the plodding horse to keep time. He came into apiece of woodland. He seemed to take cheery and fresh interest in thisplace. He poked his rubicund face out from the shadow of the chaise'scanopy and peered to right and to left. There was a smile in his puckeryeyes. When there were trees ahead of him, trees behind him, and treesall about he pulled his old horse to a standstill. 

He listened, squinted quizzically through the glass of his chaise's rearcurtain, and then climbed down. From a box at the rear of the vehicle hesecured various articles of clothing and draped them over his arm. There was a frock-coat, not too badly worn, trousers in good repair, waistcoat, and a shirt. He also took out of the box a pair of shoes anda hat. With this load he went to the roadside and began to rig out afence-post. When the garments were hung on it and the broad-brimmed, black, slouch-hat had been jauntily set on top of the post, anybodycould see that the old gentleman was thus disposing of some of his ownextra clothing. He was wearing a similar hat and a frock-coat, himself, and the decorated post took on a bizarre and slouchy resemblance to itsdecorator. 

He went back to the chaise and found a nickel alarm-clock in the box. Hewound this up carefully and propped it on a rail of the fence near theclothing. 

Before he could escape from the vicinity of the exhibit and get intohis chaise a wagon came rattling around the bend of the road. There werefirkins and jars in the rear of this wagon and the driver was plainly afarmer-man. 

He pulled up short and then saluted the old gentleman with a stab offorefinger at his hat-brim. 

"Any trouble, Judge?" he inquired, affably. 

"None at all, " replied the old gentleman, edging away from the fullygarbed fence-post. 

"Airing 'em out, hey?" A jab of the forefinger toward the garments. 

"No, leaving them out. "

All at once the old gentleman appeared to remember something else. Hetook off his hat and produced a placard. He straightened it and stuck itinto a crack in a fence-rail. Its legend was "Help Yourself. "

"You're giving them clothes away, are you, Judge Peterson?"

"I am leaving them here for any one who chooses to take them. Do youwant first pick, Jolson?"

"Not me! I ain't taking charity hand-me-downs from any man, Judge. Ifit's a polite question, why are you giving away your duds this way?"

"I think you have just answered that question, Jolson. I offered youthese clothes. Your nose went into the air. Other men have acted in thesame way in the past when I have offered to give a fellow a good suit. I don't want to hurt other folks' feelings. I don't want to have my ownfeelings hurt. So, let any man help himself when no one is looking. "

"I'll take the alarm-clock, if you say so, " volunteered Jolson. "It'llhelp to rout me out of bed at milking-time. "

"No, you cannot have the clock, Jolson. I have tinkered it so thatit will purr a little every half-hour. It will call attention to theclothes. You see, a good many men rush through life without looking toright or left, and so they miss a lot of opportunities. "

Jolson clucked to his horse and rattled away down the road, mutteringsour remarks. 

The old gentleman, with the air of a man who has satisfied hisphilanthropic ambitions, climbed into his chaise and followed thefarmer. 

The brisk breeze flirted the tails of the frock-coat and the trouserslegs tried out a modest little gig as if some of the jocose spirit ofthe old gentleman had remained with the garments he had discarded. 

There were several passers before another half-hour had elapsed. 

The trousers kicked out quite hilariously when a young couple drove byin a buggy. The girl was pretty, and companionship with her might havesuited even a judge's garments. But the young man and the girl werequite absorbed in each other, and the trousers kicked and the frock-coatflirted ineffectually. 

A peddler's cart passed very slowly, but the driver did not look up froma paper filled with figures. 

There were others to whom the judge's garments offered themselvesmutely, but no one glanced that way and the clock was discreetly silent. The breeze died down and the trousers and the coat hung with a sort ofhomeless, homesick, and wistful air. One might have thought they weretrying to conceal themselves when the next person appeared, so stillwere they. He was not an inviting person--not such a new lord and masteras a judge's garments might be expected to welcome. 

He was grossly fat and his own trousers were lashed about his bulgingwaist with a frayed belt; his coat was sun-faded, a greasy Scotch capwas pulled over to one side on his head with the peak hauled down uponhis ear, and he scuffed along in boots that were disreputable. Surely, amost unseemly and unwholesome character to be wrapped in the habilimentsof a judge! But just then, with that cursed inappropriateness ofinanimate things, the clock jangled its alarm. 

The tramp--there was no mistaking that gait and that general air of thevagrant--snapped himself about, located the noise, stared at the post, and then hurried to it. He made sure that there was no one in sight. Hescooped all into his arms, climbed the fence and trotted into the woods. He kept looking behind him as if he feared pursuit. It was plain fromhis disturbed demeanor that he was much perplexed and was chased by theuncomfortable thought that he was stealing this property. He bestowed somuch attention behind him that he paid but little attention to what wasahead of him, and so he ran down into a little bowl of a valley amongthe trees and stopped short there, for he had come upon a man. 

It was the man who called himself Walker Farr. 

The man was kneeling beside a tiny fire, toasting bread on the end of abeech twig. He held the twig in one hand and an open book in the other. He looked up without changing his position when the tramp came chargingdown the hillside. 

He had wide-open, brown eyes, this man in the hollow. The eyes were notmerely wide open on account of surprise at this irruption--one could seethat they were naturally that way--keenly observant eyes. He had hair asbrown as his eyes; his cap was on the ground beside him. 

But the tramp was not taking account of the attractions of thisstranger; he was more interested in searching for flaws. 

He had been frightened at first sight of the man--for the tramp had thetimidity of his kind; now he began to feel cheered. This stranger in thehollow had not been shaved recently, his clothing was unkempt, hisshoes bore the marks of a long hike. He was cooking in the open--plainindication of the nomad. 

"Well, I say, bo, " chaffed the tramp, shifting from fright to highspirit with the hysteria of weak natures. "I'm sure glad to see one ofthe good old sort. I didn't know what I was dropping in on when I felldown that hill. But it's all right, hey? I'm on the road. My name isBoston Fat, and my monacker is a bean-pot. "

The brown eyes moved slowly from the grinning face to the garmentsheaped in the man's arms. They were cold and critical eyes and there wasno humor in them. 

"I do not do business during my lunch-hours, my man. I do not desire tochange tailors just yet and I do not buy stolen property. "

His chilliness did not dampen the other's good nature. 

"Oh, that's all right, old top. I'm no thief. These clothes were hungon a fence-post just above here on the road. I reckon they were onlywaiting for first-comer. "

He dropped the shoes, cocked the hat on his head, and began to fumblethe garments. The placard dropped out of the folds of the coat and theman at the fire craned his neck and read aloud: "Help Yourself. "

"Oh, that's what the paper says, hey? I never learned to read any of themodern languages, " confided Boston Fat. "I was too much taken up withthe dead ones at Harvard. Well, comrade, now you can see for yourselfthat I didn't steal this mess of moth-food. There was the sign right onit saying, 'Help Yourself. ' It was there, even if I couldn't read it. Instinck told me them clothes was for me. I took 'em and came in here. "

He shook out the garments one by one and hung them on a bush, chatteringhis comments. He set the ticking clock on a stump. 

The man at the fire slipped a piece of meat between two slabs of toastedbread and began to eat. He still held the open book in his hand but hiseyes were watching the tramp. 

The vagrant was orally appraising his find, exhibiting the wisdom of onewho has begged garments at back doors for the purposes of peddling themto second-hand shops. 

"A moucher, " observed the man at the fire. He continued aloud, evidentlyand sardonically exercising his vocabulary, plainly enjoying theamazement he provoked by his style of language. "The spirit of a straycat at midnight, the tastes of the prowling hyena! The fat thief I sawrunning away into the woods! When such as these began to take to theroad, knight-errantry vanished from the face of the earth. The varletsborrowed the grand idea of care-free itinerancy and debased it, aswaiters borrow a gentleman's evening dress for their menial uniform, anddrunken coachmen wear the same head-gear that a duke wears to a wedding!Why prove evolution by searching for a man with a tail? The performancesof human nature must convince any thinking man that we have descendedfrom apes!"

The astonished tramp stared for a short time at this person who employedsuch peculiar language--then mumbled an oath and shook his head. 

He began to try on the frock-coat, paying scant attention to the other'smonologue. The coat was a ludicrous misfit; it would not meet over thebulging belly; its tails dragged on the fat man's heels. 

"If I happened to stand handy by when a Kansas cyclone ripped theinsides out of a clothing-store only the boys' sizes would drop in thesame county with me, " grumbled the tramp, working his arms out of thesleeves. 

"The coat was plainly built for a gentleman, " stated the man at thefire. "Therefore it is of no value to you. "

Boston Fat surveyed the stranger with a vicious glint in his littleeyes, as a pig might stare at a man who had struck it across the snout. 

"Good afternoon, perfesser, " he sneered. 

"Why 'professor, ' my frayed and frowsled Falstaff?"

"There you go with it--showing yourself up out of your own mouth! Wordsa yard long--words that would break a decent man's teeth! You're one ofthese college dudes out on the road getting stuff to write into a book. I've heard about your kind. And that kind is getting too thick andplenty and you're putting slush all over the real profesh. Quit it andgo back to college. Don't use me for your book. "

This was reciprocation of derogatory sentiment with a vengeance!

The man at the fire sat back on his haunches. He finished chewing hismouthful, regarding the tramp with a languid stare that traveled fromcrown of his head to tip of his battered shoe. 

"The only thing about a book that you would be good for, " he said, "would be for use in a volume of this sort. " He tapped the book in hispalm. "Your anatomy could supply the binding. It is bound in pigskin. "

The tramp squealed an oath in the falsetto voice that the weak and theflabby possess and took one step forward. The man at the fire came tohis feet and stood erect. He was tall, and the brown eyes talked for himbetter than threats or bluster. The vagrant shifted his gaze from thoseeyes and backed away. 

"If I hadn't been penned in a pie-belt jail all winter up North, and allthe strength starved out of me, " he whined, "you wouldn't call me a pigand get away with it. "

"A person who forces himself into the presence of a gentleman who isdining mustn't expect compliments, " stated the stranger. 

"You ain't a tramp--not a real one, " snarled Boston Fat. 

Farr's eyes glistened; he smiled; he continued to play on this ignoramushis satiric pranks of mystifying language:

"More of your lack of acuteness, my fat friend. Because I do not patterthe flash lingo with you, you appear to take me for a college professorin disguise. _You_ are not a real tramp. You are a bum, a loafer, a yeg. You never traveled more than two hundred miles away from Hoboken--thecapital city of hoboes. Have you ever hit the sage-brush trail, hikedthe milk-and-honey route from Ogden through the Mormon country, deckedthe Overland Express, beaten the blind baggage on the Millionaires'Flier? Hey?"

The sullen vagrant blinked stupidly. 

"Or have you made the prairie run on the truss of a Wagner freight, orthrown a stone at the Fox Train crew, or beaten the face off the KatyShack when he tried to pitch you off a gondola-car?"

"I don't know what you're chewing about, " sneered the fat man. 

"Probably not, for you are not a true man of the road. You disgrace thename of nomad, you sully an ancient profession. I'll venture to say youdon't know who Ishmael was. "

"Who said I did?"

"Not I, because I'm not a flatterer. I am going to follow the example ofthe man who cast pearls before swine--I'm going to cast you a pearl fromone of my own poems. You may listen. It will pass your ears, that's all. You cannot contaminate it by taking it in, so I repeat it for my ownentertainment, to refresh my memory:

 "Of the morrow we take no heed, no care infests the day; Some hand-out gump and a train to jump, a grip on the rods, and away! To the game of grab for gold we give no thought or care. We own with you the arch of blue--our share of God's fresh air. One coin to clear the law, a section of rubber hose. To soften the chafe of a freight-car's truss, our portion of cast-off clothes, And the big wide world is ours--a title made good by right-- By mankind's deed to the nomad breed with the taint of the Ishmaelite. Some from the wastes of the sage-brush, some from the orange land, Some from God's own country, dusty and tattered and tanned. Why are we? It's idle to tell you--you'd never understand. To and fro We come and go. Old Father Ishmael's band. "

He leaned back and laughed in the tramp's puzzled face. 

"Well, what's the answer?" scoffed Boston Fat. 

The other man talked on, humor in his eyes, plainly enjoying this verbalskylarking. 

"I'm afraid I cannot waste time and breath on you in an attempt toanswer the riddle of the ages, to explain the wanderlust that sent forththe tribes from the Aryan bowl of the birth of the races, mycorpulent bean-pot. Your blank eyes and your flattened skull suggest adiscouraging incapacity for information. "

"I don't know what you're gabbing abut. But there's one thing I do know. I'll tip 'em off at the next insane-asylum I come to that I met youheaded north. " The tramp gathered the articles of clothing from thebushes and got down on his knees and began to fold them. 

The man of the brown eyes stepped forward, laid down his little book, picked up the frock-coat and pulled it on, the fat man squealingexpostulation. With serene disregard of this protest Farr buttoned thecoat, smoothed it down, and then straightened his shoulders. 

"You may see that it was built for a gentleman and that it fits agentleman, friend pork-barrel. "

"You shuck it off and pass it over, that's what you do, " yelped thetramp. "It's my coat. "

"It was perfectly apparent that it was not your coat when you tried iton. "

"I tell you I found it hanging on a fence-post just above here. "

"That was merely by accident, and you should have passed on and left thegarments for one whose frame was fitted to wear them. You illustratethe curse of modern society. Men are so filled with the greed of gettingthat they grab misfits simply out of passion for possessing. "

"I've stood your slurs ever since I got here, but I'll be jobeefed ifI'll stand for your swiping my property. "

The man of the brown eyes smiled. His whole demeanor showed that he wasmore than ever hugely enjoying his own verbosity--the florid languagewhich was both maddening and mystifying the tramp. 

"Further evidence of your mean nature: a gentleman resents an insultthat steals away his character much more quickly than he resents an actthat steals mere property. In that little book which I have just laiddown Shakespeare speaks trenchantly on that matter: 'Who steals my pursesteals trash . . . But he that filches from me my good name robs me . . . And makes me poor indeed. '"

The tramp gave over his work of folding, and awkwardly and cumbersomelygot upon his feet. 

"You take off that coat and hand it over. It's mine--I found it. I canstand a crazy man's gab, but when any one tries to do me out of what'smy own I'll fight. "

"May I ask what you're going to do with these garments of a gentlemanwhich have fallen into your hands by accident?"

"I'm going to cash 'em in at the nearest second-hand shop, that's justwhat I'm going to do. "

"Just as you sold the Sunday suit you stole from a poor man! My friend, I was insulted that day on account of you. You owe me something!"

Just then the alarm-clock purred a brief signal. 

Up to that time the air of the man with the brown eyes had been that ofbanter, of impish desire to harry and confuse by stilted language theignorant stranger who had come blundering upon him. 

He stared at the clock, looked down upon the frock-coat, and thensurveyed the other articles of clothing. He scowled as if he hadsuddenly begun to reflect. Seriousness smoldered in the brown eyes. That tinkling touch of metal against metal seemed to change his mood inastonishing fashion. 

"Ah, it may be morning again, O my soul!" he cried with such tensefeeling in his voice that the tramp surveyed him with gaping mouth andbulging eyes, as one stares at a person suddenly become mad. 

"I will talk to you though you will not understand! Once upon a time theworld was ruled by men who were ruled by omens. Man was then not so wisein his own conceit. His own soul was nearer the soul of things. He wasnot a mere gob of bumptiousness covered with the shell of cocksureness. He was willing to be informed. He sought the omens of true nature--heallowed Fate to guide him. He was not a pig running against the goad ofcircumstances, unheeding the upflung arms of Fortune, waving him towardthe right path. He was simpler--he was truer. He felt that he was a partof nature instead of being boss of nature. Well, I have got nearer totrue nature since I have been in the open. I am in contact with thesoul of things. I am no longer insulated. I am not reformed, I am simplyready once again to grab Opportunity. So you think I am crazy, do you?"

"They had a gink in a padded cell in the jail where I was last winterand he didn't take on much worse'n you, " stated the tramp. 

"As a brainless observer you may be quite right. I may be a lunatic. Ifeel much like one just now. It is lunacy to go climbing back to a levelin society from which I have been kicked. But as I knelt there bythat little fire, before you came, yearning sprang up in me--and I hadthought all that sort of yearning was dead in me. A moment later camehabiliments of a gentleman, borne in the arms of a wretch who couldnot wear them. There came Opportunity. Then the jangle of that clocksignaled Opportunity--and there was a throb in me as though my sleepingsoul had rolled and blinked at the sunlight of hope and had murmured, 'It's morning again. ' Such are omens, when one is ready to heed. "

He set his teeth, clenched his fists, and by expression and attitudeshowed that he had arrived at a decision of moment. He walked closeto the tramp. "I will admit, Friend Belly-brains, that you came uponOpportunity before I did this day. But tell me again, are you to make nofurther use of said Opportunity than to run to an old-clothes shop andexchange for a few pennies that which will help to make a man?"

"They are mine and I'm going to sell 'em, " retorted the sullen vagrant. 

"I am sorry because you have no wit--no power to understand. Otherwiseyou would gladly lay these garments in my hands and bid me Godspeed. Youdon't understand at all, do you?"

"Look here, are you trying to frisk me for these duds?"

"It's all a waste of breath to explain to you that Providence meantthese things for me. You are not acute enough to understand closereasoning. I could not show you that, for the sake of a few coins, whichwould do you only that harm which would come from their value in cheapwhisky or beer, you might be wrecking the future of a soul that isawake. I simply tell you that I shall keep the clothing for myself. Perhaps you can understand that plain statement!" The brown eyes becameresolute and piercing. "Even if I had money I would not pay you forthese garments. Money does such as you no good; it may bring youtrouble. My dear Boston Fat, I cannot afford to let you prejudice myfuture, which, so instinct tells me, is wrapped up in those poor thingsof wool and warp. " He snapped a finger into his palm and extended hishand. "Give me that hat and then pass on about your business. "

The tramp backed away. His little blinking eyes expressed both fear andrebelliousness. More than ever did he resemble a pig at bay. The blackhat, set on top of his greasy cap and topping with its respectabilityhis disreputable general outfit, added a bizarre touch to the scenebetween the two men. 

"You think now that you are the injured party, " calmly pursued the manof the brown eyes. "You haven't intelligence enough to take my own caseinto account. You are injured because you are losing a few coins--but Imay be injured in all that gives life its flavor if I do not grasp thisopportunity. " Both raillery and earnestness dropped out of his tones. Hebecame merely matter-of-fact. "I'll make it plain. Trot along about yourbusiness, fat one, or I shall proceed to pound the face off you andthen kick you a few rods on your happy way. You deserve it as a thief--Iworked two weeks as a stone-mason on your account. Do you get me?"

For answer the infuriated vagrant rushed at him and kicked. 

With one hand the stranger plucked the hat from the tramp's head andsailed it to a place of safety. With the other hand he grabbed theattacker's ankle before the foot hit him and with a jerk he laid thetramp on his back. 

The victim fell so helplessly that the concussion knocked the breath anda groan out of him. 

The man of the brown eyes had moved languidly and had talked languidlytill then. When he grabbed the foot he moved with a sort of steel-trapefficiency and quickness. He promptly straddled his victim, seatedhimself on the protruding abdomen, and began to beat the man's face. Hebattered the flabby cheeks and punched his fists into the pulpy neck. Heground his knees against the fat flanks and redoubled his blows when thetramp struggled. After the squalling falsetto had implored for a longtime, the assailant at last gave over the exercise. 

"Are you licked?" he asked. 

"Yes, " whined the tramp. 

"You have stolen--in most dirty style. I whipped you for that job. Nowwill you stay licked for some time?"

"Yes. "

"You'll go on about your own business, will you, without any morefoolish talk about those garments?"

"Yes. "

"Are you sorry you stole from that good woman who fed you?"

"Yes. "

The man of the brown eyes swung himself off his prostrate victim, as arider dismounts from a horse, and the tramp sat up, moaning and pattinghis purple face. 

"I never had no luck, never, " he blubbered. "I was kicked out of jailbefore the weather got warmed up, I was thrown in last fall just whenthe Indian summer was beginning. When other fellows get hand-outs of pieI get cold potatoes and bannock bread. I have to walk when other fellowsride. I'm too fat for the trucks and they can always see me on the blindbaggage. I'll keep on walking. I never had no luck in all my life. "

He rolled upon his hands and knees and then stood up. He started away, wholly cowed, whining like a quill-pig, bewailing his luck. 

"Luck!" the man of the brown eyes shouted after him in a tone whichexpressed anger and regret. "What do you know about luck, you animatedlard-pail? A thing like you is in luck when he is in jail where thereis no workshop. Better luck than that is too good for you. Hold on oneminute! Turn around and look at me. "

The tramp obeyed. The stranger pounded one of those hard fists on hisown breast. 

"I say look at me! No matter what I was once! But to-day you found mecooking bacon over three sticks and ready to fight for another man'scast-off clothes. And in between whiles I have hiked every path that thehobo knows between the oceans. Now jog on and think that over and keepyour jaw shut on luck! I say jog on! Don't look back. Forget that youever saw me. "

He waved angry gesture and took two steps as though to enforce hiscommand with his fists. 

The tramp jogged on at a brisk pace. He hurried to the highway and setout on his shuffling pilgrimage, rubbing his aching face and mutteringto himself. 

V

THE GIRL WHO GUARDED HER LIPS

The brown eyes of the victor watched the tramp out of sight and forsome moments surveyed the nick in the undergrowth where the fellow haddisappeared. 

There was no anger in the eyes. There had been none while theirpossessor had been pummeling the wretch. He had beaten the man up in acalm, methodical and perfectly business-like manner. 

When at last he turned and looked at the clothing he smiled whimsically. 

"The perambulating pork-barrel thinks I am crazy, " he mused, looking atthe frock-coat. He had stripped that garment from his shoulders and hadtossed it on a bush when he had decided on combat. "If I should stop toargue the matter with myself just now I should find myself flatteringhis good judgment. I have robbed a poor devil for a whim. Thank God, I went at it brutally and frankly. There was no 'high finance'sneak-thieving about that job. I sent him away with his face smarting. They sent me away with my soul black-and-blue. "

He gathered the garments, picked up the shoes, put the hat on top of thepile on his arm, and went farther into the woods, following the courseof a tiny stream of water. This stream led him to a pool. It wastree-bordered, it was a center gem in a dim alcove in the forest, it wasas secret as a private chamber. The pool was glassy, for the winds werestill in the tree-tops. 

The man laid down his burden. He stripped off his own well-worn coat andshirt, and secured a razor and stick of soap from the scattered articleshe dumped from the coat pocket. He kneeled on the brink of the pool, leaned over and shaved himself carefully, using the glassy surface asa mirror. Then he put off his other clothing, the mean garments of avagrant, and plunged into the pool. 

When he came forth from the water and dried himself with his discardedshirt, he revealed himself to the birds whom his splashings hadattracted to the branches above the pool. If the birds' twitterings werecomments on his appearance, they must have been admiring comments. Theman's skin was white and he was lithe and tense and muscular. Breedingshowed in him as it shows in the muscles and conformation of arace-horse. When he was dried he threw down the makeshift towel andcombed his shock of brown hair with his fingers. Now that the bristle ofbeard was off his face he looked younger. 

From the pile of clothing he selected his outfit, garment by garment. The jovial humor of the judge had provided complete equipment for a man. In the breast pockets of the frock-coat there were a clean collar, anecktie, and a freshly laundered handkerchief. 

By the time he had finished his dressing the pool was still and glassyonce more. He flirted out the handkerchief, holding it by one corner, and swept the soft fabric around and around the crown of the black hat. 

He carefully set the hat on his head and leaned over the pool and tookan interested peep at himself. 

"You are a fool in this matter, " he informed the reflection. "And Iwonder why you are determined to persist in the folly. The manChick's tin suit cannot bring as much trouble to him as this garb ofrespectability may bring to you. For no man can step up to that poorQuaker and touch his shoulder and say--"

He broke off. He began to search through his discarded garments and tostow his few possessions into the pockets of his new attire. 

"All folly!" ran his thoughts. "I am consumed with it all of a sudden. I have ranted to a tramp. Now I rant at myself. I am sloughing the ragsthat have protected me. All folly!"

His searching fingers, groping to the deepest corner of a pocket, found the crumbling fragments of a dried rose. He narrowed his eyes andsurveyed it as it lay in his palm, and then made as if to toss it intothe pool. But he checked the gesture. He set his chin in his hands andcommuned aloud with himself after the fashion of those who hold alooffrom mankind:

"Folly, little sister! I may as well be truthful! Two dark eyes whichgave me the first honest, unafraid, and frank gaze I've had from a maidin two years, two red lips which said 'Please' and 'Thank you'! A flashof a glance behind her which called me, even if she did not mean it asa call--and so, on I fare in a lunatic's dream. Own up! I have dreamedthat some day I will see her again. And down in the depths of me stirsthat impulse of the male which makes the peacock spread his feathersand silly man perk in front of a mirror. Why not give in to the senseof heredity once in a while even though it means beating up a tramp andmaking myself more of a mark for human eyes?"

He rolled the old clothes into a bundle and stuffed them under the rootsof a tree. Then he strolled away leisurely, and when he as in the widerstretches of the wood where the light was better he pulled a small bookfrom his pocket and read as he walked. 

The volume was _Sartor Resartus_. His eyes happened to find this passageand he smiled as he read:

All visible things are emblems. Hence clothes, as despicable as we thinkthem, are so unspeakably significant. Clothes, from the King's mantledownward, are emblematic not of want only but of a manifold cunningvictory over want. Men are properly said to be clothed with authority, clothed with beauty, with curses and the like. It is written, theHeavens and the Earth shall fade away like a vesture; which indeedthey are: the time vesture of the Eternal. Whatsoever sensibly exists, whatsoever represents spirit to spirit, is properly a clothing, a suitof raiment, put on for a season and to be laid off. Thus in this onepregnant subject of clothes, rightly understood, is included all thatmen have thought, dreamed, done, and been; the whole Eternal Universeand what it holds is but clothing; and the essence of all science liesin the Philosophy of Clothes. 

From time to time he looked down upon himself complacently. 

When he came near a glade in the wood he heard the chatter of the voicesof a merry party and he saw picnickers, men and women, gathered abouthampers. Automobiles were parked at a little distance, and he made adetour to avoid the scene. 

He emerged upon an animated tableau of modern nymph and modish satyrin a close-by forest aisle. The girl was flushed and disheveled and wasresisting a young man who had pushed aside her veil and was kissing herwith ardor. She beat him back with her gloved hands and eluded him, buthe caught her to him with more of rough passion than tender affection. 

"We are engaged to be married, " he insisted. "Why shouldn't I kiss you?Don't be a prude!"

She thrust her protesting palms against him and set her arms rigidly andheld her head away, not with coyness, but with indignation and fiercerebellion. 

"I love you! My God, can't you understand?" he gasped. "I can't keep myhands off you. You can't handle a man as you're trying to handle me. Imust have some affection from you!"

"Richard! I'll not endure this! I am insulted!"

"My kisses an insult? I'm no ice-water lover. You set me crazy. I can'thelp myself. "

She wrenched herself from his grasp and faced him, her face filled withoutraged fury. 

Farr had started to leave the scene. He stopped. The girl was the girlof the red lips and the dark eyes. 

"Don't touch me!" she cried. "The only promise you have had from me, Richard, is the one my mother has fairly forced from me. I am tryinghonestly to like you. I will please my mother and you if I can. "

"That's a devil of a thing to say to a man who loves you as I do, " hedeclared, with anger. 

"That is all I can say just now. But if you use me again as you wouldpull and haul a girl of the streets, I'll despise you. I give youwarning. "

"What sort of books have you been reading, Kate?" he asked, sarcastically. "Where did you get your idea of what love-making is?They don't sing serenades under windows these days. They don't kissfinger-tips and write mush poems. I am going to tell you a few thingsyou ought to know, as a girl engaged to be married. "

Farr stood close by them and in plain sight, but their absorption intheir struggle had left them attention only for each other. He knewthat if he started away while they were talking his presence would bepromptly noted and undoubtedly misjudged. 

He set his finger between the leaves of his book and took his hat in hishand. 

"Your pardon!" he pleaded. "I stumbled here quite by accident. Pleasesuspend conversation on private matters until I can walk out ofearshot. "

He stared straight into the eyes of the girl and once more received fromher that frank and wondering gaze which had touched him so strangelywhen he had seen her first on the broad highway. His face was whiteunder the tan. His hands trembled as he replaced his hat. In hisheart he was saying farewell to her and his eyes expressed some of hisemotion. 

"You may take your own time, sir, " said the girl. "This gentleman andI have finished our conversation. " She passed Farr, looking him up anddown with increasing curiosity and dawning recognition, and when herescort called to her impatiently, she caught her skirts around her andran toward the glade where the others of the party were chattering overtheir hampers. 

The lover started away slowly and sullenly on her trail, with only aglance at this blundering stranger. 

"No, they do not sing serenades under windows any more--nor has thestone age returned with its love-making manners, " remarked Farr, hislips trembling and his emotion still in his eyes. "There are somemanners which ware worse, however, than knocking maidens down withclubs. "

The other man snapped himself around on his heels. 

"Damn you, you're that fresh hobo! I don't forget a man who shoots offlow-down sneers at me. Here! You come back here! I want to ask a fewquestions, my man. "

Farr continued on his way, opening his book. 

"If I ever see you again--" blustered the lover. 

"I sincerely hope that will never happen, " remarked the stranger, without turning his head. "Instinct of the purely animal sort tells methat if our paths cross in this life it will be very bad for one or theother. "

When Farr was in the highway he fumbled in his pocket and found thewithered rose. He tossed it away among the roadside bushes. 

But after he had gone on his way for some distance he retraced his stepsand hunted in the bushes for a long time on his hands and knees until hefound the poor little keepsake. 

He put it carefully into the deepest pocket he could find in his newlyacquired habiliments and trudged on down the world. 

VI

A MAN ON FOOT AND A MAN IN HIS CHARIOT

A blatant orator, haranguing passionately, attracted two new auditors. 

A tall young man sauntered to the edge of the little group in the squareand listened with a smile which indicated cynical half-interest. 

An automobile halted on the opposite side of the group. A big man satalone in the tonneau. 

He began to scowl as he listened. 

The young man continued to smile. 

The big man was plainly a personality. He was cool and crisp in summerflannels--as immaculate as the accoutrements of his car. 

In face and physique the young man was plainly not of that herd nearwhich he stood. 

His glance crossed that of the man in the car; he met the scowl with hissmile. 

Like a kiln open to the hot glare from a brassy sky or an oven where theJuly caloric blazed like a blast from the open mouth of a retort--suchthat day seemed Moosac Square in the heart of the cotton-mill city. Highbuildings closed in its treeless, ill-paved, dirty area. The air, madeblistering by the torch of the sun, beat back and forth between thebuildings in shimmering waves. 

In the center of the square the blatant orator balanced himself on astone trough which was arid and dust-choked. He harangued the group ofunkempt men; sweating, blinking, apathetic men; slouchy men; men whowere ticketed in attire and demeanor with all the squalid marks ofidlers, vagrants, and the unemployed. 

The man on the trough was of the ilk of the men who surrounded him. Hisface was flaming with the heat and with his vocal efforts. Perspirationstreamed into his eyes, his voice was hoarse with shouting, but he hadthe natural eloquence of the demagogue. He was delivering the creedof the propaganda of rebellious poverty, the complaints of thedissatisfied, the demands of the idle agitators. He spiked his diatribewith threats flavored by anarchy. He pointed to policemen who had takenrefuge in strips of shade which had been cast grudgingly by the highbuildings. He reminded his hearers that those policemen had just driventhem out of the tree-shaded parks. There the selfish rich folks wereloafing under the trees. Poor folks were herded down the street and wereforced to hold this meeting in that Gehenna, so he averred. 

The man in the automobile muttered impatient words. Then he shouted, breaking in on the impassioned anathema which the orator addressed tothe rich: "Stop lying to these men--stirring them up. The parks are forthe people. You can go there--all you men can go there--if you'll gowithout making a disturbance. "

"If men in these days open their mouths to speak for their human rightsit's a disturbance, " retorted the demagogue. "If we go up to the parkand sit there and tremble like rabbits you rich men will let us staythere--perhaps! But we don't have as many rights there as the rabbits, for the rabbits are allowed to step on the grass. "

"You've got to obey the law like other citizens--you will not be allowedto disturb decent and respectable people. You and men like you must stopputting foolish notions in the heads of loafers in this city. "

"Then put something into our mouths--give us food. Why are we loafers?"

"Because you won't go to work. I'll give every able-bodied man hereall the work he wants. Apply at the office of the Consolidated WaterCompany--now. "

"What's the work?" inquired a man in the crowd. 

"Digging trenches for water-pipes. How many men want that work? Hold uphands. "

"It ain't work for human beings in this weather, " snarled the man whohad inquired. No hands were raised. 

"That's your style!" blazed the big man. The policemen had saunteredinto the square and their presence was reassuring. He stood up and beganto lecture them. 

"And them's the kind of lord dukes that's running this countryto-day--own it and run it, " growled a slouchy fellow who stood near thetall young man. "They ain't willing to give a poor man a show. "

"He has just offered you a show--all of you, " stated the young man. 

"Yes, a Guinea job for white men. "

"You're picking a poor excuse for being a loafer, my friend. "

"Who says I'm a loafer?"

The young man shot out his hands and grasped the fellow's elbow andhand. The arm was flabby, the palm was soft. He doubled back the fingersand exhibited the palm to the crowd. 

"I don't find any labor medals here, men. Is there anybody in the crowdwho can show some?" He released the struggling, cursing captive. 

"What's labor medals?" inquired a bystander. 

The big man was still denouncing them from his car, but the group paidlittle attention now. 

"Callous spots in the place where a working-man ought to wear them. Andthat place isn't on the tongue. "

"Are you sneering at us because we can't get a job?"

"You're a loafer yourself, and anybody can see it, " declared another. 

The young man raised his arms, showing them his palms. 

"I carry a few labor medals, " he returned, curtly. 

"Why ain't you on your job? The lord dukes won't give you one?"

"_When_ I work and _where_ I work is my own business, so long as I don'tbeg food at back doors. "

"Do _we_?"

They had crowded around him and menaced him with murmurings andglowering gaze. 

"I should say so, " he replied, giving them an indifferent going-overwith his cold eyes. "You carry all the marks. "

Then he shouldered his way out from among them, displaying the air ofone who found further discourse unprofitable. 

He strolled leisurely in the direction of the big man in the car. Thecrowd he had left stared after him without presuming to voice taunt orreply; there was something compelling about him. 

As Farr approached the automobile its owner stopped talking and staredat the tall stranger with some apprehension. Then the big man beckonedunobtrusively to a policeman. It was evident that Farr was not ofthe same sort as the ruck of men from among whom he had just emerged, nevertheless he had come from among them. The lordly man in the car hadobserved him moving in the group, for Farr had loomed above the heads ofthe others; what he had been saying to the malcontents the big man hadnot been able to hear, but he guessed. 

"Some sort of sneak has been stirring up the fools in this city lately, "the aristocrat informed the officer who came promptly to the side of thecar. "Who is this fellow coming?"

"I never saw him before, Colonel Dodd. "

"Stand by! He is going to tackle me and make a grand-stand play in frontof his gang. His clothes give him away--a loafing demagogue!"

But the tall man did not pause at the car or even glance at thedignitary who occupied it. He seemed to have lost all interest in theoccasion. He yawned as he passed the automobile and started away acrossthe square. 

"Here, you! You big chap!" called Colonel Dodd, promptly emboldened. 

Farr halted and turned, his countenance showing mild inquiry. 

"What do you mean by coming into a peaceable city and stirring up labortroubles?"

"Have I done so?"

"You have just been mixing and mingling with those men, talking to them. I know your kind. "

"Ah, a gentleman of keen discernment!"

"I have seen you before--you fellows with long-tailed coats andshort-horned ideas. We don't want your kind in this city!"

"I seem to have made a prompt sensation without trying to do so, "returned Farr, meekly. "I have been in your city less than fifteenminutes, sir!"

"You're a traveling labor-agitator, aren't you?"

"No, sir. "

"But I just saw you circulating among those men. Your rig-out shows yourcharacter!"

"You mean these garments I wear?"

"Certainly! A frock-coat helps out your pose before an ignorant public. "

"He stole that coat from me, " squeaked a fat man, standing at a littledistance, scrubbing a torn sleeve over his grimy, sweat-streaked face. "He picked it fair off'n my back. I have follered him to show him up asa robber and a fake. That's so help me!"

Riotous laughter from all the listeners followed that declaration;a glance at the tubby tramp and survey of the tall young man whosecontours fitted the garments made the fat man's assertion seem like ahuge joke. 

"I can prove it!" squalled the vagrant. 

"Beat it! Get out of this city!" commanded a policeman. "If youdon't we'll have you on the rock-pile. What ye mean by such guff?" Heflourished his stick and the tramp hurried away. 

"It's no use, " he whined. "Grab and bluff! Him what can do it bestalways wins. That's the way the world goes!"

"When I took these clothes off the back of my vanishing friend I feltthat they would make a change in my life, " stated Farr, with a smilewhich provoked more laughter. "But I did not dream that they would bringme such prominence in so short a time. " He bowed to the man in the car. 

But Colonel Dodd was angry and insistent and did not join in themerriment. 

"I say you are a labor-agitator. Any man who won't go to work himselfhas no right to be stirring up other workers against their owninterests. You may as well own up to me, my man. These men standingaround here know what you are--you have been talking with them. Outsideof stirring trouble, you don't work, do you?"

"Oh yes, my lord!"

There was smiling mockery in the tone, almost insolence. He seemed tobe willing to display to the rich man the same lack of respect he haddisplayed to the poor men who stood near and listened to this colloquy. 

"Oh, you do?" Colonel Dodd raised his voice. "Listen sharp, my men! Doyou want to be led around by the noses by a man who doesn't work? Thisgentleman is going to tell us what his job is!" He sneered when he saidit. 

"I am an assiduous toiler in my profession, your excellency. I amsurprised that as an employer you do not recognize a real worker whenyou see one. "

This tone of raillery and this stilted manner of speech promptly caughtthe fancy of the throng. The men crowded more closely and the orator onthe trough was silent. 

"What do you work at?"

"I am an architect, your gracious highness. "

"Less of that insolence in the way of names, my friend! An architect, eh? Well, what did you ever build?"

"I laid out Dream Avenue in the boom city of Expectation and built onthat thoroughfare a magnificent row of castles in the air. If you had abit more imagination I might try to sell you something in my line. Butit is useless, I see! Farewell!"

He swept off his broad-brimmed hat with a deep bow, backed away a fewsteps, and bowed again and went on his way. The crowd guffawed. Thisbaiting of the city's labor magnate had most agreeably scratched theiritching sense of resentment. 

"I don't know who that josher is, but I hate to lose him out of town, "confided the orator on the trough to those near him. 

"I never saw that fellow before, but I'll pinch him if you say so, Colonel Dodd, " volunteered the policeman. "Do you make complaint?"

"No, " snapped the colonel, glowering on the broad back which wasswinging across the square in retreat. He told his chauffeur to driveon. 

When the car passed Farr the colonel flicked cigar ashes which alightedin a spray of dust on the sleeve of the frock-coat. 

"Bah!" said the colonel, shooting the young man a scowl. 

Farr gave in return a smile, but it was not a particularly genial smile. 

The young man went on his way leisurely; by his gait, by his frequentand somewhat prolonged pauses at shop windows, by his indifferentstarings at traffic and pedestrians, it was plain that he had little ofmoment on his mind. 

He bought a penny glass of water at a corner kiosk. 

"Do you mind telling me, " he asked the vender, "Who is Colonel Dodd ofthis city? I am a stranger and I have just overheard the name. "

The man grinned. "If it wasn't for Colonel Symonds Dodd I wouldn't bemaking much of a living here, selling spring-water. He is president ofthe Consolidated. "

"And that means?"

"Why, it means that he is boss of the water trust that owns the systemin this city and in all the other cities and towns of this state. Andthey pump all of their water out of the rivers because the lakes are sofar off, and nobody drinks that water unless he has to or don't know anybetter. Colonel Dodd? Why, he bosses the whole state, they tell me. "

"I gathered that he was important, " said the young man, and walked on. 

He was held up in the passing crowd at a street corner for a few momentsbecause a parade of some half-dozen automobiles whirled past. The carswere decorated with banners, and the wild flowers and other spoil offorest and field in the arms of the ladies indicated that this was aparty returning from a picnic in the suburbs. 

"Would you mind telling me, " asked Farr of the policeman who wasguarding the corner, "who that young man is--the one there in the grayautomobile?"

"With the bleached blonde and the pretty girl?" asked the officer. "Oh, that's Colonel Dodd's nephew--Dicky Dodd. Of course you know who thecolonel is. "

"Yes, " said Farr. He opened his mouth to ask another question, for thepoliceman seemed to be of the obliging sort. Then he closed his lipsresolutely and marched along. 

"What's the use?" he muttered. "Two dark eyes and a red mouth--and I amalmost forgetting how to be a philosopher. "

Farther down the city thoroughfare he met one who had claimed to bea philosopher. It was Jared Chick, stalking along the sidewalk in hishome-made armor. He held a box of stove-polish in one hand and a brushin the other, and as he strolled he was giving his corselet and suchparts of the armor as he could handily reach a glossy coat--a gleamingand burnished surface. On his helmet in place of a crest Knight Chickbore aloft a metal banneret inscribed, "Invincible Stove Polish. "

"And the mission?" asked Farr, halting his quondam companion, who hadbeen too intent upon his business to pay heed to passers. 

"I find thee changed, and no doubt thee, too, finds me changed, " sighedMr. Chick. 

The mouth of an alley between high buildings afforded a retreat and thebreeze blew there fitfully, and Mr. Chick stepped to that oasis of shadein the glare of sunshine. 

"I have been obliged to modify my mission in some degree. I must confessthat to thee, " he said. "This is a strange and wicked world. "

"Didn't you know it before you gave up a good blacksmith business to goout in the hot sun and suffer torment, all for nothing?"

"It is very hard work, " acknowledged Chick, showing his flushed andstreaming face under his vizor. "If I were not used to the fires of theforge I think I would fall down and die. But I must keep on. "

"But you are simply an advertising-sign. "

"I have modified my mission. I have not given up, however. I will tellthee! I found a man beside the way--a man who had been drinking strongwaters and whose pockets had been turned wrong side out. So I took himto a tavern and I sat with him through the night, and nursed him when hesuffered, and revealed my mission when he awoke. 'I am out to do goodto all men, ' I told him, and he searched through his pockets withblasphemy, and he said that I had done him--and he haled me beforethe court, and the judge said that no man could publicly profess suchdisinterestedness and escape suspicion, because people in these daysare all looking for the main chance. So he did not believe me and hesentenced me to the jail. But a good Samaritan interceded for me andtook me from behind the bars, and now in the spirit of gratitude I amrepaying him; he makes and sells this stove-polish. "

"That man is evidently shrewd in business and a good advertiser, "commented Farr. 

"I find that I get along much better in the world, " asserted theknight-errant. "Now that I carry an advertising-sign my armor attractsno rude mobs. I can go abroad and do good to a foolish world; I can usethe stipend my good benefactor allows to me for my work and I can helppoor folks here and there. Therefore, I am content with my modifiedmission. Is thee more at peace with the world?"

"I ought to be, after hearing you say that _you_ are contented, " saidFarr, with irony. 

"Thee has manifestly improved thy condition, so I observe. "

"It often happens in this world, Friend Chick, that the sleeker we areon the outside, the more ragged we are within. I think I'll move on. Imight say something to jar your sense of sublime content. I'd be sorryto do that. Real contentment is a rare thing and must be handled verycarefully. "

"I fear thee loves thyself too much, " chided the Quaker. "Affection forsomebody might make thee happy, my friend. "

Farr choked back the comment that occurred to him in regard to love andwalked away. 

VII

THE RAKE WHICH GROPED IN DARK WATERS

The afternoon was waning, but the hot bowl of the sky seemed to shutdown over the city more closely. 

Farr held to the shaded sides of the streets, and yearned for a patch ofgreen and a tree and its shade. 

At last he came into a section of the city where vast mills, onesucceeding another in rows which vanished in the distance, clackedtheir everlasting staccato of hurrying looms, venting clamor fromthe thousands of open windows. A canal of slow-moving, turbid waterintersected the city and fed its quota of power to each mill. The fencedbank of the canal was green; and elms, languid in the fierce heat, gave shade here and there with wilted leaves. The masses of brick whichinclosed the toilers within the mills puffed off tremulous heat-wavesand suggested that humanity must be baking in those gigantic ovens. 

A high fence interposed between the canal and the street; the mill lawnwhich extended between the canal and the shimmering brick walls was alsoinclosed. Signs posted on the fence warned trespassers not to venture. 

A bridge carried the street across the canal, and Farr stood there for atime and watched the swirl of the water below. Then he sauntered on andsurveyed the expanse of mill lawn with appraising and envious gaze. 

The young man climbed the canal fence, exhibiting more of his coolcontempt for authority by helping himself over the sharp spikes withthe aid of a "No Trespassing" sign. The sickly odor of raw cotton camefloating to his nostrils from the open windows. He strolled to thehead of a transverse canal which sucked water from the main stream. A sprawling tree shaded a foot-worn plank where an old man, with bentshoulders and a withered face, trudged to and fro, clawing down into theblack waters with a huge rake. He was the rack-tender--it was his taskto keep the ribs of the guarding rack clear of the refuse that cameswirling down with the water, for flotsam, if allowed to lodge, mightfilch some of the jealously guarded power away from the mighty turbineswhich growled and grunted in the depths of the wheel-pits. With rake inone hand and a long, barbed pole in the other the old man bent over thebubbling torrent that the rack's teeth sucked hissingly between them. Bits of wood, soggy paper, an old umbrella, all manner of stuff whichhad been tossed into the canal by lazy folks up-stream, he raked andpulled up and piled at the end of his foot-bridge. 

"Hy, yi, old Pickaroon!" came a child's shrill voice from a mill window. "There's a tramp under your tree. "

The old man raised his head from his work at the rack. 

"You must not come on dis place, " he cried, with a strongFrench-Canadian accent. 

"Who says so?" inquired the stranger, putting his back against the treeand stretching out his legs. 

"I--Etienne Provancher. "

"And I--my worthy alien--I am Walker Farr from Nowhere. Now that we havebeen properly introduced I will sit here and rest. I am here because Ilove the soothing sound of babbling waters on a hot day. Go about yourwork. I'll watch you. I love surprises. Who knows what next you'll drawforth from the depths of fate?

"I can have you arrest!" cried the old man. 

The uninvited guest took off his broad-brimmed hat, laid it acrosshis knees, and ran his hand through his shock of brown hair; it curleddamply over his forehead and, behind, reached down nearly to hiscoat-collar, hiding his tanned neck. In some men that length of hairmight have seemed affectation. It gave this man, as he sat thereuncovered, that touch of the unusual which separates the personof strong individuality from the mere mob. Then he smiled on oldEtienne--such a warm, radiant, compelling, disarming sort of smile thatthe rack-tender turned to his work again, muttering. His mouth twitchedand the crinkles in his withered face deepened. 

Walker Farr found a comfortable indentation in the tree-trunk andsettled his head there. 

"How much do you get a week for doing that, Etienne?" he inquired, withcool assurance. 

The old man glance sideways sharply, but the smile won him. 

"Six dollaire. "

"After supporting your family, what do you do with the rest of the moneythese generous mill-owners allow you?"

"I never was marry. "

The young man looked up at the mill windows where childish heads werebobbing to and fro. 

"That was poor judgment, Etienne. You might have married and have adozen children now, working hard for you in the mill. Just like thosechildren yonder. "

The old man came to the end of his foot-bridge and flung down his rakeand his pike-pole. 

The sudden emotions of his Gallic forebears swept through him. Hisfeatures worked, his voice was high with passion. 

"Ba gar, I don't sleep the night because I think about dem poor childs. Dem little white face, dem arm, dem leg--all dry up--not so big aschicken leg. And all outdoor free to odder childs--not to them childsup dere. " He shook his fists at the mill windows. And some child whosaw the motion, getting a hasty peep from a widow, squealed, "Hi yi, oldPickaroon!"

"It doesn't pay to get too excited over the sorrows of the world, myfriend, " drawled the young man under the tree. "It doesn't do any good;and then somebody calls you names. I was something like you once. ButI've changed my philosophy. I have hypnotized my altruism. Now I'mperfectly happy. "

Etienne stared without understanding these big words. But he had oftentold himself that he never expected to understand Yankee speech verywell. He worked alone; he lived alone in his garret in the tenementblock; he talked but little with any person. But this young man withthe wonderful smile seemed to inspire him to talk--even to the extent ofrevealing his secrets. 

He lowered his voice. "Thirty year I have work here. I live way up inthe little room. Bread I eat with lard on it. It costs little. Of thesix dollaire I save much. Ah, _oui_! Hist! Not for me I save it. Ah, _non_! To the priest I give it. To the good priest. And the poor childswhat are sick--he send 'em to the farm--to have some outdoors. But Idon't sleep the night because I think the dollaire come so slow--and somany poor childs are sick. "

He picked up his rake and pike and went back to his labor. 

The man under the tree did not lose his smile. 

"Yonder is a brand of altruism that cannot be hypnotized or modifiedlike Knight Chick's, I fear, " he muttered. "You'd have to hit it on thehead--kill it with sticks! And my definition of philanthropy has alwaysbeen, 'giving away something you don't want in order to get yourselfadvertised. ' Etienne is interesting. He is the only philanthropist Ihave even found who will eat lard instead of butter so as to save morefor his philanthropy. " Now his smile grew hard. "Don't dare to open youreyes, Altruism, " he commanded. "I saw the lids quiver a minute ago whilethat old man was talking, but remember you're hypnotized. "

He saw the rack-tender lay down his pike so as to give both hands to hisbig rake. 

He was pulling at something heavier than the ordinary flotsam--somethingfar below the surface of the water. At last it broke through the blacksurface of the turbid flood. To Walker Farr, glancing carelessly, itseemed like a bedraggled bundle of rags with something white at the end. 

"You come help, m'sieu', " called old Etienne. "It is a dead woman. "

Together they pulled the rake's dread burden slowly up the bars of therack. 

"You seem pretty cool about this, " gasped the young man. 

"It is no new thing. Many drown themselves--they drown in the canal sothey will be found. Women and girls, they drown themselves. So! Help mecarry her. "

Farr gazed down on her after she had been laid on the canal bank. Shewas young, but thin and work-worn. 

"Weaver, " commented old Etienne, laying back on her breast one of thehands he had lifted. "There's the marks on the fingers where she havetie so many knots so quick. "

There was a key on her breast; it was secured by a cord that passed outof sight between the buttons on her waist. Farr stooped and pulled onthe key. A folded paper came with the key; the other end of the cord wastied around the paper. 

"You must not--it is for the coroner, " protested Etienne. "I know thelaw--I have drag up so many. "

"My besetting sin is curiosity, " declared the young man, his calmimpertinence unruffled. He pulled the wet paper from the noose of thecord. "We'll read this together. "

"I cannot read, " confessed the rack-tender. "You shall read it to me. "His little black eyes gleamed now with curiosity of his own. "I shall beglad to hear. The coroner he never read to me. "

The water had spread the ink and spotted the paper, but Farr was able todecipher the missive. He read aloud:

"'My head has grown bad since my husband died. It is grief, the awfulheat, the work at the looms. They said if I would give my little girlaway she could go to the country and grow well. But I could not give herup for ever. I could not earn the money to send her to board. I couldnot earn the money except to buy us bread here in the tenement block. And my bad head has been telling me it's best to kill myself and takeher with me. So I kill myself before my head grows so bad that I mighttake away my little girl's life. It belongs to her and I hope she maybe happy. Will somebody take her and give her happiness? It is wicked tokill myself, but my head is so bad I cannot think out the right way todo. This is the key to the room in Block Ten. 

"'MRS. ELISIANE SIROIS. 

"'Her name is Rosemarie. '"

Walker Farr finished reading and stared into the glittering eyes of theold man. 

Etienne Provancher swore roundly and furiously--the strange, hard oathsthat his ancestors had brought from the Normandy of the seventeenthcentury. 

"So you shall see--it is as I have say. " He shook his fists again at themill. Its open windows vomited the staccato chatterings of themyriad looms. "It chews up the poor people. Hear its dam' teeth gochank--chank--chank!"

"The Gallic imagination is always active, " said Farr, joggling the keyat the end of the cord and eyeing it with peculiar interest. "But inthis case it seems to picture conditions pretty accurately. I wonderjust what a visitor would find inside the door that this key fits!"

"You shall go tell them at the office of the mill, " commanded Etienne. "Tell them they have killed another. They will telephone for thecoroner. I will give the paper and the key when he come. " He held outhis hand. "It is the law. "

"I have a natural hankering--sometimes--to break the law, " affirmed theyoung man. "I feel that fatal curiosity of mine stirring again, FriendEtienne. I will send the coroner. But coroners love mysteries. If wegive him the letter it will take all the spice out of this affair. Let'smake him happy--he can drag out the inquest and give his friends a longjob on the jury. " He smiled and started away, shaking his head when theold man protested shrilly. "Better say nothing about this letter andthe key. You'll get into trouble for letting a stranger come in here andcarry away evidence. Better keep out of the law, Etienne. " He grabbedthe "No Trespassing" sign for a hand-hold and climbed over the fence. "I'll come back and tell you, Etienne. But keep mum, " he advised. 

"It is his smile--it makes me break the law, " mumbled the old man. 

VIII

THE KEY TO A DOOR IN BLOCK TEN

Walker Farr gave the first policeman--a fat and sweltering individual--apiece of gruesome news and in return casually asked the location ofBlock Ten. 

The policeman grudgingly growled the information over his shoulder whilewaiting for the station to answer the call from his box. 

The young man, taking his time, found the place at last, one in aninterminable row of tenement-houses, all identical in structure andsqualor, bearing the mark of corporation niggardliness in their cheaplumber and stingy accommodations. 

The hallway that Farr entered was narrow and stifling--stale odors ofthousands of dead-and-gone boiled dinners mingled there, and a stairwaywith a greasy handrail invited him. The key bore a number. He huntedtill he found a room, far up, flight after flight. Through open doors hesaw here and there aged women or doddering old men who were guardians ofdirty babes who tumbled about on the bare floors. 

"Either too old to run a loom or too young to lug a bobbin, " Farrinformed himself; "that's why they aren't in the mill. "

Old folks and babes stared at him without showing interest. 

No one looked at him when he opened the door in which the key fitted. 

He stepped in quickly and closed and locked the door behind him. 

It was a little room and pitifully bare, and it was under the roof, andthe ceiling slanted across it so sharply that the young man, tall abovethe average, was compelled to bow his head. 

A little girl, a wraith of a child, pale with the pallor of a prisoner, hardly more than a toddler, sat on the floor and stared up at theintruder, frozen, silent, immobile with the sudden, paralyzing terrorthat grasps the frightened child. Pathetically poor little playthingswere scattered about her: a doll fashioned from gingham andcotton-waste, makeshift dishes of pasteboard, a doll-carriage made froma broken flower-basket with spools for wheels. The man who entered sawall with one glance and understood that here in this bare room thischild had been compelled to drag out the weary hours alone while themother had toiled. Here now the child waited patiently for--for thatwater-soaked bundle, with the white, dead face, that lay on the canalbank waiting for the coroner. 

And when he realized it and saw this and looked down on that lonely, patient, wistful little creature making the best shift she could withthose pitiable playthings, something came up from that man's breast intohis throat. He had not supposed he had any of it left in his soul--itwas tender, agonizing, heartrending pity. 

She still stared at him, terrorized. Probably she had never seen anyface come in at that door except her mother's. 

His pity must have given Walker Farr a hint of how to deal with thisfrightened child. He did not speak to her. He made no move toward her. 

He smiled!

But it was not the smile he had given the fat plutocrat in theautomobile, nor yet the jocular radiance he had displayed to oldEtienne. It was such a smile as the man had never smiled before--and herealized it. He did not want to smile. He wanted to weep. But he broughtthat smile from tender depths in his soul--depths he had not known ofbefore--and tears came with the smile. 

Before that time the lines in his face had fitted the smile of thecynic, the grimace of banter, of irony and insolence. But the strangeglory that now glowed upon his features came there after the mightiesteffort he had ever made to control his feelings and his expression. 

He smiled!

In that smile he soothed, he promised, he appealed. Then when he saw thetense expression of fear fade away he smiled more broadly--he provokedreply in kind. And slowly upon the child's face an answering smile beganto dawn--little crinkles at the corners of the drooping mouth, littleflickerings in the blue eyes, until at last the two beaming facespledged--on the part of the man tender protection, on the part of thechild unquestioning confidence. 

But he said no word--he dared not trust his voice. 

He went down on his knees cautiously, her smile welcoming him now. 

He held out his hands. She hesitated a moment and then gave into themher chiefest possession--her rag doll. It was as if she had pledged herfaith in him. He danced the doll upon his broad palm, and the child'seyes, dancing too, thanked him for the courtesy he was paying to herdearest friend. 

But Walker Farr realized that something strange and disquieting in thecase of a man who believed himself a cynic was stirring within him. That hostage of the doll was not sufficient to satisfy the sudden queercraving. The knowledge of the hopeless helplessness of that little girlthrobbed through him. The memory of the spectacle of what he had left onthe canal bank made the pathos of this little scene in the garret doublypoignant as he looked into the child's eyes. Never, in his memory, hadhe invited a child to come to him. 

Now he put out his hand--and it trembled. She snuggled her warm littlefist into his grasp. And then she scrambled up and came and nestledconfidingly against him. She couldn't see his face then, and he allowedthe tears of a strong man who is overcome before he has understood--whowonders at himself--he allowed those tears to streak his cheeks and didnot wipe them away. 

Walker Farr was too perturbed to soliloquize just then in hisphilosopher's style, but he did realize that some part of his altruismhad come out of its trance. 

And after he had knelt there on the floor for a time he rose and tookthe child in his arms and sat down in a creaky rocking-chair and croonedunder his breath, and was astonished to find that she had gone soundasleep. He stared into the dusk that was gathering outside the dormerwindow and wondered what ailed him. 

He had heard many feet thudding on the stairs below. The workers werereturning. The beehive was filling. There were many voices, clatter ofdishes, chatter of patois. 

He wondered how well the woman Sirois was known in the house--whethershe had relatives--how soon somebody would come and beat upon the door. 

He wondered just what disposition was made of children left in thismanner. 

If the woman had relatives who were forced to take the child it meantmore of this horrible tenement life. The child in his arms was pale andthin; her bones seemed as inconsiderable as a bird's. 

He did not know much about children's homes, orphanages, institutionsfor the reception of the homeless, but it seemed to him that such atiny, frail little girl would be very, very lonely in such a place. 

The skies grew dark without. He was cramped because he had sat for hoursin one position, fearing to waken her. But when he moved she did notwaken--he did not understand how soundly childhood can sleep. He laidher on the foot of the narrow bed and looked about the room, shieldinga match with his hands. He had resolved to carry her out of that fetid, overcrowded babel of a tenement. Where? He did not know. He hunted tofind her belongings. He found a few clothes. There was no receptacle inwhich he could pack them. He folded them and crowded the articles in hispockets. He stuffed in the doll and the rude playthings and hooked thebasket doll-carriage upon his arm. She did not waken when he picked herup. He tiptoed down the stairs and nobody noticed him, In his own dizzymind he could not determine whether he felt most like a thief or alunatic. At any rate, he found himself walking the streets of the millcity at ten o'clock at night, carrying a little girl in his arms and allher earthly possessions in his pockets. 

It came over him at last that the longer he kept her the more uncertainhe became as to what disposal he should make of her, or else he was moreloath to part with her; he didn't exactly know which. 

Then she woke and spoke for the first time. "Me is te'bble hungry--andfirsty, " she mourned. 

"Good Lord! What's the matter with me?" grunted the young man. "If I hadfound a cat or a dog, the first thing I would have done would be to give'em something to eat. I reckon I must have thought I had picked up anangel. " To her he said, smoothing her hair with his free hand. "We'llhave sumpin for baby's tummy mighty quick. " He flushed at sound of thatbaby prattle from his lips. But it had popped out in the most naturalmanner possible. 

He headed for the nearest night lunch-cart. He entered with his burden. 

He elbowed aside men who were eating sandwiches and pie at the counter. With complete and rueful knowledge as to the extent of his resources, he ordered a bowl of bread and milk--"the best you can do for a hungrykiddie for ten cents, " he added. 

"Anything for yourself?" inquired the waiter. 

He shook his head and paid for the child's supper with his wholecapital, two nickels. He held her on the end of the counter and, awkwardly but with tender carefulness, fed the bread and milk to herwith a spoon. A healthy man's hunger gnawed within him and the savor ofcoffee from the big, bubbling urn tantalized him. He tipped the bowl toher lips and she drank the last of the milk with a happy little sigh, and he went out into the night again, carrying her in his arms. 

He understood all the suspicions that policemen entertain in the caseof night prowlers, and knew that they would be particularly andmeddlesomely interested in one who prowled with a child in his arms. Thechild began to whimper softly. Her interest in the stranger who hadwon her with a smile, her slumber in his arms, her feast in strangesurroundings, had kept her child's mind busy and pacified till then. Nowshe voiced childhood's unvarying lament--"I wants my mamma!"

He soothed her as best he could, promising, giving her all manner ofassurance regarding her mother, wondering all the time what was to bedone. Why had he interfered? Why had he taken upon himself the custodyof this mite, so trifling a weight in his arms, but now resting--a giantof a burden--on his responsibility? He did not know. He owned up to thatignorance frankly. But he walked on, carrying her, and put away from histhoughts the sensible alternative of placing her in the hands of thoseduly appointed to care for such cases. 

He told himself that, as a stranger in the city, he would not be ableto find a refuge--an institution that time of night--and he knew that hewas lying to himself, and wondered why. 

The impulse that directed his course toward the canal was rather grim, but he remembered the tree which had been sanctuary for him that day. Hecarefully lowered the little girl over the fence and climbed after her. And she did not call any more for her mother because this strange newscene seemed to impress her and fill her with wonderment. She stared upinto the dim, mysterious, rustling foliage of the tree for a long time. She patted her hands upon the grass as if it were something shehad never seen or felt before. She seemed to be making her firstacquaintance with Mother Nature--claiming the heritage of outdoors thatchildren so intensely covet. The sloped ceiling and the walls of theattic room had been sky and landscape for her. She peered into the stillwaters of the canal and saw the stars reflected there, and cocked herear to listen when sleepy birds stirred above and chirped in theirdreams. And then she fell asleep again and he tucked her within his coatto keep from her the dampness of the faint mist rising from the canal. 

The dawn flushed early and she woke when the birds did, and found somuch to interest her--ants who ran up and down the tree, funny bugs thattumbled, robins who bounced along the sward on stiff legs--that she didnot ask for her mother nor seem to find at all strange the companionshipof this tall man whose face was so kind. 

And so Etienne Provancher found them when he came with his rake andpike-pole at six o'clock, the hour when the great turbines began togrunt and rumble in their deep pits. 

"It is Rosemarie--I found her in the room, " said Walker Farr. 

The old man came close and gazed down on the pallor and pathos of thislittle snipped who still stared at the new wonders of outdoors. 

"Anodder one, hey? You found her lock up?"

"Yes, and I brought her away--and I don't know just what the matter iswith me, Etienne. I have not been inclined to put myself out for anybodyin this world--man, woman, or child--of late years. I had made up mymind to let the world run itself. "

"It is the way the rich man say--he do not care. But the poor man shouldcare--he should try to help odder poor man. He should care. "

"Oh, there are things that can happen to make a man stop caring. But Ibrought her away, just the same. I--I woke up--or something. I havebeen awake all night--I have been thinking--I had nothing else to do. Insomnia has made me insane--one night of it!" He laughed when the oldman blinked at him. "I'm so crazy that I want you to help me find somegood woman who will take this child to board in a comfortable home. "

"Who'll pay?"

"I'll pay. Oh, I am completely crazy--I'm going to work--earn money topay her board. "

"I know a good woman near by--she have leetle house, cat, plant inwindow. "

"That's the kind. "

"I will tell you where she live. You shall say you come from EtienneProvancher and it will make you good for her. " He paused, raised a brownfinger, then went on. "But you shall not know where she live onlessI may pay half the board money for the poor little one. We have beentogedder in it--I tell some lie to the coroner--we must be togedder inhelp the childs. "

There was firm resolve in old Etienne's face and tones. 

"Partnership it shall be, my old boy, " agreed the young man, heartily. "I'm no pig--I won't keep a good man out of a real picnic. " He rose andswept the child into his arms. "Give me the address and hand her overthe fence to me. I'll have to quit being nurse and find a real job. By the way, Etienne, I heard a fat man weeping yesterday because hecouldn't get men to dig dirt for the Consolidated Water Company. Heseemed to take a great fancy to me. Where's their office?"

He received both the information and the child after he had climbed thefence. Etienne was able to point out the little house of sanctuary fromwhere he stood--and he waved his rake reassuringly from a distance whenthe good woman came to the door, answering Farr's knock. He dancedinto the house with the child, behind the good woman, who had answeredEtienne's signal with a return flip of her apron; he was trying to bringa smile to the little face. 

"You'll have to lie to her more or less about her mother, good woman. Etienne and I will tell you all about it when there's time. When sheasks about her mother just give her something to eat and lie a bit. "He set the child upon the table where the good woman was making freshcookies. He piled the little toys about her. "I'm going to market, tomarket to buy a fat pig, and I'll be home again, riggy-jig-jig, " hedeclared in a singsong that fetched a chuckle from the waif, and shefollowed him with a smile as he hurried out. "That smile will sweetena day's work in the trench, " he assured himself. "I sure am somefoster-father when I get started!"

A listless clerk at the Consolidated office gave him a ticket to bedelivered to the foreman of construction--the foreman sent him out withother men on a rattling jigger-wagon. By being very humble, and with theaid of his smile, he succeeded in begging a corned-beef sandwich forhis breakfast from a workman on the jigger who was carrying his lunch towork. He ate it very slowly so as to make the most of it. 

The new trench was in a suburban plot which had just been opened up by areal-estate syndicate. It was a bare tract, flat and dusty, and theonly trees were newly planted saplings that were about as large asfishing-poles. How the sun did beat into that trench! But Walker Farrthrew off his coat and used again his ready asset--his smile. He smiledat the boss who sneered at the style of "fiddler's hair" worn by adirt-flinger--smiled so sweetly that the boss came over later and hithim a friendly clap on the shoulder and said, "Well, old scout, here'shoping that times will be better!"

"I'll take her out on the bank of the canal this evening before bedtimeand we'll have a lark, " reflected Walker Farr as he toiled in the hottrench. And he stopped quizzing himself as to the whys of this suddendevotion to a freakish notion. He seemed to know at last. 

IX

THE GIRL FROM TADOUSAC

When the noon hour came Farr went and sat under a spindling tree andbegan to read in one of his little books, dismissing thoughts of hungerwith the resoluteness of a man who had suffered hollow yearning of thestomach and knew how to conquer it. 

But he could not escape the keen eyes and kindly generosity of thefraternity of toilers. 

"A topper down on his luck a bit--see his clothes, " said the foreman, and he took tithes from willing men who were eating from pails that werepinched between their knees; he carried the food to the young man. 

Farr accepted with gratitude, ate with thrifty moderation, and hid whatremained in the pockets of his coat; it would serve for his supper. 

He ate that supper after his day's work was done and after he had lavedhis face and hands in the overflow from a public fountain in a littlesquare. 

Then he hurried to the house of the good woman. 

She was busy with her dishes in the kitchen and Rosemarie was on theknees of a young woman who sat and rocked in one of the sitting-roomchairs. 

Farr entered by the kitchen door and stood there, looking in with someconfusion on the girl and child. 

"It is only Zelie Dionne; she is my boarder, " the woman informed him. "She is a good girl and she has the very nice job in the cloth-hall ofthe big Haxton mill. She lives with me because I was neighbor of hergood folks in the Tadousac country, so far away from here in our Canada. Come! I make you acquaint. You shall see. She is a good girl!"

Zelie Dionne rose and acknowledged the introduction with a French girl'spretty grace. A bit of a flush lighted the dusky pallor of her cheekswhen Farr bent before her. The bow in her hair was cocked with trueGallic chic and her gown was crisply smart in its simplicity. Her big, dark eyes were the wonderful feature of her face, and Farr looked intothem and seemed to lose a bit of his cool self-possession; he falteredin speech, groping for words in the first commonplaces. 

"You must talk together. I must work, " said the good woman. She hurriedback into her kitchen. 

The child ran to Farr and climbed upon his knees. 

"You have been good to Rosemarie. I thank you, " he said. "I suppose thegood woman has told you how it has happened. "

"Yes, when I came at noon. " Her tones were peculiarly sweet andcompassionate. A touch of accent gave piquancy to what she said. Shelooked at him meaningly. "I have been talking to our little Rosemarieand she will not cry any more for her good mamma who has gone up tothe green hills because she is sick and must rest. So Rosemarie will bepatient and live here and I will be play-mamma. "

"Yes, play-mamma, " agreed the child. "Good play-mamma! Two mammas! Butonly one papa!" She put up her arms and tucked them about his neckand snuggled down with a happy sense of complete understanding of hisprotection. At last, so it seemed to her, she had recovered the fathershe had never known. Poor, little, caged bird, her release from thatlonely prison was dated in her happy consciousness from his appearancein the doorway, and all things had been well for her after hecame--sunlight, the trees, the blue sky, and tender care, and thecompanionship of human beings. Therefore, the rush of a love her child'scomprehension could not analyze had gone out to him. 

Farr returned with significance the look Zelie Dionne's dark eyes gavehim. 

"I found the note. It made me go a-meddling. It left a legacy tosomebody--and I accepted--without understanding why I did so. " Hestroked the child's curls. 

"I did not understand at first--when Madame Maillet told me, " sheconfessed, with a smile. "Old Etienne came at noon to tell her and shehas told it to me. It is very sad--but yet it is comical when I look atyou. But as I look at you I understand better. You have a good heart. Ican see!"

"I am only a strolling stranger--here to-day and there to-morrow, "protested Farr. "I think the heat must have affected my head. It hasbeen very warm lately. But when I saw her--" He choked suddenly. 

"Oh, it is easy to understand, " said the girl, reassuringly. A mistof tears came across her big eyes, though her mouth did not lose thewistful smile. "The poor folks help one another--and they understand. "

"It wouldn't be right to give her to an orphanage, " insisted Farr. "Shehas missed too much already. Of course I don't pretend to know what alittle girl needs--but I am willing to be told. "

"I will tell you and I will help. "

"I think old Etienne and I need you in the partnership--as adviser. Ithank you. "

Then came the old Canadian, his wrinkled face tender with solicitousinterest, and he chuckled when he welcomed the new member of the firm. 

"Ah, Mam'selle Zelie she shall help us the very much in what we do notknow, " he informed the young man, and continued, while the dark eyesflashed protest: "I am of the Tadousac country, and she is a good girl, for I have know her all the years since I trot her on my knee when shemuch small as the petite Rosemarie. I can tell you how she dance downthe meadows in the ring-a-rosy play and how she--"

"Phut! Your tongue is as long as your rake and it goes reachingdown into other folks' affairs, old Etienne! What cares this strangegentleman for what happened in Tadousac? Go use your key instead of yourtongue. Unlock your little door so that Rosemarie may walk on the coolgrass beside the canal. "

The old man grinned and started away. 

"We're going out where the birds will sing good night to you, " Farr toldthe child and lifted her off his knees. But at the door she stopped andturned to Zelie Dionne, who had not risen. 

"Come, play-mamma!"

"I will wait here till you come back, Rosemarie. "

But the child was coaxingly insistent, holding out her hand. 

"I think it is because she has been so lonely all her life, " suggestedFarr. "Now that she has found friends she wants them to be with herin her little pleasures. May I presume enough to add my invitation tohers?"

She came and the child walked between them, holding their hands. 

"One papa and my play-mamma!" she said, looking up at them in turn. 

Mother Maillet came to the kitchen door and waved adieu with herdish-towel. 

"Ah, the family!" she cried. "Yesterday it was not--to-day it is. Andgrandpere marching off ahead!"

"Old folks and children--they say embarrassing things, " remarked Farrwhen they were on their way. 

"One must be silly along with them to be disturbed by such chatter, "said Zelie Dionne, tartly. 

They followed old Etienne through his little door and walked along thecanal bank where the waters were still and glassy, for the big gateshad been closed and power lay motionless and locked in the sullen depthstill morning. The sunset behind the big mills glowed redly through themyriad windows. 

They walked slowly because little Rosemarie found marvels for childisheyes at every step, and even the cool carpet of the grass providedunfailing delight as she set slow and cautious footsteps into itsyielding luxuriance. The old man plodded ahead, muttering and frowningas he peered down at the flotsam in the motionless waters. 

The silence between the two who accompanied the child continued a longtime and Farr found it oppressive. 

"I have never been in Canada, " he said. "I am sorry you did not care tohave Etienne talk about your home. I would like to know more about thatcountry. "

"He was talking about me instead of my home in Tadousac. I am not soimportant that I am to be talked about. "

"Where is Tadousac?"

Her vivacity returned, her dark eyes glowed. "Ah, m'sieu', you should gothere. It is in the country of the good habitants where the St. Lawrenceand the Saguenay meet. And now, as the sun is setting, the people areresting under the wide eaves of the little white houses, looking upwhere the hills are all so blue, or off across the wide bay. The whitehouses are very small and they crowd along the road, and the farms arenarrow, and there is not much money in the homespun clothes or in theold clock, but the good world is wide about them and the people are notsad like those who sit yonder. "

She pointed across the canal to rows of wooden tenement-houses manystories in height; on narrow porches, nicked one above another, and onfire-escapes which were slowly cooling after hours on the forge of thesun, men, women, and children were packed, seeking a breath of freshair. 

"They stand at loom and spinner and slasher all day, " she said. "Theyare too tired to walk afar to the parks. They wait there for good air tocome and it does not come. "

"I don't understand why they flock down here from Canada--why theystay, " he declared, bluntly. 

"Ah, you look at me when you say that!" she cried, arching her brows. "You hear me talk about the sunset over the meadows and the hills, andyou wonder why I am not there? Well, listen! There are fourteen sonsand daughters of Onesime Dionne--that's my father--for all the habitantfolks marry young, and the priest smiles and blesses the household whenthere are many children. And girls are not of much account in the house. The sons claim and receive their shares of the arpents of land whenthose boys are grown and married. The girl may marry--yes! But what ifthe right one does not ask? What if the right one has a father who saysto him that he must obey and marry one the father has chosen? All kindsof things can happen in the habitant country, m'sieu'. So, then, thegirl is less account in the house. And the letters come back from thegirls who have gone down into the mills in the States. The pictures comeback showing the new gown and the smart hat--and so!" She shrugged hershoulders and tossed her free hand. "One more girl for the big mill!"

He stared at her with some curiosity. 

"You ask yourself which one of those things happened to me, do you not?"

"Perhaps, " he confessed. 

"I talk little about myself. I talk about the habitant girls. I amfortunate. I do not breathe the air where the looms clack. I inspect inthe cloth-hall because I have sharp eyes and nimble fingers. "

"But you came here alone--it is strange. I mean, do not the father andmother and all the family move here, usually?"

She lifted her chin and gazed at him with pride in her mien. 

"If you go to Tadousac you shall find that my father owns a large farmand that one of his grandfathers was a captain with General Montcalm, and many Dionnes have lived on the land that was given to a brave man. Icame to the States because I wanted to come. My people did not come. "

She clipped the last sentence in a manner that suggested to Farr thatthere was no more to be said on that topic. But she went on after a timein softened tones. 

"It is not strange that so many came to the States, sir. The farms ofBeauce, of l'Islet, of the Chaudiere, were so crowded. Years ago, theold folks used to tell me, the boys began to drive the little whitehorses hitched to buckboards across the border in the early summer, andthe boys were strong and willing, and the farmers who laughed at themand called them Canucks hired them for the hay-fields just the same. And they slept in the haymows and under the trees and worked hard andbrought back all their money. Then the big mills needed men and womenand children, and the Yankee girls would not work in the mills anymore. You must understand how it was: Ouillette, who had worked in thehay-field, would hear of the work in the mill, and the Ouillettes wouldsell and go to the city. And as soon as they had seen the lights andthe theater and the car which ran with a stick on a wire, and had earnedtheir first pay and had bought Yankee clothes they wrote home to theircousins the Pelletiers and the Pelletiers sat nights till late talkingexcitedly--and then they sold and came, and so it has gone on andon--the endless chain, one family pulling on its neighbor, down the longway from Canada to the States. But it may be all for the best. I am notwise in such things. But when the sun bakes and the fever comes and thechildren die in the tenements, then I wish the fathers and mothers wereback on the little farms and that workers of some other race than thehabitants were chained to the looms in the big mills. That may be aselfish thought, but my own people are dear to me. "

Farr was not in the mood to argue the economic side of that questionwith this girl who had so tersely told the story of two generationsof mill-toilers. With that little waif between them, victim of theindustrial Moloch which must roll on even if its wheels crushed theinnocent here and there, he permitted sentiment to sway him. In fact, for a day and a night he had surrendered to sentiment and had found astrange sort of intoxication in the experience. His heart was with thehumble folk and pity was in him--pity which was uncalculating and inwhich his cynicism was dissolving. 

And when the stars were mirrored in the still canal and the grass wasdamp with the dew, they walked back to the house of Mother Maillet andlittle Rosemarie murmured her bit of a prayer and was tucked in bed. 

"I hope that some day I may go to Tadousac, " said Farr to the girl, before he passed out of the good woman's house. "I would like to see thesunset, for you have praised it. "

"Ask for the house of Onesime Dionne, second beyond the big parishcross. It will be easy to find, and the sunset is very grand from theporch under the eaves. "

Farr went along with the old man and they walked slowly. Their way tookthem down narrow streets between the high tenements. 

"Yes, you shall find it very grand at Tadousac--and M'sieu' Dionne is anhonest man, " declared Etienne. "Now and then in the thirty year I havebeen visit up there in Tadousac, and I sit those day and whittle forthe children and then little Zelie trot on my knee with the others. So Iknow the story of those place. And all the people up there don't care ifI know, because I listen and am glad to know, and sometimes I can giveadvice, for I have live long on the States where great matters arehappening. But Farmer Leroux would not listen to me when I advise abouthis good son Jean and Zelie Dionne. Farmer Leroux is a good man, but heis a hard man when his ugly mad get stir. And the children up there dowhat the father tell--because that is what the cure preach and it is theway of the habitants. "

"The old, old story--the Montagues and the Capulets on the banks of theriver of the North. "

"I think I know something what you mean, m'sieu', though I don't knowyour friend you speak about. But if he say to his son, 'Ba gar, youdon't marry no girl what I don't like her fadder because we havehosswhip one anodder t'ree or two time when we have fuss over linefence--or crowd our wagon when we go to market'--why, then that's yourfriend. And it start from there and grow into big thing, so that allthe cure can say it don't make no friend of them. So they wait--Jean andZelie! Ah yes, they wait!" He put his finger beside his nose and winked. "They love. They get marry some nice day. But now!" He flirted his gauntfingers. "They say nottings. I maself say nottings. But I see some veryqueer look in Jean Leroux's eye when he say to me as I meet him at thegate of his fadder's farm, 'And how carries Zelie Dionne herself thesedays?' And though he look high over the tree and chew the straw and lookvery careless, ah, I see the big tear in his eye and hear him choke inhis throat. "

"It's played out and old-fashioned, this letting old folks manage youngfolks that way just to satisfy old grudges, " scoffed Farr. "If they arein love they ought to get married and tell the old folks to go hang!"

Etienne stopped and gazed quizzically at the young man who thusexpounded the law for lovers. 

"I think you have in you none of the understanding of the Frenchhabitants who have live the three generation on one farm so that a youngman, no matter if he love a mam'selle so very much that all the breadhe eat taste ashes in his mouth--ah, he cannot say 'I will leave--Iwill go!' For then that young man must turn himself to be anodder youngman--and the habitant does not so change. "

"I may be a poor judge, " acknowledged Farr. "I have never yet taken rootin the soil of any one place. "

"And I think, mebbe, the girl you do not understand! Is it to stay inthe home and hear every day about you love the pig of a Leroux, bah? No, no, m'sieu'! That's too proud, is Zelie Dionne. And so is Zelie Dionnetoo proud to take a son from a home that do not want her. So they wait. "

"It's a tough old world, Uncle Etienne, " said Farr. "Why, even I, lordof my own affairs as I am, don't know where I'm going to sleep to-night. Do you have a boarding-place?"

"I have my little room on the block up there--my room and my place atthe big table. It is not grand. But there is place for you--and anodderlittle room. If you like you shall come and I will speak good for you. "

"All right, Etienne! Take me along and speak good for me. "

It was another such place as Block Ten. It was a crowded and stuffywarren, and the basement kitchen advertised itself with stale odors inall the corridors. But Farr was glad to stretch himself upon the narrowbed. He owned up to himself that he was a very weary bird of passage andconfessed to his own heart, just as frankly, that he was a captive inthe frail grasp of a little girl--and he did not try to understand. 

X

POISON FOR THE POOR

It proved to be an amicable and satisfactory partnership between EtienneProvancher and Walker Farr and dark-eyed Zelie Dionne. 

When the days were pleasant the old man kept the little girl with himout of doors on the canal bank. She did not trouble him by runningabout. Her long days of confinement in the attic room had accustomedher to remain quietly in one place. She sat contentedly in the shade andwatched the bugs in the grass and the birds in the tree above her. Inthe cool of the evening she trudged along the canal bank with Farrand the play-mamma until eyes grew heavy and little feet stumbled withweariness and it was time for bed. Rainy evenings they studied thealphabet or he read to her from picture-books in blazing colors, andafter a time she remembered all the stories and made believe read themto him. 

He worked in the trench and looked forward impatiently to Saturdaynights when the clerk came along with the pay-envelopes; there were somany things in the stores that would delight the heart of a little girlwho had never had any toys except a rag doll and a broken flower-basket. Then there were pretty dresses to buy. The taste of Zelie Dionne tookcharge of that shopping. When he bought the first one--one that waswhite and fluffy--and Rosemarie walked out with him she displayedsuch feminine pride in fine feathers that he looked forward to futureSaturdays nights and new dresses with anticipatory gusto. If one hadquestioned him he could have told weeks ahead just what his plansof purchases were, for he canvassed all the possibilities with theplay-mamma who knew so well how to get value for a dollar--who knew theplaces to buy and whose needle helped to much. 

It was a wicked summer for those who were doomed to the mills andthe tenement-houses. The heat puffed and throbbed over the lashingmachinery. The slashers seemed to spit caloric. The spinning-framestossed it off their spindles. The looms fairly wove it into the warp. The thick, sweet, greasy air seemed to distil cotton-oil upon the facesof the workers. The nights proved to be no better than the days. Thestuffy tenements gulped in the hot air of midday and held it as a personholds his breath. All the folks came out upon the little platforms thatwere ranged, story after story, above each other. They gasped for airin the narrow spaces between the high buildings. The stars above thosenarrow spaces did not sparkle and suggest coolness; they seemed to floatabove the hot earth like red cinders. 

Every day the undertakers' wagons came "boombling" down the narrowcanyons of streets between the "Blocks, " for the people were dying. Thelittle white hearse was a more frequent visitor than the rusty blackone; the ranks of the children were paying the greatest toll to death. 

"But we shall not worry about our Rosemarie, " old Etienne told Farr. "Under the shade on the green grass she shall stay where outdoors canpaint her cheeks the very fine color. "

But when the old man called for her at the good woman's house onemorning something else than the sun had painted the little girl'scheeks--they were flushed with fever. He told the good woman to sendstraight for the doctor, and went to his work much disturbed. 

Later in the day the yard overseer, passing the rack, saw that the manwas working with furious energy. He was even reaching out his rake tocapture floating stuff before it touched the bars. 

"This seems to be your busy day, Pickaroon, " suggested the overseer. 

"I make believe this old rack to be a good friend of mine and that thefloat stuff be sickness come at him--so I work hard to keep it away. "

The overseer went along about his business, commenting mentally on aFrenchman's imagination. 

When the big mill bells clanged the noon hour Etienne hurried to thegood woman's house. The city physician had been there and had leftmedicine--two tumblers of it. He had hurried in and had hurried away andhad been curt and brusk and had not told her what was the trouble, sothe woman reported. But the child had been sleeping. 

She was drowsy all that evening while Farr held her in his arms andEtienne sat near by with Zelie Dionne, ministering solicitously. 

"Her cheeks are not so hot, " said the young man many times. He talkedhopefully to reassure himself as well as the others, for he had beendreadfully frightened when he had come from his work. Fright hadtrodden close on the heels of much joy--for the superintendent ofthe Consolidated had taken him out of the hot trench that day and hadappointed him boss of twoscore Italian diggers, doubling his pay. 

"I have been watching you, " the superintendent told him. "You're builtto boss men. What kind of a bump was it that ever slammed you down likethis?"

The answer the superintendent got was a smile which put furtherquestions out of his mind. 

"No, her cheeks are not so hot, " affirmed Farr when he laid her in herbed that night. "She will come along all right. "

But at the end of a week languor still weighed on the child. There werecircles under her eyes and her cheeks were wan, and she did not clapher hands with the old-time glee when he brought her new toys; theplaythings lay beside her on the bed and invited her touch--staring eyesof dolls, beady eyes of toy dogs--without avail. 

"It is the queer way of being sick, " lamented the old man. "The doctormebbe not know, because he very gruff and do not say. I think I knowwhat may cure her--it has been done many time. 

"Away up in the Canada country there is the shrine of the good SainteAnne de Beaupre. There she stand in the middle of the big church and shehold her little grandson in her arm--the little boy Jesus. So she feelvery tender toward poor, sick childs. Ah, I have seen her many time--Ihave seen childs healed there and made so very smart--all cure. Sheloves little childs. _Oui_. All about her feet are short, small crutchwhere she has cure childs. The piece of her wrist-bone is there in thesacristy--it look like a wee scrap of some gray moss under the glass. And it cure when the good priest say the word for her. I know the way tothe shrine of La Bonne Sainte Anne--I will go with the little Rosemarieand she shall sing and dance after that. "

For a moment the cynical smile of the skeptic etched itself at thecorners of Farr's mouth--the flash of the nature the young man hadhidden during recent weeks. 

He turned to Zelie Dionne and found her regarding him with grave eyes. 

"It is as M'sieu' Etienne says, " she assured the young man. "La BonneSainte listens very tenderly when the children come to her. She is goodto all, but her spirit leans over the poor little children and comfortsthem. "

"You have been there?"

"Many times, sir. It is not only the sick body that the good Sainte Anneheals--she comforts anybody who is in much sorrow--she tells the rightway to go. There are many roads to take in this life--and if any onegoes to her with prayer and humble soul she will guide. Ah, it is true, sir. "

There was earnestness in her features and conviction in her tones and itwas plain that Zelie Dionne was speaking out of the depths of her heart, and Farr remembered what old Etienne had said about the son of FarmerLeroux. 

"Yes, she will lead to the right way and make all well in the end, "asserted the girl. "And, most of all, she is kind and gentle to thelittle children. "

Between her and the wistful old man Farr divided tolerant and kindlygaze. 

"I believe in more things than I used to, " he said. "I'm willing toadmit in these days that things I do not understand may have truth inthem. The doctor is not making her well. But it is a long way to thatshrine. "

"It is a long way, so! But I am very scare for her as she lie here allday. I will carry her very tender--on the railway car--on the big boat. The good Sainte Anne is everywhere, too. She will help. "

"If faith can move mountains it ought to heal easily one poor, littletoddlekins, " muttered Farr. 

A new doctor came the next day, a breezy young man, a talkative andfrank young man, the assistant of the over-worked city physician, whosemunicipal duties had obliged him to take on helpers. 

"I shall ask him, hey--about the shrine?" whispered Etienne to Farrwhile the doctor was examining the child. 

"Yes; he'll be more patient with you than with me. "

"And do you think that pretty soon she can go on the railway if Ibe very careful, good docteur?" asked the old man, wistfully, apologetically. 

"Go where?"

"On the pilgrimage to the shrine of the good Sainte Anne in the Canadacountry. "

"Don't you realize what this case is?" demanded the young physician. 

"He have not say--he hurry in, he hurry out. "

"You the grandfather?"

"No!"

The doctor turned on Farr. 

"Father?"

"No. "

"Then I can talk right out to you two. This is a case of typhoid thatwill be fatal in twenty-four hours. There's no use lying about it. "

Old Etienne's mouth and eyes seemed to sink deep into his wrinkles, asif Time had forced him suddenly to swallow an extra score of years. Helooked at Farr's blank and whitening face, and as quickly looked away. 

"Break it to her grandmother, " advised the doctor, nodding toward thekitchen where the good woman was at work. 

"But you don't know what you say, " stammered the old man. 

"It so happens that I do, my man. I've been handling too many of thesecases to be fooled. Why, I've got more than fifty cases of typhoid inthis city--just myself. "

"But she has had sun and fresh air--on the canal bank where I tend therack. "

"Sun and fresh air can't cure victims of the poison that is being pumpedthrough the water-mains of this city, " snapped the doctor. 

"Water-mains!"

The doctor turned and stared at Farr, for the husky croak of hisexclamation had not sounded human. 

"That's what I said. You can't have lived very long in this state not toknow what we're up against on the water proposition. "

"I haven't lived here long. But about the child--it can't--"

"Why, this Consolidated Company is owned by Colonel Dodd and hispoliticians--and they own all the city and town water systems in thisstate, " said the doctor, no longer interested in his patient--explodingwith the violence of imprudent youth. "They boss mayors, the aldermen, the politicians--boss the governor himself. That's because they've gotthe machine and the money. They've got a lot of money, because theywon't wake up and spend it to lay lines far enough to tap the lakes inthe hills. They tap these rotten rivers at our back doors, pump poisonthrough the mains, sell it at prices that yield them twenty percentdividends. They say the water is all right--and back it up withanalyses. I say it's all wrong. "

"And you damnation doctors are letting this go on--letting folks drinkpoison--telling us when it's too late!" shouted Farr, purple replacingthe white in his face. 

"Well, the folks up-town who have got wisdom and the money buyspring-water and mineral water. All the doctors don't agree thatthe river is responsible for the typhoid. With the governor and thelegislature bossed by Dodd and his associates, and the city governmentstied up by them, and the banks taking orders from the syndicate in caseany town or an independent company tries to borrow money and install awater system, and the mill corporations and the tenement-block ownersall in cahoots, a crusader who expected to get anywhere in politics ormake money out of his business would stand a fine and dandy show, nowwouldn't he? And the most of us in this world are trying to get aheadeither in business or in politics. " He snapped the catch of his littleblack case. "Forget what I have said, you two. I hold my job throughpolitics. I'm apt to talk too much when I get started. But don't drinkcity water, no matter if Colonel Dodd's analyses do give it a cleanbill. "

Farr caught him at the door, restraining him with a heavy hand. 

"You stay here, don't you let that baby die. By the gods, she sha'n'tdie!"

"My staying will do no good, my friend. The little girl is death-struckalready. It's quick work with the children. Sometimes we can bring thegrown folks through. Get another doctor, if you feel like it, but I'vegot to keep moving--there are lots of folks waiting for me in thesetenements. "

He shook off Farr's hand and hurried away. 

Old Etienne stood by the bedside, gazing down on the little sufferer, closing and unclosing his shriveled hands as if he were grasping atstraws of hope, dragging the depths of his soul for reassurance even ashe dragged his rake in the black waters of the canal. 

"The whippersnapper lied about her. Because she's a baby he won'tbother, " stormed Farr. "I'll ransack this town for doctors--I'll findone who knows his business. " He tiptoed to the bed and laid tender palmagainst the child's cheek. "I say her face isn't as hot as it was, " hepersisted. "Where can I find a doctor with gray whiskers, Etienne? Thatyoung fool doesn't know. "

"There are many wise old docteurs in the long street named WesternBoulevard--they live in the big houses--but they don't come to thetenement folks. "

"One of them will come this time even if I have to lug him on my back. "

He began to search for his hat, not remembering where he had tossed itin the haste and eagerness of his arrival at the good woman's house. Hedid not find it readily and he rushed out bareheaded. 

"The sun and the air they do no good! It is the poison water--and thepoor folks of the tenements they do not know!" muttered the old man. "That is what he say?" He went to the kitchen sink and unscrewed thefaucet. He sniffed and made a wry face, then he ran his thin finger intothe valve-chamber. He hooked and brought forth stringy slime, held itnear his nose, and groaned. "The poor folks do not know. They who askfor the votes of the slashers, the weavers, the beamers--the men of themills--they who ask votes do not want the poor folks to know, becausethe votes would not be given to them who sell poison in the water, " hetold the astonished good woman who had watched his act. 

"I am careful about my kitchen--I am neat--I wash everything, Etienne, "she assured him, sniffing at the slime in the sink, overcome byconfusion, her housewife's reputation at stake. 

"Yes, but you cannot wash the souls of them dam' scoundrels who sendthat water through the pipes to the poor people who can buy no other, "he raged. "This is not your blame--you did not know. " He pointed hisfinger, quivering, dripping with the slime, at the child on the bed. "They have murder her! With this!" He slatted his finger with thegesture of one who throws off a noisome serpent. 

"But I drink the water--it hasn't made me sick, " she protested. 

"You--me--odders that are all dry up--tough old fools--we ought to dieand we don't, " he raged, stamping back and forth across the kitchen, waving his arms. "We have been poison so much we do not notice. But thepoor little childs--the young folks that die--die in these tenements allthe time--and we see the white ribbons hanging from the doors, so manyplace every day--the poor young folks with life ahead and much to livefor even down here--they are poison and they do not know! Oh, _le bonDieu_! Boil dem dam' devil in hell in the water they have sell to thepoor!" He stopped, shocked by these words he heard coming from hismouth, and crossed himself contritely. "But I look at her--I hear whatthe docteur say--I talk and I cannot help!" He staggered into the roomwhere the child lay, and sat down in a chair and held his face in hishands. 

It was an aged and somewhat unctuous physician whom Farr brought. Thedoctor pursed his lips and puckered his eyebrows above the little wraithwho minded him not at all, lying with eyes half closed, plucking withfinger and thumb at the bedclothing. 

"With a bit stronger constitution--if she were a little older--Take thecase of an adult--"

"Say it short, " growled Farr, clenching his fists as if he wanted tobeat indulgence for the child out of the hide of the world. "I'm payingyou for her life. "

"I have nothing to sell you in this case--therefore there can be nopay. " He leaned over the bed and smoothed the moist, tangled hair awayfrom the child's brow. "I can only _give_ you something, my friend. Igive you all my sympathy. This baby is departing on a long journey, andI'm Christian enough to believe that the way will be made very smoothfor the feet of little children. That's the faith of an old man. "

There were both earnestness and tenderness in his tones--the smugness ofthe physician was gone. He shook Farr's hand and went out of the room, treading softly. 

And the next day Rosemarie's tiny fingers stopped their flutterings andshe went away--somewhere!

XI

THE LORDS OF THE CITY

Walker Farr would not allow the tiny body of Rosemarie to be carriedaway in the white hearse. In his grief he had not been able as yet todissociate the identity of the child from the poor little tenement inwhich her spirit had dwelt for the few barren years of her life; itseemed to him that she would be very lonely in the white hearse. He rodeto the cemetery, holding the tiny casket across his knees. There wasonly the one carriage--it was sufficient to carry the friends of littleRosemarie: one Walker Farr and old Etienne and play-mamma Zelie Dionne. 

The rack-tender sat opposite Farr and nursed a bundle on his knees. Hehad wrapped it surreptitiously. 

The two men sent Zelie Dionne back to the city in the carriage. But theywaited beside the grave until the sexton had finished his work; Farrfelt an uncontrollable impulse to wait till all was ended, as he hadalways waited every night till the little girl was sound asleep andtucked up in bed in the good woman's house. He sat crouched on the edgeof a turfed grave, elbows on his knees, his hands clutched into hisshock of hair. 

After the sexton had departed, tools on his shoulder, Etienne unwrappedthe bundle. He began to arrange the child's toys on the grave. 

"It is as the others do--the fathers and mothers of our faith in thetenement-houses, " he explained, wistfully, to the young man. He pointedto other graves in the vicinity, short and narrow graves. Toys werespread on them, too. They were the poor treasures of dead children. Thetoys had been left there in the vague, helpless yearning of parents whostrove to reach their human consolation beyond the grave. 

Farr gazed on these pitiful memorials of the children--from those gravesto the new mound which covered Rosemarie. The ache that had been inhis throat for so many hours grew more excruciating. He realized thata father in those circumstances would weep, but he did not feel likeshedding tears, and he was ashamed of himself for what seemed lack ofsomething within himself. What he felt then, what he had felt eversince that young doctor had passed sentence of death was surly, bitterrancor--the anger of a man who is robbed. 

"Look all around at the graves, " said Etienne, tears in his wrinkles. "Iknow something better since I take off that faucet. Not all the martyrdie when the lion eat 'em up and the fire burn 'em; there be some martyrthese day, too. And sometimes, mebbe, some man what have the power willcome here and see all these poor little grave and then he go and chokethe lion what eat all these poor childs. "

"What kind of man would that be?" pondered Farr. At that moment he hadlittle faith--much less faith than usual--in the decency of any humanbeing; and for many years his faith in humankind had been expressed by acontemptuous snap of his finger. 

To sit there longer and look at that fresh earth with the pathetic toyssprinkled over it was a torment his soul could not endure. 

He arose and hurried away and Etienne followed him. They trudged insilence back to the city--Etienne to take his rake and pike-pole fromthe hands of the man who had substituted at the rack, and Farr to resumesurly domination over his sweating Italians. 

"The martyrs, " Etienne had called them. The notion of that stuck inFarr's brooding thoughts. 

He tried to look deeper into his own heart than he had ever lookedbefore and explain to himself just what motive had attracted him to thechild in the first place; he had never been especially interested inchildren before. He found himself muttering, "And a little child shalllead them, " without understanding just why this child had led him sostrangely. 

If one Walker Farr had understood it at all and had been able to explainit to himself, he would have penetrated the mystery of the dynamics oflove--the great gift to humanity that God has not seen fit to exposein its inner workings. Therefore, Farr strode here and there in thehot sun, spurred his diggers with crisp oaths, and on the heels of hisprofanity muttered to himself, "And a little child shall lead them. "

The tile boss of the Consolidated, whose crew was following thetrench-diggers, accosted Farr, after several inspections of hislugubrious countenance. 

"Don't you think you need to be cheered up a little?"

Farr scowled at him. 

"I don't know what has disagreed with you, but you're certainly in a badway, " pursued the boss. "Go up with the crowd to City Hall to-nightand hear 'em open up the police scandals. Plenty of free fun for theheavy-hearted! There are about half a dozen fat cops in this city who'llbe fried to a crisp on both sides, and the sound of the sizzling will bepleasant in the ears. "

"I'm not interested. "

"You will be, if you tend out. The hearing is before the mayor and thewhole city government. Nothing very hefty in the way of charges--onlyloafing in beer-coolers during the heat of the day, spending their timechasing the labor-agitators out of the parks, and letting burglars keephouse all summer in the mansions up-town while the owners are away atthe seashore. It's all more or less of a joke. "

"Why don't the mayor and aldermen of this city attend to duty instead ofjokes?"

"Oh, this city is run so smooth that there's nothing to do in the summerexcept stage a little farce comedy at City Hall. "

"Let me tell you that there's something to be investigated in this citythat isn't a joke, " raged Farr, his bitter ponderings blossoming intospeech. 

"What's that?"

"Murder going on every day in this damnable town. "

"Well, I guess if there was any murder going on which we didn't hearabout, even from our fat cops, it would be investigated, all right. What's the matter with you?"

"I'm glad now you told me about that hearing to-night, " stated Farr, ignoring the other's curiosity. "I'm glad I know when and where tolocate the mayor and his men in session. I'll find out if they proposeto waste the people's time hearing funny stories about policemen and aregoing to let murder go on while they are laughing. "

He strode away, cursing at his workmen as he tramped along the side ofthe ditch. 

Farr knocked at the garret room of Etienne early that evening. 

"I want you to come with me, " he commanded. 

The old man obeyed without questions. As they walked along the streetsFarr did not volunteer information. He was grimly sure that if Etienneshould receive an inkling of what was expected of him the old man wouldnot stop running until he had crossed the Canadian border. 

They were ten minutes worming their way through the press that packedthe corridors of City Hall. Groups were bulked at the doors admittingto the aldermen's room--men thatched against each other and overlappinglike bees in a swarm at the door of a hive. 

But the young man was tall and his shoulders were broad and he keptuttering the magic words, "Room for witnesses!" In his own consciousnesshe knew that what he should attempt to testify to that night was noton the slate, but the crowd accepted him as one of those from whom theyanticipated entertainment, and allowed him to pass--and Etienne, holdingto his young friend's coat, followed close and made his way before thethrong could close in again. 

The hearing began and progressed, and there was much laughter whenthe delinquencies of certain fat policemen were related--it wasa free-and-easy affair--a sort of midsummer fantasy in municipalpolitics--a squabble between ward bosses who had become jealous inmatters of the distribution of police patronage. 

Walker Farr, standing against the wall of the audience-chamber, didnot laugh. He was busy with thoughts of his own. This bland fooling inmunicipal matters while stealthy death, protected by city franchise, dripped, so he believed, from every faucet in the tenement-housedistrict, stirred his bitter indignation. Etienne Provancher stoodbeside him, and the old man did not laugh, either, because he did notunderstand in the least what those men were talking about. And he wasvery uneasy, wistfully awe-stricken, hardly daring to touch with hishands the polished oak at his back. He was in the great _hotel de ville_whose exterior he had stared at many times without presuming or daringto enter the broad portals. 

Then there came a recess while the mayor examined papers at his desk. The aldermen leaned back in their chairs with lighted cigars. 

"Etienne, " whispered the young man, deep resolve thrilling him, hiseyes blazing into the wondering gaze of the old man, "those men who sitbehind those desks can do something to save the children and the poorfolks in the tenements. But they must wake up, these men here must. Youand I must try to wake them up!"

Etienne's eyes opened wide. He did not in the least comprehend how hecould serve. 

"I know you will not desert a friend, Etienne. I know you'll standbehind me. I know you love the children. So be a brave man now!"

The next moment Etienne was so frightened that he feared he would dropwhere he stood, because the young man raised his voice so that it rangthrough the great hall and all eyes were turned that way. 

"Your honor the mayor, and gentlemen; I am a stranger here. But I humblyask permission to address you. "

"If you are a witness in the police matter you will be called on in yourturn after the recess, " stated the mayor. 

"I am not a witness in the police matter. I am here on other business. "

"There is no other business before this meeting. "

"But there should be, sir, for the business I have come on is a dreadfulmatter. It is a matter of life and death. "

A hush fell on those in the chamber, and the mayor and his aldermenleaned forward, staring apprehensively. They had been warned that therewere dangerous labor-agitators in the city. Many meetings had beenbroken up by the police at the request of Colonel Dodd, president ofthe Consolidated Water Company, and other employers had backed him. Thistall young man had startled them with his sudden outbreak. 

"It is a matter, gentlemen, which concerns every man, woman, and childin this city--vitally concerns them every hour of the day--every hourthey are awake. You say you have no other business now except thissilly police investigation. For God's sake, wake up and attend to realbusiness--save the people's lives. Here you are in session and here arethe people to listen. "

"State your complaint. Be very brief, " commanded the mayor. 

But Walker Farr, it was plain, possessed craft as well as courage; herealized that curiosity, properly tickled, will make men more patient inlistening. 

"First, I want to call a witness. I am not known to this city. But Ihave here a man whom many of you know, I'm sure, for he has stood out inplain view of a street where many pass, and has worked there for thirtyyears. It is Etienne Provancher. "

Several men laughed when Farr pushed the old man into view. There was amurmured chorus of "Pickaroon. "

"It's for the children--the poor folks--for the memory of our littlegirl, " hissed Farr in the old man's ear. "Will you go to your bedto-night--the night of the day we buried her--knowing that--you are acoward? These are only men. We must tell them so that they will know. Speak! Tell them!" He set his firm clutch around the trembling oldFrenchman's arm and held him out where all could see. 

"I do not know how to talk here--to so much man--to the lords of thecity, " stammered the miserable old man, licking his parched lips, scareduntil all was black before his eyes. 

The hush was profound. Men curved their palms at their ears, wonderingwhat old Pickaroon could have to say in City Hall. 

"Remember what we have left up there--in the cemetery--the poor childrenin their graves, " muttered Farr, again bending close to Etienne's ear. 

Then, thus reminded, thus spurred, all his Gallic emotion bursting intoflame in him suddenly, the old man felt the desperate resolution thatoften animates the humble and ignorant in great emergencies. The littleones had been martyrs--why not he? That thought flashed through thetumult in his brain. 

"Yes, since you all hark for me to speak I will speak, " he declared. "Messieurs, I am a poor man. Not wise. It is very hard for me to talkto you. But I have been to-day up where the little children are bury--somany of them, with their playthings on the graves. I went to take thereanodder little child, poor baby girl. I leave her there with the odderones--so very lonesome all of them--their modders cannot sing them tosleep any more. "

"This is irregular, " cried the mayor. "What do you want?"

"Nottings for maself, " cried Etienne, passionately shrill in his tonenow. "But I have to ask you, masters of this city, how much longer shallyou send poison down the water-pipes to the poor folks and thechildren in the tenement blocks? It is poison that has kill our littleRosemarie--and all her life ahead! The doctor say so--and he say Icannot understand about the rich man, why he do it. But I understandthat the childs are dying. I say you shall not sent that water--if youdo send it I will bring here the fadders who have lost their babies andthe modders of the babies. " His lips curled back in his excitementand froth flecked his mouth. "Sacred name of God! We shall tear thatpoison-factory up from the ground with our bare hands!"

"Officer, put that man out of the room, " ordered the mayor. 

"Won't you listen to us?" shouted Farr. "You are the chief magistrate ofthis city. You and these aldermen are the guardians of the people. Areyou going to sit there in those cushioned chairs and let a crowd of richassassins murder the poor people?"

Men hissed that speech. 

The mayor rapped his gavel furiously. 

"This is no matter to be brought up here at this time. You're slanderinghonorable men, sir! We have other business. "

"Can there be any other business as important as this?"

"Put both of these men out, officer. "

"Are you and these aldermen owned by the water syndicate, as report saysyou are?" cried Farr. "Look here, you men, men in this room and at thedoor! This is your City Hall--these aldermen are elected by your votes. Aren't you going to demand that the people be heard in this matter?Don't you know that typhoid fever is killing off the children in thiscity--and that poison water is the cause of it?"

"It's rotten stuff to drink--we all know that, " cried a voice. "Butthere'll have to be a change in politics in this state before they'llgive us anything else. "

Two policemen elbowed their rough way to Farr and Etienne. 

"The big chap is right--it's about time to have this water questionopened up, Mr. Mayor, " called another voice. 

"Open it up in a legal and proper way, then, " snapped the mayor. "Go tothe law. "

"That's it--go to the law--go to the law, " jeered another. "And we'llall be dead and the lawyers will have all our money before the thing isdecided. "

There were more hisses. 

But an outburst of indorsing voices indicated that many men in thatchamber understood more or less of the political management behind theConsolidated Water Company. 

"If a thing is wrong, change it. What better law do you need thanthat?" asked Farr, disregarding an officer's thumb that jerked imperiousgesture. 

"When you know a little more law you won't be ignoramus enough to comeinto a public hearing and try to break it up. You'd better go and studylaw, " said the indignant mayor. He pounded his gavel to indicate thatthe recess was over. 

"I'll take your advice, " replied Farr, towering over the policeman andvibrating his finger at his Honor. "If you hadn't found law so handyin your own case you wouldn't forget yourself in your excitement andrecommend it to others. If we've got to fight the devil we'd better usehis weapons. "

Men shouted approval all around him. 

"Clear the room, " ordered the mayor. "Everybody out!"

"Keep your hands off, " Farr advised the officer nearest him. "I'll gowithout any help. I have found out that I'm only wasting my time in thisplace. "

In the corridor men pressed around him. Some of them insisted on shakinghis hand. Others shouted commendation. Still others exhibited only frankcuriosity in the stalwart stranger. And others were clamorously hostile. 

"By gad! If you wanted to start something you took the right way to doit, " affirmed one of the throng. 

"You showed good courage, " declared an elderly man with an earnest face. "Some of the rest of us have tried to do something in the past. Butthose who didn't have much power were either kept out or kicked outof any office in city government or the legislature--and those who didamount to something were gobbled up by the machine. The machine can pay. Working for the people isn't very profitable. So I'm afraid you won'tget very far. "

"You needn't worry about that chap not getting along all right, "remarked one of the group--but his indorsement was ironical. "He's aconstruction boss for the Consolidated, and he went into that hearingto start some kind of a back-fire. Shrewd operators--the Consolidatedfolks. "

The men about Farr pulled away from him and there was considerablemalicious laughter in the crowd. 

"So we see the game, even if we don't catch on to the meaning of it justnow, " said the observant one. 

Farr squared his shoulders. They stared at him with fresh interest anda bit of additional respect. They saw in him something more than amere popular agitator--a disturber of a municipal hearing; he must bea trusted agent of the great political machine, executing a secretmission. 

"You're right--I have been working for the Consolidated, " he admitted intones that all could hear. 

"Move on! Get outdoors! Clear this corridor--all of you, " shouted acaptain of police who had come hurrying up from down-stairs and hadtaken command of the situation. 

The crowd began to surge on, following Farr. 

"I went to work digging in their trenches because I struck this town onmy uppers and needed the money--needed it quick. I was promoted to be aboss. But I want to tell you now, gentlemen, that I do not work for theConsolidated. "

"I reckon you're right, " said somebody. "I just overheard a mantelephoning to the superintendent about you--and if I'm any judge of aconversation you are _not_ working for the Consolidated. Not any more!"

"I'm sorry you're going to leave the city, " lamented the elderly man. "We need chaps like you. "

"I'm not going to leave the city. "

"You might just as well, " counseled one of the bystanders, "after whatyou said in that hearing. If you get a job in this city after thisyou'll be a good one!"

When they were outside City Hall, Farr waited for a moment on the steps. Etienne, still trembling after that most terrible experience of hisplacid life, pressed close at the young man's side. 

"Will all you gentlemen please take a good look at me so thatyou'll know me when you see me again?" invited the ex-boss for theConsolidated. 

They stared at him. His face was well lighted by the arc-light under thearch of the door. 

"I am not a labor-leader, nor a walking delegate, nor a politician, noran anarchist. You men go home and unscrew the faucets in your kitchens, take a good sniff, and pull the slime out of the valve. Then rememberthat the mayor and aldermen of this city wouldn't listen to me to-nightin the Hall that the tax-payer's money built. Also remember that alittle later they will listen to me. Gentlemen, my name is Walker Farr. I'm going to stay here in this city. Good night. "

XII

AT THE FOOT OF THE THRONE

As usual at nine-thirty in the afternoon, the big tower clock on theFirst National Bank building in the city of Marion pointed the finger ofits minute-hand straight downward. 

As usual, at this hour, as he had done for many years, Colonel SymondsDodd eased himself down from the equipage that brought him to hisoffice. This day the vehicle was his limousine car. 

In view of the fact that Colonel Dodd owned the First National block thebig clock seemed to point its finger at him with the bland pride of aflunky in a master. It seemed to say, "Behold! The great man is here!"

Colonel Dodd was never embarrassed when fingers were pointed at himwherever he went. If a man is lord of finance and politics in his statehe expects to be pointed out. 

When he stepped from his car he carried in his arms, with greattenderness, a long parcel which was carefully wrapped in tissue-paper. He always carried a similar parcel when he came to his office. Eachmorning the gardener of the Dodd estate laid choice flowers on the seatof that vehicle which had been chosen to convey the master to the city. 

Colonel Dodd coddled the long parcel with the care a nurse would havebestowed on an infant--but he kicked his fat leg clumsily at an urchinwho got in his way on the sidewalk. A college professor of Marionhappened to be passing at the moment and saw the act and knew what thecolonel was carrying in his arms. The professor made a mental note offresh material for his lecture on "The Psychological Phenomena of theBizarre in the Emotions. " The professor had just met a woman wheeling acat out in a baby-carriage. 

The doctor had advised exercise for the colonel--a small amount. Thecolonel toilsomely climbed the one flight of stairs to his office. Thatwas his daily quota of exercise. 

A little man with a beak of a nose was waiting in the corridor andhastened to unlock a door marked "Private, " and the colonel went in, and the little man locked the door and tiptoed down the corridor to thegeneral offices. 

Before he removed his hat Colonel Dodd carefully stripped thetissue-paper from the damp flowers. There were two huge bouquets. Heset these into vases of ornate bronze, one on each end of his desk. Hepatted and stroked the flowers until they appeared to best advantage. Hestood back and bestowed affectionate regard on them. No human being hadever reported the receipt of such a look from Colonel Symonds Dodd. Itwas rather astonishing to find softness in him in respect to flowers. Heseemed as hard as a block of wood. He had a squat, square body and hislegs seemed to be set on the corners of that body. His square face wassmooth except for a wisp of whisker, minute as a water-color brush, jutting from under his pendulous lower lip. 

He hung up his hat and stood for a moment before a massive mirror. Thereport in Marion was that he stood before that mirror and made up hisexpression to suit the character of a day's business. 

Then he sat down at his desk and stuck a pudgy finger on one button of abattery of buttons. 

A girl entered with a promptitude which showed that she had been waitingfor the summons. 

He did not look up at her. His gaze was on one of the bouquets. 

She brought a portfolio and packets of letters all neatly docketed. 

His salutation was merely, "Miss Kilgour. " Colonel Dodd did not deal inmany "Good-mornings. " It was also reported in Marion and the state thathis stock of urbanity was so small he was compelled to expend it verythriftily. He certainly did not waste any of it on his office help. He might have afforded at least one glance at the girl, for she wasextremely pretty. Still another report in Marion was to the effect thathe had selected Kate Kilgour as his secretary as the final artistictouch to the beauty of his private office in order that he might have aperfect ensemble. She did seem, so far as his interest in her went, tobe only a part of that ensemble which he occasionally swept carelesslywith his gaze--he reserved all his intimate admiration for the bouquets. 

She laid his "Strictly Personal" letters on his fresh blotter. 

She sat down and began to read the business letters aloud, not waitingfor his orders to begin. It was her daily routine, business transactedas Colonel Dodd wished it to be transacted--crisply, promptly, directly. 

He dictated replies, usually laconic, even curt, as soon as she hadfinished each letter. His eyes were on the flowers as he talked. 

When the letters were finished she retired with her portfolio and hernotes, the thick carpet muffling the sound of her withdrawal. 

After he had slit the envelopes of his personal correspondence and hadread the contents the colonel pushed another button. The little man whohad been waiting in the corridor slipped edgewise in at the door. He wasthin and elderly and his knob of a head, set well down on his pinchedshoulders, had peering eyes on each side of that beak of a nose. Whenhe walked across the room his long arms were behind him under hiscoat-tails and held them extended, and he bore some resemblance to abird. In fact, one did not require much imagination to note resemblanceto a bird in Peter Briggs--many folks likened him to a woodpecker--forhe flitted to and fro in Colonel Dodd's anteroom, among those awaitingaudience, tapping here and rapping there with the metaphorical beak ofquestions, starting up the moths and grubs of business which men whocame and waited hid under the bark of their demeanor. 

"Seventeen, Colonel Dodd. Five for real business; twelve of them aresponges. "

"The five?"

"Chief Engineer Snell of the Consolidated, Dr. Dohl of the State Boardof Health, the three promoters of the Danburg Village Water system. "

"Send in Snell. "

Engineer Snell did not sit in the presence of his president, nor did thepresident ask him to sit. 

"Briggs tells me the Danburg men are here. "

"They're waiting out there, Colonel Dodd. "

"Quitting?"

"I don't think so--just yet. They look too mad. I gave 'em the harpoonin good shape, as is usual, but I didn't expect they'd run here so soon. Thought they would flop a little longer. "

"They got their poke from Stone & Adams yesterday afternoon, did they?"

"Yes, Colonel. My report to Stone & Adams showed that the Danburg planof levels is faulty, that their unions are not up to contract, thattheir station and pumps are inefficient for the demands. So Stone &Adams had to tell 'em that their bonds were turned down. "

"Do you know whether they have tried another banking-house yet?"

"I don't believe they have had time, Colonel. "

"But such fellows always do try. Their banging in here on me so quicklylooks a little irregular. In business, you know, Snell, if you tie a tincan to a dog and he runs and ki-yi's, that's perfectly natural and youcan sit back and wait for nature to take its course. If the dog doesn'trun, but sits down and gnaws the string in two--then look out for thedog. "

"I must admit they're coming here sudden after their jolt. They lookmad. But I figure they must have quit. The jolt was a hard one, forStone & Adams had been leading 'em on--according to orders. "

The colonel stared at a bouquet. 

"Have you got your other report--the side report--in shape for me to geta hasty idea? If they have come here with a proposition--want to quitand cover themselves, I need information right now. "

Engineer Snell laid papers on the desk. He proceeded to explain. 

"If you don't feel you have time to go over it--don't want to keep theDanburg crowd waiting--I can tell you that the plant is pretty nearlyall right. So much all right that you can afford to slip 'em a couple ofthousand apiece on top of what they have already spent. I don't supposeyou want 'em to holler too loud. I can tell you that Davis, Erskine, andOwen--those men out there--are cleaned out. They have put in alltheir ready money. They were depending on Stone & Adams for the firstinstalment from the bonds, so as to take up some thirty-day notes andpay bills due on material. "

Colonel Dodd meditated, pulling on his wisp of whisker. 

"It's one thing to encourage enterprise in this state--it's anotherthing to be everlastingly paying rake-offs to local promoters who graba franchise when we're not looking and then hold us up. I don't want tohurt the Danburg men. But my stockholders expect certain things of meand it's about time men in this state understand that we propose tocontrol the water question. Snell, you go and talk to those Danburg menlike a father to children. Send them in here smoothed down and we'll dothe right thing by them. "

He signaled for Briggs and told him to admit Dr. Dohl. 

The doctor, chairman of the State Board of Health, was a chubby man witha tow-colored, fan-shaped beard. He sat down and sprung his eye-glasseson his bulgy nose and drew out a package of manuscript. 

"Colonel, I have felt it my duty to write a special chapter on thetyphoid situation in this state for the report of the State Board ofHealth. "

"Very well, Doctor. " The colonel was curt and his tone admitted nothingof his sentiments. 

"DO you care to listen to it? It rather vitally concerns theConsolidated Water Company. "

"You don't blame us for all these typhoid cases, do you?"

"No, sir--not for all of them. "

"Why blame us for any of them? Our analyses show that we're giving cleanwater. How about dirty milkmen and the sanitary arrangements in thesetenement-houses and all such? It's the fashion to blame a corporationfor everything bad that happens in this world. "

"We have placed blame on milkmen where any blame is due, " stated Dr. Dohl. He tapped his manuscript. "But I have spent considerable of mydepartment's money in making a house-to-house canvass, tracing thesources. The man before me _guessed_. I have made _sure_! Colonel Dodd, the Consolidated water is pretty poisonous stuff these days. "

"What's the matter in this state all of a sudden?" snapped the colonel. "I am told that a lunatic almost broke up our city government meetingthe other night, shouting that the Consolidated is trying to poisonfolks. You're too level-headed a man to get into that class, Dr. Dohl. "

"I'll allow you to set me down in any class which seems fitting fromyour point of view, " replied the doctor, stiffly. "But if that lunatic, as you call him, got an angle-worm or a frog's leg out of his tap Idon't blame him for breaking up a meeting of the city government whichwill tolerate the water which is being pumped through the city mainsjust now. "

"We're working on the filtering-plant--it will be all right in a littlewhile. It got out of hand before we realized it, " said the colonel, nowa bit apologetic. 

"In this crisis your filter amounts to about that!" The doctor snapped apudgy finger into a plump palm. "The river-water in this state has beenpoisoned. You must go into the hills--to the lakes, Colonel Dodd. "

"You don't mean to say that you recommend that in your report, Doctor?"

"Absolutely--emphatically. "

"Without stopping to think of the millions it will cost my company tobuild over its plants?"

"It has come to a point where it isn't a question of money, Colonel. "

"We can't afford it. "

"Then let the cities and towns of the state buy in their water-plantsand do it. "

"Good Jefferson! Don't you know that every city and town in this statewhere we have a water-plant has already exceeded its debt limit of fivepercent?"

"Do I understand you as intimating, Colonel Dodd, that there is no helpfor this present condition of affairs?"

"Look here--I'm neither a Herod nor a Moloch, even if some of thecrack-brained agitators in this state will have it that way, " protestedthe magnate, with heat. "Are you going to print that report before youhave given us time to turn around?"

"With one hundred deaths a day from typhoid fever in this state, Colonel, that matter of time becomes mighty important. "

"Look here, Dohl, don't you remember that it was my indorsement thatgave you your job?"

"I do, Colonel Dodd. But I'm a physician, not a politician. "

"I see you're not, " retorted the colonel, dryly. "But you're a memberof our political party, and you know that the Consolidated and itsassociate interests are the backbone of that party. There are a lot ofsoreheads in this state, and we're having a devil of a time to hold 'emin line. Every savings-bank in this state, furthermore, holds bonds ofthe Consolidated. Do you want to start a panic? You've got to be carefulhow you touch the first brick standing in a row. Dohl, you leave thatreport with me. I'll go over it. I'll take the matter up with thedirectors. We'll move as fast as possible. "

The doctor hesitated, stroking the folds of his manuscript. 

"You're not doubting my word, are you?" demanded the colonel. 

"No, sir!" Even the physician's sense of duty did not embolden him topersist under this scowl of the man of might. 

The colonel took the document from Dr. Dohl's relaxing hands and shovedit into a pigeonhole of the big desk. 

"You must understand that pipe-lines to lakes cannot be laid in a minuteas a child strings straws, Doctor, " admonished the magnate. 

"Do you propose to lay lines to the lakes, Colonel? I need to throw alittle sop to my conscience if my report is delayed. "

"Everything right will be done in good time, Dr. Dohl. I will proceed asrapidly as possible, considering that the law, finance, and politicsare all concerned. As you are leaving, " he added, giving his visitor theblunt hint that the interview was over, "I must draw your attention tothe fact that if you bludgeon the Consolidated with a report like thisit may be a long time before we can move in the matter. You'll onlyscare the banks and set the cranks to yapping. Just remember that you'rea state officer and have a weighty responsibility to your party and tofinancial interests. "

Dr. Dohl went away. He sourly realized that he was only a cog in the bigmachine; that for a moment he had threatened to develop a rough edge andstart a squeak, but the big file had been used on him. It had been usedon many another of the State House cogs, as he well knew. Responsibilityas to his party! Safety and sanity in regard to financial interests! Heknew that these talismanic words had been used to control even thelords in national politics. He departed from the Presence, muttering hisrebellion, but fully conscious that a political Samson in modern daysmade but a sorry spectacle of himself when he started to pull down thepillars of the party temple. 

He continued to mutter when he walked through the anteroom. 

Most of the men who waited there had faces as lowering as the visagewhich Dr. Dohl displayed. 

The doctor had not lost all faith in his own fearlessness and rectitudeof motive, but he was obliged to acknowledge to himself that just thenhe was a rather weak champion. 

"However, I'd like to lay eyes on the sort of man who can unjoint thisdevilish combination of politics and law and finance, " he informedhimself, trying to justify his own retreat. 

His eyes, in passing, swept a stranger. 

The stranger was a tall young man with wavy hair and brown eyes. He satpatiently, nursing a broad-brimmed black hat on his knees. 

"I'd like to see that man!" repeated Dr. Dohl, mentally, sugar-coatinghis disgust at his own weakness. 

If mortal man were gifted with prescience Dr. Dohl would have stared outof countenance the tall young man who sat on a bench in the outer officeof the state's overlord and nursed a broad-brimmed hat upon his knees. 

XIII

THE CODE AND THE GAGE OF BATTLE

"I appreciate zeal in public affairs, " mused Colonel Dodd, gazing atthe door which Dr. Dohl had closed behind him. "But once there was aretriever dog who chased his master with a stick of dynamite that had asputtering fuse. "

He set his broad hands upon the arms of his chair, derricked himselfup, and went over to the mirror. He peered at himself and seemed torearrange his countenance, much as a woman would smooth the ruffledplumage of her hat. 

"We're not murderers, " he informed the composed visage which the mirrorheld forth to him. "But we haven't got to the point where we're lettinglunatics who break up city government meetings, or crank doctors, tellus how to spend a million or two of the money we've worked hard toaccumulate. There's getting to be too much of this telling business menin this country how to run their business. If we're peddling typhoidfever in spite of what our analyses tell us, then we'll go ahead, ofcourse, and clean up. " Colonel Dodd was willing to acknowledge that muchto himself, surveying his countenance in the mirror. "But we'll continueto run our own business, " he added. 

Then he sat down again in his chair and pushed a button. "Briggs, " hedirected, "send in those three men from Danburg. "

He whirled his swivel-chair and sat there at his desk, his rectangularfront squared to meet them. 

The three men who came in were of the rural businessmen type, andtheir faces were not amiable. Two of them halted in the middle of thesumptuous apartment and the third stepped a couple of paces ahead ofthem. He carried a huge roll of engineers' plans under his arm. 

"My name is Davis, as I suppose you know, Colonel Dodd, " he reported. 

"Have seats, gentlemen. "

"We are tired of sitting, " stated the spokesmen, with sour significance. 

"I understand, Mr. David. But mornings are very busy times for me. I wasattending to appointments made beforehand. You made no appointment, andI was not expecting you. "

There was silence, and the three men glowered on him. It was evidentthat settled animosity emboldened these country merchants even in thepresence of Colonel Symonds Dodd. 

"I was not expecting you, I say. "

The colonel's demeanor displayed a little uncertainty; he had ratherexpected suppliants. He knew what a nasty blow had been dealt these menthe day before. 

"Probably not, " assented Davis. "You expected that after Stone & Adamsyanked the gangplank out from under us yesterday we would put in atleast one day tearing around to other banking firms, trying to place ourbonds. "

"Why--why--Well, if Stone & Adams--You naturally wouldn't take theverdict of one banking-house on a matter of bonds, would you?"

"Look here, Colonel Dodd, we understand you--clear way down to theground--and we may as well save wear on our tongues. And first of allwe have come right here to save shoe-leather. We have come straight toheadquarters. Do you suppose we're going to gallop around this city tobankers after the word has gone out about us? Not much! We are here inthe captain's office, and you can't fool us about that. "

"I never heard such--" the colonel began to sputter. 

"I know you never did--and it's getting your goat, " asserted the bluntcountryman. "We've got a plain and pertinent question to put to you--doyou intend to ram us to the wall in our water deal?"

The head of the state's water trust simulated anger perfectly, even ifhe didn't feel it. And there was astonishment in his anger. 

"What have I to do with your dealings with bankers?" he demanded. "Probably your plant isn't up to pitch. "

"That talk doesn't go with us, not for a minute, Colonel Dodd, " shoutedthe undaunted Davis. "You're talking to business men, not to children. We offered to leave the matter of our plan to any three engineers inthis state. Why is it that Stone & Adams refuse to take the word ofanybody except your man, Snell?"

"They probably want the word of the best consulting-engineer in thestate. "

"But he's your man. "

"He is our man because he is the best. We hire him for our work. But wedo not control his opinions when he is consulted by others. Oh no! And Iwant to tell you, my men, that I refuse to listen to any more such talkfrom you. "

"Then call in one of your political policemen and have us put out, "invited the unterrified Davis. 

"Build your plant right and your bonds will sell. Our bonds sell whenMr. Snell reports on our plants. "

"We'll save our strength in the matter of building plants and runningaround trying to place bonds with brokers who have been tipped off bythe money trust of this state. We propose to get it straight from youfirst. You can't fool us for one minute, I repeat! We'll have our lastwiggle right here. Will you take your hands off our affairs?"

"I haven't put my hands _on_ your affairs, " shouted Colonel Dodd, furious at being baited in this amazing manner. Never before had anyvisitor dared to raise his voice in that office. "You're crazy. "

"You're right--we are--pretty nearly so. Myself and these two neighborsof mine have tied up every dollar we can rake and scrape to build awater-plant for our little village and give our folks clean water from alake, not the rotten poison you would pump out of our millstream forus. We have tried to do this for our town and make an honest dollar forourselves. Now you have got us lashed to the mast, financially, soyou think, and you propose to step in and gobble our franchise. That'senough to make men crazy. "

"Get out of my office!"

"You grabbed the franchise and common stock of Westham that way, "declared Davis. "You scooped in Durham and Newry and a lot of others. But I'm here to warn you, Colonel Dodd. Danburg is going to choke you ifyou try to swallow it. We are only countrymen, and we know it. You havealways done all the bossing and threatening in this state up to now. ButI tell you, Colonel Dodd, there comes a time when the rabbit will spitin the bulldog's eye. If we three go out of this room in the same spiritin which we came into it something will drop in this state. We shallhave a story to tell. "

Colonel Dodd swung his chair around and faced his desk. 

"Gentlemen, let's not get excited, " he appealed. Ostensibly he reachedfor a pencil. He also pushed a button he had not touched before thatday. Then he came around slowly on the swivel of his chair. "You havementioned certain towns, Davis. Those towns have water systems that area part of the Consolidated, to be sure. But the men who promoted thoseplants and were unable to complete them came to us and begged us to stepin and take the burden off their hands. " While Colonel Dodd talked hekept glancing, but in an extremely unobtrusive manner, at a huge andmagnificent Japanese screen that occupied one corner of his office. "It is easy enough to start ventures in this world, Mr. Davis. Aninexperienced man can do that. But it most often takes experience and alot of money to install a successful water plant. "

"We want to get down to cases, Colonel Dodd, " insisted the spokesman. "We haven't come here without posting ourselves. We know how you havetalked to the others. But you can't bluff us. You propose to steal ourplant, such of it as we have been able to build to date. One word fromyou to the money gang takes the hoodoo off us. Now talk business! Do youpropose to pot us like you have the rest?"

The heart of the big rose in the center of the screen flashed once witha glow that was imperceptible unless one had been gazing at it, watchingfor a signal. Colonel Dodd understood that Miss Kate Kilgour had enteredthrough a low door and was behind the screen, ready with note-bookand pencil. He leaned back in his deep chair and interlocked his pudgyfingers across his paunch. 

"I assure you I have not the least interest in your projects as to theDanburg water system, Mr. Davis, Mr. Erskine, Mr. Owen. " He dwelt on thenames. "The Consolidated has plenty of its own business to attend to. "

"But I say you are trying to run _our_ business, too--no, ruin it!"

"Do you realize, Mr. Davis, that you are accusing me of criminalconspiracy--making a statement that might go hard with you in a court oflaw? You have accused me of trying to discredit you with banking-houses. Can you produce any proof except your foolish and unjust suspicions?You have been made angry by a refusal to handle your bonds. I don't sellbonds. I build and operate water systems. "

"The same old game, " sneered Davis. "Your water syndicate, the railroadsof this state, the banks, the politics--they're all snarled up togetherlike snakes in winter quarters. I say, if you pass the word our bondswill be taken. If you don't do it, I'm going to trot out of this officeand expose your highway-robber system. "

"In one breath you threaten me because you say I'm interfering inyour affairs. In the next breath you threaten me because I refuse tointerfere. You are making dangerous talk, Davis. I may call the courtsto pass on that threat. There is only one proposition I can make toyou--and that's strictly in the line of my business. If you are tied upfinancially--are at the end of your resources and must have help--I'llgive you my aid in getting the Consolidated to take over the Danburgplant at a fair valuation. "

"Is that the best word you've got for us?"

"I have made you an honorable business proposition. "

"That your final talk?"

"Absolutely. "

Davis found words inadequate for his boiling emotions just then. Headvanced on Dodd, who shrank back into his chair. Davis whipped thelong roll of plans out from under his arm, held the roll by one end, andswung it like a bat-stick. But he did not strike at Dodd, as the magnateseemed to apprehend. 

He swung over the colonels' head and swept the top of the desk cleanof everything; vases, bouquets, _objets d'art_, all went rolling andsmashing to the floor. 

Colonel Dodd ducked low and held his square head in his hands as ifhe feared that the next assault would be on that. But Davis led hisassociates out of the room through the door which Briggs had flung open, summoned by the crash in his master's holy of holies. 

For the first time, perhaps, in the history of that private office thedoor leading into the anteroom was left open and unguarded. Briggs raninto the room, his coat-tails streaming, his inquisitive beak stretchedforward. On his heels followed the tall young man who had been waitingin the anteroom. It was Walker Farr, who closed the door behind him, shutting out the curious anteroom clients who flocked and peered. 

When the colonel lifted his head he found himself looking squarely intothe eyes of this tall young man whom he in no way remembered. 

Briggs went down on his hands and knees and began to pick up the debris. 

One of the bouquets had rolled to the colonel's feet, and he stoopedwith some difficulty, recovered it, and laid it across his knees. Hegazed past Farr with a frown--with a significant, dismissing jerk ofhis head. The young man turned in time to see the capitalist's handsomesecretary. The amazing riot in the sanctuary of her employer had broughther from behind the screen. Uncertainty and alarm were in her eyesand excitement had flushed her cheeks. Against the background of thegorgeous screen she seemed a veritable apparition of loveliness, andwhile Farr stared, frankly admiring her, recognizing her, exchangingthat startled recognition with her, she disappeared. 

"How do you dare to come into my private office in this fashion?"

"I have waited in that anteroom every day for ten days, trying to get anaudience. The door was open just now and I came in. "

"It's your own fault if you haven't seen me. I see men who have businesswith me and who send in an explanation of that business. "

"So I have been told by that man, " stated Farr, pointing to Briggs, whowas groping about on the carpet. "But my business with you couldn't bediscussed through a third party. "

"Now that you're in here, what is that business?"

"I'll tell you first what it is _not_, so that there won't be anymisunderstanding in your mind about me. I am not here to borrow money, beg money, ask for work, ask for a personal favor of any kind, solicit apolitical job, nor have I anything to sell to you or to give to you. So, you see, my business is different. "

With a quick motion he brought out a parcel which he had held concealedin the broad-brimmed hat. 

Briggs straightened up on his knees and remained thus, seeminglyparalyzed, staring at the parcel. 

The capitalist sank back in his chair, his face growing greenish white. 

"Don't you throw that bomb!" he gasped. In his panic he was not able todeduce any other explanation for the presence of this stranger whohad so strenuously disclaimed all reasonable motives for his visit. Hequailed before this man who seemed to be a dangerous crank--for Farr'sattire was out of the ordinary and his eyes were flashing and his poisewas that of a man sure of himself. 

"What do you think I have here in this package?"

"Dynamite!" mumbled the magnate. 

"It's worse. "

Colonel Dodd rolled his head to and fro on the back of his chair, shutting his eyes in vain attempt to find somebody to whom to appealfor help. He started a furtive hand in the direction of the battery ofbuttons. 

"Keep your hands in your lap, " commanded Farr. "I say that what I havehere in this package is worse than dynamite. " He tore the paper anddisclosed a half-dozen faucets that were still dripping with slime. "Youknow now what I mean, Colonel Dodd. This is the stuff your water companyis pumping through the pipes in this state. "

The president of the Consolidated straightened in his chair, but he hadbeen thoroughly frightened. 

While Farr talked on the colonel seemed to be gatheringhimself--recovering his voice. 

"It's a mighty bold act for me to come in here like this, ColonelDodd. I understand it. I'm a poor man and a stranger in this city. Justconsider me a voice--call me Balaam's ass if you want to. But I've comeup from the tenement-house districts where the children are dying. "

"What do you want?" The magnate discharged the question explosively. 

"Pure water in the city mains. "

"Whom do you represent?"

Farr hesitated. Colonel Dodd scented possible political strategy in thisvisit, and was controlling his ire in order to probe the matter. 

"Come, my man. Out with it! Who commissioned you to come here?"

"I'll not claim that I have any powers delegated to me, sir. "

"How did you dare to force your way in here?"

"Considering what kind of a man I was a few weeks ago, I'm having prettyhard work to explain to myself what I'm doing, sir. "

The colonel knotted bushy brows. This person seemed to be playing withhim. "Who told you to come here?"

"The soul of a little girl who was named Rosemarie. "

Colonel Dodd came out of his chair, thoroughly angry--and yet herepressed his anger. This person, more than ever, seemed to him to be acrank with vagaries. 

Farr put up a protesting palm. His tones trembled, and into them he putall the appeal a human voice can compass. 

"I know I astonish you, Colonel, " he added. "I astonish myself. I'm notmuch on self-analysis. I don't know just what has come over me the lastfew weeks. But they do say the Deity picks out queer instruments when Hewants things done. Man to man, now, forgetting you're a mighty man andI'm a small one, won't you say you'll give the people of this state purewater instead of poison?"

"You don't think you can stroll in here and coax me to build over thewhole Consolidated system, do you?"

"That isn't the idea at all, sir. Treat me simply as a voice--a jogof your conscience--a reminder. I'll go away and you'll never see meagain. "

"If you think the cranks in this state can influence me in the leastitem about running my own business you're the worst lunatic outside thestate asylum, " declared the colonel, with passion. 

"You mean that what I have asked on behalf of women and children hasn'thad any effect on you?"

"Not the slightest. Get out!" In his present mood Colonel Dodd would notadmit to this interloper that he planned reforms, and in that moment heunwittingly created his Frankenstein's monster. 

Farr retreated a couple of steps and bowed. "Colonel Dodd, in my part ofthe West we fellows had a little code: help a woman, always, everywhere;tote a tired child in our arms; and, in the case of a man who announcedhimself an enemy, give him fair notice when it came time to pull guns. Better get your weapon loose on your hip. "

He bowed again and went out. 

Briggs rose from his knees and his master snapped an angry stare fromthe door that the young man had closed softly behind himself. 

"What kind of a resort is my office getting to be? Do you know who thatdevilish fool is, Briggs?"

"No, sir. He has been hanging around here, that's all I know. I kept athim. " He made a little dab of his woodpecker beak. "But I couldn't findout anything from him. "

"Well find out from somebody else, then. And get judge Warren on the'phone for me. "

When the bell rang and the colonel heard the voice of the Consolidated'scorporation counsel greeting him on the wire he ordered the judge tocome over at once. 

"Hell has just burned through here in three small patches, " statedthe colonel, grimly. "The sooner we turn on the Consolidated hose, thebetter. "

In the early dusk of a summer evening Mr. Peter Briggs stood at the edgeof the sidewalk of one of the squalid avenues of the district of thetenement-houses of Marion. His hands were behind him, propping out hiscoat-tails. He kept peering at the gloomy stairway of a house near athand. Take the gloom, his attitude, and his sooty garb, and he gave avery picturesque impression of a raven doing sentinel duty. 

At last a tall young man came down the stairs which Mr. Briggs waswatching and strolled off leisurely up the avenue, stopping here andthere to chat, nodding to this man, flourishing a hand salute to thatman. The young man apparently had nothing whatever on his mind except toenjoy a stroll in the summer evening. 

Mr. Briggs watched him out of sight without moving from his tracks. Then he withdrew both hands from under his coat-tails. In one hand wasa note-book, in the other hand was a pencil. Mr. Briggs made an entry, closed the book with decision, and snapped an elastic band around thecovers. Then he made off toward his home. He lived up-town in a sectionwhere there were fewer smells and better scenery. He determined thatthis should be his last tour of surveillance. He had found his tripsinto the nooks and crannies of the Eleventh Ward to be very distastefulemployment for a man who had served Colonel Dodd for so many years inthe sumptuous surroundings of that office in the First National block. 

He asked himself what would be the use of hunting for any moreinformation regarding such an inconsequential individual as one WalkerFarr? He wondered why this crank had impressed Colonel Symonds Doddsufficiently to stir up all this trouble for himself, Peter Briggs. Thefellow had come from somewhere--nobody in Marion seemed to know. Hehad been discharged from the employment of the Consolidated. Now he wasgoing about, warning all the people to boil the city water they drewfrom the faucets. He seemed to be a crank on the water subject, so PeterBrigg's note-book recorded. 

The book also recorded that this queer Walker Farr strolled aboutthe streets in the poorer quarters, "currying favor": so Peter Briggsexpressed the young man's evening activities in the note-book. Thatseemed to be all there was to it. At any rate, Peter Briggs decided thathe had finished his quest. 

Thereupon he had snapped the elastic band with vigor and made up hismind to tell Colonel Dodd the next morning that chasing that worthlessfellow around or thinking that such a fellow could do anything tointerfere with Colonel Dodd was poppycock. Peter Briggs hoped he woulddare to call it "poppycock" in the presence of his master--for he wasthoroughly sick of being a sleuth in the ill-smelling Eleventh Ward. 

He did dare to call it poppycock. And Colonel Dodd shruggedhis shoulders and forgot one Walker Farr. The fellow seemedinconsiderable--and Colonel Dodd found other matters very pressing. 

For one thing, those three men from Danburg had brought suit againstboth Stone & Adams and the Consolidated Water Company and had engagedas counsel no less a personage than the Honorable Archer Converse, thestate's most eminent corporation lawyer, a man of such high ideals andsuch scrupulous conception of legal responsibility that he had neverbeen willing to accept a retainer from the great System which dominatedstate affairs. Colonel Symonds Dodd feared the Honorable ArcherConverse. It was hinted that the Danburg case would involve charges ofconspiracy with intent to restrain independents, and would be used toshow up what the opponents of the Consolidated insisted was generaliniquity in finance and politics. 

Colonel Dodd outwardly was not intimidated. He sent no flag of truce. He decided to intrench and fight. He cursed when he remembered theinterview with the Danburg triumvirate. 

"Under ordinary circumstances I would buy them off in the usual way, " heinformed Judge Warren. "But that damnation lunatic raved at me with allthe insults he could think of--then he up with his dirty bunch of plansand knocked my flowers on to the floor--yes, sir, that was what the madbull did--he knocked my flowers on to the floor!"

And Colonel Dodd emphasized that as the crime unforgivable. 

XIV

THE MATTER OF DOING WHAT ONE CAN

It was from Citizen Drew that Walker Farr heard the story of CaptainAndrew Kilgour. 

Citizen Drew was the elderly man with the earnest face who had beenfirst to commend Farr that evening at City Hall when he and old Etiennehad made their pathetically useless foray against bulwarked privilege. 

Folks in Marion who knew Citizen Drew had forgotten his given name. In his propaganda of protest he called himself "Citizen. " He builtcarriage-tops in a little shop where there were drawers stuffed withpolitical and economic literature, and he read and pondered during hisspare hours. 

Farr sought out Citizen Drew and sat at his feet, with open ears. 

For Citizen Drew knew the political history of his state, the menconcerned, their characters, their aims, their weaknesses, theirvirtues, their faults--especially did he understand their faults--theiraffiliations with the Machine, their attitude toward the weak; he hadfollowed their trails as the humble hound follows big game. 

Therefore, Farr, a stranger in that land, seeking knowledge with whichto arm his resolve, went and sat with Citizen Drew and learned manythings. 

Sometimes loquacity carried Citizen Drew a bit afield from the highwayof politics, and when he touched on the case of Captain Andrew KilgourFarr's heart thumped and his eyes glistened. For Drew prefaced the bitof a story with this:

"I never knew Symonds Dodd to do anything toward squaring a wrong hehad committed except when he gave Kate Kilgour a fine position in hisoffice. And there are those who say that he was only showing more of hisselfishness when he hired her; he wanted the prettiest girl in the cityto match his office furnishings. "

"I have seen her, " said Farr, trying to be matter-of-fact. "I--I sort ofwondered!"

"Her father was a friend of mine. He was a good man. And theConsolidated money couldn't buy him. His people were Kilgowers inScotland and he was a man not given to much talk, but he was willing tolet me run on, nodding his head now and then while he smoked. He wasan honest man and the best engineer in the state, and he kept his owncounsel in all things. And he showed me the Kilgower coat of arms--andhe didn't show that to many. He was no boaster. He was proud of hispeople, but he used to say that it made but little difference who theancestors were unless the descendants copied the virtues and tried toimprove over the faults. There was a Kilgower who went down acrossthe border and gave himself as a hostage so that the clan might gaintime--and he knew that he would be hung--and he was. But he saved hispeople. And I wish you would remember that, Mr. Farr, for it explains abit the state of mind of Andrew Kilgour. 

"He wouldn't sell himself for the gang's dirty work--he made honestreports. So they did for him, Mr. Farr. And he couldn't afford to havethem do for him, because his wife was vain and a spendthrift and he lether waste and spend because he was a good and simple man when it came tothe matter of a woman's domination over him. That's the curse on strongmen--they are tender when it comes to a woman. She wasn't worthy of him, his wife. It's the daughter who has his honesty. I think if she knew whohad done for her father she would not stay in Symonds Dodd's office. Butthe gang does for a man most often without leaving the trail open whenthey run away and hide. 

"He would come here and sit with me and smoke and was very silent. Iknew there were debts and I knew well enough that the woman wanted himto sell himself. 

"He raked and scraped money--he sold everything of his own, hisinstruments and all. He took out every cent of insurance that moneywould buy. Then he put prussic acid in a capsule--a shell of salol, I believe they said it was--so that the work of the poison would bedelayed, and he swallowed the capsule on the street and went into anoffice and sat and chatted with friends and joked and laughed much morethan was his habit till at last his eyes closed and his face grewwhite and he fell out of his chair upon the floor stone-dead, and neveruttered a groan. 

"It was brave work. They called it heart disease, but it's not easyto fool insurance people. They took him out of his grave and provedsuicide--and they did not pay a dollar of insurance to his family. Theywere not obliged to. The policies were new and the suicide clause letthe companies out. So he left only debts instead of twenty-five thousanddollars. However, I say it was brave work. "

"It would have been braver to stay and face it, " blurted Farr. 

"But Andrew Kilgour had a code of his own--a state of mind some of uscould not understand--the example of an ancestor. We are not all alike. Many cannot stay and face trouble. You might be able to do it--you seemto have a level head!"

Farr grew pale, his hands trembled on the arms of his chair, and thenhe got up and marched across the little shop to the window, turning hisback on Citizen Drew. 

"You told them in City Hall that you would stay here and fight, " pursuedCitizen Drew. "That is brave work. "

"I'll be much obliged to you, Citizen Drew, if you'll leave me out ofyour catalogue of heroes. And I take back what I said about his facingit. I hadn't any right to make any such comment. "

"So the girl went to work in Symonds Dodd's office and his nephew iscourting her. I hope he doesn't get Andrew Kilgour's daughter. He neverwent after any other girl honestly. I have looked into this case becauseI was Andrew's friend. Young Dodd wants to marry her and the mother ishelping him. But I know that rapscallion, Mr. Farr. I can't believe thatKate Kilgour will be caught by him. "

"He has a fine position, they tell me, " said Farr, still gazing out ofthe window. 

"The Machine made old Peleg Johnstone state treasurer, and he doesn'tknow bonds from biscuit. Colonel Dodd put in his nephew as chief clerk, and old Peleg is a figure-head, smoking his pipe in the back office andresting his wool-tipped boots on his desk. Oh, I know the bunch of 'em, sir. I can tell you the inside of things. Young Dodd takes orders fromhis uncle and runs the treasury. All the state's money is in the Doddbanks on the checking-account basis--and the gang is letting it out atsix percent. Tidy little profit! And nobody to say a word, even to askhow Richard Dodd finds so much money to spend. But that's the principalwonder in the world, Mr. Farr--how your neighbor gets his money to blow. Jones, Smith, Brown, and Robinson--they stand and look at one anotherand ask the same question. And folks in the Eleventh Ward are evenasking me how you get your living, " added Citizen Drew, smoothing hiscuriosity with a bit of jocoseness. 

"I have been working in this city--doing good, hard work, " stated Farr, moving toward the door. 

"Yes, but you have been discharged. "

"I understand how it is you know so much stuff to tell me, " returned theyoung man, smiling. "Well, Citizen Drew, I'm going to take the first jobthat offers itself. Tell 'em that!"

"I'm glad of it, " said Citizen Drew, with blunt heartiness. "If you haveset out to do anything among the plain folks you've got to be at work inthe open, earning honest wages, or they'll suspect you. They have beenfooled too often by fakes and loafers. But since you advertised yourselfin City Hall you may find jobs a little hard to land. It's pretty muchof an air-tight proposition, Consolidated influence. "

"I have somebody looking after my interests in that line, Citizen Drew. I'm not worrying. " He opened the door. "In fact, there are two mightyhelpful chaps whom I'm going to associate with more or less from nowon. "

"Bring 'em with you and let me know 'em. Can't have too many in a goodcause. "

"I'll bring them--but they are pretty hard to understand--rather slowgetting acquainted--lots of folks have no use for them, " said Farr, starting down-stairs. 

"What are their names?" asked the inquisitive citizen, eager for moreadditions to his general stock of information. 

"I'll tell you later. "

But Farr named them to himself when he was on the street. 

"Chance and Humility--I hope you are going to stick by me from now on, "he muttered. "Chance, you have led me into a queer position and into astrange state of mind. Humility, you are helping me to understand. Now, Chance, what have you to say to me?"

It was more of the fantastic whimsy with which Walker Farr played. 

His eyes, searching the street after this challenge to Chance, beheld anice-wagon rumbling past. It was a neat-looking cart, painted white, andbore the advertisement, "Crystal Pure Independent Ice Company. "

Another wagon, painted dirty yellow, followed. It was a Consolidatedice-cart; Farr knew those carts with their loads of river-ice. 

The spectacle of something which promised rivalry to that yellow cartpiqued his interest. His mood welcomed the first adventure which Chancepresented. He had found Chance playing peculiar pranks with his affairsin the days just past. 

He hurried in pursuit of the white cart and accosted the driver. 

"Where can I find the manager of this company?"

"He's up at Coosett Lake this afternoon, sir. " The man was respectful. The stranger's garb and demeanor impressed him. "The trolley will takeyou pretty near it. Take a car in the square--a Halcyon Park car. "

Without canvassing the matter further Farr took the car. 

He decided that it was a most comforting sensation, this abandoning hisproblems to Chance! It saved so much fuss and worry. 

He found the little lake at the limits of the park area--a hollow amongthe hills. 

Men were busy at the foot of the slope over whose crest he marched. Hesaw several rough buildings at the edge of the lake, plainly makeshiftice-houses. One was a new structure and the other two were old barnswhich had been "darned" here and there with new material, and theiryawed sides were propped with joists. Men were loading ice upon carts;the translucent cubes flashed in the rays of the sun. 

During the process of his little crusade he had become acquainted withthe conditions in the city of Marion and he knew that the Consolidatedfolks controlled the ice-supply as well as the water. They held an irongrip by legislative charter on all the riparian rights along the riverand allowed no one else to operate an ice-field. He had seen and sniffedthe unwholesome slime which a melted cake of Consolidated ice deposited. 

When he found opportunity he accosted a man in corduroy. He was abig chap, bronzed by the sun, and Farr singled him out as the managerbecause he had been directing the other workers while he toiled himself. 

"It's a little business of my own, " said the man. "I have started inindependent. "

"I had thought the Consolidated had control of everything. "

"They would control everything if they could. They wouldn't let me runmy carts through the city streets if they knew how to stop me. I workedfor them fifteen years, lugging their dirty ice on my back, up stairsand down, and I know that crowd. I don't understand much of anything butthe ice business, mister, whoever you are. But I wouldn't lug any moreof that ice into homes. I put my savings in here, every cent, hiredthese barns and a shore privilege, and I'm selling clean ice. But I'mgoing to lose every blamed cent! It's no use. I can't buck 'em. Excuseme! It's no interest to you. My mouth runs away with me when I gettalking about that gang. "

He went back to the barn to help his men shift a runway. 

Farr waited patiently until he was able to speak to the busy man again. 

"I don't mean to bother you, sir, " he said, humbly. "But I am interestedin this proposition of yours. I have worked for the Consolidated, myself. I was discharged because I stood up and damned their waterbefore the mayor and aldermen. "

"Say, I heard something about that!" cried the iceman, displaying promptinterest and admiration. "The boys said it was good work. "

"I mention it merely to put myself right with you. "

"Then say on ahead, my friend!"

"Do you tell me you can't make a go of this?"

"I'm afraid I can't. It's a half-mile haul for me to the nearest siding. The railroad folks don't give me any better rate than they're obligedto--and you know why that is! And I have to have another set of cartsfor the city delivery. And no capital to work with! I'm up against acrowd that has all the money, plenty of equipment, and has its supplyright at the back door of the city--and it belongs at the back door! Butyou know what the buying public is! The only reason why I have lasted isbecause my old customers gave me their business and are sticking prettywell. "

"My friend, " declared Farr, putting his hand on the shoulder bent andridged by many years of ice-toting, "lots of men who are making moneyas missionaries are not doing half the good in the world you're doing. You're certainly showing some of the citizens of Marion the differencebetween good ice and frozen gobs of pestilence. "

"A fellow needs grit, grace, gumption, and a lot of missionary spirit tofight what I'm fighting, mister. I ain't going to say anything abouta lot of obstacles the syndicate has put in my way. Those were to beexpected in the way of regular business competition. But you can see Ihave only got limited resources here, and I can't afford a big outfitin the city. Sometimes I have run short, the best I could do--and it'smighty little sleep I have. And the Consolidated drivers have refusedto sell ice to anybody who has been buying of me even when mothers havepleaded so as to keep milk for sick babies from souring. That's ordersfrom headquarters! You wouldn't think that the same big chaps who bossthe governor of the state would get down to such nubbins as that, eh?But they do--that's their system. They used to tell me that it's theonly way a big syndicate can keep its grip--never leave a bar down! Yes, sir, they have blacklisted my customers until they'll be good and givethe Consolidated a yearly contract. More than that, they pass word alongthat I'll be out of business by another season and that folks who havebought of me this year will be given the go-by next! Can you beat it?"

"Are you going to see out to them?"

"No, " said the iceman, grimly. "There are two good reasons: I won't selland they won't buy. They will kill me out so that nobody else will beencouraged to try the scheme again. "

"I want a job, " stated Farr, curtly. "I want to work for you. Give me aplace on one of your carts in the city. "

"Say, look here, " blurted the other man, frankly astonished, "you lookmore like a gent than an iceman!"

"No matter what I look like. The main question is, can I lug ice? Feelof my muscle!"

"It may be a poor outlook for your pay--working for me, " warned theproprietor. "And if you ever want another job in Marion you may beblacklisted. I don't want to get you into a scrape. "

"I can't be in any worse scrape than the one I am in now. Haven't I justtold you who I am?"

"Oh, I know that! I reckon you're the same fellow. But, see here, mister, I'm one of those simple kind of galoots--and the less a manknows the more suspicious he is. You ain't wanting to work for me justbecause you need a job!"

"I do need a job! I have spent the little money I had by me after I wasfired by the Consolidated. I had some special expenses--the funeral ofa--a friend, " he added, wistfulness in his tones. He drove his hand intohis pockets and exhibited a few small coins in his palm when he pulledhis hand out. "That's my cash--every cent of it!"

"Sure! I see it. But money's easy enough to come at by a fellow like youwhen he needs it. You haven't come across all square with me yet!" Itwas not mere inquisitiveness; it was the insistence of a plain man whowanted a definite peg on which to hitch the first warp of association. "You've got to handle money of mine, " he went on. "I'm in a tight placeand I have got to have the right men tied up with me. I wouldn't have toask one of those boys yonder why he wanted to lug ice. But you ain't noordinary slouch, mister. You don't do things--not many of 'em--unlessyou've got a good reason for same. " It was the instinct ofingenuousness. "Keep it all to yourself if you want to. But in that caseyou'll have to excuse _me_!"

Farr did not hesitate. He smiled. 

"You're a down-on-the-ground fellow who may be able to understand thething better than I do myself, " he declared. Again he put his hand onthe bent shoulder. 

"You didn't break loose from a good job and start this ice business heresimply to make more money, did you?"

"Well, I've got a family to support and I wanted to make some money, of course, but I thought it was about time to have less relics, germs, curiosities, microbes, and general knickknacks left in ice-boxesafter the ice had melted. So I went out of the frozen museum business, mister. " His voice softened suddenly. "We lost a little girl a year agolast summer. Typhoid!"

"I lost a little girl--a friend, " said Farr, patting the shoulder. "It'sthis way with me--What is your name?"

"Freeland Nowell. "

"Mr. Nowell, I have poked more or less fun in my life at men who claimedto have missions. Perhaps that was because those men drew my attentionby advertising their missions loudly--and, therefore, I concluded thatall men with licenses to cure this and fix that and regulate the otherwere fooling themselves or else were bluffs. But all of a sudden I havewaked up to something. I believe that any human being who isn't doinga little something on the side to help somebody else in this life ismighty miserable. I believe that the average sort of folks are doingit--keeping it quiet, in most cases, perhaps. I thought I had a missionand I stood up in your city government and advertised it and madeconsiderable of an ass of myself. "

"Well, it was all right one way you look at it, " said Nowell, with thecaution of the honest citizen. "But, of course, you got the stigmy putonto you of being a crank and a disturber and you don't get nowhere!It ain't gab and holler that does it! If talk sets folks tothinking--that's all right, so far as it goes. But a lot of these chapsset their mouths to going and let their hands lay crossed in their lapsand then wonder why the world doesn't get better because they have askedit to be good. "

It was sagacity from the humble observer. 

"Mr. Nowell, I don't want to be quite as lonesome in this world as Ihave been, " said Farr, with earnestness. "It's an awful feeling, that!A man can be lonely for a time and crowd down the hankering to be in themarch of honest men where he can touch elbows and be a part of things. I see you look at me! That's right--it's queer stuff to be talking toyou. " He pondered for a moment and went on. "Queer thing, eh, for afellow to wake up all of a sudden--a fellow of my stamp--and want todo some real good in the world? Well, it surprises _me_, and it wouldsurprise you a whole lot more if you knew me better. We won't try toanalyze the feeling. I've given up trying to do it. " He paused and hisbrown eyes surveyed the blinking iceman with a quizzical appeal in them. "That's a pretty long preface, Mr. Nowell. It ought to lead up to somevery important request. But it doesn't. I simply want a job on yourice-cart. It will give me the best opportunity I know of to go intohomes and tell mothers to boil the water which comes out of those dirtytaps; after I unscrew the faucets I won't have to argue much. I toldColonel Dodd in his office to look out for me! That may have beenbluster. I am a nobody. But I'm on his trail, and there is one thingI can do to start with! I can help save the lives of a few children. That's all! I'll be following my new motto. Will you give me the job?"

"I sure will, " declared Nowell, heartily. "If I don't know when a man istalking rock-bottom to me, then it's my own fault. When do you want togo to work?"

"Now. "

Nowell gave the new man's garments a disparaging side glance. 

"You look more as if you was going out to preach instead of deliver ice. But I can fix that if you're busted, my friend. You slip off thatcoat and help here till we're loaded. Then ride into the city on thefreight-car and tell any one of my men to give you the overalls andjumper I left hanging in my stable office. "

In this fashion it came about that Farr that day was riding on anice-wagon in Marion, learning his route. A red-headed youth who wasnursing an ice-pick wound in a bundled-up foot served as guide anddriver and spotted the "Crystal Pure" cards propped here and there inwindows, mutely signaling the household needs. With zestful complacency, and with secret enjoyment in being allowed to "team" this chap wholooked and talked like a "nob, " the youth allowed Farr to do all thework. 

The route took in many apartment-houses of the city. 

The labor was muscle-racking. In most cases there were stairs to climb. He stood, sagging under his burden, till chests were cleared bythe housewives or sluggish maids. He discovered that the iceman wasconsidered a fair and logical butt for all the forenoon grouches of thekitchen. Women complained querulously that the ice dripped on the cleanfloor, or that the piece was not up to the twenty-cent piece deliveredby the other company, or that he was late, or he had not had his eyesabout him the day before or else he would have seen the card. 

On numerous occasions he was obliged to carry a piece of ice backdown-stairs to his cart and exchange it for a piece of another size andprice. He received no apology in such cases; he was tartly informed thathe ought to have common sense enough to know what was wanted in thathouse. In other cases, the mistress of the apartments turned him fromthe door and explained with entire lack of interest in his long climbthat the card had been left up by oversight--the chest had been filledthe day before. 

And at two places sharp-tongued women would not allow him to enter, frankly stating that icemen were too dirty creatures to allow inside thedoor of a respectable house; the women received their ten-cent cubes inpans and slammed the door in his face. 

And through all this Farr preserved his smile. 

In this slavery, tongue-lashed by fretful women, sweating under hisburden, he was happy; he could not account for it and did not attemptto, but he knew it. He accepted the situation. 

He received rewards enough to fortify his resolution. 

A motherly woman asked him to wait a moment and she mixed for him aglass of lemonade. That gave him an opportunity to say a few wordsto her about drinking-water, modestly and deferentially. She wasinterested, and he showed her what the guilty faucet of her tap held inconcealment. 

And he saw that she was shocked and after he had warned her he askedher to tell all the other women whom she knew. She promised to bring thematter up in her sewing-club. 

"And even the fussy women, " he told himself, as he plodded back to hiscart, encouraged by his first experiment, "if I keep calm, if I keepsmiling--I shall find my chance to say something to them after a time. "

A fresh doughnut was given to him by a maid who smiled up at his manlygood looks approvingly, and he was very grateful, for his breakfast hadbeen a meager one because he had barely enough small coins to make ajingle in his pocket. 

The maid gasped affrightedly when he showed her what was in the faucet, and immediately set on water to boil to supply the bottles in theice-chest. 

Furthermore, the maid stated that she knew many other maids who would beglad to know about such a dreadful thing, and that she would have a wordto say to them on the way to Sunday mass and back. 

Farr began to understand more clearly what can be accomplished by a lonevoice, carrying a gospel which can be backed and illustrated by signsand wonders. 

"I'll have them listening to me yet, " he pondered. "I'll never sayanother unkind word about a woman's tongue. "

Colonel Symonds Dodd flashed past the ice-cart that afternoon in hislimousine. 

Farr laughed aloud at the humor of a thought which occurred to him:he reflected that he would like to behold Colonel Dodd's face and hearColonel Dodd's remarks if somebody told that gentleman that the manbefore whom he had quailed and grown pale was now starting what the manbelieved was a more effective assault on the dynasty than even a wholecar-load of dynamite bombs could make, even if they were exploded in allthe Consolidated reservoirs. The remarks which would entertain, so Farrpondered, would come when the colonel was informed that the assaultconsisted of a lone iceman making talk to women in kitchens. 

"However, " said the iceman to himself, as he checked a nick in aten-cent cube at the back of his cart. "I hold that my new motto is allright, and old Etienne will indorse it, and he knows what self-sacrificeconsists of. It isn't rolling up your eyes and folding your hands andsaying, 'What can I do?' It's saying, 'I'll do what I can!'--and thenkeeping your hands busy!"

XV

WHEN A MAID IS COY

Mr. Richard Dodd came wooing. 

He waited in his gray car at the curb in front of the First NationalBank block until Kate Kilgour issued forth into the afternoon sunshine. 

He called to her, holding open the side door. 

"I just had to see you, " he told her. "I have come down from thecapital, doing forty miles an hour. You're more precious than all themoney I have locked up in the vaults. "

He did not find in her eyes any of that acclaimed glad love-light whicheager lovers seek. On the contrary, Miss Kilgour made just a bit of aface at him and was distinctly petulant. 

"I do not want to ride, Richard. I enjoy my walk. I need it after a dayat my desk. "

"But I'm going to take you on a long ride into the country. We'll havedinner at Hillcrest Inn and we'll--"

"I'll go straight home, if you please. "

"Then come in here with me. "

"Oh, if you insist!" She said it with weary impatience. 

"Are you tired?"

"Yes. "

He drove slowly. "I don't want you to work any more. You know I don't. You know how I feel. Kate, I have published our intentions of marriage. "

Her demeanor till then had been marked by tolerance, a bit pettish. Nowshe turned on him the indignant stare of offended womanhood. 

"Richard, I have not given you permission to do that. "

"But you are going to marry me!"

"Some day. I will tell you when. I am not ready. "

"You are playing with me. "

"I am not so frivolous. "

"But why do you keep putting it off?"

"A woman who gives herself has the right to say when it shall be. "

"My God!" he raged. "I wish you would wake up. "

She did not answer. 

"You don't know what love is. You won't let me touch you. "

"I suppose that your experience has qualified you, Richard, " shereturned, half humorously, half scornfully. 

"We are going to be married. Your mother is anxious for you to marry. Iam going to tell my uncle to hunt for another secretary. "

"Be careful how you take liberties with my private business, " she warnedhim, sharply. 

"You need somebody to take care of it for you. You have promised to bemy wife. You can't give me a single good reason for waiting any longer. "

"But I intend to wait. "

He drove along in angry silence and they left the car together atthe Trelawny Apartments. The car had made a detour in reaching thecurb--avoiding a white wagon at the rear of which an iceman was brisklypecking in twain a cake of ice. 

The girl glanced sharply at the man and turned her head when she reachedthe sidewalk in order to survey him more closely. The iceman, peering upat the windows to locate such signal-cards as might be visible, loweredhis gaze and intercepted the girl's scrutiny. Color came into hercheeks, but she frowned as if resenting his stare and hurried into thevestibule, her lover at her heels. 

"Look here, Friend Myself, " reflected Walker Farr, "it's time you wokeup!" He sighed and swung a chunk of ice upon his shoulder. "But whatelse can I expect? Come on, Humility, and give me a soft word or two. Iwas hoping I'd never see her again. "

"Youse take those two front numbers--ten and twelve--Mrs. Kilgour andMr. Knowles, " advised his helper. "Package-entrance is around behind. "

Farr toiled up the stairs, carrying one ice cube on his shoulder, withanother swinging from tongs. There was but one door to the Kilgourapartment and the girl and Dodd stood in front of it; they had evidentlywaited in the corridor after emerging from the elevator, and the youngman was detaining her, talking earnestly. 

The girl opened the door with her latch-key, and with an apology hestepped in front of the pair and entered. 

"Well, I'll be--" blurted Dodd. "So that's what he is--a cheap, low-lived iceman!"

Mrs. Kilgour came into her vestibule and led the way to the kitchen, forFarr stood irresolutely in the doorway, awaiting directions as to hisburden. Following her, the young man noted her house-dress, beribbonedover-much, her rouged face, her bleached hair, and wondered how sucha woman could have beguiled Andrew Kilgour, as he felt he knew thatsacrificing hero from what Citizen Drew had said. 

"Say, that's the plug-ugly who insulted us in the woods. I'll neverforget that face, " stormed Dodd, making no effort by lowered tones toconceal his sentiments from the iceman. "Where else am I going to runacross him? He needs a horse-whipping. If there weren't ladies presentI'd give him one. "

"The man seems to be minding his own business, " said the girl, coldly. 

Farr heard her. There was a hint of contempt in her tones, and the youngman humbly accepted the scorn as directed toward him. He lifted the iceinto the box and received his coin from the languid woman, who seemed topay as little heed to his presence as she did to Dodd's threats. 

She seemed to be more especially interested in herself, and when Farrdeparted was fondling into place the masses of her hair before a mirrorin the vestibule. Through the space formed by the portieres he saw Doddreaching eager hands to the girl, her presence having apparently charmedaway his thoughts of vengeance. 

The iceman went humbly on his way. 

He was meditating on the sacrifice of Captain Andrew Kilgour; heremembered that stalwart men are willing slaves of the weakest women. Hewondered how much of the honesty of the father was in the daughter. Hetried to console himself by insisting that it was not there. He hadhad only a limited opportunity to study Richard Dodd. However, he wasconvinced that his unflattering estimate of that young man was surelyjustified; and so certain was he that the character of Dodd must bepatent to all he went back to his tasks with a lowered estimate of thegirl who would select such a man as husband. And yet out of the dust ofthe highway the profile of her face had touched him as his heart neverhad been touched before; he had plucked the rose and had plodded onbehind the little sister of the rose. He wondered what strange impulsehad touched him. She must be merely like all the rest. Her graciousnessin that first meeting had tempted him to believe that she was different. Now some consciousness, equally as intangible, suggested to him that shewas selfishly selling herself for ease. His thoughts were prettymuch mixed, he acknowledged. But as he went on, bearing his burdens, listening to the petty tyrants who may ruthlessly taunt the man whocomes in by the back door, he was aware that he had full need of muchministration from his new friend, Humility. 

In the sitting-room of the Kilgour flat Richard Dodd was telling themother that he had made application for a marriage license. 

"And I have waited long enough, " he declared. "Mother Kilgour, you mustconvince Kate that we are to be married within a week. "

And he gave the mother a look which made her turn pale and twist herringed fingers nervously. 

"Kate, what is the use?" she pleaded. "You are acting like a child. Youlove Richard. You know you love him. You tell me often that you lovehim! Richard is such a dear boy!" She said this fawningly, with evidentintent to placate the sullen young man. Her tone, her air suggested thenervous embarrassment of a debtor who seeks to put off a creditor withflattery and fresh promises. "Now be a darling child and say that we'llhave the wedding next week without any fuss or feathers. "

"I am not ready to get married, and I simply will not be married justyet, " declared the girl, her red lips compressed. 

"You don't love me!" complained Dodd. 

"I like you, Richard, " admitted the girl, frankly, without anycoquettishness. "I have never cared for anybody else. You have been goodto me, except when you were foolish. "

"Foolishness--that's what she calls being so much in love with herthat I can't keep my hands off her, " said Dodd to the mother. "MotherKilgour, you haven't talked to Kate as you should. She doesn't know whatlove is. "

"Oh, I'll find out all about it, and then we'll be married--when I'mready to become a wife, " said the girl, with an indulgent smile. "Allat once I'll wake up, just as you have been begging me to do, and thenwe'll simply run away and be married and live happily for ever after. "

"I don't like this stalling, " growled Dodd, brutally. 

"I'll leave you two children together, " said the mother. "I'm sureyou'll come to an understanding. " She went away, showing relief. 

"Sit down here on the divan with me, sweetheart, " pleaded the young man. 

But without removing her hat she went to the piano and began to play. 

"Please come!" he entreated. 

She smiled at him over her shoulder and made a pretty _moue_. 

Muttering an oath of passion he leaped up, hurried across the room, andbegan to kiss her fiercely. 

He crushed back with his lips all her protests; standing over her, heheld her upon the piano-bench until by main strength and with all theforce of her resentment she tore away from him. 

"And now you are going to blame me because I can't help it, " he gasped. 

"I don't in the least understand why normal persons can find anypleasure in that kind of folly. "

"Is your idea of loving anybody rubbing noses like Eskimos?"

"I'd endure that kind of loving in preference to that kind of kissing, Richard. That isn't love which you're offering--not the kind of love Iwant. I am going out for my walk--you filched it from me. No, I'm goingalone. Go and talk with mamma, if you like. "

She escaped the clutch he made and hurried out and to the elevator. 

Flushed and angry, Dodd made his way to an inner room where Mrs. Kilgourwas reading a novel, sunning herself with feline indolence. She put thebook by with evident regret. 

"Oh, Kate, has so much poise!" she lamented, breaking in on the youngman's complaints. "She is so like her father. No one except myself coulddo anything with him at all. Sometime it was very hard for me! He wouldset his mind and his teeth! But I always won in the end. "

"Well, go ahead and win now, " commanded the surly lover. "You are simplyletting this thing run along. "

"I know Kate's nature, Richard. It's only a matter of the right time. "

He sat down at her feet on the end of the couch. 

"The time is here--now!" he told her. "I insist that you make Kateunderstand. I have been patient and reasonable for a year. You havepromised me that you will bring everything around all right. Why don'tyou do it?"

"But delivering a daughter into marriage isn't like delivering grocerieson order!" Her tone showed a bit of impatience. "Be reasonable!"

"I don't want to say anything to hurt your feelings, but we must getdown to cases. I'm not asking you to deliver anything to me except whatwas promised long ago--promised by Kate herself. And you know what yousaid when I loaned you five thousand dollars to help you save thosestocks. Excuse me, Mother Kilgour, but I can't always control my nature;I've been in the game with the bunch for a long time and I'm naturallysuspicious--I have seen a good many chaps trimmed, and I don't proposeto have anything put over on me. "

"You are insolent and cruel, " she cried, her cheeks pale. 

"I don't mean you--I believe you want to help me. But it's time to beup and doing. She doesn't give me one good reason why she will not bemarried right away. It's only jolly and putting it off. "

"But you are twitting me about the service you have done me! I am notselling my daughter!"

"That isn't it at all! But you must agree that I have been good toyou. I want you to be a friend to me. But I don't get anything that'sdefinite. If this thing drags on and on the first thing I know somefellow will come along and she'll fall for him. That's the girl nature!"

"You are talking about my daughter, Richard! She has her father'sdisposition and she is true blue. She has given her promise and she willkeep it. "

"When?" he demanded, curtly. 

"I can't drive her. "

"You said you could, " he insisted. "You said a year ago when I advancedthat money that you knew just how to handle her. "

"Are you going to keep twitting me about that money?"

"No; only I'm going to say that you haven't even told me about whatstocks you were protecting. You haven't said anything about repaying theloan, Mother Kilgour. It has been a sort of general stand-off all aroundfor me. Hold on! I'm not making a holler! But I like to be taken inright. I'm a Dodd, and I can't help playing to protect myself. "

"It will come around all right, Richard. You don't know Kate as I do. I understand her because I understood her father. She is ratherself-centered. But she is romantic underneath! But you know you're sosort--sort of--well, just a business man--so matter-of-fact. A girl likeKate needs to be stirred--her poise shaken--something like that!"

"Lochinvar business, eh?" he sneered. 

"It must be something a little bit out of the ordinary to hurry her, Richard. Go away, please. Let me think. I have an idea. I must spend alittle time on it. "

"How much time?"

"Oh, I don't know just how much. Be patient. "

"Mrs. Kilgour, if this thing cannot be put through by you I want you tosay so. I'm at the end of that patience you're appealing to. I won't befooled. "

"You don't need to say that you're Colonel Dodd's nephew, " she retorted. "You have all the family traits. "

"Well, there's one I haven't got: I loaned you five thousand dollarswithout taking security--and that's the act of a good friend. Excuse me, but I've got to speak of it--you need a little reminder. Four days fromnow I'll have my marriage license from the city clerk. And when I haveit in my hands I shall come to you and shall expect that you'll do yourpart. "

"I will, " she said. 

"How? I want plain statements from now on. "

"I will write you a letter to-morrow, " she faltered. "I will give youdirections what to do. You'd better not come here till--till I have itall arranged. You know what they say about absence!"

"I know what they say about a good many things. But I want somethingbesides say-so. "

"I will tell you in my letter what to do. Then you follow instructions. "

"I don't like to go into a thing blind. What is the plan?"

"Oh, if I tell you all about it you'll go and do something to spoil it, "she protested, impatiently. "A woman knows about such matters betterthan a man does. I will write to you at the State House. Now bepatient!"

"I'll be going before you preach any more patience to me, " he said, sourly. "I might be provoked into saying something you won't like. "

After he had gone she rose and touched up her cheeks. 

"The fool! They are all alike, " she muttered, viciously. "They pay. Theynever forget they have paid. Then they stand with their hand out--andjust remember that they have paid. I am glad I bought this novel, " sheadded, taking the book from the couch and settling herself to read. "Thewoman who wrote it must have known human nature. If the plan worked inthe case of the girl she writes about it ought to work in the case ofKate. If it doesn't it will be his fault because he has hurried me so. Apoor, persecuted woman can't do everything. "

And she applied herself to her recently discovered manual of procedurein the case of stubbornness in a maid. 

XVI

FARR HAS A VISION AND CLOSES HIS LIPS

Walker Farr put aside papers upon which he had been working since he hadeaten his modest supper, and pulled on his coat and went forth intothe evening. He strolled up one of the streets in the Eleventh Ward ofMarion, manifestly glad to be out among the people. 

He stopped at the curb and hailed the driver of a truck-wagon which wasloaded down with kegs and jugs. 

"Marston, " he said, when the driver halted, "it's good to see the noblework going on. "

"Yes, and now that the babies aren't dying off so fast old Dodd'snewspapers are claiming that the new filtering-plant is doing all thegood, sir. "

"Well, it shows that our work is worth while if they're claiming it, Marston. But we'll wake up the folks all in good time. Do what we canfor first aid, that's the idea! The people are waking up to what we'redoing. And they are waking up in other places. I took a little run upstate last week. Five other cities are going to try this co-operativescheme of getting good water to the poor folks until something bettercan be done. "

"You've got a head on you, " commended the driver. "It's a little toughon tired horses to work at this after a day's trudging on regularbusiness, but my nags seem to understand what it's all about--honestthey do. I have hauled five hundred gallons this week. But I'd liketo haul old Dodd up to Coosett Lake and drown him, if it wasn't forspoiling water that the poor folks are drinking. "

Farr shook his head and walked on. 

He was a rather striking figure for a New England city as he strolledalong. It did not seem to be affectation for this man to wear afrock-coat without a waistcoat, a flowing black tie setting off hissnowy linen. The attire seemed to belong to his physique and manner. 

Women smiled at him in friendly fashion; men gave respectful andaffectionate salutation. 

Soon he stepped off the street into a room where a group of men werewaiting for him, so it appeared, because they all rose when he entered. 

He called the little meeting to order promptly, informing them that hewould detain them only a short time. 

"I rise to make a motion, " said a man at one stage of the proceedings. "There have been so many volunteers in the work and the folks have beenso ready to pay for real water in place of that stuff we get from thetaps, that three hundred dollars have accumulated in the treasury. Weall know that there is just one man who had been responsible for thiswhole plan and has given his time and has run about our state and hasn'tcharged anything but expenses for doing it all. I move we give that sumto Mr. Farr--wishing it was more. "

The speaker was loudly applauded. 

Farr was so quickly on his feet and spoke so promptly that he clippedthe man's last words. 

"A moment, my friends, before that motion is seconded. " He held up hishand and checked their protests against what his air told them. "Becausemy little plan has succeeded better than I hoped is not due to me, butto the generous co-operation of good men who have given their time. Weare saving the babies, thank God! But do you know what else we have doneby our hard toil and our devotion? We are propping up the ConsolidatedWater Company in this state. Understand me! I am not attacking thatcompany because it is a corporation. If it were now making preparationsto pipe down to us clean water from the hills I would gladly goon giving my time to this cause in order to help the case of theConsolidated. But the men in control are deliberately shutting theireyes to the real situation. Now that folks aren't dying, they claimall the credit--when we know the credit is due to weary men who go onworking after their day's toil is over. It isn't right--it isn't just!My friends, I have got hold of a bigger thing than I reckoned on when Istarted out to wake those poison-peddlers up. Now that we are cleaningup the typhoid, the Consolidated is simply riding on our backs--refusingto see the real truth. If they give Marion pure water it will be onlyat more exorbitant rates, because the nearest lake is twenty miles away. I'm not an anarchist--I want to see capital get its just reward. Butwhen a syndicate takes a franchise from citizens and makes them pay overand over for what was their own the citizens have a right to rise inself-defense. When we force the Consolidated to give us what we'repaying for--pure water--they evidently propose to make us pay for whatthey call our cheek in asking. " He paused for a moment, and his smilesucceeded his earnestness. "I beg your pardon for saying 'we. ' I mustremember that I'm still a stranger in this city. "

"I'll have to dispute you there, " interposed a man. "You're one of us. And we're going to prove it to you a little later. "

"My friends, " went on Farr, "until the cities and towns of this stateown their own water-plants and take their own profits they will bepaying double tribute to a merciless crowd. "

"But we can't own our plants till the millennium, sir. There's thatfive-percent-debt-limit clause in the constitution. "

Farr smiled--this time wistfully. "I've--I've had a sort of vision inregard to that, " he said. "I don't dare to explain myself just now, friends. It may be only a vision--but I think not. I'll not say any moreat present. I did not intend to say as much. What was on my mind whenI got up was this: I will not accept that money in the treasury--on noaccount will I take it. Because I believe that strange days are comingupon us soon in this state--days when we shall need money. Keep thatnest-egg and guard it. " He picked up his hat and started for the door. "The meeting is adjourned, " he informed them. He smiled at them over hisshoulder in such a manner that they wondered whether he joked or wasin earnest. "Guard well that money--for the only way my vision can berealized, I fear, is by turning this state's politics upside down, andthat will be quite a job for a rank outsider fighting Colonel SymondsDodd--and fighting without money. Good night!"

Men whom Walker Farr met as he strolled ducked amiable greetings. Theygrinned admiringly after him as he passed on. 

If a woman asked in regard to him or a stranger in the ward questioneda native they were informed with gusto that he was "the boy who stood inCity Hall and talked turkey to the mayor and all the bunch, and said agood word for the poor people, and twisted the tail of the Consolidatedand lost a good job doing it--and that's more than any alderman would dofor those who elected him. "

At a street corner children of the poor were dancing around ahurdy-gurdy. Farr gave the man at the crank a handful of change and toldhim to stay there and keep the kiddies happy. Shrill juvenile voicespromptly proclaimed his praises to all the neighborhood, and mothers andfathers beamed benedictions on him from windows. 

He stopped at another street corner where a dozen youths werecongregated. They were heavy-eyed, leering cubs, their hats were tippedback, and frowzled fore-tops stuck out over their pimply faces--types ofyouths whom modest girls avoid hurriedly by detours. 

"Boys, folks are writing to the newspapers complaining that young chapsare insulting girls on the street corners of Marion. But it must bethose high-toned loafers up-town. You're not up to any of that businessdown here, of course. "

"None of us would ever as much as say 'shoo' to a chicken, " protestedone of the group. 

"You're Dave Joyce's boy, aren't you?"

"Yes, sir. "

"The fifty men he bosses at the ice-house like him because he's square. Here's a good motto: 'Square with the boys and nice to the girls. ' Butkeep off the street corners, fellows, or they'll get you mixed up withsome of that masher gang. "

The Joyce boy pulled his hat forward and marshaled the retreat from theloafing-place. 

"Naw, he ain't no candidate, nuther, " he informed his associates whenthey were out of hearing. "He ain't canvassing for no votes. My old mansays he ain't. He ain't a four-flusher. He's the guy that stood for thepoor folks up at City Hall and doped out the spring-water stuff. "

At the side of a street where traffic raged to and from the city's UnionStation Farr came upon two shriveled old ladies who were teetering onthe curbstones, waiting tremulously for an opportunity to cross. Theyput down into the roaring street first one apprehensive foot and thenanother, like children trying chilly water. The big fellow offered anarm to each and led them safely across. 

"You're a real knight-errant, sir, " squeaked one of the two, looking upinto the kindly face. 

He laughed, doffed the broad-brimmed hat with a low bow, and strolled onhis way. 

"Knight-errant, " he muttered, still smiling. "Guess not. They don't have'em these days. The stories about 'em read well. Wonder what kind of afeeling it was that started those boys off on the hike! Perhaps therewasn't enough doing in politics. It must have been a fine game, though, rescuing distressed damsels. And all for love and not for pay!"

A poster in the window of an empty store caught his eye just then. Itadvertised a woman's-suffrage rally. 

"The girls would paint rally signs on a knight's tin suit these days andsend him off on an advertising trip, " was his whimsical reflection. 

At that moment, with this thought of knight in armor in his mind, he wasattracted by a flare of red fire in a blacksmith shop located just offthe street. The one worker in the place was revealed by the forge fire. The glow lighted the features of the man. There was no mistaking him--itwas Friend Jared Chick. And Farr turned off the street and went into theshop and greeted his one-time traveling companion. 

"How does thee do?" replied Jared Chick, quietly, his Quaker calmundisturbed. He drew forth a white-hot iron and deftly hammered it intoa circle around the snout of the anvil. 

"So you have given up knight-errantry and have gone back to the old job, have you, Friend Chick?"

"No. This is a part of my service. The man who owns this shop is a goodman who works hard here all day. And after he has gone home he allows meto work here in the evening. "

He pounded away industriously and Farr walked up to the anvil to inspectthe nature of the work, for the iron rod was assuming queer shapes. 

"A new kind of armor, Friend Chick?"

If there was a bit of sarcasm in Farr's tone the Quaker paid no apparentheed. 

"No, " he said, quietly and meekly, "this is a brace for the leg of alittle lame boy. I have found many children in this city who cannotwalk. Their parents are too poor to buy braces. So I come here nights, when the good man is away from the forge, and I make braces and carrythem with my blessing. I have some knack with the hammer. I hope to findother ways of doing my bit of good. "

"I beg your pardon, Friend Chick, " said Farr, a catch in his voice. "Iwill not bother you in your work. Good night!"

"Good night to thee!" said the Quaker, swinging at the bellows arm. 

Farr went back upon the street, his head bowed. "We all have our own wayof doing it, " he pondered, contritely. 

He met a man and greeted him with a friendly handclasp. It was CitizenDrew, that elderly man with the earnest face. 

And as he had in the past, he turned, caught step with Farr, and theywalked together. 

Their stroll took them into the broader avenues of up-town. 

As they talked, Farr caught side glances from his companion. The glanceswere a bit inquisitive. 

"Well, Citizen Drew, " asked the young man, "what is on your mind thisevening?"

"Since I have known you and studied you I have been thinking that youhave the spirit of knight-errantry in you, " stated Citizen Drew. 

Farr laughed boyishly. 

"Two very nice old ladies have just got ahead of you with thataccusation, my friend. "

"Laugh if you feel like it. But there are so few men who can do anythingunselfishly in these days that when a chap like you does come along hegets noticed--at any rate, I notice him. " He stopped dealing in sideglances and stared at Farr fully and frankly. "Other men who would dothe things you are doing so quietly in this state have been playingpolitics--and I have made it my business to watch politicians. And assoon as men have been elected to office by fooling the people--well, those men have simply been set into the Big Machine as new cogs. Are youlike the rest, Mr. Farr? Nobody knows where you came from. Everybody whosees you knows you're above the jobs you have been working at. They'retalking you up for alderman in our ward. But we have been fooled so manytimes!"

Farr replied to this wistful inquisition in a way there was nomisunderstanding. 

"I am not a candidate for anything, Citizen Drew. And I'll tell you howI can prove I am not. I am not a voter here. I have intentionally failedto have myself registered. Whenever you hear another man talking meup for office you tell him that. Therefore, it makes no difference toanybody where I came from or what job I work at. "

Citizen Drew accepted the rebuke humbly and walked on in silence. 

"You have always been fooled, you say, when you have elected men tooffice. Haven't you any men in this state whom you can elect to highoffice, knowing for sure that they'll stay straight?"

"No, " returned Citizen Drew. 

"I'm a stranger--I don't know your big men--you do know them, and Isuppose I ought to take your word. But I don't believe you, CitizenDrew. "

"But I told you the truth. We have big men who are honest men. But theywon't go into politics. They feel too far above the game. Therefore, howcan we elect them to office? I say I told you the truth. The men who goout and hunt for office are the ones who work the thing for their ownprofit--and that means they stand in with the bunch and the head boss. "

It was the same old lament which is everlastingly on the lips ofthe voters of America! Citizen Drew had again epitomized the averagepolitics of the great Republic!

Walker Farr smiled--and he could express in a smile more than most mencan express in speech. 

"An original idea has just occurred to me, Citizen Drew, " he said, withhumorous drawl in his tones. "I'm sure nothing like it has everbeen thought of before. There ought to be a new party formed in thiscountry--a party outside all the others. No, not a party, exactly!What should I call it? You see, the idea has just come to me, and I'mfloundering a little. " His tone was still jocular. "You're right aboutmost of the able and big men staying out of politics except whenthe highest offices are passed around. Now, how's this for a scheme?Organize a loyal band and call it--well, say the Purified PoliticalPrivateers, the Sanctified Kidnappers, the People's Progressive andPublic-spirited Press Gang. Go around and grab the Great and the Goodwho insist on minding their private business and who are letting thecountry be gobbled up--just go and grab 'em right up by the scruffof the neck and fling them into politics head over heels. They wouldsputter and froth and flop for a little while--and then they'd strikeout and swim. They couldn't help swimming! They'd know that the folkswere looking on. And then a lot of the sinking and drowning poor devils, like you and me and the folks in the tenements, could grab onto theGreat and the Good and ask 'em to tow us safely ashore; and by thattime their pride and their dander would be up and they'd swim all theharder--with the other folks looking on. Hah! An idea, eh? You see, I feel rather imaginative and on the high pressure and in a mood foradventure this evening! Probably because the nice old ladies called me aknight-errant. "

Citizen Drew was not ready with comment on this amazing suggestion. He clawed his hand into his sparse hair and wrinkled his forehead inattempt to decide whether or not he ought to resent this playful retortto his lament. The next moment he dealt Farr a swift jab in the ribswith his elbow. 

"Take a good look at this man coming, " he mumbled. 

The oncomer was close upon them, and in spite of the dusk Farr's sharpgaze took him all in. 

In garb and mien he was a fine type of the American gentleman who ismarked by a touch of the old school. There was a clean-cut crispnessabout him; the white mustache and the hair which matched it looked asif they would crackle if rubbed. His eyes were steely blue, and he heldhimself very erect as he walked, and he tapped the pavement briskly withhis cane. 

He passed them, marched up the steps of a large building, anddisappeared through a door which a boy in club uniform held open forhim. 

"That man, " explained Citizen Drew, complacently displaying his boastedknowledge of public men in minute detail, "is the Honorable ArcherConverse, whose father was General Aaron Converse, the war governor ofthis state. Lawyer, old bach, rich, just as crisp in talk as he is inlooks, just as straight in his manners and morals and honesty as he isin his back, arrives every night at the Mellicite Club for his dinner onthe dot of eight"--Citizen Drew waved his hand at the illuminated circleof the First National clock--"leaves the club exactly at nine for a walkthrough the park, then marches home, plays three games of solitaire, andgoes to bed. "

"I know him!" stated Farr. 

Citizen Drew's air betrayed a bit of a showman's disappointment. 

"I never saw him before--never heard of him. But I mean I know him nowafter your description--know his nature, his thoughts. You have a finetouch in your size-ups, Citizen Drew. "

"I've studied 'em all. "

"What has he done in politics?"

"Never a thing. He is one of the kind I was complaining about. Toohigh-minded. "

"But, ho, how a man like that would swim if he were once thrown in!"declared Farr. 

"He never even tended out on a caucus. "

"I know the style when I see it, " pursued Farr. He did not look atCitizen Drew. He was talking as much to himself as to his companion. "Spirit of a crusader harnessed by every-day habit! Righteousness in arut! Achievement timed to the tick of the clock. But, once in, how hewould swim!"

"Think how our affairs would swing along with a man like that at thehead of the state!"

"Why hasn't he been put at the head?"

"I have been in delegations that have gone to him"--he waved hishand--"he said he couldn't think of being mixed into political messes. "

"He looked on you wallowing in muddy water and you invited him in. Idon't blame him for not jumping. "

"He's a good man, " insisted Citizen Drew. "He gives more money to thepoor than any other man in town. The only way I found that out is byhaving a natural nose for finding out things. He doesn't say anythingabout it. "

"How he would swim!" repeated Farr. "Steady and strong and straighttoward the shore, Citizen Drew, and he wouldn't kick away the poordrowning devils, either. "

"He probably thinks he has paid his debt to the world when he hands outhis money, " stated Drew. "When he looks around and sees so many othermen holding the poor chaps upside down and shaking the dollars out oftheir pockets he must think he is doing a mighty sight more than isrequired of him. But sticking plasters of dollar bills onto sore placesin this state ain't curing anything. " He stopped. "I've walked with youfarther than I intended to, Mr. Farr. But somehow I wanted to talk withyou. There's a meeting of the Square Deal Club this evening at UnionHall. I didn't know but in some way we might--It was thought you mightbe going to run for office. "

"The registration-office will prove that I'm not. Pass that word!"

"I'll go back--to the meeting. It doesn't seem to be much use in holdingthe meetings, " said the man. "We hear one another talk--we know we aretalking the truth. But nobody listens who can help us poor folks. Well, I'll admit that the politicians come in and listen and promise to helpus and we give our votes; but that's all: they give nothing back to us. "

Farr broke out with a remark which seemed to have no bearing on whatCitizen Drew was saying. 

"He comes out at nine o'clock, eh?"

"Who?"

"The Honorable Archer Converse. Leaves that clubhouse then, does he?"

"Regular to the tick of the clock. "

"Citizen Drew, hold your club in session until half past nine or alittle later. My experience with those meetings is that you always havetroubles enough to keep you talking for at least two hours. "

Citizen Drew glanced at the face of Farr and then at the big door of theMellicite Club. 

"You don't mean to say--"

"I don't say anything. I seem to be in a queer state of mind to-night, Citizen Drew. " Again there was an odd note of raillery in his voice. "Alot of odd ideas keep coming to me. Another one had just popped into myhead. That's all! Keep your boys at the hall. "

He swung off up the street. 

He turned after a few steps and saw the elderly man standing where hehad left him. Drew was a rather pathetic figure there in the brilliantlylighted main thoroughfare, a poor, plain man from the Eleventh Wardof the tenement-houses--this man who had been striving and struggling, reading and studying, endeavoring to find some way out for the poorpeople; some relief--something that would help. Farr knew what sort ofmen were waiting in the little hall. He had attended their meetings. Itwas the only resource they understood--a public meeting. They knew thatthe important folks up-town held public meetings of various sorts, andthe poor folks had decided that there must be virtue in assemblages. But nothing had seemed to come out of their efforts in the tenementdistricts. 

Farr stepped back to where Citizen Drew stood. 

"I think I will say something to you, after all. Tell the boys in UnionHall to be patient and I'll bring the Honorable Archer Converse aroundthis evening. "

He smiled into the stare of blank amazement on the man's face, flung upa hand to check the stammering questions, and went off up the street. 

"A decent man's conscience will make him keep a promise he has made toa child or to the simple or to the helpless, " Farr told himself. "I haveundertaken a big contract, I reckon, but now that I have put myself onrecord I've got to go ahead and deliver the goods. At any rate, I feelon my mettle. " Then he smiled at what seemed to be his sudden folly. "Ithink I'll have to lay it all to those nice old ladies who were foolishenough to put that knight-errant idea into my head, " he said. 

XVII

THE MADNESS OF A MIDSUMMER NIGHT

Farr glanced again at the big clock in the First National block. 

He had less than one hour to wait, according to the schedule CitizenDrew had promulgated in regard to the unvarying movements of theHonorable Archer Converse. As to how this first coup in the operationsof that nascent organization, the Public-spirited Press Gang, was to bemanaged Farr had little idea at that moment. 

He decided to devote that hour to devising a plan, deciding to attemptnothing until he saw the honorable gentleman march down the club steps. A club must be sanctuary--but the streets belonged to the people. 

Therefore, Farr took a walk. He went back into that quarter of the cityfrom which he had emerged during his stroll with Citizen Drew; hefelt his courage deserting him in those more imposing surroundings ofup-town; he went back to the purlieus of the poor, hoping for contactthat might charge him afresh with determination. He realized that heneeded all the dynamics of courage in the preposterous task he had sethimself. 

He knew he would find old Etienne sitting on the stoop of MotherMaillet's house where the old man posted himself on pleasant summerevenings and whittled whirligigs for the crowding children--just as hispeasant ancestors whittled the same sort of toys in old Normandy. 

Mother Maillet's house had a yard. It was narrow and dusty, because thefeet of the children had worn away all the grass. Some of the palingswere off the fence, and through the spaces the little folks came andwent as they liked. It was not much of a yard to boast of, but therewere few open spaces in that part of the city where the big landcorporation hogged all the available feet of earth in order to stick thetenement-houses closely together. Therefore, because Mother Maillet waskind, the yard was a godsend so far as the little folks were concerned. The high fence kept children off the greensward where the canal flowed. Householders who had managed to save their yards down that way were, inmost cases, fussy old people who were hanging on to the ancient cottagehomes in spite of the city's growth, and they shooed the children out oftheir yards where the flower-beds struggled under the coal-dust from thehigh chimneys. 

But Mother Maillet did not mind because she had no flower-beds andbecause the palings were off and the youngsters made merry in heryard. She had two geraniums and a begonia and a rubber-plant on thewindow-sill in order to give the canary-bird a comfortable sense ofarboreal surroundings; so why have homesick flowers out in a front yardwhere they must all the time keep begging the breeze to come and dustthe grime off their petals? It should be understood that Mother Maillethad known what _real_ flower-beds were when she was a girl in theTadousac country. 

Furthermore, Etienne Provancher always came to the yard o' fine eveningsand it served as his little realm; and the door-step of the good woman'shouse was his throne where he sat in state among his little subjects. However, on second thought, this metaphor is not happy description; oldEtienne did not rule--he obeyed. 

He did not resent familiarity--he welcomed the comradeship of thechildren. When they called him "Pickaroon" it seemed to him that theywere making a play-fellow of him. 

He sat and whittled toys for them out of the pine-wood scraps which theyard foreman gave him. There were grotesque heads for rag dolls, andthe good woman seemed to have unlimited rags and an excellent taste indoll-dressmaking; there were chunky automobiles with spools for wheels;there were funny little wooden men who jumped in most amusing fashionat the end of wires which were stuck into their backs. Old Etienne wasalways ready to sit and whittle until the evening settled down and hecould see no longer, even though he held the wood and busy knife closeto his eyes. 

So on that evening he whittled as usual. 

Walker Farr came to the yard and sat beside the old man on the door-stepand was plainly thinking no agreeable thoughts while he listened to thechatter of the children. 

After the darkness had come and the larger boys and girls, custodiansof their tiny kin, had dragged away the protesting and whimpering littlefolks because it was bedtime, Zelie Dionne laid down her needlework overwhich she had been straining her eyes. The good woman protested oftenbecause the girl toiled so steadily with her needle after her day at themill was ended. And on that summer evening she voiced complaint again. 

"You have so many pretty gowns already! You wear one last evening--youwear anodder this evening--and still you make some more! When a younggirl nigh kill herself so as to make a picture-book of her dressesI think it is time to look for some young man who seems to like thepictures. Eh?"

"Mother Angelique, I do not relish jokes which are silly, " protested thegirl. "You know how the girls of our country are taught! We cannot sitwith hands in our laps without being very unhappy. "

She went out and sat upon the door-step where old Etienne made way forher. 

"At first I did not think I would come out, Mr. Farr, " she said. "But Ihave made bold to come. "

"I do not think it needs boldness to come where I am, " he returned. "Ihope you are not going to make a stranger of me because I have not beenvery neighborly of late. I have been busy and I have been away. The boyshave paid my fare up-country, and so I ran about to carry the gospel ofthe free water. The truckmen have volunteered in half a dozen places. Weare doing a great work. "

"And yet I am afraid, " she confessed. "You are fighting men who can doyou much harm. I have been asking questions so as to know more aboutthose men. For they have threatened poor Father Etienne. I wanted toknow about them. I cannot help. But can you not help, Mr. Farr? I thinkyou are much more than you seem to be, " she added, naively. 

"They have threatened Etienne?" demanded Farr, a sharp note in hisvoice. 

"Ah, m'sieu', I have said nottin's to you. I am only poor old man. Nomatter. "

"Why didn't you say something to me?"

"It's because you might feel bad, m'sieu'. P'raps not, for I'm only poorman and don't count. "

"What have they said to you?"

"It's nottin's, " said Etienne, stubbornly. "You shall not think you gotme into trouble. You did not. I would have done it maself as soon as Ithought of it. "

"I command you to tell me what has been said to you, Etienne. "

"They say that I shall be discharge from the rack. They say I havetalk too much to my compatriots about the poison water. But I shalltalk--yes--jesso!"

"Who says so?"

"The yard boss say to me that. Oh, there's no mistake. He have thepower, M'sieu' Farr. The super tell the yard boss, the mill agent tellthe super, the alderman tell the mill agent, the mayor he tell thealderman. "

"And probably Colonel Symonds Dodd told the mayor, " growled Farr. "It'sa great system, Etienne. Nobody too small--nobody too big!"

"But I do not care. I shall talk some more--yes, I shall talk in the_hotel de ville_ when you shall tell me to talk. I was scare atfirst and I tol' you I would not talk; but now I have found out Ican talk--and I am not scare any more, and I will talk. " Pride anddetermination were in the old man's tones. Since that most wonderfulevening in all his life when he had heard his voice as if it were thevoice of another man ringing forth denunciation of those in high places, the old rack-tender had referred to that new manifestation of himself asif he were discussing another man whom he had discovered. The memory ofhis feat was ever fresh within him. And his meek pride was filled withmuch wonderment that such a being should have been hidden all the yearsin Etienne Provancher. Many men had called around to shake his hand andincrease his wonderment as to his own ability. 

"We will wait awhile, " counseled Farr, understanding the pride andtreating it gently. "Stay at your work and be very quiet, Etienne, andthey will not trouble you. You need your money, and I will call on youwhen you can help again. "

"Then I will come. I shall be sorry to see somebody have my rake andpole, but I shall come. "

A moment of silence fell between them, and during that moment a youngwoman passed rapidly along the sidewalk. Walker Farr shut his eyessuddenly, as a man tries to wink away what he considers an illusion, andthen opened his eyes and made sure that she was what she seemed; therewas no mistaking that face--it was Kate Kilgour. 

He stared after her. She halted on the next corner, peered up at thedingy street light to make sure of the sign legend on its globe and thenturned down an alley. 

"Ba gar!" commented old Etienne, putting Farr's thoughts into words, "that be queer t'ing for such a fine, pretty lady to go down into RoseAlley, because Rose Alley ain't so sweet as what it sounds. "

Then two men came hurrying past without paying any attention to thedenizens of the neighborhood who were sitting in the gloom on the stoop. The street light revealed the faces of the men as it had shown to themthe girl's features. One was Richard Dodd. Unmistakably, they werefollowing the girl. Farr heard Dodd say: "Slow up! Give her time to getthere. She's headed all right. "

And Farr stared after those men, more than ever amazed. 

One of them was obtrusively a clergyman--that is to say, he was cased ina frock-coat that flapped against his calves, wore a white necktie, andcarried a book under his arm. 

Dodd was attired immaculately in gray, and as he walked he whipped athin cane nervously. They began to stroll soon after they had hurriedpast the stoop, and were sauntering leisurely when they turned into RoseAlley. 

"I now say two ba gars!" exploded Etienne. "Because I been see thejailbird, Dennis Burke, all dress up like minister, go past here withthe nephew of Colonel Dodd. And they go 'long after la belle mam'selle. "

"A jailbird!"

"He smart, bad man, that Dennis Burke. But he was hire by the big manto do something with the votes on election-time--so to cheat--and heget caught and so he been in the state prison. But he seem to be out allfree now and convert to religion in some funny way. Eh?"

"Etienne, are you sure of what you are talking about?" demanded Farr. His voice trembled. The visit of that handsome girl to that quarter ofthe city--those men so patently pursuing her--there was a sinister lookto the affair. 

"Oh, we all know that Burke. He hire many votes in this ward for manyyears. He known in Marion just so well as the steeple on the _hotel deville_. And that odder--that young mans, we know him, for his oncle isColonel Dodd. Oh yes!"

"Good night, Etienne--and to you Miss Zelie!" said Farr, curtly, walkingoff toward the entrance of Rose Alley. He did not ask the old man togo with him. He was drawn in two directions by his emotions and stoppedafter he had taken a few steps. This seemed like espionage in a matterwhich was none of his concern. It was entirely possible that theconfidential secretary of Colonel Dodd and the nephew of that gentlemanmight have common business even in Rose Alley and at that time ofevening. 

But the matter of that masquerading ballot-falsifier, just out of stateprison, overcame Farr's scruples about meddling in the affairs of KateKilgour. 

He turned the corner into the alley in season to see the two men farahead of him; they passed out of the radiance shed by a dim light and hesaw no more of them. He walked the length of the alley and was not ableto locate any of the party. At its lower end the alley was closed in byhouses, and it was plain that the people he sought had not passed outinto another thoroughfare. He marched back, scrutinizing the outside ofbuildings, trying to conjecture what business the handsome girl andthe two men could have in that section at that hour, and where they hadentered to prosecute that business. 

"I must continue to blame it all on the nice old ladies, " he toldhimself, smiling at the shamed zest he was finding in this hunt. "But Ihope this knight-errantry will not grow to be a habit with me. Imustn't forget that I have another job on hand for nine o'clock--alsoknight-errantry!"

He paused under the dim light where his men had disappeared and lookedat his cheap watch. 

Twenty-five minutes of nine!

Then he heard a woman's protesting voice. She cried "No, _no_, NO!" increscendo. 

He gazed at the house from which the voice seemed to come. It was nearat hand, a shabby little cottage with a thin slice of yard closed in bya dilapidated picket fence. He perceived no observers in the alley, andhe stepped into the yard. The front windows were open, for the eveningwas warm, but no lights were visible in the house. 

He heard the protesting cry again. It was more earnest. 

He head the rumble of a man's voice, but could not catch the words. Whatever was happening was taking place in some rear room. 

"No, I say, no! Unlock that door, " cried the voice, passionately. 

Farr troubled his mind no longer with quixotic considerations aboutintrusion. He hoisted himself over the window-sill into the darkenedfront room, passed down a short corridor and, when he heard the voiceonce again on the inside of a door which he found locked, he immediatelykicked the door open. He appeared to those in the room, heralded by anamazing crash and flying splinters. 

First of all, he was astonished to find two women there; one was MissKilgour and the other was her mother. And there were the two men whom hehad followed. 

Farr swept off his hat and addressed the girl. 

"I happened to be passing and heard your voice, " he said. "If you are--"He hesitated, a bit confused, realizing all at once that knight-errantryin modern days is not quite as free and easy a matter as it used to bewhen damsels were in distress in the ruder times of yore. "I am at yourservice, " he added, a bit curtly. 

But she did not reply. Her attitude was tense, her cheeks were flaming, her eyes were like glowing coals. 

"You lunatic, you have come slamming in here, disturbing a privatewedding, " announced the man in the white tie, slapping his palm upon thebook he carried. 

"Get out of here!" shouted Dodd. He had dodged into a corner of theroom, his face whitening, when Farr had burst in. He remained in thecorner now, brandishing his cane. 

The uninvited guest surveyed the young man with more composure than hehad been able to command when he looked at the girl. 

Etienne Provancher had fortified him with some valuable information. 

"Mr. Richard Dodd, I'll apologize and walk out of here after you haveexplained to me why you have faked up into a parson one Dennis Burke, late of the state prison, to officiate at weddings. "

Upon the silence that followed the girl thrust an "Oh!" into which sheput grief, protest, anger, consternation. 

"Mother!" she cried. "Did you know? How could you allow--how did youcome to do such a terrible thing?"

Her mother put her hands to her face and sat down and began to sob withhysterical display of emotion. Farr scowled a bit as he looked ather. She was overdressed. There was an artificial air about her wholeappearance--even her hysterics seemed artificial. 

The girl turned from her with a gesture of angry despair as if sherealized, from experience, that she could expect, at that juncture, onlyemotion without explanation. 

"Hold on here, " cried Dodd, "hold on here, everybody! This is all right. You just let me inform you, Mr. Butter-in, that Mr. Burke has fullauthority to solemnize a marriage. He is a notary and was commissionedat the last meeting of the governor and council. And I know that, " headded, attempting a bit of a swagger, "for I secured the commission forhim myself. " He came out of his corner and shook his cane at Farr. "Iwant you to understand that I have political power in this state!"

"I wouldn't brag about that kind of political power, when you can use itto make notaries out of jailbirds. That must be a nice bunch you have upat your State House!"

"On your way!" Again the cane swished in front of Farr's face. 

"I beg your pardon, madam, " apologized Farr, bowing to the girl. "Youseem to be the only one in this room entitled to that courtesy, " headded, with a touch of his cynicism. "Am I intruding on your personalbusiness?"

"You are not, " she answered, her eyes flashing. "I am glad you camein here. I could have stopped the wretched folly myself, but you havehelped me, and I thank you. " She delivered that little speech withvigor. 

"Kate!" pleaded Dodd. "This isn't fair. I meant it all right. Here'syour mother here! You wouldn't be reasonable the other way. We had to dosomething. For the love of Heaven, be good. You know I--"

She had turned her back on him. Now she whirled and spat furious wordsat him, commanding him to be silent. 

"Do you want to spread all this miserable business before thisgentleman?" she demanded. "I am ashamed--ashamed! My mother to consentto such a thing!"

She turned her back on him again and walked to and fro, beating herhands together in her passion. And now ire boiled in Dodd. He directedit all at the man who had interfered. 

"This is no business of yours, you loafer. I don't know who you are, butyou--"

Farr grabbed the switching cane as he would have swept into his palm anannoying insect. He broke it into many pieces between his sinewy fingersand tossed the bits into Dodd's convulsed face. 

"You'll know me better later on--you and your uncle, too. Ask him whatI advised him to do about having his weapon loose on his hip--take thesame advice for yourself. "

Then his expression altered suddenly. A disquieting jog of memoryprompted him to yank out the cheap watch. 

Twelve minutes to nine. 

It was a long way to the foot of the steps of the Mellicite Club! AndUnion Hall was filled with men who were patiently waiting for him tokeep his pledged word!

"I hope you'll be all right now, " he said to the girl, haste in histones. "I'm sorry--I must go--I have an important engagement. "

Her eyes met his in level gaze, turned scornful glance at the others inthe room, and then came back to his. 

"Are you going in the direction of the Boulevard?" she asked him. 

"Straight there. "

"Will you bother with me as far as the Boulevard?"

"If you are a good walker, " he informed her. There was strict businessin her tone and cool civility in his. 

"I'm going along with this gentleman, mother. "

Farr ushered her ahead of him through the shattered door. 

"But I want to walk home with you, my child, " wailed the sobbing woman. 

"You'd better ask Mr. Dodd to escort you. And I trust that the talk youand he will have will bring both of you to your senses. "

She hurried away up the alley with Farr, after he had unlocked the frontdoor, finding the key on the inside. 

"I am sorry I must hurry you, " he apologized, "and if you cannot keep upI must desert you when we get to a well-lighted street. "

She drove a sharp side glance at him and did not reply. Probably for thefirst time in her life she heard a young man declare with determinationthat he was in a hurry to leave her. Even a sensible young woman who ispretty must feel some sort of momentary pique because a young man canhave engagements so summary and so engrossing. 

He offered her his arm that they might walk faster. Her touch thrilledhim. He was far from feeling the outward calm that he displayed to her. 

They did not speak as they hurried. 

Both were nearly breathless when they came out on the Boulevard. He sawthe big clock--its hands were nearly at the right angle. 

"Good night!" she gasped, and she put out her hand to him. "I thankyou!"

"It was nothing, " he assured her. 

When their palms met they looked into each other's eyes. It was amomentary flash which they exchanged, but in that instant both of themwere thrilled with the strange, sweet knowledge that no human soul mayanalyze: it is the mystic conviction which makes this man or that womandifferent from all the rest of humankind to the one whose heart istouched. 

She gave him a smile. "Are you a knight-errant?"

She hurried away before he could reply--and, though all his yearningnature strove against his man's resolution to do his duty, it couldnot prevail: he did not follow her as he wanted to--running after her, crying his love. But duty won out by a mere hazard of a margin becauseher face, as she had shown it to him at the moment of parting, possessednot merely the wonderful beauty which had so impressed him when he hadfirst seen her--it shone with a sudden flash of emotion that glorifiedit. 

He turned away and hurried to the foot of the steps of the MelliciteClub. 

He had no time to ponder on the nature of that mystery which he haduncovered in the shabby cottage in Rose Alley nor to wonder what sortof persecution it was that could enlist a mother's aid in that grotesquefashion against her own daughter. 

He had not time even to frame a plan of campaign against the man whomthe patient waiters in Union Hall were expecting him to capture. 

The bell in the tower was booming its nine strokes and the HonorableArcher Converse was coming down the steps from his club, erect, crisp, immaculate, dignified--tapping his cane against the stones. 

XVIII

CORRALING A CONVERT

Mr. Converse bestowed only a careless glance at the stranger who waswaiting at the foot of the club-house steps. 

The young man accosted him, not obsequiously, but frankly. 

"I know you always take a turn in the park at this hour, Mr. Converse. Ibeg your pardon, but may I walk for a few steps with you?"

"Why do you want to walk with me?"

"It's a matter--"

"I never discuss business on the street, sir. Come to my officeto-morrow. "

He marched on and Farr went along behind him. 

"You heard?" demanded the attorney. 

"I heard. " Farr replied very respectfully, but he kept on. 

He had rushed away from the girl and had come face to face with Mr. Converse, his mind utterly barren of plan or resource. That interim onwhich he had counted as a time in which he might devise ways and meanshad been so crowded with happenings that all consideration of plans inregard to Archer Converse had been swept from his mind. 

At all events, he had rendered a service in that time; he had made gooduse of that forty-five minutes--that reflection comforted him even whilehe dizzily wondered what he was to do now. 

That service had demanded sacrifice from him--why not demand somethingfrom that service? An idea, sudden, brazen, undefendable, evenoutrageous, popped into his head. He had no time for sensible planning. Mr. Converse was glancing about with the air of a citizen who would liketo catch the eye of a policeman. 

"I know all about you, Mr. Converse, even if you know nothing about me. I'm making a curious appeal--it's to your chivalry!"

That was appeal sufficiently novel, so the demeanor of Mr. Converseannounced, to arrest even the attention of a gentleman who usuallyrefused to allow the routine of his life to be interrupted by anythingless than an earthquake. He halted and fronted this stranger. 

"A man who wears that, " proceeded Farr, indicating the rosette of theMilitary Order of the Loyal Legion in the lapel of Mr. Converse's coat, "and wears it because it came to him by inheritance from General AaronConverse is bound to listen to that appeal. "

"Explain, sir. "

"Do you know a Richard Dodd who is the nephew of Colonel Dodd?"

"I do, sir. You aren't asking me to assist him, are you? I will havenothing to do with him--no help from me!"

"Just a moment--wait one moment! Mr. Converse, do you know a man namedDennis Burke who has been in prison for ballot frauds?"

"I helped send him there, sir. Are you reciting the rogues' roster tome?"

"Richard Dodd has dressed Burke up as a parson and is trying to force ayoung woman into a marriage. I haven't time to tell you how I happenedto know about this affair--but it is in Rose Alley and there's no timeto waste. "

"A preposterous yarn. "

"I have just come from that house. "

"You're a young man of muscle--why didn't you stop it?"

"The girl's mother is there, backing Dodd. Mr. Converse, the cause needsa man like you--a man of law, of standing, of influence. I appeal to youto follow me. "

"A moment--a moment! I scent a ruse. I don't know you. Are you a decoyfor blackmailers or robbers?" he inquired, bluntly. 

Farr took off his hat and stood before the Honorable Archer Converse, his strange, slow, winning smile dawning on his face. 

"I beg your pardon for interrupting your stroll, " he said, gently. "Ihope you'll look at me! You may see, perhaps, that you're in error. I'll go back and kill Dodd--and come to your office to-morrow--onbusiness--engaging you as counsel for the defense. "

"Lead the way to that house, " snapped Mr. Converse. The attitude ofFarr, his forbearance, his refraining from further solicitation, hisfrank demeanor, won out for him. "I'm sometimes a little hasty inmy remarks, " acknowledged Mr. Converse in the tone of one who feltchastened. "Are you a new-comer to our city?" he continued as theyhurried away. "You must be. I should certainly have remembered you if Ihad ever seen you before. " It was an indirect compliment--a gentleman'scareful approach to an apology. 

The young man did not reply. He had conceived for this stately man asudden hero-worship. What Citizen Drew had told him was added to his owninstinct in matters of the understanding of a personality. He did notdare to stop and consider to what despicable extent he was lying tohis victim. He knew if he stopped to think he would quit. Now the wholeaffair seemed a crazy thing. Did even his proposed ends justify thisprocedure?

"There's a short cut through Sanson Street, " stammered Farr, the senseof his own iniquity increasing in the same ratio in which his respectand admiration grew. The honorable gentleman traveled along at a briskjog, evidently desiring to show his apologetic mood by exhibitingconfidence in his guide. 

And Farr, stealing side glances at him, was more self-accusatory, moreabashed. He cherished the hope that they would be able to anticipatethe departure of Dodd and the confederates from the cottage. It was notclear to him just how he would make the incident serve, anyway. He wasconscious that he had grasped at any opportunity which would open theears of the Honorable Archer Converse to a person who had accosted himon the street. Finding somebody in the house would, at least, stamp hisstory with verity even if it served no purpose in the main intent ofFarr's efforts. 

But on a well-lighted street corner the young man halted suddenly. 

"It's no use, " he informed the astonished Mr. Converse. "Conscience hastripped me. I can't do it. "

"Do you mean to intimate that you have been tricking me, sir?"

"I mean to say, Mr. Converse, that I had proposed to take a half-hour orso and think up some method of honestly and properly interesting you ina matter which is very dear to me--a public matter, sir. But here is howI spent that half-hour. "

Frankly, simply, convincingly he related to his amazed listener the fullstory of what he had found in the cottage in Rose Alley. 

"And therefore I had no time to ponder on my business with you--I simplyturned from the young lady, and there you were, sir, coming down theclub steps. I did the very best I could on short notice--but what I didwas very crude. I apologize. I suppose, under the circumstances, I mayas well say 'Good-night'!" He raised his hat. 

But there was something in all this which piqued Converse's curiosity. 

"Wait one moment. This is getting to be interesting. "

A rather hazy conviction began to assure Farr that possibly chance haddealt a better stroke for him than well-considered planning. It wassurely something to know that the honorable gentleman was interested. 

"If you had had time to think out a method of approaching me--Let mesee, your name is--"

"Farr. "

"Mr. Farr, supposing I had been amenable to your suggestions, what is ityou wanted of me?"

"I wanted you to attend a public meeting, " blurted the young man. "Theyare men who need help--they need--"

"That's sufficient, " snapped Converse. "I am not in politics. I donot address public meetings. Mr. Farr, you would have wasted your timeplanning. Absolutely!"

"But is there not some appeal that--"

"Useless--useless, sir. " He tapped his cane, and his tones showedirritation. He whirled on his heels. "It is decidedly evident thatyou are a stranger in these parts, sir. On that account I forgive yourpresumption. "

At that moment a jigger-wagon rumbled to a halt near them. The cornerlight had revealed them to the driver. 

"Mr. Farr, " called the man, "it hasn't taken long for the news of whatyou did at the meeting to-night to travel around among the boys. And weain't going to let you get ahead of us, sir. "

"The more, the merrier, in a good cause, " said Farr; but he was staringregretfully at the back of Mr. Converse, who had begun his retreat. 

"I want to tell you I'm on the executive committee of the StateTeamsters Union, Mr. Farr. I've been talking the matter up and I canpromise you that the union as a body will vote to lend horses and men tocarry your spring-water free gratis. And I hope that gent who's startingup-town where the dudes are will tell 'em that there are honest menenough left to protect the poor folks from that poison water him and hisrich friends are pumping out of the river to us. "

The Honorable Archer Converse halted his departure very suddenly. 

"You are not referring to me, are you, my man?"

"I am if you're tied up with that Consolidated Water Company bunch, "stated the unterrified member of the proletariat. 

Mr. Converse retraced his steps. He shook his cane at the driver. 

"I want to inform you very distinctly, sir, that I am _not_ interestedin the Consolidated. "

"Dawson, apologize to this gentleman, " Farr admonished the driver. 

"I'm sorry I said anything, " muttered the man. "But all dudes look aliketo me, " he told himself under his breath. 

Mr. Converse appeared to be considerably disturbed by the humblecitizen's sneer in regard to the Consolidated matter. He addressedhimself to Farr. 

"I have been touched on a point where I am very sensitive, " he informedthe young man. "I do not condone the policies of the Consolidated inregard to their control of franchises. Their system of operation hasintroduced a bad element into our finance and politics. I would be sorryto be misunderstood by the people of this state. "

"I hope you will not be misunderstood, sir, " averred Farr, withhumility. 

"In order to show you my stand in the matter and so that you may correctany misunderstanding among your friends in these quarters, " proceededMr. Converse, stiffly, "I will inform you that I am taking the case ofthe citizens' syndicate of Danburg on appeal up to our highest court. We hope to prove criminal conspiracy. We hope to show up some of thecorruption in the state. That is why I have gone into the case. "

"I thank you for informing me. I have been trying to fight theConsolidated in my own humble way. "

The eminent lawyer came closer and was promptly interested. 

"I am in search of information of all kinds, sir. Kindly explain. "

Eliminating himself as much as possible, Farr described the operationsof the Co-operative Spring Water Association. But he could not eliminatethe man on the box-seat of the jigger-wagon. When Farr had finished hisbrief explanation that loyal admirer gave in some enthusiastic testimonyin regard to the man who had devised the plan and had sacrificed histime in efforts to extend the system. He kept on until Farr checked him. 

"I will say, Mr. Converse, before you leave, that I'd like to have youcarry away a right opinion of me. I was not trying to drag you to a merepolitical gathering. There are some poor men assembled just now in thisquarter who need a sympathetic listener and a little good advice. Theyare also trying to get justice from the Consolidated and all the generaloppression it represents. "

"Where are those men?" asked Converse, after a pause during which hewrinkled his brows and tapped his cane. 

Farr pointed down the street. Not far away a low-hung transparencyheralded "The Square Deal Club. "

Mr. Converse gazed in that direction and hesitated a few moments longer. 

"You assure me that it's not a mere political rally?"

"I do, sir!"

Then the son of General Converse gallantly extended his arm. 

"I'll be glad to be escorted by you, Mr. Farr, " he said. "Now thatI understand this thing a bit better, I am going to break one of myrules. " As they walked along he remarked: "A man's affairs are sometimesdirected and controlled for him in a most singular fashion. Littlethings change preconceived notions very suddenly. "

"They do, sir, " agreed Walker Farr. 

XIX

CONSCIENCE ENLISTING A RECRUIT

A man who stood at the head of the stairs, an outpost, saw them comingand ran and opened a door ahead of them. The door admitted to a hallwhich was packed with men who were ranged on settees and stood in theaisles and at the sides of the big room. 

"Make way for the Honorable Archer Converse, " shrieked their _avantcourier_, excitedly. 

"Three cheers for the Honorable Archer Converse, " called a voice, andall the men came on to their feet and yelled lustily. 

The distinguished guest climbed upon the platform--Farr close athis heels. The young man placed a chair for the lawyer and remainedstanding. He raised his hand to command silence. 

"This is rather unexpected, boys. But this distinguished man happenedto be passing our hall to-night and has dropped in on us in a purelyinformal manner. It's a great honor, and I want to say to him for all ofus that the old Square Deal Club is mighty grateful. I ask you to rise, gentlemen of the club. "

All came to their feet again. 

"Bow your heads and for thirty seconds of deep silence pay your respectand veneration to the memory of our great war governor, General AaronConverse. "

The Honorable Archer Converse looked forth over those bowed and baredheads. The most of them were gray heads, and toil-worn hands wereclasped in front of those men. And when at last the faces were raised tohis there was an appealing earnestness in their gaze which touched himpoignantly. 

"Boys, the son of that great man is present. How will you express youradmiration and respect for him?"

They cheered again tumultuously. 

Farr walked to the edge of the platform. 

"It is kind and generous of Mr. Converse to consent to step in here fora few moments this evening. I will leave the meeting in his hands. "

There was a hush for a moment. Then the guest carried his chair to theextreme front edge of the platform. 

"I don't know just what sort of meeting this is--I have not been fullyinformed, " he said, very crisply. "But I want it distinctly understoodthat I am not here to make any speech. Your faces indicate that you arevery much in earnest in regard to the business you are met to consider. I am assured that this is no mere political rally?"

"No, " somebody replied. 

"I'm glad of that. I am not in politics. The political mess grows to benastier every year. But what are you here for? Come, now! Come! Let'stalk it over. " He was a bit brusque, but his tone was kindly. 

A man who stood up in the middle of the hall was rather shabby in hisattire, but he had the deep eyes of one who thinks. 

"Honored sir, " he said, "I don't stand up as one presuming to speak forall the rest. But I have talked with many men. I know what some of uswant. We don't expect that laws or leaders will make lazy men getahead in the world or that victuals can be legislated into the cupboardwithout a man gets out and hustles for 'em. I have worked at a benchever since I was fourteen. I expect to work there until I drop out. Idon't want any political office. I couldn't fill one. But why is it thatthe only men who get into office are the kind who turn around andget rich selling off property which belongs to all of us--I mean thefranchises for this, that, and the other?" He sat down. 

A thin man in the front row got up. 

"Honorable Archer Converse, one franchise that was given away by thosemen years ago was the right to furnish water to this city. A privateconcern got hold of that franchise. It holds the right to-day. It savesmoney by pumping its water out of the Gamonic River. Saves money andwastes lives. The Board of Health's reports show that there were elevenhundred cases of typhoid fever in this city last year. In my familymy mother and two of my children died. I shiver every time I touch atap--but spring-water that can be depended on costs us at the grocer'sa dollar for a five-gallon carboy--and my wages are only ten dollars aweek. There are lakes twenty miles from this city. Pure water there forall of us! But every tap drips sewage from the Gamonic River. Haven't wegot any leaders who will make that water company pump health instead ofdeath?"

"They sent 'Tabulator' Burke up for ballot frauds, " said a voter whostood up in a far corner. "But anybody in this city understands wellenough that the judge who sent him to state prison knew who the realchaps were, knew how much the real ones paid 'Tabulator' to take thewhole blame. And the governor knows it all and has just reappointed thatjudge. "

The Honorable Archer Converse sat very straight in his chair andlistened to those men. He continued to sit straight and listened toothers. The men dealt in no diatribe. There was no raving, there was noanarchistic sentiments. They arose, uttered their grievances gloomilybut without passion, and sat down. 

One elderly man stood up and raised both hands. 

"I came across the sea to this country, sir. I came because I couldhave my little share in the government where I paid taxes and labored--Icould vote here. It's the only public privilege I have. But, O God, giveus some one to vote for!"

"I sympathize with your feelings, " replied Mr. Converse. "But you aretalking to the wrong man. I'm not in politics. "

"By the gods, you will be if my nerve only holds out, " Farr toldhimself. 

Another man sprang to his feet. He spoke quietly, but his veryrepression made him more effective. 

"What's the good of voting till men like you do get into politics, Mr. Converse, and give us leaders who will use their power to help thepeople who voted for them? I'm sick of voting. I'm teamed up to thepolls by ward workers--and I know just why those men are in the game andwho they're working for. What do you suppose Colonel Dodd cares whichside carries this city, or which side carries the state? He and hiscrowd stand to win, whatever party gets in. You can't beat 'em. Businessis business, no matter what politics may be! The city money is wastedjust the same, the policy game is let run for the benefit of the richmen who back it, all the grafts go right on. You can't fool me anylonger. They stir us poor chaps up at election-time, we rush to thepolls and vote, and sometimes think we are accomplishing something. Butwhat we're doing is simply boosting out some fellow who has made hispile and putting in another who wants office so that he can fill hisown pockets by selling our common rights out to the same men. I say, youcan't beat it!"

The Honorable Archer Converse seemed to find his position on theplatform uncomfortable. He rose suddenly and stepped down on the floor. He went among the men. He grasped the hands that were outstretched tohim. He realized that he had scant encouragement for these men. Themeeting had given him new light. He knew considerable about the olddays, and in the old days of politics men flocked to rallies. Theyharkened humbly to speeches from their leaders, and swallowed thesugar-coated facts, and listened to bands, and joined the torch-lightparades, and voted according to party lines, and thought they had donewell; the surface of things was nicely slicked over. 

He understood that out of the ease with which the mob could be herded, with others doing their thinking for them, had grown politics as abusiness--with the big interests dominating both parties--and no onerealized how it had all come about better than Converse. This newspirit, however, rather surprised him, for he had been keeping alooffrom politics. These men who crowded about him were not mere dumb, driven voters in the mass--they were individuals who were thinking, whowere demanding, who were seeking a leader that would consider them ascitizens to be served, not chattels to be sold to the highest bidder. His keen lawyer's insight understood all this!

"I'm a butcher down in the stock-yards, Mr. Converse, " said one man, who pressed forward. "We've got trained bulls there who tole the cattlealong into the slaughter-pens. I've got tired of being a steer inpolitics and following these old trained bulls. "

Converse worked his way through the press to the door, Farr at hisheels. 

When they were on the street the honorable gentleman turned sharplytoward the Boulevard. 

"I haven't any spirit or taste to-night for moonlight in the park, sir!A nice trick you played on me. "

"I wanted you to get a first-hand notion of a state of affairs, Mr. Converse. "

"But you ought to understand my temperament better--you ought to knowit's going to stick in my mind, worry me, vex me, set me to seeking forremedies. It's just as if I'd been retained on a case. I feel almostduty-bound to pitch in. "

"It's strange how a man gets pulled into a thing sometimes--intosomething he had no idea of meddling with, " philosophized Farr, blandly. "That's the way it has happened in my case. "

"It has, eh?" demanded Mr. Converse, sharply. He had tacitly acceptedthe young man's companionship for the walk back to the Boulevard. "Now, look here! Just who are you?"

"My name is Farr and I'm nothing. "

"You needn't bluff me--you're a politician--a candidate for something. "

"I'm not even a voter in this state. It's men like you, sir, who oughtto be candidates for the high offices. "

"My sainted father trained me to respect self-sacrifice, Mr. Farr. Butfor a clean man to try to accomplish things for the people in politicsthese days isn't self-sacrifice--it's martyrdom. The cheap politiciansheap the fagots, the sneering newspapers light the fire and keep blowingit with their bellows, and the people stand around and seem to show asort of calm relish in watching the operation. And when it is all overnot a bit of good has been done. "

"I'm afraid I have wasted an evening for you, sir. I'm sorry. I hopedthe troubles of those men, when you heard them at first hand, wouldinterest you. "

"Interest me! Confound it all, you have wrecked my peace of mind! I knewit all before. But I'm selfish, like almost everybody else. I keptaway where I couldn't hear about these things. Now, if I sleep soundlyto-night I'll be ashamed to look up at my father's portrait when I walkinto my office to-morrow morning. Why didn't you have better sensethan to coax me into your infernal meeting?" He rapped his cane angrilyagainst the curbstone as he strode on. "And the trouble with me is, "continued Mr. Converse, with much bitterness, "I know the conditions aresuch in this state that a meeting like that can be assembled in everycity and town--and the complaints will be just and demand help. But there's no organization--it's only blind kittens miauling. It'sdamnable!"

"But this is the kind of country where some mighty quick changes can bemade when the people do get their eyes open, " suggested the young man. 

Mr. Converse merely grunted, tapping his cane more viciously. 

They were on the frontier of the Eleventh Ward now. The brighter lightsof the avenues of up-town blazed before them. 

"Then you will not go into politics?" inquired Farr. 

"I'd sooner sail for India with a cargo of hymn-books and givesinging-lessons to Bengal tigers. "

"Good night, sir, " said Farr. He halted on the street corner whichmarked the boundary of the ward. 

"Good night, sir!" replied Mr. Converse, striding on. 

The young man watched him out of sight. He heard the angry clack of thecane on the stones long after the Honorable Archer Converse had turnedthe next corner. 

"Maxim in the case of a true gentleman, " mused Farr: "tap his conscienceon the shoulder, point your finger at the enemy, say nothing, simplystand back and give conscience plenty of elbow-room--it needs no help. There, by the grace of God, goes the next governor of this state. "

XX

CONSIDERATION: ONE DAUGHTER

On the morning following his discomfiture Richard Dodd posted himselfin a little tobacco-shop opposite the Trelawny Apartment-house. Lurkingbehind cigar-boxes in the window, he held the door of the house undersurly espionage. It was plain to the shopkeeper that "the gent had madea night of it. " Dodd's eyes were heavy, his face was flushed, and helighted one cigarette after another with shaky hands. 

Shortly before nine o'clock Kate Kilgour came out and walked down theavenue on the way to her work. Dodd stared after her until she wasout of sight. Shame and anger and desire mingled in the steady gazehe leveled on her; in her crisp freshness she represented both thelonged-for and the unattainable. He was conscious of a new sentimentin regard to her. In the past his impatience had been tempered by thecomforting knowledge that she had promised herself to him--that she washis to own, to possess after a bit of tantalizing procrastination. Nowhe was not at all sure of her. He had been just a bit patronizing inthe past--his successes with women had inflated his conceit--he hadexhibited a rather careless air of proprietorship--his manner had saidto her and to others, "This is mine; look at it!" But now when he hadwatched her out of sight jealousy, anger, the sour conviction thathe had forfeited her regard combined to make him desperate, and theexcesses of the night before kindled a flame which heated all his evilpassions. 

He threw away his cigarette, cursed roundly aloud, and hurried acrossthe street into the Trelawny. 

When Mrs. Kilgour admitted him to her suite she clung to thedoor-casing, exhibiting much trepidation. 

He stepped in, closed the door, and put his back against it. 

"Have you got those hysterics out of you so that you can listen to meand then talk sense?" he demanded, coarsely. 

She went into her sitting-room and he followed, muttering:

"No wonder you ran away from me last night--no wonder you didn't havethe face to stay and take what you deserve. How in tophet I ever allowedyou to plan and manage I can't understand. "

"You asked me to, " she faltered. 

"I didn't ask you to rig up a dirty conspiracy to queer me. "

"Richard, you are not yourself. You have been drinking!" She tried toexhibit protesting indignation and failed. "Come to me when you areyourself. "

"There's no more of this to-morrow business goes with me, Mrs. Kilgour. I'll admit that you're Kate's mother. But just now you are somethingelse. You have tried to do me, and nobody gets by with that stuff--man, woman, or child. We'll have our settlement here and now. "

"I did the best I could, " she wailed. 

"Out of what damnation novel did you get that idea?" he raged. 

"It seemed to be a good plan, Richard. I swear by everything sacred Ithought it would come out all right. Don't rave at me. " Her voice sunkto an appealing whisper. She picked up a book from her table. "If youwill only listen--"

"So you did get it out of a novel! My God! what have your fool ideasdone to me?"

"How do you dare to talk to Kate's mother like that?"

"I am not talking to Kate's mother, I tell you! I'm talking to a womanwho has put me into a hell on earth. I'm talking to you, Mrs. Kilgour, and you don't know the whole story yet. "

"All my life it has been the same--only trouble and sorrow and to bemisunderstood. " She began to sob. 

"Is there anything in that novel about ringing in an iceman to breakup a marriage? I say it was all a conspiracy. You didn't intend to besquare. You intended to rig a scheme so that you could duck out fromunder. You have always done that, Mrs. Kilgour. "

"I had nothing to do with that man coming in. "

"Don't try to fool me any more. You told me to come, didn't you? Youmust have told some yarn to your daughter to have her come. "

"I did--it was all--"

"And then you told that plug-ugly to come in, too, and break it up soas to queer me. Why did I ever fall for such lunacy? If I hadn't beendesperate I would never have let you drag me into such a devilishscheme. But now you have got to do your part to square me. It's going tobe straight talk from now on, Mrs. Kilgour. There must be a settlementbetween us. "

She looked away from him. She was plainly searching her soul for excusesto postpone that settlement. 

"That person who came in, Dicky! I swear I did not arrange any suchthing. He is only an iceman. I don't know the man. It was some accident. If the matter hadn't been interrupted! It was going along all right. "

"What's the matter with your intellect? You know it wasn't going alongat all! You simply had us chasing shadows. Good God! I ought to havemade you tell me what you were planning. Think of it! Think of mewaltzing down there like a boob and thinking you had something real tooffer. "

"But you frightened her with that jailbird. You should have brought areal clergyman. "

"The man I brought has the power to perform marriages! I would have madea nice spectacle towing a clergyman into that mess, wouldn't I?"

She broke in upon his further speech. She wrung her hands, paltering, pleading, trying to explain, trying more desperately to postpone thatsettlement he was demanding. 

"But, honestly, it did seem to be a good plan, Dicky. I'm her mother. Iknow her nature. You know how some natures have to be handled! She is soself-centered. She has to be taken by surprise. She has to know that sheis making a sacrifice. That is why I arranged it all for Rose Alley andborrowed that house. And I had it all planned out what to say to her atthe last moment there. "

"Well, what was this great thing you were going to say?" He glared ather, disgust and suspicion in his eyes. 

She flushed. She hesitated, unable to meet his gaze. 

"It's no use to tell you now, Dicky. Somehow, now that I come to thinkit all over, it sounds rather tame. It all did seem so plausible, whatI was going to say when I sat down and planned out the thing. And theromance of it--you know even self-centered girls like to feel that a manwants them so much that he gets desperate--and she said once that shewould marry you some time--perhaps--and--"

"Oh, you--you--" He broke in and then stopped, lacking words. "What'sthe use?" he muttered. "You don't even know your own daughter. She hasbeen enduring me because you have been keeping at her. I understand itnow. You told me you could hurry it up. You have made me look like amelodrama villain. You have made her hate me. Now own up! Didn't sherave to you after you got home and tell you she hated me? You havenailed me to the cross for ever where she is concerned--now haven't you?Own up. "

"I can win her back, Dicky. Give me a little time. " But she was not ableto look at him. "Don't scold me any more. I'm her mother. She will obeyher own mother in time. Don't hurt my sensitive nature any more. " Shebegan to weep, twisting her rings on her trembling fingers. 

He scowled at her, narrowing his eyes. "You haven't been playing squarewith me, Mrs. Kilgour. "

"Call me Mother Kilgour, Dicky, just as you always have. "

"I won't stand for any more bluffing, Mrs. Kilgour. Kate has sworn toyou that she will never marry me--now hasn't she?"

"But I can talk her around--you can win her back. I'll tell her it wasmy plan--I'll have courage to tell her later--"

"So you have been laying that crazy idea all to me?"

"But I'll get up courage to tell her some day--and your devotion willwin her back--devotion always wins. You can--"

"Mrs. Kilgour, I know you pretty well. I repeat, I know you have alwaysducked out from under--that's your nature. But here's a thing you can'tdodge. You've got to come to time. You know how I love Kate. There isn'tany reason why she shouldn't marry me. There's no excuse for her holdingme off the way she does. You've got to fix it for me--quick! Understand?This fluff talk about 'devotion' and 'some day' doesn't go. I wantaction. Now hold on! I don't mean to threaten--I've been square with youtill now. Good gad, you don't realize what a price I've paid!"

"And now on top of your other insults you are going to twit me againbecause I have borrowed five thousand dollars from you. Oh, Dicky, Ithought you were more of a gentleman?"

"Mrs. Kilgour, I have simply got to make you understand what I have donefor you before you'll wake up and do something for me. "

"I appreciate what you did, Dicky. Honestly, I do. You save me fromlosing money on my stocks. "

"Where are those stocks?"

She did not look at him. "I have them put away--all safe. They are allright. Just as soon as business is better I will get your money for you, Dicky. You shall have it, every cent. "

"Where are those stocks, I say! Mrs. Kilgour, look at me. Were arethey?"

"Why are you so particular about knowing where they are?" Protectingherself, she showed a flicker of resentment. 

"Because you must sell and hand me that money--at once. "

"I--I don't believe I can realize on them just now. They are--are downjust at present. They--"

"What are the stocks?"

"I don't care to reveal my private business, Richard. "

"It happens to be my business, too. I'm in trouble. I must know. I shallstay here till I find out. You may as well come across. "

"As soon as I can arrange it--I will tell you. Very soon now!"

He snapped himself out of his chair and went across the room to her. Heput his hands on her shoulders and bent his face to hers. 

"You haven't any stocks, Mrs. Kilgour. "

"No, " she whispered, his eyes dominating her. 

"What did you do with that money I loaned you?"

"I paid--a debt. "

"What debt? Answer! This thing must be cleared up--_now_!"

She began to weep. 

"No more hysterics, Mrs. Kilgour. We are now down to cases. Somethingbad will happen if you don't confide in me. "

Then, cornered, with the impulse of weak natures to seek support fromstronger--to appeal to a victor who cannot be eluded--she blurted thetruth. 

"They got to suspecting me when I was cashier for Dalton & Company. Iheard they were going to put experts upon my books, Dicky. I didn't wantto go to jail. I would have disgraced Kate. I knew you loved her andwould not want her mother to be arrested. I had to have that money. I told you the story about the stocks. So I was saved from beingdisgraced. "

"Oh, you were?" His eyes flamed so furiously that she turned her gazefrom him. 

"And now I feel better, for I have confided in you and you're goingto be my good and true friend from now on. It will be made up to you, Dicky. "

"What had you done with all that money you took from Dalton & Company?"

"It costs so much to live--and keep up the position I had when Andrewwas alive! A woman needs so many things, Richard. I have always beenproud. I was obliged to--"

He swore and swung away from her. "Wasted it on dress and jewelry! Youturned the trick on one man and put him underground. And I'm the nextvictim! I knew I was being played for a sucker, but, oh--"

He battered his fists against the wall in pure ecstasy of rage. Then hesat down and put his face in his hands. 

The woman clucked sobs which did not ring true. 

"I wonder what Kate would say if she knew how I had come to the scratch. She knew her father was a hero. I wonder whether she would think I amone!" he said, after silence had continued for a long time. 

"Are you going to tell her?" the mother gasped. 

"I love her too much. But, see here! Do you think I picked that fivethousand off a rose-bush?"

"You told me your uncle loaned it to you. "

"You think I got it easy--got it for the asking, and that's why you havebeen loafing on the job, " he said, with bitterness. "Ask my uncle formoney? I should say not. He never loosened for anybody yet--not even hisrelatives. Mrs. Kilgour, I love your daughter so much--I was so anxiousto help you--I stole that five thousand from the state treasury. I havebeen covering it in my accounts for more than a year--hell all the timewith plenty of white-hot when the legislative committee has been overthe accounts. Some day some blasted fool will wake up enough to see thatthere's a hole in my figures. "

He put his elbows on his knees and stared at the carpet. The woman'sface grew white. 

"That's how it stands with me, Mrs. Kilgour. You know you were notsquare with me at the start. You said you needed the money for only afew weeks--you said you were pinched in a stock deal. You lied to me. You have wasted the money on fine feathers for your back. I have keptstill. You can't pay me. I've got to struggle out of the mess as bestI can. But, by the eternal gods, there's something coming to me, andthat's your daughter. Now are you going to wake up?"

"I'll do everything I can. " Her tone was not convincing, however. 

He realized that this woman with the pulpy conscience and the artificialemotions, selfish and a coward, was merely vaguely stirred by hisrevelation, not spurred by the extent of his sacrifice in her behalf. 

"Do what you _can_? Whine to me like that after I have stolen state'smoney and am standing under my steal? What if this state tips overpolitically and they investigate the treasury? I tell you, Mrs. Kilgour, I deserve to have Kate. I'm going to have her. You have got to fixit--and right away. "

"But I can't marry off a girl of twenty as if she were a Chinese slave. "His insistence caused her to display more of her pettish resentment. 

"If you can't deliver the goods, Mrs. Kilgour, I shall take a hand init. "

"How?"

"I'll tell her the story. "

"You wouldn't dare. "

"She has a sense of honor and of obligation even if you haven't. Shewill pay. She'll pay with herself. That's a devil of a way to get awife, but if that's the only way I'll take it. "

"But you have just owned up that you have embezzled money. As Kate'smother it's my duty to protect her from disgrace. "

That amazing declaration fairly took away Dodd's breath. 

By the manner in which the woman now looked at him it was plain that hehad sunk in her estimation. 

"You know, Richard, a mother feels called on to protect a gooddaughter. "

He got up and stamped on the floor in his passion and swore. 

"I appreciate what you did for me--but, really, I didn't ask you tosteal money--and I supposed your uncle was always liberal with you. Youshould not have told me falsehoods. "

The maddening feature of this calm assumption of superiority was thefact that the woman seemed really to believe for the moment exactly whatshe was saying and to forget why Dodd had jeopardized his fortunes; hermanner showed her shallow estimate of the situation. 

"There's another way of doing it, " raged the young man, infuriated bythis repudiation of obligation. "I'll blow the whole thing about the twoof us--and she'll be glad enough to have me after it's all over. "

"You haven't any right to bring all this trouble and disgrace into myfamily. "

"You know one way of preventing it and you'd better get busy, Mrs. Kilgour, " he advised. "I'm going to give you another chance of keepingyour word and paying your debt to me. I want Kate--and I have waited forher long enough. "

He clapped on his hat and hurried away. 

He left the mother sprawled on a couch, her ringed hands clutchedinto her dyed hair. She was still clucking sobs which would not haveconvinced any unprejudiced hearer that she felt real grief. 

When Richard Dodd entered his uncle's offices in the First Nationalblock a little later he was in the mood to force his affairs a bit. Heenjoyed liberties there which the ordinary caller did not have and hewalked into Kate Kilgour's little room without attracting attention orcomment. 

"I know exactly how you feel about last night, Kate. " He addressed herrespectfully and humbly. "I understand that this is no place to discussthe matter. I haven't come here to do so. I apologize for the affair. I'm going to say this to you--I took your mother's advice. She plannedthe thing and trumped up the errand which called you to that house. I'mafraid she is rather too romantic. I only say this, Kate: a man's lovecan make him do foolish things. Please talk with your mother when you gohome--and take her advice. If you do, it will be better for all of us. "He trembled with the restraint he had put upon himself. "You can seethat I have been punished, Kate. I am a different man--you ought to beable to see it. Awful trouble has come to me. I need your love to helpme through it. "

She gazed at him with level, cold eyes. 

"You don't understand. I can't explain, dear! But I'm telling you thetruth. Kate, if you don't forget that folly I was guilty of last nightand be to me what you have been--if you don't marry me very soon youwill be sorry. "

"Are you threatening me, Richard?"

"No, I didn't mean it to sound like that. But I know that with yourappreciation of what sacrifice means you will be very unhappy if youtoss me away and then find out certain things. "

"This is not the time for riddles, Richard. What do you mean?"

"I have said all I can say. "

"I do not love you well enough to be your wife. I have not meant toplay the coquette. I have not known myself. You and my mother--Oh, whyrehearse? You know the story. You have understood that my love foryou was not what you should have. We may as well end it here and now, Richard. I will forget last night. I will forget all the rest--for it isended!"

"It cannot be ended, " he retorted. "Understand! It cannot be ended. I amtrying to hold myself together, Kate. Don't provoke me. I call on youto keep your promise. No other man shall have you. " He leaned close. "Doyou love any other man?"

She looked up at him and spoke slowly and gravely. "I do not think I do, Richard. "

He scowled at her. "You don't _think_ you do! What in the name of Judasdo you mean by a remark like that?"

"It's because I'm trying to tell the truth, " she returned, with simpleearnestness. 

"This is a sort of new mood you're in?" he persisted. 

"Yes. "

He hesitated. He started to speak and then was silent for a long time. "Damnation! I won't insult you!" he blurted at last. 

"I hope not, Richard. "

"It's preposterous!"

"What is preposterous?" Her tone was calm. 

"I saw you look at a man last evening. "

"Very well!"

"I have seen women look at me like that in my life. "

"I was not conscious that I looked at any man in any especial manner. "

"You couldn't see yourself. Perhaps you did not realize that you lookedat that man with any meaning in your eyes. But the women who lookedat me as you looked at him told me that they loved me. I am talkingit right out! But if I should hint that you're in love with a tramp Ishould insult you. I am crazy, that's all. My troubles are affecting mymind. Forgive me, Kate. "

"You are, of course, referring to the young man who broke in on ourprospective business last evening. " There was just a touch of contemptin her demeanor; but her air was coldly business-like; sitting thereat her desk she held him, physically and mentally, at arm's-length. Herpoise was sure. It seemed perfectly natural for her to be discussing ayoung man in an impersonal manner. 

"I am referring to that low-lived vagrant we met on the road--thaticeman--that--well, I don't know what he is except that the devilseems to be kicking him under my feet to trip me. Kate, Kate, it's tooridiculous to talk about--that wretch!"

"Do you mean by that remark that I am taking any interest in that youngman outside of mere curiosity?"

"I don't know why you should have any curiosity about a tramp. "

"You are not a good student of physiognomy, Richard. "

"So you have been studying him, have you? You went away with him andleft me. What did he say to you? Where did he leave you? I haven't daredto think about your going away with him. I excused it because you wereangry--so angry you'd even pick up a tramp for an escort. But whatinterest do you take in that renegade?" His tones were acrid withjealousy. 

"I did not find him a renegade. I found him a mystery, Richard. And Ihope that some day I will know what the mystery is. "

"Are you trying to drive me mad?"

"I am merely chatting along in order to keep you off a topic whichis distressing. I heard that your uncle intended to have the maninvestigated after he came into the office here and made that bravestand. I happened to hear the talk the young man made. Perhaps thataccounts for my curiosity. Did your uncle find out much about the man?"

"I don't know what he found out, " declared Dodd, rapidly losing controlof himself. "But I propose to find out for myself. "

"Please do, Richard, " said the girl, ingenuously and earnestly. Sheseemed to be losing some of the hauteur she had shown at the first oftheir meeting. 

"I'll find out enough to put him in jail, where he probably belongs. I'mnot going to insult you, Kate, by any more talk about a tramp. You can'tshift me from the main topic. Go home and talk with your mother, as Ihave told you. We are going to be married!"

"Richard, our affair is ended. "

"Then who is the man?"

"There is no man. "

"If you say that and mean it, then you don't know women as well as Iknow them. You don't know even yourself!" he declared. "I want to sayto you, Kate, that we are all walking on mighty thin ice. The sooneryou and I take hold of hands and get safely ashore--just you and I--thebetter it will be. Just let your curiosity about other men fall asleep. I tell you again, go home and talk with your mother. "

He bowed, reached his hand to touch hers, but refrained when she turnedsuddenly to her desk and resumed her work. 

Young Dodd hurried out of the building without attempting to see hisuncle, and cooled his head and his passion and soothed his physicaldiscomfort by a headlong dash in his car back to the state's capitalcity. 

The girl took her courage in her hands and asked Mr. Peter Briggs, inas matter-of-fact tone as she could muster, whether he did not want anyrecord copy made of his notes in regard to that person who had beardedColonel Dodd. But Mr. Briggs informed her that the matter was not ofsufficient importance. 

"The fellow is merely a cheap, loafing sort--here to-day, thereto-morrow, " said Briggs. "I investigated him thoroughly. "

Until then Miss Kilgour had always had a high opinion of Peter Briggs'sacumen. She promptly revised that estimate, reflecting that age is boundto dull a person's senses and cloud his judgment. 

XXI

THE HONORABLE LION CONFERS WITH COLONEL TIGER

All his people in the offices of the Honorable Archer Converse noticedthat the chief was not amiable that day. His usual dignified composurewas wholly lacking. He gave off orders fretfully, he slapped papersabout on his desk when he worked there; every now and then he glancedup at the portrait of his distinguished father and muttered underhis breath. He had called for more documents relating to state healthstatistics, reports on water systems, and had despatched a clerk tothe capital city to secure certain additional facts, figures, andliterature. The junior members of his law firm knew that he had takenmuch to heart the case of the citizens of Danburg, who had been blockedin their honest efforts to build a water system and who nowcharged various high interests with conspiracy. The litigation wasimportant--the issues revolutionary. But the juniors had never seen thechief fussed up by any law case before. 

Then something really did happen!

The three citizens of Danburg who had occasionally conferred with himcame into his office and lined up in front of him. Mr. Davis scratchedhis chin and blinked meekly, Mr. Erskine exhibited his nervousness byrunning his fingers around inside his collar, and Mr. Owen fairly oozedunspoken apology. 

"Look here, gentlemen, " snapped Mr. Converse, "I'm not ready for you. Itold you not to come until next week. I have an immense mass of materialto study. You're only wasting time--mine and yours--coming here to-day. "

"Well, you see, your honor, " stammered Davis, "we came to-day so as tosave you more trouble and work. "

"Work!" echoed Mr. Converse, seizing the arms of his chair and shovingan astonished face forward. 

"Why--why--you see we've decided not to push this case any further. And whatever is owing to you--name the sum. " He did not relish theglow which was coming into the attorney's eyes, nor the grim wrinklessettling about the thin lips. "So that there won't be any hard feelings, in any way, " Davis hastened to say. 

"What has happened to you men all of a sudden?" demanded the lawyer. "Explain! Speak up!"

Davis's face was red, and he found much difficulty in replying. 

"Well--you see--you know--if you get into law you never know when you'regoing to get out. We feel that this case is bound to drag! It's an awfulbig case--and they've got lots of money to fight us. "

"I told you I'd take your case for bare expenses and court fees, "stormed the lawyer. "It's a case I wanted to prosecute. "

"We know--you were mighty fine about it--but we've decided different. You see, the Consolidated--"

Mr. Converse came onto his feet and shook his finger under Davis's nose. "Don't you dare to tell me you have sold out to the Consolidated, " heshouted in tones that rang through his offices and brought all his forceto the right about and attention. 

"That wasn't it--exactly. But they'll take it off our hands--will do theright thing, now that we have shown 'em a few things! Colonel Dodd hasseen new light. And it is too good a price for us to throw down. "

"You have let those monopolists buy you off. They have paid you a bigbribe because they are getting scared. They were afraid they had playedthe old game once too often. I have them where I want them! No, my men!You've got to fight this thing, I say. "

"You can't drag us into law unless we're willing to go, " stated Davis, doggedly. "We've taken their money and the papers have been passed--andthat settles it. We haven't done anything different than the others havedone in this state. "

"No, and that's the trouble with this state, " cried Converse, withpassion. "You came in here at first and talked like men--like honest menwho had good reason for righteous anger--and I took your case. And nowyou sneak back here and give up your fight--bribed after I clubbed themuntil they were willing to offer you enough money. "

"We have only done what straight business men would do Mr. Converse, "declared Owen. 

"We had a chance to go to the high court with a case that would open upthe whole rottenness in this state before we got done fighting, and youhave sold out!"

"Good day. We don't have to listen to such talk, " said Erskine. 

"You wait one minute. " The lawyer pulled open a drawer and found hischeck-book. He wrote hastily and tore out the check. "Here's thatretaining-fee you paid me. Now get out of my office. "

He drove them ahead of him to the door, shouting insistent commands thatthey hurry. 

When they were gone he gazed about at his astonished associates, hispartners, and his clerks. 

"I apologize most humbly ladies and gentlemen, for making such adisturbance. I--I hardly seem to be myself to-day. "

He went to his desk and sat down and stared up at the portrait ofWar-Governor Converse for a long time. At last he thumped his fist onhis desk and shook his head. 

"No, " he declared, as if the portrait had been asking him a questionand pressing him for a reply, "I can't do it. I could have gone intothe courts and fought them as an attorney. I could have maintained myself-respect. But not in politics--no--no! It's too much of a mess inthese days. "

But he pushed aside the papers which related to the affairs of the bigcorporations for which he was counsel and kept on studying the reportswhich his clerks had secured for him--such statements on health andfinancial affairs as they were able to dig up. 

A day later his messenger brought a mass of data back from the StateHouse along with a story about insolent clerks and surly heads ofdepartments who offered all manner of slights and did all they dared tohinder investigation. 

"It's a pretty tough condition of affairs, Mr. Converse, " complainedthe clerk, "when a state's hired servants treat citizens as if they weretrespassers in the Capitol. It has got so that our State House isn'tmuch of anything except a branch office for Colonel Dodd. "

"But you told them from what office you came--from my office?"

"Of course I did, sir. "

"Well, what did they say?"

The clerk's face grew red and betrayed sudden embarrassment. 

"Oh, they--they--didn't say anything special: just uppish--only--"

"What did they say?" roared Mr. Converse. "You've got a memory! Out withit! Exact words. "

Clerks were taught to obey orders in that office. 

"They said, " choked the man, "that simply because your father wasgovernor of this state once you needn't think you could tell folks inthe State House to stand around! They said you didn't cut any ice inpolitics. "

"That's the present code of manners, eh? Insult a citizen and salaam toa politician!"

"Mr. Converse, I waited an hour in the Vital Statistics Bureau while thechief smoked cigars with Alf Symmes, that ward heeler. I had sent in ourfirm card, and the chief held it in his hand and flipped it and smokedand sat where he could look out at me and grin--and when Symmes hadfinished his loafing they let me in. "

Mr. Converse turned to his desk and plunged again into the data. 

The next day he put a clerk at the long-distance telephone to callphysicians in all parts of the state--collecting independent informationin regard to the past and present prevalence of typhoid; he read certainofficial reports with puckered brow and little mutters of disbelief, and after he had read for a long time that disbelief was very frank. Mr. Converse had rather keen vision in matters of prevarication, even whenthe lying was done adroitly with figures. 

He was not a pleasant companion for his office force during those days;his irascibility seemed to increase. He knew it himself, and he felt agentleman's shame because of a state of mind which he could not seem tocontrol. 

And finally, out of the complexity of his emotions, he fully realizedthat he was angry at himself and that his anger at himself was growingmore acute from the fact that he realized that the anger was justified. For he woke to the knowledge that he had allowed himself to growselfish. He resented the fact that anybody should expect him to meddlewith public affairs--to get into the muddle of politics. And he knew heought to be ashamed of such selfishness--and, therefore, he grew moreangry at himself as he continued to harbor resentment against any agencywhich threatened to drag him into public life. 

He knew where the shell of that selfishness had been broken--it wascracked in the meeting where his chivalry had received its call to armsin behalf of the helpless. Those men had gazed at him, had told theirtroubles--and had left it all to his conscience! He did not believethose men were shrewd enough to understand so exactly in what fashion hecould be snared in their affairs. 

"Confound that rascal who inveigled me there!" ran his mental anathemaof the strange young man. "He must have been the devil, wearing thatfrock-coat to hide his forked tail. And here I am now, fighting forpeace of mind!"

And his struggle for his peace of mind drove him, at last, to set hishat very straight on his head and march across the street to ColonelSymonds Dodd's office. 

The Honorable Archer Converse had made up his mind that no influencein the world could pull or push him into politics. He held firmly fixedconvictions as to what would happen to a good man in politics. To getoffice this man of principle would be obliged to fight manipulators withtheir own choice of weapons. And once in office, all his motives wouldbe mocked and his movements assailed. Converse was a keen man who hadstudied men; he was not one of those amiable theorists who believe thatthe People always have sense enough in the mass to turn to and elect theright men for rulers. He understood perfectly well that accomplishingreal things in politics is not a game of tossing rose-petals. 

He went to call on Colonel Dodd. He went with the lofty purpose of apatriotic citizen, resolved to exhort the colonel to clean house. It seemed to be quite the natural thing to do, now that the idea hadoccurred to him. Certainly Colonel Dodd would listen to reason--wouldwake up when the thing was presented to him in the right manner; he mustunderstand that new fashions had come to stay in these days of reform. 

Thinking it all over, considering that really the matter of thiswater-supply and attendant monopoly of franchises had become an evil, that the prospects of the party would be endangered if the party leaderscontinued to nurse this evil, Mr. Converse was certain that he and thecolonel would be able to arrange for reform, by letting the colonel dothe reforming. 

They faced each other. Their respective attitudes told much!

Colonel Dodd filled his chair in front of his desk, using all the spacein it, swelling into all its concavities--usurping it all. 

The Honorable Archer Converse sat very straight, his shoulders nottouching his chair-back. 

Physically they represented extremes; mentally, morally, and inpolitical ethics they were as divergent as their physical attributes. 

"I'm sorry that you were able to take those Danburg men into camp, " saidMr. Converse, couching his lance promptly and in plain sight likean honorable antagonist. "I had been retained and proposed to exposeconditions in the management of water systems. "

"I don't know what you mean, " replied the colonel, following hisown code of combat and mentally fumbling at a net to throw over thisantagonist. 

"Yes, you do, " retorted Mr. Converse. "You know better than I do becauseyou own the water systems of this state. But if you need to be reminded, Colonel, I'll say that you are making great profits. You can afford totap lakes--spend money for mains even if you do have to go fifteen ortwenty miles into the hills around the cities and towns. "

"Whom do you represent, sir?"

"Colonel Dodd, I think--really--that I'm representing _you_ when I giveyou mighty good advice and do not charge for it. "

"I've got my own lawyers, Mr. Converse. "

Both men were employing politeness that was grim, and they were swappingglances as duelists slowly chafe swords, awaiting an opening. 

Sullen anger was taking possession of the colonel, thus bearded. 

Righteous indignation, born from his bitterness of the past few days, made Converse's eyes flash. 

"You are one of the richest men in this state, Colonel Dodd, andyour money has come to you from the pockets of the people--tolls fromthousands of them. Remember that!"

"Huh!" snorted the colonel, looking up at a bouquet. 

It is not often given to men to place proper estimate on their ownlimitations. Otherwise, the Honorable Archer Converse would never havegone in person to prevail upon Colonel Symonds Dodd. In temperament andethics they were so far asunder that conference between them on a commontopic was as hopeless an undertaking as would be argument between atiger and a lion over the carcass of a sheep. 

Mr. Converse rose, unfolding himself with dignified angularity. 

"I must remind you, sir, that I belong to the political party of whichyou assume to be boss. If you refuse to give common justice to thepeople, then you are using that party to cover iniquity. "

Colonel Dodd worked himself out of his chair and stood up. "I am takingno advice from you, sir, as to how I shall manage business or politics. "

"Perhaps, sir, in regard to your business I can only exhort you to behonest, but as regards the party which my honored father led to victoryin this state I have something to say, by gad! sir, when I see it beingled to destruction. "

"Well, sir, what have you to say?"

"I will not stand by and allow it to be ruined by men who are using itto protect their methods in business dealings. "

"What ice do you think you cut in the politics of this state?" inquiredthe colonel, dropping into the vernacular of the politician, too angryto deal in any more grim politeness. 

"Not the kind you are cutting, sir--your political ice is like the iceyou cut from the poisoned rivers. "

"It seems to be still popular for cranks to come here and threaten me, "sneered the colonel. "It was started a while ago by a shock-headed idiotfrom the Eleventh Ward. "

The Honorable Archer Converse displayed prompt interest which surprisedthe colonel. "A young man from the Eleventh Ward? Was he tall and ratherdistinguished-looking?"

Colonel Dodd snorted his disgust. "Distinguished-looking! He threatenedme, and I had him followed. He's a ward heeler. Better look him up!"His choler was driving him to extremes. He was pricked by his caller'shigh-bred stare of disdain. "He seems to be another apostle of thepeople who wants to tell me how to run my own business. Yes, you betterlook him up, Converse. "

"Very well, sir! If he came in here and tried to tell you the truthabout yourself he's worth knowing. Furthermore, I think I do know him. "

"Ah, one of those you train with, eh? Do you like him?"

It was biting sarcasm, but to the colonel's disappointment it did notappear to affect his caller in the least. Converse even smiled--a mostpeculiar sort of smile. 

"I must say, sir, that I have been hating him cordially. "

The colonel grunted approbation. 

"But from now on, sir, for reasons best known to myself, I'm going tomake that young man my close and particular friend. You'll hear from uslater. "

He bowed stiffly and went out, leaving Colonel Dodd staring after himwith his square face twisted into an expression of utter astonishment, his little eyes goggling, his tuft of whisker sticking up like anexclamation-point. 

"The first appropriation the next legislature makes, " hesoliloquized, "will have to be money enough to build a new wing on theinsane-hospital. They're all going crazy in this state, from aristocratsto tramps. "

XXII

ENLISTING A KNIGHT-ERRANT

On his way down the stairs to the street the Honorable Archer Converse, moving more rapidly than was his wont, overtook and passed Kate Kilgour. He was too absorbed to notice even a pretty girl. She had finished herwork for the day and was on her way home. 

When she reached the street she observed something which interestedher immensely: Mr. Converse suddenly flourished his cane to attract theattention of a man on the opposite side of the street. Then Mr. Conversecalled to him from the curb with the utmost friendliness in his tones. The girl passed near him and heard what he said. It was not a mere hailto an inferior. The eminent lawyer very politely and solicitously askedthe tall young man across the way if he could not spare time to come tothe Converse office. 

She cast a look over her shoulder. The young man came across the streetpromptly. He was the man who had served her in her time of need!

She went on, but turned again. An uncontrollable impulse prompted her. 

They were entering the door of the office-building, and the aristocratichand of the Honorable Archer Converse was patting the shoulder of thisstranger. Her cheeks flushed and she turned away hastily, for the youngman caught her backward glance and returned an appealing smile. 

"Who is he?" she asked herself, knowing well the chill reserve of Mr. Converse in the matter of mankind. 

"Who are you?" demanded Mr. Converse, planting himself in front of theyoung man when they were in the private office. 

The other met the lawyer's searching look with his rare smile. "The sameman I was last time we met--Walker Farr. "

"I have no right to pry into your private affairs, sir, but I havespecial reasons for wanting you to volunteer plenty of information aboutyourself. "

For reply the young man spread his palms and silently, by his smile, invited inspection of himself. 

"Yes, I see you. But the outside of you doesn't tell me what I want toknow. "

"It will have to speak for me. "

"Look here, I have let myself be tied up most devilishly by a train ofcircumstances that you started, young man. I was minding my own privatebusiness until a little while ago. "

"So was I, Mr. Converse. "

"You're a moderately humble citizen, judged from outside looks just now. How did I allow myself to be pulled in as I've been?"

The young man's smile departed. "I asked myself that question a littlewhile ago, sir, after I was pulled in, for I am a stranger--not even avoter here. "

"Well, did you decide how it was?"

"I was led in by the hand of a helpless child--a poor little orphan girlwhom I carried to the cemetery on my knees--a martyr--poisoned by thatConsolidated water. "

The lawyer was stirred by the intensity of feeling which the man's tonesbetrayed. 

"And it was borne in upon me afresh, Mr. Converse, that the philosophyof the causes by which God moves this world of ours will never beunderstood by man. "

"See here, " snapped the son of the war governor, "take off your mask, Walker Farr! There's something behind it I want to see. You are aneducated gentleman! What are you? Where did you come from?"

Again Farr spread out his palms and was silent. 

"You are right about causes. You are one in my case. There may be somefatalism in me--but I'm impelled to use you in a great fight that I feelhonor-bound to take up. Now be frank!"

"For all use you can make of me, Mr. Converse, my life starts from theminute I picked that little girl up from the floor of a tenement-housein this city. For what I was _before_ is so different from what I am_now_ that I cannot mix that identity with my affairs. "

"But I cannot take a man into a matter like this unless I know all abouthim. "

Farr rose and bowed. "I'm sorry you can't accept me at face value, sir. I'm very sorry, because I'd like to serve under such a commander as you. However, I understand your position. I don't blame you. The rule of theworld is pretty binding: know a man before you associate with him. But Iam as I am. There's nothing more to be said. "

"You sit down, " commanded Converse. "This is a case where rules of theworld can be suspended. For I need the kind of man who dares to faceeven Symonds Dodd in his office and tell him what he is. Oh, I have justcome from there, " he explained in reply to Farr's stare. "He told me. "

"I went merely as a voice, sir. "

"But you seem to have been more than that in getting the confidence ofthe men in your ward. I know an organizer when I see him. I watched thefaces of those men when you stepped before them. They have faith inyou. That's a rare quality--the ability to inspire faith in the humble. First, faith--and then they'll follow. The movement I'm going to startneeds followers, Mr. Farr! Can you do with other men what you have donewith men in the Eleventh?"

"I believe I can, sir. "

"Ah, you have led men in the past, have you?" Mr. Converse fired thequestion at him. But he did not jump Walker Farr from his equipoise. Theyoung man took refuge behind that inscrutable smile. 

"Well, " sighed the lawyer, after a pause, "it's the dictum that one mustbe as wise as a serpent in politics, therefore I am picking out a manwho will probably give a good account of himself. But it's a crazyperformance of mine--going into this thing--and I may as well plunge tothe extent of lunacy. Mr. Farr, the rebellious unrest in this state mustbe organized. We need a house-cleaning. We need the humbler voters!The men with interests are too well taken care of by the Machine to beinterested. I want you to go out and hunt for sore spots and get to thevoters just as you have in your ward. Find the right men in each townand city to help you. You must know many on account of your work foryour water association. The fight will be financed--you need have noworry about that. Perhaps you have organized political revolts before, "pursued Converse, still craftily probing. "Then you'll tell me whathonorarium you expect. "

"My expenses--nothing more, sir. If I had any money laid by I would paymy own way. "

"I think, " stated Mr. Converse, warming with the spirit of combat, glancing up at the portrait of the war governor, "that we'll be able tosurprise some of the fat toads of politicians in this state, sitting socomfortably under their cabbage-leaves. You're a stranger, young man, and as you go about your work the regular politicians will simply blinkat you and will not understand, I hope, provided you go softly. It isvery silly of me to be in this affair, sir. But a man of my age musthave peace of mind, and that infernal meeting in your ward awoke me. Furthermore, " he added, displaying the acrimony that even a good manrequires to spur him to honest fighting, "a cheap politician only latelyflipped my card insolently and referred in slighting tones to my honoredfather. " He rose and gave Farr his hand. "I'll have assembled here inmy office at ten o'clock to-morrow morning some gentlemen who will standfor decency in public affairs as soon as they have been waked up. Youwill please attend that conference, Mr. Farr. We have only a shortmonth before the state convention, and we must bring there at leasta respectable number of delegates whom Symonds Dodd cannot bribe orbrowbeat. "

"Most extraordinary--most extraordinary!" mused the HonorableArcher Converse, when he was alone. "From that meeting--to aninvestigation--from Dodd--to this young man--I have been leaping fromcrag to crag like a mountain-goat, never stopping to take breath. Andhere I haven't even been able to find out just who he is--and theydo say I'm the best cross-examiner in this state! However, I'll showSymonds Dodd that I'm not to be sneered at, even if I have to hirePatagonians in this campaign. "

Even chivalry must needs be spiced with a little strictly personalanimosity to achieve its best results!

Colonel Symonds Dodd, laboriously climbing into his limousine in frontof the First National block, scowled at a young man because theman grinned at him so broadly as he passed along. In his generalindifference and contempt for the humble the colonel did not searchhis memory and did not recognize this person as the young man who hadappealed to him in his office. The face seemed familiar and had somesort of an unpleasant recollection connected with it; therefore thecolonel scowled. He was far from realizing that this person carried onhis palm the warmth from a hand-clasp which, just a moment before, hadratified an agreement to dynamite the Dodd political throne. 

If some seer had risen beside his chariot to predict disaster thecolonel would have shriveled him with a contemptuous look. For theConsolidated Water Company had that day been intrenched more firmly thanever in its autocracy by a decision handed down from the Supreme Court. A city had hired the best of lawyers and had fought desperately for theright to have pure water. But the law, as expounded by the judges, hadheld as inexorable the provision that no city or town in the state couldextend its debt limit above the legal five percent of its valuation, no matter for what purpose. The city sought for some avenue, some plan, some evasion, even, so that it might take over the water system andgive its people crystal water from the lakes instead of the pollutedriver-water. The city pointed to typhoid cases, to slothful torpor onthe part of the water syndicate. But the court could only, in the lastanalysis, point to the law--and that law in regard to debt limit wasrooted in the constitution of the state--and a law fortified by theconstitution is seldom dislodged. 

Backed by law, bulwarked by political power, owning men and money-bags, Colonel Dodd rode home with great serenity. He had even forgotten hisrather tempestuous half-hour with the Honorable Archer Converse. As amatter of fact, gentlemen of the aristocracy of the state who pridedthemselves on their ancestry were considered by Colonel Dodd to beimpracticable cranks; he despised the poor and hated the proud--andcalled himself a self-made man. And Colonel Dodd was firmly convincedthat nobody could _unmake_ him. 

He strolled among his flower-beds that evening. 

Walker Farr sat in his narrow chamber and pored over interlinedmanuscripts. At last he shook the papers above his head, not gaily, butwith grim bitterness. 

"That plan will stand law, and no other lawyer ever thought of it!"he cried, aloud. "You've got an iron clutch on those cities and towns, Colonel Dodd, but I've got something that will pry your fingers loose!"He threw the papers from him and set his face in his hands. "And theyask me who I am and I can't tell them, " he sobbed. 

XXIII

THE PROPHET WHO WAS UNDERRATED

The first sniffer to catch the trail of Walker Farr was the veteran, Daniel Breed, an old political hound who always traveled with muffledpaws and nose close to the ground. But when he went to the meeting ofthe state committee and the Big Boys with his news their reception ofhim hinted that they suspected he was making up a political bugabooin order to get a job. He was even told that his services as field manwould not be needed in that campaign. And it may be imagined what effectthat news had on old Daniel Breed, who had been a trusted pussy-footerand caucus manipulator for a quarter of a century. 

"You don't mean to tell me that you're trying to slam me onto thescrap-heap, do you?" he demanded. "I'll scrap before I'll be scrapped. "

"Look here, Dan, it's the colonel's orders, " explained the chairman. "Ithas been decided to play politics a little more smoothly. There is toomuch jaw-gab going among the cranks. If there is any outside work doneat all it will be put over by new chaps who are not so well advertisedas you old bucks. We want to hide the machinery this year. "

"That's a jobeefed nice thing to say to me, a man that would go up in aballoon and troll for hen-hawks, asking no questions, provided the statecommittee told me it would help in carrying a caucus. "

"But we're taking care of the old boys all right, Dan. Vose is in thepension-office; Ambrose and Sturdivant are in the adjutant-general'soffice patching up the Civil War rolls, with orders to take their timeabout it. And you'll be used well. "

"I want to be in the field, " insisted Breed, 'sipping' his lipsimportantly. "Those fellows are old fuddy-duddies. I'm a naturalpolitician. "

He was an interesting figure, this Honorable Daniel Breed. He wasentitled to the "Honorable. " He had been a state senator from hiscounty. With his slow, side-wheel gait, head too little for his body, nose like a beak, sunken mouth, cavernous eyes, and a light hat perchedon the back of his narrow head he suggested a languid, tame, bald-headedeagle. And his voice was a dry, nasal, querulous squawk--a sound moreavian than human. 

"I tell ye there's yeast a-stirring, " he told the state committee. "There's a fellow come up out of the Eleventh Ward in Marion that'ssome punkins in organizing. He pretends to be a law student in ArchConverse's law-office. He ain't a native. I don't know where he hailsfrom. He ain't a registered voter as yet. But he's a man who needs to betrailed. "

"Squire Converse isn't in politics, Dan. You're getting notional in yourold age, " said the committeeman from Breed's county. 

"But good gad! there ain't any statute to keep him out. Something hashappened to make him good and mad. Some of these fancy jumping-jacks canmake awful leaps when the box is opened, gents! Better take warning fromwhat I tell you!"

The committeemen exchanged smiles. 

"We are going to steal a little of the kid-gloved chaps' thunder, "explained the chairman. "They have been howling about machine politicsand interlocking interests and air-tight methods until the people aregrowling about the close corporation they say we've got. So we're goingto show 'em a thing or two. Nothing like frankness and open house. "

"Gor-ram it, you ain't even square with me--after I have worked politicswith you for twenty-five years!" He marched up to the table and rappedhis hard little knuckles on it. "It's this way, gents, " he said, "andI'll be short and sweet. What's the matter with politics when a man likeI've always been gets pi-oogled out of the councils?"

"We don't need workers like you any more, " stated the chairman. 

"But there's politics to play, just the same. "

"But in a different way, Breed. There are the new ideas, and new men canoperate more efficiently. They won't attract attention. "

"Old Maid Orne down in my town came into church late and crawled up theaisle on her hands and knees so as not to attract attention. And shebroke up the meeting!"

"We've got to fall in with the new ways, Dan, " said theattorney-general. "These are touchy times. We must be careful of theparty. "

"I 'ain't never disgraced it, have I?"

"Uncle Dan, we want you to take a good, comfortable position and settledown, " affirmed Governor Alonzo Harwood, an unctuous, rubicund gentlemanwho had been listening, smiling his everlasting smile. 

"I prefer to hold myself in readiness for a call to the field, " squalledBreed. "I'm better'n three of these young snydingles. They don't knowhow to organize!"

"There isn't much chance for organizing, " said a Congressman, placatingly. "The primaries take care of themselves pretty well. "

"Yes, " sneered old Dan, "a fellow thinks well of himself, or else hisneighbors tell him he can save the nation, and he puts a piece in thepaper saying how good he is and sets pictures of himself up in storewinders like a cussed play-actor, keeps a cash account, and thinksthat's politics. I don't care if there ain't ever no more caucuses. Thisthing ain't going to last. I want to keep in the field. I'll see chancesto heave trigs into the spokes of these hallelujah chariots they'rerolling to political glory in!"

The mighty ones exchanged glances--deprecating glances--apprehensiveglances. 

"You don't think I'm dangerous, do you, after I've been in politics aslong as I have?"

"No, but we feel that the old war-horses are entitled to run to pasturewith their shoes off, " coaxed the chairman. 

"It seems to me more like tying me up to a stanchion in a stall. Iain't ungrateful, gents. I know this younger element doesn't believein setting hens in politics any more. It's the incubatornowadays--wholesale job of it. But, by dadder! my settings have alwayscracked the shells, twelve to the dozen! Then you don't want me, eh?"

"That job in the state land-office--we thought it would just about fityou, " suggested the chairman. 

"I'd just as soon be sent to state prison--solitary confinement. Thestate hasn't got any land any more. It has all been peddled out to thegrabbers. I've messed and mingled with men all my life. Nobody evercomes into the land-office. You ain't afraid of me to that extent, beyou?"

"What do you want?" asked the governor. 

"Settled, is it, you don't want me in politics?"

"There isn't anything for you to do, " declared his Excellency, and heshowed a little impatience, though his smile did not fade. 

"Well, then make me state liberian, " said old Dan, with an air ofresignation. 

There was deep and horrified silence. 

"I'm developing literary instinks, " explained Breed. "I've got a son whoowns a printing-office, and my granddaughter can take down anything inshorthand and write it off. I'm going to write a book. She'll take itdown and he'll print it. "

"I can't appoint you state librarian, " said the governor, gettingcontrol of his emotions. "It's already tied up, that appointment. Keepit under your hat, but I have selected Reverend Doctor Fletcher, ofCornish, and have notified him. "

"Giving a plum like that to a parson who never controlled but one vote, and that's his own--and then voted the way the deacon told him to?I reckon it's about as you say--there are new times in politics. Allright! I'll go and climb a sumach-bush. You needn't bother about any jobfor me, gents. I'll settle down to my literary work. "

"What is the book?" asked the chairman. 

"I have your word for it that the old days in politics have all goneby, " said Breed. "All the old things dead and buried! Very well. That'sgoing to make my book valuable and interesting. No harm in putting itout in these times. I shall entitle it 'Breed's Handbook of PoliticalDeviltry. ' I shall tell the story of how it was done when politics wasreally politics. "

"Going to tell all you know?" inquired the governor. 

"Of course. Truth, and not poetry, will be my motto. And just for a testof how popular it will be, I'd like to ask you gents how many of youwill subscribe for a volume?"

"I think this committee will take the whole edition, " said the chairman, dryly. 

"Look here, Dan, " blurted the attorney-general, "you must be joking. "

"I don't know what ever gave you the impression that I'm a humorist, "returned Breed. "If there ain't going to be anything more like the oldtimes, then what's the matter with having the story of how it was done?That book will sell like hot cakes. I'll go out and sell it--it willgive me a chance to keep on mixing and messing with men. "

"Dan, if it wasn't you talking--knowing you well--I'd say this is apiece of blackmail, " declared the attorney-general. "Of course you can'tput out a book of that kind in this state. "

Mr. Breed blinked angrily. 

"I'll take all the cases of libel against you and won't charge myclients a cent. "

"Fill everybody else's little tin dipper, eh? Passing everybody else abottle and a rubber nipple! Everybody getting his, and me left out! Allright. If that's political gratitude in these new times, go on with youmedinkculum! And last year I snapped the six up-country caucuses thatgave you your plurality in joint convention!"

"We appreciate all your past services, Dan. If we didn't we wouldn't betrying so hard to place you, " said the governor. "We're taking care ofall the old boys. You mustn't embarrass us. In these days it's for thegood of the party to put in each office the man who is especiallyfitted for it. We mustn't invite criticism. A librarian needs peculiarqualifications. "

"Well, old Jaquish was liberian, wasn't he? And he wouldn't even go voteunless you went and dragged him to the polls by the scruff of his neck. What did he ever do for the party? And look at old Tomdoozle as statetreasurer!"

"Jaquish was a bookman, and our state treasurer--but no matter. Nowlisten! I'm going to put you at the head of a new department in theState House where you won't be lonesome. More people will come therethan to the library. You'll have the title of curator. "

"What's that?" asked Breed, suspiciously. "And what is the department, anyway?"

"The museum of natural history in the fish-and-game rooms. We're goingto make it complete--mounted specimens of all our animals. You'll becurator--you see, you will get a title that sounds well!"

"I'm of a restless and inquiring disposition, and my special forty ispolitics, " stated Breed, sulking. "I don't believe I'm going to relishbeing ringmaster of a lot of stuffed animals, no matter what kind of atitle I get. How much pay goes with the job?"

"Fifteen hundred, " said the governor. 

"Well, " sighed Breed, "it will give me a chance to be around the StateHouse during the session, and I'll take it. Then if I don't like it Ican resign after the legislature adjourns. "

The Big Ones understood his frame of mind and overlooked hisingratitude. 

"And so I'll bid you good day, gents, " he said, and straddled out withhis hands under his coat-tails. 

"So we've got _him_ side-tracked and out of mischief, " averred thegovernor. "That takes care of all of 'em, and I'm relieved. It isn'tstylish any more to come to town with a lot of old hounds trotting underthe tail of the political cart. "

But before the end of that week the governor was obliged to call UncleDan to a private conference in the Executive Chamber. 

"You must remember that you're a state officer, " warned his Excellency. "You're a part of the administration. But you are out talking politicsall the time. I want you to stay in your department. Just remember thatyou're curator of our museum. "

"I don't like that blamed job, " complained Breed. "I don't care what mytitle is, it only means that I have to dust off that old stuffed loon, keep moths out of that loosivee, and fleas or some kind of insecks off'nthat bull moose. It ain't no job for a politician. And there's a steadystream through there asking me all kinds of questions about animals. Idon't know nothing about animals. I don't know whether a live moose eatshay or chopped liver. Those questions keep me all hestered up. It putsme in a wrong position before the public. I can't tell 'em which orwhat, and they think I'm losing my mind. "

"Post up! It will keep you busy. Get books out of the library and read. Inform yourself and have a story for the folks!"

A few days later the chairman of the state committee had an indignantreport to make to the governor regarding Uncle Dan's natural-historyactivities. 

"He has turned that museum into a circus show, your Excellency. He hasnamed every one of those stuffed animals for somebody in politics hedoesn't like, and leads a snickering mob of sight-seers around the roomand lectures. When a state officer names a saucer-eyed Canadian lynx forme and then folks come up from that basement and grin at me, it's time ahalt was called. "

His Excellency called for Breed and called a halt, using forcefullanguage. 

"I resign, " declared old Dan, nipping his little bunghole of a mouthunder the hook of his nose. "Those animals are getting onto my nerves. The whole pack and caboodle are chasing me in a nightmare every timeI go to sleep. Their condemned glass eyes are boring me worse thangimlets. I'm going on with that book of mine. I've got a new idea forit. I'm going to put in pictures of animals and name 'em for thosetin-horn flukedubbles who could never get an office if it wasn't for theprimaries. "

"Look here, Breed, you're an old man and you've done a lot of good workin your day, and we're all trying to do something for you. But I havepretty nigh reached the limit of my patience. Politics isn't what itused to be. Different manners, different men. I'm the head of our partyand I command you to eliminate yourself. You go back to your job, usecommon sense, and keep out of things! You are silly--you're senile!"

"You have taken me out of where I belong and have put me in where Idon't belong and now you're blaming me because I can't learn a lot ofnew tricks at my age. I resign, I say!"

"If you give up that job you'll never get another one. "

Uncle Dan put his hands under his coat-tails and marched out, his beakin the air. 

"The trouble is, " he confided to old Sturdivant in theadjutant-general's office, "this younger element that's coming alongthinks men like you and I have lost all our ability and influence. They're sally-lavering all over us, telling us how they want us to havean easy job. But it's all a damnation insult--that's what it amountsto. "

"All I have to do is lap sticking-paper and gum up the places wherethese rolls are torn, " said old Sturdivant. "I'm perfectly contented. "

"Then stay were you're put and swaller the insult, " retorted Breed, with disgust. "I thought you had more get-up-and-get. There's a stuffedrabbit in that museum. He'll make a good chum for you in your off hour. Go and sit down with him. " He went over to old Ambrose's desk. Ambrosewas numbering dog's-eared pages with a rubber stamp and would not admitthat he had been insulted by the state committee. "There's nobody gotthe right to ask me to stop being active and influential in this state, "insisted Breed. "They haven't taken my pride into account. I ain'tnaturally a kicker. I've always obeyed orders. If I've got to go outalone and show 'em that the old guard can't be insulted, then I'll doit. "

This time he took the trail of Walker Farr once more and followed thatenergetic young man until he cornered him. 

Farr harkened with interest to the story of the scrapping of theHonorable Daniel Breed as related by that gentleman himself. 

"And the moral of the tale is, " added Mr. Breed, "when a gang does youdirt turn around and plaster a few gobs onto the dirt-slingers. Thatain't the rule in religion, but it's the natural and correct policy inpolitics. I have been hurt in my tender feelings. If them animals hadbeen alive and savage enough I would have taken 'em up to the statecommittee-room and ste' boyed 'em onto the ungrateful cusses who havetried to make my last days unhappy. I know every sore spot in thisstate. You don't know 'em unless you have got second sight. I can takeyou to every man who has got a political bruise on him. Good gad! I havebeen poulticing those sore spots for twenty-five years. You need a manlike I am. "

"I'll admit that I do need such a man. I am a stranger in the state. ButI'm going to be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Breed. How do I know butyou're a spy who wants to attach himself to me for the benefit of thering?"

"You don't know, " returned Mr. Breed, serenely. "You have to takechances in politics. I'm taking chances when I join in with you. Justwho are you and how do you happen to be mixed up in our politics?"

"I am mixing into politics because the men, women, and children arebeing poisoned by the Consolidated water. That's platform enough, isn'tit?"

"Well, I reckon it is, knowing what I know of general conditions. Youhave got a pretty good head for politics, even if you ain't sincere onthe water question, " said Breed, with a politician's ready suspicion ofmotives. "You've got a come-all-ye hoorah there that will make votes. "

"As to my personality, that has nothing to do with the matter. I am onlyan agent. Will you come with me and allow Mr. Converse to ask you somequestions?"

"Sure thing!" agreed the Honorable Daniel, with great heartiness. "Inpolitics the first thing to do before you get real busy is to have anice heart-to-heart talk with the gent who says 'How much?' and laps hisforefinger and begins to count. You understand, young man, that I havebeen in politics a long time. And I ain't an animal-trainer--I'm a fieldworker and I can earn my pay. "

And inside of a week Walker Farr, who had been previously strugglinghard against lack of acquaintance in the state, found that Mr. Breedhad spoken the truth. The two made a team which excited the fullapproval--the wondering admiration--of the Honorable Archer Converse. 

Farr's power to control and interest men achieved astonishing resultswith Daniel Breed's exact knowledge of persons and conditions. 

But they were rather humble citizens. There was no fanfare about theirwork. If Colonel Symonds Dodd knew anything at all about the fires theywere setting, he made no move to turn on the Consolidated hose. 

XXIV

THE STAR CHAMBER IN THE OLD NATIONAL

They did not come furtively, yet they came unobtrusively--these men whodrifted into the National Hotel in Marion that day. 

At one side of the big rotunda of the National stood Walker Farr, hiskeen gaze noting the men who came dribbling in, singly, by twosand threes. They were not men of Marion city. A newspaper reporter, happening in at the National, noted that fact. He stood for a time andwatched the filtering arrivals. There were some who were plainly men ofaffairs, others were solid men who bore the stamp of the rural sections. They went to the desk, wrote their names, and were shown up-stairs bybellhops. Most of them, as they crossed the office, nodded greeting tothe tall young man who wore a frock coat and a broad-brimmed hat andstood almost motionless at one side of the rotunda. 

The National was state Mecca for all kinds of conventions. The reporterstudied his date-book. No convention was scheduled for that day. Hemanaged to get a peep at the hotel register. The men who had beensigning their names hailed from all portions of the state, but thereporter did not find identities which suggested political activities. It was plainly not a gathering of politicians--none of the oldwar-horses were in evidence. 

The reporter questioned a few of the arrivals, chasing beside them. Theyall gave the same answer--they had come to Marion on business. 

The reply was safe, succinct, and stopped further questions. Thereporter did venture to pick out a little man and inquire what kindof business called him to Marion, and the little man informed him withsarcasm that he was a baker from Banbury and had come down to purchasedoughnut holes. 

The reporter thereupon dodged into the bar to escape the grins of someof the office crew, and his haste was such that he nearly beat the baizedoors into the face of Richard Dodd, who was coming out. 

"You're the first real politician I've seen in this bunch, " affirmed thereporter. "What's it all about?"

"What's what about?"

"This convention that's assembling here. "

"I know nothing about it, " stated Mr. Dodd, with dignity. "It's nothingof a political nature, I can assure you of that. "

The reporter noted that young Mr. Dodd's eyes were red and that hisstep wavered, and that he exhaled the peculiar odor which emanates fromgentlemen who have been prolonging for some time what is known vulgarlyas a "toot. " In fact, the reporter remembered then the rumor innewspaper circles that the chief clerk of the state treasury had beenattending to stimulants instead of to business for almost two weeks. 

"I assure you that I know all that's to be known about politics, "insisted Mr. Dodd. "If there's a convention here, who's running it?"

They had returned from the bar into the main office. 

"I don't know--can't find out. That tall fellow over there seems toknow everybody who had been coming in--all the bunch of outsiders. But Inever saw him before. "

Mr. Dodd closed one eye in order to focus his attention on this unknownacross the office. 

A deep glow of antipathy and distrust came into the eye which locatedand identified Walker Farr. 

Mr. Dodd cursed without using names, verbs, or information. 

"Oh, you know him, do you?"

"No, I don't know him. " Mr. Dodd hung to his vengeful secret doggedly. He left the reporter and went and sat down in a chair and continued tostare at Farr, who remained oblivious to this inspection. 

The reporter went across the office. There seemed to be more or lessmystery about this man who had provoked all those curses from thesecretive chief clerk of the treasury. 

"Can you give me any information about these men who are meeting hereto-day?"

"Meeting of the Independent Corn-Growers' Association. " The reporter'sgaze was frankly skeptical, but Farr met it without a flicker of theeyelids. 

"I never heard of any such association. "

"You have now, sir. "

"Is it open to the newspapers?"

"Closed doors--absolutely private. "

"Who'll give out the statement?"

Farr put his hand on the reporter's shoulder and gave him a smile. 

"You see, it's to fight the packers' union and so we are not giving awayour ammunition to the enemy. Keep it quiet and when the thing breaksI'll give you our side. "

"All right, sir. If it's to be an exclusive for me I'll steer away theother newspaper men. But do you know just why Richard Dodd--that manover there--is damning you into shoe-strings?"

Even at that distance Farr's keen gaze detected the filmy eyes and theflushed face. 

"Perhaps it's because the Corn-Growers propose to put their corn intojohnny-bread instead of using it for whisky?"

The newspaper man, his suspicions dulled by Farr's radiant good natureand wholesome frankness, went away about his business, but he haltedlong enough beside Dodd's chair to repeat "the corn-grower's" jokeregarding the young man who had been glowering on him. 

Dodd got up with as much alacrity as he could command and went acrossto Farr. Sober, the nephew of Colonel Dodd had treated this personwith rather lofty contempt; drunk, he was not so finical in mattersof caste--and, besides, this man now wore the garb of a gentleman, andyoung Mr. Dodd always placed much emphasis on clothes. 

"Look here, my fellow, now that I have you where I don't need toconsider the presence of ladies, I want to ask you how you dared to messinto my private business?"

Farr, towering above him, beamed down on him with tolerant indifferenceand did not answer. 

"That Lochinvar business may sound good in a poem, but it doesn't gohere in Marion--not when it's my business and my girl. "

Dodd raised his voice. He seemed about to become a bit hysterical. 

Farr set slow, gripping, commanding clutch about the young man's elbow. 

"If your business with me can possibly be any talk about a lady, " headvised, "you'd better come along into the reading-room. "

"It is about a lady, " persisted Dodd when they had swung in behind anewspaper-rack. The room was apparently empty. "You understand what youcame butting in upon, don't you?"

"I took it to be a rehearsal of a melodrama, crudely conceived and verypoorly played. "

"Say, you use pretty big words for a low-lived iceman. "

"State your business with me if you have any, " Farr reminded him. "Ihave something else to do besides swap talk with a drunken man--and yourbreath is very offensive. "

Dodd began to tap a finger on Farr's breast. 

"I want you to understand that I've got a full line on you; you havebeen chumming with a Canuck rack-tender, you deserted a woman, and shecommitted suicide, and you took the brat--"

Farr's big hand released the elbow and set itself around Mr. Dodd'sneck. Thumb and forefinger bored under the jaw and Mr. Dodd's epiglottisceased vibrating. 

"I don't like to assault a man, but talk doesn't seem to fit your caseand I can't stop long enough to talk, anyway. This choking is my commenton your lies. " He pushed Mr. Dodd relentlessly down into the nearestchair and spanked his face slowly and deliberately with the flat ofhis hand. "And this will indicate to you just how much I care for yourthreats. You'll remember it longer than you will recollect words. "

He finished and went away, leaving his victim getting his breath inthe chair. Dodd, peering under the rack, saw him hasten and join theHonorable Archer Converse in the hotel lobby and they went up the broadstairs together. 

The chief clerk of the state treasury sat there and smoothed hissmarting face with trembling hands and worked his jaws to dislodge thegrinding ache in his neck. But the stinging, malevolent rancor withinhim burned hotter and hotter. He started to get up out of the chair andsat back again, much disturbed. 

A man who had been hidden by an adjoining rack of newspapers was nowleaning forward, jutting his head past the ambuscade. He was an elderlyman with an up-cocked gray mustache, and there was a queer little smilein his shrewd blue eyes. Dodd knew him; he was one Mullaney, a statedetective. 

"What are you doing here--practicing your sneak work?" demanded theyoung man. As a state official he did not entertain a high opinion ofthe free-lance organization to which Mullaney belonged. 

"I'm here reading a paper--supposed it's what the room is for, " returnedDetective Mullaney. "But excuse me--I'll get out. Room seems to bereserved for prize-fighters. "

"You keep your mouth shut about that--that insult. "

"I never talk--it would hurt my business. "

"I don't fight in a public place. I'm a gentleman. I want you toremember what you saw, Mullaney! I'll get to that cheap bum in a way hewon't forget. "

"Do you mind telling me who your friend is?" asked the detective. 

Dodd shot him a sour side-glance and muttered profanity. 

"I couldn't help wondering what particular kind of business you and hecould have, seeing how it was transacted, " pursued the detective. 

Dodd glowered at the floor. "Look here, Mullaney! There's a whole lotabout that man I want to know, if you can help me and keep your mouthclosed. I haven't got much confidence in the work you fellows do--theytell me you can't detect mud on your own boots. "

Mr. Mullaney pulled his chair out from behind the papers and leaned backin it and crossed his hands over his stomach and smiled without a traceof resentment. 

"I might tell you something right now about that tall friend of yoursthat would jump you, Mr. Dodd--I'm that much of a detective!"

"Tell me, then. "

"Just as it stands it's guesswork--considerable guesswork. "

"What does that amount to?"

"A great deal in my business. Take this city of one hundred thousand!I'm the only man in it who is making guesswork about strangers hisspecial line of work. The rest of the citizens rub elbows with allpassers and don't give a hoot. There are a good many thousand men inthis country whom the law wants and whom the law can't find. That fellowmay be one of them, for all I know. I guess he is, for instance. Then Imake it my business to prove guesswork. "

"You must be doing a devil of a rushing business!" sneered Dodd. 

"I manage to make a good living. I don't talk about my business, for ifI should blow it I wouldn't have any. I say, I _guess_! Then I spend myspare time hunting through my books of pointers. For ten years I haveread every newspaper I could get hold of. I come in here and studypapers from all over. Every crime that has been committed, every manwanted, every chap who has got away, I write down all I can find outabout him. Then, if anything comes up to make me guess about a man Ibegin to hunt my books through. "

"Well, if I'm any good on a guess, " snorted Dodd, "that renegade whojust insulted me is down in your books, somewhere. You'd better hunt. "

"It's slow work and eats up time, " sighed Mr. Mullaney. 

Dodd looked at him for a time and then began to pull crumpled bills fromhis waistcoat pocket. He straightened five ten-dollar bills, creasedthem into a trough, and stuck the end toward the detective. 

"Follow his trail back. I never heard of your book scheme before. Takethis money for a starter. If you can't find him in your books, pick outhalf a dozen of the worst crimes any man can commit and hitch 'em on tohim somehow, " urged Dodd, with fury. "Go after him. And when we get himgood and proper I want to do some gloating through the bars. He's thefirst man who ever smacked my face for me--and I'll see that he getshis. "

He left Mr. Mullaney stowing the money away in a big wallet which wasstuffed with newspaper clippings. He hurried in to the bar, gulpeddown a drink, and then went to the office desk and examined the hotelregister. Anger and zest for revenge were stimulating in him a livelyinterest in that meeting which Farr seemed to be promoting. Mr. Dodddid not care especially what kind of meeting it was. He had set forth tocamp on Walker Farr's trail and do him what hurt he could. 

Dodd was a well-posted political worker. The names of the men were notnames especially prominent in state politics, but his suspicions werestirred when he saw that all counties in the state were represented. And no more were arriving. He decided that the conference must be insession. 

Dodd avoided the elevator. He tramped up the broad stairs to the floorabove the office. The doors of the large parlor were closed. He turnedthe knob cautiously; the doors were locked. He heard within the dullmumble of many voices--men in conversation. It was evident that theformal meeting, whatever it might be, had not begun its session. Hetiptoed away from the door and climbed another flight of stairs. 

There were no nooks and corners of the old National Hotel which RichardDodd did not understand in all their intricacies. As his uncle'spolitical scout it had been his business to know them. 

He hunted along the corridor until he found a maid. 

"Is there anybody in Number 29?" he asked. 

"Two of that new crowd that just came in have it, Mr. Dodd. But theyhave gone down-stairs again. "

He wadded a bill in his palm and jammed it into her hand. "Let me inwith your pass-key, that's a good girl. It's all right. I won't disturbtheir stuff. I only want to listen. You understand! There's a politicalgame on. I want to get to that ventilator in the closet--you know it!"

"Oh, if it's only politics, Mr. Dodd!" she sniffed, with the scorn of agirl who has seen many conventions come and go, knew the little tricks, and had developed for the whole herd of politicians lofty disdain; sheknew them merely as loud-talking men who had little considerationfor hotel maids, men who littered their rooms with cigar stubs andwhisky-bottles. She started for the door, swinging the pass-key on itscord. "If it's just politics, sure you can go in. Many a buck I've letin to listen to their old palaver down in that parlor. "

Dodd bolted the door behind him. 

He felt entirely safe, for he understood that the rightful tenants ofthat room were locked into the parlor below. He climbed upon a chair inthe closet and put his ear to the grating of the ventilator. 

He heard only one man's voice. He recognized its crisp tones--it was theHonorable Archer Converse. 

"I repeat, gentlemen, that this interest of yours would amaze me if Ihad not been prepared by reports from our agents who have been so wellcaptained by Mr. Walker Farr. Remember that this is simply a conference, prior to organization. Every man of you is a chief in it. Let us becalm, discreet, sensible, and silent. 

"I'm not going over the details of the unrest in this state. The factthat so many of you are present here from all sections is sufficientcommentary on that unrest. We understand perfectly well that a certainclique of self-seekers has arrogated to itself supreme control of theparty. A party must be controlled, I admit. If that control were in thehands of honest and patriotic men we would not be here today. 

"I'm not going to bother you with details of what has been going on indepartments in our State House. The employees are the tools of the ringand they have misused their power. I'm afraid of what may be uncoveredthere when the house-cleaning begins. But the honor of our party demandssuch a house-cleaning. "

Richard Dodd's hands trembled as he clung to the ventilator bars. 

"However, we are faced by something in the way of an issue that's biggerthan graft. "

Now his earnestness impressed more than ever the listener at thegrating. 

"Gentlemen, to a certain extent graft is bound to be fostered andprotected by any party; but when a party is used to protect andaggrandize those who monopolize the people's franchise rights it's timefor the honest men in that party to be _men_ instead of partisans. Don'tyou allow those monopolists to hold you in line by whining about partyloyalty. And don't let them whip you into line by their threats, either. I refuse, for one, as much as I love my party, to have its tag tied intomy ear if that tag isn't clean!"

The assemblage applauded that sentiment. 

"I'm going to call names, gentlemen. Colonel Symonds Dodd has this stateby its throat. With Colonel Dodd stand all the financial interests--therailroads, the corporations, even the savings-banks. He is intrenchedbehind that law which limits the indebtedness of our cities and towns. Municipalities cannot own their own plants under present conditions. Those men are even using the people's own money against them! They scaredepositors by threats of financial havoc if present conditions and thebig interest are bothered by any legislation. 

"I must warn you, gentlemen, that it's a long and difficult road aheadof us. But we must start. I have not intended to discourage you bystating the obstacles to be overcome. 

"I have explained them so that, if we make slow progress at first, weshall not be discouraged. 

"We will organize prevailing unrest and the innate honesty in thisstate. We will establish a branch of the Square Deal Club in every townand city. It must be done carefully, conservatively, and as secretly aspossible. " The lawyer's cautious fear of too much haste now displayeditself. "The most we can hope to do is send to the state conventionsome men who will leaven that lump of ring politics. Party usage andtradition are so strong that we must renominate Governor Harwood, Isuppose, for a complimentary second term. "

"I think we can do better, " cried a voice. 

"Possibly, " returned Mr. Converse, dryly, "but we must do that 'better'carefully and slowly. In politics, gentlemen, we cannot transform theogre into the saint merely by waving the magic wand and expectingthe charm to operate instantly. Possibly we can control the nextlegislature. I do not know just what legislation we may be able todevise and pass, but I hope for inspiration. 

"I will say now that I am with you. My purse is open. Command myservices for all questions of law. I will establish myself at thecapital for the legislative session. 

"But there is one thing I will not do under any circumstances--I willnot accept political office. "

"You bet you won't, " muttered young Dodd, at the grating. "You wouldn'tbe elected a pound-keeper in the town of Bean Center. "

But if Mr. Dodd could have seen through that grating as well as hear hewould have been greatly interested just then in the expression on theface of Walker Farr. The face was not exactly the face of a prophet, butit had a large amount of resolution written over it. 

"I don't want to be the first one to throw any cold water on ourprospects, " declared a voice, after Mr. Converse had announced that themeeting was open for general discussion; "it really does seem to me thatwe stand a good show of getting control of the next legislature. But after we do get control what prospect is there of passing anylegislation that will help us? Wherever there is a water system in thisstate the municipality has been so loaded down with debts our machinepolitics have plastered into it that the legal debt limit has beenreached. The only way this water question can be cleared up is by takingthe systems away from those monopolists--making them the property oftowns and cities. But if towns and cities can't borrow any more money, just how is this to be done? Mr. Converse hasn't told us! We can cleanup politics, perhaps, but it seems to me that we'll never be able toclean up the dirtiest and most dangerous mess. "

On the silence that followed broke a voice which made Dodd, his ear tothe grating, grate his teeth. His hatred recognized this speaker. It wasWalker Farr. 

"I apologize for venturing to speak in this meeting, " he said. "But ifthat gentleman's question isn't answered here and now in some way I'mafraid men will go away discouraged. I have heard the same question, Mr. Converse, as I have traveled about the state lately. I have thoughtabout this matter constantly, in my poor fashion. And because I wentinto that job of pondering with an open mind is the reason, perhaps, whya strange idea has come to me. You know they say that strange notionsare born out of ignorance. The better way would have been, possibly, tosubmit the plan first of all to your legal mind, Mr. Converse. I willkeep silence now and confer with you, sir, if you think best. " His tonewas wistful. 

"Talk it out in open meeting, " cried the cordial voice of Mr. Converse. "Free speech and all of us taken into confidence--that's the spirit ofthis movement of ours!"

"Has it ever occurred to anybody to form a new municipality for waterpurposes only? I have studied your state constitution, and the languagein which the debt limit of five percent is provided I find appliesstrictly to towns and cities. Suppose the citizens of Marion, togetherwith the adjoining towns of Weston and Turner, all of them now servedby the Consolidated, should unite simply as individuals for the commonpurpose of owning and operating their own water-plant--form, say a waterdistrict?"

"An independent body politic and corporate?" It was Converse's voice andit betrayed quick interest and some astonishment. 

"I suppose that would be the legal name, sir. Wouldn't it be possible toorganize such a combination of the people, distinct from other municipalresponsibilities? Then if we can elect the right men to our legislaturewe can go to the State House and ask for some legislation that willenable us to take over systems by the right of eminent domain, providea plan of fair appraisal, give us a law which will make water-districtbonds a legal investment for savings-banks. In short, gentlemen, Irepeat, this plan is nothing more than an organization of the desiredterritory and people into a new, distinct, and separate municipality forwater purposes only, leaving all other forms of municipal government topursue their accustomed functions precisely as though the districthad not been organized. That's the idea as best I can state it in fewwords. "

There was a long period of silence. 

Dodd, listening to the mutterings of a revolt which threatened the wholepolitical fabric which protected him, his interest clearing his brainof the liquor fog, could imagine the scene below. That assemblage wasstaring wide-eyed at Archer Converse, the law's best-grounded man in thestate. 

"It is very modest to call that suggestion an idea, " stated Mr. Converse, at last. "Mr. Farr, if I can find the necessary law in ourstatutes to back it up, it's an inspiration. "

There was the ring of conviction in his tones. 

Mr. Dodd left the grating and escaped from the hotel. 

He fairly cantered to headquarters in the First National block; hefelt a politician's frightened conviction that he had something mightyimportant to tell his uncle. 

XXV

A GIRL AND A MATTER OF HONOR

It had been a protracted session. 

Judge Ambrose Warren, corporation counsel for the Consolidated, leanedback in his chair and gazed at the ceiling over the peak of the skeletonstructure he had erected in front of his nose with his fingers. 

Colonel Dodd squinted first at his nephew and then at the bouquet on hisdesk. 

The nephew had been attempting by all the methods known to the appealingmale to win only one return glance from Kate Kilgour; but the young ladyheld her eyes on her note-book, poised her pencil above the page, andwaited for more of that conversation and statement of which she had beenthe silent recorder. 

"You think you have given us all the main points of what you overheard, do you, Mr. Dodd?" inquired the judge, turning sharp gaze on the youngman. 

"I can't remember any more. "

"You think you recognized voices sufficiently well to be sure thatthis person named Farr made that novel suggestion in regard to what wascalled a 'water district'?"

"There was no mistaking his voice, " said Dodd, with the malevolence ofbitter recollection. 

Another prolonged silence. Then the judge asked, his eyes again on theceiling, "Just who is this Walker Farr?"

Richard Dodd, keeping jealous espionage on all the girl's emotions andmovements saw a flush suffuse her cheeks; her hands trembled. She raisedher eyes in a quick glance and he detected eager inquiry. 

"I don't know who he is, " growled the colonel. 

"You'd better find out, " advised the corporation counsel. 

"Why?"

"Of course this thing has been put up to me very suddenly. I can giveyou only a snap judgment. But that scheme has possibilities. "

"As a lawyer you don't mean to tell me that a crazy idea like that canbe put through in this state against the combination we control?"

"It will not be a case of combination and money and politics, Colonel, when it gets to the high court. It will be _law_. And I'm sorry youcan't tell me any more about the man who has devised the plan. I'd liketo know how he dug it out. "

"But a gang of pirates can't organize like that and confiscate ourproperty! We're going to tap the lakes. We're going ahead right away. But can that fool's scheme scoop in the Consolidated Water Company?"

"That's to be found out. I am going to tell you now that I believe anorganization of citizens into an independent water district can bemade legally and be independent of other debts. Colonel Dodd, if thatopposition gets control of the next legislature you can depend upon itthat the necessary legislation will be passed. We may as well look factsin the face: they're getting mighty restive in this state; the peoplehave been penned in by the Machine very effectually to date--but show'em a place now where they can jump the fence and they're going to doit. "

"But what's the good of paying you twenty-five thousand dollars ayear for law if you can't keep the bars up?" The tone was that of theimpatient tyrant. 

"You'll please remember that this thing is likely to go to the UnitedStates court. When you go in there you've got to leave your side-armsof politics--pull and pocket-book--at the door. I will say this: theFederal Constitution guarantees protection against any irregular, illegal, or confiscatory action under state authority. That is, nostates shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts norshall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property withoutdue process of law nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction theequal protection of the laws. Now, of course, a corporation is a personin the meaning of the law, and therefore we can carry the matter to theUnited States Supreme Court, but I want to tell you that if the nextlegislature enacts law permitting water districts, and the stateauthorities proceed to condemn your plants, you may as well get ready tostep out from under. You are a shrewd man and you understand the spiritof these times in regard to giving to the people their full rights inpublic utilities. I say again, you'd better get a line on this WalkerFarr, because it's either a case of ignorance inspired or else he's adeep one. He has started with a plan that can be defended by law--andthe judges in these days are handing the people's rights and propertyback to them when there is a legal opportunity. "

"Why, this Farr is a nothing--nobody. Dug in our trenches for a whileuntil he was discharged. Briggs looked him up for me. The only manin this city he has been at all intimate with is an old Canuck namedProvancher who tends the rack down at Gamonic Mill. You can judge him bythe company he keeps. "

"Well, he seems to be fraternizing with better men just now, " drawledthe judge. "Archer Converse, for instance!"

"The thing to do, " suggested young Dodd, still watching the girl, "isget something on that hobo and boot him out of town or put him in jail. It ought to be easy enough. "

"And it will be attended to, " declared the colonel, with venom. "We'llkill that one crow and hang him up in full view of the rest of thosecroakers! I'll put something over on that fellow and have all the papersin the state print it--and high-and-mighty Converse will be so disgustedthat he'll quit and the rest of the crowd will be ashamed to keep on. Disgrace a reformer! That's the surest play in politics! We must getFarr!"

He turned his scowling gaze away from the flowers and found Miss Kilgourlooking at him with an expression in her eyes he had never seen therebefore. Reproach and scorn seemed to mingle in the stare she gave him. He blinked, and when he looked again she was examining the point of herpencil; he decided that his eyesight had played him a strange prank. 

"By the way, Miss Kilgour, " he informed her, "you need not remain. Maketwo typewritten copies--the judge will need one. "

Richard Dodd arose when she left her chair, but she did not glanceat him. He began to speak before she had reached the door, unable torestrain his jealous temper longer. 

"Uncle Symonds, pass the word to that old Provancher, through thesuperintendent of the Gamonic, that unless he comes across with all thestuff he knows about that Farr he'll be fired. And I've got a hunter outon my own account. It will be easy enough to catch the skunk and stripoff his pelt. "

Miss Kilgour closed the door behind her with a sharper click than shehad ever given its latch before. She hurried to her typewriter in herlittle room and began to work with all her energy. 

She was so busy and her machine clattered so viciously that she did nothear Richard Dodd when he entered. He leaned over her. 

"Have you talked with your mother yet? Has she given you someadvice?" he asked. His jealousy still fired him and his tone was notconciliatory. 

The contempt in the glance she flung upward at him roused him topassion. In the state of mind in which he then was he made no allowancesfor her ignorance of conditions in her mother's case. He knew what hehad done for Mrs. Kilgour's sake, and this attitude on the daughter'spart pricked him like wilful ingratitude. 

He put his hands on the keyboard of the typewriter and stopped her work. "I love you, Kate, and you have known it for a long time. I tried toshow you how much I loved you. I know I did a foolish thing. But I lovedyou. " He almost sobbed the protestation. "I've been in hell's tormentsince it happened. I've been a fool all the way through, but I won't bea fool any more if you'll take pity on me. "

She did not speak. Her silent, utter contempt stung more deeply andsurely than words. 

"If you insist on being so high above, I'm going to bring you down alittle, " he sneered. "I hate to do it, but you've got to be shownwhere your real friends are. I have given your mother a chance to saysomething to you, and say it right. But she hasn't done it, and I don'tpropose to be made the goat. " In his anger he was not choice in hislanguage. "You go home and ask her whether or not she owes me fivethousand dollars. Oh, you needn't open your eyes at me in that style!It's time we all got down to cases in this thing, Kate. I've waited forher long enough. She has simply fluffed me along. Now she has got to doher part. "

"Have you lost your mind?" she demanded. 

"No! But I lost five thousand dollars when I loaned it to your mother. Kate, she told me she had a stock deal on--that she would be able to payit back. Listen! I may as well go the limit with you. I took money thatwasn't mine so that I could help your mother out--it was because I lovedyou. Now you realize how much I have loved you. I protected your mother. And now, by the gods, if you and she don't come to the scratch in thisthing and do right by me I'll show up why she had to be protected, and after that you'll never draw a happy breath again in your life. Iadvised you to talk with your mother once before. This time you'd betterto it. "

She leaned back in her chair, white and trembling, for his tones carriedconviction. 

"I have hated to open this thing up, Kate. I have waited a long time, hoping you'd understand that I would make a good husband--that Ideserved to have you. I'm only speaking out now so that you'll wake up. You've got to stand by the man who has stood by you. Go talk with yourmother!"

After he had hurried out she went back to her work, but her fingerscould only fumble at the keys. By effort of will persons of strongcharacter can compose themselves after disaster has been confirmed;but impending disaster that is hinted at--guessed at--is a menace whichparalyzes. She was endeavoring to write down what Richard Dodd hadrevealed of the plans of Walker Farr. She understood that the mightypower of the state machine was now doubling its fist over the head ofthe stranger who had come into her life in such peculiar fashion. At thesame moment she was cowering under the threat of something she did notfully understand. 

And from the Dodds--uncle and nephew--came the menace which loomed overboth of them. 

Then to her came Peter Briggs, who had been summoned to a conference inthe inner office; by direction of his chief he had been reading to JudgeWarren certain entries penciled in the note-book which he guarded withthe elastic band. 

"The governor wants you to add these items to the record, so that thejudge can have a copy, " said Mr. Briggs to the confidential secretary. "The subject isn't a very genteel one, Miss Kilgour, but orders areorders, and you'll have to excuse me. "

And Mr. Briggs kept snapping the elastic band nervously while hedictated, carefully looking away from the young woman. 

In such manner Kate Kilgour learned of the existence of Zelie Dionne andof the child whom Walker Farr had protected; Mr. Briggs's zeal in theinterest of his employer had made him a partisan in that affair, witheasy conscience regarding the matter of the details. The bald recordshowed that Farr and the girl had cared for the child between them, hadnursed it with grief and solicitude, had borne it to the plot of landwhere the little graves were crowded so closely. Mr. Briggs complacentlyavoided dates and age and the minuter details. He even pleaded the case, having caught a cue from Colonel Dodd; his record left the impressionthat Walker Farr, who had come from nowhere--nobody knew when--had livedin Marion unknown and unnoticed at the time when he had compassed theruin of a confiding girl. 

"A scalawag, and a bad one!" commented Mr. Briggs, closing hisnote-book. "And of course there's worse to come! Posing as areformer--that's the way such renegades work the thing. A new game forevery new place!"

And Kate Kilgour, remembering the vagrant on the broad highway, wrotedown the arraignment of this person, trying to understand her emotions. 

Her own eyes had seen him garbed as a tramp, plainly a homeless nomad. 

Her ears had just listened to the story of his shame. 

But after a time, in spite of what she had seen and heard, that strangeinstinct which dominates the feminine mind in spite of what the meresenses affirm took possession of her. 

She had known from the first that Richard Dodd's garments, his attitude, his professions, his position did not make him what her woman's heartdesired. 

But, somehow, this other man, no matter what he seemed to be fromoutward appearance, stood forth for her from all the world. At times, inher ponderings, she had disgustedly termed her mood regarding him purelunacy. Then she gave rein to the domination of her intuition; the manwas not what he seemed to be!

She determined to put him out of her thoughts for ever. 

Just then, however, writing out the story of his turpitude, she mustneeds have him in her mind. 

She wondered whether he were honest in his attempts to help the poorpeople. 

She had believed that he was when he had faced Colonel Dodd. 

She determined that she would make some investigation of her own inregard to the mysterious person who had taken such possession of herthoughts since she had met him in the highway--whose personality hadso pricked her curiosity. She comforted herself by calling her interestmere curiosity. That was it! If this man were what they claimed he wasshe might help in revealing him as an enemy of the poor folks. 

And then to her came another thought. 

She looked around the offices where she worked and bitter lines wereetched in her forehead and about her mouth. 

The place had become hateful. She was conscious of a passionate desireto be free from the atmosphere of that central web of the Great Spider. 

She bent over her work and hurried. 

What was the shadow over her home?

She realized that she was not thinking clearly in the matter. Sheknew that impulse was driving her. But it was impulse which wasuncontrollable. For a long time she had understood the sinisterinfluence which had radiated from that office in the First Nationalblock. But it had been rather the impersonal influence of partisanpolitics and she had had little knowledge of the persons concerned. But, now that the situation had been so sharply pointed by recent happenings, she understood better what had gone on in the past. 

This stranger, whoever he was, seemed to be fighting for the good of thepeople. She had heard him declare his principles boldly; she knew theselfishness of the men who opposed him. She resolved to know more. 

It was close upon six o'clock when she finished the transcription. 

She had given much thought to her own affairs while she had beenworking. And now she allowed impulse to dominate. She resolved to leavethat employment which brought her into contact with Richard Dodd andwhere her duties required her to prepare material for the ruin of a manwho seemed to be doing an unselfish duty, no matter what they said. Shedid not try to analyze that quixotic impulse; she merely obeyed. 

She tied up the packet of manuscript, addressed it to Colonel Dodd, andslipped under the string a sealed note. In that note she resigned herposition, stating that a matter of personal honor demanded that sheleave instantly. She did not qualify that statement by any explanation. But she knew in her own heart just what it meant. For when she left theoffice she did not hasten straight home as her anxious fears promptedher; she made a detour around by Gamonic Mill in search of oneProvancher, who, she had learned, tended the rack of the canal. 

The thought that dominated all other thoughts and comforted her was thereflection that she was no longer the confidential secretary of ColonelSymonds Dodd, and that now she might obey certain promptings of bothcuriosity and conscience. 

The rumble of the big turbines was stilled when she came to the fencewhich surrounded the rack, and old Etienne was starting away with rakeand pike-pole. But when she called he came to her--wondering, muchabashed, for she was by far the prettiest lady he had ever seen. 

"Are you the friend of Mr. Walker Farr?" she asked, and she was evenmore embarrassed than he. 

"I am too poor mans to be call a friend, ma'm'selle. I can just say thathe is grand mans that I love. "

"Then you are the one to give him this message. Tell him that men whoare fighting him in politics intend to do him great harm and that hemust be very careful. Tell him that he will understand who these menare. "

"_Oui_, ma'm'selle. But will he understand who tell me that thing?"

Her cheeks were crimson. "No, no! He mustn't know that. "

"Then he will tell me, 'Poh, old Etienne, you know nottings what youtalk about. ' He is very bold mans, and he not scare very easy. "

"But he must be cautious, for these men have power. He need not beafraid of them, but he must watch carefully. You tell him that theywant to make out bad things about him so that they can print them in thepapers and hurt the cause he is working for. Can you remember?"

"_Oui_, ma'm'selle! I never forget anything what may be for his good. Iwill tell him. "

She hesitated for a long time and stared wistfully at the old man. Shestarted to go away and then returned to the fence, plainly mustering hercourage. 

"Do you know whether there is anything--about him--which wicked men canuse to hurt him?" she stammered. 

"I only know about him what I know, ma'm'selle, " he replied, with agentle smile nestling in the wrinkles of his withered face. 

"Could you tell me some of the things you know?" she asked, after mucheffort, striving to make her voice calmly inquiring. 

Old Etienne set the rake and the pike-pole against the fence. "I will bequick in what I tell you, ma'm'selle, for I have no place to ask youto take the seat. But I'm sure you will listen very well to this what Isay. "

And he told her the story of Rosemarie. 

But he did not go back as far as the pitiful figure on the canalbank, he made no mention of the water-soaked wad of paper which bore amother's appeal to the world, he did not mention the key to Block Ten. He told the story of Walker Farr's devotion to a child. He did notdare to reveal to this stranger the identity of that child, because thetelltale letter had been hidden from the coroner, and old Etienne stoodin awe of the curt and domineering men who enforced the laws. But withsimple earnestness and in halting speech he revealed the tenderness ofFarr's nature and gave further testimony to her woman's understandingthat this man who had come into her life possessed depths which shelonged to probe. 

"But the child!" she ventured, after Etienne had finished the story ofhow the two of them, voices in the wilderness of careless greed, hadfaced the masters of the city in the _hotel de ville_; "it seems strangethat a man--that anybody should take a child and--" She hesitated. 

"_Oui_, ma'm'selle, it seemed strange, " agreed the old man, studying herwith sharp glance of suspicion--a gaze so strange that she shifted hereyes uneasily. 

Ah, Etienne told himself, the law sometimes sent queer emissaries toprobe for it--and he feared the law very much. 

He must be very careful how he told any of the secrets which mighttrouble his good friend, who was now such a friend of the mightyfolks; as for himself--well, he would willingly be a martyr if the lawdemanded--but he did fear that law!

"But he loved the child very much, " she hinted. 

"So much that he will fight them because they have poisoned her--he willfight them and not be scare. "

"It is strange!" she repeated. 

"_Oui_, ma'm'selle, " he said, regarding her with still more suspicion. 

"But before that morning--when you found them here under the tree! Hetold you--"

"He walk the street with her in his arm. I don't tell you some moreabout dat t'ing what I do not know!"

But she knew that he was withholding something from her. She musteredher courage. 

"Mr. Provancher, the bad men are making threats that they will printstories about the child--and its mamma--to hurt your friend. And thestories will make the mamma very sad. "

"No stories can make her sad, " said old Etienne, solemnly. But he didnot say that he had raked the mother from the canal. The law must notknow!

"But I have heard about her, " she insisted. 

The old man's mouth trembled; he was frightened. "What you hear?" hefaltered. 

"Only good things. That she was very tender and went with you to thegrave. "

"_Oui_, " admitted Etienne, visibly relieved and grasping at thisopportunity. "She's sweet and good. She's play-mamma. "

"And her name is Zelie Dionne?" she asked, her face growing white in thedusk. 

"_Oui_, ma'm'selle--she live across in the little house where there areplant in the window--she live with the good Mother Maillet what I toldyou about. " He pointed to the cottage. "You go some time and talk withher--but not now, " he added, his fears flaming. He was anxious to bethe first to talk to Zelie Dionne, in order that she might help him toprotect their friend. "You shall talk with her--soon--p'raps. I willtell her so that she will not be afraid. Yes, you shall hear theplay-mamma say good things of poor Rosemarie. "

She bowed and hurried away. 

And before her tear-wet eyes the words "play-mamma" danced in letters offire. It seemed to be only another sordid story. 

But she remembered the face of Walker Farr, and in her heart shewondered why she still refused to condemn him. 

XXVI

THE DRIVEN BARGAIN

The Honorable Daniel Breed, "sipping" his thin lips and propping hiscoat-tails on his gaunt fingers, patrolled the lobby of the NationalHotel and his complacency was not a whit disturbed when Richard Doddpassed in front of him and sneered in his face. 

"Keep on practising making up faces, " advised the old man, amiably. "Perhaps in the course of time your uncle will give you a job making upfaces as his understudy, seeing that his physog is getting so tough hecan't manage it very well these days. "

Young Dodd whirled on his heel and returned. "We've got a line on youand your amateur angels, Breed. "

"Don't consider me an amateur, do you?" asked the old politician, smacking his lips complacently. 

"You're a has-been. "

"Sure thing!" agreed Mr. Breed. "The state committee told me so, and thestate committee never made a mistake. "

"We've got so much of a line on your crowd that my uncle has called offthe organizers. There's no need of our wasting money in this campaign. You're that!" He clacked a finger smartly into his palm. 

"Oh yes! You're right! Some snap to us. "

"I mean you're nothing. "

"Run in and take another drink, sonny, " advised Breed, giving slow cantof his head to denote the baize door through which Dodd had emerged. "What you have had up to date seems to be making you optimistic--andthere's nothing like being optimistic in politics. I'm alwaysoptimistic--but naturally so. Don't need torching!"

"Look here, Breed, we've got enough dope on that ex-hobo who is doingyour errand-boy work--we know enough about him to kill your wholesorehead proposition. But I don't believe my uncle will even use it. Noneed of it. "

"Probably not, " said Mr. Breed, without resentment. "And I wouldn't if Iwere he. "

"We won't descend to it. Now that we have got rid of a lot of oldbattle-axes of politicians--and I'm calling no names--we can conduct acampaign with dignity. "

"So do! So do! And it will save a lot of trouble, son; that's why thenewspapers wouldn't print that stuff about Mr. Farr after your uncle gotit ready. Libel cases make a lot of trouble. "

Dodd grew red and scowled. "Look here, Breed, you're licked before thestart, and as a good politician you know you are. My uncle wants youto drop in and see him. He told me to tell you so. This is no officialorder, you understand. Just drop in informally, and he'll probably havesomething interesting to say to you. "

"I'm terribly rushed up--shall be till after convention, " averred Mr. Breed, piercing the end of a cigar with a peg he had whittled from amatch. 

"What's the good of your being a fool any longer?"

"Always have been, so I've found out from that state committee who nevertold a lie--and it's comfortable to keep on being one, " he said, withgreat serenity. 

"You don't think for a minute that you are going to get control of thenext legislature, do you?"

"How much money have you got--your own money, I mean?" inquired Mr. Breed, guilelessly, his eyes centered carefully on the lighted tip ofhis cigar. 

"Say--you--you--What do you mean by that?" rasped Dodd, putting thecracker of a good round oath on the question. 

"I meant that I wanted to bet something--and I wouldn't want you to goout and borrow money--or--or--anything else. " From the cavernous depthswhere his eyes were set Mr. Breed turned a slow and solemn stare on theenraged chief clerk of the state treasury. 

"What do you want to bet?"

"Any amount in reason that after the first of next January there'll bea fresh deal in the way of state officers in every department in theCapitol. Arguing futures don't get you anywhere, son. If you've gotmoney to back that opinion you just gave me it will express your notionswithout any more talk. But don't go borrow--or--or anything else. "

Dodd stared at the shrewd old political manipulator for a long time. 

"You have money to bet, have you?" he asked. 

Mr. Breed languidly drew forth a wallet which would make a valise forsome men and carelessly displayed a thick packet of bills. 

"There it is, " he said, "and I earned it myself and so I ain't poking itdown any rat-hole without being condemned sure that I'll be able to pullit all back again with just as much more sticking to it. That wouldn'tbe sooavable--and from what you know of me I'm always sooavable. "

Dodd looked at the bills, carefully straightened in their packet, andgiving every evidence of having been hoarded with an old man's caution. 

There was something about that money which impressed him with thesincerity of Mr. Breed's belief in his own cause. The young man grewvisibly white around the mouth. 

"I'll see you later, Breed, " he gulped. "I don't believe you know whatyou are talking about--but I'm not national bank on legs. I'll be aroundand cover your cash. "

He went back into the bar, swallowed a glass of whisky, and went outand hailed a cab. He directed the driver to carry him to the TrelawnyApartment. 

Mrs. Kilgour admitted him to the vestibule of the suite. 

"Is Kate at home?" he demanded. 

"Yes, Richard!" She shrank away from him, for his aspect was notreassuring. "You know--she has given up her work--she is--"

"I know all about it, Mrs. Kilgour. But I want to ask you whether shehas given up her work in order to marry me at once?"

"Why, I--She said--I think it will come about all right, Dicky. " She waspitifully unnerved. 

"Have you told her why she must marry me?"

"It is not time to tell her--it is not right--I can't--"

He seized her arm and pulled her into the sitting-room. The daughterrose and faced them, reproof and astonishment mingling in herexpression. 

"This thing is going to be settled here and now, " said the lover, roughly. "There is going to be no more fooling. Has your mother put thismatter up to you so that you understand it, Kate?"

"She has told me that she owes you five thousand dollars, " returnedthe girl. Her eyes flashed her contempt. "You told me that yourself. Irepeated the statement to her and she admits it. "

"But did she tell you how it happens that she owes me that money?"

"For God's sake, Richard, have some pity! This is my own daughter. I will sell everything. I will slave. I will pay you. Kate, for mysake--for your own sake, tell him that you will marry him. "

"I will not marry this man, " declared the girl. "It has been a mistakefrom the beginning. As to your business with him, mother, that is not myaffair. You must settle it. "

"You belong in the settlement, " declared Dodd. "Hold on! Don't leavethis room, Kate. "

He reached out his hands to intercept her, and Mrs. Kilgour, released, fell upon the floor and began to grovel and cry entreaties. 

But his raucous tones overrode her appeals. 

"We're all together in this. I am five thousand dollars shy in the statetreasury, Kate. I took that money and loaned it to your mother when shebegged me to save her stocks. But she didn't have any stocks. "

Mrs. Kilgour grasped his knees and shook him. But he kept on. 

"She had embezzled from Dalton & Company. What I did saved her fromprison and you from disgrace, Kate. And now I am in the hole! Listenhere! There's hell to pay in this state just now! The soreheads arebanding together. A man has just offered to bet me big money thatthere's going to be an overturn in the State House departments. I don'tknow whether it will happen--but you can understand what kind of tormentI'm in. Kate, are you going to let me stand this thing all alone?"

The girl stood silent and motionless in the middle of the room. 

She did not weep or faint. Her face displayed no emotion. It was aswhite as marble. 

"Do you want to drag my daughter down with you?" cried Mrs. Kilgour. 

"You'd better not talk about dragging down, " he shouted, passionately. "I didn't steal for myself. Give me your love, Kate! Give me yourselfto encourage me, and I'll get out of the scrape somehow. I'll find ways. But if you don't come with me I won't have the courage or the desire tofight my way through. I'll not disgrace you if you marry me--I swear Iwill not! With you to protect from everything I'll make good. SymondsDodd is my uncle. He won't see the family name pulled in. But you mustmarry me!"

"And if I do not?" she asked. 

"We'll all go to damnation together. I don't care! I'll blow it all. Iwon't be disgraced alone because of something I did for your mother. Imay sound like a cur. I don't care, I say! I'm going to have you, and Idon't care how I get you!"

"We need not be so dramatic, " said the girl. Some wonderful influenceseemed to be controlling her. "Mother, stop your noise and go and sitin that chair. You demand, do you, Mr. Dodd, that to save my mother fromexposure as a woman who has stolen, I must be your wife?"

"I do. "

"Do you really want a wife who has been won in that fashion?"

"I want you. "

"You realize, fully, don't you, the spirit in which I shall marry you?"

"We'll take care of that matter after we are married, Kate. You haveliked me. You will care for me more when you come to your senses in thisthing. "

"You remember what my father did in the way of sacrifice, I suppose? Itwas no secret in this state. "

"Yes, " he muttered, abashed under her steady gaze. 

"I am like my father in many ways--in many of my thoughts. Perhaps ifhe had not set me such an example in the way of sacrifice I should saysomething else to you, Mr. Dodd. But as the matter stands between us, considering the demand you make on me, I will marry you. "

The concession was flung at him so suddenly--he had expected so muchmore of rebellion--that he staggered where he stood. He advanced towardher. But she waved him back. 

"Sit down!" she commanded. "This matter has gone far outside romance. It has become one of business. It is a matter of barter. I have hadsome experience in business. You say that mother owes you five thousanddollars which you took from the state treasury?"

"Yes, Kate. "

"And your books will be examined very carefully, of course, if there isan overturn in your office?"

"Yes. It won't be any mere legislative auditing. "

"I know something about politics as well as about business, Mr. Dodd. I cannot very well help knowing, after my experience in your uncle'soffice. I suppose the next state convention will determine prettyeffectually whether there will be an overturn or not?"

"If we renominate Harwood it ought to give us a good line on the controlof the next legislature, " he told her. "A hobo and a goody-goody, " headded, with scorn, "think they have stirred up a revolution, butthey have another think coming. " He had been calmed by her outwardlymatter-of-fact acceptance of the situation. But he did not perceive thefires of her soul gleaming deep in her eyes. 

"If Governor Harwood is renominated and the next legislature is inthe hands of your uncle, as usual, you will be sure to remain in yourposition?"

"Of course!"

"And you can hide the discrepancy on your books from the auditingcommittee?"

"I am pretty sure I can. "

"You appreciate fully, don't you, Mr. Dodd, why, after all my troublesin this life up till now, I should hesitate to marry a man with stateprison hanging over him?"

"Yes. "

"If Governor Harwood is not renominated I shall expect you to deferour marriage until you can work out of your difficulties. There will bedanger and it is not in the bargain of my sacrifice that I shall passthrough such disgrace with you; at any rate, I do not consider thatadded suffering is in the trade and will not agree to it. I prefer toremain as I am and share the disgrace of my mother. Do you agree tothat?"

"I don't like it, but I suppose I've got to be decent in the matter. "

"But if Governor Harwood is renominated at the convention I will concedea point on my part and will marry you at once, taking it for grantedthat you will be able to clear yourself. In that way both of us aremaking concessions--and such things should be considered in a bargain. "She was coldly polite. 

He bowed, not knowing exactly what reply to make to her. 

"You have accused me of trifling in the past, " she continued. "I willnow try to show you that I can conduct straight business as it should behandled. Shall I make a memo of our agreement and hand it to you?"

"There is no need of it, " he stammered. 

"Thank you, Mr. Dodd. And now that the matter has been settled to ourmutual satisfaction, I will ask you to go. I think my mother needs myattention. And I am reminded that our bargain does not dispose of thefact that my mother owes you five thousand dollars. I will reflecton how that debt may be paid--by insurance"--her face grew whiterstill--"or by some arrangement. "

"I wish you wouldn't say such--" But she interrupted him. 

"On my part, this is strictly business, Mr. Dodd, and I must considerall sides. I will give the money matter careful thought. I'm sure we canarrange it. I have merely bought my mother's good name with _myself_!"

He stumbled out of the room and went on his way. 

"Mother, you and I have some long, long thoughts to busy ourselves withbefore we attempt to talk to each other, " said the girl when the twowere alone. "I am going to my room. Please do not disturb me untilto-morrow. "

For an hour Kate Kilgour was a girl once more, sobbing her heart outagainst her pillow, stretched upon her bed in abandon of woe, torn bythe bitter knowledge that she was alone in her pitiful fight. She wasmore frank with herself in her sorrow than she ever had been before. She owned to her heart that a few days before even a mother's desperateplight would hardly have won such a sacrifice as she had made. 

She was ready to own that she loved that tall young man of mysterywhose face had refuted the suspicion that he was a mere vagrant. Itwas strange--it was unaccountable. But she had ceased to wonder at thevagaries of love. In her prostration of mental energies and of hope sheconfessed to herself that she had loved him. 

But now between his face and hers, as she shut her eyes and reproducedhis features, limned in her memory, those fiery words danced--there wasa "play-mamma" who with him had loved the little girl named Rosemarie. 

Checking her sobs, she sighed, and her heart surrendered him. 

Her sacrifice had been made both easier and yet more difficult. 

Then she snuggled close to her pillows and gazed out into the gatheringnight, and pondered on the fact that if Walker Farr won his fight in thestate convention that victory put an end to her poor little truce in thematter of Richard Dodd. 

Then she was sure that she had put Walker Farr out of her heart forever, because she found herself hoping that he would win. The girlhad not yet grown into full knowledge of the dynamics of a true andunselfish love--she did not fully know herself. 

XXVII

A DICKER FOR A MAN'S SOUL

The populace came first and packed solidly into the galleries of thegreat auditorium of Marion city. 

For years the state conventions of the dominant party had attractedbut little public attention. They had been simple affairs of routine, indorsing the men and the principles of the Big Machine. The nextgovernor had been groomed and announced to the patient people longmonths before the date of the convention; platforms protecting theinterests were glued placidly and secretly and brought forth from thestar chamber to be admired; and no delegate was expected or allowed tojoggle a plank or nick the smooth varnish which had been smoothed overselfish privilege. 

But this year came all the people who could pack themselves intogalleries and aisles. 

Below on the main floor were more than two thousand delegates. Everytown and city sent the full number accredited. After these men had beenseated the men and women who thronged the corridors and stairways wereallowed to enter and stand in the rear of the great hall. 

Strange stories, rumors, predictions, had been running from lip to lipall over the big commonwealth. It was reported that the throne of thetyrant was menaced at last by rebellion which was not mere vaporings ofthe restless and resentful; organized revolt had appeared, marching ingrim silence, not revealing all its strength, and therefore all the moreominous. 

A military band brayed music unceasingly into the high arches of thehall. The music served as obbligato for the mighty diapason of men'svoices; the thousands talked as they waited. 

The broad platform of the stage was untenanted. The speakers, thechairman, the clerks, the members of the state committee, did notappear, though the hour named as the time of calling the meeting toorder arrived and passed. 

In an anteroom, so far removed from the main hall that only the dullrumble of voices and the shredded echoes of the blaring music reachedthere, was assembled the state's oligarchy awaiting the pleasure ofColonel Symonds Dodd. 

He sat in a big chair, his squat figure crowding its confines. 

The state committee and the rest of his entourage were gathered abouthim. 

There was a committeeman from every county in the state--the men whoformed the motive cogs of his machine. 

One after the other they had reported to him. 

And each time a man finished talking the colonel drove a solid fist downon the arm of the chair and roared: "I say again I don't believe it's asbad as you figure it. It can't be as bad. Do you tell me that this partyis going to be turned upside down by a kid-glove aristocrat who hashardly stirred out of his office during this campaign?"

"He has had a chap to do his stirring for him, " stated one of the group. 

"A hobo, scum of the rough-scruff, hailing from nowhere! Shown up in ournewspapers as a ditch-digger--a fly-by-night--a nobody! I'm ashamedof this state committee, coming here and telling me that he has beenallowed to influence anybody. "

"Colonel Dodd, what I'm going to say to you may not sound like politicsas we usually talk it, " declared a committeeman, a gray-haired andspectacled person who had the grave mien of a student, "and it is notadmitted very often by regular politicians who run with the machine. Butwe are up against something which has happened in this queer old worldof ours a good many times. We have had the best organization here inthis state that a machine ever put together. But in American politicsit's always just when the machine is running best that somethinghappens. Something is dropped into the gear, and it's usually done bythe last man you'd expect to do it. The fellows who are tending themachine are too busy watching that part of the crowd they think isdangerous, and then the inconspicuous chap slips one over. "

"I don't want any lecture on politics, " snapped the boss. "Do you meanto insinuate that that low-lived Farr has put _this_ over on _us_?"

"I have hunted to the bottom of things and I do say so, Colonel Dodd. "

"How in blazes did that fellow ever get any influence? I haven't beenable to believe that he has been accomplishing anything. "

"You ought to have listened a little more closely to us, Colonel, "insisted the committeeman. "Every once in a while there comes forwarda man whom the people will follow. And he is never the rich man nor theproud man, but he is one who knows how to reach the hearts of the crowd. A shrewd politician can get power by building up his machine. And thensome fellow in overalls who has some kind of a God-given quality thathas never been explained yet so that we can understand, smashes intosight like a comet. It may be his way of talking to men, it may be hispersonality--it is more likely a divine spark in him that neither hehimself nor other men understand. But every now and again some humblechap like that has changed the history of the world, and I reckon it'spretty easy for such a man to change the politics of a mere state. "

His associates were staring at him and Colonel Dodd was giving himfurious glances. He had spoken with enthusiasm. He broke off suddenly. 

"I beg your pardon. I don't mean to go quite so far. But I'm a studentof history and I've read a lot about natural-born leaders. "

"You evidently know more about history than you do about politics, "growled the colonel. "This whole state committee doesn't seem to knowmuch politics. If you have allowed that Farr to slime his way aroundunder cover and do you up in your own counties, I'll see to it that wehave a new state committee. "

"I have an idea that that convention out there will attend to the matterof a new state committee for us. "

The new speaker's voice was very soft. His nickname in state politicswas "Whispering Saunders. " He was known as being the most artisticpolitical "pussy-foot" in the party. It was averred that he could puton rubber boots and run twice around the State House on a fresh fall oflight snow and not leave a track. 

"If I'm any kind of a smeller--and I reckon it's admitted that I am, "purred Saunders, "we are walloped before the start-off in every countydelegation out on that floor. "

"But what has been the matter with you fellows all the time?" blazed theboss. "Up to now you have been reporting simply that the soreheads weregrowling and were not getting together so as to be dangerous. "

"Did you ever try to shovel up soft soap from a cellar floor with aknitting-needle?" inquired the politician. "That's how it's been in thiscase. Every man I talked with was slippery. I know slippery times whenI see 'em. I've been afraid, but I hoped for the best. Now that theyare here, with this convention due to be called to order, they are notslippery any longer. They don't need to be. I've just been through theconvention hall. They are out and open--and they're against us. "

"That Farr has a proxy from a delegate in the Eleventh Ward and is onthe floor, " stated another. 

"But he isn't a voter. "

"He wasn't a little while ago, but he is to-day, Colonel. The board ofregistration had to put his name on the books--he has lived here longenough to become a voter. "

Colonel Dodd glared from face to face. It was plain that he was angeredrather than dismayed; he was like a bull at bay, shaking the prickingdarts out of his shoulders. He took a hasty glance at his watch. 'Twas twenty minutes past the hour appointed for the calling of theconvention. He could hear the distant band still bellowing bravely tokill time. 

A giant of a man stood up--a cool man, rather cynical. He was thechairman of the state committee. 

"I have been waiting till all these gentlemen got the panic worked outof their systems--or, at least, had said all they could think of aboutthat panic, Colonel. Now we can go ahead and do real business. We havenot had a battle in this state for a long time, and this panic may beexcusable. They say that the men who are the worst frightened before thebattle do the best fighting after they get into the real scrap. I willadmit that the situation in the state has been a little slippery, asSaunders has said. And some men have dared to do a lot of loud talkingsince they have arrived here in this city. It is so strange a thing thatit has got everybody in a panic. The Chinese are wise--they show dragonsto the enemy, but the dragons are only paper. Wouldn't think theenemy could be scared that way, eh? But look at this bunch of statecommitteemen! A pasteboard 'natural-born leader' set up, and ArcherConverse puffing smoke through the nostrils of that effigy! Gentlemen, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves!"

Colonel Dodd snorted emphatic approval. 

"You are talking like children. Guff and growls can't carry thisconvention. That crowd hasn't even got a candidate for governor. Haveyou heard one mentioned?"

"I don't suppose they would dare to go as far as that, " said one ofthe committeemen. "Governor Harwood, by party usage, is entitled to arenomination, of course. What they figure on is a new state committeeand a platform that will include reforms. "

"Huh! Yes! So much striped candy! Give it to 'em. Then we've got onlytwenty-four men to handle in the way we have always handled statecommittees--and even that crowd can't find saints and archangels fortheir candidates! And as for a political platform--bah!"

It was the practical politician's caustic estimate of conditions. 

Then the chairman joined in, bolstering this supercilious view: "As forthat legislature--how many bills were ever passed in our legislatureover a governor's veto after we had got in our work? We are going tohave a safe man for governor. That band's lungs won't last for ever. Colonel Dodd, are you ready?"

If revolt and the spirit of resentment and rebellion did exist in thatassemblage, which the magnates of the party faced when they marchedupon the platform, the tumult of applause covered all sinister outwardaspects. The routine of the convention was entered upon: the secretaryread the convention call, the organization was perfected withoutprotest, and the orator of the day, as president pro tem, a conservativeUnited States Senator, began his "key-note speech. " It was a documentwhich had been in proof slips for a week, and which all the partyworkers from Colonel Dodd down had read and approved. Therefore, whenRichard Dodd entered from one of the side doors and came tiptoeingacross the platform and touched the colonel's arm and jerked energeticrequest for the colonel to follow, the colonel followed, glad of anexcuse to be absent while the Senator fulminated. 

Young Dodd's face was flushed and working with excitement. He hurriedhis uncle into a small retiring-room and locked the door. 

"I've got your man, uncle, " he declared. 

"What man?" The colonel was grouchy and indifferent. 

"Your man Farr. "

"I don't claim him. "

"But you said you wanted him. You said you wanted to hang him like adead crow in the political bean-patch. "

"Merely momentary insanity on my part, Richard. There seems to have beena little run of it in this state, and when Judge Warren caught it andgave it to me I talked like a fool, I suppose. But you must rememberthat a polecat can give the most level-headed man an almighty start--andthen the level-headed man walks out around the polecat and goes on hisway very calmly. "

"But don't you consider that Farr is a dangerous man?"

The colonel held up his pudgy hand and snapped a finger into his palm. "He amounts to that in front of the muzzle of a ten-inch gun. "

"But I went ahead after what you said. I have put out time and money. I hired a detective. I figured I was doing a good job for the machine. "Young Dodd's voice trembled and disappointment was etched into hisanxious features. 

"Well, what have you found out?"

"I can't tell you. It's another man's secret, and he's got to have cashor a guaranty before he'll come across with it. "

"What's the price?"

Richard Dodd exhibited confusion and hesitation. "I made some promisesto him, uncle, because I know what has been paid in the past for thingswhich didn't seem to be as important as this--judging from the way youand the judge talked. So I--well, I--"

"Price, price, I say! I'm used to hearing money talked, " harked thecolonel. "I've got to get back into that convention. Out with it!" Hemade two steps toward the door. 

"Five thousand!" blurted the young man. 

Colonel Dodd whirled and whipped off his eye-glasses so as to give hisnephew the full effect of his contemptuous fury. 

"Why, you young lunatic, I wouldn't pay that price if they were goingto elect Farr the governor of this state, and make him a present of theConsolidated, and you could bring proof that he is the reincarnation ofJudas Iscariot. "

A roar of voices and a thunder of thudding feet announced that theSenator had finished. 

Colonel Dodd hurried away. 

The nephew found Detective Mullaney in the alley behind the auditorium, and the young man's air of discomfiture and the sagging shake of hishead told the story of his errand without words. 

"If they're getting too mean in their old age to hand me a fair pricefor a good job then let 'em get licked, " declared the detective. "Youstuck to our original figure of five hundred dollars, didn't you?"

The young man looked over the detective's head and lied. "Fivehundred--that's what I told him. "

"And he wouldn't consider it?"

"Something has braced him so that he isn't afraid of the man any longer. Perhaps he has got a line of his own on him. It doesn't seem to be worthanything any longer. Suppose you tell me just who he is and what abouthim?"

"Not on your life!" retorted Detective Mullaney, sharply. "I ain'tsaying anything against your family, of course, but when I give a Doddsomething for nothing--even a hint--it will be when I'm talking in mysleep and don't know it. But I'll tell you what I _will_ do. Give me mytwo hundred and fifty and I'll hand you the whole proposition and youmay go ahead and make what you can of it. I swear to you again that I'vegot it on him. Seeing what he did to _you_, you ought to feel that thestory is worth that much of a gamble even for private purposes. "

Dodd hesitated, put his hand in his pocket--then withdrew it empty. 

"No, Mullaney. What's the good? He says Farr isn't dangerous, and hasturned down the whole thing flat. I may as well keep my money. If youwant to sit on the platform, come along with me. I can find a place foryou. "

Detective Mullaney followed willingly, for he knew that people werefairly piling over one another in an attempt to get into the hall by themain entrance. 

He sat down in one of the square chairs on the platform and searchedwith his sharp little eyes until he found the face of Walker Farr in theterraced rows of humanity. It was not difficult to locate him, forhis physique made him loom among other men and he was posted under thebanner which marked the location of Moosac County. 

The detective found the eyes of the young man directed toward thegallery with such intentness and for so long a time that he endeavoredto trace that earnest scrutiny to its object. The detective was notexactly certain, but he finally picked out a very handsome young ladywho occupied a front chair in the balcony; she seemed to be returningthe young man's intent regard. 

"You have the reputation of knowing all the pretty girls in the state, "whispered Mullaney, drawing Dodd's attention with a nudge. "Who is thatup there in the gallery, front row, fifth from the aisle; blue feather, and so handsome she hurts my eyes?"

To have his attention drawn thus rudely to the one girl in all the worldgave Dodd a sensation which he did not relish--and his face showed hisastonished resentment. 

"That is Miss Kilgour, who used to be my uncle's secretary. Why do youwant to know who she is?"

"Because there seems to be something very especial on between her andthe man we thought was worth five hundred dollars to us. "

"That young lady, Mr. Mullaney, is engaged to me, " stated Dodd, acridly. "You'd better drop the topic. "

But he did not display either the joy or the pride of the acceptedsuitor as he looked up at her. 

"I'll simply say that you're a mighty lucky chap and I congratulateyou, " returned Mr. Mullaney, hiding his confusion by getting verybusy with newspaper clippings and papers which he drew from his breastpocket. 

The detective was wholly unconscious of the irony of that remark. But itbrought a flush of shame to Dodd's cheek, for the sorrow and sting andignominy of that part which he had played had not departed from his soulnor did even the fervor of his passion for her help him forgive himself;he stared at her guiltily as the thief gloats over his loot and isconscious of his degradation without feeling sufficient contrition togive up the object he has stolen. 

For he remembered with fresh and poignant recollection the circumstancesunder which that girl had given her promise to him so recently: she hadstood over a mother who had abased herself before them, had cast herselfdown and had writhed and screamed and implored her to consent; and themother was driven to do this by the lash of his threats. He had stoodthere and demanded, and the woman on the floor had confessed herfrailty, owned to her misdeeds, acknowledged her debt, and hadfrantically begged her daughter to sacrifice herself. 

The girl had given her "Yes, " paying the debt with herself; but her eyeshad been wide and dry and her face was white and set and she had lookedpast the man to whom she promised herself when she had murmured thatpromise. 

Dodd swept cold sweat from his forehead as he remembered; he foundalmost the same expression now on her face as she gazed down on WalkerFarr, who stared back at her anxiously, perceiving a grief that he couldnot understand. 

In that vast assemblage those three, thus wordlessly, no one markingthem, fought a tragic battle of hopeless love with their eyes. 

Detective Mullaney pored over his papers. "By gad, " he mused, "I haven'tkept my books all this time for nothing. I know my card. I've got himright--it's dead open and shut. But I swear he doesn't look the parthe played, even if the description does fit him. Well, law is law! IfI can't sell him to Symonds Dodd, I'll find out how much those will paywho do want him. "

The routine of the great convention had been proceeding. 

"And the gentleman from Danton, Mr. Gray, moves that we do now proceedwith the nomination of a candidate for governor, " intoned the chairmanin sing-song tones. 

XXVIII

THE MAN WHO WAS NOT AFRAID

One after the other, dignified and decorous, three men of the BigMachine, representing three of the large counties of the state, cameupon the platform and put in nomination the name of Governor Harwood tosucceed himself. 

These speakers had been carefully selected. They were elderlygentlemen whose reputations, tones, and demeanor bespoke safe and saneconservatism. They took occasion to rebuke the new spirit of unrestin the old party, and their tremolo notes of protest were extremelyeffective. While these men talked, a listener was compelled to feel thatrebellion against the established order of things could only be ranksedition; for many years have these arts of oratory been employed toappeal to the average man's party loyalty; voters have listened andhave been ashamed to revolt--as a son dutifully bows his head under afather's reprimand and responds to a father's appeal--for, after all, in matters where appeal is made to loyalty the human emotions are not sovery complex. 

The elderly gentlemen put great stress on the fact that not in twentyyears had a faithful governor been refused the honor of renomination fora second term. Would their convention deny that compliment to GovernorHarwood? It was the same appeal that had been made for twoscore yearsin order to perpetuate the dynasty of gubernatorial figureheads who hadobeyed the ring's orders. 

Walker Farr heard _sotto voce_ murmurings of men in his vicinity. Theywere men who had joined the new revolt and had stood bravely enough fora change in county political managers. But these men revealed thatthey were timorous about altering long party custom. They said, oneto another, that it would be going too far to refuse renomination toGovernor Harwood. It might split their party so widely that the rivalpolitical party would be able to carry the state--and that would neverdo. 

Farr was in no wise surprised to hear these murmurings. 

He had sounded men before that convention as he had traveled about thestate. 

He had found them ready to begin house-cleaning in the smaller affairsof county management, and by assault on the little wheels of the gearof the machine which had so long ground political grist; but theywere unwilling to temp fate by venturing on such a general overturn asputting up for governor a man who had not been selected and groomed forhigh office during the accustomed term of apprenticeship--legislature, senate, and council. 

He realized how well the great ring had intrenched itself in absolutepower by appealing to conservatism in matters of safe men for highoffice. Safe men meant those who protected the big interests and sawthat no raids were made on capital--no matter how many abuses capitalmight be fostering. 

Mumble and grumble all about him, and men's faces showing that they wereagreeing with the tremolo appeals of the elderly orators!

Even the Honorable Archer Converse, his legal cautiousness governing hisopinion, knowing the temper of conditions in his state, had emphaticallydiscouraged Farr when the young man had timidly questioned him in regardto the advisability of securing a candidate for governor outside thering's dynasty. 

Mr. Converse's discouragement of such hopes would have been even moreemphatic had he ever dreamed that this apostle whom he had sent out intothe field was coddling the audacious hope that Mr. Converse himself bysome miracle might be put into the governor's chair. 

The orators proceeded, one after the other. They were applauded. Theyretired. 

Walker Farr was oppressed by the lugubrious conviction that he was theonly man in that great assemblage who felt enough of the zealot's fireto be willing to put all his hopes to the test. 

He looked at the faces on the platform. There sat Colonel Dodd, wearinghis expression assumed for that day and date--smug political hypocrisy. 

His henchmen winged out to right and left of him. They representedfinance and respectability. 

Sometimes political rebels will gallantly and audaciously venture whenthey rail behind the backs of their leaders; but when those leadersappear and fill the foreground with their personalities the rebelssubside; they are impressed by the men whom they behold. They defer, even when they are stung by knowledge of their leaders' principles. 

Colonel Dodd and those with him were the accredited leaders. 

Delegates glared, but were cowed and silent. 

Farr pondered. Perhaps the advice of Mr. Converse was best:

"Take what we can get in our first skirmish. Keep it for the nucleus ofwhat we hope to get later. If we put all to the test in our first fightagainst forces that have been in power for all the years and lose, thenthe cause gets a setback which may discourage our men for ever. "

And Mr. Converse, having so declared, had remained away from theconvention that day, feeling that no more was to be gained. 

"And I move you, Mr. Chairman, " called a voice, "that the nominationsfor governor do now close. "

This had been the custom in the past. 

It was not in the minds of that convention that another candidate wouldbe put forward. Governor Harwood was waiting in an anteroom, thumbingthe leaves of his speech, and all the delegates knew it. All desired toexpedite matters, nominate by acclamation, hear the inevitable speech, and go home. 

"One moment before that motion is seconded!"

The voice was so loud, so clear, so dominant, so ringing, that theeffect on the convention was as galvanically intense as if somebody hadblown upon a bugle. 

Walker Farr had risen to his feet. 

Colonel Dodd set his curved palm at his mouth and from behind thechairman shot a few words at the presiding officer as one might shootpellets from a bean-shooter. The chairman scowled impatiently at Farr, and a delegate among those who watched eagerly for signals from thethrone rose half-way to his feet and bellowed, "Question!" The crywas taken up by other delegates, just as the unthinking mob follows acheer-master. 

Farr climbed upon a settee. He stood there, silent and waiting, andhis expression, poise, and mien wrought for him more effectively thanspeech. 

He towered over all the heads. He was markedly not one of thoseNew-Englanders there assembled. His mass of dark-brown hair, his garb, the very set of his head on his shoulders, differed from the physicalattributes of all others in the hall. And, as the delegates continuedto shout for the question to be put, he turned slowly so that hisexpression of dignified and mild protest and appeal was visible to all. And as he turned he gave the girl in the gallery a long look. 

The chairman pounded with his gavel. 

"I second the motion, " called a delegate, taking advantage of the firstmoment of silence. 

There was another roaring chorus of, "Question!"

But Walker Farr remained standing on the settee, waiting patiently. Heshowed no confusion. There was added dignity as well as appeal in hisattitude and expression. 

"Before that vote is taken I want to say one word as a man to men, "shouted a delegate. "It's plain to be seen that that man standing thereis a gentleman. We are sent here to attend a meeting for the good ofour party. If, as delegates, we refuse to listen to a gentleman becausewe're in too much of a hurry, we'd ought to be ashamed of ourselves. If, on the other hand, we're _afraid_ to listen to him, whatever it is hewants to say, then God save this party of ours!"

That was a sentiment which promptly struck fire in that assemblage. 

There before their eyes stood the subject of that challenge, stalwart, modest, appealing silently--the sort of appeal which won. 

The galleries broke into applause first. Then the delegates took up thedemonstration in behalf of fair play. They beat their hands and poundedtheir feet. The applause from the galleries had more or less of rebukein it, because it began while the challenger's voice still echoed in thegreat hall. 

The chairman's gavel thumped ferociously. 

Colonel Dodd cursed under his breath. He had been on the trail of thatconvention, its movements, its progress, as a hound dog would followthe trail of a fox. He had seen it safely headed for the corner whereit would be run to earth. He detected sudden peril in this threat of adetour. 

"Good Jericho!" gasped a committeeman near him. "The chairman ain'tletting this convention get away from him, is he?"

It was natural alarm in the case of a man who feared to allow anyexpression in a convention except such as had been arranged forpreviously and had been passed upon by those in power. 

"This isn't the kind of convention that will get away!" hissed thecolonel in reply, bolstering his own convictions that all was safelyharnessed. "But I don't want any fooling. "

He caught the eye of his nephew and summoned him with an impatient jerkof the head. 

Richard Dodd hastened across the platform and bent his ear close to hisuncle's mouth--the colonel pulling him down. 

"If your man can stop that fool now--quick--for five hundred dollars, I'll pay. "

Young Dodd gulped. He needed five thousand dollars!

"He won't consider less than I told you. "

"Well, let the idiot talk to us--he can't do any harm. "

The colonel pushed his nephew away. In spite of that applause he stillhalf expected that the convention would close the nominations. What elsewas there to do?

"The vote is upon the motion to close the nominations for governor, "stated the chairman. "Those in favor will say 'Aye!'"

Every delegate in that hall was looking at Farr. They were staring athim with curiosity and interest. But even curiosity does not alwaysprompt politicians to open a convention to a person who may prove to bea bomb that will upset plans and precedent. 

Then Farr gave them that wonderful smile!

The "Ayes" were scattered and sporadic! Men did not relish shutting offa chap who stood there and smiled upon them in that fashion. 

At the call for the "Noes" a bellow of voices shook the hall. 

The convention had given this stranger permission to speak by thatrefusal to subscribe to the cut-and-dried plans. Colonel Dodd was nolonger smug. He scowled ferociously. 

"Gentlemen of the convention, I am grateful, " cried Walker Farr. "And Iwill not abuse your patience. "

"Platform--take the platform!" called many of the delegates. 

He smiled and shook his head. "Let me talk to you standing here whereI can look into your eyes, gentlemen. I feel pretty much alone in thisconvention. I _am_ alone! I represent no faction, no interest except thecause of the humble who have asked for help from the masters who havebeen set over them. Perhaps I ought to have remained silent here to-day. My cowardice has been prompting me to keep still. It is no easy matterfor me to stand up here and disturb the order of events which had beenarranged by the gentlemen who have managed your public affairs foryou so many years. But it would be much more difficult for some of theothers here to speak, because the gentlemen who manage politics havemethods by which they can discredit a man in his profession, ruin himin his business, stop his credit at banks and in other ways make him paydearly for his boldness in speech. I have no money in banks, no businesswhich can be ruined. "

"I rise to a point of order!" shouted a delegate, obeying a nod from thestage. "The business in hand is the nomination of a governor. "

"That is my business, " stated Farr, calmly. 

With political scent sharpened by his apprehension, Colonel Doddnarrowed his eyes, sat straight in his chair, and desperately endeavoredto fathom the intentions of this rank outsider. 

In spite of his bluster to the state committee he was worried. He hadnot felt comfortable since his conference with Judge Ambrose Warren. He did not like the "feel" of political conditions. There was someindefinable slipperiness about matters. 

He could not bring himself to consider the impossible idea that theconvention would bolt--would run amuck, no matter who addressed it--nomatter what contingency arose. But to have the convention even toleratethis brazen interloper troubled his sense of mastery; the convention hadbeen too ready to permit the stranger to speak. It wasn't politics asthe colonel had been accustomed to play the game. And this--this manfrom nowhere--it was preposterous!

He snapped his head around and found his nephew close behind him. 

"You young whelp, " gritted Colonel Dodd, visiting his anger on thenearest object, "where's your political loyalty? This isn't any time todrive bargains. If you can stop that fellow hustle and do it. "

"It's another man's secret, I tell you. I've got to buy it. "

"I'll make it a thousand. "

Young Dodd's face was white, but he knew how desperate his case was andhow vitally necessary it was to play his cards as he held them. 

"I gave you final figures, " he whispered. 

"Where is that man? Let me deal with him. "

"It must be done through me. "

"If you wasn't my nephew I'd think this was blackmail. "

Young Dodd stepped back to avoid the glare in his uncle's eyes. 

The colonel turned away and listened. Farr's voice was raised now insolemn appeal. 

"The idea of my letting myself get rattled by a crack-braineddemagogue, " muttered the colonel. He had been fondling the outside ofhis coat furtively, locating his check-book. Now he took his hand away. 

"It is well to respect service and to show courtesy, gentlemen. I havelistened with interest to the eulogies which have been given GovernorHarwood. He is, without doubt, an amiable gentleman. But let me tell youthat the next legislature is going to be asked to pass a law which willbe a club with which the people will rap the knuckles of Greed till thatunholy clutch on the water systems of this state will be loosened forever. "

The delegates stared at him for a few seconds when he paused, and then atumult of applause greeted his utterance. 

"I ask you, gentlemen, whether Governor Harwood--and you know him welland how he has been chosen--will ever sign a bill that will take profitfrom the hands of his political makers even to give that profit to thepeople who are the rightful owners?"

This time men were silent, but he knew what they thought from the mannerin which they looked at him. 

"I do not need to tell you that the veto of a bill by a governor means, in most cases, its death. Gentlemen, it would be polite and kind andgracious of you to bow low here to-day and hand up the nomination to theamiable Governor Harwood. But with the conditions as they are in thisstate are you going to be polite, merely, while the hearses are rumblingdown your streets? I have no way of knowing how many of you into whoseeyes I am looking have seen death enter your own homes from the taps ofthis much-promising, little-accomplishing water syndicate. But if youhave seen death touch your loved ones, or if you go home from here andbehold fever ravaging your community, it will be poor consolation toyour soul to remember that at least you were polite to an amiable manwho desired the honor of a renomination. "

The faces of the convention showed that this blunt yet shrewd appeal tothe individual antagonism of men had produced profound effect. 

"But that is only one feature of what this state demands and needs, gentlemen, " was Farr's ringing declaration. "This struggle for purewater has opened a broad avenue. The towns and cities of this state musttake back into their own hands the properties and franchises which havebeen mismanaged by the men to whose hands unwise gift by the people hasintrusted the people's own. We need a man in the Big Chair of State whowill stand with the people in this crusade!"

This amazing declaration in open convention produced as muchconsternation on the platform as if Farr had dropped a bomb there. 

He uttered something which was worse than mere political rebellion: hewas proposing to take for the people properties which constituted thebackbone of the oligarchy's power in state affairs. 

Colonel Dodd had been growling behind the chairman, angrily endeavoringto get the ear of that gentleman. But the chairman seemed to be aswholly absorbed by this astonishing arraignment as were the delegates. 

The head of the state machine, for the first time in his career, wascompelled to come into the open instead of through the mouth of alieutenant. He could not wait to give orders. 

He rose and stamped to the front of the platform. His voice rang hoarseand loud. 

"There can be no more of this unparliamentary and irregular nonsense. What has got into this convention? Don't you understand that no speakeris allowed to break the rules and attack a man under guise of nominatinganother? Mr. Chairman, I demand that this slanderer be removed from thehall and that we proceed to the nomination of a governor. "

There was a hush during which Farr and Colonel Dodd looked at eachother, crossing their stares like long rapiers over the terraced heads. 

"I fear I was wrong, " confessed Farr, gently. "But we poor folks down inthe ranks don't know much about the rules, and when we are strugglingto save the ones we love we are apt to forget and talk to the heart ofthings. I am not trying to show that I am a skilful orator, gentlemen ofthe convention. " He held up his arms. "I am crying for _Justice_!"

The delegates broke into applause once more. 

And Walker Farr sent a queer look straight into the eyes of the colonel. 

Conviction slapped Colonel Symonds Dodd in his mental face with aviolence that made him blink!

This man was no amateur in understanding how to sway an audience. To besure, he had transgressed parliamentary usage, but in those words he haddriven home facts that all knew to be truths--truths which others hadbeen afraid to voice, but which, once put into words in public, tiedthe hideous stamp of ring favoritism upon Governor Harwood, made him acandidate who could not be trusted. 

The colonel understood, and he also saw plainly that the most of theaudience had accepted the apology, and held no prejudice against thespeaker. 

"Now that I understand what the rules governing nominations are I willnot break them again, " declared Farr. 

But like a shrewd and not over-scrupulous lawyer he had jabbed intothe proceedings a stinging truth which, though excluded by the rules, nevertheless served vitally the big purpose of his efforts; the colonelunderstood that, too, and turned back to his chair fairly livid withrage. 

"There is a man in this state who knows true law, " continued thespeaker, "and that you may be assured that he will sign a bill which ispassed for the good of the people, let me tell you a little about hischaracter. "

Colonel Dodd cursed without trying to moderate his tones very much. 

"There's no telling what tack that renegade will take next. Thisinfernal convention is getting to be a nightmare. Those fools out thereare listening as if they expected that cheap demagogue to bring 'em anew Messiah, " he told the committeemen near him. 

"There's a funny noise going on out there among 'em, " ventured"Whispering Saunders. " "Round-up fellows say they hear something likeit when a herd is getting ready to stampede. It's the same thing in apolitical convention sometimes. The reason for it is: the crowd is ripeand the head steer gives the right bellow--and off they go!"

Colonel Dodd grabbed his nephew by the elbow and rushed him off thestage and into an anteroom. 

"Is that matter on the hair-trigger, Richard?" he demanded. 

"It's ready to be snapped any minute. "

The colonel whipped out his check-book and began to write. "It's as oldSaunders said, " he muttered as he wrote. "And we've got to rope, throw, and tie that one steer. "

The check was for five thousand dollars!

Young Dodd seized it, and when his uncle hurried back upon the stage thenephew, through the door which was left open, beckoned to Mullaney. Thedetective came, hurrying past Colonel Dodd, who stared until the doorhad closed behind young Dodd and the officer. 

"But he's my own nephew!" he assured himself, as if he were replying toan accusation laid against Richard Dodd. He shook his head and sat downin his chair. "I wonder how long it has been since old Bob Mullaney puta price of that size on his secrets! I'm afraid Richard hasn't the Doddability to drive a sharp trade. "

But Richard was showing considerable ability in that line behind thedoor of the anteroom. 

He jammed two hundred and fifty dollars in crumpled bills into thedetective's hands, cleaning out his pockets for the purpose. He hadslipped the check into his deepest pocket the moment his uncle hadhanded it to him. 

"It was hard work to screw him up, Mullaney. You have seen how I workedhim. This is all he gave me--two hundred and fifty. Take it and springyour trap. "

"You don't look honest, " grumbled the detective. "If I'm any kind of aguesser you're holding out on me. "

"That's your price. You agreed. There isn't any time to argue this. Giveme back the money. " He grabbed the bills from Mullaney's clutch. It wasmagnificent bluff. "I'll hand it to my uncle. He isn't very keen on thething, anyway. "

"I'll take it--give it back. I'll apologize, " pleaded Mullaney. 

"Will you swear to keep all this under your hat--the whole thing? Unclesays if you dare to speak to him about it--hint to him or anybody thathe paid money for anything on Farr--he'll deny the story and have yourlicense taken away. "

"I promise--swear it, " Mullaney agreed. 

Dodd returned the money, and the detective started out on the trot. 

"You come, too, and I'll tell you on the way. Time is short. You'dbetter help me, " he advised Dodd. They hurried away together, rushedout into the alley and around to the front of the hall, the detectivepouring certain information into Dodd's ear as they made their way tothe big door and into the main corridor. 

Then they bored through the crowds. 

The detective led the way and showed his badge to compel the people togive them a lane. 

They entered the rear of the auditorium. 

"You take the left side and I'll take the right, " commanded Mullaney. "We need to paralyze him first. That's all there's time for justnow--I've had short notice. But get that name to every man of your crowdyou can, and when the howl is started tell 'em all to join in. "

Dodd had had scant time to digest the knowledge which the detectivehad imparted on the run. But his eyes gleamed wickedly as he began towhisper to men among the delegates. And as he moved about he noticedthat the girl in the gallery had marked his activity, even to the extentof turning her gaze from Walker Farr, whose voice was ringing throughthe spacious hall. 

XXIX

THE BOMB

Walker Farr, towering over their heads, talked to the men in whose midsthe stood. 

Mere eloquence no longer avails in these days of cynical disbelief inthe motives of political orators. But this young man who stood therewas sincerity incarnate. The wonderful and mystic magnetic quality whichwins men and inspires confidence radiated from him. And every now andthen, as he glanced up at one face in the gallery his voice took on newtones of appeal and pathos. He was one crying from the depths to thosein authority! By the marvel of his language he made the men who satthere as delegates understand that theirs was the power to make ormar--to save or sacrifice their state in the crisis which was upon them. He made them feel their responsibility after he made them understandtheir power. 

And he also made their duty plain. 

The crux of the situation rested on such a man as they should place inthe highest office in the state. 

In other times, under other conditions, some pliant and amiablefigurehead might serve them well. 

He told them, with outstretched finger and vibrant voice, what must bethe masterful qualifications of the man who should assume the cross ofpublic service and carry it up the steeps where he would be lashed atevery step of his weary way by the thongs in the hands of privilegedcapital. 

Colonel Symonds Dodd had come back to the platform, cursing himself fora fool. The moment the check had left his hands he was angry because hehad allowed circumstances to stampede him. 

He wondered what was getting into him and into politics. 

Was he afraid of mere talk from a demagogue!

But after he had sat there for a few moments and listened, and hadwatched the faces of the delegates, he decided that if five thousanddollars would stop the mouth of that man he had spent money wisely. It was borne in upon him that he had spent greater sums many times forlesser service. 

He saw Richard Dodd and Mullaney circulating among the delegates. Herestrained with difficulty an impulse to rise and shout to them tohurry. He felt that danger to his program and his political structurewas imminent. Because once again were true eloquence and masterly appealwinning men. 

All the listeners in the vast hall were as still as death. All eyes wereon this speaker who seemed to be clothing with effective speech all thehidden convictions of the delegates themselves who had nursed protestwithout being able to put it into force. 

Colonel Dodd had seen conventions in similar mood in the old days beforethe saddle of party had been as securely cinched as it had been in lateyears. 

The chairman of the state committee uttered the colonel's rising fears. The chairman had lost his sneer and his bumptious confidence. His facewas red, he was sweating, he was staring out over the convention andsnapping his fingers impatiently. 

"Good gad!" he informed those in hearing on the platform, "what kind ofa turn is this thing taking? We have let this convention get away fromus. That chap has got the whole crowd marching to the mourners' bench. He can wind up by nominating a yellow dog and they'll rise and howl himinto office by acclamation!"

Farr paused for a moment to give effect to his next words. 

"Such in character, in honest impulse, in honor, in ability, indevotion, and in God-given nobility must be the man who will lead you. Has God given such a man to this state? He has!"

"Yes and the devil has given us Nelson Sinkler to speak for that man!"

The voice was shrill and agitated and it came from a section of the hallwhere the rabid adherents of the machine were massed; it was an amazingand shocking interruption. 

"I said Nelson Sinkler--that's you!" screamed the voice. 

And on that, from here and there in the hall, like snipers posted inambush, men shouted the name "Nelson Sinkler"--the words popping likerifles. 

There was uproar. Part of it was protest, part hysterical demonstrationof excitement in an assemblage which did not in the least understand. 

Then after a time came quiet, for the object of the attack stood in hiselevated position, unruffled, stern, turning bold front to right andleft as men barked at him. 

"I am here where all may look on me, " he said. "Let one or all of thosewho are attacking me stand forth in view, too. "

No one stood up. 

"It's a cowardly man who will not put his name to a letter or show hisface when he makes an accusation, " cried Farr. 

"How about a man who doesn't dare to use his own name?" This questionerremained in ambush. 

"Your right name isn't Walker Farr and you know it isn't, " bellowed avoice on the opposite side of the hall. 

Other voices pot-shotted at him with the words, "Nelson Sinkler. "

"Will one man in this convention stand up and show himself so that I cantalk to him face to face?" shouted the man at bay. 

Detective Mullaney and Richard Dodd could not find seats. The otherswere sitting, and the two were marked men. 

"Well, Dodd, you have been whispering. What have you to say aloud?"demanded the man they were baiting. 

"I say your name is not Walker Farr. "

"You!" The tall young man darted a finger at Mullaney. 

"I say you're Nelson Sinkler. "

"And what of him?"

"He is wanted by the state of Nebraska for murder. "

A sound that was mingled sigh and groan ran and throbbed from galleriesto floor; it filled the great hall and seemed to vibrate back and forthover the assemblage. And for the long minute that the dreadful soundcontinued until it had breathed itself out into horrified silence theman who stood on the settee looked straight into the white face of thegirl in the gallery. 

But those of the throng who devoured him with eager stares could notdiscern one trace of confession on his countenance. 

Then he did a strange thing. 

He held his arms out toward Detective Mullaney and crossed them, wristover wrist, and he smiled. 

"If you are certain enough of your man to dare to arrest me, sir, Istand here waiting for the handcuffs. "

The detective hesitated, visibly embarrassed. He had been looking forconfusion, confession by manner, even collapse. 

"This is a put-up political job, " declared a delegate. "That's nomurderer--that man. "

"I am waiting, " repeated Farr. 

Detective Mullaney flushed. There were murmurs of hostility in thethrong about him. He ran over swiftly in his mind the contents of hisnote-book and fortified his courage. 

"I haven't secured a warrant yet--but I'll take your dare, " heannounced. He started to come down the aisle. 

"Just one moment, " called a stentorian voice in the gallery. "You'rewrong, my man, down there. I don't want to see an innocent persondisgraced in public nor an officer get himself into a scrape. That manis not Nelson Sinkler. "

"What are we running here--a state convention or a police court?"Colonel Dodd demanded, leaping up and grabbing the arm of the presidingofficer. "Order all those men ejected from the hall. "

But at that moment the convention was not in the control of thechairman. Irregular as it all was, human nature demanded to be shownthere and then. 

Delegates arose, shouting, and surrounded Farr, making effectualbulwarks against Mullaney with their bodies. Voices asked the strangerin the gallery for information, and he motioned the vociferous mob intosilence. 

"I am a United States post-office inspector, and I can easily prove myidentity, gentlemen. I'm here in this convention merely as a spectator, killing time till my train leaves. But I know Nelson Sinkler becauseI arrested him a month or so ago after he had been a fugitive for twoyears. He killed a mail clerk. He is now awaiting trial. If that mandown there is arrested as being Nelson Sinkler it will mean a lot oftrouble for somebody. " He sat down. 

"Who are you?" yelled a chorus of the ring's henchmen. They pressed asnear to Farr as his body-guard would permit and shook their fists athim. 

"I am a man and not a spirit, " he said in the first silence--andsilence came quickly, for they were eager to hear. "You can see thatfor yourselves. But just now I am less a man than a _Voice_. " He shoutedthat last word. "The Voice calls you to rebuke the kind of politics thathas just been attempted here. You have seen, you have heard! Will youindorse it by your votes? Will you keep in power that gang that hasattempted it in the desperation of defeat?"

"No, " the voices of men tumultuously replied. 

Reckless and unjust attack had never tossed a more golden opportunityinto a man's hands. 

"Then come over to the side of decency, my men. Nominate a champion whowill be spotless and unafraid. There is war in this commonwealth insteadof politics. Through one war the great patriot of this state led hispeople with high chivalry. For the next governor of this state, in thesetrying times, I nominate the son of that patriot--the Honorable ArcherConverse of this city--God bless him!"

"We're licked, " gasped Colonel Dodd, trying to make the state chairmanhear him, for the roar that rocked the great hall was deafening. "Aboomerang has come back and mowed us flatter than an oven door intophet. "

In the rout, in the retreat--horse, foot and dragoons--crisp orderswere issued and obeyed. The friends of Governor Harwood had only oneresource--it was to save that gentleman's face. His nomination waswithdrawn. 

That convention had run amuck, it was a mass of wild men who werefeeling liberty from oppression for the first time and gloried in theirnew and sudden freedom from ring rule. 

Then the delegates who came upon their feet roared the unanimousnomination of Archer Converse. 

In the gale of that acclaim the opposition uttered no protest; thedelegates who still remained loyal to the machine scowled and kept theirseats. 

Ducking under the tossing arms of men who flung aloft their hats andcheered with the frenzy of delight that the amazing victory inspired, Richard Dodd escaped to the rear of the hall and jammed himself into thepress of the spectators. He hid behind a hedge of bodies and then daredto look at Colonel Dodd's face. The mighty passion which flamed onthe uncle's countenance was revealed to the nephew's gaze even at thatdistance. The colonel was at the edge of the platform and was beckoningimperiously to some one. Young Dodd saw Detective Mullaney work hisway out of the throng which surrounded Walker Farr; the officer wasobviously obeying the summons of Colonel Dodd and marched to theplatform and climbed on a chair in order to converse with the angry manwho had beckoned. 

And when Richard Dodd saw that conference begin overwhelming fear sweptout of his soul all other emotions. He no longer had eyes for that girlin the gallery. Not even love and the promise she had made availed tostay him. Panic allowed him no time for planning an excuse or framing alie. In playing for the stakes he had exacted he had felt that his unclewould hold no autopsy on the price of success. But five thousand dollarsplucked from the Dodd pocket by a falsehood for which no excuse couldbe offered! And on top of that a crushing defeat which had been madedefinite and final by the work which Colonel Dodd had paid for!

The nephew saw Mullaney shake his head and throw up his hands in appealand protest. 

That spectacle made Richard Dodd a fugitive who thought only of savinghimself. He fought his way through the crowd and ran out of the hall. The thought of facing Symonds Dodd in that crisis or of waiting to bedragged before the furious tyrant--that thought lashed the traitor intomad flight. 

He glanced up at the clock in the First National tower. He had threeminutes before the bank's closing time. He controlled his emotions asbest he could and presented the check at the paying-teller's grill. The money was counted out to him without question, and when he held thethick packet in his hand he realized still more acutely in what positionhe stood in his affairs with Symonds Dodd. 

He rushed to a garage, secured his car, and fled. 

"I tell you I gave my nephew a check for five thousand dollars, "insisted the colonel. "And the Dodds don't lie to each other!"

"Then they have begun to do it, " declared Mullaney. "He hasdouble-crossed the two of us. There was never any talk between us ofmore than five hundred for the job. "

Colonel Dodd hurried into the anteroom and called the bank on thetelephone. "Almighty Herod!" he yelped, when he was informed that thecheck had been cashed. He banged the receiver upon its hook. "Even myown nephew has joined the pack of those damnation wolves!"

Then with the air of a man recovering from a blow and wondering dizzilywhat had struck him, he left the convention hall by a rear door and wentto his office. 

Those whom he passed on his way out made no attempt to stop him, did noturge him to remain. That convention seemed to be doing very well withoutcalling upon Colonel Symonds Dodd for help or suggestions. 

XXX

A GIRL'S IMPULSE

Herald unofficial, _avant courier_, Mr. Daniel Breed squeezed himselfthrough the pack of people while they were still cheering the name ofthe Honorable Archer Converse. 

"Giving candy to youngsters and good news to grown folks nevermade anybody specially unpopular, " Mr. Breed assured himself withpolitician's sagacity. 

Therefore, he jog-trotted down to the Converse law-offices and shothimself into the presence of the estimable gentleman who had remainedaloof from the distracting business of a convention. 

"He's done it, " proclaimed Mr. Breed, making his sentences short and hismessage to the point because he was out of breath. 

"Who has done what?" demanded Mr. Converse, with equal crispness. 

"Farr. You're nominated for governor. Acclamation! He's a wiz with histongue. " Mr. Breed pursed his little mouth and "sipped" with gusto. "Some talker! Don't ever tell me that good talk doesn't win when theright man makes it at the right time. "

Mr. Converse rose and stood--a rigid statue of consternation andprotest. "Do you mean to come in here and tell me that I have beennominated by that state convention? Without my sanction? Without myconsent?"

"Sure thing! Easy work! Played all the tricks. Made believe he wasgreen. Poked rights and lefts to Harwood's jaw. Had himself paged asa murderer--at least, I reckon it was his own get-up. It cinched thething, anyway. He understands human nature. "

But Mr. Converse did not in the least understand this talk. "Look here, Breed, you haven't gone crazy yourself, along with the rest, have you?"

"Nobody's crazy. People have simply woke up. "

"I'll be eternally condemned if I--"

"That's right! You will be if you don't button up your coat and go overto the hall along with that notification committee that's probably onthe way, give the folks your best bow, and say you'll take the job. We're some little team when we get started. "

"You're an infernal steer team, and you have dragged me into a mess oftrouble, " declared Mr. Converse, with venom. 

"Glad you're in, " retorted the imperturbable Breed. "A man needs more orless trouble so as to round himself out; I've been having some troublesof my own. Whatever job you give me after you're elected, don't put meback with them stuffed animals. Harwood made his mistake right there!"

"It has begun already, has it?" asked Converse, indignantly. "Office-seekers at it?"

"Sure thing!" responded Mr. Breed, amiably. "When you cool down you'llremember that I got to you first with the good news. "

Five minutes later the Honorable Archer Converse, muttering, but morecalm, was marching toward the convention hall in the company of a proudcommittee of notification. 

He walked out upon the platform and waited for the wild tumult ofgreeting to subside, and while he waited he searched the assemblage withstern scrutiny to find the face of Walker Farr. 

But that young worker of miracles was not in evidence. 

He had risen with the others when the band began to blare the musicwhich signaled the approach of the nominee. 

Once more he turned his gaze toward the girl in the gallery. 

There was nothing in his demeanor to suggest that he had been a victor. His face was white, and after his eyes had held hers for a long timehe gave her a wistful little smile which expressed regret, sorrow, renunciation, rather than pride. She no longer wondered at the interestshe felt in this man; she knew that she loved him. She was able to ownthat truth to herself, and to view it calmly because she had made herpromise to Richard Dodd and was resolved to keep it. That determinationmade of this love a precious possession that she could put away for everout of the sight of all the world. Such a poor, meager, little story oflove it was! A few meetings--a hand-touch--a word or two. 

There in that packed forum had been their only real love-making. Overthe heads of angry men they had told each other with their eyes. Therewas no misunderstanding on the part of either. Both knew the truth. 

And yet, after he had told her, this enigma of a man bowed his head andedged his way to the door, moving unobtrusively through the press ofhumanity, taking advantage of the confusion which marked the entrance ofArcher Converse. 

Impulse goaded Kate Kilgour at that moment. She did not reason orreflect. Something in the air of this man told her that sorrow insteadof triumph was dominating him; his whole demeanor had said "Farewell"when he had turned from her. The instinct of the woman who loves andlongs to comfort the object of that affection drove her out of the hall, and she followed him--ashamed, marveling at herself, searching her soulfor words with which to excuse her madness, should he turn and beholdher. 

But the autumn dusk was early and she was grateful because it shroudedher. 

Farr, leaving the din of the convention, going forth alone, looked morelike the vanquished than the victor. He walked slowly, his head waslowered, and he turned off the Boulevard at once, seeking desertedstreets which led him down toward the big mills. 

Their myriad lights shone from dusty windows, row upon row, and thestaccato chatter of the looms sounded ceaselessly. 

Farr climbed the fence where old Etienne was everlastingly raking. Theyoung man had not seen much of the old rack-tender for some weeks, andnow he greeted Etienne rather curtly as he passed on his way to thetree. But Etienne seemed to understand. 

"Ah, I will not talk, m'sieu'. I will not bodder you. I hear how muchyou have work and run about, and you must be very tire. "

There was a crackle of autumn chill in the air, but Farr took off hishat and sat down and leaned his head against the tree. He closed hiseyes. One might have thought that he wished to sleep. 

When the rack-tender made his next turn toward the street he saw a womanat the fence, and as he peered she beckoned to him. He went close andsaw it was the pretty lady to whom he had told the story of Rosemarie. She trembled as she clutched the top of the high fence, and when shespoke to him he understood that she was very near to tears. 

"Is there not some way--some gate by which I may come in?" she pleaded. 

"That is not allow, ma'm'selle. It is trespass. "

"But I want to speak--to--tell him--We can talk over there beside thetree and will not be heard. It is to Mr. Farr I wish to speak. I sawhim when he climbed the fence. " She hurried her appeal with pitifuleagerness. 

"Ah yes, I have one little gate for maself--for my frien'--for heesfrien', ma'm'selle. I will break the rule. You shall come in. "

She went softly and stood before Farr for some minutes before he openedhis eyes. 

Then he looked up and saw her and he did not speak. He seemed to accepther presence as a natural matter. She was clasping her hands tightly tosteady herself. His calm demeanor helped her. 

"I don't know why I came here, " she murmured. 

"I know. It's because you are sorry for me. "

"But I followed you. I dared to do that. I don't know why. I haven't thewords--I can't explain. "

"I understand. You wondered why I came away from the convention. Youwant to ask me why. "

"Yes, that's it. I am interested in the fight. I have left the officewhere so many bad things were planned. "

"I know. It was good of you to warn me. "

"And now I am afraid you are in trouble. "

"I am. "

"But you have many good friends now, sir. "

"I fear they cannot help me. When I left that hall I tried to tell youwith my eyes that I was going away. "

"I--I think I understood, " she stammered. "It was wrong--it wasfolly--but I followed you without knowing why I did so. "

"I am glad you did. I can say farewell to you here. "

"But you must not go away, Mr. Farr. You are needed. "

"I am going because I can best help the work in that way. If I stay hereI may be the cause of great harm. "

"I cannot understand. "

"I do not want you to understand. "

"Why?"

"It is a matter which concerns others besides myself. "

"Does Mr. Converse know that you are going away?"

"I shall tell him to-night before I leave town. "

"He will not allow you to do. "

"Yes--he will, " the young man returned, quietly. 

There was a long silence. 

"Coming here--following you--it was a mad thing for me to do, " said thegirl, still striving to find explanation for her act. "But I have had somuch trouble in my own life--I am sorry for others who are in trouble. Iwant to tell you that I am sorry. "

"I understand, " he repeated. 

Another period of silence followed. 

"That is all, " said the girl. "I only wanted to tell you what a grandbattle you won to-day--and then I saw your face there in the hall andI knew that you did not want praise--you wanted somebody to say to you, 'I'm sorry. '" She dwelt upon the word which expressed her sympathy, putting all her heart into her voice. "And now I'll be going, " she said, "and I hope you understand and will forgive me. "

Farr had been sitting with head against the trunk of the tree. When hehad started to rise she requested him to remain seated. Now he stood upso quickly that she gasped. She was plainly still less at ease when hestood and came close to her. 

"Wait a moment. You think that I am a very strange sort of man, do younot?"

She was silent. 

"You need not answer--it doesn't need answer. You naturally must thinkthat. You met me when I was a vagrant. You have seen me selling ice froma cart-tail. But--I will be very frank, for this is a time which demandsfrankness--you have seen me in other circumstances which have been abit more creditable. You do not know who I am or what to make of me. Butwith all your heart and soul you know that I love you, " he declared, histones low and tense and thrilling. "That love has needed no words. Ithas been strange love-making. Wait! This isn't going to be what youthink. If I were simply going to say I love you I would have said it toyou long ago--I am not a coward--and I had seen the one mate of all theworld; I knew it when I saw you in the dust of the long highway. Andafter you went on I picked a rose beside the way, and the ashes of thatrose are in my pocket now. I called you the little sister of the roseand plodded along after you, playing with a dream. And I threw the roseaway after I saw you in the woods with your lover--and understood. But Iwent back and hunted on my knees for your sister. I didn't intend to sayany of this to you. For it is of no use. "

"No; I am promised to Richard Dodd, " she sobbed. 

"If that was all that stood between us I'd reach now and take you in myarms, " he said, with bitterness. 

"It is more than a mere promise--he owns me--it was bargain andsale--it's sacrifice--for--But I must not tell you. " She went to thetree and put her forehead on her crossed arms and wept with a child'spitiful abandon. He came close and put tender hand upon her shoulder. 

"Sacrifice, little sister of the rose! Then there is another bondbetween us! Sacrifice! My God! the curse that is sometimes put upon theinnocent!" He put the tip of his forefinger under her chin and liftedher face from her arms. "I haven't any right to tell you that I loveyou. I must march on. I cannot even explain to you why I cannot take youin my arms and plead for your love. "

Her eyes told him what answer his pleading would win, and he trembledand stepped away from her. 

"Since it can never be, " she said, brokenly, "you may as well knowthat I--that I do--I couldn't help it. I am forward--I am bold--itis shameless--but I never loved anybody before. " She put out both herhands, and he took them. 

Old Etienne dragged doggedly at his work, his lantern lighting his toil. The looms clacked behind the dusty windows which splashed their radianceupon the gloom. 

"It is a bit strange that now another wonderful but bitter experienceshould come into my life on this spot where we are standing, " he toldher. He spoke quietly, trying to calm her; striving to crowd back hisown emotions. "I guess fate picked this spot as the right place for usto say farewell to each other. I stood here one day and saw old Etiennedraw a dead woman to the surface of the water, and I found a letter inher breast and I took her key and went and found little Rosemarie. "

She stared at him, her eyes very wide in the darkness. 

"And that dead woman--she was the mother of the little girl?"

"Yes, a poor weaver that the mills had broken. And Rosemarie and I satall night under this tree. It is too long a story for you now. No matterabout that, but I--"

"I know about Rosemarie, " she confessed. 

"And my heart opened and something new came into it, little sister ofthe rose. And now on this spot I stand, and all joy and hope and loveare dead for me when I give back to you these dear little hands. "

She was still staring at him. 

"But I must not--I dare not speak of it, " he proceeded. His grasp grewtense. "See how I am trying to be calm? I will not loose my grip onmyself. Our doom was written for us by other hands, dear heart. When itwas summer I walked here with Rosemarie and play-mamma. Now it is autumnand--"

"Play-mamma!" she gasped. 

"Yes, a dear, good girl who worked hard in the mill and who was verygood to our Rosemarie; I was making poor shifts at buying a littlegirl's clothes, and Zelie Dionne was wise in those matters and was busywith her needle. "

"I hope you been excuse me, " broke in old Etienne. "I overheard the nameof Zelie Dionne, but I don't mean to listen. I have some good news foryou, M'sieu' Farr, what you don't hear because you ain't been on thisplace for long time. And it is not good news for you, ma'm'selle, fornow you can't get acquaint with very nice Canadian girl. The big beauJean have come down here from Tadousac and now he own nice farm and theywill get marry and be very happy up in the habitant country. "

"Thank God, there's some happiness in this world, " said Farr. "She is agood girl. "

There was almost joy on Kate Kilgour's face when she looked up at Farr. 

Her god had been restored to his pedestal. 

"Farewell, " he said at the little gate through which she had steppedinto the street. 

"No, " she cried as she turned and hurried away; "I'll not say it--notnow!" And he wondered because there was joy in her tones. 

XXXI

THE MASK OF CYNICISM

Old Etienne came to the gate with his lantern; the big turbines werestilling their rumble and growl in the deep pits and his day's work wasended. 

"P'r'aps you may walk to Mother Maillet's with me and say the good wordto Jean from Tadousac and to Zelie Dionne, who is now so very glad, "suggested the old man, humbly. "The good priest he marry them very soonand they will go home. "

"Yes, I will go, Etienne. I can say good-by there to you and to MissDionne. "

"So you go visit some place, eh, after your hard work? That will be verygood for you, M'sieu' Farr. You shall come back much rest up and thenyou will show the poor folks how you will help them some more. "

"I shall not come back--I am going away to stay. "

"But you promise under the big light at the _hotel de ville_--I hear youpromise that you will stay, " protested the old man. 

"My work is finished. "

"That is not so, M'sieu' Farr. For many men come to talk to me over thefence since I stand up in the big hall. They are wiser than such a foolas I am. They say that you have just begin to do great things for thepoor folks. You shall take the water-pipes away from the men who havepoison them. Ah, that is what they say. I do not understand, but theysay it shall be so. "

"Other men can do it, " said Farr, curtly. 

"And yet you will come back--when?" The old man was struggling with hisbewilderment and doubt. 

"Never. "

He understood how he was hurting that old man, but bitterness andhopelessness were crowding all tender feelings out of Farr at thatmoment. Once more he put on the mask of cynicism. He feared to showanybody the depths of his soul. 

In the good woman's little sitting-room they found Zelie Dionne. 

"I have stopped in to say good-by, Miss Zelie. I am going away. I'msorry that the grand young man from Tadousac is not here. "

"He comes to sit with me in the evening. You shall wait and see him. "

"No, I must hurry on. "

"I have been reading about you. " She tapped the newspaper in her hand. "The boy just passed, crying the news. It is very wonderful what youhave done. Now you will be the great man. But I knew all the time thatyou were much more than you seemed to be. "

"However, you don't seem to understand me just now, " he declared. "I amgoing away from this city--from this state. I am going to stay away. "

"_Oui_, he have say that thing to me, " said old Etienne, brokenly. "AndI do not understand. "

"And _I_ do not understand. "

"I'm tired--put it that way. "

"Ah no, that is not it. "

"Well, I am more or less of a sneak and a quitter when it comes to apinch. I don't want you two good folks to feel sorry about me. Forgetme. That will be the best way. I hope you will be very happy inTadousac, Miss Zelie. "

"I hoped we were better friends, " she said simply. "I am very sad tofind you do not trust us. "

"Oh, I'm selfish--that's it. Remember me as a selfish man who was tiredand ran away. "

"We have talked about you, Uncle Etienne and I, and we have never saidthat you are selfish. "

"That shows you don't know me, " said Farr, roughly. 

"But we know what you have done, " insisted the old man, with patientconfidence. "For what you say you shall not do we do not care aboutthat. For we have seen what you have done--ah, we know about that andcare about it very much. You are wiser than we are, and if you say youmust go we can only look at you very sad and bow the head. I wish I hadsome language so to tell you how very sorry! But the Yankee words--Iknow not those which tell how sorry I shall be. It is not much I can dofor the poor little childs--only whittle and save pennies for the freshair. "

Another man, another tone, might have put rebuke, indirectly, into thosewords. But old Etienne, rasping his hard palms nervously, was merelyvowing himself to sacrifice because there was no one else left to do so. Farr understood and was softened. 

"And now I must go to the bed for my sleep, because the rack must becleared before the wheel start to go roompy-roomp in the big pit askingfor its water. " He was showing nervousness, haste, his voice trembled;he staggered when he lifted himself out of his chair. 

"You'd better say good-by to me now, " said Farr, rising with the oldman. "It's a good night under the stars. I shall probably be far out onthe road by daylight. "

"Good-bye, " muttered old Etienne, fumbling his hat and bowing. 

"But aren't you going to say something else to me--say you're sorry tohave me go?" demanded the young man. "We have been close together insome things we shall never forget. "

"I have told you. I cannot say how sorry. " The old man's voice waslittle more than a husky whisper. 

"I like you, Uncle Etienne. I want you to know it. You are an oldsaint. " He put out his hand, but the rack-tender turned and hurried tothe door. "Not take my hand?" cried Farr. "Am I as much of a traitor asall that?"

"Oh, I cannot speak! I have no word, " wailed the old man from the gloomin the street. His voice rose in shrill, cracked tones. He began to weepaloud. He had been restraining his feelings with all the strength of hiswill since Farr had announced his intentions. His departure was flight. He began to run away down the sidewalk. "Saint Joseph, guard my tongue!"he gasped over and over. "I'll go very fast so that I not say it, for Iam only old Pickaroon, and he is fine gentlemans!" He continued to weepbroken-heartedly. 

"Mr. Farr, he was afraid he would tell you how much he loved you--afraidthat you would be insulted if he presumed to tell you of it. "

"I don't think I just understand that, " commented Farr, staring into thenight, peering to get another glimpse of Etienne. 

"I understand!" said the girl. "It would be too bad for you to go awayand think that at parting he was not polite to you. I would not like tohave you suppose that fault is in one from Tadousac. He has told me. Ifyou will not follow him and frighten him by saying that you know it, Iwill tell you. "

"I will not follow him. Probably I shall never see him again. "

"It may be a bit hard for you to understand, for you do not know theFrench nature, perhaps. But since little Rosemarie went away for ever hehas loved you. You made something more of him than the old rack-tenderwhen you took him into partnership. When you made him your friendbefore all the big men at the City Hall something bloomed in him, m'sieu'--something that before had been only a withered bud! Ah, youthink I am fanciful? Very well! I cannot think how to say it any otherway. You are a token for him from little Rosemarie who has gone away;you are friend, you are son, you are in his eyes destined savior ofthese poor people. "

"I am glad I am going away. I would hate to betray such childlike faith. Good-by, Miss Zelie!"

He heard her call to him when he was in the street. He turned andhalted and saw her slim, white figure at the gate, and he stepped backhalf-way. 

She was girlish sympathy incarnate, and his troubled, hungry, self-accusatory soul caught the radiation of that womanly solace. 

"It's not what you say to me you are, " she said, her breath coming fast, her tones low. "It's what I know you are! That you will be when at lastyou shall come to yourself. I do not care what you say. I shall notremember! To the world--to me--to poor Etienne, just now, you lied aboutyourself, M'sieu' Farr--about your real self. But you did not lie toa little girl when she asked you to show your true self to her. Ofyourself--with little Rosemarie--that shall I remember!"

"I thank you, " he said, gratefully. 

"Some day some woman will love you, " she continued. "And when you aresure that she does love you, then you will tell her your troubles andshe will know what to say to make things right for you. For that is themission of good women. They understand how to listen and how to help themen they love. You shall see!" She hurried into the house. 

Farr was promptly admitted when he presented himself at the door ofArcher Converse's residence, and he was conducted to that gentleman'slibrary, and came face to face with his patron, whom he found sittingvery erect in a high-backed chair. 

"I have been waiting for you, sir, " said Converse. 

"I expected that you would be waiting, sir. "

"Be seated. "

"I will stand, if you please. I have only a few words to say. "

"Then your nature must have changed very suddenly, " said the lawyer, dryly. "Or did you pump your reservoir dry of language when you put myname in nomination to-day?"

Farr bowed without reply. 

"I hear that speech commended very highly. Among opportunists youdeserve high rank, Mr. Farr. You have tipped a state upside down veryeffectively, and I am upside down along with the rest. "

"I will stand here very patiently, sir, and take my punishment. Asbetween ourselves, I had no right to do what I did to-day withoutconsulting you. As regards conditions in the state, I had a right toseize that opportunity and give to the people a man who can be dependedon. I did so. Go ahead, now, Mr. Converse!"

To the young man's surprise, the nominee arose and came to him withhand outstretched. A smile broke through the grimness of the lawyer'scountenance. "I have accepted a public trust with pride, I am obeying myplain duty with satisfaction, and I shall work to be elected with all mymight. Otherwise I wouldn't be the son of my father. My boy, I have hada talk with Citizen Drew to-day. He told me about your idea of kickinghonest men into politics. I want you to understand that I thank youheartily because you have kicked me in. I'm going to swim!"

"'Then God's in His Heaven and the world's all right, '" declared Farr. 

The lawyer's quizzical and searching gaze was rather disquieting; theyoung man had found Converse eyeing him with peculiar interest duringtheir meetings in the recent past. Now Converse bestowed particularlyintent scrutiny on his caller. 

"I feel that I have done my work, sir, " Farr hastened to say, anxiousto terminate this interview. "I am going away--out of the state. I shallnot return. "

Mr. Converse did not break out into protest. He eyed Farr more closely. Then he reached a button and turned on the full light of the chandelier. "You have a good reason for deserting just when you are most needed, Ipresume, sir?"

"I have. It is a reason which especially concerns the success of thelegislation which we have discussed. If I stay I shall hamper you. "

"I will ask you to stand where you are for a few minutes, sir, " said thelawyer, commanding rather than requesting. He went to a cabinet and drewforth a package. He brought that packet to the table and began to sortphotographs. 

He selected one, regarded it with careful gaze, and shifted his eyes tothe young man's face. 

"Um!" he commented, with judicial tone. "Now--suppose you tell me--justhow your continued presence in this state will hamper me"--he paused; hedrawled the next words, emphasizing them--"Mr. Bristol!"

Farr had begun nervous retreat when the lawyer had begun comparison ofthe living features with the photograph. It was plain that he fearedrather than understood. 

"Hold on, there!" shouted the investigator. "You may as well stay andsettle this matter, Bristol. You look at this picture! You recognize it, do you? If you are in any doubt I'll inform you that it's a picture ofyour father when he and I were in law-school together. "

"I deny any relationship to that man. "

"Your tone and your manner convict you, my boy. I jumped you with thatname purposely. I am no fool when it comes to examining a witness. WhenI first laid eyes on you I thought I had seen you, yourself, somewhere, and I have been puzzling my brains. Then it occurred to me that I hadknown in my youth a fellow who looked like you. You're the son of yourfather, all right. Don't stultify yourself by lying to me. You areMorgan Bristol's boy! Hah?"

"I am, " confessed the young man, with resignation. 

"What is your first name?"

"Thornton. "

"Sit down, Thornton!"

The visitor obeyed. 

"What have you done that you're ashamed of, my boy?"

"I cannot tell you, " said Bristol, firmly. 

"Oh, but you're going to, " insisted the lawyer, with just asmuch firmness. "You are now retaining me as your attorney andcounsel--whether you know it or not. And when a man talks to his lawyerand tells the truth it's no betrayal of confidence. Out with it!"

"There's nothing to be done, Mr. Converse. "

"There's always something which can be done when a man is in trouble. You are Morgan Bristol's son. I was in school with your father. He wentWest and settled. Is he alive?"

"I think so. "

"How is it that you don't know?"

Mr. Converse settled himself into the tone and pose of thecross-examiner. 

"I have been a vagrant, hiding myself in the highways and byways of thiscountry, for a long time. "

"What happened to drive you out like that?"

"Right there, Mr. Converse, is where I must halt. It is a family matter. I cannot go into it. "

"Look here, Thornton, you are in trouble. If you are in trouble, so isyour father. He has lost a boy! You can tell me now what it's all about, or I'll drop my affairs and go and hunt up Morgan Bristol and ask himabout it. You may just as well save me all that time and trouble. You'rea lawyer, yourself--I know it. "

"Yes. "

"And you're a good one and know our code when it comes to secrets. I amnot asking you to expose a family skeleton--I'm demanding that you treatme as your attorney and trust to my discretion. You are in trouble andneed a helper, and, by gad! you have got to take me into this thing. "

Thornton Bristol set his elbows on his knees and clutched his shakingfingers into his hair. 

"I have been meaning to keep it all to myself, sir, " he stammered. 

"Quite likely. You have done mighty well at it, I should judge. But youknow that any man who acts as his own lawyer usually does a mighty poorjob. He lacks perspective. "

Bristol did not reply. 

"I have been studying you a little since I have known you, " the lawyerwent on. "You are a very strange mixture, my boy. I much fear that insome things in this life you are too quixotic in your views. We had acase here in town--a man named Andrew Kilgour--"

"I have heard about that man, sir. "

"Thornton, from what glimpses I have had of your nature, I'm going totell you here and now that you are covering somebody else's fault. Youare no coward. You would face your own delinquency just as bravely asyou came here and faced me to-night. Now, what did your father do?"

"Speculated with trust funds of estates. "

"Old story, eh? Too bad, Morgan. I liked you when you were young. "

"But I want you to understand it, " cried the son. "It is hard for me totalk about it, sir, but it isn't exactly the old story. My father wastoo indulgent where I was concerned. He tried to do more for me than hecould afford. He didn't tell me the truth about his affairs--I supposedhe was a rich man. I always had everything that money could furnish. When he found that I was interested in the law he sent me to schools athome and abroad and ordered me to take my time and go to the bottom ofall. "

"Well, I reckon you did, " stated Converse. "If ever I saw a chap withthe true legal mind you have it, polished and pointed. You came intothis state and saw a solution for a problem which has blocked us fortwenty-five years. It's good law! And we will have a legislature thatwill pass it. But when did you find out that your father had taken otherfolks' money?"

"I came home and insisted on going to work in the office. Then he toldme. The settlement was due and had been called for. He was obliged totell me. And he tried to convince me that he had not taken the money formy sake. He was willing to appear in my eyes a thief without excuse. ButI knew. I had selfishly accepted it all without thought--and only halfgrateful. Young men are thoughtless, sir. "

"Your father seems to have been quixotic after his own fashion, Thornton. I think I remember some of his traits when he was in school. But as old Hard-Times Brewster used to say, 'We are all poor, queercritters and some be queerer than the others!' So you were a littlequeerer than your father, eh, and tried to square matters by a worsepiece of folly?"

"It may have been folly. Perhaps it was. But I did not stop to argue orreason. That money had been spent on me. I accepted the blame. I saidnothing to my father. I wrote letters to the persons who had lost. Itold them that I had taken the money as my father's agent--without hisknowledge. I said I had deceived him as well as them. And then, sothat I might not perjure myself on the witness-stand or have the truthgimleted out of me by lawyers, I put on rags and hid myself among thethousands who trudge the highways and ride the trusses of freight-cars. And no one has come to me and put heavy hand on my shoulder and said, 'Iwant you!' But some one will come if I remain here. I am going to hidemyself again. "

"I say it has all been a piece of folly, " insisted Converse. "Dearfolly! Yes, almost noble folly! But it must end, my boy. I supposeyour father is back there toiling to repay those men from whom he tookmoney. "

"I suppose so, Mr. Converse. But he has not been disgraced in the eyesof the public. "

"There's where your noble folly has made its mistake. You have doubledhis grief, Thornton. Just sit there a moment and ponder. You willunderstand what I mean. "

"I have understood--I have pondered--but I have not had the courage togo back. At least, they could not say to him that his son was in prison. He has escaped that grief. "

"And has endured a heavier one, my boy. I'm afraid you're a poorcounselor in your own affairs. " He came across the room to Bristol andslapped the bowed shoulder. "Now you have found a better one. I havetaken your case. "

The young man looked up into the kindly features of his adviser and wasonly half convinced. 

"Don't you realize how easy it will be for you to make money fromthis time on? You don't? Well, let me tell you. As soon as you can beadmitted to the bar in this state I'm going to make you my law partner. Hold on! I'm doing you no especial favor--I'm putting into my office aman who had the legal acumen to devise a plan to break the unholy clutchof plunderers who have had this state by the throat for a quarter of acentury. I'm simply grabbing you before somebody else gets you. I expectto be governor of this state, and I want my law business looked afterby a man who is able to keep up the reputation of the firm. But first ofall, my boy, you and I are going back to your home. I think you'll findme a fairly good lawyer in straightening out tangles. I'll know just howto talk to those folks out there. And then you're coming back here withme and face this state as yourself and help me fight the legislationwe want put through to enactment--and be damned to 'em!" He put his armabout the young man's shoulders and drew him to his feet. "It has beena hard day for you, my boy. There are some hard things ahead of you. Youmust go to bed. The morning will bring comfort and good counsel. "

But when Bristol started toward the door Converse restrained him gentlyand led him toward the stairs which led up from the big vestibule. 

"You're home, my boy--right here--you're home here from this time on!This is your other home until your father needs you more than I do. I have been pretty lonely in this house for a good many years withoutrealizing just what was the matter with me. "

"After all, you have only my word for what I am and what I have done, "expostulated Bristol. 

"Oh no, I have the evidence of my eyes and ears and my own commonsense. "

Bristol pressed the hand stretched forth to him. 

"I'm not going to talk to you any more to-night, " stated the host, when they were on the upper landing. "It will all seem different in themorning. It's going to be all right after this, Thornton. I'm sorry Ihaven't a wife. A woman understands how to listen to troubles betterthan a man. Is your mother alive?"

"No, Mr. Converse. "

"I might have known that. You would not have allowed a mother tosuffer--your folly would never have gone so far. You would have beenhome long before this. Ah, well, my boy, some woman will know how tocomfort you some day for all you have endured. Good night!"

The young man knew that Zelie Dionne had been right in what she said; hedid not require the added opinion of the state's most eminent lawyer. 

XXXII

THE DEBT

Colonel Symonds Dodd sat at his desk in the First National block andclutched helplessly at the dragging ends of events. He failed to getfirm hold on anything and irefully informed Judge Warren that the wholesituation was a "damnation nightmare. "

"Well, " affirmed the judge, who had been pricked in his legal prideby his master's tongue, "the Consolidated has eaten some pretty heartymeals. It's no wonder it is having bad dreams right now. "

"You're squatting down like an old rooster in a dust-heap, " ragedthe colonel, too angry to be choice in his language. "You, atwenty-five-thousand-dollar lawyer, come in here to me and say that youcan't block the confiscatory scheme of a bounder--a nobody--a black-legstranger in this state!"

"I'll carry on the fight if you order me to do so, " said the corporationlawyer. "That's my business. We can lobby in the next legislature. Wecan fight the laws that Archer Converse's legislature is bound topass, for they're after us, Colonel Dodd. We can carry the thing tothe highest tribunal--and then we can fight the appraisals on everywater-plant in the state, but--"

"Well, but what?"

"One by one they'll pry loose every finger we have got hooked on to ourproposition. I have submitted that water-district plan to the acid test, Colonel. It was my duty to do it. A lawyer must keep cool while hisbosses curse and disparage. I have the opinions of the law departmentsof three leading colleges on the scheme. They all say that such aplan, if properly safeguarded by constitutional law, will get by everyblockade we can erect. Now if you want to spend money I'll help youspend all you care to appropriate, " concluded the judge, grimly. 

"We'll fight, " was the dictum of the master. 

"Then I take it that you have definitely decided to give up yourpolitical control, Colonel! A certain amount of popularity is needed tocinch any man in politics. You're going to be the most unpopular man inthis state if you start in to fight every town and city simply for thepurpose of piling up costs and clubbing them away from their own as longas you have the muscle to do it. "

"I don't care about politics--politics has gone to the devil in thisstate already. They'll get tired of chasing fox-fires through a swampfollowing after such lah-de-dahs as Arch Converse, and will come backand be good. I'll wait for 'em to come back. But in the mean time I'mgoing to have the courts say whether our property can be confiscated. I'll take a few pelts while they're trying it on!"

Judge Warren bowed stiffly and retired from the interview. 

Day after day passed and Colonel Dodd was more than ever convinced thatthe nightmare was continuing. Politicians agreed with him--all of themwith amazement, many of them with wrath. 

Because the Honorable Archer Converse and the man who had called himselfWalker Farr had dropped completely out of sight, leaving no explanationof any sort. 

"They didn't even tell _me_, " confessed Daniel Breed, "and I'm theirchief fugler, and here's the November election right plunk on top ofus--and even the Apostle Paul would have to do at least four weeks ofspry campaigning in this state to be sure of being elected if a statecommittee was getting ready to lay down on him like ours seems to bedoing. I'm jogafferbasted. I can't express myself no other way. "

Mr. Breed, in moments of especial anxiety and despondency when hereviewed the situation, darkly hinted that the grand jury ought to lookinto the thing. The Consolidated had done about everything up to dateexcept assassinate and abduct, he averred, and everybody knew ColonelDodd's present state of mind. 

However, Colonel Dodd did receive Miss Kate Kilgour politely when shecame to him; he had always held her in estimation next to the bouquetsin his office. 

"I have come to you, " she explained, "because I could not get theinformation anywhere else. I have tried. I do not want to bother you, sir. "

The girl was pitifully broken, her voice trembled. 

"Well, well, what is it?" he demanded, impatiently, and yet with a touchof kindly tolerance. "You needn't be afraid of me even if you did leaveme in hop-and-jump style, Miss Kilgour. "

"Where is your nephew, Richard?"

And then, in spite of his assuring statement, Miss Kilgour _was_ afraidof him. 

His square face was suffused with red, he thwacked his fist on hisdesk and leaped out of his chair and stamped away from her, cursingviciously. 

"Who sent you here to ask me that question?" he shouted, advancing onher from the window. 

"It's my own business--I came on my own account, " she stammered. 

"How comes it to be your business, miss?"

"I gave him my promise to marry him. "

"If you did you made a devil of a mistake; I can tell you that, youngwoman!"

"I realize it, Colonel Dodd. I want to know where he is. I want to takeback that promise. "

He controlled himself and stared at her. "Take my advice and consideryour contract with Richard Dodd annulled--for good and sufficientreasons, Miss Kilgour. I don't want to say any more. I can't say anymore. This thing touches me on a sore spot. Don't be afraid. I'm notangry at you. But just forget that fellow and go on about your ownbusiness. "

"I will do so, Colonel Dodd, after I have settled certain business withhim. "

"What business?"

"I cannot tell you. "

"You'll have to tell me, " he insisted, roughly. "I'm now engaged inlooking into my nephew's affairs. I want all the information I can get. "

"I can only ask you--implore you to tell me where he is. "

"I'd like to know, myself, " he retorted, bluntly. "I'd give considerableto know. You needn't look at me as if you think I'm lying! Now you mayas well be frank with me, Miss Kilgour. I'm going to be frank with you. I have always found you to be a young woman of prudence and caution. I'll take a chance and tell you something which I have been keepingto myself. I want you to know why you needn't feel bound to keep anypromise you have made to my nephew. He has played a despicable trick onme, his own uncle, after all the help I have given him. He practicallystole five thousand dollars from me and has run away, and I don't knowwhere he is. Now, what have you to tell me?"

"I want to put this in his hands, sir. " She produced a packet, at whichthe colonel peered with curiosity. "You will certainly find out where heis. I want you to give it to him. "

"Oh, love-letters, eh?"

"No, sir!"

With shaking fingers she untied the cord and displayed the contents. Thepacket was money, many bills stacked neatly, and the size of the bundlemade the colonel open his eyes very wide. 

"We--I--we owe it to him, sir. There are five thousand dollars here. "

"So that's what he did with my money, eh? Well, I'll take it. "

"I don't think it is your money, Colonel Dodd. I have good reason tofeel sure that it is not. I have not seen your nephew since the dayof the convention, and then only at a distance. And this money--it wasborrowed a long time ago. "

"Borrowed by whom--by you?"

"No, sir. I cannot tell you the circumstances. I simply want you to giveit back to him. I shall feel that I am released from my obligation. "

"Look here, my dear young woman, " said the colonel, with all hismasterful firmness, "there are going to be no more riddles here. Youmust tell me the truth. I must have it--hear? Otherwise I shall takesteps to make you tell--and that may not be as confidential as a chathere with me. I propose to know about my nephew's affairs, I inform youonce again!"

"My mother borrowed this money from him. She was in trouble. He helpedher. "

"Your mother needs a guardian. I beg your pardon! But I thought she hadhad her lesson once before in her life. So my nephew loaned money toyour mother! Where did he get that money?"

"I do not--"

"Hold on! Wait before you say that, Miss Kilgour. I'll not endurefalsehoods from anybody just now. I have been lied to too much lately. This is a matter of my own nephew. I command you to tell me the truth. "

She hesitated a long time, her countenance expressing her agony. "Ihaven't any right to betray him, sir. "

"He did not get five thousand dollars by any honest means. Thereputation of the family is in jeopardy just now, Miss Kilgour. I wantto protect it for my own sake. He confessed to you, didn't he?"

"Yes. "

"I can better understand your sense of obligation now. When a mancommits a crime for a woman she gets some fool notions into her headabout standing by him. I know my nephew's extravagances, Miss Kilgour. He had to steal to get five thousand dollars for your mother. There isjust one handy place where he could steal. He took that money from thestate treasury. He has told you so. Am I not right?"

"Yes. "

Colonel Dodd turned his back on her and looked up at his bouquets. 

Perspiration streaked his thick neck. His jowls trembled. She pitiedthis man, even in her own tribulation. She had never seen him movedbefore. 

"How did you get this money, Miss Kilgour?" he asked, after a time, hisvoice very low. 

"Must I tell you?"

"Certainly. We are going to the bottom of this thing. "

"I received a little legacy from my aunt a few years ago--I had put itaway in the bank. I had saved some money from the wages I got here. My mother--I am sorry to say that she has been vain and extravagant, sir--she had wasted money on jewels and dress, and now she has soldeverything. We have disposed of all our furniture and have gone to boardin a very cheap place. I have been able to make out the amount of thedebt. Here it is!" She placed it on his desk beside the flabby handwhich lay there. 

He did not speak for a long time. "I am sorry for you, " he said at last. "This is a wicked thing. But I know better than to tell you to keep thismoney. "

"Thank you, " she said, quietly. "I know you understand!"

"I will put it in the place where it belongs. That's all!"

And when he kept his broad back to her she went out of the office, herfeet making no sound on the thick carpet. 

XXXIII

ALL THE WORLD OUTSIDE

A good lawyer can accomplish much when men are willing to listen toreason and to accept the proffer of reparation!

"All going to show, " declared the Honorable Archer Converse to hisyoung protege, after they had parted at last from Morgan Bristol in theWestern city, "that a thistle doesn't hurt much, after all, if you grabit with all your might and vim. We have found honest gentlemen here, thank God! It has been made plain to me, my boy, that they all knew youbetter than you knew yourself and that's why they waited so patiently. But, oh, that folly of yours!" However, he patted Thornton Bristol'sshoulder when he said it. "It's a good thing for a young man to have ahealthy debt when he starts out--a debt that's a joy to pay. Just lookon it as an incentive, boy! You simply mortgaged your future!"

"I am glad that I have been called on to pay for what I wasted, "declared Bristol. "And I am not sorry, Mr. Converse, that my folly ledme out into the byways of this world. I'll know how to appreciate therest of life more highly. "

"Needs a hot fire to make good steel--that's so, " agreed his mentor. "And speaking of fire--I reckon we're going to find it almighty hot whenwe get back to the place where we're expected. Now that we're leavingaffairs all serene behind us, you must let me do a little carefulthinking about how to meet the situation that's ahead of us. "

Archer Converse reappeared in his home city as unobtrusively as he hadleft it and he held the polished shield of his urbane reserve over anyvulnerable points which darts of questions might attack. 

Mr. Breed, assuring himself that he had certain personal rights inthe matter, came with a veritable lance of interrogation, and thrusttirelessly. 

"It is the custom when a man has been nominated never to close an eyeor leave the job for a minute. You have broke over all rules and I havebeen doing my best to fix up a story to account for it, " stated Mr. Breed. 

"Thank you, " returned Mr. Converse. "No doubt you have done a very goodjob. "

"I done the best I could without knowing what I was talking about. "

"And the general comment--the run of talk was--what?"

"General talk was that you didn't seem to be worrying much about theelection. "

Mr. Converse turned a benignant smile on his new law partner. 

"It's generally conceded, then, that I feel sure of being elected?"

"Why, they think you wouldn't have skyhooted off unless you wereconfident. "

"Exactly! That attitude of mine takes care of the band-wagon crowd. Theyhave climbed aboard, I'm told. "

"Yes, " admitted Mr. Breed. "But the state committee has taken advantageand has laid down on ye!"

"Breed, you run along and tell the chairman of that committee--fromme--that unless he gets busy with his crowd in every county of thisstate inside of twenty-four hours I'll come out with a public statementthat I have been forced to run my own campaign in behalf of the people. You don't think there'd be any doubt about my election after thatstatement, do you?"

"Not a bit, " confessed Mr. Breed. "You're more of a politician than Ihad any idea of. Excuse me for any other kind of remarks. I'll go shoota little hot lead in that chairman's left ear. "

"Ordinary intelligence and common honesty, " commented the HonorableArcher Converse when Mr. Breed had departed. "They are such new elementsin running politics in this state that they seem to the crowd to be abrand-new variety of political astuteness, Thornton! I'm not going tobe quite as frank and honest in some other statements I'm about tomake, under the circumstances. I don't believe my conscience is going totrouble me a bit. We'll go over, if you please, and have a word or twowith Colonel Symonds Dodd. "

Mr. Converse's secretary prefaced that call by a telephoned request foran appointment, and therefore Mr. Peter Briggs led them directly intothe presence of the colonel. 

"This is my friend and law partner, Mr. Thornton Bristol, " saidConverse, apparently and blandly unconscious that he was tossing at themagnate something much in the nature of a bomb. 

Colonel Dodd came forward in his chair, his hands clutching the carvedmahogany of the desk in front of him. 

"Oh, I beg your pardon, Colonel, " purred Mr. Converse, amiably. "Iforget that you are not as familiar with Mr. Bristol's identity as I am. You have known him merely as a stranger who has called himself WalkerFarr. "

"Yes, and he has registered himself on the voting-lists as Walker Farr, "blustered Colonel Dodd. "Mr. Converse, something will drop in your campbefore long--and it won't be rose-leaves!"

Mr. Converse fixed a penetrating gaze on the angry man. 

"Colonel, " he said, with meaning, "you are probably well aware that inpolitics many things are done for a certain purpose--and many of thosethings are a bit off color so far as the strict law is concerned. If youparticularly care about digging up the past of politics in this state Iwill come with my own little shovel and assist with great pleasure. "

"You're making an ass of me with this peek-a-boo business. "

"Mr. Bristol, " continued the nominee, with composure, "after long studyabroad and at home has devoted himself enthusiastically to study insociology and economics, and has preferred to gain his knowledge aboutconditions by first-hand observation. He came into this state in pursuitof his object, and by force of circumstances was drawn into our stateupheaval. "

"Much more deeply than I intended to be drawn, Colonel Dodd, " stated theyoung man, with dignity. "I think you will remember that I said as muchto you in an interview we had. I called myself a Voice, if you willrecollect, and humbly begged you to attend to certain reforms. Yourrefusal, and the manner with which you refused, rather forced me intoyour affairs. "

"And I give you warning right here and now, " blustered the colonel, "that I'm going to force myself into _your_ affairs. I'm going to haveyou investigated from puppyhood to the present, Mr. Whatever-your-nameis. "

"We may as well issue general warnings--all of us, " said Mr. Converse. "I have prepared a statement for the newspapers regarding my friend, Mr. Bristol, and he will add a statement of his own relative to his projectin regard to water districts. If you care to malign Mr. Bristol on theheels of that, Colonel, you may go ahead. But if you choose weapons ofthat sort in the conduct of this campaign we shall be forced to usea few cudgels of our own--for instance, we might be able to give thepeople considerable information as to how the state departments havebeen managed under your general direction. The funds of the statetreasury--"

Converse was about to mention the matter of the usufruct of the state'smoney deposited in the colonel's banks for the benefit of the syndicate. 

Colonel Dodd pulled himself out of his chair and exhibited instant andalarmed confusion. "We'd better make it a gentlemen's campaign, " hebroke in. 

"Very well, " agreed Mr. Converse, politely. "And now that we areproceeding toward such an amicable understanding, will you allow me toexpress the hope that the Consolidated will meet us half-way in regardto the legislation that is inevitable? I have no desire to use any of mypowers as the governor of this state to embarrass your interests; letus trust that we can get to a prompt adjustment in the matter of thewater-plants. As a lawyer of some experience, I have to inform you, Colonel Dodd, that the cities and towns of this state are going to owntheir own systems. The city of Marion proposes to fight the first testcase through. You are a heavy taxpayer--I trust you will not help to runyour city into debt which is needless. "

"I will confer with you, " admitted the colonel, his manner subdued. 

"I will ask you to confer with Mr. Bristol, my partner. He willhave full charge of the litigation. I am assured that the next citygovernment meeting will attend to the matter of choosing him as counsel, with a suitable retaining fee, " said Mr. Converse, with pride. "I willappreciate it personally and as chief executive if your interests willfavor the matter. It will be better all around. "

Colonel Dodd did not reply. But there was much significance in his bowas they retired. 

"I trust I did not intimate that I was employing any sort of threats, "said Mr. Converse, when he and Bristol were on their way down-stairs. 

"I think he understood, sir. "

"His suggestion that we have a gentlemen's campaign was verysignificant, coming from Colonel Symonds Dodd. The outlook is veryhopeful, " stated the nominee. "We'll see the state committeechairman to-morrow, Thornton. I feel quite sure that he willhave our speechmaking routes laid out. Mr. Breed is veryconvincing--sometimes--when he discusses the political situation. "

When they were at the foot of the steps of the Mellicite Club, the youngman begged permission to go about some affairs of his own. 

"But your own affairs must wait, my boy, " insisted Converse. "The partyclaims you from now on. "

"I will do my duty, sir, " said Bristol, smiling; "but this evening Imust have for myself. "

"I have invited some gentlemen to dine with us. It's an importantconference. "

"The conference I hope to have, Mr. Converse, will be the most importantone of my life. "

The lawyer blinked, trying to understand. 

"I will tell you to-morrow--I trust it will be the happiest news I evertold to any person--I will tell you first. " He hesitated. "You havealways given me good advice, sir. One night you told me that only awoman can listen with perfect sympathy and comfort a man's troublessurely. "

Converse came close, put his hands on the young man's shoulders andstudied him with intent regard. "My boy, " he said, "go along--and God gowith you!"

Bristol tore his hand from the lawyer's clasp and hurried away. 

But at the Trelawny he did not find the Kilgours' name on the directoryboard. The elevator man, the janitor, the manager, told him thesame story with the same indifference. The Kilgours had sold theirpossessions and had removed--they had left no address. 

Bristol walked the streets and cursed the stilted folly that had madehis farewell to her a parting in which he had pledged nothing, hadpromised nothing, had left no hopes for the future. He was not consoledby the thought that his farewell to her had been for her own sake, ashe had viewed his situation. In the depths of his despair, when hehad released her hand at the little gate, he had grimly sacrificedhimself--had resolved to save her from himself by final and completeseparation. 

And thinking of that parting at the little gate, hardly realizing wherehis wanderings led him, he went down to the great mills which were darkand silent under the shadows of the evening. 

Old Etienne had brought a lamp from Mother Maillet's kitchen and hadset it on the stoop. He was whittling, and a little boy snuggled close, fixing intent regard on the work. 

The evening was bland after a balmy day of Indian summer. 

Bristol stopped at the fence and called greeting. 

The old man peered anxiously, shielding his eyes from the light of thelamp. 

"M'sieu'! M'sieu'!" He stammered, brokenly, gasping as he spoke thewords. His wrinkled face worked as if he were trying to keep back thetears. His voice choked. 

"You are surprised to see me back here, Etienne--is that it?"

"I am not surprised, m'sieu'. I knew you would come back. I amglad--that's why the tear come up in my eye. I cannot help that. "

"You are working late, Uncle Etienne. "

"_Oui_, the odders are gone home. But this leetle boy--I take care tillhis modder come from the shop. But you shall come in here, m'sieu'. "

"I cannot stop, Etienne. I am--" He could not finish the sentence. Heturned to go. 

"I say you shall come in. You must come queeck!" The old man spoke ina shrill whisper. He put aside his knife and stick and hurried to thefence. He reached and caught Bristol's sleeve. "Ba gar!" he declared, with as much impatience as anybody had ever heard in the tone of EtienneProvancher, "even the poor habitant boy in the Tadousac country knowbetter how to love the nice girl as what you do, M'sieu' Farr. "

"My name is not Farr; it is--"

"I don't care what your name be, " snapped the old man. "Tell me thatsome odder time. It's what _you_ be--that's what I care! And you don'tbe good to nice girl. "

"I don't understand. "

"You go back there and rap on Modder Maillet's front door and then youunderstand! I'm only poor mans, m'sieu', but I shall talk to you like Ispoke to the mans in the _hotel de ville_--and I shall not be scare whenI am right. "

"Look here, Etienne! What do you mean?"

"_La belle_ ma'm'selle--ba gar! you have to be hit with brick bang--datfine, pretty lady--she what tell me the good word to say to you aboutthe bad folks--you must know she leeve now in the good woman's house. "

Now it was Bristol's turn to grasp Etienne's arm. He shook the old man. 

"Miss Kilgour--here? Speak up! Don't be so slow!"

"I have speak up. Odderwise you go off and be a big fool some more, "retorted the rack-tender, boldly. "She's in there. She come here to livebecause somet'ing has made her very poor--and very sad. And her moddershe cry all the time. And _la belle_ ma'm'selle she come to the big treeand she ask me many things--"

While the old man chattered Bristol was yanking impatiently at the catchof the gate. He could not find the latch in the dark and so he kickedoff a few more pickets from Mother Maillet's much-abused fence. Hecrawled through and bumped against old Etienne, thrusting him from thepath, checking the flow of information. 

The young man leaped up the steps, to the plain dismay of the littleboy, and beat upon the door. 

"It is I, Kate!" he called. "I have come back. "

When she opened the door--half timorous, half eager, wholly besideherself--he took her in his arms and kissed her, paying no heed to thegoggling eyes of childhood or the averted gaze of old age. 

"But you left no word for me. Did you believe me when I said I would notcome back?"

"I knew you would come back, " she sobbed. "So I came here. I knew youwould find me here. "

Etienne drew near apologetically and picked up the little boy. 

"Oh, my own girl, I have so much to tell you!" the lover murmured. "Iknow you will listen. "

"We have so much to tell each other, " she said, her hands against hischeeks. 

The old man puffed out the lamp and set it to one side and tiptoed away, the child in his arms. 

"You ke'p your head under my coat--just so, " he commanded the strugglingand inquisitive youngster. "Your modder would not like to have youbreath in so much night air. We go find her!"

He heard the murmur of eager voices behind him, and then the door ofMother Maillet's house was shut softly--and that left all the worldoutside.