Mr. Goodnight, in a most kindly tone; "not what all the world knows,
those superficial facts which the most careless observer may glean, but
something intimate and personal; we want you to give us an insight into
his character, from which we may judge what he is likely to do or
become. You know that he is from the West, the Far West, likely to be
afflicted with local and provincial views, not to say heresies, and
great vested interests within his own party feel a little shaky about
him. We cannot have a revolutionary, or even a parochial, character in
the presidential chair. Those interests which are the very bulwark of
the public must be respected. We must watch over him, and in order to
know how and what to watch, we must have information. We rely upon you
to furnish us this information."
Churchill was intensely gratified at this tribute to his merit, but he
was resolved not to show it even to these great men. Instead, he
carelessly emptied his champagne glass, rubbed his chin thoughtfully,
and then asked with a certain fulness of implication:
"Upon what precise point do you wish information, Mr. Goodnight? Of
course, I have not been with Mr. Grayson very long, but I can say
truthfully that I have observed him closely within that time, and
perhaps no phase of a rather complicated character has escaped me."
"We feel quite sure of that," said Mr. Crayon, speaking for the first
time, and using short, choppy sentences. "_Monitor_, as I happen to
know, is extremely careful in the selection of its men, and this, I am
journalist enough to understand, is most important errand upon which it
can now send member of its staff."
Churchill bowed courteously to the deserved compliment, and remained
silent while Mr. Goodnight resumed the thread of talk.
"What we want to know, Mr. Churchill," he said, "is in regard to the
elements of stability in his character. Will he respect those mighty
interests to which I have just alluded? Is he, as a comparatively young
man, and one wholly ignorant of the great world of finance, likely to
seek the opinion and advice of his elders? You know that we have the
best wishes in the world for him. His interests and ours, if he but
perceives it, run together, and it is our desire to preserve the utmost
harmony within the party."
Churchill bowed. Their opinion and his agreed in the most wonderful
manner. It was hard to say, in his present exalted state, whether this
circumstance confirmed their intelligence or his, but it certainly
confirmed somebody's.
"I have already taken note of these facts," he said, in the indifferent
tone of one whose advice is asked often, "and I have observed that Mr.
Grayson's character is immature, and, for the present at least,
superficial. But I think he can be led; a man with a will not very
strong can always be led, if those with stronger wills happen to be
near, and Mr. Grayson's faults are due to weakness rather than vice."
There was an exchange of significant looks among Mr. Goodnight, Mr.
Crayon, and their friends, and then an emphatic nodding of heads, all of
which indicated very clearly to Churchill that they admired his
acuteness of perception, and were glad to have their own opinion
confirmed by one who observed so well.
"Wouldn't it be well to lay these facts before the readers of the
_Monitor_?" suggested Mr. Goodnight, mildly. "We all know what a
powerful organ the _Monitor_ is, and what influence it has in
conservative circles. It would be a hint to Mr. Grayson and his friends;
it would show him the path in which he ought to walk, and it would save
trouble later on in the campaign."
Churchill's heart thrilled again. This was a greater honor even than he
had hoped for; he was to sound the mighty trumpet note of the campaign,
but his pride would not let him show the joy that he felt.
"In giving these views--and I appreciate their great importance--shall I
quote you and Mr. Crayon?" he asked, easily.
Mr. Goodnight mused a few moments, and twiddled his fingers.
"We want the despatch to appear in the shape that will give it the
greatest effect, and you are with us in that wish, Mr. Churchill," he
said, confidingly. "Now this question arises: if our names appear it
will look as if it were a matter between Mr. Grayson and ourselves
personally, which is not the case; but if it appears on the authority of
the _Monitor_ and your own, which is weighty, it will then stand as a
matter between Mr. Grayson and the people, and that is a fact past
denying. Now, what do you think of it yourself, Mr. Churchill?"
Since they left it so obviously to his intelligence, Churchill was bound
to say that they were right, and he would write the warning, merely as
coming from the great portion of the public that represented the solid
interests of the country, the quiet, thinking people who never indulged
in any foolish chase after a will-o'-the-wisp.
Mr. Goodnight and Mr. Crayon made many further suggestions about the
points of the despatch, but they admitted ingenuously that they were not
able to write, that they possessed no literary and effective style, that
it would be for Mr. Churchill to clothe their crude thoughts--that is,
if he approved of them--in trenchant phrase and brilliant style.
There was such an air of good-fellowship, and Churchill admitted to
himself so freely that these men might make suggestions worth while,
that he decided, moreover, as the hour was growing late, to write the
despatch there and then, and tell to the world through the columns of
the _Monitor_, not what Jimmy Grayson ought to do, but all the things
that he ought not to do, and they were many. The most important of these
related to the tariff and the currency, which, in the view of Mr.
Goodnight and his friends, should be left absolutely alone.
Paper was produced, and Churchill began to write, often eliciting words
of admiration from the others at the conciseness and precision with
which he presented his views. It was cause for wonder, too, that they
should find themselves agreeing with him so often, and they admired,
also, the felicity of phrasing with which he continued to present all
these things as the views of a great public, thus giving the despatch
the flavor of news rather than opinion. When it was finished--and it
would fill two full columns of the _Monitor_--the line was quite clearly
drawn between what Jimmy Grayson could do and what he could not do--and
Churchill was proud of the conviction that none but himself had drawn
it. Mr. Grayson, reading this--and he certainly would read it--must know
that it came from inspired sources, and he would see straight before him
the path in which it was wise for him to walk. Churchill knew that he
had rendered a great service, and he felt an honest glow.
"I think I shall file this at once," he said, "as it is growing late,
and there is an hour's difference between here and New York."
They bade him a most complimentary adieu, suggesting that they would be
glad to hear from him personally during the campaign, and announcing
their willingness to serve him if they could; and Churchill left the
hotel, contented with himself and with them. When he was gone, they
smiled and expressed to each other their satisfaction. In fifteen
minutes swift operators were sending Churchill's despatch eastward.
V
"KING" PLUMMER
Meanwhile the evening was proving of no less interest to Harley than to
Churchill, although in a quite different way. He had noticed, when they
parted at the hotel door, the apparent sadness, or, rather, the touch of
the pathetic in the manner of Miss Morgan, and he observed it again when
they were all reunited at the hotel table. Heretofore she had been
light, ironical, and bearing a full share in the talk, but now she
merely replied when spoken to directly, and her tone had the tinge of
melancholy. Mr. and Mrs. Grayson looked at her more than once, as if
they were about to refer to some particular subject, but always they
refrained; instead, they sought by light talk to divert attention from
her, and they succeeded in every case but that of Harley.
It was not a long dinner, and as they returned to the ladies' parlor
they were welcomed by a loud, joyous cry, and out of the dark of the
room a big man projected himself to greet them. His first words were for
Miss Morgan, whom he affectionately called "Little Girl," and whom he
seized by the hands and kissed on the forehead. It was a loud voice, but
round, full, and mellow, and Harley judged that it came from a big
nature as well as a big body.
When the man stepped into the light, Harley saw that he was over six
feet high, and with a width according. His broad face was covered with
short, iron-gray beard, and his head was thatched with hair equally
thick and of the same gray shade. In years he might have been fifty, and
it was Harley's first impression at this moment that the big man was
Miss Morgan's father--it came to him with a rather queer feeling that it
had never occurred to him to ask about her parents, whether they were
living or dead, and what kind of people they were or had been.
The stranger shook hands with Mr. and Mrs. Grayson, and expressed
vocally the pleasure that his eyes also conveyed. Harley and Hobart were
the only others present, and, turning to them, Mr. Grayson introduced
the stranger, Mr. William Plummer--"King Plummer, you know."
Then Harley remembered vaguely, and he began to place Mr. Plummer. He
recalled allusions in the press to one William Plummer, otherwise "King"
Plummer, who lived in the far Northwest, and who, having amassed
millions in ranching and mining, had also become a great power in the
political world, hence his term "King," which was more fitting in his
case than in that of many real kings. He had developed remarkable skill
in politics, and, as the phrase went, held Idaho, his own state, in the
hollow of his hand, and in a close election could certainly swing
Montana and Wyoming as he wished, and perhaps Utah and Washington, too.
Harley's interest instantly became keen, and he did not take his eyes
off "King" Plummer. Clearly he was a man of power; he fairly radiated
it, not merely physically, but mentally. His gestures, his voice, every
movement indicated a vast reserve strength. This was one of the great
men whose development the rough field of the new West had permitted.
Harley was not alone interested in "King" Plummer, but also in the kiss
that he had put upon the white forehead of Sylvia Morgan and his
boisterous joy at seeing her. Since he was not her father, it was likely
that he was her uncle, not by blood, as Jimmy Grayson was, but as the
husband of an aunt, perhaps. Yes, this must be it, he concluded, and the
kiss seemed more reasonable.
When "King" Plummer was introduced to Harley and Hobart, he shook hands
with them most cordially, but as keen a man as Harley could see that he
regarded them as mere youths, or "kids," as the "King" himself would
have said. There was nothing depreciatory in this beyond the difference
between age and great achievement and youth which had not yet had the
time to fulfil its promise, and Harley, because of it, felt no decrease
of liking and respect for "King" Plummer.
"The far Northwest is for you solidly, Jimmy," said the big man, with a
joyous smile. "Idaho is right in line at the head of the procession, and
Wyoming, Montana, and the others are following close after. They haven't
many votes, but they have enough to decide this election."
Jimmy Grayson smiled. He had reason to smile. He, too, liked "King"
Plummer, and, moreover, this was good news that he brought.
"I fancy that you have had something to do with this," he said. "You
still know how to whisper a sweet word in the ear of the people."
The big man shook himself, laughed again, and looked satisfied.
"Well, I have done a lot of whispering," he admitted, "if you call it
whispering, though most people, I'll gamble, would say it is like the
clatter of a mill. And I've done some riding, too, both train and horse.
The mountains are going to be all right. Don't you forget that, Jimmy."
"And it's lucky for me that 'King' Plummer is my friend," said Mr.
Grayson, sincerely.
During this talk of politics, Sylvia Morgan was silent, and once, when
"King" Plummer laid his big hand protectingly on her arm, she shrank
slightly, but so slightly that no one save Harley noticed, not even the
"King." The action roused doubts in his mind. Surely a girl would not
shrink from her uncle in this manner, not from a big, kindly uncle like
Plummer.
"I wanted to get down to Chicago and hear you at your first speech,"
went on "King" Plummer, in his big, booming voice, that filled the room,
"but I couldn't manage it. There was a convention at Boise that needed a
little attention--one likes to look on at those things, you know"--his
left eye contracted slightly--"and as soon as that was over I hurried
down as fast as an express could bring me. But I've read in all the
papers what a howlin' success it was, an' I'm goin' to hear you give it
to the other fellows to-night--won't we, Sylvia?"
He turned to the girl for confirmation of what needed no confirmation,
and her eyes smiled into his with a certain pride. She seemed to Harley
to admire his bigness, his openness of manner and speech, and his
wholesome character. After all, he was her uncle; the look that she gave
him then was that of one who received protection, half paternal and half
elder-brotherly.
"And now, Jimmy, I guess I've taken up enough of your time," exclaimed
"King" Plummer, his big, resonant chest-tones echoing in the room, "and
it's for you to do all the talkin' that's left. But I'll be in a box
listenin', and just you do your best for the credit of the West and the
mountains."
Grayson smiled and promised, and "King" Plummer joined them in the
carriage that bore them to the hall. He took his place with them in such
a natural and matter-of-fact manner that Harley was confirmed in his
renewed opinion that he was Sylvia Morgan's uncle, or, at least, her
next of kin, after Mr. Grayson.
At the hall "King" Plummer, as he had promised, sat in a box with Mrs.
Grayson and Miss Morgan, and always he led the applause, which in
reality needed no leading, the triumph at Chicago being repeated in full
degree. Harley, watching him from his desk, saw that the big man was
filled with sanguine expectation of triumph, and, with the glow of Jimmy
Grayson's oratory upon him, could not see any such result as defeat. But
Miss Morgan was strangely silent, and all her vivacity of manner seemed
to be gone.
When the speech was nearly over Churchill sauntered in lazily by the
stage entrance and took a seat near Harley. Harley had not noticed his
previous absence until then.
"How's the speech to-night?" he asked, languidly; "same old chestnuts, I
suppose."
"As this is Mr. Grayson's second speech," replied Harley, sharply, "it
is a little early to call anything that he says 'same old chestnuts.'
Besides, I don't think that repetition will ever be one of his faults.
Why haven't you been here?"
"Oh, I've been cruising around a bit on the outside. The Associated
Press, of course, will take care of the speech, which is mere routine."
He spoke with such an air of supercilious and supreme satisfaction that
Harley looked at him keenly.
"Pick up anything?" he asked, briefly.
"Oh, a trifle or two; nothing, however, that you would care about."
"Now, I wonder what it is that makes him so content with himself,"
thought Harley, but he had little time to devote to Churchill, as his
own despatch was occupying his attention.
Harley could not go back to the hotel with the Grayson party when the
speech was over, as he had to file his despatch first, but he saw them
all the next morning at the breakfast-table. "King" Plummer was there,
too, as expansive as ever, and showing mingled joy and sorrow--joy over
the second triumph of the candidate, which was repeated at great length
in the morning papers, and sorrow because he could not continue with
them on the campaign, which moved to Detroit for the third night.
"I'd be a happy man if I could do it," he said, in his booming tones,
"happy for more reasons than one. It would be a big holiday to me.
Wouldn't I enjoy hearing you tear the enemy to pieces night after night,
Jimmy! and then I'd be with you right along, Sylvia."
He looked at the girl, and his look was full of love and protection. She
flushed and seemed embarrassed. But there was no hesitation or
awkwardness about the big man.
"Never you mind, little girl," he said; "when you are Mrs. Plummer--an'
that ain't far away, I hope--you'll be with me all the time. Besides,
I'm goin' to join Jimmy Grayson when he comes out West, an' make the
campaign there with him."
The color in Miss Morgan's face deepened, and she glanced, not at "King"
Plummer or her uncle, but at Harley, and when her eyes met his the color
in her cheeks deepened still further. Then she looked down at her plate
and was silent and embarrassed.
Harley, as he heard these words of the "King," felt a strange thrill of
disapproval. It was, as he told himself, because of the disparity in
ages. It was true that a man of this type was the very kind to restrain
Sylvia Morgan, but twenty and fifty should never wed, man and wife
should be young together and should grow old together. It was no
business of his, and there was no obligation upon him to look after the
happiness of either of these people, but it was an arrangement that he
did not like, violating as it did his sense of fitness.
"King" Plummer was to leave them an hour later, taking a train for St.
Paul, and thence for Idaho. He bade them all a hearty good-bye, shaking
hands warmly with Jimmy Grayson, to whom he wished a career of unbroken
triumph, repeating these good wishes to Mrs. Grayson, and again kissing
Sylvia Morgan on the forehead--the proper kiss, Harley thought, for
fifty to bestow upon twenty, unless twenty should happen to be fifty's
daughter.
"We won't be separated long, Sylvia, girl," he said, and she flushed a
deep red and then turned pale. To Harley he said:
"And I'll try to show you the West, young man, when you come out there.
This is no West; Milwaukee ain't West by a jugful. Just you wait till
you get beyond the Missouri, then we'll show you the real West, and real
life at the same time."
There was a certain condescension in the tone of "King" Plummer, but
Harley did not mind it; so far as the experience of life in the rough
was concerned, the "King" had a right to condescend.
"I shall hold you to your promise," he said.
Then "King" Plummer, waving good-byes with a wide-armed sweep, large and
hearty like himself, departed.
"There goes a true man," said Mr. Grayson, and Harley spontaneously
added confirmation. But Miss Morgan was silent. She waved back in
response to the King of the Mountains, but her face was still pale, and
she was silent for some time. Harley now knew that "King" Plummer was
not her uncle nor her next of kin after Jimmy Grayson in any way, but he
was unable to tell why this marriage-to-be had been arranged.
But he quickly learned the secret, if secret it was; it was told to him
on the train by Mrs. Grayson as they rode that afternoon to Detroit.
"If you were ever in Idaho," she said, "you would soon hear the story of
"King" Plummer and Sylvia. It is a tragedy of our West; that is, it
began in a great tragedy, one of those tragedies of the plains and the
mountains so numerous and so like each other that the historians forget
to tell about them. Sylvia's mother was Mr. Grayson's eldest sister,
much older than he. She and her husband and children were part of a
wagon-train that was going up away into the Northwest where the
railroads did not then reach.
"It was long ago--when Sylvia was a little girl, not more than seven or
eight--and the train was massacred by Utes just as they reached the
Idaho line. The Utes were on the war-path--there had been some sort of
an outbreak--and the train had been warned by the soldiers not to go on,
but the emigrants were reckless. They laughed at danger, because they
did not see it before their faces. They pushed on, and they were
ambushed in a deep canyon.
"There was hardly any fight at all, the attack was so sudden and
unexpected. Before the people knew what was coming half of them were
shot down, and then those awful savages were among them with tomahawk
and knife. Mr. Harley, I've no use for the Indian. It is easy enough to
get sentimental about him when you are away off in the East, but when
you are close to him in the West all that feeling goes. I heard Sylvia
tell about that massacre once, and only once. It was years ago, but I
can't forget it; and if I can't forget it, do you think that she can?
Her father was killed at the first fire from the bushes, and then an
Indian, covered with paint and bears' claws, tomahawked both her mother
and her little brother before her eyes--yes, and scalped them, too. He
ran for the girl next, but Sylvia--I think it was just physical
impulse--dashed away into the scrub, and the Indian turned aside for a
victim nearer at hand.
"Sylvia lay hid until night came, and there was silence over the
mountain, the silence of death, Mr. Harley, because when she slipped
back in the darkness to the emigrant train she found every soul that had
been in it, besides herself, dead. Think, Mr. Harley, of that little
girl alone in all those vast mountains, with her dead around her! Do you
wonder that sometimes she seems hard?"
"No, I don't," replied Harley. Despite himself a mist came to his eyes
over this pathetic tragedy of long ago.
"Sylvia has never said much about that night she spent there with the
dead, in the midst of the wrecked and plundered train, but when a number
of border men, alarmed about the emigrants, pushed on the next day to
save them if possible, what do you suppose they found her doing?"
"I can't guess."
"She had got a spade somewhere from one of the wagons, and, little as
she was, she was trying to bury her own dead. She was so busy that she
didn't see them ride up, and William Plummer, their leader--he was a
young man then--actually shed tears, so they say. Well, these men
finished the burial, and Mr. Plummer put Sylvia on his horse before him
and rode away. He adopted the little thing as his daughter. He said she
was the bravest creature he had ever seen, and, as he was not likely to
have any real daughter, she should take a place that ought to be filled.
"Were the Utes who did this massacre punished?"
"No one knows; the soldiers killed a number of them in battle, but
whether the slain were those who ambushed the train is not decided in
border history."
"I think I understand the rest of the story of Mr. Plummer and Miss
Morgan," said Harley.
"Yes, it is not hard to guess. Mr. Grayson and her other relatives
farther East did not hear of her rescue until long afterwards; they
supposed her dead--but no one could have cared for her better than Mr.
Plummer. He kept her first at his mining-hut in the mountains, but after
two or three years he took her into town to Boise; he put her in the
care of a woman there and sent her to school. He loved her already like
a real daughter. She was just the kind to appeal to him, so brave and so
fond of the wild life. They say that at first she refused to stay in
Boise. She ran away and tried to go on foot to him away up in the
mountains, where the mining-camp was. When he heard of it, they say he
laughed, and I suspect that he swore an oath or two--he lived among
rough men you know--but if he did, they were swear words of admiration;
he said it was just like her independence and pluck. But he made her
stay in Boise."
"He knew what was right and what was due both him and her, because now
he was becoming a great man in the Northwest. He rose to power in both
financial and public life, and his daughter must be equal to her
fortune. But he spoiled her, you can see that, and how could he help
it?"
"She was fifteen before we heard that she was alive, and then Mr.
Grayson and her other relatives wanted to take her and care for her, but
Mr. Plummer refused to give her up, and he was right. He had saved her
when he found her a little girl alone in all those vast mountains, and
he was entitled to her. Don't you think so, Mr. Harley?"
"I do," replied Harley, with conviction.
"We yielded to his superior claim, but he sent her more than once to see
us. We loved her from the first, and we love her yet."
Here Mrs. Grayson paused and hesitated over her words, as if in
embarrassment.
"But it is not you and Mr. Grayson alone who love her," suggested
Harley.
"It is not we alone; in Boise everybody loves her, and at the mines and
on Mr. Plummer's ranches they all love her, too."
"I did not mean just that kind of love."