A CAUCUS, AS IT WAS PLANNED
The town house of Fort Canibas needed no guide-board that day. All roads
led to it. Thelismer Thornton walked down the main street, his following
at his heels. His hands were behind his back, and he sauntered along
like one who was at peace with the world. His face was serene once more.
He seemed to have recovered all the genial good-nature that men
associated with Thelismer Thornton. The chairman trotted on short legs
at his side, looking up at him sourly. Thornton smiled down at him.
"Finding your old State campaign sicker than you thought for, hey,
Luke?"
He was now as Presson had always known him, but the little man did not
seem to be consoled thereby.
"I'd like to know what's come over you to-day?" he complained. "Giving a
helpless little girl hell-an'-repeat, and then standing for what you did
back there right now!"
"Luke, both of us have seen a great many men lose their dignity fighting
hornets. But I've come to myself, and I've stopped running and swatting.
Well, Briggs, what is it?"
The man who had brought the alarm to Aunt Charette's was crowding close,
plainly with something to say.
"I only wanted to tell you, Squire, that Sheriff Niles brought in word
to the boys that high-uppers was back of him."
"Thinks he's running with the pack, eh? Well, Briggs, that's hardly
news about Bart Niles."
"Thought I'd warn you, Squire. He says things ain't goin' on runnin' in
this State the way they have been runnin'. Way he talks, him and them
back of him think they've got you layin' with all four paws in the air.
But we in the village here, that's behind you, don't understand it that
way. Nor we can't figger what started it."
"Don't bother your heads about it to-day, Briggs. Simply stand by and be
ready to grab in, you and the boys. That's all."
The post-office was in the lower story of the town house. The walls were
brick to the second story. This upper part was a barn-like structure
propped on the lower walls. Broad outside stairs led up to it.
Thornton and Presson were obliged to push their way through a crowd to
reach the foot of the stairway. They were stopped there by an
obstruction. Some men were lifting off a low wagon a cripple in a
wheel-chair. He had an in-door pallor that made him seem corpselike. A
man in a frock-coat and with a ministerial white tie was bossing the
job.
The Duke stopped and gazed on the work amiably. The man of the white tie
scowled.
"Raising a few reliable Republicans from the dead, are you, elder?"
inquired the Duke, pleasantly.
The elder did not reply until he had started the cripple's chair bumping
up the stairs. Then he turned on Thornton. He was not amiable.
"It's time some of the voters with honest convictions got a chance to
attend a caucus in this district, even if they have to be brought from
beds of pain."
Thelismer Thornton did not lose his smile.
"I'd like to have you meet the Rev. Enoch Dudley, evangelist, Luke. This
is Mr. Presson, chairman of the State Committee, elder. Now that you're
getting into politics you'd ought to be acquainted with your chief
priest."
But Rev. Mr. Dudley, not approving the company that the State chairman
was keeping, did not warm up.
"I thank you for your pleasantries, Mr. Thornton," he returned, stiffly.
"I hope your sneers may make you as many votes to-day as they have in
the past."
"Well, they won't," blurted a voice from a knot of men at the foot of
the stairs. "We're getting woke up in this district. And it ain't going
to be an empire any longer."
"I'm rather too humble a man, sir, to associate with the high lords of
politics," Mr. Dudley remarked to the chairman. "The Honorable Thornton
has always been up there. I'm simply one of the plain people."
"And it's time for the plain people to have their innings," declared
another in the crowd.
"The pack is off!" muttered the Duke in Presson's ear.
"Why don't you introduce him right," called another. "Reverend Dudley is
the next representative from this district, Mr. Chairman. And we know
where _he_ stands!"
"An humble little platform is mine," stated the minister. "But it's down
where all can step aboard with me. That's all I can say."
There was a growl of approval in chorus from the larger group at the
foot of the stairs. Thornton's men were at one side and looked troubled.
"War Eagle" Ivus Niles stepped forth then. He had recovered his buck
sheep. He was hoarse, but still full of zeal.
"I want to ask you this, Tyrant Thornton: You ain't quite so sure that
you're Lord Gull, monarch of all you survey, since my brother
Bartholomew showed you the power of the law triumphant, are you?" But
the taunt did not alter the tolerant smile on the Duke's face.
"Go ahead and get in all your yelps," he said, under his breath. "A
hound loves company."
"When we start in to purify, we propose to purify in good shape!" cried
another. "And a reverend elder ain't a mite too good for us as
representative to the legislature."
"Some people think they are purifying when they burn a rag," observed
the Duke, serenely. He lighted another cigar, beaming through the smoke
on the glowering minister.
"Don't take that wrong, elder. I respect decency in politics. I respect
men who are trying to clean things up. But before I'll let you disinfect
_me_, I'll have to see your license and know what system you're using."
"You've got to fight the devil with fire!" roared the War Eagle.
"You mustn't steal my own plan of campaigning, Ivus. I've got a
copyright on that."
He had been studying the situation there outside the town hall while he
talked. Two men from the shire town, wearing the nickel badges of deputy
sheriffs, stood at the foot of the stairs. A group of men that he knew
to be his loyal supporters from his own village were standing at one
side. He strolled over to them.
"Squire Thornton," said one, "we're barred out of this caucus. They
won't let us up."
And still their leader was imperturbable. He turned inquiring gaze on
the Reverend Dudley, and that gentleman declared himself with suspicious
haste.
"This is going to be a strictly Republican caucus, and the check-list
has been marked," he said. "We don't propose to have Democrats come in
and run our affairs for us."
It was a challenge thrown down in good earnest.
In spite of the warning that his scout had brought to him, the Duke had
hardly believed that amateur politicians would go to this extreme. More
than ever he realized that unscrupulous men higher up were using these
tools. And it was plain that the instruments had been tutored to believe
that the end justified the means. What Ivus Niles said about the devil
and fire betrayed them.
The Duke walked over to the minister, and took him by the lapels of his
coat.
"Elder," he protested, "I don't like to see a good man used for tongs in
politics. There's a lot you don't know about this game. You're in
wrong."
"You're not the right man to tell me so, Mr. Thornton. I represent
reform. It's time we had it. And _your_ gospel in politics isn't _my_
gospel."
"You've got the revised version, Parson Dudley, if you find a text in it
about splitting a caucus at the door of the hall."
"The sheep shall be divided from the goats, sir."
"You've got this caucus and the Judgment Day mixed, elder." He released
the minister and stepped back. "I never yet talked rough to a parson.
But you've cut loose from common sense. When you get down on a level
with me at a caucus door you're no parson--you're a politician, and
you'll have to let me say that you're a blasted poor one. You're Enoch
Dudley, now. And I want to tell you, Enoch, that neither you nor any
bunch of steers you happen to be teaming can keep legal voters out of
that hall. As to whether this or that man can vote in the caucus, that
will be settled when we get in there. But these men of mine are going
in. It's up to you to decide whether they shall go in as lions or
lambs."
"Violence shall rest on your own head!" cried the minister. "I'll see
that the world knows about it."
"We'll see whose case shows up best when the report is made," retorted
the Duke. "But I'm done arguing. Pull off those deputies." Sheriff
Niles appeared at that moment. He had left his subalterns to store the
confiscated liquors.
"Niles, pull your men off the door, here," commanded the Duke. "Your
county politics hasn't any business at our caucus here to-day."
"I've been asked to keep this caucus regular, and I'm going to do it,"
insisted the sheriff.
"So am I," agreed Thornton. "So when the story goes out it will have to
be said that you and I were working together to keep politics pure." The
faithful Sylvester was hovering on the outskirts of the crowd. Thornton
beckoned to him and he came. The Duke had probed the scheme and
understood the stubbornness of the opposition. He was ready to act now.
"Sylvester, you're a constable of this town. Take those fifty woodsmen
over there as a special posse. I'm going to stand here at the foot of
these stairs, and see to it that this caucus isn't packed. If you see
hand laid on me or on a respectable voter going up these stairs, you
pile in with those men. Go ahead up, boys, one and all!" He stepped
between the deputies and beckoned to the voters. He stood there like a
lighthouse marking safe channel. He challenged both the sheriff and the
minister with his gaze. "We've got peace in stock and fight on tap,
gentlemen," he declared. "Full assortment, and no trouble to show
goods."
The village loyalists trooped forward promptly and flocked up. The
deputies made no effort to stop them. Niles did not issue orders.
Threats and badges might cow voters. But he knew woodsmen. He was not
prepared to fight fifty of them.
The opposition hurried up also. Men streamed past on both sides of the
old man, looming there in his wrinkled suit of crash.
"Let 'em go. We've got him licked in the caucus anyway," growled Niles
to one of his deputies. "The back districts are here two to one against
his village crowd."
Chairman Presson stood at one side and waited. Harlan Thornton came to
him, leading his horse through the crowd.
"You have influence with my grandfather, Mr. Presson. You have told me
yourself that it's folly to try to send me to the legislature. I'm not
fitted for such duties. I am interested only in our business. You have
had a chance to talk with him since you left the house. Haven't you made
him change his mind?"
"I don't know," confessed Mr. Presson. "He's got my opinion, but he
doesn't seem to think it's worth much."
"Well, there's only one thing to do." stated Harlan, resolutely. "I'll
stand up here and let the voters of this district know how I feel about
it. I've got my own rights in this thing, grandfather or no
grandfather."
"Harlan, my boy!" The State chairman laid his hand protestingly on the
young man's arm. "You've got my sympathy in regard to your going to the
legislature in this fashion. But let me say something to you. Thelismer
Thornton is standing here to-day putting up as pretty a political fight
as I ever looked on. I hope he'll change his mind about sending you.
I'll talk with him again. But if you lift one finger now when he's got
his back against the wall you'll be a disgrace to your family. Take that
from me. You'd better hop on your horse and ride off where the air is
better."
After a moment of sombre reflection the young man swung himself to the
back of his horse and galloped away. The look that he got from his
grandfather when he departed did not enlighten or reassure him.
The little square of the town house was pretty well cleared by this
time. The voters had crowded into the hall. One of the last men to pass
the Duke hesitated on the stairs and came back. He was a short, chunky,
very much troubled gentleman. He had slunk rather than walked past. He
came back with the air known as "meeching."
"I'm afraid you're going to misunderstand me, Mr. Thornton."
The Duke offered no opinion.
"I hardly know how to go to work to explain myself in this matter,"
faltered the apologist.
"Considering that I got your appropriation for your seminary doubled
last session in the stingiest year since the grasshoppers ate up Egypt,
I should think you'd find it just a little troublesome convincing me
that Enoch Dudley has got any claim over my interests so far's you're
concerned. What's the matter with you, Professor?"
He invited the State chairman toward them by a toss of his head. His
tone had been severe, but there was humor in his eyes.
"This is Principal Tute, of the Canibas Seminary, Luke. You remember the
cussing I got from the Finance Committee for holding up the bill till I
got the Professor's appropriation doubled. He's trying to tell me how
much obliged he is."
Mr. Tute looked very miserable.
"I've always said you were the best man this district ever had in the
legislature. I've stood up and said that in the open, Mr. Thornton.
You're an institution down to the capitol. When there was talk of a
change for the sake of reform--and you know I'm teaching reform
principles in my school, Mr. Thornton," he hastened on desperately; "I'm
teaching sociological principles in accordance with the advanced
movement, and if I don't practice what I preach I'm false to my pupils,
and--"
"You're going to vote against me to-day, are you, Tute?"
"I've said right along we ought to bear with you so long as you lived
and wanted to be elected."
"Like the seven years' itch, eh?"
"But you are trying to make us mere serfs in politics by dictating our
choice, and what I teach of the principles of democracy--"
Thornton tapped the little man on the shoulder.
"What they've done, Tute, is come up here with a dose to fit the palate
of every one of you fellows, and you don't know enough to understand
that you're being handled. You're going to vote against me, are you?"
"I call on this gentleman to witness that I say you're the best man for
the place. You're able, you're efficient, and you have done an immense
amount of good for your constituents, and you--"
"But you won't vote for me to-day, eh?" reiterated the old man,
pitilessly.
Mr. Tute started again on his line of fulsome praise, but the Duke
checked him brusquely.
"That will do, Professor Tute. I like cake. I like it frosted. But I'll
be d--d if I want it all frosting. Run up into the hall. Come along,
Luke. We'll miss the text if we don't get in."
The last of the stragglers followed them up the stairs.