The council meeting took place in a large, unpainted room in the
townhouse. Persia presided, just as if she were the legitimate mayor.
She sat at one end of a table, wearing a dark serge suit and looking
both businesslike and beautiful. Sam Lester sat at the other end,
inscrutable behind the crystal mask of his spectacles. The four council
members sat in between. Tesno drew up a chair to one side of Persia.
He listened impatiently while the members quibbled over the location of
a town watering trough. A rasp-voiced man named Parris, who operated
the hotel, did most of the talking. The three saloonkeeping councilmen
kept glancing at Persia as if she would make the decision and the
debate was a mere formality. Pinky Bronklin sat with his talonlike hand
on the table where all could see it and said hardly a word.
Persia introduced Tesno with some little formality. He stated his
demands as concisely as possible. He tried to avoid a dictatorial tone,
yet he made it clear that one way or another he intended to see a
drastic change in the town. When he had finished, the saloonkeepers sat
sullenly quiet. It was Mr. Parris who spoke up, and he was angry.
"I agree that we could stand some improvement around here," he said.
"But to request co-operation is one thing, to tell us what to do,
another. Begging your pardon, Persia, I move that we tell Mr. Tesno to
go to hell and then face our problems in our own way."
"That'll suit me fine, if you _will_ face them," Tesno said. "But
you'll clean up or I will. Take your choice."
"You'll clean up! Have you forgotten there's law in the land--and in
this town. And it's on our side!" Mr. Parris slapped the table and
glared.
"Law?" Tesno said icily. "You were elected by the drifting labor that
built this town. You run a town full of thugs and card sharks. And you
talk about law! Bring it on, Mr. Parris. While you're doing it, I'll
close your town down tight. And I'll guarantee you you'll wind up with
your charter pulled out from under you!"
"This won't do," Persia said. "You two agree that we ought to
do something. Mr. Tesno is willing to let us do it in our own
way--provided we do get results. Right, Mr. Tesno?"
"Right," he said.
"Then I don't see what you are arguing about. Mr. Tesno, now that
you've told us what you want, would you mind leaving us and letting us
thrash this out?"
"Fair enough," he said.
She had spoken crisply, almost hostilely. Now she said with a smile and
in an entirely different tone, "Wait in my parlor."
He followed a long hall that led to the other part of the house. He
entered the parlor and sat down to wait, musing about his abrupt
dismissal. He had the impression that Tunneltown council meetings
were little more than a mockery, that the members gathered to receive
instructions rather than to make their own decisions. Even Mr. Parris
had seemed to be arguing out of mere cantankerousness and not with any
real hope of seeing his views prevail if Persia was against them.
Probably Persia was now telling them exactly how far they would go
in co-operating with him. Or would it be Sam Lester who was doing
the telling? That Lester was a power behind the throne seemed a real
possibility. In any case, the council was a convenient device to avoid
the pinpointing of responsibility on an individual.
Annoyed, he strolled into the dining room and poured himself a glass
of brandy from a bottle on the sideboard. He could hear voices in the
kitchen--Stella's and a stammering tenor that could belong only to
Willie Silverknife. Returning to the parlor, he lighted a cigar and sat
sipping the strong and fragrant liquor.
Persia appeared sooner than he expected. She was alone, and he wondered
if Sam Lester would join them later. She insisted on getting him
another brandy, and she poured herself a glass of wine, which she
scarcely touched.
"You're going to get your blue-nosed town," she said gayly. "All I ask
from you, Mr. Tesno, is a small amount of patience."
He frowned, but before he could reply she went on.
"We passed a couple of ordinances. Midnight closing. No liquor sold to
drunks. We also agreed that a one-man police force isn't adequate, so
we're going to hire a deputy. Satisfied?"
"How about the gambling?"
"That's where the patience comes in."