blue eyes, grizzled black hair, a tight mouth and a coarse fist. He
would have turned the scales at two hundred, and he walked with a step
as light as a sick-nurse's. The first time I ever saw him was when I ran
into him suddenly in a winding, unswept back stairway that came down on
an alley from the floor below mine and was used mainly by those in a
hurry, and I was conscious even in the dim light that he gave me a look
of great keenness. As he appeared in a hurry I gave way to him, with a
"Beg pardon" for my unintentional jostle, to which he made no reply
except a grunt. I, however, took a good look at him as he passed along
under a street lamp, with his firm yet noiseless step--as noiseless as a
cat's--and the heavy neck and bulk gave me a sense of his brute
strength, which I never lost afterward. I soon came to know that he was
a successful jury-lawyer with a gift of eloquence, and a knack of
insinuation, and that he was among the most potent of the political
bosses of the city, with a power of manipulation unequalled by any
politician in the community. He had good manners and a ready smile. He
was the attorney or legal agent for a number of wealthy concerns, among
them the Argand estate, and had amassed a fortune. He was also "the
legal adviser" of one of the afternoon papers, the _Trumpet_, in which,
as I learned later, he held, though it was not generally known, a large
and potent interest. He was now looming up as the chief candidate of the
popular party for Mayor, an office which he expected to secure a few
months later. He was interested in a part of the street-car system of
the city, that part in which "the Argand estate" held the controlling
interest, and which was, to some extent, the rival system of that known
as the "West Line," in which Mr. Leigh held a large interest. I mention
these facts because, detached as they appear, they have a strong bearing
on my subsequent relation to McSheen, and a certain bearing on my whole
future. But, on occasion he was as ready for his own purposes to attack
these interests secretly as those opposed to them. He always played his
own hand. To quote Kalender "he was deep."
My first real meeting with him gave me an impression of him which I was
never able to divest myself of. I was in my little dark cupboard of an
office very lonely and reading hard to keep my mind occupied with some
other subject than myself, when the door half opened quietly, with or
without a preliminary knock, I never could tell which, and a large man
insinuated himself in at it and, after one keen look, smiled at me. I
recalled afterward how catlike his entrance was. But at the moment I was
occupied in gauging him. Still smiling he moved noiselessly around and
took his stand with his back to the one window.
"You are Mr. Glave?" he smiled. "Glad to see you?" He had not quite
gotten rid of the interrogation.
I expressed my appreciation of his good-will and with, I felt, even more
sincerity than his; for I was glad to see any one.
"Always pleased to see young lawyers--specially bright ones." Here I
smiled with pleasure that he should so admirably have "sized me up," as
the saying goes.
"You are a lawyer also?" I hazarded.
"Yes. Yes. I see you are studious. I always like that in a young
man--gives him breadth--scope."
I assented and explained that I had been in politics a little also, all
of which he appeared to think in my favor. And so it went on till he
knew nearly all about me. In fact, I became quite communicative. It had
been so long since I had had a lawyer to talk with. I found him to be a
remarkably well-informed man, and with agreeable, rather insinuating
manners. He knew something of books too, and he made, I could not tell
whether consciously or unconsciously, a number of literary allusions.
One of them I recall. It was a Spanish proverb, he said: "The judge is a
big man, but give your presents to the clerk."
"Well, you'll do well here if you start right. The tortoise beats the
hare, you know--every time--every time."
I started, so apt was the allusion. I wondered if he could ever have
known Peck.
"Yes, I know that. That's what I mean to do," I said.
"Get in with the right sort of folks, then when there's any sweeping
done you'll be on the side of the handle." He was moving around toward
the door and was looking out of the window reflecting.
"I have a letter to a gentleman named Leigh," I said. "I have not yet
presented it."
"Ah!"
I turned and glanced at him casually and was struck with the singular
change that had come over his face. It was as if he had suddenly drawn a
fine mask over it. His eyes were calmly fixed on me, yet I could hardly
have said that they saw me. His countenance was absolutely
expressionless. I have seen the same detached look in a big cat's eyes
as he gazed through his bars and through the crowd before him to the far
jungle, ocean spaces away. It gave me a sudden shiver and I may have
shown that I was startled, but, as I looked, the mask disappeared before
my eyes and he was smiling as before.
"Got a pretty daughter?" he said with a manner which offended me, I
could hardly tell why.
"I believe so; but I do not know her." I was angry with myself for
blushing, and it was plain that he saw it and did not believe me.
"You know a man 't calls himself Count Pushkin?"
"Yes, I know him."
"He knows her and she knows him."
"Does she? I know nothing about that."
"Kind o' makin' a set for him, they say?"
"Is she? I hardly think it likely, if she knows him," I said coldly. I
wondered with what malignant intuition he had read my thoughts.
"Oh! A good many people do that. They like the sound. It gives 'em
power."
"Power!"
"Yes. Power's a pretty good thing to have. You can--" He looked out of
the window and licked his lips in a sort of reverie. He suddenly opened
and closed his hand with a gesture of crushing. "Power and money go
togither?" And still smiling, with a farewell nod, he noiselessly
withdrew and closed the door.
When he was gone I was conscious of a feeling of intense relief, and
also of intense antagonism--a feeling I had never had for but one man
before--Peck: a feeling which I never got rid of.
One evening a little later I missed Dix. He usually came home even when
he strayed off, which was not often, unless as happened he went with
Elsa, for whom he had conceived a great fondness, and who loved and
petted him in return. It had come to be a great bond between the girl
and me, and I think the whole family liked me the better for the dog's
love of the daughter. But this evening he did not appear; I knew he was
not with Elsa, for I remembered he had been in my office during the
afternoon, and in consequence I spent an unhappy night. All sorts of
visions floated before my mind, from the prize-ring to the vivisection
table. I rather inclined to the former; for I knew his powerful chest
and loins and his scarred shoulders would commend him to the fancy. I
thought I remembered that he had gone out of my office just before I
left and had gone down the steps which led to the alley I have
mentioned. This he sometimes did. I recalled that I was thinking of Miss
Eleanor Leigh and had not seen or thought of him between the office and
my home.
I was so disturbed about him by bedtime that I went out to hunt for him
and returned to my office by the same street I had walked through in the
afternoon. When I reached the building in which my office was, I turned
into the alley I have mentioned and went up the back stairway. It was
now after midnight and it was as black as pitch. When I reached my
office, thinking that I might by a bare possibility have locked him in,
I opened the door and walked in, closing it softly behind me. The window
looked out on the well left for light and air, and was open, and as I
opened the door a light was reflected through the window on my wall. I
stepped up to close the window and, accidentally looking across the
narrow well to see where the light came from, discovered that it was in
the back office of Coll McSheen, in which were seated Mr. McSheen and
the sour-looking man I had seen on the train with the silk hat and the
paste diamond studs, and of all persons in the world, Peck! The name
Leigh caught my ear and I involuntarily stopped without being aware that
I was listening. As I looked the door opened and a man I recognized as
the janitor of the building entered and with him a negro waiter, bearing
two bottles of champagne and three glasses. For a moment I felt as
though I had been dreaming. For the negro was Jeams. I saw the
recognition between him and Peck, and Jeams's white teeth shone as Peck
talked about him. I heard him say:
"No, suh, I don' know nuthin' 't all about him. Ise got to look out for
myself. Yes, suh, got a good place an' I'm gwine to keep it!"
He had opened the bottles and poured out the wine, and McSheen gave him
a note big enough to make him bow very low and thank him volubly. When
he had withdrawn Peck said:
"You've got to look out for that rascal. He's an awfully smart
scoundrel."
"Oh! I'll own him, body and soul," said McSheen.
"I wouldn't have him around me."
"Don't worry--he won't fool me. If he does--" He opened and closed his
fist with the gesture I had seen him use the first day he paid me a
visit.
"Well, let's to business," he said when they had drained their glasses.
He looked at the other men. "What do you say, Wringman?"
"You pay me the money and I'll bring the strike all right," said the
Labor-leader, "and I'll deliver the vote, too. In ten days there won't
be a wheel turning on his road. I'll order every man out that wears a
West Line cap or handles a West Line tool."
The "West Line"! This was what the street-car line was called which ran
out into the poor section of the city where I lived, which Mr. Leigh
controlled.
"That's all right. I'll keep my part. D----n him! I want to break him.
I'll show him who runs this town. With his d----d airs."
"That's it," said Peck, leaning forward. "It's your road or his. That's
the way I figure it." He rubbed his hands with satisfaction. "I am with
you, my friends. You can count on the Poole interest backing you."
"You'll keep the police off?" said the Labor-leader.
"Will I? Watch 'em!" McSheen poured out another glass, and offered the
bottle to Peck, who declined it.
"Then it's all right. Well, you'd better make a cash payment down at the
start," said the Labor-leader.
McSheen swore. "Do you think I have a bank in my office, or am a faro
dealer, that I can put up a pile like that at midnight? Besides, I've
always heard there're two bad paymasters--the one that don't pay at all
and the one 't pays in advance. You deliver the goods."
"Oh! Come off," said the other. "If you ain't a faro dealer, you own a
bank--and you've a bar-keeper. Mick's got it down-stairs, if you ain't.
So put up, or you'll want money sure enough. I know what that strike's
worth to you."
McSheen rose and at that moment I became aware of the impropriety of
what I was doing, for I had been absolutely absorbed watching Peck, and
I moved back, as I did so, knocking over a chair. At the sound the light
was instantly extinguished and I left my office and hurried down the
stairs, wondering when the blow was to fall.
The afternoon following my surprise of the conference in McSheen's back
room, there was a knock at my door and Peck walked into my office. I
was surprised to see what a man-of-fashion air he had donned. He
appeared really glad to see me and was so cordial that I almost forgot
my first feeling of shame that he should find me in such manifestly
straitened circumstances, especially as he began to talk vaguely of a
large case he had come out to look after, and I thought he was on the
verge of asking me to represent his client.
"You know we own considerable interests out here both in the surface
lines and in the P. D. & B. D.," he said airily.
"No, I did not know you did. I remember that Mr. Poole once talked to me
about some outstanding interests in the P. D. & B. D., and I made some
little investigation at the time; I came to the conclusion that his
interest had lapsed; but he never employed me."
"Yes, that's a part of the interests I speak of. Mr. Poole is a very
careful man."
"Very. Well, you see I have learned my lesson. I have learned economy,
at least," I laughed in reply to his question of how I was getting along
in my new home. He took as he asked it an appraising glance at the poor
little office.
"A very important lesson to learn," he said sententiously. "I am glad I
learned it early." He was so smug that I could not help saying,
"You were always economical?"
"Yes, I hope so. I always mean to be. You get much work?"
"No, not much--yet; still, you know, I always had a knack of getting
business," I said. "My trouble was that I used to disdain small things
and I let others attend to them. I know better than that now. I don't
think I have any right to complain."
"Oh--I suppose you have to put in night work, too, then?" he added,
after a pause.
This then was the meaning of his call. He wished to know whether I had
seen him in Coll McSheen's office the night before. He had delivered
himself into my hands. So, I answered lightly.
"Oh! yes, sometimes."
I had led him up to the point and I knew now he was afraid to take a
step further. He sheered off.
"Well, tell me something," he said, "if you don't mind. Do you know Mr.
Leigh?"
"What Mr. Leigh?"
"Mr. Walter Leigh, the banker."
"I don't mind telling you at all that I do not."
"Oh!"
I thought he was going to offer me a case; but Peck was economical. He
already had one lawyer.
"I had a letter of introduction to him from Mr. Poole," I said. "But you
can say to Mr. Poole that I never presented it."
"Oh! Ah! Well--I'll tell him."
"Do."
"Do you know Mr. McSheen?"
I nodded "Yes."
"Do you know him well?"
"Does any one know him well?" I parried.
"He has an office in this building?"
I could not, for the life of me, tell whether this was an affirmation or
a question. So I merely nodded, which answered in either case. But I was
pining to say to him, "Peck, why don't you come out with it and ask me
plainly what I know of your conference the other night?" However, I did
not. I had learned to play a close game.
"Oh! I saw your nigger, Jeams--ah--the other day."
"Did you? Where is he?" I wanted to find him, and asked innocently
enough.
"Back at home."
"How is he getting on?"
"Pretty well, I believe. He's a big rascal."
"Yes, but a pleasant one, and an open one."
Peck suddenly rose, "Well, I must be going. I have an engagement which I
must keep." At the door he paused. "By the way, Mrs. Peck begged to be
remembered to you."
He had a way of blinking, like a terrapin--slowly. He did so now.
He did not mean his tone to be insolent--only to be insolent
himself--but it was.
"I'm very much obliged to her. Remember me to her."
That afternoon I strolled out, hoping to get a glimpse of Miss Leigh. I
did so, but Peck was riding in a carriage with her and her father. So he
won the last trick, after all. But the rubber was not over. I was glad
that they did not see me, and I returned to my office filled with rage
and determined to unmask Peck the first chance I should have, not
because he was a trickster and a liar, but because he was applying his
trickiness in the direction of Miss Leigh.
That night the weather changed and it turned off cold. I remember it
from a small circumstance. The wind appeared to me to have shifted when
Miss Leigh's carriage drove out of sight with Peck in it. I went home
and had bad dreams. What was Peck doing with the Leighs? Could I have
been mistaken in thinking he and McSheen had been talking of Mr. Leigh
in their conference? For some time there had been trouble on the
street-car lines of the city and a number of small strikes had taken
place on a system of lines running across the city and to some extent in
competition with the West Line, which Mr. Leigh had an interest in.
According to the press the West Line, which ran out into a new section,
was growing steadily while the other line was falling back. Could it be
that McSheen was endeavoring to secure possession of the West Line?
This, too, had been intimated, and Canter, one of the richest men of the
town, was said to be behind him. What should I do under the
circumstances? Would Peck tell Miss Leigh any lies about me? All these
suggestions pestered me and, with the loss of Dix, kept me awake, so
that next morning I was in rather a bad humor.
In my walk through the poorer quarter on my way to my office I used to
see a great deal of the children, and it struck me that one of the
saddest effects of poverty--the dire poverty of the slum--was the
debasement of the children. Cruelty appears to be the natural instinct
of the young as they begin to gain in strength. But among the well-to-do
and the well-brought-up of all classes it is kept in abeyance and is
trained out. But in the class I speak of at a certain age it appears to
flower out into absolute brutality. It was the chief drawback to my
sojourn in this quarter, for I am very fond of children, and the effect
of poverty on the children was the saddest part of my surroundings. To
avoid the ruder element, I used to walk of a morning through the little
back street where I had discovered that morning the little school for
very small children, and I made the acquaintance of a number of the
children who attended the school. One little girl in particular
interested me. She was the poorest clad of any, but her cheeks were like
apples and her chubby wrists were the worst chapped of all; and with her
sometimes was a little crippled girl, who walked with a crutch, whom she
generally led by the hand in the most motherly way, so small that it was
a wonder how she could walk, much more study.
My little girls and I got to that point of intimacy where they would
talk to me, and Dix had made friends with them and used to walk beside
them as we went along.
The older girl's first name was Janet, but she spoke with a lisp and I
could not make out her name with a certainty. Her father had been out of
work, she said, but now was a driver, and her teacher was "Mith
Thellen." The little cripple's name was "Sissy"--Sissy Talman. This was
all the information I could get out of her. "Mith Thellen" was evidently
her goddess.
On the cool, crisp morning after the turn in the weather, I started out
rather earlier than usual, intending to hunt for Dix and also to look up
Jeams. I bought a copy of the _Trumpet_ and was astonished to read an
account of trouble among the employees of the West Line, for I had not
seen the least sign of it. The piece went on further to intimate that
Mr. Leigh had been much embarrassed by his extension of his line out
into a thinly populated district and that a strike, which was quite sure
to come, might prove very disastrous to him. I somehow felt very angry
at the reference to Mr. Leigh and was furious with myself for having
written for the _Trumpet_. I walked around through the street where the
school was, though without any definite idea whatever, as it was too
early for the children. As I passed by the school the door was wide open
and I stopped and looked in. The fire was not yet made. The stove was
open; the door of the cellar, opening outside, was also open, and at the
moment a young woman--the teacher or some one else--was backing up the
steps out of the cellar lugging a heavy coal-scuttle. One hand, and a
very small one, was supporting her against the side of the wall, helping
her push herself up. I stepped forward with a vague pity for any woman
having to lift such a weight.
"Won't you let me help you?" I asked.
"Thank you, I believe I can manage it." And she pulled the scuttle to
the top, where she planted it, and turned with quite an air of triumph.
It was she! my young lady of the sunny house: Miss Leigh! I had not
recognized her at all. Her face was all aglow and her eyes were filled
with light at a difficulty overcome. I do not know what my face showed;
but unless it expressed conflicting emotions, it belied my feelings. I
was equally astonished, delighted and embarrassed. I hastened to say
something which might put her at her ease and at the same time prove a
plea for myself, and open the way to further conversation.
"I was on my way to my law-office, and seeing a lady struggling with so
heavy a burden, I had hoped I might have the privilege of assisting her
as I should want any other gentleman to do to my sister in a similar
case." I meant if I had had a sister.
She thanked me calmly; in fact, very calmly.
"I do it every morning; but this morning, as it is the first cold
weather, I piled it a little too high; that is all." She looked toward
the door and made a movement.
I wanted to say I would gladly come and lift it for her every morning;
that I could carry all her burdens for her. But I was almost afraid even
to ask permission again to carry it that morning. As, however, she had
given me a peg, I seized it.
"Well, at least, let me carry it this morning," I said, and without
waiting for an answer or even venturing to look at her, I caught up the
bucket and swung it into the house, when seeing the sticks all laid in
the stove, and wishing to do her further service, without asking her
anything more, I poured half the scuttleful into the stove.
"I used to be able to make a fire, when I lived in my old home," I said
tentatively; then as I saw a smile coming into her face, I added: "But
I'm afraid to try an exhibition of my skill after such boasting," and
without waiting further, I backed out, bringing with me only a confused
apparition of an angel lifting a coal-scuttle.
I do not remember how I reached my office that day, whether I walked the
stone pavements through the prosaic streets or trod on rosy clouds.
There were no prosaic streets for me that day. I wondered if the article
I had seen in the paper had any foundation. Could Mr. Leigh have lost
his fortune? Was this the reason she taught school? I had observed how
simply she was dressed, and I thrilled to think that I might be able to
rescue her from this drudgery.
The beggars who crossed my path that morning were fortunate. I gave them
all my change, even relieving the necessities of several thirsty
imposters who beset my way, declaring with unblushing, sodden faces that
they had not had a mouthful for days.
I walked past the little school-house that night and lingered at the
closed gate, finding a charm in the spot. The little plain house had
suddenly become a shrine. It seemed as if she might be hovering near.
The next morning I passed through the same street, and peeped in at the
open door. There she was, bending over the open stove in which she had
already lighted her fire, little knowing of the flame she had kindled in
my heart. How I cursed myself for being too late to meet her. And yet,
perhaps, I should have been afraid to speak to her; for as she turned
toward the door, I started on with pumping heart in quite a fright lest
she should detect me looking in.
I walked by her old home Sunday afternoon. Flowers bloomed at the
windows. As I was turning away, Count Pushkin came out of the door and
down the steps. As he turned away from the step his habitual simper
changed into a scowl; and a furious joy came into my heart. Something
had gone wrong with him within there. I wished I had been near enough to
have crossed his path to smile in his face; but I was too distant, and
he passed on with clenched fist and black brow.
After this my regular walk was through the street of the baby-school,
and when I was so fortunate as to meet Miss Leigh she bowed and smiled
to me, though only as a passing acquaintance, whilst I on my part began
to plan how I should secure an introduction to her. Her smile was
sunshine enough for a day, but I wanted the right to bask in it and I
meant to devise a plan. After what I had told Peck, I could not present
my letter; I must find some other means. It came in an unexpected way,
and through the last person I should have imagined as my sponsor.
XX
MY FIRST CLIENT
But to revert to the morning when I made Miss Leigh's fire for her. I
hunted for Dix all day, but without success, and was so busy about it
that I did not have time to begin my search for Jeams. That evening, as
it was raining hard, I treated myself to the unwonted luxury of a ride
home on a street-car. The streets were greasy with a thick, black paste
of mud, and the smoke was down on our heads in a dark slop. Like
Petrarch, my thoughts were on Laura, and I was repining at the rain
mainly because it prevented the possibility of a glimpse of Miss Leigh
on the street: a chance I was ever on the watch for.
I boarded an open car just after it started and just before it ran
through a short subway. The next moment a man who had run after the car
sprang on the step beside me, and, losing his footing, he would probably
have fallen and might have been crushed between the car and the edge of
the tunnel, which we at that moment were entering, had I not had the
good fortune, being on the outer seat, to catch him and hold him up.
Even as it was, his coat was torn and my elbow was badly bruised against
the pillar at the entrance. I, however, pulled him over across my knees
and held him until we had gone through the subway, when I made room for
him on the seat beside me.
"That was a close call, my friend," I said. "Don't try that sort of
thing too often."
"It was, indeed--the closest I ever had, and I have had some pretty
close ones before. If you had not caught me, I would have been in the
morgue to-morrow morning."
This I rather repudiated, but as the sequel showed, the idea appeared to
have become fixed in his mind. We had some little talk together and I
discovered that, like myself, he had come out West to better his
fortune, and as he was dressed very plainly, I assumed that, like
myself, he had fallen on rather hard times, and I expressed sympathy.
"Where have I seen you before?" I asked him.
"On the train once coming from the East."
"Oh! yes." I remembered now. He was the man who knew things.
"You know Mr. McSheen?" he asked irrelevantly.
"Yes--slightly. I have an office in the same building."
I wondered how he knew that I knew him.
"Yes. Well, you want to look out for him. Don't let him fool you. He's
deep. What's that running down your sleeve? Why, it's blood! Where did
it come from?" He looked much concerned.
"From my arm, I reckon. I hurt it a little back there, but it is
nothing."
He refused to be satisfied with my explanation and insisted strongly on
my getting off and going with him to see a doctor. I laughed at the
idea.
"Why, I haven't any money to pay a doctor," I said.
"It won't cost you a cent. He is a friend of mine and as good a surgeon
as any in the city. He's straight--knows his business. You come along."