Danvers' Discouragement
"Good evening, Senator!" Danvers was waiting at the elevator door as
Hall stepped through it on the ground floor.
"Good evening, Senator," returned Joe, thinking how little Danvers had
changed in appearance since he first came to Fort Benton.
The Senator from Chouteau County took the lift to the third floor. He
went to the doctor's room, for he knew that his old friend from Fort
Benton, who had but just come to the capital, would be waiting for the
evening call and friendly smoke on the first day of his arrival.
To-night the younger man was unusually silent, and after the first
greetings nearly an hour passed before a word was spoken. But the
doctor felt the silence--pregnant with the heart-ache of his friend, and
at last he spoke.
"How goes it, Phil?"
"Pretty heavy luggage."
"He'll get it?" No need to be more specific.
"I'm afraid so," soberly. "I never dreamed it could be possible to mow
down an Assembly as Burroughs is doing."
"He would sell his soul for the senatorship," affirmed the doctor, "and
yet he pretends that he doesn't want the office. He would have people
think that he is in mortal fear of being politically ravished, and all
the while he, and every man that he can control, are actively engaged in
promoting a campaign of ravishment."
"And Bill Moore is his chief procurer," added Danvers.
"But the whole Legislature can't be bought."
"Every one!"
"You include yourself there, Phil," smiled the doctor. "But I know what
you mean. It's damnable!" The believer in mankind felt the foundations
of the State totter.
"I did not mean to be quite so bitter, but I am sick of the lack of
principle that I find in the men sent to Helena. Burroughs has a long
string of men who are now scattering their votes, on the pretext that
our Republican caucuses do not pledge them clearly to any one
candidate. This split in the party is bad for Burroughs, of course, and
he is not only trying to get my men away from the Governor, but is
angling for members of the Democratic party." After a moment he smiled.
"Of course we are sure of O'Dwyer!" He then named several others who
could be depended upon not to enter Burroughs' camp, either by reason of
their own integrity or the pledges they had given to other candidates.
"So many in the field scatters the vote," he continued, "and that gives
us a chance to work."
"How about Hall?" asked the doctor.
"Senator Hall seems safe. He is one enemy whom Bob cannot buy. I never
saw a man hold the idea of revenge as Hall does."
"If Joe Hall doesn't vote for Burroughs it is the first time that he
ever resisted easy money," quoth the doctor. "However, hate will make
even money seem of small account. But Hall will do some dirty trick, one
of these days, to get even on that mining deal. Those two are a good
pair to draw to."
"As politics now are it would not be hard to find three of a kind,"
added Danvers.
The old man took up the evening paper, containing the list of the
legislators and their city addresses. He checked off the names as he
read, and presently looked up.
"As far as we can tell Burroughs is shy several votes for a majority."
"Looks that way."
"We don't know who Moore's holding back--worse luck! But we do know who
are solid against Burroughs. By the way, what's Charlie Blair up to?"
"Politically or personally?"
"I think one means the other these days, according to all I hear."
"Possibly." After a moment Danvers added: "Blair has promised me on his
honor not to vote for Burroughs. I do not think that he will
deliberately go back on his word. As for--I can't speak of it, doctor!
Poor Arthur!"
"Eva's not a bad woman--she's only an ambitious fool," asserted the
doctor, touching one of the sore spots in Danvers' aching heart. "I can
overlook a woman's folly if it is the result of an overwhelming
passion--some women are as intense as men. But to play with fire--while
she is as cold as ice--as calculating as a machine----" The speaker made
a gesture of disgust. "Be sure that she is promised something she thinks
worth her while, by Bob or by Moore, for her sudden interest in politics
and--Charlie Blair. She is a good catspaw. I thought she was making eyes
at Charlie at the opera, but I couldn't believe my own. She and Moore
are working the members of this Legislature by concerted action, or I
am very much mistaken."
"You haven't heard any open talk of Mrs. Latimer--Arthur would--I should
fear for his reason--for his life--if scandal----"
"Well, I can't say there hasn't been any," compromised the doctor. "But
there'll be more if she doesn't turn Blair down pretty quick. He's
drinking, too; something he hasn't done since his sister came back from
school to live with him. He could always stand liquor in abnormal
quantities; but he can't stand"--abruptly he blurted it out--"first Eva
knows there will be hell to pay--and I doubt if her credit is good."
"She doesn't care for him, then?"
"Nah!" The negative was drawn out contemptuously. "All she wants of
Charlie is his vote for Burroughs. She never loved but one man in her
life." A glance went to the senator, but he did not apply the words.
"Poor Winifred!" sighed the young man. The doctor caught the baptismal
name.
"Winifred's a plucky woman. I'll wager she knows practically every move
being made in all this rotten business--all," the old man added
significantly. "Yet you would never mistrust it to see her. It is well
to put on the cheerful face and tone, yet when in trouble is it best? It
is deceiving to one's best friends, robbing them of the opportunity to
extend sympathy. Winifred Blair is worrying over Charlie, yet she keeps
her troubles to herself and cheats her friends of a just privilege."
"I wish," began Danvers, then closed his lips. No one should see his
heart.
"I wish she would give you the right to protect her," said the doctor,
heartily. "What has come between you two? I had thought----"
"I do not know," acknowledged the disconsolate lover. "She was friendly.
We've seen each other quite a good deal. I thought she was one to
understand. I cannot talk as most men do--I am aware of my failing."
His eyes were more eloquent than words, as he paused. "And now she
hardly speaks to me--makes some trivial excuse to leave me with Charlie
when I call; or if he is not there she pleads an engagement. You have
noticed how Moore has been paying her marked attention? It is for her to
choose----"
When Danvers began again it was of another phase of his trouble. "Miss
Blair has doubtless heard of my financial loss, caused by that early
snowstorm and later rain, which crusted the snow until my cattle were
almost wiped out. My foreman wired me the night of the opera, you
remember. Those that were not frozen were starved to death. My
political life here in Helena is costing me a fortune."
Danvers rose and paced the floor. "It gives me the jigs, even to think
of those cattle," he burst out. "Not the financial loss, you understand,
but the suffering of dumb animals!"
"You did all you could, Phil."
"Yes. But what with a three years' drouth and no hay in the country, and
the railroads blocked so that no feed could be shipped in, even if we
could have gotten to the cattle on the range--oh, well----" The
cattleman dropped to his chair with a sigh of helplessness.
The doctor took a new turn.
"I have known you for fifteen years or more, my boy, and I never knew
you to be jealous before, much less unjust."
"I--unjust!" Danvers was startled. Never before had he faced such
accusations.
"Yes, you. You should know Winifred Blair better than to think such
thoughts as you are harboring."
"My experience with women has been unfortunate, probably; I do not
pretend to understand them--they are too complex for me."
"Tut, tut!" The gentle friend tried to turn the tide. "Not Winnie. She
is a woman to trust."
"But how can she have anything to do with Bill Moore? That is what I
can't get over."
"You shouldn't speak so of Moore. It shows a spirit I'm sorry to see you
cultivate. Go in and win. You have probably told Winifred something of
your standards of public morality and the sacredness of the ballot, and
she fears that Charlie will disgrace both himself and her. She perhaps
fears your disgust if----"
"She is mistaken if she thinks so poorly of me. Her brother's conduct
could never change my feeling for her; rather, pity would come to plead
for love. Do you think she does care for me?"
"Do I? You had better ask her--not go tilting at political windmills
when more important matters should be----"
"If Charlie's foolishness is the only thing in my way, I'll force him to
be a man if I have to gag him in joint assembly!" cried the lover,
joyously.
"What transformations love will work!" sighed the matchmaker after he
had bidden the light-hearted Danvers good-night. "Standing practically
alone against the might of Burroughs' millions--holding his scant forces
by sheer force of character, yet downed by the mistaken attitude of a
mere slip of a girl!"
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