THE CONSPIRATORS FORMULATING THEIR SCHEME.
After the judge and Dr. Dalton had left, the worthies who remained
sat long in council concocting their Satanic schemes for the final
defeat of the Dunkinites. Each one who was present promised to
exert all his influence to make as many drunk as possible, after
the law was adopted in the county.
"You, Bottlesby, will be able to give a good account of Dalton,
and you, Ginsling, can take care of Ashton," said Rivers. "I know
that old Gurney and his wife will be doing their level best with
them, but if you only work your cards for what they are worth they
will not succeed worth a cent, for if whiskey is put in their way
they are bound to drink."
"But what about the fine, Rivers?" said Capt. Flannigan. "If we
sell liquor we will be fined, and if we have to pay a couple of
hundred dollars in this way, or kape company with the rats for five
or six months in jail, I guess we'll soon tire of that game. And
they say that ould nager of a service is a regular sleuth-hound
on the hunt. By St. Patrick! if he comes nosing round my place
I will bate him until his skin is blacker than it is at present,
and to do that I'll have to nearly murder him entirely."
"Don't you do anything of the kind; for if you did you would be
putting your foot in it," said Rivers. "The Dunkinites would like
us to resort to that kind of thing that they might get up a howl
about ruffianism, brutality, etc. They well know this would enlist
the sympathy of the public to their side of the question; now this
would just defeat the object I have in view. What I intend to do
is to sell liquor as usual, and when I can't sell it I will give
it away, and make as many drunk as possible. If some of those to
whom I sell give me away, and I am hauled up, I will then show
what I can do on the fight."
"You'll beat them every time," said Bottlesby, "for almost every
sensible magistrate in the county will sympathise with you."
"Yes, I am counting on that, and those who are not on our side I
intend to employ a good sharp lawyer to badger and bother as much
as possible, and I guess you are aware that a great many of our
Justices of the Peace are as innocent of any knowledge of law as a
ten-year-old boy. I have no doubt but most of them can be so
frightened as to be afraid to convict. And you know most of the
witnesses will be our friends, and, as Seely has just remarked, it
will be pretty hard to worm the truth out of unwilling witnesses."
"But supposing they do convict, what will you do then?" asked
Capt. Flannigan.
"I will appeal, and if it is decided against me in the lower court
then I will appeal to a higher, and during the time it remains
_sub judice_ my friends and I will be flooding the county
with liquor."
"But who will pay the piper?" asked Ginsling.
"The Licensed Liquor Sellers' Association," answered Rivers. "The
Association is bound to beat if it costs them a hundred thousand
dollars. The hotel-keepers of this county will only have to pay
their fee into the society, and it won't cost them a cent more; so
you see we can afford to fight and be cheerful. And after we have
bothered them and kept them from carrying out the law for six or
seven months, having, in the meantime, deluged the county with
whiskey, we will then start the cry that the Act is a failure; and
any one who is at all acquainted with human nature knows that it
will not be long before we will have thousands to join in the
cry."
"Of course they will," said Bottlesby, "the great majority of
those who vote for it will do so because it is fashionable. They
don't care a cent who gets drunk so long as they don't lose
anything. It happens that just now it is thought rather
respectable to be on the side of temperance, and so they are
voting for it; but in their hearts half of them hope it will fail,
and they will not turn their fingers to make it a success. And if
the plan which has been suggested by my friend, Rivers, is carried
out, that is, to badger and bother them in every way we can, and
at the same time to make this county, if possible, a perfect
pandemonium of drunkenness and revelry, these parties will then
eagerly join in the cry that the Act is a huge failure, and when
we try to have the thing repealed they will give us their active
support, because they will be able to assume the same role upon
our side they did on the other, that is, that they are philanthropic
citizens working on the side of morality and order. You mark my
words, in a year from the present we will carry the repeal with an
overwhelming majority."
The party broke up in the small hours of the morning, and the only
one who was then sober was the landlord. In fact it was well
understood, even among his cronies, that he was too mean to drink
to any excess except he drank on the treats of his numerous
customers; and then he was careful not to be so much under its
influence as to neglect his business. He was one of those men of
whom, alas! the world has too many, who live to satisfy their own
selfish interest no matter who may be made to suffer.