THE SENATOR HAS SUCH A FANCY FOR SEEKING USEFUL INFORMATION!--CURIOUS
POSITION OF A WISE, AND WELL-KNOWN, AND DESERVEDLY-POPULAR LEGISLATOR,
AND UNDIGNIFIED MODE OF HIS ESCAPE.
It was not much after ten in the morning when Buttons and Dick
returned. On reaching the hotel they found Mr. Figgs and the Doctor,
who asked them if they had seen the Senator. To which they replied by
putting the same question to their questioners.
He had not been seen since they had all been together last. Where was
he?
Of course there was no anxiety felt about him, but still they all
wished to have him near at hand, as it was about time for them to
leave the town. The vetturino was already grumbling, and it required
a pretty strong remonstrance from Buttons to silence him.
They had nothing to do but to wait patiently. Mr. Figgs and the Doctor
lounged about the sofas. Buttons and Dick strolled about the town.
Hearing strains of music as they passed the cathedral, they turned in
there to listen to the service. Why there should be service, and full
service too, they could not imagine.
"Can it be Sunday, Dick?" said Buttons, gravely.
"Who can tell?" exclaimed Dick, lost in wonder.
The cathedral was a small one, with nave and transept as usual, and in
the Italian Gothic style. At the end of the nave stood the high altar,
which was now illuminated with wax-candles, while priests officiated
before it. At the right extremity of the transact was the organ-loft,
a somewhat unusual position; while at the opposite end of the transept
was a smaller door. The church was moderately filled. Probably there
were as many people there as it ever had. They knelt on the floor with
their faces toward the altar, Finding the nave somewhat crowded,
Buttons and Dick went around to the door at the end of the transept,
and entered there. A large space was empty as far as the junction with
the nave. Into this the two young men entered, very reverently, and on
coming near to the place where the other worshipers were they knelt
down in the midst of them.
While looking before him, with his mind full of thoughts called up by
the occasion, and while the grand music of one of Mozart's masses was
filling his soul, Buttons suddenly felt his arm twitched. He turned.
It was Dick.
Buttons was horrified. In the midst of this solemn scene the young
man was convulsed with laughter. His features were working, his lips
moving, as he tried to whisper something which his laughter prevented
him from saying, and tears were in his eyes. At last he stuck his
handkerchief in his mouth and bowed down very low, while his whole
frame shook. Some of the worshipers near by looked scandalized,
others shocked, others angry. Buttons felt vexed. At last Dick raised
his face and rolled his eyes toward the organ-loft, and instantly
bowed his head again. Buttons looked up mechanically, following the
direction of Dick's glance. The next instant he too fell forward,
tore his handkerchief out of his pocket, while his whole frame shook
with the most painful convulsion of laughter.
And how dreadful is such a convulsion in a solemn place! In a church,
amid worshipers; perhaps especially amid worshipers of another creed,
for then one is suspected of offering deliberate insult. So it was
here. People near saw the two young men, and darted angry looks at
them.
Now what was it that had so excited two young men, who were by no
means inclined to offer insult to any one, especially in religious
matters?
It was this: As they looked up to the organ-loft they saw a figure
there.
The organ projected from the wall about six feet; on the left side
was the handle worked by the man who blew it, and a space for the
choir. On the right was a small narrow space not more than about
three feet wide, and it was in this space that they saw the figure
which produced such an effect on them.
It was the Senator. He stood there erect, bare-headed of course,
with confusion in his face and vexation and bewilderment. The sight
of him was enough--the astonishing position of the man, in such a
place at such a time. But the Senator was looking eagerly for help.
And he had seen them enter, and all his soul was in his eyes, and all
his eyes were fixed on those two.
As Dick looked up startled and confounded at the sight, the Senator
projected his head as far forward as he dared, frowned, nodded, and
then began working his lips violently as certain deaf and dumb people
do, who converse by such movements, and can understand what words are
said by the shape of the mouth in uttering them. But the effect was
to make the Senator buck like a man who was making grimaces, to
wager, like those in Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame." As such the
apparition was so over-powering that neither Buttons nor Dick dared
to look up for some time. What made it worse, each was conscious that
the other was laughing, so that self-control was all the more
difficult. Worse still, each knew that this figure in the organ-loft
was watching them with his hungry glance, ready the moment that they
looked up to begin his grimaces once more.
"That poor Senator!" thought Buttons; "how did he get there? Oh, how
did he get there?"
Yet how could he be rescued? Could he be? No. He must wait till the
service should be over.
Meanwhile the young men mustered sufficient courage to look up again,
and after a mighty struggle to gaze upon the Senator for a few
seconds at a time at least. There he stood, projecting forward his
anxious face, making faces as each one looked up.
[Illustration: The Senator.]
Now the people in the immediate vicinity of the two young men had
noticed their agitation as has already been stated, and, moreover,
they had looked up to see the cause of it. They too saw the Senator.
Others again, seeing their neighbors looking up, did the same, until
at last all in the transept were staring up at the odd-looking
stranger.
As Buttons and Dick looked up, which they could not help doing often,
the Senator would repeat his mouthings, and nods, and becks, and
looks of entreaty. The consequence was, that the people thought the
stranger was making faces at them. Three hundred and forty-seven
honest people of Sorrento thus found themselves shamefully insulted
in their own church by a barbarous foreigner, probably an Englishman,
no doubt a heretic. The other four hundred and thirty-six who knelt
in the nave knew nothing about it. They could not see the organ-loft
at all. The priests at the high altar could not see it, so that they
were uninterrupted in their duties. The singers in the organ-loft saw
nothing, for the Senator was concealed from their view. Those
therefore who saw him were the people in the transept, who now kept
staring fixedly, and with angry eyes, at the man in the loft.
There was no chance of getting him out of that before the service
was over, and Buttons saw that there might be a serious tumult when
the Senator came down among that wrathful crowd. Every moment made it
worse. Those in the nave saw the agitation of those in the transept,
and got some idea of the cause.
At last the service was ended; the singers departed, the priests
retired, but the congregation remained. Seven hundred and eighty-three
human beings waiting to take vengeance on the miscreant who had
thrown ridicule on the Holy Father by making faces at the faithful
as they knelt in prayer. Already a murmur arose on every side.
"A heretic! A heretic! A blasphemer! He has insulted us!"
Buttons saw that a bold stroke alone could save them. He burst into
the midst of the throng followed by Dick.
"Fly!" he cried. "Fly for your lives! _It is a madman_! Fly! Fly!"
A loud cry of terror arose. Instantaneous conviction flashed on the
minds of all. A madman! Yes. He could be nothing else.
A panic arose. The people recoiled from before that terrible madman.
Buttons sprang up to the loft. He seized the Senator's arm and dragged
him down. The people fled in horror. As the Senator emerged he saw
seven hundred and eighty-three good people of Sorrento scampering away
like the wind across the square in front of the cathedral.
On reaching the hotel he told his story. He had been peering about
in search of useful information, and had entered the cathedral.
After going through every part he went up into the organ-loft. Just
then the singers came. Instead of going out like a man, he dodged
them from some absurd cause or other, with a half idea that he would
get into trouble for intruding. The longer he stayed the worse it
was for him. At last he saw Buttons and Dick enter, and tried to
make signals.
"Well," said Buttons, "we had better leave. The Sorrentonians will be
around here soon to see the maniac. They will find out all about him,
and make us acquainted with Lynch law."
In a quarter of an hour more they were on their way back to Naples.